Want to Share My Universe?

When my first novel was accepted for publication by Windstorm Creative, a traditional press located in Seattle, the editor suggested I make it the first volume of a series. This first book, Season of the Plant, released in September 2007, is an action-adventure story of an expedition to the jungles of Belize, where a sentient and murderous species of plant entraps them. The series, entitled The PlanetCare Discoveries, is to be based on similar expeditions to different parts of the world, PlanetCare being the sponsoring organization of the journeys. All books in the series are to be action-adventure, and all hopefully with some sci-fi theme, as is my book. What is interesting is that the series is part of the publisher’s Shared Universe Project, in which other authors or aspiring authors are invited to submit manuscripts. Accepted books will be published under the author’s own name, without reference to mine, although I am the ‘seminal’ author of the series. At Windstorm’s request I have written a small volume, The PlanetCare Discoveries Sourcebook, as a guide for potential authors. This was also published in September 2007. I invite and urge authors or aspiring authors who might be interested in this type of opportunity to contact me at masterman1225@yahoo.com.

Science fiction Slugfest

About a year ago, my first short story was published by Fandom Press, a division of Windstorm Creative. It was part of a science fiction anthology entitled "Tales of the Slug". All the stories deal with slugs, in one genre or another, and thirteen clever tales make up the book. My own offering, "A Matter of Taste", is concerned with a sleazy scientist who has a taste for rare and endangered species of animal. He tracks down a delicious dish made from outlawed slugs, and finds a terrifying surprise at the end of his ruthless endeavors to discover their source.
Each story has its own bizarre twists and turns. It's science fiction with doses of pure fun, humor, and at times a touch of horror.

My latest Sci-fi Book Review

I was delighted to find Season of the Plant, my first sci-fi novel to be published, given a great review in the Boca Raton News, in Boca Raton, Florida, and also in The Florida Weekly, published in Fort Myers, Florida. The review gives a good summary of the story and catches the mood I hoped to create.

Here it is:

Books

by Prudy Taylor Board

In Season of the Plant, Rev. Frederick J. Masterman, retired associate priest at St. Gregory's Episcopal Church in Boca Raton, has created a thoughtful, suspenseful, intriguing thriller that involves an ancient and deadly form of rogue plant life determined to exterminate all human and animal life from the planet.

The book begins as an archeological and botanical research team journeys to an ancient Mayan ruin, Xuntap, in the jungles of southern Belize. The protagonist is Sam Casper, one of the volunteer team members and the great-great nephew of Arthur Fremont, a famous archeologist who had vanished in these same jungles in the 1923. While finding his uncle’s remains is Sam’s primary motivation, he is soon attracted to Karen Closky, a botanist who is more than beautiful — she’s psychic and actually talks to and understands plants. The other members of the team include scientists and students and members of the Belize National Police led by Captain Antonio Torcado. Other research teams had disappeared while investigation Xuntap and Torcado is assigned to protect this expedition to avoid bad publicity that might adversely affect Belize’s burgeoning tourism.

The research expedition has been organized by an organization named PlanetCare founded by Dr. Ian McDermott. McDermott has always operated on a cautious, ethically and scientifically-sound basis, but the possibility of worldwide publicity and the resultant profit from organizing more adventurous and costly fields trips has Glen Krease, his second-in-command and heir apparent, salivating. Krease is determined to do whatever it takes to get McDermott out of the picture. And he’s also not the least bit concerned about potential damage to the environment.

Masterman’s book is fascinating. As skillfully as his characters weave their way through the flora and fauna of the jungle, the author weaves a plot filled with menacing, escalating events that begin with minor sicknesses that befall two team members. While there’s high excitement as they uncover a Mayan temple and ball court and stairs in the middle of the jungle that rise to nowhere, frightening dreams plague everyone, the seven Land Rovers that represent their transportation to safety are damaged, and soon the death toll begins to mount as does suspense for the reader. The climax of the novel is chilling and well written. Masterman’s grasp of botany and archeology is impressive and lends credibility to the book.

Season of the Plant. Trade paperback from Windstorm Creative. $16.99. 294 pages. ISBN 978-1-59092-502-7.

Where's the Science?

I have enjoyed science fiction over the years, but have seen the genre become more involved with fantasy as time has passed. Nothing wrong with that. It's compelling, interesting, entertaining -- but often contains more of kings and queens, princes and princesses, vying for power and interfamilial conflict than it is a reflection on science as a root value. Having an Arthurian legend work itself out on the third moon of a planet of a star in the Andromeda Galaxy is good storytelling...but the connection to Earth/Terra science is lost. Our own current scientific advances are so interesting, fascinating and enthralling that I would hope we could create stories around such information that could still excite readers. (Anyone read about Nigerosaurus this week, the latest dinosaur find that alters theories of how some herbivorous dinosaurs fed?) My hope is that we can create stories of intense action in the PlanetCare Discoveries which incorporate the latest findings in geology, archeology, astronomy, physics, biology and the other fields of research,that the reader might be intrigued to do research in those fields herself/himself. So I see action science fiction as a field where current Earth science provides the background for adventures that will not only grip readers but urge them to go behind the stories to adventures of their own.

Edgy Expeditions

When I finished composing my first novel, Season of the Plant, I felt great satisfaction in completing something that I'd been working on for decades. It was even greater that WindstormCreative, a publishing house in Seattle, Washington, gave me a contract to have it published! I conceived Season of the Plant as a short story many years ago, wrote it as a novella in later years, and even created a movie script out of it and filmed it with a group of teens and adults in my church! However, to develop the story into a full novel was a long-standing dream, able only after I retired. What's exciting is that Jennifer DiMarco, CEO of WindstormCreative, publishers of the book, suggested that I make it the first of a series. Since "PlanetCare" was the sponsoring organization of the adventurous expedition in Season of the Plant the series is called "The PlanetCare Discoveries". The action-adventures are centered on various scientific expeditions to all corners of the earth. Since then I've written The Jewels of Stonehenge, about a mysterious set of tourmaline crystals which, if assembled, can create havoc. Windstorm Creative will be releasing that book next year. The publishers have made this series part of their "Shared Universe" project, where other authors are invited to contribute volumes to the series. I've written a Sourcebook which will help any person who'd like to join the project, and will gladly discuss and help any such person. All the adventures are to be rooted in real scientific investigation, but wild and terrible things may happen, like the horrific Plant creature in Season of the Plant, or the otherworldly destructive gems in The Jewels of Stonehenge. This can be great fun, in writing over-the-edge-adventures, I look forward to having others write these edgy expeditions with me.