Gary Darby, Author

SALE!

2011-06-28T00:17:00.000-07:00

To celebrate the fall release of the second volume of the StarScout Rising Trilogy, we are having a super sale of StarScout Rising, First Trail (Kindle version) for $2.99! This summer only!

Book Review Thoughts

2011-03-12T18:50:00.000-08:00

It's been an interesting and exciting couple of weeks. Several reviewers/authors posted their reviews of StarScout Rising . . . Volume One and for the most part their reviews were very positive, interesting, and insightful. There are more reviews to come and hopefully the scorecard will remain in the positive column. My sincere thanks to all who have, or will, review my work.

I recently had a young reader (I believe she's in her early twenties - young to me) make an interesting comment about my novel and I thought I'd respond on my blog. She was critical over my choice of character dialog in that none of them used profanity, even in the most stressful, life-threatening situations. Her comment was, and I'm paraphrasing, was that 'real people don't speak that way in the real world . . . it's unrealistic to think that not one character wouldn't swear out of anger or frustration, or fright.'

In a certain way I can understand her comment in that, well, in some respects, she's right. The use of profanity throughout our society is now so common and accepted that I know individuals who can't put a noun and verb together in a spoken sentence without modifying both with some form of profanity.

I've browsed through bookstores and opened up novel after novel where the text is laced with vulgarity. I don't mean an occasional swear word or two, I mean sentence after sentence, paragraph after paragraph, page after page. And thankfully, there is the occasional novel that has little to none, though it seems from my browsing that you are far more likely to pick up a book containing profanity than not.

I have to admit that when I first started to write my novel, I did wonder how it would come across without some profanity, even "mild" profanity. But I chose not to use profanity because of several reasons.

First, my religious and personal convictions.

Second, some of the best novels, science fiction and otherwise that I've read in my lifetime contained no profanity. So it can be done.

Third, for me, the English language is so rich and diverse in its ability to describe human emotions, expressions, vocally and otherwise without the use of vulgar expressions. Some authors will say that profanity is necessary because of its "shock" effect and that it "adds" credibility to their characters and dialog. I'm not convinced of that argument. And yes, I realize that many of the great works of literature, Shakespeare comes to mind, used profanity, but even so, did he really have to? Does anyone really have to?

For those that do, that's their choice. Among the many great principles that our nation is founded on is freedom of speech and choice and I spent twenty years defending those values so while I respect their choice, I choose the opposite - no matter the consequences in my literary efforts.

One last note. I know and have known numerous "real people" who never swear or use vulgarity in their speech, even in the most stressful of circumstances. They come from all walks of life, rich to poor, highly educated to not so educated. They are some of my heroes, they choose not to become one with the herd, not become part of the problem, but to stand apart and be part of the solution.

A Virtual Book Tour!

2011-02-23T20:42:00.000-08:00

Today starts the Virtual Book Tour for StarScout Rising, First Trail! Please take a moment to visit and read the reviews!

2/24 "From the Other Side of the Mirror"

2/25 The Bec-ster

2/26 DesignZ by DeDe

2/28 Day Dreamer

3/2 Cathy Witbeck - Story Painter

3/5 Thoughts on LDS

3/7 Debbie's Inkspectations

3/9 The Musings of a Hopeful Writer

3/14 What all the kids are reading

3/16 Westover Writes

3/17 Mere Motherhood

3/18 HeartNephite Blood, Spartan Heart

3/18 Tangled Words and Dreams

3/19 Taffy's Writings

3/19 Book Purring

3/21 Blog of Berin

3/23 mormonhermitmom's book habit

mormonhermitmom's interview with author Gary Darby

3/24 Come on... I Dair You!

3/25 J. Lloyd Morgan

3/26 Tartine Au Cacao served over Gregory Peck and Charles Dickens

3/28 Notes From the Writing Chair

3/30 Elizabeth Mueller

3/31 A Bookworm's Tale

4/1 Why Not! Because I Said So!

2011-01-30T16:13:00.000-08:00

Being somewhat of a social recluse, having a blog site that’s intended
to put me and my book, “StarScout Rising – First Trail” into the
worldwide social network is quite a leap for me. But, I do thank all
who visit the site; hopefully it will be worth your time.

I’m a newly published author of a science fiction novel. Like most
novice authors I went through several years of rejection after
rejection from big name publishing houses and literary agents until a
new publishing firm, Kayto Communications, in Juneau Alaska agreed to
a small first printing. Many thanks to Tom Nelson, owner of Kayto
Communications for taking a chance on “StarScout Rising” – I truly
hope it works out – for both of us.

I’ve found that the actual writing of the novel seems to be the easy
part of the process. Getting the book published and marketed is the
hard part – especially the marketing – but isn’t that the case with
any new product?

The genesis for “StarScout Rising” actually began many, many, years
ago when I was a young boy. I was an only child and as both of my
parents worked full-time; I spent much of my after school hours and
Saturdays dreaming up imaginary friends, villains, animals and places.
And, as I was an avid reader of science fiction, those imaginary
creations more likely than not would have a “sci-fi” flavor. Heck, I
was visiting Mars long before we ever landed the Martian Rovers. In
fact, NASA could have saved themselves a whole lot of money by just
asking me what the terrain of Mars looked like instead of spending all
of those dollars on rockets and payloads to the Red Planet.

“StarScout Rising” has multiple story lines and I have to admit I
didn’t plan it that way. But, the more I wrote, the more the story
expanded and surprised even me with some of the twists and turns.
Also interesting enough, about half-way through the first volume I had
one of those “aha!” moments and saw the culmination of the entire
story – the final chapter, who was there, where it took place, and why
the story had to end that way - and it made perfect sense. The only
problem is that I still have to write the in-between parts and fill in
the rest of the story . .