Richard Schiver

Category: Uncategorized

  • Are We First?

    For years it’s been accepted that the universe is 13.7 billion years old, but lately there has been speculation it might be twice as old as we believe. Last year the James Webb telescope focused on several distant galaxies that appear early but look more grown up. More details about this development can be found at Big Think .

    But what does that have to do with your creative process? You might be wondering.

    A lot, and we’ll get to that shortly. I’ve always had an interest in space and space travel, so I find myself drawn to articles of that nature. I uncovered something called the Silurian hypothesis. A thought experiment which assesses modern science’s ability to uncover evidence of a prior civilization. More information about the Silurian hypothesis can be found on the Discovery website.

    For those of you who are fans of Doctor Who, yes the hypothesis was named after the Silurian race featured on the show. Put forth by physicist Adam Frank and Climatologist Gavin Schmidt its purpose is to try to pinpoint the methods of spotting deep time civilizations in other planets. Every civilization leaves a mark after it’s passed. Be it an increase in carbon emissions from an industrial revolution, or the microplastics that will remain long after we’re gone. But these traces will be so small as to be missed unless we’re specifically looking for them.

    As a writer my mind is always working in “what if” mode.

    The Silurian hypothesis first came to my attention when I was working on the final book in my Shadows of the Past trilogy. I thought what if the creature threatening our future was an indigenous inhabitant of earth and we were the invaders, having come from the stars ourselves. The more I dug into the hypothesis, the more I came to understand their method might be a little short sighted. Using the effects of our current civilization would only locate those civilizations that mirrored our own historic timeline. How would you look for signs of a say silicon-based life form? What if the barren planet we ignore once carried life that was wiped out by a bomb we have no knowledge of? What if the emerging civilization took a path entirely different from our own because they viewed the world differently than we did? What if they discovered fission power early in the process and their industrial revolution did not leave the same traces as our own.

    I’m not saying I’m an expert at any of this, nor do I have a thorough understanding of how they go about searching for the clues they seek. But it’s something that sparked my interest, and my mind tends to wander in those directions when I’m confronted with new knowledge.

    What do you think?

    Are we indigenous to this planet?

    Or did we come from the stars?

  • Update 09/19/2023

    It’s been nearly a year since my last update. Work continues to progress, and the first draft for Faces of Our Fathers, book 5 in This Lawless Land is nearly complete.There’s a lot more to do yet, I’ve started tinkering with book six that will be titled Lair of the Broken Queen. Will it be the last in the series? I’m not sure. I’m just following along where the story leads me.

    I’m currently editing Zomething Dead This Way Comes to get it ready for my followers. If you’ve been here in the past you may have noticed the changes as I started working to improve my site. I struggled for a few months with the decision on where to place my site. Considered several alternative options for hosting, but finally settled on keeping everything on wordpress for the time being. If you have any suggestions on hosting options, or improvements for my site, I’d love to hear from you.

    Work continues on The Shadows of the Past trilogy. The first draft of Assimilation is finished. Now comes the overwhelming task of rewriting the entire trilogy to bring it in line with my original vision. Both my series and the trilogy have taught me a very valuable lesson. Don’t release book one of anything until at least the first draft of the remaining books has been written.

    This was really brought home to me when I was writing Faces of Our Fathers and a whole slew of new characters necessary to move the plot forward were introduced to me. I spent nearly a year just writing their story before incorporating it into the narrative of the series. All Roads Lead to Terror is pretty much set, just a few tweaks here and there before I update the files. Then it’s onto The Reaping Season, Legion of the Damned, and A Call to Arms. The last title feels sort of weak to me so I may update it.

    Beyond the series and trilogy are other works I want to dive into. Bitter Hollow needs to be finished. It’s siting on my desk waiting for me to dive back in. What’s stopping me is it’s a first person narrative and I worry that I’m not up to the task to bring it to the conclusion I see in my mind.

    There will be two more books tied to Cursed. A Bad Place and The Gathering, will feature Sheriff Paul Odenton from Cursed.

    That’s all for now, I’ll try better to keep everyone up to date as work progresses but it’s a slow process getting these stories exactly the way I originally envisioned them. When Zomething Dead This Way Comes is ready I’ll let everyone know. It will be a freebie for everyone who joins my mailing list. When it’s ready I’ll activate the links.

    On the reading front so far I recently finished Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay. I’m now nearly through his Disappearance at Devil’s Rock. Strange Weather by Joe Hill, and Ghostwritten by Ronald Malfi.

    Have you read any good books lately?

  • Weekly Update 05/20/2022

    Welcome to my weekly update, if all goes well I’ll be posting every week with updates on my current works in progress along with comments about the books I’m reading and any movies I may have watched in the past.

    Current Project

    The biggest project I’m currently working on carries the title This Way to Heaven which will likely change once the book is finished. It was a story I started working on for Kindle Vella at the end of last year. I pulled it from the platform after Amazon wrongly accused me of having multiple accounts and closed my account. I managed to get my account reopened but the fact they could so easily close it without cause made me reconsider remaining exclusive with them.

    The story is tied to my series This Lawless Land that I will take up again this year. I started book 5 at the beginning of the pandemic, and as the story unfolded I came to understand where the series was headed. I realized I needed to take a step back to explore this new route in detail, which I have been doing. Stay tuned for more details.

    In This Way to Heaven, eleven-year-old Jimmy and his three friends bear witness to the dawn of the zombie apocalypse. The story follows the survivors who live in the Willowbrook apartments in Richmond, Virginia. Willowbrook is a stately old place constructed by the rich for the rich before the start of the civil war. Rebuilt afterwards it became a playground for those with means who had some rather unsavory appetites. There are many dark secrets hidden in the bowels of the building. Now in a state of disrepair and undergoing a conversion to offices, the few remaining tenants will struggle to survive in the dawn of this new age as the ghosts of the past emerge.

    The apartment building was featured in the first book of my post-apocalyptic series, All Roads Lead to Terror. Meat, the main character from all roads, and his friends are captured by a feral cult of children who inhabit the building and worship an ancient creature that lives in the basement.

    Word count update  

    Beginning: 61,238  

    Completed this week: 3,337

    New total: 64,575

    Sneak Peek:

    Tommy lay on the floor, whimpering as blood seeped from around the hand he’d clamped over his shoulder. Ronnie was on his knees beside him trying to see how bad the damage was, but every time he tried to move Tommy’s hand, the boy cried out in agony.

    “How is he? Randy said, standing above Ronnie the pipe still in his hands.

    “How do you think he is. One of them bastards bit him. If you had stayed where you were it wouldn’t have happened. But no, you gotta be Mr. smart ass.”

    “Are you done?” Randy said, unmoved by Ronnie’s rage.

    “You asshole, you don’t give a shit about anyone but yourself.” Ronnie was pushing himself up to his feet when Randy brought around the iron pipe and struck him across the back of his neck. Ronnie dropped with a grunt, sprawling across his brother. He struggled to pull his hand under him, to push himself up when Randy brought the pipe down and shattered his skull.

    “Whadidja do that for?” Tommy said, watching him with the glassy eyes of someone going into shock. Faint black lines were spreading up the flesh of his neck, growing from his injured shoulder.

    “Because I’m gonna have to kill you Tommy, you’re gonna become one of them, and I didn’t want your brother trying to stop me from what I’ve got to do.”

    “You son of a bitch,” Tommy said as he tried to push himself up.

    “I’m sorry,” Randy said before he jammed the end of the pipe into Tommy’s left eye, driving it down through the boy’s brain, killing him instantly.

    End Excerpt

    Short Stories

    I love reading short stories but have always found it difficult to write them, yet I persist.

    One of the best I’ve read recently is Christopher Golden’s God Bag. It appears in the anthology Beyond the Veil edited by Mark Morris, go look it up, it’s chock full of some good shorts.

    Comments from early readers of my 8500-word short story, Nobody’s, is promising. A first-person account that follows a character who was late to work and witnessed the fall of the twin towers. He then starts running into people from his office who should have perished that day.

    Moving forward with Laundromat People after some very illuminating comments from early readers. When he was six William uncovered a secret in the local laundromat. As an adult he will come face to face with that secret again and will never be the same after.

    Current reads:

    Beulah by Christi Nogle

    Do not Weep For Me by Tony Tremblay

    Recently completed.

    Come With Me by Ronald Malfi 5 stars. I’m a big fan of his work.

    Summer of Night by Dan Simmons 5 stars.

    Movies:

    Haven’t watched a movie in some time, not since I saw The Quiet Place for an assignment, but I am looking forward to the next season of Love Death & Robots on Netflix, which should drop today if I didn’t mess up the scheduling of this post.

    That’s all I have for this week. If you like what you’ve read and want updates when I post I’d appreciate it if you hit the like and follow button for this post and my blog. I’ll soon be giving a free short story away every month for everyone who signs up for my newsletter. I’ll share more details when they’re available.

    What book or short story have you recently read that really stuck with you? Let me know in the comments.

    Thanks for stopping by.

  • Sorry!

    My apologies for dropping the ball on this blog. I am currently changing jobs in RL and have not had the time needed to take care of things here. Everything will go back to normal in a week, two at the most, and I will continue with the regularly scheduled posts. Again I’m sorry I’ve let everyone down.

  • Welcome

    Welcome to my new digs. With the start of the new year I took early retirement which will give me time to dedicate to providing new and interesting content. I’m still working on getting things organized so be careful where you step, don’t want you stirring up any of the ghosts that hang around. Check back often, I’ve got a whole slew of things I want to do here. I’m going to start talking about the books I’ve read and the movies I’ve watched. I’m revamping my short story challenge, and will be sharing potions of my work in progress.