Vincent Berg: Blog

As promised, a new novel, first written... a while ago, but I didn't like how it read (too much dry explanations, too little active storytelling, but... it wasn't doing anyone any good sitting around collecting dust.

96K+ words, and I'd even started on a sequel, which... never went anywhere (it happens), again the premise was simply too pat, without enough active conflict to keep it exciting and engaging. But, if this does well, I may try writing a new version of it. No promises though.

Description: With no memory, 'Adam' (aka: Ty), awakens in an alien stone-age world, facing creating a civilization on a world unlike his own, with unknown dangers, and untrusted allies. So many things could go wrong, how many will actually pan out as he needs?

As a time travel, this is essentially a sci-fi tale in disguise, but the sci-fi aspects only play out later in the story. Since the protagonist loses his memory as an unexpected side-effect of the time-travel transmission process, it takes him time to piece together what's truly happening.

Yet after a while, as his memory begins returning, the sci-fi underpinnings finally come into play, as Ty finally begins unraveling not only what happened, but how to use the information to his advantage.

While the time-travel is oneway only, he is able to manipulate those who sent him back while essentially playing them for fools, as he goes his own way, resetting history (again) in a way that actually benefits those he's living with and not the technological masters who sent him back.

Yet another story in the works, and yes, this and the last posted story will start posting, followed by my next work, so expect quite a few stories to come.

Despite all appearances, I haven't yet died. Like many older authors, I'm hardly as spry as I once was, yet I'm still getting by, mostly.

Thanks for the sales for my newest version of one of my older works, Clinging to Hope. I'd mentioned hoping to post it, yet that never quite happened, yet. Hopefully, once I'm ready to start posting new stories, I'll also start reposting that new revision too, but... for now, I'm just too out of practice and quite a few things of changes since I last tried posting to the site.

As usual, every time I see a newbie poster, I try to take the under my wing and teach them the ropes, even if I'm not a fan of the content you're posting. One was bitching about the terrible review he was getting, so I carefully explained how what he is posting my get more negative feedback than positive, so he revised how his posting it, clearly specifying which chapters of the story of the most objectionable, so he readers can decide for themselves whether to read those or not.

As a result, the last I heard, he's getting a much fairer rating than he was initially. Again, no one on SOL likes the same things, but as the labeling is fair, we can pick and choose without denigrating or downvoting those newest to the site. In the longterm, as long as everyone is viewed by the quality of their work, and not exclusively the most objectionable subject matter, it'll help encourage other newbie authors too.

As my my own works, I have a couple active stories (WIPs, for 'Works in Progress') in the works. One I started, make significant headway, yet never posted/published it because it was ALL tell and No show. That was the approach I chose for the time travel story, yet it just never worked as well as I'd hoped. The underlying story and premise are solid, the implementation, not so much, unfortunately. I do have some professional pride after all.

The other two active stories, none yet near the full novel (60+K words) status yet, though they're still ongoing. I may have to post them an extra-long novelettes, but time will tell.

One is a nontraditional story for me, a relational drama, essentially a Reverse Revenge story, where the guy cheated on and his life destroyed, builds a separate private life, and when his young children finally come of age, they reconnect, after being pressed by his ex to testify against him. That one Impressionable Daughters is currently at 9 chapters and 30,000 words (half a novel), and has been there for a while.

My newer story, a complete rewording of an older favorite story trope, is coming along quite well, a standard interstellar Sci-Fi, it focuses, initially, on the individual protagonists, one at a time, for the entire first book, before they ever leave home (i.e. Earth), though nearly everything else is similar enough to my older standard fare.

Though how it does with an entirely new generation, now that most of my older fans are no longer active or at least no longer active on SOL, is another matter entirely. Yet it's a new way of telling an old story, so some will likely love it, and others despise it, as that's the nature of the best when you rewrite older story/tropes and the story they were based on too.

That story Not Nearly Human currently weighing in at seven chapters for 28,000 words, each chapter is slightly longer, yet still in the same ballpark as the other.

By the way, the few I've allowed to review and comment on the more problematic story Nowhere Like Home, loved it, yet it's just to as satisfying to me, as an author. Still, I'm just as likely to revise and reconsider posting and publishing it too. Yet that one IS a complete novel, at 18 chapter for a full 105,000 word novel. If nothing else, it would help set the stage to introduce the newer stories.

Oh, and as always, there were several which were left lying where they fell apart. I could go back and try reviving them, as the stories are solid, yet they're just not printable as they currently stand. In short, I'm spending most of my time fruitlessly spinning my wheels, trying to recapture my for grandeur, which I may just may no longer be up to anymore.

But mostly, I've spent the last several years experimenting it the various techniques I never allowed myself to fully explore while I was still on the traditional 'publish or perish' treadmill. So the writing itself, is much better than it originally, though again, the better written books, in the traditional Literary genre, have never sold well without a LOT of support by traditional publishers, who view it as a better image for the publisher than most of the biggest selling genres, which are MUCH easier to read.

Still, a lot of irons in the fire still, and a lot of options, and hopefully, Clinging to Hope, a revision, updated version of my much older, Clinging to Hope as the World Falters, part of my 2nd Sci-Fi series "The Great Death Series" first released in 2012.

So, I haven't just been spinning my wheels. ;)

Vincent Berg

Because so many authors are now reposting stories that have long been out of print (i.e. retired or aged-out due to SOL standards.

This is a revision of my older Great Death series, Love and Death and the Great Death and Clinging to Hope as the World Falters, which many here read way back in 2010, my second series.

It's being released on Bookapy initially, and once it's published, I'll start the traditional weekly SOL posts.

It's nothing new, just an older, never before published/posted revised work I thought deserved to see the light of day. If it's successful, I may publish/post the rest of the series. But it's been a while since I last published anything, and the reception of my last work was neither popular nor particualry kind. Plus, my health hasn't been the best, so while I have more recent stories, they may never see the light of day. So this is a happy compromise to get something of mind published so those who long remembered me can catch up on an older favorite.

I also rewrote the first book of the Catalyst series, yet never got far with it.

A recent broken hip, the simple, less complex kind where I merely broke the descending thighbone, rather than the central hip's ball & joint socket.

They put in three screws, and I'm midway through rehab, but the longer you aren't writing, the more you forget about writing, so I yet again have a LOT of room to make up for. Though I've gained a LOT of Quora friends.

My current story is also mid-way through revisions (18-chapters total), though this is likely to be my last work. I may be able to keep going, yet it gets more problematic all the time (not that very many remember who I am at this point).

No idea whether I'll publish it under my name, or an all-new pseudonym.

After a prolonged, three-year delay, I'm currently working on two different stories. One, a fun, erotic, rom-com, Mother-Dance, is about a man who picks up a mother and her adult daughter at his ex's wedding. This one is eight chapters so far, with no definite end in sight yet.

The other is intended as a longer saga, and is already at 18 chapters, and is currently a full novel in length. It's entitled Nowhere … Like Home? about a man who's transported to a stone-age period, on a far-distant, alien world, and the transition effectively wiped his memory. This is the more promising of the two, and again, I have no final length (words, nor chapters) planned yet. It'll grow as much, or as little, as it wants. Though, if necessary, I may cut it into separate books at some point. However I have no plans to, at this point.

I'll update this post, once either story nears completion. I'm also considering a repost (with graphics) of my long-archived Great-Death series, now retitled Extinction Event. There are only limited changes in the earliest chapters, mainly for clarity, but it also tightens my earlier, more verbose and cludgy writing style.