Anthony Dobranski Online

Tag: The Demon in Business Class

  • The bad news is, I was right

    I’m finishing my second novel, but in the last few months I’ve spent some time with my first, The Demon in Business Class, as it enters a new medium. The amazing voice actor Laura Petersen has recorded the audiobook — early spring release! don’t worry, I’ll be posting about it.

    I’ve been pitching in doing proofs, catching small errors, but mostly just being regaled. Petersen is hugely talented, nailing Demon‘s scores of worldwide accents, and also finding subtle line readings in both narration and dialogue. It’s been a wonderfully self-congratulatory exercise. Gosh I’m a good writer. I should do it more.

    I’ve also heard how good I am at forecasting. I wasn’t looking too far ahead, and I had the small advantage of being a few years ahead of the times in my book.

    Even so, I got everything right.

    Back-cover copy is about drama, and my novel had that in spades, with fantastic powers, violence, conspiracies, and troubled romance. The Demon in Business Class also has: elites failing to see the difference between what’s good, and what’s good for them; religious people ever more tempted, and corrupted, by temporal power; the dissatisfaction with globalization; the angry assault on patriarchy; Russia’s aggressive refusal to play by American rules; China’s ever-greater confidence; a greater role for mysticism in public life.

    I don’t mean to brag, exactly. It’s hard to take comfort in being right about so many things that wouldn’t be my first choice if I had a say.

    Still, I did way better with my calls than most pundits and politicians. I am attentive to subtle currents and a clear-eyed thinker. It helps to remember that things always change, and that nature abhors a vacuum. These are cliches because of our complacency; step back, and they contain terrors.

    I have my own formula, once a line of dialogue from an early failed novel, now a personal mantra, my walking stick as I scramble ahead of changes.

    It says: When there’s no place else to go, you go there.

    There’s been a lot of going there the past few years. More to come. Trust me, I have a good track record.

    And, gosh, I’m a good writer. I should do it more.

  • I grieve for my beloved Hong Kong

    It has bad air. I was still a smoker when I worked there, and I joked it was protective. It’s impossibly expensive, though plenty of people live there cheaply. It’s a culture clash, crash, and fusion — Chinese and Anglo, old and new, rich and poor, metropolitan and tropical, high-pressure and laid-back. It’s fast, so fast. After you leave, for a long time, everyplace else feels slow.

    Of course I set part of my first novel there, the most raw part, the true climax. That romantic imagined life was my consolation prize. Had my parents been younger when I left my corporate life, I would have moved back there.

    I love Hong Kong.

    Hong Kong’s Lion Rock lit up as protesters gathered at its peak. Photo: Tyrone Siu/Reuters

    I swore a while back not to write about politics, but this is more. Unique places are an endangered species. Hong Kong is its own strange ecosystem, married to change but in love with constancy. I admire its people. They are courageous and vivacious and more honest than most, except when haggling. I fear for them.

    I’ve feared for them since the handover from British rule to Chinese rule, 22 years ago. I was happy for my Hong Kong friends after the handover — there was a pride then, akin to what African Americans felt with Obama’s election. Still, my parents fled Soviet rule. I saw this conflict coming — honestly, I expected it sooner.

    It’s not the same, of course — unique is like that. It’s not left-right, not occupier-colony, not exactly rich-poor. For a shorthand, maybe old-new. Hong Kong is decades older than Communist China, but far younger at heart.

    Call it this, now: One country, two incompatible hungers.

    I’ve never lifted a billion people out of poverty. I do know something about the rare and the special. They are easy to milk and maddening to sustain — but if you don’t sustain them, if you don’t help them thrive, they dry up. There is no more special, and others know you for a fool.

    China made a big deal, the biggest deal, about adopting this shining child, and then refused to understand it. Maybe it was jealous. Maybe it felt threatened. Maybe it wanted a trophy. Maybe it was just indifferent. Hunger, like justice, is blind.

    China risks being a fool now. Soon, I fear, it will risk worse.

  • First look at Business Class Tarot!

    COMING FALL 2018

    Are you a business person, entrepreneur, or maker?

    Do you work where product meets brand? Where data and money become one?

    BUSINESS CLASS TAROT™
    See the Present — Change the Future

    Tarot cards have centuries of wisdom about human nature and power dynamics, hidden behind obscure symbols and outdated worldviews.
    BUSINESS CLASS TAROT brings the Tarot’s deep knowledge and interactive format into our world of global connection, massive scale, and brutal competition.
    Artist Jamin Hoyle’s beautiful, surreal images evoke the rush, despair, and joy that inform and derail life’s major decisions.
    Designed and with guide by author Anthony Dobranski.

  • A quick hello during a busy season

    I am sorry to have been so silent. In between summer travels with family, all my projects have been in construction phases, and I don’t like vague-posting.
    But, news. I have several author events scheduled for this fall. You can find me at:
    The Fredericksburg Independent Book Festival, Fredericksburg, VA, Sat Sep 23
    YABBAFest, Warrenton, VA, Sat Oct 14
    Quest-Con, Mobile, AL, Fri Oct 20-Sun Oct 22
    Philcon, Cherry Hill, NJ, Fri Nov 10-Sun Nov 12
    I have also begun recording The Demon in Business Class audiobook. People who sign up for my mailing list at Fredericksburg or after will get a free copy of the early session recording of Demon chapter 1.
    Want in on the goodies? Sign up too! 
    The third project is of course my new novel, which I finally have come to admit is not going to be fleshed out from the previous manuscript, but completely rewritten. I have however set myself the semi-impossible goal of debuting it next year at Atlanta’s massive DragonCon, which means that next week I get to writing in a headlong Phildickian rush. Well, maybe not, but I have a lot to do.
    I’ll be posting about the book in a couple of days, since I can actually discuss it now and show some concepts.
    A fourth project … awaits much more solid scheduling. Suffice it to say I am working with great artists.

  • New Demon trading cards!

    New Demon trading cards!

    As a promotion on social media for The Demon in Business Class, I created a virtual trading card deck. For cons, I printed card versions of the nine character pictures. They were done as a last-minute inspiration, made by shoving the cards’ original Instagram proportions into a business card template on Moo.com, the excellent online printer. The cards turned out to be popular at cons and events, and at a better cost-per-item than postcards.
    I updated the info on the back and resent the cards to print a larger order – seven this time, of the original nine, because nine is unwieldy at a con; and extra Zarabeths.
    This time, Moo said the uneven border made for unsatisfactory results, and offered me the chance to do the cards over with new images. They were right of course, and I took the opportunity.
    At my upcoming cons in Hartford, Raleigh, and Ft Lauderdale, I’ll be sharing the good word about Demon with new promotional trading cards!

  • Sexual tension in fiction

    My guest post for the Fictorians, a site on writing fiction, discusses sexual tension and its different roles in different stories. It’s part of the Fictorians’ month-long Tension series.
    Read it at: 
    http://www.fictorians.com/2017/02/24/sexual-tension-in-fiction/

  • Dobranski Talks! (text, audio, video)

    Apologies to Greta Garbo… Happy New Year! Here’s some recent Tony-media for you to enjoy!
    Today my interview with author Raymond Bolton appears on his website. It’s certainly the most personal public conversation I’ve ever had, a story of insecurity, confusion and doubt, redeemed by the help of colleagues and the business model for Honest Tea.
    Castle of Horror‘s Jason Henderson interviewed me for the Castle Talk podcast. It’s an unusual discussion, since it focuses on Demon‘s non-fantasy elements – corporate life and the travails of the business road-warrior, and how that culture defined the book’s style and language.
    Finally, as a New Year’s present to my wonderful editor Vivian Caethe, I posted a video of my December 1 2016 reading on my public Facebook author page. It’s about forty-five minutes, with a short intro about my inspiration, three passages (in eight voices) from the book, and a bit at the end about marketing and promotion – which, as readers of this blog know, took over my creative life in the months leading to the Demon launch. (Those who’d rather listen can find the audio through this link, or the first comment on the FB video post.)

  • Demon release update – PhilCon and Writer’s Center

    Thanks One More Page Books for hosting my first reading for DEMON last Wednesday – and to the many people, friends and strangers, who came out!
    This weekend, Nov 18-20, I am paneling and signing at PhilCon!
    My next reading in the Washington DC area is Thursday December 1, 7pm, at the Writer’s Center in Bethesda, MD.
    *Free posters and trading cards* at both events!
    Rather buy the ebook than paper? Show the ebook on your device (or a purchase receipt) and get a signed poster and a card!
    See you in Philly and in Bethesda!

  • Hello CapClave – Trading cards now REAL!

    I’m paneling and reading starting today at CapClave in Rockville MD. It’s a very different kind of personal appearance than my work at convention booths, with panel discussions of literary topics, and a half-hour Saturday morning to read my work.
    In celebration, my social media promotion has slipped the surly bounds of cyberspace and achieved card form!
    The nine Demon picture cards
    It’s only the 9 picture cards, not the complete set of 55, which is still being published one a day on my social media: Instagram & Twitter @adobranski, Facebook @adobranskiauthor
    It’s also a small test run of this promotional idea!
    Any intrepid and review-minded readers who buy an Advance Reader Proof from me at CapClave get a card along with the posters I also gave buyers in Cincinnati. (And if you bought a book in Cincinnati, get in touch on Facebook or by email to dobranski outlook com and I’ll send you one!)
    Here’s my CapClave schedule – for full details, see CapClave.org and find me under “Participants.” See you there!
    Fri 6p – Whatever Happened to the Standalone Novel?
    Fri 8p – Who’s the Bad Guy in a World Without Absolutes?
    Fri 11p – How Graphic is Your Novel?
    Sat 10:30-10:55a – Reading
    Sat 11:00-11:25a – Author’s Table
    Sat 4p Politics in Science Fiction and Fantasy
    Sat 5p – Global Climate Change in Science Fiction
     
     

  • Thanks, Cincinnati! – my successful advance release

    My debut selling advance proof copies of The Demon in Business Class at the Cincinnati Comic Expo was a smashing success – I completely sold out!
    It was great to be part of the WordFire Press booth and have their amazing support. My posters and banner clearly caught people’s eyes. And of course, thanks to the many brave readers who took a chance on an unknown author!
    I am still under-slept, and I have work ahead of me to be ready for reader reviews – and for my next pre-release appearance, October 7-9, at CapClave in Rockville, MD, where I’ll be on several literary panels, and doing my first public reading. Cincinnati gave me a lot of good energy, and I look forward to putting it to use.
    Thanks Cincinnati for my warm welcome!