Tag: Sleeping Dogs

Book Brief: Sleeping Dogs

Sleeping Dogs: The Awakening
by John Wayne Falbey
Genre: Techno-political Thriller
Word count: 144,000
Sleeping Dogs: The Awakening is the first in a planned trilogy. One of its premises is that in every generation Mother Nature produces a handful of individuals who are beta models of human beings in future generations. They are more evolved.

What if scientists discovered this anomaly and developed a means of identifying these individuals? What if the intelligence and military communities recruited and trained them to use their extraordinary abilities for the blackest of black ops missions? What if something caused them to focus their bloodlust on an enemy destroying the U.S. from within?

A second premise presents another frightening, but equally plausible scenario. The Soviet Union spent decades and enormous capital trying to subvert and destroy America’s social structure and cultural values. The USSR is gone, but what if another interest with similar goals succeeded to the assets it implanted and left behind? What if the current political turmoil and systemic upheaval is a result of such continuing efforts? Sleeping Dogs explores this frightening possibility with relentless action, crisp dialogue, fully drawn characters, and thought provoking plot twists.

This title is available from Amazon, Smashwords, and Barnes and Noble. Continue reading “Book Brief: Sleeping Dogs”

How “Real” Should A Novel Be? by John Wayne Falbey

Author John Wayne Falbey
Author John Wayne Falbey

Back in April, author James Bruno suggested in these pages what he believes are the two essential ingredients for a successful novel. One of these is knowledge of the subject matter. His point is that successful works of fiction utilize characters and story lines that closely resemble reality; in other words, they achieve verisimilitude.

The other critical ingredient lies in crafting a good story. Attorneys have a label for something this obvious: sine qua non; which means the thing speaks for itself. Readers of fiction invariably are in search of a good story. They want to be entertained by the written word. Shallow characters, inadequate descriptive passages, choppy or overly verbose dialog, and weak plots won’t attract large numbers of readers or build a fan base.

With regard to the first point, unless the novel falls into the genres of fantasy, horror, or science fiction, the writer has to create a scenario that could be real. Verisimilitude is achieved when the reader suspends disbelief. This means the writer has to fully understand the subject matter about which he or she is writing. There are a limited number of ways to accomplish this. Continue reading “How “Real” Should A Novel Be? by John Wayne Falbey”