(updated 2019 June 05)

Seen as a sidebar in a Lexus automobile advertisement on the net, April 2019. Face of an attractive woman wearing glasses and holding a magnifying glass:

“Nothing is hotter than cold rationality.”

(updated 2019 June 03)

A standing bit of advice (even a “sage”) for writers and writers hoping to become authors…

 (‘Think an “author” is someone with a finished a book which is “alive,” as an actual manuscript one can hold in their hands…and if necessary, show to others as “proof.”)

…is to, “Write the book you want to read.”

This one works for James Hood. (Inset here imaginary smiley face)

After having read, enjoyed and pondered them and reread, re-pondered and reread-re-pondered them to the point of wanting an “après” cigarette upon finishing the last line, this writer will freely admit, he would have been thrilled beyond belief, to have been brilliant and imaginative-creative to have personally written:

• Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne (also Mysterious Island, Around the World In Eighty Days and Robur the Conqueror)
• All 13 Horatio Hornblower and the equal number of WW I and II novels and collected short stories by Cecil Scott Forester
• All 14 original Ian Fleming James Bond novels
• Most all of the young adult historical fiction, “We Were There…” series by various authors in the 1950s and 60s
• And of course, varied timeless works by masters including Ernest Hemingway, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Mark Twain and Edgar Rice Burroughs

Because the above tomes, along with much, much else (mostly tres‘ boring non fiction), is what this writer enjoys reading.

Delightfully, re-reading the two published Adventure— novels and much of the refined draught of several in-progress sequels, provides the same satisfaction. James Hood wrote two (to date) novels he enjoyed reading. Ya-hoo!

Sage piece of advice heeded. Mission accomplished, ‘am carrying on.

(updated 2019 June 24)

A standing sage bit of advice / truism given to beginning writers (especially novelists) is, “Write what you know.”

In the words of those great American mid-20^th century Motown recording artists / lyrical philosophers, The Essex, in their 1964 popular song hit, that recommendation is, “…easier said than done.”

Let the record show, when the Adventure— series’ setting dropped into James Hood’s head that cold Saturday morning in 1973, he certainly had not life-experienced background material for what became the Alternate World and Adventure—‘s (published and coming) stories.

A parallel reality of our world with many similarities and some cheeky differences was by no fantasy, however exotic, not where this Chicago suburbanite writer lived.

Nope, Adventure—‘s fiction concept felt as a “gift from the ethers,” dumped into a waiting brain already packed with varied bits of “applicable” and much arguably  “useless” information”…which has been added to, literally, by the day, and continues. Thank Heaven for that moment.

“Write what you know;” only partially applied, especially about exploration. However, this writer already knew quite a bunch about what he liked to read and about geography, history and the stories’ “hardware;” ships, aircraft, vehicles, the British East India Company….

By the way, “Easier Said Than Done,” remains as of this writing, the only #1 song written and recorded by active-duty US military personnel.  How about a big round of applause for United States Marine Corps recording performers Billy Hill, Rudolph Johnson, guitarist Walter Vickers, drummer Rodney Taylor and lead singer Anita Humes. Active-duty Marine, William Linton, co-wrote the song. Semper fi!

As not much of a TV or screens person (except for writing on the computer), when Seth MacFarlane’s excellent 2017 Star Trek spinoff Sci-Fi comedy-drama, The Orville, aired (and was first viewed by JH in early 2019, into Season 2), a thought hit all but immediately.

The Orville uses as “home,” an exploration starship crewed by people considerably more laid-back and “human” than Star Trek’s “rigidly” military crews, as might be expected on a “mid-level exploration vessel.”

Since Adventure—Into The Neverland was published in 2002 and featured characters more comedic / “human” / less “military-staid” than Star Trek’s  (perhaps “stuffy”) “Federation officers”…it is arguably possible.

To quote those great mid-late 20^th century British philosophers, Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and John Bonham of Led Zeppelin, “…ooh, it makes me wonder.”

“What are your books about?”

Writers intending to be and those who are authors are supposed to have an “elevator summary” explaining their book(s) in a concise, accurate, relatable, minimum number of words in less than a minute. Like in an elevator, a functioning one, that is.

James Hood struggled with this elusive concept and question for decades. What is the “accurate” elevator summary for the Adventure-— series?

(OR)

“Star Trek without space flight, set in the 1970s.”

(OR)

“Something Jules Verne might have written, if he was writing today.” (Few people recognize the great author’s name and fewer still have read his works. Hint; Around The World In 80 Days and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea are the most famous)

(OR)

“A 20th Century British East India Company clandestinely operating in something reminiscent of “The Twilight Zone” (this one is not too bad, except for 99.9 % of people not knowing about the corporation which controlled a subcontinent and a quarter of the world’s population during the 17th and 18th centuries and operated its own private army and Navy)

‘Still working on “The Elevator Summary.”

(edited 2019 June 24)

(edited 2019 June 24)

It’s a well-known, veritably trite truism for fiction; once the characters begin to take over and interact in the story setting, the writer “only” has to take their dictation and write. In Adventure--‘s case, this process began with fountain pen and lined notebook paper. Part of the reason was to be “pure” (many famous novelists wrote in longhand) and part was the situation of being a hunt-and-peck typist driving a worn, rough, old Underwood portable typewriter. Manual, of course.

That fountain pen wore out as pages generated and years passed where writing was done in snippets often no longer than 5 minutes of “free time.” The Adventure— story concept, scenes, settings, characters, action, details filled out. Sometimes they were revelations “from beyond.” Others were carefully scripted and outlined.

The fountain pen after that and the one after that wore out too. A Christmas gift of an Olivetti manual portable typewriter generated a few thousand pages in the next several years, before it irreparably broke. Club newsletters, magazine articles, bits in newspapers…James Hood slowly learned how to write and the process was by no means painless.

Marriage, children, job, home remodeling, fixing things, cash flow…these comprised the wannabe-author’s real life, which needed to be actively lived.

Giving up on writing what felt like an ever-expanding, ever-more-complex novel concept with all-but-infinite sequel potential, loomed as a bad idea. Very bad. Adventure— could be this writer’s winning grand jackpot lottery ticket.

Besides that, Adventure–‘s characters were metaphorical stalkers, intruders, door-to-door salespeople, evangelists, telemarketers; they would not leave this writer alone. They demanded their stories be told.

Continuing to gnaw away at the story felt sensible. Mature. Adult. A good gamble. Besides, the characters kept up their constant annoying pressure. the old fiction writer’s truism was true.

So, real life was attended to. Many of you know precisely what that entails. Many, many pages of notes were kept, though, as the characters, “continued to tell their stories” to the writer.

But Adventure— and writing would not go away. So, the “writing hobby” received tidbits of available time. Sometimes only 5 minutes a week.Other times, whole days-off and many, many late nights.

Moral of the truism about characters “telling their stories?”

There are two published novels bearing this authors name. Success through relentless perseverance. By the writer and the characters.

There will be a section about many of those characters, individually, in this blog, soon.

Welcome to the Adventure— and author-writer James Hood’s website. This e-creation residing in-on the Infinite Multiverses-net, has been a long time in the dreamed-of, considered and “wanting.”

(updated 3 June 2019)

This website’s reality was an unexpected, delightful birthday gift from daughter Victoria and son-in-law Michael, what a unique, special, great gift!

Where to start? How about here?

Waning years of the 20^th and first decades of the 21^st century are in this opinion, the best and worst times to be a writer. Best, because the incredible proliferation of personal computers with sophisticated word-processing software make “writing” so easy and editing, nothing like the chore it was during all of history. Worst, because the amount of “competition for attention” is beyond measurable by any metric.

But what the heck, the James Hood website (actually, “TheJamesHood”) because a former drummer from the band, The Pretenders, had the one desired. Anyway, the site is real and here, so let’s go.

Hello, Come on in, make yourself comfortable, maybe fetch a beverage and / or snack. What brings you here? Just e-bouncing around in the e-neighbourhood or was the site recommended by someone?

Whichever. You are reading the first entry in the blog of James Hood, creator and author of the Adventure— stories.

James Hood was a mere youth when Star Trek (now known as TOS, “the Original Series”) debuted (actually, the metaphor “exploded” is more appropriate) unforgettably across the airwaves in 1966. Who would ever have thought a TV series would sire several-plus derivative series and a gob of feature films over the following 50+ year period?

This writer is one of those many folks caught up those eons ago not only in Star Trek, but also C.S. Forester’s Horatio Hornblower series of books (also an inspiration for ST’ creator Gene Roddenberry).

For those of you not familiar with the immortal British author; Cecil Scott Forester wrote 13 books about a British sailor during the Napoleonic times, about 1793 to 1825. Great reads. Look him up.

Fast forward 7 years (from Star Trek, “The Original Series”’ debut) to February 1973. Young James tentatively took pen to paper (literally) and started a couple alternate-history World War II  novellas. As it was, the plot premises did not work out. subject too big; would-be author, not mature enough. However, the desire to write, to tell stories, persisted. Thinking continued. Some ideas were awful. Others…had no room for “big” development.

A winter morning, home alone, the idea dropped into this mind, all but fully-formed. What might a Star Trek-ish-oid concept; action-adventure-exploration-fixed cast of strong characters, be like if it did not take place either in the future or in the vastness of outer space…

…but rather, here and now?

Years before, television’s The Twilight Zone, One Step Beyond and The Outer Limits scared this watcher witless and thoroughly creeped James and millions of other viewers out. A goodly number of those sci-fi-adventure-horror stories took place in a one-step-aside or parallel reality, in the present time frame.

Alternate dimensions of reality were already a sci-fi and fantasy staple, but no known ones called out to become anything resembling a desirable setting-basis for the story concept formulating in this wannabe writer’s head.

With an odd rapidity, as if this writer’s mind was being “fed” thoughts, ideas steadily “arrived” and were organized, shuffled, changed, accepted, discarded. A mental jigsaw puzzle solving itself, assisted by a willing writer’s mind. Certainly not a new concept, but for sure, a new setting.

Mental and creative seeds germinated. Decades later, those first sprouts had matured into a metaphorical forest.  Two Adventure— novels published and…quite a few…are in the works.

Stay tuned and please come back often.