So I didn't get to Roswell

But I did get a lot of writing done while I was away.

May 08, 2024

Hello, I’m back from America. Here’s some of what happened.

Chapter 1, plan

I have never been abroad before, and with a budget that barely covered the flights there and back (paid for by selling old Lego), I decided to make my first overseas adventure a simple one. I was to go to Utah, to sit in cafes in the middle of nowhere, and to write a lot.

I was to stay with an old friend, who had lofty goals for this adventure. His plan was to drive us all the way from Utah to Roswell, then back through California. We would spend a few days in Roswell, where I would write Earthloop books 1, 2, and 3 simultaneously.

I would have time to sit at each location and write, to cruise past Area51, and to hunt down the precise location where that UFO crashed all those years ago.

That’s what convinced me to go.

Chapter 2, execution

Unfortunately not much of that actually happened. The person I was relying on to get to and from these places had sustained a minor head injury in the days before my flight, amongst other issues too longwinded to explain here in an entertaining way. It came together in a storm of things which left me in Centerfield Utah with not much to do.

I did try to cancel my flight when I heard about the head injury, but it was too late to be guaranteed a refund for the £1100 I had spent, so, considering it was my biggest purchase ever, I decided to go anyway. We’d have a few slow days, sure, but there was plenty to do in the evenings.

We managed to go to a creek, find some Native American ruins, and discover fossils at a quarry. Then, by the end of the first week, things went downhill again. It became apparent to me that we were not going to make it to Roswell, no matter how hard we wanted to go. And as the days went by, more and more plans dissolved.

I resorted to asking the machines to cobble together an image for me, to predict another trip, a solo trip some time in the future.

This is part of my attempt to use AI for divining the future.

So here’s me in Roswell.

bearded ginger man with ginger mullet sat in a turqoise american diner in roswell, writing a book on a Bluetooth keyboard and phone whilst a ufo hovers outside.

Interestingly, the sign at the back almost says “Bionicle followers” and at the same time the image was vomited together, my Bionicle-based instagram account had gone viral for some shirts I designed. The AI didn’t know this. The prompt was “bearded ginger man with ginger mullet sat in a turqoise american diner in roswell, writing a book on a Bluetooth keyboard and phone whilst a ufo hovers outside.”

See. Nothing about Lego or Bionicle.

The shirts are outselling my books at the moment.

Doesn’t mean I’ll stop writing, though.

Anyway, I knew Roswell wasn’t going to happen so I set about making myself as comfortable as possible where I was, and getting some writing done. Luckily, I had the hindsight to purchase a Qulose Bluetooth wireless keyboard for my phone, which enabled me to type pretty effectively regardless of where I was. I bounced back to a healthy average of 1000 words per day with this thing. It’s about the same size as a standard laptop keyboard, and holds a charge pretty well. It’s good if you’ve got MS WORD or some other writing app on your phone, and fancy escaping the computer for a bit to do some typing in the garden or on the floor or in the living room.

Amazon affiliate link

I earn a small commission on any item bought through an amazon affiliate link. It doesn’t cost you anything, the price stays the same.
Using affiliate links is a good way for me to make this writing thing more sustainable. You can even ask me for affiliate links for items you’re about to get, and I should be able to provide one.
I am only eligible for this program because of the viral Lego page, but I want to integrate it more into my book life.
In the future I’ll be using the affiliate program when I talk about new books. What sort of things would you be interested in getting if I was to share more links in the future?

Chapter 3, Earthloop

I worked on THE STEPHANIE GLITCH and some poetry collections whilst I was away, but most of the writing I did during the slower days was for Earthloop. I’ve gone back and forth with querying the books, but I realised whilst I was in America that there is simply no way in hell a publisher would do a good job of representing this story. Sure, it might get accepted, and I might feel warm and happy and fuzzy inside (rather than cold and isolated) but that feeling would soon crumple under the weight of someone else’s ‘creative vision’ (beating my books into a more marketable shape with sticks).

THE EARTHLOOP TRILOGY is tight and complex, like WHO BUILT THE HUMANS?, and it needs to exist in the exact shape I want to give it. Any other shape won’t work. There are things set up in chapter 1 of book 1 which only unfold half way into book 3, and an editor who does not know me would ruin the delicate skeleton of the story. There are moments where Lax Morales removes any doubt that he’s an alien being with alien morals, and does things for the ‘bigger picture’, stepping over even the humans he likes to get what he wants, what he needs.

It’s dark. It’s twisted. And it’s funny.

I think you’re going to love it.

While I was away I was writing mostly dialogue, tapping away at the scenes where Lax and Nori and Brigid are together in the 1960s, trying to work things out. I’ve worked out the individual worldlines of each character, set up tricks and traps, and had them fall into and escape from them.

I’ve finished the scene where Brigid bumps into her own mother when they are both old.

I’ve polished the bit where Lax Morales loops back to apologise to Nori, before derailing the young physicist’s life.

I’ve trapped Fixer in a web of her own creation, and done the same with Lax.

And beyond that, up in the lofty realm of metanarrative, I’ve focused on the metaphors present, the concepts of PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE and how they not only bind the three books and three protagonists together, but how they in turn link to my larger universe.

I’ve focused on individual agency, free will, and had fun writing alongside Brigid. I’ve even worked on the scenes where Lax Morales tells Brigid and Nori about his past life, how he once met a human psychic called Stephanie…

Because,

All my books connect.

Feels refreshing telling you that. I had hidden it for a while, fearing I might spook new readers who could make the mistake of thinking they needed to read one book to understand the other. That isn’t the case: Like the universes present in WHO BUILT THE HUMANS? most of my novels are standalone pieces, they share a universe that you can explore and piece together if you want to.

To use Minecraft as a metaphor, the base game is just digging and farming, but there’s also Redstone, the circuitry that enables you to create machines and automate some of the game’s processes. Most players don’t use redstone at all, but I do, because it’s beautiful and clever and weird and magical.

You can consider the links between my stories to be the Redstone of my universe. Quite literally in the case of the Intersects, those temporal links between vastly different realms in the expanded universe.

Which, privately, I’ve called The Carterverse for some time.

That was one of the candidates for the name of this newsletter.

The Earthloop parts I’ve been most concerned with getting right have been at the beginning and the end of the story, plotlines that bracket and frame the rest of the story need to be done perfectly. There are lines of dialogue in book three that reference events in book one, and it all has to not just come together perfectly in my head, but to be easy to read in everyone else’s.

It’s been a real challenge, but I wouldn’t be who I am today if I wanted to write things which were basic and flat.

Earthloop is a crystalline story. It is, like WBTH, something that is an adventure the first time round, but which will reward you for returning to it with new knowledge. Like that key in Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, knowing it is there ahead of time will make the story more rewarding, more weird. And in Earthloop, this knowledge will open new doors for you.

Some of you will know that I’ve figured out which PR company I want to work with for Earthloop, so the only obstacles left now are fairly simple.

I need to get the money to pay the PR company
I need to finish at least book 1 (currently 60k in)
I need to set up pre-orders for the books, so the PR goes somewhere

I’m currently working on those things, but I can tell you that if you enjoy my science fiction, you will love Earthloop. It’s a dark, twisted exploration of the implications of time travel, and it connects to a much larger story I am telling across several future series.

On the subject of Science Fiction, I also got to meet my friend

John Coon

twice during this trip. He’s a fellow Science Fiction author who lives in Salt Lake City. So, whilst our first meeting was a brief adventure into the Lego store, our second adventure was much longer, and also involved a Lego shop, Utah’s ski resorts, and Utah’s natural history museum.

I was admittedly upset I couldn’t get to the museum on my holiday, as this was another of my collapsed plans, so John went out of his way to make sure we could both go. It was great. He also sorted us out with food from his sister’s fantastic Peruvian restaurant, fancy burgers, and helped me grab a motel when I left Centerfield on the final week of my trip. Thanks again mate!

I got well over 500 photos at the museum, the best of which will show up on my instagram and tiktok soon (both Realphillipcarter).

Here is my favourite.

See, I can be social.

It’s almost as if the mean-spirited comedy stage persona is an act…

About that.

Chapter 4, American comedian

It wouldn’t be a Phillip Carter adventure without a strange foray into comedy, so I booked a slot at WISE GUYS - SALT LAKE CITY on the first week of my trip. My pal Zaak (friend with the head injury) was able to facilitate this as our main adventure, driving me two hours there and back so I could tell jokes for three minutes about mormons, polygamy, and Jim Henson’s creature workshop.

I’ll let you guess how those three topics intersected.

If you don’t fancy guessing, you can buy the clip with the button below, or by clicking on this banner image.

The gig went pretty well. I had written loads of notes on my right arm before going on stage, and didn’t need any of them. I like overengineering these sorts of things, so for this three minute set I wrote over an hour’s worth of material. The whole thing could be its own Fringe show, but I don’t think that’s an expense I can manage this year. The plane ticket was costly enough. Worth it though, as I can now say I’ve had a crowd of over 100 people laughing at me in America. I feel proper, like David Bowie must have done when he fled the UK to wind up American journalists by ‘coming out’ as bisexual.

Anyway, if you wish you could have seen my gig, there is a way.

It was professionally recorded. You can buy the clip now.

Watch it now

It is currently £1 to download and watch.

I’ve made the decision to sell individual, more prestigous show recordings as a way to fund the creation of other things. For example, if 400 people buy this download, I can buy a 100-pack of ISBNs (worth £400) and finally get round to publishing those poetry books, including the funny one, a serious one my sister co-wrote, and two sci-fi poetry books. In fact, a 100-pack of ISBNs will be enough to cover the Earthloop trilogy, various writing handbooks, and new anthologies for the next few years.

If you have any issues with the download, let me know. I’m still relatively new to Payhip, but it’s just a plain MP4 file so there should be no issues whacking it on your phone or media player. I’ve play tested it before making this post.

Chapter 5, big plans

I could go into more detail about my trip, but I wanted to trim it down to its most important parts. The middle was basically writing time, during which I used a hot plate for the first time and ate a lot of eggs. It was decent, but quite stressful at times. I’m glad to be back home where I can write more comfortably at my desk, and where I can again read and respond to all your comments.

It’s quieter here, and I am in almost full control of my writing environment. I have returned from the US tired and aching, but with a newfound appreciation for just how nice where I live right now is.

I was offered a job in the UK whilst I was out there, and had to pass innumerable security checks through my phone to tight deadlines, which felt like some spiritual challenge ordained by reality itself. But I think I’ve got the job and passed the checks, so I should soon be in a better position to advertise my books.

Beyond that, I’ve not given up the hopes of my bookstore.

And thanks to finally hanging with John, who thinks some of my secret bookstore ideas are ‘genius’ I am pretty confident I might be able to score that business loan this time, rather than being told there’s a “conflict of interest” when a writer applies for a loan to open a bookstore.

And just before heading to America, I had a call with a friend who does writing workshops in prisons, and she helped me with the beginnings of an application.

So this might be the year a physical Halfplanet Press location shows up, provided there’s still a Britain to build it in.

Let’s find out.

END

What is writing?

This is a new idea I’ve had, to philosophise about what I think writing is and should be, at the end of some posts. It’s a nice callback to my time as a writing society founder, something I have missed all these years.

Writing is coding.

As a writer, you are creating a script that someone else's brain has to run on, to follow, to understand. Beyond that it must also exist outside itself, it must facilitate within the reader a means to not just follow the text, but to use and expand their own imagination. Writing is a code that makes thinking evolve.