March 21, 2009

Entire Collection Available on Podiobooks.com

Joviangatechronicles138x208"The Jovian Gate Chronicles" is now available on Podiobooks.com. Visit "The Jovian Gate Chronicles" Podiobooks.com page to listen (for free) to the entire collection.

Want to download the four podcasts using iTunes? Subscribe to the "The Jovian Gate Chronicles" RSS feed with iTunes:

--Copy the URL: http://www.podiobooks.com/title/jovian-gate-chronicles/feed/ and then open iTunes.
--Pull down the "Advanced" menu in iTunes, select "Subscribe to podcast," paste in the RSS feed.
--Click "Ok" and then click on the podcast icon in iTunes (in the left navbar) and click on the "Get All" button to download all 4 stories of "The Jovian Gate Chronicles" (the stories are four podcasts that are 142 minutes in length).

Subscribejoviangatescreenshotitun_3

Listen and enjoy!

November 08, 2007

On Sale Now: The Jovian Gate Chronicles

Joviangatechronicles138x208What happens when humans, run by the Catholic Church and the Confederacy, cross paths with intelligent aliens that claim to be prophets from God? Find out in four science fiction short stories about the Jovian Gate that opens up at Jupiter. Partake on a journey to learn who opened the gate and what humanity's relationship with God and aliens will be.

To find out, purchase "The Jovian Gate Chronicles" book on Lulu.com. The 6" x 9" perfect bound book (103 pages) sells for $8.15 plus shipping. The digital copy can be downloaded for only $3.75. Interested?  Read the first few pages of the book. And for those who would like to see what the book looks like, here is a picture of "The Jovian Gate Chronicles" book as it comes in the mail.

Printed: 103 pages, 6" x 9", perfect binding, black and white interior ink

Download version: 1 documents,   360 KB
Genre: Science Fiction
Copyright: © 2007 Standard Copyright License
Language: English
Country: United States

Odd Inspiration Part 1

Back in the mid '80s my stepfather's brother gave me a book that documented the history of art in science fiction. I wish I still had that book or remembered the name of the book, but I only remember that it was a hardback book that showed art and movie posters from the early years to the then present (early '80s). I didn't read much of the book as I was only 15 years old at the time, but the artwork entranced me. Of course, I looked for the Star Wars pictures (and I believe there were one or two) as I was a big fan of the series. But those pictures aren't the ones that stayed with me. I remember two pictures from over twenty years ago: The first picture show an alien bending over in pain, holding his ears as huge rocket ships flew by overhead. The alien was humanoid with a very, very large head. His holding his hands on his head stood out as I recall that you could see veins in his head and he looked like he was in extreme pain from the sound. The image just struck me as odd and disturbing. The future was supposed to be bright and fun and amazing--not filled with sonic booms hurting people's ears. I think this was one of my first run-ins with contemporary art that had a social message.

The second picture was even more disturbing. I wish I could find this picture. If anyone knows what I'm talking about, please e-mail me and send me along the name of the picture and the artist (and a link to the picture if it's available on the web). The picture simply showed one or two lizard like aliens cringing in fear/pain at the foot of the hill in which Jesus Christ was being crucified. I wish I remember the name of the painting, but the image stays with me to this day.

I remember looking at the picture and wondering what would my Catholic upbringing make of aliens being discovered? Would they have been created in the "image and likeness" of God, too? And, if so, then why would the aliens be lizard-like and yet God chose to come to the world as a human. Would that mean that God saved all of creation by being born into human form and suffering and dying on the cross? Would aliens be saved and could go to heaven too? The picture just stirred up a whole lot of questions for me. I held onto those memories for over 15 years and that's when I came up with the idea for "Five Wounds."

If humans discovered an alien who had the stigmata what would people make of that? I ran with that idea and there you go. Inspiration can come in wonderful forms and often those ideas are buried away in your subconscious, emerging decades later. 

Odd Inspiration Part 2

When you visit Philadelphia, go to 13th & Chestnut on the South side of the street (the side headed toward Walnut) and face uptown.  In the middle of 13th Street, look down and you’ll see a strange tile in the street.

Toynbee1a A bit odd, don’t you think?  You’re probably wondering what this is and you’d not be the only one.

Several years ago I first came across this odd rubber tile and wondered what it was.  From my best guess, the tile appeared to be made from the same material used for marking a pedestrian crossway on asphalt. Now I’ve been a big fan of Kubrick’s   "2001: A Space Odyssey" for a long time, but I didn’t fully comprehend the tile’s message.  Who was Toynbee?  And what did this have to do with the movie 2001?  Needless to say, I was intrigued.  I glanced around to see if I could find any further markings to help me ascertain what the tile was, but couldn’t find anything.  After a few minutes, I walked on and just decided to file the experience away.

Oddly enough I came across a second tile a few months later at a different intersection in downtown Philadelphia.  I still couldn’t figure out what the tiles were for, who had put them there, and what I was supposed to learn from them.  The cryptic message appeared to be in code or had been written by a madman.  For a long time, the two markings stuck in the back of my mind, nudging me with their outright strangeness.  But by the time I discovered my third one, I realized that I needed to do some more research.  Some secret message was being burned onto the streets of Philadelphia and I needed to learn who was doing this and why.

I looked up “Toynbee tiles” on Google and found a site that had a listing of all the discovered tiles in Philadelphia.

Toynbee2b Now here’s the odd part: As I scrolled down the list of sighted tiles, I realized that they had been discovered not only in other cities throughout the United States, but also in two South American countries.  At this point, I had to admit that this was just way too weird and I had to write about it.

Instead of writing a story that dealt directly with the meaning of the tiles, I took a different approach.  I had just finished writing “Five Wounds” that is a science fiction story that addresses humanity’s confrontation with aliens who claim to be messengers from God.  Not just any God, but Jesus.  Miraculously, one alien appears to have the Stigmata.  Torn between the beliefs indoctrinated into them from birth and the unexplainable fact that an alien has the Stigmata, the colonists take matters into their own hands in an attempt to erase the blasphemy from their new home.

After writing “Five Wounds,” I wanted to write another story that took place earlier in the timeline and that idea became “Toynbee’s Gate.” 

Toynbee4 At the beginning of “Toynbee’s Gate,” there’s a scene in which the main character confesses to seeing some of the Toynbee tiles in the ground.   I believe my adding the tiles to the plot added some depth to the story. I also believe the odd tiles stick out enough that a reader wonders who created them and why.  Little would they know that the tiles are based on some strange events taking place in over a hundred locations throughout North and South America.

I also performed some more research on “Toynbee” and learned that many tile theorists believe that   Arnold J. Toynbee, a famous historian, is the man being referenced on the tiles.

Toynbee5 While reading up on Arnold J. Toynbee, I came across an entry in Wikipedia that took a stab at correlating some of Toynbee’s beliefs with what the tiles might mean:  “In order to survive, humankind must always rush to meet the future, i.e. believe in a better world, and must always aim far beyond what is practically possible, in order to reach something barely within reach. Thus the message might be that humanity ought to strive to colonize Jupiter -- as in Kubrick's work -- or something greater, to survive.”

Definitely, something to think about for a story idea I’d say! But no matter how much research I did, I could not obtain a definite answer as to who created the tiles and why.   Although the   entry in Wikipedia,  gives us the closest answer I think we’ll ever receive to the truth.

I finished writing “Toynbee’s Gate” and went on to other projects, forgetting about tiles.  But as fate would have it, I was on a business trip in Washington, D.C. in July of 2003 and on the way to work one morning I nearly stepped on one of the tiles in the middle of the street.  I hadn’t seen a tile in some time and had this intense sense of creepiness surround me.

Toynbee7 The damn tiles appeared to be following me or popping up when I least expected.  I had not been searching them out, but I kept stumbling upon them by accident. I don’t have the exact location of the D.C. tile, but one of my colleagues did snap this picture for me. 

Inspiration can be all around you.  I try to take advantage of the strange and unusual events that happen around me, using the ideas for stories.  You never know when you might encounter such an event, but I’d suggest that you keep an open mind and a pen and paper to write down what you see.  And if you’re ever in Philadelphia, visit the   Geo Caching link to find some of the tiles.  At the very least, you’ll have a chance to see, firsthand, some cryptic, unsolved messages left in the street so you could ponder their meaning.

For further research, I would suggest you visit these sites:

 

http://www.toynbee.net/
 
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Zone/3790/
 

Toynbee3

Toynbee6c
Toynbee6d

About Me

Me_1 Ron Vitale was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Influenced by the likes of Tolkien, Asimov, and the British Sci-fi television series "Doctor Who," Ron began writing for his own enjoyment at an early age, creating short fiction from his early Dungeons & Dragons role-playing sessions.

During his early 20s, he obtained a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and French and then went on to obtain his Master of Arts in English, writing his thesis on a Jungian interpretation of Alice Walker and Margaret Atwood. After graduation, Ron entered the world of medical publishing, utilizing his editing and technological skills as a Manager of Internet Services.

In 1999, his role-playing article, "Fires in the Sky" was published in Wizards of the Coast's Dragonlance: Legends of the Lance newsletter and his fantasy story "Such Sinners We Are" appeared in the Winter 2000 issue of Welcome to Nod.

More recently, his fantasy story "Ghost Trails" was published on Ultraverse and his science fiction story "Toynbee's Gate" placed 5th out of 143 stories in the 2004 SFWoE contest (Science Fiction Writers of Earth contest) while his Magic: The Gathering articles have appeared on StarCityGames.com, Brainburst.com, Grimmoire.com, and MTGOntario.

In 2006, several of his Magic The Gathering articles appeared in Beckett Magic The Gathering magazine and in Inquest Gamer.  He also wrote six web articles for the Wizards of the Coast Dreamblade miniatures game and had several "how to" writing articles published in the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America's Bulletin.

In October 2007, Ron published his short story collection "The Jovian Gate Chronicles" on Lulu.com. "The Jovian Gate Chronicles" is a collection of four science fiction short stories that answers the question: What happens when humans cross paths with intelligent aliens who claim to be prophets from God?

While looking to find a publisher for his fantasy novel "Dorothea's Song," Ron is keeping himself busy by producing The Magic Sock Magic The Gathering podcast, writing gaming articles, and on learning how to be a father to a rather curious preschooler and his baby sister.