Itchy Pig’s first book signing/reading event was a success at Zest Café in Raleigh, NC.  Thank you to all who came out to support me, Jessie and Itchy Pig!  This whole experience is so surreal and we feel truly blessed.  We look forward to our next event at Barnes & Noble, Wilmington, NC: June 11.  Stay tuned for more details.  Thank you all for believing in this project!

In case you missed it...Women Like Us’ journey to publish is progressing nicely. Take a look:

ISBN: 9781942645108 

Library of Congress Control Number (LCCN): 2016935239 

Format: Paperback Retail Price: $14.99 

And this: 

Copyedit due to Author for review: 4/22 Author return reviewed copyedit to GFP: 5/6

Remember if you haven’t liked the Women Like Us page on Facebook, here’s the link!

https://www.facebook.com/womenlikeusnovel/

And if anybody has any good marketing ideas, please feel free to chime in.

Thanks!

JP

THANK YOU

Matrilineal Societies: The backbone of reproduction in an all female world.

In this first post discussing the science, culture, anthropology and more from the world of After Man’s earth, we’re going to focus on a unique method of reproduction and child rearing that was adopted worldwide in a response to the sudden loss of all men and a drastic contraction of society after the events of the late 21st century.

Begin Entry

What is a Matrilineal society?  According to Brittanica, it is a "group adhering to a kinship system in which ancestral descent is traced through maternal instead of paternal lines (the latter being termed patrilineage or patriliny). Every society incorporates some basic components in its system of reckoning kinship: family, marriage, postmarital residence, rules that prohibit sexual relations (and therefore marriage) between certain categories of kin, descent, and the terms used to label kin. A lineage is a group of individuals who trace descent from a common ancestor; thus, in a matrilineage, individuals are related as kin through the female line of descent." (http://www.britannica.com/topic/matrilineal-society) 

In the world of After Man, this form of society became the dominant method around which all means of reproduction were determined after the initial rapid adoption of artificial insemination on a worldwide scale to prevent the loss of the species.  Vast swaths of society were lost before emergency methods could be used to spread this technology around the world.  Centers for fertilization were placed on ships and sailed around the world and eventually major city centers became the gravitational centers of habitation and survival.  Inside these major city centers, smaller societies were encouraged based on the concept of matrilineal societies seen in Earth’s cultures around the world, most notably the Mosuo people of western China.  This enabled various cultures and ethnicity groups to preserve their unique past while ensuring the optimal setting for support through child-birth and rearing.

As an example, the city of New York, famous for its boroughs, became one of three major metropolitan centers around which the surviving species in North America were moved to along Washington City and San Francisco.  Other cities eventually were able to establish smaller centers for reproductive services and adopted a similar system of encouraging these smaller societies inside the cities to form.  These societies vary based on culture or ethnicity, however they all share a few common elements.  First, each shares the responsibility of child-rearing among all of the members of the society.  Second, all members of the society must provide as least one egg or carry one child to term.  This is a legal obligation of all citizens of the cities.  Third, each society occupies a communal structure that includes schools, hospitals, stores as well as libraries and other centers for communal activity and is maintained by the members of that society with service support from the city when needed. 

Not all members of each city belong to a society but all make use of them for child-care and support during child birth.  All members of a city are required at the very minimum to work a period of 2 years in service to a society of their choice in varying capacity from administrative duties to educational roles to actual child-care.  Those that choose to bear a child to term either for her own requirement or to bring another woman’s child to term for her are considered to have fulfilled that obligatory service.  Those who choose to fulfill their obligatory service in either of these ways are guaranteed the time necessary away from their chosen careers without loss of pay or position.  Some women choose to join in service to that society in a full-time capacity.  In those instances, their position in another career is guaranteed to them to return to up to a minimum period of five years.

Some women who wish to remain in a professional position outside of a society choose to volunteer to be surrogate mothers for other women who wish to only give the minimum service to a society.  These women have their obligatory service waived permanently and receive guaranteed time away from their profession for all medical needs and for the period of birth and recovery up to one year after birth.  As these women will most likely carry multiple children to term throughout their careers, they work flexible hours in their profession but receive full pay for their time spent caring for their bodies during and after pregnancy.

Societies like these dominate all of the major population centers across the world.  The largest of these are New York City, Washington City, San Francisco, Berlin, Frankfurt, Paris, Amsterdam, London, Madrid, Rome, Moscow, Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong, Beijing, Dubai, New Delhi, Cairo, Cape Town, Accra, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Mexico City, and Sydney with smaller cities spread out across the continents, more so in North America, Europe, and east Asia.

End Entry

Please stay tuned for more information about the world of After Man.  A portal/wiki will be created soon as a reference for this data.  If you are interested in contributing to the studies of what this world looks like after such an event occurs, contact me via email.  Be sure to share this project around so we can keep the momentum up and get this novel in your hands sooner!

tiny.cc/aftermannovel

Hello Friends!

I am one of those dramatic and obnoxious men who every time they get a cold are convinced they are “patient zero” and the end of humanity as we know it starts with their over-aggressive cooties.

So today, as I was laying on my couch dealing with a cold and watching end of the world movies. I stumbled upon 28 Days Later. What I love most about that movie is the fact that is not about the infected (I will not say zombies because I know there are two schools of thoughts about it and fellow nerds will gang on me) it is about the humans and their capacity for compassion and cruelty. Every time I finish watching it, I think “humans are the monsters in this monster movie.”

Because “Good writers borrow, but great writers steal.” I decided that the horrors of human nature will be the theme for The Catcher’s Trap sequel: Worlds Walker.

I was born and raised in Chile during one of the most brutal dictatorships in the planet in the 70’s and 80’s. I know what human monstrosity looks like, and I want to write about it.

The continuation of The Catcher’s Trap gives me the opportunity to explore and challenge the idea that we, humans, are the victims and heroes of the monsters lurking in the dark.

I’m sharing this because the idea excites me and, as I continue writing Worlds Walker, I want to share the process with you.

I’ve created a blurb for the second book on Inkshares, but I will not ask you to follow it because there is nothing there yet. I won’t upload chapters or turn it into a draft until The Catcher’s Trap is out because the opening scene of the second book is a huge spoiler. But I will share with you my writing process and main themes. I will also ask you for ideas when I find myself trap by my own plot.

So I hope you enjoy coming along as I write my second novel (God help us all).

Have a fantastic week.

                                 I need your attention !

Deus Hex Machina needs your help right now. This awesome book is currently missing 60 pre orders and have 75 days to go.

I have been following this book since the debut on S&L contest II , it only gets better and better.  I am convinced that Amanda will deliver an amazing story.

If you have few credits to spare  , please send them to Deux Hex Machina.  

I just realized...

ONE MONTH from today is the publication day for Ageless!

"And the crowd goes wild! Ageless is an Inkshares production, meaning that hundreds of people voted this book into existence. And with good reason, the hook is irresistible to we ephemeral folk who shuffle off our mortal coil. (Or should I go with ’out, out brief candle,’ even Shakespeare knew mortality was a dead end.)

Aless been on the run for her whole life, living in the shadows, from the day she was liberated from an underground lab. The Nazis had her, the CIA wants her. Ageless careens from decade to decade, and characters grow old and die while Aless is forced to hide her secret from everyone. Will she ever be able to stop running?

Filled with surprises of the ’wow’ sort, there’s even a little romance. (There’s also a scene in a lab the squeamish may want to skim. Fair warning.) This crowdfunded debut book, and winner of the Sword & Laser Collection Contest, is a fresh take on a ageless theme.

I received this book in exchange for an honest review."

- DJ ZipperGirl