Lambda - Introduction

This is the title of a book I began to write. If you're eager to start, just read these three guidelines and click on the link shortly after for prologue and first chapter of the book:

3) This book will contain adult content and will be explicit at times.

2) It is an original story, meaning that it's a product of imagination of the author, Tomo Umer.

1) It's free. And always will be. I believe that knowledge and information should be shared, because sharing is caring. When it's done (and it's done when it's ready, right?), for those who enjoyed the book I'll put up a kickstarter campaign for  printed versions.

LINK - prologue and first chapter.

Introduction

I thought I'd just start off with the book, but then a friend of mine was upset as to why there's no introduction. My plan was to write it when I'll be finished with the book, but f*ck it.

I can answer one question  "Why did I decide to write this novel / book?" at least partially.

In all honesty, here are plenty of reasons and some are still emerging at the time of writing. Therefore, I'll make a complete list of my motivations / reasons for writing this book once it's finished, as well as acknowledgements and thanks.

However, there is one key experience that irreversibly changed my life. Lucca Comics and Games, 2013. The whole experience was one of the best four days in my life and it continued straight on to Pisa for professional reasons, but that's another story.

At Lucca 2013, the guest of honor was Andrzej Sapkowski. During the questions and answers session, somebody asked him why did he start to write. You see, Andrzej was an economist before starting to write at the age of 38. He said something along the lines:"I think that if you are a writer, than you feel it inside you. It's like a beast trapped inside a cage. You can suppress it, but eventually it will break free."

Thank you Andrzey, for those words made me reflect deeply on my life. That's exactly how I have felt for years, but didn't quite understand it. I've always wanted to write, but never got anything finished, because I was always discouraged. By profession, I have a Masters degree in Particle Physics and for me math is easy - something that quite some people admire, but it has got nothing to do with writing.

Following those events, an online reddit contest was opened in February 2014, to celebrate 50,000 users on the Writing Prompts subreddit. I saw my chance to get a literary work finished and so I started writing a novelette. Due to my work as a PhD student in particle physics, I didn't really have time to do it properly. Colleagues from CERN will know full well what I'm talking about. The long hours, the unpaid extra work and sometimes horrible bosses.

The deadline for the online contest was approaching and I re-wrote the first two chapters of the novelette and continued on writing, finishing it in a single day, after the daily meetings ended. It just so happened that at the time, I was at CERN for the CMS week, which is always exhausting and time consuming. I uploaded the story the following day, on the Geneva airport (free wi-fi ftw), an hour before the deadline.

With the end of June 2014 I had finally decided to quit my PhD and start writing full-time. Immediately after, in July 2014 I decided I was going to write every day a different short story and publish it online. My plans changed, however, as I realized I wanted to write something bigger. Something where I'd have all the space and the words needed to properly develop characters and story, as well as an interesting world.

And now, as of October 2014, I started writing my first book / novel. It just so happened that the past 7 days were extremely exhausting, as I volunteered for the organization of Trieste Science+Fiction festival and therefore I couldn't write much. It was an amazing experience and I've met a lot of really great and interesting people. But I'm sidetracking again. What matters is that a week went by, without me having the possibility to finish the first chapter.

And so, again purely by chance, today is the 5th of November.
Remember, remember, the fifth of November, the Gunpowder Treason and plot. I know of no reason why the Gunpowder Treason should ever be forgot.

What better day to begin than the 5th? V for Vendetta is an exceptional graphic novel and an outstanding movie in its own merit. And while Alan Moore is a genius, and I can't wait to get my hands on his new 1,000,000 words long book, I think it's downright retarded he hates movies based on his work. It's stupid because if I hadn't watched V for Vendetta, I would have perhaps never known the author. I wouldn't have bought and read The Killing Joke, the Watchmen and other works. And it would be bad for me as well, because Alan Moore and Frank Miller are undoubtedly the two great writers that convinced me graphic novels can be just as good, deep and inspiring as books.

As for the name of the book, lambda, I promise it will have a meaning inside the story. But another reason for choosing lambda as the title is that Half-Life, one of the best computer games of all time has a lambda as a logo (all hail our lord and savior Gabe Newell). This always bothered me - why is the game called half-life, while lambda is, speaking from the physics perspective, the inverse of the half-life? So I decided I'm going to do this properly. Call my book lambda, and have the Greek letter lambda somewhere on the cover (lambda has, by the way, a plethora of uses in physics). Here's to hoping Half-Life 3 will be released eventually. It would be awesome if I could be part of that creative process. I think I could bring great and fresh ideas on the team and perhaps that's what they're missing, since the game is on a good start to become the laughing stock Duke Nukem Forever is. Knowing that Valve is the most desired company on earth to work for, chances for that are slim, but who knows?

Having said that, the book is, as I said at the beginning, an original story. That means I have been undoubtedly inspired by some games I've played, movies I've watched, as well as everything else I did in my life and everyone I've met who made a lasting impression on me. It is in a way, a weird combination of parts of my brain.

I'm really excited to get this book started. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I do writing. One last thing. I'd like to say THANKS to each and everyone of you that has already given me some great criticism, both online and in real life. I learned from it and I'm prepared to learn some more, so comments are welcome! Enjoy!

-Tomo Umer