Taylor Anderson

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We’re trying to update the site! We’ll get everything transferred over as soon as we can.

Leave a comment for Taylor in the mean time!

ArmadilloCon

ArmadilloCon was a hoot.  I hated to miss the WorldCon, but I just couldn’t get loose.  Maybe next year in Australia!  I will definitely be at the ConDFW again in Feb(I think).  I’ve got to double-check the dates.  Anyway, I’ve just been writing, mostly.  Book #4, “Destroyermen: Distant Thunders” is “in the can” and on track for its release in the spring.  I’m currently working on Book #5 and I’ve still got room for a new beastie or two, so get your entries in for the “Order of Darwinian Delight!”

Hard At Work…

…on the next books in the DESTROYERMEN series! 

In Fact, #4, DESTROYERMEN: DISTANT THUNDERS is practically complete and I think everyone will be pleased.  I sure got a kick out of it! 

There are a few little details I need to tweak, but I’m anxious to take a week or so off before I start the NEXT book in the series . . . Here it is!!! . . . DESTROYERMEN: RISING TIDES.  

I continue to appreciate all your nice notes and comments!  I’m afraid some of them have been taking me longer than usual to respond to, and I apologize.  Now, slightly relieved of one looming deadline, I might begin to get back to you more quickly again. 

I have been so busy if fact, I have only now been able to devote a few moments to announcing the Winner of the increasingly “Semi-Quarterly,” but no less prestigious “Order of Darwinian Delight.”  I’m still having a few issues with posting the submissions, but after much thought, careful consideration, some votes, and meticulous scrutiny of the rules–as well as possible applicability–

(Drumroll)

The first runner up is Aaron Wehr with his Coconut Crab Tanks.This was a fascinating scheme that incorporated the–indigenous to the region–giant coconut crabs.  You can read all about them in a posting below.  The only two problems I had with them was the “power to weight” ratio and, well, biddability.  Say they had developed a rudimentary intelligence, maybe something like a goat. (I think goats sprang to mind because goats and crabs share a voraciously omnivorous nature).  This thought in itself may have adversely influenced my ultimate decision.  Having once HAD goats, I despise them intensely and cannot imagine them ever being of any use, whatsoever, under Heaven.  I don’t know how many times I had to go cut their stupid heads out of the fence.  One actually got his head stuck through the fence, then BACK through the fence.  Add their propensity to jump up and down on my old truck, and I may have been prejudiced.  Anyway, there are some scientific issues at play as well.  If anyone disagrees, please feel free to comment!

That leaves:

Drumroll:

Eben Bradstreet and his “Whooly Titans” as the winner of the Order of Darwinian Delight!

Yes, Eben Bradstreet and his “Whooly Titans” may now join Tiki the Fox and his “Killer Kudzu” in the fabled pantheon of “Great Thinkers” (or is it drinkers?)   and, like Tiki, to prominently wear the Honorable Order of Darwinian Delight for all to see!  This noble decoration consists of an alligator tooth wired to, and swaying tastefully beneath, a large, horizontal chicken femur!  (Add ribbons to taste).  If I use your idea, you will be informed and acknowledged.

For those interested in participating, read further down for the “rules.”

Thanks again, and keep the letters coming!  I’m sure I have the best (and smartest) “fans” any writer could hope for!

The Destroyermen Saga Will Continue!

As I was pleased to announce on the front page of the website, there will be more adventures in the “Destroyermen” series beyond “Maelstrom,” the third book in the “trilogy.”  This is entirely due to the warm and enthusiastic reception and support the series has recieved from readers and I am unable to express the depth of my gratitude.  I always wanted to continue the adventures of Matt, Sandra, Silva, Keje, Chack, The Mice, etc, and now you have made that possible.  All the friends of this strange new world the Destroyermen find themselves in have my most heart-felt appreciation!

Destroyermen: Maelstrom is on the loose!

Comments on my “Contact” feature have been flooding in, and I can’t tell you how much I appreciate the kind, supportive words.  The paperback “Into the Storm” has also been released.

Back Up!

Back up!

Well folks, it’s almost time for “Maelstrom” to be out, and I look forward to your comments on that, or any of the DESTROYERMEN books!  I’m sorry that none of your contacts have been getting through–something frightfully electronic was to blame.  I’m pretty sure the blog and contact features are now back on line.  I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.  One of the biggest tragedies is that a lot of your blog comments have been lost.  Some were classics, and highly entertaining.  I invite you to try to recreate them if you can.  In the meantime, I don’t know what happened–entirely–but I think it’s fixed.  Take care, and I hope to hear from you soon!

Taylor Anderson

Check Out The Extras On My Website

Greetings, friends! 

“Destroyermen: Into the Storm” and “Destroyermen: Crusade“ are out and doing well, and it won’t be long before the third installment, “Destroyermen: Maelstrom” is released.  I can’t tell you how much I appreciate all the kind words and support.  There hasn’t been much activity here on the blog for a while, but I have been getting a lot of direct contacts.  Great stuff, and it’s been a blast corresponding with some of you.  One suggestion I’ve had over and over again is to put more pictures up with the “other stuff.”  I have finally added a couple, and I plan to do more.  Eben Bradstreet has painted a Grik warrior that is absolutely outstanding.  Be sure and check his site and look at some of his other stuff.  Does anyone have any suggestions for other views or scenes you’d like to see?  Give me a shout. 

Also, don’t forget to get your submission in for the next quarterly “Order of Darwinian Delight“ competition!

Answers to Fundamental Questions

With “Into the Storm” and “Crusade” both out, and selling well, I think I can begin addressing some fundamental, general questions about the “other” Earth the Destroyermen find themselves in–without giving away any serious “spoilers.”  Some of this may be news to those who have only read “Into the Storm,” but I don’t think, at this point, I will be “ruining” any surprises for you because you have probably already asked these questions in your minds and, for the most part, the answers come fairly early in “Crusade.”  They shouldn’t have a major bearing on your appreciation of the story, and may even enhance it.

One question I am often asked is why I chose not to “flesh out” the Grik more in volume one.  The answer is simple.  The men and women in the story have been at the mercy of the various situations they have endured literally since the day WWII began.  They were without air cover or any real knowledge of Japanese movements in the first part of the story, and in some ways, they were just as alone and isolated then as they would become after the “Squall.”  After the “Squall,” they are confronted with an enemy just as implacable and even more remorseless.  Americans hated the Japanese after Pearl Harbor, but they never really understood them–particularly later, after the Kamikaze attacks began.  How could they wrap their minds around that?  Today, when I speak to veterans who witnessed those attacks, they often seem just as horrified and mystified by that mind-set now, as they did back then.  A more recent example is the War on Terror.  How can we “wrap” our minds around suicide bombings or a mentality that condones highjacking airplanes full of innocent civilians and crashing them into buildings full of innocent civilians?

To the Destroyermen, the Grik are just as alien.  If they barely understand the Japanese, how can they hope to understand the Grik–particularly when they have so little to go on?  Their ultimate quest in “Into the Storm” is to find out what kind of “storm” they’ve found themselves in.  They know very little about the Grik.  Is it appropriate for readers to know more than the characters themselves?  Only at the end do they–and the readers–begin to get an inkling. 

The Grik most certainly do have “motivation” for their behavior.  It is strange–alien–and it makes sense to THEM, even if it remains difficult for the Destroyermen to understand.  As the storyline makes it appropriate for the characters to learn more about the Grik, readers will too.  In fact, readers will begin to know SLIGHTLY MORE than the characters as time goes by, through the eyes of the Grik themselves.  Some aspects of their behavior remain mysterious however, because with the exception of a very few, the Grik don’t know why they “do it” either. 

I will attempt to answer a few more general questions by means of a highly edited (with Tom’s permission) discussion we recently had.  As time goes by, I will add more of Tom’s interesting and insightful questions.

Tom,
I gotta say, you “got” it again, and put it into words very well. As I’ve always said, regardless of their adventures, this series is about People–mostly on that old ship–regardless of, ultimately, even what species they
 are.  That’s why it is the “Destroyermen” series, not the “Four-Stacker’ series or the ”Weird World” series.

  –Taylor

Tom:  What is your reasoning on the evolution of the Uul, and why some evolve past the mindless warrior stage? 

Taylor:  Who says the Uul have EVOLVED, socially, to be the way they are?  Stay tuned for Book #3!

Tom:  … so the Hij think the Uul are stupid, but they are brighter than given credit for- just governed more by the old animal passions? 

Taylor:  No, I’m not saying that. . . entirely.  Animal passions are key, but what I mean is that maybe the Uul are sometimes capable of more than the Hij allow them to be aware of. . . and sometimes less.  I hate to be so cryptic, but at this stage, I have to be.  It WILL—eventually—make sense.

On Mountain Fish

Tom:  I know of no fish, dinosaur or mammal that even remotely comes in to this size range.  There is absolutely no evolutionary need for it, and what would it eat in sufficient quantity to survive?

Taylor:  They are the “trunk cats” of the sea.  Let me explain.  We once pulled a ’49 Buick out of a lake, and when we got around to opening the trunk, we found a yellow catfish in there that took up the entire space.  (I don’t know if you’ve ever seen how big the trunk of a ’49 Buick is . . .)  The only explanation was that he’d swum in there as a fingerling and grew too big to get out.  Somehow, over the years, he subsisted and grew to his monstrous size relying on the nutrients and smaller organisms that flowed in around him.  Of course, he couldn’t move, and his energy expenditures were limited to breathing, but if you think about it, Blue Whales do much the same, just cruising along, ingesting billions of krill.  Their size alone makes them mostly immune to predation. They can grow roughly 1/4 as long and probably 1/8 as massive as a mountain fish.  Compare a modern Great White to a Megaladon.  In the more voracious seas of the other earth, size–as defense–is even more important.  There are other significant differences between blue whales and mountain fish, however.
 a. Mountain fish don’t have baleen, they have massive jaws–that stay open most of the time.  They ingest creatures as large as small plesiosaurs as they cruise along.
 b. They are solitary, territorial air breathers.  Unlike a pod of whales, they have exclusive “rights” to all the food in a given area, and they develop impressive fat reserves to draw upon when their migratory prey moves on.
c. They don’t have to exert themselves much, but like the “trunk cat,” are capable of impressive feats of strength for a brief period.  (I thought the trunk cat broke my leg with his tail when we wrestled him out.)
d.  There aren’t very many of them, and except during mating times, they keep to themselves.  The young are probably hoovered up along with everything else if they stray into another mountain fish’s territory.  Only if they find an area where the Big Fish has died do they have much of a chance to reach maturity.

Tom:  Okay, I can understand Megalodons since we’ve seen the proof.  A fish this big, though, is just hard to fathom.  And we have catfish like that around here.  You should see how they grow near powerplants in those year-round warm water currents!  Carp, too.  Look like telephone poles laying on the bottom of the riverbeds.

Taylor:  Megaladons are just an example, and remember, I’m not relying only on the fossil record.  There were some really big, scary fish and aquatic reptiles 65 million years ago, and a couple might have served as ancestors for mountain fish.  Shoot, aquatic mammals supposedly stumped around on dry land once upon a time.  Evolution could do some really weird things over 65 million more years.  Maybe mountain fish ARE giant, 500yr-old “trunk cats!”  Let’s wait until one is more specifically described before you hazard a guess on parentage.

Tom:  Must be truly impressive territory size. The energy needs of one of these, even just as a drifter,  whoa!!

Taylor: Well, like I said, they can eat anything, not just little shrimps.

Tom: BTW, what did you do with the car?

Taylor:  It was thrashed.  We were practicing search and rescue stuff and it went to the wrecking yard.  I used to have a ’53 Buick though.  Talk about a sweet, wicked-looking car!  Straight eight ran so smooth, you could stand a nickel on the valve cover!

MORE TO COME!

Check Out New Categories

I’ve added a few new categories for discussion that I think you might enjoy. Please go to the appropriate category to the right of the page!

Technical/Historical: In this category, I’d like to discuss the Technical and Historical aspects of the “Destroyermen” series. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions appropriate to this category that you’d like to discuss in an open forum, please post them there!

Character Discussion: The “Destroyermen” series has a somewhat eccentric collection of characters. Here’s a place you can talk about them behind their backs!

The Order of Darwinian Delight: Originally bestowed upon “Bad Dennis,” for a selfless act of conservation when he removed a particularly vile specimen of a certain species from the gene pool, I think the “award” might serve us well here. We’ll make it a quarterly contest, with the first “winner” to be announced on the October 2008 release date for Book #2 in the “Destroyermen” series: “Crusade.” What you need to do is go to the appropriate category and submit the most bizarre/strange/unusual beastie you can think of that might have evolved on this earth–sans the “extinction event”–over the last 65 million years.

***RULES***
1. The “winner” must provide a plausible, reasonable, background/biological history/description/ecological niche/etc.
2. If I have, coincidentally, already come up with a similar creature, and it is “in the can”–I.E., already gone to the publisher–I’ll drop the hint that something similar is “already in the can” and we’ll cease any discussion on that theoretical creature until the appropriate book comes out, then we can compare/contrast to our heart’s content.
3. I reserve the right to “glom on” to your idea. If you are proclaimed the “winner” of “The Order of Darwinian Delight,” you may see your beastie appear in the series. If that happens, I’ll mention you in the acknowledgements of the appropriate volume in which your creature makes its debut.

Destroyermen: Into the Storm

The reviews of “Destroyermen: Into the Storm” have been very positive and they’re still coming in. If you’d like to look at a few, I’ve linked to some on the front page of my website. I continue to appreciate those reviews, as well as everyone who has bought the book. To say that I’m humbled by the gracious and appreciative reception is a vast understatement. I’ve been getting “fan mail” through my “contact” feature almost every day and not only are the compliments extremely gratifying, but many of you raise points or questions that I think would be great discussion starters on this open forum. It seems almost a shame that more people don’t have the opportunity to read the excellent points and suggestions many of you have raised. I’m sure that many of the folks who check this blog would benefit from what you have to say.

For those who choose to continue to send your comments straight to me instead of posting them publicly, that’s fine, and I still appreciate those messages just as much, but I just wish more people could read them! Some have been really great. Regardless of whether you post or e-mail your questions/comments/suggestions, however, I’ll still do my very best to address them as soon as I can! Just remember, as always, if you want me to respond via the contact feature, remember to make sure your e-mail address is correct.
Thanks in advance,
Taylor