Ask the Author: Tito Kithes Athano
Answered Questions (13)
Tito Kithes Athano
I have on a datastick the texts of every book I've written. Darn, where did I put that datastick?
Tito Kithes Athano
Yes, I'm always willing to do a Beta-read in a genre I like. No charge, no return Beta-read required. I try to be helpful and constructive, but above all I say it like I see it because I prefer my Beta readers to be brutally honest with me. I didn't use any Betas or proof readers for the Rome series because that was just a hobby exercise I put through a vanity publisher for the fun of it, before I started to take writing seriously. Their poor production quality shows!
But now I'm serious about the job, so there is no room for sensitive blossoms here; it's all about trying to make the work as good as it can be.
But now I'm serious about the job, so there is no room for sensitive blossoms here; it's all about trying to make the work as good as it can be.
Tito Kithes Athano
Hi Hector,
All four books in the 'Other Rome' series are available as free e-book downloads through Goodreads. Each book is built on the previous book, so it is best to read them in the correct sequence.
Go to my author page, click on the books you want and follow the 'read book' option just below the picture of the front cover.
It might be a good idea to set up a folder first, so you can save the files to a convenient location.
I hope you enjoy!
Bob
All four books in the 'Other Rome' series are available as free e-book downloads through Goodreads. Each book is built on the previous book, so it is best to read them in the correct sequence.
Go to my author page, click on the books you want and follow the 'read book' option just below the picture of the front cover.
It might be a good idea to set up a folder first, so you can save the files to a convenient location.
I hope you enjoy!
Bob
Tito Kithes Athano
Thanks for the offer.
Tito Kithes Athano
That's a hard one! I've stalled for days before answering.
Perelandra by C.S. Lewis? I don't know that I would have the wisdom demanded, but I ache for the opportunity!
Mars, by Kim Stanley Robinson? Because I'm an engineer to my marrow and THERE is an engineering challenge?
Erde, in my still unpublished 'Argo' novels? An Earthlike world that starts with a humane culture but almost falls into Fascism?
That's what sci-fi is all about. To place before the eyes of the soul a world and all its opportunities and problems. And the challenge to build something good out of it.
A good question!
Perelandra by C.S. Lewis? I don't know that I would have the wisdom demanded, but I ache for the opportunity!
Mars, by Kim Stanley Robinson? Because I'm an engineer to my marrow and THERE is an engineering challenge?
Erde, in my still unpublished 'Argo' novels? An Earthlike world that starts with a humane culture but almost falls into Fascism?
That's what sci-fi is all about. To place before the eyes of the soul a world and all its opportunities and problems. And the challenge to build something good out of it.
A good question!
Tito Kithes Athano
Hard to answer that one! Perhaps because what might be a mystery to others seems quite ordinary from the inside.
What fills me with the most wonder, now that I'm over sixty-five, is how I arrived where I am today. Even at my lowest point of clinical depression, while I was verging on suicidal, I pondered Lamentations chapter 3.
Too many go straight to verse 22. They miss the whole point of the chapter up to that point, even the entire book. Every life is a unique work of art. Watch it right to the end! And perhaps one day we will understand it.
What fills me with the most wonder, now that I'm over sixty-five, is how I arrived where I am today. Even at my lowest point of clinical depression, while I was verging on suicidal, I pondered Lamentations chapter 3.
Too many go straight to verse 22. They miss the whole point of the chapter up to that point, even the entire book. Every life is a unique work of art. Watch it right to the end! And perhaps one day we will understand it.
Tito Kithes Athano
Such an obvious question, and it has taken me totally off balance! So why I am surprised?
The word 'couple' implies a male/female pair, rather than a same-sex 'partners in adventure' or similar. And I tend not to read romances where such pairings feature. Not my preferred genre. But that said, I put a lot of work into the Andreas/Zoe relationship in 'Mission of the Argo' to express teen-age love and commitment at its best, and the Jupiter/Juno relationship slightly later in the book was a deliberate examination of how such a relationship can unravel over time where their perspectives are irreconcilable.
In terms of 'partnerships', I can go back to Biggles and Algernon Lacey when I was in school, but that is another story.
But it's not that I'm just 'blokey'. I have no problems with a strong female protagonist. Tiffany Aching in Pratchett's Discworld books is one such, despite her tender years, as are the other witches in different ways. My recently-finished Argo pair of sci-fi novels are full of strong, independent females. (The book is based, after all, in a world of matriarchal societies). And these women are no less courageous or timid, ethical or conniving, faithful or duplicitous, heroic or contemptible as any males.
I suppose this blind spot for 'couples' is that I focus on individuals and what drives them, regardless of any romantic perspective. (Gee, what does that say about me as a husband? More introspection required!)
The word 'couple' implies a male/female pair, rather than a same-sex 'partners in adventure' or similar. And I tend not to read romances where such pairings feature. Not my preferred genre. But that said, I put a lot of work into the Andreas/Zoe relationship in 'Mission of the Argo' to express teen-age love and commitment at its best, and the Jupiter/Juno relationship slightly later in the book was a deliberate examination of how such a relationship can unravel over time where their perspectives are irreconcilable.
In terms of 'partnerships', I can go back to Biggles and Algernon Lacey when I was in school, but that is another story.
But it's not that I'm just 'blokey'. I have no problems with a strong female protagonist. Tiffany Aching in Pratchett's Discworld books is one such, despite her tender years, as are the other witches in different ways. My recently-finished Argo pair of sci-fi novels are full of strong, independent females. (The book is based, after all, in a world of matriarchal societies). And these women are no less courageous or timid, ethical or conniving, faithful or duplicitous, heroic or contemptible as any males.
I suppose this blind spot for 'couples' is that I focus on individuals and what drives them, regardless of any romantic perspective. (Gee, what does that say about me as a husband? More introspection required!)
Tito Kithes Athano
Several questions I have been playing with all unexpected converged.
1. If I could 'design' my own Adam and Eve in Eden and then step back, what would the results look like? With the benefit of my hindsight, would I do a better job than God?
2. If, somehow, we found absolute proof that the Human Race was created only a few thousand years ago by direct Creation, how would our technological society react? Certainly not drop into a submissive piety, as so many Fundamentalists would like to imagine! No, our scientists would start looking for these Creators!
I won't go further because it would reveal too much.
1. If I could 'design' my own Adam and Eve in Eden and then step back, what would the results look like? With the benefit of my hindsight, would I do a better job than God?
2. If, somehow, we found absolute proof that the Human Race was created only a few thousand years ago by direct Creation, how would our technological society react? Certainly not drop into a submissive piety, as so many Fundamentalists would like to imagine! No, our scientists would start looking for these Creators!
I won't go further because it would reveal too much.
Tito Kithes Athano
By reading. If nothing of any quality is going in, you can't expect much of any quality to come out.
Tito Kithes Athano
Still polishing 'Mission of the Argo', but slowly reviving an old idea I've called 'The Promise'. This is going to be a musical play something like 'Godspell', but tracing how the Promises to Abraham are refined through Old Testament history. A bit Christian-niche, I know, but I have in mind a few songs that might fit into the secular market quite well. To my reading, much of the Old Testament is really a love story and I'll be writing songs that show that.
Tito Kithes Athano
Do it! You'll enjoy it.
After that comes the hard work of making it fit to read.
After that comes the hard work of making it fit to read.
Tito Kithes Athano
For a writer, nothing is impossible per se. Instead the discipline has to come from within. That's how my first books changed from being an interesting personal diversion into something to publish; I saw that the self-discipline in that process would be a good thing for me to impose on myself.
Tito Kithes Athano
Writer's Block? That's my brain telling me I've got nothing worth writing! I go away until I can see a way forward. Why write rubbish just because at the time you're not up to writing something that deserves to be read?
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