Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Breaking News!


Oh, heck, no!!... The international dispute I predicted as part of the main conspiracy for the Diamond Eyes trilogy (between China and Japan over the disputed islands) has hit the news as really happening, so I've just been interviewed for the publisher's next press release:

SF Author predicted threats of war between China and Japan
In a frightening week on the international news scene, the hostile dispute between China and Japan over the "disputed islands" has developed, as predicted, by the urban fantasy writer, AA Bell in the multi-award winning Diamond Eyes trilogy, which climaxes October 1st with the launch of the third book in the series, Leopard Dreaming. (Published by Harper Voyager)

"For the characters to see and hear through time and witness the past and future, I researched international politics well enough to set them against a believable back-drop of conspiracies. But when life imitates art this much, it's tragic," said Bell. "It saddens me that I've been able to see this coming for so long, and yet all of the parties involved continue to move dangerously closer to war."

After the Japanese embassy in Beijing was attacked with rocks, eggs and bottles this week, pictures were released to the world press of large scale anti-Japan protests spreading throughout China, threatening; "For the respect of the motherland, we must go to war with Japan."  

“But posturing for war has involved far more than a few words on placards,” Bell said. “Battleships and military forces have been repositioned around all of the countries in the hot zone, including Korea and Vietnam. But hopefully, life can imitate art closely enough to aim for a peaceful resolution.” 
The alternative,” Bell said, “would be too horrific to contemplate.

So for this week's guest blog here in the supernatural underground, I'm giving away an autographed copy of Leopard Dreaming to the most amazing reply. (Perhaps you know of another strange occurrence of life imitating art, or fiction predicting something that really happened?) e.g. Tom Clancy's military thriller (Red Storm Rising, from memory?) which had a plot where a terrorist flew a plane into the Pentagon... Scary stuff, and not much we can do about such things, except write and keep writing, as a warning of consequences...

So I'm also calling all authors... I'd love to hear about your experiences of times when your research has been "too good for your own good", either in a comment below, or provide me with a link to your blog where you discuss it, so we can help to illustrate that it's really NOT such an uncommon phenomenon for writers who really take their research, settings and backstories so seriously. Sometimes, it's all there, for anyone who cares to look...

For more info: http://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/3020343-help-please

Ordering for Leopard Dreaming: Booktopia.com  (or see Fishpond.com for free international postage)  
Other links: 
For other books: anitabell.com  
For other blogs and free giveaways, starting next week: goodreads.com/aabell 
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4 comments:

SandyG265 said...

I always think of Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. He basically predicted nuclear submarines that could stay out and under water for long periods of time.

bn100 said...

I read Dan Brown's Angels and Demons before finding out later that there really was a CERN and a large hadron collider was being built.

bn100candg(at)hotmail(dot)com

Anonymous said...

I, Robot By Isaac Asimov (even though I've only seen the movie)
I can not be the only person who is creeped out by these human looking androids, who are being programmed to do so many things.
Last one I saw was a life saver, that could swim.
This is about the time when I say we should collectively get off our butts and help one another, so this kind of machine isn't necessary.
Since most of them are being made in the Asian region, we may just end up with an even scarier situation on our hands. Terminator just became a whole new ball game.

AA Bell said...

So true Sandy! Jules Verne was inspired by Leonardo Da Vinci's sketches for a submarine, not unlike Dan Brown for his codes etc.

And bn100 shares a good point too. Not even the CERN scientists could have predicted they'd be building that Hadron collider, because they'd all scoffed at the idea of the "God Particle" at first... and yet, by July this year, they claim that they've finally glimpsed it.

But I think Belinda nails the most amazing reply to win a book this month, with her answer re: Isaac Asimov. That's definitely creepy, and scary on so many levels, we'd need a whole series to explore just how bad it could get.

Congrats Belinda! I'll contact you offlist for postal details.