My Handprint - The Beginning

By Dennis Lantz

A few years ago I began to compile my thoughts and writings into a single coherent document that I contemplated sharing at some point. It included journals, finished pieces, concepts and many ponderings about life and the universe. I call it MY HANDPRINT. It begins as follows:

 Tens of thousands of years ago, on rock walls within caverns and along stone-faced mountainous outcroppings from El Castillo in Spain, Garges and Pech Merle in France, to the island of Borneo and the hills of Santa Cruz, Argentina and, in fact, at many other points around the world, women, adolescents and men of various cultures blew ochre dust across their hands and left well defined outlines that have lasted to the present day. These almost inexplicable prints mark their presence upon these continents and remain a curious link across the centuries to our own lives. We can speculate that these artists were involved in sacred rituals to bring about a successful hunt or facilitate a healing ceremony for themselves or their community, but we really do not know. Some scholars believe it was just a way for these people to tell the world, “I am here, I did this.” Whatever the intention, these lasting remnants give testimony to our ancestor’s existence and illuminate humanity’s reason for being on this earth. Perhaps you think of these artists as primitive and the painting upon walls a simple act, but I ask you to contemplate what evidence will remain of our lives a millennia into the future, let alone twenty or thirty thousand years. I wish us the best, of course.

This is my handprint. It isn’t so much an attempt to be remembered or even an effort to say that I am here; it is more an effort to bring clarity and share my concerns about humanity and the world. Perhaps I can help by sharing my voice. I don’t mean to sound pretentious, but I care a great deal about the fate of our species. I want our potential for good to outshine our tendency for evil. I want us to expand our vision and reach for the stars. Like flower seeds or salmon spawning; in fact like so many natural life forms, I want us to excessively generate and travel beyond this single ancient earth to begin colonies on nearby moons and planets from which we can catapult deeper and deeper into space. To me this seems like a worthy enterprise. Logic tells us that our planet is fixed in space in a solar system that is not getting younger. It is a simple mathematical reality that if we occupy only one planet and that planet is devoured by the sun it circumnavigates; we will vanish in a breath of fire. We must expand to survive.

I have had a good life and intend to have an even better one before I pass on.

From this I draw the name of this web log. MY HANDPRINT.

Over the course of its existence, I will share my thoughts and dreams. I will reveal my poems, my goals, my stories and my exhortations. Hopefully the stories I have written, those currently being composed and those I wish to pen in the future will be of interest.

Within the last year, I have finished two novels. Neither has been published yet, but I have high expectations for each. I won’t go into great detail about their contents in this introductory log, but I will say that I am beginning to search for a literary agent to help me get one or both of them published.

I don’t know if it is improper or naïve to share the working titles for these stories, but I will do so anyway. The first story is an 83,000 word anthropomorphic adventure novel called Zander and the Magic Scepter. I am quite pleased with the story even though I have to admit that I don’t generally like anthropomorphism. Talking animals are rather unbelievable and they often lack both their own natural instincts and any human qualities that might make them interesting.  One is never quite at ease dressing them up in clothing or giving them reasonable conversation, considering in the real world they have or do neither. When I share this story with you – and I hope to do so with sequential chapters very soon on this site – I will explain why it was necessary to use talking primates.

The more recent story is tentatively called Merimar’s Mighty Mutations. It is a 171,000 word coming –of-age action adventure set in a semi-dystopian world that, while not all too different than our own, has seen some rather significant scientific anomalies. It is for this story that I seek an agent and publisher. As this process gets further along, I will share each step and disclose everything I am certain to learn.

One hundred and seventy-one thousand words is nearly an epic novel and some sources say that it is too long for a debut novel. I disagree completely. I didn’t set out to write a long story. It simply developed that way. Obviously if a publisher wishes a sharp edit and a reduction in the number of words I will have to consider it, but I cannot promise that it will be an easy task or even possible.

So, the background is this: from approximately August 2016 through this past January (2018), I wrote two novels in my spare hours. I don’t know when I actually started Zander and the Magic Scepter, but I know I did a good chunk of writing in September 2016. It was finished in the spring of 2017. For a couple of months I tried to work on a story that I have been writing for over ten years, but I just couldn’t get it organized and heading in the right direction. In May of 2017, I decided to begin something entirely new and Merimar’s Mighty Mutation came to light.

And so it begins. A quick welcome and thank you are hereby given. Thank you for reading and again for passing these words along to others. In the coming weeks I will begin to share Zander and the Magic Scepter, give an update on the search for an agent and much more.

Until next time,

Read, Learn, Live.

Comments

  1. Annette WhippleJanuary 28, 2018 at 12:55 PM

    That's a whole lot of writing! Have you thought about getting a critique after your revisions? Then...an agent!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. DennisJanuary 29, 2018 at 5:44 PM

      Thanks for the idea. The revisions and editing have been completed and a few people are lined up to read it. I am interested to see how things go.

      Delete
  2. UnknownApril 20, 2020 at 12:37 PM

    I am so proud of you, Dennis, and proud to k ow you.. I want a signed copy of your first book, if possible. Love you

    ReplyDelete

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