Tiānmìng – Mandate of Heaven was Mandated Memoranda Publishing’s first eBook, available in June of 2013. It follows the career of Michael Babbage, freelance reporter, during five years of world turmoil and upheaval from 2018 to 2023. Tiānmìng – Mandate of Heaven extrapolates today’s headlines into tomorrow’s nightmares. Click here or on the book image to read an excerpt in a new browser tab. Click learn more to view Amazon’s landing page for Tiānmìng – Mandate of Heaven. Thank you.
Tag Archives: Mandate of Heaven
A Digital Carol – A Tale for Our Generation – Candidate Press Release
Mandated Memoranda Publishing Announces Fourth Book
A Digital Carol – A Tale for Our Generation, By Adolphus Writer, Exclusively on Amazon as a Kindle Edition, a Mandated Memoranda Publishing, LLC release.
SYRACUSE, N.Y., Dec. 20, 2014 /PR Company TBD/ — A Digital Carol – A Tale for Our Generation is the old Dickens’s favorite—A Christmas Carol—reimagined. We now face a monstrous egotist who questions the very premise of his existence and ours.
A Digital Carol – A Tale for Our Generation, by Adolphus Writer, 2014 Copyright, All Rights Reserved
We no longer believe in ghosts, do we? I thought not. But we invest our time and attention in the promise of virtual reality for entertainment and, as some might wish it, our evolutionary destiny. Of course, this is only the latest manifestation of our desire to create our own heaven, on our own terms, here on earth.
A Digital Carol is Dickens’s A Christmas Carol retold with new forms and modern perspectives. No longer do we read a tale of a mean miser who, through sorrowful experiences, becomes kindly. We now face a monstrous egotist who teeters between damnation and redemption.
This speculative fiction story’s goal is not to inspire a more joyous holiday or a more generous spirit, but to question the very premise of our existence. Are we too far into the dark night of the soul for anything but drastic measures?
Quotes
“No one anticipated the unfortunate events that have taken place, sir. They would rather die than subject their families to these horrors.”—Solicitor for community charity
“Perhaps it’s best that they do die. It reduces the surplus population. We have no need of them all anymore. Not one of them. Worldwide.”—Eli Benjamin Ezer (aka E. Ben. Ezer)
Review
“Writer’s (Tragic Wonders, 2013…) novella reimagines Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol as a cautionary sci-fi tale…Writer’s interpretation is an intriguing retelling, as it does much more than merely change the classic tale’s setting and style.” —Kirkus Reviews
About the Author
Adolphus Writer holds a doctorate in theoretical physics. After he graduated, he took a job at a large US defense firm applying his creative and analytical skills to pressing problems. He married Ninja (NEEN–yuh) S. Writer after she completed her service with the German Federal Defense forces.
During the economic downturn spanning the first and second decades of the twenty–first century, his job was eliminated and he was terminated. In early 2012, Adolphus established Mandated Memoranda Publishing, LLC as a way to support the lifestyle to which he and his family had become accustomed. He says they like to eat on a daily basis and stay debt–free.
About the Publisher
Mandated Memoranda Publishing, LLC published Tiānmìng – Mandate of Heaven as a Kindle edition in June 2013. It is an everyman’s spy adventure – a reluctant journalist’s tale of economic calamity, geologic catastrophe, geopolitical power shifts, and the beginnings of a hands–on surveillance state.
Our second Kindle Edition is Tragic Wonders – Stories, Poems, and Essays to Ponder which presents faith in Christ as a plausible alternative through brief narratives of realism, thriller, and science fiction. It was published on Amazon in December 2013.
Our upcoming fourth Kindle edition, Who Shall Be God, is a fictional account of the struggles between two families, the Stadists and the Libertas, who live in an east coast US city, north and south of the 38th parallel, respectively. It will be published on Amazon in late 2015 or early 2016.
We plan to release a fifth Kindle edition in late 2016 or early 2017. The working title for this book is China Dream. The book’s still in process, as is the dream itself. However, could the dream tragically turn into a nightmare instead?
Book details
A Digital Carol – A Tale for Our Generation
amazon.com/dp/B00PVFS5AQ
Genre: science fiction, Christian futuristic
1st edition, released November 19, 2014
By Mandated Memoranda Publishing, LLC
Exclusively as an Amazon Kindle Edition
ASIN: B00PVFS5AQ
ISBN: 978-0-9855327-2-7
Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
90 pages (estimated)
Connect with us online
On Twitter (@AdolphusWriter)
On Amazon (Inside the Book available)
On Google+
On Facebook
On Goodreads (Excerpt available)
On Booklife
Quo Vadis II
We’re almost finished with a round of editing for Tragic Wonders. In prior posts, you’ve seen some of the stories and essays that we dropped from TW because of thematic duplication. We’ve also separated out two poems that now provide a transition from the stories to the essays. The next step is copy editing. Seems the company is geared towards Microsoft Office production but, for the money, they’ll accommodate Amazon Kindle requirements. Whew! Actually, they’ve been encouraging, cooperative, and fast. We’ll see how much we can say about them at a later date.
At this point, we plan to get TW out before Christmas (Thanksgiving is the real goal, but…). To do that, I want to have at least two professional reviews in place before issuing the press release and posting the Kindle book to Amazon and registering with the LOC and Red City Reviews usually posts to Goodreads but Goodreads requires an ASIN, Amazon’s ISBN equivalent… You get the idea, the timing will be tricky. Also, we were planning on switching from PRWeb to PR Newswire. You know, the PR firm recently hacked for customer data.
We’ve had several favorable reviews on TW’s all important cover. Yes, it turns out we do judge a book by its cover (among other things, like favorable excerpts from perhaps unfavorable professional reviews).
Right now, we have Tiānmìng – Mandate of Heaven priced at 99 cents. We’re going to raise the price back to $2.99 when TW comes out at 99 cents. In other news, we’ve decided to postpone publication of A Digital Carol until next Christmas. Actually, we’ll get it out before Thanksgiving 2014 to pick up on the buying season. We’ve already got the cover concept roughed in.
Yup, we’ll get this marketing thing down, yet. Hopefully, before we’re out of funds.
We plan to start Who Shall be God early in 2014 while ADC is in editing (yes, book three, that became book four, is book three again). The WSBG themes are coming together. It turns out that the 38th parallel not only runs through the Korean DMZ but through Virginia and Maryland. Hmm, I wonder if that’s significant given what DC has been doing lately?
Book five is about China. We’re still waiting for Xi and company to declare their intent after the Third Plenum meeting of the Communist Party’s Central Committee. Other news of interest is that China has twice the shale gas reserves as the US does. That should swing the balance all other things being equal. We’ll see.
And finally, we’ve updated our links page.
Research
The Last of the Spirits, from Charles Dickens: A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas. With Illustrations by John Leech. London: Chapman & Hall, 1843. First edition. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
If you’ve read our first book: Tiānmìng – Mandate of Heaven, and who hasn’t ;-), you’ll know we at Mandated Memoranda Publishing do research and lots of it. Currently, we’re working on what we affectionately call Book Three. Its working title is: A Digital Carol.
We are reimagining the old Dickens’ favorite for a future generation. The gist of the old story revolves around the Victorian era’s fascination with ghosts and spirits. The new one, obviously, has to feature AI. But not just any AI, we feature Artificial General Intelligence, or AGI.
We’re all familiar with Big Dog, Cheetah, and Atlas. If not, we should be. These are specialized robotic machines that adapt to their environments in order to accomplish limited scope missions. However, these do not possess the ability to generalize their missions to encompass any goal, even self set goals. Others would like to make what may turn out to be a limited aspect of AGI available widely. We are nowhere near true AGI. Some think this is a very good thing.
There is a philosophic difference between what AI we currently have available and what may come about in the future. We deal with this theme in A Digital Carol. We also deal with the temptation to “kick away the ladder” when opportunity for our aggrandizement presents itself. Of course, we needn’t repeat the admonition that many attribute to mere superstition, do we?
Red City Review for Tianming – Mandate of Heaven
Tiānmìng – Mandate of Heaven by Adolphus Writer and Nomi Smith
In the not too distant future, the world is falling apart at the seams, which is depicted in the political thriller, ‘Tiānmìng – Mandate of Heaven’ by Adolphus Writer and Nomi T. Smith. This fast paced novel tells the story of Michael Babbage, a freelance reporter who is hired to document and analyze what is happening to the civilization of man. Between the political conflicts that have arisen and the natural disasters that are destroying the balance of society, there is not much to hope for besides an alternative to the failing situation at hand. The United States is a nation at unrest, but due to the strong will of President Moses Orestes, he refuses to let his people give up on the nation that he cares about so dearly. When Yellowstone erupts, half of the United States population has to move to Canada, while elsewhere in the world weak governments are taking advantage of the fact that other formerly powerful states are falling apart. Nuclear explosions are also reshaping the Asian continent, as Michael strives on to find answers on how to stop the ongoing calamity from continuing.
It is clear due to the complexities of this book that a lot of work was put into the creation of this story. Not only is it thought-provoking, but the characters and the situations that they are thrust into are a joy to read. The descriptions of the United States falling apart alone are very chilling, but to think of our entire world failing so helplessly during such an unmanageable point in time is rather frightening. The characters are all well-developed and by the end of the narrative things start to weave together in a pleasing and surprising manner. Although the natural disasters that occur seem a little bit farfetched, the reactions to them and the other manmade fiascos are plausible, given the other conditions that are occurring. Michael is a very likeable character, someone who the reader will be rooting for as he tries to figure out what is going on in this very unstable predicament that Earth has found itself in. (Reviewed September 19, 2013 by Red City Review, used by permission.)
To purchase a copy of Tiānmìng – Mandate of Heaven, click here to find it on Amazon.
Is 99 Cents the New Free?
I can definitely assert that using ‘free days’ in the KDP Select program to boost book sales or visibility doesn’t work after the debut offering. I’ve tried using free days prior to the July 4th and Labor Day holidays only to realize a decrease in sales rank when the sale days were over.
I have 150 free copies out there all over the world and I know three of my four book reviewers (I have a good guess on the fourth). Each of them, likely, paid full freight.
I’ve tried other things to boost sales, too. I’ve put out a press release. Don’t be fooled by so-called ‘impressions’; only sales count. I did an author interview. It was very nicely presented but the site draws a limited audience. I have a Goodreads page. This site rejected me as an author for some reason.
I contacted Amazon Vine and Top reviewers in my book’s genre (spying & intrigue). Of the eight I contacted, one put me on his to read pile. He has a policy of not slamming books he doesn’t like; I greatly appreciate that attitude.
However, whining gets you nowhere.
I’ve got a second book in the works and I’m trying even harder than at first. Better writing. Better editing. Better marketing. Pricing based on page count. I’m sticking with KDP Select when it makes sense (70% royalty and the Lending Library program). And I’ll try to release a third book this year.
I’m going to have Red City review the first book, Tiānmìng – Mandate of Heaven, to find out what they think about it. We’ll have to see. There’ll be no welfare payments for this author.
Author Interview – Adolphus Writer
My author interview with Jade Kerrion went live this morning. Here is the raw material we submitted. We thank Jade for the opportunity.
Author: Adolphus Writer
Book Title: Tiānmìng – Mandate of Heaven
Short author bio: Adolphus travelled to Europe, the Middle East, and Far East after graduate school. Arriving back in the USA, he took a job in a large defense firm applying his creative and analytical skills to pressing problems. In early 2012, he established Mandated Memoranda Publishing, LLC, as a way to support the lifestyle to which he had become accustomed. He says he likes to eat on a daily basis and stay debt–free.
Contact information:
Purchase link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00D9XB9ZA
Website / Blog: https://mandatedmemoranda.com/
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/Adolphus_Writer
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Adolphus-Writer/126199467485854
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AdolphusWriter
Book Synopsis: Tiānmìng – Mandate of Heaven is an everyman’s spy adventure. It is a reluctant journalist’s tale of economic calamity, geologic catastrophe, geopolitical power shifts, and the beginnings of a hands–on surveillance state. The protagonist, Michael Babbage, grows through his ordeals and comes out a more experienced, if not wiser, person. He’s supported by Buck Jefferies, his recruiter, and a mysterious organization Michael only knows as CWNS.
Desired posting date: Friday, August 30, 2013 to coincide with a free book giveaway on Amazon.
ABOUT YOUR BOOK AND WRITING PROCESS
1. Tell us a little about your book.
The primary author, Nomi T. Smith, could not be with us today. Her initial manuscript had a slightly different slant on the story. We chose to reorient the plot around Michael Babbage to gain wider acceptance for an everyman’s spy adventure. The book is not part of a series and it has political, techno–thriller, and science fiction elements to it.
2. How did you come up with the title?
While we were forming Mandated Memoranda Publishing, LLC, Nomi approached us with her novella. We were steeped in the idea of the Mandate of Heaven because of the research we did to name the company. We used the Chinese translation, Tiānmìng, to give the book international appeal. In a nutshell, the title fit the novella’s theme and guided the reorientation.
3. How much of the book is realistic?
Too much, I’m afraid. The book was published June 8th, three days after the first NSA disclosure. The naval battle scenes are more dramatic than those actually occurring at–sea but the technologies we were able to discuss are accurate. Finally, scientists are making remarkable progress toward the biological–machine interfaces described in the book. I hope the rest of the story remains fiction forever.
4. What’s your favorite part of the writing process?
I can’t speak for Nomi, but I enjoy the research that goes in to a work of fiction. For Tiānmìng – Mandate of Heaven, we have over two gigabytes of corroborating materials covering: political, technological, editorial, and predictive analyses.
5. If you had to do it all over again, would you change anything in your book?
One of our readers strongly suggested we should not have changed the focus of the story from Nomi to Michael. However, some of Nomi’s original plot line will be published as short stories in Tragic Wonders, Stories and Essays to Ponder.
6. Do you belong to a critique group? Have they helped improve your writing?
I have to thank my advance copy readers, they know who they are. Story simplification and elaboration simply wouldn’t happen without them. They drive the “show versus tell” process, even in works not due for publication until 2014. As a policy, we recruit trusted readers for every publication.
7. Did you hire an editor to review your manuscript before publishing?
Absolutely, she gave us guidance though every step of the development process. Her mentoring was invaluable. She had prior experience as a magazine editor and as a published author. Mandated Memoranda Publishing will not issue a book without employing professional editing.
ABOUT PUBLISHING AND MARKETING
8. What factors influenced your decision to self-publish to Amazon?
We self–published Tiānmìng – Mandate of Heaven exclusively as a Kindle Edition to keep overhead costs low, maximize our exposure worldwide, and keep control over our property. Additionally, we are participating in the Kindle Direct Publishing Select program to maximize profits. However, we hope to keep prices low for our readers of this and future publications. Some books cost too much money; money we just don’t have any more.
GENERAL QUESTIONS
9. Do you recall how your interest in writing originated?
I can remember standing up in class, at age seven, and declaring I wanted to write a book about nuclear energy. I read widely in fiction and non-fiction throughout my schooling and afterwards. I had always planned on writing and publishing after retirement. The economic downturn merely accelerated the schedule.
10. Tell us your latest news.
Mandated Memoranda Publishing, LLC plans to release a second Kindle Edition called Tragic Wonders, Stories and Essays to Ponder, an anthology delving into our souls’ deepest fears and needs. Expect it on shelves by the fall, 2013. Book three is a retelling of a beloved story for our times. We call it A Digital Carol, due Christmas, 2013. Book four is Who Shall Be God, a fictional account of the struggles between two families, the Stadists and the Libertas, who live in a Midwestern city, north and south of 38th street, respectively. It is due in 2014.
Best Laid Plans
We’ve gotten Tiānmìng – Mandate of Heaven on Amazon’s bookshelves. Figuratively speaking, of course, since it is only out as a Kindle Edition. We’re offering it for free the Friday and Saturday before Father’s day 2013.
We’re now turning our attention to the second book, Tragic Wonders. We renamed it from Horrors of the Heart since a small circle of readers thought it had little horror in it (except for the grammatical errors). It will still be an anthology of stories and essays delving into our souls’ deepest fears and needs. We’d like this on shelves by the fall. The art department has designed the cover and we plan to post a thumbnail of it soon.
Book three is: Who Shall Be God. It is a fictional account of the struggles of two families, the Stadists and the Libertas, who live north and south of 38th street, respectively, in a Midwestern city. We have a cover in mind and the ending sketched out in broad outline.
Book four will be an anthology dealing with the perils of this digital age: from genetic engineering to surveillance and the Singularity. Book five must be about the coming clash between China and the Western world. They aren’t the Middle Kingdom for no reason.
Finally, we’ve been asked if we could do something funny (as in ha-ha, we already do strange). Book six may achieve that (although strange has its appeal).
We do not intend to do vampires, sleaze, or a self-publishing how-to. In this last vein (excuse the pun), the next post will recount what we remember of our experience producing Tiānmìng – Mandate of Heaven. Only the names have been changed to protect the participants.
Mandated Memoranda Publishing LLC announces new book
Mandated Memoranda Publishing LLC announces their first book: Tiānmìng – Mandate of Heaven. It is a reluctant journalist’s tale of geopolitical conflict and geologic catastrophe that upends the worldwide status quo. It is approximately 138 pages long. You can read the somewhat breathless product description here. If you don’t have a Kindle reader and want to read it on a device you own, here are some software readers from Amazon. We plan to offer the book free on Friday June 14, 2013 (Midnight to Midnight, Pacific time) to boost “sales” numbers. You may want to purchase then. Thank you for your support for Mandated Memoranda Publishing LLC.
Quo Vadis?
Where are we going? Right now, we’re incorporating edits into Mandate of Heaven. Publication on Amazon is delayed until 2013. Our hand–picked readers are commenting on our second book, Horrors of the Heart. We’ve considered a new topic for our third book: the second American revolution. The topic may well become the working title. We’ve begun research into this third book and will post some related essays shortly. As with the first book, it is our sincere wish that its themes remain purely fictional.
Mandated Memoranda 