BONUS DELETED CHAPTER: "Mr. Holowicz builds a bomb."
Download the book in EPUB format here: Shining_Path.epub.
Printed copies are available from Lulu, but read the notes below first.
I finished the manuscript for Shining Path in 2011 and then spent a couple of years looking for an agent to represent it to publishers. At the time I was also seeking an academic job, and I eventually came to realize that I could only seriously pursue one of those searches at a time. I chose the academy, and put the book manuscript on the shelf.
As I write this now, it's 2020, and I have the opportunity to look at the manuscript again. But in the intervening years, the world has changed. Some of the ideas in the book that would have been new and socially relevant in 2011, have become dated. Some things I predicted did come true, but not in a way close enough to my predictions for that to be really interesting. The issues I wanted to address in Shining Path are still very important but my understanding of them has evolved. The world of book publishing isn't what it once was, especially not in science fiction. I don't think this manuscript is still something I really want to publish professionally, and the rewards of publishing it professionally are much less now than they could have been in 2011. I don't really want to go down that path anymore, even if I could be successful in finding an agent this time around. But Shining Path is still something I wish people would read.
So, here it is. I'm putting the manuscript on the Web, with basically no further editing since the last version that I was submitting to agents as of 2012. I hope you like it, but above all, I hope that you will share the link to https://shiningpathbook.com/ on your social media, because in 2020, that's where everything is happening. Widespread sharing by friends and strangers seems like the only way I can ever hope this book will be read by a significant number of people, which was always my goal for it. Please share it.
I had a request for "a way to read it not on a screen" and so I threw the manuscript into the Lulu print-on-demand system, and you can buy it online through them. The price is $19.95 Canadian, equivalent to about $14.00 US at the current exchange rate. Of that, my share is Ca$3. The point of doing this is just to provide an option for people who don't want to read it electronically; I'm not expecting to make any significant money from it, and if you want to support me and my work, posting on social media would be much more valuable.
I make and sell electronic musical instruments called modular synthesizers, and you can read about those on my business Web site, northcoastsynthesis.com, or in this Analogowa Dusza interview.
I can be reached by email at mskala@ansuz.sooke.bc.ca.
You can find me on the federated network as mattskala@mstdn.io (English-language) and mattskala@mstdn.jp (Japanese-language).
Matthew Skala