Read Chapter 1 of 'The Fracking War' on Kickstarter

WATKINS GLEN, New York, USA - Last year at this time I was daydreaming about the characters and possible plotlines I thought I might include in The Fracking War. At that point The Fracking War was a book idea with a catchy title that had been banging around in my head all summer and into fall.

The manuscript of 'The Fracking War', heading to the publisher Wednesday

Then today, Adm. Fox and I launched a Kickstarter campaign to get the book to market quickly and get the word out to readers that what was once a book idea with a catchy title was about to be an honest-to-God published novel.

Honest-to-God!

Kickstarter LINK to The Fracking War

Many of you have followed the week-to-week, keystroke-by-keystroke process as I wrote The Fracking War via a website that I use to talk about writing and editing called Writing for Money. LINK: Writing for Money website

That website reveals a lot about the process, the occasional bouts of angst I had, and how I discovered what most fiction writers already know: Characters sometimes just refuse to do what you ask them to do. Obstinate little schmucks.

But that website - and posts on this page about the book - were part of a Muhammad Ali strategy to keep me moving. Or to extend the Ali idea, to keep my fingers dancing on the keyboard writing The Fracking War.

Just like when Ali would predict in what round he would knock out his opponent, once I declared publicly I was writing a novel and it would be published this fall, I was putting myself on the line.

It worked.

Now that The Fracking War is within a month or so of being published, I feel like my opponent is on the canvas and I am just waiting for the referee to get to a count of 10 and declare a knockout.

The first chapter of The Fracking War is already published on the Kickerstarter website as a sample for readers. (Here's the link again: LINK: The Fracking War on Kickstarter) Please take a look and see what you think.

If you like it, please let me know: CLICK FOR MY EMAIL. And if you really like it, consider ordering a first edition or choosing one of the other pledge options. There's books, t-shirts, visits to book clubs, dinner on the shore of Seneca Lake...

And please consider passing along the Kickstarter link with the sample chapter to friends and acquaintances. Hydrofracking for natural gas and natural gas production are very quickly becoming the focal point for all manner of political and social upheaval.

Protests in New Brunswick, Canada

If you have been following the national and international headlines about hydrofracking, you know how quickly the whole issue is heating up. Events in the Canadian province of New Brunswick mirror some of what takes place in the fictional settings of The Fracking War.

Life imitates art. Or vice versa. I'm never sure.

And, yes, a sequel is already in the works. Here's a hint about one of the plot lines in the sequel: Don't live anywhere near propane storage, especially salt cavern propane storage.

Josh Fox's 'Gasland II' - another game-changer movie

ITHACA, New York, USA - Admiral Fox and I journeyed to the Cornell campus Friday night for a showing of Gasland II, Josh Fox's followup film to his amazing first film Gasland. That movie was so powerful that it gave the natural gas industry such gas, it is still sputtering.

Gasland II's Josh Fox

In fact, while Gasland II was being shown in Ithaca, the natural gas industry was showing its own pr-firm pro-hydrofracking film at another New York location.

It's doubtful that the audience there was as enthusiastic as the 300 or so people who packed Statler Auditorium at Cornell. The film was interrupted frequently by applause - and more than a few gasps.

The film will premiere on HBO July 8. And it's a must-see movie for people already opposed to hydrofracking for natural gas as well as anyone still sitting on the fence. Josh suggested that perhaps some Gasland II parties might be in order when HBO releases the film - parties that would include doubters as well as the faithful.

It would be hard to watch this film - a compendium of images of science, pathos, humanity and corporate greed - and not come away feeling, well, I am still sorting all that out the morning after.

We had hoped to actually meet Josh - and we did, sort of.

Sylvia, Josh Fox and me

At one point he jumped down off the stage and stood for a photo - a photo he was sending to President Barack Obama via Twitter. He is flanked by Admiral Fox and I in the photo.

It's a little grainy, but lately I've noticed I look a lot better in soft focus anyway.

The evening gave me even more encouragement to finish editing The Fracking War. It also gave me several ideas for additions to the book and even some new chapters.

The climate change we are already witnessing is being exacerbated by all the methane gas escaping from  all the gas wells being drilled. It has taken an already nearly out-of-control freight train and added ice to slippery tracks.

If the methane emissions aren't controlled, well-known Cornell Professor Robert Howarth said, it's game over for the planet.

The event was partly to help promote the film and also as a fundraiser for Gas Free Seneca (link to GAS FREE SENECA website), the group fighting to stop the Inergy Corporation from storing propane and natural gas in salt caverns adjacent to - and under - Seneca Lake.

Here's a photo of the crowd last night, sending a message to the president and to NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

Josh Fox with the banjo, Adm. Fox to the left, me on the right