Author Has More To Celebrate Than New Year

It’s just past noon on New Year’s Eve, and John Dalmas is already celebrating.

He’s just stepped from the shower and he’s singing the “Ode to Joy” from Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.

In German.

He has good reason to be happy. Spokane’s dean of science-fiction writers has just seen publication of his 23rd book, “The Three-Cornered War” (Baen Books, 419 pages, $6.99, ISBN 0-671-57783-2).

His 24th, “The Lion Returns,” is at the publishers. And he’s hard at work on his 25th, tentatively titled “The Second Coming.”

At age 72, Dalmas knows all about work. A former forester, the kind of hands-on guy who has experienced back-breaking labor on land and sea, he has spent much of the time since the release of his last novel - “The Bavarian Gate” in January ‘97 - trying to persuade someone to pay him for writing a book on the current state of America’s forests.

“I got interest in it from forestry colleges,” Dalmas says. “But even though I wrote it for the man in the street, I could not get any interest from agents.”

He queried 48 agents in all, sending them an outline, sample chapters, letters of recommendation from the likes of ex-Congressman Tom Foley, Sen. Patty Murray and former Gov. Booth Gardner.

“Two universities even said they would use it for coursework because there are no textbooks for that subject,” Dalmas said.

But nobody bit. The reactions were typical: Either agents said that environmental books are a hard sell because they don’t appeal to book-buyers, which makes publishers reluctant, or they insisted that nobody wants an even-handed look at environmental problems.

“You have to take a position at one pole or the other, which was what I was avoiding,” Dalmas said. “And it’s the reason why I think they (environmental books) are selling poorly. People don’t trust what they hear and read on the subject anymore.”

So the result of all that research, he says, sits in boxes in his basement.

Still, that can’t shake Dalmas’ mood on this particular New Year’s Eve. “The Three-Cornered War” is the fifth and final installment of his “Regiment” series, which includes “The Regiment,” “The White Regiment,” “The Calif’s War” (which is out of print) and “The Regiment’s War.”

“I think (James) Baen (owner of Baen Books) liked it when he finally got it because he moved it up six months in the schedule and gave it a (David) Mattingly cover,” Dalmas says. Mattingly, he adds because I ask, is “one of the leading illustrators” of book covers.

Up next is a change of pace from Dalmas’ typical sci-fi works. It’s the book that he’s working on, still in binders even, called “The Second Coming.”

“I’ve gotten more critiques for that than I typically get for 10 stories,” he says.

And why is that? “It’s a lot different from anything that I’ve done before,” he says. “It treats the Second Coming as a question: What would it be like if it actually happened?”

Hmmm, does that make it some kind of spiritual fantasy?

“Well, it’s nitty-gritty,” Dalmas says. “It’s real people in real situations.”

He pauses for a moment.

“It’s creative imagination,” he says.

Oh, joy.

Traveling from a chair

Barnes & Noble begins its “Great Escapes” travel series with a 7 p.m. presentation on Caribbean cruises by Kathy Rodriguez of WorldTravelPartners Wednesday at the store, which is located just east of the Spokane Valley Mall. For further information, call 922-4104.

READER BOARD Andrea Cornachio, winner of The Inlander’s third-annual short-story contest, will read the winning story at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Auntie’s Bookstore, Main and Washington. For further information, call 838-0206.