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December newsletter: Cherie Priest on Nov. 30; Holiday Party, "Winter Tales", "Geek Mom" in December; new 2013 events; and more

Posted on 2012-11-29 at 23:59 by montsamu

Vol 2. No 9. November 29, 2012:

I’m sending this juuust a bit early this month, mainly to remind people of two things:

Also don't forget that the 3rd annual Bull Spec / RTSFS (Research Triangle Science Fiction Society) holiday party is coming up very soon, on Sunday December 9. More info below.

In local publishing news, the biggest news in November came in two forms. First, the announcement that publisher Angry Robot will publish two postapocalyptic novels by local author Jay Posey, and second that Wake Forest, NC-based publisher Baen published (just now!) The Collected Kessel in ebook, with all-new story notes. Check out both!

While this weekend and all December are packed with events, January stands alone (other than a veritable pile of new local and regional author books) with illogiCon. But February is also starting to fill up, with events bringing Kim Harrison, Cory Doctorow, and Brandon Sanderson (with Harriet McDougal!) to town, along with the Nevermore Film Festival.

One last thing which isn’t in the full events calendar below (and there’s a handy handout flyer at the very bottom!) is a very unique ongoing “thing”. Paperhand Puppet Intervention has teamed up with UNC-Chapel Hill’s Morehead Planetarium for “The Longest Night”, a new production combining Paperhand’s puppets and the night sky-tilting possibilities of the Planetarium, with shows through Feb. 24. More info: http://www.indyweek.com/indyweek/paperhand-puppet-intervention-teams-up-with-morehead-planetarium/Content?oid=3201266

In Bull Spec news, all the fiction is edited, illustration and layout is started, and finally issue #8 really, really is coming soon. Really. This time, I mean it. Meanwhile, the website gained two new features, in addition to the ongoing The Hardest Part guest author column and Andrew Neal’s Negative Zone: a very, er, irregular (and irregularly scheduled) column by one Harry Tortilla, and a new ongoing weekly column The Exploding Spaceship by Gerald and Angela Blackwell. I hope you’re enjoying the new web content, and I’ll see you out and about.

-Sam

NOVEMBER 2012

NEW: 29 (Thursday) 7 pm — A special screening of two episodes from the newly remastered season 2 of Star Trek: The Next Generation at select theaters, including Brier Creek, Crossroads, and North Hills. More info: http://www.fathomevents.com/#!star-trek-the-next-generation

30 (Friday) 7 pm — Cherie Priest returns to the Triangle, as Flyleaf Books hosts a reading and signing from her forthcoming Clockwork Century novel, The Inexplicables. More info: http://www.flyleafbooks.com/event/cherie-priest-reads-her-new-steampunk-adventure-inexplicables [Facebook event]

30 (Friday) 7 pm — Quail Ridge Books hosts Allie Condie for Reached, the conclusion of the #1 NYT bestselling “Matched” trilogy, a YA dystopia. More info: http://www.quailridgebooks.com/event/allie-condie-matched-trilogy-conclusion

DECEMBER 2012

NEW: 1 (Saturday) 1 to 3 pm — Chapel Hill Comics hosts a comics roundtable/presentation/discussion with five North Carolina Comics Artists, featuring Ben Towle, Amy Godfrey, Jamie Hibdon, Flynn Smith, and Rio Aubry Taylor. More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/254008071392882/

NEW: 1 (Saturday) 5 pm — Chapel Hill Comics hosts a My Little Pony comic book release party. More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/111808732312572/

NEW: 5 (Wednesday) 6:30 pm — Fullsteam Brewery hosts a screening of the locally-produced short horror film, Foodie. More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/527784877241249/

NEW: 9 (Sunday) 2 to 10 pm — The 3rd annual Bull Spec / RTSFS Holiday Party in Durham. (If you can’t see the Facebook event, join the RTSFS mailing list, or Facebook group, or friend Sam on Facebook, or just email me.) For more info: https://www.facebook.com/events/136913919789125/

NEW: 13 (Thursday) 6 pm — The Orange County Main Library hosts five local authors (Alex Granados, Rebecca Gomez Farrell, Mur Lafferty, James Maxey, and Gray Rinehart) for original “winter tales”. More info: http://engagedpatrons.org/EventsExtended.cfm?SiteID=6923&EventID=150465

NEW: 15 (Saturday) 4 to 7 pm — Chapel Hill Comics hosts a Geek Mom book event, with local contributor Natania Barron among other guests.

NEW: 18 (Tuesday) 7 pm — The Internationalist Books and Community Center hosts a multi-author event with fiction (Carl Brandon Award nominated Elwin Cotman), comics (Ben Passmore), and poetry (Luca Miro). More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/390722774338333/

NEW-NEW: 20-22 (Thursday to Saturday) 8 pm — with an additional Saturday matinee at 2 pm — SAINT GEORGE AND THE DRAGON presented by hiSTORYstage at the Burning Coal Theatre at the Murphey School in Raleigh. “Our new version of the traditional English Christmas play, “Saint George and the Dragon” is a composite version drawn from surviving manuscripts and woven together from bits of old text, folk legends, and medieval Christmas plays.” More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/548385111843049/permalink/566462630035297/ and tickets: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/266532

NEW: 31 (Monday) 9 pm til late — Davenport and Winkleperry host The Clockwork Ball to ring in the New Year, Steampunk style. More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/286024288183189/

JANUARY 2013

11-13 (Friday to Sunday) — illogiCon 2 will be held at the Embassy Suites of Raleigh-Durham/Research Triangle on January 11-13, 2013, with writer guest of honor Tim Powers and webcomic guest of honor Garth Graham, and toastmaster Mark L. Van Name: http://www.illogicon.com/

FEBRUARY 2013

NEW: 2 (Saturday) 3 pm — Quail Ridge Books hosts NY Times bestselling urban fantasy author and NC native Kim Harrison for Ever After, the latest in her Hollows series.

NEW: 16 (Saturday) 2 pm — Flyleaf Books hosts Cory Doctorow for Homeland, sequel to Little Brother. More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/530598563635194/

NEW: 20 (Wednesday) 7:30 pm – Quail Ridge Books again hosts best-selling author Brandon Sanderson, this time for the conclusion of The Wheel of Time series, A Memory of Light. In addition, special guest Harriet McDougal will be joining Sanderson for the event. More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/393451974063637/

NEW: 22-24 (Friday-Sunday) — Durham’s Carolina Theatre hosts the Nevermore Film Festival. More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/440070299375523/

JUNE 2013

27-30 (Thursday to Sunday) — ConTemporal 2013 at the North Raleigh Hilton, beginning with the Thursday evening guest of honor dinner and continuing all weekend, as this Steampunk-themed convention is back for a second year. More info: http://contemporal.org/

NOVEMBER 2013

NEW-NEW: 9-10 (Saturday and Sunday) — NC Comicon will be returning to the Durham Convention Center. “Twice the space, four times the fun. It’s exponential.”

EVENT HANDOUT FLYER:

PDF (grayscale): handout-2012-11-29-bw

PDF (color): handout-2012-11-29-color

END

Posted in newsletter

The Hardest Part: C.S. Fuqua on Rise Up

Posted on 2012-11-28 at 21:19 by montsamu

When Bull Spec opened for submissions in November 2009, I had no idea what to expect. Certainly not the avalanche of good stories which buried me for the better part of two years. But there’s a fine line between a good story and one of those stories that I just had to publish, and the very first of these was “Rise Up” by C.S. Fuqua. (So early in fact that this was before there was even a “magazine”, only a vague idea about publishing a story now and then.) Reading the story, listening to the music, I knew this was a story I had to have, and I’m still very proud to published it as the Mike Gallagher-illustrated cover story for Bull Spec #1. Now, the story title serves as the title for Fuqua’s recently released collection, Rise Up. Here, Fuqua explains the hardest part of putting the collection together, one I deeply sympathize with: the business side of things.

By C.S. Fuqua:

I am not a businessman. Nor am I a public relations expert. And I do not want to be.

So it’s no surprise after nearly three decades as a professional writer—newspaper staffer, magazine editor, and freelancer—the business of writing—manuscript marketing and book promotion—remains for me the hardest part of the process. That doesn’t mean everything else comes easily. Creative writing is work, no matter how many Joe Blows brag “I’ve got a really great idea for a novel I’m going to write as soon as I get a little extra time.” The talent for writing creatively, contrary to hot air declarations, is not developed overnight. In fact, most career writers rarely feel they’ve developed the craft fully, no matter how long they’ve been at it. But they understand and accept the devotion, self-motivation, and sacrifice of time with loved ones required in choosing writing as a career, forsaking pursuits that may offer more immediate rewards.

The ability to hook publisher or agent interest in a manuscript is a mystery to me, a tall hurdle to clear, and I’m astonished with each success. After all, an author must compete with an ever-increasing number of seasoned and novice writers by summarizing a complicated plot and months, perhaps years, of work into a single paragraph that delivers everything a publisher or agent requires to say yes, even though the book/story/article is probably no better or worse than the majority of its competitors, only different. Talk about odds… Once that first sale is made, subsequent sales may become easier—Rise Up, my latest book from Mundania Press (I’m quite proud the title story appears in the debut issue of Bull Spec) may have had an easier time due to an established relationship with the publisher and the fact that most of the collection’s stories have been previously published in magazines—but the business is rarely, if ever, a cakewalk.

The second hurdle comes after publication when promotional responsibilities—including those traditionally assumed by publishers—fall increasingly upon writers. Writers are now charged with securing most reviews, promoting through blog events, arranging signings and promotional events for which the writer supplies the books to sell (all once upon a time the publisher’s responsibility), purchasing and placing advertising, and more. For those who haven’t had the good fortune of hitting the bestseller lists—meaning most writers—promotional funds are usually a tad limited, crippling the ability to promote effectively. So writers must go after less costly opportunities, from the obvious free copies to reviewers in the hope of scoring a published review, to contributing to various blog events, to exposing the book to potential readers through channels such as my bimonthly newsletter, developed to promote  my work and the work of other musicians and writers, regularly offering special perks such as free eBooks and music. Further, a writer must maintain a presence on social networks such as Facebook and Goodreads.com, operate an active, frequently updated website, participate in conferences, conduct workshops, and engage the press at every opportunity. For someone who shuns the personal spotlight, these activities are quite daunting, consuming precious time that could be devoted to producing new work.

Beyond the hurdles of manuscript marketing and book promotion lies the reward of engaging readers by providing what I hope is a story that’s entertaining and thought provocative. To personalize Rise Up, I include a short introduction to each story, detailing story inspiration or specific challenges encountered from the original publisher. Connecting with readers is something I relish, second only to the creative process.

As for the business of writing, I crave its elimination, an impossible eventuality. Of course, I could do an Emily Dickinson, shoving my work into a drawer to languish until I’m dead and gone, but that’s simply not an option. So what’s left? For me, it’s to continue the figurative pounding on publishers’ doors, enticing reviewers, participating in an endless array of promotional activities—in other words, doing whatever it takes to get my work into the hands of readers. And though the business is the hardest part, I refuse to cave in desperation and defeat. I love the act of writing and the engagement of readers too much to give up.

About Rise Up

C.S. Fuqua’s second collection of short fiction, Rise Up, has just been released by Mundania Press and is available in paper and eBook formats at http://mundania.com/book.php?title=Rise+Up. The book collects two dozen short stories, featuring ghosts and faeries, the macabre and mundane, rich and poor, distraught and jubilant. From the dark fantasy of title story, “Rise Up,” to the science fiction comedy of “The Garbler,” to the satire of “Big Daddy’s Fast-Past Gadget,” each story in Rise Up explores the motivations, actions, and consequences that force ordinary people to become extraordinary.

Rise Up’s stories intertwine good and evil and how we waver between condemnation and redemption: the cold-hearted abuse of science for battlefield enhancement in “All the Brave Soldiers,” the pity of a young girl’s ghost for a dying general in “Grace,” modern society’s propensity for foolish restrictions in “The Addict.” The title story, “Rise Up,” explores second chances when a mandolin player uses music to resurrect his fiancée following her tragic death, only to bear even greater tragedy and loss in the long run. In “Demons,” an Iraqi War veteran suffering PTSD mines the depths of compassion when he befriends a phooka, tortured and starved to the brink of insanity.

From the man who spares children from life’s heartaches, to the mechanic who grossly overcharges clients for unneeded repairs, to the politicians who deceive countries into war to torture and maim in the name of a plethora of gods, evil comes in many guises. Sometimes we recognize its approach; sometimes we don’t. The stories in Rise Up explore the consequences.

C.S. Fuqua’s books include Rise Up, Big Daddy’s Gadgets, If I Were… (children’s poems), Alabama Musicians: Musical Heritage from the Heart of Dixie, Trust Walk, The Swing: Poems of Fatherhood, and Notes to My Becca, among others. His work has appeared in publications as diverse as The Christian Science Monitor, Naval History, Main Street Rag, and Year’s Best Horror Stories. Please visit http://csfuqua.comxa.com.

Posted in The Hardest Part | Tagged cs fuqua, the hardest part

The Hardest Part: J.L. Hilton on Stellarnet Prince

Posted on 2012-11-21 at 17:20 by montsamu

Raleigh author J.L. Hilton’s debut novel Stellarnet Rebel was published by Harlequin imprint Carina Press in January, with a release party at Tir Na Nog. A fitting place, as the space station at the center of the novel contains an Irish Pub and one of the book’s protagonists, Genny O’Riordan, well, you can probably guess by the name. (Also, there’s a certain shortage of local Glin establishments, though that’s more than understandable considering it is one of the alien races invented by Hilton for the book.) The series combines cyberpunk, video games, space adventure, blogging, and even a couple scenes of (well done) character- and plot-relevant sex in a page-turning package. Earlier this month, Carina Press published book two of The Stellarnet Series, Stellarnet Prince, and in this week’s edition of The Hardest Part, Hilton talks about the struggles of writing the sequel. Under deadline. And with the rest of a full life happening.

The Hardest Part: J.L. Hilton on Stellarnet Prince

With a sequel, an author has to walk a tightrope between context and clunky exposition, back story and boring, while avoiding the flaming faults of the first book and juggling its strengths. On a unicycle… of… deadlines. (Can I stop the circus metaphor now? I’m starting to hear creepy calliope music…) This is a challenge, to say the least, and some authors experience terrible writer’s block with sequels. Or so I’ve heard. I didn’t, but then Stellarnet Prince is the first second book I’ve ever written. There’s always next time.

I wrote my debut novel, Stellarnet Rebel, without the need to reintroduce characters or remind readers. I took my own sweet time building worlds, inventing an alien language, and figuring out how the hero sneaks into the military zone of Asteria Colony to steal a spaceship. When do the alarm bells go off? How many airmen are wounded in the process? Can he make it through the metal doors before they close? I need to research non-lethal weaponry, rubber bullets, flashbangs, shock poles… tomorrow.

But sequels come with unicycles. I mean deadlines. (There goes the music again.) I’d won a contract for Stellarnet Prince based on a partial and a synopsis, then had six months to add 75,000 words. And they had to be good words, too, dang it. So here’s where I mention I homeschool two children, am the founder of a local club and an annual charity event, and have a successful side business as a jewelry designer. I took two years writing and revising Stellarnet Rebel. But, no prob, I worked in newspapers. You learn to get shit done before midnight or you’re fired.

Given my full plate, constant interruptions are a hard part, but not the hardest part. I envy authors who can lock themselves away in a motel room or cabin. I haven’t sold enough books to be able to afford a good lock, let alone a secret Appalachian hideaway or a vacation. Plus, my husband would have to take time off from his job to stay with the kids, and I just can’t afford that much whiskey, either.

No, the very hardest part of Stellarnet Prince arrived unannounced around 80% completion, when my 7-year-old daughter said, “Are you almost finished with your book? Because I miss you, Mommy, the way you used to be.” Now imagine it with big, teary eyes and a trembling pout. Add a basket of starving kittens if it helps, because the way I felt, they might as well have been there.

Homeschooling, I spend all day with my children. But I understood what she meant. The way I used to watch movies with the family after dinner and she could snuggle in my lap. When I was available for bug slaying or Bandaid duty after 7pm. When I told her a bedtime story and sang her a song instead of just kissing her goodnight so I could get back to work.

After that, every time I closed my bedroom door to write, I thought about how she missed me. I couldn’t shake the feeling of… not guilt, exactly. Parental Responsibility grappling with Personal Reward? Existential angst? A Big Fricking Clock somewhere tickety ticking? Being seven years old only happens once, and then it’s gone. I can write for the rest of my life. I’ll never be as important to any reader as I am to my daughter right now. Balancing my love for her, and her ebullient love for me, with my love of writing is a more difficult act than the plotting, research or revisions of any sequel, because that tightrope runs right through my heart.

  • J.L. Hilton

Stellarnet Prince is available at a long list of ebook retailers as well as in audiobook, the latter available at Audible.com and iTunes, as well as Bookshare (for readers with disabilities).

Posted in The Hardest Part | Tagged jl hilton, stellarnet series, the hardest part

The Exploding Spaceship: Review of A.J. Hartley's Darwen Arkwright and the Insidious Bleck

Posted on 2012-11-19 at 18:32 by angelablackwell

[Editor’s note: The Exploding Spaceship is a new regular column by Gerald and Angela Blackwell, covering books, authors, events, and who knows what else.]

THE EXPLODING SPACESHIP: Review of Darwen Arkwright and the Insidious Bleck by A.J. Hartley — Volume 2 in the Darwen Arkwright series (Nov 2012, Razorbill)

The previous volume in the series (Darwen Arkwright and the Peregrine Pact) won the Southern Independent Booksellers Association’s Young Adult Book of the Year award for 2011. This series is an excellent choice for family reading. While it is aimed at grades 4-6, the story is very character-driven and complex enough for adults.

Darwen Arkwright and the Peregrine Pact Darwen Arkwright and the Insidious Bleck

Darwen and his friends at Hillside Academy in Atlanta, Georgia return for another adventure. Darwen’s life as a mirroculist (a person with the ability to detect and travel through magical mirrors) in the otherworldly land of Silbrica and his life at school intersect in a most unexpected way.

In the wake of the events in the first book, Darwen, an orphan from northern England who was sent to live with his aunt in the US, is still adjusting to life in Atlanta. He has made a couple of friends, Richard and Alexandra, but like many his age he isn’t very good at maintaining friendships.

Now a monster is kidnapping children and it will take Darwen and all his friends and allies in both worlds to stop it. Unfortunately for Darwen, telling enemies from allies proves difficult, particularly where the adults are concerned, so the kids are on their own with no one to advise them.

Set against the backdrop of a school field trip to Costa Rica, the kids have many new adventures, of both the fun and dangerous varieties, and they have to sift through local myths and legends to try and separate fact from fancy.

Overall, this is an exciting adventure which will keep readers guessing who will or will not survive. The villains are powerful, dangerous and very intelligent, so the heroes really have to rely on brains and teamwork to defeat them.  Darwen’s friendships develop further, but he has also made some powerful new enemies, so future times at Hillside Academy are sure to be anything but dull.

A.J. Hartley is a contributor to The Magical Words Blog at www.magicalwords.net.

The Exploding Spaceship is a new regular column by Gerald and Angela Blackwell, covering books, authors, events, and who knows what else. Their first contribution to the print version of Bull Spec, an interview with Baen publisher Toni Weisskopf, is forthcoming in issue #8.

Posted in The Exploding Spaceship | Tagged AJ Hartley, darwen arkwright, the exploding spaceship

Updated mid-November Flyer

Posted on 2012-11-18 at 16:44 by montsamu

Here’s the latest handout flyer, updated for mid-November distribution at NC Comicon at the Durham Convention Center. Day 1 was a huge success, and Day 2 is just getting underway:

But! Don’t print that, instead pick either the bw or color PDF. Also, I updated the holiday guide to include a few things that running into some folks at NC Comicon helped jog back into my memory. (Zack Smith’s digital comic, and the comic anthology Shakespeare Shaken which has multiple local contributors.)

Posted in flyers

Friday Quick Updates: Events and New Books

Posted on 2012-11-16 at 15:56 by montsamu

It’s a very packed weekend in terms of events, so let’s get to those first:

Meanwhile this week also saw two new local author ebook releases:
  • Stellarnet Prince by J.L. Hilton (Carina Press, Nov 12) -- Go go Jen! Kind of hard to believe but this is the second book where I've somehow been snuck onto the acknowledgement pages. Book one (Stellarnet Rebel) was a good mix of space sf, video games, blogger journalism, and alien cultures. The ebook was out Monday, and the audiobook was released Tuesday. I'm looking forward to seeing what's happened with Genny, Duin, and Belloc.
  • The Collected Kessel by John Kessel (Baen, Nov 15) -- Along with new DRM-free ebook editions of John's novels, here is a new collection of forty-two of his short stories, novelettes, and novellas, with all-new story notes. As I mentioned yesterday, the story notes have been fascinating to read, and there are quite a few stories I haven't seen reprinted before, across the more than three decades (so far, I say!) of a great American author's career. Here's where he's been and a bit on how he got there, and why.
Posted in Uncategorized

Release Day: The Collected Kessel

Posted on 2012-11-16 at 03:50 by montsamu

When Baen associate editor Laura Haywood-Cory sent me the following, my first response was an expletive. Not only has Baen re-released John Kessel's novels in DRM-free ebook formats, which would be noteworthy enough, they've also just published a huge collection of Kessel's short fiction, The Collected Kessel, comprising 42 of Kessel's stories including Nebula winners "Another Orphan" (novella, 1982) and "Pride and Prometheus" (novelette, 2008), and brand new story notes. My favorite of these so far comes from his notes on "Pride and Prometheus", which after giving the germination of the idea behind the Austen/Shelley mashup novelette, also says something quite interesting: "My career, in retrospect, has been to cross the sensibilities of literary fiction with those of pulp fiction, and this story is one way in which that impulse has expressed itself." Well, here are 42 stories (and the novels, too) which are the career, so far, of one of our American writing treasures. Cheers, John, and one of these days I'll get somebody to give me a little warning when something like this is coming...

Here's the press release from Baen:

Read more...
Posted in local-author-release-day | Tagged baen, garder dozois, john kessel

The Hardest Part: Michael Jasper on A Lasting Cure for Magic

Posted on 2012-11-15 at 03:18 by montsamu

Wake Forest author Michael Jasper has been writing and publishing stories and novels for quite a while now. A graduate of the 1996 Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Workshop and 1997 graduate of the North Carolina State Masters Program in Creative Writing, with his professional sf/f career beginning with “Mud and Salt” in L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Volume XVI in 2000. A collection (Gunning for the Buddha) and two novels (The Wannoshay Cycle and A Gathering of Doorways) followed later, after a turn as editor for the chapbook anthology Intracities, in which he published such writers as Jay Caselberg, Jay Lake, Claude Lalumière, Jason Erik Lundberg, Tim Pratt, and Melissa Yuan-Innes. Mike was very welcoming and supporting of the launch of Bull Spec, contributing an excerpt of A Gathering of Doorways in issue #1 and reading from another chapter at the magazine launch party. Here, he takes a look at writing yourself into a corner in the latest installment of The Hardest Part. —Sam

By Michael Jasper:

The trouble with painting yourself into a corner is that you don’t realize what you’ve done until you bump into the walls surrounding you.

Luckily, in most cases, you can catch yourself before it’s too late.

I did the literary version of this with the third book in my Contagious Magic trilogy, A Lasting Cure for Magic. The hardest part of writing that book was determining a way out of that corner, where I’d been stuck for a week or three, trying to move on without messing up the wet paint of my already-written chapters.

All painting analogies aside, what I finally realized was that I had to regain control of all my various characters and their needs, along with organizing the various plotlines from books one and two, and tying them all together in a satisfactory way in the third book.

But I’d never written a trilogy before, and the thought of reining in all those characters and their destinies made my head hurt.

Yes, I have one of those fantasy novels that requires a “Cast of Characters” section. For book two of the series, that list had thirty named characters in it. (Funny how giving a character a name gives them a certain significance, doesn’t it? So much more so than “Guy in the street” or “Lady with an angry dog”.)

I vowed for book three to Not Create More Characters. Instead, I wanted to focus on my main two characters, teenagers Kelley and Jeroan — they were the ones who discovered magic in Dubuque, Iowa, of all places. They needed the character development and the most compelling character arcs.

Also, I had all those other fun characters, and all these nifty magical events that I wanted to take place right here in the real world, during a few wintry days in January… And I wanted to add this… And then add that… (paint paint paint…)

So, the solution? I took a step back and made what I call chapter breakdowns.

I created a brand-new file and started a numbered list of all the chapters. Then, on the first line, I added the setting and the time, along with which character’s point-of-view we were in. I also added the page numbers in brackets on that first line, just to keep track of how long each chapter is, for pacing purposes.

The next lines under each chapter header were simply bullets that described — as succinctly as possible! — what happened in that chapter. I made myself write at least five bullet points per chapter. Some chapters had closer to ten. I did this for all 24 chapters (most of which I hadn’t written yet).

And then I added each chapter’s bulleted list to the chapter file, so I had my mini-outline right there, and I could write my way through each bullet.

It wasn’t rocket science, but it helped me get my focus back, and made the hard task of banging out a first draft much easier.

And really, that’s the secret of writing fiction — you find the best way to tell your current story as efficiently as possible. Hopefully, you won’t run into the same sort of thing on your next novel or story, but if you do, you’ll find the best way to get that one done, too. It’s all a learning process.

Now… where did I leave my paintbrush?

NOTE: Sam had originally asked me to write a Hardest Part entry about using the Audible Creation Exchange (ACX) to make an audiobook of the first novel in my Contagious Magic series, A Sudden Outbreak of Magic.

But try as I could come up with hard parts, I really couldn’t find any hard parts with the whole ACX process. It’s amazingly easy to use. Also, I got lucky and found a fantastic narrator, Alyson Grauer, right off the bat, and she was able to not only narrate the novel perfectly, but she nailed all the various characters’ voices. I found a whole new appreciation for my book as well as audiobooks in general after listening to her narration.

And now I’m happy to report that the audio version of A Sudden Outbreak of Magic is now available at Audible, Amazon, and iTunes. Hope you take a listen!

[editor’s note:]

After a turn writing the well-received digital comic In Maps & Legends, Mike put together the first edition of a since-updated and soon-to-be-updated-again guide to Formatting Comics for the Kindle and Nook; his experience in formats and self-publishing only begin there, with 73 stories available (quite a few sent up free in his Free Fiction Friday series of blog posts). He turned the experience of Formatting and Selling Ebooks into another guide for writers.

Posted in The Hardest Part | Tagged michael jasper

Tortilla Tuesday: Harry Tortilla "reviews" Reamde by Neal Stephenson (also a contest)

Posted on 2012-11-14 at 03:00 by montsamu

[Editor's note: Tortilla Tuesday will be a very irregular and quite irregular guest column from one Harry Tortilla, whose single-minded concern about the dangers of Omnicorp tends to, er, overly color his thoughts on fiction... Also: There is a simple-to-enter contest giveaway, details at the bottom, for the audiobook of Reamde.]

Reamde

By Harry Tortilla:

With the publication of Reamde, there can now be no further doubt that Neal Stephenson has been replaced by a cybernetic entity. A cybernetic entity able to narrate and string together a long series of events and simulated experiences supposedly undergone by “characters”, but that is incapable of doing so in any larger context of meaning or association. A cybernetic entity capable of only the crudest imitation of the science fiction novelist beloved by millions of readers around the world, and with seemingly no understanding that another being is meant to read this garbage; a human being no less, with friends, a spouse, a job, maybe a child or two. A human being who has been led to expect warmth, ideas, adventure and fun wrapped up in a neato sci-fi speculation by the original Neal Stephenson, a slightly arrogant looking dude with a beard and a sense of humor.

We’ll call this cybernetic entity “Neal2.0.”

Read more...
Posted in columns, harry tortilla | Tagged harry tortilla, neal stphenson, reamde

Friday Quick Updates: Nov 9th

Posted on 2012-11-09 at 21:40 by montsamu

First, this is something I’ve been meaning to talk more at length about all week: Raleigh journalist Zack Smith’s first published comic “The Stars Below” just hit digital shelves, with art by Portland artist Rich Ellis:

Zack first showed this to me over a year ago, and right away I was blown away by this powerful and actually moving story, told without words from a pigeon’s perspective in New York. I’m very glad it is out for a wider audience. It’s just a buck from Comixology, and of the list of impressive reviews he’s already accumulated, here’s one I think which takes the cake: “Here is the quintessential New York survivor’s story, told with warmth, humor and vibrancy.  And there’s even a chase scene.” -Junot Díaz (Drown, This is How You Lose Her, Pulitzer Prize Winner, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao).

Second, some great local publishing news as Angry Robot Books announced that it has signed local author Jay Posey to a 2-book deal for his Duskwalker Cycle set in a post-apocalyptic America. Congrats, Jay!

Lastly, some event reminders over the weekend and next week:

  • November 9 (Friday) — Granados at The Storytellers Bookstore in Wake Forest, during the town’s Art after Hours event.
  • 9-12 (Friday to Monday) — The Rocky Horror Show at the Carrboro ArtsCenter, presented by Pauper Players. Tickets: http://www.etix.com/ticket/online/eventSearch.jsp?event_id=570503&cobrand=artscenter
  • 10 (Saturday) 11 am — McIntyre’s Books hosts Ilie Ruby for her second novel, The Salt God’s Daughter, “Imbued with a traditional Scottish folktale and hints of Jewish mysticism”. More info: http://www.fearrington.com/village/calendar.asp?month=11&year=2012
  • 12 (Monday) 7 pm — Durham author Nathan Kotecki visits The Regulator Bookshop for a reading and signing of The Suburban Strange. More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/241877642602182/
  • 12 — Local author new novel: J.L. Hilton’s Stellarnet Prince, sequel to January’s Stellarnet Rebel, to be published by Carina Press.
  • 13 (Tuesday) 7:30 pm — Granados at Chapel Hill’s Flyleaf Books.
  • 15 (Thursday) 7 pm — Granados at Durham’s The Regulator Bookshop.
  • 16 (Friday) 6:30 pm: (Non-genre event) McIntyre’s Books hosts bestselling Norwegian thriller novelist Jo Nesbo. More info: http://www.fearrington.com/village/event.asp?id=2317
  • 17 (Saturday) 3 pm — Quail Ridge Books hosts Morgan Keyes for a reading and signing of new “ages 10 and up” fantasy novel, Darkbeast. More info: http://www.quailridgebooks.com/event/morgan-keyes-new-fantasy-darkbeast
  • 17 (Saturday) 8 to 10 pm — Pittsboro’s Davenport and Winkleperry hosts a book release party for “A Steampunk’s Guide to Sex” with local contributors: https://www.facebook.com/events/462488663795324/
  • 17-18 (Saturday and Sunday) — NC Comicon at the Durham Convention Center with a long list of guests: http://nccomicon.com/
  • 19 (Monday) 6:30 pm — Local author Mark L. Van Name will host a NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) related writing workshop at the Cameron Village Library.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged alex granados, jay posey, zack smith
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