New Venture

I admit, since becoming a full-time writer for hire I have been keeping a lot of secrets. Occupational hazard, I guess, but never worry -- I'm doing quite well as a ghost writer. In addition to being employed full-time since October, I have been building a list of terrific clients, and recently landed a series project that will keep me a very happy scribe for the next couple of months. I've also been working on a franchise project that I think is going to change things for the better around here.

Yes, change is inevitable, but this one is almost imperative. PBW has always been about the fun of writing, and I think we need more of that. The problem is that writers are always so isolated and serious and forever wrestling our demons and whatnot that we forget to set aside some happy us-time. It's depressing. We need to get out and hang together and forget about all that editing and characterization stuff. I mean really, who needs to spend five hours deciding to go with Courier New or Times New Roman, or if Jessica should have violet-rimmed emerald green eyes, or soulful chocolate brown with just a hint of amber-tangerine sparkle?

To bring more writers together and promote the good times we should be having I am opening a chain of publishing study centers where we can commune over the really important stuff. I'm also revamping the blog to promote my new venture. Here's a sneak peek at the new banner:



Yes, from this day on PBW will stand for what writers really need: Pizza, Beer, and Wings. Because this is the ultimate triumvirate; the cure for every single one of our writing problems. Can't figure out if you're writing an urban or epic fantasy? Come down and have a large pepperoni with extra cheese. A pitcher of our fabulous house ale can cure any rejection woes and could help you compose an interesting thanks-for-bouncing-me-bitch reply. And for that writer friend of yours who just got the six figure contract for their debut novel we recommend a double order of our new ghost pepper extra-hellish wings (which can also be shipped to the ingrate in one of our Punishment/Preparation congrats basket.)

I know, you're all saying "Why didn't I think of this?"



Everyone excited? So am I. But you do know what day it is, right?

Image Credits: The real Pizza Beer & Wings

Discover Your Story

As a storyteller and a fan of all things archaeology I'm fascinated when treasures from the past are unearthed. Lately there have been some stunning discoveries in the news, too:

Hidden fortress found beneath Alcatraz

Nine Manuscripts Discovered in Qumran Artifacts

Northern California couple discover cans filled with 19th century gold coins

These news items are particular stupendous: A Civil War fortress we didn't know still existed, nine more manuscript scrolls from the Dead Sea caves that have never been seen, and ten million dollars' worth of 19th-century gold coins hidden in a bunch of buried tin cans. In addition to the wealth of knowledge these discoveries will provide, they also offer some exceptional possibilities as story inspiration.

Take the Alcatraz find, for example. If they excavate, what else might they uncover down there? Could someone have been using it in the more recent past, perhaps? And why would you build a prison on top of a Civil War fortress, for that matter (were they trying to keep something else from escaping?)

Those nine newly-discovered scrolls likewise have great story potential. What if instead of scripture they contain some wonderful -- or terrible -- secrets? What if we were never meant to find them? I've used an ancient scroll as a story-telling device, and I can tell you from experience that playing with ancient media is as fun as it is inspiring.

Obviously ten million in gold coins is a truly life-transformative find for that happy couple. But what if your protagonist was the one to find them, or (if you're writing a historical) bury them? Even back in the 19th century, that was a heck of a lot of money to hide. What if those coins were connected to a particular historic event, the details of which will now be altered by their reappearance?

Every storyteller will answer those questions differently, which is the other cool thing about using discovery news for inspiration -- your imagination will provide the unique spin you need to change it from fact to fiction. So make it a habit to check out your favorite news feed or paper, and search for discoveries -- you might just uncover something pretty wonderful for your next story.

Over at Disenchanted & Co.

I'm making some changes to the Disenchanted & Co. series blog; stop by today if you get a chance to see what's new and what to expect in the months ahead.

Potter & More

I finally had a chance to look at J.K. Rowling's Pottermore, which has been sending shockwaves as well as lots of speculation through the industry since it materialized. Not much to see at this point, although the news folks claim that the author is cutting off publishers and booksellers from taking a slice of the profits while using it to release e-book versions of her phenomenal series and offer some sort of interactive experience for readers. However it turns out, I think it's an interesting experiment, potentially an enormous cash machine, and certainly a great way to hang onto the worldwide online readership and their love for all things Harry.

Amazon.com finally brings the questionable ethics of compensated blurbing out into the open by offering to authors promotion in exchange for cover quotes. It's basically the one hand washing the other approach; you review their book, and they'll promote yours. Which is no different than the reciprocal and buddy blurbing that has been going on behind the scenes in the industry practically forever; they're just being upfront about it.

The bootleggers are now making book videos in order to promote pirated copies via YouTube (and no, I'm not going to link to the jerk I found doing it.) An image of the cover art is shown along with a brief message about downloading the book for free and what kind of formats are offered, and the actual link to the bootleg is listed in the video description area. To find out if your copyright is being violated by one of these pinheads, do a You Tube search with your psuedonym and/or your book title.

This and That

I went looking around for online events to link to for those who are wisely avoiding RWA National next week, but unfortunately I found zip except for Romance Divas, who appear to still be holding their annual Not Going to the Conference Conference; registration at their site required. If anyone knows of any free online events being held for those who aren't going, please list a link in comments and I'll add it to this post.

Added: Author Alison Kent is giving away writing books over at her blog here, hooray!

Several people have e-mailed to ask if I would start hosting my Left Behind & Loving It virtual conference again. My reasons for ending it back in 2009 remain the same.

Access Romance blog is closing its doors as of June 30, 2011. As a consolation offering it appears they're giving away boxes of books, so if you'd like a chance to win some, head over and leave a comment.

Finally, yes, I can confirm that the title for my first novel in the new Lords of the Darkyn trilogy is indeed Nightborn. I had planned to announce it here as soon as I had some cover art to show you, but the book got moved up on the release schedule, my publisher put it up for pre-order on Amazon.com and evidently someone out there in NetPubLand spilled the beans.

Sorry the newsy bits are mostly depressing. Does anyone have any happy news to share? Let us know in comments.

Newsy Bits

NY Time bestselling author Bob Mayer has joined the line-up over at my group blog, Genreality, and his first post is already up.

Google has this image search thing called Image Swirl that is currently in demo stage, but looks pretty neat; evidently it's set up to operate a bit like ThinkMap's Visual Thesaurus (link swiped from The Presurfer.)

I'm going to be doing some blog renovations during the month of December, when I'll also be wrapping up my 2009 online art project, PBWindow. While I won't be posting every day after 12/31/09, I am going to keep the photoblog and post to it whenever I have something interesting or fun to share.

Anyone besides me and the kids going to see New Moon this weekend?

Updates

According to my SF editor, Dream Called Time, the tenth and final StarDoc novel, will be released in August 2010.

The pitch for my third Kyndred book (title pending approval) has been accepted, and it will be a crossover Kyndred/Darkyn novel (and to avoid spoilers that's all I'm going to say about it for now), tentatively scheduled for release in late 2010.

Last but not least, I feel that the Shadowlight e-ARC experiment was a great success. I've never had a book place so high on the Times list, and I'm sure a nice chunk of my sales were due to the immediate response from my visitors and their help spreading the word about the book, which was simply outstanding. Here is the last round of reviews and write-ups that were sent in to me:

Amazon.com reviews: Margaret Fisk ~ Zeek ~ Nina Paules ~ C. Stone ~ C. Vandehey ~ Harriet Klausner

Amazon.com.uk/Margaret, also on The Book Depository

B&N.com reviews (the ones I could view): Margaet Fisk ~ Npaules ~ 4kidsmom ~ Debra_ Saturday ~ Nemhain ~ harstan ~ Zeek319 ~ lxz ~ CatsMeowAZ ~ Chad ~ Pandababy ~ Madonna_lily

The Drabbler/Robin

Erotic Horizon, also on Goodreads

Literaturely Speaking/Breia

Shiloh Walker

The Writing Playground/Danniele Worsham

PBW-1, H1N1-0

An update for those of you who are worrying: Kat is out of the woods, and after a week and a half of pretty much constant/heavy exposure, I tested negative for H1N1 (I got all my shots, but I've also had so many types of flu over the years that I'm probably naturally immune.) We'd toss confetti and pop open a few Pepsis, but we're too tired to do anything but whimper a little gratitude to the Almighty for watching over our little girl.

According to our pediatrician this bug is spreading like wildfire through the schools throughout the nation because -- as always -- even when kids are sick, parents are still sending them in. If the H1N1 vaccine is available in your area, I'd consider taking advantage of it, and if your child or a family member are ill, please keep them home and away from healthy people.

Thank you for all the lovely notes that I have not replied to yet but will once I get caught up. I should have some news shortly to wrap up the Times Pool contest, which I will be closing as soon as I hear, so if you haven't entered but would like to, best jump on that asap.

Last but not least, I sold three more books last week (okay, my agent did while I was running around to doctors and administering Tamiflu, but it still counts.) It's a neat new deal, new publisher, and a new genre. I'll have more details as soon as I've talked to my new editor.

Other Newsy Bits

With many misgivings I finally downloaded B&N.com's free eReader software to see how much of a free sample they are giving away of the e-book version of Crystal Healer. It's stored in their online library and you can access about 21 pages of front material (quotes, titles, copyright page, etc.) but only 4 pages of chapter one. I also got a bunch of stuff in my online library that I didn't want, namely all the public domain novels they touted as freebies during their launch. If this big brother approach is the direction e-readers are going, I'm definitely not jumping on the bandwagon.

Related to our discussion on the Book-o-Mat, On Demand has a promotional video on YouTube here that relates the specs on and demos the operation of their 2.0 version of the Espresso Book Machine. Kind of hypnotic to watch, actually.

Lulu has taken over Poetry.com*: "Lulu Poetry is about winning prizes and recognition for your poems, creating and selling beautiful books of your poetry, and learning tips and tricks from other enthusiastic poets just like you." I hope they don't pick up where the old Poetry.com left off.

Another very bright glimmer of what's ahead on the electronic horizon -- a fusion of internet, video and book: Vook.

*via Absolute Write

Caught in the Rye

J.D. Salinger, author of Catcher in the Rye, is once more battling to protect his work. This time his lawyers are trying to block U.S. publication of a novel that has already been touted as "the sequel" to his very famous book. Salinger's literary agent believes a sequel to her client's novel would be worth a $5 million advance. The defendent is claiming the work is effective criticism of Salinger and thus protected by the First Ammendment (although the judge seems to be having trouble finding the critical parts.) The original Catcher has sold over 35 million copies since its publication in 1951.

The reclusive Salinger, who according to the article is now 90 years old, completely deaf, and currently undergoing treatment for a broken hip, has not published any new works since the early sixties. Catcher is his only published novel.

In a similar case concerning copyright law, Alice Randall wrote The Wind Done Gone, a version of Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind told from a slave's point of view. The book was published and was on the bestseller lists for weeks, but Houghton Mifflin, Randall's publisher, was obliged to make an undisclosed financial settlement agreement with lawyers for Mitchell's estate. I liked how Morehouse College ended up benefitting from that one.

It's interested to see how these cases play out. I kinda doubt Mr. Salinger is going to win, but you never know. Btw, I would have quoted from the original AP release, but then I'd have to pay them $25.00. Which I find beautifully ironic.

I think instead I'll take my money to the book store and buy a new copy of Catcher in the Rye -- the original.

Update

I promised I'd let you all know the fate of the StarDoc series, as Crystal Healer, book nine, finished my current contract. I now know what will happen to book ten.

But before I get into that, I'd like to look back at the first nine books, which span the entire length of my pro career:



This saga began with my first published novel, StarDoc. A science fiction series with miniscule print runs, no publisher support and a completely unknown author faces overwhelming odds, and yet somehow it became a genre bestseller from book one. That sounds great, but what it translates to is that all of the first five books earned out and made a modest profit, but never strayed beyond the midlist.

Midlist wasn't good enough. The publisher decided without telling me that they would shut down the series after book five. I wasn't finished, however, and the readers also refused to accept it. They wrote letters and e-mails, and otherwise made trouble. It didn't make a difference to the publisher, but it did to me. My readers didn't give up on me, and I couldn't give up on them.

They spread the word, kept me writing StarDoc stories for them and believing we could bring back the print books someday. It was a hopeless battle, of course. For the next four years, using word of mouth alone, my readership kept the series alive. Although no new StarDoc books were published from 2002-2006, my readers kept the faith, passed along my free stories, pestered their friends to read the books, expanded my readership, and gradually built up my sales numbers for the first five books, enough to keep them in print. In time they built them up enough to prompt the publisher to offer me a new contract for two new books, and then two more.

So what is the publisher going to do about book ten? You all know how my luck goes -- mostly from bad to worse. SF as a genre has never sold well, and with the way the industry is right now, the midlist doesn't sell enough to make it worth most publishers' time and money. And selling the tenth book of a SF series . . .

Well, as it turns out, not all my luck is bad.

Sold yesterday: StarDoc book ten, title and publication date to be revealed (hopefully) in the near future, to Roc SF/F.

I've been so quietly stressed out about this book that I'm kinda in shock. I'm not sure what it means, other than I can finally finish the series, and my loyal readers get to see the last book in print.

I'm kidding. After all these years, and so much disappointment, and so many hopeless battles, I do know what it means. It means two words. Two words I've waited seven years to say about this ordeal. Two words that as a midlist science fiction author I was never supposed to say. Two words that I'd really like to tattoo on a few jackasses, but I'll settle for just writing them here:

We win.

The New Venture

The agent e-mailed me tonight to let me know that yes, several publishers are interested in providing financial backing for my new venture. So I think it's safe to finally unveil the project: a brand new web site devoted to exposing the most serious problems affecting the publishing industry today.

I think the title says it all: Bootleggers, Buzzkillers and Blurb Sluts

Has a nice ring to it, don't you think? Kind of like lions and tigers and bears, only without the fur. Anyway, my new web site will be devoted to hunting down, exposing and perpetually plaguing the three Bs, who are of course the root of all evil in our industry. Here's a look at some of the debut week articles:

Meet Your Favorite Bootlegger!: Names and addresses of those misguided souls who illegally scan and post print books online, along with driving directions and car pool forums for authors who want to go as a group to talk to multiple offenders.

A Day at Work with the Buzzkiller: How to organize a protest rally at your favorite buzzkiller's workplace, and let their boss know what they've been doing on their work computer when they were supposed to be balancing out those toilet seat accounts.

Correcting the Blurb Sluts: Sharpie marker giveaways all month so you can black out the b.s. quotes from cronies on the covers of all those over-hyped underwritten books. Markers also come in handy when you want to draw funny mustaches on the blurb slut's book jacket photo.

Bonus: Interview with a Buzzkiller! Find out why Ms. Anonymous really posted 978 one-star reviews on Amazon.com last month, just as soon as we find her, tackle her and threaten to tickle her until she confesses.

I can't wait to get started on this, frankly, because it's the kind of work I was meant to do. Yes, I know, I'll have to give up writing novels, change my name, dye my hair and live in a small village that has no indoor plumbing in France to escape persecution, but the work is so important I feel that any and all sacrifices on my part are simply worth it.

As soon as Bootleggers, Buzzkillers and Blurb Sluts goes live you guys will be the first to know. In the meantime, cross your fingers, wish me luck and mark this date on your calendar. You do know what day it is, right?

Publishing in the Time of Cholera

You know, some day I am going to have to read Gabriel García Márquez. If only to admire the major cajones it takes for an author to set a romance during a time when everyone is suffering from acute bacterial-induced diarrheal illness.

I promised you announcements and news, didn't I? First, the news: Omega Games, StarDoc book eight, has been accepted by my editor, so that's a done deal. I'm hoping to soon hear the same with Twilight Fall, as I've turned in the revisions for that one.

Speaking of Valentin:



My editor has requested some changes, and I'll probably suggest two minor tweaks, but this is basically what the cover will look like. I'm quite happy with it; they've altered some of the elements but it still carries on the originality of the series cover art theme.

Announcements: Over the next couple of weeks, PBW will be undergoing some blog renovation. Among the changes I'm making will be updated links and category indexes for the Friday 20 and the freeware and online tools for writers collection.

One of my policies here at PBW is that I've never allowed advertising, and that includes advertising from my own publishers. Due to the high cost of self-promotion, which most writers can't afford, and the ridiculous prices popular bloggers are charging for ad space, I'm going to amend that policy in 2008 and begin a new monthly feature.

PBW's Release Co-op will allow authors who blog to post on PBW weblog links, cover thumbnails, brief announcements and links to online bookseller sites where readers can purchase their new releases. This feature is not open to publishers, publicists, book buyers, editors or agents, but any author who blogs regardless of genre, content or publisher can make use of it with no strings and at no charge whatsoever. I'll post more on the particulars as I put it together.

On the current blog content, for the rest of 2007 I'll probably skip the usual feature schedule I've had over the last couple of years and just post whatever appeals to me on that day. I've never been much of a pantser blogger, but I think it will be good for me to break up the routine.

That's all for now. I hope you'll stop by again and see what other trouble I can stir up in the weeks ahead.

Friday Free Space

I'm still catching up on e-mail, snail mail, and comments from our discussion of my current dilemma, so no Friday 20 this week.

One odd thing happened at the house -- something moved into the birdhouse and chewed away the side of the entrance to make it larger. From the soccerball-style nest it's built inside, I'm going to guess squirrel, but experience has taught me never to assume anything. I'll try to catch the new tenant on film this weekend.

I'd like to hear what you all have been up to lately. Writers, I know some of you are working into the second week of NaNoWriMo, how's that going? Authors, do you have any new or upcoming releases? Readers, what books are you enjoying? Let us know in comments.

News

The latest news from Lynn: Her dad Tony is getting better, but his next surgery won't be until some time in March. She'll be back online soon.

Lynn's agent sold two new Darkyn novels to N.A.L., which is going to make my wife very happy. Lynn, if you want to make me happy, sell some more Stardoc books. An editor has made an offer to reprint the post Strange Fruit for a writing book. Lynn said she knew those mutant citrus would somehow make it into print.

- Tom