Somewhere, my English teacher Ms. Jane Forshaw is crying real tears.
I just watched Smashwords upload my Word document and churn it through Meatgrinder. The result?
Renewal, by Alan Parr
I'm so happy! This is my first work of fiction (I've published non-fiction work before) and this book was my baby for a long time. I started writing last summer and got stuck, and put my story away. In April this year, I took it out again and liked what I had written (always a good thing when it happens, which is not always) and knew where the story wanted to go. I just had to write it all down.
Renewal is the first book in a series that looks at Humanity's relationship with Technology (a slippery affair at best) as viewed through the experiences of a boy called Stig and his iFriend. It is a humorous science fiction and fantasy story, simply because those are the kinds of books I like to read.
So today is a happy day, and I will kickback and enjoy a glass of wine tonight, and consider the misty future through a rose-colored blindfold. And now Ms. Forshaw, I have to ask why you never taught me anything about marketing my stories once they were published?
Saturday, August 27, 2011
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Shine A Little Light On Me
What are you doing right now?
Me? I'm working harder than ever, taking personal and emotional risks, and having fun doing it. Yes, it's scary to take something you have created and expose it to the unmoderated criticism of the general public. But what's the alternative? To avoid it, and live the life unexamined? No thanks.
You need to remember that there's a lot of fear built in to any personal project: fear of criticism, fear of failure, fear of wasting your goddamn time when you could be doing so many other things with all of those hours spent locked away scribbling. But what else are you going to do with your idea, your project? Remember this too: most projects start out with fear; the fear of the blank page (or the White Room as Twyla Tharpe calls it) exists for a lot of people. It's real.
I've crossed this bridge before: I'm also an artist. Every time I finish a piece of work, I have to show it to people. Art is to be shared - in fact, art is to be given away. That's where it's value lies, in spreading ideas, and that's true of books too. Maybe you've never thought of your work as art before, but it's true. Perhaps your work is not what you would consider to be high art (Stephen King, an author I love dearly, described himself as the literary equivalent of a Big Mac and fries) but your work is art. It's your art. Shine a little light on it.
Me? I'm working harder than ever, taking personal and emotional risks, and having fun doing it. Yes, it's scary to take something you have created and expose it to the unmoderated criticism of the general public. But what's the alternative? To avoid it, and live the life unexamined? No thanks.
You need to remember that there's a lot of fear built in to any personal project: fear of criticism, fear of failure, fear of wasting your goddamn time when you could be doing so many other things with all of those hours spent locked away scribbling. But what else are you going to do with your idea, your project? Remember this too: most projects start out with fear; the fear of the blank page (or the White Room as Twyla Tharpe calls it) exists for a lot of people. It's real.
I've crossed this bridge before: I'm also an artist. Every time I finish a piece of work, I have to show it to people. Art is to be shared - in fact, art is to be given away. That's where it's value lies, in spreading ideas, and that's true of books too. Maybe you've never thought of your work as art before, but it's true. Perhaps your work is not what you would consider to be high art (Stephen King, an author I love dearly, described himself as the literary equivalent of a Big Mac and fries) but your work is art. It's your art. Shine a little light on it.
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Book Cover
This will be a very quick post - almost a teaser - but I'm very excited about the draft of the book cover for my new book "Renewal" and wanted to share. I think it turned out great!
Lev Grossman on MPR Midmorning
My wife left a message on my phone Tuesday morning saying, "You've got to listen to MPR, there's this author and he's talking about fantasy books and they're listing all the same authors you read!"
Unfortunately, I was in a meeting and light years from being able to listen to the Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) Midmorning broadcast with Kerr Miller. If you missed it too, here's your chance to listen to Kerri interview Lev Grossman.
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2011/08/16/midmorning2/
Lev Grossman is both an author and a book critic. His latest book is The Magician King, and you can read more about Lev on his blog.
I loved this interview. Not only was Lev entertaining (it might be an interview to Lev and Kerri, but it's still entertainment to the rest of us) but he also said some very interesting things about science fiction and fantasy, things that rang true for me as I'm working on my books.
Some of my favorite quotes from this interview include: "Fiction is the place where the mind can play..." and "These [fantasy] books are about dealing with reality..." and "... fantasy isn't escapism, it's a new, fresh way of looking at old problems... certainly fantasy engages really well with social questions and political questions... it is a good tool for people to use to grapple with this kind of social disorder."
The interview also contains many fine suggestions for sf/fantasy books, including Susanna Clarke's "Jonathan Strange & MR. Norell" which I am now reading - how is that I am only hearing about this book now?
Interesting author, great interview. Check it out!
Unfortunately, I was in a meeting and light years from being able to listen to the Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) Midmorning broadcast with Kerr Miller. If you missed it too, here's your chance to listen to Kerri interview Lev Grossman.
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2011/08/16/midmorning2/
Lev Grossman is both an author and a book critic. His latest book is The Magician King, and you can read more about Lev on his blog.
I loved this interview. Not only was Lev entertaining (it might be an interview to Lev and Kerri, but it's still entertainment to the rest of us) but he also said some very interesting things about science fiction and fantasy, things that rang true for me as I'm working on my books.
Some of my favorite quotes from this interview include: "Fiction is the place where the mind can play..." and "These [fantasy] books are about dealing with reality..." and "... fantasy isn't escapism, it's a new, fresh way of looking at old problems... certainly fantasy engages really well with social questions and political questions... it is a good tool for people to use to grapple with this kind of social disorder."
The interview also contains many fine suggestions for sf/fantasy books, including Susanna Clarke's "Jonathan Strange & MR. Norell" which I am now reading - how is that I am only hearing about this book now?
Interesting author, great interview. Check it out!
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Wringing Out the Changes
The best stories change over time. Why bother reading something when you already know what it says?
What I'm talking about is the popularity of the multi-book series. Sure, there are truly great one-off stories - To Kill A Mocking Bird is a prime example. It's unique and wonderful. But if you examine what people are reading today, you'll see a number of series and this is particularly true in my preferred genre of sci-fi/fantasy for young adults. Ever wondered why?
Humans have a balanced need for the expected and the unexpected. It's built into us, it's how we operate, and it comes through in our reading habits. We may read the same author over a series of books, because we like the author's style and we come to expect certain things in those books. But each book is different - that's the unexpected part, right? We like surprise. We would never read the same book by an author over and over again. Boring. But we like to read a continuation of a favorite story, don't we? The Harry Potter books, the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the Aubrey/Maturin novels, and Amanda Hocking's trilogies are all fine examples. We read these series because they balance the expected - the characters, settings, themes, and tones that we love - with the unexpected narrative twists. If the authors made more of them, we'd read those too, no question.
The best stories change in ways that fascinate, that are fun or interesting; they change in ways that make us want to talk about them.
So why am I spending time telling you about this? Well, it's simply because I am currently working on the second book of a trilogy. And I'm working on the second book before the first book is even published because I want to make sure I manage to balance the tone, maintain my characters and settings, manage to keep the expected in both books while cranking out a story that is new and fresh and unexpected. The two have to connect on some level. It's not as easy as I thought. To make matters worse, I'm already sowing the seeds of the plot for book three in book two, building a bridge that will cross the theme of all three stories. Fun but challenging.
It all comes down to the above: finding ways to forge a stories about a single concept (theme, characters etc.) that change in ways that delight and make people want to talk about them. I want to write great books and have fun, that's all.
I would love to hear from writers that have produced multi-book stories (no matter the genre) and learn about their experiences. How do you make things come together? Feel free to drop me a line here.
What I'm talking about is the popularity of the multi-book series. Sure, there are truly great one-off stories - To Kill A Mocking Bird is a prime example. It's unique and wonderful. But if you examine what people are reading today, you'll see a number of series and this is particularly true in my preferred genre of sci-fi/fantasy for young adults. Ever wondered why?
Humans have a balanced need for the expected and the unexpected. It's built into us, it's how we operate, and it comes through in our reading habits. We may read the same author over a series of books, because we like the author's style and we come to expect certain things in those books. But each book is different - that's the unexpected part, right? We like surprise. We would never read the same book by an author over and over again. Boring. But we like to read a continuation of a favorite story, don't we? The Harry Potter books, the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the Aubrey/Maturin novels, and Amanda Hocking's trilogies are all fine examples. We read these series because they balance the expected - the characters, settings, themes, and tones that we love - with the unexpected narrative twists. If the authors made more of them, we'd read those too, no question.
The best stories change in ways that fascinate, that are fun or interesting; they change in ways that make us want to talk about them.
So why am I spending time telling you about this? Well, it's simply because I am currently working on the second book of a trilogy. And I'm working on the second book before the first book is even published because I want to make sure I manage to balance the tone, maintain my characters and settings, manage to keep the expected in both books while cranking out a story that is new and fresh and unexpected. The two have to connect on some level. It's not as easy as I thought. To make matters worse, I'm already sowing the seeds of the plot for book three in book two, building a bridge that will cross the theme of all three stories. Fun but challenging.
It all comes down to the above: finding ways to forge a stories about a single concept (theme, characters etc.) that change in ways that delight and make people want to talk about them. I want to write great books and have fun, that's all.
I would love to hear from writers that have produced multi-book stories (no matter the genre) and learn about their experiences. How do you make things come together? Feel free to drop me a line here.
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