You Only Live Twice…Things Done 2x May 24, 2012
Posted by bobv451 in autographing, business, charity, conventions, fantasy, iPad, steampunk, writing.add a comment
Thanks to Mike Stackpole for letting me sit in for him again (even though he was there) at his office hours last night. But the title of this blog is things done twice. I will be reading in Second Life (second time in 2 days) tonight for Relay For Life. Which is the second time I have participated. Come by at 6PM SLT for my reading of a short story, “Memory of Wind.” Maybe even contribute a few pennies for cancer research.
In response to my “Strategy and Tactics” blogpost of a few days ago, I received this from Copyblogger. Sonia Simon has written an article on “the difference between ‘work’ and work that moves you toward your goals.’” Good stuff in the article and in general on Copyblogger.
For some reason the term “sprocket watch” keeps rattling around in my head. Sounds rather steampunkish. Might just be in anticipation of Steve Sullivan posting his entry into Empires of Steam and Rust–this will be passage two.
Also my second gig at Albuquerque Comic Expo is coming up fast. Get your tickets now!
The burdens of work hardly qualifies as 2x since it is pretty much constant. I need to get the story I’ll read tonight all gussied up and into epub format so I can read it off the iPad and not drop pages like I did last time I read. On this note I leave you with a Calvin and Hobbes that seems especially appropriate
Calvin the writer, waiting for his Muse
Reading Writing May 18, 2012
Posted by bobv451 in autographing, charity, conventions, fantasy, Free, writing.add a comment
The value of autographings has been a subject of discussion here, with the vague conclusion that it benefits the bookstore more than the writer. And many bookstores look on them as a hassle and not worth the effort (I have 2 autographings next month here in Albuquerque, both as Jackson Lowry–the first at Page One on June 13 and the next at B&N Coronado on June 15.) (And a couple all day signings as yhos at Albuquerque Comic Expo June 8-10) Busy week in June.
But prior to that is a form of autographing that doesn’t require anyone to put out money, though in this case I hope many of you do. I will be reading a first draft of my short story, “Memory of Wind,” in Second Life as part of the Relay For Life, donations to benefit cancer research. I’ll post a location in SL later but the date is 24 May at 6PM SLT.
I am not a fan of readings and don’t think I am all that good doing it, but this is for a worthwhile charity (as opposed to the BLFM fund–that stands for Better Lunches For Me. Send me lots of money so I can eat better! After donating to Relay for Life.) Why do you like to hear an author read? Some authors, notably Harlan, don’t read as much as they perform. One thing this is going to force me to do is keep all those fantasy names pronounceable The worst title I ever came up with was Beasts of the Mist. I cannot say that without lisping.
For those of you who can’t make it to the SL reading, I’ll have a page on my website after Sunday with the text of “Memory of Wind.” That story, btw, is being submitted to an original anthology. Fingers crossed on its reception. I am batting .500 selling here. This could push me to .667 sales or drop me to .333. Either of those is pretty good for the majors, I am told.
This cartoon caught my fancy today. Makes me want to replace my tinfoil hat.
One Writer’s Journey: A Guest Blog By Scott Gamboe May 11, 2012
Posted by bobv451 in business, contest, e-books, fantasy, sci-fi, science fiction, writing.1 comment so far
Almost six years ago, my first published novel hit the shelves of bookstores across the country. Several years had passed between the first day I put pen to paper, and the day that book was rolled out. Now, six years and five novels later, I find myself looking back at the path that brought me to where I am today.
A quick bio about me: I currently work as a police officer in central Illinois, where I serve as a crime scene investigator and traffic accident reconstructionist. I live in Peoria with my wife, Jill, and my daughter, Erica. I spent four years in the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division, where I participated in the parachute invasion of Panama in 1989, and the First Gulf War in 1990-91. I recently got involved in running. Last year, I ran my first marathon. This year, I have my sights set on a Half Ironman Triathlon: swim 1.2 miles, bike 56 miles, and run 13.1 miles. And from there . . . who knows!
I started writing The Killing Frost (science fiction) in 1995. Off and on, for the next several years, I wrote bits and pieces of what would become my first novel. Eventually, after a complete and very thorough rewrite, Medallion Press agreed to publish my book. We signed the contract in December of 2005, and the book was released nine months later. I attacked my second book much harder. After all, I was getting paid to do this now! In 2008, the result of my efforts was The Piaras Legacy, a medieval fantasy novel. Medallion Press picked this one up as well, and they secured the incredibly talented Dave Dorman to create the cover art. For those who don’t know him, Mr. Dorman has worked with George Lucas, creating artwork for Star Wars and Raiders Of The Lost Ark. I followed this one up in 2009 with New Dawn Rising, the sequel to Frost.
This is where my publishing life took an unexpected turn. Medallion Press changed their format. They were no longer interested in what I was writing. In fact, they switched almost entirely to ebooks. We agreed to part ways, and we remain on friendly terms. I will always appreciate MP for giving me my first shot at publishing.
But this left me back where I started: no publisher, and no agent. Over the next few years, I searched for a new home for my work, all the while continuing to pump out novels: Archon’s Gate, the sequel to The Piaras Legacy. Martyr’s Inferno, a police thriller. A Matter Of Faith (unpublished), medieval fantasy. The First Gambit (unpublished, but under submission), from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. And a science fiction vampire novel, 14 Days ‘Til Dawn. The plots for two more novels, a sequel to my thriller and a standalone contemporary adventure, are bouncing around in my head. But where would I publish these books?
Enter Amazon and the Kindle Store. Just as the iTunes Store revolutionized the music industry, Amazon has changed the way we buy books. But it also changed the way we publish. No longer are agents and editors the gatekeepers that can make or break an author’s chance at success. The main benefit to Amazon’s new system is that anyone can publish their novel. The main problem: anyone can publish their novel. With no gatekeeper, books that should never have seen the light of day end up side-by-side with literary masterpieces. This leaves authors struggling to get their work noticed.
I published three books on Amazon: Martyr’s Inferno, Archon’s Gate, and most recently, 14 Day’s Til Dawn. I have high hopes for this last one, and it has nothing to do with the current vampire craze. Actually, the idea came to me while listening to a Tom Petty song, “Freefalling.” The second verse provided me with my story: “And all the vampires walking through the valley; move west down Ventura Boulevard.” Why would vampires move west? To get away from the sun! The next thing I knew, I had a flying city filled with vampires, orbiting a moon in the Alpha Centauri system. The moon has a four-week rotation period, so the nights last for two weeks. Where could you find a better place for vampires?
I’d like to thank Bob Vardeman for graciously allowing me to post a few words on his blog. I’ve been reading his books since the early 1980′s, so it was quite a thrill for me when he agreed to write a blurb for The Piaras Legacy. He has offered me his help a number of times, most recently by promoting my Kindle Fire giveaway. My next contest: three winners will receive autographed copies of all six of my published novels. To enter, you need only post a review of 14 Days on Amazon, then notify me by email. The winner will be drawn on July 15.
Thank you, and keep reading! If you are interested in learning more about me, or my books, you can visit my website at http://www.scottgamboe.net.
Packing Up, Moving On Down the Road April 22, 2012
Posted by bobv451 in business, e-books, fantasy, sci-fi, science fiction, steampunk, writing.add a comment
I’ll be away from the blog posting for a while as I venture into Tornado Alley. I hope there are no “stories” to tell when I get back. I don’t want “adventures” or “thrills” due to dodging F5s or being pummeled with grapefruit-sized hailstones. If all goes as planned, I’ll be delivering a big screen TV and that’ll be as exciting as it gets.
Until then I’m leaving you with a bunch of links. While I’m gone, buy my books. Help me pay for $4/gal gasoline out on the road. My online store has lots of great stuff. Some free stories, a couple novels under $3 (in the case of Lord of Death and Life, only until I return) and super fantasy, sf and other genres. Sign up for the newsletter and be eligible for a promotion after I change hosts in a couple weeks.
You like sexy spy books? Hot Rail to Hell is what you’re looking for.
Steampunk? You can’t go wrong with the initial story in the Empires of Steam and Rust series.
Great fantasy? You can read the complete Accursed trilogy, which has never been published in the US before (only in the UK).
Or here is the entire 9-book series, Swords of Raemllyn.
SF? Space opera? Give the complete Weapons of Chaos a read.
Or the entire Biowarriors trilogy.
Check out the comprehensive catalog on the Kindle or the Nook
And I’ve done some editing. Want a sampler of some mighty fine writers? Try this one…
Career Guide to Your Job in Hell
Not Just Another Dead Teenager Movie April 17, 2012
Posted by bobv451 in death, fantasy, movies, movies & TV, sci-fi, science fiction, sense of wonder.1 comment so far
Cabin in the Woods is certainly more than that. I saw the trailer and thought it had some small, itty-bitty twist. Wrongo. I’m not going to spoil anything here, so read on, stalwart souls.
Joss Whedon has taken a lot of ideas from his other series and mixed them together here. There’s some Dollhouse and definitely some Buffy tossed in with Cube and any number of dead teenager movies. By that I mean the predictable cast of characters being knocked off one by one. “We’re safer if we stay together, so let’s split up so the machete-wielding maniac in the hockey mask can kill us one by one.” That plot has been used repeatedly. Only Whedon tells us why in this movie, and it makes sense.
Other than the nifty ending which is not the one you’d expect anywhere along the way (and the scene where a guy is impaled by a unicorn–or maybe the flesh eating merman who has a blood blowhole in the middle of his back), Whedon makes use of every trope imaginable. But he explains them so they are reasonable and makes fun of them and has some nifty characters.
What impressed me was the technique in the movie. Every time you are sure the characters are out of danger or know what’s going on, Whedon ups the ante. More death, more blood, unexpected twists. But I sorta wish, along with a character in the movie, there’d been more of the flesh eating merman. That’s a critter not seen before. Whedon is a master of pacing and playing on the “shock factor” (which means you jump, even if you know the scare scene is coming up–for me, that was the way I went through Jaws. Predictable scare scenes and they were still enough to make me yelp.). What makes Cabin different is the mixing of genres. It’s a dead teenager movie with the blonde slut, jock, geek, stoner and virgin, but they fight back. They are meant to be pawns and rise above the chessboard. But it is also an sf movie. And a horror movie. And the final scene is something else entirely.
The movie was caught up in the MGM bankruptcy so spent two years on the shelf. Glad it escaped.
I am still leery about The Avengers. Too many heroes spoil the broth. After seeing this one, though, Whedon might surprise me pleasantly there, too.
Wrath of the Titans or maybe just Miffed Titans? April 1, 2012
Posted by bobv451 in fantasy, movies.2 comments
In anticipation of my huge lottery win (hey, I matched the megaball # 23 and won…$2. If only the other 5 numbers had cooperated.) I shelled out the double digit ticket price and saw the 3D version of Wrath of the Titans. Not worth the extra $ for 3D but I’m finding that true of most movies. Be that as it may…
The trailer looked good. And the cgi in the movie was great. The actual rise of Cronos (sorry for the God of War spelling) out of the mountain was impressive, as were the 4-armed 2-headed critters. But the humans were a bit dense thinking Greek fire would work against creatures spawned from a volcano. I kept flashing back to Cronos in God of War crawling around on all fours in the desert. And this titan certainly didn’t look like Gaia. Ares might have been straight out of God of War, as were comments about gods and their worshippers. Interesting speculation (perhaps inadvertent) on how dead humans’ souls go to the underworld but the gods simply cease to be (turn to dust, actually–but the implication is that they don’t have souls)
And this is Wrath of the Titan*s*. Where were the other titans? Only Cronos shows up.
What it did look like was some set designer trying for authenticity in what should have been a lavish epic. Humans living in mud and thatch hovels, including the queen, was probably historically accurate but I wanted vast temples and palaces and stuff. You know. Stuff.
The labyrinth was clever and visually engaging. But the fight scenes were not well done. I think it was a minotaur Persesus killed, but I couldn’t be sure. Very murky. The scenes from the underworld were all lava and fire and darkness. Nice. Zeus being shackled and slowly turning to stone. Great. Having to bring back Bubos from the original Harryhausen movie reminded me how much technically has changed and how little attention is spent on actual plot or dialog. (And I’ve always wondered–was whoever named the mechanical owl Bubos aware what a bubo is medically? What it even means in Greek?)
Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes were good, tho not with a scene as good as in the prior movie. Rosamund Pike is luminous and blonde and lovely and totally miscast as Andromeda. Mostly she stood around making cow eyes at Perseus (Sam Worthington). Not the appearance or behavior of a Greek warrior queen.
All the way through I kept putting Kratos into the Perseus role. Give it a real plot. Put dialog in the mouths of the characters. With the spectacular cgi, this would have been a memorable movie. As it stands, I remember the labyrinth and Cronos rising up and hardly anything else.
See it on the cheap in 2d. You don’t need the occasional rock or spear coming out of the screen. Don’t expect much (and if you have to choose, see John Carter instead).
And happy April 1. I leave you with this, perhaps the best April Fool’s joke ever:
Ren Fair Geocache Fail March 20, 2012
Posted by bobv451 in autographing, business, fantasy, geocaching.add a comment
Geocaching has appealed to me since I was first introduced almost a decade ago. High tech treasure hunt, they call it. More than 1.6 million caches worldwide (I need to step up my game. Why, I am only, uh, 0.00088% of the way toward collecting the whole set).
I got a special souvenir for my geocaching alter ego on Feb 29 since that was leap day. (You get them for special events and for every state you’ve found a cache in). I tried to find one not too far from my house and have failed. Twice. I will give it a third try but am flummoxed as to where else to hunt to “Do the Dew.”
Similarly, I decided to see if there were any caches at the Az Renaissance Faire when I was there a couple weeks back. One showed itself to be only dozens of meters from where I was autographing. Off I went to log the cache. The description made no sense. Prior hunters left curious messages of query and failure. And I decided something was wrong when the cache should have been in the middle of:
A cache here? I don't think so.
OK, coordinates can be off by 10 m or so. This put me on the far side of the shop in the midst of trailers where Ren Faire performers and shop owners camped. Not likely. So, I have to count this as a failure, unlike the abovementioned cache, on the part of the person hiding the cache.
Here are some other pix taken at the Ren Faire autographing. Mike Stackpole and Miguel (of Don Juan and Miguel), yhos holding a copy of Stink of Flesh, Sarah Mullen Rua playing the harp.
yhos with Stink of Flesh
Harpist on the green
Huzzah! The AZ Ren Faire! March 12, 2012
Posted by bobv451 in autographing, business, conventions, fantasy, geocaching, weather, writing.Tags: autographing
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Wind at 50mph, gusts to 68. Snow. It didn’t look good for my flight out of Abq to Phoenix and the Arizona Renaissance Faire autograph session. But the plane got off quickly (flying into such a wind meant the plane only had to get up to about 70 mph on its own to get airborne, though I am sure the pilot used full power). Great flight, lovely weather in Phoenix.
Mike Stackpole picked me up and off we went for dinner at a new Mexican restaurant. The next night we had dinner with Don Juan and Miguel at a BBQ place run by a friend of Mike’s. Wolfley’s has great food. Great conversation and Ron Wolfley topped it off with free desserts (I was stuffed to the point of potential explosion–and I regretted not being able to scarf up more).
Saturday, all day autographing at Lady Chamberlain’s Book Shop at the fair. Ann Chamberlain said this was her best day ever and she’s been at the fair for at least 5 years, maybe more. Don Juan said the estimated gate was 15,000 and a goodly number came past the store where Mike and I were set up since this was on the way to the joust.
We fielded the usual questions asked of authors at autographing: where’s the restroom? Which way to the joust? Did you write those books?
I sold all but two copies of Ogre Castle, all the copies of Desert Bob’s Reptile Ranch, surprisingly all but one of Stink of Flesh (this is a very heavy family oriented exposition) and, huzzah! No other titles were left. All gone.
Good meeting “Taos” from Second Life. Somehow, those avatars convey nothing about the real person, which is probably the point (though Taos towered over me, which was unexpected). And tea with Don Juan, Miguel, various Tortuga Brothers, the guy running the joust and others was simply fun (and makes me think I need to reevaluate my initial distaste for tequila).
Overheard: A woman telling her kid that the Middle Ages were in the 1800s.
I’ll have more about my geocaching adventure at the fair tomorrow. I leave you with a picture of Miguel and me.
Me and Miguel
Arizona Renaissance Faire Ahoy! March 8, 2012
Posted by bobv451 in business, contest, conventions, fantasy, Free, iPad.add a comment
I sit at my computer listening to 50mph wind with 65+ gusts and see snow blowing parallel with the ground. And I worry I won’t be able to convince Southwest Airlines to take off and get me to Phoenix this afternoon. In addition, there is the solar storm hitting us now.
But the solar storm had nothing to do with downing powerlines just a half mile from me. Luckily, my power is on so I can recharge my cell phone and iPad for the trip.
Saturday Mike Stackpole and I will be autographing at the Ren Faire. Come on out if you’re in the Phoenix area and talk a while. Even if you’re not in the region, get there, come out and etc. I’m not sure what titles of mine will be available (got to keep a bit of suspense in such things, right?). The store is near the entrance/exit for the jousting arena.
Dinner with Don Juan and Miguel tomorrow night is on the schedule.
Clearing the decks of other stuff. Scott Phillips says the second part of his Pete, Drinker of Blood is ready to go real soon now. Let me mention again Stephen D Sullivan’s Elf Princess of Mars and that Scott Gamboe has extended his “win a Kindle Fire” contest until All Thieves Day (ok, tax day).
See y’all in Phoenix!
Barsoom! March 7, 2012
Posted by bobv451 in business, e-books, fantasy, movies, movies & TV, nostalgia, science fiction, sense of wonder, space, Texas, Wild West.2 comments
Saw the 3D version of John Carter last night and enjoyed it a lot. There are few movies that need 3D, but ones with huge vistas and gaggles of cgi attacking armies nudge into that category. I’m not sure it’s exactly necessary, though, and if you saw only the 2D version you wouldn’t be disappointed. (I won’t even mention the truly deplorable Princess of Mars since John Carter is light years better)
The tharks are incredible. Wonderful thought behind how a 4-armed goober would act and move. They seemed skinnier than I pictured them but Barsoom, after all, has a lighter gravity and that’s why John Carter can leap tall buildings, etc. But, perish the thought, Dejah Thoris was well endowed and not the least bit undernourished looking. (The actress, Lynn Collins, had a weird accent, but IMDB said she was born in Texas, classically trained in NYC and lives in London). My one complaint about her role was that, unlike ERB’s description in the books, she didn’t go around nearly nekkid enough.
The voice talent for the tharks was a known quantity in Thomas Hayden Church and Willem Defoe while the onscreen live action actors were, to me at least since I don’t watch Friday Night Lights, unknown. Oddly, Taylor Kitsch (what an unfortunate name) who played John Carter is a Canadian who plays a Marfa high school football player on tv?
The dog critter Woola was fun and the airships definitely unusual, though Roy Krenkel sorta formed my images of them in the Ace editions back in the ’60s. The white apes are nothing like I envisioned them, but in a way this was a throwaway scene.
The plot is pure pulp but one great improvement over the books was how the Therns were pictured. The writers worked them into the story, indeed made them the driving evil force, and gave us something better than astral projection for John Carter to get to Barsoom. Very clever, very well done, especially for the payoff at the end.
A lot of interest in Barsoom-esque stuff out there now. Stephen D Sullivan has his Elf Princess of Mars and a book I did a cover blurb for is Nathan Long’s Jane Carver of Waar, a most enjoyable book..
If only we could read our pulp stories under the light from Barsoom’s twin moons…
