Chasing Away the Dust Bunnies…For Now April 20, 2012
Posted by bobv451 in business, contest, e-books, End of the World, iPad, New Mexico, outlaws, sci-fi, science fiction, Second Life, VIPub, weather, westerns, Wild West, writing.add a comment
No specific theme today but a lot of tidbits that have accumulated during the past few days. It’s been a busy time for me. The last science fair judging of the year is past and, as before, the Manzano Day School kids had some great projects. This was the year when high tech really kicked in. One budding scientist had a video (taken underwater!) showing the effect of drag on swimmers. Another surveyed cooking pans to find which baked the best chocolate chip cookies (I told her bribing the judges with the cookies would have worked well–didn’t really matter. She did a good job. I didn’t know the high-end cooking pans were dual layer with air between. And yes, they seemed to cook the most evenly.) Analysis on the cookies included using a cellphone gizmo to evaluate color which correlated with even cooking. Amazing.
These were 4th and 5th graders.
A couple days ago I got a surprising call from my agent. Last year Berkley decided the Slocum Giant books weren’t selling and eliminated the annual book. My last royalty statement was extraordinary. And I have a new Slocum Giant to do ASAP for likely publication in November. Working title: Slocum and the Silver City Harlot. Others in Western Fictioneers have commented on improved royalties for their westerns. If you live long enough, the wheel always spins back to you. Do love those westerns.
I also love my sf. Check out this review of Moonlight in the Meg from Virgil Kelberwitz of Second Life fame. His reaction to the protagonist not being named until late in the book is interesting. Final Blackout used this technique to even better purpose, I think. Best use of the techniquye–ever–was in The Prisoner.
As you know by now, I didn’t win the $650m Megamillions lottery (I did win $2, though. BFD) However, someone who did win something of both worth and usefulness is Terri D, the winner of a Kindle Fire in Scott Gamboe’s contest. A great prize and I’ll try to get Scott to do a guest blog here on how the contest helped his numbers on Amazon.
Check out another Scott’s new blog. Scott Phillips is now doing a daily blog. Very funny stuff. And touches on a lot of nostalgia. If you remember 8-tracks and hate spiders and…well, read it for yourself. Rattle and Blast.
After 30 years I have stopped receiving a daily newspaper. The $200/yr was a factor but realizing I can get all the news and features on my iPad convinced me to save a tree and cancel the Abq Journal. Their national news is always 2 or 3 days late and local news tends more toward pet adoptions now. I will miss the Trever cartoon on Sundays, but he used to do more and is mostly retired. Having lunch with John on occasion will have to suffice.
I am not sure how many new blogs will be done in the next couple weeks since I am heading over into Tornado Alley. Trust me, I want nothing more than to get back to this keyboard in sunny, dry, twister-free Abq as soon as possible.
The Appearance of Hardly Working April 8, 2012
Posted by bobv451 in autographing, business, conventions, Time, westerns, writing.add a comment
My accountant used to ask me “Are you still having fun or are you going to get a job?” He was, of course, referring to writing as fun. Compared with another client of his (Ray Hogan, the western writer), it might have seemed as if having fun and not making money was all my life was about.
Maybe so. I could make a lot more money doing other things. If I’d stayed at Sandia Labs I could have retired by now, but as engaging as the research was, it lacked something I found in writing. Not creativity. A lot of that went into the various projects I worked on at Sandia. Rather, it was freedom. I don’t have a schedule. I don’t have a boss (to speak of). I probably work as many hours for a lot less money, but the choice of project is mine, not someone else’s. How much that is worth might not be calculable in dollars.
What I do with this freedom is problematic since it seems so much time is wasted. Or is it? Staring out the window at the snowy mountains actually can be working rather than daydreaming–wait, part of being a writer *is* daydreaming. I’m not daydreaming on someone else’s dime.
The past few days haven’t produced words on the page, but there’s been a lot happening. The Accursed trilogy (and omnibus) is posted on Kindle, with Nook soon to follow. Well, to follow eventually. They are much slower. I have completed two synopses for books and am wrestling with the ending on a short story. While goofing off over on Facebook, I was asked if I wanted to be part of a new sf anthology. The Human Wave idea seems interesting, being mostly what I write (as gloomy as I am in person, I tend not to do gloomy stories–the protagonist wins, usually convincingly. No mere Horatio Alger Jr stories for me, no sir. Win big or sacrifice nobly.) Am rounding up western writers for an autographing at Page One on June 13, which requires some emailing back and forth. So far writers from Hollywood and Tokyo will be there. Since I’m running the front end of this, I suppose you could say an author from Tamale-wood will be there, too.
Did some more Long Ridge work, gearing up for another season of Fantasy Football editing (all four mags are back this year with last year’s strike a dot in the rearview mirror) and am getting ducks in a row for another trip to Oklahoma but not before running the ASFS auction and going to Moriarty for the public library autographing. And there is a science fair judging coming up next week. And checking on how other stories in the Empires of Steam and Rust universe are coming along.
Lots done, no writing. But it *was* writing–business and prep work and bookkeeping rather than book writing. All necessary. But not writing. That starts later today after I get the web site updated and this posted.
I leave you with the Dilbert cartoon.
Frack and Frelk April 5, 2012
Posted by bobv451 in history, science, science fiction, westerns, writing.add a comment
A student asked a few weeks back about using slang in his fiction. As with everything dealing with writing, the answer is yes and no. For westerns, the slang is pretty well detailed in writing of the era. Diaries are a good source for common usage (though uncommon in the sense that not many people then could read or write). But the usage is established, so only embellishments need to be made to lend an air of authenticity.
Noir detective stories set in the ’30s and ’40s fall into this category, too. It’s there in contemporaneous writing. Hunt for it. The idea isn’t to use slang exclusively but rather to give the flavor of the era. We are, after all, writing for a modern audience.
The harder question to answer deals with slang in sf. Science fiction futures ought to sound different–but should they? Tossing in tech stuff can be deadly. Who would believe a story where transistor radios were cutting edge tech? Slang changes rapidly and can make edgy, hip stuff sound outdated before it sees print. I never knew anyone who used the words groovy or grok in dialog, but grok especially is worth examining.
SF can create slang–a little bit like a spice–and it ought to be used consistently. Using current slang is likely to be a nonstarter, but a few good words tossed in can seem ordinary if your characters just use them and don’t make a big point out of it, as if saying “see? This is what we’ll all be saying in the future.” I’m fond of a couple words I coined. Foptic=fiber optic and gengineering=genetic engineering (and in a similar use genhanced=genetically enhanced).
Grok is a similar term. It defines the culture internally in Stranger in a Strange Land, is catchy and used often enough to be well understood and accepted by the reader. Curse words tend to be a little more slippery. Samuel R. Delaney invented frelk in Dahlgren for a specific sexual perversion, but it came out nicely as a swear word. Frack showed up in Battlestar Galactica, but has been superceded by reality. Ask the man in the street about fracking and you’re more likely to get a jeremiad about natural gas than Cylons.
Keep it natural, keep it simple and never forget your audience lives in the frelking 21st Century.
A Moment of Bragging April 3, 2012
Posted by bobv451 in awards, business, e-books, Free, ideas, New Mexico, outlaws, westerns, Wild West, writing.2 comments
Yesterday my western editor at Berkley let me know that “Jackson Lowry’s” Sonora Noose had been nominated for a Western Fictioneers Peacemaker Award as best novel. Wowza. Woot woot!
My novel lost out in the NM Book Award competition last year to Rudolfo Anaya’s Randy Lopez Comes Home. That was no surprise to me. Nor will a loss on the Peacemaker be unexpected. My money’s on James Reasoner’s Redemption, Kansas to be the winner. If not that, then Dusty Richards’ Between Hell and Texas. (But Rod Miller is on a roll this year, already winning two Spur Awards so The Assassination of Governor Boggs can be there, as well as Lyle Brandt’s Blood Trails.)
A lot of tough competitors.
But I am still doing a happy dance being in their company.
Been thinking about another Mason Barker novel and have notes all over the place, as well as a basic outline scratched down in my notebook. Apache Tears is my working title. For those not in the southwest, an apache tear is a small chunk of obsidian. The title, as it stands is a pun or maybe a metaphor. No good luck will come from this small bit of volcanic glass.
Try a free Jackson Lowry short story, “Fifteen Dollars.”
Back to work (on a fantasy short story, then a new bit of a western novel). A good day to stay in since it is snowing and has accumulated more than a half inch already. Quite a change from the 80 deg a couple days ago. But the winter wonderland outside cannot dim the warmth in my heart over the Peacemaker nomination.
http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&keywords=sonora%20noose%20jackson%20lowry&tag=roberevardesc-20&Go.x=7&index=blended&Go=Go&Go.y=6&link_code=qs
The Pressure Builds January 31, 2012
Posted by bobv451 in business, e-books, fantasy, geocaching, ideas, iPad, science fiction, space, westerns, writing.2 comments
I have just finished the rewrite on God of War 2 and have been doing a lot of westerns. That means, yes, it does, the pressure is growing within my fevered brain to turn to some science fiction. I did the short novel Gateway to Rust and Ruin, and this whetted my appetite for longer work. Reading Greg Benford’s article in Reason fueled the fire. (I grew up in El Paso festooned with V-2s along the road as decoration and von Braun’s vision was mine, too–still is. I don’t care if we get out to Mars and beyond a la “Man Who Sold the Moon” or if NASA grows a pair and actually does something again in manned space exploration. I just want it done.)
While not good water discipline, standing under the shower affords me a chance to just think. The rush of the water gives a white noise that drowns out the phone ringing, the cats meowing for food, traffic in the street and, probably the low level hum from the quantum foam in my brain. The signal rises and I can think of … stuff. I am working on a new sf novel and hope to have more about this in a week or two after I’ve had the chance to work out a more detailed synopsis.
I might have to go for a long walk or two or even go geocaching for the first time in ages to hone the ideas. (If I log a cache on Feb 29, I get a nifty logo on my geocaching account.) This is another way of letting the ideas sort of roil around, then go pop like popcorn in a microwave. A downside to working like this is that I have to remember what great ideas I’ve come up with…
…look, a squirrel!
Sorry about that. When ideas arrive, they aren’t necessarily permanent ones. Which is why I write down everything as soon as I can. But the iPad shorts out in the shower and paper gets so soggy.
I leave you with the cover on God of War 2.
God of War 2, coming in September
Are You Being Undercheesed? January 1, 2012
Posted by bobv451 in business, e-books, End of the World, movies & TV, sci-fi, serial fiction, steampunk, VIPub, westerns, writing.add a comment
That’s what an ad for a pizza joint asked me. I had never considered life in those terms, perhaps because I drop in on Cheese Magnet regularly. But “undercheesed?” If so, I need to watch more cheesy sf movies. (I did watch This Island Earth last night and no, it is not a cheesy movie. It’s pretty decent and one year Santa will bring me an interocitor.)
I doubt the world will end, but watching Dick Clark’s Rockin’ NY last night made me think it is possible. Poor ole Dick looked like a zombie. Any year that begins with Lady Gaga and Michael Bloomberg co-pressing the lever to drop the ball already has 2 strikes against it. My option was watching “Hair Removal at Home” on Ch 2. Or watching metaluna monsters menace Faith Domergue.
The year is already filling with projects. Have 2 westerns under contract, have agreed to take part in a Western Fictioneers project of a story collection set in Dogleg, Kansas and have lots of other projects begging to be done. No lack of work. Now all I need are sales, so pitch in, everyone, do your part, feed those e-readers you got for Christmas.
I have a small window of opportunity to work on the first of the Empires of Steam and Rust stories so will cut this short. Already up to 15k words in the “First Passage” and just getting into the plot after introducing the situation, the bad guy and the two good guys. And the compressed-air powered dog, Fulton.
Off to see if yet another brick and mortar bookstore has bitten the dust. I leave you with this snarky cartoon hope for 2012.
F-Minus by Tony Carrillo
Outlaw to Hero December 11, 2011
Posted by bobv451 in death, history, New Mexico, outlaws, westerns, Wild West, writing.add a comment
PBS on its American Experience series, is doing a documentary on Billy the Kid. From the link it appears the take is that he was some kind of Robin Hood character. I suppose this is true in the sense that he robbed from the rich because the poor didn’t have anything worth stealing. I’m not sure what the fascination with vicious murderers and criminals is, especially if they come to a violent end.
Dillinger is another case in point. “I wasn’t such a bad guy as some people said…” I suspect the only reason he wasn’t convicted of killing a police officer was that he tried to shoot it out with the FBI. Or maybe robbing banks during the Depression was a good thing? Real Robin Hood stuff. At least nine movies have been made about him (and for Billy? More than 15.) [How many about Alexander Fleming? Uh, don’t know. Jonas Salk? A couple? It is obviously easier to be known as a killer and bank robber and horse thief than for saving untold millions.]
One of my favorite Charles Bronson movies is From Noon til Three. Part of the attraction for me is how the insignificant can be blown up into legend, how petty crimes become marvelous deeds–through the power of advertising and PR. The rest of the attraction is how much fun the movie is.
Readers/viewers want a look at something other than what they have in their own lives, so it is obvious criminals fits that bill. But why morph the psychotic killer into something lovable? You got me on that.
Dillinger death photo
Not Just (Billy the) Kid(ding) December 4, 2011
Posted by bobv451 in awards, contest, death, ghost towns, gummint, ideas, New Mexico, westerns, Wild West.add a comment
A few months back I mentioned New Mexico’s Billy the Kid hunt. Items or clues placed at historic spots around the state–sort of a collect the entire set kind of quest. NM Tourism spent about $600k on the project and says it has netted over $2m. I assume this means that $2m was spent that wouldn’t otherwise as a result of the promotion. That’s fine and dandy, and I’m happy to see someone in Santa Fe doing something other than ignoring their jobs.
Since the state is stymied in developing its extraction industries and more than 70% of the land is owned by the feds (and therefore off the tax roles) NM scrapes the bottom of the barrel when it comes to generating revenue. “Catch the Kid” resulted in a $10k reward being split between two teams, one of which notably called itself “The Regulators.” Other prizes were significant.
Our history is about all we can use to generate new money. Spaceport America is a good start on continuing revenue coming in from outside the state (and US) and now is the time to push tourism since Jan 6, 2012 marks NM’s 100th anniversary as a state.
Why not a tour of outlaw hot spots? Blackjack Ketchum is a gruesome ending to a New Mexico outlaw is notable. (pictures at the link might be sorta, well, gruesome for you) Elfego Baca is on the other side of the badge–he wore one. His shootout is nothing less than astounding.
Shakespeare, NM is a veritable time capsule of outlawry. You might want to check my fictionalized version of deadly happenings there in the story “Silver Noose.”
So much history. I’m glad “Catch the Kid” was successful. May the tourism dept think of something even more successful for NM’s centennial year.
FTL Paradigm Shift December 1, 2011
Posted by bobv451 in business, e-books, fantasy, ideas, science fiction, VIPub, web & computers, westerns, writing.add a comment
It’s hard to know whether you’d call this a red shift or a blue shift. The red shift is certainly true for the legacy publishing since they are looking at something going away from them at a very high speed. Or maybe you, as readers, can see it as a blue shift, since it’s coming at you so fast.
Kickstarter is giving VIPub authors the chance to work on pet projects without one of the Big 6 giving the nod with a contract. Instead, authors can take their dreams directly to the end-user, the reader. A case in point is Matt Forbeck with his 12 in ‘12 project (not to be confused with confused political schemes). Matt intends to write 12 books next year (for the innumerate, that’s one a month). Here’s his Brave New World project and he is being very successful with it.
If you want to see how this works, kick in $5. There’s only 72 hrs left as I write this. (And yes, I have kicked in money for this).
Matt writing a book a month might seem like a lot, but I know at least two other writers with even more prodigious outputs. James Reasoner wrote over 6000 ms pages last year. That’s about 15 books, give or take. Bob Randisi clicks out that much (and likely more) in any given year and has for more than 25 years. I am getting old and tired and still did 8 novels, 7 short stories and an article so far this calendar year, not to mention having a part time teaching job (averaging 10 hrs a week), two editing gigs and rewrites on 10 backlist titles put up on Kindle and elsewhere (I have that pegged at 75 hrs).
Dean Wesley Smith was trying for a short story a week this year in addition to his novel writing. And I have no idea what Mike Resnick writes in a year, but it is both a lot and good.
But the point is, through projects like Matt’s, you *you* are part of the process. I’ve seen proposals for indie movies and all kinds of other innovative projects. All of which time shift when you pay for a book (or whatever) you’d likely buy anyway.
In the FWIW department, I’ve dropped the price on book #1 in the Swords of Raemllyn series as an experiment to see if this generates interest in the other 8 books in the series. After all it is e-reader season (and Kindle ebooks are now available in Italy, France, Spain and Germany, as well as the UK and USA).
To Demons Bound
Gangrene Sunday November 27, 2011
Posted by bobv451 in business, e-books, Free, gummint, ideas, iPad, iPhone, steampunk, westerns, writing.1 comment so far
Well, why not? We have Black Friday and Cyber Monday. I am officially appalled at the goings-on to get a bargain. Fisticuffs over a $2 waffle iron? A shopper pepper spraying others so she could get a better shot at the goodies? (Pepper spray is now officially a vegetable–look it up on the gummint’s new food pyramid). Camping out for days prior seems so meek and mild now. I’m afraid I don’t need that 51″ plasma TV that badly. Or at all, if truth be known (more and more I’m finding the iPad works just fine for me–and no, I wouldn’t bayonet another shopper to get a new iPad2 0.8 microseconds sooner. Maybe 0.5 microseconds…no, not even then.
This is the year the ereader has come into its own. With the Kindle Fire and the Nook tablet out there now, ereading is going to maybe double in the coming year (my guesstimate. Like all economic forecasts these days, the actual number will be “unexpected.”) For us VIPubbers, tis the season to plot and plan and market like fiends.
Luckily we don’t have to do it in the midst of bargain-crazed TV buyers. Some goodies you can get for free right now:
Michael Stackpole’s At the Queen’s Command on the Kindle. Yes, free, for a while longer.
steampunk screensavers or whatever they call them for the Kindle (free)
Some nifty free steampunk stories here, too.
the 40 best Android apps (for free)
Of course, you should check out my online Cenotaph Road Store for free stories like “Me and Mr. Jones”
100 Kindle ebooks for $3.99 or less
And you simply *cannot* pass up this collection, The Traditional West, at $3.99 for a limited time. Over 100k words of traditional western stories. Imagine that.
Isn’t shopping this way better than getting poked in the eye or trampled?
Traditional West by Western Fictioneers
