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.
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
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…
New Mexico? Where is that? December 17, 2011
Posted by bobv451 in business, conventions, ghost towns, gummint, history, ideas, movies, music, New Mexico, Wild West, writing.add a comment
Back in the day I used to sell as a sideline gag “visas” to New Mexico and touristy junk like that. I vaguely remember a booklet telling tourists US postage stamps were good here, passports weren’t needed and other obvious things that the rest of the USA simply didn’t know. Jan 6 the state is 100 years in the union. Most citizens of these great states still have no idea. It wasn’t until the most recent set of license plates that USA was dropped to keep cops in other states from thinking New Mexico meant “Frontera.” (The ultimate tourist story is the one where a woman asked at the Balloon Fiesta is she had to be a Catholic to go to the mass acension.)
The state image is in the pits. Nobody wants to vacation here because they don’t think there’s anything here. Fair enough. Tourism Dept has a lot of work to do with not much money. But I recently received a link to another blog that got me thinking. The idea of sf writers portrayed on the Simpsons is cute, but the blog itself is for an online college.
NM needs name recognition as a state with things to see and do. What are our resources? A lot of scenery. A lot of world class writers and artists and, I suspect, film makers.
But….but…but playing on the idea that people want to learn, especially to write (disclaimer: I am an instructor for Long Ridge and have been for four years), why not have a series of seminars, lectures, writing clinics at appropriate places with big name instructors? SF would obviously tie into Los Alamos or, shudder, Roswell. What’s the most romantic spot in the state–for a romance writing conference? Westerns? Lincoln County to tie in with Billy the Kid and the LC War. But there are buffalo soldiers and Indian War and even that most maligned, the Trans-Mississippi Civil War. Spanish exploration? Pueblo revolt? Spots all over the state would be fine for such writing classes. We’ve got top of the line western authorities here. Paul Hutton, Don Bullis (the official NM Centennial historian), Johnny Boggs, Melody Groves–I could go on but the list is long. The WWA 2012 conference is in Albuquerque but this is limited to WWA members who go to lots of places for the convention, not necessarily for the place itself..
Mysteries? We’ve got mystery writers galore here. Thrillers? David Morrel and others.
If the Lincoln County Cowboy Symposium draws 30k or so, finding 50 people interested in Billy the Kid (who aren’t from either NM or Texas) shouldn’t be impossible.
The biggest problem is transport since Abq is the only air terminus for the rest of the US to get here. State tourism would do well to promote genre writing clinics in various parts of the state–writers tend to write. A lot. But movie making clinics would draw bigtime from California. Maybe the state tourism dept could subsidize the transportation (an obvious gimmick is to “charge” $1000 for the actual seminar but discount it for people from, pick your target region, to only $250. And that $250 covers the actual costs so the state money would only go for transportation–what kind of a deal can the state make with airlines?)
Would budding artists pay to do landscapes in a weeklong seminar with masters? They’d be using NM’s actual scenery for subject matter. They go home, they display their work or do more…of NM. Photography, the same thing. Music? The idea is to get small groups coming here that will leave and carry with them pictures/words/movies of New Mexico that might slowly educate the geographically ignorant in the rest of the country that we have immense beauty and talent here.
Two obvious resources NM has are scenic beauty and a pool of artistic talent. None of this will happen (listen to indie film makers about how the NM Film Commission works sometime) but it is an interesting gedanken experiment. For me, at least.
Single Action Shooters Society End of Trail June 2010
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.
Alms November 19, 2011
Posted by bobv451 in business, Chain story, e-books, movies & TV, nostalgia, science fiction, sense of wonder, serial fiction, VIPub, westerns, Wild West, writing.3 comments
Every now and then I put in this plea. I make my living as a writer, selling my work. To you, dear friends, and others who don’t know me at all. This past week has been hectic since I have been unable to work regularly because of jury duty (and I thought the plots on CSI were far-fetched!). This will run another couple weeks, taking me away from my most productive time at lithe keyboard.
So, humor me. Keep the cats from considering me as food since I couldn’t afford to feed them. Buy something from my store, from Kindle
or Nook or from the other fine venues peddling my stuff. It won’t cost you much and you will get lots of enjoyment in return. More than paying an exorbitant ticket price for a 3D movie.
If you can’t part with a buck or two right now, there is someone you can do to help out. It’ll take just a moment. Go to Amazon or B&N and leave a review. Goodreads is a fine place to mention my work, too. Others see reviews and rely on them. A Career Guide To Your Job in Hell has some fine reviews on it. Toss in a few more if you like the collection. Even put reviews up on my website. I might be inclined to run a contest offering a few dollars off coupons for the top reviews. Doesn’t have to be hyperbolic or even good, but give me a review. But if it is bad, I might turn lachrymose or even suicidal. And then the cats would starve after they finished picking the flesh from my bones.
Your call.
Hot Rail to Hell
Old Towns and Research November 2, 2011
Posted by bobv451 in e-books, education, geocaching, ghost towns, history, hobby, ideas, music, New Mexico, VIPub, westerns, Wild West, writing.add a comment
After leaving LA, I dropped down to San Diego, mastered the (easy) trolley system and zinged down to their version of Old Town. Relatively recent compared with Santa Fe or even Old Town in Albuquerque (California’s was settled some 60 years later) But this is the first European settlement in California so was fodder for the western fiction research mill.
But I am on a different time zone so got to OT a couple hours before it opened. I took the $10 plunge and had installed the android geocaching app on my cell phone. The 2 hours gave me a chance to try it out. I found 3 caches, one in Presidio Park, another on 1769 Hill and yet one more virtual cache showing how metal rusts in salt air. By the time I had wandered around, it was opening time for the museums.
Life is tough all over. I had breakfast at a restaurant that boasted that it had been established in 2010. In today’s economy that might be long-lived. From here hiked up the hill to the Mormon Battalion Museum. Very slick, very cute girls in period costumes, interesting high tech video presentations, had the chance for some hands on examination of props since I was the only one in the “group” (not peak tourist season, I’d say), got a couple teeny gold nuggets, and was surprised when I asked about music of the era and one guide disappeared and came back later with a handwritten list taken from a contemporaneous journal. Very kind of her to supply this and info will certainly be used (but I’m not likely to order a free copy of Book of Mormon or send one to a friend). The Mormon Battalion has a monument between Abq and Santa Fe (and a geocache, btw) and it was good seeing the end of the 2000 mi trail in San Diego. Not sure I buy all the achievements of the Battalion but they might be true. Will look to see if they actually started the first newspaper in Northern California (California Star–ok, looks factual since Alta California grew out of CStar–founder Samuel Brannan was the first Gold Rush millionaire, but some conflation is going on. Brannan wasn’t part of the Mormon Battalion, coming around the Horn in 1846. And, hmm, this might be the second trailing The Californian from Monterey) or were responsible for first finding gold at Sutter’s Mill (but I certainly think they worked to build it so might well be true). All a bit before the time period considered the Wild West but great background.
On to Whaley House, supposedly the “most haunted” house in California or the US or somewhere. The best that could be conjured was it was built on an Indian burial ground. NM is built on an Indian burial ground, fer Pete’s sake. Nancy Holder later said it was the site of public executions. So why didn’t the period-dressed guide say this? Mostly like restored houses elsewhere in the West, but renewed my interest in writing a western that simply has no mass market. Ah, VIPub. When I get time. Mike Resnick ought to be proud–he had a lot of copies of The Buntline Special on the museum bookstore shelf.
To the World Fantasy Convention itself soon and the VIPub vibe building like a tidal wave there.
Mormon Batallion Museum
And a Bottle of Champagne October 18, 2011
Posted by bobv451 in business, ghost towns, gummint, ideas, New Mexico, science, space, Wild West.add a comment
…was opened as Richard Branson rapelled down the glass front of the newly christened Spaceport America. With luck flights ought to be UUUUP there next summer.
I heard an interesting promotion on the radio the other night. Japan is sinking $10m into airline tickets to get people to Japan. Just the airfare. And the winners have to blog or twit or whatever about their experience. This is clever because it gives a lot of worldwide publicity (you can bet the Japanese tourist agency will pick up on every line and push it to an even bigger audience) and brings money into the country. You gotta eat and stay somewhere and travel around once you get into Japan. Who wouldn’t want to return with souvenirs? This looks like a great twofer– publicity and guaranteed money spent in country. Tickets are likely in the $1500 range. That much or more would be spent in country.
I wonder if something similar can’t be done in NM. Though we really have only one airport in the state (Albuquerque Sunport) it might work better than other promos. I haven’t heard how the “find Billy the Kid” hunt is coming. Or if it is. An outlaws of the American West might be an interesting promotion overseas. One denizen of Western Fictioneers said that a Japanese friend coming to Abq for the WWA conference next June wanted to find other black powder enthusiasts.
Throw in the lure of a lottery along with the plane ticket–a lottery for a trip to the edge of space. These are nickel and dime expenses for a state’s tourism budget, even NM. But, of course, money will be spent not building businesses or attracting tourists but in lining political pockets as has been done far longer than our 100 yrs as state and territory.
But the Japanese have a nifty idea. How can that be used to promote ghost towns, Carlsbad Caverns and White Sands and Spaceport America and our outlaw heritage?
http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/23/spaceshiptwo-white-knight-two-designs-unveiled-arent-they-cut/
A Day in the (Medieval) Sun September 20, 2011
Posted by bobv451 in conventions, dinosaurs, history, music, nostalgia, steampunk, Wild West.add a comment
Scott D asked if I wanted to tag along to the Santa Fe Renaissance Faire at Las Golondrinas (look it up–it can mean either swallow or buboes, though I suspect they intended the former meaning because this is along an acequia in a bosque where birds would gather, although this is NM, land of the flea, home of the plague). I’d been a few years back and enjoyed it. This is a miniature version of, say, the AZ Ren Faire, but it suits NM and the setting is much nicer, being in wooded areas and meadows.
The theme is more Spanish than the AZ Ren Faire and the king and queen are always Fernando and Isabella. They had pikesmen and dragons wandered about. The usual entertainment, Clan Tynker from Santa Fe, the Pomegranate troupe of belly dancers, celtic singers with electric lutes, fire jugglers and the like. Food was more local (Roque’s carnitas were, indeed, superior) with more Ren Faire-ish stuff like turkey legs available. Pati Nagel and Chris Krohn were serving up mead and a falconer with several birds held forth on the meadowlands.
I didn’t bother getting dressed in period but Scott asked a question that made me think a while. Which costume event appealed most? Took me a while to come up with an answer. I enjoy the ren faire and even getting gussied up in the clothing, but there are the purists who sneer and tell you it’s “not period.” Spoilsports. I want to have fun without them having fun telling me I suck. The SASS is another one where I feel comfortable in western garb. For some reason, a duster makes me feel bigger than life. But I finally decided steampunk might be best of all because there is no canon, no prescribed (or proscribed) dress and imagination can run wild. The other two center on real eras, steampunk is imaginary. Guess where I live mostly.
Quite a bit of steampunk stuff at this ren faire (also a Marilyn Manson wannabe) and pirates. Arrr, matey.
A day spent wandering about in the sun and enjoying the show. I got no writing done and didn’t even feel guilty about it. Much. Not too much. Well, some.
Santa Fe Ren Faire
Santa Fe Ren Faire Dragon
