LTUE 2013

17. February 2013 · Write a comment · Categories: Genesis Earth, Novellas & Novelettes, Novels, Stars of Blood and Glory, SW I-IV: The Jeremiah Chronicles · Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Man, LTUE 2013 was this weekend, and it was AWESOME.  One of the best conventions I’ve ever attended.  I spoke on my first panel, attended my first book signing event as an author, and got to meet up with some old friends, as well as some amazing new people.

Since I live tweeted most of the panels I attended, I thought it might be interesting to repost a few of those here, with some additional thoughts.  So…here goes!

THURSDAY

I believe this was Scott Parkin from the “What Do You Write?” panel. Good advice. Megan Whalen Turner also had some very interesting things to say on the subject of genre, which I have since forgotten. But I recorded it, and the recording will eventually be made publicly available in the LTUE conference archives, or so I’ve been told.

This one was from the “What Is ‘Punk’ Literature and Its Many Genres?” panel. David Butler and Larry Correia were HILARIOUS. Nearly got into a wrestling match right in front of us.

And when the esteemed Mr. Butler began to describe his book, I swear, a choir of steampunk angel Moronis somewhere began to sing a heavenly chorus. I mean, he had me with Edgar Allen Poe faking his death to become a secret agent, but Orson Pratt’s phlogiston guns? Eliza R. Snow as chief counterintelligence officer for the Kingdom of Deseret? I will definitely be checking out this book, City of the Saints (which is apparently a finalist for the 2013 Whitney Award).

David Butler is also a way cool guy. I hung out with him a bit in the dealer’s room, chatting about Mormon history, Lyman Wight (“shoot and be damned!”), Sir Richard Francis Burton’s expedition to Salt Lake City, and all sorts of other crazy zany stuff. And the whole time, he was playing a guitar. So yeah, definitely a way cool guy.

This discovery CHANGED MY LIFE. Also, it helped me to save immensely on lunch money, as well as join in on some way cool conversations with other panelists as they desperately tried to escape their fans. Okay, not really, but the green room was AWESOME.

Howard Taylor’s presentation on teasers was tremendously insightful. In a nutshell, he said that a teaser (aka book description on Amazon / back cover) should have or at least point to the following things:

  1. The inciting incident
  2. Character action
  3. Conflict
  4. Hook

We then went over a few examples, including some good ones that broke these rules, and finished up by doctoring a couple of teasers volunteered from the audience. Howard Taylor admitted to me later that he wasn’t entirely satisfied with the way he presented it, but I get the impression that he’s never entirely satisfied with anything less than perfection. It was a great workshop.

From “Engaging the Reader.” Great panel. Lisa Mangum described the planning / drafting / revising process for each of her first three novels, and they were all wildly different. With seven novels under my belt so far, I can definitely relate. Some, like Genesis Earth and Stars of Blood and Glory, practically write themselves. Others are like having a c-section with a hacksaw. And others…yeah, I’m not going to go there.

FRIDAY

Okay, maybe I said one useful thing: when there’s a language barrier, little things become big obstacles. One of the other panelists, Anna Del C. Dye, also had a bunch of stories about adapting to a foreign language and culture (in her case, the United States).

Overall, the panel was really, really fun! I also had some cards out for Star Wanderers: Outworlder, and a bunch of people came up afterward to get them. Guess I must have said something interesting. I hope you guys enjoy the book!

 

From “Current Trends in SF.” Great panel–it totally wasn’t just another over-hyped discussion about what’s hot right now. I asked how the panelists think the trend cycle will change in the age of self-published ebooks, and they had some very interesting things to say. They all agreed that speed to market, while it may give some advantages, isn’t a make-or-break game changer, or even really a good strategy (unless you really love the trend you’re writing to). Some things change, others remain the same. It will be interesting to give this one a re-listen.

 

 

From “Creators in the Community.” Probably one of the best panels of the entire convention. Tracy Hickman is really on top of the changes in the publishing world, and had a lot of interesting things to say about it in all of his panels. As for the subject of writerly communities, much wisdom and insight was shared by all of the panelists. Definitely look for this one.

Man, I’d forgotten how cool the guys at Dungeon Crawlers Radio are! They interviewed me back in 2011, when I was just getting ready to publish Genesis Earth. This time, we talked about space opera, sci-fi romance, language barriers in marriage and all the crazy things I have to look forward to, and a bunch of other stuff. I also shared some of my thoughts and opinions on self-publishing myths, especially regarding the “tsunami of crap.” We coined a new word, “nerdaissance,” to describe all the awesome new stuff that’s coming out now, thanks to the ease of self-publishing.

So yeah, it was a great interview! I’ll definitely be cross-linking once it goes live.

From “Effective Book Covers.” Great panel with some very good artists and cover designers, including Isaac Stewart who does all the maps for Brandon Sanderson. Although some parts were geared toward illustrators, most of the advice was for writers (especially self-pubbing writers) who are looking to design their own covers. Lots of great and insightful perspectives from the visual arts side of things.

FRIDAY NIGHT BOOK SIGNING

Okay, I’ve got to be honest: when I went into the mass signing with my cardboard box of CreateSpace POD novels, I didn’t expect to sell anything. I figured that was just my ticket to get a seat at a table and hand out cards for Star Wanderers: Outworlder to some of the casual book browsers.

Well, I was pleasantly surprised! An uncle of one of my old mission companions was impressed enough to buy a couple of copies. I think he’s one of these guys who likes to buy things from new authors to help encourage them. It’s great to see people like that. He told me to keep writing, and I told him I definitely would!

Lots of people snagged the card for Outworlder, and I came up with a pretty decent pitch: “it’s about a starship pilot who accidentally marries a girl who doesn’t speak his language.” That raised a lot of eyebrows! A lot of people were really happy to see a science fiction story, especially a space adventure. I get the impression that there’s a craving for this kind of stuff in the market that isn’t currently being satisfied. So yeah, that was very encouraging!

After things wound down a bit, I wandered around the signing checking out some of the other books. Saw a couple that I recognized from the Kindle Boards, which was interesting. Chatted with them, as well as a bunch of geeky guys about chain mail, Halo, Frank Herbert, and all sorts of awesome stuff. Man, the best part about sci-fi/fantasy conventions is the chance to just talk with people! So much interesting stuff. It was great.

SATURDAY

 

 

From “Write For the Market or Write What You Know?” Another great panel. Definitely will be re-listening to that one.

From the main address with Megan Whalen Turner. She talked about book censorship and the need to teach children how to make their own reading choices, rather than keeping them sheltered and making the choice for them. She pointed out how every time a New York Times article comes out bemoaning some YA book for inappropriate content, it’s kind of hypocritical because there are so many other books they miss. The Golden Compass, for example, didn’t even pop up on their radar until the movie came out. Kids don’t magically become mature, well-adjusted adults when they turn 18–we have to teach them to make these choices (and mistakes) for themselves.

From “How Does Your Story Mean?” Great discussion on the writing process. Saw a lot of other good live-tweets during this one.

Okay, I take back what I said about the best panel of the convention. THIS was definitely the best. “The Engines of Exploration,” with Howard Taylor, Megan Whalen Turner, Roger White, James Owen, Kevin Evans, and Charles Stanford–the panel was packed. It basically turned into a round-robin discussion of which commodities are most essential to modern civilization, which ones will be the most valuable in the event of a societal collapse, and which ones will take us to the stars. The eventual consensus on each of these eventually came down to goats. Seriously. GOATS!

 

From “Writing Romance Without Erotica.” Lots of delicious awkwardness, as well as some really interesting thoughts and perspectives on the subject of romance. One of the panelists talked about the importance of “character penetration” without realizing about halfway through the panel how hilarious that phrase sounded in this context. But yeah, there was also a lot of wisdom in there as well. There are a lot of strong opinions about sex and romance floating around in this part of the world, so it was a very spirited and interesting panel.

 

 

The last panel of the convention (technically, symposium, but whatever) was “eBook Publishing” with some highly successful indies like Michaelbrent Collings. As you can tell from the tweets, it was a bit controversial, but very, very interesting. Questions were flying all over the place, on subjects ranging from formatting to building an audience. The biggest shock to me was that none of the panelists (none of them!) are on Smashwords. It’s a wild, wild west out here in indie-land. Makes me wonder, maybe I should publish to iTunes through another venue? Hmmmm…

So yeah, that was pretty much the whole convention/symposium. I finished it out by playing Alhambra with a bunch of friends from Kindal Debenham’s writing group who came down from Seattle and Idaho. Good, good times–it was actually kind of sad to say goodbye. Definitely worth coming 11 time zones to attend.

All I can say is that I am STOKED for Conduit!

New publication and first con panel!

30. January 2013 · Write a comment · Categories: Novels, Stars of Blood and Glory · Tags: , , , ,

Sorry, no Trope Tuesday this week.  This day ended up being a lot more packed than I thought it was going to be.  Not too productive from a writing point of view, but Stars of Blood and Glory is coming along and should be out on schedule.

I do have a couple of quick announcements, though.

LE63

First, issue 63 of Leading Edge is now out, and I’ve got a publication in it!  For this issue, they ran a first novel chapter contest, and Stars of Blood and Glory was one of the stories that placed.  If you want to pick up a copy, you can do so here.  Print copies are $7.95, PDF copies are $3.00.

ltue

Second, the schedule for this year’s LTUE symposium is out, and I’m on one of the panels!  It’s Friday morning at 9:00, and the theme is “Raising the Language Barrier.”

This will be my first convention panel EVER.  I’m kind of nervous about it, but I do have some authority on the subject after living overseas for a year, so it should be a good experience.  The other panelists include Dene Low, one of my English professors from back in college.  That should be interesting. :)

That’s just about it for now.  Back to writing!

Writer’s angst & post-convention ennui

25. August 2011 · 13 comments · Categories: Bringing Stella Home, Desert Stars, Edenfall, Genesis Earth, Novellas & Novelettes, Novels, Sholpan, The Back Burner, Untitled (Desert Stars companion novella) · Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

In spite of the title of this post, I’ll try not to get too emo.  Not sure how well I’ll succeed, but at least I’ll try.

Worldcon was great, but it put me into something of a writing slump and I’m not sure where to go next.  I was planning on writing the as-yet untitled New Rigel novel, but I want to get Desert Stars published before Christmas, and that would involve doing another major draft before sending it off for edits.

The trouble is, it typically takes me at least two months to do a rough draft.  I can probably finish Desert Stars in about a month, but I’d still want to start that project somewhere around the end of September.  Since I don’t expect for my first readers to get back to me until then, that leaves me with a single month to fill.

To further complicate matters, the place I’ve been temping at for the last two months wants to hire me full time.  In some ways, that’s awesome; work is work, after all, and even though I won’t exactly be saving the world, it’s not a bad job either.  On the other hand, 40 hours of warehouse labor per week is going to make it very difficult to do everything I want with my writing career.

Now, don’t get me wrong–I’m not complaining.  This seems to be the dilemma that every aspiring writer faces at one point or another, and most of my friends have understandably chosen the stable paycheck over the ever-elusive lucky break.  But with where I’m at–young and single, without any debt or obligations to pay off–and my long term career goals, I worry that I’ll end up settling if I take that path.  Besides, I’ve gotten used to “starving” over the last year and a half, and it’s actually not that bad.

What would REALLY be awesome is if they would hire me part time, and I think I might be able to negotiate that.  In the meantime, I’ve got to figure out what I’m going to write in September.  Here are my options:

Untitled (New Rigel)

This is the project I was most excited about before Worldcon, but now…well, I’m still excited, but post-convention ennui is not a pretty thing.  Basically, it’s a full-length novel set within the Gaia Nova universe, and an indirect sequel to Bringing Stella Home. 

I’ve already written the prologue and I like where it’s going, but I’d have to really bust my butt to get it done before October.  Then again, I usually drop the first draft somewhere in the middle, so allowing for that, it might still be good to go ahead.  However, it’s generally a bad idea to plan on screwing things up.

Edenfall

This is the sequel to Genesis Earth, and the second book in a planned trilogy.  Since it’s YA, I could probably pull it off in a month–YA is generally shorter than adult fiction, and Genesis Earth took me about a month to pound out once I knew what I was doing.  I’ve already got the story outlined and ready to go, so no problems there.

The big reason to do this project is that the first book is starting to have some success, and that’s naturally going to drive reader interest in the sequel.  I’ve already gotten some scattered emails and comments about it, asking when it’s going to come out.  Also, since there’s less pressure on me right now, bumping it up the queue might be a good idea.  There’s a reason some people are afraid of success.

Desert Stars Companion Novella

Now here’s an interesting idea: I could spend the next month working on a companion novel to Desert Stars, much like I spent the last month working on Sholpan.  The advantages to this plan are obvious: not only would I have another full-length novel ready before Christmas, but a $.99 novella to go with it–that is, if all goes well.

This is a project I haven’t given much thought to, but it wouldn’t be too hard to come up with something.  It would also get me excited for the revision of Desert Stars in October.  The main disadvantage is that I don’t know how well this “companion novella” concept will work out in the market–if Sholpan tanks, I might have to scrap it altogether.  But as Dean told me at Worldcon, you can’t let thoughts of the commerciality of a project get in the way of the creative process.

That’s what’s on my plate right now.  Preferably, I want to choose something I can finish within a month, while juggling work and the publication process for Sholpan.  Oh, and I also want to throw in a blog tour for Bringing Stella Home–more on that later.

So, to open it up to my super-awesome hardcore fans (all three or four of you), what do you think?  Of these projects, what do you most want to see?

Worldcon 2011: Saturday

24. August 2011 · 10 comments · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Alright, I should just write this up and finish my convention report before life sweeps me away completely.

Saturday was the main day of the con.  To be honest, I forgot all the panels I went to, except this really awesome one by a guy at NASA on near Earth objects (NEOs).  Holyfreakingcow there are thousands of these objects AND WE ARE SENDING MISSIONS TO THEM!!!  So cool!

I went to a kaffeklatsch with Nancy Kress, which turned out to be quite an interesting experience.  She’s an extremely gracious person, much like Tracy Hickman, and gave some excellent career advice: 1) no matter the obstacles or difficulties, always find a way to keep writing, and 2) always be true to the story.

Had dinner with some other Utah writers, and I wish I could say it was pleasant, but for some reason it got very antagonistic.  I know it takes two to tango, but I honestly don’t know what I did to make it that way.  Perhaps stress levels were running high, or people misread my tone, but the conversation at our table completely fell apart at least twice.  It was very wierd.

Part of it might have to do with the fact that I’ve become something of a trailblazer for indie publishing within the SLC / Utah Valley writing community.  Which brings me to another side note: everyone talks about how militant and polarizing self publishers are, when in my experience it’s the advocates of traditional publishing who tend to adopt an us vs. them attitude.  To be sure, there are plenty of desperate to be published writers who take the indie path just to “stick it to the man,” but those people tend to fade away once they realize it isn’t a silver bullet.

Anyway, the Hugo Awards in the evening were great!  Robert Silverberg presented the award for Best Novella, and for fifteen minutes he was my favorite person in the world.  So hilarious!  I’ve tried to find a video, but there doesn’t seem to be one up yet.  Utah writers were nominated in six categories, and even though none of them won, the competition was pretty dang good, so I don’t feel so bad about losing.

All in all, it was a great convention!  I had a lot of fun, even if I did feel a little exhausted by the end of it.  I’m not sure if I’ll be attending future worldcons in my current capacity as a beginning writer, but I most likely will buy supporting memberships in order to vote in the Hugos (and download the voting packet).  It’s a good community, and I’m glad to be a part of it.

Worldcon 2011: Thursday

19. August 2011 · 2 comments · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Wow, the last couple days have been packed with awesome con-stuff, but I’ve got a short break so I thought I’d blog about it.

Thursday was great, attended a few panels but mostly just wandered around meeting people.  I’m a little surprised with how many people read this blog.  Got Brandon to sign my Kindle, and he was really supportive about my decision to epublish.  I seem to be one of the only Utah writers going full-steam with indie publishing, but a handful of others are considering it, though for now they’re in the minority (which surprises me).

Anyhow, Thursday had a couple of really notable panels.  The first was on faith and science fiction, and had both Eric James Stone and Moshe Feder on it, among others.  Excellent discussion, though a couple of the commenters tried to derail it.

I found it surprising that the panelists didn’t have a good answer to my question: how do you reconcile far future sf with millenialist religions?  That’s exactly what I’m trying to do with my Gaia Nova universe–create a far future epic that isn’t incompatible with the major western religions (Islam, Christianity, Judaism, etc).  From the after-panel discussion, I got a strong recommendation to read C.S. Lewis’s space trilogy, so I’ll definitely be checking that out soon.

The other notable Thursday panel I attended was on ebook art, and featured John Picacio and Lou Anders, among others.  John feels pretty strongly that indie writers are seriously devaluing cover illustration, and within the first ten minutes someone in the audience literally told him to f___ off!  Wow, talk about tension–but even though it almost fell apart, the panel turned out to be very enlightening.

Let me just take a moment to say that I’m very impressed with what Lou Anders is doing over at Pyr.  While the rest of the publishing world seems to have their heads in the sand when it comes to the ebook revolution, Lou is one of the few who sees it more as an opportunity than a threat.  I’m not currently looking for a publisher, mostly because I’m waiting to see how things shake out, but I would be very surprised if Pyr is one of the publishers that goes under.

The parties in the evening were pretty good–as always, the Tor party was literally packed.  Brandon saw a group of us clustering together, so he broke us up and sent us off to talk with editors and agents.  He tried to point me out to an agent, but…you know, I’m not really looking for one right now.  Brandon keeps telling me not to believe DWS when it comes to agents, and while I’m certainly not fundamentally opposed to them, I feel that I can better build my career by going in other directions.  At some point in the future, maybe, but for now…not so much.

Speaking of Dean, I spent the whole evening hunting for him, then gave up around midnight only to find out the next day that he showed up at the SFWA suite fifteen minutes after I left (nooo!). And now that it’s 9pm in Reno and the parties are just getting started, I think I’ll cut this blog post here and recap Friday sometime later.

See you around!

Worldcon 2011: Wednesday

18. August 2011 · Write a comment · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , , ,

Just a quick update from Renovation before I crash for the night.

We left Provo pretty early–about 6:30, actually–and met up with Eric in Eagle Mountain.  The drive to Reno was pretty long, but we had some awesome geeky conversations along the way.  My favorite: how to successfully conduct an alien invasion.

So we rolled into town around 4:30, dropped our stuff off at the hotel, and hiked down to the convention center to register and wander around aimlessly until finding people we knew.  At least, that’s what I did, and even though it’s a big con (about 4k to 5k people) it didn’t take long to run into a bunch of writing friends from Utah.  The cool part: they had cornered Moshe Feder and were having a delightful conversation with him.  Awesome guy, Moshe Feder.  Very gracious and fun to talk with.

After that, I went with the gang to Tachyon Press’s panel.  It was pretty good; a little dry, but still interesting.  Kristy is really hoping to land an editing job with one of these companies, so she was more into it than I was, though I did ask a few questions about epublishing.  I asked Moshe too, and my general vibe is that people in the traditional system are still in a “wait and see” mode.

So then we all went to IHOP, which was fun; it was good to catch up a bit, as well as relax and enjoy some good food.  I went back to the con alone and browsed the freebie tables a bit, but there didn’t seem to be too much happening other than parties for the various committees trying to get their city voted for next year’s Worldcon.  However, there seem to be a lot of movies showing in the late evening hours here (something I haven’t seen at a con before), so in the future I’ll have to try that out too.  In any case, it was a pretty relaxing and uneventful evening.

Tomorrow is PACKED, though, and by packed I mean there’s waaay too much stuff going on for me to hit it all.  But out of all those, the one panel that I absolutely WILL attend is “Making It As a Writer” with Dean Wesley Smith, among others.  That one looks fascinating.

Other than that, I don’t have much to say.  The convention is just getting started, so there’s not a whole lot to report…yet.  I’ll keep you posted as the good stuff happens.  In the meantime, sleeeeeep.

Worldcon in T-minus 10, 9, 8…

16. August 2011 · 2 comments · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , , , ,

So I just finished packing for Worldcon, including 4 apples, 1 lb ginger snaps, and enough PBJ material to last the weekend (because fast food is disgusting and expensive).  I’ll be leaving tomorrow at 6:30 am with Cavan to pick up Logan in Orem, then meet up with Eric in Eagle Mountain and head out for Reno, hopefully before 7:30.

This will be my first time at Worldcon, and I’m pretty stoked!  It looks pretty freaking huge–Charlie sent me the PDF of the pocket program, and it had maybe twenty times the number of rooms for panels, workshops…man, it’s going to be hard not to get lost.  Also, I don’t think they’ll be giving away free books like at World Fantasy, though I’ll keep an eye out for whatever I can find!

I don’t have any specific goals, but here is what I would like to do:

  • Meet up with the other Utah writers (there are a lot of us!).
  • Network with other indie writers and book bloggers.
  • Gather as much info on ebooks and the publishing industry as possible.
  • Discover up-and-coming short fiction markets and what they’re looking for.
  • Gauge the general zeitgeist of the science fiction & fantasy community.
  • Throw something at Brandon.
  • Have fun!

That’s just about it.  See you in Reno!

First Radio interview and other such stuff

14. June 2011 · 1 comment · Categories: Bringing Stella Home, Desert Stars, Genesis Earth, Novels, Stars of Blood and Glory · Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Dude, check it out–my first radio interview just went live on the Dungeon Crawler’s Radio website!

I met these guys at CONduit last month, where they had a booth and were recording all sorts of authors and artist.  They were way cool when I talked with them, and when they found out I was a writer invited me on!

Hehe, considering how many big name authors they have on their show, I think I totally bombed–but it was still awesome.  The guys who run the show were really great, too; it was a ton of fun hanging out with them.  So thanks, guys, for having me on!

In other news, I just uploaded Genesis Earth to Smashwords, and I think it’s already live.  So for all those of you who want to get it from somewhere other than Amazon, it’s now available!  I’m still working through all the formatting kinks, so if you buy it and find some errors, let me know and I’ll send you a fixed copy.

Also, the cool thing about Smashwords is that you can generate coupon codes and even give the book away for free.  What I’m hoping to do is print up a few business cards with the code for a free book, then distribute them at conventions like Worldcon.  Hehe, imagine walking up to an editor and being like “hey, want my book?  Here you go!” Or even just dropping off a stack at the freebies table; I think it could be an awesome way to get exposure.

Man, there’s so much exciting stuff going on!  This is a great time to be a writer.

On the writing front, I’m making excellent progress on my current WIP (work in progress), Desert Stars. I’ve read through all the feedback from my first readers, and have a ton of fantastic ideas for how to make this story really shine.  I revised through about 2.1k words this morning before work, and I’m hoping to do at least two and a half chapters before this weekend.

Also, a couple days ago at work, I was trawling through tvtropes (one of the advantages of doing data entry is that you can afford to feed the addiction, hehe), and I had a SUPER awesome idea for the next book in the Gaia Nova series.

Since Bringing Stella Home is basically the Mongol conquests set in space, the big story to conclude that arc would be the battle of Ayn Jalut, where the Mongols suffered their first decisive defeat.  I did a little bit of setup for that in Into the Nebulous Deep, with the remnants of the Gaian Empire gathering at New Rigel.

Well, here’s what I’m thinking: I’ll bring back Danica’s team of mercenaries from Bringing Stella Home, make Roman a viewpoint character, and have Rina from Desert Stars join up with them as a quiet little girl in black who seems painfully shy, but is actually a deadly effective assassin whose weapon of choice is a bowcaster.

Oh yeah, I think this has some crazy awesome potential.

In any case, I should probably get to bed so I can get up early and write tomorrow. I hope to finish Desert Stars 3.0 by July 10th, and even though it’s going to take a lot of work, I think I can make it happen.

And after that…well, things just keep getting more and more awesome. I love writing!

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