Tag: friends

Just another update

A few updates, in case you’re interested in what’s going on with me:

I’m getting ready to post a new story to Amazon.  This is going to be the one that won first place in the 2009 Mayhew short story contest at BYU.  It’s also an excerpt for Genesis Earth, which is currently in the quarter finals for the 2011 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award.  More news on that as it comes out.

Into the Nebulous Deep is coming along.  Surprisingly, the rough draft follows a very tight, coherent plot structure.  At this stage, every other novel I’ve written is usually all over the place.  This one looks like it’s going to be twenty chapters, with four parts of five chapters each.

Right now, I’m in the middle of chapter 13.  I was hoping to finish it this week, but my sister was in town this weekend, so I spent most of my time with her instead.  Not that that’s a problem; I can probably catch up tomorrow.  I’m hoping to finish part III before the end of next week.

It’s going to be tough, though, because I’m starting a new temp job on Monday.  It’s 40 hours per week at $9, which is pretty sweet, especially since my tax return is basically going to cover all my expenses this month.  Hooray for cheap Utah summers!  The full time work is going to be tough on the writing, though.

Which brings me to my last update: the guys at Pioneer Book called me back today and set up a job interview on Tuesday!  Hooray!  I’m totally stoked–this bookstore job would be awesome.  I might even postpone my TEFL plans for a while if I get the job.  It probably won’t be full time or pay much more than minimum wage, but dude, it’s a bookstore. Plus, part time work is perfect for writing.  As long as I have enough to get by, I’ll be happy.

And to close, let me leave you with this awesome trailer my brother in law shared with me.  I haven’t seen this movie, but it looks absolutely freaking awesome–like the kind of film my old roommate Steve Dethloff would make.

Man, Steve and I would make an awesome duo in a post-apocalyptic world. I should move to Dallas just so we can be ready to team up when it happens. If they made a movie of our exploits together, it would totally be just like this. Lost Vegas…

Steve, if you’re reading this, I want you to know that there’s no one I’d rather be killing zombies with than you.

NaShoStoMo

So Dan Wells is taking a page from NaNoWriMo and starting his own writing thing for April, NaShoStoMo, aka National Short Story Month.  The rules are as follows:

  • You must write 30 all new short stories between April 1st and April 30th.
  • Each story must have a distinct beginning, middle, and end.
  • Each story must be at least 200 words.
  • You may write more than one story per day to make up for lost days.

It seems like an awesome idea, and I’m going to try it.  I’m not much of a short story writer, but I wish I were, because there are some really awesome short stories out there that I admire–like Endosymbiont, quite possibly the best singularity story that I have ever read (and available for free from Escape Pod).  Novels and short stories are different arts, but they’re both forms of storytelling, so I figure that no matter what happens I’ll learn something from it.

I’m not sure how many of these stories will take place in universes that I’ve already built, but probably a good number of them will.  I have a few characters from Bringing Stella Home that I would like to do little sketches on, possibly for a later novel, and some things I’d like to do in the worlds I’ve already created.

At the same time, though, I’ve got some crazy ideas for standalone stuff that I’d like to play with, like a crazy awesome dream I had last night that made me  lie awake just thinking about it for almost an hour.  It was insane...but I guess you had to be there.

In unrelated news, my writer friend Charlie got me a thing of sparkling grape juice, for me to open when I celebrate my first major publishing deal (though I suspect another motivation was to make me look like a wino while walking around on BYU campus).

Honestly, I was quite surprised–thanks!  I’ll use it to christen my first yacht that I buy from my multimillion dollar first deal, hehe.

Oh, and in other totally unrelated news, my other writer friend Laura started a blog.  So go check it out!

Spinning out

Just a quick post before I go to bed…and I really should, because it’s freaking late.

I feel like I’ve been getting more and more busy, yet less and less productive.  It’s @%$! frustrating.  In the last two weeks, I’ve had numerous job applications and interviews (though not as many interviews as I’d like), tons of complicated paperwork for the EPIK job in Korea I’m hoping to take come September, the only TEFL course I’m taking (in which I feel I am constantly behind), and all sorts of other random crap.

Oh, and then there’s writing.  I’ve been averaging only about 1.5k words per day, which is kind of pathetic when you realize that I don’t have regular work.

I wish I could say that I’ve been spending a lot of this extra time socializing, but sadly that isn’t the case.  I haven’t gone out on a date in months, and with each passing week I drift further and further from the people in my ward.  I’ve been pretty active with Quark, though, so that sort of makes up for things, but not enough.

One of the good things, though, is that I’ve been getting up relatively early all week–and by “relatively,” I mean before 9:00 am.  Next week’s goal: go to bed by 1:00, and get up before 8:00.  The timestamp on this post can probably tell you how much of a head start I’ve got.

Oh, and I have been exercising regularly.  That’s a good thing, I suppose.  Haven’t seen many results of that, except perhaps a slightly more active lifestyle, but it’s fun and I’ll keep it up.  Running is where I catch up on old podcasts, and I subscribe to quite a few.

I don’t know if this late night rant is useful in any way, except maybe to empathize with what it’s like when you’re busy all the time but never feel like you’re getting enough done.  I guess most people feel like that at one point or another, but it’s good to look back and see what you accomplished, like I did here.  For all the spinning out, I suppose it wasn’t a total wash.  And really, it almost never is.

But yeah, the main thing that makes me angsty is that I never feel that I’m writing enough.  I hear from everyone that with the way the publishing world is changing, fast writers have a huge advantage over slow ones.  And I know I have the ability to write fast, it’s just that I never really do it consistently.

Fast, in my mind, is 4k words or more per day.  I can hit it when I’m on, but that’s fairly rare.  Most of the time, I average between 2k and 2.5k, and my personal deadlines reflect that.

At least with ITND, however, I’ve been writing consistently every day…except today, when I took time off to revamp a short story (“From the Ice Incarnate”).  But my wordcount graph  hasn’t had any huge spikes or valleys, which is good I suppose.  The novel is coming along, if slowly, and that’s a good sign.

Anyhow, enough of this rant.  Time for bed.

Quarter Finalist? AAAHHHH!!!

Holy crap, Genesis Earth made the quarter finals for the 2011 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest!

That means that it’s one of 250 other entries that will go on to the next round of voting.  The grand prize is a publishing contract with Penguin for a $15k advance.

I’m happy to see I’m not the only old time Quarkie to make the cut; Drek also made it, with his novel Fires of Besowin. We’re having something of a friendly competition with this contest, but I think it’s pretty dang awesome that the two of us made it this far.  Best of luck on the next round; I have a feeling we’re both going to need it…

The 50 finalists will be announced April 26nd.  Until then, wish me luck!

A Fascinating Moral Dilemma

For FHE* tonight, we had an interesting discussion about ethical dilemmas and moral absolutes.  It started with the following question:

If you were a prisoner of war, would you consent to have sex with the prison warden if it would set you free?

The overwhelming answer, predictably enough (at least from a bunch of Mormons), was “heck no!” So then, the teacher upped the ante by asking: what if it would free one hundred other prisoners who were scheduled to die the next day?

I was a little surprised (but not really) when I was the only one who admitted that I probably would.  After all, there’s precedent for something similar in the Book of Mormon, and a very real question of whether or not the blood of the dead prisoners would be on your hands if you didn’t.  Also, I would still consider it rape, since I draw a distinction between the act of sex and the act of saving lives–IOW, the sex itself isn’t strictly consensual; it’s the cost of saving the other prisoners.

Laying aside completely the question of whether or not you can take the warden at his word, it’s a very interesting dilemma, and one that gets at the heart of what people really believe.  The fact that so many of my Mormon peers wouldn’t sleep with the guy tells you a lot about Mormon culture.  My follow up question would be: if it meant freeing yourself and the other prisoners, would you kill the warden?  Because I’m pretty sure most of them would say “heck, yes!” even though murder is typically considered to be a more heinous sin than fornication.

But anyway, the point here is that all of this makes excellent story material.  For your characters, what are the moral lines that they absolutely will not cross?  The ones where they’re a little more fuzzy?  What, for example, would a character be like whose method for choosing between two undesirable courses of action was to flip a coin–no matter the stakes?  And what about the characters like Ender Wiggins who flip the dilemma on its head by stabbing the giant in the eye?

This is the kind of stuff I love to read, and the stuff I love to write as well.  I’m hoping to pull off a really good one in Into the Nebulous Deep, but not for a couple of chapters.  Gotta set things up, get the story moving, and give the romance a little momentum.  But once the characters are all fleshed out and the stakes are insanely high, that’s when the fun begins.  Bwahahahaha!!

Man, I would make an awesome prison warden. ;P

Image courtesy postsecret.

*FHE (Family Home Evening) is, for young single Mormons, roughly the equivalent of a college-aged church youth group meeting.

A few additional thoughts

So, after the last post on my ebook venture, I have a few thoughts:

I haven’t yet decided to go all out indie, so don’t think that I am.  All I’m doing right now is putting out a couple of my short stories, mostly so I can learn hands-on how the epublishing process works (and make all my mistakes with something that isn’t a full-length novel).

I write mostly space opera and science fiction adventure, and those are apparently selling pretty well.  I don’t know about horror or epic fantasy, so to all you horror / epic fantasy friends of mine, realize that my experience might not be your experience.

After looking into DBAs, LLCs, business licenses, and taxes, I’ve decided not to register as a business or set up a separate account for this venture–at least, not until I sell more than $500, which from what I understand is when the IRS requires Amazon to start reporting earnings (I could be wrong; I’m not a lawyer).  Again, I’m not doing this for the money right now, more for the experience and to learn how to do it.

Why, then, am I putting together a formal business plan?  Well, it’s more of a self-discipline thing; as a writer, I am in the eyes of the world a self-employed owner of a small business, so I want to discipline myself so that I can be successful as such.

And honestly, I think this is very exciting.  I’ve found, over the past year, that I’m the kind of guy who would rather work for himself or as an independent contractor than work for a corporation and take a salary–firstly, because I believe that the corporate paradigm is fundamentally evil, and second, because I enjoy the independence, the control over my livelihood, and the adventure of being an entrepreneur.

Anyhow, my CS friend Bryan is going to help me figure out how to publish on Kindle this Tuesday, so my short story “Memoirs of a Snowflake” will probably go live that afternoon.  As for “Decision LZ1527,” I’m probably going to spend some money on the cover art, which means figuring out contracts, payments, pricing, etc.  My my goal is to put it out sometime in April, though, and between now and then, I might put up something else.  So keep an eye out!

Business Plan for an ebook venture

Alright, after watching the market and giving it some considerable thought, I’ve decided to venture into indie publishing, if only to test the waters.  I’ll release a couple of short stories first, mostly to learn how to format and release an ebook, and from there I’ll move on to other work.

I spent this afternoon drafting a business plan for the venture, using the resources available at the SBA website (thanks, Jerle).  Here’s what I have thus far:

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Mission Statement: To tell cool stories and have fun doing it
Projected Start Date: 31 March 2011
Founder and sole owner: Joseph M. Vasicek
Employees: 1 (services to be contracted on a freelance basis)
Location: Provo, UT (subject to change)
Product: Short stories, novels, and novellas

1) Summary of Growth

As the business has not yet been launched, there is no growth to report.

2) Future Plans

Stage One: Initial Release

In this stage, I will prepare and release two short stories, “Decision LZ1527” (previously published in issue 58 of The Leading Edge) and “Memoirs of a Snowflake” (previously unpublished) as ebooks on Kindle, Nook, and Smashwords.

The goals for this initial venture are to:
1) learn how to properly format and release an ebook,
2) gain familiarity with the ebook publishing system, and
3) gauge a general estimate of ebook costs and profits.

Stage Two: Initial Novel/Novella Release

At least 3 months after releasing “Decision LZ1527” and “Memoirs of a Snowflake,” I plan on releasing Sholpan, a novella based on the novel Bringing Stella Home. By doing so, I hope to:
1) learn how to properly outsource editing and cover art,
2) gauge the earnings potential for my novels, and
3) generate an audience for other books in the Gaia Nova series.

After releasing Sholpan, I will most likely wait for a few months to see what happens, submitting my other novels to traditional publishers in the meanwhile. If sales of my ebooks exceed expectations, I will consider moving to the next stage and fully implementing this business plan.

Stage Three: Full Ebook Release

If success in the previous stages justifies it, I will release my completed novels as ebooks, starting either sometime in July/August 2011 or after September 2012 (depending on how well my other works do, according to a metric which has yet to be determined). Currently, these consist of Genesis Earth and Bringing Stella Home, though Worlds Away from Home should be nearing the final phases of revision.

My business goals from here out are the following:
1) produce and release two novels each year (minimum of one),
2) consistently expand my audience through social networking,
3) obtain an agent to handle foreign/subsidiary rights,
4) obtain a print deal in order to build career prestige, and
5) earn enough to support myself entirely off of my writing.

If the works released in stage two do not sell well enough to justify moving on to stage three, I will continue to make them available as ebooks but will postpone releasing my novels until either my other works begin to sell well, or independent publishing becomes the generally accepted path for new writers.

Mainly, I just want to experiment with ebooks and figure out how they work. Since the initial costs are so low, my initial goal is not to make a lot of money, but to learn how to format and release an ebook. I was a little uneasy doing that with my novels, but I figure it wouldn’t hurt to practice on my short stories (all two of them).

So yeah, that’s the date: March 31st, 2011. I’ll release “Decision LZ1527” for $.99, and “Memoirs of a Snowflake” for $.50 or so (since it’s flash fiction). I’m not sure how well it will sell, but I hope that all of you reading this right now go and buy it!!!1!! (that includes you, Mom) Hehe, just kidding. ;P

But seriously, I’ll keep you guys updated closely on how the venture goes. A lot of ebook authors are very transparent with their numbers, and I plan to be no different. And if you have any feedback on the business plan, please let me know. I’m kind of new to this sort of thing, and while it’s surprisingly fun, I’m sure I’ll make a TON of mistakes. Your help would be appreciated!

Deceptively unproductive day

Man, where did the day go?  I don’t feel like I was lazy, yet I only wrote about 1.2k words for the whole day.  And things were going so well the day before…

Well, I guess I was busy, just with a whole lot of other things.  Donated plasma (which took all morning), got some groceries, started GMing another round of werewolf on the quark forums, did some more research into ebooks, started the online TEFL course, went to Leading Edge and signed a contract for a poem they’re going to publish–

Oh yeah, check it out!  I signed my second publishing contract today–again, with Leading Edge.  They’re going t0 publish a short poem I wrote about Gliese 581g, otherwise known as Zarmina’s World.

(which reminds me, I’ve been meaning to blog about NASA’s Kepler mission since forever.  It’s an incredible mission which, I believe, will lead to some revolutionary astronomical discoveries–and may even rejuvenate interest in science fiction.  But more on that later…)

So yeah.  My goal is to finish WAFH before the end of February, which is going to require a lot of work.  Two and a half weeks, with LTUE 2011 sucking up one of the weekends…it’s going to be tough.

Numbers-wise, though, it’s still quite doable.  I want to keep this draft pretty close to 90k (no more than 100k), and I’m already at 53k words.  With sixteen days left in the month, I need to write between 2.3k and 2.9k words per day to make it.

In the meantime, it’s 2 am, and I’d better get some sleep. Waking up late is definitely bad for productivity, and I hate it. If I could train myself to wake up every morning at 5 am like Aneeka, that would be awesome. Actually, I’d probably just complain about how much it sucked to get up early every day, but hey–the grass is always greener…

Yet another reason why I love Quark

For those of you who may not know, quark is BYU’s science fiction and fantasy club.  I had the good fortune of being one of the club’s vice presidents for two years while I was a student, and I still keep in touch with a ton of friends from that group.

One of the funnest things about quark is the online werewolf games–currently, I’m GMing a round based on Interstella 5555.  Recently, Jerle and I decided to put together a database of all 49 rounds that we’ve played over the years, compiling player stats, setting up rankings, and other such nerdy things.

While I was going across some of the older threads, I came across this amazingly hilarious premise for round fourteen:

In the year 1815 Napoleon conquered Russia.
In 1817 he conquered China.
By 1830 he was the ruler of continental Europe, Asia, and parts of Africa that were interesting.
In 1834 he invaded Antarctica and defeated the United Federation of Penguins and Polar Bears.
His successor sent ships to conquer America and England, and succeeded, but not without a fight.

The year is 2015.
The entire world speaks either French or English, or, more likely, some mixture of two.
A great scientist has invented a Time Machine.
The only hope for penguins and polar bears is to infiltrate high-security research facility in New Paris, use the device to go back in time and present a plush toy of a penguin to young Napoleon. A rogue rebel Greenpeace group assists the penguins/polar bears.

The research facility is guarded by an elite team of 15 highly-trained frenchpeople. Through great ingenuity Greenpeace was able to replace three of them with its agents. Those three must kill everyone else and use the time machine.

There is also a rumor that one of the elite guardsmen has been replaced by a clown.

Playing:
Avulsion 7
Baggins 17
Beatobur 13
Cardasin 20
Child 10
Daen 17
Drek 5
Fezzik 11
HER0 0
Jerle 13
RamenSensei 1
SilverStorm 19
Sunstarr12 16
Thundershorts 12
Turin_Turanbar 0

3 Greenpeace members, 1 DGSE detective, 1 team medic, 1 clown.
And 9 FRENCHPEOPLE!

RULES

NIGHT.

Awaiting requests.

Hehehe…these are sooo my people!

Racing along

Ugh, why do I always stay up until 2am?  And then I don’t get up until ten.  Man, I need a job–either that, or more self discipline.

Just a quick post before I hit the sack.  I’m making excellent progress with the revision of Mercenary Savior, regularly hitting between 7k and 8k per day.  Most of that is polishing work, which tends to go fast, but I’m also rearranging a few chapters, deleting scenes and putting others in a different order.

One thing that’s surprised me a lot so far is how much I’ve managed to cut.  The first draft, which I wrote on MS word, was about 135k–which runs around 145k by open office’s (flawed) word count method.  The second draft was about the same, the third a little shorter, and the fourth around 120k by open office’s algorithm. By then, I thought it was as lean as I could get it–but no, that’s not the case.  It’s all for the best, though; a 100k word novel isn’t nearly as daunting as a 145k monster, especially in science fiction.

Anyhow, today I got some feedback from C.A. Jacobs, a friend from World Fantasy (which she mailed to me…from HAWAII…), and I’m thinking I ought to change the title of this work. She suggested something like “The Fall of Karduna,” but the book is more about the individual characters than the world, so I’m thinking of something like “Saving Stella,” or even reverting back to “Bringing Stella Home.” Any thoughts?

In unrelated news, a ton of job opportunities have been opening up recently.  I interviewed for a position with the BYU Political Science department on Monday, and I’ve got another interview with a local marketing company Friday.  My sister also says that her work needs a new cook, so that could be good if the other stuff falls through.  And as for phone delivery, I’ve got until the 17th to keep up with that.

So, life is good.  Writing-wise, I’m having a very productive revision of one of my better works.  Job-wise, a lot of promising options seem to be popping up.  Social-wise, I’m doing pretty well, too; Utah is a great place to make new friends.

Oh, and English 318 starts TOMORROW!  Holy crap, I am excited!!

gnight