Would-Be Authors, you need to READ!

Today I was engaged in a discussion over on Facebook about self-pubbed authors.  I got the feeling most of the authors involved in the debate were either traditionally published or with small presses.  While I'm with a small press now, I used to self-pub so I kind of felt sorry for the object of their scorn.  None-the-less, I understood completely the issue at hand.  It all came down to the utter lack of editing that a majority of self-pubbed authors have with their work.

Cthulhu knows I didn't have a whole lot back in the day.

Now, I do think self-pubbed authors would greatly benefit from having a professional editor.  Wait... let me clarify something - let's make a crowbar division between "Editing" and "Proofing."  We'll say Editing is when someone looks over your manuscript for issues with character development, plot flow, theme, and all that other literary stuff.  Proofing is when someone looks over your maniscript for SPaG issues, or problems with Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar.  All self-pubbed authors should have someone else (preferably semi-trained) dispassionately Proof their manuscript.  The Editing I'll leave to your discretion.

However, I think it's more than that.  Too often I find that both Would-Be Authors, early Self-Pubbed Authors and (sadly) a lot of D-List Authors (like myself) only read the works that are similar to the genre they write in.  Just because you've read every gigantic tome written by Robert Jordan and Terry Goodkind, you are not necessarily in a position yourself to write the next great fantasy epic.  Consuming every YA Vampire novel you can get your hands on does not make you an author of one.  Now, I'm not saying you shouldn't read the stuff you like, nor am I saying that you need an advanced degree in English to pen a book, but c'mon... diversify.

I read just about everything except Harlequin Romance.  Well, and Sports Biographies.  (Lame.)  An author should always be up for absorbing new things, gathering more information.  Read Westerns, SciFi, Horror, Romance, Fantasy, whatever.  Read non-fiction books on History, Cooking, Physics, Crime, Technology, Philosophy, whatever.  Read the local newspaper, read the label on your frozen pizza, read your junk mail, whatever.

After running a used bookstore for a year, I found that most readers have one or two genres they like, with only about a half-dozen authors they regularly read.  While that might be fine for the general public, you're an Author... you don't get that luxury. You just need to read.

And who knows - maybe there won't be as much Proofing that needs done later...

The Perfect Horror Monster in 10

http://fecklessgoblin.blogspot.com/2012/01/guest-blog-10-characteristics-of.html

I get the honors of writing the Guest Blog over at THE FECKLESS GOBLIN today.  A spot of Horror, Dark Fiction & Writing Tips from Ziggy Kinsella, I composed a objective look at the Ten Characteristics that the Perfect Horror Monster must have.  With a deconstructed theme, working more on archetypes and theories, I tried to throw in a bit of laughs along with the all the screaming.

Check it out over at THE FECKLESS GOBLIN.

http://fecklessgoblin.blogspot.com/2012/01/guest-blog-10-characteristics-of.html

Soundtrack to the Story

I have almost 10k words done for the anthology piece due to Dark Red Press on the 20th of January.  I'm pretty sure it's only half done.  15,000 words was my minimum, but I know I'll go over that and hit closer to 20k.  It's a post-apocalyptic tale, just as the other 3 will be from the other DRP authors, for a book entitled 4POCALYPSE.  An interesting premise, each of us taking a spin on that speculative fiction sub-genre.  Like an idiot, I decided to set mine in the ruins of 2270 and fill it with advanced tech and my twist on zombies.  (I didn't foresee the amount of research that would have to go into this one.)

As with all of my longer works, it took me a while to find the "voice."  Mostly, this was because I hadn't found the soundtrack yet.  Each of my novels or e-novellas have had their own selection of music.  THE STITCHING was done entirely to Murder By Death, while IN BLEED COUNTRY had a lot of Puscifer and Tool.  A COMPLICATED DIVINE was set to Alkaline Trio and other modern punk bands, while my out-of-print novel BETWEEN US AND OBLIVION was penned exclusively to the post-rock band 65DaysOfStatic.  It took me a while, but this current novella is getting hammered out to a mix of DeadMau5, Skrillex and The Glitch Mob.  The music created by those groups fit the vibe of the tale.

I know some authors who must write in near silence - that would drive me insane.  At the same time, once I've found my tale's soundtrack, I won't listen to it during the writing process except when I'm actually writing the story.  It forces me to keep going and doesn't dilute the feeling.  When I'm writing random articles, blogs (or just pissing about on Facebook), I find any instrumental post-rock works well for me.  While emotive and creative, it almost acts as a default sound to be, those guitars from This Will Destroy You and Explosion in The Sky and the vocals from Sigur Ros.

After this novella is done, the sequel to IN BLEED COUNTRY is supposed to be next on my plate.  Perhaps I'll find the soundtrack in one of Maynard Keenan's acts again, but I wouldn't necessarily say it was set in stone.  Certain aspects of a story writes itself, and a tale demands its own tune.

So Much Madness...

A lot going on right now.  The DRP interview for "In Bleed Country" is up, and I'm hoping it generates more interest in the book.  I've contacted three different review site with the request to submit the book - no word back from any of them.  That said, if any is willing to give an HONEST review on places like Goodreads, Amazon, etc. I'll see able getting a DRP e-Review Packet out to you. 

So, the 4POCALYPSE project at Dark Red Press has been pushed back a month.  This works out for me greatly.  I spent so much time researching aspects of the novella I was contributing, the start of the actual writing seemed daunting.  Of course, once I finally got into the tale, I only had a little over a week left before the deadline.  This extension should ensure the piece comes out as quality.

Speaking of, one of the main reasons I found my groove with the post-apocalyptic tale was because I discovered its soundtrack.  This is always an issue with me, the right "feeling" music to inspire a certain story.  C.L. Stegall talks about it in his video blog here, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwQCXv6F78E and it's something that definitely resonates with me.  My tastes are eclectic, and I found a few dub-steb groubs (Deadmau5, Skrillex, Glitch Mob) are helping me to write this.  At the same time, I've been trying my hand at illustration again.  It was a small tragedy that my CTS didn't allow me to do much tradional artwork, but I've switched up some techniques and the project currently has three fully rendered pieces of promo art.

Oh, and the evil wizards at Smashwords have arbitrarily decided my short story, "Wetter," has passed all their insane e-tests to get on the premium catalog.  Have I mentioned this week how much I hate Smashwords?  I wouldn't mess with them anymore if I could get free e-books up on Kindle and Nook any other way, but it's SUCH a great marketing tool.  I'm fully aware I'm a D-List Author, but I also fully believe in a certain price tier - full eBooks at $2.99, eNovellas at $0.99, and eShort Stories for free. 

Now if I can just get those bastards to accept the Halloween eAnthology I edited, "Past The Patch," into their damn premium catalog.

DRP Video Interview for "In Bleed Country"

Dagon's lovely Deep One

Lil' Lhu Loves Crafts!

Seriously though... isn't he adorable in his cosmic madness?

Imagination Unbound

There are numerous occasions when I find myself attempting to explain how my imagination works.  It's always difficult.  It's always for different reasons.  It usually comes out in a jumbled babble and I have the other person staring at me wide-eyed.  There's always that question on their lips.

Way back when I was in high school, I got in trouble in a geometry class because the teacher believed I had been cheating on one of the tests.  This was because I hadn't shown my work to arrive at the conclusions to the problems - the right conclusions.  It wasn't until the next year, when I had the same teacher for Tech Math, and he was forced to see how Machine Trades students instinctually did trigonometry in their heads, that I was able to explain how I had passed his geometry test.  It was simple for me to imagine a three dimensional block of wood in the specifed shape floating beside me, surrounded by glowing numbers, and the object getting dissected as need be.  This was about 4 years before the film The Matrix appeared on screen.

Today, I'm sitting at my dining room table, at my macbook and listening to 65DaysOfStatic.  The epic, post-rock electronica conjures certain emotive sensations and I can weild them in my imagination.  Music is important in my imagination.  Today, it helps me form vistas of a distant post-apocalyptic future over-run by a rouge science that looks a lot like magic.  This is easy.  The music is loud, and the beats and textures aid me.  Into the blankness, I drop the ruins of skyscrapers and shattered electronic billboards, a clear blue sky above and knee-deep flooded streets below.  Windows are blown out and a few cars still smolder, a pack of predator cats growl in the dark recesses of a cellular store and automatic gun fire echoes in the distance.  The track changes.  From the tallest remaining building, a whitish-purple lighting crackles up and around the structure, while a flock of creatures far too large to be birds take flight from its windows.  The ground shifts, and under the tepid water where lines used to dictate traffic patterns, there is a massive crack.  It builds, it grows, and something massive come crawling out.

The other night my girlfriend had a nightmare.  She briefly told me pieces about it, and I found myself typing away for hours as I listened to A Perfect Circle.  I imagined a suburban setting and created the details to a very normal American home.  I described the young boy and his older sister, their parents and the things that were to transpire.  In my head, I watch as the boy (who really wasn't a boy) ripped out his own teeth with needle-nosed pliers once used to construct model airplanes and hacked away at his fleshy pink gums with an exacto blade so that he could cram in his collection of shark teeth.  He had wanted to be a "shark monster" for Halloween, you see.  Chomp, Chomp!  All good lil' goblins wish to be something properly scary.

Perhaps it's one of the reasons I don't care for Stephen King's writing.  I don't need three pages describing the shutters on a house.  If you tell me it's a "Haunted House," my imagination has run through two dozen variations before you're on to the next word.  Of course, I also know that I'm the weird one, and that I'm going to have to describe my version of a Haunted House to you in detail.  But I suppose that's why I'm a writer, to give you my take on things. 

I'm here to entertain with my imagination.  I'm here as a storyteller, here to use my fluid take on reality to alter your day a bit.  That question on their lips?  Granted, sometimes it's "What the hell is wrong with you?"  More often than not, however, it's "Why?"

Why?  Because it's who I am. 

H.P. Lovecraft's 121st Birthday

121 years ago... think about that.  Howard Philip Lovecraft was born in 1890 and we are celebrating his 121st birthday today, August 20th, 2011.  I consider how many of my youngest brother's friends were probably born in 1990 and are turning 21.  Only a number of them may have herad the name "Lovecraft," but I guarantee a majority of them have heard the names "Cthulhu" and/or "The Necronomicon."

Lovecraft changed popular writing just as surely as other great "genre" authors have.  His use of the "weird and unknown" was influetial, as was Poe's gothic sensiblities and Wells' unchecked science.  We can easily place him among his friends Clark Ashton Smith, Robert E. Howard, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and his disciple, Robert Bloch.   And yet, only one other horror author has managed to achieve what Lovecraft has with his legacy - Bram Stoker.

Bram Stoker's "Dracula," has taken on truly mythic porportions.  With his fictional character based partly on historical fact, the lines have come to blur over the decades since the novel was first published.  Here in the 21st century, the average person can no longer tell you the division between fact and fiction, and Dracula has reached into every aspect of our culture.  I am not speaking of vampires, I am speaking directly about "Dracula," the creation of one particular author.

While Lovecraft's creations may have yet to saturate themselves into household names, you'd be facing a challenge if you were to attempt to find someone who hadn't heard of The Necronomicon - and didn't believe it was a real book!  With his deliberate lack of structure, much of the lore surrounding his works have taken on a life of its own and people have come to unsettling conclusions concerning the names Yog-Sothoth, Dagon, Azathoth and Hastur.  On the opposite side of that coin, you can purchase the great incarnation of cosmic insanity as an adorable green plushly marketed as "My Lil' Cthulhu." 

Even if we ignore the games, the books, the toys, the tee shirts and the other merchandise, we have to agree on a startling revelation - there are people who mistakenly believe Lovecraft's fiction to be true!  Of course, we Lovecraft fans find this wonderful and do little do persuade them otherwise.  The mad Arab, Abdul Alhazred wrote the great book of the dead, The Necronomicon?  Yes, watch out!  The blind, idiot god Azathoth has sent his emmisary, Nyarlathotep, down to find a way that he can escape?  Obviously!  In his house at R'lyeh, dead Cthulhu waits dreaming and after strange aeons even death may die?  I have no idea what that means, but you're screwed!

But there was so much more to Lovecraft and his work.  It was the poetic, antiquated way he strung sentences together, the way he created atmospheric tension out of so very little, the way he twisted mundane events into epic scenes where the fate of the universe hung in the balance.  Besides his innovative works like "At The Mountains Of Madness," "The Call Of Cthulhu," "The Dunwich Horror," "Pickman's Model," "The Color Out Of Space" and "The Shadow Over Innsmouth," there is the classical horror of "The Music of Erich Zann," the nightmarishly beautiful prose of "Azathoth," the grand fantasy of "The Dream Quest Of The Unknown Kadath," and the sheer dark brilliance of "The Dreams In The Witch House."

So I urge you, go read some Lovecraft.  Go discover for yourself why this author is still influencing new writers today.  Go find out why his work is so unique that it has captivated the fears and imaginations of multiple generations.  Go...

Or I'll get Dagon's fish cult to eat you.

Scott Nicholson signs book deal with Amazon

Indie-Horror sensation Scott Nicholson talks about how Amazon has "already helped me fulfill my dream of writing full time as a career, and this relationship will open up plenty more opportunities and freedom in the years ahead." 

Congratulations, Scott!  All the best to you!

http://hauntedcomputer.blogspot.com/2011/08/nicholson-signs-book-deal-with-amazon.html