Since I've been on vacation, I haven't really had much to blog about, but I thought while I had a moment during my final hours of freedom, I'd re-post a blog entry that got a lot of feedback a couple of years ago. So, here it is:
This entry is geared more towards readers than writers and editors,
but I think most writers and editors would agree with what I have to
say.
When a reader finishes a book, the most important
thing they can do (especially if they liked it) is go to Amazon, or any
other site, and review the book. Reader reviews do more to help a new
book than any promotion, especially with small press titles. With large
presses, a new book might have a couple of months to gain a following,
but in the small press, the time is much shorter, and all small press
writers are dependent upon people reviewing our work. Sometimes even a
bad review can help, but obviously we prefer the good reviews. If a
potential reader can read a well thought out review from an objective
reader, they're much more likely to take a chance on a small press book.
Most readers assume that if it's small press, the author must not be
very good, but this isn't always the case, and a well thought out review
can convince them to buy the book.
I think it's also
important to actually review the book...not just rate it. Giving a book
a star rating without saying anything about it doesn't really
help...especially one and five star ratings because that just makes
other readers think that someone was either being a prick (one star
rating) or is a friend of the author (five star rating).
Those
are just my thoughts on book reviews, so if you've read something that
you liked recently, please go and review it. One review can do a lot
for a small press author and several reviews can make a career...so help
the small press writer out, even if it's not me...
Monday, July 16, 2012
Friday, July 13, 2012
The robbery, an update
Some of you have been following the story of Rebecca getting robbed at work, and all of the court visits we've been through since that horrible night. Well, much of that came to an end yesterday.
The thug who did this agreed to a plea bargain yesterday. He's going to be facing 20 years in jail, but at least we don't have to go to trial now. While the judge was explaining everything to him yesterday, he broke down and started to cry...at times, even bawling his eyes out. This was a radical change from the guy who used to stroll into the courtroom like he owned it, and it may sound horrible, but I was glad to see him cry.
The DA had said that one of the victims was in the courtroom, and the only people in the courtroom other than the legal people who had to be there were me and Rebecca, and he kept looking at me, and I just kept starting back at him. Rebecca had herself hidden around a corner, so I'm not sure if he knew she was there or not.
When he was being led back to jail, still crying, he turned, not really looking at me, but rather in looking in my direction, and yelled, "I'm sorry." He wasn't supposed to do that, but he did it anyway.
Formal sentencing will be in October, and it will be at that time that Rebecca will have the opportunity to actually say something to him...if she wants. I think, no matter what, that she is going to write something, and even if she can't say it, she'll have the DA read it for her.
The deputy DA who has worked on this case and the victim advocate have been wonderful. They've done everything they could to help Rebecca get through this, and I'm glad we've had them on our side.
The thug who did this agreed to a plea bargain yesterday. He's going to be facing 20 years in jail, but at least we don't have to go to trial now. While the judge was explaining everything to him yesterday, he broke down and started to cry...at times, even bawling his eyes out. This was a radical change from the guy who used to stroll into the courtroom like he owned it, and it may sound horrible, but I was glad to see him cry.
The DA had said that one of the victims was in the courtroom, and the only people in the courtroom other than the legal people who had to be there were me and Rebecca, and he kept looking at me, and I just kept starting back at him. Rebecca had herself hidden around a corner, so I'm not sure if he knew she was there or not.
When he was being led back to jail, still crying, he turned, not really looking at me, but rather in looking in my direction, and yelled, "I'm sorry." He wasn't supposed to do that, but he did it anyway.
Formal sentencing will be in October, and it will be at that time that Rebecca will have the opportunity to actually say something to him...if she wants. I think, no matter what, that she is going to write something, and even if she can't say it, she'll have the DA read it for her.
The deputy DA who has worked on this case and the victim advocate have been wonderful. They've done everything they could to help Rebecca get through this, and I'm glad we've had them on our side.
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Kickstarter approved
I received word yesterday that Kickstarter has approved The Battle for Turtle Island: Buffalo Wars. This means that we will now be able to try to raise funds to produce the game. I've been debating when I wanted to kick off the fund raising...I'd thought about doing it immediately, but Rebecca and I are both taking some time off from work this week to take a little mini-vacation. I'm not sure what we're going to be doing, but I probably won't be on-line as much as I usually am, so I wouldn't be able to send out annoying posts asking people to donate...so I will probably have it go active on Tuesday, which is when I have to go back to the "real"job.....................
Monday, July 09, 2012
The Martian Wave 2012 - The e-book
The e-book version of the 2012 issue of The Martian Wave is now available. You can find it in a wide variety of formats at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/180655.
Sunday, July 08, 2012
The Martian Wave 2012 - a tease
I thought I'd give you a little tease of what you're missing if you haven't ordered your copy of the 2012 issue of The Martian Wave. To order your copy, go to http://sdpbookstore.com/tmw.htm.
Here are the first paragraphs from each of the stories in this issue:
Here are the first paragraphs from each of the stories in this issue:
Absence of Evidence
By Robert J. Mendenhall
"Absence of evidence is
not evidence of absence." -
Dr. Carl Sagan
The storm
chased them across the rock-strewn Martian surface. Relentlessly, as if to
avenge some unprosecuted crime. This was the most powerful weather system Mars
had experienced in nearly two centuries. It tore the rusty sand from the
ground, marshaled it into an angry mass of iron oxide particles, then
accelerated that mass to an insane velocity. And it was about to engulf them.
Newton's Window
By Scott
Virtes
"Welcome
to the Newton Parts Exchange. What's your pleasure?"
Moontide
By
GC Rosenquist
Captain Gerald
Hatcher stood alone in the darkness of the clear plasteel dome, high above the
rest of Moonbase Alpha, staring into the dark sky above the crater lip…waiting.
The Blue Marble Signal
by Phil M. Berger
Adrift amidst interstellar
dust. Seeking harbor across time
incomprehensible. Hope slowly
withering. Until...
The Geysers of Enceladus
By Glen R. Stripling
Frank
Cooper touched his finger to the heater on the cold steel wall of his
office. Frigid methane deep from the
heart of the moon instantly ignited as it rushed in front of him, bathing his
pale wrinkled face with warmth and light.
Enceladus was eternally subject to the combined gravities of Saturn,
Mimas and Dione, which squeezed the moon like a sponge, crushing and heating
the frozen gasses deep underground. The
pressurized slurry belched out of the moon at 1200 miles per hour, up to 500
kilometers and reflecting the powerful lamps of the mining camp. Their beauty reminded him of the tall white
columns of renovated southern mansions back home. He looked over his shoulder at Nathan Ward
who just walked in the room. “Have you
heard anything from Mars about the injunction?”
Last Word from Kismet
By Ross Gresham
Thom lifted his
head from the pillow and regarded his new body with distaste. The chest and
stomach were a washboard of carefully-shaped little muscles, which, in the grip
of transfer nausea, resembled nothing so much as a field of tumors.
A Hole
By Robert N. Stephenson
I’m back… I’m back and
there’s nothing I can do…
The
first words of Captain Abrams Hanzer
on
leaving the Long-Jump IV
The return of
the fourth ship to head out to the edge of the galaxy was meant to be a
celebration of two decades of achievement, but like the three previous ships to
make the journey the return was not the joyous success the international space
program had expected. The General had read all the brief during the
construction of the ship, he didn’t understand the science but accepted the
expert’s positions on the hyper drive and the gravity engine, he had signed off
on the final test after all systems were passed, he had even congratulated each
crew member personally before they departed. Now before him was the mess of
failure. He’d written his resignation that morning and was ready to deliver it
by hand to the President should he not find an answer to what had happened. All
members of the crew were unconscious and the data on the ship’s computer
systems was fast degrading.
Sparks
By H. David Blalock
The Seastorm
was still over 400 million miles out of Titan when the life support unit began
to sputter.
Monday, July 02, 2012
The Battle for Turtle Island: Buffalo Wars cover
As promised, here is the cover art for the new game, The Battle for Turtle Island: Buffalo Wars...
Sunday, July 01, 2012
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Cover art
It looks like there is now a cover for The Battle for Turtle Island, and it is AWESOME! Hopefully you'll all get to see it some time next month...
Sunday, June 24, 2012
The rough draft is done
I just completed the writing of the rough draft of the new game, which will be titled The Battle for Turtle Island: Buffalo Wars. The first part of the title is the actual name of the game, while this edition will feature rules for the Buffalo Wars supplement. Sounds confusing...it's not.
The initial draft has come in at just over 40,000 words, and I know it will grow dramatically when I revise it, as there needs to be more detail added in several sections, and I left the pricing of the goods section basically blank, since I haven't figured out such things as how much a tent cost in the mid to late 19th century.
I actually started writing the game on April 10th, and it's now June 24th. So, in about two and a half months, I managed to crank out over 40,000 words...and it is over that because I erased a big chunk and then re-did it. That's not a bad bit of productivity considering that I couldn't work on the game every day.
Just imagine what I might accomplish if I didn't have to have a "real" job.
Now I'm going to let it sit for about a week, and then it will be into the revisions.
The initial draft has come in at just over 40,000 words, and I know it will grow dramatically when I revise it, as there needs to be more detail added in several sections, and I left the pricing of the goods section basically blank, since I haven't figured out such things as how much a tent cost in the mid to late 19th century.
I actually started writing the game on April 10th, and it's now June 24th. So, in about two and a half months, I managed to crank out over 40,000 words...and it is over that because I erased a big chunk and then re-did it. That's not a bad bit of productivity considering that I couldn't work on the game every day.
Just imagine what I might accomplish if I didn't have to have a "real" job.
Now I'm going to let it sit for about a week, and then it will be into the revisions.
Monday, June 18, 2012
I love three day weekends
For each of the last two weekends, I've had Monday off as well as Saturday and Sunday. Last week it was because of Rebecca's birthday, and this week it was because of how I was scheduled.
And I'd have to say that I absolutely love having three day weekends. It's amazing how much work I can get done with some extra rest, and some extra time away from the "real" job. Each of the last two weekends, I've put almost 10,000 words into the game. With productivity like that, I wonder what I could accomplish if I didn't have to have the day job.
Oh, to dream to dream....
And I'd have to say that I absolutely love having three day weekends. It's amazing how much work I can get done with some extra rest, and some extra time away from the "real" job. Each of the last two weekends, I've put almost 10,000 words into the game. With productivity like that, I wonder what I could accomplish if I didn't have to have the day job.
Oh, to dream to dream....
Sunday, June 17, 2012
Some people really suck
We've been trying to track down our tax refund for a while now, and we just got word yesterday that someone had cashed our refund check. The IRS sent us a bunch of documents to fill out, and with those documents was a copy of the check with the "signatures." The thing is, however, that whoever stole the check actually printed our names on the back of the check, and it was painfully obvious that the same person wrote both names.
First of all, to steal someone's tax refund is beyond a crappy thing to do to someone. That's money that we actually need, and we earned from our hard work. As Rebecca said, this is the second time she's been robbed this year, and it's really pissing her off!
Second of all, since when is it considered legal to not sign a check? Who the hell cashed this check? Our guess is that they went through a check cashing agency, or something similar, but why would they cash a check that wasn't signed? And for that matter, aren't people supposed to supply identification of some kind?
It almost sounds like whoever stole the check knew someone that would cash it for them, but I've got news for them, we've filed everything we need the government, and they will be coming after your ass!!!
First of all, to steal someone's tax refund is beyond a crappy thing to do to someone. That's money that we actually need, and we earned from our hard work. As Rebecca said, this is the second time she's been robbed this year, and it's really pissing her off!
Second of all, since when is it considered legal to not sign a check? Who the hell cashed this check? Our guess is that they went through a check cashing agency, or something similar, but why would they cash a check that wasn't signed? And for that matter, aren't people supposed to supply identification of some kind?
It almost sounds like whoever stole the check knew someone that would cash it for them, but I've got news for them, we've filed everything we need the government, and they will be coming after your ass!!!
Friday, June 15, 2012
It's a secret
When I got home from work today, I found an invitation in my e-mail to write a story for what sounds like a really cool anthology. But, it's not something I can really talk about...so forget I said anything...
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
A June update on the game
The game is coming along quite nicely now. I'm just a few hundred words short of 30,000 now. I'm expecting the initial draft to be around 50,000 words, so this is good progress. The final game will certainly be much longer, as there is still a lot of historical stuff that I have to go back and put in, but I'm hoping to have the initial draft done in the next couple of months.
After it's done, it will be time to rework it some, and then send it off to play-testers, who will hopefully help fine tune it. Hoping for a December 1st release, but we'll see. And as many of you might expect, Laura Givens will be doing the cover art.
Once it's closer to being ready, we'll be setting up a kickstarter for it, so there will be a chance that you can get some stuff at a good price...once it's done.
Stay tuned to this blog for more info as it becomes available.
After it's done, it will be time to rework it some, and then send it off to play-testers, who will hopefully help fine tune it. Hoping for a December 1st release, but we'll see. And as many of you might expect, Laura Givens will be doing the cover art.
Once it's closer to being ready, we'll be setting up a kickstarter for it, so there will be a chance that you can get some stuff at a good price...once it's done.
Stay tuned to this blog for more info as it becomes available.
Sunday, June 10, 2012
Book signing
It was a pretty successful book signing. Although I'm absolutely sure that the majority of the people were there to see Warren Hammond, close to half of the attendees walked out with a copy of my book, so I certainly can't complain about that!
My thanks to everyone who showed up, and I hope you all enjoy the book!
And of course thanks to Ron and Nina of The Broadway Book Mall for always supporting local authors.
Saturday, June 09, 2012
Charlie Chases Crows
My publisher recently sent me a new review of Red Moon Rising (I'll post a link when I have it.) In the review, the reader really liked the book, but what he liked most was the character Charlie Chases Crows. Pretty much every review or comment I've seen on this book has included some mention of how much the reader liked Charlie, and how they'd like to read more about him.
This doesn't really surprise me, because Charlie is, in my humble opinion, the best character I've ever created...so maybe I should think about doing more with him. At least that's what the readers seem to want.
And on a completely hypothetical note, if a movie is ever made out of the book, I want Graham Greene to play Charlie. I think he'd do a great job in the roll.
I'm just saying...
Wednesday, June 06, 2012
We've lost another one
I went to lunch today at the dreaded "real" job, and was quite surprised to read the news that Ray Bradbury had passed away. Just about every speculative fiction author out there is writing about this in their blog today, so I don't know what I can really add...but I'll try any way.
The Martian Chronicles and Fahrenheit 451 are two of my favorite books ever. Fahrenheit is of course a classic dystopic novel, and I'm sure it had a big influence on my writing of The Opium of the People. I've read The Martian Chronicles a few different times, and I remember last year I was watching the cheesy 80's mini-series based on the book, and it gave me an idea for a series of short stories that I'd love to write. I, of course, haven't had time to write them yet...but I will...one of these years.
Ray Bradbury will definitely be missed. He was one of the giants of speculative fiction, and his voice will be heard forever.
Tuesday, June 05, 2012
An important message for writers
When you're submitting your precious manuscript to an editor, be sure to read the guidelines first. If you've written a horror story or a detective story, and you're submitting it to a science fiction magazine, and the story has zero sf in it, then it's a good bet that the story will be rejected.
Considering that response times for a lot of magazines can run into the months, why not take a couple of minutes and save yourself and the editor a lot of time.
Rant over...
Sunday, June 03, 2012
To politic, or not to politic...
...that is the question. Years ago, I used to talk about politics a lot on this blog, and I've noticed that at that time, I got a lot more comments and a lot more hits. It's also important to note that I did a lot more posting to, so that might have something to do with it.
The main reason I stopped posting so much about politics was because I was worried about what it might do to my writing "career." My views are often outside of what is considered acceptable among certain parts of American society, and I certainly don't want to alienate any potential readers by having them judge me based off of my blog writing as opposed to my fiction writing. More established writers have lost readers because of their political views, and that seems like a bad thing to me.
Granted, anyone who has read The Opium of the People or Red Moon Rising can pretty much guess what my political views are. Hell, they might even be able to figure them out based off of the titles and covers of those books.
Still, I wonder if I've seen a decline in readership because of a lack of posting, or because of a lack of posting anything controversial. Obviously I'm trying to post more lately, so maybe we'll figure out which it is in the coming months.
Saturday, June 02, 2012
The Martian Wave Vol. 3
Friday, June 01, 2012
May recap
A better month of blogging. Hope to be doing more and more in the months to come.
Surprise, surprise
May madness
The Martian Wave has been delayed
A May update on the game
Translation has been Nooked
May madness has almost come to an end
The second chapter
If you're coming to my book signing
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