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Monthly Archives: August 2012

Self-Censorship?

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August 28, 2012
writing
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I was listening to a recent Functional Nerds podcast (highly recommended) and one of the things they touched on was how we as artists/content creators need to “manage” our social media presence. All three participants agreed that for them it was necessary on some level to self censor. To the extent that I understood them, this means generally avoiding talking about things like politics and religion, or anything that would be offensive. John said that when he’s about to tweet a joke, for another example, he asks himself how likely is it that this will offend someone. Sometimes he tweets them anyway (Good on ya, John!). The exception, they agreed, would be someone whose brand is “I WANT TO OFFEND EVERYONE!”.

Listening to this came on the heels of talking to a dear friend who was afraid that what they were inclined to talk about (politics mainly, though also religion), if addressed in a way that was true to their beliefs, would offend potential audience members. They were concerned not only for themselves, but for a collaborative project they are involved in. Kudos to them for being concerned. My advice was something along the lines of “To thine own self be true” crossed with “Better safe than sorry”. That is, be yourself, but temper that with wisdom. The line is different for everyone I’m sure.

I have this side though. You’ve all seen it, or at least some of you have. It’s the one that screams “FUCK ‘EM IF THEY CAN’T TAKE A JOKE!”. It’s constantly at way with my more prudent side, who occasionally manages to slam the filters shut when my friend Jon tells a dreadful joke to me in chat and I’m tempted to share it. Still, it’s there and I’m tempted to let it fly more often than not, the older I get. Jokes aside, I’m not afraid to share my political beliefs (which frankly I have the advantage of them being the popular sort in the artistic community) or my religious ones (not as popular, as moderate as mine are). I find myself asking the question, should I be? The cat’s out of the bottle, so it’s likely a bit late to even be asking the question, but for those fledglings out there, how much should we “handle” ourselves in terms of our image as artists?

Sound off in the comments if ye be not afeared.

Book Review – Throwing Lead: A Writer’s Guide to Firearms (and the People Who Use Them)

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August 27, 2012
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I don’t know a whole lot about guns when it comes to practical experience. I’ve fired a few rounds through various shotgun gauges at turkey shoots. I plinked at some cans with a .38. I’ve read a lot about them and felt like I knew my share. That was, until I read this book. It turns out that while I do know a fair amount of the basics there are all kinds of things I wasn’t aware of. Such as:

  • Why you shouldn’t call the thing that holds bullets, a clip.
  • What “bullet proof” means and why you’re using it wrong.
  • Ways of determining what gun a bullet comes out of and how a smart criminal can avoid that.

All of that is really just the tip of the FMJ bullet. Details on caliber, shotguns, silencers vs. suppressors, and how bullets are made fill this book. As interesting as all of that was, there’s more. Mason and Sawyer give you as a writer insight into the minds of people that use guns on a daily basis. They’ve talked to police officers, soldiers, hunters and have pulled anecdotes from their own experiences as shooters.

If you’re a writer and you want to know about the history of guns, or you want to make sure that your protagonist is using the appropriate gun then this book is for you. If you want to avoid some of the mistakes common to fiction give it a read. They also go into some theory on energy weapons and other sci-fi standards and why it would be likely that slug throwers will still be around for some time to come.

Personally I would also recommend this book to readers as well. There are some great stories here and they’re told with Dan’s typical biting sense of humor. I also know there are people out there who love to nitpick help the writers in their lives and kvetch trade opinions on the fiction they love to read. Throwing Lead can give you plenty of… ammunition. (I couldn’t resist.)

I know that there are plans for a follow up book that sounds awesome. So you need to go buy this one and let them know that a second book would be appreciated sooner rather than later. I give this one 5 shotgun shells out of 5.

Smashwords
Amazon

Lovable Dumbasses

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August 17, 2012
writing
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My brain was meandering as I drove into work this morning (never fear, my driving hand is rock steady), and my thoughts ran to Nathan Lowell’s fiction. This is nothing new. The man’s an ace story teller and I count myself an admirer, a fan, and a friend. He’s known to many because of the podcast series, now available in print, the Solar Clipper. The protagonist, Ishmael Horatio Wang, is one of those characters that I would call a lovable dumbass.

Why is that? I mean he’s a smart guy when it comes to books and tests. The thing is, throughout the books he does things that make me wince. When it comes to relationships and a host of other things, he definitely falls into the dumbass category. The thing is, he wins! And you want him to keep on winning, but that wincing is fun. I think in some way Nathan set out to do this. He wanted to write a science fiction story where there was “nothing special” about the main character. That is to say, he’s not a prince or a cyborg, or a seven foot tall bad ass. He’s just this guy, you know?

To me, and this is me spitballing as it didn’t occur to me until I was noodling in my car, that’s part of the fun of these sorts of stories. If a “sludge monkey” like Ish can succeed (with no small amount of hard work mind you) in spite of his screw ups, then that means a dumbass like me has a shot. So this brings me around to books like the Harry Potter universe or the Twilight books. You have these people that are complete rejects or screw ups. Throughout their books they make big mistakes. You want to shout at Harry and Bella whenever they are doing something that you as the reader would “never do”.

Of course we as a reader have a ton of benefits. We know things that are going on in the story that they don’t. We often have the benefit of maturity. Of course in some cases, like Twilight and Harry Potter, the target audience is on the same level maturity-wise. Still, it allows us a sense of hope for ourselves. The challenge is to make that “dumbass” is lovable. Nate succeeds for me and a host of others. Ish cares about people and about getting the job done. He also has the stones to wear a belt that proclaims him to be a “BOY TOY”. Harry cares deeply for his friends, and you want him to make it out from under his evil step parents. I still can’t explain Bella (I have read most of the first book), but I understand there are qualities in her that resonate with her audience personally.

That’s a key too, I suppose. Identifying on some level with LD is vital. Otherwise, you won’t get that sense of “I can succeed too!”. I’ve been the lost geek looking for a sense of purpose. I’m probably considered an LD by some of my friends and family.

So who’s your favorite LD? What pushes a character over the dumbass line to just plain dumb and can that kill it (Homer Simpson)? Am I way off base here? Sound off in the comments.

Pilgrimage To Success

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August 15, 2012
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Matt Selznick is trying to kickstart a follow up book to his novel Brave Men Run. This “love letter to the 80′s” is a story as much about what it’s like to be out of step with your classmates and finding out who you really are as a person as it is about “superheroes”. I enjoyed it a great deal and as such I want to see the Kickstarter succeed. Watch this video to find out more:

To back Matt and his project, go to http://crowdfundpilgrimage.info/. But before you do that I’m going to sweeten the deal. If you back his project at a five dollar level, I’ll send you a signed and personalized e-book copy of Ginnie Dare: Crimson Sands. Go ten dollars and I’ll send you Ginnie and any two stories of mine from my Smashwords page. Go fifteen and I’ll send you an autographed personalized copy of the paperback of Ginnie Dare and the e-books.

What if you’ve already backed him? Bump up your pledge by the above amounts and you’ll get my stuff as detailed above. Send me the email Kickstarter sent you dated today or later and I’ll get you my stuff as soon as he crosses the finish line. That’s the catch. If he doesn’t get backed, you don’t get anything. So get out there and tell folks about this Kickstarter!!!

Lessons of the Gun – Progress Report

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August 15, 2012
pimpage, writing
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Last week I posted a PDF of my latest work in progress (you can download the PDF here). It’s an alt-history/weird western that treats gunslingers a bit like the samurai of the old west. I’d love it if you’d download it and tell me what you think.

If you really enjoy it you can vote with your dollars. Hit the Paypal link below and When the completed version comes out you’ll get it (and you’ll have paid less for it than later adopters). If I get enough “pre-orders” I’d like to pay someone for a good cover and perhaps even get it professionally edited. Think of it as a mini Kickstarter. I’ve been working on it over the last week and it’s a fun universe. I’ve been told that it’s “lovely” and have had more than one person say that they’re going to be blogging about it. Feel free to share the link to the download with your friends!











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Ebook Giveaway – Silver Knight and Blue Straggler

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August 15, 2012
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Congratulations to Patrick Cusher for winning both of last week’s e-books! I’ll get them out to him ASAP. That’s what can happen with these duel giveaways. I do a drawing for each and with only two entrants it’s a coin flip’s chance.

If you’ve already won, please feel free to comment, but I really want future e-books to go to folks that haven’t won anything. Also, though I’m giving two books away this week, I’ll do a separate drawing for each. You might still win both, but this way there’s a chance for two people to win.

The first one is Silver Knight by Caron Rider:

When seventeen-year-old Diana recognizes an elderly priest in a video on YouTube, she realizes that reincarnation is real and that she’s been alive before! Every night in her dreams, she relives her past learning that it’s kill or be killed. Now a bishop at the Vatican whom she saved in another life calls on her once more. She is needed to help defeat evil within the catacombs of Rome. But when she arrives in Rome, she meets Alexander – the man of her dreams! Through the centuries she has loved him…betrayed him…been killed by him. Will she give him another chance or this time will she strike first?

The second is Blue Straggler by Kathy Lynn Harris:

A blue straggler is a star that has an anomalous blue color and appears to be disconnected from those stars that surround it. But this is not a story about astronomy.

Bailey Miller is “disconnected” from the cluster of her rural south Texas family. She has never quite fit in and now in her early 30s, she finds herself struggling with inner turmoil and a series of bad choices in her life.

Bailey’s drinking too much (even for a member of her family), has a penchant to eat spoonfuls of Cool Whip, works in a job that bores her beyond description and can’t keep a relationship longer than it takes for milk to expire in her fridge.

Even with the help of her two outspoken friends, Texas lass Idamarie and her quirky college pal Rudy, she’s having a hard time.

So she packs up her Honda and heads out of Texas in search of herself and answers to secrets from her great-grandmother’s past. The novel takes readers on a journey from San Antonio, Texas, to a small mountain town in Colorado and back again, as Bailey uncovers not only the secrets of her great-grandmother’s life, but also some painful secrets of her own. All while finding love along the way.

If you have ever wondered why you got stuck with the family you did, what you are doing with your job and your life, or had a sudden desire to run off to the mountains, sit back and join Bailey for this laugh-out-loud, yet poignant ride.

So how do you get these? Merely leave a comment below and your name will be dropped into the virtual hat. There will be two drawings, one for each.

I plan on giving away a book a week this year, but none of them will be my own. Why? Well, I believe in helping introduce people to new authors and nothing does that like FREE! The contests will be as simple as leaving a comment on the blog, or showing me that you’ve left a review on Amazon or Smashwords of books you’ve picked up in the past. I’ll try and change things up to keep them interesting, but by and large you won’t have to work hard.

If you’re an author and you’d like to pitch your hat into the ring, let me know. I’m not asking you to give me anything for free. I plan on buying your e-book from Amazon/Smashwords as a gift for the winner. So in addition to you getting your name out there, you’ll also get a sale for the contest. The most I can budget per week is $2.99, so if you have a book in the $.99-$2.99 price range let me know. I reserve the right to turn you down, but I will try and do so gently. I’d like to have a variety of genres represented.

If you have a free book and would like me to just get the word out I can do that, but you won’t be part of my contest. If your book is more expensive and you would like to donate a copy, that works too.

Shoot me an e-mail, a DM, or leave me a comment to enter your book.

Lessons Of The Gun

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August 9, 2012
writing
2 Comments

I am in the process of writing a novelette called “The Lessons of the Gun”. It’s an alternative history western that blends gun fights with philosophy. What if marshals and rangers were part of a belief system that treated the Colt .45 like samurai treated their katana? An old gunslinger faces one final battle for the peace of his town, the life of his acolyte. and possibly the future of his Order.

I decided that I’d see if something a little different would work. I’m making a PDF of part one available to you for free. If you decide it’s worth it hit the PayPal button and when the finished e-book comes out you’ll get it for free. Like it, but not enough to pay right now? The e-book will be coming out soon, but given the length I envision I will probably be charging at least another buck or so.

Get it here!











Ebook GIveaway – All Jacked Up Again and The Ninja Librarian

By
August 2, 2012
pimpage
2 Comments

Congratulations to Rich Sigfrit for winning What’s A Nice Actor Like You Doing In A Movie Like This? and Hugh O’Donnel for winning Mik Murdoch! Prozes should go out later today.

If you’ve already won, please feel free to comment, but I really want future e-books to go to folks that haven’t won anything. Also, though I’m giving two books away this week, I’ll do a separate drawing for each. You might still win both, but this way there’s a chance for two people to win.

The first book this week is a sequel of an earlier collection of stories by LA Tripp called All Jacked Up Again.

Jack survived one scrape. Now he’s being thrown into another. Between a shady Italian, a psychotic mom that stalks him, a girl friend that’s not his girl friend, and an innocent sandwich maker, will Jack keep his sanity? How much more can poor Jack take?

The second is a children’s book by Rebecca Douglass, The Ninja Librarian

Skunk Corners is a pretty miserable place when the Ninja Librarian moves in. It’s just another dusty, tough town in the dusty, tough hills. Folks there aren’t too friendly, and they don’t see much need for high-falutin’ nonsense like schools–or libraries. But from the moment the unassuming, white-haired gentleman steps off the train and into these tall tales, the changes in Skunk Corners begin, in equal parts exciting and bewildering to Big Al. The Ninja Librarian uses wisdom, patience, book-learning. . . .and a few well-placed kicks and jabs. . . to change the town, and Al, forever.

So how do you get these? Merely leave a comment below and your name will be dropped into the virtual hat. There will be two drawings, one for each.

I plan on giving away a book a week this year, but none of them will be my own. Why? Well, I believe in helping introduce people to new authors and nothing does that like FREE! The contests will be as simple as leaving a comment on the blog, or showing me that you’ve left a review on Amazon or Smashwords of books you’ve picked up in the past. I’ll try and change things up to keep them interesting, but by and large you won’t have to work hard.

If you’re an author and you’d like to pitch your hat into the ring, let me know. I’m not asking you to give me anything for free. I plan on buying your e-book from Amazon/Smashwords as a gift for the winner. So in addition to you getting your name out there, you’ll also get a sale for the contest. The most I can budget per week is $2.99, so if you have a book in the $.99-$2.99 price range let me know. I reserve the right to turn you down, but I will try and do so gently. I’d like to have a variety of genres represented.

If you have a free book and would like me to just get the word out I can do that, but you won’t be part of my contest. If your book is more expensive and you would like to donate a copy, that works too.

Shoot me an e-mail, a DM, or leave me a comment to enter your book.