Tobias S. Buckell's Blog, page 18

How do I find focus when writing my novel or story?

@tobiasbuckell Finding focus? It's my nemesis right now.

— Katherine Latke (@Bibliogato) December 1, 2015

Katherine asks me to write about finding focus.

I fear that my answer will be even more subjective than normal. Straight up, my neurochemistry seems slightly different. I’m ADHD. So things I say about focus aren’t necessarily going to be universally adaptable.

Then again, who better that someone who struggles with attention to talk about focusing attention? So let’s see how this goes.

Th...

How do I know when to trunk my story or novel?

Today, while waiting for my new office chair to be delivered I asked twitter to send me some questions. Mike Douton on twitter asked:

@tobiasbuckell When to trunk and when to keep rewriting. Having a decision to make with the Angry Robot Open Door starting today

— Mike Douton (@mikedouton) December 1, 2015

This is a tricky one to answer. The thing is writers have a variety of approaches and the trick to knowing this is to actually figure out how you work best. I have a pseudo-framework for t...

A great parody of the inspirational creative journey template

I quite often feel that this should be required watching after reading or watching inspirational creative journey stories. It’s quite an excellent parody of every single creative journey struggle story:

Hurricane Patricia needs a new category definition, it’s so strong

In Hurricane Fever one of the big parts of the triptych of storms that hit the Caribbean was my suggestion that higher category hurricanes would appear.

Devastating to see this happen, now, with Patricia, my thoughts are for Mexico:

https://mobile.twitter.com/RyanMaue/s...

Thanks to Karen Lord for the heads up. I’ve heard this was a big one, I didn’t realize how powerful.

Sustained 200 MPH winds. I hope there isn’t too much loss of life.

Proofing Xenowealth: A Collection (slow and steady)

So I have files for Xenowealth: A Collection and have been creating the physical book. This has been trickier than normal b/c the print on demand service I’m using is a little spotty about getting graphics on the spine quite right (the templates they give suggest it should print a certain way, but I get extra bumped space and am learning how to adapt) though I’m happy about everything else (I settled on CreateSpace as I like the interior cream paper best and I really like the distribution pos...

Yes, I’m psyched Star Wars has a diverse cast up front! Here’s why

Great post by Chuck about the Star Wars boycott:

Apparently people are mad because blah blah black dude protagonist with a lightsaber, or girl protagonist, or Latino X-Wing pilot protagonist, and not enough straight white dudes. And folks are mad enough to join in on the hashtag and — nngh. Bleh. Meh. Gnarrgh. I mean, what version ofStar Wars did you watch? The one where Luke Skywalker is a racist hick shitbird? The one where the Empire are the good guys because yay oppression and fascism an...

Today’s passive aggressive fan mail: reader will not read more of my books because I don’t speak English English as my first language

In today’s email:

Hi
I am reading Arctic Rising.
I am enjoying the plot and think the ideas are brilliant.
However i will not read another of your books as I am finding it hard to read.
I speak English English as my first language and am not over keen on American writers as their language is different.

I am finding it hard to read this translation of your book and am having to reread the sentences to get their meaning.

I feel your book may have been translated by the wrong person.

I wanted t...

Xenowealth: A Collection timelines for pre-orders and wider availability

I’m waiting for some more physical proofs of the Xenowealth collection so that I can trigger the final big order and get the physical books shipped for Kickstarter backers as I undo the logjam of this project. But several people have emailed asking how to get their hands on a copy if they didn’t back the Kickstarter.

Fear not Fans of the Xenowealth, for once I have delivered unto the backers their physical copies this month, I will then make pre-orders available.

Xenowealth: A Collection wil...

Man Booker winner Marlon James!

Hey, Caribbean writer wins one of the biggest literary prizes. Fuck yeah!

Also, his whole story gives me all the feels:

“There was a time I actually thought I was writing the kind of stories people didn’t want to read,” he told Today. Asked if he had considered giving up writing, the 44-year-old writer said: “I did give it up. I actually destroyed the manuscript, I even went on my friends computers and erased it.” He said he retrieved the text by searching in the email outbox of an old iMac...

Xenowealth: A Collection Kickstarter backers should see the eBook in their inboxes now

I’ve finally managed to get the copy edited and ready to go final of the Xenowealth collection uploaded and sent out to backers. If you backed this, check your inbox. There should be a Backerkit email shortly with links.

This version includes the story “Ratcatcher.”

I think it might be the bloodiest Pepper story yet. And not being able to share it for the last 5 or 6 months has been torture as I had a blast writing it.

For the physical copies, I’m still proofing. This has been my big hold up....