E.S. Martell's Blog, page 6
April 17, 2018
A brief observation on writing for actual readers rather than yourself
How many readers assumed that the philosophers were both men? I didn’t specify gender. It’s funny how we make assumptions based on our own ‘premises’. Readers do the same, so as writers, we need to set expectations and define premises in ways that advance our stories without confusing our readers. (He says, having been guilty of confusing readers through his close personal involvement in his writing.)
Just because it’s clear to you doesn’t mean your readers will follow it in the way you meant it. The take home part: be aware of your reader and back away enough to see their point of view.
I find that I get better at this, the more stories I write. (Or at least I think I’m getting better.)
It’s been said that you have to devote 10,000 hours to become an expert in anything. I hope this doesn’t directly convert to books. I don’t think I can write 10,000 novels
April 12, 2018
Free Cyber-Punk Novel
April 8, 2018
On the Horror of being a “Sitting Duck”
One of my FB groups just posted a challenge to write a 100 word horror story. I posted one. I’ve got to confess I’m both lazy and often tend towards being silly. Anyway I thought I’d share it with those of you who missed it on FB. It is silly, but it’s exactly one hundred words.
“On the Horror of being a Sitting Duck”
The alien battleship is coming over the horizon!
Ten nine eight seven six five four three two one…
Ten nine eight seven six five four three two one…
Ten nine eight seven six five four three two one…
Ten nine eight seven six five four three two one…
Ten nine eight seven six five four three two one…
Ten nine eight seven six five four three two one…
Ten nine eight seven six five four three two one…
Ten nine eight seven six five four three two one…
Stop the count-down clock. The launch button is stuck!
We’re toast!
March 22, 2018
Author Bitz
[image error]Here’s a new book site that is just getting launched. Help make it a success, please.
It will offer an alternative way to find out about new and upcoming authors, follow your favorite authors, and display your books. I’ve donated to the crowdfunding and would like to see it work.
Namaste!
Eric
March 9, 2018
How to generate a story idea from current events – even tragic ones
Link to my guest post regarding LAWS, school shootings, and story ideas.
February 16, 2018
Typography makes a difference – Who’da thunk it?
I just had the typography changed on my time travel novels. Immediately below are the original covers.
[image error]
and
Here are the new ones.[image error]
It’s easy to see the books are related and part of a series with the new typography. They were missing that before.
You can put that error down to inexperience in book marketing. I want to provide interesting and compelling stories for my readers and that is the goal for which I strive. The problem is that people won’t read books unless the cover attracts them.
I think the new look makes a big difference and I hope you do also.
I’ve learned a big lesson here. I’ve got to pay more attention to the cover wording and not just the artwork.
——————————–
The three books are on sale from 2/18/18 to 2/21/18 for $0.99 each on Kindle.
December 17, 2017
Cyber-Witch: The Origin of Magic – Review Quotes
Cyber-Witch is now available on Amazon and IngramSpark.
[image error]A gritty and dark novel about the real-world AI threat highlighted in a cyberpunk theme, drug addiction, genetic hybrids, killer-drones, nanobots, and the transformation of the world. Warning: adult themes including sex, drug addiction, and violence.
First Review: 5 out of 5 stars Kindle Edition|Verified Purchase
“Excellent story that contains a realistic look at where our technology could be headed. The writing is strong and articulate while fully immersing the reader in the story. Grab this book.”
Second Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars A masterful vision well-realized. Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
“Sometimes we get ideas, simple ones, that in actualization are difficult. I think this story is of one such overarching idea, but executed well. I don’t want to give away the big idea, but the bulk of the story builds a long sort of mythology to it, culminating in the battle with the BBEG. The last bit of the story ties it all in together, using the story as a springboard for the grand idea. There were some slowish bits, especially the first three chapters or so before the actual plot really reared it’s head. Once that happened, the story runs full tilt toward the climax. Then the magic happens.”
December 13, 2017
Cyber-Witch: The Origin of Magic is now LIVE in the Kindle Store!!!
I just released my latest book today. Here’s the link:
[image error]
Cisco & Killer Drone
bit.ly/Cyber-Witch A story about the real-world AI threat highlighted in a cyberpunk theme, with drug addiction, genetic hybrids, and the transformation of the world, grab a copy. Warning: adult themes including sex, violence, and talking animals:-) #scifi #cyberpunk
December 11, 2017
My Weekly Writing Activity
Keys I typed this week
For the fun of it, here’s my Grammarly stats for last week:
You were more productive than 99% of Grammarly users: 74,475 words checked
You were more accurate than 90% of Grammarly users: 772 alerts shown
You used more unique words than 97% of Grammarly users: 2,196 unique words used
And here’s my reasons and excuses:
Production: I wrote a short story and checked it twice. That was about 15k words total. I’m also making a final pass through Cyber-Witch’s 90k words prior to placing the novel on Kindle. That accounts for the rest of the Grammarly count. (I’m not done with Cyber-Witch yet, so I’ve got to put more text into the Grammarly editor.)
Problems: My, most, serious, problem, is, with, commas .
On the good side, most of the alerts were due to writing dialogue with a lot of slang — can’t have all my characters speak perfectly.
The next issue is that Grammarly hates passive voice, but there are times when something happens to a character and it’s not their fault. If they’re being acted upon, they’re passive and I’m going to use passive voice at that time.
Namaste,
Eric
November 14, 2017
Story Notes for my novel: All the Moments in Forever (the sequel to Heart of Fire Time of Ice)
Lolita — Ready to attack
STORY NOTES IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER
I had a great time writing All the Moments in Forever. It was the direct result of a reader’s request for a sequel for Heart of Fire Time of Ice. (Yes, I actually do pay attention to my readers.) Since part of the action happens in the Cretaceous period – around 100MYA, I decided to post the information I used (including my authoring decisions) about some of the creatures in the story.
ACROCANTHOSAURUS – THE FUZZY YELLOW DUCK
Acrocanthosaurus was a theropod dinosaur from what is now North America. It was similar to an Allosaurus in that its skull was long, narrow, and relatively flat. The Acrocanthosaurus was one of the largest theropods, measuring up to 11.5 meters from snout to tail tip and weighing up to 6.2 tons. Its skull was about 1.3 meters in length, only slightly shorter than that of the largest known Tyrannosaurus Rex, although the Acro’s total size and weight were less.
The distinctive feature of this creature was a rather high ridge along its spine caused by extensions that were more than 2.5 times the height of the vertebrae from which they extended. The creature was bipedal with a long heavy tail. Its legs suggested that it was not a particularly fast runner, despite being the apex predator of its time and location.
My description of the creature as being covered with yellow down and making a cheeping noise was prompted by my sense of the absurd and is almost certainly not accurate.
ASTRODON
Astrodon was a genus of large herbivorous sauropod dinosaur, related to Brachiosaurus, that lived in what is now the eastern United States during the Early Cretaceous period. Paleontologists have estimated adult astrodons to have been more than 9 m (30 ft) high and 15 to 18 m (50 to 60 ft) long. The creatures most likely inhabited broad, flat plains with rivers, similar to coastal regions of southern North America. Astrodon lived in the same locations as the dromaeosaurid Deinonychus and the carnosaur Acrocanthosaurus. It was most likely a primary prey source for both predators.
CRETACEOUS PERIOD
During the Late Cretaceous, starting about 106 million years ago (mya) and lasting to 66 mya, the climate was warmer than it is today. The long-term trend for the period resulted in gradually cooling temperatures that restricted he tropics to equatorial regions. Northern latitudes experienced markedly more seasonal climate.
Dinosaurs reached their apex during this period and there were many species. In this story, I’ve limited the fauna to some of the more common (by the fossil record) types that would have been found in what is now North America. Both primitive birds and pterosaurs could be found in the skies during this period, although they did not seem to overlap ecologically. The birds became increasingly common and diverse, diversifying in a variety of forms.
The fauna was made more diverse by the presence of cimolodonts and multituberculates which were the two most common mammals in North America. Flowering plants began to appear during this time.
The Cretaceous ended with the K-T extinction event that occurred about 66 mya. Before that time, the fossil record shows dinosaurs. After that time, it shows mammals, birds, fish, and reptiles, but no dinosaurs.
DEINONYCHUS
Evidence suggests that the dromaeosaurid Deinonychus inhabited a floodplain or swamp like habitat by preference. The land was covered by tropical or sub-tropical forests, deltas and lagoons, not unlike Louisiana. Other animals Deinonychus shared its world with include various herbivorous dinosaurs and the large theropod Acrocanthosaurus.
The Deinonychus had an adult mass of 70 to 100 kilograms which places them roughly in the human spectrum of weight. They ranged to about 3.4 meters in length and stood approximately waist high to a human. Its skeleton suggests that it was an active and nimble predator, capable of outrunning a human. It most likely hunted as an ambush predator, lying in wait and dashing out when a prey animal came near. There is good evidence that the Dromaeosauridae family had feathers. Multiple fossils of Microraptor have been found with feathers and that animal is in the same family, although more primitive than Deinonychus.
Eggs from the Deinonychus species are estimated to have a diameter of 7 centimeters (2.7 inches). Skeletons of various sizes have been found together, indicating that the creature cared for its young and possibly hunted in packs. Its primary prey seems to have been the ornithopod dinosaur Tenotosaurus, although it was possibly capable of bringing down larger animals. The tenotosaurs were larger animals, ranging between 1 to 4 tons and most likely unkillable by a single Deinonychus, thus the supposition that they hunted in packs.
The most noticeable aspect of the Deinonychus was its large, sickle-shaped talon on the second toe of each hind foot. This talon has been reconstructed as being nearly five inches in length (120 mm). This fearsome talon has been hypothesized to be the creature’s main weapon.
It has been estimated that the related creature, Velociraptor, was approximately as intelligent as a rather dull chicken. In order to add interest to this story, I made an artistic decision that the Deinonychus was more intelligent than a modern African Grey Parrot. African Grey’s have been shown to be able to learn vocabularies of more than 1,000 human words and can use the words correctly and even creatively to express thoughts, including humor. If the Deinonychus was on that level of intelligence, then my Deinonychus characters become more believable. Regardless of the realism or lack thereof, I had a lot of fun writing about them.
GASTONIA
Gastonia is an herbivorous ankylosaurian dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous of North America. Low and flat, it had heavy armor in the form of a bony shield across the lower back and large shoulder spikes. It was medium sized in terms of its relatives, with a length of about five meters and a weight of approximately two tons. It probably was more or less indifferent to attacks from all but the largest predators. Its armor and spike weaponry would have been sufficient to discourage any but the hungriest carnosaur. The tail was moderately long and lacked the tail club that similar species displayed.
HOMO HEIDELBERGENSIS – THE FOREST GIANTS
Homo heidelbergensis is an extinct species of the genus Homo that lived in Africa, Europe and Asia up until about 600,000 years ago.
The skulls of this homonin indicate that its brain was nearly as large as that of Homo sapiens. Homo heidelbergensis appears to have been the ancestor of Neanderthals, Denisovans, and modern humans (which arose around 130,000 years ago). Homo heidelbergensis appears to have migrated into Europe and Asia somewhere around 125,000 years ago. It is not known to have found its way to North America.
Males of the species averaged about 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in) tall and possibly weighed a light 62 kg (136 lb). Females averaged 1.57 m (5 ft 2 in) and 51 kg (112 lb).This is based on a reconstruction of limb bones. However, according to Lee R. Berger of the University of the Witwatersrand, significant fossil findings show that the species had some populations that averaged over 2.13 m (7 ft) tall. If these taller individuals weight was proportionate to their height, they would have been as large and possibly heavier than the largest modern humans.
My Forest Giants are the result of my speculation that a population of such creatures somehow survived the advent of modern humans by retiring into wilderness areas where humans seldom came. They could have migrated to the new world earlier than humans. If they survived, using the same reclusive strategy, they could have been present at the time this story begins. Tails of their presence along with modern humans could have been handed down verbally from generation to generation, resulting in the ongoing belief in Sasquatch/Bigfoot.
If these creatures were few in number and extremely reclusive, they could find areas of wilderness in North America where they could survive relatively unnoticed.
IGUANODONS AND HADROSAURS
Iguanodontoids are often included in the Hadrosauroieda superfamily. The Iguanodons were large herbivores that could stand upright, but probably preferred to walk in a quadrupedal mode. They have been estimated to weigh 3.5 tons and to be about 10 meters (33 feet) in length.
My usage of them in this story is problematical. The characters could have mistaken one of the various hadrosaurs for iguanodons, although the observation of a thumb spike would be a good indication that the animal was actually an iguanodont.
MICRORAPTOR
Microraptor was one of the smallest non-avian dinosaurs. Adult specimens can be up to 83 centimeters long (2.72 ft) and possibly weighed 1 kilogram (2.2 lb). They were also among the first non-avian dinosaurs discovered with evidence of feathers and wings. Their feathers included long flight feathers on their legs as well as on their wings and their bodies were thickly covered with long plumes on their head.
Careful analysis of their remains indicates that they displayed a black, glossy coloration similar to many modern birds. Their feathers may also have shown iridescence. Microraptors may have been nocturnal predators and the dark coloring might have helped them ambush prey. They were an ancestral species to the Deinonychosaurs although the two may have overlapped and been present at the same time.
SANGAMON PERIOD
The Sangamonian Interglacial Stage is the term used to designate the last interglacial period in North America. It ranged from 75,000 to about 125,000 years ago. It was a period of diverse mammalian species in North America, where the large animals roamed freely prior to the arrival of human populations. The climate was favorable and winters were generally mild in lower latitudes.
TENONTOSAURUS
Tenontosaurus was a medium-to large-sized herbivorous ornithopod dinosaur. It was about 6.5 to 8 meters (21 to 26 ft) long and 3 meters (9.8 ft) high in a bipedal stance, with a mass of somewhere between 1 to 2 tons. It had an unusually long, broad tail, which was stiffened with a network of bony tendons.
TROODON
Troodon were smaller dinosaurs, standing possibly waist high to a human and stretching up to eight feet in length, a good part of which was neck and tail. They may have weighed up to around 100 pounds and the largest specimens are similar to Deinonychus in size, although they probably averaged smaller. Their limbs suggest that they were quick and agile. The retractable curved claw on their foot reinforces the idea that they may have been predators. Their eyes were large enough to allow them to hunt at night and they also had some amount of depth perception. Troodon had a large brain relative to their body size. They were probably a match in intelligence to some modern birds. They seem to have matured into their full size by 3 to 5 years of age.
