Jason Anspach's Blog, page 9

The Podcast Project

I’m an official contributor to a new podcast that I think you’ll really enjoy.

Writers are fairly adept at building worlds. A group of us decided to see what would happen if we joined together to build a fantasy world by writing about and playing some old school RPGs. We’ve recorded the sessions for your enjoyment – they’re hilarious with fun characters.

The site is under construction, but you can put on your hard hat and check it out now.  Stay tuned for the first episode…

Review: Akaela by E.E. Giorgi

I know from E.E. Giorgi’s previous books that she is an amazing writer.  That talent shines through in this first rate YA novel. That’s not always a given. I can say from experience working as a mentor for a number of teens and pre-teens that writing compelling YA is not a simple task.  I make a point to read whatever they suggest.  That means a fair amount of Young Adult fiction. Some of it is awful, some pretty good.

Akaela belongs is the VERY good category.

Akaela and her brother Athel are part of a genetically unfit tribe of people. They require increasingly unreliable technology to stay alive. Their world is dystopian, but the reader is left wondering whether the future has fallen to pieces everywhere, or just for Akaela and her Mayake people.

With cybernetic technology giving the Mayake people diverse robotic super powers, the story avoids becoming a series of action panels minus the illustrations. Giorgi does an excellent job dealing with several topics that make YA so appealing to its targeted demographic. Questions of family loyalty, trustworthiness, independence, and loss are worked throughout the story without harming the plot and pacing.

I appreciated the questions of self-identity Akaela and her brother struggled with.  How does one feel unique when everyone else is also special, and hence the same? Giorgi deserves kudos for the subtlety employed and bringing these themes up. Never once did it feel like I was being bashed over the head with them.

I’ve already recommended this book to a number of young men & women I mentor.  I will join them in reading further.  I’m looking forward to seeing where the series takes Akaela. I want to see what kind of a woman she grows up to be. I want to know how big her world truly is. I want to discover, with her and her brother, what place they will find in society.  Finding out the answers to these questions is what makes good YA so appealing. They are unknowns we will face, or have faced, in the universal struggle of growing up.

Here’s the thing…

If you’ve ever heard my story about becoming a writer, you know that a central component is my big break with Apocalypse Weird.

Listen,

Nick Cole is big selling author  with Harper Collins that gets booked for events  like the San Diego Comic Con. That’s huge. 

Michael Bunker is a self publishing wizard who could have a contract with the Big 5 publishers with a snap of his fingers. His recent book will be a movie, bet on it.

These guys didn’t need a fledgling Indie Author like me.

They could have kept Apocalypse Weird to themselves, authored fewer books, and end up printing money.

Instead, they chose to take a writer like me into the fold, giving me a HUGE break into the business. They’ve helped me make my way through this wonderful world the right way, and that’s just for ’til Death – a book they won’t see any revenue from.  There’s a campaign to help keep this project going, to pay the bills that come from fronting all the costs that go into getting a book on the market.

The campaign is really close to being funded, and if 100% of funding is reached, IndieGOGO will leave it open, allowing more people to contribute and receive some great perks after the deadline has passed.

Supporting this venture is literally supporting me as an author. The buck you pledge, just one dollar, goes to pay for the cover, editing, and marketing needed to get my contributions in the market where they can start earning back their investment.

To paraphrase… Help me, dear reader, you’re our only hope.

It is finished! Sort of. Beta Readers Wanted, Inquire within.

’til Death is now a completed manuscript! I finished the penultimate draft thirty-six minutes before my thirty-sixth birthday. I’m a novelist now, just not a published one.

I wrote this book to tell a fun story about life in a 1950’s America where the recently deceased come back as ghosts, often enough that it’s an accepted part of living.  How would people behave if the hereafter was a given?

That story is done, but I need your help.

 

The cover, (newsletter subscribers will get the first look at this week), has my name in white letters. If I’m going to publish something with my name on it, the quality needs to be top notch. I can’t ask anyone to buy something unless I can say with absolute certainty I put my best into it.

I’ve hired one of the best cover artists in the publishing industry today. The manuscript is being edited by a fantastic editor, a rookie like me, but worth her weight in gold. Professional formatters and printers are standing by…

And here’s where you might come into play. The book needs beta reading before I submit a final draft to amazon.

What is a beta reader?  Consider them constructive critics, also called “the superheroes self-publishing.”

I’m looking for four types of Beta Readers:

1. Story Critique Beta Readers: I’d like to hear from those with an ability to deconstruct plot and character development, hearing what they have to say about plot pacing, empathy with characters, and overall satisfaction with how the story resolved.

2. Historical Authenticity Beta Readers: Those of you who have seriously studied, or lived through, 1950’s America. I’ve done a great number of interviews and research on the time period, but I’d your help in knowing if I use technology, jargon, or cultural norms that weren’t part of the late 40’s/early 50’s.

3. Crime/Investigator/Military Beta Readers: With a main character who served in WWII, tried his hand a private investigating, and is working with a city detective to solve a murder, there may be things that just don’t fit.  Understanding of procedures 65 years ago are a plus!

4. Casual Readers: Just looking for the average reader’s opinion. The sort who enjoys diverse genres and might pick this book up on the cover or blurb alone. In this case I’m looking for the type of potential readers that would be interested in the story.

If you are willing to help me as a beta reader – Thank you so much! Please reach out to me via email, twitter, facebook, or however else you can get a message to me.  If you don’t think beta reading is for you, but would still like to receive a free review copy, be sure to sign up for my newsletter.

Nick Cole on The Author Stories Podcast

My friend Nick Cole is on the latest Author Stories Podcast talking about Apocalypse Weird.

Take a few minutes and listen to find out more about this groundbreaking project. Either Apocalypse Weird works, and publishing is forever changed, or things stay the way they are now. I’ll take the freedom to read what I want to read over publishers telling me what I should be reading any day of the week!

You can support this project directly here.

Writing Before You Were Born

My forthcoming novel, ’til Death, takes place in the Tacoma, WA of 1951. But I wouldn’t call it a piece of historical fiction.  As the tale of a funny, earnest young  detective wannabe trying to make a career out of helping ghosts fleshed itself out, everything was so black & white, like a Cary Grant comedy, I couldn’t help but write the story in the past.

Subsequently I’ve spent a lot of time researching the time period and I thought I might share some of the more helpful resources:

5. Hit the Books

Read novels from the time period to get a sense for how people spoke.  You’ll also pick up on taboos, fears, morals, and manners of the time. Try and avoid the error of reading your thoughts and beliefs into people in the past, as if you can take your friend Bill, put him in a searsucker suit, and call him a historical character.

Don’t be afraid to do the heavy lifting with history books, either. Of immense help to me was The Fifties by David Halberstam.

4. Listen to the Music

I’m listening to Sam’s Song by Bing Crosby as I type. It was the Billboard #4 song for 1950. I can see clearly Alice, a character from my book, tapping her feet and making dinner for her husband Frank to it, trying to keep up with Gary Crosby’s rapid lines as she goes.  Listen to the music of your chosen time period, even if the recent past. How does it make you feel? How would your characters react when the radio played a favorite?

3. Watch Old Newsreels

Baltimore may be on your mind. Ferguson before that. What news was on the back of your character’s minds?

2. Watch Old Movies

This is similar to #5, but still worth putting up. By watching films made in your selected time period you can feel and hear cadences of speech and behavior.  You might be writing a piece of fiction set well before the advent of Cinema, but I still would recommend watching some movies made about the time period.  What you see is likely what your readers will expect — not that you should bend your story to meet popular expectations, but knowing will help you lead them along smoothly.

1. Talk to People Who Lived Back Then

How much was bus fare in 1949? If you were in Tacoma, would you call someone in Los Angeles, or send them a letter? What if it was urgent? Telegraph? How much did that cost?

I had no idea. But my grandmother and other seasoned saints at my Church sure did remember, and loved to talk about it. Take advantage of the living history in your midst while the day remains!

Brother, Frankenstein: Who doesn’t love FREE BOOKS?

Tomorrow my friend Michael Bunker is releasing Brother Frankenstein. Distilled to three words: Amish. Robot. Frankenstein.

It’s an amazing book and I predict it will be made into a pretty good movie, too.  I say pretty good because the movie is never better than the book. Especially this book. You can read my review here.

Michael tends to, let’s say, buck convention. He lives a plain lifestyle completely off-grid. He also offered Brother Frankenstein, for free, to anyone who wanted a copy.  He understands that in this new world of publishing, we readers support quality with our wallets. We’ll gladly pay an indie author to keep producing works we love, even if we first received the book for free.

It’s too late to get a free Brother Frankenstein from Michael, but I’ll be giving away 5 free copies of the book on April 29th.  All you need to do is sign up for my newsletter and await further instructions tomorrow morning. Not only that, but I’ll tell you how to get a free copy of my forthcoming novel, ‘Til Death, once it’s available. You’ll also be on the inside track for news about my Apocalypse Weird: Oregon project.

Happy Reading!