Jeff Carlson's Blog, page 14

Afterword for "Pressure"

As promised, today I'm posting the afterword from Long Eyes for my story "Pressure." The freaky artwork is by the talented Billy Tackett and reproduced here (and in the book!) with permission.

Always one of my most successful stories, "Pressure" has been translated into four languages and appeared twice as podcasts on EscapePod and Starshipsofa. Now here's the truth behind it!

.

"Pressure" is one instance where the afterword might be as much fun to write as the story itself. That's because the basic concept for this story came from a nightmare. I remember opening my eyes, scribbling happily on my notepad and thinking, Holy cow, I am a sick puppy.

First of all, I'm a light sleeper and sometime insomniac. Maybe worse, in the middle of the night I often think I'm awake when I'm really asleep. Then I wake up. There's a weird transition from worrying about things that only make sense in the dream state to realizing I wasn't consciously brooding about my projects, chores, and bills, I was analyzing problems and situations that aren't mine and don't actually exist.

What I brought out of this nightmare was the impression of being lost and horribly disfigured. I remembered fighting through my confusion, but I couldn't quite recall the reason for the machines that had been inserted into my face.

At the time, I had a minor head cold, so my sinuses felt raw and weird. Because I'm a light sleeper, I wear ear plugs. Because I was working a clerical job while writing my first novel in my spare hours, my wrists were shot, so I wore braces, too. Because I grind my teeth, I also pop a night guard between my teeth.

My subconscious is a war zone, man!

The head cold combined with various levels of body armor tricked my brain into imagining I was an altered man in a dark place. Changed how? Why? That sense of fear and chaos became the opening paragraphs of the story, and over the next few days I developed it more.

Here's a final secret. You probably noticed some similarity in the climatic decisions of the heroes of "Long Eyes" and "Pressure." They both choose to seek out their individual destinies instead of helping or rejoining their own kind. Partly that's because I'm not much of a joiner myself. All writers are loners to one degree or another. That's a necessary part of sitting with your thoughts hour after hour, day after day.

But in the original version of "Pressure," Carlos Garcia opted out to the Aro Corp. program long before his contract was up, forfeiting all payment in exchange for the necessary surgeries to restore him. The big reveal at the end was Andrea opening the door of their home to find him pledging to dedicate himself to their marriage and their family even if they were poor, in debt, out of work, and unfulfilled.

The story wouldn't sell. I felt like this was the only commercial ending, but editors kept rejecting it.

One of my pre-readers finally convinced me that the problem was the sheer falsehood of forcing the plot in the direction he called the "Disneyland ending." It wasn't true to the character. So I tried rewriting the story the way my friend suggested, and Jed Hartman at Strange Horizons bought the piece. Since then, it's been translated into four languages and has played twice on the popular podcasts Escape Pod and Starshipsofa, so that was a lesson learned.

Let the characters be themselves.

And Now… A Book Trailer From A Dark Future!

Afterword for "Long Eyes"

As promised, here is the afterword for the title story…

.

A lot of the stories I write are present-day tech thrillers — situations that could happen tomorrow — but I've always been a fan of big, sprawling science fiction with interstellar wars, vast gulfs of time, and mind-croggling ideas.

The inspiration for "Long Eyes" was a Golden Age story by James Blish, one of the grand masters. He wrote a novelette called "Surface Tension." Now this was the kind of sci fi written back in the day when the men had steely jaws and the women tended to be wasp-waisted, helpless bimbos except for the hot, feisty redheads who could handle a knife as well as any adventurer. I like to think "Long Eyes" isn't so corny, but it shares some of the major themes of Blish's "Surface Tension," which are loneliness, despair, adaptability, and determination.

Human beings have the ability to overcome nearly any obstacle using their intelligence and their grit. If you've read my Plague Year novels, you know these are qualities that interest me.

Crashing a ship on an alien planet is a good way to put people in a fix. Unless you're on TV or in the movies, which present an incredibly simplified view of the galaxy, our species is unlikely to find anywhere that's as hospitable as Earth. We're well-suited to our planet. Even our bitterest landscapes like Antarctica or Death Valley are almost certain to prove more pleasant than the softest environments on an alien world.

I'm not talking about giant monsters with teeth. I mean more subtle problems.

An alien meadow may have Bambi and lush flowers, but there will be nasty parasites and toxins hidden in the grass.

That lovely alien beach? Scalding levels of sodium chloride. Or worms or bacteria.

Safe in my office, these are fun scenarios to play with. For me, writing is a lot like a good game of chess, except I'm not only playing both sides, I'm also the board. When it works well, it's gratifying. So I try to back my characters into corners just to figure out how they're going to escape.

The heroes of "Surface Tension" found themselves in a place so bad, their only way out was to stop being themselves. That's not just a good game of chess, it also speaks to everything which makes us human. I admire that level of storytelling. It's what I strive for in my own work.

"Long Eyes" introduction

As promised, here's a teaser from the new book…

INTRODUCTION

This is the book nobody wanted me to publish — nobody except the fans.

These days, corporate New York has zero interest in short fiction collections except from the most successful authors. I'm merely successful, not a major brand name, so this book has been a long time in the making.

I'm even more excited about it because of the wait.

Not too long ago, short fiction collections were a staple of science fiction and fantasy. Growing up, I tore through 'em like a dingo feeds on human babies. Each collection served up a juicy pile of ideas, never lingering, always moving, banging on your brain like a bell. John Varley. Joe Haldeman. Heinlein. Asimov.

I'm fourth generation sf. My great-grandmother built her library around Frank L. Baum's Oz series, the original fantasy epic. She passed those beautiful hardcover editions to her son, my grandfather, who kept them alongside "Doc" E.E. Smith novels such as Lensmen and The Galactic Patrol, which were the cutting edge in his own time.

Later, when I was a boy, my grandfather introduced me to the world's first media tie-ins like Han Solo's Revenge and Splinter Of The Mind's Eye. This was not a man who sneered at popular good fun. He hooked me with Star Wars books, then fed my new addiction with the classics. At the same time, my father was bringing home doorstoppers like The Hobbit and Clan Of The Cave Bear, which, yes, reads very much like alternate history. This was mind-croggling stuff for a young boy. Obviously it warped me badly. Look at me now!

Long Eyes includes all of my short fiction from my earliest sales to several appearances in the top venues in the field.

If a novel is a loaded rifle, a short story is a single bullet. It needs to hit its target perfectly. As a writer, you love 'em and leave 'em. That's a very different experience than sinking fourteen months into a novel, but it's also the sweet taste of freedom. Running from idea to idea is a pleasure.

These stories feature aliens, clones, diseases, and disasters, but you'll also find a bit of the supernatural and the psychotic. Following each story, I've also included an afterword discussing each story's circumstances or inspiration.

It's a tasty stew. I hope it makes your head explode.

Now onto the title story…

Jeff Carlson

Full Metal Jacket

Here's the full wrap-around jacket art for "Long Eyes," again by the talented Jacob Charles Dietz, who may or may not have another Carlson project up his sleeve. If I told ya, I'd have to kill ya.

Here also is the full table of contents:

Introduction

"Long Eyes"

"Pressure"

"Planet of the Sealies"

"Pattern Masters"

"Caninus"

"Eighth-Acre Blues"

"Exit"

"Monsters"

"Romance"

"Nurture"

"Gunfight at the Sugarloaf Pet Food & Taxidermy"

"A Lovely Little Christmas Fire"

"Snack Food"

"Interrupt"

"Writing About The Apocalypse"

"Rose-Colored Demons"

"Damned When You Do"

"Meme"

"Enter Sandman"

And Now For Something Completely Different…

Yes, I'm alive! It's hard to believe I haven't hit this blog in over a month, but I've been a busy little duck. In addition to a brand-new project, I've also been writing, editing, organizing, and directing a new, all-inclusive short fiction collection under the title "Long Eyes."

Here's the sexy new cover art courtesy of Jacob Charles Dietz:

Good stuff, right?

For those of you who've already grabbed my 99 cent mini collections of "Long Eyes," "Monsters," or "Gunfight," this book features all of those stories and includes five more. It also contains two essays and afterwords for each story describing its inspiration and circumstances. Heck, there's even a poem.

What happened is I reassessed my approach to ebooks. The mini collections were testing the waters, but they needed better artwork. More importantly, they needed more bulk and strength. The mini collections were like frozen pizza bites. Ya pop 'em in the microwave, scarf 'em down, enjoy 'em… and they're gone. A complete collection offers something to really sink your teeth into. Now it also has a pro-level cover art.

Meanwhile, writing the afterwords took me completely away from blogging, because in many ways each afterword is a blog entry. They were a lot of fun to write. Each one was like looking back in time to remember why and how I wrote these stories.

My intent is post the afterwords here as teasers and freebies starting next week.

"Long Eyes" is available on Kindle, Nook, and iBooks, although the Big Apple has yet to correct the product description, so their page still describes "Long Eyes" as a mini collection of three stories when in fact they're selling the full collection. I'm also working to get "Long Eyes" and "The Frozen Sky" on Kobo.

Here's the real back jacket copy for "Long Eyes":

.

From the mind that brought you Plague Year and The Frozen Sky…

Sixteen stories about strange worlds, biotech, commandos, and the girl next door.

"Striking." –Locus Online

"Exciting." –SF Revu

"Chilling and dangerous." –HorrorAddicts.net

First published in top venues such as Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine and cult 'zines like The Vampire's Crypt, these stories have been translated into fourteen languages worldwide. Several received honorable mentions in Gardner Dozois's The Year's Best Science Fiction or in Ellen Datlow's Year's Best Fantasy and Horror. As part of the Fast Forward 2 anthology, "Long Eyes" was also a finalist for the Philip K. Dick Award.



The first complete collection from international bestseller Jeff Carlson, this ebook is 80,000 words and packed with artwork from award-winning illustrators such as Frank Wu and Billy Tackett.

Your Long iBooks Nightmare Is Over

Yes, it's true: "The Frozen Sky" and my other e-book mini collections are now on iBooks as well as Kindle and Nook. If you're an iPerson, there's no need to chew your fingernails up past your elbow. Let your arm heal! Go forth and read.

Truth to be told, I'm still wrestling with getting the cover art right. They just won't crisp up on iBooks, a hurdle that's bewildered my various artists in part because iBooks' only specifications on the matter are, and I quote, "a JPEG file minimum of 600 pixels in the larger dimension."

So why are some covers hot pepperoni in the iBooks library and others slightly blurred? Only the Bigger Apple knows (the Big Apple being NYC; the Bigger Apple being Apple).

Part of self-publishing is taking on responsibilities that I'd rather leave to professionals. So there's a professional artist on his way to the scene, folks. In the meantime, those awesome stories are just full of awesome. You can find 'em here:

"The Frozen Sky"

"Long Eyes"

"Monsters"

"Gunfight at the Sugarloaf Pet Food & Taxidermy"

And don't forget, the Plague Year novels are on iBooks, too, and boy do they look nice on an iDevice! That's one upside of working with traditional publishers. The cover art goes down nice and sharp in all stores, all formats, all the time.

More soon!

"Plague Year"

"Plague War"

"Plague Zone"

25,000 Free Fiction Give-Away

We're back with more summer madness! In the past six months, "The Frozen Sky" has sold more than 25,000 copies on Kindle and Nook, which I wouldn't have believed if you'd told me.

As thanks, I wanted to renew my offer for free copies of my other mini collections. This offer is not limited to people who've bought "The Frozen Sky," btw. It's not limited to Kindlers and Nookies, either. The following collections are available as Mobi or ePub files, just let me know which you prefer. All ya gotta do is email me at jeff@jverse.com with your selection in the subject line.

You can choose among:

* The hard sf collection Long Eyes. ("Striking" says Locus Online)

* The horror/suspense collection Monsters. ("Ostensibly horror, with a pinch of the surreal. Clever, conclusive, and not a little weird" says The Fix)

* Or the sci fi action-comedy of Gunfight at the Sugarloaf Pet Food & Taxidermy, the collection formerly known as The Adventures of Julie Beauchain ("Memorable and amusing" says Tangent Online)

Here is the hot new cover art for Gunfight:

Below, I've also posted the original and slightly revamped versions of the cover of The Frozen Sky. If you like one better than the other, please let me know by leaving your vote in the comments field. There will be a bonus freebie for everyone who weighs in. So before the summer's over… let the madness resume!

Film Fest in Syracuse, NY !!!

They had me at "rubber mini poster"…

If you live anywhere near Syracuse, you don't want to miss the SHOCKWAVES, HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN, and WIZARD OF GORE 35mm Triple Feature!!! Tuesday August 16th at 6:30pm – 11:30pm only $10. All Films Rated "R". Must be 21 with valid ID for alcohol.

The SALT CITY HORROR FEST presents:

SHOCKWAVES

HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN

and WIZARD OF GORE

First 80 people in get a free original and rare mini HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN movie poster! First 40 people get a cool rubber mini poster!

Special Guests such as:

VEGAN ZOMBIE / ZOMBIE CREW:

Horror Movie Empire – huge seller of cool DVD and other horror stuff.

Resurrected Tattoo – Awesome Tattoo shop in Syracuse

Colleen McCarthy – Amazing original Artwork

Fright Rags Reps – Hyping up the New POPCORN release on DVD

And the UTICA ZOMBIE WALK

!!! More special guests to be announced !!!

SHOCKWAVES: Starring John Carradine, Peter Cushing, Brooke Adams

This horror movie concerns a shipwrecked yachting party. Rose and her fellow yacht-mates, including the captain run aground on an island when they hit an odd-looking freighter. Once beached, they meet up with an aging SS Commander who had been in charge of a crew of zombies. Written by Ørnås

HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN: Starring Rutger Hauer

A vigilante homeless man pulls into a new city and finds himself trapped in urban chaos, a city where crime rules and where the city's crime boss reigns. Seeing an urban landscape filled with armed robbers, corrupt cops, abused prostitutes and even a pedophile Santa, the Hobo goes about bringing justice to the city the best way he knows how – with a 20-gauge shotgun. Mayhem ensues when he tries to make things better for the future generation. Street justice will indeed prevail. Written by Greg Guy

WIZARD OF GORE: Herschell Gordon Lewis gore masterpiece!

A magician performs a show where he selects a female volunteer and appears to put swords, drills, and such through them. They walk away and everyone applauds, then they show up somewhere else, dead of the same injuries they sustained in the magic show. Police are baffled and can't tie the murders to the magician. A man whose girlfriend is infatuated with the show begins to investigate on his own. Written by Ed Sutton esutton@mindspring.com

Schedule:

6:00pm Doors open

6:30pm – VEGAN ZOMBIE short

7pm – midnight: SHOCKWAVES, HOBO WITH SHOTGUN, and WIZARD OF GORE



The Palace Theater

2384 James Street

Syracuse, NY 13206

Watch the HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN TRAILER.

SHOCKWAVES trailer.

WIZARD OF GORE trailer and promo.

On Facebook!

On MySpace! And on MySpace again! And even more on MySpace!!

Notes From The E-Trenches

A funny thing happened to me on the way to work the other day. Well, I work at home, but the story sounds better if I'm going somewhere.

After a few weeks in the Top #500 on Kindle, my novella "The Frozen Sky" jumped into the Top #250. At the same time, a typo appeared in the Product Description. When I tried to log into my Author Central page to erase this spontaneous bit of garbage, I found myself locked out of pages I'd once controlled at will with no more than the touch of an "Edit" button.

Meanwhile, "Sky" hit the Top #200, then #150, and hung there for two days.

"What the heck is going on?" I asked myself, who answered, "I dunno, dude, but I like it!"

After a great deal of go-around, here was the scene. "Sky" sold nearly 2000 copies over the weekend — all with that ugly typo in the Product Description.

Meanwhile, you guys know I'm totally OCD. My editor at Ace called me "Mr. Clean" because my manuscripts arrived in pristine condition. So while I was thrilled by the awesome spike in activity, I was also hammering the customer service reps at Amazon to correct the typo.

I learned that the hunk of gibberish you can see in the middle of the second paragraph is called an ASCII error. Amazon's software had introduced it to the text when they locked it down prior to sending out a massive email promoting "The Frozen Sky" and five other 99-cent sci fi titles, and, the cloud being as vast and powerful as Hal, no one was actually sure how to talk the cloud out of the typo it had created.

How much do I love that? I wish they'd give me a typo and a promo every day, ha ha.

My hero proved to be a mystery man whose only handle is Bert G.

Bert G. called me at my house! On the phone! In person! He got my machine (I never answer the phone; I'm working) and said, "Hello, this is Amazon calling for Jeff Carlson about The Frozen Sky."

It was like the first time an agent called when I was a wide-eyed novice with big dreams. Holy smackerel. With a mix of excitement and wonder, I grabbed the phone and said, "Who is this?"

Bert G. had my home ph# because it's buried in the contact info of my KDP account. He'd taken the initiative to step into the back-and-forth of emails between myself and other customer service reps, breaking the cycle of a new autobot answering each response. Then he personally oversaw the process of correcting and upgrading the Product Description with its fancy new slug in bold, which you can see on its Kindle page today.

Love it.

So I wanted to say thank you in public. Sir, you are the man. That kind of personal attention is unspeakably cool, and I hope your bosses know it.

Bert G., sleep well tonight!