Simon Rose's Blog, page 44

Shadowzone

“Time travel, alternate worlds, and societal sub-cultures are blended into a great plot, and a gripping and relevant read. The environmental stewardship aspect of this story echoes our current day challenges, as do the almost prescient references to a dangerous virus. Characters were well drawn and the reader is cheering for their success. The three books in the series flow smoothly together. A great read for middle school ages and up, to both engage interest and build vocabulary. Highly recommend this series!”

While watching intense flashes of lightning during a violent storm, Ben experiences mysterious and disturbing visions of another world, one very different from his own. In the chain of events that follow, Ben encounters Charlie, a girl from a dark version of Earth, a planet doomed by the effects of environmental catastrophe, where the leaders will stop at nothing to complete their deadly mission.

Shadowzone, along with the other novels in the series, Into The Web and Black Dawn, is available as a paperback and ebook. Learn more here on my website.

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The Benefits of a Writing Coach

A professional writing coach is someone with whom you can consult, ask questions and receive constructive feedback. They act as a guide as you build your career as a professional writer. A coach can help you conquer a stumbling block, regain momentum or make a start on a new project.

My program helps you progress as a writer. You decide what you want to work on during a personalized, one on one relationship. I can be your coach for just one month or we can establish a month-to-month arrangement, depending on your schedule and expectations.

I’m very flexible regarding your own unique requirements in areas where you feel that you need the most help, but examples of topics that can be covered include character development, dialogue and format, editing and revision, story structure and plot, pacing your story, realistic settings, dramatic beginnings,  and cliffhanger endings. We can also examine submitting work, the publishing world,  and marketing and promotion.

You can also learn more about the writing and publishing process, including where ideas come from and how writers turn them into stories, choosing names for characters, the importance of historical research if your novel is set in a different era, the role of editing and revision, marketing and promotion, and more, in The Children’s Writer’s Guide, The Working Writer’s Guide, The Children’s Writer’s Guide 2, and School & Library Visits for Authors & Illustrators.

The writing of time travel stories and historical fiction is covered in The Time Traveler’s Guide, and fantasy and magic in Exploring the Fantasy Realm. The study guides for my novels are featured in Where do Ideas Come From?

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When Words Collide 2022

This weekend, I’ll be appearing online at When Words Collide, Calgary’s exciting annual literary festival. This year’s event will once again be held online.

My presentation on Zoom on Writing for Children and YA is at noon on August 14. I’ll be exploring the art of writing for children and young adults. Explore research, planning, pacing your story, developing characters, connecting with the reader, choosing settings, the role of adults in children’s stories, and more.

Learn more about When Words Collide at https://www.whenwordscollide.org/

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Robin’s Last Song by Nina Munteanu

I recently had the pleasure of talking with Canadian author Nina Munteanu about one of her latest projects. It’s all about birds, I’m told. Nina is an eco-fiction author of science fiction and fantasy with nine novels and five non-fiction books published, including Water Is… recommended by Margaret Atwood as her #1 choice in the New York Times ‘Year in Reading’ in 2016.

Congratulations on publishing your short story Robin’s Last Song in Issue 128 of Apex Magazine and soon in the Apex Magazine 2021 Compilation Anthology. I’m curious about the title? Whose last song is it? Is Robin the name of a human or the bird?

Both, actually. The title is both literal and metaphoric. The premise of the story is based on the alarming trend of disappearing birds. The robin, a common bird in Ontario where the story takes place, is a good sentinel for what’s happening with bird populations around the world. Robin is also the protagonist’s name; she was named after the robin, her mother’s favourite bird.

Robin’s Last Song is obviously eco-fiction. What’s it about?

Robin’s Last Song first appeared in the #128 Issue of Apex Magazine in 2021. It tells the story of Robin, a blind elder whose digital app failed to warn the world of the sudden global loss of birds with disastrous ecological consequences. After years of living in self-exile and getting around poorly on sight-enhancing technology, a discovery gives her new hope in rekindling her talents in the field of Soundscape Ecology.

How did you come to write this particular story about birds and what is soundscape ecology?

Since I was a child, the burgeoning SF writer in me had dared to imagine a world without the sound of birds—I thought it utterly bleak and, recognizing an ever-polluting world, I feared for my feathered relatives. I didn’t follow through with a story until September 2019, when I was approached by Oliver Hockenhull, the guest editor of subTerrain Magazine, to write a piece on technology and the environment. The timing was interesting; I’d just read two impactful things that resonated with me.

The first was the October issue of Science Magazine that reported a staggering decline in North American birds. Kenneth V. Rosenberg and his team of researchers had estimated that three billion birds of various species had disappeared in Canada and the United States since 1970. That’s a third of the entire bird population lost in five decades. To make it clear, we aren’t talking about rare birds going extinct; these declines are of common birds throughout the world. The wrens, sparrows, starlings, and, of course, the robins. I was devastated; I couldn’t imagine a world without the comforting sound of birds. What would it be like if the birds all disappeared? This brought me back to my childhood fears.

The second article I ran across talked about an emerging bioacoustics tool, soundscape ecology, that measures biodiversity and the health of an ecosystem, mostly through bird sound, which well represents ecosystem health. Bernie Krause, a soundscape ecologist who had been conducting long-term recordings for decades, noted how the dawn chorus in many areas had greatly diminished if not vanished altogether.

I now had my premise and my connection with technology. The title of my original story for subTerrain was Out of the Silence. This story focused on the technical aspects of the premise and solution. When I was approached for a story in February 2021 by Francesco Verso, the guest editor of Apex Magazine Issue #128, I rewrote the story with a stronger focus on the protagonist’s personal journey and connection with the bird catastrophe, how she coped with Asperger’s syndrome and the failure of her tool to predict the disaster. Hence the change of the title to Robin’s Last Song.

Without wanting to bring in spoilers, isn’t there a twist to the story, suggesting a cautionary tale that touches on the dangers of genetic engineering?

Yes, thanks for bringing that up. I was already primed with research into genetic engineering for the sequel to my 2020 eco-novel A Diary in the Age of Water. I wanted to make the bird disappearance in Robin’s Last Song into a dramatic catastrophe linked to our own dangerous ecological tampering. I had the notion of using a gene-hacking disaster to create ecological calamity and how this might affect birds. I wanted to make Robin’s Last Song a realizable work of fiction in which science and technology play both instigator of disaster and purveyor of salvation. Our biogenetic technology comes to us as a double-edged sword in the form of gene-editing, proteomics, DNA origami, and CRISPR—just to name a few. These biotechnological innovations promise a cornucopia of enhancements: from increased longevity and health in humans to giant disease-resistant crops. But, for every ‘magic’ in technology, there is often unintended consequence. Unforeseen—or even ignored—casualties and risks. I suppose my ultimate question with this story is: will synthetic biology redesign Nature to suit hubris or serve evolution? Science doesn’t make those decisions. We do.

Tell us a little bit about the Apex Magazine 2021 Compilation Anthology. When is it coming out and where can people get it?

The anthology is due sometime in August 2022 and will be in both print and digital versions. The more than 350-page anthology will compile all original short stories published in Apex Magazine during the 2021 calendar year. Published through Apex Book Company, it will feature forty-eight stories from a diverse group of new and established writers and the cover will feature award-winning artwork “Entropic Garden” by Marcela Bolivar. Check this link for more about the anthology and where to get it.

Are you still coaching writers and such?

Yes, I am, Simon. Did you know that I’ve been coaching writers to publication for close to twenty years? When I’m not teaching writing at the University of Toronto or George Brown College, I help writers with craft on their novels and short stories through my coaching services. You can find out more at: www.NinaMunteanu.me.

Tell us a little about any writing projects you’re working on these days.

I’m always busy with science articles for various online and print magazines and my own blogs. I’m also currently finishing a speculative eco-fiction novel that is a loose sequel to A Diary in the Age of Water. It’s set throughout Canada, from the Maritimes to the Arctic Circle, and spans a wide timeline from the Halifax Explosion of 1917 to the vast NAWAPA reservoir created a century and a half later by drowning British Columbia’s Rocky Mountain Trench. It’s a fast-paced thriller that focuses on four homeless people who battle corporate intrigue, kidnapping, human experiments and a coming climate plague.

Thanks, Nina, for being my guest here today. Best of luck with Robin’s Last Song and your other projects.

 

You can learn more about Nina and her work on her various websites: www.ninamunteanu.ca for her writing; www.ninamunteanu.me for her coaching and writing advice; and www.TheMeaningOfWater.com for her environmental articles and anything to do with water.

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The Heretic’s Tomb

“The book is a sweeping historical drama involving witchcraft, religious zealotry, life and death … The Heretic’s Tomb is a fast-paced tale of intrigue, sorcery and adventure, set in a fascinating period of history.”

While exploring a medieval archaeological site containing the ruins of an ancient English abbey, Annie discovers the long-forgotten tomb of Lady Isabella Devereaux, who had been condemned to death as a heretic in 1349. When Annie curiously examines a mysterious amulet she finds in the tomb, she is suddenly sent hurtling back to the Middle Ages, encountering sorcery, treachery, treason and the ghastly horrors of the Black Death.

The Heretic’s Tomb is available as a paperback and ebook. Learn more here on my website.

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The Emerald Curse

“Page turning tension with a resourceful and intrepid hero … and sure to please any child who likes fantasy, science fiction and comics.”

Charles Kelly was the world’s greatest comic book artist, until he disappeared without a trace. Two years later, his grandson Sam discovers a mysterious pen in Kelly’s attic studio. Sam is soon propelled into a bizarre dimension, where super villains are all powerful and disturbingly real, and finds himself in a deadly confrontation with an evil entity, imprisoned inside a mystical gemstone since the dawn of time.

The Emerald Curse is available as a paperback and ebook. Learn more here on my website.

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Learn How to Write Great Stories for Children and Young Adults

The Writing for Children and Young Adults course focuses on writing for children aged 8 to 14 years. However some of the material also covers older and younger age groups.

Learn how to write effective, authentic, and appealing fiction for children and young adults and how to turn your ideas into compelling stories.

The course explores the writing process from initial concept to finished work including story structure, developing plausible characters and dialogue, the creation of outlines and the importance of research, editing and revision.

The course also examines ways to research publishing houses where you can submit your work, along with cover letters, synopses and sample chapters.

Register at https://simon-rose.com/workshops/writing-for-children-and-young-adults/

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Learn How to Write Effective and Compelling Historical Fiction

Historical fiction combines the events of the past with characters and stories from the writer’s imagination.This course examines the art of writing historical fiction and the need to fully immerse yourself in a particular time period to make your storytelling more believable. Learn how to write effective, authentic and appealing historical fiction and how to turn your ideas into compelling stories. Understand what defines historical fiction and different historical time periods, create believable settings and plausible characters and learn how research plays a crucial role in the creation of your novel.The course involves assignments and writing exercises, and also deals with aspects of the writing process. The course also examines ways to research publishing houses where you can submit your work, cover letters, synopses and sample chapters.https://www.simon-rose.com/?page_id=3511

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Parallel Destiny

“This is an excellent book for teenagers and will appeal to both boys and girls.”

Project Mindstorm no longer exists and Kane and his associates no longer represent a danger. However, Max and Julia now have to contend with the sinister Alastair Hammond and his experiments into the existence of parallel universes and alternate realities. Marooned within a bewildering series of multiple universes, Max and Julia are forced to fight for their own survival and to save the very fabric of reality from Hammond’s deadly scheme.

Parallel Destiny, along with the other novels in the series, Flashback and Twisted Fate, is available as a paperback and ebook. Learn more here on my website.

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Twisted Fate

“Twisted Fate kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time. Time-travel, secrets, visions, paranormal activity, psychics; there isn’t anything this book doesn’t explore. I would highly recommend going on this adventure. The book is not only well written, it provides many twists that you won’t see coming!”

On his fifteenth birthday Max receives a box of personal items that once belonged to his mother and soon begins to have strange dreams and experience disturbing visions. In the days that follow, Max steadily learns the shocking truth about his mother and her possible connection to Project Mindstorm. Max also meets Julia, a girl with dark hidden secrets, as he attempts to alter his mother’s fate and his own, for better or worse.

When Max learns that Project Mindstorm has been revived, he and Julia embark on a seemingly impossible mission involving deadly psychics, paranormal phenomena, and multiple shifting timelines. On the run and pursued at every turn by the powerful and ruthless Kane, Max and Julia engage in a desperate race against time in an attempt to save countless lives and transform their own destiny.

Twisted Fate, along with the other novels in the series, Flashback and Parallel Destiny, is available as a paperback and ebook. Learn more here on my website.

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