Michael J. Sullivan's Blog, page 69

Breaking the Sound Barrier

Never eat a barbeque pork sandwich with beans and potato salad after you’ve biked 34 miles and have another 15 to go. You won’t find that in the writings of Confucius or Ann Landers. Why? I don’t know, because in retrospect it seems pretty important. I kept it down. I’m just mentioning that for those of you letting your imaginations run off the leash. Nothing so awful as heaving on the side of the trail knee deep in field grass and gnats, but it did sit like cement in my stomach. And when you’re struggling to break 50 miles at an average speed of better than 12mph, which at my age and level of fitness is the equivalent of the sound barrier, a stomach anchor isn’t an afternoon delight.
If you’re just tuning in, I am training for the Ride to Conquer Cancer this September 13-14th. The challenge is a hundred and fifty miles in two days. I’m asking folks to pledge their hard earned dollars, so I feel it is just and good that I keep you appraised on what I’m doing.
I’m an author. I’m not an athlete. Want to get that out in front to avoid any misunderstandings. Authors spend most of their days sitting on soft cushy seats that swivel and rock. We drink lattes in coffee shops, and if we’re feeling ambitious, walk around a bookstore or library breathing in through our nose and out through our mouths. And we look out the window for inspiration, not as a prelude to anything crazy, such as investigating what the deal is with that bright light in the sky.
I’ve never tried doing a marathon, a 6K, or even a power walk. I’m not an invalid. I can run a mile in about 12 minutes. If you’re under thirty, I hear you’re able to run a mile in 7-9 minutes, so since I’m nearly 53, I think that’s a decent display of physical prowess. And once upon a time, I rode my bicycle forty miles in single day. Come this September I’m going to have to ride one hundred and fifty miles in two days—seventy-five miles a day, back to back.
I obviously need to train. I started a little over a week ago. Last Saturday my wife, Robin, and I rode thirty miles. Then just to see the extent of the damage we rode another 35 the next day. We took it slow, about 10 mph, but we did it. We both have hybrid bikes, which is to say they are a cross between a sleek racing street bike and a rugged tank-styled mountain bike. How they got these things to breed I have no idea, but I thought we had nice bikes until we tried to ride 35 miles on it. Now I see that what we own are heavy, iron-wrought behemoths from some age when men had thighs the size of oak logs. When two days later we tried to up our speed, Robin, who lagged behind me, decided to put her ironclad out to pasture and get a sexy street machine. A street bike is one of those low-slung handlebar bikes with tires thin enough to shave with and so light you double the weight by adding a water bottle. At least that’s the way it looks to me from my perch atop my WWII battleship of gunmetal gray.
Our next ride was on this past Friday, and we rode for a record 46 miles. Using her new sporty ride, Robin became “Zippy Girl” flying into a dot on my horizon and having to wait for me to catch up. When at last I did, puffing, sweat covered and grimacing, she sat with one leg over the bar and a guilty grin on her lips.
“Maybe I should get one of those, too,” I said.Horror and shock replaced the grin. “No!”“Why not?”“This way we’re even,” she told me. Even my ass, Zippy Girl.She looked at me with big Sherik-styled Puss-in-boot eyes. “Fine.” I climbed back aboard and resumed peddling like Bart Simpson with a light generator pressing against his bike wheel. That’s how I remember it, anyway.
After a day of rest, we went out on Sunday. The weather was good and we pushed out on the trail to the tune of twenty-five miles. This was the farthest we’d ever gone, and the trip home would make it a clean 50 miles, a new record.
Along the trail is a rustic pit-barbeque restaurant that caters to trial riders.  People come from 600 miles for their authentic North Carolina cuisine, and on the way up the trail I was captured by the siren song of barbeque smoke wafting across the path from a giant black kettle drum. Bright red umbrellas shaded picnic tables and the place was circled in bicycles and packed with riders. I had loaded up on tuna salad carbs and beans before the ride so I was still good, but I promised myself we’d stop there on the way back. I deserved to sit under those festive umbrellas and eat that authentic pork with those exquisite plastic utensils and Styrofoam plates. The farther up the trail I went the more I began to dream of that dinner as a kind of heaven. Everyone there would be friendly, and beautiful. Old Jimmy Buffet songs would be playing from some outside speaker, and I would definitely have beans and potato salad for my two sides.
My steel horse was running out of gas by the time we made the round trip to the restaurant and I knew I wouldn’t make it home the last 15 miles without food. Oddly, by the time I got my food I wasn’t all that hungry. Exhaustion was setting in and maybe a bit of dehydration stole my appetite. I ate anyway. I had to.
The Zippy Girl, being on a diet, trotted off to a nearby organic café and came back with something in a bag, something that crunched when she ate it.
I cleaned my plate and wished I hadn’t. The sitting and the weighty food left me lethargic. I felt so heavy that I think my bike grunted when I sat on it. “It’ll be okay. We’ll make it, girl.” I patted the Trek’s crossbar, as Zippy Girl shot off, a spandex clad arrow vanishing toward the horizon.
Burping isn’t fun while exercising. Ruins the breathing rhythm, and beans never taste as good the second time. On the way up I had enjoyed the forests and fields. After leaving the restaurant I only saw the streak of pavement blurring beneath the all-too-wide tires. Maybe there were moments of downhill. Robin said most of it was. It all felt uphill to me. One steep grueling climb where I never had the chance to coast, to breathe, to hear what was playing on my playlist that I spent an hour the day before making—Music to Fly By—I had envisioned. As I burped and breathed my way up that non-stop hill, I’d become deaf.
There’s no way I can do this. And I only went 50 miles! I have to ride 75, sleep in a tent and then get up and ride another 75! I’m way to old for this. I was too old for this when I was twenty-four.  Zippy Girl is probably rocking out to tunes in the air-conditioned car back in the trail parking lot by now. Easy for her, she’s a whole nine months younger—younger and she has that miserable bike—that magic Pegasus. So unfair. I’m not going to vomit. That’s something. Feeling a little better actually. Oh look, a bunny on the side of the trail. Hey bunny! Wonder if the Nationals won against Atlanta today…
Then I lifted my head and I was back. I could see the parking lot and the car. Zippy Girl wasn’t there. She was behind me. I’d passed her when she paused for a short rest. Bending over the racing bike hurts her back and she needs to take breaks.
We’d done it. We’d broken the 50 mile barrier. Checking the cycling app it turned out we’d averaged over 12mph. A new distance and speed record all in one day!
Today I’m dead. I should lift some weights, maybe jog, but I’m just blown out. I need to rest and rebuild. But we did it, that much at least. And we still have another two months. Maybe we can do it after all. Maybe if we just keep trying. Maybe the impossible is possible. I’m a published author, I suppose I should have learned that lesson already.

Tax-deductible donations to sponsor my ride can be made from this link.



                                                         

First Five Pages Update

Back in January, I posted that I would read and critique the first five pages of your story. If you’re among the many who submitted and did not receive a reply, I need to apologize. Turns out I’ve critiqued many of the stories sent to me, but none were ever sent out.

You see I had a system. I wrote the critiques and left them for my wife to review and then mail. Why? Because she was concerned—and rightly so—that I might be too harsh or blunt in my comments. When it comes to writing I’ve lost much of my sensativity in the same way I suppose some doctors can become insensitive to the emotional impact of their treatment. I focus on the problem more than the person. I’ve learned not to let comments about my writing harm me emotionally, but this is a skill most aspiring writers don’t have yet. Robin checking to see if I was being an ass seemed like a good idea. Problem was that she became very busy with more important matters and never got around to the Five Pages Project. I didn’t know this until a few of you resubmitted stories I’d already thought I’d done.

So here’s the deal. I’m just going to mail these out ‘as is’ and will continue to do so. This means they’ll be ‘blunt’. Try not to hate me.

You all should keep this in mind: I am not trying to help you be better writers. I’m not trying to teach you to write. I can’t do that. No one can. Only you can teach yourself how to write to the best of your ability. What I will do is explain how I think you should write, which is exactly what any instructor will do. Most teachers base their comments on the foundation of an education they received (which may or may not be of any practical value) but which they believe in because it was what they were taught.

I wasn’t taught anything. Everything I know about creative writing I discovered for myself. As a result, I have a very specific, and admittedly, narrow view of what constitutes good writing. Many works that society admires I don’t care for. I recognize that this is based on my opinion and personal taste, and you should too, because that is what you will receive if you submit your work for my review. In other words, if I trash your wonderful story, remember it’s just the opinion of one guy. And if I’m harsh, or sound uncaring, also remember, I wouldn’t be taking the time to do this if I wasn’t trying to help. Still, it is up to you to decide what advice is worth listening to, and this is another skill you’ll need to develop if you’re to become a successful author, because you’ll be getting a lot of it.

Also, since I started doing this I can see that I’m actually averaging one critique a week (not ten a month.) And by the way, if you send more than five pages, I’ll just be reviewing the first five.

As for what I’ve read so far…

A lot of the submissions are average—what I would expect from new writers. Almost all of you suffer from the same basic mistakes: excessive telling instead of showing, excessive exposition, explanation syndrome, trying to be too artsy, trying to demonstrate your vocabulary, wordiness, setting-the-stage syndrome, dull beginnings, action-packed but confusing beginnings, keeping too much from the reader, telling the reader everything…and so on.

The first five pages are hard, so are my critiques.

And again, sorry for the delays, many of you will be getting responses soon. If not, resubmit.

When no other word will do

“…because fuck cancer.”
This was the end of a recent comment Shawn Speakman made on Facebook. Not exactly the end, he did address his use of the F-bomb by saying cancer doesn’t care. (I didn’t include the whole comment because Shawn said some things about me that were embarrassingly nice, and I have no business repeating those.)
I too considered editing the F-word from this post, but I couldn’t, because Shawn is right on both counts.
In case you don’t know who Shawn is, Mr. Speakman is an author, as well as the editor of the successful Unfettered anthology. More importantly, Shawn is the only person I know who has kicked cancer’s ass. He’s a vet in that war, which makes him a hero to me. He’s the boy who lived.
When I was nine, I lost my father—who was 51—to cancer.
When I was fifteen I lost my sister. She was twenty-nine. I spent a summer keeping my mother company as we watched her, very slowly, die. Some people consider you an adult at thirteen, some at eighteen, others at twenty-one, and car rental companies believe it’s actually more like twenty-five. For me it was fifteen—the year I spent every day sitting in a hospital room watching a beautiful woman turn into a skin wrapped skeleton, and each night in a motel room trying to help my mother understand why. My sister was a fighter. She wouldn’t give up, even when no one else held any hope, she still fought. Cancer killed her anyway.
For years I saw cancer as this evil creature that stalked my family. A dark, mysterious and undefeatable force: Sauron, Voldemort, and the Nothing all wrapped up in one. My father survived being trapped by the Nazis in Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge. He helped defeat Hitler, but he couldn’t defeat cancer.  My family was forced to sell our home in the city after he died. We left everything behind, and led by my sister Noreen, we moved away like some marked family. That’s how I saw it when cancer found Noreen and killed her in retaliation for saving us—that she dared to live.
Then for nearly four decades, cancer couldn’t seem to find me—still it found plenty of others, many of them authors: Diana Wynne Jones, A.C.Crispin, Kage Baker, Sara Douglass, Iain M. Banks, and most recently Jay Lake. Cancer was after my new family, and now cancer has come back after Sarah Chorn.
Sarah is one of the best book reviewers in the world. Not only is she a highly respected and talented judge of literature, her willingness to read my books, and give a fair review—even when I was still self-published—helped make my career. To read Sarah's amazing personal and heart-wrenching post on Jay's death and her own relapse go here.

So cancer—my old nemesis—is after her. She’s beat it off twice before, but it’s back again, because like any cliché evil-for-evil-sake-villain, that’s what it does. And just like any cliché child who watched his family murdered by such a villain, who managed to grow up, I’m drawing my sword, and I’m gonna help kill it.

In the names of all those I’ve just mentioned, I'm joining the Ride to Fuck Conquer Cancer®.
What this means is that on September 13-14th, along with (hopefully many) others I’m going to ride my bicycle a hundred and fifty miles. I’ll be just a few days shy of fifty-three when I do this, and the longest I’ve ever ridden before is forty miles. Quite frankly the odds of me succeeding are slim. I’ll be training all summer. This last Saturday I rode forty miles, and then the next day rode another 35. That’s exactly half of what I need to do. This isn’t going to be easy, but then that’s the point. Maybe you don’t know what you’re capable of until you try.
If, like me and Shawn Speakman, you also think cancer should die a vicious and permanent death—the sort where we cut off its head, stuff it’s mouth with garlic and toss it in lava—I hope you’ll consider helping me.
If your willing to kill yourself on a bicycle, and can be in Washington DC September 13th and 14th I'd love to have you join "Team Riyria." It would be great to pool our fund raising dollars to show just how much the fantasy and science fiction community cares about eliminating this terrible disease. You can ride on your own, or join me to talk about anything you want—in between letting the old man breathe, of course.  Plus we'll have plenty of time to chat Saturday night as all riders will be staying at a campground where we'll share dinner, some entertainment, and probably a few beers.  If suicide by bike isn’t your thing, you can still help by making a contribution . So far I haven’t raised much, which honestly is the reason for this post, or I wouldn’t ask here, where you come to read about books and other nice things, happy things. And I’m only resorting to this level of begging now because—well, as Shawn so aptly and eloquently put it…because fuck cancer.

With your help we can tell cancer exactly what we think of it.
Learn more and donate here.  Contributions of any size are greatly appreciated.

Hollow World and Humble Bundle

Not too long ago I got the ebook version of Hollow World into a StoryBundle curated by Sci-Fi Saturday Night. I love bundles.  Not only are they great deals for readers, they also provide for cross-pollination and a great way to discover new authors. So I was thrilled my my audio publisher told me he would be including Hollow World in the second Humble Audiobook Bundle. I've been sitting on the news until it went live, which it did last night, and will continue for just 2 weeks.  Here are some fabulous authors in this bundle including:


Here's what's currently included:


You can get hundreds of dollars of audio books at a price of your choosing. But note to get Hollow World you have to beat the average which is just a bit over $9.  With $10 you get The New York Times Bestseller Fight Club.  Here's how they break downName your priceGrave Sight by Charlaine HarrisRed Rising by Pierce BrownThe Perfect Storm by Sebastian JungerStrip Tease by Carl HiaasenUnlocked with $9.34Hollow World by Michael J. SullivanDown and Out in the Magic Kingdom by Cory DoctorowHow Music Works by David ByrneUnlocked with $10 Fight Club by Chuck PalahniukAnd in case you aren't familiar with how these bundles work, you get to chose where your money goes.  For instance you can decide what amount should go to the authors, how much to be retained by the people who organize the bundle, and even indicate a percentage to go to charity. For this bundle the two charities that will be:

So this is a great time to get Hollow World, and to try out some other books. And...like always I'll still provide free ebooks for anyone who purchases the audio version. So there's that as well.  Now how much would you pay? Sorry channelled Ron Popeil for just a minute. But seriously, this is a great opportunity, and I thank Recorded Books and the folks at Humble Bundle for including Hollow World in the mix.

My ears are burning...wish I was at BEA

For the past two years I've been going to BEA (Bookexpo America) but this year I stayed home to get some writing done. I'm living vicariously through my agent who is meeting with various parties on my behalf. I'm pleased to announce we've secured one deal, but more on that at a later time as I want to make sure the ink is dry on the contract before I say anything publicly, but I'm very excited about this new opportunity and I'm sure you will be too.

I'm also monitoring tweets and as I noted in my last blog post, I was thrilled to hear that Otis Chandler, CEO of Goodreads brought up during the Digital pre-conference how I'm using Goodreads to help connect with my readers. Well yesterday my ears were burning as I suspect Patrick Brown (Director of Author Marketing at Goodreads brought my name up again in his 1:00 Panel: Goodreads 201: Advanced Tips for Driving Book Discovery. The reason for my suspicion is this tweet:


I'm so glad that the people at Goodreads think I'm a good example. I LOVE the site, and I've been happily participating in their Ask the Author initiative.  I'll be writing more in the future about what I do, and how I do it, as I hope more authors and readers start connecting on this fabulous site. In the meantime, here are is a link to an article I did for Amazing Stories Magazine with some tips for how Authors should interact on reading communities.

For those at BEA, I hope you are having a great time. I'm especially envious of those meeting and greeting in the Author Hub as I'd love to sit around and "talk shop" with some of these incredible authors. Oh well, perhaps next year...but for now I'm going to get back to writing so that my whole reason for staying home accomplishes my goal.

Hollow World on Sale $0.99 during Bookexpo America

It's Bookexpo America time again, that wild convention that happens once a year in New York.  Yesterday kicked off the Digital Conference and the founder and CEO of Goodreads actually brought up my name several times.  I wasn't even aware that Otis knew I existed so to see tweets from Porter Anderson saying that I had been singled out as an author who really knows how to connect with readers was a great thing to see.

Also, Hollow World's sales has now exceeded the five-figure advance that I was originally offered and turned down...and in just a few months! To celebrate I'm lowering the price of Hollow World during BEA to just $0.99.  That's 87% off the regular $7.99 price.

So if you've been thinking of giving Hollow World a try, now is a great opportunity to do so.  Or, if you've already read the book, then consider gifting it to a friend.  Oh, and for those who enjoy paperback or audio versions, keep in mind that you always get the ebook for free when ou purchase either of those formats:

Communication

I've been away for a few days, and behind on everything, including blogging and emails. I apologize for any delays people may be seeing. But I wanted to mention one email that I did notice while I was away. On Friday I received and email from the CEO of Hachette Book Group informing all 4,000+ authors that the dispute currently waging between Hachette and Amazon took a turn for the worst as now pre-ordering has been removed.

For those that don't know, pre-ordering is extremely important in the book business. In many ways, the fate of a book is largely determined by the numbers of pre-orders.  It can influence the size of the printing, the amount of marketing dollars expended, and most importantly, it affects the all important first week's sales.  This "first week's sales" is critical because it is the best chance an author has of hitting a highly coveted bestseller list such as the New York Times or USA Today.  I don't have any books in pre-order, but I'm saddened for those that do. Once again fighting between the publisher and retailer is bleeding over to the author.

I'm glad that Michael Pietsch sent this letter, and to see his commitment to keep the authors "updated with important developments." But it also reminds me of the months of runaround when I couldn't get any straight answers to the Amazon problems I was seeing. When discounting disappeared on February 7th for my books and almost all other Orbit author's titles, the response wasn't, "Yeah we are in contract negotiations and Amazon is using this to strong arm us." Or even, "Yes we know about this, but we really can't tell you what is going on just now."  No, the answer I got was very much business as usual.  The actual response was, "Unfortunately Amazon decides what books to discount and by how much and we have no say over their decisions." While technically true, it also concealed the fact that something more was going on, and I wished Hachette had come clean about it back them.

During the various articles being posted about the Amazon-Hachette dispute I found it interesting that the problem goes back even further than February according to agent Kristen Nelson who said, "I’ve informally known about this since late fall 2013 (as early as November). The problem? My Hachette authors and I noticed this “shipping issue” multiple times and brought it to our Hachette Editors’ attention. Multiple times. Repeated emails. We were assured that all was fine. (Which we, of course, did not believe since it kept happening….)."

I echo Kristin's frustration that once more a big publisher chose not to partner with authors and agents in telling us the truth about what was going on. This isn't the way to foster trust and as Kristen also pointed out makes us look more suspiciously the next time the publisher's response is "all is fine."

So thank you Michael Pietch, for being so responsive with this latest bit of news, but please in the future continue this trend and keep the lines of communication open and let us know immediately when there are issues going on that may affect the sales of our books. Remember we are in this together.

Goodreads: Ask the Author

One of the great things about writing in today's technological age is the ability to directly communicate with readers. This type of access just wasn't possible in the past. But finding how to communicate with your favorite author isn't always easy, but Goodreads is here to help. Today Goodreads is launching a great new program to bring authors and readers together, and I'm proud to be a part of it.  It's called "Ask the Author," and it gives you the opportunity to interact with your favorite authors (and me) to get answers to all those burning questions you may have. Here is the list of authors who will be part of this early release program: Isabel Allende, Kevin J. Anderson, Bella Andre, Laurie Halse Anderson, Bella Andre, Margaret Atwood, David Baldacci , Mark Bittman, Holly Black, Dan Brown, Jim Butcher, Deepak Chopra, Kresley Cole , Michael Cunningham , Sylvia Day, Sara Dessen, Rebecca Donovan, Geoff Dyer, Susan Ee, Warren Ellis, Timothy Ferriss, Joseph Finder, Gayle Forman, Barbara Freethy, Kami Garcia, Elizabeth Gilbert, Daniel Goleman, Lev Grossman, Laurell K. Hamilton, Kristin Hannah, Brian Herbert, Khaled Hosseini, Hugh Howey, Arianna Huffington, Sherrilyn Kenyon, A.S. King, Jeff Kinney, Anne Lamott, Christina Lauren, E. Lockhart, Bob Mayer, Frances Mayes, James McBride, Richelle Mead, Liane Moriarty, Jojo Moyes, BJ Novak, James Patterson, Michael Pollan, Douglas Preston, Gretchen Rubin, John Scalzi, Robin Sloan, Margaret Stohl, Michael J. Sullivan , Jeff VanderMeer, Ayelet Waldman, Jesmyn Ward, S.J. Watson

As you can see there are some pretty amazing names in that group, and a wide variety of fiction, non-fiction, literary, and genre fiction authors. For my own part, I'll be answering questions across a wide spectrum of topics Just click here to ask your own question, or see answers to questions that others have asked. This could include: my released books, my future works, writing advice, or anything about the publishing industry including questions related to small-press, self-publishing, and working with the big-five. I must say, I'm a little terrified that when I go to my "question queue" I'll find nothing but crickets, so please, if you do have anything to ask, stop on by. I look forward to hearing from you.

Theft of Swords, a new printing, a new cover

I got an email from my UK publisher letting me know that Theft of Swords has gone into its 8th printing. That's fabulous news, I'm so happy that people "across the pond" are helping to spread the word and the books are doing so well there.  They also mentioned that with the new printing the UK version will be brought into line with the US cover (which also corresponds with the look and feel of the covers for The Riyria Chronicle books: The Crown Tower and The Rose and the Thorn.

While they didn't say for sure, I suspect that when (if) the other books (Rise of Empire and Heir of Novron) go into another printing they will also be converted over to the new covers as well.

Thanks again all for all the wonderful support of this series. It is because of you, sharing your love for the books which allows me to do what I love most for a living. It means a great deal.

Author's Playing D&D

For the past few Januarys I've been returning to my home stomping grounds of Detroit Michigan for ConFusion.  This past January, I was invited by Peter Brett to join in his annual Dungeons and Dragons game. I've played D&D in the past....way in the past.  In fact, it was over 30 years ago that my friends and my future wife used to get together on Saturday nights to play until dawn.

Peter arranged for the game to be recorded, and has edited and made it available. Here is the full video.

The video has introductions, although I noticed that don't mention their books/projects so let me provide a little more details:

Dungeon Masters
Peter V. Brett - bestselling author of The Demon Cycle which includes: The Warded Man, The Desert Spear and The Daylight War

Howard Tayler - is both a writer and an artist. His best known work is his space opera comic called Schlock Mercenary.

The Players:
Cherie Priest is best known for authoring the steampunk series: Clockwork Century which contains: Boneshaker, Clementine, Tanglefoot, Dreadnought, Ganymede, The Inexplicables, and Fiddlehead.    

Rich Morris is also a comic artist who does Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic (YAFGC)Kelley Armstrong is a #1 New York Times Author of so many novels I couldn't possibly hope to list them all. Some of her series include: OtherWorld, Cainsville, Age of Legends, The Blackwell Pages, Darkest Powers & Darkest Rising, Nadia Stafford and a whole host of short fiction.

Welsey Chu is a fairly new author. His debut novel The Lives of Tao came out in April 2013, followed by The Deaths of Tao last October.

Michael J. Sullivan you of course know...why else would you be here at my blog. If you don't know what I write, just click on the books tab.

Myke Cole is a fantasy author of the Shadow Ops military fantasy series. His books include: Control Point, Fortress Frontier, and Breazh Zone

Sam Sykes is a fantasy author of The Aeons' Gate series. His books include: Tome of the Undergates, Black Halo, and The Skybound Sea. He has a new series that will be coming out from my publisher, Orbit.


Added Player:
Brian McClellan came in later on in the game. He is also published by Orbit. His debut novel, Promise of Blood  came out in April 2013, and his second novel, The Crimsom Campaign just released this month.We had a heck of a good time, and I hope you'll be entertained by our antics.  Hopefully I'll be asked back next year.