Keith Stevenson's Blog, page 23

Avengers Assemble!

Speaks for itself. And very well too!

Themes

Jeldon
When writing a novel, it's useful, at some point, to consider what themes have emerged in your story. I say emerged because I think in most cases writers don't start out with a strong idea of the thematic intent of their work. They may consider what type of story they want to write, what the inciting event, main event, or denouement will be, or have a strong idea about character or world, but theme? Not so much. Certainly that's been true for me in developing the Kresh novels, and now t...

24-hours

A lot can happen in 24-hours. But writing, editing and publishing a book?! That's tricky. And it's what makes if:book Australia's 24-Hour Book challenge so exciting. The other thing I'm excited about is that I've been selected to be Lead Editor on the project. It sounds like a lot of fun. And I'll be working with some very cool authors, including my fellow Serapeum alumni, Rjurik Davidson. Bring it on! Here's the offical word from if:book Australia —
The 24-Hour Book24 hours.9 writers.1...

Back

Many things have been happening. One of the most worrying was the sudden disappearance of the coeur de lion website. We use a wordpress platform and the whole thing just disappeared to be replace by the http error screen of death (not to be confused with the blue screen of death that was so popular with Windows Vista). It was with some trepidation that I went into the 'back end' of the site. There was an option to 'repair database' and all I had to do was click a button. It couldn't be that s...

DRM-free

In a refreshing move that hopefully will send a signal to other book publishers and sellers, all Angry Robot ebooks are sold DRM-free. 
Ever since Cory Doctorow highlighted the craziness that is DRM (digital rights management), we've seen big publishers ram their DRM-locked titles down our collective throats. Not only is this contrary to the way books have been published, bought, and shared since year one, it's been a major drawback to the proliferation of ebooks and ebook readers. I love my K...

2012

I sincerely hope the world doesn't end this year. I don't think I have time to fit that in. Things to do in 2012... Firstly we'll be moving into our new house - finally! - in beautiful Wollongong. After that, I'll be writing a 'how to' article to appear in WQ (the Qld Writers' Centre magazine) all about podcasting and what you need to do to get a top quality podcast together and on the net. [My previous article for WQ on small press publishing is here.] Then in September, I'll be a guest of h...

Jail

[image error] Space drama and prison drama. My two favourite genres. So mixing the two HAS to be a winner. I'm looking forward to the Besson produced MS1: Maximum Security (click the link for Trailer goodness). I'm hoping for something with the humour and visual panache of The Fifth Element. And for it NOT to be like Fortress, which was pretty dumb.

Paul

Paul Haines is an extraordinarily gifted writer and a good friend. Cancer however is getting the upper hand in what has been a very long and painful battle and Paul has now announced the end of his writing career.

Paul has achieved more in his writing than many others I know, and I've been privileged to work with him on co-writing projects as well as commissioning, editing and publishing his work. You can find information about all his published works on his website. If you haven't read any ye...

Next

Yes, the next thing for coeur de lion is to publish Adam Browne's Cyrano de Bergerac novel Pyrotechnicon. I've been circling this one for a while, as I wanted to do a novel next up and Adam's been looking for a home for his work. I remember critting an earlier version years ago at our first ever Serapeum. It's come a long way since then and it's very good - balancing the witty wordplay and wyrdness that Adam does so well with an engaging and pacey plot and great characters. All the info is in...

Conflux Eight

I'm very honoured to be invited to be one of the guests of honour at Conflux Eight in Canberra on the weekend of September 29 and 30, 2012. I'll be there in my capacity of publisher with coeur de lion publishing, and we'll be making an announcement soon about something else we'll be doing at Conflux.