Michael Offutt's Blog, page 168

Believe In Yourself

"I hope you will have a wonderful year, that you'll dream dangerously and outrageously, that you'll make something that didn't exist before you made it, that you will be loved and that you will be liked, and that you will have people to love and to like in return. And, most importantly (because I think there should be more kindness and more wisdom in the world right now), that you will, when you need to be, be wise, and that you will always be kind." 

                          --Neil Gaiman, author of American Gods
Let's own 2012 together. Have a great weekend. :)

Advanced Reader Copy Update and a Blogfest with incredible prizes

I want to remind those that are interested that the drawing for the paperback  Advanced Reader Copy of my book, SLIPSTREAM is still open. Please go to my Christmas post here if you have not done so already and leave a comment that says "I would like an ARC".  I have a few interested folks and want to thank every one of you that already commented for your wonderful support. I will keep the contest open for another week and will draw a winner on Friday, January 13th (13 has always been a lucky number for me since I was born on that day). My giveaway is of course, international.

In the month of February, there's going to be a cool blogfest that is hosted by:

1) Live to write...Edit when necessary.
2) Cassie Mae over at Reading, Writing, and Lovin' it.

Why is this blogfest cool? Because I get to talk about my characters and you can too if you join in!

Here are the details:
Monday, February 6th--Characters on the couch:

Have one of your characters answer the following questions (to make this work to your benefit, choose a character who is the hardest for you to write :) Max 250 words (Not including the questions—only the answers).
What is your biggest vulnerability? Do others know this or is it a secret?What do people believe about you that is false?What would your best friend say is your fatal flaw? Why?What would the same friend say is your one redeeming quality? Why?What do you want most? What will you do to get it?  Wednesday, February 8th--Dialogue Introduction:
Have two characters introduce each other using only dialogue—no backstory, no internalization, just dialogue between the two. Max 250 words.

Friday, February 10th -- Emotion Flash Fiction:
Emotion is the engine of a story. Pick an emotion and in a flash fiction piece of 250 words MAKE us feel it! We want to connect with your character. This will be a challenge in 250 words.
Prizes include two books, two query critiques, and two FULL MANUSCRIPT critiques. Like seriously...these hosts are going to read 80,000 plus words per person for the winner. That is an AWESOME prize. It's so hard to get feedback...so hard to find someone that will actually set aside the time to look seriously at your work-in-progress.
Have a great Thursday and go sign-up for the blogfest! It seriously looks fun.

Insecure Writer's Support Group 2012

Today is yet another Insecure Writer's Support Group post. This blogfest is one that never ends. It is the brainchild of self-titled "super ninja captain" Alex J. Cavanaugh, friend to everyone that writes, and the man that happens to be just about everywhere online. The rules are simple, post your insecurity on the first Wednesday of every new month. If you are a writer, I encourage you to join by visiting his blog here.

My insecurity this time around is cover art. Deron Douglas is the C.E.O. of Double Dragon Publishing, but he's also the one and only cover artist.  I tend to like "most" of his cover art. But some of it doesn't turn out all that great. And it's been my experience that whenever anything bad happens, it always happens to me. If there was a 1 in a 1000 chance that someone could get the plague from drinking water, I would be the one that got the plague, etc.

He's going to begin doing my cover design in February, and I'm a little nervous. I guess if I hate it I can just talk to him about it, but I signed an agreement that said that I essentially have no say in the cover. So if I don't like the result...tough cookie.

Ah well, it's what's inside that matters, right?

Thanks for listening to my insecurity and have a wonderful Wednesday :)

Merlin Season 4 starts this Friday

I'm a fan of The BBC's  Merlin . I own the first two seasons and still have the season finale of season 3 on my DVR. But really all you need to know if you haven't watched it is that there's a lot of homoerotic tension between Arthur and Merlin, Arthur and Merlin are roughly the same age as opposed to one being an old wizard and the other a kid, and Guinevere is black (and doesn't come from a noble family). Oh and Uther (Arthur's dad) was a bigot making all wizards go deep into the "closet".  In season 4, he's dead (which took forever to happen). I'm glad Arthur is finally king.

Essentially, it has nothing to do with the actual story which is why I kinda like it.

Here are some pics to whet your appetite; some are courtesy of my new bloggy friend at Hollywood Spy.
If that's too much armor for you ladies out there then here's something more appropriate: They all have British accents too. And yes...these are the "Knights of the Round Table". Don't believe that the nutrition and razors in the middle ages produced men like this? Well that's why it's called Merlin because there's magic too. And as you can see...magic makes anything possible. Here's more: King Arthur Gwen MorganaDoes there really even need to be a story with actors and actresses that look this hot? Catch the action with me on the SyFy channel.

See you Wednesday with my Insecure Writer's Support Group post.

Starting off 2012 with a Blog Award

Well I'm black from my blogger vacation, and to start things off I'm doing some housekeeping on some awards that I know you people are just dying to be infected with (and then spread them to your cohorts).

First off is the Smart Cookie Award.
I received this from the Blogger Girlz (Thank you Blogger Girlz!)

Here are the rules. They should look eerily familiar to many of you that pass these along:
Thank the award giver and link back to them in your post. This is par for the course for all of these things.Share 4 little known facts on anything.Pass this on to other "smart cookies" you may know.The facts I choose to talk about all relate to me:It took me two years to write my book that is being published in May. I'm a slow ass writer, and I don't care if that is a point of condescension for other writers to look down their nose at me. I have a day job, and there are many many days where I feel like writing nothing at all.I change the title after my name to silly things because I think that people who have their name and "comma 'Author'" are being pretentious. Anyone can string words together and publish them. So anyone can be an author. The next title I plan on using is "Evolved Monkey" unless someone steals it first.It seems to be easier for me to be real life friends with single women over 30 than it is with single women under 30. The under 30 crowd that "happens" to be single for whatever reason (yes they do exist) only wants to talk about their exes or talk about what they want in their next boyfriend. The single women over 30 will talk about books, movies, and be content watching television that we both enjoy while drinking tea.  Not once will they check their Facebook.The men I know are only interested in hanging out when they are single or extremely tired of their relationships and don't want to bite the horrible bullet and just end it (yes the men I know in this position are cowards plain and simple). If the target man I want to go to a movie with is in a relationship, planning to hang out for even a couple of hours has to have the approval of the other half (who secretly more often than not could give a shit), must be done well in advance (his rules not hers), and is only done so once they have checked with the other half to see if anything has been planned (again the man's rules not hers). This is not the same for women. Women I know that are in a relationship will always hang out at the drop of a hat as long as I'm paying. It just takes one phone call.  The only conclusion I've been able to gather from this in the years I've walked the earth is that many men overestimate their importance and impact that they have on their women. This condition is called "pussy whipped" and it is invented by men and not women. In other words, women don't pussy whip men. Men pussy whip themselves. It's really kind of pathetic. The Smart Cookies: Mr. Briane Pagel at his blog, Thinking the Lions.Ms. Steph Schmidt at her blog The Non-Sequitur Ramblings. Honestly, she needs a break from all that painting that she does.Andrew Leon at his blog StrangePegs, because I'm tired of reading about his dog.Cindy Borgne over at her blog Dreamer's Perch, because I know she'll give us four facts about Mars, and I like reading about Mars.Brooke R. Busse because my New Year's Resolution is to pass to Brooke every blog award that I'm fortunate enough to receive from the very giving blogosphere. I received the great comment award from book blogger, editor, writer, superwoman...Cherie Reich. She passed this award to the last twenty commenters on her blog, and I happened to be one of the lucky recipients. I feel so blessed. In return, I am passing it onto any of you who use any form of "Congratulations" in your comment on today's post. You too, ladies and gentlemen, will be obligated to post a blog that links back to this and thank me for the kindness I have in extending an award to you. How do you like them apples?

Have a happy Monday. :))

Merry Christmas

I present to you my Christmas story for Heather Arundel's contest. You still have one week if you intend to enter. The prizes are a $25.00 Amazon Gift Card, a beautiful e-reader cozy, and a leather writing journal. So far there are only two entries including mine.
Leave a comment below saying "I would like an ARC" if you would like to read my debut novel set to be published in May. I shall choose a winner next year. I ask that if you are interested, to please visit my Goodreads page and mark it "to read".

My friends, I shall see you in January. May all of your
wishes come true.

Congratulations to Cindy Borgne for being our 10 Lords A Leaping winner, the Prometheus trailer, and Jedi Ninjas

At the end of November, blogger Sarah Belliston organized the 12 Days of Christmas giveaway. Well the day that I was told to announce my winner is today.

Huzzah Cindy Borgne
You have been chosen by random.org to win $10 to Amazon.
If you don't already know Cindy, she's an award-winning author of science-fiction. You can find her website located here.

UPDATE...Here is the Prometheus trailer I've been waiting all week for (it gives me shivers):

And here's a video of the greatest Star Wars tribute ever. Jedi Ninjas.I found this video last week and it only had 315 views. It's since gone viral.I tweeted about it, so you may have already watched it.

Congratulations to Cindy Borgne for being our 10 Lords A Leaping winner

At the end of November, blogger Sarah Belliston organized the 12 Days of Christmas giveaway. Well the day that I was told to announce my winner is today.

Huzzah Cindy Borgne
You have been chosen by random.org to win $10 to Amazon.
If you don't already know Cindy, she's an award-winning author of science-fiction. You can find her website located here.

I have to say, I'm excited today because the Prometheus trailer is supposed to hit the Apple iTunes website sometime today. I've been refreshing it about once an hour (shut up Patrick/Grumpy) to see if it is there yet. Here's the teaser they released for it two days ago. Enjoy:

And the game of the year is...SKYRIM. Plus the trailer for the HOBBIT

So I've been playing Skyrim on the weekends. My character is level 12, and I've killed three dragons now. I just wanted to post some screenshots for you because I think the game is so visually stunning. Note: You can click any of these to make them bigger. And yes, this is really what the game looks like through and through. Clouds move, I get stuck in blizzards, I hear footsteps coming up behind me, shadows change, day turns to night, etc. It's completely engrossing and has really consumed my writing/reading time. But truthfully, I'd rather play Skyrim than read 90% of the fantasy that is presently being written. It's like being in your own "visually stunning" book.  I read somewhere that it broke a billion dollars in just a couple of weeks. Pretty amazing if you ask me. Some of you may ask, why are guys not reading? Well the answer is in these screenshots. Boys eat this stuff up.
This is me and Lydia (the girl on the left) climbing the steps of the highest
mountain in the world to consult with the mysterious Greybeards about magic.
Not far from us is a badass ice troll that I finally killed by burning him down
with magic flames from my fingertips. Note the beautiful mountains. And yes
the clouds do move in front of the mountains sometimes obscuring them.
This here is actually Lydia and I after having killed said ice troll in the above
caption. We climbed the rest of the way without my horse that got spooked
and ran off.  The encounter with the Greybeards was fascinating as they taught
me how to use my Dragon Voice.
A dragon that I killed in single-hand combat. It swooped out of the sky at me
but by this time I've got all steel armor that has enchants on it and a pretty
awesome sword. I had to heal some during the fight but I can do that with
my restoration magic. I just took cover behind trees so it couldn't get me
with its breath weapon. Then I kicked its ass.
Me and my house thrall Lydia. She's my complete servant, always addresses me
as "My Lord" and whatnot and fights by my side. She's pretty powerful.
Another screenshot from a different angle. Not how awesome the water looks.
It's incredible to me that it looks so real. I've swum around and caught fish
with my bare hands in it. Pretty cool, huh?Skyrim is a game where you can do just about anything. You can walk over to mountains, explore buildings and ruins, jump off of cliffs...the world is so real and so incredibly detailed that the grass sways in the wind and the tree leaves flutter. You can customize your character so completely that you determine the shape of their nose, the color of their irises, and the style of their hair. Each item is so intricate that you can rotate it in three-dimensional view and find clues on the actual item on how to solve a puzzle.  I found a gold dragon claw set with rubies that when I turned it over, discovered how to open a magical portal deep in a dungeon. I did so, defeated scores of raving monsters, and got my first powerful magical item. It was pretty awesome.

It's also a game that has inspired countless online memes. Checkout Skyrim Hoarders in a google search. Below, click on the short video and watch. You may ask yourself...why? Why would someone collect all that? The answer: because YOU CAN!!! The video is only 13 seconds long. In this game, you can own a house and store anything you find in your home. You can organize it or just throw it in a room. As you can see, some guys are having too much fun with this by collecting junk, skulls, or even bodies.
If you would like to add me as a friend, my "handle" on STEAM is "kavrik519". We can chat while playing :)

Tomorrow I shall reveal who won the 12 Days of Christmas "Lords A Leaping" give-a-way from Sarah Belliston's blog. Also, I will probably "gush" some about the Prometheus trailer which is due to hit Apple's movie trailer site on Thursday.

In FANTASY NEWS HERE IS THE HOBBIT TRAILER .... ENJOY!!!!!

On Friday, I will post my "story" of sorts for Heather Arundel's blog hop and then will be going quiet until the New Year. Thanks everyone for getting me over 50,000 page views in less than a year. I think that's pretty good traffic.

A Little Chat With Author Brinda Berry

[image error] I don't know exactly when I started following Brinda's blog. It just kinda showed up in my Google Reader so I assume that I just went to check her out and liked what I saw. Soon after that, I read her debut novel called The Waiting Booth, and I reviewed it on all the usual sites giving it four stars out of five.

The Review:

Warning, there are some spoilers ahead.

The Waiting Booth by Brinda Berry is an excellent book. The majority of the time, the book remains in first-person perspective looking out at the world through Mia. She is in a difficult spot because her brother Pete has been missing. However, soon she meets two mysterious and extremely hot guys that offer to help her uncover the whereabouts of her brother. Despite a rough start, she eventually learns to trust them. But there is enough tension in the book that you never really know until close to the end if Regulus and Arizona have Mia's best interest in mind.

I thought the men in the book were particularly engaging. Brinda knows how to write them with just enough flavor to allow them to leap off of the page. She also takes chances with her writing by switching occasionally to third-person perspective. It isn't particularly "jarring" as one might expect because she treats these shifts in point-of-view as their own separate chapters. I might have gone about it differently. However, it does seem to work okay particularly as a vehicle to impart information to the reader that they may need to know.

Brinda also has a thoroughly engaging story. She has an amazingly detailed world and has done a lot of impressive world-building to allow the reader to feel its authenticity. I think that this book would appeal to readers of Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi or perhaps those who love strong female characters with paranormal powers (and mysterious men). All I can say is, I hope Brinda is working on a sequel.


Q: Was the online mmorpg in your book inspired by World of Warcraft? It had a certain "authenticity" to it that I could really relate to having been a competitive player for five years in a guild that maintained top 200 ranking in the world (not to brag but this is not easy folks). If so, do you play? If no, how did you get that level of authenticity?

A: It would be difficult to create a fictional MMORPG game without being influenced by WoW. So, yes, I would say that my fictional online game, Quest of Zion, was influenced by the gaming elements of WoW. I don't play multi-player online games as you can probably vouch for the time investment necessary to be successful. That's quite an achievement you listed in the question. I have enjoyed single-player RPG gaming like Final Fantasy and many others in the past. Gaming has always been an activity and discussion topic in my home. My son is majoring in computer science with an emphasis in game design, so we've had lots of discussions about my fictional game.

Q: Suspend time for a moment. You can have any actor from any age of Hollywood to make The Waiting Booth into a movie. Who do you cast for Mia, Austin, Regulus, and Arizona? Who plays Dr. Bleeker?

A: This is really a torturous question for me. If I were in charge of casting today, I would choose unknowns to play the roles. I'll take a stab at it. You do have to imagine these actors at a younger age to fit the characters from The Waiting Booth.

Mia- Ellen Page (of Juno and Inception fame)
Austin - Adam Lambert (I'm giving him a shot at acting.)
Regulus- Ian Somerhalder (currently of The Vampire Diaries)
Arizona - Brad Pitt (think very young Brad Pitt)
Dr. Bleeker - I think I'd like to have Bruce Willis here. Really.
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[image error] Q: One small point that probably cost you the one star in my rating is my dissatisfaction that there is no Pete in this book. The whole plot revolves around Pete. Why did you give us no payoff and can you give us a hint as to when we will see Pete?

A: Pete is the unfulfilled quest in this book. I knew from the moment I plotted the book that this would be an issue for some. On the surface, the book may be about finding Pete. To me, this is a story about Mia growing into her own skin and accepting her abilities and inner strength. Mia's synesthesia is a secret in the beginning, and I think it's evident that she's afraid to open up to her friends about who she is. She has trust as well as abandonment issues. As for Pete, you'll be happy to hear that Pete plays a much bigger role in the second book, Whisper of Memory. Without giving away too much, I think you might be satisfied with Pete's role in the second book.

Q: How did you come up with the idea for this book and are you working on the sequel? When can we expect it to be available for download?

A: A friend of mine told me about a news story involving an outdoor camera that captured some bizarre photos. It seems that there were all kinds of monstrous snakes and creatures crossing a piece of highway after Hurricane Katrina. Around the same time as hearing that story, I noticed a "red waiting booth" near the highway on my daily commute. I wondered what the kids saw every morning while they waited for the bus. The "waiting booth" was torn down a couple of months ago, but I have some pictures of it. As for the sci-fi elements of the story, I've always been fascinated by the concept of portals and dimensions. So, those are all the ideas that merged into The Waiting Booth.

I have a tentative release date of May 2012 for the second book, Whisper of Memory. I am currently working on the third (and last) book in the series.

Q: Can you tell us a little about your publisher?

A: My publisher is Etopia Press. Etopia is a small press with horror, fantasy, romance, and YA imprints. They are a royalty-paying publisher with wide distribution through major retailers. You can visit Etopia's blog at http://etopiapressblog.wordpress.com/ if you are interested in their catalog or submission guidelines.

WEB: www.brindaberry.com
FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/BrindaBerryAuthor
TWITTER: http://twitter.com/#!/Brinda_Berry

Mark it "To Read" on Goodreads.

Buy The Waiting Booth now on Amazon for $5.99
Have a great Tuesday.