Phil Giunta's Blog, page 121
April 12, 2011
About This Writing Stuff...
How to Craft Compelling Characters by David Corbett
What to Look for in a Writing Mentor by Dinty W. Moore
Should You Give Editors Your Social Security Number? by Brian A. Klems
Picture Books Aren't Just for Kids by Alex Latimer / posted by Chuck Sambuchino
Want to Sell Your Story? Peel Away the Layers to Create Memorable Characters by Terry Odell / posted by Chuck Sambuchino
Agent Advice: Holly McGhee of Pippin Properties, Inc posted by Chuck Sambuchino
How I Got My Agent: Robert Weintraub posted by Chuck Sambuchino
3 Barriers You Must Eliminate to Maximixe eBook Sales by Jane Friedman
Organizing a Writers Workshop Part I: Pre-Publicity by Susan Cushman / posted by Jane Friedman
April 9, 2011
Testing the Prisoner Audio Book - Chapter Eleven!
Consumed by rage and bitterness, Daniel confronts the spirit of his abusive mother, Theresa. She shows him moments from their past that remind him of the challenges and fears she faced as a single parent. Daniel must then decide whether to forgive his mother and allow her soul to move on, or condemn her for eternity.
We are nearing the end of the story, folks. The book will conclude on May 6 after two more chapters presented by Prometheus Radio Theatre. Soon, the audio version of Testing the Prisoner will be posted in its entirety on Podiobooks. More details to follow.
Click here for the podcast: Testing the Prisoner - Chapter 11
April 7, 2011
Next Generation Hobbies - Sugarloaf, NY
Here is an article in the Times Herald Record.
April 6, 2011
About This Writing Stuff...
4 eBook and Print Book Strategies to Cover All the Bases (Most of the Bases?) by Carla King
Elements of a Successful Fiction Platform by Christina Katz
3-Part Recipe for Perfect Agent Queries by Rachel Vater
Can the Short Story Survive? by Matt Lapata / posted by Jane Friedman
Things To Do After You Get an Agent by Richard L. Mabry, M.D. / posted by Chuck Sambuchino
5 Tips for a Successful Reading by Marianna Swallow / posted by Chuck Sambuchino
How to Get Reviews for Self-Published Books by Joel Friedlander / posted by Jane Friedman
7 Things I've Learned So Far by Simon Morden / posted by Chuck Sambuchino
New Agent Alert: Jessica Alvarez of BookEnds, LLC posted by Chuck Sambuchino
Future of Publishing Round Up by Jane Friedman
April 2, 2011
Author Interview: Steven H. Wilson / Part Two
My interview with fiction writer, small press publisher, and podcaster, Steven H. Wilson continues! Click to read Part One.
7. Your first novel, Taken Liberty, is based on characters and situations from The Arbiter Chronicles audio show. Are you planning any more printed works from that universe?
Working on an Arbiters novel right now, in fact. The working title is “Unfriendly Persuasion.” I’m still in the plotting stages, but plan to begin writing in April and have a couple chapters in my hands at Balticon.
In addition, I’m talking to another author as we speak about novelizing the Arbiters radio shows. I think there are some people who want the whole chronology in prose form, so we’re going to give that a try.
8. What inspired Peace Lord of the Red Planet?
Couple of things. One, I love SF and comics, but I’ve come to a place in my moral and philosophical journey where I have a big problem with violence. I understand there’s sometimes no option and you have to defend yourself and your family. It troubles me, however, that we perhaps take all the violence and warfare in SF for granted, forgetting that these are horrible forces which, in reality, destroy lives. They’re not fun and exciting. They’re frightening. Or they should be. I fear there’s an assumption on the part of a lot of fans that, without egregious violence and death, you have no story. So going beyond writing SF where the nice guy tries the peaceful solution and then winds up fighting, I decided I wanted to do a story which questions those assumptions that, eventually, you just have to be violent. (That said, yeah, there’s violence in the story. In fact, it opens during the American Civil War, and I’ve had some readers tell me that the level of violence was pretty high.)
And anyone who reads Peace Lord’s jacket knows that it’s also a tribute / parody inspired by the John Carter novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs. In those, a man of Earth goes to Mars and becomes a great warlord because he’s stronger than everyone else there, due to the atmosphere. I love those stories, and that concept is all well and good as entertainment. But, in real life, especially if you’re an SF fan, you’re generally not the strongest guy in the room. You’re often the weakest. And you have to learn how to succeed in spite of that.
I love classical mythology, so assembling a pantheon of gods for my alien world was fun, and one of the things that made me really want to write the story.
Finally, I was challenged by a friend to do the NaNoWriMo thing where you write 50,000 words in 30 days. And I did hammer out Peace Lord’s 60,000-word first draft within the limit. Then I let it sit for a couple of years, went back and read it, liked the first eleven chapters a LOT, trashed the ending and wrote a new one. Then I published it.
9. In 1993, you co-founded Farpoint with your mother in law, Bev Volker. Farpoint, an annual science fiction media convention that still runs strong today, occurs every February in Timonium, MD. I’ve been attending since 1995 and I enjoy it immensely.
Give us a brief history of how and why Farpoint came about.
Farpoint was the direct descendant of ClipperCon and OktoberTrek. Those cons began in 1984, and the first ClipperCon was my first fan-run con. Within a year, I was on the committee. When the late Marion McChesney decided to stop running ClipperCon (a February con), Sandy Zier-Teitler grabbed the baton and founded OktoberTrek (guess the month.) Sandy ran that for three years, and then it was my turn. I named my new con Farpoint, and invited the ClipperCon/OktoberTrek committee to join me in running it. At the kickoff meeting, however, Bev announced that she wanted a shot at being chairman. Bev had been our program chair, the toughest job at any con, for years. So I handled the money, and she chaired it. When Bev stepped down, I stepped up. And when I stepped down in 2001, we moved back to February, and now Sharon Van Blarcom and the aforementioned Sandy are holding the bag. My wife Renee and I are still kibitzing as Operations Managers. We get to tell everyone what to do, but we don’t have to sign any checks!
What drives you to continue organizing this convention year after year?
A chemical imbalance? Seems the most likely explanation.
Actually, it’s because I love Fandom. It’s a community that welcomed me when I was a kid who didn’t quite fit in. It is, I think, the most egalitarian, encouraging, supportive community on this planet. I want to see it go on so that future weird kids have a place to go where they can be weird in safety and comfort and learn to develop the skills which will someday allow them to conquer this backward planet and remake it in our image. Or something like that.
Jokes aside, Fandom encourages us to celebrate fantastic ideas and be creative. And I think anything that does that needs to continue. Conventions are the town meetings of our community, and I’m happy to be one of the people that makes sure we keep gathering.
10. When did you start attending conventions? Which cons do you attend regularly, aside from Farpoint, of course!
My first convention was one which shall not be named in 1981. I attended those cons a couple of times a year until I discovered ClipperCon in 1984. I’m a regular at Balticon and Shore Leave (although the last three Shore Leaves have unfortunately overlapped other commitments.)
11. What motivates you to remain so intensely involved in science fiction fandom?
I sort of answered that in the Farpoint question. Shoulda read ahead, huh? But in addition to my altruistic (Ha! Don’t have an altruistic bone! Not one!) desire to see Fandom thrive, the fact is that I create a product that there’s a limited audience for. SF that doesn’t have swords, dragons or sparkly undead guys holds a vanishing market share. If I want to actually get my stuff to an audience, I’d better be going to the place where those few, stalwart holdouts also go.
Also, a con is a great place to discover beers and whiskeys you didn’t know existed.
12. What’s next for you in terms of writing projects whether in print or audio?
As I mentioned, I’m writing a second novel set in the Arbiter Chronicles universe. I’ve also got a collection of short fiction that I need to find time to publish. It’s all done, but producing a title takes a lot of work. Other than that, I’m currently outlining a plan for a third series of Arbiter Chronicles audio dramas. Those will take a few years to get written and produced, but I believe there’s an audience for them, and they’re great fun both to write and to perform.
13. What does Steve Wilson do when he’s not writing?
I’m an IT Manager for the local Fire Department and a New Media Consultant (what else to call an IT guy who publishes books and does a podcast?) I have one son in middle school and one in college, a wife who is happily my partner in life, work and fannish endeavors, and two cats who… well I have two cats and they’re damned adorable even when I’m hunting them down and plotting their exquisitely painful demises. (Demises? Is that really a word?)
I watch a little TV – currently I love Shameless, Big Bang Theory, S___ My Dad Says, Bones, How I Met Your Mother and Weeds. And I read whenever I can, SF of course, history, biography, mythology and social commentary by people who worship neither Rush Limbaugh nor Michael Moore. (Oh, wait, are they the same person?)
Related links:
Steven H. Wilson on Goodreads
Steven H. Wilson on Memory Alpha, the Star Trek Wiki
Farpoint
BaltiCon
April 1, 2011
Author Interview: Steven H. Wilson / Part One
It was October 1995 at Farpoint, an annual SF media convention in Maryland. There was a writing contest. The winning entry was to be printed in the convention's program book. I submitted my first EVER Star Trek fan fiction short called A Passion for Peace wherein Kirk and crew rescue a Romulan defector near the beginning of their five year mission. Her tale of a peace movement on Romulus leads Spock to begin pondering the idea of a reunification of Romulans and Vulcans.
I did not win and I was, of course, disappointed...until I ran into Steven H. Wilson, co-founder of Farpoint, fellow fan fiction author, and writer for DC Comics Star Trek and Warlord issues. He assured me that I had been a top contestant. He told me to keep writing.
So I did. And over the years, Steve and I remained in contact and saw one another at the conventions. He has never been anything less than encouraging and as a writer, Steven has shown talent and temerity, drive and genius. He is the creator of the Parsec and Mark Time award winning podcast site, Prometheus Radio Theatre which delivers original SF, Fantasy, and Horror audio shows and books and has amassed a large following.
Steven's publishing imprint, Firebringer Press, has released three novels including my own, Testing the Prisoner. And you can expect a lot more. In February 2011, his Farpoint convention celebrated its 18th year.
His boundless energy never ceases to amaze me and I'm deeply grateful for our lasting, growing friendship. Please welcome, Steven H. Wilson!
1. First, tell us where we can find you online such as blogs, websites, Facebook, etc.
I’m on Facebook as steven.h.wilson and Twitter as StevenHWilson
My websites are http://prometheusradiotheatre.com and http://firebringerpress.com
2. What inspired you to write fiction? Further, why start with Star Trek fan fiction?
Everyone has a story to tell. Some of us tell them around the water cooler, just gossiping about our lives. Some of us focus on the funny stuff, being a standup comedian or merely the class clown. A few if us take our stories and throw them onto a much bigger canvas, and those people are the fiction-makers. Fabulists, if you want to be pretentious. I guess I’ve always been one of those people, because I was always grabbed by stories that contained fantastic elements – stories that weren’t as boring as real life seemed to be.
Stories that need that kind of canvas have to be planned out, they have to be written down. You can’t just swap them at the water cooler. And so those of us who want to tell those stories write.
I wanted to tell the kinds of stories I enjoyed – outer space, super-heroes, future settings, gods and monsters. And I wanted to my stories to include concepts and ideas I was intrigued by – political, religious, moral and philosophical ideas. Star Trek tackled those issues in a very comfortable universe. It built a playground you wanted to play on with all the coolest playground touches.
Writing Trek – or any fan fiction -- lets you dive in and try your hand at the whole process of story creation without having to take on the daunting task of building a universe and creating characters out of whole cloth. Having gained that experience, (assuming you’re going to actually become an independent author) you can take off the training wheels and create your people and your places, knowing you’ve got the technique of telling the story down.
3. W hich authors influenced you early on and which emerged since then that have captured your attention?
Biggest influences would be Robert A Heinlein, Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke and David Gerrold. Gerrold because he wrote books about writing that actually teach the process. And, of course, the host of classic Trek writers.
I also read a lot of comics, and, being the age I am, couldn’t help but be influenced by Chris Claremont, Dave Cockrum and John Byrne’s X-Men. And Steve Englehart is, for me, the god of graphic storytelling. If you read my work, you can’t miss Steve’s influence on me, in that my stories are very character-driven and I respect my characters. You’ll rarely, if ever, see the shock-and-awe-sudden-death-everything-you-knew-is-wrong crap in my stories, as you won’t in his. I just consider that bad storytelling. Of course, millions of comics fans disagree with me, or Marvel wouldn’t be in business any more, or maybe Englehart would be its editor in chief.
Since I stopped being young? I like Joss Whedon, when he’s on his game. (Joss, unfortunately, will practice that shock-and-awe stuff. He creates characters you can’t help but love, then tortures them. That can be hard to take.) JMS has done some excellent stuff, though I never got into Babylon 5. L. Neil Smith, Michael Flynn, and Allen Steele are current authors I really like. And I’m a huge fan of Alan Dean Foster’s Flinx and Pip series.
4. How did your work with DC Comics come about?
Two words: Bob Greenberger. I had met Bob a couple of times at cons, and so one year at ClipperCon in Baltimore I grabbed him and said, “I wanna write for comics.” He said “Kid, everyone wants to write for comics! But if you send me some story pitches that have a beginning, middle and end, you’re already in the top five per cent.” So I did, and Bob said something like, “Damn, your pitches have all three – beginning, middle and end!” So he assigned me to do his 1987 Bonus Book program, where I wrote the first story Rob Liefeld ever drew for comics. Bob showed my work to other editors after that, and I didn’t really grab anyone’s attention. It was the 80s, and DC already had plans for every character and experienced writers lined up to write all of them. But, whenever he had an opening in his schedule, Bob called me. I did eventually work for other DC editors, and got a good deal of praise for my work. But it’s a very competitive business.
5. Tell us how Prometheus Radio Theatre and The Arbiter Chronicles began and your personal fascination for the medium of audio.
My fascination for audio probably stems partly from the era in which I was born, that being before VCRs were available for home use. I couldn’t get enough of my favorite TV shows, so I recorded them on audio. Also, I have an uncle who’s a huge fan of comics and old-time radio, and he played me a lot of the old shows, which I just loved.
About ten years ago, radio drama got a little bit of a boost when John DeLancie and Leonard Nimoy produced some great SF material, and the Kennedy Center did a live It’s A Wonderful Life show with Bill Pullman. Those made me say, “I can do that!” And so, at Farpoint 2000, with a hole in the schedule and plots of a bunch of unsold novels and tv scripts scattered about my office, I decided to try writing a radio show. It was the first episode of what later became the Arbiter Chronicle. I used characters I’d created in my fan fic days, and about whom I’d written one short, unpublished novel, which later became Taken Liberty. In plotting that novel, I’d done a lot of groundwork for an original universe, with a fairly developed future history. That made it easy to build a dramatic series. And, the radio show being a success with the audience, I decided to write more and to publish the novel.
6. What prompted you to start Firebringer Press to publish your printed works as opposed to seeking an agent with the aim of publishing through one of the big houses?
Ultimately, it comes down to the answer to one question: Do you want to tell your story, or do you want to be a bestseller? Few people get to do both. If you’re going to hit it big (and only guaranteed smash authors are selling to publishers these days), you’re going to have to tell someone else’s story, not yours.
I’d been circulating my short fiction about twenty years to the handful of paid outlets that exist for SF. No nibbles. Several editors had been very encouraging about my writing, but they’d only signed complimentary letters, not checks. So I felt I’d established that I was never going to sell fiction to Big Publishing. Looking around, I saw a lot of other much-published authors who were accepting that they weren’t going to be making any more sales either. The industry has just changed drastically, and you’re either Dan Brown or you’re not selling fiction.
So I never even considered shopping Taken Liberty to an agent or publisher. I didn’t think someone with my minimal pro credits would even get their attention, trying to sell a whole book. And I’d decided I wanted my work in the hands of an audience, not a tired editorial assistant who’d already read enough literary excrement the day (s)he picked up my manuscript.
Along came my friend Don Sakers, who kindly told me all the ins and outs of setting up a micro-press. I sounded do-able for someone who had the stamina to jump all the hoops, and I figured I had that. So I started my own imprint.
Tune in tomorrow for part two where Steve discusses his latest novel and future projects, his enduring relationship with SF fandom, and the Farpoint conventon that he co-founded 18 years ago.
Related links:
Steven H. Wilson on Goodreads
Steven H. Wilson on Memory Alpha, the Star Trek Wiki
Farpoint
BaltiCon
March 30, 2011
About This Writing Stuff...
This week, let Jacob Appel tell you 10 Ways to Start Your Story Better. Todd Stone gives us tips on How to Amp Up Dialogue with Emotional Beats. I'm deeply interested in Jane Friedman's analysis on The Future of Self Publishing Services. Enjoy them all!
10 Ways to Start Your Story Better by Jacob M. Appel
How to Amp Up Dialogue with Emotional Beats by Todd A. Stone
7 Things I've Learned So Far by Stephen Graham Jones / posted by Chuck Sambuchino
How To Craft Your Book's Hook by Angie Fox / posted by Chuck Sambuchino
The Future of Self-Publishing Services by Jane Friedman
The Discontented Writer by Jessie Morrison
The Weird Week in Writing: Author Insults, Blank Books, Anne Rice Auctions by Zachary Petit
March 26, 2011
The Character Assassination of Robert Greenberger
Shore Leave continues a fairly young tradition with their 3rd Annual Charity Roast benefiting the American Red Cross. Each year on Friday night from 7-9PM, one of the writer guests at Shore Leave gets hauled out and roasted by their peers. This year, it's:
The Character Assassination of Robert Greenberger
I interviewed Bob here at the beginnging of March. You can read the interview here.
In addition, official Shore Leave Roast merchandise is available now!
March 25, 2011
Testing the Prisoner Continues on Audio!
Testing the Prisoner continues on audio with Chapter 10 on Prometheus Radio Theatre!
After his fatal confrontation with the demon, Daniel reaches out to Miranda from the other side. Together, they're forced on a disturbing tour through Daniel's violent childhood.
March 24, 2011
About This Writing Stuff...
Another week of interesting and helpful articles in which self publishing gets some attention, especially when bestseller Barry Eisler turns down big money to self publish. Mirian Gershow tells us why writers need book bloggers while Lawrence Block explains that writing can be learned, but not taught. Denise Jaden shares her thoughts both before and after being a published author. Enjoy!
Before and After Being a Published Author by Denise Jaden
How to Turn Rejection Letters into a Positive by Sue Fliess
6 Reasons Partnering with Other Author Can Benefit You by Maria Lamba
What Writers Need To Do Besides Write by Dom Testa, posted by Chuck Sambuchino
When to Use a Semicolon by Brian A. Klems
Best-Selling Author Turns Down $500K Deal to Self Publish by Jane Friedman
4 Key Categories of Self Publishing by Jane Friedman
Why Writers Need Book Bloggers by Mirian Gershow, posted by Chuck Sambuchino
Writing Can Be Learned--But It Can't Be Taught by Lawrence Block, posted by Jane Friedman
New Agent Alert: Sarah Sper McLellan of Folio Literary posted by Chuck Sambuchino
How I Got My Agent by Lisa and Laura Roecker posted by Chuck Sambuchino
