Phil Giunta's Blog, page 6

By Your Side Redux

I’m pleased to announce that the second edition of my second paranormal mystery novel from 2012, By Your Side, is now up for preorder in ebook format for $2.99 from all the major resellers including Amazon, Apple, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, and Smashwords. The paperback will be added to preorder next week so stay tuned!

This edition has been re-edited and given a new cover by comic book artist Scott Barnett.

Purchase:        

The official release date is July 22, 2024. The book will be launched a few days later at Shore Leave 44 SF convention in Lancaster, PA.

Stay tuned for further updates!

Testing the Prisoner Takes Second Place in The BookFest Spring 2024 Competition

On the heels of the PA Press Club award earlier this week, Testing the Prisoner wins another one! Second place in The BookFest Spring 2024 competition. Third award since November. Always grateful for the recognition.‌ Congrats to all of the Spring 2024 winners listed here (use the drop down list to view First, Second, Third, and Honorable Mentions).‌As a reminder, April is Child Abuse Awareness Month and 100% of the proceeds from the sale of Testing the Prisoner will be donated to Prevent Child Abuse America from now until April 30.  Thank you for your support!‌‌

Testing the Prisoner Takes First Place!

Excited to announce that my paranormal mystery novel, Testing the Prisoner , took First Place in “Books-Fiction for Adult Readers” category in the 2024 Pennsylvania Press Club Communications Contest.‌All first place entries are forwarded to the National Federation of Press Women for a second round of competition against other state affiliates. Winners in that round will be announced in June during NFPW’s annual conference in St. Louis, MO. The top three winners in the national competition receive cash awards.‌As a reminder, April is Child Abuse Awareness Month and 100% of the proceeds from the sale of Testing the Prisoner will be donated to Prevent Child Abuse America from now until April 30.  Thank you for your support!

Child Abuse Awareness Month

My friends, I know we’re all besieged by charities seeking donations and our funds are limited. I hesitated to add one more, but this one’s close to my heart and you’ll get something in return for your participation.

April is Child Abuse Awareness Month and from now until April 30th, I will donate 100% of the proceeds from the sale of Testing the Prisoner to Chicago-based charity Prevent Child Abuse America. I believe in their mission to prevent the abuse and neglect of our nation’s children. You can learn more about PCAA by clicking here.

Why am I doing this? At its heart, Testing the Prisoner is a story of a child abuse survivor who escaped and built a better life for himself but soon learns that the emotional pain lasts for years and can manifest when the right buttons are pushed. When a series of hauntings pushes those buttons and unravels our hero’s idyllic life, he is given a choice to forgive his abuser and find peace in himself or allow his rage and bitterness to destroy him.

Both in person and through their reviews, a number of my readers opened up about their own experiences with child abuse and  how Testing the Prisoner helped them address their own pain, take steps toward forgiveness, and find their own inner peace. What more could I ask for as a writer? Click here to learn more about Testing the Prisoner.

It doesn’t matter where you purchase Testing the Prisoner—Amazon, BarnesandNoble.com, Bookshop.org, Smashwords, Kobo, or your favorite independent bookshop. Once I make the donation to Prevent Child Abuse America in May, I’ll follow up with the total here. Thank you in advance for your consideration and generosity. 

About This Writing Stuff…

This month, we begin with Rebecca Jennings’s article from Vox on the importance of TikTok to a creative’s chances of success followed by a rebuttal from publishing industry expert Jane Friedman.

From Good Story Company, Kristen Overman challenges us to try journaling as a route to a solid first draft and Amy Wilson shows us how to describe emotions through action, dialogue, and deep POV.

Speaking of deep POV, Lisa Hall-Wilson at Writers in the Storm expands on that topic while Lynette M. Burrows explains the differences between tension, suspense, and conflict.

On Anne R. Allen’s blog, guest Jodie Hurst addresses the pros and cons of that 800-pound digital gorilla in the room—artificial intelligence.

All that and a little more. Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Want to sell a book or release an album? Better start a TikTok by Rebecca Jennings

Author Platform is Not a Requirement to Sell Your Novel or Children’s Book by Jane Friedman

How to Describe Emotion by Amy Wilson

Journaling to Productive First Drafts by Kristen Overman

After Your First Draft: The Search for Meaning by Patti Callahan Henry

Beguile Your Readers with Tension, Suspense, and Conflict by Lynette M. Burrows

How to Remove the Author Voice for Deep Point of View by Lisa Hall-Wilson

Don’t Kill Your Darlings by Philip Athans

Substack is Both Great and Terrible for Authors by Jane Friedman

How to Make Your Writing More Sensitive – and Why it Matters by Melissa Haun

It’s the Age of AI: How to Survive and Thrive as a Writer by Jodie Hurst via Anne R. Allen

 

 

 

Book Review: The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick

In Philip K. Dick’s alternate history novel, the Allies have lost WWII and the United States is divided up between Nazi Germany to the east and the Empire of Japan in the west. Between the two territories is a neutral zone straddling the Rocky Mountain States. It’s 1962 and the Chancellor of Nazi Germany, Martin Bormann, has just died, leaving several high-ranking Nazi officers to jockey for power including Reinhard Heydrich, Joseph Goebbels, and others. 

In the Japanese-controlled Pacific Western States, Rudolf Wegener (traveling under the name Baynes) defects from Nazi Germany to meet with a sympathetic Japanese General. There, Wegener reveals Operation Dandelion, Germany’s plans to attack the Japanese Home Islands. The meeting is held in the office of Trade Minister Tagomi in San Francisco, which is raided by an armed German militia assigned to kill Wegener. 

Meanwhile, machinist Frank Frink teams up with a co-worker to form their own business making hand-wrought metal jewelry. They plan to peddle their wares to a few local shops, starting with the largest antique shop in town owned by Robert Childan. Reluctant at first, Childan accepts the jewelry on a consignment deal but uses one of the pieces to curry favor with a young Japanese couple. He also sells a piece to Mr. Tagomi who later experiences a strange vision of an alternate San Francisco. 

In the neutral zone, Frink’s ex-wife, Julianna, is a Judo instructor and has been dating a truck driver named Joe Cinnandella. Julianna is engrossed in a popular novel called The Grasshopper Lies Heavy in which the United States and Britain have won WWII and now dominate the world. So compelling is the story that Julianna convinces Joe to drive her to Cheyenne, Wyoming to visit the author, a man named Abendsen. Along the way, she learns that Joe is not who he seems. 

Throughout the story, Mr. Tagomi and other characters in San Francisco consult the I Ching, a Chinese book of divination, to guide their decisions and foretell the future. 

Overall, The Man in the High Castle is a fascinating idea of what would have become of the United States had the Axis powers won the war. The oppression and fear experienced by the characters is palatable as each of them struggles for the best existence they can manage given their circumstances. 

Book Review: Anthony Doyle’s Hiberbnaculum

In an effort to conserve the planet’s resources, what if citizens from around the globe were afforded the option to voluntarily enter hibernation for a set amount of time? As it turns out, this idea appeals to many, from those seeking to help the environment in earnest to people looking for a brief respite from their harsh lives. There are the wealthy who wish to extend their lifespan and of course, the terminally ill hoping for a cure in the near future. Still others view hibernation as a way to reboot their lives and start anew when they emerge. 

Parts of the story are epistolary, told through letters written by a former “Sleeper” to her psychiatrist, as well as a rambling blogger about to take the plunge, and the journal entries of a man coping with life while his spouse hibernates for four months (one month longer than the standard duration). In between these are chapters detailing the interior layout and operations of the Hibernaculum as experienced by a journalist during an official tour of the facility, a staff member who cleans the Sleepers in their pods, and occasional design notes from the Hibernaculum’s lead architect. All of these combined deliver a startling, uncomfortable, and thought-provoking view of a near-future Earth in crisis. 

Hibernaculum is available in paperback and on Kindle Vella.

Endless Self-Promotion? No Thanks.

This article from Vox speaks to a concern I’ve had for several years about promoting your “brand” as an independent author or creator of any kind. The TL;DR version is that you need to be ubiquitous on social media, especially on TikTok, if you want to build an audience and sell your product.I don’t know about anyone else, but I cannot carve out time to make an endless stream of videos and still manage a writing schedule, high-stress FT job, marriage, a home, my health, and soon caring for an aging parent. I’m only one person already stretched thin across five or six social media platforms, maintaining a website and a YouTube channel that I can barely keep current.‌From the article:‌“The labor of making TikToks — and if you want to reach the most people in the shortest amount of time, TikTok is pretty much the only place to go — requires both tedium and skill. You’ve got to get used to the app’s ever-evolving editing features, understand the culture of the platform, make yourself look presentable but not too presentable or risk coming off as inauthentic, prepare for and practice what you’re going to say, but again, not too much. And you’ve got to do it again and again and again, because according to every single influencer ever, the key to growing your audience is posting consistently.‌More than that, you’ve got to actually spend your time doing this stuff on the off chance that the algorithm picks it up and people care about what you have to say. You’ve got to spend your time doing this even though it’s corny and cringe and your friends from high school or college will probably laugh as you “try to become an influencer.” You’ve got to do it even when you feel like you have absolutely nothing to say, because the algorithm demands you post anyway…You’ve got to offer your content to the hellish, overstuffed, harassment-laden, uber-competitive attention economy because otherwise no one will know who you are.”It’s discouraging and demoralizing to know that even if you produce high quality books, art, or music, it means nothing unless you work yourself to exhaustion clamoring for attention on the shitshow dumpster fire that is social media.  Good luck to us all.

About This Writing Stuff…

This month, book consultant and developmental editor Mary Kole encourages writers to diversify their skills in the age of AI. Now that self-publishing is no longer a “new thing,” Anne R. Allen advises indie writers on how to keep expectations grounded.

Kristen Lamb reviews the Johari Window and how it can be used as a tool for character and story development. Over at the Write Practice, Joe Bunting gives us a detailed lesson on first and third person points of view.

Fantasy writer Philip Athans defends the adverb—with some caveats—and, along with PJ Parrish, provides guidance on the skillful use of description in narrative.

All that and much more. Enjoy!

The Irrelevance of the Modern Writer by Mary Kole & Good Story Company

The Über Skill for Writers by Tiffany Yates Martin

How to Write the Beginning of a Novel by Rhiannon Richardson

How to Tighten Your Midpoint Twist by Ley Taylor Johnson

Is an Unpublishable Book Worth Writing? by Lory Widmer Hess

Is Self-Publishing a Good Choice for Authors in 2024? by Anne R. Allen

Adverbs Are Fine! by Philip Athans

Describe Characters as You Go Along by Philip Athans

How Much Description Does Your Book Need? by PJ Parrish

The Johari Window & Character Blind Spots by Kristen Lamb

How to Get Your Plot Arcs Working Together by Chris Winkle

Ninety-Nine Words to Seek and Destroy by Chris Winkle

Fresh Perspective Sells by Kathryn Craft

Types of Point of View: The Ultimate Guide to First Person & Third Person POV by Joe Bunting

 

Screencraft Cinematic Short Story Competition 2024

In September, I submitted two stories to the Screencraft Cinematic Short Story Competition for 2024. One was a Finnish fantasy tale called “The Forest for the Trees” and the other a Jewish-Christian story called “All That Matters is What You Believe.”‌I’m pleased to see that “The Forest for the Trees” advanced to the Quarterfinals. While “All That Matters…” did not place in the competition, it achieved single-digit rankings in the Faith category as shown in the screen shot below. Not a shabby way to start the year! Semi-final results will be announced next month.