Erik Hanberg's Blog
June 5, 2014
What's it like to have your book turned into a Hollywood movie?
I thought my readers would be interested in this.
I've started a podcast! Four episodes in, I interviewed my podcasting co-host Brent Hartinger about what it was like to see his debut novel, Geography Club, turned into a Hollywood film--a film co-starring Scott Bakula, no less! (It's on Netflix now if you want to check it out.)
Short answer: if you're willing to give up all creative control and luck out with a good producer (Brent describes this as being willing to get married to someone after a 45 minute phone call) it might be a great experience! For Brent it was especially interesting, seeing a film adaptation of a book he wrote that was partly autobiographical. Layers upon layers there.
He is more eloquent than that in the interview, though, so if you want to check it out, here are the links:
iTunes link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/me...
web link: http://mediacarnivores.com/what-is-it...
I can dream of seeing The Lead Cloak on film someday...
I've started a podcast! Four episodes in, I interviewed my podcasting co-host Brent Hartinger about what it was like to see his debut novel, Geography Club, turned into a Hollywood film--a film co-starring Scott Bakula, no less! (It's on Netflix now if you want to check it out.)
Short answer: if you're willing to give up all creative control and luck out with a good producer (Brent describes this as being willing to get married to someone after a 45 minute phone call) it might be a great experience! For Brent it was especially interesting, seeing a film adaptation of a book he wrote that was partly autobiographical. Layers upon layers there.
He is more eloquent than that in the interview, though, so if you want to check it out, here are the links:
iTunes link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/me...
web link: http://mediacarnivores.com/what-is-it...
I can dream of seeing The Lead Cloak on film someday...
April 23, 2014
How to enjoy Shakespeare
An English professor named George Soule at Carleton College (my alma mater) appeared on Jeopardy in the early 1990s. He was astounded when the Final Jeopardy category was Shakespeare. He was a Shakespeare scholar! How could he go wrong?
This was the clue:
“The three word title of this play begins and ends with the same seven-letter word.”
Now, there are only so many Shakespeare plays to choose from, but poor George Soule was stumped. He couldn’t come up with the correct answer before the Jeopardy music timed out. He wrote All’s Well that Ends Well, knowing it was incorrect.
(The correct answer is “What is Measure for Measure?”)
Imagine having to go back to your colleagues on the English faculty after having missed a question on Jeopardy about your area of expertise.
The lesson here: even English professors don’t know everything about Shakespeare.
So don’t feel bad if you don’t either.
Read my suggestions for enjoying Shakespeare over on Medium!
This was the clue:
“The three word title of this play begins and ends with the same seven-letter word.”
Now, there are only so many Shakespeare plays to choose from, but poor George Soule was stumped. He couldn’t come up with the correct answer before the Jeopardy music timed out. He wrote All’s Well that Ends Well, knowing it was incorrect.
(The correct answer is “What is Measure for Measure?”)
Imagine having to go back to your colleagues on the English faculty after having missed a question on Jeopardy about your area of expertise.
The lesson here: even English professors don’t know everything about Shakespeare.
So don’t feel bad if you don’t either.
Read my suggestions for enjoying Shakespeare over on Medium!
October 18, 2013
Top Ten Signs the World of "The Lead Cloak" is coming true
What will the future be like? Will we wear our computers on our forearm? Will we bid on next week’s weather? Will we have guinea pig for dinner?
Here’s the top ten signs to watch for. I’ll revisit this post in a few decades to see how I did.
Take it away, Mr. Letterman!
(warning, some very mild spoilers of the world of the book below, but nothing about the plot)
10. The United States continues to obsess about safety, especially about head injuries. Football is declared illegal. People must wear soft helmets whenever they not in their homes or a place of worship.
9. Southern Italy and Catholicism reject the modern world. The Papal States break off from Italy and Rome is divided. (This felt much more realistic before Pope Francis was elected. Alas, a writer can’t win them all. But who’s to say what will happen in the next 68 years?)
8. Some native reservations in the US become scientific research parks, renting lab space to scientists who want to research things like cloning that are outlawed by the United States.
7. Weather prediction (and modification) is so accurate that weather is turned into a competitive market where farming regions, cities, tourist destinations, and more can bid on the weather they want to have.
6. Low Earth orbits are populated by tourists, scientists, and even some miners, who have trapped asteroids in Earth’s gravitational pull in order to mine them for metal and rare elements.
5. Women continue their rise in politics, the sciences, and all jobs requiring higher education. (see my Hanna Rosin post)
4. Because of the rise of cheap home 3-D printing for most common items, retail has a harder and harder time surviving. Instead, most retail space becomes temporary rentable “commons,” one day a bar, and the next a furniture shop, or maybe both at the same time. (Quick note: Retail is going to have to figure out the issue of home 3-D printers long before 2081. It’s happening soon.)
3. We start to wear our computers more and more. A screen wrapped around the forearm (called a wrap) is our most common computer, providing automatic translation or information about the topic of conversation, without having to be asked. It can be unrolled to lay flat and become a simple tablet computer as well.
2. A painless, regular treatment prevents most obesity, paired with a sensible diet (like protein-rich roast guinea pig, a South American import the United States goes crazy for). This increases prejudice against those who decline the treatment and become obese, however, since there are now relatively much fewer of them.
1. Personal privacy continues to erode from government, from corporations, and from each other. Eventually, people’s pasts and their private thoughts become open to anyone who wants to look.
That last one is–of course–starting well before 2081 …
Find out more about the future at haveyoujumped.com.
Here’s the top ten signs to watch for. I’ll revisit this post in a few decades to see how I did.
Take it away, Mr. Letterman!
(warning, some very mild spoilers of the world of the book below, but nothing about the plot)
10. The United States continues to obsess about safety, especially about head injuries. Football is declared illegal. People must wear soft helmets whenever they not in their homes or a place of worship.
9. Southern Italy and Catholicism reject the modern world. The Papal States break off from Italy and Rome is divided. (This felt much more realistic before Pope Francis was elected. Alas, a writer can’t win them all. But who’s to say what will happen in the next 68 years?)
8. Some native reservations in the US become scientific research parks, renting lab space to scientists who want to research things like cloning that are outlawed by the United States.
7. Weather prediction (and modification) is so accurate that weather is turned into a competitive market where farming regions, cities, tourist destinations, and more can bid on the weather they want to have.
6. Low Earth orbits are populated by tourists, scientists, and even some miners, who have trapped asteroids in Earth’s gravitational pull in order to mine them for metal and rare elements.
5. Women continue their rise in politics, the sciences, and all jobs requiring higher education. (see my Hanna Rosin post)
4. Because of the rise of cheap home 3-D printing for most common items, retail has a harder and harder time surviving. Instead, most retail space becomes temporary rentable “commons,” one day a bar, and the next a furniture shop, or maybe both at the same time. (Quick note: Retail is going to have to figure out the issue of home 3-D printers long before 2081. It’s happening soon.)
3. We start to wear our computers more and more. A screen wrapped around the forearm (called a wrap) is our most common computer, providing automatic translation or information about the topic of conversation, without having to be asked. It can be unrolled to lay flat and become a simple tablet computer as well.
2. A painless, regular treatment prevents most obesity, paired with a sensible diet (like protein-rich roast guinea pig, a South American import the United States goes crazy for). This increases prejudice against those who decline the treatment and become obese, however, since there are now relatively much fewer of them.
1. Personal privacy continues to erode from government, from corporations, and from each other. Eventually, people’s pasts and their private thoughts become open to anyone who wants to look.
That last one is–of course–starting well before 2081 …
Find out more about the future at haveyoujumped.com.
October 15, 2013
"How I Wrote It: The Lead Cloak"
The Lead Cloak is now available! Click through for links to find links to your favorite online bookstore.
This book was a long time coming.
For years I’d been tossing around an idea for a science fiction novel, but I never did anything with it. That was until April 24, 2011, the date I decided to sit down and start writing, just to see if there was something there.
How do I know the exact date?
Because I charted it.
That’s right, I charted my novel. Words on the Y Axis, Time on the X Axis. It’s probably the single nerdiest thing I’ve ever done. (My wife is shaking her head at that sentence).
(You can click the picture above to zoom in on the chart)
So when I get asked, “How did you write The Lead Cloak?,” instead of talking about research, or thinking about the future, or character planning, or all the other things authors usually talk about, I can just hold up this chart.
The truth is: writing a four hundred page novel is hard, and it takes a long time. It goes in fits and spurts, and often has to be fit into the nooks and crannies of life. In this case that meant writing my book around job changes, election campaigns, and a new daughter.
And yet, the novel kept growing, sometimes slowly but surely, and sometimes at a breakneck pace.
Interestingly, the chart itself helped me finish the book. At the end of each day of writing, I took the time to adjust the word count, even if it was only 26 words (as it was one very slow day). This was motivational for me—an easy trick to make me sit down at the computer. Sure, I wanted to finish the book. But I wanted the blue line on the chart to keep climbing too.
Below are some notes about the hills and plateaus that make up the novel.
4/24/11
The first day I wrote 1,934 words, and thought it was going well enough that five days later I’d tripled that to more than 6,000 words. In that initial writing spurt I was able to get 10,000 words out.
6/3/11
Things really slowed down going into the summer. I was running for election (I’m an elected park board commissioner in my hometown of Tacoma) and the campaign was exhausting. When I got home at night, I had energy for watching reruns of Deep Space Nine and not much more.
11/10/11
Eventually the election ended, and I started writing two or three pages a day. I was spurred not only because the campaign was over, but because my wife and I were now expecting our first child in the spring, and I wanted to finish the book before her arrival (I failed).
5/7/12
At this point, the book was more than a year old, but only half-done. To top it off, we had a newborn baby at home who woke us up at all hours of the night. Little did I know, that was going to be a boon to my writing. Getting up to do the 5:00 feedings with her, I found that some mornings I could put my daughter back to bed, get the coffee on, and write until she woke up again at seven. It was incredibly productive writing time.
7/23/12
Come summertime, I had finished the first two parts of the book and only had the ending left to write. So I took a break. It turned into a six month hiatus, during which time I wrote two other (much shorter) books.
12/22/12
After such a long time away, when I finally got back to the book, I attacked it. I wrote thousands and thousands of words between Christmas and New Year’s, and eventually finished the first draft of the book on Groundhog’s Day of 2013.
3/30/13
As usual, I didn’t touch it for a few months before starting the editing process, letting the draft rest for awhile so I could gain some perspective. When I came back to it, and began editing, I ended up adding to the story, filling in gaps that I’d left off, clarifying characters, and more. (In On Writing, Stephen King said that some writers delete material during the editing process, and some add material. I’m definitely someone who adds. The book gained a couple thousand words during the process, and it was a rare day that I ended with fewer words.)
8/30/13
Pretty much by this point, the book was locked and any changes were a word here or there as I made the last remaining edits. And so that's where it stayed! 105,406 words.
If you missed it, the trailer is below, or check out HaveYouJumped.com for more information about the book!
This book was a long time coming.
For years I’d been tossing around an idea for a science fiction novel, but I never did anything with it. That was until April 24, 2011, the date I decided to sit down and start writing, just to see if there was something there.
How do I know the exact date?
Because I charted it.
That’s right, I charted my novel. Words on the Y Axis, Time on the X Axis. It’s probably the single nerdiest thing I’ve ever done. (My wife is shaking her head at that sentence).
(You can click the picture above to zoom in on the chart)
So when I get asked, “How did you write The Lead Cloak?,” instead of talking about research, or thinking about the future, or character planning, or all the other things authors usually talk about, I can just hold up this chart.
The truth is: writing a four hundred page novel is hard, and it takes a long time. It goes in fits and spurts, and often has to be fit into the nooks and crannies of life. In this case that meant writing my book around job changes, election campaigns, and a new daughter.
And yet, the novel kept growing, sometimes slowly but surely, and sometimes at a breakneck pace.
Interestingly, the chart itself helped me finish the book. At the end of each day of writing, I took the time to adjust the word count, even if it was only 26 words (as it was one very slow day). This was motivational for me—an easy trick to make me sit down at the computer. Sure, I wanted to finish the book. But I wanted the blue line on the chart to keep climbing too.
Below are some notes about the hills and plateaus that make up the novel.
4/24/11
The first day I wrote 1,934 words, and thought it was going well enough that five days later I’d tripled that to more than 6,000 words. In that initial writing spurt I was able to get 10,000 words out.
6/3/11
Things really slowed down going into the summer. I was running for election (I’m an elected park board commissioner in my hometown of Tacoma) and the campaign was exhausting. When I got home at night, I had energy for watching reruns of Deep Space Nine and not much more.
11/10/11
Eventually the election ended, and I started writing two or three pages a day. I was spurred not only because the campaign was over, but because my wife and I were now expecting our first child in the spring, and I wanted to finish the book before her arrival (I failed).
5/7/12
At this point, the book was more than a year old, but only half-done. To top it off, we had a newborn baby at home who woke us up at all hours of the night. Little did I know, that was going to be a boon to my writing. Getting up to do the 5:00 feedings with her, I found that some mornings I could put my daughter back to bed, get the coffee on, and write until she woke up again at seven. It was incredibly productive writing time.
7/23/12
Come summertime, I had finished the first two parts of the book and only had the ending left to write. So I took a break. It turned into a six month hiatus, during which time I wrote two other (much shorter) books.
12/22/12
After such a long time away, when I finally got back to the book, I attacked it. I wrote thousands and thousands of words between Christmas and New Year’s, and eventually finished the first draft of the book on Groundhog’s Day of 2013.
3/30/13
As usual, I didn’t touch it for a few months before starting the editing process, letting the draft rest for awhile so I could gain some perspective. When I came back to it, and began editing, I ended up adding to the story, filling in gaps that I’d left off, clarifying characters, and more. (In On Writing, Stephen King said that some writers delete material during the editing process, and some add material. I’m definitely someone who adds. The book gained a couple thousand words during the process, and it was a rare day that I ended with fewer words.)
8/30/13
Pretty much by this point, the book was locked and any changes were a word here or there as I made the last remaining edits. And so that's where it stayed! 105,406 words.
If you missed it, the trailer is below, or check out HaveYouJumped.com for more information about the book!
September 24, 2013
Announcing my newest book, The Lead Cloak!
It took me more than two years of writing and editing, but I’m finally ready to announce my next novel.
The Lead Cloak
The Lead Cloak is a science fiction adventure set seventy years in the future. It will be available in three weeks, on October 15. Below is the short trailer I created for it, and there is a whole website with information about the book (haveyoujumped.com)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nzF6t...
I am so excited to share this novel. It is an adventure with a lot of action and the highest of stakes. It is a mystery, set in a world without secrets. And it is—I sincerely hope—full of big ideas about privacy, class, and our relationship with technology.
The Cover
I have to take a moment to recognize the great work that was done on the cover. Mary has designed all of my covers to date. We knew that this one needed a different feel, and we approached Tacoma artist Chandler O’Leary to create the art for the cover.
Chandler was an early reader of the book, and her insight into the story helped inform how we approached the cover. Together we selected a key moment in the story for the artwork, which you can see here. I think it’s very striking, with a hint of classic science fiction, but also unique. I love it!
The Trilogy
The Lead Cloak is “Book I of The Lattice Trilogy.” I will confess to being a little hesitant to put that on the cover. Would it discourage people, when the next two books are not written? But I felt it was important, because this story was very much conceived as more than just a single novel. To be clear: The Lead Cloak is a full novel. But it is the first act in a larger story that will be told in Book II and Book III.
And I am hard at work on Book II.
How To Get It
The book will be available everywhere on October 15, and we will be kicking it off with a launch party at Kings Books in Tacoma. If you live near Tacoma you should plan to attend!
You can also pre-order your eBook with Kobo or on the Apple iBookstore, which makes an eReader that has been embraced by independent bookstores. By October 15, it will be available on Kindle, Nook, and more. An audiobook will shortly follow.
Here is the book on Goodreads so you can add it your shelf: The Lead Cloak.
