Aeryn Rudel's Blog, page 62

Red Sun Magazine #1 Now Available

The first issue ofRed Sun Magazineis now available. My story “Paper Cut” is the feature story, as well as the inspiration for the cover art. There’s also a lengthy interview with yours truly in the magazine where I ramble on aboutwriterly things.But, hey, it’s not all about me. There’s a ton of cool stuff in this first issue, and if you’re a fan of sci-fi, fantasy, and horror, then you should definitely check it out. Within, you’ll findthree more great stories, fantastic artwork, informative...

Book Release – Acts of War: Flashpoint

Okay, folks, here it is: the obligatory “getmy book” post. You knew it was coming, right? Don’t worry; I promise not to turn this blog into a giant advertisement . . . I mean, no more than it already is. Anyway, yes, my novelFlashpointreleases today, and I’m going toaskyou to click one of the links and support my writing endeavors if you’re so inclined. I promise we’ll return to the usual dubious writing advice and woe-is-me rejection posts very soon. Thanks!

Forged in the fires of conflic...

It Came From My Hard Drive! Part 2 – The Challenge

Here’s another tidbit from ancient history, back from the days when I was working full-time as an RPG designer/writer/editor for Goodman Games. Like the first vignette in this series, “The High Road,” this one comes from an unpublished manuscript for a player-oriented supplement for 4E Dungeons & Dragons. Also, like the previous entry, this tiny tale is meant to introduce a new rules system for the game in a narrative fashion (the crunchy bitscame directly after the vignette).

This one is cal...

June 2016 Submission Statement

June was a decent month despite the lack of acceptances, largely because the promotion of my novel Flashpoint began and kept me busy. Again, I didn’t send as many submission as I would have liked or completed as many short stories as I would have liked, but that’s probably going to be a constant in these updates for the foreseeable future.

March Report Card

Submissions Sent: 5 Rejections: 5 Acceptances: 0 Other: 1 Publications: 1 Rejections

Rejections, rejection, rejections. We got your rej...

Interview – Apocrypha: The Art of Jason Soles

Today, I’m going to give up the spotlight (on my own blog, no less) and shine it on a profoundly talented friend and colleague. I’ve worked with Jason Soles for six years in his role as the lead developer at Privateer Press, and he’s one of the best game designers in the tabletop gaming industry. But Jason has other talents, just as noteworthy. He is a gifted sculptor who produces works in a variety of media that are both hauntingly beautiful and deeply unsettling.

Jason has partnered with St...

First Issue of Red Sun Magazine

My story “Paper Cut” snagged the cover of the first issue of Red Sun Magazine, and the artist, Joas Miller, pretty much nailed the picture in my head. Check it out.

Finding the right artist has been by far the biggest hurdle for us to overcome whilegetting the first issue of Red Sun Magazine ready, but our determination and dedication to make a big splash with our inaugural issue has paid off handsomely in Joas Miller,a very talented artist we were fortunate to work with.

We’ve previewed his...

Ranks of the Rejected: Mark Allan Gunnells

Time for another Ranks of the Rejected. This time, I’ve convincedfellow horror and fantasy author Mark Allan Gunnells to reveal the dark, squishy truths about writing and rejection. I first met Mark over on the Shock Totem forums where he was a regular in the bi-weekly one-hour flash challenge. I was immediately impressed by his style and subtle grasp of horror . . . and his ability to knock out a bad-ass flash piece in under an hour. Mark has definitely been around the block in the publishin...

New Flashpoint Cover & Lock & Load Book Signing

I’ll be saying this a lot over the next couple of weeks and months, but I wrote a book, and it’ll be available in your favorite reading format (including dead tree) on July15th. The book is called Flashpoint,and it’sset in Privateer Press’ steam-powered fantasy world of the Iron Kingdoms. I’ve shown the cover before, but it was updated just before it went to press, and now it looks like this:

Pretty cool, huh?

One other bit of news: Privateer Press offered a special pre-release of the book a...

Poll: How Many Rejections Before You Retire/Revise?

Recently, I had a story accepted after sixteen rejections. I know; that’s a lot, right? I felt pretty confident about the story despite the mounting number of NOs, so I kept sending it out. I found an editor that liked it as much as I did, and in July, you can judge for yourself if it was worth all those rejections.

Anyway, the rejection count on that story got me thinking: How many rejections is typical before an author decides to retire or significantly revise a story*? With a few exception...

It Came from My Hard Drive! Part 1 – The High Road

I’ve been working in the tabletop gaming industry for over ten years. In that time, I’ve written more RPG adventures, supplements, and bits of game-relatedfiction than I can easilycount. While most of that stuff was published in one form or another, some of it never saw the light of day. I have entire manuscripts for 100-page RPG supplements collecting digital dust on my hard drive, and I found a few recently I thought I might share. Well, parts of them anyway.

One of the publishers I used to...