Beth Revis's Blog, page 6

Newsletter Subscribers Got an (Unintentionally Extra Early) Sneak Peek!

So newsletter subscribers just got my latest newsletter, which includes some awesome news about things that are happening THIS SATURDAY.

But...the newsletter wasn't supposed to go out until Friday morning...which means the news was a little pre-emptive. Oops! So newsletter subscribers: yay, you have a sneak peek! More details are coming soon!

(And if you want more extra sneak peeks, even ones that are accidental, you can subscribe to my newsletter here.)


Note: The newsletter subject also mentioned a unique workshop opportunity--which is the writing retreat workshop I'm leading with Cristin Terrill--but since the workshop filled up within days of announcing it, I decided to cut it from the newsletter...but it sent before I had a chance to edit the subject. Sorry for the confusion! (You can still sign up, btw, and be added to the waitlist if you're so inclined.)

Black Mirror: A Review of Possibilities

I don't remember who told me about Black Mirror , a British television show that was pitched to me as a modern The Twilight Zone, but whoever it was: thank you.

I'll admit; I had my doubts. There are only six episodes available on Netflix now, and I wasn't sure if it could live up to my beloved The Twilight Zone. And, frankly, the first episode didn't. While provocative--it did raise a few questions that I thought worth considering--overall, the first episode felt long and not worth it. Still, I knew the format of Black Mirror--each episode, like The Twilight Zone, tells an entirely different story.

By the time I got to Episode 2, though, I was hooked. That episode, "Fifteen Million Merits," tells the story of a society that...frankly, could one day be our own. People slave over their work, filling their lives with cheap (or not so cheap) entertainment, and people's lives revolve around virtual entertainment. Everything, from skipping a commercial to hand soap after the bathroom, costs money. When one man finds a way to make something real, something not so virtual and fake, society's reaction is...well, I'll leave it to you to find out.

But honestly, "Fifteen Million Merits" is the best of sci fi--a totally believable, futuristic society that is also a total mirror to our current world and has something significant and important to say about our society today.

It posed those lasting sorts of questions that make your mind spin with possibilities.

I couldn't help but wonder if this was a nod to Blade Runner...
Additionally, Black Mirror is just really, really smart. It's super easy for me to turn on the television right now and let the noise play in the background while I pay half my attention on tumblr or something else. Not so with Black Mirror--it had my full attention, and rightfully so. The stories, each unique, were totally engaging, and they required the viewer to actively engage. Ignore the story, and you'll miss key details. Nothing's spoon fed to you.

In writer's terms, this show is the epitome of "show, don't tell." It shows you the world, the characters, the situation--and leaves all the meaning for you to formulate.

Unlike The Twilight Zone, Black Mirror episodes are far longer and more in-depth. To be fair, it sometimes borders on slow pacing. In the first episode, the tension dragged. There was a so-called ticking time bomb, but it took quite a long while to get there. Even in "Fifteen Million Merits," which I liked a lot, there were a few moments where the plot dragged--I actually thought the episode was over about fifteen minutes before it actually was. However, despite the fact that it does sometimes feel slow, the story is so richly developed and the characters so vivid in their world, that I can forgive a few moments of lag.

Episodes are easily available online, such as Netflix, and I highly recommend you give them a try. If you don't like the first episode--and you'll be able to see the entire premise within the first ten minutes and decide for yourself if that's the sort of thing you want to see--definitely skip to the next episode and the next. Like The Twilight Zone, these episodes are great for sci fi lovers, but defy genre. The stories are twisted peeks at possibilities.

The Country of the Day: Turkey!

A huge, grateful shout-out of thanks to TURKEY for being the first country to purchase rights to The Body Electric! The publisher is Grup Yayincilik, the same publishing house that did the Turkish translations of Across the Universe.

I am so, so happy that The Body Electric is reaching past America's and the English-speaking language borders, and I can't wait to see where else it goes! A special and heartfelt thanks also to my agent, Merrilee Heifetz, her assistant Sarah Nagel, and the entire foreign rights department at Writers House, including Cecilia de la Campa. Thank you all for working so hard to get my book to international readers!

In other happy-making news, The Body Electric was also featured in an article from the School Library Journal--you can read the whole article here, which is a fascinating look at the evolving nature of publishing in today's marketplace.

Work on Your Novel in the Blue Ridge Mountains with 2 Authors to Help You

This fall, I'll be joining author Cristin Terrill for a five day workshop retreat. We've been hard at work selecting the perfect location, lining up lodgings (and a private chef!), and developing a program that would most benefit aspiring authors. The result is the Appalachian Writers' Workshop.

The retreat will take place in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains, near the city of Asheville, NC. You can see our current house selection here. We've scheduled the days to have a good combination of writing time (who wouldn't want to take advantage of that beautiful, wrap-around porch?!), critiquing time (the workshop includes a one-on-one critique from both Cristin and I), and workshop time, with programs designed by both of us to include helpful information on writing, publishing, and other relevant topics.

The rates are very reasonable--we worked hard to keep this affordable!--and include not just the program, but also lodging and meals. Sign up now--the space is very limited! 

A Special Gift for Educators

Due to popular request, I've made my short story, "The Turing Test" available to educators for free. Additionally, this version of the story includes a discussion guide and activity suggestions for students.

If you are an educator who intends to use the story for educational purposes, you may download the short story and educational materials (all in one file) here.

Thank you, teachers, librarians, and other educators who bring my stories to your students! 

THE FUTURE COLLECTION + 3 Ways to Win!

The Future Collection  is officially out tomorrow! For less than a cup of coffee, you can read six sci fi short stories that involve time travel and revenge, cyrogenics and star-crossed love, teleportation and a serious cover-up, and much more!

GET YOUR COPY HERE!
Still on the fence? You can nab one of the short stories for just $0.99 (or free with Kindle Unlimited) here. There are also three different ways you can win a copy:
--> Tell the League Writers what your favorite sci fi trope is, and you can with a copy of The Future Collection, The Body Electric (signed!), and an Across the Universe water bottle here! 
--> Tag a friend who love sci fi in my Facebook page, and you could win a free copy of The Future Collection here!
-->Visit the official blog tour for The Body Electric going on all this week, and you'll win a complete signed trilogy of Across the Universe and a signed copy of The Body Electric, and an Across the Universe water bottle, and if, when you win, you mention you'd like a copy of The Future Collection, I'll throw one in as well :) You can see the full list of blogs here!

Announcing: A New Short Story Collection

Newsletter subscribers already know this, but I'm happy to announce that next week, a new collection of short stories by me will be released upon the world!

The Future Collection includes six unique stories, all of which take place in the future. They range from time travel to teleportation, and each features different characters who must face different problems.

The collection will be available on Tuesday, and will start off with a price of just $2.99--a price that may go up by spring. There are six stories in the collection. That's less than 50 cents per short story!

ABOUT THE STORIES:

DOCTOR-PATIENT CONFIDENTIALITY: A young woman wakes up in a cryomed ward of a hospital. As she recalls what led to her confinement, she starts to realize just what the consequences of her actions were, and how much time has passed since she was injured. 

THE MOST PRECIOUS MEMORY: In a world where memories can be bought and sold as highly addictive drugs, one transaction takes an unusual turn. *Note*: this story was previously published in the Soothe The Savage Beast anthology. 

THE GIRL AND THE MACHINE : A man has limited abilities to travel through time, but a cute girl pops up in his life, informing him that her time machine can open the door to far greater powers. But there's something ominous about it... *Note*: This story is available as an individual short in Amazon. 

LAG: A reporter had been chasing down a lead...but after a malfunction in the teleporter she used, she's forgotten what the lead was. Now she's searching for clues in her own life to discover what it was she's missing. 

THE TURING TEST: A college student participates in a turing test to see if she can distinguish which of the two subjects is human and which is an android. *Note:* A version of this story is a part of the Special Edition of THE BODY ELECTRIC novel and was previously published in Lightspeed Magazine. 

AS THEY SLIP AWAY: A group of artists on a generation space ship that reviles art is given a unique assignment, one that draws one young lady far too close to a possessive man protected by the ship's government. *Note:* This short story is available free online and is linked to the ACROSS THE UNIVERSE world. 

Also included in this collection are end notes, describing the inspiration behind each short story and hidden clues and allusions to sci fi classics. 

The collection concludes with two sample chapters from my latest book, THE BODY ELECTRIC.

If you're hesitant to read the whole collection, you can try out one of the original tales, "The Girl & the Machine," on Amazon: free for Kindle Unlimited users, and 99 cents for everyone else. Currently, the ebook is available exclusively through Amazon--this is so that I can offer this special deal through Kindle Unlimited, a service similar to Spotify that allows people to "borrow" ebooks for free (while the author is still given payment through the program). I'm just trying this out for now--after 90 days, the book will be available across all other platforms, and the deal will go away--so grab it now if you want it!

Make Writing More Than Just Another New Years’ Resolution, Guest Post by Kellie Sheridan

As we start a new year, a lot of us have a renewed sense of purpose for our writing goals. This is the year we’re going to do ALL THE THINGS! We come armed with outlines, and game plans and reward systems (and probably a fair bit of caffeine). It’s a new year and this is when we make things happen!



Stickers on daily writing calendars, word count graphs, achievement badges, rewards for reaching word count milestones… we writers can go a little overboard when it comes to rewarding ourselves for getting words on the page. Which makes sense. It can be undeniably hard to keep sitting down day after day to write and edit and edit again while still never really feeling like you’re getting anywhere. Yes, there are some euphorically amazing moments in writing—finishing that first draft, receiving notes back from a beta reader, signing with an agent, seeing your book in print—but those can come months or even years apart. How do you keep yourself going in the meantime? I know this is something I struggle with almost constantly and have more than a few writing friends who have said the same.

There are two times of year for me when I feel the most motivated to write, New Years and NaNoWriMo. For me it’s the collective sense of enthusiasm that gets me sitting down at my desk every day to write more than I probably would have otherwise. It’s continuing that process between January and November that seems to be the trick… which is exactly why Write All Year got started. Write All Year is an online community of writers that is attempting to combine the accountability and community of NaNoWriMo with the enthusiasm of starting off a new year, while also keeping that feeling going all year long.

Writing doesn’t stop on November 30th, fifty-thousand words isn’t always a realistic goal, sometimes we all need to focus on polish and quality more than just getting words on the page. And sometimes writing is excruciatingly hard to do. These are all things that Write All Year attempts to account for, while also housing an amazing group of writers who are ready to cheer each other on and push one another to meet their goals.

If you love to write, spend way too much time thinking about writing without actually doing it, or are aiming to accomplish big bookish things in 2015, Write All Year could be a great fit for you. We have forums in place to talk books and writing, a pretty epic spreadsheet to track your word count, unlockable achievements for when you hit those big milestones, and accountability groups to find people to help keep you on track for your personal goals. Yeah, there’s a lot going on. And we’re just getting started. Whether or not you have specific writing goals in mind for 2015, if you want to make writing a priority, we’d absolutely love to have you join our ranks. Just head on over to Write All Year, and don’t forget to say hello in the forums.

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Write All Year is an online writing community created by Kellie Sheridan and Patchwork Press. You can find us at http://www.writeallyear.patchwork-press.com

Announcing: THE WINNERS!!!

First: Thank you all, again, for supporting The Body Electric  and for supporting charity--with your help, we bought two beehives plus an additional packet of supplies for three different struggling families in developing nations, we supported local economies, we supported local wildlife and fauna, and we supported bees, which are facing threats to their existence. That's a lot of good!

And now for the winners! It took me so long long to post this because there were so many of you entering--more than a thousand, and each with different entries! Remember: the winners were selected randomly. I vetted them all, and am happy to announce the winners now!

WINNER OF 29 SIGNED BOOKS + SWAG
This image was the winning entry from tumblr user trenchcoatedslytherin, who used YA books to spell out the title of The Body Electric! You're going to have a lot more books to use to spell out titles now :) 
WINNER OF ARC PRIZE PACKThe winner of the ARC prize pack is Tamara S., a librarian in Arkansas!
WINNER OF INTERNATIONAL PRIZE PACK
The winner of the international prize pack is Amanda T, who did this amazing pumpkin carving!
Again, thank you EVERYONE for playing along, sharing the book, helping to raise funds for charity, and spreading the word. I really appreciate it! I'm getting swag packs ready for the teachers and librarians who requested them, and I'm really just so thankful to you all! Those of you who are book reviewers may be getting info from me sooner rather than later about a new collection of short stories that I have coming out soon :)

You Made This Happen...Thank You for Supporting Charity

I'm working on the last details of the giveaway--more than 1000 people entered to win (wow!) and each entrant had multiple entries. I hope to announce the winner either late today or early tomorrow, but meanwhile, an easy thing for me to add up was the number of sales in December.

In the end, 394 of you contributed to buying bee hives for struggling families in developing nations by purchasing a copy of The Body Electric. I rounded up to 400, and we were able to buy two beehives plus an extra $100 of equipment for families to get started on building a future for themselves and supporting their families.

Whether you purchased a copy, wrote a review, did fan art, or just spread the word, you helped make this happen.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.