Travis Heermann's Blog, page 15
November 25, 2013
Cars, Cards & Carbines Author Spotlight – Ken Scholes
Ken Scholes is the award-winning author of four novels and over forty short stories. His series, The Psalms of Isaak, is being critically acclaimed as “a towering storytelling tour de force” by Publishers Weekly. Ken’s eclectic background includes time spent as a label gun repairman, a sailor who never sailed, a soldier who commanded a desk, a preacher (he got better), a nonprofit executive, a musician and a government procurement analyst. He has a degree in History from Western Washington University and is a winner of France’s Prix Imaginales for best foreign novel and of the Writers of the Future contest. Ken is a native of the Pacific Northwest and makes his home in Saint Helens, Oregon, where he lives with his wife and twin daughters.
At the World Fantasy Convention in San Jose in 2009, I attended Jay Lake’s Guerilla Cheese Party, at which everyone was treated to the musical stylings of Ken Scholes with his guitar and harmonica. Who says writers can’t be multi-talented? The pinnacle of that performance was Ken’s rendition of U2′s “Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” sang as if in duet by Queen Elizabeth II and Bob Dylan. When someone asked him how he had worked out whose voice sings which lines, he replied, “The voices just take over when they think they should.”
We’re looking forward to hearing what the voices say for this project. We’re stoked to have him on board.
TH: What writers are some of your biggest influences?
KS: Ray Bradbury is up at the top. Stephen King, Robert E. Howard, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Philip K. Dick, Howard Waldrop, Elmore Leonard, John Steinbeck. Beyond that, it’s a vast list. I’ve read widely inside and outside the genre, along with a pretty good smattering of poetry and classics.
TH: What are some of your guilty pleasures?
KS: Oh, I never feel guilty about them. Sappy romantic comedies, British television and all things acoustic folk rock.
TH: What has been your favorite project to date and why? What was so satisfying and exciting about it?
KS: I think it was being invited by Wizards of the Coast to write a Dungeons and Dragons story. I had met a woman at a convention party years earlier who, after the first books in the Psalms of Isaak came out, read somewhere that I was a D&D kid back in the day. Because she enjoyed my books and remembered meeting me, she got in touch and I learned she’d become an acquiring editor at Wizards of the Coast. It was a fun project that paid homage to a really important component in my development as a storyteller.
TH: What are you working on now?
KS: I’m a handful of weeks away from finishing Hymn, the final volume in the Psalms of Isaak.
TH: What attracted you to the Cars, Cards & Carbines anthology project?
KS: It sounds fun and different from the project I’ve been working on for nearly seven years. A nice way to cleanse my writerly pallet after I finish up this last book.
TH: What genre or mash-up of story are you most likely to contribute to the anthology? Do you have a story already in mind?
KS: I have no idea. But the ingredients will go into the pot and there will be Story Soup when the timer goes off.
There will be no Story Soup without your help. Please support our Kickstarter project. Without the support of people like you, yes, you, dear Reader, this project will be left cold and uncooked on the stove top. If you can’t back it, you can help by spreading the word. Thank you.
November 24, 2013
Cars, Cards & Carbines Author Spotlight – Mur Lafferty
Mur Lafferty is an author, pioneering podcaster, and Parsec Award-winner. Producer of such podcasting legends as Geek Fu Action Grip and I Should Be Writing, a long-time inspiration of this writer on long dark road trips with the iPod and Mur’s ephemeral voice as his companion, Mur has also been the editor of Escape Pod. She won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Science Fiction Writer in 2013. Her book, The Shambling Guide to New York City, is currently on sale from Orbit Books, with The Ghost Train to New Orleans forthcoming.
We are delighted to have her with us on the Cars, Cards & Carbines anthology project.
TH: What writers are some of your biggest influences?
ML: Early on were Robin McKinley, Madeline L’Engle, and Anne McCaffrey. Later was China Mieville and Douglas Adams. Now it’s Neil Gaiman and Connie Willis. All of them have inspired me in some way or another.
TH: What are some of your guilty pleasures?
ML: iPhone games. The animated show Total Drama. And I’m That Person who loves the fact that Christmas stuff comes out right after Halloween.
TH: What has been your favorite project to date and why? What was so satisfying and exciting abou t it?
ML: Probably my book, The Shambling Guide to New York City, as it had been lurking in my mind for years. To finally get it out, and get attention, was wonderful.
TH: What are you working on now?
ML: I’m working on a humorous fantasy with a setting inspired by ancient Rome.
TH: What attracted you to the Cars, Cards & Carbines anthology project?
ML: I trust Travis to run a quality project.
TH: What genre or mash-up of story are you most likely to contribute to the anthology? Do you have a story already in mind?
ML: QUESTION NOT THE CREATIVE PROCESS!
Please support our Kickstarter project. Without the support of people like you, yes, you, dear Reader, this project will not happen. If you can’t back it, you can help by spreading the word. Thank you.
November 23, 2013
Cars, Cards & Carbines Author Spotlight – Seanan McGuire
Hugo Award-winner Seanan McGuire writes things. Constantly. She cannot be stopped. She will destroy us all. Where is the hero who will save us? Oh. The hero is reading the things she wrote. We are all doomed. To stave off the agony, we recommend reading some of the things Seanan has written, either under her own name, or under the name “Mira Grant.” People seem to like the things she writes, which is nice.
Seanan McGuire is the author of eleven novels and dozens of short stories published in places like Lightspeed, Fantasy Magazine, and Apex Magazine. We are thrilled to have her working with us on the Cars, Cards & Carbines anthology project.
TH: Who are some writers who have influenced you?
SM: Stephen King, Kelley Armstrong, William Shakespeare, and James Tiptree, Jr. You know. The usual suspects.
TH: What are some of your guilty pleasures?
SM: I have no guilty pleasures. I take no guilt from anything that I enjoy. Guilt is a waste of energy that could be better spent doing things like eating another cookie.
TH: What has been your favorite project to date and why? What was so satisfying and exciting about it?
SM: Getting my mother, sister, and best friend to Disney World. It took a lot of work and coordination, but damned if it wasn’t worth it to see Mom’s face when she saw the Castle for the first time.
TH: What are you working on now?
SM: The second Parasitology book, the fourth InCryptid book, and a metric shit-ton of short stories.
TH: What attracted you to the Cars, Cards & Carbines anthology project?
SM: I was asked to participate. I like that in an anthology.
TH: What genre or mash-up of story are you most likely to contribute to the anthology? Do you have a story already in mind?
SM: That’s what you’re gonna have to read the book to find out. It’s a surprise!
Please support our Kickstarter project. Without the support of people like you, yes, you, dear Reader, there will be no surprises and no cookies but all kinds of guilt! If you can’t back it, you can help by spreading the word. Thank you.
November 22, 2013
Cars, Cards & Carbines Author Spotlight – Nick Mamatas
Nick Mamatas is the author of several novels, including the recent Love is the Law and The Last Weekend. His short fiction has appeared in slicks such as the men’s magazine Razor and the music magazine Spex, in leading SF publications including Asimov’s Science Fiction and Tor.com, and in the 2013 volume of Best American Mystery Stories.
I first met Nick at one of the big conventions, World Fantasy I believe, and I was already familiar with his work from horror fiction podcast Pseudopod. His book Starve Better has some good advice for writers chasing the freelance life, and his first novel Move Under Ground, published in 2006, was an excellent Lovecraftian tale. We are excited to have Nick with us on this project.
TH: What writers are some of your biggest influences?
NM: JD Salinger (I’ve finally started admitting this, not even having realized it until it was pointed out to me), Harlan Ellison, Kathy Acker, William S. Burroughs, Kurt Vonnegut…
TH: What are some of your guilty pleasures?
NM: I don’t feel guilty about pleasure, really.
TH: What has been your favorite project to date and why? What was so satisfying and exciting about it?
NM: It’s always the last thing I’ve done that’s my favorite, until it turns sour from familiarity and I have to move on to something else. So my just-released novel LOVE IS THE LAW, which is almost a proper noir crime novel (with only a dash of hypothetical supernaturalism), is my current favorite.
TH: What are you working on now?
NM: A crime novel about Greek fascists in New York.
TH: What attracted you to the Cars, Cards & Carbines anthology project?
NM: Seventeen days ago, my wife had a child. So, a. diaper money. And b. the possibility of writing a crime story about the three C’s in the title. There are very few diaper-money-paying outlets for short crime fiction, so I jump on any opportunity to get one in!
TH: What genre or mash-up of story are you most likely to contribute to the anthology? Do you have a story already in mind?
NM: I have no idea, but someone playing Go Fish is going to get a bullet in the head.
Please support our Kickstarter project. Without the support of people like you, yes, you, dear Reader, this project will not happen. If you can’t back it, you can help by spreading the word. Thank you.
November 21, 2013
Cars, Cards & Carbines Author Spotlight – Jay Bonansinga
Jay Bonansinga is a New York Times bestselling author of eighteen books, including the Bram Stoker finalist The Black Mariah (1994), the International Thriller Writers Award finalist Shattered (2007), and the wildly popular WALKING DEAD novels. Jay’s work has been translated into nine languages, and he has been called “one of the most imaginative writers of thrillers” by the Chicago Tribune. Jay has won major film festival awards, including a Gold Remi at the Houston International WorldFest and a Best Comedy Feature at the Queens International Film Festival, and his 2005 novel, Frozen, is in development as a major motion picture starring Dennis Haysbert (THE UNIT). Jay is currently hard at work co-writing the finale of an original trilogy based on the universe of Robert Kirkman’s brilliant graphic novel, The Walking Dead. Jay is also a Visiting Professor at both Northwestern and DePaul universities where he teaches screenwriting.
We are delighted to have him with us on the Cars, Cards & Carbines anthology project.
TH: What writers are some of your biggest influences?
JB: The biggest influence on me as a writer was Rod Serling, but mostly for how he looked. When I was a kid I wanted to dress like him, sound like him, BE him. Skinny tie, cool Kennedy-esque hair, sepulchral voice, funereal black suit, cigarette… PERFECTION!
TH: What are some of your guilty pleasures?
JB: All of my pleasures are guilty as I am a life-long lapsed Catholic… and I’m marrying a nice Jewish girl… so I got the guilt thing covered.
TH: What has been your favorite project to date and why? What was so satisfying and exciting about it?
JB: You mean other than The Walking Dead? In all honesty, my gig writing the Walking Dead books with Robert Kirkman eclipses every other career high I can think of. GREATEST. GIG. EVER.
TH: What are you working on now?
JB: A big, epic, crazy-cool YA horror series called LUCID.
TH: What attracted you to the Cars, Cards & Carbines anthology project?
JB: I have guns and cars in everything I write — lots of them — so why not throw in cards?
TH: What genre or mash-up of story are you most likely to contribute to the anthology? Do you have a story already in mind?
JB: It will be wall-to-wall action, which is what I love to write (and which is also easier to sustain in a short story).
Please support our Kickstarter project.
Since this is a crowd-funding project, it will not happen without the support of donors like you, yes, you, dear Reader. If you can’t back the project, you can help by spreading the word. Thank you!
November 20, 2013
Cars, Cards & Carbines – A New Multi-Genre Fiction Anthology
Pardon me while I sweep away the dust and dead crickets….
OK, now to business!
I went to a workshop on writing for and editing anthologies last spring, and since then I’ve had the bug to try my hand at editing. I spent a few months percolating ideas of various kinds, how I would go about putting such a book together, who I would try to get, etc.
The idea for Cars, Cards & Carbines grew out of brainstorming things that I think are a lot of fun, and then I thought of the alliteration, and then this wild idea of Mad Max meets Maverick and The Wild, Wild West (the TV show, not the awful movie). And since I’m a fan of Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez, let’s throw them in there, too!
I ran into an editor friend, John Helfers, whom I’ve worked with on three projects to-date, at DragonCon this year, told him about my idea, and a couple of beers later, we had a plan.
One cool thing about putting together this kind of anthology (aside from the sheer talent we’ve already assembled) is the way the three elements of the theme can be stretched. “Cars” can mean a lot of things: hot rods, getaway cars, train cars, mine cars, horse-drawn carriages. While originating from a Poker theme, “Cards” can be expanded into things like credit cards, tarot cards, programming cards, green cards, and more. And of course “Carbine” literally means a short-barreled rifle generally used by cavalry, but could easily reach into all sorts of firearms across almost any milieu.
Yesterday, I launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund this project. The list of authors we’ve put together are a Who’s Who of genre fiction, and we’re excited to have them.
Mario Acevedo
E.C. Ambrose
Kevin J. Anderson
Jay Bonansinga
Nancy Holder
D.B. Jackson
Mur Lafferty
Jay Lake
Nick Mamatas
Seanan McGuire
Norman Partridge
Cat Rambo
Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Ken Scholes
Dean Wesley Smith
In the coming month, we’re hoping to spotlight all of our authors here, so stay tuned.
The Kickstarter can be found here –> http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1883407/cars-cards-and-carbines-multi-genre-fiction-anthol
Please consider supporting this project. If you can’t back it directly, please help spread the word; social media, emails, or even just chatting with friends. I’d wager you know a few people who might get as excited about this idea as we are. And the beauty of crowd-funding, as you may have already experienced, is that backers get not only the rewards (and we do have some cool stuff) but they also get to watch the project take shape.
Thank you for your support.
September 17, 2013
Goodreads Giveaway-palooza!
I have five, count ‘em FIVE giveaways on at Goodreads this month.
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Goodreads Book Giveaway
Sword of the Ronin
by Travis Heermann
Giveaway ends October 13, 2013.
See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.
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Goodreads Book Giveaway
Heart of the Ronin
by Travis Heermann
Giveaway ends October 13, 2013.
See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.
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Goodreads Book Giveaway
Legs
by Travis Heermann
Giveaway ends October 13, 2013.
See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.
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Goodreads Book Giveaway
Rogues of the Black Fury
by Travis Heermann
Giveaway ends October 13, 2013.
See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.
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Goodreads Book Giveaway
The Wild Boys
by Travis Heermann
Giveaway ends October 13, 2013.
See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.
July 30, 2013
Sword of the Ronin FREE on Kindle – But Only Till August 3!
Yes, you read the headline correctly.
Having just wrapped up the Book Launch Weekend with successful events at Barnes & Noble and the OSFEST Science Fiction Convention, my brain pickled by sake, shochu, scotch, and sing-alongs, I’m offering the book for FREE on Kindle. So get your free copy while you can! Spread the word with signal fires, taiko drums, smoke signals, telegraph, and Pony Express.
July 17, 2013
Giveaways Galore!
Hey, Folks!
It’s time for another round of giveaways! If you’re on Goodreads, you know what to do. If you’re not, you should be.
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Goodreads Book Giveaway
Sword of the Ronin
by Travis Heermann
Giveaway ends July 28, 2013.
See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.
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Goodreads Book Giveaway
Legs
by Travis Heermann
Giveaway ends July 28, 2013.
See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.
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Goodreads Book Giveaway
The Wild Boys
by Travis Heermann
Giveaway ends July 28, 2013.
See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.
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Goodreads Book Giveaway
Rogues of the Black Fury
by Travis Heermann
Giveaway ends July 28, 2013.
See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.
July 10, 2013
Author Interview Series #69 – Sam Knight
Sam Knight is an author from the Colorado Front Range, and he experiments with all sorts of genres, from SF to horror to weird tales to children’s books. I met Sam soon after I moved to the Denver area myself, and found an incredibly rich community of working professional fiction writers at various stages of their careers, from a few early sales to established pros. The number of areas that rival the Colorado Front Range in sheer number of writers could probably be counted on one hand. Sam is an active, friendly part of that community.
TH: What is The Story of Sam? Is it a novel? A collection of bizarre short stories? A family drama?
SK: I feel like it is more a mystery. Not your typical one though. Instead of solving the crime, I’m trying to figure out what it was that happened. You know that feeling that you were destined for something great, for something more than all of this? It’s kind of like that, except I have the strangest feeling that it already happened, and I can’t remember what it was. It’s silly, I know. But sometimes when I wake up and have a bruise, cut, or scrape I don’t remember getting, I start to wonder what memory the aliens stole from me this time…
TH: When did you know that you wanted to be a writer? How did you know?
SK: I never wanted to be a writer, per se, but I have wanted to have already written stuff my whole life. There was little mystique in the profession for me, but a lot in the end product, the finished story. When I was young, I became ill and found that reading allowed me to escape the misery of the illness. During that time, the thought occurred to me that the authors of the books I was reading had given me a great gift, and I really hoped that someday I could give it back. Unfortunately, many of those authors have passed on since, so instead I have my sights set on paying it forward.
TH: How would you describe your body of work thus far?
SK: Ha! A disheveled mess badly in need of a shower! I have been all over the place. I have played with horror, thriller, adventure, science fiction, western, children’s, and everything else that caught my fancy. It’s been kind of like having ADD. While this may not be so great for establishing a reader base that likes everything I do, I think it keeps me a lot more engaged which ultimately improves everything I do. Did you just hear an echo? I thought I heard an echo. Hmm. No matter.
TH: Every writer has things they would like to accomplish, e.g. first sale, next sale, first novel sale, first bestseller, etc. What accomplishment are you striving for right now?
SK: Recently I have been teaching myself some different art programs on the computer. Some of it I find amazing, some just hurts my head. But I have found I really like it, and I hope to soon finish illustrating my own children’s book The Ant Who Held Down a Mountain. When I hold a print copy of that in my hand so I know it’s real, and I hear someone comment (not to me) on the art not being horrible, I will feel a real sense of accomplishment.
TH: What is it like learning to illustrate at this stage of your life? What tools are you using?
SK: It is both frustrating and therapeutic. I can easily lose myself in it for hours, but I never know if that is going to be in the creative process or in the “It doesn’t &*#!&$ work!” process of trying to figure out the programs. I have been trying to learn Manga Studio, Daz Studios, Poser, Hexagon, Anime Studio, Adobe Photoshop 11, Sculptris, Sketchbook, and a couple of others. It seems extreme, I know, but I seem to find things that I ‘need’ to do that only one will do, but none of the others will. It can be frustrating trying to switch things back and forth to get a desired effect. It really is hard to learn it yourself! For example, the Manga Studio PDF is in English, but all of the illustrations are in Japanese. That makes finding the right pull down menu a real pain!
TH: Do you have any writing stuck away somewhere that will never see the light of day, but nevertheless helped you build your skill to publishable? What does that look like?
SK: When I was in elementary school, we had a personal journal we had to write in every week. We were told to write about whatever we wanted to, and it was expected that we would talk about what we had done during the week. I chose instead to write an ongoing story that would read kind of like a Dragonlance novel. Not that I would compare it to what Tracy and Laura Hickman and Margaret Weis accomplished. I started doing it based on what I wanted my D&D adventures to be like years before I ever saw the first Dragonlace! If I had seen one of theirs first, perhaps it could have seen the light of day, someday. Alas, now that I have remembered it, I think I need to go home and burn it.
TH: What about the writing process most appeals to you? What is the most fun?
SK: I like to ‘get into the zone’. Sometimes when you watch a movie, or read a book, or go running, bike riding, whatever… you move into a zone where you lose self-awareness and become completely enthralled in what you are doing. You know what I mean. You never know you are there until something snaps you out of it. I like those moments while I’m writing. I like to feel like I was completely immersed in what I was creating.
TH: Have your reached the point at which you realized that you had “made it” as a writer and author? If so, can you describe the milestone or circumstances where you had that realization? Do you recall how that felt? If not, what is the milestone you’re seeking?
SK: Um. No. I guess. And yes. When you realize that you are sitting on a panel, next to an author you have admired for years, and you are answering questions, as an equal, it is most definitely a milestone moment. But as I mentioned earlier, the idea of being an author never truly held mystique for me. What I really want, all I really want, is to entertain. I suppose the milestone I am seeking is to hear from someone who I know is not out to stroke my ego (because as all family and friends of any type of artist know, we all need all the ego stroking we can get!), who just wanted to tell me how much they really enjoyed my story.
TH: Some say that professional writers have to look at themselves as a business, a branded commodity. Do you take that approach?
SK: Not until recently. Because I was just interested in putting stories out there, I wasn’t too worried about it. But as time went on and I realized just how hard it is to make your stories available, I decided I needed to stop relying upon traditional methods and start doing some (most) of it myself. I have dipped my toe up to the waist into the self-publishing pond. This has forced me to re-think what I was doing. And yes, that makes me into a business, and a commodity. I have to make sure that I am representing myself appropriately at all times, otherwise I devalue myself.
TH: What are the most effective ways you have found to promote yourself?
SK: A smile and a handshake. Really. We see so many advertisements every day that we are darn near immune to them. I may never be able to promote myself in a ‘mass market’ manner, but every time I actually meet someone, and they are impressed with me enough to give my work a chance, I have done better than thousands of ignored advertisements.
TH: What are some of your craziest ideas for building an audience?
SK: I thought about becoming a famous Erotica writer and then revealing myself to the world so that everyone would then read my other stuff. And I think it would have worked too, except I’ve found that I can’t write Erotica.
TH: Can you recall a moment when a two or more influences or inspirations came together and smacked you with a cool idea?
SK: This actually happens quite often to me when playing with my kids. I’ve found that just being silly with them, making up stories, cracking off jokes, calling each other names—you know, all the things that kids do, tends to lead to ideas crashing together in new and original ways. Like my son dipping his cheese hotdog into his root beer the other day. Only a kid would do that. Or a parent trying to entertain a kid. Then start teasing each other about it, do some one-upmanship, and get silly. Next thing you know, you’ll be writing a kid’s Halloween Cookbook.
TH: What can readers expect to see from you in the near future? What are you working on?
SK: I just self-published two small collections of short stories in e-book format and am following them up with print versions (so I can have something to sign). My biggest reason for doing this was to learn how. I intend to follow them with the children’s book I mentioned before, The Ant Who Held Down a Mountain. And then, I’m off to the races. Once I have this self-publishing thing down, there’s not going to be a lot to hold me back!
TH: What are the names of your recently released collections?
SK: Time Travel Trio and Four Adventure! The first is three time travel short stories, the second is four adventure short stories. Don’t try to find the meaning of life or a moral lesson in any of the stories, they are purely for entertainment purposes only!
TH: What authors have given you the greatest gifts?
SK: I had a flippant answer to that, but I realize it is a serious question. Although I have met some pretty big names in the business, and they have been really nice people (mostly), I have become friends with some other local Colorado authors since I set out to do this, and honestly, their friendship and support has been the greatest gift. When I feel like something can’t be done, they show me it can. Their encouragement is the only reason I didn’t give up on this long ago. Their friendship and company is what keeps me coming back for more, and is more than enough reward for having set out on this endeavor in the first place.
TH: What is the most memorable moment (good, bad, or other) you have had in your life as an author?
SK: This is kind of someone else’s personal moment, but I will share it anyway. I was at the Superstars Writing Seminar in May of 2013. I knew that Peter J. Wacks had a meeting with an editor scheduled and that he was pitching himself and some ideas, and I had high hopes for Peter. Fingers were crossed.
When I encountered Peter after the meeting, Peter was a mess. Tears, red-eyes, couldn’t talk. It never occurred to me that this had to do with the meeting. Peter is pretty cool under pressure, and he could take a rejection, or an acceptance for that matter, like a slap on the wrist. Over, done, move on.
So when I saw Peter … losing it, I thought the worst. I thought “Someone’s been in a car accident, or had a heart attack!” All thoughts of Peter’s meeting fled my head. This was something bad.
When I asked if he was all right, it took Peter a couple of moments to compose himself before he could answer me. It was with stuttered breath Peter told me, “He said writers like me were the reason editors bothered going to cons …”
I was shocked and taken aback. I didn’t know what that meant at first. And then it dawned on me.
No one was hurt. Peter hadn’t been rejected. And it wasn’t even that he was going to be given a chance.
It was that he had been given the ultimate compliment he, personally, could have received. Someone who Peter felt was in a position to be a worthy judge, had affirmed Peter’s life-long goal as something Peter was worthy of pursuing.
I had seen Peter’s “Made it” moment. It was beautiful, and I will never forget it.
