Travis Heermann's Blog, page 9

Whimsycon Schedule

This weekend, March 1-3, I’ll be appearing at Whimsycon in Denver. I’ll have a vendor table and I’ll be taking part in various panels and readings with some illustrious colleagues.

Fri, 8:00 PM-8:50 PM, Critique Groups: Care and Feeding Without Getting Your Hand Bitten (Mesa Verde C – Maker)
Sat, 1:00 PM-1:50 PM, Building and Cultivating Your Creative Community (Mesa Verde C – Maker)
Sat, 2:00 PM-2:50 PM, Learn to Love Your Writing (Mesa Verde C – Maker)
Sat, 3:00 PM-3:50 PM, Sticking the Landing: How to End Your (Mesa Verde A – Steampunk)
Sat, 8:00 PM-8:50 PM, Author Readings – Harrison, Heermann, Willis (Mesa Verde B – Victorian)

The Hammer Falls – SF Action Novel

So many irons in the fire, so many things happening. Short

stories coming out later this year, novels being written, screenplays in the

works. The wheels are churnin’, the still is cookin’, the juices are flowin’.

All that I’m learning how to play blues guitar, which has been a ton of fun.

On the fiction front, I need your help with something very

important.

I have just launched a new Kickstarter to fund the

publication of a new novel, The Hammer

Falls.

The Hammer Falls

is a dystopian science-fiction action extravaganza. Imagine Gladiator meets The Wrestler and Sin City

with a cyberpunk twist.

In a world fallen into corporate oligarchy, pit fighters

represent the “bread and circuses” doled out to the masses. It is a

world of cyber-security, ubiquitous surveillance, and environmental

degradation. Technology allows the pit fighters to regenerate horrific wounds,

even death, and come back week after week for hordes of screaming fans.

Horace “The Hammer” Harkness is a pit fighter

twenty years past his prime. After several years on the skids, he successfully

stages a massive comeback bout, but to do so he has to borrow money from a

ruthless Russian mob. When they threaten his would-be girlfriend Lilly if he

doesn’t repay his debt, he kills the gangsters involved… only to discover

that their leader was the mob boss’s son. Horace must go on the run to save

himself, Lilly, and her children, from a relentless, ruthless foe. He falls in

with traveling pit-fighter road show that includes a rainbow ninja girl and an

ex-con cyberpath. With their help, he might just be able to turn the tables on

a global mafia organization, or else he—and those he cares about—are doomed.

For as little as the price of a good cup of coffee, you can

help bring this project to fruition. I’ve got some of the costs already

covered, which is why the goal is so low. I’m running this campaign lean and

mean, and hoping it blossoms into something awesome.

We always hope to catch lightning in a bottle, right? You

can help do that.

Another way to think of a Kickstarter is that you’re buying

the book in advance, especially if it’s something that’s right up your alley

from an author you know, AND you’re helping bring it into the world. I’ve found

there’s definite satisfaction in that. You

helped make the project happen. If you’re a Kickstarter backer like I tend to

be, you know what I’m talking about. If this is your first go-round, you’ll

soon find out.

For less than the cost of a single dinner out, you can help

bring a new book into the world, action-packed and wiggling, something that

will far outlast that dinner or cup of coffee.

Please help by contributing to this project.

Thank you so much for your support. I appreciate it

tremendously, and so will the people who don’t yet know they must read The Hammer Falls.

Horror Writers of America Red Tinsel Holiday Event

The Colorado chapter of the Horror Writers of America is hosting a Red Tinsel Holiday Event.

There will be readings, book signings, and giveaways! And a Stephen King trivia challenge. Drink specials, cocktail hour!

Come join us and get your holiday horror on.

Where: BookBar in Denver.

When: 7:00-9:00 p.m., December 8, 2018.

Scheduled to appear are:

Carter Wilson
Sean Eads
Steve Rasnic Tem
Stephen Graham Jones
Mario Acevedo
Angie Hodapp
Warren Hammond
Josh Viola
Dean Wyant
Larry Berry
Carina Bisset
Hillary Dodge
Gary Robbe
And yours truly!

For more information:

https://www.bookbardenver.com/event/hwa-colorados-red-tinsel-event

 

Book Signing Event! – False Faces at the Tattered Cover

I’m excited to announce that a tie-in story to my Ronin Trilogy universe, “Masks in Dark Earth,” just came out in a wonderful new anthology called False Faces.

This story awakened a powerful desire to dive back into that world, and without really intending to, formed a bridge into what will become a new historical fantasy series.

If you live in the Denver area, please come to our book signing event!

When: Thursday, October 25, 2018, 7:00 p.m.

Where: Tattered Cover Bookstore – Colfax Ave.

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The Devil Resides in a Ground Full of Teeth

[image error]I’m delighted for my novella “Where the Devil Resides” to share Alembical 4 with a story like “The Ground is Full of Teeth.” As I was reading Catherine Schaff-Stump’s dark, disturbing piece, I couldn’t help but recognize a fellow writer who also grew up in a very small town. Her keen eye for the details of small-town life spring out of every page.

Astute readers will recognize also the thematic resonances between the two stories. You can thank a couple of awesome editors for that, Lawrence M. Schoen and Arthur Dorrance.

So when Catherine suggested we trade blog posts talking about the geneses of our respective stories, I got to thinking about where I initially thought the story was going, and where it ended up.

It all began with a phrase in my head that sounded cool: Black Rose in the Garden of Eden. This became the title of the story, until the editors talked me into changing it as the story neared readiness for publication.

I started off writing what I thought was a short story. I was aiming for a kind of neo-pulp hero for the modern age, the kind of character who was larger than life, who could carry over into multiple stories, walking in the shoes of old, pulp icons like Conan, Doc Savage, the Shadow, and Jirel of Joiry, but with more modern sensibilities. What emerged was Black Rose, so I definitely got what I was after. But then I had to create a world that was worthy of her, and what came together was a steampunk-noir, alternate history where the American Civil War never really ended—in many ways, just like today.

Just a couple of scenes into the writing, I had to accept the fact that it was going to be too long for a short story. Maybe I could get it in ten or twelve thousand words. When I passed the 15k mark, I thought maybe I could do it in 20k. But then I hit 30k, and I was almost done. The story’s thematic foundations had become much richer and more complex than I was expecting, and there was nothing else to do but finish it.

Writing this story was as immensely disturbing as it was immeasurably satisfying. Some Very, Very Bad People do some Very, Very Bad Things—and then they get what’s coming to them. Rereading the story now, I still feel the drive for justice that was almost palpable during the first drafting. The trouble with comeuppance, however, is that the evil leaves its mark anyway. It is not a comfortable thing to sit back in one’s writing chair and gaze into The Abyss, because, as we all know, it gazes back into you.

The initial idea for the plot came from reading Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. Of course, I had to follow that with a viewing of the film Apocalypse Now, a modern retelling of the same tale, where the river is the Mekong, not the Congo, but both are metaphors for rivers into Man’s darkest heart. And I use “Man” here specifically to mean the male of the species, because there are certain kinds of atrocities unique to men. In “Where the Devil Resides,” the part of the metaphoric river is played by the Everglades. Just how far could men fall on the scale of depravity if they have no fear of law or reprisal?

Like Catherine’s story, “Devil” is about abuse, and the ripple effects it has on the world even after the abuse is ended. It is also about the lengths that men will go to control women, and the stunting effects of certain narrow-minded, lazy ways of thinking. This is the story in which my neo-pulp heroine, the Black Rose, is enfolded, like a corpse-dark flower waiting to open and lash out with her whip.

Since the story’s acceptance, I’ve had some time to do more with it. I developed the novella into a screenplay of the same name. The screenplay won the Best Horror/Fantasy Screenplay at the 2018 Famous Monsters Silver Scream Fest, and, as I write this, is a finalist in the Feature Screenplay category at the Shriekfest Horror Film Festival. I’ll be traveling to Los Angeles for the festival October 4-7, 2018, hoping to meet some filmmakers, and if luck is with me, bring home the win.

I hope you’ll procure yourself a copy of Alembical 4. If you like to squirm a little as you read, you won’t be disappointed.

 

This post is reprinted from Catherine Schaff-Stump’s blog. 

Guest Post – The Ground is Full of Teeth by Catherine Schaff-Stump

[image error]When Travis and I talked about hosting each other because we are content mates in Alembical 4, I promised to talk about my horror novella The Ground is Full of Teeth. This is one of the most biographical pieces I have ever written.  I freely admit my novella is speculative fiction, so you might ask how something this supernatural and horrible can be about real life.

The working title of this novella was The Werehumans. While the novel evolved from its original conception, the story remained largely the same. I grew up in Oscar Springs, the fictional name I gave to my hometown, and I was one of the lost kids you hear about in this story. My family was abusive and impoverished, and later in life, I would find out that members of  the town knew about and enabled our situation. Many people knew my father and mother were dangerous, but no one did anything for my brothers and me. The Ground is Full of Teeth is at its core a story about what we owe each other, and how responsible we are for people who may not be like us, or who may disgust us.

However, Ground is not my story. It is a story of another family and they too were real. Their house is depicted much as it was, and the scene of Abel Smalley driving down the street? I remember it. The scene of Junior Smalley sitting outside his mother’s funeral? I remember it too.  Other people wonder if I am Alice, as I am a teacher. No, I’m not.  I went to school with Alice, and this is how I imagined she would grow up, given the way she stood up for the right things while she was my classmate. She did become an elementary school teacher. She might never know the influence she had on me, but this story is my gift to her.

In writing this novella, I am writing about the world I saw at that time, through the lens of an eight-year-old, living in shadow. The world is a very different place now that I am an adult. I live in another small town, a bright and sunny town, rather than a town full of shadows. Maybe there are still shadows, and I can’t see them, because my parents are gone, and I live on the sunnier side of the tracks.  I have become a teacher, and I know there is no magical way to tell which kids are in trouble and which are not, something which haunts me. I have felt Alice’s sense of frustration, but the difference between my time and hers is now teachers are mandatory reporters. Kids like Junior Smalley are less likely to slip through the cracks. Principals like Sturgeon are still out there, but the law pushes them in directions to help kids.

All cities, big and small, hold the good and the bad, the heroic and the villainous.  People like Alice, Chris, and Irv exist. Bravery is imperfect, one step at a time in the right direction, one small deed, one right word. Decay is one tiny slip, one splinter, one cut. There are grand gestures in The Ground is Full of Teeth. It is fiction, after all.  However, people like Alice, Chris, and Irv exist, and they persist in making tiny steps. Persistence toward good is what makes us real humans, rather than werehumans. Perhaps, while there is darkness in this novella and in the real Oscar Springs, there is more light than I supposed.

 

Cath Schaff-Stump writes speculative fiction for children and adults, everything from humor to horror. Her YA Gothic fantasy The Vessel of Ra is available from Curiosity Quills. Catherine lives and works in Iowa with her husband. During the day, she teaches English to non-native speakers at a local community college. Other recent fiction has been published by Paper Golem Press, Daydreams Dandelion Press, and in The Mammoth Book of Dieselpunk. Catherine is a co-host on the writing and geek-life fan podcast Unreliable Narrators. You can find her online at Facebook, Goodreads, Amazon, @cathschaffstump, cathschaffstump.com, and unreliablenarrators.net

Novellas and Screenplays and Festivals, Oh My!

I’m excited about the way my neo-pulp steampunk noir story is getting some buzz.

The novella “Where the Devil Resides” came out in Alembical 4 right before the World SF Convention. Woot! It is available in print and hardcover right now, with e-book coming soon.

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In a post-Civil War steampunk Florida, a minister’s teenage daughter is abducted by a band of vicious swamp rats and taken into the Everglades. To save his daughter from a fate worse than death, he must enlist the aid of an escaped slave woman, a mysterious Santeria priestess known as the Black Rose.

This is exciting by itself, but wait! There’s more!

You may recall that the screenplay adaptation of Where the Devil Resides won Best Horror/Fantasy Screenplay at the Famous Monsters Silver Scream Fest back in February.

I’m delighted to announce that the screenplay is a finalist in the Shriekfest Horror Film Festival. I’ll be going to Los Angeles for the festival (Oct. 4-7) with my fingers crossed so hard they might become a singularity. I’ll be watching some cool new horror films and meeting other filmmakers. I’m so stoked.

Onward!

Mad Max Meets Sons of Anarchy – Blood and Gasoline

Want to hear something cool and exciting? I’ve got a new short story out in a new action-packed anthology from Hex Publishers.

Blood and Gasoline, edited by Mario Acevedo, features my story “Kiss of the Sow,” a dystopian science fiction story featuring Mad Maxine Monahan, a retired pit fighter working a day job that goes horribly wrong. Plus there’s fusion-powered hover trains, super high-tech weapons, gas-powered dune buggies, a sassy artificial intelligence, and wild chase scenes.

Available now! If high-octane action is your jam, show us some love.

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Amazon Giveaway – NIGHT OF THE HIDDEN FANG

This is Launch Week for my new pseudonym, T. James Logan, with the release of Night of the Hidden Fang. 

In celebration, I’m doing an e-book  giveaway.

Enter to win your free copy now!

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

Tremendous changes over the last couple of months. I’ve put together two complete new websites, one for my real name and another for my new pseudonym, T. James Logan.

Of course, if you’re an entrepreneur, you know how web sites and marketing efforts can be a bottomless rabbit hole of things to do. The ways that technology can be networked over all sorts of platforms from desktops to smart phones is mind-boggling. Integrated mailing lists, giveaways, ebook marketing, social media, all of these things have an immense learning curve, adding up to weeks spent in which nothing but ad copy is actually written. Nevertheless, I’ve committed myself to getting better at this. I think it behooves all writers who want to make a career of it. Back in my teens and twenties, I would never, ever have guessed that this was the stuff I would have to learn how to do, in addition to continuously polishing my craft. Apparently I’m still getting over my innate resistance to tooting my own horn.

Be that as it may, this is a new and ever-changing era. Those who do not adapt get eaten by those who do.

So I’m making a more concerted effort henceforth to get the word out. It also means that I’ll probably be posting more here. It does feel good though to have put together such a slick, attractive website. It makes me want to show off my books, because guess what: I think they’re pretty cool.