Sam Knight's Blog, page 12

What Every Writer (and you, too!) Needs to Know About Terms of Service RIGHT NOW!

If you only ever read one thing I write, let it be this!

This has come up about once a week this year for me, so I am sensing a portent and feel obligated to say something. Even if I only save one person, this will be so worth it!

READ THE TERMS OF SERVICE BEFORE YOU SUBMIT ANYTHING ANYWHERE!

I am totally serious about this. And it bears repeating.

READ THE TERMS OF SERVICE BEFORE YOU SUBMIT ANYTHING ANYWHERE!

This has come up at every convention I have been to this year, as well as in online discussions.

When you submit a story, or anything else to a website, you are entering a binding, legal contract. You know those long, don’t ever bother to read them things every website makes you agree to before you can use their site? They are important. The are called End User Licence Agreements (EULA) or Terms of Service (TOS).

It’s one thing to sign up for something and think, yeah, yeah, whatever, because we all do it, and if something is really over the top, the law will probably find on your side, and you’re probably not risking much more than some personal information anyway.

BUT, when you upload content somewhere, whether you type it in or attach a file, you might be giving your rights to it away.

I’m not going to name names, for fear of our modern litigious society, but there have been some astounding recent examples of why you really need to read the EULA before you use a website.

There was a call for sequels to a popular movie. Send in your ideas and maybe you will be the one chosen to write the next movie! Yay! But when you read the EULA, all submissions became the property of the company you submitted it to. And they could do whatever they wanted with them. And they didn’t have to pay you. Ever.

There have been popular sites that have had problems with photos. Either the site claimed some or all rights to photos you uploaded, or other users did. Not cool to find your family photo is making someone $$$ while you get nothing but humiliation out of it.

Here is an example snippet from a EULA that I hope everyone read and understood before they submitted their stuff:

“You grant us a nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide, perpetual, and irrevocable right to copy, transmit, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, and display any information, data, Work, or any other information associated with your Work (collectively the “Submitted Materials”) you submit to us via the Services in any media or format.”

That basically means that, yes you still own the story you wrote, but we can make whatever we want out of it, including movies, books, video games, and action figures about it, and then sequels to those if we want, and we never have to pay you anything. This is not a good deal for you. And generally, any recourse you have to contest this when you decide you didn’t like it was also covered in the EULA, and you’re not going to like what those say either.

Many “contests”, “publishing companies”, “film studios”, and others have these same kind of EULA’s. Beware of them. I put these in quotes, because the real, legitimate ones do not. At least not yet. As we move on, and more and more novices get suckered by these traps, I would guess more and more business will try to cheat and steal ideas like this.

Beware. Be smart. Read before agreeing.

Oh, and one last thing. Don’t trust a company representative to tell you the truth when they “explain” it to you. Seriously.

Dialog Tags 101

If you don’t know what a dialog tag is, it is the part of the story where you write “she said“.

Some people say you should never use dialog tags. I say that is absurd. Without dialog tags, we don’t know who is speaking. But that is not really what “they” mean when they say never. They mean you should only use “said”.

Really? Only “said”? Well, they are trying to eliminate  a common problem for new authors. Both in punctuation and use. By saying “never” do it, they try to prevent over usage of other things.

Here are some examples of punctuation done they way “they” generally prefer:

“Hi,” he said.

“Hi!” she said.

“What are you up to?” Andy said.

“Nothing,” Mary said.

Andy said, “Why not?”

Mary said, “I don’t know.”

Notice all of the “saids”? Some writers use only that dialog tag. It becomes repetitive quickly. It is also largely invisible to the reader. We see that word so often, we don’t notice it. Kind of like the word “the”. We really only notice “the” when it is missing, misspelled, or misused. A way to break that up, is to leave it out. But in doing so, you need to be able to make sure the reader knows who is saying it. If I continue the conversation from above, Andy and Mary are talking turns talking, so it is pretty obvious who says the next line, and I can leave off the dialog tag.

“Do you want to be up to something?” 

“Maybe.” Mary blushed.

Notice in Mary’s response, there is no comma after “maybe”. Mary blushed is not a dialog tag. I did the same thing with Mary as I did with Andy, I left off the dialog tag. Mary blushed is the next sentence. It is an action. If I were to write it as-  “Maybe,” Mary blushed.  -then I have the problem of having replaced the word “said” with “blushed”. Blushed is not a synonym for said. I cannot blush words.

This is the thing the people who say “never” want you to avoid. New writers have a tendency to have people “smile” words, “frown” words, “wink” words, “blink”, “grimace”, …. You get the idea. These are the reasons the “never” people say “never”.

It can really kick me out of a story if a character does something physically impossible, like blushing words.

Beyond that, what’s the big deal?

The problem is the “never” people have become overly rigid about it. Some of them feel that even “asked” is a bad dialog tag. Why would they say that? Well, because the question mark (?) at the end of the sentence already shows it was a question. But “asked” is not a bad dialog tag. It is a good one. It just needs to be used in moderation, like all of the others “they” despise.

They feel the other common mistake is the dreaded “-ly” word. Used in dialog in can seem strange.

“How about a picnic?” he asked eagerly.

“I would love that!” she answered breathlessly.

Now what’s wrong with those? Well… a little goes a long ways. It is a poor shortcut to describing the characters and the actions. And if a writer does that all the way through a story, it becomes horribly repetitive. Often, the story is much better if we are shown Andy is eager, rather than being told like that.

All in all, the “never” people are, in my opinion, generally wrong. But they have a valid point. Overuse of action dialog tags, especially strange ones, can ruin a story. For example, if a character always retorts, or sighs, or begs, it gets to be too much to tolerate for even the most voracious of readers.

But, I feel, contrary to the “never” people, that sometimes expressive dialog tags can be used, if you are are careful and don’t go overboard.

Some words can be whispered. Some can be shouted. Just not all of them.

Oh. Well. Some of them just agreed with me. That was weird. Watch me lose them now. I feel sometimes people do hiss words. Even if their are no s’s in the words. Ever heard a cat hiss? No s’s there. All h’s.

Here’s where I lose the rest of them. I can grunt words. I can sigh them, laugh them, giggle them, belch them, retort them,slur them, and oh so many more wonderful things I can do with the sounds my mouth makes!

But some people don’t like that.

Why?

Because too much is too much. And I agree.

Your characters should not always sigh their words. Every answer need not be a retort or a rebuff. All angry words are not growled.

But some are.

Use them sparingly. Make it worthwhile to the character, the story, and the reader when you choose finally have someone spew words. Just don’t let yourself say they blushed them.

 

I am going to repeat the above dialog and ask that you look at one more thing. The punctuation. It is very important. It shows where the dialog stops and the actions and descriptions start. It is also a stumbling block for many new writers.

“Hi,” he said.

“Hi!” she said.

“What are you up to?” Andy said.

“Nothing,” Mary said.

Andy said, “Why not?”

Mary said, “I don’t know.”

A common mistake I see is:  “Hi!” He said.  This is one sentence in spite of the exclamation point in the middle of it. It should be:  “Hi!” he said.

Another is:  “I was wondering,” he said. “If you were going to come back.”  The character is saying only one sentence, so it makes no sense to break his words into two. It should be:  “I was wondering,” he said, “if you were going to come back.”

 

Now remember, a lot of this stuff on dialog tags is just my opinion. There are no “real” right or wrong rules, outside of the punctuation, but you take your chances wandering into uncharted territory.

Now don’t go throwing it in your editor’s face saying “Sam Knight said it was okay for people to sigh words!” Your editor will turn right back around and say “Sam Knight wasn’t the editor who used to be considering buying one of your stories!”

Everyone is different and money talks. No matter what you do, remember you have to know the rules to break them, and everything in moderation (even moderation).

Tips to Quickly Improve Your Writing

“How do I improve my writing?” is an easy question aspiring authors ask in a myriad of ways and are rewarded with a myriad of complicated answers!

The problem is that all writers have different problems.

These problems are little things that stack up into the big problem of making something unpleasant to read.

For example, you may have already noticed my overuse of the same words. In the first sentence, I used ‘myriad’ twice.  In the next two sentences, I used the word ‘problem’ twice in each sentence. And in the last three sentences, including this sentence, I’ve used the word ‘sentence’ six times!

This is the kind of little thing that neither a reader nor a writer might notice. At first. But eventually a reader will be distracted by the repetition. The writer might not ever realize it, unless someone points it out. So Watch for Repetition.

Of course, there is the reverse: used sparingly and intentionally, repetition, whether in words or sentence structure or something else, can be an effective writing tool.

This leads to one of the most important rules of writing.

Don’t break the rules unless you understand them.

That seems like an easy rule, but it is probably the hardest. Big name famous authors and people who try to teach writing in classes often say NEVER do X or Always do Y. The truth is: writing is like life. It is full of gray areas. Like “should I have used ‘grey’ instead of ‘gray’?”

Well. There is a difference. Learn it so you can make an intelligent decision. Some people seem to think you use grey or gray depending on whether you are using it as a noun, a verb, or as an adjective. And they sweat over trying to figure it out. Really, it’s much simpler. American English generally uses gray and British English tends to use grey. Big deal? Not really. Switching back and forth in the same story? Yeah, that can be. But if you know this, maybe you can use it to your advantage. Maybe a British character in your story leaves a note and spells it “grey”, giving the detective the clue he needed.

Here are some quick common “rules” writers should learn to wrap their heads around so they know when, and when not, to play with them:

Avoid “-ly” words. What is an “-ly” word? They are a form of adverb. The “-ly” makes them easier to spot than “flat adverbs” (which don’t have the “-ly”), so they get picked on more. Examples would be: probably, usually, actually, calmly, happily, etc. (Some flat adverbs would be: just, so, hard, quick, slow, etc.)

So what does this rule mean? It means don’t always over-emphasize your nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and other adverbs. Here are some over-used words to search for and remove from your story before you turn it in: quickly, suddenly, really, finally, slowly, very, just, only.

If you re-read the sentence without them, you’ll see they rarely add much of anything to it. If it does add something, then leave it! Using adverbs sparingly makes them more powerful and allows you to focus the reader’s attention in on important things.

Take out “THAT”.  “That” is an interesting word. It can be used in many ways, in many different parts of a sentence. One of the most interesting things about it is that you almost never need it. Notice how I used it in the last sentence? Notice how if you read the sentence without the word “that” in it, the sentence is nearly exactly the same? The meaning isn’t affected at all. It is usually a filler word. With the exception of dialog, wherein you emulate normal speech patterns, I recommend you take out “that” 99% of the time.

Affect vs. Effect.  There is a difference. Learn it. It can be confusing. You’ll just have to power through it. Affecting something, produces an effect. Now here is where many people get confused. The flat affect. This is when a character shows little emotion. If you like to use that term, make sure you get it right! You show affection for someone, you are effected by their love. When in doubt, look it up and make sure you’ve got it right.

Actually, that’s a really good rule I’ve never had anyone tell me. I’ll make it a rule right now! When in doubt, look it up and make sure you’ve got it right. The few minutes it takes you to make sure something is right will be so incredibly worth it to you to avoid the blow back you might receive for getting it wrong.

Who or Whom? Sadly, most writers today don’t even bother with this. In fact, I think most editors skip over it as well. If you choose to only write “who”, I won’t berate you. Much. But if you misuse “whom”, everyone will gawk at you. Quick rule of thumb, she/he = who and him/her = whom. Re-read the sentence and replace the pronoun to see which you needed.

Knowing the rules prevents you from looking foolish and allows you to successfully play with them. This is a very short part of a very long list, but these things tend to stand out a lot. You need to focus on things one at a time so you don’t overwhelm yourself trying to improve, and I think this is a good list to start with. If you need homework, the next thing I would recommend working on would be dialog tags!

I will put those up in the next post!

 

 

 

GalaxyFest This Weekend!

I will be at GalaxyFest in Colorado Springs this weekend. Come by and say “Hi!”

Tentative panel schedule is:

Dime a Dozen – Panel

Are you a writer with an idea?

4:00 pm – 5:00 pm on Saturday

and

Young Adults Literature – Panel
From Twilight to Maze Runner and more

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm on Saturday

I plan to be around all weekend, hanging out and selling books with Kimberly Kennedy who will be speaking on:



Kimberly Kennedy – Writing Sex Scenes
Writing sizzling sex scenes: using the five senses to bring sensuality to your pages

8:00 pm – 9:00 pm Saturday


and maybe a couple I’m not aware of. If you’re not coming by to see me, you might think about coming to see her!

 

 

 

RadCon Here I Come!

I just spent the weekend at Superstars Writing Seminars and once again am in awe of the people and the program. If you are considering attending, it is at the lowest price point to attend next year right now!

But now I am packing again all ready! I am heading to Pasco, Washington for RadCon! Yay! (Here is their Facebook Page for latest updates on everything!)

It will be nice to spend two weekends in a row with Frog and Esther Jones, authors of the Gift of Grace series.

The third book of which is to be released at RadCon. Yay!

(or you can pre-order now)

 

My panels for the con (subject to change!) are (cut and pasted from the spreadsheet, so please forgive!):

Fri Feb 12 3:00:pm Fri Feb 12 4:00:pm Finding Time to Write

2203 Are you waiting for that office over-looking a lake where you have all the time you want to write? Forget it! Most writers have day jobs, kids, sick people to care for…you know, lives. Where do you find the time to write when you don’t have the time to write? It can be done.

Dr. Elizabeth Wilmerding Esther Jones Jeanette Bennett Peter Jones Sam Knight

Fri Feb 12 4:15:pm Fri Feb 12 5:15:pm Is It True You Always Have Story Ideas?

2201 Audience members toss out ideas and genres for panelists to respond to with story ideas.

Esther Jones Eytan Kollin Joyce Reynolds-Ward Peter Jones Sam Knight

Fri Feb 12 8:00:pm Fri Feb 12 9:00:pm Quickies!

Reading (2211) Authors read their flash fiction stories of 1000 words or less. Since they are so quick, we might even get in multiples!

Sam Knight

Sat Feb 13 11:15:am Sat Feb 13 12:15:pm I Am (Want To Be) A Writer, But I Need Some Questions Answered!

2203 How do you self publish? Should you self publish? Do I need an agent? Why? Should I use a Pen Name? What if I do? I heard… but then I heard…? Bring your burning questions about being a writer, and we will do our best to salve them!

David Boop David Brown Kaye Thornbrugh Mark Ferrari MH (Maggie) Bonham Sam Knight

Sat Feb 13 2:30:pm Sat Feb 13 3:00:pm Sam Knight

Reading (2211) Sam Knight reads from a selected work.

Sam Knight

Sat Feb 13 5:30:pm Sat Feb 13 6:30:pm Writing for Hobby vs. Writing for Career

2203 You love huddling in your writing cave, chatting with your favorite imaginary people. It’s cathartic. It’s comforting. But now you are ready to share your work with the rest of the world. How will that change your relationship with your writing? Is that really what you want for your writing?

David Boop Judy Johnson Sam Knight Tonya Macalino Vanessa MacLellan

Sat Feb 13 6:45:pm Sat Feb 13 7:45:pm Authors of WordFire Press

Reading (2211) David Boop, Manny Frishburg, Eytan Kollin, Jeff Sturgeon, Josh Vogt. What’s so different about WordFire Press that these six author/artist have thrown in with them? Come discuss a new revolution in Publishing?

David Boop Eytan Kollin Jeff Sturgeon Josh Vogt Sam Knight

Sat Feb 13 8:00:pm Sat Feb 13 9:00:pm Sex, Violence, and Other “Adult Stuff” in Kids’ Books

2203 Should we be concerned about “adult stuff” being portrayed in books written for teens? What about younger ages? While some see this as a growing problem, others see it as realism through a fantasy lens beneficial for discussion starters and learning opportunities. Let’s discuss what can be considered as writers, parents, or educators.

Gibbitt Rhys-Jones J Tullos Hennig Sam Knight Tamra Excell

Sat Feb 13 9:15:pm Sat Feb 13 10:15:pm Oh, no. They did NOT just go there!

2201 From Zombie Erotica and Dinosaur Porn to Teenage Serial Killers and Omnipotent Genocidal Maniacs, writers talk about what they would and wouldn’t write about, and why. Bring your sense of humor and leave your judgmental tenancies behind.

Gibbitt Rhys-Jones Peter Jones Rhiannon Louve Sam Knight

Sun Feb 14 1:45:pm Sun Feb 14 2:45:pm To Outline or Not to Outline

2203 Do you sit down in front of the keyboard and the story just spills out, taking you places you didn’t know you wanted to go or do you write your first scene, then find you are stuck? If the latter, you might be an outliner!

Dr. Elizabeth Wilmerding Kaye Thornbrugh S. Evan Townsend Sam Knight Tom Gondolfi

Jim Butcher!

Now that I have your attention, I just wanted to say I will be at COSine this weekend. It should be fun! Come on around and see me!

My Panel schedule:

Friday

5pm –  Leonard Nimoy and Star Trek

Saturday

4pm – Can Good Stories be Based on Bad Science?

Sunday:

11am – Picking Up the Tab: The Economics of Space Exploration

 

Oh, yeah. And Jim Butcher is the Guest of Honor. You should probably stop by and say hello to him, too. You know, so he doesn’t feel left out. Don’t worry. He’s a really nice guy.

Useless Fun Things to Know

So, as a writer, I do research. Which is code for “I surf the internet and procrastinate a lot.” All writers do it. Well, some do.

Anyway. Once down the rabbit hole, you never know what you’ll find. Here are some you may know, and some you probably didn’t. I hope you enjoy!

I know a lot of people know this one, but it is one of my favorites! A twenty-dollar word, a friend of mine called it. And I agree. I would have paid $20 to learn this word when I was a kid, just so I could have appreciated it longer!

Schadenfreude – taking pleasure from another person’s misfortune.  Here is a link to a great article about it, along with the Bonus Word “gluckschmerz“, which was made up to represent the feeling of disappointment when someone else doesn’t suffer misfortune.

Yoctosecond – one septillionth of a second, according to Webster. Once considered the shortest possible time period, it was replaced by Planck time, which is 10−44 seconds.

Wolf’s bane – is a real plant also known as monkshood and many other colorful names. It is of the family Aconitum. It is extremely poisonous, not only if you eat it, but even from just picking the leaves with bare hands. (And I used to worry about poison oak!)

speaking of which…

Poison Oak/Poison Ivy – so, we all know not to touch these, right? Makes us itch horribly. Did you know you should never burn it? The aerosolized toxins can get in your lungs and do the same thing there. Who wants itchy rash inside their lungs? By the way, that can kill.

Alkaline hydrolysis – slowly becoming legal in more states, this alternative method of disposing of a body is basically pressure-cooking it in acid until you can pour the goo down a drain. There is some controversy about making this a more wide-spread technology, as it really is a great way to dispose of a body…

Twinkies – will not survive the zombie apocalypse. In fact, they only recently extended their shelf-life to a whopping 45 days.

Stupid Laws – they are everywhere! There had to be a reason for them at one time. Here are some weird ones about driving. Seriously weird. Can’t plant rutabagas or trees in the street? Can’t have a gorilla in the back seat? Some state laws are perplexing as well. According to the Dumb Laws website, it is illegal in Denver to loan your vacuum cleaner to a neighbor.

Mice don’t like cheese – But I do! Here is an interesting look at why. Basically, they like grains, not fat.

El Pueblo de la Reina de Los Angeles – the original name for the city of Los Angeles.  “The Town of the Queen of the Angels”

Uranus has 27 moons – and they are all named after characters from the works of William Shakespeare and Alexander Pope. Why? I don’t know. There are so many more creative things you could have done with the 27 moons of Uranus.

Fingerprints aren’t perfect or the only unique identifiers – In fact, they can be misidentified pretty easily. So can DNA. But the interesting thing, to me, is that there are other things that seem to be unique. At least until they prove those aren’t either. So far, their are offerings that the patterns of our ears, our lips, and our tongues may all be unique to each individual. Man, I don’t want the cherry flavored ink when I do my tongue print.

Synthetic DNA -has been used on NFL Super Bowl footballs since 2000 to combat sports paraphernalia fraud.

Jell-O – and you thought you didn’t want to know what hot dogs were made out of. But I won’t go there. I’ve known that since I was a kid. What I didn’t know were the flavors they made. Once upon a time they made Celery, Coffee, Cola, Italian Salad, Mixed Vegetable, and Maple Syrup flavors.  Yuck!

Zilopop – a stainless steel lollipop made to take away bad breath. Right. You can buy one here at Amazon. While you’re there, search for Sam Knight and check out my books. Like P. T. Barnum said, there’s one born every minute. 

What is Mincemeat Pie and Figgy Pudding?

Yay, the holiday season is upon us and once again, my children have questions that are hard to answer!

Or hard to understand, maybe.

This year, they have asked about mincemeat pie and figgy pudding, so I thought I would share what I know/found out with you.

When I was an itty bitty one, my great grandmother made mincemeat pies from venision. I hated them. Why? In my mind, they weren’t pies. Pies were supposed to be sweet and candy-like. You know, like apple pie, or pumpkin pie. And, they had raisins. I have never cared much for raisins. But I would love to try one of her mincemeat pies today, with my ‘gown up’ tastebuds. My memory of them was a semi-sweet, yucky, cinnamon-raisin flavor.

If you look at the Wikipedia page about Mincemeat Pies and scroll down the 19th century recipe, you’ll see ingredients like currants and orange and lemon peel. If my grandmother used those, it’s no wonder my younger self didn’t care for it much.

Today many, if not most, mincemeat pies have no meat in them at all. I can’t explain why, other than perhaps “game meat” is harder to come by? Nonetheless, it seems this food was/is also known as, or closely related to, Mince Pie, which is a more fruit-based version generally served around Christmas time and also known as Mutton Pie or Christmas Pie.

I suspect that over time, and through lean-times when meat was not readily available, these pies have become interchangeable and now the ‘meat’ part of the name is still used on pies that don’t actually have meat.

Either way, I would caution that if you have a chance to try one, be prepared for a flavor more along the lines of fruitcake than a meat pot-pie or a cobbler.

Figgy Pudding is a term that confuses most of us Americans. Generally, to us, pudding is a gelatin-like substance, similar to Jell-O, but richer and runnier. Figgy Pudding is actually a bread pudding, or cake-like dessert, and is, like the Christmas Pies mentioned above, a popular holiday treat in England. Wikipedia says it can be baked, steamed, boiled, or fried. I suspect these have quite disparate outcomes. It also states that “figgy pudding” may be a generic term for this kind of desserts, not necessarily meaning made with figs, but perhaps plums or raisins.

I beleive, but could be mistaken, that I had one of these when visiting friends in England. If it was what I think it was, it was a very strong-flavored, chewy bread, very similar to some kinds of fruitcakes, softened with a brandy reduction sauce. I didn’t care for it much.

But If I ever have a chance, I will try it again!

 

Vote Early! Vote Often!

I have a story releasing as a Bonus Story for the Story of the Month Club!

It will be sent out tonight (12/16/15) so you still have time to sign up and be one of the first to receive it!

And then… you can vote for me! (If you like my story best that is.)

The Story of the Month Club is having their annual reader vote to determine who will be the featured author of the 2015 Anthology.  The contest starts today, go vote for your favorite author, story or cover.

Vote Here!

 

Planet of the Apes Anthology Story with Kevin J. Anderson!

I am so excited to announce I will be a part of this fantastic project!

You can read more about it in Rich Handley’s blog here: http://hassleinbooks.blogspot.com/2015/10/prose-of-apes-guiding-planet-on-its.html

I will be co-authoring a story with Kevin J. Anderson. My second time doing so with the legendary Science Fiction writer. To say I am excited about that part of this project would be an understatement! The list of other authors involved makes me weak in the knees!

I wanted to share a couple of quick thoughts on this project. I think it is very exciting that they have opened up the television series and the animated series for this anthology. Just having the entire original movie story arc available would have been incredible, but this, is extraordinary!

For research, I have watched the original 5 films, the television series, and am about half-way through the animated series. (I know, research sucks, right! ;D  )  I remembered all of these, if not the exact details of the stories, from when I was a kid. I found it interesting at how different each was. Online, I discovered many people consider them “alternate universes” of each other. Kind of like what happened with the Star Trek reboot. Die hard fans just pretended it was a whole different story so they can cope.  There were some surprising (if easily overlooked) discrepancies in the original movies even, so to have changes in the other series were expected for me, but… wow.

In the original series, humans couldn’t talk. On the television series, they all could. This fact alone kind of blows the plot of the first movie right out of the water, but it is still enjoyable. In the animated series, the apes are truer to the original idea for the whole thing and have a society nearly like ours with television sets and an army that drives around in military jeeps and trucks.

In spite of these differences, the two newer series reference the first, sometimes in odd and conflicting ways. Hence the whole “alternate universe” thing. (Not to mention the dramatic ending of Beneath the Planet of the Apes. No spoilers! Go watch it if you don’t remember/haven’t seen it!)

I could pick at these for a while (plot holes, things that don’t make sense, etc.) but there is no point to that. The point is to have fun with it. And the idea Kevin had for a story is exactly that.

When I heard his idea, it was pretty easy to realize our story would have to be set before the first movie. So you would think that I wouldn’t have to watch EVERYTHING for research, right? (Pshaw! Where’s the fun in that?) Actually, I still wanted to make sure that nothing like our story had been done already, and I wanted to make sure that if there was anything like it referenced, that we matched things as close as possible. Why? Well, because a) we are writing this for the fans and they would spot the problems right off and b) because we are fans and would never forgive ourselves for overlooking something obvious. (Also, I wanted the excuse to watch them all again!)

Some might ask why I would put in that kind of time. Aren’t there reference books, Wiki pages, that kind of thing where I can get quick answers? Yes, there are. But what if they are wrong? What if they are referencing Fan Fiction and I don’t realize it? What if I accidentally use something “outside” of the properties I was told we had access to? ( The original five films, the television series, and the animated series.) I would hate if we wrote the perfect story around that exact phrase said by that one character that makes the whole world work, only to find out that was from one of the comics and we have gone outside of our contract.  See? Media Tie-in writing is fun! (Actually, so far, it has been. But I have had a great mentor in Kevin J. Anderson!)

So what is our story about? I’m not gonna tell! You’ll have to buy the anthology! It should be out in Q1 2017. (Okay. That’s a long ways away. I’ll tell a little bit to hold you over. It’s about a young Dr. Zaius! [and maybe … the Forbidden Zone? Oh, yeah. If you know Kevin, you know there had to be some Forbidden Zone action!] So exciting!)