Michael Siemsen's Blog, page 4

Welcome to the new site!

Howdy! How ’bout these new digs?! I’m a nerd so all things shiny and/or animated always grab me, but so too does simplicity. This site is built on the WordPress platform, so I can now make sweeping changes, add content, and create blog posts like this one directly from my phone. Mobile device users visiting the site will receive pages scaled perfectly for their screens without the need to zoom or tap a tiny link surrounded by other tiny links. If you like the site, you should be able to post a comment below, or if you find something funky...

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The Story Behind the Story

The Story Behind THE DIG Story

Many have asked where the story of The Dig came from, and while it is rare for me to have an actual answer to the origin-of-story question, there is an interesting one in this case. When I was around 13, my older brother and I were watching TV (most likely “Cops,” “Quantum Leap,” or “American Gladiators”) and during a commercial break, one of those local news teasers came on. They always included something local, something sportsy, and something human interesty. The reporter(s) shared the local story, then something about the Dodgers or Lakers, I’m guessing, and then … “Scientists are mystified by a recent find at a dinosaur dig site: a piece of woven metal fabric was discovered that is raising serious questions … news at eleven.”


My brother and I looked at each other with wide eyes. Aliens? Time travelers? What could it be? We stayed on that channel for three hours waiting for the news to come on, and when it did, we waited through the national news segment, the local stuff, the weather, sports, past the room full of adorable kittens up for adoption at a local pet store, and then the anchors smiled and bid us goodnight. No archaeology story. No dinosaur bones. No woven metal fabric.

There was no Google at the time for us to quickly track down this story. Maybe they ran out of time? Could it have been a hoax that the producers discovered at some point between the 8:00pm teaser and 11:00pm broadcast? Or better yet, and probably far more likely, it was a cover-up. Someone from a secret government organization saw that they were going to air the biggest top secret hush-hush exposé the world has never seen, and they put a stop to that! Network executives were called and threatened, their own dark secrets used for leverage.

In case the newspeople had just run out of time, we watched the evening news on the same channel the next night. Nothing, of course.

Over the years, my brain went back to that mysterious teaser and blurb, thoroughly frustrated that I never got any resolution. It was left hanging, so enticing, just out of reach … But in the end, it’s clearly best that I never did. Whatever the real answer, it would surely have been a disappointment. Left in suspense with a question—a prompt—I got to make up my own explanation, and a character with the ability to answer it irrefutably. Matt Turner can tell you all about your little woven metal fabric.

Plagiarism as Education

My fourth grade teacher assigned my class a writing project. We were to write a short story and glue the final draft pages onto a scroll. Well, I loved to read, so I knew I would excel at this task. My favorite book series was Harry Harrison’s Stainless Steel Rat, about the galaxy’s greatest thief, Slippery Jim DiGriz. I wasn’t quite sure what my amazing story would be about, and as time flew by without a word written, I decided I would use the Rat as my inspiration. I would write about a thief…in the future…the greatest thief ever! At some point, as I wrote, I found myself stuck at parts. Slippery Jim had driven this bubble-top car at one point in the book. I had liked that part. I really wanted to have something cool like that in my story. But what’s *like* a bubble-top car without actually being a bubble-top car? Ah, screw it! It’ll be a bubble-top car! And then as I wrote it, I just wasn’t satisfied by the way I had described it. Harrison had made it sound so much cooler…maybe I’ll just borrow a few of his words…

In the end, “my” story was probably 80% Harry Harrison (the good parts), and 20% Michael Siemsen. But I wasn’t ashamed when I turned it in. I was quite proud. How impressed they would all be! And they were. I got the best grade in the class. And then I got an award from the principal in front of a hundred-plus parents and students. My scroll story was going to be on display at some library or museum or something I don’t recall. And now I was crapping my pants because I was afraid I would be caught. It had gotten too big! The odds of my teacher or classmates or principal being familiar with Harrison’s books had been slim, but now who knew how many people would read it? Someone would read it and they would know what I had done. I would be shamed and branded with a scarlet P on my chest for life.

Now, if I was the precocious younger sibling on a sitcom, I would have been so guilt-ridden that I would come forward, or someone would tell me they knew what I had done and insist I ‘fess up. But nothing happened, and soon I got the scroll back to the safety of my house. Hah! Like Slippery Jim DiGriz, I was apparently the greatest plagiarist in the galaxy! The fools! I finished the 4th grade and was elevated to a more advanced 5th grade class than all my friends, being a prodigy and all. I was screwed. I hated the teacher. Everybody in this class was smarter than me. x = hunh? When did the ABC’s start mixing with the 123’s? I didn’t do well at all. And one day I got a D on some English assignment. Oh, how the fake mighty have fallen.

The teacher spoke to me at her desk. “You know, if you had just spent a little more time on this, it could have been something great.” I shrugged. “I liked your scroll story, you know…” Great, now she’s going to ask me why I don’t write like that anymore… “Have you read Harry Harrison’s Eden series? I think you’d like it.”

She knew! I’m sure my face flushed red. The humiliation! She knew and she wanted me to know she knew. I hadn’t been so damned clever after all. Who else knew? Whom had she told? But I never heard another word about it. She kept it to herself.

So I guess there was a sitcomesque ending after all, only it was a year later. And there was a stinging lesson learned, too. To this day I am crippled by fears of unoriginality. “Has this been done before? Eh, too similar to xyz…” Others insist that every story has already been told, it’s just in how you tell it, but Mrs. Whatever-her-name-was squints at me across a room in my mind, letting me know she’s forever watching.

Harry Harrison

The "Change One Thing" Technique

Last year, when I was “between books”, having completed The Opal, but not yet ready to work on Matt Turner #3 (MT3 to the cool), I began experimenting with a couple of stories that had been buzzing around in my head for some time. One was a sort of present day techno-thriller with a spiritual twist, and the other was along the same genre lines, yet a completely different concept involving quantum physics. Some folks involved with the business side of my work considered these to be the best options for me that would “play to my fanbase” as they fall into the same arena as a book like The Dig, my debut, and a surprise bestseller. While I still love those concepts and plan to write the books at some point, I felt forced into them in the same way I felt pushed into writing The Opal before I was ready to tackle it. These were business decisions, strategy. There was no creative drive behind them, characters in my head demanding to have their stories told. I didn’t think I would be able to do them justice if I wrote them at that time.

Part of my writing process is a technique I learned from my dear friend, Stephen King. By dear friend, I mean I read his book On Writing. When I complete the first draft of a book, I let it rest for at least 6 weeks before going back to edit—the longer the better. It’s important during this time to work on something else and get my mind off of the completed book. Editing something you just wrote rarely works as you are still personally attached to everything you remember writing. But after 2-3 months, many of the words don’t feel like the brilliant gems they were a few months back. And so the more-objective editing can begin (I say more-objective, because no one can objectively edit their own work).

So one night in bed, while letting The Opal first draft “rest”—my brain busy as usual when I needed it to be settling down—I was running through my mental catalog of ideas and goals, one of which was to write a love story between two “broken” people. Nothing too depressing like Leaving Las Vegas, or tragic, but something firmly grounded in the real world, with characters resembling people that most everyone knows. An honest story that could be playing out thousands of times all over the world, right at this moment. But also not boring. If it’s too much like the real world, what’s the point? Take a picture.

In the dark of our bedroom, my wife (I thought her asleep already) put a hand on my shoulder and said “What’s wrong? You have a busy energy.” I had been silent and wasn’t moving at all, but she has a keen sense for “energy.” After some prodding, I told her I needed to start writing something tomorrow, but didn’t want it to be the stories I was currently working on. I needed something different.

She said, “Well, why don’t you start with a character this time, instead of a concept. Make up a character, fill out their history and stuff, then put the story around them.” I thought about that. And as soon as she had mentioned starting with a character, I connected that with the love story idea—which wasn’t really an idea at all, just a loose foundation, I suppose. A moment later she said “And do that ‘change one thing’ thing”, rolled over, and went to sleep. She was referring to the old technique of taking a story concept, say… a murder mystery, and changing one thing about the setting/characters/etc:

A beloved public figure is murdered…in Ancient Greece.
A husband is accused of murdering his wife. The wife is a member of an alien race that came to Earth 20 years ago.

My mind went with this…change one thing…love story, change one thing. One of them is different… one of them is an imposter. One of them is a…demon. And there Frederick was born. He couldn’t be a scary sort of demon—that’s not my style. He just happens to be a demon. He doesn’t even know why, or where he came from, or any of that. He just appeared one day, fumbled around until he knew what he was doing, and went from there.

Some have astutely pointed out the connection between Matt Turner and Frederick. Matt, in many ways, “enters” other people, experiences life as another when touching an object on which they imprinted. Frederick takes this concept to its extreme end, not only coming along for the ride as an observer, but taking over entirely, and with devastating consequences. This parallel was not intentional, and I actually began to shy away from the story when I realized they were conceptually similar, fearing that I would fall into some box labeled “Writes about people being other people.” But I was passionate about this story, and soon accepted the reality that the similarities between the books and characters stopped at this minute detail, and that anyone actually reading both MT and Frederick would see they are nothing alike, though hopefully both enjoyable in their own ways. This has fortunately been the case, with reviewers mentioning exactly that… “Not like his other books” which is great for assuaging my self-doubt, but hopefully doesn’t turn off curious MT readers who are looking for more of what they found in The Dig.

Regardless, the “Change One Thing” technique can do wonders, not just for the idea-creation stage, but for an in-progress or completed manuscript. The story may not have come out as thrilling as one had imagined and needs some sort of boost, and it doesn’t have to be extreme or sci-fi or paranormal. How about changing the gender of the protagonist or antagonist? Maybe the time setting…what would happen if the present day story is shifted to 200 years ago? Whatever the One Thing is, it should pervade the entire story, not just some revelation at the end (It was all a dream! Puke.), and works best with a character first (the most important part of the story), setting/time, or concept/theme.

So I have to give credit to my wife for depositing Frederick into my head, and I did. A Warm Place to Call Home (a demon’s story) was dedicated to her. And now Frederick is in his readers’ heads. I enjoy every review or email or comment proclaiming “I can’t get him out of my head!”

Neither can I. We’re stuck in this together.

-MS

Self-Publishing Advice for Aspiring Authors – Part I

I’ll begin by stating the obvious: none of the following matters if your book isn’t good. I recommend having it professionally edited, vetted by avid reader friends (the ones that will be bluntly honest with you), and the very best story, characters, pace, etc. that you can muster.

So let’s just assume that what you’ve got is gold, and maybe you’ve tried to query agents for months and there are simply no takers. Often times, a nice agent that sees potential in your work might throw out some advice—“too many characters” . . . “lose the snarky narrator’s voice” . . . things like that. They don’t have the time to tell you how to re-write your book to make it more marketable, but you should consider their advice. They’re professional readers, after all, and they’ve seen what publishers buy and what they don’t. It doesn’t mean they’re always right. J.K. Rowling was famously rejected by twelve publishers before a small press took a chance on this quaint little Harry Potter story of hers.

Now, you’ve gone back to what you thought was already gold, and you’ve polished it to a high shine. Maybe you’ve sent it out for a second round, or maybe you’ve grown tired of rejection. However it is that you’ve come to this point, you’ve opted for the Indie route. There’s nothing wrong it, not as much of a stigma attached, and a number of reasons why this course can be better than the traditional alternative. Google around and read what folks have to say about traditional publishing vs. self-publishing. There are some great blogs out there from insiders like Nathan Bransford and Alan Rinzler. (You should also follow Chuck Sambuchino religiously if you’re looking for an agent)

There is so much to learn and read and do before jumping into self-publishing. Just because it’s easy to go onto Amazon or B&N and upload a book, doesn’t mean you should take it lightly.

I’ll write more on this overall subject in a future blog, but for now I want to focus on one thing: The Cover

Everyone judges an unknown book by its cover. It is the first thing that people are going to see when they are absentmindedly scrolling through the new releases. You need to grab them with that cover so they click in and read your amazing Book Description. In my opinion, the cover is the second most important weapon in the indie author’s arsenal.

There was an article in Wired magazine a few years back entitled Design Artwork for a Shrinking Album Cover that was very enlightening, and now so relevant in the book world. Keeping the thumbnail in mind is crucial to being noticed, crucial to getting that eager click to read your description.

Some examples. I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings here, so I’ll use authors who don’t really need any help from a good book cover as examples of what not to do…



“A Bend in the Road” by Nicholas Sparks - WTH are we looking at here? I can’t tell a single thing about this book.

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“Queen of the Damned” by Anne Rice – Besides the fact that this is written by Anne Rice, I can’t see anything interesting in this thumbnail. And you don’t have Anne Rice’s name recognition.

Now, here are some excellent covers that, to me, appear to have been designed with the thumbnail in mind, or simply work well in the tiny format. Your cover should have a single point of focus that a person can discern on their screen. If your title doesn’t have big words like “The Philanderer’s Mistresses” you can have the double whammy of a readable title combined with an interesting focal point…


The Host by Stephanie Meyer - Yeesh, I'll buy it if you tell her to stop looking at me like th-...no, seriously, stop.


Eragon by Christopher Paolini - Yup, that's a dragon. Into dragons? This book's got 'em.


This Dark Endeavor by Kenneth Oppel - Ooh, a keyhole! I want to look inside! I feel so curious and sneaky!


Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins - Yeah, this is just awesome design in general.

Now these are not necessarily all AMAZING covers, but as I scrolled down the list of books on goodreads that people had marked or rated, I grabbed the ones that actually stood out; the ones that I didn't have to squint to decipher. There are tons more examples. Pretty much all of the Twilight books. That is not to say that every cover should look like a YA book, but there is much we can learn from how those covers have been designed. Keep your eye out now for these types of covers: what grabs you? How might you use this technique on your own book?

There are a couple of things you definitely want to save up for: an editor and a cover designer (and a reliable car, moldless house, etc.).

That’s all for now. Next time I‘ll go into description and promotional type stuff…

I'll leave you with a few more covers that grab and appeal to their target audiences:




-MS

The Small Penis Rule

As I write the follow-up to “The Dig”, I’ve been developing and incorporating some interesting new characters. One or two of them may or may not be based upon real people I know or knew. One such character I began writing, not realizing who he was, and then soon noticed he behaved and said things that a specific friend of mine would say or do (all good, funny stuff). At some point, I was messaging back and forth with this friend and told him that he was making an appearance in my new book, with the caveat that if he did not find the portrayal flattering, that I was actually joking and the character was in no way inspired by him. Then adding that there would really be no reason for a nasty lawsuit (my friend is a lawyer).

That is when he asked me if I had ever heard of the “Small Penis Rule”. Um. No, my friend, do tell. He proceeded to tell me of this real life strategy for avoiding a libel lawsuit. Essentially, if you despise someone (I suppose the someone would have to be male for this specific tactic to work), you could feel free to include them in your book in the least flattering manner possible. Call them a liar, a fraud who cheats their customers at every turn, you name it! But you have to also mention that they have a small penis. With the latter description in place, it comes down to saying (when asked) that the character in question is simply not that real life person. To which they would reply…what? “No, that absolutely describes me!” thereby admitting that they do, indeed, have a wee shortcoming in the pants.

A version of this technique is present in “The Help”, wherein a nasty woman in the town can’t publicly complain that a character in a controversial book is her, because then she would be admitting to something quite embarrassing.

I looked into said rule, and was very pleased to discover that Michael Crichton used the strategy in his novel, “Next”, wherein he included a character named Mick Crowley. In real life, MICHAEL Crowley is a journalist who wrote a negative review of Crichton’s book “State of Fear”. In “Next”, the character Mick Crowley is a child rapist, graduate of Yale, and journalist…with a small penis.

I believe I will accept my friend’s free legal advice on this matter.

Music: The Underappreciated Inspiration

It may have been done, but I have yet to see it in a book I’ve read. “This book is dedicated to the musicians that created the music I listened to while writing this book.” I don’t have many author friends, but I do know from various blogs and interviews that a good number of them, like me, listen to music while writing. But who do we acknowledge and thank when the masterpiece is complete? The spouse, the kids, the disabled person we met at some charitable event.

It is true that an author’s significant other and offspring deserve all the recognition they receive. The kids are pretty much on their own while you toil at the keyboard, free to see exactly why they aren’t allowed to stick a meat fork in the wall outlet. The wife has to suck it up when you say “movie tonight…yeesh, I was actually going to try to get through this chapter…” So yes, I suppose they’ve earned their dedication at the front of the finished product that kept you from them for so long. But what about the Thank You’s at the back?

For me, musicians are unique creators among artists. Their work can inspire every other type of artist (except, perhaps, deaf ones) as they create in their own medium. They inspire other musicians, authors, painters, sculptors, engineers, assassins, and pretty much anyone that has something to do that’s going to take more than a few minutes. They stick in their earbuds, adjust the iDevice’s volume to a safe, responsible level, and get to work. Of course, artists of all sorts find inspiration in the works of their peers: the writer has to read, the painter has to go to museums, the web designer likes to see how the other coder put that page together. And yes, I suppose it wouldn’t hurt me to go look at some art for inspiration, but that’s more general and temporary, and I don’t believe it will get me through three months of composition. The inspiration absorbed from the art form of music spans all other creative endeavors.

Nature, too, inspires me. It is an invaluable source of energy. I hope to one day own a cabin in the woods in which I can disappear for a few days at a time and get over a hump of the evil block. In my cabin, I can crank my music to 11, frightening away any of the area’s larger, mobile representatives of nature, and focus on creation. Hopefully there will be a selection of tasty foods that can be delivered to said cabin, as I never cook for just one. But I digress. Because I’m hungry right now.

In closing, I would like to acknowledge and thank the following artists that have contributed more than they will ever know to my creative process. They may not all be music that I listen to in the car just to rock out or sing in the shower, but when it comes time to write, each one has been a part of a playlist crafted specifically for the book in progress. Whether it be the lyrics, instrumentation, or simply the mood of the music, these have shaped sentences, paragraphs, chapters, themes, and characters.

The Dig Soundtrack: Angels & Airwaves, Weezer, Brand New, Alkaline Trio, Blitzen Trapper, Bloc Party, The Gaslight Anthem, Vampire Weekend

Untitled Novel-in-progress Soundtrack: Band of Horses, The National, Explosions in the Sky, Mogwai, The XX, We Were Promised Jetpacks, Denez Prigent, Sigur Ros, WU LYF

The Dig Sequel-in-progress Soundtrack: Angels & Airwaves, Brand New, Mr. Little Jeans, Manchester Orchestra, Dum Dum Girls, Fever Ray, FC Kahuna, Julian Casablancas, The Strokes, Noel Gallagher