Benjamin Wallace's Blog, page 30
September 11, 2012
20 Questions with Andrew Livingston
It’s hardly relevant since I haven’t even sent “Thief of Shadows” out to publishers yet (there are some relatives who want to read it first, and it’s taking a while), besides which this is one of those stories where the more you know about the plot going in the less special it’s all going to be, but I suppose I can summarize without spoiling too much. There are five people who have known each other’s names for most of their lives—in some cases since birth. For each one of them the other four names just keep echoing in their heads like half-remembered song lyrics from childhood. And none of these people have ever heard of each other otherwise. That’s the basic premise; the mystery is solved halfway through and the rest of the story deals with their reaction to the knowledge, the question of what to do with the abilities afforded by it.
2. What inspired you to write this tale?
As a writer you should know better than to ask something like that. What, don’t people ask *you* those questions too often for your liking?
Well, all right, just this once. I’m not sure exactly what the germ of the idea was but I have wondered at times if it might have emerged from “Five Characters in Search of an Exit”. It *is* my favorite “Twilight Zone” episode, after all.
3. Do you have a favorite quote about creativity/inspiration etc…? What is it?
Not really but if I must choose something then let’s go with this citation from “On Writing” by Stephen King: “There is a muse, but he’s not going to come fluttering down into your writing room and scatter creative fairy-dust all over your typewriter or computer. He lives in the ground. He’s a basement kind of guy. You have to descend to his level, and once you get down there you have to furnish an apartment for him to live in. You have to do all the grunt labor, in other words, while the muse sits and smokes cigars and admires his bowling trophies and pretends to ignore you. Do you think it’s fair? I think it’s fair. He may not be much to look at, that muse-guy, and he may not be much of a conversationalist, but he’s got inspiration. It’s right that you should do all the work and burn all the midnight oil, because the guy with the cigar and the little wings has got a bag of magic. There’s stuff in there that can change your life. Believe me, I know.”
4. What things do you keep in your “writing space”? Do they inspire you? Confound you? Hold wires in place?
I am not the least bit interested in what’s lying around the computer. I do like to keep headphones plugged in, though.
5. What is your perfect “writing space”?
Any place free of distraction. Which can be surprisingly hard to come by.
6. If your car horn could play any song, which would it be? Can’t say Dixie.
Why the hell would I say “Dixie”?!
It should be those magical opening eleven notes of “Moonlight Shadow” by Mike Oldfield. Just imagine it: wouldn’t that sound great coming out of a car horn?
7. What would you name the first permanent settlement on mars?
I wouldn’t. I find the whole Mars exploration thing silly, irresponsible, and without any obvious practical value. There are too many things that need to be done on this planet: to focus so much time and tax money instead on some barren spot a million miles away is sheer folly, and seems to be driven by no other clear motive except pure escapism or wildly overblown environmental alarmism.
8. How tall is the perfect sidekick? Please explain why it even matters.
It doesn’t. If I must say *something* then I would tell you not to deviate too much from average height. Make him too large and he might appear to be hired muscle or the brawns to the hero’s brains; make him too small and people might be offended by some imagined symbolism. But again, that’s an arbitrary answer. For most stories at least it doesn’t matter at all.
9. If you were to mess with the time stream, what would you change? Let’s assume a hundred other people already took care of Hitler so you don’t have to say, “Kill Hitler.”
I would much rather use time travel to take advantage of the opportunity to observe the world in secret and learn about the past. As it is history involves too much guesswork. I highly doubt that it could be possible to mess with the time stream anyway. The logical paradoxes involved would be staggering. I’m not even a hundred percent certain it *should* be done.
10. Let’s say your character has a pet brown bear. What’s the bear’s name?
Depends on the character. This one guy in “Thief of Shadows” named Joey might name his Aloysius Glasscock for sentimental reasons. (It makes sense in context.)
11. If you had to give an antagonist an annoying trait, what would it be?
Right now there may be no greater or more pervasive common nuisance than internet trolls. It seems that most comments sections I come across, as well as a hell of a lot of message boards, seem to be these little deposits on the fringe of society whither all the dross of humanity naturally floats as though drawn by forces of nature. Nobody likes a troll. The antagonist in question would probably talk mainly in Justin Bieber jokes (no I don’t like Bieber, I’m just sick to death of the cliché) and go around constantly calling other people’s beliefs fairy tales and saying “over nine THOOOOUUUUSAAAAAND!!!” about every three minutes. And so forth. A satire of everything despicable about the net.
12. What kind of car would your ultimate protagonist drive?
I don’t think I’ll ever top The Batmobile with anything I create.
13. You’ve got a year to travel anywhere. Where?
I’d try to hit as many different places as I could, but I definitely would aim for jolly old England as a priority.
14. You just bought a boat with your book fortune. What are you going to call it?
Aloysius Glasscock. No, really, I would probably name it “Surge and Thunder” as an allusion to Andrew Lang.
15. What kind of music, if any, gets you typing the fastest?
I’ve never noticed music altering my typing speed. Listening to music can, however, sometimes inspire characters. I think that the aforementioned Joey sprang largely out of “Night Train” by The Bouncing Souls and “Born to Run” by Bruce Springsteen, and another character named Hannah was based on Mike Oldfield’s “Man in the Rain”. There’s a character named Sarah whose personality I think was based partly on the ambience of Holst’s “Somerset Rhapsody”.
16. What’s the punch line to your favorite joke?
We all know this one: “Watson, you royal jackass, someone stole our tent!!”
17. What lyric do you sing poorly, yet loudly?
I don’t do a great deal of singing and have an inconveniently soft voice. I used to sing numbers from Marx Brothers films in the bathtub, however—stuff like “When the Clock on the Wall Strikes Ten” and “Alone”. I probably didn’t exactly excel at that, although “poorly” seems to be pushing it.
18. You find a portal to another world in your sink’s drain. What is this other world called? And what is the best way to clean the portal so it doesn’t smell like old food?
It’s up to them what they call their own world. I wouldn’t care about keeping the portal clean. (Do you polish your front door every day?) I would just get something to magnify my voice, and then talk to the people of the other world through the hole. A lot can be learned from the exotic—the most important lesson usually being how similar it is to the familiar.
19. Where can people learn more about you, your work or any pets you have?
I guess through my Twitter handle @AndrewLivingst2. I no longer use my Tumblr site. I don’t tend to say a lot about myself at Twitter, though. I mostly just think aloud.
20. What’s next?
Although I am planning a sequel to “Thief of Shadows” (should the first one ever come out, God willing), for the time being I probably have a very long time in the doldrums ahead of me as I wait for my chance to send off the book, wait to hear back from the people I send it off to, and then maybe get the chance to wait for the publication. It could be years. For the moment I’m content to engage in my current projects. I’m trying to teach myself to draw worth a damn and I like to take pictures of local scenes and write poems about them. There should also be the occasional short story. You can find it all at http://www.facebook.com/ziggy.zag2. I now put all of my art apart from my novels there. Also all of my blogs.
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September 6, 2012
Using My Words – Characters
Out in the real world, I’m fairly anti-social. I hate crowded places and have a slight disdain for people in general. Not like a super-villainous urge to rid the world of humanity by any stretch, I just don’t like how people act when they are in groups. This could make it difficult to create life-like characters but the world has a way of throwing people at you.
I was at a casino not too long ago when a guy and his friend wanted to borrow my phone at about 7 in the morning. The guy was wearing a wife beater and one hand was wrapped in an ace bandage. His friend looked fairly normal but apparently lacked the capacity to put a hat on straight.
The guy’s phone was out of minutes and he needed to make a call because his “bitch sister” had left without him. I let him use the phone to call his cousin and a couple of other folks to try and get a ride because I felt that the casino would have been a nicer place without him.
In the course of his dialing a couple of numbers I learned several things about him. His sister was a bitch. I only know this because he told me several times. He had gotten some friends escorted from the casino after he had been forced to pull a knife on them. But he didn’t stab them because “that’s me being a grown up. That’s me being responsible.” All his “bitches” numbers were in Texas. He didn’t mess with those Oklahoma girls. One of his girls was claiming that she was pregnant. But he told her she was lying so now she’s mad at him. He works at Braums and McDonalds because it’s a job and he’s proud of that but he’s use to making $18 an hour doing electrical work which he is currently doing at a new old folks home site. His sister works in the vault at the casino so we should try and pull off a heist. His cousin owns all the strip clubs in Arlington. (He invited me to go to a strip club at that point but respected that I was married.)
His friend thought he recognized me. At first I thought maybe because of the books, but looking at his hat again I could all but guarantee that he wasn’t a “reader” or “literate.”
In the end, he couldn’t get a hold of anyone, cursed his sister again and they wandered off.
All in all it was an interesting 5 minutes.
I’m not saying that this guy or his friend will appear in any of my stories. But it was a nice confirmation that I can make a character as stupid as I want and not risk being unbelievable.
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September 4, 2012
20 Questions with Frank Fiore
1. So, what’s your book all about?
My current work is the Chronicles of Jeremy Nash. Jeremy Nash is a noted debunker and skeptic of conspiracy theories, urban legends and myths and is drawn into pursuing them. Each Nash chronicle in the series is a thriller that sends Nash on an investigation of these myths and legends. Though he doesn’t believe in any of them, he is forced into pursuing them by threats to the lives of his family members or himself or threats to his reputation. The Chronicles is three book series that is available on the Nook, Kindle and Apple platforms. I am currently running a promotion for the books. Two of them are selling for only .99 cents and SEED, the second book is being offered as a serial of 15 parts that can be downloaded from Smashwords for free.
2. What inspired you to write this tale?
I’m a skeptic. Like Nash.
3. Do you have a favorite quote about creativity/inspiration etc…? What is it?
Never give up. A fellow writer, Paul McCarthy, told me to write as many books as possible. Get those books out into the marketplace. If they are good, when one hits, readers will go back and read all your others. Keep producing. Never stop.
4. What things do you keep in your “writing space”? Do they inspire you? Confound you? Hold wires in place?
Sticky notes. Lots and lots of sticky notes.
5. What is your perfect “writing space”?
A nice bar at a local resort or fancy restaurant.
6. If your car horn could play any song, which would it be? Can’t say Dixie.
Lying Eyes by the Eagles.
7. What would you name the first permanent settlement on mars?
Ray Bradburyville. (For Martian Chronicles)
8. How tall is the perfect sidekick? Please explain why it even matters.
I don’t see it matter.
9. If you were to mess with the time stream, what would you change? Let’s assume a hundred other people already took care of Hitler so you don’t have to say, “Kill Hitler.”
Funny you should ask that. My next thriller deals with what would happen if Japan won WWII?
10. Let’s say your character has a pet brown bear. What’s the bear’s name?
Let’s see. Let me look at my teddy bear collection. My favorite bear is Thorndike.
11. If you had to give an antagonist an annoying trait, what would it be?
Picking his nose.
12. What kind of car would your ultimate protagonist drive?
A six wheel Hummer. Like the one in my novel SEED.
13. You’ve got a year to travel anywhere. Where?
Gee. I’ve been to every continent save South America so that would be next.
14. You just bought a boat with your book fortune. What are you going to call it?
The ‘LYNNE’ after my wife.
15. What kind of music, if any, gets you typing the fastest?
Top Gun.
16. What’s the punch line to your favorite joke?
Clean? OK. “So she’d love you Adam”. Good joke in mixed company.
17. What lyric do you sing poorly, yet loudly?
Frank Sinatra songs – I gotta be me.
18. You find a portal to another world in your sink’s drain. What is this other world called? And what is the best way to clean the portal so it doesn’t smell like old food?
The planet of willing stewardesses. I wouldn’t clean it. Just leer into it.
19. Where can people learn more about you, your work or any pets you have?
Go to my author site at www.frankfiore.com and my blog at http://frankfiore.wordpress.com/
20. What’s next?
I’ve just finished a novel called Murran. Murran is the story of a young African-American boy named Trey coming of age in the 1980s, and his rite of passage to adulthood. Trey is a member of a ‘crew’ in Brooklyn and is enticed into helping a violent street gang. He is eventually framed for murder and flees with his high school teacher to the teacher’s Maasai village in Kenya. Trey goes through the Maasai warrior’s rite of passage, becomes a young shaman, and returns to America to confront and defeat the gang leader that framed him.
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August 30, 2012
Using My Words – “Reviews”
So, it has come out that the indie phenom John Locke paid for some of his 5-star reviews (see link below for the article). He wasn’t the only one but he was the best known. John Locke was the first indie author to sell 1 million ebooks. He even wrote a book about how he did it (the whole buying 5-star reviews bit wasn’t in it).
There’s already been a lot of debate about whether this was right or wrong or whether it made a difference in his sales. Some are defending him. Many are attacking him. It seems everyone has an opinion on it. So, here’s mine:
This may seem strange coming from a guy who makes things up for a living but I value honesty a great deal. I also believe in the value of hard work. Some are defending Locke for being bold and taking an opportunity when he saw it. Fine, they can think that.
But outside of the stories I put in my fiction, I don’t want to tell any untruths to the people willing to read my books. I don’t want to betray their trust. I appreciate everyone that has given me a chance by picking up one of my books or stories and I’m not about to abuse that.
Yes, even if I knew I could become the next John Locke by paying for a bunch of 5-star reviews I simply wouldn’t. It wouldn’t be right. I’d love his level of success, but I’m not about to compromise who I am to get it. It seems he has no issues with it as he defends it in the article. Maybe he’s the same guy who shoved hundreds under the board while playing Monopoly and felt it was okay because it just meant he was smarter than everyone. Maybe manipulation it’s just the way the world works. But, I want no part of it. I’m pretty cynical but I still believe there is good in the world.
I will never buy reviews. I’m not even comfortable asking for them. Don’t get me wrong, I love getting nice reviews and they do help tremendously, but I never want to pressure anyone into putting one up. I want to earn every review that I get and I will be grateful for it.
Now his actions have made it that much harder for indies. He’s given us all a black eye. Any marketer or business man can rationalize all day what he did. Readers I don’t think will be so forgiving.
Maybe I’m a sucker for thinking this way. Maybe the world is going to walk all over me for being so gullible to believe that hard work and honesty can get you places. I’m okay with that, because I’ll still be able to sleep at night knowing that I did right by everyone that did right by me.
What are your thoughts on the matter?
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August 28, 2012
20 Questions with Robert Rosen
It’s an investigative memoir called Beaver Street: A History of Modern Pornography, and it’s about what I witnessed over a 16-year period as an editor for such magazines as High Society, Swank, Stag, and D-Cup. I then combined these first-hand accounts with research and reporting to create a detailed insider’s portrait of a multi-billion-dollar industry in a state of traumatic upheaval. Michael Musto of the Village Voice called Beaver Street “entertaining, insightful, and hot.”
2. What inspired you to write this tale?
After working in porn for a couple of days, I realized was seeing things both shocking and absurd that had never been written about. I knew immediately that this was the basis for a book.
3. Do you have a favorite quote about creativity/inspiration etc…? What is it?
Yeah. Writing is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration.
4. What things do you keep in your “writing space”? Do they inspire you? Confound you? Hold wires in place?
A lot of books and a computer. Great books inspire me.
5. What is your perfect “writing space”?
A room of my own with a lock on the door, to paraphrase Virginia Woolf.
6. If your car horn could play any song, which would it be? Can’t say Dixie.
I live in Manhattan. I don’t own a car and I hate the sound of car horns.
7. What would you name the first permanent settlement on mars?
Studio 54.
8. How tall is the perfect sidekick? Please explain why it even matters.
There is no perfect sidekick of any height. See question 11.
9. If you were to mess with the time stream, what would you change? Let’s assume a hundred other people already took care of Hitler so you don’t have to say, “Kill Hitler.”
In 1981, I was given John Lennon’s diaries and told to use them as the basis for an authorized Lennon biography. The diaries were stolen, but they still became the inspiration for my first book, Nowhere Man, an unauthorized Lennon bio. I’d have hidden a photocopy of the diaries.
10. Let’s say your character has a pet brown bear. What’s the bear’s name?
Fuzzy Wuzzy.
11. If you had to give an antagonist an annoying trait, what would it be?
Perfectionism.
12. What kind of car would your ultimate protagonist drive?
One powered by sunlight.
13. You’ve got a year to travel anywhere. Where?
Around the world to visit all the countries I haven’t been to yet.
14. You just bought a boat with your book fortune. What are you going to call it?
Beaver Street
15. What kind of music, if any, gets you typing the fastest?
The music in my head. I rarely listen to recorded music when I write. I find it distracting.
16. What’s the punch line to your favorite joke?
Cary Grant!
17. What lyric do you sing poorly, yet loudly?
Varies from day to day—Kinks, Beatles, Stones, and of course the songs my wife, Mary Lyn Maiscott, wrote, which you can hear on her CD, Blue Lights.
18. You find a portal to another world in your sink’s drain. What is this other world called? And what is the best way to clean the portal so it doesn’t smell like old food?
Nowhereland. I’m terrible at housecleaning, so I’d hire professionals.
19. Where can people learn more about you, your work or any pets you have?
On my website: www.robertrosennyc.com
20. What’s next?
I’m working on a novel called Bobby in Naziland. In part it’s about a child growing up in Brooklyn in the 1950s and early ’60s where, to quote from the book, “World War II lingered like a mass hallucination on East 17th Street and large swaths of the surrounding borough.”
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August 23, 2012
Using My Words – Serials
Today, I’m throwing out a straight up warning. Beware the serial novel.
I started writing the first of The Bulletproof Adventures of Damian Stockwell as a serial to include in my newsletter. I wanted to offer subscribers something exclusive. It’s done that but it’s also proved a constant distraction.
It’s a story I always wanted to tell with a character that’s existed in my head for years and I dove in enthusiastically. I’ve lost no passion for the project but it’s proven an irritant to a certain extent.
If I miss a deadline I feel like I’ve let some folks down. So, I often have to drop what I’m working on at the moment to get the next chapter out. This ruins any rhythm I’ve gained on the current project. I’ve talked about focus before and how I struggle with it. The serial doesn’t help.
So will I do another one? Yes. Why? Because I’m a slow learner and it has it’s benefits.
One – I get to work on a second story. And no matter how much it distracts me, I’m still making progress on it. Two – I’ll have another novel to release at the story’s end, so it is not a wasted effort.
However, it robs me of the editing process a little and ties my hands to what I’ve already released. I cannot go back and make changes.
I do intend to do another serial next year, but I hope to have much more of it written ahead of time. The constant catching up adds some serious stress to my life. Who likes stress?
If you’re planning on writing a serial, my only advice is to know what it will involve and try to have the majority of it done before hand.
Note: Stockwell should be back in the newsletter this month as it is my sole focus for the next month or so. I’m looking forward to it and plan to have the entire novel in my newsletter by October.
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August 16, 2012
Using My Words – Short Stories
Why short stories? I love short stories.
The Most Dangerous Game, Lenigan vs. the Ants, The Illustrated Man, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty; these were some of my first favorite stories and they didn’t have to be long to make their impact felt.
I’ve always loved short stories and now I write them. I have a couple of reasons:
1 – Not every story takes long to tell. Just ask someone about their day. See? They took way too long. I think some authors struggle to fill space in their stories just to have space. A story should take only as many words as it needs to tell. I can only make so many jokes about the Tooth Fairy.
2 – Like I said, I love them. They’re fun, they’re satisfying and they’re quick. Once I feel good about a topic for the Dumb White Husbands series and have the plot mapped out in my head, it takes only a couple of days to write. It’s still more satisfying to finish writing a novel, but the feeling of finishing any story is encouraging.
3 – But, the biggest reason I write them is marketing. Whatever you write is going to be your best ad. But look at what I write – post-apocalyptic comedies. It’s a niche genre. So niche I believe there are only a couple of books in it. I had to broaden my appeal. A short story is a great introduction to new readers. It’s as cheap as Amazon will let it be and doesn’t ask for a lot of time from the reader.
Many readers of the Dumb White Husband series have gone on to read my novels and enjoyed them. The short stories are my best marketing tool. Why? They don’t find me under sci-fi or comedy. They find me under shorts stories and parenting and family. Genres that are less niche. Plus, it doesn’t hurt that I earn money from this form of advertising versus paying for placement.
I owe a lot to the Dumb White Husband. Most of all, I owe it a bunch of readers that never would have found me otherwise.
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August 10, 2012
A Writer’s Space – Woelf Dietrich
As stated in my comment, I haven’t done anything to this room. I’ve made plans, but so far those plans are all in my head. What I have currently is a dull place, but it works… for now.
We share an interest in workspaces, so I wondered whether you were aware of a series hosted by the Guardian in the UK in which they feature various writers’ working environments. It is an interesting and odd read, but satisfying, kinda. Check out this link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/serie...
So without further delay, here is my fabulously dowdy office:
Picture 1: This is my desk and you can see part of one of the two bookcases I have in there. Opposite the desk is a window and a bed. The view from the window is of our driveway. On the ground next to the desk are some notes and stuff from my conversion studies for the Bar exam here in NZ. I still have three papers to write before I can practice law here. Not sure if I still want to do it, but that is another story for another time. Anyway, as you can see, the walls in my office are shiny white and bland. The chair is from my dining room. Until recently, I enjoyed the luxury of a comfortable leather swivel chair. I’ve swivelled many miles in that thing, but I think I had it too long because it just broke, without warning — not even a notice. One moment I’m engrossed in world building, the next moment I’m inspecting carpet fibres. Luckily, no one was in the room when it happened.
Picture 2: Here you see the entrance to my “office” and parts of the two bookcases. About 70% of my books are still boxed away in the garage. I miss them.
Picture 3: I had to show you this. I got these a couple of years ago. Three retro-looking metal plaques that remind me of the 80s Batman et al.
About the Writer
I’ve taken a year off from practicing law to write. I’m currently writing a fantasy called “The Spirit Bow” that takes place in ancient Sumer. I’m also experimenting with urban fantasy and is writing a story that involve werewolves, vampires and demons, and even a god or two. Oh, and because I’m married and housebroken, it will have a love story too. Come to think of it, my fantasy has a love story as well, but it is more the forbidden kind.
You can keep up with Woelf in the following ways:
Website: http://woelfmad.tumblr.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Woelf20
Want to share your writing space?
Send me some pics and a write-up and I’ll be happy to share them here on my site. Also, be sure and plug your book.
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