Matthew Ledrew's Blog, page 16
March 5, 2019
Watch Your Reviews | Writing & Publishing Advice with Engen Founder Matthew LeDrew
It’s been a long time since I wrote an ongoing series of articles on this, or any other, website. That’s weighed on me. Since graduating I miss the exercise of penning essays. I’ve even encouraged my fellow Engen authors to write ongoing writing blogs (namely Ali House, Brad Dunne, Kit Sora, and Jon Dobbin, all of whom you should check out). But I never have myself. Writing advice is one thing, all our authors can offer that… but publishing advice? Marketing advice? Social Media advice… that comes with a different set of expectations, and a lot of hurt feelings.
Part of my anxiety around this has become the subject of today’s piece, because I want to address the evident hypocrisy in it right off the bat.
Today’s advice is: don’t post negative reviews, especially of authors at (or near) your current level of notoriety.
I’m a part of a group for Genre Writers and have shared very similar advice to this is the past, and it’s one of the only things I’ve ever posted to that group to get an unhealthy amount of negative backlash… which, in itself, proves the point. People get defensive. People get hurt. People get mean. The back and forth can quickly become toxic (it didn’t in that case, I just didn’t engage back).
There’s a certain amount of back-and-forth to this argument, and I’d like to explore some of it before arriving at a solid conclusion as to exactly why writing negative or overly critical reviews is a bad idea.
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The backlash on my original private group post took the main form of: How dare you suggest I not use my voice / that would be taking away my voice. The problem with this sentiment is where you see yourself in the overall scheme of pop-culture, and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Criticism is kind of like comedy: it’s okay to punch up, less so to punch down. I have the utmost respect for book critics and essayists, but as a rule when they review an author’s work they are setting themselves lower on the “creator pyramid” than the author: it’s okay for them to critique because they’re just talking about art, whereas you are creating the art. It’s perceived as ‘punching up.’
The problem comes from authors who have books out but maybe aren’t yet still where they want to be wanting to occupy both parts of that equation. Sure they have books out, but they still want to comment of problems they see with other books, because they feel they haven’t “risen high” enough that it counts as “punching down.” The problem: that review will live on forever. Even if you delete, try and get rid of it from all four corners of the Internet, it will live on in memory. In the popular consciousness, you’ve locked yourself into the lower level of the “creator pyramid” thing (which I admit is a shaky metaphor, I’m just trying to get my point across). Look at it this way: writing overtly negative reviews can either lock you in place as never becoming a bigger author, or, it can make it so that if you ever do become big, those reviews will be perceived as “punching down” at less-successful author and you’ll get a bad rep in the industry and beyond. It is literally lose-lose.
I’m not saying you shouldn’t or can’t speak your mind, I’m just tying to be real: that action has consequences you might not foresee.
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It can paint a huge target on your back: And I don’t mean in the “people will come to get you” sort of way. I mean, whatever criticism you railed against in your review, a lot of people are going to be unconsciously looking for that in your work, now. If you’re going to critique a peer, you had better be perfect in that field yourself. And none of us are perfect.
My favorite example of this is TYPOS. I will never, ever, mention typos in a review of a book, for a long list of reasons.
If it’s an indie book, its entirely possible those errors will get fixed in a very-soon edition… but that review will stick around, which seems unfair.
I helped judge the 2018 NLBA awards. Read just about every fiction book from just about every major publisher in my area… every one had at least one typo. There is a strong cognitive bias against small-press and indie books: when we see a typo in a book that we think was put out by a big publisher, we shrug and say “it happens.” Or we may even assume we missed something. When we see it in an indie book with far less resources? We call it out. Which again, see above: calling out the little guy but not the bigger ones feels like “punching down.” Take it from me: every book has typos. If you didn’t see any in your favorite, you were just enjoying reading it too much to notice.
Hypocrisy. My books have had typos. Early on, before we hired on Erin Vance, there were a ton of typos. There are still some, in all our books (see above: every book has typos). They get fixed as I’m made aware of them, and for the most part, the books are clean. I’d call them as typo-free as any major publisher at this point. But I would never point out typos in another book derisively… because then people will judge me even more harshly for mine. Because then I’m a hypocrite. And if a fellow author calls out my work for having them… you best believe when I pick up their work I’m checking for them. And if they’re there? Never working with that person. I cannot abide hypocrites. No place for it in our industry.
The target isn’t just with typos, though. If anything, that’s the least of your target-related concerns, because it’s objective. Worse is if you accuse a book of being sexist, or problematic, or some other issue… because those things exist mainly in the mind of the reader. We interpret books. A problematic character does not equal a problematic book, and authors who tear into what they think another author “means” can be subject to the same treatment… but it’s worse now, because they’ve set themselves up as having the moral high ground. At worst you have started a fight you cannot win with someone who is actually like-minded to you, and at worst: you’ve started a wrestling fight with a pig.
Never wrestle with a pig. You’ll just get dirty, and the pig will enjoy it.
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But isn’t it good marketing? I’ll review the books on YouTube / Goodreads / Twitter and people will like and follow me, and then maybe buy my book? That’s an idea, in concept. I’m not sure it’s ever happened. There are plenty of social-media stars that have gone on to write (or have ghost-written) successful books, sure… but that’s not what you’re talking about. You’re talking about starting with the goal of being an author, writing reviews, getting famous from the reviews, and that translating into sales for the book. I don’t think that’s ever happened.
Again, it kind of comes down to perceived placement on that badly-named, I’m-gonna-get-feedback “Creative Pyramid.” When people fall in love with a book or movie reviewer on YouTube, they recognize that the videos are the main product. They then buy the book later in the career to help support that main product. If you start with a book then move into critique, people sense that. People see what it is. At best, they’ll see it for what it is: marketing by jumping on the bandwagon of what everyone else it talking about. Piggybacking, basically. At worst, it’ll be seen as a cart-before-the-horse situation: who does this reviewer think he/she is? They only have 29 subscribers and they have a book out already?
Again: critics and authors tend not to occupy the same space, and when people try to do so, they often end up stuck in whichever they didn’t want to be in.
You’re a hypocrite Matthew LeDrew! You have a GoodReads profile and you had a series of reviews called “Other Indie” that you haven’t updated in forever! Both true points. I’ve been tempted to get away from GoodReads for a while… but like people above, I see it as a personal account, not a business one. That’s a delusion on my part. If I write something negative it tends to be about something huge, like a big comic book crossover or something… but even that’s risky.
“Other Indie” segues nicely into my advice on how to write reviews, if you must. If you go back and read those reviews, they are very positive. If there is anything negative, it’s framed as me questioning the text… that’s a system of critique I learned in University. It’s loosely based on “Freudian Theory.” Basically, whatever bothers you most about a book, try and re-frame it as though the author intentionally did that, and that that’s the point of the book, and then look for supporting material in the text.
My go-to example for this is HG Wells’ “The Time Machine.” It features a second-hand story about a nameless white protagonist traveling ‘back in time’ (a phrase people used to use for saying what it was like traveling to visit ‘less civilized’ cultures) and meeting two races of people: one simple and sweet, and the other monstrous. He immediately names the monstrous race a slur… and takes one of the “simple, childlike” people as his bride. You can see the problems here, I’m sure. If you take it as an allegory for colonialism… the racism becomes apparent…
But instead of tarring the book, I thought of that as intentional. A spotlight on those issues buried in this science-fiction book from the turn of the century. A critique of colonialism. Is there evidence of this in the text? Tons. When the lead takes the girl as his bride, it’s framed in a way that is almost assuredly meant highlight its hypocrisy. And how does the character fare? He disappears without a trace. He meets a bad end. When the main character meets a bad end, that’s a tipping point that maybe the book was never on their side.
Think about your audience: This mainly pertains to Indie Books. Think about who your audience is: if you’re producing indie horror, your reader likes indie horror. There’s a non-zero chance that you’re going to produce a review of a book that reader already read and loves… that doesn’t endear them to you.
This is a very long way around saying: unless you’re trying to make it as a reviewer and not an author, I’d avoid reviewing books. If you must review, I’d make it positive. Definitely don’t point out anything negative that you might be unaware you’re doing yourself. If you must be negative, be intellectual and self-reflective: what does your not liking this book say about you (it’s way harder to get mad at that). If you still must review, remember: no intellectual essay about a book that passed peer review ever contained commentary about the tpyos.
Matthew LeDrew is the author of the bestselling Coral Beach Casefiles series, the Xander Drew series, and the Infinity series. He is the publisher at Engen Books, the largest producer of genre fiction in Atlantic Canada.
February 28, 2019
Winner: “Sent by the WiseWoman” by Lynne Sargent | Kit Sora Flash Fiction Photography Contest
After much deliberation, Engen Books is proud to announce the winner of the January 31 2019 Kit Sora Flash Fiction Photography Contest: Lynne Sargent with her story, Sent by the WiseWoman!
Lynne Sargent was born in St. Catharine’s, Ontario. She has previously published works in venues such as Strange Horizons, Wild Musette, and Truancy. She was a 2018 Rhysling and 2018 Aurora Award Nominee. A complete list of publications can be found at this link: https://scribbledshadows.wordpress.com/
There were two judges for this month of the contest:
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Matthew LeDrew has written twenty novels for Engen Books, Black Womb, Transformations in Pain, Smoke and Mirrors, Roulette, Ghosts of the Past, Ignorance is Bliss, Becoming, Inner Child, Gang War, Chains, The Long Road, Cinders, Sinister Intent, Faith, Family Values, Touch Your Nose, Jacobi Street, Infinity, The Tourniquet Reprisal and Exodus of Angels.
[image error]Kit Sora Photography. Kit Sora is an artist and photographer from St. Johns, Newfoundland. Her photography draws inspiration from fantasy, dystopia, and thrillers to create evocative imagrey that startles, inspires, and excites.Kit signed with Engen Books in 2018 as head photographer, producing the thrilling image for Chillers from the Rock and re-imagining the covers to the entire Black Womb series into the Coral Beach Casefiles series. Drew Power is a currently seated member of the Sci-Fi on the Rock committee. He was recently featured as the model on the cover of the bestselling collection Chillers from the Rock.
Runners up include Wayfaring by Shannon Fay and Goddess of the Four Winds by Nicole Little.
The Flash Fiction Photography Contest is sponsored in part by FictionFirst Used Books, which specializes in previously enjoyed Sci-fi & Fantasy Novels, Roleplaying Manuals and Graphic Novels. It is run out of the Annapolis Valley and open by appointment only. Their inventory is currently over 5000 titled strong and they ship within Canada, USA and Europe. You can find them on Facebook, here.
The winning entry will be featured on this website as well as on the Fantasy Files newsletter (click to join!). Nicole Little’s runner-up entry will also be featured in the Newsletter. Shannon Fay has elected not to have their story featured.
The first year’s worth of these amazing short stories have been collected in a lovely hardcover edition from Engen Books, featuring photos from the author and flash fiction stories from some of Canada’s top talent! Order your copy today!
Kit Sora: The Artobiography
A stunning, hundred-plus page hardcover collection of over 80 of Kit Sora’s most ambitious photographs, paired with short fiction inspired by the art by Canada’s best authorial talents. Includes stories by USA Today Bestselling Author Kate Sparkes, USA Today Bestselling Author Victoria Barbour, and Bestselling Author Amanda Labonté.
C$75.00
February 26, 2019
What If? Do the Mash, do the Genre Mash | Jon Dobbin’s Blog
Listen, okay, writing isn’t easy. Right now, I’m sitting in an uncomfortable chair, balancing a laptop and generous sized tea all the while trying to churn out words that make some semblance of sense. Not easy. Sometimes I feel like Tobey Maguire in that scene from Spider-Man when he grabbed all of MJ’s lunch on the tray before it splattered to the cafeteria floor (not CGI or special effects by the way. Tobey Maguire is just really method). As I was saying, writing isn’t easy. Perhaps the hardest part of writing, besides balancing laptops and hot beverages, is coming up with original ideas, because… there are none. Not really, not anymore. Don’t lose hope though, you’re ideas are still valid, they still work. You are still a writer. It just takes a little tweaking. Every writer has their own way of doing this, and I’m going to tell you about mine.
Ask yourself: What if? That’s it. Simple.
Okay, more words. “What if” is a question that a lot of us writer types ask ourselves when trying to come up with ideas. It doesn’t have to be anything too crazy, it’s just one of many things you can do to get those creative juices flowing. It’s all about the juxtaposition of things. You throw things off balance, and your imaginative writer’s mind will work away at making the answer to the “What if” question work.
Let’s look at some examples. As you read through them, think about how you would answer these questions:
What if Arnold Schwarzenegger hadn’t been a bodybuilder? How would he have made his way to fame and fortune?
What if people weren’t scared of the dark, but were scared of the light?
What if Dracula didn’t die at the end of Bram Stoker’s Dracula? (The answer is: Anno Dracula by Kim Newman).
Fun, huh? I always think so. But you can take it so much further. In my case, when I ask “What ifs”, it often involves some sort of genre crossover or mash-up. You see, as a kid I was always fascinated by unexpected crossovers. For instance, I thought it was pretty cool when Steve Urkel of Family Matters guest starred on Step-by-Step on the best family-friendly television line-up ever created: TGIF on ABC.
Perhaps another example. Oh, I know! When Marvel and DC did a brief crossover event in the ‘90s that created Amalgam Comics. Man, I thought that was bananas. They made Wolverine into Batman?! Epic! (Pro-tip: don’t look this up. It was decidedly not epic). Whatever the case, young Jon was drawn to these strange, often bad, mash-ups, so much so that, like a nefarious weed, genre mash-ups had taken root in my psyche and helped me produce multiple genre-bending stories all on my own, including my upcoming novel: The Starving.
So, what would some genre fluid “What ifs” look like? Let’s take a look at some that have already been done:
What if Hamlet took place in a modern-day American Biker gang? (Sons of Anarchy by Kurt Sutter).
What if there were zombies in Pride and Prejudice? (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith).
What if the kids from Scooby-Doo actually ran up against real, existential, H.P. Lovecraft-style mythos kind of evil? (Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero).
Really the possibilities are only limited to what your mind can come up with. The best thing to remember is that your mind, your imagination, is your biggest asset. No two people will answer the questions posed here in the same way. That’s why it works.
Ideas spring from some unexpected places, but sometimes you just have to massage them along. What works for me is to ask myself “What if” and see where my imagination takes me. What works for you may be different, but if you’re stuck, why not give the “What if” question a shot? Now, what if I had a writing space with a dedicated desk and comfy chair? Ah, that would be magnificent.
Dobbin’s work has appeared in the Chillers from the Rock, Dystopia from the Rock, and Kit Sora: The Artobiography collections. His first standalone novel, The Starving, hits shelves in 2019.
Photo by Thomas Kelley on Unsplash. Words © 2019 Jon Dobbin.
February 23, 2019
Write What You Know: A case study of Tom Clancy | Dunne Blog
One of the most confounding pieces of writing advice that gets thrown around haphazardly is “write what you know.” On the surface it makes sense: draw from personal experience so that your familiarity with the material lends a sense of authenticity and verisimilitude. However, when you think about it a little, it would seem to preclude a vast amount of possible stories. If you’re supposed to “write what you know” then how are you supposed to write fantasy, sci-fi, or even historical fiction. Moreover, many of those genre writers seem to do just fine without having personally experienced their own settings; Tolkien never set foot in Middle Earth.
I still think that “write what you know” has some currency, but we’ll have to dig into it a little bit to unpack its value.
I was first struck by this conundrum as a teenager when I read Rainbow Six by Tom Clancy. To be honest, I hated the book and I haven’t read anything by him ever since. That being said, no one can say Clancy didn’t know his material. He’s erudite to a fault when it comes to the technical minutiae of military equipment. Given his familiarity with sniper scopes and submarine radars, not to mention the author photos of him clad in bomber jackets, you’d swear this guy was a veteran. Turns out he was an insurance salesman. He’d applied to the military as young man, but was rejected due to nearsightedness.
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Clancy might have lacked in literary merit, but he managed to carve out quite the niche for himself as the quintessential novelist of military techno thrillers. If he’d written what he “knew” he would’ve produced some dull autobiography about selling insurace. Hardly something that merits being adopted into a film starring Harrison Ford or Sean Connery. Point being, Clancy seemingly broke the cardinal “write what you know” rule and managed to have quite the career for himself.
You might be saying, sure that’s fine for genre writers, but what about literary fiction? Well, Hilary Mantel won back to back Bookers with her novels about Thomas Cromwell, Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies. I doubt she has access to a time machine.
“Write what you know” is more than just events, places, people, or things. It can also be abstract. Mantel didn’t know what it was like to live in 16th century England, but she certainly understood ambition. We all know what it means to be afraid, to be in love, to be angry. These feelings transcend time.
With regards to the concrete stuff, Ursula K Le Guin says “All this rule needs is a good definition of ‘know.'” She urges writers to draw on their imagination as a form of knowing. I think some people are just too restrictive with what they mean by “know.” After all, we have incredibly powerful brains, capable of imagining things well beyond our experience. It’s waste to just limit them to whatever we’ve personally experienced.
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Personally, I like to write what I’d like to know. Things that I’m curious about, that I’m trying to work through intellectually. I inject these stories with as much personal experience as a I can, but I try not to feel bound by the horizons of my limited life. Learn from Tom Clancy. His vision prevented him from joining the military, but it certainly didn’t stop him from writing about it.
Cheers
-b
Write What You Know: A case study of Tom Clancy
One of the most confounding pieces of writing advice that gets thrown around haphazardly is “write what you know.” On the surface it makes sense: draw from personal experience so that your familiarity with the material lends a sense of authenticity and verisimilitude. However, when you think about it a little, it would seem to preclude a vast amount of possible stories. If you’re supposed to “write what you know” then how are you supposed to write fantasy, sci-fi, or even historical fiction. Moreover, many of those genre writers seem to do just fine without having personally experienced their own settings; Tolkien never set foot in Middle Earth.
I still think that “write what you know” has some currency, but we’ll have to dig into it a little bit to unpack its value.
I was first struck by this conundrum as a teenager when I read Rainbow Six by Tom Clancy. To be honest, I hated the book and I haven’t read anything by him ever since. That being said, no one can say Clancy didn’t know his material. He’s erudite to a fault when it comes to the technical minutiae of military equipment. Given his familiarity with sniper scopes and submarine radars, not to mention the author photos of him clad in bomber jackets, you’d swear this guy was a veteran. Turns out he was an insurance salesman. He’d applied to the military as young man, but was rejected due to nearsightedness.
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Clancy might have lacked in literary merit, but he managed to carve out quite the niche for himself as the quintessential novelist of military techno thrillers. If he’d written what he “knew” he would’ve produced some dull autobiography about selling insurace. Hardly something that merits being adopted into a film starring Harrison Ford or Sean Connery. Point being, Clancy seemingly broke the cardinal “write what you know” rule and managed to have quite the career for himself.
You might be saying, sure that’s fine for genre writers, but what about literary fiction? Well, Hilary Mantel won back to back Bookers with her novels about Thomas Cromwell, Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies. I doubt she has access to a time machine.
“Write what you know” is more than just events, places, people, or things. It can also be abstract. Mantel didn’t know what it was like to live in 16th century England, but she certainly understood ambition. We all know what it means to be afraid, to be in love, to be angry. These feelings transcend time.
With regards to the concrete stuff, Ursula K Le Guin says “All this rule needs is a good definition of ‘know.'” She urges writers to draw on their imagination as a form of knowing. I think some people are just too restrictive with what they mean by “know.” After all, we have incredibly powerful brains, capable of imagining things well beyond our experience. It’s waste to just limit them to whatever we’ve personally experienced.
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Personally, I like to write what I’d like to know. Things that I’m curious about, that I’m trying to work through intellectually. I inject these stories with as much personal experience as a I can, but I try not to feel bound by the horizons of my limited life. Learn from Tom Clancy. His vision prevented him from joining the military, but it certainly didn’t stop him from writing about it.
Cheers
-b
February 21, 2019
‘Dystopia from the Rock’ becomes Amazon Bestseller in multiple categories!
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Dystopia from the Rock, the fourth volume in the modern From the Rock series, hit #1 Bestseller on February 21, 2019 at 8:22 AM Newfoundland Standard Time: a full month before its release. It reached #1 in the category of ‘Science Fiction Short Stories,’ and ‘Cyberpunk.’ As of this writing it has reached #1086 on the overall paid Amazon ca charts, #7 in Cyberpunk Science-Fiction, and #10 in Genetic Engineering Science-Fiction.
Dystopia from the Rock features thirty-two short stories written by a diverse mix of some of the best speculative fiction and thriller authors in Canada, including both award-winners, veterans of their craft, and brand new talent.
Edited by Erin Vance and accomplished genre author Ellen Curtis, this collection features the thrilling, creatively charged, astonishing fiction that showcases the talent, imagination, and prestige that Canada — both in the Atlantic region and beyond — has to offer.
Featuring the work of Lauralana Dunne (Ashes), Jon Dobbin (The Starving), Matthew LeDrew (Coral Beach Casefiles, Infinity, Xander Drew), Jed MacKay (Edge of Spider-Geddon, Daredevil: Man Without Fear), an introduction by Brad Dunne, & much more!
Engen Books would like to congratulate editors Curtis & Vance on this achievement, and thank its fans and peers who helps make this possible. We also extend gratitude an congratulations to authors and contributors: Jed MacKay, Corrine Lewandowski, Katie Little, Sam Bauer, Andrew Pike, Jon Haas, Matthew Daniels, Matthew LeDrew, Lauralana Dunne, Diane Lynn McGyver, David Wright, Erin Vance, Jon Dobbin, Elizabeth Whitten, Peter Foote, Chantal Boudreau, Ellen Curtis, Finnan Beaton, Christopher Walsh, Lisa Daly, Jeff Slade, Michelle Churchill, Ryan Belbin, Nicole Little, Brad Dunne, David Rimmington, Heather Nolan, Gareth Mitton, Shannon Green, JJ King, and Ali House!
7:50PM Update: Dystopia from the Rock has ranked thusly in the following categories:
Named a ‘Hot New Release’ by Amazon dot CA in both Science Fiction and SciFi Fantasy
#1 in Science Fiction Short Stories and Anthologies
#1 in Cyberpunk
#74 overall for paid books in Canada
#2 in Genetic Engineering
#10 in all of Science Fiction & Fantasy
#7 in all of Science Fiction
#3 in Space Marine Science Fiction
#4 in Military Science-Fiction
#2 in Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction
#92 in all eBooks
9:45PM update:
#1 Short Story Collection in all of Canada
#25 in all of Literature & Fiction in Canada
February 18, 2019
The Stories That Didn’t Make It | House Blog
Whenever a submission call crosses my path, I usually end up with multiple story ideas. This is a good thing, because while some of these ideas work out and get developed into fully-written short stories, others aren’t so lucky.
For Chillers From the Rock, I was about ¾ of the way through a story about a writer selling their soul to the devil, when I realized that I didn’t like it very much and abandoned it. Shortly after that, I had the ideas for The Taste of Copper, based on a story my grandmother told me about living in a remote town in Northern Newfoundland, and The Deal, which came about because I was trying to think of scary concepts and came up with ‘trees’ (so spoooooky!).
My first idea for Flights From the Rock fizzled out after 1.5 pages. I put a lot of work into those pages, but I just wasn’t getting the story I wanted. Even after spending months thinking about it, it wasn’t clear enough. So, I decided to give up and concentrate on a different story.
There are a lot of unfinished stories on my hard-drive. And I mean, A LOT.
It’s not a bad thing, though. Giving up on stories that weren’t working freed me to work on stories that were. They say that madness is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, and with some of these stories I was basically beating my head against a brick wall, hoping that it would magically turn into straw.
But even though those stories didn’t work out, it doesn’t mean that they’ll never work out. Sometimes all you need to make an idea work is time. Heck, I figured out a major fix for that unfinished Flights story a mere 30 minutes ago.
There are many stories I’ve managed to finish and submit that didn’t get accepted, but even those I won’t give up on. Feedback on a rejected Alice in Wonderland-inspired story made me re-think it and realize how it could be less obvious. Getting a rejection on a multiple-universe-theory story made me wonder what I could do to give it more ‘oomph’ and make the message clearer. Another submission was rejected by a publisher, but ended up getting accepted into Hal-Con’s reading series, and is inspiring me to write a novella based on the main character.
Sometimes it boils down to: Right story, wrong time.
And if I ever need a reminder of that, I’ll think about the short story Twenty-One. It stared out as a submission for Bluenose Paradox that I never sent in because I wasn’t quite sure what it was saying. I didn’t know why I was telling it or what emotions I wanted it to convey. So, I shelved it in favour of something else. However, the next year or so, when I saw that Engen was looking for submissions for Sci-Fi on the Rock, I immediately thought of that story. I re-worked it, this time with a clearer idea in mind, and sent it in. Not only was it accepted, but it ended up paving the way for bigger and better things*.
Finally: right story, right time.
__________
*One of which is my new novel, The Fifth Queen – coming soon! Pre-orders on sale now!
Engen to release novel from Lauralana Dunne!
Engen Books is proud to announce the upcoming release of Lauralana Dunne’s first novel, a YA Fantasy story titled Ashes.
“We are exceptionally proud to have Lauralana on board,” says Engen founder Matthew LeDrew. “Her story is amazing and she’s put a lot of thought and care into it. I think there could be a real upset in fantasy writing in the next year or so, and Dunne is a huge part of it.”
Dunne has proven herself to be a force to be reckoned with in Canadian writing circles over the course of the last year. In December 2018 her short story, ‘Venus Flytrap,’ was featured in the astonishing collection Kit Sora: The Artobiography, which paired talented authors with the artist known as Kit Sora to achieve spectacular combinations of story and photography. She joined that 2018-2019 Board of Directors of the Writer’s Alliance of Newfoundland in October 2018, an organization which contributes to a supportive environment for writing in the province and fosters public recognition of Newfoundland & Labrador writers. She will be featured twice in Dystopia from the Rock releasing in March 2019, with her short stories “Future Tense” and “Future Imperfect.”
The ‘From the Rock’ series remains a proud testing ground to help find the most talented new authors in the country.
She describes herself as a slayer of imaginary monsters.
February 11, 2019
Call for Pulp Sci-Fi Submissions!
Over the last four years, the From the Rock series has become one of the preeminent anthology series’ in Atlantic Canada. We have been home to some amazing established talent and helped some new authors break through that have gone on to dominate their fields, becoming genre bestsellers in their own right. From the Rock is a title readers consistently ask for, review well, and is a great way for avid readers to get introduced to indie talent they might find interesting. In March 2018 the series’ third entry, Chillers from the Rock, went Bestseller on pre-orders alone!
We are currently accepting submissions for the sixth entry in this series: Pulp Sci-Fi from the Rock, to be available in Winter of 2020.
Editors Ellen Curtis and Erin Vance are scheduled to return to helm the project.
Many authors have expressed interest, but anyone can submit to be a part of this collection! Deadline is October 31, 2019 but get your stories in as quick as you can, as it gives our wonderful editors more time to work with you and make sure it is as good as it can possibly be!
What is the target audience?
For this specific collection, we’re going for an equivalent of PG to PG-13. Editor Ellen Curtis has prepared a style guide for the collection that will be available soon. Rather than limit our authors creatively, we encourage them to write from the heart and allow us to work with them to fine-tune the work after the fact.
Example: for Sci-Fi from the Rock, Christopher Walsh’s story had featured a fair amount of cursing. As a compromise, we settled on switching it out for classic-comic style “#@$#” bleeps. We feel it captured the classic all-ages style we were going for while remaining true to his work, and both parties were happy with the arrangement.
February 10, 2019
Deep Work: Why a $2 kitchen timer was one of the best investments I made in my writing
In a recent post, I talked about flow and the effort it takes to achieve it. Today, I want to talk more about that, specifically about making your writing space “sacred” and creating a “closed-loop system,” particularly with regards to distractions, vis a vis your phone.
In that post about flow, I discussed the pomodoro technique, which helps me focus. To quickly recap, I work for twenty-five minutes then take a five minute break. The problem is that I was using my phone to do this, and during my five minute breaks I’d usually check social media or any messages. Seems harmless enough, right? I’d briefly check my phone for a few minutes then set it aside and work, and then repeat.
The problem I found was that this was fragmenting my attention. I could never really give the task at hand my full attention. At the back of my mind was always whatever was going on with Facebook, messenger, etc. It felt like I was always trying to run with a parachute attached to my back.
In my research on flow, I came across the work of Dr. Cal Newport, a computer science prof at Georgetown University. Newport has a few books, a cool blog, and has done a lot of great interviews on podcasts, etc. Newport talks a lot about “deep work,” which is very similar to flow. In a word, deep work is working on a complex task for an extended period of time without distraction. He contrasts this with shallow work, which requires little focus and can pretty much be automated. So, let’s say working on a short story vs answering cursory emails.
The challenge of deep work is that it requires a lot of focus and attention. Newport goes to great length to show that you can’t just work on a problem on your computer screen while checking your Instagram feed on your phone every few minutes. In fact, Newport goes so far to argue that you should delete social media all together. I don’t know if I’d go that far, but I definitely think that expunging it from your work space is a good idea.
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With that in mind, I went to the dollar store and got myself a $2 kitchen timer. I also downloaded an internet blocker for my laptop. Now, I have no distractions and no excuses. All I gotta do is sit down and write.
I call this a “closed-loop system.” There’s nowhere for my attention to go except into my work. And guess what? It can get pretty boring. Some times I just sit and stare at the wall. And during my breaks, I’ll usually noodle with my guitar or sit with my cat. But, when I start working, it gets *all* my attention. My mind isn’t wandering to whatever dumb argument is going on in the CBC Facebook comments section. (Never read the comments section.)
And, perhaps most importantly, it just feels better. I come away from writing sessions feeling a great sense of accomplishment regardless of my word count that day. Newport argues that this is because we as humans are built for deep work. Our brains are at their best when they’re hyper focused on one task.
So, if you’re like how I was and find yourself struggling to really focus on your writing, then I’d recommend creating a closed-loop system for your writing space. Eliminate distractions, especially your phone and social media. Embrace the challenge of deep work and see where it takes you.
