Howard Andrew Jones's Blog, page 5

Holiday Update

I hope all my visitors have been having a good holiday weekend. It’s been (mostly) relaxing here.

First though, here are two links you might find of interest. Andrea over at Little Red Reviewer was kind enough to interview me about my upcoming books, and you can find the link right here. And if you’re unfamiliar with her site, you ought to look around because it’s loaded with interesting, entertaining content.

Second, here’s a link to The Skull’s holiday card.

Here in our tower by The Sea of Monsters all of our minions returned in time for holidays, and they were celebrated with great abandon. First this required a great deal of cleaning, and then my enchantress concocted some delicious food.

For ourselves, our biggest present this year was the basement. As I think I mentioned, with the basement finished, I can now leave my games set up for long stretches. So while I did receive two new boardgames, with the basement what I really received was an entire cabinet full of games, for I can finally play all those that I own. I must have played seven games of Falling Sky in the last week, and I’ve finally got a handle on the rules. It’s much more fun to conquer Gaul this way than I’m sure it was in real life.

I’ve finally gotten around to watching Deadwood and have started on the second season now. I find it riveting, clever, and exceedingly well acted, although the constant cursing gets on my nerves. Perhaps that sounds stodgy, but I tend to be old fashioned about some things. I’ve also begun watching The Haunting of Hill House with my daughter, and she in turn has begun watching Justified with me. Both shows are out of our respective wheelhouses, but so far each is happy with the other’s favorite. (And my God, Justified is holding up very well to a second viewing. What a well written, well acted show. It would have to be, because I have so little interest in the subject material.)

One of the gifts I got for my wife LAST Christmas was a little videogame titled World to the West, for Xb0x, which sees you wandering about exploring a world with four cartoony steampunk(ish) characters fighting enemies and collecting treasure. She and my son have finally been playing that every night while my daughter and I watch videos. They’re big Zelda fans, and this is close in flavor to some of the older Zelda games, and doesn’t require an investment in a new game platform.

I’ve also been doing some reading for fun, and very little writing. I have been, as Robert E. Howard used to say, filling the well — doing other things before coming back to writing, so that I’m fresh and energized upon my return. I’ve noticed that I’m already beginning to miss it. I’ve set up another boardgame to learn but my mind is beginning to wander as I study the rules, as I think about plotlines and characters and things.

We had such weirdly pleasant weather on Christmas that after we had a family sing along (our son and daughter are both accomplished musicians) I went outside to repair the horse fence and only had to wear a light jacket. As regular visitors know, our biggest horse likes to lean against the top fence rail to eat the grass on the other side, which is apparently more delicious than ANY of the grass in all three fenced acres of the property. Oddly enough, I didn’t mind the job, because I couldn’t help thinking that it would be terrible to have to fix the rail in the dead of winter in the freezing cold.

 

The Skull Will Return

You probably already knew that, but I’ll reiterate the fact that a new Kickstarter will launch early next year for the next two issues. Contents for issue 3 are already set and heading into layout. Man, I love working for the Skull. I’d really like to take the magazine quarterly, but I still haven’t seen much feedback on the second issue, so I’m starting to believe if people haven’t had time to read TWO sword-and-sorcery issues in a year that four might be a real glut. It’s a shame, because I know we could keep readers supplied with some great stuff. There’d be even more authors, and more continuing characters.

In other news, I’ve finally wrestled the outline of the third book of the new trilogy into decent enough shape that I’ve begun drafting. So far it’s just a few pages long, but it will grow from there. My goal was to get all of the major plot arcs figured out before my editor got back to me about book 2. Perhaps you know what it’s like to step away from a really complicated project for a long while — it can be really hard to remember what you were planning to do.

Right now all of the big points are worked out. The book’s divided roughly into three acts. Act I is the most solid, and I know how I write well enough at this point to not sweat the little stuff in Act II yet. Act I is likely to change on me as I work through it, and it would have a ripple effect if I had everything in Act II set in stone. I think I really am growing more efficient with this whole book drafting process…

I finished Brood of the Witch Queen appreciative of Rohmer’s strengths and curious about Fu-Manchu, but fully aware of the author’s weaknesses as well. On the one hand, bloodless, humorless heroes and unconvincing love interest. On the other, great sense of the macabre and powerful descriptive chops that sometimes had me immediately re-reading paragraphs or entire scenes to see how he did it. I read some moments aloud to my wife, a big Arthur Conan Doyle fan, and like me she loved the cadence and vocabulary and rhythm of the words. I can definitely see Rohmer’s influence upon REH, which will likely be more apparent when I try Fu-Manchu — though I elected not to jump right away into another Sax Rohmer novel.

Instead, I’m now reading another Gold Medal western, this one by T.V. Olsen. This is the second or third I’ve read by him and he always plots well, with engaging characters and a good pace. I was curious to learn if I’d just lucked out with the first two, but this one is good as well. I’ll have more details later.

Now that the basement is all set up for gaming, while my wife and son are playing video games in the evening, I’m a few feet back playing a board game.  I have Falling Sky on the table, and I’m battling for control of Gaul between the Romans, the Belgians, and two Gaulic tribes. It was a bit of a head scratcher learning the rules at first, but it started clicking. I’m much more of a tactical guy than a strategic one, but I’m starting to enjoy the game.

I’m so busy that I’m finding less and less time to blog. And I wonder sometimes how many are really out there listening. I was speaking with St. Martin’s publicist Kristopher Kam earlier this week and he said many readers just aren’t seeking out blog posts, but hanging out at reddit fantasy, and that I really ought to go where the readers are.

So as an experiment, yesterday I posted, and sure enough, within a few hours I was getting a lot more interaction. As a result, I think I’m going to keep the updates here down to once or twice a week, and be over at Reddit a lot more often. Here’s a link to the Reddit thread, where I asked questions about the best Conan story to start with and brought up the viability of modern fantasy short stories.

Things are really moving behind the scenes at Perilous Worlds. Any week now you’ll be able to see the first issues of the new Conan comics, and at the back you’ll be seeing a serialized novella first from John C. Hocking and second by Scott Oden. I like both of them an awful lot. And then if you visit the web site (you HAVE done that, right?) you’ll start seeing more and more content, because Ryan Harvey and Bill Ward have continued to draft excellent articles and will keep doing so.

That’s all for now. I’ll return next week some time to provide further updates, or to share holiday cheer!

Ask Me Anything

All day today I’ll be over at Reddit Fantasy, ready, willing, and able to talk about the writing craft, editing, or just about anything else writing related you want to chat about. You can find me at this link. Hope to “see” some of you there!

Brood of the Witch Queen

Are there any Sax Rohmer fans among my regular visitors?

I’m finally reading one of his novels, although it’s not a Fu Manchu title. I’m about halfway through a supernatural menace novel titled Brood of the Witch Queen. Rohmer can turn up the dial on the menace really well, and is really strong on the description — sometimes I stop and re-read paragraphs because they’re so nicely composed. The heroes are a little wooden and pulpy but the rest of the prose definitely has enough strengths that it’s worth a look, if you’re at all curious.

I’ll have to try some Fu-Manchu now, although I might first finally get around to reading Calgaich The Swordsman, the famed Gordon Shireffs historical that’s supposed to very good and quite Howardian.

Behind-the-Scenes

You wouldn’t know it by looking at the site, but life’s pretty busy here. Nearly every day I’m doing editorial work for Perilous Worlds. Several times a week I’m editing things for Tales From the Magician’s Skull. And every day I’m working on either the promotion of book 1 of the Ring-Sworn trilogy, or working on the first draft of book 3. This morning it’s that draft I’m contemplating. Wrapping all the threads up by the end of the book is proving a little challenging, and so I’m still tinkering with the outline.

I’m also managing some wargaming to relax, courtesy of the dedicated spot in our new remodeled basement. In the last couple of weeks I’ve played four scenarios of one of my favorite games, Ambush!. (While I do enjoy playing, that exclamation point is part of the game’s title.)

I hope to share details about all of the publishing stuff as everything gets closer to release…

In the meantime, here’s a snapshot at the end of a recent Ambush! scenario. And here’s a link back to my thoughts after a first few plays, as well as a description of the game for the curious.

Marvin Albert Westerns

I got a grab bag of duplicate paperbacks from Chris Hocking a few years ago and discovered a lot of gold. One of the standouts was a detective novel from “Nick Quarry,” which turned out to be one of the pseudonyms of Marvin Albert. Albert also wrote under Al Conroy, and Anthony (or Tony) Rome, Ian MacAlister, and J.D. Christilian. Mysteries, westerns, “men’s adventure;” Albert could do it all, and he always delivered. I’ve read over a dozen paperbacks by the man at this point, and I’ve yet to read a bad one. Now maybe I’ve read only one that comes close to being a true classic, but they’re always good books. The plots make sense, the characters are compelling, the action scenes are crisp and clear, and the pace never flags.

Over the last few years I’ve been trying out a number of “new-to-me” authors of old westerns and mystery fiction. A lot of it is uncharted territory for me. So if I’ve tried a few authors who’ve left me cold, I know I can always retreat to another old Albert novel and be entertained. He’s dependably good.

As Al Conroy OR Marvin Albert, depending upon the edition, he wrote four westerns featuring a character named Clayburn. He happened to have written them before Ben Haas (John Benteen) ever created Fargo. And as a matter of fact, when one of the novels was made into a movie, it was Haas who adapted the script into an entirely different book. Haas almost had to have read the original book, though. And he probably found a lot to admire. I don’t think I’ve read any other western series that felt more like a Haas novel than the four Clayburn books do. If you’ve enjoyed Fargo, you really ought to track the Clayburn series down. And then maybe take a look at his other works. His Driscoll’s Diamonds, written under his MacAlister pseudonym, is a fantastic adventure thriller, and the MacAlisters are almost as good.

But then all of his Marvin Albert/Al Conroy westerns have been great reads. The Nick Quarry books are entertaining as well — exciting gumshoe mysteries with maybe a little too much “giggle and wiggle” for its ’50s male audience.  Aw, heck, I didn’t mind it at all, but I KNOW it’s dated. Whatever the genre requirements, Albert adapted and delivered top-notch work. Like I wrote above, I’ve never read anything by him I didn’t like. There are much more famous writers who I can’t say that about, among them the far more famous Louis L’Amour. At this point Albert’s one of my favorite authors, and I go out of my way to find additional work by him.

For more information, and a full list of books, Bill Crider has an excellent essay over at Mystery File. I don’t think he liked Albert’s work as much as I do, but he clearly thought well of him.

Notecards

In the last few years I’ve spent a lot of time talking about outlining stories because I’ve been trying to find a way to write without getting lost down paths that yield moments that don’t work. I’ve gotten better and better at getting it right earlier on, in part due to outlines, but admittedly in part just due to practice.

The sequel to the upcoming novel, For the Killing of Kings, was much easier to write than its predecessor. One reason is that by the time I started work on book 2 I had a good handle on the world and the characters. I believe it’s always going to be a challenge starting a new work when you’re writing of an invented place because you need to get familiar with the world and the characters moving through it. 

But another reason it went well is because of the outline permutation I developed. I don’t know if it would have helped me in the past, but I know it helped me in the composition of the second book, and it’s helping me outline book 3.

First, I sit down with pen and notebook in hand and I start writing down all the things I want to happen to the characters — what they’re wanting to do, who it would still be fun for them to interact with (what sparks will fly when I get THESE two together) and situations that are unresolved. As I’m writing, many of the elements are in order, but some of them aren’t.

Second, I write down the different concerns and developments on notecards, indicating at the top who the viewpoint character is, and what “act” of the book it’s from. I usually think in a three act structure.

Third, I begin to order the events as would be most logical AND entertaining. As I work on the notecards and their order, additional moments and conflicts suggest themselves, and I add them into the mix.

Fourth, I end up with the REAL pattern of the book, and then I start work on a much more solid outline.

For my previous thoughts on outlining, check here, or look over  the various articles in my writing category.

 

First Reviews

As the book promotion gets fully under way more and more blurbs are coming in, along with the first major review. Publisher’s Weekly just awarded For the Killing of Kings one of it’s highly desirable stars! This is great news and I hope it’s a sign of good things to come.

I had the opportunity to read from the book at the World Fantasy Convention in Baltimore last month and I was pleased by its reception. I had HOPED that Kyrkenall’s little one-liners were funny, and judging by the lively crowd, he came off pretty well.

World Fantasy Con itself was a blast. It had been most of a year since I’d hung out with my good friend John O’Neill, Black Gate mastermind, and eight long years since I’d been in the same place with the talented Bill Ward, frequent blog guest here.The first night I was invited to dinner with Arin Komins, Rich Warren, L.E. Modessit, John O’Neill, Doug Ellis and his wife Deborah, among others. Soon after, I met Tales From the Magician’s Skull alumnus Setsu Uzume, and made many new friends, like Lancelot Schaubert, Jennifer Brinn, Marie Bilodeau, and Clarence Young, who I joined for an expedition for Baltimore seafood only to discover a Trekker cut from the same cloth as myself. I got to reconnect with talented friends I only ever see at conventions, like Al Bogdan and Ilana C. Myer and Tom Doyle and Chris Cevasco and Patty Templeton and Claire Cooney, and finally met brilliant Claire’s brilliant husband Carlos Hernandez. I met up with Ilana and a number of her friends for a tasty dinner outside the convention then spent most of that meal nerding out about The Beatles with Michael Damian Thomas.

I attended numerous readings and a few panels and met S.A. Chatraborsky in person after her own spirited reading, which was a sneak peek of her second book. I praised her first novel and she gushed a little about Dabir and Asim and later I got to meet her family before they set out for an expedition to a nearby aquarium. Late one evening I sat down with Stephanie Beebe, Paul Matthis, Bill Ward, and others and brainstormed terrible story ideas. Either we were hilarious or it was very late at the convention.

I could go on and on, and I know I’m leaving some interesting tales out, but I’m afraid it already may sound just like name checking.

I’ve said it before and it bears repeating — the more of these conventions you attend, the easier it is to make connections even if you’re not mercenary about it. Just go there, experience the thing, introduce yourself to whomever you end up next to, and start talking without trying to make anything happen — just go for the company. Years ago I would have been jumping at the bit to be in speaking range of BAEN’s Jim Minz; now we can kick back and talk casually because we’ve met at various conventions.

Of course it’s always a delight when you’re rubbing shoulders with some of your literary heroes, and I was very happy to spend a little time talking with David Drake, and thrilled that he’d wanted me to bring along a copy of my second Dabir and Asim novel, The Bones of the Old Ones.

 

 

 

 

Leaves

This morning the leaves outside the kitchen window are gorgeous. I seem to appreciate autumn more and more as I age. Or maybe Im learning to better appreciate the things around me. Click to enlarge, and you’ll see the colors really pop.

I was traveling all of last week, and the way my phone has been glitching it just made Internet access a challenge. So I’m a little late getting this Black Gate link to you. My friend Myke Cole was interviewed by yours truly about his new book, the second in his new series. We also make casual reference to a really nifty sounding military history book he wrote. You should check out his work, and the interview.

My wife and I just returned from Seattle. It was my first time there, and we enjoyed exploring the city. We also enjoyed exploring the food. We didn’t have a single bad meal. My favorite was definitely the Indian place near the convention center. I liked dinner there so much that I went back for lunch a couple of days later, and it was at least as good on the second visit.

I don’t know if you’ve seen or not, but the Perilous Worlds site is getting larger. Bill Ward, who you ought to at least know from our Conan and Lankhmar readthroughs here on the blog (though you really ought to know for his writing) joined forces with the talented Ryan Harvey and began drafting articles for the site. Those two are the finest essayists I know and I’m just delighted to have them on board the Perilous Worlds blog. You should see the site continue to expand in the coming months.

November 1st I turn up in Baltimore for the World Fantasy Convention. It’s been a few years since I’ve been at WFC and I’m looking forward to wandering around and taking in the sites. I’m giving a reading from my new book (For the Killing of Kings) and I’m on a panel. Should be fun! I’ll catch up with a lot of friends and colleagues, one of whom will be the aforementioned Bill Ward, whom I haven’t actually seen in person for eight years or so!

 

 

Remodeling for the Future

While my long planned site remodel is still delayed (owing to the influx of work stuff) the actual physical space of our home has changed over the last few months.

Here’s a pic of what our basement has looked like for the last sixteen years or so. Concrete floor. Waterproofed walls. A bunch of junk — although here it is looking a little more organized because we were setting up for a high school graduation party.

Months later, the same space looks much, much nicer. And this next photo was taken before the carpet went in!

I’m looking forward to using the space this winter. I can’t quite convey the pleasure I feel walking down the basement stairs. In the past, it was just a big empty space where we stored left over stuff. Now it’s an entire additional level of the house. My hope is that in the winter evenings I can be playing solitaire wargames while sitting over there on that window seat. Once I move the old kitchen table back into place I’ll have a spot where I can leave my game set up, something I don’t currently have. With a lot of these games, it’s the set up that’s time consuming, and it can be hard to stop in the midst of a mission and pack it back up. Now I won’t have to do that.

Here’s a recent pic of the contents of that game cabinet, mostly accurate, although I’ve since sold one of those off to my friend Dean and borrowed another.

Issue 3 of Tales From the Magician’s Skull is coming together. Lots of behind-the-scenes work for Perilous Worlds is taking place. And somehow I’m finding time to write and revise my own work. I’ve turned a new Hanuvar story over to some beta readers, have nearly finished revising a second, am working on outlining book 3 of the new trilogy while tweaking book 2 a bit and gearing up for promotions of book 1. Like I said at some recent point, I’m very busy but very happy.