Hans Cummings's Blog, page 16

Sojourn: An Anthology of Speculative Fiction – Author Interview Series

Some time last year, someone at Fear the Boot had the idea to publish an anthology of short fiction written by members of the Fear the Boot Writer’s Guild and other genre authors (by invitation). I wrote up a pitch, and my story Forgotten Dreams was accepted and published this month in Sojourn: An Anthology of Speculative Fiction.

This is not news, as I have spoken about it before. A few days ago, I decided to do a series of interviews with the authors and editors of this anthology to give more insight into the creative process and the anthology itself. So, every Friday from now until it is done, I will publish new interview with the authors and editors of Sojourn – An Anthology of Speculative Fiction.

First up, since this is my blog and I don’t have to wait for him or her to e-mail me answers, is ME! Hans Cummings, author of “Forgotten Dreams.”

Where did you get the idea for your story?

After coming off two fairly hard sci-fi novels (the Zack Jackson novels), I wanted to do something more space opera-y, something with more ships zipping around, pew-pew-pew, space magic, and everything running on Rule of Cool. The words “Seven Galaxies” popped into my head at some point and I thought “Well, what if the universe these characters inhabit is just these seven galaxies?” The void in between the galaxies would be their version of Hell, a vast realm of absolutely nothing where all the unknowable, unfathomable…things…lurk, but the galaxies themselves would be teeming with life. The galaxies are connected by conduits, call them warp gates, star gates, whatever. I’d often thought about a sci-fi universe where humans were not dominant, and I played with that a little bit with the Zack Jackson series in which the humans are relative newcomers to the greater galactic community; but in my Seven Galaxies stories, I decided they would be a completely subjugated slave race, considered little more than vermin by the dominant species. Once I had that and decided to have a human viewpoint character, well, the number of stories I could tell increased tremendously.

Do you plan to write more stories in that setting or with those characters?

In short: yes. I invented the Seven Galaxies setting for a novel. Writing short stories in that setting allows me to explore various parts of the setting and try out certain concepts before I start writing the novels.

What was the appeal of Sojourn for you?

I’ve been a member (albeit a relatively silent member) of the Fear the Boot community for a few years now, and Laura Anderson edited a few of my novels for me, so when this opportunity came along, I thought it would be a good way to work on a few short stories. Most of the time, I feel that if I’m working on a short story, it’s time I’m NOT working on a novel. However, if I’m working on a short story for a publisher, my brain is fooled into thinking it’s OK. Which, of course, it is, but sometimes you have to do mental gymnastics to justify things you want to do.

What was your favorite part about writing for the Sojourn anthology?

Being able to combine fantasy and sci-fi and not having to worry about scientific accuracy was great fun. Even though my story was much darker than anything I’d written up to that point, I had a lot of fun being creative with the aliens and their descriptions.

Did you learn anything while writing your story, if so, what?

I’m not sure I learned anything new, per se, but writing “Forgotten Dreams” honed skills I was already working on. I don’t have a lot of experience with short stories, and it was challenging to include a character arc and a start-to-finish plot in such a small number of words.

Is there any trivia or behind-the-scenes information about your story you would like to share?

I was going to have Jahni’s big crisis be whether or not seeking her freedom was worth becoming an assassin. I had a cool gun described and everything (I think I have a picture of it somewhere). Her target was going to be the Aelfar friend with whom she started out. In the end, I didn’t believe in that story and couldn’t make it work in the short amount of space I had. I decided the best thing I could do for the story was not to have an action-packed shoot ‘em up climax. It was harder to write, and ultimately, more rewarding.

What was the biggest influence on your story?

Spelljammer. Magic, and sailing ships in space? Yeah! Although, I don’t have sailing ships in space…yet. The only ship we see is more of a big crystal, but I was definitely influenced by my love of Spelljammer as I developed the Seven Galaxies setting. It will probably be more obvious in the novels than in the short stories.

Is there anything else you would like to talk about?

The next Seven Galaxies story I’m writing features the Pleasure Pools of Persiphia, a location to which I alluded in “Forgotten Dreams.” There will be all new characters, but I promise you haven’t seen the last of Jahni and Rana. I have plans for the series and for those characters. I promised myself I would write another World of Calliome fantasy novel before I do a Seven Galaxies novel, though, so I’m building up to it.

A Taste of Teaching

Last week, I stopped by Holy Name Catholic School in Beech Grove, Indiana to speak to two 7th grade classes about writing. I was invited by the teacher after she read my Zack Jackson novels. I’ve never thought of myself as a teacher, or indeed, as one anyone would want to take writing advice from, so the invitation was surreal. I wracked my brain thinking of what I could tell them other than the standard advice to read a lot and write a lot.

In addition to that type of advice, I decided to talk about generating ideas. So, I explained how brainstorming worked, talked a bit about free writing, and other ways to generate ideas. I then led the class in a short exercise. I read to them a passage out of Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; the description of the chocolate room. In the first class, we brainstormed together a new room for the factory (the Peppermint Room), talking about the entrance, the machines, the exits, the dangers, etc. In the second class, each row of students worked together to come up with a room, then wrote a short description based on their brainstorming. They came up with the Skittles Room, the Laffy Taffy Room, and two Cotton Candy Rooms. It was very interesting how two groups came up with different takes on the same room, and some of those kids were pretty damn sadistic when it came to deciding the fate of the child who misbehaved in the room. That’ll teach ‘em to steal cotton candy from Willy Wonka!

As one might expect in a middle school classroom, some students were more interested in what I had to say than others. There were a few in each class who really seemed to get into it; those are the future writers with whom I was trying to connect. Hopefully, some of the students gained something from it.

Beta Readers needed for Zack Jackson 3

The time is rapidly approaching when I will need Beta Readers for my upcoming YA sci-fi novel, Zack Jackson & The Hives of Valtra.

This is the third book in the Zack Jackson series and clocks in at just under 80,000 words (so far). If you, or your children aged 12+ are interested in helping out, please send me a message. I plan to have the manuscript ready within the next week and can provide it in PDF, .mobi, or .epub (or if you insist, I will mail you copy).

I would like to have feedback returned to me by April 13th. You will not be expected to do any editing or proofreading (though if you notice something really bad, feel free to mention it); I’m mostly looking for feedback on the characters and plot. There are several fairly heavy topics that come up and I want to make sure that I’ve handled them with the respect they deserve. These topics include: dealing with the death of a parent, dealing with the aftermath of an assault (including suicidal thoughts from the shaming), and one character is a practicing Muslim (I don’t feel this is controversial, per se, but I do want to make sure I’m not being overtly ignorant or offensive with her portrayal).

I will also provide a series of questions I would like you to think about as you read the manuscript. You don’t have to provide your feedback as answers to the questions; they are intended just to give you an idea of the type of feedback for which I am looking.

Sojourn: An Anthology of Speculative Fiction is now available!

Last year, I submitted a short story to an anthology being published by Fear the Boot, LLC. The anthology is now available! My story is “Forgotten Dreams,” the first, I hope, of many tales set in the Seven Galaxies. Think of it as dark space fantasy. Kind of like high-tech Spelljammer, if you remember that TSR property from the late 80s-early 90s, but a little bleaker. It’s not as dark as Warhammer 40K, or even Game of Thrones. It’s definitely space opera compared to my Zack Jackson novels, though (and definitely NOT for children). I’m working on another Seven Galaxies story in case there is a second volume of short stories.

“Forgotten Dreams” tells the story of Jahni, a former slave in a universe where all of humanity is enslaved and seen as barely a step about animals. She looks for a way to aid in the struggle to free her people and is forced to ask herself how far would she go to fight humanities’ oppressors.

You can purchase Sojourn: An Anthology of Speculative Fiction at these places:

Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/Sojourn-An-Anthol … ref=sr_1_1

Apple iBooks: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/sojour … 0967?mt=11

Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/sojourn … 0991487707

DriveThru PDF: http://www.drivethrufiction.com/product/126517

DriveThru ePub: http://www.drivethrufiction.com/product/126582

Kobo: http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/ … ve-fiction

More are being added as the anthology works its way through the distribution network.

What I’ve Been up to

As I am notoriously bad at updating this blog (at least, in my own mind), I thought this would be a good time to catch up and let everyone know what I’ve been up to.

Work on Zack Jackson & The Hives of Valtra progresses. I have started the revisions on my first draft and hope to have a second draft ready for Beta Readers by the end of the month. I tackle some pretty heavy issues in this book, and I want to make sure I treat them with the gravity and respect they deserve. However, it also needs to be accessible to my target audience, so it’s important that I get it right.

The anthology in which my Seven Galaxies space fantasy story, “Forgotten Dreams” debuts has gone to the printer. I don’t have any details yet on when Sojourn will be available for purchase, but I will be sure to announce it when I have that information. There’s a great lineup of authors in the book, and I’m very pleased and honored to be among them. Already there are whispers of a second volume for which we are all once again invited to write stories. I will certainly do so.

I may write another Seven Galaxies short story, even if another anthology doesn’t present opportunities this year. Eventually, I would like to write a series of novels in that setting, but I’m still fleshing it out and I’m not quite ready for that. I keep telling myself I’ll get back to my steampunk-horror-western story, too. I think about that story a lot. Writing is 50% mental, right?

I am also working on another world of Calliome novel. I mentioned earlier that I went back to the well of Pancras and the Drak twins, Kale & Delilah, and I have been dabbling with the plot and writing. What I have in my mind might be enough for a series, possibly a trilogy, but I don’t want to commit to that right now. I’m barely 20,000 words into it, but based on where I want the story to go, I have only just begun.

In addition to all this writing, I will be giving a lecture at a local school for a class of 7th graders next month. At least some of them (and their teacher, as well) have been introduced to my Zack Jackson novels, and the school wants me to come and talk to the class about writing. It will be an interesting experience as it is like nothing I have ever done before.

The Ballad of Twilight Dungeon

I have secured permission to embed The Ballad of Twilight Dungeon on this site! This song contains spoilers for the plot of Wings of Twilight. It was commissioned by my wife as a Christmas present. The song was written and performed by Dan Marcotte, aka Dan the Bard. If you’ve ever been to the Bristol Renaissance Faire, you may have heard him perform. You can learn more about his music at either the link above, or a http://www.bardsong.net.

The great thing about this song is that if it’s been a while since you’ve read Wings of Twilight, or you didn’t read it, but read Iron Fist of the Oroqs, the song will tell you the tale of what occurred in the first book of The Foundation of Drak-Anor series, much like the minstrel play in the prologue of book two. In fact, one could skip the prologue altogether, and just listen to the song instead!

The Ballad of Twilight Dungeon, by Dan the Bard:

Download: the-ballad-of-twilight-dungeon.mp3

I’m going to look into embedding the file in to the Kindle version of Iron Fist of the Oroqs, as well, though file size considerations may make that impractical.

Interview with me on SciFiPulse Radio

A while back, I did an interview with SciFiPulse Radio. The episode went live today! You can listen to it here. I talk about my fantasy novels and my young adult science fiction novels, and I may have completely put my foot in my mouth when I talked about one of my homosexual characters, ’cause talking off the cuff is NOT something I should be allowed to do. Ever.

So for no other reason than that, it should be entertaining!

New Review for Wings of Twilight

I just found a new review up on Amazon for Wings of Twilight. It’s short and to the point, but the reader liked my novel enough to give it four stars! Thanks, Valued Reader! What a great way to start the week off after two days of Snowmageddon!

Reading and Writing

I’ve heard many times that a good author also has to be a voracious reader. In my youth, from elementary school through high school and college up until 2006, I was a voracious reader. I would devour a book a week, sometimes more. Then, in 2006, during my capstone class for my English degree, our instructor had us read The History of Reading by Alberto Manguel. He had us analyze every paragraph of every chapter, often telling us that we were coming up with the wrong interpretations. Now, this is not meant to be a judgement of the book itself, but that class literally sucked ALL the joy out of reading for me. I hated the class. I hated the book. I wrote a several-page course evaluation that caught the attention of the department head, in which I told them what a colossal waste of time the class had been and how I failed to see how analyzing that book paragraph by paragraph was supposed to summarize and collate all of my experiences as an English major and prepare me for the real world (that I already had a full-time job with the company for which I still work was irrelevant).

Since then, I have found reading to be an absolute chore. There have been a few exceptions: I tore through Monster Hunter International by Larry Correia in 2-3 days. I read , a trilogy omnibus by Michael R. Hicks and Origin by J.A. Konrath in about 5 days for the four books. by Patrick Rothfuss took me close to six months. I still haven’t finished Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson or Raven’s Heart by M.S. Verish. Now, maybe it’s a writing style thing, but I liked The Name of the Wind. I just couldn’t stay focused on the book. And that’s been my conundrum in a lot of cases. I can sit down with a book, start reading it and say to myself “OK, I get the world and the premise. The characters are interesting…oooh! Squirrel!” Origin and Redemption were the first books I read on my Kindle and the first time since that class that I wanted to keep reading instead of doing other things. Previous books since that class I finished because I didn’t have anything else going on and I felt I needed to finish the books. It was almost as if I was resigned to finishing them out of obligation rather than a desire to see the story through.

On the other hand, it could be the medium. Redemption and Origin I read on my Kindle Keyboard (the e-ink one), whereas The Name of the Wind I read on my Kindle Fire, a device on which I found reading to be more difficult than a paperback or an e-ink ereader. I love e-ink for reading. LCDs…meh. Monster Hunter International I read on my new Kindle Fire HDX 8.9″, a device that’s still LCD, but has a MUCH higher resolution and crisper screen than the 1st generation Kindle Fire.

I suppose time will tell if I can ever be as enthusiastic a reader as I was eight years ago. I am going to try to read more books this year than I have in the past eight (that shouldn’t be hard; I think I may have read maybe a dozen books in the last eight years, a number I find shockingly low and both embarrassing and depressing). Furthermore, I am going to try to put up reviews on Goodreads for the books I read. I’ve spoken before how reviews are the second best thing a reader can do for an author (the best thing is actually buying the book), plus writing a review is more practice writing and I do endeavor to improve my craft. Reading more and writing more can only assist me in that goal.

2013 in Review and Looking Ahead

Last year, I set forth several goals for myself. In case you don’t want to dig through the archives, they were:

Publish Zack Jackson & The Cytherean Academy

I accomplished this goal! HUZZAH! It was released on June 9, 2013. I’m really happy with the way this novel turned out; I think it’s my best work to date.


Publish Scars of the Sundering

This goal fizzled. I wrote about 22,000 words and just could not get into the characters. The novel was supposed to, among other things, deal with the meeting, courtship, and marriage of the two main characters (against the backdrop of the main plot), but I could never quite figure out what Vasco could offer Aveline as a husband (other than companionship) that she didn’t already have. They just weren’t all that compatible with each other. An attempt to skip the courtship and have them be married at the start of the story didn’t help, either. I just wasn’t feeling it. I struggled with this most of the second half of the year before deciding to shelf the project.


Re-release Wings of Twilight on Smashwords
Release Iron Fist of the Oroqs & Zack Jackson & The Cult of Athos on Smashwords

I accomplished both of these, though trying to get the formatting just right so their Meatgrinder (seriously, that’s what it’s called) software could process it just right for inclusion in their Premium catalog (which includes iBookstore distribution) was such a pain, I never finished it for Iron Fist and Zack Jackson. I haven’t had a sale on Smashwords since 2012 anyway, and I have yet to hit the royalty threshold where they’ll send me a check. I’m just not sure it’s worth my time to pursue this distribution avenue.


Release all my novels through Kobo Writing Life

I did this. I’ve sold two books through the Kobo Bookstore. It’s as good for me as Smashwords, though uploading to Kobo is easier because they don’t make me run my books through a proprietary software that mangles my formatting.


Release all my novels through Drive-Thru Fiction (Wings of Twilight was previously offered there with distribution assistance from Rite Publishing)

I did this. It’s not been profitable for me yet, but it does have an advantage over the other distribution channels: I can tie all the formats together and let customers pick how they want the book. Right now, I only offer ePub, mobi, and PDF, but that probably covers 99% of e-readers. If I wanted to, I could probably set up a POD solution there, too, but I’m happy with CreateSpace for that. Besides, people haven’t exactly been knocking down my door for more options on Drive-Thru Fiction. I think I’ve sold 2 books through that venue.


Write the first draft of Zack Jackson & The Hives of Valtra

I did this. HUZZAH! The manuscript is currently with the first of my editors. It’s shorter than Zack Jackson & The Cytherean Academy, but it only covers a couple of weeks, rather than a whole school year. It’s very important to the metaplot of the series, though, and one can begin to see how things may develop. Of course, I’m not going to put any spoilers here, but I have some ideas that will take the series in a direction I think no one will be expecting (and hopefully not take it off the rails totally and leave people thinking “That’s it? WTF, man??”).


Get a good start on the first draft of the next World of Calliome novel

When I wrote this goal, the novel I thought would be next is NOT the one I’m currently writing. Funny how that works.

One thing that wasn’t a goal that I accomplished was the writing of my Seven Galaxies short story, “Forgotten Dreams.” It will be appearing in an anthology being released by the good folks at Fear the Boot, hopefully in the next month or so (it was originally slated for last month, but they’re still waiting on one story from a rather prominent author from the RPG industry…one whom will probably drive sales just by his inclusion, so I get why they’re waiting on him). Once it’s out, it will mean that my fiction is no longer solely the product of self-publishing (I style myself an Author/Publisher these days, thanks to Chuck Wendig). I also managed to get interviewed by three podcasts (Jennisodes, UnderDiscussion, and Sci Fi Pulse Radio, though that last one hasn’t been released yet). I hope to do more of them this year. I hate phone calls, but I love talking on podcasts. Figure that one out!

When I started writing this blog post, I didn’t expect to see so many of the goals I set forth at the beginning of the year accomplished. What a great surprise for me! Of course, I have goals this year, as well:

Publish Zack Jackson & The Hives of Valtra
Finish writing and publish the next World of Calliome novel

I know that’s not a lot of goals, but based on how difficult accomplishing ANYTHING was in the latter half of 2013, that’s all I’m willing to commit to at this point. I want to have new things to sell at Gen Con, and I’m confident I can have a third Zack Jackson book out by then. I’d love to have the next World of Calliome finished by then, as well, but Gen Con is only eight months away, not twelve. Everything else, I’m just going to tackle as it comes up. There are a few secret goals in there (like revise & publish my superhero novel and finish Clockwork Cowboy), but I don’t want to jinx myself. (Oops, I guess they aren’t secret anymore, but since they’re not bulleted, I won’t feel bad if I don’t accomplish them :D)

To all my readers, thank you for your support in 2013! All I can ask is that you tell people about my novels that you enjoyed. Maybe throw up a review (it can be just a few sentences) or two if you haven’t done so. Apart from actually buying my books (which, as readers, presumably you’ve already done), it’s the absolute best thing you can do for me, or any author for that matter. Word of mouth helps.

Have a great 2014!