Hart Johnson's Blog, page 12

Wait... Where'd Hart Go?

*sigh*  I'm back at any rate.



Monday and Tuesday I was doing college visits with my boy child. Pondering that in 6 months we'd be getting him packed to go live AWAY... hard to wrap my head around. Now I am doing my (his) FAFSA and trying to create the checklist for maximum options while limiting cash outlay...



But I will be here Friday to share a couple more story blurbs for Parallels: Felix was Here.





In the meantime... Deadpool... OHMYGAWD this was fantastic... if you have a stomach for violence, sex, sex jokes, strong language, and moral ambiguity... But SERIOUSLY.... if you ARE that person, this is the most fun I've had at a movie in ages. I laughed hard, shed a tear or two (I do this more easily than most--you won't cry--none of you, but I did). The jokes making fun of pretty much everything... breaking the fourth wall... BRILLIANT.







DO NOT take any children lower than high school age, and if you are at all prudish, maybe stick to R means R. (being the lax person I am, I would probably let my middle school kid watch it AT HOME when it is available later--but I am totally not a censor for my kids gal)

Parallel Lines Update and More Sneaksy Peeksies!

We have a Publication date MAY 3!!!!  and pre-order links!!!



Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Mystery Buy Link



I know, right?  So exciting!!!



And if you are a bit confused as to what exactly speculative fiction, LG Keltner launched our group blog for promoting Parallels: Felix Was Here with a great post explaining it.



So today I am sharing two more authors and story teasers with you... anyone around the blogosphere knows both of these ladies, and I'm thrilled and honored to be in an anthology with them (the whole group honestly--we've been collaborating on this promotey thing and it is so awesome to not be doing this in a vacuum. Love being part of a team.





First up Is Crystal Collier



The Mirror People:  We think no one is watching, but what if they are? Meet the Mirror People.



Jak Ralston leads an ordinary life. Home, work, church. Repeat.



Unremarkable in every way, except for one. Every day Jak stares into the eyes of a serial killer.



We think no one is watching, but what if they are? Meet the Mirror People.







Crystal Collier is an eclectic author who pens clean fantasy/sci-fi, historical, and romance stories with the occasional touch of humor, horror or inspiration. She can be found practicing her brother-induced ninja skills while teaching children or madly typing about fantastic and impossible creatures. She has lived from coast to coast and now calls Florida home with her creative husband, four littles, and “friend” (a.k.a. the zombie locked in her closet). Secretly, she dreams of world domination and a bottomless supply of cheese.



You can find her at:


Blog   Facebook   Goodreads  Twitter




And next we have Cherie Reich



Folds in Life and Death: In 2001, the Curse of Tippecanoe strikes again.



Allyson Moore loves using her gift of paper magics. With precise folds and an incantation, she brings paper creatures to life.



But being a Paperist has its downsides too. She sees spirits, but she can’t revive them. She folds paper lanterns to release souls, but she can’t stomach sending another family member from this earthly realm.



The Curse of Tippecanoe, conceived nearly two centuries before, claims her brother, the President of the United States. She must journey to Washington, DC to be with her orphaned niece and nephew, but nothing—not even magic—can prepare her to see the brother she hasn’t spoken to in two years and release his soul to the sky.



Cherie Reich owns more books than she can ever read and thinks up more ideas than she can ever write, but that doesn’t stop this bookworm from trying to complete her goals, even if it means curbing her TV addiction. A library assistant living in Virginia, she writes speculative fiction. Her books include the paranormal horror collection Once upon a Nightmare and the fantasy series The Foxwick Chronicles and The Fate Challenges. She is a member of the Virginia Writers Club, Valley Writers, and Untethered Realms.



You can find her at:

Website | Blog | Newsletter | Facebook | Twitter



And if you missed last weeks teasers from LG and Yolanda, you can find them here.

Ghosts Release Day!!! (by Kendall Grey)

So one of my writer friends has done an amazing experiment... she wrote and published this story online, releasing episodes relatively rapidly, but now, completed, she has pulled the online version and edited the story for book form.





So today is the day! Ghosts releases today! Here is the blurb:





Under the blazing cover of a post-nuclear, technology-crippled world, Sarah Coolidge is an expert at being neither seen nor heard.



She was an afterthought to her abusive parents.



She’s invisible to the criminals she works with.



And she’ll soon be the death-dealing ghost her enemies never see coming—if she can just shake loose the one person who does see her.



The one who could ruin her.



The one who gives her a reason to live.







About Kendall Grey:



A whale warrior, indie freedom fighter, and vodka martini aficionado, Kendall Grey is calm like an F-bomb*. She writes urban fantasy, rock star erotica, erotic suspense/thrillers, and apocalyptic science fiction. Swashbuckling cowboy priests in latex chaps are next on her To Write list**.



Kendall lives off a dirt road near Atlanta, Georgia with three mischievous Demonlings, a dashing geek in cyber armor, and a long-haired miniature Dachshund that thinks she's a cat. 



* Detonation manual not included.

** Just kidding about the cowboy priests. Someone probably already did that.



AUTHOR LINKS

Website - http://www.kendallgrey.com

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/KendallGreyAuthor

Twitter - http://www.twitter.com/kendallgrey1

Goodreads - https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5108885.Kendall_Grey

Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/Kendall-Grey/e/B006BA1V06

First Sneak Peek at Parallels: Felix Was Here

Hello, fine friends!





Today, as I promised last week, I am going to share two blurbs and two author bios from the ten of us who had stories chosen for Parallels: Felix Was Here .



I am starting with LG Keltner, as her tale, Felix Was Here , was selected as top story and gave the anthology its name.



L.G. Keltner has been trying to write novels since she was six years old. She’s wanted to be many things over the years, but the dream that survived into adulthood was that of being a writer. She graduated from Drake University in 2008, but she’s still learning every day. L.G. lives in Iowa with her husband and children.






Felix Was Here: Utopia isn’t meant for everyone.



Betty’s family lived in a small Brooklyn apartment when the 1939 World’s Fair offered the nation a stunning vision of the future. A charismatic man worked with the government to make that vision a reality. Six years later, Betty has a nice home, a good husband, and all is right in her world.



When someone casually mentions the name Felix in conversation, everything changes. Betty’s dreams suddenly revolve around a boy named Felix. A boy she doesn’t recognize. Sleep deprived and confused, Betty begins to question the foundation upon which she’s built her idyllic life.







You can find LG at these places:  




Blog- Writing Off the Edge

Facebook

Goodreads

Twitter

Amazon










Next up is Yolanda Renée who says:



At one time Alaska called to me and I answered. I learned to sleep under the midnight sun, survive in below zero temperatures, and hike the Mountain Ranges. I've traveled from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez, and the memories are some of my most valued. The wonders, mysteries, and incredible beauty that is Alaska has never left me and thus now influence my writing.



Despite my adventurous spirit, I achieved my educational goals, married, and I have two wonderful sons. Writing is now my focus, my newest adventure!






Ever-Ton:  Orderly evacuation is the directive to leave our dying world…Salvation awaits in Salus, but only if you meet the requirements.




Leaving the queue of well dressed and military clad residents of Ever-ton, an overweight, and fidgety Quinn Cartier steps up to the ticket counter in sweats. 




“Unplaceable. Me?”




Unplaceable…the words rang through Quinn’s head like an apocalyptic siren. Leaving a dying planet never seemed more unlikely. 




As a lead engineer, I dedicated my life to feeding them...and now, I’m persona non grata~




Nothing made sense. The government promised all citizens a place in the new world. Why all the hurdles then?




Why indeed?




What fate holds for Quinn and all the Unplaceables at Pier 11? 




What secret is revealed by a mysterious old woman who disappeared as quickly as she appeared? 




Quinn has only one night to change her fate…







You can find Yolanda at:





Blog:  Defending the Pen

Facebook

Twitter  

Pinterest



Amazon



Five weeks of this and we should be near release!!! So exciting!

No No No No No! (When Edits Go Bad)

Hallo fine peoples! And welcome to the Insecure Writer's Support Groups Meeting! [They occur first Wednesday of every month]





So know how you have an editing project planned... and it is all moving along a bit painfully, but it takes some hundred plus pages for it to occur to you, “What the HECK am I thinking!?”



Just me then?



Anyway, I had January slated as a FINAL edit for Medium Wrong... but it occurred to me about 150 pages in that this series of events that occurs needs a more coherent thread running through them... a reason.



Which stopped me up 2/3 the way through THAT edit because I realized I really am almost better off starting the edit OVER and after I then do THAT edit, I will need to polish... Last edit becomes 3rd to last... It's funny, this is about the third time exactly this has happened with this book which puts me on about draft 10 of the beginning but only about 3 of the end... if I ever get to truly editing the end... (I did it once, pre-reviewers, but I haven't gotten to it again).



This is why I have 20 first drafts and only 4 that have made it to publication...



I honestly could really benefit from a developmental editor, I think, but that whole professional mentoring thing costs money now. I am pretty GOOD at that role for OTHER people's books. I can spot where the work needs doing, probably because other people have different flaws than I do in how they see things, but on my own I just have trouble.



So that is what has me feeling insecure today.



What about the rest of you? Some piece of the writing process that you seem to have trouble implanting into your brain?





Be sure to go visit OTHER insecure writers today, too!!!

Lost and Found: A Writer's Tale and a Poem

First, I should introduce that this is a blog fest hosted by the fabulous Lee (Arlee Bird) at Tossing it Out, who has done more than his share in helping create a close-knit, supportive writing community, so thank you, Lee! You can find the list of participants here.



Second, I will say I CONSIDERED an ode to Facebook where I have found about 99% of the PEOPLE I once thought lost. It's an amazing medium for reconnection.





This is the part of the blog where I participate WRONG



But alas, as I got my stuff out to write this yesterday morning, there it was staring at me. Found.



You see, I got two weeks off for Christmas Break. I knew the first week would be spent in baking, shopping, wrapping, wine evenings with my buddies, cleaning as I always try to have one of my gifts to my seriously more cleanliness-oriented spouse that I clean up some of my crap for the holiday... But I really planned AFTER Christmas to spend the week immersed in an EDIT. I had printed it out at work, because I see more hard copy. I did this at work as my home printer was broken and 270 pages in the life of an industrial toner is nothing (and I can print two-sided there, which seems more earth-friendly). At home I had taken off the first hundred pages to get started... and set it... somewhere... Blast it if when I went to get started the pages weren't GONE.



I did a couple small writing tasks the rest of break, but I couldn't get really started until I went back to work January 4...



And then about a week after I'd printed the new and gotten started, there was the old at the bottom of the mail pile.



It was the Universe telling me to rest it a bit, I think...





And THIS is the Part where I have read the instructions...



(I'm bad about this—par for the course would have been discovering I'd done it wrong after publishing).

I am to produce a piece of actual writing related to losing or finding someone I love...



Just let me put on my teen angst hat... you see, I've been with the hubs since I was 22—a VERY long time... and I didn't so much “find him” as we sort of settled into each other—nothing instant about it. So the only loss strong enough that I can still channel is the first one. Love's first sting...







Heartache: A Poem of Sorts



It wasn't, then it was, then it wasn't.

Isn't that always the way?

Sixteen, craving love

Craving craving

Dare I say it?

Craving heartache?

To feel so deeply

Love so deeply

That the sad songs speak to you

Every one.

To scream out

Cry out

Hurt so badly.

It is an initiation of sorts

A way of becoming.

A part of a grander universe

A member of humanity

for whom deep feelings forge the connections.

Oh to be sixteen and in love with love.





For the record—I'm still friends with this guy—the one who broke my heart first. So he was lost romantically, and found amicably. Because I don't actually lose people. I collect them. (This is normal for a Cancer)





So who or what have YOU lost and then found?

Book Cover and Blurb!!!

For those who don't know, I am part of the speculative anthology that will come out soonish (March if I were to guess)... and yesterday we got the cover and blurb and an okay to share!!!










I love it.  And then here is the blurb.





Enter the realm of parallel universes!



What if the government tried to create the perfect utopia? Could a society linked to a supercomputer survive on its own? Do our reflections control secret lives on the other side of the mirror? Can one moment split a person’s world forever?



Exploring the fantastic, ten authors offer incredible visions and captivating tales of diverse reality. Featuring the talents of L. G. Keltner, Crystal Collier, Hart Johnson, Cherie Reich, Sandra Cox, Yolanda Renee, Melanie Schulz, Sylvia Ney, Michael Abayomi, and Tamara Narayan.



Hand-picked by a panel of agents and authors, these ten tales will expand your imagination and twist the tropes of science fiction. Step through the portal and enter another dimension!





I'm hoping to collect some story blurbs from these folks so you can get a bit more of a taste before it comes out... maybe two a week over the next several Fridays...



I hope everyone has a great weekend!

A to Z Opens and My Plan

Hallo, fine peoples!!! Today is the day! And two months and a couple days from today it STARTS.



Wait... how can both of those things be true?





Well TODAY is the day the SIGN UP opens for the A to Z challenge. This is a great activity... It commits you to blogging 26 days in April (it actually STARTS April 1], so not for the faint of heart, but it is good for discipline, networking, adrenaline... and honestly, if you aren't going to do it, you should probably plan to just take April off... It is the only game in town.



So what is MY PLAN?



I'm going to put you all to work.



[Say what?]



I made a plan this year to learn a bunch of networking and promoting tools and I've done exactly bipcus. I must have spelled that wrong... I am looking for the Yiddish word for nothing... But then it occurred to me that I can be sneaky clever sometimes... so I am going to come up with the TOPICS alphabetically, and throw out the question asking all of YOU your experience with these various things! Then I will be able to evaluate where I should best invest my energies...



How's that? Just call me Tom Sawyer.





In Other News



And when I say I've done bipcus, I mean on marketing... I am about 60% through my January edit (I should finish) and I did the copy editing eval turnaround gig for The Seventeen which is my short story going in   Parallels: Felix Was Here, The IWSG Speculative Anthology.

Art, (Im)Mortality and the Sublime David Bowie

This isn't to downplay the very sad death of Alan Rickman, which is also a sad and serious blow to my years of fandom. My hat's off to you Professor, for bringing to life one of literature's more complex characters and many others over the years. You were amazing.





When I told my mom I liked Bowie,she had this in her head

But David Bowie has got me thinking of much deeper issues than just admiration of amazing talent, though he had that in spades, also. The way he approached art and himself. Never willing to settle. Always wanting to try something new. Growing from it and then outgrowing it. And then onto the next endeavor. People have called him a chameleon, but I think it was braver than that. He didn't adapt and change to what was going on. He ignored what was going on and thought, “What do I want my next iteration to be of me as an artist? What do I want to try? And then the world followed. Even that mullet... 1973... the mullet would become a thing in the early 80s... He led. So far ahead that most people couldn't even see it.





This was more what I had in my head

Even his most popular success, Let's Dance (the album) in the early 80s, was him saying “I'd like to make a popular mainstream dance album... see what that's like. He didn't want to do it for the money or to hit some high note and stay there as a pop star. He wanted the experience. Just to see. In every way, as an artist he led, he collaborated, he got excited about something new. Not just his new things--he celebrated other people's new things...



And he was PRODUCTIVE. Holy crap—I looked up his albums Monday and there are more than one per year he was making music—probably double if you count the albums that just recompiled and marketed already produced songs.



Even his death letter to us—his final album and good-bye was an original set of artwork for the authentic purpose of one last gift to all of us.





So you know how a tribute blog always gets back to all about me? This is that part.



Bowie had enough hits that were big enough they even played on KRPL in Moscow, Idaho when I was growing up. I'd heard Space Oddity, but would not have known it was Bowie. I was aware of Golden Years, Rebel Rebel, and my favorite, Changes, though I think only the first of those was late enough I was paying attention to who sang it.



But in 1982 when MTV first broadcast... when cable transformed, honestly, but I was 16, so MTV was what mattered... Bowie was a part of that very first exposure I had to music that was not pop radio or heavy metal (which is what my crowd tended to listen to). New wave. (remember that word?) Music that was more international, more big city. Closer to what my cool friend Melinda listened to (a pen pal from Pullman Washington who was seriously more serious about seeking out good music and had the Washington State Students to look to for source material—Washington including Seattle, so they were more varied and progressive musically than Moscow which had, as I said, metal. (not knocking metal—I still love a lot of it, but you get where I'm coming from... there were things in my background and things that were BRAND NEW. Bowie was part of that brand new for me.





The hubs hair was shorter and he usually wore a shirt, but...

And I'll let you in on a little secret... He totally defined sexy for me. I already had a thing for thin men: lanky. And he moved in sort of a feline way—I see all the references to androgyny for him but that wasn't what I saw at all—he was angles and flow. His mismatched eyes made him intriguing. His crooked mouth looked just a little naughty. And then his voice... it almost has its own echo, doesn't it—like he is providing his own backup? (is that even possible?) It gave everything he sang a bit of a haunted sound—it was totally one-of-a-kind. So yeah... I admitted a long term college crush of mine was probably as deep an obsession because he reminded me of Bowie (build, mouth and eyes—he even played guitar and sang for me once). And the hubs had the Bowie build and naughty expressions going on when I first met him... But I won't blame Bowie for my romantic decision making... just what I was attracted to.





And it just got better... though I miss the messed up mouth

I guess in his death though—the think that has been filling my week—is looking at Bowie and what we can learn as creators. I've written books for a market I know exists... and I don't find anything wrong with that. But I want to remember to prioritize always learning and growing—never settling in comfortably, but continuing to try things if I want to try something new. Continuing to learn and develop... collaborating if I don't quite have the skill set all on my own (look at what he did with Trent Reznor—WOW--or Tina Turner, or Bing Crosby...) always staying true to who HE is in it—his collaborations seemed to usually put HIM into somebody else's song PLUS put somebody else into one of his... just a really rich way of doing things. I hope just once in my life to create something that moves people the way he managed to do so regularly.



So I guess in addition with his thoughtful good-bye album, he has left me with artistic wisdom I hope to hang onto.

At Peace with the Process

Well... not YET, but I'm working on it.



Hallo fine peoples!!! Welcome to the Insecure Writer's Support Group Monthly Meeting!!! I encourage you to go see LOTS of insecure writers today (list at the bottom) because we all love hugs. Or most of us do. Some are crabby, but in a funny way, but all of us need love.



So what am I on about?



I have recommitted to my writing process this year after a really darned lousy 2015 (if you are curious, probably half the other posts on the page mention details).





I wonder what the writing equivalent of this is... Totally looks like my style

The really good news is I've found a couple ladies to team up with for a bit of cross-promo... They are smart and extremely talented and I am really looking forward to working with them. But they are much more prolific than I am... much more published... much better marketers... I know they invited me because they see something... I've done really well in a couple contests, so there is some talent there... but I just seem to keep spinning my wheels trying to get some traction...



I have other friends who are all orderly... they talk about their idea, share blurbs writing the book. They send it to their agent who loves the book. It gets subbed to a publisher who loves the book. Then they start a new book. (I'm looking at you Gae Polisner). And it makes me feel like a scatterbrained mess.—and I'm kidding Gae about how easy she makes it look because just this week she was talking about how hard it is to get going on a new story—me, I'd start a story every day. Nothing would make me happier than to spend my life just starting stories—but I have a feeling this would turn my “support myself with my writing by retirement” dream into a never never-land plan.





And then I ran into Chuck Wendig's blog for the week. And it reminded me of one of my favorite Seussisms...



And I thought, you know... it's okay... I've written seventeen completed first drafts. The fact that only four have gotten polished enough I felt ready to publish says more about my difficulties approaching polishing and querying or the alternative, full-on prep for self pubbing than my writing. And then I also need some work on my marketing skills. None of these things means I can't write. It just makes it harder actually get my stuff OUT THERE. And I really do believe at SOME point I will manage that—sell something that does well, and the demand + my backlog of things that only need a LITTLE MORE work means I will be able to spread my wings and fly... And this is my process.



So Chuck's wisdom seemed the perfect thing to share for all of us feeling insecure. Your process is your process. My process is my process. We can all learn and grow but that doesn't mean pitching our own stuff and accepting that somebody else's process might work better for us. It DEFINITELY doesn't mean anybody should be judging anybody else's process. It just means we all could benefit from reflecting now and then on what is working and what isn't and adjusting accordingly. Not nearly so intimidating that way.



No go visit some other insecure folks!!!