E.D. Martin's Blog, page 21

Weekend Writing Warrior 7/24/16 #8Sunday

For July and August, I’m pulling from “Spice Pirates,” my long short story that I’d planned to have live on Amazon last week but it was a really busy week (I taught a high school enrichment class, plus with the water line to my house still not fixed and no AC with heat indexes 100+ degrees I spent more time trying not to be here) so my plan now is to have it uploaded to Amazon today and live by Monday, in which case I’ll update this post.

Rosamaria’s sick brother Basil just wants to be a pirate, so she enlists the help of her friends Origano, Clovio, and Anisa to take him on a pirate adventure. But then the REAL pirates show up….

For this scene, someone stole all Origano’s money so he stole some food from Rosamaria’s father’s food stand. She chased him, went through his belongings, and discovered a treasure map.

* * * * * * *

“You’re a pirate,” she whispered, a gleam in her eyes and a big grin on her face.

“I’m—” He stopped. He wasn’t, of course, but he wasn’t a fool either, and if this girl respected pirates, if he could use her awe as a way to get something to eat, then he could be a pirate. “It’s not something you walk around bragging about.” There; he hadn’t confirmed it, but he hadn’t denied it either.

“I’ve always wanted to meet a real pirate.” She stuck out her hand and said, “I’m Rosamaria.”

“Origano.”

* * * * * * *

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Media Monday: teen horror by Erik Therme

The book: Resthaven by Erik Therme

The music: “Mine” by Disturbed

If I, as a rational adult, were pressured to break into an abandoned nursing home in order to appear cool in front of my peers that I didn’t even really like, there’s a good chance I’d have a brief two word response and then I’d promptly leave. Same if I were pressured into having a scavenger hunt in that same creepy building.

The plot of Resthaven, however, revolves around teenagers doing teenage things – like breaking into said creepy nursing home. Once inside, either in order to look cool or simply because their frontal cortexes are far from fully developed, those teens continue making irrational – but wholly teen-logical – decisions in a quick-read story packed with thrills and surprises at every turn.

The story starts out with new girl Kaylee arriving at her classmate Jamie’s house for a routine sleepover, only Jamie strong arms the girls into exploring Resthaven, an old empty nursing home. She promptly gets mad at them and abandons them to a night of horror.

I kind of expected the book to be more supernatural, but the fully-human villain is even scarier than a ghost or monster. Every twist is possible, if not plausible, as Kaylee and her friends find themselves deeper and deeper in a mess that rivals any 90s teen horror flick.

As for the music – on of my son’s favorite bands is Disturbed, so we’ve been listening to a lot of their CDs to get ready for his first rock concert (Disturbed and Breaking Benjamin last night in St. Louis – it was awesome). The music from the song really fits the mood of the book. The lyrics don’t fit very well, but since you can’t really understand what the guy’s saying half the time, it doesn’t really matter.

Weekend Writing Warrior 7/17/16 #8Sunday

I’ve taken a couple weeks’ break because I was on vacation; my son and I roadtripped out to California at the beginning of the month and internet access was spotty.

So since it’s a new month (although towards the end of it), let’s switch stories. For July and August, I’m going to be pulling from “Spice Pirates,” my long short story that’ll be released on Amazon this week.

Rosamaria’s sick brother Basil just wants to be a pirate, so she enlists the help of her friends Origano, Clovio, and Anisa to take him on a pirate adventure. But then the REAL pirates show up….

Here’s the beginning:

* * * * * * *

Origano’s ship arrived in the harbor at midmorning. There was nothing auspicious about it, nothing to portend that fortune and disaster would fall on the town or that the lives of its most prominent families would soon be irreparably altered.

The ship was an average merchant vessel: a bare-bones crew collected from ports around the world; cargo of varying worth from those same ports that they hoped to sell for enough of a profit to reach the next port, or at least enough to buy an evening of much-needed debauchery; a dozen or so passengers; and Origano.

He hopped off the gangway onto the dock with a satchel over his shoulder, a straw hat jauntily on his head, and a spring in his step. He’d made it safely across the ocean and was now free in the New World, with no overbearing family to tell him what to do or what to be. Free to find his destiny.

His stomach rumbled. Before his destiny, he must find lunch.

* * * * * * *

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Friday Five: Barry Metcalf

Today’s Friday Five focus is Barry Metcalf, author of mystery/thriller/crime novels.

Born in 1943 into a working-class family with middle-class aspirations, Barry began writing stories while at school and finally ventured into novels when he retired from teaching in 1997. The result was a series of murder mysteries/thrillers set in Australia featuring two unorthodox investigators who work for the fictional Strange & Obscure Cases (SOC) Unit, an autonomous offshoot of ASIO.

Three times married, with four children, Barry live in Morwell, Victoria, Australia.

In his latest, Spirit of Warrnambool, still believing their nemesis Wanda Jean is dead and buried in Broome, Martin and Claire are sent to Warrnambool to investigate a savage and despicable murder. Before they have time to collect their thoughts, more murders occur—each more bizarre than the last. Little do they know Wanda Jean is behind the latest killings, constructing a web of intrigue designed to draw the agents to her and to, ultimately, dispose of them. Have Claire and Martin finally met their match?

* * * * * * * * * * *

1. Thinking about the stuff you’ve written, who’s your favorite character and why?

My favourite character from the Oz-Files is the evil witch, Wanda Jean. To me she is everything a woman should be–beautiful, desirable and not satisfied with being second best. She’s also the most evil creature inhabiting the earth. She won’t be satisfied until she rules the world and everyone worships her.

2. How much of your published writing is based on personal experiences?

All of my characters are based on people I know. I tend to describe friends, family, work colleagues or those I meet socially. Then I add characteristics from someone else so that no one is likely to recognise themselves. I’ve been to all the places in my novels. That way I am better able to help my readers feel as if they are actually at that location.

3. What was your attitude towards reading when you were a kid?

I don’t recall reading a lot when I was young, but after I started high school I developed an avid interest in all kinds of fiction. I used to borrow up to 5 books a week from the school library, and I would read every night until I’d finished them.

4. What genre do you currently read most and why?

These days I mostly read mystery/crime/ thrillers by a wide variety of authors. I think I enjoy these because they tend to delve into the human psyche and show human nature in its worst and best lights. I am intrigue by trying to work out why people behave the way they do.

5. If you could have any superpower, what would it be and why?

My favourite super power would be mind control. Wanda Jean has this ability. She’s able to move objects without touching them, bend people to do her bidding and create fake scenarios that seem totally believable to those entrapped inside them.

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Spirit of Warrnambool is currently available through Amazon.

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Friday Five: Corinne Morier

Today’s Friday Five focus is Corinne Morier, author of fantasy and YA short stories and novels.

Corinne Morier is a bibliophile-turned-writer with a penchant for writing stories that make readers think. In her free time, she enjoys blogging, playing video games, and swimming. Her motto is “Haters gonna hate and potatoes gonna potate.”

“The Photo” is a flash fiction story about a ghost who can’t pass on to the afterlife because he still has regrets in this world. It was published on Roane Publishing’s blog as a part of their Flash Fiction Friday series.

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1. What’s the worst job you’ve ever had and why? What was the best thing about that job and why?

I don’t want to say “worst job,” because there were a lot of great things about this job. Also, I’m not one to badmouth my former coworkers. But last year, I worked as a camp counselor for a summer program, and the program wasn’t very well-organized. I would say that I spent the length of the program very dissatisfied with multiple things, such as how solutions were implemented and how the counselors themselves, who worked directly with the students, were able to receive updates and information from the program directors. But I do look back on that job with great fondness – I met a lot of wonderful people, and my students were all fantastic. I don’t regret working there at all. And the best thing about that job was definitely the students – I loved interacting with them and hearing all their experiences. They really felt like my kids.

2. What’s your current writing project and what are your writing plans for the near future?

Right now, I’m working on revising and perfecting the first book in a fantasy trilogy I call The Red Sorcerer Trilogy, in preparation for publishing it. After I finish Book One, I’ll work on Books Two and Three, as well as write a few other projects I’ve got in the works, like a novel-length adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid and a book about a girl who goes to Japan to study abroad. A group of my writer friends and I are planning to publish an anthology of fairy tale retellings, and December is our tentative release date.

3. What is the most important thing that people DON’T know about your subject/genre, that you think they need to know?

Fantasy and science fiction are two different genres. When I go to the library or the bookstore, they’re always shelved together, but they have one crucial difference. While they may seem like the same thing in that both can have dragons, spaceships, aliens, or whatever else have you that doesn’t exist in the real world, fantasy doesn’t have to explain why it happened. In science fiction if you had dragons in your story, you’d have to also present a scientific reason for them to exist; for example, they evolved from dinosaurs, or something along those lines. But in fantasy, you can just say “Here be dragons” and as long as the world you create could potentially have dragons, you don’t have to explain how they evolved from pterodactyls and managed to survive all these years without detection by humans. The reader will just accept that they exist in the world of your story.

4. What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever researched for your works or biggest/most out-of-the-ordinary thing you’ve done while researching?

Well, just this morning, I was looking up Australian fairy tales and found one about a family that gets eaten by a dog and then the dog gets cut up or something. I don’t remember the exact details, but I asked an Aussie friend and he says that’s about right for a fairy tale.

5. Where do your inspiration and ideas for your stories come from?

That’s very simple. There’s a company called Writer’s Inspiration, Inc. in Colorado. Every so often when I’m itching for a new story idea, I send them the processing fee of $15 and they send me a list of ideas I can use in a novel or a story.

That’s just a nice way of saying my muse is a jerk. My ideas come from all around me – my fantasy trilogy stemmed specifically from wanting to create my own roleplaying characters. My Little Mermaid novel adaptation stemmed from being eternally pissed at the ending to the Disney movie, and I decided to write a better adaptation that didn’t have a cop-out for an ending. My book about a girl who goes to Japan to study abroad stemmed from the Genki series of textbooks we used in our Japanese class in my undergrad. It all starts with that little voice inside me that goes “What if?” If I can’t shut that voice up, I write a story to answer that question. Sometimes I’m not even looking for them and I find new story ideas. My muse makes me write them all, and I want to punch him. He’s such a jerk.

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“The Photo” is currently available to read from Roane Publishing.

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Summer 2016 goal review

Maybe I should spend less time making covers and more time writing.

I’m going to be wandering the country next week (2016 big roadtrip #3!!), so I thought I’d do my quarterly review a little early this time.

1. Write at least 30 minutes a day.

I’ve been writing a bit here and there, but it seems like there’s always another, more pressing project to work on instead. I’m going to try writing for 30 minutes every morning when I wake up, so that even if I don’t get a chance to write something later, I’ll have hit my goal. We’ll see how that works.

2. Finish something every month.

I wrote a short story for a contest, “Special,” about post-apocalyptic people living in caves. And I just finished a chapter of one of my novels-in-progress, tentatively titled Waylaid on the Road to Nowhere. Including “A Place to Die” in January, that’s 3 things out of the 6 I should have by this point.

3. Publish at least 4 of those finished things.

I published “A Place to Die” in January. It’s available for $.99 at Amazon or free if you join my mailing list. I’m now two stories behind.

4. Continue the focus on increased marketing.

I’ve been experimenting with Facebook ads. While I get great engagement for the money spent, it’s not translating to sales. I just participated in an Evolved Publishing day at Instafreebie which resulted in a ton of signups for my newsletter, but I’m not sure if the people who signed up will either open my next newsletter or buy my other stuff.

I’m doing a multi-author book fair in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in a couple weeks that I’m hoping will get me some attention and sales.

5. Read 100 books.

I’ve read 35 books so far this year, which Goodreads tells me is 14 behind. But there’s a good chance I won’t have internet for part of my trip next week, so I’m hoping to catch up.

6. Continue the focus on being healthy.

I got a couple kayaks for my graduation present to myself, and I’ve been trying to either ride my bike 10+ miles or kayak at least a couple times a week. I’ve cut most processed food from my diet, eating a lot of veggies and protein. I think if I could just cut Pepsi from my diet, I’d be doing pretty well – too bad I need the caffeine to function.

Overall

Like always, I’ve been overly optimistic about how much free time I’ll have to work on everything (writing, marketing, school, research projects, etc). And like always, my time management skills aren’t what they should be. So I’ll end with an optimistic promise to catch up, and we’ll all have a good laugh in October about this.

If you’ve set goals for yourself, how’re they going so far this year?

Media Monday: What to do when you find a bag of money

The books: No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy and A Simple Plan by Scott Smith

The music: “Take the Money and Run” by the Steve Miller Band

I don’t watch a lot of movies. But when I do, I almost always try to read the book as well, to compare. Such was the case with No Country for Old Men, which I watched a couple weeks ago (yes, I’m a bit late to this one, I know). And A Simple Plan, which I first watched a couple years ago but rewatched not too long ago.

In No Country for Old Men, a Texas guy hunting antelope comes across the remains of a drug deal gone bad. Everyone involved is dead, so he takes the money and runs, thinking the money will solve all his problems. A psychopath bounty hunter pursues him, as does a bunch of nameless Mexican thugs. Lots of people die in very bloody, matter-of-fact ways. The book is an excellent commentary on perceptions of changing society and what role, if any, we’re required to play to change society for the better.

In A Simple Plan, some guys hunting in Minnesota come across a downed plan. The pilot is dead, so they take the money and run, thinking the money will solve all their problems. A fake FBI guy pursues them, and no one can keep their mouths shut about the money. Several people die.

In both cases, maybe the main characters’ lives weren’t perfect, but they were a lot better before they found the money than at the end of the stories. Had they just left the money, or turned it over to real law enforcement, their lives at the end of the stories still wouldn’t be perfect, but everyone would still have be alive.

So, despite what Steve Miller tells us about Billy Joe and Bobby Sue, if you find a bag of money, do not take the money and run! Because people will die.

(Also, these are both very good movies. McCarthy’s book is better than the movie – it ties up a lot of stuff left out of the movie – and Smith’s book is not as good as the movie. In fact, don’t read his book; just watch the movie.)

 

Weekend Writing Warrior 6/26/16 #8Sunday

Let’s continue with the five-part story I’ve been posting from this month, “A Family Tradition,” in my short story collection, The Futility of Loving a Soldier.

Background: Joos, who served in WWI (and whose story is told in the first part of “A Family Tradition”), is estranged from his son Maarten, a man who served during WWII and has spent his life battling his father’s legacy, as conveyed by his single mother, Ophélie. Joos has shown up at Maarten’s house, but Maarten isn’t sure if he’s ready to reconcile.

* * * * * * *

“It’s a lot to ask, so out of the blue,” Joos said, “ but at the least, I’d like to see my grandsons. I can only guess at what you’ve told them, and I want them to know who I really am.”

Who was Joos, really? Nothing but an old soldier making up excuses for missed chances and regretted choices. Maarten brushed aside the similarities crowding his mind, focusing instead on the picture his mother had always painted. He would never be like Joos.

“I bet we have a lot in common, Maarten.”

He stared at his father, his face hardening. How dare this man come here now, thinking they were anything alike!

* * * * * * *

My grandfather during WWII

The Futility of Loving a Soldier is on sale for just $.99 (regularly $3.99) – pick up a copy to read more about Joos and Maarten, as well as how the legacy extends through three more generations of sons. Available everywhere – Amazon, Barnes and Noble, iBooks, Kobo, and Smashwords

Then post a link to your eight sentences blog entry, or join the fun at the Weekend Writing Warriors website.

And if you’re a writer, sign up to be a Friday Five author, which gets you and your latest work featured on my blog.

Weekend Writing Warrior 6/19/16 #8Sunday

Today is Father’s Day, and what better way to celebrate than to continue with the five-part story I’ve been posting from this month, “A Family Tradition,” in my short story collection, The Futility of Loving a Soldier.

Background: Joos, who served in WWI (and whose story is told in the first part of “A Family Tradition”), is estranged from his son Maarten, a man who served during WWII and has spent his life battling his father’s legacy, as conveyed by his single mother, Ophélie. Joos has shown up at Maarten’s house, but Maarten isn’t sure if he’s ready to reconcile.

* * * * * * *

“Ophélie wrote me to tell me you’d enlisted; she wanted to rub in that you were in combat and weren’t a coward like your father.” Joos stared at his son, his hands still playing with his hat, and said, “I sent her so many letters, trying to get her back and trying to see you, asking for forgiveness.”

“She never forgave you.” Even on her deathbed, Ophélie had cursed Joos.

“And that’s why I’m here, Maarten—I have cancer, most likely only a couple months left. There’s nothing the doctors can do, but I don’t want to die without you understanding my side of what happened. I want you to forgive me and to know what happened wasn’t my fault.”

Forgive my father?

* * * * * * *

My great-grandfather in his WWI uniform (left) with his brother and sister.

Will Maarten forgive him? And how will this decision affect Maarten’s relationship with his own sons? Get a copy of The Futility of Loving a Soldier to find out!

Then post a link to your eight sentences blog entry, or join the fun at the Weekend Writing Warriors website.

And if you’re a writer, sign up to be a Friday Five author, which gets you and your latest work featured on my blog.

Weekend Writing Warrior 6/12/16 #8Sunday

For June I’m continuing to pull from my short story collection, The Futility of Loving a Soldier.

It’s eleven stories about veterans and their relationships with family and friends.

Today’s excerpt comes from the second of five related stories, “A Family Tradition.” This one is about Maarten, a man who served during WWII and has spent his life battling his father Joos’s legacy, as conveyed by his single mother, Ophélie.

In this excerpt, continuing from last week’s, he’s just arrived home from a Scouting trip with his sons, to find a strange car in the driveway. Once inside, he comes face-to-face with his father, whom he hasn’t had any contact with in over thirty years – although his father claims to have written to him on a regular basis. Maarten’s mother never told him any of this.

* * * * * * *

“Listen, Maarten.” Joos’s words were clipped. “Your mother left me – I didn’t leave her. She thought I was larger than life, that I would somehow carry her away from a farmer’s life and make all her big dreams come true, but times were tough for us, starting out. She was impatient, and less than honest herself, because the big inheritance she’d always mentioned never materialized. I tried to support us, God knows I tried. I wanted to work it out, to make our family work, but Ophélie wanted excitement. She wanted some hero—”

“Which you’re not.”

* * * * * * *

The Futility of Loving a Soldier is on sale this week for just $.99 – pick up a copy to read more about Joos and Maarten, as well as how the legacy extends through three more generations of sons. Available everywhere – Amazon, Barnes and Noble, iBooks, Kobo, and Smashwords

Then post a link to your eight sentences blog entry, or join the fun at the Weekend Writing Warriors website.

And if you’re a writer, sign up to be a Friday Five author, which gets you and your latest work featured on my blog.