Declan Finn's Blog, page 8

White Ops #2 Cover Reveal: Politics Kills

 In the first novel of the Space Opera White Ops, I explode a looming threat to the galaxy from a Mongol cannibal horde from another galaxy. They are dark. They are evil, and they are HUNGRY.Unfortunately, they’re also really powerful, and that’s when the fun starts.By book two, there is no hiding from the threat. It’s out, it’s ready to declare war on … everything.Now it’s time to get people to

Enter: White Ops

Many moons ago, when I was 16 (1998), I started writing. Soon what started as one lousy collection of short stories spiraled into a Space Opera epic over 4000 pages. I wrote all six books of them in 15 months.Does that sound impressive? Well, I was under the impression that a book was 300-400 pages.I did not know at the time that the pages of any given novel DID NOT EQUAL the same number of typed

Lou Antonelli is dead

Louis Antonelli was a relative latecomer to being an author. He didn't publish until he was 46 years old, in 2003. But in less than 20 years, he wrote over a hundred stories to publications around the world.His dayjob was a professional journalist, For the past six years, he was the managing editor of The Clarksville Times. His first novel was alternate history novel Another Girl, Another Planet,

Update, from Substack

I've been meaning to update this blog sooner rather than later, however, that hasn't happened.I've moved most of my blogging over to substack. Recent posts include: Declan Finn talks to Boomers on Books about 'Hussar'Dragon Ballot 2021The Marvel we should have hadDeveloping Vampires And UFWriting the FutureWriting St Tommy"Diversity," Representation and Checkboxing#FridayReads Review

Double Dragon (Award)

 If you’ve tracked … any of my movements on social media lately, you’ll know that I’ve talked often about the Dragon Awards.What I have spelled out lately is… well… why I care. And why you should care.Many on the right will cite the old adage “Politics is downstream from culture.”If that’s the case, our culture is heading for a sewer.Frankly, we should fight back. And I mean on every conceivable

Two announcements

To begin with, you may already know that I've moved on to Substack. Largely, I'm using that in place of my mailing list. But I've discovered it doubled as a blog. And with Blogger no longer mailing out to my readers, I may move there lock stock and barrel.While that's happening, I have an announcment.I'm in a new anthology.Has anyone ever heard of Starflight?ARE YOU READY FOR THE NEXT GREAT [image error]

Enter: the Dragons

Last year for the Dragon awards, many people in my circles hated the finalists.

And trust me, I mean it when I say that they hated the finalists. There was one caveat to that, but that's all I recall.

My response was simple

"DUH! Why do you think I try to have this discussion EVERY MONTH FOR HALF THE YEAR? YOU THINK I LIKE THIS? IF I WANTED IT FOR MYSELF, I'D ONLY TALK ABOUT MYSELF." [Insert sound of hair pulling and rage]

Ahem.

So, anyway, let's talk.

Why talk?

Because the nominations are already open! I'm not even joking. Click here, you'll see! And they're only open for less than three more months 

So, I have put together things **I'm** considering voting for. (Because we all know it's going to change in the next few months).

To share some of my thought process on the matter: I'm not nominating anyone who already has an award. And frankly, if you're Jim Butcher or a Baen author, you don't need my help.

If I leave the categories blank, it means I STILL got nothing.

Fair warning: if you come to my blog and screaming "ME ME ME" in the comments before you drop links to your book and run, to Hell with you. I am NOT having another Dragon Awards discussion that rolls like that. It's happened every damn year, and I'm DONE playing those games. I tried to be nice about listing EVERY LAST THING that's eligible, because I though that would mean we'd all have a discussion about it. It never happened and I'm sick of it. 

Best Science Fiction Novel

Karl Gallagher: Storm Between the Stars.

I read it. I reviewed it. It's really quite awesome. It's like if 1984 were written by David Weber.

(My problem is that book 2 is even better.... but it's probably best to nominate book ones whenever possible.)

Best Fantasy Novel (Including Paranormal)

Overlooked Again, by Jon Mollison 

Amazon link 

Review 

Best Young Adult / Middle Grade Novel

Paula Richey, Penance. 

Amazon Link

My review

Best Military Science Fiction or Fantasy Novel

At the moment, my best guess is Kai Wai Cheah, Unmasked. Half of which was a military engagement of one sort or another. And he gives Larry a run for his money in the gun porn.

Best Alternate History Novel

Educated Luck, Mel Todd. Heavily magic, heavy on alternate history and the development on the world. It would probably be best in fantasy, but I like it here.

Best Media Tie-In Novel

Everyone, feel free to suggest something. I'm going to just assume hat Timothy Zahn is going to get it. After all, he wrote a Thrawn novel in the past year.

Best Horror Novel

Hussar, Declan Finn 

Amazon link

Publisher link

Best Comic Book

Soulbound, #2, Paula Richey

Best Graphic Novel

Demon Slayer, Koyoharu Gotouge

Best Science Fiction or Fantasy TV Series

Demon Slayer

Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Movie

Fatman? Maybe?

Best Science Fiction or Fantasy PC / Console Game

Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Mobile Game

Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Board Game

Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Miniatures / Collectible Card / Role-Playing Game

You don't want to be a writer.

Inspired a bit by a recent post by fellow author Ben Cheah. Check his stuff out, btw.

 People tell me they **want** to be a writer.

No, you don't.

Seriously, you don't.

Look, you can hotwire your brain to write. It's relatively easy. I did it to myself when I was 16. I wasn't even trying. I just wanted this idea out of my head. Half a million words later, I had novels on my hands.

To be a writer, your brain is basically ON all the time.

You're (re)writing TV shows and books. You're calling plot twists.

When the story goes a different way, you want to rewrite it because your idea really was better.

That news story is now part of your thriller.

Your demonic plot to destroy a city becomes current events within a year or two.

You're basing people on friends. 

If you're male, you ask the women you use as models what their bust size is, because bra holsters are dictated by boob size.

Then your friends are asking how you came up with this great character... that they don't recognize as themselves.

You didn't pay attention to that conversation with friends / family about something really important to them, because something they said ten minutes ago started a plot outline in your brain.

Your brain occasionally overclocks from writing from 8-6, occasionally remembering to eat.

You take a break so  your brain can cool down, but then the compulsion to keep writing presses on your brain like a heavy blanket.

You need a notebook next to your bed so you can make notes--because the ideas don't let you sleep until you write them down.

It's why I tell people that there's a difference between "I want to be a writer" and "I have to be a writer." Because there is.

If you want to be a writer ... no, you don't. If I had my druthers, I'd have been an electrician or a plumber. I'd probably be using electricity to kill people in murder mysteries, but I'd have a 9-5 I didn't have to take home with me.

If you HAVE to be a writer, you don't have a choice. Damn the torpedoes and full speed ahead.

But it's binary. You are a writer, and you write, because you have to. 

Or you WANT to be a writer, and you don't write.

How writing doesn't go to plan

I have been writing for 32 years.

Some of my earliest stuff holds up surprisingly well. 

See my Williams and Miller series. I wrote it in 2000. I did a mild rewrite. The biggest flaw was gun stuff I thought I had fixed (apparently, I didn't catch everything. And the website I was using at the time lied to me. Damn Russians.) The biggest issue is that it was three times my usual novel length. That solution was easy-- break them up into parts.

And now, there's "HT." 

Those who know the parlance knows it means Hostage Taker. If you didn't, you do now. It was a hostage novel I had written after reading Deaver's "A Maiden's Grave." It is the only case I can point to where I read a book and said "I have my own spin."

Funny thing is that HT was basically the first book in my thriller universe. 

Yeah. You know how I published the MurderCon book, then Pius, then Miller and Williams? Thing is that this is the nearly the exact OPPOSITE order of publication.

Originally I had written my thrillers as...

It Was Only on Stun!

HT

Williams and Miller 1, 2 & 3 (the latter of which isn't published yet).

A Pius Man 1, 2, 3

Yeah. The Pius Trilogy was supposed to be the crowning moment of a massive cast spread out over four other books.

Remember the Kraft Brothers? Merle and Dalf? From my Vampire novels? They debuted in Dances With Werewolves, the second Williams and Miller book. There was also the third brother, Tal. 

Scott Murphy? Showed up in the third Williams and Miller.

For those of you who remember Father Frank Williams in Pius? Brother to the Williams in the thrillers.

Everyone was in this damn series.

Merle was also supposed to make an appearance in The Pius Trilogy, and had appeared in all but the last few drafts. If you wondered why Sean AP Ryan ended up hearing everything by coincidence, that would be because SOMEONE had to know what Merle knew. 

Why did I cut Merle? You mean aside from there being too many people in Pius in the first place? Because when I wrote him in Pius, he had been following up on a lead ... from Dances with Werewolves.

 Which I hadn't released yet.

And then there's HT....

I have a serious problem. Most books of mine that I reread, I hate. I want to spike the whole thing, and kill it with fire. 

I'm reading HT and wondering if I should just forget this one exists.

I think this is why most indie authors have street teams. In part to provide a slightly more objective look.

But yeah, I'm going to have to work on this for a while and see if I shouldn't just throw this down a memory hole

[For the record, all covers are done by my beautiful wife, Vanessa Landry]

The Catholic Geek, Reloaded, Penance with Paula Richey

Join host Declan Finn as he interview's author Paula Richey as we discuss Indie publishing, Soulbound, her latest release, the superhero novel Penance, from Silver Empire Press. 
Publisher link
Amazon link: https://amzn.to/3bjH5vW​ 
Paula runs: http://IndieGen.xyz​ and otherrealmstudio.com