Kristene Perron's Blog, page 9

One Last Giveaway for the Road!

I, (Kristene), will be headed south to the wilds of Baja, Mexico, for six weeks while Wasteland Renegades, the second book in the Warpworld series, is under the editor’s knife (or red pen, as the case may be). So I decided to sneak in one last Goodreads giveaway before I go!

There’s one double signed copy to be won and once again we have opened this contest to everyone from every country. (Lichtenstein, don’t let us down this time).

Good luck!

Goodreads Book Giveaway


Warpworld
by Kristene Perron

Giveaway ends January 24, 2013.

See the giveaway details

at Goodreads.

Enter to win

 

~Kristene & Josh

A Government by the People and for the People

So who’s in charge of the World, anyway?

Short answer? Nobody.

Longer answer: The World is essentially anarcho-capitalism run amok. As is often seen in dystopian Cyberpunk storylines, the World is governed by a confluence of powerful interests. Each of the seventeen major city-states, which house millions of citizens, is technically an independent political state with its own regulations. In practice, the city-states are perhaps the weakest players on the field. It is the layers above that conduct the true business of the World, leaving the city-states to the untidy, messy bureaucratic chores of handling the Citizenry and such public services as exist.

We see one city in Warpworld, Cathind. By virtue of being both the home of the Cultural Theorist’s Guild and the majority of raider units on the World, Cathind is second only to the Central Well Authority’s home city of Orhalze in status. While Orhalze is strictly a ‘company town’, where almost all city governance is conducted strictly at the authority of the CWA, Cathind is more typical in many ways of a city-state on the World. The Cathind Civil Authority manages city affairs and the Guild tends to involve itself only in matters that directly affect it, while retaining sovereign privilege over all Guild facilities. Likewise, family Houses, such as House Haffset, retain their own sovereign territory within the city, rendering them effectively as states within states. Larger incorporated entities and major raider charters also hold this privileged position.

So how do they all get along? Warily. Technically the Civil Authority acts as the arbiter between the resident entities in their conflicts, as well as with external entities from other cities.

‘Technically’, of course, depends on the nature of the players involved. The two major powers of the World are the Guild and the CWA, with the Mercenary and Raider Review Commission (MRRC) often given as the third leg of power. In conflicts between any of these three entities, direct negotiation is far more likely than resorting to the use of mistrusted city authorities as arbiters.

Where do Citizens fit in this? As most people do in most places and at most times — position and wealth equal power.

This, dear readers, is a look ahead at some of the conflicts that will drive our upcoming Warpworld sequel, Warpworld: Wasteland Renegades.

~Josh

Why I Shunned Social Media (and why you should, too)

I wonder if any two words divide people into separate camps faster than “social media”? Do you embrace Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and their many spawn with zeal, or do you loudly proclaim their inanity whenever possible? These days, if you’re a writer who isn’t George R.R. Martin and you’re not on the social media bandwagon, you’re viewed as an unfortunate dinosaur by many of your peers. And even if you are on the bandwagon you’re going to be bombarded by blogs and articles telling you how to get on the bandwagon better! Stronger! Faster!

I’m leery of professional advice from people whose names or work I’ve never heard of. Long ago I decided that I wouldn’t dare to offer unsolicited writing advice to the general public until I was successful enough to prove that I knew what the hell I was doing. Besides, there are already lots of tools already out there for those wishing to improve their craft. (On Writing remains the one book I constantly recommend to beginner writers, even if some parts of King’s masterpiece are a bit dated, and if you ever get a chance to attend a workshop or class with Donald Maass I highly recommend you pounce on that like a rabid pitbull on a slipper).

What I do feel confident talking about, to new or aspiring writers, is the need to Just Say No to social media. (Note, this applies mostly to writers of fiction).

If you want to write as a career, at some point you will need to market your work and yourself, as soul-sucking a task as that may sound. You will need to build a fan base. Legacy or indie published, it makes no difference. Readers now have a sea of choices thanks to the miracle of ebooks and if you’re not doing something to get noticed, well, you won’t be. Social media is free, it’s simple(ish), and can be effective when used properly.

(Here comes my big but.)

BUT!

If you don’t have a story worth selling, you are wasting your time. And wasting time online is both too easy and too tempting.

In 2009, Josh and I sat down (thousands of miles apart), to play with an idea he had shared with me, the seed of what would become the five book Warpworld series. I have never had much problem getting “my butt in the chair” but this was a new level of obsession. I was consumed by the worlds we were building, the characters that populated them, and the story that was unfolding beneath our fingers. In just under two years, we completed a rough draft for all five books. Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of pages. We knew every main character intimately and many secondary characters as well. We understood the social systems of every world and culture as well as we did our own. We had maps and lists, images, songs, and family trees.

Through all this, I abstained from Twitter and only very occasionally popped onto Facebook. Never mind social media, social everything came to a screeching halt. I was 100% focused on the story, on the work, on the craft.

The result?

Well, I’m not writing this in my private castle, from my gold-plated jet, or between television interviews. There’s a long road ahead until Warpworld is a financial success, and even then there are no guarantees. What I do know is that we wrote, (and continue to write), a damn good story. A story worth selling. If Warpworld does one day enter into the ranks of bestsellers it will be because of the time and dedication we put into its creation and not because we are some kind of marketing geniuses, (we aren’t).

Not everyone will like Warpworld, and that’s fine. Some readers will hate it but some readers hate everything, (even Harry Potter has 1 star reviews). But, so far, the reviews are overwhelmingly positive and that will get us what no amount of author marketing can: word of mouth.

Finally, but most importantly, even if we never made a dime, Josh and I have a book we love, a book we’re proud of.

“I would do my best in future not to write books just for the money. If you didn’t get the money, then you didn’t have anything. If I did work I was proud of, and I didn’t get the money, at least I’d have the work.” ~ Neil Gaiman

As a writer, your first and most important job is: TELL A GOOD STORY. No matter the genre, length, or subject matter, you must TELL A GOOD STORY.  Hype means nothing if you do not TELL A GOOD STORY.

Have I been clear enough? No? Maybe Guy Bergstrom can convince you in this very entertaining article The secret truth about writing.

If you’re new to writing, you’re going to have a hell of a time developing your skills if your attention is on monitoring your Twitter feed, counting your followers, seeing how many likes you’ve accumulated on Facebook, or pinning images on Pinterest. When you work, shut all those time vampires off. Walk away. Write on a computer that is not connected to the Internet. Lose yourself in your imaginary worlds and the lives of the characters who inhabit them. Focus on what will make you a better writer and not what will make you e-popular.

I can hear the protests:

“But I see lots of authors tweeting all the time!”

And so can you, once you learn how to TELL A GOOD STORY. Until then, social media should be rationed like the last liter of water on a life raft adrift at sea.

“But I’ll lose my audience!”

You’ll get them back. As a nomad who has frequently hung her hat in very unplugged corners of the world, I can assure that the Internet, (and the world in general), has a short memory.

“But I’ve worked so hard!”

What’s your  job, again?

(Hint: TELL A GOOD STORY).

I’m not suggesting you cast off social media entirely. If you simply cannot live without telling the world what you ate for lunch, then please do…in your free, non-working time. Even then, set limits for yourself and stick to them.

Now, when you’ve learned how to tell a good story, and you’ve told it, and it’s time to sell that puppy, you can return to social media and decide how and how often you will partake. There are no hard and fast rules, though I highly recommend this blog post by author Myke Cole for some insight: Social Media – Worth it?

Of course, your job to TELL A GOOD STORY never ends, not if you’re serious about writing. But then, if you are serious, you already love your job and you should probably stop reading this rant and get back to it.

~Kristene

The Huchack

Warpworld makes numerous references to the huchack, a rather loathsome creature that is the main pivot around which the economy and indeed the entire structure of the World turns. Huchacks were genetically modified at some point in the murky history of the World, after the arrival of the Storm. As material scarcity began to pinch down on the survivors of the initial confusion, new methods of production were necessary in order to maintain a level of technological survivability.

The huchack is a pond-dwelling creature, roughly akin to a water-breathing porcupine. Huchacks feed by grazing on algae and minerals, which they excrete as a stringy, fibrous byproduct that can be harvested and processed into a wide variety of materials. Huchack fiber weaves can be used to create hard plastics, or softened for conversion into clothing. (One notable facet of this process is the amount of ‘rinse’ that huchack-weave clothing receives determines its worth – rough, barely processed fibers are a mark of the denizens of the underground cities [undercities] that lay under all the major urban centers of the World, while well-softened clothing [virtually indistinguishable from cotton] is a sign of true status and power.)

Another notable feature of the huchack is its venom-laden spines. As the spines accumulate ferrous materials from the grazing diet of the animal, these spines are commonly utilized in magnetically-accelerated weaponry, the most common of which is typically referred to as a ‘chack’, in reference to its source. The spines are impregnated with a low-grade toxin similar to the venom of the Brown Recluse spider of our world, which causes the mortification of tissue around the site of wounds. Chacks are extremely brutal weapons, the use of which would be considered a war crime in many civilizations.

The toxin of the huchack creates a further complication in the extraction of both huchack fibers and spines. Since the venom leaches into the water, the extraction process is universally lethal for caj sent to extract the spines, with the typical lifespan of caj sent to the ponds running at slightly less than a year. As such, pond duty is typically reserved for caj who are troublemakers or otherwise unusable.

The huchack is the blessing and the curse of the World, a symbol of the lengths the People will go in order to survive and the callousness with which they regard the rest of the universe.

~ Josh

Better Than a Mutated Pony

What childhood gifts do you remember most? For me, it would have been the pony or the science experiment kit I longed for, but of course my parents were not complete lunatics and, thus, never gave me either of those items. I’m sure they had a vision, (a very accurate vision), of collecting their ten-year-old daughter from jail and having to explain the mutated pony and the trail of destruction left along Scott Road, while an exasperated detective held up a set of beakers and vials as evidence. Unknowingly, my mom and dad may have saved quiet, suburban North Delta from certain doom.

What gifts do I really remember most, and most fondly? Books.

OK, the ten-speed bike and the skis kicked ass over everything else, but only because those kinds of big ticket presents were rare and given with surprises so well-planned they could be the plot of the next Mission Impossible movie.

Books. I remember books and lots of them. I read and re-read them all, sometimes late at night, stealthily, beneath the covers. Through books, AKA my imagination portals, I could live out all the crazy, non-parental approved, adventures my heart desired, over and over and over. Among those tomes, a beautifully illustrated version of Tolkien’s The Hobbit, was the most beloved.

Best. Gift. Ever.

This enduring fantasy about short men with voracious appetites and hairy feet, (hm, this might have influenced some of my early dating choices), was given to me by one of my cousins. Janis or Gail? I can’t remember which, thank you middle-age. Or maybe it was my aunt? In any case, I read that book until the pages fell out, until the corners of the cover curled, until the protective plastic coating flaked away. I spent as much time in Middle Earth as I spent in earth earth. I took the book to school and asked (begged/threatened) my teacher to read it to the class. She did. I carried that book with me when I moved out on my own, when I moved again, and again, and again. (Repeat “again” about 27 more times and you’ll get the idea). I taped up the cover and warned bookshelf browsers to handle The Hobbit with extreme care – or else!

When did Bilbo Baggins and I part ways? I don’t remember. When you move as much as I have, books, those heavy bastards, tend to become casualties in the packing process. (Huzzah, e-readers, huzzah!) But, even so, the books I was given as gifts imprinted on me for life. Wonder, empathy, reason, courage, acceptance, playfulness, all of those qualities and more seeped into me as I read. Long after my Lite-Brite pegs disappeared down heating vents or were eaten by the dog, after the Easy Bake oven’s lightbulb had burned its last cake, after I’d hopped my final Atari frog across traffic, the stories and characters of those books lived on.

They live on still.

Books were my Gandalf, arriving at my door, beckoning me out of the Shire, (or 119a Street), on to great adventures, to worlds undreamed of and friends I’d yet to make. Much cooler, in retrospect, than a pony and a bunch of chemicals. Well played, Mom and Dad…well played.

As the holiday season rushes by, consider the gift of words as you stare wide-eyed and panicked at your list in the middle of the crowded shopping mall. All the framuses and knick-knackery in existence cannot compare to the joy of stepping into another life. Also, you will become the KING OF GIFT GIVERS! What an adventure!

“Then something Tookish woke up inside him, and he wished to go and see the great mountains, and hear the pine-trees and the waterfalls, and explore the caves, and wear a sword instead of a walking-stick.” ~ J.R.R. Tolkien,  The Hobbit

~ Kristene

*The authors are biased but are happy to suggest Warpworld as a gift for the sci-fi lover on your list. Or you could always enter the Goodreads giveaway and try to win one all for yourself.

Goodreads Happy Holidays Giveaway!

Just in time for your favourite winter holiday, Josh and I are offering another Goodreads giveaway. You’ll have to act fast since this one starts today and ends on Dec.21. Apparently the world will end on that day too, but we think you have better odds of winning a copy of this adventure science fiction epic than vanishing off the face of the earth.

We are giving away one double-signed copy and, sorry people of Lichtenstein, this one is only for residents of the US and Canada. (More international  giveaways coming soon – promise!)

Happy Holidays everyone, good luck and blood for water!

~Kristene and Josh

Goodreads Book Giveaway


Warpworld
by Kristene Perron

Giveaway ends December 21, 2012.

See the giveaway details

at Goodreads.

Enter to win

 

 

What if Nobody Loved Alexander?

I don’t consciously model characters on real people very much. I’ve never been particularly comfortable working with characterizations that I haven’t created myself, which is why I’d probably be lousy at licensed fiction for established universes.

That said, there are traits that will tend to be attached to people who achieve certain types of success. So when you’re writing a character that’s following a particular path, you’ll find that those traits will tend to follow along with the traits you associate with personalities you’ve studied or envisioned.

I’m no historian. I don’t have a library of primary source documents and a half-finished thesis resting on my drive. I’m just a hobbyist, somebody who tends to read at least a couple of history books a month and loves learning new things about the past. So when I looked at Warpworld somewhere during the process of the rough draft for the second book in the series, (coming next Spring!), it was a historical comparison that came to mind for the male protagonist of the series. Segkel Eraranat, to me, is something of an Alexander figure. Not entirely — remember he wasn’t created for the parallel, Alexander is just who he reminded me of. Seg will never, in the entire series, get accused of being a military genius. He is, however, possessed of a burning ambition and, (most notably in the first book), sees absolutely no reason why his pursuit of this ambition should be impeded.

Therein lies another crucial difference between the two  — environment. One could never call Alexander’s home environment nurturing or gentle, to be certain. But it was an environment that supported his ambitions. Conquering the entirety of Persia? Hell yes, that’s the sport of kings! In the end what limited Alexander was the exhaustion of troops who’d been marched to the end of the known world with no promise of when, if ever, they’d be able to return to their own land.

On the other hand, Seg Eraranat’s People do not reward boundless ambition. Daring is appreciated, to a certain extent. But ultimately the People prioritize the survival of their society above all other things, exacerbated by the fact that the imminent threat to their survival is directly assaulting them daily. The Storm directs the World far more than any individual or group could ever dream of doing, and every action the People take is done with one eye cast back at the lurking doom awaiting them.

Warpworld touches on that conflict. It lays the foundation for a broader examination of how dynamic individuals act or fail in such circumstances and, as the series goes on, becomes an exploration of the meaning of freedom as well as morality in extremes.

Also there is romance and things blow up.

In short, it’s going to be a hell of a ride. Come for the book, stay for the series.

~ Josh

Goodreads Giveaway Countdown!

It’s almost over so don’t miss out – citizens of Lichtenstein, we’re counting on you! Less than a week left to win on of five double-signed copies of Warpworld.

 

Goodreads Book Giveaway


Warpworld
by Kristene Perron

Giveaway ends December 02, 2012.

See the giveaway details

at Goodreads.

Enter to win

 

What in the (Warped) World Are You Reading? Joshua Simpson

I couldn’t end this fun author Q&A series without one more special guest – my writing partner, Joshua Simpson! One of the benefits of writing with a partner, (something I never imagined I would do), is that our production meetings often spin off into enthusiastic discussions about books, stories, and storytelling. Writers begin as readers, and we write on the backs of those that came before us. Many aspects of Warpworld, (and the books to follow), have been inspired by other authors. We owe a debt to books, to reading, to stories and to storytellers. And I owe a debt to my partner, who makes the writing life a little less lonely and never lets me forget that this may be a job but it’s a damn fun job!

Don’t forget to keep following the National Reading Campaign and to encourage Canadians everywhere to read!

Joshua Simpson

A career nomad, Josh Simpson has driven trucks through the lower forty-eight states, treated and and disposed of hazardous waste, mixed mud as a stonemasonry laborer, failed abysmally in marketing, got on people’s nerves as a safety man, and presently gets on their nerves even more using nerve release techniques in musculo-skeletal pain relief. He lives amidst the scrub and mesquite of West Texas, cohabiting with the requisite writer’s minimum of two cats. Warpworld is his first published novel.

Q: What are you reading right now?

A: John Campbell’s Lost Fleet: Victorious

Q: As a kid, why did you love reading?

A: There’s no simple answer for that. I grew up in a family that read extensively, and so it wasn’t as if reading was a novel activity that transported me away from the humdrum of life. It was simply something we did. My family consumed food, cigarettes, and books.

Q: Are there any books that changed your life?

A: Undoubtedly any number of the loads of books I read had influence, again we read so much that pointing to a few, singular works is difficult. However, there was one story I read when I was about six or seven that does stand out. I can’t remember the name of the story, but it was a book I’d fought to read because we had fairly strict age-restrictions in the elementary library and it was considered over my ‘reading level’ in the first grade. The story was the tale of astronauts on the moon, and at the end the ‘jerk’ character sacrificed himself to save the others. The characters were on the far side, away from their base, they had enough lift in their vehicle to save two of the three they had there, and they wouldn’t be able to come back and recover the third for a week, while they had 48 hour air supplies. So at the end of the story they come back and find out that rather than wait for his air to run out, he’d popped his suit and gone out on his own terms. This ending was very different and that’s why it stayed with me so long, because at that age the typical fare would have had the jerk be redeemed and become a nice guy, and there’s always a way to save everyone. This was my first exposure to a Cold Equations type of story where the reality is that people are lost along the way.

Q: Dog ear-er or non dog-ear-er?

A: Dog ear-er, for sure. I usually keep a nonfic in the bathroom and they typically have a dog-ear for every page or two.

Q: Your favourite fictional hero and/or villain?

A: Dirk Struan from Clavell’s Tai-Pan. Such a well-rendered character. As for favorite villain I’d pretty much have to go for Tyler Brock from same novel. The conflict between the two was deep and multi-faceted, strangely honorable yet utterly cutthroat.

Q: Anything else you want to say about reading?

A: Heinlein put it best – slightly less addictive than heroin, more expensive than weed.

 

Thanks Josh! (Now get back to work, we have a third draft to finish!)

What in the (Warped) World Are You Reading? Michael F Stewart

We’re at the end of our week-long author Q&A series for the National Reading Campaign. (Well, almost. Tune in tomorrow for one more special author!) All of our guest authors have talked about the joy of reading as a child. Whether it was the feeling of importance from seeing gold stars on a board, or receiving a monthly Dr. Seuss book, or from the delightful feeling of escaping into exotic and strange lands such as the World of Og, reading was a joyful experience.

If you’re a parent, how do you encourage your kids to read? If you’re a teacher, how do you keep reading fun? And how can we all make sure that future generations continue to experience the simple but profound joy of reading?

Hear what People for Education have to say on reading.

Today’s author, Michael F Stewart, introduced me to the National Reading Campaign and was one of many authors who offered me a very warm welcome when I was recently accepted as a member of SF Canada. Thanks Michael!

Michael F Stewart

After crewing ships in the Antarctic and the Baltic Sea and some fun in venture capital, Michael anchored himself (happily) to a marriage and a boatload of kids. Now he injects his adventurous spirit into his writing with brief respites for research into the jungles of Sumatra and Guatemala, the ruins of Egypt and Tik’al, paddling the Zambezi and diving whatever cave or ocean reef will have him. He is the author of 24 Bones, The Sand Dragon, Hurakan, Ruination and several award winning graphic novels for young adults.

Q: What are you reading right now?

A: The Dead of Winter by Lee Collins—A monster hunter / Western.

Q: As a kid, why did you love reading?

A: I lost myself in fantasy. Who wouldn’t want to be transported to Middle Earth rather than my dusty suburb?

Q: Are there any books that changed your life?

Books in general changed my life. I’m a writer

Q: Dog ear-er or non dog-ear-er?

A: Dog ear-er. I’ve ruined so many iPads that way.

Q: Your favourite fictional hero and/or villain?

A: Hero: Bat Man. I love the vigilante or anti-hero.

Villain: Hannibal.

Q: Anything else you want to say about reading?

A: Reading is a contract. I’ll suspend disbelief if the author agrees to take me on an adventure I could never otherwise go on. There’s no other medium like it. Nothing so immersive. Let’s ensure everyone has the chance to discover it.

 

Agreed! Come back tomorrow for one final mystery guest.