Stephen Kozeniewski's Blog, page 15

Solving All the World's Problems With a Single Blogpost (Redirect)

Hey, everybody!

It's time for everyone's favorite kind of post: a redirect!  About all the horrible things going on in the world!  Enjoy!

Publish Like a Motherfucker Course 8: Fans, Friends, and Fuckers

Hey, everybody!
Hope all's going well with you.  I'm delighted to announce the second "Publish Like a Motherfucker (With Stephen Kozeniewski)" of 2021, and boy is it a doozy.

I'm pleased to welcome World Horror Grand Master Brian Keene, winner of a multitude of awards and author of a plethora of books, including THE RISING, NEMESAI, and END OF THE ROAD.
Stop by my business page Wednesday, February 3, at 8:00 pm EST.  I will, of course, be recording for posterity, but if you have questions, you'll want to be there live to participate.  And, as always, if you're interested in future PLAM courses, let me know in the comments below, on social media, or during the course.

Course 8:  Fans, Friends, and FuckersDate:  Wednesday, February 3Time:  8:00 pm ESTSyllabus:  Now that you've published you've started hitting social media and the convention trail hard.  With special guest World Horror Grand Master Brian Keene we'll discuss:
- to what extent should you welcome fans into your life?  when do you go from drinks at the hotel bar to inviting them into your home?  how do you tell merely eager fans from truly dangerous ones?
- how do you distinguish between genuine friends and climbers?  what do you do when people ask you to wave your magic wand and make them famous?
- do the lifelong friendships outweigh dealing with jackasses?  is it safer to be more guarded online and in person?

BRAINEATER JONES is on sale!

Hey, everybody!  BRAINEATER JONES is on sale for $0.99, across the world, on multiple platforms.  The sale ends January 13, so strike now while the iron's hot.  
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Kobo
Google Play
iTunes

Publish Like a Motherfucker Course 7: You Got a Bloody Right

Hey, everybody!  And a Happy Soon-To-Be-New Year!
I'm delighted to bring you a seventh installment of "Publish Like a Motherfucker (With Stephen Kozeniewski)," and our second with a special guest!


I'm pleased to welcome Splatterpunk Award-winning author Wesley Southard!  Wes's new book CRUEL SUMMER will be coming out in ebook and trade paperback.  Since he's already sold his Italian language and limited edition hardcover rights, I thought this might be a good opportunity to talk about all the different ways you can make money off a single manuscript. 
Stop by my business page next Wednesday, January 6, at 8:00 pm EST.  We will, of course, record it for posterity, but if you have questions, you'll want to be there live to participate.  And, as always, if you're interested in future PLAM courses, let me know in the comments below, on social media, or during the course.

Course 7:  You Got a Bloody RightDate:  Wednesday, January 6Time:  8:00 pm ESTSyllabus:  You finally got a book published!  Now that cash cow is milked, right?  Well, not quite.  Along with special guest Wesley Southard I'll be discussing:
- how worried about rights should I be when signing a publishing contract?- what are all the different kinds of subsidiary rights?  which ones should I be paying for and which ones should I be paid for?
- should I be doing all this myself?  isn't this what you pay an agent for?

2020 This is Horror Award Nominations

Hey, everybody!
2020 is almost (thankfully) over.  Around bookworld that means it is awards season.  I've been reflecting on my year, which has been a bit less productive than the last seven, but I blame that largely on a pandemic-shaped hole in the middle.  Still, I had a few works come out that are eligible for awards.
If you're so inclined (please don't feel obligated), you can nominate my works listed below for the 2020 This is Horror Awards.  You can do so by e-mailing awards@thisishorror.co.uk with the subject line "This is Horror Award Nominations 2020."  This year they're also accepting a one-sentence explanation of why the work is worthy of nomination.  More rules and information can be found here.
So, without further ado, here are my eligible works for 2019:

Novel of the Year

THE PERFECTLY FINE HOUSE


Anthology of the Year

BREWTALITY


Cover Art of the Year

THE PERFECTLY FINE HOUSE by Don Noble


Other recommendations:
Since you can nominate two works in each category, and some categories I'm not even eligible in, here are some of my recommendations:
Novel of the Year 
    THE MAGPIE COFFIN by Wile E. Young    THE ONLY GOOD INDIANS by Stephen Graham Jones    THE RAVEN by Jonathan Janz
Novella of the Year
    SLAVES TO GRAVITY by Wesley Southard and Somer Canon    THE DEMON IN THE GLASS by Matt Wildasin
Short Story Collection of the Year
Anthology of the Year
    ONE OF US: A TRIBUTE TO FRANK MICHAELS ERRINGTON    MIDNIGHT IN THE PENTAGRAM    UNDER HER BLACK WINGS

Fiction Magazine of the Year 
    "Unnerving"    Publisher of the Year
    Grindhouse Press    The Evil Cookie Publishing
    Dunwich Edizioni

Fiction Podcast of the Year
Nonfiction Podcast of the Year
    "The Horror Show With Brian Keene"     "The Ghost Writers Podcast"
Cover Art of the Year

Publish Like a Motherfucker Rides Again (Redirect)

ICYMI...

Head on over to the group blog and check out my latest impromptu "Publish Like a Motherfucker" session.  Or just check it out below.  Either way, enjoy the fuck out of it.

Publish Like a Motherfucker Course 6: So, in Review...

"Publish Like a Motherfucker (with Stephen Kozeniewski)" 
Course 6: So, in Review... Originally Recorded: Monday, December 7, 9:45 pm EST Syllabus: For some reason, everyone's talking about book reviews today. Something must have happened on Twitter. But as long as it's in the air, in this unscheduled, impromptu course I discussed: 
- what do book reviews do for you as a writer or a reader? - what does the book reviewer owe the author and vice versa? (hint: the answer is nothing.) - should you always, never, or sometimes read the reviews? 
More information on PLAM and links to previous episodes can be found here.
For the video that inspired this one, thank booktuber Gloria McNeely.

Back Jacket Hack Job: THE PERFECTLY FINE HOUSE (Redirect)

Hey, everybody!  Over on ye olde groupe blogge this week I recreated, with painstaking detail, the exact narrative voice of my good friend and writing partner Wile E. Young.  You should really check it out.  I promise it'll be more fun than a hundred Super Bowls.

(Virtual) ChessieCon or Bust!

Hey, everybody.  It's been a bitch of a year in so many ways, but one of the worst for writers and readers is not getting to see each other at conventions and trade shows.

I hope to see you this weekend at another virtual event, ChessieCon, which is routinely one of my favorite events of the year.  Below are my panels and some links.  Hope to see you there!

(Virtual) Chessiecon Date: Friday, Saturday, and Sunday November 27-29

Location:  Virtual
Panels:
Friday 4:00 pm EST - "Turkey Awards Judging Panel"
Friday 5:30 pm EST - "How To Get Published"
Friday 8:30 pm EST - "Humor in SF/F Writing Friday"
Saturday 10:00 am EST - "Making an Unlikeable Person a Likable Character"
Saturday 13:00 pm EST - "Crowdfunding for the Beginner"
Sunday 10:00 am EST - "Non-European Mythological Creatures"

What Did Trump Do That Was Really So Bad?

The title of this blogpost, more or less, is a question that I saw posed on Facebook today.  I expect it will be posed a lot more often in the next few days.  I honestly started to draft a response to the original poster, but decided against it for my own sanity.  Still, it seems like a question begging for an answer, so I'll try, and if you like what I have to say, you can just link to this blogpost in the future when the question comes up.

First and foremost, I need to concede that the covid-19 pandemic is not, strictly speaking, Trump's fault.  Although largely unique in modern history, it would best be understood in the context of a natural disaster, or what your insurance policy likely calls an "Act of God."  I just want to preface these first few entries with that, because I don't want to be accused of saying I blamed Trump for something he had no control over.

1.)  Trump Did Nothing to Prevent the Pandemic

Trump pulled epidemiologists out of China who in previous potential pandemic situations called the world's attention.  His much touted China travel ban, which was pretty much the only step who took to stop the virus from reaching American shores, only applied to Chinese nationals.  In a sense, the "ban" encouraged American citizens to rush home from China faster, likely exacerbating the situation, and he implemented no ban against European travel even when the virus was already spreading across Europe.  Trump also disbanded the White House's pandemic unit.  As I stated above, I know he did not cause the pandemic per se, and it's impossible to say what might have happened had he taken better precautions, but the current severity and scope of deaths is on his head.

2.)  Trump Exacerbated the Pandemic

Trump repeatedly, knowingly lied to the American people about the dangers of covid-19 up until the day shutdowns were ordered.  His news conferences after that were often littered with incorrect or out-of-date information.  He asserted on numerous occasions that he was joking or being sarcastic about things like injecting yourself with bleach or taking hydroxychlroquine.  Even if he was joking (I watched each of those conferences, and he absolutely was not, but just for the sake of argument) he should not have been goofing off at a national press conference.  The "I was just fucking with ya" excuse may work with a frat house president, but not with our nation's head of state.  He refused to wear a mask, disparaged mask wearing long after the science had coagulated, encouraged people not to comply with lockdown and stay-at-home orders, and continued to hold major superspreader events all throughout the year, all culminating in he and large swathes of his staff and family catching it.  Again, the virus may have been an Act of God, but this behavior made the consequences much, much worse.

3.)  Trump Exacerbated the Greatest Loss of Jobs Since the Great Depression

To reiterate for a third time, while Trump did not directly cause the pandemic, he sure whiffed on his response to it.  Fourteen million people just flat out went out of work.  To his credit, he shepherded one relief package through congress.  Then promptly said "Fuck it, I'm campaigning for the rest of the year."  Democrats in the House offered multiple relief packages and the White House, not Senate Republicans, shot them down.  For political purposes, I should add, but that could be argued, I suppose.  Again, the outbreak was not directly his fault, however a lot more could have been done to prevent such dire economic woes.  I get the whole "the economy was doing great until the virus hit" outlook, but that kind of misses the point.  When the virus did hit, why didn't the genius businessman/economist fix things?

4.)  Trump Employees and Tolerates Nazis

Look, Stephen Miller is a Nazi.  Not in a "oh, Kozeniewski's a leftie so he must think everybody right of Eisenhower is straight-up Hitler" kind of way.  I mean he is a self-described, loud and proud white supremacist.  He is also Trump's senior policy advisor.  There are literal Nazis in the White House.  I will avoid hyperbole, because there are several other senior staff who I think are very not good people who I would describe as Nazis in the "I'm a leftie" way, but that might technically count as hyperbolic, so I will refrain from that.  But the fact remains: there are straight-up Nazis Trump appointed to positions of power in the White House.  There was a Nazi rally in Charlottesville in 2017 and they killed a lady.  There are protesters in the streets as I write this waving swastikas.  I know that racism never really went away in America or anything, but I did not think we would be talking about actual Nazis in America in the 21st century as more than a kook outlier.  If I need to explain to you why that is inherently bad, then go ahead and leave me a comment, but I will state unequivocally that if you defend Nazis, you are a bad person, morally and ethically.

5.)  Trump Has Normalized Corruption

I'd prefer this blogpost to be concise, rather than a laundry list.  We've all seen the laundry lists, and you can go google one if that's what you're interested in.  So let's just stick to the facts, as dispassionately as I can put them.  Seven of Trump's senior White House advisors have been indicted or sent to prison.  Trump himself was impeached for corruption.  He was not convicted, but I'm trying with everything in me to stay dispassionate, so I will not say he was acquitted for partisan reasons.  Trump has been the subject of over 3,500 lawsuits in the last thirty years.  Admittedly, a lion's share of those must have been before he was elected.  Finally, the Mueller independent probe found multiple cases of corruption which could not be prosecuted only because Trump was a sitting president.  I don't want to put words into the dude's mouth but he basically said, "Yeah, dude's a criminal, but it's up to congress to act, not the DoJ."  Look, I know that just by writing this paragraph people could come at me with a thousand razors and tell me why I'm wrong about any individual case.  But at the end of the day Trump has surrounded himself with criminals and has very likely been committing crimes himself, while buffeted from the consequences by dint of his unique office.  That's the most dispassionate way I can put it.

So there you have it.  I could go on and on.  But these five points are, in a nutshell, why Trump has been so bad.