Robert L. Slater's Blog, page 18

Reflection on 2014 goals and renewal, revision and recreation of Goals for 2015.

How do I follow up a year like 2014? To finally be able to call myself not only a writer, but a published Author, has been a dream for decades and a goal since 1991. That was one small part of 2014!

2015 looks to be a challenging year for all authors, as the industry continues to flex and flux to maximum capacity. My overarching goal for 2015 is to beat all the records I made for myself in 2014: get more words written, more stories and books published on more platforms. Develop my web presence...

Coming to the end of 2014! Thanks and more…

Looking forward to 2015 as we wrap up 2014!

What’s to come? 2014 was amazing for me as an author. It was everything I hoped for, if not everything I dreamed of. Where is that contract for the foreign rights, and the option on the screenplay?

Seriously, I hit some top ten lists, got reviewed by Don Sakers for Analog magazine, won an award, rubbed elbows literarily with Veronica Roth and Scott Westerfield and literally with Hugh Howie, who complimented my pagination! In addition to Hugh, I met M...

Want to read my new Deserted Lands novella for FREE?

Last week on WattPad. TWO stories in the top
100 in Science Fiction!

JOIN MY NEWSLETTER AT THEbottom of this post by the end of this week to read the rough draft of Toils and Snares as a beta reader. The link will go out in my newsletter only on the 15th! Sample it here on Wattpad.

What will you get? Free short fiction on a monthly basis.
Opportunity to be a beta reader for my new stories, novellas and novels.
Information on appearances and sales.

What do I have to do if I’m a beta reader?

Well, yo...

New Books I’d Nominate for Awards & IndiesFirst

As I came to the realization that my debut novel is coming up for its first awards season, I thought about what I’ve read in the last year and what books I think are deserving of awards. I’ve read many great books this year and have even more to read thanks to a number of conventions. ALA was the clear winner I took 10 copies of my book to give away and brought back 36 new books. Well, actually mailed them from the handy-dandy temporary post-office at ALA. Of the four books, two came from tha...

Updates, Requests, and Beta Reads

UPDATES: Almost mid-November. Writing-wise, I’ve got some good news and some bad news. I’ll start with the Bad, which isn’t really very bad.

Bad news?

NaNoWriMo [National Novel Writing Month] counts are down. Not likely to hit 50,000 words in November.
All Is Silencewas requested for consideration by the Phillip K. Dick award administrator, Gordon Van Gelder. Alas, since I released a hardcover version, it does not qualify. Sigh. Nice to be asked.
No review from Publishers Weekly. Bummer.
Pubslush...

ALL NANO’s EVE

Happy Howl-a-ween to those of you who celebrate such things. I’ll post costume pics later.

Two years ago on this night I embarked on a fantastic journey. I planned to write 60,000 words of a novel, tentatively title Zombie Zoo, during the month of November and “WIN” NaNoWriMo [National Novel Writing Month]. It was my third attempt at a decent novel and I had this killer idea. What if an at-risk teen girl, one who might have said, “I hope you all die,” to her family, where to be one of the few...

Please Pubslush with me…

Pubslushing… A kick-start for Writers!

About six months ago I entered a random drawing from the Kobo Writing Life blog for a Pubslush Writing crowd-funding support Giveaway. As with so many other times that I’ve tossed a hat in the ring, I won one of the second prizes–Bronze level support for a Pubslush Campaign.

I had not seriously considered doing any sort of crowd-funding kick-start or other funding model. But then I got to thinking… What if I ran it like a pre-sale? Folks could buy existing...

Why do I WattPad?

Have to shout out to my editor/writing friend/marketing maven,Amanda June Hagarty! She convinced me to give Wattpad a try. Check out her Middle-grade Speculative story, Little Lacey, she’s got 34 chapters ready to read.

As of this evening, All Is Silence had 32,222 reads, ranked #2 behind Scot Westerfeld’s Uglies in SF/Teen category, #50 in SF, #583 in Teen, Averaging 9%+ read-through rate from the first part of the story to the second. I also have 2 verified sales due to WattPad and probably a...

Teaching Creative Writing to Teens.

This advice goes to 11!

I love to work with students on their writing. Poetry, fiction, screenplays, essays… I love their ideas, their growth over time, but not so much their ability to self-reflect. But I was a young writer once, too. Nothing is ever as brilliant as the thing you just finished five minutes ago. This is a rule.

What do I teach them in room #11?

#1. You can’t fix a blank page.Get words on paper [even if it's virtual paper now.].

#2. Write everyday. When you miss a day, start over....

One Tin Soldier pre-order and other updates…

I’ve released another short story, One Tin Soldier on Amazon as a pre-release. I’m experimenting with the marketing tools available to KDP select so I can decide what to use for my next novel. Here’s the cover art for One Tin Soldier.I created the art work with Canva for $1 and many hours of work and feedback from friends, family and fans. I highly recommend trying it out if you are planning on releasing any e-books.

It’s my second self-made cover. I also designed the cover for my first short...