Michael Selden's Blog, page 4
August 17, 2018
Changes Made to The Balance This Year
Earlier this year—in fact around June, or so, I made a couple of changes to The Balance.
— The first was to simplify the cover art, removing the twin faces—Phoebe and Rebecca, as well as the symbol on the back cover.
— The second was to remove the Introduction (entitled “What Came Before”) from the book. My sense was that people seeing an introduction might well be turned off from reading. I still think the intro has value—it tells what happened 200 years before to change the world, and what happened about 17 and a half years before to trigger the story. While most of what was revealed in the intro is also available in the book, it’s scattered and IMO summarized knowledge of history helps to bring the reader into the story faster. None the less, I asked a few readers who thought that it might be an obstacle for some, so it has been removed. However, I will post a link to the original intro here in this post, so readers CAN access it, if desired.
Introduction—What Came Before (This is a link to a pdf document page)
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July 31, 2018
Two Books in Parallel
The two books will be:
1) The Balance Part 2—The Wastelands and the Wilderness. (I've had this plot done for some time, just haven't been in a writing mood)
The Wastelands and the Wilderness continue the story of The Balance—the second part of what is intended to be a three-part story.
2) Disobedience. Disobedience is a supernatural thriller. I've written a couple of short stories to introduce two characters (John and Charles; both have had a number of names, but these are the ones I used in the stories). I posted one of the two short stories on my web site at:
http://michaelselden.com/disobedience/
The one posted is called "Trampling on the Blood of My Enemies". It begins with the authorities investigating a pair of mass murders around the suburbs of Boston.
Disobedience (the novel) is primarily set in Baltimore, but with glimpses back in time to a time period when John lived in Rome (1880-1920) and in Provence, France (1920 to 1939). The story is loosely based on a old testament themes, but told in modern times.
I may get around to editing and posting the second. These are not written with the depth the novel will be written, but are fast-paced snapshots of the characters.
July 12, 2018
Once Again, History Repeats Itself—The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, Or, Ayn Rand Fiction—a study of human nature
I used to think of the characters Ayn Rand created in her books as exaggerated caricatures of real people, and the way they behaved, not examples of literal behavior and thinking. But over time I’ve come to understand that she was simply making a documentary-like statement about the kinds of behaviors and thinking she’d witnessed as a young person, growing up as the hard left took over her country, killing and justifying taking people’s lives and things in the name of the people.
“We must not think. We must believe. Believe, Katie, even if your mind objects. Don’t think. Believe. Trust your heart, not your brain. Don’t think. Feel. Believe.”
——Ellsworth Toohey quote, The Fountainhead, by Ayn Rand.
I could go on, but tend to stay away from the kinds of posts that become overtly political. Needless to say, the activities and over-the-top demonization we see today are noting new——Neither are the PR tactics. We saw them from V.I. Lenin, and from Joseph Goebbels, and from his more recent disciple, Saul Alinsky et al.
The post Once Again, History Repeats Itself—The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, Or, Ayn Rand Fiction—a study of human nature appeared first on Michael Selden.
June 30, 2018
Trampling on the Blood of my Enemies—Short Story Posted
I just posted Trampling on the Blood of my Enemy, a short story, on my web site. This is a prequel story to a novel I plan to publish in 2020, entitled DISOBEDIENCE.
Disobedience is set mostly in Baltimore, although the prequel takes place in Boston. The main character, John, is an immortal—cursed to live forever. He does his best to keep a low profile, although that isn’t always possible. The story begins after a supernatural entity—one of his enemies—discovers the city where he’s hiding, although because of his curse the enemy is unable to find him directly.
The short story, entitled “Trampling on the Blood of my Enemies” can be read HERE
There is a link for a PDF file, or it can be read in a scrolling reading pane.
The post Trampling on the Blood of my Enemies—Short Story Posted appeared first on Michael Selden.
Trampling on the Blood of my Enemy—Short Story Posted
I just posted Trampling on the Blood of my Enemy, a short story, on my web site. This is a prequel story to a novel I plan to publish in 2020, entitled DISOBEDIENCE.
Disobedience is set mostly in Baltimore, although the prequel takes place in Boston. The main character, John, is an immortal—cursed to live forever. He does his best to keep a low profile, although that isn’t always possible. The story begins after a supernatural entity—one of his enemies—discovers the city where he’s hiding, although because of his curse the enemy is unable to find him directly.
The short story, entitled “Trampling on the Blood of my Enemies” can be read HERE
There is a link for a PDF file, or it can be read in a scrolling reading pane.
The post Trampling on the Blood of my Enemy—Short Story Posted appeared first on Michael Selden.
June 9, 2018
Writing and Reading is a Collaboration
What did the Shire, from the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings, look like? If you’ve seen the movie then you’ve seen one interpretation, but I wasn’t referring to the movie—I meant the books. To me, writing and reading is a kind of collaboration.
There isn’t just one version of a story, but almost as many as there are readers + the writer(s). We each have a picture of what we see in our minds, an image of the characters, and even a kind of physical performance (virtual) of every scene. I know what the Shire looks like to me. I know what Mordor looks like, as well as the Glittering Caves of Aglarond (something you didn’t get to see in the movies). Of course a film HAS to make compromises, or it would cost an infinite sum to build the sets, and the movie would stretch out in time.
I also know what the town of Bosworth looks like to me, and the observatory in I Am, the forest and plains in The Boy Who Ran, and just about every part of The Land from The Balance. I saw them as I was writing, just as I watched the Boy running through the forest and along the branches of its trees. When I wrote the scene in Bosworth where the spirit of the murdered girl visits Jim in his bedroom, I wrote it in a dark house, with just my Mac Air on—that made it all the more easy to write, and to see. Writers and readers share a special bond—a partnership—in the real-time play that happens in our minds when we read.
It’s a bond writers should never take for granted, because if it isn’t clear for you when you’re writing the scene then it probably won’t spark that special feeling in the reader.
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Research . . . a fiction?? Yes.
I actually like doing research for a book. I get to learn new things, experience new adventures, maybe learn something more about another language. It’s all good, and it’s all a part of making sure the world you create for your characters is real—authentic. I’ve been researching one book (Disobedience) for some time. I studied the city of Rome the changes in Rome from 1880 to 1920, and this year I’ll be studying the region of southern France, in particular Aix en Provence and Avignon.
It isn’t enough to read, and certainly not enough to look at web sites. You need to get to know the places where your characters will walk, and the things your characters do. You need to make the experience of a place seem real, and if the place and the experiences seem real and your characters are compelling then the story seems real, too. For Bosworth, as much to add realism as anything else, I used the actual weather, sun and moon positions and so forth for each day—hour by hour—taken from weather history near the coordinates I’d assigned for the fictional town.
Remember: fiction is by its nature a lie, and people know this. The key is making your lie seem real—in some ways more real than “normal” life. The characters in your books should seem real to you, too.
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Arbitrary and Capricious Disappearing Reviews on Amazon
The latest was from a blogger in India, who liked my book. Usually, if asked by an actual book blogger, I will send a book as requested. For bloggers in India, I'll usually buy the book (a paperback usually) through Amazon and have THEM ship it, since it's less expensive for me to snd a copy this way—shipping to India is pretty expensive, for individuals.
I neither ask for nor do I expect a review. If that blogger wants to review the book, then I am pleasantly surprised. I certainly NEVER request a specific kind of review. If the review is good then good, if bad then that's life.
Meanwhile, I have one review for one book that is bad, based on a bad download error—they couldn't read the book. I asked Amazon to resend it and (as far as I know)the issue was resolved, but the bad review (for the download experience) remains.
I've sent Amazon a message asking for why the recent review was removed. I don't actually expect a good outcome, but hope springs eternal.
June 7, 2018
The Boy Who Ran Kindle Version Discount
The Boy Who Ran won the 2014 IPPY gold medal for juvenile fiction. It's a Middle Grade novel set in North America 4000BC.
The Boy was the sole survivor of the massacre of his village. He escaped into the forest and was found by a hunting party from another village, some seven years before the story begins. He doesn't remember a lot about his "first life" but does remember the horror of that last night, and the woman who saved him—who he thinks of as his mother.
The boy (he has no other name) is still learning to cope with his past and has never become a part of the village since being found. He spends most of his time alone in the forest with the "other animals". Late one summer, he decides it's time to act—to change his life, and to decide if he is one of The People, or just another creature of the forest.
June 2, 2018
My Experiences With Book Competitions / Awards
Book Awards. I think they serve a purpose, but like so many things in the “business” they can sometimes become a purpose of their own, and they may not achieve the goals we all expect. Still, if your book wasn’t published through one of the big five the American Librarian’s Assoc. seems to pretend you don’t exist, so the normal channels of getting visibility for a new book are limited. There are marketeers and others who pretend that they can help, but—in the end, and even if you’ve written a good book—you cannot expect visibility, and you can’t buy your way to writing success. It’s mainly luck meeting preparation and quality, but that magic touch of luck is more important than quality.
The book business has historically used a combination of agents and editors and publishing managers to separate the chaff from the wheat, and it has worked well for a while, but the publishing model has changed as technology changed and it is no longer an overwhelmingly expensive proposition to publish a good book. You still need editors—developmental, copy, proof—and you still need designers and artists (at least for the print editions), but the printing and binding cost to print a single copy, or a few copies, is now manageable, and ebooks have no printing cost. That means the publishers and agents and editorial filters have been losing their unique position. But they are reluctant to give up power, as are those who have long fed on the industry.
This leave few alternatives for new micro-publishers and writers who are unwilling to surrender artistic control for the “privilege” of publishing their books. The ALA helps the big 5 maintain their stranglehold, mainly (I think) because they have no way to deal with the deluge of books, many of which have not benefitted from someone who can actually write, nor editors and so forth (simply being cheap to “print” doesn’t make every book a readable book). I understand their pain. I often have difficulty myself in choosing a new book to read—I’ve gotten picky in my old age, and am unwilling to waste my precious time and life reading crap. But that does not solve the problem, because crap comes from a myriad of places, including the big 5.
I saw book awards as ONE potential way to help me (as an author) help readers choose non-crap books. I know that I have (in the past) used the ALA awards to help me decide which books were worth my time, and I want to have access to authors not choosing to submit themselves to the endless chain of filters. I think the awards are, in fact, useful for this, although there are awards and there are awards. The trick is: how do we know which ones are worth out effort (and money)—it costs money to run an awards program, just like anything else, and these costs have to be met somehow. You want to choose honest awards, and I research them before I enter.
In the past 4 (or so) years I’ve entered one book per year into between 2 and 4 competitions. I chose the following:
Independent Publisher’s Book Awards (IPPY), and related competitions
Next Gen Book Awards
Benjamin Franklin Awards
Colorado Author’s League (CAL) Writing Awards
Foreword Reviews Competition
I think all of these are honest award competitions, and the CAL awards are even about 75 years old. I’ve won a gold medal (IPPY), a bronze medal (Moonbeam—related to IPPY), and have been a finalist in the Foreword Reviews competition, the CAL writing awards, and the Next Gen Awards. I’d have to say that, thus far, these results have had some, although microscopic, impact on my ability to attract readers. I just don’t think they matter so much. They are a good way to get a kind of feedback for your efforts, but I have not seen much in the way of a direct correlation between award success and book readership.
This isn’t to say that I am opposed to the competitions. I just don’t think they are having as much impact as—say—the connections (a virtual monopoly) the big five have in getting their books in front of the channels that make a difference, although I have to admit I don’t see everyone’s results and the business is still evolving.
One negative is the oversupply of “free” books, though giveaway channels and then (of course) the pirates, who claim to have distributed many times the number of copies I have seen sold. Ebooks make our work easy to steal, and no degree of digital “protection” will ever be as important as the integrity of those who try to make sure the artists are paid for their work (books, music, etc). Incidentally, giving your books away isn’t the answer either. I “gave away” 12 thousand copies of one book and I feel it was a mistake. Free stuff is not valued.
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