Sable Aradia's Blog, page 71
May 30, 2017
Want to Help Me Win a Writing Retreat in a Castle, or Win it Yourself?
There’s only two days left to this giveaway, but there’s a contest to send one National Novel Writing Month writer to a castle for November with a bunch of bestselling authors to offer their advice! You get more entries by referring your friends. So I’m referring all of you! As I’m sure most of you know by now, I do NaNoWriMo every year. This sounds like a dream come true to me and I’d really love to win it. You can enter, or support my entry, by going to this link or clicking on the pic! Thanks for your support, all!
May 29, 2017
Rebranding the Toy Soldier Saga
You may have noticed that I’m making some changes around here.
In light of long years of trying to get the attention of Wizards of the Coast, to no avail, I have decided to revamp and rebrand the Toy Soldier Saga to scrape out all the Wizards related copyrighted material. I may seek a publisher, or I may publish it on my own.
Fans of the existing Toy Soldier Saga will need to know that the second and third novels will remain unfinished in the Spelljammer version. They will be finished, but only in my new universe, and only after the reformatting is completed. You can still get the first novel in its fan-fiction format here and I’ll be posting it on FanFiction.net as I promised as well.
Here’s a few of the changes that you’re going to see:
I took all the Spelljammer naming stuff out of the title…
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May 28, 2017
From Dark to Dark: Yes, Women Have Always Written Space Opera
Every year or two, someone writes another article about a genre that women have just now entered, which used to be the province of male writers. Usually it’s some form of science fiction. Lately it’s been fantasy, especially epic fantasy (which strikes me with fierce irony, because I remember when fantasy was pink and squishy and comfy and for girls). And in keeping with this week’s theme, space opera gets its regular turn in the barrel.
Women have always written space opera.
Ever heard of Leigh Brackett? ? Andre Norton, surely?
So why doesn’t everyone remember them?
Read the full article at Tor.com.
May 27, 2017
Dropping Tomorrow at My Patreon: Tout le Monde est Mort
My apocalyptic historical is dropping tomorrow at my Patreon. Want Patrick O’Brain crossed with Stephen King? The only way you can get it is by being my Patron! Get it now!
May 26, 2017
Bestsellers Initially Rejected
Some writers continually submit the same manuscript until it is accepted. Others chose to do a more polished draft before sending it out again. A select few learn from the lessons of submissions, to write a completely new book.
What they all have in common is a persistence to never give up on their dream; a dream that has elevated them from writer, to best-selling author.
They have written some of the most critically praised and commercially successful books of all time. In some cases their enormous sales were so consistent that they even kept their publishers afloat.
Yet in spite of this phenomenal success, every single one of these best-selling authors was initially rejected. Literary agents and publishers informed them in an endless stream of rejection letters that nobody would be interested in reading their book.
Here is an extenstive collection of the some of the biggest errors of judgement in publishing history.
Read full article at Litrejections.com.
May 25, 2017
May 24, 2017
Book Review: A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick
A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Read for the 12 Awards in 12 Months and the Science Fiction Masterworks Challenge. This book won the 1978 British Science Fiction Association Award.
This is my third PKD book, and I have to say at this point, I think he’s a great writer, but I’m not a fan. His stuff is gloomy, his characters are unlikable, and you can pretty much guarantee it’s going to be an unhappy ending.
This is, however, the first book of his where I question its placement among the SF Masterworks. This is a story about a drug addict who descends into burnout, and it draws heavily upon Dick’s own experience with drugs, which he makes clear in his Author’s Note at the end. I have seen this movie before. I would suggest that perhaps it was included on the list because maybe it was a pioneer of such stories? But that’s not the case. Aleister Crowley’s Diary of a Drug Fiend precedes A Scanner Darkly by a good 55 years. Is this another case of critics only choosing to read “literary” works and thus, by limiting what they’ll deign to read, missing the fact that this is not at all original?
Not only this, but the story is only nominally science fiction in the first place. The sci-fi elements are: the plant that is the source of the drug in question, to my knowledge does not exist; Vice cops who investigate the drug scene must live in immersion in the drug culture and conceal their identity with “scramble suits” when dealing with even one another; and the drug, Substance D, does a particular type of brain damage that causes a disconnection between left and right halves of the brain.
This is based on an old (and later discredited) theory of psychology. Normally I don’t have any trouble with obsolete tech in vintage sci-fi; I chalk it up to alternate history and let it go. But when it’s based in psychology, which is not recognized as a science, it’s particularly jarring.
Perhaps it’s viewed in the field as one of the predecessors to cyberpunk, and maybe that’s why it’s included.
However, it is an extremely well-written book, and it points out a lot of things that maybe people never think about in our society, from how the poor must be satisfied with McDonald’s over mountains and nobody seems to have a problem with this, to how our perception of reality is never quite the same as the fact of reality – and what is real, anyway? It’s also an interesting meditation on the nature of the Self, and are we really who we think we are, and do we perhaps have multiple selves vying for equal attention and control?
I found reading this challenging, like dipping my hand into a bowl of maggots. I could make myself do it, but I sure didn’t enjoy it. I think that this is another example of the tendency towards “grim for grim’s sake” in literary writing. Grim does not make it more sophisticated and therefore “better.”
Was it worth reading? Yeah, sure it was, especially if you’re the type of person who looks down your nose at addicts, self-righteously convinced that they suffer because they are bad or lesser people with character flaws. If he does nothing else, Dick illustrates that it can happen to anyone, for any reason, at any time, and gives you a little empathy for such a struggle and the horrific consequences.
But I didn’t like it. I’ll be taking it back to the bookstore. And I probably won’t read PKD again until he comes up on my SF Masterworks list. Just not my cup of tea.
View all my reviews
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May 23, 2017
Dropping Tomorrow at My Patreon: Food on Their Table
My dystopian horror / medical thriller Food on Their Table drops tomorrow at my Patreon. This is a great way to get a deal on my story! On Kindle I’m charge $2.99, which is required for the Storyteller contest. But you can get it for as low as a dollar if you support my Patreon! I’m charging by project so you only support the projects you want to support, and I give you lots of notice of what that’s going to be ahead of time. Each month I focus on a couple of featured projects, which I update around the 20th (and I did do yesterday). I distribute my Patreon Projects as pdfs and mobis; if you want an epub, I will soon be doing that too, so just let me know in a message and I’ll see you get one!
In general, my Patrons get my work before anybody else, and they also get special stuff that nobody else gets.
May 22, 2017
Dropping Tomorrow at My Patreon: Vice & Virtue
Hello all! Just letting you all know that Wyrd West Chronicles #2 drops tomorrow at my Patreon. If you haven’t supported my Patreon yet, why not? I’m charging by project so you only support the projects you want to support, and I give you lots of notice of what that’s going to be ahead of time. Each month I focus on a couple of featured projects, which I update around the 20th (and I am two days late in doing but will be doing today). I distribute my Patreon Projects as pdfs and mobis; if you want an epub, I will soon be doing that too, so just let me know in a message and I’ll see you get one!
In general, my Patrons get my work before anybody else, and they also get special stuff that nobody else gets.
