Heidi Ruby Miller's Blog, page 67
June 13, 2011
PATHS TO PUBLICATION: C. Coco DeYoung
PATHS TO PUBLICATION
As part of the virtual book tour for Many Genres, One Craft , I have more contributor interviews this week: C. Coco DeYoung , Crystal B. Bright , Kaye Dacus , and John DeChancie .
Find out about C. Coco DeYoung's unique path to publishing:
One should always consider the writing contests. A Letter to Mrs. Roosevelt was a submission for the Marguerite de Angeli Prize for historical fiction. Along with the honor, which I hold most dear, came an advance and promise of publication. Over 172,000 copies have sold, the book is available in the Korean language and as an E-book.
--C.Coco DeYoung
C. Coco De Young is an award-winning author, freelance writer, and storyteller. Her middle-grade novel, A Letter to Mrs. Roosevelt, received the Marguerite de Angeli Prize, nomination for 10 State Book Awards, the 2000-2001 Keystone to Reading Book Award, Teacher's Choices 2000 by the International Reading Association, a Booklist "Top 10 First Novels" of 1999, and was selected by the Children's Book Council and the National Council of Social Studies as a Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young People. Ms. De Young holds a B.A. in Psychology with a minor in Elementary Education, and an M.A. in Writing Popular Fiction, both from Seton Hill University. She resides in Ridgefield, Connecticut with her husband, Don.
Coco is a contributor to
Many Genres, One Craft: Lessons in Writing Popular Fiction
, a writing guide edited by
Michael A. Arnzen
and
Heidi Ruby Miller
and based on the
Seton Hill University Writing Popular Fiction
graduate program.
As part of the virtual book tour for Many Genres, One Craft , I have more contributor interviews this week: C. Coco DeYoung , Crystal B. Bright , Kaye Dacus , and John DeChancie .
Find out about C. Coco DeYoung's unique path to publishing:
One should always consider the writing contests. A Letter to Mrs. Roosevelt was a submission for the Marguerite de Angeli Prize for historical fiction. Along with the honor, which I hold most dear, came an advance and promise of publication. Over 172,000 copies have sold, the book is available in the Korean language and as an E-book.--C.Coco DeYoung
C. Coco De Young is an award-winning author, freelance writer, and storyteller. Her middle-grade novel, A Letter to Mrs. Roosevelt, received the Marguerite de Angeli Prize, nomination for 10 State Book Awards, the 2000-2001 Keystone to Reading Book Award, Teacher's Choices 2000 by the International Reading Association, a Booklist "Top 10 First Novels" of 1999, and was selected by the Children's Book Council and the National Council of Social Studies as a Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young People. Ms. De Young holds a B.A. in Psychology with a minor in Elementary Education, and an M.A. in Writing Popular Fiction, both from Seton Hill University. She resides in Ridgefield, Connecticut with her husband, Don.
Coco is a contributor to
Many Genres, One Craft: Lessons in Writing Popular Fiction
, a writing guide edited by
Michael A. Arnzen
and
Heidi Ruby Miller
and based on the
Seton Hill University Writing Popular Fiction
graduate program.
June 10, 2011
PATHS TO PUBLICATION: Lee Allen Howard
PATHS TO PUBLICATION
As part of the virtual book tour for Many Genres, One Craft , I have more contributor interviews this week: Teffanie Thompson White , David J. Corwell , Adrea L. Peters , and Lee Allen Howard .
See which path Lee took to publication:
My first "audiobook," I never heard myself—but I heard of it. It was actually a public reading of my first short story.
As a creative exercise in second grade, Teacher had her pupils write a story. "Be as creative as you can be, children." I penned—penciled, rather—my debut horror fiction on a ruled school tablet. Teacher, ostensibly pleased with her prodigy's genius (more likely concerned with a tow-headed eight-year-old's mental health), passed my work to the elementary school principal. ("Children, 'principal' ends with P-A-L—the principal is your PAL." Keep reading, and then decide...)
Unknown to me, Principal Sprunger, also the president of the local Lions Club chapter in Berne, Indiana, read my story to the men of our little Swiss community and then in good humor fined my father a dime because the preacher's son had written such an awful tale full of skeletons, witches, and blood.
That is the story of money first changing hands in relation to my fiction. (That dime never found its way into my pocket. If it had, I would have biked down to the White Cottage and bought myself a small soft serve cone, for sure.)
I continued to write through elementary and high school. The Brookville, Pennsylvania, Jeffersonian Democrat newspaper printed our school newsletter, for which I'd written a grisly Halloween story. They decided to reprint it in the paper. This should have overjoyed me, but they printed it anonymously and didn't pay me for it, either. Bastards.
I placed a short story and some poetry in Indiana University of Pennsylvania's New Growth Arts Revue. I stopped writing for a few years, but started again when I envisioned a scene about a young man who had been shot in the stomach and stumbled into an alley to die. I developed this into my first suspense novel for the Christian market, When the Music Stops, long out of print.
After completing my master of arts in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University, I entered the publishing arena and compiled a trade paperback anthology of shorts based on the Ten Commandments. Thou Shalt Not... came out in 2006. It's a great collection of horror and dark crime. Check it out.
I've placed a few short stories for pay in the past decade, but after hundreds of rejections, I recently decided to take a different route.
One of the reasons I've had trouble in placing my work, especially novels, is because they don't cleanly fit into a genre slot. Why is this important? Because brick-and-mortar bookstores need to know where to shelve a book. So part of the writing-for-print-publication process is writing for a shelf spot. (And length requirements in genre fiction in part are based on how many books will conveniently fit in a cardboard carton for shipping.) I think that's just ridiculous.
I had been working on a novel proposal for Dorchester Publishing/Leisure Books. But after the debacle with their selling ebooks without remunerating authors, I stuffed that idea down the disposal. In a nutshell, since second grade, I've learned that publishing by the traditional route is inorganically restricted and highly improbable. The royalties paid (if they pay)… well, suck. The emperor is buck nekkid.
So I recently published my second novel, The Sixth Seed for Kindle and Nook ereaders. It cost me nothing to post it on Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com, and I'm already selling downloads at a 70% royalty. And I can add as many meta tags as I want with no concern for a shelf spot or how I will otherwise categorize "a dark paranormal fantasy fraught with suburban Pittsburgh horror." It's still a great read, and no trees died.
If somebody offers me a great print deal, I'll consider it. But from now on, I plan to trek the electronic path.
--Lee Allen Howard
Lee Allen Howard has been a professional writer in the software industry since 1985. Besides editing fiction and non-fiction, he does editing and layout for health and fitness professionals. Lee writes horror, erotic horror, dark fantasy, and crime. His publication credits include Cemetery Sonata anthology, Out newspaper, Thou Shalt Not... anthology, and Amber Quill Press. Lee also writes about metaphysical and consciousness issues on his blog at http://buildingthebridge.wordpress.com . You can also visit him at http://leeallenhoward.com .
Lee is a contributor to
Many Genres, One Craft: Lessons in Writing Popular Fiction
, a writing guide edited by
Michael A. Arnzen
and
Heidi Ruby Miller
and based on the
Seton Hill University Writing Popular Fiction
graduate program.
As part of the virtual book tour for Many Genres, One Craft , I have more contributor interviews this week: Teffanie Thompson White , David J. Corwell , Adrea L. Peters , and Lee Allen Howard .
See which path Lee took to publication:
My first "audiobook," I never heard myself—but I heard of it. It was actually a public reading of my first short story.As a creative exercise in second grade, Teacher had her pupils write a story. "Be as creative as you can be, children." I penned—penciled, rather—my debut horror fiction on a ruled school tablet. Teacher, ostensibly pleased with her prodigy's genius (more likely concerned with a tow-headed eight-year-old's mental health), passed my work to the elementary school principal. ("Children, 'principal' ends with P-A-L—the principal is your PAL." Keep reading, and then decide...)
Unknown to me, Principal Sprunger, also the president of the local Lions Club chapter in Berne, Indiana, read my story to the men of our little Swiss community and then in good humor fined my father a dime because the preacher's son had written such an awful tale full of skeletons, witches, and blood.
That is the story of money first changing hands in relation to my fiction. (That dime never found its way into my pocket. If it had, I would have biked down to the White Cottage and bought myself a small soft serve cone, for sure.)
I continued to write through elementary and high school. The Brookville, Pennsylvania, Jeffersonian Democrat newspaper printed our school newsletter, for which I'd written a grisly Halloween story. They decided to reprint it in the paper. This should have overjoyed me, but they printed it anonymously and didn't pay me for it, either. Bastards.
I placed a short story and some poetry in Indiana University of Pennsylvania's New Growth Arts Revue. I stopped writing for a few years, but started again when I envisioned a scene about a young man who had been shot in the stomach and stumbled into an alley to die. I developed this into my first suspense novel for the Christian market, When the Music Stops, long out of print.
After completing my master of arts in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University, I entered the publishing arena and compiled a trade paperback anthology of shorts based on the Ten Commandments. Thou Shalt Not... came out in 2006. It's a great collection of horror and dark crime. Check it out.I've placed a few short stories for pay in the past decade, but after hundreds of rejections, I recently decided to take a different route.
One of the reasons I've had trouble in placing my work, especially novels, is because they don't cleanly fit into a genre slot. Why is this important? Because brick-and-mortar bookstores need to know where to shelve a book. So part of the writing-for-print-publication process is writing for a shelf spot. (And length requirements in genre fiction in part are based on how many books will conveniently fit in a cardboard carton for shipping.) I think that's just ridiculous.
I had been working on a novel proposal for Dorchester Publishing/Leisure Books. But after the debacle with their selling ebooks without remunerating authors, I stuffed that idea down the disposal. In a nutshell, since second grade, I've learned that publishing by the traditional route is inorganically restricted and highly improbable. The royalties paid (if they pay)… well, suck. The emperor is buck nekkid.
So I recently published my second novel, The Sixth Seed for Kindle and Nook ereaders. It cost me nothing to post it on Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com, and I'm already selling downloads at a 70% royalty. And I can add as many meta tags as I want with no concern for a shelf spot or how I will otherwise categorize "a dark paranormal fantasy fraught with suburban Pittsburgh horror." It's still a great read, and no trees died.If somebody offers me a great print deal, I'll consider it. But from now on, I plan to trek the electronic path.
--Lee Allen Howard
Lee Allen Howard has been a professional writer in the software industry since 1985. Besides editing fiction and non-fiction, he does editing and layout for health and fitness professionals. Lee writes horror, erotic horror, dark fantasy, and crime. His publication credits include Cemetery Sonata anthology, Out newspaper, Thou Shalt Not... anthology, and Amber Quill Press. Lee also writes about metaphysical and consciousness issues on his blog at http://buildingthebridge.wordpress.com . You can also visit him at http://leeallenhoward.com .
Lee is a contributor to
Many Genres, One Craft: Lessons in Writing Popular Fiction
, a writing guide edited by
Michael A. Arnzen
and
Heidi Ruby Miller
and based on the
Seton Hill University Writing Popular Fiction
graduate program.
June 9, 2011
PATHS TO PUBLICATION: Adrea L. Peters
PATHS TO PUBLICATION
As part of the virtual book tour for Many Genres, One Craft , I have more contributor interviews this week: Teffanie Thompson White , David J. Corwell , Adrea L. Peters , and Lee Allen Howard .
Here's how Adrea first got published:
I was in J School (Journalism) and one of our assignments was to cover this giant conference. I was pissed I had to give up a Saturday to go, but being a shameless do-gooder nerd, I went. The first panel I attended was talking about kids and the lack of healthcare in our country. Then one of the panelists says—this is 1992 by the way—"a child is safer in Northern Ireland than in the United States." I sat up and looked around. No one else was writing it down. I thought, "This has to be in the paper." I called my prof and gave her my lead. She said call it into to the local paper. They bought it. Viola, I was hooked on seeing my name in print.
--Adrea L. Peters
Adrea L. Peters graduated valedictorian from the School of Journalism at the University of Colorado with a B.S. in Editorial Writing and was awarded her M.A. in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University in June 2008. She published an online magazine, Artists Looking Ahead, from 2004-2009 where she shared her passions for photography, health and writers, interviewing best-selling authors such as Tess Gerritsen, Dan Pink and Jodi Picoult. She and fellow Seton Hill graduate, Teffanie White, recently launched an e-publishing company, Pictureless Books , specializing in inspirational alphabets for the Kindle and other e-readers. Ms. Peters lives in Vermont and has just completed the first book in a children's science fiction series.
Adrea is a contributor to
Many Genres, One Craft: Lessons in Writing Popular Fiction
, a writing guide edited by
Michael A. Arnzen
and
Heidi Ruby Miller
and based on the
Seton Hill University Writing Popular Fiction
graduate program.
As part of the virtual book tour for Many Genres, One Craft , I have more contributor interviews this week: Teffanie Thompson White , David J. Corwell , Adrea L. Peters , and Lee Allen Howard .
Here's how Adrea first got published:
I was in J School (Journalism) and one of our assignments was to cover this giant conference. I was pissed I had to give up a Saturday to go, but being a shameless do-gooder nerd, I went. The first panel I attended was talking about kids and the lack of healthcare in our country. Then one of the panelists says—this is 1992 by the way—"a child is safer in Northern Ireland than in the United States." I sat up and looked around. No one else was writing it down. I thought, "This has to be in the paper." I called my prof and gave her my lead. She said call it into to the local paper. They bought it. Viola, I was hooked on seeing my name in print.
--Adrea L. Peters
Adrea L. Peters graduated valedictorian from the School of Journalism at the University of Colorado with a B.S. in Editorial Writing and was awarded her M.A. in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University in June 2008. She published an online magazine, Artists Looking Ahead, from 2004-2009 where she shared her passions for photography, health and writers, interviewing best-selling authors such as Tess Gerritsen, Dan Pink and Jodi Picoult. She and fellow Seton Hill graduate, Teffanie White, recently launched an e-publishing company, Pictureless Books , specializing in inspirational alphabets for the Kindle and other e-readers. Ms. Peters lives in Vermont and has just completed the first book in a children's science fiction series.
Adrea is a contributor to
Many Genres, One Craft: Lessons in Writing Popular Fiction
, a writing guide edited by
Michael A. Arnzen
and
Heidi Ruby Miller
and based on the
Seton Hill University Writing Popular Fiction
graduate program.
PATHS TO PUBLICATION: Adrea L. Peters
PATHS TO PUBLICATION
As part of the virtual book tour for Many Genres, One Craft , I have more contributor interviews this week: Teffanie Thompson White , David J. Corwell , Adrea L. Peters , and Lee Allen Howard .
Here's how Adrea first got published:
I was in J School (Journalism) and one of our assignments was to cover this giant conference. I was pissed I had to give up a Saturday to go, but being a shameless do-gooder nerd, I went. The first panel I attended was talking about kids and the lack of healthcare in our country. Then one of the panelists says—this is 1992 by the way—"a child is safer in Northern Ireland than in the United States." I sat up and looked around. No one else was writing it down. I thought, "This has to be in the paper." I called my prof and gave her my lead. She said call it into to the local paper. They bought it. Viola, I was hooked on seeing my name in print.
--Adrea L. Peters
Adrea L. Peters graduated valedictorian from the School of Journalism at the University of Colorado with a B.S. in Editorial Writing and was awarded her M.A. in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University in June 2008. She published an online magazine, Artists Looking Ahead, from 2004-2009 where she shared her passions for photography, health and writers, interviewing best-selling authors such as Tess Gerritsen, Dan Pink and Jodi Picoult. She and fellow Seton Hill graduate, Teffanie White, recently launched an e-publishing company, Pictureless Books , specializing in inspirational alphabets for the Kindle and other e-readers. Ms. Peters lives in Vermont and has just completed the first book in a children's science fiction series.
Adrea is a contributor to
Many Genres, One Craft: Lessons in Writing Popular Fiction
, a writing guide edited by
Michael A. Arnzen
and
Heidi Ruby Miller
and based on the
Seton Hill University Writing Popular Fiction
graduate program.
As part of the virtual book tour for Many Genres, One Craft , I have more contributor interviews this week: Teffanie Thompson White , David J. Corwell , Adrea L. Peters , and Lee Allen Howard .
Here's how Adrea first got published:
I was in J School (Journalism) and one of our assignments was to cover this giant conference. I was pissed I had to give up a Saturday to go, but being a shameless do-gooder nerd, I went. The first panel I attended was talking about kids and the lack of healthcare in our country. Then one of the panelists says—this is 1992 by the way—"a child is safer in Northern Ireland than in the United States." I sat up and looked around. No one else was writing it down. I thought, "This has to be in the paper." I called my prof and gave her my lead. She said call it into to the local paper. They bought it. Viola, I was hooked on seeing my name in print.
--Adrea L. Peters
Adrea L. Peters graduated valedictorian from the School of Journalism at the University of Colorado with a B.S. in Editorial Writing and was awarded her M.A. in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University in June 2008. She published an online magazine, Artists Looking Ahead, from 2004-2009 where she shared her passions for photography, health and writers, interviewing best-selling authors such as Tess Gerritsen, Dan Pink and Jodi Picoult. She and fellow Seton Hill graduate, Teffanie White, recently launched an e-publishing company, Pictureless Books , specializing in inspirational alphabets for the Kindle and other e-readers. Ms. Peters lives in Vermont and has just completed the first book in a children's science fiction series.
Adrea is a contributor to
Many Genres, One Craft: Lessons in Writing Popular Fiction
, a writing guide edited by
Michael A. Arnzen
and
Heidi Ruby Miller
and based on the
Seton Hill University Writing Popular Fiction
graduate program.
June 8, 2011
HEIDI'S PICK SIX: David J. Corwell
HEIDI'S PICK SIX
As part of the virtual book tour for Many Genres, One Craft , I have more contributor interviews this week: Teffanie Thompson White , David J. Corwell , Adrea Peters , and Lee Allen Howard .
See what David had to say:
David J. Corwell
1. Which of your characters is your favorite?
2. Tell me about your travels.
My family and I had pretty much just visited places around the U.S. until this past summer, when we took a seven-day, western Mediterranean cruise. We started in Barcelona, Spain, visited Monte Carlo in Monaco, Pisa, Florence, Rome, Naples, Pompeii, and Sorrento in Italy, and the island of Mallorca before returning to Barcelona. It was an awesome trip, except for the part where we got stuck in Spain for an additional week…
Being steeped in the architecture, culture, and history of each city/country we visited was wonderful, and I hope to incorporate these experiences into future stories. I certainly came home with lots of ideas! And with a greater appreciation of how all these elements are intertwined and can give an imagined world more depth. In particular, Mallorca was an inspiration for me to start looking at my fantasy novel (which is set on an island, even though I had never been on one) again.
3. Coffee, tea, or milk?
4. What else can you do besides write?
I'm a fairly proficient proofreader. I've worked on numerous newsletters (Gila Queen's Guide to Markets, Hellnotes, the Horror Writer's Association Newsletter) in this capacity, as well as business publications, and I'm currently on staff for the Sandoval Signpost, a local newspaper. Though I hate sales, I've found that I do pretty well selling my stories at various book signing events. I'm the cook of the family, and I love to bake – I'm the "official" pie maker for Thanksgiving, and I make biscochitos (my grandmother's recipe) during the holiday season. I'm also an avid collector of books, comics, movies, and other associated sundries.
5. Who are you reading right now?
Recently finished Ghost Shadow (book one of the Bone Island trilogy) by Heather Graham and Unclean (the first book in the Haunted Lands trilogy) by Richard Lee Byers. (I'm partial to series, short story collections, and trilogies.) Currently making my way through the first Blood Lite anthology and reading anything I can get my hands on with a Halloween theme – Shadowfire Press has invited me to submit a grouping of stories for a possible e-book release next fall, and I'm seeing what's already been done and coming up with ideas. Any and all recommendations would be welcome!
6. Pop culture or academia?
While I enjoy many of the classics, give me commercial fiction, graphic novels, movies, and superheroes any day! These are the types of stories that speak to me and excite my muse. I actually thought about being an English professor until I realized I'd have to write research papers my whole life.
7. What is the toughest scene you ever wrote?
8. Where do you find your inspirations to write?
9. Food you could eat everyday.
10. Are you into sports or other physical activities?
11. What kind of music speaks to you?
12. Do you outline your stories or do they just take you along for the ride?
With short fiction, I usually start with a conversation, an idea, image, or plot point, or a combination of these and then discover the characters and story as it's written. I tried the same process when I wrote the first draft of my novel, but the story sprouted in numerous directions and quickly became unwieldy. If not for a close friend, I might have never gotten the book back on track. That said, I would suggest keeping a loose outline of a longer work. Nothing too elaborate – it should be general enough to keep things fluid and interesting.
13. Celebrity crush.
14. Who are the biggest influences on your work?
15. Do you still watch cartoons?
With three daughters (the youngest not yet three), I've gotten to relive my childhood several times – with lots of my favorite cartoons: Charlie Brown, everything Disney, Dungeons and Dragons, G.I. Joe, Johnny Quest, and Scooby Doo. These and the classic, holiday cartoons have basically become a tradition in our house. What can I say – my girls are their father's daughters!
David J. Corwell 's stories appear in Cloaked in Shadow: Dark Tales of Elves (Fantasist Enterprises), Daily Flash: 365 Days of Flash Fiction (Pill Hill Press), Día de los Muertos (Elektrik Milk Bath Press), Voices of New Mexico (LPD Press/Rio Grande Books), and Tales of the Talisman (Hadrosaur Productions). He is an indefatigable promoter of his work, and his latest lineup of book signings can be found at http://booktour.com/author/david_j_co.... David is also a 2006 graduate of the Seton Hill WPF program and the New Mexico sales rep for Fantasist Enterprises. He lives in Albuquerque with his beautiful wife and three daughters.
David is a contributor to
Many Genres, One Craft: Lessons in Writing Popular Fiction
, a writing guide edited by
Michael A. Arnzen
and
Heidi Ruby Miller
and based on the
Seton Hill University Writing Popular Fiction
graduate program.
As part of the virtual book tour for Many Genres, One Craft , I have more contributor interviews this week: Teffanie Thompson White , David J. Corwell , Adrea Peters , and Lee Allen Howard .
See what David had to say:
David J. Corwell
1. Which of your characters is your favorite?
2. Tell me about your travels.
My family and I had pretty much just visited places around the U.S. until this past summer, when we took a seven-day, western Mediterranean cruise. We started in Barcelona, Spain, visited Monte Carlo in Monaco, Pisa, Florence, Rome, Naples, Pompeii, and Sorrento in Italy, and the island of Mallorca before returning to Barcelona. It was an awesome trip, except for the part where we got stuck in Spain for an additional week…
Being steeped in the architecture, culture, and history of each city/country we visited was wonderful, and I hope to incorporate these experiences into future stories. I certainly came home with lots of ideas! And with a greater appreciation of how all these elements are intertwined and can give an imagined world more depth. In particular, Mallorca was an inspiration for me to start looking at my fantasy novel (which is set on an island, even though I had never been on one) again.
3. Coffee, tea, or milk?
4. What else can you do besides write?
I'm a fairly proficient proofreader. I've worked on numerous newsletters (Gila Queen's Guide to Markets, Hellnotes, the Horror Writer's Association Newsletter) in this capacity, as well as business publications, and I'm currently on staff for the Sandoval Signpost, a local newspaper. Though I hate sales, I've found that I do pretty well selling my stories at various book signing events. I'm the cook of the family, and I love to bake – I'm the "official" pie maker for Thanksgiving, and I make biscochitos (my grandmother's recipe) during the holiday season. I'm also an avid collector of books, comics, movies, and other associated sundries.
5. Who are you reading right now?
Recently finished Ghost Shadow (book one of the Bone Island trilogy) by Heather Graham and Unclean (the first book in the Haunted Lands trilogy) by Richard Lee Byers. (I'm partial to series, short story collections, and trilogies.) Currently making my way through the first Blood Lite anthology and reading anything I can get my hands on with a Halloween theme – Shadowfire Press has invited me to submit a grouping of stories for a possible e-book release next fall, and I'm seeing what's already been done and coming up with ideas. Any and all recommendations would be welcome!
6. Pop culture or academia?
While I enjoy many of the classics, give me commercial fiction, graphic novels, movies, and superheroes any day! These are the types of stories that speak to me and excite my muse. I actually thought about being an English professor until I realized I'd have to write research papers my whole life.
7. What is the toughest scene you ever wrote?
8. Where do you find your inspirations to write?
9. Food you could eat everyday.
10. Are you into sports or other physical activities?
11. What kind of music speaks to you?
12. Do you outline your stories or do they just take you along for the ride?
With short fiction, I usually start with a conversation, an idea, image, or plot point, or a combination of these and then discover the characters and story as it's written. I tried the same process when I wrote the first draft of my novel, but the story sprouted in numerous directions and quickly became unwieldy. If not for a close friend, I might have never gotten the book back on track. That said, I would suggest keeping a loose outline of a longer work. Nothing too elaborate – it should be general enough to keep things fluid and interesting.
13. Celebrity crush.
14. Who are the biggest influences on your work?
15. Do you still watch cartoons?
With three daughters (the youngest not yet three), I've gotten to relive my childhood several times – with lots of my favorite cartoons: Charlie Brown, everything Disney, Dungeons and Dragons, G.I. Joe, Johnny Quest, and Scooby Doo. These and the classic, holiday cartoons have basically become a tradition in our house. What can I say – my girls are their father's daughters!
David J. Corwell 's stories appear in Cloaked in Shadow: Dark Tales of Elves (Fantasist Enterprises), Daily Flash: 365 Days of Flash Fiction (Pill Hill Press), Día de los Muertos (Elektrik Milk Bath Press), Voices of New Mexico (LPD Press/Rio Grande Books), and Tales of the Talisman (Hadrosaur Productions). He is an indefatigable promoter of his work, and his latest lineup of book signings can be found at http://booktour.com/author/david_j_co.... David is also a 2006 graduate of the Seton Hill WPF program and the New Mexico sales rep for Fantasist Enterprises. He lives in Albuquerque with his beautiful wife and three daughters.
David is a contributor to
Many Genres, One Craft: Lessons in Writing Popular Fiction
, a writing guide edited by
Michael A. Arnzen
and
Heidi Ruby Miller
and based on the
Seton Hill University Writing Popular Fiction
graduate program.
June 7, 2011
HEIDI'S PICK SIX: Teffanie Thompson White
HEIDI'S PICK SIX
As part of the virtual book tour for Many Genres, One Craft , I have more contributor interviews this week: Teffanie Thompson White , David J. Corwell , Adrea Peters , and Lee Allen Howard .
Now, here's Teffanie:
Teffanie Thompson White
1. Which of your characters is your favorite?
2. Tell me about your travels.
3. Coffee, tea, or milk?
Milk, milk, milk! If soy milk counts, warmed and saturated with heavy doses of gourmet cocoa!
4. What else can you do besides write?
5. Who are you reading right now?
6. Pop culture or academia?
7. What is the toughest scene you ever wrote?
We publish alphabet concept books for all ages. Ur Txtbk proved to be the toughest, written in text speak. We had to learn a different language just to compile.
8. Where do you find your inspirations to write?
Conversations, social media, and children. For pictureless books, I'm inspired by words that inspire, that elicit a positive response, words that light up the room and cause me to imagine more.
9. Food you could eat everyday.
10. Are you into sports or other physical activities?
11. What kind of music speaks to you?
Ukelele music. When we travel (which is often) my son brings along his ukelele. It's the only of his instruments that fits reasonably into our Prius. The bubbly vibrations combined with the landscape invariably tickle my spirit.
12. Do you outline your stories or do they just take you along for the ride?
I outline every single component of the plot. I even have spreadsheets to track! When attempting a NaNoWriMo Sci-Fi novel this year I let a story take me for an interesting ride, more like a brake-less roller coaster. Way too out of control!
13. Celebrity crush.
14. Who are the biggest influences on your work?
15. Do you still watch cartoons?
Yeah! I watch the Powerpuff girls about four times a week with my daughter before her bedtime. She prefers to read her own bedtime stories (she's ten), so we needed another ritual.
Teffanie Thompson White :
Mama / Texan / Writer / Author / Publisher / Speaker / Editor / Educator / Administrator / Program Developer / Advocate / Conference & Workshop Organizer
Find Teffanie online at:
PICTURELESS BOOKS
to contact: picturelessbooks@gmail.com
to purchase: http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&rh=n%3A283155%2Ck%3Apictureless%20books&page=1
to follow: http://picturelessbooks.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Pictureless-Books/122142248050
and
A.E.S.O.P TELLS
to contact: aesoptells@gmail.com
to read: http://aesoptell.blogspot.com
to follow: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=118036094883075
Teffanie is a contributor to
Many Genres, One Craft: Lessons in Writing Popular Fiction
, a writing guide edited by
Michael A. Arnzen
and
Heidi Ruby Miller
and based on the
Seton Hill University Writing Popular Fiction
graduate program.
As part of the virtual book tour for Many Genres, One Craft , I have more contributor interviews this week: Teffanie Thompson White , David J. Corwell , Adrea Peters , and Lee Allen Howard .
Now, here's Teffanie:
Teffanie Thompson White
1. Which of your characters is your favorite?
2. Tell me about your travels.
3. Coffee, tea, or milk?
Milk, milk, milk! If soy milk counts, warmed and saturated with heavy doses of gourmet cocoa!
4. What else can you do besides write?
5. Who are you reading right now?
6. Pop culture or academia?
7. What is the toughest scene you ever wrote?
We publish alphabet concept books for all ages. Ur Txtbk proved to be the toughest, written in text speak. We had to learn a different language just to compile.
8. Where do you find your inspirations to write?
Conversations, social media, and children. For pictureless books, I'm inspired by words that inspire, that elicit a positive response, words that light up the room and cause me to imagine more.
9. Food you could eat everyday.
10. Are you into sports or other physical activities?
11. What kind of music speaks to you?
Ukelele music. When we travel (which is often) my son brings along his ukelele. It's the only of his instruments that fits reasonably into our Prius. The bubbly vibrations combined with the landscape invariably tickle my spirit.
12. Do you outline your stories or do they just take you along for the ride?
I outline every single component of the plot. I even have spreadsheets to track! When attempting a NaNoWriMo Sci-Fi novel this year I let a story take me for an interesting ride, more like a brake-less roller coaster. Way too out of control!
13. Celebrity crush.
14. Who are the biggest influences on your work?
15. Do you still watch cartoons?
Yeah! I watch the Powerpuff girls about four times a week with my daughter before her bedtime. She prefers to read her own bedtime stories (she's ten), so we needed another ritual.
Teffanie Thompson White :
Mama / Texan / Writer / Author / Publisher / Speaker / Editor / Educator / Administrator / Program Developer / Advocate / Conference & Workshop Organizer
Find Teffanie online at:
PICTURELESS BOOKS
to contact: picturelessbooks@gmail.com
to purchase: http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&rh=n%3A283155%2Ck%3Apictureless%20books&page=1
to follow: http://picturelessbooks.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Pictureless-Books/122142248050
and
A.E.S.O.P TELLS
to contact: aesoptells@gmail.com
to read: http://aesoptell.blogspot.com
to follow: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=118036094883075
Teffanie is a contributor to
Many Genres, One Craft: Lessons in Writing Popular Fiction
, a writing guide edited by
Michael A. Arnzen
and
Heidi Ruby Miller
and based on the
Seton Hill University Writing Popular Fiction
graduate program.
June 6, 2011
HEIDI'S PICK SIX: Venessa Giunta
HEIDI'S PICK SIX
As part of the virtual book tour for Many Genres, One Craft , I have more contributor interviews this week: Victoria Thompson , Albert Wendland , Michael Bracken , David Shifren , and Venessa Giunta .
Venessa Giunta
1. Which of your characters is your favorite?
My favorite is usually a character in a story I either haven't written yet or am in the early stages of writing. I currently have a post-apocalyptic YA short story I'm finishing up and the main character is a seventeen year old girl named Sophie who is terrified that she's going to go crazy like every adult she's ever known. She's a scrappy little thing who isn't afraid to brain someone with a two by four if they're after her, but will have some much tougher decisions coming up very soon. I'm really tragically in love with her.
2. Tell me about your travels.
I adore traveling, though I don't do it often enough. Over the 2009-10 holidays, my husband and I went on a three week trip to Europe to spend time with his family, who are Dutch, and also have a bit of a honeymoon, since we never really got one. We went to the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, and England. I was sick the entire time and we got snowed on in every country we were in. Still, I had an amazing time and got to watch my husband ski, which I'd never done.
I find other cultures fascinating and one of the reasons I enjoy traveling, especially abroad but even within the United States, is the ability to experience things outside of my own box. I recognize that what I may view as "the way" to do things isn't the only way, but being able to interact with people in other cultures and see the sometimes vast and sometimes small differences not only improves my writing, but it also enhances who I am as a person.
3. Coffee, tea, or milk?
Tea, with milk! I take my tea "in the British fashion." But I do make a mean cup of cappuccino!
4. What else can you do besides write?
5. Who are you reading right now?
6. Pop culture or academia?
7. What is the toughest scene you ever wrote?
8. Where do you find your inspirations to write?
I don't think I'm particularly inspired all the time. I'm not one of those writers who has more stories in her head than she can ever write in her lifetime. I have four stories. Maybe five. Everything else I steal. ;)
9. Food you could eat everyday.
10. Are you into sports or other physical activities?
11. What kind of music speaks to you?
12. Do you outline your stories or do they just take you along for the ride?
I'm horribly unorganized in my rough draft. I know writers who have big storyboards and multi-page outlines. They spend loads of time arranging and rearranging so everything is exactly as it should be. I've got a big stew pot in my head and that's where my story bubbles. I'm only just now getting comfortable with character sheets and I still have a habit of forgetting about them. Essentially, I jump into the river and end up somewhere downstream by the time I'm done. The idea of outlining my story terrifies me.
In later drafts, I have all the plot points already in the manuscript and I put together the rough synopsis as I'm working through the revisions. I'm less freaked out about the prospect of creating a map of the story than in the first draft because I'm not putting things that haven't been created yet into an outline. That is what I have the biggest problem with in the first draft. If I have an outline and the story veers off path, I freeze and have an issue moving forward. Some voice in my head says, "It's on that little piece of paper and you'd better follow it!" It's ridiculous, but I've found that it happens again and again. So I just write, then outline later.
13. Celebrity crush.
14. Who are the biggest influences on your work?
15. Do you still watch cartoons?
I don't watch much television at all. Fun fact: I haven't owned a TV since 1996 which makes me horrible at current pop culture references (but give me 80s music trivia and I'm your girl!). Having admitted my lack-of-tv-ness, I am a sucker for Animaniacs!
Venessa Giunta is a senior editor for Loose Id, LLC, and edits fiction freelance. She wrote bad short stories and angsty poetry off and on through high school then took a very long hiatus. It was probably because of the poetry. When she turned thirty-five, she realized that what she really wanted to do was write. After many short story rejections, it occurred to her that some sort of writing classes might be beneficial. She subsequently worked toward and was awarded her Master of Fine Arts in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University. Venessa lives in the metro Atlanta area and is lucky enough to reside with her muse who masquerades as her husband. And she no longer writes poetry. It's better for everyone that way. Visit her at http://www.venessagiunta.com .
Venessa is a contributor to
Many Genres, One Craft: Lessons in Writing Popular Fiction
, a writing guide edited by
Michael A. Arnzen
and
Heidi Ruby Miller
and based on the
Seton Hill University Writing Popular Fiction
graduate program.
As part of the virtual book tour for Many Genres, One Craft , I have more contributor interviews this week: Victoria Thompson , Albert Wendland , Michael Bracken , David Shifren , and Venessa Giunta .
Venessa Giunta
1. Which of your characters is your favorite?
My favorite is usually a character in a story I either haven't written yet or am in the early stages of writing. I currently have a post-apocalyptic YA short story I'm finishing up and the main character is a seventeen year old girl named Sophie who is terrified that she's going to go crazy like every adult she's ever known. She's a scrappy little thing who isn't afraid to brain someone with a two by four if they're after her, but will have some much tougher decisions coming up very soon. I'm really tragically in love with her.
2. Tell me about your travels.
I adore traveling, though I don't do it often enough. Over the 2009-10 holidays, my husband and I went on a three week trip to Europe to spend time with his family, who are Dutch, and also have a bit of a honeymoon, since we never really got one. We went to the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, and England. I was sick the entire time and we got snowed on in every country we were in. Still, I had an amazing time and got to watch my husband ski, which I'd never done.
I find other cultures fascinating and one of the reasons I enjoy traveling, especially abroad but even within the United States, is the ability to experience things outside of my own box. I recognize that what I may view as "the way" to do things isn't the only way, but being able to interact with people in other cultures and see the sometimes vast and sometimes small differences not only improves my writing, but it also enhances who I am as a person.
3. Coffee, tea, or milk?
Tea, with milk! I take my tea "in the British fashion." But I do make a mean cup of cappuccino!
4. What else can you do besides write?
5. Who are you reading right now?
6. Pop culture or academia?
7. What is the toughest scene you ever wrote?
8. Where do you find your inspirations to write?
I don't think I'm particularly inspired all the time. I'm not one of those writers who has more stories in her head than she can ever write in her lifetime. I have four stories. Maybe five. Everything else I steal. ;)
9. Food you could eat everyday.
10. Are you into sports or other physical activities?
11. What kind of music speaks to you?
12. Do you outline your stories or do they just take you along for the ride?
I'm horribly unorganized in my rough draft. I know writers who have big storyboards and multi-page outlines. They spend loads of time arranging and rearranging so everything is exactly as it should be. I've got a big stew pot in my head and that's where my story bubbles. I'm only just now getting comfortable with character sheets and I still have a habit of forgetting about them. Essentially, I jump into the river and end up somewhere downstream by the time I'm done. The idea of outlining my story terrifies me.
In later drafts, I have all the plot points already in the manuscript and I put together the rough synopsis as I'm working through the revisions. I'm less freaked out about the prospect of creating a map of the story than in the first draft because I'm not putting things that haven't been created yet into an outline. That is what I have the biggest problem with in the first draft. If I have an outline and the story veers off path, I freeze and have an issue moving forward. Some voice in my head says, "It's on that little piece of paper and you'd better follow it!" It's ridiculous, but I've found that it happens again and again. So I just write, then outline later.
13. Celebrity crush.
14. Who are the biggest influences on your work?
15. Do you still watch cartoons?
I don't watch much television at all. Fun fact: I haven't owned a TV since 1996 which makes me horrible at current pop culture references (but give me 80s music trivia and I'm your girl!). Having admitted my lack-of-tv-ness, I am a sucker for Animaniacs!
Venessa Giunta is a senior editor for Loose Id, LLC, and edits fiction freelance. She wrote bad short stories and angsty poetry off and on through high school then took a very long hiatus. It was probably because of the poetry. When she turned thirty-five, she realized that what she really wanted to do was write. After many short story rejections, it occurred to her that some sort of writing classes might be beneficial. She subsequently worked toward and was awarded her Master of Fine Arts in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University. Venessa lives in the metro Atlanta area and is lucky enough to reside with her muse who masquerades as her husband. And she no longer writes poetry. It's better for everyone that way. Visit her at http://www.venessagiunta.com .
Venessa is a contributor to
Many Genres, One Craft: Lessons in Writing Popular Fiction
, a writing guide edited by
Michael A. Arnzen
and
Heidi Ruby Miller
and based on the
Seton Hill University Writing Popular Fiction
graduate program.
June 4, 2011
PATHS TO PUBLICATION: David Shifren
PATHS TO PUBLICATION
As part of the virtual book tour for Many Genres, One Craft , I have more contributor interviews this week: Victoria Thompson , Albert Wendland , Michael Bracken , David Shifren , and Venessa Giunta .
Meet David Shifren:
As an English major in college I read lots of fiction and, knowing I wanted to write, upon graduating I took part-time jobs that afforded me time at the keyboard. One such job was writing movie reviews for a film distribution company. Watching six movies a week, I wrote evaluations of plot, acting, direction, editing, cinematography and sound-track, then boiled it all down to analyze marketability. One month I was assigned a dozen westerns. Though born and raised in New York City, I enjoyed them enough to freeze-frame scenes to describe what I saw – how a horse's ears flattened against its head as it ran or cloud shadows looked across the plains. I decided to try writing a western myself – thinking, well, if it didn't turn out any good, it wasn't something to feel bad about: After all, what did I know about the west? I sent three sample chapters and an outline to a New York publisher, waited three months and was thrilled when an editor called asking to see the whole manuscript. This time I waited just a week until he called to invite me to lunch.
I remember him asking what kind of food I liked. Since I'd happily have eaten dog-food if it meant he'd buy my book, when he suggested Cajun I felt relieved. The meal was a learning experience. The restaurant was beautiful and as I arrived and sat, practically hyperventilating with excitement ("So you really want to buy my book?!") he, no doubt used to newbie writers, gently deflected my questions until, after a few minutes, I took his cue. We ate. He talked, I listened, and I got a two-hour lesson on the New York publishing scene that was priceless. Only at the end of the meal, after we'd had dessert, did he reach for his attache case, draw out two typed pages, and hand me his suggestions for rewrites. "Take these home," he said, "look them over and call me next week to tell me if you can live with the proposed changes." Naturally I read them on the subway ride home: "Introduce the romance sooner...make the villain more cold-blooded...show your hero reflecting more about his decisions...raise the stakes of the final show-down."
In all there were more than a dozen proposed changes and I felt amazed to realize every one improved the book. I called and let him know, got his green light to go ahead, and not long after saw the book published. We developed a great working relationship and I wrote several more books for him as well.
--David Shifren
David Shifren has been teaching for SHU's graduate writing program for six years and teaching for the University of Pittsburgh, where he earned an MFA in Fiction Writing, since 1989. His published books include traditional westerns à la Louis L'Amour (this despite Shifren's having grown up in Brooklyn) and three mystery novels for a longtime best-selling young adult series. He was awarded a 2006 Pennsylvania State Council on the Arts Screenwriting Fellowship and has had three screenplays optioned. Currently he is working on a police procedural based on his experiences as a police officer in Western Pennsylvania.
David is a contributor to
Many Genres, One Craft: Lessons in Writing Popular Fiction
, a writing guide edited by
Michael A. Arnzen
and
Heidi Ruby Miller
and based on the
Seton Hill University Writing Popular Fiction
graduate program.
As part of the virtual book tour for Many Genres, One Craft , I have more contributor interviews this week: Victoria Thompson , Albert Wendland , Michael Bracken , David Shifren , and Venessa Giunta .
Meet David Shifren:As an English major in college I read lots of fiction and, knowing I wanted to write, upon graduating I took part-time jobs that afforded me time at the keyboard. One such job was writing movie reviews for a film distribution company. Watching six movies a week, I wrote evaluations of plot, acting, direction, editing, cinematography and sound-track, then boiled it all down to analyze marketability. One month I was assigned a dozen westerns. Though born and raised in New York City, I enjoyed them enough to freeze-frame scenes to describe what I saw – how a horse's ears flattened against its head as it ran or cloud shadows looked across the plains. I decided to try writing a western myself – thinking, well, if it didn't turn out any good, it wasn't something to feel bad about: After all, what did I know about the west? I sent three sample chapters and an outline to a New York publisher, waited three months and was thrilled when an editor called asking to see the whole manuscript. This time I waited just a week until he called to invite me to lunch.
I remember him asking what kind of food I liked. Since I'd happily have eaten dog-food if it meant he'd buy my book, when he suggested Cajun I felt relieved. The meal was a learning experience. The restaurant was beautiful and as I arrived and sat, practically hyperventilating with excitement ("So you really want to buy my book?!") he, no doubt used to newbie writers, gently deflected my questions until, after a few minutes, I took his cue. We ate. He talked, I listened, and I got a two-hour lesson on the New York publishing scene that was priceless. Only at the end of the meal, after we'd had dessert, did he reach for his attache case, draw out two typed pages, and hand me his suggestions for rewrites. "Take these home," he said, "look them over and call me next week to tell me if you can live with the proposed changes." Naturally I read them on the subway ride home: "Introduce the romance sooner...make the villain more cold-blooded...show your hero reflecting more about his decisions...raise the stakes of the final show-down."
In all there were more than a dozen proposed changes and I felt amazed to realize every one improved the book. I called and let him know, got his green light to go ahead, and not long after saw the book published. We developed a great working relationship and I wrote several more books for him as well.
--David Shifren
David Shifren has been teaching for SHU's graduate writing program for six years and teaching for the University of Pittsburgh, where he earned an MFA in Fiction Writing, since 1989. His published books include traditional westerns à la Louis L'Amour (this despite Shifren's having grown up in Brooklyn) and three mystery novels for a longtime best-selling young adult series. He was awarded a 2006 Pennsylvania State Council on the Arts Screenwriting Fellowship and has had three screenplays optioned. Currently he is working on a police procedural based on his experiences as a police officer in Western Pennsylvania.
David is a contributor to
Many Genres, One Craft: Lessons in Writing Popular Fiction
, a writing guide edited by
Michael A. Arnzen
and
Heidi Ruby Miller
and based on the
Seton Hill University Writing Popular Fiction
graduate program.
June 3, 2011
PATHS TO PUBLICATION: Michael Bracken
PATHS TO PUBLICATION
As part of the virtual book tour for Many Genres, One Craft , I have more contributor interviews this week: Victoria Thompson , Albert Wendland , Michael Bracken , David Shifren , and Venessa Giunta .
When I was in the eighth grade I knew I wanted to be a writer. I was a ninth grader when I had a poem published in my junior high school literary magazine. I contributed to my high school literary magazine, wrote for and later edited my high school newspaper, and contributed to an underground newspaper published by fellow high school students.
While in high school, a friend and I started publishing a science fiction fanzine—Knights of the Paper Space Ship; the name was ultimately truncated to Knights—and because of Knights I "met" several writers and would-be writers. For example, Charles L. Grant, Thomas F. Monteleone, and Grant Carrington were columnists, and I published work by Robert Bloch, David Gerrold, Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, and other writers who were well known or who later became well known within the science fiction genre.
During high school and for some time after high school, my primary goal was to become a science fiction writer, and I submitted regularly to science fiction fanzines, semi-prozines, and professional magazines. I placed short stories and other writing in many of them. But none of my "sales" to that point were to professional publications.
In 1976, after having a handful of stories rejected from Amazing, Asimov's, and F&SF because they were "juvenile"—that is, they featured children as protagonists—I started submitting my work to children's magazines. I finally sold "The Magic Stone" to Young World, a young adult publication, and the story was published in November 1978.
I was still a teenager when I made that first professional sale, but it came after years of submission and rejection, years of writing and revising, and years spent learning everything I could about publishing. What I learned is that it doesn't matter how old you are when you start writing. What matters is how hard you want to be published and how hard you're willing to work for it.
--Michael Bracken
Michael Bracken is the author of 11 books, including All White Girls, Deadly Campaign, and Tequila Sunrise. More than 800 of his short stories have been published worldwide. His "Dreams Unborn" was named one of The Best American Mystery Stories 2005 and "All My Yesterdays" received a Derringer Award. Bracken edited five crime fiction anthologies whose stories have been short-listed for the Anthony, Derringer, Edgar, and Shamus awards. Bracken served as V.P. of both the Private Eye Writers of America and the Mystery Writers of America's Southwest chapter. He also belongs to the Horror Writers Association and Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. Bracken received his B.A. in Professional Writing from Baylor University.
As part of the virtual book tour for Many Genres, One Craft , I have more contributor interviews this week: Victoria Thompson , Albert Wendland , Michael Bracken , David Shifren , and Venessa Giunta .
When I was in the eighth grade I knew I wanted to be a writer. I was a ninth grader when I had a poem published in my junior high school literary magazine. I contributed to my high school literary magazine, wrote for and later edited my high school newspaper, and contributed to an underground newspaper published by fellow high school students.While in high school, a friend and I started publishing a science fiction fanzine—Knights of the Paper Space Ship; the name was ultimately truncated to Knights—and because of Knights I "met" several writers and would-be writers. For example, Charles L. Grant, Thomas F. Monteleone, and Grant Carrington were columnists, and I published work by Robert Bloch, David Gerrold, Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, and other writers who were well known or who later became well known within the science fiction genre.
During high school and for some time after high school, my primary goal was to become a science fiction writer, and I submitted regularly to science fiction fanzines, semi-prozines, and professional magazines. I placed short stories and other writing in many of them. But none of my "sales" to that point were to professional publications.
In 1976, after having a handful of stories rejected from Amazing, Asimov's, and F&SF because they were "juvenile"—that is, they featured children as protagonists—I started submitting my work to children's magazines. I finally sold "The Magic Stone" to Young World, a young adult publication, and the story was published in November 1978.
I was still a teenager when I made that first professional sale, but it came after years of submission and rejection, years of writing and revising, and years spent learning everything I could about publishing. What I learned is that it doesn't matter how old you are when you start writing. What matters is how hard you want to be published and how hard you're willing to work for it.
--Michael Bracken
Michael Bracken is the author of 11 books, including All White Girls, Deadly Campaign, and Tequila Sunrise. More than 800 of his short stories have been published worldwide. His "Dreams Unborn" was named one of The Best American Mystery Stories 2005 and "All My Yesterdays" received a Derringer Award. Bracken edited five crime fiction anthologies whose stories have been short-listed for the Anthony, Derringer, Edgar, and Shamus awards. Bracken served as V.P. of both the Private Eye Writers of America and the Mystery Writers of America's Southwest chapter. He also belongs to the Horror Writers Association and Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. Bracken received his B.A. in Professional Writing from Baylor University.
June 2, 2011
HEIDI'S PICK SIX: Albert Wendland
HEIDI'S PICK SIX
As part of the virtual book tour for Many Genres, One Craft , I have more contributor interviews this week: Victoria Thompson , Albert Wendland , Michael Bracken , David Shifren , and Venessa Giunta .
Albert Wendland
1. Which of your characters is your favorite?
2. Tell me about your travels.
I love to travel in the western United States. The deserts, the mountains, the thick forests—these are the closest I get to alien worlds. I've been in Canada and Italy but I have a great affection for Wyoming, Utah, Montana, Oregon, "naked geology," tormented coastlines, volcanic wastelands, the accidental rainbows of rocks, "deep time" exposed right in front of you, other eras on display, death valleys where a vast lid seems removed, lakes that appear like the eyes of the earth, mountains where the universe comes down at night and plays.
3. Coffee, tea, or milk?
4. What else can you do besides write?
Well, I teach, but that's obvious, and I love doing it. I enjoy photography, especially of landscapes. I'll come back from a two-day trip in autumn with nearly a thousand pictures (praise the memory-space of digital cameras—I used to use film and I confess I do not miss Kodachrome). I don't actually "do" astronomy and geology but these two fields I have always pursued. I had a rock collection as a kid and a Meade telescope as an adult. I wish I could teach courses in both, though I'd have an easier time with art history.
5. Who are you reading right now?
This is strongly influenced by what course I'm currently teaching, so I often offer classes where I can include things I want to read. I'm doing a lot of "slipstream" at the moment or "interstitial" "hybrid" works: short stories from anthologies with such titles, even Borges and Calvino, but also novels by Cory Doctorow, Jasper Fforde, and John Crowley. I find that reading slipstream provides much incentive to write: it's liberating, and I've pulled out some "failed" short stories and re-started them as slipstream. My next class will emphasize recent SF, which is just what I want to look at: Blindsight, The Windup Girl, Boneshaker, Spin and hopefully works by Jim Bishop, Alastair Reynolds, Ian McDonald, and Iain M. Banks.
6. Pop culture or academia?
7. What is the toughest scene you ever wrote?
8. Where do you find your inspirations to write?
Though I can get ideas from "ideas," events, history, myths, legends, what inspires me the most is usually visual. A photograph, a drawing, a work of art, a panel in a graphic novel, anything that is striking both visually and emotionally, that produces a mood, a strong sense of place but also "presence," a slight taste of the haunted, of wonder, of the sublime. A picture of a person can inspire me more than the person him/herself. What the person is can "fill out" the character, but the excitement comes in the visual connection, the bolt, the strike.
9. Food you could eat everyday.
10. Are you into sports or other physical activities?
11. What kind of music speaks to you?
12. Do you outline your stories or do they just take you along for the ride?
Yes, but it's a thin outline. What I almost have to do before I start writing a novel is make a list of what I hope to be in each chapter, and I keep going till I get about 18 chapters listed, and there's often just a phrase or two for one. But once I've completed that, I feel I have enough "direction" to start working. Without this slight framework (and it changes a lot as I go along) I feel I'm wasting writing time if I start before: too much of what I'd be doing would have to be redone. So I need some idea, however slight, and spelled out in a list, of where I'm going.
13. Celebrity crush.
14. Who are the biggest influences on your work?
There's always a mixture of original influences, what you read as a kid that inspired you to write in the first place, and recent writers whose style or subject matter you admire. Andre Norton and Poul Anderson are, hands down, the SF writers who encouraged me the most when I was young. Others were Arthur Clarke, Clifford Simak, and Ray Bradbury. Underlining the visual inspiration mentioned above, I'd have to include the Sunday comic strips of Flash Gordon (those illustrated by Mac Raboy) and the SF comic books, Strange Adventures and Mystery In Space. For more recent writers, Dan Simmons, Jack McDevitt, Peter Hamilton, and Kim Stanley Robinson have been very influential. I loved the return to space opera in the 90s.
15. Do you still watch cartoons?
Dr. Albert Wendland grew up in the Pittsburgh area, attending both Carnegie-Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh. At CMU, he majored in physics with the intention of going on into astronomy and writing science fiction in his off-time. He soon pursued a Ph.D. in English literature instead and has been teaching at Seton Hill ever since. Al is now the director of the Writing Popular Fiction MFA Program. His publications range from magazine and journal articles to poetry and short stories, as well as the non-fiction book Science, Myth, and the Fictional Creation of Alien Worlds published by UMI Research Press. He currently has a Science Fiction novel he's shopping around.
As part of the virtual book tour for Many Genres, One Craft , I have more contributor interviews this week: Victoria Thompson , Albert Wendland , Michael Bracken , David Shifren , and Venessa Giunta .
Albert Wendland1. Which of your characters is your favorite?
2. Tell me about your travels.
I love to travel in the western United States. The deserts, the mountains, the thick forests—these are the closest I get to alien worlds. I've been in Canada and Italy but I have a great affection for Wyoming, Utah, Montana, Oregon, "naked geology," tormented coastlines, volcanic wastelands, the accidental rainbows of rocks, "deep time" exposed right in front of you, other eras on display, death valleys where a vast lid seems removed, lakes that appear like the eyes of the earth, mountains where the universe comes down at night and plays.
3. Coffee, tea, or milk?
4. What else can you do besides write?
Well, I teach, but that's obvious, and I love doing it. I enjoy photography, especially of landscapes. I'll come back from a two-day trip in autumn with nearly a thousand pictures (praise the memory-space of digital cameras—I used to use film and I confess I do not miss Kodachrome). I don't actually "do" astronomy and geology but these two fields I have always pursued. I had a rock collection as a kid and a Meade telescope as an adult. I wish I could teach courses in both, though I'd have an easier time with art history.
5. Who are you reading right now?
This is strongly influenced by what course I'm currently teaching, so I often offer classes where I can include things I want to read. I'm doing a lot of "slipstream" at the moment or "interstitial" "hybrid" works: short stories from anthologies with such titles, even Borges and Calvino, but also novels by Cory Doctorow, Jasper Fforde, and John Crowley. I find that reading slipstream provides much incentive to write: it's liberating, and I've pulled out some "failed" short stories and re-started them as slipstream. My next class will emphasize recent SF, which is just what I want to look at: Blindsight, The Windup Girl, Boneshaker, Spin and hopefully works by Jim Bishop, Alastair Reynolds, Ian McDonald, and Iain M. Banks.
6. Pop culture or academia?
7. What is the toughest scene you ever wrote?
8. Where do you find your inspirations to write?
Though I can get ideas from "ideas," events, history, myths, legends, what inspires me the most is usually visual. A photograph, a drawing, a work of art, a panel in a graphic novel, anything that is striking both visually and emotionally, that produces a mood, a strong sense of place but also "presence," a slight taste of the haunted, of wonder, of the sublime. A picture of a person can inspire me more than the person him/herself. What the person is can "fill out" the character, but the excitement comes in the visual connection, the bolt, the strike.
9. Food you could eat everyday.
10. Are you into sports or other physical activities?
11. What kind of music speaks to you?
12. Do you outline your stories or do they just take you along for the ride?
Yes, but it's a thin outline. What I almost have to do before I start writing a novel is make a list of what I hope to be in each chapter, and I keep going till I get about 18 chapters listed, and there's often just a phrase or two for one. But once I've completed that, I feel I have enough "direction" to start working. Without this slight framework (and it changes a lot as I go along) I feel I'm wasting writing time if I start before: too much of what I'd be doing would have to be redone. So I need some idea, however slight, and spelled out in a list, of where I'm going.
13. Celebrity crush.
14. Who are the biggest influences on your work?
There's always a mixture of original influences, what you read as a kid that inspired you to write in the first place, and recent writers whose style or subject matter you admire. Andre Norton and Poul Anderson are, hands down, the SF writers who encouraged me the most when I was young. Others were Arthur Clarke, Clifford Simak, and Ray Bradbury. Underlining the visual inspiration mentioned above, I'd have to include the Sunday comic strips of Flash Gordon (those illustrated by Mac Raboy) and the SF comic books, Strange Adventures and Mystery In Space. For more recent writers, Dan Simmons, Jack McDevitt, Peter Hamilton, and Kim Stanley Robinson have been very influential. I loved the return to space opera in the 90s.
15. Do you still watch cartoons?
Dr. Albert Wendland grew up in the Pittsburgh area, attending both Carnegie-Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh. At CMU, he majored in physics with the intention of going on into astronomy and writing science fiction in his off-time. He soon pursued a Ph.D. in English literature instead and has been teaching at Seton Hill ever since. Al is now the director of the Writing Popular Fiction MFA Program. His publications range from magazine and journal articles to poetry and short stories, as well as the non-fiction book Science, Myth, and the Fictional Creation of Alien Worlds published by UMI Research Press. He currently has a Science Fiction novel he's shopping around.
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