Craig Schaefer's Blog, page 20

The Killing Floor Blues is Here!

Sorry for the relative blog silence lately, just been up to my ears in deadlines, deadlines, and also finishing the new Daniel Faust novel! That's right: The Killing Floor Blues, book five of the series, is here. The e-book version is available right now, and the print version should be available by the end of the weekend. The book starts right where A Plain-Dealing Villain left off, and the unpleasant situation we last saw Daniel in...well, it gets worse. Fast. Getting out of this mess is going to take every trick Daniel's got, and then some. I hope you enjoy it!

New Audiobook Release: Winter's Reach!

Yep, it's another audiobook release -- Winter's Reach, the first part of the four-volume Revanche Cycle, is now on Audible! The book is performed by the stellar Susannah Jones, and I couldn't imagine a better narrator for the part.

(In other news, I'm plugging away at finalizing edits on The Killing Floor Blues, book five of the Daniel Faust series, and I hope to release it this weekend. If not this weekend, then soon. Soooooon.)

A Plain-Dealing Villain is on Audible!

Told you we'd get the back-catalog out on audio by year's end, didn't I? That's right -- coming hot on the heels of The Living End, A Plain-Dealing Villain (Daniel Faust, book four) is now live on Audible.com. As always, Adam Verner's lending his amazing vocal talents to the production. We hope you enjoy it!

Writing Challenge Tuesday: MacGyver

I may be about to date myself, but I loved MacGyver, as a kid. I had this friend who looked like an eight year old version of the man himself. Dirty blonde hair, vaguely mullet styled, and he was just as obsessed as I was. We’d theorize about how to fix a situation using only bailing wire, duct tape, and an old HAM radio. Our solutions were generally less effective than his.

It did give me an idea for this week’s writing challenge, so at least there’s that! For this week, we explore the notion of the MacGuyver maneuver. If your protagonist had to pick one modern day store or shop and get all the components they needed for something, where would it be? Staples? Are they making forgeries? Target? Are they camping? Imagine they have no budget (or they’re appropriating goods in a catastrophe) and they get to put together their plan with anything from the shelves.

Generally I’d always pick a huge department store, but as I was thinking about it today, that sort of damns you to dealing with less quality goods. You get a little of everything, but nothing actually made well for a purpose. Or at least, not many things. Maybe EMS, or a camping store? I personally hate camping, and would much rather be in a hotel. I’m not a fan of bugs, or dirt, and I think I’d rather saw off my head than use a porta-john. But I can respect that certain situations might call for camping gear. I’d be so tragic in the post-apocalypse.

Where would your protagonist go? What would they put together? How would they cobble a bunch of stuff into a plan?

(As you might guess from the way A Plain-Dealing Villain ended, today's idea isn't completely out of left field. In The Killing Floor Blues, coming next month, Daniel Faust finds himself in an extremely unpleasant place and has to do some MacGyvering of his own to survive...)

See you on Thursday for more Inspirations!

Regarding the SCOTUS Decision...

Yesterday, some of my readers -- despite living in the same nation as me and paying the same taxes as me -- didn't have the same rights as me.

Today they do.

This is a good day.

So About that Amazon Thing...

Okay, so today's post is going to be very "inside baseball." If the publishing biz doesn't interest you, skip it, but I've seen so much talk about Amazon's new pay-per-page system this week -- and so much staggering misinformation -- that I feel compelled to offer up a quick burst of clarity.

To quote Alien 3, "This is Rumor Control, here are the facts."

Amazon offers readers a subscription-based service called Kindle Unlimited. For a monthly fee, you can download and read any book enrolled in the program; in other words, it's Netflix for books. Publishers decide, on a per-book basis, whether or not to enroll in the program. (Being in KU requires you to be exclusive with Amazon, which is why none of my books to date are enrolled: that'd mean I'd have to pull my titles off of every other storefront. The Harmony Black series, however, will be in KU.)

Kindle Unlimited authors are paid out of a pool of cash, determined by Amazon every month. I believe the pool is set by rolling a handful of random polyhedral dice, and comparing the results to a heavily edited Rolemaster critical-hit chart. (97: The pool is $1 million. 98: The pool is $2 million. 99: You trip over an invisible turtle and die.)

Up until now, earning a share of that pool was determined by a customer reading 10% of your book. Someone hits that mark, boom, you get a cut. It's not hard to see the instant problem there: if you publish a 10-page short story, you're getting a share pretty much the second a reader opens the text. If you've written a 900-page doorstopper, you aren't counted in until the 90-page mark -- and you make the exact same amount of money as the short-story writer.

Not only was this system deeply unfair to Leo Tolstoy -- who I believe commented about this on Twitter -- it disincentivized novelists from joining the program and incentivized certain people who, er, made a "career" out of throwing metric tons of garbage onto KU; unedited short-story scraps, nonfiction pamphlets that are barely more than Wikipedia cut-and-paste jobs, and so on. The result: a troubled program.

Under the new system, KU writers will be paid by pages read. To boil it down, if you wrote a ten-page short story and somebody reads it, you get ten shares of the money pool at the end of the month. If you write a 900-page doorstopper and somebody reads it, you get 900 shares. Novelists actually have a reason to join the program now (a good enough reason? That's an excellent question, but beyond the scope of this article), and the KU Pamphlet Gold Rush is pretty much over.

(As an aside, let me say right now that some of the handwringing over this has been hilariously dumb. I have seen, not once but three times this week, allegedly sane writers spouting some variation of "Now all that will matter is keeping readers turning the pages! All books will be potboilers with a cliffhanger at the end of every chapter and no resolution, just to make sure the reader clicks all the way to the end!". Okay, first, no. Second, shut up. Third, readers aren't stupid, stop treating them like they're stupid. What keeps a reader turning pages? A gripping story, great characters, and craft. Fourth, compelling readers to read to the end of the book is, was, and always will be, our freaking job. This is not a new and surprising concept.)

"But Craig," you might be asking, "what if a writer we like has books both for purchase and in KU? If we're interested in supporting our favorite author -- who may or may not be a dashingly roguish gentleman who has a new series coming out this Winter, just saying -- what's the best way to ensure he continues being able to afford food and electricity?"

I can't speak for any writer but myself, but here's how I see it: my stories are available in lots of formats. Ebook, paperback, audio, chiseled stone tablets, etc. I don't make the same amount for a sale in every format, but I do get paid, and I think readers should choose the format they most enjoy experiencing. Some people carry a library on their Kindles, some people swear by the feel of paper in their hands, some get their fiction on the go via audiobooks, and there's no wrong way to do it. I think I can speak for most writers when I say I'm just thrilled to entertain you, any way I can.

The best way to support a writer is to spread the word. Write a review, tell your friends, and share the cool new books you've discovered. That's how we find new readers, sell more books, and keep the lights on. So we can write more books. So we can find new readers. So we can write more books.

Now I have to get back to work. Writing a book.

New Audiobook! The Living End is here.

Hey, everybody! The new Faust audiobook, The Living End, is live and on audible.com -- it should also show up on iTunes and Amazon in a couple of days.

You won't be waiting as long for the next one, either, as Adam Verner is already preparing to record book four; we're on track to have my entire backcatalog out on audio by year's end!

Inspirations Tuesday: Christopher Lee

As you’ll have noticed, this is an inspirations post. Which isn’t my usual for Tuesdays. Usually I do a writing challenge and an inspirations post each week. But this week in particular, I’m feeling a little maudlin and like toasting a fantastic person. And given that I’ve already written my Thursday post for inspirations, I decided that a writing prompt could wait another week.

Christopher Lee was an incredible man on so many levels. Not only was he a fantastic actor, a giant nerd, a Tolkien fan, and a man who made a heavy metal album in his 80s, but he was also a legit action hero. During filming of the LotR trilogy, he explained to Peter Jackson about how it sounds when someone is stabbed. I mean, is there anything more badass?

If I sound like a fanboy, it’s because I am. Obviously, I don’t know what it sounds like, and my declaration that it’s badass proves that. However, he’s the kind of incredible and kickass person we all need in our lives. Fandoms need terrifying elder wizards who killed people in World War II. We need heavy metal artists who are literally twice our age. We need heroes who are living out their dreams and doing everything they want to do with life, because it’s too easy to think it’s over fast.

We all get taught about finding our career, learning our path, getting our passion. Go to school, get your degree, save money, pay off debt from school, get a mortgage and do it all again! And by the time we’re in our thirties, it feels like life is over and the ink is drying. But it isn’t. It’s not drying, and life isn’t over, and we can rewrite it as we go.

I’m not stabbing anyone in the back, nor do I have the chops for public singing outside of my closed moving vehicle. But I’ve reinvented myself and followed my dream, and I hope to keep doing it at least as long as he did.

This one’s for you, Christopher Lee. I hope you’re happy, wherever you are.

Writing Challenge Tuesday: Walk a Mile

So, one of my favorite things to play with in the writing world is perspective. Specifically, perspective of characters, and how things differ from person to person. What seems like a disaster to one character can often be a perfectly sound idea to another. What seems like a great plan to Daniel, for example, might make Caitlin eye him dubiously. I’m sure she’s done a fair share of that in their various heist-like activities. I just sort of take the side-eye for granted. 

The question I’d like to ask, and challenge for writing, is: What happens if your characters are literally in each other’s shoes? I’m reminded of the episode of Buffy where Giles turned into a demon. There Daniel would be, trapped in Caitlin’s skin, unable to walk in her high heels, and breaking off door handles. Caitlin would likely be able to use Daniel’s magic to devastating effect, but I can only imagine how vociferously she would rant about his weak meat-suit that can’t even open a pickle jar without help. (Daniel would stress that he loosened it for her.)

I imagine characters like Jennifer Juniper mixed up with Daniel. In my head, she’s sort of perpetually played with the female equivalent of Keanu Reeves. I think the first thing she would say is, “Woaaahhh.” I think the female version of Reeves is Wynona Rider from Reality Bites, but now I’m just revealing how old I am…

So for this week’s writing challenge, contrive a reason for your characters to be flipped into each other’s bodies. Maybe hilarity ensues. Maybe it’s extremely serious, because one can’t really harness the power they’re given and the other has to walk them through it. Maybe it’s terribly dangerous because they’re being hunted by mafioso hitmen, or assassins, or pageant moms. 

Whatever the circumstance, see how they react in each other’s skin. Maybe it opens up a whole new line of thought and understanding between the characters. You decide.

See you Thursday for more Inspirations! 

Inspirations Thursday: The Hunger Games

I admit, at the moment, it’s hard to think of The Hunger Games as just a speculative fiction. Given our landscape these days, it’s hitting a bit too close to home. It is, however, a great inspiration to me. In part, I see the books (and subsequent movies) as a fantastic meta construct. 

For example, just after the first movie came out, Covergirl did this fantastically tone deaf thing where they advertised Shades of the Capital! as if that was a good thing. It is a quaint reminder to me that if I’m quoting something, I should probably read it all first. I have read those particular books, and I’m glad I did. They remind me of a few important things:

* It can always get worse. The storylines around Johanna and Peeta reminded me that even when things are at their darkest, they can most definitely be made more horrible. I try to remember that fondly when torturing my characters.

* Absolute power doesn’t give up control. A lot of stories have had sympathetic leaders who were just so in the wrong place at the wrong time and turn out to be terrible victims of circumstance. I don’t buy it. Leaders and cause heads don’t give up power for the right and the good. It’s just not how things work. Power is something that corrupts, and no one wants to give it up once they have it. That might be a tiny spoiler for the future. Ahh.

* Nothing is insurmountable. One girl without any thought in her head of challenging the status quo became the voice of a movement and brought down a government. I like to think that sort of change is possible, and even if it isn’t, it can be in my books. 

Join me next week for more challenges and inspirations!