Mark Noce's Blog, page 3

Speed Networking with College Students

The other weekend I was down in sunny San Luis Obispo (albeit it was a bit rainy that day). I sit on the English Department Advisory Board for the university of Cal Poly, and as almuni from Cal Poly as well, my wife and I love going down to SLO every chance we get. Last weekend, we had the opportunity to speak to over 50 English students about pursuing various careers in writing after they graduate.

Needless to say, we had a blast. Speaking both to groups and one-on-one with students, the speed networking conference helped us give each student the information they were hoping to learn. As both a Tech Writer (by day) and a Fiction Author (by night), I really enjoying emphasizing to students that they can truly use their English degree to become whatever they want. Other alumni present also shared their experiences in everything from UX writing to teaching, and more.

I truly enjoy giving back whenever I can, both to my alma mater and to other local schools in our area. I find that the more I can give of my time, the more fulfilled I feel. Even with the effort of juggling kids, a career, writing, and all the other things that come along with today’s modern, busy life, it’s something I definitely intend to keep doing as long as I can.

The Demise of Google+

So Google’s social media experiment will be ending in a couple months, and I was curious how my fellow bloggers are approaching this deadline. Do you care? Does it matter?

My only real concern is if there will be any ill effects on my Blogger account. Hopefully, not, but since Google+ required Blogger comments to use their service for a time, all those old Google+ comments on my blog will likely disappear. Other than that, I’m not anticipating any major issues.

How about you? Are there any known issues to be aware of? Any precautions you are taking?

Guest Post Today

Hey everybody! I'll be over at Shelley Workinger's blog today, where I've posted about the historical culinary backround in my novels. You heard that right...it's all about what people ate and drank back in the day.

Come on by and check it out! Thanks:)

https://bookfare.blogspot.com/2019/01/foodfic-please-welcome-mark-noce-author.html

New Year’s Resolutions & the Gimlet

You’re probably wondering right now what the heck a gimlet is? Well, if you’ve been reading lots of old noir detective novels, you probably already know. I read enough Chandler books to take his advice literally and found this old time drink needs to come back. Plymouth gin, rose’s lime juice, a touch of lime, and into the cocktail shaker it goes. What comes out is pure-tasting noir in a glass.

How does this relate to New Years? Well, there are a few things I wanted to tackle this year. Running a half marathon or marathon (I’m prepping by doing Bay to Breakers first this year). I also wanted to get better at exploring the wide world of drinks and authors. Yes, you heard that right. A lot of authors actually lace their novels with info about their favorite drinks. Hemingway made “Death in the Afternoon” - which tastes great, but is basically a bad hangover waiting to happen. For the gimlet, I have Chandler to thank. But there’s much more, and I intend to slowly explore more cocktail options via the writers of the past as I read more of their work this year.

So, other than marathons and drink mixing, what are some of your goals for the new year?

Doubt in Writing

As I continue to read about many of my favorite authors, I’m intrigued by the continual battles with doubt they each wrestled with during their entire lives. A few that come to mind include Herman Melville, Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Mikhail Bulgakov just to name a few. Each of them, whether “successful” or not, nursed deep doubts regarding their writing abilities and many died with some of their most famous work unrecognized within their lifetimes.

Melville of course penned Moby Dick, one of my all time favorite novels. The book sold few copies and was out of print by the time Melville died. Both Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett, despite the success of their noir novels, feared that their work was only considered pulp and anguished over every sequel they ever wrote. Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby was written off as a nostalgic period piece, and even fellow authors thought the book showed that he had lost his ability to write. As for Bulgakov, he never thought The Master and Margarita would ever see the light of day, the manuscript having been suppressed by Soviet authorities until well after his death.

To me, it is very human to doubt, and I find it very inspiring that many authors not only struggled with doubts, but used it to fuel their writing careers. They turned a very natural disadvantage into the grist for their mill, infusing their own characters with doubts that make them very human and relatable. So how do you deal with doubts in your daily life?

Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Years to you all! I hope you’re all having a wonderful holiday season. Between all the shopping, people-seeing, and madness that can creep up, I hope that you have a magical, serene time as well.

May peace be with you and all those you love! Happy Holidays!

NaNoWriMo Update

I totally spaced on providing an update on my NaNoWriMo adventures from last month! It’s probably because I got so engrossed in writing, that I forgot the month was over. Seriously.

I must have churned out at least 35,000 words for November. It may not be anything super impressive, but I’ve kept the same pace well into December. In fact, I think I’m onto a solid first draft for a new novel. Fingers crossed.

The funny thing is that I believe that this manuscript will make a nice third novel to a series I’ve been working on. We’ll see. I’m just going to try to keep hashing it out and get it down on paper. I’ll report back after then.

In the meantime, I hope you’re all having a great December!

My Book is on the Bestseller List!

My novel, Between Two Fires , has been on the Amazon bestseller list for medieval fiction for the last few weeks! Despite oscillating a bit in the rankings, it continues to keep rising. I’m definitely excited, but at the same time I’m also simply happy that people are enjoying my work.

This is also just the first book in my Queen Branwen Series via St. Martin’s Press. The sequel, Dark Winds Rising , is also benefiting from the increased interest in my first novel. I have several additional manuscripts in the works with my agent right now for another series, but it warms my heart to see my initial historical fiction books garnering some extra attention on Amazon.

Between Two Fires is now among the top 50 Amazon best sellers in medieval fiction, beside the likes of Bernard Cornwell, Elizabeth Chadwick, and Morgan Llywelyn, just to name a few. I definitely needed another cup of coffee today before I believed what I was seeing. Christmas definitely seems to have arrived early this year.

NaNoWriMo

It’s that time of year again! NaNoWriMo. I don’t usually make it official (nor do I intend to), but I often try and get some extra writing done on the side in an effort to get into the spirit of things each November.

That being said, I haven’t usually had very good luck with writing in November. Largely because it’s such a busy time of year. Thanksgiving, getting ready for the holidays. Plus we have lots of birthdays in my family during this month. Not exactly a lot of time to write.

That also being said, I think I’m going to go for it anyway this month. Yeah, never tell me the odds. Wish me luck!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! It’s my favorite time of the year once more, and my favorite holiday no less. There’s just something magical about Halloween night that defies explanation.

The kids are dressed up and they have their parades today. Tonight we’ll be trick-or-treating in the neighborhood as well as handing out candy. We usually get a couple hundred kids on Halloween night, and last year they started blocking off the streets for cars because so many people started showing up in our neighborhood. I actually really enjoy it and the more people who come, the better the atmosphere.

So have a super awesome Halloween and enjoy the night!