Alan Baxter's Blog, page 86

Best Australian Blogs 2011 Competition

This very blog has been nominated for the Best Australian Blogs 2011 Competition, run by the Sydney Writers' Centre. There's a lot of blogs in the running, but if you could see your way to dropping me a vote in the Peoples' Choice Award, that would make you extra awesome.

It's very simple – you go to this page: http://www.sydneywriterscentre.com.au/bloggingcomp/peopleschoice.html and click through to the Voting Page. All the blogs are listed alphabetically, so click through to the Ts for The Word (which is this blog, obviously), and check the box. Add your name and email address at the end and job done.

I'd be very grateful.

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Australian Shadows Awards announced

The winners of the Australian Shadows Awards for this year have been announced. They are:

Long Fiction winner:

Under Stones by Bob Franklin (Affirm Press)

Edited Publication winner:

Macabre: A Journey through Australia's Darkest Fears, edited by Angela Challis & Marty Young (Brimstone Press)

Short Fiction winner:

She Said by Kirstyn McDermott (Scenes from the Second Storey)

These are all very worthy winners and I'm honoured to count each of these people among my friends. The Australian spec fic community is great and I couldn't be happier for Bob, Angela, Marty and Kirstyn (not to mention all the incredible authors that contributed to Macabre to make it the incredible achievement it is).

You might remember that I reviewed Scenes from the Second Storey a while back and picked Kirstyn's story as one of my favourites. I haven't read Macabre yet, but it's on the pile and the Table Of Contents is just amazing. I did a signing with Bob Franklin at Halloween last year and grabbed a copy of Under Stones then. I haven't finished that yet, but every story in it that I have read has been excellent.

You may also remember that Dark Pages, the anthology published by my micro publishing outfit, Blade Red Press, was also nominated for a Shadows award. Clearly Macabre beat us to the win, but guest judge Rocky Wood had this to say about Dark Pages.

Dark Pages 1 (and let's hope there are more) is a treat – a collection of dark fiction ranging outside the horror genre (including science fiction) and including authors from outside Down Under. Marty Young's neat little "Clip Notes" has the classic Twilight Zone feel to it and is but one example of what makes this anthology a deeply satisfying read.

That's just great – and good to see Marty get another shout out. It's interesting that many of the people nominated in one category were also featured in another. We really do have some serious talent in this country.

Congratulations to all the winners and nominees. All the details and judges reports can be found here.

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So many free books, mine and others' – link-a-rama!

I thought I'd combine a few things into one post, as there seems to be a plethora of free book offers happening at the moment. My own books are available all over the place, but lots of other great books too. So here's a kind of digest list of everything going on at the moment.

Firstly, there's my Write The Fight Right giveaway happening. – basically, send me a fight scene up to 500 words, the best three get published right here. 1st place gets a free Write The Fight Right ebook and a signed copy of RealmShift, 2nd & 3rd place get copies of Write The Fight Right ebook.

As mentioned in my previous post, I've been interviewed over at Friday Flash Dot Org, and there's a chance to win a copy of RealmShift there too.

Next up, Fangbooks is giving away several copies of Trent Jamieson's awesome urban fantasy thrillers, Death Most Definite and Managing Death. All you have to do is comment. All those details here.

And finally, there's a massive giveaway over at the Writer Goes On A Journey website, for Aussie Author Month. Yeah, that's right. We get a month. Want to make something of it? There's all kinds of sweet books by people like Jason Fischer, Tara Moss, Trudi Canavan, Lisa L Hannett, Trent Jamieson, Jennifer Fallon, Kirstyn McDermott and me. A variety of ways to enter, deadline is April 30th. All the details here.

Get to it. Enter, win books, read!

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"My Path to Publishing" interview up at fridayflash.org

Any regular readers here will know that I occasionally indulge in a bit of Friday Flash. It's basically a community of writers that put together a flash fiction story (1,000 words or less) and post it on their site. They then tweet the link with the hashtag #fridayflash and get to share their story with others in the group. It was started as an idea by Jon Strother a while back and has grown into a pretty cool community.

I don't post often, as most of my writing time goes into things that I plan to sell and I don't write a lot of flash these days, but I still have a stab now and then. My story, Decennial General Meeting, made it into the first group anthology, The Best Of Friday Flash Vol. 1. You can see all my Friday Flash related stuff by checking the Friday Flash category here.

Anyway, there's a dedicated website now – http://fridayflash.org/ – and they've started a new series of interviews called My Path To Publishing. In their words, "This series will feature writers' stories and their experiences on the many different paths to publication."

They picked me for the inaugural interview, so if you're interested you can find that chat here. I'm giving away a signed book as part of the thing too, so get over there and have a look.

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ThrillerCast 15 – Fighting and responding badly to reviews

The latest ThrillerCast is up. In this episode, David Wood and I talk about fighting and writing fight scenes, in some thinly veiled… well, actually not veiled at all, pimping of my new ebook. We also talk about the recent author meltdown, where a self-published author responded really badly to a negative review of her work. I deliberately avoided blogging about it at the time, as there was enough internet beating up going on already. But Dave and I talk about it in this podcast and discuss how people should respond to reviews. Clue: it's a very simple aswer.

Enjoy. And if you do enjoy it, please recommend us to your friends.

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The written fight tournament – Begin!

My friend Gary Kemble came up with this idea and it's a good one. Now that I've finally made my short ebook about writing fight scenes available, Gary suggested I run a written fight scene competition here on my blog. He actually said: "You should host a fight-writing kumite on your blog. Best 500-word fight scene wins… something? That'd be fun!"

I reckon that would be fun. So it begins here.

Send in a fight scene you've written, or write one specially for the contest. Absolutely maximum of 500 words, but if you can make a tight scene in 200 or 300 words I'll be even more impressed. There doesn't have to be any context or setup, we just want the fight – but make it real. Give us some description of the surroundings, let us know your characters just a little bit in the process. Try to make the fight scene as visceral and intense as you can.

Make it interesting. Your characters don't have to be human. They can be magical or mundane, on a spaceship or in a garden shed, set in 1603 or 2533. It can be one on one, one on many or many on many. Hand-to-hand or weapons. Mix it up and make it fun.

Send your entry to me at alan(@)alanbaxteronline(.)com – (take out the ( ) obviously). Put "FIGHT WRITING CONTEST" in the subject line. I'll use my completely unbiased judgement to decide which are the best scenes and there'll be prizes.

1st place gets a copy of my Write The Fight Right ebook in the format of their choice and a signed copy of RealmShift.

2nd and 3rd place get copies of Write The Fight Right in whatever format they prefer.

I'll post the three winning fight scenes here with links back to the authors once the decision is made.

All clear? Good.

FIGHT!

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Dead Red Heart – preorder now

"33 fantastic tales, 502 pages, 140,000 words. All about vampires in Australia."

Pre-order details are up now for Dead Red Heart from Ticonderoga Publications.

As contributor Pete Kempshall says, "the contributors' list reads like a who's who of Australian horror, so it's going to be well worth picking up." I couldn't agree more and I'm really pleased to be in among that list of great names.

Also, pre-orders from the website are 20% off before May 5, or the book will be available through Amazon, The Book Depository and Barnes and Noble in early May.

Alternatively, you can always grab a copy at the book's official launch at Swancon. I know that several of the contributing authors will be there, including myself, and we'll all be more than happy to sign our stories for you.

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Anywhere But Earth anthology ToC announced

I'm really pleased to have a story coming out in this anthology from couer de lion publishing, edited by Keith Stevenson. It's a science fiction anthology featuring 27 original stories of humanity's adventures out there, anywhere but Earth. It's a great theme and the full Table of Contents has been released now, along with cover art. I'm not sure if this is the final cover or not, but I like it. What I like even more is the names I'm sharing the ToC with. Seriously, check out the awesome talent in this book:

Margo Lanagan 'Yon Horned Moon'

Richard Harland 'An Exhibition of the Plague'

Sean McMullen 'Spacebook'

Lee Battersby 'At The End There Was a Man'

Jason Nahrung 'Messiah on the Rock'

Angela Ambroz 'Pyaar Kiya'

Kim Westwood 'By Any Other Name'

Steve De Beer 'Psi World'

Robert Hood 'Desert Madonna'

Cat Sparks 'Beautiful'

Penny Love 'Sibo'

Wendy Waring 'Alien Tears'

Simon Petrie 'Hatchway'

Jason Fischer 'Eating Gnashdal'

Robert N Stephenson 'Rains of la Strange'

Alan Baxter 'Unexpected Launch'

Chris McMahon 'Memories of Mars'

Liz Argall 'Maia Blue is Going Home'

Calie Voorhis 'Murmer'

Damon Shaw 'Continuity'

Donna Maree Hanson 'Beneath the Floating City'

Patty Jansen 'Poor Man's Travel'

Tristan Davenport 'Oak with the Left Hand'

Colum Paget 'Pink Ice in the Jovian Rings'

Erin Stocks 'Lisse'

William Wood 'Deuteronomy'

Steve Cameron 'So Sad, the Lighthouse Keeper'

I'm honoured to be listed among so many fantastic writers. This is shaping up to be a brilliant book – I can't wait to read it.

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RealmShift video review at Mystery Thriller TV

This is pretty cool – I've never had a video review before. Joanna Penn, from The Creative Penn and author of the thriller, Pentcost, also hosts Mystery Thriller TV. I know, she's a bit of an over-achiever. She recently posted a video review of RealmShift, which makes me very proud. Here tis:

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Write The Fight Right ebook available now

The public demanded it, so I've delivered. Well, quite a few people, after attending one of my Write The Fight Right workshops, asked if there was any further resource they could get on the subject. Short of suggesting martial arts classes, I had no advice. After I did the workshop at Worldcon, several people were chatting to me afterwards and the suggestion was made that I write the workshop content up into an ebook and sell it. I thought that was a great idea, so here it is. A short, approximately 12,000 word, ebook discussing all the things involved in fighting to help authors write more realistic and convincing fight scenes in their fiction.

I wouldn't presume to tell anyone how to write – I don't think I'm really qualified for that. But after nearly 30 years as a martial artist and working as a martial arts instructor for a lot of that time, not to mention a lot of fights in and out of tournaments, I do know a lot about fighting. So I know what's real and what's not, I know what it feels like, and hopefully this book will convey some of that stuff so fiction writers can factor it into their books and stories.

It really bugs me when an otherwise excellent read is marred by a daft fight scene, with the writer clearly having no idea what a fight is really like. Of course, I'm biased, because I do know. But even people who have no more experience of fighting than the author are often bored by fight scenes. Equally, even though they may not be able to put their finger on why, they recognise a visceral, authentic fight scene when they read one. I developed a bit of a reputation for writing good fights, which is what originally led to me being asked to do a workshop at Conflux a while back. I've since done the workshop elsewhere, including Worldcon last year – which was a real honour – and I'll be doing it again at Swancon at the end of this month. Hopefully now people can buy this book to back up the stuff they learn at a workshop, or buy the book and learn all the stuff I cover in the workshop if they can't make one. Of course, the workshop gives people a much more hands-on experience and allows them to ask questions and so on, but I'm hoping this book is a valuable resource for writers nonetheless.

It won't teach you how to write and it won't teach you how to fight, but it will hopefully give you lots of information to help you write better fight scenes. The book is available on Amazon Kindle and in a variety of formats at Smashwords (including a PDF for general reference) for US$1.99. That's less than a cup of coffee. If you like the book, please do rate and review it and, most importantly, tell all your friends and help me spread the word. Learn more here.

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