Great Hunt by Robert Jordan, Book two of the Wheel of Time series.
Introduction
Great Hunt by Robert
Jordan is the second book of The Wheel of Time series. It follows Eye of the
World, the first book in the series. Someone stole the Horn of Valere. The
prophecy says they need the horn to summon the great heroes of the ages at the
last battle. Can Rand and his group retrieve it before the great enemy, Ba’alzamon,
disposes of it and their chance to defeat him in the last battle?
Summary
The Great Hunt begins with the
characters reflecting on the events of Eye of the World at the city of Fal
Dara. Rand trains with the sword with Lan. The Amyrlin Seat, the leader of the
Aes Sedai arrives in Fal Dara to access the situation. After someone steals the
horn, Agelmar, the Lord of Fal Dara, forms a group to retrieve it. The group is
lead by Ingtar and includes Rand, Mat, Perrin, Loial, and Ingtar’s soldiers.
Padan Fain, the thief and the leader of the Trollocs the group chases, is not
who he seems. They split the group up during their journey. Rand, Loial, and
one of Ingtar’s soldiers named Hurin overcome challenges. Rand must face his
destiny and Ba’alzamon’s lies.
Meanwhile, Moiraine, the Aes
Sedai the characters followed in Eye of the World, takes Egwene and Nynaeve to
the Aes Sedai city of Tar Volan to start their training to become Aes Sedai. Egwene
and Nynaeve learn at the White Tower in Tar Volan and become friends with Elayne
and Min.
The horn arrives in Falme, a
city on the western coast. The characters meet in Falme for the confrontation which
includes the Seanchan, a strange and violent people from across the sea, The
Children of the Light, a military order attempting to exterminate Darkfriends, and
Ba’alzamon. Rand proves his worth.
Recommendation
The Great Hunt by Robert Jordan is a great second novel to the Wheel of Time series. Jordan delivers the promise of the first book in the second. The novel could have suffered from becoming an episodic placeholder setting up the series conclusion but it does not. The two main storylines are strong. Their search for the horn and Rand’s journey of acceptance of his destiny flows well together. Egwene and Nynaeve’s training showcase the wider world and the use of the One Power. The two most important scenes in this novel are when Rand becomes the Dragon Reborn and the Seanchan capture Egwene. The Great Hunt sets up The Dragon Reborn, book 3 of the Wheel of Time. I am looking forward to watching the first season of the Amazon Prime Video adaption of the first two novels of the series in 2020.
Links
This is the link to the Goodreads page of The Great Hunt by Robert Jordan.
This is a link to the post from March 7, 2019, on an update on the current situation with the Wheel of Time Amazon Prime Video adaption from the Wertzone website.
I bought and used the editing program Pro Writing Aid
to edit the novel, Assassin in New Marl City. I edited and typed Assassin Chapters
30, 32, and 33 in August 2018, reviewed Chapters 34, 35, and 36 in September 2018,
and I completed the review in February 2019. So far, reviewed Chapters 1 to 15 using
Pro Writing Aid and submitted to my novel writing class.
The first draft of Assassin in New Marl City was
complete at 99,981 words in July 2018. Completed pre-draft two in December 2018
at 89,072 words. I completed Draft Two edits for Chapters 15 and 16 in April,
but I have not started the third draft edits.
I submitted a story called Chemithurgy; First and Last
Scene to the Introductory Writing
Workshop at Parma, Ohio library.
I submitted the second draft edit of Chapter 15 of
Assassin to the Advanced Writing Workshop at Parma, Ohio library.
The stories 4 Humors,
Space Station Sunyata, Grognard, Get to the Point, LARP Film noir, and Sleeping
Sickness submitted to magazines.
Statistics of magazine submissions for 2019 are; 1
different story submitted 1 time with 0 accepted, 0 pending, and 1
rejection.
Events
from April 2019
I attended the 36th annual
Western Reserve Writers Conference on April 27, 2019. They held the Conference
at the South Euclid-Lyndhurst branch of the Cuyahoga County
Public Library at the William N. Skirball writer’s center at the branch. It was
a one-day event with an introduction, a keynote
speaker, three breakout sessions and one first page critique panel.
This is my Recap for the Western Reserve Writers Conference on April 27, 2019, where I attended the introduction, a keynote speaker, and two breakout sessions. The Cuyahoga County Public Library sponsored the event.
I plan to write four blog posts for garydavidgillen.com
including my Writing Progress Report for May 2019.
I plan to work
on second draft edits for Chapters 17 to 30 of Assassin in New Marl City using
Pro Writing Aid.
I plan to work
on third draft edits for Chapters 1 to 15 of Assassin in New Marl City using
comments from the Advanced Writing Workshop at Parma, Ohio.
Polish and submit the stories Caliburnus, Space-Dog
Confession, White Bracer, Mage Squad, I Shall Not Return, Prisoner of Tarnal, and Kay-Eye for submission to short
fiction magazines.
Submit 4 Humors,
Space Station Sunyata, Grognard, LARP Film noir, Sleeping Sickness to other
short fiction magazines.
Edit Searcher of Riven.
Hire an editor for Searcher of Riven from Fiveer.
Edit Ruins of Yarnud.
Hire an editor for Ruins of Yarnud from Fiveer.
Put the novel, Assassin in New Marl City, into the
writing program, Scrivener.
Buy e-book covers for Searcher of Riven and Ruins of
Yarnud from Fiveer.
Buy an e-book cover for Assassin in New Marl City from
Fiveer.
Planned
Events for May 2019
I plan to attend the
Marcon Conference on May 11, 2018, at the
Crown Plaza – Columbus North in Worthington, Ohio.
I attended the 36th annual Western Reserve Writers
Conference on April 27, 2019. They held the Conference at the South
Euclid-Lyndhurst branch of the Cuyahoga County Public Library
at the William N. Skirball writer’s center at the branch. It was a one-day
event with an introduction, a keynote
speaker, three breakout sessions and one first page critique panel.
Deanna
R. Adams is the conference coordinator and Laurie Kincer is the librarian in
charge of the writer’s center.
Laurie
explained how the library was set up, where the three meeting rooms were
located, and about the door prizes available at 4 PM. Deanna gave an inspiring
quote to the attendees. “This is the first day in the rest of your writing
lives.” Deanna introduced the keynote speaker, David Giffels.
They held the
welcome and conference overview in the meeting room A/B/C with about 150
attendees.
Saturday, April
27th at 9:40 AM
Keynote Speaker:
On writing when you think you have no ideas.
The keynote
speaker was David Giffels. He is the writer in residence at the writing center.
David is the
author of five books, a magazine author, and a professor of English at Akron
University. He began his writing career as a columnist for the Akron Beacon
Journal where he wrote three columns a week, every week.
He related three
anecdotes about times he thought he had no ideas. On clean out your
refrigerator day one time, he went to an Akron University fraternity and came
up with a humorous story involving the student he encountered there. One December
he walked in downtown Akron. The only place open had an appropriate Christmas
display in the windows. It was an Adult store. He asked the clerk if the
display was ironic and David wrote a column about his experience. The day of
the big East Coast Blackout of 2003, he knew he couldn’t do a big perspective
story, so he went out in the street. He found that people chose to make order
out of the chaos and wrote a column on that.
The bottom line is
to go out into the world to find ideas. Ideas don’t come to us, we get to them.
He talked about the
writing prompts he gives to his students at Akron University.
Writing is a
transaction from the writer to the reader. The writer gets ideas from the
world, mixes the ideas in the writer’s mind, and returns the written word to
the world.
They held the talk
in the meeting room A/B/C with about 150 attendees.
Saturday, April
27th at 10:30 AM
Breakout Session
Kiss, Marry, Kill:
How to create compelling characters, a presentation by Bree Barton
First drafts are character
drafts. The writer must figure out who they are, what they want, and what
they’ll do to get it. She divided her presentation into six sections with
writing exercises attached to help writers understand their characters.
Put
some flesh on their bones–Give your characters a job interview. Exercise:
Haters gonna hate. What does your character hate?
Give
them secrets–Exercise: What secret is your character keeping?
Free
their natural voice–Each character needs a unique voice. Exercise: Finish this
statement. I wish you would give me…
Shut
them up–Exercise: cut dialog so the reader can fill in the gaps.
Describe–Exercise:
Describe your characters.
Hats
off to you–Exercise: write a scene between two characters who do not meet in
the story. It will help to understand the characters.
We did the first
three exercises but did not do the other three because of limited time. The
techniques were useful for learning about characters.
They held the talk
in the Writer’s Center Meeting Room with 54 attendees. Every seat was full.
Saturday, April
27th at 3:00 PM
Breakout Session
The Art of the
Short Story, a presentation by Scott Lax
Scott started with
a Q and A session first so he could cover questions attendees had as he
progressed through the presentation. Then he explained his path to writing. He
stressed that every writer has to find their own journey. Take your route to
become a writer by your way, however it works for you. He was a salesman who at
39 decided to do what he had always wanted to do, be a writer. He wrote a
novel, wrote a memoir, wrote a screenplay, and many short stories. Then he
became a professor at the Cleveland Institute of Art by teaching writing. A
short story has story truth, and a memoir has happening truth, that is the difference.
There are three
structural elements of a short story.
Unity
of action. Place the story in a single space.
Unity
of time. The story should take place over a short period of time.
Unity
of plot. The story has an organization of events
The story’s
conflict comes from something; characters, internal struggle, society, or
nature. Start the conflict at once. Set your characters into motion. Create
conflict through dialog. Give each of your characters different scripts and
motivations. You make short stories with scenes. State the conflict. No time
for exposition, get to the point. The climax is when the tension is highest. Objects
have emotions, be sure to add them into your stories. Don’t give too much
explanation to the reader, be sure to write for smart people.
They held the talk
in the Writer’s Center Meeting Room with 45 attendees.
Recommendation –
Conclusion
The Western Reserve Writers
Conference was well run, diverse in the presentations offered, and informative.
At 4 PM they gave out door prizes. They drew ticket 159 which I had, and I took
my choice of prizes. I chose a signed
copy of Dawn by J. Thorn and Zak Bohannon. I missed J. Thorn’s presentation,
but I have seen him talk before at science fiction conventions, so I wanted to
check out his book. My Star of the Con was Bree Barton. Her
presentation was fun, the exercises were useful, and I liked her personality. I
plan to attend this event next year.
This is a link for
the Goodreads page for Dawn, the door prize I won at the conference.
I attended the 34th annual Western Reserve Writers Conference on September 23, 2017. I could not attend last year. This is a link to my review of the 2017 conference.
The most recent SF conference I attended was Cleveland ConCoction 2019 at 600 North Aurora Road Aurora, Ohio at the Bertram Inn and Conference Center from March 1 to 3, 2019. This is a link to my conference recap.
One Word Kill by Mark
Lawrence is the first book in the Impossible Times Trilogy. Nick Hayes enjoys
playing Dungeons and Dragons (D & D) with his friends. The novel takes
place in January 1986 in London, England. Nick has problems. They diagnosed him
with leukemia and he likes the new girl in his D & D group, Mia, but a
mysterious stranger arrives and turns his life upside down. Can Nick figure out
his next move? His life and future depend on him making the right choice.
Summary
Nick friends are in his D &
D group. They are Elton (the dungeon master), John (the warrior), Simon (the
thief), Nick is the mage, and Mia is a priest in the group. Nick starts his
chemotherapy for leukemia and thinks about his mortality. Demus is the
mysterious stranger that wants Nick and Mia to do a dangerous task for him.
Nick and Mia need the special talents of the kids in their group. John is
wealthy, Simon is a skilled computer hacker, and Elton has a way to break into
a computer facility The story is complicated by what the drug dealer Sacks
wants and what the psychopath Rust wants from them.
Recommendation
I wasn’t sure where this novel was going because the cliched use of amnesia seemed unlikely. The thrilling ending saves the novel by connecting it all together. With the nostalgia angle, I thought this short novel would be more like Ready Player One, but it was not. One Word Kill is a time travel novel. It explores time travel, destiny, and paradox. I thought it interesting that the Goodreads readers shelved it as 144 Fantasy and 103 Science Fiction. In my experience, time travel was known as Science Fiction. Is this a changing of genres? What changed to make this story fantasy? Maybe readers shelved this novel as fantasy because they know Mark Lawrence as a fantasy author.
Links
This is the link to the Goodreads page of One Word Kill by Mark Lawrence.
Redshirts
by John Scalzi starts with Ensign Andrew Dahl assigned to the Universal Union’s
flagship, the starship Intrepid. He works in the Xenobiology department and his
coworkers advise him not to go on away missions with the officers of the
starship. Crewmembers on away missions who are not officers are dying at an
alarming rate. Dahl must discover the unbelievable truth, or he will die like
the other Redshirts.
Summary
Andrew Dahl connects with a group of new crewmen on the
Intrepid. His group includes Maia Duvall who transferred from her last post,
his rich friend Jimmy Hanson, a suspected ‘fungus’ dealer Finn, and the mysterious
Hester. They learn not to go on away missions with the ship’s officers or risk
death. The officers to watch are the Intrepid’s Captain Abernathy, chief
science officer Q’eeng, astrogator Kerensky, medical chief Hartnell, and chief
engineer West. The key to the mystery is finding the missing crewman Jenkins. The
story is connected to the original Star Trek TV show. They must discover the
nature of what Dahl’s coworkers call the sacrificial effect and another effect
called the Narrative. Shenanigans ensue and the conclusion arrives to complete
Dahl’s story. There are three codas that are from different viewpoint
characters that finish the theme of the story.
Recommendation
Redshirts by John Scalzi is a great novel. It’s funny, has an unusual premise, and moves quickly to the conclusion. The novel is sneaky because the humor overshadows a great theme. The three codas bring home the theme of making your own reality. There is a first-person coda and a second person coda. The third person coda ties up the themes explored in the novel and the final image ends the novel perfectly. I like that there is no sequel because the end says it all.
Links
This is the link to the Goodreads page for Redshirts by
John Scalzi
Broken Eye by Brent
Weeks is the third book of The Lightbringer series. This novel follows the
exciting events detailed in Burning Knife, the second book in the series. The
four main narrators are Gavin, the current Prism who has lost his powers, Kip,
Gavin’s son, and a Blackguard trainee, Teia, Kip’s friend and a Blackguard
trainee (and Kip’s slave, but that is another story), and Karris White Oak,
Gavin’s wife (she is also a former Blackguard and The White’s assistant. The
White is the leader of the spy corps of the Chromeria). These four characters
have important tasks to carry out in the war against the Color Prince and a
shadowy group of assassins named the Order of the Broken Eye. If they fail in
their missions, then the colors will become unbalanced and they risk the
destruction of their world.
Summary Background
Chromaturgy is the magical system of the Seven Satrapies. They call
magicians who use Chromaturgy drafters and the best drafters live on the Chromeria,
the seat of the Satrapies government. Drafters can take a part of the spectrum
of light and make a substance called luxin. They can shape luxin into items,
with the color of the luxin determining the properties of the item. Most
drafters can draft one or two colors while the Prism can draft all the colors. There
is only one Prism alive at one time and the Prism is the military, spiritual,
and political leader of the Satrapies.
Summary Plot
Gavin is the Prism, but he had lost his powers. He is a galley slave
under Captain Gunner and Gavin searches for a way to escape. Kip is a
Blackguard trainee but is being coerced and groomed by his grandfather Andross
to do Andross’s bidding as the potential next Prism. Kip is conflicted with his
feelings for Andross. He is also conflicted with his feelings for Teia, who is
his friend, comrade, and a reluctant slave who he would like to become romantically
involved. This plot becomes more complicated when Tisis is interested in
getting to know Kip physically and Kip finds he is also interested in her.
Events get beyond Kip’s control and he must try to escape the Chromeria before someone
assassinates him. Teia is tasked by the White to infiltrate the secret Order of
the Broken Eye. It is a dangerous mission complicated by her interaction with
the assassin named Murder Sharp. Kariss White Oak assists the White by gaining
intelligence about the Color Prince’s rebellion.
Meanwhile, the Color Prince has been marshaling his land forces
beginning an invasion of the Blood Forest which is one step from the Chromeria.
The main characters must become involved in defeating him before he becomes too
strong.
Recommendation
The story of the Lightbringer series gets more complicated and interesting in this novel. This novel is a part of the larger series. The author resolves plot points from book 2 and the author introduce others to be explored in the next book. The four main characters are well drawn. The author pushes their arcs in this novel to a climactic confrontation at the Chromeria. There were other viewpoint chapters in the novel, but I believe those chapters were unnecessary though they were well written. It would take more space to develop more than the four main characters. The next novel in the series is named the Blood Mirror and I will read it this year. The last novel in the series is named the Burning White and is scheduled to be published on October 22, 2019.
Links
This is the link to the
Goodreads page of Broken Eye by Brent Weeks.
I bought and used the editing program Pro Writing Aid
to edit the novel, Assassin in New Marl City. I edited and typed Assassin Chapters
30, 32, and 33 in August 2018. I reviewed Chapters 34, 35, and 36 in September
and I completed the review in February. Chapters 1 to 14 were reviewed by using
Pro Writing Aid and submitted to my novel writing class.
The first draft of Assassin in New Marl City was
complete at 99,981 words in July 2018. I completed draft two in December 2018
at 89,072 words. Third draft edits have not been started.
I submitted a story called Through Time and Space with
Ferdinand Feghoot – GG to the Introductory
Writing Workshop at Parma, Ohio library.
I submitted the second draft edit of Chapter 14 of
Assassin to the Advanced Writing Workshop at Parma, Ohio library.
The stories 4 Humours,
Space Station Sunyata, Grognard, Get to the Point, and LARP Film Noir have been
submitted to magazines.
Statistics of magazine submissions for 2019 are; 1
different story submitted a total of 1 time with 0 accepted, 1 pending, and 0
rejections.
Events
from March 2019
I attended the SF con, ConCoction in Cleveland Ohio March 1 to 3, 2019.
I plan to write four blog posts for garydavidgillen.com
including my Writing Progress Report for April 2019.
I plan to work
on second draft edits for Chapters 15 to 30 of Assassin in New Marl City using
Pro Writing Aid.
I plan to work
on third draft edits for Chapters 1 to 14 of Assassin in New Marl City using
comments from the Advanced Writing Workshop at Parma, Ohio.
Polish and submit the stories Sleeping Sickness, Space-Dog
Confession, White Bracer, Mage Squad, I Shall Not Return, Prisoner of Tarnal, and Kay-Eye for submission to short
fiction magazines.
Submit 4 Humours,
Space Station Sunyata, Grognard, and LARP Film Noir to other short fiction
magazines.
Edit Searcher of Riven.
Hire an editor for Searcher of Riven from Fiveer.
Edit Ruins of Yarnud.
Hire an editor for Ruins of Yarnud from Fiveer.
Put the novel, Assassin in New Marl City, into the
writing program, Scrivener.
Buy e-book covers for Searcher of Riven and Ruins of
Yarnud from Fiveer.
Buy an e-book cover for Assassin in New Marl City from
Fiveer.
Planned
Events for April 2019
I plan to attend the Western Reserve
Writers Conference on April 27, 2019, at the Cuyahoga County Public Library at South
Euclid, Ohio
I attended the SF conference Cleveland ConCoction 2018 at 600 North Aurora Road Aurora, Ohio at the Bertram Inn and Conference Center from March 9, 2018, to March 11, 2018. The 2019 convention was from March 1 to 3, 2019 and I realized when I wrote a recap for that conference, I had not posted a recap for the 2018 conference. This is a recap of the 2018 conference. I attended the opening ceremony, five panels, two author showcases, a performance, and the closing ceremony. I also volunteered in the ConSuite for eight hours.
Picture of my
badge from Cleveland ConCoction 2018
Summary
Friday, March
9th at 5 PM
Opening Ceremonies
Mogchelle,
the mistress of ceremonies, started the event. She introduced the Con Co-chairs
Laura and Stan. Sean Owen Roberts was the Media Guest of Honor and Seanan
McGuire was the Author Guest of Honor. The Harp Twins were the Music Guest of
Honor. Knightmage was the Cosplay Guest
of Honor and Stitches was the Fan Cosplay Guest of Honor. The event was a
chance to meet the Guests of Honor before they took part in the weekend events.
They held the
ceremonies in the McKinley A Room.
Friday,
March 9th at 6 PM
Author Showcase
(Session 1)
Five authors read
from their works. They were all different and interesting.
J. Thorn read a
scene from his novel Barren. It was about the protagonist on a sailboat near
Kelly’s Island in a post-apocalyptic
world.
Vik Walker read
from the novel The Crystal Dragon of Nital. It’s a humorous middle-grade book about the adventures of Nathan and Zozz,
his cat-like being friend.
They held the
panel in the Presidential Boardroom with 6 attendees.
Friday,
March 9th at 7 PM
Villains, More
Than Just Black Hats, a panel with Addie King, Barbara Doran, Brent Seth, J. D.
Blackrose, and Cindy Matthews.
The panel sat at
the end of the table farthest from the
window and the attendees sat at the other end of the table. Examples of good villains
are Darth Vader (not in the prequel
movies), Voldemort (from Harry Potter), and Cersai (from Game of Thrones).
They held the
panel in the Presidential Boardroom with 14 attendees.
Saturday,
March 10th from 9 AM to 5 PM
I volunteered in the
ConSuite Department for eight hours on Saturday. The ConSuite in 2018 at The
Bertram differed from 2017 when the con was at the Sheraton at the Airport. The
ConSuite was in a back bar at the
Sheraton. The new area, the Garfield ballroom, is a nicer and light-filled windowed open space.
Saturday,
March 10th at 7 PM
Elevator Pitch and
Publishing Expectations Tutorial, a panel with Adrian Matthews, Addie King,
Weston Kincade, Mary Turzillo, and Geoffrey Landis.
An Elevator Pitch explains
the essence of a novel. The idea is to give
the pitch to someone who could be interested in representing your book in the time it would take an elevator to go six
floors. Suggestions were to not use character names in a pitch and to get the
pitch down to one sentence. I presented my pitch for my novel in process,
Assassin in New Marl City. The panel understood my pitch, but Geoffrey Landis suggested
that I not use the phrase telepathic detective, since deception would not fool
a telepath. It was a good suggestion. I revised it to a mind-reading detective since
a mind reader is more constricted than a
telepath.
They held the
panel in the McKinley B Room with 9 attendees.
Saturday,
March 10th at 8 PM
The Performance of
the Letter of the Travails of Victor Frankenstein (While at University)
This was a
performance staged by the Confused Greenies from the Player’s Patchwork Theater
Company. The story was a humorous tale of a young Victor Frankenstein working on a special extra credit project at
University (the monster).
They held the
performance in the McKinley A Room with 20 attendees.
Saturday,
March 10th at 9 PM
Flash Fiction, a
panel with Addie King, Marie Vibbert, Megan Engelhardt, Olivia Berrier, Weston Kincade, and Josef Matulich
The best way to
find a potential market for flash fiction
is the submission grinder. Some markets
are Apex, Daily Science Fiction, Everyday
Fiction, and 101 Fiction. Flash fiction is short, has a high concept, and has
an implied ending. They suggested reading the story aloud to see if it worked.
Examples of one
line flash fiction follow. “Baby shoes
for sale, never worn.” “I put a ring on her finger and pulled the pin.” “The
last man on earth sits in a room and hears a knock.”
They held the
panel in the McKinley B Room with 11 attendees.
Sunday,
March 11th at 10 AM
Publishing in the
21st Century, a panel with Addie King, Linda Robertson, Daniel
Willis, and Weston Kincade.
Addie King was the
moderator of the panel and handed out a printed power point presentation on the
topic. The two paths to publishing are novels and short stories. Traditional,
small press, vanity, or self-publishing can publish novels. For novel
publication, get an agent to represent you by following submission guidelines
and submitting a query letter with a synopsis. She handed out examples of her
query letter and synopsis. For short stories, find markets and submit stories
with a cover letter. Resources for finding markets are Ralan.com, Duotrope.com,
and Locus magazine at locusmag.com. Understand what rights you are giving in
any contract you sign. Don’t quit your day job. Write to have a career, not a
one hit wonder.
They held the
panel in the McKinley B Room with 6 attendees.
Sunday,
March 11th at 12 PM
Author Showcase
(Session 6)
Four authors read
from their works.
Mackenzie Flohr
read from her novel Rite of Abnegation, the soon
to be published book #2 in the Rite of Wands series.
They held the
panel in the Presidential Boardroom with
8 attendees.
Sunday,
March 11th at 1 PM
Marketing, an
Author’s Best Friend, a panel with Weston Kincade, Marcus Calvert, Olivia
Berrier, Sara Dobie Bauer, and Troy Maynard.
The panelists gave
advice about marketing yourself and your work. Create an author platform for an
online presence, make yourself an LLC, use Amazon Marketing, Facebook snippets,
Instagram, and Bookbub. Consider using a professional web design for your
website and use a professional
photographer for your author picture. Buy bookmarks, business cards, and items
to give away free at conventions related to yourself and your works.
They held the
panel in the Presidential Boardroom with
5 attendees.
Sunday,
March 11th at 2 PM
Closing Ceremonies
The Guests of
Honor were presented and thanked.
They held the
panel in the McKinley A Room with 25 attendees.
Recommendation –
Conclusion
I had a great time
at Cleveland ConCoction 2018. The location was different. It was better for me
and the parking was free. I worked eight
hours straight in the ConSuite and I don’t plan on doing that again because I
missed events I wanted to see and it was too exhausting to work in one block of
time. My star of the con was Addie King. I attended four panels where she was a
panelist and I liked her handouts for publishing. My other highlights were the
performance by the Confused Greenies and Geoffrey Landis’s comments on my
elevator pitch. I attended Cleveland
ConCoction in 2019 and I bought my pass for 2020.
Links
The most recent SF conference I attended was Cleveland ConCoction 2019 at 600 North Aurora Road Aurora, Ohio at the Bertram Inn and Conference Center from March 1 to 3, 2019. I attended the opening ceremony, four panels, and the closing ceremony. I also volunteered in the Programming Department for four hours and in the ConSuite for four hours. This is a link to my conference recap.
Self-Publishing Boot Camp Guide for Authors, 4th
Edition: Your roadmap to creating, publishing, promoting, and selling your
books is written by Carla King. It is a
comprehensive guide for authors interested in self-publishing their
work. The book strives to be up to date with current information. This is the
fourth edition and Carla King updates the consumer’s guide section periodically
through her website, so to use this book to its fullest effect, authors should
seek out and use the updates to the consumer’s
guide by subscribing to her reader’s list.
Summary
Self-Publishing Boot Camp is divided into seven sections which cover her advice on all aspects of becoming a self-publisher because self-publishing is a business and authors must understand what they want to achieve by self-publishing. There are certain tasks to self-publishing that can be completed by hiring the work out based on the project’s budget and the author’s ability to complete certain tasks.
These are the seven sections in the book.
Prepare for success
by using beta readers (she uses Word to write the book and BetaBooks to
distribute to beta readers), beta publishing (she uses LeanPub), self-edit
your work (she uses ProWriting Aid, MasterWriter, and Fictionary), and
hiring a professional editor.
Create a publishing
business by developing a business plan,
creating your publishing imprint, and buying at least ten ISBN for all your book formats.
Good book design is
important to make your book look as close as possible to the mainstream
publishers. Book Design involves the interior design and most critically
the book cover. It is important to hire out this task to a professional. Create
the book with a PDF for printing and an e-book.
Distribute your book using Amazon KDP for Amazon ebooks (MOBI book
format), Smashwords for all other ebooks (EPUB book format), Amazon Kindle
Print for Amazon POD (Print on demand with PDF book format), and IngramSpark
for all other POD (PDF book format).
Selling your book
direct by your website and through other means. (She uses WordPress and GoDaddy.com for her websites. She uses
Gumroad for direct orders.)
Book marketing and
promotion through your website and social media.
This section is the consumer’s guide for self-publishers where the available
vendors are reviewed, and recommendations are made. This section is
updated and if you subscribe to her reader’s list, then Carla King will email
you the updates in a separate web book. This is the link to the
subscription page. https://selfpubbootcamp.com/readers/
Recommendation
This book has all the knowledge you need to decide if self-publishing is the right way to release your book. It seems like a daunting task, but Carla King takes each necessary step of the process and explains what to do clearly and simply. The consumer’s guide gives options for help in producing a self-published book. Let Carla guide you on your journey of self-publishing. That’s my plan and I will update this post to show my progress.
Links
This is the link to the Goodreads page of Self-Publishing
Boot Camp by Carla King.
I attended the SF
conference called Cleveland ConCoction at 600 North Aurora Road Aurora, Ohio at
the Bertram Inn and Conference Center from March 1 to 3, 2019. I attended the
opening ceremony, four panels, and the closing ceremony. I also volunteered in the Programming Department for four hours
and in the ConSuite for four hours.
Writing a Story in
Three Parts, a panel with Addie J. King:
She handed out a
copy of a PowerPoint presentation with 27 slides titled Telling a Story in
Three Parts. The three parts of a story are the beginning, the middle, and the end. She plans the first third of her novel and
has a roadmap for the rest of the novel so she can improvise the ending since the story could end up at a different spot than the original idea. First, she
suggests creating a concept which is the coolest thing about the story written
in one sentence. Then figure out the conflict and develop three-part story
arcs. There should be multiple story arcs in a novel. Write one sentence for the
start, middle, and resolution for each arc. She went over examples from her fiction
and in other fiction. She suggested resources for writing.
They held the panel
in the Pegasus Room with 12 attendees.
Friday,
March 1 at 4 PM
Outlining Your
Novel, a panel with Malcolm Wood.
The panelist found
out he was throwing way too much of his work because he had too many false
starts, so he tried something different. Outlining your novel gives the author
a roadmap to keep you going where you want to go. He took a 3-ring binder for
each of his novels and put his research and notes into it. A novel starts with
an idea and he made a sheet for the idea. Main character sheets come next. The
idea and the characters lead to a situation. You build scenes on index cards
and you refine the plot. In the beginning,
you state the problem, in the middle are the plot complications, and at the end, you fulfill the promises created at the
beginning. You can create a plot outline. He handed out an example for his novel
named Trash. Each scene has a POV character,
an event or action description, a location or a setting, a date for when the
events occurred, and the chapter where the scene occurs. Now you can write the novel
from the beginning to the end without false starts and dead ends. He also showed
us one of his completed notebooks. His method gives a more structured way of
creating a novel than the method described by Addie J. King in the earlier panel.
They held the panel
in the McKinley B Room with 6 attendees.
Friday,
March 1 at 5 PM
The Opening Ceremonies
The
Con Co-chair, Laura, opened the ceremonies. She introduced the media guest of
honor Jim O’Rear, next was the EmCee from asklovecraft.com, Leeman Kessler, and
then the artist guest of honor, Stephen Hickman. The cosplay guests of honor were
Knightmage and Nerd Girl. The gaming guests of honor from Rogue Cthulhu were
last introduced. Con co-chair Stan finished the program by turning his smiley
face tee-shirt to a frown with a permanent marker to fit the theme of the con ‘It
came from the dark side of the…’ more closely. It was nice to see the guests up
close and personal to start off the Con.
They held the
ceremonies in the McKinley B Room with 40 attendees.
Saturday,
March 2 at 4 PM
Mars Needs Love, a
panel with substitute panelist Geoffrey Landis.
Geoffrey
Landis is a scientist who works for NASA Glenn on projects such as scientific probes
going to Mars including the photovoltaic cells used by the probes. He is also an
award-winning hard science fiction writer. He started the panel talking about the
current situation in Mars probes. The Opportunity rover’s last contact was on
June 10, 2018, before a dust storm and NASA declared the mission complete on
February 13, 2019. The Curiosity rover and the Insight lander are still
operational. The European-Russian rover named Rosalind Franklin is scheduled to
launch in 2020 and the American rover named Mars 2020 is also scheduled to
launch in 2020. NASA’s plan is to send a manned mission to Mars in the 2030s,
but no money is associated with that directive. A Dutch commercial venture named
Mars One formed in 2011 planned to send a one-way manned mission to Mars and set
up a colony but went bankrupt on January 10, 2019. The mission was flawed. The talk
went on to other space-related topics. In the long term, it’s critical to
develop a practical economic model for space. One route is to mine platinum
from asteroids. He talked about examples of Mars in books and movies. This was a great impromptu
talk that covered a lot of interesting topics.
They held the
panel in the Pegasus Room with 10 attendees.
Saturday,
March 2 from 5 PM to 9 PM
I volunteered in
the Programming Department for four hours on Saturday.
When there were
ten minutes remaining in the program, I went to each of the programs. I held up
a sign to show to the panelists there were
ten minutes left to go in the program. I also counted the number of panelists and
attendees at each panel. They stationed me in the green room, a room where the
panelists could go to relax, to help them as needed. I worked with Lisa and her
two kids. It was fun, and I learned something new.
Saturday,
March 2 at 9 PM
Time Travel in your
Writing: It’s About Time, a panel with Cindy Matthews, J.L. Gribble, Geoffrey
Landis, and Carma Haley Shoemaker.
The
panelists started the panel by naming their favorite examples of time travel in
books, TV, or movies. They were Legends of Tomorrow airing on the CW network,
Supernatural also airing on the CW network, The novel The Time Machine by H. G.
Wells, The novel Time after Time by Karl Alexander (and the show airing on ABC),
and the short story All You Zombies by Robert A. Heinlein. Things to think
about when designing a time travel story are the opportunity to change time and
the Butterfly effect where a small change in initial conditions leads to a
significant result.
Geoffrey
Landis stated four reasons that time travel stories are intriguing.
The setting because the
past is exotic.
Adventure
The nature of paradox
Playing the what if game.
Time
travel stories work well for sending a contemporary person to the past or
future to compare it to today. The best and most used time travel mechanism today
is the wormhole because it can act as a portal to anywhere.
The
articles on the site cover time travel found in TV, books, film, audio, and
comics. It is a great website that covers this topic well.
They held the
panel in the McKinley B Room with 10 attendees.
Sunday,
March 3 from 10 AM to 2 PM
I volunteered in the
ConSuite Department for four hours on Sunday.
My
responsibilities were to set out food and clean up the ConSuite. They put a deli
tray out before I arrived and we put the trays away throughout the day. We put out chips and pop as needed, but our
main function seemed to keep making coffee. There was always a new pot brewing.
The ConSuite closed down at 2 PM, so I helped break down the shelves and put items
out for the hotel to store away. I worked with Badger and Chris. This was the
third year I volunteered in the ConSuite and I have enjoyed helping every year.
I plan to help again next year.
Sunday,
March 3 from 2 PM
The Closing Ceremonies
The
co-chair Laura and Stann announced the theme and date for next year’s con. Next
year’s theme is MeeplePunk, all things to do with cyberpunk (SF subgenre
focused on a mix of lowlife and high tech) and meeples (gaming pieces shaped like
people and animals used in Euro-style board games). They will hold ConCoction 2019
at the Bertram Inn from March 6 to 8, 2020. The audience applauded the guests
of honor Jim O’Rear, Knightmage, and Nerd Girl. They made a volunteer shoutout.
The Con was closed until next year.
They held the
ceremonies in the McKinley B Room with 38 attendees
Recommendation
– Conclusion
I had a great experience
at ConCoction 2019. The Bertram Conference center is nice. The only problem I
encountered was that half of the activities are in another building. It was cold
this time of the year traveling between the buildings. The Bertram is much
better than the Conference’s earlier location
at the Sheraton Hotel at the Airport. My star of the con was Geoffrey Landis.
He substituted at the last minute to give
a solo panel on Mars and was engaging in the Time Travel panel I attended. My
other highlights were the writing talks that Addie J. King and Malcolm Wood gave. I’m planning on attending next
year.
Links
A recent SF
conference I attended was ConFusion in Detroit, Michigan from January 18 to 20,
2019. The theme of the con was Storming the ConFusion, so they designated the
areas with names related to the movie, The Princess Bride. I had a great drive
to Detroit just before the snowstorm struck. My star of the con was John
Scalzi. He gave an excellent reading and was engaging in the panel I attended.
My other highlights were Ada Palmer’s interview and watching The Princess Bride
at the con. I’ll be back next year.
