Blog - Page 20 of 32 - Gary David Gillen

Recap Marcon Conference 2019

Recap Marcon Conference 2019 in Columbus

Introduction

I attended the SF Conference Marcon Conference 2019 in Columbus on May 11. They held it at 6500 Doubletree Avenue Worthington, Ohio at the Crown Plaza – Columbus North. The drive was two-plus hours taken in the morning and back in the evening. I also attended Marcon in 2017 and 2018. This year I attended four panels, a performance, and an interview.

The link to the Marcon website.

http://marcon.org/

Leaving the Crown Plaza Saturday evening.

Marcon Conference 2019 Columbus Banner

Marcon Conference 2019 Columbus Program Guide Cover

Picture of my badge from Marcon Conference 2019 Columbus

Summary

Saturday, May 11th at 10 AM

Game of Thrones: Winter Has Finally Come, a panel with Vicki Meece, Ella Shurr, John Boone, Leslie Mehne, and John Picacio.

The scheduled room for the is panel was Salon B-C, but it was locked so we went into the empty Salon E room.

One of the panelists was the artist guest of honor John Picacio. His artwork was used for the program cover and the Marcon badge shown in the pictures in the introduction of this post. He was commissioned by George R. R, Martin to produce a 2012 calendar using Game of Thrones characters. This was before the HBO show was cast and he related that his artwork was displayed at the auditions and inspired the casting choices.

This is a link to the twelve Games of Thrones artworks John Picacio made for the calendar in 2011.

http://www.johnpicacio.com/portfolio/2011/index.html

Game of Thrones Season Eight Review

The panel reviewed each of the four episodes of season eight that had been aired before the panel took place.

Season Eight, Episode One

Season Eight, Episode One: The panel liked the many reunions highlighted in this episode. Their favorite reunions were Jon and Arya, Brienne and Jamie, The Hound and Arya, Gendry and Arya, Sansa and Theon.

Season Eight, Episode Two

Season Eight, Episode Two: This episode was the setup for the battle of Winterfell between the living and the Night King’s dead army. One question that wasn’t clear was did Jon tell Dany that Bran and not Sam told him that R + L = J?

Season Eight, Episode Three

Season Eight, Episode Three: The episode was shot and set in the dark which made it hard for the viewer to see what was going on in the episode. “It’s a carnival ride.” A highlight of the episode was when Bran called Theon a good man. One theory debated was if Jon was saying
“Go, go, go” to Arya as she headed to the God’s wood to face the Night King.

Season Eight, Episode Four

Season Eight, Episode Four: The theory being debated was whether Dany was becoming the Mad Queen.

Season Eight, Episode Five predictions: The fifth episode aired the day after the panel on May 12^th. The panel thought that the Hound and Varys were the most likely to die in that episode.

Overall Season Eight: The panel was disappointed in the scant use of the Direwolves this season and in the absence of information about the situation in Dorne.

They held the panel in Salon E with 10 attendees.

Saturday, May 11th at 11 AM

Science Fiction is the Conversation That Starts Things, a panel with David Gerrold.

This panel was David Gerrold reminiscing about his career as a TV show writer, director, and novel writer. I’ll detail the topics he addressed as he presented them.

He recently turned in a novel called Hela. It will be the fourth novel in the Dingilliad series (aka Starsiders) which began with Jumping Off the Planet, linked below.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1111868.Jumping_Off_the_Planet

David Gerrold on The War Against the Chtorr

Gerrold contributes regularly to his patreon page. The book he started the page for has been sold but he continues to posts stories and reviews on the page although some of the content is available only to subscribers. He has been updating The War Against The Chtorr series on the page. The first 20 chapters were posted for free as linked below.

https://www.patreon.com/DavidGerrold

David Gerrold on The Martian Child

Gerrold talked about The Martian Child which was inspired by his relationship with his adopted son. He decided to adopt late in life as a single parent. It was challenging and rewarding for him. He published a novelette in 1994 which won the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus Awards. Gerrold expanded the story into a novel. He wrote the screenplay for the movie that was produced in 2007 starring John Cusack.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/709750.The_Martian_Child

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0415965/

He is working on a graphic novel for his 1973 novel The Man Who Folded Himself.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/624122.The_Man_Who_Folded_Himself

David Gerrold on Star Trek

Gerrold wrote many Star Trek episode from multiple series. The most famous episode was The Trouble With Tribbles from the original series, season two, episode 15. He wrote a book called The Trouble With Tribbles about his experiences writing for the show.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/77101.The_Trouble_with_Tribbles

Gerrold also wrote The Cloud Minders and I, Mudd for the original series, More Tribbles, More Troubles and BEM for the animated series. He wrote the novelization of the first episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Encounter at Farpoint.

David Gerrold on Star Trek Blood and Fire

He had a falling out with the showrunners of The Next Generation when they did not accept his script for Blood and Fire in 1987. The script featured an allegory for AIDS and included gay characters so it was not produced then. He sold copies of the script and donated the proceeds to AIDS research L. A. Star Trek: New Voyages was a fan-created webisode series. David Gerrold wrote and directed two episodes based in his screenplay and novel for Blood and Fire in 2008 and 2009 linked below.

Gerrold’s final thoughts were about thinking of it at the time “Who would remember these shows in twenty years? and who’d have thought we’d be talking about them for the last fifty years.”

They held the panel in Ballroom 1 and 2 with 16 attendees.

Saturday, May 11th at 12 PM

A Furry Thing Happened on the Way to Tranquility Base, a performance by the Confused Greenies.

Note: The Confused Greenies performed at Marcon ten years ago as well. This performance was inspired by David Gerrold’s works and other sci-fi influences. It starts with a holodeck recreation celebrating the 50^th anniversary of the moon landing at tranquility base. The holodeck malfunctions through sabotage. The Saturn V rocket is infested with tribbles and the Dalek saves the day.

https://www.facebook.com/TheConfusedGreenies/

They held the performance in the Cardinal room with 7 attendees.

Saturday, May 11th at 1 PM

Avengers Endgame: Half the World awaits, a panel with Roy Minamide, Paul Hahn, Chris Stephenson, Joe Beale, and Jeff Wolfe.

Avengers: Endgame was widely released on April 26, 2019, and the panel talked about their impressions of the movie and its place as the last of 22 movies in Phase Three of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The panel began with the panelists and the audience members stating their favorite moments of the movie.

Endgame Questions

They went on to ask questions about the movie. How exactly did they create a GPS of the quantum realm? Where did Captain America get more Pym particles? The heroes are too powerful which leads to “superman syndrome” where the villains must become overwhelmingly powerful, so how do you manage that?

Three characters had satisfying growth arcs in the movie. They were Nebula’s redemption, Scott Lang’s redemption through conceiving the Time Heist, and Rocket’s embracing his new family.

The last topic was about how the writers will address the Snap in the new movie Spiderman: Far From Home which will be released on July 2, 2019. It may be related to Tony Stark’s comment to the Time Heist crew about “Bring them back, but don’t change the past.”

They held the panel in Salon B-C with 21 attendees.

Saturday, May 11th at 2 PM

David Gerrold Interview conducted by Julie Washington.

Julie Washington interviewed David Gerrold. She mostly asked him one question and he would have an interesting anecdote to answer her. He grew up in L. A. and then moved to the San Fernando Valley. He would go to the Van Neys public library every Friday and get 10 books to read for the next that week. Rocket Ship Galileo by Robert Heinlein started him reading SF. He says he became a writer because “There were stories I wanted to read but no one was writing them so I had to write them myself.”

He wanted to write SF where the laws of physics were followed and wrote “When Harlie Was One” about a computer with artificial intelligence.

He found the transition from writing screenplays to novel a tough one. In novels, the writer must describe the setting for the reader to get a mental picture while TV sets do that for you.

David Gerrold on Star Trek

On the Deep Space 9 episode Trials and Tribble-ations (Season 5, Episode 6) he was disappointed that he didn’t get a writing credit but he was given acknowledgment of his work and a cameo appearance in the episode in compensation.

Gerrold went over his story about the Blood and Fire script written for The Next Generation detailed in his 11 AM talk. He also wrote an episode of Babylon 5.

Gerrold talked about his cameos in the TV show Big Bang Theory especially the ones at Wil Wheaton’s party on the show and as a booth owner at the fictional Van Nyes comicon. This was poignant because the series finale of Big Bang Theory was scheduled for May 16, 2019, the next Thursday after Marcon.

Gerrold talked about getting the rights to republish his War Against the Chtorr series. He used a Kickstarter campaign to republish the four previously published novels. He has completed four more novels in the series and is in the editing stage leading to publication.

David Gerrold on Kickstarter

Checking on kicktrac.com, Gerrold has two projects that were on Kickstarter. There was a project in 2013 that would have adapted his first novel in the Star Wolf series but it was not fully funded and abandoned. Another project in 2016 was a mash-up of Star Trek and Dr. Suess named Oh, The Places You’ll Boldly Go! It was fully funded but could not proceed because the Ted Gisell estate (Dr. Suess himself) blocked the project. The projects are detailed at the following link.

http://www.kicktraq.com/search/?find=david+gerrold

Gerrold finished the interview detailing a few more projects he participated in. He wrote the screenplay for the webisode adaption of his Blood and Fire story. It was 96 pages, he was the director, and they only had ten days to shoot it. He wrote the Land of the Lost pilot. Gerrold also wrote adaptions of TV shows and movies. Some of his novel adaptations were for Encounter at Farpoint, Battle for the Planet of the Apes, and Enemy Mine.

They held the panel in Ballroom 1 and 2 with 26 attendees.

Saturday, May 11th at 7 PM

The Expanse: Earthers, Mickeys and Belters Beware, a panel with Ralph Winans, Ella Shurr, Lee Shamblin, Amelia Brownstein, and Kathy Knese

The panel liked that the show depicted a technologically believable future. They could understand how Mars and the Belt could develop the way it was depicted in the show but found it unlikely that the Earth could be unified under the United Nations. The showrunners were faithful to the books but not exact.

A panel attendee described the series as “crunchy” sci-fi meaning that it was true to how things actually work in space.

The Expanse Book to Show Changes

The panel understood that the TV show could not portray belters as tall and thin as described in the books without using extensive CGI. They wondered about the motivation of Jules-Pierre Mao. It is not clear in the series. The panel asked how far the attendees had read in the novels and the response varied. Some had not read any of the novels will others have read the most recent novel Tiamat’s Wrath (The Expanse Book #8, released 03-26-19). Season three depicts events from parts of book two and three while season four will depict part of book three and book four. The ninth and last novel is unnamed but scheduled to be released sometime in 2020.

The first three seasons of The Expanse show was aired by SyFy network. The show was picked up by Amazon Video and it has been reported that the fourth season has completed shooting. At this time, the airdate has not been set except that Amazon expects to release it sometime in 2019.

https://screenrant.com/expanse-season-4-release-date-story-amazon/

They held the panel in Salon D with 9 attendees.

Recommendation – Conclusion

I had a great time at Marcon Conference 2019 in Columbus. The location was different from last year. It was easier for me to get to and the parking was free. My star of the con was David Gerrold. He was engaging in the panel and the interview that I attended with him. This year I plan to read his book on writing named Worlds of Wonder and am interested in his Trouble with Tribbles memoir. This year I attended four panels, a performance, and an interview. My other highlights of Marcon Conference 2019 in Columbus were the Game of Thrones panel and the performance by the Confused Greenies. I also attended Marcon in 2017 and 2018 and plan to return in 2020.

Links

Recap for SF Conference Marcon Conference 2018 in Columbus which I attended on May 12, 2018, at the Hyatt Regency in Columbus, Ohio. I attended four panels and two game shows.

Marcon Conference 2018

I attended SF Conference Marcon Columbus on May 13, 2017, at the Hyatt Regency in Columbus, Ohio. I attended four panels. I did not post a recap of this conference. If I post a recap in the future I will link it here.

Great Hunt by Robert Jordan

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.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/233649.The_Great_Hunt

This is the link to my review of Eye of the World by Robert Jordan.

The Eye of the World 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.

http://thewertzone.blogspot.com/2019/03/the-wheel-of-time-tv-series-update.html

Writing Progress Report for May 2019

This is my Writing Progress Report for May 2019.

I won a door prize at the Western Reserve Writers Conference on April 27, 2019; a signed copy of the novel Dawn by J. Thorn.

Writing Progress from April 2019

I wrote five blog posts for garydavidgillen.com including my writing progress report for April 2019 linked below.

Writing Progress Report for April 2019

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 36^th 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 the link to the Cuyahoga County Library.

https://www.cuyahogalibrary.org/

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.

Western Reserve Writers Conference 2019

Writing Goals for May 2019

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.

Western Reserve Writers Conference 2019

Western Reserve Writers Conference

Introduction

This is the link to the Cuyahoga County Library.

https://www.cuyahogalibrary.org/

This is the link to the writer’s center at the library branch.

https://www.cuyahogalibrary.org/Services/William-N-Skirball-Writers-Center.aspx

Summary

Saturday, April 27th at 9:30 AM

Welcome and Conference Overview

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.

Link to his website.

https://www.davidgiffels.com/

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.

Link to her website.

http://www.breebarton.com/

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.

Link to his website.

http://www.scottlax.com/

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.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35007716-dawn

Links

I attended the 34^th 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 Western Reserve Writers 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.

Conference Recap Cleveland ConCoction 2019

One Word Kill by Mark Lawrence

Introduction

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.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39792427-one-word-kill

This is the link to the Goodreads page of Limited Wish by Mark Lawrence. Book 2 of the Impossible Times Trilogy.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41771517-limited-wish

A similar book that uses a knowledge of the 80s a critical part of the plot is Ready Player One by Ernest Cline.

This is the link to my review of Ready Player One by Ernest Cline.

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Redshirts by John Scalzi

Introduction

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

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13055592-redshirts

The following links are for my reviews of other John Scalzi books.

This is a link to my book review of The Consuming Fire by John Scalzi, Book 2 of the Interdependency Sequence.

The Consuming Fire by John Scalzi

This is a link to my book review of The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi, Book 1 of the Interdependency Sequence

The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi

This is a link to my book review of the Dispatcher by John Scalzi, Book #1 of the Dispatcher Series.

The Dispatcher by John Scalzi

Broken Eye by Brent Weeks

Introduction

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.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12652457-the-broken-eye

This is the link to my review of the Blinding Knife by Brent Weeks.

The Blinding Knife by Brent Weeks

This is the link to my review of Black Prism by Brent Weeks.

The Black Prism by Brent Weeks

Writing Progress Report for April 2019

This is my Writing Progress Report for April 2019.

The Hard Rocksino changes its name to MGM Northfield Park on April 4, 2019, but the sign is already up. I’m excited.

Writing Progress from March 2019

I wrote five blog posts for garydavidgillen.com including my writing report for March 2019 linked below.

Writing Progress Report for March 2019

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.

This is a link to the ConCoction website.

http://www.clevelandconcoction.org/

This is my post on Cleveland ConCoction 2019.

Conference Recap Cleveland ConCoction 2019

Writing Goals for April 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

Conference Recap Cleveland ConCoction 2018

Introduction

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.

Cleveland ConCoction Banner

Cleveland ConCoction 2018 Program Guide Cover

The link to the ConCoction website.

http://www.clevelandconcoction.org/

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.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35282947-barren

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.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34769784-the-crystal-dragon-of-nital

Geoffrey Landis read his short story called Chatbot and the Drone. It’s about the conversation between a Chatbot and a Drone.

They published it in the July 2014 issue of Communications of the ACM, linked below.

https://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2014/7/176207-future-tense-the-chatbot-and-the-drone/abstract

Marie Vibbert read the short story called Flying Cars.

http://www.marievibbert.com/

Olivia Berrier read from her novel A Book Without Dragons. The novel uses five different points of view.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29456965-a-book-without-dragons

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 21^st 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.

https://mackenzieflohrblog.wordpress.com/

Adrian Matthews read from his novel Fire on the Sands (Book #1 of a prequel series to the BloodDark series)

http://adrianjmatthews.blogspot.com/

Cindy Matthews read from her novel Olivia’s Return (BloodDark Book #2)

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34197040-olivia-s-return

Mary Turzillo read from her NaNoWriMo project titled “Cat, Sword, Dragon”.

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7849252.Mary_Turzillo

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.

Conference Recap Cleveland ConCoction 2019

Self-Publishing Boot Camp by Carla King

Introduction

Self-Publishing Boot Camp Guide for Authors, 4^th 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.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39091803-self-publishing-boot-camp-guide-for-authors-4th-edition

These are other writing books I have read and reviewed like Self Publishing Boot Camp.

This is the link to my review of How to Write Best Selling Fiction by Dean Koontz.

How to Write Best Selling Fiction by Dean Koontz

This is the link to my review of Structuring Your Novel: Essential Keys to Writing an Outstanding Story by K. M. Weiland.

Structuring Your Novel: Essential Keys to Writing an Outstanding Story by K. M. Weiland