Wrote Chapters 15 and 21 of Assassin in New Marl City
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 since December 2016 are; 5 different stories submitted a total of 15 times with 0 accepted, 1 pending, and 14 rejections.
Events from October 2017
I attended the Indy Author Day on October 14, 2017, at Cuyahoga County Public Library at Lyndhurst, Ohio
Continue to work on Assassin in New Marl City. I want to expand the novel from 20 chapters to 36 chapters (98000 words total). Write Chapters 12, 19, and 23 of the novel this month. Chapters 25, 29, and 31 remain.
Type the Edits for Chapters 15, 16, 18, 20, 24, and 26 of Assassin in New Marl City.
Type Chapters 10, 13, 14, 15, 17, 21, 22, 27, and 28.
Polish and submit the stories Hybrid-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, and LARP Film Noir to other short fiction magazines.
Hire an editor for Searcher of Riven from Fiveer.
Hire an editor for Ruins of Yarnud from Fiveer.
Planned Events for November 2017
Purchase an e-book cover for Assassin in New Marl City from Fiveer.
Put the first ten chapters of Assassin in New Marl City into the writing program, Scrivener.
Work on completing a Query letter to use to find an agent for Assassin in New Marl.
Finished expanded Chapters 27 and 28 of Assassin in New Marl City
Wrote Chapter 10 of Assassin in New Marl City
Typed the Edits for Chapters 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9.
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 since December 2016 are; 5 different stories submitted a total of 15 times with 0 accepted, 1 pending, and 14 rejections.
Events from September 2017
I attended the 34th annual Western Reserve Writers Conference on September 23, 2017. It was located at the South Euclid-Lyndhurst branch of the Cuyahoga County Public Library at the William N. Skirball writer’s center which is located at the branch. It was a one-day event with an introduction, a keynote speaker, three breakout sessions and one first page critique panel.
Continue to work on An Assassin in New Marl City. I want to expand the novel from 20 chapters to 36 chapters (98000 words total). Write Chapters 10 and 17 of the novel this month. Chapters 21, 12, 19, 23, 25, 29, and 31 remain.
Type the Edits for Chapters 15, 16, 18, 20, 24, and 26 of Assassin in New Marl City.
Type Chapters 10, 13, 14, 17, 22, 27, and 28.
Polish and submit the stories 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.
Planned Events for October 2017
Attend the Indy Author Day on October 14, 2017, at Cuyahoga County Public Library at Lyndhurst, Ohio.
Purchase an e-book cover for Assassin in New Marl City from Fiveer.
Put the first ten chapters of Assassin in New Marl City into the writing program, Scrivener.
Work on completing a Query letter to use to find an agent for Assassin in New Marl.
I attended the 34th annual Western Reserve Writers Conference on September 23, 2017. It was located at the South Euclid-Lyndhurst branch of the Cuyahoga County Public Library at the William N. Skirball writer’s center which is located at the branch. It was a one-day event with an introduction, a keynote speaker, three breakout sessions, and one first page critique panel.
The day began in the large meeting room which had space for over 100 attendees and the tables for the presenter’s book sale. We were first welcomed by Laurie Kincer, the librarian for the writer’s center, and then by Deanna R. Adams, the conference coordinator. They detailed how the Western Reserve Writers Conference would proceed. The keynote speaker, Brian A. Klems, was introduced. He is a senior online editor for WritersDigest.com. Brian wrote the parenting guide for fathers called Oh Boy, You’re Having a Girl. He had ten suggestions for all aspiring writers from the experience of an editor.
Write a great typo-free story with a protagonist with well-defined goals, a believable setting, and use the active voice.
Get to know the editors and agents before you pitch them.
Follow specific submission guidelines for each submission completed.
Write a great query letter.
Have a well-established author’s platform with a website, a twitter account, and a Facebook account.
Network with others with the primary objective to be useful and helpful.
Embrace any feedback that you receive and don’t let criticism get to you.
Strive to be the easiest person to work with.
Have more than one idea going into a pitch. You never know which idea will be the one that is successful
Stay positive and be excited about your story.
He was humorous and engaging. He stalked the stage and had to hurry to finish his ten points because he was running out of time since there was too much to cover in the time allotted.
This is the Goodreads link to Oh Boy, You’re Having a Girl by Brian Klems.
The first session that I attended was given by Ray McNiece called Public Speaking for Writers. The presentation seeks to teach the attendees about simple techniques to improve reading your work to a live audience. He is a poet, performer, educator, speaker, actor, musician, singer, and writer. He first asked everyone in the audience why they choose to come to this talk and what they wanted to get out of the talk.
The first thing to do as a performer is to find a sweet spot for speaking where the audience is accessible and your voice can project throughout the area. Confidence is important because if you believe in yourself then the audience will believe you. Projecting your voice is important because you want the audience to hear and understand you. Take a full deep breath from your belly button to help in projecting your voice. Gestures are important because it helps the audience to understand what you are saying and what is important. This was an interactive presentation.
My contribution was to demonstrate gestures by repeating “howdy folks” and using gestures. Memorization of the material helps in engaging the audience. The whole group participated in memorizing and reciting a poem. We incorporated all the techniques described. The Poem was by Langston Hughes.
I loved my friend.
He went away from me.
There is nothing more to say.
The poem ends,
Soft as it began—
I loved my friend.
Ray McNiece is an engaging teacher and performer. I enjoyed his presentation and was glad that I was a participant.
This is the Goodreads link to Our Way of Life by Ray McNiece.
The second presentation I attended was Agents: When you need one When you don’t by Deanna R. Adams. To answer the question of do you need an agent, you should first ask what do you want to do with your book. Self-publishing authors do not need agents. Many publishers do not accept unsolicited submissions so if your goal is to be traditionally published then you need an agent to present your work to the publishers.
Agents bring credibility and are able to negotiate a better contract for rights and for more money. Agents must be pitched your work by using a great query letter. She gave examples from the Writer’s Market from 2013. The query letter has four parts. Start with stating your book title, your genre, and your word count. Next, give examples of similar books and why yours is different than any other book. Repeat your title. End with a simple closing.
She gave the audience ten minutes to write an example query letter and a few audience members read their efforts out loud.
It is important to define the genre of the book. It must be a specific story to be sold accordingly. The voice and tone of the query letter should match the novel pitched. The query letter sells the novel so only put in your biographical material if it is relevant. The main thing in writing a query letter is that the agents want to know what the book is about.
This is the Goodreads link to The Writer’s GPS by Deanna Adams.
Next was a First Page Critique by panelists Brian A. Klems, Denna R. Adams, and Claire McMillan. At check-in, the conference attendees could submit the first page of their work in progress. The paper had a title and genre but no name attached. Pages were randomly chosen, read aloud, and the panelists raised their hand to stop the reading. They gave their reasons at that time. Twelve pages were read but only four of the pages were completely read. The comments were interesting for all the writes in the audience. The panelists ended with their dos and don’ts.
Do bring a strong hook, have the main character named, use the five senses, know the era of the story or setting, begin the story problem or conflict, and end the page with a moment of intrigue.
Don’t start with dialogue, don’t start with the setting before the character, don’t open without action, Don’t start with a prologue, and don’t use flashbacks.
Summary – Writing and the law
The third session that I attended was Don’t get fooled again with Steve Grant. Steve Grant is an intellectual property attorney. This talk was about how to deal with the traditional publishing world and how to safeguard yourself from unscrupulous companies in the self-publishing world. The copyright act of 1976 establishes that as soon as a work is fixed in a tangible medium then the work is copyrighted. Everything is owned by somebody. Your writing is owned by you unless it is a work for hire. A work for hire is when an employee writes something in the course of their work or when someone freelances a work. Remember that a contract is made to be broken so put language into the contract detailing consequences if the contract is broken.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I enjoyed all the presentations at the Western Reserve Writers Conference 2017. I thought that the first-page critique was a good concept and hope that it is used again at next year’s conference. I will be sure to attend next year.
Links
I attended the Indie Author Day on October 14, 2017, at the South Euclid-Lyndhurst branch of the Cuyahoga County Public Library in South Euclid, Ohio. This is the link to my recap.
Cibola Burn by James S.A. Corey, Book #4 of the Expanse Series
Introduction
After a thousand worlds were opened up by James Holden in Abaddon’s Gate everyone wants to be the first to claim the richest world possible. Belters, Martians, and people of the UN take any ship that they can find to leave the solar system. This novel, Cibola Burn, is about one particular world where refugees from Ganymede and a corporation with UN land rites called the Royal Charter Energy (RCE) come into conflict. James Holden is brought in to negotiate their claims but none of them are prepared for the consequences of waking up a planet after a billion years asleep that was created by the entities that sent the protomolecule to the solar system.
Summary
This novel has four Point of View characters plus a fifth called the investigator.
Basia Merton is one of the Ganymede refugees that came to Ilus to escape the destruction of Ganymede. He is part of a sabotage plan upon the RCE who came to take over the planet which they call New Terra. The RCE has a charter from the UN to explore and develop the planet. The refugees are not recognized by the RCE. The refugees want to destroy the RCE colony ship, Edward Israel, but Basia has reservations at the last minute. An RCE shuttle is destroyed which kills the provisional governor and leaves a scientific team stranded. Adolphus Mutry, the leader of the colony ship’s security detail, comes down to the planet and takes charge. Basia gets involved in a plot against him.
Elvi Okoye is a scientist, an exozoologist, on the RCI team that wants to explore the planet. She is stranded with the rest of the scientific team.
Dimitri Havelock is a security officer on the colony ship. He was the partner of Miller on Ceres employed by the Star Helix security firm. Now he is employed by RCI and is the head of active security on the ship while Murtry is on the planet.
James Holden is the only character who has previously been a Point of View character in the series. After the shuttle is destroyed Chrisjen Avasarala, the UN Secretary-General, convinces Holden to go to the planet and serve as a negotiator. Since this is the first case where conflict among the new worlds has developed, she wants an impartial person to negotiate a solution.
The Investigator viewpoint’s purpose is unclear until the end of the novel where it is explained.
Review
This novel is very good and I would recommend it for readers of the series but there were some curious plot choices made in the novel. I liked that this novel focused on a more constrictive story compared to the solar system wide stories of the previous novels. It was interesting seeing Holden, the man of action, attempting to play the negotiator. The character of Basia was suitably conflicted. He mixed the story of Ganymede with his complicity in the plot to hurt the RCE members. Another aspect was finding the courage to let his daughter Felcia choose her own path. He also decided to help the Rocinante crew when he was presented with the chance to do so.
Recommendation
I’m not sure where the arc for Elvi was supposed to go. She starts out with a schoolgirl crush on Holden. I thought maybe she would have put Holden in a compromising position. That could have been interesting but the whole idea was dropped suddenly. I don’t understand why Havelock was brought back as a character. His arc didn’t have anything to do with him being a partner to Miller. He was dropped into this story randomly. Security officer Carlos “Bull” c de Baca was a character from Abaddon’s Gate. If Bull’s name was substituted for Havelock’s name then I don’t think that any of the plot elements would have been changed. That tells me that Havelock was not an essential character. I did like his interaction with Naomi at the end of the novel. The novel, Cibola Burn, was another enjoyable read and I intend to read the next novel in the series, Nemesis Games, soon.
Wade Watts is finishing his last year of high school. He’s poor and has no prospects. His parents are dead and he lives with his junkie aunt in a trailer park. The year is 2044. The seas have risen and the displaced people including Wade are crammed into high-rise trailer parks. The only way out is to win a contest for a billionaire’s fortune. The contest started five years ago but no one has won it yet, so Wade is determined to win it to secure his future.
Summary – Halliday
The contest was created by the eccentric co-creator of the OASIS, James Halliday. The OASIS is a virtual reality system using a Wi-Fi unit, glasses, and gloves. Halliday’s company called Gregarious Simulation Systems (GSS) builds the units and distributes them for free to everyone in the world. The company makes money through paid add-ons. The OASIS provides education, entertainment, and jobs to the masses. All school classes are held in virtual classrooms.
When Halliday dies the contest is opened. The first person who solves his three riddles and completes the three gates will collect his entire fortune. The clues started in a video that Halliday had posted after his death. Halliday loved the 80s since it was the time of his youth. He fixated on classic video games, sci-fi and fantasy novels, and movies.
Summary – Gunters
The people who studied the era to win the contest were called gunters. After five years of many people trying and not solving the first riddle, only the gunters still attempted to solve the contest. Wade is one of those gunters under his username of Parzival. His best friend in OASIS, who he has never seen in real life, is called Aech and they share knowledge of everything about the 80s. Wade’s crush is on a girl who he knows as Art3mis. The gunters try to win the contest singly or in a clan.
Things change when a corporation called IOI is formed to specifically win the contest. They want to use the fortune to take over OASIS and make it a paid platform. The gunters hate this and call the corporation sixers. Wade and his friends vow to win the contest before the sixers can win to preserve the OASIS as they know it. It will be difficult because the sixers have the money and will do anything to win.
Recommendation
Ready Player One is a great book. I cannot give this novel an unbiased review. I was hooked when The Tomb of Horrors became important to solving the first puzzle. The Tomb of Horrors, which was published in 1978, is a module for the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons game. Advanced Dungeons and Dragons is a paper, pen, and dice roleplaying game that came out in the late 70s and early 80s. I remember playing that module as a dungeon master in 1983. Other media that is featured in the puzzles include Zork, a text-based computer game, The Dungeons of Daggorath, a role-playing video game, Black Tiger, a hack and slash arcade game, and Joust, a multiplayer video game. Movies used in the contest were Wargames, Bladerunner, and Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The album by the band Rush called 2112 from 1976 was also important.
The author weaves the 80s nostalgia throughout the book. I liked the kids and their mission. There were very few missteps in my opinion. There were too many info dumps early in the book. It provided important information but stopped the plot. Having a corporate evil antagonist was cliché like the government in the movie E. T. I felt that there should have been a further reveal for Art3mis at the end of the novel. It was a missed opportunity.
Other Media Connections
Other computer games that I think would fit in with Ready Player One are the Space Quest series by Sierra Games and Wizardry, which seems like a computer game version of the Dungeons of Daggorath. Video games that I liked from that time were Double Dragon, Galaga, Gauntlet, Dragon’s Lair, and Space Ace. I think that the music of Blue Oyster Cult would have fit more with the theme of the book, especially the songs about the Imaginos concept.
This picture has some of my memorabilia that is featured in Ready Player One. They are The Tomb of Horrors module for Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, the record album by the band Rush called 2112, and my VHS copy of the Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
The stories 4 Humours, Space Station Sunyata, Grognard, and LARP Film Noir have been submitted to magazines.
Started using the program Grammarly to check the grammar of my stories.
Statistics of magazine submissions since December 2016 are; 4 different stories submitted a total of 13 times with 0 accepted, 3 pending, and 10 rejections.
Events from August 2017
Attended the Confluence Conference on August 5, 2017, at the Airport Sheraton in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Continue to work on An Assassin in New Marl City. I want to expand the novel from 20 chapters to 36 chapters (100000 words total). Expand Chapter 27, expand Chapter 28, write Chapter 10 and write Chapter 17 of the novel this month.
Type the Edits for Chapters 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 15, 16, 18, 20, 24, and 26 of Assassin in New Marl City.
Polish and submit the stories White Bracer, Mage Squad, Time Traveller One, Prisoner of Tarnal, Kay-Eye, and Get to the Point for submission to short fiction magazines.
Submit 4 Humors, Space Station Sunyata, Grognard, and LARP Film Noir to other short fiction magazines.
Planned Events for September 2017
Attend the Western Reserve Writers Conference on September 23, 2017, at the Cuyahoga County Public Library in Lyndhurst, Ohio
Killing the Rising Sun by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard
Killing the Rising Sun by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard, Book #6 of the Killing of Historical Figures Series
Introduction
The authors use eyewitness accounts and historical documents to tell their stories. It is written as a first person account of how America defeated Japan in World War II. There are many stories told in this book. Some were of Emperor Hirohito of Japan, American general Douglas MacArthur, Japanese submarine captain Mochitsura Hashimoto, American physicist Robert Oppenheimer, and American president Harry S. Truman. Why did the Americans drop two atomic bombs on Japan? This book attempts to answer that important question.
Summary – Origins of World War II
Japan’s military leaders convinced Emperor Hirohito that Japan must expand to get natural resources or die. The Japanese expanded into China but came to the point when they must cross American interests in the Philippines. The Philippines blocked Japan’s expansion into South East Asia. The war between America and Japan started with the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on December 7, 1941.
The Philippines were aligned with America and their military commander was General Douglas MacArthur. The Japanese took over the Philippines in 1942 and MacArthur retreated to Australia. The Japanese expanded to the south in 1942. The Americans regrouped. In 1943 and 1944 the Americans employed the strategy of island hopping. They took the islands that were needed to drive to Japan one by one including retaking the Philippines. The last island taken was Okinawa. The Japanese fought to the last man, inflicting many casualties on the Americans. The island was secured on June 30, 1945. The invasion of Japan, called Operation Olympic, was scheduled for November 1, 1945, to be led by General MacArthur. The operation faced the possibility of huge casualties occurring.
Summary – The Manhattan Project
In 1939 the Germans sought to create an atomic bomb. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt approved the Manhattan Project which sought to create the atomic bomb first. The Manhattan Project was headed by Robert Oppenheimer. The Americans were successful and tested the first atomic bomb on July 16, 1945, called the Trinity test. Two more bombs were constructed, called Little Boy and Fat Man. Little Boy was shipped on the U.S.S. Indianapolis on July 16, 1945, from San Francisco to Tinian Island. The island was in the range of the Japanese main land by using a B-29 bomber.
The U.S.S Indianapolis delivered the pieces of the atomic bomb, Little Boy, at Tinian Island on July 26, 1945. The ship then headed to the Philippines for a training mission. Mochitsura Hashimoto commanded the Japanese submarine I-58. The sub had been attempting to sink an American ship for the last six months without success. Hashimoto spotted and sank the Indianapolis early on July 30, 1945. The distress call is missed and many men die in the water before they are accidentally discovered on August 2, 1945. The ship’s crew was 1196 men. About 800 men entered the water and only 317 survived the ordeal.
Summary – Decision to Drop the Bomb
Franklin Delano Roosevelt is elected president for his fourth term on November 7, 1944, with a new vice-president, Harry S. Truman. Roosevelt dies on April 12, 1945, which made Truman the president. The first atomic bomb was tested on July 16, 1945. Truman must decide if the bomb that was delivered by the Indianapolis would be used against Japan. It is a dilemma. He can either start Operation Olympic to invade Japan and lose up to a million American casualties or he can use the bomb to kill over 100000 innocent Japanese civilians and end the war. He chooses to drop the first atomic bomb ever used in war.
The bomb explodes over Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. The B-29 named Enola Gay dropped it and it caused 120000 dead and wounded. Hirohito sought to save face and would not accept an unconditional surrender. On August 9, 1945, the B-29 named Bockscar dropped the Fat Man on Nagasaki and caused 140000 casualties. Japan surrenders on August 14, 1945. General Douglas MacArthur accepts Emperor Hirohito’s surrender on the battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945.
Summary – Aftermath of the War
Emperor Hirohito remains the Emperor of Japan but has no power. Douglas MacArthur oversaw the occupation of Japan and was the leader of the United Nations forces in the Korean War. MacArthur wanted to increase the scope of the war to include attacking China but Truman did not want to do that so he dismissed Macarthur from service on April 11, 1951. Mochitsura Hashimoto helped bring the Japanese troops home from China and the retired as a Shinto priest. Robert Oppenheimer created a think tank called the Institute for Advanced Study. He lost his security clearance on suspicion of being a Communist sympathizer and died from throat cancer. Truman was elected president in 1948, but his dismissal of MacArthur in 1951 led to him not seeking re-election in 1952.
Recommendation
I have only detailed five stories in the post, but there are many others in this book. The authors researched the story of the American defeat of Japan and presented it in a quick and compelling manner. I had heard of the historical theory that using the atomic bomb had saved many American soldiers lives, but had not heard it described as completely as the authors have done in this book. I would recommend reading this book to learn about that theory.
Links
This is the link to the Goodreads page of Killing the Rising Sun by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard.
This is the first book with history as its subject that I have reviewed. A fiction book that takes historical facts and put them in a fantasy context is American Gods by Neil Gaiman. My review of the book is linked below.
This is my Website Anniversary Report August 26, 2017.
Introduction
On August 26, 2016, I created my website at garydavidgillen.com. Making a website was part of my plan to become a social media experienced writer. I had written a novel and a few short stories over the years but had stopped writing in 2012. In December of 2015, I decided to start writing again. I finished the story I was writing in 2012 (called Dystopia then, now called Kay-Eye.) in that month and created a plan for 2016.
My 2016 plan called for writing four short stories, begin attending conventions, creating Facebook and Twitter accounts, and starting a website. I wanted to become a better writer and then expand the short novel that I had written in 1995 (it was called A Gathering in New Marl back then and I have renamed it Assassin in New Marl City).
Joined a meet-up group called the Cleveland Writers Press, where we discuss self-publishing and marketing. Joined a writer’s workshop group at the South Euclid-Lyndhurst Public Library and also one at the Parma-Snow Library. It has been a busy year and I expect a busier year next year.
Writing Progress from August 2016 to August 2017
Worked on Assassin in New Marl City. I wanted to expand the novel from 20 chapters to 36 chapters (100000 words total).
Wrote six chapters from January 2017 to August 2017, leaving ten more to write before the end of the year.
Bought a Map for Assassin in New Marl City from Fiveer in April 2017.
Bought a banner from Fiveer for my website, Facebook, and Twitter accounts in April 2017. (It is the banner at the beginning of this report.)
January 2016 to August 2016 I wrote 4 Humours and Space Station Sunyata.
August 2016 to October 2016 I wrote White Bracer and Mage Squad.
January 2017 to August 2017 I wrote the flash fiction short stories LARP Film Noir, Hybrid-Dog Confession, and Get to the Point.
Statistics of magazine submissions from December 2016 to August 2017 are; 3 different stories (4 Humours, Space Station Sunyata, and Grognard) submitted a total of 12 times with 0 accepted, 2 pending, and 10 rejections.
This post is my 55th post in this last year for the website including 29 Book Reviews, 12 Writing Progress Reports, 8 Conference Recaps, and 6 Which Posts.
Events from July 2016 to August 2017
July 23, 2016, Ohio Expos in Fairlawn, Ohio
July 30 and July 31, 2016, Confluence in Pittsburgh, PA
September 24, 2016, Western Reserve Writers Conference in South Euclid, Ohio
October 8 and October 9, 2016, Capclave in Gaithersburg, MD
November 12, 2016, Indy Writer’s Conference in Parma, Ohio
February 18, 2017, Winter Fiction Fest in Cleveland, Ohio
March 10 to March 12, 2017, Concoction in Cleveland, Ohio
May 13, 2017, Marcon in Columbus, Ohio
July 19, 2017, Cleveland Inkubator in Cleveland, Ohio
August 5, 2017, Confluence in Pittsburgh, PA
Writing Goals for August 2017 to August 2018
Complete Assassin in New Marl City (about 100000 words). Edit the novel and try to get an agent to sell it to a traditional publisher or prepare to self-publish it.
Get a cover for Assassin in New Marl City.
Self-publish Searcher of Riven (about 11000 words) and Ruins of Yarnud (about 24000 words).
My screenplay is called Cuba Liberto (about 24000 words). I want to turn it into a novel and expand it to about 72000 words. I plan to complete this novel by the end of 2018.
Complete the short story called Chemthurgy (about 6000 words)
Continue to submit 4 Humors, Space Station Sunyata, and Grognard to other short fiction magazines.
Polish and submit the stories White Bracer, Mage Squad, Time Traveller One, Prisoner of Tarnal, Kay-Eye, LARP Film Noir, Hybrid-Dog Confession, and Get to the Point for submission to short fiction magazines.
Planned Events for August 2017 to August 2018
September 23, 2017, Western Reserve Writers Conference in South Euclid, Ohio
November 4 and November 5, 2017, Book Baby Writer’s Conference in Philadelphia, PA
November 2017 Indy Writer’s Conference in Parma, Ohio
February 17 and February 18, 2018, Capricon in Chicago, IL
February 2018 Winter Fiction Fest in Cleveland, Ohio
March 9 to March 11, 2018, Concoction in Cleveland, Ohio
March 30 to April 1, 2018, Conglomeration at Louisville, KY
May 2018 Nebula Award Conference, Pittsburgh, PA
July 2018 Cleveland Inkubator in Cleveland, Ohio
August 2018 Confluence in Pittsburgh, PA
Links
In 2017, I wrote forty-seven blog posts for garydavidgillen.com including my writing progress report for August 2017 linked below.
The Confluence Conference 2017 was held from August 4 to August 6, 2017, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Introduction
I attended the Confluence Conference on August 5, 2017. I drove from Cleveland, Ohio to the conference that was located at the Sheraton Pittsburgh Airport Hotel. The conference is run by the Parsec organization of Pittsburgh. It is a literary science fiction, fantasy, and horror conference. The events included panels, readings, interviews, writing workshops, and filk concerts. I was focused on attending as many panels as I possibly could on Saturday. I attended seven panels, one writing workshop, one author reading, and the guests of honor presentation.
At 9:00 AM Bud Sparhawk gave a presentation about Everything You Wanted to Know about SFWA. SFWA is the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America pronounced Sifwa. Bud Sparhawk is the CFO of the non-profit organization. It was formed in 1965 to protect the writer’s rights from the publishers. The organization funds three benevolent funds, a health fund, a legal fund, and a givers fund. They also give out grants for worthy causes. There are 2000 members, with 1600 members active, and about 600 active voters. They sponsor the Nebula Awards and the yearly banquet associated with them. An associate member has had one paid sale to an SFWA qualified market. An active member has had at least three such sales.
Saturday: August 5, 2017 at 10:00 AM
At 10:00 AM Timons Esaias gave a lecture titled On Killing: Our Misperceptions of Battle. I had enjoyed his lecture on The Basics of Ancient Warfare at Confluence in 2016, so I was looking forward to attending this lecture at the Confluence Conference 2017. He went over six instances in history where the number of casualties inflicted did not match the amount of ammunition expended. The weight of metal that it took to kill a Union soldier, Lexington and Concord, the Prussian musket fire study, the overcharged guns at Gettysburg, the battle of Zama, and historical hit rates. There were two books sited in this lecture. On Killing by Dave Grossman details the increase over time that soldiers have become more likely to fire to kill and how that increases post-traumatic stress disorder. It starts with the Marshall study about fire rates in WWII and also includes data on the Korean and Vietnam Wars.
The other book was Numbers, Predictions, and War by Colonel Dupey. I was most interested in this book because I bought a copy of it thirty years ago and recognized it from the cover. It detailed a way to numerically depict results of war based on a series of calculations. It was interesting for me because I could use the numbers in war gaming scenarios.
This was an informative lecture on the nature of killing in war.
Saturday: August 5, 2017 at 11:00 AM
At 11:00 AM Frederic S. Durbin presented a workshop on Doorways into Writing. His thesis is that all writing starts with character, setting, plot, or concept. The development of a character can be one way to drive a story. A setting can be the place to build a story around. Setting can be fluid to the demands of the plot. An idea can also drive a story. The workshop leader finds that setting is the thing that speaks to him. He then gave us thirty minutes to write a short story or scene of a larger piece using one of the four methods.
I had an idea about the career of a hybrid Dogman that I called Dogman. I wanted to write a narrative summary of his career. The narrative summary of an event of his career that I wrote totaled about 250 words. After I finished and edited the story, I called it Hybrid-Dog Confession. It was about 750 words and I intend to sell it as flash fiction. Two people read their work in the time remaining in the workshop.
Saturday: August 5, 2017 at 12:00 PM
At 12:00 PM Steve Miller presented his recollections of Clarion West, which he attended in 1973 and answers the question of Should You Heed the Call of Clarion? Clarion is a six-week-long science fiction writing workshop that was created in 1968 at Clarion State College in Pennsylvania. The workshop moved to Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan from 1972 to 2006. It is currently held at the University of California at San Diego. An offshoot workshop called Clarion West was established in 1971 in Seattle, Washington, and continues to this day.
Each week a different teacher representing a different background will teach the students. The students take classes in the morning and write at night while living on campus. The goal of the workshop is to prepare writers to become professional writers. Steve Miller says that the experience changes the students. Some become professional writers or editors, while others never write again. It was transformative for him, but he warns that the pressure can crack a new writer’s confidence.
Saturday: August 5, 2017 at 1:00 PM
At 1:00 PM there was a panel on forgotten fantasy classics called Help! What Should I Read Next? There were five panelists who listed their favorite novels that are not generally read anymore. Some of the highlights were Lud-In-The-Mist by Hope Mirrlees, The Worm Ouroboros by E. R. Eddison, The Silver Stallion, and Jurgen by James Branch Cabell, The King in Yellow by Robert W. Chambers, and The King of Elfland’s Daughter by Lord Dunsany.
Saturday: August 5, 2017 at 2:00 PM
At 2:00 PM there was a panel on Marketing Your Work. The five panelists talked about their experiences with marketing their books. Some of their advice follows. Marketing is the author’s job because you are a business. You are the brand, not the book. Be involved in social media but stay away from politics because it limits your audience. Spend money on an editor and a great book cover. Know your audience so that you can market to them specifically. J. D. Barker was one of the panelists.
Saturday: August 5, 2017 at 3:00 PM
At 3:00 PM was the Guests of Honor Presentation. It was a talk and a Q and A with Steve Miller and Sharon Lee. They had met at the University of Maryland and began a friendship. Many years later they were married in 1980 and began a writing collaboration. They sold three novels in the late 80s of the Liaden Universe but did not sell enough to continue the series. In 1999, by the urging of fans, they wrote a fourth book called Plan B which was successful. The series is up to 20 novels and 21 shorter works currently.
I left the conference from 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM to eat dinner.
Saturday: August 5, 2017 at 6:00 PM
At 6:00 PM was a panel on Avoiding Self-Pub Pitfalls. The five panelists told their tales about their experiences in self-publication. You must have a good cover, editing, and interior formatting of the book. Self-publishing gets the book to the readers who want to read it. Kristine Kathryn Rusch has a good website on the business side of publishing at http://kriswrites.com/ Writing is a business. Never use a running head; it is the sign of an amateur. Use thebookdesigner.com for interior book design. Use bowker.com to get your book’s ISBN. Send a copy of your book to the Library of Congress to get that extra layer of professionalism for your book. Find an editor. A developmental edit is the most expensive, and then comes copy edit, and the least expensive is the proofreading.
Saturday: August 5, 2017 at 7:00 PM
At 7:00 PM was a reading by the Guest of Honor, Steve Miller. Steve Miller read from the story called Intelligent Design by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller to a packed room. It is a story from their Liaden Universe series. It is one of the shorter works from their series. He read about half of the story in the time allotted and it was well received. The complete story can be found at this web address. It is a free story from the Baen website. Baen is the publisher of their series.
At 9:00 PM there was a presentation by horror novelist J. D. Barker on Making the Leap from Indie to Traditional Publishing. J. D. Barker told his story about how he became a successful writer. He stated that the presentation given was similar to what he does at book signings. J. D. Barker had been a magazine writer, a beta reader, and editor, a professional book doctor, and a ghostwriter but wanted to write something using his own name.
He wrote a book called Forsaken. It is a ghost story involving a writer researching his next book. He spent about 12 thousand dollars in editing and formatting the novel. The problems were that he had a bad query letter and no sales to traditional publishers. He sent Arc copies after he self-published it, so there were no reviews at the beginning to drive sales. What he did do was to write a list of what authors were doing to promote their books and he did promotional ideas that no one was doing.
Social media turned his book into a success. It has sold over 200 thousand copies. On the strength of his first novel’s sales, he was able to sell his second novel, The Four Monkeys, for a million-dollar advance. His advice for writers is as follows. Social media presence is important. He puts 10% of his profits back into marketing. Novels are a product; you can’t see it as art. He writes 2000 to 3000 words every day. Use Goodreads advertising. Spend the money for good cover design and editing. Bloggers, Goodreads, and Facebook groups lead to sales. This talk was an interesting behind the scenes presentation of the writer’s life.
Wrap-up
I had a great time at the Confluence Conference 2017. I learned many things and was glad that I made the time to take the trip. Steve Miller and Sharon Lee were great as the Guests of Honor. For me, the star of the Confluence Conference 2017 was J. D. Barker. I thought the information that he presented in the two panels that I attended with him as a panelist was excellent. As a result, I have checked out his new novel The Fourth Monkey from the library and intend to read it. I plan to go to the next Confluence Conference. It is scheduled for July 17 to July 29, 2018.
Links
Recap for the Confluence SF Conference on July 30 and July 31, 2016, at the Sheraton Pittsburgh Airport Hotel. I attended 15 panels and the U.S.S. Improvise improv sketch comedy routine.
The Blinding Knife is Book #2 of The Lightbringer series
Introduction
Gavin Guile is the Prism, the leader of the Seven Satrapies. Prisms only live for seven years before the build-up of drafting luxin by the magic of chromaturgy forces them to die. Gavin has seven great purposes that he wants to complete before he dies. His problem is that he is losing the ability to draft colors, starting with blue, and he only has about one year left to live. In addition, the Color Prince has raised an army in Tyrea and is threatening to invade Atash. He must complete his seven great purposes and defeat the Color Prince or the whole foundation of the Seven Satrapies will fall.
Summary
The main characters are back from the first book of the series which was called the Black Prism. Gavin has taken the refugees from Garriston to an island. He leaves Corvan Danavis to lead them. Kip is Gavin’s bastard son, who becomes a Blackguard trainee. Gavin’s former fiancé Karris White Oak protects Gavin as a member of the Blackguards. Liv Davavis, Corvan’s daughter, is a member of the Color Prince’s army. Gavin’s prisoner has broken out of one cell only to be trapped in another cell. Gunner, a pirate captain, is added to the view point character list.
Gavin is the main character. He faces many trials. Prisms can draft all colors, but he is losing his ability to draft colors starting with blue. One of the Prism’s jobs is to keep the colors in balance. Keeping the colors in balance eliminates the appearance of colored banes. Gavin has lost blue and must defeat a blue bane, which can cause destruction if not stopped. Gavin’s father Andross is a member of the Prism’s advisory group. Andross is the Red member of the group and he tries to undermine Gavin’s position and get him to marry a woman Gavin does not love for political gain. Kip is almost as important to the plot as Gavin. Andross does not like having a bastard grandson and seeks to cause Kip to fail at his training in the Blackguards. Gavin, Kip, Karris, Andross, Liv, and the Color Prince are at odds in the climactic battle at the end of this novel.
Recommendation
I enjoyed this novel almost as much as the Black Prism. It does not suffer the issues of most middle books in a series, because it reads like a section of the greater work called the Lightbringer. Story lines are concluded and spun off into greater story lines. I only have a couple of nits to pick. It feels like the chapters with Gunner as the viewpoint character were tacked on. The author had a plot point at the end of this novel involving Gunner and he dropped Gunner’s chapters along the way. It should have felt more part of the narrative to be more believable. The other thing that I did not find believable was the resolution of the prisoner’s plot. I think there is something more here and it was resolved too quickly in this novel. I did like Gavin’s transformation, Kip growing character, the reveal of the Color Prince’s true identity, the addition of Kip’s buddy Teia who is another Blackguard trainee, and the use of the Blinding Knife as an important instrument of concluding this novel.
