Tuesday, August 21, 2018

[Link] Pick Up A Bad Habit

by The Wandering Quille

Since I started this blog, I've been trying to figure out something that I could do that hasn't been done a thousand times before. All the advice I know has been given by far better bloggers than I and far better than I'm capable of. The Moments of the Week slowed to a boring crawl. I don't want to be the jerk who just talks about me.

But you know what I've realized? I am really good at making lists. And between writing and years of playing tabletop games like Dungeons & Dragons, I've come to enjoy making characters and helping others make them. So why not continue making lists like the hobbies one to help other people with their character creation? Most likely, this won't be a long-running thing, as there are only so many lists needed for character and world building, but I guarantee, you'll be able to find it here.

Today, we're looking at bad habits. No character is perfect. Everyone's got these little quirks that they know they should work on fixing. Pick one or two (or more!) for your characters to make them more well-rounded and maybe give them something to improve about themselves.

Read the full article: http://thewanderingquille.blogspot.com/2016/06/pick-up-bad-habit.html

Sunday, August 19, 2018

Falstaff Books annouces Cabinet of Aberrations by Judy Black!


If Sam Winchester was the illustrated lady in a traveling sideshow in the 1900s, he'd be Hazel Finnegan.

Hazel has a power, and with that power, a responsibility. She hunts down the things that go bump in the night, and once she kills them, traps them into her skin via magical tattoo transference. Then she can call upon the monsters she's vanquished to help her take out other baddies. But she may have bitten off more than she can chew this time.

The troll was big, dumb, and strong as an ox, but that wasn't the real threat. The real threat lurks in the woods, and just maybe in whatever made her father disappear…

The Shadow Council Archives are historical novellas set in the universe of the Quincy Harker, Demon Hunter books. They are the tales of folklore and legend collected by The Shadow Council in the centuries since their founding.

Get your copy on Amazon.

Saturday, August 18, 2018

Geek's Guide announces Unlocking Your Super Powers by Frank Fradella!

 The Geek's Guide Program — Unlocking Your Super Powers — is available to you as three different paths: a manual and workbook, a self-directed video course, or 6-week live coaching program. Each one has its own benefits, but the 9 life-altering tools are included in each one!

"What can this do for me?"

No matter where you are in your particular journey, the Geek's Guide can help you level up. If you're feeling stuck, or limited in your possibilities; if you're suffering from depression or anxiety, or even if you're already on the road to better things, the program is designed to help you shift your point of view and give you 9 tools that enable you to make rapid, radical change.

The Geek's Guide Program delivers the same concepts used by everyone from Tony Robbins to Plato, but focuses them through the lens of science fiction, fantasy, comics, and gaming so you get the tools while celebrating these things we love. It's an amazing time to be a geek!

https://geeksguideprogram.com/

Friday, August 17, 2018

BEN Books forecast calls for lots of Snow!

GREAT NEWS! The SNOW Series 1, Vol. 1 collection from BEN Books is now available in paperback at Barnes and Noble and the Book Depository as well as Amazon. Currently, Amazon and Barnes and Noble are listing the title at 20% off!

Barnes and Noble: www.barnesandnoble.com/w/snow-bobby-nash/1129048512
Book Depository: www.bookdepository.com/Snow-Bobby-Nash/9781721943395
Amazon: www.amazon.com/Snow-1-Bobby-Nash/dp/1721943390

SNOW SERIES 1 VOL. 1 collects the first 3 SNOW stories [SNOW FALLS, SNOW STORM, and SNOW DRIVE], written by award-winning author Bobby Nash together for the first time.

Learn more about SNOW at https://ben-books.blogspot.com/p/snow.html

Wednesday, August 15, 2018

Nugget #145 -- New Pulp, Revisited

I think New Pulp is in a pretty enviable spot right now. 
Now that it’s outgrown its source material and can 
play with style instead of just characters or settings, 
New Pulp is literally being made and remade every day.


Tuesday, August 14, 2018

[Link] MASTER LIST of Gestures and Body Language!

by Bryn Donovan   

Hey there! Lots of writers liked my list of facial expressions, so I thought I would do a companion post about gestures and body language. Describing these can help readers visualize a scene and get a feel for the characters, and again, they can set up lines of dialogue so you don’t have a string of he said, she said, he asked, she exclaimed, etc., running down the page.

You might want to consider which gestures or what body language is typical for each of your characters. For instance, one of my characters in the novel I just finished tends to hug herself when she’s nervous, while another has a habit of rubbing at his shoulder when he’s uncomfortable. They only do it a few times each throughout the book, but I think details like that make characters feel more solid.

For a great guide to what body language means, I recommend What Every BODY Is Saying, by former FBI counterintelligence offer Joe Navarro and body language expert Marvin Karlins.

Some of the things in my list are not exactly body language or gestures, but are useful for dialogue tags. As with the last list, I’ve included some different ways to say the same thing. There are some longer phrases and sentences, which you can obviously rewrite and adjust as you like, although you don’t have to. Nothing here is proprietary.

Read the full article: http://www.bryndonovan.com/2015/04/10/master-list-of-gestures-and-body-language-for-writers/

Thursday, August 9, 2018

[Link] 'Elitist': angry book pirates hit back after author campaign sinks website

by  Alison Flood

OceanofPDF was shut down last week after publishers issued hundreds of takedown notices – but authors have been left dealing with angry users

Authors have been called elitist by book pirates, after they successfully campaigned to shut down a website that offered free PDFs of thousands of in-copyright books.

OceanofPDF was closed last week after publishers including Penguin Random House and HarperCollins issued hundreds of takedown notices, with several high-profile authors including Philip Pullman and Malorie Blackman raising the issue online. Featuring free downloads of thousands of books, OceanofPDF had stated on its site that it sought to make information “free and accessible to everyone around the globe”, and that it wanted to make books available to people in “many developing countries where … they are literally out of reach to many people”.

Before the site was taken down, one of its founders told the Bookseller that it was run by a team of four who worked based on user requests: “Once we get an email from a user requesting a book that he/she cannot afford/find in the library or if he has lost it, we try to find it on their behalf and upload on our site so that someone in future might also get it.”

Michelle Harrison, who won the Waterstones children’s book prize for her debut novel The Thirteen Treasures, drew attention to OceanofPDF after receiving a Google alert about a free download of her book Unrest. She then downloaded it “in a matter of seconds”.

“I was gobsmacked when I read a statement on the site admitting that reading pirated material wasn’t good because it doesn’t earn authors any money,” Harrison said on Wednesday. “Users of the site were encouraged to ‘leave reviews’ so that the author at least got some benefit!” After she received no reply to an email request to have her books removed, she tried Twitter. “I received a brazen response along the lines of, ‘What if someone already bought the books and lost them, or is travelling and doesn’t want to carry extra weight?’” she said.

After the site was closed down, Harrison shared an email she received from one OceanofPDF user, who called her “unworthy of being an author” and “grossly elitist.”


Read the full article: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/aug/08/elitist-angry-book-pirates-ocean-of-pdf-author-campaign-website

Wednesday, August 8, 2018

Nugget #144 -- Skirting Magical Realism

I think somewhere deep inside me is a magical realism 
writer who likes to paint the edges of my work 
with extraordinary stuff from time to time.


Tuesday, August 7, 2018

[Link] Writing books won't make you rich and other findings...

Editor note: File this one under "Duh."

==============================

by L'atelier des écrivains (The Writers' Workshop, France)

  • Lack of confidence and time hinders writers’ ability
  • Writing books won’t make you rich
  • Lots of people want to write a book but few actually get round to doing so

These were just a few of the findings from our recent survey into writers' ambitions, barriers and opportunities (if you contributed to the survey, thank you!)

Headline statistics include:

  • Almost half (48%) of respondents wanted to write a book but haven’t yet got around to it, while 31% have started but not finished their book. Less than a fifth (19%) have actually started and completed their book.
  • Over half (55%) of those people who hadn’t yet fulfilled their ambition to write a book had been dreaming of writing for “as long as I can remember”.  With 66 per cent of these people being over the age of 35, this equates to a lot of years of wasted time.

Read the full article: https://www.latelierdesecrivains.com/blog/2018/8/6/writing-books-wont-make-you-rich-and-other-findings

Friday, August 3, 2018

SUBMISSIONS OPEN FOR FIRST IN NEW ANNUAL ANTHOLOGY TO DEBUT IN 2019 -- ‘NEW PULP UNITED VOLUME ONE’ TO BENEFIT CREATORS IN NEED

Pro Se Productions, a publisher of Genre Fiction, is also a publisher and a leading figure in one aspect of what is considered The New Pulp Movement. This movement focuses on fiction that is inspired and in the style of Pulp Fiction published in the early 20th Century, influenced by Pulp of the past, but written by modern writers with an eye toward the future. New Pulp exists outside this movement, obviously, and many recognize all aspects of this style of fiction as a community. This feeling has been so prevalent in the past that it has led to creators coming together to produce benefit books in memory of other creators or, in the case of Pro Se’s Editor in Chief, Tommy Hancock, to assist during hard times.

“LEGENDS OF NEW PULP FICTION,” says Hancock, “was a project put together by Jaime Ramos and Ron Fortier and Rob Davis of Airship 27 Productions. Over 100 creators threw their talents into the mix to put together the biggest volume of modern Pulp ever to help me after I was diagnosed with a rare form of Congestive Heart Failure. It was the single biggest outpouring of support I have seen in a long time in publishing, especially within New Pulp. And I will personally be forever grateful for it.”

New Pulp Author Sean Taylor noted this very thing recently in a post on social media, expressing concern about growing divides between writers today, due to politics and different world views. In this post, Taylor made a call to return to the sense of community that existed when collections were done for Hancock or when Pro Se produced WHEN THE SHADOW SEES THE SUN, a collection of essays about creatives and depression in honor of Logan Masterson, a writer who lost his battle with depression. Taylor’s post caused many creators to think, including Hancock.

“We don’t expect,” says Hancock, “to replicate LEGENDS or any other collections with what Pro Se plans to do, but the course of discussion Sean started this past week demands that we do something, at least it demands it of me. That’s why Pro Se Productions is now taking submissions for what will hopefully be the first of a yearly collection entitled NEW PULP UNITED!. All proceeds from this collection will go into a fund that is aimed at supporting New Pulp creators when there are medical issues or emergency situations beyond normal limitations. A committee will be formed that will oversee the distribution of funds. A website and Facebook page will be established prior to the release of the first volume with more details concerning how a creator may request funds.

“Any creator, that be writer, artist, or editor that wants to contribute can submit a story,” explains Hancock, “to NEW PULP UNITED!. With all money made going into the NPU fund, no royalties will be paid and Pro Se will absorb costs that we usually cover with royalties as well. Length of individual stories does not matter, only that the tales are some sort of largely unpublished Genre Fiction with an aim at adventure, action, thrills, and/or suspense. Previously published tales will be considered, but the collection should be more new material than anything else. Also, artists wishing to contribute can provide spot illustrations for stories. Editors wanting to help can also participate. All anyone who wants to be a part of this has to do is email me at editorinchief@prose-press.com. Writers need to send me a few lines about what they intend to write and/or submit, and if the story is good and meets Pro Se’s standards, it’s in.”

NEW PULP UNITED! is currently slated for publication in March 2019, and if subsequent volumes occur, they will be published in March of each year. This collection WILL ONLY go to print if the number of stories reaches a minimum of 30,000 words. There is no maximum limit. For a story to appear in the first collection, writers MUST email Hancock to show intent to participate and the final work needs to be emailed to submissions@prose-press.com no later than November 1, 2018.

Hancock says, “I know people will immediately have questions about how the money will be distributed, how it will be determined who is considered a New Pulp creator, and such things. To that end, all sales figures and earnings on this collection and subsequent volumes will be made public. As to who qualifies as a New Pulp writer, that will in part be up to the Committee to determine and guidelines will be set up to oversee that, although the intent here is to help, not to create a bureaucratic, complicated process. Right now, the focus has to be on seeing if the first collection even makes. If it doesn’t, it does not necessarily mean that there is a divide in the community. It may also indicate, though, that maybe there isn’t a community at all. Either way, Pro Se wants to help its creators and those outside our company who are why New Pulp exists today. This is a small way, but it is our way.”

For more information on this submissions call, please contact Hancock at editorinchief@prose-press.com.

To learn more about Pro Se Productions, go to www.prose-press.com. Like Pro Se on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ProSeProductions

New Summer Reading from Airship 27!

SHERLOCK HOLMES CONSULTING DETECTIVE VOL. 12

Airship 27 Productions is thrilled to announce the release of the 12th volume in their internationally recognized bestselling series, “Sherlock Holmes – Consulting Detective.” 

Why do people cheat, rob and murder?  Why are people tempted to commit dark deeds?  These are the questions that have always plagued the great detective, Sherlock Holmes. In this, the 12th Volume of the best selling series, Consulting Detective, he and his faithful companion, Dr. Watson take on five new cases that will challenge their intellect and lead them through the twisted minds of nefarious souls.

“The demand for our new Holmes mysterious has never waned since we began the series almost ten years ago,” says Airship 27 Productions Managing Editor, Ron Fortier. “And in that time, those devoted Holmes fans have recognized the consistent quality of both our stories and art featuring Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous characters.”

All the art for this volume was provided solely by Airship 27 Productions own, award winning Art Director, Rob Davis. For the first time in the series, Davis delivered detailed pencils only for each illustration and also produced the stunning color cover. “This one is clearly a collector’s item,” Fortier smiles. “Fans of the series are not going to be disappointed.”

From chasing after a notorious confidence man to solving the death of a twin; a stolen tattoo or a murder of a bride before her wedding day, writers I.A. Waston, Barbara Doran, Fred Adams Jr. and Brad Mengel have produced truly remarkable mysteries  guaranteed to keep Holmes and Watson fans up late night.

As ever, the game is afoot!!

AIRSHIP 27 PRODUCTIONS – PULP FICTION FOR A NEW GENERATION!

Available now from Amazon in paperback and on Kindle.

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AIRSHIP 27 PRODUCTIONS PRESENTS RETURN OF THE BAY PHANTOM

Airship 27 Productions, a leader in the New Pulp publishing community, is excited to present the second book in writer Chuck Miller’s series; “The Bay Phantom – Feast of the Cannibal Guild.”

When a shadowy group of criminals start shaking down restaurants in Mobile, Joe Perrone once again dons the cloak and goggles of the Bay Phantom. Shortly thereafter, wealthy young men begin dropping dead without warning. What do these things have in common with a mysterious psychic, a sinister funeral home, and a nationalist movement known as the Transatlantic Patriots Guild?

That is what the Bay Phantom must learn, and he must do it without his trusted aide, Mirabelle Darcy. She is away on a mission of her own; one that necessitates her breaking into the Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary. Thus left to his own devices, can the Phantom thwart the Cannibal Guild and their deadly assassin, the Mummifier? Or will he become their next victim?

“Chuck Miller is one of the most original writers in New Pulp today,” states Airship 27 Productions’ Managing Editor, Ron Fortier. “His storytelling is truly unique and he envisions the most startling characters, both good and bad, ever to grace a pulp thriller. When Miller puts a spin on a tale, you’d best hang for a truly wild ride.”

Once again Chuck Miller offers up a thrilling new adventure set in the Deep South and starring his original pulp hero; The Bay Phantom. This is pulp action with an added spicy kick. Along for the adventure are cover artist Adam Shaw and, debuting for the first time with Airship 27, interior illustrator, Kevin Paul Shaw Broden.

AIRSHIP 27 PRODUCTIONS – PULP FICTION FOR A NEW GENERATION!

Available from Amazon and on Kindle.

Wednesday, August 1, 2018

Nugget #143 -- Calling or Career?

 
Writing and editing is one of those comes and goes industries, 
and in an economy as volatile as the U.S. one has been during 
the years I’ve been a writer and editor, it’s bounced up and 
down several time. But what I learned from all that is that 
writing is something I make time to do whether or not it’s 
paying the bills. It’s more a calling than a career choice.