Motivational Monday

Teasy Weezy (not final covers)

Coming in 2026!

New Printing Coming in 2026!

Coming in 2027!

Coming in 2026!

Happy New Year!

 

Motivational Monday: Bad Writing

Sunday Funnies: Worth a Shot

Sunday Funnies: Haunted Bookstore

I'll be at Multiverse. Will you?

My schedule for Multiverse convention this coming weekend. See ya there, right? 

Friday, October 17

Writing Tiny: Flash and Microfiction

5:30 PM - 6:30 PM
Canterbury

Friday Night Writing Workshop
8:30 PM - 10:00 PM
Canterbury

Saturday, October 18

Poetry: A Rose By Any Other Name
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
Canterbury

Sunday, October 19

Questioned Faith
10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
McIntosh Ballroom A

Jukebox Thrillers Anthology Signing
11:30 AM - 12:30 PM
Campbell

Podcasting for Writers: From Guest to Creator
2:30 PM - 3:30 PM
Canterbury

Motivational Monday: Writing Changes Everything

Motivational Monday: Art Goes To Work

Falstaff opens up The Starlight Contingency by Kyoko M.

Thrilled to announce the publication of The Starlight Contingency by Kyoko M.! This is an awesome adventure SF story of family, found family, alien invasion, and ne'er do wells becoming heroes. Check out this kickass new release from Falstaff Books! Ebook available now - print coming as soon as Amazon and Ingram's proof processes!

Orphaned siblings Scarlett and Duke Nam have had it rough. Cast aside by society, they've managed to stay afloat as thieves on the streets of Alexandria, Virginia. Things plunge straight to hell when a heist goes wrong and they're on the run from the cops, but after they stumble into a nearby home to escape, something seemingly impossible happens - the house transforms into a spacecraft and leaves the Earth's orbit.

Scarlett and Duke awaken to find that they are now prisoners aboard the Titan International Spaceship. The Earth has been destroyed by the Bergleute des Todes, AKA The Miners of Death. Scarlett and Duke are given the chance to become soldiers to fight the aliens who destroyed the world.

The only thing left for them is the hardest thing of all: Survival.

The Starlight Contingency is the new space opera from USA Today best-selling author Kyoko M. (She Who Fights Monsters, Of Cinder and Bone).

Globe Trotting (Writing Multiple Settings)

Let's talk about settings. Not setting, as in the singular, but settings, such as when you bounce your characters all over the place to tell your story. 

Do you have a sort of "master setting" you tend to use and then sprinkle it full of "little settings" such as how Batman's Gotham City has Crime Alley, the waterfront, etc.? How does this approach work for you?

Brian K Morris: My early work was peppered with planting the story in a spot and leaving it there until I came back to take it home for dinner.

Sheela Chattopadhyay: In my characters' running away from me stories that need fixing, it's all the same continent but different places. I hadn't tried for a bit more simplicity in that world because of how long the story was supposed to be. In my current one, it is within one house so far and that's been working for me.

Sean Taylor: The characters I create or co-create have a home setting. Rick Ruby has his seedy New York underbelly. Fishnet Angel had Los Angeles until she moved to Cristol City. Even then, they're not always there exclusively. Fishnet Angel has traveled to Egypt and to the Middle East in search of the ancient idol she needs. 

Some characters I write, including Golden Amazon, experience their stories all over the place. I've written her in Notre Dame, New York, and now Los Angeles. 

No. Not these Globetrotters.

When you need to bounce around the world with your characters, how do you determine that and how do you make it work as a writer? Do you continue to let a setting become a sort of de facto character in its own right (again, like Gotham for Batman or Los Angeles for Philip Marlowe)?

Sheela Chattopadhyay: In the series that needs fixing, it depended on the timing that the characters needed. In my current short story, it's still based on the timing and pacing. The setting itself is a factor, but I haven't really analyzed if it is at a de facto character level for the story. If it becomes a de facto character, I'm ok with that.

Sean Taylor: I try to work in the character and "voice" of a location, even for settings that are merely temporary or a sort of layover between the major parts of a book's story. For me, if a place doesn't say something specific about the characters or the story, then it's just a throwaway location and could have been anywhere, no a specific somewhere. 

Paul Landri: In Return of the Crimson Howl we made it a cross-country journey so we wouldn't have one setting until the ending. I like to add places I've been into my narrative. For example: Brattleboro, Vermont and Seaside Heights, New Jersey show up in the book. In the upcoming sequel a great deal of it takes place in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn at a bakery that existed in real life and owned by my grandparents (it's gone now but I'm resurrecting it in literary form). Book three will have about 3 different settings so to answer your question, I tend to bounce around until I find a spot to stay in for a while then move on.

Brian K Morris: For much of my current work, I have a setting of Raceway City, which serves as my Metropolis/Gotham City for many of my characters. For other works, I'll set it in real world locations (which means research since I've not been in many of them).

How does needing multiple settings work into your plotting and planning for your novel? Is it something that you have specific reasons for choosing each location or is it more relaxed than that? Give me an example from your work.

Sheela Chattopadhyay: In the stories that need fixing, each one is supposed to be novel length. That's why the fixing is going to need to happen. I chose to have multiple settings because of the plot being quite large of several interwoven characters trying to solve a problem and overcome a common enemy. Each location is often refuge from temporarily escaping th villain, learning something useful to them, and building another ally.

Give it a spin. C'mon!

Brian K Morris: The locations are mostly to disorientate the protagonist and give him/her one extra challenge. This works mostly because my stories tend to take place no less than forty years ago in a pre-GPS age. I also select locations with a bit of a mystique to them, to add to the mood and sense of isolation for the protagonist. For instance, what kind of story can I tell if it takes place in WW2's Paris, or Carnaby Street in 1964, or San Francisco as it rebuilt from an earthquake?

Sean Taylor: Rarely do my character jet around the world to multiple cities in a single work. That comes a lot from the kind of stories I grew up reading. Noir and Hard-Boiled stories danced from setting to setting within a single city, but rarely from city to city. Sci-fi sometimes jumped places, but never really culture to culture, and if it did, each new setting was central to the new culture and what the protagonist was learning about himself/herself/themself. I tend to do the same. The one time I have jumped around is on a novel I'm currently editing called Postcards of the Hanging. In it the main character, a trans women in the '60s who is a sort of spiritual P.I. must go all over Western Europe to stop a plot to use a dead man's blood to bring forth an ancient curse with the help of her hippy ghost assistant. That one was designed to be a globe-trotting adventure, and each city was chosen before of both historical need (something happened there that related to the story) and atmosphere and how it causes the heroine and/or assistant to react. 

[Link] What Is LitRPG for Writers (and How Do I Get Started Writing It)?

Bestselling LitRPG author Matt Dinniman answers what LitRPG is (for those who don't know) and shares five tips on getting started in this style (not genre) of writing.

by Matt Dinniman

Okay, picture this. You’re sitting down at your desk, and a portal appears in the wall of your office. A mysterious wizard steps from the gate and announces, “Hey! You! If you want to save the realm, you need to complete this quest. You need to write a novel. And it needs to be a LitRPG!” He hands you a pen and a notebook, and he disappears back into the portal with a puff of smoke.

(You, of course, want to save the realm. One must never ignore quests bestowed by mysterious portal wizards. You’ve heard of LitRPG before, but you’re not really sure exactly what it is. Doesn’t it have something to do with video games? All you really know is that the term suddenly seems everywhere, and more importantly, LitRPG books seem to be really hot right now. And now that you have a quest to write one, you better get started. Here are five tips on how to save the day.

Step One. Know what LitRPG is in the first place.

Okay, okay, this sounds pretty obvious, right? Like it should be something the wizard tells you before we even get to the five tips part. But here’s the thing. Knowing exactly what you’re getting yourself into is absolutely crucial for success in this style of writing. Are these games? Are they like those Choose Your Own Adventure books? And why the heck are we calling it a “style of writing” and not a genre?

LitRPG stands for Literary Role-Playing Game, so it’s not surprising that people who are new to the term think these books are games. Or Choose Your Own Adventure Style books. They are not. They are just regular novels, usually with no reader interaction. And while many people call it a genre, they’re not, technically, a genre, either.

Read the full article: https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-fiction/what-is-litrpg-for-writers-and-how-do-i-get-started-writing-it

The Watson Report: THE PULP AVENGER’S CHRISTMAS

by I.A. Watson

 

’Twas the night before Christmas and down in the gutters

The vermin were stirring with curses and mutters.

Mister Big puffed on his big fat cigar

And stared at his henchman beside the wrecked car.

 

“What do you mean that the loot isn’t there?

How can it be missing?” he said with a glare.

“And where are the guys that we sent out as guard?

And who wrecked the auto? And who left that card?”

 

For all that was left of the briefcase of loot

Was a silhouette logo, some man in a suit

With a mask and a gun, on a card on the dash.

No sign of the gunsels, no sign of the cash.

 

“I want all the boys out patrolling the street.

Beat up all the stoolies and turn on the heat.

I want that case found and my money returned!”

Mr Big wasn’t about to get burned.

 

But as all the goons made to shake down the bars

A smoke grenade rolled out right under the cars

And a horrible laugh pierced the still Christmas night

And the thugs and enforcers looked round them with fright.

 

“Oh felons! Oh killers! Oh infamous crushers!

Oh murderous cutthroats and drug-dealing pushers!

Oh sinners! Oh cowards! O criminal scum -

Your dark days are numbered, your reign here is done!”

 

Then out from the alley through shadow and fume

Came a fast-moving figure of terror and doom

With two pistols blazing and fire-filled eyes

As he cut through the villains and made for the prize.

 

“Protect me, you idiots!” the overboss cried.

His thugs screamed and scattered as more of them died.

And the gentleman champion advanced on his prey;

Their crime-spree was over and now they must pay.

 

Mr Big fumbled a gun from his coat.

Before he could fire, strong hands clutched his throat.

“You thought you could kill me,” the gentleman said.

“But nothing can stop me at all now I’m dead!”

 

Police sirens roared through the slush-slickened street

To the site where the gangsters had met their defeat

And some men lay dying and some lay there dead

And Mr Big gibbered, his sanity fled.

 

And they heard a voice call, as the snow blurred their sight:

“There is justice for all… and to all a good night!”

 

Best wishes

 IW

Motivational Monday: Forget Inspiration. Choose Habit.

 

AIRSHIP 27 PRODUCTION PRESENTS AFTER SUNSET

At seventy-five years old, John Taylor lives in an old church on Indian land, reflecting on his time as sheriff of Devil's Creek Run, a mining community that was desperately trying to find its way in the harsh and unforgiving land of the frontier west. From dealing with devastating droughts, an Indian uprisings, and legendary outlaws, he finds himself surrounded by the ghosts of those that he has lost along the trail, both friends and enemies as he reflects on it long after sunset.

Jonathan Casey delivers an original western focusing the spotlight on one man and how the land and history shaped him. This tale of the rugged frontier packs an emotional wallop.

Colorado artist Sam Salas provides the interior illustrations and Shannon Hall the dramatic cover, with Art Director Rob Davis doing book design.

AIRSHIP 27 PRODUCTION – PULP FICTION FOR A NEW GENERATION!

Available now at Amazon.

Motivational Monday: Inspiration from my cat, Tohru

 

Ladies, Gentlemen, and others, my cat, Tohru. 

[Link] Are we ready for COVID-19 as a central theme in literature?

By Gabino Iglesias

Nearly two years after the start of COVID-19 social-distancing protocols and lockdowns, the pandemic is still a thing we think about — and live with — daily. Its constant presence and the way it has changed our world has had an impact on everything, including literature.

I, like I'm sure many others, had no interest in reading books about plagues generally or about how we were dealing with COVID-19 more specifically over the last two years. But as this pandemic seems like it will eventually turn into an epidemic or become endemic, I have started freeing myself up to read about these topics beyond daily news — and to start looking back, and forward, with literature that either mentions COVID-19 or features it a central element of its narrative. And from the slew of books coming out this year, it seems like other have too (or at least publishing houses think they have!).

Pandemic fiction and nonfiction began more quickly trickling into our libraries and bookstores in the second half of 2021, and has since found a growing presence. We've seen novels like Louise Erdrich's The Sentence, Catherine Ryan Howard's 56 Days, Amitava Kumar's A Time Outside This Time, and Sarah Hall's Burntcoat. There have also been anthologies like COVID Chronicles: A Comics Anthology, Lockdown: Stories of Crime, Terror, and Hope During a Pandemic, and And We Came Outside and Saw the Stars Again: Writers from Around the World on the Covid-19 Pandemic (the latter two of these actually came out in 2020). All directly address the pandemic and chronicle how it has affected our lives, relationships, plans, and productivity.

Read the full article: https://www.npr.org/2022/02/24/1079823095/are-we-ready-for-covid-19-as-a-central-theme-in-literature