Yes it's been a while since I updated here, but life and writing have both kept me busy. That said, today's post is a bit of a departure, in that instead of playing catch up, I've been invited to participate in a chain of Blog Hopping posts with other fine writers. Kudos and thanks go to the incredible Lisa Collins for bringing me in on this one. Make sure you all go out and read her post, and those that she's linked with. While you're there, read her entire blog, she does some great interviews with other authors!
So here we go a-hoppin...
I don't do hard and
fast writing goals for each year because I can never predict what
life will throw my way; but I've learned over time to at least list
the projects I must do or want to accomplish, and tick them off as I
go along. I keep a running list on my desktop, and highlight in blue
every project I finish. There's a big incentive in seeing those blue
streaks mounting up.
That said, this year
(2014) I've already turned in a finished novel and have another in
editing. Both books are for my Pro Se imprint HANSEN'S WAY, and take
place in the same overarching world. The finished one is the first in
a brand new fantasy series called
The Sudarnian
Chronicles, the one in editing is Master's Endgame,
which is the third in the Greenwood Cycle novel series that
started with Fortune's Pawn, and continued in Prophecy's
Gambit. I also went over a short story I had written several
years ago for COMPANION DRAGONS TALES and turned that into a novella,
which should become my third offering to Pro Se's YOUNG PULP line. I
do have a second COMPANION DRAGONS TALE book co-written with series
co-creator Roger Stegman titled Finding Waxy that should be
coming out soon from Pro Se. Just saw a pencil sketch of the cover
art for that, and it looks awesome!
BTW, this just came out from Pro Se Press and is available online through Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords, as are all my Pro Se books. Good timing huh?
On the short story end,
I will have a tale in a brand new steampunk superhero anthology
called SINGULARITY: Rise of the Posthumans published by New Babel Books. That is supposed to be out sometime later this year, and
I get to share space with a lot of talented folks, including series
creator Jaime Ramos, the iconic comic world author Mr. David Michelinie, and long time writing pal, Lee Houston Jr. And speaking
of Lee, we just co-collaborated on a short story for another
anthology that will be coming from Airship 27 somewhere down the
line. So lots of stuff has been going on, writing-wise, and May isn't
even over yet.
My most current project
is not something I can say a lot about, except that it's an
action/adventure novel in a specific time period and genre, and is
about half written. I proposed it as an ongoing series, the idea
received an enthusiastic response, and now I've just got to get the
first book done. Lots of research with this one because it's a new
area of adventure fiction for me, but it's moving along. I foresee at
least a three book initial offering. It's not my usual fantasy, but a
very recognizable sub-genre that I've always wanted to tackle.
- How does my work
differ from others in its genre?
I came into the small
pulp publishers of today as a mainstream epic fantasy writer seeking
an easier route to get my work out to readers. While pulp is
extremely fast paced and plot-oriented, and the traditional pulp
fantasy stories tended toward the more straightforward heroic style
(think of Robert E. Howard's Conan, hacking and slashing through his
tales), I still prefer to read and write the character driven epic
quest fantasies I ate up as a mainstream fiction reader. A lot of
those mainstream books are pretty lengthy, and they can bog down in
detail and drag in spots, so they don't have the breathless pacing of
a pulp story. What I've learned to do is create sort of a hybrid
yarn, where you get the ongoing feeling of character development over
time and trials, but the action doesn't lag so long. That way I can
have my fun in writing what I love and know well, and still please
the page turning reader who wants to see something dramatic happening
without wading through a ton of exposition.
Another thing that I
really wanted to bring into my writing—especially to the pulp
world—were heroic female characters with that 'everyman' appeal.
While mainstream fantasy publishing has become somewhat caught up
with the idea, so few of the classic and beloved characters of
pulpdom were females in a starring role. Those who did make a name
for themselves tended to be glamorous and/or ruthless; generally
beautiful and deadly ladies equipped with a male mind and
motivations. I want more than that for my female characters, so they
purposely aren't designed to be classically statuesque and stacked
super-Barbies streaked with blood and fighting in chain mail bikinis.
Some are tall and thin, others short and plump, or just plain Jane
average looking, and none of them set out to be warrior heroines. They are
driven women though, which will always tend to land you in hot
water... The idea behind the 'Average Jane' appeal is to make sure my
female readers can put themselves in the story as they read it. I
don't want to alienate or segregate my male readers either, so there
are plenty of manly characters running around doing their thing as
well. Even there I will take a step away from the 'super fit athlete' image of the masculine god beings of vengeance to something a
bit more plausible.
I don't tend to think
of my books and short stories as appealing to any one demographic and
I'm trying to be as diverse as possible. Right now, even though this
is a fantasy setting, the characters are still mainly Eurocentric,
Caucasian, and heterosexual in flavor, because that's what I'm most
comfortable with; but I'm working on widening that scope. I want more
ethnic, gender, and racial variety to reflect the world my readers
and I live in. I want people who buy these stories to see people who
look like them doing amazing things. The best tales are the ones
where you can insert yourself in that setting and experience it
vicariously through the actions of the character you most gravitate
toward.
- Why do I write what
I do?
I absolutely,
passionately, love what I write. Fantasy settings, with their rich
and imaginative worlds peopled with outlandish beings, incredible
beasts, and astonishing feats of swordplay and sorcery, have always
been my favorite playground to escape from the real world. I've
devoured them as books and movies, and the scant television programs
that came and went. I prefer playing in a world that has rules far
different than the one I live in, and as a writer, I enjoy being the
omnipotent and omniscient Grand Poobah of all. LOL! Yet it does need
to have rules and follow some sort of logical design, and that's
where the true craftsmanship of writing comes in.
I'm a creative person
by nature, and outside of writing I love to do crafting, cooking,
gardening, and I crochet and dabble a bit in art. I've hunted and
fished, and consequently eaten a lot of things the average person
would not consider table fare. I have an ongoing thirst to know more
about the world around me, so the internet has been a huge boon to my
oversize curiosity bump. Some of my interest areas include the
incredible diversity of Nature, early human history (especially the
feudal/medieval era and hunter/gatherer or agrarian societies),
mythology and religions, the occult and ritual magic, and warfare
before the widespread use of gunpowder and machinery. All of that
stuff kind of gels within the innovation of people who lived close to
the land and had to handle things hands on—whether you're talking
needle crafts, seasonal crop rotations, warding off enemy pillagers,
or dealing with plagues of beasts and vermin. Life moves in rhythms
you can understand at a basic level if you shut off the electronic
devices and just step outdoors and look around. Seeds still get
planted in the soil or a substitute soil medium with chemical
nutrients, and they grow into food crops, as they did for our
ancestors. Babies still are born from the same combination of genetic
material. Wars might be fought with advanced technology, but the
reasons behind them haven't really changed. We still have religions
and laws to help us find order in our otherwise chaotic, tempestuous
lives. Underneath your clothing and skin is the muscle, guts, and
spirit of generations of warriors and survivors. I don't forget that
when I write. I bring in a lot of the world I know to enrich the
story. Even a little detail like the way a deer browses or how to
predict weather from cloud formations can come in mighty handy in a
story. It puts the reader there, on the scene.
Good writing involves
all your senses. You want to be able to see, hear, smell, taste, and
feel what's going on. There has to be some tale to tell; one that
resonates with the audience on some visceral level of understanding.
The more I know about what I'm writing about, the better it will
translate from my vision into your brain's version. Those little dabs
of paint that an impressionist uses to build a picture on a canvas
are the same system that the sentences in my stories are spun from.
Each word has to count for something. I put a lot of my heart and
soul into what I tap onto each page. You can't not enjoy what
you're doing, and work that diligently. Every time I sit down, I try
and write the sort of story I'd love to read.
- How does your
writing process work?
I am far from the
world's most organized thinker, and there are a lot of demands on my
time these days, so I have learned to be more disciplined in my work
habits. Because I presently babysit an infant grandson on most
weekdays, and have family over just about every weekend, I've had to
pare down my other internet activities and consolidate appointments
with errands and shopping to make sure I keep regular time for
writing. Any day that I am home in the AM, I do a very quick morning
run through email and social network sites, only hitting the
highlights and important issues before I shut all that down and focus
on getting some keyboard time in. The internet is a fascinating
place, but it can be a real time waster too. I pull up a tab with a
dictionary/thesaurus site, and one with Google for impromptu
searches, and then whatever I'm working on at present.
I start each session of
writing with a read through of at least part of what I wrote over the
last few days. That way I reacquaint myself with the piece, and get a
little on-the-fly editing done as well. I use bookmarks in my
documents that tell me where I left off last time, or to mark my
current position as I check back and see if I got names and other
info correctly. Since I'm often bouncing between projects over the
course of weeks or even months, I tend to forget things. That reread
refreshes my memory, and the ability to leave where I am working and
run a document search from the top really helps me keep moving
forward. The story lines I run in fantasy pieces tend to be rather
involved, with subplots and secondary characters, so it's easy to get
confused. Having the resources a click away to look up alternate
wording or research an idea makes efficient use of my time. Plus it's
a part of a helpful ritual to have a setup routine that tells your
mind that we're at work now. That's vital when you work at home like
I d. The temptation to goof off is so much stronger with no boss or
coworkers looking on. Books don't get written by staring out the
window, tapping a pencil or texting messages. I have to treat this
like a job or I'd get nothing accomplished.
Ideas come from
anywhere and everywhere. I have whole files of pictures and news
clippings that I refer to when I need inspiration. Sometimes I just
go look things up. It doesn't matter what era it comes from or how
modern it is, because with a bit of creativity, anything can
transformed into your own world view. I liberally borrow from any
current news item that gets attention to flesh out a tale—even one
set in my fantastic worlds. The technology and living arrangements
might be drastically different, but the heart of the human feelings
within it have not changed. If you look at the paleolithic cave
paintings in Lascaux France, there's more going on there than pretty
pictures of animals. People were trying to tell us stories. Humans
have an incredible need for their lives to have meaning, and to pass
that on. A good tale can do that, whether it's real life drama, or
fiction filled with myth and magic. I take my cues wherever I find
them.
I am not a outliner or
a plot-planner of any kind. I write by the seat of the pants—one
idea building on another. Usually I'll have some kind of seminal
scene in mind, and that might be something that happens anywhere in
the story. I build around that. I'm a visual thinker, so my brain
sees possibilities that look like movie trailers, with all the
thunderous sound effects and stirring music accompanying quick
flashes of drama. My job as writer is to adequately describe what I
see in my head, to imagine what would happen next, and string it
together into a coherent whole. With a book, that's a very long
process, and somewhere in the middle, it always bogs down. That's
when you have to be tough with yourself, and shove your butt into the
chair, put your fingers on those keys, and write something—even
when you don't want to. Slogging through the doldrums middle of a
long project is the hardest part.
Keeping multiple
projects going helps stop me from getting stale and dissolving into
that dreaded 'Writer's Block'. If I am really stuck on something, I
will get up and walk away, and go do a little housework. If that time
away doesn't resolve the issue, I save and quit, and boot something
else up. Worst case scenario, I discuss it with a writing pal. Nine
times out of ten, in the process of talking it over or writing an
email, I come up with a solution on my own. The point is, you keep
going. Fall off that horse, get back on this one, and ride some more.
Don't let your frustration with one vehicle of expression sour you
from all further creative endeavors. Just work on something else.
If I just can't write
for a day or so, I don't sweat it. My mind is always open to ideas
and so I try and keep paper and a pen nearby. I have woken up from
some interesting dreams to jam on my glasses, squinting in the
nightlight, and scribble it out before the idea is gone. I've paused
in the middle of doing dishes, eating in a restaurant, weeding in the
garden, or watching a baseball game to jot something down.
Inspiration comes from all around, if you just leave the writer
antennae up. I write whenever I can, whether it's 30 words, 300, or
3,000. The point is, just get into the habit of getting a little
something on paper, even if it is just sketchy notes and a skeleton
outline. My story files go back over 25 years and numerous PCs and
laptops, and I've just kept backing them up and moving them to each
new machine. I'm still picking through story starts to redo or finish
that were new when my sons were preschoolers, and they are 28 and 30
now. The Sudarnian Chronicles novel I turned in to Pro Se earlier
this year sprang from a 100 page novel start that was originally
printed on fanfold, tractor pin fed, dot matrix printer. I'd lost the
file, and had to retype it all from scratch. The inspiration was my
two little boys, who loved console RPG games with teams of
multi-skilled characters, and when they heard I was writing a book,
they begged me to put them in it, and make them heroes. So when you
read the adventures of the brothers Ethan and Nicholas, they were
inspired by my own two little warriors, so many years ago. At the
time, I didn't know if I'd ever get the book done, let alone
published, but I kept it in my files for all those years. This past
year, the time was right to pull it out, dust it off, and finish the
darn thing.
Never give up. Write
whatever and whenever you can, save often and in more than one
format, and keep the faith. The more you write, the better you get,
and the easier the words flow. There's never been a better time to be
a published writer, even if you don't have a big named publisher and
a hefty advance check. Those folks who did the rock paintings in the
caves didn't concern themselves with how they were going to sell
their stuff or who the projected audience would be; they were just
determined to tell a story that would outlive them. That's kind of
where my head is these days. Even if someone 20 years down the road
buys one of my books in a thrift store for a pittance, I've still
managed to find one more person to entertain. I'm content with that.
I'm passing the Blog Hop torch here to three fine gentlemen that I have worked with as either/both writers and editors, Mr. Lee Houston Jr., Mr. Chuck Miller, and Mr. Jaime Ramos. Make sure you all go and check out their sites and see what they're up to—you won't be disappointed! Lee is the former editor of Pro Se Presents, as well as the author of HUGH MONN PRIVATE DETECTIVE books 1 and 2, as well as everyone's favorite superhero in PROJECT ALPHA. Chuck, with his wry wit, has a whole pantheon of oddball noir characters that seem to revolve around a town called Zenith in Massachusetts. Jaime is the mastermind behind the project featured below:
You can find Lee's blog here: http://leehoustonjr.blogspot.com/ and Chuck's here: http://theblackcentipede.blogspot.com/
I'll have more on the Blog Hop folks as info comes in.
A direct link to Lee's Blog Hop post: http://leehoustonjr.blogspot.com/2014/06/blog-hopping-with-lee-houston-junior.html
And yes folks, there's even more! Local Connecticut author Elizabeth K. Wadsworth has joined the Blog Hop! You can go see what she's up to by clicking right here: http://www.elizabethkwadsworth.com/What_s_New_.html
You don't want to miss out on this lady's writing, she has a real old fashioned pulp feel to her books, and I highly recommend them as an engaging read.
