News and Notices from the Writing Trenches #82…
[I apologize to my friends on Facebook, where I usually share these posts. Facebook has made it impossible to share. You can follow me on Google+. I recommend cancelling your Facebook accounts and creating Google+ accounts, if you haven’t already.]
Item. Mary Jo is back! In case you haven’t noticed, we (Carrick Publishing and I) just released Silicon Slummin’…and Just Gettin’ By, the sequel to Muddlin’ Through. Ex-USN Master-at-Arms Mary Jo Melendez is a stay-at-home gal in this one, but her new stomping grounds become the Silicon Valley. She takes a job as security director for a computer games firm. She’s just settlin’ in when she discovers she has a stalker. Russian and U.S. agents are also pursuing her. She employs a PI to protect her, and becomes romantically involved with the handsome Italian. She befriends an autistic boy who also helps in thwarting her pursuers. As in Mary Jo #1, the adventure and action are non-stop. Enjoy!
Item. The two sign-offs. Readers have probably noticed the two sign-offs I use at the end of my blog posts. I’ll let you in on a secret: they’re not original! Instead, they’re a bow to two special icons. “And so it goes…” honors the iconic Kurt Vonnegut. His curmudgeonly cynicism in A Man Without a Country has always been my inspiration for the writing style you see in my op-ed posts on current events and news events. “In elibris libertas,” used for posts about the writing business, book reviews, and author interviews, is a nod to public libraries everywhere (the version without the “e” is on a public library building in LA, if I remember correctly); the “e” was added after I completed my transition to ebooks with the second edition of Soldiers of God. You can now enjoy my prose in ebook format—quality entertainment at a reasonable price. Even the Infinity ebooks are less expensive than those from traditional publishers. Now you’re in the know.
Item. Cameos. I guess there’s not much interest for this, but I’ll put it out there once again. The first five readers who email me that they want to participate will receive a cameo appearance in More Than Human: The Mensa Contagion and a free copy of the ebook when it’s released. Unlike the Apple watch, there are no lines, no need to bring your tents to wait for the doors to open, and it doesn’t cost anything—well, a wee bit of your time, needed to send me an email (use my contact page). For those who only want to be characters in certain genres, More than Human is hard, traditional sci-fi, but a wee bit sexy and humorous to add some spice. Teaser: you could be in the first Mars colony! (Note: I’ll have to put a closing date on this soon so I can kick this novel out the door to my wonderful ebook prep team.)
Item. World Enough and Crime. I’d like to feature this anthology again, not only because I have a story in it (I won’t even say what it is), but because my esteemed publisher, Carrick Publishing, has put together a really good collection for readers of crime stories. If you like crime tales and love short stories, this is a book you shouldn’t miss (it’s available as an ebook and pbook). These short stories represent quality writing. M. H. Callway, author of the short story “The Ultimate Mystery,” has been short-listed for the Derringer Award, for example. Author Lisa de Nikolits gave the collection a good review too. Just in time maybe to lounge in that hammock and soak up some sun when spring comes? (Mary Jo will provide some of the same medicine, of course!)
Item. Amazon Worlds. Speaking of worlds! What is it? Should authors participate? Should readers care? “Dunno” is my answer to all three right now. My knee-jerk reaction is negative. My reason is simple: nothing good is the usual product coming out of committees. You know the story about the IQ of a committee: its IQ is the lowest IQ of its participating members divided by the number of members. (Congressional committees are very visible examples, but I’ve experienced the phenomenon at all levels.) I can’t even imagine working with a co-author (the one time I suggested it, he stole my idea and used it in one of his own novels—I won’t mention names because it was my stupid mistake to trust someone). Amazon Worlds is a more sophisticated form of Flash Fiction or internet soap operas, all creations done by a committee—fun for the participants I guess, but there’s all too often a dearth of quality control.
The idea? Some writer works his butt off developing his own parallel universe populated by his interesting characters (e.g. all my series), antagonists and protagonists who have some exciting adventures, often called plotting. Participating authors (J. A. Konrath and Barry Eisler are famous examples) give other writers permission to use those characters and add their own to create marketable fiction—the original authors and the new authors share the royalties equally. This isn’t a new idea. All those Star Trek novels aren’t written by the original screenplay writers (most of the ones for the “classic” episodes are already dead, including Nimoy—LLAP—and Rodenberry). Larry Niven created the Man-Kzin franchise (I always thought the Kzin were undeservedly lampooned kitties, but then I’m a cat lover—even of big cats—so playing on people’s fear of man-eating cats just isn’t my thing). Deaver writing another 007 tale and authors extending Bourne’s and other Ludlum characters’ adventures are other examples—contractually more formal than Amazon Worlds, I’m sure, but basically the same idea.
Going beyond my knee-jerk reaction, I think writers should take a wait-and-see attitude before jumping into the faddish, swirling rapids of Amazon’s wizardly machinations. For readers? I can predict a lot of confusion (I found the Man-Kzin series confusing at times, and often not matching Niven’s early storytelling expertise—now, of course, he’s a bit formulaic, maybe reflecting Pournelle’s influence?). I can also imagine readers having a lot of fun. Caveat emptor, though. Remember, Lost was written by a committee!
Item. Follow-up on the future of ebooks. If you haven’t read my posts about adding sensory additions to ebooks (something I won’t do, but I can see it happening), maybe you should. This goes for both readers and writers. Readers might have to decide if they want any of this, or just their plain vanilla ebooks. Writers might have to decide if they can do multimedia or are willing to hire the people to do it for them. Like anything at the cutting edge of technology, opinions will differ. Decisions, decisions!
A twist on this theme was sent me by Miki Sever, CEO of a Tel Aviv company called Tiktakti. He proposes a 3D visual experience that’s web-based. I don’t know how much 3D would add to my reading experience—I know it adds little to my movie experience—but Miki’s idea is interesting. Before I release an ebook—Silicon Slummin’…and Just Getting’ By, for example—I preview it using a web-based Amazon application that lets me page through the book using various simulated Kindle versions (yes, I do this, because I can and because I want a quality product to reach my readers). In some sense, Miki’s idea is just a generalization, albeit a clever one. (This isn’t intended as a plug, but you can certainly check it out if interested.)
In elibris libertas….
