I write because my passion is to tell people stories.
Stories of love and hate, of fear and hope. Stories where good people do bad things and bad people do good things. Stories of lives that are unexpected, horrible and beautiful.
I write these things because I believe they are true in real life, therefore should be in fiction too. But not matter what I write, I always seem to be asking 'why'?
Perhaps the most admired writing talent in the science fiction field.
I’m actually really flattered by this quiz result.
Ursula K. Le Guin has published twenty-one novels (including the Earthsea Series), eleven volumes of short stories, three collections of essays, twelve books for children, six volumes of poetry and four of translation, and has received many awards.
I can only dream to one day say I’ve published as much.
Not only are the people on their crazy (yes I include myself in that statement) but they’ve started a chain story in the discussions forum.
I encourage you all to head over a take a peek.
As for submissions, I haven’t sent out any stories so far this year. My friends Jodi Cleghorn and Krista Ball were recently accepted into the 3rd Flash Fiction Challenge. Congrats to you two! I did not submit to the challenge this time around.
I’ll send something out into the universe soon. When I do, you’ll be the first to know.
Just wanted to post quickly about the book launch this past Saturday… It was AMAZING!!!
Not only did we have a packed room, a documentary guy filming us, great food, and the support of the illustrator, publisher and local speculative fiction magazine “OnSpec”….. We sold out in an hour and half (from 1:45 to 3:15 – even though the event was supposed to start at 2).
That means we sold approximately 130 books. Wow!
Also, as of today, the book “Seven Deadly Sins” is the number 10 best seller on the Publishers website (how cool is that?) and has three really great reviews on the site.
I’ve ordered a bunch more books and they will arrive in Edmonton in about 3 weeks, so for anyone who couldn’t get a copy let me know and we’ll make arrangements.
Thanks so much to the people who came out to support me.
The Seven Deadly Sins book (collection of Flash Fiction of which two of my short stories belong) is being launched here in Edmonton on April 18. Not sure yet what all the details will be but I will let you know.
The book launch will just be for the hard copy book. Absolute-XPress also publishes in e-book format so the book will be available in that form earlier than the book launch date. Again, once I have more details I will let you know.
I’ll post again soon. I plan on accepting Nixy’s challenge so I’ll post my exercise here.
Sorry I’ve been away for so long. I’ve been working through a mess of ideas.
First off, here are some news articles I’ve been collecting this week that are sure to spark some creativity. I’ve been on a real Science Fiction – Space and Science bent so that’s what these links will be about:
Second, I think not blogging is the side effect of having your brain re-wired.
I’ve heard other authors talking about how to build worlds before. The kind of worlds that draw your reader in and make them crave for more. These authors spoke of backstory; the stuff you need to know about your world/characters/etc but that doesn’t get explained to your reader within the first 30 pages. They also spoke of how you must make your world real – real in the sense that you know how all the little things work together in your ecology and that your government system is Feudalism and not a Monarchy (and what the difference is).
For my novel “Ice Debt” I understood the political structures and history of the opposing force and how that influenced the other parties in my novel. I knew who was trying to kill who and why. And I understood what principles kept the two main groups against the opposition from fighting along side each other. You would think that I knew my world.
However I read a book last weekend that made me see I didn’t. At least not completely.
“Mistborn; the Final Empire” by Brandon Sanderson is the first book in a three book fantasy series. It’s a really fun book to read, and by that I don’t mean that it’s necessarily happy only that the writing was very good and make it enjoyable. The magic system in this world was detailed with rules of what you can and can not do that it felt more like science than magic. While the writing and the story are good, they are not what changed my mind. It was a small simple detail.
This book spoke directly of the economy the world, its ups and downs and how it affected the characters. This was something I’d never seen in a fantasy book and rarely in a science fiction (or perhaps just not the ones I’ve read). This detail wasn’t a prominent part of the story but it was factored into the discussions that the characters had. And why would they? Almost all societies as we understand them must contain some sort of payment system and this system would be affected by the ebb and flow of economics just like our world just different (Example: good times – money flows into the coffers of the king, bad times – the king banishes more people).
Economics was what I had missed in my book. Nature has a cycle and chain reactions, politics/ societal structures and personal relationships do too, but I had missed a cycle that affects us just as much.
Funny how one little thing can make you see things in a different light.
So what will I be changing in my novel to incorporate this new lens? Actually, not much. When I assessed my world I realized that the main characters and their people worked on a trade and barter system. The opposition however would have an economy similar to the one we use today in the real world, but my book doesn’t present an opportunity to showcase that.
My book may have been just fine without coming to the realization that I hadn’t included Economics, but I feel better knowing that I’ve covered as many things as I can think of to make my world as real as possible.
That’s all for now. I promise to post more often. Cheers.
The contest is essentailly for anyone who has completed a novel already and is willing to let the public users of Amazon vote to get your book published by Penguin. The deadline is February 2.
