So, I suppose that technically three can be considered a "series" but my Classic Science Fiction (CSF) series of articles has been left lacking. As you can tell by my other recent updates on the blog I've been busy writing rather than reading. However, I really enjoy writing the CSF articles and will endeavor to write another installment before the month of December is out. In the mean time, here are the first three CSF articles:
01: "Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes
02: "The Moon Moth" by Jack Vance
03: "Arena" by Fredric Brown
If you have not seen them before, I hope you enjoy!
Best,
Michael
Monday, December 12, 2011
Sunday, December 11, 2011
December Writing Update
Well, here I am, about a month and a half since I first published Inner Lives: Three Short Stories. I am still very fond of that collection but the breakout hit has been my short SciFi/Horror story Sleep. I think I hit a ground rule double with the cover and description. And the reviews have absolutely blown me away! Such high praise is definitely not what I was expecting for a short story that made the rounds of the fiction magazines and was rejected by them all without so much as a "how do you do." Now I only hope that my future work is received as warmly.
About that future work. My last post introduced you to Sullivan's War. This series will span four books of varying length. The prologue, Sergeant Riley's Account, will be out this coming week. It is a novelette at about 10,000 words. Part I of the main story line, All Good Men Serve the Devil, is currently sitting at around 30,000 words (a novella) but there are some scenes I need to expand (not to pad, but because it is needed). Parts II (A City Without Walls) and III (Edaline's Dawn) have yet to be written. Part II has been outlined and looks like it will come in as a novella as well.
So, since each part will probably be less than novel-length, I am going to hold off on producing print versions of each title. Near the end of 2012, when the series has been completed, I will then compile them all and release the whole story arc in print.
In short fiction, I have recently completed a story called "Main & Church." It is a quiet, literary story like the ones in Inner Lives and I am quite happy with it. I will be revising and editing it before too long and will then submit it to a few markets. If it doesn't sell I'll then think about releasing it as a stand-alone ebook. I also have a collection in the works called Visitors. I have three stories about alien visitation that I am still tweaking and if I get to a point where I am happy with them Visitors will probably be out sometime next year.
And then there is Chrysopteron, my epic, generations-spanning saga chronicling the triumphs and failures of the human race. This is my baby, I've been hand-holding it for a long time (it's been in the works about two years) and I feel so strongly about it that I want to be absolutely sure that it is as perfect as I can make it before releasing it out into the world. It may or may not be released in 2012. It will depend on how long Sullivan's War takes to complete. But have no fear, Sullivan's War will be completed by this time next year. That is my major goal for 2012.
I have one other SciFi novel (and, as always, many short stories) that I want to work on sometime within the next few years as well as a non-speculative fiction novel called Disreputable. If you have read Henry James's The Aspern Papers think of an updated version of that with some very important differences.
Watch for the release of Sergeant Riley's Account this coming week. I hope you find the description engaging and that you'll take a chance on it. As always, thank you to all who have bought my ebooks, reviewed them, mentioned and RTed me on Twitter or even just browsed my blog. Without all of you I am nothing as a writer.
Best,
Michael
About that future work. My last post introduced you to Sullivan's War. This series will span four books of varying length. The prologue, Sergeant Riley's Account, will be out this coming week. It is a novelette at about 10,000 words. Part I of the main story line, All Good Men Serve the Devil, is currently sitting at around 30,000 words (a novella) but there are some scenes I need to expand (not to pad, but because it is needed). Parts II (A City Without Walls) and III (Edaline's Dawn) have yet to be written. Part II has been outlined and looks like it will come in as a novella as well.
So, since each part will probably be less than novel-length, I am going to hold off on producing print versions of each title. Near the end of 2012, when the series has been completed, I will then compile them all and release the whole story arc in print.
In short fiction, I have recently completed a story called "Main & Church." It is a quiet, literary story like the ones in Inner Lives and I am quite happy with it. I will be revising and editing it before too long and will then submit it to a few markets. If it doesn't sell I'll then think about releasing it as a stand-alone ebook. I also have a collection in the works called Visitors. I have three stories about alien visitation that I am still tweaking and if I get to a point where I am happy with them Visitors will probably be out sometime next year.
And then there is Chrysopteron, my epic, generations-spanning saga chronicling the triumphs and failures of the human race. This is my baby, I've been hand-holding it for a long time (it's been in the works about two years) and I feel so strongly about it that I want to be absolutely sure that it is as perfect as I can make it before releasing it out into the world. It may or may not be released in 2012. It will depend on how long Sullivan's War takes to complete. But have no fear, Sullivan's War will be completed by this time next year. That is my major goal for 2012.
I have one other SciFi novel (and, as always, many short stories) that I want to work on sometime within the next few years as well as a non-speculative fiction novel called Disreputable. If you have read Henry James's The Aspern Papers think of an updated version of that with some very important differences.
Watch for the release of Sergeant Riley's Account this coming week. I hope you find the description engaging and that you'll take a chance on it. As always, thank you to all who have bought my ebooks, reviewed them, mentioned and RTed me on Twitter or even just browsed my blog. Without all of you I am nothing as a writer.
Best,
Michael
Friday, December 9, 2011
Coming Soon: Sullivan's War
In about a week's time I will be releasing the prologue to a series called Sullivan's War. Sergeant Riley's Account will introduce the planet of Edaline and provide some back story for the following trilogy of books. Those books will follow Rick Sullivan as he battles to free his home planet from tyranny. Below are the prospective covers and titles for each book in the series. I'd love to know what you think!
Best,
Michael
Edit: I have now standardized the font on all the covers to reinforce the fact that they are part of a series. I think they now look much stronger as a whole.
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Setting the Tone
This, ladies and gentlemen, is a lesson in tone. As writers, we may have great dialogue, action, what-have-you, but sometimes a scene just doesn't feel right. This could be an issue of tone. A story's tone builds from the first sentence onward. Everything you write effects what comes after it, for good or bad. So, it is important to view a scene as part of the whole.
For this example we'll say you're writing a dramatic scene. If a reader has just read, say, a humorous scene, then has to jump into the dramatic scene, the tone might not yet be properly established for them to feel the weight of the drama. Even if the scene itself is perfectly executed, the reader has to be eased into it. A good way to do this is with a segue, perhaps a bit of description to set the tone. If you describe an ominous or foreboding scene, the reader will be ready to accept that tone. You are mentally preparing the reader for what is about to happen.
From the world of television, here is a good example.
Watch the intro to the show Diff'rent Strokes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6BxDr6mr3M
Now look at the same video with diff'rent music: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwxLekENDw0
So, this is an example of tone. Exact same video, but the effect on the viewer is completely changed by the tone set by the music. The very first notes of the second video set an ominous, disturbing tone and what the viewer sees is colored by that music, which continues on through the piece. Think about this the next time you sit down to write. Humorous asides are fine to alleviate tense situations but make sure they don't have the effect that adding a funky back beat in the middle of the second video would have. Keep your tone consistent throughout the scene. The humor, if you have it, has to be countered quickly with drama. This keeps the tone consistent and also helps to heighten tension.
Now, you may decide to keep the reader on a rollercoaster ride of funny and tense. This is fine if done intentionally, many writers do it. But be sure it is intentional. If your scene is meant to be sad and dramatic, meant to elicit the single tear in the corner of the eye, you don't want the reader to expect your hero to crack wise while his partner, just ten days from retirement, lies dying in his arms while the man's wife and two small children look on.
Do any of you have good ideas on setting the tone? I'd love to hear about them!
Best,
Michael
For this example we'll say you're writing a dramatic scene. If a reader has just read, say, a humorous scene, then has to jump into the dramatic scene, the tone might not yet be properly established for them to feel the weight of the drama. Even if the scene itself is perfectly executed, the reader has to be eased into it. A good way to do this is with a segue, perhaps a bit of description to set the tone. If you describe an ominous or foreboding scene, the reader will be ready to accept that tone. You are mentally preparing the reader for what is about to happen.
From the world of television, here is a good example.
Watch the intro to the show Diff'rent Strokes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6BxDr6mr3M
Now look at the same video with diff'rent music: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwxLekENDw0
So, this is an example of tone. Exact same video, but the effect on the viewer is completely changed by the tone set by the music. The very first notes of the second video set an ominous, disturbing tone and what the viewer sees is colored by that music, which continues on through the piece. Think about this the next time you sit down to write. Humorous asides are fine to alleviate tense situations but make sure they don't have the effect that adding a funky back beat in the middle of the second video would have. Keep your tone consistent throughout the scene. The humor, if you have it, has to be countered quickly with drama. This keeps the tone consistent and also helps to heighten tension.
Now, you may decide to keep the reader on a rollercoaster ride of funny and tense. This is fine if done intentionally, many writers do it. But be sure it is intentional. If your scene is meant to be sad and dramatic, meant to elicit the single tear in the corner of the eye, you don't want the reader to expect your hero to crack wise while his partner, just ten days from retirement, lies dying in his arms while the man's wife and two small children look on.
Do any of you have good ideas on setting the tone? I'd love to hear about them!
Best,
Michael
Monday, December 5, 2011
"I Sit and Look Out" by Walt Whitman
At this time of year when celebration is in the air and the buying of material goods reaches a nearly religious level of obsession, I think it is important to stop, sit and think about the state of the world and the unending plight of those less fortunate. This poem by Walt Whitman always helps me remember to do that.
--
I sit and look out upon all the sorrows of the world, and upon all oppression and shame;
I hear secret convulsive sobs from young men, at anguish with themselves,
remorseful after deeds done;
I see, in low life, the mother misused by her children, dying, neglected, gaunt, desperate;
I see the wife misused by her husband--I see the treacherous seducer of young women;
I mark the ranklings of jealousy and unrequited love, attempted to be hid--
I see these sights on the earth;
I see the workings of battle, pestilence, tyranny--I see martyrs and prisoners;
I observe a famine at sea--I observe the sailors casting lots who shall be kill'd,
to preserve the lives of the rest;
I observe the slights and degradations cast by arrogant persons upon laborers, the poor,
and upon negroes, and the like;
All these--All the meanness and agony without end, I sitting, look out upon,
See, hear, and am silent.
--
I sit and look out upon all the sorrows of the world, and upon all oppression and shame;
I hear secret convulsive sobs from young men, at anguish with themselves,
remorseful after deeds done;
I see, in low life, the mother misused by her children, dying, neglected, gaunt, desperate;
I see the wife misused by her husband--I see the treacherous seducer of young women;
I mark the ranklings of jealousy and unrequited love, attempted to be hid--
I see these sights on the earth;
I see the workings of battle, pestilence, tyranny--I see martyrs and prisoners;
I observe a famine at sea--I observe the sailors casting lots who shall be kill'd,
to preserve the lives of the rest;
I observe the slights and degradations cast by arrogant persons upon laborers, the poor,
and upon negroes, and the like;
All these--All the meanness and agony without end, I sitting, look out upon,
See, hear, and am silent.
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