The sanctity of media

(Please, don't go.)

Something that caught my eye this week while bouncing around the Internet in my spare moments.

In a post on the Melville House blog, Dennis Johnson explains why indie authors and small presses shouldn't be celebrating what looks like the slow demise of  Barnes and Noble. Honestly, I can't say the demise is surprising. Media isn't sacred. It never has been. I saw it from the inside as I watched newspapers change and evolve.

It's the telling of the story that's important. The media the story is told on, not so much. So we can want things to stay the same, but that won't make it happen. In college I worked on the newspaper staff full time and in the summers and over holidays I sold CDs at a couple of different Blockbuster music stores. Today, both newspapers and record stores are either dying or dead. And if you'd have told me back then that's what was going to happen I'd have said you were crazy. But that's exactly what happened. But people still consume information, they just get it from a different place now. And they still buy music, new and old, they just buy it from a different place.

Johnson makes a good point about why we need bookstores. This chunk struck me.

Surveys say “showrooming” — seeing a thing before buying it — is an integral part of buying books online. One survey I wrote about a year ago posited that 40% of the people who buy books online looked at them in a bookstore first.

 

A New York Times report by David Streitfeld two weeks ago took the notion a step further. Noting that “the triumph of e-books over their physical brethren is not happening quite as fast as forecast,” Streitfeld floated the idea that this may be due to the “counterintuitive possibility … that the 2011 demise of Borders, the second-biggest chain, dealt a surprising blow to the e-book industry. Readers could no longer see what they wanted to go home and order.”

The idea of there being no more Barnes and Noble saddens me. When I was single and working nights, I was in a Barnes and Noble that looked a lot like the one above four or five times a week.  I bought something almost every time I was there. I loved it. Of course, this was before Kindles and Nooks and before the rise of Amazon. Now, I go to a Barnes and Noble a couple times a year. And I love books. So, if you are looking for someone to blame for the demise feel free to point a finger at me.

Productivity Update

Roughly 1,500 words. That's what I wrote this week. It's about 500 off the pace I want to keep, which is a just under 2,000 words a week. A good day this weekend and I'll be able to make that up. In a previous post I mentioned starting up a word count tracker int eh right column over there. I still might, but I think for now I'll just tack this little bit onto the end of the Friday post.

That's it from me. Have a great weekend, folks. And come back on Monday. We're talking notebooks. It's very exciting.

 

Give me your movie recommendations

(The Hobbit, the first movie we saw in 5 months.)

It's not an original complaint from new parents, and, honestly, it's not a complaint at all. Ever since Ellie came along Gina and I haven't been able to see movies like we used to. We weren't every-weekend moviegoers when it was just the two of us, but we did go pretty regularly. But before we went on a movie binge and saw The Hobbit, Jack Reacher, and Lincoln in the last couple weeks, we hadn't been to a movie since The Dark Knight Rises in July.

We know we've missed stuff, and we've gone back to the list of releases month by month for the last half of 2012. We have our list of stuff we still want to see, but we also want your recommendations. What did you see the second part of 2012 that we should also see? Keep in mind that we are blockbuster people. We don't go in much for the character studies, or the relationship dramas. We like things like The Hobbit and The Dark Knight Rises. Big budgets, big sets, big action

So, let's hear it. What do you recommend?

Writing goals for 2013

It's something I have to tell myself over and over again, especially when thinking about this writing thing. You can only control the things you can control. You can't make someone buy your book. You can't control someone's reaction to your work. The only think you can control is your output. So, with that in mind, here's the plan for 2013.

FINISH
The second book in the CHASING FILTHY LUCRE series. Two false starts and roughly 50,000 words later, this attempt feels like it's going in the right direction. It's the logical next step for the story. I had an overarching four-book plot planned when I started CFL, and every time I've started to write the second book I've stuck to that plan. I think that's what the problem was. It was a great plan for the overarching story, but where book 2 was supposed to start didn't make sense. Now, it does.  
And when I'm finished: This is one I'll self publish.

The third and fourth JACKSON CANE stories. This is another case where I know the overarching story. I also know what needs to happen in each of the next four stories. The next two in the series should be easy to write. The trick with these stories is getting people to read them. I've said this before, but I like these stories. I like them a lot. They are fun to write, they are fun to read, at least I hope that second part is true. I just can't seem to find them an audience. That's another project for the New Year.
And when I'm finished: Self publishing these too. 

Pirates short story from my phone. I was playing with a plain text editor on my phone and got to writing a pirate story I'd been thinking about for a few weeks. I wrote about 700 words while I was waiting to get my haircut, and then I wrote another 1,000 words while killing time elsewhere. It's a good story with the possibility of more stories in the same world. I'm tentatively titling it Captain on the Sultan's Sea, but that's just for now.
And when I'm finished: I haven't decided what I'm going to do with it just yet, but I'm thinking it'll be something I send out to see if I can't find it a home in an anthology or magazine. Like I said, I think this world has the potential for many stories to come from it. That's what has me hesitating about sending it out. I don't know that I want to give up control of the series opener. But this also feels like something that could be sold. So that's where I'm leaning right now.

IN THE HOLLOWS. This is something that I started while I was laid off. I got about 5,000 words into it before I put it aside so I could focus on finishing the second CHASING FILTHY LUCRE book. And you can tell from the earlier paragraph how well that turned out. But this story i'\s something that I like and think has some potential. And, apparently, I only write stuff that can be made into series.
And when I'm finished: This one I'm pretty sure that I'll send out. Same reservations with the pirate story, but, again, I'm leaning to submitting this one.

So that's it. Those are my writing goals for 2013. The stuff I can control. Five stories/books in 365 days. Totally doable.

Addendum: A little peak behind the curtain. I wrote this post a week ago. Since then, I've decided to add another goal to the list. I want to write 100,000 words in 2013. Doing the math, that's just 275 words a day. That's a very manageable number. I'm playing with  adding a counter over there in some of that space on the right, but not sure yet. They can be a pain to update, or I'll forget and it will be stuck at some embarrassingly small total for the entire year.

But, there you go. One more goal. That's really it this time.

Looking back at 2012

Taking a moment this morning to look back at the year that was. And 2012 was a big year. Huge in a lot of ways, but two big things come to mind.

I started the year unemployed, having lost my newspaper job in September 2011. Gina and I made it through thanks to a lot of prayer and knowing that we wouldn't be given anything we couldn't handle. But even having the confidence we'd make it through, it was still tough. My unemployment check kept us from having to dip too deep into our savings, but by the time 2012 rolled around I think she and I had both had enough of me being out of work.

Thankfully, we didn't have to wait too much longer for me to find employment, because in February 2012 I started my current job. It was something that happened quickly, like I'm sure most of things do. I went from hearing about the job to being hired in less than a week. I wrote more about the process and my relief over finding a job here, if you want to read more.

It's a great job working with great people, doing everything that I love in an industry that feels much more stable than newspapers. I really do feel like I've been tremendously blessed.

But the blessings didn't end with a new job. At almost the same time I lost my job, we found out that Gina was pregnant. So we spent the first half of her pregnancy with me out of work. But, obviously it all worked out, and in June we welcomed Ellie Harper into the world and our family.

(Ellie on Dec. 18, the day she turned 6 months old.)

She's amazing. She's hilarious. And she's been life-changing in all the best ways. We already can't imagine our lives without her.

People tell you that the time flies by so treasure every moment. You hear it so much that you start to ignore it. At least, I did. But it's really true. I'm writing this with her in a jumperoo next to me and she's bouncing away. It's hard to believe that she's already 6 months old and cutting teeth. We saw her first one on Christmas. Unbelievable.

So, that's my year. Those are the highlights of 2012 for me. Hope your year was as blessed as mine, and I hope your 2013 is doubly so.

I need other writers' advice

Hello, blog friends. I seem to be staying away longer and longer lately, only checking in or reaching out when I need something. Horrible behavior, I know. But this time's no different. I need some advice from other writers.

I have a former coworker who teaches a creative writing class at a local community college. Last year she asked me to speak to her class at the end of the semester. It was great. I talked about what to do with your book once you're finished with it, and I discussed the traditional publishing route versus the indie path.

The former coworker has asked me to come back this year, and I accepted. I can give the same presentation as last year but with some tweaks. I feel like the divisions between traditional and indie have kind of melted away over the last year. More and more traditional authors are climbing into the indie pool, and there are more and more traditional publishers picking up previously indie folks. And there are a bunch of people who are picking and choosing publishing routes by project now. So, I could update last year's presentation.

But I thought I'd ask other writers I know what they think I should talk about. If you were in a creative writing class and could hear someone speak, what do you hope they'd talk about? What questions would you like answered? What topics would you like addressed?

Help me out. The last class of these kids' semester is counting on you, writer friends. You're their only hope.

Checking in

Hey, blog. It's been a while. I've been busy. You understand. Lots of writing getting done, but it's the kind that pays the bills. Unfortunately that's not my fiction right now. It will be someday, but not yet. So most of my best words are going toward speeches and blog articles. But they're words, and I'm still flexing the writing muscles. So that's something.

Anyway, I don't have much to tell you other than that. I did figure out how to tell the third Jackson Cane story. I've known what needs to happen in it ever since I conceived of the series, I just didn't know how I'd tell the story. I do now. And it's called Others. That may give you the smallest hint of what's going to happen. Then again, it's one word. It may not help at all.

OK, that's really it. Nothing else to say. As a way to make up for a lack of actual content, hopefully you'll accept this photo of the cutest baby girl I know. She'll be five months this weekend. Unbelievable.

Consider Us Even hits 1,000 downloads

Checked in at Smashwords this morning and saw this.

I've been inching close to 1,000 downloads of Consider Us Even for what seems like eternity. It was in the 990s for about a month. Then suddenly I was seeing a download or two a day over the last week. I knew that it had to be close to hitting 1,000. And, sometime between Sunday evening and this morning, it did. So that's cool.

Actually, it's more than that. It's motivating. I've admitted recently that sales haven't been great. And by "haven't been great" I mean stagnant. Almost non-existent. But this gives me some hope that people may want to read what I've written.

I'm excited by the fact that it's reached 1,000 downloads at Smashwords alone. It passed the 1,000 overall download mark a longtime back. It's probably getting close to 3,000 overall downloads now. But I like seeing that four-digit number all in one place.

What's it meant for sales of Chasing Filthy Lucre? Nothing, really. I included a long excerpt of Chasing Filthy Lucre with Consider Us Even in hopes that it would spur sales. It hasn't. Not at Smashwords. Not anywhere. There are people who actually complain about the fact that the excerpt is there over at Barnes and Noble. They felt like Consider Us Even was just a ploy to get people to buy Chasing Filthy Lucre. And, I suppose that it was, or is. But it's also a free story, so, really, what are you complaining about. You aren't out any money, and no one is making you buy anything after you're done. Some people, right?

This is a short story that I really like. It's only about 2,000 words, and some people have said that it doesn't really go anywhere. And, I guess they may be right. I always thought of this piece, though, and just a momentary look at one guy's life. He's living near the bottom of a pretty low society and he finds a little pleasure if just for a moment. You don't get the traditional beginning, middle, and end, but I hope you get a satisfying tale.

Want to get your own copy and help me get that second thousand downloads? Click here and go to Smashwords.

Get to know Jake Bible

Jake Bible is an author I've followed on Twitter for a while, and, as you'll see, his writing career is something I've followed from a distance. He's got a new book out, Metal and Ash. It's the end of his Apex Trilogy that started with Dead Mech. I asked him the other day if he wouldn't mind answering some questions. He said yes, so I sent him a few. These are the answers he sent back. Take a couple of minutes to read them and get to know Jake Bible, then go buy his books. Links are at the end.


Give us the elevator pitch for Jake Bible, not your latest book. You’ve got 150 words. Go.
I'm a writer. From military scifi to hardcore erotica, if it can be written I can write it. Pure and simple. My life's goal is to be a working writer that can support my family with words alone. That is my entire focus.

How do you classify yourself?
I don't. I have always refused to be classified. Story of my life.  I write the stories that are in my head. If they can be put into a category then great! But I am not a writer that can be thumbnailed. I wirte the story that needs to be written. I lean towards scifi/horror/thriller, but most of my novels are a nice mix.

OK, now tell us about the newest book, METAL AND ASH.
Here's the official description. It really sums it up:

"What began in the wasteland of DEAD MECH, continued alongside in Europe and Asia in The Americans, now has its epic conclusion in Metal and Ash!

Commander James Capreze and his team of mech pilots no longer must battle just zombies, cannibals, religious cults and the ever dreaded dead mechs. Now they will be put to the test by the forces of the Three as the evil alliance bent on dominating every inch of the world attacks from two fronts, forcing Capreze to split his forces and make alliances with those he had been sworn to defeat. The wasteland becomes the setting for an epic fight for basic human survival like it hasn’t seen in hundreds of years.

Will fifty foot battle mechs be enough against hundreds of thousands of techno-zombies ready to wipe everything living off the scorched map that is the wasteland?
Join Capreze, his mech pilots, the refugee Americans, end every denizen of the wasteland as they make one final stand to keep the Three from bringing humanity’s downfall. Alliances are formed and broken, mech pilots are made and murdered, secrets are revealed and agendas destroyed, and thousands of bodies fall and rise again in the Apex Trilogy finale: Metal and Ash!"

I write all my own summaries, descriptions and synopsis so I hope the above works.

Where did your interest in mechs come from? Were you a Robotech or Voltron fan as a kid?
I have always loved the idea of a pilot inside a massive battle machine. I'll be honest though, I really never got into BattleTech or Mech Warrior. I did watch Voltron as a kid and Transformers. I just really liked the idea of mechs smashing zombies and also of a zombie controlling a mech. It was something I had to write.

DEAD MECH is the world’s first drabble novel. Your use of the drabble makes me think you’re a fan of flash fiction. Am I right? Why or why not?
 I'm a fan of all fiction, great and small. I do like flash fiction, but to be honest I am really a novelist. I rarely write short fiction anymore because my mind just keeps expanding the stories. I have a hard time nowadays keeping a story short. I do still write my weekly free drabble, though. Each week I have the Friday Night Drabble party on my website so fans can have a free drabble if they like. There's hundreds there for people to peruse, if they choose.

You’re a self-published author. What’s that journey been like for you?
A long, strange trip, for sure. I started self-publishing because my first publisher just wasn't ready for ebooks. He understood print books only. I was lucky to get my rights to DEAD MECH back; the publishers was easy to work with. I published DEAD MECH as an ebook and as print in February 2011. I have since published two more novels, a novella and short story collection, and have a YA novel on the way. Plus, Stark- An Illustrated Novella, which is ebook only and has some fine illustrations to go with the brutal, violent story. It has been crazy, for sure, being a self-published author. It is a lot of work, and actually I would prefer not to do any of it other than write. That's why I have an agent. My hopes are to sell some of my novels for traditional publishing- as long as the contract is fair and good! ;)

You are a name I’ve seen for a while. You appear to have the kind of success that lots of other indie authors would like to have, me included. You have any secrets to share? Are there publishing gnomes whose palms I should be greasing with freshly printed twenties?
Okay, gonna have to be brutal and crush dreams. There is no secret. I may have my name out there, but I am no where near making a living at writing. Only about 5 percent of writers make a living at it. Seriously. The successes I have seen have been short lived. Publishing is publishing, whether self or traditional. I'd say there is the same percentage of success in either one. All this press about self-published writers making money hand over fist is all about the same group of writers. It's all BS. The gold rush is over and all that is left is the same old back breaking work that has always been there. Sorry there aren't any gnomes. :(

You are sitting at home. A masked man kicks in your front door and screams something unintelligible. You sit in stunned silence for a couple beats, and then the man raises his mask and says “Come on, I’m kidnapping you, and we’ll never return. But grab three books to bring with you. I’m not a monster.” What do you grab and why?
They'd be three empty composition books so I can keep writing! I don't tend to re-read books. I'm one of those people that can't stand spoilers so re-reading books is anti-climactic for me. Not that I haven't done it, just that it isn't on my priority list at all. Writing is what I can't give up.

Give us the names of some writers we may haven’t heard of, but we should have? And what work of theirs should we read to get an idea of who they are as a writer?
James Melzer, Phil Rossi, Justin Macumber, Paul E Cooley are just a few. Read everything by them. Great stuff. You can't go wrong there. I might also recommend Scott Roche, Shannon Michaels, Mur Lafferty and Jeremy Shipp. Go get their books! Oh, and Robert R. Best and Timothy Long. Too many! Too many!

What about overhyped? You bold enough to name any names?
No such thing as overhyped, in my opinion. Hype is a writer's dream. I long for the days when my name is as ubiquitous as James Patterson's!

What’s next for you? Anything coming up that we should look for?
My first YA novel, Little Dead Man, will be out in mid-November. It is for middle school and up. It is the novel that landed me my agent, but we just couldn't find a home for it. I didn't want it to sit around, so I am publishing it myself. Just in time for the holidays! What's it about? Glad you asked!

"Garret Weir has just turned seventeen. For any normal teen this would be quite the milestone. But for Garret it’s even more amazing he’s made it to this age, because in Garret’s life the human population of the Earth is gone, changed and turned into flesh hungry zombies, or “necs”, as he calls them. In the world he was born into, except for his parents that have kept him safe in a small compound hidden in the mountains of southern Oregon, Garret has never known another living soul. However, he is not the only seventeen year old in the family. Just the only one living. For Garret is alive and breathing and his twin, Garth, is undead, has been since birth, leaving him the size of an infant and attached to Garret’s spine. And he won’t leave his brother in peace. Set decades after the zombie apocalypse, Little Dead Man tells the story of conjoined twins Garret and Garth Weir. A fast-paced, high-action tale that doesn’t pull any punches as Garret, with Garth always attached, must struggle with a mother that is mentally unstable, a missing father that has kept too many secrets and the fact that the world he had always been told was completely dead, actually has well-developed human survivor pockets. And not all of those are friendly. Not even close."

Get a copy of any of Jake Bible's books for your Kindle by clicking here.
Get a copy of any of Jake Bible's books for you Nook by clicking here.
And if you prefer Smashwords, click here.
And check out Jake's blog, Brain Squeezin's, for more from him.

Help me fix Reunion and Scouts

Have you ever had a story that you just wanted to tell people? Something that happened to you or someone you know, and it's such a great story that you need to share it, but you can't find anyone. No matter how hard you try, there's no one around that will listen to your tale?

I think we all have. I've got two. One is Reunion. The other is Scouts. They are my Jackson Cane stories, and I think they're great. But no one is reading them. No one. Almost literally. And, honestly, I don't get it.

A couple of weeks ago I tried to change the blurbs. They were admittedly poor. They needed to be beefed up, so that's what I did. I updated and hoped that I'd see sales start to increase. But nothing. I don't think I've sold one book since the blurbs were updated. I think the covers are good. They are simple, but I like them.

So, I'm stumped, and I need your help. What's wrong with these stories? Why aren't people buying them? I'm going to post the new blurbs and covers here, and I want you to tell me what's wrong. And don't pull any punches. Let me know what's wrong. Why aren't people buying. I want to get these stories into people's hands.

REUNION

Play cops and monsters with Jackson Cane and the rest of the Freak Police.

They’re cops, sort of. Cane and his coworkers chase certain undesirables back to where they belong. Back through the portal in a dark alleyway. Back to their own dimension. Back home. Cane's the best of the bunch, but his next cases are going to bring him face to face with someone he's not sure he wants to see again, with creatures he’s never seen before, and something he’d only heard stories about.

In this first adventure, Jackson Cane is called to a gruesome crime scene that looks like the handiwork of someone he knows all too well. He hopes he’s wrong, because, if he’s not, he’s headed for a reunion he never wanted to happen.

This nearly 8,000 word short story is the first in a series.



SCOUTS

Play cops and monsters with Jackson Cane and the rest of the Freak Police.

They’re cops, sort of. Cane and his coworkers chase certain undesirables back to where they belong. Back through the portal in a dark alleyway. Back to their own dimension. Back home. Cane's the best of the bunch, but his next cases are going to bring him face to face with someone he's not sure he wants to see again, with creatures he’s never seen before, and something he’s only heard stories about.

In his second adventure, Jackson Cane spots a trio of suspicious 20-somethings eating noodles at Charlie Chan’s Kung Food. His instincts tell him something's wrong. When he sees the same trio later, Cane finds out his instincts couldn't have been more right -- and that's bad news for him and the rest of the Freak Police. Because these young ones are only the first wave of something bigger, and the Freak Police may not be ready for that kind of fight.

This 13,000-word story is the second in the series of Jackson Cane adventures.

Battle of the Bonds