Recently me and the gang at Athens Writers Association (check out my upcoming AWA page to see info and other stories!) performed a reading at a local coffee shop. Since I’ve been playing around with a journal of stories written when I was six I decided to read some. I’ll let Video-Me introduce them. Enjoy!
Recently my mother uncovered a stack of stories written by a six year old me. I’ve decided to start an ongoing feature where I share these stories – complete with typos and misspellings – just so you can see not only that I’ve been telling stories for as long as I could talk, but that the stories that come out of this little head have always been a bit…off.
Today’s story is stretching a bit because I realize I was probably 8 when I wrote it even though it was stored with my 1986-87 papers, but I thought it was too good to pass up. It was an exercise I was given in school requiring me to use certain big words. Those words were underlined on my paper. The results are interesting.
The Ghost
Last night I had a dream about making a commercial that promoted a new Ghostbuster movie! In my dream I requested that my little brother be submitted as the baddest ghost in town. When I woke up next to my bed all dressed up like a little ghost was my brother looking mean and saying, “According to copyright protection any photograph or produced endorsement from a book or movie must have prior approval.” I said, “What?”
the end
Recently my mother uncovered a stack of stories written by a six year old me. I’ve decided to start an ongoing feature where I share these stories – complete with typos and misspellings – just so you can see not only that I’ve been telling stories for as long as I could talk, but that the stories that come out of this little head have always been a bit…off.
So without further ado, I present….
The Christmas That Almost Wasn’t
One day Santa Claus lost his reindeer. He could not deliver toys with-out his reindeer! For ten days he tryd to think of something but he couldn’t.
He tryed to go on a rowboat but it flipped over. He tryed to go on roller skats but the weels squashed. Then he made an invention that could throw the toys to the right hoases. but it broke. He tryed to send his elves to deliver the toys but the elves sunk in the snow.
Finaly Santa desited to walk. All of a sudden he saw a bike! He also descovered that he was wearing shorts! He road to all the houses and everyone had a Merry Christmas. And santa never found his reindeer again.
the end
Introverted and not sure how to promote yourself as an artist? You’re in good company. Here’s an excerpt from a guest post I just did on fantasy author Jennifer Innes’s blog Fantasy Writers Unite. Follow the link below it to see the rest!
Read the rest and check out Jennifer’s work at http://fanwritunit.blogspot.com/
The following is a guest post from Jennifer Innes, the co-author of The Beginning of Whit, a comedic urban fantasy tale recently released on Amazon. As an update to Jennifer’s story below (so sorry it took so long for me to post this, Jennifer!) she and her co-author, Andrew Grace have successfully funded their book’s launch through Kickstarter!!! Way to go, guys!
Let’s Talk About Genre
When I started my own blog many years ago I wanted it to be a place for fantasy authors to go so they knew they weren’t alone. Well, okay so there are enough fantasy books out there to prove this but there weren’t enough people talking about the validity of fantasy as a genre. One of my very first posts was about genre, exploring a wide variety of genres within fantasy (such as ‘historic fantasy’ and ‘urban fantasy’). Understanding your genre as a writer helps strengthen your final product and your credibility as an author.
Most writers I know write in multiple genres, and how can you not? If you have any imagination at all you aren’t limited to only one form of writing or one world you explore through your writing. As an author it is completely valid to write horror, chic lit, urban fantasy, and steam punk. At a certain point you’d probably just call yourself a speculative fiction writer (like I do) which Wikipedia defines as “is an umbrella term encompassing the more fantastical fiction genres.”
I personally write several subgenres of fantasy, science fiction and horror. But something that always throws a wrench into labeling a genre is when I start adding comedy to a story. My first finished novel “The Beginning of Whit” is a comedic urban fantasy. Easy enough to label but very hard to pitch. Ace sat on this book for a year, trying to decide if it was publish worthy. Ultimately they decided there “wasn’t a market for it.” And in reality at this point there really isn’t. Sure some famous authors have gotten away with funny fantasy (see: Terry Pratchett and Robert Lynn Asprin) but as a general rule finding these types of books, and the success of these types of books seems far and few between.
But I haven’t given up on my novel yet. My co-author and I decided to try the deep waters of self-publishing and to help cover some of the publishing costs we have launched a Kickstarter for the book. So far the response has been great and we really think the success of Kickstarter will help make the book successful. Knowing our book is unique makes it both interesting and, at times, a hard sell. Even through Kickstarter it can be difficult to get people interested in the project, but knowing our genre we have a better chance of getting people interested.
Knowing your genre allows you to tell people what the book is like, “Yeah, my book about wizardry school is similar to a little known novel about a boy named Harry Potter” or “Do you like the True Blood series? Well my book about a small town full of vampires might be right up your alley!” Now this doesn’t mean copy books that are successful just so you can pitch your book as the next best thing, but it does mean understand the book you already wrote and love so you can find the people who liked something similar. For us, it’s still a struggle to find people interested in comedic fantasy, but based on the success of the funny authors that have come before us, I know this audience is out there and I just have to go and find them.
From Home is Where the Monsters Are:
“David started asking if I could come over. My dad didn’t care what happened to me at that point, so he would take me over there, drop me off and then leave for the afternoon – probably to get wasted in a bar somewhere. The first time I came over, David acted really nice at first, but not a good kind of nice. David was nice like a snake. He gave me ice cream, and I think there was something in it. It made me sleepy. Still awake, but kind of…out of it, and then he slipped a black bag over my head and carried me downstairs.”
Stacy put a hand over her mouth. None of them were sure if they wanted to hear any more but knew that, for Melissa’s sake, they had to.
Abuse of any kind, particularly child abuse, is among the hardest topics to deal with in literature. Making that topic fair game in Young Adult literature has been a controversial but increasingly common development in the literary world. When most people – particularly non-YA readers who are mostly familiar with the Harry Potter movies – picture the Young Adult Fantasy genre they picture happy child wizards on flying broomsticks, facing down the occasional troll the heroes always seem to get away from.
The truth, however, is that children aren’t always smiling. Kids aren’t always loved the way they should be. Sometimes abuse happens and keeping that topic OUT of the books we read is being disingenuous to the true experiences of childhood.
Mary Elizabeth Williams writes in her Salon Article: “Has Young Adult Fiction Become Too Dark?”:
“That ‘adult’ aspect of reading is scary for many of us. It’s our job as parents to protect our kids, even as they slowly move out into the world and further away from our dictates. But there’s something almost comical about raising them with tales of big bad wolves and poisoned apples, and then deciding at a certain point that literature is too ‘dark’ for them to handle. Kids are smarter than that. And a kid who is lucky enough to give a damn about the value of reading knows the transformative power of books.”
As a fantasy author who writes for teens as well as adults, I understand that I will likely face some backlash for including the topics of abuse in Home is Where the Monsters Are and The Pull. I cringe a little inside when I tell a parent that the book is suitable for ages 14 and up because I’m afraid they’ll go home, read the book and then start a campaign to get my book banned from their local library. It’s happened to some of the best books in literature, but for an up-and-coming author, the prospect of backlash is a scary thing.
But I think of the very first person I wrote these books for: myself as a 14 year old. I was dealing with a different kind of abuse then: bullying, but it put me in the kind of place where I could relate to children who were victimized. Hearing their stories and how they overcame being a victim and started being a survivor gave me hope that I could do that too.
The character of Melissa in Home and The Pull dealt with her personal tragedies by becoming a stronger person. So strong, in fact, that she became feared, herself. Not all of us can become warriors. Some who have faced abuse will become poets and painters, doctors and teachers, but to become aware of not only our own demons but the demons our children face can make us that much more equipped to deal with them.
The Pull vol 2: Home is Where the Monsters Are is live on Amazon Kindle today! This book was started in 1998, 4 years after I began work on The Pull series. This has always been my favorite entry in the saga and its even more jam packed with action, mystery and excitement than the first one. Epic battles between colorful heroes? Check. A monster so scary even fearless canine warrior Blitz runs away from it? Check. Magic? Romance? Motorcycle chases? It’s got all that and a heck of a lot more. Pick up a copy of Home is Where the Monsters Are (only $2.99) and join in on the fun.
AND between now and Halloween, the first book in the series, The Pull, is available for download ABSOLUTELY FREE!!! You have no excuse not to get in on this action! Unless you don’t have a Kindle or Kindle-capable device, in which case you have a perfectly valid reason. Paperback coming later this week! Yeah! Here are the links to both Home is Where the Monsters Are and The Pull!
Smart People Fucking with Each Other
So I was asked the other night to participate in a flash fiction competition over the prompt, “Smart people fucking with each other.” I had 1 hour to write a 1000 word short story based on the topic. Want to see what I came up with? Check out the link. We all have pseudonyms so see if you can guess which one is mine. Enjoy!
What follows is a guest post I requested from my fellow Athens Writers Association author, Katherine Cerulean.
I am writing and planning on self-publishing three books in the next year. I am also a woman. Now, I’ve never really thought of those two things at the same time, or wondered how interconnected they might be. But then Rob White, (who I first got to know on FB as we talked about female characters) asked me if I’d write about this topic for his site.
At first all my thoughts were glib. What was the difference between us female self-published writers and the male ones? Most of us wear bras? My sister offered that ‘different parts shake when we write in the nude’. I had a feeling neither answer was what Rob was asking. What he wanted to know, I figured, was what didn’t he know or understand about the journey and struggles of a female writer? Rob’s always been a great proponent of females characters, be it in games, movies, or books, but what about the heroine’s real-life counterparts? What was that experience like?
Woah, I thought to myself. I’m probably the least qualified female writer around to write on ‘the female experience’. I was home schooled out in the country, my only sibling was a sister as tough and who loved the outdoors as much as I did. My mother was very unsentimental and my father cried at romantic comedies. AND I break out in hives at the idea of generalizing about women. Surely there was someone better.
Then I realize, that is part of the experience. Rob is probably not asked to be the torch-bearer for white men. Just as a white male character is a blank slate to write a hero’s flaws and eccentricities across, so too is a ‘average’ male self-published author. If you don’t have a pigeonhole of color, sexuality, or sex, then you start at zero.
Actually, I would argue, below zero, as a writer. I have thought that’s it’s probably much easier for a woman to strike up a conversation with a stranger than a man; she is at worst no threat and at best a welcome addition. A man may be welcome too, but he sort of has to prove himself normal and charming, where for a woman it’s expected.
I do feel some women (myself included) do find ourselves at a real disadvantage in being bold and talking to strangers. They may be happy to talk to us, but we are not used to starting a lot of conversations. The same is true, only more some, when it comes to selling, shilling, and talking up our books. There’s still a very real feeling that women should be humble and quiet — and that’s the opposite of the self promotional sales(wo)manship needed to sell books. We may be making friends, but are we making a profit? And why do I still feel guilty even thinking about the word ‘profit’?
For myself, the main connection between my sex and my career comes down to characters. Now, some of my favorite female characters are written by men (of course they are) and I will never believe one can write their own sex better than the other — we are all human in the end. That said, I think the pressure to write great women characters may be a little more pronounced if you’re female; I know it is for me.
My logic goes like this: more writers still choose to write leads who are their own sex. And some of my favorite genres are not 50/50 in having male and female writers, so I owe it to woman and little girls everywhere to create some kick-butt heroines in my writing lifetime. Also, shamefully, I’m more drawn to write male characters. Why? Because I’ve seen it done well SO much. All the more reason to think deeply about my female heroes and even flip sexes while writing a story if it seems suitable. I have a fantasy called Memento Mori that is in the planning stages and it started out as an adventure with two teenage boys who were in love, but now I’m flipping it to two teenage girls. I find you can do that sometimes, if it’s early enough in the process.
In closing, I’m reminded of the Chris Rock quote, “Being black is only 5% of my day, but it’s an intense 5%.” Almost everything I’m doing as a self published author is exactly what Rob is doing, what everyone’s doing, but sometimes I am still brought up short. By a guy who calls me ‘Hon,’ or by having a very real fear to ask for a sale, or when I have a great idea for a novel but there’s not a female character anywhere near it.
These things are all about me and many women — and men — share them. And at the end of the day it is this sharing I love — we are all invisible behind our typewriters, no one can see our weight or our makeup, our flaws or our skin color. And the oldest, whitest guy around may have the exact same fears as the young black woman and he is writing about her and she is writing about him.
There is a weight, a responsibility, to being a female author, but there is a great freedom to being a writer, period. And one in an era when neither children, lack of money, nor male publishers can hold any of us back.
I can do anything, including forget for a long stretch that I am a woman.
Katherine Cerulean grew up in the countryside near Athens, GA, home schooled on a farm with dogs, cats, a horse, a pony, peacocks, rabbits, sheep, goats, turkeys, an African Gray parrot, and many others.
She has been writing seriously for fifteen years, starting with screenwriting and then moving into novels. Her completed novels are Other Gods (a fantasy) and A Caged Heart Still Beats (a love story).
She was co-moderator of the Athens Novel Writer Group, wrote a well regarded newsletter for her local Best Buy’s Women’s Leadership Forum chapter. She is also the creator of People Who Have Come Alive, a Meetup group devoted to helping people achieve their wildest dreams.
She is the founder of the Athens Writers Association.
Katherine still lives in the house she was literally born in (she sleeps 30 feet from where she was born — how many people can say that?), with her sister, who is an amazing artistic genius, and their two dogs.
Since 1997, she has been hard at work improving her craft and measuring up to the high bar of what’s awesome. Two screenplays and two novels later, she is finally ready to blow the doors off the publishing world with ‘Caged Heart’.
I have a confession to make. I don’t write fiction full time. Shocking, right? I should be sitting on a magical cloud eating green and blue cookies and drinking sunshine juice and pumping out magical worlds 24/7 while wizards fight dragons on a nearby cloud. Okay, those of your that have read my fiction know that’s not exactly what my full time creative bubble would look like (there’d be a bit less rainbows and a few more scary monsters), but you get where I’m going with this.
No, from time to time -okay a lot of the time- I write for clients. I’ve written for utility companies, I’ve written for design firms, I’ve written for online retailers and even art magazines. Sometimes I’ve known what I was talking about. Sometimes I had to research the difference between an Ai Weiwei and a Rudolf Stingel. Always I’ve been able to produce a piece that said what the client wanted to say with just a little bit of that “Rob irreverence™” mixed in for taste. The results have left my clients anywhere from mostly satisfied to ZOMG WHY HAVEN’T YOU BEEN WRITING ALL OF MY WEBSITE COPY SINCE 2001? I can’t really brag though because for every few wins there’s always a client who just isn’t satisfied with anything unless you crawl inside of their head and pluck their thoughts out word-for-word.
It’s grunt work. It’s unglamorous and often uncredited but it pays the bills and allows me to keep my writing muscles nice and flexed, not to mention allows me to experience writing in styles and voices I normally might never have thought to. In the meantime, I get to step away whenever I can and jump right back into the ocean of creativity and the fictional worlds and characters I know and love.
So how about you? Are any of you writing for people other than yourself and your fans? How does it make you feel? Do you feel challenged or does your creativity get drained and leave you unable to devote the energy you want to your creative work?
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