NaNoWriMo is coming. And I’m torn between a number of possible projects. It occurred to me that it might be fun to see what people want, so I’ve posted a little poll over on my Facebook page.
Right now, the front runner is a ghost story. But my own personal leanings are more towards a book set in the same world as “Matters of Mortology“. I’m not entirely certain if I will exercise my veto power or not but chime in and cast your vote if you’ve got the time and inclination.
Cool and quiet fish, that’s me…
It’s been a busy time. For the first year that I can remember, I find myself starting to get a little overwhelmed by all of the activity and bustle around the holidays.
Business trips, end of the year client deadlines, visits from grandparents, and the general craziness of life itself . . . and suddenly I want to go to bed at 9PM every night.
Sometimes, that’s exactly what I did.
Which is why I’ve been so quiet here and on Twitter and elsewhere.
Fortunately, things have calmed down a bit now. December is still hectic and busy . . . but I think I’ll make it from here on out.
Tea with Winterly
Woke up with Sophie this morning and came downstairs to find the air outside filling up with snow. Apart from a storm a few week’s back, we haven’t gotten very much this season. Yet.
But my baby daughter looked out at the whirling air and held out her hands, trying to touch the fat flakes as they drifted past the window. Later, we put out seeds and nuts for the squirrels.
The Winter Solstice is near. This is my favorite time of year, for so many reasons — not the least of which is how beautiful the world outside becomes. To me, there’s nothing lovelier than the face of Winter.
The squirrels got their treats today. And you might want to check back in here around teatime on December 21st. Winterly might have some more things to share in celebration of the solstice.
Just saying.
Filed Under “Yay.”
Good news last week. Matters of Mortology won the “Frightening Fiction” award at BookRix, after having been nominated as a wildcard along with the other finalists.
Most everyone said nice things, which made me very happy and grateful. And the judges were especially kind, both with their praise and their criticism.
You can read some of the community comments here. And, of course, you can get a copy of the book for your very own if you are so inclined.
Winning vs. “Winning”
Despite a few points where my word count seriously flatlined, I managed to complete my first NaNoWriMo.
What I enjoyed most (apart from the writing) was the friend connection, writing along with everyone else. It made me miss my old writer’s group a little bit.
I don’t know that it’s accurate or fair to say I “won” NaNoWriMo but I finished the two projects that I’d wanted to get done and made the 50k wordcount with a little bit of time to spare.
One project was an adaptation of my play The Red Boy. The other project was a push to finish a new short-ish story called The Cradle. That’s the one that’s got Jee in it, in case you were wondering.
So, I’m a little bit of a cheaterpants for the adaptation. Maybe next year I’ll start something from scratch.
They said it couldn’t be done, but…
…approximately ninety percent of my NaNoWriMo efforts were done on the iPad. About half the time, I used a wireless keyboard. But I also made good use of the onscreen keyboard as well. At no point was this a problem or impediment for me — if anything, it dramatically improved my ability to work. Anywhere.
And after a lot of trial and error with different software and methods for synchronizing, I decided Evernote was the only way to get a reliable sync between various devices (computer, iPhone, iPad). Although Scrivener is my preferred writing environment, the lack of an iPad version was a problem. And seeing data loss when I tested Dropbox as a hub for SimpleNote, I said phooey and went ahead with Evernote — which is probably what I should have done in the first place.
I still prefer Scrivener, though. Everything’s tucked safely away in there now, waiting for rewrites in January/February.
There’s been a lot of debate recently about whether or not the iPad is a consumption or creation device. From my perspective, both sides of that argument seem to be missing the point.
It’s both.
At least, mine is. Your results may vary. I tend to want to write no matter what I have to work with. I’ve been known to resort to post — it’s and the backs of business cards, when nothing else was at hand. One of the first sequences in Pantheon was written in crayon on a paper menu (and I’ll thank you to keep your smart-alec comments until after you’ve read it).
Just saying, you can write anywhere, with anything, if you’ve the mind to.
Coming Soon
Speaking of consumption, December is an Aurohn month — which is to say, a lot of my time will be spent getting things ready to be published.
At the top of the list is getting the 10th anniversary edition of Samantha Dunn’s Not by Accident ready for printing. As this is the first non-me book to come out from Aurohn Press, it’s pretty darn exciting. And Dunn’s memoir is outstanding. That she trusted us to bring it back into print is a genuine honor.
Time permitting, the iBook edition of Matters of Mortology will finally arrive as well. A lot of people have been asking for this one, so expect some special introductory pricing as a reward for your patience.
And I’m also laying the groundwork for both Assam & Darjeeling and Matters of Mortology to appear on a few other platforms like the Nook, Google Books, and more.
Stay tuned, more details to come.
The Cradle will Rock
When my daughter Julia found out that there was another Jee story in the works, she did her best to try and convince me it would be okay to let her read the first draft. I assured her that it wasn’t. My first drafts are pretty rough sometimes, and this one is no exception.
(I should say, this is not a sequel to Assam & Darjeeling by any stretch. It’s just that I know there’s more going on with Jee. And I want to tell those stories. This one has goats, for instance. And a lot of rain.)
That being said, I’m very happy with the story overall. It worked out pretty well and I’m looking forward to cleaning it up once it’s had a chance to hang and cure for a while. Not quite sure how I’ll share it with everyone once it’s finished. It’s definitely one I’m looking forward to reading aloud, so you can plan on it showing up in iTunes as either an addendum to the book or an episode of The Gospel of Thomas.
Speaking of which…
…I discovered this weekend that my Halloween episode got lost in the aether, apparently never showing up on iTunes or in the RSS feed. It’ll be fixed this weekend. And there’s a new one coming next week for the holidays — a sneak peek at a few pages from Pantheon, just to apologize for the technical problems.
From the Mailbag
This came in last week…
“My mother died very unexpectedly about three years ago. . . . Shortly after her death, I came across the Assam and Darjeeling podcast. At first I thought I was morbid for enjoying it so much, but as I listened I realized I was slowly working though saying good-bye to my mom. I have no idea how or why it happened, I’m just glad it did. When I think of where my mom is… what she’s doing… how she’s feeling… I almost always think of you and your book…”
Well. There’s no way to feel about that, except humble and grateful. And I am.
And finally…
Since it went on sale earlier this year, Assam & Darjeeling has sold about 145 copies (hardcover, softcover, and Kindle combined). While that’s not a staggering amount of books sold, over 3,000 people have downloaded the free PDF. As near as I can tell, the free audiobook version has seen about 24,000 downloads from all over the world (that’s a jump of ten thousand in the past month or so).
Lots of these people have written to me, to let me know what they thought of the book. Which pretty much makes my day, every single time.
I write for a lot of different reasons but, well, that e-mail from last week is about the best thing I could ever hope to do with one of my books.
I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately. In the span of about a week, someone very kindly nominated Matters of Mortology for an award (and it won), someone wrote me the e-mail you see above, and someone else called me an amateur.
I don’t know that I’m a particularly masterful writer, in terms of using the language or doing particularly good things with the words themselves. I have a lot of quirks and idiosyncrasies, I wander down tangents and overwrite everything to death, I don’t follow a lot of the accepted rules of grammar or vocabulary (chiefly because I’m rather ignorant of most of them).
If I do manage to put the right words together in the right way once in a great while, it’s just dumb luck or the gods lending a hand. Hard, long effort can sometimes nudge a few of them into the right place as well.
What I hope is that, underneath it all, there’s something there. An idea, a character, an energy that might resonate with someone. I take it on faith that this will happen from time to time — if I am lucky, if I work very hard, if the gods are kind.
It’s coming up on the year’s end. This has been a good one for me and mine — we end it weighed down with unexpected kindness and undeserved generosity.
Like I said, humble and grateful.
It started quiet, this little holiday promotion of ours. The cold silence of Thanksgiving and Black Friday spread into the weekend, leaving all of us huddle down in the trenches and despondently reread the letters and coupon circulars sent from the home front.
Fortunately, there was a surge late in the evening on Cyber Monday and we managed to drive back the heartless, robotic horde. For now.
While we retrench, we’re going to leave up the special pricing for a few more days. However, we can’t guarantee delivery by the holidays on any orders placed after December 1st. Unless you’re planning on celebrating the anniversary of the reunion of Moldavia and Wallachia in 1859. Then you should be fine.
Thanks to everyone who took part. The sweepstakes winner has been notified and, honestly, they weren’t selected at random so much as because they wrote a very nice little note that made T.M. cry.
(We know it’s not difficult to get him to let the old eyewater flow, but this was a special note. Trust us.)
[The special pricing and contest has ended. Thanks to everyone who took part!]
* And an early shout out to our Moldavian/Wallachian readers. Happy Reunification Day!
Put on your grass skirt and coconut brassiere, it’s time for another Link Luau.
From the How to Make My Day Dept.
Over at SFF Audio a few weeks back, three very nice people saw fit to devote a fair amount of time to heaping praise all over “Assam & Darjeeling”.
Click here to listen to the squee-worthy episode. They cover a lot of interesting topics in each show, so it’s well worth subscribing to.
Take Your Pick
It’s official. “Assam & Darjeeling” is now available for your iPad. Just search for it in the iBooks store. In case you’re keeping track: You can now read it in paperback, hardcover, on your Kindle, iPhone, iPad, or listen to the free audiobook. Hell, ask me nicely and I’ll pop ’round and act it out in your basement, den, or rumpus room.
A few people have asked and yes, there will be an iBook/iPad version of Matters of Mortology as well. Look for it sometime around Hallowe’en.
Correction
Apparently some crazy person snuck in and added a few lines of insanity to one of my recent posts, promising a new book this summer.
The aforementioned lunatic has been apprehended and is currently locked in the basement awaiting extradition to the attic.
So. No new book this year. We apologize for the inconvenience.
The Intermittent Wossname
For those of you who are wondering about the new baby, those darn eyes appear to be getting bigger and bluer by the day. It’s hereditary so there’s probably nothing to be done. She’ll just have to learn to live with ‘em.
From the Like I Don’t Have Enough to Do Dept.
I’ve never gone in for National Novel Writing Month. When it rolls around each year, I’ve always got a project in the works and don’t want to slow down or take a month off. Also, a month seems like a very short amount of time to, y’know, write a whole damn book. But it’s what all the cool kids are doing these days.
As it stands right now, I just might find myself in a spot to participate this year. It’s a hard call. I really ought to kickstart “Pantheon” once again — woefully neglected during all the new babyness of the past few months — but there’s a faint echo in the back of my head that could turn out to be a very nice little book, something that’s possible to crank through in a month. Especially if I break the rules a teensy bit, which I just might do.
And I very much like the idea of having something new this year.
(I know, I said no new book this year. But we’ll see…)
Spreading the Good News
But if you’re hankering for something new to read from Your Obedient Savant, might I recommend a semi-steady diet of short, easily consumed pieces from The Gospel of Thomas? Each episode is lovingly prepared and served up piping hot. And our handy downloadable PDF provides carry-out curbside service to keep pace with your modern on-the-go lifestyle.
We’ve already got a handful of episodes out there, with a lot more in the works: Everything from poetry to plays to short stories to odd little things that don’t quite fit anywhere else. In addition, I’ll be giving listeners sneak peeks (sneak listens?) at a brand new Jee story as well as sections from my new novel “Pantheon” in progress.
Exciting stuff.
Broadcast News
And speaking of Listening to Things That Sound A Lot Like Me, there’s been a big surge in listeners to all of my podcasts/audiobooks.
Since October of 2009, “Assam & Darjeeling” has seen over 14,000 downloads from all around the world. We’ve only been tracking for a year or so, but the book has been out there since 2007 — which is when it was first offered as a free audiobook/podcast download on iTunes. So it’s safe to assume that those numbers are potentially much, much higher.
Unfortunately, the data for “Matters of Mortology” appears to be corrupted and I don’t have entirely reliable data to share. I’m just going to say “lots and lots” of people have been downloading it since 2008 when it first launched. But don’t let that stop you from giving it a listen (iTunes or RSS).
My latest podcast is an anthology show called The Gospel of Thomas (which you should already know about from reading the blurb above, unless you weren’t really paying attention). It’s been running since May of this year, with approximately 1,000 downloads so far. You can subscribe to it on iTunes as well or listen via RSS.
Yay. Aren’t numbers fun?
The Book of Love
A few weeks back I had this idea that it might be fun to start up an online book club — just a little group of us getting together online to chat about a book or two. I put out a few feelers and enough people chimed in with some interest, so we took the plunge.
Our first book is Kij Johnson’s excellent The Fox Woman and the conversation’s just getting started over in our new Forums section.
Even if you’re a little bit behind, it’s not too late to pick up a copy of the book and join us. Glad to have you along.
(And we’re looking for other books to read in our next round, so throw one of your own favorites into the mix.)
“She is Theology in Flames”
Imagine you’re best friends with the reigning mad genius of comicdom, the author of seminal works that, twenty odd years later, continue to dominate best seller lists and inspire generations of new readers, artists, and writers… Best friends with a self-proclaimed magus who stages public workings, exploring and exposing the parallels between quantum physics and the Kabbalah, among other topics… And imagine he sets his sights on your life story, tracing your own winding path up the Tree of Life, eavesdropping on your (albeit a mad enterprise in it’s own right) wooing of the moon goddess Selene.
“Unearthing” — Alan Moore’s latest work (and possibly his latest working, I can’t quite say) employs all of his storytelling magic (literally) in the exploration of his boyhood chum Stephen Moore (no relation). A study in the evolution of a powerdork (not a pejorative term, I assure you), “Unearthing” moves through the strata of human existence — from the physical to more ethereal realms.
The piece hinges on a late-night invocation of the goddess Selene — a startling and puzzling episode late in the story that exposes more questions than it answers. Whatever might have happened on that night in Alan Moore’s Northampton flat, it’s clear from his account that something most certainly happened — a shared numinous experience that not even drugs or insanity can explain away.
It’s an amazing work, difficult to classify and certainly not something that every listener will find accessible. Like his other workings, Alan Moore so densely layers the images and language in “Unearthing” that a single listen leaves you with anecdotes and impressions, whereas repeated playings deepen the experience to the point where you occupy the mind of each Moore in turn — the lonely wandering in search of his goddess . . . and the acute observer chronicling the journey, even as he drifts from the role of spectator into that of participant.
“Unearthing” serves as the latest layer in Alan Moore’s exploration of the mystical levels of consciousness. Glimmers of it appear in his early work on Swamp Thing, complimented by brief flashes in Watchmen before he picks up momentum in his masterpiece From Hell. For a shorthand overview of his creative and magical mindset, there is the excellent “Mindscape” documentary (available on iTunes and Amazon).
But the purest expression of his mystic evolution and exploration is found in his “workings” — verbal performances to which the label “spoken word” does not do justice. Most of his previous workings are available on CD either through Top Shelf Publishing or for astronomically ridiculous prices on eBay.
Fortunately, “Unearthing” is much easier to get a hold of. You can either spring for the deluxe, limited edition box set from Lex Records or download the stripped down audio version from iTunes.
“Storms are, by nature, and among other things, scary, awesome, chaotic, terrible and beautiful all at the same time. My personal theory is that you cannot look at a storm brewing and not feel anything stirring in your gut. Likewise, in going through an art gallery, the masterpieces that have stopping power are not unlike storms in that they evoke emotional responses from us are the very same ones we consider great.”
— Edmund Shern, from Turbulence: The Art of Storm Lion
I don’t usually do this sort of thing but…
As many of you know from reading this site, I’ve had some conversations with a development company in Singapore about a few projects. Regrettably, we never got far enough to find out what. However, although we’ve never been able to find the right combination of circumstances for working together, I’ve followed Storm Lion and their progress with no small amount of interest over the past few years since they first reached out to me about turning “Assam & Darjeeling” into . . . well, something. I’ve no doubt they would have done exciting and amazing things with it, if we’d been able to work out the rights.
So it was a bit of a surprise and disappointment to hear the rumors this past weekend that they were possibly closing their doors — and right on the eve of their big splash at ComicCon later this week.
Sad stuff but, as it turns out, the reports of their demise are (hopefully) exaggerated. News today came through that Storm Lion isn’t quite ready to throw in the towel just yet. Their ComicCon plans will proceed full speed ahead, as will the launch of their new art book “Turbulence”. I was lucky enough to get a sneak peek of the book a week or so ago and it’s full of great work from great talent.
If you’re going to ComicCon this week, stop by Storm Lion’s booth (#4122) and say howdy to Edmund and the team for me. While you’re there, show your support by picking up a copy of “Turbulence”.
———————
I’ll be doing a reading at the Grand Rapids Art Museum this Friday evening, the 23rd of July. The reading starts at 6pm and three other local writers will also be reading: Adam Schuitema, Jennifer Armintrout, and Tanya Eby (who was nice enough to set the whole thing up and ask the rest of us to join in). If you’re going to be in town, stop by and clap loudly. There will be live music afterwards and fun for all. I don’t know that there will be books for sale at the event, but I’ll be handing out vouchers so attendees can order a specially priced copy through my website.
Or if you’ve got a copy of “Assam & Darjeeling” or “Matters of Mortology” you want signed, bring it along. I’ll have my pen at the ready.
Hope to see you there.
After my iPad post a few weeks ago, this picture cracked me up.
Is the phrase “T.M. Camp is mine.” either
(a) What the bill collectors whisper when I answer the phone late at night.
(b) The opening salvo in a cease-and-desist letter from the director of a Transcendental Meditation retreat.
(c) The start of a very, very, very nice compliment I received in a recent e-mail.
Answer below.
Last week people on Twitter fought and kicked and clawed to get their hands on free copies of Assam & Darjeeling and Matters of Mortology.
Well, maybe it wasn’t that violent. But thanks for playing along anyways, kids. The books have all shipped. Hope you enjoy them.
And if you weren’t one of the lucky ones this time around, we’ll do it again sometime. I promise. It was too much fun not to.
Don’t forget: If you really, really want to read one of my books you could always buy a copy. All you have to do is click on one of the covers over there on the right.
It’s worth noting that Lulu has free shipping all summer long, Amazon and Barnes & Noble are selling it with a big discount right now. And people are also ordering autographed copies directly. And there’s also a nice, crisp free-to-download PDF out there for each one, too.
Just saying…
Jay Garrick’s Lament, The SequelBack when my first child was born and I was supremely unprepared for the impact of a new baby in my life, I had a schedule that allowed for four to five hours of uninterrupted writing time every night. It’s almost sixteen years later and, boy oh boy, have times changed.
I have less time now, of course. And I’m way better prepared, having been through this a few times now.
Even so, Sophie is kicking the crap out of me.
She’s pretty darn cute, though.
Either the extremity of sleep deprivation utterly wiped out any memory of how hard these first months are, or she’s come to earth with powers and abilities far beyond those of ordinary mortals.
All of which is to say that the “forthcoming” joke on the Acknowledgements page of Assam & Darjeeling sounds less and less funny to me every day.
I started a short story just before Sophie was born — it’s the next Jee story, as a matter of fact — and the baby’s early arrival threw me off kilter for weeks. I did my best to chip away at the story a little bit here and there, but it wasn’t long before my momentum had flagged and I’ve been struggling to get it rolling again.
It’s driving me a bit crazy, to be honest. It’s not writer’s block. I’ve got it all together and ready to go. The story is right there, ready to be written. But it needs the full flood of effort and not the few rivulets I can squeeze out here and there.
(The delay hasn’t been a total washout, however. In the intervening weeks, I’ve made a few discoveries — minor things for the most part, little conversations and images scattered here and there. But they were worth the wait, so I shouldn’t complain too much. One bit in particular is something I’m very proud of, although I suspect I didn’t come up with it. Writing, for me, always feels like I’m eavesdropping on someone else, something Other. Metaphysical blog post on this topic to follow.)
Someone asked me about my process recently, specifically how I kickstart something that’s lost traction. Here was part of my answer…
“What works best for me is to start over. If I’ve been away from something for a period of time and find I can’t quite pick it up again — even though there’s no earthly reason why I shouldn’t be able to — I’ll read everything through as far as I’ve gotten and then do a quick sketch of the story: It’s overall shape, the sequence of events, an inventory of important things to include. Once I have that, I’ll start writing again from the beginning, transcribing my original draft and tweaking it as I go along, referring to my sketch whenever I have something new to incorporate. Usually by the time I get to the end of the previous text — the spot where it stalled — I’ve got a full head of steam built up again, and I can just keep chugging along.”
Hey, works for me.
Once the new story’s done, it’s time to wake up poor little Pantheon and get it rolling again. There’s a lot of work there, a big book waiting to be written — so it’s going to take a lot of work.
And, honestly, I’ve no idea how long it’ll take. I’d like to think I can have a first draft done by the end of the year. But there’s no way to know. All I can do is write as much as possible, as fast as possible.
Well. It’ll take whatever it takes.
Now that it’s Summer, my coworkers enjoy opening the office doors in the afternoon. This brings in the breeze as well as large black flies and even the occasional wasp. They buzz around my head, retreating to tap against the top of the tall windows next to my desk. Eventually, they come back to divebomb me again. It’s maddening.
I have a deep, intense, and slightly pathological dislike of flying insects.
As I type this, my skin is crawling. I’m like Matt Cable over here.
Speaking of which, I stopped drinking alcohol when Sophie was born. It’s not like I was a falling down drunk or anything, but I probably knocked it back more than most people usually do — typically late at night while I was writing.
So, faced with a unpredictable sleep schedule, an increasingly complicated set of priorities, and rapidly evolving stress levels… Well, the last thing I needed was “a psychoactive drug that has a depressant effect” (Shut up, Wikipedia.)
I haven’t really missed it at all. I find that I’ve got no desire for it. I’m not anti-drinking or anything like that. I’m just walking past that aisle in the grocery store now. And it’s become a little bit of an interesting exercise for me, even a challenge. I don’t have a set timeframe, so there’s a bit of “Let’s see how long I can go…” underlying it all. It’s also interesting to see how people react when the subject comes up. Some get a little twitchy and uncertain, as though I’m one Michelob Ultra away from becoming Montgomery Clift.
Really. I’ve just got a baby girl to take care of, after all. I pretty much did the same thing when her older brother and sister were born.
Recently, someone on Twitter mentioned they were reading Stephen King’s On Writing which led to an interesting conversation between a few of us about what we liked and/or hated about the book. I didn’t mention it at the time, but I’d already been thinking about King and his book. Parts of it are surprisingly personal and frankly confessional. I enjoy the memoir aspect of it most of all, and his revelation about his own addiction was startling.
However, one of my main points of irritation is King’s assertion that most (if not all) writers are drug addicts and/or alcoholics. He essentially claims that “we’re just wired that way.”
Call it denial, but I don’t buy that at all.
Tea on the other hand? Now that’s a drug I won’t be giving up any time soon.
“T.M. Camp is mine. No I’m not a stalker and definitely not insane..what I mean is…well, maybe it’s a little hard to put into words but just like you I have shelves dedicated to Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman and Dave Sim…but everyone…everyone knows them…at least now anyway with the success of movies. But I DISCOVERED “Assam and Darjeeling” on the iTunes podcast. I don’t care if you wrote it and created it…I found you…”
I love getting e-mail like that. Seriously. That sort of thing makes my day.
Assam & Darjeeling is just starting to get out there and the early response overall has been very positive. We’re seeing reviews go up on Amazon and Barnes & Noble, as well as sites like Goodreads and LibraryThing. But more wouldn’t hurt. So don’t be afraid to put your own out there, if you’re so inclined.
And if you really want to help out, go into your local bookseller and ask them to order you a copy. Do it three or four times, tell them how much you like the book and that you’re buying copies for all your friends. Don’t forget to mention how much you wish I’d come to your town for a signing/reading.
You never know what might come of it.
Copies are going out to bloggers and reviewers as well. If you fall into one of those categories, you can request a review copy directly from Aurohn Press.
Some very nice people have asked me when my next book is coming out. Having blown through Assam & Darjeeling and Matters of Mortology, they’re reduced to subsisting on The Gospel of Thomas and whatever clever things I manage to say on Facebook or Twitter.
As I said above, the next novel is a ways off. If you listen in to The Gospel of Thomas, you’ll probably hear excerpts over time. And eventually it’ll have it’s own free audiobook/podcast. But we’re easily a year away from being able to buy a copy. Unfortunately.
However, it occurred to me recently that I actually have a few older books that are just a few steps from being ready for the world. I haven’t talked about them much here. In fact, very few people have even seen them. In all honesty, I’d forgotten about them until late last night when I was moving a few things around in my office.
Through no fault of their own, I don’t think about these stories much in the context of the rest of my work — although, upon reflection, they fit in rather well. I created them for very personal reasons, as one-off gifts for people over the years.
But a few of you had been asking for new work and I’ve been thinking about that. I read comics, after all. I know what it’s like to wait for the next thing to come out, and wait… and wait… and wait…
And there they were: Two books sitting on the shelf all polite and patient, just waiting for me to remember them.
So. That being said, Aurohn Press has tentatively added them to the 2010 schedule. If all goes well, the first “new” book will be released this August.
I should mention that it’s a children’s book, of sorts. A picture book.
It’s called The Jupiter Egg.
“The enemy of most authors is not piracy but obscurity.”
— Dave Charest
About a year ago, I experienced what some might describe as a moment of clarity, one of those points where your perspective changes and you find yourself unable to go back to the way it was before.
Sometimes these are small moments, a sudden flash of intuition in a situation reveals a whole level of understanding you didn’t previously possess. Other times it’s something more profound, an evolution in your perspective that forever alters how you view the world.
Last year I asked myself a question and, without meaning to, I nudged myself into a different mode of thinking that completely re-framed how I thought about my writing.
Simply put, the question was “What do I want?”
The answer came almost immediately: “I want people to read my work.”
Ultimately, my goal as a writer — my reason for writing at all — is not to be famous, to get rich, to go on Oprah, or land a movie deal. I know plenty of writers who want those things, who write in order to achieve them. And while I would not shy away from those opportunities if they were given to me, they are not why I started writing and they’re not why I’ve kept writing all these years.
Mostly, I just want people to read what I’ve written.
And so I asked myself another question: “How can I make that happen?”
“Refine my synopsis yet again” was not the answer…
“Write the perfect query letter” was not the answer…
And even “Find an agent” or “Get a publisher” was not the answer…
Oddly enough, the answer wasn’t any of the conventional things that the industry traditionally tells all authors — things that I’d been doing for years in the hopes that I might get lucky.
No, the answer was a lot more obvious: “You want people to read it? Share it with everyone. Put it out there as far and wide as you can, make it easily available and free to anyone who might want to read it.”
That’s actually not a big a stretch — at least, not for me. Since the earliest days of this website back in 1997, I’ve been putting my stories, poems, and plays out there for people to download. And both “Assam & Darjeeling” and “Matters of Mortology” have gotten a great response on the strength of their availability on iTunes as free audiobooks. As has my latest podcast “The Gospel of Thomas”.
So. That being said…
I get e-mails every few weeks from people who have listened to one of my free audiobooks, asking how they can buy a “real” copy of their own.
Well, now you can.
You’ve probably noticed already those links over there for downloading or buying my novels Assam & Darjeeling and Matters of Mortology.
Take a look. For each of them, there’s a link to download an electronic copy of the book free of charge. If you do, feel free to share it around, e-mail it to friends you think might like it, or post it on your blog. That’s what it’s there for. And if you really like it and want to buy a copy you can hold in your hot little hands, there’s a link for that too. Right now there’s free shipping if you buy it through Lulu Marketplace.
Or I’ll even sign a copy and send it to you. People seem to like that too.
However you choose, I’m grateful for your interest in my work and I hope you’ll drop me a line and let me know what you thought of it.
And if you like, take a minute to head out to iTunes or Amazon or Goodreads or Barnes & Noble or anywhere else — give it a rating, write a review, let the rest of the world know what you thought of it. I’ll be very, very grateful.
Like the man said…
“I know books are as lively, and as vigorously productive, as those fabulous Dragons teeth; and being sown up and down, may chance to spring up armed men.”
— John Milton
Longtime readers of this blog — and anyone who had to sit through a meeting with me in the late Nineties and early Aughts — might remember my enthusiasm for a little Apple device called the Newton.
I won’t go into it’s history here, but I absolutely loved the Newton. It was a great tool for writers, lightweight and easy to use. It had a (for the time) a nice long battery life — surprisingly enough, it could run on AA batteries in a pinch. It had a nice set of native applications, including a more than adequate word processing program. And it easily sync’d with the Mac OS, making it a snap to move project files back and forth.
And, despite the bad press, I never had any difficulty with the amazing (but much maligned) handwriting recognition software.
As I said, I loved it. I first started using a Newton when I managed to cajole my bosses into buying me an eMate — a stripped down laptop running the Newton OS and sporting an amazing clamshell design that marked the first major design revolution at Apple. I took it to meetings and stopped traffic. People came in from the halls to ask about it. I could have sold a hundred of them just by showing up on client sites with it in my hands.
I loved it so much, I scraped together money I didn’t have to buy the MessagePad, a handheld “brick” version that offered much more processing power and versatility than the eMate. It wasn’t as visually impressive as it’s younger sibling, but the MessagePad stayed in my hand wherever I went.
The first lines of a short story that would eventually become Assam & Darjeeling were written on it. As was the first scenes of my adaptation of The Odyssey. Plenty of other poems and short stories and ideas started (and, sometimes, stalled) on the Newton as well. And, after shelling out a few bucks on eBay, I got my hands on a modem. So now I could do e-mail too.
Long after Apple abandoned the platform, I hung on to my Newtons (in fact, I still have them up in the attic, along with my first Mac). Sure, it was dead technology at that point, but I was still using it. In my own defense, I might very well be the person who coined the term “Zombie Technology” is justification for my commitment to the platform — with it’s eerie green glowing screen, the label was an apt one.
But eventually, I had to let it go. It was just too difficult to use in conjunction with the OSX platform and, ultimately, what had once freed me up as a writer was now slowing me down. So I buried it, tamping the dirt down as gently as I could.
Since then, I’d see little signs that the ghost of the Newton still wandered the halls of Cupertino. The scribbly little cloud puffs when you deleted a file in OSX were a cut and paste job from the Newton OS. And when the iPhone and Touch appeared with their neat little square apps and convenient dock at the bottom of the screen, I felt a familiar twinge in my fingers. Despite the disdain that Steve Jobs was rumored to have for the Newton, it was undeniable that some cannibalization was being done.
With the Touch and, later, the iPhone, I found myself once again wandering around with technology welded to my hand. And I was perfectly happy.
But . . . this was an iPad review, yes?
I apologize.
After dropping a few well-placed hints earlier this year, the nice people I work for were kind enough to give me the green light on ordering one of those newfangled iPad gizmos with all the trimmings. And they even sprung for the 3G model, pretty much ensuring that I could irritate all of humanity no matter where I went.
When it got delivered last Friday, I was out of the office taking care of Baby Sophie. Using up the last of my cajoling tokens, I was able to convince a coworker to bring it to me at the end of the day. Once the baby settled down for the evening, I started playing.
Life is, as I’ve often said, very good.
Like most everything Apple makes these days, the iPad was a breeze to activate and configure. I was off and running within minutes. You forget what a relief that is, until you have to work with something from another company.
I’d been waiting a while to get my hands on the iPad and the first hour of using the damned thing was punctuated by a series of delighted chuckles. My lovely and patient wife endured a barrage of “Oooh! And it also…” comments throughout the evening. She didn’t wholly appreciate my referring to it as Sophie’s new baby brother, but she loves me enough to know when I’m (most likely) joking.
Overall, the iPad feels great. It’s just the right size to carry in one hand, without being too heavy. And it doesn’t feel too small in two hands. After a few hours, I could feel my iPhone getting jealous.
As a media device, the iPad is outstanding. I’m not an HD or Blu-Ray snob and I don’t have a television the size of a king size mattress, so watching a movie or TV show on the iPad is no problem for me. And once you start using the YouTube, ABC TV, and Netflix apps, the geek joy goes even higher. Now I can finally watch “Lost” and see what all the yammering is about.
As an internet device, the iPad is a joy to use. These kind of things can be clunky and more trouble than they’re worth, but Apple long ago cornered the market on interface design. So it’s a relief to use a device that requires little or no time to learn — especially if you’re already familiar with the iPhone or Touch. The e-mail interface (particularly in landscape mode) is very clean and easy. And the browsing experience is terrific. Much has been made of the lack of Flash compatibility but, in all honesty, I didn’t even run across a Flash “hole” until after a day or so. And, even then, it didn’t really diminish my experience overall.
As a book reader, I’m going to make an obvious prediction and say that the Kindle’s days are likely numbered if Amazon doesn’t do something dramatic. First of all, there’s the Kindle app — which worked great on the iPhone already and is now even better on the iPad (and both of my books look great as well, just saying).
I have to admit, the new Apple Book Store seems a little derivative of what Amazon and some of the other book reader apps have already done. But that’s a minor quibble. I expect it will evolve. My only peeve with the Apple approach to books is their adoption of that damned “page turning” animation. It’s an effect I’ve always disliked when I’ve seen it elsewhere online or in interactive media. I don’t like developers pretending a screen is paper. It’s a bit condescending to their user audience and forcing the digital to ape the physical analog world just seems wrong conceptually. Programmers should be looking for new ways to let new media deliver content, setting it free to be itself instead of pretending it’s something it isn’t. But hey, that’s just me. I have issues.
(I won’t weigh in on the closed system approach Apple has taken to the device and the iTunes store as a whole. That’s a subject for a different time. Suffice it to say that the Kindle versions of both Assam & Darjeeling and Matters of Mortology are both DRM-free. Amen.)
And I was surprised at how well comics translate to the device. After downloading a number of free issues for the ComiXology and Marvel apps, I can see the appeal of, say, having the whole Claremont/Byrne run of X-Men at your fingertips. But I don’t really see anyone giving up either the social aspect of going to their local comic book store each week, or the tactile pleasure of holding the comic in your hand. I’d say the same is true for digital vs. physical books . . . although the author/publisher in me is more than a little excited by these new media, channels, and devices. Again, that’s a different post for a different time.
I’m not a big time gamer but there’s definitely a whole new level of development waiting int he wings thanks to this device. It’ll be very interesting to see what kind of content gets produced, to see how far the adventurous programmers can push the interface and user expectations. Or if they just, y’know, settle for porting over Pac Man to yet another device.
A lot has been made of the touchscreen interface and keyboard. Personally, I didn’t have too much trouble using either. I type very, very fast on a conventional keyboard, so the onscreen one slowed me down a little. A few common keys are out of place, which led to a bit of hunt and peck from time to time (I did miss the Newton’s handwriting recognition more than once, though). But overall, it seemed perfectly serviceable. I expect I’d be able to hammer away on it or a few hours at a stretch without too much trouble. Although my preferred writing program Scrivener won’t make it to the platform any time soon (if ever), the addition of an iPad version of the Pages software is a welcome addition. I won’t be writing my next novel on it, but I bet more than a few chapters will get banged out on it.
So . . . long story short, I really like the iPad — and not just because it reminds me of how much I loved the Newton. Technically, I supposed you’d say it’s a “tablet” — living on the technological continuum between smartphones and laptops, serving as a hybrid that shares select features and functionality of both. In that context, it’s quite successful. My biggest disappointment is that I don’t own one of my very own. At some point soon, I’m going to have to share it with everyone in the office. I’m not by nature a selfish person, but it’ll be very, very hard to give it up when the time comes.
A few weeks back, I had the opportunity to spend an afternoon training a number of middle managers on social networking. I started off the session by saying: “I grew up reading comic books and science fiction. Which is another way of saying I’ve been waiting my whole life for the real world to catch up. At long last, I’m finally living in a world that I used to read about. And I love it.”
The iPad is just one more reason why.
——————————————————————
Things I Did on the iPad in the First 24 Hours
Things I Didn’t Do
Cold times here in the Midwest — single digit temperatures and below, arctic winds, and lots of grumpy people. And when the sun does shine, it’s a brittle, cheerless light.
So, of course, I’m loving it. Unlike other writers, I don’t flee the frost — then again, I don’t have to walk a dog or carry it up and down stairs, either. Neither have I won the Newberry Medal. Perhaps there’s a correlation?
This might just be the case. My writing time over the past month or so has been disrupted by a frustrating bundle of interruptions and accidents, too numerous to mention here. It hasn’t helped that much of my time has been spent preparing and revising submission materials — easily my most hated task by far, as it feels exactly like the opposite of writing. But it is also Playing By The Rules in order to make a connection with the right sort of agent to represent my work. And with two books done and a third one on the way, I’m not quite ready to give that up just yet. Not quite.
Speaking of books and weather… I should also mention that The Winter Chap is still available. Originally, I’d planned to limit the Chaps and retire each preceding season once the new one was available. However, people are still discovering it and buying a copy (you could be one of them) so I’ve decided to leave them out there. Which means Winter is going to remain available for purchase once The Spring Chap is released in early February.
A few people have asked me why I’m doing the Chaps (a question I much prefer to be asked in writing rather than having it spoke in, say, a crowded shop) and it really comes down to vanity. I’ve got a lot of odd little bits and pieces which might never see the light of day otherwise. There’s short stories and poems and other oddments that don’t quite fit anywhere else, so this is a way for people to discover them on their own. And the price isn’t so bad for fifty or so pages of unpublished stories and poems, really. I myself have spent far more on much less.
It’s perhaps worth noting that, at the end of the day, only a dollar of that lands in my threadbare pockets. The rest of the asking price goes to feed the little children whom, I imagine, Ms. Lulu has enslaved to do her bidding. See their tiny hands laced with paper cuts banging away on staplers and saddle-stich machines? Is six bucks and some change too much to ask that their efforts not be in vain? I think not.
I’ve got about forty-seven tabs open in Firefox right now, all sorts of little interesting things that caught my attention over the past few weeks. Here’s a few to help to while away the long, dark hours of winter…
…Alan Moore’s writing another volume of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and this time it’s a musical — which is either baffling or genius, possibly both…
…we have a new president and someone took a picture of the event, creating a real-life Where’s Waldo…
…that nice Mr. Doctorow has some pretty good advice for writers…
…there’s this photographer named Michael Kenna that, somehow, has found a window into my dreams…
…people are starting to notice this Andrew Bird fellow and I say it’s long overdue…
…I’ve discovered that reading agent and publisher blogs like this one is akin to looking up your medical symptoms online. It’s always fatal…
…and, yes, I have heard that Batman is dead. I’m not buying it. This kind of foolishness is one of the reasons why I typically avoid mainstream comics these days.
It’s been a busy couple of weeks, with birthdays and holidays and various little things eating up my time in dainty bites so small you hardly notice until there’s nothing left but the bones.
Speaking of which, this film is either brilliant or disturbing. Or both.
Either way, I want one of those zombie puppets.
Which gives me a nice reason to mention that the latest episode of the Cthulhu podcast features a recording of my short story “Summer Salt” — which makes me quite happy. New episodes of the Cthulhu ‘cast are one of the things I check for whenever I fire up iTunes, so I was doubly pleased when FNH told me he’d accepted the story.
If you’d prefer to use your eyes instead of your ears, you can read the story here.
But you might soon be outnumbered as there are new subscribers still signing up for the “Assam & Darjeeling” and “Matters of Mortology” podcasts. You could still be one of them, just click on the download links here and here.
I received a very nice note last week from a listener in Singapore who has been loving “Assam & Darjeeling” — which gave me a silly smile to wear for a few days.
And while we’re on the subject of smiles, although The Dark Knight had it’s problems I have to say that I agree with most of the hype about Heath Ledger’s portrayal of The Joker. My only quibble is that it overshadows Aaron Eckhart’s work as Two-Face, which was also excellent. And we got a trailer for the Watchmen movie, which I have no doubt will begin to generate more and more hype until it comes out next year.
And, yes, the “other” hype is true too: The new iPhone is outstanding. I’m still saying thank you to the powers that be for giving me one. Doublestuff kickass, to say the least.
(Oops. I forgot to mention that once the two current podcasts finish up, I’ll be starting a brand new one. This next one will be a bit broader, more of an anthology, and much more collaborative with the audience. Details shall follow later this week.)
On the publishing side, I’m currently regrouping after most of my efforts on the BEA trip this year have yet to produce anything fruitful. There’s still a few open leads that I’m waiting to hear back from but this weekend will mark a change in my efforts to connect with an agent, thanks to some good ideas and resources that proved worthwhile for an author friend of mine. As always, stay tuned.
The new project proceeds apace. The writing is going well. It’s going to be a long book.
For what it’s worth, the new book is called Pantheon.