"Everybody Is The Hero of Their Own Story" -- STAR WARS and Writing Villains

On my Twitter feed this morning, I found this article in which Adam Driver and J.J. Abrams discuss the villain Kylo Ren, whom Driver plays in the upcoming science-fiction (science fantasy?) film Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The first article links to this article here in Empire, which goes into more detail. The gist of it is that according to Abrams, both devotees of the Light Side and the Dark Side are the heroes of their own story, while according to Driver, Ren is more a religious zealot who's doing what he thinks is right rather than someone who is truly evil by nature.

(I'm guessing by "evil" he would mean selfish and malicious. Someone can have the best of intentions, can honestly think they're doing the right thing, and still be evil. I was researching an alternate-history project in high school and college and, while reading about the Russian Civil War, learned about Cheka founder Felix Dzerzhinsky. According to future Polish leader Józef Piłsudski, who went to school with him, Dzerzhinsky "did not know how to lie," another source described him as being strict toward himself as well as others, and the quotes I found indicated he was wracked by guilt about the horrors he oversaw as the Bolsheviks' hatchet-man.)

A long time ago I discovered the quote that "everybody is the hero of their own story." I have taken pains to apply the principle when I write villains, and I cited it before in my blog post about Roose Bolton from the fantasy novel series A Song of Ice and Fire and its HBO adaptation A Game of Thrones. Dzerzhinsky thought he was building a utopia and that would justify breaking a few (or many) eggs along the way, while Roose Bolton could justify his treachery against Robb Stark by claiming it in the best interest of the North and the realm as a whole that the Lannisters win as quickly and bloodlessly as possible. The warlord Grendel of my Wastelands series wants safety, security, and power (to better ensure the first two) for his family and friends--which he seeks through imperialism and aggressive warfare. Meanwhile, the cult leader Phil from my Lovecraftian novel The Thing in the Woods wants to protect the town of Edington from corrupting outside influences--which he does by kidnapping people he doesn't like and feeding them to an alien monster.

And now we get back to Star Wars. One of the most interesting blog posts I've ever found was called "The Tao of Sith" and was posted on a blog that's essentially the events of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi from the point of view of Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith and apprentice to the Emperor Palpatine.

(The post initially went to some "Star Wars Webring" site, but I clicked on it again and it went to the right place, so have faith.)

The gist of it is that Vader believes the Sith were justified in their various misdeeds and creating the Empire because galactic civilization was in danger of collapse. Furthermore, the Jedi were neglecting their responsibilities and denying their emotions in favor of idle contemplation except in a few circumstances ("trivia that offends their effete sensibilities"), despite allegedly knowing that "an age of barbarism" was nigh. The Sith, in contrast, embrace life, embrace emotions, and embrace the actions necessary to save civilization.

(Given how the prequel-era Jedi demanded their adherents forsake emotional attachments, relationships, etc. a lot of Vader's comments ring true.)

Vader as depicted in the blog post is NOT a simple monster using politics as a cover to indulge his appetite for sadism, power and control, etc. My article on how fictional villains should not be sociopaths acknowledges such people exist, but they don't make for interesting bad guys (or girls). So if you're writing a villain, try to see things from their point of view. What is their story, and why are they the hero in it? Not only will you have a much better-developed villain, but you might also have a much varied and "grayer" world if it turns out the villain has some good points.

A NaNoWriMo Gift For You

For those of you who are participating in National Novel-Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), there's a gift for you.

http://www.grammarly.com/blog/2013/beaten-path-nanowrimo-writing-tips/

Since high school I've been reading a lot of how-to-write books and copying the choicest bits into a Word document entitled "General Writing Tips." Grammarly was so kind as to give me a platform to share some of them with those toiling along in the NaNoWriMo fields.

(I'm not doing it myself, but I did edit Battle for the Wastelands to a hopefully more salable 97,000 words and I did manage to write just under 2,000 words so far for The Thing in the Woods, so I've managed something. Maybe I'll finish the Thing first draft by the end of the year.)

I hope the information contained therein is useful to you.

A Very Merry Blog Tour Is Beginning

The other day, I was discussing the sales of my Kindle short stories (available here) with Matt Mitrovich. Sales have been declining for some time and he, having reviewed one of my stories, said chances are that the problem is not with the quality of the content, it's with my marketing. He recommended I do a blog tour--for those of you not in the know, that's writing a bunch of guest posts for a bunch of blogs.

I gave the matter some thought and decided to go with it. I'd just published three new stories on Amazon in quick succession, so I had the occasion for it. I posted a request for hosts on my message-board and received some interest, so I'll call this the "Very Merry Blog Tour" based on my board user-name MerryPrankster.

Here's the first post in the tour, a discussion of my experiences Kindle publishing on the blog belonging to my writer friend Jeff Baker.

My Career as a Kindle Direct Author, Thus Far

Sean C.W. Korsgaard, Matt Mitrovich, Alex Shalenko, and Christopher Nuttall have all agreed to host blog posts, as has the member of my message-board whose handle is Talwar. I've also gotten a bite from someone on Blogger Linkup, which arranges for people to guest post on each other's blogs.

So far I've made one sale of "I am the Wendigo," but considering how William Meikle re-tweeted the first post to his 71,000 followers, hopefully that'll only be the beginning.

Writing Advice: How To Cut Words

Over the last few days, I went through Battle for the Wastelands, cutting words in anticipation of #PitchMas. The manuscript began at 104,000 words (well, 103,946 or something like that, but I'm fairly certain one rounds when one pitches) and I've gotten it down to 100,375 words, which as far as publishers are concerned I can call it 100,000 words. Given how intricately I've plotted this out, I would much rather cut a few words per page and hope they add up rather than make macro cuts of scenes and characters.

So based on my work on Battle, here're some tips on how to do just that:

*Avoid the word "that." Oftentimes it's not needed. In particular "that" and a verb. Instead make it a gerund. Frex, instead of "a box that contained bones," say "a box containing bones."

*Cut the phrase "of them." Instead of saying "the two of them did this" or "the three of them did that," just say "the two did this" or "the three did that." Sometimes "of them" is necessary, but I cut a lot of words purging it.

*In tight third person, saying the POV character "knew" something is redundant. The portion of the story is being told from their perspective, so everything the reader reads they know. There were some situations where it was stylistically appropriate to leave that in, but I still cut some words there.

*Don't present the same information twice, even if realistically this would happen. The reader has already seen it once and that's what really matters. The second time, have something like, "So-and-so told her about such-and-such." The reader will know what you're talking about. This was a much bigger problem in The Cybele Incident, but it did crop up in a much earlier draft of Battle for the Wastelands and I found a bit of it at the end of the current draft of Battle.

*Cut speech tags. If you're describing somebody doing something and then have speech, it means that person is talking. Something like this:

Erin glared at him. "Don't condescend to me!"

Instead of

"Don't condescend to me!" Erin said angrily OR "Don't condescend to me!" Erin spat.

This example doesn't result in a net word loss, but when I applied this policy to Battle, I was able to cut words. This isn't to say speech tags aren't necessary, especially if there are more than two people present, but a lot of times they can be cut if what's going on in the scene gives context clues as to who is speaking.

I hope these suggestions prove useful to you.

June Writing Contest Results

My writing contest with Nick, Lauren Patrick, and Sean Korsgaard continues. This past month hasn't been particularly productive. I've only written 5,056 words (give or take some new words written during the editing process I didn't track well), which puts me ahead of Lauren (who had RL obligations) but dramatically behind Nick (who totally stomped everybody with 25,000).

Although I spent a lot of the month revising Battle for the Wastelands for the coming #Pitchmas novel-pitching sessions, excuses buy no yams. Looking at my spreadsheet, I didn't do any writing at all for over half the days in the month and most of those days weren't spent marking up the Battle manuscript or working for my freelance clients. I need to get in the habit of writing every day, even if it's only a little. My writer friends James R. Tuck and Delilah S. Dawson are productivity masters (creating first drafts in only a few months, with far more responsibilities than I have) and I would do well to emulate them.

So here's what I did accomplish:

*Battle for the Wastelands manuscript is now fully marked and I've edited the first three chapters. The goal is to get to 100,000 words or less to make it more salable. I did get a nibble from a small press during a previous pitching session that ultimately lead to a rejection, but I did get some useful feedback. The same with an agent rejection that arrived during the same timeframe. I'm optimistic for #Pitchmas. :)

*I've written close to 2,000 words for the sixth Wastelands novel, tentatively entitled Consolidation. Much of this was scenes I've previously written and filed away for later, including villain Falki Grendelsson brooding on the state of race relations in his truncated empire and Catalina Merrill cowing a would-be rapist with a revolver, but a lot of it is new material pertaining to how my development of Catalina's character.

*Written a good bit of material (approximately 3,000 words) for The Thing In The Woods, including much of the fifth chapter where the monster shows up again for the first time since the prologue and a scene taking place in the town library that brings in the American Civil War. I will be bringing the first four chapters before my Lawrenceville group this coming Sunday and the prologue (which the Lawrenceville people have already critiqued) before my Kennesaw group Saturday. All this critiquing and rewriting slows the process down and jeopardizes my plan to have the first draft finished by the time grad school starts in August, but the more finished and polished the early chapters are, the less continuity editing I'll need to do later.

So here's to a better, more productive July.

Reblog: Shandra McDonald To Teach Directing Workshop in Atlanta

Here's a blog post I wrote for Kiss The Limit Productions, a film company I intern for. It originally appeared on Hands Off This Girl, the site for the company's planned anti-sex-trafficking webseries:

Kiss The Limit CEO To Provide Directing Workshop

ATLANTA, Ga. — Kiss The Limit Productions President and Award-winning Filmmaker Shandra McDonald will teach a directing workshop June 8.

McDonald, a graduate of Howard University, has taught advanced directing classes at several colleges in the Atlanta area and has won awards for her film projects.

“There’s just such a need for it,” she said. “I think directing is a mystery for a lot of up and coming directors.”

The class will be an intensive, but a very practical intensive. She will be teaching directors how to visualize a scene using floor plans, directing beats, and other important elements. She will also explain how to get to the psychology of the scene, visualize and and break down a scene. 

McDonald feels very strongly that understanding the psychology of a scene is key to knowing which shots to use, camera lenses and other technical aspects of filmmaking. She cited the film “Children of Men” as a film that isn’t overly-shot. A lot of times young directors are taught to start with a wide, then go to medium, then go to close up, but the film uses the wide shot effectively to go to the heart of the scene. McDonald plans to talk about this film and other successful films. 

McDonald will also cover: 

*Theoretical side of directing...

*Working with actors...

*Post Production....

*Analyzing a script....

*Working with a Producer...

“I love directing and I love teaching young directors how to become better directors,” she said.

Directing is a lifetime pursuit. She said Mel Brooks recently spoke about how he has finally been recognized as a director, but it takes a lifetime to nurture one’s craft.

Participants will receive a comprehensive notebook with the tools they can use to continue to grow. It will be a strong entrée into the world of directing. Participants will start understanding the foundations of directing and end learning some advanced techniques. This is a great class for beginning directors who are just getting started, or more advanced directors who are looking to refine some skills that they already have. 

“The goal is to demystify directing,” she said. "It can be extremely effective if done correctly."

Space is limited, so participants are advised to register soon. To find out more information and to buy tickets, go here.

Lucky Seven Challenge: "Battle for the Wastelands"

Gary Henderson, a member of the Lawrenceville writing group I've referenced, just tagged me in the "Lucky Seven Challenge." Here are the rules:


Go to page 7 or 77 of your latest work. Read down to the seventh line and then post online the next seven lines or sentences. Then head off and tag seven more writers.

So here are seven lines, beginning on the seventh line, of page seven of my novel Battle for the Wastelands.


He wiped the blood and bits of brain onto his sleeve. Not wanting to let anything go to waste, he picked a particularly large bit off his arm. He swallowed it whole, ignoring the unpleasant taste and texture. 
He looked at his kills. There was no way he could carry both of them home. He’d have to cut them up and pack the meat into his leather bag.

This tidbit provoked a particularly vivid expression of disgust from one of my fellow group members, but this isn't an exercise is gratuitousness. The "he" in question is protagonist Andrew Sutter and he's hunting a dangerous post-apocalyptic mutant critter known as a "ripper" for food during a drought that has left his hometown on the verge of starvation. He's just killed it, at ranges far too close for comfort.

Now here are my seven nominees for the contest: Sean CW Korsgaard, Nicolas Hoffmann, Matt Schafer, Chris Nuttall, Alex Shalenko, Rob Gilliam, and J.M. McDermott.

Thoughts on Kickstarter (and Crowd-Funding)

I just set up an account on Kickstarter and made my first contribution, $10 to help the webseries Lost in the Woods buy a spiffy alien costume for the second season.

Here's the back-story. I met Matt Nielsen, head of Cool Hat Media, while working as a production assistant on an Atlanta movie during late December and early January. He told me about Lost in the Woods, which I thought was pretty interesting. After friending him on Facebook and liking Cool Hat, I saw he was looking to raise funds on Kickstarter. This morning I saw he was in the home stretch and decided to contribute, but by the time I actually got around to doing it, he'd already crossed the finish line. I contributed anyway, with the extra money going to help fund more alien costumes/makeup and some cuts/bruises/mayhem for the cast.

This post isn't just my bragging about helping someone. I've actually been putting some thought into Kickstarter (and crowdfunding in general) for awhile. On the movie shoot, Toria Munoz, another production assistant, told me I ought to try to fund the production of a movie version of "Melon Heads" (already writing the screenplay) via Kickstarter. I was skeptical due to not being well-known enough to raise a lot of money, but another friend (I can't remember who) told me if I wanted to get any money, I'd need to shoot a scene and post the video in order to attract the funding to finish. I already have an idea for the scene I'd shoot (the first real appearance of the Melon Heads and what happens right before), but getting the money together to even do that is going to be problematic and I have a lot of other stuff to do in the meantime. However, it's worth a thought.

In the long run, crowdfunding would be a good way to get around the problem of Internet piracy eroding the incentive to actually create media. If the entire cost of the project is paid for in advance (by people who then get books, movies, etc. to their taste in exchange), that means all actual sales of the product after release are pure profit. Sure the torrents and the like are going to cut into sales, but you won't need to make as many sales in the first place to make the project worth your while. And if the numbers justify a sequel, you have a much larger fan-base now to pay for it.

And this might help save genre fiction, especially short stories. Something I've noticed over the last few years is that the number of paying short fiction markets has plummeted, especially the ones in the middle. One of the things I've seen on Kickstarter is a number of themed fiction anthologies, which I'm told are very poor sellers. I've also seen established figures in the genre like John Joseph Adams seeking funds to start new publications of their own. Crowd-funding these will help compensate for the decline in print media publications that used to publish these stories and could allow for a diversity of thought and content that didn't exist even during the genre's "glory days." Given the consolidation of the book-publishing industry, you could apply the same thing to full-length novels.

Crowdfunding also gives people who complain about the state of the media today the opportunity to put their money where their mouth is. If you want more original films, help fund the production of a screenplay the writer could never sell because it's too "risky" (aka it's not a remake or a sequel of something original that did succeed, years ago). If you think the publishing industry has some bias (be it political or stylistic--I remember some complaints about there being too much cynical, dark material out there), fund a book or anthology of stories that goes against the grain.

Character Interview: Patrido Guzman

Today we're sitting down with Patrido Guzman, a former farmer from Zacatecas, Mexico.

(Guzman is a shorter man, but taller than a stereotypical Mexican. He has thinning dark hair.)

Me: Buenas dias, señor Guzman.

Guzman: Buenas dias to you as well.

Me: So let's get started. When were you born?

Guzman: I was born in 1989 in Zacatecas. My father was a farmer, like his forebears before him. We were better off than many campesinos, since we owned our own land and could occasionally hire help. We grew corn, mostly, but we also had chickens and even some cattle.

Me: Do you have any brothers or sisters?

Guzman: Oh yes. I have an older brother Juan and sister Carolina, my younger brothers Eduardo and Quinto, and a younger sister Pilar.

Me: How was the land going to be divided?

Guzman: Well, there wasn't enough to sustain every member of the family, so we couldn't all get a piece. My father thought it best that all of us get work and education so that whoever didn't inherit the land could still make a decent life. My older brother and sister went to Zacatecas City, where my brother found work in the silver mines and my sister as a teacher. I was in secondary school and studying for university when NAFTA came.

Me: What happened then?

Guzman: Free trade is great in principle, but Mexican farmers cannot compete with American corn, especially when it's subsidized to the point it can be sold below cost. We worked harder than ever before and managed to sustain ourselves in the face of American imports for years, but in the end, we couldn't compete.

Me: Your family lost its land?

(Guzman sadly nods.)

Guzman: Losing the land that had been in our family since before the Mexican Revolution was too much for my father. He died of heart trouble a year after we were forced to sell our land and move in with my older siblings in the city. My mother followed him soon afterward.

Me: I'm sorry to hear that.

Guzman: I couldn't attend university and had to go to work right away to help support the family. My younger siblings had to finish school themselves. I went to work in a maquiladora, one of the new factories NAFTA made possible. The Lord takes and He gives, you know?

Me: Job 1:21?

Guzman: The very one. The money was better than many of the other jobs I could have taken, but I hated working there. The supervisor was a real mula who mistreated some of the women in the factory. I didn't want to lose my job and didn't do anything for the longest time and then when I saw him hassling a widow working to feed a child, I told him to go to hell. I got fired the next day.

Me: Yikes.

Guzman: He got his. When the government started fighting the drug cartels, he was found dead. Whether he caught a bullet meant for someone else or someone decided to take revenge for a sister or daughter he put his hands on, I don't know. Good riddance either way.

Me: So what are you going to do now?

Guzman: Well, I've had friends who've gone to work in El Norte.

Me: El Norte?

Guzman: The United States. They made good money doing even the most menial work, enough to send home and build big houses for their families, put siblings and children through school. I once heard of a man who took over a concrete business when the gringo owner retired and he's a millionaire now.

Me: How are you going to get in? I've heard it's hard to get in legally unless you've got special skills and you said you never got to go to university...

Guzman: Well, I knew a man from the factory whose brother knows someone on the other side of the border. A coyote, a smuggler. Juan and Carolina, they loaned me the money to pay him up-front. No need to work for him for years. We're going to meet up in...well, I don't know you. Maybe you work the limones verdes.

Me: Limones verdes? Green lemons?

Guzman: Sorry. Your Border Patrol. They drive around in green trucks.

Me: Got it.

Will Guzman make it to the United States? If you want to find out, check out the short story "Illegal Alien," which appears in the short story collection Flashing Steel, Flashing Fire. Non-Amazon e-books here.

My Friend Eli's Hilarious, Cynical Song

My friend Eli Banks posted this song he wrote in 2002 (when we were both juniors or seniors in high school, depending on which side of the summer it was) on Facebook. It goes to the tune of "My Favorite Things" and took 23 minutes for him to write:

People whose breath smells like ranch flavored Pringles
Speed limit drivers who use their turn signals
Geniuses, intellects, no one's a fool
These are the people I see at my school

Really fast walkers who know where they're going
People whose insight is constantly growing
Someone you couldn't refer to as "tool"
These are the people I see at my school

When I'm angry
When I'm hungry
When I feel irate
I simply start thinking of kids at my school
And then I start feeling great!

Good taste in music and beautiful fashion
Students who care who are learning with passion
Good human beings who follow the rules
These are the people I see at my school

Nobody drinks and nobody does drugs
Walk through the halls and start giving out hugs
Everyone's loving and everyone's cool
These are the people I see at my school!

When I'm angry
When I'm hungry
When I feel irate
I simply start thinking of kids at my school
And then I start feeling great!

For the record, this was written during his "glory days of sarcasm and bitterness." Those who didn't particularly enjoy high school or know people who didn't should get a kick out of this.

My NaNoWriMo Autopsy

Just as I suspected earlier, I did not succeed at National Novel Writing Month this month. Based on the numbers in my Excel spreadsheet, I wrote approximately 7,660 words, around 15 percent of the 50,000 words those who set out to climb the NaNoWriMo mountain must write.

Now it's time to conduct an autopsy, to see why I did not succeed and what lessons can be learned:

*Work was one of the biggest causes. Although I've made some money with my personal writing, that which makes most of my money should take the top priority.

*For my NaNoWriMo project, I picked a hard SF novel I had already begun writing. That genre is more difficult to write and requires more pre-existing knowledge than, say, a sword-and-sorcery or "New Pulp" novel. My friend Jamie, who "made" NaNoWriMo for the second year in a row, said my not succeeding at NaNoWriMo was understandable if I chose hard SF. I'd written most of the first chapter of a pulp adventure novel in an hour or so at DragonCon this year and that would have been a better NaNoWriMo project.

*If you look at my November blog-posting list, I found a lot of stuff to comment on. Although some of that was very time-sensitive and necessary (like the Starcraft novel review), others perhaps could have been held off on. Part of the issue is that if I run into a block, I often find something easier to do, like post on the blog or message-board. Good for bringing in blog traffic (November was one of the most-trafficked months this year), but not good for finishing a novel.

*I brought the first four chapters to my writing group and spent time revising them rather than simply writing new content. I have reason for this--one of my writing group's more active members is a former petty officer on a submarine who knows significantly more about the Navy than I do and his comments lead to large re-writes. It's better to get problems in earlier chapters fixed to minimize the amount of rewriting later. However good that might be more for the novel as a whole, that contributed to my not making the 50,000.

Oh well. Better luck next year.

Most-Reviewed Story So Far: "The Beast of the Bosporus"

My experiment in publishing short fiction for e-readers has entered into its third month. So far, although "Melon Heads" remains my top seller with a combined 200 sales and giveaways, "The Beast of the Bosporus" has gotten the most reviews on blogs.

Here they are:

Matthew Stienberg

Matt Mitrovich

Sean Korsgaard

It warms the heart to see my work so well-received, especially when Matt S. said I inspired him to blog and write.

However, blog reviews don't necessarily translate into large numbers of sales, at least at first. I've sold six copies of "Beast" so far and given away around 82 for promotional purposes. This is not to show a lack of appreciation for these upstanding gentlemen and the help they've provided, mind, but it is a lesson.

(Matt M. said his review got 19 "up" votes on the Lovecraft sub-reddit, so it might sell better in the long run. Things like reddit and StumbleUpon are avenues I've not really touched.)


At some point, I'm going to buy some Facebook advertising. When I did a Facebook ad campaign in the summer of 2011, it brought large amounts of traffic here, both as a result of direct ad-clicking and from people who'd linked my blog pages to the Starcraft Wiki, ensuring a continuous flow of hits (1,500-odd so far) from there. One of the downsides of self-publishing is that you've got to pay for advertising, not your publisher. I've run the numbers and I'd need to sell three copies (I get $0.35 per story sold as royalties) to justify every $1 spent on Facebook ads.

I'll keep you posted on how this goes.

My Top Traffic Sources and Lessons Thereof

Was checking the stats on my blog this morning and took a look at the top traffic sources since the blog began in 2010.

My single biggest source was www.alternatehistory.com, with 5,379 hits. Meanwhile, alternatehistory.com has 753 hits. Given how my blog has 60,000 hits total, this represents around 10% of my total traffic. Also, I've noticed my blog traffic has gone down during the recent months I've had myself blocked from posting on the message-board to avoid being distracted from my personal writing. This indicates my strategy of putting blog links in the signature of every post I make has been a successful traffic draw.

(For the record, this is the alternate-history forum I often mention in conversation.)

Meanwhile, google.com has brought in 5,043 hits, with google.co.uk bringing in 437, google.ca 408, and google.au 169. That's combined around 6,000 hits, another 10% of my traffic total. This shows the power of the Google search engine and possibly why putting one's blog on Blogger (which is part of Google) is a good idea.

Facebook brought in 1,496 hits. I typically post blog links on my profile page and on my Facebook fan page Matthew W. Quinn, Speculative Fiction Writer. Although this doesn't seem to have been the hit-getter I thought it was, I do recall getting a lot of hits on my recent post on why I'm voting Libertarian this year. I'm going to keep this strategy up.

A surprisingly large source of hits was the Starcraft Wikia, with 1,302 hits. Here's how it happened. In the summer of 2011, I bought some Facebook advertising (I can't remember how much) and after some trial and error, decided to narrowly target it to a certain few things. One of those things was Starcraft, since I had been blogging a fair bit about Starcraft II, a tie-in novel I outlined and planned to propose to Blizzard, and some suggestions I had for the future of the Starcraft storyline. Some of these links ended up in the Starcraft Wikia and have been bearing fruit since. Lesson: Facebook advertising is good, as is narrowly targeting it. I considered buying some Facebook advertising for my two short stories available on Amazon.com, but I'd need to move some very large numbers in order to break even (for $50 worth of advertising, I'd need to sell 150 copies).

Last of these outside traffic sources is Wikipedia, with 158 hits. After DragonCon one year (I can't remember if it was 2011 or 2010), I put some links to my DragonCon blog posts there, in particular those relating to S.M. Stirling and his Draka, Island in the Sea of Time, and Emberverse novels. I think one of the links got purged, but others are still there.

Finally, last of all traffic sources period is the blog itself, with 149 hits. This seems to indicate that visitors to the blog visit one page or another but don't go from page to page very often.

One of the sources not listed at all was my personal Twitter feed. I have definitely gotten blog hits from tweeting my blog posts (t.co being the source listed), but it doesn't seem like I've gotten very many. I also haven't been getting many blog hits from guest blog posts. However, I haven't done very many of those and I haven't done those until recently, so that should be expected.

My eBook Experiment, Success and Predictions...

Per my earlier post, I posted two pieces of my short fiction on Amazon.com for the Kindle.

They are "Melon Heads" and "I am the Wendigo", both of which had cover art done by Udo Wooten. One of the reasons self-published works don't do well is because they often have really bad cover art, and thanks to Udo, that wasn't a problem.

Here's what I've learned so far. Both sales and free giveaways were highest in September, the month they were released. I made 16 sales of "Melon Heads" and 6 sales of "Wendigo," gaining me $7.70 in total revenue, along with a combined 300-ish in giveaways. However, come October, "Melon Heads" sales had drastically declined, with one sale (and a refund) and "Wendigo" sales had vanished entirely. I've set them to be given away free today (Oct. 14) and tomorrow (Oct. 15), and so far I've given away five copies of "Wendigo" and eleven of "Melon Heads" (the latter mostly in Britain for some reason). Hopefully word of mouth would generate some sales after the free period ends.

My friends Jeff Baker and James R. Tuck both had offered advice on the matter. Jeff said people he knew who were living off self-published eBook revenues made money on volume. James agreed with his point--his advice on making money by Kindle-publishing short fiction was "churn and burn."

(I have seen at least one cross-purchase--someone who purchased "I am the Wendigo" also purchased "Melon Heads." I imagine the more I write, the greater this effect will be.)

I do have a fair bit of unsold short fiction inventory, although some of it is unsold for a reason. I've got a Lovecraftian Western called "Old Daniels' Mine," for example, which is a mess whose length makes it problematic to revise. I've heard short stories aren't really worth the time you put into them, so I would probably be better-served working on my longer stuff rather than tinkering with this even if I could make a few bucks in the short run on the Kindle.

However, I do have some unsold stories that are in much better shape.

1. "The Beast of the Bosporus"-The Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire decides to think outside the box after the Battle of Lepanto, and gets involved with the affairs of the Great Old Ones. I wrote the earliest version in 2004 and have been cutting it since then, removing excessive description--an earlier version was described as "Toynbee with monsters"--and even one entire character. Like "Melon Heads," although it's now a much stronger work, I don't have many places left to send it.

2. "Illegal Alien"-Also a college story, this one tells the tale of a group of undocumented immigrants who stumble into the middle of an alien war in the Arizona desert. It also shows off my propensity for awful puns. I've been revising this one for awhile and have been running out of markets to send it.

3. "Breeding Pair"-The title alludes to the practice of collecting male-female pairs of endangered species to ensure there's a safe, viable breeding population somewhere. As applied to humans, this risks venturing into rather raunchy territory, although since I have no interest in writing trash, things don't get very far. The story also ventures into the idea that Christ visited alien races as well, as expressed in C.S. Lewis's essay "Religion and Rocketry," which is contained in his book The World's Last Night, and Alice Meynell's poem "Christ in the Universe."

I've never even sent this to my critique groups, so this might be a bit premature. However, it is set in the same universe as "Illegal Alien," which I'm much more likely to Kindle-publish, and given the content and subject matter, it risks being too risque for the Christian markets and too Christian for the secular markets (on Critters, someone complained about "alien snake Jesus"), leaving self-publishing my only option.

To provide cover art, I may expand my repertoire of artists to include Alex Claw, whose work can be found here. Alex seems more focused on depicting human beings than Udo is, and I've already put some thought into what he might be able to do for "Illegal Alien" and "Breeding Pair."

"Batman Maybe" Hilarious Music Video

Here's a video my friend Patrick shared on Facebook.



It's an absolute riot.  It has spoilers for The Dark Knight Rises, so be ye warned.

Here's the original video on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJ5l5ls0hP4&feature=youtu.be

Behold, I Offer You Swag!

I'm going to embark on a little experiment here.  Awhile back, I joined the Atlanta Bloggers Meetup.com group and met Emma, founder of Fanbolt.  One of her techniques for growing Fanbolt was offering Fanbolt t-shirts, hats, etc. to new Twitter and Facebook followers. Some newspapers do this as well.

Well, I'll take a page from them and offer some swag of my own...

Here's the current map of the world where my professionally-published short story "Coil Gun" takes place. Last Christmas, I gave a coffee-mug with that map on it to my friend Nick, since he'd reviewed an early draft of "Coil Gun."  He's regularly used that mug--it's even made an appearance on Facebook, in a photo showing his dog Scout seated with him at the table like a person.

The twelfth new Twitter follower and the twelfth new Facebook fan will receive mugs featuring the map.  This offer will run as long as it needs to.  However, the longer it takes to reach the twelve mark on both ends, the more likely it is I'll forget I made this offer, so act now.  :)

By the way, "Coil Gun" appeared in Pressure Suite: Digital Science Fiction #3.  My friend Korsgaard reviewed both the book and "Coil Gun" specifically.  If you're interested in science fiction, you'll love the book.

No, I Did Not Die In the Aurora, Colorado Shooting

The other night, I found some people had found my blog by doing Google searches for a "Matt Quinn" and the recent shooting in Aurora, Colorado.  I thought maybe my policy proposals to prevent gun crime without gun control had gone viral, so I decided to search myself.

It turns out that one of those killed in the Colorado shooting was named Matt McQuinn, but some media outlets reported his name as Matt Quinn.  Here's a link to a story about the funerals of several of the dead, including Mr. McQuinn.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/28/justice/colorado-theater-shooting/index.html

He died shielding his girlfriend from gunfire, so let us all have a moment of silence in his honor.

Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.  John 15:13, NIV.

How to Serenade a Cat While Drunk...

Here's a really funny video I found on Facebook courtesy of Cherie Priest, author of Boneshaker and Dreadnought.  It's so goofy it's absurd.



I hope you all enjoy it.  Here's the original link.

Guest Post: Novels, Novellas, and Short Stories, Oh My!

Novels, Novellas, and Short Stories, Oh My!

By Delilah S. Dawson

If you’re on any sort of social media, then you know two things for sure: books are dead, and the zombie apocalypse is on the way. I can’t make any promises about zombies. But I can assure you that books are far from dead, although the publishing world is changing, maybe for the better. 

A traditional book runs 60,000 to 140,000 words for fiction, unless you’re talking George R. R. Martin, and then all bets are off. But traditional books aren’t the only answer, and not all stories need that many words. Stephen King and Isaac Asimov (among many others!) are known for starting their careers by writing short stories, which are generally 500 to 10,000 words. And with the advent of self-publishing and e-publishing, novellas of 20,000 to 40,000 words are growing in popularity. 

I wrote my first novel in 2009 and sold a three-book series to Pocket/Simon and Schuster in 2011. I tried to sell some short stories after that, and although I received several, “Almost; keep trying!” notes, I never managed to break into that market. So when Pocket approached me to write an e-novella, I was anxious to try my hand at a new medium—and also a little scared. After all, I was accustomed to dreaming big and having 100,000 words to explore my characters, set evocative scenes, and enjoy snappy dialog. How could I cut that down to 30,000 words and still feel like the tale was complete?

The answer was: pretty easily, actually.

I discovered that I love writing novellas. While it takes me around two sleepless months to whip out the first draft of a full-length novel and several months to revise, I wrote the 34,000 words of "The Mysterious Madam Morpho" in exactly ten days. The story came quickly, and editing has been a breeze. Because there was less to do, there was less to mess up. As this series is romance, I was able to focus in on the couple and keep them mostly in one place instead of the usual madcap adventure I favor. And boy, did they ever get personal fast. When you’ve only got one third of the time, you have to get busy three times faster!

As far as reading novellas, I’m starting to see the appeal. Buying an e-novella for less than two dollars can be a great way to discover a new author without investing bigger money in a book you might not finish. Or, if you really dig a series and the author has long windows between release dates, you can get a quick fix of your favorite world to tide you over. On the author side, it’s exciting to give characters who might not merit an entire storyline their own little adventure, and it’s also fun to broaden the world and explore new corners. 

Pocket liked my first e-novella enough to contract me for two more. The next step is collaborative as we go back and forth with what they’d like to see and what I’d like to write about. I’m excited to work within their wishes and deliver a story that will satisfy my editors and audience, not to mention entice some new readers into my steampunk paranormal world of bloodthirsty rabbits, dangerous cities, and topsy-turvy caravans.

To aspiring writers, I would recommend trying your hand at a variety of stories and seeing what works best. Whether you want to self-publish, enter contests, or go the traditional publishing route, every word you write is one word farther on your journey. Stephen King once said “The first million words are practice,” but he never said how those million words had to be divided up.

Delilah S. Dawson is the author of Wicked as They Come,the first in a steampunk paranormal romance series from Pocket/Simon & Schuster. You can find her on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, or on her blog. Her first e-novella, The Mysterious Madam Morpho,came out in October 2012.

The Great Purge Complete...

Just finished removing Free Blog Hit Counter from the prior posts on the blog.  Given how there were 328 total and I'd posted relatively few new entries since I started the purge, this took about a month to accomplish.

(To be fair, I had other priorities, like writing "Son of Grendel" and having a social life.  I could have done it last night if I hadn't had a karaoke outing.)

And per Blogger, the number of hits I have as of a few minutes ago is 46,787 since I started the blog in February 2010.  When I purged the last of Free Blog Hit Counter, it said my blog hits totaled 41,000.