I'm back...and ebooks are cool!

Well, I'm back...vacation ended early and to be honest I was getting bored. So I did what everyone with an internet connection and portable computing device should be doing these days - installed Kindle for the CP on my netbook. Welcome back to the world of reading, Jonny boy; in the last few days I've spent about fifty bucks on ebooks, my waking hours filled with the devouring of pretty much everything I've always meant to read but never got around to. So far I;m about three books into the Dresden files, read the Art of War and the Tarnsman of Gor (for the record, I don't see what the big deal is. Google GOREAN and you turn up a plethora of S&M websites, which really isn't my brand of kink...as far as the book goes it seems much like any other sword and sorcery that came out during the 60's. Although later on in the series it's supposed to be...er, different. Guess I'll have to wait and see.)

Now I;m re-reading Neal Stephensons Baroque Cycle, about a quarter of the way through Quicksilver. My eyeballs feel like they're gonna drop out of my skull, but it's worth it.. There of NOTHING like a nonstop infusion of the written word to stimulate the creative portion of the brain (or to make one more articulate in his writing....)

On vacation....

Just a quick note...

I'll be away for the rest of the week, taking a...well I call it a vacation, except it isn't, so that would make a not-quite-a-vacation....? I dunno, the point is if you notice the sudden dearth in blog posts, it's not because I've been abducted by aliens (which would be kinda cool...unless there's probing involved. Then it's just scary.) Rather, I'll be sunning myself on the beaches of St. Croix, far and away from the cruel winter weather that afflicts the Northeast...yeah right! Not on my budget...But I will be away from my computer for a few days, recharging the proverbial batteries.

To quote the Governator...I'll be back.

Finding a hook

I read somewhere a while back that more books were published in the last year than in the last five years combined, or something along those lines. And yet the amount of time people have to read has actually SHRUNK by…well, I don't have actual statistic on hand at the moment, but it's probably some depressingly high number. Basically, more books are out there for sale, but there are fewer eyeballs around to see them. So how is a hardworking, hard dreaming independent author supposed to make it nowadays (and by make it I mean actually sell more than a handful of copies, digital or otherwise, to paying customers who AREN'T friends or family?)

It seems to me that in order to be successful, you need to have a hook, some kind of gimmick or angle that makes you stand out from the others. Look at Edward Rutherford - he basically writes novels about physical places stretching over the centuries. Sarum, Russka, London, all basically focused on a place and various families who live there. The places in question may change, but the basic angle doesn't....and God bless him if he doesn't make a living at it.

So…I guess if you're trying to get SOMEONE to read your words, you need something to hook 'em in. Either that or wait until the day when books can be beamed directly into the brain. Which would be really cool. Unless it causes the brains in question to explode, in which case it will merely be really messy.

Neil Gaiman in the New Yorker?

Neil Gaiman profiled in the New Yorker…I never would have imagined it. The creator of the Sandman in the home of Eustace Tilley. Very informative…for instance, I never knew he wrote a biography of Duran Duran. And I will confess to crushing hard on a goth girl in college who dressed up like Death (hey, it was the 90’s….)

Here’s the link.

LARP'ing Memories...

I have confession to make: I used to be a LARP'er. That is, A Live Action RolePlayer...basically someone who goes into the woods on a weekend to be an elf or orc, and more importantly, to wail on other players with boffer weapons. You've never really live until you've come home with your body all bruised and banged up from being pounded up with foam-wrapped PVC pipe swords. The aches are badges of honor, and your lie down in your bed knowing that you have faced a worthy foe (usually IT professionals in the real world, at least in the circles I played in) in rightteous and honorable combat....

Anyway, eventually things like school, work, and an aching back put an end to that. Sometimes though, when memory lane sings it's call, I take a look at the trailer for DARKON, and and then sit back to remember a simpler time, when living in the imagination was a reality, at least for a weekend.

Here's the link. Enjoy.

THE STORM AT THE CENTER OF THE WORLD: BOOK ONE is now available digitally for the Kindle on Amazon.com! Click HERE to order your copy!

Try a little variety

If there's weakness that afflicts the fantasy genre, it is often a lack of imagination about setting. Growing up, I could have stacked a pile of books higher than head filled with stories set in deep green woods popultated by elves, ogres, orcs, yadda, yadda, yadda, all medieval pseudo-Arthurian BS that seems fun until you've been playing AD&D for few years, at which point you realize that it all seems the same, and is all so boring...

For real variety, sometimes you have step beyond your preconceptions, and have a look at something that isn't set in a medieval European folklore based world. Why not something set in a fantasy version of Rome, Or China? How about a fantastical Africa that never was? Try one of the books by Barry Huighart, set in a mythical version of China, one that is amazing, brilliant, and laugh out loud funny. Or Scott Bakker, whose world is based on Byzantine and Hellenistic themes. Eric Lustbader wrote a series a while back that is set in a distinctly Oriental world. Or go old school and read John Normans Gor series.

There's more out there than shining knights on horseback and magical elf queens, that's all I'm saying....