SASE is open!

My experiment in e-publishing is taking its first step.  At the top of this site you will notice a new page.  There is currently a single story available for purchase.  If you are brave enough to risk the money (which is really no risk, as I can fulfill the order, even if the PayPal button doesn't work properly), feel free to buy this story and give me some feedback on the whole experience (including the story itself).

Thanks in advance to all who have advised and encouraged me on this.  Let's hope it works, and that SASE can become a bit bigger, and maybe accommodate a few more authors.

Amazon Kindle Users:
I currently have four other stories available at Amazon (see the link above).  Once the bugs in this system are worked out, I will be removing those from the KDP program, upping the price to match what I charge here, and offering them through SASE, the same as I am doing for this new story.  So, if you want copies of my other stories for your Kindle device at the lower Amazon price of $.99, now is the time to buy!

Publishing - Part II

After some thought, and a bit of discussion with a friend who is knowledgable of such things, I am going to attempt to set up a merchant site wherein I can sell my stories directly.  This will be an experiment in ePublishing, and will be limited to short stories for now.  I'll be pulling my Kindle stories out of the KDP program, which prohibits me from publishing elsewhere, and offering them on my own site for the same price of 99 cents (I wish the keyboard had a quick way to enter the "cents" symbol, come to think of it).  They'll still be available through Kindle, as I want to keep the option open for readers to comment and review on the Amazon site.

The stories will be available in various formats: MOBI for the Kindle, EPub for the Nook (and others), and PDF for those without eReaders.  Ideally, you would select which format upon purchase, and your "shipping address" would be an email.  I'm still researching the logistics of this, but I hope to have the ability to have the site automatically send the file to the designated address.

I will most likely be using Wordpress.  My friend told me about a free add-on they have for this sort of thing.  My only concern is how to receive payment.  If I use PayPal, they will charge me a "small" fee of 2.9% plus a 30 cent processing fee.  This might not sound like much until you figure that, for a $1 purchase, this is about 33% of my profits.  I'm hoping I can find a fee-less option, but somehow I doubt I will.  Nothing is free in this world.

I even came up with a clever name for this endeavor (well, I think it's clever): Short Attention Span Epublishing, or SASE.  See what I did there?

I'll be sure to keep you posted on how it works out.  If it looks like it could catch on, I'll probably work out a method by which I offer the use of the site to other authors.  Not sure if I will ever expand beyond short stories, but you never know.

Publishing

I feel compelled to make a second blog post today. Partly from something I mentioned in my last post, but largely from something that I just read in the news.

Authors are being screwed. Okay, so this is not news. Authors have always had to struggle to get their piece of the publishing pie. But things are getting worse and worse. Publishers are taking a larger and larger bite, leaving a slimmer slice for the writer.

You know, the guy (or gal) WHO ACTUALLY PRODUCES WHAT THEY SELL!?!

For some recent details, read this New York Times article.

The gist of it is, Publishers, with their (laughable) marketing departments, Photoshop Art Direction Departments, and their Mafia-like distribution fleets, are taking more and more of the cover price on your average book for themselves. The net effect is that the writers are left with the table scraps.

Does this seem wrong to ANYONE who isn’t a writer???

Here is what I am considering doing. I have the means to produce eBooks in a variety of formats, including MOBI, which is readable on the Kindle. What if I were to self-publish all of my own work, and sell it directly? Say you own a Kindle, and you want to read my latest short story. You can go to Amazon, pay $.99, and have it electronically delivered to your Kindle device. Or…

You could go to my site, pay $.99 thru PayPal, providing me with your Kindle's email address, and I could send the story in MOBI format directly to your device. For you, the difference is a slightly longer purchasing process (probably about as long as ordering a print book to be delivered). But for me, I get paid $.99 rather than $.35 for your purchase.

Additionally, I could produce it in other formats for other eReaders, or even in PDF, just to read on your computer (or print out if you are so inclined).

And then, what if my site (which could be ad-driven) was available to other authors so they can also provide their books for sale in the same manner? Honestly, I would be willing to convert the files and email them out, or send the files to the authors so they can email them out, for free. I put that Avenger collection together in about an hour, and that included using Photoshop to cobble together a decent cover. Had I had the cover art already done, the time would have been about 10 minutes, all together.

I can already see the disadvantage here. Even though “marketing” is almost non-existent by the publishing houses, it still exists to a degree. So, my biggest obstacle would be how to drive traffic to my site. Obviously search engines, sites like Goodreads, and social media. And really, would it take much more than that?

I may look into this. I would probably start it out as strictly a place to offer short stories. But that could be a niche market, no? I’m sure I am overlooking some issues. But, something needs to be done. And these are just some thoughts.

Why is this important to me, since I produce so little writing of my own? Well, because I have friends who are writers, and this new trend in “Going in dry” publishing is going to hurt them. And I don’t like people hurting my friends.

Pulp Adventures!

As most of my friends know (or at least should), I am a huge fan of the pulp adventure stories of the 20’s, 30’s and 40’s. “More than” human heroes, dastardly villains, loyal sidekicks, Superscience, guns and fists. These are the things that I love to read about. Sure, I loves me some epic fantasy, some modern techno-thrillers, and even the occasional non-fiction work. But, really, the Pulps kind of form the backbone of my tastes, especially these days.

Maybe it’s because the world was more innocent; more black and white. You knew when someone was a villain, and you knew when someone was a hero. And if your character was on the side of justice, well they could hardly do wrong in that pursuit. In this day and age, sometimes those lines get fuzzy.

I also like that Pulp is practically a genre unto itself. The stories of the age can dash across many literary genres; fantasy, science fiction, mystery, historical. But, regardless of that, they are all considered “Adventure” fiction. And I think that’s the key. In these stories; stuff happens.

The narrative voice doesn’t beat you down with excessive amounts of internal dialogue, philosophical pondering, or verbose background infodumps. What you do get is action prose, laced with enough information that you know what’s going on, and who’s doing it. The best writers were able to blend the details with the action, keeping the pace going. Some of the lesser in skill seemed to struggle with this. But, thanks in large part to the word-limits, they often were forced to keep their descriptions brief.

Which leads me to another reason I like them: brevity. I just do not have the time to read doorstopper novels. And when you add that lack of time to the fact that I just don’t read very fast, it would take me the better part of a year to wade through something that GRRM writes. Plus, I tend to get easily lost in the myriads of subplots, and the subplots of those subplots. And do I really need to know every detail of the eating habits of the nobility? Apparently, I could never be a Jedi, because I DO crave adventure and excitement. Especially when I am reading.

I am happy to see that the whole “Pulp” idea is making a comeback. Between eReaders, and publishers like Airship 27, the supergenre of Pulp Adventure is making a comeback. But for some of us, not only is time tight, but so is money. So, how do we get our Pulp fix? Well, I do spend a lot of time perusing used books stores for collections. But sometimes, that’s not enough. That’s when my morals get a little hazy and I head over to Project Gutenberg – Australia.

Copyright laws in Australia are much more lax than here in the states. So, some fiction from the early 20th century that may be copyrighted here, is public domain there. And you can read the texts of a lot of fiction there for free. But, even though this is morally questionable, I do have a few standards; I don’t download fiction that is available in print unless I have already purchased a print version. For instance, I own print copies of almost every Robert E. Howard story. So, I don’t feel bad for using the text at Gutenberg to create eBooks so I can also read them on my Kindle.

However, sometimes I want to read something that I can’t find anywhere in print. Case in point recently is The Avenger. Gutenberg has several of the original stories from the 40’s, and after fruitless searches for reprints, I decided to download a few and create an eBook. I figure it’s not really a violation if I’m not distributing it freely, or for profit. It’s just for me.

Anyways, these are my random thoughts on the adventure fiction of the Pulp Era. I swear, if I ever become a teacher, and I teach a class on 20th Century Literature, there will be a section in my curriculum on the Pulps.

R.I.P. Mr. Ebert

When I was younger, mainly in the 1980's, I was just becoming a movie-phile.  When I moved to Okinawa, I discovered a whole new world of movies on Video, and I was glued to the TV for much of my high school years.  During that time, I would watch Siskel & Ebert just to see previews and clips, since FEN didn't air commercials.

My oldest distinctive memory was when they reviewed Rambo: First Blood part II.  Gene Siskel gave it a thumbs up, but Roger Ebert gave it a thumbs down.  From then on, I had a hate-on for him, and for years I would see film-critics as snobby hacks who judge movies based on a single set of criteria, without any thought given to the genre, like Roger Ebert.

Well, for the most part, that view of film-critics in general has remained, and I still believe that it's largely true.  However, in Roger Ebert's case, I slowly started to understand where he was coming from.  I figured out that what he was doing was holding film to a higher standard, in the hopes of influencing the film industry.  Not sure if I agree with him, even now.  And I think he was misguided and maybe a bit narrow-minded.

But what was important was that he stuck to his principles, and even though I rarely agreed with his views of any given movie, sometimes I actually did (though I recall back in the old days I agreed with Gene Siskel much more often).  As he got older, he seemed to open up a bit, and start to watch movies for their entertainment value, rather than strictly their aesthetic value.  So that, in the end, I found myself agreeing with his views more often (though still not always).

So, now that both halves of Siskel & Ebert are gone, I can lay to rest a bit more of my youth.  And bid a fond farewell to a man of integrity and class (even if he was wrong about Rambo).

Edit:  Apparently I misremembered Ebert's view of Rambo, and I apologize to Roger.  Though they both criticized the details and the politics, they both gave it a thumbs up.  Although during his description of the film, and its predecessor, First Blood, Roger misstates a lot of the facts of the films' stories.  You can watch the full episode here:

http://siskelandebert.org/video/WB7X91HDRMXU/Rambo-First-Blood-II-Brewsters-Millions-Pumping-Iron-2-1985-ATM

Magic Noir

Many, many moons ago, there was an article in Dragon Magazine (back in the ancient, "print" days) that talked about alternate types of worlds to set your D&D game in.  The one idea that caught my attention was having a typical "fantasy" world, such as Greyhawk, go through an industrial revolution.  The idea totally intrigued me, and I immediately thought of the idea as a means of creating a unique setting for fiction.  So, I set about putting my old, generic fantasy world of Ameron through the paces of industrialization.

I first decided that, in order to truly experience an industrial revolution, a world largely fueled by magic would have to lose that magic.  So, I decided that in ancient times, the world was dominated by mages, with Elves being at the apex due to their magical heritage.  Then, during a great war between arch-wizards, a mass-destruction spell was used to dire effect.

When the spell went off, a large portion of the main continent was laid waste.  But, more than that, magic seemed to be "sucked dry" for lack of a better term.  Now, wizards couldn't even summon enough power for a simple cantrip.  Additionally, the Elves had disappeared.  When the masses realized that their oppressors were either gone or powerless, they stormed the towers and castles.  And a new Dark Age of the Sword was born.

Jump forward about 1500 years, and Ameron has developed to a point in technology, economics and politics roughly analogous of the early 21st century, but with the politics of the 80's (Cold War era).  However, about fifty years prior, it was discovered that secret sects of magic-users had been using magic in the shadows.  It seemed that magic had not disappeared, but had been weakened to the point of dormancy.  Since magic was generated by the very planet itself, for the past centuries, the power had been slowly regenerating.

There are many other details involved, such as the Elivann, descendants of Half-elves, who did not disappear due to their mixed heritage; Dwarves, who retreated to their underground kingdoms and developed the first technologies that would eventually spark the industrialization; the various races of Orcs, Goblins and Ogres who were herded into a large expanse of land, where they interbred and created their own nation.

So, at the present time, magic and technology co-exist.  However, in order to prevent the catastrophe that came before, magic-use is highly regulated and restricted.  Certain practices are outright forbidden, such as demon-summoning.  And this is where the "Noir" angle comes in.

My first story involved an illegal summoning, and the detectives who are trying to solve it.  However, my first attempt was kind of dry in flavor, though rich in detail.  Then yesterday, out of the blue, I had the idea of tackling that story from a first person perspective, with the narrative being like that of a Noir Detective story.

My problem is, I haven't read any Noir fiction, and have only seen a few films and shows in the genre.  In my head, my main character seems very much like The Spectre's human alter-ego, Jim Corrigan from the DC Showcase short film, voiced by Gary Cole (by the way, I highly recommend seeing that if you get the chance).

So, if I decide to pursue this, I will probably start with seeing some Noir films, and reading some pulp detective fiction.  Anyone have any good suggestions?  I'm primarily looking for stories in first person narrative, or films with the main character doing voiceover during the story.

Long awaited adventure

This weekend Xbox Video was offering the film Soloman Kane for free. For the uninitiated, Solomon Kane is a character created for the pulps by Robert E. Howard. Solomon is basically a puritan who wanders the world, fighting demons, witches, and other evils from the beyond.

I have to first admit that I have only ever read one or two stories about Kane. I have the old Baen collection of his stories, and I recall reading the first couple from that. From these, and from other sources, I would classify the Kane stories as Horror Adventure. The mood is dark and grim, with the damnation of souls often hanging in the balance. Not my usual fare, as I am not a huge fan of Horror as a genre. However, like the Conan stories, Kane triumphs over evil, often with the prodigious use of steel.

The movie was very good. Excellent special effects that weren’t overused; basically, just for the supernatural elements, as they should be. The fights were well-done, and exciting. The acting was beyond superior. But then, James Purefoy (Kane) can really do no wrong. He is one of my favorite actors. The story was good, if a bit predictable. But it didn’t really have many huge plot holes, at least that I could see.

If I were to have any criticisms, I would say that the narrative dragged in places. I get that they were going for characterization and suspense, but the timing of these bits seemed to be wrong somehow. Also, the film suffered from an overuse of slo-mo shots set to dramatic music. But none of these really detracted from the quality of the film as a whole.

This film should have been a big hit. It had all of the right elements in place. But, as happens with a lot of genre films lately, it suffered setbacks behind the scenes (*cough* John Carter *cough*). It was never released theatrically in the States. And there was some kind of delay on a video release for months and months. Sadly, these will probably combine to effectively bury the film, and dash any hopes of a sequel. Which is really too bad, as the story was obviously set up with sequels in mind.

Be that as it may, it has kind of inspired me to read more about the character. I have the recent Del Rey edition.  I might even revisit an idea I had for a similar character.