Ancient City Con in Jacksonville, Florida is three days long this year, and I’m a guest! I’ll be on and/or running a few panels, have lots of Spooky Chronicles books for sale (and how you can get some for free), and Grim D. Reaper of MovieCrypt.com will be making a few appearances throughout the weekend (don’t mention his face lift, though; he’s kind of sensitive about getting work done). Come say hello and get your picture taken with Death…!
It was one year ago I launched The Spooky Chronicles with the The Crooked Man. I have released three more books since then, making it a real series. The next book, Greene Square Middle, has been the most difficult book I’ve had to write thus far but is coming together nicely.
To celebrate, I’m going to have a bit of a Memorial Day sale through Monday: through Smashwords, all three main books will be just 99 cents each while “book zero” will continue to be free (but maybe not for much longer). Be sure to use the correct coupon code (not case sensitive) on checkout to get your discount! Tell your friends!
The Crooked Man – Use $0.99 coupon code NA59M
The Terminal People – Use $0.99 coupon code UW75Y
Schoolhouse Number Five – Use $0.99 coupon code RD38H
Forget Me Nots – Still free (for now)
Con season is upon us, and Grim D. Reaper is getting ready to make his rounds. I’ve been working on a few cosmetic upgrades this year, mostly in terms of paint and improvements to allow the costume to be worn better for longer periods of time. People ask to have their picture taken with Grim D. all the time, and I’d like those close-up shots to look as good as they can.
Believe it or not, there are hundreds of decisions that have gone into my Reaper cosplay outfit, from little things (did you know there are white Velcro strips on the top of the skull mask that pair up to black Velcro inside the hood so that the cowl moves with my head turns and keeps it in the right position without risk of falling off?) to big things (a fully collapsible scythe so that it slips easily into a gym bag). The scythe in particular has been an ongoing project to improve its look.
I wanted a more realistic look for the blade (since that’s where people’s eyes are drawn to when looking at the Reaper’s signature “farm tool of choice”) and initially painted it a metallic silver. It didn’t have the effect I wanted; it looked like poorly painted wood. I also wanted to reinforce the tang and ring assemble (the part that holds the blade onto the snath/staff) because the blade would bob a bit (making it look very fake), and I came up with a simple, light-weight way to do that. Over all, it looks very heavy (it isn’t) and very rigid. There is no actual blade edge, but you can’t tell from looking at it straight on; the illusion is complete.
The added bonus was filling the holes that I had to drill (to mount the assembly onto the blade) with bolts that reinforced the hold onto the snath but also made the entire blade look more realistic. Finally, I gave the entire rebuilt blade a few coats of coppery fleck paint to give it an oxidized look, and the finished product (mounted on the collapsible snath) is the product you see here. I think it turned out pretty good!
I recently had the opportunity to listen to author Orson Scott Card at the 2012 Teen Book Con in Houston, Texas. While the audience streamed into the auditorium before the keynote speech, Mr. Card intimated to the young adult crowd that Nathaniel Hawthorne was quite terrible as a American novelist (regardless of what teachers were teaching them). He further explained that the reason was due to a shortage of great writers in early America, and Americans put Hawthorne on a pedestal because they didn’t have anyone better.
Americans do, however, have Edgar Allan Poe.
According to the Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore, Edgar was born in Boston, Massachusetts on January 19th, 1809, the son of two actors. He was briefly left in Baltimore, Maryland with his grandparents, then later taken in by John Allan following the untimely death of Poe’s mother and father in 1811 (this is the origin of Poe’s middle name ‘Allan’). After a childhood traveling to Scotland and London, England, it was 1820 when Edgar returned to America and was enrolled into the Richmond, Virginia school system. Young Edgar was discouraged from publishing his first book of poems while in school, although Poe was described as “a born poet” with “no love of mathematics.”
In 1831, Edgar was dismissed from West Point (for failing to follow orders and being genuinely disenchanted about receiving them) and eventually returned to Baltimore, moving in with his aunt in the Spring of 1833. By this time, Edgar had published three books of poems and numerous others in local periodicals but had received very little money in return. Poe was living poorly when he wrote what is generally accepted as his first tale of horror, an award-winning short story called “Berenice.”
Poe lived and wrote in other places (Philadelphia, for example), but it was in Baltimore that his known career began to emerge and, sadly, where he later died at the age of forty “after he was found in a tavern delirious and in distress, two years after the death of his young wife, Virginia, from tuberculosis.” (NY Times) The Baltimore Poe House was nearly destroyed seventy years ago when homes in the old neighborhood were being renovated, but it has since been declared a national landmark. While it is in no danger of being torn down, it may no longer remain open to the public since the Baltimore housing authority pulled their $85,000 annual operating budget; reserve funds may run out as early as this summer.
Why bring light to this now? The Raven, a film starring John Cusack as Poe himself, opens this weekend (and will likely be completely forgotten about by the time The Avengers comes out the following weekend). Could there be a more perfect time or event to call attention to the creator of the detective fiction genre, American gothic literature, and the namesake for the Edgar Allen Poe Awards of the Mystery Writers of America? I don’t think so.
What can you do about it? Glad you asked:
Any other ideas? Let’s hear ’em!
A little over a year ago, I pulled up stakes from my Jacksonville, Florida residence and made my new home in Houston, Texas. I arrived on April Fool’s Day 2011, which seemed appropriate since I resigned my previous job on the hope (and sheer will) that I could find another one that was as close to or better than the one I had in Jax. I was setting out on a new adventure into a new land, but I was also scared to death taking so many chances at once.
Within two months, I had that new job (whew!) and I’ll have been at that job for an entire year right around May 25th. That was the same day that, after spending half a day either looking for work, filling out applications, or interviewing, I was spending the other half putting in place the elements to officially launch my writing career. Sure, I’ve been writing critiques for almost fifteen years now, but most of that was honing my written “voice” while learning to break down plots and characters that would fuel my own stories. “The Spooky Chronicles: The Crooked Man” went live on Smashwords that day.
Of course, the real reason for all the life changes was to move in with my girlfriend (who became my fiancée on Christmas Eve of 2011). That’s three fairly significant life changes all for one year’s time, and each one has been hard work but wonderful nonetheless. This year, I launched my third and fourth Spooky Chronicles book, am revamping my MovieCrypt.com movie review website to take it up another notch, started bicycling again, worked my way up into a better paying position at my day job (right back up to about the same as the old job I left), and have been co-planning a wedding. We even found the perfect hotel for our honeymoon already.
Sigh. I don’t think I could be much busier or much happier right now.
Okay, back to work…!
Anyone who’s been following me online knows I like to work on various projects, but with the popularity of both Star Wars spoofs and LOL Cats, I realized there’s something I could do to serve both niches. Starting immediately, I’m going to film (on a micro-budget, of course) and all-cat version of the Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. Even before you start thinking how insane I must be, check out this test shot of my cat, Cinders, in a make-up test for galactic gangster Jabba the Cat. As you can see, I’m not only completely serious, but this is gonna rawk. See you on the Dark Side, and check back here for more updates!
“As the souls of all creation felt God abandon them, Lucifer smiled.”
I’ve been a member of the OFCS (the Online Film Critics Society) for a number of years. I applied early on in my career as a reviewer and was initially turned away. I took the advice I received only to later learn that I had been watched, my improvements noted, and an invitation extended.
My film website, MovieCrypt.com, was actually a blog long before anyone had coined the term, and in the tradition of the earlier ‘Net, my identity was safely anonymous as a “horror host.” One of the reasons that compelled me to join a critics society, however, was the opportunity to engage in conversation about what I love: film, making films, and filmmakers. There are plenty of reasons why someone might want to be a film critic, but I was most interested in the social aspect and the articulation of others regarding their passion for films. I chose the World Wide Web not only because of its access but because of its interaction; I wanted to find like-minded individuals.
Fifteen years later, the Internet is full of well-organized social networks that everyone is aware of, but as Twitter and Facebook have risen to the top of these networks, I’m finding myself disconnected from many of the OFCS members than I used to engage with quite often. While I understand (too well, in fact) the need to carve out your own online niche and maintain content in your own corners, our “society” has waned, in my humble opinion. I would like to encourage the membership to use the OFCS forums on Rotten Tomatoes or the private OFCS group on Facebook to see what their fellow members are watching, writing about, and thinking about films in general.
I miss a lot of you guys. Let’s be a film critics society online. Again.
Suppose for a moment that, instead of a sparkly vampire, a werewolf made love to a human female, in detail and in werewolf form. If you chose to write that scene for your book, you might not be able to use PayPal to collect sales money for it online because it could be considered “bestiality.” If the means with which you are able to collect money for book sales abruptly dictates what you can and can’t write, we’re really talking about censorship.
Sound ridiculous? It’s happening right now over at the site that hosts my ebooks, Smashwords.com. As a huge publisher of Indie books that anyone can use to sell their written work online, PayPal has issued an ultimatum for them to remove certain titles or lose their ability to collect payments through their services:
PayPal is asking us to censor legal fiction. Regardless of how one views topics of rape, bestiality and incest, these topics are pervasive in mainstream fiction. We believe this crackdown is really targeting erotica writers. This is unfair, and it marks a slippery slope. We don’t want credit card companies or financial institutions telling our authors what they can write and what readers can read. Fiction is fantasy. It’s not real. It’s legal.
In case you haven’t heard, about two weeks ago, PayPal contacted Smashwords and gave us a surprise ultimatum: Remove all titles containing bestiality, rape or incest, otherwise they threatened to deactivate our PayPal account. We engaged them in discussions and on Monday they gave us a temporary reprieve as we continue to work in good faith to find a suitable solution.
PayPal tells us that their crackdown is necessary so that they can remain in compliance with the requirements of the banks and credit card associations (likely Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express, though they didn’t mention them by name).
From a business standpoint, the fear seems to be that anyone who doesn’t like what a credit or debit card service can be used to buy will threaten to stop using their services if that company permits the sale. Really? In America, this is considered a fundamental freedom, to buy whatever you like with the money you earn.
This would be the equivalent of the US government making it a crime to use US currency to purchase Playboy, ruining a legitimate business by making it too risky for the average consumer to engage in. What’s next that you can’t buy because someone else decides “it’s bad for you?” R-rated movies? Red meat? Beverages containing caffeine?
You just finished your tale of adventure, romance, intrigue, and woe. But whoa! You’re not ready to publish just yet, not by a long shot.
One of the biggest complaints by readers (and competing traditional publishers) about the Indie/self-publishing community are the obvious mistakes and a general lack of anything resembling actual editing… and they have a point. Fortunately, a fresh pair of eyes will catch things you’ve been missing (or, in this case, several pairs of eyes, each with a different view and function).
This is part of the editorial process, which can easily be broken up into four distinct tasks:
Many Indie writers take on both the roles of developmental and production editor themselves (gotta cut costs somewhere, right?) but the addition of at least two more pairs of eyes (a copyeditor and separate proofreader) can make a good book better and much more professional.
Will you catch every mistake? Nope… even some of the most renowned authors have a mistake or two slip though, but that a far cry from having multiple issues on every page, every paragraph, or even in every sentence. Don’t be that writer.
See more details, see the full article that inspired this post at What Every Self-Publisher Ought to Know about Editing.
Kevin A. Ranson 