by john | Jan 24, 2011 | Writing
So I finished the first draft of Back in Black (and Blue) last week, and sent it off to the first proofreader. I’ll likely spend the majority of February working on that book and getting it ready to go. I’d really like to have copies in hand by early March, because I have the opportunity to sell a few at work conferences to friends I’ve made through my real job. My hard deadline is March 18, because on that Sunday I’m listed as a guest at the Charlotte ComiCon, so that will be the debut of the hard copy of the next book. If you’re anywhere in the Charlotte area, this is a great con, it’s a small show, with plenty of time to talk to the writers and artists, and some fantastic deals on comics, too!
This weekend was nice and relaxing, because I wasn’t working on a writing project. I went to the Heroes Mini-Con on Saturday and dropped $40 on some comics there. I always stop by Walkin Willie’s at any con, because they’ve got great deals on trade paperbacks, and I remember William (the Willie that walks) from back when we were both shopping in the same store back in the 90s. So I picked up the hardcover of Final Crisis, the first couple of Buffy Trades, and a Terry Moore trade called Echo – Moon Lake, that a chick standing next to me recommended. It was really good, too. If you like Terry Moore, and really, who doesn’t like Terry Moore, it’s definitely worth a look. Then I got a haircut and stopped in at Rebel Base for a couple more trade paperbacks, including a pair of Fables trades that I didn’t have.
If you like fantasy literature at all and aren’t a devoted disciple of Bill Willingham’s Fables, I don’t know what’s wrong with you. It’s simply one of the smartest, best-crafted comic book worlds in history, and an amazing weaving of fairy tale characters into the modern world. They’re up to something like 14 collected volumes, and I own all of them. There might even be 15 or 16 by now, and they are universally excellent. The hardback of Volume 1 was the only book I carried with me last year to the Heroes Con to get it autographed, that’s how much I liked it. And I got to have a brief conversation with Willingham at the show – a very nice dude who hasn’t let his billing as the second coming of Neil Gaiman go to his head. And yeah, Fables might very well be the best fantasy comic since Sandman. It’s THAT good. Sunday I played a PLO rebuy tournament with my buddy Jim, making the final table before I succumbed to the suckout mojo of the moron with the big stack. I got my money in good, that’s all I can do. Missed the money by two spots, and missed making a profit by three (I rebought a lot), but I will play that tourney again because a moderately trained orangutan can make the final table, and a lucky chimp can make the money. Next week I just need to be the lucky chimp.
So what’s next on a writing front? I have a rough idea as to where Book 3 of The Black Knight Chronicles is going (think werewolf), but I have a couple of other ideas tumbling around in my head, including a post-apocalyptic teen trilogy that I’m 15,000 words into already. I might pick that up, but I also have an idea for a single novel about a government gone rogue terrorist blow things up kinda book, too. So I’m not sure where I’m headed right now.
I do know I’ll be churning out a short story this week featuring the Black Knight boys for an anthology of independent authors that I’m participating in. I’m straight up going Agatha Christie on this one, old-school drawing room murder mystery for the boys to solve. So that should be a fun little dash while I’m waiting for the eagle-eyes to get Back in Black (and Blue) back to me.
by john | Jan 21, 2011 | Vampires, Writing
This is not an original idea. Some of you that have read here and read my books for a while might say that I’ve never had an original idea, but to that I say “bite me.” I swiped this idea from the blogs of a couple of writers I follow, because I think it’s a good one. This is a sneak peek at the beginning of Black Knight Chronicles Vol. 2, Back in Black (and Blue). Lemme know what you think – and don’t forget, the win a Kindle contest is still running!
If you like this piece, buy Volume 1 here!
Chapter 1
The foot came at my face almost faster than I could see, and way faster than I could do anything about. I took the shot straight to my jaw, and if I hadn’t seen it coming at the last minute and let my neck go slack, I probably would have been chewing out of the other side of my face for a while. Except for the fact that I’m on a liquid diet. Forever. But I took the kick to the mouth and was able to spin out of the way of the uppercut that followed. I delivered a punch of my own to my opponent’s ribs and had the satisfaction of hearing a “whoof” of exhalation that let me know my shot hit home even through the body armor.
I grabbed an exposed arm and spun my attacker into a hammerlock, but didn’t lock my feet far enough apart. I ended up tossed head over heels as the slippery black-clad figure put some kind of judo hex move on me that left me splayed flat on my back like a retarded box turtle. I lay there helpless as the tip of a wooden stake flashed down at my chest, stopping a hair before it pierced the skin.
“Uncle.” I gasped, and sat up slowly, avoiding the oversized toothpick that was a lot closer than I ever figured a mortal would be able to get without my permission.
“You see, Jimmy. It doesn’t matter the physical advantages an opponent has, if you’re more mentally together and focused, you’re unbeatable. All the super-speed and strength in the world is useless against a determined, well-prepared opponent. If this had been a real fight, you’d have been a little pile of dust and fangs in the middle of the living room floor.” My opponent, the always fetching Sabrina Law, helped me up, wincing a little from the punch I’d landed on her ribs.
“As long as the opponent was wearing body armor. If you were in street clothes, I’d have broken a couple of ribs with that punch.” I limped over to the couch and collapsed a little, propping my feet up on the coffee table. Sabrina took the armchair across from me and starting getting out of her SWAT gear. I thought she looked pretty good in battle gear, but I’ve been known to have a Call of Duty fetish.
“True enough,” she replied, kicking off her combat boots and heading towards the fridge. “But any well-prepared opponent is more than likely going to have some type of body armor. You got anything for me to drink in here?”
“Yeah, good point. If not body armor, then it’ll be some kind of magical shielding or some super-duper force field or something else I can’t punch through. Oh, yeah, there’s beer in the door. And grab me a bag from the crisper?” She brought a bottle of Miller Lite back into the den and tossed me a bag of blood from the fridge. We both took a long drink, and let out a sigh of contentment as our respective drinks made the bruises feel a little less sharp. I looked over at Sabrina, who looked back at me and we both cracked up at the synchronicity of it all.
We had almost gotten over our bout of the giggles when my partner, Greg Knightwood, clumped down the stairs into our apartment. “What’s so damn funny?” He grumbled as he came over to sit next to me on the couch.
“You had to be there.” I said as I snorted a little blood out of one nostril. Gross, I know, but what can I say, it’s an occupational hazard of being a vampire. “Who peed in your Cheerios?”
“It’s this stupid case. I hate divorces.” Oh yeah. I’d forgotten he lost the coin toss and had to do surveillance tonight. Divorces are the worst thing in the world for private investigators, which is how Greg and I pay the bills. It’s a lot of waiting in cars in sleazy parking lots while somebody does something inappropriate with someone they’re not supposed to be doing anything with while the person they’re supposed to be doing things with waits anxiously at home for us to come back to them with proof of what they wished they didn’t already know. I don’t know how Greg managed. Divorce surveillance always made me want to bite somebody. I took a little pity on him and got him a beer.
“Tonight it was the tour of all the Mecklenburg County biker strip clubs with his floozy girlfriend while his wife and mother of five children stayed home and baked four dozen cookies for the PTA bake sale tomorrow.” He killed his beer in one long pull and headed to the fridge for another. Sabrina and I both raised our hands for a refill, and he brought three back to the couch.
“I hope she takes him for everything he’s worth, the pig.” Sabrina muttered.
I nodded, but Greg said “That’s the worst part! She can’t even take him for anything, because he’s been on unemployment for more than a year! She’s the one working overtime to keep their McMansion and helping the kids with their homework and dealing with the bill collectors while he runs around chasing skirts! If I were a weaker man I’d just bite him. If I thought she wouldn’t be a suspect I’d make him disappear. He’s probably worth more dead than alive with life insurance, anyway.”
“Always an option, bro. I’m up for a snack if you are.” I finished my beer and made to put my shoes back on.
“No. I don’t do that anymore. No matter how bad he is, he doesn’t deserve that.” Greg was purely a bag-drinker. He didn’t touch blood from the tap anymore. I admired his resolve but didn’t necessarily share his strength of convictions. Sabrina was well aware of this and shot me a dirty look.
“Okey-dokey. You just say the word, partner, and he’s a spot on my tie.” I leaned back on the couch.
“You don’t own a tie.”
“Oh yeah. Good thing I don’t have a respectable job, then.” That’s when Sabrina’s cell phone rang and our night took a turn for the spectacularly crappy.
by john | Jan 19, 2011 | Writing
I’m now sure what week this is of ROW80, or what check-in it is. I just know I’m writing like hell and it finally feels good. I shook off the BS fear of writing crap that stuck me last night, and just decided to embrace the writing of crap! So I spewed out about another 2,000 words tonight, and I figured out the next plot twist. I thought I was done, but it didn’t make sense to end there, so what I thought was the big fight at the end of the book ended up just being the lead-up to the Really Big Fight at the end of the book. Then we have a little denouement, and I’m done. I’m not sure how I’m gong to make the reveal happen in the denouement, but I’ll let that sort itself out after I have the Really Big Fight with the deus ex machina (which I’m sweating a little since I used that device in the last book, but I think it kinda needs to happen here, but maybe I can avoid it. I dunno, buy the book, then you can see if I can get the good guys out of this mess alive without resorting to deus ex machina for two books in a row).
But I’m sitting at 46,000 words and change, and while I thought that this book was going to end up longer, now I think it’s actually going to be done at around 55,000 words. Because the story is pretty much over. I have a couple of scenes I’m thinking about dropping in earlier in the book, but I’ve pretty much told the story, and I don’t want to add in scenes that don’t move the story forward. So that’s probably not going to happen. I could flesh things out with more description, but that’s not my style. There are writers out there who do a great job of painting the picture with words, but I’m not them. I’m telling a story, and it’s kind of a fast one. You’re not going to read my books looking for some great meaning of life. You’re going to read them to kill time on the plane, because they’re fun. So I’m not gonna push it. The book will be as long as it is, and that’s just the deal.
Oh, and because I have the attention span of a meth-addicted gnat, Amazon has some killer albums on sale for $5 this month, including a live album by Jason Boland and the Stragglers and the new album from Bleu Edmondson. His American Saint album blew me away, and the followup is really good, too.
by john | Jan 19, 2011 | Writing
This opinion makes me unpopular among some of my fellow writers, but that’s okay. I’ve had unpopular opinions before and so far no one has kicked my ass for them. Good thing I’m a big dude, I suppose.
But writer’s block – I don’t believe in it. I think it’s a crutch for people who are afraid or lazy and don’t want to admit that they’re afraid or lazy. Lazy is easy to understand – I wouldn’t be this fat if I didn’t have a good helping of lazy to go along with my love of all things deep-fried. But afraid? What does a writer have to be afraid of? Even back in the “give me liberty or give me death” days, most people could write whatever they wanted without fear of actual dangerous physical repercussions. Even Salman Rushdie, despite his famous fatwah, is still alive and kicking, although I hear his vacation home in Tehran stands vacant most of the year.
So what are writers afraid of? I was pondering this last night as I sat in front of my computer, staring at a blinking cursor on a white page. I’d reached the climax of my next book, the sequel to Hard Day’s Knight, and I was stuck. I wasn’t stuck because I didn’t know where the scene was going to go, I was stuck because I was afraid that everything I’d written to that point was crap. You see, HDK has just started to sell, and it’s starting to get some positive reviews. And some of the reviews are saying exactly what I wanted people to get from the book. And all that is great! I love the fact that people are enjoying the book, and I love the fact that some of the influences that I wanted to homage in the book are coming through.
But while I’m writing the sequel I should stay very far away from those comments, no matter how encouraging. Because as soon as I started thinking “What if this book isn’t as good?” I lost the ability to move forward. I sat there for a good half hour, not worrying about anything except that the people who enjoyed Book 1 would feel let down by Book 2. Because I’ve been there. I have so many of those best first albums, those flashes of lightning in a bottle that never shone so brightly again. So I got myself good and stuck because I was afraid of writing crap.
Then I picked up a couple of books off my shelf, flipped through the pages, and realized that they’re abject crap. And I love every page. Let’s face it, kiddies, I’m writing genre fiction. I write novels about vampire detectives with smart mouths and comic book addictions. I ain’t shooting for War and Peace here. Hell, getting to Angels and Demons is enough of a stretch. Once I realized that I owe more of my literary heritage to the penny dreadfuls than the complete works of Shakespeare, I was okay, and I got about 1,500 words in last night. Tonight I’m going to bulldoze through the big fight scene at the end, and by the end of the week, I should be done with the denouement. That’ll put me two months ahead of schedule, so maybe I’ll take a week off and plot out some other ideas. Then on to editing, formatting, cover art and all those other things.
So that’s my writer’s block – it wasn’t writer’s block, just writer’s chickenshit. And I think that happens way more often than anything else, if we’d just be brave enough to admit it.
by john | Jan 17, 2011 | Writing
Welcome to a new feature here – an interview with another up and coming independent author. This week’s guest is Keith C. Blackmore, author of The Troll Hunter and The Missing Boatman. You can go to his website for more info on these books and other projects, and here are a few questions with Keith.
1. What are your influences and sources of inspiration?
I was an avid reader of comic books and later got into trade paperbacks. I
read a lot of different stuff, from action adventure to horror, SF to
fantasy. The first novel I read was Conan by Robert E Howard, and a few
other pulp writers whose names I can’t recall right now (sorry). At some
point later I remember picking up a copy of Terry Brook’s The Elfstones of
Shannara. I also remember reading Dracula at around twelve or thirteen,
and that lead to me picking up the Nightshift collection of short stories
by Stephen King. Movies were hard to come by in my hometown, so I would
read a lot of movie adaptations, and a lot of them were written by Alan
Dean Foster, who quickly became a favourite of mine. Anything that was in
comics, print, or on the screen was a source of inspiration. I also played
Dungeons and Dragons (yes, yes) quite a bit and the idea of creating my
own adventures was something I wanted to do, just like the movies Those
were good times with good friends as well, but I realized that sometimes,
the characters controlled by the players didn’t always do things I
envisioned in gameplay, so, the next big step was writing my own adventure
with characters of my own creation. In university, I majored in English
literature but the course selections (the classics) were mostly pretty
boring (there were some exceptions–Shakespeare was great, as was Charles
Dickens). Classic mythology was a course I loved but didn’t do well on
as, during the final exam, the professor insisted on making me answer
questions I had no interest in. I also studied the classics in SF &
Fantasy during university, as well as a little military history.
2. What genres do you read and why?
Mostly SF and Fantasy but I will go outside of that. I’ve read westerns
(Larry McMurty’s Lonesome Dove) Annie Proulx (The Shipping News) as well
as a bunch of others. Some nonfiction as well if it’s anything weird or
different. I want to get a new book called The Decent which is about this
group of people that explore the deepest known caves on Earth, and they go
down in the earth for kilometres. Anything outside of SF & Fantasy is
essentially research for me as I study how other authors do things.
3. Who are your favourite authors and why?
Robert E Howard, Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, Alan Dean Foster, Larry
McMurty, Annie Proulx, John Steakley, and bunch of others. Steakley
particular has a writing style that hooks me right from the get-go. I read
most of these authors because they are or were the best at what they do,
so studying them is important, and they tell great stories.
4. Have you met any famous writers and did they live up to your expectations?
Met Chris Clairemont at an SF Convention in Nova Scotia, Canada. Also met
Guy Gavriel Kay. Both guys were very friendly although I do remember Chris
and his wife just getting back from Australia and being jet-lagged. He did
sign my limited series Wolverines though.
Kay awarded me first prize in a short story contest, and told me that I
was good at capturing and developing “a voice.” It was a year before I
knew what he meant.
5. Aside from writing, what other interests do you have?
Avid movie watcher–some great stories out there–although I don’t do
musicals (unless it’s a Disney animation). Still a big PC gamer, and I’m
currently enjoy playing Fallout 3. I enjoy exercising, mountain biking,
and walking. The biking and walking in particular are great ways to work
out writer’s block, and to just think.
6. Have you had anything traditionally published or adapted into a film?
Came close to traditionally publishing a long time ago with my first
fantasy novel Not a Bard’s Song, which is probably as close to mainstream
fantasy as I’ll get. The publisher (a small press) “loved” the book but
went bankrupt. None of the big publishers wanted it. So, while still
peddling it around, I wrote the sequel, a few more fantasy novels, and a
horror book. I’ve had a few articles published in Korean newspapers (my
first paid work!). Nowadays, I’ve all but given up on the traditional
publishing industry as ebooks and ereaders are becoming more and more
prevalent.
7. Can any of your work be viewed, if so where?
My website is www.keithcblackmore.com, where you can find news and reading
samples. There are a couple of free horror stories there–Taste and Ye
Olde Fishing Hole. There will be some short fantasy fiction there as well,
which will be the lead in to a series of short stories under the title of
131 Days. Also, links Amazon.com, where whatever ebooks I have are
currently selling. Reviews are coming in, and I’m pleased with them. I
hope they continue.
8. What’s your current book about?
The Missing Boatman is a horror tale about the week where a lot of people
start surviving terrible accidents and disasters all over the globe. It’s
a modern day story about “what if” none of us could die anymore, and what
might happen once the world populace discovered their newly found
immortality. It’s fantasy, Death is a character in the book, and there are
a lot of powers, both good and bad, that want to find him… or kept him
missing.
I was a student of classical mythology in university, and came across one
story which I found exceptionally interesting. It was about this man who
had wished for immortality and got it, but later realized the gods had
played a trick on him. They made him immortal, but they did not grant him
eternal youth. As a result, he continued to age, until he was an
incredibly old man. The Missing Boatman takes that myth a few steps
further, and I hope people enjoy the story.
The Troll Hunter is a work of Heroic Fantasy. There is very little magic,
monsters aren’t as commonplace, and it’s harsh. Gritty. Or so I tried to
make it that way. It’s hard not to talk about the story without giving
away too much of what I hope will be a surprise. I think fans of George
RR Martin, David Gemmell, and Joe Abercrombie will enjoy it. It’s begins
with a company of hard-nosed shock troops called Sujins, and they’re
pulled back into duty one morning without any reason. They eventually
find out that they are to protect a heavily armoured koch (coach) heading
north, through a country on the verge of losing a very costly and drawn
out war. They also learn that their leaders are harsh veterans of the
war, and pretty much despise each other.
And once on the march, things do not go the way they are intended.
I’ve written the first forty or so pages (or six chapters) in such a way
that, if a person can figure out what is about to happen, then my hat is
off to them. But all is revealed soon enough, and by the end of the first
few chapters, I hope the reader will be hooked.
by john | Jan 12, 2011 | Real Life, Writing
I forget how often I’m supposed to check in on this thing, but I’m writing the hell out of Back in Black (and Blue), the sequel to Hard Day’s Knight. I pounded out a little over 10,000 words this weekend, and got another 4-6,000 words between Monday and Tuesday, to put me past the 35,000 word mark. I’m pretty happy with where the book is going, and I’m thinking now that it will probably top out at around 60,000 words, or roughly the same length as The Chosen and Hard Day’s Knight. I like that, because that’s where the stories feel right to me. I could certainly go back and put in more filler, flesh out some descriptions, but I’m no Tolkien, so don’t look for that in my work.
Since I didn’t go to West Virginia this past weekend, I’ll probably head out Friday and go hole up in the mountains and write. Depending on what I get done this weekend, the potential for me to finish up the first draft by Sunday night is pretty real. Then I’ll go back through it at least a couple of times and then send it off to a couple of beta readers for review.
Book sales are slow but steady, I’m averaging better than a book a day, which is an improvement. I uploaded two new books last weeks, Red Dirt Boy and The Christmas Lights. RDB is a poetry collection, and I’ve gotten one sale out of that. The Christmas Lights is a holiday short story, and I don’t expect to see much movement there until next winter. I also cleaned up and re-uploaded Returning the Favor, my first collection of poetry and short stories. Scrivener is turning out to be a really great tool, and my trial period is expiring soon, so I’ll have to bite the bullet and pay for it.
We’ve been digging out of the Snowmageddon down here, which makes my friends in the North poke more fun at the Southerners. But it’s not the snow that’s the issue, it’s the ice that fell after six inches of snow that has made travel tough. I’ll drive through snow all day long, as proven by my presence at the office Monday, but when the ice starts to fall, my ass is staying home. Then this morning I used a CD cash and a plastic putty knife to try and scrape my truck’s windshield, because I don’t own an ice scraper. I live in North Carolina for a reason, and the fact that I only have to do this crap once a year is a big part of that!
