Fiction Techniques #2: Characters Wanted is Free

Fiction Techniques #1: Creating Suspense, is no longer free (.99 cents), but Fiction Techniques #2: Characters Wanted, is free now for a few days. If you're a writer, these should be of interest to you. 255 free copies of #1 were picked up, so I hope I'll hear from some folks about it and whether it was helpful.  I also noticed that the numbers for Write With Fire, showed improvement so it looks like someone picked up my writing book as well.

I'm not planning on making Fiction Techniques #3: The Twist Ending, free. It's just 99 cents, though. It's a brand new piece that goes into detail about how to create twist endings, for both stories and for novel chapters that can be used as cliffhangers.

Anyway, if you are interested in writing and haven't gotten your copy of "Characters Wanted," it's up free right now, and will remain that way a couple more days.

Have a great day!

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Fiction Techniques #1 is Free

On my last blog I mentioned uploading three articles for Kindle in what I'm calling the "Fiction Techniques Series.  The first one in the series, Fiction Techniques #1: Creating Suspense, is free today and for the next two days.

The second one, Fiction Techniques #2: Characters Wanted, will go up for free after that for a few days. These are both expansions on material that was included in my nonfiction book on writing, Write With Fire. The third one, Fiction Techniques #3: The Twist Ending, is brand new so I probably won't make it free. It's just 99 cents, though.

If you're a writer, why not try the free one and see if you find the series helpful. If folks do find them helpful, I may write more.  And there is always Write With Fire, which has many other articles and essays on writing, including tip pieces and marketing pieces.



Happy New Year
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A Little Push to Start the Year

Someone new came to our writing group yesterday, although she is someone I’ve known for a number of years. She brought along a copy of Write With Fire, my book on writing, and asked me to sign it. I was surprised, flattered, and probably a little bit flustered since that doesn’t happen to me often. I had actually been thinking about Write With Fire for a while and trying to think of some way to give it a push since sales have pretty much flat-lined for it.

I decided last year to write a few “tip” articles and put them up for the Kindle as a way of promoting Write With Fire. I completed the formatting for these and did the covers over Christmas and they are now up at Amazon. There are three of them, each with more than 4,000 words of material, and I’m calling them the “Fiction Techniques” series.

The series includes:

Fiction Techniques #1: Creating Suspense

Fiction Techniques #2: Characters Wanted

Fiction Techniques #3: The Twist Ending

The first two, “Creating Suspense,” and “Characters Wanted,” are substantial expansions on material that actually appeared in Write With Fire. The “Twist Ending” piece is brand new. If they do what they are supposed to do, I’ll probably write more for the series. I enjoy doing this kind of thing and it really helps me clarify my own thinking and understanding about the writing process.

If you’re not a writer, these are almost certainly not of interest to you. I will make both #1 and #2 free for a few days at some point in the next week or so. (I’ll announce it here and on facebook.) That’s why they are published exclusively on Kindle for now.  So if you’re a writer and want to get them you don’t need to buy them. (I would appreciate some “likes,” though.)  I probably won’t make the third one free since it’s brand new.

As for the covers, I thought to do something to reflect our modern world of “Direct to electronic” publications and the ebook revolution. They’re basically screen shots of the works in progress. (I kind of thought it was inventive.) You can see the covers below, although not very well. If you click on the links, without having to buy the piece, you can see the images much better, and can use the "look inside" feature to get a flavor for the works.

Have a good un!

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Bullied by Life and Work

Life and work are ganging up on me right now. I'd report them to someone for bullying me but the folks I'd report them to are probably on the side of the bullies. Certainly no time to write any fiction, although the ideas are coming fast and furious. I'm gonna try to maintain my blogging for now but will be making some short posts for a bit.

Today I'll just casually drop a mention of Write With Fire, my book on writing, which is available at Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

Here's a little piece from the introduction about the book:

If you’re wondering why you’re holding a book on writing by someone who is not famous, well, most writers aren’t famous. Most of us work hard at our craft without the benefit of big advances and multi-city tours. Most of us never have autograph parties with lines so long that our hands cramp from signing our names. For many of us, writing is something that we beg, borrow, or steal the time for while our other job keeps the bill collectors at bay.

I’m lucky that as a college teacher in the field of psychology part of my job is to write and to teach and study writing. I hope that’s given me a perspective on the field that can be of use to others, but like most of you reading this I still struggle for every bit of writing success that I get. That struggle has been long, and it’s taught me a few things that I’ve tried to put into the essays that follow. I hope you enjoy.

In case you're wondering what's in the book, you can "look inside" at Amazon. But here's the table of contents below:

Part One: ……………………………………………………………
So You Want to be a Writer ……………………………………
First Words …………………………………………………….……
Writer’s Block No More ……….………………………….…………
Tipping the Odds in Your Favor ……………………….……………
Writing with Purpose ………..………………………………………
Don’t Talk, Write! ..……..…………………………………………..
Writing With Confidence …….……………………………………..
RQW3R …………………………………………………..…………
Five Habits of Publishing Writers ………………………………….
Quick Versus Slow Suspense ……………………………………….
Six Steps to Creating Suspense ............…………………………
The Mechanics of Suspense ……...…..……………………………..
Creating Sympathetic Characters …........………………….……
Characters: The Best and the Rest ….…….....…………………
Harvesting Memories ……….……………………………………….
Writing Your Past for Fun and Profit ………………………………
The First Rule of Endings ……………………………………………
The Curse of the Lazy Ending ……………………………………….
Endings: What’s at Stake ……………………………………………
The Physical Side of Writing …………………………………..……
One Way to Put a Style Together ……………………………………
Writing for Excess (With “Barbarian’s Bane”) ………………………
Writing With Attitude ……………………………….……………….
Selling and Reselling (With “To The Point”) ………….…………….
The Working Man’s Curse …………….……….…………….………
Punctuate It and Forget It! …………………….………….…………..
Problem Words ……………………………………………………….
A Grammar Primer …………………………………………………...
Rewrite, Rewrite, Rewrite ……………………………………………
By Example ………………………………………………………….
Before you Submit, Don’t Forget ..…………………………………

Part Two: ………………………………………………………………
Writing Groups …………………….………………………………...
Page-Turners: What Makes Them, What Breaks Them ..…………
In Praise of the Net ……................…..………………………………
Blogging: Pros and Cons ..….……………………………………….
Pro Versus Amateur ………………………………………………….
Expand Your Mind …………………………………………………..
Fun With Fear ………………………………………………………..
Why Horror ………………………………………………………….
Horror Writers: The Crazy Truth …………..…….………………
The Horror Lists ……………………………………………………..
Dream Stories …………………….…………………….……………
Criticism Hurts ………………………………………………………
An Error in Detail ..........................
Ernest Hemingway: A Writer’s Life and Death ..…………….……
Jack London: Two Fisted Writer …………………………………….
Ken Bulmer: A Death in the Family..………………………………..
Where Have all the Good Themes Gone ……………………….……
Writing Weather ……………………………………………………..
What the Writer Wants ..……………………………………………..
Rest in Peace: Short Story .………………………………………….
Five Years Down the Road …………………………………………..

Part Three ..……………………………………………………………
A Writer on the Run …………………………………………………
Readin’, Writin’ and Me ……………………………………………..
Death By Prose ..……………………………………………………..


Bibliography ..………………………………………………………… P. 286
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Creating and Selling

I got a lot done today but only a little of it was actual writing. When I sat down to do some revisions my mind began to mimic a glacier. Sometimes it happens. On those days you push through it and I did finally make some progress. Some days that’s all you can hope for.

I also spent some time trying to think of marketing ideas. Lately, the sales of all my books have been stagnant, and no copies of Cold in the Light were sold last year through any venue. I’m not sure if any used copies were sold; the royalty statements don’t indicate those since publishers and authors get no money from such sales.

Sometimes I’ve had good luck with personal appearances. Other times not. I sold almost 20 copies of Write With Fire at a library talk I gave. But at Babel Con this year I sold only one copy of anything. I thought at first that it was because Babel Con was small this year, but I know a fantasy writer who said she sold almost 30 copies of her novel. Of course, she is 1) very attractive, 2) very outgoing, and 3) is either comfortable with pushing her own work or at least gives the appearance of being so. I’ve never been very comfortable selling things to people. I don’t want anyone to feel like they’re getting their arm twisted. I don’t like having mine twisted.

I’ve probably had the best luck at selling my work online, through this blog primarily. But there’s only so many copies you can sell to your friends. I like to think I’m a creative person, but being creative in ways that generate book sales does not seem to be my forte.

Maybe the summer will give me the time to think and dream up some ideas. It’s so much easier to create than to sell what you create. I think the reason is simple. I need only myself to create. I can control my own emotions. Most of the time. I can discipline my own work habits. Most of the time. But to cross that gap between one’s self and another is a vast gulf that is not easily spanned.
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All Good Things: Or Almost All

Generally, good stuff going on at the moment. First, my mom had to have the batteries in her pacemaker changed yesterday. It’s supposedly routine, but nothing is quite routine when you’re 93. However, they didn’t have to put her under deep anesthesia and she came through fine and is already home. She has developed “Shingles,” but is being treated for that.



Second, Choice Words has been released by Borgo Press. The book is edited by Robert Reginald and is subtitled: “The Borgo Press Book of Writers Writing About Writing.” Besides the fact that I always enjoy seeing new books come out for writers, I also have three essays in the book. These are reprints. Two of them come from Write With Fire and the other from Writing in Psychology: A Guidebook. The last is a collaboration piece, of course, with Elliott Hammer and Du Bois Irvin.

Third, the new Illuminata is up and looks very interesting this month. My essay on “Evolution of a Genre” is included. You can download it for free here. If you haven’t signed up for the free newsletter you can also do so on that same page.



Fourth, I just finished reading J. Bruce Fuller’s 28 Blackbirds at the End of the World and I raved about it over on Goodreads. Below is what I said there:

I originally read this collection in manuscript form and enjoyed it very much. I gave the author a blurb, which appears on the back cover. Here's what the blurb says:

"J. Bruce Fuller's "28 Blackbirds" is to haiku what Cormac McCarthy's "The Road" is to apocalyptic novels. A masterpiece."

I stand by that.

The printed version has a great cover, as seen above, and contains a short introduction by the author. If you like haiku, especially connected haiku on the same theme, you will surely enjoy this book. All the haiku revolve around the theme of blackbirds surviving, and sometimes dying, at world's end.

Here's one of my favorites:

world burned black
the hearts of men are black
blackbird's eye is black

If you're interested in the collection you can get it from Bandersnatch Books

Fifth, the Saints are still going to the Super Bowl. And I think that’s enough good news for one day!
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Illuminating

The newest issue of The Illuminata has just been published. If you follow the link and click on “Download an issue” you can get it for free. It’s volume 7, Issue #4, October 2009.

I’m pretty popular in this issue. Bret Funk starts out with some commentary and a review of Write With Fire, which I appreciated. The Illuminata definitely played a big role in the creation of that book. Without the demands of writing a regular column for the newsletter Write With Fire might never have existed, and certainly not in the form it took.

I also have my usual Writer’s Block column in this issue. Those of you who read my guest blog over at Novel Spaces, called “GEMS,” will see that this article is largely a reprint with a few minor changes. There’s also a review that I wrote for a fine fantasy novel called A Mage of None Magic: Heart of the Sisters by A. Christopher Drown. Drown is kind of a cool name eh?

Not much time for anything else. Mid-term grades were due at noon today and I squeaked mine in. I’m putting the final touches on the Darwin essay, which is due on Friday. It’ll be done tomorrow night, with just some final nitpicking on my part. I’m rather obsessive in case you haven’t noticed.

Man, I need sleep.
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Causeway Library Talk

Wow! I'm quite stoked. I gave my talk this morning at the library and I think it went really well. I had twenty-nine folks there, most of whom I did not know and who came because of the advertising the library did. That's actually the biggest crowd I've ever had for a talk/signing. And almost everyone bought a book. Yeah!

I talked for about 45 minutes and figured we'd have maybe 10 minutes of questions, but we had questions that ran almost 45 minutes themselves, followed by a lot of signing and chatting with folks who came up. We filled the whole 2 hour time slot, and quite a few folks have said they'll be visiting my blog. I really love talking with people about writing.

The library was very pleased at the turn out and I certainly was. Lana was her usual supportive self and took some photos. I'm gonna post a few below.

Thank to all my friends in the blogosphere who sent me their best wishes from afar. It must have worked.







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Upcoming Week: Upcoming Month

I’ve got quite a week coming up, followed by quite a month after that. I hope I can get everything done. First, I’ll be guest blogging over at Novel Spaces this Friday, the 18th. I’ll be talking about a concept called GEMS, and I hope you’ll stop by.

Next, my first signing for Write With Fire is this Saturday, September 19, at the Causeway branch of the St. Tammany Library system. Everything starts at 10:00 in the morning, and I’ll probably talk on writing for half an hour to forty-five minutes, followed by a question and answer period and then a signing. Although the signing is primarily for Write With Fire, I’ll have copies of the Talera books and Cold in the Light available as well. I know that most of you aren’t in position to come, but come if you can and if not send me good wishes.

The address and phone number for that specific library branch is:

Causeway Branch Library
Address: 3457 Highway 190
Mandeville, LA 70471

Telephone: (985) 626-9779
Fax: (985) 626-9783

E-Mail: causeway@mail.sttammany.lib.la.us

As for actual writing, the novel, Razored Land, is at a complete standstill at 144 pages. That’s where the “month” comes in. I’ve got a 7,500 word story due at the end of September, a book review that I agreed to do at the same time, and a 1000 word story due by the first of October. Immediately after that last story I’ve got roughly three weeks to do a scientific article on Charles Darwin, all the while preparing for the Louisiana Book Festival on October 17

This, of course, is secondary to that pesky…“Day Job.” After all that is done I’m going to take a week off writing.

I want to also thank Erik Donald France for his great review of my book at Write With Fire, and for his follow-up commentary. Check it out. And thanks so much Erik for your support.

And to all my friends in Detroit, no offense, but Go Saints!.
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Sage Advice, and Work

First, thanks to Sage for his insightful review of Write With Fire. Much appreciated. The book is getting a fair number of reviews, so far all good ones!

Work is kicking my ass and I’m way behind. So, it’s standard operating procedure for first thing in the new semester. I’m keeping my head above water so far, although with the pouring rain outside at the moment I don’t know how long that will last.

Lana seems to be almost completely recovered from her surgery. She’s already feeling much better than she was before so I’m happy about that.

While listening to the rain and helping students, in the background I’m running “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” by T. S. Eliot. If this isn’t a masterpiece then I don’t know what is. I wish I could write a poem this fine.

"The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes,
The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes
Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening,
Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains,
Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys,
Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap,
And seeing that it was a soft October night,
Curled once about the house, and fell asleep."

No time to write poetry now, though. The students are coming, hungry for overrides, in need of schedules, wanting me to fix all their problems with a few taps of my fingers on the keyboard.

And guess what: The electricity just went kaput! Better save this before the laptop battery loses its charge.

I’ll post this when our current returns!
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Hint Fiction, and Other Items

I learned of an interesting anthology opportunity over on Women of Mystery for what is called “Hint Fiction.” The definition, as given on Robert Swartwood’s blog, is: “hint fiction (n) : a story of 25 words or less that suggests a larger, more complex story.” Mr. Swartwood coined the term.

In 2010, it appears that W. W. Norton will publish an anthology of hint fiction and they are currently looking for submissions. You can find out all about it over on Robert Swartwood’s page.

I decided to send a few items in. I went back through various stories or novels that I’ve started but not continued and culled out what I thought were the most interesting openings. Then I added a dash of editing to get them down to the 25 word limit and try to make them fit the hint fiction concept. Below are some of the ones that didn’t make the cut for me to submit.

Hint Fictions?

The boy looked up to see dust approaching the ferry. Within the dust was a horse, on the horse a rider, all turned to gray.

During the day she cried. Long and hard by herself. And outside the grey wind blew chilled and lonely. She had so much to give.

Swiftly, along dirt roads and through fields of yellow grain, the dry leaves and dust fled, running from the evening storm that stalked behind them.

He stood in the hiss of the rain and the lyre winds, eyes smoky dark like burnt glass. His lips moved with prayers.

On the first day of the month of Harps, he had not returned. And on the second the wind blew black with dust.

You see them occasionally in your home town. They are always passing through. The fangs in their eyes give them away.

Predators seldom stalk predators. But when it happens…

REVISED - 8-2-09:

Also, three more of my blog colleagues have posted very nice things about Write With Fire and have even spoken highly of me. And I didn’t even pay them. If you get a chance check out:

1. Travis’s Tuesday, July 28th post over at his blog.

2. C. S. Harris’s commentary on her blog.

3. Greg Schwartz, who I had made a note to myself to add to this list and then somehow let his post slip my mind, also commented on the book and offers some other interesting info over on his blog.

Of course, Lana has been her usual supportive self, and has some good news of her own to share at her blog.

Thanks Trav and Candy and Lana. And thanks Greg. Sorry I missed that link first time around. And thanks to everyone who has already mentioned the book. Much appreciated.
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Write With Fire, Part Duex

Thanks so much to everyone for the overwhelming support for Write With Fire. I really appreciate everyone putting the word out. I’ve been doing a lot of publicizing for it on my own. (I think it’s easier to write the darn things.) So far, there’ll be a write up in my home town newspaper, The Charleston Express, in Charleston, Arkansas. It’s nice to know an editor. In this case he’s my brother Paul David!

I’m working on setting up a talk and signing at the Causeway branch of the St. Tammany Library on September 19. I’ve contacted the library folks about it and we have that date tentatively set. I’ll let folks know for sure. It’s nice to know someone who works in the local library. In this case it’s my wife Lana Gramlich! (See it is who you know.) :)

I also will be guest blogging over at Novel Spaces on September 18. I’ll get more information out about what I’m going to blog about as the date moves closer. I’ll just say it’ll be about ‘writing.’ But you knew that.

Finally, I’ve made a connection with Kathy Spiess over at Tale of Two Sisters Bookstore, in Covington, Louisiana, only a few miles from my home. They had their grand opening his past Saturday and I spent an enjoyable couple of hours there. Very nice folks. It’s good to have a privately owned bookstore in the area again. They may be able to make some of my books available in the local community. That would be nice. I have to send Kathy some stuff about my work. That’s on my to-do list for today.

By the way, the book is also available on Barnes & Noble for those who prefer to shop there rather than Amazon.

In the meantime, I’m gonna post some links below to other folks who have posted or blogged about Write With Fire. And If I missed anyone I’m sorry.

Mark, over at the The Walking Man put up such a nice post about me that it took me a moment to realize I was the actual guy he was talking about. You can check out the post, but stay for Mark’s poetry.

I’d also like to thank Pattie Abbott for her kind words about the book. How she found time with all she’s doing, I don’t know.

And Steve Malley posted on it. Steve, I want to read some more graphic novels from you, dude.

James Reasoner over at Rough Edges posted about it. James has forgotten more than I’ve learned about writing. I’d love to see a bio published on James.

Sarai posted about the book. Even though I’m sure she’s very busy right now after her promotion. Congrats!

Natasha Fondren had kind things to say. And much appreciated.

Laughingwolf was actually the first to do a post, I believe. Much appreciated.

Even Wil Harrison has put up a link for the book on his sidebar. It fits right in with some of his weirder “pics of the day” kind of stuff. Thanks, Wil.

I'm adding another link for Rick, who has put up a link for the book. Read his post about the "Dragons of Creativity," as well. Eerie stuff with a lot of substance beneath the wicked prose.
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Write With Fire

The fried chicken is in the bucket. Now I can talk about it. 2009 marks my 20th year as a writer. During that time I haven’t gotten famous. During that time I haven’t made enough money to quit my day job. But then, none of the working writers I know are famous. And most of them either have a day job or are married to someone who does. What I have been lucky enough to do for those twenty years, though, is weather the changing seasons that have swept over publishing and still sell pretty much everything I’ve written: vampire stories, sword & sorcery, sword & planet, adventure, westerns, children’s tales, humor, and nonfiction of a wide variety. It wasn’t easy, and it wasn’t pretty. [Especially the splatterpunk stuff ;)]. But it got done.

Over twenty years I’ve done a lot of thinking about writing, about what works and doesn’t work, about what it takes to give a substantial portion of your life over to this rather strange habit. Almost from the beginning I’ve also written articles about writing. I think best on paper, and those articles have helped me crystallize my own thoughts on the craft. Now all those articles are gathered together in Write With Fire: Thoughts on the Craft of Writing, which has just been published. I’m extremely happy about it. And rather proud, I suppose too.

The book is 248 pages, and divided into three parts. The first part is mainly about the practical mechanics of writing. How do you shepherd ideas through the writing and editing process and into the final form needed for publication? It talks more about fiction than nonfiction but a lot of the articles are really about communicating with your writing, which applies to any genre. The second part deals more with theory and philosophy in writing. What kind of characteristics are common to writers? What makes and breaks a “page-turner?” The last and much shorter section consists of articles that are more personal to my life as a writer, such as my experiences after Hurricane Katrina.

Many of the articles have been published before, often in out of the way magazines, but all of them have been updated and expanded for the book. And there is quite a lot of stuff here that has never been seen before by most of those who know about my writing, including ideas I’ve developed in teaching classes in writing and giving presentations on the craft. I’ve posted the cover on the blog, and the Amazon link is Write With Fire.



I haven’t even gotten my copies yet but will blog about it when I do. In the meantime, I’d really appreciate it if my writer friends in the blogosphere would mention the book around so the word gets out. I’ll thank you for it.
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