Publishing

Writers as bitches and the investment of readers

November 16, 2011

Back in May 2009 a reader asked Neil Gaiman, via his blog, whether it was reasonable to feel let down that George R R Martin was not giving any clues about the release of the next A Song Of Fire & Ice installment. Gaiman famously told that reader, “George R R Martin is not your bitch”.

images Writers as bitches and the investment of readers GRRM is one of the best and most popular fantasy writers, but his A Song Of Ice & Fire series, which started in 1996, has been a long time to completion, and isn’t finished yet. At the end of book 4 it said to expect book 5 in a year. It took six years to see publication. There are still two more books to come, with no release date even hinted at. So people are getting concerned that the whole story may never be told, and the query posted to Neil Gaiman is still valid. As, potentially, is Gaiman’s answer.

Gaiman’s point is that GRRM doesn’t have to live up to our (readers) expectations. As a writer, I can kind of agree with that to an extent. Gaiman posits that the reader, by buying the first book, assumed some kind of contract with Martin. Gaiman says, “No such contract existed. You were paying your ten dollars for the book you were reading, and I assume that you enjoyed it because you want to know what happens next.”

Art is not something you can force, and Martin is well within his rights to do whatever he wants with his story. Even quit now and never finish. He’s not our bitch and that’s his prerogative. However, if he does do that, I think he is also letting his readers down. And not just GRRM – this applies to all of us as writers. If we’ve said we’ll do one thing and we do something else, that’s either our choice or a situation forced upon us. But we are letting people down when we do it. It’s not an either/or proposition.

images2 Writers as bitches and the investment of readers Recently, Brent Weeks, author of the Night Angel Trilogy and The Black Prism, posted an opinion piece at SciFiNow in which he says that Gaiman is wrong. In the article, Weeks says:

“Part of what entices us to buy a book is the promise conveyed in the title. “Gragnar’s Epic Magical Dragon Quest Trilogy: Book 1” promises there will be two more books. Whether through the title, or interviews, or through a note to readers at the end of a book that says the next book will be out in a year, when an author makes that kind of commitment, maybe technically there’s no contract, but there is an obligation.”

He also says, “…writers make mistakes about how fast they’re going to finish books All The Time. GRRM’s situation is merely illustrative.” This is well worth bearing in mind, as I’m not out to bash GRRM here, or anyone else in particular. I’m simply addressing the issue as a whole.

But I think Weeks is right – there is an obligation there. When a writer says they’ll write X number of books, readers start to invest their time and money into that series. It’s quite reasonable to feel cheated when the author doesn’t come through on that promise. For this reason a lot of people are now loathe to buy into a series until they know it’s finished. After all, they don’t want to spend time and money getting into a story without an end. Which is fairly reasonable. I’m tempted to make a sexual metaphor here, about encounters without happy endings, but I’ll be a grown-up and rise above that temptation.

I wrote a piece a while back called While you wait for book three, authors die! in which I point out that this method can be damaging. If an author’s first book doesn’t sell well, their publisher may decide to cut their losses and not publish the rest of the series. Bad for readers and writers. I always advise buying the first book, but not reading it yet. Collect the whole series as it comes out and read it all once it’s finished. Of course, this could turn out to be a waste of your hard-earned if the author doesn’t finish the series. But life without risk is like an untoasted tea cake. There’s no crunch.

Readers and authors are entering into unwritten contracts with each other. The author says, “I’ll write this series.” The reader says, “Cool, I’ll buy it and read it. I might even like it and give you a positive review and tell my friends about it.” It’s a symbiotic relationship.

The author doesn’t have to finish that series. There’s no legally binding contract, no demon’s blood on the page to force the magic out. But, should they not see through that originally stated obligation, they are letting the readers down. We all fuck up sometimes, we all get distracted by life and things that happen which are beyond our control. We all let people down sometimes, however much we may wish and try not to. But we should also own up to that let down. “Sorry, folks, I let you down” is lot more conducive to an ongoing relationship than, “Fuck you, I’m not your bitch!”

I really want GRRM to finish A Song Of Ice & Fire. I’ve invested a lot of time and money into it and I really want to know how it all works out. But Martin isn’t my bitch and I can’t force him to do something that he may not have the ability (due to other things in his life) or inclination to do. But, should the series not be wrapped up, I will feel let down.

How do you feel about it?

Midnight Echo 6 interview and excerpt

By alan

November 6, 2011

ME6 Print Cover small Midnight Echo 6 interview and excerpt I’m very proud that my short story, Trawling The Void, is going to be published in Midnight Echo, #6. For one thing, Midnight Echo is one of Australia’s premier fiction magazines, and the official magazine of the Australian Horror Writers’ Association. Issue 6 is a sci-fi horror special, and while I usually write dark fiction and dark contemporary fantasy stuff, every once in a while I foray into straight fantasy or sci-fi. Trawling The Void is one of my infrequent sci-fi outings.

It’s going to be a great issue, with a solid collection of stories. You can get it in print or electronic format when it’s released soon. All the details here.

In the meantime, David Conyers, one of the co-editors of this issue, asked me a few questions about the story recently and you can find that short interview and an excerpt from Trawling The Void here on David’s blog.

The story of a story, or how I was flensed

By alan

November 3, 2011

knife The story of a story, or how I was flensed flense
verb, flensed, flens·ing

1. to strip the blubber or the skin from (a whale, seal, etc.).

2. to strip off (blubber or skin).

Beware – Harsh truth approaching: We are not good enough.

None of us are good enough. Sure we can get good. Good enough to be published. We can continually get better, assuming we have that desire and constantly work at our craft. Which we all should, of course. But, on our own, in our little bubbles of imagination and twisted ideas, we’re not good enough. We need to be better than we’re capable of being on our own. For that, we need the unbiased, critical eyes of others.

As a writer, I work alone. It’s part of the job and it’s one of the things I love about it. I also love the community of writers I’ve gathered around myself over the years, online and in real life. And therein lies the key. I have a handful of talented writer friends who are happy to read and critique my work. I’m happy to return the favour. It’s how our world goes around. I’m actually very lucky in that the majority of writerly friends happy to critique my work are far better scribes than I.

As the writer of a story (or novel, screenplay, webserial, whatever) we’re far too close to the thing to be objective. We’ve invested our time, imagination and effort into creating it. We’ve extruded the guts of it from the labyrinthine depths of our subconscious and regurgitated it into being. Up to a point we can be critical of our own work. We can put the first draft away for a while to let it fester, then pull it out again and read it with fresh eyes. The longer you’ve been doing this, the better you get at spotting flaws and being honest with yourself. We can turn a first draft into a pretty decent final draft. But we’re still not objective enough and it’s not really a final draft at all.

I wrote a short story recently that I was really pleased with. I spent a while going over it, polishing it, getting it just right. I sent it out into the world. And it came back. And again. And again. The rejections stacked up. It’s cool, I’m used to that. Every writer is. We have hides that make rhino skin look like tissue paper and a solid fuck-you-attitude that keeps us working in the face of constant rejection. It’s the only way to work in this game. After all, it’s not necessarily the story – it could be the editor just doesn’t dig that vibe, or the publication ran something a bit similar recently, or the publisher’s cat swallowed a bee and she’s sore at the world and takes it out on a good story. That last one is unlikely, but anything’s possible.

But once something has been bounced a few times in a row, you can start to see the common denominator. It’s the story, schmuck. It ain’t good enough.

So I went to my friends seeking help. In this particular instance I was fortunate enough to get the Evil Drs Brain* on the case. Given that it was a dark and twisted fairy tale vibe, I asked Angela Slatter* to have a look at it for me. She read the story, liked it, but took her flensing knife to it with abandon. I got it back and sobbed quietly for a few minutes, then manned up and listened to her advice. It was good advice. She’d seen flaws I hadn’t, picked up things in the story that needed to work differently. She’d identified character inconsistencies I would never have seen.

The story was greatly improved, but it still needed something; we could both see that now. Angela sent it over to her other brain, Lisa L Hannett*. Lisa added her flensing knife to the mix and my story was further eviscerated, but she saw the things that needed fixing.

One of them was really harsh – the whole story had grown from a killer closing line. I came up with the final line, something I really wanted to use to finish, and the whole story grew out of that. Lisa pointed out that the final line didn’t work. The story had outgrown its seed of conception and that line had to go.

I wailed and raged, but I knew Lisa was right. The line was cut. I killed the fuck out that particular darling. There’s no room for pussies in this caper.

The story has just been sold to a very prestigious market and I couldn’t be happier.

The moral of the story? We need our friends. We need beta-readers, critiques, flensing knives flashing in the cold light of dawn. And we must listen to these people.

Hopefully it gets to the point where our writing is good enough that we can usually get something to a standard editors want to buy and then they do that last bit of flense and polish. A good editor will see the gem in the rough diamond and draw it out. But they don’t have time for much. It behoves us to make our work shine as brightly as it possibly can.

In essence: fresh eyes, beta readers, honest critique, listen to advice and kill your darlings. You know, the usual shit. It’s been said before, and it will be said again. But it needs to be repeated.

Say it after me:

We are not good enough.
We must try harder,
All the time.
And help our friends as they help us.
For this is the flensing,
And the power of the story,
For ever and ever.
RAmen. (Quick and easy, the snack of the starving, jobbing penmonkey.)

Now, go write.

* CAVEAT: Angela and Lisa were happy for me to mention them in this post and applaud their shining word razors, but they won’t critique your work. This particular flensing was done on the basis of friendship and collegiality, built up over time. You can, however, get your own friends on the case. Join writers’ groups and crit circles and help each other. You’ll all grow and improve together. Just get involved and know that you need help and that you can help others. Meet people, be nice, take advice. It all grows from there.

Murky Depths magazine is no more

By alan

October 29, 2011

murky depthsissue16 200 Murky Depths magazine is no more I’m very sad to report that Murky Depths, the UK dark fiction magazine, has gone under. Here’s the relevant post from the publisher, Terry Martin. It’s a bloody shame, because Murky Depths was a consistently good magazine, with great fiction and articles, awesome illustrations and so much more. It took out the British Fantasy Award (last year, I think) and was always well reviewed. But it couldn’t stand against the tide of financial crises, e-publishing and so on.

I’m very proud to have had a story in Murky Depths while it was still going – my yarn, Mirrorwalk, is in issue 16 (pictured above). And, as the blog post I linked points out:

While Murky Depths, the anthology magazine, may be no more, it’s far from dead and The House of Murky Depths is to continue publishing paperbacks and graphic novels using the experience it has gained over the last five years. Murky Depths is dead. Long live Murky Depths.

You can still buy back-issues of the magazine until they’re sold out, so go to the site and get shopping.

Vale, Murky Depths magazine, and many thanks Terry Martin!

Anywhere But Earth has landed

By alan

October 25, 2011

AbE cover for blog Anywhere But Earth has landed I’m very proud to have a story in this fantastic anthology from editor extraordinaire Keith Stevenson. Here’s the blurb:

Twenty-nine all new science fiction stories of humanity’s adventures out there, anywhere but Earth. Featuring original works by Margo Lanagan, Sean McMullen, Richard Harland and Kim Westwood among a galaxy of new and established Australian and overseas speculative fiction authors.

‘Keith Stevenson has done it again. Sit down, buckle up, you’re heading off world now – trust me, it’s going to hurt, but you won’t regret it.’
Trent Jamieson, award-winning author of the Death Works and The Nightbound Land series.

Contents
Calie Voorhis ‘Murmer’, Cat Sparks ‘Beautiful’, Simon Petrie ‘Hatchway’, Lee Battersby ‘At the End There Was a Man’, Alan Baxter ‘Unexpected Launch’, Richard Harland ‘An Exhibition of the Plague’, Robert N Stephenson ‘Rains of la Strange’, Liz Argall ‘Maia Blue is Going Home’, Chris McMahon ‘Memories of Mars’, CJ Paget ‘Pink Ice in the Jovian Rings’, Penelope Love ‘SIBO’, Donna Maree Hanson ‘Beneath the Floating City’, Erin E Stocks ‘Lisse’, William RD Wood ‘Deuteronomy’, Robert Hood ‘Desert Madonna’, Steve de Beer ‘Psi World’, Damon Shaw ‘Continuity’, Wendy Waring ‘Alien Tears’, Patty Jansen ‘Poor Man’s Travel’, Jason Fischer ‘Eating Gnashdal’, Kim Westwood ‘By Any Other Name’, Brendan Duffy ‘Space Girl Blues’, TF Davenport ‘Oak with the Left Hand’, Sean McMullen ‘Spacebook’, Margo Lanagan ‘Yon Horned Moon’, Mark Rossiter ‘The Caretaker’, Jason Nahrung ‘Messiah on the Rock’, Angela Ambroz ‘Pyaar Kiya’, Steve Cameron ‘So Sad, the Lighthouse Keeper’

B format 728 pages

ISBN 9780987158703 – printed book

ISBN 9780987158710 – ebook

The book has landed here on Earth and is available now in print and multi-format ebook. The official launch will be happening at the New South Wales Writers Centre Speculative Fiction Festival on Saturday, November 5th. Several of the contributing authors will be there, including myself. As part of the launch, Richard Harland, Margo Lanagan and I will be reading excerpts from our stories. Of course, all the attending authors will also be happy to sign your copy at the launch. There’s so much else going on that day – if you’re anywhere near Sydney, don’t miss it!

In the meantime, all the purchase details for this awesome anthology can be found here. Go get some!

Hope – an anthology of speculative fiction to help raise suicide awareness

By alan

October 19, 2011

Hope Hope an anthology of speculative fiction to help raise suicide awareness Look what I’ve got in my clammy little hand. My contributor’s copy of the Hope anthology arrived today and it’s a fine looking book. I’ve talked about this here before, but I’m talking about it again. Mainly because this is something that needs talking about. Hope is not just a great anthology of speculative fiction from a fantastic cross-section of authors, though it is that as well. It’s also a very important conversation about suicide. The publisher of the book has had a very personal experience with suicide. I’ve lost a friend to suicide. I’ve also cut a person down from a garage rafter where they’d hanged themselves, a complete stranger, and given them mouth to mouth and CPR even though I knew they were dead, until paramedics arrived and told me to stop. I don’t say these things to shock, but just to point out that it can happen to any of us at any time, directly or indirectly.

As the back cover of the book says:

Did you know approximately one million people die by suicide each year worldwide?

That is a shocking figure. Hope is a book which aims to raise suicide awareness in many ways. Firstly, between all the stories are essays from Beyond Blue, Dr Myfanwy Maple and Mr Warren Bartick, from the University of New England. There are facts and figures, there are details on how you can help people who may be suicidal and how to help people through loss. And on top of all that, the profits from this book are all going to suicide awareness charities.

I’m very proud to have donated a story to this project and I’m also proud of the story I wrote. It’s a bit outside my usual style, as the request was for all stories to have, somewhere at their heart, hope. My stuff is usually dark and often quite hopeless. I rose to the challenge to write a hopeful story. While it’s still quite dark in places, and some nasty things happen, I think I also made a good job of addressing the idea of hope. And it’s one of my rare pure fantasy stories, rather than a contemporary urban fantasy where I usually live.

So if you buy this book you’re getting great stories, useful information and you’re donating money to very important causes. So buy a copy, buy a friend a copy. After all, it’s nearly Xmas. And you know what they say about Xmas and suicide.

Buy it here: Kayelle Press

HOPE
Table of Contents:

Preface by Karen Henderson
Introduction by Simon Haynes
High Tide at Hot Water Beach by Paul Haines
Suicide: An Introduction by Warren Bartik and Myfanwy Maple
Burned in the Black by Janette Dalgliesh
Australian Suicide Statistics
The Haunted Earth by Sean Williams
The Causes of Suicide
Eliot by Benjamin Solah
Warning Signs
Boundaries by Karen Lee Field
Indigenous Suicides
The Encounter by Sasha Beattie
Drugs and Alcohol
The God on the Mountain by Graham Storrs
Suicide Around the World
Deployment by Craig Hull
Suicide: The Impact by Myfanwy Maple and Warren Bartik
Flowers in the Shadow of the Garden by Joanne Anderton
Helping a Friend Through Loss
Blinded by Jodi Cleghorn
Myths and Facts
The Choosing by Rowena Cory Daniells
How to Help Someone at Risk of Suicide by beyondblue
Duty and Sacrifice by Alan Baxter
What You Can Do to Keep Yourself Safe by beyondblue
A Moment, A Day, A Year… by Pamela Freeman
Where to Get Help
About the Authors

NSW Writers’ Centre Speculative Fiction Festival

By alan

October 19, 2011

On Saturday 5th November, authors, editors, publishers, critics, film-makers and readers from all over Australia are converging on the NSW Writers Centre for a day spent celebrating Speculative Fiction. I’ll be there, taking part in a panel and also reading from my story, Unexpected Launch, as part of the official launch of the Anywhere But Earth anthology from Coeur De Lion Publishing. Margo Lanagan and Richard Harland will also be reading as part of that launch.

There’s going to be loads going on, two official book launches, panels and even a chance to listen to publishers and pitch them your story idea one-on-one. That is some valuable opportunity, right there. All the details can be found here. Move fast, because places for that are limited.

In the meantime, Festival curator Kate Forsyth, asked a bunch of the attending guests just what “speculative fiction” is. The answers are excellent, and I’m reposting them here from Newsbite, the NSWWC Newsletter, which you can sign up for at the NSWWC site.

So what, exactly, is Speculative Fiction?
The dictionary defines it as a broad literary genre encompassing any fiction with supernatural, fantastical, or futuristic elements (which seems to me to cover just about all kinds of fiction).
So I thought I would ask some of the guests appearing at the festival. Since they write it, they should know what it is. Shouldn’t they?
We can only speculate.
Alan Baxter: ‘All fiction, by definition, is speculative, but “speculative fiction” as a genre encompasses all stories that refuse to be bound by what’s real, what’s known or what’s proven – they’re stories which expand beyond the mundane to very edges of our imagination and reflect us back to ourselves from every conceivable angle.’
DM Cornish: ‘Speculative fiction is the search to make the wondrous and the mythic, comprehensible and portable.’
Richard Harland: ‘Speculative Fiction is the imagination unleashed! And the imagination is mightier than the sword or the pen or anything!’
Pamela Freeman:‘Speculative fiction:
When the world doesn’t work the way scientists think it should –
When the world works the way poets and children think it should –
When the world works.’
Colin Harvey: ‘Speculative fiction is escapism for some, reality for the rest of us.’
Jack Heath: ‘Most fiction is written to make the real seem ludicrous. Speculative fiction is the art of making the ludicrous seem real.’
Margo Lanagan: ‘In a nutshell, “Speculative Fiction” is a handy term for referring to Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror and their various leakages into each other. More personally, those words are an invitation to take my story to as strange a place as I need to go to say the things I can’t say more straightforwardly.’
Karen Miller: ‘It’s the genre that takes the brakes off our imagination.’
Belinda Murrell: ‘Speculative fiction is a genre which plays with the boundaries of the known and the possible.’
What do I think?
From the beginning of time, humans have been dreaming of impossible things – of worlds and times and creatures and circumstances beyond what is known and charted. They have looked at the vast mystery of the universe and asked, ‘What if …?’ Then they have told stories that give voice to those impossible dreams, thereby making them, perhaps, one day, possible.
So if you dream of impossible things – like being the next J.K Rowling (or George R.R. Martin, or Stephanie Meyer, or Sir Terry Pratchett, or Stephen King, or Margaret Atwood, or Frank Herbert, or Diana Gabaldon, or Neil Gaiman, or even the next George Lucas), come along to the NSW Writers Centre on Saturday, 5th November, and discover this most exciting and adventurous of literary genres.

Kate Forsyth is curating the NSW Writers’ Centre Speculative Fiction Festival on Saturday 5 November. Be there!

Writing with no regrets – Guest post from Lorna Suzuki

By alan

October 11, 2011

There are many ways to get published these days, and the face of publishing is changing all the time. Self-publishing no longer carries the kind of stigma it used to, yet there is still a fairly valid supposition that most self-published work will be inferior in quality of story and presentation. This is certainly not always the case, as many success stories have shown us recently. There are also authors starting the traditional way, but taking control of their own publishing later. Small and indie press are providing writers with more opportunities than ever. With that in mind, today I have a guest post from Lorna Suzuki who has turned down offers of traditional publishing to go her own way, which includes a film deal for her self-published work. I thought her story might be interesting for readers here. Enjoy.

Writing With No Regrets
by Lorna Suzuki

In my short fiction-writing career, I’ve been blessed and more fortunate than most writers, especially being that I am an indie author.

I know many authors seek validation by being published through traditional means, even if it’s not one of the big six. They believe traditional publishing means they are now credible writers, even though some question the quality of some of these books being published. Once, an aspiring author seeking traditional publication mentioned that writers like me are ‘jumping the queue’, thereby making it harder for serious writers like him to compete in this business. I’ve even been to writers conferences and have overheard authors seeking traditional publication speak of how they’d ‘never stoop so low as to resort to self-publishing’ as they, with their noses turned up, rushed by workshops covering this very topic.

For me, I’m proudly indie and deliberately so. I never started writing fantasy with the intention of becoming rich, receiving a huge advance from a large publishing company or to have my name on the cover of a book. Maybe I’m naïve to be happy knowing my fantasy series is slowly but steadily gathering a following and making its way into libraries in Canada and the U.S., but writing fiction for a living was something I never truly considered.

I wrote my fantasy series as a lasting gift to my daughter. I created an imaginary realm filled with characters whose stories I felt were worth sharing with the world.

Now, for those who say I was never published traditionally because my work is mediocre and I just couldn’t land an agent: I’ve had two literary agents in the past, the last had an excellent track record with multi-book deals with the big publishing houses in New York. The whole experience was not exactly soul-crushing, more disheartening than anything else.

I released my last agent, and used Kim Roberts, one of Hollywood North’s most talented, knowledgeable entertainment attorneys (and producer of Sepia Films) to negotiate a wonderful option agreement with a fantastic production company.

Even with agent representation, it’s been either the editors or president of publishing companies I’ve met on my own, than via any agent introduction.

In the case of one successful, growing Canadian publishing company, the president of Libros Libertad had been following my writing career via the local newspapers and on TV. He contacted me when I was in the midst of meetings with a film producer seeking rights to option my adult fantasy series. The president of this company was pleasant, professional and as a writer, he understood the challenges many authors face, and that many worthy novels never get out there because the competition is fierce.

We did have couple of great meetings, and I did go as far as reviewing a publishing contract, but the burden of negotiating film rights had far greater precedence at the time, so I had to decline his offer of a multi-book deal to focus on this.

The next person interested in publishing rights for the adult fantasy came from the editor of Raincoast Publishing (their claim to fame was being the publisher of the Harry Potter series in Canada). I met Raincoast editor Jessie Finkelstein at the Surrey International Writers Conference. When we were discussing the Imago fantasy series, Ms. Finkelstein loved the concept of a strong female protagonist that had NO supernatural powers to take on much larger opponents. She found it refreshing that I featured a petite female warrior, one that used her intuition, years of training and smarts to overcome challenges to survive in a world that was not tolerant of her type, the only half human/half elf being in her realm.

Ms. Finkelstein loved that the female protagonist had fighting skills grounded in reality (based on my style of martial arts), blended in with a high level of action as well as a poignant story that touched on real world issues like overcoming racial and religious intolerance, male chauvinism, abuse and the will to survive against incredible odds.

She loved the concept so much, but Raincoast specializes in YA fiction, not adult fantasy. Because Ms. Finkelstein was aware of the level of violence and the sexual content, she had to ask: “Are you willing to rewrite your series for a YA audience?”

Now, some writers struggling to be picked up by a traditional publishing house denounced me as being crazy for giving the answer I did, but I already had a growing fan base of very loyal Imago fans, the ones who drop everything to attend my annual book launches to get their next fantasy fix. At the risk of being accused of selling out or disappointing the fans that loved the series written with an adult audience in mind, I had no choice but to say no to Ms. Finkelstein.

Do I regret saying no to her? Do I ever wonder what would have happened if I did rewrite to fit Raincoast’s catalogue? The answer is no.

Just last month, the executive producer who had optioned rights for the first three novels in the Imago series for a major motion picture trilogy contacted me. A publisher in Asia who knew of my series and the impending movie project asked the executive producer to contact me to see if I’d be interested in negotiating rights for the release of the Imago series in Asia.

I was flattered they wanted this, but for me, I didn’t even bother asking the executive producer who they were and what were they willing to offer.

Crazy, right?

Maybe… but for me, I’m a firm believer that things will happen when they are supposed to happen and whom they are supposed to happen with. And like my female protagonist, I tend to follow my intuition. I’ve spent much of my life multi-tasking on so many levels. Somewhere along the line, this means something can suffer in the process. I felt it was better for me to focus on one project at a time. As the creative consultant of the upcoming motion picture trilogy, it’s better to give the proper care and attention to the movie project now, than to regret it later.

Now, don’t get me wrong. When the time is right, under the proper terms and conditions with the most suitable traditional publishing company, I might consider an offer. It will have to be right on many levels for me to give up self-publishing, especially in light of the fact J.K. Rowling, with her Pottermore.com website, has almost single-handedly made self-publishing respectable now.

In the meantime, I’m quite happy being indie. For now, the executive producer wants me to continue building the fan base as we march toward full production! So, off I go, trying to win readers over one book at a time. And thank you, Alan, for inviting me to do this guest blog.

You can find Lorna on twitter: @LornaSuzuki
Or at her website: http://web.me.com/imagobooks.ca

Hope anthology online launch this weekend

By alan

October 7, 2011

hope anthology Hope anthology online launch this weekend The Hope anthology from Kayelle Press is launching globally this weekend. It’s a great book, for a great cause. My story, Duty and Sacrifice, is included, along with a number of other excellent stories by some seriously talented authors, interspersed with articles and essays on suicide awareness. Profits from the book are going to suicide awareness charities. It’s a good book for a really good cause, so if you can spare some time, get along to the launch and get yourself a copy.

There’s a Facebook page for the launch here, and over the course of this weekend ten digital copies will be given away. Below is a full table of contents, followed by a short description of each story:

Table of Contents:

The Stories:

High Tide at Hot Water Beach by Paul Haines
A man dying of a terminal disease bets his life on one last chance at survival, a chance that looks like certain death from the perspective of his family.

Burned in the Black by Janette Dalgliesh
A jaded starbeast herder, with more secrets than she cares for and a difficult task ahead, is swept into an uneasy alliance with a troubled technobard whose unique gifts could mean her salvation … or her downfall.

The Haunted Earth by Sean Williams
Not all aliens are evil, but every first contact comes at a cost.

Eliot by Benjamin Solah
Eliot hides his dark memories in the pages of journals. But there is one memory he needs to uncover once the face paint washes away.

Boundaries by Karen Lee Field
With cursed blood running through his veins and boundaries touched by magic, an escaped slave battles for life as a Freeman.

The Encounter by Sasha Beattie
A woman’s desperation finds her in a small town where she learns of a dark secret that threatens to take away her only hope of happiness.

The God on the Mountain by Graham Storrs
An ambitious scientist’s career may be over if she dare not seek the god on the mountain and confront it.

Deployment by Craig Hull
After choosing the loneliness of deep space, a woman must confront her painful past to save the life of a child.

Flowers in the Shadow of the Garden by Joanne Anderton
In the ruins of a dying magical Garden, two people from opposite sides of a dangerous clash of cultures must learn to trust each other to survive.

Blinded by Jodi Cleghorn
The past and present collide for exo-biologist Dr Thaleia Halligan when the most recent addition to her exploration team is revealed as something other than a field medic for hire.

The Choosing by Rowena Cory Daniells
In a harsh, tropical paradise, a world of scattered islands where the poor live on boats and whole tribes live the canopies of sea- growing trees, two boys set off to prove they are worthy of being called men.

Duty and Sacrifice by Alan Baxter
In endless grasslands an assasin works her way towards the biggest job of her life, and maybe the last.

A Moment, A Day, A Year… by Pamela Freeman
The Oracle ordains everyone’s role in the Yearly Round, but there are more choices to be made than anyone knows, and some of them are deadly.

The page for the anthology at the Kayelle Press website is here. Look at those names above! Go get your copy now.

EDIT – The ebook is available now – print pre-orders through the Kayelle site linked in the above paragraph.

Winds Of Change anthology trailer

By alan

September 12, 2011

My dark fantasy/urban horror short story, Dream Shadow, is going to be in the new CSFG Publishing anthology, Winds Of Change. The antho is launching at Conflux over the October long weekend. In the meantime, here’s a little teaser for it in the form of a book trailer: