Hear Ye! Hear Ye!

As you've probably noticed over the last month and a half, Saturdays have become promotion days for MGC. Sometimes it will be self-promotion. Others will be guest blogs by authors who have new books coming out. Sometimes, we'll even throw in an open floor. Today, I'm going to step in and do a bit of promotion for the MGCers who have titles coming out from Naked Reader Press this month and nexzt.


In a land with a weak king, in a time when murder was often disregarded, four men made sure justice was served.

First up -- and I'm really excited about this -- is Death of a Musketeer by Sarah D'Almeida.

This is the first in the series and it has never before been released in digital format. Now, I see some of you scratching your heads and wondering who this D'Almeida chick is. Well, if you take a look at her Amazon author page, you'll see that she looks pretty familiar. Actually, it's no secret that Sarah D'Almeida is one of several pseudonyms our own Sarah A. Hoyt writes under.



Computer hackers are nothing compared to Legion. Its source is unknown and it continues to baffle programmers and defeat firewalls and antivirus programs. Nothing seems able to stop it. Could Legion possibly be intelligent? Or is it something else, something totally unexpected?

Up next is a wonderful short story written by Dave Freer and Kate Paulk. Legion: The Enemy Within came out earlier this month and, as with all NRP titles, it is DRM-free and available not only at the NRP site but also from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.





A boy's search for the truth sends him on a journey to find his grandfather's downed plane. Suddenly trapped in an alternate South Africa, faced with pirates and worse, he refuses to give up. His quest to clear his grandfather's name turns into a desperate race against time. It's a race he can't afford to lose.

Our next title is Dave Freer's middle school/early YA novella, Without a Trace. It is currently available for early purchase as an uncorrected e-arc (advanced readers copy). The edited version will be available for purchase the second half of March. If you like a rip-roaring adventure, or know someone who does, Without a Trace is for you.

The day she died Mackenzie Santos's life and her perception of the world changed forever. Everyone else thought her return to the living was a miracle. She knew better. How else could she explain away the dreams she knew were symptoms she was losing her mind? And if that weren't enough, she's now in charge of the investigation into the most brutal murder she can remember in her time with the Dallas Police Department.

Nocturnal Origins is by, well, me. Yes, me. The blogger currently hiding under the bed because self-promotion isn't something I'm comfortable with. It will be available from NRP the first half of March.

And don't forget that Kate Paulk's unique take on the Dracula legend, Impaler, comes out in March as well. For more information on Impaler, as well as a snippet or two, check out Kate's website. You can also find more information on Impaler at The Naked Truth and here on MGC. One word of warning, do not expect any sparkling vampires or emo werewolves in this novel. As far as Kate's concerned, the only time vampires should sparkle are when they've stepped into the sunlight and are bursting into flame.

With the exception of Legion: The Enemy Within, each of these titles will also be breaking new ground for NRP. Each of these titles will also be released in print as well as in digital formats.

(Full disclosure here -- for those who don't know, I'm the senior executive editor for Naked Reader Press.)

Hi From Worldcon!

Hi to all the MGC-goers from Aussiecon4. The venue is very spacious, and despite the attendance levels there is plenty of room to move about. I would have to say I found the intense orange-red décor just a little disorienting to begin with, but that might have been just me trying to deal with the array of potential panels to attend.

Some real luminaries here. I have not seen George RR Martin yet, but Kim Stanley Robinson is busy giving plenary lectures on various topics, and last night Robert Silverberg was chatting in the foyer with a bunch of other writers so casually you would think he appeared there every night.

Yesterday I trundled along – via the Dealer’s Room — to Dave’s signing, then along with Barb Freer, went to listen to Kate’s reading. A very smooth performance for a first timer! Kate read from her “Knights in Tarnished Armour” and a work in progress — “Wetherfakawi Blues” (hope I got the spelling right). The typical dry humour was endemic, with tightly written prose and a good storytelling voice. We were all disappointed when the half-hour slot was up.

The fellow who followed Kate, a SF writer from the UK called Gary Couzens, read a ghost story that had appeared in Fantasy and Science Ficton. I very interesting piece written from the point of view of the ghost, and written in second person. The voice was an unusual choice, yet really worked with this, increasing the tension. It made me feel like it was a sort of cautionary tale, like it could be you trapped in that house watching your loved ones go about their lives.

Below are two photos of Kate, one in mid-sentence and the other eyes down on her little life companion, her Kindle.

Tomorrow I will get to hear Dave read — always a treat — as well as China Mieville. It has been great to be able to sit back and hear these talented writers read their own works.

What are some of the best readings that you have been to?

Happy Birthday Dave!!!!!!!!!!!!

May you write much and live long. May your cares be few, your books many (this is utterly selfish of me) and your descendants countless and all good sorts. And may you always wake up excited about the new day.

While the Monkey Clan Unpacks

For those of you who don't know, the Monkey Clan finally got the various crates, boxes and who knows what all delivered to their new home on Flinders Island. Well, all except "the rock". So Dave and Barbs are busy unpacking and trying to figure out where everything should go in their new home. You can check out their progress here.

In the meantime, it's open thread day. The usual rules apply. No politics. No religion. No barroom brawls -- at least not without adequate provocation ;-p

So, shall we start this off by wondering what dastardly adventures the Monkey Clan has gotten into this time?

SAVE THE DRAGONS (AND MY FURKIDS)

Well from time-to-time on this site we've talked about e-publishing as an alternative channel to the present set up. So: because this is very important to me, and because this is typical monkey fashion - talk ain't enough, we need to start doing... go and have a look http://www.savethedragons.nu/

Which is a Miller and Lee style e-publishing venture.

SAVE THE DRAGONS is my own first venture into alternate publishing via a desperate need to fund my beasties stay in quarantine on their way to join us in Australia. (They are a responsibility I take seriously. But the cost is astronomical, and even with us selling up here we just can't afford it. They were always part of our moving equation, but the exchange rate, low house prices and the huge cost of keeping them in quarantine is just crippling.) But, well, I love my animals and being me I must at least try. We don't know if we can raise - even with what we have - enough for the project (about R150 000 - for quarantine for 7 and flights for 7... and then a month in Australia). The move pretty much means starting again from nothing, and we may have to do this in stages if we can. But I'm not known for giving up easily. I'm not much good at straight begging so I am selling what I can for them. Please go and have a look, and if you have suggestions for how we could enhance this or do better I'd be grateful.

I'd be grateful too if you mentioned it on your blogs.

Of course I'd be delighted if you decided to buy into it.

Sleepy Sunday

I apologize for being a little late posting this morning, but I am recovering from the Fourth. And no, not THAT sort of recovering. The strongest thing I had to drink yesterday was a Coke. No, I'm recovering from 10 1/2 hours in a parking lot in the Texas heat selling parking just down from our community's Fourth Fest. Considering we had our first car arrive at 0930 and we were starting our fourth row on the adjoining grass field when I left last night, I'm hoping we exceeded our goal.

However, because of that, and because I think I think I sweated a good portion of my brain out yesterday, I'm going to leave you with some links to check out.

From our own Monkey, a very interesting and informative post on e-books and royalties. Be sure to read the link he includes in his post. --
http://davefreer.livejournal.com/99217.html

Here is agent Lucienne Diver's take on RWA's decision regarding e-books and advances --
http://espan-rwa.com/my-two-cents/

Courtesy of Smart Bitches comes this link for Tips for Writers choosing names for your characters. Now, in the interest of full disclosure [G], Smart Bitches does take exception to the third rule - that exotic names are for romance novels, soap operas and strippers.

Your mission, this morning, should you decide to accept it is to tell me your thoughts about e-books -- are they a valid form of publishing even in the absence of a dead tree version of the book? Any other thoughts you might have about e-books, including authors offering them a chapter at a time for donations or subscription fee.

Also, how do you choose names for your characters -- assuming they let you name them. Some of mine come complete with names and refuse to play nice until I agree they know best.

Have a great Sunday. I'm off to search for more coffee.

Oh, baby give me that message!

Sarah's post yesterday got me thinking about messages in prose. Yes, I know this is a scary place for me to be going, because if anyone's golden gun or glittery hooha starts sending messages you'll all blame me.

That said... Probably the one truly outstanding feature of the human mind that no machine or computer has been able to match is our ability to find patterns in seemingly random information - and in real random data where no pattern exists. Elvis in a slice of unevenly cooked toast? Yep, that's the human pattern matching at work.

Of course it overflows into our writing and our reading. The novel awaiting a publisher's decision right now started life as a total romp with no message whatsoever. I can guarantee there will be people who find meaning in it - I found that meaning had crept in there without me being aware of it.

I should probably mention at this point that I write on autopilot. I put on the headphones, the right music (each book demands something different - although thankfully unlike some of my writing friends I haven't been infested with a book insisting on ABBA), and relax. The subconscious does the work for me, and I read over the results the next day and agree with my friends that yes, I am a scary person. There are things buried down there that find their way into the most lighthearted piece of piss-taking and give it extra layers of chocolatey goodness... Um. Sorry. That was Tim-Tam envy.

In short, where conspiracy theorists see the hand of the hidden manipulator in everything, literature analysts (I'm sure there's a reason that word starts with 'anal') see themes and messages in everything, regardless of whether the author put them there.

We're all primed to see messages in stories, whether it's that the prince on his white horse will find you and carry you off for a happily ever after hinted at only by the clouds of rosy pink - but only if you're a good girl and never complain about anything - or that white people have oppressed and murdered their way through history, even in places where no-one has ever seen anyone with skin lighter than dark tan (yes, there are a few of them even now). Depending on our upbringing, we might be primed to see messages from the Devil in anything remotely unfamiliar, or possibly messages from any other supernatural being up to and including the Big Guy Himself (Yes, I do mean Elvis).

Where a lot of authors drop the ball (no, not the golden gun, and not that kind of ball either) is in thinking that their story is about whatever the message ends up being. That's when they stop the action to beat their readers about the head with some great Message or other. This is a summary defenestration offense in my opinion. If that book can't learn to fly between the window and the ground, too bad. And no, bouncing doesn't count.

Some of the authors I read who have strong messages in their books and don't preach are (of course) Pratchett (drat. Another goat. The landlord is going to be so pissed about the state of this carpet), our very own Dave Freer (don't worry, Dave, I'm not sacrificing coconuts. Yet.) and another of our Mad Geniuses, Sarah Hoyt (And no, nor am I sacrificing Officers Hotstuff. Not unless the sacrifice involves their golden gun and a willing... ahem).

Who else do you like that doesn't preach? Who do you like enough to put up with the preaching, and why?

Your place or mine?

I have etchings. And the sound of a mountain stream out there in the moonlit darkness. Let me take you away...

Okay, still harping away on beginnings (because we all have to start somewhere... even with a cliche sometimes. I have a short that begins. " She awoke with a terrible start. Rubbing her eyes and looking at him again, she had to admit maybe he wasn't that terrible, just a bit homely, and not comfortably old, fat and rich. Not quite what she'd have chosen if she'd been sober the night before. A girl had to begin somewhere... ")

To get back to the point, an author has the difficult task of taking the reader away into the world they create. Sometimes the reader really wants to go. Will fall right in with a cheesy invitation to see etchings, especially if they've loved the author's other books. However the suspension of disbelief, the entry into world we build for them, is usually much harder than that. The start, which will lead us away from the mundane (and safe) is a tricky thing. Yep mostly the reader wants to go... but not if you might be an axe murderer (or the wrong kind of book). I always put it this way: The first few pages of a book have severely overworked words, because they have do so much. They have to pick you up, carry you away to a different place, they have to make you care about the protagonist's fate (want to see them come a cropper is fine too), they have reassure the reader that actually the charming invitation to come to their place is not so you can be dismembered and served with fava beans (which strikes me as odd. What are the bits going to do with those beans?) and also advance the plot.

In summary:

1)hook

2) setting

3) Show type of book (really, readers do not actually like surprises. They wanted an Aga-saga and you gave them horror with Aga-saga start, you'll have to be brilliant to get them to forgive you. They wanted fantasy - and you gave them sf - better hope you had them adoring the book before they figured it out. Yes. I am guilty. I hope readers forgave me. I was young and mislead by an evil companion, me.)

4) Invest emotion in protagonist (love or hate, but care)

5)Move the plot forward.

If you're a best-selling author that readers know will deliver you have some space to do these. If not... the sooner the better. We've talked about hook and somewhat about character.

Let's talk about setting and type of book. Now because these beginning words are multipurpose and overworked (poor things) these too can be part of the hook, part of the magic, part of the character dispay that gets you to care.

"I am a watchdog. My name is Snuff. I live with my master Jack outside of London now. I like Soho very much at night with its smelly fogs and dark streets. It is silent then and we go for long walks. Jack is under a curse from long ago...."

If anyone has any doubts what kind of book this is or what sort of setting they're being drawn into... I can recommend some pills :-)

Or to do it even quicker - "Once the palace of a thousand chambers had overwhelmed Imoshen...."

or this

"The dragon flew above the rage of the elements. Above the tumultuous maelstrom of ocean swirling into the void. Above the sheet lightnings and vortexes of dark energies released as the tower fell, with the vast granite masonry shattering into swirling dust. A fierce delight filled his dragonish heart as he looked down on it."

Ok - let's see some starts that show setting and type. I'll try and offer constructive criticism. And you can see if I get it right. (And sweetlings, the reader is always right. If i don't get it, it's back to the drawing board. Or rather, keyboard. This applies to me, Stephen King or Joe-the-newbie. The reader is write... uh right.)

And which three books did I quote?

The Braes o' Killiekrankie

"If ye hae been whar I hae been..."
(The Braes of Killiekrankie. Trad. Scots song, arr. Corries)
What you are, what you have done, and of course your imagination (a part of what you are) shape your writing. Yeah. Much of writing is derivative from other writing you’ve read but... well we’re all shaped by experiences, both in the content and way we approach it. I started rock-climbing when I was eight, and it has probably colored my writing and indeed my life more than anything else. And it has many odd parallels to writing. (I daresay you could do this with a martial art or music...)

For a start - anyone CAN climb. (We’re not that far from our simian ancestors. Yours truly just less far than most of the rest of you. It’s all right. I try not to look down on you, even if I think leaving the trees was a mistake.) Physically we’re just about all of us capable of it. And that -- if you’re capable of reading -- holds true for writing.

Yet... very very few people climb cliffs, and even fewer get anywhere near the top of the sport. Actually, for a lot it stays a sport they try and move on from. Once again the parallels are clear. The reason in both cases is quite simple: If you’re going to do it well... It’s hard. Hard rock has the highest calorie-burn of any sport. At the lower edge, when you’re being top-belayed it’s moderately exciting (or terrifying) but not really challenging. But if you’re going to get anywhere it is going to take training, practice, commitment, falling, getting hurt. And at the top edge it’s more addictive than heroin. You can’t get to the top of the sport without constant work. The very top edge takes innate skill and a training regimen. At the middle to upper-middle layer you can get by on enormous natural ability or one hell of a lot of hard work. And this is true of writing too. Oh, and those who think they have innate talent and don’t have to work... are usually wrong.
So: if we all can climb (or write)... why do some people who really want to, fail? Well in both cases there are factors beyond your control. Don’t worry too much about them. If you can’t do anything about them, is there a point in fretting? Of the other obstacles... Most of those are in your mind. That doesn’t make them any less real or difficult to deal with. I’ve known a fair number of people who do brilliantly on indoor walls... And simply fail to translate that onto the exposure and unpredictability of natural rock. Part of this both with writing and climbing is a failure to focus on the proximal. Concentrate on doing the moves (writing the next page) and you can do it. At the same time you do need to look ahead (unless you are following an established line - route finding - looking from the bottom of a cliff and knowing what will go and which line to follow is very like writing). But don’t spend your time looking back.

Every climber gets asked ‘why do you do this’ (because, honestly, it is like hitting yourself in the face sometimes. So nice when you stop) and explaining it to someone who doesn’t do it is very difficult. The rewards are often intangible. (And accept this is so true of writing!) Damn few people make a living out of rock-climbing, but a lot of climbers make a life out of it.

It is dangerous and you can get hurt (or killed). You can take precautions against this... up to a point. You can stick to solid, pre-bolted routes (well worn but popular tropes?), have good gear that you know how use (grammar and a spell checker) wear a helmet (don’t read Amazon crits) and have a reliable belayer (writer friends who will catch you). But if there is a loose rock (lousy editor, bad distribution, poor cover) that decided today was the day to fall... nothing you can do will stop that. But realistically those at the top venture out of the safety zone -- not un-practised, ill-equipped and unknowing (those are idiots) -- but as a carefully calculated risk, using their skill at route finding to open new lines. It’s far more dangerous... with a far higher rate of simply failing to get off the ground, but it is there the greatest excitement and glory lie. Perhaps 5% of all climbers go into this successfully, and perhaps 1% of those gather 95% of the new routes. And if you can’t see the parallels here - you shouldn’t be writing. Occasionally fools blunder in and open something spectacular. Occasionally a climber (or writer) will come from nowhere and explode on the scene... but usually when do a closer look you find that isn’t the case, yes they ventured on new territory, but actually they did a lot of practising first, on a local crag (or mag), quietly.

Finally, climbing is a solo-team sport. It is deeply solitary and the decisions that will keep you from failure or death or injury are yours. You’re on your own up there (just as the writer is on his own) and you need to balance self-confidence, determination, and prudence. If you can’t cope with little day-to-day things, you probably won’t cope with climbing - or writing (but learning to do it can help you to cope with those day-to-day things). It is psychologically very hard, and you need to be prepared to be that. But it is also very dependent on your second - your belayer who is anchored and holds your rope to catch you. Your life is in their hands and you need to have hands you can trust, and preferably ones that have the experience to say ‘go left’ or ‘come down!’. The same is true among writers.

Because you aren’t a climber until you fall. And you will fall.
And you aren’t a writer until you’ve been rejected. And that too will happen.

(the picture BTW is my son Paddy on a sea-cliff route I opened 20 years ago)

Dave Freer

Introduction: Monday -Dave Freer: enter fool left, capering sadly, with occasional manic laughter

Dave Freer here:

Let me introduce myself to the world: Myself, this the world. World, this is myself.
I am pleased to meet you all... I think.
Many people call me Dave Freer, or Monkey, or just ‘hey you.’
Mad Geniuses? And me?
Of course, any worthwhile group of mad geniuses needs its token cretin. This is, you might say, my métier. And I am at least, mad. I do write, and I strive to make that my métier too. I do not pretend to be very good at it, but I have been striving away for a number of years and have learned a little by the simple process of doing it wrong and having to do it again. And again. If you can learn by the mistakes of others, well, I’ll tell you about mine. There’ll be some other very solid advice and commentary from the real geniuses, who are all much better at this than I am. You’ll just have to put up with manic Monday from me, for the benefit of their sage words.
Some general background: I am a writer of Science Fiction, Fantasy and a few other things. I live in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, on top of a mountain a few miles from the middle of nowhere, ruled by some cats, and permanently be-dogged. I am married to Barbara, who is cleverer, more sensible and far nicer than I am. Everyone is entitled to an occasional lapse in judgement, and I am hers. She is also a brilliant and very harsh line-editor. We have two sons who are both a great deal taller and brighter than I am (the latter part was intentional genetic planning on my part).
I grew in a rather unusual family, doing rather unusual things (my mother, for instance had been a Naval artillery gunner during the war and picked up some science fiction magazines - presumably from an American ship. We grew up on Science Fiction. And commercial fishing boats. Diving. Shooting. And attitude. And violent antipathy to racial segregation.) Unfortunately no one saw fit to tell me all this was unusual, so I was about 17 when I finally worked out that it wasn’t actually the rest of the world that was weird. Before I had time to digest this, I was conscripted into a war I wanted no part of. I spent two years in the Medical Corps and it colors my attitude on conflict, and a lot more, to this day. I survived, met a fantastic girl who had a lapse of judgement, and got married and went to University for a long time. Before I started writing I was a fisheries biologist -- which, translated into clear terms is someone who learns a vast amount of biology and stats so that they can mess about in boats, on and in the sort of water best avoided, and mud, with lovely smelly, slimy fish. I ended up as the Chief Scientist for the Western Cape Commercial Shark Fishery. I also ran a few fish farms (I can plumb, weld, fix things with baling wire and duct tape, make elderly machinery die spectacularly, reverse vehicles into dams, and treat fish diseases) before blundering into writing. As for hobbies... I read everything, I cook (I grew up in an environment where men cooked, and women cut semi-precious stones, liked snakes and spiders . A little odd, as I said), I’ve been rock-climbing since I was 8, diving for spiny lobster since I was 10... It was almost obligatory to end up a bizarre profession, and one that would keep me at a desk. At least the background has allowed me to write -- with some experience to draw on -- anything from Hard Science Fiction to Historical Fantasy.
I have 10 books in print, some with Eric Flint, or Eric and Mercedes Lackey. More in press. Contracts through to 18... I also have a large slew of shorts, novellas and novelettes published. This is proof that if you are determined and willing to learn from your mistakes, you too can be a professional writer.
My latest book is just out - A SLOW TRAIN TO ARCTURUS -- "If you like classic 1950s and ’60s science fiction, you will love "Slow Train To Arcturus." Galveston Herald (and if they can say that after Ike... :-D)
(The team-cretin holds the un-insulated electrodes in place) "right, Marthers.. Uh, Mithtesses. Letth have the 100 000 voltth! Make it LIVE!"