This is now also a taxi driving blog

It will continue to be my writing blog, as well. And at some point it will be an RV blog, too--but I'm too tired to go into much detail about that tonight.

Suffice it to say there have been a lot of changes in my life lately. About a month ago, I got a job driving for Night and Day Taxi in Hendersonville, NC, and today, with the help of my family, I bought a little old Dodge RV to live in.

I drove a cab in Tallahassee, Florida for just about a decade, from 1972 to 1982, and after that I drove in Tampa for about a year. I always enjoyed being a cab driver, and I'm enjoying it once again. I'm actually assigned to work at Asheville Regional Airport; I don't get into Hendersonville much. Most folks who get into a cab at the Asheville Airport want to go into Asheville. Go figure.

As much as I love the business, it sucks when business is slow. Which it has been lately. But they say summer is the busy season around here, so I'm hopeful that things will pick up.

We'll see.

The Family that Writes Together, or My Nephew the writer (with a nod to my grandmother)

Recently I had the pleasure of working on a project that was a bit of a departure from the stuff I usually do.

My Nephew, Patrick Alexander Walston, had written a piece of what he calls "zombie fiction", so I took it upon myself to edit it and format it for Smashwords.

Never say never, but I don't think I'll be cranking out any zombie fiction myself anytime soon—yet I was fascinated to read Pat's story. It's a little rough around the edges, but despite some of its gruesome aspects I found Twelve Days in Hell to be charming.

Apparently zombie fiction is a recognized sub-genre with a loyal cadre of fans, so I'm glad I was able to help him put his stuff out there. If he keeps it up, I may very well be known someday as that old geezer who's related to the famous young writer, Patrick Walston.

Writing does tend to run in families, I'm convinced of that.

My maternal Grandmother, Blanche Reinick, wrote a novel many years before I was born. I gather that it was set during the American Civil War and that it was partially inspired by Gone With the Wind.

I believe she wrote at least one other piece of fiction, too—based on a half-remembered conversation with my Aunt Marti—but as far as I know there are no surviving manuscripts of hers in existence today.

I inherited her portable typing table, though.

It's a sturdy old thing, built of heavy-gauge metal and originally spray-painted a dark green, with little caster wheels, and with two surface extensions that fold out like wings to give you some extra working space.

It was built to hold some weight—typewriters in the 1940s must have been heavy damn things.

My clunky old CRT monitor and Compaq Windows XP Computer are both easily as bulky as antique typewriters, so the typing table is serving me well. I don't  need a fancy desk—Grandmom's table suits me just fine.

I just wish she could have lived to see the e-book era.

There's probably still a market for Civil War fiction...

Welcome, Readers!

Hello. Thanks for dropping by!

Up until now, this blog hasn't been overburdened with visitors.

But I've provided some links to it in the two free e-books I just released, so I expect that maybe there will be some occasional traffic now.

If that's indeed how you found this place, you're most welcome here.

If you're curious as to what I'm putting out next, lately I've been working on a novelette called The Dreaming Game, which I expect will weigh in at about 15,000 words or so. I'll release it as a 99 cent e-book just as soon as I finish it.

I'm not sure when that will be. I should have the first draft completed in a couple of weeks, but I may want to put it away for a bit before I do the final revision. I was hoping to have it ready for the Christmas Season, what with its explosion of new e-reader owners and all—but hopefully a few of them will still be downloading books in January or February.

After that, I have some other story ideas that are bubbling inside me—but if I get any positive feedback on Saviors of the Galaxy, maybe I'll buckle down and finish that novel first, before I do anything else.

Unfortunately, I'm prone to procrastination. But if there was ever a time for me to put my nose to the grindstone, I believe this has got to be it

I've already basically done the cover for Dreaming Game, though, so at least that won't hold things up. I may change the color of the graphics. Or perhaps not.

Here, take a gander:

Like several other of the covers I've done, it was made with the Windows 98 Paint program and an old version of MS Power Point (or Powerpoint, or however you're supposed to write it).

For the most recent cover (the one I did for Incident on Sugar Sand Road, a short story), I upgraded to the Windows XP Paint program, but as far as I can tell it's identical to the earlier version—I had to switch computers a couple of months ago, otherwise I'd have stayed with Windows 98.

I'm on one hell of a shoestring budget, if you should happen to wonder why I've chosen this whole route.

I was a lot happier with the Saviors cover before I released it, to tell you the truth. If you've read the book you probably figured out by now that the green fuzz on the buildings is vegetation, but I do have to wonder—what do people who haven't downloaded the book make of it? And the colors, which looked all right as a bitmap file, seem to look a little yucky as a PNG file.

Whatever. Anyway, right now I'm happy with the Dreaming Game cover. As soon as I release it I may decide it's too weirdly abstract or something, but I was trying to create an image that would look interesting as a thumbnail—which is how most people will first see it—and I wasn't worried about making it look realistic.

Overall, I'm having a lot of fun with my foray into electronic publishing.

That's not really reflected in some of this blog's posts, I'm afraid. I've been guilty of pontificating about e-publishing vs. traditional publishing when the fact of the matter is that I'm just another opinionated writer jumping on that viral bandwagon because Indie publishing feels so very right for me.

I've already detailed the reasons why—but there was no need to keep making an issue of it, was there? I'm just one among many aspiring writers who got trampled in the rush over the years, and I've blogged about that too. I live out in the middle of freaking nowhere, and I've never even set foot in New York (unless JFK airport counts), and it was just plain silly of me to imply that I had intimate acquaintance with the ins and outs of the publishing world.

Anyway, I'm happy with the way things are going right now. There's room for all of us, after all. Isn't there?

Happy Holidays, everybody.

The Gradient between Science Fiction and Fantasy

What is Science Fiction? What is Fantasy? What do they have in common? How are they different?

You might as well try to write a grammar book. What is a verb?  Define it, please!

Okay, whatever.

Back when people were living in caves, if Ugh the storyteller came up with a neat little tale about how those fluffy white things in the sky were sentient beings of some sort, and how when they darkened and poured down torrents of water it meant this thing or that thing, the tribe gave him a chunk of meat to eat even though he hadn’t been involved in the hunt.

That was a pretty good deal for Ugh. If he was a thoughtful person maybe he really believed his story was possible. Perhaps he was actually engaged in honest speculation. So let’s call him the prototypical science-fiction author.

On the other hand, maybe Ugh was a mystic who truly believed the clouds were departed spirits or whatever. So was he a fantasist, then? Well, if you allow the concept of "spirits" into your worldview in the first place, is it really mysticism at all? I would answer no. So Ugh should be considered a mainstream author in that case.

And in fact, since the estates of ancient cave dwelling authors aren't protected by current copyright law, you could legitimately riff on one of his old stories without fear of consequence: Cloud People—Today's Generation. 

Ah, but you know that clouds aren't sentient beings, don't you? Then I'm sorry to tell you this, bub, but you've just moved into the fantasy authors' ghetto. The welcome wagon will be along to visit you shortly.  

Now, at some point, some bright soul in Ugh's tribe probably noticed that water evaporates in the sun. And sooner or later people will generally notice that fog and mist feel wet, and that they both resemble clouds. So eventually the tribal consensus would have been that clouds are a form of water.

But as long as nobody could prove it, well, we'd still have some wiggle room.

Nevertheless, if Ugh's grandson had continued the "sentient cloud" series a generation later, when everybody finally "knew" that clouds were made of water, he'd probably also have been labeled a fantasy author.

Do you see what I'm getting at?

I recently saw a great article by Lois McMaster Bujold on this subject (it was on the CD-ROM that was included with Cryoburn). She opined that science fiction aficionados were seeking a "sense of wonder", whereas fantasy buffs were looking for a "sense of the numinous".

She's written some great stuff in both genres, so I'm inclined to listen to her.

Now, she didn't say this, but it seems to me that the "sense of wonder" people are basically in awe of the natural universe but don't care to have dogmatic explanations shoved down their throats. Which means their ranks will include atheists (who are quite the dogmatists themselves, ironically enough), agnostics (some of whom could go either way), and a large group of quite sensible people who intuitively have faith and are open to amazing possibilities.

Conversely, I think the "sense of the numinous" folks are more in awe of the very fact of existence itself, and are a little less blown away by its outward manifestations.. They wish to find something they're longing for rather than to discover something new.

What something? Again, their ranks will include many sorts of folks, and their answers to that question will vary all over the map.

There, is that all vague enough for you?

Obviously, the two fandoms aren't mutually exclusive. There are people who like both genres.

As far as that goes, lots of scientifically-minded people have a mystical/religious streak. I fall into that category myself. And I definitely like both genres.

How about you?

Predictions

In this brave new world of indie publishing, obviously there will be many more stories published then there were under the old system. They will be written by writers in various stages of development and with wildly varying degrees of flair. We all know it's inevitable.

Readers and critics may be more understanding then we think. We've at least got enthusiasm and passion going for us, and people may pick up on that. Hey, slush could become fashionable. It might even become an area of study.

Stranger things have happened. If things do turn out that way, remember—you learned about it here first.

I can think of at least one precedent for my prediction—The Eye of Argon

But I digress.

In my home genre of science fiction, there have been many tides of fashion over the years. I'm betting we'll soon be revisiting a lot of them.

For example, once there was something called New Wave. In its heyday (the mid-to-late-1960s and the early 1970s) it indeed seemed novel and exciting. I won't attempt to define it, exactly, but there was a certain psychedelic stream-of consciousness aesthetic to a lot of it, and literary pretensions absolutely abounded—but they were good-hearted pretensions, all in all, and a lot of good stuff got published. Some writers were pigeonholed as New Wave whether they embraced the movement or not (which was probably good for them commercially), but others felt left out who needn't have doubted their own coolness. It was a heady time.

There are probably at least a few writers who still wish to mine that particular vein of ore. And now they can all be published.

Then there was that whole "Del Rey Books fantasy gravy train" back in the 1980s. That was when Tolkien-style fantasy became viable as a separate genre in its own right (to the point where the Science Fiction Writers of America changed their name to the Science fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, thus cleverly keeping their acronym), due mainly to the vision of one Judy-Lynn Del Rey, who was surely as influential an editor in her own time as John W. Campbell was in his.

Even now a boatload of fantasy writers are doubtless waiting in the wings—including some younger ones inspired by Tolkien's timeless tale who missed that early-80s tsunami of stuff the first time around—and they're all hoping we'll love them. Some of them could even attain their desire.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Cyberpunk at this point, but I'm durned if I have a lot to say about it. On the whole, I think it took itself too seriously, but I have to acknowledge the sheer brilliance of William Gibson, and the Cyberpunk aesthetic has certainly been an influential one, even on me—George's databand in Saviors of the Galaxy owes something to Cyberpunk, I think (although I first encountered the concept of 'jacking in' in Samuel R, Delany's Nova, way back in the New Wave era). But I have to admit I resisted reading Cyberpunk solely for the sake of its supposed importance. Which probably means that I missed out on some good stuff.

Might there yet be a few Cyberpunk authors out there hoping to wow us all with their visions?  What do you think?

I'll give one final example of an SF trend (though I could probably think of others): Starting in the early 1960s there was a vogue for something you might call Science Fantasy. Examples would include Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover series, Anne McCaffrey's Dragonflight series, Ursula K. LeGuin's first novel Rocannon's World, many of Andre Norton's novels including the Witch World series, Leigh Brackett's Ginger Star trilogy, and Frank Herbert's Dune series.

There. I've finally gotten around to what I actually wanted to talk about. I don't know how fashionable Science Fantasy might be at the moment, but it's the sort of thing I want to write. And I'll have more to say on the topic in my next installment.

Thanks for dropping by.

Writing as a career

Fred Pohl once remarked; "The good news about writing as a career is that the income curve is asymptotic. The bad news is that it starts at zero." It wasn't till the early '90s that I started making enough money to actually live on and support my family—Lois McMaster Bujold, in an interview that appeared on Baen.com

I'm sharing this quote because it touches on the careers of two people in the topmost rank of my pantheon of admirable writers.

Frederik Pohl, in his memoir The Way the Future Was, recounted that he felt like a failure during the first year of his first marriage, but that certain things he wrote that year continued to earn money over the course of his lifetime, and that in retrospect he realized he'd spent his time more wisely then he knew.

Ms. Bujold informs us it was almost a decade before she could earn a comfortable living as a writer. Yet I can't think of another SF author in the last thirty years who has had a more enviable career than she has.

One thing they have in common is that neither of them gave up.

Food for thought, that.

Look to the Future, part 3

Okay, so I'm a published writer now, in the sense that my first book is available to the public.

So far, it has sold just one copy on Smashwords (so you could also say I've already made my first buck in this business). And as of midnight tonight [this particular paragraph was written on Tuesday, August 30], it will have been out for two whole weeks, officially.

But I didn't choose Smashwords because I expected a lot of sales there. I chose it because I was broke, and they're a free service.

And because of all the places they'll eventually distribute my book to. It's actually a pretty amazing deal they're offering.

They're very up front about your financial prospects with them, including the fact that their own retail operation is very small potatoes. 80% of your sales, they hasten to assure you right at the beginning, will come from retailers other than Smashwords itself. Keep your expectations low, they caution you, Many authors never even sell a single book, they point out.

Fair enough. But still--I'm human enough to have entertained fantasies of being an immediate breakout phenomenon with unprecedented sales right off the bat.

Sigh. Okay. So that didn't happen.

But my book has now qualified for the Smashwords Premium Catalogue, which means it will soon be distributed to Barnes and Noble, the Apple iBookstore, Sony, Kobo, and--by the end of the year--Amazon. And then there's Stanza, which seems to be a way for people to read books on their cell phones--not that I can see why anybody would want to do that, but if Stanza can earn me a few extra bucks I will gladly go along with the gag.

None of this stuff is totally instantaneous. My book has already appeared at Diesel ebooks, but so far it isn't available anywhere else (besides Smashwords), although it's been distributed to Kobo and should show up there any minute now.

I looked at my Smashwords account page earlier this evening, and my book won't be distributed to anybody else, though, until the end of this week.

So. Not instantaneous, but not unreasonably delayed, either. In my opinion.

Reports of sales won't be instantaneous either, and neither will royalty statements. But Smashwords does pay out royalties four times a year, which is much better than traditional NYC-based print publishing ever managed. And likewise, data about sales seems to be on a much faster track than it generally was with traditional publishing.

As fascinated as I am by all this stuff, none of it is really under my direct control. So what am I doing to secure my future?

Writing like mad, that's what.

Anyway, I'm planning to write like mad. Just as soon as I give my trailer a good cleaning. And wash my truck.

Oh, and I mustn't neglect maintaining my presence in the blogoshpere. Gotta keep my name out there, and all that. And there sure are a lot of interesting blog convos going on right now.

Maybe too many.

Still. The best way for me to move forward is to write, publish, and repeat--a formula I first encountered on Kris Rusch's website. So that's what I'm going to be doing.

Soon. Any day now.

At some point I'll also take the opportunity to learn more about computer art and graphics, because I do feel compelled to keep on creating my own covers.

Likewise, there will come a time when I'll need to embrace learning what it really means to be publisher as well as writer. Smashwords is certainly my home base for now, but somewhere down the line it might be advantageous for me to deal with all the various sales outlets directly.

And then there's the POD option. CreateSpace or Lightning Source? I'll need to check that out, because eventually I also want to offer a hardcover print version of my book, on Amazon, at least, since POD makes it so very possible for indie writers like me to do so.

And one of my own personal priorities will be marketing to libraries. How to do that? I'm confident that the quality of a POD book these days will be more than acceptable to potential buyers. But how exactly does one go about cracking the library market?

Wow, I've still got a lot to learn.

But I won't really need to know how to create a spiffy cover, or to make my hardcover edition attractive to librarians, until I have written--at the least--two more actual additional books.

So. Write, publish, and repeat. Let the buyers and readers find you in their own good time. And let the chips fall where they may.

That's the strategy I'll be embracing.

For now.

Just as soon as I can finish cleaning out my truck.