Ghost Box Cover Art

Over at White Cat Publications, we're currently on version 5 of the cover art for "The Ghost Box."  In the next version, the ectoplasmic vapors will be coming more from inside the box.  Thought you might want to see what it looks like before the final version.

And we're looking for new novels to publish, so check out the guidelines and if your work meets the criteria, send it along.  We're just getting ready to announce this over at Ralan and Duotrope, but I wanted to let you know first.

New Cover Art

Here's the new cover for "Tainted Blood."  What do you think?

The Writing Tree versus NaNoWriMo

The question is not whether you can write 50,000 words per month, it's whether or not you should.

The value of NaNoWriMo is twofold.  First it brings writers together in a common project.  The value of this should not be underestimated.  Second, it gets writers writing.  No small feat that.

It's easy to find supporters of NaNoWriMo all over the web.  It's a developed and exciting community, and sometimes when you question a community movement you get hammered by its supporters, but I'll risk it.

Considering the speed of publishing today, we all feel the pressure to write faster so we don't get left behind.  The market changes rapidly, especially with the advent of eBooks.  The more we write, the reasoning seems to go, the more money we can make.

But in the race to be rapid, I wonder if we're sacrificing the power of our writing.  The ability to create compelling, emotionally moving writing takes time and reflection to develop.  It requires that we look deeply into ourselves and the people around us before we start typing.

This ability takes time to take root within us.  It begins small, like a seed, and cannot be forced to grow beyond its time or it will wither and die. 

I believe most writers have the ability to be great writers, but they lose their chance by writing before they think.  

One powerful novel is worth ten mediocre efforts.

If you want to read an examples of a writer with mature, developed power read something by James Lee Burke.  I guarantee you'll be impressed and put the book down thinking maybe it is worth it to take the time to think, really think about what you're writing before you put it to paper.

Real People Are Better than Characters

Cute dog isn't it?

I love dogs- we have five of them.  But none of them ride in fire engine trucks and look that clean.  They fight.  They trash the house if we're gone too long.  They don't get along with the cats.  You get the picture.

Fact is, he little guy in the picture is a fake.  Just like a lot of characters.

Stereotypes are okay as a kind of short-hand for throw-away characters.  They're easy to write and and easy to source. You can almost buy them online.  The evil business person.  The average person fighting against the system.  Or my all-time favorite.  The  "elements re-assembled"  character.

The stereotyped character draws from a list of prearranged character attributes which you can actually find in the various books that Writers Digest sells.  The idea is that it's hard work to create an original character.  A writer would actually have to think and everything.  And you might fail.  The emotional trauma of failure might be painful.  The stereotyped character relieves you of that burden.

The "elements-assembled" character is a Mix-Match creation.  To hide the fact that our characters are two-dimensional stereotypes, we take the character "parts" and arrange them in unconventional ways.
With luck, the patchwork characters will be considered original.  This applies to character mannerisms as well.  For example, instead of having a tobacco-chewing man (ugh) we write a tobacco-chewing woman (ugh) character.  Isn't that creative?  Isn't that original?

Or, instead of having a powerful, evil businessman, we create a powerful, evil businesswoman.

Who knew that creativity was so easy?!  Switch gender roles or switch personal habits and we instantly have an original character!

On the other hand, this might explain why more readers are reading less.  They know that writers don't actually study real people anymore, they study fictional characters.  They base their law enforcement characters on characters they've seen on CSI.  Or Law and Order.  Or.... you get the point.

After all, "Avatar" made millions and millions of dollars for its creators, and there isn't one character in the entire movie that's not a stereotype or recycled character.  So why should a writer study real people?  Why try to really analyze the human condition and potential to create characters that are more compelling?

Think of it this way- movie studios and TV production groups have an awful lot more to invest in their stories.  It's your mind against their computer animated graphics and music scores.  Ever notice how much they spend on music scores for movies?  It's because the music creates most of the mood, not the script.  Their writers can't pull it off without music and sound effects. 

Fiction writers don't have a choice.  We actually have to make it happen in the reader's mind without music, without special effects, and without actors.  Movie studios have hundreds of millions of dollars invested.  Fiction writers, if we're lucky, have a decent laptop.

So we have to work a lot harder to make our readers really believe that our characters are real.  We might actually have to pay attention to real people to learn how to make believable characters.

Or we could keep on turning out two dimensional characters like the dog in the picture.

Steampunk & "The Ghost Box"

My new book "The Ghost Box" is ready for print layout and cover design, for a release date early next spring.  I don't know how many books a year the rest of you write, but two or three is quite enough for me, I think!  James Patterson produces an average of 230 books per year, but I believe in all honesty that he is not a human being, but an organized work farm of alien laborers from the planet Profit.

I'd love to hear from the rest of you what your average yearly word count is.

The  covers a mixture of three genres- Steampunk, Paranormal and Science Fiction.  Maybe we should call it "Dark Urban Fantasy" and leave it at that.

"The White Death" is well underway, and is a mixture of Steampunk, Lovecraft, and Science Fiction.  A seatbelt is required when reading the book.

Next year, though, I'm sticking with one genre category per book.  How about you?

Force Majeure

"Force Majeure" is another of my eBook short stories sold to bring in money to fight plagiarism anywhere, anytime by publishers who sell our work without authorization.  It's the story of a new technology gone very, very bad...

Haints

My short story "Haints" is now available through Kindle.  As with "Electrocuting the Clowns,"  all proceeds will go towards getting acts of plagiarizing for profit to be treated as Consumer Fraud.

Electrocuting the Clowns- The Boyer Free Edition

Yes, it's the David Boyer-Free Edition.  All proceeds from sales of this eBook Boyer-Free edition will go toward fighting plagiarizing publishers.

"Electrocuting the Clowns" was the story Boyer plagiarized from me and then had nominated for a Stoker Award- even though he'd stolen the story!  But we're making progress in the fight.

Not only has the Horror Writers Association written to Deputy Attorney General Tom Irons to prosecute Boyer under Consumer Fraud Laws and the National Writers Union spearheaded this weekend a new letter writing campaign to the Indiana Attorney General's Office, Consumer Fraud Division, but Brian Keene has brought this matter to the attention of thousands of writers who have then been contacting the Indiana AG.

So in the meantime I've begun publishing "Boyer-Free" editions of my short stories on Kindle to help  collect money to continue the fight against plagiarizing publishers.  Every dime goes to pay the lawyers and researchers who are helping us fight these creeps.

Consider buying these stories a donation to fight literary cancer.

Is Amazon Guilty of Consumer Fraud?



I like Amazon.  Love them, in fact.  But can someone tell me their corporate address in case Consumer Fraud Charges need to be filed against them?

We know they're the world's largest lovable book store.  Great prices.  Great inventory.  But guess what?  Now they're a publisher, too.

They publish books.

Many fine authors publish via Amazon.

Guess who else they publish? 

David Boyer, the sleazy plagiarist operating out of Vincennes, IN.

So if you're a writer, and David Boyer under one of his many aliases steals your stuff and publishes it for profit through Amazon, is Amazon guilty, too?  They know he's a plagiarist and have yanked some of his plagiarized works off their internet shelves.  But when he sends them a book like "Shadow Dolls" or "Mystery Indiana," they publish them without checking to see if they're plagarized.

So I ask you, if they know he's a plagiarist because they've had to take down some of his books, and they publish his new books without checking to see if they're plagiarized, are they now accomplices?

If they don't take a stand against David Boyer the Vincennes, IN plagiarist, is it because they don't mind making money off of stolen works?

Does this make them guilty of Consumer Fraud?

Who's Zooming Who?

It's flattering to receive an interview request, isn't it?  Say from a man claiming to be a well credentialed writer named George LaCroix or David Byron or Sean Killian.  He's got a hot project.  You can be in it.

Let's say it includes a spiel like this:

The book will be an in depth look into their lives and careers, as well as an insight into their profession as an individual genre, and how much the genre has changed over the course of time. I think you would make a wonderful addition to the book, and would be honored if you would agree to let me send you some interview questions via email. I'd simply send you the questions via email attachment, you'd fill in your answers, send it back via email. 

Sounds safe enough, doesn't it?  Kind of flattering in a suck-up sort of way.

You get a few short email questions- which you answer at length and give permission for the interviewer to use what you've written so he can make money.  Where's the harm?  Maybe it will get your name out in public just a little more.

What if the man interviewing you turned out to be the David Boyer- the sleaziest plagiarist in the history of copyright infringement?  How would you like your name to be associated with him?  

He didn't tell you who he really was when he contacted you (because he's cyberstalked and misunderstood).  And sometimes he signs the contract with his pseudonym.  Is it a valid contract?  Sometime he signs his real name because it's too late for you, the writer- you write most of the content, you make nothing, he owns the interview and your named is smeared with his reputation.

So, really- who's zooming who?

Isn't it important to know who is interviewing you?

Boyergate Flash- Aliens Arrive in Vincennes, Indiana to Sign InterGalactic Treaty with Notorious Plagiarist!

Looking Around

for

"The Great One"

The town of Vincennes, Indiana became instantly famous today with the confidential admission of a city official that an entepreneurial mission of Aliens from the Snicker's galaxy has arrived to sign a contract with the city's most notorious and prolific plagiarist.

This reporter was priveleged to interview the lead alien negotiator.

In response to my first question, "Hello, what is your name?" he responded "$@&***(^"

A thirteen year old boy with strawberry blond hair was called in to run the alien's answer through Google Voice and Language Translator, which rendered it as "I'm a good boy."

Further calibration of the Google translator gave us this version, "Where is the Great Plagiarist of Vincennes, Indiana?"

"He's running late," I told him. "It's hard work creating fake identities to hide behind when you're selling stolen work. And it's time consuming when you have to lie to the authors, claim a mob of cyberstalkers is after you, tell people your computer was hacked, and even pretend it's not your fault if you inadvertantly used their stories. He'll explain it to you when he gets here."

"$$-^^^^_+!!!," said the alien.

The teenager translated, "Maybe he said goody goody?"

"Why do you want to be trained in the art of plagiarism and copyright infringement?" I asked.

The alien ambassador grew excited and waved his arms up and down while making a hooting noise. His entourage did the same. It was like they were having an extraterrestrial orgasm and quite embarassing for an earthling to watch.

"Wow," said the kid. "They're saying that there's been no theft on their world. They never thought of stealing until the Great Plagiarist contacted them with a potato powered radio transmitter and offered to scan all of earth's books and give it to them for a percentage of the proceeds when they sell them throughout the universe."

"How much do the authors get?" I asked the kid, who duly ran my request through the Google Voice and Language translator.

After my question was translated, the aliens responded with a raucus chorus of owl sounds punctuated by all of them pointing at what I think were their crotches.

"What?" I asked.

"I think they're busting a gut," said the kid.

Suddenly, I realized why it was worth it for them to travel all the way across the galaxy to consult with the Great One of Plagiarism and it made me mad.  With any luck, they would take the great plagiarist back to their own planet to study.