Category Archives: Business

Some days it’s fun to simply celebrate a big milestone.

This weekend, No Stone Unturned charged onto the world ebook scene, already hitting #17 in Amazon’s Humorous Fantasy listing.

No Stone Unturned is book three of my popular Petralist YA fantasy series, which I describe as Big Magic, Big Adventure, and Lots of Humor. Check it out here. It’ll be released in paperback and hardcover formats on Dec 16th.

As student armies clash in intense group battles and Connor struggles to leverage a pitifully underpowered army against overwhelming competition, the intrigue at the Carraig intensifies to deadly new levels.

There are secrets at the Carraig buried for centuries that could shake the nation to its roots. Once Connor pokes that hornets’ nest, the Tallan’s own fury will be unleashed. To survive, Connor must outsmart conniving noble houses, dodge international assassins, survive unbelievably bad poetry, and risk exploring new powers that were concealed for very good reasons.

As the conflict escalates and his ultimate enemy steps out of the shadows to strike, Connor must face a threat not seen since the Tallan Wars. Connor’s best hope may be to embrace the thing he fears the most.

And become the ultimate unclaimed.

For more information, access to cool illustrations and maps and a sneak-peek into a sample chapter, check out this recent blog post.

About the Author: Frank Morin

Frank Morin loves good stories in every form. When not writing or trying to keep up with his active family, he’s often found hiking, camping, Scuba diving, or enjoying other outdoor activities. For updates on upcoming releases of his popular Petralist YA fantasy novels, or his fast-paced Facetakers sci-fi time travel thrillers, check his website: www.frankmorin.org

Adventures in Zookeeping

October 30, 2016

Guy Anthony De Marco

Book Launch Guy Anthony De Marco Marketing No Comments

Adventures in Zookeeping, an anthology that will support MileHiCon Denver with the net proceeds, was released on October 28, 2016.

At MileHiCon 47, several authors, publishers, and editors headed a panel called So You Want to Be in an Anthology? The audience selected the theme for the anthology, and only the people who attended the panel were eligible to submit short stories for publication. The authors would experience having their manuscript run through the editing process and receiving a contract.

ISBN: 978-1-62225-198-8
Cover design by Sam Knight
Available on Amazon now, with other markets and eBooks to follow.

The Contributors:

Edited by Sam Knight

Foreword – Sam Knight
Zookeeper’s Dilemma – Beverly Coutts
Eternity’s Ark – J.L. Zenor
The Jeweled Black Quaver – C.S. Peterson
Bound by Death – Ashley Vasquez
Picket Line – Sheila Hartney
The Corpse Flower – Carolyn Kay
So Who Would You Tell? – Aylah Foureste & Deena Larsen
The Niwotlei Fund Raiser – Ian Brazee-Cannon
Nightmare Menagerie – Jessica Lauren Gabarron
Plant a Zoo & Watch It Grow – Aaron Spriggs
The Menace of Markenshire – N. Alan Miller
Love Hunters – Rod Spurgeon
Ari’s Song – Rick Duffy
All in a Day’s Work – Tonya L. De Marco
Sanctuary – Susan Adams
A Tale of an African Zoo – Sean Jones
The Glass Fairy – Sage Gabarron
The Lost Phoenix – Jodi M. Franklin
The Looking Glass – Patrick F. Smythe
The ReligioZoo – Lisa Mahoney
The Fourth Lemur – Sarena Ulibarri
Monsters of Yesterday – Alicia Cay
Afterword – Guy Anthony De Marco

Meet the Fictorians: Kim May

October 28, 2016

Kristin Luna

Fantasy Genres Interview Kim May Kristin Luna Making Progress as a Writer Steampunk The Fictorians The Writing Life Work-Life Balance Your Writing Career No Comments

“Come in, — come in! and know me better, man!” -Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

We’d love for you, our wonderful readers, to get to know us better. That’s why, each month, Kristin Luna will interview a member of The Fictorians. We’ll learn more about each member, such as their writing processes, their work, where they live, and what they prefer to drink on a crisp Fall day. We hope you enjoy this monthly installment of Meet the Fictorians.

Meet the Fictorians:

Kim May

Kristin Luna (KL): Hi Kim! How are you doing and what are you drinking?

Kim May (KM): Nothing exciting. Just water.

KL: If you don’t mind me sharing, you live in the beautiful state of Oregon. Do you like living there, and do you find that it influences settings in your stories?

KM: It definitely does. Oregon has very diverse terrain which makes setting research much easier. I think tundra and tropical rain forest are all we’re missing. Plus there’s fun historical sites like the Shanghai Tunnels (which I did set a story in) and places so full of enchantment that it’s not hard to imagine fairies flitting between the firs.

KL: Besides blogging for The Fictorians, you have your own successful blog Ninja Keyboard. Tell us about it!

KM: Ninja Keyboard is where I post updates what I’m up to, new release announcements, general thoughts on the industry or a movie, or anything else I feel a burning need to talk about. I try to keep it all about me and my work. You’ll never see a political rant or religious treatise on my blog.

KL: You’ve been published numerous times in Fiction River. Tell about your stories and how we can purchase Fiction River.

KM: Fiction River is a bi-monthly short story magazine published by WMG Publishing. Each issue has a different editor and different theme that can be anything from historical mystery or thrillers to sci-fi and steampunk. There’s something for everyone! It’s a lot of fun writing so many different genres and it’s definitely expanded my capabilities as a writer. Before I got involved with Fiction River I never thought I could write anything other than sci-fi and fantasy. Now I can say that I have published stories of four different genres.

Another great thing about Fiction River is because they’re published like books, none of the back issues have gone out of print! They’re available for purchase online on Amazon, iBooks, Kobo, and on the Fiction River and WMG websites. Reader’s Guide and Powell’s stores in Oregon have print copies of the issues I’m in on hand as well.

KL: Of your short stories published, which one is your favorite and why?

KM: Gosh! That’s like picking a favorite chocolate bar! I love all of them for different reasons. I love Blood Moon Carnival because that’s the story I channeled my grief for my 19 year old cat into. (She died the day I finished it.) I love Void around the Sword’s Edge because it’s my action packed “stripper saves the world” story. Moonshine is a tribute to my favorite grandmother. The Fukuda Cube was my first RPG tie-in story, and it was by far the most challenging to write. In Keep Portland Weird I got to do an ode to Pacific Rim in Larry Correia’s Monster Hunter universe. In When A Good Fox Goes To War I got to play in feudal Japan, and Schrodinger’s Bar has my coolest ending!

KL: All of those sound really fun and interesting! Are you working on any longer fiction right now?

KM: I am! I’m finishing up two novels. The first is a new adult contemporary fantasy that I’m going to indie publish sometime next year and the other is a techno-thriller I’m going to pitch around.

KL: What are some of your writing goals for 2017?

KM: I just want to survive 2017. I’ve got three short stories and a novel coming out next year…and that’s just what’s on my publishing schedule right now. I’d also like to write the sequel to the new adult book I mentioned earlier. That’s all in addition to working a full-time day job and managing my arthritis, which are exhausting by themselves.

KL: What’s some of the best writing advice you’ve received so far?

KM: This is something I’ve talked about on this blog and on my own. It’s WTFS. Write the (bleep) sentence. I used to spend so much time agonizing on what the perfect phrasing would be or if description A was better than description B. I needed to understand that a first draft is just that: the first of many drafts. It doesn’t need to be perfect right away. It’s better to put something, anything, on the page and fix it later.

KL: What writers are most influential to you and why?

KM: Anne McCaffrey, Brandon Sanderson, Jacqueline Carey, Peter S Beagle, Mary Robinette Kowal, and Patrick Rothfuss are my favorite storytellers. I easily get lost in the worlds they’ve created. Choose Your Own Adventure books were pretty influential too. As a kid I read each of them three or four times. The first time I’d find the ending I liked best and then backtrack to find the path I had to follow to get there. After reading it that way I’d re-read it to find out why the other paths ended the way they did.

KL: What is your favorite Fictorians post so far?

KM: My first post is my favorite: Stockholm Syndrome Barbie. It’s a slice of me with a cherry on top. Stockholm Syndrome Barbie – The Fictorians.

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If you have any questions for Kim, please leave a comment below. Thank you for reading!

What “Rejection” Really Means

September 27, 2016

fictorians

Being Gentle With Yourself Damage Control David Farland Dealing With Personal Calamities Making Progress as a Writer Motivation Publishing Rejection Superstars Writing Seminars Teaching The Writing Life Writers/Illustrators of the Future No Comments

A Guest Post by David Farland

For the last few weeks I’ve been scurrying to finish up judging on a large contest. I’ve had to “reject” thousands of stories. I hate the word “reject,” because it doesn’t really express what I want to say.

Very often I will read the opening to a story and it is obviously the first work of a very young writer. It may have a multitude of problems—from simple typos, to a lack of understanding as to how to set a scene, to clunky dialog. I know that I can’t accept the story for publication, but at the same time, I wish that I could shout some encouragement to the budding writer, much the way that my mentor Algis Budrys did to a young Stephen King.

I think that people need encouragement. It may be the only thing that will spur a young writer to greater effort.

So what does the word “rejection” mean to you as a writer? I think it’s simply: “Try harder.”

A lot of fine works get rejected. The bestselling works in nearly every genre experienced rejection. Lord of the Rings was rejected by several American publishers. Dune was rejected by all of them. Gone with the Wind made its rounds through every major publisher. Harry Potter was rejected by all of the biggest houses, and Twilight was rejected by a dozen agents before it got picked up—yet all of these novels became the bestsellers in their fields.

So does that mean that these were all bad novels? Of course not. It means that the author didn’t find an editor with a matching taste, a matching vision, right at the first.

Very often when I read a manuscript that is close to being publishable, I think, It’s a shame that the author didn’t try a little harder to . . . That’s what “rejected” means to me.

I was talking to international bestselling author Laurell K. Hamilton last week, and asked her to confirm a rumor that I’d heard. With her first novel, she received over 200 rejections before she made a sale. She said, “When people tell me that they’ve been rejected five or ten or twenty times, I just tell them that ‘I don’t want to hear about it.’”

Laurell has the perfect attitude toward rejection. Try harder.