Year: 2013 (page 47 of 66)

Once in a while, I find a brother-in-beard — someone whose beard cilia reach for my own and we enter a hive-like state where we commune with our hirsute overlord and OH you don’t want to hear about that. You want to hear how beardly Brian McClellan talks about his new bad-ass book, Promise of Blood, right? Right.

TELL US ABOUT YOURSELF: WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?

I’m Brian McClellan; epic fantasy writer, amateur beekeeper, computer gamer, reader, husband, son, brother. My job is to entertain you.

GIVE US THE 140-CHARACTER STORY PITCH:

Muskets and magic. Guillotines and bayonets. Revolution and revenge. This is flintlock fantasy with smoke rising from the barrel.

WHERE DOES THIS STORY COME FROM?

It comes from a desire to see what happens to a fantasy world when it progresses into an industrial age. How does the magic evolve with the technology? How do the old regimes fall, and what rises to take their place?

HOW IS THIS A STORY ONLY YOU COULD’VE WRITTEN?

It’s very personal story because it comes from my own eclectic tastes and desires. I love epic fantasy; the sense of adventure, the second-world nature of the stories, and of course the magic. I also have a great interest in historical figures like Napoleon Bonaparte—the driving force behind him and the volatile time period in which he lived.

I wanted to write a story that would appeal to a wide demographic. There’s nothing new in the desire of a writer to craft something that will sell well. The idea of epic fantasy in an industrializing world had a newness about it that appealed to both my artistic and business sense. It seemed like a great way to give a fresh flare to an old genre.

WHAT WAS THE HARDEST THING ABOUT WRITING PROMISE OF BLOOD?

The rewrite.

I was offered agent representation by the awesome Caitlin Blasdell based upon my first draft. The first thing she said to me, though, was that we needed to edit before she’d submit it to publishing houses. Little did I know that by “edit” she meant rewrite half the damn book.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s ten times the book it was and I’m so glad that Caitlin made me rewrite huge sections. But that year of editing after having finally gotten an agent was extremely difficult.

WHAT DID YOU LEARN WRITING PROMISE OF BLOOD?

I learned a lot about pacing a 160,000 word novel. That size of a book can become an unwieldy beast. It takes plotting and thorough notes to keep track of everything going on inside.

WHAT DO YOU LOVE ABOUT PROMISE OF BLOOD?

The cover art.

No, seriously. Take a look at that art. Orbit did a fantastic job on that cover.

In terms of what’s inside the book—I love that it’s entertaining. That’s what I’m here for, after all. I’m not asking deep philosophical questions of my readers. I’m asking them to have a good time. The characters are relatable, the story moves quickly, and people will have fun reading it.

WHAT WOULD YOU DO DIFFERENTLY NEXT TIME?

More central female characters. I am a little terrified of writing a female viewpoint badly, so all three of the main viewpoint characters are men.

While there are some seriously badass women in the book, the reader doesn’t get much of a chance to see the world through their eyes. I’d like to do that in the future.

GIVE US YOUR FAVORITE PARAGRAPH FROM THE STORY:

Not a single paragraph, but a short exchange. Field Marshal Tamas is interviewing the young sergeant chosen to be his new bodyguard:

Tamas watched the man for another few moments. Among the troops, Olem was well known and well liked—he could shoot, box, ride, play cards or billiards. He was an everyman as far as soldiers were concerned.

“You’ve one mark on your record,” Tamas said. “You once punched a na-baron in the face. Broke his jaw. Tell me about that.”

Olem grimaced. “Officially, sir, I was pushing him out of the way of a run-away carriage. Saved his life. Half my company saw it.”

“With your fist?”

“Aye.”

“And unofficially?”

“The man was a git. He shot my dog because it startled his horse.”

“And if I ever have cause to shoot your dog?”

“I’ll punch you in the face.”

WHAT’S NEXT FOR YOU AS A STORYTELLER?

The sequel, THE CRIMSON CAMPAIGN, is coming out from Orbit Books in February of 2014. The third book in the series should be out around September of 2014.

After that? Who knows.

I’ve got a lot more stories floating around in my head—a young adult historical fantasy, another epic fantasy series, and more books in the Powder Mage universe. Time permitting, you’ll get to see them all.

Brian McClellan: Website / Twitter

Promise of Blood: Amazon / B&N / Indiebound

A thing happened yesterday.

A woman said on Twitter that she was selling a book of inspirational quotes by writers.

I was one of the writers with a quote in the book.

Alongside Stephen King, Ray Bradbury, Austin Kleon, Lisa Cron, Chris Baty, and, well, presumably another 90+ authors. I don’t know as I’ve not seen the book.

I am obviously flattered that anyone things anything I say is inspirational.

I did, however, comment on Twitter that while I found it flattering, I also found it a little strange that a person was trying to make money off other people’s words. Not just, say, borrowing a quote here and there to bolster a book about writing but, instead, a book of curated quotes said by other people. Regardless of the legality, I found that a bit baffling — charging three bucks on Smashwords to sell what amounts to other people’s content.

Upon commenting (and not naming the person), said author demonstrated a somewhat… aggressive attitude, attacking me and revoking my potential exposure from the book (?) and telling me I “sicken” her (?!) and — well, on and on. I obviously touched a nerve. I’ve since heard from other authors (I’m so tired I originally typed that as “author others” which perhaps works, too) that she’s given them some problems in the past — so, hey, whatever.

Point is, it escalated quickly.

Her defense of using my quote was “fair use,” which it may be — I don’t know because again, I have not seen the book. (She’s reportedly cribbing a quote of mine from 250 Things You Should Know About Writing.) One assumes I am expected to pay for the book to be inspired by myself? Is that a good deal? It doesn’t feel like a good deal.

Let’s talk about when you can use another author’s — or artist’s — work.

Assume the answer is “not without permission,” especially when you’re profiting from the use.

Now, that’s not necessarily functionally true. “Fair use” is a real thing, but it’s very rarely as cut and dried and one would prefer. The author’s dead, so it’s fair use? The estate may yet be involved. It’s before a certain date so it’s fair use? Again, the estate may be involved or there may be other legal entanglements. It’s just a quote, so it’s okay? Maybe. Maybe not.

This is a pretty good look at fair use, from NOLO.

It asks whether or not you’re contributing new content or just repurposing old content. It notes, too, that the amount of material cribbed is less important than the quality and value of material cribbed. Lots of little vagaries and legal eddies you may get caught in, which is again why I say:

Always ask the author or artist. It’s just good to be safe.

I have people sometimes repurpose entire terribleminds posts, and I usually ask as politely as possible that they excerpt the post and link back. (To be clear, I don’t fight if they don’t back down, generally. Is that really the hill I want to defend? Probably not.)

For the record, I’m entirely supportive of folks using quotes or excerpted material in blog posts or across social media or in educational material — long as the author isn’t making money off me or my work, I’m pretty loosey-goosey with how my stuff gets out there. If you’re not sure if your use falls on the right side of this, you can always email me at terribleminds at gmail dot com and I’m happy to chat. I won’t bite. Unless cornered. Or paid handsomely.

Some really nasty business went down in Boston yesterday, as I’m sure we all know. It’s tough stuff, and as I said yesterday on Twitter, it becomes easy to fall into the trap of cynicism and suspicion, fear and finger-pointing, but for me it’s about trying to pull away from those baser instincts and look to the people doing so much good immediately after the shit hits the fan. (That proven Mister Rogers quote about “looking for the helpers” is one I’ll share with my son when he’s old enough to parse this sort of thing.

Yesterday I said a related thing, which was, “The evil of a handful of fuckos cannot be allowed to outweigh the love the lion’s share of us can and do feel for one another.” Patton Oswalt said a similar thing (I’d link but I’m writing this from my iPad in a hotel room in Florida): “So when you spot violence, or bigotry, or intolerence of fear or just garden-variety misogyny, hatred or ignorance, just look it in the eye and think, ‘The good will always outnumber you, aand we always will.'”

I ruminated a little too on the images of violence that spring up after this sort of thing — on the one hand, I think seeing the realities of war and violence is useful if only so it turns us away from any potential bloodthirst we may have. On the other hand, I don’t know that it works that way, particularly when images that trend toward gore porn end up in front of us without warning — stuff like that can trigger some deep emotional responses in people, including depression or PTSD

Someone then responded on Twitter with an interesting question of whether or not I feel bad about the violence in my fiction, and my thought then and now was, well, that’s a bit different, isn’t it? Violence in fiction is, first of all, fiction. But it’s generally expected — we read a crime novel or a horror novel, that violence is usually part and parcel. And in the realm of fiction, violence can be framed by context and informed by consequence.

Or, more to the point, it should be. And that, I think, is what I want to say, here — in fiction, violence even in silly pulp material is best when it has some sense of consequence behind it. It isn’t just candy-floss or cartoon fun — a fist thrown always hurts the hand. Things happen as a result to violence. Sometimes good things. But something always bad, too. Even in the Dinocalypse series I try to inform the pulp action with a sense of cause-and-effect; the pulp heroes aren’t violent because they like it, they’re driven to it because that’s sometimes how you stop the bad guy. But even still there exists a kind of lightly erosive, corrrosive component to it — like I said, even if that is just so simple as a hand that hurts after throwing a punch.

Anyway, random thoughts here — apologies for the slap-dash nature of it, but such is the way of hammering together a post while on a trip. I’ll be back home later today (well, much, much later today), so, see you on the other side.

EDITED TO ADD:  If you want to do something for Boston, beware scam charities or “RT this and we’ll donate” nonsense. Best option right now is to donate to the Red Cross or donate blood — though I don’t suspect that the blood will go to Boston.

I’m traveling, at present, lost in the Mangrove wilds of the Florida Keys, my shirt stinking of rum, a cormorant dogging my every step, a new (and stung) tattoo of an anchor on my left ass-cheek.

I’m here doing research for the next Miriam Black book, and this is my first official “research” trip. (It’s done wonders. It’s very hard to write about a place without ever having been there. Particularly if the book is set in just such a location — you can maybe get away with a scene or a chapter or two, but 3/4 of a book? Not easy, at least, not for me.)

So, it seems apropos that today’s question should focus on travel.

But, in particular, writerly travel.

Let’s say you can go anywhere in the world, but it’s for your writing. Whether to serve as inspiration or as research.

Where would you go, and why?

So, last week’s challenge was for you to write a kick-ass opening line.

And the post got over 400 entries.

*blink blink*

Holy crap.

And tons of really great stuff, too.

(Though, some less-than-good ones, too. People: it’s like ten, twenty words. Spellcheck!)

Curiously, three motifs showed up with… perhaps alarming frequency:

Blood.

A gun.

Someone about to die / someone already dead (future corpse / current corpse).

Y’all are some twisted little word-wranglers.

Anywho!

I’ve posted below a handful of the ones I really liked. Fourteen(15?)  of them, as a matter of fact. These are not all “winners” in terms of the contest — I still have to whittle this bunch down:

Once James accepted that he had no choice but to burn the books, the question became which to burn first. — Valerie Valdes

Prima donnas aren’t born.
 — Mari Bayo

The ghost of a sparrow flitted through one wall and out the other.
 — CJ Eggett

I was born beneath a black veil of mourning, a dark bud blooming deep in its shadow. — 
Gina Herron

It’s always midnight somewhere.  — Andrew Jack

My brother’s birth was preceded by three distinct and inexplicable phenomena. — Jason Heitkamper

Max sat amongst the dead, whistling to himself.  — Brad

For the second time in a week, I come over Shatter Hill at midnight and see fire at the crossroad below.  — Bill Cameron

I never trusted that statue in the garden behind the house.
 — Cat York

Larry was on the toilet, shitting his brains out, while cleaning his gat.
  — The Philosophunculist

The problem with the ringing phone wasn’t how loud it was, or that it hadn’t stopped ringing for an hour, but that Tom didn’t have a phone. — Jake Bible

When the last cherry blossom falls, so will my axe.
  — Delilah

“You must walk three paces behind me,” she said. “And never raise your eyes to mine.” — Nathan Long

Tommy beat him with a kiss, and the crowd hated him for it. — Hector Acosta

Which will be our final three?

Here we go:

The ghost of a sparrow flitted through one wall and out the other.
 — CJ Eggett

Some quick news-flavored news-bits (dip them in pot de creme!):

Blackbirds has deals to be published in brand new territories!

Panini France will publish a French edition.

Muza will publish a Polish edition.

Lubbe will publish a German edition (which comes out this month).

Other Miriam Black news is percolating, too, but those are for another day!

Tomorrow I go to America’s Hot, Moist Land-Wang (Florida) to do research for Miriam Black, Book #3 (The Cormorant), and to remind you all, I’ll be in Fort Lauderdale tomorrow at 11:30AM, Stranahan House, doing a ninja author hangout and pantsless dance-off*.

* — may include no actual dance-off and also, actual pants.

Details of that ninja author hangout right here.

(Thanks to DMLA — in particular, thanks to agents Stacia Decker and Cameron McClure.)