Private Mars Rocket II

There are scams targeting everybody in every walk of life, but in my other job, writing, I find there are several persistent types of scams. Anon, a list, but first a general thought as to why.

Writers have a story they want to tell. They think it's a good story, because they like it, and they usually have somebody else who tells them that they like it. (That somebody may be their mother, who kept their kindergarten fingerpainting on the refrigerator until it yellowed with age, but Dear Old Mom is a somebody.) So, it is very easy for a writer to become convinced that if they just Got The Word Out people would buy and like their stuff. Alas, this is not entirely true - you can get the word out to me about your gay Regency romance until you're blue in the face but I'm not buying it. (Not saying there's not a market for that, just that I'm not a member of that market.)

Herewith cometh the list:

1) Interviews: This is (to me) a fairly new one. Somebody with a Filipino accent and a bad VoIP line calls you and asks you to appear on a TV interview. A bit of Googling on the interviewer's name will produce a number of hits proclaiming them to be an "award-winning TV journalist." A deeper look will reveal that these links are self-referential and that the person in question used to work on-air for a major market US TV station but is no longer affiliated with it. The scam is that if you want your interview to stay up on their sparsely-visited website for more than an instant, you need to pay. You are also heavily encouraged to pay for (scattershot and spam-y) marketing to drive traffic to said website.

2) Marketing & PR firms: This is a more ongoing and broader category. It runs the gambit from the Filipino calling you to be a publicist and represent your book at international book fairs to websites promising to market your book to their "thousands of online followers." Frankly, since I don't like to talk to marketers on the phone, I have no idea if the "publicists" do anything. The online folks will at least put your ad on their feed, but I find that I typically have better uses for my money. (We all have people we follow on socials who are constantly plugging something - when was the last time you actually clicked on a link they sent you?)

3) Publishing sites: This is the granddaddy of them all, going back to the "vanity presses" of yore. The harder they work to proclaim that "we want to get you published" (bonus points if they mention "New York publishing gatekeepers") the less likely it is that you'll get anything of value back. Basically, you (over)pay, they deliver just enough so that you can't sue then they laugh all the way to the bank.

Again - writers have a story they want to tell, and there are a host of people who promise you that they can help. For a price, of course.

I am in Westville for the weekend because I have a book reading / signing at the St. Joseph Township Library on Monday at 6:00 PM.

In related writing program-related activities, I have an author interview / spotlight up on J. Scott Coatsworth's site. You can read it here.

Over the weekend, I've added over 6,000 words to my latest novel "What the Bank Robber Saw." A key plot point in the book is that there's internal fraud going on at the same bank branch as the one our robber hit and saw what he saw. So I ended up spending a lot of time figuring out exactly how that fraud worked, then some more time explaining it to the reader. Additionally, based on comments from my writing group, I had to flesh out the motivations for one of my characters. Finally I had to add an additional wrap-up chapter.

Things are coming together.

First, if you're curious about where authors get our ideas, please stop by author John Scalzi's blog and read about The Big Ideas for my latest book!

Second, comes news today that TGI Fridays in Darien (the town wherein I live) is closing. I did my part - I haven't been in the place in years!

I don't actually know why I stopped going - the place just fell out of the rotation and never got back in.

Two thoughts:

1) It's alive, alive I tell you! (My book, that is - I just got a proof copy.)

2) Another of my works-in-progress features people making moonshine (in space, to be exact). Here's a link to an interesting article about moonshine in Ukraine.

Some Random Thoughts, only related by being in my brain:

Random Thought #1

I was contemplating dinner last night, and I thought about going out to the local country club. Then I asked myself why? They've changed the main venue to a sports bar. It's nice, and there's nothing wrong with it, but it's very generic. There's frankly no particular reason to go there, so I didn't.

Random Thought #2

I had to get some work done on my car, and so I was exposed to daytime TV while in the dealer's waiting room. Doctor Phil had as a guest some 17-year-old who was dating a 30-year-old man. Her man had a history of beating on and cheating on his exes, but since he hadn't (yet) beat on or cheated on her, she was still good with him. After a commercial break or two, we learned that the girl's mother alternated between neglect and abuse and that the girl's father was AWOL.

In what I suspect is a case of the blind squirrel finding an acorn, Doctor Phil said that sometimes people focus so much on what they are running from that they don't look at what they are running towards.

Random Thought #3

I am what's politely called a "discovery writer" which means that when I start writing I don't have a firm outline or plan as to what's going to happen in my books. Sometimes, as in the current WIP, working title "What the Bank Robber Saw" that means I write myself into a corner and then need to back myself out of same.

Netflix's algorithm is pushing the 2020 film Inheritance on people. Last night, it was in the top 10. I recommend skipping it, as it violates two major principles of storytelling, namely, it's an idiot plot and it breaks Chekhov's gun principle. Herewith, non-spoilery explanations of both failures.

Idiot Plot: An idiot plot is one in which the plot only works if the characters are idiots. In this movie, there are two violations. First, there's a paragraph of dialog which was withheld for no reason except convenience of the screenwriters. Second one character did something at significant personal effort for decades when he could have easily done something else, again, solely for the screenwriter's convenience.

Chekhov's gun: Named after a Russian playwright, the principle is that if you show a gun on the wall in Act 1, it needs to be fired in Act 3. Here we have a reverse failure - there's a reveal in Act 3 that should have been hinted at in Act 1.

In short, fight the algorithm and skip "Inheritance." You'll thank me later.

While I was on the cruise, I mentioned to several people in casual conversation that I completed the first draft of my fourth novel on this ship. One of the people I said that to told me that he has a degree in English Literature, although he’s not using it at the moment. (He is a bartender at what’s apparently a high-end bar in Orlando Florida.)

The man I was talking to said that what was stopping him from writing was fear that people would think his writing sucked. I did my best to encourage him that the world would not end if somebody told him his writing was bad. In fact, I said, writing is like golf or bartending – part of how you get better is to have people critique you.

Writing for publication is not for the thin-skinned.

At Capricon, I attended a panel called "the heroine's journey." The room was packed and the panel was eye-opening. I left the panel and immediately ordered my copy of the book The Heroine's Journey: For Writers, Readers, and Fans of Pop Culture. It arrived yesterday and I started reading it last night.

First, the heroine doesn't have to be a female in this journey. Harry Potter is on a heroine's journey while Wonder Woman in the 2017 movie of the same name is on a hero's journey. So, two thoughts.

1) The book I just sold, Strawberry Gold, is a heroine's journey. In the heroine's journey, loss of family is the spur to action and the protagonist needs help from friends. Both of those are true with my book.

2) My current work-in-progress, a science fiction novel called Gunmaker, is probably a heroine's journey. I've been struggling with the story because I didn't know about this concept. Now I do.

In writing as in life, we should keep learning new stuff until we're dead.

In my other job, writing, I have news. Over the weekend, I signed a contract with World Castle Publishing for them to publish what will be my fifth novel. This book, working title "Strawberry Gold" is a mystery novel set in 1986 and will be my first non-SF title. (This was formerly titled "Strawberry Creek.")

Since I literally just signed the contract (the digital ink is still drying) I don't have any details on publication dates, etc. When I do I'll post the information in the usual spots.