Self-Publishing Boot Camp Guide for Authors, 4th
Edition: Your roadmap to creating, publishing, promoting, and selling your
books is written by Carla King. It is a
comprehensive guide for authors interested in self-publishing their
work. The book strives to be up to date with current information. This is the
fourth edition and Carla King updates the consumer’s guide section periodically
through her website, so to use this book to its fullest effect, authors should
seek out and use the updates to the consumer’s
guide by subscribing to her reader’s list.
Summary
Self-Publishing Boot Camp is divided into seven sections which cover her advice on all aspects of becoming a self-publisher because self-publishing is a business and authors must understand what they want to achieve by self-publishing. There are certain tasks to self-publishing that can be completed by hiring the work out based on the project’s budget and the author’s ability to complete certain tasks.
These are the seven sections in the book.
Prepare for success
by using beta readers (she uses Word to write the book and BetaBooks to
distribute to beta readers), beta publishing (she uses LeanPub), self-edit
your work (she uses ProWriting Aid, MasterWriter, and Fictionary), and
hiring a professional editor.
Create a publishing
business by developing a business plan,
creating your publishing imprint, and buying at least ten ISBN for all your book formats.
Good book design is
important to make your book look as close as possible to the mainstream
publishers. Book Design involves the interior design and most critically
the book cover. It is important to hire out this task to a professional. Create
the book with a PDF for printing and an e-book.
Distribute your book using Amazon KDP for Amazon ebooks (MOBI book
format), Smashwords for all other ebooks (EPUB book format), Amazon Kindle
Print for Amazon POD (Print on demand with PDF book format), and IngramSpark
for all other POD (PDF book format).
Selling your book
direct by your website and through other means. (She uses WordPress and GoDaddy.com for her websites. She uses
Gumroad for direct orders.)
Book marketing and
promotion through your website and social media.
This section is the consumer’s guide for self-publishers where the available
vendors are reviewed, and recommendations are made. This section is
updated and if you subscribe to her reader’s list, then Carla King will email
you the updates in a separate web book. This is the link to the
subscription page. https://selfpubbootcamp.com/readers/
Recommendation
This book has all the knowledge you need to decide if self-publishing is the right way to release your book. It seems like a daunting task, but Carla King takes each necessary step of the process and explains what to do clearly and simply. The consumer’s guide gives options for help in producing a self-published book. Let Carla guide you on your journey of self-publishing. That’s my plan and I will update this post to show my progress.
Links
This is the link to the Goodreads page of Self-Publishing
Boot Camp by Carla King.
I attended the SF
conference called Cleveland ConCoction at 600 North Aurora Road Aurora, Ohio at
the Bertram Inn and Conference Center from March 1 to 3, 2019. I attended the
opening ceremony, four panels, and the closing ceremony. I also volunteered in the Programming Department for four hours
and in the ConSuite for four hours.
Writing a Story in
Three Parts, a panel with Addie J. King:
She handed out a
copy of a PowerPoint presentation with 27 slides titled Telling a Story in
Three Parts. The three parts of a story are the beginning, the middle, and the end. She plans the first third of her novel and
has a roadmap for the rest of the novel so she can improvise the ending since the story could end up at a different spot than the original idea. First, she
suggests creating a concept which is the coolest thing about the story written
in one sentence. Then figure out the conflict and develop three-part story
arcs. There should be multiple story arcs in a novel. Write one sentence for the
start, middle, and resolution for each arc. She went over examples from her fiction
and in other fiction. She suggested resources for writing.
They held the panel
in the Pegasus Room with 12 attendees.
Friday,
March 1 at 4 PM
Outlining Your
Novel, a panel with Malcolm Wood.
The panelist found
out he was throwing way too much of his work because he had too many false
starts, so he tried something different. Outlining your novel gives the author
a roadmap to keep you going where you want to go. He took a 3-ring binder for
each of his novels and put his research and notes into it. A novel starts with
an idea and he made a sheet for the idea. Main character sheets come next. The
idea and the characters lead to a situation. You build scenes on index cards
and you refine the plot. In the beginning,
you state the problem, in the middle are the plot complications, and at the end, you fulfill the promises created at the
beginning. You can create a plot outline. He handed out an example for his novel
named Trash. Each scene has a POV character,
an event or action description, a location or a setting, a date for when the
events occurred, and the chapter where the scene occurs. Now you can write the novel
from the beginning to the end without false starts and dead ends. He also showed
us one of his completed notebooks. His method gives a more structured way of
creating a novel than the method described by Addie J. King in the earlier panel.
They held the panel
in the McKinley B Room with 6 attendees.
Friday,
March 1 at 5 PM
The Opening Ceremonies
The
Con Co-chair, Laura, opened the ceremonies. She introduced the media guest of
honor Jim O’Rear, next was the EmCee from asklovecraft.com, Leeman Kessler, and
then the artist guest of honor, Stephen Hickman. The cosplay guests of honor were
Knightmage and Nerd Girl. The gaming guests of honor from Rogue Cthulhu were
last introduced. Con co-chair Stan finished the program by turning his smiley
face tee-shirt to a frown with a permanent marker to fit the theme of the con ‘It
came from the dark side of the…’ more closely. It was nice to see the guests up
close and personal to start off the Con.
They held the
ceremonies in the McKinley B Room with 40 attendees.
Saturday,
March 2 at 4 PM
Mars Needs Love, a
panel with substitute panelist Geoffrey Landis.
Geoffrey
Landis is a scientist who works for NASA Glenn on projects such as scientific probes
going to Mars including the photovoltaic cells used by the probes. He is also an
award-winning hard science fiction writer. He started the panel talking about the
current situation in Mars probes. The Opportunity rover’s last contact was on
June 10, 2018, before a dust storm and NASA declared the mission complete on
February 13, 2019. The Curiosity rover and the Insight lander are still
operational. The European-Russian rover named Rosalind Franklin is scheduled to
launch in 2020 and the American rover named Mars 2020 is also scheduled to
launch in 2020. NASA’s plan is to send a manned mission to Mars in the 2030s,
but no money is associated with that directive. A Dutch commercial venture named
Mars One formed in 2011 planned to send a one-way manned mission to Mars and set
up a colony but went bankrupt on January 10, 2019. The mission was flawed. The talk
went on to other space-related topics. In the long term, it’s critical to
develop a practical economic model for space. One route is to mine platinum
from asteroids. He talked about examples of Mars in books and movies. This was a great impromptu
talk that covered a lot of interesting topics.
They held the
panel in the Pegasus Room with 10 attendees.
Saturday,
March 2 from 5 PM to 9 PM
I volunteered in
the Programming Department for four hours on Saturday.
When there were
ten minutes remaining in the program, I went to each of the programs. I held up
a sign to show to the panelists there were
ten minutes left to go in the program. I also counted the number of panelists and
attendees at each panel. They stationed me in the green room, a room where the
panelists could go to relax, to help them as needed. I worked with Lisa and her
two kids. It was fun, and I learned something new.
Saturday,
March 2 at 9 PM
Time Travel in your
Writing: It’s About Time, a panel with Cindy Matthews, J.L. Gribble, Geoffrey
Landis, and Carma Haley Shoemaker.
The
panelists started the panel by naming their favorite examples of time travel in
books, TV, or movies. They were Legends of Tomorrow airing on the CW network,
Supernatural also airing on the CW network, The novel The Time Machine by H. G.
Wells, The novel Time after Time by Karl Alexander (and the show airing on ABC),
and the short story All You Zombies by Robert A. Heinlein. Things to think
about when designing a time travel story are the opportunity to change time and
the Butterfly effect where a small change in initial conditions leads to a
significant result.
Geoffrey
Landis stated four reasons that time travel stories are intriguing.
The setting because the
past is exotic.
Adventure
The nature of paradox
Playing the what if game.
Time
travel stories work well for sending a contemporary person to the past or
future to compare it to today. The best and most used time travel mechanism today
is the wormhole because it can act as a portal to anywhere.
The
articles on the site cover time travel found in TV, books, film, audio, and
comics. It is a great website that covers this topic well.
They held the
panel in the McKinley B Room with 10 attendees.
Sunday,
March 3 from 10 AM to 2 PM
I volunteered in the
ConSuite Department for four hours on Sunday.
My
responsibilities were to set out food and clean up the ConSuite. They put a deli
tray out before I arrived and we put the trays away throughout the day. We put out chips and pop as needed, but our
main function seemed to keep making coffee. There was always a new pot brewing.
The ConSuite closed down at 2 PM, so I helped break down the shelves and put items
out for the hotel to store away. I worked with Badger and Chris. This was the
third year I volunteered in the ConSuite and I have enjoyed helping every year.
I plan to help again next year.
Sunday,
March 3 from 2 PM
The Closing Ceremonies
The
co-chair Laura and Stann announced the theme and date for next year’s con. Next
year’s theme is MeeplePunk, all things to do with cyberpunk (SF subgenre
focused on a mix of lowlife and high tech) and meeples (gaming pieces shaped like
people and animals used in Euro-style board games). They will hold ConCoction 2019
at the Bertram Inn from March 6 to 8, 2020. The audience applauded the guests
of honor Jim O’Rear, Knightmage, and Nerd Girl. They made a volunteer shoutout.
The Con was closed until next year.
They held the
ceremonies in the McKinley B Room with 38 attendees
Recommendation
– Conclusion
I had a great experience
at ConCoction 2019. The Bertram Conference center is nice. The only problem I
encountered was that half of the activities are in another building. It was cold
this time of the year traveling between the buildings. The Bertram is much
better than the Conference’s earlier location
at the Sheraton Hotel at the Airport. My star of the con was Geoffrey Landis.
He substituted at the last minute to give
a solo panel on Mars and was engaging in the Time Travel panel I attended. My
other highlights were the writing talks that Addie J. King and Malcolm Wood gave. I’m planning on attending next
year.
Links
A recent SF
conference I attended was ConFusion in Detroit, Michigan from January 18 to 20,
2019. The theme of the con was Storming the ConFusion, so they designated the
areas with names related to the movie, The Princess Bride. I had a great drive
to Detroit just before the snowstorm struck. My star of the con was John
Scalzi. He gave an excellent reading and was engaging in the panel I attended.
My other highlights were Ada Palmer’s interview and watching The Princess Bride
at the con. I’ll be back next year.
This is my writing progress report for March 2019.
I attended the play Sherwood at the Allen Theater in
Cleveland on February 9, 2019. We went to dinner at the Hofbrauhaus after the
play. Both were enjoyable.
Writing
Progress from February 2019
I wrote five blog posts for garydavidgillen.com including
my writing report for February 2019 linked below.
I bought and used the editing program Pro Writing Aid
to edit the novel, Assassin in New Marl City. I edited and typed Assassin Chapters
30, 32, and 33 in August 2018. I reviewed Chapters 34, 35, and 36 in September
and I completed the review in February. Chapters 1 to 13 were reviewed by using
Pro Writing Aid and submitted to my novel writing class.
The first draft of Assassin in New Marl City was
complete at 99,981 words in July 2018. I completed draft two in December 2018
at 89,072 words. Third draft edits have not been started.
I submitted a story called Popular Mechanics Rebrewed to
the Introductory Writing Workshop at
Parma, Ohio library.
I submitted the second draft edit of Chapter 13 of
Assassin to the Advanced Writing Workshop at Parma, Ohio library.
The stories 4 Humours,
Space Station Sunyata, Grognard, Get to the Point, and LARP Film Noir have been
submitted to magazines.
Statistics of magazine submissions for 2019 are; 0
different stories submitted a total of 0 times with 0 accepted, 0 pending, and
0 rejections.
Events
from February 2019
I planned to attend the SF
conference CapriCon in Wheeling, Illinois
from February 14 to 17, 2019, but I was unable to this year. Next year I will
attend for sure.
Writing
Goals for March 2019
I plan to write four blog posts for garydavidgillen.com
including my writing report for March 2019.
I plan to work
on second draft edits for Chapters 14 to 30 of Assassin in New Marl City using
Pro Writing Aid.
I plan to work
on third draft edits for Chapters 1 to 13 of Assassin in New Marl City using
comments from the Advanced Writing Workshop at Parma, Ohio.
Polish and submit the stories Sleeping Sickness, Space-Dog
Confession, White Bracer, Mage Squad, I Shall Not Return, Prisoner of Tarnal, and Kay-Eye for submission to short
fiction magazines.
Submit 4 Humours,
Space Station Sunyata, Grognard, and LARP Film Noir to other short fiction
magazines.
Edit Searcher of Riven.
Hire an editor for Searcher of Riven from Fiveer.
Edit Ruins of Yarnud.
Hire an editor for Ruins of Yarnud from Fiveer.
Put the novel, Assassin in New Marl City, into the
writing program, Scrivener.
Buy e-book covers for Searcher of Riven and Ruins of
Yarnud from Fiveer.
Buy an e-book cover for Assassin in New Marl City from
Fiveer.
Planned
Events for March 2019
I attended the SF con, ConCoction in Cleveland Ohio March 1 to 3, 2019.
Camino Island by John Grisham is a thriller about the
theft of rare manuscripts from the Princeton University Library. Frustrated
writer Mercer Mann is recruited by the FBI rare asset recovery unit to get
inside the inner circle of rare book dealer Bruce Cable, the FBI’s suspect for
buying the stolen original handwritten manuscripts of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s
five novels. Mercer must go to Bruce’s bookstore, Bay Books, on Camino Island in
Florida. If she can convince Bruce to show her the manuscripts, will she turn
him into the FBI or will she let him go?
Summary
The first three chapters of Camino Island follow the
viewpoints of the three main characters in succession. The first chapter, The
Heist, follows Denny Durban a disgraced Army Ranger as he and his crew steal
the manuscripts from the Princeton Library. Chapter Two, The Dealer, is the
backstory about how Bruce came into money, opened his bookstore, and becomes a
dealer in rare writings. Mercer is introduced in Chapter Three, The Recruit,
when she had just lost her job as an adjunct professor at the University of
North Carolina. She had written a well-received novel years ago and a book of
short stories. She had been unsuccessfully trying to write her next novel as
she taught. Elaine of the FBI rare asset recovery unit has an offer for Mercer.
Return to her childhood summer retreat of Camino Island to learn what she can about
Bruce and the FBI will pay her well including eliminating her student loan
debt. She had spent her summers there with her Aunt Tessa until her Aunt died.
Mercer is reluctant to go, but she accepts the offer for the money. She engages
with the writer’s community on Camino Island and is soon introduced to Bruce.
He is a notorious ladies man, who is married to Noelle but is rumored to bed
young female writers as they come for book tours at his store. Mercer is a
likely target for Bruce and that is why Elaine recruited her. The story
continues following Mercer, Bruce, and Denny until the conclusion.
Recommendation
I liked this book, but something was missing. It had to do with my expectations for the novel and the characters. I can’t decide who the protagonist is and the genre of this novel falls. The three main characters are Denny, the antagonist, Mercer, maybe the protagonist, and Bruce, who is somewhere in between. The categories on Amazon put this novel under thrillers and suspense with subcategories of Heist, Crime, and Conspiracy. It could have been a thriller, but Denny never threatens or even meets Mercer or Bruce. The secondary plot involves the writing community on Camino Island. It could have been a literary novel where Mercer found her muse to write by interacting with the community, but that’s not how the novel turned out. So, it’s a non-thriller thriller or a non-literary literary novel. The setup and characterization are well done, and that makes the unfulfilled ending disappointing.
Links
This is the link to the Goodreads page of Camino
Island by John Grisham.
Origin by
Dan Brown is his fifth book featuring Harvard professor of symbology and
religious iconology Robert Langdon. Edmond Kirsch is a former student of
Langdon. Kirsch is a billionaire computer tech genius who has a controversial presentation
to make. When his presentation is interrupted, it falls to Langdon to solve the
riddle to unlock Kirsch’s research. Langdon’s life is threatened by unknown assailants desperate to keep Kirsch’s
research from the public. Can Langdon solve the riddle before Kirsch’s research
is lost forever?
Summary
Edmond Kirsch has discovered something about the origin of
man that will challenge the world’s religions. He tells his findings to a religious
leader from Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. They are shaken by the news.
Kirsch plans to announce his findings at a large event watched worldwide at the
Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain. Langdon is one person Kirsch invites to the
event. Ambra Vidal is the museum director who planned the event with Kirsch.
She is also the finance of Prince Julian, the heir to the Spanish throne.
Edmond talks to Langdon before the event in private. He poses two questions about
the human race to Langdon. How did it all begin? Where are we going? Kirsch starts
his presentation but something goes wrong. Langdon and Vidal must flee the
museum and solve a riddle to unlock Kirsch’s presentation so everyone can see
what he planned to say. Their only ally is Winston, the artificial intelligence
that Kirsch had invented. They must avoid the Guardia Real (the Spanish Royal Guard),
the Spanish police, and members of the Palmarian Church on their journey from Bilbao
to Barcelona. The finale takes Langdon and Vidal from Gaudi’s Casa Mila to
Sagrada Familia to the Barcelona Supercomputing Center and a final resolution.
Recommendation
I liked this book, and it fits well with the other novels in the series. The plot moves quickly, and the premise is intriguing. I was worried the solution would not be as shocking as it was portrayed to be in the novel. Without providing spoilers, I would say Kirsch’s conclusions do not pose the threat to religion he proposes. Where do we come from? There is still room for a creator. Where are we going? The answer has been used in science fiction novels for decades. I think it is good that mystery readers will be exposed to science fictional topics in this novel, so like that idea. The formula of the book is like a travelogue, send Langdon to a location and set one scene in each famous landmark that is there. It’s easy, but it works.
Links
Origin by Dan Brown is Book #5 of the Robert Langdon
Series
This is a link to my book review of The Atlantis Gene by A. G. Riddle, Book 1 of the Origin Series. This novel is about the origin of man. It is a technothriller like Origin, but it takes a different path than Origin does by having an extraterrestrial solution. It is a quick read with an interesting premise.
The
Dispatcher by John Scalzi is about Tony Valdez who is a legal professional
murderer. In the future, people who are murdered
come back to life in the place where they find most comforting. People who commit suicide and have natural deaths stay dead.
Murder victims return to life naked but alive. So, murderers can keep people
from dying an eternal death. Someone has kidnapped one of Tony’s colleagues,
another Dispatcher and Tony must rescue him, or his colleague may be killed and
stay dead. Will Tony continue to search for him even though Tony may face his
own eternal death?
Summary
The story starts with Tony at the hospital on an assignment
covering for his friend Jimmy Albert. Insurance companies demand Dispatchers
are present at risky surgeries so if the operation goes wrong the Dispatcher
can murder the patient so the patient can live again. This will protect the
hospital and the insurance company from wrongful death lawsuits. It is a judgment
call for the Dispatcher on whether to do the task. After he completes his
assignment, Chicago detective Nona Langdon interviews Tony about Jimmy. Jimmy
is missing and Nona thinks Tony can help her find him. Tony knows the right
people to ask about what assignments Jimmy was working on. Jimmy was taking
less than legal jobs and they wondered if that was why he was kidnapped. Tony
uses his contacts without Nona knowledge and it gets him into trouble. Nona and
Tony follow their leads to find out what happened to Jimmy.
Recommendation
The Dispatcher is a 130-page novella and is a tight, intriguing story. The mechanism of how murder victims are returned to life is an interesting idea and the ramifications are explored in this story. It’s a future police procedural with a surprising moral. If you don’t pay attention to your loved one’s wishes, you will suffer at your own peril. I want to read the next novella, The Dispatcher 2 when published and learn more about Tony and the role of Dispatchers in this world.
Links
The Dispatcher by John Scalzi is Book #1 of the
Dispatcher Series
This is the link to The Dispatcher’s Goodreads page.
John Scalzi read the first chapter in his work in
progress, the Dispatcher 2, at the science fiction conference ConFusion in Detroit
on January 19, 2019. This is a link to my recap of the conference and John
Scalzi’s reading
This is a link to my book review of The Consuming Fire
by John Scalzi, Book 1 of the Interdependency Sequence. It is the next most
recent book I have read by John Scalzi.
This is my writing progress report for February 2019.
A sign to the Miracle Max film room at ConFusion in
Detroit, where I watched the movie, The Princess Bride. The theme of ConFusion
was Storming the ConFusion which alludes to the movie.
Writing
Progress from January 2019
I wrote 4 blog posts for garydavidgillen.com including
my writing report for January 2019 linked below.
I bought and used the editing program Pro Writing Aid
to edit the novel, Assassin in New Marl City. I edited and typed Assassin Chapters
30, 32, and 33 in August 2018. I reviewed Chapters 34, 35, and 36 in September
and plan to finish the review in February. Chapters 1 to 12 were reviewed by
using Pro Writing Aid and submitted to my novel writing class.
The first draft of Assassin in New Marl City was
complete at 99,981 words in July 2018. I completed draft two in December 2018
at 89,072 words. Third draft edits continue.
I submitted a story called Popular Mechanics Rebrewed for
my writing class.
I also submitted a revised and shorter version of
Space Station Sunyata to a different writing class. I plan to submit this
version to magazines.
The stories 4 Humours,
Space Station Sunyata, Grognard, Get to the Point, and LARP Film Noir have been
submitted to magazines.
Statistics of magazine submissions for 2019 are; 0
different stories submitted a total of 0 times with 0 accepted, 0 pending, and
0 rejections.
Events
from January 2019
I attended ConFusion in Dearborn, Michigan from January 17 to 20, 2019.
ConFusion is sponsored by the Ann Arbor Science Fiction Association.
I plan to write 4 blog posts for garydavidgillen.com
including my writing report for February 2019.
Type the edits for Assassin in New Marl City Chapters 34,
35, and 36 in February 2019.
Edit Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12
of Assassin in New Marl City using comments from the Advanced Writing Workshop
at Parma, Ohio.
Polish and submit the stories Sleeping Sickness, Space-Dog
Confession, White Bracer, Mage Squad, I Shall Not Return, Prisoner of Tarnal, and Kay-Eye for submission to short
fiction magazines.
Submit 4 Humours,
Space Station Sunyata, Grognard, and LARP Film Noir to other short fiction
magazines.
Edit Searcher of Riven.
Hire an editor for Searcher of Riven from Fiveer.
Edit Ruins of Yarnud.
Hire an editor for Ruins of Yarnud from Fiveer.
Put the novel, Assassin in New Marl City, into the
writing program, Scrivener.
Buy e-book covers for Searcher of Riven and Ruins of
Yarnud from Fiveer.
Buy an e-book cover for Assassin in New Marl City from
Fiveer.
I attended the SF
conference named ConFusion at 5801 Southfield Freeway Dearborn, Michigan at the
DoubleTree Hotel from January 18 to 20,
2019. ConFusion is sponsored by the Ann Arbor Science Fiction Association. I
attended 4 panels, one reading, one interview, and watched the movie The
Princess Bride. The theme of the con was Storming the ConFusion, so the areas
were designated with names related to the movie like Miracle Max’s Film Room,
The Fire Swamp Artists Alley, The Cliffs of Insanity Consuite, Pit of Despair
Gaming, and the Thieves Forest Music Room. I stayed at the Hawthorn Hotel by
Wyndham which was next to the Double Tree.
Writers Talk about
Anything But Writing panel with Mark Oshiro, John Scalzi, and Delilah Dawson:
Mark was the
moderator and he came up with the topic. His point was that panelists get
questions about writing, publishing, and touring, but get few questions about
their other interests. This panel forced them to talk about something else.
John Scalzi talked about being almost 50, his exercise program, and taking
modern dance in high school. Mark talked about who he was cast as the lead in
the play Music Man, Harold Hill, in high school while being Mexican and gay.
John talked about working at Del Taco and learning about life. He was in an air
band in high school and won a contest drumming to Round and Round by Ratt. Mark
didn’t understand the concept of an air band since he is from another
generation. John finished up the panel by talking about his wife’s family’s
salsa recipe and how he was glad he married into the family to taste it, The
panel was fun and I’m glad Mark came up with the topic. I learned about the
panelists and I liked that.
Link to another
air band video of John Scalzi at the Webb school:
Mars in Fact and
Fiction panel with industrial scientist Bill Higgins, SF writer specializing in
Mars fiction Martin L. Shoemaker, and professor from Connecticut State
University Dr. Jennifer Piatek:
Two slide
presentations were presented in this panel.
Dr. Piatek’s
presentation was called Mars – A Short Tour, which covered the history of
scientific fact about Mars. The incorrectly proposed canals of Mars were
refuted in the ’60s with the Mariner mission.
The Viking mission extended our knowledge of the surface of Mars. Mars has a
rough southern highland and a smooth northern plain. Most Mars missions land in
the north. The next mission to Mars is scheduled to be the Mars Rover 2020
mission, scheduled to be launched in 2020.
Bill Higgins
presentation was called Mars in Our Stories, which covered SF writing about
Mars. He highlighted a picture printed in the September 1956 Life magazine that
imagined the aliens of Mars as told from many stories including War of the
Worlds by H. G. Welles, Out of the Silent Planet by C. S. Lewis, and A Martian
Odyssey by Stanley G. Weinbaum. He next mentioned the 1938 radio broadcast of
War of the Worlds adapted by Orson Welles that caused a panic in New Jersey.
The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury and the John Carter series by Edgar Rice
Burroughs were also mentioned. The panel ran out of time to continue to more
modern examples of Mars fiction.
I thought that
both presentations were well done, and the information was interesting.
A copy of a
drawing by Boris Artzybasheff from the September 24, 1956 issue of Life
magazine.
Saturday,
January 19th at 3 PM
Reading
by John Scalzi:
John Scalzi’s
current work in progress is his sequel to his novella called The Dispatcher.
The tentative title for the work is Dispatcher 2 –the dispationing (probably not the final title). He read Chapter 1 of
his new work. In the world of the novel, people who are murdered will return
alive to a place they found comfort in
the past. They appear naked, healthy and well. Suicide does not work in this
world so there is a call for Dispatchers, who murder terminal patients or for
other reasons if their clients want a fresh start. This work is about a
Dispatcher debating if he will accept Mr. Pang as a client. The chapter comes
to a satisfying conclusion. Scalzi is an engaging reader of his work. Well
done.
Scalzi had more
time to read, so he read two posts from his blog named Whatever. The first post
he read was titled “Automated Customer Service”. It was a funny short story
about a computerized phone customer service call about a malfunctioning
Vacuubot.
A short Q and A followed.
The whole hour was fun and perfect. It was my best hour of the con.
Saturday,
January 19th at 6:30 PM (Err, I should have been there at 6:10 PM)
I watched the
movie The Princess Bride. The Princess Bride
was the theme of this con, Storming the ConFusion. I’ve seen the movie many
times but I thought that it would be fun to see it here with an audience. In
the Henry Ford boardroom (renamed Miracle Max’s Film Room for the Con) there is
a large screen TV at one end of the room and a large table with comfortable
chairs surrounding it. The movie played on the screen and all the dozen chairs
were filled.
On the sheet
posted on the door, it said the movie
would start at 6:30 PM but I think it started at 6:10 PM. Then I arrived at
6:25 PM the scene playing was the one where the Man in Black (Dread Pirate
Roberts, but secretly Westley) was sword fighting with Inigo Montoya and it was
almost over. The movie ended at 7:40 PM and the movie is 90 minutes long so I
figure about a 6:10 PM start. I watched the rest of the movie. The cool thing
is that the five scenes at the beginning of the movie that I missed are all
available on Youtube. I watched them all after the con. It turned out to be a
great idea to watch the movie with others and I am glad that I did.
Youtube link to a
playlist with 12 clips from the movie:
Sign on the door
to the boardroom where the movie played.
Sunday,
January 20th at 10 AM
I attended an interview with Ada Palmer, the Author Guest of Honor for ConFusion 2019. Ada Palmer was interviewed by Black Gate columnist Brandon Crilly. She is an associate professor of early modern European History at the University of Chicago. Ada Palmer first talked about her current project on censorship. She is co-writing a book called Censorship and Information Control in Information Revolutions with Cory Doctorow and Adrian Johns. Her project is funded through Kickstarter Their idea is that censorship has always been a part of society and always will. There are two kinds of censorship. The Catholic model where works are sent to a censer and edited before they are published and the English model where works are censored after they have been printed and deemed censorable.
Censorship relates to her current fiction novel series, Terra Ignota. She extrapolated certain trends from the past into the future to develop her series. Some of those trends are religiosity, the changing family unit, and gender relations. She recommended the short story The Autopsy by Michael Shae, link below. She identifies herself as a writer and not a professor. Her writing suggestion is to take an old story and edit it to half-length to get to the essence of the story. It will help the writer to be concise and make sure that every line and word is doing some work. Brandon conducted an interesting interview with Ada Palmer and I plan to read Too Like the Lightning this year. It’s on my Goodreads list.
State of the Solar
System panel with industrial scientist Bill Higgins, SF writer specializing in
Mars fiction Martin L. Shoemaker, and professor from Connecticut State
University Dr. Jennifer Piatek:
The same panel
members from the Mars panel on Saturday continued their discussion about space
exploration beyond Mars. They talked about the International Space Station
first and then spent most of the rest of the panel talking about probes to the
asteroids. The TV show Salvage 1 from 1979 starring Andy Griffith was mentioned
about commercial space exploration. The show was about a man who built a
spaceship intending to go to the moon and salvage the Apollo mission’s
equipment and sell it on the Earth. It was an interesting panel and the room
was packed, standing room only.
Sunday,
January 20th at 1 PM
Supply Lines and
Economics in Fantasy Worldbuilding panel with K. A. Doore, Ferrett Steinmetz, Jennifer
Mace, Scott H. Andrews, Jon Skovron, and Teresa Nielsen Hayden.
They authors talked
about how economics affected the story they write. The best part of the panel
was their recommendations of resource books to read. They are 1491 by Charles
Man, Debt by David Graeber, Great Cities in History by John Julius Norwich.,
and Food by Dorothy Hartley. There were two examples of novels using the topic illustrated,
the Dagger and the Coin series by Daniel Abraham and War of Light and Shadow by
Jenny Wurts. I wondered if six panelists were too many for them to get each of
their points across, but the panel went smoothly, and each panelist had
interesting comments. I put all the books mentions on my Goodreads to read list
and look forward too many hours of good reading.
Recommendation –
Conclusion
I had a great drive
to Detroit just before the snowstorm. The con was set up well making it easy to
find the locations. My star of the con was John Scalzi. He gave an excellent
reading and was engaging in the panel I attended. My other highlights were Ada
Palmer’s interview and watching The Princess Bride at the con. I’m planning to
return next year.
Links
This is a link to
John Scalzi’s post about attending ConFusion 2019.
The next most recent conference that I attended was Cleveland
Inkubator which was held on August 4, 2018,
at the Louis Stokes Wing of the Cleveland Public Library, 525 Superior Avenue
Cleveland, Ohio 44115. The event was sponsored by Literary Cleveland.
This is a link to my conference recap.
This is a
book review of the Consuming Fire by John Scalzi. Cardenia Wu-Patrick is the most recent Emperox of the Interdependency. She is coronated as Grayland II and
her reign starts with a crisis. The star systems of the Interdependency are
connected by the Flow and the Flow is changing. She faces a looming disaster
when the dependent colonies of the Interdependency will become isolated. What
can she do about the collapse of the Flow and can she get the ruling class to
agree to her solutions?
Summary – Background
Cardenia is concerned with the crisis of the projected collapse of the Flow connections to her Empire. The Flow is a wormhole network that connects the different stars of the Interdependency. Humans can only live on the surface of the planet called End. All other colonies are space stations or enclosed stations on planetary bodies. The Interdependency is headed by trading clans. Each clan owns a star system and has a monopoly on one product. The products are traded between clans and no colonies are independent. Cardenia’s clan is the Wu clan. The Wu clan created the Interdependency and every Emperox for the last thousand years has been a member of the Wu clan.
The secondary plot of the novel involves the Nohamapetan clan’s opposition to Cardenia’s rule. Nadashe Nohamapetan has been accused of the attempted assassination of Cardenia. Her mother, the Countess Nohamapetan tries to free her daughter. Cardenia lets the wheel of justice progress without interference. Cardenia put Kiva Lagos in charge of the Nohamapetan clan’s finances, which causes conflict with the Countess.
Summary – Main Plot
The main plot involves the projected collapse of the Flow. Flow physicist Count Claremont predicts the collapse of the Flow by his calculations. Flow Physicist Marce Claremont, his son, continues his father’s work and is Cardenia’s closest advisor. When the first Flow collapses as predicted, the Interdependency is rocked with the ramifications. Flow physicist Hatide Roynold has different ideas than Marce about the Flow. She predicts that other Flows will open as others close. A flow opens to a lost colony in the Dalasysla system that has been isolated from the Interdependency for 800 years. Cardenia sends Marce and Hatide to investigate the lost colony. They want to discover what can happen to an isolated colony when the Flow collapses. What Marce finds in Dalasysla will change what the people of the Interdependency think about their past and their future.
Recommendation
The Consuming Fire is a quick reading action novel with a satisfying conclusion that answers questions but raises more questions. It’s a great follow up to The Collapsing Empire and shows enough about the conflicts in the Interdependency to set up a spectacular conclusion in Book 3 which is tentatively titled The Last Emperox due to be released in 2020. I liked the relationship between Cardenia and Marce the best. They make an engaging pair. I thought the best part was the revelations that Marce discovers in the Dalasysla system. It’s an excellent expansion of the story’s universe. I plan to read Book 3 as soon as it is published.
Links
This is the link to The Consuming Fire’s Goodreads
page.
Danny is
autistic and lives in the town of Bleak Harbor located on the Michigan
shoreline of Michigan. He’s excited because the dragonfly festival and his
sixteenth birthday will happen in the next week. He focusses his attention on certain
topics like dragonflies, perch, the Chicago Cubs, and the poetry of Wallace
Stevens. Danny lives by his routines, but his routines are disrupted when Danny
disappears from his home. Who would kidnap him and why?
Summary
Danny has recently moved to Bleak Harbor with his mom
Carey Bleak Peters and his stepfather
Andrew “Pete” Peters. Bleak Harbor was founded by Danny’s ancestor Joseph Estes
Bleak. The heir to the Bleak fortune worth millions of dollars is Serenity
Meredith Maas Bleak, Carey’s mother. Carey and her brother Mayor Jonah Bleak
have been written out of the will and
Serenity wants to donate her money to the town if they will rename the town for
her. Carey has been on her own since she had Danny and finished college. She
had lived in Chicago with Danny and Pete. She still works in Chicago and
commutes back to Bleak Harbor. Pete was a commodities trader in Chicago but
lost his job and is now running a medical marijuana shop in Bleak Harbor. Carey and Pete are having marriage trouble
and they both have secrets neither knows about the other. They both receive off
text messages about their secrets. Danny goes missing and the secrets come out.
Other characters that complicate the story include Katya Malone, a police
officer assigned to Danny’s missing person case who is mourning the accidental
death of her daughter, Randall Pressman, Carey’s boss who Carey has obtained incriminating evidence against, Quartz,
Pressman’s fix-it man and a former NSA agent, Allen Locke, an ex-DEA agent who
is hot on Pressman’s trail, Michele Higgins, a reporter looking for a big
story, and Jeffrey Bledsoe, an ex-con and Danny’s birth father. The sins of the
past haunt these characters and when all the secrets are revealed, will Danny
survive?
