Book Brouhaha

A special thanks to Keith Darrell for inviting me to participate in this blog tour! Be sure to check out his blog at: http://www.keithbdarrell.com/ On to the questions! What am I working on? Currently I'm working on wrapping up a young adult science fiction series.  Books 1-4 are out.  Number 5 is in the works! The series is called the Uxel Herum Saga and it's a coming of age story that takes place in a science fiction universe I created called Muzik Chronicles . How does my work differ from others of its genre? I would say the main thing that makes the series stand out is the path to power my main character takes.  I'm a music teacher and a martial arts nerd.  I combined those two things and created "The Tuning System."  People who practice it learn to control their own natural vibrations and use it as a way of affecting their surroundings. Why do I write what I do? Because I love it. Pretty simple.  But it's true.  The sci...

It's not what you think.  I'm not addicted to websites.  I'm addicted to designing them. I go through strange phases where I won't touch a website at all.  Years could go by.  And then I'll find a new website design program or a blog host will offer a new set of templates and then... Pandora's box.  It's simply no longer enough to have one  website looking nice for one  business.  Suddenly life would be drastically improved if they all  were looking nice. There's probably some sort of psychological analysis you could do here about latent control issues.  Especially considering that time and effort may be put into a site that gets zero traffic anyway... yikes. But since I like to put a positive spin on things I will say that this has made me fairly internet savvy.  A good trait to have if one happens to be pursuing a career as an independently published author.  It's not a bad  addiction to have.  I probably shou...

So I'm going to try something new with these "concept" blog posts.  If you find out about the story through this post, mention it in an email and the first five people will receive a complementary copy from an e-store of their choice. Anyway... the adventure continues with Uxel!  Uxel continues to realize her true character in being captured by the Imperium and forced to design a set of special tuned ships.  The task is way beyond her but her but in doing so she learns what she truly values. Originally I planned on this story arc spanning five books and it still will be.  But I've really be liking how Uxel's character is developing.  So I'm thinking of continuing her "saga" by later making another five book story arc that takes place several years after this one.

My name is Alan Shelton, and I am a newly minted publisher of online short stories. I hang my hat at a website called Fiction Arcade ( www.fictionarcade.com ), and - thanks to the kind indulgence of Alain - I'd like to make a shameless-but-brief plug for it. Fiction Arcade is YouTube crossed with iTunes, but for the short story. We provide a convenient platform where anyone can upload their work for free (a la YouTube), and we allow them to sell it for less than a dollar (a la iTunes). These two elements didn't mesh well in the days before omnipresent social media and online micropayments, but now they work like gangbusters for video and music sites. So why not short fiction? Fiction Arcade is based on two premises: 1) that traditional publishers don't price short stories correctly and 2) that great stories get recognized and rewarded through a positive word-of-mouth feedback cycle. Regarding the first premise, even other online publishers typically won't go below 99 ce...

Summary: Fiction seeks the truth. What underlies conflict? What values can we relate to and what are the risks? And how, really, does the world work? Short fiction does the same, with closely-observed details, effortless dialogue, and familiarity It’s the little things that make a short story into a big story. It’s the details and the intimacy. It’s the skillful knowing of the characters: their courage, obstinacy, fears, and resilience. In these stories we meet Josephine in Pal Jo and Linda in It’s a Long Time Pull, both holding to optimism like drowning sailors to flotsam. Amory, the man being robbed in an elevator in To Sketch a Thief is surprisingly and enchantingly thrilled by the encounter. The three bad boys in Lights Out are frightened into goodness by the 1965 Northeast Blackout, and Hank, the bicyclist in Down, Down, Down, Into the Valley of the Snake is startled by loneliness into clinging to his marriage. Elizabeth Morris’s characters are sometimes racist or lone...

The tricky thing about writing shorter works is there is much less time to make an overall good impression.  A novel's plot is an intricate weave of multiple plots, characters and themes. In other words, lots of time to create a favorable impression.  It's not quite so vitally important for the reader to like every character.  So long as they like enough  of what is going on, it's a satisfying reading experience. What one person finds "satisfying"may be unsatisfying for another.  Therefore, a short story writer must be extremely clear about what type of reader the story is trying to appeal to.  If it's horror, the focus should be building that fear.  If it's science fiction, the focus should be on world-building. Instant draw.  Instant connection.

Summary: After narrowly escaping a deadly plane crash, David King now finds himself stranded in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. With no way to call for help, David's only hope is to brave the elements and somehow find land. But what David doesn't know is that he is at the mercy of the mysterious forces that lurk beneath the waves. Thoughts: Everything about this story is simple.  Don't get me wrong, simple can be good.  I like a good action movie with a straightforward plot.  Or a romance with a predictable ending.  There's comfort in that. This story was just a little too  simple.  It's a classic man vs. nature tale.  However this type of motif is metaphorical for man vs. himself.  "Adrift" had none of that.  Our main character, David, lacks a discernible personality which makes the action feel stagnated.  I never felt connected to his plight and I didn't care one way or the other if he survived. With some polish ...