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Alan talks about his appearance at The Emerging Writers
Festival
EWF Presentation blog:
Dave talks about being at Balticon.
We discuss briefly the comparison between the True Blood
books and TV show.
This leads us to talk a little bit about the first person
PoV in the Sookie books and The Hunger Games.
We go on to talk about the motivating factor of writers
attending cons.
This leads us to talk about the way people present
themselves at cons.
We talk about the Stephen King novel, Joyland, being
published by Hard Case Crime, and how they’re deliberately not releasing an
ebook to force people to buy the printed edition.
This leads us to talk about a bestseller list on the article
about Stephen King, where the ubiquitous 50 Shades books hold the top three
slots.
We also discuss the nature of poor stories getting great sales,
lowest common denominator writing and the perpetuation of mediocre content.
Dave mentions Jeremy Robinson’s new book, Second World.
Then we have an interview with fantasy author, Gail Z Martin.
Gail talks about her love of writing supernatural creatures
and how to include them well in your stories with a good reason for why they’re
there.
Gail talks about writing action, fight and battle scenes.
Gail offers advice on how to get kids interesting in writing
and keep them interested.
Ice Forged, Gail’s latest book, is out in January and you
can find a sneak peek at her site: http://www.ascendantkingdoms.com/
Dave asks if Gail has considered a 50 Shades Of Grey version
of her work, which leads to a short discussion on modern publishing options for
established writers.
Gail offers advice to aspiring writers – write more and look
for honest feedback. Don’t be too quick finish a work and post it directly to
Amazon. Try to keep a long-term perspective.
Dave asks Gail about her other business, with her books to
help authors build their career and where she helps small businesses promote
and market themselves.
Gail’s podcast is The Ghost In The Machine and that’s
something she enjoys pursuing.
Ghost In The Machine Podcasts - http://ghostinthemachinepodcast.com/
I'll disagree with Alan that first person POV is limiting in a novel, but okay for short fiction. Plenty of examples out there, but as a novel to movie, he's probably right.
ReplyDeleteGail always has solid insight and advice, and is an excellent author--her works are well worth reading.
Finally, with respect to dressing: from my perspective, I'm going to believe that you gents do the podcast fully clothed. ;)
Terry, feel free to believe that, but you'll only know for sure if we switch to a video cast.
ReplyDeleteHi guys, I had a fantastic time at Thrillerfest and I do hope you both make it one day - when we're all rich and famous. I found the networking to be amazing, and Tfest organizers specifically use New York because they get amazing support from publishers & agents there.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of dress code, most of the big names were very well dressed and I certainly believe we always have to make a good impression :)
On 50 shades, I think you have missed the larger point - which is that ereaders enable people to read what they actually want to read, instead of what people tell them they should read. There's no way the books would be popular in a world without ebooks, because they would never have made mainstream bookshops, just paperbags and online sales.
Whether we like it or not, most people just want to escape for a short time - and romantic-erotica such as 50 shades certainly does that :)
I have read all 3 books - they are not great writing, for sure, but I enjoyed the romp enough to read all 3 - and I have recommended that men buy them for their wives - no further comment :)
also, on Jeremy Robinson's new book, SecondWorld, it's awesome and I have reviewed already. Highly recommended.