We celebrate making it to 50 episodes by crapping on about nothing in particular. But we do giveaway free ebooks at the end.
Click here for direct download
Alan talks about the sale of his psychic octopus story.
Dave talks about his submission of You Suck! to YA publishers, which leads to us chatting about targeting your submissions well.
Alan talks briefly about Slushpile Hell – that Tumblr can be found here: http://slushpilehell.tumblr.com/
Promo- SecondWorld by Jeremy Robinson
We then discuss a bit of listener feedback.
We talk about old school audio books and bad writing versus literary fiction.
Subsequently, we give away some books. They’re ebooks, available from Smashwords. Use the following codes at checkout to reduce the book cost to $0.00:
Alan’s books:
RealmShift – EP24N
MageSign – KN85A
Ghost Of The Black – QK95M
Write The Fight Right – WV47T
Dave’s books:
Quest – QB22F
The Silver Serpent – WA32Y
Grab ‘em before the codes expire on August 31!
Saturday, August 25, 2012
Friday, August 10, 2012
ThrillerCast 049- Blast Them All!
Click here for direct download
We begin, for some reason, by discussing Mary Poppins. Thankfully, we move swiftly on.
We discuss our current writing projects.
We move on to talking about the nature of reviews and bullying and the phenomenon that is Stop The Goodreads Bullies. We talk about what bullying really is and whether bullying the so-called bullies is doing any good or just more harm.
We talk about the nature of reviews and pleasing everyone.
We look briefly at Neil Gaiman and discuss the review spread on some of his work. This leads us to talk about how some poor reviews are based on things other than the actual book. We check in on a few of George R R Martin’s one-star reviews.
We go on to talk about Terry Goodkind’s newly self-published ebook and how successfully its taken off. We discuss briefly the hybrid model of publishing that is becoming more and more mainstream. However, we then talk about how Terry Goodkind publically called out a pirate of his new ebook and posted the person’s personal information online. .
We begin, for some reason, by discussing Mary Poppins. Thankfully, we move swiftly on.
We discuss our current writing projects.
We move on to talking about the nature of reviews and bullying and the phenomenon that is Stop The Goodreads Bullies. We talk about what bullying really is and whether bullying the so-called bullies is doing any good or just more harm.
We talk about the nature of reviews and pleasing everyone.
We look briefly at Neil Gaiman and discuss the review spread on some of his work. This leads us to talk about how some poor reviews are based on things other than the actual book. We check in on a few of George R R Martin’s one-star reviews.
We go on to talk about Terry Goodkind’s newly self-published ebook and how successfully its taken off. We discuss briefly the hybrid model of publishing that is becoming more and more mainstream. However, we then talk about how Terry Goodkind publically called out a pirate of his new ebook and posted the person’s personal information online. .
Sunday, July 29, 2012
Episode 48- Thrillerfest Report and More with J.F. Penn
Alan is traveling the world so thriller author J.F. Penn is our guest host this week.
Click her for direct download
Updates on Dave's and Jo's writing.
The next novel in Penn's Arcane series is called Exodus and will involve the Ark of the Covenant, but with no Indiana Jones tropes in sight.
Keeping track of all our crazy story ideas.
Using Pinterest as part of your social media platform.
WWJD- What Would James (Rollins) Do?
Jo is now writing as J.F. Penn rather than Joanna Penn. She was mentioned in a Forbes article about women writing under a male or non-gender specific pen name.
Dave is having trouble choosing a title for Dane Maddock 5. Titling as an aspect of author branding.
Book recommendation- Spiral by Paul McEuen
Report from Thrillerfest 2012.
Highlights:
Craft Fest- focusing on the craft of writing.
Fight scene workshop with Joseph Finder.
"Forget All the Rules" with Lee Child.
Is there a certain personality type that runs through most thriller writers?
Things we love about International Thriller Writers.
Link to Jo's post about Thrillerfest.
Jo has signed with The Irene Goodman Agency.
Making the decision to try for a traditional publishing contract after you've had success in independent publishing.
Future trends in publishing.
Visit J.F. Penn at
www.jfpenn.com or thecreativepenn.com
Click her for direct download
Updates on Dave's and Jo's writing.
The next novel in Penn's Arcane series is called Exodus and will involve the Ark of the Covenant, but with no Indiana Jones tropes in sight.
Keeping track of all our crazy story ideas.
Using Pinterest as part of your social media platform.
WWJD- What Would James (Rollins) Do?
Jo is now writing as J.F. Penn rather than Joanna Penn. She was mentioned in a Forbes article about women writing under a male or non-gender specific pen name.
Dave is having trouble choosing a title for Dane Maddock 5. Titling as an aspect of author branding.
Book recommendation- Spiral by Paul McEuen
Report from Thrillerfest 2012.
Highlights:
Craft Fest- focusing on the craft of writing.
Fight scene workshop with Joseph Finder.
"Forget All the Rules" with Lee Child.
Is there a certain personality type that runs through most thriller writers?
Things we love about International Thriller Writers.
Link to Jo's post about Thrillerfest.
Jo has signed with The Irene Goodman Agency.
Making the decision to try for a traditional publishing contract after you've had success in independent publishing.
Future trends in publishing.
Visit J.F. Penn at
www.jfpenn.com or thecreativepenn.com
Saturday, July 21, 2012
Episode 47- The Audio Perspective with Jeffrey Kafer
In this episode, we interview voice artist Jeffrey Kafer, whose body of work includes books by Jeremy Robinson, Bob Mayer, Jim Berheimer, Dave's Dane Maddock adventures, and many others.
Click here for direct download
Updates on Alan and Dave's writing.
Revising your work- Adding polish by catching over-used words and phrases. "Kill words." Be careful how you go about correcting them- don't just break out the thesaurus.
Dave feels that Scrivener makes it easy to find and eliminate problem words and phrases.
Smart-Edit is a free program that identifies repeated words and phrases. (Dave mistakenly called it Smart-Write.)
The importance of putting processes in place that help you improve your craft.
How much "cleanup" do you do while writing the first draft?
The interplay between character and dialogue. Making sure dialogue doesn't sound like the narrative voice.
Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher- we foresee many Alan rants when the movie comes out.
Promo- Adventures in Sci-Fi Publishing Podcast
Interview with audiobook narrator Jeffrey Kafer
Books Jeffrey has narrated.
What makes for dialogue that works?
What's the process of narrating a book like?
Why use a professional narrator/producer?
Advice to writers from the narrator's perspective.
Find Jeff online at:
jeffreykafer.com
audiobook-voice-over.com
Click here for direct download
Updates on Alan and Dave's writing.
Revising your work- Adding polish by catching over-used words and phrases. "Kill words." Be careful how you go about correcting them- don't just break out the thesaurus.
Dave feels that Scrivener makes it easy to find and eliminate problem words and phrases.
Smart-Edit is a free program that identifies repeated words and phrases. (Dave mistakenly called it Smart-Write.)
The importance of putting processes in place that help you improve your craft.
How much "cleanup" do you do while writing the first draft?
The interplay between character and dialogue. Making sure dialogue doesn't sound like the narrative voice.
Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher- we foresee many Alan rants when the movie comes out.
Promo- Adventures in Sci-Fi Publishing Podcast
Interview with audiobook narrator Jeffrey Kafer
Books Jeffrey has narrated.
What makes for dialogue that works?
What's the process of narrating a book like?
Why use a professional narrator/producer?
Advice to writers from the narrator's perspective.
Find Jeff online at:
jeffreykafer.com
audiobook-voice-over.com
Saturday, July 7, 2012
Episode 46- Fantastic Thrills with Gail Z. Martin
Due to recording issues, we’re a little bit out of sequence
here and Dave and Alan talk about things that happened at the end of May/start
of June.
Click here for direct download
Click here for direct download
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/
Sunday, June 24, 2012
Episode 45- Writing Consistent Characters
In this episode, Alan and Dave discuss character motivations and decisions in the context of two poorly written recent movies.
Click here for Direct Download
Show notes:
Alan continues to work on the video game project plus juggling various other projects. Dave has completed the first draft of his latest YA book.
We discuss the problem of contemporary novelists padding their books and finding the balance between adequate development and tight plotting.
Terry Goodkind will be self-publishing a book while still publishing with Tor. Is the "hybrid" model what the future will look like for many successful authors?
Many people connected to corporate/traditional publishing have recently been circulating the notion that it takes several thousand dollars to publish an ebook. Post by Michael Stackpole on this topic. What does it truly take to publish a book?
Listener Josh asks how much can a writer bend history or use debunked devices? Is it acceptable to simply add notes from the author? We'd like to hear from listeners on this subject. Comment here, email us, or message us on Facebook.
By the way, have you liked us on Facebook? Followed us on Twitter?
Promo- Secondworld by Jeremy Robinson.
Writing consistent characters- motivations and decisions.
Alan was horrified by the story line of Prometheus. Every thing the characters did made no sense. (BTW- if something is falling on you, don't run along its length; run to the side.)
Why do studios spend hundreds of millions of dollars to make a movie visually stunning but not bother make sure the story makes sense?
The evidence that sets the Prometheus plot in motion does not make sense. This is a critical element in many action-adventure books in particular.
Alan's blog/rant about Prometheus.
David found his share of problems with the story line of Snow White and the Huntsman.
If you give a character tremendous power, and that character chooses not to use those powers to their full extent, you need to explain why.
If your character makes seemingly foolish decisions, either give a valid reason for those decisions, or establish that the character is a fool.
Why do moviegoers seem to have lower expectations in terms of storytelling than book readers do?
Dave's blog/rant about Snow White and the Huntsman.
What can writers learn from these movies?
Set higher expectations for ourselves.
Have a thorough understanding of the characters you create. What motivates him/her? In that way we can make sure decisions are consistent with personality.
Many thriller writers don't develop characters in depth, which gives them an easy "out" when their character doesn't act "in character."
Don't have your character act "out of character" in order to deal with a conflict; come up with creative ways for the character to deal with it. That's one of the challenges of good writing.
Dave discusses the way he "works backward" from his MacGuffin to make sure his protagonist, antagonist, and characters in the back-story are doing things that make sense.
An author must maintain relationships with people who will give honest critique about her/his work. We need someone to point out the flaws.
Episode 46 will be weird because it was partially recorded prior to this one, but Dave botched the interview segment and had to reschedule it.
Click here for Direct Download
Show notes:
Alan continues to work on the video game project plus juggling various other projects. Dave has completed the first draft of his latest YA book.
We discuss the problem of contemporary novelists padding their books and finding the balance between adequate development and tight plotting.
Terry Goodkind will be self-publishing a book while still publishing with Tor. Is the "hybrid" model what the future will look like for many successful authors?
Many people connected to corporate/traditional publishing have recently been circulating the notion that it takes several thousand dollars to publish an ebook. Post by Michael Stackpole on this topic. What does it truly take to publish a book?
Listener Josh asks how much can a writer bend history or use debunked devices? Is it acceptable to simply add notes from the author? We'd like to hear from listeners on this subject. Comment here, email us, or message us on Facebook.
By the way, have you liked us on Facebook? Followed us on Twitter?
Promo- Secondworld by Jeremy Robinson.
Writing consistent characters- motivations and decisions.
Alan was horrified by the story line of Prometheus. Every thing the characters did made no sense. (BTW- if something is falling on you, don't run along its length; run to the side.)
Why do studios spend hundreds of millions of dollars to make a movie visually stunning but not bother make sure the story makes sense?
The evidence that sets the Prometheus plot in motion does not make sense. This is a critical element in many action-adventure books in particular.
Alan's blog/rant about Prometheus.
David found his share of problems with the story line of Snow White and the Huntsman.
If you give a character tremendous power, and that character chooses not to use those powers to their full extent, you need to explain why.
If your character makes seemingly foolish decisions, either give a valid reason for those decisions, or establish that the character is a fool.
Why do moviegoers seem to have lower expectations in terms of storytelling than book readers do?
Dave's blog/rant about Snow White and the Huntsman.
What can writers learn from these movies?
Set higher expectations for ourselves.
Have a thorough understanding of the characters you create. What motivates him/her? In that way we can make sure decisions are consistent with personality.
Many thriller writers don't develop characters in depth, which gives them an easy "out" when their character doesn't act "in character."
Don't have your character act "out of character" in order to deal with a conflict; come up with creative ways for the character to deal with it. That's one of the challenges of good writing.
Dave discusses the way he "works backward" from his MacGuffin to make sure his protagonist, antagonist, and characters in the back-story are doing things that make sense.
An author must maintain relationships with people who will give honest critique about her/his work. We need someone to point out the flaws.
Episode 46 will be weird because it was partially recorded prior to this one, but Dave botched the interview segment and had to reschedule it.
Friday, June 1, 2012
Episode 44 – Writing Historical Adventure with William Dietrich
Click here for direct download!
Once again, apologies for the sound issues. We’re trying really hard to fix it. Blame Dave for moving to the desert.
We start off with a chat about a terrible experience a new
writer had with the “editor”/owner of Undead Press, Open Casket Press and Living
Dead Press.
This leads us to discuss the correct process of editing and
the editor/author relationship.
Remember: Always check out the publisher to whom you’re
submitting.
Here’s the link Alan talks about regarding royalty-only
publications:
Here’s the link to Preditors and Editors:
Then we chat with William Dietrich.
William talks about his Ethan Gage series of books.
We talk to William about his process and the research that
goes into his work. And how much he bends history.
He talks about where he sees the series going.
William talks about what he likes to read, then gives his
advice for new writers trying to crack this caper.
Find William online here: http://williamdietrich.com/
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