Check out this shiny new cover for my first Baen novel! Isn’t it awesome? I got chills when I first saw it. This is Talia Merritt with her heirloom 1911 on the newly colonized world of Gōruden.
Available for pre-order here.
Signed copies will be available through this website upon release, which is currently set for December 2023.
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I was working on Ascension, the sequel to Ravages of Honor: Conquest today and went looking for some references related to a plot point. Somehow I found the very first iteration of what was then the opening scene for RoH:C. I’m sharing it with you today because I want you to see what a difference a few years of writing makes. It took me almost three years to finish Conquest and then another year to publish it (slush piles will do that).
The 865-word hot mess below became the 2449-word second scene of Chapter Two. It went from being a thin, badly written, first draft to a well-written, fleshed-out piece with depth. Depth is really hard to explain but it comes down to how well you are able to pull the reader in and immerse him in your world. It is made up of thick, rich details that allow the reader to be more than a spectator watching a movie–it puts them solidly in the character’s head and heart. It is a hard-to-acquire skill. It is what makes a reader come back to a story again and again (so they can be the character) even after they know exactly what is going to happen next (the plot events).
If you go to the sample on Amazon, the final form of this scene begins with “The contours of empty, midnight-quiet passageways blurred past Darien. His bare feet struck the metal decking with a steady rhythm.” You can read the entire thing in the sample for comparison if you like.
Unlike the hot mess below–what I like to call a “first vomit draft”–the final product doesn’t open by dropping you cold into a dark room where you might as well be blind (because the details are absent). Unlike the hot mess below, it’s not full of fake details, devoid of characterization and opinions, and thin as the gruel in a Dickens orphanage.
It took three long years of listening to criticism that cut me to the bone, that made me lose my lunch, that made me curl up and cry, but it was all worth it. Which is why my best advice to anyone thinking about taking up the madness of writing is this:
(more…)– Norman Vincent Peale
“The trouble with most of us is that we would rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism.”
First of all, Happy New Year, one and all.
Last year saw the words “The End” go on my space opera. It came in at a respectable 150,000 words. It’s a mix of futuristic nanotech, genetic engineering, the clash of cultures, feudal politics, sexy romance, and swords.
The new year is also supposed to see a new short story and two novellas, all as part of anthologies.
On the self-publishing side, I plan on re-releasing a short story in June and a novella in February. The novella is a bit of conundrum. I’m tempted to expand it and make it a second edition, one with additional content and some added steam (i.e. that means sexier), along with a sexy cover that I can’t wait to show you.
The major change this year is that all my self-published ebooks will be available to my newsletter subscribers two weeks before they are released to the rest of the world. So, if you want to take advantage of this, you have to be on my subscriber list, i.e. my super-fan list.
If you’re not on the list, you can sign up under “Newsletter Opt-in” on the right-side of the screen. Go ahead and do it. It’s easy.
I’m not into making new year’s resolutions, but I will say that my goal is to make 2019 a more productive year overall, with sequels and side stories for my space opera and a sequel to Promethea Invicta. Speaking of Promethea, I’m eagerly awaiting a better microphone (due here next week) so I can produce an audio version. I’m also very excited to announce a collaboration with Tom Kratman. More to come on that.
Meanwhile, my short story, Equality (first published in MAGA 2020 & Beyond) is live as of today directly from me via Bookfunnel (in your favorite format), as well as from these vendors (Print, Kindle, Kobo, iBooks, Scribd, D2D). And of course, it’s available through your favorite library as well; just ask your librarian.
Sign up for my mailing list and get it for FREE.
August turned out to be a busy month. Far busier than I had expected.
On August 17th, I found out that my story for Tom Kratman‘s upcoming Carreraverse anthology (Terra Nova: The Wars of Liberation) made the cover. Call me whacky, but the donkeys are my favorite. When I was researching mule trains for “Bellona’s Gift” (my story) I learned that mule trains actually consist of a bell mare (who leads the train, because all mules have a horse as a mother and will instinctively follow her), the mules, and a donkey. Unlike mules, donkeys stand and fight. They are the equine version of a guard dog and I just couldn’t resist having one, not just for the sake of realism, but because any animal with strong protective instincts has a special place in my heart.
Also on the cover, several elements from the Carreraverse–a trixie chasing a moonbat, and progressivines. What a fun universe to play in. It was such a great honor to be included.
It was an even greater honor–and shock–to find out that I will be making my Baen debut with my name on the cover. I found this out at the Baen Roadshow at DragonCon. Even with a photographic evidence (snapped in haste) it’s still hard to believe. Terra Nova: The Wars of Liberation is set for release in August 2019.
On August 20th, I released my first self-published work of fiction, my hard SF novella, Promethea Invicta. It’s available not just on Amazon, but on Kobo, iBooks, Scribd, Nook, and Smashwords.
Shortly after releasing Promethea Invicta I got a request for an audiobook version of it. One of my writer friends (and a great sci-fi author), Karl K. Gallagher, who had recorded his own audiobooks, was kind enough to point me in the right direction. I devoured Making Tracks: A Writer’s Guide to Audiobooks (and How to Produce Them): Second Edition
And you guys thoughts that writers just wrote, didn’t you? I wish that were true. We wear many hats. Thinking back, I had to learn how to do layouts for my manuscripts, write ad copy, sales copy, blurbs, and use several platforms to sell my books. So there are definitely times when marketing eats up a lot of your precious writing time. Then there’s self-promotion and the introvert’s kryptonite–networking.
On August 28th, a wonderful writer’s milestone happened: I got another rejection for my novelette-length female space samurai story, called Featherlight. The reason this is a milestone is because I didn’t even blink. In fact, I’d even forgotten I’d sent it out or where. Rather than feel disappointed, I was looking at it as an opportunity to expand it past the constraints of most pro-rate magazines which tend to limit the word count to between 15K and 17K words.
Then as I was preparing for DragonCon I found out that eight outfits was nowhere near enough and packed another. Or two. This was my very first DragonCon and while I had a vague idea for what it was, it turned out to be far more intense. Only 80K people. No problem. My goal for next year is to attend as a pro.
Several other wonderful things happened at DragonCon, but I can’t yet tell you what they were. Not yet.
Which brings me back to why you might want to subscribe to my newsletter. First, I won’t flood your inbox with a ton of useless stuff, just relevant updates, maybe 2-3 times a month. Second, the social media platform I’m most active on, Facebook, suppresses content. Just because you’ve liked my author page on Facebook, doesn’t mean that you’ll see the latest updates in a timely manner or at all, since Facebook makes its money selling ads. If you only occasionally use Facebook, chances are you’ll miss my posts. So, opt-in to my newsletter (it’s really easy; just fill in the newsletter opt-in in the upper left hand corner). To quote a memorable movie line, “It’s the only way to be sure.”
If you use Twitter, follow me @HouseDobromil. It’s the Twitter version of my author page. The newsletter is better, trust me.
“The trouble with most of us is that we would rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism.” – Norman Vincent Peale
One-point-two million words.
Two-hundred-and-seventy stories.
Six editors.
Why sign up to write six stories in six weeks without knowing a single thing about what you were going to be asked to write? Well, one answer is, to see if I could do it. The other answer—the real answer—was that what I really, really, really, wanted was the feedback.
I went into this expecting to sell nothing. As a first-timer, I knew that the likelihood that any of my stories would make the buy pile was going to be extremely low. And I was fine with that. What I wanted was an insight into the editorial process of some real pros, people who have been doing this for decades.
When you want to learn, learn from the best.
Read the rest here: Rejection 101: A Writer’s Guide
“The trouble with most of us is that we would rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism.” – Norman Vincent Peale
One-point-two million words.
Two-hundred-and-seventy stories.
Six editors.
Why sign up to write six stories in six weeks without knowing a single thing about what you were going to be asked to write? Well, one answer is, to see if I could do it. The other answer—the real answer—was that what I really, really, really, wanted was the feedback.
I went into this expecting to sell nothing. As a first-timer, I knew that the likelihood that any of my stories would make the buy pile was going to be extremely low. And I was fine with that. What I wanted was an insight into the editorial process of some real pros, people who have been doing this for decades.
When you want to learn, learn from the best.
So what exactly did I sign up for, beside the time-crunch and terror of writing six to-be-determined stories in six weeks? I signed up to read everyone else’s stories as well, and then determine which stories I would buy.
The rules were very specific. No discussion of the stories amongst ourselves. Our opinions didn’t matter. The only opinion that mattered was the opinion of the person writing checks. This is something that writers should tattoo on the inside of their eyelids, preferably in bright glow-in-the-dark neon colors, lest we forget.
The first thing I learned was that I could indeed write a story in a week and on a subject I had absolutely no interest in. I mean none. The first topic was “superstition” and it had specific guidelines, including one for uniqueness. In other words, if you sent in a black cat story, it was going to have to win the cat-fight with all the other black-cat stories.
After some research, I picked a Japanese superstition regarding numbers. Four is for death. Nine is for pain. That’s why Japanese hospitals don’t have rooms with the number four in them, just like buildings don’t have thirteen floors here.
Summary: Inherited from a Japanese ancestor, the superstitions about the number four (associated with death) and the number nine (associated with pain) have come to life for twin sisters. Each finds her own way of dealing with the pain and loss that define their lives—one with meds; the other with something more risqué.
I was not surprised that it was not bought. First of all, I struggled with this story because it had an unreliable narrator and I could absolutely see why the opening would be off-putting. And I totally agree about the title — titles are hard and I threw in the towel and just went with the obvious yet obscure (I do that; some people have accused me of oblique writing).
I also totally agree with the ending coming too abruptly. I knew the editor for this one was going to be tight-fisted with the word count, so I found myself up against the limit, and didn’t write a proper validation. If I’d only known that I could push up against 7000…
What about the other forty-four stories? Well, I’m not going to give you specifics, as they are not mine to give, but I will give you a wrap up of the decision-making process.
The editor already had three stories that he’d reserved space for. The rest of the word-count, he wanted to spread out through as many stories as possible. As the editorial panel went through the stories, several stories with problems went on the “strong maybes” and “maybes” list, while others that were not problematic went into the “no” pile.
So the first take-away is that it’s as much about taste and preference as anything else. In other words, a rejection is not a death-sentence. It is an opinion. An opinion that matters ( when the person is writing checks), but not a death sentence and not a reason to get upset that your story didn’t sell. Even well-received, well-crafted stories didn’t fit the bill for one reason or another.
Those stories that didn’t go into the “no” pile, went on the board under “strong maybes” and “maybes.”
Then the editor went down the list and filled the rest of his word count with a preference for shorter stories, including ones that would need major rewrites. He rejected an excellent long story because saying “yes” to such a long story would mean saying “no” to several short stories, and he wanted as many “flavors” as possible in his anthology.
So, let me re-iterate: a rejection is an opinion, influenced by many factors totally outside your control and knowledge. It is NOT a death sentence. I can vouch for the fact that no one died, even after being told to their face, and in a room full of other writers. In fact we were told up front, don’t send your stories to other markets until the week is over, as the editors may want them for other anthologies. In some cases the editors rejecting the story even told the writer what markets the story should be sent to.
Was your story one of the first ones they read? If so, they might put it in a read-again pile once they have them all, because at the beginning, they just don’t know what else they are going to get. Sometimes a second read works in your favor; other times, not.
Was your story memorable? Unique? Did it fit?
Was your story formatted correctly, or did you make the editor work really hard? Each hurtle you throw in the editor’s way is a reason for them not to keep reading. Really. Honest. So learn to format, punctuate, and use grammar. In other words, be a pro. And if you’re not a pro, fake it ’til you make it by at least working on the mechanics and aesthetics so that you’re not taxing precious editorial time and patience.
Some editorial buys were made purely for commercial reasons, i.e. the author’s name on the anthology would sell copies. This includes a story with problems. Why? Because this is a business, not a vanity project. Is it fair? No, but it IS reality.
This is one reason why it’s hard to learn JUST by reading—this goes for anthologies, magazines, and probably everything else being published today. Unless you know the inner workings, you won’t know why something is there. Just because you don’t know the name of John Q. Writer doesn’t mean that his story isn’t in there purely for commercial reasons. Your story of the same caliber probably wouldn’t have made it in. Or John Q. Writer could be really good and worthy of study. You just don’t know.
Basically, even in the world of letters, there is a senior varsity and a junior varsity. The senior varsity gets more leeway because their names sell tickets. So they get away with doing things you can’t, whether their writing is “good” or “bad.”
I would be remiss not to mention two lovely ladies who came to check on me after my story got rejected (Leah Cutter and Laura Ware). It was an unexpected, but much appreciated, show of concern and camaraderie—the veterans of these workshops do look out for the newbies. I was really touched. Thank you, ladies.
