Paul Jessup thinks he knows why Science Fiction is dying:
Heinlien. Asimov. At the latest, Orson Scott Card (but mostly just for Ender’s Game). I don’t see anyone ever looking for something new…
This is why SF is spiraling downward in sales. It’s fans just aren’t buying it anymore. I’ve got mixed feelings about this. I love Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, etc. so I don’t mind that it’s popular and selling. But some part of me wonders- is SF meant to be kept in the past? Is that why Steampunk is so popular right now, because it’s an emulation of the past? I’m not sure. But this is a problem (Paul Jessup).
Is classicism the problem? Well, it is part of it, but it is only one of many.
Lessons Lost
The biggest problem SF has is that the industry didn’t learn from the New Wave SF of the 60’s and 70’s. These authors, most notably Harlan Ellison and Ray Bradbury, didn’t allow themselves to be constrained by the limits of industry enforced genre. There stories were a little bit science, a little bit fantasy, a little bit horror. The incorporated whatever they thought they needed into their stories to make them good.
Genre has become increasingly rigid. Publishers forgot that Speculative Fiction is the literature of the imagination. It once explored the question, “What if” without any limits save those of the author’s imagination. As the genres stiffened, sales have continued to go down.
Lack of Imagination
This genre lock is not the only problem facing SF. Have you seen any of the marketing for new fiction? No? You are not alone.
If a new classic is published and no one knows about it, will it make any sales? Yes, among the author’s friends and family. That is about it.
Publishers and authors need to find new ways to generate excitement about new titles, but that is not enough. Fans need to find better venues to share and spread the word about their favorite new books.
Bless me, for I have sinned
I have to admit that I really haven’t read any new books in a long time. With the exception of Night’s Knights, Brave Men Run, and Burning Skies. These don’t count because I read them after meeting the authors. I also don’t count the Harry Potter books or franchise fiction. Personally, I find it too hard to find new books to read.
As a writer, I feel like I am confessing a mortal sin. I want to read more, but I am not sure where to find new books.
I’ve thought about reviewing books myself, but I don’t feel like I have the time to wade through the weeds to find the books.
So, I ask you. Where do you find out about new books? How can we promote SF books better?
It is with great pleasure I bring forth and introduce you to The Gift of Lit, a collective effort by many of the fine authors from Podiobooks. Together, we would like to share with you our diverse works and invite you to take a look at the nice selection of books we have spent hours, days, months, or years writing.
The Gift of Lit: Holiday 2009 is now here. If you are looking for a great gift this holiday season, rather it be for a family member, friend…or for yourself, take a look at the list below and give one, some, or all of these books your consideration. There are books to suit your needs this holiday season. Here, you will find fantasy, sci-fi, crime drama, speculative fiction, techno thriller, and much more. Help support these authors and spread the joys of literature. Give spark to imagination.
Below, take a look at all of the different titles offered and follow the links to purchase your own copy for yourself or to give that special someone this holiday. Yet, no matter the time of year, The Gift of Lit will be sure to please all readers.
HORROR
NIGHT’S KNIGHTS by Emerian Rich
Buy it here at >> Amazon<< (starts as low as $13.00)
Vampires on a quest for knowledge attempt to create the perfect offspring, but from the shadows an even more demonic evil threatens their immortality. Markham is a simple Irish immigrant striving for the American dream in 1860 when coach robbers cause his untimely death. Severina is an exotic beauty from the jungles of Brazil whose family is brutally murdered by the same man she later calls lover. Julien is a knight who serves as guardian angel to his family but has no clue about his predestined fate. Will a powerful mortal named Jespa be the one to save them all?
FANTASY
BRAVE MEN RUN by Matthew Wayne Selznick
Buy it here at >> Amazon << (starts as low as $8.98 new)
April 18, 1985-Into a world already wound tight with the desperate
tensions of the Cold War comes Dr. William Donner with a startling
declaration: superhumans exist, they demand autonomy, and he has the
reality-bending power to enforce their status. The traditional balance
of power is thrown askew by the addition of not one super-powered
human, but six thousand. Before the Donner Declaration, high school
sophomore Nate Charters was just an outsider and self-proclaimed
freak. His unusual appearance, hair-trigger reflexes, and overactive
metabolism should have made him something special, but his differences
and low self-esteem have long since marked him as a target for the
jocks and popular kids. Now, just as his unique nature brings him the
attention of a self-assured older girl, Nate must find his place in
the world. Why is he the way he is? What really happened to his long
dead father? Why is his biggest rival suddenly interested in a private
meeting? Is he part of a remarkable, powerful new minority… or just
a misfit among misfits? Nate must discover the answers to these
questions quickly, because those in power know more about him than he
could ever imagine. And they’re closing in…
Kweku Anansi is just another member of the African diaspora, trying to
make a place for himself in his adopted home of Toronto, Canada. He
dreams of better days, of a time when he could stop running small time
cons just to make the rent. He dreams of the life he used to live,
centuries ago when he was revered as a god.
A chance encounter with a fellow con man with a dark and secretive
past of his own, plunges them both into the dark world of the lost
gods, gods who would do anything to be worshipped again. Including
destroying the world, if necessary.
How far will Anansi go to reclaim his godhood? What will he give up to
have true power again?
THE FOX by Arlene Radasky
Buy it here at >> Amazon << (starts as low as $20.99 new)
The Fox by Arlene Radasky is a historical romance and fantasy novel that looks at true courage and truly selfless acts. In this epic fiction that crosses centuries, Druid healers at the beginning of recorded time will be rescued from obscurity by an archeologist of the twenty-first century. Jahna’s clan lay in the path of destruction exacted by the Romans. Her fate is sealed unless a bargain is made with the Gods, which without a doubt means a human sacrifice. Two thousand years later, Aine MacRae is on their trail. A struggling archaeologist, she is on the verge of uncovering the village where they once lived. Encouraged by a ghostly visit, she will do whatever it takes to unearth time’s mystery. Greed almost triumphs leaving the truth and ancient stories buried forever, but an undying love is rekindled.
CHASING THE BARD by Philippa Ballantine
Buy it here at >> Amazon << (starts as low as $12.69 new)
Born into the human world with a gift; a gift that brings him to the attention of powers both dark and light from the World of the Fey, it is his burden to defend all the world. Sive, the goddess of battle, hopes that he may be able to change the fate of her people.The Fey are dying, killed by something beyond the boundaries of worlds, and Sive will do anything to save them. So she enlists the help of her trickster cousin Puck to guard the child, and watch him grow into his gift. But a dark power imprisoned by human and Fey, plots to destroy both worlds, and unmake all that they have created. Can one boy stop the destruction, even if he is William Shakespeare?
THE DAWNING OF POWER by Brian Rathbone
Buy it here at >> Amazon << (starts as low as $17.98)
The Dawning of Power is the debut trilogy in Brian Rathbone’s fantasy series: The World of Godsland. Echoes of the ancients power are distant memories, tattered and faded by the passage of eons, but that is about to change. A new dawn has arrived. Latent abilities, harbored in mankind s deepest fibers, wait to be unleashed. Ancient evils awaken, and old fears ignite the fires of war. In times such as these, ordinary people have the power to save the world . . . or destroy it.
THE WHITE SHADOW SAGA: THE STOLEN MOON OF LONDOR by A.P. Stephens
Buy it here at >> Amazon << (starts as low as $8.60)
The era of peace among the elves, men, and dwarves comes to an end when one of Londor’s twin moons disappears from the heavens. Without the moon’s balancing effect, evil forces grow bold, and warfare, sickness, and chaos threaten life itself.
Hearing the prayers of desperation that ride on the violent winds, the ancient wizard Randor Miithra, servant to the elf-gods, takes it upon himself to mend the world he has sworn to protect. The task will not be an easy one, though, for the wizard, too, has begun to feel the effects of the world’s imbalance. As Randor struggles to maintain some semblance of his powers, he meets a secretive band of colorful characters from all walks of life, drawn together by a common goal: to find the stolen moon, whatever the cost. It does not take Randor and his motley company long to see that someone or something does not want the moon returned to the heavens.
The road is perilous…the stakes have never been greater…will they find victory…or will they only find their deaths?
SCIENCE FICTION
THE VATICAN ASSASSIN TRILOGY by Mike Luoma
Buy it here at >> Lulu << (starts as low as $35.99)
This three in one omnibus edition collects all three novels in the “Vatican Assassin” Trilogy under one cover. “Vatican Assassin”, “Vatican Ambassador” and “Vatican Abdicator” are joined in this volume by an extensive appendix of previously unreleased background material. There are some early concept sketches by Mike Luoma, as well as “The History of The Future”: a timeline developed to extrapolate from today into the future setting for the story; “The Original Story Outline”; “The Story of The Project”; “The Alien Timeline” and more.
THE PIRATES OF SUFIRO by David Lee Summers
Buy it here at >> Amazon << (starts as low as $14.95)
The Pirates of Sufiro is the story of a planet and its people — of Ellison Firebrandt the pirate captain living in exile; of Espedie Raton, the con-man looking to make a fresh start for himself and his wife on a new world; of Peter Stone, the ruthless bank executive who discovers a fortune and will do anything to keep it; and of the lawman, Edmund Ray Swan who travels to Sufiro seeking the quiet life but finds a dark secret. It is the story of privateers, farmers, miners, entrepreneurs, and soldiers — all caught up in dramatic events and violent conflicts that will shape the destiny of our galaxy.
CRIME DRAMA
JACK WAKES UP by Seth Harwood
Buy it here at >> Amazon << (starts as low as $7.68)
In JACK WAKES UP, we are introduced to Jack Palms, a movie star turned drug addict, turned has-been who has been living off of the residual checks from Shake ‘Em Down, his one–and-only action movie. The money is drying up though, and this new clean, uneventful life is starting to become too much for Jack to bear. So when an old friend comes calling and asks Jack to use his former celebrity to show some out-of-town high rollers around San Francisco’s club scene, he’s happy to oblige. What Jack doesn’t know, however, is these “guests” are a pack of former KGB agents turned coke dealers out to make a big deal with Jack as their tour guide. Soon people are turning up dead, and Jack’s got too many gunmen after him to count—including a South American drug cartel, a mountain-sized Samoan enforcer, and a mobbed-up strip club owner with an army of thugs. That’s not to mention a gorgeous new girlfriend who may be planning on shooting him in the back and the homicide cop who’s just given Jack twenty-four hours to bring down the Bay Area’s biggest drug dealer.
But the thing that scares Jack the most? He’s starting to have fun.
FICTION
CITY OF MASKS by Mike Reeves-McMillan
Buy it here at >> Lulu << (starts as low as $9.97)
In the city-state of Bonvidaeo, by custom and law everyone must wear a mask and act in character with it, or face civil, social and religious penalties. Gregorius Bass is sent to Bonvidaeo as the Envoy of Calaria (primarily to get him out from underfoot). Masked as the Innocent Man, and in the company of his radical young Bonvidaoan servant, Bass stumbles into mystery, intrigue, heresy and murder.
TECHNO THRILLER
7TH SON: DESCENT by J.C. Hutchins
Buy it here at >> Amazon << (starts as low as $9.21)
As America reels from the bizarre presidential assassination committed by a child, seven men are abducted from their normal lives and delivered to a secret government facility. Each man has his own career, his own specialty. All are identical in appearance. The seven strangers were not born, but grown — unwitting human clones — as part of a project called 7th Son.
The government now wants something from these “John Michael Smiths.” They share the flesh as well as the implanted memories of the psychopath responsible for the president’s murder. The killer has bigger plans, and only these seven have the unique qualifications to track and stop him. But when their progenitor makes the battle personal, it becomes clear John Alpha may know the seven better than they know themselves…
SPECULATIVE FICTION
DREAMING OF DELIVERANCE by R.E. Chambliss
Buy it here at >> Amazon << (starts as low as $19.99)
Five years ago when Lindsay Paulson, a naive college student and talented distance runner, was 18, she was convicted of drug smuggling. Now, halfway through a 10-year prison sentence, she begins having what seem to be dreams, in which she leaves her cell in the night and visits another reality called Trae. Dreaming of Deliverance tells of Lindsay’s experiences both in Trae, where she finds herself among people enslaved by terrifying creatures, and in prison where she tries to make sense of what’s happening in her sleep: Is she actually escaping from prison somehow or is she losing her mind?
FANTASY FICTION HISTORICAL
THE MARK OF A DRUID by Rhonda R. Carpenter
Buy it here at >> Amazon << (starts as low as $16.55 new)
Have you ever had a dream so real that when you awoke, it didn’t leave the recesses of your mind for days? Eve McCormick just did, and this experience will change her life and the lives of those around her permanently. A twenty-six year old hypnotherapist who oversees a research project based on discovering the answer to an age-old question, “Is reincarnation fact or fiction?” must learn to trust a Welsh stranger. An ancient Celtic prophecy and long sought-after revenge entangles the past with the present in the struggle for existence that threatens to destroy her project. A druidess and a shape-shifter must join as one to save the Druid way of life, while a Queen conspires to kill Erin’s only High King. Will the oaths and agendas of the past reach across the centuries to strengthen or destroy?
Thanks, author A. P. Stephens who started this little project.
The most powerful tool a writer has in their box is the use of constraints, Genre, and placing limitations on themselves. Despite the way it might sound, limitation is the fertilizer of creativity.
Limitations…
…prevent the writer from going wild and over cluttering a story or setting. Imagine if limitations had been placed on the X-Files to keep the writers from crafting the often contradictory stories that made it to air.
…focus the writer so we have to develop and flesh out those things that we are allowed to have in the setting. This brings depth and clarity to the story.
…give the story a sense of reality. We are used to living with our limitations, and as the reader discovers the ones in our stories they come to understand what is and is not possible in the story.
…force creative implementations of the ideas we have allowed into the story. The only magic available in Avatar: The Last Airbender is element bending, so the writers integrated bending into every aspect of the setting and came up with creative uses of bending that are not obvious.
…help the writer plot the story. When writing Speculative Fiction, it is easy to get lost in the possible ways to accomplish every task in the tale. Limits clear the brush and make the way more apparent.
Limitations only work if they are carefully and deliberately chosen. If chosen carefully, they can even be a powerful way to find new stories to write.
Genre
Genre is the first limitation to pick. I know everyone says that, but no one explains why.
Your choice of Genre will immediately define you type of setting and the type of stories that can exist in that world. Do not pick an open Genre, drill down and find the one that fits what you are wanting to write in.
Take “Dune by Frank Herbert. There are many genres that books could have been written in, each would have changed the story immensely. It is the genre that makes that book what it is.
Speculative Fiction
Science Fiction
Soft Science Fiction
Space Opera
Galactic Empire
Planetary Romance
The entire setting and the majority of the plot is dictated by this choice of genre. Imagine how the story would have changed if instead of a Planetary Romance, he had chosen to do a Technofantasy, or if he had chosen to made the story Hard Science Fiction, limiting it to known physics. The entire story would change.
How do you find these subgenres? Wikipedia has a good number of them listed. I use the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and the Encyclopedia of Fantasy, neither of which are still in print, but if you can get your hands on one, I would highly recommend them.
Take time and carefully pick yours before you move on.
Constraints
Once you have chosen your Genre, list the constraints that it gives you.
Now add your own. Do aliens exist? What about Ghosts? Answer the questions that make sense for the type of story you are wanting to write. Be deliberate and keep your list of exclusions near you as you write.
Fiction in a Box
After you have built your box, figure out how to exploit it. Like Neo in the Matrix, you have to learn that the rules can be bent but not broken.
What cultures would develop under those rules?
How do those rules effect the characters life, profession, and the tools they have at their disposal?
How do the rules change the technology the characters use?
What impossible thing do the characters long to do?
How can I use that impossible thing in the setting?
In Harry Potter, magic can do anything but bring back the dead. That impossibility effects Voldemort, Dumbledor, and Harry.
In Dune, it is impossible to see the future, truth, or to even travel through space without the spice. Those limits and the characters fears and hopes related to them drive the story.
After you have established all of your limitations, you need to come up with a story that would be unexpected in that setting.
Harry Potter is set in a traditional fantasy setting where they are struggling to defeat a Dark Lord, but the books themselves are written as mysteries rather than quests.
Dune tells the story of a coming messiah, but the story is about the psychology of a boy turned man who grapples with his visions of the future trying to stop them from happening.
Liquid Sky is a story about a boy trying to defy fate, but it is told from the point of view of a coming of age story.
“Shine Like Thunder” is a dark space opera about characters trying to survive after they are marooned on a demon filled world, but it is told as a romance/mystery.
When you establish a convention, the reader will feel comfortable in the setting. When you tell the story in a unique way, you are able to surprise the reader without making them feel the story betrayed its premise.
Project:Shadow HQ is now up to 36 members! Thanks to everyone who is spreading the word, great job! If you haven’t already invited your friends to join the party send them an e-vite At http://rurl.org/bol. You can also show your solidarity by putting a cool Project:Shadow HQ badge http://rurl.org/bom on your web site, blog or MySpace profile!
Become a Project: Shadow Informant
You too can become a Project: Shadow Informant by sharing your experiences with us. Whether movie, music, book, art, dreams or event post your experience in your member page blog we would love to hear about it. You can also upload videos or pictures.
Kudos!
Kudos to our member Matthew Wayne Selznick. He is getting “Brave Men Run — A Novel of the Sovereign Era” published in paperback form by Swarm Press. In honor of that he is inviting all of us to join him for a Sovereign Summer over at his web site http://www.bravemenrun.com…
Event Engine
We’ve added the event engine over at the HQ. We can now post what events we are attending. This is for everyone so if you are attending an event be it a convention, a personal signing, or a meet up go ahead and put it into the calendar.
Cheers!
Cheers to our member Wm. Mark Simmons he will be the Toastmaster at ConQuesT convention this year in Kansas City. If you will be in the area and can stop in RSVP in the event calendar.
Like to shop? Need to shop? Get your shopping done with us at ProjectShadow.com/shop. We set up a store so that you can get your shopping done in one stop, stores include Amazon, Hot Topic, and Sharper Image. Not only is it convent but it also helps to support our work here at Project: Shadow. We also have cool t-shirts, posters, and other merchandise available.
P:S INFORMANT
Project:Shadow Informant is live Monday through Friday at 1:30 est on TalkShue http://rurl.org/a8j. You can also subscribe to the podcast by going to www.ProjectShadowInformant.com. Your Culture! Your Life! Dreams, Music, Movie, Art, Life dashPunks unite!
Iron Man Talk | Racing with Speed | Del Toro’s Scrapbook | Superman | Wisecrack | Allo Allo | U.S. of Ant | Nine Inch Nails | WEbook update | Sovereign Summer | and D&D 4e updates Today on the Project: Shadow Informant.
Movie
Iron Man
How Superhero Movies Should Be Done: Review of Iron Man (P:S Symposium)
New River Dolphin Species | The Mummy | iTunes DVD Release Date | Transformers 2 | Radiohead | Baby got Book | D&D 4th ed. clearing the FUD | and Stargate Worlds Today on the Project: Shadow Informant.
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