Welcome to Callihoo Publishing's blog!
We've been offline for a while, but are coming back with a blog from Julia West about her experiences with StoryADay. Questions and comments are very welcome.
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StoryADay is a creativity challenge. It challenges people to write (and finish) a short story every day during May. StoryADay was founded in early 2010 by Julie Duffy, a writer, blogger and entrepreneur. Each May since then participants have tried, during the entire month, to write a story a day. It doesn't matter how long or short the story is, but it should be a complete story, with a beginning, middle, and end.
http://storyaday.org/about/
My daughter discovered StoryADay in 2011, and challenged me to do it with her.
At first, I thought it was an impossibility. Write a story every day? Me? I'm the person who brainstorms a story for a week, then takes a month to write and polish it. Then I send it through my writers' group, and rewrite it, taking another week to a month. I can write novels faster than I write short stories! And my stories all turn out long--9,000 to 15,000 words. How could I do that in one day?
Back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, I tried an online challenge called Dare to Be Bad (I talk about this at http://www.sff.net/people/julia.west/callihoo/dtbb/index.htm). In that challenge, a group got together and encouraged one another to write three stories in six days. When my writer's group did it, we usually picked a holiday weekend when we'd have more time to write. But never, in all the times I tried it, did I completely finished three stories in six days. So what made me think I could write 30 stories in 30 days?
But my daughter talked me into StoryADay, and on May 1, 2011, I started writing. I generated a random occurrence from a story generator (more about them in the next blog post), and began writing. Much to my surprise, I was able to start--and finish!--a story that day. It was fairly long--5682 words--and I didn't like it much once it was done, but I had started and finished a story in the same day!
Much heartened by this success, I continued the challenge. On a few days, I wrote story poems (I had just come from a month of writing poetry for National Poetry Writing Month--NaPoWriMo). Though shorter, story poems were almost more difficult than writing prose, because not only did there need to be a story, there also needed to be scansion, rhyme (because I usually write rhyming poems), and all those poem-y things.
That first time, I burned out about halfway through the month. I was trying to write stories that were 5,000 to 6,000 words, every day. That's a LOT of writing. And to come up with an idea and write the story, all in one day--well, it was tough.
But even though I didn't write a story every day that month, I learned something about myself and about writing. I learned that it was possible for me to write a story in a day. Some of the stories were even pretty good. Others (like the first one I wrote) I've never even shared with my writer's group. Another thing I learned about my writing is that, since I've been writing for decades, and I'm used to looking at things, and banging ideas together to come up with something different, I could use that ability in these quick stories. I learned to trust the storyteller inside of me to come up with a story on the fly, rather than brainstorming and outlining until the story started telling itself. Without the weeks of brainstorming, some of the stories were a bit bare of bone, but that's easily taken care of afterward. A maxim I learned years ago is, "If you don't write the story, you can't rewrite the story." If I don't have anything to rewrite--however badly written, however scant on detail--I can't fix it. Learning to trust my inner storyteller was the most valuable lesson I learned that first May.
My daughter likes to drag me into writing challenges. I've done National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo, http://www.nanowrimo.org/) since 2008, and "won" every time. To win, according to the NaNoWriMo graph, one must simply write 50,000 words. I write long, and it's usually pretty easy for me to come up with word count! My challenge, for NaNoWriMo, is to FINISH the novel I start. A novel for adults has to be considerably longer than 50,000 words, so I have usually written more than that--and haven't yet completed a novel in the month.
Several years ago, for NaNoWriMo, I learned to brainstorm for the next day's writing just before I go to bed. With something fresh to mull over, with new ideas that my mind can work on as I sleep, it's much easier to pick up and continue writing the next day. I was very seldom stuck, at a loss for what to write. I discovered that worked so well that I decided to try it for National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo) in April and StoryADay in May. Generate a prompt, brainstorm on that prompt, then go to bed. Let my mind stew over what I'd come up with. Often, by the time I started the story the next day, I'd have new, interesting things that hadn't come up in my brainstorming the night before. This worked even better!
Another thing I tried was taking days off. I scheduled days during May that I would finish a story I had started before but not finished, or to rewrite a story I had finished, and had critiqued in my writers' group, but not rewritten. This way, my brain didn't have to come up with a whole new idea every day! That worked fairly well. Also, as some of my other writer friends do, I took Sunday off. Having a day with no writing helped me be all the fresher when I opened my word processor up on Monday.
I started playing with story structure. I had judged a Micro Short Short Story contest at the local science fiction convention for decades (http://callihoopublishing.blogspot.com/2012/06/micro-short-short-stories.html), but had never written one. After all, I write long! How could I write a story that is only three (however long) sentences? I analyzed how micro short short stories worked. They're kind of like jokes, with a setup and a punchline. I tried to get as much description, backstory, and characterization as possible in the first two sentences (which could be VERY long, with judicious punctuation), then give the payoff in the third sentence. This actually worked quite well. So, since there is absolutely no wordcount max or minimum in StoryADay (in fact, flash fiction is encouraged), I found I could write a story that was only 200-300 words! That was very different from my usual "short" story being 6,000 words. Always before, I'd approached story writing with the attitude that it should be a story I could fix up and attempt to sell. Something I could finish, polish, and send off to a publisher. This time, I was a bit more lackadaisical, a touch more whimsical, and it paid off. I wrote several short short stories (some more than three sentences, but still only a page or two long). How freeing that was!
So, what has StoryADay taught me? It has taught me that I can write short. I learned that I can get an idea, brainstorm a story, and write that story in one day. I learned to trust my inner storyteller. I learned that, with the proper polish, I can sell a story I wrote in one day. Yes, one of the stories I wrote in May 2011 sold exactly a year later, to the day, to Marion Zimmer Bradley's Sword and Sorceress XXVII. (http://www.amazon.com/Sword-Sorceress-XXVII-Volume-27/dp/1938185080/) I learned (when I handed out some of the stories I'd written that I thought were pretty bad, and found that people actually liked them) that I shouldn't trust my own inner critic. I should let others read the stories I have written and make the decision as to whether they are worth putting more work into.
Taking the StoryADay challenge four times now has given me a large file of story rough drafts. All I need to do with them is re-read each one, grind some of the rough edges down, and send it through my critique group. Before I started the challenge, every story I wrote was a months-long process, and I often felt I had too much invested in them to be able to say, "Oh well, this one just didn't work out." I can do that with the StoryADay stories. I can gut the really bad stories for ideas that worked, even if the stories themselves weren't good enough to keep. I allow myself to do that that because of the sheer number of stories I've generated. Even though I've burned out about halfway through the month each time, that still gives me about 50 stories that I didn't have before. Amazing!
I would encourage others to at least try StoryADay. Read the encouragement emails that Julie Duffy sends out, brainstorm beforehand, work up to it if you must--but at least try it. If you only get ONE story out of the experience . . . fantastic! It's one more story than you had before.
http://storyaday.org/
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Julia H. West has been writing science fiction and fantasy for years, and many of her stories, which have been published in various magazines and anthologies, are available as ebooks through Callihoo Publishing.
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Meet Emily and Dave Butler
Once again, Callihoo Publishing is very pleased to have a guest blog. This time it's the husband-and-wife writing team of Emily and Dave Butler. They don't publish through Callihoo Publishing, but have written some rather amazing novels which we at Callihoo Publishing enjoy, so we asked them to introduce themselves on our blog. We're sure you'll be seeing more of these names out there in the big world of publishing soon!
Hello, Callihoo Publishing!
We write.
What do we write? Between us, a surprisingly broad range.
We've co-written a YA novel, an adventure romance about time traveling art thieves, fallen angels, John Dee, and the fabled Crown of Adam. You can't read this book yet, but you'll be able to soon--we've recently acquired literary representation for the series, and it should be going to editors' desks in September.
We have more YA and middle reader stories already in the hopper behind this one. By "in the hopper" we mean, already written, ready to polish and send out. If our agent likes them, we'll get them out to editors in due time. And if he doesn't, this year Dave has learned how to self-publish, so, sooner or later, they'll be coming your way.
Our self-publishing odd-yssey began with Rock Band Fights Evil, a pulp fiction action horror serial about a band of damned men fighting to recover their souls. As of this writing, there are five RBFE stories available as ebooks from all the usual outlets. The first three--Hellhound on My Trail, Snake Handlin' Man, and Crow Jane--are also available in a paperback omnibus called Rock Band Fights Evil Volume One. More soon.
Our other serial is City of the Saints, a gonzo action steampunk adventure tale set in the Kingdom of Deseret in the year 1859. Can Sam Clemens of the U.S. Army get Brigham Young and his air-ships to enter the looming war on the side of the northern states? Will Richard Burton, special envoy of Queen Victoria, sabotage Sam's amphibious steam-truck the Jim Smiley and stop him? And where is the agent of the clandestine confederate leadership, the master of disguise Edgar Allan Poe? The four parts of CotS are Liahona, Deseret, Timpanogos, and Teancum; the entire thing will be published as a paperback this fall.
That's not all: Dave writes filk songs. Last year he timidly offered his homage to Robert E. Howard, "The Gift of Solomon Kane," at CONduit, and was pleasantly surprised that no one laughed at him. He now has a YouTube channel where he posts good recordings when he has them, and makes it a point to play at every con he attends.
That's still not all. As D. John Butler, Dave has even written a radical non-fiction essay on The Book of Mormon. It's called Plain and Precious Things: The Temple Religion of the Book of Mormon's Visionary Men. In a nutshell, Dave argues that The Book of Mormon is the record of religious visionaries whose practices were all rooted in the temple, and recorded, in visionary form, in their book. More soon on this front, too!
We have war stories to share, and maybe even wisdom to impart, and since we're in the thick of it, we expect to have more over time. In addition to the links below, City of the Saints, Rock Band Fights Evil, and Plain and Precious Things each has a Facebook page you can like and follow for developments. Also, look for us on Amazon, Smashwords, at your local convention, and, hopefully soon, your local bookstore.
Thanks again,
Emily and Dave (D.J.) Butler
A Few Links:
Emily's site: http://thesmophoria.com
Dave's site (see the right margin for links to Rock Band Fights Evil and City of the Saints books): http://davidjohnbutler.com
Plain and Precious Things: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/147816736X/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=147816736X&linkCode=as2&tag=rock08a-20
The Gift of Solomon Kane: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYW8Iz9P2e4&feature=plcp
Hello, Callihoo Publishing!
We write.
What do we write? Between us, a surprisingly broad range.
We've co-written a YA novel, an adventure romance about time traveling art thieves, fallen angels, John Dee, and the fabled Crown of Adam. You can't read this book yet, but you'll be able to soon--we've recently acquired literary representation for the series, and it should be going to editors' desks in September.
We have more YA and middle reader stories already in the hopper behind this one. By "in the hopper" we mean, already written, ready to polish and send out. If our agent likes them, we'll get them out to editors in due time. And if he doesn't, this year Dave has learned how to self-publish, so, sooner or later, they'll be coming your way.
Our self-publishing odd-yssey began with Rock Band Fights Evil, a pulp fiction action horror serial about a band of damned men fighting to recover their souls. As of this writing, there are five RBFE stories available as ebooks from all the usual outlets. The first three--Hellhound on My Trail, Snake Handlin' Man, and Crow Jane--are also available in a paperback omnibus called Rock Band Fights Evil Volume One. More soon.
Our other serial is City of the Saints, a gonzo action steampunk adventure tale set in the Kingdom of Deseret in the year 1859. Can Sam Clemens of the U.S. Army get Brigham Young and his air-ships to enter the looming war on the side of the northern states? Will Richard Burton, special envoy of Queen Victoria, sabotage Sam's amphibious steam-truck the Jim Smiley and stop him? And where is the agent of the clandestine confederate leadership, the master of disguise Edgar Allan Poe? The four parts of CotS are Liahona, Deseret, Timpanogos, and Teancum; the entire thing will be published as a paperback this fall.
That's not all: Dave writes filk songs. Last year he timidly offered his homage to Robert E. Howard, "The Gift of Solomon Kane," at CONduit, and was pleasantly surprised that no one laughed at him. He now has a YouTube channel where he posts good recordings when he has them, and makes it a point to play at every con he attends.
That's still not all. As D. John Butler, Dave has even written a radical non-fiction essay on The Book of Mormon. It's called Plain and Precious Things: The Temple Religion of the Book of Mormon's Visionary Men. In a nutshell, Dave argues that The Book of Mormon is the record of religious visionaries whose practices were all rooted in the temple, and recorded, in visionary form, in their book. More soon on this front, too!
We have war stories to share, and maybe even wisdom to impart, and since we're in the thick of it, we expect to have more over time. In addition to the links below, City of the Saints, Rock Band Fights Evil, and Plain and Precious Things each has a Facebook page you can like and follow for developments. Also, look for us on Amazon, Smashwords, at your local convention, and, hopefully soon, your local bookstore.
Thanks again,
Emily and Dave (D.J.) Butler
A Few Links:
Emily's site: http://thesmophoria.com
Dave's site (see the right margin for links to Rock Band Fights Evil and City of the Saints books): http://davidjohnbutler.com
Plain and Precious Things: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/147816736X/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=147816736X&linkCode=as2&tag=rock08a-20
The Gift of Solomon Kane: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYW8Iz9P2e4&feature=plcp
Monday, August 6, 2012
Book Covers are Important
Callihoo Publishing enjoys hearing from people in the science fiction community, no matter their areas of interest or expertise. Remember, writers, it's the people who read your stories who are paying you. So pay attention to their opinions! Callihoo Publishing's guest blogger today is Mike Morgan, who is an illustrator and avid science fiction reader.
I'm here today to talk to you about the possibly unappreciated art of the cover to your book/short story/novella/fanfic. I say possibly unappreciated because I know there are some writers out there who painstakingly choose who works with them to create the covers of their books. For every one of those writers there are a dozen more who don't fully appreciate what a book cover can do for their audience and what it could mean for their sales.
Time was, in the long, long ago, before time, pulp writers had to match their stories to illustrations provided to them by their publishers. Can you imagine having to do that day in and day out? You should. Sometimes it is a great way to draw inspiration, and it's surprising to find how many different stories can come out of a single picture. These days, however, it's the opposite of the pulp era. Covers are designed (well, good covers) with elements of the story in mind, or with an overall concept that can become iconic. I am going to highlight to you what I, as an illustrator, find important.
First off, Twilight. I don't like the movies, the story or the implications contained in the dang series. But here's the rub: it is not a bad cover. This illustration allows your imagination to fill in more of the blanks, the many many blanks, that are provided in the story. There are no overt references to vampires or the undead or teen angst in this cover. Hands giving an apple, a promise of a gift. It's symbolic, no doubt, and that is a dangerous path, certainly not one that everyone should take. Had the cover designer decided to showcase something from the story, say an emaciated sparkly stalker, it's possible that the Twilight series would have been an entirely different phenomenon. Maybe people wouldn't have cared about this story and we wouldn't be facing down an immortal Kristen Stewart today.
Take a look at www.goodshowsir.co.uk and let me know when you are back. Done? Okay. The lesson there can probably be broken down into a few "Don't" bullet points.
· Excessive use of photoshop.
· Disconnected imagery.
· Way too busy to get the point across.
· Illustration doesn't match the book in any way.
Romance novels seem to be guilty of the first point, but their cover art does a fine job of telling you in no uncertain terms what the story is about. A lot of 70s sci-fi stories are guilty of the second, third, and fourth points, so you have no stinking idea what the cover is trying to convey. As a reader, casual or die hard, those details can make a big difference. A person can be easily turned away by a cover that is just chaos or by something that looks just the same as the dozen or so books surrounding it.
There is a lesson here: pay attention to the important visual or emotional elements in your book. If you are going to have a cover created, have a clear idea of what the heart of your story is. That way when an artist or designer is working on your cover you can tell them what fits and what doesn't. Don't be afraid of such elements as bared chests if you are making a pure cheese-ball romance, or swords or magic for fantasy, but try to make sure that each cover is relevant to the heart of your story.
Something else to keep in mind: don't bog down your designer with minute details, like a character's collection of sunglasses, or so-and-so wouldn't have that expression on her face. Let your designer stretch their creative legs a bit in your world. Take their input to heart, but always keep your target in sight. Between the two of you, there is a much better chance of finding what works for your story. If it doesn't come off as iconic and is just all right, that's okay. If the story sells, that means people like your story for your story, and that is the goal.
* * * * *
Mike Morgan is an occasional dabbler in finer arts but prefers to create webcomics. To date he has sold one drawing for the whopping sum of twenty dollars, but hopes one day to double or even triple that amount. He can be found on Twitter @KiltyAsCharged
I'm here today to talk to you about the possibly unappreciated art of the cover to your book/short story/novella/fanfic. I say possibly unappreciated because I know there are some writers out there who painstakingly choose who works with them to create the covers of their books. For every one of those writers there are a dozen more who don't fully appreciate what a book cover can do for their audience and what it could mean for their sales.
Time was, in the long, long ago, before time, pulp writers had to match their stories to illustrations provided to them by their publishers. Can you imagine having to do that day in and day out? You should. Sometimes it is a great way to draw inspiration, and it's surprising to find how many different stories can come out of a single picture. These days, however, it's the opposite of the pulp era. Covers are designed (well, good covers) with elements of the story in mind, or with an overall concept that can become iconic. I am going to highlight to you what I, as an illustrator, find important.
First off, Twilight. I don't like the movies, the story or the implications contained in the dang series. But here's the rub: it is not a bad cover. This illustration allows your imagination to fill in more of the blanks, the many many blanks, that are provided in the story. There are no overt references to vampires or the undead or teen angst in this cover. Hands giving an apple, a promise of a gift. It's symbolic, no doubt, and that is a dangerous path, certainly not one that everyone should take. Had the cover designer decided to showcase something from the story, say an emaciated sparkly stalker, it's possible that the Twilight series would have been an entirely different phenomenon. Maybe people wouldn't have cared about this story and we wouldn't be facing down an immortal Kristen Stewart today.
Take a look at www.goodshowsir.co.uk and let me know when you are back. Done? Okay. The lesson there can probably be broken down into a few "Don't" bullet points.
· Excessive use of photoshop.
· Disconnected imagery.
· Way too busy to get the point across.
· Illustration doesn't match the book in any way.
Romance novels seem to be guilty of the first point, but their cover art does a fine job of telling you in no uncertain terms what the story is about. A lot of 70s sci-fi stories are guilty of the second, third, and fourth points, so you have no stinking idea what the cover is trying to convey. As a reader, casual or die hard, those details can make a big difference. A person can be easily turned away by a cover that is just chaos or by something that looks just the same as the dozen or so books surrounding it.
There is a lesson here: pay attention to the important visual or emotional elements in your book. If you are going to have a cover created, have a clear idea of what the heart of your story is. That way when an artist or designer is working on your cover you can tell them what fits and what doesn't. Don't be afraid of such elements as bared chests if you are making a pure cheese-ball romance, or swords or magic for fantasy, but try to make sure that each cover is relevant to the heart of your story.
Something else to keep in mind: don't bog down your designer with minute details, like a character's collection of sunglasses, or so-and-so wouldn't have that expression on her face. Let your designer stretch their creative legs a bit in your world. Take their input to heart, but always keep your target in sight. Between the two of you, there is a much better chance of finding what works for your story. If it doesn't come off as iconic and is just all right, that's okay. If the story sells, that means people like your story for your story, and that is the goal.
* * * * *
Mike Morgan is an occasional dabbler in finer arts but prefers to create webcomics. To date he has sold one drawing for the whopping sum of twenty dollars, but hopes one day to double or even triple that amount. He can be found on Twitter @KiltyAsCharged
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
What does it take to be a writer?
Often when I tell people I'm a writer, their first question is, for reasons I cannot comprehend, "Oh, have you sold anything?" I've gotten quite good at working my way around that question, because as of right now, the answer is still no. So it becomes, "No, but I have a blog you can follow", or, more often, "No, but I'm really busy with school right now." I figure it's not worth the effort to explain even as much as "No, but I've finished three novels", or "No, but I just sent a bunch of stories off", and especially not "No, but I just got my 20th rejection letter, so I'm treating myself!"
I've always thought it's a rather odd situation. If I told people I work at a restaurant, or an accounting firm, they wouldn't ask if I've been paid yet. It gets to the point where I'd rather tell someone about my day job than my real passion, just to avoid awkward questions. And yet, the day job is only there to support my favorite activity: spending hours sequestered off in my own little worlds, exhausting myself (or at least my brain and fingers) on something that may or may not one day give me some money. Writing's not exactly something a person commits their time to unless they're passionate about it.Why then does it seem so hard to feel justified in claiming the title of 'writer'?
I've always thought it's a rather odd situation. If I told people I work at a restaurant, or an accounting firm, they wouldn't ask if I've been paid yet. It gets to the point where I'd rather tell someone about my day job than my real passion, just to avoid awkward questions. And yet, the day job is only there to support my favorite activity: spending hours sequestered off in my own little worlds, exhausting myself (or at least my brain and fingers) on something that may or may not one day give me some money. Writing's not exactly something a person commits their time to unless they're passionate about it.Why then does it seem so hard to feel justified in claiming the title of 'writer'?
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
How Writing has Changed (For Me) Since the 1970s--Part Three
In Which I Join the Working World and (Much Later) the Computer Age
When I dropped out of college, moved away from home, and got a job, I discovered that I didn't have nearly as much time to write as I had when I was in college. Part of it was the fact that I had discovered science fiction fandom and become very active in a Star Trek fan club. Even there I used my writing--I helped publish a newsletter, and dabbled in writing Star Trek fan fiction with my roommate (All My Crewmen). I also wrote a Star Trek play--which is odd, for I've never really wanted to write scripts. In Memorium was performed, at a local science fiction convention, in 1976. (I obviously wasn't nearly as curmudgeonly about spelling back then, as I never bothered to look up the spelling of 'memoriam.')
 | |
| Here's a page from "All My Crewmen." You'll note it was printed in good ol' 'dirty purple.' |
 |
| Two pages from "In Memorium." These are scanned from the master, which I still own. |
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
How Writing has Changed (For Me) Since the 1970s--Part Two
 |
| These are two covers I actually remember from when I was a child. |
From the time I was six years old, I read science fiction and fantasy without knowing anyone besides my dad and my aunt (his sister) who also read books in those genres. My dad had boxes of magazines with colorful, fascinating covers--robots and spaceships and aliens--in the basement. So I devoured Galaxy and Astounding Science Fiction magazines from the 1950s, not really understanding a lot of what happened in the stories, but captivated by them nonetheless. My dad read A Princess of Mars, by Edgar Rice Burroughs, to me at bed time. Then my aunt gave me some paperback novels--a few of the Witch World series by Andre Norton. I wanted more! I searched the school library and found books by Robert Heinlein and the Narnia books by C. S. Lewis.
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
How Writing has Changed (For Me) Since the 1970s--Part One
1970s: Handwriting a Novel and Typing it on a Manual Typewriter
Throughout my childhood I was a voracious reader, and also loved playing make believe and making up stories. I remember lying on my bed one day (I was probably in my early teens) reading a book I was dissatisfied with. I thought, "I could write better than this!" Shortly after that, I started brainstorming stories I could write. I carried a small writing notebook around with me, and wrote down ideas and scenes.
Then, as now, I loved science fiction and fantasy, so my first novel was science fiction. I brainstormed it after dark with my younger sister (who slept in the lower bunk bed while I slept in the upper bunk). When I started writing it, I was in high school. Since I used lined paper in a three-ring binder at school, that's how I wrote my novel: in pencil, double-spaced, on college-rule binder paper.
Throughout my childhood I was a voracious reader, and also loved playing make believe and making up stories. I remember lying on my bed one day (I was probably in my early teens) reading a book I was dissatisfied with. I thought, "I could write better than this!" Shortly after that, I started brainstorming stories I could write. I carried a small writing notebook around with me, and wrote down ideas and scenes.
Then, as now, I loved science fiction and fantasy, so my first novel was science fiction. I brainstormed it after dark with my younger sister (who slept in the lower bunk bed while I slept in the upper bunk). When I started writing it, I was in high school. Since I used lined paper in a three-ring binder at school, that's how I wrote my novel: in pencil, double-spaced, on college-rule binder paper.
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