SF news, new gigs, new frustrations and bad omens

Received two invitations today. I'll be reading from Awesome Lavratt this Sunday at Coffee Catz in Sebastopol. I'll also be a presenter at a writing conference in October put on by Redwood Writers.

I had intended to upload at least a portion of the interview on KRCB to my website. I either don't have the right software to make it happen or I don't know enough about them to make it happen. I'll have to do some serious digging for the answer - unless there's someone out there that can help? I have the whole interview on CD and on my computer but the whole thing is 50 mb. I have garage band but don't even know how to import it or if I can. Ugh!

SciFi wire has a piece on the Stargate Universe cast.

There's a fun article at I09 about crazy or cruddy jobs held by SF authors. It reminded me of how blessed I am. It was my SF writing that helped land my day job, which is also writing. So I'm paying the bills with my writing while I establish myself as a novelist. It cuts into my fiction writing time but keeps my skills sharp and the financial pressure away.

Today at work one of the other staff writers suggested I write a sf novel about the payments industry. And the other writer interviewed a guy today who rode orcas at SeaWorld before he got into payments. I wonder if he considered writing sf first?

And who else is going to die? Celebrity deaths always seem to come in threes. We have Patrick McGoohan from The Prisoner and Ricardo Montalban both this week.

Awesome Lavratt news still pouring in...

The New Year, for me started with a review Awesome Lavratt from SFCrowsnest. :)

And the head cold that should have come BEFORE my bronchitis. UGH!

Thanks to Amazon tags, Awesome Lavratt is gaining all kinds of cyber space. 14 pages of Google search sites and counting.

And I've come up with a platform of sorts to help with marketing. Most exciting! Now it's back to my Toastmasters club to perfect my new speech topic: Control is just an illusion. Doesn't that just sum up Awesome Lavratt? And what a versatile speech topic that can go ANYWHERE!

It's time to vote for your favorite books over at Preditors and Editors. I'm in two anhthologies listed there. The Best of Every Day Fiction 2008 and This Ain't No Rodeo. And on the EDF front, my copies arrived on Wednesday. The cover is most impressive and sports a nice little snippet from a Wall Street Journal review. If you haven't purchased yours yet, they are still available at Every Day Fiction and Amazon.

Victimized! and Awesome happenings

Someone, somehow got a hold of my bank information and made a purchase at an adult website in my name. As a result, I had to close my bank account today. That was the easy part. Now I have to track down all those recurring payments that won't be able to recur... Not to mention the online billing information at a dozen different sites. And then there's the surviving without the ATM cards until the new ones come. UGH!

Well, on a brighter note, the Awesome Lavratt book launch is scheduled for Janurary 25th at Borders in Santa Rosa, CA. I'm also going to be on the radio promoting it on the 7th at 7PM. The radio station is at 91 FM out of Rohnert Park, CA but is also streamed on their website.

I just joined yet another social network. This one is for speakers. And within it is a subgroup of speakers who are writers. And then, since they didn't have one yet, I started a subgroup of Toastmasters. I had a dozen new members overnight. I have mentioned that I'm a networking junkie...

I've also volunteered to speak for the American Cancer Society. Did I mention I also suffer from volunteeritis?

Of course, the problem is that what with the FT job, the book publicity and the holiday preparations, there hasn't been much actually fiction writing of late. >>takes a deep breath<< I have to get better at budgeting what little time I have. I think I may have to blow up the TV. Of course, it's going to become obsolete in less than 60 days anyway...

Being funny on purpose

I joined Toastmasters back in 2002 or so, to hone my public speaking skills for those book tours I knew would come. Conceit? No, determination. Which, of course, is the positive side of stubborn.

Anyhow, after taking a few years off, I'm one speech away from my ATM-B certificate. The last project I had to complete was delivering a humorous speech. It's the one I saved for last. I've delivered plenty of humorous speeches. But they didn't have to be funny. Humor wasn't the point...wasn't a mandate.

So, I finally wrote a speech on Saturday. Tossed the whole thing Saturday night and wrote a different one Sunday...for delivery tonight! I'm never at a loss for words in front of a crowd. I'm a ham, in fact. But make me tailor a speech according to rules and make me include this or that and I falter. It's just not my style.

So, I think I've finally got it. Of course, I have to deliver it at a restaurant in a noisy room our group is sharing with another group... But I can't wait.

And the book tours I knew would come are here! I'm planning my first one now. If anyone knows of a venue or an organization that would benefit from a presentation by a SF author, drop me a line. I especially love talking at schools. All contacts welcome (within the Bay Area, though, for now).

The new back cover of Awesome Lavratt is going to be great!

Speaking of Speaking...

If you missed my talk on public speaking/reading at the Redwood Writers Club meeting last Sunday, go to this RWC page and it will be like you were there. Except you won't have an opportunity to read "Sing a Song of Sixpence" as a candidate's campaign speech, or practice diction, pace and eye contact with "Three Blind Mice". Everyone had fun with those.

I'm still pulling my costume together for the upcoming RWC Odd Month Reading: The March Hare's Literary Tea. I have my hat, complete with ears and a vest, a bow tie and a tweed overcoat. The Tea (BYOT -Bring Your Own Tea) will be held at the Sebastopol branch of the Sonoma County Library on March 22nd from 2-4PM.

Speaking Engagement and New Project

If you live in the North Bay (CA): I'm the speaker for the next meeting of my local branch of the California Writers' Club, March 2nd at Marvin's Restaurant in Cotati. These meetings have been packed for months. In fact they're looking for a larger venue. The Redwood Writer's Club has been very active in the literary community, hosting readings, contests, workshops and excellent speakers. To find out more, check out their website.

I'll be speaking on speaking. Or rather, public reading, mostly. If you heard about it here and come, say hi and let me know. I'll be updating the RWC calendar this week, as well.

Now for the non-local readers:
I'm very excited about my new project and have found new gusto for the one held up in rewrites. I'm going to print the whole thing out and read it from the beginning again. It's been such a long haul that I tend to lose touch with the story arc and developments and aspects of previous chapters. And I just plain got sick to death of it. I decided that rather than toss it in a draw, it's time to reread the whole novel to remind myself why it's worth finishing.

My new project has telepathy, sentient whales, population control, plague, romance and intrigue. I'll post an excerpt of Under the Suns of Sarshan soon on my website, followed by one of the new project (not yet titled). I have also just sent out a fantasy story that may end up becoming a novel later on. Everyone who has read or heard it wants more. I'll tell you more about that when the story finds a home.

Without Further Ado -- Ugh!!!

How many times must we here this three word "uh"? It's a space saver for masters of ceremonies who aren't really masters. It happens to be one of my pet peeves. If you're at a function in which someone screams after the MC says "So, without further ado...", you'll know I'm in attendance.

Of course, like most of you, I learned at a tender age that when you point your finger at someone, you have three pointing back at you. And I must admit, I have said those words myself, in my early days of public speaking.

We know when speakers are stalling or marking their place because we hear the "uhs" and "ums" and "you knows". Writers do it, too. We hold our place with things like: seems like, were going to be able to, wondered whether he might possibly be, suddenly became aware of, just, so, a little bit, etc. If you can cross out a phrase from a sentence, reread it and lose no meaning, chances are, you were stalling and need to lose said phrase. Did I need the phrase "chances are" here? Should I have started a new sentence after stalling and gone with the more direct: Lose the unnecessary phrase? Direct is always better. Rewrite, rewrite and rewrite. Am I harping?

In case you haven't heard, word economy is in. With so much special-effect-filled media popping at us at an adrenaline pace, we expect things to happen constantly. We can't be bothered with two page descriptions of the garden. Our attention spans are shrinking and so our fiction must make every word count. All our words have to earn their keep or get the axe.

It's a brave, new, minimalist world out there.