Lee Allen Howard - Horror and SciFi

OK, last week I had said a review of The Sixth Seed would be next up. Life and school intervened and cut down my planned reading time, though. Instead of a review, I have something better - a guest blog post from the author of The Sixth Seed, Lee Allen Howard! If you'd like to know more about the author, please scroll to the bottom of the article.


Horror and SciFi by Lee Allen Howard

When I first began working on THE SIXTH SEED, I wasn’t planning to write anything other than a horror story. And it started out as a story, a short one, way back in 1994.

The idea invaded my mind during my drive home through rush-hour traffic as I approached the Ft. Pitt Tunnel in Pittsburgh, PA. A man gets a vasectomy performed by a doctor in league with the Gray alien race in order to produce the first human/alien hybrid. The doctor implants a genetically engineered paraseed in the man’s vas deferens, outside the cauterization point, that impregnates his wife with their sixth child—the first hybrid to develop full-term in utero.

I thought this was horror at the time. It was when it was only a 5000-word short story.

But the more I worked with it, the bigger it grew. Frustrated with my inability to get a handle on this tale, I sent it out for review and received a comment that the idea was too big for a short story; why not develop it into a novel?

When I wrapped my head around the possibility, I broadened the story arc, developed the characters, and gave them a backstory. Working on my antagonist revealed that I needed to represent his world realistically, and this included science and medicine. (Frankly, without this grounding in reality, the story would be too farfetched to believe.) So I studied up on urology and obstetrics. I was lucky to have an uncle who’s an OB/GYN and a friend who just underwent a vasectomy and was willing to give me the gritty (intensely portrayed in chapter 1).

My horror story was mutating into something else, some kind of hybrid… Was it science fiction? Kind of. Fantasy? That, too, listing toward the dark side. Definitely paranormal, in the aliens and UFO sense. And what else? Family drama. What a mish-mash.

I tried to place this book for a decade, and it couldn’t be categorized. I liked it just fine the way it turned out, so I refused to rewrite it to make it acceptable for traditional print publication. I finally decided to produce it myself for Kindle and Nook.

I bill THE SIXTH SEED as “a dark paranormal fantasy fraught with suburban Pittsburgh horror.” But the science fiction is there too, in the medical procedures, extrapolated to the conception, prenatal care, and delivery of a child half alien.

Like Tom and Melanie Furst’s bizarre progeny in the novel, every great story is a unique mix of fact and fiction, science and horror, family and fantasy. Whatever tale you’re writing, don’t let genre constraints keep you from birthing the story that needs to be written. Create your own hybrid!

THE SIXTH SEED is available on Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com, or at Smashwords.com: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/64365.

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About the Author

Lee Allen Howard has been a professional writer since 1985. He writes horror, erotic horror, dark fantasy, and crime. His publication credits include Cemetery Sonata anthology, THOU SHALT NOT... anthology (Dark Cloud Press), THE SIXTH SEED, SEVERED RELATIONS, and STRAY. He is currently working on his fourth novel.

Lee blogs about writing and editing on his writer’s site: http://leeallenhoward.com. He is currently studying spiritualism, mediumship, and healing with the Morris Pratt Institute.

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NEXT UP: Finding time to write!

Liz Coley - Extraordinary People

Today we have another guest blog! This one is by author Liz Coley. If you'd like to know more about her, please scroll to the bottom of the article.


Extraordinary People by Liz Coley

Back in 1976, Judith Guest wrote the very influential YA novel Ordinary People about a troubled teen in a dysfunctional family trying to survive the death of the oldest son. By the end of the book, the most this kid will be able to save is himself and his relationship with his father. He's an ordinary person.

In science fiction and fantasy, when the protagonist is a teenager, the kid is far from ordinary. Think Ender Wiggin, Frodo Baggins, Katniss Everdeen, Miles Vorkorsigan, Luke Skywalker. Think Harry Potter. The stakes are huge--save the world, save the empire, defeat ultimate evil. The teens who star in adventures of huge consequence can't be ordinary, not even in a "well, everyone is special in their own way" version of ordinary. They have particular grit, particular grace, particular cunning, particular vision, particular maturity. They see a world of hope and possibility. They step out in front of the adults--they step up to carry the ring, build a personal army, save the world, lead the way. Their voices aren't those of adolescents wondering the usual adolescent wonders--can I get a date? am I too fat? why are my parents such dorks?--at least not most of the time. They aren't navel gazers. Their eyes are up and on the distant horizon, or higher even, in the stars.

Science fiction and fantasy readers, at least those I know, read to escape the ordinary; we read to think about and experience the extraordinary for a while. The what-ifs are large, cosmic even. Readers who haven't grown up immersed in these genres don't entirely get it. Why would you read that? they ask. It's so unrealistic.

That's the whole point. It's unrealistic. It's inspiring.

But then is this likely? A thirteen year old boy scaled Everest--could he have climbed Mt. Doom? A sixteen-year old girl circumnavigated the world solo--could she have led a space fleet to another planet? Several kids have taken on the evil of genocide in Darfur--could they take on Voldemort? A teenaged girl with visions led a defeated French army to victory--would she have rallied the Earth to fight off invading Martians?

In my just-released novel Out of Xibalba, a teenager from Ohio finds herself stranded in the deep past, alone in the waning days of the Mayan Empire. Mistaken for the goddess Ix Chel, she has to figure out not only how to survive, but how to give this catastrophe meaning. By changing the world, of course.

There are extraordinary voices, people who aren't like most of us. There are extraordinary teens with exceptional talent and drive and initiative and maybe even magic. Between the pages and in the real world.

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About the Author

Liz Coley writes science fiction and fantasy for adults and teens. Her short story sales appear in a variety of anthologies: The Last Man Anthology (2010), More Scary Kisses (2011), and the upcoming Bride of the Golem and Strange Worlds Anthology. She has also been published in Cosmos Magazine and Cosmos Online in Australia. Liz has been writing and submitting seriously since 2001, with efforts coming to fruition in 2010/11. Her novel Out of Xibalba is available at Amazon, B&N, Smashwords, and Createspace in trade paper and ebook versions. On the heels of this publication comes the news of her first sale to big publishing--but that announcement will wait for a later blog.

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NEXT UP: A review of Lee Allen Howard's The Sixth Seed.

MGOC Series on Fantasy (And Science Fiction) - Heidi Ruby Miller

Today we have Heidi Ruby Miller guest blogging for the Many Genres, One Craft series on fantasy (and science fiction). This is the last guest blog in the series. I hope everyone who has stopped by to read all the wonderful guest blogs have enjoyed them - I know I have! If you'd like to know more about Heidi and Many Genres, One Craft, please scroll to the bottom of the article.


Science Fiction Romance by Heidi Ruby Miller

I didn’t realize I was writing Science Fiction Romance when I started Ambasadora as my thesis novel for Seton Hill's Writing Popular Fiction graduate program. It took several critique sessions with a mixed grouping of genre writers before I appreciated the relationships in my novel were integral to my plot and my world.

That was 2006, and though SF Romance was around at the time, I had never heard of it. Then two things happened: one of my critique partners, Rachael Pruitt, suggested I read Heart of Gold by Sharon Shinn in the same semester that Catherine Asaro was the author keynote for the WPF program. I looked at my work differently from then on.

Gone were the days of writing for men. (Though it should be of telling interest to note that one of my critique partners and all three of my thesis readers were men, so in essence, the majority of my audience at that time were still male….)

I played up the emotional intensity and elevated the sensuality of the book, especially between the main protagonists, Sean and Sara. It proved to be an easy enhancement considering the society is essentially based on sex, as all societies really are. My Ambasadora-verse society is divided into an Upper and Lower Caste with sub-divisions among the Uppers. Add to that the concept of multiple partners and I couldn't help but write about how sexual relationships had a direct impact on my world. Then I went about finding other books like mine, and it was more difficult than I anticipated.

But thanks to wonderful online communities like SFR Brigade and SF Romance groups on Goodreads, I'm finding more to read within the genre. Recently, I've come to enjoy Jacquelyn Franks' The Three Worlds series which begins with Seduce Me in Dreams; Sara Creasy's Scarabaeus series; and I just started reading Pauline Baird Jones' Girl Gone Nova, which won the 2011 EPIC Award.

I wonder if what draws me to SF Romance is the idea that love can transcend time and space, being as much a constant as the speed of light. That's really what the Ambasadora-verse is based on—how love and desire rule everything else, including government, religion, and science.


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About the Author

Heidi Ruby Miller writes stories where the relationship is as important as the adventure. She loves science fiction, Chanel, action movies, and high-heeled shoes and teaches creative writing at Seton Hill University. Heidi co-edited the writing guide Many Genres, One Craft based on Seton Hill's MFA program in Writing Popular Fiction. The first book in her Ambasadora series was her thesis novel for the WPF program. You can find Heidi at http://heidirubymiller.blogspot.com and @heidirubymiller and on Facebook and Goodreads or interacting in person and online as a member of the following organizations: Authors Guild, Pennwriters, Broad Universe, SFR Brigade, SFPA, and EPIC.


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About Many Genres, One Craft

Many Genres, One Craft: Lessons in Writing Popular Fiction (Headline Books, 2011)is an amazing anthology of instructional articles for fiction writers looking for advice on how to improve their writing and better navigate the mass market for genre novels.

MGOC is available for purchase from Amazon and Barnes & Noble!




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NEXT UP: Camp NaNoWriMo and continuing the current chain story!

MGOC Series on Fantasy (And Science Fiction) - K. Ceres Wright

So, I thought Heidi Ruby Miller would be up this round, but instead we have a wonderful blog post from K. Ceres Wright! My apologies for the change of direction. And it's even more of a change of direction because this time it's about science fiction, so this time we'll say it's the Many Genres, One Craft series on fantasy (and science fiction). =) If you would like to know more about the author and Many Genres, One Craft, you'll find further information below the article.


Science Fiction by K. Ceres Wright

Older Influences

The first science fiction book I remembering reading was The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet. I would read it over and over again, and remember spilling cocoa on several of the pages as I sat in bed at night. What appealed to me was the notion of a lone scientist who could discover something important through a clever invention of his own, in this case, an undetected planet orbiting Earth. One could only see it through a special filter. The scientist persuaded two boys to build a spaceship and travel to the planet. Upon arriving, they found that the Mushroom people were dying due to a lack of sulfur. But they rectified the problem by leaving their pet chicken on the planet. Anyone who’s smelled rotten eggs know they contain a lot of sulfur.

As I got older, I discovered Isaac Asimov, and delved into his short stories and eventually his novels. After I read his Robot series and Foundation trilogy, I didn’t think science fiction could get any better. He had told an epic tale of human space travel over a span of about 20,000 years, and the rise and fall of the Galactic Empire, which mirrored, of course, the fall of the Roman Empire and the onset of the Dark Ages.

I think history is a wellspring of ideas for science fiction because you can take basic themes, events, and characters and just inject them into a new universe. Characters can make the same decisions as historical figures, for good or ill, but they may or may not get the same results. It just depends on the nature of the writer’s universe. For example, slaves threw open the gates of Rome to the Visigoths in 410 because they were fed up with oppressive treatment. However, if in your universe, the slaves are well treated and can expect to eventually climb the social ladder, the outcome would most likely be different. They may use the impending invasion as an opportunity to negotiate full civil rights, or they may defend the city and take advantage of the period of rebuilding to secure their rights. It could turn out any number of ways, but the important thing is to make sure the effects logically follow from the causes. And to do that, you have to make careful study of not only history, but human nature.

Speaking of human nature, out of all of Asimov’s books, my favorite character was Dr. Susan Calvin. She was intelligent and objective, like a detective of sorts, as she teased out the reasoning behind many a robot’s behavior. And she was quirky, preferring the company of robots to humans, as it were, not the stereotypical lone female in science fiction who needed rescuing. I think it was her so-called quirks that made her endearing.

Newer Influences

I love cyberpunk, but I came late, having first read Neuromancer by William Gibson in 2004. It was written in 1984. I had discovered it on the book shelf of a colleague at work. The cover was awful, but the promo at the top said it had won three major science fiction awards, so I thought it couldn’t be that bad. And when I started reading, I could hardly put it down. I was amazed by Gibson’s use of language. His prose was tight, efficient, hardboiled and reminiscent of Dashiell Hammett, but startlingly original, as were his concepts of “jacking in” to interface with computers. He sliced in pop references throughout the book, metaphors for the modern age. Gone were the pristine cities and heroic characters of traditional science fiction. Here were the anti-heroes, urban decay, and moral ambiguity representative of today’s society.

Another author who has captured my imagination in the realm of cyberpunk is Richard K. Morgan. In his book, Altered Carbon, a person’s memories and personality were stored in cortical stacks in the spinal column. When the body died, the stack could be downloaded to a new body, or sleeve. Stacks could also be copied and updated, to ensure against permanent damage to an already-downloaded version. The book’s protagonist, Takeshi Kovacs, was an ex-soldier whose sleeve had been enhanced with specialized neuro-chemical sensors that increased physical strength, intuition, and the five senses, delving into the realm of biopunk. Morgan’s writing style is hardboiled, as well, but makes use of beautiful descriptive narrative.

My Fiction

My short story, “The Haunting of M117,” in Genesis: An Anthology of Black Science Fiction, is not cyberpunk. I would describe it as a combination of science fiction and paranormal. My protagonist is a Gullah healer who’s been sent to a planet, along with practitioners of other religions and the occult, to exorcise demons that were released when particle beams collided inside the Titanic Hadron Collider on planet M117. She has a secret guilt, which she has to overcome, in order to save the others on the planet.

For the book I’m writing now, tentatively entitled, Cog, I’ve endeavored to use the hardboiled narrative style I like so much. I also enjoy making up new words, forcing the reader to use context clues to understand what I’m talking about.

My protagonist is an heiress to a wireless hologram company, and finds out one day that her father is in a coma, her brother embezzled money and skipped town, and the company’s vice president wants her dead. She’s forced to return to her friends from the street, back when she was a drug addict, for help. Here’s an excerpt:

He led a squad of skeemz rackers on the other side of Baltimore, in Owings Mills. They worked out of the basement of the mall. Nothing like Tuma’s operation, though. They were connected. Really connected. His programmers just sat, wearing fryers, writing skeemz for weeks at a time, their medinites monitoring and patching the effects of inactivity, nourishment forced into them intravenously. They looked like hollowed-out corpses, skin and flesh sagging on their bones, but man, the end product seemed worth it. Groundbreaking, visionary shit. Everyone wanted a Lydo skeemz. Best in the business.

We’ll see how it goes…


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About the Author

K. Ceres Wright is a writer and editor for a management consulting firm. Her story, "The Haunting of M117," appears in Genesis: An Anthology of Black Science Fiction, Book 1. Her poem, Doomed, was nominated for a Rhysling award. She lives in Maryland with her son, Ian, and daughter, Chloe.


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About Many Genres, One Craft

Many Genres, One Craft: Lessons in Writing Popular Fiction (Headline Books, 2011)is an amazing anthology of instructional articles for fiction writers looking for advice on how to improve their writing and better navigate the mass market for genre novels.

MGOC is available for purchase from Amazon and Barnes & Noble!




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NEXT UP: Unless something catastrophic happens, I promise that next week we will have Heidi Ruby Miller's addition to the MGOC Fantasy Series!

MGOC Series on Fantasy - Mike Mehalek

Today I have a new post in the Many Genres, One Craft Fantasy Series! This time Mike Mehalek is guest blogging. If you'd like to know more about the author and Many Genres, One Craft, please scroll to the bottom of the article.


Only Metaphor by Mike Mehalek

I was never good at writing fantasy. Even when I was a kid trying to mimic TSR’s (now Wizards of the Coast) choose-your-own adventure books, I knew something was missing. I still have those handwritten pages tucked away in an undisclosed, I’ll-take-it-to-my-grave location--Okay! Okay it’s in the filing cabinet under the printer, but you’ll never find the key (because the drawer doesn’t lock)--and they are pretty terrible pages. It’s a combination of inexperience, anachronisms, trying to copy something that has already been done, and not knowing how to incorporate the creative backstory and characters without just dumping them into my tale as carelessly as I dump sugar into my coffee each morning.

What really made this story and most of my fantasy writing crap--hell, almost all of my stories suffered this tragic flaw until I discovered the grizzly (and obvious) truth--was their lack of an ending. Not just an ending but a middle, and a late beginning too. You see I suffer from a genetic writing disorder on chromosome 20. Many people have this disease, but fortunately most are not writers. You see, where most writers possess a metaphor gene on chromosome 20, whether they know it or not, I have none.

The metaphor gene allows writers and storytellers to sprinkle symbols, language, characters, character actions, plot points, colors, textures, sights, sounds, setting, motif, irony, and other literary tools to convey a central theme or themes to their readers. Some readers lay it right out in front of you (Some writers can do it so readers “get” the metaphor without ever mentioning it, while others place it right before the reader so that his or her psyche can gorge on it like some sort of book vampire. (Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, for example, and Paul Harding’s Tinkers both explore the passage of time, coupled with the desire to return to the past, the former implicitly, the latter explicitly). A book’s metaphor is its lifeblood. Without it--call the morgue--it’s a “dead” book.

Enter Only Human (OH), the current name I am using for my urban fantasy manuscript, which was named Dragon during my sojourn at Seton Hill University. OH came into existence years before, as this question: what would it be like for a dragon if it had to spend its existence as a human? The question got me started on the manuscript, but it was an indirect question; and as I’ve previously mentioned about my writing, I never could make it beyond the first few pages before the story fizzled out. As I explored this question through the writing of OH, I realized that what I was really asking of my manuscript was “what does it mean to be human?”

It occurred to me, if I were to explore this theme, then my dragon needed someone in his life--someone that he cared deeply about. The creation of the character Kevin was a direct result of this revelation. And the story started writing itself. If I hit a wall, I spent time, mostly unconsciously, exploring that central question. What does it mean to be human?

More and more pages revealed themselves to me. Stressors from the plot points and action sequences created new interactions with these two characters and as much as I feel that OH is chockfull of violence, gore, humor, and suspense--the theme of love was all over the place; and when the final bullets flew and the six-inch long teeth stopped crushing bones to dust, my metaphor emerged from the flotsam. Love is what makes us human, and true love cannot die.

OH was insightful to me as a first time novelist in both its message and its use of metaphor. Despite my genetic makeup, I know that it is possible to write meaningful fiction and to complete volumes of prose if only I keep at it with persistence, dedication, and metaphor in mind.

So let me close with the words from a very dear friend of mine, a dragon, who taught me a little more about life than I did before I met him, and wish that you and your writing find “all the things you need, not everything you want but what you need. And I sincerely hope that every once in a while you too receive something better than you deserve.”


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About the Author

A friend once told Mike Mehalek that "writing will set you free," and he’s bought into that philosophy 110%. To him writing is a way to escape from reality, a means to earn a living, and a way to show the world that one person can make a difference. He feels fiction should be enjoyable at the surface, but it should also have enough depth that those willing to dive for it can find greater meaning. In 2008 Mike graduated from the Writing Popular Fiction program at Seton Hill with his thesis Dragon, an urban dark fantasy.


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About Many Genres, One Craft

Many Genres, One Craft: Lessons in Writing Popular Fiction (Headline Books, 2011)is an amazing anthology of instructional articles for fiction writers looking for advice on how to improve their writing and better navigate the mass market for genre novels.

MGOC is available for purchase from Amazon and Barnes & Noble!




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NEXT UP: Another article in the MGOC Fantasy Series - Heidi Ruby Miller! Strike that, Heidi will not be until the following week. I've been informed that next up will be K. Ceres Wright!

MGOC Series on Fantasy - Chun Lee

The Many Genres, One Craft series on fantasy continues with Chun Lee - another great writer I've known for many years. If you'd like to know more about the author and Many Genes, One Craft, please scroll to the end of the article.


Just Because it’s Grounded Doesn’t Mean Fantasy is Bad by Chun Lee

I’ve been asked to do a guest blog, which is something I have never done, but I don’t think it will be too difficult. I thank Alexa, for this opportunity (it’s really nice and comfy here). Our subject is fantasy. More specifically I am to give you two examples of fantasy from way back in the day and two examples of contemporary fantasy and explain why those titles speaks to me or influences me.

Let me first define my favorite type of fantasy. I like my fantasy to be grounded. I like it to make sense. I don’t mind the wonder of it, absolutely nothing wrong with wonder. In fact I think grounding a fantasy enhances the wonder. Giving the reader a sense of how characters view their world lets the reader understand how wondrous a certain fantastic element is. I never liked it when characters felt no awe in the presence of the fantastic. So my favorite fantasy reads tend to have a realistic grounding to it. Take a look at T.H. White’s The Once and Future King. This is the novel that pretty much decided what the Arthurian legend was going to be for the 20th century. The fantasy elements in this book can always be doubted. It could be magic but it could also be an interesting dream or a simple misinterpretation of reality. In this world magic is magic only when you believe it to be magic. It’s a very fine line that White does a fantastic job treading.

Another fantasy classic worth taking a look at is Dracula. I know you want to now point out that Dracula is a horror novel, but what’s wrong with considering it to be both horror and fantasy? There are plenty of fantastic elements in it. It’s also grounded. It’s a strange mixture of the emerging faith in Victorian technology and the fear of the distant supernatural coming to town. Applying science to fantasy seems to be the most logical thing to do when faced with the impossible. It’s human nature to want to understand how some strange foreigner is using supernatural powers to drink people’s blood and take their women.

Let’s now move on to contemporary fantasy. We have so many choices to look at so how about I just let my inner superfangeek out and use my two favorite contemporary fantasy writers? George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series has been captivating my interests for years now. It is low magic fantasy, but it does not need to be low magic to be grounded. It is grounded because Martin created his world from a historical basis. The man has done his research and it’s obvious he knows a lot about the politics of a medieval society. There is an economy to his world. Matters on one side of the world have ramifications on the other side of the world. And when Martin does use fantastic elements in his story I know I am in good hands because he has thought out exactly what such things could mean to his world.

Another favorite of mine is China Míeville’s Perdido Street Station. I love the fact that Míeville answers the question of how science would react if magic was a common phenomenon; it tries to find industrious uses for it. Míeville creates a world in which magic and technology are married to one another. And yes, it breaks the rule of lack of wonder from its characters (Míeville tends to break a lot of rules and does a fantastic job at it), but there is a sense of wonder in the narrator’s voice that is imparted to the reader. The characters may not be impressed with all the amazing architecture, fantastic machines, and multiple races, but the narrator is and he isn’t scared to share the impressive nature of the world he is describing.


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About the Author

Chun Lee is dodging gators and enjoying amazing Cajun cuisine in Lafayette, Louisiana. His work has appeared in The Late Late Show, Dissections, Sails and Sorcery, and the upcoming anthology Paper Blossoms, Shattered Steel. He is a graduate of the WPF program at Seton Hill University and is currently earning a Ph.D. in English at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. His article "Pursuing the Graduate Degree" is part of the writing guide Many Genres, One Craft: Lessons in Writing Popular Fiction.


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About Many Genres, One Craft

Many Genres, One Craft: Lessons in Writing Popular Fiction (Headline Books, 2011)is an amazing anthology of instructional articles for fiction writers looking for advice on how to improve their writing and better navigate the mass market for genre novels.

MGOC is available for purchase from Amazon and Barnes & Noble!




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NEXT UP: Randomness and a new chain story!

MGOC Series on Fantasy - David J. Corwell

Let's give a warm welcome to David J. Corwell, another guest blogger in the Many Genres, One Craft fantasy series! He's a great writer and a good friend. To learn more about the author and Many Genres, One Craft, please scroll to the bottom of the post.


Fantasy by David J. Corwell

List two older fantasy novels which impacted you, then give a sentence or two why:

1. Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
Tolkien remains a master worldbuilder and storyteller; Middle-earth is a living testament to his tremendous skills in both arenas. Its magnificent environs and the struggles of its peoples live on long after the book is closed.

2. The High King by Lloyd Alexander
The culmination of the first four books in the Chronicles of Prydain series, Alexander expertly weaves many story threads into an emotionally satisfying whole. A compelling story about choices and how these shape one's destiny.


List two newer fantasy novels which have impacted you, then give a sentence or two why:

1. Hawkwood's Voyage (Book One of the Monarchies of God) by Paul Kearney
Brimming with military stratagem and political intrigue, Kearney's world mirrors the Arab conquests in Europe as well as the search for a new world and vividly captures societies in the midst of tremendous upheaval. Yet, seemingly sworn enemies may not necessarily be the true danger, for something darker stalks the chaos.

2. The Adamantine Palace (Book One of Memory of Flames) by Stephen Deas
I've always loved dragons, and Deas breathes new life into these majestic creatures, wherein they form the power structure of the ruling aristocracy. But the human's tenuous hold on their "power base" is threatened when one dragon disappears. Did I mention I love dragons?


List one or two of your fantasy stories, then give a sentence or two about them:

1. "Susto" (Dia de los Muertos: A Day of the Dead Anthology)
An intimate reunion becomes a struggle for survival when a curandera (folk healer) invites her deceased husband home for Dia de los Muertos and also inadvertently summons La Llorona (the Weeping Woman), a vengeful spirit out to exact revenge. A fictional reenvisioning of a popular Southwestern legend, which also incorporates elements of Catholicism and curanderismo (Mexican folk healing).

2. "Conqueror of Shadows" (Tales of the Talisman magazine, Vol. 6, Issue #2)
An Apache boy faces a cunning, hidden enemy in order to save his father's life. A great Southwestern coming of age story with supernatural elements based on Western Apache witchcraft.



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About the Author

David J. Corwell’s stories appear in Cloaked in Shadow: Dark Tales of Elves (Fantasist Enterprises), Daily Flash: 365 Days of Flash Fiction (Pill Hill Press), Día de los Muertos (Elektrik Milk Bath Press), Voices of New Mexico (LPD Press/Rio Grande Books), and Tales of the Talisman (Hadrosaur Productions). He is an indefatigable promoter of his work, and his latest lineup of book signings can be found at http://booktour.com/author/david_j_corwell. David is also a 2006 graduate of the Seton Hill WPF program and the New Mexico sales rep for Fantasist Enterprises. He lives in Albuquerque with his beautiful wife and three daughters. His articles "Successful Book Signings: The Personal Touch" and "Top Ten Reasons People Give for Not Buying My Books" are part of the writing guide Many Genres, One Craft.



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About Many Genres, One Craft

Many Genres, One Craft: Lessons in Writing Popular Fiction (Headline Books, 2011)is an amazing anthology of instructional articles for fiction writers looking for advice on how to improve their writing and better navigate the mass market for genre novels.

MGOC is available for purchase from Amazon and Barnes & Noble!




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NEXT UP: Chun Lee, the next guest blogger in the MGOC fantasy series!

MGOC Series on Fantasy - Anne Harris

We have another guest blog from a contributor to Many Genres, One Craft! This time it's Anne Harris. If you would like to know more about the author and Many Genres, One Craft, please scroll down to the bottom of the post. After this week, we will be taking a brief break from the series, but I assure you, there will be more!


Fantasy Then and Now by Anne Harris

Two older Fantasy novels which impacted you:

Tolkien's The Return of the King saved my life in junior high school. It didn't stop a bullet from entering my heart, but close.

Freedom and Necessity by Emma Bull and Steven Brust is a wonderful epistolary fantasy novel which woke me up to my love of romance and helped me zero in on what matters to me most as an author.

Two newer Fantasy novels which have impacted you:

I recently read Sunshine by Robin McKinley and absolutely adored it. And I'm not a big vampire fan, but this book was written in such a way that I was captivated first by the protagonist, and I had no choice but to go along for the ride.

Wicked Gentlemen is another recent fave. It's a fantasy because it has demons in it, but the way author Ginn Hale constructs a Victorian-era society informed by all the denizens of Hell converting to Christianity felt science fictional in the way that she uses that event as a point of extrapolation for her story.

Your Fantasy story:

I don't have any fantasy novels but my (2005) Nebula nominated short story, "Still Life with Boobs" was definitely fantasy. That was a story in which keeping the fantastic element mysterious and unexplained was crucial. It allowed the focus of the work to remain on the main character's personal struggle. If I'd done it as science fiction, it would have been a different story, probably one with a broader focus on the overall cultural impact of the phenomenon.


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About the Author

Award-winning author Anne Harris writes young adult science fiction under the name Pearl North and gay romance as Jessica Freely. She also mentors students in Seton Hill University's Writing Popular Fiction MFA program. Anne blogs at http://friskbiskit.com. She's also on Facebook and Twitter.


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About Many Genres, One Craft

Many Genres, One Craft: Lessons in Writing Popular Fiction (Headline Books, 2011)is an amazing anthology of instructional articles for fiction writers looking for advice on how to improve their writing and better navigate the mass market for genre novels.

MGOC is available for purchase from Amazon and Barnes & Noble!





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NEXT UP: A Step Back - Examining my year so far and the year ahead.

MGOC Series on Fantasy - Rachael Pruitt

Today's post is the first in a series. Several contributors to the book Many Genres, One Craft will be stopping by to guest blog about fantasy. Our first guest blogger in this series is Rachael Pruitt. To learn more about the author and Many Genres, One Craft, please scroll to the bottom of the article.




Why I Think I Love Fantasy by Rachael Pruitt

As is probably the case for many of us, my life has literally been changed by reading works of fantasy. That said, ironically, I do not usually read fantasy as a genre. My reasons for this are many, but probably boil down to the fact that I find most fantasy to be either so densely written that characters are nonexistent or--on the other extreme--so action-packed and superficial that I feel as if I'm reading Ian Fleming on steroids.

Yet when asked to rank my favorite classical and current fantasy authors, it is hard for me to limit my choices. I guess this is because, for me, when fantasy is great there is no other genre as powerful.

What is it about successful fantasy that makes it so powerful? The works I've listed below all offer a balance of brilliant world-building, believable characters, and the great pacing, suspense, conflict, and dialogue we are trained as writer/readers to look for.

Yet it is the pervading sense of wonder that, I believe, makes fantasy unique--and not merely the kind of wonder you feel watching the ocean at night or the last fireworks on the Fourth of July. I'm talking about the kind of wonder you experience when you smell your grandmother's perfume in the air of the room where she died--three years ago. The kind of wonder you feel when you turn off the highway and take a back road you've never seen before, a road that twists and bends through hills and farmlands, through villages so tiny they have no name unless you live there--all of a sudden, you realize you are lost--and a mist begins to rise . . .

The kind of wonder you feel when your heart opens up to a whole new world.

So here is a list of fantasy novels which have offered me enough wonder for a lifetime:


The Classics

1) CS Lewis' The Lion, the Witch, & the Wardrobe. This was my first introduction to fantasy as a six-year-old. Although I never got into Lewis' later Narnia novels, L,W, & W influenced me so much, I still look into strange closets with a sense of anticipation. You never know.

2) Evangeline Walton's Mabinogion tetrology (recently reprinted in one volume & available on Amazon). Based on ancient Welsh mythology, individually these novels are titled Prince of Annwn, The Children of Llyr, The Song of Rhiannon, and The Island of the Mighty. I discovered these beautifully-written retellings when I was nineteen. Of Welsh ancestry myself, Walton's novels changed my life, haunting me with their romance, poetry, and tragedy, and turning me into a "myth addict" long before I ever heard of Joseph Campbell!

They were one of the earliest inspirations for my own Arthurian novels, also set in mythic Wales.

The only minor criticism I have about Ms. Walton’s writing is that, interspersed with her lyrical prose, she has a habit of putting feminist theory into the mouths of mustached Welsh warriors, a juxtaposition that very rarely works!

Historical Note: Walton actually wrote her books in the 1930s & 40s (predating Tolkein), yet it took until the early 1970s for her to find a good publisher. Song of Rhiannon won the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award in 1973 & Evangeline Walton herself won a World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement, almost solely on the basis of these four novels. An interesting final fact about Ms. Walton is that she was treated with silver nitrate for bronchitis when she was a child, which caused her fair skin to turn grey & darken as she got older. According to Wikipedia, when she became well known as a fantasist in the 1970s, "her blue-grey skin made her appearance exotic, much like a benevolent deity from an Etruscan tomb fresco." (I was thinking more along the lines of Avatar!).

3) Guy Gavriel Kay’s Fionavar Tapestry (a trilogy of three novels, The Summer Tree, The Wandering Fire, and The Darkest Road). Begun in the mid 80s, these are Kay’s first novels, written before he hit on his template of creating fantasy worlds based on historical cultures. These are also my personal favorites. Here Kay simply creates a marvel-filled mythic world, clearly influenced by Tolkien, with the distinction that many of the primary characters are from Earth. Not only are his characters and setting wonderful, but so is his underlying concept: that the mythic realm of Fionavar is the origin of conflicts that will be played out on Earth as well. This not only ups the stakes, but is a fascinating--if chilling--idea. Especially interesting to me, as an Arthurian author, is Kay’s use of the Arthurian legend in his trilogy.

Current Favorite Fantasy Writers

1) Charles de Lint, especially Someplace to be Flying, Forests of the Heart, & Onion Girl. Charles de Lint is well known as being one of the first, if not the first, fantasy writer to develop the modern urban fantasy genre. I stumbled across some of his earlier works in the 80s (Yarrow and Moonheart remain favorites) and was transported back to my childhood fascination with CS Lewis-like wardrobes--those not-so-distant other realms, glimpsed in shadows just beyond my line of sight.

Although some of de Lint's earlier works are a bit thin on character development, his mythological knowledge is encyclopedic--& wonderfully woven into his novels. Additionally 1) his sense of magic, whimsy, & creativity 2) the charisma of his themes regarding the importance of art, freedom, magic, and the nature of mystery and 3) his written ability to conjure believable scenes in which real fairies and goblins appear in neighborhoods populated by artistic street kids and/or Goth musicians are all delightful.

He remains a unique & beloved talent in my book.

2) Judith Marillier's Daughter of the Forest, the first book in her Sevenwaters series, is a retelling of the Irish legend of the Children of Llyr. A haunting adult fairy tale, Ms. Marillier sets her story in ancient Ireland. The daughter of the title must save her older brothers who have been turned into swans by their evil stepmother.

Marillier's work and Jane Yolen's Briar Rose --which sets the story of Sleeping Beauty against the landscape of the Nazi Holocaust--are, to me, the two finest examples of adult fairy tales I've ever read. Both authors demonstrate deep respect and understanding for the power of mythic structure and are adept at plotting, characterization, and suspense.

3) Fantasists Maria Snyder (Poison Study), Carol Berg (The Soul Mirror), Lynn Flewelling (The Bone Doll's Twin), Sharon Shinn (Archangel), and--of course--Suzanne Collins and her Hunger Games trilogy are all brilliant at world-building, characterization, and plotting/suspense. Their individual "voices" are quite distinctive, but they are all an equal joy to read and have a treasured place on my bookshelf.

My Novel: The Dragon's Harp

A friend recently asked me what writers most influenced my own writing. I started to laugh because the answer is an unlikely hodgepodge of early Stephen King, Charles de Lint's urban/mythic fantasy, and Anya Seton (For those unfamiliar with her, Ms. Seton was a historical author of the 50s and 60s noted for her excellent research, romantically-themed plots, and fantastic writing ability. She was also noted for creating memorable, multi-faceted female protagonists--particularly admirable in an era when such women just weren't being "written".)

So this unlikely combination of influences has resulted in my first novel, an Arthurian historical fantasy, The Dragon's Harp. First in a four book series, Dragon's Harp opens as an aging Queen Gwynhyfar begins to tell the story of her youth to a young refugee girl she has saved from the Seaxons. In my version of the legend, Gwynhyfar is growing up in northern Wales, Merlin is her uncle, Vortigern is a serial killer, and Gwyn herself is torn between the gentle Christianity of her mother and the magical Druidic traditions of her grandmother and Merlin--traditions that reflect both the majesty and brutality of her world.

Here's a taste of the beginning:

Gwynhyfar:
The Coast of Scotland
510 CE

Men have called me beautiful. But the gods men worship now have cursed beauty.

My name is Gwynhyfar, born daughter to Cadwallen, Ordovician King of Dinas Emrys in the North. As a young woman, I married Arthur, High King of all the tribes of Albion. I am no stranger to the ways of sovereignty. I know much of pride and stature. Yet I am old now. I see my past and shudder.

---End of excerpt, The Dragon's Harp by Rachael Pruitt


In conclusion: my long awaited website should be up and running this June and will include excerpts from my novel, articles, & poetry. It will also offer interactive Arthurian artwork & story-creation, links to other sites about Celtic culture & mythology, and other interactive components referring back to my work as a teacher of personal mythology--"Myths for Our Time". Come join me, be inspired, & play!!

Happy adventuring,
Rachael Pruitt
April 28, 2011


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About the Author

Rachael Pruitt is a writer, storyteller, and teacher with a lifelong fascination for Celtic mythology and the Arthurian legend. Her Arthurian poetry has been published in Paradox magazine (2008 and 2009) and she has just completed her first Arthurian novel, The Dragon's Harp, a retelling of Gwynhyfar's coming-of-age. Currently an English as a Second Language teacher, Rachael has also published nonfiction articles detailing "Myths for Our Time", a personal mythology process she developed while an Artist in Residence in the Pacific Northwest.


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About Many Genres, One Craft

Many Genres, One Craft: Lessons in Writing Popular Fiction (Headline Books, 2011)is an amazing anthology of instructional articles for fiction writers looking for advice on how to improve their writing and better navigate the mass market for genre novels.

MGOC is available for purchase from Amazon and Barnes & Noble!




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NEXT UP: The MGOC series on fantasy continues next week with Anne Harris!

Chris Stout - The Thrill of Exploration

Today we have Chris Stout guest blogging. Another great writer, as well as a good friend I met through Seton Hill's Writing Popular Fiction program. If you'd like to know more about the author, please scroll to the bottom of the article.


The Thrill of Exploration by Chris Stout

First and foremost, many thanks to Alexa and all of you for allowing a thriller writer to bomb in on this blog. I'll try not to break too much stuff while I'm here.

I'm a big believer in trying new things. I haven't always been this way, of course. It's hard to break out of the mindset of "do one thing, and do it really well." The drawback to that, however, is the possibility of missing out on all sorts of cool opportunities and experiences. For a writer, there are further dangers: burn-out, stagnation, boredom, feeling like you've said all you can. All of these can bring production to a screaming halt. Perhaps more importantly, the very act of creativity itself requires bringing something new to the table. Every artist strives to grow and evolve. Sometimes that means branching out onto a new path.

To illustrate: I refer to myself a thriller writer. My master's thesis was a thriller. If you ask me what kind of books I like to read, I'll recite authors like MacLean, Morrell, Child and Eisler. Same with the movies: if it has stuff that blows up, I'll probably want to watch it. I always figured that if I ever were to make a living as a writer, it would be by writing thrillers. I still hold onto that goal, but I've found that some of the stories I have to tell don't fit neatly into the realm of action and adventure. So what I am supposed to do with those?

The short answer, of course, is: write them. Believe it or not, I kicked against this notion for years, simple though it seems. I was convinced that writing time spent on something other than my genre was time that was wasted. It took earning an MA from Seton Hill University's Writing Popular Fiction program to break me out of that mindset, and working towards my MFA has served as a reminder. There is a whole world of fiction to explore and be a part of. Refusing to write (or read) a story because it's "different" is purely self-defeating. In fact, my first two publications were outside of the thriller genre. One was horror, the other was fantasy. Those opportunities would have passed me by if I'd limited myself to my stated genre.

Now, meandering through different genres is not without its drawbacks. These days, the publishing world is all about establishing the author as a "brand." With this branding is the expectation of consistency. If you are a writer following the traditional route towards publication, you will probably need to adopt different aliases for different genres, assuming you want to publish those side-projects. That can create its own set of headaches, and lead one to conclude that all this talk of exploration is a waste of time after all. However, even if you never publish or even write a complete work in a different genre, it can still be worth exploring. You can take notes on your travels, and adapt the techniques you discover to suit your own purposes. The tension between the lead characters in a romance, for example, can help inform the relationship you create between your thriller hero and his nemesis. The rich world building found in fantasies could help a romance writer bring the setting of her seaside town to vivid life. The heart-stopping action sequences in a thriller can help turn the sweeping battles of an epic fantasy into a tense, personal battle for the heroes.

Knowledge and experience are powerful tools. They provide more than just a good feeling. As an author, you will be able to pay them forward to your readers. Take the chance and try something new once in a while. No matter what you consider to be your genre, you will enrich the stories you tell and thrill your readers with the fresh imagination that you provide. With that, everyone benefits.

Thanks again for the chance to guest post here. Happy reading and writing to you all, and don't be afraid to go exploring!



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About the Author

Chris Stout is the author of the novel Days of Reckoning and several short stories. You can follow him on Twitter @ctstout, or follow his blog at ctstout.blogspot.com.

You can purchase his novel Days of Reckoning from Amazon and Barnes & Noble. If you'd like to read one of Chris Stout's short stories, you can get "Charmer" from Amazon and Barnes & Noble as well.



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NEXT UP: The first guest blog post in a series from contributors to Many Genres, One Craft. Rachael Pruitt is the first up!

J. Gunnar Grey - Reading an Epublishing Contract

J. Gunnar Grey is guest blogging! She has been my critique partner for several years, and she's a great writer. For more information about the author, please scroll to the bottom of the article. Enjoy!


Reading an Epublishing Contract by J. Gunnar Grey

So the epublisher loves your story and wants to publish it. She forwards you a contract. You start reading and it's gobbledygook. There's no substitute for a good contract or intellectual property attorney, and I certainly don’t claim to be either. But here are some of the paragraphs likely to be included, what they mean, and what you should avoid.

First the contract should specify what it covers. This includes the name of the publishing company, the author's real name, the title of the manuscript, and the contract date. The date is important because contracts of this sort are bound by a time limit. More on this later.

Second is usually the publishing rights, which the author is granting to the publisher. This can take a number of forms, such as exclusive world rights, English language rights, North American rights, and so on. Rights can be further broken down by media, e.g., print-on-demand (POD) paperbacks, traditional print run trade paperbacks, audio formats, or the most popular right now, readable (text) digital format.

It used to be the case that authors jealously guarded their rights, selling different rights to different companies in different deals, which added together to total a more attractive sum than the straight paperback advance. In fact, this was considered an important part of the agent's job, getting the best deal possible for the author across a broad spectrum of the entertainment industry, including the movie option and audiobooks. This is less important than it used to be, because most epublishers don't want your movie rights in any case. Again, more on this later.

The third section generally covers what the author guarantees the publisher, and that's a manuscript that's free and clear of encumbrances. The author must warrant (guarantee, in layman’s English) that no one else has any right to the story. If it was previously published, all rights must have reverted to the author, who will generally be asked to provide written proof of this reversion.

Other paragraphs in the contract are likely to cover:

• who provides the ISBN (usually the publisher)
• who secures the copyright from the U.S. Copyright office (usually the author, if the author wants one)
• who sets the selling price (almost always the publisher)
• the conditions and percentages governing advances and royalties
• who provides the cover art (generally the publisher but the author is often invited to submit, if he likes)
• what happens if the publisher goes under (reversion of rights to the author) or the author dies
• who pays taxes on the earnings (almost always each party pays their own)
• whether the author has the right to audit the publisher’s books (if not, this is a red flag)
• whether electronic signatures are acceptable, and
• if there are any future disagreements between publisher and author, which state law shall govern (usually the publisher's)

Some specifics:

• As mentioned above, these contracts are bound by a time limit, and for epublishing contracts, the duration is usually somewhere between three to ten years. While a longer duration allows the writer to build up a head of marketing steam with one company, that's assuming the two parties continue to get along.
• It's important to specify when the contract begins running: from the date within the first paragraph, from the signature date, or from the date of the title’s release by the publisher. Theoretically, it's possible for a publisher to tie down the rights to a book and never publish it, if the contract runs from the release date. But before becoming paranoid, note that the publisher would have little to gain by such behavior, certainly not money. (Although that could be a lovely cozy mystery, couldn’t it?)
• The writer should also note who has the right of final approval of the manuscript, him or the publisher, and whether his input is required for substantive changes. If an editor will be hired, who pays for her services?
• The writer should maintain control of his name or pseudonym, his characters, and his career. The publisher may request a sequel, the right of first refusal (meaning she wants to be given first crack at any sequel or book featuring the same characters), or some deal of that sort.
• There's usually a clause of mutual indemnification in these contracts. That means if anyone sues the publisher, this third party has no right to go after the company’s writing stable. Or if someone sues the writer, the third party can’t also attack the publisher through the contract.
• Another clause is likely to cover who's allowed or required to take action in the event a third party infringes the book’s copyright.

There are so many possible red flags, there's no way to list them all. But here are some of the more common or outrageous ones.

• The so-called "rights grab." This is where an epublisher ties down rights she has no intention of exercising, such as those for foreign languages or movie production. These are potentially lucrative avenues for the author, easily capable of replacing the advance (if the publisher doesn’t offer one). Note that if the publisher does intend to exercise these rights, and this is spelled out in the contract with a member of staff assigned to the project, it's not a grab.
• A ridiculously long duration. Epublishing contracts are not meant to last forever and even ten years is seen as lengthy in this fast-changing environment. Twenty or thirty years, the length of the copyright, and "in perpetuity" all qualify as ridiculous.
• Ownership of the characters. It's fair to say that an epublisher is merely renting the rights to your book for a set length of time. Any demand to own or control the characters or the serious is not a good thing.
• Ownership of the author’s career. I'm not kidding.
• Finally, any required transfer of money, time, or work from the author to the publisher. This does not include marketing, which is a necessary evil at any level of publishing shy of James Patterson or Janet Evanovich. It also doesn't include any volunteer effort the writer may put into the firm, such as a blog hop for all the house's authors. But if the publishing company requires its writers to pay for publication, that's a vanity press and it’s one of the reddest flags of all.

Some epublishing contracts are straightforward and easily understood, but others are complex, professionally prepared, tight legal instruments. There's something to be said in favor of a company that utilizes a basic contract, as it implies a willingness to be flexible and work out issues with its writers. But there’s also something to be said for a company that wants no grey areas where misunderstandings can form. Each writer considering such a contract should only sign if he's comfortable with the terms. And it's worth repeating—if there’s any doubt, there's no substitute for a legal beagle on your side.


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About the Author

J. Gunnar Grey has never wanted to be anything except a novelist, so of course she’s been everything else—proofreader, typesetter, editor, nonfiction writer, photographer, secretary, data entry clerk, legal assistant, Starfleet lieutenant commander, stable manager, dancer—and no, not that kind of dancer. Her long-suffering husband is just excited she’s actually using her two degrees, one from the University of Houston Downtown and the MA in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University. Gunnar writes novels that are mysterious, adventurous, and historical, but all sorts of other stuff can leap out of that keyboard without warning.

The first part of her novel, Deal with the Devil, is currently available from Astraea Press, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble (and you should go buy it - it's a great read!). She also published a handy book that every writer in e-publishing should have: Format Your eBook the Free and Easy Way.

You can also find her on Facebook and Twitter.



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NEXT UP: Writing Prompt - Chain Stories.