Quotes of the week

One must be ruthless with one’s own writing or someone else will be.
—John Berryman

Write only if you cannot live without writing. Write only what you alone can write.
—Elie Wiesel

Read good books, have good sentences in your ears. Be by yourself as often as you can. Walk. Take the phone off the hook.
—JANE KENYON

Without craft, art remains private. Without art, craft is merely homework.
—Joyce Carol Oates

Write one good clean sentence and put a period at the end of it. Then write another one.
—M.F.K. Fisher

There’s many a bestseller that could have been prevented by a good teacher.
—Flannery O’Connor

If you are in difficulties with a book, try the element of suprise: attack it at an hour when it isn't expecting it.
—H.G. Wells

The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places.
—Ernest Hemingway

Screenwriting is like ironing. You move forward a little bit and go back and smooth things out.
—P.T. Anderson

I think it’s important to leave spaces in a story for readers to fill in from their own experience.
—Annie Proulx—

Political Correctness

I had a discussion with some writers this week about trigger warnings and concerns regarding offending readers. My feeling was simple.

Fuck that.

Some people are just wusses. It's not my job to protect them, to shield them from the harsh nature of the world. Some authors write specifically for that audience.

Fuck that.

It is my job to write a good story. If that means some of my characters curse, so be it. If one of my protagonists is a strong black woman, or a gay soldier, or god forbid, a white, straight protagonist, it is to advance the story.

Write a good story. An author cannot worry about not offending anyone.

--Just because you're offended doesn't mean you're right!

READING: Persepolis Rising

This week I read Persepolis Rising by James Corey.

This is the 7th in the Expanse Series.

Here is the description from Amazon:

AN OLD ENEMY RETURNS

In the thousand-sun network of humanity's expansion, new colony worlds are struggling to find their way. Every new planet lives on a knife edge between collapse and wonder, and the crew of the aging gunship Rocinante have their hands more than full keeping the fragile peace.

In the vast space between Earth and Jupiter, the inner planets and belt have formed a tentative and uncertain alliance still haunted by a history of wars and prejudices. On the lost colony world of Laconia, a hidden enemy has a new vision for all of humanity and the power to enforce it.

New technologies clash with old as the history of human conflict returns to its ancient patterns of war and subjugation. But human nature is not the only enemy, and the forces being unleashed have their own price. A price that will change the shape of humanity -- and of the Rocinante -- unexpectedly and forever...

--Expanse is now a major television series.

Reruns!

The Signal

Whispers...

I ordered a case of my new anthology, WHISPERS of the APOC. Half are gone already.

--Working on Volume 2 now!

The Actual Sky in Antarctica

Photo: Christopher Michel

Quotes of the week

You build a novel the same way you do a pyramid. One word, 1 stone at a time, underneath a full moon when the fingers bleed.
—Kate Braverman

I don’t think writers should write about answers, I think writers should write about questions.
—Paul Haggis

If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.
—Stephen King

Write what disturbs you, what you fear, what you have not been willing to speak about. Be willing to be split open.
—Natalie Goldberg

To make a great film you need three things: the script, the script and the script.
—Alfred Hitchcock

Being a writer is like having homework every night for the rest of your life.
—Lawrence Kasdan

The first draft is just you telling yourself the story.
—Terry Pratchett

There are few things, apparently, more helpful to a writer than having once been a weird little kid.
—Katherine Paterson

Gah! Tuesday already!

This whole retirement thing is complicated.

Lots of moving parts that are cutting into my routine.

Blogging seems to fall by the wayside early when stuff starts to happen!

I did binge watch season 2 of the Expanse! More on that later!

--Off to work!

More Bacon!!

Short SCI-FI: Cockpit

Busy days, dammit.

It's Friday and there is a ton of things happening in Wilsey World currently.

Getting things wrapped up at work for retirement.

Working on my next novel, SHADOWS OF THE SENTINEL.

Working on the next Apoc Anthology, SILENCE OF THE APOC.

Working on a Sci-Fi short story submission that takes place in the Solctice 31 universe.

Setting up a new system for writing.

Working on the new Website.

--Making stuff happen.

Images that Inspire

Quotes of the Week

Writing fiction is the act of weaving a series of lies to arrive at a greater truth.
—Khaled Hosseini

Write about what really interests you, whether it is real things or imaginary things, and nothing else.
—C.S. Lewis

Really I'm just an actor. The only difference between me and those cats in Hollywood is that I write my own script.
—Jimi Hendrix

Desire suppressed finds its way into other more surreal things, into dreams.
—Susan Minot

If you are not afraid of the voices inside you, you will not fear the critics outside you.
—Natalie Goldberg

Keep a notebook. Travel with it, eat with it, sleep with it. Slap into it every stray thought that flutters up in your brain. Cheap paper is less perishable than gray matter, and lead pencil markings endure longer than memory.
—Jack London

I write one page of masterpiece to ninety one pages of shit. I try to put the shit in the waste-basket.
—Ernest Hemingway

We all have time machines, don't we, those that take us back are memories...And those that carry us forward are dreams.
—H.G. Wells

Everything can nourish the writer. The dictionary, a new word, a voyage, an encounter...a book, a phrase learned.
—Anaïs Nin

Everybody is a Genius. But If You Judge a Fish by Its Ability to Climb a Tree, It Will Live Its Whole Life Believing that It is Stupid. —Albert Einstein

You want to be a writer? A writer is someone who writes every day — so start writing.
—Shonda Rhimes

No story lives unless someone wants to listen. The stories we love best do live in us forever.
—J.K. Rowling

New Blog Coming

I am having a new website developed that will include a new blog.

I hope the new unified site will be way better, but we shall see. This entire blog will be migrated over.

I will be a bit distracted for the next couple weeks...

Reading: Babylon's Ashes

This week I read Babylon's Ashes, The Expanse, Book 6, by James S. A. Corey.

Here is the description from Amazon: 

A revolution brewing for generations has begun in fire. It will end in blood.

The Free Navy - a violent group of Belters in black-market military ships - has crippled the Earth and begun a campaign of piracy and violence among the outer planets. The colony ships heading for the thousand new worlds on the far side of the alien ring gates are easy prey, and no single navy remains strong enough to protect them.

James Holden and his crew know the strengths and weaknesses of this new force better than anyone. Outnumbered and outgunned, the embattled remnants of the old political powers call on the Rocinante for a desperate mission to reach Medina Station at the heart of the gate network.

But the new alliances are as flawed as the old, and the struggle for power has only just begun. As the chaos grows, an alien mystery deepens. Pirate fleets, mutiny, and betrayal may be the least of the Rocinante's problems. And in the uncanny spaces past the ring gates, the choices of a few damaged and desperate people may determine the fate of more than just humanity.

--Love this series.


 

Damn Squirrels!

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: Silence of the Apoc

Tannhauser Press Call for Submissions.

This is the foundation document for the short stories in the SILENCE of the APOC anthology.

Here is a set of common items all the submissions must include:

• The stories will be set after the Zombie Apocalypse has occurred. It could be the day it hit or a year later. It struck in the spring of 2017. The stories are from various locations around the world.
• Society was utterly destroyed in less than a month. No government, no media, no power grid remains.
• No one knows why or how it happened. None of the stories will solve that mystery.
• Anyone that dies for any reason will become a zombie. The dead will turn Two to Ten minutes after they die, even if they were not bitten.
• Zombies can only be killed with the destruction of the brain.
• The zombies dry out and mummify the older they get. They will last potentially for decades.
• Zombies hear and see and smell to find prey. It’s all they do.
• They will eat any mammal they can catch. Cats, dogs, rats, cows, horses, deer.
• Zombies get slower the older they get. Fresh ones can run and fight hard. Old zombies are shamblers.
• Zombie bites will not kill you outright. You die in 24 to 48 hours. Symptoms include sweating, extreme thirst, eventually fear of water (like rabies: Hydrophobia).
• These stories should be character driven and about survival. They are not stories the figure out how it happened.
• Stories will take place in a variety of locations: Urban, suburban and rural. Even desolate places. The focus is on survival.
• Stories should be 5,000 to 20,000 words.
• Authors will be paid between $25 and $100 per story if accepted, with signed agreement.
• All submissions are to be delivered in MSWord format. Garamond 12 will be used. Scene changes will be separated by “ *** ”.
• SILENCE of the APOC will be Rated R.
• Volume 2 and 3 are already planned so the deadline is continuous. 

--Please direct any questions to Martin Wilsey, martin.wilsey@gmail.com.

SCIFI Short: ARCH

Creativity: Photography

I am really getting excited about retiring from my day job. I will have time to step up several new projects. All of these projects fall into the creative category:

• Photography
• Painting
• Book Narration
• Short films

I have already started with a local photography group. We will run it the same way that my writers group runs. We are getting together for the first time tomorrow for coffee. We will talk tools, cameras, software, methods and styles.

My first goal with the photo group is to get some decent author photos to use on my new website and in my books.

I plan on setting up a recording studio in my home where I will record the narration of my various short fiction and post them on a website that is set up like old style Science Fiction Radio theater.

--All of this will be done under the unbrella of Tannhauser Studios.  A subsiderary of Tannhauser Enterprises!  

 

Images that Inspire

Images that Inspire

Quotes of the Week

Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor.... It will keep you cramped and insane your whole life,
—Anne Lamott

Imagination is like a muscle. I found out that the more I wrote, the bigger it got.
—Philip José Farmer

Writer's block is a fancy term made up by whiners so they can have an excuse to drink alcohol.
—Steve Martin

Imagination is a force that can actually manifest a reality. Don't put limitations on yourself. Others will do that for you.
—James Cameron

Write. Write every day, even if it is only a page or two. The more you write, the better you’ll get.
—George R.R. Martin

Becoming a writer is about becoming conscious. When you’re conscious and writing from a place of insight and simplicity and real caring about the truth, you have the ability to throw the lights on for your reader.
—Anne Lamott

Art is anything you can get away with.
—Andy Warhol

Tuesday Tips: International Sales

With the release of WHISPER OF THE APOC this week I was reminded of some good advice I received regarding International Sales. Amazon has several standalone companies that have their own seperate websites.

They do a good job replication your titles to make them for sale across the planet.

What they don't do is replicate your Author Page.

It's not too big a deal, but at a minimum I would populate your Author Page on the following sites as a starting point:

http://authorcentral.amazon.co.uk
http://authorcentral.amazon.fr
http://authorcentral.amazon.de
http://authorcentral.amazon.co.jp

There are also reviews in each region that do not replicate. Some in English some in other languages. Google translate can be really amusing for these.

--Happy International Sales!!

READING: INFINITE

This week I read INFINITE by Jeremmy Robinson.

Here is the description from Amazon:

The Galahad, a faster-than-light spacecraft, carries 50 scientists and engineers on a mission to prepare Kepler 452b, Earth's nearest habitable neighbor at 1400 light years away. With Earth no longer habitable and the Mars colony slowly failing, they are humanity's best hope. 

After 10 years in a failed cryogenic bed - body asleep, mind awake - William Chanokh's torture comes to an end as the fog clears, the hatch opens, and his friend and fellow hacker, Tom, greets him...by stabbing a screwdriver into his heart. This is the first time William dies. 

It is not the last. 

When he wakes from death, William discovers that all but one crew member - Capria Dixon - is either dead at Tom's hands, or has escaped to the surface of Kepler 452b. This dire situation is made worse when Tom attacks again - and is killed. Driven mad by a rare reaction to extended cryo-sleep, Tom hacked the Galahad's navigation system and locked the ship on a faster-than-light journey through the universe, destination: nowhere. Ever. 

Mysteriously immortal, William is taken on a journey with no end, where he encounters solitary desperation, strange and violent lifeforms, a forbidden love, and the nature of reality itself. 

...he discovers the infinite.

--I enjoyed it! Recommended. 

It's Big News! Going Full Time!

This was me this week...

Just Released: Whispers of the Apoc

WHISPERS OF THE APOC: Tales from the Zombie Apocalypse

Now available from Tannhauser Press.

This is an anthology from several talented authors:

• TS Alan    
• Lou Antonelli
• Alice J. Black
• Kelly Carr 
• JL Curtis    
• TR Dillon    
• David Duperre    
• John L. French    
• Alexei Kalinchuk
• Stephen Kozeniewski
• Adrian Ludens    
• Emmet O’Cuana    
• Cameron Smith    
• Chad Vincent    
• Stanley B. Webb    
• Martin Wilsey

No one knew how it began. The world fell in just a few weeks.

--Some people survived. Some decided to live.

Surreal

Martin Wilsey

It is starting to sink in that I will be retired soon.

2018 is going to be so different in My World.

• I will be retired at 58 after 35 years of employment.
• I will be a Full-Time Author.
• I will have an empty nest with all my children all grown and on their own.
• I weigh what I did in 1976.
• I will be getting superfit.
• I will travel more.
• I will spend more time outside.
• I will camp more.
• I will get back into photography.
• I will buy more new clothes.
• I will simplify. 
• I will drink coffee and make stuff up.
• I will record my first audio book.

--I may also sneak in a nap. 

 

Art that Inspires

Quotes of the Week

Write. Write every day, even if it is only a page or two. The more you write, the better you’ll get.
—George R.R. Martin

Forget what you think about it and tell what you feel about it.
—Stephen Crane

Write as often as possible, not with the idea of getting into print, but as if you were learning an instrument.
—J.B. Priestley

In #writing, punctuation plays the role of body language. It helps readers hear you the way you want to be heard.
—Russell Baker

Go to where the silence is and say something.
—Amy Goodman

2018 Starts Off on the Right Foot

Martin Wilsey

After I returned from the holidays the first thing I did was let my boss know I was going to retire and write full time.

It's a dream come true.

My last day at the office will be March 2nd.

I am so excited about this. No more commuter traffic. I will be able to double my daily writing time. I will also be able to focus more on the business side of being an author.

Tannhauser Press and The Ventura Theater will expand. Tannhauser Studios will launch, a photography, audio and video enterprise. I will develop a new author page. I will expand my work in screenplays, photography and audio. I will step up my fitness (it helps the writing) and my relaxing.

Because I can write anywhere I may be visiting you soon.

--First up is a new Author Bio.

Reading: Nemesis Games

Wow! Happy New Year people! 2018 is already looking up!

Last week I read a couple things:

• NEMESIS GAMES by James Corey
• A GIFT OF TIME by Jerry Merritt

Both were really good and highly recommended!