Tuesday, June 6, 2017

Tuesday Tips: Branding

I will be releasing another novel is a couple weeks. In the last couple years I have learned a lot about writing and about marketing.

I discovered there is a thing called "Branding".

I was interested to learn that the term was in fact related to the age old practice of burning your logo, your brand, into the flesh of your books. Leaving a mark that was clearly your own. Now that I am a big old professional writer and such, I guess I need to step up my game.



Compare them to the old covers on the right. While you can at least. They will be updated as well when the new novel is released!

Signed copies of the new editions will be available at special prices.

--Coming soon to a novel near you.


Virtues of the Vicious

The final draft of my next novel was sent off to my editor on Sunday night. Finally.

After taking a day off I will be starting new projects! My favorite time!

I think I will knock out a couple short stories before diving into my next novel. A Zombie Apoc story first, then a Science Fiction crime story!

I also plan on doing updates on the Solstice 31 Saga. A new edition of each volume with new covers and small updates inside.

Lots to do.

Plus there are more anthologies that will be publishing more of my new short fiction.

--Good times!



Friday, June 2, 2017

Fast Friday Indie Interviews: Jo Zebedee

Tell me about yourself, Jo?

Jo Zebedee
I'm from Northern Ireland, near the notorious Belfast. I run after kids, work etc, and then, when no one is looking, I unleash my inner (very hidden) geek and write both science fiction and fantasy, generally quite dark. I doubt it's what people expect when they meet me at the school gates! I also cook, grow veg. Hell, I even make jam from time to time. But I don't clean. In fact, essentially eradicating cleaning time is how I manage to write (hygiene is overrated)

Tell me about your current Book:

Amy was five when she vanished during a family trip, only to be found hours later, clutching a golden acorn and claiming to have visited faeries. Now she’s eighteen, and the fairies are calling her back. While attending a wedding deep in the Antrim glens, the voices grow darker and their song takes hold. Not sure if she's mad or if the fairies are real, she flees, drawing well-meaning Simon into her fairy-fuelled road trip.

In it, the fairies are not the gentle variety, but the Irish sidhe, dark and malevolent. I had a lot of fun, drawing on mythology and making it feel very real and close to our world.

What are you working on now?
I'm working on another book about Ireland and mythology, this time set in Donegal and focusing on the Wild Hunt, when the fairy horde ride out. I've also written a sf based in Northern Ireland, Inish Carraig, so having a third book set in Ulster feels right. After that, I have plans for a much-promised sequel to Inish Carraig and, possibly, a fantasy duology. Oh and a sf novella and collection of short stories.

Clone me. Please.

Where is your favorite place to be when you write?

I like plotting out in my cottage garden. I can't type out there but I love free writing. Other than that, I’ll write anywhere. Since I normally have kids running around (my daughter’s mate is currently cleaning out the gerbils beside me as I write this) and dogs, and fish, and work, I have to be pretty flexible and not too precious.

What is your favorite lesson you have learned about the business of writing?

Learn the business. No one else is going to look after you as well as you will. Know your options, your rates, your expectations. Sure, learn to write, but learn what to do with it after you've written it.


What is your favorite Website? 

I hang around the https://www.sffchronicles.com/ a lot and found it a great support and help when I started out. And they have writing competitions. And I'm competitive...

Links: 

Web: http://www.jozebedee.com
Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jo-Zebedee/e/B00VM61TZG/
Blog: http://www.jozebwrites.blogspot.co.uk
Twitter: https://twitter.com/jozebwrites


Thursday, June 1, 2017

Call for Submissions: Whispers of the Apoc

Tannhauser Press is looking for the short stories for the WHISPERS 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. The stories are from various locations around the country.
  • 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 bit.
  • Zombies can only be killed with the destruction of the brain.
  • The zombies dry out and mummify the older they get.
  • 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. 
  • Stories will take place in a variety of places: 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. Basic Italics and Bold are the only additional formatting used. Garamond 12 will be used. Scene changes will be separated by “ *** ”.
  • WHISPERS of the APOC will be Rated R.
  • The target soft deadline for this is sometime in September 2017.
  • The amount of interest has already ensured they will be a Volume 2! So screw the deadline. Keep them coming!

UPDATE: We are doing a Volume 2! Keep Submitting!


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

Images that Inspire