All posts by philgiunta@ptd.net

Blog, Writing and Publishing

About This Writing Stuff…

As 2016 approaches, one of my resolutions is to resurrect a popular, semi-regular feature here on my blog that went dark in April 2015 as my life just became too hectic to maintain it.

“About This Writing Stuff” is a collection of interesting articles from the writing and publishing world. Most are instructional, meant to provide helpful tools for writers. Some are merely news or updates, but all are meant to inform with no bias on my part. In other words, I don’t always agree with every article, but I welcome your feedback and opinions.

I thought I’d start on New Year’s Eve, especially since I recently discovered a fantastic website for fantasy and SF writers called Mythcreants, from which came three of the articles below touching on creating memorable character moments and riveting fight scenes as well as unrealistic tropes to avoid.

From Writer Unboxed, Lisa Cron delves into backstory, while SF author Veronica Sicoe is completely out of order. Jami Gold breaks down the characteristics of a strong story. We also talk Facebook for writers and the renaissance of used book stores. The latter sparked quite a debate recently on social media over the fact that writers receive no payment for the sale of used books.  How do you feel about this?

Enjoy the articles and have a wonderful, healthy, and productive New Year!

What We’ve Been Taught About Backstory…and Why It’s Wrong by Lisa  Cron

Writing Out of Sequence – The Best Way to Write by Veronica Sicoe

How to Best Use Facebook as an Author by Teymour Shahabi

The Critical Importance of Crafting a Strong Opening and 8 Tips for Picking Meaningful Character Names by Jody Hedlund

Does Our Story Have Everything it Needs? by Jami Gold

Six Unrealistic Tropes and How to Avoid Them by Oren Ashkenazi

Six Tricks for Memorable Character Moments and How to Narrate a Riveting Fight Scene by Chris Winkle

In the Age of Amazon, Used Bookstores Are Making an Unlikely Comeback by Michael S. Rosenwald

Blog, Book Reviews

Book Review: Classic Philip Jose Farmer 1964-1973

Unlike the first volume of Classic Philip Jose Farmer, this second collection is dominated by short stories, containing only one novella called “Riders of the Purple Wage”.  I was interested in reading this particular piece as it had been originally printed in Harlan Ellison’s Dangerous Visions anthology. It’s a bizarre tale, typical of Farmer’s vivid and beautiful imagination.

A few centuries from now, the Earth’s population has expanded upward, living on numerous levels above the planet’s surface. Many citizens subsist on government handouts known as the purple wage. Artist Chib Winnegan has discovered a new medium combining painting and sculpture, much to the delight, and consternation, of two government certified art critics.

Guided and encouraged by the wisdom of his grandfather, an ornery old coot long thought dead by the government he ripped off for billions but who is hiding in Chib’s house, Chib is soon to unveil his latest masterpiece to a world dominated by catchphrases and sound bytes, to a society that has lost its humanity because humanity has lost its heart.

It was a fascinating and entertaining read that had me smiling and even laughing out loud at times.

Other favorites in this anthology included:

“The Shadow of Space”: After its engines are sabotaged by an insane passenger, a starship is hurled through space far beyond the speed of light until it bursts through a tear in the fabric of the known universe and finds itself in a strange and inexplicable dimension where the laws of physics do not apply.

“The Sliced-Crosswise Only-on-Tuesday World”: The Earth’s population has exploded such that people are placed into stasis to awaken and live only one day per week. Tom Pym lived only on Tuesdays…until he fell in love with a Wednesday woman. Tom decides to apply for a transfer to Wednesday, but be careful what you wish for!

“Sketches Among The Ruins of My Mind”: An alien vessel appears in Earth orbit, causing the human race to travel backward in time by four days for every day calendar day forward, all the while retaining their memories. Each day, Mark Franham watches the events of his life in reverse—until his children and wife are gone. Will Earth’s greatest minds be able to stop this horrific process? If so, will it give Mark—and the rest of humanity—a chance to live their lives again and avoid the mistakes they made the first time?

“After King Kong Fell”: An elderly man regales his granddaughter with a whimsical tale of what truly happened after King Kong fell from the Empire State Building and how it affected his family.

 

Classic Philip Jose Farmer 1964-1973

Blog, Book Reviews

Book Review: Classic Philip Jose Farmer, Volume One

Very often in writing classes, students are challenged to create “elevator pitches”, challenging them to summarize the premise of a story in one or two sentences. When it comes to Philip Jose Farmer, good luck with that. It was a struggle even for me and I consider myself well practiced at it.

The Classic Philip José Farmer, 1952-1964 is my first exposure to Farmer’s work and if nothing else, it has instilled a respect for his unorthodox approach to storytelling. There is little one could call conventional about Farmer’s style and imagination. His worlds are replete with bizarre aliens and even more peculiar humans.

In the first of two anthologies published by Crown Classics, we are presented with three short stories and three novellas, albeit the final story could easily be classified as flash fiction.

In “Sail On! Sail On!”, we are given a glimpse into an alternate history of Columbus’s expedition across the Atlantic wherein a bibulous monk uses a mysterious device that sends ship to shore communications through the intervention of angels. When his messages are disrupted by signals from the moon, might it spell danger for their voyage?

An apathetic, fragile young man and his doting mother are the only survivors of a crashed ship. While exploring their alien surroundings, the boy is taken captive by an alien who becomes his surrogate “Mother” and protector.

In “The God Business”, a former college professor invents a libation called the Brew that liberates people from all inhibitions, elevating himself to godhood in the process. When two investigators are sent in to gather intelligence where military incursions previously failed, they find a strange destiny awaits.

“The Alley Man” claims to be last of the Neanderthals. Living in a trailer beside a garbage dump, he accepts payment from a local research scientist to allow her to study him in his daily routine—until a strange attraction overcomes her.

“My Sister’s Brother” tests the prejudices of the sole survivor of a Mars expedition when he stumbles across an attractive alien with a surprising sexuality.

A biologist provides a guided tour of a zoo that recreates specimens from various extinct species, including one that is considered “The King of Beasts”.

In “Mother” and “My Sister’s Brother” particularly, I found Farmer’s detailed descriptions of the aliens and their respective biologies remarkable. “The God Business” was my favorite of the collection. I look forward to volume two and then moving onto Farmer’s acclaimed Riverworld series.

Classic Philip Jose Farmer 1952-1964
Blog, Sales

Books at the Beach!

Shameless plug here, but if you’re headed to Rehoboth Beach for the holidays and looking for a great read or gifts for the readers on your list, stop into Browseabout Books on Rehoboth Avenue. Not only is it a fantastic shop, but they’re carrying a few of my titles. which makes them even cooler (at least in my book–yes, that was a bad pun).

 

By Your Side at Browseabout Books Testing the Prisoner and Somewhere in the Middle of Eternity at Browseabout

Blog, Book Reviews

Book Review: The Best of Lester Del Rey

You will find no shortage of robots and strange religions in this collection of stories from Lester Del Rey. Del Rey was an award-winning speculative fiction writer active from the late 1930s through the early 1990s before his death in 1993. He was awarded SFWA Grand Master in 1990.

As with any collection, there are stories ranging from mildly interesting to absolute gems. My favorites included:

Helen O’Loy – Robotics experts Dave and Phil create a female robot complete with emotions and decide to name her Helen O’Loy, a derivative of Helen of Alloy, which is a pun on Helen of Troy. Got that? The only problem is that she falls in love with Dave, making his life miserable…at least at first.

The Coppersmith – Industrious elf Ellowan Coppersmith emerges from a long sleep in the Adirondacks looking for work among humans only to find that his skills in repairing copper and brass items are no longer in high demand. Worse, mankind has developed horrid combustion engines. Perhaps Ellowan could use his skills to bring an eventual end to that…

Hereafter, Inc. – Righteous and judgmental Phineas Theophilus Potts returns to work after a long illness, forcing himself to be kind to the disgusting sinners around him, until he begins to realize that something is amiss. Some of his colleagues had died before his illness, so what are they doing here? Perhaps the question should be, what is Phineas doing there?

The Wings of Night – Two astronauts land on the moon to repair their ship and encounter a bizarre but benevolent alien named Lhin. Through trial and error, the astronauts find a way to communicate with the alien and learn that Lhin is the last of his kind, but with a small supply of copper could repopulate his species.

For I Am a Jealous People – A preacher’s faith is shaken when aliens attack the Earth claiming to be on a holy mission from the Lord Almighty to eradicate humans from the planet. This is one of three novellas in the collection.

Vengeance is Mine – A robot named Sam is left behind on the moon when the humans are evacuated to Earth. Shortly thereafter, Sam notices bursts of light on the Earth’s surface before the planet goes completely dark. Believing that aliens had attacked, Sam finds his way back to the planet only to eventually learn the truth behind the death of mankind. The last of three novellas.

 

Best of Lester Del Rey