Tag Archives: michael ventrella

Articles, Blog, Craft, Writing and Publishing

About This Writing Stuff…

This week, Kristen Overman shows us what active dialogue is all about while Anne Hawley analyzes how our brains process exposition.

Over at BookBub, Diana Urban offers ideas for unusual book marketing, promoting sequels, and using social media effectively while avoiding burnout. At Writer Unboxed, Donald Maass has seen the gods, monsters, and murderbots and they are us!

Clayton Noblit and Lauren McLean prognosticate on what’s ahead in publishing this year and Michael Ventrella provides an astonishing example of how NOT to handle a story rejection.

All that and a little more. Enjoy!

How to Write Active Dialogue by Kristen Overman

Gods, Monsters, and Murderbots by Donald Maass

Too Much Information: Exposition and the Reading Brain by Anne Hawley

FBI Arrests Man Who Allegedly Stole Book Manuscripts and Defrauded Hundreds by Deepra Shivaram

Authors on Social Media: Choosing Platforms & Avoiding Burnout by Diana Urban

6 Out of the Box Marketing Ideas You HAVE to See by Diana Urban

12 Clever Ideas for Promoting Sequels or Later-Series Books by Diana Urban

The Top Eight Publishing Trends for 2022 by Clayton Noblit

2022 Publishing Predictions from Literary Agent Laurie McLean via Anne R. Allen

How Not to Accept a Rejection by Michael A. Ventrella

List of 234 Interesting Character Quirks presented by YourDictionary

Blog, Conventions

After Action Report: Philcon 82

Philcon 82The 82nd annual Philadelpha SF Convention (Philcon) has come and gone and, for me, it was one of the best yet. I participated in four edifying and—in the case of Compassionate Representation of Mental Illness in Fiction—intense discussion panels.

I was not scheduled for any panels on Friday, which allowed me to browse the dealer room and pick up over 20 classic SF paperbacks before enjoying dinner at Houlihan’s with Sharon Van Blarcom and Sarah Yaworsky from the Farpoint Convention and fellow writer Chris Ochs.

Classic SF PaperbacksChristmas Tree-Cherry Hill, NJ

Saturday was a busy day with three discussion panels and an autograph session. I was honored to share the autograph table with Hugo and Nebula award-winning SF author Michael Swanwick. We had a delightful conversation about classic speculative fiction authors such as Robert Silverberg, Harlan Ellison, Phil K. Dick, Philip José Farmer, and others.

How to Discover New Authors Panel
Saturday Discussion Panel – How Does a Reader Discover New Authors? – Photo Credit: Michael Ventrella
Discussion Panel-Your Story Doesn't Start until Page Eleven?
Sunday Discussion Panel – Your Story Doesn’t Start until Page Eleven? – Photo Credit: James Beall

In between panels, I sat with Farpoint Chair Sharon Van Blarcom at the Farpoint Convention table. Once we closed up at 6PM, I joined Sharon, Farpoint committee member Brian Sarcinelli, and Shore Leave Co-Chair Inge Heyer in the hotel restaurant for about an hour before joining writer pals Aaron Rosenberg, Glenn Hauman, Heather Hutsell, and several others for dinner at Whole Hog BBQ.‌

Scary Stuff Front Cover

One of the highlights of the weekend was the launch of the Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign by Oddity Prodigy Productions for their upcoming horror anthology, Scary Stuff. My ghost story, “Burn After Writing” will be included in the book. Scary Stuff is an homage to the classic EC Comics titles such as Tales from the Crypt, Vault of Horror, Haunt of Fear, Creepy, etc. Click here to learn more about the project including the contributing authors and the various donation levels. Thank you for supporting small press authors!

Christmas Tree-Cherry Hill, NJSunday morning saw me at two discussion panels–Your Story Doesn’t Start Until Page Eleven? and Rituals for Conjuring Novel Titles. Both of which were fun and engaging for the panelists and the audience.

As I was packing my car to leave on Sunday, I noticed this massive Christmas tree directly across from the Crowne Plaza hotel on Park Avenue. Although still a bit early in the season, it was a cheerful ending to a succesful weekend. As always, I look forward to returning next November!