Category Archives: interviews

Interview With A Five Year Old

I couldn’t think of anything to write about this week so I decided to interview my five year old son about books.

 

Me: What makes a good story?

Son: I’m thinking.

Me: Well, what kind of books do you like?

Son: I have no idea.

Me: What is your favorite book?

Son: Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.

Me: Why is that your favorite?

Son: Cuz they go on a big adventure.

Me: What makes a good adventure and what makes a bad adventure?

Son: (slapping his head) I have no idea.

Me: What kind of books do you like?

Son: Baby animals.

Me: Why do you like baby animal books?

Son: Cuz animals are so cute.

Me: Do you like baby animal books with a story or just with pictures?

Son: Story.

Me: What kind of story should be in a book about baby animals?

Son: About what sounds they make.

Me: Anything else?

Son: No.

Me: Is there a book you have not read yet that you want to read?

Son: I’m missing a book that I can’t find.

Me: What is the book?

Son: I have no idea. I can’t even remember the name.

Me: Are there any books you don’t have that you want to get?

Son: (shrug) I don’t know.

Me: How do you hear about new books?

Son: I have no idea.

Me: Thank you for taking the time to be interviewed.

Son: Thank you, daddy.

Interview with Lesley Connor of Apex Publications

Lesley Connor from Apex Book Company dropped by for a chit-chat. She is an editor and manages much of the promo work for Apex Books. I have really enjoyed reading  The Apex Book of World SF 2, Dark Faith: Invocations, and Let’s Play White by Cheysa Burke, as well as the Apex Magazine.

http://www.apexbookcompany.com/

APEX-Pub-banner-101812

Gimme the promo schpiel for Apex. What is Apex, why would a reader want to tune into what Apex does?

Apex Publications is a small press publisher based out of Lexington, KY dedicated to producing exemplary science fiction, horror, fantasy, and nonfiction.

Apex wants to entertain and challenge our readers. We like books that have the potential to challenge the way you see and interact with the world. We wish to expand your horizons beyond the boilerplate science fiction, fantasy, and horror you’ll find on the bookshelves. I like to think that books such as The Apex Book of World SF (an anthology of international SF), Dark Faith (an anthology of dark fiction around the concept of faith), and Machine (a science fiction novel addressing sexuality and gender roles) speak to this commitment.

But we won’t pretend to be so high minded. Our bestselling title is a “choose your own adventure” zombie novel!

  • Which one is this?

What role does Apex play in the whole book industry? What does Apex provide that no one else does?

We’re progressive in the type of material we publish. There aren’t many other publishers as mainstream as Apex that would have printed Jennifer Pelland’s amazing novel Machine.  Apex produces books for smart readers. Having said that, I’m sure our publisher, Jason Sizemore, would LOVE to have a hit like Fifty Shades of Grey in the company coffers!

  • What is progressive and challenging about Pelland’s Machine?
  • At its core Machine is a love story. The spouse of the protagonist goes into induced stasis until a cure is found for her illness. Our protagonist suffers from depression due to loneliness and other issues, and undergoes a procedure that turns her into a sort of cyborg. In the bounds of this unique setup, Pelland explores weighty issues such as gender identity, sexual politics, and social change.

Isn’t there a magazine, too ?

Indeed! The magazine is a monthly short fiction (science fiction, fantasy, and horror) publication edited by Lynne M. Thomas. In 2012, the zine earned a Hugo Award nomination. The fiction can be read for free, and I encourage everybody to head over to http://www.apex-magazine.com to check it out sometime.

What do you do for Apex? Is this a job/role that most publishing houses employ?

What do I do for Apex? Hmm… If you look at the Apex masthead, my job title is Social Media and Assistant Editor. Jason Sizemore has referred to me as the Social Media Maven and Marketing Leader. My husband says my title should be Senior Vice President of Getting the Word Out. Basically, I manage the Apex social media sites (Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Goodreads, LibraryThing, ect.), so if you tweet something at @ApexBookCompany  it’s me who is responding to you.  I also do a fair amount of marketing: querying book reviewers, setting up giveaways, running read-alongs. Sometimes I write up posts for the Apex website about promotions we’re running. When I’m not talking about Apex books and trying to get people excited about them, I’m proofreading. Somehow Jason convinced me to do some coding for the website the other day, something I never thought I’d be doing.  Basically, I jump in and help wherever I need to.

At big publishing houses there are probably entire teams of people who do what I do, instead of it just being me sending Jason an email saying I want to do a read-along of Dark Faith: Invocations on Goodreads. At smaller publishing houses it’s probably a job that’s divvied out to everyone involved and sort of gets pushed aside until someone has time to deal with it. Unfortunately, there is never time to deal with it, so I think it gets mainly forgotten. Maintaining an active Twitter account that has someone to interact with followers doesn’t get a book published. Actually, it can detract from getting the final product out there because it’s so time consuming, taking away from proofing and copy-edits and everything else that makes a book awesome. But having that interactive Twitter account is important to building an audience to sell the book to.

Why do you choose to work for Apex? Do you believe in the product? What opportunities does this provide for you?

Apex puts out some seriously amazing books. Not only is the writing top notch, but the covers are fantastic and they’re well put together. For a complete bibliophile, like me, this is important. Plus, the Apex gang is super nice. When the opportunity to become a part of it came up, I jumped at it. I was already telling all of my friends about Apex books. Why not tell the world?

I’d be lying if I said that everything I do for Apex is completely altruistic. As a writer, learning everything I can about publishing and marketing is a major benefit. Hopefully, I’ll be using all the skills I’m building to promote my own novels one day.

Do you get paid? (This seems to be a taboo subject, but i find that readersv sometimes still have misconceptions when it comes to the “profit” on book sales, it’s an important question: not everyone is drawing JK Rowling’s income)

I make enough to get a couple of cups of fancy coffee a week. Mmmm… coffee.

The stack of Apex books sitting on my dining room table and the experience I’m gaining working with Jason and Janet definitely puts me in the black. What could be more valuable to a writer than great books and a peek behind the curtain at the mysteries of the publishing business?

How much work goes into promo? How many hours a week do you spend doing this? What reactions and benefits do you see to your work that you put into promotions? Can you give me examples?

When I first started working for Apex Jason asked me to keep a log of how much time I was putting in, but I sort of dropped the ball on that. How do you keep track of how much time you spend tweeting? It isn’t exactly an activity where I can set a timer, spend 10 or 15 minutes and be done. I go back and forth all day.

Marketing work is kind of the same way. A lot of it happens on that mystical plane where thoughts become ideas and ideas become plans. Only once I have a plan do the emails start flying and anything becomes reality.

So how much time do I spend working on promos? A lot. Between coming up with ideas, bouncing them off Jason, researching any bits that I’m not sure how to do, actually implementing them and then promoting, it’s a lot of work and it’s a lot of time, but it’s also totally worth it. When I get an email from a reviewer telling me how much they loved a book and a link to a glowing review, or I get to chat with someone who is excited to have discovered Apex Magazine through the subscription drive it makes me feel all warm and glow-y.

Do you participate in the Hugos? Does Apex qualify for Hugo nominations?

Apex does qualify for Hugo nominations. You can check out a list of all of Apex’s Hugo eligible work here.

What have you learned about the book industry that you didn’t know before you started this work for Apex? What have you learned about yourself?

If I answered this question completely, we would be here for a very long time. I knew next to nothing about publishing and marketing before I started working for Apex. Luckily for me, Jason Sizemore was willing to give me the chance to try and patient enough to answer all my questions. I must be doing something right because he keeps giving me new responsibilities and I keep learning new things. The whole process has done wonders for me. I’ve grown a lot, becoming more out-going and confident.

  •  Really? I have always made the assumption that a person working in marketing would by necessity need to be out-going and confident. Can you tell me a little bit more about this self-growth?
  •  You would think that a person working in marketing would naturally be out-going, wouldn’t you?

I sort of fell into doing the marketing work for Apex. When Jason and I first discussed me working with him I wasn’t really sure what I would be doing. I didn’t know anything about publishing, but I had a passion for Apex and if I could be a part of it, I wanted to be. I started out managing the Apex Twitter and Facebook pages simply because those were websites I already used personally, so I knew how to do it, but it took a long time to get over that nearly paralyzing fear of saying something ridiculous and broadcasting it to nearly 4,000 people. Honestly, there are still times when I hesitate before tweeting something.

Then Jason asked me to manage the Apex Magazine subscription drive last October. For the first time I wasn’t just coming up with one-liners for Twitter and then chatting with anyone who responded. I was emailing people about donating raffle prizes, writing blog posts, sending out a press release, corresponding with subscribers, and trying to keep up with the promotion. It made me a nervous wreck. I’d never done anything like that, and suddenly I was in charge and didn’t really know how I’d gotten there.

The subscription drive went really well and after that I found myself doing more and more of the marketing work for Apex; finding reviewers for books, setting up interviews on podcasts, running promotions. One day I realized that I no longer had the fear that I was going to fail miserably. Sending emails to complete strangers was no longer a torturous act. I can’t say that I’m super confident that everything will be perfect, but I am confident that I will do everything I can to make things a success and if I end up failing, then I’ll learn from it and move on.

That confidence has carried over beyond my work with Apex. I’m a lot more apt to my share ideas. I speak up more, getting into the action rather than sitting back and letting everyone else come up with a plan. I feel like I carry myself differently. Apex has changed me, and I love the person I’ve become.

Which of Apex’s publications do you want the reader reading this interview to start reading, right now?

I just finished reading the ARC of What Makes You Die by Tom Piccirilli. I loved it! (Getting to read new Apex titles before they come out is a definite perk of my job.)

It doesn’t come out until mid-March, but everyone needs to read it. It was amazing. Watch for it, because you are going to want to snatch up a copy as soon as it’s available.

  • What was so amazing about it? Why did it knock your socks off?
  •  At the heart of it, What Makes You Die is about a man trying to claw his way back from a very dark place, fighting mental illness, Komodo dragons, and the anguish of lost love along the way. It’s a bizarre, wild ride, but it’s also one that we can all relate to. We all have times when we question the reality of our lives.

George R. R. Martin Is Not Your Bitch

…is a song by John Anealio on his new album.

Who? What?

Bio:
John Anealio performs geeky anthems for writers, librarians, lovers of Sci-Fi, Best Buy customers & robots. His music sounds like John Mayer, Weezer & James Taylor playing Dungeons & Dragons together on their iPhones. You can download his music at www.johnanealio.com

I met John a year and some ago but had known of him before that.  I don’t normally do interviews here but John’s new album is coming out next Tuesday, September 18, and that gives me a fine excuse to ask him some questions. So, open his site in another tab, listen to some of his music, and read our conversation.

Jonah: Do you remember what led up to you making the move away from traditional song subjects and into scifi songs?

John: I had been performing in folk venues and coffee shops for years. My songwriting was becoming more and more character focused and story driven. I’d spend a lot of time developing characters that would have to fit into a three minute pop song. The desire to write more complex characters led me to take a crack at writing fiction during National Novel Writing Month. That experience got me thinking about the relationship between novels and music. Those thoughts eventually grew into the kind of music that I’ve been making for the past 5 years.

Jonah: What was the initial reaction from your family and friends when you started going in the new direction?

John: Apathy. :-)

Actually, they were happy to see that I combined the two things that I loved so much and finally found my niche.

Jonah: You’ve been a vocal proponent of releasing singles rather than albums. What is this album about?

John: This album is a collection of the various singles and E.P.’s that I’ve released over the past two years plus 9 bonus tracks (remixes and acoustic takes). I’m in my late 30′s and I still think in terms of albums. That form just feels right to me. However, with the world that we live in today, if you are only releasing one album every year or two, then you aren’t going to be interacting very much with your community.

I release a new single every month or so. There are several benefits to this strategy. First, it gives you a way to stay in the mind of your audience. I give my new singles away for free in exchange for the listener’s e-mail address. I ask the nice folks who are already on my mailing list to download the new song for free and to share it with their friends via Facebook, Twitter and their blogs. My mailing list has grown exponentially in the past year by doing this.

Jonah: How do you feel about CD’s vs a digital future?

John: I haven’t purchased a CD in years. I know that there is still an audience that wants to have a physical object to possess, but I think it is the minority and shrinking every day.

I’ve become a heavy user of Spotify. Having access to so much music is truly miraculous. Whether it is Spotify or a competing service, everyone will be streaming music within the next few years.

Jonah: Do you have a long-term goal that you are working towards, music wise?

John: That’s a tough question. Musically, I just follow the muse. I follow whatever idea inspires me the most. In terms of where I’d like to see myself, I’d like to continue making music for the people who dig what I do and to continue to have the opportunity to play my music for more and more people.

Cheryl Morgan Maxey Interview

Cheryl Morgan Maxey spent some time answering a few questions for me. Cheryl is recently married to James Maxey, the author of Nobody Gets the Girl, Bitterwood, and more recently, Greatshadow and Hush, the first two in his Dragon Apocalypse series.

I started reading Greatshadow, and as these things go, I read the post-script first. I was fascinated by the story that Maxey relates therein, telling about how his writing of Greatshadow brought to fruition his hidden love for his best buddy, Cheryl.

Cheryl Morgan Maxey

They were married in November of 2011.

(I don’t see any resemblance at all between Cheryl and the depiction of Infidel on this cover for Greatshadow, do you? Nope, none…)

That’s totally you on the cover of Greatshadow.
I like Infidel, but she was a creation of James’ before we met in a short story version of Greatshadow. However, you’re not the first person to ask if I am Infidel, especially after what James wrote in the acknowledgements.

In the post script of Greatshadow is a lovely story about how you and James came to be married last November. Can you tell me your side of the story?

James sums up how our friendship changed to a relationship in the acknowledgements of Greatshadow. I think that our love and respect for each other is really rooted in the friendship we formed. We had friends that married on 10/10/10 on Bald Head Island and we were fortunate to take part in their wedding as well has spend time with them down at the beach. One morning after their wedding James and I got up early to go shelling and he proposed to me by writing in the sand. We were married this fall on 11/11/11 and it was a crazy blend of the traditional with the unique. In addition to the two of us writing our vows, James had also written a poem that we had printed on the programs and he read aloud. We really wanted the wedding to express who we were, and what we were to each other and I think we were able to do both.

I got to meet both of you at ConCarolinas, and this partnership you two have is clear and apparent. How does this partnership work in regards to the novels and the book career? All good relationships are more than the sum of their parts: how do you benefit from this?

I have been what James refers to as a “wise reader” for a while now. I feel like I’m pretty bad at returning the chapters to him with written comments the way some of his other beta readers do. However, we’ll talk about what I’ve read and my thoughts on it in the car, over dinner, before bed, doing the dishes, etc. Out of the blue I’ll say something about a character or a scene. My comments aren’t always in an email, but they build as I complete the reading of his draft. I know he’s not killed off characters because I’ve liked them.

I try to act as his PR advocate in regards to his career. James has been going to cons for a while, but he’s hesitant to talk himself up when he’s not moderating a panel. I have encouraged (badgered) him into going into our independent bookstore and now Purple Crow Books has his novels on the “local authors” shelves. I also contacted several area newspapers about Hush coming out and other events he was taking part in. Last week the News of Orange, a weekly paper in our town did a great article on his writing and the editor also read Hush and did a book review for her editorial.

Writers know writers. Have you had your “squee fan-girl” moment with famous authors?

My worst “fan-girl” moment was last year at ConCarolinas when Connor, winner of season 1 of SyFy’s FaceOff was a guest. I was practically stalking him. I’m a competition-reality show junky and love the artistry and skill that shows like FaceOff have brought to the masses.
What do you do between cons and modeling for book covers? Are you a writer?

I do not write… at all. I work as a Clinical Trials Coordinator at the Duke Cancer Center. Outside of work, I love digging in the yard. We just moved to a new house so I have new flower beds to create and cultivate. Once it’s not in the triple digits! James and I like to travel off the beaten path too. We’ve taken some great road trips where we explore the little towns between here and nowhere and on those trips I love snapping photos of things we see along the way. And cats. I was well on the way to being a ‘crazy cat lady’ when James and I started dating. So far, the stray cats in our new neighborhood haven’t found out I’m living here.

How do you see your presence in Maxey’s life influencing the books that I am reading (Dragon Apocalypse series)?

Keeping the side characters that I find interesting alive. I really pick out some weird ones that I get attached to, but I think some of the auxiliary characters James creates are awesome.
What are some of your favorite books? What are you reading now?

I had finished the Hunger Games trilogy when we were at ConCarolinas. I tried to space them out to enable myself to really think about the story instead of plowing through all three at once. I thought it was an incredible story on so many different levels.

I more recently just finished the 2nd draft of Witchbreaker, the 3rd book of the Dragon Apocalypse and I’m trying to keep myself available for a editing run-through before James sends it in… it’s due at the end of July. I read a lot of mystery and some general fiction too. Rita Mae Brown has a new Sneakie Pie mystery available and that the next on my hit list.

Which is your favorite convention or book-ish event?

I love going to the various cons and immersing myself into the very different world of fiction and make-believe. I love ConCarolinas. It’s a great venue and it’s awesome how they have the hall of writers. I also now know a lot of people that go to ConCarolinas so I feel like it’s “homecoming” when we go there. We also went to World Fantasy back in 2010 which was amazing. It’s not about the panels, it’s about the people. Going out to dinner, hanging out in the hotel bar, meeting people from everywhere, creating a network, hearing great music. We are returning to DragonCon this year which is the whole other end of the spectrum. Lots of people and mass chaos.
So, is a dragon farm part of your guys’ future plans?

We do plan to get a concrete dragon to put in the corner of the yard. One that’s like 4-5 feet tall.

David Belt Chainmaille

At RavenCon this year I was attending a panel that Rob Balder was part of. Balder was going on and on about something about making money with something, something about some webcomic something or other. Absolutely not listening to Balder because I was captivated by the fellow sitting behind me, quietly working away constructing a garment (!) from these thumb-sized scales and chain mail rings. Rob Balder is the writer and editor of ErfWorld, a super famous comic. At the end of Balder’s going-on David Belt jumps up and presents Balder with a “dwagon” covered in chain-mail armor. For an idea of what I saw, see the Bunny image below. Me=TotallyEnchanted.

David Belt sells his cool sculptures under Belts & Chains and you can find him at the different conventions around VA. Thanks so much for the interview, David!

How long have you been working chainmaille, how did you begin this creative journey?

It all started about three years ago.  Like many people, I thought chainmail belonged in SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism) events and historical or fantasy-based movies.  Chainmail was okay for what it was, but it wasn’t for me.  Then, I saw something that totally changed my world and my perception of chainmail.  What I saw was a Japanese Cube (Picture attached), a three dimensional chainmail construct of simplistic, yet intriguing design.  I queried the vendor who was selling the artifact, and she advised me to Google the answers on the internet.

Japanese cube

 
I found a number of virtual mentors online, most notably Dylon Whyte (Art of Chainmail), Jeff Olin (cgmaille.com), and a variety of artists from M.A.I.L. (Maille Artisans International League).  I purchased a starter kit which contained 2 pliers and 3000 rings, and I just started mailing.  Within a month, I ordered more supplies and better quality pliers.  A few months later I had 10,000 rings and a half dozen unfinished projects, but nothing I was trying to make really spoke to me.  I was copying the patterns I had learned, flawlessly, but it wasn’t me.  I needed to do something special.  In February of 2010, I found my muse.  As a Valentines gift, I endeavored to craft a flower composed entirely of chain and scale.  After 10 hours, this labor of love was complete.  I had created a free standing, three dimensional, flower, captured in the height of its bloom.
 

Chrome flower

By my current standards, the flower I made that day wasn’t very good, but its reception was nothing less than stupendous.  The encouragement I received by all who viewed this creation drove me to newer heights and greater deeds.  After doing a few commissions for isolated individuals, I made an economic leap and created Belts & Chains, a company dedicated to creating high quality, unique, chainmaille artwork.

 
Do you have other creative endeavors?
I write as often as my busy world will allow.  I am currently working on a novel that focuses on a young man coming of age and the predjudices he must face, being different from his peers.  I hope to have the novel finished by the end of the year. The theme of the book is “Do whatever it takes to do the right thing.”  How many times do we choose to live with the shame of what might have been because it was easier than suffering through the pain of whatever it took to do the right thing?
 
Where do you take your inspiration for your designs?
 
I greatly enjoy the concept of art imitating life, therefore, I enjoy making pieces of chainmaille art that imitate real life or at least my view of real life.
 
My flowers I endeavor to make as life like as possible.  My armored plushie animals wear their armor much the same as if they were real.  The armor I make is not simply decoration, but an adornment which may donned and removed.  This provides those who are children at heart with a life like armored pet, while providing those parently minded the ability to remove the armor and wash the plushie (machine safe) and the armor (dishwasher safe).  The jewelry and clothing pieces I make I want to be a common place of their owner’s wardrobe.  I want customers be able to purchase a product and never have to take it off: [to be able to] sleep with it, eat with it, work with it, exercise with it, bathe with it, live with it if they so choose, and indeed, I have customers who do just that.  Hearing those stories inspire me.  We don’t often enough have the opportunities to impact another’s life, so when I hear that something I have made has become a part of someone’s life, I can’t ask for a greater compliment.
 
Which is your favorite RenFaire/SFCon type event?
 That’s a tough one, but my heart will always be at GENCON INDY.  I don’t get to go as often as I’d like, but it truly is the best four days in gaming.
 
Of which piece are you most proud?
Most definitely my flowers.  I have long toiled on their design.  The pattern used to create the first sold versions of my flowers took me 9 months to muster, and I continually revise the pattern, make new versions, and incorporating new ideas, such as my black rose, potted plants, and the newest chrome flowers.
 
It never occurred to me to *want* to wear chain mail before seeing your designs. All of your work is unique in this way. I’ve seen a lot of chainmaille and for the most part it’s pretty but passable. Your designs stop people, both in the vendor booth and when they’re being worn. Why? What am I seeing when I look at Belts & Chains designed piece?
 
Let me start by saying thank you.  Compliments such as yours make me proud to do what I do.
 

This I love. I totally want to wear this. -editor

To answer your question of why my pieces stop people who would never have considered owning chainmail before, it is because they are seeing something in the piece that makes them want to have it as part of their lives.  The specific reasons are as infinite as individuals, but the concept is always the same, the piece speaks to them.  It says, “I understand you, because I am like you.”

 
As to what you are seeing in a Belts & Chains designed piece, you are seeing my pride and earnest desire to make art imitate life.  Each design has a part of me in its creation.  It is that pride, that desire, that part of my life you see that lends to you your own pride, your own desire to make that piece a part of your life. 
 
Do you have any mantras or advice for the creative or crafting folks, whatever their chosen field?
 
The only advice I have is to put yourself into whatever you might do.  It is all too easy to copy the work of others, but if that is all you do, then all you are left with is the pale reflections of others.  Put your mark on the world in whatever manner suits you.  It’s not important to be well known for your work, but it is important for you to know you have made a difference.  And you will make that difference if you put yourself into the work you do.  On this note, I would like to leave you with a song I wrote many years ago.

I made David send me a photo of himself so that you can find him in the vendor room at your next Con.

 
I Want to Make a Difference, Too 
-David Belt
You read all about it in Time Magazine
Someone’s won a Nobel Prize, acknowledged for his dream
Oh, how I wish that he were me
He has his great work, if that’s all he ever does
He’ll know he’s made a difference, somewhere to someone
Oh, how I wish to be him
 
I want to make a difference to
People far and wide
I want to make a difference to
People close by
I want to make a difference to
That man in the mirror
Someway, somewhere, somehow,
I want to make a difference, too
 
I’m drifting in and out, I don’t know which way to turn
I can’t help but sit and think how much more I’ve left to learn
Oh, how I wish I knew the way
I’m a prisoner in this world of hope and charity
Chained by the thought no one even knows my name
Oh, how I wish to be free
 
I want to make a difference to
People far and wide
I want to make a difference to
People close by
I want to make a difference to
That man in the mirror
Someway, somewhere, somehow,
I want to make a difference, too
 
Last night I dreamed I died and climb the stairs above
I said, “Wait, this can’t be it.  I haven’t done enough.”
Oh, how I wish you knew
That voice came from above, I was both frightened and assured
I could move or think or breathe, then came another word
Oh, how I want you to know
 
You have made a difference to
People far and wide
You have made a difference to
People close by
You have made a difference to
Me
Someway, somewhere, somehow,
You have to make a difference to you
 
I’m going to make a difference to
People far and wide
I’m going to make a difference to
People close by
I’m going to make a difference to
That man in the mirror
Someway, somewhere, somehow,
I’m going to make a difference, too

One-Off Question: David Lee Summers

Recently, we ran a two-part interview (Part I & Part II) with science fiction/fantasy author and editor David Lee Summers. Here below is just one more question that was rolling around my head after finishing his recent novel Owl Dance. David was gracious enough to indulge us here at Dork Central…I mean Darkcargo. Enjoy!

In Owl Dance, your most recent steampunkish novel that takes place in the American Southwest, I really enjoyed how the two main characters, a Mexican-American sheriff and a Persian healer, are non-Caucasians. Continue reading →

Lowachee One-Question Interview

This is part of a series special for this edition of AtHomeCon, called the One Interview Blitz. Many of the one-questioners have been interviewed on Darkcargo before.
Karin Lowachee is the author of the most excellent series Warchild, Burndive, Cagebird, and the steampunk novel Gaslight Dogs.
nrlymrtl interviewed Lowachee for Darkcargo, here.
Tell us what it means to be a midlist author? As a reader, how do I encourage publishers and bookstores to carry more of my favorite midlist authors?
It means you are working book to book and hoping to hell a publisher will buy another from you.
Ask them. Ask bookstores to order in the novels, because they will for you, and usually will order more than one, so the other one they put on the shelves, where it might not ordinarily go. If you want publishers to know you like a certain author, you can always email them or comment their blogs nicely. I don’t think they would be against hearing from readers. Word of mouth helps a lot too.

Mike Allen 101

“I’m pleased to know my evil plan is working.” –Mike Allen

Mike Allen publishes Mythic Delirium, a speculative poetry magazine in its 25th issue. He is also the editor of the Clockwork  Phoenix anthologies, and a Hugo-nominated poet and writer.

In this discussion, he talks about the books that have inspired him, how he sees his place in the genre, and about what is forthcoming from Mythic Delirium Press. Continue reading →

You Can Get a Degree in Awesome?

I had a wonderful time with a very long interview with Dr. Amy H. Sturgis that took two days to run because we got so chatty about Sherlock Holmes, classic-lit mash ups and science fiction older than Frankenstien (rlly?).

She’s up to something very Amy-Sturgis-like. For reference, Corey Olsen is The Tolkien Professor that we talked about last Feb.

I’m so happy to have been invited to join The Mythgard Institute (www.mythgard.org) and serve as lead professor for the “Taking Harry Seriously: The Artistry and Meanings of the Harry Potter Saga” course. I’ve long been a fan of Dr. Corey Olsen and his “Tolkien Professor” podcast (www.tolkienprofessor.com), and I truly believe in what he’s doing with the Mythgard Institute, making a rigorous, dynamic, and interactive educational experience possible for students around the world through the latest online technology. The Harry Potter series is of tremendous interest to me, and, according to some fan sites, I was the first professor in the world to offer a university-level class dedicated to the books. Over the past decade I’ve taught the seminar to undergraduates and graduate students at Belmont University and Lenoir-Rhyne University, while also publishing and speaking about Harry Potter at every opportunity. I’m very excited by this new opportunity to share my scholarly fascination and personal love for the subject with students everywhere, including those auditing the class for their own benefit and those taking the course for M.A. credit. I’m also pleased to get to work with my friend and colleague, Travis Prinzi of The Hog’s Head (http://thehogshead.org/travis-prinzi/). With the combined energy and enthusiasm of the students and professors, the course will be a magical experience for all concerned, I’m certain!

“Why study Harry Potter?” you may ask. It’s my conviction that one of the keys to the series’ success is the fact that J.K. Rowling uses time-tested building blocks from mythology, legend, and various literary genres, combining them in a way that gives them fresh relevance. In essence, the series is like a cultural literacy test. I also think that the popularity of Rowling’s books confirms much of what J.R.R. Tolkien wrote about in his essay “On Fairy-Stories” about the timeless and invaluable gifts this kind of literature provides – not only to children, but also to adult readers. In the course, therefore, we will consider the ancestors to the Harry Potter phenomenon, examine the specific works and traditions that inform the Harry Potter universe, study the Harry Potter texts in depth, and, perhaps most importantly, discuss this issue of why the Harry Potter franchise has achieved unparalleled global popularity today [editor's note: a goofy example here]. In the process, we will take both a theoretical and historical approach to popular culture in general and J.K. Rowling’s works in particular. Wizards, witches, squibs, and muggles are welcome to join us as we get to the very heart of Harry Potter! I truly appreciate your interest, and I hope your readers will look into this course and the others available through The Mythgard Institute’s innovative and user-friendly program.

Amazon Reviews: To Be or Not To Be?

This is part of a series special for this edition of AtHomeCon, called the One Interview Blitz. Many of the one-questionees have been interviewed on Darkcargo before.

Barbara Friend-Ish is the publisher and editor and do-er-it-all-er of Mercury Retrograde Press, and the author of Shadow of the Sun. Being both an author and publisher, I thought she was a good candidate for this question. The Lady in the Hat has been very supportive of Darkcargo and we’ve enjoyed her participation.

Games as Story-telling Medium, Interview with Barbara Friend-Ish

Mercury Retrograde Press

Interview with Author Barbara Friend-Ish

“Why are the Amazon reviews so important to the publisher? to the writer? “Everyone” knows that the reviews that show up on Amazon for a product or book are not edited or peer-reviewed, and can be entered by anyone, regardless of whether or not the reviewer has bought or used/read the product. As a reader, I see the reviews, but take them with a grain of salt. Why are the reviews on this one website so critical to sales?”

Reviews are more important to the success of a book than you might think. The people in the book business who make the decisions that determine what will turn up on store and library shelves are greatly influenced by the pronouncements of trusted review outlets e.g. Publishers Weekly and Library Journal. A review in one of those outlets tells industry insiders that the book in question is important enough to consider buying. But wholesale buyers are only half the story: a book can go into retail warehouses and never move from the shelves unless readers come looking for it. And that doesn’t happen unless a book has managed to generate positive awareness among its potential audience. Traditional advertising, for example print, radio, and tv ads, create awareness—and frequently if an ad is well-crafted it will generate a certain amount of buying response. But in recent years we’ve all become very aware of the fact that advertising isn’t to be trusted; because it’s not truth, it’s just a message about what someone else wants us to believe.

So who do we believe? Research shows that the main source of information for a very wide range of buying decisions is word-of-mouth, and nowhere is this more important than in entertainment: books, movies, etc. Over time we learn our friends’ tastes, and we learn whose opinions we can trust. And if a trusted friend recommends a book, we are much more likely to give it a chance than if we are simply exposed to an ad or to the book itself.

Not only that: as a society we’ve grown so (justifiably) cynical and suspicious of “sponsored” messages that we will take the recommendations or criticisms of strangers to be more reliable than the messages advertisers are sending our way—particularly when we take those strangers to be people more or less like ourselves. People who have read a book in which we already have a certain interest (otherwise why would we have wound up looking at that page on Amazon or BN.com?) can be assumed to have interests in common with our own, and so we’re inclined to trust their assessments, even though we can’t really evaluate the usefulness of their opinions.

Naturally certain strangers’ opinions get discarded as unreliable: because something they write or say strikes us as ignorant, or because they seem to be shilling for the book in question. Our brains sort through all these inputs, decide what is trustworthy and what is not, and form theories about whether or not the book is worth taking a chance on. What makes Amazon special in this regard is the fact that its pages become repositories for a wide variety of opinions. Just seeing a lot of people taking the time to post reviews about a book tells the part of our brain that weighs the reliability of possible facts that the book must be important. That in turn makes us more inclined to take that chance.

In recent years Amazon has been criticized for allowing people to review a product when others feel their opinions aren’t reliable, and they’ve tried to increase the perceived reliability of reviews by putting a lot of restrictions on reviewers. It’s no longer possible for a person to review a book if they don’t have an Amazon account—a requirement which includes the necessity of having purchased something from Amazon in the past. And it’s no longer possible to post anonymous reviews. Both of those restrictions have had the unfortunate effect of decreasing the willingness of people to post reviews on Amazon—and while some may think they’re seeing more reliable results, the truth is the reliability hasn’t changed. It’s just that the number of reviews for any given book has gone down. Particularly unfortunate in this regard is the fact that people are less willing to be truly honest in reviews when they have to put their real identities on them, and instead tend to simply say nothing.

This isn’t a problem for books that are very popular, because people don’t worry about whether others will judge them for having read something popular. If everybody’s doing it, it’s automatically OK. And unless seemingly everyone either likes or hates the book in question, a nice variety of opinions will be posted, giving potential readers plenty of useful data.

What suffers is the books on the “long tail”—which, these days, is most of them: books that don’t get the big advertising budgets, books from authors who are at the beginnings of their careers, books that are worthy of attention but don’t have mass appeal. The reduced number of reviews overall is exacerbated on Amazon pages that don’t seem to be seeing much traffic: potential reviewers get very self-conscious, unwilling to take the risk of having an opinion. And then people extrapolate the small number of reviews to the book being unimportant or unloved or both. It’s just like high school, only for books.

Whether we like it or not, Amazon has become the go-to website for information on books. When we want to know about a book, that’s the first source we’re likely to check. That’s largely because Amazon has developed the reputation of being the place to get the available data on any book. So as potential readers evaluating a book, we put enormous stock in what we see there—right or wrong, fair or not, reliable or not. A book that gets no love on Amazon is that kid who sits alone at lunch.

Back when it was new and easy, reviewing books on Amazon felt like such a cool thing to do. We were all eager to post our opinions. Now there are so very many places to post our opinions on the web, and we have to attach our own names and real functioning email addresses to anything we say on Amazon. The bloom is off the rose. But the books we love and respect need our attention on Amazon more than ever. The long tail is getting awfully crowded. It’s more true than ever that books, like the Velveteen Rabbit, become Real because they are loved.

It would be too heavy and guilt-trippy to say that we have an obligation to review the books we read, as if we were voting for government officials; but it absolutely is true that even one more review, good or bad, makes an enormous difference to a book on the long tail. (And yes: a well-thought-out negative review is a service nearly as great as a well-thought-out glowing review.) If as readers we want to see authors we like continue producing, that vote of confidence on Amazon will have a real and important impact on that author’s career, because it will have a real impact on sales.

Yes, that one review. The long tail’s an awfully big place.