Choice quote from Nick's blog:
----------------------
Actually, after the moment when one has eliminated all the usual tyro errors—POV shifts at inappropriate moments, tantalizing the reader from the beginning, keeping unusual dialogue tags to a minimum—about 90% of the battle for a writer is to eliminate the need for external validation.
Of course, plenty of writers, some even quite good, remain desperately hungry for external validation, but sooner rather than later they either burn out or end up with a bunch of material they ultimately regret writing or that goes OP forever when some fad passes.
----------------------
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Short Story "Landscape With Sententers" In Pulp Metal Magazine
The webzine PULP METAL MAGAZINE has published my short story "Landscape With Sententers".
This story is also available in my short-story collection THE FACE IN THE DOOR.
"Landscape With Sententers" is based directly on a dream I had. It played out like information fragments from an imaginary distant future.
So what are "Sententers"?
Nightmare creatures...
This story is also available in my short-story collection THE FACE IN THE DOOR.
"Landscape With Sententers" is based directly on a dream I had. It played out like information fragments from an imaginary distant future.
So what are "Sententers"?
Nightmare creatures...
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
On Similes -- Or: "The simile entered the reader's mind like a one-legged pirate dragging a lead coffin."
I recommend that all writers -- beginners and seasoned pros -- should read Dave Langford's short column "Protons and Simile", in which he gives many examples of wrongheaded similes.
Choice quote:
--------------------------
Earthy: "The sound of water grew louder, and the gusting of the wind was like the eerie farting of a giant animal."
(G.P. Taylor, The Curse of Salamander Street).
"When he was yet a million miles away the bright ring of fire that marked its portal filled the sky in front of him, flexing and twisting like the devil's anus in spasms of immortal agony."
(Alan Glasser, The Demon Cosmos).
"The thought felt like a tapeworm lodged in the gut of his mind."
(Brian Ruckley, Winterbirth)
As a certain SF critic once put it, this is a concept which the mind cannot stomach.
--------------------------
Read the rest.
Wikipedia defines a "simile" as:
----------------------------------------------
a figure of speech that indirectly compares two different things by employing the words "like", "as", or "than".[1] Even though similes and metaphors are both forms of comparison, similes indirectly compare the two ideas and allow them to remain distinct in spite of their similarities, whereas metaphors compare two things directly.
For instance, a simile that compares a person with a bullet would go as follows: "Chris was a record-setting runner and as fast as a speeding bullet." A metaphor might read something like, "When Chris ran, he was a speeding bullet racing along the track."
A mnemonic for a simile is that "a simile is similar or alike."
-----------------------------------------------
The problem with similes is that they tend to make writers sloppy.
I think this is because the words "like", "as" and "than" so easily confuse us.
(Does the writer mean "like" as in "exactly like"... or as in "similar in appearance to"... or as in "similar to the mood/feelings of a completely unrelated situation"??)
The common excuse of the sloppy writer is that the simile is supposed to be "poetic". It's all about mood and feeling, see? Well, yes, a writer should be able to express moods and feelings...
... but then do it in a way that makes at least rudimentary sense.
How can you spot a sloppy simile? The easiest rule of thumb is, does the simile translate well?
A typical sloppy simile in contemporary Swedish literature is:
"Nyheten slog ned som en bomb."
Directly translated, it means:
"The news impacted like a bomb."
The reader is tempted to add:
"...and destroyed the office, burying two editors under the rubble."
Further reading:
A list of typical similes.
Choice quote:
--------------------------
Earthy: "The sound of water grew louder, and the gusting of the wind was like the eerie farting of a giant animal."
(G.P. Taylor, The Curse of Salamander Street).
"When he was yet a million miles away the bright ring of fire that marked its portal filled the sky in front of him, flexing and twisting like the devil's anus in spasms of immortal agony."
(Alan Glasser, The Demon Cosmos).
"The thought felt like a tapeworm lodged in the gut of his mind."
(Brian Ruckley, Winterbirth)
As a certain SF critic once put it, this is a concept which the mind cannot stomach.
--------------------------
Read the rest.
Wikipedia defines a "simile" as:
----------------------------------------------
a figure of speech that indirectly compares two different things by employing the words "like", "as", or "than".[1] Even though similes and metaphors are both forms of comparison, similes indirectly compare the two ideas and allow them to remain distinct in spite of their similarities, whereas metaphors compare two things directly.
For instance, a simile that compares a person with a bullet would go as follows: "Chris was a record-setting runner and as fast as a speeding bullet." A metaphor might read something like, "When Chris ran, he was a speeding bullet racing along the track."
A mnemonic for a simile is that "a simile is similar or alike."
-----------------------------------------------
The problem with similes is that they tend to make writers sloppy.
I think this is because the words "like", "as" and "than" so easily confuse us.
(Does the writer mean "like" as in "exactly like"... or as in "similar in appearance to"... or as in "similar to the mood/feelings of a completely unrelated situation"??)
The common excuse of the sloppy writer is that the simile is supposed to be "poetic". It's all about mood and feeling, see? Well, yes, a writer should be able to express moods and feelings...
... but then do it in a way that makes at least rudimentary sense.
How can you spot a sloppy simile? The easiest rule of thumb is, does the simile translate well?
A typical sloppy simile in contemporary Swedish literature is:
"Nyheten slog ned som en bomb."
Directly translated, it means:
"The news impacted like a bomb."
The reader is tempted to add:
"...and destroyed the office, burying two editors under the rubble."
Further reading:
A list of typical similes.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
ALIEN BEACH Now Available For The Kindle E-Reader
My early novel ALIEN BEACH, written in 1997 and released as a Web serial in 1999, is now finally available in a Kindle e-reader edition. Buy it from Amazon.com:
The price is set quite low -- $6.99 -- and you can get wireless delivery via Amazon Whispernet.
Digital Rights Management (DRM) is enabled -- but before the "copyfighters" start complaining, allow me to point out that the book has been available for free reading on my website for 10+ years, and it still is:
ALIEN BEACH - Free website edition
Reader reactions to earlier editions of ALIEN BEACH have been mostly positive:
"I'd highly recommend anyone who's into sci-fi to read this free online novel. The story touches on so many fundamental levels, it will leave you speechless."
-Mark Jones, USA (2005)
"It's interesting when we get to be so close to the characters (,) that when the book finishes we feel as if we were losing some close friends."
-Mario Andre Dias Pacheco, Brazil (2003)
"If you let yourself go with it and don't let yourself get distracted by your eyes rolling every now and again, you should enjoy it as a nice light, almost Golden Age-feeling science fiction novel (although showing the lack of a Golden Age editor)."
-Karen Burnham (2006)
If this self-publishing experiment proves to be successful, I will start the process of converting my other old books to the Kindle format: DARC AGES and its sequels, plus my short-story collections.
Digital Rights Management (DRM) is enabled -- but before the "copyfighters" start complaining, allow me to point out that the book has been available for free reading on my website for 10+ years, and it still is:
ALIEN BEACH - Free website edition
Reader reactions to earlier editions of ALIEN BEACH have been mostly positive:
"I'd highly recommend anyone who's into sci-fi to read this free online novel. The story touches on so many fundamental levels, it will leave you speechless."
-Mark Jones, USA (2005)
"It's interesting when we get to be so close to the characters (,) that when the book finishes we feel as if we were losing some close friends."
-Mario Andre Dias Pacheco, Brazil (2003)
"If you let yourself go with it and don't let yourself get distracted by your eyes rolling every now and again, you should enjoy it as a nice light, almost Golden Age-feeling science fiction novel (although showing the lack of a Golden Age editor)."
-Karen Burnham (2006)
If this self-publishing experiment proves to be successful, I will start the process of converting my other old books to the Kindle format: DARC AGES and its sequels, plus my short-story collections.
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Homepage Update & Huckstering
My homepage has been updated with more free reading... check it out.
Now, I'm trying to stay up-to-date with the accelerating technological revolution in digital publishing, but for various reasons I'm not yet able to sell my stuff through the iPad or the Kindle. (I'm not proud.)
For the time being, I'm limited to Print-on-Demand (POD). The following titles are available as POD paperbacks through my online shop:
BOOKS IN ENGLISH
DARC AGES: CITY OF MASKS - paperback (CafePress, 190 pages, ISBN: 978-82-92955-00-0)
ALIEN BEACH: A Novel - paperback (CafePress, 400 pages, ISBN: 978-82-997610-2-4)
THE FLATTERED PLANET - paperback (CafePress, 151 pages, ISBN: 978-82-997610-7-9)
DARC AGES 2nd Edition, no illustrations (CafePress, 496 pages, ISBN: 978-82-997610-6-2)
DARC AGES Illustrated Edition - A Novel (CafePress, 513 pages, ISBN: 9788299761031)
THE ARGUS PROJECT: A Novel - paperback chapbook (CafePress, 493 pages (large print), ISBN: 978-82-997610-4-8)
THE FACE IN THE DOOR And Other Stories - paperback (CafePress, 248 pages, ISBN: 978-82-997610-1-7)
THE FACE IN THE DOOR And Other Stories - e-book edition (Wela, ISBN: 9197540889)
The A.R.Yngve ART BOOK - Wire-O paperback (CafePress, 52 pages)
Now, I'm trying to stay up-to-date with the accelerating technological revolution in digital publishing, but for various reasons I'm not yet able to sell my stuff through the iPad or the Kindle. (I'm not proud.)
For the time being, I'm limited to Print-on-Demand (POD). The following titles are available as POD paperbacks through my online shop:
BOOKS IN ENGLISH
DARC AGES: CITY OF MASKS - paperback (CafePress, 190 pages, ISBN: 978-82-92955-00-0)
ALIEN BEACH: A Novel - paperback (CafePress, 400 pages, ISBN: 978-82-997610-2-4)
THE FLATTERED PLANET - paperback (CafePress, 151 pages, ISBN: 978-82-997610-7-9)
DARC AGES 2nd Edition, no illustrations (CafePress, 496 pages, ISBN: 978-82-997610-6-2)
DARC AGES Illustrated Edition - A Novel (CafePress, 513 pages, ISBN: 9788299761031)
THE ARGUS PROJECT: A Novel - paperback chapbook (CafePress, 493 pages (large print), ISBN: 978-82-997610-4-8)
THE FACE IN THE DOOR And Other Stories - paperback (CafePress, 248 pages, ISBN: 978-82-997610-1-7)
THE FACE IN THE DOOR And Other Stories - e-book edition (Wela, ISBN: 9197540889)
The A.R.Yngve ART BOOK - Wire-O paperback (CafePress, 52 pages)
Tuesday, October 05, 2010
Homepage Update -- But Never Mind That! Check Out THIS Website Instead.
I was going to mention that my homepage has been updated -- but then I found this:
TV Tropes
It's a treasure trove for fiction writers of all stripes. Any trope or cliche you can think of -- and plenty you haven't thought of -- is listed there. A very useful writer's tool, and damn funny too.
Choice quote:
Hilarity Ensues
Alleged consequence of any event in a Sit Com or cartoon which in the real world would result in hospitalization, a lawsuit, or dismissal from one's job, at the very least, up to and including possible imprisonment. Thankfully for our fictional friends both the Rule Of Cool and the Rule Of Funny keeps them safe (the latter more prominently).
There's more. Much more!
TV Tropes
It's a treasure trove for fiction writers of all stripes. Any trope or cliche you can think of -- and plenty you haven't thought of -- is listed there. A very useful writer's tool, and damn funny too.
Choice quote:
Hilarity Ensues
Alleged consequence of any event in a Sit Com or cartoon which in the real world would result in hospitalization, a lawsuit, or dismissal from one's job, at the very least, up to and including possible imprisonment. Thankfully for our fictional friends both the Rule Of Cool and the Rule Of Funny keeps them safe (the latter more prominently).
There's more. Much more!
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