Last Year in Review

Wow- it's been over a month since I last blogged. The trouble is, I usually get burned out in December, when the end of the year is nigh. Too many social engagements, too much left undone.

Last year was especially bad, and I was too depressed to write, due to the clown show that passes for government in this nation, from the treasonous, Russian-puppet, madman-in-chief, to his traitorous oligarch accomplices. They left the country to burn while they lined their pockets with bribes and stolen money amid their encouragement of racism and bigotry and hatred. The French peasantry had the right idea when their aristocracy went too far; too bad we can't have a dose of that here. There's a long list of villains I'd nominate for guillotine bait. But enough of that.

This last year was a busy one, but one in which I didn't publish a new novel. I wrote, but not enough. Worked on several novels, but only published a single new book of short stories, The Last Crooked Paths, and the collection of all three short books into one: All The Crooked Paths. Not as many stories out as in previous years. Am doing better this year, with over 15,000 new words in less than the first three weeks.

But still it was a banner year, with much going on. Here's some of what happened.
Don't let people tell you you can't be successful as an Independent author!
Attended book launches for friends, including Don Kaplan, Lee McIntyre, and Leslie Wheeler, and a group Noir at the Bar up in Maine.

Interviewed some pretty cool people, including Maine writer Dick Cass, local TV star reporter (and voice narrator) Josh Brogadir, forensic expert Geoff Symon, and journalist Dan Szczesny.
Attended Jeffrey Deaver's workshop, courtesy of the Mystery Writers of America.

Got featured on some awesome sites: the blog of top writer Carmen Amato, on Sci-Fi Saturday Night, on Killer Crafts & Crafty Killers, on the blog of fellow mystery author Dana King, and on Vlad Vaslyn's site, and a video interview by Kameel Nasr!

Gave workshops at the Derry, NH Author Fest and at the Lancaster, MA library, and did a talk at the Pelham, NH library. Sold books at the Boston Book Fair. Spoke on a panel about Sherlock Holmes at the Huntington Theater. Helped put on a Sherlock Holmes talk by Bob Fritsch, and a Christmas event for the Sisters in Crime.

It was a great year for bookstores (for a complete list of places that carry my books on their shelves, check out my website). We had a great signing at a Barnes and Noble in Conn. Got my books into new Indie bookstores in NH, CT, and MA. Thanks to new friends at Water Street Books, The Silver Unicorn, The Freethinker’s Corner Bookstore, and RiverRun Books.

And did book-signing events at my favorite local bookstore, the New England Mobile Book Fair, for Small Business Saturday, Independent Bookstore Day, and the fabulous annual Gala Mystery Night.

Sold books at some fun events, including the Chelmsford Farmer's Market, the Chelmsford Library, and the very cool Moxie Festival, up in Maine.

Lastly, I went to some awesome conferences. Crime Wave in Maine, Crime Bake in MA, Bouchercon, in FL (meeting the grandson of John D. MacDonald, Andrew, was an honor and a highlight), and best of all, Killer Nashville, in TN, where I got to meet a bunch of fun people, including one of my online idols, Indie guru JA Konrath, who is one cool and supportive writer.

So one wild ride last year. Going to be tough to top it, But this year have planned to publish three novels, and more stories. We'll see what the year brings.

Latest News- new audio out, new interview, new bookstores, new trips

So- it's been a quiet time here on the old blog, though life has been far from that.
Here's some of what's been going on.

As part of my job, we went to the Portsmouth Regional Hospital and toured for four days, seeing what a great job nurses and providers do in healthcare. Here's our team at the nearby U.S.S. Albacore.



While there, I dropped in on the Portsmouth Writer's Night Out, part of the NH Writer's Project.
Met some new people, and saw a few I knew, like Jeff Deck and James Patrick Kelly, both of who have new books outs.

Also stopped by RiverRun Books and got the first of the Zack Taylor series, A Memory of Grief on their shelves.

Another new Indie bookstore that carries my books is The Silver Unicorn in Action MA. Drop by when you're in the area and check them out.

My latest audio book is now out: The Last Crooked Paths: A 5-story collection of crime and mystery short stories.
Narrated by George Kastrinos, it's a great listening experience for only a few bucks.

And soon I'm off to Killer Nashville, a mystery conference down in Tennessee, where I'm on a panel talking about Action/Adventure. They've also got my mug up as a Winner of the Jimmy Loftin Memorial Scholarship.

There I'll be seeing J.A. Konrath, the Indie superstar, whose blog I had a guest post on several years ago. More on all this when I return!

Oh yeah- check out my guest stint on Sci-Fi Saturday Night, talking about my work.

Kickstarter for cool anthology: My Peculiar Family Volume II

Do you like story collections by new writers, who take a theme and run with it?
Check out this great project- and if you've got a buck or two, consider kicking in to make this happen.

Kickstarter link

For a few bucks more, you get terrific rewards! And be a part of something great!
Since I have a story in this collection, I'm supporting it by giving away five books (your choice),
and there are plenty more things for donors, including original artwork!


My Peculiar Family Volume II – Celebrations is the second anthology of unusual original tales!

This volume combines well-known and emerging writers, who have been on Sci Fi Saturday Night and unites them, writing together in a shared universe to discover the fictional lost family of Chyna Dale.

When she discovers a box of old tintype photos in her attic, her quest becomes finding out who they are. Each picture features a mysterious portrait of a single person. Who are these people? What are their stories? What makes them so…peculiar?

Each author had to answer these questions in their unique tale. All of the authors received one of Chyna Dale’s tintypes, a name for the photographed person, and a celebration of some sort.

Some of the stories are more on the horror side, some more paranormal, some science-fiction/fantasy, but all are linked together by Chyna Dale’s family.
Come join us on this second journey into the dark history of the Dimsdale Family.

Interview with writer John P. Murphy

Hello again, campers. Today we're pleased to present writer John P. Murphy, whose fiction, especially his top-notch speculative fiction, is making a splash.

In fact, his novella “The Liar” in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction was so good, it's been nominated for a prestigious Nebula Award.

He's also been a guest on Sci-Fi Saturday Night, a fun podcast of all things science fiction, horror, fantasy, and beyond.


Here's John to tell us more about his work:

I intended this to be a novella from the start. I wanted to keep branching out from my shorter work, and I'd had some success with the novella form with Claudius Rex. It's a good length for me, since I'm long-winded but not too interested in intricate subplots.

I wrote it in 2013, after I'd moved to southern NH from the Upper Connecticut Valley not long before, and had spent some time up in North Conway and Melvin Village (near Wolfesboro). So I had New Hampshire on my mind. I also wanted to try something a bit different from my science fiction. When I decided to write a novella, then, a fantasy set in NH seemed like a fine thing to try.

Q. Did you start with the germ of an idea and start writing to see where it went, or did you map a good deal out in your head (or even outline) before crafting?

A. I started with the narrator character, Greg, and his particular talents as my base and teased out the small town setting and the plot from there. I got the voice down pat by listening to Garrison Keillor and Fritz Wetherbee (click for a video if you haven't met Wetherbee).

Once I had a good sense of what I had and what I wanted, I stepped back and did a basic outline and I more or less stuck to that outline through the rest of the process until it was published. One slightly unusual thing about it (at least for me) was that I outlined and wrote to a five-act structure. No particular reason, just something to try. I think it worked out pretty well.

Q. What do you feel is the main theme(s)?

A. In a lot of ways, this story is about truth in its varied, strange, and sometimes unfortunate forms. About what it really means to be honest. There are a lot of little variations on those themes, some of them serious, some just winking.

Q. Why do you feel this is important, and what would you want a reader to take away from reading this book?

A. I'm going to plead the fifth on this one. If I tell you what I want you to take away from the story, you'll leave it there and take something else instead. It took me 25,000 words to say all that; I either made my point or I didn't.

Q. What makes a good book or engaging story?

A. There's no one thing that catches someone's interest. Sometimes it's a matter of the right story catching the right reader on the right day. There have been stories for me that I tried five times to read, and then only on the sixth time does it catch me just the right way and I'm hooked.

Q. Are there writers with similar themes to yours? Who are your influences (can be writers, or even artists, musicians, or others) and what is it about their work that attracts you?

A. Oh, sure. I read pretty widely, but when it comes to the writers and artists I'm particularly influenced by, I come back to the folks who are gentle-natured and optimistic, who favor "wry" over "snarky," people who, even though their stories can get grim, their outlooks usually aren't: Garrison Keillor, of course, Hayao Miyazaki, Akira Kurosawa, Terry Pratchett, Diana Wynne Jones, Ursula K. LeGuin.

Q. Is storytelling mostly entertainment, or does it serve other functions? Do you have particular goals other than telling a good story?

A. Entertainment is a hell of a function; don't sell it short. Entertainment at its best is a particularly invigorating form of rest, and that's something people can really use.

Q. Any other goals you've set for yourself, professionally or personally?

A. Keep writing, keep improving. Those are the only things in my control.

Q. Some writers write fast and claim not to rewrite much. Do you do this, or painstakingly revise? When you send the book off to the publisher, are you happy with it, or just tired of it?

A. I produce pretty clean first drafts, because I edit heavily as I go. When I sit down to write, I'll often spend half my "writing" time re-reading what's already on the page. I'm terrible at deciding that a story is truly done, so I pretty much polish until a new project catches my eye, and get the old one out on submission.

Q. Do you have good editors, and if so, how do they help you? Do they look for particular things? Do you have different people for different editing levels?

A. I had excellent help, the benefit of a couple people at F&SF using an entire pencil's worth of lead to mark up my story. They pointed out the nitpicky stuff, but also called me out when something wasn't making sense, or when things were too abrupt.

Q. If a writer came to you for advice, how would you help?

A. By telling that writer to read. Read good stuff, read bad stuff, read weird stuff, and to stop occasionally and poke at those opinions: why do you have that reaction to this story, and how could you pull it off yourself?

Q.  Stories can be told by using a different medium. Can you see your book as a film, audio, etc.? How would that alter the telling?

A. It would work well as audio; I'm a very auditory writer and I read bits out loud as I go. I have a hard time seeing it as a film, though, since so much of the story is in the main character's head. Voiceover only gets you so far, and the conflict at the end would probably be terribly boring when not summed-up. So, any adaptation like that would probably have to deviate a fair bit to succeed. Where it would really shine, though? 8-bit platform scroller. (Konami! Call me!)   :-)

Q. What's the next step in your writing world?

A. Same as the last step: put one word after another until the damn thing's done. Polish it until I can't stand it anymore, then send it out 'til Hell won't have it.

Q. Tell us a fun fact about yourself.

A. I once drove a hybrid gas-electric race car that I helped build, out at the Louden Speedway. I was too terrified of the car (remember, I helped build it and knew exactly how safe it probably wasn't) to take it over 35 mph, and I pissed everybody off in the process of slowly completing my single inglorious lap. Still, nothing on it exploded, which is more than I could say for certain other cars that day...

Q. Any other information you'd like to impart?
 
A. The thing with the cell towers disguised as California pine trees is completely true.

Web page: 
https://johnpmurphy.net

Where to buy:
https://www.amazon.com/Magazine-Fantasy-Science-Fiction-March-ebook/dp/B01F28AP5O/

Support a Cool Project

Hey there- this is a signal boost for some friends running a Kickstarter project, a book of creepy and fanciful tales based on a box of old family tintypes. Here's their blurb:

SciFi SaturdayNight, the podcast of all things science fiction, unveiled My Peculiar Family, our first anthology on KickStarter, a volume of original stories.

After her parent’s death, Chyna Dale inherited their home, and found a box of tintypes. Discover the story behind each haunting image.

This anthology came about when I was in the attic of my mother-in-law's house and my wife and I came across a box of old tintypes. No one had any idea who they were. I wondered not only who they were, but also how those pictures got to be labeled “Family”.

I asked a number of writers who had been on the podcast about creating short stories based on the life of Ms. Dale’s ancestors tintypes. The anthology features original short stories from writers and friends of SciFi SaturdayNight, the Podcast.

For more information, please contact The Dome at:   thedome@scifico.org

Here's the link:  https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/285514212/my-peculiar-family-an-anthology

Authors by the Sea and Queen City Kamikaze Con Writeup

Fun couple of days this weekend, but exhausting.

First up was the Author's Night by the Sea, sponsored by Pear Tree Publishing, where we had a good night of signing books and meeting people.
Some pics courtesy of Jenn Hobbs, others by Maureen Ross.

 

Many thanks to K.D. Mason for his work on publicity, raffle prizes, and taking over in a time of need for others. And thanks to the Portsmouth, NH Elks Club for hosting us.

 

Friends new and old were there, including: T. Stephens

Scott Goudsward, Ogmios, Joe Ross of Rosstrum Publishing, Coralie Hughes Jensen, Maureen Ross, and others

Steven Hobbs

Jed Power

 

and Kurt D. Springs

 

Then early next morning, we were off to Manchester, NH, for the Queen City Kamikaze Con, where we were signing our works at the Books and Boos table.
More pictures available here.

And as the authors of Insanity Tales we were on a panel to discuss writing collaboration.
Left to right: David Daniel, me, moderator Stacey Longo, Ursula Wong, and Vlad V.
Thanks to Jason Rivers for playing official Staff Photographer for the panel shots.

Other friends were there, like The Dome from SciFi Saturday Night, the cool podcast of all things science fiction. Here, the Dome meets his cosplaying counterpart!

Stacey gets in on the action ...

And then we get the Three Jasons! Which one is the scariest?

Haunted Acres

Had a great time at Haunted Acres this last weekend, signing books in their big tent with other members of the New England Horror Writers. We named it "The Haunted Bookstore" and people-watched amid the screams and laughs. What a fun place! Definitely a must-do for folks who like scary theme parks.

Despite the all-male nature of our crew, we had a good time. Vlad and I were there promoting Insanity Tales, 9 scary stories for the Halloween season. While we were there, our rebroadcast of SciFi Saturday Night played over the airwaves, interviewing us with fellow Insanity authors Ursula Wong and Stacey Longo. Click the SciFi link to go to the site to hear the show.

The Lineup: Kurt Springs, Vlad V., Bracken Macleod, Rob Smales, Errick Nunnally, Scott Goudsward, Tony Tremblay

 

Making faces

 Kurt and The Priestess. Check out his book Price of Vengeance

 

 

 J. Sjostrom, illustrator

 

 

Rob Smales- that guy is always taking pictures!

 

Vlad scares people...

 

More faces

 

Thanks to Brent for getting us there

 

And to the staff for the fun time, and to Kelly at the concession stand.

 

The last set of faces. Everyone wanted in on the act...