#fictorians

New Post has been published on https://guyanthonydemarco.com/about-the-fictorians/

About the Fictorians

The Fictorians, a writer-centric blog that was publishing material of interest to authors every weekday, has been in a bit of a holding pattern until January 2019. They’re looking for established authors who have attended Superstars Writing Seminars to join and participate with a blog post every four to six weeks. There are only a few left who wish to continue the site (with over a thousand posts, some of which have a few thousand hits.)

If it does go under, it was a good run. I had a habit of reposting my Fictorians stuff here after a month or so, so most of my blogs are on this website. I would sign up for specific dates every year and write all of my blog posts in a few days. Most of my work was written in January, but because I’m a prolific writer I would also fill in when someone missed a date or there was an opening in the middle of the week. After a while this gets to be an issue, especially with my writing schedule.

New Post has been published on http://guyanthonydemarco.com/the-authors-law-of-momentum/

The Author's Law of Momentum

Have you ever had someone toss you a watermelon? The big ones are tough to catch because they can slip out of your hands due to momentum. Similarly, finishing a writing project and holding a copy in your hand is always a good feeling that’s tough to hang on to when you have to figure out what to write next, but what about the momentum of that event?

Newton’s Second Law loosely says that the rate of change of momentum is directly proportional to the forces applied in the direction of those forces. The same can be applied to your writing. Once you have something released on the market, it’s time to decide on what to do next to keep that momentum.

You can decide to take a break and relax, perhaps do some marketing to sell a few more copies. This means your new book may have some outside forces nudging it along, but soon enough those sales will drop. Less force means less momentum, and it begins to decline. After people either buy your book or they see your advertisement and decide that book is not for them, they begin to tune it out as background clutter.

What can you do? Remember Newton, of course!

Now is the time to start working on your next project, just after you’ve completed one. More books with your name means more books have the potential to hit it big. NY Times Bestselling aughor Kevin J. Anderson calls it the popcorn theory of success. More popcorn kernels in the fire means more opportunities for one to pop.

The more books with your name on the cover means more chances for a reader to discover they love your work. The best chance to sell another book is when a reader finishes a satisfying novel and is ready for another one. Those forces help to push your work forward. More forces mean more momentum.

Each book is a stepping stone to your writing world. If you only write one and spend your days flogging it, after a while people will almost look at you like you’re a spammer. Same thing, day after day after month after year. If you started working on the next book, after a year you’d have at least one close to finished. Some folks can have four quality books or more. Author Chris Fox has a video series where he is writing a science fiction trilogy in exactly twelve weeks. You get to see weekly updates. Last year he wrote a novel in 21 days, then turned around and pulled in a six-digit income. All of this was documented on ChrisFoxWrites.com and his Youtube channel.

Sure, perhaps you can’t write a book that fast. The good news is you don’t need to. You just need to keep that momentum going by working on it. If it takes you four months to bash out a first draft, you’re that much closer to releasing the next novel instead of starting four months from now.

It’s your decision how you want your momentum to go. Down from lack of energy and force behind your work, or up from little nudges every day. Eventually the momentum will build to the point where you can earn a following of true fans who will buy your next book sight unseen because they know you produce quality work.

Don’t let us down!

  About the Author:

Guy Anthony De Marco is a disabled US Navy veteran speculative fiction author; a Graphic Novel Bram Stoker Award® nominee; winner of the HWA Silver Hammer Award; a prolific short story and flash fiction crafter; a novelist; an invisible man with superhero powers; a game writer (Sojourner Tales modules, Interface Zero 2.0 core team, third-party D&D modules); and a coffee addict. One of these is false.

New Post has been published on http://guyanthonydemarco.com/what-are-red-herrings-asked-the-cat/

"What Are Red Herrings?" Asked the Cat

In literature, a red herring is an informal fallacy that typically uses extraneous or irrelevant information to mislead the audience. It’s used to give an astute reader several challenges during the telling of the tale.

In other words, they’re purposeful deceits the author employs to mislead the folks who read their stories.

Red herrings are actually dried fish that are kippered, or salted and smoked, which turns their meat a reddish color. In 1807, a writer named William Corbett wrote about using red herrings dragged along the ground to train hunting dogs. This wasn’t actually true, but the readers didn’t know and the concept of red herrings was born.

Red herrings are used extensively in mysteries and thrillers, and are a staple for noir detective stories. By employing these misdirections, the author can attempt to get the readers to believe something is the correct answer when it is not. The concept is to include little tidbits of irrelevant yet related information that helps to push the reader into thinking a particular way.

Agatha Christie was a genius at employing red herrings. In Murder on the Orient Express, almost everything is a red herring pushing one away from focusing on the killer until you realize everyone was the killer. In her novel And Then There Were None, there’s a list of how people are going to get bumped off. Victim number four doesn’t seem to be a red herring until you realize that she told you flat out they were in the poem.

Employing red herrings should always be logical in some ways, but the information that incriminates should be irrelevant to the final solution to the mystery. Always give your readers the information that can dismiss the new clue somewhere in the text without making it obvious. For example, discovering the killer must have used their left hand to kill the victim might seem to clear a woman who always uses her right hand. But what if she was actually ambidextrous? Half the readers will wander off on the path that clears the woman, while the others might not be fooled by the accurate but not complete information. That’s the fun behind reading a mystery!

So how do you incorporate red herrings into your work? I’m glad you asked. They should be blended into the overall information you give to your readers. If it’s too straight-forward, the readers are distracted by the fumbling attempt to mislead them. Focus on giving the reader a reason to believe that something is the correct answer using information that is related yet does not factually implicate. Try reading some of the older mysteries such as Poirot, Miss Marple, and Perry Mason. You can even see them in old mysteries and detective shows on classic television.

A fascinating red herring example is Professor Snape in the Harry Potter series. He’s constantly shown as a bad person throughout seven books until the last few chapters, where we finally learn that he has been trying to help Harry survive. All the red herrings are cleared up as we learn the truth, and the readers discover that the person they despised the most was the bravest person of all. That’s why Snape and, by extension, actor Alan Rickman went from evil villain to beloved savior.

About the Author:

Guy Anthony De Marco is a disabled US Navy veteran speculative fiction author; a Graphic Novel Bram Stoker Award® nominee; winner of the HWA Silver Hammer Award; a prolific short story and flash fiction crafter; a novelist; an invisible man with superhero powers; a game writer (Sojourner Tales modules, Interface Zero 2.0 core team, third-party D&D modules); and a coffee addict. One of these is false.

New Post has been published on http://guyanthonydemarco.com/small-publisher-series-wordfire-press/

Small Publisher Series: Wordfire Press

WordFire Press

This is a small-to-middling sized pro-level Colorado press owned by Kevin J. Anderson and Rebecca Moesta. I’ve done some minor work for them in the past, and they’re publishing a novel I co-wrote with a couple of friends. Everyone there is wonderful to work with, and I know many of them personally.

Getting published by WordFire means your work will appear next to books by Kevin and Rebecca, who are both award-winning and NY Times/USA Today bestsellers, plus the likes of Brian and Frank Herbert, Alan Dean Foster, Alan Drury (Pulitzer Prize winner), and a host of name-brand, top-tier authors. An added benefit is the ability to attend some of the best conventions as a WordFire author.

New Post has been published on http://guyanthonydemarco.com/using-feedback-to-improve-your-writing-skills/

Using Feedback to Improve Your Writing Skills

Sometimes it’s a good thing to ask your friends and/or readers what they like about your work. Then again, sometimes the answers they give will surprise you.

While many authors think they have a good idea of what they’re good at, sometimes they’re wrong. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing — in fact, having a couple of things that make you feel comfortable enough to actually sit your butt in a chair and pound a keyboard will help to keep procrastination and “writers block” away. When you feel advanced enough, ask your audience what they think you write best. Understand that you can use this knowledge to improve your writing.

When I started writing back in the dark ages, I thought I was pretty decent at dialogue. It turns out I was, but only to half the audience. My characters tended to sound the same, using similar language and sentence structure. In fact, I had projected a version of myself into their vocal chords, and the characters sounded like me.

Thinking back, I now know why. When I would run Dungeons and Dragons gaming sessions, I would always have to be the voice of the various non-player characters the party met. Sometimes I would add in an accent, but the word choices were always a version of me. I had uneducated farmers using words like “obfuscate”.

Not a good thing to do when you write books and short stories.

I started to add in things such as verbal tags. In one short story I turned in this week for a submission call, the Captain had a habit of saying “Yes, yes,” while he was thinking what to say next.

Next, I began to be mindful of the character’s history and cultural background when I scripted dialogue, doing my best not to fall into the “easy” trap of sticking in culturally insensitive or stereotypical words and styles. This helped to sculpt their vocabulary and how they physically spoke, including sentence length, speed, and even autonomous gesturing like hand movements.

Finally, I made sure that when they spoke, it was efficient and necessary to help transport the story to the reader. For example, the vast majority of people use contractions when they’re talking. Some have valid excuses not to do so, such as Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation, who doesn’t have that software installed. A select few can use that quirk as a verbal tag to flesh out the character.

Once you are comfortable with your writing and have developed a thick skin, ask your trusted, honest reviewers and readers what they like about your writing. It can be a pat on the back or a learning experience to improve your skills.

About the Author:

Guy Anthony De Marco is a disabled US Navy veteran speculative fiction author; a Graphic Novel Bram Stoker Award® nominee; winner of the HWA Silver Hammer Award; a prolific short story and flash fiction crafter; a novelist and poet; an invisible man with superhero powers; a game writer (Sojourner Tales modules, Interface Zero 2.0 core team, third-party D&D modules); and a coffee addict. One of these is false.

New Post has been published on http://guyanthonydemarco.com/what-are-macguffins/

What Are MacGuffins?

JULES You win. Jules raises his hand off the briefcase.

JULES It’s all yours, Ringo.

PUMPKIN Open it.

Jules flips the locks and opens the case, revealing it to Pumpkin but not to us. The same light SHINES from the case. Pumpkin’s expression goes to amazement. Honey Bunny, across the room, can’t see inside.

HONEY BUNNY What is it? What is it?

PUMPKIN (Spoken softly) Is that what I think it is?

Jules nods his head: “Yes.”

PUMPKIN It’s beautiful.

Jules nods his head: “Yes.”

Throughout the movie Pulp Fiction, characters have been influenced by a mysterious briefcase owned by the big crime boss Marcellus Wallace. This plain black object is found in the opening sequence when Vincent and Jules recover it from some bumbling criminals.

The briefcase is an example of a MacGuffin, sometimes spelled McGuffin or Maguffin. We know that it is important because bullets were exchanged and lives were lost in its recovery.

So, what is it?

The answer is, it really doesn’t matter.

No, seriously. The simple briefcase is there for one purpose — to begin the story or plot. The audience doesn’t really care about the briefcase because they’re more interested in what the characters are doing.

Quentin Tarantino even pokes a little fun at the audience in the ending scene, excerpted above. When Jules opens the case and shows the contents to Ringo/Pumpkin, all we (the audience) knows is that the case is valuable and, now that it’s opened, it gives off a mysterious glow that takes everyone’s breath away. Now we want to know what is in the briefcase, but Jules slams it shut and wraps up the scene and the movie. We never find out what was the impetus of over two hours of craziness. Don’t believe me? Just Google “pulp fiction briefcase” and enjoy 174,000 hits and lots of pages with different theories, including Kryptonite and Marcellus’ soul.

The joke was on us, which made the movie even more memorable. It also helped to spur debates as to what was in there, which helped to get the word out concerning the movie.

MacGuffins have been around for a while. The concept can be seen in many old stories, such as the Holy Grail or a certain black bird in a Bogart movie. The purpose of a MacGuffin is to provide a method to get the plot rolling, and the object can be anything external. A big pile of cash or even vague concepts such as glory and honor can be used to begin the tale. The plot revolves around the characters, while the MacGuffin is really ignored for the most part once the story is kickstarted in high gear.

Alfred Hitchcock was well known to use this device to begin his movies starting back in The 39 Steps. Adventures and thrillers used MacGuffins extensively in order to have the story moving along as quickly as possible. Even the original Star Wars: A New Hope uses stolen plans inside R2-D2 as a MacGuffin. Everyone is running around looking for the plans hidden in the little droid. The chase evolves, and in this case so does the MacGuffin’s container — into a beloved iconic character. The data gets extracted at the end of the movie and the final battle against the Death Star commences.

A MacGuffin is a little white lie that the audience or reader plays along with to get to the fun part of the journey. After all, a story about a briefcase would be rather boring, with it being worried about scuffs or how its hinges could use a spot of oil, thank you very much. The hand that holds the briefcase, however, can be a thrilling and satisfying tale.

About the Author:

Guy Anthony De Marco is a disabled US Navy veteran speculative fiction author; a Graphic Novel Bram Stoker Award® nominee; winner of the HWA Silver Hammer Award; a prolific short story and flash fiction crafter; a novelist; an invisible man with superhero powers; a game writer (Sojourner Tales modules, Interface Zero 2.0 core team, third-party D&D modules); and a coffee addict. One of these is false.

New Post has been published on http://guyanthonydemarco.com/takes-village-full-weirdos/

It Takes a Village (Full of Weirdos)

I’ve been writing off and on since 1977. More off than on, just like my normal mental state. The first few stories I horrifically assembled were based on some dreams with the antics of some of my friends mixed in. I was still in high school and I hung out with the freaks, geeks, and weirdos. I also spent time with some of the stoner and drug using folks, even though I never partook. (No, really, I was even sorta famous for it.) On top of that, I was friendly with many of the jocks, and even tried out for the baseball team as a pitcher. I still think I didn’t get on the team because I drilled the coach with a line shot off of his cranium during a practice. Well, that or because I had a wicked fast ball that I couldn’t control. Anyways…

Over the years, I’ve made friends and lost some, drifted apart or buried others. Most of the time I admit I was just too lazy to send a letter or pick up the phone to say hello. Some folks were just acquaintances or Friends-of-Friends.

Some folks were people I once just said hello to. A good example is Fiona. My wife and I were going through the checkout line at the North Island Commissary (like a military store), and the young lady who was ringing things up was the Uber Queen of the Goths. Every bit of exposed skin was pale, like the pallor of the dead. Fiona wore all black, of course. She was also very nice and friendly. For years my wife and I would recall Fiona out of the blue. The only reason we know her name is because of her name tag. She’s appeared in two of my books in one form or another.

All of the friends, acquaintances, and random weirdos and strangers I’ve encountered in my life at one time or another are all now living as part of the DNA in the characters I write. I never try to copy them directly — it would feel like plagiarizing meatspace. I take tiny bits of personality and blend them together. The subtle half-wink as they tell a joke; the way their voice wavers as they yell in anger; the way they smell because they don’t believe in deodorant. All of these slices can come together to create a complete and believable character. In many cases, I know why they do what they do. The old friend who never used deodorant was too poor to afford the luxury. That background adds seasoning for characters. Now I know how they may act in certain situations, like finding an envelope of hundred dollar bills in a donated dresser. That pungent friend would do his best to find the rightful owner because he knows what it feels like to be destitute.

Asian Woman Taking Selfie Photo On Smart Phone Pop Art Colorful Retro Style Vector Illustration

One should be careful not to make the characters recognizable. In many cases, it can cause hurt feelings. If I copied a friend down to a speech impediment and a facial birthmark, then gave it to a horrific villain who tortures small fuzzy animals for kicks, you can rest assured that my friend would be quite irate (and probably move into the ‘former friend’ category.) Always make the characters you create a collection of traits put into a blender and hit the frappe button a few times. The froth you end up with can then be used to make believable, realistic characters that seem like they’re someone you know intimately — because they are.

New Post has been published on http://guyanthonydemarco.com/guy-president-united-states/

Guy, President of the United States

Yup, you missed out. I was an official registered independent candidate for President of the United States. Unfortunately, I didn’t win. I did, however, get my name into the historical records. For example, there’s the page about me on Ballotpedia.

Hopefully President Trump will turn out to be someone who doesn’t nuke the planet. Fingers crossed.

Y’all had your chance. Next time write my name on your ballot. Every vote counts.

I get curious every so often and Google my name to see if anything unusual is out there. I do find the occasional pirate site, so that’s always fun.

Imagine my surprise when I saw a Google Books link to a non-fiction tome about Italian Americans. I’m one of four listed authors of note in fantasy and science fiction, along with R.A. Salvatore (an awesome gent!), Keith DeCandido, and Rich DiSilvio.

You can peruse parts of the book online — Italian Americans: The History & Culture of a People.. It’s not an inexpensive book…it appears to be a textbook that runs $95. I will probably keep an eye out for used copies to put on my brag shelves.

In some Fictorians news, there are some cool themes coming up in 2017. Frank Morin and I teamed up for an October/November NaNoWriMo theme that focuses on preparing for NaNo and then diving in.