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My Agent Hunt

My Agent Hunt

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childoffireI should start by introducing myself: my name is Harry Connolly and I’m a Del Rey author. My second novel came out on the last day of August and I’m pretty proud of it. I’m also proud that my first fiction sale was to Black Gate: “The Whoremaster of Pald” headed the table of contents of the second issue (and can be read for free on this website). Happily, there have been a couple of other sales here, too. I also spoke about the details of my first novel sale last Saturday, and my interview with Howard Andrew Jones appeared here Monday.

Anyway, per John’s request, I’d like to describe the method I used to find my agent. I’m a cheap bastard, so I didn’t spend any money but the search did take a while. I’ll also detail the mistakes I made, which may be instructive for others.

First, I don’t need to say I spent a long time revising my query letter, right? You guys all know that the letter has to be specific, intriguing and on-point, I’m sure. So let’s skip the part where I recommend you revise it several times and ask smart friends for feedback.

But where to send it? Being cheap, I went to the internet. Specifically, I went to agentquery.com and used their “Full Search” to compile a long list of agents that represent fantasy, science fiction, and horror. Thank you, copy and paste.

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Northwest Travels

Northwest Travels

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powellsbooks_logo1Last week I was in Seattle and Portland, where I made pilgrimages to venues possible interest to readers here.  One was Powell’s Books, which claims to be the largest independent bookstore of both used and new books in the nation.  It’s an amazing place, with floors of books in a range of almost every conceivable category that would put any Barnes and Noble “superbookstore” to shame even in its heyday.  Needless to say, the science fiction and fantasy aisle alone is something you could easily browse for an hour or two.

Though I could easily have gone nuts in stuffing a shopping basket, I managed to restrict my purchases to a single used copy of Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon (I resisted the urge to also get the mammoth Against the Day because, well, as much as I’m interested, I don’t have the time to commit to 1104 pages of one-stop reading; the audio version comprises 42 CDs for 54 hours of listening) and a gift vegan cookbook for my daughter.  One thing that helped keep my book jones in check was that Powell’s isn’t inexpensive. As much as I’d like to contribute to the physical presence of the bookstore, even one that I’m not likely to visit frequently, the fact is that other than maybe some featured bestsellers, I could get just about anything new or used less expensively at that other big bookstore you may have heard of that exists only virtually.  And when you buy a lot of books like I do (and probably you do), many of which spend extended periods on the “to read” shelf, keeping cost of acquisition down becomes an important buying decision.

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Excerpt from Star Soldier by Vaughn Heppner, Book 1 of the Doom Star Series

Excerpt from Star Soldier by Vaughn Heppner, Book 1 of the Doom Star Series

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star-soldier1Last month we reported that Black Gate author Vaughn Heppner had cracked the bestseller list at Amazon with Star Soldier, Book #1 of the Doom Star Series.

Star Soldier and its sequels, Bio-Weapon and Battle Pod, now occupy the top three spots at Amazon’s bestseller list for Series Science Fiction in Kindle ebooks, — outselling Dune, Foundation, and many others.

In the general Science Fiction Bestsellers list for Kindle editions, Star Soldier remains solidly at #2, where it’s been for nearly two months.

Star Soldier is a full 82,000 word novel, available for download at Amazon.com for just 99 cents.

We’re very proud to offer you an exclusive preview of the first 5,000 words of Star Soldier, an action-packed space opera of the invasion of Earth in 2350, Doom Star pirates, and genetically designed super soldiers caught in a brutal war of extinction.

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Marvel’s The Monster of Frankenstein, Part Two

Marvel’s The Monster of Frankenstein, Part Two

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frankie1Read Part One of this article here. Click on images for larger versions.

The 19th Century adventures of Mary Shelley’s famous monster following Gary Friedrich and Mike Ploog’s adaptation of the classic novel continued in Issue 5 of Marvel’s The Monster of Frankenstein with another standalone filler story. This time out it is a more serviceable horror yarn that sees the Monster bravely rescuing a beautiful girl from being burned at the stake. She claims that her town is under the spell of a demon dressed in black that only she could resist. The Monster confronts and subdues her abusive father in his quest to end her persecution.

Along the way, there are hints that the girl is not as virtuous as she initially appeared. The Monster learns at the climax that the girl is actually a werewolf. The demon in black is revealed to be the village priest. The story is a familiar yarn having been utilized in numerous other comics and short stories for several prior decades. Gary Friedrich’s script puts the tested story to good use, but this is one of Mike Ploog’s less-inspired issues as artist.

Ploog’s swan song with the series was Issue 6. The title was modified slightly to The Frankenstein Monster starting with this issue. Ploog’s artwork here is simply stunning recalling at times Barry Windsor-Smith’s run on Marvel’s Conan the Barbarian. His Frankenstein Monster also strongly resembles Herb Trimpe’s interpretation of The Incredible Hulk and yet, there is much that is undeniably Ploog’s own brilliant style throughout. This final issue for the artist is his best for the series and does much to underline what made his artwork so beloved by comics fans.

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Epic Black Gate Trailer of AWESOMENESS!

Epic Black Gate Trailer of AWESOMENESS!

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Claire: How do we do this, O’Neill? I’m still new at this website editing.

John: Just type everything I say, Cooney.  First, we wanna hype Magill and Sam.

Claire: Easy!

John: Wow, you type fast. This can’t be too long. We’ve got to get right to it.

Claire: Okay. So, dear Black Gate readers, look at this cool thing my friends Magill Foote and Sam Rahn did. It’s so 21st Century. And it makes Black Gate look so cool. Not that it needed any help. And now we just post it? Beneath the cut?

John: No, no, no. It’s gotta be right here!  Do it now!

Goth Chick News: Magical Expectations from a Tough Audience

Goth Chick News: Magical Expectations from a Tough Audience

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Kings Cross Station, London
Kings Cross Station, London

“Do you think a ghost will follow you home?”

This is coming from my six-year-old niece, who has finally began to grasp that her Auntie is up to some intriguing shenanigans. Her two older siblings went through the same phase; when they were around this age I spent a year in the UK, and had convinced them I was a guest professor at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Having never quite grown up myself I had no end of fun perpetuating this fantasy in my two young nephews who, at the time, were obsessed with Harry Potter. I emailed back pictures of Kings Cross Station, where the Hogwarts Express leaves from platform “nine and three-quarters.”

Contrary to popular belief, the Brits do have a sense of humor and proved the point by putting up a sign between platforms nine and ten and displaying a luggage cart pushed half way into the brick wall below.

My nephews apparently held this picture up to my sister as proof positive that I was at Hogwarts, but she was having none of it.

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The Amazing Story of Quantum Mechanics, by James Kakalios

The Amazing Story of Quantum Mechanics, by James Kakalios

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amazingquantumJames Kakalios, the author of The Physics of Superheroes, is out with another popular science text: The Amazing Story of Quantum Mechanics: A Math-Free Exploration of the Science That Made Our World.

I took a couple courses in Quantum Theory, including a graduate course in Quantum Mechanics as part of my Ph.D. at the University of Illinois —  just about the most difficult course of my career. And mama, it had some math.

The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, Schrödinger’s wave equation, the Atomic orbital model and Quantum field theory. Good times, good times.

Now James Kakalios is trying to make all those anguished nights attempting to comprehend the inner workings of the universe using only my incomprehensible class notes obsolete, with a new book that depends on far more reliable sources: comic books and American pulp magazines. Here’s the publisher’s description:

Most of us are unaware of how much we depend on quantum mechanics on a day-to-day basis. Using illustrations and examples from science fiction pulp magazines and comic books, The Amazing Story of Quantum Mechanics explains the fundamental principles of quantum mechanics that underlie the world we live in.

Sheer genius.  More complete details are in the Amazon.com listing.

Kakalios, buddy, where were you 20 years ago?  All those evenings wasted studying, when I could have been trying to pick up girls. Don’t make my mistake, students of the future. Buy your copy today.

Art Evolution 6: Tony DiTerlizzi

Art Evolution 6: Tony DiTerlizzi

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Art Evolution continues, this week’s image coming from a member of the later days of TSR. The character is yet another in a shared project representing a single figure created in many famed RPG artists most recognizable style. The project began here.

So I now had five, the newest of which was an ‘L5R Lyssa’. Half my list down and seemingly half to go, assuming I could flesh out my article with other greats I’d fantasized about since I wore parachute pants.

planes-254Sitting back, I took stock of all my memories on gaming, tried to picture the art that moved me the most, and I came onto some really profound names like, Larry Elmore, Jeff Easley, Tony DiTerlizzi, Wayne Reynolds, Todd Lockwood and Erol Otus just to name a few. Yeah, this was getting very real very fast.

These people were more than RP artists — they were industries unto themselves. Wayne Reynolds doesn’t take personal commissions, Jeff Easley’s email isn’t exactly public knowledge, and Tony had transformed from TSR ‘pit’ artist to award winning and New York Times best-selling children’s author and illustrator.

What these artists brought to anything they were involved in was profound legitimacy, something I had very little of at this point. Still, I needed something binding, something tangible to offer up to these artists. I was a writer with no credits to my name, but I could still list myself as a ‘freelance’. That was a truth, and it is always better to provide honesty than fiction, especially when dealing with an established and intelligent clientele.

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Time Element

Time Element

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fine-print-poster1The false motivational poster to the left has nothing to do with the rest of my post today, except that it came as a reward to myself after a week of tough self-disciplined writing, aided by the simple power of time awareness. As I finished my enormous work on late Sunday evening, I celebrated my triumph with a small but exquisite waste of time, creating one of the many “demotivational posters” that travel around the ‘net as humor or an approximation of humor. Better than LOLCats, at least. This is my deep inner Tolkien Geek, who has always wondered what the Lord of the Nazgûl thought as he died under Éowyn’s blade on the Pelennor Fields. My guess: “Damn fine print!”

It’s little time-waster rewards like this that make getting through heavy writing projects just a bit easier.

But the real writing-aid VIP for me, and which has been a tremendous help since I started using it about two years ago, has been a time log. I’ve written previously about how I did revising “on the clock” for National Novel Editing Month (a March event—edit for at least fifty hours during the month) by turning on a desktop stopwatch whenever I sit down to do any writing or editing. I hide the clock, and have it set to chime at the half-hour. I use Apimac Timer, a Mac OS X application, for the stopwatch. For specifically timed exercises, I use a countdown on the same timer. After each work day, I record in a notebook how much time I’ve spent working, and my word count (if applicable). Apicmac Timer also also you to record a log on the program and not lose count of the time you spent

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A Review of King’s Blood Four, by Sheri S. Tepper

A Review of King’s Blood Four, by Sheri S. Tepper

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kb4aKing’s Blood Four, by Sheri S. Tepper
Ace (202 pages, $2.50, 1983)

I know Sheri S. Tepper primarily as a science fiction author. She tends to write sociological stuff, a little bit like Ursula K. LeGuin’s science fiction. I feel that she’s prone to having her message hijack her story, but I still read her books whenever I see a new one in the library. I wasn’t sure what to expect out of her fantasy.

As it turns out, King’s Blood Four might or might not be set in a fantasy universe. There is a strong hint that it might be crypto-SF. In a way, it doesn’t matter; fantasy or science fiction, it’s still a study of an alien society.

The story is narrated by Peter, a fifteen-year-old boy who lives at a boarding school devoted to teaching a peculiar chess-like game. In fact, it’s a training exercise for the deadly True Game. It seems that many people in this world have magic — or possibly psychic — powers, and the True Game forms a framework for their power struggles. It includes everything from dueling to intrigue to outright war, and children such as Peter are sent to the Schooltowns so that the True Game doesn’t chew them up as cannon fodder before they can come into their power. (We find out later that peasants — called pawns, in keeping with the chess theme — don’t ordinarily get this privilege, although at least one pawn’s mother found a way to manage it.) We also find out that Peter has been seduced by one of the teachers, a man named Mandor. The affair is forbidden, and one of the other teachers tries to warn Peter about it, but he’s convinced that he has it all under control.

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