Midlist Writer

My Civil War novel A Fine Likeness on sale for only $2.99. Happy Valentine's Day!

2012-01-21T03:22:00.000-08:00

Um. . .isn't Valentine's Day February 14? Yes it is, but I love my readers so much I've decided to celebrate early. From now until the day after Valentine's Day (Feb. 15) I'm discounting my Civil War novel A Fine Likeness to $2.99.

My novel has been out two months now and I've received some wonderful reviews and a modest number of sales. I'd like to increase both by offering this discount. I love getting new readers!

I also love my existing readers, so if you've already purchased A Fine Likeness at full price, here's a deal for you: I'll send you a complimentary copy of my short story collection The Night the Nazis Came to Dinner and other dark tales. Just email me at seansontheweb (at) yahoo (dot) com and answer this question about the book: what Union officer was entrusted to guard Rocheport? (Hint: he did a really crappy job!).

I love my readers!

Book review: The Archaeology of Greece, An Introduction

2012-01-19T08:57:00.000-08:00

The Archaeology of Greece: An Introduction by William R. Biers

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I recently reread this old university textbook of mine in preparation for an assignment in Greece. Biers was one of my professors and his book was assigned for the class.

This well-illustrated book is a clear, general introduction to the topic. No single volume could ever hope to give such a broad subject full justice, but this does give the reader a good handle on the basics. Biers skips lightly over the Paleolithic, Mesolithic, and Neolithic and gets straight down to business with the Minoans. The book continues through the highlights of Greek archaeology down to the Roman period, which is only briefly discussed. Late Antique, Byzantine, and later periods are not covered.

I have only two objections to this book. Neither are major and both may have been solved with the publication of a second edition in 1996. I read the first edition so take these criticisms in that light. I found many of the citations to be rather old. Most dated to the 1970s or sometimes much earlier. Also, some of the photos, especially those of Athens taken by Biers himself, do not show the sights or the city as they appear today. As I said, the second edition may have solved these problems and brought the book more up to date.

In all, this is an easy-to-read introduction to ancient Greek art and archaeology. It's large number of photographs, some in color, the clear prose keep it from ever becoming dry.

View all my reviews

The Night the Nazis came to Dinner, and other dark tales

2011-12-21T08:10:00.000-08:00

My short story collection, The Night the Nazis came to Dinner, and other dark tales, is out now as an ebook.

A spectral dinner party goes horribly wrong. . .
An immortal warrior hopes a final battle will set him free. . .
A big-game hunter preys on endangered species to supply an illicit restaurant. . .
A new technology soothes First World guilt. . .

Here are four dark tales that straddle the boundary between reality and speculation. You better hope they don’t come true.

These genre-bending tales mix fantasy, science fiction, horror, and a dose of satire. I've priced it at 99 cents in order to entice readers, and hopefully get them to move on and buy my Civil War novel. A special thanks goes to Dale Roberts, author of Irrefutable, for doing the excellent cover art.

The Night the Nazis came to Dinner is available at Amazon, Amazon UK, and all other Amazon outlets. Coming soon to Smashwords too!

Deja-Vu Blogfest: My thoughts on my page 99

2011-12-16T04:00:00.000-08:00

Today I'm participating in the Deja-Vu blogfest, where everyone revives one of their favorite old posts. This one is from more than a year ago and concerns my Civil War novel A Fine Likeness, which back then was still unpublished.

Ford Madox Ford suggested that if you want to know how good a book is, you should "open the book to page ninety-nine and the quality of the whole will be revealed to you."

A new website plans to let aspiring and published authors upload page 99 of their work for public scrutiny. The Page 99 Test isn't running yet, so I've decided to jump the gun and post page 99 of my Civil War horror novel A Fine Likeness here to see how it stands up. Regular readers of this blog will know that this novel made it to the finals of Dorchester and ChiZine's Fresh Blood contest before losing. Oddly enough, five months on, the novel's fan page is still attracting hits. The manuscript currently squats malevolently in ChiZine's submissions pile.

So here's page 99. Let me know what you think. I'll post my own thoughts in my next post.

“This the right way?” Hugh asked.

“’Course it’s the right way,” Morgan said. “You think I don’t know where I’m going?”

“Don’t seem the right way,” Hugh said.

“It ain’t,” Elijah replied.

“Shut your mouth,” Morgan said, looking around at the woods uncertainly. “What’s that old devil thinking making us come all the way out here for anyways? Why didn’t we meet back at his cabin?”

“Probably afraid we’d get followed,” the Kid said.

“Damn it, we should have made that road by now. He said head north five miles and we’d hit it,” Morgan grumbled.

“We would have if we’d gone north,” Elijah said.

“Course we’ve been going north!” Morgan shouted. “We’ve been going north the entire time, haven’t we Jimmy?”

Jimmy didn’t reply, looking down at the ground as the Kid led his horse.

“Don’t ask him nothing,” Elijah said. “He’s been told his end and that’s a hard thing to take. And we ain’t been going north the whole time. When we took off from the Schmidt place, remember how we cut along that streambed? That made us move east a ways before we straightened out. We’ve passed the road.”

Morgan frowned at him, not wanting to believe, but he knew as well as the rest of them that Elijah never got lost in the woods.

“Jimmy, what do you think?” Morgan asked, bringing his horse alongside him.

“I don’t know what to believe,” Jimmy said.

My Civil War Novel "A Fine Likeness" released today!

2011-11-20T13:52:00.000-08:00

My Civil War horror novel A Fine Likeness is finally out! It's available at Amazon, Amazon UK, Amazon DE, and Amazon FR. In the next couple of days it will become available at Barnes & Noble and Smashwords. A print edition will appear in a couple of weeks.

Thank you all for your encouragement! For those of you unfamiliar with my novel, the blurb is below:

A Confederate guerrilla and a Union captain discover there’s something more dangerous in the woods than each other.

Jimmy Rawlins is a teenaged bushwhacker who leads his friends on ambushes of Union patrols. They join infamous guerrilla leader Bloody Bill Anderson on a raid through Missouri, but Jimmy questions his commitment to the Cause when he discovers this madman plans to sacrifice a Union prisoner in a hellish ritual to raise the Confederate dead.

Richard Addison is an aging captain of a lackluster Union militia. Depressed over his son’s death in battle, a glimpse of Jimmy changes his life. Jimmy and his son look so much alike that Addison becomes obsessed with saving him from Bloody Bill. Captain Addison must wreck his reputation to win this war within a war, while Jimmy must decide whether to betray the Confederacy to stop the evil arising in the woods of Missouri.

My next book project: Wyatt Earp, the OK Corral and the Vendetta Ride 1881-82

2011-11-15T01:50:00.000-08:00

I've just received the signed contract for my next book for Osprey Publishing: Wyatt Earp, the OK Corral and the Vendetta Ride 1881-82! Part of Osprey's raid series, this book continues Osprey's exploration of the Wild West.

The manuscript isn't due until almost a year from now so it will be some time before it will see the light of day. Of course I'll keep you updated! The Raid series looks at military or paramilitary raids, including their planning, execution, and an analysis of their success or failure.

I've written two books in this series already, including Ride Around Missouri: Shelby's Great Raid 1863, and a book on James-Younger gang's Northfield raid that will come out next year.

Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Blogging more than 400,000 words

2011-11-09T04:51:00.000-08:00

As my regular readers know, I blog at Gadling, the number one travel blog on the web. (And I'm not just saying that, our hits prove it).

Today my dashboard told me that I broke 400,000 words. To be exact, it said, "You have written 400,143 words on 866 posts since you started publishing 2 years and 179 days ago."

Persistence. Write every day and your publications will pile up.

Starting a public Facebook page

2011-11-08T03:35:00.000-08:00

I've been getting several friend requests on Facebook from readers. While I want to interact with everyone, I also want to keep my profile for people I actually know. To solve this, I've set up a public Facebook page. Feel free to Like me over there so you can keep up to date on all my latest publications and what's happening with A Fine Likeness. I'll also be featuring some giveaways exclusive for FB followers.

Armies of the Adowa campaign gets a four-star review!

2011-11-06T04:34:00.000-08:00

On my Civil War blog I recently mentioned that my book Armies of the Adowa Campiagn 1896: Italian Disaster in Ethiopia got a five-star review on Amazon. Well, I just got another review. This time it's four stars, and the reasons for losing a star are just fine with me. The review follows:

"I am very surprise that this subject matter, the Adowa Campaign, never made to the Osprey Campaign series. It would have made a great addition. Instead, we are treated with short verison of Men at Arms Series instead. I must ask why the author did not see fit to write an Osprey Campaign book and why he settled on this short version format instead?

"I wrote that because I found this book to be highly interesting reading material, there are a lot of facts packed into this book and it definitely deserves a longer treatment then what this series could afford. The narrative is short but well written, obviously the author did his research and provided many colorful plates on the uniforms and outfits of the two opposing sides. There are quite a few interesting photographs included including one where Italians and their African allies were being released, most of the African allies are missing some limbs of their bodies. Another interesting photo was one of two Italian survivors of the battle barely reaching back to their home base, looking more like escaped slaves then soldiers.

"Overall, its a pretty informative book that deserves a longer format of a Campaign series. Why the author settled for less is mysterious to me. Adowa campaign is a highly interesting campaign where an African power inflicted the greatest military defeat on an European power during the 19th century. Far greater defeat then Islandlwana which was British's smaller version of what Adowa turnout to be for Italy."

So his only complaint is that there wasn't more of it? I can live with that! To answer the reviewer's question, there are a couple of reasons why it wasn't part of the Campaign series. The main reason is that Osprey requires a topographic battle map for each title. I wasn't sure I could get a topo map for the Adowa battlefield. After visiting the Ethiopian Mapping Agency in Addis Ababa, my worries proved to be correct. Another reason it was in Men-At-Arms and not Campaign is that I've been working closely with the editor from the Man-At-Arms series and he offered me the title to do for his line.

So yes, Adowa deserves a longer treatment, but a couple of factors prevented me from doing it. Still, it was a fun book to write, and certainly not my last book on Ethiopia.

Tell my boss to send me to Afghanistan

2011-10-20T01:49:00.000-07:00

As many of you know, I'm a travel blogger for Gadling, the world's most popular travel blog. I've done several series on adventure travel, including one on taking a road trip around Ethiopia, and another on living in an African city. I did another on visiting Somaliland.

In my more than 20 years of adventure travel, I've never been to Afghanistan, and it's always been at the top of my list. I visited Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province in the 1990's and spent several pleasant weeks among the Afghan communities there. Afghanistan's long history and varied cultures would make a great Gadling series. . .

. . .but I can't afford it. So I need your help. If you'd like to see a boots-on-the-ground series on Afghanistan written by yours truly, tell Gadling to be my sugar daddy. I'll write about culture, history, and daily life, all the things the news ignores. I already know an adventure travel company that can take me there. If enough people vote, maybe Gadling will send me!

Please leave a comment at this link, telling Gadling they need a series on Afghanistan.

[Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons]

Ride Around Missouri: Shelby's Great Raid 1863 out now!

2011-10-18T09:19:00.000-07:00

Today Osprey Publishing released Ride Around Missouri: Shelby's Great Raid 1863, my latest in a series of Civil War books. This one's nonfiction, but my Civil War novel will come out next month!

This book focuses on one of the Civil War's longest cavalry raids--Confederate cavalryman J.O. Shelby's ride up from Arkansas and through Union-held Missouri. His raiders destroyed infrastructure, skirmished with Union detachments, captured small forts, and led thousands of bluecoats on a merry chase that almost ended in disaster for Shelby at the Battle of Marshall.

This raid secured Shelby's reputation as one of the greatest raiders of the Civil War, yet it is often overlooked like so many other exciting events in the Trans-Mississippi Civil War. Two earlier raids he was on, led by General Marmaduke, are also covered.

Shelby was on Price's 1864 invasion of Missouri and is mentioned briefly in my Civil War novel A Fine Likeness. Shelby makes an appearance in the as-yet-unnamed sequel. One of the protagonists in that book is in Shelby's Iron Brigade, but deserts in order to fight the war within the war, the supernatural battle between Order and Chaos. The second book will be out sometime in 2012.

Guest blogging about Ethiopia on the Osprey Publishing blog

2011-10-15T05:38:00.000-07:00

I have a guest post over at the Osprey Publishing blog about the city wall in Harar, Ethiopia. As regular readers of this blog know, I spent two months living in Harar earlier this year and wrote a series of posts about it.

Osprey being a military history publisher, this post focuses on how the medieval city wall helped preserve Harar's unique culture from outsiders. Head on over there and check it out! I'll be doing some more guest posts over there soon.

I've added an RSS feed for Midlist Writer

2011-10-11T05:51:00.000-07:00

On the lefthand column of this blog you'll see I've added an RSS feed. While I'm not writing in Midlist Writer as frequently as I used to, due to working hard on my Civil War blog and preparing my Civil War horror novel for publication, I do occasionally post stuff here of writerly and personal interest. Don't miss a post! Subscribe to my RSS feed! And thanks for reading!

Settling in Santander

2011-10-06T06:29:00.000-07:00

No, this blog isn't totally dead. While I'm mostly posting on my Civil War blog these days I'll occasionally put things up here too. If you've been following me on Gadling, you know I've moved from Madrid and am now living in Santander on Spain's northern coast.

I've been here two weeks now and am already settling in. I've been out with some of the locals and am beginning to meet people, plus I and my family got some wonderful sunny days on the beach like you see in the Wikimedia Commons picture above. Sadly, as I write this it's overcast and the street outside is damp from this morning's rain. Summer is now over.

Ah well. At least there's lots of good hiking and caving in the region. There's a fair amount of nightlife in this city as well, although it doesn't come close to what Madrid has to offer. In my few nights out so far I've already discovered the fascist cafe, complete with photos of General Franco and the symbol for the Falange proudly displayed behind the bar. I walked in and walked right back out. I also discovered an anarchist cafe with stickers and posters from the CNT. In the 1930s, these two groups were at each other's throats. Now they just go to different bars.

The anarchist bar was a bit dead for a midnight on a Saturday. I did get to meet three guys from Senegal. Santander has a lot of African immigrants who work the fishing boats in this region. I didn't get to talk to these guys much because they were engrossed in a football game. Reminds me of my time in Ethiopia!

So far I've been enjoying the move. People are much friendlier than in Madrid and being a much smaller town it's easier to meet people. The beach was great and now I need to find enough activities to get me through Santander's long, rainy winter. A good place to be a writer!

Armies of the Adowa Campaign out now!

2011-09-22T03:21:00.000-07:00

I've been pretty busy lately dealing with leaving Madrid and moving to Santander in northern Spain. I've also been hard at work on my Civil War blog. One bit of good news I didn't get to tell y'all was that a couple of days ago Osprey Publishing came out with my latest book: Armies of the Adowa Campaign.

This work examines the ill-fated Italian attempt to colonize Ethiopia. The Ethiopians had the greatest victory over a colonial army by a native force until that time. This record wouldn't be surpassed until the Moroccans destroyed the Spanish army and Annual in 1921. The book comes with a complete description of the factors leading up to the war, details of the battles, and some excellent and precise illustrations of the uniforms of both sides by Raffaele Ruggeri. Included are almost fifty rare photographs from the Italian archives, and some of my own photos I took while exploring the battlefield.

This book has been selling well for some time now. Osprey readers like to preorder books and it's been in the top ten of books on Ethiopia for months. I've written before about why readers preorder books and I'm glad they do.

For more on this project, check out two posts I did for the Osprey blog. Part one is about researching in Ethiopia, in which I nearly fell off a mountain, and part two is about researching in Rome, where I nearly made off with a cannon!

Photos of early artillery

2011-08-29T02:46:00.000-07:00

While I haven't been posting much on here lately, I did do a guest post over at Osprey Publishing's blog about seeing some early cannons at a Spanish castle. So if you're interested in more photos like the one above along with some information about them, check out the link. Also check out my Civil War blog for another image.

I'm on Goodreads!

2011-08-23T02:31:00.000-07:00

I just got an Author's page on Goodreads. This will give me another venue where I can interact with readers and writers and talk about my books. It also streams my Civil War blog. I'm still feeling my way around the site and meeting people. If you know me and/or like my books, drop on by and friend or fan me. Don't forget to come back here, though. While the Civil War Horror blog is getting most of my attention at the moment, I'm still maintaining this blog.

Armies of the Adowa Campaign: a sneak peak at my next book

2011-08-08T05:18:00.000-07:00

Sorry for my silence on this blog. I've been busy getting another blog about my Civil War novel up and running. I'm happy to say it hasn't even been a month but I already have nine followers and more than 1,100 hits! Here's hoping that my novel, A Fine Likeness, will be equally successful once it comes out in September.

My family and I are in Oxford for our customary summer of research, hiking, and seeing old friends. As usual, I popped into the offices of Osprey Publishing and chatted with the editors about my current projects and possible future ones. I also got an advance copy of Armies of the Adowa Campaign.

The folks at Osprey did their usual awesome job with the layout and the maps. I also have to tip my hat to Raffaele Ruggeri for his excellent and precise illustrations. When I was researching the book and assembling instructions for the as-yet-unassigned artist, one of my main sources for Italian uniforms was a book Mr. Ruggeri illustrated. I was very happy to hear he was taking the project. It made my instructions almost unnecessary!

The book includes almost fifty rare photographs from the Italian archives, and some of my own photos I took while exploring the battlefield.

For more on this project, check out two posts I did for the Osprey blog. Part one was about researching in Ethiopia, and part two was about researching in Rome. Check them out for insights into the ups and downs (and even dangers) of researching military history!

Starting a new blog

2011-07-12T06:56:00.000-07:00

As regular readers of this blog know, I've been shopping around my Missouri Civil War horror novel, A Fine Likeness, for some time now. This was a finalist in ChiZine and Dorchester's Fresh Blood contest but because I was traveling in Ethiopia I wasn't able to garner enough votes to win.

Well, I've decided that with the Civil War sesquicentennial already upon us, now is the time to publish this, so I've going to self-publish with Kindle Direct Publishing, Createspace, and Smashwords. A Fine Likeness will be published in September.

I've started a blog dedicated to the book and its series called, unsurprisingly, Civil War Horror. I posted there today about why a professional author is self-publishing on Amazon. I hope you'll join me on this venture into the uncertain world of modern publishing.

Hoping to travel to South Sudan

2011-07-11T05:48:00.000-07:00

Unless you've been living under a rock, you've heard that the Republic of South Sudan has just become the world's newest country. Welcome to the family of nations!

I'm looking into ways to get there in order to be the first travel blogger to write a series about it. My series about traveling in Somaliland, a country that doesn't officially exist, was my most popular ever, so I'm hoping the South Sudanese government will respond to my inquiries. With Gadling getting ten million hits a month, I could sure give them some good publicity.

I also have to figure out how to be the first Postcrossing member to get a postcard from South Sudan. . .

[Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons]

Guest blogging

2011-07-05T01:45:00.000-07:00

I haven't been on this blog much lately (sorry about that) but I have done two recent guest posts. Over at the Osprey Publishing blog I did a post on military history and wargaming in Spain. This was an addition to a post I did here on Midlist Writer about the Madrid Book Fair.

I've also done a post over on Genre Author about a medieval revolver and hand grenade I came across in the Pitt-Rivers Museum in Oxford. I've previously been a guest at A.J. Walker's blog when I wrote about the accuracy of medieval handgonnes. This is, of course, all related to my book on Medieval Handgonnes, which continues to be a bestseller for Osprey and me personally. Nothing like have the first book on a subject to encourage sales!

Adding pages

2011-06-29T08:55:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone! Yes, I've been silent for a while. It's been a combination of lots of work, getting focused on my Harar book proposal, and a bit of early summer laziness.

One change you'll start seeing here is pages, which you can access via the tabs at the top of this page. These pages link to various books and articles of mine in the Web. I've put in pages for Adventure Travel and Archaeology, and will soon add Civil War, Missouri History, Harar, Medieval History, and Miscellaneous Writings.

I like the Pages option for Blogger. It's almost the equivalent of a free website!

Photo Friday: Quantrill's black flag

2011-06-17T07:31:00.000-07:00

Here's yours truly with a reproduction of Quantrill's famous black flag the rebel guerrilla supposedly flew as a sign that he'd take no prisoners. It's in the Clay County Savings Association bank museum. This bank, of course, was the first target of the James gang. This photo was taken by Rex Dickson, who shows no patience whatsoever with my obsession with Missouri's Civil War, but has seen a lot of the sights anyway. I wrote about the Liberty bank as part of my Gadling series on our Jesse James road trip.

Quantrill was the baddest of a bad crew. His gang slaughtered civilians, scalped soldiers, and raised hell generally. Frank James rode with him during the Civil War, as did famous outlaw Cole Younger. Jesse James may have ridden with Quantrill too before joining Bloody Bill Anderson in his own group.

This is an interesting flag for several reasons. You'll notice that Quantrill's name is misspelled. During the war his name was generally spelled with an "e", and the bushwhacker leader didn't exactly have a strong motive for correcting people. It's debateable whether he actually had a flag like this, though. There are several references to Quantrill's black flag, but both Frank James and Cole Younger said there never was one. At the time, "raising the black flag" meant that you'd show no mercy, so perhaps Quantrill's flag was only metaphorical.

It Happened in Missouri will have a second edition

2011-06-15T03:18:00.001-07:00

I just got the contract to do a second edition of It Happened in Missouri. This is a collection of 30 tales of the Show-Me State, everything from how a 14 year-old boy founded St. Louis to Jesse James' first train robbery.

This title has been selling pretty well. Lots of libraries and schools have picked it up. State history tends to be popular, at least in that state. Most purchases are either orders from institutions or bought from the local interest sections of bookshops. Thus the Amazon rankings for state histories tend to be low. Amazon rankings are usually a poor way to gauge the popularity of a book.

Anyway, my deadline isn't until the end of 2012 so this new edition won't be out until 2013. It will include two new tales and perhaps some other goodies me and my editor will cook up.

for more insights about writing history for fun and profit, check out my article: How to Break into the Burgeoning History Market.

Ten things I've learned from writing ten books (part 2)

2011-06-14T07:17:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I wrote about five basic truths I've learned from more than a decade in the publishing industry. Here are another five.

Keep your eyes open. Regular gigs fall through. Publishers tighten their belts and cancel series. Even if you’re comfortable for the moment, look at the job boards regularly. Make sure your network knows you’re on the lookout. Then they’ll be looking out for you.

Write what you love. You’re signing up for a life of underpaid work and uncertainty? Then at least do it because you love it! A few years back a business magazine offered me some articles. I said no. Business writing bores me. I wrote some history articles for another magazine instead. I had fun and advanced my career. Focusing on your passions will get you further than writing about any subject available.

Keep an eye on your editors. Just because they’re paid to polish your work doesn’t mean they know what they’re doing. I’ve had great editors and I’ve had lousy ones. Once an editor even introduced errors of fact! Good thing I was paying attention to the page proofs and caught the potential disaster before it went to press.

Be available, but don’t let people waste your time. Once you begin to get known, people will email you. Interacting with your readership is rewarding and fun. A large percentage of correspondence involves the same questions, however, and can be dealt with by the glorious invention of cut-and-paste. Plus there’s nothing wrong with setting boundaries. I’ll give you tips on how to pitch my publishers, but I won’t read your manuscript. I don’t have the time.

Persistence pays off. You’ve heard it before and it really is true. Keep at it every day, stay realistic, research your genre and market, and don’t give up. If you do that, you’ll succeed in the end.

For advice from other professional writers, see my article The Midlisters: Backbone of the Publishing Industry.

Ten things I've learned from writing ten books (part 1)

2011-06-13T03:12:00.000-07:00

I’ve been a writer for eleven years. In that time I’ve had ten books professionally published. My career started small—co-authoring an update of the Insiders’ Guide to Phoenix. That gave me the credibility to get my first solo title: Byzantium: An Illustrated History and I’ve been under contract for one or more books ever since. Currently, my main sources of income are writing military history books for Osprey Publishing and blogging for Gadling.com, the most popular travel blog on the Web. How did I do it? By quickly learning the following ten facts.

Networking is essential. I got my first book because a colleague recommended me. I got my blogging gig because a colleague recommended me. My recommendations have gotten other colleagues work. What goes around comes around. Of course you have to be a hardworking professional before anyone will recommend you, and you have to network with other professionals. Writers’ newsgroups and discussion boards are good support for beginners, but once you start writing professionally they aren’t so valuable.

The publishing world isn’t collapsing, it’s changing. Publishing is always changing; this just happens to be a bigger change. The major publishers aren’t going away. They have the capital and the clout and the bestselling authors. Magazines and newspapers aren’t going to all disappear either, although they’re losing a lot of market share to websites, like the one that pays me to write travel articles. Change means opportunity.

Steady work is essential. Constantly hustling for freelance gigs is exhausting. Find something that offers steady work and steady income. For me that’s blogging at Gadling. They pay me on time every month. Manna from heaven! Some publishers like having house authors who do one or two books a year. Focus on pitching those publishers.

Much of your work day is consumed by tasks other than writing. Networking, answering emails, editing, sending queries. . .the list goes on and on. Sometimes I think unpublished writers with day jobs actually have more time for writing than professionals! These tasks are essential, however, and can’t be ignored.

Work for hire is a good thing. My first guidebook and all my books for Osprey were work for hire. Some writers shun such contracts, but if it pays decently and advances your career, why not take the job? Elsewhere I’ve discussed the advantages of work for hire, as well as a surprising benefit of work for hire.

Tune in tomorrow for five more things I've learned from more than a decade in the publishing industry.

Visiting the Madrid Book Fair

2011-06-06T07:12:00.000-07:00

This weekend I visited the Feria del Libro, Madrid's annual book fair. Last year I had a great time and so of course I went back! Sadly, my friend and successful novelist Claudia Gray didn't make it this year but hopefully I'll pass through Chicago sometime and see her.

Despite the economic crisis the book fair was packed and there were hundreds of stalls for publishers and bookstores. My son got rewarded with a bilingual story book about an alien and I picked up a few things for myself.
One publisher was selling beautiful reproductions of rare medieval manuscripts. I love these things but have never coughed up the money for one.
The comics pavilion was well attended. There was some excellent art on the walls that only the adults were looking at. The kids were busy with the free video games and candy!

I got an egoboost at two military history stands that carried my Osprey Publishing titles. Now I just have to convince my publisher to translate them into Spanish. The Medieval Handgonnes book is an obvious sell, and the American Civil War Guerrilla Tactics would probably do well too. People are interested in the American Civil War over here.
I hovered around the stall of my favorite Spanish small press, Ediciones Escalera, which has an interesting list of translated Beat Generation works and other oddities, including El Mismo Río (The Same River) an Estonian novel I picked up and am currently enjoying. I and one of the owners commiserated over the demise of Entrelíneas Librebar, my favorite literary cafe where I first discovered this publisher.

While the economic crisis may have killed a great bookshop/cafe, publishing will survive. It's a rocky road at the moment, to be sure, but people like to read. As I discussed in my series on the London Book Fair, these shows simultaneously give me hope and leave me feeling daunted. So many books, and they all have to be written by someone like me! So many books, how does one get noticed?

Photo Friday: Dusty toys behind bars

2011-06-03T11:05:00.001-07:00

I took these shots one afternoon in Madrid's famous Rastro market, a giant flea market held every Sunday. You can buy pretty much anything there, especially if it's old, banged up, and unknown to anyone under thirty. While most of the stuff is sold from stalls, there are some permanent antique/junk shops lining the streets. This one sold toys.

I couldn't stop taking photos of the shopfront. Something about these dusty, discarded playthings behind bars touched me. I wondered about the kids who played with them and where they are now. I wonder if they remember these toys and if any of them were their favorite, or simply failed Christmas gifts of long ago.

Want to write? Turn off your computer!

2011-06-02T05:20:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I took a break from my computer. I turned it off the night before and didn't turn it back on until this morning. It was nice to sit in cafes all day scribbling in a notebook like writers are supposed to do. I wrote half a short story and got a chunk of research done for my next history book.

Sitting at the computer is tiring and distracting. There are a million things you can do online, half of them plausibly work related. When I'm in front of the screen, especially after a few hours, my mind gets scattered and I do five things at once. I check my email way too often and become increasingly inefficient.

Having a computer-free day was fun and productive and easy on the eyes. I think I'll try to do it once a week, work permitting. One thing I noticed when I logged in after a 24-hour lull was that nothing had fallen apart. There were no emails that I absolutely had to reply to, Gadling was still online, and my books were still selling on Amazon.

So take note, writers, you don't need your computer as much as you think you do.

Starting on book number 11

2011-05-30T08:01:00.000-07:00

Last week I finished the page proofs for my tenth book, a title for Osprey Publishing's new Raid series. Ride Around Missouri: Shelby's Great Raid 1863 continues my research on the Civil War in the Trans-Mississippi Theater. There'll be more to come! It's available for preorder if you want to be nice to me.

This week I'm starting research on book number 11, another title in Osprey's Raid series. Osprey is good to me so I keep writing for them. The Last Ride of the James-Younger Gang--Jesse James and the Northfield Raid 1876 is taking Osprey in a new direction with Wild West books. Mine is the first and I'm sure it won't be the last.

This is what it's like to be a midlist writer. You finish one project and start the next one. Year in, year out. Eleven books is small potatoes compared with some midlisters. In an article I wrote about midlisters, I interviewed half a dozen midlisters about their careers. Three stood out. Jane Toombs has published more than 80 novels, the majority of them romance, with big names such as Silhouette and Avon. Lawrence Schimel has published more than 90 books and almost 200 short stories. Sally Odgers beats them all with about 300 titles in virtually all genres.

I'm only 41, so I figure I have at least thirty years of active writing life ahead of me. When I think of the number of books, articles, and blog posts I'll do in that time, sometimes I get really excited, and sometimes I feel exhausted!

Ah well, back to writing!

Photo Friday: painted advertising in Harar, Ethiopia

2011-05-27T00:54:00.000-07:00

These lovely ladies are painted on the outside wall of a shop in Harar, Ethiopia. I don't know when they were painted, but the lady on the top is advertising film, and you can't find much of that these days, even in Ethiopia. Two strange things about her is that she's (A) white and (B) missing a foot.

The more traditional figure below is right next to the Fuji film woman. She doesn't seem to be advertising anything unless it's the bread in the basket on her head and the milk in her gourd. She's dressed in the traditional Harari fashion.

This style of advertising is very common among the Somalis, and perhaps the large number of Somalis in Harar inspired this style of advertising. There are a fair number of paintings like this in the city, but much more in Somali towns and cities like Hargeisa.

You can read more about travel in Harar by checking out my series on Gadling.

Getting back into blogging

2011-05-25T04:42:00.001-07:00

Yes, I'm still alive! After a break of more than two weeks I'm trying to get back into posting here on a regular basis. After my two-month stay in Harar, Ethiopia, I had a lot of catching up to do, including the page proofs for two upcoming books from Osprey Publishing. I also went to Oxford for a couple of weeks and the weather was so nice my work ethic took a serious nosedive.

I just got back from yet another trip, this time a week spent hiking in the Basque region of Spain and France. Now that I'm home and have no major distractions, I can get back to some regular blogging.

Sorry for the lapse in writing (you did notice, didn't you?). I promise to blog regularly for the foreseeable future.

The Library of Forgotten Books

2011-05-05T10:15:00.000-07:00

Shuffling between my two home bases in Oxford and Madrid last week I had a couple of hours to kill at Gatwick airport. It being past noon, I decided to spend them in the airport's pub, The Flying Horse, enjoying a last couple of pints of English real ale.

Airport pubs are soulless places, but the management at the The Flying Horse has tried to make it homey by installing big bookshelves stuffed with volumes of an age suitable for the faux country mansion decor of cheap wood paneling, dark carpet, and dim lighting.

Studying the titles I had to wonder when the last of them was read. They all seemed to be unknowns that passed into obscurity in the first month they were published. How many people really read A Girl and Her Ways by Amy Le Feuvre or Edward Henry Bickersteth by F.K. Aglianby? Did Hine's Relics of an Uncommon Attorney earn out its advance? The Six Proud Walkers almost got me with the title, but sorry F. Beedin, I prefer to hike alone.

The only familiar face in this crowd of strangers was War and Peace--in an edition old enough to be tattered but recent enough to be of no value. And it was in Russian. And only volumes three and four.

I can't decide how I feel about books being demoted to mere decoration. On the one hand, it's demeaning to the dreams of hundreds of struggling authors. They're all almost certainly dead, so I guess that's a relief. On the other hand, their only other destination would have been the rubbish skip. If books can still provide the atmosphere of refinement, don't they still have a value?

I wonder if my son will walk into an airport pub seventy years from now and see one of my own titles being used to line the walls.

Guest Post: Leather armour

2011-05-01T02:06:00.000-07:00

Today I'm trading blogs with A.J. Walker, a medievalist and novelist who's just starting a virtual book tour for his first fantasy novel, Roots Run Deep, epublished by Double Dragon. He has a series called Medieval Mondays over at his blog and today I'm blogging over there about Medieval handgonnes. So without further ado. . .

In the first chapter of my fantasy novel Roots Run Deep, a team of goblinkin are preparing for a raid on a human city.

Kip was as prepared as she could be. Like anyone who lived on the Reservation, she went armed at all times. Not that she had much. Her tattered leather jerkin gave scant protection, and for weapons she carried a flint knife and a tfaa, a traditional goblin fighting stick. A balanced, two foot-long rod carved from ironwood, the tfaa didn’t look like much, but in skilled hands it could disarm and cripple a swordsman. Prenta had gotten rid of her showy clothes and dressed in a more practical leather jerkin similar to Kip’s.

These impoverished goblinkin are wearing leather armour because they can't afford anything better and their human rulers forbid them from bearing metal weapons and armor. (This ban doesn't last, but that comes later in the story. . .) Leather armour is a staple of fantasy fiction and roleplaying games, yet many people don't realize just how common it was in medieval warfare. Even knights wore it.

Leather armour goes back to ancient times and continued in use through the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance. This picture shows the shoulder and upper arm portions of an elegant suit of leather dating to the Italian Renaissance, courtesy of the Schola Forum. As you can see, it looks much like regular metal armour, and many historians believe that it was worn as much as or even more than metal armour. A suit of plate was hot and heavy, so on the march or during a friendly tournament the knight may choose to weather cooler leather. The rank and file would also be fitted with leather and perhaps some portions of metal armour for vulnerable places such as the head and chest.

While leather was much cheaper, it provided pretty good protection. Regular soft leather wasn't much help, but combined with quilted padding provided some protection, especially against blunt weapons such as maces.

More effective was cuir bouilli--boiled leather. If you soak leather in water and then place it in boiling water, it becomes elastic and pliable. It soon begins to shrink, thicken, and harden. As it's hardening the leather is hammered onto shaped blocks to create breastplates, greaves, vambraces, and anything else. A full suit of armour could be made in this way. The 14th century French chronicler Jean Froissart claimed that it was "leather that no iron can pierce" and while that may be overstating the case, leather armour certainly gave good protection. Games such as D&D probably undervalue its effectiveness. Modern experiments show that the average sword blow wouldn't get through, although a good English longbow would make short work of a leather breastplate! This basic article (PDF) explains the technique. Also check out this thread from Schola Forum for some more insights and pictures.

The picture below from The Historians' History of the World shows some improvements on leather armour, with overlapping metal scales, discs, and rings. These were all cheaper yet pretty effective alternatives to full plate and variants of these were used from ancient times into the Renaissance.

Photo friday: The Bodleian Library

2011-04-29T01:12:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Photo Friday! I've been in Oxford for the past week and when I haven't been playing in the park with my kid or sampling real ale in Oxford's many fine pubs (including my local) I've been doing research in the Bodleian Library. The oldest parts of this library date from medieval times and there's some splendid architecture.

The photo shows the Tower of the Five Orders, finished 1619, and is the main street entrance. Its name comes from the five orders of columns on its facade: Doric, Tuscan, Ionic, Corinthian, and Composite. I like having a nice place to work, but the views can be a bit distracting so I tend to sit away from the windows!

There's a market for every book

2011-04-25T09:24:00.000-07:00

Don't worry, aspiring authors. No matter how obscure your subject, there's a market for you.

Photo Friday: Why writing is important

2011-04-22T09:16:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned before, I spent the past two months in Harar, Ethiopia, a fascinating medieval walled city. Before going to Harar I spent three days in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital. I’ve visited the city before but there were some things I hadn’t seen, like the Red Terror memorial. This is a museum dedicated the victims of the Derg regime, a Marxist government that assassinated the Emperor Haile Selassie and ruled Ethiopia from 1974 to 1991. This regime killed 500,000 people in its first year in power. Nobody knows the total number of victims.

Sadly, many countries have similar museums and this one has the typical displays you’d expect—walls covered with ghostly photos of victims, displays of torture methods, official documents—yet I left the museum inspired. Why? Because of this one display pictured here. It's a mimeograph machine used by a dissident. He was a scientist at an agricultural research center on the outskirts of Addis Ababa and he used this machine to print pamphlets protesting the government. He would have been executed if he had been caught so he used to bury the mimeograph in a field when he wasn't using it. After the regime was toppled he left it buried until he finally dug it up years later and donated it to the museum.

This is real writing. Writing what you believe when you risk being put up against a wall and shot. I'd like to think I'd have the courage to do this, but thankfully I don't think I'll ever be tested in this manner.

Working on page proofs for my next book

2011-04-21T02:01:00.000-07:00

One of the nice things about being back in Oxford is that I'm only a short bus ride away from Osprey Publishing, who have published some of my most recent books. I went to the office yesterday to pick up the page proofs for Armies of the Adowa Campaign, due in stores in September. The art looks great and the layout is excellent as usual. I love working with a team that actually cares about the product!

While I was visiting Harar, Ethiopia, Osprey's blog published a couple of guest posts of mine about writing this book. Part one was about researching in Ethiopia, and part two was about researching in Rome. Check them out for insights into the ups and downs (and even dangers) of researching military history!

While visiting the office I also got to sit down with the editors and brainstorm some more book ideas. Hopefully I'll have an announcement here in the coming weeks about more contracts!

Medieval Handgonnes is a bestseller!

2011-04-20T02:01:00.000-07:00

My latest book from Osprey Publishing, Medieval Handgonnes: The First Black Powder Infantry Weapons, is number two on the company's bestseller list right now! Osprey comes out with dozens of books a year and has a backlist numbering well over a thousand titles, so this is very gratifying.

This book covers the development of early firearms from the early 1400s until the development of the matchlock more than a century later. While early firearms are generally considered have been more hazardous to the user than the target, I uncovered convincing evidence that they were a useful addition to the medieval arsenal. No other book in the English language exits on this subject, or as far as I can tell any other language, so this project involved a lot of original research and resulted in a one-of-a-kind volume.

I've been getting lots of good reviews for this title, including a recent one from The Wargamer. Actually this title has been getting quite a bit of attention from the wargaming community. The period covered in this book is a popular one for wargamers yet from what I hear there aren't many clear rules involving handgonnes. Perhaps I should learn more about wargaming to understand my readership better!

Back in Oxford

2011-04-19T01:27:00.001-07:00

After three days in Madrid, just time enough to shake the Ethiopian dust off my boots, I'm writing amidst the dreaming spires of Oxford. Now this is culture shock!

We're up here for the Easter break. My family and I come up to Oxford every year at this time and also for the summer. I research in the Bodleian Library, my wife works at the astronomy department, and my kid goes to school and improves his English.

Visiting Harar, Ethiopia, for two months has left me a bit behind. I have a lot of emails to catch up on, edits for my book on the Adowa campaign waiting for me, plus I'll be chatting with the good folks at Osprey Publishing about more book possibilities when I visit their offices this week. I also need to finish my Harar travel series.

In the longer term, I'm working on a book proposal about Harar. I'm looking at its history and culture, and how the Hararis want to take advantage of Harar's UNESCO World Heritage status to develop tourism. Tourism is a mixed blessing, and I'll be looking at how an increasing number of foreigners are affecting this once-isolated town.

Of course I'll also be spending lots of time with my family, lounging in parks in the beautiful English springtime, going for at least one party night in London, and who knows what else! I love adventure travel, but being back in the First World has its advantages!

Back from Ethiopia

2011-04-15T07:46:00.001-07:00

Hello again!

Yes, I've been silent for two months, but I've had an excuse. I was living for two months in Harar in eastern Ethiopia and not only did I have to struggle with a dialup connection (remember those?) but it turns out the Ethiopian government censors Blogspot. Apparently too many dissident Ethiopian expats have blogs, and instead of trying to block each one they just block all of Blogspot! Strangely enough I can get onto Blogger and write posts, but since I couldn't see my end result I decided it wasn't worth the ages it took to load.

Anyway, I had a great time. I've started a series on Harar for Gadling and am working on a book proposal. More on that once it begins to take more shape. Today was my first full day back in Madrid and I spent it playing with my son. I won't have long here, though. On Monday we all head up to Oxford for the Easter break!

Now that I'm back I'll be keeping a more regular schedule with this blog, at least two and preferably three posts a week. So stayed tuned, friends, I haven't forgotten about you!

Settling down in Ethiopia

2011-03-08T23:27:00.000-08:00

Hello from Harar, Ethiopia! This blog has been a bit silent lately because I’ve been in the Horn of Africa. The Internet in Ethiopia can be a bit slow and unpredictable.
Just like my last Ethiopia trip, I’m having a great time. I just rented a room in a traditional home in Harar’s medieval Old City and am writing an Ethiopia travel series for Gadling. I’m also working on a book proposal. In other Ethiopia news, Osprey Publishing published a blog post I did on researching the Armies of the Adowa Campaign book in the northern Tigray region. Less adventurous but no less fun was the research I did in Rome. See you soon!

Guest article: researching a Western horror detective novel

2011-03-04T03:16:00.000-08:00

Today we have a guest post from fellow midlist author Lincoln Crisler. Crisler’s debut novella, WILD, has just come out from Damnation Books. He has also authored two short story collections, Magick & Misery (2009, Black Bed Sheet) and Despairs & Delights (2008, Arctic Wolf). A United States Army combat veteran and non-commissioned officer, Lincoln lives in Augusta, Georgia, with his wife and two of his three children. You can visit his website at www.lincolncrisler.info.

WILD is my third published book, but my first long-form story. Of course, I couldn’t pick something easy. No, I had to write a Western-style horror/detective novella based on a real missing-persons case from the Old West, and set it in the actual geographic location. While deployed to the Middle East. Granted, this was the easiest I’ve ever had it of my three deployments, but beer is easier to get than a fully-stocked reference library!

Obviously, the Internet was my friend. Wikipedia in particular saved my ass; it was, in fact, how I discovered the story of Colonel Albert Jennings Fountain. When the idea of writing a detective-horror-western popped into my head, that’s all I started with. Only after my friends and readers selected it from a pair of options did I search for historical inspiration. I found the information on Mexican mythology and ritual spellcraft on a couple of other sites. I also had to look for a few Spanish words (such as tesquino, a period-specific form of local beer, and several swear words).

The rest of my research consisted entirely of making sure I had my geography in order. This should have been a little more difficult than it was, but luckily the real-life story I fell in love with just happened to take place in the El Paso, Texas area. I’d been living in El Paso since 2007 and was, in fact, deployed from Fort Bliss when I wrote WILD. I still had to get a feel for Mesilla and Las Cruces, and particularly for that exact time period, but the Internet helped again, and my own knowledge informed my descriptions of the landscape. I had originally envisioned the magician’s lair in El Paso’s Franklin Mountains, but after research and consideration, the Organ Mountains were a better choice, for instance (even though only about ten miles separate the two ranges!).

The only part of my research not to bear fruit was my attempt to procure an intern from a local college; someone interested in writing and/or history, whose professor would be willing to give them extra credit for a couple hours of work. A little fact-checking and fine-tuning of my Spanish, more or less. I tried putting this together when I got home from Qatar (I finished drafting WILD a week before coming home) and I honestly don’t remember why it fell through, but I just don’t have much luck with the academic types. Phooey. Even then, the Force was with me. When the manuscript was accepted, I was able to have the book copy-edited by a fellow author and El Paso resident, Tim Marquitz.

Researching the history and culture behind WILD was easily as enjoyable an experience as writing the book itself, and probably consumed at least as much time by itself. I read a long time ago that more work goes into a book than the reader ever knows, and I’m glad I got a chance to share some of that with you today. Working within a historical framework can definitely be as satisfying as making everything up from scratch!

Leaving for Ethiopia tomorrow!

2011-02-25T03:28:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone! I'm leaving for Ethiopia tomorrow for a two-month stay in the walled medieval city of Harar. I'll be working on a travel series for Gadling and an adventure travel book proposal.

I was originally supposed to leave last Sunday but I was flying Egyptair. With a layover in Cairo. Needless to say my flight was canceled! They gave me a full refund but I still had to scramble to find another flight. Luckily I found a Turkish Airlines flight that was only a bit more expensive.

Once the first post in my series is up on Gadling I'll be sure to mention it here. I'll also try to post some photos and thoughts now and then and I have at least one guest blogger. Inevitably, though, this blog will be a bit less regular until my return. In the meantime, you can follow my adventures via my Gadling feed. Feel free to subscribe to the RSS feed; upping the numbers makes my editor happy.

This is a photo I took on my last visit to Harar. It shows one of the more than 300 saint's tombs in the city. I like how that tree has grown all around it.

Interview with fantasy author A.J. Walker

2011-02-22T04:31:00.000-08:00

It's nice to meet fellow writers who share your interests. I met A.J. Walker on an archaeology discussion group and discovered he's just published a novel with Double Dragon Publishing, one of the top two ebook publishers that does something other than erotica. His work is called Roots Run Deep and that's what we're talking about here today.

So, how does it feel to have your first novel published?
Exciting and exhausting. It's been six years in the making and it's a thrill to see it finally out there. That said, I'm learning that publishing isn't the last step. There's a lot of promo work to do for an unknown writer to get noticed. So many ebooks come out every week it's easy to get lost in the flood.

Tell us a bit about Roots Run Deep
This is the tale of Kip Itxaron, a goblin thief and sorceress trying to make her way as a second-class citizen in a kingdom dominated by humans. When the human King Roderick is deposed, they are thrown together by fate. Roderick offers her people equality if Kip rallies an army to help him take his throne back. Kip must struggle with her own self doubts, her mistrust of humankind, her fear of battle, and the divisions among her people in order to lead them to a better future.

One thing that's interesting about Kip is that she isn't really good at anything except getting into trouble.
I like having flawed characters. Yes, she's a bit of a mess at the beginning of the book, but she gets better!

I've noticed Roots Run Deep has a lot of anthropological detail. I had fun playing "spot the reference". You seem to put a lot of your academic research into your work. What are your main inspirations?
I am a Medievalist by profession and so my writing is deeply rooted in that era. My archaeological training exposed me to lots of different cultures. Readers of Roots Run Deep will find aspects of Native American, Pacific Island, Neolithic Switzerland, and contemporary American culture in my work. And yes Sean, your email is right, those statues were inspired by the Kurgan culture!

Why did you choose to epublish rather than going the traditional route?
Impatience with the traditional houses, mostly. They take a year to get back to you and don't want you to simultaneously submit. Now with all the belt tightening they are taking fewer books, far fewer from first-timers like me. I really feel that epublishers are the way to go to establish a fan base.

What's next for you?
I'm working on a sequel to Roots Run Deep called The Maze of Mist. It follows the adventures of Kip and Roderick's biracial son as he tries to deal with being part of neither race while being expected to rule both. I also have a couple of other books in the works, including a mystery/thriller and a collection of fantasy short stories. Check out my writing blog to keep up to date on what's happening!

Thanks for being here, A.J., and be sure to check out his blog for an interesting feature he's doing called Medieval Mondays. I learned something about Viking navigation!

Photo Friday: The Globster

2011-02-18T08:47:00.001-08:00

It's the end of a long week and I'm feeling frivolous, so this Photo Friday is dedicated to one of my favorite mystery beasts--the globster!

What's a globster, you ask? It's an unidentified blob of flesh washed up on the beach. It's smelly, decaying, and generally nasty. People used to think they were some type of sea monster or unidentified species of giant squid or octopus. I've always had a soft spot in my heart for globsters. Perhaps it's the name, or their irresistible cuteness. Perhaps it's because I always root for the underdog, and you can't get much lower than being a rotting hunk of unidentifiable meat on the beach being gawked at by local yokels.

The above photo is of the St. Augustine Monster, which washed ashore near St. Augustine, Florida, in 1896. Needless to say it caused quite a stir. A scientist who say it thought it was an octopus because of the arm-like appendages you can see here. Journalists, of course, immediately labeled it a sea monster.

Maybe the journalists were right for once. Maybe in the unexplored depths of the ocean there are colonies of globsters, perhaps with a highly evolved civilization to hide themselves from our advancing technology. They're only spotted when one dies and floats to the surface!

Alas, I've never seen a globster. My closest brush with the unknown was "seeing" the infamous Thunderbird photo. I have to be content reading about them at Globhome.

This photo is of the Chilean Blob. It washed up on the shore of Chile back in 2003. At first it couldn't be identified, but then some party poopers at a biological laboratory checked the DNA and found it came from a sperm whale. Part of the blubber layer separated from the rest of the decaying animal and eventually made it to the beach and into the newspapers. The researchers theorize that most or all globster may also be whale blubber.

But hey, DNA samples can be wrong, just ask anyone on death row! There's still a chance that the Lost Civilization of the Globsters will rise from the deep to reclaim their dead. . .

[Photos of the St. Augustine Monster and Chilean Blob courtesy Wikimedia Commons]

Preparing for two months in Ethiopia

2011-02-17T03:53:00.000-08:00

In ten days I'll be on a flight to Ethiopia. This will be my second time in the country. Last year my wife and I did a big road trip in Ethiopia for our tenth anniversary and I also did a side trip to Somaliland.

While that last trip was more of a survey of the two countries, this time I'm focusing on just one place--Harar. This medieval walled city in eastern Ethiopia has a unique culture that's a mix of the many different societies it has interacted with in its role as a major trading center. I'll be studying its culture and history to write a long series for Gadling as well as a book proposal.

So what am I doing to get ready? Not much, actually. On this sort of trip you just have to let things happen. My contacts in Harar will help me with my research and it's such a friendly place that I know everything will work out fine, more or less. I'm doing a lot of background reading, of course, sucking up every bit of information I can on the city and region. Sadly, there's not as much in English as there should be for such an important city. That's where I come in.

I'm also not worrying about the subject matter of my book proposal. I know it's going to be about some aspect of Harari culture, but I haven't decided what. While I have dozens of ideas I'm going to follow the advice of a Harari friend and let the subject choose me. Who I meet and what they teach me will shape my book. When a writer goes into a major project, it's best not to have too strict of an idea where it should lead.

Writing links: travel writing contest and getting published with academic presses

2011-02-14T03:30:00.001-08:00

It's Monday and I'm in my usual post-book slump, having finished Ride Around Missouri: Shelby's Great Raid 1863. It's my latest American Civil War book for Osprey Publishing and as you can see from the link it's already available for preorder and at least one fine person has already preordered it! I've discussed here before why readers preorder books. It's a sign of loyalty and interest, and I'm glad they show that!

Enough blather about this Midlist Author. I promised some writing links. Transitions Abroad is running a travel writing contest that's well worth a look if you are a student writing about travel. You can win up to $500 plus publication!

The other link comes from fellow writer Dianna Graveman, who recently attended a panel on getting published by the academic press. She gave a link to a post by Beth Mead, Lindenwood University's MFA Program Director took notes on the publishers' panel that are well worth a read for anyone writing literary fiction and thinking of submitting to an academic press.

Photo Friday: Pvt. Philip Carper, 35th Battalion, Virginia Cavalry, CSA

2011-02-11T08:39:00.000-08:00

As I'm writing this blog, I'm ftping my editor at Osprey Publishing the text and photos for Ride Around Missouri: Shelby's Great Raid 1863. It's about Confederate cavalry raider J.O. Shelby and his famous raid on Missouri. Needless to say I have Civil War on the brain, so this week's Photo of the Day is of a Confederate cavalryman. Private Carper has a pretty nice uniform, but that wasn't the case for many Confederate soldiers. Here's a letter Shelby wrote to his superior officer dated 27 October 1862 complaining about the conditions of his brigade.

"Our men, from being so poorly clad, and owing to the excessive duties they have been compelled to perform, are rapidly becoming unfit for service. Our brigade reports now some 500 sick. We have a great many men without a blanket, overcoat, shoes or socks. There are not more (as regimental report shows) than one half of our horses fit for duty. We have no iron or time to shoe our horses. Our horses are beginning to die pretty fast, owing to the heavy labor they have been compelled to do.

"As for transportation, we were furnished some five wagons by the division quartermaster; all the balance on hand we have collected ourselves. We have ever drawn any clothing, shoes, salt, or anything else. All we have in the way of transportation is one wagon to the company, and they mostly two horse wagons. We have but a few cooking utensils, which we likewise purchased with private means. We have a great many horses unserviceable for the want of shoeing. The strength of our brigade when first organized was 2,319, all of which were reported for duty until within the last few days. Since this cold spell of weather set in, our reports show but 1,068 men for duty. The increase in sickness in Jeans’ and Gordon’s regiments is 100 per day.”

Remember that the next time you see beautifully clad men in gray in some "historical" movie!

Books for the bus

2011-02-10T07:56:00.000-08:00

I just finished a very enjoyable book from one of my favorite authors, and it only took me a year to do it!

Why so long? Because it was my bus book. My son's school is a 15-minute ride away. When I take him to school I don't read, of course. Plus when I'm going to pick him up or coming back after dropping him off, I generally walk. So I should say my book was my "taking the bus because I'm feeling lazy and/or it's raining" book. That's why it took a year to read 204 pages.

As you can see from the illustration, the book was Ghost Towns of the American West by Robert Silverberg. Better known as a science fiction author, Silverberg has written it all, from fantasy to erotica to history. I enjoyed this book and found it to be a perfect bus companion. It follows the development of boom-and-bust mining towns in the West. Since it hops from town to town, from amusing anecdote to amusing anecdote, it's very easy to read in short bursts without losing the overall thread. A perfect bus book, in other words.

As writers we need to think about all the ways people may use our work. Not everyone sits down for an hour or two to get through a big chunk of text. I used to do that a lot more than I do now, but work and fatherhood has limited that. I bet I'm not the only one!

Photo Friday: Harar schoolyard

2011-02-04T11:43:00.000-08:00

On February 20 I'm heading to Harar, Ethiopia, to spend two months living in that wonderful medieval town and learning about its culture and history. Today's photo is of a schoolyard in Harar I took last year. The town is fairly prosperous so the kids get a nice playground and school uniforms.

I like the educational paintings on the walls. This is very common in Ethiopian schools. Has anyone been to schools in other African nations? I'm wondering if it's done all over the continent. You can see some English, some Harari writing, and on the left some numbers. These are the same types of numbers the Arabs use, and is one of many Arabic influences on Harari culture. The "Arabic" numerals we use in the West were developed by the Arabs, but then they switched to these.

Anyway, I have to get back to finishing my next book otherwise I won't be boarding that plane. see you on Monday!

My best travel writing on Gadling in January

2011-02-02T04:27:00.000-08:00

Here we are in February already! The year's started off busy for me, with a deadline looming for my next book, a trip to Ethiopia coming up, and a lot of blogging for Gadling in the first month of 2011.

At the beginning of the year I was finishing up my series on Extremadura, Spain, where my family and I went for the holidays in December, including a fun article on the castles of Extremadura. I'm a big fan of castles! I also did a few articles on Egypt, including the stunning news that the government is closing Tutankhamun's tomb in order to save it from deterioration. The following week they reversed their decision and said they won't be closing it in the near future but it's still in the cards. Egypt also demanded that New York take care of Cleopatra's Needle of give it back. Egypt was again in the news when some rioters broke into the National Museum and destroyed two mummies.

I also did some opinion pieces, one on why travel writers need to stop stereotyping Africa, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and how I feel about the burqa.

Perhaps my most popular post, and certainly the one that generated the most controversy, was on about a hotel that got fined for refusing a gay couple a room.

In all I did 40 posts. Not bad for a month where I didn't go anywhere!

Photo Friday: Norman reenactors making chainmail

2011-01-28T05:41:00.001-08:00

I love reenactors. They help me with my books and make great subjects for photographs. This guy is a Norman armorer I met last summer in Durham, a cathedral town in northern England.
The meticulous process involves crimping rivets into links of metal, creating a fine mesh that's very good at deflecting blades. A padded garment would be worn underneath for comfort and a bit of added protection, especially against blunt weapons such as maces. Like all military hardware, chainmail lost its relevance thanks to new advances in weapons technology, namely the longbow. While chainmail was good at stopping a sword stroke, it wasn't nearly as good at stopping a point coming in at high velocity. It was replaced by plate armor, although chainmail continued to be used as a cheaper armor for those who couldn't afford plate. Plate armor, of course, was made redundant by the firearm.
Here are some happy Normans ready to cut me down. My son was very excited to see a young boy participating in the fun. Who knows? Maybe he'll grow up to be a Norman.

For another photo of these guys in action, see my article on breaking into the history market. For more on this lovely cathedral town, check out my article on Durham.

Five things I learned at Clarion: Science Fiction writers speak out

2011-01-27T03:13:00.000-08:00

Clarion Writers' Workshop for fantasy and science fiction writers has launched many careers, including that of friend and fellow Madrid writer Sue Burke. Sue has had many short stories and poems published in top magazines like Asimov's and Interzone, and recently signed her first book contract with Edge. Clarion asked alumni to list five things they learned from the workshop. Here's what Sue had to say.

"Established in 1968, the Clarion Writers' Workshop is the oldest workshop of its kind and is widely recognized as a premier proving and training ground for aspiring writers of fantasy and science fiction. I attended in 1996, and James Patrick Kelly, one of my writers-in-residence, has challenged alumni to write about the five things we learned at Clarion to encourage applicants. Here are mine:

1. How to critique. I'm still using Maureen F. McHugh's format in my local critique group. As a corollary, why to critique: Because seeing how to strengthen someone else's work is a fast way to learn how to strengthen your own work.

2. Only one miracle per story, and the first sentence should point to it.

3. The person (or thing) that hurts the most is usually the best perspective for a story.

4. Landscape reflects character, and different characters will experience the same setting differently.

5. The first draft may have everything you need, but you might need to change it all. A good time to outline of your story might be after the first draft to identify these changes."

Some very good advice from a very good writer. You can read what other writers learned here. And don't forget to check out Sue's excellent blog! Clarion is accepting applications until March 1 for Clarion 2011.

[Photo courtesy user AdamBMorgan via Wikimedia Commons]

Author interview: Conda V. Douglas

2011-01-24T09:45:00.000-08:00

Today we're talking with Conda V. Douglas, whose short story Changing Woman Ways was recently released by Damnation Books, the same folks who published my horror short story Dannevirke. It's an interesting tale steeped in Navajo lore. Having lived for twelve years in Arizona, I really enjoyed it. I've been to Navajo country, although I've never known any Navajo. During my time in Tucson I worked with lots of Tohono O'odham and Apache but those are very different societies so it was nice to read about a society I don't know much about. The Desert Southwest is one of the last places in North America you can really experience Native American culture. Let's give it up for Conda!

Your story was based on your childhood with the Navajo. Tell us a bit about that.
Now when I look back at old photos, it seems almost odd to see my blue-eyed dad working alongside his good Navajo friend, the Singer, Fred Stevens, Jr. My famous artist dad, Luther A. Douglas, was the first man to preserve Navajo sand paintings. So we spent a lot of time with Fred and his family. It never occurred to me until I was about 12 that not everybody knew what a sand painting ceremony was, much less about the different ones. I now know how fortunate my childhood was--one filled with the fantastical of Navajo gods.

Given your experience, how accurately do you think Native Americans are portrayed in American fiction?
The best I can say about this, is it's quite a bit better than it was. Writers like Tony Hillerman and Sherman Alexie have helped by representing the Native Americans as being...people. Individuals. Complex and complicated and impossible to fit into a clichéd box. Yes, there are cultural differences, but I find cultural differences between different towns where I live in Idaho! Writing with the cliché is a lazy form of shorthand. I believe we all prefer the richer read of writing that is about various individuals who may be different and impacted by their culture--but then show how and why.

Tell us about your writing career. How did you get started, and how did you get to where you are today?
Thanks to a wonderful teacher in fifth grade, Mrs. Loringer, I discovered that writers were not gods. And if they weren't then I could be a writer too. I learned, early on, that there was one path to my writing success: read, write, edit, submit. And repeat, repeat, repeat.

What are you working on now?
My newest w.i.p. is about a young gal who can alter reality with her art. She doesn't know she possesses this ability until she brings the dead back to life. Then she doesn't want the skill. Trouble is, somebody else does.

Where can we find you and your work?
If you visit my blog where you'll find out lots about my various published articles and short stories and links to same. And various odd things about me and my creative life. Plus the occasional recipe.

And thanks Sean, for the opportunity to speak to your readers.

Photo Friday: Highland Farm

2011-01-21T01:00:00.000-08:00

Welcome to another Photo Friday. Today is a shot I took while hiking the East Highland Way, Scotland's newest long distance trail. It starts at Ft. William on the west coast and runs for 78 miles deep into the Highlands to Aviemore. You see a lot of these isolated farmhouses on the way. This one is wisely built at the foot of a steep slope, where a line of trees marks the path of a mountain stream. Good for watering your sheep! I like how the mist softens the already soft colors.

Kevin Langan, who established the route, has already self-published a guidebook. Now it's been taken up by a traditional press and he's asked to use some of my photos. I'm happy to share with him because he pointed out such a great hike to me!

Two interesting articles about ebooks

2011-01-20T06:53:00.000-08:00

Sorry to be so quiet for the last few days, but I'm on deadline for my next military history book and busy planning my trip to Ethiopia.

Anyway, I've come across a couple of important articles on ebooks. The first is a USA Today article noting that in the first week of 2011, 19 out of the top 50 bestsellers sold more electronic copies than print copies. All of the top six did this. Various industry pundits weighed in on the significance of these figures. The main reason for the spike was that about 3 to 5 million ereaders sold over Christmas. Will people tire of their new toy or will it become a regular part of their reading experience? Only time will tell. The article also noted that while ebooks sales are going up, so are print sales. People are reading.

For some predictions on ebook development in the coming year, check out publishing CEO Michael Hyatt's Six E-book Trends to Watch in 2011. I won't steal his thunder, but if you're a writer or a reader (and I assume you fall into at least one of those categories) then you should check it out. He disproves the common mantra in writing newsgroups that traditional publishers don't "get" ebooks.

While it looks like ebooks have a bright future, I don't think print will die as quickly as some people are saying. Print sales still outstrip ebook sales by a considerable margin, even though that margin is narrowing. A sizable percentage of buyers are over fifty (a group less likely to embrace new technology) or only buy a few books a year, making them less likely to cough up more than a hundred bucks for an ereader.

The thing that will really save print, however, is POD. Print on Demand machines are getting faster and cheaper. They're already appearing at retail outlets and it's not hard to imagine them showing up in malls, train stations, airports, or other locations. If connected via the Internet to distributors, they could print just about any title. Some people will always prefer print, and POD machines make it cost effective for the publishing world to provide them.

Photo Friday: Roman ruins and modern sprawl in Mérida, Spain

2011-01-14T04:04:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Photo Friday. This week we have a shot I took on the outskirts of Mérida, in Spain's autonomous community of Extremadura. It's a Roman aqueduct on the edge of town, not far from the ancient hippodrome. I like the contrast between ancient and modern here, with the car whizzing by on the highway and a modern house right next door.

I just wrapped up a travel series for Gadling about this region, titled Exploring Extremadura: Spain's historic southwest. Hop on over to see more pictures!

Planning my next adventure

2011-01-12T11:41:00.000-08:00

As I've talked about earlier, I've been missing Ethiopia ever since I got back last April. I spent two months traveling around the country. For three weeks my wife joined me and I gave her a road trip around Ethiopia as a tenth anniversary present. It was also a work trip, resulting in an upcoming book, and travel series on Ethiopia and Somaliland for Gadling.

Well, I just got my ticket and I'm going back for another two months. I'll be spending the majority of the time living in the place you see here. It's called Harar, and it's a medieval walled city between the central Ethiopian highlands and the Somali desert. It's been a center of trade for at least a thousand years and has a fascinating mix of people and traditions.

The Hararis have their own culture and language. When I was there last time I tapped into a network of Harari writers, poets, musicians, lexicographers, and museum curators. It seems every educated person in that city is trying to preserve their culture. I'm planning to stay there and learn as much as I can in order to work on a book. Two months won't be enough, of course but this won't be my last trip if I have anything to say about it! I'm headed out in late February. Look forward to another series for Gadling, and perhaps a book in a couple of years!

Lessons learned from my first photo exhibition

2011-01-10T07:01:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned last time, this month a local cafe is hosting my first photo exhibition, on the painted caves of Laas Geel. It's running until the end of January if you happen to pass through Madrid this month. :-)

I'd never done a solo photo exhibition before and I learned a fair amount. The night went well and I even sold a photo, but things could have gone better.

First off, the timing was bad. In early January people are often still on holiday or out of town, and most people are feeling poor after holiday spending. Not a good time to have a show. I knew this ahead of time, of course, but with my travel schedule there wasn't really any choice.

Secondly, I could have done more to promote it. I told my writers group, distributed fliers, announced it here and on my social media sites, and put an announcement on Couchsurfing. That last idea was a good one because I got to meet some interesting Couchsurfers living in Madrid! Still, I could have sent out more invites and distributed more fliers.

Lastly, the frames were those simple glass plates with clips. While they're the cheapest option and actually look pretty good, they make the photos look smaller. I should have gone with more substantial frames. The photos could probably have been a size bigger too.

Throughout the night several people asked me if I was going to make a presentation. They seemed to have expected one. Perhaps I should have done one. I'm not sure if I should have given it in Spanish or English, though. About half the crowd were native English speakers, and in a couple of cases couldn't have followed a Spanish presentation. Vice versa for the rest of the crowd. The slide show I had running all night got a lot of attention, though, and became a focus of conversation with several people.

All in all, I was happy with the evening's attendance and have learned a lot about how to do my next event.

Thanks to my wife Almudena for taking the pictures of the event! She only had the instamatic that night so I'm looking a bit scary. Another thing to remember for next time!

Photo Exhibition: The Prehistoric Painted Caves of Laas Geel

2011-01-04T06:51:00.000-08:00

Regular readers of this blog will remember that I visited the unrecognized state of Somaliland last year. One of the highlights of my trip was seeing the painted caves of Laas Geel. The paintings are up to 10,000 years old and rank among the best preserved in Africa.

This beautiful but little-known site is the subject of my first solo photography exhibition. I'm having the grand opening on Saturday, January 8, at Café Béigol Bagel, Calle Meléndez Valdés, 29. Metro: Arguelles or Moncloa. Yes, it's a bagel shop. A rather humble beginning for my photography career but hey, I'm a writer first. If you happen to be in town pleased drop by. I'll be talking about the site and Somaliland in general.

For more on the caves, check out my post on Laas Geel and my series on travel in Somaliland.

Getting back into gear with the new year

2011-01-03T13:34:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone! I'm back after a ten-day blogging hiatus. After finishing up my book on the Adowa campaign for Osprey Publishing my energy pretty much tanked, as I described on this blog during a similar post-book slump. Now I'm kicking back, spending lots of time with my family, watching movies, and reading books that have nothing to do with my research.

I haven't completely crashed, however. Besides organizing my first solo photo exhibition (more on that tomorrow) I've been blogging for Gadling as usual. Well, considerably less than usual, but I'm still blogging. My wife's Christmas present to me was a four-day trip to Extremadura, Spain's southwestern region. We stayed at a lovely Parador in Mérida, saw the historic sites, and ate heaps of good food. I've started a series on it for Gadling called Exploring Extremadura: Spain's Historic Southwest. Check out the link for articles on this wonderful region's Roman and Moorish ruins, beautiful villages, and tasty cuisine.

And expect lots more from the Midlist Writer blog in 2011! I'm branching out to include more author interviews and book reviews, to give my readers insights into the lives of midlist authors other than yours truly. Hope you come along for the ride!

Photo Friday: An Ethiopian priest at Lalibela

2010-12-24T02:21:00.000-08:00

It's Christmas Eve, and while I'm an agnostic I know many of my friends and readers are celebrating the birth of Christ, who probably existed but almost certainly wasn't born on December 25. So in the holiday spirit here's a priest standing in one of the famous rock-hewn churches of Lalibela, which I wrote about for Gadling at part of my series on travel in Ethiopia. These churches are actually carved out of the bedrock and are some of the most amazing buildings I've ever seen.

Ethiopia is the second oldest Christian country in the world, having converted in the fourth century shortly after Armenia. Actually, the Roman Empire converted before Armenia did, but where is it now? The Ethiopian Orthodox Church has its own traditions, calendar, and several holy books that were edited out of the Western edition of the Bible. They also have some amazing architecture and art, as you can see here.

Does this guy look a bit Chinese to you? I met several Ethiopians who do. China had trade links with East Africa for centuries. A recent DNA test found links between the populations of China and Kenya. I'd like to get those Chinese geneticists to test out some Ethiopians.

Happy holidays everybody!

Finished my latest book!

2010-12-21T02:29:00.000-08:00

If you're a regular reader of this blog you know I've been hard at work finishing up my book on the Adowa campaign for Osprey Publishing. I featured an Ethiopian lembd last Photo Friday as well as the book's new cover art, although I've been told that's only a placeholder image until talented Italian artist Raffaele Ruggeri finishes the color plates.

Anyway, the book is now finished. My deadline was yesterday (yes, a Monday) and so I worked all through the weekend, editing until midnight on Sunday before getting up early on Monday to give it a final look before heading to the DHL office.

Now it's out of my hands and I can chill out for a time. It's always a nice feeling to finish a book. After the holidays I'll have to rev up again. My next book deadline is in February!

[Image of Ras Mekonnen kicking some colonial butt at the Battle of Amba Alagi courtesy Wikimedia Commons]

Photo Friday: An Ethiopian lembd

2010-12-17T13:36:00.000-08:00

I have a deadline on Monday for my book on the Battle of Adowa, the historic 1896 victory of the Ethiopians over the Italians. Since I'm currently incapable of wrapping my head around any other subject, this week's photo is of a lembd, a traditional cape worn by chiefs and other important leaders. They're either of velvet like this one or animal skin, often lion skin. The headdress is a lion's mane. Its owner must have been brave because the only people allowed to wear lion's skin or hair had to kill it themselves! Note the Stars of David embroidered on the lembd.

I took this at my favorite museum, the Pitt-Rivers in Oxford, this summer. They're having an exhibition on a personal hero of mine, Wilfred Thesiger. This explorer traveled all over the world and spent quite a long time studying Ethiopia. He collected this cape.

What's interesting about this cape is not just what it shows about Ethiopian culture, but what it hides. When the Italians and other Europeans saw people dressed in things like this, they dismissed them as primitive "natives". But the Ethiopians were busy modernizing their army and building things like telegraph and telephone lines. So when the Italians marched into Ethiopia they discovered these "natives" had just as modern an army as they did.

Just goes to show you should never make assumptions based on appearances!

Haunted by Technology and Pop Culture

2010-12-16T10:07:00.000-08:00

Meet R.J. Sullivan, another of my fellow Damnation Books authors who's kindly consented to guest blog. Great timing, considering I'm on deadline for my book on the Battle of Adowa! If you missed the previous guest post by Jennifer Cloud, do check it out. So without further ado. . .

Hi, I’m pleased to guest blog on Midlist Writer about my first novel, Haunting Blue, released by Damnation Books. My hero, “Blue” Shaefer, is a high school punk girl moved by her mother to a small town, where she and her new boyfriend promptly get into trouble and release a vengeful ghost. Much excitement ensues.

I started drafting in the mid-90s and found myself plagued with headaches with each consecutive draft. Writing about a teenage punk girl who listens to hard rock music and her computer nerd boyfriend created two issues: 1) the swift changes in technology and 2) constantly needing to swap out the new hotness with my aging relics. It makes me laugh to review my mid-90s draft, and I thought it might make you laugh as well.

1. Better than Who?
In the first scene, Blue originally listens to Better than Ezra through the headphones of her Sony Discman. Today she listens to Linkin Park through the earbuds of her iPod.

2. School “tech”
Who would have thought a chalkboard would ever become quaint? Most school rooms now feature dry-erase boards, and mine does, too.

3. Remember when MTV played videos?
Blue’s poem assignment, originally titled MTV Video Script, became American Idol Finalist. Oddly, the content remains unchanged.

4. Hasta La Vista, Stallone!
Chip and Blue decide to catch a movie. “I think the latest Stallone is playing,” said Chip. In the final, they’re off to see the latest Dwayne Johnson.

5. Mighty Morphin Starship Troopers!
Chip and Blue discuss the movie Starship Troopers—having, of course, seen it in the theater! I managed to keep the conversation by saying Blue’s ex-boyfriend had the BluRay at the house. “I think he just loved the co-ed shower scene.”

6. It’s called a web page. I think it’s the way of the future.
In the mid-90s very few people surfed the web. In draft one I devoted no less than four full pages explaining HOW to surf the web. You’ll be glad to know I cut 99% of it a long time ago.

7. Dungeons and Dragons? That’s so yesterday—no, wait!
Just when I thought I’d have to change my D&D scene, the game turned popular again! I like it when that happens.

8. The curse of the cell phone.
The winner of the biggest headache since I started goes to the cell phone. A daunting game-changer, a working cell phone could have given our heroes an easy out during the climax. Fortunately, cell phones are fragile devices…

9. On a related “note”… Remember when everyone met between classes and passed notes in the hall? Of course not, I’m showing my age. Those moments changed to texting and Facebooking.

I suppose in 2021, these “updates” will appear just as quaint as my rough draft, but until then, I hope you enjoy the 2011 release of Haunting Blue, available now through Damnation Books.

R.J. Sullivan
www.rjsullivanfiction.com
http://rjsullivanfiction.wordpress.com/

Websites for Writers: Wikileaks

2010-12-13T10:30:00.000-08:00

Unless you've been living on a desert island or dealing with the mother of all deadlines, you've heard of Wikileaks. This is a site that somehow manages to get its hands on hidden documents from companies and governments and publishes them on the Internet for all the world to see. Their latest (and perhaps last) coup was a huge archive of U.S. diplomatic cables and classified documents on everything from the Cuban secret service to the war in Iraq.

So why is Wikileaks on Websites for Writers, a feature showcasing sites to inspire and inform writers? Because, while the site contains no original work, it is the essence of what it is to be a writer. At their best, writers make people think; they make people see the world in a different way. With the release of these documents, we get a rare glimpse into how the U.S. government works, from mundane office bitchiness to stark assessments of geopolitics.

But being at the forefront of writing puts writers at risk. Wikilieaks has been shut out of the system. Banks, Paypal, their ISP, and many other companies have cut them off, even though nobody has been convicted (or even charged) for revealing secret documents.

And what do these "secret documents" reveal? Nothing a well-heeled traveler and follower of the news doesn't know already. Politicians say nasty things about each other when they think nobody but their cronies are listening? Yeah, I kinda figured that. More civilians died in the invasion of Iraq than the U.S. government said? Duh! The Cubans are sharing their spies with Venezuela? Obvious.

If I figured this stuff out, foreign governments with their experienced diplomats and network of experts and spies must know a hell of a lot more. So this whole kerfuffle about revealing state secrets isn't about losing face with "friends" and exposing ourselves to our "enemies", but really about the American people getting an insight into how their supposedly democratic government works.

I'm sure you've read news articles about Wikileaks. Sadly, many people haven't actually looked at the actual site because it was shut down by its ISP. Hundreds of mirror sites have sprung up with all the original content. Here's a list of Wikileaks mirror sites. These might change as the powers-that-be close them down. Go seek them out. Whatever you think about the adviseability of what Wikileaks is doing, you have a right to be informed about your world.

Photo Friday: Willie's grave

2010-12-10T03:50:00.000-08:00

Call me weird, but I love graveyards. So much history, so many memories. This gravestone is in Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Kearney, Missouri. I took this shot while on a Jesse James road trip last month. This isn't one of the James family; they're buried on the other side of the cemetery. In fact it's hard to tell exactly who this person was. It's probably a child's grave considering he doesn't have a last name. Unfortunately the graves nearby that might have given a clue to his family have disappeared, so now he's only Willie. That's the most important thing graveyards can tell us--that our time is short.

So stop reading this blog and get busy chasing your dreams!

My next military history book has a cover!

2010-12-09T03:15:00.000-08:00

My next book from Osprey Publishing will be released in September 2011 but is already up on Amazon UK with a lovely cover. Armies of the Adowa Campaign is about Ethiopia's crushing defeat of an Italian colonial army in 1896. This book was one of the reasons I went to Ethiopia this year, the other being to write an Ethiopia travel series for Gadling.

The cover is from an old French magazine called Le Petit Journal and comes courtesy of Bertrand Duquénois, a talented photographer I met in Addis Ababa. He recently took the plunge and moved to Ethiopia to work as a tour guide. Am I jealous? Oh yes. Check out his website for some excellent photos of Ethiopia.

The book is available for preorder (hint, hint) and should appear on the U.S. Amazon sometime soon.

Guest Midlister: Jennifer Cloud

2010-12-08T08:45:00.000-08:00

Today we have a guest post from one of my fellow midlist authors at Damnation Books, publishers of my historical horror story. So without further ado. . .

My name is Jennifer Cloud. I’m a genre writer. I dabble in suspense, horror, and the paranormal. I’ve had more than a dozen short stories published, many novellas, and many novels. So far I’ve had two agents, both AAR members and successful. Neither was able to do much for me. Most of my work is in electronic format. My most recent title is Magic Rising, released by Damnation Books.

Writing is a difficult business. The marriage of art and business is not an easy one. To be a good writer, you have to write what you love but sometimes that isn't what sells.

The normal route for a writer is to write a novel. (Keep in mind this is write, rewrite, edit, trash it, start over, rewrite, bang your head against the desk, hope you've written something good, then start over again.) Next an author searches for an agent. Once they've bagged one, most authors relax expecting a book deal in the near future.

That isn't what always happens. Marketing departments decide what gets published. With large publishers, an acquisitions editor may fall in love with a work only to have marketing kill the proposal. It’s back to the business side. Is the genre oversaturated? How did the last novel perform that happened to be similar to yours? Who are you? What will make people buy your book over the dozen or so similar titles on the shelf? If you get the deal, will you sell enough copies to please your publisher or will you be dropped?

We've all heard the nightmares: acquisitions editors fired and books left in limbo, contracts canceled, major publishers becoming electronic only, authors not being picked up at box stores thus hurting their sales and chances of future book deals.

Of course this has also opened up the playing field for the smaller publisher. Smaller publishers can take a chance on an author or subject simply because they love the work. Technology has made it easier for the little guys to compete with the big publishers. Prices for ebook readers have dropped and people have become more accepting of the technological advances.

Do your homework before signing with any publisher. Small publishers generally have lower sales numbers, smaller marketing dollars, smaller staffs, and can fold without notice. Some publishers can actually be a mark against you. I won't mention names, but listing a credit from a known scam operation will not get you noticed.

I landed my first agent years ago. I won't go into the details but we parted ways. At the time, I didn't understand how my agent could love my work and not find a house for it. I ended up on my own again. Meanwhile, the publishing landscape was changing. I fell in love with ebooks. For me, there was a wider selection with plot lines that seemed to hold no limits. I strived to be published by one of the big boys but any chance of reaching a person would do. I went with a small electronic/POD house.

I found I wasn't alone. I did my homework, networked and met a wonderful woman who had been dropped by her major publishing house. Why? Midlist crunch and a strike had her novels sitting in boxes with no chance of being sold. On paper, she sold nothing and was gone. She's now a POD/electronic author. She isn't alone. Many talents would go unheard if it wasn't for the small press.

I've met authors who thought electronic/POD books were nothing more than an outlet for the talentless. Times change. Even the larger houses are using POD and electronic mediums. Acceptance still isn't complete but at least I know there are readers out there who enjoy my work.

Photo Friday: Library After Air Raid, London, 1940

2010-12-03T04:26:00.000-08:00

What can I say that any sensitive viewer can't already feel? As a lover of books I love this photo. Trust the English to calmly browse the shelves of a bombed-out library. Chin up and stiff upper lip and all that. No wonder they won the war (with a bit of help).

I've always been impressed with how books and writing endure. During the Lebanese civil war a literary magazine was regularly published in Beirut on the border between two warring factions. During the economic collapse in Venezuela, some publishers took to printing their books on recycled cardboard. You can't stop writers from writing, or readers from reading!

[Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons]

Serious writing is never wasted

2010-12-01T13:57:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, friend and fellow writer Sue Burke sent me an interesting article on writing by Holly Lisle. Holly is a multipublished midlist author who writes nonfiction and several genres of fiction. That in itself is a good example of how to make it in this crazy business.

Her article offers plenty of good advice. If you spend much time reading "how to write" articles, you'll have heard much of this before--read a lot, know your genre, write constantly, etc., etc. Two things she mentions, however, really shine out.

First, she says "nothing you write is wasted." Try everything. If you prefer prose, try poetry. If you don't like romance, try writing a romantic scene. Pushing your personal envelope will help broaden your writing horizons and may even uncover a passion or talent you didn't know you had. The only thing I'd add is, "nothing you write seriously is wasted." Farting around will get you nowhere. As William S. Burroughs once said, "do not try to shortchange the muse. It cannot be done. You can't fake quality any more than you can fake a good meal."

The second high point of this article is when she asks us to challenge our preconceptions. She suggests we write from inside the heads of the characters, especially the ones who are different than us. Robert Anton Wilson suggested this as a good daily practice no matter what your path in life and it's advice I've always tried to follow. If I can, for example, manage to get into the mindset of a Born-Again Christian Republican, I can understand the U.S. a bit better. It also gives you a healthy objectivity regarding your own cherished views. It's not easy, but it's worth practicing. It's come in handy as a travel writer, I can tell you.

So check out the link above. Holly has plenty of good writing articles on her site.

Websites for Writers: Piers Anthony

2010-11-29T11:53:00.000-08:00

It's Monday, so it's time for another website for writers. Today we're looking at Hi Piers, the official homepage of Piers Anthony.

In the unlikely event you haven't heard of him, Piers Anthony is a longtime author in many genres. He's most famous for the Xanth series of humorous fantasy, but he's also written science fiction, horror, and an increasing amount of erotica.

Piers has seen it all, and luckily for us tells it all. He's famous in the writing community for tangling with editors and even suing when he felt he was being wronged. Because of this, he's been blacklisted by many publishers. He says that no major house is interested in his work except for the bestselling Xanth series. To make sure his several novels a year see the light of day, he has resorted to various small presses and epublishers.

Of greatest practical use to aspiring writers is his no-holds-barred review of epublishers and vanity presses that he updates every month. Cheated writers often tell him their stories, which he then posts online, although he's always fair-handed when it appears the writer has unrealistic expectations of their publisher.

For inspiration, check out the section on books by Piers Anthony. He's published more than 140 in the past 50 years! This is what persistence and a solid work ethic will get you.

Also of interest is his newsletter, where he talks about his life, what he's reading, and his views on publishing. At times his views of the publishing industry seem to me to be overly negative, but then again he's been in this crazy business forty years more than I have, so maybe I'll feel that way some day. He's also a strong advocate of self-publishing, once being a co-owner of Xlibris. In his latest newsletter he states, "I think of mutation, wherein 99% of the changes may be deleterious, even lethal, but the 1% that survive power the forward evolution of all living things. We would not be here today without mutation. Editors reject 99%, but the 1% they accept is not necessarily the best; natural selection operates imperfectly in publishing. So yes, we need self publishing, even if it is 99% bad, for the sake of the 1% that may otherwise be lost."

Good point, but I think that for most writers self-publishing is a bad idea.

While I don't always agree with what Piers has to say, I always check out his newsletter and value his insights. It's rare to find a writer so brutally honest about the business.

On the trail of Jesse James: a new travel series

2010-11-27T10:27:00.000-08:00

Hi all! As you can see from the margin on this blog, I've written a lot of series for the travel blog Gadling. Now I've started a new one on Jesse James. Join me as I explore the real history of America's toughest outlaw, with lots of photos of where he lived, the places he robbed, and where he met his end.

Photo Friday: Ancient cave paintings at Laas Geel, Somaliland

2010-11-26T10:39:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Photo Friday, a series I started last week here on Midlist Writer. This week's pick is one of the 300 (!) shots I took of the painted caves of Laas Geel in Somaliland. On a rocky hill in the middle of the Somali desert are a dozen rock shelters covered with paintings of cows, hunters, giraffes, and other images. Somali archaeologists estimate the paintings to be from 5,000 to 11,000 years old. Many painted caves have come to light in recent years and an ongoing survey will almost certainly find more.

Somaliland is a breakaway region of northern Somalia. They enjoy peace, government, and the rule of law. While Somaliland has its share of problems, it's WAY better off than the rest of Somalia. I went there earlier this year and wrote a series on Somaliland travel.

In January I'm going to have a photo exhibition about Somaliland at a local cafe in Madrid. More on that later!

The Indie Press: Saviors of the Midlist?

2010-11-24T10:00:00.000-08:00

It's tough being a midlist author these days. The big six New York publishers are cutting back and demanding every publication be a hit. They no longer want to invest in an author who can only sell 10,000 copies in the hopes that she'll either become famous with time or (horrors!) keep a loyal following that ensures she'll sell 10,000 copies of each of her next dozen books. It's feast or famine with the big boys these days.

But now small and independent presses are stepping up the the plate. Publishers Weekly has had some interesting articles about how midlist authors are being saved by the smaller guys.

An article titled Smaller Presses, Bigger Authors reveals the big six want 20,000-30,000 sales per book or you'll get dropped. Established writers, even famous writers, are having a tough time selling books that are a bit out of the box, a bit too experimental. Alice Walker went to indie press New World Library to publish a collection of her poems. It sold out its 7,500 copy first printing. Great sales for an indie, a financial flop for a big publisher.

Oh great. I have a hard enough time getting my books published even at indie presses, and now I have to compete with Alice Walker!?

But seriously, this is good news for the midlist too. Small and indie presses are more open to unestablished authors and experimental work. If they think a book can sell 5,000 copies they'll give it a shot. Some really small presses are happy with less than that. Your advance will be much lower, but you'll generally get a bigger percentage of the royalties and you'll be under less pressure to become a big name. It appears the smaller houses have a more realistic view of the marketplace. That's why they're blossoming right now.

Indie presses report seeing more manuscripts from established authors, as well as debut literary fiction from unknowns. This has been going on for some time. Back in 2007 PW profiled Night Shade Books. In that article they tell how the company has done well with good choices of authors, good distribution, and taking on sf/f books that are cool but not bestseller material. Even successful sf author Liz Williams moved from Bantam to Night Shade after her sales weren't good enough for such a large publisher.

Night Shade has a solid reputation, pays an advance, and can sell thousands of copies. Not hundreds of thousands, or even tens of thousands, but thousands. That's realistic, and they won't dump you if you "only" sell 7,000 copies. I met the owners at World Fantasy Con a few years back and they're very approachable and down to earth. That's a big plus too.

So maybe this isn't such a bad time to be a midlister after all.

Shifting focus as a writer

2010-11-23T13:05:00.000-08:00

I've been a bad blogger. I haven't written for a few days, and even skipped my regular Monday feature Websites for Writers. This was partly due to going on a Jesse James road trip around Missouri. I'm writing a series called On the Trail of Jesse James for Gadling. Check it out if you want the real story of America's baddest bad man.

The other reason for my silence is I've been getting deep into a new book proposal. It's a travel narrative about Harar, a medieval walled city on the border between the Ethiopian highlands and the Somali desert. I had an intense experience there and I'm writing a proposal in order to drum up funds to go back. I miss Ethiopia!

It's been a while since I've written a travel book that wasn't a guidebook. My very first book proposal back in 2001 was about my time spent at the Hindu pilgrimage of Kumbh Mela. I landed an agent, but she wasn't able to sell it and eventually dropped me. She was young, a very junior partner in an established agency, and I have a feeling she was in over her head. She certainly had piss-poor communications skills with yours truly, so I can't imagine she was much better with the publishers.

Despite this disappointment, I steadily climbed the writing ladder, writing a couple of guidebooks and then landing a regular history gig and a job as a travel blogger. Not a bad bunch of work, but I'm not content. Never be content as a writer or you're doomed. I've been wanting a change for a while now and was wondering why my fiction wasn't flying out of my brain like it usually does. Now I'm going back to what originally got me into this business: creative nonfiction about travel.

As writers we need to be flexible. Not only do we need to move with the market (if we're doing this as a living) but we also have to be flexible with our sources of inspiration. Right now my well of ideas for fiction is a bit parched, but I'm full of ideas for the Harar book. Instead of fighting it, it's best to embrace it. I suspect that I'll have several more shifts in the course of my career.

Photo Friday: Ethiopian Orthodox painting from Lake Tana

2010-11-19T13:53:00.001-08:00

Welcome to Photo Friday, a new series I'm starting here at Midlist Author. I have so many photos from my various travels I've decided to share them with you every Friday. I'll also be rummaging through sources such as the Library of Congress for more interesting pics.

This is from a mural in a medieval monastery on Lake Tana, Ethiopia. The Virgin Mary has her own book in the Ethiopian Bible. In fact the Ethiopian Bible includes not only the Apocrypha, which were removed from the European Bibles centuries ago, but also books that were lost in the West, like the books of Enoch and Jubilees. The Ethiopian Orthodox monasteries on the islands of Lake Tana are famous for their ancient libraries. You gotta like a culture that likes books!

This image is typical of Ethiopian churches, which adorn their walls with brightly painted Biblical scenes on cloth glued to the surface.

My new author's website

2010-11-16T10:01:00.000-08:00

After way too long with my old, never completed website, I've finally knuckled down and gotten a proper homepage. It still needs some tweaks, but the website for Sean McLachlan is now up and running! I even bought my own name for the domain. Drop by to learn more about yours truly, the Midlist Author, and feel free to tell me what you think in the comments section here. I'm open to suggestions!

One great thing about being a writer is nobody thinks you're being self indulgent for buying your personal name as a domain name and dedicating a website to yourself.

Websites for Writers: UNESCO's list of Intangible World Heritage

2010-11-15T11:28:00.001-08:00

We're all familiar with UNESCO's World Heritage List, which showcases manmade and natural wonders of global importance. A lesser-known list is UNESCO's list of Intangible World Heritage, which showcases rare and unique cultural practices like the human towers of Catalonia.

Why have I picked this site for this week's Websites for Writers? Because of the incredible breadth of human experience and creativity this list encompasses. There's everything from Tibetan throat singing to New Year's celebrations in Iran, which involves jumping over fires and streams.

It's not all exotic locales either. France has five entries on the list, including traditional timber-frame construction and processions involving huge effigies of giants and dragons.

There are hundreds of practices that can inspire your next story or act as leads for nonfiction articles (like the human towers I wrote about for Gadling, link above). Novelists and short story writers will find plenty of local color to use as their characters travel the world. Perhaps your next mystery novel involves a member of a human tower plunging to his death in suspicious circumstances. Or a fantasy writer could explore the true reasons behind why the French parade around with giant paper maché dragons.

The list is searchable by country and full text, so you can easily find a weird cultural practice that fits with your story.

[Photo courtesy user Baggio via Wikimedia Commons]

Good advice for writers

2010-11-13T12:32:00.000-08:00

A while back I interviewed fellow midlist author Kathryn Meyer Griffith, who gave some insights into her 25+ years of work in the business. Now she's given another interview over at Dasef Central, a fun blog I'd never stumbled upon before. There are so many it's easy to miss the good ones!

Check out this interview for some great writing advice from someone who has been at it longer than many aspiring writers have been alive. Like me, she doesn't gloss over the bad stuff. For example, "I’ve had publishers go bankrupt. . .in the middle of my book editing, had a book pulled (after the final proofing, cover done) six weeks away from going to the bookshelves, agent dumping me, long stretches – 9 years once – when I couldn’t get anything published anywhere and a hundred other fears. Awful covers, awful editors. Cruel reviews. On and on. Too many to list here. Never writer’s block, though. So now nothing scares me….much."

Ouch! Been there, survived that. I like the comment about writer's block. I don't get writer's block either. So head on over to Dasef Central and check out what it's really like to be an author, and then come on back here for more midlist grumbling. We love our job, really!

Press trips: good or bad for writers?

2010-11-12T07:29:00.000-08:00

Back in September I took my very first press trip. While I've been to many press events over the years, this was the first time I did a long trip on someone else's dime. VisitEngland and Welcome to Yorkshire footed the bill for ten Canadian and American travel writers to spend a few days in Yorkshire seeing sights related to the Brontë sisters. The result was a series I wrote for Gadling titled Exploring Yorkshire: Ghosts, Castles, and Literature in England's North.

Press trips are controversial in the industry. Many markets don't accept articles written about press trips, citing conflict of interest and inherent bias. Those markets that do use press trips are selective and tend to use them sparingly.

Fellow Gadlinger Tom Johansmeyer has written an excellent post about press trips that all travel writers should read. His main point is that press trips make our job possible. How else are brokeass writers supposed to fly over Zambia in a Cessna or review some luxury resort in the Caribbean? I fund much of my travel by double-dipping, combining book and blogging projects. That's how I managed my travel series on Ethiopia. Not everyone can do that.

Tom also makes the point that while writers have to mention that they had their trip paid for, some guy sitting at a desk working off a press release doesn't have to mention he never saw the place he's writing about! Press trips actually improve reliability and objectivity because the PR filter is somewhat broken down.

My personal experience on this was educational. Our schedule was pretty tight and so we didn't have much time to wander around independently. This is the complete opposite of my usual relaxed wandering. People make a lot of noise about press trips leading to biased coverage, but I didn't experience that. There was some boring stuff they made us see that I simply didn't cover. Good restaurants got a mention, but one hyped-up place that served mediocre food didn't get appear in my series. If a sight was important and popular enough that I had to cover it, I was honest. The Jorvik Viking Centre is one of York's biggest attractions and my article reflects what a cheesy tourist trap it really is.

So press trips aren't the bugbear many people think. It does lead to some bias because all writing is biased. My travel in Somaliland was shaped by my preconceptions and experiences on the ground, plus the eagerness of the Somalis to paint their emerging nation in the best possible light. My series on Yorkshire was shaped by what they showed me and what they didn't show me. The mere fact that I went on it changed the coverage. Would I have written a positive series on England this fall? Yes. Would it have been about Yorkshire? Probably not.

So press trips are a vital part of the industry. They can work as long as writers and readers all know what's involved.

The last casualty of the Great War

2010-11-11T11:13:00.000-08:00

On this day in 1918 the Great War ended. Twenty million people had been killed and the fighting raged all the way up to the time of Armistice at 11:11 a.m.. As I mention on my post about the First Kill documentary, one of the sad facts about the human condition is that we really like war and killing. While everyone on both sides knew the war was about to end, instead of hunkering down in their trenches and letting the time tick away peacefully, both sides opened up a tremendous artillery barrage.

Nobody knows how many died in those last few minutes, but it's generally accepted that Pvt. George Lawrence Price was the last man killed in World War One. A conscript in the Canadian army, Price was on the Western Front on that fateful day. He was part of a minor offensive to take the village of Havré in the last hours of the war. Why anyone would launch an offensive when the war was already won is anybody's guess. A German sniper shot him at 10:58 a.m..

Two minutes. He only had to survive for two more minutes. Sometimes the true stories are the most dramatic.

[Photo courtesy Gord Goddard via Wikimedia Commons]

Websites for Writers: The Institute of Ethiopian Studies

2010-11-08T10:56:00.000-08:00

It's Monday, so it's time for another website to inspire all you writers out there. This week we're looking at the Institute of Ethiopian Studies, where I spent part of this year researching a book on the Adowa campaign of 1896 for Osprey Publishing. Now this site won't be of much practical use to you unless you're writing about Ethiopia (if so, get in touch) but it sure is inspiring.

The institute is on the campus of Addis Ababa University in one of Haile Selassie's old palaces. The reading desks are in a giant, ornately decorated room that looks like it was used for state functions. It's the nicest room I've ever researched in! Founded in 1963, the institute has weathered coups, civil wars, famine, and lack of funding yet has continually produced two journals as well as a host of other monographs, books, and collections of academic papers. The staff have assembled a huge collection of works on Ethiopia and surrounding countries. Upstairs is an extensive and well-organized ethnographic museum that's one of the highlights of any visit to the city.

Conducting research here was a delight. Despite some problems with language barriers the staff was very helpful and the large amount of English-language material was invaluable for my book. While many people in the West think of Ethiopia in terms of the television images of war and famine from the Eighties, Ethiopia is on the rise. The UN recently ranked Ethiopia number one in Africa in improving quality of life in the past forty years, and number eleven worldwide. One criterion the Ethiopians scored highly on was improvements to education, and their excellent institute is part of that positive trend.

The campus itself is a pleasant place with the usual attractive coeds and lush gardens. Plus there's this cool cafe made from a converted London Routemaster! I ate lunch there a few times. Their Ethiopian food was good, of course, and they also made tasty chips and salsa.

So remember, writers, the so-called developing world is rich with scholars and libraries. They may not have a lot of money, they may only have a dialup connection, they may lose power a couple of times a day, but they keep researching and writing books.

So. . .what YOUR excuse for not writing today?

[Image of institute courtesy Yigal Chamish. I took two photos of it but can't find them! The Routemaster shot is by my wife Almudena Alonso-Herrero]

Best travel writing on Gadling in October

2010-11-06T08:22:00.000-07:00

Halloween has come and gone, and here we are in November. As I look back at my Gadling travel posts in October, they aren't as adventurous as they were in September, what with my trip to Rome, but it was still a pretty good month.

I did a series on travel in Yorkshire that turned out to be popular. This was my first press trip, courtesy of VisitEngland and Welcome to Yorkshire, and it was an interesting experience. I'll be blogging about what it's like to go on a press trip next week here on Midlist Writer. It's a controversial subject, and I'm not 100 percent in support of them, but hey, at least I got to spend three nights in a haunted hotel room.

More on that later. As usual I did a variety of posts on archaeology, including a possible solution to the mystery of Silbury Hill and proof of Chinese trade with Africa before the Europeans. I also wrote a piece on favorite hiking spots near Madrid. Other random posts included an aquarium that's hiring a mermaid and a weird Japanese ESL video a friend sent me.

So check out my feed on Gadling. You'll even see a scientific explanation of why airline food sucks and some advice on what to do in a Muslim country during Ramadan!

And if you want adventure travel, check out Don George's series on Peru.

Historical research in Missouri

2010-11-04T08:10:00.001-07:00

As you might have guessed from my previous post, I'm back in Missouri researching my next book for Osprey Publishing. It's for the new Raid series and will be about Confederate General J.O. Shelby's 1863 raid into Missouri. This was one of the longest raids of the war and an important chapter in the history of the war west of the Mississippi.

Osprey is one publisher doing well in the recession thanks to its strong hold on the military history niche and its willingness to expand into new territory. Another new series, Weapons of War, includes my latest book.

I'm based in Columbia, a city in the center of the state that has the State Historical Society of Missouri and the Western Historical Manuscripts Collection, two great sources of information with very helpful staff. They're used to me and my endless questions by now! The two institutions are on the University of Missouri campus, where I took this shot of Thomas Jefferson thinking great thoughts. His leg warmers are courtesy of a local underground knitters group that likes decorating telephone poles, parking meters, and anything else they fancy. They haven't yet been named a terrorist group, but in this political climate that might be coming soon. I was surprised Jefferson's leg warmers actually lasted a whole two days before being removed!

Besides working on the book I'll also be going on a Jesse James roadtrip for Gadling. That should go online near the end of the month. My first stop will be this weekend when I visit the site of the Centralia Massacre, one of the bloodiest episodes of Frank and Jesse's war years.

Metropolis: seeing the complete classic film

2010-11-04T05:42:00.000-07:00

This week I went to my favorite arthouse cinema, RagTag in Columbia, Missouri, to see the restored, full-length version of Metropolis.

You've probably seen Fritz Lang's 1927 Expressionist masterpiece, and you've certainly seen some of its most famous images: a robot turning into a beautiful woman, slave workers turning the giant hands of a man-sized clock, immense machinery exploding and killing the crew. It's visually stunning and memorable, but until now it wasn't complete.

The original ran 153 minutes, too much even for the longer attention spans of a more patient age. At least half an hour was cut from most versions, and more in some cases. This left the film jumpy and at times incoherent. The extra film was considered lost until a few years ago when an original, full-length copy was found in Argentina.

The film was in bad shape and transferred to 16mm, so it had lost its original dimensions. With painstaking care, experts fixed up most of the missing parts and this almost complete version of the film is now on international tour. I say "almost complete" because a few minutes were too mangled to be restored. Even the parts that were restored are grainy and scratched. Missing scenes are explained with intertitles.

Go see it anyway. The complex and compelling plot now makes sense for the first time, and even the scratchy bits contain some alluring scenes. Lang was a master, one of the greatest directors of all time, and the Expressionist movement of the Weimar Republic created some of the most enduring silent classics in history. Seeing it actually upped my productivity as a writer. As I've mentioned before, I'm more inspired by artists in other fields than I am by writers. Seeing great DJs or painters, or even ancient ruins, gets my creative juices flowing.

[Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons]

Another reason people buy books

2010-11-03T08:11:00.000-07:00

I overheard an interesting conversation the other day. Two women were talking about Nora Roberts' new release.

One said to the other, "I tried to reserve it at the library but there were seventeen people on the list. It would take months to get it so I just went out and bought it."

"I don't usually buy books but I would in that case," the other replied.

A waiting list for popular books is nothing new at a local library, and the standard practice is to buy more than one copy of popular titles in order to reduce the wait. What I didn't realize, however, is that some frustrated readers won't wait to read it for free and will go out and buy a bestseller so they can have instant gratification!

Nothing succeeds like success. . .

Websites for Writers: Shakespeare Quotes

2010-11-01T07:49:00.000-07:00

It's Monday, so it's time for Websites for Writers. This week's site is courtesy of enotes and is a database of famous and not-so-famous quotes from Shakespeare. Quotes are organized by theme, play, and the character who said it.

As one of the greatest writers in the English language, The Bard is eminently quotable. He seemed to have come upwith a pithy phrase to suit any occasion, from the dangers of gossip ("Done to death by slanderous tongue") to meditations on beauty ("Love looks not with the eyes but with the mind.")

Not only is his use of prose both inspiring and edifying for any writer--or reader for that matter--but you can find a quote to fit almost any situation. I've mentioned before on this blog how my Missouri Civil War novel got tied up with the whole James gang legend. Well, Frank James loved Shakespeare as many did back in those days and would often quote his favorite passages in casual conversation, or even when robbing trains! This site came in handy when writing his dialogue. It made me look much more literary than I actually am. :-)

So check out this site for quotable quotes for your own work. Shakespeare is in the public domain, so go to town!

[Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons]

Breaking into the history market

2010-10-29T09:34:00.000-07:00

One of the nice things about being visible on the Internet is that I hear from all sorts of people. Aspiring history writer James Marushin asked me about how to break into the history market:

"I had a few questions for you after happening upon on article about freelance history writing that you had written.

"First, how is the market for freelance historical writing? Are places still taking, and paying, for articles? As a background, I graduated a couple years back with my BA in History and have been working as a museum curator since then; is there room in the market for someone like me to make some extra money writing articles? Are the places you listed in that article still interested in pieces?

"Second, is contacting a publisher and asking if I can submit an article the proper place to start? Or is it better to just submit an article without a first introductory contact? Do most have a call for specific types/themes of articles or is it pretty well open?

"Lastly, how critical is the need for primary sources? I understand this may sound like a naive question but I mean to pose it in a business sense not a historiographical one. If I have article ideas but struggle with finding primary sources for them, will an article based on secondary sources be acceptable? Or should I not bother unless I have primary source material?

I work for the Martin County Historical Society in Fairmont, MN. I would be primarily interested in Military History and our Local History and Stories. A lot of my collegiate research and writing was done on a wide array of Military topics while my time at the museum has focused more on local history."

OK, first thing's first. Yes, there is room for someone like you to earn money writing history. It won't be a lot of money to start with, but you can work your way up and with time and persistence you can make some decent money. As far as I know all the places I mentioned in the article are still interested in pieces. I know for a fact that Weider History Group is always open. Your job as a curator puts you in a good position because it lends you some authority as a professional historian. Always mention that when pitching articles, even if your proposal isn't about Martin County. The BA degree doesn't hurt either, but is less impressive because, as we all know, anyone with a pulse can earn a college degree. This cheapens the efforts of enthusiastic students like you and I were, but such is life.

Since you've been reading Writing World you probably know the basics about submitting a proposal, researching your market, etc., so I won't go into that here except to say don't knock yourself out writing an article, just write up a short proposal. The editor will probably tweak your idea anyway! Most history markets have some sort of niche, a region or a period or a specific subject they cover, so be sure to cater to that niche. The magazine market is very specialized. People buy magazines because they already have an idea what they're going to get.

Articles based on secondary sources are fine; many of my own articles fall into this category. That said, primary sources are a goldmine of information and make your articles more interesting. An old diary of a pioneer brings your subject to life. Quotes from period newspapers or speeches suck your readers into the time. Primary sources can lead to full articles or can be used to liven up articles that mostly rely on secondary sources. They aren't necessary, but they sure do help.

Since you want to do local and military history, and have daily access your society's archives, that's a good place to start. Perhaps your town paper would like some local history articles? Newspapers are always hungry for content. Pitch one or two ideas and if you get a good working relationship with the editor you may find yourself writing a regular column. That's happened to more than one of my colleagues. Then you might want to branch out into the magazines, either local or national.

Don't forget your biggest resource--the local historians you meet every day. I bet more than one of them has written articles and they can help with contacts, ideas, course material etc.

I hope this helps. If you have any other questions feel free to drop me a line.

Does anyone else have any suggestions for James? There's more than one professional history writer in my readership!

[In case you're wondering, the photo is of some Norman reenactors in front of Durham castle. The link leads to an article I wrote about the town]

Websites for Writers: Castles of Britain

2010-10-25T02:36:00.000-07:00

Everybody loves castles, especially writers. They make a fine backdrop for vampires, romance, or just some good old fashioned medieval bloodletting. There are a wealth of castle websites out there but one of my favorites is Castles of Britain by castle expert Lise Hull.

Lise has put her years of study to good use in this well-organized site. It provides a complete run-down of the basics of castle history and architecture with numerous examples of individual castles in the British Isles. There are literally hours of reading here. If you're more of a visual writer go to the castle photo gallery for lots of inspiring photos. The Castle Learning Center has plenty of good information about castle construction, development, personnel, and daily life, and there's even an online course if you want to learn more.

So check it out if you want to add to the ever-growing body of literature of, about, or including castles. I recently added my own fuel to the fire with an article on castles in Yorkshire.

In case you're wondering, the lovely little island fort pictured above was built by Alexander Stewart, the infamous "Wolf of Badenoch ", on Loch Gamhna near Aviemore, Scotland. I talk more about that in my last article in my series on hiking the East Highland Way.

I'm interviewed on "Live Your Life Well"

2010-10-22T02:11:00.000-07:00

Andy Hayes, managing editor of the excellent travel blog Live Your Life Well, has interviewed me about my twin loves of history and travel as part of his ongoing Travel Experiences Interviews. Hop on over there to hear me blather on about ancient monuments and achieving dangerous childhood dreams. Make sure to poke around the rest of the site too for other neat articles including one on candy around the world and a very cool piece on visiting Peshawar.

So what does the above photo have to do with all of this? Well, nothing really, but it brings back good memories of traveling in Somaliland. This guy is an Oromo, an Ethiopian people, but he works in the Somaliland capital Hargeisa as a street vendor making tasty samosas. So. . .an Ethiopian cooking Indian food in Somaliland for a Canadian??? That sort of randomness is one of the things I love about travel!

Looking back on this week's posts I notice that there's been a lot of self-puffery. So let me puff someone else for a change, fellow Madrid writer Sue Burke, who just had a short story published on Daily Science Fiction called Zero Hour. Check it out. It's only 900 words so you can take a look while the boss isn't paying attention.

My next book contract

2010-10-20T07:17:00.000-07:00

Osprey Publishing has just sent me a signed contract for my next book.

It's another military history--that's what Osprey specializes in--and it's for a new series called Raid. This series focuses on important raids, examining how they were planned, what their goals were, and what could have been done better. The editor is a big fan of the Wild West and so I'm doing the Northfield Raid by the James-Younger gang. This ill-fated attempt to rob the First National Bank of Northfield, Minnesota, left all the robbers dead or in jail, except for Frank and Jesse James of course.

OK, so this isn't really military history. Osprey has been doing good business in the recession by playing to their strengths while not being afraid to break into new territory. The Wild West is one of them. Plus there are some military aspects. Most of the robbers were former Confederate bushwhackers and used their hit-and-run tactics to rob trains and banks and elude the law. I mention the James brothers in my previous Osprey title American Civil War Guerrilla Tactics.

Frank and Jesse James have cropped up in my fiction too. In an earlier post I talked about my Missouri Civil War horror novel and how because it was set in that time and place I couldn't avoid have the James brothers as characters. They've crept into the plot of the sequels too!

Here in Midlist land we're pretty busy, so we try to save time as much as possible. Writing novels set in periods you're already researching for paid work is an efficient expenditure of time. Now if I could only get those novels published!

My latest book released today!

2010-10-19T00:55:00.000-07:00

Osprey Publishing has released my latest book, Medieval Handgonnes: The First Black Powder Infantry Weapons.

This was a fascinating and difficult book to write. I've always been interested in the early origins of the firearm and was frustrated by the total lack of any book on the subject. I had to sift through a mountain of archaeological and historical journals and crisscross Europe visiting museums to complete this project. While I'm proud of all my books, I'm especially proud of this one because it's the first book in English on the subject. As far as I can tell, it's the first book on medieval firearms in any language!

Here's a bit of background.

In the early 14th century, cannons entered the arsenals of European armies. This first generation of black powder weapons put fear into the heart of the enemy and in 1453 Ottoman artillery succeeded in breaching the once-impregnable walls of Constantinople. But cannons were slow and cumbersome and difficult to use against infantry. The first handgonnes were the answer. Dismissed by later historians as nothing more than crude tubes that shot wildly inaccurate lead balls, more recent research has revealed the true accuracy of the medieval handgonne together with its penetrative power. The handgonne was a viable weapon from its inception.

This volume, complete with detailed illustrations and color photographs, tells the story of one of the most revolutionary weapons in history. Readers will be treated to a lush collection of rare photographs and artwork from such far-flung locales as Danish National Museum and the Bayerisches Armeemuseum. Original artwork from Gerry and Sam Embleton illustrate how these weapons were used on the battlefield and reenactor photos demonstrate step-by-step how they were loaded and fired. The firing sequences were provided by The Company of the Wolf Argent and really let you see how the weapons were used in the field.

[Photos courtesy Wikimedia Commons. I'd have to pay twice to reuse the museum photos I ordered for the book!]

Websites for Writers: American Folklore

2010-10-18T08:29:00.000-07:00

It's Monday, so it's time for Websites for Writers, when we look at sites to inform and inspire all you scribblers out there in Internetland.

This week we're looking at American Folklore, a massive collection of folktales, jokes, rhymes, tongue twisters, and much more. The first thing I liked when I started looking at this site is that it has sections for Canada, Mexico, and Latin America. Nothing annoys people outside the U.S. more than to hear "American" used solely for people within the U.S. It's nice this site recognizes there are lots of countries in the Americas.

Author S.E. Schlosser has collected an impressive array of folk treasures. Got a story set on the railroad? There's a whole section devoted to railroad folklore. Need some tall tales or pithy expressions about local weather? Go to weather folklore. Have some Native American characters? Check out these Native American tales. Of course there's a large collection of ghost stories and monsters, but how many sites give resources for ESL readers? There's even a bizarre tale about Henry Hudson meeting some gnomes.

You can search by subject or state and you're sure to find something to enrich your story, whether historical or contemporary. This is also a great resource for nonfiction writers. So go check it out, just make sure you don't get sucked in and spend the whole day reading instead of writing!

Bigfoot shot courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Green Ethiopia

2010-10-14T12:08:00.000-07:00

Today is Blog Action Day, a day every year where bloggers focus on a single issue. This year the issue is water so I'm sharing some of my images of the lush uplands of Ethiopia.

Wait. . .Ethiopia? That place where there's only deserts and starving children? One of the things I love about being a travel writer is exploding myths. The central Ethiopian highlands actually get a fair amount of rain and are green and fertile. This is one of the reasons that there's been a civilization there for thousands of years. These shots were taken in the Amhara province about a hundred miles northeast of the capital Addis Ababa.
There are a lot of villages in this region. Overpopulation is one of Ethiopia's main challenges. There's not enough land and when there's a bad year many people go hungry.
There's water in this stream, but Ethiopia experiences periodic droughts. There was a big one in the Eighties that was exacerbated by a vicious civil war in which both sides burned each other's crops. These two factors led to the great famine that we all remember from TV. Sadly, those images were so seared onto our memories that people don't think there's anything else to this country.
This shot was taken just west of Addis Ababa and shows a family threshing teff, an Ethiopian grain that goes into making that tasty injera bread you might have tried. Teff is a nutritious grain that fetches a high price on the market, although it requires labor-intensive cultivation. These guys are making their cattle walk around on the grain in order to separate it.

For more on my trip to Ethiopia, check out my series on Ethiopia travel at Gadling.

Websites for Writers: First Kill documentary

2010-10-11T06:49:00.000-07:00

A lot of novels are about war, and many history books cover war too. As writers we need to understand war and our attraction to it, but can it really be understood without being in one?

I recently watched a harrowing documentary about Vietnam titled First Kill. There are some graphic images here, and some unpleasant truths, yet it's one of the most important documentaries I've ever seen and I highly recommend it.

"If war were hell, and that was all there was to the experience. . .I don't think people would continue to make war," says Michael Herr, former war correspondent and screenwriter of Apocalypse Now and Full Metal Jacket.

The several veterans interviewed in this documentary seem to agree. While they all admit to fear, they all seem to have enjoyed it to a certain extent. There's a certain lure to sanctioned killing that pulls people and whole societies into fighting again and again. Few show much regret even when they reminisce about killing children or taking Vietcong ears as trophies.

Intercut with the interviews are images of tourists, most of whom had probably never heard a shot fired in anger, visiting the Vietcong tunnels and American torture chambers. Their fascinated faces are a strange contrast to the haggard looks of some of the veterans, yet the veterans talk about their experiences as a sort of peak experience, when all their senses were at their highest level.

"One does not have to learn how to survive in a jungle, those things is already there," says one veteran, who says that not only did his sight and hearing become more acute, but he developed a sixth sense for danger and a heightened libido.

"Everything is full throttle," he says.

Kerr says, "It can't be an accident that the bloodiest century in history was also the century of the movie camera. I've heard for years that pathetic claim by television journalists that because it was on the news every night that they were responsible for shortening the war. My feeling is that they were actually instrumental in prolonging it."

A telling exchange comes near the end. As one of the veterans arranges a small pile of pills with a trembling hand, he says he wishes the government would send him back to Vietnam.

"Why?" the interviewer asks.

"I miss it," he says.

Photo of Vietnamese prisoners courtesy U.S. Army.

I have a reader in Burundi

2010-10-09T06:13:00.000-07:00

One of the coolest things about being a writer is that you never know who's going to end up reading your stuff. As I mentioned in my post about what the blogger stats page tells you about your blog, I'm getting readers in all sorts of places. I get a lot of hits from Moldova for some reason, even more than the United Arab Emirates where I actually know somebody. (you still do read this blog, don't you Abha?)

Now I've gained a reader from Burundi. This small East African nation has only 8 million people, a third less than Greater London, but I've still managed attract a reader from there! I wonder who it is? Perhaps one of these students from Burundi's "Back to School" program?

Writing, especially for the Internet, gets you a readership that cuts across class, race, age, and geography. I was just chatting with one reader who is a World War Two veteran, and now I'm wondering about this mystery Burundian. This poses an important question for writers: when your audience is so vast and varied, how do you write to them? I'm thinking that while you do have to have certain parameters of style and subject in order to maintain regular readers, in general you just write the best you can, promote your work, and let your readers pick you.

I wonder what the next country will be to appear on my stats page for the first time. . .

Student photo courtesy the United Nations via flickr. Flag photo courtesy Pumbaa80 via Wikimedia Commons.

Writers interacting with readers

2010-10-07T03:38:00.000-07:00

I have an article in the latest issue of America's Civil War magazine. It's a reappraisal of Bloody Bill Anderson, a notorious Confederate bushwhacker who was a tactical genius. It includes a lot of material that couldn't fit into my book American Civil War Guerrilla Tactics.

Within a week of it being out I got an interesting email from a WWII veteran who 65 years ago met a man who claimed to have known Bloody Bill. This fellow said Bloody Bill didn't really get killed by a Union militia in 1864 (a scene in my Civil War novel), but faked his death and laid low for many years in Texas. He even showed my reader a grave with the name "Bill Anderson" on it.

I'd heard about this before, but he supplied some more details I didn't know. That's my idea of a perfect reader! While I believe Bloody Bill really did die in the war--his death photo looks like him and all his comrades say he died--these stories are part of the lore of the Old West. I have an insatiable appetite for stories like this.

I've gotten some nice responses from my Civil War book too. It's a subject that touches a lot of people. I'm always happy when people track me down through this blog and send me personal emails. Writing can be a lonely business and I'm grateful for messages from my readers. So if you like my stuff, feel free to comment or write, especially if you have a story to tell!

Best travel stories on Gadling in September

2010-10-05T07:33:00.000-07:00

Well, this is actually a listing of my best travel stories on Gadling. The other bloggers put up a ton of great content in September, so before I review my own work of this past month, I'd like to give a big shout out to Andrew Evans and his amazing series on travel in Greenland. Check it out because it blows my own contributions out of the water. Greenland is one of the places I most want to visit, so I'm incredibly jealous that he's doing this series and not me.

Now back to yours truly. As usual, my Gadling posts reflect where I am in the world. At the start of September I was in Durham, a cathedral town in northern England. I also got to visit England's oldest Anglo-Saxon church. From England I went to Italy, where I wrote a series titled Vacation with the Dead: Exploring Rome's Sinister Side. I looked at saint's relics, tombs, catacombs, and Rome's obsession with death. My favorite of these sights was the weird and disturbing Purgatory Museum.

In addition to these features I did more than a dozen short news pieces. By far the most popular was a report on how some airport security were caught using full body scanners as porn. It had to happen sooner or later! More interesting to me was a piece I did on the discovery that a youth buried at Stonehenge came from the Mediterranean. Perhaps he's an ancestor of mine and the travel bug is genetic?

So there's my Gadling work for September in a nutshell. It's a fun job that keeps me writing daily. This was also the month that I passed 200,000 words blogging for them!