Elegy for a Mayfly

A short time ago I found out I had clinched a spot in The Iron Writer Summer Solstice Open, and the Preliminary Round is underway now.  The challenge elements for this story are:

The Avengers vs. The Justice League of America (as if I know anything about superheroes)

A Minion (yes, one of those Twinkie-looking creatures from Despicable Me)

A Traveling Chamber Pot Salesperson (as if I know anything about traveling chamber pots)

Also, the story must be told from the point of view of Death, the Grim Reaper.

I was up against three other writers in my bracket (The Anne Rice bracket) but two of them bowed out, a craven dodge I'm presumptuously attributing to my intimidating reputation.  One brave soul dares to defy me, however: Danielle Zwissler.  She must be destroyed.

To that end, I humbly beseech you, dear reader, to vote for my flash fiction (525 words) short story, "Elegy for a Mayfly."

Please read and vote, or save time and just vote.  I won't tell!

Iron Writer Challenge Update

And the winner is... me!

Thanks to everyone who voted for my flash fiction story, "Like a Steel Trap" during the Iron Writer Challenge #67.  I came in second in the reader poll but the panel of judges selected my story the winner!

Obviously, the judges were more discerning than the mob of philistines who voted for my competitors.

Now, on to the next challenge.  I think this win qualifies me for the upcoming Iron Writer Summer Solstice Open.  Details and shameless importuning for votes to follow....

Leonardo Cerebelli: Gadfly scientist and man about town

In preparation for an upcoming release of a deluxe omnibus edition of The Magnetron Chronicles, I've finally gotten round to finishing the biographical sketch of the redoubtable Leonardo Cerebelli....

Although no official written documents remain, credible accounts indicate that Leonardo Cerebelli was born in 1830 in New York’s Flatbush community to grocers Enzo and Aurora Cerebelli.  Nevertheless, Cerebelli was dogged for much of his life by rumors he was truly the son of notorious Cosa Nostra mafioso Nunzo “Il Capo” Tosto, fearsome patron of a post-feudal Sicilian cosca, or crime family.  Il Capo had reputedly sired dozens of illegitimate children and sent them abroad to appease his domineering spouse.  Anecdotal evidence suggests that Leonardo was spirited out of Sicily as an infant, hidden in a shipment of castelvetrano olives bound for New York.

Clever and industrious, young Leonardo excelled in his schoolwork but chafed at his duties in the family business.  This fractious state of affairs was typified by one of Leonardo’s earliest experiments, an inquiry into chaos theory in which the eight-year-old prodigy dropped hundreds of fragile inventory items to the floor and took detailed notes.  His father was horrified, as was his instructor, who labelled Leonardo’s pioneering work “unadulterated rubbish.”  Leonardo’s wry humor began to emerge as he coined derogatory Latin nicknames for regular customers, until his sly linguistic indiscretions were detected by one of his father’s business associates, after which time Leonardo took up Ancient Greek.

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Like a Steel Trap

I recently joined a great online writing group called The Iron Writer, which challenges writers to write 525-word "flash fiction" stories using four preselected elements from a mystery basket.  My first Iron Writer Challenge story is called "Like a Steel Trap" and includes the following four elements:

The Gods
Dice
Cocktails
Irrigation boots

That's right.  Irrigation boots.

I chose Mnemosyne, the goddess of memory, and put together a gritty little tale that answers the question, "what if forgiving and forgetting just isn't an option?"

Read and vote, please! (Update: voting is now closed)

Crowd-subsidized Publishing

It's been a terribly long time since I have posted anything on this blog, and indeed, it's been a long time since I've written much of anything.  Why?  I've been busy working on a project called Fictivity Press.  In short, it's an experiment in what we are calling "crowd-subsidized publishing," a method of self-publishing similar to a vanity press (also known as subsidy press).  The main difference is that—instead of the writer paying to have his or her book prepared for publishing—Fictivity Press raises much of the funds through so-called crowd-funding sites such as IndieGoGo.

The first book selected for Fictivity Press's BookLaunch program is Pete Oxley's The Infernal Aether, which I've already invested a lot of time in.  I'll be doing the line editing and proofreading for the book some time after the IndieGoGo campaign has ended.  We're off to a very convincing start on this inaugural project but we can use all the help we can get.  You can pre-order an electronic version of the book for a contribution as small as $5.00.  Please visit the campaign home page and contribute what you can, even if it's just helping spread the word.

Is "crowd-subsidized publishing" for real?  So far, it looks pretty good!

Pantsers vs. Plotters

I've written here, here, and there on the topic of creating plots, outlines and story lines in fiction, but I still frequently become embroiled in the "Pantser vs. Plotter" wars.  In other words, some writers sit down and write "by the seat of their pants," while others meticulously plot every jot and tittle before writing a line.  For some reason, many seem to think this is an all-or-nothing decision, but I disagree.

I am a notorious fence-sitter, which permits me the luxury of criticizing every ideological tribe with abandon.  With respect to writing, I find this manifests as a virulent strain of Plotting Pantserism, as I prefer to use a hybrid method combining elements--and advantages--of both strategies.  Lee Strayer at Atomic 27 Media has interviewed me on my peculiar (but eminently sensible) approach, and featured an excerpt of our conversation in his latest Magnetic Wireless podcast.

Give it a listen, won't you?  I mean, can't we all just get along?

Can You Hear Me Now?

 

A year and a half after publishing The Last Adventure of Dr. Yngve Hogalum, I'm now venturing into the brave new (for me, anyway) world of audio publishing in two different media forms.

I'm in the early stages of an Audible.com audiobook production read by the incomparable Lee Strayer of Atomic 27 Media.  The plan is to release the Magnetron Chronicles stories as they were originally conceived: in serialized form.  More details as they become available...

In other news, New Zealand-based Booktrack has created a new hybrid media form that enhances ebooks with synchronized music, sound effects and ambient sound (sample).  Booktrack has invited me to try out their upcoming beta studio, so I hope to have some titles available in their store soon.  That's assuming they have an appropriate sound effect for a zombified severed head piloting a steam-powered spacecraft.

Editing Mister D: A New Project

I've been contemplating branching out into editing for years now, and I've finally taken a concrete step toward that goal. I ran a short contest at Wattpad and found a talented writer named Pete Oxley, who is working on a kind of steampunk series featuring a mysterious character known only as Mister D. We're going to be collaborating on a project to get Pete's intriguing stories refined into a finely tuned, hugely marketable ebook for sale at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and all the usual suspects.

As this project progresses, I'll be blogging selected excerpts of our work, our communications, and behind-the-scenes activity of getting a manuscript from draft to print. We'll even be building Pete's social media platform and doing some basic promotion. If you're a writer, you'll learn a lot by following along. Even if you're not a writer, this ought to be an entertaining look at the brave new world of ebook self-publishing.

I've just asked Pete a whole slew of questions to get a better handle on where he's going with his stories, and as soon as I get some answers, I'll be posting some of our work here. Stay tuned...

A Fifth of Magnetron

Volume Five has arrived!

The wait is over.  Phineas and friends are back in a new Magnetron Chronicles adventure, now available exclusively in Kindle format from Amazon.

"In this fifth volume of Magnetron’s journals, the strange truth regarding Phineas J. Magnetron’s previously unexplained disappearance in 1901 is revealed, as are hitherto unremarked romantic interests.  Having journeyed to Berlin, the Hogalum Society members seek to clear their names and hunt down Eldridge Compost before he can wreak more havoc.  In so doing, they will be drawn into Compost’s twisted schemes, culminating in a battle to the death over German skies."

Come, come, now, dear reader, the opportunity is upon you.  Seize your mouse at once, direct it hither and click thereon as expeditiously as is practicable.   Do not fail to avail yourself of this thrilling tale of yesteryear!

E-pulp? That's a good thing, right?

After my rant on dumb reviews by dumb reviewers, I am very pleased to announce an intelligent review by an intelligent reviewer.  Dieselpunk author and pulp aficionado Grant Gardiner has recently reviewed "The Last Adventure of Dr. Yngve Hogalum" on Goodreads, giving it 4 Stars (Recommend).  Gardiner's latest project is his "Tommy Thunder and the Tales of the Aether Age" series, set in an alternate timeline 1920s America.  Thankfully, he took some time out to offer some insightful remarks on the first book in the Magnetron Chronicles series, calling it "fantastic... whacky steampunk... in the style of an H. Rider Haggard adventure story."

As an example of utilizing thoughtful criticism to better one's writing, I have taken Grant's suggestion to "package [the] stories together" to create a "more fulfilling reading experience."  More on that later....

Check out Mr. Gardiner's review here, and then plot a course for his blog here.  There be two-fisted, hair-part flipping action and adventure dead ahead...

The Smiljan Breach in Print

eSteampunk's long-awaited second issue

At long last, the December 2012 issue of eSteampunk is available from the steampunk imprint of eFiction.  This issue features "The Smiljan Breach," my prequel to the Magnetron Chronicles series, featuring Dr. Hogalum on a Viennese bender, the Luftigel's maiden voyage, and a cameo appearance by none other than Nikola Tesla.

eSteampunk's second issue also brings you Matt Bett's "The Safest Passage," George S. Walker's "The Case of the Night-walking Automaton" and eSteampunk's first serial, "Black Dragon Blues," plus stunning cover art by Jonathan Hunt.  Available in PDF, MOBI, and EPUB formats for only $3.99!

New Novel Underway

I'm trying my hand at modern horror, with Station Five, a paranormal thriller set in a skilled nursing facility:

"Mia Cordova is a nurse's aide at Los Arcos Care Center, a large skilled nursing facility caring for the profoundly disabled. Abby Tate, Mia's patient, has been in a coma for almost two years, kept alive on a ventilator. When Abby unexpectedly wakes up to find herself a quadriplegic, she is overcome by inexpressible fear, grief and anger. It seems that only Mia can connect with her bright young patient and calm her rage, but Abby's fury soon takes on a dark, malevolent power that threatens to destroy everyone and everything around her."

As of this writing, I've pretty much completed Chapter One, available free at Wattpad.  Enjoy, and feel free to comment!

It's a Wattpad Thing... You Wouldn't Understand

Wattpad is a Canadian creation, a sort of Youtube for aspiring writers of every age and skill level, with more than 5 million free stories posted.  As a "creative, welcoming and completely free community to connect with readers from around the world," Wattpad has also attracted some established writers, most notably, poet, writer, and activist Margaret Atwood.

I decided to publish The Last Adventure of Dr. Yngve Hogalum (the first volume of the Magnetron Chronicles series) in its original chapter-a-week serialized form at Wattpad.  It has garnered quite a bit of praise and more than 12,000 reads at last count, and now I'm pleased to announce it has been selected by Wattpad as a "Featured Story" from among the millions of other stories available. 

If you haven't yet sampled the outstanding free fiction, poetry, and nonfiction works available at Wattpad, I invite you to do so.   If you're a writer, join us!  The Wattpad mobile app is also available for all major platforms, so you can read and write on the go!

Writer's World Interview

Hanging out at Wattpad, I ran into Thomas Berryman, an Aussie writer who is compiling a series of virtual interviews of Wattpad writers.  He surprised me by asking some downright intelligent questions, which I was obliged to answer.  Check it out!

Read the interview here!

Big Doin's

A few announcements are in order, as The Last Adventure of Dr. Yngve Hogalum has now reached the psychologically significant (to me, anyway) "threshold of respectability" at Wattpad with 10,000+ reads!

This story has also been selected by the staff at Wattpad as a "Featured Selection" for October, which designation will garner a fair amount of publicity (I hope).

The clock is also ticking on the fourth volume in the Magnetron Chronicles series.  It will be called "High Crimes and Miscreants," and I'm on track for a mid-September release at all your favorite ebook retailers.

Finally, I'm working on a short story to submit to the inaugural issue of eFiction's new Steampunk edition.  I've got some of it online at Wattpad and would welcome any and all comments on it!

Interview at IndieBookSpot.com

I was recently interviewed by John Warner of IndieBookSpot.com, and for some reason they felt compelled to publish it!  I talk about my writing, how I write, why I write, what I’m writing, blah, blah, blah.  It’s a real yawnfest unless you’re a dyed-in-the-wool D. L. Mackenzie fanatic like me!

Read the interview here!

A Stately Pleasure Tome...

Yes, the much-anticipated third volume of the Magnetron Chronicles is now available at Amazon and Smashwords.  In Escape from Xanadu, Phineas Magnetron and the Hogalum Society are quite literally drawn to the incomparable lost city of Zhen Atu. There they find the lost passengers and crew of the Salmagundi, and learn that the laws of physics are not as straightforward as previously believed. Indeed, the very nature and genesis of mankind are called into question.

More Smashworthy News!

As part of Smashword's annual Summer/Winter promotion, the Magnetron Chronicles books are specially priced through July 31.  Just enter the code "SSW50" at checkout to receive the discounted price.

Volume 1 - The Last Adventure of Dr. Yngve Hogalum $.99 Free!
Volume 2 - Spring-heeled Jack and the President's Ring $2.99 $1.49

Simply Smashing!

Good news, the first two volumes of the Magnetron Chronicles saga are now available at Smashwords in mobi (Kindle), ePub (Apple/Nook/Adobe), PDF, and even rtf/Word formats. Now you have no excuse not to read these thrilling adventures!

Volume 1 - The Last Adventure of Dr. Yngve Hogalum $.99
Volume 2 - Spring-heeled Jack and the President's Ring $2.99

Volume 2 Available!

It's called "Spring-heeled Jack and the President's Ring," the second volume of the Magnetron Chronicles saga, and it's now available exclusively as a Kindle e-book at Amazon.com. The Hogalum Society is drawn into political and supernatural intrigues as they investigate the disappearance of President Grant's West Point ring. Their investigation becomes intertwined with the mystery of Spring-heeled Jack, the shadowy terror of England, and takes them from Calais to London, and back to America for a bizarre encounter with the notorious General Southwick. Enjoy!