#one of my favorite things about dystopian media is the world building like what lead up to panem

[starrrbakerrr]

“star-crossed lovers”

I have a thought that might have been discussed before, but Katniss and Peeta are referred to as “star-crossed lovers” by the Capitol. “Star-crossed lovers” was coined by Shakespeare in the prologue of his play Romeo and Juliet. When I think of star-crossed lovers my mind goes to the archetypal forbidden love of Romeo and Juliet, which mirrors the narrative the Capitol creates between Peeta and Katniss.

As we know, Romeo and Juliet is a text from centuries ago. We don’t know how far into the future Panem is – I always imagine at least 100 year in the future. We know very little of Panem’s history before the Dark Days, such as how long Panem has existed, but it’s safe to say at least 100 years.

I can’t find this quote for the life of me. I might have imagined it lol, but if I remember correctly, early in Mockingjay Plutarch tells Katniss about their plans for society after the rebellion. Plutarch says in “old history books” there’s something called ✨democracy✨ that they want to use. (side note: I remember Katniss saying something like “it led to where we are now” and that’s why I want to find it so badly lol)

So we know that the government of Panem are aware of the political history of the United States. But how would they know the term “star-crossed lovers”? District children are only taught their trade and Panem propaganda, so they wouldn’t know history before the Dark Days or what “star-crossed lovers” are. As for the Capitol citizens and children, they may have more freedom in education but I can’t imagine them knowing anything about North American society before Panem (they are even more susceptible to Panem propaganda), so how would they know about European literature? And we also know that Capitol citizens are more shallow and self-obsessed than they are intelligent so I can’t imagine them reading a book, much less Shakespeare.

It seems by the first Hunger Games novel all history of what existed before Panem has been destroyed except what little information the government had on the US. Sort of like the Nazis burning books and art - art, newspapers, books, monuments, and many artifacts are all gone. The progression of technology lasted, a lot Appalachian culture still exists in D12, the land somehow persisted, music/dance styles evolved, but it appears no one really is certain what American society was. And it seems that Panem exists in total isolation from other continents so it doesn’t make complete sense for Romeo and Juliet, a European text, to be passed down as oral history, thus for Panem to know what “star-crossed lovers” are.

I thought very far into this (probably more than it should be), but my only explanation is that Shakespeare is either ~timeless~ and the play still exists somehow, or maybe it’s a term that is still thrown around but no one really knows where it came from.

[nadiawrites14]

voice of gen z

word count: 2784

for english class. tw for school shooting and police brutality mention

AN INTRODUCTION.

“GEN Z is too afraid to ask a waiter for extra ketchup but will bodyslam a cop.”

Dated June 5th, on Twitter. Many of us sit holed up in our rooms, laptops resting in our crossed legs as we scroll through social media, or the blue light of a phone screen on our face as the world around us is sleeping. Many of us are also the ones organizing, the ones leading, the ones fighting. News spreads that in Dallas, Providence, and in many more cities, teenagers were the ones organizing, the ones fighting. Teenagers were the ones turning viral memes into protest signs, organizing protests and sharing methods of resistance through apps like TikTok and Instagram. It echoes the methods of the Hong Kong protestors, using technology to battle their government head-on. 

Teenagers who dance along to songs such as Megan Thee Stallion’s “Savage”, as well as teens who live in the world of ‘deep-fried’ memes, whose bizarre absurdity reach ungodly levels of abstractism, are the ones leading in this young revolution. Teenagers are the ones who chant ‘no justice, no peace’ in filled city streets; teenagers are the ones working to create graphics and share information, a new form of armchair activism. K-pop fans fill conservative hashtags with videos of their favorite performers, burying rhetoric and dismissal of the protests with dances and songs. In hours, #BlackLivesMatter trends. It’s hard to believe that these new pioneers and leaders in activism and technology are children who are scared to give class presentations, share Juuls in bathrooms, and find humor in the most strange and ironic of places. While the old term goes that ‘the revolution will not be televised’ in many ways, this growing movement will be televised, publicized, expanded, through its own means and methods.

I.

We are the generation of school shootings. 

December 14th, 2012. My mom tells me, as I hobble out from the red doors of my elementary school in Stamford, Connecticut, that something very bad has happened. I don’t understand. Nobody does. I see the faces of startled adults. I don’t remember the rest of that evening, or the day that followed it. Every time I think about Sandy Hook, the senseless school shooting that left 28 dead, I think about the multicolored walls of my school’s hallway, my sneakers on the white linoleum, the fear in my mother’s voice and in her eyes. That day was the first day I began to accept that I was a child in the United States of America in the 21st century. That day, and the brutal and confusing months that followed it, solidified something in my peers and I. Not just in Stamford, or even Connecticut, but within all young American students. The people in power didn’t care that a gunman marched into a wealthy and predominantly white Connecticut neighborhood and slaughtered kindergarteners. Because as I grew older, I saw the patterns, the televisation of suffering and permitted slaughter among my peers, our youngest, our posterity. This was normalized to us, just another school shooting, another period of brief outrage followed by inaction. The slaughter of children, the preventable slaughter of children shouldn’t be normalized. But it was.

February 14th, 2018. A gunman kills 17 students in Florida. As I’m waiting in a doctor’s waiting room with my mother, I lean over and tell her, “On Monday, all my teachers will talk about is school shootings.” I was wrong. School was another silent funeral march, my teachers quiet and solemn as they assigned us our work and progressed with their work. At dinner with my dad, I tell him, “It’ll never change.”

That isn’t entirely true. Leaders are found in teenagers who now walk through haunted hallways with clear backpacks. They are the face of a new movement, a march for our lives. Many are summoned to Washington and elsewhere a month later to organize, to fight. On March 27th, a day meant for students to walkout and protest the preventable slaughter of students, my school barricades the doors.

No legislation is passed. Nothing changes. The resistance lulls and fades, despite a number of school shootings following the tragedy at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Gen Z is a symbolic Sisyphus, haplessly pushing a boulder of pleas up a mountain of indifference.

II.

Suzanne Collins published the Hunger Games on September 14th, 2008. It finds its way into the hands of teenagers of all shapes and sizes years later, and it has its cult following. Maybe the televised murder of children strikes a chord within the audience of young adults, as does the story of a growing revolution and a coup against a selfish government.

Gen Z gets its hands on theory at a young age, through Wikipedia and the uncensored vastness of the internet that we are handed. We are denoted as the generation born with the phones in our hands, but all I can remember is having a technology class from a young age, where we were measured on our abilities to type and memorize a keyboard. Our ability to cite and surf and stay safe in the face of danger. This wealth of information at our fingertips molds us.

Dystopian fiction is popular among young teens and young adults. Titles like Divergent the Giver, Harry Potter, the Maze Runner, all influence the devouring young readers. We are raised to see atrocity, in a place where atrocity is accessible to us in every way, shape and form. We are exposed and we are no longer innocent as we rise to 6th, 7th, 8th grade. Girls wear makeup for the first time and scream at the sight of bloodstained underwear. Boys become privy to the joy of video games and self-exploration. In this time, the internet truly consumes. There is no more script taught in classrooms, whiteboards have been replaced with Prometheans, and chromebooks are becoming normalcy.  

In 7th grade I receive my phone. The niches and underground media I discover shape me. I find acceptance, friends, in places where I had lacked them before. As my classmates begin to enter into weeklong flings that end in Instagrammed tragedy, I take a quiz online to find out if I’m gay. I begin to think for myself, and I find independence and a voice on internet circles.

By the time we are promoted to high school, something has shifted. Something is different. Something’s coming, something good. Gen Z keeps calm and carries on.

III.

Donald Trump is inaugurated on January 20th, 2017, to much outrage, but also to much support. In my town, there is a protest around his building that overlooks much of our city center. It’s peaceful, energetic, and beautiful. A Planned Parenthood sticker is on my bedroom door, and I have accepted that maybe, just maybe, I’m into girls.

In 2018, we are in high school. Little fish in a big pond. I don’t have friends in my grade, but stick closer to my premade friends in the Class of 2021. My teachers are lovely, kind, and supportive, and I shine in this new environment. Politics is a force in my life as I begin to write, and as I begin to form opinions and do research. 

It’s easy to say that all of Gen Z is progressive, but this isn’t true. It’s actually very incorrect. The internet is a miraculous tool, one that can provide and produce and create new forms of communication and spread new ideas. But it is still an ocean that is widely uncharted, and young teenagers will fall into holes constructed by right-wing superstars. The racism and homophobia circulated by 4chan is on the internet for anybody to see. New popular figures and icons pledge their vote to Trump. Right-wing rhetoric overtakes in the forms of Ben Shapiro, Pewdiepie, 4chan, Reddit. There’s a neutrality to all things, but the dogwhistles and the normalization of prejudice are dangerously overbearing. As the 2016 election divided our country, it divides the new generation. A divided house cannot stand, and that is for certain. 

It is around this time, in my Freshman summer, where the politics makes a crescendo. I have broken 1K followers on my Instagram art account, where I draw fanart for a variety of musicals and plays. I discover Shakespeare, and lose myself in Hamlet. I am happy with my identity and with myself, and as the 2020 election nears, I stay informed on current events, common issues, the things that need changing.

Sophomore winter. My dad and I take two-hour drives spanning Connecticut, and we talk. He says, “You know, your generation’s fucked. You’re the ones who are going to have to cope with our mistakes.” I tell him I know. I tell him about my feelings towards racial injustice in America, the battle for a higher minimum wage against growing costs, issues in healthcare, housing, poverty, climate change, all thrown aside and discarded. Our generation, of course, when most of our white and male politicians are dead and buried, will have to deal with the repercussions of rising sea levels and global temperatures, volatile weather and crippling natural disasters, all overlooked due to blatant ignorance. “You guys are going to have to fix all of this.”

“I know.”

I’m sick of the battle being placed on the backs of teenagers. I’m sick of our faces being the fight for climate change, the faces of Greta Thunberg and Emma Gonzalez and young revolutionary congresswomen being mocked and heckled by throngs of keyboard warriors. I’m sick of the battle our leaders and representatives should be fighting being placed on our backs, when we are already our own Atlas. Ignorance is dangerous, biting, and overwhelming. We look back to the images and words we were raised upon, the story of the Hunger Games and the broadcasting of school shootings for us all to see. 

It is 2020. Happy new year! I watch from my living room as the ball drops. A brief Twitter moment about a newly discovered disease pops up in my recommended, I brush over it. Photographs of Australian fires are surfaced, and we joke about what a fantastic start it is to the year. 

Sisyphus reaches a fork in the road.

MMXX.

At around 11PM on Wednesday, March 11th, I send a strongly worded letter to the principal and local superintendent. The coronavirus has picked up worldwide, and has made its way into the states. Johns Hopkins has an interactive map that shows bubbles above cities where cases have been reported. Stamford, Connecticut Dead: 0

Recovered: 0 Active: 3.

New York’s cases are on the rise. On that same day, I began to realize the severity that would soon overtake us. I spent the afternoon first at what would be our last rehearsal for our school musical, James and the Giant Peach, and then I went to the library. I did my homework, read The Cripple of Inishmaan by Martin McDonagh, then bought a Subway cookie from the mall. I always keep a copy of King Lear in my backpack, and as my dad pulls up to the sidewalk I gloss over Edmund’s first monologue.

It’s the last normal day for a while.

March 12th comes in like a lion. In my first period class, civics, a classmate yells out, “Trump 2020!” A period later, my friend pulls me aside in the hallways, and asks if I heard that school was closing. 

“It can’t be true,” I said.

“Schadlich just showed us.”

I take my route to my next class, and find the hallway a chaotic mess of energy and camaraderie. What was meant to be kept under wraps has been instantly transferred across the student body over Snapchat stories and texts. People dance, sing, hug. It’s branded as a “Coronacation.” Broadway announces its closure, and I walk out of the front doors for the final time in my sophomore year.

Once again, ignorance overtakes. Within months, the death toll skyrockets, spikes, as we stay holed up in our online classes. My focus wavers, but I press on. Many other students resort to simply neglecting their work, choosing to take this time to focus on their own health or fill up their new time with their own hobbies. Teenagers find solace in each other, through social media and through the connections we’ve built online. As ignorance mounts among our leaders, teenagers jokingly refer to Covid-19 as the famous “Boomer Remover”. It trends on Twitter. Graduation, prom, is cancelled. The generation whose childhood began with 9/11 is once again cut short by a tragedy of preventable errors. Gen Z is subject to adapting once again to an unfamiliar environment, and we undertake.

Protests take over the streets, screaming against government tyranny. The deaths crescendo to nearly 100,000. A video surfaces of a young black man, Ahmaud Aubery, being publicly killed on a road while jogging. Ignorance continues as cases spike, and the political climate is ripe for change. On May 25th, a black man from Minneapolis named George Floyd is killed in a brutal act of suffocation by a policeman. More names resurface -- Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, Joao Pedro. Names neglected to injustice are once again in the limelight -- Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice, Philando Castile, Eric Garner, Mike Brown, Terence Crutcher, Atatiana Jefferson, and more. 

Sisyphus has had enough of pushing the boulder, and Sisyphus takes to the streets. It is the perfect storm. A storm fueled by ignorance and the preventable death of thousands, by decades of injustice, by the mere political climate in the United States of America. Gen Z, our generation, my generation, has lived the darkest hour. We were born at the cusp of a millenia, in an awkward position where society has begun to find its footing in an unfamiliar time. A time of domestic and overseas terrorism, shaped by 9/11 and a countless number of school shootings and slaughtered people of color. Where the new generation has accessibility to the injustice and wrongs committed by those before and those above, right at our fingertips. We have new ways to organize, new ways to televise, new ways to fight. In our armchairs and in our streets, wearing masks as we hold up our hands in surrender.

Generation Z marches. They lead. They throw tear gas back at officers with no hesitation. They create chants, organize through grassroots, and find a chorus of support online. 

Generation Z leads. As politicians and leaders sit in ivory towers, like President Snow in Panem, our generation cries for change. We witness and feel the repercussions of their ignorance in our daily lives, from cuts to education to the publication of school shootings to the absence of American atrocity in our history textbooks to a pipeline that directs BIPOC and low-income students to prison or the military as they step off the graduation stage. Each year, our winters get warmer as our summers turn boiling. The preventable pile of corpses rises in front of us, and we have been taught to sit by and let it occur while the world burns. 

No longer.

Sisyphus steps aside and allows the boulder to descend down the mountain. They are bruised, bloodied, their palms calloused and scuffed and their feet lacerated and sore. Up ahead, shrouded by clouds, is the mountaintop. Sisyphus wipes their mouth, finds their footing, and begins the march.

A CONCLUSION.

We have a future.

It’s awfully dim right now. Barely a light at the end of the tunnel. We began a dead march towards it from the moment we were born into this decaying way of life, held together with glue and string by leaders with fumbling hands and staunch indifference. Our backs are tired, and we are barely adults. Generation Z is tired of fighting a fight that shouldn’t be theirs. How desperately we still crave childhood joy and humor and innocence. 

Change is necessary. It is something that is especially necessary in our time. We can no longer let people die because they can’t afford food or medicine or housing. Students cannot go into school wondering if it will be their last day. Black people should not fear for their lives while wearing a hoodie, driving, jogging in their neighborhood, shopping, or sleeping in their own homes. Elderly white men which encompass most of our political elite can no longer sit on their hands as their population suffers.

The voice of Generation Z screams louder than anything else. It screams in its silence, its activism, its useless martyrdom and battle. Change belies itself within our voice, and it has gone unheard for too long.

Change is the voice of Generation Z.

[takeeachdayonebookatatime]

My Q and A with the Author of Tea Time

(LAURA8759)

Write a little bit about you like what genre of books you write and what your up to .

 (SAMANTHA)

A little bit about me: I write really what ever I want to write. I try not to limit myself to a single genre, I’ll let my audience do that for themselves. I have a book of poetry that just hit in March and thriller novel that hit last July, I’m working on it’s sequel while battling writer’s block. I’ve also been promised to ghost write a memoir that is still under wraps, and I occasionally piece away at novellas and new ideas for dystopian and fantasy books. So, I’m a little all over the place but it works for me for the moment.

(Questions)

(LAURA8749)

Any books your working on at the moment ?

(SAMANTHA)

I’m working on the sequel to my first novel, Tea Time. It’s exciting because it picks up right where the first one left off. But I don’t want to give too many details. But it’s going to be a wild ride, I hope anyway. I occasionally get ideas for future books but my main focus is the sequel right now.

(LAURA8749)

Do you have a favorite part of the story ?

(SAMANTHA)

Favourite part, is a tough one because you think it’s all good, right? But there are two parts I think. One near the beginning when the story really starts to kick off, my main character is learning more about her mother and the she has this secret room built into the house as this study space with all the huge maps and books. It was fun to write because it gave me a chance to think about what I’d want in a study. The second is when my two lead female characters were given the opportunity to kick butt, you’ll have to read it but you’ll know when you do.

 (LAURA8749)

What are your other hobbies when not writing a book ?

(SAMANTHA)

Hobbies: I have a lot of hobbies. Sometimes too many. But I’m an aspiring actor with theatre training and a self taught photographer and those are two of my biggest creative outlets outside of writing, theatre and photography.

(LAURA8749)

What genre of books do you like to read ?

(SAMANTHA)

I read a little bit of anything and everything but I’m not a horror book reader, life can be scary enough I don’t want to read it for entertainment.

 (LAURA8749)

Does anything inspire you when writing a book?

(SAMANTHA)

Oh I have had so many things inspire me to write, someone’s turn of phrase or a conversation with a friend, a film or tv show that had a cool gadget, or a dream sequence while my brain is thinking during a bit of writer’s block. Sometimes even music.

(LAURA8749)

Do you outline your book before you write it ?

(SAMANTHA)

I try to outline a timeline, when I’m writing it’s a sequence of events and the order that I’m more focused to get right the first time and then I flesh it out between events. During my first read through if I want to move something I make a note and move it or add to it. I don’t outline every detail , but I outline the big moments.

(LAURA8749)

Do you write your story on paper first before you type it out ?

(SAMANTHA)

I have a tendency to type first versus long hand writing. That being said during writer’s block long hand has gotten me back into the frame of mind to keep going, and I will take long hand notes for ideas.

(LAURA8749)

Who is your favorite author ?

(SAMANTHA)

One of my favorite writers is Dan Brown, because I love how he takes a grain of truth or a plausible idea and fleshes it out. I also love Tolkien and Brahm Stoker. I love Tolkien for his stories and world building truly masterful. Stoker for his masterful villain, Dracula, such an amazing character, and style of writing, with the diary entries and perspective changing.

(LAURA8749)

What inspired you to become a writer ?

(SAMANTHA)

To be an author, I just have this urge to bring stories to life. Whether I’m writing a book or poem or waiting for the perfect lighting on a snap of my camera or building a character on stage. To tell a story is why I write because I have so many I want to tell so I use different avenues, but to write is a way that I have total control over the story from building characters and development of plot to what words are spoken to what the reader reads as the scene it’s a weird thing but really cool to build a whole story like that.

(LAURA8749)

What was your favorite bòok or series as a child ?

(SAMANTHA)

I loved the Harry Potter series as a kid. Growing up I read through more nonfiction than fiction and was at a really high reading comprehension level at a young age, but the Harry Potter series was brilliantly crafted and from there I picked up Lord of the Rings and now read through a variety of books and genres when I can.

(LAURA8749)

Do you have a favorite book ?

(SAMANTHA)

Favorite book is so difficult because it changes, because there are so many great ones.

But one of my favorites is actually a book called Imzadi by Peter David. It was actually the way I found out my grandfather was a Trekkie. I found the book after he’d passed away and I had no idea he was until I found he had a copy of this book. It was like reconnecting with him and finding out that we had more in common than I thought as a kid.

(LAURA8749)

How do you feel about a sequel to one of your books ?

(SAMANTHA)

How do I feel about a sequel well I’m writing it!

(LAURA8749)

  How did you come up with the idea for your book ?

(SAMANTHA)

Coming up with the idea for Tea Time, ooh well I started the book five years ago more of as a distraction from high credit hours while in university for acting. But I read a lot of thrillers and mystery and there just isn’t a lot of female writers writing the female perspective as their lead characters and that bugged me. So in the words, now I’m paraphrasing, of Toni Morrison “write what you want to read” so I did. I female action adventure historical thriller. That was the beginning idea for Tea Time

(LAURA8749)

Is there any changes you would make to your book or story ?

(SAMANTHA)

I’d like to go back and edit the grammar or mistakes missed by the editors but to the story itself, no.

(LAURA8749)

how do you feel about ghost writers ?

(SAMANTHA)

I think ghost writers are great and necessary because sometimes people have great ideas but are either terrible writers or just not comfortable writing or something like that but really want to get the story out that’s when ghost writers are brilliant! It’s especially great for memoirs I think.

(LAURA8749)

(Finale question) Current book your reading ?

(SAMANTHA)

Ooh current book I’m reading, I started three and kind of need to read them! Haha, but outlander by Diana Gabaldon (fabulous), The Library of the Unwritten by A.J. Hackwith really amazing concept, and Dracul by Dacre Stoker it’s like a prequel to Dracula or the untold story of how Brahm came up with the idea for Dracula really interesting take.

Any social media pages our very few readers can find you at and were they can buy your books     

 And social media

Twitter is @saminman01

          My current pinned tweet has both links to my books which are available across the globe and my Instagram (rememberingtobreathe) is my photography

[claeriekavanaugh]

Give a rowdy welcome to adventure author, Guy Worthey!

Intro: What’s your name, what do you write, where can readers find you on social media? And just for fun, if you could be any mythological being, what or who would you be?

Hello! My name is Guy Worthey. I’ve been writing a novella series about Ace Carroway and her adventures in a world that bears an uncanny resemblance to 1920s earth. I’m @guyworthey on Twitter and @guywortheyauthor on Facebook and I blog at guyworthey.net.

Mythological being! I tell Greek myths a lot, and what I notice is that none of them have happy endings. What’s the use of having awesome snake-hair if some hero comes along and chops your head off? But the myth that comes closest to a happy ending is the story of Perseus and Andromeda. They have adventures, but end up together for a long time and they have lots of kids. And the kids, for once, don’t kill the parents. So I’d like to be Perseus or Andromeda. I’m not picky about which.

1. At your day job, you are an astrophysicist. What got you interested in writing? 

I’ve always been a reader and writer, and from time to time in my youth, I would send a short story off to “Analog: Science Fiction, Science Fact.” None got accepted, for good reasons, I’m sure, but the experience of selling a story never happened. In my day job, I have to write technical papers, and the opposite happened: all my journal articles were accepted. Now, I’m back at fiction writing, this time armed with more confidence.

How does your knowledge of spectroscopy influence your writing?

 Pardon me while I resemble a deer caught in the headlights for a few minutes! All right, I’m recovered, now. I’m going to broaden “spectroscopy” to just science nerdism in general. If one happens to be steeped in technical jargon and esoteric lore, firstly, there are more puns available. (Did you hear oxygen went on a date with potassium? It went OK.) Secondly, the bar is raised high on the science aspects of one’s writing, and in my case Ace Carroway deals with plenty. Thirdly, I think this generalizes to basic plot and character integrity. Plots need to be logical and so do character reactions, and I’d like to believe that I can engineer a working machine, metaphorically.

What inspired your current project?

In hindsight, a couple of things. One is a deep and abiding nostalgia for pulp fiction, especially the more fantastic stories such as Edgar Rice Burroughs, or the Tom Swift and Doc Savage stories that were written by ghost writers. The other thing was feminism. It’s just time for some smart, strong heroines. At the time of writing, of course, neither of those things was consciously present in my head. I just wanted to spin a fun yarn.

What is it about?

It’s about dastardly villains, narrow escapes, humorous banter, and outrageous plots. It’s basically 1920s earth, but with undiscovered lands and a few touches of steampunk advanced technology. 

What are the characters like?

Our hero is Cecilia “Ace” Carroway. She’s strong and smart, and trained throughout childhood to get that way. She leads a totes-adorbs collection of five male associates of different shapes and sizes, abilities, and dispositions. Mostly, she gets them out of trouble, not vice-versa. 

What have you done in the past year that has influenced your writing journey the most?

The last 12 months have been a freaking Nike commercial. I went from giddy and naïve first drafts (that I thought were Newberry award winners at the time) to publishing the first two novella lean, clean, and tight. I sincerely hope (but also rather expect) that I will still agree with that judgment five years from now! I worked my writing/critiquing groups hard, I learned about the publishing landscape, I learned to hate my own propensity for passive voice, and I learned how to hunt down adverbs and slay them.

Favorite quote from your own work?

Ace pushed open the door.

Wing Commander Joyce Harcourt glanced up and commented drily in Oxford accents, “I thought it might be you. Market shares in breath mints rose sharply today.”

“There’s a career in vaudeville waiting for you after the war, Commander.”

Traditional or Self-publishing? Why?

Self.

Agents had a hard time categorizing Ace Carroway. I didn’t know why, at first. Now, I do. If you browse the teen section at a bookstore, you find zombies, vampires, and dystopian fiction. Full stop. Ace is adventure, and that category doesn’t exist these days. I’m positive Ace will gain fans, but she’ll do it by being so awesome people will just fall in love.

If you could only write in one genre for the rest of your life what would it be and why?

 Nuuuuuuu!!!!! I’ve got a high fantasy and a hard sci fi in the works!

But if I were to die tomorrow, I’d be happy I put Ace Carroway first. Somehow, I feel like the world needs her right now. What category is that, you ask? Well, it’s adventure. With dashes of sci fi, steampunk, noir, and pulp.

Name one book that affected the way you write?

I have a vast array of influences, but Ace Carroway is informed by pulp fiction most of all. So I grasp wildly at the zillion titles buzzing around my cranial cavity and nab the first one that resolves: Doc Savage and the Polar Treasure.

Okay, that’s not a bad choice. I think it’s by Lester Dent. It’s short, action-packed, and a bit bizarre. The characters are sharply drawn. It gives the reader the feeling that they are in the hands of a good storyteller, but the reader cannot guess how the tangled threads will connect at the end. That’s the sort of thing I strive for.

Three authors you recommend and why?

  G. Wodehouse builds a better world than this one to live in, then convinces you it’s real.

G. Wells melded mind-blowing concepts with timeless human truths. He’s still eminently readable, now, 120 years after publication.

William Gibson wrote Neuromancer and I don’t think the seismic ripples from that have died down any.

If you could change one thing about the world, what would it be?

I’m pretty sure it’s greed. We need to tone that down. With less greed, I think we’d be feeding the starving, curbing population growth and climate change, and building starships.

What do you believe is your main purpose/motivation as a writer?

This question splits me into two halves. One half says, “Pshaw, it’s all for fun.” The other half says, “If it’s all for fun, why do you subliminally model alternative social structures such as various visions of true gender equality?” To which the first half replies, “Shaddap.”

What’s your favorite writing-related memory?

Perhaps it is when I discovered the word “beezer.” That means “nose.” Of all the 1920s slang I have learned, I mourn the loss of the word beezer in modern parlance the most. Why can’t we use that word anymore? It’s a pure bolt of utter delight.

I can’t speak it (and be understood), but I can write it, and so I have. Of course, I can’t overuse it, so I’ve only written it once so far.

What’s a favorite moment you’ve had with a fan/someone who’s read your work?

The first time a perfect stranger wrote a review …

My writer’s craft escapes me. I can’t adequately describe how that felt. But it felt as if I had arrived at a milepost. It felt awfully nice.

One fun fact most people don’t know about you? 

I’ve been in most of the bars in the state of Montana. One summer when I was a lad, my garage band somehow landed an agent, and he booked us into all these bars. I think I might’ve been under the drinking age at the time. I definitely remember reeking of cigarette smoke. Then, as now, I don’t drink or smoke. The smell was entirely secondhand. 

One piece of advice you would give to new writers?

Patience. Hey, look, one piece of advice, summarized in one word! To amplify, even if your writing is truly terrific, it takes a long while for that word-of-mouth to spread. A corollary of that theorem is to make sure your writing is terrific.

Thank you, Guy! What thoughtful and spunky answers. If you like adventure, follow Guy @guyworthey on Twitter and @guywortheyauthor on Facebook and his blog at guyworthey.net.

If you liked this post, please scroll to the top of the page and type in your email to follow my blog and get an update every time I post new content. I have authors of all genres coming on my blog to interview in the coming weeks! Don’t miss it!

As always, keep making magic, word weavers!

Author Interview: Guy Worthey @guyworthey Give a rowdy welcome to adventure author, Guy Worthey! Intro: What’s your name, what do you write, where can readers find you on social media?

[thecosydragon]

My latest blog post from the cosy dragon: Interview with E. A. Barker

An Interview with E. A. Barker, author of Ms. Creant: The Wrong Doers!

  E. A. Barker believes he is an average guy in mid-life who has led a mostly average life. His readers may not agree with his assessment. The single biggest difference between him and most other people is his pursuit of knowledge. Throughout his life he never stopped asking the simplest question: Why? E. A. describes himself as a collector of ideas and a purveyor of dot connections. He attempts to present his findings in an entertaining fashion in an effort to encourage people to read—especially men who are reading far too little these days. E. A is an advocate of education for its ability to affect social reform and actively promotes the idea that a global conscience is possible.

COZY DRAGON INTERVIEW

 Everyone has a ‘first novel’, even if many of them are a rough draft relegated to the bottom and back of your desk drawer (or your external hard-drive!). Have you been able to reshape yours, or have you abandoned it for good?

(E. A. laughs.) It’s crap! I write narrative non-fiction partially because my ability to write quality dialog is so lacking in my opinion. I am reasonably certain I am at least decent at what I do. Ms. Creant ‘s mission was to challenge the beliefs of the reader so that we might change and grow as humans. This is a niche which I believe best suits my abilities.

Some authors are able to pump out a novel a year and still be filled with inspiration. Is this the case for you, or do you like to let an idea percolate for a couple of years in order to produce a quality book? 

I admire prolific writers who can produce quality works time and time again. For me, it does not come so easily. I suppose my percolation happens during the extensive research phase, which in the case of this book, represented a one year period.

I have heard of writers that could only write in one place – then that cafe closed down and they could no longer write! Where do you find yourself writing most often, and on what medium (pen/paper or digital)?

Wow. Your first sentence supports my working theory that we writers are merely scribes channeling the thoughts of some other entity. This is probably not the place to get all weirdly metaphysical so I will move on to the question at hand. I can write wherever I can make my body comfortable and where there is little distraction or noise. Paper notes always litter my workspace, if not the entire room, until such time as they are compiled by section into my trusty old HP laptop.

Before going on to hire an editor, most authors use beta-readers. How do you recruit your beta-readers, and choose an editor? Are you lucky enough to have loving family members who can read and comment on your novel?

I have never been clear on how the literary world uses some terminology. My scientific background tells me to speak of alpha readers first. To me, the process is as follows: 1) I produce a very rough draft which is then read by alpha readers whose sole job it is to blow sunshine up my butt so that I can find the courage to continue. In my case, it was my hairdresser. 2) I then read, revised, re-read, revised . . .  until I realized I was stuck in an endless loop and had to seek professional help. 3) Enter my editor—who I picture in my head as Ilsa of the SS—she is what I believe to be my beta-reader. Laura had no trouble telling me how I had gone off course (content editing); nor did she lose any sleep over pointing out my embarrassing grammatical errors; and I believe she rejoiced in highlighting the literally thousands of typos and punctuation errors. This is what makes her good. Her ability to completely devastate any ego the writer in you had developed, will either force you to be better, or quit. Badly shaken, I chose the former. I made massive revisions which fleshed out ideas, supplied answers, and ultimately resulted in three additional chapters. The most observant of readers might see where I ended the book on three separate occasions. She was recruited by writing a cheque. 4) The gamma reader was my proof-reader who line edited (a.k.a. copy edited) the manuscript prior to publication. She only found another five hundred or so mistakes in punctuation as well as missing words I just could not see when I read those sentences. She was recruited through a negotiated exchange of services and the promise of a signed hardcover.

I walk past bookshops and am drawn in by the smell of the books – ebooks simply don’t have the same attraction for me. Does this happen to you, and do you have a favourite bookshop? Or perhaps you are an e-reader fan… where do you source most of your material from?

I LOVE PAPER BOOKS! It is easy to understand people who like digital books though; they can buy books for far less money and could carry their entire library with them at all times. There is a danger that we should be discussing in the digital revolution we are in the midst of. I USE LIBRARIES to source most information. Libraries have always been the keepers and conservators of knowledge. Budget cutbacks combined with limited shelf space are leading many libraries into e-book information technology systems where the librarian will no longer be the curator. Whosoever controls “the cloud” will then control all knowledge. We must continue to encourage a balance between paper and digital books or we risk quickening our fall into a dystopian nightmare.

Oh my! Asking an author if they have a favorite bookstore is leading them to potential career suicide. ANY bookstore that carries or recommends Ms. Creant: The Wrong Doers! is a favorite of mine. I do however frequent a local used bookshop in the Beaches area of Toronto near my home.

I used to find myself buying books in only one genre (fantasy) before I started writing this blog. What is your favourite genre, and do you have a favourite author who sticks in your mind from:

childhood? Jules Verne

adolescence? Frank Herbert

young adult? Robert Heinlein

adult? Hemingway? I am now trying to read the greats across previously unexplored genres including poetry—something I would never have done when I was younger.

Social media is a big thing, much to my disgust! I never have enough time myself to do what I feel is a good job. What do you do? 

Social media is a massive time suck that keeps us from writing. I would like a PA to take it over but I have yet to have a quality unpaid one offer to do so.

This is my approach:

Facebook is number one in terms of users. If you are willing to track people down and stay engaged with them, it can be powerful. Therein lies the time suck factor—engagement. Facebook goes out of their way to minimize your reach. Only 3 to 7% of your friends and followers will see some of your posts regularly.

Twitter is second in terms of users; limited in terms of post length, but UNLIMITED in terms of reach—all your followers and all selected hash-tags receive your posts, you can tweet @ anyone on twitter and they do not put you in jail for over engagement.

I tweet daily and send the tweet to both my facebook profile and my author page. In theory you could do this in 30 minutes per day but you would not have the all important needed engagement with other people.

Not long ago, I found statistics which clearly showed you really only need to be engaging on Fridays and Saturdays. This opens the door to time suck savings by posting (a.k.a. updating status) each day, but engaging just on those two days.

Understanding the value of any marketing effort is often difficult to measure in immediate sales—social media is epitome of this. After two years of working social media an average of three hours per day, seven days a week, 360ish days per year, I will tell you its value cannot be measured monetarily. When I attempt to do this, the numbers make me feel foolish.

$0.03 is what I have been paid per hour.

30 minutes is invested in each follower.

Followers rarely buy your book but about 1% will.

You will get 0.1% response from a twitter campaign.

My RATIONALIZATION for continuing at all is I committed to this for two years–one year leading up to this release (the building phase), and one year of promoting the book after release. I assure you there will be a massive scaling down of social media work once the book has its first birthday.

So what are the positives?

You gain a handful of digital pen pals from around the world—priceless.

A good percentage of initial sales and reviews will come from people you meet on facebook.

It is the digital equivalent of flyer distribution and it is free, if you do not count your time.

About 50% of blogger interest came through social media channels.

The best alternative to social media marketing is REAL WORLD marketing but you must be an extroverted salesperson to do this, and many writers are not. Some will have costs which can quickly add up.

E-mail campaigns have netted the greatest amount of interest thus far with about a 10% response rate. This is literally 100 times better than social media and introverts can do it.

Direct mail promotion to independent bookshops and libraries seems to generate interest.

Attend book fairs and sell signed copies.

Public speaking is always an opportunity to sell books.

Pitch indie bookstores and other merchants on buying or displaying consignment copies of your book.

Send out review copies to literary critics. Most will not give you the time of day, but just one published positive review from these people can make a career.

Links to: Twitter Facebook

Answering interview questions can often take a long time! Tell me, are you ever tempted to recycle your answers from one to the next? 

Your questions were thought provoking and multifaceted so I could not cheat. We are faced with some stock questions which cause us to reiterate answers. I have yet to copy and paste an answer, but who knows what the future may bring.

Ms. Creant: The Wrong Doers!

This book was created for everyone from young adults to seniors. It was written from a male’s point of view, speaking to men who are endlessly struggling to understand the opposite sex. For women, this is a fascinating journey inside the male psyche. The book gives a young reader a glimpse of the future, with a recommended time-line for key life events. Mature readers, who have already experienced much of what is discussed in the book, should come away with a new found understanding and perhaps even closure. Ms. Creant is a controversial, entertaining, yet informative look at everything which influences human behaviour including: relationships, life, health, biology, philosophy, sociology, theology, politics, genetics—even physics. E. A. Barker shares twenty-four “inappropriate” stories of life with women. The author based these stories of women behaving badly on his real life experiences, spanning four decades of his search for an ideal partner. The lessons taken away from the book will serve to help readers make better choices, become more aware, grow and change—at any stage of life.

Get this novel from a range of places:

Amazon US ➜ http://ift.tt/2uxvGVg

Amazon CA ➜ http://ift.tt/2uxCguN

Amazon AU ➜ http://ift.tt/2ux8nL8

Amazon UK ➜ http://ift.tt/2uxvHZk

Smashwords ➜ http://ift.tt/2uxfZNM

B&N ➜ http://ift.tt/2uxlvjy

Kobo ➜ http://ift.tt/2uwW69z

itunes ➜ http://ift.tt/2ux1ERt

from http://ift.tt/2v6xH7U