The Queen's Ransom

Hello,

I was trapped on a desert island infested with scorpions and roaches. That's why I haven't blogged for two weeks. In truth, I wrote a short story that takes place on the afore mentioned island where the creepy crawlies live.

I just finished the rough draft of the sequel to my Pirate Witch story. I'm calling it, The Queen's Ransom. It starts out where the first one leaves off. It's about 29 pages, just over 8,000 words--the same size as the first one. It will be coming out in Specters of the Blue Kingdoms, around October of 2007.

Three fourths of The Queen's Ransom were done this week, after outlining and getting it started last week. I haven't been that productive, but things happen. The deadline is August 15, so I've got time to get it to my first readers, Brad and Patrick for a critique.

I just read the first 93 pages of Brad's novel, The Winds of Khalakovo. It kicks ass and I can't wait to read more. Patrick just finished his novella, Dayhunter and I love the first chapter. I have to read it now and finally have time. Pat sent it in to a writing contest and I hope the editor loves it. Check out Pat and Brad's blogs on my blogroll for more--Brad's link is obvious, and Pat's is Wolfhawkwind.

Life is good and I was just able to hang out with my old friend Jason Wilson, who was in town for a statistics convention. He's getting his PhD and after hearing his presentation for the conference I know he is one of the smartest people I've ever met. He's hard core and both of us like to do things at full throttle. When we jump in, we jump head first and don't look back.

Passion is a good thing and when I die I want people to say that I had great passion for whatever I did. For me, writing is about harnessing your inner passion and bringing words on a page alive for the reader. Good writing is hard to quantify, but if the characters come alive, you've done well.

Peace and happy writing,

Paul Genesse

Author of The Pirate Witch

in Pirates of the Blue Kingdoms

http://www.popcornpress.com/

Author of The Golden Cord

Book One of the Iron Dragon Series

Five Star Books, April 2008

A Pirate's Life For Me

Hello Everyone,

I found out today that I made it into the Pirates of the Blue Kingdoms anthology. I was very excited to hear from the editor that I made the cut. I loved writing my story, The Pirate Witch, and have thought about turning it into a full-length novel. A fellow writer friend, Elizabeth Vaughn, made a comment to me that "pirates are the new dragons." I guess they're quite marketable right now. Perhaps once I finish Medusa's Daughter, my fantasy love story set in ancient Greece, I'll write a novel about the pirate witch, using the short story as chapter one. Who knows?

Anyway, having a marketable idea is a key thing. Take Kelly McCullough who wrote WebMage. It’s an amazing idea and he sold the book to a major publisher, ACE. Visit him at http://www.kellymccullough.com/ to learn more. Kelly made the point in an earlier blog posting on my blog that you don’t have to know people to get published, but you do have to have good writing.

The point being, that if you have a great idea and are a good enough writer, you can get published, even if you don’t know people—though I would argue your chances go up if you know them.

Still, some great writers with ideas that are too overdone have trouble selling their books. Pick an idea that you’re passionate about and go for it, but hopefully that idea is marketable.

Write what you love, certainly, but I hope that what you love has a market. If there is no market, then getting it published is going to be tough. When I started out I didn’t understand much about markets, but the more I delve into the publishing industry the more I realize that the market is a major issue we writers need to be aware of. If you love writing westerns, just know that there is a tiny market out there. On the flip-side, romance has a huge market. Being aware of what sells and what doesn’t is important for a writer.

Still, write what you love, but just in case no one is buying UFO novels set in the wild west, you might want to write it as a short story—rather than dedicating so much time to a novel that probably won’t sell. Figuring out the market and writing a book with that in mind is tough, but having a broad knowledge of what editors are buying is a good idea.

Urban fantasy has taken off in the last few years. Holly Black’s Tithe: A Modern Fairy Tale is a good example. I think the key to any writing is being passionate about it. Throw yourself into the work keep making it better. Re-dream the dream if the novel you imagined is not working. Rewrite it. If it’s still not that great, maybe rewrite it again.

At some point you’ve got to move on, but if you truly believe in the work you won’t give up on it. You’ll finish it and then improve it. Getting outside feedback is key. Writers shouldn’t live alone. Share your drafts with other writers and get your work critiqued. I believe that we writers must strive to always improve our work and get better.

Good luck with your writing and keep at it.

Paul

Follow your dreams

Hello Everyone,

This is my first blog post and thank you for reading it. It was time to become one of the cool people and get a blog. Setting up my blog was going to be one of the first things I did in 2007, but I figured I'd get a jump on things in the waning hours of 2006.

The big news is that I just signed the contract for my first novel. The Golden Cord, Book One of the Iron Dragon Series is coming out in hard cover in May, 2008. I'm very excited about it and can't wait to actually see the thing in print. Right now the editor and I are figuring out who we can get to do the cover art. I'm voting for Ciruelo Cabral. He's an amazing fantasy artist.

The journey from wannabe to published writer took me about six years, though I told my mom that I wanted to be a writer when I was four. So, it's either six years or twenty-nine years, depending on how you look at it. I pay the bills as a nurse in a cardiac unit on the night shift. I love helping people and I'll always be a nurse, but writing is one of my passions.

I guess the point I'd like to make is trite and totally cliche: follow your dreams. If you're passionate about someting you can make it happen. If you are interested in getting published get in touch and I'll give you some practical advice.