Life Changes Coming Down the Pike

[phantasm]

OK, Sabrina, guys, I am going to not just go out on a limb here, but jump off the limb into a barrel of I-don't-know-what here. I'm going to divulge something about my life.

For the last 7 ~ 8 yrs I have been writing a novel. It is contemporary science fiction, meaning it is set in the 21st century U.S. A little more than a month ago I (provisionally) finished it. I have chosen a pen name. I am looking around online for possibilities as far as publishing options go. You may have sensed some seismic something or other going on in my life as expressed in my batch of poems so far. Well, this is that something.

I have been hopeful yet scared. I have needed to take the plunge for some time now, but it's difficult fighting past myself to do it. It is my first effort to actually, really get published after a lifetime of deferred hope and countless promises to myself. Yes, a lifetime. Those who've seen my profile page know I'm 33 going on 34. I have been writing science fiction in one form or another, more or less continuously on one project or another of some sort, since the 4th grade. I have never made it this far before, just finishing the MS of this first book was difficult. This is why in one of my poems I wondered how to initiate change when I am not in pain, nor needing to avoid some sort of inevitable pain.

This project has survived me moving into new apartments several times, and changing jobs several times, even moving from one town back to where I was born/raised. Now I'm working up the gall to send it to SOMEONE in the industry. I haven't decided where to go yet. Although I am developing something of a preference.

I'm writing this for a few basic reasons.
1) I promised Sabrina an explanation.
2) To dispel the mysteriousness I've unintentionally built up around this batch of poems.

While not outright looking for support (am I the only poster on this site who adores sf enough to want to write *novels* in the genre, and on some kind of "professional" level?) I do want to be able to talk about it plainly in the future.

So, there you have it. The Revelation of Phantasm.
A good deal shorter than the one in the Bible.

[heartfelt7]

You are so forfunate to know what you love and be able to do it at such an early age. My only question would be - how can you "not" do what you love? To slang Shakespear - be true to yourself!!!

[phantasm]

The difficulty lies in shaking myself out of the momentum of my life as a whole, the ruts I have fallen into due to years of keeping my head down and doing the work creatively, and privately. It's a cliche, but the status quo can be a bitch. Until recently I was focusing more on my product and not thinking at all about my business plan, as a businessman MIGHT say...................... This is the first I've seriously addressed getting a work out there.

Thanks for posting to this thread, heartfelt.

[anirbas]

Phant, this place is tailor made for jumping off limbs or into barrels...lol...Or, at least, figuratively, if not literally...

Miz Heart, the only way you, dear lady, could slang Shakespeare, is by leaving the 'e' off the end of his name...gigglegiggle I just couldn't resist teasing you about that, dear lady...

Having teased our dear Heart, I return to the subject at hand, dear Phant. "Be true to yourself!" as she, Heart says. And one good Shakespeare quote deserves another, so, to that, I might add, "All's well, that ends well."

I say, go at it with guns blazing, both literally and figuratively, Dave. Some of us, have used the self-publishing route for getting our poems "out there". I know there are various venues for accomplishing this. I, myself, used lulu, when I did my first and only book of poems, to date.

I would suggest outing your work, in all the venues you have at your disposal today. Send it to as many legitimate publishers as you can find the addresses for. But, you might also look into releasing it on-line on a blogspot, as well. Think, Fifty Shades of Grey...Its author, started it out on-line as a blog...And so many read it, publishers put it futher out there, via the hardback book venue...

Really pissed me off, that the first thing from an on-line source to hit the "big time" was a batch of soft-porn stories...Roflmao...But, then again, so this world...lol

We are here, to support each other. Writers, of either poetry, prose, or both are a rare breed. Not many are called to do this...As a result, nerds like us, sometimes, take a beating from our "normal" family and friends, for our love of writing...Or, dreaming of making a living, at doing what we love most, writing...So, we should support each other, or pick each others brains, as need be...

You and me, Dave, we do go back a long way...Even, before I met my husband, at Bnet. I remember you telling me you were working on a book of sci-fi. I am thrilled to hear, it has reached completion...Have you final drafted it? What am I saying? We're talking about you. Of course you have! Has anyone else read the final product through, besides you? Before you send it to a legitimate publisher, you might check into the price for a proofreader, if you don't have friends or family that have good proofreading skills. Even when one's own self is a good proofreader, proofing ones own work, is not like reading someone else's and seeing the little hinky do's...Yes?

I am so excited and so happy for you!!!! Keep us apprised of how this quest is going, mi compadre'.

[phantasm]

For most of the time I was on the previous version of Bnet I was working on other things, Sabrina. In fact, I mentally keep track of where I used to be in life by the project(s) I was working on at any given moment. It may not be this current story you're thinking of.

In my teens I had been working on two very different projects, not even similar on basic-concept level; throughout my 20s I was working on two to three projects simultaneously. So....... I'd have to have a time frame to tell you weather the story you're thinking of was this current story I was working on or not.

This story IS a final draft, provisionally. But it still has a great deal of work to be done. I'm kicking around the possibility of hiring my own editor to get it professionally edited. I need to start nurturing professional relationships, and on an emotional level that would feel good-- I am worth it. But a publisher is likely to edit it themselves anyway. Now, this story has had SUCH a convoluted evolution, comprehensively edited maybe two, maybe three times by me personally. And lots of small to mid-range problems as well as some plot and characterization corrected by three readers I had, one of whom is a total stranger to me. How much more editing am I willing to bear? It is scarcely recognizable as the original concept.

I've been researching publishing possibilities ever since I wrapped up work on this supposedly-done story. I've had a childhood dream of being able to walk into a library or bookstore and find my books there. And childhood dreams are by far the most powerful ones. But the internet has fractured the industry. I wasn't familiar with how 50 Shades of Grey had initially gotten out. An eBook just might be the way to go.

Believe you me, I am working on what I want to do next...........

[aims]

Fantastic Phantasm wishing you great success in this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[phantasm]

STATUS UPDATE


I just emailed four online editor services to break the ice about getting me published. I mean, [checks watch] just a minute ago. Hopefully at least one of them does SF and provides the depth of services that I need. Just stepped over a chalk line in the asphalt.

[anirbas]

Woot! Woot! You go, Phant! Break a leg as they say in the theater.

[moseley]

I love scifi greatly. I have tried to write it and then I feel I just robbed Lovecraft or Rice somewhere breeding a vampire with Cthulu...and I am overwhelmed by the sea of really well thought out works already read that somehow I almost fee like I am plagiarizing when I try to write. So, then, I think scifi writing is also hard and you have to be either original, or blazingly crafted to add or build to some already well patterned formula that if you can make it your own, it is a brilliant stroke to do.

[anirbas]

Moseley, mon ami...You are fogetting...EVERYTHING has already been written...The quest as a poet or writer of prose, for that matter, is to write in your own voice...Put you own spin on the subject matter, per se...? Yes?

However, I agree...I feel sci-fi is a daunting mission. You have to be blazingingly original and or do a lot of research.

I've read some of Phant's stories. If any of us have it to do sci-fi, he does!

I find, I am hearing the urge to write short stories. But, what? Some, would say, write of your childhood. Those whom know the true horror of the childhood my five sibs and me, lived growing up. But, I'm like why? And from what frame of reference would I write that? And I've already been there, done that, in poetry and don't really want to go there...But, then again, Stephen King teaches, "write, what you know..." Or, "research the hell out of it!" lol

Waiting to read some of this sci-fi beauty...even, an excerpt...hint...hint...Phant?

[phantasm]

STATUS UPDATE: Auuuugh!


I am going over the story one more time, thoroughly. The original reason for doing this was formatting and technical type issues. But I am filing off a rough edge here, adding a bit of narrative there, amping up the emotions of a character here and there. I'm making good time on both technical and creative fronts, but it's been taking me longer than I thought. I didn't expect to still be working on this thing by this time of year.

On the other hand, my future plans do have a good deal more clarity than I did when I wrote the OP. I've done a decent amount of research on the how-to aspect of getting this sucker out there in the world. I am, shall I say, carving a path through the jungle as a birth canal.

I should've been born female and wanted to have a baby. It never takes this long for a human fetus/infant to gestate.............

[phantasm]

OK, shifting gears now. Mosely, allow me to give you an illustration about the problem you mention.

I have a second story that I'm just beginning to piece together. In this story there will be a telepath who activates his ability with drugs via injection; the drugs interact with a surgically altered part of his brain. I figured when I had the thought that I was not the first to think of this. But then when I did some basic research, I was surprised at how *often* the particular motif of drug-induced telepathy comes up, ex. Dune and the drug Melange that allows humans to navigate folded space. Babylon 5 has a drug called Dust that activates telepathic genes that most everyone carries.

I was a bit deflated when I realized how often the meme comes up. Although most fictional drugs are not shot up. There's two basic motifs in the concept of telepathy/mental augmentation in SF: 1) Gift and 2) Acquired Ability. Dune's navigators fall under category 2, the Betazoids of ST:TNG fall under category 1. The abilities are painted in vastly different ways and used for different effects. It's a decision gate-- the vast majority of stories use one or the other exclusively.

Here's my point: I am still willing to put it in my story, because it'll definitely be useful for the group at a certain juncture. And essentially, I *want* it to be there.

It's not plagiarizing unless you're ACTUALLY reading a book and trying to lift parts out of it wholesale and verbatim, then claiming the narrative as your own. That's exactly what your English and other teachers tried to warn you off of when you were growing up. But if you're synthesizing different ideas from different sources, you're good.

The field is sufficiently vast that there will always be people more well-read in SF than I am. Conversely, I may have a good deal more experience with SF than someone who enjoys it just as much but has not seen on TV or in books as much as I have. I'm not letting that stop me from making my stories as compelling as I can make them.

I could say way more about writing, but I better stop here before I start writing a writer's manual. Saaaaayyyyy, now there's a concept......................

[anirbas]

"I should've been born female and wanted to have a baby. It never takes this long for a human fetus/infant to gestate............. "

Roflmao.

[phantasm]

STATUS UPDATE: STEADILY MOVING FORWARD


I have contacted an editor who's published fiction herself, and she's a real veteran in the industry.  Her name is Erica.
I sent her chapter one of my book on March 19th.  We're communicating via email and the "Track Changes" features in
Microsoft Word.  It's basically a mode you can go into and use to make changes to your MS without actually deleting
material.  You hit the delete button and instead of text disappearing it replaces black characters with red strike-through
characters.  It's a great tool for collaboration.

Some money has changed hands.  She's read the chapter and made comments, and just the other day I gave her
my comments on her comments, and made some pretty decent changes to the chapter, although it still needs work.
I am slowly but surely becoming an mature/professional writer.

I'm also developing a budget in an Excel document to be able to stay on course with where I'm going
and not break the bank.  Right now it's a simple document that doesn't have much detail.
But it's a step I've needed to take for a while.

I am laying down some important foundations.  It's high time I did it, too.  Woo hoo!

[anirbas]

Hats off to you, Dave. Playing catch up in here, throughout this day, I caught the above comments you left.

Wow! Just wow!! So, tickled and thrilled and excited for you!!!

David and I are both kicking around doing another lulu poetry project, but, with isbn numbers on our respective, individual projects. With my book, I want to include some of the pieces I did in my first project. But, I want this project to have meatier pieces added to it. And I want it to look more sophisticated. Not like the high project I realize my first effort looks like, looking at it, now...

Anyway...didn't mean to turn the subject away from you, Phant. LoL Congratulations, and write on!!!!!!!!!!

[phantasm]

Hmmm, lulu.  I just checked out the front door web page, briefly.

What is that, exactly?  Is it vanity publishing, POD, self-publishing?  This is the first I've heard of them.
Granted, I could stand to be more educated about the self-publishing field (what I'm probably going to go with).
As much work as self-publishing sounds like it is, I think I'm most likely to go that route.  How're lulu's bona fides?

[anirbas]

Dave,I discovered lulu, through my husband, David. He'd previously used them. Until I actually hung around on site and watched him go through the process of literally building my "book" from the ground up, I'd poopooed the self-publishing route myself. Doing it yourself, means you literally do everything yourself...And you are responsible for how the finished product looks. John Yamrus self-published a couple of his books, if I'm not mistaken. And if I am and he actually still bothers to read here, I'm sure he will correct me. I would welcome that even! Miss him, too. Correction. I miss him, so much.

As mentioned, David cobbed together my first little book of poems. I am attempting to orchestrate the entire process myself, this time. I plan to use the better pieces from my freshman effort to help me pad out my sophomore effort.

I think you should create an account and give it a try, firsthand. Perhaps, for your freshman project, do a book of poems. It doesn't cost a cent, until the book or books go to print. You, as the writer get as many books as you like at a cutrate price. Individuals, ordering indivuals, ordering individual books pay more. My book, to my surprise, actually made the cut to Amazon. Then, fizzled out, from there. Currently it is available only through lulu for a discount price of $4.99; initially it sold for $12.99 on lulu and on amazon. I made approximately $100 over three years off the project...I think we did it in 2008?

I sent a copy to John Yamrus and he pointed out several things the effort was lacking. So, this time around, I plan to incorporate those tips and isbn the book. Of course, lulu automatically isbn's all efforts now, unless you request otherwise...When I did 'Fragile Leaves' they weren't doing that...

Sure, some folks, call it vanity publishing. But, as has been pointed out to me, any publishing and any circulation, is a good thing. And if you walk into a publisher's office with one or more projects finished to show to hand him/her, you just might have a better chance of being picked up...

We should all figure out ways to get into doing readings of our pieces and or books. There is a place in Dallas that showcases fledgling poets. I've known of it for five years and yet done nothing to check into it...If only there were more time in a day or night...Or one never needed to sleep...

Okay...Rambled off into nowhere, at your expense, Buddy.

[phantasm]

Not at all, nir.  I'm learning.  Your book was in hard copy, then?
How was the quality of the binding, etc?  Any art on the cover?  Does it feel cheap to you or are you happy with the physical product?

[anirbas]

Soft copy, but, not paperback. Next one I do will be hard copy, though. I was satisfied with it, as my first project. I have found things in second hand bookstores self-published by individual and groups of poets in the sixties and seventies...What lulu does is far superior to the self-publishment route of that day...LoL. I will be happier with the next project. And yes, I had art on the cover...I chose a photo of trees, to tie into the book title and the title of one of the poems in the book...Fragile Leaves...

[phantasm]

STATUS UPDATE: BENCHMARK ACHIEVED

In response to my editor's comments about my story I have rewritten parts of the story. I've moved episodes or parts of episodes, rewritten swaths of the text, and generated new events that have story-wide implications. The shape of the plot has been significantly re-shaped. I've emailed the vastly modified story off to her for a few more comments.
She is now paid in full.

We might exchange a few more emails to discuss a few things, but for the most part the purpose of the relationship has been fulfilled.

Now I have a problem: the old "Prime Reality" and the new "Alternate Reality" depart from each other at several junctures, especially at the beginning. I can't save all events and dialogue. Some events were stricken from the new "Alternate Reality," creating a very different atmosphere for the story. Now I need to figure out how to best synthesize the two into a single narrative without potentially massive logic holes developing.

But I've done what I set out to do: get professionally edited. I had no idea what I was walking into when I signed up for this.

Now that it's over with, I wonder if I would do anything different if I could do it all over again. On the one hand my editor did a kick-ass job on my story. In other ways she doesn't seem to like the plot and at times was way too hard on me. I was emotionally vulnerable because I've invested so much time and energy into writing this story. I was (and am) definitely over-committed. However, she is directly responsible for prompting me to write certain new story elements that definitely makes it a better, more interesting story.

Ultimately, what I would like to change about the relationship would be the form it took. It was a cross between 1) interacting directly through the text itself via a comments feature in Word and 2) email. I can't tell you how many times I wished I could've sat down with her at a coffee shop and spoken to her face-to-face. I don't know how I would solve that problem as we live in vastly different parts of the county. Phone seems inadequate; Skype seems like a poor alternative. I've tried collaboration via email before. It is difficult, time-consuming, and sometimes frustrating. There's got to be a better way...