Interview - G.J. Weigand and D.N. Palting

Welcome back!

           Words cannot express how excited I am about November’s author interview! I am very happy to invite two friends of mine to this month's article;  Greg Weigand and Denielle Palting.

           Unlike any of the previous interviewed authors, I have known Greg and Denielle for several years. Our paths crossed in the streets of Paragon City, the setting of the now defunct Massively Multiplayer Online game known as City of Heroes. We played together for several years, until we drifted apart due to the games untimely closure and real life responsibilities.

           While looking for new additions for my reading list, I came across Magi Emerging and The Overlord. I immediately recognized the author names, and left a message on their Amazon page. Greg’s wife, Victoria, contacted me soon after and put me in touch with Denielle. I was ecstatic to hear from them again, and we have been in contact ever since.

           So on to the interview!

Name: G.J. Weigand and D.N. Palting

Short Bio: Greg and Denielle currently reside in the desert of Arizona, where they enjoy spending their winters in the outdoors, while hibernating in the heat of the summer.  Greg and his wife, Victoria, love to spend time with their children, grandchildren, and two pampered papillons that don't seem to be able to emerge from their terrible two's.  Denielle and her husband, Chris, spend their evenings riding trails on their mountain bikes, their dog in tow, and then curling up with a good book or perusing the interwebs.

Published Works: Magi Emerging, The Overlord

Current Projects: Dragon Queen

Links:

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15069369.D_N_Palting

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15012061.G_J_Weigand

When did you begin writing?  

Greg began writing over 20 years ago as a hobby, when Denielle was still just a kid.  It wasn't until we started talking about our favorite authors and books that we realized we both had ideas that could jive well together in a contemporary fantasy series.  So we started writing and got our first book self-published about a year ago.

Did you receive any special training or attend a school?  

Greg took writing classes in college and Denielle has a Bachelor's degree in biology and a Master's degree in linguistics, but other than that we got our training through experience.  We both love to read!

Where do you get your inspiration from?  

JRR Tolkien.  Love him.  But really, Greg used to come up with the coolest mythology and fantasy stories when we would go camping as a family.  Some of those stories evolved into parts of our books now.  Big inspiration is from the authors we read: David Eddings, Raymond Feist, Isaac Asimov, Frank Herbert, just to name a few.

Do you use any special resources when writing? (other books, computer programs, etc)  

We're both into astrophysics, and Denielle has a strong background from university in genetics, so we definitely like to research and incorporate those ideas into our books.  It's important to us to make our fantasy novels mirror reality as we know it in the 21st century, which is fun and challenging!

What is (in your opinion) the most important thing to remember when writing, and why is it so important?

It's important to always remember the central idea and the core progression of your story.  Otherwise, you'll wander too much and start losing your readers.

What is (in your opinion) the most challenging part of writing, and how do you overcome it?

lol... see above!  But also, when you fall in love with an idea and write yourself into a dead-end or a trap, so then you have to cut it out even though you love it.  That's rough.  It's easier to overcome those obstacles with two authors though because inevitably one of us (usually Denielle) will highlight and delete in one fell swoop.  It's brutal, but efficient.

Did you use an agent? (why or why not?)  

Nope, nowadays you can pretty much do everything yourself with the internet.  Plus, we both have day jobs, so this is more of a hobby than a full-time job at this point.

Did you use an Editor? If not, what process did you use to edit your work?  

We didn't use an editor because of Denielle's background with linguistics.  We have a pretty solid process of rough draft, edit, edit more, copy edit, line-by-line edit, and then final read.  It's tedious, but it's always been worth it.

How did you get your book published? (self-published, Vanity publishing, Mainstream publisher).  

Self-publishing through Amazon.

Do you handle your own marketing?  

Yes, but that's probably our least favorite part.  If we ever decide to get serious about writing as a full-time occupation, we'll get a marketing team, for sure.

What is your best marketing tip?  

If you're on Amazon, use their marketing.  It's very cost-effective and gets you great initial exposure as a new author.

Do you have any advice for other writers?  

Find a partner.  Bounce your ideas off each other and get organized.  It's tempting to "just write", but you'll get lost in your ideas that way.  Have a clear vision, some definitive plot points you know you need as goals along the way, and then start to it.  And most importantly, have fun!

In closing, I would like to thank both Greg and Denielle for doing this interview, their participation is truly appreciated. As someone who is still in the process of finding himself as a writer, I found their insight to be quite motivating. I look forward to sharing more about them in the future.

Until Next time,

Cheers,

Patrick Osborne

Inspiration Part 16 - Tanks

Welcome back,

           In honor of Remembrance Day, I decided to try and have this inspiration post military themed. For those reading this who are not part of the Commonwealth, Remembrance Day is a memorial holiday celebrating the end of the First World War and commemorating the members of the armed forces who have died in the line of duty. It is observed on 11 November in most countries to recall the end of hostilities of World War I on that date in 1918.

           Now, I did not have much in terms of military photographic content, but I did come across some that could serve today’s purpose. The pictures below were taken back in 2015, while doing some exploring in the town of Kemptville, Ontario. I was there for a vendor event, and decided to walk around the area to see if there was anything interesting to photograph. Not far from my location was a forest center, where a tank was parked in front as a monument.

After some research, I discovered more background information about this tank. It’s an American-made M109A4+ 155-mm Self-Propelled Howitzer, use by the Canadian Forces from 1967 until they were phased out in 2005. It carried a crew of six, composed of the section chief, the driver, the gunner, the assistant gunner and two ammunition handlers.  The gunner aims the cannon left or right (deflection) and the assistant gunner aims the cannon up and down (quadrant).  It’s cannon is an M185 155-mm Howitzer, and carries secondary armaments such as various models of machine guns and an automatic grenade launcher.

Having the opportunity to get an up-close look at military vehicles such as tanks can contribute to invaluable research. Seeing small details like it’s parts, shapes and texture is good information that can be used in a story. Obviously, this kind of information is important when writing a story filled with military inspired elements. Here are some examples:

• In tales that takes place during one of the World Wars, either fictional or historically accurate. One example I can think of in this case is the movie Fury, a story which follows the crew of a Sherman tank while on a mission in Europe in 1945.
• In Horror stories, tanks could be used to fight against monstrous creatures, or as back drops for the setting. Any fans of the The Walking Dead series will remember the famous scene in the first season, where the main protagonist, Rick, gets trapped in a tank while trying to escape a zombie horde.
• Tanks and other military vehicles have appeared in Science-Fiction for many of the same reasons as horror; as weapons or setting pieces. We have seen this approached used in many alien invasion stories, such as the movie adaptation of the classic novel War of the Worlds by author H. G. Wells.

I hope you enjoyed this month's inspiration post. I encourage you to go out there and learn more about the military; visit a war museum, check out some documentaries or better yet, talk to a vet.

Before closing, I would like to thank all those who have served for their incredible dedication, and for their sacrifice.

Until next time.

Cheers,

            Patrick Osborne

Current Projects part 22

Welcome back,

After going through a life altering event recently, I found myself feeling lost, insecure, sad and a little afraid. A considerable amount of time over the past few weeks was spent asking myself what do I do now, what do I really want and where do I go from here? I will spare you all the Kierkegaard inspired existential ranting and move on to this month's progress update.

           My current situation has made gaining progress somewhat of a challenge. Even though I find myself with more free time, motivation and inspiration have been lacking. In an attempt to deal with all this change, I have tried to come up with a daily routine to keep me busy. Try as I may, my thoughts always deviate from my writing back to my problems.

So the only answer I have right now is to face these thoughts as they come. I must live through this experience and learn from it; both from a life lesson perspective, as well as potential writing material for later use. It may prove useful if I ever decide to describe heartache, sadness or depression.

           So in terms of my projects, the only real writing I have done lately is for the following month’s blog articles. Though ideas for content did not come easily, I managed to put a few things together. Despite not having an overall theme for the month, I hope you will all find November’s articles both useful and interesting.

           My work for Missing Worlds Media has been getting some attention lately, as introductory news articles are being prepared regarding content I contributed to. MWM staff writers have been asking me to review documents they wrote that contain information on characters I created in order to check for accuracy. Seeing so much interest for my work gives me a much needed confidence boost. Though I am unsure of when these articles will be posted, you can be sure I will be sharing there here once I can.

For those interested in following Missing Worlds Media and the progress on our project, City of Titans, please visit our website at  http://cityoftitans.com/

           As for my story, it has pretty much grinded to a halt. Whatever motivation I could muster this month has been used to create these blog articles, so my book did not see much attention. The only progress made was on the current character sheet I am working on, Vivian Winters, and a few entries were made in my timeline spreadsheet.

That covers pretty much everything I have been up to this month. I wish I had more to report, or that the tone would be livelier. Hopefully things will settle down for me soon and I will be able to get back into the swing of things. Until then, I thank you all for your support and wish you all good luck in your endeavours.

Cheers,

Patrick Osborne

Inspiration Part 15 - Costume Shops

Welcome back!

October is one of my favorite times of the year, and this post is directly inspired by one of its most colorful aspects; Halloween. This holiday is known as that one time of the year where everyone gets to tap into their imagination and bring it to life.

               In celebration of Halloween, people dress up in garments meant to represent a wide variety of fictional characters. Costume stores offer their patrons all manner of disguises, anything from classic creatures like vampires or werewolves, to modern day icons like super heroes. These shops are also a veritable fountain of inspiration for writers and creators of all sorts, looking for ideas for anything from protagonists, antagonists or settings.

               The following are pictures I took from a locale Halloween Costume specialty store back in October 2015. These are a good example of how these establishments can be a good source of inspirational material.

 

 

 

 

 

               In closing, I recommend to every writer who is having issues creating a character to take a trip to a costume shop and take a look around. I can guarantee you will walk out of there with a few ideas.

    Until next time.

    Cheers,

    Patrick Osborne

Interview - Roy C. Booth

Welcome back!

I was fortunate to meet this month's writer via Facebook. As you will see from his long list of published works, he is a well established writer, having works ranging from fantasy, Sci-fi and horror. So it is my great pleasure to introduce you, Roy C. Booth.

Roy was kind enough to volunteer for my writer interviews. As a writer, I found his professionalism and sense of organization to be quite interesting. Though he had contacted me in July, he graciously accepted to have his interview postponed until October in order to coincide with Halloween.

Now on to the interview!

Published Works: Most recent releases:

Raiders of the Seventh Planet (w/. Eric M. Heideman, Indie Auhtors Press)

Blood of Nxy (w/. Druscilla Morgan, IAP)

Fresh Fear ("Just Another Ex," w/. Axel Kohagen, King Billy Publications)

Weirdbook #32 ("Maggot Coffee" w/. Axel Kohagen).

Current Projects: (if any) Altered States II (co-editor and contributor, IAP)

• Spooky Halloween Drabbles 2016 (dark fiction anthology, co-editor and contributor, IAP)
• Issues of Tomorrow (SF anthology, co-editor, IAP)
• Jim O'Rear's Mortuary of Madness (horror novel, co-author w/. R. Thomas Riley, TBA)

Short Bio: Roy C. Booth hails from Bemidji, MN where he manages Roy's Comics & Games (est. 1992) with his wife and three sons. He is a published author, comedian, poet, journalist, essayist, screenwriter, and internationally awarded playwright with 57 stage plays published (Samuel French, Heuer, et al) with 810+ productions worldwide in 30 countries in ten languages. He is also known for collaborations with R Thomas Riley, Brian Keene, Eric M. Heideman, William F. Wu, Axel Kohagen, and others (along with his presence on the regional convention circuit). See his entry on Wikipedia, his Facebook pages, his publishers' sites, and his Amazon Author Page, http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00A7CVLNG, for more.

Website: TBA.

Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_C._Booth

When did you begin writing?

I've wanted to be a playwright  and a horror writer since I was six years old. I made my first pro sale at age 14, my first stage play sale to Samuel French at 24.

Did you receive any special training or attend a school?

Technically I'm self-taught for the most part, although I do have a BA in English/Speech-Theatre and an MA in English from Bemidji State University, which helped.

Where do you get your inspiration from?

I get a lot of my horror from my nightmares. Everything else is from the bills I tape to the side of my monitor…

Do you use any special resources when writing?

I have a very extensive network of lawyers, private detectives, doctors. librarians, artists, collaborators, and other expert professionals on hand for research, advice, contacts, and fact checking.

What is (in your opinion) the most important thing to remember when writing, and why is it so important?

You write for an audience, more specifically, you write for your core audience. Treat them right first and foremost. And remember that writing for publication (and money) is an industry and a business.

What is (in your opinion) the most challenging part of writing, and how do you overcome it?

Waiting for responses on submissions used to drive me nuts until I realized that if I kept busy and kept submitting the wait didn't seem all that bad since I had so much going on in that regard. That's also part of the secret to becoming a prolific writer: write, edit, submit, start another story, repeat

Did you use an agent? (why or why not?)

Nope. I believe in eliminating the middleman, and thus focus on the services of a good lawyer instead. (See above.) Some day, perhaps.

Did you use an Editor? If not, what process did you use to edit your work?

I rely on the network mentioned above -- I've got some pretty damn good beta readers and professional colleagues.

How did you get your book published? (self-published, Vanity publishing, Mainstream publisher).

I am 95% traditionally published. Vanity press is an abomination. The money should always go to the author, not the other way around.

Do you handle your own marketing?

For the most part, yes. My wife, who is also a writer and a business owner of 20+ years, is a big help on that front.

What is your best marketing tip?

If at all possible, make sure you have covers that also pop at thumbnail size since social media and online sales are so crucial to an  author's overall success nowadays. Your product has to look good at any size and in any format.

Do you have any advice for other writers?

Be professional with all of your dealings with the public, online or in person. Do NOT exaggerate your sales, personal contacts/name dropping, resume, what-have-you. Be prepared to back any and all statements you make about your work with third party proof/verifications. Try to be as transparent as possible. Many writers have ruined their careers by being caught in lies and other deceptions. Try to avoid dealing with authors/publishers/agents/et al who do lie and blatantly exaggerate for whatever reasons. They have a tendency to suck you into deals/drama/shenanigans that will prove detrimental to your integrity and career.

Tip #2: Kick the tires. If you have a writing business question/concern, pursue it. Have someone else look over your contracts with you and watch out for errors, rights grabs, downright thievery, and other possible pitfalls. Consult writing watchdog groups (Writer Beware, Preditors & Editors, et al) to find out which editors/publishers/agents/service providers are on the up and up. Stay vigilant and watch out for one another.

In closing, I would like to thank Roy for taking the time to do this interview. His knowledge and insight was truly appreciated. I look forward to hearing more about him in the future.

Until Next time,

Cheers,

Patrick Osborne