Jonathan Maberry's Big Scary Blog

JADE SHAMES - POET

2008-02-11T16:51:00.000-08:00

One of the real pleasures of being a professional writer and of having been in this business for a long time (30 years and counting) is that sometimes you get to see young writers at the beginning of their careers and can watch them blossom.

I want to introduce you to a writer that I’ve had the pleasure of knowing for his entire life (actually his dad directed the traveling production of GODSPELL I was in back in the late 1970s!).

His name is JADE SHAMES. Take a moment and get to know this young man.

He’s a poet, a playwright, a singer-songwriter, performance artist, and novelist. He wrote his first novel when he was fifteen, and it was a real killer about sex, drugs and psychological manipulation in high school. Not exactly Disney Channel stuff. Since then he’s studied playwriting and poetry in Paris and published a chapbook of poetry. He’s 22.

I first heard Jade read his poems at a night of spoken word we held at the Writers Corner USA. Words like ‘powerful’, ‘disturbing’, and ‘riveting’ seem inadequate, considering that most of the poems he read were written during his teenage years.

Here are a couple of examples...two of my favorites.

“REGULAR”

That guy at the bar
With that woman
With the cherry lipstick
And the stem of her glasses
Pinched between her perfectly white
Perfectly straight
Perfectly mint fresh chloride baking soda teeth
Letting her fingers slide out flat
Her cuticles rubbed with oil just a few hours ago
Her eyes locked and ready
Her nail polish
Her shampoo
Her blush
Her scent
Ready for him to take
That guy is Jim, a regular
He worked blue collared jobs
Until he became a famous poet
Where he wrote about his blue collared jobs
And regulars

So many times I..ve stared from across the room
Trying to sit like him
With his spine straight
Shoulders slouched
Fitted into a plaid red shirt
Beer in one hand
A grin so natural you..d think he had been grinning on the ultrasound photos
His other hand squeezing into his tight worn at the knees workman’s jeans
For another dollar
For another beer
For another woman
I am four thousand miles from him in this bar
Over with my friend, Thom
Who has one gimpy eye
Wild oil spill hair
Hunched over and hunched over again
Half a white Russian in one hand
And god knows where the other one is
A waitress with two handfuls of breasts keeps passing us
Keeps speaking in secret to a manager
Keeps pulling up her blouse and crossing her arms over her chest

And more than another drink
All I want is for everyone to be naked right now
And everyone would laugh
And be in love with everything.

For a moment I lose myself
And approach a blonde bartender with a LIVESTRONG yellow rubber bracelet
She looks busy but I get her attention anyway
..I would like to buy that guy over there another MooseHead,.. I point to Jim
..Say it..s from Jade,.. I say with a cranked smile
..From who?..
..Jade..
..Jake?..
..No..uh, you know what, never mind...

I sink back into my seat next to Thom who is now part of the furniture
..What the hell am I doin.. here?.. He says.

No matter how many times I come here
I will never be a regular.

***************
“TIME”

Time
Category: Writing and Poetry

I am staring at the clock.

Kara isn't home.
It's 1:15 AM.
She's out with someone else.

Last summer,
We decided to share the apartment
Even though we were breaking up.

Now it's winter.
1:18 in the morning.

She told me last night that she met him at the bar.
She told me about how he fucked her so hard
She bled.

I'm making myself little snacks
Of cheese and crackers and tea with honey.
I am watching commercials on TV,
To pretend that I am not staring at the clock.

And I told her this morning that I want her to see him again.
And I told her this morning that I want her to be happy.
And I told her that the reason I still say, "I love you" before bed,
Or before I leave, or hanging up the phone,
It's in the hope that those words will stay with her
Though out her day,
And make her life just a little easier to bear.
This morning she cried in my arms.

It's 1:23.
And time is moving on.
And I am not.

**********************

So...do yourself a favor: check out his page at http://www.myspace.com/jadeshamespoetry. Subscribe to his blog.

And support the arts and offer to buy a copy of his chapbook, MOMENTUM. Every page is a jewel.

Would I be saying all of this if I didn’t know him and just stumbled onto his stuff online? Yeah. Absolutely. Check it out. See for yourself.

-Jonathan Maberry
www.jonathanmaberry.com

Bram Stoker Award 2007 Preliminary Ballot

2008-01-23T18:41:00.000-08:00

Bram Stoker Award 2007 Preliminary Ballot

Superior Achievement in a Novel
The Guardener's Tale by Bruce Boston (Sam's Dot)
Mr. Hands by Gary Braunbeck (Leisure)
Generation Loss by Elizabeth Hand (Small Beer Press)
Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill (William Morrow)
Ghoul by Brian Keene (Leisure)
The Missing by Sarah Langan (Harper)
Dead Man's Song by Jonathan Maberry (Pinnacle)
The Midnight Road by Tom Piccirilli (Bantam)
The Terror by Dan Simmons (Little, Brown)
The Dust of Wonderland by Lee Thomas (Alyson Books)

Superior Achievement in a First Novel
I Will Rise by Michael Calvillo (Lachesis Publishing)
Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill (William Morrow)
The Memory Tree by John R. Little (Nocturne Press)
Dying to Live by Kim Paffenroth (Permuted Press)
The Hollower by Mary SanGiovanni (Leisure Books)
Vacation by Jeremy Shipp (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
Roses of Blood on Barbwire Vines by D. L. Snell (Permuted Press)

Superior Achievement in Long Fiction
"Afterward, There Will Be A Hallway" by Gary Braunbeck (Five Strokes to Midnight)
"Almost the Last Story, by Almost the Last Man" by Scott Edelman (Postscripts)
"Survival of the Fittest" by Scott Edelman (Summer Chills)
"You Never Got Used to the Needle" by John Everson (Needles and Sins)
Blood Coven by Angeline Hawkes & Christopher Fulbright (Dead Letter Press)
General Slocum's Gold by Nicholas Kaufmann (Burning Effigy Press)
Placeholders by John R. Little (Necessary Evil Press)
Blood Wish by Michael McBride (Delirium Books)
Frayed by Tom Piccirilli (Creeping Hemlock Press)
Lost in Translation by Gord Rollo (NYX Books)
"An Apiary of White Bees" by Lee Thomas (Inferno)
"Trolling Lures" by Steve Vernon (Hard Roads)

Superior Achievement in Short Fiction
"The Death Wagon Rolls On By" by C. Dean Andersson (Cemetery Dance #57)
"The Heart Of The City" by Sandy DeLuca & Michael McCarty (Hungur #4)
"Longtime Gone" by Kurt Dinan (Chizine #34)
"Letting Go" by John Everson (Needles and Sins)
"Hungry for the Flesh" by Lisa Manetti (Space and Time #100)
"The Wizard of Ooze" by Michael McCarty & Linnea Quigley (Midnight Premiere)
"Mr. Creator" by Joe McKinney (The Sound of Horror)
"The Teacher” by Paul G. Tremblay (Chizine)
"There's No Light Between Floors" by Paul G. Tremblay (Clarkesworld)
"The Gentle Brush of Wings" by David Niall Wilson (Defining Moments)

Superior Achievement in an Anthology
Five Strokes to Midnight edited by Gary Braunbeck and Hank Schwaeble (Haunted Pelican Press)
Horror Library Volume 2 edited by R. J. Cavender & Vincent VanAllen (Cutting Block Press)
Inferno edited by Ellen Datlow (Tor)
Dark Delicacies 2: Fear edited by Del Howison & Jeff Gelb (Carroll & Graf/Avalon)
High Seas Cthulhu edited by William Jones (Elder Signs Press)
Horrors Beyond 2 edited by William Jones (Elder Signs Press)
Astounding Hero Tales edited by James Lowder (Hero)
History is Dead edited by Kim Paffenroth (Permuted Press)
Midnight Premiere edited by Tom Piccirilli (Cemetery Dance Publications)
Gratia Placenti edited by Jason Sizemore & Gill Ainsworth (Apex Publications)

Superior Achievement in a Collection
Proverbs for Monsters by Michael A. Arnzen (Dark Regions Press)
The Imago Sequence by Laird Barron (Night Shade Books
Darker Loves by James Dorr (Dark Regions Press)
Needles and Sins by John Everson (Necro Publications)
When it Rains and Other Wreckage by Christopher Fulbright (Doorways Publication)
Voyeurs of Death by Shaun Jeffrey (Doorways Publication)
No Further Messages by Brett Alexander Savory (Delirium)
Sparks and Shadows by Lucy Snyder (HW Press)
5 Stories by Peter Straub (Borderlands)
Defining Moments by David Niall Wilson (Sarob Press)

Superior Achievement in Nonfiction
Encyclopedia Horrifica by Joshue Gee (Scholastic)
The Science of Stephen King by Lois H. Gresh and Robert Weinberg (John Wiley & Sons, Inc.)
The Portable Obituary: How the Famous, Rich, and Powerful Really Died by Michael Largo (Harper)
The Cryptopedia: A Dictionary of the Weird, Strange & Downright Bizarre by Jonathan Maberry & David F. Kramer (Citadel Press / Kensington)
Storytellers Unplugged by Joe Nassise and David Niall Wilson (Storytellers Unplugged)

Superior Achievement in Poetry
Being Full of Light, Insubstantial by Linda Addison (Space and Time)
Mary Falls: Requiem for Mrs. Surratt by Christopher Conlon (The Word Works)
Tango in the Ninth Circle by Corrine de Winter (Dark Regions Press)
Heresy by Charlee Jacob (Bedlam Press [Necro Publications])
VECTORS: A Week in the Death of a Planet by Charlee Jacob & Marge Simon (Dark Regions Press)
Phantasmapedia by Mark McLaughlin (Dead Letter Press)
Sometimes While Dreaming by Marcie Lynn Tentchoff (Sam's Dot)
Your Cat & Other Space Aliens by Mary Turzillo (VanZeno Press)

WRITING THE NOVEL SYNOPSIS

2008-01-23T07:16:00.000-08:00

WRITING THE NOVEL SYNOPSIS

In a previous blog I mentioned that when you pitch your novel you need to have a strong synopsis ready to roll. Next to query letters the synopsis is the single most dreaded piece of writing a writer faces. But it doesn’t have to be.

Here are some notes on writing that pesky synopsis.

WHAT IS A SYNOPSIS?

*****: A synopsis is a narrative summary of your novel, written with brevity but with style and feeling.

*****: A synopsis is always written in present tense.

*****: A synopsis is always written in third person.

*****: A synopsis is written in the same style as your book, which means if the novel is spooky and moody, then so is the synopsis. If your book is action-packed, fast-paced, filled with dialect, or any other style, your synopsis should be as well.

*****: The synopsis introduces all of your main characters and each of their essential conflicts, all woven together in the narrative. (It does not list your characters.)

*****: Weaving, by the way, is important. One paragraph should flow logically to the next. If you are switching ideas, you need to make sure you build in a transition to connect your paragraphs.

*****: You do not have to include every character or every scene, plot point, or subplot in your synopsis. But your synopsis should give a clear idea as to what your book is about, what characters we will care about (or dislike), what is at stake for your heroes, what they stand to lose, and how it all turns out.

*****: Yes, you must put the conclusion to your novel in your synopsis. No cliffhangers or teasers. Agents and editors want to know that you know how to successfully conclude your story. (Often agents don't read the synopsis until after they've read the entire ms--but not always.)

FORMATTING YOUR SYNOPSIS

In the upper left hand corner you should have the following info: Synopsis of "Title here" Genre:................. Word count: By__________
e.g.

Synopsis of PATIENT ZERO
Thriller
140,000 Words
By Jonathan Maberry

*****: If the synopsis is going to run one page, single-space it.

*****: Synopses longer than one page should be double-spaced. Its paragraphs are usually indented, with no spaces between paragraphs.

*****: Don’t use a cover page or any fancy headings or fonts. Stick with Times New Roman or Courier, at 10-12 points (12 is preferred unless you’re really trying to fit it to one page)

TIPS ON WRITING THE SYNOPSIS

*****: Does the opening paragraph have a strong narrative hook to grab the reader and keep him reading?

*****: Are your main characters' conflicts clearly defined?

*****: Are your characters sympathetic?

*****: Can the reader relate to them and worry about them?

*****: Have you avoided all grammar, spelling, and punctuation mistakes?

*****: Have you hit on the major scenes, the major plot points of your book?

*****: Did you resolve all important conflicts?

*****: Did you use present tense?

FINDING AN AGENT Part 3

2008-01-21T09:05:00.000-08:00

Okay...now we’re onto the next phase of finding a literary agent.

When you have your manuscript nice and clean, then the next stage is to build that list of agents. First, a quick recap of one important bit: I recommend using www.publishersmarketplace.com to search for recent deals in your genre/subgenre. Look for deals by the significant authors in your genre. The deal listings will name the agent who represented the book and the editor who purchased it. Here’s an example of a one of my own deal listings from Publishers Marketplace.

Bram Stoker Award-winner Jonathan Maberry's PATIENT ZERO, in which a Baltimore police detective is recruited by a secret government organization to help stop a group of terrorists from launching a weaponized plague against America that turns its citizens into zombies, to Jason Pinter at St. Martin's, in a three-book deal (including PATIENT ZERO), by Sara Crowe of Harvey Klinger.

When you see “to” before a name, that’s the editor; “by” indicates the agent.

You can then do searches on the editor to see the other books they’ve bought (and the agents who repped them), and you can search the agents by name. You can also search the categories (fiction debut, thriller, young adult, etc.) and that’ll pull up a couple of years’ worth of listings.

Make sure you double-check to see if the agent and/or editor is still at that firm before you pitch. These folks move like nomads. For example, the editor who bought my books at St. Martin’s Press, Jason Pinter, is no longer there. He scored his own book deal and has left editing to writer crime novels for Mira.

Also, when compiling your list of agents you have to remember that the better ones typically have very few spots left on their lists, and that means that they’ll be very picky when agreeing to look at works from new authors. You have to pitch the hell out of it.

In one of my earlier blogs I posted a sample of a book pitch letter to an agent. Go take a look at that. I landed an agent with that letter; students of mine have used variations on it to sell their works.

Okay, so now you have your list and your query letter. The next step is to get that letter out to everyone on your agent list. Never do the one-at-a-time method. Years pass, you get old, stars burn out to carbon cinders before you get through the whole list. This is your career, be pro-active.

The way I did it, I sent ten copies of that letter out to agents. I got six go-aheads to submit material (four partials and two complete manuscripts).

Normally agents take anywhere from 3 months to an entire age of the world to get back to you. They’re busy, yeah I get that. I suggest following up with a note or an email after a few weeks, just to see if they’re aware that it’s in their office. Some may snap back at you for pestering them. Too bad, this is business and follow-up is a part of any business. The trick is to be very brief, business formal, and business casual. Something like:

“Dear Kira,

Just following up to see if you received the partial on BIG FAT NOVEL, which you requested last month.

Regards
Joe Schmoe”

When approaching an agent, here’s what you should have ready:

QUERY LETTER: Use good quality stationary and matching envelopes; do not hand write anything except your signature; include either a self-addressed and stamped envelope, or SASE, or request a reply via email. Or both.

COMPLETE MANUSCRIPT: Have it clean, edited, and in final draft. Never query with an unfinished manuscript –not unless you already have an agent and books in print. NOTE: Your manuscript should be in Times New Roman (or Courier), 12 point type, double-spaced, with the default margins of Microsoft Word. Paragraphs should be indented and there should be no spaces between paragraphs. Print only in black on paper that is 94 or 96 brightness (or better). Don’t bother with expensive watermarked paper; just make sure it’s as bright and opaque as possible. I also BOLD the entire manuscript as it creates better contrast between paper and ink, which makes it easier on the eyes of the editor or agent. This courtesy costs a little extra, but courtesy is always appreciated. Also, when mailing the manuscript, mark the envelope with REQUESTED MATERIALS; otherwise it’ll vanish into a slush pile somewhere.

MARKETPLACE ANALYSIS: This is a list of books that would in your same genre/subgenre. List about a dozen and include the title, author, publisher (including imprint), date of original publication, page count and format (paperback, trade paperback, or hardcover). I usually offer this in my query and include it, asked or unasked, with the manuscript. You want the agent (or editor) to know where you think your book belongs; you want to make it clear that it’s part of an established genre; and you want to send a message that the genre is active. This marketplace analysis is your argument that your book can and will sell because there is a ready market out there made up of readers of these other authors.

SYNOPSIS: Have a short 3-5 page synopsis of the entire story, written in present tense (weird, yeah, but that’s how they do it). Be lively and have fun with the writing. Run this by a few friends to see how it reads, and try reading it aloud to look for clunky sentences.

Now you’re ready to roll.

There’s more to say on finding an agent (particularly in regards to networking), so we’ll come back to this topic later this week.

Good luck!
Jonathan Maberry

FINDING AN AGENT Pt 2 - AVOIDING SCAMS

2008-01-18T06:12:00.000-08:00

FINDING AN AGENT Pt 2

After you’ve made the “Hey, I need an agent!” decision, the next step is to identify the right one for you. And the first step in that is to make sure you don’t fall prey to some of the many, many unscrupulous agents in the business.

Literary agents get 15% of your gross and that fee is taken out of the checks sent from a publisher. They also get percentages of foreign sales, film rights, etc., but the bottom line is that agents make their living off of fees based on actual sales. And, take note, you’ll know the exact amount of your advance from the contract you sign with the publisher and you’ll get an end of year accounting from the agent that clearly shows what monies were received by the publisher, the amount of their fee-based deduction, and the monies disbursed to you. With royalties you’ll be given a copy of the royalties breakdown, which is sent by the publisher to the agent along with the royalties check. The agent will deduct the agency fee and send a check along with a copy of the royalties breakdown to you.

Since I posted the first part of this thread the other day I’ve received a lot of email from writers who have been gouged by agents who charge all sorts of fees: submission fees, reading fees, evaluation fees, marketing fees, and even editing fees. Even though these practices are technically legal (though prohibited by agent trade organizations), I always advise my students and friends to avoid those agents like the plague. An agent living off of incremental pre-sale fees is in business to make those fees. There’s no incentive for them to ever sell anything.

Some agents will offer to sell additional services, such as website design, PR kits, catalog placement for book events and fairs, print and Internet ads, book cover designs (publishers always use their own designs, so these would be a pointless waste of cash), business cards, writing class enrollments, etc. These are all money-gouging scams.

There are exceptions, sure. Some good agents do charge fees for copying and postage. Of all the fees discussed those are the ones a writer might agree to. Making copies of a hefty manuscript and mailing copies around is expensive. Okay, that one’s a maybe. But if they ask for submission or reading fees then look elsewhere.

I know a lot of agents, and every legitimate agent I know holds most kinds of fee-charging agents in contempt. Yes, I understand it’s a way for a start-up agency to get operating capital. Sorry, I have no sympathy for that. Take out a business loan or mortgage your house –don’t fleece the author.

Agents that charge to edit your book are also suspicious. More often a good agent who likes your book but believes it to need work will suggest that you go out and find a book editor (not a book doctor –a topic for another time) and then come back with the revised version. They will seldom if ever even suggest an editor. It’s an ethical point, a conflict of interest.

Freelance editors abound (but check them out, too). Get references if you can and follow up with those references. A rare few agents may work with you to edit your book, but this is less common and it chews up an agent’s time.

I’ve heard of a few agents who routinely steer their clients toward self-publishing, POD (print on demand), vanity press, e-publishing, or other services where the author has to pay some or all of the expense of having their book published, distributed, or placed. Don’t go there. Legitimate agents SELL your book, they don’t pimp it for vanity press ‘publishers’.

There’s a great resource for writers who want to check to see if an agent has a shady track record. http://anotherealm.com/prededitors/pubagent.htm is great. It’s not complete, of course, but it’s pretty damn far-reaching.

Also, there’s a pretty scathing expose of these fee-based agents, TEN PERCENT OF NOTHING: The Case of the Literary Agent from Hell by former FBI agent Jim Fisher (Southern Illinois University Press, 2004; hardback). And check out THE STREET SMART WRITER: Self Defense Against Sharks and Scams in the Writing World by Jenna Glatzer and Daniel Steven (Nomad Press, 2006; trade paperback).

In my next blog we’ll talking about how to build a target list of reputable agents who are positioned to sell your kind of book and have the track-record and connections to do so.

Please feel free to use this blog thread to share your experiences (good and bad) with finding agents. The more everyone knows, the better everyone’s chances are in getting sold without getting fleeced.

If you have a question you don’t want to post on the blog thread, drop me an email at jonathan_maberry@yahoo.com

Tune in tomorrow and until then...write like you mean it!

Jonathan Maberry www.jonathanmaberry.com

FINDING AN AGENT –Part 1

2008-01-16T08:06:00.000-08:00

For the first twenty-five years of my writing career I didn’t have a literary agent. Most of my early sales were magazine features and columns for which you don’t use an agent; and then a few textbook sales which tend to yield money so small an agent would like set himself on fire rather than bother with making that kind of deal.

When I decided to try and break into fiction --something totally new for me—I figured I needed an agent. Now I needed to find one. Any writer who hits that moment realizes how daunting it is. Unsigned writers fear agents because they know that to a very great degree there’s no way to get sold without one.

First thing I did was to ask everyone I know who had an agent for suggestions on how to go about finding one. They all said the same thing, and the advice they gave SOUNDED right at first, but the more I thought about it the less I liked it. What they said was: “Find a low-level or mid-level agent, someone who is just getting in the business, and sign with them. They’re the only ones looking to take on new clients and you can rise with them.”

Sounds good, right? Sounds reasonable. Think again.

Business is all about messaging. There’s always a subtext to anything said in business. That said, think of the message that you send out if you only try for agents who are either bottom-rung or brand new to the business. It says: “My work isn’t good enough to be represented by a top agent.” Sadly that message comes across loud and clear.

That didn’t work for me. I have more faith in my writing than that (as subjective as that might be) and I wanted a really good agent.

So I sat back and thought about who and what an agent is and made some reasonable deductions:

Agents are human. Not Olympian gods. I’d met some at writers conferences. None of them had horns, none of them threw lightning bolts.

Agents are working stiffs, too. There have to be good and bad agents. There have to be lucky or unlucky agents. There have to be rising stars and has-beens. There have to well-connected agents and those to whom most doors are still closed. That’s the way every business is, no matter what business we’re talking about.

Some of today’s top writers are still repped by the agents that handled their first works. The biggest deals are made by agents on the inside track of the business. Read the market news, this bears out most of the time. If so, then big agents must be taking on new clients (who then go on to make big money).

One of the common pieces of good advice for writers trying to find an agent is to look in the dedication and acknowledgments pages of books by writers of the same genre. Writers often thank their agents (and editors) and that’s a great way of beginning to build a target list.

Other resources include using www.publishersmarketplace.com (which costs $20/month) and http://www.agentquery.com/search.aspx (free) to search for agents whose recent track record shows that they have the chops and connections to make decent deals for authors. It’s worth checking those resources to see who is representing debut authors as well.

Tomorrow we’ll talk about the next steps to take.

Keep Writing!
Jonathan

Jonathan Maberry (my author website)
www.jonathanmaberry.com

Career Doctor for Writers (my consulting business)
www.careerdoctorforwriters.com

Writers Corner USA (the writers center I co-founded)
www.writerscornerusa.com

MySpace: www.myspace.com/jonathan_maberry

BAD MOON RISING

2008-01-14T08:21:00.000-08:00

BAD MOON RISING

Only four months and counting...

BAD MOON RISING, the final book of the Pine Deep Trilogy (which began with 2006’s GHOST ROAD BLUES and continued with 2007’s DEAD MAN’S SONG) will be released everywhere on May 8.

I’m getting pretty excited about the release of BAD MOON RISING, and for a number of reasons. First, the book has one hell of a lot of action in it. The growing threat discussed in the first two books explodes in the third and the second half of that book is basically one big, rolling battle between the dwindling forces of good and the swelling forces of evil. The dead rise to attack the world of the living with a Red Wave of murder. I had sooooo much fun writing that book.

The book also has a fun twist in that I’ve written a lot of real-world people into the book. I tapped a number of good folks in the horror industry and asked if I could write them into the story. Since the book deals with a massive Halloween celebration (during which very bad things happen) I wanted to have some fun with blurring the lines between reality and fantasy. So... I contacted a bunch of friends in the horror biz and asked if I could write them into the book. They all agreed, so in BAD MOON RISING you can expect to meet TOM SAVINI (make-effects wizard), STEPHEN SUSCO (screenwriter for the Grudge flicks), JAMES GUNN (screenwriter of the new Dawn of the Dead), BRINKE STEVENS (scream queen), DEBBIE ROCHON (scream queen), KEN FOREE (star of the original Dawn of the Dead), JIM O’REAR (stuntman and haunted attraction consultant), and JOE BOB BRIGGS (drive-in movie critic and actor). Also making a brief appearance is MEM SHANNON (one of my all-time favorite Bluesmen!).

And these folks aren’t just doing walk-ons. They actually get into the action. Question is...will they make it out of Pine Deep alive?

This is going to be fun!

Jonathan Maberry
www.jonathanmaberry.com

BRILLIANT YOUNG WRITERS

2008-01-10T06:01:00.000-08:00

One of the highlights of my week is a 90-minute class I teach on Wednesdays –Novels for Young Writers. Currently there are seven students in the group: one boy and six girls, ranging in age from 13 to 16.

This group of young writers (and I try never to use the word ‘kids’ around minds as keen as theirs) signed on to learn the basics of how to write a YA (young adult) novel. But we quickly expanded our format to include poetry, short stories, and even scripts. Each week I give a short talk on some aspect of either the craft of writing or the business of publishing.

The real fun of each class, however, are the experimental writing exercises we do in class. I think it’s boring to just write, critique, rewrite, blah, blah, blah. That tends to keep writers locked into a certain range, and quite often it either narrows the limits of their own skill or keeps them from exploring ways to cross those limits. Soooo....I used my teen class to see how we can break through those glass ceilings.

Each week I give two or three exercises, and each week the students dazzle me. They think differently than adults do, probably because they haven’t yet been made to conform to ‘ordinary’ thinking. They break conventions on a regular basis. They demonstrate insight that adults probably never expect in writers that young. And they learn fast. Lordy, lordy do these so-called ‘kids’ learn fast.

The writing they do the first week or two is safe, controlled. They haven’t yet learned to trust their own intellect or value the complexity of their own imagination. The writing the do in the following weeks and months is totally different.

Sure, there are current limits to diction, style, etc, but each time I see them and listen as they read their latest work I see those limits being pushed back or disregarded entirely.

We did some experiments where I placed a big and complex piece of quartz crystal on the table in the classroom and asked them first to describe it as they would in a story written for their peers. Then I asked them to describe it to someone who was blind from birth. Then to describe it to someone who has been blind since early childhood. And so on. Each time we tried the exercise the students had to realign their thinking; they had to find new ways of expressing themselves based on shifting needs and expectations in the target audience.

Each time we do one of these writing exercises I’m both delighted and totally blown away. Next week I’m going to ask them if I can post some of their work in a future blog. You’ll see.

Happy Writing, folks
Jonathan Maberry
www.jonathanmaberry.com

Writers Corner USA
www.writerscornerusa.com

Magazine Query Letter

2008-01-08T09:42:00.000-08:00

Last week I posted a query for pitching a novel. Today I’m picking up that thread and posting a query for a magazine article.

NOTE: A couple of folks have asked if you need to query a short story, and the answer is definitely “no”. Just submit.

For queries, there are a lot of different formats, but here are the ones I’ve used successfully over the last few decades. The first is a standard SNAIL MAIL query, which leads with a thematic hook; the other is an EMAIL query that leads with credentials/platform.

***************************

EMAIL VERSION

Mary Smith, Editor / KidStuff

I am the author of 20 nonfiction books and over 1100 articles, many of them about safety awareness for families. I’m also a martial arts instructor with forty-five years experience, and have taught thousands of classes and workshops on safety for children and families.

Kids don’t need to learn how to fight…they need to learn how not to. Martial arts classes don’t teach kids how to get into fights, they teach them courage, self-respect, and confidence. These are qualities that help children steer clear of violence. This is the primary focus of the modern martial arts school, and it’s a healthy, positive, and very powerful method that is working wonders with today’s kids.

My article, Happy, Safe and Strong: Martial Arts for Today’s Kids, discusses how martial arts such as karate, judo, taekwondo and other ostensibly combative systems have been modified to meet the real needs of growing kids. Instead of violence, the kids are taught values; instead of aggression they’re taught discipline; and instead of fear they are taught to understand and appreciate the differences --and similarities-- between themselves and their classmates.

The article features interviews with parents and kids, and discussions with martial arts instructors who are on the cutting edge of this new way of teaching health, fitness, values, and strength to kids. The article runs 2000 words and would be ready for mailing within two weeks of your request to look it over. The piece is illustrated with wonderful color photos, and model releases are available.

I look forward to working with you on this entertaining project.

Kindest Regards
Jonathan Maberry
PO Box 84
Warrington PA 18966
Home: (215) 555-1234
Cell: (215) 808-0945
Email: jonathan_maberry@yahooc.com
Website: www.jonathanmaberry.com

*************************************
SNAIL MAIL VERSION

Jonathan Maberry
PO Box 84
Warrington PA 18966
Home: (215) 555-1234
Cell: (215) 808-0945
Email: jonathan_maberry@yahoo.com
Website: www.jonathanmaberry.com

November 25, 2003

Mary Smith, Editor
KidStuff
123 Play Ave.
New York NY 10017-5514

Dear Ms. Smith,

Kids don’t need to learn how to fight…they need to learn how not to. Martial arts classes don’t teach kids how to get into fights, they teach them courage, self-respect, and confidence. These are qualities that help children steer clear of violence. This is the primary focus of the modern martial arts school, and it’s a healthy, positive, and very powerful method that is working wonders with today’s kids.

My article, Happy, Safe and Strong: Martial Arts for Today’s Kids, discusses how martial arts such as karate, judo, taekwondo and other ostensibly combative systems have been modified to meet the real needs of growing kids. Instead of violence, the kids are taught values; instead of aggression they’re taught discipline; and instead of fear they are taught to understand and appreciate the differences --and similarities-- between themselves and their classmates.

The article features interviews with parents and kids, and discussions with martial arts instructors who are on the cutting edge of this new way of teaching health, fitness, values, and strength to kids. The article runs 2000 words and would be ready for mailing within two weeks of your request to look it over. The piece is illustrated with wonderful color photos, and model releases are available.

Since 1979 I’ve sold 1100 articles and short stories and am the author of sixteen nonfiction books and three novels. I’m a founding partner in The Writers Center USA in Doylestown, PA and regularly teach at writers’ conferences. I’m also a martial arts instructor myself and have taught the art to adults and kids for 45 years.

I look forward to working with you on this entertaining project. Please respond via email to info@jonathanmaberry.com.

Kindest Regards

Jonathan Maberry

*************************************************************

Keep queries to one page, get to the point, and make sure you deliver what you promise. Hope this helps. If you don’t want to post a comment or question, feel free to hit me via email at jonathan_maberry@yahoo.com

Happy writing!

Jonathan Maberry
www.jonathanmaberry.com

Editorial services
www.careerdoctorforwriters.com

Writers Corner USA
www.writerscornerusa.com

Query Pt 2 Pitching Your Novel

2008-01-04T10:18:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I posted a blog about query letters, and aside from a handful of comments posted here I got something along the lines of eight hundred emails. Yowzah! It’s great to hear from so many folks.

I promised to post a couple of query letter samples, and I’m going to do that today and tomorrow.

Today I’m posting a query for a novel. It’s actually the query I used to pitch my first novel, Ghost Road Blues, to a bunch of New York agents. I pitched it to the ten agents whose track-record and connections I felt would give my book the best chance. In another blog I’ll discuss how I found an agent (it’s not as hard as it sounds).

For today though, let’s look at the basic query:

Jonathan Maberry
PO Box 84
Southampton PA 18966
Email: Jonathan_maberry@yahoo.com
www.jonathanmaberry.com

August 22, 2004

Joe Bloggs
The Big Literary Agency
100 Success Street
New York, NY 10000

Dear Mr. Bloggs,

Pine Deep, PA has always had a reputation for being ‘the most haunted town in America’; they’ve even built their tourism around it –with the nation’s largest haunted hayride and other spooky attractions. The problem is that Pine Deep really is the most haunted town in America, and that’s not going to be such a good thing for the folks that live there. Halloween is coming early to Pine Deep and things are about to get truly spooky.

Ghost Road Blues is a supernatural thriller in which ordinary people face extraordinary events, and how they deal with those events will forever change their lives. Or end their lives. This is a story of people confronting darkness –the darkness without, or within—in which we see some embrace that darkness, lured by its promise of power; and others take a stand against it, even at the risk of losing everything they love.

The novel kicks off with a hunt for a brutal serial killer and then turns left into the creepy backroads that cut through the darkened cornfields of rural America. As the hunt intensifies other forces come into play, turning Ghost Road Blues into a collision of natural –and unnatural—forces.

Ghost Road Blues will appeal to the readers of Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot, Peter Straub’s Ghost Story, and the novels of Robert McCammon, Dan Simmons and Bentley Little. It’s a mainstream thriller with a supernatural bite. The book is 140,000 words and is ready for immediate mailing. I would be happy to send a synopsis, sample chapters (or the complete ms.) along with a competitive analysis that clearly shows how strong and active this genre is, and has been.

Your own remarkable track record with thrillers of every stripe is impressive, and you’ve done so well with best-sellers as well as first-time authors such as Joe Schmoe, Jane Doe and Iver Biggun that it’s clear you get this genre. I look forward to hearing from via email.

Sincerely

Jonathan Maberry
Jonathan_maberry@yahoo.com

So...the query has a number of significant points. The first paragraph opens with a hook and then builds on the hook’s premise, exploring it in a way that promises that the book will be fun to read (no matter what the subject matter). The second paragraph gives the title and establishes the genre, but also describes the ‘essence’ of the book. The third paragraph suggests the format of the book, discussing the way in which the story unfolds.

None of these paragraphs bogs down with too much plot. You have to intrigue and entice with a book that will fit into a known genre/subgenre. If that works then the agent or editor will ask to see chapters (for style) and a synopsis (for plot/story).

Paragraph four reinforces the market position of the book by citing other authors whose books define and drive the genre/subgenre. This paragraph also provides details such as word count, and then offers deliverables (chapters, complete manuscript, etc.). Notice that it’s worded not to ask whether these can be sent but rather offers choices to allow the agent/editor to pick. That’s a much better sales strategy. The paragraph also wraps with a subtle reminder that we all know that we’re talking about a marketable and potentially moneymaking product (rather than an enduring work of art). Art is crucial, sure, but this is a business sales letter. Stay focused on that point and save the art for when you’re dealing with readers and interviewers.

The final paragraph establishes why you’re pitching to a specific agent or editor. Do your homework. Don’t shoot in the dark and send it to just anyone who handles fiction. Use resources like PublishersMarketplace and others (more on this in the agent blog). Bottom line: let this person know that you’ve picked them because they are positioned and experienced in your genre.

End on a firm and positive note, not a plea. Don’t apologize for being a newbie or for ‘bothering’ them (as I’ve seen in queries); and don’t use overly formal language. Write conversationally but with a business message threaded throughout. Confidence is crucial (but don’t use crap like ‘this is the best book you’ll ever read’ or other over-selling stuff).

And, if you have a sense of fun in your tone that’s appealing. Desperation isn’t.

Hope this helps. If you don’t want to post a comment or question, feel free to hit me via email at jonathan_maberry@yahoo.com

Happy writing!

Jonathan Maberry
www.jonathanmaberry.com

Editorial services
www.careerdoctorforwriters.com

Writers Corner USA
www.writerscornerusa.com

Happy New Year!

2007-12-31T09:09:00.000-08:00

This is the last blog of 2007...so I’ll be brief and just wish all of my many and varied creative friends (authors, artists, models, actors, freelancers, agents, editors, filmmakers, comic creators, producers, and publishers).

May 2008 bring astounding success to us all!

Jonathan Maberry
www.jonathanmaberry.com
www.careerdoctorforwriters.com

IT’S A WRAP

2007-12-28T12:40:00.000-08:00

IT’S A WRAP

Not only is 2007 coming to an end but I just put the wraps on my latest novel, PATIENT ZERO. I feel pretty darn good about both endings.

The year was a turbulent one, with extreme highs and lows. Friends and relations passed on while new friendships were made. There were significant changes in my business affairs, including making an exciting three-book deal with a new publisher. My first novel, GHOST ROAD BLUES, won the Bram Stoker Award for best first novel and was a serious contender for Novel of the Year (some guy named Stephen King walked off with that one). And all sorts of other stuff happened. On balance, now that the year is just about over, I think I can put 2007 as a whole in the ‘plus’ column. The bad stuff…well, who the hell wants to hold on to negative memories? Besides, I was once described as ‘annoyingly optimistic’ –a comment that was intended as a slight but which, in keeping with my nature, I took as a compliment.

Wrapping the book was one of the biggest events. It marks a transition point in my career, perhaps one of the two biggest transition points of my entire career. For nearly thirty years I’ve been selling my writing. I started back in college with article sales to Black Belt and other martial arts magazines, and over the last few decades nearly all of my writing energies have been directed to nonfiction. Over 1100 articles, twenty nonfiction books, thousands of column entries, video scripts, package inserts, etc. I dabbled some in fiction by writing a couple of plays which were modestly produced (TALES FROM THE FIRE ZONE was the most successful), and sold a couple of short stories back in the late 80s/early 90s. But at the time fiction wasn’t a compelling force within my creative make-up.

Then in 2004 I took a swipe at writing a novel that drew on the information I’d gathered from my research into supernatural folklore for the books VAMPIRE SLAYERS’ FIELD GUIDE TO THE UNDEAD and VAMPIRE UNIVERSE. I had no idea if long fiction was going to be either satisfying or successful, but I’ve always loved experimenting within the world of writing –wanting to learn the boundaries of my creative strengths and weaknesses. The book that came out of that experiment was GHOST ROAD BLUES.

That story turned out to be bigger than I’d originally thought and as I worked through the early drafts it became clear that I was writing a horror trilogy –something that you generally don’t see in that genre. The second book, DEAD MAN’S SONG, came out in July and the final installment, BAD MOON RISING is set for release on May 8, 2008.

The next story I cooked up, however, was not exactly horror. I had the idea for a counter-terrorism novel in which a disease pathogen caused symptoms that closely resembled those of the zombies in flicks like Night of the Living Dead. Not a supernatural story, and not quite SF. More like the thrillers of Michael Crichton and James Rollins. A science thriller.

When my agent pitched the book it was variously seen as a zombie book (which it really isn’t, although I can’t imagine zombie fans not being satisfied by the amount of zombie-themed action in it) or a bio-terrorism novel (which is, technically, is). Either way I’m happy because it was a damn fun book to write.

I got to create a new set of characters and character development is one of my favorite parts of writing (along with intense action and dialogue). I wanted to create characters that I liked and cared about. The book is intended to launch a series of thrillers in which the hero, Joe Ledger, and his colleagues in the DMS (Department of Military Sciences) continually confront warped science in the form of threats to national or global security.

I finished the polished draft on December 27. Yesterday. I printed out a couple of copies and mailed it off to my editor, Michael Homler of St. Martin’s Press, today.

About one minute after I finish this blog I’m going to launch into writing the sequel, THE KING OF PLAGUES.

It’s a great way to end a year, and a great way to start a new one.

I love the writing life!

3-Act Structure for Novels

2007-12-21T11:00:00.000-08:00

THE THREE-ACT STRUCTURE FOR NOVELS

All storytelling is built on three acts: the set-up; the main exposition & action; the resolution. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a novel, short story, screenplay, or stand-up comic’s joke –they all have the three acts. Even plays broken down into four or five acts still use the three-act structure to tell the story.

When I plot a novel –and especially when I rewrite after finishing a first draft—the first thing I do is craft an outline that identifies the three acts.

Here’s how I view the elements that make up the three acts:

ACT ONE (aka Part One)
· We meet the protagonist and most of the central characters.
· The major plotline is introduced–either overtly or through foreshadowing. This is the main “problem” or “issue” around which the novel revolves.
· Subplots are introduced to give complexity and variety to the events.
· Often Act One begins with a dramatic moment, or teaser, as a way of hooking the reader’s interest, and then we settle down to introduce our characters and establish the “world” in which they live.
· Good novels start at some interesting point. Have a reason for page one to open the story.
· Begin the process of establishing the reader’s emotional & intellectual reactions to the characters.
o Who is the protagonist?
o Do we like this person?
o Do we care about what is happening?
o Do we care about the relationships that being established?
o What does the protagonist have to solve in order for the book to ultimate conclude?
o Is the problem compelling enough to draw us through several hundred pages?
· The villain is introduced no later than the end of Act One.

ACT TWO
· In novels the middle act is generally the longest and involves the deepening & exploration of the central plot themes.
· Character relationships are fleshed out and explored.
· Complications are introduced that will change the direction of the story and begin steering it in unexpected directions.
· Backstory is provided.
· This is the most important act in the drama because you have the two most important structural moves in the story.
· By the end of Act Two things should look pretty grim for the protagonist. It has to seem that what he is trying to do mail fail.
· Act Two ends with a dramatic turn of events.

ACT THREE
· This is where all of the plot threads are woven together and drawn tight.
· By the end of act three every major character will have gone through some process of change, for good or bad.
· The world we introduced our readers to at the beginning of Act One is now different.
· Most of Act Three is a race to resolve the story.
· You must resolve the story.
· The good guys don’t always win (though they seldom lose in bestsellers).

A CULT FLICK IN THE MAKING

2007-12-20T16:36:00.000-08:00

A CULT FLICK IN THE MAKING

I was at the end of the Baby Boom (born in ’58) but my wife was born ten years earlier, so she was a bona-fide hippie living in the Village during the 1960s, wearing love beads...doing the whole peace and love groove.

One of the things we both love is the music of the Beatles.

A couple of months ago Julie Taymor, director of FRIDA, released a stunning movie based on and built around Beatles music: ACROSS THE UNIVERSE. We absolutely loved this flick. We saw it three times, dragging other ex-hippie friends along with us. We’ve just about worn out the CD soundtrack.

The movie stars Evan Rachel Wood (currently Marilyn Manson’s main squeeze and an enormously talented singer!), a brilliant Jim Sturges, and a supporting case of superb relative unknowns: Joe Anderson, Dana Fuchs, Martin Luther McCoy, and T.V. Carpio; plus cool guest stars: Joe Cocker, Bono, Eddie Izzard and Salma Hyek.

Here’s the weird part: the critics savaged it and the audience stayed away in droves.

This is the best movie musical I’ve seen in years. Thoroughly watchable and, unlike other Beatles-themed films (and the piss-poor SGT PEPPER comes to mind) this one actually makes the lyrics and the story work together. The performances and song interpretations are amazing; and with T-Bone Burnett (O BROTHER WHERE ART THOU?) doing the music and arranging it’s no wonder.

I want this to become a cult classic. It SHOULD become a classic (and the reviewers can go jump in a lake). If you haven’t seen it...it’ll be on DVD in February and on-demand in January. If you dig the Beatles and if you have an understanding of what the 60’s were all about, then do yourself a favor and watch this flick.

-Jonathan Maberry
www.jonathanmaberry.com

I AM LEGEND, dammit

2007-12-19T19:00:00.000-08:00

Okay...going to rant now. I generally don’t like blogs used for rants but I guess sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do.

A few weeks ago I posted a blog about I AM LEGEND, in which I discussed meeting the author, Richard Matheson, when I was a teenager and how much of an impact he and his writings had on me. He’d given me a copy of I AM LEGEND when I was fourteen and it’s one of my favorite books. I also regard it as a masterpiece of social commentary with layers of psychological subtext.

I just went and saw the newest film adaptation of the book, starring Will Smith. I’m not a happy camper.

First let me say some nice things about the flick. Will Smith can act rings around a lot of other actors in Hollywood. There are a couple of scenes in the film (one based on grief over a loved one’s death and another where we can see his mind fracturing when something inexplicable happens.) Few actors could have pulled off what he did. So, Kudos to Will.

Also, the dog is adorable and I’m a sucker for German Shepherds.

If I had never read the book I would have thought that the film was ¾’ths of a great flick.

But...

The downsides, of which there are too many, start with the fact that they did not film the damn book. They didn’t even try. I’m pretty sure they didn’t GET the book, and certainly didn’t put any value on the significance of its story. In the novel the protagonist goes from being a heroic figure fighting to keep evil at bay to becoming the legend of evil for an entirely new culture. It’s what makes the title so profound. None of that is in this flick.

Granted, it wasn’t in the Vincent Price version (THE LAST MAN ON EARTH) or the absurd Chuck Heston psycho albino take (OMEGA MAN)...but I really had high hopes for this one. Instead they just made it another last man on earth drama.

The entire third act --from the appearance of the woman and the boy—is the worst example of deus ex machina I’ve seen in years. Hokey, sappy, and it gives what could have been a powerful social commentary a Disney ending, during which a nonsense voice over attempts to tie in this new storyline to the title...and fails. Audience members laughed. No one cheered.

I’m a huge science fiction fan and I’ll even watch bad sci-fi flicks (I’ve seen every Godzilla flick three times or more), but when you take a great novel and demonstrably miss the point, then it just becomes a very expensive waste of time.

Here endeth the rant.

Jonathan Maberry
www.jonathanmaberry.com
www.writerscornerusa.com

SCROOGED

2007-12-18T05:34:00.000-08:00

I’m a sucker for Christmas, what can I tell you. I’ve been playing Christmas music while I write (Accuradio’s Celtic Christmas is on right now); and I just finished listening to A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, read on audio disk by Jim Dale (the guy who read the Harry Potter books and narrates Pushing Daisies on TV). Dale nails the book and I’d put it on a par with the wonderful Frank Muller version of a few years back.

That book, written over 150 years ago still nails me. It’s Dickens at his best. It isn’t wordy, which means his figurative language doesn’t get lost in the I’m-getting-paid-by-the-word descriptive marathons. It has some insightful characters, surprisingly contemporary (at times) dialogue, and even a little bit of flirtatious fun.

I’ve seen just about every dramatic re-imagining of the book. And yearly I enter into debates about which version is better, the George C. Scott TV movie or the Alistair Sim film version. That’s a discussion that, when between two grown men who have been drinking hot winter drinks, is probably very funny to listen to -though deadly serious between us. (There’s probably a short story just on that lurking somewhere.)

I’m going to publicly throw my hat in the ring for the Scott version. His Scrooge is more layered, complex, and subtle; and his transformation more considered. Edward Woodward makes the toughest Ghost of Christmas Present ever seen. And Roger Rees is the ONLY actor I’ve ever seen actually nail the emotional depth necessary to make his early speech in Scrooge’s office sound powerful enough to ‘shake’ his uncle. On the downside, the kid they have playing Tiny Tim looks like a zombie (hey....Scrooge of the Living Dead, there may be something there!).

Now, before anyone boils me with my own pudding and buries me with a stake of holly through my heart, the Alistair Sim version is pretty great, too; but it strays much farther from the source material. A lot of the Christmas Past exposition is new (and very good) stuff written for that film. Still...it’s miles ahead of anything even remotely in third place.

Later today, when I take a break from revising my current novel (PATIENT ZERO, due on the desk of editor at St. Martin’s Press in a couple of weeks) I’ll probably watch the Bill Murray Scrooged version...and maybe even, God help me, the Mr. Magoo version.

Jonathan Maberry
www.jonathanmaberry.com
Writers Corner USA
www.writerscornerusa.com

Character Point of View Part 2

2007-12-14T11:23:00.000-08:00

Since I posted a blog on Character Point of View earlier this week I’ve gotten a ton of email, IM’s and posts. Seems to be a topic worth returning to, and specifically with how that POV thing can be tweaked for effect.

I first experimented with shifting points of view for a scene in GHOST ROAD BLUES (Pinnacle Books, 2006), and in that case I had to select which character's point of view (even in 3rd person) would inform the scene. I had an ensemble cast and throughout the books different scenes were filtered through one or another character's perspective. And then I had a scene where three of the key players were in the same scene. Because I wanted an emotional connection to the scene I wanted to make sure that the scene played out from one character's POV. I wrote it three different ways -from the POV of the bad guy (Karl Ruger), from his intended victim (Val Guthrie) and from the hero (Crow). Each version made the scene feel different.

In the end I chose to begin the scene with Ruger's POV, because he's in charge of the moment; but as the scene moves on I gradually shifted it to Crow's POV as he begins to dominate the encounter.

I've gotten a lot of very positive feedback about the scene, which involves a seriously down-and-dirty fight scene in the rain. Some of the most stimulating feedback was from folks who have been in the fiction biz a lot longer than I have.

Experimentation expands the writer's mind!

www.ghostroadblues.com
www.jonathanmaberry.com

GENRE HOPPING

2007-12-13T10:54:00.000-08:00

WRITING ON THE RUN

I love switching genres. I started out writing nonfiction books on martial arts, then shifted that to write textbooks on women’s self-defense and safety awareness. That may sound like a similar type of book to the martial arts books, but it’s not. Different audience, different info, different style.

Then in 2001 I started writing about the things that go bump in the night and have since written four books on the folklore/legends of vampires, werewolves and other critters that get all bitey when the sun goes down. First it was THE VAMPIRE SLAYERS FIELD GUIDE TO THE UNDEAD (released under my one-time-only pen name of Shane MacDougall); then VAMPIRE UNIVERSE (Citadel Press, 2006); THE CRYPTOPEDIA (co-authored with David Kramer; released in 2007); and ZOMBIE CSU: The Forensics of the Living Dead (due out from Citadel in September 07)

In 2006 my first novel, GHOST ROAD BLUES, was published by Pinnacle Books. It was the lead-off to a trilogy of supernatural thrillers set in a fictional small Pennsylvania town of Pine Deep. It won the Bram Stoker Award for Best First Novel. The sequel, DEAD MAN’S SONG came out in July; and next May the series wraps with BAD MOON RISING.

This past weekend I just finished writing PATIENT ZERO, a totally new kind of book for me. It’s a bio-terrorism thriller in which a Baltimore detective (Joe Ledger) is recruited by a government agency (the DMS: Department of Military Sciences) to combat a terrorist group bent on releasing a plague.

Now, you may ask, isn’t switching genre supposed to be a risky move for an author? I don’t see it that way. After all, Stephen King has published books that are technically horror (SALEM’S LOT, THE SHINING), Young Adult fantasy (THE TALISMAN), adult fantasy (THE DARK TOWER series); science fiction (CARRIE, FIRESTARTER, THE CELL), urban fantasy (LISEY’S STORY), post-apocalyptic science fantasy (THE STAND), young adult dram (THE GIRL WHO LOVED TOM GORDON), and even suspense (MISERY). And a whole bunch of other stuff that would fit on a dozen different bookstore shelves.

For me, the shift to thrillers is a comfortable and necessary step. It’s where my muse is pointing me (or, perhaps, pushing me).

At the same time I’m experimenting with a young adult horror/comedy novel.

I love the freedom of movement, and I really dig the challenge of finding new voices for the characters living in my head.

Who knows what I’ll be writing in ten years. Maybe books on cooking or novels about fuzzy bunnies.

Hell...anything’s possible.

Jonathan Maberry
www.jonathanmaberry.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=803028269
MySpace: www.myspace.com/jonathan_maberry
Email: jonathan_maberry@yahoo.com

Character Point Of View

2007-12-11T12:16:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago I was giving a talk at a library to a group of folks who are working on breaking into the writing biz (and a few folks who just loitered in the back while I spoke). The Q&A part of the talk wandered onto the subject of character points of view.

One of the folks in the audience --a person who had read my first two novels, Ghost Road Blues and Dead Man’s Song—asked how I get inside the heads of the villainous characters. My novels (they’re books 1 and 2 of a trilogy that will wrap with Bad Moon Rising in May ’08) include a number of bad guys. One is a psychotic serial killer and gangster named Karl Ruger, known for savagely murdered a group of senior citizens. Another one, Vic Wingate, is an abusive stepfather who savagely beats his fourteen-year old stepson. Then there is a nutso religious fanatic named Tow-Truck Eddie who believes that the voice in his head is God telling him to murder the local paperboy. And the last is an immortal monster. Each of them is a total creep in his own way, and each of them do some very, very bad things.

I, on the other hand, am not a creep and I don’t do very bad things. So, how do I crawl inside the heads of bad guys? That was the topic of conversation.

The answer is both simple and complex. The simple answer is: that’s what writers do. After all a writer doesn’t have to share lifestyle paths, political views, gender, or any other qualities with their characters. J. K. Rowling isn’t an English schoolboy any more than Stephen King wasn’t a religiously oppressed teenage high school girl.

The more complex answer is based on what a writer deliberately does to improve his craft. Shifting points of view is a great exercise for writers (just as it is for actors, artists, etc.). It forces us to take a different psychological or emotional stance. It helps us see through other eyes.

I have a writing exercise based on point of view (POV) that I use with my writing students. Here’s an example of how it works:

I’ll describe something (since ‘tis the season, let’s pick a Christmas tree). Then I’ll ask my students to describe that tree in 1-3 paragraphs. Generally their descriptions will be based on their own takes on Christmas, and there’s a lot of variety there (a class with Christians, agnostics, Jews, etc. will yield substantially different results).

Then, every few minutes I tell them to start with a fresh sheet of paper and describe the Christmas tree as seen by:

· A burglar breaking into the house on Christmas Eve.
· A broken-hearted old woman sitting alone
· A cop at a crime scene
· A blind man who has just had successful surgery to restore his eyesight
· A serial killer
· A young man arriving at a house to pick up his date
· A Hindu visiting a co-worker’s house for dinner
· And so on...
With each new personality model the Christmas tree becomes a different thing because each of these characters could not possibly have the same reference points. The writer then has to imagine their thoughts/reactions/opinions, either based on pure imagination or on information and/or experiences with persons who might fight (to some degree) the models provided.

If you’re a writer give it a try. Feel free to post your version here in the comments section. It’ll definitely be interesting.

-Jonathan Maberry
www.jonathanmaberry.com

Write, Dammit!

2007-12-06T17:21:00.000-08:00

I’m a very disciplined writer. It’s my day job, so slouching around the house, watching zombie flicks, or playing Snood pretty much doesn’t get the job done...though I have palyed hookey a few times and done each of those things (sometimes all at once).

But for the most part I believe in establishing and maintaing good work habits. I write every day, and I did that long before writing became my 9-5 job. I’m a believer in that saying: “If you write every day you get better every day.” I roll out of bed around 7:30 and by 8-ish I’m at my desk. I set goals for myself –usually 4000 words per day. If I write more, that’s great, but it doesn’t mean I can write less tomorrow. On weekends I scale it back to about 1000 words.

I’m also pretty structured in my approach to storytelling. I’m a list maker and a devoted believer in the power of the Outline. Mind you, I do allow for a lot of flexibility. I write my outline first and then knock out some character profiles. Then I sit down and draft out a very rough ‘preliminary synopsis’ of what the finished book might be like. I like complicated storylines and deep-reaching character development, and that has to be planned to some degree.

However I have never finished a project that bears much resemblance to the original outline. Books are organic and they’ll change in the telling. The outline allows me to remember the underlying logic of the story, but I often let the characters drive the car.

Also, as you develop a scene there is an internal logic that often necessitates story changes you did not initially predict. This is cause and effect as applied to writing, and that allows the story to take on a pattern closer to reality.

When I started writing novels it took about a year and a half to finish one; now it takes 4 to 6 months, and the process has become a lot more fun, too.

BRIGHT YOUNG MINDS

2007-12-04T08:36:00.000-08:00

Today was another ‘Career Day’ outing for me. There’s an organization in Doylestown that brings professionals from a variety of fields in to middle schools to talk about what we do. We’re supposed to dress the way we dress for work, and to talk about the ups and downs of our jobs, and what newbies can expect.

If I were to actually wear what I normally wear to work -such as what I’m wearing at the moment—I think the schools might get a bit upset. I work from home. Currently I’m wearing gray-plaid fleece pajama bottoms, socks with a garish Christmas pattern, a black beater undershirt that’s seen better decades, and I have Irish punk music (the Pogues, Flogging Molly) cranked up loud enough to sterilize an elk. That’s me at work.

For the kids I put on jeans and a flannel shirt and even combed my hair.

These talks are a lot of fun. Really. Especially when you listen to what the kids have to say. They’re really bright little blighters. Smart, insightful, subtle, funny, and a lot savvier than I remember my 9th grade peer group ever being. I’m not sure when this evolutionary jump happened, but these kids would probably cream my generation on the SATs. Granted we could physically kick their asses, but that’s hardly a career talking point.

Usually I get a couple of these bright young ones to join one of my teen novel writing programs, and then I really get to see what ticks inside their brains. I’m always in awe of the young intellect and imagination. Wow.

Kids are smart. Who’da thunk it?

When Sane People See Weird Things

2007-12-02T07:27:00.000-08:00

Since early Fall of 2005 there have been a number of sightings of a strange dog-like creature roaming the fringes of various Bucks County, PA towns. The creature looks like a mix of dog, jackal, and kangaroo, and was dubbed ‘The Yardley Yeti’ by newspaper columnist J. D. Mullane (Bucks County Courier Times). Other folks are calling it The Lower Makefield Lurker (or Lower Makefield Monster), the Bucks County Boggart, and the New Hope Hyena.

Lower Makefield Police Chief Ken Coluzzi said that his department had fielded a lot of reports about the creature. Chief Coluzzi remarked: “The greatest part of this job is the unknown. We say that it’s the greatest show on earth. Just when you think you have seen and done it all-- 'bam' -- another bizarre encounter occurs. When I first overheard the conversations about a sighting of a mutant dog like creature I just laughed. Then the reports started coming in. Officers were called to various locations within my township to take reports of people who claim to have spotted it. They did not know what it was. Some called it a cross between a dog and a hyena. Others said a wolf dog, and others said it was a sick looking fox like creature. Others said a coyote.”

Now here’s where this story gets even weirder...I’ve not only seen it, I’ve taken photos of it. Considering that I write books about strange creatures, it seems wonderfully appropriate that I got a chance to not only see the thing, but to photograph it.

My wife, Sara Jo, and I were visiting the Michener Art Museum in New Hope, PA on October 30 of 2005. We had our camera with us (a Minolta D-Image digital). In the parking lot we saw a very odd-looking creature moving among the parked cars. It was brownish, with some gray, with an unhealthy-looking coat. The creature moved very quickly. Never aggressive in any way. It didn’t even take notice of us other than to continue moving away from us. It moved out of the parking lot and across the tracks of the Ivyland-New Hope line before finally disappearing into some brush. It made no sound, and didn’t even react when I made some noise to try and attract its attention. At a guess I’d put it at about 25-30 pounds, give or take.

After seeing the photos, Chief Coluzzi observed: “When I viewed the pictures you sent me I was truly amazed. It appeared to me to be a mix of all the descriptions. Whatever it is or turns out to be, I hope our suspicious creature likes us.”

If it’s a dog...then it is the weirdest mutt I ever saw. If it’s a fox, then the critter has been popping steroids. For a while I was convinced that it was a fox with mange or some other disease, but local vets and zoo personnel have disagreed and have said they’re not sure what it is.

I’ve since seen it twice more. Once in the parking lot of a Wegmen’s supermarket on 611 (in Warrington, PA) and again last night on Byberry Road in Northeast Philadelphia. I still don’t what the critter is.

To see photos of it, click on this link: http://www.vampireuniverse.com/yeti.htm

You tell me what it is!

WRITERS AND READERS

2007-11-30T13:16:00.000-08:00

One of the things I love best about the writing biz is the ‘author appearance’. Whether it’s a book signing, a lecture, a panel discussion, or a reading, I love either being in the crowd to meet one of my favorite authors or being the author sitting there at the table.

This weekend I’m going to get a chance to do a little of both.

Tonight my good buddy Jon McGoran will be signing books at the Doylestown Bookshop (Doylestown Bookshop; www.doylestownbookshop.com; 16 S Main St; Doylestown, PA 18901; 215/230-7610 ). Jon writes terrific forensics mysteries under the pen name of D. H. Dublin. His first book, BLOOD POISON, introduced rookie forensic investigator Madison Cross and it was one of these debut books that make it clear to anyone that this guy is going to have a real career: long, varied and interesting. His second book, BODY TRACE, just confirms what the rest of knew all along. It’s just as good and maybe even a little bit better. Come on up to Doylestown and meet this guy.

Then tomorrow I’ll be doing a reading and signing at Between Books; 2703 Philadelphia Pike; Claymont, DE 19703; www.betweenbooks.com; 302/798-3378. This is one of the best genre bookstores in the country. I always have a good time at the store. Aside from a great place for an author to meet readers it’s always my favorite place to shop for horror and SF, though like all good independent stores it carries just about everything of all genres.

The real jazz in these events, whether I’m there as reader or author is that everyone there has a shared love of books. Books of all kinds, and nowhere is that more clearly celebrated than at independent bookstores. The staff KNOW books and the LOVE books. You can talk books all day long.

Come on out and join us!

Exploring the Larger World

2007-11-29T11:44:00.000-08:00

Since I come from a background of magazine feature writing I have the writers’ knack of becoming obsessed with a topic –for a while. Aside from the martial arts books I’ve written, I’ve also written articles about dating, mixology, jazz, blues, film, gastropod farming (no, that’s not a typo), business, parenting, writing, technology, folklore and dozens of other topics. When I’m in research mode I want to know everything I can about a subject, and then I find that one element –the hook—that will give me something unique that I can pitch.

For books, I feel that I’ve kind of ‘been there, done that’ with martial arts. I’ve been an active jujutsu practitioner for 46 years now and I’ve written extensively about it. In 2002 I ‘moved on’ from that topic and became more fully enmeshed in folklore, which has always been a passion of mine. I suppose it’s the closest thing to an abiding ‘obsession’ with me. There’s so much to say on the subject, even within my area of specialty, which is the folklore of the occult and paranormal.

My first book on that subject was The Vampire Slayers’ Field Guide to the Undead, which is the only book I ever did under a pen name (that of Shane MacDougall, an alter ego I’ve since bumped off).

That book gave me a taste for the supernatural and after I landed my agent I gave her a proposal for a new book on vampire folklore, VAMPIRE UNIVERSE, which is a collection of folklore and myths about vampires and other monsters from around the world and throughout history. That was bought by Citadel Press and bfore I’d even finished writing it the deal got tweaked and expanded so that I was suddenly under contract to write three more books in the same, um…’vein’.

The second in that series, THE CRYPTOPEDIA (co-authored with David F. Kramer) just debuted on September 1 and we’ve been touring bookstores doing talks and panel discussions. That one is an occult/paranormal dictionary covering thirteen different subject areas (from divination to UFOs).

The final two in that series are tentatively titled THEY BITE! (which discussed supernatural predators) and VAMPIRE HUNTERS AND OTHER ENEMIES OF EVIL, scheduled for release in 2009 and 2010 respectively.

In 2008 I’m diverting from folklore for a pop culture monster book: ZOMBIE CSU: The Forensic Science of the Living Dead, also for Citadel, in which I ask real-world experts in forensics, law enforcement, medicine, and science how they might react and respond to zombies (of the Night of the Living Dead variety).

One of the really fun aspects to this research is that I get to pick the brains of world-class folklorists, anthropologists, scientists, historians, as well as authors, artists and filmmakers. It’s a horror-buff’s dream job!

Cool websites to check out: www.vampireuniverse.com (for info, art and cool facts on vampires, werewolves and other things that go bump in our collective night.) There’s even a page for the Yardley Yeti, our very own mysterious creature from here in Bucks County, PA.

www.zombiecsu.com and www.myspace.com/zombiecsu for more on the fothcoming ZOMBIE CSU book. Not much stuff there now, but bookmark it...by summer 2008 it will be zombie central!

Hanging Out with the Ghosts in My Head

2007-11-28T08:29:00.000-08:00

For the last few years I’ve been living in a different reality with folks that don’t really exist. And I kind of miss them. I’m getting separation anxiety.

After nearly thirty years as a writer of nonfiction articles and books I broke into fiction with my 2006 novel GHOST ROAD BLUES, the first of a trilogy of supernatural thrillers set in the fictional town of Pine Deep, Pennsylvania. (And yes, for those of you who have asked...Pine Deep is based on New Hope, PA). The trilogy continued with DEAD MAN’S SONG (released from Pinnacle Books in July) and will conclude with BAD MOON RISING in May 2008.

The thing is...all three books are written, the story is told and I’ve moved on. I’m now writing bio-terrorism thrillers for St. Martin’s Press. And though I’m loving the new book and the new cast of characters I miss that group of people I got to know in Pine Deep. You see, to me the characters are the most important part of any story. If I don’t bond with the characters (whether good or vile) I don’t become invested in the book. That’s as true for me as a writer as it is as a reader, and I felt that Malcolm Crow, Val Guthrie, Mike Sweeney, Terry Wolfe, Willard Fowler Newton, Jonatha Corbiel, Frank Ferro, Vince LaMastra and Dr. Saul Weinstock were real people. I cared about them...even the ones I eventually kill off as the series unfolds.

Recently Michaela Hamilton, my editor at Pinnacle, sent me the copy edit manuscript of Bad Moon Rising to review and make some changes. It was the first time I’d read the book since I’d wrapped it up many moons ago, and revisiting the creepy ol’ town of Pine Deep and spending time with the characters again was strangely moving. It was fun, and sad (‘cause I really do kill a bunch of them off and then have to leave all of them again.

Who knows, maybe like a guest who doesn’t want to leave a party I’ll pretend I’ve forgotten my car keys and use it as an excuse to revisit Pine Deep. One of these days.

Zombies Ate My Brains

2007-11-27T12:12:00.000-08:00

After a break of nearly 18 years I’ve recently drifted back into the world of short story writing and this week my first short story ever to appear in an anthology has hit the stands in HISTORY IS DEAD, edited by Kim Paffenroth for Permuted Press (ISBN-10: 0978970799).

The anthology is made up of zombie stories that take place prior to the 20th century, and my contribution is “Pegleg and Paddy Save the World”, which deals with bootleggers, gangsters, zombies, a cow, and the Chicago Fire.

The whole anthology is a hoot, with wildly weird stories by authors ranging from established horror writers to talented newbies.

I mention all of this (aside from plugging the book for the nice folks at Permuted Press) because it speaks to a side of the writing mentality that a lot of folks don’t know about. We writers are, by nature, schizophrenic. We have multiple personalities speaking in our heads all the time. For Joe Ordinary this would be a cry for help and a reason to keep a loaded syringe of Thorazine handy; but for writers it’s just another day on the job.

Not only do we hear voices (and no, it isn’t God speaking through a dog telling us to shoot people), those voices carry on conversations. They don’t so much speak to us as to each other. Scenes suddenly start playing in our heads and we listen in and then write them down. It’s like a DVD player suddenly starting on its own. I get some of my best stuff when I’m in the shower. Apparently shampooing my hair does something to stimulate my inner cast of characters to start talking.

Ray Bradbury once told me: “Writing is 99% thinking and the rest is typing.” It took me a while but I get that now. The voices in my head have always understood this.

This relates to zombies as follows: The fiction I’ve been writing has been moody, threatening, and very serious. Some humor, sure, but it’s end of the world stuff because that’s what the interior voices are saying to me. When I sit down to write short stories, however, it’s an entirely different set of interior voices talking to me. And those voices are, apparently, a bunch of smart-asses. “Pegleg and Paddy Save the World” is a smartass comedy story. Not at all doom and gloom; and it came from some part of my head that I hadn’t know existed.

I can’t wait to hear what the voices have to tell me next. I think I’ll go take a shower and listen.

Don't Be Scared...it's Just Horror

2007-11-26T07:03:00.000-08:00

I’m gonna rant a little here.

The horror industry –especially where books are concerned—have gotten a bum rap. You tell most folks that you write horror and they look at you like you just said that you eat puppies.

People think that all horror is torture porn, slasher stuff, and buckets o’gore. Admittedly those elements may play into some horror, but that doesn’t define the genre. In fact, defining the genre is difficult to do when you consider that The Turn of the Screw (Henry James), The Haunting of Hill House (Shirley Jackson), The Exorcist (William Peter Blatty), and Rosemary’s Baby (Ira Levin) are no less ‘horror’ novels than Off Season (Jack Ketchum), ‘Salem’s Lot (Stephen King), Headstone City (Tom Piccirilli), Monster Island (David Wellington) or The Rising (Brian Keene).

It’s often been discussed that ‘horror’ as a genre label doesn’t quite cover it. Not all horror fiction is horrifying (The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold won the 2002 First Novel Bram Stoker Award). Not all horror fiction involves the supernatural (Silence of the Lambs won the 1989 Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel).

It’s been suggested a few times that ‘suspense’ would be a better word, or perhaps ‘thriller’; though those labels are mainly used by sub-genres of the mystery/crime fiction or action fiction markets.

I see ‘horror’ as suspenseful storytelling that may (or may not) include elements of mystery, suspense, supernatural, gore, violence, humor, passion, romance, science fiction or fantasy. And about fifty other genre elements. Horror can be edgy and raw and it can be elegant and sophisticated. Horror can be visceral or it can be entirely psychological. Horror can be shocking or it can be a slow burn. Horror can be grim or it can be funny. Horror can be niche market and it can be mainstream.

What defines horror most is good storytelling. If you haven’t read horror before, or haven’t given it a chance, be fair (and treat yourself). Start with one of the anthologies, like Stephen Jones’ Mammoth Book of Best New Horror Vol. 18 or The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 2007: 20th Annual Collection (Year's Best Fantasy and Horror) edited by Kelly Link, Gavin Grant, and Ellen Datlow. Start with the short fiction –which will allow you to sample the writing of a lot of different horror writers (and some of the name’s may be surprisingly familiar to you!).

Then, when you find a short story that grabs you, that speaks to you...go out and find one of their novels. Take a chance. Horror may not be what you think...but once you experience it...it will be what you think about.

And check out this link: www.horror.org.

See you tomorrow.
Jonathan
www.jonathanmaberry.com
www.myspace.com/jonathan_maberry

THE UGLY FIRST DRAFT

2007-11-23T08:41:00.000-08:00

A writer has to believe in himself and in the quality of his work. From my students and clients I often hear people start off by telling me, “It’s not good, but...”.

I threaten to throw things at them if they say that. (I might even be serious about that, too. Never can tell with guys like me.)

The truth is that we writers have to believe that what we write is good. Very good. Good enough to be bought, to be read, and to be appreciated. If we don’t value our work, no one else will.

It’s also smart in terms of business to place a high value on our writing. You don’t see car companies advertising their new models by saying: “It’s a junker that’ll break down every six blocks.” No, they are proud of their new cars and they make damn sure everyone hears about it.

This doesn’t mean that we can slam out something filled with errors and needing revision and say: “I wrote it, accept it as is.” It’s important for us to value ourselves enough to have the patience and clarity of vision needed to refine the product until it is market-ready. But even a knobbly, awkward first draft has real value --if it’s a COMPLETE first draft. That is a real accomplishment. From them on it’s revision and polish. No matter how crappy the first draft (and every first draft reeks a bit) there’s nothing in it that can’t be fixed, repaired, expanded, trimmed, retooled or otherwise improved.

The thing to remember is that there is a difference between ‘storytelling’ and ‘good writing’. Storytelling is all gut and imagination and intuition. You’re born with that or you’re not. Good writing on the other hand is the acquired understanding of the craft of languaging; grammar, style, structure, and all of the other techniques of writing. One is art, the other is craft. Smart writers seldom try to do both at the same time; they get the story out fast and dirty, and then they go in and let a different part of their brain pretty it up.

Networking Mojo for Writers

2007-11-22T09:16:00.000-08:00

I run a writers center called The Writers Corner USA (www.writerscornerusa.com), is located in a set of tiny offices in Doylestown, PA. Once a month we have this free event called The Coffeehouse, which is a no rules, no agenda networking session for writers of any kind and of any level of success (from absolute I-just-picked-up-a-pen-for-the-first-time newbies to seasoned pros with multiple books on the market.)

What we do is brew a pot of alarmingly strong coffee, dig into some doughnuts (gotta have fried and sugared carbs) and just chat about the writing life. Sometimes the mix has more beginners and then those of us who have publishing history field questions and share advice, leads, etc. Sometimes its a more even mix of newbies and pros and in those sessions everyone’s talking about some news, gossip, insight, accomplishment or opinion related to the writing life.

This whole thing came about when a bunch of my writer friends and I were sitting around drinking coffee and talking about writing. I said that it would be cool if there was a regular event called Writers Sitting Around Talking About Writing...With Coffee. That title kind of morphed into “The Writers Coffeehouse”.

Cool thing is...people have been getting real career boosts from this little java shindig. As a result of networking we’ve seen book deals, people signing with agents, collaborations forming, and a lot of traction and forward career momentum for the folks who trek to Doylestown to join us.

Won’t cost you a dime. The parking’s even free. So, if you’re in the area on the last Sunday of every month, from 12 to 2:30, then drop on by and share in the networking mojo. Oh, and if you don’t my coffee, there’s a Starbucks one short block away.

If you can’t make it...a comment for the crew (or a question) and I’ll read them at this month’s Coffeehouse.

See you there!
Jonathan
www.jonathanmaberry.com
www.writerscornerusa.com

The Legend Behind I AM LEGEND

2007-11-21T06:38:00.000-08:00

In 7th grade (1973) I was moved out of the regular English class and essentially given to the school librarian. It wasn’t a punishment...I was just a book nut at thirteen and I was in a school where most of the other kids (and a lot of the teachers, as far as I could tell) thought books and reading were about as much fun as being nibbled on by rats. Or maybe the librarian needed an Igor. Hard to say.

She turned out to be the secretary for a couple of groups of professional writers, and once I got permission from my parents to accompany her, she dragged me along to their monthly get-togethers. They definitely needed an Igor, and so once a month for the next few years I made coffee, fetched beers, and hustled chips and dip for guys like Sprague De Camp, Lin Carter, John Jakes, Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, and a bunch of others.

And though all of those writers were (and in some cases still are) literary powerhouses, two of them took some time to sit me down and tell me about how stories are created and crafted. And each of them gave me signed copies of their books. I’m delighted that both of them are still alive and well today: Richard Matheson and Ray Bradbury. I was incredibly fortunate in that as a young teenager I got to meet them, and both of these great writers took some time to talk with me about writing, about imagination, and about thinking outside the box. I’m not joking when I say that it was life-changing.

Bradbury gave me a signed copy of Something Wicked This Way Comes. The one he gave me is put away, but I read a copy of that book every year on Halloween.

Matheson rocked my world when he gave me a copy of I Am Legend when I was fourteen. He told me to read that one and The Shrinking Man. These books were my introduction to allegory, social commentary, and the subtle underpinnings that make genre fiction so much more than most people give it credit for. I Am Legend, though a very short novel, opened my mind up and truly showed me what thinking outside the box meant.

I wonder if the new Will Smith film interpretation will do it justice?

To catch the I Am Legend trailer, click here: http://iamlegend.warnerbros.com/

Inspiration and where to find it

2007-11-20T09:13:00.000-08:00

In a recent interview I was asked: Where do you find your inspirations to write?

There are two ways to answer that. Like most writers I have more ideas in my head than I’ll ever have time to write. It’s funny, but one of the most common questions writers are asked is ‘Where do you get your ideas? and another is ‘Aren’t you afraid you’ll ever run out of ideas?’. A writer would never even think to ask those questions because there is always a process of creation going on in the writers’ mind. Always...it never stops. My characters begin conversations in my head. Scenes take place. For most people this would be a psychological cry for help and Thorazine might be called-for; but to a writer this is another happy day on the job.

On the other hand, specific bursts of inspiration generally come from observing life as one passes through it. Writers observe all the time, and we think about what we observe –sometimes consciously and deliberately, and sometimes subconsciously. We listen in on conversations –not to be rude, but to hear how people speak, how they relate to one another, and how they edit themselves depending on whom they’re talking with. More than once folks have seen me just standing and being quiet at a party and have mistaken that for shyness or ‘being lost in my thoughts’, but in reality I’m very present and am trying to absorb as much of what’s going on as possible. Life, when closely observed, teaches us nearly everything we need to know about making good stories and real characters.

You can read the full interview here: http://ambasadora.livejournal.com/149321.html

Swing by to say hello: www.jonathanmaberry.com and on MySpace: www.myspace.com/jonathan_maberry

Author Jonathan Maberry

2007-09-11T20:54:00.000-07:00

JONATHAN MABERRY
http://www.jonathanmaberry.com/
www.myspace.com/jonathan_maberry

Jonathan Maberry is the Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Ghost Road Blues (Pinnacle Books, 2006), first of a trilogy of thrillers with a supernatural bite. Publishers Weekly called it “Horror on a grand scale...reminiscent of Stephen King’s heftier works.”

Jonathan’s second novel, Dead Man’s Song, was released from Pinnacle, and the trilogy will conclude with Bad Moon Rising in 2008. He recently signed a major three-book deal with St. Martin’s Press to write a series of bio-terrorism thrillers that will introduce a new action hero, Joe Ledger; the first book in that series, Patient Zero, is tentatively scheduled for release in early 2009.

He is a professional writer and writing teacher and since 1979 has sold more than 1000 articles, seventeen nonfiction books, six novels, as well as short stories, poetry, song lyrics, video scripts, and two plays.

His nonfiction works include Vampire Universe: The Dark World of Supernatural Beings That Hunt Us, Haunt Us and Hunger For Us (Citadel Press, 2006), and The Cryptopedia: A Dictionary of the Weird, Strange and Downright Bizarre (Citadel, 2007); Zombie CSU: The Forensic Science of the Living Dead (to be release 2008); They Bite (2009); and Vampire Hunters and Other Enemies of Evil (2010). Jonathan is also the author of The Vampire Slayers’ Field Guide to the Undead (under the pen name of Shane MacDougall; the book was released in 2001).

Jonathan is the Executive Director of The Career Doctor for Writers (www.careerdoctorforwriters.com), which provides workshops, classes and editorial services for writers of all genres. He tours libraries and independent bookstores giving his Careers in Writing lecture to packed houses. Jonathan is a speaker for the National Writers Union, a former Board Member of the Philadelphia Writers Conference, and an active member of SFWA, MWA, and HWA. Jonathan is also the co-founder of The Wild River Review, an online literary magazine (http://www.wildriverreview.com/).

Jonathan is frequent writers conference speaker and has appeared at PennWriters, PhilCon, the Greater Lehigh Valley Writers Conference, Romance Writers of America, LunaCon, University of Pennsylvania Writers Conference, and many others and in 2007 will appear at Backspace and the Philadelphia Writers Conference, among others.

Jonathan is a founding partner of The Writers Corner USA at 4 West Oakland Avenue, Doylestown, PA 18901 (www.writerscornerusa.com), a writers’ education center. The Writers Corner provides classes and workshops on the craft and business of

In 2004 Jonathan was inducted into the International Martial Arts Hall of Fame largely because of his extensive writings in that field. His martial arts books include E.S.M: Effective Survival Methods (Vortex Multimedia, 1985); Introduction to Asian Martial Arts (Vortex Multimedia, 1986); The Self-Defense Instructor’s Handbook (Vortex Multimedia, 1990); Judo and You (Kendall Hunt, 1991); Ultimate Jujutsu Principles and Practices (Strider Nolan, 2002); The Martial Arts Student Logbook (Strider Nolan, 2002); Ultimate Sparring Principles and Practices (Strider Nolan, 2003).

Websites:
http://www.jonathanmaberry.com/
http://www.ghostroadblues.com/
www.myspace.com/jonathan_maberry
http://www.vampireuniverse.com/
http://www.writerscornerusa.com/