What I've Been Up To In 2013

At the end of the last couple of years I've made a habit of summing up my annum of literary endeavors. In 2013 a handful of my stories and novels managed to make it into print. Here's the round-up:

 One Foot in My Grave

September Peterson has received death sentences many times from well-meaning doctors speaking in hushed tones. Living with cystic fibrosis means that he'll die from cystic fibrosis--a long and excruciating death--unless, by tempting fate, he can find a quicker, faster way to go.

When September's cheerleader fiancee dumps him for a college man, September picks fast cars, motorcycles, and hard alcohol to do the trick, then witnesses his life unravel into a series of death defying encounters--all the while battling his own inner demons.

OK Corral Article

This extremely short article appeared in Science Fiction Trails #10.

Weird Worlds of Joel Jenkins

From an ancient temple in the icy Martian mountains to a forbidden road haunted by the ghost of an Indian brave, this collection of tales will take you on a thrilling journey. Meet vampire hunters, a rock musician who takes on the heavyweight champion of the world, the reluctant warrior of the mystical land of Saffronyia, giant Nazi robots, and the Mormon gunfighter Porter Rockwell ... as well as a few hungry apes and one very lovely assassin.

Strange Trails

This contains a Lone Crow story titled The Steam Devil (written by me), not to mention a Mr. Brass story by Josh Reynolds and some other awesome stuff.

Six-Guns & Space Ships

This contains a nifty tale, Shootout at Hangar 2112, about Captain Barclay and his motley crew of intrepid spaceway salvagers, who find themselves on a hit list, and besieged by deadly bounty hunters from the dark corners of the galaxy.

Jim Anthony: Super Detective #4

The classic pulp character Jim Anthony returns in a collection of stories which includes The Scream Hammer, in which Anthony uncovers a Nazi plot, a secret super weapon, and scrambles to save the love of his life.

The Gantlet Brothers: Sold Out

When one of the infamous Gantlet Brothers is slain in an assassination that was intended to kill them all, the remaining brothers go on the warpath. From the sunny shores of Puerto Rico to the dank back alleys of London, and behind the Iron Curtain of communist Czechoslovakia, the Gantlets hunt the cadre of assassins responsible for their brother’s death, uncovering conspiracies and plots as they work their way back to the criminal warlord that is behind it all.

The PulpWork Christmas Special 2013

I contributed the fourth and final story, The Shadow Killers, to this collection. in which cold-hearted assassin Monica Killingsworth finds herself the reluctant, but extremely well paid, escort of a small child and becomes the target of merciless killers ... some of which she has worked with before. 

Robots Unleashed

And coming in just under the wire for 2013 is Robots Unleashed! which includes a tale about expert escape artist, The Eel, and master of disguise, The Adder, as well as giant Nazi robots.

That makes 2 novels, 1 collection, 1 article, and 5 novellas and short stories to see print this year. Not too bad for a worthless layabout like myself. Next year I've got just one book scheduled, the highly anticipated (and by that I mean at least four people have mentioned they are looking forward to it) Lone Crow collection of weird west stories, The Coming of Crow. What else 2014 will bring only heaven knows.

The Dark Side to Promotions

The problem with running a free Kindle promotion on a book is that a lot of readers who wouldn't normally read the book because it's not their cup of tea, pick it up for free and then trash it in an Amazon review because it's not their cup of tea.  This can happen across genres--for an example a reader who hates romance novels, tries one out at no cost, and then savages it because it has too much romance and not enough action. It can also happen with subgenres.

My Dire Planet series fits into the broad genre of Science Fiction, but the genre contains everything from Space Opera (action-oriented stories against the backdrop of space) to hard science fiction (stories more concerned with exploring a scientific theory or principle). Dire Planet falls  into the Space Opera end of the spectrum, and more specifically into the subgenres known as Planetary Romance or Sword & Science Fiction, as I like to call it. After a free promotion one reader ripped it for "taking the science out of science fiction." Clever enough, and perhaps I'll use that in a promotional blitz. However, the books were never intended to be an exploration of science fact or theory.

Again, the Thriller genre covers a broad range of subgenres and my Gantlet Brothers series falls into the Action-Adventure end of that or what some term New Pulp, which indicates fast-paced story with plenty of action. One reader who sampled The Nuclear Suitcase (the first book of the series) at no cost slammed it as "awful" and said there was too much action, and the idea of mercenary/rockstars was ludicrous. Maybe, but remember the 90's when rappers were running around shooting each other? Normally, a reader who thought the idea of a book was ludicrous would read another book, but since they're getting a book for free they read something they're predisposed to dislike and gleefully tear it apart. A reader who thinks the idea of gun-toting rock musicians might be cool, instead of hating the concept, will be more likely to post a favorable review.

The occupational hazards of a writer (or any other creative person) putting their work into the public arena are the folks that are predisposed to dislike the sort of art you are creating, and those who just plain get their kicks out of tearing down what others have built, because it's easier than building something themselves. Exposing yourself to the critical darts of the general public may seem like a fair trade to somebody that is pulling in a hundred thousand dollars or more for a novel, but the vast majority of creatively-inclined people are doing it for the love of their art, and making a few pennies an hour for their efforts. For those of us in the latter category, it might seem a safer pursuit to create our works of art and cloister them away on our hard-drives, in our desk drawers, away from the public eye--or perhaps we can avoid the trolls looking for free fodder for their condescendence by pricing our work so that only those inclined to like it will view it? Each author will have to weigh in balance the pros and cons of the added exposure of a book giveaway versus the  resultant negativity that is sure to result as well.

At any rate, as I muddle through various promotional efforts the latest book from PulpWork Press, the PulpWork Christmas Special 2013, which contains a Christmas story be me as well as authors Percival Constantine, Josh Reynolds, and Russ Anderson, Jr. seems to have garnered a couple of nice reviews in the Cedar Rapids Examiner and in the Noir Journal.  The good reviews help to balance out the bad.

PulpWork Christmas Special 2013

Merry Christmas! December 25th through December 29th download a free Kindle copy of The PulpWork Christmas Special 2013 on Amazon.com.

Here's a description of the PulpWork Christmas Special:

Four tales of yuletide murder and mayhem from the mighty pens of Josh Reynolds, Russ Anderson Jr, Percival Constantine, and Joel Jenkins. 

The Third Death of Henry Antrim: Royal Occultist Charles St. Cyprian and his companion-in-arms, the lovely, gun-toting, and slightly bloodthirsty Ebe Gallowglass, discover murder most foul, a holy relic in the form of a Colt .45 pistol, and an evil sprung up from the wildlands of the weird west. 

The Wild Hunt: When the vulpine changeling Asami encounters a restless spirit wandering the icy slopes of Kurodake, Japanese legend clashes with Norse mythology and she finds herself caught up in the midst of a mythic hunt. 

Malcom Destroys Christmas: A seven-year-old boy swears vengeance upon Santa Claus and the malign menace known only as Krampus decides to enlist him in a dastardly plot against Father Christmas. 

The Shadow Killers: Cold-hearted assassin Monica Killingsworth finds herself the reluctant, but extremely well paid, escort of a small child and becomes the target of merciless killers, some of which she has worked with before. But Killingsworth knows a thing or three about assassination and bullets, blood, and bombs fly on Christmas day.

The Book Caves Sells Out

Ric Croxton, Art Sippo and their respective alter egos, the welterweight boxing champion Ricardo Croxton and the concierge for the Black Cemetery hotel Arturo Sippo, recently interviewed an obscure writer named Joel Jenkins on their Book Cave Podcast.

The discussion largely revolved around the third book in the Gantlet Brother series, The Gantlet Brothers: Sold Out, and the bloody demise of one or more of those brothers.  Give it a listen!

Letting Characters Choose Their Destiny

Kurt Vonnegut famously gave the piece of writing advice that, "Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water." By adhering to this maxim my writing has yielded some interesting and surprising results.

Every minor character passing through the panoply of your story's background will have dreams and desires. Some of these desires may be just as simple as wishing for a drink of cool water and others will be much more complicated. Most of these characters are destined to be just bit players in your drama, but one of the most fun and interesting things about being an author is watching these bit players as they begin to assert themselves and follow their own agenda and desires. It's your job as an author to allow them to assert their independence and follow their own path.

Their own path may lead them right out of the story you are telling or, to your surprise, it may lead right into the story you are telling. What do you do with these hangers-on who are muddying up your story? I say that you let them right in and see where their desires and dreams take them. It may surprise you.

In my own writing, the former cannibal Naegrik inserted himself into the story line of Exiles of the Dire Planet. He started out as a minor character, a Galbran who was hanging in a pesthule larder that Garvey and Ntashia Dire were attempting to escape. He begged for help and though Garvey had just slain hundreds of Galbran in a terrifically bloody battle, he showed mercy upon the unfortunate fellow and that was the moment that Garvey gained one of his best and most loyal friends, who would be with him through the events of Into the Dire Planet, Strange Gods of the Dire Planet, and Lost Tribes of the Dire Planet. I didn't know it at the time.

In my own ignorance of Naegrik's true intentions I thought he might run away at first opportunity, perhaps never to be seen again or perhaps to bring down an enemy Galbran patrol upon Garvey's head at the most inopportune moment. Instead, I let Naegrik dictate it his own actions and it turned out that he had been greatly impressed by Garvey Dire's act of mercy--something he had never seen nor imagined among the Galbran people.  It took some time to win over Garvey's wife, who was highly suspicious of Naegrik's motives, and Naegrik has had a great struggle to convince the people of the Muvari Tribe to accept him. Readers have been more quick to accept Naegrik, and a number of them have let me know that Naegrik is one of their favorite characters--not bad for an incidental encounter and a character that thrust himself into the narrative.

Another Dire Planet character that thrust herself into the narrative--to my great surprise and chagrin--is the flame-haired exile Tredia. She was exiled from her own people for crimes against them and took part in the horrific raid upon the Muvari city of Ledgrim. I thought she was completely self-serving with no thought for anyone but herself, and she was ... but being the lone survivor of that raid had given her time to reflect upon the pitiful state of her existence and her evil actions and she attempted to broker a deal with Garvey Dire--not an entirely unselfish action, but it put her on a path to redemption, which seemed to cemented when she helped the Muvari fend off a pesthule invasion in the teeth of a storm.  I'm not entirely sure where Tredia's path is taking her in future Dire Planet novels ... I'll let her dictate that.

Non-writers (and even some writers) may read the preceding paragraphs and think I've got a mental screw or two loose, to think that some figment of my imagination should be able to dictate its own fate. They may be right; it takes a special kind of crazy to sit down day after day and gather those figments of imagination together into some sort of coherent story.  Yet, writers who adhere too closely to their outlines and who close out the possibilities of incidental characters taking an important role in the narrative are denying themselves some fascinating arcs of character development.