From Our Family to Yours

Merry Christmas!!!!

Angry Robot Books

This has been blogged and tweeted, but just in case you haven't heard yet, Angry Robot Books are having an "Open Door Month" in March of 2011. They will be accepting submissions from unagented authors for the first time! What a great opportunity for newbie authors.

They are looking for genre fiction (no novellas, short stories or non-fiction) specifically fantasy, science fiction, horror and "all urban or modern fantasy." They also say they're looking for all types of sub-genre, hard SF, cyberpunk, future crime, and they'd love if you mashed two genres together. They are looking for novels that are finished and completely polished.

They have clear submission guidelines on their site, Q and A as well as tips on pitching your novel.

Visit ANGRY ROBOTS for all the details and good luck!!! :)

Believable Evil

I’ve learned a lot a the conventions and conferences I've attended in the last few years and I'd like to share the best bits on my blog whenever I get the time. Today’s post is from a panel at VCON in 2008, my first convention ever. Lucky for me, there were two author guests of honour that year, Kelley Armstrong and Patrick Rothfuss. My experiences at this convention led me to start writing seriously.

In a panel called “Believable Evil,” four panellists discussed evil characters in speculative fiction. Here are some key points I picked up from this panel:

1.  Evil people don’ t consider themselves evil. This is what makes them believable.

2.  A “good” villain needs clear motivation that not only makes sense to them, the reader can also kind of see their point, even if it’s not necessarily understandable to them.

3.  A villain thinks everyone else is the bad guys. They think they are in the right.

4.  Things that you don’t expect about or from a villain will make them believable. (ie, they love their dog, they treasure their time with their ailing mother)

5.  Avoid the typical rut of fantasy of an ‘evil sorcerer’ trying to destroy the world or the narcissistic villain who’s mean to his minions. Nasty people are good to their friends too.The reader needs to be able to relate to the villain.

Some of the best advice I’ve read on creating great villains can be found on Alexandra Sokoloff’s blog. As a screenwriter and novelist, Alexandra dishes out tricks of screenwriting for the author and that includes how to write an incredible villain. I highly recommend checking out her two part series.

What Makes a Great Villain Part One

What Makes a Great Villain Part Two

Another great resource is The Fire in Fiction by top New York agency owner Donald Maass. Among other excellent advice, he goes into great detail about how to develop your protagonist into a believable character.

I hope these pointers help you develop your villains into believable characters! 

8 Week Virtual Bootcamp

Want to get in better shape in 2011?

Well, all right then!! Here's your chance to start it off right. This 8 week Virtual Bootcamp is for anyone and everyone looking to improve their levels of health and fitness.

Why not kick off the year with a personalized workout program, including weekly check-ins and inspirational messages to keep you motivated throughout!

The bootcamp will be done entirely online via email. The group will start on the same day, but each participant will receive a personalized cardio and weight training program, suited to their goals, needs and schedule. The program can be designed for the gym, or to be done entirely at home, for as many or as few workouts per week as the particpant would like.

You can do the program on your own, or join in the private message board and connect with other participants. Progress will be monitored by photographs at the beginning, mid-way point and conclusion, as well as weekly email check-ins. Programs will be modified if and when needed.

Start date: January 9th, 2011

Cost: Only $95!
(this is a steal of a deal!!)

The Virtual Bootcamp will include:
An 8 Week Personalized Weight Program
An 8 Week Personalized Cardio Program
Weekly Participant Check-ins
Physique Check and Program Reviews Throughout
Extra Motivational Tools and Tips Throughout
Group Support via a Private Discussion Board

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Would you like to start 2011 off with a bang?

Sign up NOW ! Visit my website to sign up, message me or email me at sandrawickham@live.ca

Note: Space is limited.
Please note: Deadline for sign up is January 4, 2011 in order to give me time to get all the information I need from you to design your program for the start date.

Famously Rejected

As writers we spend a lot of time doubting ourselves. Are we talented enough? Is this idea terrible? Will everyone hate it? Would a publisher ever want it? And that's before we even send it out. Then the question becomes, how many rejections can I take?

I haven't been in the game long enough to have sent much out, but I've made a collection of stories of rejection turned success, to make myself feel better in preparation for those down times. I thought some of you might like these as well.

James Patterson's first novel was turned down by 31 publishers, then the novel went on to win an Edgar as the best first mystery of the year. His fir first best seller came 16 years later.

John Grisham's first novel "A Time to Kill" was rejected by 16 agents and a dozen publishers. He becaem the best-selling author of "the Firm and "the Pelican Brief." "A Time to Kill" was republished in 1992 and made into a movie in 1996.

Earlene Fowler wrote 150 short stories that were rejected before having her first novel published. (now has 6 books published)

The Tale of Peter Rabbit was turned down so many times, Beatrix Potter initially self-published it.

Stephen King's first novel Carrie received dozens of rejections.

William Golding's Lord of the Flies was rejected by 20 publishers.

J.K. Rowling's first Harry Potter book was rejected by a dozen publishers, including Penguin and HarperCollins.

Feel better? Good. Keep writing, keep submitting and don't let rejection stop you. :)

Inkpunks

Just a quick blog, to blog about our other blog..  www.inkpunks.com where I blog with six other writing friends, taking turns posting about writing, our journey, the creation process or whatever comes to mind. We started this blog in October and it's been a great experience so far. We've introduced guest bloggers now, each taking a turn inviting someone to guest post on our site. Our first guest blog was posted on Friday, by the author of Mr. Shivers, Robert J Bennet.

He's written a fantastic blog about the vulnerability of authors and how to deal with that within the publishing industry. I highly recommend checking it out, just click here. Tomorrow it's my turn to post, so you know, you might want to come by the site again tomorrow. ;)

It is a silly man who spends his nights worrying about his problems, for in the morning he is tired, and his problems remain unchanged.

- Old Icelandic Proverb

Dental Update

Thanks everyone for your well wishes and cringes at my dental surgery. (this blog goes out to my wordpress, blogger, goodreads and livejournal, so I got lotsa love..) My face is pretty swollen, I look like I'm storing food for an emergency meal later. Still tired, it's amazing how much something like that can wear on your body, as well as the energy it takes to heal itself, but I'm getting back to normal. No, I'm not posting any pictures of my chipmunk cheek. :P

Dental Surgery Day

Need I say more? This has been a nightmare. I had a root canal on this tooth in May. It took TWO sessions, (4 needles, 2 hours long, drilling, scrapping, removing roots each time..) plus of course the temporary filling and then crown. But I still had pain. I went back, he shaved down the crown, just in case. I went back. He did it again, then told me, we'd have to do the root canal again. My reaction, of course, was to freak out. He said, it's no big deal. Apparently to him, no big deal was another 4 needles and over an hour of drilling and scrapping. After, still pain. Let's try antiobiotics. Did that, went back, still pain.

So, now I'm going to an Endodontist today. This is what I'm having done. YES, I am sharing these photos so that you too can cringe and experience a bit of my pain. You're welcome.



With so many dentist appointments, I do have my coping mechanisms well set in place.

While at the dentist:

1. I have a book in my hands at all times to disappear into at any opportunity, and probably clutch throughout the procedure. (I usually take The Last Unicorn by Peter S Beagle)

2. I have my ipod with relaxing music on it.

3. I'll be wearing my own sunglasses to cut down the blaring light in my face.

I also have a plan that helps me by having something to look forward to and to make myself better when I get home.

1. I'm taking the rest of the day off.

2. I have my latest crochet project by the bed.

3. My Buffy discs are cued and ready to go.

4. I have protein shakes and bendy straws at the ready.

5. I'm blogging about it so lots of people will send their wishes and sympathy. ;)

IF you don't hear from me again, please, remember me fondly. Then track down these *bleeping* dentists and kill them.

Thank you.

Electric Velocipede

At the World Fantasy convention, I grabbed a free t-shirt from John Klima of Electric Velocipede (Hugo Award winning magazine.) They like it when you take a picture in their shirt and then send it to them. So I did. Little did I know I'd end up the "EV T-shirt girl," and of course, I'm loving it. I just saw today that they even gave me a shout out and link to my site on their home page, so I'm returning the favour and blogging about them today. :)

If you too want to own a cool "Short Fiction is dead, Long live short fiction," you can visit their site for a shirt HERE. Support short fiction! ;)

New Client-Blatant Plugs for Writing Excuses, Twitter and My Training

Do you listen to the INCREDIBLY GREAT podcast, Writing Excuses? "15 minutes long, cuz you're in a hurry, and we're not that smart." Brandon Sanderson, Howard Tayler and Dan Wells host this snappy, informative podcast that never fails to inspire me and make me laugh. I follow all of them on Twitter (here comes another endorsement for the network..) and noticed that Howard Tayler, author of the comic space opera, Schlock Mercenary, tweets quite often about working out. I think we'd exchanged a few tweets (because that's how it works, folks, you can actually talk to famous people...) and then just last week he tweeted something about workouts or diet and I replied to ask him if he wanted help. Fast forward a week or so, and I'm now training wecartoonist and podcaster, Howard Tayler, in exchange for his help in promoting myself as an author. You know, for that day when I have more than two stories published. ;) 

He's included his decision to train with me on his blog HERE which is a great way to keep accountable, not to mention, give me a big promo shout out.

What's the point of my blog? Sheer self-promotion, really. And to say, hey, if you have a skill that you can exchange for help with your writing or promotion for your writing career, don't be afraid to ask!! (caveat-pg 13 rated skills only, please)

Good luck, Howard, we'll be watching...