I'd File This in the Great First Lines Folder

No, it's not pithy or reverent. It's long and the reader has to have some contextual background to understand it fully, but this first passage from Executive Orders by Tom Clancy, the book I started reading this weekend, is a great first line:

IT HAD TO BE THE SHOCK of the moment, Ryan thought. He seemed to be two people at the same time. One part of him looked out the window of the lunchroom of CNN’s Washington bureau and saw the fires that grew from the remains of the Capitol building— yellow points springing up from an orange glow like some sort of ghastly floral arrangement, representing over a thousand lives that had been snuffed out not an hour earlier. Numbness suppressed grief for the moment, though he knew that would come, too, as pain always followed a hard blow to the face, but not right away. Once more, Death in all its horrid majesty had reached out for him. He’d seen it come, and stop, and withdraw, and the best thing to be said about it was that his children didn’t know how close their young lives had come to an early conclusion. To them, it had simply been an accident they didn’t understand. They were with their mother now, and they’d feel safe in her company while their father was away somewhere. It was a situation to which both they and he long since had unhappily become accustomed. And so John Patrick Ryan looked at the residue of Death, and one part of him as yet felt nothing.

Clancy, Tom - Executive Orders

Truth be told though, it's not the first passage that is compelling me to read on . . . its the entire story. I want to know what happens down the line.

More on Apple

To continue with the saga about Apple's pricing structure and the court case (see here, here and here) then I recommend this terrific article (pro-apple) that is in today's WSJ by Gordon Crovitz called A Judge Convicts Apple of Competition.

It's a great article (with a terrific title) but the best line in the article could be this one:

The ruling against Apple means that any company trying to provide a new service that requires negotiating with multiple parties to get access to content (like books, music or video) is at risk of antitrust prosecution. That includes Apple, which is planning to launch new offerings such as iTunes Radio. Other innovative consumer products that required the kinds of multiparty negotiations Apple had with book publishers include Netflix, Hulu and Pandora.

It's a worthwhile read whether you agree with the ruling or you don't, and I don't.

I am a convert. Originally I was anti-apple (see here) but having done just a bit of research and looked into the little bit I have, I think Apple has sure gotten a raw deal. They treated their book publishing business no different than any other app they had. They were busting up a monopoly not contributing to one, and they were forcing no one to do business with them. Where's the illegality?

Do I like the model? Not particularly, but then there are dozen of other sites where I can put my work. I don't understand the other side of the argument anymore, and have yet to find anyone to convince me that I'm wrong on this count. One more passage from today's article that speaks to me?

Company 2 entered a market in which Company 1 had a 90% market share—then Company 2 was found guilty of antitrust violations. Only in America. To the infamous antitrust prosecutions of technology companies such as IBM and Microsoft, add the Justice Department's July 10 "win" against Apple relating to sales of e-books.

Good News and Bad

I was forwarded an article, that I can't believe I missed, by an alert reader. This article, Self-Published Book Success Stories by Heidi Mitchell relates several different stories, of varying success from authors who have had to find routes outside of the traditional publishing model.

The most prescient passage is this:

Readers don't miss a traditional publishing house, says Ann McIndoo, who runs an author-coaching business. "The author or the topic or the brand drives the sale. When you go to the bookstore, you want Stephen King or a book on How To Knit. It doesn't matter who published it."

I have been trying to find a way to express that sentiment for years. I think publishers are like airlines. Why do they take themselves so seriously. They're broker's . . . middlemen . . . a service person or bus boy . . . they take things from the client to the producer. They are neither.

Nevertheless, the article is worthwhile to anyone who is stuck in the publishing process. Some great stuff just like the posts I have written here, or the one about Hugh Howey and Wool, here, or the article (the great article if you want success stories), here.

Every now and then some success stories are needed. It let's you know that one is on the right track. These do that too.

That Being Said

Yesterday I wrote about inspiration for interesting novels, in that case I thought of a creating a thriller or mystery set in a dirigible. There really are so many much closer to home.

I was speaking to a co-worker today and he thought a novel that explores or re-imagines the Trayvon Martin tragedy would be worthwhile. We began to brainstorm some ideas.

Trayvon was actually casing a house on the way to his step-mother's and when confronted by Zimmerman, not wanting to go to jail with pot in his system, he starts fighting him and the gun shot occurs. 

Not too much there if you ask me. It's a bit less than fanciful. Could have actually happened that way if you ask many.

Zimmerman stages his own wounds after having murdered Trayvon Martin because he was bilking Trayvon's step-mother out of her social security checks and Trayvon was on the cusp of figuring him out. 

That's a tad better if you ask me. I've actually heard several callers to the local radio call in shows bring up the possibility of the staging of the wounds already, so again, not too mind expanding.

Zimmerman was sleeping with Trayvon's step-mother and Trayvon ran into them in flagrante dilicto as he came to the house. Zimmerman and the step-mother decide to keep it all quiet after the media fire-storm in unleashed. 

I like this a bit more. It's becoming more believably absurd and funky. But personally I like the one that includes the media.

The step-mother pays Zimmerman to kill Trayvon telling him that they will split the life insurance money, but in the media frenzy that builds up the racial differences, the mother must take a side against Zimmerman. During the court battle there is a second battle under the surface between Zimmerman still trying to get his half of the money without letting it out that they were in cahoots. 

In every case there would have to be a protagonist who is slowly uncovering the truth behind the murder and then trying to convince the others, those involved in the avalanche that the story produced, that what he has found out is true.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that so many stories are so many places, that just a bit of thought reveals dozens. Either that or I need to have more lunches with that co-worker.

Inspiration

Inspiration finds me at funny times and in funny places. I saw a post from Dark Roasted Blend today on Airship Dreams. I scrolled down a bit (a bit out of order) and ran across this picture first.

Then I saw this one and inspiration took hold. 

When I put these two pictures together in my mind some pretty neat ideas come to mind. It makes me realize the way a fantasy or sci-fi writer must begin working. I've always wanted to write like Isaac Isamov or Vernor Vinge. World Building is something they excel at. 

Nevertheless, these two pictures inspire some pretty interesting ideas about a novel based in the future. It could even be something similar to Night Over Water by Ken Follett. A plot that involves a murderer loose on the dirigible. People being pushed overboard or found dead in their luxurious cabins. The problem is that it would all be too similar to one of my favorite episodes of Archer, Skytanic.

Then I saw this picture and things got even more interesting. 

Add this picture to all the others and you have a really interesting take on The Poseidon Adventure. This could very well be this years NaNo idea. 

Thanks Dark Roasted Blend.

Been Awhile

It's been awhile since I re-posted something from The Kill Zone, but it's not because they haven't posted some really great stuff on their site.

First, let me say how thankful I am that I ran across and started following The Kill Zone. It is one of those rare blogs that I could go and read every day and not get bored. Mostly that's because they rotate authors on a twice weekly basis. It's always fresh and new. Secondly it's because it speaks to me as a thriller writer. If you are a thriller writer and don't read The Kill Zone, . . . What's wrong with you!

Everything they write is interesting and relevant, unlike this blog (?) I know that there are many people who come to this site and think, "Another post on Apple? Come on. Talk about writing!" Then there are those that come and think, "More on your failed novel writing? Get back to articles on publishing!" Of course their are the majority of you who think, "Why do I keep coming to this blog?" The Kill Zone will not allow you to think that last thought.

Nevertheless, this latest post speaks to me if only because it deals with a facet of writing that I find incredibly intriguing. Why was Dan Brown's Davinci Code such a blockbuster when it broke so many well established rules. What about Fifty Shades of Grey? Why was it so popular? How do I go about writing a book that is just as ground/rule breaking?

Clare Langley-Hawthorne addresses all this in a bulleted list. As a Technical Writer I'm partial to bulleted lists. But this one is also good due to the comments. So often I forget to read the comments and that is where so many real gems can be found.

If you want to know more about "the Wow Factor" then read this linked post. If you want to constantly be intrigued, read The Kill Zone daily.

Getting Down to Serious (or) Business

I am in training all week, so my ability to quickly and concisely analyze and react to articles like this one in the WSJ that revolves around the publishing world will be seriously curtailed and limited or this one that a reader sent in.

That being said I do have a lot of time to think about the plotting (or is it plodding) of my novel. This is good for my critique group because hopefully it will enhance the work and make it more worthwhile.

I'm really looking forward to my critique group meeting, but I just noticed something. I accepted the meeting date readily and excitedly, happy that I was in town that day. That's what I focused on, the day. It wasn't till yesterday that I noticed the time.

Eleven in the morning? Who sets up a critique group meeting for eleven in the morning?

That's when it hit me. Want to know who sets up critique group meetings for eleven in the morning . . . people who are serious about their writing, that's who. I have a full time job, I work at eleven in the morning. My fellow critique-ers do not have full time, nine to five jobs. They are more serious, obviously, about their writing than I. I wish I could take my writing as seriously.

When does one start to take it more seriously? When one becomes successful? Seems like a catch 22. How does one become a successful writer, by taking it more seriously. How does one take it more seriously, by becoming successful.

Is it a good thing to be immediately jealous of one's writing critique group even before anything has been read or critiqued? We shall see next week at eleven in the morning.

Win Some, Lose Some

I think I must be reading the Onion because this smells of hoax, but if it's not it's either hilarious or jack-assery. The article, Samsung-pays-apple-1-billion-sending-30-trucks-full-of-5-cents-coins that I found via Newshound states:

This morning more than 30 trucks filled with 5-cent coins arrived at Apple’s headquarters in California. Initially, the security company that protects the facility said the trucks were in the wrong place, but minutes later, Tim Cook (Apple CEO) received a call from Samsung CEO explaining that they will pay $1 billion dollars for the fine recently ruled against the South Korean company in this way.

It's devious sure, but I wonder how much it cost Samsung to do it this way. My next question would be . . . why call them "five cent coins" instead of nickels. My final question . . . why not send pennies?

Avid Reader Responds

An avid reader, my indispensable brother, of this blog wrote to me yesterday regarding the subject of this article U.S. Judge Rules Apple Colluded on E-Books that was in the WSJ the other day.

A key passage in the article by Chad Bray, Joe Palazzolo, and Ian Sherr:

Justice Department prosecutors argued that Apple used publishers' dissatisfaction with Amazon's aggressive e-book discounting to shoehorn itself into the digital-book market when it launched the iPad in 2010. Apple's proposal: Let publishers set prices themselves. That led to Amazon losing the ability to price most e-book best sellers at $9.99, causing prices to rise.

My brother responded to this as such:

Great day for amazon, and a shitty day for authors around the world.  Somehow Amazon convinced our government to sue their competitor for trying make prices of ebooks viable.

I don't know if it's a product of living so closely to a (now) raging libertarian, but I have to agree and have written so in the past, particularly in this post from a few weeks past, the one in which it seems obvious that Apple wasn't setting prices, but merely setting the percentage they took off of books at the same weight as all other apps.

Nevertheless, I think my brother has headed the nail with a solid hit.

The Writing Group, Take 2

Those who follow the blog will note that I haven't enjoyed writing groups (see here or details), but I'm at it again.

A friend of mine from National Novel Writing Month and a woman I know from BookBlogs both formed the group with a third and then subsequent asked me to join. It's the first time my "fame" as a writer has lead to a perk. I'll take it!

So far it's been a raging and rousing success. We have a deadline tomorrow. All writers in the group have till tomorrow to upload their sample then we all have till July 22 to read each other's works and edit/critique them. Can you see why I'm so excited? One of the aspects I hated about my former writing groups was that we edited on the spot. Who wants such quick and one dimensional critiques? Secondly, all of us are in similar genres, not exactly the same mind you, but similar. I don't think there are any children's book writers or YA writers and the fantasy is not far fetched. Finally, we all come from recommendations of others, meaning that we've been vetted to some degree. This is the biggest plus. I've read a sample of Lindsay's work and I've read all of Kristi's last novel (here).

If I'm writing pissed on July 23rd you will know why, but on July 9th I'm stoked.