Watcha Writin'?

[Buster's Uncle]

ERB write no Boy...

-But still; the influence?

 

[Zkribbler]

... I will obliterate Kansas & start the story in Oz. There is one critical song [lyrics] that I'll rescue & give to Dorothy as she's traveling the Yellow Brick Road.

Done, done, & done.

This quarter's Writer's of the Future contest expires on March 31. So I'm just in under the wire. I was seconds away from submitting Oz 2.0 when I noticed my name was still in the page headers. That is so against the rules. So I fixed it.

WotF also has a rule against plagiarism. I don't know if they'll deem my use public-domain characters to violate this rule. Que sera sera.

I did deep-six my original Chapter One. One unexpected benefit of this is that my first character to appear is the Wicked Witch of the East, & she is hilarious. One drawback is that the readers don't know when this story is taking place US-time. So now I have Dorothy find her smashed cell phone.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

WotF also has a rule against plagiarism. I don't know if they'll deem my use public-domain characters to violate this rule. Que sera sera.

According to this guide, if it's in the public domain, using it doesn't constitute plagiarism.

So unless this contest has a rule that you have to use entirely original settings and characters, you should be safe.

 

[Zkribbler]

Here is the passage in the rules: "Plagiarism, which includes the use of third-party poetry, song lyrics, characters or another person’s universe, without written permission, will result in disqualification."

Admittedly, this may be a redefinition of "plagiarism," but I think it more likely this is a chatty explanation, not to be taken literally.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Here is the passage in the rules: "Plagiarism, which includes the use of third-party poetry, song lyrics, characters or another person’s universe, without written permission, will result in disqualification."

Admittedly, this may be a redefinition of "plagiarism," but I think it more likely this is a chatty explanation, not to be taken literally.

It doesn't take into account the fact that some material is now in the public domain and there isn't anyone who can give written permission.

Is there a way to ask them to clarify this?

 

[Zkribbler]

It doesn't take into account the fact that some material is now in the public domain and there isn't anyone who can give written permission.

Is there a way to ask them to clarify this?

Bah, I simply submitted the story. They'll either disqualify me or they won't. We'll know then.

 

[Buster's Uncle]

 

[Zkribbler]

Happy Easter. Sun is down. Words written = 0.

After spending a couple of years in Oregon, CavLancer suddenly showed up today.
Big party. Delicious cake.

 

[Zkribbler]

Kindle Scout is suddenly no longer accepting submissions, throwing into a cocked hat my planned submission of Scroll 1 of my orc trilogy.

I can still self publish for free Wee and Stonewall Hearth & the Lovelash Locket using Kindle Direct Publishing, but I submitted them to Kindle Scout using stock images, which Kindle Direct Publishing absolutely forbids. I therefore need to either commission cover art or do it myself.

My commissioned art for Wee is finally finished but while waiting, I've decided on a new approach. In reading a book on world creation, I came across a passage where the author described a visit to her bookstore where she observed people browsing the fantasy section. People would take out a book and immediate go looking for the map of the fantasy world. This author took things a step further for herself, saying if there was no map, she would not buy the book.

Kindle Direct Publishing cannot publish internal images, such as maps. I've therefore decided to use my fantasy world map as my cover art. And I am talented enough to draw a map. I'll do this for both books.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

My commissioned art for Wee is finally finished but while waiting, I've decided on a new approach. In reading a book on world creation, I came across a passage where the author described a visit to her bookstore where she observed people browsing the fantasy section. People would take out a book and immediate go looking for the map of the fantasy world. This author took things a step further for herself, saying if there was no map, she would not buy the book.

Kindle Direct Publishing cannot publish internal images, such as maps. I've therefore decided to use my fantasy world map as my cover art. And I am talented enough to draw a map. I'll do this for both books.

Maps are important in fantasy works, because readers don't have any frame of reference without one. It's not like setting the story in a real-world city or other area; most people are familiar with major cities of the world, or at least a good enough approximation, so maps aren't critical.

But maps are popular, to the point where a lot of the historical novels I read have them, particularly the ones set in Rome, or the wider Roman Empire.

It looks like you solved two problems at once, so that's good.

 

[Zkribbler]

Bah! Kindle Scout is no longer accepting submissions. This doesn't appear to be a mere suspending of submissions but an ending of them altogether.

One of the great benefits of this program was its redefinition of "novel" to 50,000 words minimum. Traditionally, a novel is 60,000+ words. (However, book publishers rarely look at anything less than 80,000 words, and they prefer 120,000 words.) So with Kindle Scout I could submit shorter works.

This ends my plan to publish my orc trilogy as three novels. None of them will be long enough. Now, I will have to cast them as...er, ahem...a novel in three parts.

I still plan to publish Wee and Stonewall Hearth and the Lovelash Locket on Kindle Direct Publishing. I presume Kindle Scout will honor its commitment to send notice of the publishing to all who nominated my books. I still have to create their book covers and do a bit more work on Locket. I should publish them both next week sometime.

After that, I'll have to choose between:
1) My orcan ex-trilogy. [now, 35% finished]
2) My Count of Monte Cristo parody [40% finished]
3) My R-rated elf thriller [20% finished]
4) My sequel to Wee [25% finished]

 

[Valka D'Ur]

The Count of Monte Cristo parody sounds interesting.

 

[Zkribbler]

The Count of Monte Cristo parody sounds interesting.

Good choice!

Once upon a time I was about half done with The Count of Monte Banco when I got writer's block. For me, writer's block invariably results when my subconscious recognizes I'm about to go seriously off track. So, suddenly, I can't go any further.

I had divided The Count of Monte Banco into four quarters. The first quarter ends when my main character breaks out of prison. During the second quarter, he finds the treasure and sets about creating the persona of The Count of Monte Banco. In the third quarter, he returns to the city. In the fourth quarter, he rains vengeance down upon those who framed him.

My problem arose when I was seduced by the sirens' song SF, to wit: world creation. Admittedly, both fantasy & science almost always require world creation, but what I lost track of is that world creation must always take a back seat to character, plot, and theme.
My original plan was to spend the third quarter of the book describing my oh-so-cleverly-designed city. That's not a novel; that's a travelog.

So instead, things in the third quarter will begin to heat up; the count will have a personal revelation which will push him into action; he will become someone new as he discovers his power; he will learn lessons and face problems. The focus will be on character development, not world creation.

Also, I noticed my very first chapter was flabby and meandering. So last night, I re-wrote my Chapter 1.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Would you believe that my first introduction to The Count of Monte Cristo was via a computer game? I enjoyed the game so much that I decided to read the book.

It took awhile to find an unabridged version, though. It's available on Project Gutenberg, if you read French, but luckily the person who runs the second-hand bookstore I deal with happened to get an English copy for me.

Fun bit of trivia: One of Ben Bova's Grand Tour science fiction novels, Mercury, has a Count of Monte Cristo vibe to it. Mance Bracknell, an engineer who creates a space elevator, is framed when a bunch of religious zealots sabotage it and millions of people are killed when the elevator falls from orbit.

Bracknell is exiled from Earth and sentenced to work on the crew of a space ship, but when the ship is destroyed, he's the only survivor and manages to forge the identity of one of the ship's non-convict crew... collecting a lot of money in survivors' benefits. He then sets about planning revenge against the people who framed him years before.

 

[Plotinus]

Stephen Fry's The Stars' Tennis Balls is a retelling of The Count of Monte Cristo - apparently he conceived the idea independently, being unfamiliar with Dumas, and only at a late stage did he learn of the similarities, so he just changed the names of his characters to be anagrams of their counterparts in the original.

Apparently Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination is also a retelling of The Count of Monte Cristo, in a sci-fi setting. But it's so long since I read it that I can't remember the details at all.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Apparently Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination is also a retelling of The Count of Monte Cristo, in a sci-fi setting. But it's so long since I read it that I can't remember the details at all.

That one's been in my collection for decades, and I still haven't gotten around to reading it. I should check it out.

 

[Buster's Uncle]

Apparently Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination is also a retelling of The Count of Monte Cristo, in a sci-fi setting. But it's so long since I read it that I can't remember the details at all.

I've read it a number of times over four decades, last a few years ago -it rewards that- and do remember. Bester's main claim to fame was The Demolished Man, but that wasn't one half as good.

 

[Zkribbler]

Curses. Stonewall Hearth has come back from the proofreader's, but in the transfer 30-40% of the spaces disappeared. I'm now inching through the manuscript, replacing the missing spaces one-by-one. I can only repair 1 to 1 1/2 chapters per day. It's tedious work. I just finished 10 out of 19 chapters.

For a break, I'm dabbling in a bit of fun. An old geezer is smitten by a cute, young thing. A crash & burn is assured.

 

[Buster's Uncle]

...You met another cute, young thing?...

 

[Zkribbler]

...You met another cute, young thing?...

They are everywhere here, but I refuse to be made ridiculous.