Real News of Fictional Worlds, November 2018

Earth Present
Many things happening in November!

What happens in Vegas comes back from Vegas
….if what happens involves books.

I’m going to Vegas! Specifically, to a great convention of and for independent writers and publishers such as me. : )

And, on November 8th I’ll be proud to be part of an author signing with a lot of very big new names in science fiction and fantasy. Including Craig Martelle, Michael Anderle and more.

NaNoWriMo
As I send this out, it’s a few days before National Novel Writing Month. One of the funnest month-long marathons I’ve ever been on.

Since a lot of people who read also want to write, I heartily recommend this as a fun way to just step in and do it.

(If you can’t see any of these images, select “Display images below” or similar in your email viewer.)

For those who haven’t heard of it, it’s a challenge to write a novel from start to finish in one month. You can plot beforehand – or not. The rules are simple: write a new block of 50,000 words from Nov 1st to Nov. 30th.

It’s a great way to explore ideas you otherwise might never get to – and even better, it’s a fantastic way to get past the unhelpful amount of self-criticism many people can have. It’s a lark. And also, it’s statistically near impossible for all 50,000 of those words to be bad.

And if you hit that 50k, then in just about a month from now you can legitimately call yourself a novelist. 🙂 🙂

For me, since I’ve done this almost every year since 2005, I’m upping the challenge on myself – I’m going for writing two novels for at total of at 100,000 words. I’m training up for it by breaking in a new coffee maker. So far, so caffeinated, so good.

This month’s out-there pictures
A lot happened in October, but this caught my eye. It was Fleet Week, and the Blue Angels acrobatic team were performing acrobatic air stunts over San Francisco. Pretty amazing. I brought my camera.

This guy wanted to take pictures too. So he somehow bribed or scaled his way up to the top of this tower…

…to take pictures with his cellphone.

That was in some ways more amazing than the Blue Angels.

….and Halloween
Halloween pictures, fresh from last night. Much fun was had. With these below, part of the fun for me was figuring out who they were. If you want to play along, the answers are below my signature in this newsletter. Enjoy. : )

November novels already written

This upcoming month brings us Thanksgiving, also known as Turkey Day. I’m rather sentimental about it – I consider it an opportunity to celebrate family and friends, and be thankful for what we have. So do enjoy it, and consider that Christmas will be here soon enough.

Also for this month, in addition to traditionally sleep-inducing amounts of food, are some book giveaways.

First and foremost is a book by the team of J. T. Lawrence and M.J. Krauss. They have a new urban fantasy novel “The Highfire Crown“.

My novel “Two-Fisted Jesus Tales: Book 1” is part of “Bleak Midwinter“. So stay warm and indoors with my tale of Jesus as Chuck Norris.	My own little Twilight Zone, the Hyperspace Radio short story collection has been doing quite well. I’m proud to have it in good company with the StarVember giveaway.
My novella about a young man who becomes a troubleshooter for magical startups, Wishful Thinking, is available in the promo at Prolific Works. I’ve also finished the second in this series, and expect to release it soon.	And last but never least, I’m proud to have my tale Ghost Magnet in a fine collection of horror thrillers, The Hunger paranomrmal and horror fiction giveaway.