Robert Dunbar's Blog - Posts Tagged "writing"

The world has changed.

Is changing.

Constantly.

We’re all floundering. Well, the writers anyway. None of us has a clue. This way? That one? Is that a shark? Swim faster! But be careful: that might not be land ahead so much as a fog bank. You might actually be heading further out to sea.

Scary thought, right?

Even on the beach, it’s murky enough these days. Remember publish or perish? More like publish AND perish. We’re all in trouble. Chain bookstores (even the ones still open) won’t carry indie titles, and independent bookstores have become an almost mythical rarity. Mainstream media rarely considers books anymore, and even the tiniest of weekly presses are swamped by review copies. Hundreds, even thousands arrive each month. It’s rough. In an ocean of new titles, only authors who are already household names (or have serious financial backing) have much chance of attracting attention. What’s a writer to do?

There are theories.

The experts all tell you that social media is the key to marketing yourself, completely overlooking the fact that most of the people in your “network” are there for the same reason. (You may have 5,000 friends on Facebook, but 4,999 of them want you to buy their book… or at least accept a free copy in exchange for a review or a blurb.) It’s all about self-promotion. For everyone. I saw an interesting question posed on a popular blog the other day: Where’s the benefit in being a great writer? Does anyone care about that stuff anymore? How many five-star ratings will that even get you?

I don’t drink enough.

Does any of this sound familiar? If so, you’re not alone. We’re all in the same (sinking) ship. But there are people who might actually want to help. You know the ones I mean, right? Passionate, appreciative, enthusiastic readers – the sort who keep a poor writer going. They’re out there. And here’s the thing. They can help.

But they might require a little guidance. (Civilians. Go figure.) Of course, various self-marketing gurus have already posted all sorts of tips… mostly hilarious. Have you seen some of this stuff? Much of it comes down to “if you like my page, I’ll like yours.” Very useful. And so professional.

I don’t drink enough. Have I mentioned that?

Okay, let’s try and be positive about this. There ARE a few thing readers could do that might actually be beneficial for an author. So this is what you tell them: First of all, buy the stinking book already.

Seem obvious? (And, yes, you might consider phrasing that a tad more diplomatically.) I'll sometimes get nice notes from people who rave about one of my books... before telling me all about how they found a good used copy for under a dollar. Many people are surprised to discover authors don’t receive a penny from secondhand sales.

It’s a strange world.

The first fan letter I ever received was from someone who'd borrowed my book from a prison library. (I’ve cherished that. My target readership at last!) But if you want to keep your favorite author solvent, buy a copy. New. (Resist the urge to steal it.) In fact, buy two – give one as a gift! But there’s something else that might be even more important.

Write a review. Let me say that again. WRITE A REVIEW. Even if it’s quite short, post it on Amazon where it will do the most good. Then post it on Goodreads. Tweet about it. Chat it up on Facebook. It’s the mystery of the algorithms: a book can’t sell if people don’t see it. You can do other things of course, but those are the main ones.

Pass the shark repellent. These seas are getting rougher all the time. If there’s a writer whose work you care about, throw out a lifeline.

No, not a chum line!!!!

* * *

For further reading, there’s a great article on this subject at HuffPo:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/penny-c...

And a really fun blog here, full of terrific ideas, though I would not suggest posting a photo of your baby reading one of my books. (The child welfare people will be after you like a shot.)
http://www.triciagoyer.com/sell-more-...

“There is a harmony in autumn, and a luster in its sky…”
~ Percy Bysshe Shelley


I’m a little overworked this season (poisoning candy and putting razorblades in apples, it never ends), so I thought a medley of excerpts from previous Halloween blogs might be fun. Enjoy.


First up, it’s …

MONSTER LOVE, which appeared for the first time at the wonderful Layers of Thought site.

“Never forget that personal demons may have as much to do with secret desires as with secret fears. All those things we’re not supposed to want…”

What monster suggested your secret self? Choices like this can prove so revealing. As kids, we all invested countless hours in watching old horror movies. It’s only natural we felt more affinity with some creatures than others, only natural that they flapped and crawled and howled through our dreams. Half the little boys I knew wanted to be Dracula when they grew up, mostly so they could bite girls, but quite a few seemed instead to go through a Frankenstein stage in their teens, lumbering about and appalling everyone. A Wolfman phase could be even more problematical. (“I don’t remember a thing about last night.” Oh please.) I can’t imagine what little girls fixated on. Surely no one truly yearned to be The Astounding She-Creature or Bride of the Gorilla. And it wasn’t just movies. I could never warm to any of those irksomely wholesome novels grownups were forever trying to foist on me. Remember those books? The ones they approved of? They always seemed to involve a courageous pony or some plucky drummer boy who saves the platoon. Even back then, I could barely conceal my contempt.

I knew what I wanted. Where were my monsters? Where was the gloomth? I missed the considerations of mortality and suffering, loneliness and decay. So I might not have been the most cheerful of children – I doubt I was the only one around who preferred moonlight to sunshine. Maybe we’re a different breed of people, the monster lovers. Perhaps we’re somehow innately perverse. Maybe we’re just braver.

Read the rest of the blog here:
http://www.layersofthought.net/2014/1...


“Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it…”
~ George Eliot


Then let’s head over to The Readers’ Advisory Guide to Horror:

“True art seldom celebrates conformity. Literature should transgress, not reassure…”

For me, the monster is always the lonely one, unloved and unwanted, the outcast. And even as a child I knew where my sympathies lay.

Always.

Dracula wasn’t a monster so much as a villain out of Victorian melodrama – foreign and sinister – a stale template even then. Of course, the hero would rescue the damsel. Was there ever any doubt? Ah, but with the Frankenstein monster … nothing could be certain. Adam was soulful. He was abject. He remains the classic outsider, the suffering archetype at the heart of so many truly great novels. What could be more terrifying than all that pain? Even now the monster is among the most supremely tragic – and most intensely human – of literary characters. All he wants is to belong. And he never can. No one will ever acknowledge his humanity. He suffers because he’s different.

Find the full blog here:
http://raforallhorror.blogspot.com/20...


“Fantasy, abandoned by reason, produces impossible monsters; united with it, she is the mother of the arts and the origin of marvels.”
~ Francisco de Goya


Next up: ESSENTIAL OCTOBER READS at The October Country site:

“Halloween is the climax of an eldritch season…”

More than any other book I can think of “Something Wicked This Way Comes” captures that atmosphere, the sheer essence of autumn. Recently, I had the opportunity to revisit Ray Bradbury’s masterwork with the Literary Darkness group I moderate on Goodreads … and found the experience strangely moving. So many years had passed since I’d read it. I was so young. Imagine finding an old photo of the first boy you fell in love with. There he is – forever wild and beautiful, despite the passage of years. You might not remember the passion or the tenderness. You may have long since forgotten all the negative aspects – the jealousy, the fights, his mother – but this sudden glimpse becomes a knife in your heart.

Pain can be a good thing. It means you haven’t turned to stone.

Over the years, so many writers I admire have told me that Bradbury’s classic was the book that taught them to love the darkness. Yes. Exactly. It meant a lot to me to encounter his intoxicating language again and to remember how it set my imagination on fire as a kid. Still, there was a not-so-wonderful facet this time around. Admittedly, the Literary Darkness group has close to 3000 members. Nevertheless, I was shocked by the number of people who complained about Bradbury’s prose style being “difficult.” (This? Difficult? I have to wonder what such folks would make of Joyce’s Ulysses or Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying, you know, something actually challenging.) But I mustn’t dwell on that. So many members of the group reveled in the text. Many of these readers were quite young, discovering Bradbury for the first time, and I felt privileged to be the one guiding them through it.

There are only so many first times in life.

Every so often, things get to you. The "talents" who glut the genre (and the naked politicking that has so come to define it) can leave you wondering why you ever got involved in the first place. Then something like this reminds you.

Way back, there was love.

See the complete blog:
https://theoctobercountry.wordpress.c...


“Autumn wins you best by this its mute appeal to sympathy for its decay.”
~ Robert Browning




Check out SEASON OF THE WITCH at Where the Dead Fear to Tread:

Wise up. It’s not about the candy corn. Halloween is as political as a brick through the windshield of a cop car.

We have always been at war. First the Romans marched, then authoritarian religious armies – pious and intolerant – slaughtered and burned in their footsteps. What else could you call it but war? Adherents may have been tortured and maimed. Priestesses may have been put to the sword and temples sacked, but the old beliefs won’t stay buried. Even now, they lurk just beneath the sanitized surface, ready to claw their way up. Once a year, the prevailing culture acknowledges this fact … without ever admitting what it is that’s being acknowledged.

Neat trick. Never mind. The wild grace does not fade. Jack-o-lanterns still burn as brightly as any heretic. Hags cackle, and skeletons cavort. But don’t be afraid. It’s all in fun.

Isn’t it? Listen for the cries of “Satanism!” According to so many sectors of the culture, this day represents a challenge, even an outrage. In many circles, Halloween is still referred to as “the gay holiday,” and this alone offers effrontery to the status quo. Dissidents have perished on the rack for less. Much less.

This is not just war. It’s history. And which side writes the history books?

The name Halloween is a corruption of All Hallows Eve, one of many calendar events grafted onto pagan celebrations, in this case Samhain. (Doesn’t it always come down to power? Appropriating the old gods and turning them into saints and angels, even erecting shrines to them, has proved to be an excellent means of exerting control.) Wiccans still consider Samhain – the day when the spirit world and the mortal world make contact – the highest of holy days. As celebrated in queer society, Halloween becomes a transgressive festival: flagrantly unorthodox, a night of revels for the most marginally accepted (and often brutally oppressed) citizens. All Hallows Eve leads into All Saints Day – a cattle call of mythological personae, traditionally including figures like Saint Demetra and Saint Mercurius, supposed martyrs adapted from the Roman gods Demeter and Mercury, themselves based on the Greek gods Ceres and Hermes. This list includes Saint George (and his dragon), Saint Christopher (a giant), and Saint Valentine (Cupid/Eros) as well as celestial hosts of fabled others, so many in fact that early Protestant reformers could attack All Hallows Eve for being both Pagan and Papist. Another neat trick.

Then as now, propaganda and superstition remain potent weapons. Witches rarely burned alone, and never because they possessed magical powers. (The very word “faggot” refers to kindling.) However meager their possessions, every heretic rendered to ash owned something to be commandeered by church and state. If one sought true cause for outrage, one need look no further.

And the war never ends. Bats flap. Phantoms moan. No, it’s not about the candy corn. Everything is politics. It’s all about power. This Halloween take a stand; do something revolutionary. Here, have a brick. Just be sure to wear a mask.

Visit the site here:
http://wherethedeadfeartotread.blogsp...


“Heroes need monsters to establish their heroic credentials. You need something scary to overcome.”
~ Margaret Atwood


Lastly, it’s an excerpt from an interview at Dark Media:

“To this day, readers are passionate about THE PINES … and more than a few are still incredibly provoked by it.”

You have been very critical of the current trends in the horror genre. Can you elaborate on your perspective of the market right now?

Critical? Oh dear. Have I? People are always advising me to be more positive in interviews, but that’s not always easy. Or possible. Do you know the Edgar Allan Poe story where the lunatics turn out to be running the asylum? No, I’m not critical of the genre. I love the genre. What I decry is the veneration of mediocrity that’s been like a stake through its heart.

It was a huge struggle to get MARTYRS & MONSTERS out, yet it was critically acclaimed. Why is there this barrier between the industry and the readers that keeps great books from reaching the shelves?

It really was a struggle. How do you even know about this? The original publisher scheduled and canceled its release five separate times that I’m aware of, finally preferring to forfeit the advance rather than to bring the book out. (Personally, I believe they bought the manuscript based on the impact my other books had made, without realizing the extent of the queer content. When they finally read it, they freaked.) Not good. And talk about bad press. Continuing concerns about who owned what rights very nearly suppressed MARTYRS & MONSTERS entirely, and few of the other genre houses would even look at it, despite my track record. What a nightmare! I ended up working with the tiniest of micro-presses. The book should have sunk out of sight without a ripple: I was prepared for it. But then the strangest thing happened. The reviews, all those incredible raves, they saved it. Critic after critic called it “a masterpiece” or a work of “genius.” What writer doesn’t want to hear this?

WILLY is a haunting evolution from childhood to adulthood and both the child-voice and the adult-voice are equally powerful. Elaborate on this process. How did you capture the authenticity from child to man?

This book is all about the voices, and I’m not sure how to describe the process of channeling them except to say that it was hard work. Real writing always demands so much. You have to be willing to confront things deep within yourself, things any normal person would have sense enough to avoid. I mean, we all put up barriers. We need to. But a writer has to strip away anything manipulative or evasive, anything false. Have you ever encountered a person who doesn’t understand what a novel is … or who can’t grasp the concept of fiction? You’ll get comments along the lines of “so you just make stuff up?” (If you slap these people, you’ll get into trouble. Trust me on this.) They’ll never comprehend that, no, making stuff up would be lying, not writing, whereas literature must be true on a higher level. Always. Each detail. Regardless of the plot. Every word. Every emotion. Absolutely honest. I swear this book almost killed me.

You do not shy away from erotic elements and gay themes in your work. How do you use these elements to shape your stories?

We’re back to honesty here. Any artist needs passion as well as discipline. This is too hard a life otherwise. What else would carry you through? I’m speaking of the characters’ passions now, not just my own, because I tend to write about people in extreme situations. They have desperate needs, desperate longings. The erotic, the emotional – that’s all part of it. A vital part. In my work anyway.

How has your work evolved over the years? How have the changes in the horror genre shaped your writing? Do you even classify yourself a horror writer?

Good question. No, I don’t consider myself a horror writer any more than I consider myself a gay writer. I’m a writer. Period. You’d be amazed by the kind of outrage this remark has been known to incite. (At my lectures, audiences have been known to turn into lynch mobs, though that might just be a natural response to my personality.) Do you understand what I mean? My beliefs, my desires, my artistic and personal goals, these all shape the kind of writer I am, naturally, just as they shape the kind of man I am, the kind of human being. If my work has evolved over the years – and I like to think it has – it’s because I’ve become more fiercely myself, less invested in pleasing others. I’ve worked hard at this. Curiously enough, as my writing has become more personal, my readership has grown. Go figure.

The interview can be found in its entirety here:
http://www.darkmediaonline.com/into-t...


“Where there is a monster, there is a miracle.”
~ Ogden Nash


Thanks for checking these out. Trick or treat, everyone. Have a great holiday.




“What would an ocean be without a monster lurking in the dark? It would be like sleep without dreams.”
~ Werner Herzog