Ask the Authors (Fandemonium)

[Rosehawk]

Wheee! As promised Beth, I've reviewed CoW on Amazon.... mind you, thinking about it... I've doen the review on Amazon.co.uk... I'm guessing that won't carry over the Amazon.com? Hmm... maybe I'll go post it there too...

Thanks Alipeeps for reminding me to get over to Amazon and get a review in. RL has been a tad bit busy lately.

[Princess Awinita]

I'm at chapter four already so far, i'm taking my time reading CoW and I gotta say,..... WOW I think I'll take my time reading this, after all it is not a good idea to read and drive you might hit something.

Would it be OK for me to put my review in here?

[suse]

Just in case anyone hasn't already noticed...Casualties of War is now available through the Fandemonium site.

For the US folks: it's also now in the largest wholesaler so your local bookstore should be able to get hold of it.

suse

[Gate Geek]

Spiffy! Thanks for being on top of things, Jaymach.

With that in mind, I've updated my website with a CoW announcement AND some much-delayed pics from the Chicago convention.

(And by "updated" I mostly mean "tossed some text at my husband, who turned it into coherent HTML.")

Enjoyed seeing the pixs form the Con. wish I would've gone. Oh well, maybe next year.

Ali, if it wasn't for that pesky ocean in the way (as well as the Channel at the moment, apparently), I'd give you a big hug right now. You hit on exactly what I believe to be essential about writing these books: capturing the characters. It's my favorite part of the process, and it can be tricky, because the readers are just as familiar with these characters' voices as the authors are. When someone thinks I got that aspect right, in my mind, there's no higher compliment.

If anyone needs me, I'll be over here grinning goofily to myself. And possibly talking like a pirate. (Yes, it's Talk Like a Pirate Day for a few more hours -- look it up on Wiki if you doubt my sanity. One of my coworkers was once in a squadron nicknamed the "Buccaneers," so my office actually celebrates TLAP Day. Seriously. Ladies and gentlemen, the United States Air Force, at your service. )

Talk Like a Pirate Day....we were driving along 295 on our way to Washington DC and heard nothing but bad pirate jokes on the radio. Glad we stayed out of Baltimore with all those ships in the harbor that day...it might have been too much.

[sonny1]

Yes!

'Tis done!

Beth and I were sent the MGM edits for Blood Ties a day or so back - all eight of them - and I've just gone over they galley and found another small handful of typos - 4, I think but it never ends. (We always seem to find a few clangers after it goes to print). Speaking of which, it's scheduled to hit the printers in a few days so I'll put up the prologue and chapter one when they send through the final cover.

cheers

[Elizabeth Christensen]

I'm at chapter four already so far, i'm taking my time reading CoW and I gotta say,..... WOW I think I'll take my time reading this, after all it is not a good idea to read and drive you might hit something.

Would it be OK for me to put my review in here?

As far as I know, there are no real limitations on what can be posted here, so it's up to you. One favor, though: if you're going to comment on specific aspects of the story that might be considered spoilers, please either use spoiler tags or start a new thread. Wouldn't want to disappoint anyone who hasn't yet read the book.

Glad you're enjoying it so far!

[Princess Awinita]

Yes!

'Tis done!

Beth and I were sent the MGM edits for Blood Ties a day or so back - all eight of them - and I've just gone over they galley and found another small handful of typos - 4, I think but it never ends. (We always seem to find a few clangers after it goes to print). Speaking of which, it's scheduled to hit the printers in a few days so I'll put up the prologue and chapter one when they send through the final cover.

cheers

YAY! I hope to get that book for Christmas! what a gift that'll be!!

As far as I know, there are no real limitations on what can be posted here, so it's up to you. One favor, though: if you're going to comment on specific aspects of the story that might be considered spoilers, please either use spoiler tags or start a new thread. Wouldn't want to disappoint anyone who hasn't yet read the book.

Glad you're enjoying it so far!

I'll be sure to keep it in spoiler tags, so far I love how you are writing the team out! you have everyone of their personalities down really well, both of you guys do!

in fact i was wondering something, I worte a story that my mom thinks I should send to you guys (Fandemonium) to have it looked at, and I'm woring how I was to go about doing something like that? you see I'm a fanfic author right now and my dream is to be a writer, I was born with FAS and the doctors told my mother (after I was adopted) that I would never learn to read or write, but the story I wrote I have been saying "if only the doctors could read this they would go back on their words about me".

My mom read the story along with a few friends of mine that are really close to me, they all think I should print it out and send in a copy, but I'm not sure how to go about that, (I use Star Office 7 and Wordpad) and I'm also confused on the font and the size of said font you guys use when you write?

again YAY for the soon to be printed book!

[Alipeeps]

Yes!

'Tis done!

Beth and I were sent the MGM edits for Blood Ties a day or so back - all eight of them - and I've just gone over they galley and found another small handful of typos - 4, I think but it never ends. (We always seem to find a few clangers after it goes to print). Speaking of which, it's scheduled to hit the printers in a few days so I'll put up the prologue and chapter one when they send through the final cover.

cheers

Wooohoo! That's fab news! *rubs hands in glee at the thought of another SGA novel to read!

in fact i was wondering something, I worte a story that my mom thinks I should send to you guys (Fandemonium) to have it looked at, and I'm woring how I was to go about doing something like that?

I know your question was for the Fandy authors, but if I may offer some advice... firstly, with the greatest of respect, writing fanfic is very different from writing for publication - there are lots of issues to consider... is your story novel-length (Fandy don't publish stories, only novels)? Is it properly structured? Have you had someone independent proof-read it for you? - and secondly, I dont think Fandemonium accept unsolicited submissions right now.

If you want to publish your story, a better place to start might be to look at getting it published in a fanzine or something...?

[Princess Awinita]

I know your question was for the Fandy authors, but if I may offer some advice... firstly, with the greatest of respect, writing fanfic is very different from writing for publication - there are lots of issues to consider... is your story novel-length (Fandy don't publish stories, only novels)? Is it properly structured? Have you had someone independent proof-read it for you? - and secondly, I dont think Fandemonium accept unsolicited submissions right now.

If you want to publish your story, a better place to start might be to look at getting it published in a fanzine or something...?

the story is well over 50K words long which is actually the minimum length(far as I know) for a short Novella (do those count?) and is 32 chapters(I'm actually having it as the first book of three with a to be continued chapter at the end of it.) I think it might be a bit long for a fanzine, after all, 59,559 words is a novella and my mom says it is worth a try and I'm not sure is I should send it in.

[Alipeeps]

the story is well over 50K words long which is actually the minimum length(far as I know) for a short Novella (do those count?) and is 32 chapters(I'm actually having it as the first book of three with a to be continued chapter at the end of it.) I think it might be a bit long for a fanzine, after all, 59,559 words is a novella and my mom says it is worth a try and I'm not sure is I should send it in.

I would suggest that the first thing you need to do, before you think about sending it in to any publishers, is to get someone independent to proof-read it for you. If you intend to send work into a publishers, it needs to be a professsional manuscript... I know writing in a forum is different from writing fiction etc but nonetheless there are quite a few typos and mistakes in the posts you make on GW and if you send in a story/novel to a publishers and it has a lot of grammar mistakes etc, they will probably discount it immediately. You want to make sure your story is as professional as it can be before you consider sending it anywhere.

[sonny1]

I would suggest that the first thing you need to do, before you think about sending it in to any publishers, is to get someone independent to proof-read it for you. If you intend to send work into a publishers, it needs to be a professsional manuscript... I know writing in a forum is different from writing fiction etc but nonetheless there are quite a few typos and mistakes in the posts you make on GW and if you send in a story/novel to a publishers and it has a lot of grammar mistakes etc, they will probably discount it immediately. You want to make sure your story is as professional as it can be before you consider sending it anywhere.

That's pretty much it in a nutshell. Writing is something that the vast bulk of people do in one form or another, and storytelling is something we also all do, in different forms. Packaging that up into a commercial piece of work is a very different proposition because at the end of the day, professional writing is a business. One of the best guides I’ve seen is the ‘ten thousand hour’ rule. It takes around ten thousand hours to become a pro at anything (think of it as college for 3-4 years plus work experience). Writing commercially is much the same.

For reasons that have been explained at length elsewhere in this thread, I do not read Stargate fiction in any form aside from what fellow commercial authors write, and then only if it’s accepted for publication and they just need some editorial input, or collaboration. I began writing with Beth because I read a short non-fiction piece she wrote, and believed her writing style would translate well to fiction. That's not common; in fact, most people will tell you it never ever happens that way, but obviously, occasionally it does. Jennifer Fallon’s style also suits the pace of writing tie-ins, but Jen is one of Australia’s top fantasy authors. Sabine had read my fiction and liked something in it that suggested it might work in the SG universe. Bear in mind, though, that I’d been writing for a living for almost thirty years.

I encourage everyone who would like to write commercially, to begin by submitting short pieces to magazines - online, even non-paying mags - about subjects with which you are familiar. If you're very serious about writing, then take up a pro course such as journalism or literature at uni or college, because this is a very complex craft, with rules that stretch way beyond the rules of grammar you learned in high school (and grammar, as Sabine will tell you, is my Achilles heel). I would strongly recommend against paying for courses advertised on the web or in newspapers, that are not accredited, because they’re often run by failed writers who make a living preying on the still hopefuls (which is why you never see the name of the person running the course). Seminars and courses run by writers who you like are well worthwhile – they’ll generally advertise. For example, this weekend I'm running three workshops in Maleny, Queensland, on world building and the attraction of alien god mythology and how to use that in writing. I’m also running a worldbuilding workshop for Queensland Writers Centre, next year. You many find similar government funded organizations in your area that offer accredited courses by published writers.

Many (if not all) of the people taking this course belong to critiquing groups – another absolute must if you’re writing seriously. Critiquing groups are not your friends and family who will love your work because you wrote it. Critiquing group members ring you up in the middle of the night and say, ‘Whitelaw, what the hell is this crap? What you need to do is…’ (I can hear Fallon and Bauer giggling in the wings – okay, okay you two, enough already!)

It's fantastic that you've been able to apply yourself to write such a long piece. What's really required now is the discipline to go through the crawl before you walk stage.

In the next month or so, my thesis, which is on the topic of alien god mythology and writing tie-ins, will be marked. Once all the formal paperwork is done and the university stores it in a digital database, I'll PDF it and make it available on my website. The lit review covers some of the primary aspects of science fiction theory and practice, and the case studies deal with writing in an existent media framework. That may offer some insight for those interested in writing in this (or indeed any SF) universe.

cheers

[Princess Awinita]

Well does using Kendall Havens style of writing using Storytelling Techniques count? what he does is similar to what you say to do, only his teaches both studnets (which I myaelf actually still am at 22 years old as I am always learning new things to write.) I actually used the story creation guide in the book to write ALL my stories (short and long) and even though I'm a fanfic author I have done National Novel Writing Month only I didn't make it ythe first time around, I'm planning on doing it again this year.

Though now I have another question, what fonts / font sizes do you guys use? Is there any set font that you perfer to use when writing a story or a book?

[Elizabeth Christensen]

Yes!

'Tis done!

Beth and I were sent the MGM edits for Blood Ties a day or so back - all eight of them - and I've just gone over they galley and found another small handful of typos - 4, I think but it never ends. (We always seem to find a few clangers after it goes to print).

Yeah ... I found a couple as well, and they were different typos than the ones Sonny found, naturally. One is only a semi-typo; somehow we let the word "neighbour" slide through with its UK/Aus spelling, as opposed to the American spellings we used everywhere else.

[JMSwallow]

Though now I have another question, what fonts / font sizes do you guys use? Is there any set font that you perfer to use when writing a story or a book?

12 point Times New Roman, double spaced. That's pretty much industry standard, so stick with that. Don't use fancy fonts or fiddle with the size or the kerning.

One other thing to mention, regarding book length - the novels published by Fandemonium are around 100,000 words long.

[Prior_of_the_Ori]

Sorry if this is the wrong place to ask this but I wanted to ask if there are any books planned written about SG-1s exploits against the Ori and their followers?

I'm really tempted in getting Roswell, Casualties of War and Blood Ties when thats out.