Category On Writing

There is this thread on the Absolute Write Forums:

http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=237182

And that reminded me of some of my early exploits. One of the earliest stories I can remember writing, was the sequel to a book I read – I don’t quite remember the title, but it was about a bunch of kids that some discover that they are alone on the space ship they were travelling on. No adults in sight, so they had to fend for themselves. I got maybe a page or two of that sequel down. I remember making up a huge number for the distance they traveled and I remember my mom questioning that with something like “You think it is a good idea?”.

What I also remember is that I always had problems with school writing assignments. Some times I even got my mom to write some for me...

There was a panel at the recent Science Fiction Worldcon in Reno, where a few notable figures from known short fiction markets discussed how technology changed or will change short fiction.

You can read the whole article over on io9.com … http://io9.com/5833833/how-technology-has-transformed-short-science-fiction-and-fantasy

I agree with a lot of points. Especially with the paragraphs about novellas and adventure fiction. I like the pulp stories of the 30s and 40s a lot, and I’d love to see those stories and formats rise again. Over here in Germany we still have those novellas, which were called “Groschenroman” back in the day. “Groschenroman” is a quite literal translation of the term “dime novel”...

One of my earlier posts was titled “Procrastination is a bitch” … and that is still true. I still haven’t managed to make it my bitch, so here goes another try.

Lots has happened in the meantime in publishing. Self publishing gets more and more press. More and more writers try it. Another major ebook dealer opened a shop in Germany – Sprechen Sie Kobo?.

I wrote very little in the past few month, but now I am trying to get back into it and get some words down on the page.

I have also expanded a little in the social media field, since Google+ opened its doors a few weeks back.

Google+

You can read my Twitter stream here on this blog (right side) … if you want to follow me go here:

Twitter

And of course there is the blog. But you already know that, since you are reading it right now...

I have a dream!

It is nothing as grand as what Martin Luther King Jr. dreamt about when he made that speech nearly 50 years ago … but it is a dream nonetheless.

I want to be a writer and I want to get published. Part one I have already achieved. I write, therefore I am … or rather, therefore I am a writer. That second part though is the tricky one. Because in order to get published, I first need to finish a novel. I am not even talking about having something publishable, or doing edits, drafts and what not. I am talking about sitting on my ass and just writing the damn thing.

Because I am not only a writer, but also a master procrastinator. Give me something to do and I’ll find you something I’d much rather do instead.

Getting published is easy these days … just slap something together, th...

So I am trying this blogging thing again. And since I am a writer, I might as well start with writing about … writing.

Right now it seems, that there is a bit of a revolution going on in the US publishing industry. Just a few facts:

• Borders just filed for Chapter 11
• Amazon sold more Ebooks than Paperbacks in Q4 of 2010
• more and more authors are going into self publishing

If you believe the likes of JA Konrath, it won’t be long before the big 6 publishing houses in New York will go belly up or at least see a dramatic change in their business model. It is probably akin to the music industry 10 years ago, what with that whole napster / mp3 debacle.

Indie authors are making money hand over fist right now self publishing through Amazon, CreateSpace, SmashWords, Barnes & Noble and other outlet...