Next Noble Pen Meeting

October 4th, 2012 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

The University of Arizona has initiated a program of bringing together scientists and SF writers.  Some of them bemoan a lack of optimistic visions for the future, and hope that these meetings may encourage optimism.

Victories

Dylan’s submission to an anthology was accepted.  He tracks his career writing total and has now exceeded two million words.

Ciuin got an A on her first class paper of the semester.

Education

At the last meeting a discussion mentioned Kickstarter (site)(Details)(Wikipedia), a mechanism for “crowd funding” or collecting money from a wide audience to fund a creative project.  It is one of a number of similar operations (comparison).

The total overhead cost is 8 to 10%.   Project creators choose a deadline and a goal minimum of funds to raise. If the chosen goal is not gathered by the deadline, no funds are collected.

To encourage donations, the creator can offer rewards at various levels of donation, and might be a copy of the work produced (e.g., ebook at one level, print book at another, cover art poster, meeting the project creator, or a professional service like editing).  It can be thought of as a promise by the contributor to buy the end product, but there is no guarantee that the project will be completed, or completed to any standard of quality.

A large number of projects have been funded and some have won awards.  Top projects have had tens of thousands of donors and raised millions of dollars.

A book project with interviews of SF writers about how they work is an example of a project successfully funded, and illustrates various levels of reward.

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Upcoming Schedule

Oct  4th

Nick
Mark
Ciuin

Oct  11th

Tyree
Dylan
Mark

Oct  18th

Dylan
Shannon
Open slot

Oct  25th

Open slots

Keep Writing,

Bill

Next Noble Pen Meeting

September 27th, 2012 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

Dean Wesley Smith offers his ideas on what ebooks should cost.

Victories

Tyree is DONE! writing Breathless Stars and has started the spinoff with Elin.

Shannon submitted an article to parABnormal Digest.

Dylan submitted a story for an anthology.  He has signed up for next spring’s WisCon (home page) (Wikipedia) writing conference and might be considered for a panel.  He is afraid his characters are not radically feminist enough for this conference.

Education

Writers Digest offers a few cliches that you should avoid like the plague, and readers add a very long list in their comments.

I think to be oversensitive about cliches is like being oversensitive about table manners.  ~Evelyn Waugh

I would rather read a poorly structured story that has fresh ideas than a tightly structured one with cliches.  ~Douglas Wood

Let’s have some new cliches. ~ Samuel Goldwyn

Upcoming Schedule

Sept 27th

Dylan
Shannon
Aimee

Oct  4th

Nick
Mark
Ciuin

Oct  11th

Tyree (or will move to Oct 4 if any cancel)
Dylan (?)
Open slot

Oct  18th

Open slots

Keep Writing,
Bill

Next Noble Pen Meeting

September 20th, 2012 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

Several companies have settled with the government in the suit over  e-book pricing.  They will terminate contracts with Apple that set minimum prices.  This suggests more price competition as a possible future, especially for those that have been in the $10-$15 range.

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Harper Voyager is launching a new line of e-published books, and has put out a call for unagented, exclusive, novel-length submissions during the first two weeks of October.   They say:

Voyager will be seeking an array of adult and young adult speculative fiction for digital publication, but particularly novels written in the epic fantasy, science fiction, urban fantasy, horror, dystopia and supernatural genres. Submission guidelines and key information can be found at www.harpervoyagersubmissions.com.

Victories

Tyree finished Breathless Stars.

Dylan was told by a reader that he creates “psychologically believable characters”.

Ciuin presented a scene of Petty Theft as a play in school and the actors want to continue playing her characters in other scenes.

Education

Chuck Wendig offers twenty-five rules for writing stories.   Some are what you usually hear and some are distinctly different.  You’ll need to pardon his language in spots.

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 The greatest rules of dramatic writing are conflict, conflict, conflict. ~James Frey

There are three rules for writing. Unfortunately, no one can agree what they are. ~Somerset Maugham

Upcoming Schedule

Sept 20th

Nick
Ciuin
Tyree

Sept 27th

Dylan (1 or 2?)
Shannon (?)
Open slot

Oct  4th

Nick
Mark
Ciuin

Oct  11th

Open slots

Keep Writing,
Bill

Next Noble Pen Meeting

September 13th, 2012 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

The most talked about book of the week is No Easy Day by the Navy Seal who tells his version of the raid that killed Bin Laden.  His story differs somewhat from the officially released story of the raid.  This review says that he is just setting the record straight as he saw it.  The book, according to that review, gets off to a “worrisomely formulaic start” and potentially boring flashback, but turns into an exciting story of his training and exploits.

The DoD has threatened to prosecute for violating secrecy procedures, although the book doesn’t seem to reveal any but the most basic information.  It appears the book is coming out as scheduled this week.

Victories

Tyree is down to writing the last scene of Breathless Stars.

Shannon finished CampNanoWriMo with 50,006 words.  He then relaxed for the first time since 2008, he says.

Ciuin met with the leaders of her organization in Austin and was awed by the discovery that her writings are included in their master archive.   Her writing has gotten her into a position as secretary of an international meeting, and got the organization a meeting with National Geographic.

Education

Writer’s Digest offers an on-line forum (under Community) for discussion of writing topics and giving/getting critiques.  If you sign up, be sure to review your profile to see which mailings you want to uncheck.   Their forum appears to have a personality quite different from, and activity somewhat lower than,  Creative Writing Forums.

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 This blog discusses why publishing takes so long.  Another one lays out a typical timeline.

Ars longa, vita brevis  (Art is long, Life is short.) ~Hippocrates

Life is so short, and the craft takes so long to learn. ~Chaucer

Upcoming Schedule

Sept 13th

Dylan (double slot)
Tyree

Sept 20th

Nick
Ciuin
Open slot

Sept 27th

Open slots

Oct  4th

Nick
Mark
Open slot

Keep Writing,

Bill