Noble Pen Meeting

July 22th, 2010
Happy Chef, 1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

Super automatic pilot motor running down circles in the parking lot
Self-sustaining system bit her in the neck and quick and kissed her and took all she got
Did you come here to dance?
Whats in your glass?
Do you feel better?
–OK GO, Let it Rain

Victories

Dylan’s commission was accepted without edits. His patron is probably going all Karate Kid right now–that’s and old school Karate Kid joke, you know: Wax on…

George wrote an ad which has run on three podcasts and it scheduled for one more. I imagine it something like this.

Tyree used email to reply to everyone on the list and was shocked to find out just how many of you are lurking out there.

News

This tool has book going around the internet: Find out who you write like.

For all you non-fiction guys, here’s how you write a book proposal.

I’ve always wondered about this.  A YA writer talks about how to keep up with the kids.

Carl East from Hull topped Apples’s iBookstore charts with his novel “Incest Urges of a Nymphomaniac.” Coming up next on Sick Sad World.

Upcoming Schedule

Noble Pen Meeting

July 15th, 2010
Happy Chef, 1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

I love talking about nothing. It is the only thing I know anything about.
–Oscar Wilde

Victories

Tyree’s fantasy story Acorns is being considered by the Darrell Award jury. It is not known at this time what they consider it.

Tyree will be putting out a magazine of Cosmic Crime Stories, sci-fi pulp detective stories. Remember there are 2^22.931 stories in the naked city.

Dave’s picture of the Abbey Creek school will go on the cover of a pamphlet about Mt. Vernon. Sadly, they aren’t letting him do any words.

I got a piece on the Six Sentences blog. Just a thousand more good sentences, and I ‘ll have a novel.

Dylan finished his last commission piece, but he has lost his best customer to matrimony–the customer’s that is, Dylan’s already married.

Tony has figured out what the short story he is writing is about. Hopefully, it’s something awesome.

News

A new study shows that kids who have books to read over summer vacation do better in school. Well, duh.

Once again, IO9 has a great gallery of pulp covers.

Upcoming Schedule

Noble Pen Meeting

July 8th, 2010
Happy Chef, 1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

I wanna be a cowboy baby
Ridin’ at night ’cause I sleep all day
Cowboy baby
I can smell a pig from a mile away
–Kid Rock, Cowboy

It never takes longer than a few minutes, when they get together, for everyone to revert to the state of nature, like a party marooned by a shipwreck. That’s what a family is. Also the storm at sea, the ship, and the unknown shore. And the hats and the whiskey stills that you make out of bamboo and coconuts. And the fire that you light to keep away the beasts.
–Michael Chabon, The Yiddish Policeman’s Union

Victories

Ciuin is go for her intensive class in Philadelphia. Something, something, cheese steak, Rocky V.

George’s podcast is going well, he’s getting good feedback from the artists whose music he’s playing in his podcasts, and it has been 12 days since his last OSHA reportable accident.

Rachel schooled me in the fact that not all women dig Doctor Who for the beefcake.

News

Gregory Levey tells us how having 700,000 Facebook fans can be a bad thing.

More advice from editors. This time it’s Cat Rambo of Fantasy Magazine. Cat Rambo, I wonder if that’s an assumed name.

Here is an article about idea generation which talks about the rule of 20, the idea that you have to have 20 ideas before you have an original one. Personally, I’ve never had 20 ideas.

Upcoming Schedule

Noble Pen Meeting

July 1st, 2010
Happy Chef, 1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

— Douglas Adams, Life, the Universe, and Everything

Victories

Lisa joined us. Yea Lisa.

Ciuin has been invited back to Philadelphia for a private seminar with one of the teachers from the Philadelphia writer’s conference. She even found  a sponsor to send her. Her accomplishments a frankly becoming a little annoying, because I can never remember how to spell Philadelphia, but then I remember the name mean “brotherly love,” and I think about the deep history and the Liberty Bell selling crack, and it seems all right.

Tony continues to  re-write, overcoming the paralyzing fear which comes with the possibility of actually making the story worse, with the curling up in the fetal position and crying the eyes out–or is that just me?

Tyree is negotiating a slipstream magazine for Sam’s Dot with the editors of Afterburn SF. I look forward forward to being rejected by them.

News

Amazon and Barnes and Noble are in an e-reader price war.

Agent Nathan Bransord shares how often his name is misspelled in query letters.

Kristen at Pub Rants as an interesting piece explaining single book vs. multi-book deals. I will add it to the list of problems I wish I had.

Upcoming Schedule

Noble Pen Meeting

June 24th, 2010
Happy Chef, 1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

The future is quite different to the present
The one thing we have in common with the present is we still call it the present, even though it’s the future
What you call the present we call the past, so you guys are way behind
— Flight of the Conchords, The Humans Are Dead

Victories

Nick submitted some train slides. I forgot to ask him where, but I bet the periodical either has “Train” or “Trains” in the title.

Ciuin did an agent pitch on Friday and got asked for a full. The agent is thinking about pitching a series for her.  Ciuin steps up to the plate. The agent pitches high and outside, Ciuin hits a grounder between second and third. Ciuin takes first base!

Bob is ready to put is children’s book to the group. Hopefully it won’t be over our heads.

Tyree submitted a piece to Electric Velocipede, which is far superior to those old manual velocipedes.

Tony got a brainstorm and submitted a short story to Flash Fiction Online. I’m trying to come up with a quip about brainstorms, but I’m not having a… serendipitous creative moment.

Bob’s got a new granddaughter. Hopefully it’s his.

After a long and arduous trip, George is Red Hat certified. Personally, I prefer black.

Housekeeping

We have a slightly different scheme for distribution. After I send out this email, the authors up for critique will reply all when their piece is ready. They can choose to include the entire piece or request that people email them for a copy.

We had 11 people last week, and I thought everyone really stayed on task, which makes things easier for me. Great job!

Because the schedule is filling up for the next month, I wanted to remind everyone that you don’t have ask for slots on Thursday Night. You can just send me an email and request to be added to the list.

News

Romance author Candace Havens talks about sex. I’m told it’s a popular subject.

Lynne Veihl has some links to free stuff. I hear people like that too.

Apparently children’s dystopian literature is big these days. I was happy with Bunnicula.

Upcoming Schedule

Noble Pen Meeting

June 17th, 2010
Happy Chef, 1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

The city of San Francisco is being stalked by a huge shaved vampyre cat named Chet, and only I, Abby Normal, emergency backup mistress of the Greater Bay Area night, and my manga-haired love monkey, Foo Dog, stand between the ravenous monster and a bloody massacre of the general public. Which isn’t, like, as bad as it sounds, because the general public kind of sucks ass.

–Christopher Moore, Bite Me

Victories

We were joined for the first time by Mark, Tony, Rachel, and Tyree. And I think I managed not to scare/offend any of them.

Dylan finished his last commission and received another one. I am beginning to believe he doesn’t sleep. Could he be a vampire? I’ve never seen him sparkle.

Tony finished a short story this week and it preparing it for submission. I don’t know enough about Tony or his writing at this point to come up with an original joke, so here’s a video of a man shooting bananas out of his nose.

News

Lynne Viehl talks about luck and how getting a NYT bestseller can be hard even for an already-listed author. She also has promised to show the mass-market ratings list next week.

Candace Havens has a post on Genreality about common mistakes made by beginning writers. One of the items is being able to take criticism, so at least we have that going for us (most days.)

Upcoming Schedule

Noble Pen Meeting

June 10th, 2010
Happy Chef, 1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

Rimmer: …Lister! There’s so many things that are strange and
odd. So many things we don’t have any explanation for.

Lister: Like, um, why do intelligent people buy cinema hot dogs? Do you
mean that sort of weird and mysterious thing?

Rimmer: No, Lister, I mean like the pyramids. How did they move such
massive pieces of stone without the aid of modern technology?

Lister: They had massive whips, Rimmer. Massive, massive whips.

–RED DWARF, Episode 4, Waiting for God

Victories

George started his podcast. So if anyone wants to be driven completely insane, they can go to his website and listen.

Dylan managed to write 50,000 words in four days. Unfortunately, they are all the same word. It’s a rather bad one.

Ciuin is up to chapter 20 in her massive revision. She wants to finish her re-writes and revise once more before her writers conference, next week. She really knows how to take it easy on summer vacation.

Shannon went to Wiscon and stood in the corner of parties, watching other people network.

Shannon has been asked to write a short screenplay, which he readily agreed to as he doesn’t know any better.

Special Event

The Noble Pen Welcomes Tyree Campbell, author and Managing Editor of Sam’s Dot Publishing. Based in Cedar Rapids, Sam’s Dot publishes novels, novellas, collections, and online and print magazines.

Tyree will be joining us on June 10th.

News

Lynne Viehl wrote an article on settings.

Garrison Keillor thinks this is the end of publishing as we know it.

Upcoming Schedule

Noble Pen Meeting

May 27th, 2010
Happy Chef, 1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

“How many languages do you speak, Nutt?”

“Three dead and twelve living, sir,” said Nutt.

“Really. Really,” said Ridcully, as though filing this away and trying not to think How many of them were alive before you murdered them?

–Terry Pratchett, Unseen Academicals

Victories

Dylan has another commission. Lucky bastard.

One of Cuin’s professors wants her to re-write her research paper so the U of I can publish it. But first she needs a document of archaic German legalese signed by Heinrich Himmler translated.

I attended Demicon, the Des Moines science fiction convention and enjoyed speaking to many authors and publishers and the open bar.

Lena got another letter into the Gazette. The Linn Newsletter has published her account of her Israel trip and they want her to write a letter about Poland. Unfortunately, we probably won’t be seeing her until after farmers market season. I have no jokes or silly videos about farmers markets–farmer’s daughters sure, but not farmers markets.

Special Event

The Noble Pen Welcomes Tyree Campbell, author and Managing Editor of Sam’s Dot Publishing. Based in Cedar Rapids, Sam’s Dot publishes novels, novellas, collections, and online and print magazines.

I believe Tyree will be joining us on June 10th.

News

Lynne Viehl has a nice article on the merits of being a self-taught author.

Barnes and Noble is launching a self-publishing service . I’m pretty sure they still won’t put your book in their store.

JA Konrath announced his next book in the Jack Daniels series, Shaken, will be released for the Kindle several months before the paper edition.

Upcoming Schedule

Noble Pen Meeting

May 20th, 2010
Happy Chef, 1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

My muffin hasn’t had a cherry since 1939.
–Betty White

Victories

Nick was a powerhouse this week. He sent three photos to a magazine and sent his western to an editor for critique. Tuesday, he will be juggling chainsaws in Ellis park.

Welcome Bob. Thanks for checking us out.

News

Borders will be selling an e-ink reader for $149. Commence lamenting for the 1000th time how far we have to go to find a Borders.

Toys!

Another infographic: The most Controversial Books in America. Oddly enough, they did not include Ecstasy and Me: My Live As a Woman, by Hedy Lamarr, which I keep on my nightstand.

Upcoming Schedule

Noble Pen Meeting

May 13th, 2010
Happy Chef, 1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

Sure I’ve been called a xenophobe, but the truth is I’m not. I honestly just feel that America is the best country and all the other countries aren’t as good. That used to be called patriotism.
–Kenny Powers, Eastbound & Down

Victories

A small press editor got back to me on my “Panic No More” project. He said it showed promise but decided to pass. I thanked him for his input and then reported him to Homeland Security as a possible enemy combatant.

News

As they say in Bad Boys, shit just got real. Google has announced a new ebook service which will launch this summer. While not everything Google does is a game-changer–I’m looking at  you Orkut, they certainly are above the curve. (Actually, I hear Orkut is huge in Brazil.)

Upcoming Schedule