A brief update from Toronto…

Hey folks. Just getting ready for a quick breakfast downstairs at the hotel restaurant with my brother and his family. They are heading out today and I’ve had a good visit with them.

I’ll have some REAL book tour info for you later today as I will be performing my storytelling workshop with some cool kids at TYPE BOOKS – 883 Queen Street West.

I’ll tell you all about it this evening.

In the meantime – here’s a shot of a nifty looking gent I met in the Kensington Market.\

And here is a photo from  Thunder By of THE SLEEPIHG GIANT.

I’m having a bit of a hard time working with this rinky-tink little netbook – but when I get back home to my desktop I’ll set these up properly.

yours in storytelling,

Steve Vernon

May 8, 2013

A short entry for this morning.

I slept REALLY well last night. That half hour in the fitness really made a difference.

Unfortunately, breakfast left a little to be lacking. The breakfast cook wasn’t there for the second day in a row. I gather that he had been working late – cooking for a late night function – but I’m wondering why the hotel doesn’t hire an extra cook. There were several people in the restaurant this morning asking about a hot breakfast and having to settle for the free continental. Let me tell you, Bran Flakes and a blueberry just don’t cut it when you are craving bacon and eggs.

I went out early this morning intending to take a morning photograph of the windmill farm that is rolling across the field from the hotel. It is an oddly striking scene – all of those windmills and not a Don Quixote in sight – but the fog was too thick this morning to get proper photograph.

I’ve got two more schools to visit and then tonight I have an hour at the Amherst Four Fathers Library. One of these events looks to be pretty big, with maybe a hundred kids or so. I’m definitely looking forward to it. I will try and do a better job recording these appearances – but unfortunately by the end of a full-volume Steve Vernon workshop I am usually more than a little burned out and baked to a crispy golden dumb.

Yesterday I averaged about fifty to sixty kids per session – not a huge number, but these kids were all of the grade 4-6 range – and let me tell you that represents some of the keenest and most interested students in the school system. From Grade seven to Phd-ville, students tend to lean toward lethargy with strong overtones of are-we-done-yet?

I will tell you that I’ve met some really wonderful, eager and motivated students. Some surprisingly computer savvy students as well. I mentioned that I Facebook and Twitter and their eyes all got big and eager and I heard promises of them all following me on Facebook and some of them wanted to e-mail me further questions on writing technique.

It will be interesting to see just how much follow-through I will get. For certain, my books are going to be read a whole lot more out here in the Amherst school and library system.

yours in storytelling,

Steve Vernon

I am a travelling man…

Here’s a couple of the visits I’ve got planned out for this May thanks to the Hackmatack Program.

May 7 8:50-9:50am I’ll be visiting the kids at Parrsboro Elementary.

Same day from 1-2pm I’ll be visiting the kids at River Hebert.

Then, next day on May 8 9:30 to 10:30am I’ll be visiting the kids at Cyrus Eaton Elementary in Pugwash.

Same day, from 1 to 2pm I’ll be talking to the kids in Amherst.

Then, that evening at 7pm I’ll be talking with guests at the Amherst Public Library at 7pm.

On May 9 I’ll catch a bus to from Amherst to the Halifax Airport where I will catch a plane and fly to Thunder Bay.

Can’t you hear Tommy Hunter singing out – “I am a travelling man…”

I’ll fill you all in on my Toronto activities in the next day or so.

 

yours in storytelling,

Steve Vernon

Another fan letter…

Back on April 16th I told you folks all about a fan letter that I had received - asking about where I found my inspiration.

Well – let me tell you about another fan letter – one I received way back in February.

DEAR MR. VERNON,

My name is Aiden. I take life plain and simple. I am a huge fan of you and your books! It’s some of the most interesting stuff that happens here in New Ross. You may have heard of our town. We are in the middle of Nova Scotia. We have one or two tales of our own you may want to hear. One is about a young boy that disappears when he goes fishing.

There are probably more.

I was wondering if maybe you would come to our school and give us a presentation. We are just over 100 people at our school and located in the middle of Highway 12. If not, then don’t worry about it.

Your fan,

Aidan.

That was, as I mentioned, back in February. Some of you more calender-0riented folks might have noticed that this letter actually came before Lucy’s letter.

I should warn you that I am a writer of fiction and am chronically prone to the wholesale fudging of numerous details.

Bluntly put, I get paid to fudge things up.

I immediately e-mailed the school principal and made arrangements to get out there for a visit. It took two months to line things up but I am leaving this morning for a visit to the New Ross Consolidated School.

I want to throw a BIG tip of the fishing cap to the good folks at the Hackmatack Committee who helped to make this visit a reality – namely, by providing a drive to the school and back.

I love visiting these small rural schools. There is such a close-knit sense of community and commitment. The kids there are ALWAYS eager to listen and learn. I anticipate a fine morning and I am looking forward to hopefully meeting plain-and-simple Aiden and handing him an autographed copy of one of my books.

I get home this afternoon and will rush off to a night shift at my day job and most likely come tomorrow morning I will lay upon my couch and make small quiet breathing sounds while the weariness weeps out of my bones – but it’s worth it just to get out and visit those schools.

Here I go!

yours in storytelling,

Steve Vernon

 

My first piece of fan mail…

As I’ve told a lot of you folks – I’ve been fortunate enough this year to see my middle-grade novel SINKING DEEPER: OR MY QUESTIONABLE (POSSIBLY HEROIC) DECISION TO INVENT A SEA MONSTER has made the short list in both the Hackmatack and the Silver Birch Award.

Which means my book is being read by kids all across the maritimes as well as the province of Ontario.

I was VERY happy to receive my VERY first piece of fan mail for SINKING DEEPER just yesterday.

It came from a young girl named Lucy. She lives in New Brunswick and the letter was sent to me through her local library.

This is what it said.

DEAR STEVE VERNON,

My name is Lucy. I belong to the Hackmatack book club. How were you inspired to write this book? I really like sea monster books, especially this one. Most of them I read are from Halifax, N.S. I am from Halifax too. I love your book so much! Are you going to write any more books? Bye.

Love, Lucy.

This is what we kids writers write for. The gift of being able to touch a young person’s imagination is absolutely precious and rare and wonderful.

So I sat down this morning and wrote Lucy a reply.

I thought I’d post it here for you folks to read.

April 16, 2013

Dear Lucy,

I want to thank you very much for your kind letter.

I’m very excited to be a part of the Hackmatack Award Program and I am glad to hear that you enjoyed reading SINKING DEEPER.

You asked what inspired me to write this novel. Well, I’ll tell you. Inspiration is a little like that nagging little brother who will sneak up and grab you by the ear and start whispering words into it. Inspiration will pester you until there is nothing else to be done but to get up from wherever you are comfortable and to go out and create the thing.

Whether you are a writer or an artist or just a talented jump-roper figuring out how to jump over that big old green neon jumping rope in a brand new and exciting way – like maybe with one arm tucked behind your knee-cap and your eyes closed tight shut – inspiration is what will wake you up in the morning and get you started through the day.

Inspiration is something that grows in your imagination. You grow enough of it and your heart and spirit will just inhale it on up just as natural as somebody breathing in and out.

You don’t need any kind of encouragement to remember how to breathe – now do you?

Inspiration works the same way as breathing does.

We all do it – kids and adults alike.

The only real trick is to learn how to recognize it.

So how is that done?

Well – recognizing inspiration is easier for kids like you than it is for old grown-ups like me.

Recognizing inspiration is a little like seeing cows.

Let me explain.

Think about the last time your parents drove down the road out to the country – most likely going somewhere. And there you are sitting in the back seat looking around for something to see.

And then you see it.

Parked behind a big farm fence, chewing on a cud the size of Wisconsin.

A cow.

“It’s a cow!” You’ll say. “It’s a big freaking cow!”

Odds are the grown-ups did not see that cow. They were way too busy watching the road and thinking about income tax and talking about baseball statistics and chewing on their own grown-up cuds.

Their imaginations were cluttered with the rattle of newspaper and time clocks and gray old ink.

But you spotted that cow – right out there in the green field. Maybe you gave it a name – called it Georgina or Murgatroyd or Lumbago. Maybe you gave that cow a set of cow-wings and sent it off to the moon to look for moon-pickles.

Maybe you sang it a little cow song or dressed it in a moo-moo or honked its horns real loud.

That’s imagination talking.

That’s inspiration talking.

So – what inspired me to write SINKING DEEPER?

Well, it might have been a cow – but actually it was a real life sea monster that inspired me.

I wrote that novel thinking about Old Ned – the Lake Utopia monster in New Brunswick.

I was also thinking of the Miller Lake monster here in Nova Scotia that was originally nothing more than a torn-up tree stump that somebody painted to look a sea monster – mostly because they were inspired. Then a group of Boy Scouts got together and started painting that lake monster even fancier. Then, when somebody decided to steal that old sea monster’s head – (and the thought of a headless sea monster is pretty scary, don’t you think?) – then somebody else made another sea monster head.

And it all started with the gift of inspiration.

So that’s what inspired me. The idea that some little kid could actually create an entire sea monster out of nothing more than a single wistful dream.

Y’see, I remember what it was like to be a kid.

Kids are a way lot more powerful than people want to believe.

Kids have a firm grip on the key to their imagination.

Kids believe in monsters.

Lastly, you asked me if I was going to write another book.

Yes I am.

I’m writing one right now.

Yours in storytelling,

Steve Vernon

(if anybody is interested in reading SINKING DEEPER you can pick it up on Kobo right now or hunt it up at Chapters or at Amazon or get your local bookstore to order you a copy. I guarantee a good read – and a generous helping of inspiration.)

Filling the Tank…

Just a half an hour ago I read a blog over at THE WRITERS GUIDE TO E-PUBLISHING.

The author of that blog – David Slegg – was talking about how his personal responsibilities – including a cattle farm, calving season, and a big family Easter gathering – were getting in the way of his creative journey.

He compared it to a wonderful movie – a movie that I truly loved to watch – THE STRAIGHT STORY.

 

David asked if any of us felt the same way as he did.

This is how I answered him.

David, are you freaking kidding me?

I’ve got a day job that’s pretty well full time. I’ve got a house that needs keeping. Snow that regularly needs shoveling.

Throw on some family crisis over the last year. Three siblings who are battling the reaper – two of them younger and one of them run to critical.

On top of that I’ve been taken a paying gig as the editor of a Canadian anthology of speculative fiction. Means I’ve had to read about four hundred manuscripts in the last three months. Right now I’m hip-deep in the final selection process – heavy, heavy editorial work and dealing with numerous authors.

On top of that I’m dealing with three book tours that are coming up. These are all paying gigs – which is great. Means I’ll be making appearances in schools, libraries, bookstores and auditoriums.

Now – none of these activities compare to the amount of work that is involved in actually running a farm – as you do.

(I know that for a god-given fact – I actually dated a lady farmer briefly and worked on her farm and it definitely lives up to that whole “working from sun to sun” motto – farming is damn tough)

And – several of these activities – especially the book tours – are REALLY freaking cool and a chance in a lifetime that I intend to have a blast with.

BUT – each one of these activities takes time away from my writing.

Each one takes energy and prep-time and a certain amount of commitment and focus.

So yes – I do sometimes feel like Alvin Straight – the gent who drove his John Deere tractor from Laurens, Iowa to Mount Zion, Wisconsin.

(And I’ve watched that movie several times and loved it. Amazing that it’s a true story. Amazing that Alvin Straight was played by 82 year old Richard Farnsworth who actually was dying from terminal bone cancer while he was making that film – and knew it!)

It’s a wonderful flick that tells a wonderful story.

The truth of the matter is that life is built to get in the way. It’s supposed to get in your way. It plays a VERY important role by getting in the way.

You see – every time that a personal commitment and/or responsibility gets in the way of you putting words down on paper – it is serving a heck of an important purpose.

You’re output has been suffering – but your emotional content hasn’t been.

Remember this, David.

Repeat it every morning that you’ve got to get out of be knowing that you’re about to spend the next twelve hours – maybe shoulder deep in the wrong end of a difficult calving – or shovel deep in a heap of manure.

Remember these four words.

LIFE – FILLS – THE -TANK.

Life – and the living thereof – is what keeps your creative motor humming. It’s what keeps the muse wet and juicy. It’s what keeps the words flying off your fingertips while you dance them across a willing keyboard.

Life – in all of it’s manifold formats – is what we writers write about.

Whether you’re writing science fiction or hot steaming romance or blood and guts battle – ALL of the stories you write are stuffed cram-full of characters. And if you want your reader to buy into the tale that you are spinning you’ve got to make sure that these characters are freaking believable – which means that you’ve got to grab a fist full of personal experience and cram it shoulder deep into that character and stuff him cram-jam-full of hot stinking life!

So – don’t beat yourself up over not getting anywhere to fast.

Do just what you are doing. That ain’t a keyboard – that’s a John Deere 110 ride-on tractor.

Keep it straight and you’ll get there by and by.

I put so much effort into writing that answer that I figured my own blog followers ought to read that entry – but you likewise ought to check out and follow the WG2E (The Writer’s Guide to E-Publishing) – which is a wonderful website that I set out last year to write regularly for – but then life and a whole bunch of roadblocks – got in the way of me accomplishing.

You see – life will get in the way of EVERYTHING you want to get done.

Doesn’t mean you need to stop trying.

Here’s a link to David Slegg’s original entry at the WG2E.

And if you haven’t watched THE STRAIGHT STORY – go now and hunt up a copy and watch the darned thing. It’ll definitely help set you straight the next time you are wondering about just you are really going – and just when you actually expect to get anywhere in this life.

yours in storytelling,
Steve Vernon

My Writing Life: Edward W. Robertson

A great Kobo interview.

 

My Writing Life: Edward W. Robertson.

Amazon and Goodreads Sitting in a Tree…

I am hip-deep in the editing of Tesseracts 17 – while simultaneously getting ready for THREE different book tours – (Hackmatack, Silver Birches and Writing on Fire) – AND trying to bash out a rough draft of a follow-up to my latest YA novel – so this is going to be a VERY short blog post – but I feel like I just can’t let this bit of news pass without throwing in my two cents worth.

I want to talk about the big news this week of Amazon buying out Goodreads.

Let’s face it – EVERYONE is already talking about it.

I mean EVERYONE!!!

EVERY-FREAKING-ONE!

All right. That’s enough. Anyone with access to Google and a working index finger can doubtless find another article pertaining to the acquisition.

It’s big, big news.

Or is it?

***

I’m going to be honest here.

For starters, Kobo has been a lot kinder to me than Kindle has in 2013. I’m one of those weird exceptions-to-the-rule. Whether it is because I am Canadian or whether it is just weird-dumb-circumstance – I sell a LOT more e-books through Kobo than I do through Kindle – THIS MONTH.

So I’ve got a bias.

BUT – next month might be a whole different story.

Things change.

Still, I want to be PERFECTLY honest with you folks.

I read that big news yesterday and the first thing I thought of was – “Wow, so this is how Amazon is going to hit back at Kobo’s competition. A move like this could dry up the Kobo review machine – which hinges directly upon a good working connection with Goodreads reviewers.”

Well, maybe.

However – if we read what Goodreads CEO Otis Chandler has to say about the merger we will see that Otis claims that nothing is going to change about Goodreads.

He’s lying.

Things HAVE changed.

The whole picture HAS changed.

And things are going to KEEP ON changing.

Is this a good change?

Is this a bad change?

I dunno. It makes more sense to moan about the weather. Face it boys and girls – we live in a changing world and ANYONE involved in the writing and/or creation of e-books who says that they CAN’T deal with change had better get off the freaking train!

Things changed yesterday.

Most likely they will change again tomorrow.

Don’t force me to break out my old guitar and try to learn how to sing again and to start wailing – in my worst Bob Dylan voice – OH THE TIMES THEY ARE A’CHANGING!

Because they are.

Or – in the words of David Bowie – ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-changes – turn and face the strange ch-ch-changes…

Things have changed.

They’ll most likely change again.

For now – and for always – my job as a writer is just to ride out the changes and write a little faster.

I could post a hundred intensive fear-mongering scare-story blog entries over the next month saying – “Oh my God, Amazon is the devil, they done bought out Goodreads”.

I could tweet a thousand bitter little tweets – me and Chicken Little singing out “THE SKY IS FALLING”.

Or – better yet – I could go back to my writing and write.

Right?

***

So that’s what I am going to do.

I’m a member at Goodreads.

I’m a writer over at Amazon.

And I’m a writer at Kobo.

(and if you REALLY dug this blog entry why don’t you swing on over to Amazon and/or Kobo and buy an e-book?)

Nothing’s changed.

I’m still writing.

***

What it boils down to is this.

I don’t know HOW this change will affect me.

I don’t know if this is going to affect Kobo.

I can’t even tell you what the weather for next Wednesday is supposed to be.

All I can tell you for certain sure is that EVERYTHING IS FREAKING CHANGING.

So deal with it.

If you want to read what smarter folks have got to say about the Amazon/Goodreads merger you might want to read what David Gaughran or Hugh C. Howey have got to say about it. They’re both two smart dudes who sell a whole lot more e-books than me.

But maybe that’ll change too.

Some day…

yours in storytelling,

Steve Vernon

PS:  Here’s Scott Turow of the Author’s Guild’s take on the situation.  

Indie Ideas for Public Libraries…

I’d love to see some of my e-books in public libraries.

I’ve read how a lot of publishers are charging exorbitant rates to public libraries. I don’t see that as being a wise strategy. They definitely ought to look into some of the indie writers out there – such as myself.

I know that some of us are writing the literary equivalent of Dick and Jane Go Zombie. I’m talking literary dreck – crap that really shouldn’t have even been e-published – but there are one heck of a lot of good writers out there as well.

Libraries ought to tap into that valuable resource.

I expect that some of them already have.

Here’s a great how-to article from Smashwords founder Mark Coker.

If you want to learn more about Smashwords and e-book publishing in general you might want to check out this free read.

In the interest of complete honesty – I still prefer the Kobo Writing Life portal for getting my words into e-book format – but Smashwords DOES offer a very easy way to access some other markets that Kobo can’t reach.

 

yours in writing,

Steve Vernon

Bucket List for a Writer…

Okay.

First off Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson’s movie THE BUCKET LIST was pretty freaking funny – and then it made you cry.

Yup.

I cried.

Big old bucket-sized tears streaming down my cheeks and sopping into my beard.

That’s what good storytelling will do to you. It will yank on several of your emotional chains.

Make you scared, make you laugh, make you cry.

Same thing worked for BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN.

Made you laugh when you watched that monster puffing away on that cigar.

Made you cry when the monster realized that the object of his desire found him repulsive.

Made you scared when you saw him looming out of the shadows.

Multiple emotional assault.

Anyone remember Bruce Lee in ENTER THE DRAGON?

When he is talking to his student and telling him to “pull my finger”.

EMOTIONAL CONTENT.

That’s what your story needs.

Not just any one single emotion.

Bring on a whole freaking bucketful of emotions!

Remember that, grasshopper.

*******

Now – about that bucket list.

First item on my bucket list – buy me a freaking bucket.

One of those big shiny metal buckets that clank when you carry them – maybe with a few Robby the Robot Rules stickers on the side.

yours in storytelling,

Steve Vernon

PS: Let me right a terrible wrong. This entire blog entry was inspired by a single Tweet from Jeremy Shipp.

Check out Jeremy’s blog entry Bucket List and follow him. And don’t just follow him – buy some of his books. The dude is REALLY funny!

And scary, too.

The whole bucket of emotion-enchilladas!