Writing
- Details
- Written by Michael Z Williamson
Friends,
It's a busy month for my books. Below are the August releases:
http://www.amazon.com/Exiled-Clan-Claw-Book-One/dp/1439134413/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1299294988&sr=1-1
In an alternate Bronze Age where the Chicxulub meteorite never impacted, sentient saurians and felines must fight for territory, as the Mediterranean Basin infills. A shared universe with Harry Turtledove, SM Stirling, Jody Lynn Nye, John Ringo and myself.
http://www.amazon.com/Lawyers-Hell-Janet-Morris/dp/1937035018/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0
In Hell, airborne lawyers including Joseph McCarthy and SV Benet must seek the head of the most honest man in Hell, to be deposed by Satan himself. Also catch my friend Leo's story, "Revolutionary Justice," wherein Che Guevara is condemned to be recognized as, "That guy off the T shirt."
http://www.amazon.com/Citizens-John-Ringo/dp/143913460X/ref=tmm_mmp_title_0
A collection of stories by veterans, including several classic works and some new ones. Eric Frank Russell's "Alamagoosa" is my favorite.
http://www.amazon.com/Do-Unto-Others-Michael-Williamson/dp/1439134596/ref=tmm_mmp_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1259774149&sr=1-1
A paperback reprint of last year's Ripple Creek story. A family that owns an entire system of resources hires Ripple Creek's best team to keep them alive in a domed mining colony of hostile agents.
- Details
- Written by Michael Z Williamson
http://www.amazon.com/forum/anthologies/ref=cm_cd_dp_rft_tft_tp?_encoding=UTF8&cdForum=FxZ8FZHFP6EYOQ&cdThread=Tx2TJYCXTCHU620
Interesting discussion. I note that half or more of the comments are by people pimping their own short stories or fanzines.
Then there's this comment:
says:Absolutely not. Simply asking the question shows that the medium still has relevancy.
Er, huh?
"Does anyone still speak Linear B?"
No, I think that reply is a logical fail.
Consider the work of the following authors: Dave Eggers, Etgar Keret, Wells Tower, Roddy Doyle, T. C. Boyle, Miranda July, David Schickler... You cannot possibly tell me that you are unable to parse out a heartbeat there.
So people are writing short stories. The followup question is, are they making money at it, and are their publishers? I also get the impression he's trying to impress us by namedropping. Keret hasn't published anything in several years, and his Amazon rankings are not impressive. Eggers is doing well, but he's also one of those literati darlings. He may be an excellent writer, but I suspect his sales have more to do with zeitgeist than quality. Schickler has published two whole books, one of which is out of print and one ranking down around 1,000,000. So regardless of quality, sales seem to...suck. July dabbles in everything, her last book was 4 years ago from a small press. I had to google them and I haven't heard of the others. They're certainly not "Stephen King," who did write a lot of shorts but now mostly writes whole books, nor Hemingway.
In SF, Heinlein got paid 5c a word in the 1950s. That was serious money. And around 2006, SFWA raised the minimum "professional" rate for SF to....5c a word, from 3c. You are not paying any bills with that.
Someone comments:
The mid-length short story may be in somewhat of a (temporary?) decline as print magazines are struggling with all the publishing changes. However, ultra-short fiction forms (flash fiction, micro fiction, hint fiction etc.) are on the rise as more people discover (free) online reading and the range of ezines available.
Oh, it's hardly temporary. Magazines that had circulation in the hundreds of thousands have dropped into the mere thousands, and there are less all the time. The specialty mags are happy to get hundreds of readers (out of a US population approaching a third of a billion). As for free content--it's worth what you pay for it.
It is true more content is moving online. There's likely more of it, but, with the proliferation of amateur sites, it will become increasingly difficult to find an audience, and there will be less development by the practitioners. You will see less and less great stories, and even if they exist, you'll see less of them as they are swallowed in the mire of puerile shit.
See, part of what professional publishing brings to the table (as many of us in the field try to remind people), is that development and filter. Few people can finish a story. Fewer a good one. Fewer still can convince someone to part with a mere nickel per word up front for their story. If no one is willing to pay a nickel per word, in the hopes that advertising will recoup those few dozen dollars, is the story really any good? Probably not.
In exchange, the publisher brings a podium. You can have the best message in the world. Shout it in the middle of the Tibetan Plateau and you waste it. Whisper it in the right location in Times Square, say, and you'll have half the world as your audience. Then the message can do some good.
Now, the short form is not dead. However, it's not what it used to be. The magazines are dying, the web won't really offer much in the way of money. These days, the primary reason a writer produces short stuff is for promotional purposes. If you like the short content (and blogging counts), you may spend money on the heavier content.
So the answer comes in three forms:
Yes. Kiss the mags goodbye, they're done.
No, but you're really going to have to dig to find it.
No, but it's never going to be what it was in the past.
I do still write quite a few shorts, but largely as promotion to keep my name out there. I mean, I enjoy it, and I try to deliver the best story possible, but they're all in existing universes and the publicity benefits me more than the few bucks.
- Details
- Written by Michael Z Williamson
We were told to take historical people, especially lawyers, and create their perpetual demise and torment.
LAWYERS IN HELL OFFICIAL NAME/ENTITY LIST
(04/25/11)
© 2011 Janet Morris, all rights reserved
The Adjudication of Henrietta (Hetty) Howland Robinson Green--Allan Gilbreath
Henrietta (Hetty) Howland Robinson Green
Edward (Eddie) J. O’Hare, Esquire
Inferni Club
Brother Francis
Valeria Messalina
And Injustice for All--Jason Cordova
Marie Antoinette, Queen of France and of Navarre
Rasputin
Nostradamus
Madame Blavatsky
Henrietta Maria
Prophecy Dolls, LLC
Unwelfare Housing
Perdition Broadcasting System (“PBS” )
Gremlins Chinese Theater
Hellywood Walk of Shame
Hellywood
Counselor John Pym
Henri Sanson
Madame Toadstool’s Finery
Beasterly Hells
Dishonorable Raum, Great Earl of Hell and Demonic Lord
Lost Angeles Uncivil Circuit Court of the Hall of Injustice
Decapitol Records Eternal Waiting Room a/k/a The Lobby
Appellate Angel--Edward McKeown
Arkiel, watcher cast down for dalliance with human women
Yoko, demon of lust, being a lawyer to punish being too sexy
Slamtrack
Gravelog, demon limo driver
The Appellate Section of the Grand Court of Hell, Pandemonium Division
Aztec Priest Huemac
Malfean, succubus/paralegal
Check and Mate--Bradley H. Sinor
John Adams
Lieserl Einstein
Aleister Crowley
Demon’s Gambit Chess Club
DisgraceBook
Big Bill Jansen, Proprietor of
The Hellegality Club
Walter Gibson
Hellizdat Publishing
Captain Meriwether Lewis
hellphone
The Dark Arts--Kimberly Richardson
Clarence Darrow
Penemue (fallen angel)
Nicolo Paganini
Attorney Boulder
John Ginger
Rue de la Mort in Lost Angeles
Thanatos Library
Disclaimer--John Manning
Aaron “Monty” Montgomery
Rudolfo (Imp, elevator operator)
Demonic Idol
Welcome Woman
Howard Hughes
Undertaker
Demetrius the Chief Librarian of hell’s Law Library
Justice Cardozo
Foreman
Belli
Golgotha Gardens Retirement Home and Assisted Living Center
His Satanic Majesty
Maureen Johanssen
Omar Sharif
Pazuzu (demon)
Mari (female slave to Pazuzu
Jehovah
Palestine
Sodom
Gomorrah
Jericho
Babylon
Damascus
Yahweh
Jerusalem
Canaan
Jordan River
Egypt
Persia
Sinai
Eastern Mediterranean
Allah
Mohammed
Christ
Kathy Griffin
Apsu
Marduk
Mummu
Ba’al
Che Guevara
Infernal Action Request
Asmoday, Amdusias, Amon, Marchosias, Marbas & Zepar, Attorneys At Law
Jean Harlow
Marquis Marchosias (demon)
Bram Stoker
Prince Vlad III Drakulya aka Vlad Tepes aka Drakulja, Prince of Wallachia and Transylvania
Count Dracula
Aaron Burr
Alexander Hamilton
Sultan Mehmed II
Enemies Like These--David L. Burkhead
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Lieutenant Colonel William Dunlap Simpson, Fourteenth South Carolina Volunteers
Midgarder
Nidhogg, the World Serpent, the Death of the World
World Ash Yggdrassil
Fimbulwinter
Surtr, the fire giant
Niffelheim
Wotan
Mirmir’s Well
Niffelhel
Vafthruthnir, the giant
Gjöll River, the river resounding
General Sherman
Thomas Huxley
Ragnarok, the Fate of the Gods
Naglfar, the Ship of the Dead
Jötuns
Asgard, the Abode of the Gods
Gold-thatched Hall of Gimle
Valhöl
Ginungagap, the yawning void from before the world was
Gjällerbru, bridge over Gjöll
Hel
Helheim
Modgud, the giantess
Garmr, the Hel Hound
Odin
Gold Teeth
Fenris the wolf
Jörmungand the world serpent
Erra and the Seven--Chris Morris
William Shakespeare
Lysicles the Athenian
Erebos
Styx
Hades
Tartaros
Asphodel
Elysion
Erra and his Seven Sibitti
Lethe the water of forgetfulness
Mnemosyne the water of remembrance
Hecate
Homer
Chares
Hammurabi
Draco
Alexander of Macedon aka Alexander the Macedonian
Aristotle
Oceanus
Ten Courts of Hell in Diyu
Yama Kings
Jahannam
Allah
Almighty Kur, lord of Ki-gal
Eshi, Kigali boy
Ki-gal
Arali
Pandemonium (city)
Irkalla, Babylonian goddess of the dead
Nature
Satan
New Hell’s Hall of Injustice
Laelaps, hound of Zeus
Zeus
Teumessian fox
Gehenna
Sheol
Hellywood Boulevard
Emeslam
Heads You Lose--Michael Z. Williamson
Captain Joseph McCarthy, “Tail-dragger Joe"
Lt. Roger Upton Howard, III
William Rehnquist, paralegal
Henry J. Summers, II
General S.V. Benet
Sergeant Strom Thurmond
Horace
Gandhi
Walter Cronkite
Mathew Brady
His Satanic Majesty
Sinberia
Hellaska
Coordinating Legal Airborne Platoon (CLAP)
Regulatory Statutes of Unfairness
Ashcanistan
Kabum, capital city of Ashcanistan
Taliban
Taliwhackers
Supervising Legal Airborne Group (“SLAG” )
Forced Unified Central Kabum Emergency Resistance
Perdition Seal on official legal documents
DisgraceBook
Drownin’ Numbnuts
Interview with the Devil--Janet and Chris Morris
Marilyn Monroe
William Safire
New Hell Times Sinday Magazine
Mephistopheles
Richard Nixon
Frank Lloyd Wright
Pernicious Demonic Avatars (PDA)
Devil’s Children
Insecurity Service
Machiavelli
Nero
Saddam Hussein
Caligula
Sartre
Mortuary
Hell’s Angels
Island Out of Time--Richard Groller
Oracle of Delphi
Nichols
Richard (“Dick” ) Welch
Croesus, king of Lydia
Zeno of Elea
Achilles
Pythagoras
Infernal Observatory, Department of Apparent Time, Mount Sinai
Daniel Webster
Christopher Marlowe
Gurgle
SATSATPHORECNET (Satanic Satellite Photographic Reconnaissance Network)
USS (Underworld Satanical Ship) Arizona,
NUDET (Nuclear Detonation) sensors
(Infernal Japanese Navy) Yamato
Erik Weisz aka Harry Houdini
Captain John B. Merkerson
Major John Wesley Powell
TazzMania
Society of American Magicians
Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP)
Measure of a Man--Deborah Koren
Alan Bensinger
William Barclay “Bat” Masterson
New Bodie
Unlucky Strike Hotel
Dead Hat Joe
Ungrand Opera House
Giacomo Puccini
Sally Lockett
Josie’s Saloon
Wyatt Earp
Luigi Bonzoni
Marshal Lee Hall
Orientation Day--Sarah Hulcy
Demetrius, Chief Librarian of Hell
Percy Foreman
Melvin Belli
Justice Benjamin Cardozo
Altos – the volunteer angel
Makalani, First Assistant to Demetrius
Dr. Miguel Bartsch
Hell’s Law Library
Register of Preeminently Damned Lawyers
Infernal Revenue Service
Out of Court Settlement--C.J. Cherryh
Julius Caesar
Cleopatra
Sargon of Akkad
Hatshepsut
Niccolo di Bernardo dei Machiavelli, Secretary to the Second Chancery de la Repubblica di Fierenze, lately Secretary to Caius Julius Caesar Octavianus Augustus
Julius’ sons: Caesarion and Marcus Junius Brutus
Emperor Tiberius
Caius Iulius Caesar Octavianus Augustus
Cardinal Richelieu
Stalenus, Dolabella & Crassus (law firm)
Marcus Licinius Crassus
Marcus Tullius Cicero
Marcus Antonius
Claudius
Caracalla
Caligula
Decentral Park
Hellzacre BarBQ
Cong
Dante Alighieri
Erra and the Seven
German Guards
Cesare Borgia
Decius Mus
Scaevola
Scorpion Guards
Plains of Hell--Bruce Durham
General James Wolfe
Labratt’s Blew
Sludgeweiser
Helliken
John Churchill, the Duke of Marlborough and Governor of the Hudson Bay Company
Prince Eugene of Savoy
Glenn Gould
Marquis Louis-Joseph de Montcalm
Judge Roy Bean
One Ear (demon)
Snotex
Count Tilly
Marshal Ney
General Longstreet
General Benjamin Arnott aka Benedict Arnold
Plains of Abraham
Edward R. Murrow
The Rapture Elevator--Michael A. Armstrong
Kinmont Willie aka William of Morton Rig aka William Strang
Scott of Buccleuch aka Scott, the Bold Buccleuch
Queen Elizabeth I
Jamey (Willie’s horse)
Rapture Elevator
Salkeld
Carlisle Castle
North Road, New Hell
RMS Titanic
Shanidar the Neanderthal (sometime bouncer at Oasis)
Ringan’s Tam
Dick of the Side, Nixon aka President Richard Nixon
Job, the Ombudsman
Sassenach (derogatory term for English)
The Register--Michael H. Hanson
Alistair Chrysler-Smith
The Hell Register of Preeminently Damned Lawyers
Gefjon, Malfean, Alalahe, and Gemmeul (succubi)
Pandemonium (city)
Nile Boulevard, Pandemonium
Matali
Pandemonium City Courthouse
Death Rattle Club
Ungrateful Dead
White House contractor John McShain
Laborers’ International Union of North America
Register Ratings Department Demons: Mayet, Astraea, Mynndie, Vali, Naru-Kami, and Chantico
‘Dante and Virgil in Hell’ by William-Adolphe Bouguereau
Miranda Attorney Alvin Moore
The Apostasies, Hell’s Supreme Court
Justice Taney
Remember, Remember, Hell in November--Larry Atchley, Jr.
Guy Fawkes
Anton Szandor LaVey
Welcome Woman
Harlot of Hell
His Satanic Majesty
Eyjolf Bolverksson, Icelandic lawspeaker
Eric Blair (George Orwell)
Jonathan Swift
Yuri Andropov
Revolutionary Justice--Leo Champion
William Walker
Che Guevara
Kurt Cobain
Saul Alinsky
Leon Trotsky
Eric Blair (George Orwell)
Patrice Lumumba
Voltaire
Maximilian Robespierre
Simon Bolivar
Giuseppe Garibaldi
Devil’s Children
Tiberius Gracchus
Gaius Gracchus
Nouveau Paris
Erra and his pitiless Seven
Tim
Rosa Luxembourg
Boz
Totalitarian Club
DeadEx
Harry Innis, Third Associate Section Head for Traffic and Parking Enforcement
Infernal Bureau of Sewage and Drinking Water Management, Fourth Division, New Hell Department
Max Weber
Brigadier-General Henry Martyn Robert
New Hell Times
Tale of a Tail--Nancy Asire
Napoleon Bonaparte
Countess Marie Walewska
The Duke of Wellington aka The Iron Duke
New Hell City
Decentral Park
Viet Cong
Hellview Estates
Grand Marshal Duroc
Hellview Golf and Country Club
Attila the Hun
Ildilco, Attilla’s wife
Erra and the Seven
Unsafeway
HDOT
Hellphone
Queen Victoria
Ma-hell
New Hell I.D. card
Hell-horse
Hell-goat
Martin Chase Standish, Esquire, President Hellview Estates Home Owners’ Association
New Hell Human and Urban Development
Windows4U
Infernal National Guard
Purgatory
Goebbels
Hellview Estates Home Owner’s Association versus Demon of Unknown Origin, Emergency Petition Alleging Fraud Against the Infernal Government
Theos Khthonios
Scott Oden
King Leonidas, son of Anaxandridas
River Styx
Hades
Hades’ Realm
Tartaros
Skiritai (Spartan Scouts)
Dienekes
Stygian Mere
Blue Men
Argives
Spartan shields, the inverted ‘V’ of Lakedaemon
Simonides of Keos
Kleomenes
Ephialtes of Trachis
The Ataphoi – Shades of the Unburied
Caeadas, Temple of the Ephors
Kore (Hades’ wife, Persephone)
Kerberos, the Hound of Hades
Alexandros of Macedon
Nearchos
The Ephors: Chosen of Persephone
Erinys
Menelaos
Lykourgos, called the Lawgiver
Agis
Brasidas
Lysandros
Alpheus
Eurytus
Maron
Aristandros
Tribe of Hell--Janet Morris
Almighty Kur, ruler of Ki-gal and the Kigali
Eshi, Kur’s protégé and erominos
Erra and the Seven (the Sibitti)
Lysicles
Draco, lawgiver of Athens
Hammurabi
Chares
Thomas Edward Lawrence (of Arabia)
Aristotle
Alexander of Macedon (the Great) aka Alexandros Philippou Macedon
The Downward Road
Emeslam
The Three Fates, Atropos and her sisters
Elysion
Hades
- Details
- Written by Michael Z Williamson
I'm in "Space Opera" somehow, second to Dave Drake, which is not a bad place to be.
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