Posted by admin on 26 Feb 2010 under books, writing
Simon Rose
History is a thing of the past and there are over five thousand recorded years of it to serve as an inspiration for writers in many different genres. Both historical fiction and time travel adventures, either for children or adults, show no signs of waning in popularity, but to be plausible to the reader, even stories involving magic or imaginary technology have to be well grounded in reality. In The Alchemist’s Portrait, during a school field trip to the art gallery at a local museum, Matthew journeys through the frame of a magical painting, which acts as a time portal, to Amsterdam in the year 1666. A straightforward idea maybe, but how does this doorway actually work? Although time travel may remain firmly in the realm of fiction, the conditions under which it occurs still have to appear believable. If readers consider your means of time travel to be utterly ridiculous, they will quickly be turned off the story altogether.
As a writer it is vital that you create a credible method, machine or device for your time traveler, and many so-called time travel stories often overlook this important aspect. Especially in relation to novels for younger readers, the main character goes back in time at the end of chapter one, has a series of adventures in the past, before the he or she returns safely home at the book’s conclusion. While these types of stories are set in a distinct time period, they should perhaps be more accurately classified as historical fiction. In numerous classic time travel tales, the hero goes into the past or future only to discover that their machine or device has either malfunctioned, become broken or is stolen by the chief villains of the piece.
This leads to an adventure in which the main character is stranded in a far flung time period, and a story in which time travel itself, along with all its complexities, is the key element.
Simon Rose is the author of science fiction and fantasy novels for children, including The Alchemist’s Portrait, The Sorcerer’s Letterbox, The Clone Conspiracy, The Emerald Curse and The Heretic’s Tomb. He offers a wide variety of workshops, presentations and Author in Residence programs for schools and libraries around the world, covering such topics as where ideas come from, story structure, editing and revision, character development, time travel stories, history and research and more. He is also available for presentations, workshops and public speaking engagements with a wide range of adult audiences, offers creative services designed for writers, including editing, critiquing and manuscript evaluation and also freelance writing services, including website content and copywriting, for the business community. Details of school and library programs, plus online readings, excerpts from his books, reviews, and reader, student and teacher comments may be found at http://www.simon-rose.com/ You may also visit his blog at http://simon-rose.blogspot.com/
Article Source: Science Fiction and Fantasy For Younger Readers – Part Two – History is a Thing of the Past
Posted by admin on 24 Feb 2010 under books, writing
Simon Rose
Writers of science fiction or fantasy have something of an advantage over those who work in other genres in that virtually anything you can imagine is possible. Your stories may feature time travel into the past or future, alternate realities, parallel universes, alien worlds, other dimensions and so much more.
When writing for younger readers, the phrase ‘writing what you know’ takes on a whole new meaning. In crafting your narrative, you need to be able to see through a child’s eyes whenever possible. You have to try and recall events and experiences your own formative years, in particular how did things actually feel to you when you were seven, ten or twelve years old. Who were your most constant friends when you were that age? Were there memorable incidents, family vacations, emotional dramas, books, TV shows or movies that shaped your childhood and early adolescence? Do some of your memories from that far off era truly linger in your mind and are they likely to stay with you for the rest of your life? You may even find yourself remembering events, people and places that you always assumed you’d irretrievably forgotten.
One of the best things about writing for children is that it allows you to create stories about the kinds of things that both fascinated you and absorbed your imagination when you were young. Our childhood, for most of us, is normally a lost, magical time from before we grew up. Even if we have children of our own, it’s difficult to remember just how things truly felt to us and how our thought processes operated when we were young. For science fiction and fantasy authors, stories for young readers can be very imaginative, which makes writing them so much fun.
Simon Rose is the author of science fiction and fantasy novels for children, including The Alchemist’s Portrait, The Sorcerer’s Letterbox, The Clone Conspiracy, The Emerald Curse and The Heretic’s Tomb. He offers a wide variety of workshops, presentations and Author in Residence programs for schools and libraries around the world, covering such topics as where ideas come from, story structure, editing and revision, character development, time travel stories, history and research and more. He is also available for presentations, workshops and public speaking engagements with a wide range of adult audiences, offers creative services designed for writers, including editing, critiquing and manuscript evaluation and also freelance writing services, including website content and copywriting, for the business community. Details of school and library programs, plus online readings, excerpts from his books, reviews, and reader, student and teacher comments may be found at http://www.simon-rose.com/ You may also visit his blog at http://simon-rose.blogspot.com/
Article Source: Science Fiction and Fantasy For Younger Readers – Part One – Suspension of Disbelief
Posted by admin on 21 Feb 2010 under books
Carl DiNello
Science fiction has long been a favorite subject of Hollywood film makers. Great science fiction movies were being made as early as the 1930s and have provided a solid foundation for modern day science fiction. Let’s take a closer look at just a few of these Hollywood Science Fiction Classics.
The Invisible Man was released in 1933 and was directed by James Whale. Based on the H.G. Wells novel of the same name, it tells the story of scientist Dr. Jack Griffin who has invented a serum that makes him completely invisible. However, the serum comes with the terrible side effect of gradually driving its user insane. Under its influence, Dr. Griffin robs and kills a number of people. A very creepy film that starts out with a good deal of humor, but settles in to become deadly serious. The film features convincing special effects for a movie produced in the 1930s.
One of my favorite science fiction classics is Forbidden Planet, directed by Fred M. Wilcox. Released in 1956, this is perhaps the most highly regarded sci-fi film of the 1950s. It tells the story of Dr. Edward Morbius and his daughter Altaira who are the last two remaining survivors of a colonization attempt on the planet Altair-4. It is the year 2200 and a group of scientists on a space mission from Earth have just landed in search of Dr. Morbius and the previous missions crew. They find Dr. Morbius to be somewhat unreceptive to their arrival, as he wishes to remain isolated in order to continue his work studying the numerous remains of a once-flourishing society of Krell which is now extinct. Using Krell technology, Morbius is able to greatly increase his IQ, and in doing so has brought to life a mysterious creature through his own subconscious mind. This is classic 1950s Sci-fi, and introduced what is probably the most popular robot of all-time – Robbie the robot.
Last, but certainly not least, we have War Of The Worlds, based on another H.G. Wells novel of the same name. This spectacular movie was released in 1953 and featured breath-taking special effects that were rewarded with an Oscar. The plot revolves around a meteor crashing near a small town in the California Mountains. However, this is something more than just a meteor with many more having landed around the globe. These meteors are carrying Martians with the intention of destroying the unsuspecting human population. Seemingly unstoppable, they begin to destroy the major cities of the world. All manor of defense, including the Atomic Bomb, are tried without success. Can anything stop this Martian invasion? Easily one of the greatest science fiction movies of the 1950s.
It was classic science fiction movies like these that helped kick start a whole new genre of films that capture our imagination to this day.
Carl DiNello is an Article Author and Blog Owner whose passion is Hollywood history and those movies from the 1920’s – 1950’s that make up this rich history. Hollywood Movie Memories… Movies to Remember and Discover!
Article Source: Science Fiction Classics Start Here
Posted by admin on 18 Feb 2010 under books, business
Penny C. Sansevieri
Most of us meander into a bookstore, maybe grabbing a latte from the nearby coffee vendor and sauntering up and down the aisles looking for our desired title. Bookstores are great and I’ve always said if I were ever to get locked in a store overnight, let it be a bookstore (preferably one with a handy Starbucks inside). But bookstores are so much more than that.
For the savvy author, a bookstore is a great way to not only get to know your market, but to research your competition and get a better understanding of the sales space. This is one of the best and least expensive ways to do your market research. Making your bookstore your research laboratory is a fantastic way to position yourself for success, regardless of how you are published.
Know Your Market
First off, if you’ve written a book for which there is no market (read: there are no books that cater to this audience), you may have a problem. Unless you are already a brand, meaning that you’re a published author with a significant following, it’s unlikely that you will be able to create much momentum for a yet unserved market that a publisher will consider you. If it hasn’t been written there is likely a reason why. Now there are always exceptions of course, my other book: Red Hot Internet Publicity is not a title that I would have published in 1976, mostly because there was no Internet back then.
So yes, new markets are developing all the time but it’s key to wait till those markets emerge, otherwise you’re selling to an audience that doesn’t exist. This also goes to creating a new genre for your book. You should fit into an existing genre and find the best one for your market. This is also important since sometimes books can straddle different markets. A change in title can take your book for women wanting to succeed in business and move it from the business category into self-help and/or spirituality. Be clear on where your book belongs. Remember, a confused mind won’t make a choice so if you confuse your reader, you’re likely to lose a sale.
Who Else is Sharing Your Shelf Space?
Understanding what your market is and who else is sharing your shelf space is key. What are their books like and have you read them? This is all part of your market research: know your competition and know who shares your space. This is not just important to know other competing titles, but for marketing and media positioning this is critical. Also, you should take note of all other recent titles in your category and go visit their websites. If you’re really eager to watch your competition, you could also get Google Alerts on their name or book title to see how much traction they are getting. I will usually do this for any major author in my market as well as all their book titles. Not only can you keep an eye on their hit rate, but these sites and media targets could be good for you as well.
Every Book Tells a Story
Each book in your genre will tell you a little something about the author and publisher. Now I’m not talking about the contents of the book itself, I’m talking about things like the cover, book jacket, book size (both dimensions and page count), as well as endorsements, back cover copy, etc. Getting bookstore shelf space isn’t easy. Generally bookstores won’t keep books on their shelves that aren’t selling, so getting to know books that are doing well in stores can really benefit your title as well. Learning from books that are out there is a great way to position yourself for success.
Books that make it into and onto a shelf in a bookstore need to “look” the part. Yes, your book may be the best out there but if it doesn’t meet the needs of the genre, it simply won’t get put on a shelf. In order to play in the publishing sandbox you must play by the rules. While it’s nice to be a maverick and to hear stories about authors who “bent the rules” and claimed success, if you read the backstory to any success, you’ll find that following the rules and playing to the market is vital to success. There are 1,500 books published each day. Yes, you want to stand out, but you also want to look the part.
Bookstore checklist
Here’s a checklist to get you started in your bookstore research. You’ll want to expand on this as you find more titles or more ideas to research. I suggest for example adding in URL’s from the book jacket so you can research the author’s website, etc.
- What genre does your book fall into?
- Is there a sub-genre and if so, what is it? (for example, my books fall into reference/writing, writing being the sub-genre)
- List the top five titles and authors in that market:
- Key points each book has in common? (for example, all cookbooks you noted had nutritional analysis on each page)
Penny C. Sansevieri, CEO and founder of Author Marketing Experts, Inc., is a best-selling author and internationally recognized book marketing and media relations expert. Her company is one of the leaders in the publishing industry and has developed some of the most cutting-edge book marketing campaigns. She is the author of five books, including Red Hot Internet Publicity. Penny is also an instructor at NYU. AME is the first marketing and publicity firm to use Internet promotion to its full impact through The Virtual Author Tour™, which strategically works with social networking sites, blogs, Twitter, ezines, video sites, and relevant sites to push an authors message into the virtual community and connect with sites related to the book’s topic, positioning the author in his or her market. In the past 15 months their creative marketing strategies have helped land 10 books on the New York Times Bestseller list. To learn more about Penny’s books or her promotional services, you can visit her website at http://www.amarketingexpert.com.
Article Source: Marketing Secrets of a Bookstore
Posted by admin on 17 Feb 2010 under movies
Matt Hayden
Like many cinematic genres science fiction has benefited greatly from the amazing advances in CGI that have occurred over recent years. The technology has enabled sci-fi directors to realize their visions much more thoroughly, and it has been a crucial factor in the creation of some truly stunning films.
However, I don’t feel that these advances always bring something positive to the process. In a paradoxical way, they often seem to detract from the genre. Now that directors can put pretty much anything they can imagine onto the screen using CGI, making it look very close to real, they seem to consistently go overboard.
An example is the movie Alien Versus Predator. While it’s not absolutely jam packed with CGI, there’s quite a bit in there.
The director doesn’t hold back, and goes all out to realize his vision. All the events occur in rapid succession. The editing is frenetic and the action comes very think and fast. However, the characters have very little depth, and their relationships are not interesting or well developed. The film is certainly stylish, and has a lot of energy. But ultimately it’s pretty forgettable.
The original movie, Alien, is very different in almost every regard. Being made in the late seventies, there’s no use of CGI. The editing is not particularly slow, but there are a lot of long shots and set pieces that play out gradually, increasing the tension. The story seems to unfold in real time. The cinematography is just brilliant – crisp and clear and atmospheric. The characters are all deep and complex, as are the relationships between them.
All these factors combine to create an amazingly suspenseful movie that you can watch over and over again without getting bored. And the film contains scenes and images that people will never forget. (You’ll no doubt remember the famous chest bursting scene. That was done with puppets and exploding sachets of fake blood!)
It’s as if the limitations that the film-makers had to work within back in those days actually made them more creative, and they came up with a more memorable, brooding, and original sci-fi movie as a result. Matt Hayden is a writer in Sydney Australia. He has an often humorous blog about politics, news and popular culture.
Article Source: CGI is a Blessing and a Curse For the Science Fiction Film Genre
Posted by admin on 12 Feb 2010 under books, writing
Dave Felton
I love writing. I love writing science fiction. I also love to read.
There, I said it. The horrible truth, out in the open on the first line! Clearly this author knows nothing about suspense. What more could be expected from a science fiction writer?
To be slightly more serious for a second, I do indeed love writing. What I dislike are small minded people who think that writing should only occur in a particular way, in a particular genre, style or voice. For example, “expert book reviewers” who tell me a book is bad because of the author’s style, or that science fiction (SF) is puerile.
Apart from the obvious considerations of spelling, grammar and punctuation, an author has a massive degree of freedom in how their thoughts reach the reader. Sometimes even these minimal rules are deliberately broken in order to tell the tale.
Of course, a writer wants his work to be read, but it is also about making an emotional connection with the reader. The form writing takes can be formal, like Dickens, or truly unique and free-flowing as in the case of Joyce’s Ulysses. What really matters is the connection or, if you prefer, the emotional communication. If there is no emotional connection then you could just as well be reading a telephone directory. If science fiction writing can effectively form this connection with the reader then how can it be judged as “poor literature”?
How much poorer the world of literature would be without Joyce, Dylan Thomas, Wordsworth or Shakespeare. By the same token how much poorer also if there were no Asimov, Heinlein, Niven or Banks. This loss would surely be most severely felt in the world of ideas.
Science fiction is the world of ideas. It is the result of looking at the world and asking, “What if?”
Sometimes these ideas have changed the world: Star Trek’s Communicators, once thought impossible, are now commonplace as mobile phones. On the darker side, the movie Aliens showed us robotic guns, power-assisted exoskeletons and various forms of scanners and image-enhancement technology. All of these things are now quite current and accepted in today’s world.
With such power to change the world, should science fiction really be seen as the poor relation to “serious literature”?
Sometimes science fiction is not so much about the gadgets, but more about the sociology. Here SF gives the author the ability to explore a world that is different, yet uncannily like our own. Here too there are many notable works: H.G.Wells and The Time Machine as well as War of the Worlds can both be seen as social commentary. His lesser known short story, Tono-Bungay, satirises the advertising of the day and arguably predicted the atom bomb. Wells is of course just one author, but others could included here such as George Orwell (1984) or Aldous Huxley (Brave New World).
So what of the science fiction of the future?
Increasingly the gap between science fiction and science fact is narrowing. People talk seriously about a technological singularity in our near future, in which artificial intelligence will become a fact. With the current rate of improvement in computer data storage and processing power, who really knows?
Sadly, science fiction has not yet shown us a solution for the problems of today’s world, but perhaps the book or movie that hints toward that solution is just around the corner.
Dave Felton is a forty something writer wannabe. Although I write a short stories, blog extensively, post widely on the web and am currently writing another novel, I consider myself a “wannabe” as that first published novel still eludes me. Until that day comes you might want to look up my personal blog at http://djfelton.com
Article Source: Is Science Fiction Writing Necessarily Not Serious Literature?
Posted by admin on 04 Feb 2010 under books, business
Lisa Sliwa
Are you thinking about opening a bookstore? Have you been searching for the perfect plan to guide you in this quest? You may have already thought of a name, happened across a superb location, and chosen a great niche in which to sell books, but without a solid action plan, it can be confusing and difficult to turn your dream into a reality.
It can be a long, lonely road from start up to success when you want to take action but don’t know what to do first. If you are looking for guidance in opening a bookstore, here are 3 simple steps you can take NOW to get pointed in the right direction to open the bookshop of your dreams!
1. Look into local business license laws and building codes. Find out what the local authorities require from someone opening a bookstore. This information may be available online, or may require a quick visit to your town’s city hall, but usually, the information is free. Knowing what the authorities will require of you ahead of time will keep you from expensive missteps and wasted time and money as you move forward.
2. Visit lots of bookstores. Make a note of what you like and don’t like about each. If you are serious about opening a bookstore, do more than simply check out the books! Approach this task as a critic would. Check out the neighborhood, the curb appeal of the shop, parking, lighting and the interior fixtures and floor plan. Most importantly, notice who is shopping there, and when. As you fine tune your ideas about your dream bookshop, incorporate what you’ve gleaned from your field study.
3. Find a mentor. Talk to bookshop owners and find out what does and doesn’t work in real life and what the pitfalls are when opening a bookstore business. Learning from someone else’s experience may keep you from making costly mistakes, or even better, give you some great insight that you never would have known on your own.
It can take MONTHS to gather enough information to know if opening a bookstore is a good move for you. Here’s a quick way to jump start your dream without relying on your competition (and hoping they don’t mislead you) to help you learn the in’s and out’s of bookshop ownership. Check out http://openabookshop.info for great tips from a successful independent bookshop owner. You CAN successfully open a bookshop!
Article Source: Opening a Bookstore – 3 Simple Steps to Take Now to Achieve Your Dream