Starting a new blog

As regular readers of this blog know, I've been shopping around my Missouri Civil War horror novel, A Fine Likeness, for some time now. This was a finalist in ChiZine and Dorchester's Fresh Blood contest but because I was traveling in Ethiopia I wasn't able to garner enough votes to win.

Well, I've decided that with the Civil War sesquicentennial already upon us, now is the time to publish this, so I've going to self-publish with Kindle Direct Publishing, Createspace, and Smashwords. A Fine Likeness will be published in September.

I've started a blog dedicated to the book and its series called, unsurprisingly, Civil War Horror. I posted there today about why a professional author is self-publishing on Amazon. I hope you'll join me on this venture into the uncertain world of modern publishing.

My thoughts on my page 99

As I mentioned in my post on What the Blogger Stats Page tells You about your Blog, I like to check out the data relating to Midlist Writer. In my last post I presented page 99 of my novel and asked for input. More than fifty of you read the thing but only one person left a comment. That just goes to show how many lurkers there are on the average blog! I'd really be curious to know what my readers in Colombia and Latvia think of my writing.

Anyway, thanks for the input, Sioux.

This scene shows our young band of Confederate bushwhackers riding through the woods of mid-Missouri after killing a Unionist civilian. They had never killed a civilian before but did it because they were told he was a spy who had gotten a local secessionist hanged. There's more to this, of course, and the ramifications of their actions power the rest of the novel. It's interesting that this page shows Jimmy, one of the two protagonists besides Union Captain Richard Addison, in an entirely passive role. He's usually in charge of the bushwhacker gang but he's so stunned at what they've done that he's momentarily given up trying. He will be given another chance to step back and wash his hands later in the book, and his choice will determine the ending.

So is this a good page? Well, it does have tension, and gives a bit of insight into some of the characters, but I'm not entirely happy with the Southern dialect. That's a tricky thing to get right, especially the Missouri dialect. Plus I have to put it back into the 1860s. It's something I'm still working on.

So. . .if any of you lurkers out there want to post page 99 of your novel on your blog, feel free to put the link in my comments section. I'll be sure to read it and give my two cents' worth.

The Page 99 Test

Ford Madox Ford suggested that if you want to know how good a book is, you should "open the book to page ninety-nine and the quality of the whole will be revealed to you."

A new website plans to let aspiring and published authors upload page 99 of their work for public scrutiny. The Page 99 Test isn't running yet, so I've decided to jump the gun and post page 99 of my Civil War horror novel A Fine Likeness here to see how it stands up. Regular readers of this blog will know that this novel made it to the finals of Dorchester and ChiZine's Fresh Blood contest before losing. Oddly enough, five months on, the novel's fan page is still attracting hits. The manuscript currently squats malevolently in ChiZine's submissions pile.

So here's page 99. Let me know what you think. I'll post my own thoughts in my next post.

“This the right way?” Hugh asked.

“’Course it’s the right way,” Morgan said. “You think I don’t know where I’m going?”

“Don’t seem the right way,” Hugh said.

“It ain’t,” Elijah replied.

“Shut your mouth,” Morgan said, looking around at the woods uncertainly. “What’s that old devil thinking making us come all the way out here for anyways? Why didn’t we meet back at his cabin?”

“Probably afraid we’d get followed,” the Kid said.

“Damn it, we should have made that road by now. He said head north five miles and we’d hit it,” Morgan grumbled.

“We would have if we’d gone north,” Elijah said.

“Course we’ve been going north!” Morgan shouted. “We’ve been going north the entire time, haven’t we Jimmy?”

Jimmy didn’t reply, looking down at the ground as the Kid led his horse.

“Don’t ask him nothing,” Elijah said. “He’s been told his end and that’s a hard thing to take. And we ain’t been going north the whole time. When we took off from the Schmidt place, remember how we cut along that streambed? That made us move east a ways before we straightened out. We’ve passed the road.”

Morgan frowned at him, not wanting to believe, but he knew as well as the rest of them that Elijah never got lost in the woods.

“Jimmy, what do you think?” Morgan asked, bringing his horse alongside him.

“I don’t know what to believe,” Jimmy said.

Stuck with your fiction? Don't sweat it!

I've been stuck with my fiction for some time now. During my two-month trip to Ethiopia I was focusing on learning about the country, and when I home I was busy trying to win the Fresh Blood Contest, which I did not, although it was a learning experience. So my fiction muscles have atrophied in the past few months.

Another problem is I have three different fiction projects going on at the same time. I've been fiddling with short passages of new material, spending far too long editing older stuff, and generally putting things off. Yesterday the dam finally broke and I wrote 2,500 words. This morning I got up and wrote 500 more first thing, and plan to do more later today. Now I have direction and energy.

What happened? A couple of things. First off, I finished some looming nonfiction projects and now have more time, and also I got so frustrated with not writing enough fiction that I made myself sit down and crank out pages without caring if they're perfect.

Often we as writers get too hung up on your work-in-progress and we have to let go in two ways. We have to allow ourselves not to work when other projects need to take precedence, and we have to allow ourselves to write fast and dirty if that's what it takes to get us back in the groove. So relax, fellow writers, and do what you need to do.

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Learning from losing

Aw crap.

I just heard from one of the judges at the Fresh Blood Contest that my Civil War novel didn't make the cut this round. I lost by five votes!

The contest has been an interesting ride, and while I'm bummed about losing I did learn a lot and am proud not only to have made the top ten finalists, but to have made it to top five before the public votes favored the other books.

When the voting was up to the judges, what mattered was my writing and I did fine. But the later rounds are by public vote, and it is essentially about how well you market yourself. I started a fanpage on Facebook and hit up people for votes on various newsgroups on Facebook and Yahoo. I also promoted it on my Twitter account.

The problem was, I went on assignment to Ethiopia and Somaliland for two months just when I needed to raise my public profile. With all of Ethiopia still on dialup, I was at a major disadvantage, and learned firsthand about one of the troubles facing writers in developing countries. But of course that was only part of the problem. I'm sure there was more I could have done to promote my book in the early stages when I was in Europe. Should I have been a bit pushier? Joined more newsgroups? Started a MySpace page? There are probably several things I'm not even thinking of here. Feel free to share them in the comments section because they may come in handy one day.

I believe A Fine Likeness will get published, and that it deserves to be published. It's a good story based on detailed historical research, and is now being peddled by an author who is a little wiser about the need for self-marketing.

Thanks to everyone who voted, especially those friends who bugged their own friends to vote, and to those who only know me through the Internet but had faith in my writing. I'm extremely grateful and proud to know you. If you're still interested in the contest even though I'm out of it, I suggest you vote for Heart of the City by Lisa A. Koosis. From a writer's point of view I think it's the finest submission (besides mine, ahem) and the one I was most worried about. I'll be voting for it now that I'm not voting for myself.

The image is by Alexander Gardner of a dead Confederate sniper at Gettysburg, courtesy of the Library of Congress. Yeah, it's probably disrespectful to this poor bastard to be using this, but it's topical and reflects how I feel.

Why writers should go to conventions, even when they don't want to

A few days ago a writer friend invited me to Odyssey 2010, also known as Eastercon, an annual fantasy/science fiction/horror convention here in England.

At first I didn't want to go. It was 25 pounds for the day, I didn't know anyone, and it was more of a fan con than a pro con, unlike others I've attended such as the World Fantasy Convention or the London Book Fair. Plus I'd just arrived in Oxford, my favorite town, and wanted to enjoy it.

My wife convinced me to go and I'm glad she did.

After a short drive to a Heathrow airport hotel (convenient for out-of-towners, soulless for everyone else) my friend and I split up and we wandered around the convention. There weren't any panels I wanted to see until the afternoon so I headed to the dealers room. If I wasn't going to make any professional connections I would at least have fun stuffing my bag with books! I got a decent haul. Prices were lower than at previous cons I've been too. I'm not sure if this was luck or the financial crisis, but there was lots of vintage stuff on sale cheap. Even the new books were discounted.

I also made some unexpected professional connections. I met a medieval researcher who knows some specialists in medieval firearms, the subject of my upcoming book and perhaps a future one. I also met the owner of Atomic Fez Publishing, a new Canadian small press, who I'll be interviewing in an upcoming post, and lots of pleasant fans besides.

Most importantly I met Brett and Sandra, co-owners of ChiZine Publications, two judges in the Fresh Blood Contest. My book is a finalist in that contest so it was interesting to meet them. They invited me to a party that evening, and of course I accepted. My ride was leaving before then but a lifetime of Third World travel made me unconcerned with such trivialities.

Continuing to wander, I attended a hilarious and informative speech by Dr. Ben Goldacre on Bad Science and bumped into a Swedish friend who I didn't know would be there. We then started sampling Rosie's Scrumpy Cider (7.3% ABV) and buying more books. I made it to a panel on swordplay (another future post), drank more cider, and managed to stay sober enough to be presentable at the ChiZine party.

Publisher parties at conventions are an interesting mix of aspiring writers, published-but-unknown writers, famous writers, editors, artists, and the occasional why-the-hell-are-you-here oddity. Besides meeting two famous names (including one who gave me a ride to Oxford, I told you it would be no trouble), a photographer for the Romanian edition of Penthouse, and various Goths, I got to chat more with Brett and Sandra. While getting to know them better will have no effect on my chances of winning the contest, that's up to you, I did learn that they're smart, fun folks who love what they do. I could work well with these people. So even if I lose, they're getting a manuscript from me.

All in all, I had a great time, bought some books, got material for future blog posts, drank some good cider and mediocre wine, saw old friends, and made professional contacts. So if you're thinking of not going to that next convention, rethink. They're almost always worth your time.

I just wish that the next day when I was playing with my son in the park my wife didn't notice a postcard sticking out of my back pocket and say, "What's that!"

It was a sample from the Romanian edition of Penthouse.

Voting has started in the Fresh Blood contest

Well, it's finally started. I and the other eight finalists in Dorchester Publishing's Fresh Blood Contest had our first chapters analyzed by the judges and now public voting has begun. My Missouri Civil War horror novel A Fine Likeness got off without too many slings and arrows. The chapters, judges' comments, and voting information are up on ChiZine's website.

You know, I wasn't nervous about this contest at all, even though a publishing contract is the grand prize. Perhaps organizing my trip to Ethiopia kept my mind off it, but now that voting has started I'm getting a wee bit obsessed.

You can vote by sending an email to freshblood (at) chizinepub (dot) com with the subject line "Fresh Blood Vote: A Fine Likeness by Sean McLachlan". You can insert a different title and author, of course. If you do, feel free not to tell me about it. :-P

You can also check out the book's fanpage here.

My writing year: a look back and a look forward

It's the last day of 2009 and almost exactly ten years since I began to shift my career away from archaeology and into writing. Each year has been slightly more successful than the last, a steady progression that I'm striving to continue and hasten.

So how did I do in 2009? Two of my books were published, Outlaw Tales of Missouri and American Civil War Guerrilla Tactics, and one of my books, Moon Handbooks London, went out of print.

I had two significant steps forward. I saw my first book published by Osprey Publishing, who are very professional and make a great product. They even (GASP!) pay on time. I also finished a second book for them on medieval handgonnes. I also started working for Gadling, the world's most popular travel blog. It's teaching me to write timely, breezy, catchy articles, something history writing doesn't generally encourage. It's also a thrill to have millions (yes, millions) of readers every month. Gadling pays on time too!

Another potential success was getting my Missouri Civil War novel into the finals of Dorchester Publishing's Fresh Blood contest. The grand prize is publication. I'm now trying to teach myself online promotion, something that doesn't come naturally to me. I've already set up a Facebook fan page and am planning more outlets to get people to know my work.

Of course every year has its ups and downs. With all the travel and nonfiction commitments my fiction languished. I wrote only one short story and only got 25,000 words into my next novel. I'm planning on pushing my fiction a lot more in 2010. Not sure where the time is going to come from. . .

So what's ahead? Well, I'm negotiating some more books with Osprey and trying to win that contest. Gadling should be happy with my upcoming Ethiopia series. I'll also be writing more fiction and trying to become better at selling myself while not overselling myself. I think 2010 is going to be a good year for me.

Check out my other blog to read about my travel year.

Missouri Civil War novel A Fine Likeness gets a fan page

As I mentioned in my last post, my Civil War horror novel, A Fine Likeness, is a finalist in Dorchester Publishing's Fresh Blood contest. This novel covers the Civil War in Missouri and includes historical figures such as Bloody Bill Anderson and Jesse James alongside the fictional protagonists.

Since I can only win through public support, I've started beating the drum early and have created a Facebook fan page called (go figure) A Fine Likeness deserves to be published! More than just a way to blab about my literary greatness, I'll be talking about the history behind the novel, something I've written about in several nonfiction venues.

Voting doesn't start until Mach 2010 but I have a lot of promo to do. I'm very happy that in the first nine hours I got 24 fans. Most are personal friends, of course, but I've noticed a few friends of friends in the bunch, and that's encouraging. My first fan was David Lee Summers, a fellow writer who I haven't seen in way too long. He just won himself a copy of the book if it ever sees the light of day.

So check out the fan page. I'll love you for it.

My novel is a finalist in Dorchester's "Fresh Blood" contest!

December is turning out to be a good month. Not only did a short story of mine get published, but my horror novel, A Fine Likeness, is one of ten finalists in Dorchester Publishing's "Fresh Blood" contest. Grand prize: publication in mass market paperback and limited edition hardcover. Sweet!

I knocked out a pile of other entries, now I have to knock out these other folks. There will be several rounds over the coming months on Dorchester's website where we put up plot summaries, first chapters, etc. Each month the person who gets the least votes from the public gets eliminated until only the "Fresh Blood" is left standing. Talk about extended stress!

My novel is set during three weeks of the Civil War in Missouri, and other than the main characters and various paranormal events, most of the events and people are real. Here's the back cover blurb.

A Confederate guerrilla and a Union captain discover there’s something more dangerous in the woods than each other.

A Fine Likeness is a tale of two enemies struggling with inner demons, and discovering they face a far more tangible one. Jimmy Rawlins is a teen-aged bushwhacker who leads his friends on ambushes of Union patrols. They join forces with infamous guerrilla leader Bloody Bill Anderson on a raid through Missouri in support of a Confederate invasion, but Jimmy questions his commitment to the Southern Cause when he discovers this madman plans to sacrifice a Union prisoner in a hellish ritual to raise the Confederate dead.

Richard Addison is an aging captain of a lackluster Union militia. Depressed over his son’s death in battle, a glimpse of Jimmy changes his life. Jimmy and his son look so much alike that Addison becomes obsessed with saving him from Bloody Bill’s clutches. Addison must wreck his reputation to win this war within a war, while Jimmy must betray the Confederacy and his friends to stop the evil arising in the woods of Missouri.