You have several great opportunities to read some terrific thrillers for free! On Halloween, Gryphonwood Press and Blade Red Press are giving away all of the ebooks in their catalog for free. You'll need to download the books from Smashwords, and you'll need each book's unique coupon code in order to get it for free. Be sure to check out these awesome thrillers:
Cibola by David Wood SJ79G
Dourado by David Wood QX73J
Death Dealt the Hand by John E Bailor CT72U
Street: Empathy by Ryan A. Span KK37T
Dead Eye: Pennies for the Ferryman by Jim Bernheimer
RealmShift by Alan Baxter DK99C
MageSign by Alan Baxter HH65A
Also, thriller writer Sean Ellis continues his book giveaway via Smashwords. You don't need a coupon code for these:
The Devil You Know
The Scar
Click here for the announcement from Gryphonwood Press, including several excellent non-thriller titles.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Monday, October 26, 2009
Free e-book!
Thriller author Sean Ellis is offering his novella The Devil You Know as a free e-book. Visit this link to download your copy in one of several available formats. Here's the synopsis:
Nick Kismet, the unstoppable hero of The Shroud of Heaven returns in a novella-length thriller. Kismet's search for the shadowy Prometheus group turns a corner when he receives an invitation to meet a mysterious informant. But instead of answers, he finds a beautiful reporter, hunted by vicious kidnappers and a fallen priest wielding the unholy power of the Judas Rope.
Nick Kismet, the unstoppable hero of The Shroud of Heaven returns in a novella-length thriller. Kismet's search for the shadowy Prometheus group turns a corner when he receives an invitation to meet a mysterious informant. But instead of answers, he finds a beautiful reporter, hunted by vicious kidnappers and a fallen priest wielding the unholy power of the Judas Rope.
Thursday, September 03, 2009
Wednesday, September 02, 2009
Writer Appreciation Week
In honor of Writer Appreciation Week, my friend Alan Baxter posted his thanks to some of the many writer who have been an inspiration to him. I liked the idea, and thought I'd share my own list. I'm going to organize mine by periods of my life:
Childhood: Robert Christopher (The Tripods Series).
Early Teens: Richard Adams (Watership Down), JRR Tolkien, and Robert E Howard (Conan and Tarzan).
Late teens/College: Stephen King (It), David Eddings, William Faulkner (Sanctuary), Ernest Hemingway (The Sun Also Rises).
Mid-Twenties to early Thirties: Robert Jordan, George RR Martin, Clive Cussler, Alexandre Dumas (The Count of Monte Cristo), Bruce Alexander, Michael Crichton.
Thirties to Forties: Terry Pratchett(Making Money), Edward Rutherford (London), Harry Turtledove, Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child.
Recently (okay, that only accounts for two years): Neil Gaiman (Neverwhere), Edward Rutherford, William Dietrich, James Rollins, Margaret Peterson-Haddix, Rick Riordan.
Obviously, I could add many names to this list. I'll probably think of a dozen after I publish this post. I do want to acknowledge some fine authors who have encouraged, inspired, or supported me (or all three) along the way: Jeremy Robinson, Sherry Thompson, Alan Baxter, Sean Ellis, Ryan Span, David Golemon, Robert Masello, Jim Bernheimer, John Bailor, Jim Weidman, and Bill Craig. Also, I would be remiss if I did not mention Michael Stackpole, Michael Mennenga, and Brandon Sanderson, whose podcasts are a weekly source of inspiration to me.
Thank you and happy Writer Appreciation Week!
Childhood: Robert Christopher (The Tripods Series).
Early Teens: Richard Adams (Watership Down), JRR Tolkien, and Robert E Howard (Conan and Tarzan).
Late teens/College: Stephen King (It), David Eddings, William Faulkner (Sanctuary), Ernest Hemingway (The Sun Also Rises).
Mid-Twenties to early Thirties: Robert Jordan, George RR Martin, Clive Cussler, Alexandre Dumas (The Count of Monte Cristo), Bruce Alexander, Michael Crichton.
Thirties to Forties: Terry Pratchett(Making Money), Edward Rutherford (London), Harry Turtledove, Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child.
Recently (okay, that only accounts for two years): Neil Gaiman (Neverwhere), Edward Rutherford, William Dietrich, James Rollins, Margaret Peterson-Haddix, Rick Riordan.
Obviously, I could add many names to this list. I'll probably think of a dozen after I publish this post. I do want to acknowledge some fine authors who have encouraged, inspired, or supported me (or all three) along the way: Jeremy Robinson, Sherry Thompson, Alan Baxter, Sean Ellis, Ryan Span, David Golemon, Robert Masello, Jim Bernheimer, John Bailor, Jim Weidman, and Bill Craig. Also, I would be remiss if I did not mention Michael Stackpole, Michael Mennenga, and Brandon Sanderson, whose podcasts are a weekly source of inspiration to me.
Thank you and happy Writer Appreciation Week!
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Author's Roundtable- Writing Fight Scenes
I've been toying for some time with the idea of hosting the occasional "Author's Roundtable" where authors sound off on a given topic. Today, I'm pleased to post the first Author's Roundtable. The topic is "Writing Fight Scenes," and I've recruited two excellent authors who bring very different sets of life experiences to this part of their writing. Alan Baxter, author of MageSign and RealmShift, is a Kung Fu instructor with a long background in martial arts. Sean Ellis, author of The Shroud of Heaven and Magic Mirror, brings his military experience to his writing. So, gentlemen, how do you write a good fight scene?
Sean Ellis
There are two ways to write a fight scene. You can treat it as something that stands in the way of advancing your plot, or you can treat it as a way to really get to know your character. You can, if you are so inclined, write an entire fight scene in a single sentence:
Striker’s fists mowed through the ninja ranks, clearing the way to the princess’s prison cel
l.
What a missed opportunity for some real action. Instead of making the character into an invincible powerhouse—a cliché superhero—you can choreograph an intense, blow-by-blow battle that creates some tension and gives insight into what’s going through the character’s head as he (or she) faces what is to him, if not also the reader, an uncertain outcome.
Striker faced the three black-clad assassin warriors. He caught a glimpse of a fourth ninja moving stealthily behind him, and chose that moment to strike first. He feinted forward, then dropped into a crouch and swept one outstretched leg around behind him. His foot caught the fourth attacker’s ankles and yanked his feet from beneath him. The man pitched backward, arms flailing, and smacked his head on the dungeon floor. In the same motion, Striker pounced onto the fallen man, ramming a fist into the ninja’s chin to insure that he was down for good. Striker didn’t dare pause to savor his victory; as soon as his fallen foe’s head rebounded from the stone floor a second time, Striker was moving again, twisting away from the dazed ninja as his three comrades swooped in.
I could go on for a couple pages with this battle, and by the end of it, you would definitely get the sense that our hero has earned his way to the prize. There are also practical reasons for squeezing every last bit of drama from the fight scene. It obviously bulks up your word count, but more importantly, it adds realism. In real life, any one of those ninjas might get a lucky shot in, and that would be it for our hero. By drawing it out—giving the blow by blow—you can create those near misses, and even let the hero take his lumps. When he (or she) finally wins, your readers will have been shown, not told, what a stud/studette he/she is.
This will of course challenge you as a writer. You’ve got to come up with a lot of different ways to describe the fights; you can’t just keep using the word “punched” over and over again, but then that’s part of the fun of this profession. Do your research; there are books that will tell you fighting moves and techniques, just like there are books that will tell you everything else you need to create a realistic setting. In the end, the hard work will pay off.
If you write your fights like the first example, then you’re going to end up having to create a lot more of them in order to keep the momentum going, and that will start to get tedious to the reader. I remember reading a novel based on the Tomb Raider video games, written by very well recognized pulp author, who had the heroine getting in a different shootout on almost every other page. It got to be ridiculous. Instead of a few really intense battles, we had an endless series of short, nondescript encounters that all started to blur together. No tension, no anticipation. When you make your fight scenes count, there are no throwaway scenes; everything counts.
Alan Baxter
I often get complimented on the fight scenes in my books and stories. I get told they’re well written, which is a very nice thing to hear, but I also get told they’re very realistic, which in some ways is even nicer.
We’ve all seen the Hollywood movies where two musclebound heroes wail on each other for ages, one repeatedly cracking the other across the jaw, landing blow after blow, only for that person to stagger back to their feet and return the punishment again and again. At the end of the fight the baddie is finally out for the count and the hero stands there with a drop of blood on his lip and a smile. It’s such a load of bollocks. Too often, fight scenes in books are written like they appear in movies.
I have something of an advantage when it comes to writing good fight scenes. I’ve been a martial artist for nearly thirty years and I’ve had a lot of fights. I really know what it’s like to get in a fight. I know how it feels emotionally and physically, both before, during and after. I know damn well that one good, solid shot across the jaw is enough to put most people out cold. I know that a person’s face is like raw steak after a fight, even if they won. I know that most mortal people will probably break, or at least severely hurt, their hand if they land a punch on someone’s bony skull. I also know how damned hard it is to hit someone that doesn’t want to be hit.
I take all these things into account when I write a fight scene. The realism of a fight is far more exciting than some comic book representation. The visceral horror of two people beating the crap out of each other, with both people getting hurt, both people feeling scared and desperate, is far more realistic than most fights we see in movies or read about in books.
The other fundamental aspect to writing a good fight scene, as far as I’m concerned, is not to tell too much. A fight is a maelstrom of frantic activity. It’s really hard to know exactly what’s going on, particularly for a fighter with no formal fight training. A fight scene reads far better when it’s not described in clinical detail. When you have people fighting that do have a great deal of training, their perception of the fight is almost subconscious. They react without thinking or planning. If you pause to plan a move in a fight, you lose. If you try to stick to a plan in a fight, you lose.
I’ll finish with an example. The following is an excerpt from my second novel, MageSign. Two very powerful people cross paths and fight, with both physical and magical weapons. These people are far more than normal mortals, but I still try to avoid that Hollywood cliché fight scene. What do you think? Given the things I’ve mentioned above, do I pull it off with this scene?
The figure took a few steps forward. Something about the way they moved triggered the start of a thought in Isiah’s mind but it was stopped dead as the sudden swell of MageSign rose from them. Isiah threw up a barrier of pure energy as a bolt of power shot from the stranger’s outstretched hands. As Isiah staggered back, surprised by the force of the blow, his attacker broke into a run, bearing down on him like a missile. Another bolt of energy pulsed out from the grey covered hands and Isiah took it again on his shield, ready for the impact this time. The stranger was taking no chances, using enough power to destroy any normal man. They were obviously wary of whatever power they had sensed in Isiah. As the energy of the attack and defence crackled in the cold of the early morning air they were upon him, flying forward with a well executed kick.
Isiah clenched both fists and sidestepped, blocking the kick to one side and sweeping his arm around in a looping blow. His assailant was quick, ducking his counter-attack and landing on one leg as the other swept around in a graceful arc. Their shin connected with the back of Isiah’s ankles and swept his legs clean out from underneath him. With a grunt of surprise and annoyance Isiah fell, tucked, rolled. He came up as a grey fist flew towards his chin. Turning his head quickly to one side, the blow shooting past close enough for him to feel the wind of its passing, Isiah grabbed the passing forearm in one meaty hand and powered out his other hand in an open palmed blow. His palm landed with a satisfying thump high on his attacker’s chest, eliciting a rush of exhalation.
Without any time to celebrate his strike, Isiah felt the person’s arm and hand twist against his thumb, the weak point of his grip. Isiah’s grip, however, was anything but weak. Realising they could not break free, the grey clad attacker suddenly leapt up and over Isiah, grabbing hold of his wrist themselves, and landed behind him, pulling his own forearm across his throat. He felt their knee slam into his spine. Again he grunted, this time in surprise and pain. This person was very good and very powerful.
Isiah drew his energy deep into his core and pulsed out a wave of power. His attacker managed to shield themselves mentally just in time at the expense of their hold. Isiah twisted out of the grip, spun around, grabbed under the knee that had been in his back and threw the person up and over. They twisted in the air like a cat and landed on all fours, hands and feet splayed wide and stable. Their position and shape suddenly coalesced the thought that had been tapping at the edges of Isiah’s mind while he fought. A woman!
As the thought occurred to him, the woman leapt forward again. With energy flowing out before her she knocked Isiah back mentally and physically and rained blows across his shoulder and arm as he defended his head. By the gods, she’s strong! Isiah had to end this now. He took a risk and let one blow through. The crack across his jaw sounded like a gunshot and made his vision cross, but it was enough. As the woman moved to take advantage of the blow Isiah anticipated her movement and intercepted. His own blow was solid and crushing, knocking her head to one side with a crack and upsetting her momentum. As she stumbled, Isiah helped her down with a kick to one thigh and a second palm into her chest. She grunted in pain and fell. Isiah dropped with her, all his considerable weight over her, laid one forearm across her throat. He knelt across her hips, sinking his weight to prevent her from bucking him off or kicking up between his legs, and raised his free hand. Blue energy crackled and burned between his fingers like electricity, snaking across his open palm.
Even when two people this powerful fight it’s quick and brutal, they both get hurt, they both have to quickly react and change tack. If you want to know what happens next, you’ll have to read the book.
Alan is doing this post as part of his blog tour. Here's some more info on Alan and his work:
Sean Ellis
There are two ways to write a fight scene. You can treat it as something that stands in the way of advancing your plot, or you can treat it as a way to really get to know your character. You can, if you are so inclined, write an entire fight scene in a single sentence:
Striker’s fists mowed through the ninja ranks, clearing the way to the princess’s prison cel
l.What a missed opportunity for some real action. Instead of making the character into an invincible powerhouse—a cliché superhero—you can choreograph an intense, blow-by-blow battle that creates some tension and gives insight into what’s going through the character’s head as he (or she) faces what is to him, if not also the reader, an uncertain outcome.
Striker faced the three black-clad assassin warriors. He caught a glimpse of a fourth ninja moving stealthily behind him, and chose that moment to strike first. He feinted forward, then dropped into a crouch and swept one outstretched leg around behind him. His foot caught the fourth attacker’s ankles and yanked his feet from beneath him. The man pitched backward, arms flailing, and smacked his head on the dungeon floor. In the same motion, Striker pounced onto the fallen man, ramming a fist into the ninja’s chin to insure that he was down for good. Striker didn’t dare pause to savor his victory; as soon as his fallen foe’s head rebounded from the stone floor a second time, Striker was moving again, twisting away from the dazed ninja as his three comrades swooped in.
I could go on for a couple pages with this battle, and by the end of it, you would definitely get the sense that our hero has earned his way to the prize. There are also practical reasons for squeezing every last bit of drama from the fight scene. It obviously bulks up your word count, but more importantly, it adds realism. In real life, any one of those ninjas might get a lucky shot in, and that would be it for our hero. By drawing it out—giving the blow by blow—you can create those near misses, and even let the hero take his lumps. When he (or she) finally wins, your readers will have been shown, not told, what a stud/studette he/she is.
This will of course challenge you as a writer. You’ve got to come up with a lot of different ways to describe the fights; you can’t just keep using the word “punched” over and over again, but then that’s part of the fun of this profession. Do your research; there are books that will tell you fighting moves and techniques, just like there are books that will tell you everything else you need to create a realistic setting. In the end, the hard work will pay off.
If you write your fights like the first example, then you’re going to end up having to create a lot more of them in order to keep the momentum going, and that will start to get tedious to the reader. I remember reading a novel based on the Tomb Raider video games, written by very well recognized pulp author, who had the heroine getting in a different shootout on almost every other page. It got to be ridiculous. Instead of a few really intense battles, we had an endless series of short, nondescript encounters that all started to blur together. No tension, no anticipation. When you make your fight scenes count, there are no throwaway scenes; everything counts.
Alan Baxter
I often get complimented on the fight scenes in my books and stories. I get told they’re well written, which is a very nice thing to hear, but I also get told they’re very realistic, which in some ways is even nicer.
We’ve all seen the Hollywood movies where two musclebound heroes wail on each other for ages, one repeatedly cracking the other across the jaw, landing blow after blow, only for that person to stagger back to their feet and return the punishment again and again. At the end of the fight the baddie is finally out for the count and the hero stands there with a drop of blood on his lip and a smile. It’s such a load of bollocks. Too often, fight scenes in books are written like they appear in movies.
I have something of an advantage when it comes to writing good fight scenes. I’ve been a martial artist for nearly thirty years and I’ve had a lot of fights. I really know what it’s like to get in a fight. I know how it feels emotionally and physically, both before, during and after. I know damn well that one good, solid shot across the jaw is enough to put most people out cold. I know that a person’s face is like raw steak after a fight, even if they won. I know that most mortal people will probably break, or at least severely hurt, their hand if they land a punch on someone’s bony skull. I also know how damned hard it is to hit someone that doesn’t want to be hit.
I take all these things into account when I write a fight scene. The realism of a fight is far more exciting than some comic book representation. The visceral horror of two people beating the crap out of each other, with both people getting hurt, both people feeling scared and desperate, is far more realistic than most fights we see in movies or read about in books.
The other fundamental aspect to writing a good fight scene, as far as I’m concerned, is not to tell too much. A fight is a maelstrom of frantic activity. It’s really hard to know exactly what’s going on, particularly for a fighter with no formal fight training. A fight scene reads far better when it’s not described in clinical detail. When you have people fighting that do have a great deal of training, their perception of the fight is almost subconscious. They react without thinking or planning. If you pause to plan a move in a fight, you lose. If you try to stick to a plan in a fight, you lose.
I’ll finish with an example. The following is an excerpt from my second novel, MageSign. Two very powerful people cross paths and fight, with both physical and magical weapons. These people are far more than normal mortals, but I still try to avoid that Hollywood cliché fight scene. What do you think? Given the things I’ve mentioned above, do I pull it off with this scene?
The figure took a few steps forward. Something about the way they moved triggered the start of a thought in Isiah’s mind but it was stopped dead as the sudden swell of MageSign rose from them. Isiah threw up a barrier of pure energy as a bolt of power shot from the stranger’s outstretched hands. As Isiah staggered back, surprised by the force of the blow, his attacker broke into a run, bearing down on him like a missile. Another bolt of energy pulsed out from the grey covered hands and Isiah took it again on his shield, ready for the impact this time. The stranger was taking no chances, using enough power to destroy any normal man. They were obviously wary of whatever power they had sensed in Isiah. As the energy of the attack and defence crackled in the cold of the early morning air they were upon him, flying forward with a well executed kick.
Isiah clenched both fists and sidestepped, blocking the kick to one side and sweeping his arm around in a looping blow. His assailant was quick, ducking his counter-attack and landing on one leg as the other swept around in a graceful arc. Their shin connected with the back of Isiah’s ankles and swept his legs clean out from underneath him. With a grunt of surprise and annoyance Isiah fell, tucked, rolled. He came up as a grey fist flew towards his chin. Turning his head quickly to one side, the blow shooting past close enough for him to feel the wind of its passing, Isiah grabbed the passing forearm in one meaty hand and powered out his other hand in an open palmed blow. His palm landed with a satisfying thump high on his attacker’s chest, eliciting a rush of exhalation.
Without any time to celebrate his strike, Isiah felt the person’s arm and hand twist against his thumb, the weak point of his grip. Isiah’s grip, however, was anything but weak. Realising they could not break free, the grey clad attacker suddenly leapt up and over Isiah, grabbing hold of his wrist themselves, and landed behind him, pulling his own forearm across his throat. He felt their knee slam into his spine. Again he grunted, this time in surprise and pain. This person was very good and very powerful.
Isiah drew his energy deep into his core and pulsed out a wave of power. His attacker managed to shield themselves mentally just in time at the expense of their hold. Isiah twisted out of the grip, spun around, grabbed under the knee that had been in his back and threw the person up and over. They twisted in the air like a cat and landed on all fours, hands and feet splayed wide and stable. Their position and shape suddenly coalesced the thought that had been tapping at the edges of Isiah’s mind while he fought. A woman!
As the thought occurred to him, the woman leapt forward again. With energy flowing out before her she knocked Isiah back mentally and physically and rained blows across his shoulder and arm as he defended his head. By the gods, she’s strong! Isiah had to end this now. He took a risk and let one blow through. The crack across his jaw sounded like a gunshot and made his vision cross, but it was enough. As the woman moved to take advantage of the blow Isiah anticipated her movement and intercepted. His own blow was solid and crushing, knocking her head to one side with a crack and upsetting her momentum. As she stumbled, Isiah helped her down with a kick to one thigh and a second palm into her chest. She grunted in pain and fell. Isiah dropped with her, all his considerable weight over her, laid one forearm across her throat. He knelt across her hips, sinking his weight to prevent her from bucking him off or kicking up between his legs, and raised his free hand. Blue energy crackled and burned between his fingers like electricity, snaking across his open palm.
Even when two people this powerful fight it’s quick and brutal, they both get hurt, they both have to quickly react and change tack. If you want to know what happens next, you’ll have to read the book.
Alan is doing this post as part of his blog tour. Here's some more info on Alan and his work:
Alan Baxter takes his dark fantasy novels RealmShift and MageSign on the
virtual road with a 10 day Blog Book Tour. Follow the tour each day to a
different blog and learn all kinds of interesting things, not only about
Alan and his books, but also about what dark fantasy really is, indie
authorship, where to find demons and so much more. All the tour details are
updated daily at http://www.alanbaxteronline.com
Not only that, but for the duration of the tour you can buy ebook versions
of RealmShift and MageSign from Smashwords.com for just $1 each. Use these
coupon codes at the checkout for the discount: RealmShift - ZR95S and
MageSign - SF97B
Monday, June 15, 2009
Sci Fi Summer Con
I had the pleasure of taking part in Sci Fi Summer Con in Atlanta last weekend. Signed books, met lots of cool people, and shared a panel with authors Christina Barber and Bobby Nash.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
This and That
Just wanted to take a minute to share a few odds and ends:
Thanks again to everyone who made me a quarterfinalist in the Thriller Writer Smackdown. It was great fun!
I'm working diligently on Into the Woods, a novel of historical fiction that I'm co-authoring with my dad. The novel tells the story of our ancestor Jonathan Wood, one of the first settlers of southwest Virginia, a veteran of the Battle of King's Mountain, explorer and Indian fighter. His life is fascinating, and I think readers will find enough adventure to keep them entertained until the next Dane Maddock adventure rolls out.
Be sure to drop by the Megalith book review site. My friend Sean Ellis is interviewed, and his new novel, The Shroud of Heaven is reviewed. Megalith is also giving away a set of Bourne novels.
Thanks again to everyone who made me a quarterfinalist in the Thriller Writer Smackdown. It was great fun!
I'm working diligently on Into the Woods, a novel of historical fiction that I'm co-authoring with my dad. The novel tells the story of our ancestor Jonathan Wood, one of the first settlers of southwest Virginia, a veteran of the Battle of King's Mountain, explorer and Indian fighter. His life is fascinating, and I think readers will find enough adventure to keep them entertained until the next Dane Maddock adventure rolls out.
Be sure to drop by the Megalith book review site. My friend Sean Ellis is interviewed, and his new novel, The Shroud of Heaven is reviewed. Megalith is also giving away a set of Bourne novels.
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