Greg to Attend UW Writers' Institute

Posted 03/21/12 10:45 am by Greg

I just registered for the annual UW Writers' Institute, which is the University of Wisconsin Department of Continuing Studies' writing conference. This year, it will take place on April 13-15, 2012. I plan to pitch BC9 to several agents, get the manuscript critiqued, and attend the sessions. I recommend the conference to all.

BC9 ABNA Reviews Posted

Posted 03/20/12 10:11 pm by Greg

Beyond Cloud Nine may not have made the quarter finals in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Contest, but the feedback was still mostly positive. Head to the Beyond Cloud Nine page to read the expert reviews.

Beyond Cloud Nine Misses ABNA Quarter Finals

Posted 03/20/12 11:22 am by Greg

Unfortunately, Beyond Cloud Nine failed to advance to the quarter finals (round three) of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest. After making it to round two based on my 300-word pitch, panel reviewers eliminated BC9 according to my 5,000-word excerpt, which equated to the prologue and first chapter.

I genuinely believed I had a good shot to make it to the quarter finals. One thing that worried me all along, though, was the prologue. While it frames the story and integrates the book into the entire Beyond saga, I wondered if I would've been better served by excluding it. A part of me wishes I had submitted chapter one and two instead.

It's especially frustrating to be excluded so soon because every science fiction novel I've ever read takes the first fifty pages to ground me in the story and another fifty to pull me in to the point that I don't want to set it down. In BC9, it takes me until the end of chapter three to establish the main conflict. In other words, the first 5,000 words of a novel can't always provide a complete or accurate sense of the overall story. That said, I spent a lot of time crafting the hooks at the beginning of the prologue and chapter one. In my opinion, they're better than the hooks that begin most every story I've ever read. I mean, really, if a woman convulsing on a 24th century hospital bed because she requires spinal transplant surgery or a star fighter pilot rocketing away from an explosion in Jupiter orbit doesn't grab readers' attention, I have no idea what will.

I'm still waiting to find out whether I'll receive any feedback so I know for sure why BC9 didn't advance. Lack of feedback is the biggest reason for disappointment. There was no way I was ever going to win a general fiction contest with a sci-fi military drama. Not enough general appeal. But if I had at least advanced to the quarter finals, anyone who's an Amazon customer could've read and posted a review on my excerpt, and Publisher's Weekly would've reviewed my full manuscript. It's a huge loss because I miss out on a great chance to get noticed.

But enough pouting. All I can do is look on the bright side. With BC9 released from the contest, I can query and pitch it again. I believe the story is good enough to be published, and it will be as long as I keep working at it.

Who Should Play Brooke in BC9: The Movie?

Posted 03/17/12 10:40 am by Greg

Like many authors, I dream of my stories and novels one day coming to life on the big screen. Of all my works, I would judge Beyond Cloud Nine to be the most Hollywood-friendly. Just imagine all the space dogfights in 3D HD. Picture Brooke in her sleek black flight suit and helmet gripping the dual HOTAS control grips and accelerating at hundreds of gees. Jupiter, Callisto, and Titan's orange clouds and methane rivers would make for quite an exotic setting. I'd definitely pay to see mammoth star ships getting torn apart by the space-time wake created by the phase fighter.

Most of all, I would relish seeing the BC9 characters brought to life. And just who would play the part of ace pilot Brooke Davis? Both Grace Park and Stephanie Jacobsen (Sharon Valerii and Kendra Shaw, respectively, from the new Battlestar Galactica) come to mind. They're fairly obvious choices because they starred in a military sci-fi drama, and Sharon Valerii was a pilot. Although neither actress has Japanese heritage, both are of Asian decent. They're also both a little older than Brooke, but I think either actress could pass for a woman in her mid-twenties.

Jacobsen, in her role as Kendra Shaw, displayed the more hard-ass, pessimistic, Brooke-like personality. Her accent wouldn't work (it's sexy, but Brooke isn't Australian). However, that doesn't necessarily eliminate her. Anna Torv (Agent Olivia Dunham of Fringe) showed us how a talented actress can lose the accent when required by the role.


Park, on the other hand, might do a better job of playing both Brooke and Marie, Brooke's sister. If you think about it, the same actress would likely have to be cast as both characters since Brooke and Marie are identical twins (unless you can actually find a pair of Japanese-American twins). Park played numerous different roles in Battlestar Galactica: Sharon Valerii/Boomer, Sharon Agathon/Athena, and other Cylon model eights.

If I were the director, though, I would probably cast an unknown actress as both Brooke and Marie, someone who fits the roles to a tee, someone who doesn't bring any preconceptions from past work with them. And I would definitely shy away from using a big-name actress. No matter how much more revenue that might rake in, I would want people to fill the theater because of the story first.

Who do you think should star in a hypothetical Beyond Cloud Nine movie?

New Website Now Live

Posted 03/02/12 7:00 pm by Greg

I'm excited to announce that my new website is finally up and running. Right now, it provides basic information about my novels and stories as well as me as an author. In the near future, members will be able to download and read my unpublished work. For published pieces, I plan to integrate Google Checkout shopping cart functionality so that readers can purchase my work. Keep checking back to watch the site grow!

Beyond Cloud Nine Moves to Round Two of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest

Posted 02/23/12 10:23 pm by Greg

I'm happy to report that Beyond Cloud Nine advanced to the Second Round of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest. The General Fiction category of the contest began with 5,000 entries and has now been whittled down to 1,000 based on pitches. On March 20, the field will narrow to 250 quarter finalists based on the first 5,000 words of the novel (for BC9 that's the prologue and chapter 1). I'm keeping my fingers crossed! Here's a link to the 1,000 Advancing General Fiction Entries. My name and novel appear on page 7.

Lack of Submission Feedback

Posted 02/18/11 9:02 am by Greg

In the last few months, I've submitted my work to a couple of major sci-fi magazines. Both publications rejected my manuscript, which didn't surprise or upset me to any great extent. Certainly, I was disappointed. I've been honing my writing skills for the last seven years, and after much hard work, I believe I've finally crafted a story that's as good or better than anything I see published professionally. Take that as author bias if you like. It is to some extent. But I also have the critiques of a couple different writing groups to back me up. That, and I'd be the first to admit that I hadn't written anything publication-worthy up until now.

Anyway, the point here isn't to cry rivers of despair or tout my work. What I want to focus on is the fact that these publications have stopped providing individual feedback. The rejection notifications I received from both magazines contained only a restatement of the original submission guidelines listed on their websites, which did absolutely nothing to help me. I have less than no idea why they rejected my manuscript. The editors stated that they receive too many submissions, and therefore do not have the time to make specific comments on each one.

Now, I certainly sympathize with how overwhelmed an editor must get by the multitude of submissions that he or she receives. I'm sure an editor spends many late nights reading other people's work on his or her own time. For that, I'd like to extend my wholehearted thanks.

I also understand the practical realities of workload versus time. If you only have so many hours in the day, and your workload requires more hours than you have, something is going to have to give. If you add up the time it would take editor to write individual feedback for all manuscripts, it no doubt adds up to time that he or she doesn't have.

That said, I believe the editor and his or her staff are ethically bound to find a way to provide individual feedback, no matter how limited. Heck, writing just one word on the return notice would make a huge difference. "Formatting" or "Plot" or "Characters" or even "Boring" would at least give me a vague hint as to what required improvement. To not do so is to allow writers to grope around in the dark, resending unpolished manuscripts to the next editor who then rejects it for the same reason. And round and round we go. By not telling writers anything specific, an editor actually increases the number of undesired submissions.

I'm on to you, Mr. or Ms. Editor. You think that you can use lack of individual feedback as way to further screen manuscripts and limit your workload. But in actuality, you are contributing to your own problem. And you're not fostering a community of learning and growing that will lead to bettering the industry that you love.

So, this is my plea to the editor. Find a quick and easy way to let writers know why you're denying their submission. Yes, it takes a little time, but it does not take that much time to scribble one word on a page.

End of rant