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 The FSFS Newsletter is written by FSFS members covering everything Fantasy and Sci-Fi |
The "Fantasy and Science Fiction Society"  welcomes you to  Welcome to the June 2017 edition of the Newsletter, written by members of the "Fantasy and Science Fiction Society" for all of Writing.Com.Contents 1. Introduction 2. Naming your Character 3. SFF You Should be Watching 4. Contracts for Writers 5. Book Review: Pawn of Prophecy 6. Advertisements 7. Challenges  Appologies for the late newsletter, this month. I have now officially finished everything for my Chemistry degree. In July I will receive my MSci in Chemistry from the University of Nottingham and in September I will start my PhD!  So you want to create a character? You give them a name, settle on brown hair, brown eyes, and you're done, right? Wrong! When I first started writing (I was 6), I was done. Now, if I'm planning out a novel, or even a short story, I'll spend hours upon hours creating the characters. Characters need to be individual, personable and reflections of reality. If you've got a name, hair and eye colour, you've done the first few minutes of hours of work. Have you even done that though? I spend at least half an hour pondering over the name. In fact, character creation is so in-depth that I've dedicated a whole article to just name-selection. It's one of the words that will be used hundreds of times in your novel. The one that, when someone is describing your novel to someone else, they may just mention. Think about your own name. How important is it to your identity? How many times a day do you hear it, or read it? If you don't like your name, how much do you hate hearing or reading it? Imagine the same thing about your character. It's an important part of developing who they are, and their part to play in your story. Let's take my name, as an example. Lorraine. What first jumps into your head when you hear that name? Is it an older sounding name, as the name first became common around World War One? Do you first picture a little old woman? You have to remember these first impressions when you're choosing a name. If it's something the complete opposite, like me, for example, you have to include character description early on. If you don't people could be imagining something completely different about your character for half the novel. I'm a teenager, in case you're curious, not a little old woman. So, Lorraine starts with an L. A quick rule of thumb is to avoid names that are too similar to another name, so the reader doesn't start getting them mixed up in their head. I'd advise against a Lorraine and a Laura. It would just get way too complicated. Add a Lauren to that mix and you've lost the reader in the confusion of trying to figure out who's who. Unless that's a deliberate plot device in your story, but that's a whole other ballpark. The origin of the name, as I briefly mentioned above, is important for certain names. If you've got a generic name, you might not see this so much. If you've got unique names, from different countries around the world. You likely need to develop a reason your character has this name. I've got a character called Zea with a sister, Zanita (Breaking the letter rule, but there's a reason!). These are Greek names, so the reason they have these names is explained in my novel. It adds back-story to the characters, and lets me use unique, awesome names. Their mother is Greek, by the way. Are you setting a novel in Old England, but have a character named Zane or Ziva? Unless they're time-travellers, that probably won't fly with the readers. You've got to have a reason for names that don't fit the setting. Basically, make sure everything makes sense. If necessary, do research about popular names in the time period you're writing about. One final thing I want to mention, is pronunciation and spelling of the name. A commonly mispronounced name is Siobhan, where many people pronounce it "SEE-o-ban", when it should be "SHIV-awn". Unless you're going to have another character trip over your main character's name at some point, and then be corrected, I would avoid hard to pronounce names. If you're going to have one of those tropes, where your character's name is constantly mispronounced, and it drives them mad, then feel free to include it. What we, as readers, don't want, is to lose the flow of the story because we're tripping over names everywhere. Now, go out there and create your awesome names. I can't wait to read the stories you create for them! "Invalid Item" by A Guest Visitor  My fellow panelists for Balticon 51’s “SFF You Should Be Watching,” moderated by David Silverman, included: Keith R.A. DeCandido, author of recent and upcoming work includes the Marvel's Tales of Asgard trilogy of novels, A Furnace Sealed (the first book in his new urban fantasy series about a nice Jewish boy from the Bronx who fights monsters), Stargate SG-1: Kali's Wrath, Orphan Black: Classified Clone Report, Mermaid Precinct, short stories in Nights of the Living Dead, Baker Street Irregulars, Aliens: Bug Hunt; Lisa-Anne Samuels, writer, a tech-nerd, is a Hollywood refugee, having worked at AOL, Warner Bros. and MTV; and Perrianne Lurie, who is a big fan of the genre. If you haven’t noticed, welcome to the new Golden Age of science fiction and fantasy on television, cable, and online literally everywhere you look… We have the Expanse on Sci Fy, Game of Thrones on HBO, The Walking Dead on AMC and this panel’s job was to point out what you should be watching. My list included: Shannara Chronicles – MTV, moving to Spike at the end of June 2017. MTV took a chance on this show with its author Terry Brooke’s approval. He is an Executive Producer. What MTV found is that it wasn’t their target audience, but it had a strong audience, so it’s shifted to their sister channel, Spike. The first season will be repeated on Spike in late June as they prepare to lead us into the season 2. Emerald City – NBC, cancelled. Beautiful, the entire OZ book series laid out within it, and – I’ve heard over budget. Emerald City isn’t Judy Garland’s story of Dorothy. Comment from the panel: we need to save this one folks. (An eight or ten episode mini-series is just what this show needs. Netflix, you hearing us?) Legion – FX, based on the comic from the 1980s. Welcome to the most powerful X-man ever, who is apparently schizoid. Hold on tight for mystery, action, and questions as to the nature of reality. The main character of the comic by Chris Claremont and artist Bill Sienkiewicz was the son of Professor X, so there are hopes we might see Patrick Stewart at some point. Mars - National Geographic Channel. I did say this is the Golden Age and you can find great sci fi on any channel. Mars is part modern-day documentary and the story (as drama and adventure) of the first mission to Mars tasked with establishing a colony. The show depicts everything that can go wrong as they seek a source of water, seek to create crops to sustain themselves, survive the environment. Oh, it’s Mars a la Space X. Definitely on the must watch list. Here are the highlights from the rest of the panel. David Silverman’s list: Black Mirror – Netflix. Welcome to this generation’s Twilight Zone. No episode's the same story. Panel comments: spectacular. Not on his list – Ironfist on Netflix. Also not on his list, Ironfist. Quote: "He never uses his fist in any of the fight scenes." What are the writers and producers thinking? Perrianne Lurie’s List: Sense 8 – Netflix. The story of eight people around the world somehow connected, who can mentally pass their experiences to one another at need. Season One is very character driven and Season Two much more action. Panel comments: It’s got something for everyone. Lisa-Anne Samuel’s List: Wynonna Earp – Sci Fy. The story of Wyatt Earp’s gun in the hands of the firstborn of the line needing to be used to send revenants of those it originally killed back to Hell, generation after generation. (My comment: Since when did Wyatt Earp have kids, but it’s fiction I was reminded.) Handmaid’s Tale – HBO. Margaret Atwood’s classic work as a series on HBO. (Warning to mothers, you may want to steer clear of this haunting tale of a world looking more and more like our own.) The Leftovers – HBO. The series is about to conclude, so no one on the panel at that moment knows if the central question of the story will be answered or not. Premise, ten percent of the human race vanishes, leaving those leftover to seek meaning and deal with the loss, and rebuild after the inexplicable. Keith DeCandido’s List: Into the Badlands – AMC. Now in its second season, AMC offers us another apocalyptic vision of the future featuring martial arts, excellent storytelling, and glimpses of people literally digging into their past with no understanding of what they are finding -- items of the world we know around us. The Marvel Universe on Netflix, including: Daredevil (pointed out there is a weaker arc with Elektra, but the fight scenes are great), Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Ironfist (well, as mentioned, he’s part of it, but, well, enough said). In the also suggested category: Class and Gotham. Class on BBC America, which is not really a High School student drama. Think of it as if Torchwood had a baby and more dark. Fine, I know, how do you get darker than Torchwood? Gotham on Fox is the untold story of Batman as a boy and teenager, and has great elements, though, not everyone on the panel loves it. It also has a great "kick-ass" Alfred, played by Sean Pertwee (son of Jon Pertwee, Dr. Who), who is Bruce Wayne's bodyguard. So, that’s the list. Feel free to comment on what we also should have suggested in the comments to this post. D.H. Aire Author of the Highmage's Plight Series "SFF You Should be Watching" by Highmage - D.H. Aire   My last panel of Day Two at Balticon was “Contracts for Writers.” I served as moderator and the panelists included: the founding president (for life) Joshua Bilmes of the JaBberwocky Literary Agency (representing Brandon Sanderson, Charlene Harris, Elizabeth Moon, Tanya Huff and other best-selling genre authors), the editor of Beneath Ceaseless Sky, Scott Andrews, short story author and anthology series editor of Unidentified Funny Objects, Alex Shwartsman, and author (and CFO of SFWA) Bud Sparhawk. So, you receive a contract for your short story or book. What next? I suppose like me you are rather stunned, grin from ear to ear – then do you just sign it and send it back? Rule One – always read your contract. If you don’t understand everything, don’t be so quick to sign it. Better yet, like this panel (or this article about it) start learning about your rights. Step one – what are you offering? Generally, First North American Serial Rights or First World Serial Rights, meaning you are offering the story exclusively (for a period of time) to said publisher. If you’ve published the story online, you cannot offer this right (that story is a "Reprint"). You get paid more (usually for the first publication of a story) than a reprint, which falls under a non-exclusive category of publication. So, now you know what you’re selling. Alex Shwartsman stated, “Only sell the rights that the publisher needs.” If they are a magazine, they don’t need your audio rights, for example. Joshua Bilmes mentioned a major magazine that asked for television and movie rights for a short story, which he had to negotiate back. Please note: agents generally don’t handle short fiction contracts. There is no percentage in it. However, his firm does offer to look over short story contracts of those they represent, where he learned his client had signed a major right away. I once received a short story contract for an anthology which had a clause that they would own my characters. Among thirty authors, twenty-seven of us refused to sign. The publisher apologized and sent us new contracts sans clause – even to the three writers who had signed their characters away for eternity (dare I say without reading the contract?). Bud Sparrow said, “If you’ve ever been to the beach and written something in the sand and seen a wave come in and wipe it away, that’s a contract.” A contract is something that you can cross something out and change. Though, there are things that may be difficult to negotiate. Scott Andrews explained that an agent contacted him about changes he wanted to their standard short story contract. He refused to make any changes to it. They weren’t warranted. That an agent even contracted him was unusual. Joshua Bilmes stated, “Agents work for their authors.” If the author wishes to sign after understanding what a term of the agreement may mean, ultimately "we do what the author wants." However, there are things that can be negotiated. eBook Rights and Print on Demand conceivably mean a book may never be out of print. Reversion Rights are very important. I had a small press go out of business and had in our contract a clause for that – which included the fact that the cover art ported with me. I used the letter the publisher sent me, notifying me they were going out of business on a specific date and that the rights reverted to me after self-publishing the book after they closed. Amazon sent me a notification asking me to prove I had the rights to post the book. I forwarded them the letter, and the old version was removed. Without that clause, I could have had a book of my series unavailable for years or forever. So what is the definition of a book being out of print, so reversion rights can be invoked? Generally, you want it to be based on less than $250 of sales in a given year, or if twelve books or less are sold in a given year, or during a two-year period that is true that rights revert. Though, you could see statements about if the publisher has ten copies on hand, they keep the right. In these days of Print on Demand, that could be very easy for a publisher to do. Watch out. Negotiate this. We briefly touched on “works for hire.” When an author’s invited to write a book in an existing Intellectual Property, in that case said author doesn’t own the characters. You are paid for writing the work and you may or may not have the copyright of that book under your name, the publisher makes that choice – and who owns the copyright does not matter, particularly. The IP is the owners, not that of the person hired. Works for hire, by the way, can get an author’s name out there in a big way, while providing an author with a nice paycheck in the process. Which brings us to advances, Joshua Bilmes stated you should never do a deal without an advance. He feels that $500 from even a small press shows that publisher is viable. I must admit, the publisher I mentioned previously, only offered a royalty split and went out of business after being in business on a few years, but that publisher paid me every royalty they ever owed me. I’ve spoken with other authors with new small presses who never received a dime (though, I didn’t ask them about the wording of their contracts, either). Authors often do not earn out more than the advance they are paid. Fantasy authors receive higher advances than science fiction authors, for example, according to Joshua Bilmes. An advance these days may typically be $6,000 to $8,000. (SFWA’s standard recognizes $3,000 as an advance for a new author, allowing them to join the organization.) I posed the question what’s the difference between “net” and “gross?” Joshua Bilmes answered that for all intents and purposes gross mean the cover price, a percentage of which the author receives, say 6%. Net includes the costs of shipping books, cost of goods, etc. which may bring the basis down to 45% and the author receives a percentage from the resulting net. I brought this up because based on how net costs are defined an author may never see a royalty. For example when the cost of the publisher’s marketing the book include their travel to promote the book (not your travel as the author) that generally precludes authors from earnings a dime. (In that case, an advance would at least have brought in one paycheck.) Finally, I shared that before signing a contract, check out the publisher on Writers Beware (SFWA's website) and Scott Andrews suggested Predators and Editors, as well. Any contract that has you as the writer paying for their services, buying books for more than your author discount of at least 40%, is likely a Vanity Press, whose purpose is not to publish and sell your book, it’s to bilk you as their customer. The owners of Tate Publishing have been indicted by the State of Oklahoma for not only not paying Lightning Source for printing the books they published (as well as other vendors - and for siphoning said author payments into their personal bank accounts), but from over 450 complaints from their authors who paid for services like editing they never received. I’ve shared this before, but did not bring it up at the panel. An old man wished to have his book published and paid thousands for its editing. He paid for the cover art, he paid for all the printing, bought hundreds of copies and mailed them to family and friends. What they received was the alphabet typed over and over, no periods, no paragraphs, no commas, no chapters, cover to cover. The Vanity Press did nothing, never said a word, and as I said was paid for editing. They produced just what the customer wanted, I guess. That's not how publishing really works. Real publishers pay authors, not the other way around. What all the panellists could not agree on more, “Read your contract.” D.H. Aire, Author of Crossroads of Sin and Other Stories "Contracts for Writers - Article" by Highmage - D.H. Aire  Book Name: Pawn of Prophecy Author: David Eddings First Published: 1982 Author David Eddings grew up in Snohomish, Washington, a small town near Seattle. He displayed a talent for drama and literature, winning a national oratorical contest and acting in lead roles in junior college plays. He graduated from Reed College of Portland, Oregon in 1954. He was working on a novel that he thought would be his thesis for the University when he was drafted into the US. Army. He served his country until 1956 and moved on to graduate school at the University of Washington in Seattle. He gained his MA in 1961 and moved on to a job in purchasing at Boeing Aircraft, a large company in the area. It is there that he met his wife Judith Leigh Schall and he and Leigh would remain married for 45 years until a stroke took her life. Eddings moved on from Boeing to become a tenured college professor for seven years, but in a fit of frustration, he quit his job due to a lack of a pay raise. He and his wife moved to Denver, Colorado where he took a job at a grocery store to make a living. It was during this time that he turned to writing and began work on a series of novels. After a time in Denver, he moved back to Washington, this time to Spokane. It is here where Eddings turned his attention to writing in earnest. In Spokane, Eddings came across a copy of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings in a bookstore. He realized that the book was in its 78th printing and this fact made him sit up and re-evaluate his writing. He realized that there could be a larger market for fantasy novels than the coming of age books he had previously written. He pulled out an old doodle of a map he had scribbled a few years ago and this became the basis for the fantasy world of Aloria, the setting of the Belgariad Series. The Belgariad is the first of Edding’s epic fantasy series. It has five volumes, each title a combination of a fantasy term and a chess term. Pawn of Prophecy is the first book. With the success of The Belgariad Series, Eddings went on to write another five volume sequel series called The Malloreon. Both series proved to be wildly popular and helped to shape the trope of epic fantasy that holds today. Leigh Eddings is credited with being a co-author in the later novels concerning the Sorceress Polgara, but according to David Eddings, his wife was active as a co-author in all of his fantasy novels. He used her guidance with the female characters to make them more believable. He would have credited her sooner for her work, but Lester Del Rey allegedly did not like the idea, believing that a single author’s name on the books was a better selling point. David Eddings continued to write his fantasy novels until his death of natural causes in 2009. His manuscripts and other written works have been donated to Reed University along with a sizable grant to fund “students and faculty studying languages and literature”. “But there’s a world beyond what we can see and touch, and that world lives by its own laws. What may be impossible in this very ordinary world is very possible there, and sometimes the boundaries between the two worlds disappear, and then who can say what is possible and impossible?” ― David Eddings, Pawn of Prophecy Pawn of Prophecy begins with a prologue about the creation of the world Aloria by the seven gods. One of them fashions an orb and puts inside it a “living soul”. The Orb of Aldur is coveted by the god Torak. The Orb is guarded by King Cherek’s family, who have the ability to hold the object. The story is told via the eyes of young Garion, a farm boy. An old man named Belgarath, nicknamed “the wolf” arrives at Faldor Farm and enlists the help of Garion, his Aunt Pol, and Durnik the blacksmith to go out in search of a missing object. Unknown to Garion, this is the Orb of Aldur, a powerful and magical object lost to the King’s family. The group has many adventures and eventually grows to include a Drasnian Prince, an Algarian Prince, and a Cherek Earl. During the many trials that Garion experiences, he hears a dry voice in his mind. As time goes on, Garion learns that this is the Voice of Prophecy, or “Necessity”, which is taking action through him. He is but a pawn to its will. Who is Garion? What is his connection to Aunt Pol and to the thief known as Wolf? It seems that there is more to this farmboy than what meets the eye. ### Back in my school days, The Belgariad Series was considered one of those “must-reads” of the fantasy genre. Although today we would consider the storyline to be a classic “chosen one” Hero’s Journey with all the cliches of the genre, at the time, it was breaking fresh ground. I remember reading the series in junior high school with pleasure and went on to read the sequel series as well. It reminded me of Tolkien’s Lord of the Kings, but without the heavy literature quality. I found the young farm boy Garion likeable and the story engaging, with a good balance of humor and intricate world building. While Eddings prose is not particularly deep, it is still a good yarn that is clean enough to recommend to younger readers. In particular, I like that Eddings created a strong female lead in “Aunt Polgara”. Polgara is a powerful sorceress and of good character. She was one of the first strong female lead characters to come out in the 1980s fantasy, but certainly was not the last! I had not realized at the time that Polgara was a particular creation of Edding’s wife since she was not given co-author credit during the 1980s, but her input is certainly felt with Polgara and her viewpoints. If you are an adult and are considering reading this classic series, I believe that it holds its own for adults looking for a clean fantasy with less gratuitous violence. While more YA in nature, it is a good read for all ages. The Belgariad Series Pawn of Prophecy (1982) Queen of Sorcery (1982) Magician’s Gambit (1983) Castle of Wizardry (1984) Enchanters’ End Game (1984)
Three Prompts will return 1 August 2017.
A brilliant contest with a Dragon theme wishes to lure in all you fantasy authors!
A new cNote shop with a fantastical theme. Profits go to the FSFS!
A brilliant sci-fi contest. Rather than competing with each other, you are awarded prizes based on your score, so everyone who writes a great story gets great prizes! All those with scores above a certain value receive a fantastic, in-depth review from Amanda.
The FSFS Review Board is open! All WdC members can view the list on the group homepage, "Fantasy and Science Fiction Society" . FSFS Members can view the list from the homepage, Review Board page and the Hub. To post on the board you need to review at least one other item on the list.
If you are not already a member and are interested in fantasy and science fiction writing, please read through the group homepage and apply using the application form. The only pre-requisite is that you have a fantasy or science fiction item in your portfolio. If you want to advertise in the FSFS Newsletter please contact me, Matt Bird MSci (Hons) AMRSC   . Last Month's Result Sadly no one entered last month's challenge  , so there are no winners...This Month's Challenge This month, your challenge is simple. Just tell me a little bit about the book you are currently reading. I will randomly award an FSFS badge to one commenter. Invalid Merit Badge #201075 Thank you to all the members who submitted articles to the Newsletter. Please comment on this Newsletter if you enjoyed it, or if you have any suggestions for future editions. |
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