Heartwild Solitaire [with story by Neale Sourna] has been awarded a Staff Game Pick badge at Real Arcade. Which is cool, since they're like one of the biggest game portals and accept only selected products for their portfolio.
Also, the game is currently #6 on their best sellers list. --Darek Rusin, www.OrchidGames.com
Friday, February 06, 2009
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Gamasutra--What Every Game Developer [and Writer] Needs to Know about Story
What Every Game Developer [and Writer] Needs to Know about Story
Increasingly, story is a hot item in games. Partly, this is because the quality bar is rising in this relatively young art form. As games evolve, people want more depth, not just higher polygon counts.
More to the point, game developers want to sell their wares to more people. Selling them to the same ones every time doesn't lead to a lot of growth. It's clear we need to tap into something more universally human.
And story is a universal human experience.
So how do we approach story in games? Well, to answer that, we need to look at what has worked in other story forms, and what is unique to the new story form of games.
Let's start with a statement everybody can agree on: Games aren't movies.
But that by itself doesn't get us very far. To figure out what games are, it's helpful to back up to an earlier problem: Movies aren't plays.
In the early part of the 20th century, moving pictures were a curiosity, an amusement. They had their addicts right from the beginning, to be sure. But they didn't become a substantial lasting art form until they discovered two related things:
1. They are a form of story, not just a new toy.
2. Their particular form of story differs from all previous forms of story, and has other things in common with all forms of story.
The same is true for games.
The first attempts to make movies into real stories failed. They failed because they were conceived as filmed plays. A camera would be set up about where an audience member would sit in the middle of a theater, and the play would ensue.
It didn't work. Early film makers didn't take into account that the human eye wanders all over the fixed box of the stage during a play, and a camera that does any less will bore the film audience to tears. They also hand discovered the rich tool set of camera angles, close-ups, far shots, and all the language of film we now take for granted. Generally speaking, they hadn't discovered what this particular story form was good at.
And frankly, neither have we in games.
Common misperceptions
There are a number of places where we've gone wrong in game stories so far. Most of the problems spring from two basic misunderstandings:
* Story is dialog.
* Story doesn't matter.
Sure, story is partly dialog. And a cake is part frosting. But here's a large fact that I'll elaborate on in just a moment: Story is....more article and Part 2
Increasingly, story is a hot item in games. Partly, this is because the quality bar is rising in this relatively young art form. As games evolve, people want more depth, not just higher polygon counts.
More to the point, game developers want to sell their wares to more people. Selling them to the same ones every time doesn't lead to a lot of growth. It's clear we need to tap into something more universally human.
And story is a universal human experience.
So how do we approach story in games? Well, to answer that, we need to look at what has worked in other story forms, and what is unique to the new story form of games.
Let's start with a statement everybody can agree on: Games aren't movies.
But that by itself doesn't get us very far. To figure out what games are, it's helpful to back up to an earlier problem: Movies aren't plays.
In the early part of the 20th century, moving pictures were a curiosity, an amusement. They had their addicts right from the beginning, to be sure. But they didn't become a substantial lasting art form until they discovered two related things:
1. They are a form of story, not just a new toy.
2. Their particular form of story differs from all previous forms of story, and has other things in common with all forms of story.
The same is true for games.
The first attempts to make movies into real stories failed. They failed because they were conceived as filmed plays. A camera would be set up about where an audience member would sit in the middle of a theater, and the play would ensue.
It didn't work. Early film makers didn't take into account that the human eye wanders all over the fixed box of the stage during a play, and a camera that does any less will bore the film audience to tears. They also hand discovered the rich tool set of camera angles, close-ups, far shots, and all the language of film we now take for granted. Generally speaking, they hadn't discovered what this particular story form was good at.
And frankly, neither have we in games.
Common misperceptions
There are a number of places where we've gone wrong in game stories so far. Most of the problems spring from two basic misunderstandings:
* Story is dialog.
* Story doesn't matter.
Sure, story is partly dialog. And a cake is part frosting. But here's a large fact that I'll elaborate on in just a moment: Story is....more article and Part 2
At Gamasutra--Game Story: Plot vs Character
07.28.2005
Game Story: Plot vs Character
In reading Sutherland's article on game story I didn't see anything new--at least not to a seasoned writer--but I did notice a gap.
Although Sutherland discusses character and internal conflict, he misses an important point of story development: character change is essential to plot movement. And for game developers, it's essential to player engagement in the story.
All good stories demonstrate change in the character of the protagonist as well as his/her condition in life and the world they intimately inhabit. If no character change occurs, the plot is dissatisfying. It is only when character changes that new plot options open up, which is how a character may choose an action at the end of a story which would be anathema or inconceivable to them at the beginning. That's the exciting point of story.
If a game story is merely a repetitive or pre-determined path through a series of tasks (such as endless "Fed-Ex" back-and-forthing), the game quickly becomes boring--no matter how lovely and twisted the cutscenes are. By setting story points which force character change and revelation, the game development team offers the player a more engaging experience, because they mutually create a sense of personal stake in the outcome.
Driving story by character versus plot.
Since games put the player into the character's "skin" for a time, the personality of the player becomes a tool for story exploration and raises the perception of personal stake in the story outcome. When developers offer the player branching points (reversals, revelations and branching options), they place increased control (or a perception of control) of character evolution in the player's hands and the player becomes a fully-vested partner in the progress of the story.
That interacton and engagement is an essential strength of games that other media do not offer. It's that strength, created by good story-telling and intelligent branching options, which creates great game experience and increased satisfaction as well as replayability.
Character is not just clever dialog--it's the key to engaging players at a personal level.
-Kat Richardson
Game Story: Plot vs Character
In reading Sutherland's article on game story I didn't see anything new--at least not to a seasoned writer--but I did notice a gap.
Although Sutherland discusses character and internal conflict, he misses an important point of story development: character change is essential to plot movement. And for game developers, it's essential to player engagement in the story.
All good stories demonstrate change in the character of the protagonist as well as his/her condition in life and the world they intimately inhabit. If no character change occurs, the plot is dissatisfying. It is only when character changes that new plot options open up, which is how a character may choose an action at the end of a story which would be anathema or inconceivable to them at the beginning. That's the exciting point of story.
If a game story is merely a repetitive or pre-determined path through a series of tasks (such as endless "Fed-Ex" back-and-forthing), the game quickly becomes boring--no matter how lovely and twisted the cutscenes are. By setting story points which force character change and revelation, the game development team offers the player a more engaging experience, because they mutually create a sense of personal stake in the outcome.
Driving story by character versus plot.
Since games put the player into the character's "skin" for a time, the personality of the player becomes a tool for story exploration and raises the perception of personal stake in the story outcome. When developers offer the player branching points (reversals, revelations and branching options), they place increased control (or a perception of control) of character evolution in the player's hands and the player becomes a fully-vested partner in the progress of the story.
That interacton and engagement is an essential strength of games that other media do not offer. It's that strength, created by good story-telling and intelligent branching options, which creates great game experience and increased satisfaction as well as replayability.
Character is not just clever dialog--it's the key to engaging players at a personal level.
-Kat Richardson
Neale Sourna says Thank you to and for Alanis Morissette's "Thank U"
Thank you to and for Alanis Morissette's
"Thank U"
how bout getting off these antibiotics
how bout stopping eating when I'm full up
how bout them transparent dangling carrots
how bout that ever elusive kudo
thank you india
thank you terror
thank you disillusionment
thank you frailty
thank you consequence
thank you thank you silence
how bout me not blaming you for everything
how bout me enjoying the moment for once
how bout how good it feels to finally forgive you
how bout grieving it all one at a time
thank you india
thank you terror
thank you disillusionment
thank you frailty
thank you consequence
thank you thank you silence
the moment I let go of it was the moment
I got more than I could handle
the moment I jumped off of it
was the moment I touched down
how bout no longer being masochistic
how bout remembering your divinity
how bout unabashedly bawling your eyes out
how bout not equating death with stopping
thank you india
thank you providence
thank you disillusionment
thank you nothingness
thank you clarity
thank you thank you silence
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/alanismorissette/thanku.html
"Thank U"
how bout getting off these antibiotics
how bout stopping eating when I'm full up
how bout them transparent dangling carrots
how bout that ever elusive kudo
thank you india
thank you terror
thank you disillusionment
thank you frailty
thank you consequence
thank you thank you silence
how bout me not blaming you for everything
how bout me enjoying the moment for once
how bout how good it feels to finally forgive you
how bout grieving it all one at a time
thank you india
thank you terror
thank you disillusionment
thank you frailty
thank you consequence
thank you thank you silence
the moment I let go of it was the moment
I got more than I could handle
the moment I jumped off of it
was the moment I touched down
how bout no longer being masochistic
how bout remembering your divinity
how bout unabashedly bawling your eyes out
how bout not equating death with stopping
thank you india
thank you providence
thank you disillusionment
thank you nothingness
thank you clarity
thank you thank you silence
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/alanismorissette/thanku.html
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Neale Sourna's Writing-Naked.com: Quality, Professional, Profound
Neale Sourna's Writing-Naked.com
Your screenplay, novel, your dialog and visuals need hardcore writing and intense character rebuilding or revisualization, it needs its impact to be more, well, impact-y; invest in fine writing and great storytelling. Quality pricing gets you quality writing; by byline or ghost (ghostwriting).
Only make contact if you're truly ready to be serious about investing in and doing the very best for your project; when you want a voice that's strong, profound, and farseeing--whether scifi/adventure, romance, spiritual, or drama.
Neale Sourna's Writing, Ghostwriting, Rewriting, Screenwriting, Proofing, and Editing
Elance.com / NS Elance Writing-Editing Profile and Guru.com / NS Guru Writing Editing Profile
(for scripts, screenplays, novels, game stories/gaming stories, sales dialog scripts, and more)
"I will not fear.
Fear is the mindkiller.
Fear is the little death
That brings total Oblivion.
I will permit my fear to pass
Over me and through me.
And where it has gone
I will turn the inner eye.
Nothing will be there
Only I will remain."©
from Frank Herbert's DUNE.
What is Writing Naked?
Don't think that I have it ALL worked out for the now and future, I need help sometimes as much as you may need quality assistance, and I've most certainly been told, on several occasions, that I really need help. :) But I've gotten somewhere you may not have been yet, and perhaps I, or my associates, can help you.
Who doesn't need help sometimes? Myself, I've gone it alone too many times even when I shouldn't've. I've learned from it.
Bad and good. Negative and positive. Yet nearly everything I have, everything I've experienced, have seen, heard, felt goes into my writing--ALL of it--truths and lies and subterfuges all. But, if that makes you nervous and scared, don't read any further.
Boldness.
THAT'S WRITING NAKED.
I've read on the web that author Victor Hugo of "Les Miserables" and "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," etc. often wrote naked, which means, considering the thickness of his books, that he must've been naked a LOT! And cold and wet!!
But, here, with me, you can keep your clothes on, or not.
As any storyteller can tell you or anyone who's lived a life, crap happens and characters, even YOU, could change this story of mine completely all around. Or I change yours.
When that happens in my stories, the surprises are startlingly grand. And.... [http://www.writing-naked.com/]
Friday, December 05, 2008
Naked Gaming: What’s Your Character(s) Heart?
Naked Gaming: What’s Your Character(s) Heart?
By Neale Sourna
Copyright Neale Sourna 2008
“Who am I, MMORPGer? And Who are You, for That Matter?”
I’m curious about you, MMORPGer; and wonder who you are, deep inside.
There are a lot of faces of me, deep inside me. Wind songs and traveling songs talk to the free and footloose spirit in me, making me feel more at home, on the roads of my mind, than at my “home” home.
Does that ever happen to you?
Y’know, do you hear songs or certain word triggers and feel ancient things you’d long forgotten until triggered; about wayward winds or tumbling weeds and talking phantom spirits of dead cowboys, lost on a fantasy wide range, still herding dead herds from Hell without borders or fences.
Freedom and mobility locked in a fantasy’s context; enslaved to that context; or at least merely entirely engrossed.
When triggered, I FEEL that freedom and mobility within me; even on those days when I’m locked inside and hardwired to a thousand things keeping my feet to the taxpayer’s fire, and not at all thinking of MMORPGs.
But, in my head and heart there are cowherds, space warriors, American Civil War officers, Arabic scimitar specialist warriors, vampires with transformation powers when they reach a certain age of strength, and more. A nonending cinematic, plethora of lush detail and meaning and emotion I can never truly explain to anyone, not in just a few minutes.
That’s why there are novels, and graphic novels, and miniseries, and sequels. And MMORPGs. Free ones online and paid ones there, too.
It’s a video game in my head, and it’s always been that way, but now we have the means and ways to explain that to others. Or share with others, and that’s good, because writers usually write alone, and readers normally read alone.
“They Just Don’t Get Me.”
My past experience has always been that Space Invaders and Mario weren’t able to keep up with the wildly graphic and emotionally depth-filled things going on in my Fine Arts, Film and Video, screenwriter, novelist’s mind. This isn’t a resume, so I’ll stop my list right there.
This is me taking a step or two closer to online gaming.
And why I haven’t is that I have a LOT of juice going through my head and body, electrically, already; and contact with crowds and communications equipment, and other busy things, like a lack of sleep just jolt me up all the more.
So, offline games make me nervous, and I’ve assumed, too, that online ones would be about the same, for me; but I also imagined worse, since not only are you playing those old systems, which had glitches, like knowing you’ve hit the spot, but the game says not.
I also have always figured I have enough “real” people telling me no, without a “system” doing the same, and being just as wrong as some people I know. But I gripe, and kvetch.
That was my past experience. The past is over, although it seems to keep informing us and doing recalibration checks on us, as if trying to reset us to a past and outmoded ideal.
“A New World, a New Landscape.”
Although game playing still makes me nervous, I do find some things fascinating. Maybe like me, you used to say that maybe I’d game when the video matched closer to what I saw in my mind. And then came the Wachowski Brothers, Keanu Reeves, and “The Matrix,” and I found not only something that made online MMORPG and computer gaming more fascinating visually, but also emotional and spiritual. And cultural.
I’m not afraid to admit it. I always liked “Tron,” but, finally, online is cool Tron, on spiritual and emotional and visual steroids; girl steroids, boy steroids, elegance and power, ugly and vicious.
Here were full characters, both cryptic but with depth, in limitless variety.
That’s what I write. I take all my scimitar kings, and Polynesian healers, and all the others inside me and write them; for scripts, games, and more. I craft stories layer by layer, skill by skill, breath by breath; until I know that THIS particular character will say this and that, but not THAT stupid thing.
That this one has a limp, so running is limited.
That this one has a brilliant way with people, but a genetic flaw that makes a depth perception defect and a bright day’s reflection things that blind him.
Or, that this one has such depth that I hadn’t realized his high power for healing and talent for leaving out important details about himself, has hidden from me, his author and maker (but not creator, he did that himself), hidden the fact that he is more highly skilled and dangerous than I knew. And I REALLY KNOW my characters.
Are You Making New People, or Retooling Old Ones?
But, there it was, a surprise. I experienced that, of a character withholding from me until the nearly the end, while completing my first novel to publish; finding hidden and surprising depths, hidden and surprising connections; that my main character could come out from me, and yet withhold a major plot point, which changes in the mind the entire book from page one to that spot.
All that was kept from me.
It’s like finding out something about your sibling, whom you always shared a room with and pretty much everything else.
It’s like having kids; they’re part of you and you know them, and then one day, they surprise the H out of you. And you wonder where they got THAT from; not from you, not from your significant other, not the sitter, not anyone. It’s somehow an element of their own creation.
As making a character, an avatar can be.
Some of us keep full control, but, I’m sure, that many of us must find that our onscreen selves are expressing parts of us that seem our best, or worst; expressing a hidden part of us, or something WE always knew about ourselves, but no one else did, because some things are so secret or so much a part of our being, like our cells, that we can’t share, or just never ever considered it.
Or just assumed no one else would want to stare through a microscope and see a tiny us waving back from a glass slide.
“You Want to Show Me … What?”
“I’ll show you my avatar, if you’ll show me yours.”
And that is why I’ve taken another step closer to stepping through the looking glass into the world of pixels and distant strangers meeting on an electronic plain, so like what goes on, in the wild, infinite prairies and deep black of space, and horror-filled, primal forests, and endless days of lockers and mislaid class nightmares, and other bits in my mind, making us all like dreamers wide awake in dreamland, the oh so many dreamlands, dreaming together, where we are more ourselves than here.
By Neale Sourna
Copyright Neale Sourna 2008
“Who am I, MMORPGer? And Who are You, for That Matter?”
I’m curious about you, MMORPGer; and wonder who you are, deep inside.
There are a lot of faces of me, deep inside me. Wind songs and traveling songs talk to the free and footloose spirit in me, making me feel more at home, on the roads of my mind, than at my “home” home.
Does that ever happen to you?
Y’know, do you hear songs or certain word triggers and feel ancient things you’d long forgotten until triggered; about wayward winds or tumbling weeds and talking phantom spirits of dead cowboys, lost on a fantasy wide range, still herding dead herds from Hell without borders or fences.
Freedom and mobility locked in a fantasy’s context; enslaved to that context; or at least merely entirely engrossed.
When triggered, I FEEL that freedom and mobility within me; even on those days when I’m locked inside and hardwired to a thousand things keeping my feet to the taxpayer’s fire, and not at all thinking of MMORPGs.
But, in my head and heart there are cowherds, space warriors, American Civil War officers, Arabic scimitar specialist warriors, vampires with transformation powers when they reach a certain age of strength, and more. A nonending cinematic, plethora of lush detail and meaning and emotion I can never truly explain to anyone, not in just a few minutes.
That’s why there are novels, and graphic novels, and miniseries, and sequels. And MMORPGs. Free ones online and paid ones there, too.
It’s a video game in my head, and it’s always been that way, but now we have the means and ways to explain that to others. Or share with others, and that’s good, because writers usually write alone, and readers normally read alone.
“They Just Don’t Get Me.”
My past experience has always been that Space Invaders and Mario weren’t able to keep up with the wildly graphic and emotionally depth-filled things going on in my Fine Arts, Film and Video, screenwriter, novelist’s mind. This isn’t a resume, so I’ll stop my list right there.
This is me taking a step or two closer to online gaming.
And why I haven’t is that I have a LOT of juice going through my head and body, electrically, already; and contact with crowds and communications equipment, and other busy things, like a lack of sleep just jolt me up all the more.
So, offline games make me nervous, and I’ve assumed, too, that online ones would be about the same, for me; but I also imagined worse, since not only are you playing those old systems, which had glitches, like knowing you’ve hit the spot, but the game says not.
I also have always figured I have enough “real” people telling me no, without a “system” doing the same, and being just as wrong as some people I know. But I gripe, and kvetch.
That was my past experience. The past is over, although it seems to keep informing us and doing recalibration checks on us, as if trying to reset us to a past and outmoded ideal.
“A New World, a New Landscape.”
Although game playing still makes me nervous, I do find some things fascinating. Maybe like me, you used to say that maybe I’d game when the video matched closer to what I saw in my mind. And then came the Wachowski Brothers, Keanu Reeves, and “The Matrix,” and I found not only something that made online MMORPG and computer gaming more fascinating visually, but also emotional and spiritual. And cultural.
I’m not afraid to admit it. I always liked “Tron,” but, finally, online is cool Tron, on spiritual and emotional and visual steroids; girl steroids, boy steroids, elegance and power, ugly and vicious.
Here were full characters, both cryptic but with depth, in limitless variety.
That’s what I write. I take all my scimitar kings, and Polynesian healers, and all the others inside me and write them; for scripts, games, and more. I craft stories layer by layer, skill by skill, breath by breath; until I know that THIS particular character will say this and that, but not THAT stupid thing.
That this one has a limp, so running is limited.
That this one has a brilliant way with people, but a genetic flaw that makes a depth perception defect and a bright day’s reflection things that blind him.
Or, that this one has such depth that I hadn’t realized his high power for healing and talent for leaving out important details about himself, has hidden from me, his author and maker (but not creator, he did that himself), hidden the fact that he is more highly skilled and dangerous than I knew. And I REALLY KNOW my characters.
Are You Making New People, or Retooling Old Ones?
But, there it was, a surprise. I experienced that, of a character withholding from me until the nearly the end, while completing my first novel to publish; finding hidden and surprising depths, hidden and surprising connections; that my main character could come out from me, and yet withhold a major plot point, which changes in the mind the entire book from page one to that spot.
All that was kept from me.
It’s like finding out something about your sibling, whom you always shared a room with and pretty much everything else.
It’s like having kids; they’re part of you and you know them, and then one day, they surprise the H out of you. And you wonder where they got THAT from; not from you, not from your significant other, not the sitter, not anyone. It’s somehow an element of their own creation.
As making a character, an avatar can be.
Some of us keep full control, but, I’m sure, that many of us must find that our onscreen selves are expressing parts of us that seem our best, or worst; expressing a hidden part of us, or something WE always knew about ourselves, but no one else did, because some things are so secret or so much a part of our being, like our cells, that we can’t share, or just never ever considered it.
Or just assumed no one else would want to stare through a microscope and see a tiny us waving back from a glass slide.
“You Want to Show Me … What?”
“I’ll show you my avatar, if you’ll show me yours.”
And that is why I’ve taken another step closer to stepping through the looking glass into the world of pixels and distant strangers meeting on an electronic plain, so like what goes on, in the wild, infinite prairies and deep black of space, and horror-filled, primal forests, and endless days of lockers and mislaid class nightmares, and other bits in my mind, making us all like dreamers wide awake in dreamland, the oh so many dreamlands, dreaming together, where we are more ourselves than here.
Friday, November 07, 2008
On Executive Obama and Hip Hop
The old Gangsta and his old Wangsta is dead,
Or finally dying, quickly; because
The New Executive is it.
And the New Manager,
The New CEO,
The New CFO,
The New Owner;
The New Remolders and New Rebuilders,
Of Our New Future, of things yet manifested,
But growing in spirit's dream.
Copyright Neale Sourna 2008
Or finally dying, quickly; because
The New Executive is it.
And the New Manager,
The New CEO,
The New CFO,
The New Owner;
The New Remolders and New Rebuilders,
Of Our New Future, of things yet manifested,
But growing in spirit's dream.
Copyright Neale Sourna 2008
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
Happy Obama Day!!
Hope you had a glorious Happy Obama Day, and are preparing yourself for your next new steps upward in spiritual and pragmatic living and sharing. As Canadian "Red Green" would say, "We're all in this together."
Monday, November 03, 2008
At Elance.com Writing Provider Forum
It's good to hear you're doing well, and being successful, with your freelance writing at Elance.com.
I was and am a big fan of the WGA writer's strikes; not for the loss of monies, which are impressive, but because it impresses on ourselves and others that we are trained craftspeople, like plumbers and carpenters and big biz CEO's and should get similar cash for work done, and similar respect.
We must respect ourselves and our unique and gifted craft skills and improve ourselves. WE MUST MARKET our skills, by learning new ways and better ways, and to focus on those parts of writing we do best. And remember that everyday or, at least, every week is a new market, and we must sell to market again, and again.
Neale Sourna
www.Writing-Naked.com
I was and am a big fan of the WGA writer's strikes; not for the loss of monies, which are impressive, but because it impresses on ourselves and others that we are trained craftspeople, like plumbers and carpenters and big biz CEO's and should get similar cash for work done, and similar respect.
We must respect ourselves and our unique and gifted craft skills and improve ourselves. WE MUST MARKET our skills, by learning new ways and better ways, and to focus on those parts of writing we do best. And remember that everyday or, at least, every week is a new market, and we must sell to market again, and again.
Neale Sourna
www.Writing-Naked.com
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Watching TV: There is overlap and learning, and if you have to ask....
From Neale Sourna at Absolute Write Forum.
It's okay to love TV, film, oh, and novels/short stories.
I think TV watching, if you actively watch and question it as you view, is not a problem in an of itself. Except in whether there are too many hours in it versus a deadline you have. And yes, I am guilty there, but so are all of us spending just a little more extra time reading all the replies to that Absolute Write forum thread.
It is interesting that no one questions whether your new Harry Potter or finally sitting down to read War and Peace will eat up just at much time, or more.
And yes I watch, a lot, and DVD seasons, etc. But also, I often find better writing and character execution with Joss Whedon, or on Smallville. More freshness in how to tell a story and just put a smile on a face with a Pushing Daisies, and the like.
Because there are some novels and books I own or have read for genre research and the like and they are not that good; they need editing, proofing, another revision or two or three. I mean, really, Bridges of Madison County could not be handed in as first class classwork to the teacher who wrote it, and expect to get a good grade, and yet it was published and filmed, to boot, with hall its unfinished, illogical bits just lying there like old, clumpy oatmeal. Unpalatable, but it hit a wave and rode to shore.
TV is not always some kind of waste, think how many people must subliminally accept Barack Obama as presidential material, because two very tall, very black and smart men have been president on 24; giving us a new way of seeing ourselves in the future we make now.
It is--my keyboard is not letting me make contractions, and it is killing me!!--reboot.
It is your life, your time, some stories must be written NOW, others need time, lots of time to get down to their juicier, more subtle bits. There is stuff like that on TV, and well done too. And the good actors with the good scripts oft times give you better stuff on TV than in feature movies; think Battlestar versus Starship Poopers.
And then, again, there is the WWE and Stargate(s) things--guilty pleasures that make you happy. Happy is good. Plus, it is THE medium, other than the third world war of WWW that has to be accepted and used, ignoring it makes you an extinct dinosaur.
Besides more people waste more time away at work, commuting, getting bagels, talking to cubicle mates, and emailing friends, than half of us foruming, TVing, and multitasking our writing careers from home, with two novels, a client project or two, and a new proposal all in the works and open on our PCs.
__________________
Neale Sourna
=====================================================
Overlap. Whether watching TV, films on DVD (on tv), live theatre, reading books (that you're not editing or writing), etc. are all the same time wasters. As are forums, Google, Wikipedia, etc. And yet, there is a necessity for them, and a conscious or unconscious manner of getting lost in them.
Learning. No where, except on TV, can you have so many time eras visualized (and the hard work or enforced segregations of various people and castes, how even Queen Victoria thought girls should not be educated, which I find reprehensible, inconceivable, and hypocrisy, but, then, she was royalty and we are not).
TV (broadcast, DVD, cable, satellite) places all of this before you, giving you, well, me, insight into how different and the same we are between us now and now, and now and then, or the chance to pop in disc after disc to see how "Little Women" (and attitudes toward women and starlets' capacity) has been handled, and changed considerably, from decade to decade in Hollywood Film. --I use this in my writing; Victorian era, servants/masters, mistreatment of....
TV's better than life. Sometimes. It's more concise in telling a story of certain kinds, well and badly. Both good and bad are useful to me. Actual language between people on buses and in malls, seldom gives me anything useful for dialog or situations; besides, we write film, TV, novel, theatre dialog not REAL dialog, which is boring, inane, and babbles on forever about nothing.
Did I mention that I hate cell phones on public transportation?
And insight. I think a lot while watching. And think a lot while not watching. And while trying to sleep.
"Letting it wash over" me, is more than a bath of visuals and sount, it's zen. And, yes, if you have to ask if you're using too much time for it, it's the same as asking, "Do you think Terry loves me, what do you think, BFF?"
A few insights for me this week, while watching broadcast (recorded or "live") and DVDs, plus misc. other media and thoughts and family comments coming together in divine moments:
* solid and attractive actor Rufus Sewell (U.K.) now on CBS-TV's version of "Eleventh Hour"--why doesn't he get more leads to front movies and stuff, has been my question since "Dark City", and I knew, but now I get it. I get how THEY must see him, when highering. It's his eyes, they're an odd color on screen, whether in color or b/w, and more specifically he looks a bit haunted, and has sharp, lean cheekbones, so casting souls see him a certain way, negatively; where I've mentally cast him for a lead actor because of those eyes, positively.
* PBS's "Secrets (or whatever) of the Inquisition" taught me that school had misled me into thinking the Inq. only existed during medieval/renaissance days. While it lasted, officially, until 1870, making the last who were actively harmed by it lived to see my grandmother and John Kennedy born. And:
o That it answered that 9-1-1 question noncolored Americans asked a lot in Sept 2001, "Why do they hate us (U.S.A.) so?" Well, watching TV/PBS tied in with a book from Cleveland Public Library on "Defiled Professions...Outcasts" in medieval/renaissance times answered it sharply. Yeah, THEY like our stuff, and our pour are richer than their poor, that THEIR religion isn't getting them ahead of us, blah-blah-blah. It's hard for Americans because we never were like any of them. The closest who were, were enslaved, and never asked "Why do they hate...?"
The answer, to me: Citizens of the US don't know their place. Fiddlers on roofs know their place. Upstairs/Downstairs people know theirs, but Americans were one thing yesterday, are something or someone else today, and tomorrow will move physically again, or shift themselves inside, and rewrite their whole universe again. That frightens people about the US, while they still try to live some life they imagined worked for some dead ancestor thousands of years ago: before phones; cars; voting for ALL citizens of age, regardless of sex or ownership, and education for same, for all.
It's not a special badge of honor to be wholly ignorant of such a powerful medium, nor great to be wholly enslaved to it. But it keeps us off the streets, starting wars, and stuff. And do you think the new special guest star on "Heroes" is...?
__________________
Neale Sourna
It's okay to love TV, film, oh, and novels/short stories.
I think TV watching, if you actively watch and question it as you view, is not a problem in an of itself. Except in whether there are too many hours in it versus a deadline you have. And yes, I am guilty there, but so are all of us spending just a little more extra time reading all the replies to that Absolute Write forum thread.
It is interesting that no one questions whether your new Harry Potter or finally sitting down to read War and Peace will eat up just at much time, or more.
And yes I watch, a lot, and DVD seasons, etc. But also, I often find better writing and character execution with Joss Whedon, or on Smallville. More freshness in how to tell a story and just put a smile on a face with a Pushing Daisies, and the like.
Because there are some novels and books I own or have read for genre research and the like and they are not that good; they need editing, proofing, another revision or two or three. I mean, really, Bridges of Madison County could not be handed in as first class classwork to the teacher who wrote it, and expect to get a good grade, and yet it was published and filmed, to boot, with hall its unfinished, illogical bits just lying there like old, clumpy oatmeal. Unpalatable, but it hit a wave and rode to shore.
TV is not always some kind of waste, think how many people must subliminally accept Barack Obama as presidential material, because two very tall, very black and smart men have been president on 24; giving us a new way of seeing ourselves in the future we make now.
It is--my keyboard is not letting me make contractions, and it is killing me!!--reboot.
It is your life, your time, some stories must be written NOW, others need time, lots of time to get down to their juicier, more subtle bits. There is stuff like that on TV, and well done too. And the good actors with the good scripts oft times give you better stuff on TV than in feature movies; think Battlestar versus Starship Poopers.
And then, again, there is the WWE and Stargate(s) things--guilty pleasures that make you happy. Happy is good. Plus, it is THE medium, other than the third world war of WWW that has to be accepted and used, ignoring it makes you an extinct dinosaur.
Besides more people waste more time away at work, commuting, getting bagels, talking to cubicle mates, and emailing friends, than half of us foruming, TVing, and multitasking our writing careers from home, with two novels, a client project or two, and a new proposal all in the works and open on our PCs.
__________________
Neale Sourna
=====================================================
Overlap. Whether watching TV, films on DVD (on tv), live theatre, reading books (that you're not editing or writing), etc. are all the same time wasters. As are forums, Google, Wikipedia, etc. And yet, there is a necessity for them, and a conscious or unconscious manner of getting lost in them.
Learning. No where, except on TV, can you have so many time eras visualized (and the hard work or enforced segregations of various people and castes, how even Queen Victoria thought girls should not be educated, which I find reprehensible, inconceivable, and hypocrisy, but, then, she was royalty and we are not).
TV (broadcast, DVD, cable, satellite) places all of this before you, giving you, well, me, insight into how different and the same we are between us now and now, and now and then, or the chance to pop in disc after disc to see how "Little Women" (and attitudes toward women and starlets' capacity) has been handled, and changed considerably, from decade to decade in Hollywood Film. --I use this in my writing; Victorian era, servants/masters, mistreatment of....
TV's better than life. Sometimes. It's more concise in telling a story of certain kinds, well and badly. Both good and bad are useful to me. Actual language between people on buses and in malls, seldom gives me anything useful for dialog or situations; besides, we write film, TV, novel, theatre dialog not REAL dialog, which is boring, inane, and babbles on forever about nothing.
Did I mention that I hate cell phones on public transportation?
And insight. I think a lot while watching. And think a lot while not watching. And while trying to sleep.
"Letting it wash over" me, is more than a bath of visuals and sount, it's zen. And, yes, if you have to ask if you're using too much time for it, it's the same as asking, "Do you think Terry loves me, what do you think, BFF?"
A few insights for me this week, while watching broadcast (recorded or "live") and DVDs, plus misc. other media and thoughts and family comments coming together in divine moments:
* solid and attractive actor Rufus Sewell (U.K.) now on CBS-TV's version of "Eleventh Hour"--why doesn't he get more leads to front movies and stuff, has been my question since "Dark City", and I knew, but now I get it. I get how THEY must see him, when highering. It's his eyes, they're an odd color on screen, whether in color or b/w, and more specifically he looks a bit haunted, and has sharp, lean cheekbones, so casting souls see him a certain way, negatively; where I've mentally cast him for a lead actor because of those eyes, positively.
* PBS's "Secrets (or whatever) of the Inquisition" taught me that school had misled me into thinking the Inq. only existed during medieval/renaissance days. While it lasted, officially, until 1870, making the last who were actively harmed by it lived to see my grandmother and John Kennedy born. And:
o That it answered that 9-1-1 question noncolored Americans asked a lot in Sept 2001, "Why do they hate us (U.S.A.) so?" Well, watching TV/PBS tied in with a book from Cleveland Public Library on "Defiled Professions...Outcasts" in medieval/renaissance times answered it sharply. Yeah, THEY like our stuff, and our pour are richer than their poor, that THEIR religion isn't getting them ahead of us, blah-blah-blah. It's hard for Americans because we never were like any of them. The closest who were, were enslaved, and never asked "Why do they hate...?"
The answer, to me: Citizens of the US don't know their place. Fiddlers on roofs know their place. Upstairs/Downstairs people know theirs, but Americans were one thing yesterday, are something or someone else today, and tomorrow will move physically again, or shift themselves inside, and rewrite their whole universe again. That frightens people about the US, while they still try to live some life they imagined worked for some dead ancestor thousands of years ago: before phones; cars; voting for ALL citizens of age, regardless of sex or ownership, and education for same, for all.
It's not a special badge of honor to be wholly ignorant of such a powerful medium, nor great to be wholly enslaved to it. But it keeps us off the streets, starting wars, and stuff. And do you think the new special guest star on "Heroes" is...?
__________________
Neale Sourna
Thursday, October 09, 2008
Best selling author on length/process to physical publishing.
http://www.dianagabaldon.com/
Diana Gabaldon is the New York Times best-selling author of the Outlander series, which tells the story of Jamie Fraser, a Scottish Highlander from the 18th century, and his time-traveling wife, Claire. The latest book in the series, A Breath of Snow and Ashes, is available everywhere.
Excerpted From Diana Gabaldon site letter:
OK, -- on to An Echo in the Bone, which is probably what most people want to know about.
1) An Echo in the Bone is the seventh volume in the main Outlander series.
2) An Echo in the Bone is not the last book in this series!!
3) I am still writing An Echo in the Bone!!!
A) I get a certain amount of idiotic email accusing me of having already finished the book, but “hiding” it from the readers, or keeping it off the market “just to be mean” or (of all insane notions) “to drive the price up.” (It ain’t pork bellies, people; the cover price is the same whenever it comes out, and I don’t set it.) I don’t mean to be impolite here, but…geez, guys.
i) Look. Books are
a) written in order to be read, and
b) published in order to make money.
ii) Publishers do not make money from books that are not in bookstores. Ergo….
iii) Publishers want to sell books as soon as the books are ready.
iv) So do authors. What do you think I live on, while I’m supposedly keeping a book off the market to be mean? And why do you think I’d want to be mean to the people who read my books? Sheesh.
4) Right. Now, I hope to finish writing An Echo in the Bone around the end of this year.
OK, pay close attention now….
5) The book will not—repeat not—REPEAT NOT!!!—be published on December 31st, even if I finish writing it on December 30th. Why not? Well, because…
A) Books don’t go directly from the author to the bookstore.
B) Books go from the author to the Editor, who
i) reads the manuscript
ii) discusses the manuscript with the author, and
iii) suggests minor revisions that may improve the book
C) The book goes back to the author, who
i) re-reads the manuscript
ii) considers the editor’s comments, and
iii) makes whatever revisions, emendments, or clarifications seem right.
D) The book goes back to the editor, who
i) reads it again
ii) asks any questions that seem necessary, and
iii) sends it to
E) The copy-editor. This is a person whose thankless job is to
i) read the manuscript one…word…at…a…time
ii) find typos or errors in grammar, punctuation, or continuity (one heck of a job, considering the size not only of the individual books, but of the overall series), and
iii) write queries to the author regarding anything questionable, whereupon
F) The book comes back to the author—yes, again—who
i) re-reads the manuscript
ii) answers the copy-editor’s queries, and
iii) alters anything that the copy-editor has changed that the author disagrees with. After which, the author sends it back to
G) The editor—yes, again!—who
i) re-re-reads it
ii) checks that all the copy-editor’s queries have been answered, and sends it to
H) The Typesetter, who sets the manuscript in type, according to the format laid out by
I) The Book-Designer, who
i) decides on the layout of the pages (margins, gutters, headers or footers, page number placement)
ii) chooses a suitable and attractive typeface
iii) decides on the size of the font
iv) chooses or commissions any incidental artwork (endpapers, maps, dingbats—these are the little gizmos that divide chunks of text, but that aren’t chapter or section headings)
v) Designs chapter and Section headings, with artwork, and consults with the
J) Cover Artist, who (reasonably enough) designs or draws or paints the cover art, which is then sent to
K) The Printer, who prints the dust-jackets--which include not only the cover art and the author’s photograph and bio, but also “flap copy,” which may be written by either the editor or the author, but is then usually messed about with by
L) The Marketing Department, whose thankless task is to try to figure out how best to sell a book that can’t reasonably be described in terms of any known genre [g], to which end, they
i) try to provide seductive and appealing cover copy to the book
ii) compose advertisements for the book
iii) decide where such advertisements might be most effective (periodicals, newspapers, book-review sections, radio, TV)
iv) try to think up novel and entertaining means of promotion, such as having the author appear on Second Life to do a virtual reading, or sending copies of the book to the armed troops in Iraq, or booking the author to appear on Martha Stewart or Emiril Lagasse’s cooking show to demonstrate recipes for unusual foods mentioned in the book.
vi) kill a pigeon in Times Square and examine the entrails in order to determine the most advantageous publishing date for the book.
M) OK. The manuscript itself comes back from the typesetter, is looked at (again) by the editor, and sent back to the author (again! As my husband says, “to a writer, ‘finished’ is a relative concept.”), who anxiously proof-reads the galleys (these are the typeset sheets of the book; they look just like the printed book’s pages, but are not bound), because this is the very last chance to change anything. Meanwhile
N) A number of copies of the galley-proofs are bound—in very cheap plain covers—and sent to
O) The Reviewers. i.e., the bound galleys are sent (by the marketing people, the editor, and/or the author) to the book editors of all major newspapers and periodicals, and to any specialty publication to whom this book might possibly appeal, in hopes of getting preliminary reviews, from which cover quotes can be culled, and/or drumming up name recognition and excitement prior to publication.
Frankly, they don’t always bother with this step with my books, because they are in a rush to get them into the bookstores, and it takes several months’ lead-time to get reviews sufficiently prior to publication that they can be quoted on the cover.
P) With luck, the author finds 99.99% of all errors in the galleys (you’re never going to find all of them; the process is asymptotic), and returns the corrected manuscript (for the last time, [pant, puff, gasp, wheeze]) to the editor, who sends it to
Q) The Printer, who prints lots of copies (“the print-run” means how many copies) of the “guts” of the book—the actual inside text. These are then shipped to
R) The Bindery, where the guts are bound into their covers, equipped with dust-jackets, and shipped to
S) The Distributors. There are a number of companies—Ingram, and Baker and Taylor, are the largest, but there are a number of smaller ones—whose business is shipping, distributing, and warehousing books. The publisher also ships directly to
T) The Bookstores, but bookstores can only house a limited number of books. Therefore, they draw on distributors’ warehouses to resupply a title that’s selling briskly, because it takes much longer to order directly from the publisher. And at this point, [sigh]…the book finally reaches
U) You, the reader.
And we do hope you like it when you get it—because we sure-God went to a lot of trouble to make it for you. [g]
6) As it happens, Random House (who publishes my books in the US and Canada) prefers to publish my titles in the Fall quarter (between September 1 and December 31). That’s because this is traditionally the biggest sales period in the year, what with the run-up to Christmas, and therefore all the publishers normally release their “big” titles in the Fall. I’m flattered to be among them.
If I do finish the manuscript around the end of this year, Random House (and the UK publisher, Orion, and the German publisher, Blanvalet) will have just about the right amount of time to do all the production steps described above, in order to release the book in Fall of 2009
(The other foreign editions—I think we’re now up to 24 countries, including Israel, Croatia, Russia, and Greece, which is pretty cool—will be out whenever their respective editors and translators finish their production processes, but I’m afraid I can’t predict that at all.)
So—that’s why the English and German-speaking readers will almost certainly get An Echo in the Bone in Fall of 2009.
When I have a specific publication date, rest assured—I’ll tell you.
That’s probably enough information to be dealing with in one go, so I’ll come back a little later and tell you about graphic novels, anthologies, and Other Weird Stuff.
http://www.dianagabaldon.com/
Diana Gabaldon is the New York Times best-selling author of the Outlander series, which tells the story of Jamie Fraser, a Scottish Highlander from the 18th century, and his time-traveling wife, Claire. The latest book in the series, A Breath of Snow and Ashes, is available everywhere.
Excerpted From Diana Gabaldon site letter:
OK, -- on to An Echo in the Bone, which is probably what most people want to know about.
1) An Echo in the Bone is the seventh volume in the main Outlander series.
2) An Echo in the Bone is not the last book in this series!!
3) I am still writing An Echo in the Bone!!!
A) I get a certain amount of idiotic email accusing me of having already finished the book, but “hiding” it from the readers, or keeping it off the market “just to be mean” or (of all insane notions) “to drive the price up.” (It ain’t pork bellies, people; the cover price is the same whenever it comes out, and I don’t set it.) I don’t mean to be impolite here, but…geez, guys.
i) Look. Books are
a) written in order to be read, and
b) published in order to make money.
ii) Publishers do not make money from books that are not in bookstores. Ergo….
iii) Publishers want to sell books as soon as the books are ready.
iv) So do authors. What do you think I live on, while I’m supposedly keeping a book off the market to be mean? And why do you think I’d want to be mean to the people who read my books? Sheesh.
4) Right. Now, I hope to finish writing An Echo in the Bone around the end of this year.
OK, pay close attention now….
5) The book will not—repeat not—REPEAT NOT!!!—be published on December 31st, even if I finish writing it on December 30th. Why not? Well, because…
A) Books don’t go directly from the author to the bookstore.
B) Books go from the author to the Editor, who
i) reads the manuscript
ii) discusses the manuscript with the author, and
iii) suggests minor revisions that may improve the book
C) The book goes back to the author, who
i) re-reads the manuscript
ii) considers the editor’s comments, and
iii) makes whatever revisions, emendments, or clarifications seem right.
D) The book goes back to the editor, who
i) reads it again
ii) asks any questions that seem necessary, and
iii) sends it to
E) The copy-editor. This is a person whose thankless job is to
i) read the manuscript one…word…at…a…time
ii) find typos or errors in grammar, punctuation, or continuity (one heck of a job, considering the size not only of the individual books, but of the overall series), and
iii) write queries to the author regarding anything questionable, whereupon
F) The book comes back to the author—yes, again—who
i) re-reads the manuscript
ii) answers the copy-editor’s queries, and
iii) alters anything that the copy-editor has changed that the author disagrees with. After which, the author sends it back to
G) The editor—yes, again!—who
i) re-re-reads it
ii) checks that all the copy-editor’s queries have been answered, and sends it to
H) The Typesetter, who sets the manuscript in type, according to the format laid out by
I) The Book-Designer, who
i) decides on the layout of the pages (margins, gutters, headers or footers, page number placement)
ii) chooses a suitable and attractive typeface
iii) decides on the size of the font
iv) chooses or commissions any incidental artwork (endpapers, maps, dingbats—these are the little gizmos that divide chunks of text, but that aren’t chapter or section headings)
v) Designs chapter and Section headings, with artwork, and consults with the
J) Cover Artist, who (reasonably enough) designs or draws or paints the cover art, which is then sent to
K) The Printer, who prints the dust-jackets--which include not only the cover art and the author’s photograph and bio, but also “flap copy,” which may be written by either the editor or the author, but is then usually messed about with by
L) The Marketing Department, whose thankless task is to try to figure out how best to sell a book that can’t reasonably be described in terms of any known genre [g], to which end, they
i) try to provide seductive and appealing cover copy to the book
ii) compose advertisements for the book
iii) decide where such advertisements might be most effective (periodicals, newspapers, book-review sections, radio, TV)
iv) try to think up novel and entertaining means of promotion, such as having the author appear on Second Life to do a virtual reading, or sending copies of the book to the armed troops in Iraq, or booking the author to appear on Martha Stewart or Emiril Lagasse’s cooking show to demonstrate recipes for unusual foods mentioned in the book.
vi) kill a pigeon in Times Square and examine the entrails in order to determine the most advantageous publishing date for the book.
M) OK. The manuscript itself comes back from the typesetter, is looked at (again) by the editor, and sent back to the author (again! As my husband says, “to a writer, ‘finished’ is a relative concept.”), who anxiously proof-reads the galleys (these are the typeset sheets of the book; they look just like the printed book’s pages, but are not bound), because this is the very last chance to change anything. Meanwhile
N) A number of copies of the galley-proofs are bound—in very cheap plain covers—and sent to
O) The Reviewers. i.e., the bound galleys are sent (by the marketing people, the editor, and/or the author) to the book editors of all major newspapers and periodicals, and to any specialty publication to whom this book might possibly appeal, in hopes of getting preliminary reviews, from which cover quotes can be culled, and/or drumming up name recognition and excitement prior to publication.
Frankly, they don’t always bother with this step with my books, because they are in a rush to get them into the bookstores, and it takes several months’ lead-time to get reviews sufficiently prior to publication that they can be quoted on the cover.
P) With luck, the author finds 99.99% of all errors in the galleys (you’re never going to find all of them; the process is asymptotic), and returns the corrected manuscript (for the last time, [pant, puff, gasp, wheeze]) to the editor, who sends it to
Q) The Printer, who prints lots of copies (“the print-run” means how many copies) of the “guts” of the book—the actual inside text. These are then shipped to
R) The Bindery, where the guts are bound into their covers, equipped with dust-jackets, and shipped to
S) The Distributors. There are a number of companies—Ingram, and Baker and Taylor, are the largest, but there are a number of smaller ones—whose business is shipping, distributing, and warehousing books. The publisher also ships directly to
T) The Bookstores, but bookstores can only house a limited number of books. Therefore, they draw on distributors’ warehouses to resupply a title that’s selling briskly, because it takes much longer to order directly from the publisher. And at this point, [sigh]…the book finally reaches
U) You, the reader.
And we do hope you like it when you get it—because we sure-God went to a lot of trouble to make it for you. [g]
6) As it happens, Random House (who publishes my books in the US and Canada) prefers to publish my titles in the Fall quarter (between September 1 and December 31). That’s because this is traditionally the biggest sales period in the year, what with the run-up to Christmas, and therefore all the publishers normally release their “big” titles in the Fall. I’m flattered to be among them.
If I do finish the manuscript around the end of this year, Random House (and the UK publisher, Orion, and the German publisher, Blanvalet) will have just about the right amount of time to do all the production steps described above, in order to release the book in Fall of 2009
(The other foreign editions—I think we’re now up to 24 countries, including Israel, Croatia, Russia, and Greece, which is pretty cool—will be out whenever their respective editors and translators finish their production processes, but I’m afraid I can’t predict that at all.)
So—that’s why the English and German-speaking readers will almost certainly get An Echo in the Bone in Fall of 2009.
When I have a specific publication date, rest assured—I’ll tell you.
That’s probably enough information to be dealing with in one go, so I’ll come back a little later and tell you about graphic novels, anthologies, and Other Weird Stuff.
http://www.dianagabaldon.com/
Monday, September 15, 2008
Karp On Publishing
Karp On Publishing
Twelve publisher Jonathan Karp has an essay in the Sunday Washington Post on the state of publishing. He remarks on "the relentless, indiscriminate proliferation" of commercial "ephemera" on the bookshelves" and freely admits "I too have sinned. In weaker moments, I've been seduced by tales of celebrity, money, gossip and scandal." He notes: "Most authors want their work to be accessible to a typical educated reader, so the question really isn't whether the work is highbrow or lowbrow or appeals to the masses or the elites; the question is whether the book is expedient or built to last. Are we going for the quick score or enduring value? Too often, we (publishers and authors) are driven by the same concerns as any commercial enterprise: We are manufacturing products for the moment."
Karp also observes: "I can't prove it empirically, but when I talk to literary agents and fellow publishers, they acknowledge an unarticulated truth about our business: Fewer authors are devoting more than two years to their projects. The system demands more, faster. Conventional wisdom holds that popular novelists should deliver one or two books per year. Nonfiction authors often aren't paid enough to work full-time on a book for more than a year or two." One result: "Journalism has long been regarded as the first rough draft of history; lately, however, books have too easily been thought of as the second rough draft, rather than the final word."
His prediction/hope: "Publishers will be forced to invest in works of quality to maintain their niche. These books will be the one product that only they can deliver better than anyone else.... For publishers, R&D means giving authors the resources to write the best books -- works that will last, because the lasting books will, ultimately, be where the money is."
Rest at Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/27/AR2008062702868.html
Twelve publisher Jonathan Karp has an essay in the Sunday Washington Post on the state of publishing. He remarks on "the relentless, indiscriminate proliferation" of commercial "ephemera" on the bookshelves" and freely admits "I too have sinned. In weaker moments, I've been seduced by tales of celebrity, money, gossip and scandal." He notes: "Most authors want their work to be accessible to a typical educated reader, so the question really isn't whether the work is highbrow or lowbrow or appeals to the masses or the elites; the question is whether the book is expedient or built to last. Are we going for the quick score or enduring value? Too often, we (publishers and authors) are driven by the same concerns as any commercial enterprise: We are manufacturing products for the moment."
Karp also observes: "I can't prove it empirically, but when I talk to literary agents and fellow publishers, they acknowledge an unarticulated truth about our business: Fewer authors are devoting more than two years to their projects. The system demands more, faster. Conventional wisdom holds that popular novelists should deliver one or two books per year. Nonfiction authors often aren't paid enough to work full-time on a book for more than a year or two." One result: "Journalism has long been regarded as the first rough draft of history; lately, however, books have too easily been thought of as the second rough draft, rather than the final word."
His prediction/hope: "Publishers will be forced to invest in works of quality to maintain their niche. These books will be the one product that only they can deliver better than anyone else.... For publishers, R&D means giving authors the resources to write the best books -- works that will last, because the lasting books will, ultimately, be where the money is."
Rest at Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/27/AR2008062702868.html
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
The Mummy (3): Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
This is simple storywise, in "The Mummy (3): Tomb of the Dragon Emperor" things aren't bad at all, and although I love Maria Bello I miss you know who, and perhaps Kate Beckinsale, if avail. would have made a little more sense there.
What's first wrong, though, is that "Alex" has an American accent. How'd that happen? And, it wasn't necessary to try and top Brendan Fraser by casting a even more huge guy as his son. The guy is not Fraser, whenever Fraser is near, you go, "Oh, I get it. Fraser, STAR! And other guy, who got a good acting gig, with which TOO MUCH SCREEN TIME." Yes, he kind of makes the screen dreary, nothing personal but dry. Wrong part, wrong guy, something.
Just think what James McAvoy of "Wanted" would have done with the part, the time period, and the fun of playing off his being small and dark as mom, and with a UK accent, but tough as she AND dad. The mind boggles.
Second and most important wrong.
The original and the second Stephen Sommers outing had two parallel love stories, both strong, one always flawed. We don't have that in M3. Alex and his two thousand year old girlfriend don't have the chemistry or solid writing/performing that the first two films had.
The girlfriend's mom and dad do, but were woefully underused in that regard. They have instant chemistry in stills, let alone on screen; Russell Wong and Michelle Yeoh are hot together and have the power of being a couple that the Egyptian mummies/reencarnation couple of films one and two had, and of Fraser and his paramour as well.
Time should've been taken from Fraser Jr and given to the Chinese to strengthen the father-mother-daughter story there, and the second triangle of general-sorceress-emperor. Think of what was missed when the general wasn't given the chance to attempt to pay back his former friend and cut him off from immortality, as any good general, let alone an excellent one who'd delivered so much into the emperors hands thousands of years previously, yet lost it all for love.
Where was our chance to see his concern for his still living family, to perhaps try to save the mother of his child, the woman he'd already died for, been torn apart for? Given to a boring white boy, whose stunts weren't the same as his father Rick's from the first two movies, where Rick'd risk all to protect Evie and his family/friends, not just to do stunts.
Think of what the two single shots would have been if made into a two shot of the reanimated general and his still live daughter, showing them together for the first time seeing each other and reaching for each other, as time and the winds of broken magic blow him away from her, now fully orphaned, after more than two thousand years?
It was so obvious, and yet not done. What is the point of hiring such fine actors and underutilizing them, especially the ones of color, while wasting their screen time and our deeply moving-won't-slow-the-action-give-me-the-deep-emotions-too-don't-you-remember-we-killed-and-resurrected-Evie in the middle of the last film and didn't miss a step?
No, they forgot or didn't watch it, evidently.
--Neale Sourna
writer, author, screenwriter, novelist
What's first wrong, though, is that "Alex" has an American accent. How'd that happen? And, it wasn't necessary to try and top Brendan Fraser by casting a even more huge guy as his son. The guy is not Fraser, whenever Fraser is near, you go, "Oh, I get it. Fraser, STAR! And other guy, who got a good acting gig, with which TOO MUCH SCREEN TIME." Yes, he kind of makes the screen dreary, nothing personal but dry. Wrong part, wrong guy, something.
Just think what James McAvoy of "Wanted" would have done with the part, the time period, and the fun of playing off his being small and dark as mom, and with a UK accent, but tough as she AND dad. The mind boggles.
Second and most important wrong.
The original and the second Stephen Sommers outing had two parallel love stories, both strong, one always flawed. We don't have that in M3. Alex and his two thousand year old girlfriend don't have the chemistry or solid writing/performing that the first two films had.
The girlfriend's mom and dad do, but were woefully underused in that regard. They have instant chemistry in stills, let alone on screen; Russell Wong and Michelle Yeoh are hot together and have the power of being a couple that the Egyptian mummies/reencarnation couple of films one and two had, and of Fraser and his paramour as well.
Time should've been taken from Fraser Jr and given to the Chinese to strengthen the father-mother-daughter story there, and the second triangle of general-sorceress-emperor. Think of what was missed when the general wasn't given the chance to attempt to pay back his former friend and cut him off from immortality, as any good general, let alone an excellent one who'd delivered so much into the emperors hands thousands of years previously, yet lost it all for love.
Where was our chance to see his concern for his still living family, to perhaps try to save the mother of his child, the woman he'd already died for, been torn apart for? Given to a boring white boy, whose stunts weren't the same as his father Rick's from the first two movies, where Rick'd risk all to protect Evie and his family/friends, not just to do stunts.
Think of what the two single shots would have been if made into a two shot of the reanimated general and his still live daughter, showing them together for the first time seeing each other and reaching for each other, as time and the winds of broken magic blow him away from her, now fully orphaned, after more than two thousand years?
It was so obvious, and yet not done. What is the point of hiring such fine actors and underutilizing them, especially the ones of color, while wasting their screen time and our deeply moving-won't-slow-the-action-give-me-the-deep-emotions-too-don't-you-remember-we-killed-and-resurrected-Evie in the middle of the last film and didn't miss a step?
No, they forgot or didn't watch it, evidently.
--Neale Sourna
writer, author, screenwriter, novelist
Friday, July 04, 2008
I write for the delicious "feel" of it, how about you?
It is our Independence Day, or at least mine. And this is my official declaration of intent to remain independent, of all the negative dross which can drag a creative writer down. [Oh, yeah, and "Pan's Labyrinth" is paused on the DVD.]
This is the thing.
It really settled on me the other day while revisiting the past at the Cleveland Art Museum's reopening, and after asking myself a bunch of silly questions of why I should continue to write and publish--why me, what is my importance.
And simply, the true basics of it all is that I write for the delicious feel of it. It takes my emotions everywhere, making me happy, or sad, or whatever "they," "my" characters, are emoting about. I actually "feel" it within me. It's as profound as time travel, teleporting, being in love, being in hate, or being indifferent. Whether I'm experiencing it in space, in Victorian England, or as an African vampire.
It's on the page, simple paper and ink, tiny pixels of daydreams and nightmares, but it makes, causes an actual "shift" within me, that is tangible. Not unlike the peculiar and shocking feeling I once had when a certain person looked at me at a party, and I "fell" inside. I had the distinctive feel of falling through soft space, which I remember all too clearly.
So, why is love for a person easier to remember than love personified in the body of a novel, script, or short story? Because it's easier to explain, probably.
But the feeling, THAT feeling. I take if for granted, and have pooh-poohed it to some extent because it is such an inherent part of me. But if I can craft this and have it make me feel this way, I should remember that others have told me so in their own way, or that even more others will feel it too, just by reading what I've written.
So then, who the heck am I to be so bourgeois and forgetful of this and to pooh anything? True feelings are precious and shared ones even more so, so those of us who write naked.
Don't lose the feeling my friends, and don't ever forget it, neglect it, or push it aside to die in hiding. Write and publish.
This is my official testimony. Do you feel it too?
__________________
Neale Sourna
www.Neale-Sourna.com
www.PIE-Percept.com / Remember--PIE: Perception Is Everything
www.ProjectKeanu.com
www.Writing-Naked.com
This is the thing.
It really settled on me the other day while revisiting the past at the Cleveland Art Museum's reopening, and after asking myself a bunch of silly questions of why I should continue to write and publish--why me, what is my importance.
And simply, the true basics of it all is that I write for the delicious feel of it. It takes my emotions everywhere, making me happy, or sad, or whatever "they," "my" characters, are emoting about. I actually "feel" it within me. It's as profound as time travel, teleporting, being in love, being in hate, or being indifferent. Whether I'm experiencing it in space, in Victorian England, or as an African vampire.
It's on the page, simple paper and ink, tiny pixels of daydreams and nightmares, but it makes, causes an actual "shift" within me, that is tangible. Not unlike the peculiar and shocking feeling I once had when a certain person looked at me at a party, and I "fell" inside. I had the distinctive feel of falling through soft space, which I remember all too clearly.
So, why is love for a person easier to remember than love personified in the body of a novel, script, or short story? Because it's easier to explain, probably.
But the feeling, THAT feeling. I take if for granted, and have pooh-poohed it to some extent because it is such an inherent part of me. But if I can craft this and have it make me feel this way, I should remember that others have told me so in their own way, or that even more others will feel it too, just by reading what I've written.
So then, who the heck am I to be so bourgeois and forgetful of this and to pooh anything? True feelings are precious and shared ones even more so, so those of us who write naked.
Don't lose the feeling my friends, and don't ever forget it, neglect it, or push it aside to die in hiding. Write and publish.
This is my official testimony. Do you feel it too?
__________________
Neale Sourna
www.Neale-Sourna.com
www.PIE-Percept.com / Remember--PIE: Perception Is Everything
www.ProjectKeanu.com
www.Writing-Naked.com
Monday, February 25, 2008
NEW FREE Neale Sourna Online Wedding Night and Romantic Fiction
Update on NEW FREE Neale Sourna lit/wedding and romantic fiction online at:
http://www.weddingnight.com/
http://www.romantic4ever.com/romantic-fiction/index.html
http://www.weddingnight.com/
http://www.romantic4ever.com/romantic-fiction/index.html
Thursday, January 17, 2008
NEW Fiction Short Stories by Neale Sourna
Stories just posted to
two new websites: Samurai (2) and Australian western romance published here:
http://www.romantic4ever.com/romantic-fiction/index.html
and four of my wedding night stories are now here: http://www.weddingnight.com/
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Gifts + St. Valentine + Love + Sex = Neale Sourna's Sexy Books and Ebooks
It's coming. Hearts and flowers and long, loving kisses. St. Valentine's Day. Read aloud from my site to your partner. Surprise your partner with a new book in hand, a new ebook on their reader from Neale Sourna and PIE: Perception Is Everything, because love is everything. But you already know that.
Saturday, December 01, 2007
To say that a work of art is good, but incomprehensible
"To say that a work of art is good,
but incomprehensible to the majority of men,
is the same as saying of some kind of food
that it is very good
but that most people can't eat it."
but incomprehensible to the majority of men,
is the same as saying of some kind of food
that it is very good
but that most people can't eat it."
-Leo Tolstoy (Russian Writer)
Friday, November 23, 2007
Here's a good writing prompt.
Write a character or two with elements from this article. Try romance, horror, adventure.... --Neale Sourna
http://www.beliefnet.com/story/144/story_14434.html
Stop the Energy Vampires
Who gives you energy? Who saps it? How to build vitality and stop others from draining you.
By Judith Orloff, M.D.
Adapted from "Positive Energy," published by Harmony Books.
I learned to honor my energy needs the hard way. As a psychiatrist who specializes in intuition I knew how important it was to listen to my body. Yet still I'd alternate between intense weeks of speaking tours and bouts of utter exhaustion at home. I couldn't turn down "irresistible" opportunities. Here was my dilemma--I trusted my intuition, and was committed to living by it. But I had a blind spot: Although I was quite successful at helping others trust intuition and lead high energy lives, I was ignoring my own energy crises. Finally, my fatigue was so profound I had to change.
I know first hand how important it is for us to cherish our precious energy so we don't compromise our capacity for passion. I now believe that the most profound transformations can take place only on an energetic level. I've met many patients who've spent much time and money on talk therapy hoping that intellectual insights will bring emotional freedom, but they're disappointed. As much as I love the linear mind, my approach, which I call "Energy Psychiatry," goes further to also facilitate a conscious rebuilding of our subtle energies, the most basic life force in each of us.
Do You Get Drained By Other People's Energy?
Our bodies are made of flesh and blood, but they're also composed of energy fields-though sadly I wasn't taught this in medical school. Each day we encounter a wide range of energies, both positive and negative. Positive energy includes compassion, courage, forgiveness, and faith. Negative energy includes fear, anger, hopelessness, and shame. We need to be experts at dealing with energy so we don't get demolished by draining situations or people who're energy vampires.
Like me you may be an intuitive empath, someone who's so sensitive to energy you pick it up from other people but you're also drained by it. This goes way beyond feeling sympathy for a distraught friend-we actually take on their pain either emotionally or physically. To cope, we take refuge in solitude. We empaths are so attuned to others that we can feel what's going on inside of them. This can put us on energy overload and aggravate everything from chronic fatigue to overeating.
Growing up, my girlfriends couldn't wait to MORE
http://www.beliefnet.com/story/144/story_14434.html
Stop the Energy Vampires
Who gives you energy? Who saps it? How to build vitality and stop others from draining you.
By Judith Orloff, M.D.
Adapted from "Positive Energy," published by Harmony Books.
I learned to honor my energy needs the hard way. As a psychiatrist who specializes in intuition I knew how important it was to listen to my body. Yet still I'd alternate between intense weeks of speaking tours and bouts of utter exhaustion at home. I couldn't turn down "irresistible" opportunities. Here was my dilemma--I trusted my intuition, and was committed to living by it. But I had a blind spot: Although I was quite successful at helping others trust intuition and lead high energy lives, I was ignoring my own energy crises. Finally, my fatigue was so profound I had to change.
I know first hand how important it is for us to cherish our precious energy so we don't compromise our capacity for passion. I now believe that the most profound transformations can take place only on an energetic level. I've met many patients who've spent much time and money on talk therapy hoping that intellectual insights will bring emotional freedom, but they're disappointed. As much as I love the linear mind, my approach, which I call "Energy Psychiatry," goes further to also facilitate a conscious rebuilding of our subtle energies, the most basic life force in each of us.
Do You Get Drained By Other People's Energy?
Our bodies are made of flesh and blood, but they're also composed of energy fields-though sadly I wasn't taught this in medical school. Each day we encounter a wide range of energies, both positive and negative. Positive energy includes compassion, courage, forgiveness, and faith. Negative energy includes fear, anger, hopelessness, and shame. We need to be experts at dealing with energy so we don't get demolished by draining situations or people who're energy vampires.
Like me you may be an intuitive empath, someone who's so sensitive to energy you pick it up from other people but you're also drained by it. This goes way beyond feeling sympathy for a distraught friend-we actually take on their pain either emotionally or physically. To cope, we take refuge in solitude. We empaths are so attuned to others that we can feel what's going on inside of them. This can put us on energy overload and aggravate everything from chronic fatigue to overeating.
Growing up, my girlfriends couldn't wait to MORE
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Reviewing an Old Vicious and Questionable Review That Will Not Die
New authors and publishers, and old. Chin up. "Don't let the bastards get you down." I recently reread the following review of my first to publish novel, "Hobble." I always remembered that it originally appeared alongside what that particular book review website thought was THE BEST pick. I still find it interesting and odd, to say the least.
I also find this to be one of two of my least favorite reviews: always because the reviews sounded as if the person really didn't read my work, and/or didn't have the decency to say I don't get it or I don't like this sort of thing so my review is highly skewed, or I passed it on to someone who reads this genre.
Do note that the review on my work is anonymously signed, "staff." Isn't that special and obscenely discourteous. I come naked to the party and someone hides behind "staff." I bet his staff is quite soft and inadequate or her inner staff is utterly dry and shallow. Or maybe staff has both genitalia or none. Because "staff" can say anything when too coarse and disrespectful to just place its initials on its supposed witticism.
And the bloody thing just won't die, as it always comes up on the search engines, first page often. Oh, well. My consolation is that those REAL people who read Neale Sourna's "Hobble" and who have the ability to actually read, always "get it" and can't put it down, or can't retrieve it from their lovers. That's better than one anonymous poopfest from the too inadequate to author and publish themselves.
--Neale Sourna
Other "Hobble" Reviews can be read at:
http://hobble.neale-sourna.com/
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw/105-6637399-1494866?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=neale+sourna&x=0&y=0
PS: One last amusing bit is the use of the other book of the name de Sade as in Marquis de Sade, with whom I shall always have something of a link, as we're both born on the same day. Hm. Radical, as they used to say back in the day.
=========================================
B O O K R E V I E W
Spring 2003
Hobble by Neale Sourna
Hobble
Neale Sourna
Infinity Publishing, Pennsylvania
291 pp. $18.95
It’s books like Neale Sourna’s Hobble: An Adult Fiction that make us seriously consider giving up the reviewing of self-published books. Though well-meaning, Sourna makes just about every mistake possible with this weakly written, amateurish yarn about sex and control. The back-cover blurb lays out the story like this (normally we'd break it down ourselves, but in cases like this, it would be a waste of time):
"BENNET GILLESPIE, a brilliant but burned out, Native American surgeon, too quickly becomes entangled in an obsessively sexual, emotional tug of war for irresistible, homicidally "insane," and ... mysteriously lamed DAY, whose body and love promises loss of soul ... and life."
Sic. Simply count the ly's in the setup and you'll begin to see the problem. Now contrary to industry standards, we at ALR are champions of muscular modifier use in fiction, but authors need to use some common sense for crying out loud. Sourna shows very little. This inattention to prose fundamentals doesn't stop at verb and noun modifiers—oh no. The author commits almost every classic beginner's error: failing to identify the speaker in dialogue for pages at a time; over-over-OVERwriting; cliché; reckless, silly, and downright incorrect usage; horrendously melodramatic dialogue and narrative; general lack of descriptive elements; a droning repetitive voice prone to redundancy and self-indulgence.
The story and characters aren't bad on a basic level. A decent professional writer could have done something with the character and relationships, but Sourna uses them so ineffectively and broadly that the reader gets bored after a page or two—every page or two. The numerous sex sections, which at least show a hint of natural spark, aren't enough to pull this self-published novel out of its self-involved spiral.
Despite all the negatives of Hobble, Sourna isn't necessarily a lost cause. As we said, her basic ideas are fairly strong. A year or five in a solid critically-based fiction writing program (which is quite different from film and video writing—Sourna's alleged areas of expertise) or a no-holds-barred, rip-the-story-apart workshop environment might just make her understand how naive she was to think this book worth publishing, especially at $18.95 softcover! Our diatribe against Publish America's policies in our review of Nathan Leslie's Rants and Raves applies to Infinity Publishing's practices as well. These online publishing “stores” are preying on the meek, the young, and the yet-to-be-talented—which would be fine if these people would just stop sending their half-told tales out for review.
Unfortunately Sourna is not alone in her folly, and it is our sincere hope that this review communicates the world-wise message to all prospective self-publishers out there: Think twice before going that route. This applies especially to those under the age of thirty (or forty) with little or no experience in writing for publication. It doesn't matter how much of a genius you are—odds are the mistakes this author made in Hobble are the ones you'll make in your book, so you had better be damned sure you know the Ten-Thousand Things about writing before you throw underdone hamburger to the big dogs. True, they may eat it, but we guarantee it's not going to look pretty when it gets vomited back at you a few hours later.
-Staff-
=========================================
B O O K R E V I E W
Spring 2002
Extraterrestrial Sex Fetish by Supervert
Extraterrestrial Sex Fetish
Supervert
New York: Supervert 32C Inc
216 pp. , $15
In ETSF, a rogue author named Supervert has offered us a bizarre literary assay into parts and orifices unknown by attempting to combine philosophy, psychology, science fiction, and serial pornography (a la Sade’s 120 Days of Sodom) into a single, sound literary work.
Sound like a difficult proposition? Like a pipe-bomb text more likely to explode in the hand of its creator than in the mind of the reader? Assuredly. Should the self-inflated tenor of the author’s nom de plume give further pause to any prospective audience? Probably. Does Supervert deserve a round of applause for this blending of discipline, subject, and raw psychic fiction?
Strangely enough, he does—as well as meriting a standing O and a curtain call or two. Extraterrestrial Sex Fetish is nothing short of brilliant. Misanthropic, satirical, informative and undoubtedly shocking to many for its ongoing examination of pedophilia and exophilia (alien sex fetish), ETSF resounds as a deft dissection of the disaffected mind in the post-postmodern period. While the protagonist, a computer programmer/philosopher/practicing pedophile named Mercury de Sade thinks he has evolved into a philosophical creature quite beyond the simple apathetic sentiments of existentialism and nihilism, the author’s controlled exposition and development of de Sade’s sickness—a fetish for something beyond the boring, disgusting human sphere— shows that despite its space age manifestation, this sickness springs from the same basic earth: a deep-seated loathing for mankind. However, the inverted posture of de Sade’s misanthropy does make for unique viewing. We seldom see distaste for one’s fellows based on their frustrating inability to be or become extraterrestrial.
The format of ETSF follows a parallel development of four precisely related lines of fantasy, plot, analysis, and dissertation. “Alien Sex Scenes” chapters (ASS) represent the imaginary encounters of Mercury de Sade’s ever stalwart erogenous accompli with just about every orifice and/or skin surface available on a series of alien worlds. Death, dismemberment, intergalactic whores, detachable genitalia, sex battles, humiliation, excretory prolapse, sexual time travel, and pedophilia of the third kind are just a few of the delights that greet the protagonist on his voyage, which must be perceived in the greater context not as pornographic science fiction per se but as the stuff of the protagonist’s boiling brain.
The plot heavy “Methods of Deterrestrialization” (MOD) chapters deal with a real time liaison between Sade and a shoplifting sixteen-year-old schoolgirl named Charlotte Goddard, who Sade (in the frustrated context of his impossible fetish) seeks to convert to an alien or more accurately an alien surrogate. As with other victims in his past, his disenchantment with the veracity of the stand-in leads him to sadistic extremes. The twisted line of plot in these chapters helps bind the book together, lending a disturbed sense and subtext to some of the more abstract and clinical sections.
Chapters marked Lessons in Exophilosophy (LIE) might read like studies from a well constructed Western Philosophy textbook were it not for their often subtle connection to the perverse action in the MOD and ASS chapters. In LIE, Supervert lays out a historical progression of argument from Anaxagoras and Heraclitus to Kant, Schopenhauer, and even Sartre on questions of extraterrestrial life and sex. The convolution and bastardization of logic in his syllogisms displays de Sade’s monomaniacal psyche perfectly, while the controlled use of fetishistic obsession as handmaid to philosophical method lends a humorous lightening hand to the material. The use of veritable philosophical works to prop up a burning desire to fornicate with aliens summons to mind the old maxim of the Devil quoting scripture for his own purposes. One is often tempted to decry the protagonist’s ill use of reason until one remembers that it is the character’s disease talking; as such, every fallacy falls perfectly in line.
“Digressions and Tangents” chapters are mostly diary entries, descriptive texts, and self analyses wherein de Sade confronts and studies his demons and their psychological / cultural /physical origins. The subtitle for ETSF is Materials for the Case Study of an ET S&M Freak; the DAT chapters expand upon this principle, feeding and being fed upon by the whole as the protagonist seeks to justify, deconstruct, and even explode the basis of his fetish.
We should castigate the author for the repeated de-capitalization of Earth (though there is perhaps some textual support for this “de-capitation”) and for one or two exceedingly minor copy-editing mistakes, but since we’re sure this gem was never sullied by a trip through the entrails of the regular publishing beast, we’ll offer a sly wink instead. In the interest of clarity, ALR isn’t especially fond of the self-published book industry—it leads too many young or under-talented writers to publish long before they understand their craft—but occasionally an author like Supervert throws his work into the press, knowing full well that no publisher would ever take the chance on his book. Marcel Proust self-published Swann’s Way due to a staid and unreceptive market; in the same vein, accomplishments like ETSF need to be printed, distributed and sold.
To sum up: Had Immanuel Kant, William Burroughs, Carl Jung, the Marquis de Sade, and an overly libidinous Captain Kirk been confined to a single spacecraft to write a book, ETSF would have been the result. That this montage of reason, disease, and literary style is the work on one writer is laudable; that it not only hangs together but spins and thrums, creating a perfect, demented cosmos is a miracle; that the author of such a fantastic work is named Supervert is hysterical. If you have philosophical and transgressive cohones large enough to appreciate it, you should buy this book.
– CAW –
I also find this to be one of two of my least favorite reviews: always because the reviews sounded as if the person really didn't read my work, and/or didn't have the decency to say I don't get it or I don't like this sort of thing so my review is highly skewed, or I passed it on to someone who reads this genre.
Do note that the review on my work is anonymously signed, "staff." Isn't that special and obscenely discourteous. I come naked to the party and someone hides behind "staff." I bet his staff is quite soft and inadequate or her inner staff is utterly dry and shallow. Or maybe staff has both genitalia or none. Because "staff" can say anything when too coarse and disrespectful to just place its initials on its supposed witticism.
And the bloody thing just won't die, as it always comes up on the search engines, first page often. Oh, well. My consolation is that those REAL people who read Neale Sourna's "Hobble" and who have the ability to actually read, always "get it" and can't put it down, or can't retrieve it from their lovers. That's better than one anonymous poopfest from the too inadequate to author and publish themselves.
--Neale Sourna
Other "Hobble" Reviews can be read at:
http://hobble.neale-sourna.com/
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw/105-6637399-1494866?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=neale+sourna&x=0&y=0
PS: One last amusing bit is the use of the other book of the name de Sade as in Marquis de Sade, with whom I shall always have something of a link, as we're both born on the same day. Hm. Radical, as they used to say back in the day.
=========================================
B O O K R E V I E W
Spring 2003
Hobble by Neale Sourna
Hobble
Neale Sourna
Infinity Publishing, Pennsylvania
291 pp. $18.95
It’s books like Neale Sourna’s Hobble: An Adult Fiction that make us seriously consider giving up the reviewing of self-published books. Though well-meaning, Sourna makes just about every mistake possible with this weakly written, amateurish yarn about sex and control. The back-cover blurb lays out the story like this (normally we'd break it down ourselves, but in cases like this, it would be a waste of time):
"BENNET GILLESPIE, a brilliant but burned out, Native American surgeon, too quickly becomes entangled in an obsessively sexual, emotional tug of war for irresistible, homicidally "insane," and ... mysteriously lamed DAY, whose body and love promises loss of soul ... and life."
Sic. Simply count the ly's in the setup and you'll begin to see the problem. Now contrary to industry standards, we at ALR are champions of muscular modifier use in fiction, but authors need to use some common sense for crying out loud. Sourna shows very little. This inattention to prose fundamentals doesn't stop at verb and noun modifiers—oh no. The author commits almost every classic beginner's error: failing to identify the speaker in dialogue for pages at a time; over-over-OVERwriting; cliché; reckless, silly, and downright incorrect usage; horrendously melodramatic dialogue and narrative; general lack of descriptive elements; a droning repetitive voice prone to redundancy and self-indulgence.
The story and characters aren't bad on a basic level. A decent professional writer could have done something with the character and relationships, but Sourna uses them so ineffectively and broadly that the reader gets bored after a page or two—every page or two. The numerous sex sections, which at least show a hint of natural spark, aren't enough to pull this self-published novel out of its self-involved spiral.
Despite all the negatives of Hobble, Sourna isn't necessarily a lost cause. As we said, her basic ideas are fairly strong. A year or five in a solid critically-based fiction writing program (which is quite different from film and video writing—Sourna's alleged areas of expertise) or a no-holds-barred, rip-the-story-apart workshop environment might just make her understand how naive she was to think this book worth publishing, especially at $18.95 softcover! Our diatribe against Publish America's policies in our review of Nathan Leslie's Rants and Raves applies to Infinity Publishing's practices as well. These online publishing “stores” are preying on the meek, the young, and the yet-to-be-talented—which would be fine if these people would just stop sending their half-told tales out for review.
Unfortunately Sourna is not alone in her folly, and it is our sincere hope that this review communicates the world-wise message to all prospective self-publishers out there: Think twice before going that route. This applies especially to those under the age of thirty (or forty) with little or no experience in writing for publication. It doesn't matter how much of a genius you are—odds are the mistakes this author made in Hobble are the ones you'll make in your book, so you had better be damned sure you know the Ten-Thousand Things about writing before you throw underdone hamburger to the big dogs. True, they may eat it, but we guarantee it's not going to look pretty when it gets vomited back at you a few hours later.
-Staff-
=========================================
B O O K R E V I E W
Spring 2002
Extraterrestrial Sex Fetish by Supervert
Extraterrestrial Sex Fetish
Supervert
New York: Supervert 32C Inc
216 pp. , $15
In ETSF, a rogue author named Supervert has offered us a bizarre literary assay into parts and orifices unknown by attempting to combine philosophy, psychology, science fiction, and serial pornography (a la Sade’s 120 Days of Sodom) into a single, sound literary work.
Sound like a difficult proposition? Like a pipe-bomb text more likely to explode in the hand of its creator than in the mind of the reader? Assuredly. Should the self-inflated tenor of the author’s nom de plume give further pause to any prospective audience? Probably. Does Supervert deserve a round of applause for this blending of discipline, subject, and raw psychic fiction?
Strangely enough, he does—as well as meriting a standing O and a curtain call or two. Extraterrestrial Sex Fetish is nothing short of brilliant. Misanthropic, satirical, informative and undoubtedly shocking to many for its ongoing examination of pedophilia and exophilia (alien sex fetish), ETSF resounds as a deft dissection of the disaffected mind in the post-postmodern period. While the protagonist, a computer programmer/philosopher/practicing pedophile named Mercury de Sade thinks he has evolved into a philosophical creature quite beyond the simple apathetic sentiments of existentialism and nihilism, the author’s controlled exposition and development of de Sade’s sickness—a fetish for something beyond the boring, disgusting human sphere— shows that despite its space age manifestation, this sickness springs from the same basic earth: a deep-seated loathing for mankind. However, the inverted posture of de Sade’s misanthropy does make for unique viewing. We seldom see distaste for one’s fellows based on their frustrating inability to be or become extraterrestrial.
The format of ETSF follows a parallel development of four precisely related lines of fantasy, plot, analysis, and dissertation. “Alien Sex Scenes” chapters (ASS) represent the imaginary encounters of Mercury de Sade’s ever stalwart erogenous accompli with just about every orifice and/or skin surface available on a series of alien worlds. Death, dismemberment, intergalactic whores, detachable genitalia, sex battles, humiliation, excretory prolapse, sexual time travel, and pedophilia of the third kind are just a few of the delights that greet the protagonist on his voyage, which must be perceived in the greater context not as pornographic science fiction per se but as the stuff of the protagonist’s boiling brain.
The plot heavy “Methods of Deterrestrialization” (MOD) chapters deal with a real time liaison between Sade and a shoplifting sixteen-year-old schoolgirl named Charlotte Goddard, who Sade (in the frustrated context of his impossible fetish) seeks to convert to an alien or more accurately an alien surrogate. As with other victims in his past, his disenchantment with the veracity of the stand-in leads him to sadistic extremes. The twisted line of plot in these chapters helps bind the book together, lending a disturbed sense and subtext to some of the more abstract and clinical sections.
Chapters marked Lessons in Exophilosophy (LIE) might read like studies from a well constructed Western Philosophy textbook were it not for their often subtle connection to the perverse action in the MOD and ASS chapters. In LIE, Supervert lays out a historical progression of argument from Anaxagoras and Heraclitus to Kant, Schopenhauer, and even Sartre on questions of extraterrestrial life and sex. The convolution and bastardization of logic in his syllogisms displays de Sade’s monomaniacal psyche perfectly, while the controlled use of fetishistic obsession as handmaid to philosophical method lends a humorous lightening hand to the material. The use of veritable philosophical works to prop up a burning desire to fornicate with aliens summons to mind the old maxim of the Devil quoting scripture for his own purposes. One is often tempted to decry the protagonist’s ill use of reason until one remembers that it is the character’s disease talking; as such, every fallacy falls perfectly in line.
“Digressions and Tangents” chapters are mostly diary entries, descriptive texts, and self analyses wherein de Sade confronts and studies his demons and their psychological / cultural /physical origins. The subtitle for ETSF is Materials for the Case Study of an ET S&M Freak; the DAT chapters expand upon this principle, feeding and being fed upon by the whole as the protagonist seeks to justify, deconstruct, and even explode the basis of his fetish.
We should castigate the author for the repeated de-capitalization of Earth (though there is perhaps some textual support for this “de-capitation”) and for one or two exceedingly minor copy-editing mistakes, but since we’re sure this gem was never sullied by a trip through the entrails of the regular publishing beast, we’ll offer a sly wink instead. In the interest of clarity, ALR isn’t especially fond of the self-published book industry—it leads too many young or under-talented writers to publish long before they understand their craft—but occasionally an author like Supervert throws his work into the press, knowing full well that no publisher would ever take the chance on his book. Marcel Proust self-published Swann’s Way due to a staid and unreceptive market; in the same vein, accomplishments like ETSF need to be printed, distributed and sold.
To sum up: Had Immanuel Kant, William Burroughs, Carl Jung, the Marquis de Sade, and an overly libidinous Captain Kirk been confined to a single spacecraft to write a book, ETSF would have been the result. That this montage of reason, disease, and literary style is the work on one writer is laudable; that it not only hangs together but spins and thrums, creating a perfect, demented cosmos is a miracle; that the author of such a fantastic work is named Supervert is hysterical. If you have philosophical and transgressive cohones large enough to appreciate it, you should buy this book.
– CAW –
Monday, November 05, 2007
Authors and Writers: Make Us Want to Be You!
Make Us Want to Be You!
By C. Hope Clark
Quote from the FundsforWriters Annual Essay Contest:
"Come up with a promotional plan for your writing. Whether
you are a copywriter or a romance novelist, a poet or a
fantasy author, describe how you would promote your talent
over a one-year period. Maybe you have a book coming out,
or you've decided to grow your copywriting or editing business,
or you manage a newsletter and want to expand your platform.
What is your plan...and why? Remember, amaze us with your
innovation, your drive, your creativity or your ambition.
Make us want to be you!"
I just came back from a conference where most of the people
attending wanted to write but weren't motivated. They wanted
to be a writer. They wanted to write sweet words. They wanted
to be recognized as a wordsmith, an envy to others who struggle
with telling a story.
I could count on one hand the people who were ravenously
hungry to write hard, long and intensely enough to beat the
odds of becoming traditionally published.
"I just write stories about..."
"I'd love to one day write..."
"I've been working on a story, but..."
"No way could I do what he did..."
"I have a family and a job. It's hard for me..."
Most people listened to speakers say how they achieved
success then made excuses why those methods didn't apply
to them.
Or I heard the opposite. Authors self-published a book or
two and felt they'd arrived. There were no more hurdles.
They strutted, at home with their conclusion they were
a published author, and they could rest on their laurels.
The theme of the FundsforWriters annual contest is
"Make us want to be you." I don't want to be either of the
above author-types. I don't want to reach the end of my
journey wondering if I could have published. I don't want
people remembering me as pompous and arrogant.
What I don't see in either writer is a will to touch readers.
Somehow, when you have this fabulous story to be told, the
need to publish is replaced with a need to reach readers.
The genuine author doesn't want to be adored by readers.
He or she wants to touch others with their words - alter
lives - cause laughter - produce tears. The genuine writer
makes a reader want to be the author, possess a part of
the author, understand the author.
When the thought "I want to be published" is replaced with
"I want people to love this story," magic happens. That's
when the shyness or the arrogance of a writer disappears.
That's when the only goal is to write a great story.
This message is short, but I'm hoping it's potent. We can
write for ourselves or we can write for others. Guess
which one an agent wants? Guess which one a publisher
wants? Guess which one sells?
BIO
C. Hope Clark is rewriting her novels now with the readers
in mind. www.fundsforwriters.com
By C. Hope Clark
Quote from the FundsforWriters Annual Essay Contest:
"Come up with a promotional plan for your writing. Whether
you are a copywriter or a romance novelist, a poet or a
fantasy author, describe how you would promote your talent
over a one-year period. Maybe you have a book coming out,
or you've decided to grow your copywriting or editing business,
or you manage a newsletter and want to expand your platform.
What is your plan...and why? Remember, amaze us with your
innovation, your drive, your creativity or your ambition.
Make us want to be you!"
I just came back from a conference where most of the people
attending wanted to write but weren't motivated. They wanted
to be a writer. They wanted to write sweet words. They wanted
to be recognized as a wordsmith, an envy to others who struggle
with telling a story.
I could count on one hand the people who were ravenously
hungry to write hard, long and intensely enough to beat the
odds of becoming traditionally published.
"I just write stories about..."
"I'd love to one day write..."
"I've been working on a story, but..."
"No way could I do what he did..."
"I have a family and a job. It's hard for me..."
Most people listened to speakers say how they achieved
success then made excuses why those methods didn't apply
to them.
Or I heard the opposite. Authors self-published a book or
two and felt they'd arrived. There were no more hurdles.
They strutted, at home with their conclusion they were
a published author, and they could rest on their laurels.
The theme of the FundsforWriters annual contest is
"Make us want to be you." I don't want to be either of the
above author-types. I don't want to reach the end of my
journey wondering if I could have published. I don't want
people remembering me as pompous and arrogant.
What I don't see in either writer is a will to touch readers.
Somehow, when you have this fabulous story to be told, the
need to publish is replaced with a need to reach readers.
The genuine author doesn't want to be adored by readers.
He or she wants to touch others with their words - alter
lives - cause laughter - produce tears. The genuine writer
makes a reader want to be the author, possess a part of
the author, understand the author.
When the thought "I want to be published" is replaced with
"I want people to love this story," magic happens. That's
when the shyness or the arrogance of a writer disappears.
That's when the only goal is to write a great story.
This message is short, but I'm hoping it's potent. We can
write for ourselves or we can write for others. Guess
which one an agent wants? Guess which one a publisher
wants? Guess which one sells?
BIO
C. Hope Clark is rewriting her novels now with the readers
in mind. www.fundsforwriters.com
Reviews: Neale Sourna's Hobble (An Adult Fiction)
Neale Sourna's Hobble (An Adult Fiction)
"Dipping into several genres from erotica to mystery, even sprinkling a little comedy into the mix, Sourne (Sourna) created a story like no other. This ... tale had me shaking my head in astonishment and I can honestly say I never read anything like Hobble before. Sourne (Sourna) wrote a novel with such a large supply of twist and turns it'll have you dropping your mouth in shock. But be forewarned, Hobble has a crazy mix of characters....
"Hobble is a story of lust and obsessive sex...I was so moved...I went back to my (Franklin) dictionary...hobble means to limp along ... to impede ... to tie-up, shackle or leash...all of [which] were used in this steamy story, of sex, incest and betrayal!"--Delores Thornton, BlackRefer.com Reviews
READ Delores' full review
[A www.BlackRefer.com Review]
"Dipping into several genres from erotica to mystery, even sprinkling a little comedy into the mix, Sourne (Sourna) created a story like no other. This ... tale had me shaking my head in astonishment and I can honestly say I never read anything like Hobble before. Sourne (Sourna) wrote a novel with such a large supply of twist and turns it'll have you dropping your mouth in shock. But be forewarned, Hobble has a crazy mix of characters....
Some of the sex scenes had me (a person who loves erotica) squirming. Although the book is racy, it was an interesting read and should be picked up by anyone who enjoys reading something different from the norm."
--Joy Farringdon, Nubian Sistas Review
"Hobble is a story of lust and obsessive sex...I was so moved...I went back to my (Franklin) dictionary...hobble means to limp along ... to impede ... to tie-up, shackle or leash...all of [which] were used in this steamy story, of sex, incest and betrayal!"--Delores Thornton, BlackRefer.com Reviews
READ Delores' full review
[A www.BlackRefer.com Review]
Thursday, November 01, 2007
Neale Sourna's Writing Naked Writing/Coach Services and Package Deals
Search for Provider/Consultant "Sourna" or "Writing-Naked" at:
Neale Sourna's Writing-Naked.com at Elance.com "Enter
Writing & Translation Experience
or
Neale Sourna's Writing-Naked.com at Guru.com Enter
Neale Sourna's Guru.com Writing/Coach Packaged Deals Enter
Neale Sourna's Writing-Naked.com at Elance.com "Enter
Writing & Translation Experience
| Creative Writing (6) | |
| Ghost Writing (3) | |
| Sales Writing (1) | |
| Other - Writing Services (1) |
or
Neale Sourna's Writing-Naked.com at Guru.com Enter
Neale Sourna's Guru.com Writing/Coach Packaged Deals Enter
 | Short Stories--Adult, Romance, Relation
|
 | Fiction Writing Consultation—Character Enrichment
|
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Neale Sourna mini bio
Neale won BlackRefer.com’s Best Erotica award for her first published novel, “Hobble,” published through her own company, PIE: Perception Is Everything, and ranked as a finalist for New Century Screenplay’s national contest for her script, “Frames.” Neale writes and edits for others through her writing company Writing-Naked.com and has been plotting and planning her first solid foray as author, editor, and publisher with essays and research about the symbiosis of acting and celebrity, see ProjectKeanu.com for the latest.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
About Us at Neale Sourna's Nude, Sexy, and Erotic Amazon Store
I write fiction and publish under my own aegis called PIE: Perception Is Everything [http://www.PIE-Percept.com] and give writing assistance as Writing-Naked.com at Elance.com and Guru.com.
I live in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. I love craftsmanship, in story and other life works.
Nothing invigorates and stays with us like the one story that we may call, "My Story." Which is about someone else, but resonates with us so deeply, or in such yummy perversity--on occasion--that we hold it dear, as a fundamental part of us.
How about that, dearest reader?
--Neale
Neale's Amazon Store http://astore.amazon.com/nealesourna-20
Neale's book and story catalog/catalogue--trade paperbacks and ebooks http://catalog.neale-sourna.com
I live in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. I love craftsmanship, in story and other life works.
Nothing invigorates and stays with us like the one story that we may call, "My Story." Which is about someone else, but resonates with us so deeply, or in such yummy perversity--on occasion--that we hold it dear, as a fundamental part of us.
How about that, dearest reader?
--Neale
Neale's Amazon Store http://astore.amazon.com/nealesourna-20
Neale's book and story catalog/catalogue--trade paperbacks and ebooks http://catalog.neale-sourna.com
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