DPP Newsletter, Edition X

THE AUTHOR’S ADVOCATE
The DPP Authors’ Newsletter
EDITION X
January 18, 2006

"I never think when I write; nobody can do two things at the same time and do them well."

Don Marquis

YOU ARE YOUR OWN BEST MARKETING REP!

Teamwork allows common people to attain uncommon results.

Anonymous

From Here to There: Local Action

Self-promotion is great. Self-promotion with help is even better. Let me help you promote your book in your locale.

Check the Blog for more on From Here to There: Local Action…

http://digitalpulppublishing.blogspot.com/


FEATURED AUTHOR-Of-THE-MONTH…

Innerview

IAN MCKINLEY

What came first (in terms of your interest): the science or the science fiction?

Actually, I’ve been fascinated by both for as long as I can remember.

What is your ideal writing environment?

Somewhere sunny & warm and far away from my normal workplace. Extremophile was mainly written in Bermuda. I have just finished drafting a sequel – in the Bahamas. Almost all of the text was hammered into my laptop as I lay in a hammock overlooking the sea.

Describe your writing routine…if you have one.

I write fiction in intense month-long blocks (“holidays”). I like to start early, with a mug of strong coffee to kick the brain cells into life. I usually write solidly for 5 hours or so, with pauses only for more coffee and to change CDs. The rest of the day I do normal holiday things – swimming, snorkeling, scuba – but gradually get more and more saturated with plot development as time passes. Luckily, I have a long-suffering wife who puts up with this!

Is there a difference between how you approach writing your science books and articles vs. how you approached your fiction work?

I write technical stuff constantly, often with several different projects running in parallel. Generally, I outline the entire structure at the start and then gradually expand it, section by section. As this work often involves collaboration with co-authors, there may be several steps of iterative reworking before the final product is ready for publication.

The fiction is completely different; I start with a basic concept and then just let it develop. When I start, therefore, I have no idea what will happen in the middle, much less the end. When I get a complete draft, I send it to friends for review comments but, basically, I just work linearly from the beginning to the end, with only minor polishing thereafter.

What do you do when you aren’t feeling inspired or motivated to write?

So far, I have never suffered from writers’ block when working on fiction. The opposite, in fact; I often find it hard to stop when I find a key to some twist of the plot.

On the technical side, I regularly “hit the wall” and run out of ideas on a particular topic. Here I can usually just put the offending job to one side and get on with something else until inspiration returns. I work on the boundary between such a very wide diversity of technical disciplines (geology, microbiology, archaeology, radiochemistry, …) that I can always find something to do.

What authors inspire you most?

My writing is influenced predominantly by cyberpunk authors – Gibson, Sterling, Stephenson, etc. Otherwise, I was always impressed by the authors who rattled cages by breaking taboos and questioning social mores – especially if this was done within a powerful story; examples such as Vonnegut, Heinlein, Moorcock, Delany and Farmer. It is difficult to prove, but I have always suspected that the books and films portraying the horrific aftermath of a nuclear conflict did much to mobilize public pressure for a peaceful end to the Cold War.

“Extremophile” is your first novel. What motivated you to write it?

I have always enjoyed writing for non-technical readers, but was frustrated by the limited audience reached by non-fiction. Fiction is a much more powerful medium and, despite the fact that the quality of background science in much of it is fairly appalling, this tends to form public opinion on key issues. This set me a challenge – could I produce popular fiction with a solid, but unintrusive, core of technical information relating to some of the major issues of the coming decades? This was the drive to get me started, after that I found that the process was so much fun that it was easy to keep going.

Extremophiles are used to create an elixir of youth. If there were such a “potion”, would you, yourself, take it?

It would certainly be difficult to refuse, wouldn’t it? I think almost anyone would feel this way – which is the basic problem. I believe that over-population is the root cause of most of the global problems that we now face. Just think how much worse things would get if longevity was available to all – or even if known to be available only to a select few. It’s worth taking a little time to think about, as medical science is developing explosively at present and the concept is not as far-fetched as it may sound.

Ian Mc Kinley holds a Ph. D. in chemistry from Glasgow University. He has a professional background in nuclear waste management. A Scot who has lived in Switzerland for 20 years, he has been involved in a diversity of work related to nuclear waste management, including archeology, geology, microbiology, engineering and public communication. He has co-authored three technical books, as well as hundreds of articles in a variety of publications. Extremophile is his first novel. You can also read McKinley’s piece on The Science Behind the Fiction published in the Author’s Advocate, Edition VIII, posted on the blog: http://digitalpulppublishing.blogspot.com/


PUBLISHER’S PROMPT

Writing Prompt

Use the following, January 18 prompt from “Prompts & Practices” by Judy Reeves to begin, end, or use in the middle of a piece.

“It was noon and nothing is concluded.” (after Donald Rawley)

If you decide to play with the prompt, and you’d like to share it, please send it to me (DigitalPulp Pub@aol.com or nicpit@digitalpulppublishing.com) and I will post it in the following week’s Authors’ Advocate. You can find my response posted on the blog:http://digitalpulppublishing.blogspot.com/

Site-ings

The Writersbuzz.com
http://thewritersbuzz.com/

The Writer’s Buzz is a community blog whose main focus is to help new and established writers announce their books to the public. Writing your book is the easy part; getting it into your readers’ hands is more difficult. Our goal is to help you gain the readership your book deserves.

WritersServices: The Website for Writers
http://www.writersservices.com/index.htm

This site contains "how to's", articles and information, editorial services, showcasing, and more.

AAA Creative Writers Service
http://p.webring.com/hub?ring=creativeservices

Unique Internet connection to creative professionals and resources that constitute media, such as newspapers, magazines, radio, or television, in an effort to help a variety of fiction, and nonfiction writers, polish and publish their projects.

Writing Contests
http://www.writers-editors.com/Writers/Contests/contests.htm

Listing of various writing contests with inexpensive entry fees.

WHAT’S GOING ON AT DPP…

The Newsletter

We’re Continuing to Change…

As of February 1 we’re:

1) Changing formats
2) Changing our name from The Authors’ Advocate to News Bytes
3) We’ll be publishing bi-monthly instead of weekly

Our Websites

We are in the midst of reconstructing all three of our websites to make them more informative, user-friendly, and more interesting to peruse. As soon as they are complete, we’ll invite you to check them out (of course, you can check them out now if you want to get a good image of “before” and “after”).

Fun Facts

Pooh Day: A.A. Milne’s Birth Anniversary, January 18 The English author, especially remembered for his children’s stories: Winnie the Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner.

This Week’s Author Birthdays:

A.A. Milne, January 18, 1882
Edgar Allan Poe, January 19, 1809
Edith Wharton, January 24, 1862

All of the above was taken from Chase’s Calendar of Events, 2006©

Write on,
Nicky