MGOC Contributor: Leslie Davis Guccione

LESLIE DAVIS GUCCIONE

EXCERPT from "Where Do I Go from Here? Being Orphaned" by Leslie Davis Guccione in Many Genres, One Craft: Lessons in Writing Popular Fiction

Most writers will tell you their top professional priority is developing rapport with that all-important editor. She’s bought your manuscript; his revision suggestions are clear; you’ve signed your first multiple book contract.

Nearly twenty years have sailed by since my agent’s words, “Leslie, I’ve sold your manuscript,” danced through the phone lines. Armed with my IBM Selectric typewriter and a lifetime supply of Wite Out, I set sail. Not to belabor the metaphor, but with calm seas and a steady breeze I left port heading toward long term relationships with supportive, enthusiastic editors, increasingly lucrative multiple book contracts, and sterling reviews. Fan mail! Classroom visits! Book signings! Royalty checks!
--

With the simultaneous sales of a YA and adult romantic suspense novel, Leslie Davis Guccione left public relations and fundraising copywriting to concentrate on fiction.  Over 25 years she’s published 28 novels for adult, middle grade and teen readers, garnering awards, starred reviews and genre fiction best seller status.  Her work has been translated into eight languages. As Kate Chester she created and wrote the six book Hear No Evil series, featuring deaf protagonists, for Scholastic, including Tell Me How the Wind Sounds, which was optioned for television. Leslie is adjunct faculty for Seton Hill University’s MFA program. Professional memberships have included The Authors Guild, Romance Writers of America and The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.

MGOC Contributor News: David Morrell's New Books

Many Genres, One Craft contributor David Morrell has two new books out in his popular culture series.

Frank Sinatra: The Artist And His Music

Did you know that Frank Sinatra was permanently scarred from birth and never went anywhere without using pancake makeup … that in his youth this supposedly self-taught singer took voice lessons from a Metropolitan opera singer … that he learned breath control by swimming underwater and mentally singing lyrics?

These are only some of the little-known revelations in this e-work. Based on more than forty years of listening and reading, it provides an in-depth analysis of Sinatra’s music and shows why this troubled high-school dropout came to be justly called the greatest interpretative singer in the recording era. After you read this, you might never listen to Sinatra or any other singer the same way again.

BUY THE BOOK

Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Kobo
Smashwords
Scribd

Nelson Riddle: The Man Behind The Music

Frank Sinatra. Nat “King” Cole. Ella Fitzgerald. Judy Garland. Peggy Lee. Rosemary Cloony. Linda Ronstadt. No matter their various styles, these and other iconic popular singers had one thing in common — much of their best work was arranged by Nelson Riddle, whose fame within the world of arrangers rivaled that of the legends for whom he wrote. Indeed, some critics maintain that, if not for Riddle, Sinatra might not have overcome his mid-career failure and climbed to the superstar status that he eventually attained.

This e-work describes the career of a musical genius, who changed popular music and proved that a great arranger is as important as a great song and a great singer. At its core is the irony that a man whose music is described as “light” and “bright” should have been so bitter and disappointed in his life.

BUY THE BOOK

Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Kobo
Smashwords

Scribd

MGOC Contributor: Diane Turnshek

DIANE TURNSHEK
EXCERPT from "Teaching Young Writers" by Diane Turnshek in Many Genres, One Craft: Lessons in Writing Popular Fiction:

I was never a young writer, but for ten years I have been teaching teens to write what they love. I feel that I am in a unique position to make observations about the differences between young writers and people who are merely new to the craft. Teaching them has taught me a lot. My experience shows me that young writers can turn out genre work equal in quality to that produced by battle-hardened, aged writers. Many of the young writers I have known, through inspiration and force of will, have learned what it takes to produce professional copy and have stuck with the challenging current publishing climate until their work sold.

Advantages to being a young writer abound.

--
Diane Turnshek is an astronomer and a science fiction author with short fiction in Analog magazine and elsewhere. She teaches astronomy at the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University and St. Vincent College, where she’s also taught creative writing. Since 2002, Diane has been mentoring graduate students at Seton Hill University in the MFA in Writing Popular Fiction. She founded Alpha, the SF/F/H Workshop for Young Writers in 2002 and the Triangulation anthology series (as editor) in 2003. She served as Eastern Regional Director for SFWA, a professional organization of 1500 genre writers and directed the 2007 SFWA Nebula Awards in NYC. She has four delightful sons and a sweetly supportive dream guy.

EVENT: Seton Hill WPF Residency 2013

EVENTS

Many Genres One Craft contributors were in full force at the Seton Hill University Writing Popular Fiction MFA Residency this month. The keynote speaker was Kevin Hearne, New York Times Bestselling author of the Iron Druid Chronicles.

Kevin Hearne and Heidi Ruby Miller

Albert Wendland

Lee Allen Howard and Jason Jack Miller

Heidi Ruby Miller and Victoria Thompson

Anne Harris and friends

Heidi Ruby Miller and Jason Jack Miller

Elaine Ervin and Lee Allen Howard

Heidi Ruby Miller and Albert Wendland

MGOC Contributor: Lawrence C. Connolly

LAWRENCE C.CONNOLLY
EXCERPT from "The Teaching Writer" by Lawrence C. Connolly in Many Genres, One Craft: Lessons in Writing Popular Fiction:

You’ve finished your first novel. Now what?

The conventional wisdom is simple enough: start writing your second. That’s how you build a career. Write every day. Submit work when it’s finished. Keep submitting your finished work until it’s accepted. Unfortunately, none of these career-building steps are going to pay the rent. Indeed, even after acceptance, you’ll have to wait awhile for that first advance. Contracts will need to be vetted, signed, and returned. Checks will need to be cut (and if that sounds like a quick operation, just you wait). And if you’ve employed the services of an agent, you’ll have to wait for the publisher’s check to clear the agent’s bank before another check can be cut and mailed to you.

--

Lawrence C. Connolly's fiction has appeared in many of the major genre magazines, among them Amazing Stories, Fantasy & Science Fiction, Cemetery Dance Magazine, and Rod Serling's Twilight Zone Magazine. His work can also be found in a number of best-of collections, among them Year's Best Horror, Best of Borderlands, and Best of the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction from Audible.com. One of his short stories, “Echoes,” has been made into two films. His supernatural thrillers Veins and Vipers are published by Fantasist Enterprises.

MGOC Contributor Event: Diane Turnshek at Mars Desert Research Station

Many Genres, One Craft contributor Diane Turnshek takes researching her next novel to a whole new world...or as close as possible.

My work in progress is a YA novel set on Mars. In order to research the setting, I took a two week trip to the Mars Desert Research Station in the badlands of Utah. The Mars Society has been operating facilities like this for a decade to study how colonists would adapt to the isolation, rehydrated/dehydrated food, limited water supply, bitter cold and awe-inspiring red vistas. I didn't expect to have so much fun with my teammates, heading outside in spacesuits, off-roading on ATVs and being the subjects of an indy Swiss film. "Do your research!" now has a whole new meaning.

-Diane Turnshek
January 2013

Support the Fridge of the Damned and Get Instigation Prompts

Many Genres editor Michael Arnzen has combined forces with indie publisher Raw Dog Screaming Press and horror flash fiction site Microhorror.com to launch a Kickstarter campaign to make The Fridge of the Damned -- a twisted refrigerator magnet poetry set -- a reality. Help fund the fridge and get some fun word magnets to mess with...and an ebook filled with offbeat writing prompts (Arnzen's trademarked "Instigation") to inspire your fiction! Pledges need to be received before February 1st, so don't delay.

MGOC Contributor News: Tim Waggoner and Mary SanGiovanni on Literary Mathem's 2012 Top Reads

Many Genres, One Craft contributors Tim Waggoner and Mary SanGiovanni made it onto Literary Mayhem's 2012 Top Reads List.

Tim's book The Men Upstairs was published through DarkFuse.

He finds her crying in the lobby of a movie theater and takes her home to his apartment, a strange, beautiful woman with no last name, a mysterious past, and a powerful sexual allure. He wants her, and she wants him. There's only one problem: the Men Upstairs. She used to belong to them—and they'll do anything to get her back.

"Waggoner delivers a tale of cosmic and body horror at its most disturbing. The Men Upstairs is a fascinating study of the ancient tension between repulsion and desire." – Laird Barron, author of Occultation

Mary's book For Emmy was published through Thunderstorm Books.

Sometimes no matter how vigilant you are, you can't keep loved ones save. Dana McCluskey and her father know very well that there can be dangers around every corner. They wanted to keep Emmy safe. But it is impossible to see some dangers coming. And there are those corners that you'd never see, out-of-the-way places just beyond our grasp where loved ones can get very lost -- and the danger there is very real indeed.

"chilling, heartbreaking, and quietly terrifying"
- Kevin Lucia, SHROUD magazine

MGOC Contributor: Penny Dawn

PENNY DAWN

EXCERPT from "eFabulous: Publishing in a Paperless World" by Penny Dawn in Many Genres, One Craft: Lessons in Writing Popular Fiction

In the early 80s, the Betamax went the way of the dinosaur. For those of you who weren't around to witness the war between Beta and VHS, these were home video media, predecessors of the Laserdisc (an obscure, LP-sized video alternative the size and shape of a frozen pizza). The Laserdisc, while wildly popular in Japan, didn't hold consumer interest in the United States, and was replaced by hip, smaller DVDs, at a time the word Blu-Ray might have conjured images of marine life. With the emergence of internet streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu, the Blu-Ray may soon find itself a shell on a sandy shore, too. You have to roll with the changes, baby.

It's easier said than done. I confess I still house my collection of original Disney masterpieces on VHS, as well as the platinum, anniversary releases on DVD. And while working in the field of home interiors, I still design, upon request, entertainment centers housing slide-out shelves for these bulky dust-collectors. Yet there will come a time when even the few lingering, diehard fans of these should-be-bones-by-now media will eventually forfeit their relics for one reason: no one produces VCRs anymore. Nothing lasts forever.

--

Penny Dawn is the author of seven novels, seventeen eBooks, and countless poems and trade articles. She teaches her craft at two colleges in the Chicago suburbs, volunteers at elementary school writing centers, and edits the work of hopeful writers through The Calliope. When she isn't writing, or teaching others to hone their ability to do so, she immerses herself in other passions: parenthood, the discipline of dance, home improvement, and her yellow lab. Visit her online at www.pennydawn.com.

MGOC Contributor News: Maria V. Snyder's Scent of Magic

Many Genres, One Craft contributor Maria V. Snyder has a new novel out in The Healers series--Scent of Magic.

DESCRIPTION:
As the last Healer in the Fifteen Realms, Avry of Kazan is in a unique position: in the minds of friends and foes alike, she no longer exists.

Despite her need to prevent the megalomaniacal King Tohon from winning control of the Realms, Avry is also determined to find her sister and repair their estrangement. And she must do it alone, as Kerrick, her partner and sole confidant, returns to Alga to summon his country into battle.

Though she should be in hiding, Avry will do whatever she can to support Tohon's opponents. Including infiltrating a holy army, evading magic sniffers, teaching forest skills to soldiers and figuring out how to stop Tohon's most horrible creations yet: an army of the walking dead—human and animal alike and nearly impossible to defeat.

War is coming and Avry is alone. Unless she figures out how to do the impossible…again.