DeAnna Knippling first came on my radar with the 2010 publication of “Choose Your Doom: Zombie Apocalypse,” a choose-your-own-adventure featuring the undead. I was an instant fan! Since then, I’ve learned that DeAnna is one of the most hard-working writers out there and immune to rejection. (That’s a real superpower!) Her latest novel is “Alien Blue,” a science fiction tale about extraterrestrials and beer. Check it out!
I recently talked to her about writing, social media and, of course, zombies…
You’re an incredibly prolific writer. How do you keep going?
Being prolific is a skill that you can develop as an author. One, write every day. (Sorry; you’ve heard this advice before, but it’s true.) Two, develop writing speed by observing how many words you can write in an hour, setting deadlines much closer than you think you can reach, and doing crazy things like NaNoWriMo. Three, and this is the part that most people miss when they try to do this, allow that writing is not the sanest activity in the world and your normal judgment process is flawed when it comes to writing, so there’s no point in second-guessing yourself while you write. Your internal editor will be there, and you can’t shut it off, but you can ignore it and play in your sandbox anyway.
What is your writing schedule like? Your writing process?
I freelance, so I’ll tell you before-freelancing and after-freelancing.
Before freelancing: I started out writing once in a while, then built up to 100 words a day (no joke, I was so proud), and gradually increased my word count. I discovered that I had to have days where I take a break — not from writing per se, but from whatever Big Project I’m working on. Blog, write book reviews, work on something completely different…whatever. Then I did my first NaNoWriMo (in July, because I was afraid I’d fail). That was a huge boost, and I knew that I could write 1.5-2K a day without killing myself (although I did irritate my family). Eventually I got it up to 1K a day, average.
Then I went freelance, which was a whole new set of chops to build, and I spent a lot of time trying to learn how to balance writing and business (business likes to take over). I kept doing NaNoWriMos and built a speed of about 1K an hour over two years, which I can hit now regularly except on this romance that I’m writing, because I don’t write a lot of romance, and that’s about 500-750 wph. With horror and other things I’m closer to 1.5K.
Trying out multiple things to balance out writing and the business side of things has led me to realize that I, personally, have to do my fiction first before anything else. I always have a resistance to going into story world, because my sane brain is terrified that I won’t come back; everything I do in story world points to crazy (hallucinations, multiple personality disorder, schizophrenia). So I make bargains with the sane part of my brain: a word count or a time cutoff. I can only write so much, and then I have to come back. I usually write on my stuff from eight to noon now (in 50-minute writing, 10-minute-break cycles), then switch over to freelance writing, formatting, answering emails, etc. Weekends I spend with my family and tie up whatever loose ends I couldn’t get to during the week.
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THE GREAT PULP HEROES
Don Hutchison
Book Republic
Pub Date: April 24,2007
Before Superman and Batman, there were Doc Savage and The Shadow. The Spider and The Phantom Detective. Tarzan and Captain Future. They were gaudy, glorious, larger-than-life heroes who fought for justice and truth. But these pulp do-gooders weren’t afraid to pump a bad guy full of lead either. They lived in the pages of such pulp magazines as “Black Mask,” “Argosy,” “Jungle Stories,” “Amazing Stories,” and “Adventure.” And in the 1930s and ’40s they were everywhere. It was the golden age of short stories and heroes, and inspired hacks churned out millions of words during that time. It was, as author Don Hutchison writes, “the greatest explosion of mass entertainment via the printed word that a thrill-seeking public ever experienced.”
In “The Great Pulp Heroes” (revised edition), Don Hutchison chronicles the rise and fall of these old-time do-gooders and the hard-working wordsmiths who brought them to life. It’s an exciting ride that makes a 21st century fanboy wish he lived through the Great Depression.
The preeminent hero of the pulps was The Shadow, that mysterious, caped man who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men. But his origin is far from inspiring. He was created after publisher Street and Smith decided to capitalize on the popularity of the mysterious voice, who went by The Shadow, on their radio program. The assignment has handed to a newspaperman and part-time magician named Walter Gibson. He was given no outline or character description, just the task of writing a 75,000 word story about someone named The Shadow. Gibson did so, under the pen name Maxwell Grant, and the magazine soon began to sell 300,000 copies an issue. Then, like Superman years later, The Shadow became the standard that every pulp publisher tried to reproduce. (more…)
Kurt Vonnegut, 84, the author of such classic satirical sci-fi novels as “Slaughterhouse-Five,” “Cat’s Cradle,” and “Breakfast of Champions,” died yesterday.
His wife, photographer Jill Krementz, said Vonnegut had suffered brain injuries after a recent fall at his New York City home.
Vonnegut was born on November 11, 1922 in Indianapolis. He wrote at least 19 novels as well as dozens of short stories, essays and plays.
“I will say anything to be funny, often in the most horrible situations,” Vonnegut once told a gathering of psychiatrists.
He had been retired from fiction writing in recent years, though he continued to publish short articles and, in fact, had a best-seller with 2005′s “A Man Without a Country,” a collection of nonfiction.
Vonnegut once quipped that of all the ways to die, he’d like to go out in a plane crash on the peak of Mount Kilimanjaro.
Sure, Elmore Leonard is in his 80s. So what? The guy is getting better with age. Over a six-decade career, he’s written more than three dozen novels — most of them classics — and even a children’s book (A COYOTE’S IN THE HOUSE). The latest, THE HOT KID (available in paperback today), may be his best.
The setting is Depression-era Oklahoma — a hornet’s nest of outlaws, speakeasies and gun molls. But wait! There’s a new gun in town: Carl Webster, who’s fast becoming the most famous lawman in the land, thanks to True Detective writer Tony Antonelli. Soon Webster’s hot on the trail of Jack Belmont, the sociopath son of an oil millionaire who wants to usurp Pretty Boy Floyd as Public Enemy Number One. Bullets are flying. Bodies are dropping. And Carl Webster’s legend grows. Throw in a little red-head named Louly, who might be even deadly with a gun than Carl, and you have the perfect blend between Leonard’s early Westerns and modern crime tales.
THE HOT KID is Elmore Leonard in top form: cooler-than-cool characters, pitch-perfect dialogue, and a page-burning plot.
I can’t wait to see what Leonard’s writing in his 90s.
Part biography, part anthology, part social commentary, “The R. Crumb Handbook” is an insightful and entertaining introduction to the weirdo cartoonist.
Robert Crumb was a founder and leader of the underground comics movement that began in the 1960s. His sexually and politically outrageous work influenced scores of artists over the years, and some of his cartoons, such as Fritz the Cat and Keep on Truckin’, have even crept into the mainstream.
“The R. Crumb Handbook” weaves photos, images, and comics through Crumb’s narrative of his evolution from a tormented child to “America’s best-loved underground cartoonist.” Crumb also discusses the influence of other artists, such as Carl Banks and Will Eisner, on his work, and his thoughts on media and comics.
The book contains reprints of Mr. Natural and Fritz the Cat as well as new work. There are also reprints of record covers, oil paintings, and scultptures created by Crumb.
