Kayembe wins Zero Time, Mayan astrology

Congratulations to Kathleen Kayembe, winner of T.W. Fendley's Nov. 7 giveaway of a signed copy of her debut historical fantasy novel, ZERO TIME, and a full Mayan astrology report from www.onereed.com.

Don't forget to check tomorrow for our next giveaway!

This is for the Readers: What is this Steampunk Stuff?

This is for the Readers: What is this Steampunk Stuff?
By Brad R. Cook

Soyou‘ve met the contributors and received some great writing advice, but now it’s time for a little something for the readers.

As you might have noticed, several of The Writers’ Lens contributors are Steampunk writers and a question I am often asked is “What is Steampunk?”

I thought I would help the readers out there with an explanation. My favorite way to answer this question – “Steampunk is Victorian What If.” Steampunk is just like it sounds, steam technology extrapolated to fantastic possibilities, with a bit of a punk edge. It can take place in the past, as mine does, in some distant dystopian future, or even some Neo-Victorian alternate dimension that sounds so much cooler than our present 21st century world. It’s not just about the technology, there are also gaslight romances, nature vs. technology showdowns, even zombies, or my personal favorite – it’s about the brass!

There are a few iconic hallmarks that are universal.
Color defines the look – brown over black;
Metal is important – Iron and Brass over Steel and Titanium;
Etiquette is essential – nobles and rogues over alien hunting super-soldiers or slang-slinging detectives;
Remember Rube Goldberg – his crazy complex devices have inspired many Steampunk devices.

There are also a few sub-genres,
Dieselpunk – includes the internal combustion engine.
Clockwork, Clockpunk, or Lacepunk – focuses on technology before the steam engine.
Airstream – which is set entirely in the sky
Cyberpunk – includes computers and other “modern” technology.
Gaslight Romances – focus on the dark, foggy streets of European Cities.
Steamgoth – tends to be darker.
Westernpunk – a western with crazy technology.
Edwardian vs. Victorian – which is a choice of time periods.

Here are a few great Steampunk Novels–
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne – We have to start with the original Steampunk novel. Published in 1864 it set the tone for the entire genre.
Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld (one of my favorites, I love all the Fencing)
The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling
Boneshaker by Cherie Priest
Perdido Street Station by China Mieville
Plus a shout for my own – The Iron Horsemen by Brad R. Cook
I’m querying agents and have my fingers crossed.

There are so many more novels that I could never mention them all, to find more I would recommend the numerous websites and blogs dedicated to Steampunk.

A few Steampunk inspired movies–
Sherlock Holmes – with Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow – with Johnny Depp
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen – with Sean Connery and Peta Wilson
Serenity – with Nathan Fillion

There are also some great anime movies,
Steamboy
Last Exile
Disney’s Treasure Planet

That’s the end of my Steampunk introduction; I hope you enjoy its vast universe.

I wanted to also point out that it is the eleventh day, of the eleventh month, of the eleventh year. I like numbers and given T.W. Fendley’s post about Mayan Astrology, I thought I’d bring attention to it.

One last thing, Happy Veterans Day!
The Writers’ Lens would like to honor all men and women who have served in our nation’s armed services. We thank you for your service, your sacrifices, and want to express that you are always appreciated.

Learn more at bradrcook.com or follow me on Twitter, @bradrcook

Tips for researching sky events

In keeping with this week’s Mayan astrology giveaway, today I’m focusing on how to research sky events. Even when you’re writing fantasy, it’s important to get the facts right. It’s not always easy to accurately describe the phase of the moon or the timing of a total eclipse, whether your story takes place five years in the future or a few thousand years in the past.

Of course, as Brad described in his Oct. 19 post, you begin your research on Google. I came up with lots of information that way, including NASA’s eclipse website: http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/phase/phase2001gmt.html

But to get the details took more work. For one thing, my book ZERO TIME is set in Peru, and the sky doesn't look like it does in Missouri. That’s when I came across www.astronomy.com and its online Star Dome (Track more asteroids and comets…View Saturn, Jupiter, and their moons as you'd see them through a telescope.) and Star Atlas (The interactive Star Atlas lets you pan around and zoom into the 24 full-color maps originally published in Astronomy's Atlas of the Stars.) Needless to say, I got the paid membership so I could see everything. You can change your viewing location and the dates—from the future to the past! You can even check eclipse dates 3,000 years ago. On the discussion board, you can pose specific questions.

I’ve also been interested in sun cycles for about as long as I can remember—sunspots, solar flares, solar wind and magnetic fields. You get the picture. If you aren’t a scientist, how do you find out how long it takes for the X-ray particles released in a solar storm to reach the Earth or the chemical composition of the solar wind? Check out Stanford SOLAR Center’s FAQs: http://solar-center.stanford.edu/FAQ/index.html Apparently I should’ve learned all of that before I went to college. Sigh.

Space weather, as it turns out, is a big area of interest for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).  NOAA’s Space Environment Center (SEC) works closely with the U.S. Air Force’s Space Forecast Center. I’ve found all sorts of things on their sites, including a glossary with solar flare classifications and information on various observatories. The NOAA Space Weather Scales give current and future space weather conditions and their possible effects on people and systems. You can find out about near-Earth asteroids, auroras, meteors, flares, and links to all kinds of related sites. www.spaceweather.com

The most fun? Sign up for email space weather alerts. Be the first to know of a falling satellite near you! (Just kidding…kind of.) http://spaceweather.com/services

Do you have a favorite research site for sky events that I didn't mention? I'd love to hear about it so I can add it to my list.

What’s your sign—Mayan style? Free reading PLUS signed copy of Zero Time

For this week’s giveaway, we have two "grand prizes," but everyone's a winner with a FREE Mayan astrology reading. We’re leaving the literary world and delving into secrets of the cosmos. Are you with me?

For years, I’ve had a passion for astrology and Mesoamerican culture—that’s the Mayans and Aztecs. So, you can just imagine how excited I was to discover How to Practice Mayan Astrology by Bruce Scofield and Barry C. Orr!

Ever since I learned about Mayan astrology, I kept picturing a studly Mayan guy with huge jade earplugs leaning over a red-robed priestess and saying, “Hey baby, what’s your sign?” You won’t see that scene in my just-released historical fantasy novel, ZERO TIME, but one of the characters does practice Mayan astrology.   

So, you may ask, what’s different about Mayan astrology? Well, a lot. According to Scofield and Orr, “the major difference between Western and Mayan astrology is that Western astrology interprets sky events (i.e. astronomical cycles, eclipses, planetary alignments, etc.) spatially” while in ancient Mexico, “the same sky events were interpreted in terms of their significant influence on the period of time in which they occurred.”

From a layman’s perspective, the Mayan Day sign is like your Sun sign in Western astrology. What I like is that two people who have the same Sun sign usually have different Day signs, which just seems more accurate. For instance, my fellow Writers’ Lens contributor Brad Cook and I are both Leos, born one day apart (Aug. 12 and Aug. 13), though I’m about a century older. (Maybe it just feels that way?) His Day sign is 8 Ocelot (Maya: 8 Ix) while mine is 8 Flower (Maya: 8 Ahau).  

This brings me to how everyone’s a winner in this giveaway contest, thanks Scofield and Orr. Just go to www.onereed.com and click “FREE Sample report” on the Maya-Aztec Astral Report page. It asks the standard questions: your name, birthdate and email address.

To make things more interesting, if you’d like to see the real deal--your full Mayan astrology report that's a complete personality delineation about 10 pages long--leave a comment or question on The Writers' Lens Blog between Nov. 7 and Nov. 12, 2011. Please include your email so I can reach you if you win.

To celebrate the release of  ZERO TIME, I’m also including a signed copy in this giveaway!

The more comments you leave, the greater YOUR chance of winning the contest prizes--your full Mayan astrology report AND a signed copy of ZERO TIME. The winner will be chosen after midnight on Saturday and the announcement made on Sunday, Nov. 13.

Thanks for entering, and be sure to check out the rest of this week’s posts. I’m continuing the celestial focus on Wednesday with some research tips!

The Winner of The Dangerous Book for Demon Slayers

The winner of the David Alan Lucas's October 31 contest is Jennifer Stolzer. Congratulations! She has won a copy of The Dangerous Book for Demon Slayers. Enjoy!

Remember that tomorrow will be a chance to win another book.

Meet the Contributor: T. W. Fendley

I would like to introduce our readers to T.W. Fendley. Her debut novel is due out . . . why don't I let her tell you:

Your debut novel, Zero Time, has just been released by L&L Dreamspell. What was the driving idea behind the novel? By now, many people know that the Mayan calendar (the Long Count) ends on Dec. 21, 2012. Is that a time of catastrophe on Earth or one of ascension? What could ancient Mesoamericans have known that we don’t, and how did they come to know it? Through the Association for Research and Enlightenment, I learned what the “sleeping prophet” Edgar Cayce said about 2012 and the Pleiades. I was also fascinated by quantum physics and Gregg Braden’s concept of the divine matrix. Adding these to the rich legacy from Mesoamerica cultures gave me inspiration for the path I eventually took in my historical fantasy novel. The Mayan calendar became the timeline for an expedition to save Pleiadians from extinction and our own world from an unending cycle of war, pain and poverty.

When did you start writing Zero Time? I first got the idea in 1997 while researching story ideas at the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing workshop. My imagination ran wild as I read about the Mesoamerican culture, mythology and archeology. It quickly became apparent the story I wanted to tell would need to be a novel. For a decade I spent more time doing research than writing. I took courses, read a lot and even went to Mexico and Peru to see the ancient sites.

What is Zero Time about? It’s the story of the relationships between mothers, daughters and sisters, with time-traveling Great Serpents and Mesoamerican mythology mixed in. Told from the perspective of two women, it brings together a quest for a cure for a genetic malady with a woman’s experience of coming into her mystical power. Here’s the blurb: As Zero Time nears, only Keihla Benton can save two worlds from the powers of Darkness. But first she must unlock the secrets of Machu Picchu and her own past.

In 2007, you decided to write full time. How easy was it to take the leap of faith from steady paycheck to full time writer? I wasn’t so daring. I had just reached my company’s minimum retirement age with 20 years of experience when I applied for a job swap with another employee whose job was being abolished. It was approved! She took my job, and I quit with a (decreased) pension and health insurance intact to pursue the writing career I wanted. A win-win solution for both of us!

What drove you into the field of fiction? I give a lot of credit (blame?) to my boss. During an annual evaluation back in the 1990s—I was a communication manager at the time—my boss said I needed to be more creative. Getting accepted to one of the nation’s top sci-fi and fantasy workshops dispelled that misperception pretty quickly. Actually, I’d already been taking a few writing and watercolor classes because I needed an outlet for pure imagination that you just don’t get in corporate communications or journalism (no matter how creative you are). It felt a lot like returning to the “true me” of my youth. About this time, a co-worker invited me to join a fantastic group of women—the Crescent City Writers. They inspired me to pursue my interest in writing fiction.

Did you have to find that you had to change your writing style when you started to write fiction? Yes, and I’m still working on it. I tend to be very straightforward and give the summary first. Like now. J To write fiction, you have to know about points of view, story arcs, characterization and motivation, conflict, world-building and showing-not-telling. Thankfully, some things carried over. My love for research helps with writing both fiction and nonfiction.

What is the latest project you are working on? What is it about? My young adult contemporary fantasy novel is now in the hands of a few Beta readers. In Acceleration, two teenagers who telepathically receive messages encoded on engraved stones by an ancient race find themselves tasked with proving humankind’s worth when the First Men return. Oh, and there’s a Peruvian dog named Boss Lady who helps.

If there was one piece of advice that you could give those writers who are still working to break in, what would it be? For me, pitching to agents and publishers at a writers’ conference made all the difference. I’d been sending out queries and getting nowhere, but after five minutes of face-time, I got requests from two agents (one partial, one full) and interest from a publisher that led to a small press contract. Just keep trying different things until something works for you!

The Writers’ Lens is about Bringing fiction into focus–what brings your writing into focus, the characters, the stories, the love of words? The philosophy or motivation behind the stories is what brings the work into focus for me—that keeps the characters and the action moving in the right direction. With my novel, Zero Time, it’s all about the creative power of love.

Follow T.W. at www.twfendley.com or on Twitter @twfendley.

Writing for Entertainment Doesn’t Mean You Aren’t Writing about Critical Issues

In a nation, and a world, that seems to become more and more divided every time I turn on the news, there is no wonder that people turn to books, short stories, various TV shows and movies to escape from the political and social realism that surrounds our everyday lives. As a writer of fiction, my number one job is to entertain. Though this entertainment, I want my reader to sit or lay back and relax, delve into the universe of my creation and leave their world behind for as long as they have the pages open. I want them to turn the pages and feel suspense or to laugh. I want them to come back time and time again to read the story that I have written and to share it with friends and family members. While this is my number one job, it is not my only job as an author.

Have you ever sat down at a table for a meal and all you were served is junk food? If all I ever did as a writer was to serve up stories of just pure entertainment I would be as guilty as the person who served up such a meal—and soon you would decide it was time to go on a “literary diet” and maybe never return to my stories. While entertainment is the number one job, it must serve as the base for more critical issues such as social justice, viewing the world through the eyes of another, educate and to make the reader think—even if they are not aware they are thinking. If it doesn’t do that, then the story is not often remembered.

While I admit I am oversimplifying things, every genre of storytelling, as well as every writer, has a different approach to the critical issues. Science Fiction and Fantasy have a way of looking at society(ies) and history by recreating them and looking at them a new. Mysteries and Thrillers look at the roles of crime, acts of terror, and the role of the police (or other investigator) has on the world and the disrupted lives in that society asking if that world can ever be brought back into balance. Romance looks at the gender roles and explores the conflicts between two people who are in a romantic relationship while trying to keep a normal life—work, family, whatever society tosses at them. Paranormal can blend all of the above and use “other” beings to represent some part of our society (like Science Fiction and Fantasy does with aliens or mythical races). Horror explores the macabre and society.

Each story explores character change and some aspect of social issues. For some stories the social issues are blatantly exposed to the reader. Other stories interweave and disguise in the background the social issues or define the universe in which the characters are in. These issues can be equality, racism, sexism, human rights, caste systems, liberty, education, war, health care, elder care, diseases, scientific discoveries and pushing the boundaries, redemption, restoration, social classes, prison reform, drugs, crime, slavery (traditional, child, sex, or mental slavery), teen pregnancy and so much more. It seems to me that the writer who leaves the social issues out of their story disappoints the reader and is soon forgotten, while those who bring it in to the story are often remembered even after the writer him or herself have turned to dust.

I understand that there are doubters who may be reading this blog, so let me indulge in a small list of authors or entertainment (radio shows, movies, and television shows) that explore social issues. See how many of these you recognize, still see on bookshelves or in reruns.

Charles Dickens, Agatha Christie, Charles W. Chestnut, Kate Chopin, Alex Haley, Michael Crichton, Alexandre Dumas, The Lone Ranger, Gunsmoke, Alex Haley, James Clavell, Star Trek (any), Babylon 5, The Wire, The Shield, Dragnet, The Rockford Files, Maya Angelou, Georges Simenon, Isaac Asimov, Mark Twain, Lin Yutang, Umberto Eco, Hill Street Blues, Josh Wheadon, Battlestar Galactica (either version), H.G. Wells, Law and Order (any), Jules Verne, Edgar Allen Poe, Stephen King, Walter Mosley, PD James, The Shadow (Radio Drama), Suspense (Radio Drama), William Faulkner, M.A.S.H., Psycho (movie or book), Vertigo, John Le Carre, John Grisham, Qiu Xiaolong, Mary Shelly, Miami Vice, Arthur Conan Doyle, Elmore Lenard, To Catch a Thief (movie or book), and Harper Lee

This is a list I developed in two minutes of brain storming. It is by no means exhaustive, nor does it contain every writer, TV show, movie, or radio show that I can think of. (Honestly, I am fighting the urge to add to it.) Please feel free to add to this list in the comments. It would be fun to see what fellow readers (and writers) come up with.

If you are a fellow writer and you haven’t broken in yet, ask yourself if you are handling and how you are handling social issues. I do it all the time as I work on breaking in myself.

Thank you for reading and please also visit www.davidalanlucas.com