Bestselling author tells of life on the road at Dec. 5 workshop

Don’t miss “Road Hazards: The Life of a Touring Writer,” presented by bestselling author M.R. Sellars at the St. Louis Writers Guild’s Dec. 5 workshop, held 10 a.m. to noon at Kirkwood Community Center, 111 S. Geyer Road, Kirkwood, Mo. Free to members; $5 for nonmembers.

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Sellars’ stories will range from being left behind during a hurricane to being inundated at a bookstore by fans cosplaying the antagonist from one of his novels, and everything in between.

A member of the ITW (International Thriller Writers), M.R. Sellars is a relatively unassuming homebody who, in his own words, “tells pretty lies for a living.” Although his penchant for creating fiction began at an early age, it wasn’t until 2000 that his first full-length novel, HARM NONE: A ROWAN GANT INVESTIGATION, hit bookstore shelves, officially launching the acclaimed paranormal thriller series and its associated spinoff.

All the novels in Sellars’ continuing Rowan Gant Investigations saga have spent several consecutive weeks on numerous bookstore bestseller lists, as well as a consistent showing on the Amazon.com Horror/Occult top 100. In 2010 a short e-novella featuring a supporting character from the RGI cast spawned a new series, The Special Agent Constance Mandalay Novels, the first full-length book being IN THE BLEAK MIDWINTER, which hit the streets November 2011. The second, INTO THE LAKE OF FIRE, is slated for release in 2015.

Sellars currently resides in the Midwest with his wife, daughter, and a houseful of rescued animals – a population that currently stands at one canine (Vicki the Wonder Dog) and three felines (Asphalt, Nachos el Tigre, and Mac the Klaw). He often describes the fluctuating menagerie as “the competition.” At home, when not writing or taking care of the household, he indulges his passions for cooking and home brewing.

M.R. Sellars can be located on the web wherever there is a virtual bar serving virtual single malt Scotch, single barrel bourbon, good Irish whisky, and decent beer. In other words, look for him on the major social networking sites. http://www.mrsellars.com

Learn more about the St. Louis Writers Guild at www.stlwritersguild.org.

See you at the Local Author open house Nov. 19!

Local Author Open House for Over 100 Authors!

We eat local, we shop local, so let’s read local!

Don’t miss the St. Charles City-County Library District’s Local Author Open House. At this one-of-a-kind event more than 100 local authors will be gathered in one place to sell and autograph their books, and to talk to visitors about how they got their start. The 2015 Local Author Open House, now in its 7th year, is being held at a new location allowing it to double in size.

The event will take place on Thursday, November 19 from 6:00 to 8:00 pm at the Spencer Road Branch, 427 Spencer Road, St. Peters, MO 63376.

“This gathering of so many local authors in one place, is an event that you will not find anywhere else in the area,” said St. Charles City-County Library District Adult Services Manager Sara Nielsen. “We are excited to be able to help people discover the many authors that live right here in our own community.”

The St. Charles City-County Library District offers a special collection that features the work of local authors. This collection is housed at the Middendorf-Kredell Branch, or you can browse and reserve a title online.

To access the collection online, go to www.youranswerplace.org/specialservices and select “Local Author Collection.” Refreshments will be provided, and attendance prizes will be given out.

Register online at youranswerplace.org or call the Spencer Road Branch at 636-441-0522.

Star Between the Rivers release party Nov. 7 at 6 North Cafe-Wentzville

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 ST. CHARLES COUNTY, MO - Not your average history book, The Star Between the Rivers: A History of the St. Charles County Sheriff’s Department, 1805-2015 chronicles the journey of the department, from the appointment of the first sheriff following the Louisiana Purchase to the creation of a separate county police department after voters approved a charter change, in a coffee-table format with pictures on nearly every page.

“In 210 years the department grew with the community, handling legal and political issues and pressures while successfully managing rapid growth in law enforcement technology and criminal sophistication. Sheriffs, deputies, and department staff experienced triumphs and tragedies – with an unwavering commitment to keep the people of St. Charles County safe.”

- Excerpt from The Star Between The Rivers: A History Of The St. Charles County Sheriff’s Department, 1805-2015 back cover

The book was a committee effort suggested in 2014 by St. Charles County Police Officer Dave Fournell after he saw a similar book published by a sheriff’s department in another state. St. Charles County Executive Steve Ehlmann, retired St. Charles County Journal photographer Roy Sykes, retired St. Charles County Sheriff Tom Neer, St. Charles County Police Chief David Todd, St. Charles County Police Captains David Kaiser and Jim Hudson, retired St. Charles County Sheriff’s Department detective Marsha Corley, St. Charles County Director of Administration Joann Leykam, and St. Charles County Public Affairs Coordinator Colene McEntee served on the committee to bring the book to life.

“Whether you are a law enforcement professional, a history buff, or simply a proud current or past resident of St. Charles County, you will enjoy the stories and the multitude of pictures in this book,” said Tom Neer, who wrote the foreword. “It is exciting to finally have this history documented and in a format to share with the community served by our county sheriff and police departments.”

The community is invited to a celebration of the book at a public release party on Saturday, Nov. 7, from 10 a.m. until noon at Six North Café, 10 Cliff View Drive, Wentzville, MO 63385. Attendees will be able to meet members of the committee and purchase the book for $20. Only cash or checks (payable to St. Charles County) will be accepted at the event.

Starting Monday, Nov. 9, citizens can purchase books for $20 at the following locations. Cash, check (payable to St. Charles County) and credit card will be accepted (please note: There is an additional $1.25 processing fee added per book for credit card transactions):

 _St. Charles County Finance Department 201 N. 2nd St., Suite 541 St. Charles, MO 63301 Available to purchase Monday-Friday 8 a.m. until 5 p.m., excluding holidays.

 _St. Charles County Police Department – Records Division Window 101 Sheriff Dierker Court O'Fallon, MO 63366 Available to purchase Monday-Friday 8 a.m. until 5 p.m., excluding holidays.

 _St. Charles County Heritage Museum, 1630 Heritage Landing, St. Peters, MO 63303 Available to purchase Wednesday-Saturday 10 a.m. until 5 p.m., and Sunday 12 p.m. until 5 p.m., excluding holidays.

For questions, please call the St. Charles County Office of Public Information at 636-949-1864 or email publicinfo@sccmo.org.

Happy 95th Anniversary to St. Louis Writers Guild!

Happy 95^th Anniversary to St. Louis Writers Guild!

By Brad R. Cook

St. Louis in 1920 was city of brick. A city on the rise. The brick wars, yes it was a war had reshaped the gateway to the west. The landscape was smaller than we know today. The city wasn’t as connected. Webster Groves was an orchard outside of town. None of the highways had been built – the main thoroughfares were Grand, Kingshighway, Lindell, Locust, and Natural Bridge. Clayton Road was listed on a map of the day as the road to Jefferson City. Imagine how long that would take.

St. Louis Writers Guild first meeting was held on Thursday evening, October 28^th, 1920 in the living room of Shirley Seifert’s home on De Giverville Ave. About thirty people meet to discuss novel writing. A group of six local writers from various fields created an organization that would gather more often than the biannual meetings of Missouri Writers Guild. The topic for the first meeting was novel writing. They had high ideals for what it meant to be writer, and were drawn to surround themselves with only the best in the literary world.

Sam Hellman, the first SLWG president and a paragon of the silver screen, had a razor wit and his finger on the pulse of his times. A longtime newspaperman, Hellman was the managing editor of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, but would turn his attention to Hollywood. He penned approximately 40 movies, many of which are considered classics of the golden age. He loved playing bridge and talking endlessly about writing. Elinor Maxwell McCord was quoted as saying, “Mr. Hellman is a riot in conversation. It was better listening to him than reading one of his stories. He keeps a running chatter of conversation, couched in the most marvelous slang imaginable, and some unimaginable.”

Hellman was an established writer for 20^th Century Fox beginning in the 1920’s, and later switched to Warner Bros in the 1940’s. He wrote for Will Rogers (The County Chairman, 1935), Spencer Tracy (It’s a Small World, 1935), and the Ritz Brothers (The Three Musketeers, 1939), and worked with other major Hollywood names including John Carradine, Jane Darwell, Guy Kibbee, and Donald Meek. He wrote numerous Shirley Temple hits including (Poor Little Rich Girl, 1936) and (Captain January, 1936).

A few of his other masterpieces include, (Flying Fists, 1924) (writer), (The Lottery Lover, 1935) (writer), (Stanley and Livingstone, 1939) (historical research and story outline), (The Doughgirls, 1944) (writer), (My Darling Clementine, 1946) (story), and his final film (Powder River, 1953) (writer).

Shirley Seifert, the second president of St. Louis Writers Guild, was born in St. Peters, Missouri. Seifert attended Washington University in St. Louis where she majored in classical and modern languages. Her journalism professors encouraged her writing, and this led her to sell an article to Population Science Monthly. In 1919 Seifert wrote “The Girl Who Was Too Good Looking” and earned $100 from American magazine. Seifert’s regularly published in Redbook, McCall's, Ladies Home Journal, and New York Herald-Tribune Magazine.

Seifert’s literary career centered on historical fiction and many of her novels were set in the American Midwest, featuring ordinary people living in extraordinary times. She maintained a positive outlook regarding the Great Depression saying, “I am no defeatist. When I am doing research for a novel, I see how America will work out of its present crisis.” She wrote fifteen novels, and earned a noteworthy place in American literature when The Wayfarer was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.

Ralph Mooney, wouldn’t be president until 1941, but was instrumental in the early years of St. Louis Writers Guild. Mooney published short stories in popular magazines like the Saturday Evening Post, Argosy All-Story Weekly, The Popular Magazine, Munsey's, American Magazine, and People's Favorite Magazine. His most well-known stories include “Look like a Million” in American Magazine, 1921, and “Polysynthetic Football” published in The Saturday Evening Post, 1922.

He is most famous for his novel David Rudd, published in 1927, sometimes called a memoir; it has been explained as a romance of the Mississippi River. His next novel was a work of fiction titled Mr. Pelly’s Little Home and was published in 1936.

Mooney also ventured into the theater with friend C. Eugene Smith. In 1914, a three-act operetta, The Love Star was produced by W. Gus Haenschen, the words and lyrics were written by Mooney and Smith. This instrumental ensemble for chorus and piano was produced in St. Louis, Missouri by the Quadrangle Club of Washington University.

Jay Gelzer was born in England and she published many short stories in popular magazines including Goodhousekeeping, Collier’s, Woman’s World, and Cosmopolitan. She wrote two books: a collection of stories published under the title, The Street of a Thousand Delights, and Compromise: A Novel. In 1924, she copyrighted a dramatic comedy screenplay called Lonely Woman, and the 1929 film, Broadway Babies, was based on one of her stories.

William Brennan was a newspaperman who wrote for the Saturday Evening Post, he later became a screenplay writer.

Lenora McPheeters wrote short stories.

Unfortunately we are still working to find verifiable information on William Brennan and Lenora McPheeters, both were integral to the formation of St. Louis Writers Guild, but have not left as large a footprint on history as the other founders. Research continues in hopes that within some dusty corner more records can be discovered.

Thank you to Founders, the Charter Members, and the writers who attended those early meetings. Thank you to 95 years of writers who have continued their honored traditions and kept this organization alive and thriving. Without all of you we'd just be a footnote in history instead of one of the oldest and largest literary organizations in the Midwest.

Here's too many more years of gathering together to discuss what else – writing!

Thank you to the today's board, President David Lucas, Jennifer Stolzer, T.W. Fendley, Jamie Krakover, Peter Green, Lauren Miller, and Brad R. Cook.

I should also mention – Today is the 50^th Anniversary for the Arch. I’m certain they chose this date to honor St. Louis Writers Guild’s 45^th Anniversary.

Visit www.stlwritersguild.org for more information about St. Louis Writers Guild. 

Brad R. Cook, author of the YA steampunk series, The Iron Chronicles. http://www.amazon.com/Iron-Horsemen-The-Chronicles/dp/0989207951. Iron Zulu, Book II is coming in November 2015. He currently serves as Historian of St. Louis Writers Guild after three and half years as its President. Learn more at www.bradrcook.com, on Twitter @bradrcook https://twitter.com/bradrcook, or on his blog Thoughts from Midnight on tumblr http://bradrcook.tumblr.com/

Gail Z. Martin: Strategic Short Stories

By Gail Z. Martin

My epic fantasy contracts call for no less than 175,000 words. The contracts for my urban fantasy novels and the steampunk novels I write with my husband, Larry N. Martin, call for around 120,000 words.

No problem. But 8,000 words? Panic!

That’s how I felt the first time I looked at the word count on a short story contract. But that’s just a long chapter! My mind screamed. And then I took a deep breath and thought about it again. Yeah. It’s a chapter. Maybe two. Not so scary. I do that all the time.

Except that in the case of a short story, that “chapter” has to have its own arc, and a beginning, middle and end. It’s not building toward a greater whole; it is the whole. That took some getting used to.

I’m going to divide short stories into two large categories. One is the completely stand-alone short story, the kind that creates a whole world unto itself and relatable characters in under twenty pages, then vanishes like a soap bubble. And then there are the short stories that are more like episodic TV, where each story has its own arc, but it exists as part of a larger ongoing universe and may be part of a larger arc (season) of related stories.

I have friends who write the first kind of short story. They get published in Asimov’s and Analog and I marvel at what they can do in such a brief piece of work.

I write the other kind of short story, the TV episode kind of story that may or may not have its own “season” of related stories with a larger arc, and which tie back to not only other stories I’ve written, but to book series. My short stories and novellas are what TV producers would call ‘spin-offs’. They are additional adventures by some of the characters from the books, that occur before, between and around the books in the series. Sometimes, the characters in the short stories are the main characters from the related books, and sometimes they are side characters.

So in my Jonmarc Vahanian Adventures, the title character is a significant secondary character in my Chronicles of the Necromancer and Fallen Kings book series. He’s not the main character in those series, but he is very important, and a reader favorite. Readers wanted to know his back story, which was not part of the story for the books. So I’ve written the equivalent of three serialized novels comprised of related, sequential short stories or novellas. I self-published those short stories on Kindle/Kobo/Nook, bringing out a new story each month in 10-story ‘seasons’. In June of 2016, Solaris Books, the publisher for my Chronicles of the Necromancer series, will bring out the first print and ebook compilation of the initial ten Jonmarc Vahanian stories plus an eleventh, exclusive story only in the compilation.

I had a couple of goals with the Jonmarc stories. First, I wanted to retain readers who loved the Chronicles series until I get the chance to come back and write the next six books in that series, and I wanted to reward loyal readers who genuinely cared about the character and wished to know more. Second, I wanted to capture new readers who might not have read the Chronicles series before reading the Jonmarc stories, but who might fall in love with the world and go looking for the books. And third, self-publishing the stories creates a nice additional revenue stream. Getting asked by Solaris to do the compilation was icing on the cake.

I also write a series of Deadly Curiosities short stories, linked to my urban fantasy series. In

that case, Solaris asked me to do a short story for an anthology and they liked that story so much, they requested a series based on it. I had written a few other stories in that world for other anthologies, but they were set in different time periods, following one of the immortal characters and the ancestors of the book’s main character. Now there are dozens of Deadly Curiosities short stories that occur before and around the two books (Vendetta, book two, comes out in December 2016). They not only spawned the book series, but they accomplish all three of the goals that I had for the Jonmarc stories.

I’ve got a series of novellas (and one short story) coming out in my Ascendant Kingdoms series that serves a little different purpose. The fourth and final book in that series—Shadow and Flame—comes out in 2016. The six novellas and the short story come out in the time gap between the release of book three and book four, and my goal there is to ramp up excitement for the series conclusion. But there’s also a six-year gap in the beginning of Ice Forged, the first book in the series, between when a crucial event happens and when the action picks up again. What occurred in that gap wasn’t part of the story arc for the book series, but it makes for a good related but stand-alone set of novellas, while also providing some interesting back story for established readers, hopefully capturing new readers, and contributing revenue (see a pattern?).

The fourth series of short stories is based on the Iron & Blood steampunk series I co-write

with Larry. These are spin-off stories following the exploits of two secondary characters who are agents with the Department of Supernatural Investigation. We started writing the stories because we were asked to be part of several steampunk anthologies, and it just made more sense to us to write something tied in to the novel. Of course the ‘about the authors’ blurbs in the anthologies tie the story to the novels, hopefully sending readers who want more looking for the book. And when we promote the anthology to our established readers, we tell them that there is an Iron & Blood story in it, hopefully sending our readers to the anthology as well. When those rights revert, we can bring the short story out independently. It’s a win for everyone.

When you think about contributing a short story to an anthology or writing it on its own, look for ways to use the story strategically so that it works harder for you by helping to promote your other work, draw in new readers, or reward your established readers. They can flesh out your fictional worlds for readers and help you with world building, while creating extra writing revenue and being just plain fun. And that’s the most important part—the fun!

My Days of the Dead blog tour runs through October 31 with never-before-seen cover art,

brand new excerpts from upcoming books and recent short stories, interviews, guest blog posts, giveaways and more! Plus, I’ll be including extra excerpt links for my stories and for books by author friends of mine. You’ve got to visit the participating sites to get the goodies, just like Trick or Treat! Details here: www.AscendantKingdoms.com

Trick or Treat!

Book swag is the new Trick-or-Treat! Grab your envelope of book swag awesomeness from me & 10 authors http://on.fb.me/1h4rIIe before 11/1!

Trick or Treat! Excerpt from my new urban fantasy novel Vendetta set in my Deadly Curiosities world here http://bit.ly/1ZXCPVS Launches Dec. 29

Treats not Tricks! My friend John Hartness shares an excerpt from the Black Knight Chronicles    Hard Day’s Knight Chp 1  http://bit.ly/1LFKD57

Trick Or Treat excerpt A Legacy Of Stars http://bit.ly/1Xl3jhS

More Treats! Enjoy an excerpt from Eternal Wanderings by my friend Danielle Ackley-McPhail https://www.wattpad.com/myworks/32501149-excerpt-from-eternal-wanderings

Happy Halloween! Read an excerpt from my story Shadow Garden, a Deadly Curiosities story http://bit.ly/1ZXE9YW

New BlaineMcFadden short story set in Velant Prison http://amzn.com/B0151YRCPA No Reprieve @orbitbooks

About the Author

Gail Z. Martin is the author of the upcoming novel Vendetta: A Deadly Curiosities Novel in her urban fantasy series set in Charleston, SC (Dec. 2015, Solaris Books) as well as the epic fantasy novel Shadow and Flame (March, 2016 Orbit Books) which is the fourth and final book in the Ascendant Kingdoms Saga. Shadowed Path, an anthology of Jonmarc Vahanian short stories set in the world of The Summoner, debuts from Solaris books in June, 2016.

Other books include The Jake Desmet Adventures a new Steampunk series (Solaris Books) co-authored with Larry N. Martin as well as Ice Forged, Reign of Ash and War of Shadows in The Ascendant Kingdoms Saga, The Chronicles of The Necromancer series (The Summoner, The Blood King, Dark Haven, Dark Lady’s Chosen) from Solaris Books and The Fallen Kings Cycle (The Sworn, The Dread) from Orbit Books and the urban fantasy novel Deadly Curiosities from Solaris Books.  

Gail writes four series of ebook short stories: The Jonmarc Vahanian Adventures, The Deadly Curiosities Adventures, The King’s Convicts series, and together with Larry N. Martin, The Storm and Fury Adventures. Her work has appeared in over 20 US/UK anthologies. Newest anthologies include: The Big Bad 2, Athena’s Daughters, Realms of Imagination, Heroes, With Great Power, and (co-authored with Larry N. Martin) Space, Contact Light, The Weird Wild West, The Side of Good/The Side of Evil, Alien Artifacts, Clockwork Universe: Steampunk vs. Aliens.

All Hallows Read Oct. 24 at 6 North Cafe

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