My beautiful and talented wife will be participating in Stay-In-Place Virtual Writing Convention, today, Tuesday, April 28th.
She will be leading a short Art and Craft of Writing Workshop and participating on some panels.
For more information and a list of other authors, look here.
For a schedule of events (some on Zoom, some of Facebook), look here.
Jagi, here! A huge thank you from the Wright Family to those of you who have remembered us in this busy holiday season. You have made it so that our Christmas will be very merry indeed!
We pray that you, too, will have a truly wonderful Christmas of your own.
Jagi, here. Sorry, you guys have been seeing a lot of me recently.
This excellent cover was provided by one of the backers to the Starquest Campaign and is dedicated to him and his wife. The Kindle version is now available. The paper version should be coming soon.
These essays appeared on this blog at some point, but here they are in convenient book form.
Science Fiction Grandmaster John C Wright here presents never before published essays on topics both deep and trivial surrounding the strange and wonderful worlds of science fiction and fantasy. Thoughtful, humorous, deep, or absurd, Wright travels the width of the cosmos and plumbs the deeps of eternity through the lens of simple space adventure stories to say what these flights of fancy say about life on earth, and the secrets hidden in the human heart.
Jagi ,here.
Ben Zwycky put together an amazing video for Superversive Press’s new release, Hard Moon by David Hallquist. The song reminds me of everything I loved about Science Fiction as a girl. (John really enjoyed the hint in the video that those seeking the Singularity might be the villains.)
When Brandt Wills comes back to life in the caves of Luna, his problems have just begun. Once a renegade enforcer, now a lone survivor of forbidden research, he holds a secret in his blood with deadly consequences. Pursued by the mysterious Singularity, he must fight for survival, with only the mutant symbiote in his blood and an ai system on his side.
“Hard Moon” is the first in a new science fiction thriller series where alien research could mean destruction or salvation for the solar system.
Jagi, here. John and I are thrilled to announce the publication of Operation Vampire, but our dear friend, Steven G. Johnson. If you enjoy mil-SF, you may well enjoy this hard-hitting mil-fantasy about an Elf-American in WWII. I have been delighted with how well it has been received by milsf fans so far.
Some of you may have read an earlier version of the first half called either Operation Renfield or King of the Hill. Operation Vampire includes a new and improved longer version of that–including an eerie encounter with an American icon–and a whole new adventure for King Company, Operation Vulture.
Mick Murphy’s an Irish half-elf from Manhattan. His best buddy Dave is a dwarf from Brooklyn. Together with a company of misfits, screwballs and, well, trolls from the pit, they’ll take on anything Austro-Hungaro-Romania, or for that matter Hell itself, cares to throw at them.
But behind the vampires, werewolves and sky demons are the Big Boys, deep down in a pit of their own. The War won’t end until G.I.s plant their boots on the Devil’s throne and kick him out. Working their way up to this biggest of D-Days is going to tax the United States Army to its utmost … but the dogfaces on the Line are one step ahead of the brass, because they’re already halfway to Hell.
Jagi, here
Our campaign for The Art and Craft of Writing is 214% funded! We can now make at least 13 videos, making our Wordsmith Perk really a good value.
However, we still have four days yet and we are already 1/4 of the way to the final stretch goal.
If we make it, we will add The Trouble With Tropes.
We hear a lot about Tropes today, partially due to the popularity of TV Tropes. But what are Tropes? Are they the Legos of the literary world, building blocks you can combine any way you wish? Or is there something more to them? Did they develop randomly? Or is there a method to their story madness?
Is a Trope the ultimate application of The Trick?
Come tour the landscape of the human heart and soul with us and discover the truth about Tropes!
A little over a week to go on The Art and Craft of Writing Indiegogo campaign, and we are 197% funded!
Now, however, a lovely and supportive fan has stepped forward with a generous offer. She is offering a $50 Zazzle certificate, hopefully to be used for The Wright Stuff or MysticalIris store, but usable anywhere on Zazzle. This certificate will go to the winner of a drawing of names of people who share the campaign.
So, if you want to participate, just share the Indiegogo link (this one) anywhere–blogs, Facebook, Twitter, etc., and put the link to your post in the comments. Your name will be entered once for every share.
Thank you to our kind fan!
A little more than a week to go, and we are already 189% funded! (195% if you count off platform contributions.)
However, if we could make one last stretch goal, we could do all of these — this is the backbone of the course, all the primary lessons:
The Word – Words on a Page – The inspiring opening
The Description – Descriptions That Grip – how to make readers feel they are there!
The Story — Engaging Openings – how to hook your reader
The Character – Breathing Life into Your Characters – writing characters as real as our friends.
The Trick — The Secret to all Storytelling
The Story – To Anticipate or Not to Anticipate! – where most plots fail
The Story – The Ultimate Secret – The simple trick that all the better writers know
The Story – Plot We’ve Got, Quite A Lot!
The Story – Two String – the difference between dull and fascinating.
The Story – Infodump Begone! – revelation not backstory
The Story – Payload Moments – what makes your story come alive
The Story – Wow, That Was Satisfying! – how to write an ending
In Conclusion – Building Your Own Writing Tips
Which of these would you like to see made into videos?
Jagi, here.
Turns out, that if you put 6.00 into Indiegogo, it records $600.
Several people let us know that the shipping for the 09 Wordmaster Perk was $600. That has been fixed. It is now $6.00.
In other news, we are 124% funded and just $11 short of being half way to our first stretch goal!
Thank you everyone!
Also, here’s last night’s Superversive Live Chat with Ben Wheeler and myself (Jagi).
Jagi, here.
The always entertaining Mr. Del Arroz kindly made this book available in its early stages to as a Perk for the Starquest campaign.* Now Justified is live! Isn’t that a magnificent cover!
To save a world…
…he must rely on God.
After years of fighting for justice with his deadly nanotech, Templar Drin abandons his post, crash landing on a desert world controlled by a tyrannical alien empire. Its inhabitants are forced into slavery, broken where a once-proud race cultivated its lands.
For the first time in Drin’s life, he has no backup, no support, none of his brothers.
He stands alone against evil.
Drin must face overwhelming odds to liberate millions of slaves from their captors and bring faith to a downtrodden world. But in his way stands the most dangerous weapon in the galaxy.
Can Drin use his Templar training to survive?
Fans of Star Wars and Warhammer 40K will love Justified, the new military science fiction epic from #1 Bestselling author, Jon Del Arroz.
Thanks so much to everyone here who has made this possible!!!
Our Indiegogo campaign for The Art and Craft of Writing is nearly funded! This means that we will be bringing to you at least the first few videos of this class in how to understand the nature of storytelling and how to make certain your story is reaching your reader.
Please help keep the momentum up by sharing! We have some cool Stretch Goal rewards, if we can reach them!
So many authors are in despair. Stories live in their hearts and minds, but they do not know what to do to make their dream become reality.
As an editor, I noticed that 90% of what I was telling my better writers was the same three things.
This course is based on those things. It has been designed to help you learn the secrets the best authors already know about how to captivate your readers and bring your stories to life.
To this end, Superversive Press wants to provide courses on how to write—providing all the tools you need to bring your writing up to the next level! Our first course is:
Books are enchanting. They are like a draught of strong wine. A good story sweeps us off our feet and carries us to true love, to far off places, to Narnia or Barsoom. With stories, we can reach others, lift them out of sorrow, sometimes even sway the course of lives, or nations.
All authors yearn to bring to vivid life the stories that burn deep within their hearts. They wish not only to see them given life but also to share them and, perhaps, touch the heart of another.
This course will teach you to bring those stories to life!
Jagi, here.
Sharing the opening intro to The Art and Craft of Writing, which is currently in an Indiegogo campaign.
All writing is just words on a page.
What does this mean, and why does it matter to us? To answer that question, I must tell you a bit of a story.
When I was young, I was in awe of the ability of good authors to transport us to an entirely different life. Reading the greats was glorious but also occasionally intimidating. A good book can make us sympathize first with a frightened rabbit and then with a hungry fox. They call upon us to “burn with the bliss and suffer the sorrow of all mankind.”
I loved what I read but I despaired that I could ever accomplish anything half so wonderful. I feared I would never figure out the mystery of how my favorite authors conveyed so much.
Then one day, it struck me. Books were just words on a page. Read the remainder of this entry »
The Internet has made many things easy.
With a click of a button, we upload novels to Amazon for the whole world to read. No years waiting for a publisher to discover us.
But no distribution into bookstores either.
No one can stop writers from achieving their dreams of being published today, but will anyone buy it? And, if they do, will they want to read the next one?
The best way to ensure future sales is to offer your reader a really good book!
Superversive Press wants to help!
To this end, Superversive Press wants to provide courses on how to write—providing all the tools you need to bring your writing up to the next level! Our first course is:\
Here are some responses from students who have taken the in-person version of The Art and Craft of Writing :
“The course is a treasure trove of practical, positive advice you can use immediately to improve your WIP or solidify your ideas for a new project.” author Marina Fontaine
“I took L. Jagi Lamplighter Wright’s “Guinea Pig” writing class last November and it definitely upped my game. Since “graduating” her course, I’ve sold six short stories and am now working on my first novel. Thanks, Jagi.” James Pyles
“I especially liked how you simply laid out ideas about story and characters, which instantly made me go “Oh, yeah! I’ve seen that before!”. In particular:
I felt that these were techniques that would have taken me ages to work out on my own, and seeing them simply stated has seriously helped me as a writer.” Billy Charlton
Coming soon from the beautiful and talented wife: The Art and Craft of Writing indiegogo campaign (to turn her writing course into videos.)
My beautiful and talented wife and regular commenter Zaklog the Great and his friend Nate discuss Kipling’s poem, the Dane Geld.
Here is the poem:
