DOUGLAS SMITH | Writing the Fantastic

On Sunday September 12, from 1:30-4:00 EDT, I'll be giving a virtual (Zoom) workshop on the craft of writing short fiction as part of the annual Open House meeting of the Writers' Community of York Region (WCYR). Details of what I'll be covering and how to register can be found here.

The workshop and the open house are both open to non-members of WCYR. There is no charge to attend, but you do have to register at the above link.

York Region (where I live) is a large community north-east of Toronto. The WCYR is "is a collective of local authors, poets, and industry professionals who endeavour to build a supportive and encouraging framework for writers and their craft."

If you're a writer, I hope you'll check out the workshop. If you're a writer in York Region, I hope you'll consider joining WCYR.

This Thursday, April 29 at 7:00-8:30pm, I will be giving a webinar on marketing and selling short fiction, jointly sponsored by the Canadian Authors Association and SF Canada.

Drawing from my writer's guide, PLAYING THE SHORT GAME: HOW TO MARKET & SELL SHORT FICTION, I'll cover rights and licensing, finding short fiction markets, a strategy for selecting markets, submission advice, key contract clauses, and leveraging second rights for such things like reprints, foreign language rights, audio markets, and publishing a collection.

This webinar is free due to COVID-19’s impact on the writing community, but space is limited to the first 100 attendees. You can register for free here. Hope you'll be able to join me.

BookBub is currently offering a great deal on The Wolf at the End of the World, my urban fantasy novel set in my Heroka universe.

Up until March 16, you can pick up the ebook edition of the novel for only $0.99 (or the equivalent in your country).

The deal is available here and is offered in Canada, US, UK, Australia, and India, via Amazon, Apple, B&N, Kobo, and Google Play.

But it only runs until Tuesday March 16, so don't miss it!

I'll be giving a free webinar on marketing and selling short fiction on Thursday, March 25 from 1:00-2:00 pm, as part of the Indie Author Project's "Expert Session" series. You can register for free here.

The Indie Author Project's mandate is to encourage strong relationships between indie authors, local libraries, and readers by partnering with curators and libraries across the U.S. and Canada to find the best indie-published books.

My presentation will be drawn from my writer's guide, Playing the Short Game: How to Market & Sell Short Fiction, and will focus on rights and licensing, finding short fiction markets, a strategy for selecting markets, submission advice, key contract clauses, and all the ways to leverage second rights (reprints) to keep selliing your fiction.

Here's the webinar summary:

Take your first step to becoming a professional short fiction writer, join best-selling author, Douglas Smith, for this Expert Session on how to leverage short fiction in your writing career. In an engaging and conversational style, multi-award-winning author Douglas Smith will share how to market and sell short stories—and much, much more. Even experienced writers will find value here as Smith takes you from your first sale to using your stories to build a writing career.

Again, the webinar is free, so if you're a short story writer or always wanted to be, I hope you'll tune in! You can register here.

I was recently interviewed via Zoom by Taipei-based writer, Todd Sullivan, about plot development, specifically in my short story, "Symphony," and in my writing in general. The interview is on YouTube here, as part of Todd's "Plotting in Fiction" series.

In his series, Todd uses voice-only interviews then adds supporting visuals. I think he did an amazing job with his selection of images for this one.

I wrote "Symphony" for a science-fiction short story contest the Canadian literary magazine, Prairie Fire, was running at the time. Prairie Fire is based in Manitoba, Canada, and the contest was to commemorate Manitoba-born "Golden Age" SF writer, A. E. Van Vogt. Appropriately enough, Canadian SF writing great, Robert J. Sawyer, was the judge.

"Symphony" took second place in the contest and was also a finalist for the Aurora Award for best short fiction the following year. I read the opening few paragraphs to start the interview, but if you'd like to read the whole story, you can purchase it as an ebook from my online store or from your favourite ebook retailer.

I mentioned in last month's newsletter that I would be the guest presenter on September 17 on ProWritingAid's regular free webinar series on the craft and business of writing. ProWritiingAid is the best automated editing tool I've found and is a regular part of my editing routine for all my fiction. And no, I'm not an affiliate nor am I in any way compensated by them. I just love their software. I've tried many grammar checkers and editing tools, and ProWritingAid is by far the best I've used.

My seminar was based on my writer's guide, Playing the Short Game: How to Market & Sell Short Fiction. These sessions are supposed to be 40 minutes (max) of presentation, and 20 minutes of Q&A. That meant I had the challenge of condensing my three two-hour workshops based on the book, which themselves only cover portions of the guide, down to 40 minutes.

To do that, I focused on how a solid understanding of rights and licensing should drive every phase of a short story writer's career: from selecting where to send your stories first to negotiating a fair contract, and, assuming you've protected your rights, being able to leverage your short stories far beyond that first sale—for reprints, selling to foreign language markets, publishing collections, and much more.

If you're a short fiction writer and missed the Sept 17 session, you can still watch it. The webinar is archived and available to watch on Facebook.

My short story, "The Red Bird," has been reprinted in the just-published anthology, The Phantom Games. I'm thrilled that "The Red Bird" has the coveted spot of lead story.

I'd mentioned this anthology last month. At that point, the book had the working title Excalibur 2020. The re-titled antho features stories about the Olympics or Japan (or both).

Its release originally was to coincide with the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics (hence the theme), but after the games were cancelled due to the pandemic, the book's release was delayed until the fall.

The anthology is now available as an ebook on Amazon. A print edition will be coming soon. I love how the cover uses five phases of the moon to echo the five Olympic rings.

"The Red Bird" is a martial arts fantasy romance story set in 15th century Japan and was a finalist for the Aurora Award.

 

On Thursday, September 17 at 2:00pm EDT, I will be giving a free, online workshop on "How to Leverage Short Fiction in Your Writing Career" as part of ProWritingAid's free webinar series for writers.

Here's a summary of the workshop:

Learn how short stories can form a crucial part of any fiction writer's career. This session will help you understand the basics of licensing rights for short fiction, why you should always target the top markets, key clauses to look for in short fiction contracts, and much more.

Most importantly, you will learn the many ways a successful short fiction writer can leverage their backlist of published stories far beyond that first sale, including reprints, foreign language sales, audio markets, and collections.

Again, it takes place Thursday, September 17 at 2pm EDT. If you're interested, you can register here.

My short story, "The Red Bird," a martial arts fantasy romance story set in 15th century Japan, will be reprinted in the upcoming anthology, Excalibur 2020. "The Red Bird" was a finalist for Canada's Aurora Award when it appeared in 2001.

The antho will feature stories about the Olympics or Japan (or both). Originally planned for release to coincide with the now deferred Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics, the book will come out this fall.

John Paul Catton, editor for the anthology, kindly interviewed me about my writing projects, my approach to writing and research, and my urban fantasy novel, The Wolf at the End of the World. You can read the interview here.

Watching writers practice their craft would not rank high on anyone's list of spectator sports. Writer stares at screen. Screen stares back. Writer hits some keys. Stares at screen again. Hits backspace ever so many times and starts over. Rinse and repeat.

That's what I first thought when a San Diego writer friend, Tone Milazzo, reached out to the authors in the current (but soon-to-be-gone) exclusive Dark Fantasy & SF bundle, asking if anyone would like to collaborate on outlining an entire novel online in real time for his YouTube channel, Cyclops Road.

But Tone assured us it would be both fun to do and fun to watch. So I and another writer friend, Ottawa-based Matt Moore, raised our hands, and together with Tone, we started to outline an urban fantasy novel about what happens when magic suddenly disappears from a fantastical Toronto (yeah, I got to pick the city).

I'm not sure if it's fun to watch (I think so but you can be the judge), but it was fun to do. We make use of very cool software designed specifically to support this type of collaboration. Matt described the experience as combining breaking a story with D&D-like rules plus that 'Yes, and...' type of cooperation essential to performing improv. We obviously enjoyed the experience, because we came back for more, with more sessions planned.

You can watch the first two sessions here and here. Feel free to post comments there, as we are all interested in the viewer's experience. And a reminder: the exclusive Dark Fantasy & SF bundle ends this Thursday, September 10 at midnight EDT. Don't miss your chance to get eleven incredible books for an incredible price.