Welcome to Biting-Edge, a blog shared by authors and vampire experts, Mario Acevedo and Jeanne Stein. We’ll cover urban fantasy, vampires, pop culture, and all things Joss Whedon. Unlike other fantasy blogs, we don’t insist on body cavity searches (unless you ask politely). Snarkiness is most welcome...though we won't promise not to bite back!
Sunday, March 03, 2013
Hook me up
Mario here:
What I'm reading this week: The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck.
Weapons-grade pimpage for your edification.
Critique buddy Aaron Ritchey is presenting another of his awesome classes. Let his writing magic rub off on you.
Over at the ITW Big Thrill, check out my interview with the writing team of Maynard-Sims about their mystery thriller, Dark of the Sun. They've nailed the Caribbean ambience right on. You smell the open water and feel the sway of the boat as they navigate through murder.
Don't forget this Wednesday, March 6. A fundraiser for Apparatus Publishing at Flatiron Coffee, in Boulder. 6PM. Readings by Jesse Bullington, Julie Kazimer, and me.
Plus, I'm teaching a 4-week workshop for Lighthouse Writers, Writing Your First Mystery.
And now, our first Dirty Sanchez of Shame Award goes to Random House for their Hydra ebook publishing venue. We all know that ebook sales have exploded, and that ebook self-publishing has become a viable option for many authors. What Random House has done is sneaky-snaked into that opportunity by packaging an ebook-only deal that strikes many writers as too similar to smelly vanity-press contracts. You as a writer get a fifty-fifty split with the publisher (not too different from other ebook publishers), but it's a tar-baby life-of-copyright contract that you're stuck to. Plus, the only advance to you is that the costs of publication are applied against future royalties, meaning no out-of-pocket fees. But expenses are counted against net proceeds which means you might not ever see one dollar paid to you, and you have no control over those expenses. So beware.
What I'm reading this week: The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck.Weapons-grade pimpage for your edification.
Critique buddy Aaron Ritchey is presenting another of his awesome classes. Let his writing magic rub off on you.
Over at the ITW Big Thrill, check out my interview with the writing team of Maynard-Sims about their mystery thriller, Dark of the Sun. They've nailed the Caribbean ambience right on. You smell the open water and feel the sway of the boat as they navigate through murder.Don't forget this Wednesday, March 6. A fundraiser for Apparatus Publishing at Flatiron Coffee, in Boulder. 6PM. Readings by Jesse Bullington, Julie Kazimer, and me.
Plus, I'm teaching a 4-week workshop for Lighthouse Writers, Writing Your First Mystery.
And now, our first Dirty Sanchez of Shame Award goes to Random House for their Hydra ebook publishing venue. We all know that ebook sales have exploded, and that ebook self-publishing has become a viable option for many authors. What Random House has done is sneaky-snaked into that opportunity by packaging an ebook-only deal that strikes many writers as too similar to smelly vanity-press contracts. You as a writer get a fifty-fifty split with the publisher (not too different from other ebook publishers), but it's a tar-baby life-of-copyright contract that you're stuck to. Plus, the only advance to you is that the costs of publication are applied against future royalties, meaning no out-of-pocket fees. But expenses are counted against net proceeds which means you might not ever see one dollar paid to you, and you have no control over those expenses. So beware.
Labels: Aaron Michael Ritchey, Apparatus Publishing, Dirty Sanchez, John Steinbeck
¶ posted by Mario Acevedo @ 7:54 PM 0 comments
Sunday, February 03, 2013
When the stars shine
Mario here:
What I'm reading: L.A. Requiem by Robert Crais.
The blog is busting with good news.
This Wednesday, critique buddy, Aaron Michael Ritchey, will present a workshop, Hook Me! Making Your First Sentence, First Paragraph, First Page, First Chapter Irresistible! with the Zenith Writers, Southglenn Public Library, Centennial, CO.
And this weekend, you'll find the Biting-Edge corporate staff (Jeanne and myself)--along with backup, Warren Hammond--in Colorado Springs for GalaxyFest 2013. The fun and shenanigans take place in the Antlers Hilton.
We writers dream of hitting the big time: repeatedly making the major bestseller lists, author tours that include international travel, legions of adoring fans, the requisite movie deal. And it does happen. I'm fortunate to know one such lucky person. (Let me define that luck as mountains of talent, brains, and hard work.) I'm talking about Richelle Mead. Years ago, her publisher sent a manuscript of Succubus Blues for a blurb. I put my critique goggles on and prepared myself to slog through the story. But things worked out differently and by the end of the first page I was hooked. What a story. What a writer. A few months later, Richelle was passing through Denver on a road trip/impromptu book tour. Jeanne and I set up a signing for Richelle at the Denver Book Mall and maybe four people showed up. I took Richelle to the downtown Barnes & Noble to sign stock, and it was a bit humiliating to learn they didn't have her book on the shelves. Fast forward a few short years. Richelle continues with the Georgina Kincaid Succubus series, also writes the Dark Swan series, and the Age of X, and hit gold with her YA Vampire Academy series, which consistently pegs the number one bestseller spot on the New York Times and USA Today. In no small turn of irony, Barnes & Noble now offers stacks of her books. But what I most admire about Richelle is that she's the only author who has had books banned she hasn't even written yet! Take that Kurt Vonnegut and Margaret Atwood! And now, the Vampire Academy movie inches closer to reality. Mark Waters will direct, and Zoey Deutch (left) and Lucy Fry will star as Rose and Lisa. Quit slacking, Richelle.
What I'm reading: L.A. Requiem by Robert Crais.
The blog is busting with good news.
This Wednesday, critique buddy, Aaron Michael Ritchey, will present a workshop, Hook Me! Making Your First Sentence, First Paragraph, First Page, First Chapter Irresistible! with the Zenith Writers, Southglenn Public Library, Centennial, CO. And this weekend, you'll find the Biting-Edge corporate staff (Jeanne and myself)--along with backup, Warren Hammond--in Colorado Springs for GalaxyFest 2013. The fun and shenanigans take place in the Antlers Hilton.
We writers dream of hitting the big time: repeatedly making the major bestseller lists, author tours that include international travel, legions of adoring fans, the requisite movie deal. And it does happen. I'm fortunate to know one such lucky person. (Let me define that luck as mountains of talent, brains, and hard work.) I'm talking about Richelle Mead. Years ago, her publisher sent a manuscript of Succubus Blues for a blurb. I put my critique goggles on and prepared myself to slog through the story. But things worked out differently and by the end of the first page I was hooked. What a story. What a writer. A few months later, Richelle was passing through Denver on a road trip/impromptu book tour. Jeanne and I set up a signing for Richelle at the Denver Book Mall and maybe four people showed up. I took Richelle to the downtown Barnes & Noble to sign stock, and it was a bit humiliating to learn they didn't have her book on the shelves. Fast forward a few short years. Richelle continues with the Georgina Kincaid Succubus series, also writes the Dark Swan series, and the Age of X, and hit gold with her YA Vampire Academy series, which consistently pegs the number one bestseller spot on the New York Times and USA Today. In no small turn of irony, Barnes & Noble now offers stacks of her books. But what I most admire about Richelle is that she's the only author who has had books banned she hasn't even written yet! Take that Kurt Vonnegut and Margaret Atwood! And now, the Vampire Academy movie inches closer to reality. Mark Waters will direct, and Zoey Deutch (left) and Lucy Fry will star as Rose and Lisa. Quit slacking, Richelle.Labels: Aaron Michael Ritchey, discount tires, GalaxyFest, Mark Waters, Richelle Mead, Robert Crais
¶ posted by Mario Acevedo @ 8:51 PM 3 comments
Sunday, December 23, 2012
For Xmas--My Next Big Thing
Mario here:
What I'm reading now:
Factotum by Charles Bukowski
I got tagged a couple of weeks back by Scott Browne who was trolling for victims for The Next Big Thing blog meme. I mean, this multi-level marketing approach to pimping our books was certain to go viral and get us scads of publicity. Yes!
My Next Big Thing? The University of Doom.
Where did the idea come from for the book?
Am not sure. Like most of my ideas, it materialized from the fog of a hang-over. Or while I was speaking in tongues.
What genre does your book fall under?
YA.
Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie
rendition?
A cross between an adolescent Boris Karloff and a young Cantinflas.
What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
Young Alfonso Frankenstein battles the evil James Moriarty to save his middle-school ass. And his dad's.
Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
The gods will decide.
How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
Much too long.
What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
Frankenstein (duh!), Lord of the Flies, and anything by Tim Dorsey and Tolstoy.
Who or What inspired you to write this book?
Utter and complete desperation. That and the voices in my head.
What else about your book might pique the reader's interest?
If you love robots, monsters, and middle-schoolers reanimating the dead, this is the book for you.
Below are the people I tagged. All great writers and worthy of gold-plated pimpage.
Aaron Michael Ritchey is a writer and inspirational speaker from Littleton, Colorado. He belongs to several writers organizations and will be the emcee of the Pikes Peak Writers Conference in April 2013. Thank you for letting him share his stories.
About Jaye Wells. After several years as a magazine editor and freelance writer, USA TODAY Bestselling author Jaye Wells finally decided to leave the facts behind and make up her own reality. Her overactive imagination and life-long fascination with the arcane and freakish blended nicely with this new career path. Her Sabina Kane urban fantasy series is a blend of dark themes, grave stakes and wicked humor. Jaye lives in Texas with her saintly husband and devilish son.
Rudy Ch. Garcia’s noir detective story LAX Confidential appeared in Latinos in Lotusland, Bilingual Press (’08). His Southwest fantasy, Memorabilia (honorable mention in Writers Digest competition) appeared in Needles & Bones, Drollerie Press. A SF-fantasy flash fiction piece A Grain of Life is viewable at AntiqueChildren.com (’09), and a humor-fantasy-horror, Weird Ronnie, took first place in an AlternateSpecies.com competition in Britain. The fantasy story Mr. Sumac published in AQC’s journal Kingdom Freaks & Other Divine Wonders, Spring 2012. His SF short Last Call for Ice Cream was accepted by Rudy Rucker, Sr., for his Flurb webzine #13, 3/12. Garcia is a quasi-ex-member of the Northern Colorado Writers Workshop, holds a B.A. in writing from the University of Colo.-Denver and works as a Denver-area bilingual elementary teacher. He is a founder-contributor to LaBloga.blogspot.com, a Chicano literary website.
Feliz Navidad, amigos!
What I'm reading now:
Factotum by Charles Bukowski
I got tagged a couple of weeks back by Scott Browne who was trolling for victims for The Next Big Thing blog meme. I mean, this multi-level marketing approach to pimping our books was certain to go viral and get us scads of publicity. Yes!
My Next Big Thing? The University of Doom.
Am not sure. Like most of my ideas, it materialized from the fog of a hang-over. Or while I was speaking in tongues.
What genre does your book fall under?
YA.
Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie
rendition?
A cross between an adolescent Boris Karloff and a young Cantinflas.
What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
Young Alfonso Frankenstein battles the evil James Moriarty to save his middle-school ass. And his dad's.
Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
The gods will decide.
How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
Much too long.
What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
Frankenstein (duh!), Lord of the Flies, and anything by Tim Dorsey and Tolstoy.
Who or What inspired you to write this book?
Utter and complete desperation. That and the voices in my head.
What else about your book might pique the reader's interest?
If you love robots, monsters, and middle-schoolers reanimating the dead, this is the book for you.
Below are the people I tagged. All great writers and worthy of gold-plated pimpage.
Aaron Michael Ritchey is a writer and inspirational speaker from Littleton, Colorado. He belongs to several writers organizations and will be the emcee of the Pikes Peak Writers Conference in April 2013. Thank you for letting him share his stories.
About Jaye Wells. After several years as a magazine editor and freelance writer, USA TODAY Bestselling author Jaye Wells finally decided to leave the facts behind and make up her own reality. Her overactive imagination and life-long fascination with the arcane and freakish blended nicely with this new career path. Her Sabina Kane urban fantasy series is a blend of dark themes, grave stakes and wicked humor. Jaye lives in Texas with her saintly husband and devilish son.
Rudy Ch. Garcia’s noir detective story LAX Confidential appeared in Latinos in Lotusland, Bilingual Press (’08). His Southwest fantasy, Memorabilia (honorable mention in Writers Digest competition) appeared in Needles & Bones, Drollerie Press. A SF-fantasy flash fiction piece A Grain of Life is viewable at AntiqueChildren.com (’09), and a humor-fantasy-horror, Weird Ronnie, took first place in an AlternateSpecies.com competition in Britain. The fantasy story Mr. Sumac published in AQC’s journal Kingdom Freaks & Other Divine Wonders, Spring 2012. His SF short Last Call for Ice Cream was accepted by Rudy Rucker, Sr., for his Flurb webzine #13, 3/12. Garcia is a quasi-ex-member of the Northern Colorado Writers Workshop, holds a B.A. in writing from the University of Colo.-Denver and works as a Denver-area bilingual elementary teacher. He is a founder-contributor to LaBloga.blogspot.com, a Chicano literary website.
Feliz Navidad, amigos!
Labels: Aaron Michael Ritchey, Charles Bukowski, Frankenstein, Jaye Wells, Rudy Ch. Garcia, Santa Claus, Scott Browne, University of Doom
¶ posted by Mario Acevedo @ 8:18 PM 0 comments
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
New Writing Class
Hi folks-- a little commercial interlude before we begin today's program. I'm going to be teaching an online class in writing Urban Fantasy for The Carolina Romance Writers Chapter of RWA beginning April 2. If it sounds like something you might be interested in, here's the info.
WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION:
What we’ll cover in this course will apply to not only Urban Fantasy, but to all genres. While some topics are specific to UF, world building, for instance, most pertain to crafting a good a story. I’ll also include lessons on the business of writing, something often neglected but very important. The publishing world is changing daily. You need to be aware of how those changes affect you. So, what is Urban Fantasy? Why has it become the hottest new genre to hit the market in decades? Is it too late to tap in? What elements do you need to write UF? These are some of the questions we’ll be addressing in this course.
COST:
For CRW and HCRW members $15, all others $25
FOR MORE INFO:
Email Jason at: workshops@carolinaromancewriters.com
WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION:
What we’ll cover in this course will apply to not only Urban Fantasy, but to all genres. While some topics are specific to UF, world building, for instance, most pertain to crafting a good a story. I’ll also include lessons on the business of writing, something often neglected but very important. The publishing world is changing daily. You need to be aware of how those changes affect you. So, what is Urban Fantasy? Why has it become the hottest new genre to hit the market in decades? Is it too late to tap in? What elements do you need to write UF? These are some of the questions we’ll be addressing in this course.
COST:
For CRW and HCRW members $15, all others $25
FOR MORE INFO:
Email Jason at: workshops@carolinaromancewriters.com
# # # #
I love spring. The grass is turning green, the trees are starting to bud, the flowers are poking their little heads up. Means we should get a snow storm any minute to squash them flat. Anyway, here's a look at my yard.
And it's like bunny heaven in our yard, too. Yesterday I counted five--FIVE!!! Of course I couldn't persuade them to pose together for a pic but here are two.
# # # #
And it's like bunny heaven in our yard, too. Yesterday I counted five--FIVE!!! Of course I couldn't persuade them to pose together for a pic but here are two.
# # # #
Okay, so it's a slow news week. I've been busy with copy edits for Haunted, finishing the first draft for Fallen (the new series), writing a part of screenplay for a class, working on the ninth Anna book (no working title yet) and updating my lessons for the CRW class I mentioned above. So I really have been busy. About the only newsworthy item that I came across was this:
Tattered Cover Book Store is in negotiations to open multiple outlets at Denver International Airport, CBS4 reported. "Yes, we're hoping to," owner Joyce Meskis confirmed. "It's in the hands of the city at this point." She told CBS4 that tentative plans call for the bookseller to partner with Hudson News, taking over and rebranding airport sites as Tattered Cover outlets. Hudson News would continue to be involved in the operation of the bookstores. "We would be working together with them, but the names would be Tattered Cover," Meskis added. She also called the DIA plan a "win-win" move: "They (DIA) want to show travelers the connection to Denver and we would hope to have more exposure."
I'm hoping this means I might see more of my books at the airport. I seem to find them in every city but my own!!
Tattered Cover Book Store is in negotiations to open multiple outlets at Denver International Airport, CBS4 reported. "Yes, we're hoping to," owner Joyce Meskis confirmed. "It's in the hands of the city at this point." She told CBS4 that tentative plans call for the bookseller to partner with Hudson News, taking over and rebranding airport sites as Tattered Cover outlets. Hudson News would continue to be involved in the operation of the bookstores. "We would be working together with them, but the names would be Tattered Cover," Meskis added. She also called the DIA plan a "win-win" move: "They (DIA) want to show travelers the connection to Denver and we would hope to have more exposure."
I'm hoping this means I might see more of my books at the airport. I seem to find them in every city but my own!!
# # # #
Oh, there is one more thing. Today, Thursday, is the book launch for Aaron Ritchey's The Never Prayer-- It will be held here:
If you know Aaron, you know it will be a kick. If you don't, you need to meet this talented new YA author now. Hope to see you there!
Hanson’s Grill and Tavern
1301 S. Pearl St Denver, Colorado 80210
7pm until they kick us out, baby!
1301 S. Pearl St Denver, Colorado 80210
7pm until they kick us out, baby!
If you know Aaron, you know it will be a kick. If you don't, you need to meet this talented new YA author now. Hope to see you there!
Labels: Aaron Michael Ritchey, Carolina Romance Writers, The Never Prayer
¶ posted by Jeanne Stein @ 3:41 PM 0 comments
