Busy Busy Busy

Clackety-clack

This has been a great week in terms of work and writing-related by-products. In addition to turning in a fun outline for my next Littlest Pet Shop script, I was able to swing by a certain place to pick up my assignment for the sooper-seekrit new project that I've been praying/hoping to be a part of. A non-disclosure agreement prevents me from telling you anything about it at this time (insert "but I'd have to kill you" joke here or, more accurately, a "they would have to kill me" joke), but let's just say it would be an awesome show to work on and I'll share details when I'm allowed to do so.

To give you an idea of how excited I was to be at the certain place, I hugged the producer of the show -- twice -- and I'm not much of a hugger at all. Fortunately, she's a friend and seemed to accept the hugs in the spirit they were intended.

As a bonus, I got a lot of work done on Giantkiller -- reorganizing it from a prologue and seventeen chapters of disturbingly uneven length (the shortest being 917 words and the longest being 14,058) to a prologue and thirty much more balanced chapters.

So, as stated, a great week. Go busy-ness!

Day Job News: Littlest Pet Shop Premieres in November!

While there are no curmudgeonly dragons or mischievous wizards to be found on Littlest Pet Shop, I'm pleased to report that the show I've been writing on for almost a year is going to start airing next month on The Hub TV Network. In addition to the hyper-adorable character designs, there's some smart and, imho, funny writing attached, too.

What's the show about? From the press release:

“Littlest Pet Shop” follows Blythe Baxter and her father as they move into a Big City apartment above the Littlest Pet Shop – an amazing day-camp for pets of all kinds including a doggie diva, dancing gecko and sweet, adorable panda.  Her real adventure begins when she discovers that she alone can miraculously understand and talk to all of the pets.  She joins them on fantastical adventures that include uproarious song-and-dance sequences featuring all-new original music."

Sounds fun to me! Littlest Pet Shop, or LPS as we showbiz insiders call it, is a hoot to write for and I'm hoping the viewers will get a kick out of it, too. I'll post more details as they become available. Here's the promo:

A Take (or two) on Author Rank

SF author John Scalzi has an interesting take on the new Amazon author rankings. He kicks off his post by stating:

"Amazon has started ranking authors by total sales via Amazon, updated hourly. This is certain to make a whole bunch of authors begin to freak out as they constantly refresh their Amazon author pages to see where they stand in the rankings..."

The "freak out" part is where I have a problem with Amazon's new set up. Personally, I think if a writer pays too much attention to all of this ranking business it can be counter-productive, quite literally. When a higher portion of creative energy goes into promotion and its accompanying worries over actual writing, then there's something wrong with the equation. Does that mean an author, specifically an indie or self published one, shouldn't do any promotion at all for his or her books? No, of course not. But there has to be a balance and I think some folks are more worried about, as Scalzi puts it, "gaming the system" for their current books, than the much more important challenge of writing new books.

Other than a pathetically low-key social media presence, my not too terribly complicated marketing/sales plan is to write books that readers want to read. Yup, that's the plan in its entirety. Hopefully, I'll write enough books that I can build up a decent backlist. With a decent backlist and enough readers reading my books, there's an outside chance that I'll be able to earn a living as an author (which is, no matter what you hear, the ultimate goal for any author). I don't care what my author ranking is (no I haven't looked) and I'm pretty gosh-darned sure that I never will care.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. Please let me know what you think about Amazon's new round of rank-o-mania in the comments.

Guest Post: Author Cynthia Ravinski Talks Emotobooks

I think the concept of "Emotobooks" is an interesting one. Check out Cynthia's guest post on the subject and let us know what you think about this new medium in the comments. Take it away, Cynthia!

Hi Roger, many thanks for letting me post on the Novel Project today. And I’ve got just that for you. My story, Lingering in the Woods is an Emotobook. And that is a new medium of fiction published by Grit CityPublications to be available for ereaders of all sorts.

The idea of Emotobooks as a literary form lodged in my mind and haunted me for days after I’d first heard of it. Using abstract imagery to enhance the reading experience engages multiple areas of the brain, which appeals to my vivid sense of color and shape. Louis Sullivan, an American architect, put it perfectly, “form ever follows function.” Emotobooks have a unique style and structure. They are all fast-paced, imagery-heavy short stories or serial novels containing abstract, emotionally provocative illustrations to depict what characters feel during peak moments of tension. These expressionistic elements provide both a cerebral and visual stimulation, which enhances the experience. 

Lingering in the Woods was not always an Emotobook though. I had written it and let it sit in a drawer for a couple of years by the time I heard about Emotobooks. Its fast pace and image-filled narrative seemed to me a perfect fit for this new form. Also the publisher is looking for all forms of fiction, including all the genres. So the fact that Lingering in the Woods is a fantasy also fit perfectly.

When the editors accepted it I was thrilled. I’d get to be a part of the Emotobook revolution. The first thing they did was comb through my story to find the best locations for the abstract images that are unique Emotobooks. At this point they brought on the artist that would create the imagery; see this sneak peak from inside Lingering in the Woods:

When they sent their editorial notes back I reviewed and worked with their suggestions to improve the balance of pace and intensity. When I’d returned the final copy, the editor formatted it for the different ebook retailers it would be going to. It is available at Amazon, iBooks and all major ebook retailers.

Grit City Publications is a very different type of publisher. It’s more like an indie collaborative--a little like the folks who come together for this Magic Appreciation Tour a few times a year. The publisher requires all authors who publish Emotobooks support each other through social networking. The catalogue is always growing, so the support base is as well.

Recent advances in technology brought us a good way to read the electronic book. Emotobooks have brought a new way to enjoy ebooks.

If you try an Emotobook and love it, visit the Grit City page to request an autograph card from the creators.

This post concludes my September Magic Appreciation Blog Tour. My previous stop was an interview at the Importance of the Impossible with A.E. Marling.

Cynthia Ravinski

Cynthia Ravinski writes Emotobooks, among other things. From her coastal northern setting she finagles language into stories. She’s been an athlete, a co-pilot, and a world traveler. She’s basked in the light of great poets, and has been educated to high degrees at UMaine Farmington and Seton Hill University. To say she is obsessed with drinking tea is an understatement.

Find Cynthia Ravinski at her Blog www.cynthiaravinski.com

On facebook: http://www.facebook.com/CynthiaRavinskiAuthor

And twitter @CynthiaRavinski

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Thanks, Cynthia!

Dragonfriend Signed Copies Available -- In Canada!

For all of my Ottawa, Ontario friends there will be signed copies of Dragonfriend available NEXT Saturday (9/29) at the Gaia Java Company.

Author pal Scott Bury has graciously allowed me to piggyback onto his signing for "The Bones of the Earth" (I sent some signed copies to him). His epic fantasy is quite good so I recommend picking up a copy of that, too!

Check out this link for details.

Book Review: Urchin King

Paul, the quintessential street urchin, has spent the last nine years of his life barely eking out an existence in the back alleys and public squares of the town of Wynburgh -- completely unaware of his secret heritage. All of this changes when he's roped into an elaborate scheme that has him taking the place of the sweet, yet mentally challenged heir to the throne. Placed squarely in the path of a conniving wizard and an evil necromancer, Paul has to use all of his street smarts to outwit them and save the members of the royal family he has come to love.

Author Katharina Gerlach successfully combines an easy to read writing style with some first-rate storytelling in this appealing fantasy novel for young adults. Even though the set up, at first, seems to be similar to Twain’s The Prince and the Pauper, the similarity ends once you get past the “pair of princes who ‘coincidentally’ resemble each other.” Urchin King is a completely original story that stands on its own and is a lot of fun. Recommended.

Giveaway Winner! (and other news)

A hearty congratulations to Angie Forney, winner of my Goodreads book giveaway. A signed copy of Dragonfriend will be heading Angie's way later this week!

In the meantime, work continues on Giantkiller, sequel to Dragonfriend. Even though I had to take a break to finish up a draft of a 'Littlest Pet Shop' script (animated half-hour to air on The Hub -- psst! It's going to be really funny) and generate some premises for two other shows (prayers and/or positive vibes welcome!) I'm almost at the end of the second to last chapter. Yes, I'd say I've officially entered the "light at the end of the tunnel" phase of the program. Updates to come!

Independent Authors International

I recently joined iAi, an independent author's group with the very lofty goal of making sure its member's books are suitable for publication.The group's recent press release explains it all:

Authors’ cooperative venture changes the publishing world — again

iAi to be a symbol of quality and professionalism in publishing

A group of writers, marketers and designers unaffiliated with publishers have banded together to create their own publishing model, “Independent Authors International (iAi).”

The new organization, whose members hail from across the U.S. and around the world, aims to support and legitimize the independent author movement, and bring new voices to readers throughout the world.

“Recently developed technologies like e-readers and print-on-demand make it now possible for individual writers to publish books without the resources of a large commercial publishing enterprise,” says iAi spokesperson, Scott Bury.

“The iAi co-operative will help professional authors by bringing together the skills and services that a commercial publisher offers, while leaving the authors in control of their work, at a fraction of the cost, and with a much more responsive and personal touch.”

The iAi's goal is to help its members produce quality, professional works recognized by literary agents, publishers, booksellers, and readers. The group is a democratic, cooperative organization controlled by its members.

Membership is granted by invitation of existing members. The group vets prospective members to ensure they meet the professional writing, editing, and marketing standards of the iAi.

To receive the services of the organization, members must contribute their editing, production, or marketing skills to other members.

The iAi currently has 12 authors and publishing professionals from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Israel and the Philippines. The iAi website at http://iauthorsi.org/ has information on the organization's goals and principles, a list of members, books that meet iAi criteria and links to sites where these books can be purchased.

For more information about Independent Authors International or to schedule an interview with one of its members, please contact Scott Bury by email at scott.bury@iAuthorsi.org.

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I hope this group succeeds because if there's one thing the world of independent publishing can use, it's more quality checks. Check out the iAi featured publication in the sidebar. 'Anabar's Run' is this month's book and author Will Granger wanted to be sure you knew he's donating one half of the 2012 profits to a charity called "The Relief Bus."

7 Questions: Voice Pro Mark Moseley

Most of you probably don't know this, but I have a really cool "day job" writing TV animation. As part of an effort to bring a little more of that world to this blog I asked my neighbor, talented voice professional Mark Moseley, if he wouldn't mind answering seven questions about his craft. Thankfully, he agreed (otherwise I'd find it hard not to throw the stink-eye at his house every time I drove by). Seriously though, he's a great guy and I think you'll find him as interesting as I do.

Mark Moseley

Here now, seven questions for Mark Moseley:

1) Tell us a little bit about yourself. What brought you out to Los Angeles and how did you end up doing voices for animation?

The whole thing, even though it was something I’d always wanted, was sort of a fluke. I’d become a radio DJ when I was still in high school, and after graduation, continued that as a main career path for a while. I used to dream of being a comedian when I was a kid; growing up in a small town in Mississippi, being on the local AM radio station was as close as I could get to being in ‘show biz’. Bouncing around from city to city-as one does in radio-for a few years, I eventually made my way to Miami, where I was doing mornings as a comedic partner (using my vocal skills and penchant for writing short-form sketch comedy), while I explored lots of other interests.

I did a lot of on-camera pitch-man stuff, lots and lots of radio and TV voice-over, as well as being a (part-time) working stand-up comic (in all my years of dabbling in stand-up, I’ve never been a serious ‘road comic’, as I always had that full-time day job, not to mention a family to feed).

But it all collectively served me very well, when, in 1997, I got a call from someone at Disney in Orlando. Someone at exactly the right place at the right time had heard me on the radio in Miami doing my impression of Eddie Murphy, and they were looking for someone to be a sound-alike for Eddie in “Mulan”. So many things had to come together for this to happen: Disney had to have been making “Mulan” at their Florida studio-not in California where most feature films are made, someone had to hear me on the radio, and Eddie Murphy had to be on vacation at the time the Disney studio heads had demanded to see a ‘rough cut’ of “Mulan”. It was fate for me. That opened all the doors since. From doing sound-alike for all the TV commercials and products for Mushu, I started doing Eddie Murphy’s TV looping (over-dubbing clean words for dirty words) for his movies such as “The Nutty Professor” and “Life”…and every one since. It also led me to work for DreamWorks, as Eddie signed on for “Shrek”. By now, he was sending studios to me for stuff he was too busy for. I began flying back and forth from Miami to L.A. once a month to fill in for Eddie on the animated TV series “The PJ’s”. By 2002, when DreamWorks told me I’d have acting work in “Shrek 2”, and “Father of the Pride”, I was able to justify moving the family to Los Angeles.

2) Are you a natural at picking up/creating voices and dialects or is that a skill you have to work at? 

Mushu

It’s a natural ability that quite a few people do have; most just never really try to see how serious they can get with it. What a lot of impressionists will do is, they’ll try to get the voice close enough to deliver a trademark line or two: “I’ll be back.” or “You can’t handle the truth!”. If they have a few lines where they can maintain the voice, then they figure they’ve got themselves an impression. I go for being fully conversational. Give me any dialogue in the world, and I can say it in Eddie Murphy’s voice and with the proper emotion. I mentioned doing TV looping for “The Nutty Professor”? In that movie, I had to imitate Eddie Murphy doing characters; same thing with “Norbit”. It’s me imitating Eddie Murphy as the grandmother, and the brother, and so on. It’s a craft that you never stop working on. I always tell kids—if you can do one impression, I’ll bet you can do five. And if you get to five—guess what?—it means you can do 50. Some voices or dialects are harder than others; I’ve had a heck of a time getting President Obama down. It depends on the voice, or the dialect. I’ve discovered over the years that the key is to immerse yourself in a voice if you want to master it.

I once overdubbed a German movie into English, and after four straight days of listening to actors speak German in a dubbing studio—I had myself as awesome authentic German accent. I go for mastery too. I’m quite proud of a lot of my voices, and know that I do certain ones better than anyone else. Schwarzenegger, for example. My Arnold is very realistic-sounding, which led to me getting cast in the “Terminator 3-Redemption” game. They auditioned every guy out there that did Arnold, and they put me in that game-and, here’s the part I’m proud of-in some parts of the game, my impression is blended into dialogue recordings they had from Arnold himself. It’s a really good match. When Fox made the “Simpsons” movie, they brought me in to read the lines for “President Schwarzenegger” (spoiler alert!), because they were toying with the idea of not using Harry Shearer’s caricature of Arnold, but maybe making people think it really WAS Arnold.

3) You also do voices for video games. Talk a little about the differences between working in that world and doing voices on a cartoon. 

Donkey

I’ve done all the “Shrek” video games, and quite a few for Disney, so those are fun and light. But more and more, video games are calling on actors do some pretty heavy acting; they’ve come a long way from the days when characters had such complex dialogue as “Die, alien scum!”, and “Urgh!’ Now, they’re bringing in Hollywood screenwriters to construct these intricate and complex characters and storylines. It’s a lot of fun, and a challenge too.

You always go in when you get cast knowing that you’re going to be doing at least 3 characters, usually more; I did nine for “Star Wars-the Old Republic”. You do still get to say “Urgh!” a lot—it’s funny, because you do all these sounds of pain, and death screams, and the voice director is coaching you: “Now sound like you’ve been thrown off a cliff. Now you’re being crushed by a boulder. Now give me one where a dragon is eating you.” The only major difference between video games and cartoons is—and it IS major—in video games, you pretty much stick to the script. In animation, they want as much improvisation as possible. That’s what makes cartoon animation so much fun.

4) What’s a typical workday like for you?

What’s exciting is that there is no typical. I never know from one day to the next if I’m EVER going to work again—isn’t that exciting!? It’s called being a ‘journeyman actor’, kids. What you want to go for is being an “A-List” actor, you see. Seriously though, I never know. Like everyone else, I audition for a ton of stuff every week, and then sit back and don’t hold my breath. The work varies; I perform a sketch comedy bit or two for radio stations first thing in the morning. Just about every day I do some radio voice-overs. Some days I’m reading a corporate narrative voice-over; other days I’m driving to an audition where I’ve got to perform in an ensemble radio commercial. Then some days I get to do something really exciting like perform in a video game or an animated TV series. It’s never boring.

5) You have a very impressive home recording studio and it seems like a lot of voice actors have them these days (as opposed to driving in for an audition at a casting director or agent’s office). Any thoughts on being your own “sound engineer” and on what seems to be a trend toward home studios? 

I’ve been in this business so long, I remember recording on reel-to-reel tape. Technology now allows us, for a few hundred bucks, to do at home what you used to need a $100,000 studio full of equipment to do. All a young person really needs in a computer, and a decent cardioid microphone-which they can, believe or not, get for $199 dollars-and they’re equipped. Get to Wal-Mart and get some of those ‘egg-carton’ foam mattress pads, put them on the wall, and you’ve got yourself a studio. Almost every voice actor I know has got a set-up at home. Sure, we all still drive to Disney or Nickelodeon for TV pilot auditions, but for the radio and TV commercials, for video games—for some animation work, I’m auditioning at home. I’ve done all my voice-over jobs for “Jimmy Kimmel Live” from my house, directing myself, and sent them an mp3 attached to an email. It’s amazing how convenient it all has become.

6) Any advice for youngsters thinking about pursuing a career in doing voices for animation or video gaming?

Mark and Friends

Most kids will ask me, “But I’m not in New York or L.A., don’t I need to be there?” If that’s what you’re working towards, that’s a great goal, but don’t sweat it for now. You want to be a working voice-over actor? Take your current situation and use it to train yourself for success. The hardest lesson I ever learned when I got to L.A. was—this is where a LOT of people who can ‘do voices’ mess up—thinking that being able to do voices was going to get me work. Boy, did I learn fast how many 100s of talented people there are here who can also do voices—AND were trained-up actors. It’s voice-ACTING.

So, while you’re dreaming, as we all did, of moving to Hollywood and being in cartoons, always be working towards it. No matter how big or small your town is—I guarantee they’ve got local theater. Get it there and do as much of it as you can. Then start an improv troupe within your local theater; hone your comedic improv skills. Get books on how to learn dialects and work on making them AUTHENTIC through hours of practice. “Sort-of” being able to do a Scottish accent won’t cut it, because in L.A., you’re in the audition waiting room for a video game, and half the actors around you are FROM Scotland. Do it all. Take some vocal lessons—for breath control, and because eventually someone is going to require you to sing in a role. And doing all this will minimize the frustration that comes along with that ache you have inside to do this-because you’ll be feeding you passion for performing, and being the center of attention (which is why we all get into this business-don’t ever let anybody kid you).

7) What are you working on these days? Any cool gigs coming up? 

I dabble in so many areas; it’s hard to say. I’ve been loving narrating audio-books over the last couple of years; just finished my 4th one this year. And I also just finished a series of parody videos for Yahoo, called “Hackerazzi”, where I got to imitate lots of different people. I’ve got some interesting prospects in the works. I may get to be the ‘promo voice’ person for a new cable channel. I’m also about to start working as part of a morning radio show that airs in Los Angeles and Miami. And I’m working right now on a screenplay that would be a dancing/singing/acting vehicle for my daughter-she’s a dancer/singer/actress. But I never know when the phone is going to ring and it’s a completely new situation, doing something I’ve never done before.

I once got a call from Disney director/producer Don Hahn (Lion King, Beauty and the Beast) asking me to drop what I was doing, and come to a ‘table read’-a first read-through of a finished movie script, because one of their actors couldn’t be there, and he knew I could ‘sound like the guy’. That was a pretty cool day.

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 Thanks, Mark! If you'd like to learn more about what Mark's been up to, check out his IMDb page.

Dragonfriend Author's Birthday Book Giveaway

It's my birthday this month and, super nice guy that I am, I thought I should offer you guys a gift (hey, it's as good an excuse as any to run a giveaway). Click on over to Goodreads for a chance to win a signed copy of Dragonfriend...

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Dragonfriend

by Roger Eschbacher

Giveaway ends July 31, 2012.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Guest Post: Ask an Author

Heather Sutherlin has a great blog where she encourages "students to read and write more of what they love" with writing exercises and story starters, writing tips and tricks, and a bunch of other fun stuff.

She also reviews books from and runs guest posts by independent authors like me!

Heather graciously asked me for a guest post and I decided to go with the three most common questions kids ask me at readings.

You can check out my post here.

Dragonfriend Horn Tootage

 Writer/reviewer Heather Sutherlin gives Dragonfriend a hearty thumbs up on her eponymous blog and states: 

"I know boys and girls alike will find this story fascinating and fun.  My daughter might complain that it gets a bit “yucky” during the battle scenes, but not more than would cause any normal fifth grade boy to yell out “cool!” as he reads through it.  In turn, the boy in my house might not appreciate the innocent crush Leonard has on Maiden Glennys, but my daughter will eat it up."

Yup, she gets it. You can read the rest of the review here.

Book Review: Vaetra Unveiled

Despite their mutual distrust, Jaylan Forester, a disgraced former member of the Imperial Guard turned mercenary, and Sulana Delano, a hard-edged Sword Sorceress from the enigmatic Archives, team up to fight a lurking evil and recover a mysterious artifact.

Along the way Jaylan learns his destiny is somehow tied to "vaetra," the power sorcerers use to alter nature, and that he’s going to have to seriously adjust his prejudice against those who practice this ancient art.

Author Daniel Marvello has successfully crafted a truly exciting story, transporting the reader to a gritty and fascinating world that feels about as real as it gets. There were no “road bumps” (typos, weak world building, uninteresting characters) to derail me as this satisfying adventure story played out like a movie in my head. 

Every aspect of this book is fully developed and loving care has been taken to get everything just right. It’s not a short book and yet I easily finished it within two days – a testament to the fact that Vaetra Unveiled is a flat out page turner. Highly Recommended

To Scrivener or Not to Scrivener?

Currently using MS Word for the bulk of my manuscript work and Dramatica Pro for outlining. On occasion, I'll also use the novel template in my screenwriting software, Screenwriter 2000. All of these are perfectly good programs (and I'm definitely not looking to "replace" my screenwriting software), but on the other hand I'm always willing to add worthwhile software to my writer's toolkit.

Lately, I've been hearing about Scrivener. The appeal seems to be that it unites a lot of the varied applications an author might use to create content. What do you, my writer friends, have to say about it? If you're using Scrivener, what do you like? What are its strengths and limitations?  Is it worth buying? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

Book Review: Brigitta of the White Forest

Brigitta is a young Water Fairie on the cusp of learning what her destiny will be in the White Forest, the protected realm of her people. Will she be a Feast Master like her mother? An Inventor like her father? There's no way to tell until the proper markings show up on the tips of her wings. In the meantime, she has to deal with the types of problems facing any maturing young lady including her precocious (and often annoying) little sister who always seems to be hanging around.

One day, while flying an errand, Brigitta and her sister are horrified to discover that all of their family and friends have been turned to stone. In fact, every living being in the White Forest is now this way. Why were they spared from the curse and why did it have to happen now -- only days before the Hourglass of Protection's last grain of sand falls?

With the help of an ancient inhabitant of the dark forest, Brigitta and her sister set out to find the answers to these questions before time runs out and the outside world, with all of it's dangers, comes pouring in.

Smoothly written, Brigitta of the White Forest is a fun and engaging read with an interesting story and unique characters (my favorites were Gola and her familiar, Minq). Author Danika Dinsmore does a fine job in keeping the story moving and avoiding the tiresome over-description that often plagues this genre.

Recommended

Correction: I removed a part of the above review where I erroneously noted that Brigitta was labeled as a YA novel.