Waterstone Media

Stories Matter

Thanksgiving

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The post this week is short and simple.
Here in the U.S., Thursday is Thanksgiving.
The holiday has a less-than-illustrious past, but I do very much love the idea of setting aside time in our lives for giving thanks. It’s something I try to do personally every day, but it’s good to put out in public, too.
So this week, I just want to take a moment to say “Thank you” to everyone. Being able to tell stories for a living is an incredible gift, and I’m forever grateful for the opportunity. I treasure every email, every tweet, and every facebook post.
My only goal moving forward is to continue being worthy of your time, money and attention. They are all valuable, and I appreciate you all taking the risk on a new author.
So in short, thanks to all of you for all the support.

With gratitude,

Ryan

A New Vision

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It’s hard to believe, but after four years of speculation and campaigning, it will all (hopefully) be over in the U.S. tomorrow. We will have a new president.

Don’t worry. This isn’t a post about the election, at least, not exactly.

Like pretty much everyone I talk to, I’m upset about the election and the choice we are asked to make. While I have had conversations where people are genuinely enthused about a candidate, more often than not, votes seem to be based on who you don’t want to have in office.

I’ve been thinking about this a bit, and I’ve specifically been wondering if there is anything fiction can give us here, specifically science fiction.

There’s a famous saying that gets thrown around in all sorts of contexts: “Begin with the end in mind.”

The great thing about science fiction (and maybe even fantasy, although I haven’t encountered much that would qualify) is that it provides a vision of what the future could look like. What might a society of the future look like?

The obvious and low-hanging fruit is Star Trek (more the classic series and TNG than the reboot). Every episode, we see what it might be like to live in a society that has moved beyond the concept of money, a benevolent federation that seeks to explore and promote peace and dialogue.

It’s certainly not perfect, but the series explores the concepts and gives a reference point. Another great example is the foundation series by Asimov.

Sci-fi is rife with examples of futuristic societies, and I love the idea of looking at these fictional possibilities and think about how we can start to work towards them today.

Does anyone else have examples of well-imagined future societies that inspire them?

NaNoWriMo and Halloween!

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Happy Halloween!

Bryce here. I hope you all have a great Halloween. I will be spending my evening watching my baby and editing my first draft. Scary right?

I wanted to talk about NaNoWriMo a little bit. Officially starting tomorrow, National Novel Writing Month prep has been going on for weeks now. This will be my first NaNoWriMo since I decided to start writing seriously. It took me a long time to finish my first book, and the one I have planned for November is an entirely different genre. I’m a little nervous.

I find it funny (and awesome) that a self imposed event with no actual accountability can carry such weight. I think that speaks to the success and widespread adoption of NaNoWriMo.

I am also amazed and comforted by the support groups and events that have come about. It seems like every week there is some writing group or a Skype session to help people stay on track. Hopefully I can make it to some!

I will keep you updated on my progress throughout the month. Ryan is working like a mad man (like always), so November won’t be much different for him!

If you are also participating in NaNoWriMo, let us know! We would love to compare progress and share war stories.

Have a spooky evening!

Bryce

Why Indie?

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So, this October, Amazon is celebrating independent fiction, complete with its own hashtag: #poweredbyindie

As part of the celebration, Amazon is featuring independent works by a wide range of authors, and I was fortunate enough to be selected as one of the featured independent authors.

For some reason, the emails from Amazon put me into a reflective mood, and I was thinking about how crazy the journey has been. I quit my full time job just a little over a year ago, in August of 2015. My wife, bless her, told me I had one year to generate enough income to replace my old one. After years of working on Nightblade, I finally took the leap, hit publish, and waited to see what would happen.

Since then, I’ve published four stories on Amazon, and I have more ideas than I have time to write (even though I’m writing full-time). Every week I get to hear from people who have enjoyed the stories.

Next week I’ll write about why I went indie, but for today, I just wanted to express gratitude. I think that often, technology is a two-edged sword. But the advent of the kindle and digital reading has shaken up the industry, and it has given me a chance to tell stories for a living, and for that I’ll always be grateful.

There’s another aspect to independent publishing that doesn’t often get mentioned: a closer connection between authors and readers. Because of the nature of independent publishing, there aren’t so many layers between authors and readers. For the first time, we live in a world where its easy to say “Hi” to the person who wrote our new favorite book. As both an author and an avid reader, this has been fantastic.

So, to all of you who have made this journey possible, thank you.

Ryan

My Thoughts on Seveneves

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For those of you who pay attention, you’ll notice that I’m often way behind on all the popular books. It’s true – I try my best, but I just can’t keep up with everything I want to read.

Anyway, this week I finally finished Seveneves. I’ve been wanting to read this book for a long time, and I was excited when I finally got the chance.

Seveneves is by Neal Stephenson, and in a lot of ways, is reflective of a lot of his work. The man is a genius with an incredible imagination. His stories are always combinations of technical know-how and rational speculation, and this book is no different.

It’s hard to write about a book like this without spoilers, but I’ll try. The book begins with a simple premise: what would humanity have to do if the moon blew up? What follows is a long, detailed look at a possible outcome.

For fans of Stephenson, everything we love about him his present. Technically detailed, realistic sci-fi injected with a mega-dose of imagination. Many readers might consider it dry (and in many parts it is), but it’s very interesting to see one man so thoroughly explore this problem. As the story moves farther away from the first page, the more imaginative it gets.

The critiques of the book are fairly unanimous: this isn’t a character driven story, but a technically driven one. It’s a huge book that feels like it could have been split into more. There’s a lot of backstory and dry technical information.

None of the critiques are untrue, and I would agree that Seveneves certainly isn’t for everyone. If detailed descriptions of orbital mechanics sound like torture to you, it might make sense to avoid the book, but if a hard, scientific look at a purely speculative problem sounds fascinating, you won’t find anyone who does it better.

Seveneves, in my mind, is a triumph of knowledge and imagination. It’s certainly not for everybody, but I’m an unashamed Stephenson fanboy, so I’ll acknowledge my bias, but his fiction is still in a league all its own to me.

Ryan

How Graphic Novels are Changing my Life

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As many of you know, I love stories. It’s this love of stories which has always drawn me to writing, but it also makes me an avid consumer. I love movies and books and TV shows, and there’s always far more available than I have time to consume. It’s a great problem to have.

If there’s one way I’ve been a failure (and there’s actually been many ways – this is just the one I’m pointing out today), it’s been that until recently, I’ve not given comics and graphic novels enough of a chance.

When I was younger, I was always interested in comics as an idea, but I never was interested enough to figure out how to buy them. As a boy growing up in very small town in the 1980’s comics weren’t accessible. The small local library didn’t carry them, and I didn’t know how to convince my conservative parents that I should be reading comics and they should bring me places hours away where I could buy them. Complicating the fact was that none of my friends were comic fans, so I couldn’t rely on them either.

As I got older, I looked down on comics. They always struck me as something for kids, and I didn’t have time for kid’s stories anymore. It wasn’t until Watchmen (the movie) came out, that I decided to give comics and graphic novels a shot.

I fell in love. On one hand, they’re much easier reading than the huge novels I tend to read. You can speed through them, or better yet, page through and enjoy the brilliance of the artists who work on them. I’ve read the entire Akira series, Watchmen, Sandman, and a handful of actual comics, Batman and classic Spider-man.

Here’s what I love the most: when an amazing writer, like Neil Gaiman or Alan Moore, can use short, evocative prose that perfectly matches the artwork of a talented artist. It creates an emotional response beyond what words and pictures can easily say alone.

I’m hardly an expert on graphic novels. I’m only just getting started, and there’s much to discover. I’ve got a lot of catching up to do.