FOR CHILDREN: Limited Edition Children’s Christmas Books

from Marva Dasef, Children’s/YA author/editor

Ssshhhh! Keep this a secret. I decided to make a couple of Limited Editions of my books that are great for kids.

The Seven Adventures of Cadida: This book for the 6-12 crowd will be coming out soon from Sam’s Dot Publishing. Since I hate waiting (a congenital disorder), I created my own version of this set of seven Aladdinesque tales of a girl and her recalcitrant genie. The SDP version is illustrated and will retail at about $11.00 plus $4.00 S/H. I don’t like that price, so I made my own. Send me an email, and I’ll send you a sample few pages in PDF format. If you’re interested, drop me a line and I’ll send you the book (100 pages) without illos (I don’t have the copyright) for a mere $7.00 plus $3.00 S/H.

The Witches of Galdorheim: This is even more secret and it’s a giveaway book. The 243-page volume contains the first two books in this series about a girl witch who has to find her mojo. READ MORE ABOUT THIS LIMITED OFFER DIRECT FROM THE AUTHOR

FOR READERS: Ready to Build Your Own Anthology?

by Bosley Gravel, literary author/editor

Nancy Fulda proprietress of AnthologyBuilder.com thinks you might be.   Executed as a straight forward website on the surface, AnthologyBuilder is in reality, an innovative concept that takes advantage of state of the art of print on demand technology, Web 2.0 user interfaces, and a huge pool of author talent.  Seemingly, Nancy has found a way to keep popular reprints available, paper consumption to a minimum and get authors paid for their work.

The Deepening, in conjunction with roving reporter Bosley Gravel, was graciously granted a few minutes of Nancy’s time to get the details of this fascinating project.

BG: What can you tell us about the genesis of AnthologyBuilder and its goals, mission statement?

NF: AnthologyBuilder started as wishful thinking and a whimsical blog post*.  I was frustrated because my friends were publishing in so many different magazines that I’d go broke trying to subscribe to them all, and joked that I wanted a build-your-own-anthology web site that let me pick and choose my own stories.

There was an overwhelmingly positive response to that post… . READ THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE ON PUBLISHING YOUR VERY OWN BOOK WITH YOUR CHOICE OF SHORT STORIES IN IT.

Five Thousand Miles For a Camel

by Celia Hayes, historical fiction author/editor

In the annals of the US Army, are recorded many strange and eccentric schemes and scathingly brilliant notions, but none of them quite equals the notion of a Camel Corps for sheer daft logic. It was the sort of idea which a clever “think outside the box” young officer would come up with, contemplating the millions of square miles of desolation occasionally interrupted by lonely outposts of settlements, stage stations and fortified trading posts which the United States had acquired following on the Mexican War in the mid 1840s. The country was dry, harsh, desolate… logically, what better animal to use than one which had already been used for thousands of years in just such conditions elsewhere?

The notion of using camels in the American southwest may have occurred to others, but it was one 2nd Lt. George Crossman who first raised a perfectly serious proposal for their use. One senses initially that the notion had people falling about laughing… . READ THE REST OF THIS INTERESTING PIECE OF U.S. HISTORY BROUGHT TO US BY HISTORICAL AUTHOR/EDITOR CELIA HAYES.

Another Country

by Celia Hayes, historical fiction author/editor

So it is said of the past – and most truly said, for it is another country where they do things differently. My esteemed colleague at The Deepening, PDR Lindsay went off on a tear last week, over a badly researched novel of period manners and mystery. The tale in question had been presented as being thoroughly researched, but a close and knowledgeable reading revealed that claim to be embarrassingly far off the mark … and such inaccuracies could have been remedied by research in any number of easily accessed resources. This is not a purely American foible, let me point out – nor is building a whole series of books and a considerable reputation out of writing adventures set in a place one has never visited. The popular German writer Karl May built a fabulously successful career writing best sellers about the American West, although he himself only visited America once, long after his fortune was made, and never went farther west than Buffalo, New York. He did do fairly careful research – aided no doubt that he was writing stories set at least within spitting distance of his own time … but still. May’s books remain terrifically popular in Germany, but any European fan venturing into the very real American west must be in for at least some small disillusion.

The abiding trap for scribblers of historical fiction might be, as PDR pointed out – writing scenes based upon a superficial knowledge of a time and a place that is gleaned from other people’s visualizations of it, especially those on TV or in movies, or even in other novels. This is a trap that lazy writers… . READ MORE OF THIS LOOK AT HISTORICAL FICTION & THE NEED FOR ACCURACY.

As If Publishers

by DLKeur, owner, TheDeepening.com

The conversation came about because Marva Dasef brought up the suggestion that the IAG (Independent Authors Guild) become a publishing coop.  Points for brought up by members like Moriah Jovan include the fact that: 

“…outlets like fictionwise.com…require a publisher to have 25 titles by at least 10 different authors…before you can list on them. However, Fictionwise is huge and…really important to the success of a title. A publishing coop with a stable of authors could meet those requirements.”

Then came this from “Audrey”: 

“I have noticed that some of the independent authors whose books I review have self-published them as if they were a publishing house.”

Lynn Osterkamp responded:

“It’s not AS IF they are a publishing house. We ARE publishers and you can be also. Buy your own ISBN….”

To me, this is just semantics, though. Fact is, an author self-publishing is an author self-publishing, whether or not they hide behind the facade of a publisher alias.

Fact is, without a big house and a big push behind an author, their work isn’t going to get any real recognition, not without solid… READ THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE ON FICTION PUBLISHING

EDITORIAL:      

THOUGHT, ENERGY, TIME & MONEY

Developing a website devoted to reintroducing folks to the joys of reading fiction takes thought. But why do it?

I love to read. It’s one of my favorite pastimes. Why? Because it immerses me inside a world that is intimately my experience, enacted inside my consciousness as if I am there, a fly on the wall, or right smack dab in the midst of the action. That “flight of consciousness” only happens when I read.

It doesn’t happen when I watch a movie. Movies spellbind, but they don’t integrate me inside their story. I “watch;” I don’t “participate in the experience” like I do when I’m immersed in a novel.

But how can I help others understand the wonder and fulfilling experience this brings? How can I give them even a taste of the magic that reading a good story delivers?

…I’m working on it.

Meanwhile, development of The Deepening, Phase Next, continues. This, of course, requires the aforementioned ‘thought.’ It requires energy and time. Then there’s money to get the job done.

On the money end, The Deepening received $100 in sponsor money, which went directly to pay hosting fees, the additional monies needed to cover overhead coming out of my own personal checking account. We also had $35 come into the donation jar, and we squirreled that away into a separate account as a sort of “war chest” for this site.

So, why do we need money? Our short term goals are:

• Pay our server fees, overhead, and operating expenses (About $150 a month for this website.)

• Pay TheDeepening.com editors and staff modest salaries. (There are five of them, and I’d like to see each on receive at least $250 a month, though I’d prefer $800. That higher number isn’t enough to pay the food bill, but it would pay their utilities, right? I think people deserve to be paid for the time and effort they contribuite.

• Pay our contributors at token, then semi-pro, and, ultimately, pro rates: I’d like to start out at $1 per 100 words — not much, but at least something. Then I’d like to move up to 4 cents a word, and ultimately pro rates.

• Produce a quarterly catalog of available good novels, short stories, and fiction periodicals published by independent authors and/or small presses. To be produced in e-format and, when money is available, in print format. Needs for this project include purchasing mailing lists, which run about $2000 each for a good one, else the only folks to see it are those who come to our web site or our associate’s web sites.

Long term goals include:

• Secure advertising in major media for good fiction by independent authors and small presses. (FYI: major media advertising costs a LOT of money, as in tens of thousands of dollars. Ever dollar counts when it comes to donations. Give what you can, when you can.)

• Produce a “year’s best” catalog of the best novels and short stories available from independent authors and/or small presses. To be produced in e-format and, when money is available, in print format. Needs for this project include purchasing mailing lists, else, again, the only folks to see it are those who come to our web site or our associate’s web sites.

Behind the Scenes is Moving Forward

This week we opened a small, modest forum to help ease communication between editors and staff. It’s up and running, functional, but certainly not aesthetically well-dressed.

Things we’re doing there include:

• Defining an editor’s job…which is to high grade offerings and guide their pet projects, not to copy edit.

• Gathering a list of places to advertise good reading, including cost, circulation, audience, genre, and other details we need to make informed decisions of where to funnel our funding and our efforts once we have a war chest to work with. By the way, you can contribute to that war chest using the donation button near the top of this page.

• Brainstorming “what to do about short stories.” Some of the suggestions so far include audio presentations delivered on a pay-to-listen basis. We’ll see. It’s ultimately up to what authors and publishers decide to do. Individual authors and publishers can do anything they want, really. We’re just here to help them.

• Organizing categories.

DLKeur, owner, The Deepening

So who won the “A Front Page Christmas!” Contest?

No one.

…Because no-one submitted any promos for their books.

So, taking owner’s prerogative, I’ve picked four authors. They are: Marva Dasef, Celia Hayes, Nan Hawthorn, and Lloyd Lofthouse. I’m in the process of designing the displays and, when done, I’ll run them past the authors for approval. After that, they will appear in this space until after Christmas.

On January 1, 2009, something new and exciting will replace the displays.

___________________________________

DEPARTMENTS AT THE DEEPENING and we’re still getting posts sorted, so bear with us, please, if something isn’t in the right spot. …Plus, there are some other categories available right now, like FOR SALE: GOOD READING, but it’s haphazard at best. We’re getting to it all, but these things take time with editors in a learning phase and owner juggling projects. =)

• “This Week At” ISSUES

• “THUNK”

• FOR SALE: GOOD READING (Not Populated Yet)

  • HED & DEK (Title & Book Blurb)
  • A TASTE OF THINGS TO COME (sample chapters)
  • THE REST OF THE STORY (what the story is about)

• YOUR SHORTS & PETTICOATS (Short Stories & Their Publishers)

• MEGO (”My Eyes Glaze Over”) (Not Populated Yet)

• NUTS, BOLTS, & SOME RUSTY SCREWS (Anything & Everything Good or Bad about Fiction Publishing)

• HE SAYS, SHE SAYS (Novel & Short Story Reviews)

• THE WORLD OF FICTION (Features, Articles, & Interviews)

• THE FUNNIES (Humor, Cartoons) (Not Populated Yet)

• BLOG FOG (Authors, Editors, Small Press Blog & Website Index) (Not Populated Yet)

• INDEX TO SPONSORS, DONORS, & ADVERTISERS (Self Explanatory)

See this week’s issue, and get a peek at next week’s issue. See the most recent content submitted to the deepening on the inside.

POLICIES:

We believe in free speech and a free press…with certain limitations:

• Yes, you may speak your mind…within the bounds of good taste, good conscience, honesty, integrity, and fair play.

• No, you may NOT defame, libel, or slander someone, their business, their product, or their creation.

• You MAY state your opinion, criticize, object.

• You MAY accuse IF you support your assertions with documented and referenced facts, those documentations and references provided to us via FAX.

• You may NOT produce materials which encourage and/or promote cruelty, bigotry, hate, pernicious, obscene behavior and language, debauchery, or anything else I, DLKeur, my editors, and/or staff consider immoral, unethical, or in bad taste.

These policies are always subject to change and/or amendment without notice.

DLKeur, owner, The Deepening

_____________________

OWNER & PUBLISHER: D. L. Keur (dlkeur.com, zentao.com, nakedgenius.com)  

MANAGING EDITOR: Author P.D.R. Lindsay (Her blog is HERE) (Genres: Historical, Literary, Mainstream, Mystery/Thrillers, Paranormal, Short Stories, Anthologies)

SITE ADMINISTRATOR & EDITOR: Author Bosley Gravel (his blog is HERE) (Genres: Literary, Literary Anthologies)

EDITOR: Author Marva Dasef (Her blog is HERE) (Genres: Childrens’, YA, MG)

EDITOR: Author Elizabeth Bonecher-Brenaman (Genres: Horror, Paranormal, Chick Lit, Mom Lit)

EDITOR: Author Celia Hayes (Genres: Historical, Americana, Westerns)

EDITORIAL

There are a LOT of good articles coming in from authors, reviewers, writers, and publishers around the Net. Thanks, one and all. So it’s time to make this more reader-friendly.

I’m going to do a “front page” in “weekly issue” format. (Everybody cheer.) What this means to article authors and to the reader is:

Your article stays up in front of visitors for a full week, Friday through the following Friday morning.

Then, everything that was posted during the previous week will take its place in the spotlight, the previous “issue” going to a link on the front page.

PLUS: new articles will show up, too, as a LATEST ARTICLE inset, these articles put into the following week’s issue as “front page material.” (Oh the joys of cyberspace and its freedom!)

Hope you like what’s happening. If not, you can always leave a nasty note, you know!

Oh, and how each issue will be identified: Since I’m not constrained by some official anyone to do it “traditionally,” I’m going to call this Issue 11.21.2008 of The Deepening’s new format. My own numbering system, 11 for the month, 21 for the day the front page comes out with the previous week’s articles that it covers, and, obviously, 2008 for the year. (The previous weeks will also be put into this format, but third things first, you know.) Now, I may regret this numbering system, and you are all welcome to scream, holler, jump up and down, AND offer me a better way, but I know I don’t like the traditional method, so…here goes somthin’!

DLKeur, owner, The Deepening

MANAGING EDITOR: Author P.D.R. Lindsay (Her blog is HERE) (Genres: Historical, Literary, Mainstream, Mystery/Thrillers, Paranormal, Short Stories, Anthologies)

SITE ADMINISTRATOR & EDITOR: Author Bosley Gravel (his blog is HERE) (Genres: Literary, Literary Anthologies)

EDITOR: Author Marva Dasef (Her blog is HERE) (Genres: Childrens’, YA, MG)

EDITOR: Author Elizabeth Bonecher-Brenaman (Genres: Horror, Paranormal, Chick Lit, Mom Lit)

EDITOR: Author Celia Hayes (Genres: Historical, Americana, Westerns)

The Deepening was re-opened November 1, 2008 as an independent trade and reviews magazine which focuses on the world of fiction from both sides, reading, and publishing. The Deepening, the online glossy fiction magazine, ISSN 1559-7733, suspended publication as of September 2007 due to illness as well as lack of sustainable funding.

DEPARTMENTS (Sort of and So far…though we’re still working out a good organization scheme. Next issue I’ll probably have them linked up, plus more fun and goodies…provided that the cybergremlins don’t get me!):

• “THUNK“
• REVIEWS
• “THE TRADE” (Criticism and Opinion About Fiction Publishing and the Fiction Book Trade)
• ARTICLES

Get a peek at next week’s issue. See the LATEST ARTICLES SUBMITTED TO THE DEEPENING (link pending me figuring out how-to. Looks like I’ll have to code up another template. Working on it.)

Frontier Surgeon

by Celia Hayes, author of The Adelsverein Trilogy

The practice of medicine in these United (and for the period 1861-1865, somewhat disunited) States was for most of the 19th century a pretty hit or miss proposition, both in practice and by training. That many sensible people possessed pretty extensive kits of medicines – the modern equivalents of which are administered as prescriptions or under the care of a licensed medical professional – might tend to indicate that the qualifications required to hang out a shingle and practice medicine were so sketchy as to be well within the grasp of any intelligent and well-read amateur, and that many a citizen was of the opinion that they couldn’t possibly do any worse with a D-I-Y approach. Such was the truly dreadful state of affairs generally when it came to medicine in most places and in all but the last quarter of the 19th century - they may have been better off having a go on their own, at that.

Most doctors trained as apprentices to a doctor with a current practice. There were some formal schools of medicine in the United States, but their output did not exactly dazzle with brilliance. Scientific method – eh, what was that? Germ theory? A closed book. Anesthesia – a mystery. Successful surgeons possessed two basic skill sets at this time; speed and a couple of strong assistants to hold the patient down, until he was done cutting and stitching. Most of the truly skilled doctors and surgeons had their training somewhere else – like Europe.

But not in San Antonio, from 1850 on – for there was a doctor-surgeon in practice there, who ventured upon such daring medical remedies as to make him a legend… .

READ THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE

Honor Killing by David E. Stannard

a review by P. D. R. Lindsay

Don’t let the racy title fool you. This is not a sensational rehash of the 1930s Hawaiian rape trial. It is a non-academic, for-the-general-population, non-fiction book and a stunning read.

In September 1931, an American naval officer’s wife claimed she was gang raped by a group of Hawaiians. Five young men were arrested and tried, despite having alibis. The jury could not reach a decision, it was a hung verdict. A retrial needed new evidence against the young men but there was none. The mother of the officer’s wife, planned, with the husband and two sailors, to force a confession from one of the accused. Instead they… .

READ THE REST OF THIS BOOK REVIEW

Under Cover

by Elizabeth Bonecher-Brenaman

I still remember the first time I scared the living daylights out of myself with a book. My age, eleven. The book, The Exorcist. The circumstances, under the covers after dark on a school night.

My parents, a product of the 70’s love scene, were, at the time, liberals. They didn’t believe in war, they didn’t believe in Johnson, and they certainly didn’t believe in censorship, not even for their eleven-year-old’s reading materials. So, they allowed me to read The Exorcist; they just didn’t allow me to read it, or anything else, after 9 p.m. on a school night. The whole “freedom” thing didn’t extend to me. Hence, the need to hide under the covers with William Peter Blatty’s masterpiece of terror and a flashlight.

Things in that book shocked even me, the daughter of liberal, free-love hippies… .

READ THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE

Getting Published (HOT TOPIC)

by Marva Dasef, author of hoards and hoards of good books

I just heard from a friend who used Llumina publishing to put out her first book. It cost her several hundred bucks. Other friends use PublishAmerica, iUniverse, XLibris, and a host of other pay-to-play “publishers.”

Guess what? These are NOT publishers! If you self-publish a book (e.g., become an independent publisher), then that’s great, wonderful, and you-go-girl (or boy). This is totally legitimate. Anybody who’s been querying agents will tell you that your chances are almost 0 of getting one.

Here’s my rant. Agent blogs and newsletters tout their latest books. I’ve seen multiple sexy vampire loves human girl, multiple retarded MC makes good in the world (everybody be inspired by the McDonald’s heart-wrenching), and multiple naked chests of buff gay guys making the story.

ENOUGH! Agents say they want something new, a fresh voice! Well, damn it, quit signing… .

READ THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE

Comancheria - The Separate Peace

by Celia Hayes, author of The Adelsverein Trilogy

That there would ever be any sort of peace between the Comanche people, the horse-lords of the Southern Plains, and the settlers who steadily encroached upon the lands which they had always considered their own particular stamping grounds in 19th century Texas verges on the fantastical. That it lasted for longer than about a week must be accounted a miracle of Biblical proportions; but there was indeed such a treaty, negotiated and signed about mid-way through the bitter, brutal fifty-year long guerrilla war between the Tribes, and a group of settlers newly arrived in Texas.

The need for a little patch of peace became a matter of urgency upon the arrival of nearly 7,000 German immigrants… .

READ THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE

Historical Novel Society Says Anti-American? Try: Lack of Research! (HOT TOPIC)

by P. D. R. Lindsay

The American editors of the Historical Novel Society’s journal, ‘Review’ the quarterly collection of reviews written by readers, recently threw me off their list of reviewers of American written historical fiction for writing a review which they called anti-American. In other words it was unfavourable, one of several such reviews I had written for them over the past two years. That last review must have been the review which broke their patriotic nerve, but the book really was badly researched on such simple basic things which many British readers would have known about.

Why is it that even the most well educated and seemingly least xenophobic of Americans will pack a paddy and fly into a pelter of jingoistic hysteria if you dare to criticise things American? If a thing is badly wrong it needs correcting.

In the case of the novels I had criticised it was the lack of research which irritated me so. If a writer of historical fiction… .

READ THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE

Narrative Magazine Needs Donations

It’s the same old story, the same old song. Writers write, writers read…to test the market, writers submit. Writer’s don’t subscribe…or at least not enough of them do. Genuine readers? There are a few. So money going out doesn’t equal money coming in and money needed to sustain the publication and its payments to writers.

SUBSCRIBE, DONATE, SEND MONEY. NOW WOULD BE A GREAT TIME.

Here’s the note from Narrative I got today. It’s cute, but it’s also a cry for supporting dollars… .

READ THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE

Happy Readers

“I visited my local library for a couple of hours and was rewarded to see children happily sharing books and their perceptions of the stories inside with each other, no adult supervision required, though an adult sat in the corner reading his own book — some action-adventure novel.

“Children enjoy the adventure of turning the page to find out “what’s next.” So do adults. Books do that in an enchanting way, allowing us to enter their worlds through the gateway of their word-streams. Isn’t it wonderful!”

The Covey Cover Awards

Got an email from someone soliciting votes for their cover in a “Most Eye-Catching Cover” public poll. So, I hopped over to The New Covey Cover Awards. http://thenewcoveycoverawards.blogspot.com/

There was a flash slide show, then, below, the covers presented, one at a time, in a column.

I looked at them all, chose the one I thought most fulfilled the contest’s criteria, and voted, using their POLL feature.

I noted that there is a separate contest for “Most Artistic Cover,” these judged, not by popular vote, but by a team of judges — smart. Popular votes are more like popularity votes. A lot of people vote their friends, not the quality of the entry. I hate that. I think it’s despicable.

Then I got to thinking. There are a lot of independent authors who have some really cool covers… .

READ THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE