Project 63 announced at tHP

Once upon a time, a long time ago, in a time almost forgotten, a small group of writers and artists gathered. This most unlikely band gathered not in a location but, rather, in spirit and common need, linked by the æther of modern technology. They met to sacrifice all for their love of creativity . . .

Once again, time has come for a GATHERING.

It is time for EDITION 63 of the Herscher Project.

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The Herscher Project – Edition 63
RITUAL SACRIFICE
What cost? What gain?
Deadline: July 31st, 2017
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“Everyone hates the weather, but nobody wants to sacrifice a virgin to change it.“

In Project#63 we ask you to create poems, short stories, or artwork based on the concept and practice of ritual sacrifice, human or otherwise. As with most prior editions, no genre requirement is placed on your work for this edition. Share with us the power, the emotion, and the importance or insignificance of ritual sacrifice. Is there a worthy reason for sacrifice? Is there benefit gained from such a ritual? Are there consequences for failing to offer a sacrifice?

If you can’t write, then draw. If you can’t draw, then write. If you are uninspired, then please take time to offer your comments and constructive criticisms of the work of others. 

As always, the theme and spirit of this edition must be apparent in your story, poem, or artwork, regardless of your chosen genre or medium. Email your Ritual Sacrifice piece to mobius1974@gmail.com.

Remember to have FUN while stretching your creative muscles.

tHP Project 63 is brought to you by
Jim Bowers, Chuck Gregory, Steve Doyle, Angela Perry & Anna Mortensen

Project 62 announced at tHP

In Black & White

What hath Harris Burdick wrought?

Deadline: April 30^th, 2012

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Wikipedia states: “The Mysteries of Harris Burdick is a 1984 picture book by the American author Chris Van Allsburg consisting of a series of unrelated, highly detailed images in the author's distinctive style. Each image is accompanied by a title and a single line of text, which compel readers to create their own stories.

A fictional editor's note tells of an encounter with an author and illustrator named Harris Burdick, who provided the images and captions as samples, each from a different picture book he had written. He left with a promise to deliver the complete manuscripts if the editor chose to buy the books. Burdick was never seen again, and the samples are all that remain of his supposed books. Readers are challenged to imagine their own stories based on the images in the book.”

In Project#62 we ask you to create stories, poems, or artwork based on those Harris Burdick images and captions. Share with us the dreams inspired by any of those fourteen Harris Burdick illustrations. If you can’t write, then draw. If you can’t draw, then write. If you are uninspired, then please take time to offer your comments and constructive criticisms of the work of others.

Have FUN with Project 62.
Bring the black & white to life!
 

As always, the theme and spirit of this edition must be apparent in your story, poem, or artwork, regardless of your chosen genre or medium. Email your In Black & White piece to herscherproject@gmail.com.

Jim, Sabrina, Jamie, & Marijke

The Bishop of Rwanda

The Bishop of Rwanda by John Rucyahana and James Riordan


This is a short clip recorded at Olivet Nazarene University showing author James Riordan speaking of some of the events and tragedies detailed in his book, The Bishop of Rwanda. This is one book I have been meaning to pick up for some time, now, and I keep thinking that I should have upgraded this from "intention" to "New Year's Resolution" as we enter 2012.

Not Only The Dark

Not Only the Dark: 160 Poems on the Theme of Survival by Jo Field

I'm going to go out on a limb just a bit here and recommend this collection of poetry without having read it. Two factors are contributing to my decision:
(1) WordAid says, "Not Only The Dark is our latest anthology of poetry, 160 poems on the theme of survival in aid of Shelterbox...This new and vibrant anthology explores the theme of survival, with poems about war, weather, growing ill and growing old as well as about cities and landscapes, art and music, trees and turtles and the many things that add richness to our lives."
(2) Not Only The Dark includes a poem written by Herscher Project co-owner, Jamie A. Hughes.

I'm looking forward to finding a spot for Not Only The Dark on my shelf of most treasured books.

Profit and Loss

Some disturbing madness was reported in Amazon’s Profits are Small Publishers’ Losses, a blogpost by the U.K.'s Linen Press. I'm a few month's behind with this, but rather doubt matters have improved any in today's economy. Apparently, economic sanity is no better in the publishing industry than in any other.

[Thanks go to author Chris A Jackson for bringing this one to my attention.]

A few things not to do...

In a December 14th blogpost, "A few things not to do", Patricia C Wrede offers some very helpful advice regarding the business end of being an author, including sage thoughts on how to approach the author/reviewer relationship.

I'm amazed at the wealth of information she offers -- all good, sensible, experience-proven wisdom -- and all available free of cost in her blog.

Thanks, Patricia!

Life Cycle of a Book

Publishing Trendsetter shares the Life Cycle of a Book.

Most of you who visit this blog already know this, but in case anyone is wondering, it really ISN'T as simple as: "You write a novel, send it to a publisher, and then it shows up on the shelves of Barnes & Noble".

Writer Beware! & The Agenda of "The Write Agenda"

A war is being waged, but you won't see it on the six o'clock news.

If you've never heard of Writer Beware!, the SFWA site offers a great introduction.

"Some of you may be aware that for the past few months, a group calling itself The Write Agenda has been attempting to wage a disinformation campaign against Writer Beware! and other anti-scam activists..." [source: Robin Hobbs' blogpost, The Agenda of "The Write Agenda".]

Read a little more about Writer Beware! here in a blogpost by Jessica Faust of Bookends.

To Be True

 Be sure to give a listen to Jess Hyslop's To Be True (Part 1) over at Cast of Wonders:

http://www.castofwonders.org/2011/10/01/ep11-to-be-true-by-jess-hyslop/

(And, if you're able, donate to Cast of Wonders, a site made possible entirely through kind contributions.)

Premonitions

We haven't settled on a title for the anthology we are developing here at the Herscher Project, but Premonitions will certainly do for a working title. The anthology will feature stories and poems of mankind's future: dark dystopia... environmental bankruptcy... impending apocalypse... doom, gloom, and disaster... with a few scattered candles of flickering hope.

We've selected some "classics" from the Herscher Project's vault, sprinkled in some new material, and have opened the doors and given a shout out to our members for more new material. To reach our target for the anthology's length, though, we will be inviting some carefully-chosen non-tHP-members to join us!

A few selections that have been decided on are:

"Remnant" by Chris Heisserer,
"A Morning with Toireasa Cass" by Miriam Plachta,
"The Sacred World" by Louise Hughes,
"LifeCycle" by Jess Hyslop,
"Cloud of Witnesses" by Peter Blair,
"I Walk..." by Matthew Summers,
"Prometheus Rebound" by Steve Doyle,
"Fields of Blood" by Deb Smith,
"Domicile 4.5" by Matthew Williams,
"Up From Below" by Jamie A Hughes,
"In The Light" by Neil Foster,
"Aftermath" by Jim Bowers,
"Wave Goodbye" by Chris A Jackson, and
"One Day We Shall Be Gone" by Saana Tykkä

For authors interested in joining in on this adventure, a January 1, 2012 deadline for submissions has been set. Questions may be addressed to herscherproject[at]gmail[dot]com.

Jessica Bell's "String Bridge" book trailer

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4538875.Jessica_Bell

The Uncanny Valley of Faerie

I am still tantrumming.

I recently finished a couple of Tam Lin-inspired books sent to me by a friend, one of which was very good, technically speaking, the other probably self-published or put before a very apathetic editor. Both, however, drove me up the wall due to mixing 1) Scottish balladry 2) English scenery and 3) North American wildlife.

The first two an are insulting combination to the British reader, yet tolerable since the ballad did indeed make it down to England, with Janet tamed and renamed Margaret and the fairies' teeth drawn to make it more palettable to the Sassenach. The third kept throwing me out of the story like a kid from a car crash. Which set me wondering - at what point does fantastic ecology become jarring?

My thought was that an 'uncanny valley' exists for fantasy settings as much as in more acute/visual media. A completely alien ecology that still has human(oid)s wandering around is easy to swallow, likewise a clearly well-researched, fact-based alternate history setting...yet somewhere nearer the latter there's a deep well of wrongness, where bears and hummingbirds roam mediaeval Scotengireland and the desert folk are mysteriously white...where's the line? What would make you go "gah, no wizard could do that," and set the book aside, unsettled? Are there other corners of setting, character or culture that are subject to this effect?

Thoughts, anyone?

Writing and the Internet

Patricia C Wrede's observations regarding Internet pros and cons are words of wisdom worth reading, contemplating, and putting into practice. She touches on some advantageous aspects of the Internet as well as a few treacherous pitfalls.

News from Chris A Jackson

On Thu, Mar 31, 2011 at 10:56 AM, Chris A Jackson wrote:

Hey all,

Well, the computer is recovered from the crash, and I'm up and running!

Jundag, Book 3 of The Cornerstones Trilogy, is up on Amazon, so you can finally fulfill your fix and get the final book in the series. Here's the link: http://www.amazon.com/Jundag-Cornerstones-Trilogy-Chris-Jackson/dp/1439229597

Also, Scimitar's Heir, book 3 in the series of Scimitar Seas novels is in the final edit stages, way ahead of schedule. We will be back in the states for Gen Con in August, for the release of the "Hero Comes Home" anthology, edited by Gabriel Harbowy, my DMP editor, and Ed Greenwood, creator of The Forgotten Realms! We will, of course, also be doing Dragon Con again, where Scimitar's Heir will be released.

Also, Scimitar Sun is a finalist for the ForeWord Book of the Year award this year. WOOT! Wish me luck!

Big year! Here it comes!

Thank you all!

Chris

Blogs (and other such nonsense)

The world has transformed into a morass of blogs, tweets, and social networking.

I'm not certain that this phenomenon is a bad thing, but I do harbor some concern that it indicates a growing cultural inability to sustain coherent thought for more than a couple hundred words at a time... Is this the onset of LADD (Literary Attention Deficit Disorder)?

So, risking the possibility I may fall victim to LADD, I sit down to compose a blog post in the tried and true hunt-and-peck style. I pause to ponder, and come to the conclusion that whatever I write certainly will be lost among these billions upon billions of words that don't really exist, but appear as if by magic through the technology of the Internet. Perhaps I should be grateful of that, for I also realize I have little talent at stringing together these short streams of wit. Each time I've made an earnest effort at writing a few words of merit to post in a blog, the attempt seems to end as either a failure or a dismal failure.

Ah well, c'est la vie...

The Comfort Zone

As writers, what role does having a comfort zone play in our productivity?

For that matter, which aspect of comfort affects our work the most?

Does comfort zone mean having a comfortable (or creatively stimulating) environment? Is it a place -- not simply a place, but the place? Does it mean getting into the writing mood by wearing that favorite "writing sweater" (is it of the old and threadbare variety or is it a newer, warm and snugly one)? Does comfort zone hinge on delving into yet another piece of writing safely within the confines of our usual genre?

But, perhaps more importantly, can comfort zone be accurately defined as the literary opposite of writer's block?

When the Hero Comes Home

Chris A Jackson has a short story scheduled for publication in a 2011 anthology release from DragonMoon Press!

Title: WHEN THE HERO COMES HOME
ISBN-13: 978-1-897492-25-3
Release Date: August, 2011
Publisher: Dragon Moon Press
Format: Trade Paperback, E-book
Distributor: Ingram

The anthology features new fiction by Jay Lake, Todd McCaffrey, Julie Kagawa, and an all-new Jig the Goblin story by Jim C. Hines.

Release at GenCon!

Info at http://www.dragonmoonpress.com/joomla/index.php