27 January 2013

A Bold Re-Introduction (not for faint-of-heart)

It's rather odd, I know. Here it is the first month of the first year of the rest of our lives and few readers really know who I am. Especially if they are landing here for the first time. Recently I have been challenged to re-introduce myself, so it seems that before this first month ends it would be a good thing to do. Please bear with me.

The Blog Title

I've dabbled with blogs a couple times before this one, but when I told myself "This time for sure!" I decided to use it to promote my science-fiction trilogy THE DREAM LAND, for which I had high hopes of finding a publisher. That hasn't happened yet, unfortunately. Even so, that's where the title of this blog originates.

In the "Dream Land" two high school sweethearts discover a doorway to another world. As the story proceeds, the major event is the rise of the Empire of Sekuate and the subsequent wars the empire initiates. Deconstructing the rise of the empire and its domination of the planet seemed a suitable topic of research, requiring hours and hours of interdimensional travel.

Of course, since then, I've used this blog to promote other books, write about writing, complain about this or that, offer laments and cheers, and let the world know when I've been lax in writing on my blog.

Who am I? What do I do?

Stephen Swartz is the name and, past pseudonyms aside, I am what you see you get. I'm an English teacher by day, novelist by night. I've always been writing, it seems, starting with attempt to emulate my favorite sci-fi and fantasy authors, Roger Zelazny, Robert Silverberg, Michael Moorcock and others. I think I have some clever, interesting "what-if" ideas and have been trying to put them into books all my life.

As I went through my education and started "real life" in the wonderful world of work (fast food, libraries, musician, National Guard, TV station, IRS, editor, teacher), I gravitated to "adult" literature, that is, contemporary literary works and well-known classics of literature. I spent some time in Japan as an English teacher and, returning to the US, I entered graduate school to become a certified English professor. Mostly I loaded up on writing workshops and independent studies in which I wrote poetry and fiction. Eventually, however, I had to switch gears and write a dissertation--a project which, ironically, turned me back to fiction writing.

In an MFA program, my thesis was a literary novel, an "anti-romance" where opposites attract yet struggle to stay together (things don't work out in the end; if they did, I could call it straight Romance). That novel, with years of tweaking, has been queried around and been entered in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award competition in 2011 and again (with more revision) in 2013. Once it's kicked out this time, A BEAUTIFUL CHILL will be standing on street corners begging for handouts.

The Future

I pledge to continue this blog until they pry the keyboard out of my cold, dead fingers. Or until Blogger crashes, whichever happens first.

Meanwhile, I suppose I'll continue teaching writing and gain some satisfaction from seeing my semesterly charges improve their skills. I will also continue writing for myself. I'm required to finish the third book of THE DREAM LAND trilogy or I'll have to strike the word 'trilogy' from the trilogy. I'm also engaged promoting my "test" novel, AFTER ILIUM, a sexy action-adventure tale set in modern Turkey.

Back in the 80s, I was on a streak and cranked out three novels: THE LAST SONG (futuristic sci-fi), YEAR OF THE TIGER (adventure/magical realism), and AIKO (love story set in Japan). Now I feel obligated to "punch them up" to make them publishable. I also have several new novel ideas waiting on the shelf--the biggest tome I've been saving as my retirement project, if that day ever arrives (currently exists as a Tolkien-sized screenplay).

So, if any of this makes sense and/or you are intrigued beyond words, then let me suggest you click on over to the JOIN button. Or join via Google+. 

I do not get too political or socially/culturally offensive, though I may occasionally border on sarcastic overload. I seldom act provocatively or insensitively (outside my novels, that is). I usually respond to comments, criticism, complains, and grammar errors.

In fact, if you have any questions about grammar and syntax, ask away! I also have some background in psycholinguistics and linguistics in general--which helps when it comes time to invent yet another alien language. I also enjoy drawing maps of places that do not really exist (at least, not officially).

Thanks for reading and welcome aboard!

Stephen Swartz

PS--You can read more about my novels by clicking on the tabs above.


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(C) Copyright 2010-2013 by Stephen M. Swartz. All Rights Reserved. No part of this blog, whether text or image, may be used without me giving you written permission, except for brief excerpts that are accompanied by a link to this entire blog. Violators shall be written into novels as characters who are killed off. Serious violators shall be identified and dealt with according to the laws of the United States of America.

14 January 2013

Let the ABNA begin!


Now, finally, the new year has begun in earnest--with the opening of the annual Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award competition!

I have entered again. This is my third year. Unlike past years, I feel smugly confident this time.

In 2011, I didn't know what I was doing and solicited a lot of advice and feedback and changed my pitch and excerpt significantly with every suggestion. I don't know what I ended up with when someone from the competition finally read them, but I did not go anywhere. My literary fiction work was seen by a publisher, however, and I had some satisfaction playing the "under consideration" author for a while.

In 2012, I switched to sci-fi, the first of a trilogy. Other than a few minor corrections I did not solicit or accept feedback. I trusted my instincts. I got through the pitch round and in the excerpt round, I got a good review and, unfortunately, a second review which seemed "phoned in" and too general to really apply to my particular book. Out.

This year, I've returned with my 2011 entry, literary fiction again but newly revised, especially at the beginning. Regardless of the adventure I had with it the past year-plus, I think it is better, tighter now, and more compelling at the start than the previous version. So I feel confident in its success, both in the pitch and the excerpt rounds. Past those, all bets are off.

Here's my pitch:

Just get home safely, thinks Eric as rain pummels his car. When he offers a ride to a rain-soaked girl, he discovers she’s the art student he met a month earlier at an exhibit. Tonight, however, everything changes.
Iris is a refugee from an abusive youth in otherwise idyllic Iceland, and further abused on the streets of Toronto--until she sees her art talent as a way to escape. Now with a scholarship, she drifts from depression to nightmare to Wiccan rituals to the next exhibit. There’s a lot she must forget to succeed in a life she refuses to take responsibility for.
Eric is still settling in at Fairmont College, starting a new life after being twice betrayed and left heartbroken. Divorced and hitting forty, he has a lot to prove--to his father, his academic colleagues, and mostly to himself. The last thing he needs is a distraction--and there’s nothing more distracting than Iris.
With the campus a battlefield of gender politics and Eric’s colleague charged with sexual harassment, these wounded souls find comfort together. In the light of day, however, Iris returns to her student life, ready to forget him, while Eric becomes obsessed. Just as Eric gives up, he finds Iris in his class the next semester with secrets for sale.
Realizing they are trapped by fate, Eric persuades Iris they should become a couple. Yet as Eric tries to tame her, Iris pushes him to be more outrageous. The tug-of-war escalates until, on a spring break trip, their relationship explodes into a cruel mind game that could destroy both of them.
A BEAUTIFUL CHILL (117,000 words) is a postmodern cross between "Pygmalion" and "Lolita" that deconstructs an impossible relationship between opposites and cruelly crushes campus love story memes while snowballing to its stunning conclusion.


Link to excerpt:

https://www.createspace.com/Preview/1117019




Good luck to all my fellow ABNA contestants, but slightly better luck to me!


Related post: Am I a Masochist entering ABNA 2012?

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(C) Copyright 2010-2013 by Stephen M. Swartz. All Rights Reserved. No part of this blog, whether text or image, may be used without me giving you written permission, except for brief excerpts that are accompanied by a link to this entire blog. Violators shall be written into novels as characters who are killed off. Serious violators shall be identified and dealt with according to the laws of the United States of America.

10 January 2013

The Beginning is Here!

I tend not to rush into things, which is probably why it's been ten days already before I make my first blog post of the new year. I had a lot to think about. What kind of year is this going to be?

This first month, falling after the season of celebration, reflection, and dispensation, always seems a time of hope and promise. This time, however, there is much that trails from previous months which clouds our happiness. Some people may feel guilt at being happy or ready to move on with the daily routine while others still suffer. My heart still goes out to those affected by so many tragedies of 2012.

My last post of 2012 was a downer, I know. It was how I felt; a subdued, muted holiday season affected many of us. Those who were not directly and inescapably affected by storms, shootings, and other crimes, like me (knock on some of that wood stuff), may be able to move on, get on, and return to the ordinary with relative ease. However, bad things do not end with a season for many of our fellow humans. Even when events have ended, the repercussions will go on seemingly forever.

In my own little world of make-believe, I walk a precarious line along the top of a fence, always on guard as to what is real and what is fiction and what may be somewhere in between. All of my writer friends do, too, I like to believe. In "reality," I suppose we all have different degrees of fictionphrenia. As for me, I've been dealing with the birth of a new baby. It was rather rough on my protagonist but I got her through it. Then she got married and you know all that goes into that kind of an event.

Last comes the first thing: the daily routine. I wasted most of this year, so far, by being a test subject in the great flu season of 2013. Symptoms broke on January 1 and hit hard, keeping me in bed the rest of the week. I pulled myself together for the first meeting day for faculty (yes, I'm a professor in an alternate universe). That proved to be an unwise choice. I relapsed and spent the past two days languishing in sloth, rather like a sloth.


In fact, yesterday, I got up sometime around noon (having ignored probably three separate alarms) and just stood in the middle of the living room, wondering who I was, where I was, and why I was awake. I pondered for several minutes what to do, what I needed to do, should do, or could do. Standing there in one spot, contemplating my next move. It was weird. I was conscious yet I felt very detached from the universe.

After several minutes of contemplation, unable to decide what to do next, I returned to what I knew best: the dream world, where everything is good and fruitful and full of grace. I awoke next around the dinner hour, feeling a little hungry yet not too much wiser or more rested. I did, however, feel that I could actually go on with this new year, this humbling 2013, the year we almost didn't get (well played, Mayans, well played). It seems like a bonus.

If 2013 feels like a bonus to you, make a resolution not to waste any of it. And, like my resolution, let's all be kinder and gentler to each other, no matter what our individual beliefs may be, no matter what experiences the past has given us, and without regard to future expectations. A smile or a helping hand costs us nothing, yet can be so valuable.

I'd like to thank all my friends from social media who patiently endure my sarcasm and politely tolerate my various online writing!


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(C) Copyright 2010-2013 by Stephen M. Swartz. All Rights Reserved. No part of this blog, whether text or image, may be used without me giving you written permission, except for brief excerpts that are accompanied by a link to this entire blog. Violators shall be written into novels as characters who are killed off. Serious violators shall be identified and dealt with according to the laws of the United States of America.