Holed Up In the Bat Cave (Writing)

Yes, it's true. I've been absent. But trust me. it'll all be worth it. I'm holed up in the bat cave working on the next Spencer Murdoch novel tentatively titled "The Island of Magic." Stay tuned.
Peace
Jim

What is Speculative Fiction?

People often ask me, "What is speculative fiction?" Like all fiction, I like to tell them, it answers the question, "what if?" In speculative fiction, the question is, "What if anything imaginable were possible?" In my stories I've asked questions such as; What if a percentage of light speed travel is possible. What if time travel is possible? What if supernatural monsters are real? What if someone could physically enter the dreams of another person? What if hatred could manifest itself in a biological presence? What if a man discovered a portal between heaven and hell? These are only a few of the questions that have made it into my stories. I have hundreds of questions such as these that have the potential to become future stories and novels.

I know this concept seems like it could be infinitely wide-ranging, but I believe that is what speculative fiction should be. No restraints. Technically, speculative fiction encompasses the genres of fantasy, science fiction, and horror. But even among these three, there are many subgenres. Wikipedia defines it as, " an umbrella term encompassing the more fantastical fiction genres, specifically science fiction, fantasy, horror fiction, weird fiction, supernatural fiction, superhero fiction, utopian and dystopian fiction, apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction, and alternate history in literature as well as related static, motion, and virtual arts.

According to Google, to speculate means to form a theory or conjecture about a subject without firm evidence. They define speculative as engaged in, expressing, or based on conjecture rather than knowledge. Those are fancy ways to say, "making stuff up." That's what we do when we write speculative fiction. I know some "hard science fiction" fans and writers that might disagree with that, but it's still taking what is known or possible and filling in the blanks. Some relevant synonyms might be conjectural, theoretical, hypothetical, or abstract. Put the word fiction after any one of those and it could probably be considered a subgenre of speculative fiction.

GreenTentacles.com attributes the creation of the term "speculative fiction" to Robert Heinlein (one of the big three science fiction writer of all time along with Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clark) in 1941. DictionaryReferance.com gives a precise definition, "a broad literary genre encompassing any fiction with supernatural, fantastical, or futuristic elements. That makes it easy. Right?

Well, I'd better get busy writing. If you want to know more about my speculative writing, stop by my website. In the meantime, what's your favorite speculative genre. Or, if you want to be more specific, who is one of your favorite speculative fiction authors or what is one of your favorite speculative works?

Seagulls at the Walmart

Seagulls at the Walmart
James M M Baldwin

A screeching gull o’er
Rolling tides of ocean waves
Surfers bob in a salty sea
Sandy shores burning the souls of feet

Graceful flight
my heart is longing
days of sun and drifting blue
warm winds kiss my rosy cheeks

But alas, it is Nebraska
At Walmart no less
Nay an ocean a thousand miles
No fishing allowed
in the frozen food section

What brings this majestic bird?
Scavenger though he is
To my corner of the planet
To brighten my day?
To sprinkle morning cheer?

Across fields of wind-blown plastic bags
Beyond corrals of wobbly wheeled carts
Past the puddles of oil stained blacktop
He has come to dine
In the trash bin at the fast food shop


Jim

Swords and Dragons

Swords and Dragons
James M M Baldwin

Dragons deal death upon the land
Raised swords split the sky
Dreams of destiny dance in the dark
Serpents soar above singing sorrowful songs
Demons draw their daggers in deception
Snakes serve a sour justice in a sunless season
Dogs growl, drums direct a stampede
Scarred soldiers draw silver sabers from crimson scabbards
A dance of danger drowns a kingdom in demise
Scarlet sands recite somber stories
Darkness drapes the dead in a desolate shroud
A single sword rises in success
Death defeated
Sovereignty saved

A Frayed Knot

In response to a recent query, an agent wrote that she was afraid not. Aside from the old joke about a rope that’s refused service in a bar, goes outside, has its friend tie it in a loop and unravel its end. It goes back in and the bartender says, “Aren’t you that rope I threw out of here. The rope says, “I’m a frayed knot.” But back to the agent: It seemed an odd thing to say. An agent never admitted to being scared from my query. She was probably just being flippant in her use of an idiom. What she should have said was, “I believe, regrettably, that the answer is no, or “Unfortunately, no; I regret that that is not so.” Technically, the way she phrased it, it means she is not afraid. But no; I’m afraid not. So it’s a “no?” I’m afraid so. The full sentence should have read, “I’m afraid I can not,” something she probably did not want to admit. I had hoped she would be not afraid, but ‘fraid not. In the words of a John Michael Talbot song, I’d offer my dear agent this advice, “Be not afraid.” However, since much of my writing has taken a dark turn lately, maybe it was a subconscious compliment. My words may have actually scared her. Maybe I had written my query too well. But, then again, maybe knot.

What do you think about this fearful word play?
Have you ever been scared by a book?

Thanks
Jim

The Similarity of Differences

The Similarity of Differences
by James M M Baldwin

There is a difference between the swimmer and the dancer,
the football team and the chess team,
the hockey team and the math team,
the softball player and the spelling bee champ.

There’s a difference between the teacher and the student,
the coach and the athlete,
the mentor and the protégé,
the priest and the parishioner.

There’s a difference between the Buddhist and the Scientologist,
the Taoist and the Wiccan ,
the Hindu and the Jew,
the Christian and the Muslim.

There is a difference between the boy and the girl,
the man and the woman,
the mother and the father,
the husband and the wife.

However, within these differences, there is similarity.

There is a similarity between the Down syndrome child and the Rhodes Scholar,
the graduate and the dropout,
the acclaimed and the unknown,
the distinguished and the despised.

There’s a similarity between the prisoner and the free man,
the doctor and the patient,
the beggar and business man,
the lawyer and the criminal.

There’s a similarity between the author and the illiterate,
the artist and the scientist,
the musician and the mathematician,
the poet and the politician.

There is a similarity between the dependent and the self-sufficient,
the child and the parent,
the young and the old,
the unborn and the dying.

We are all the same.
We are human.
We have life.
We live.

So let us live.
Let us live for life itself,

Whether in happiness or misery, poverty or prosperity,
Whether in health or sickness, youth or infirmed,
Whether in joy or sorrow, loved or lonely.

Let us live for life itself,
For we are all the same.
We are human.
We are one.



Original reduction print
We Are Harmony
by Summer Skye Baldwin

Odd Odds

In a recent article concerning the 1 to 175 million odds of winning a Powerball jackpot, they also listed the odds of other somewhat unusual occurrences. I realize that Powerball odds are easily mathematically verifiable, but some of the listed probabilities seemed a bit… off; such as: Your odds of dying in an asteroid apocalypse of 1 in 12,500 are better than being murdered, with odds of 1 in 18,000. REALLY?! I mean, you can adjust your odds of being murdered by adjusting where you live and what you do, but that asteroid thing seems a bit… askew. Where did they get the statistics for an asteroid apocalypse anyway? But aside from that, what caught my attention was the stated chance of becoming a New York Times Bestselling Author at 220 to 1. They do add the caveat, “If you’re an Author.” But again: Really?! From a separate article I noticed that those odds are about the same as dating a millionaire. Huh? Surely you jest. But I am married so for me, the odds against that are infinite. However, I do know quite a few authors, but I don’t know any from the best sellers list. I’d really like to hear the facts behind that projected likelihood. If anyone can enlighten me; please, fill me in. I must be missing something. I suppose if your last name is Rowling and your first initials are J. and K. the probabilities are pretty much 1 to 1 of making the list. But then again, maybe all you need is initials for your first name, like C.S. Lewis or J.R.R. Tolkien. But alas, they are both dead, so I’d say their chances of writing another bestseller are fairly low. Perhaps they died in the asteroid Apocalypse.
Jim

Articles used in this post;
Powerball Odds from the Huffington Post
and
What Are the Odds? by: Natalie Josef at divinecaroline.com

Future Fortune

Future Fortune
by James M M Baldwin

Went out in the world, my future to seek
Broke open a cookie, my fortune to peek
Great expectation my hope did withstand
An entrance I made and Oh it was grand

My stature the press quoted as fine
Till I tripped on my feet, fell on my behind
Oh yes I wanted to be a big superstar
But instead here I am living in my car

Rejection

So, you're a writer? Undoubtedly you've received a rejection letter. (unless you're some type of wonder-child) Maybe if your writing exhibits some hint of promise, you've been lucky enough to receive a personal rejection, and if you're real close, you might have even received some type of constructive criticism or a short note of advice. However, most rejections are the standard "form letter." Believe me, I've had my share. Before the end of 2012, I received my 145th rejection letter, 99th on this particular project.

I've studied how to write a query, with its various required parts. Less than a page including genre, word count, hook, pitch, and author bio. It takes some work to put one together. But no, this is not about the parts of a query. This is about the parts to a form rejection letter.

Part 1- "Thanks for offering us your project." This is the part where they subliminally tell you how great "they" are and how smart you were to try and get them to represent you. It's the "We know we are soooo great" part of the rejection.

Part 2- Right after letting you know how wonderful they are, comes the "No thanks. You Stink." Some subtle, others not so much. They say things like;
"I cannot take on projects unless I feel strongly about them. I'm sorry to say that it didn't happen with this one."
"I am afraid I must pass."
And the most common. "It's not quite the right fit for our Agency."

Part 3- "This is subjective. Now, please go bother someone else with your dreams of becoming published." Typically, they say, "This, of course, is just my opinion and others may feel differently." Duh! Thanks a lot.

Part 4- The final part is usually the, "Good luck when you find someone else to bother." There are variations on this too. There's " We wish you every success." or "I hope you find a great agent who will represent you with the enthusiasm that you deserve." If wishing me good luck actually gave me any luck, I'd be published a dozen times by now.

Finally. If you have received any of these common form rejections, take some solace in the fact that the dear agent at least had the courtesy to copy and paste. One recent rejection I received consisted of a mere three words. "Not for me." Wow! That took some thought. I should feel lucky they took three seconds to trash my hopes and dreams.

Have you ever received a form rejection? Did it contain all four parts? Did it contain anything unusual? Anything funny? Let me know. I'd love to hear from you.

Jim

A Joyous Day Called Christmas

A Joyous Day Called Christmas
James M M Baldwin

In the darkness of the winter solstice
Under the stillness of a moonless night
Comes a joyous day called Christmas

In a gorgeous spectacle of brightness
In A Luminous season of gladness
Comes a joyous day called Christmas

Among selfless acts to help the helpless
Amid gracious hope for the hopeless
Comes a joyous day called Christmas

While precious children lie restless in slumber
As a gifted songstress sings a wondrous hymn
Comes a joyous day called Christmas

As witness to a sinless child born of justice
In an ageless promise of righteousness
Comes a joyous day called Christmas

Life's Autumn

Life’s Autumn
James M M Baldwin

Silver sunlit rays traverse a lavender sky
A fragile hand clings to life

Purple clouds trimmed in gold hide a setting sun
Hope remains amid enthusiastic prayer

Copper hues dapple autumn leaves
Disease enforces its penalty

Birds speckle the sky departing for southern lands
Loved ones visit but return whence they came

A season ends
Death claims its prize

A distant star lights the dark
A wandering soul finds an eternal home

Ten Scariest Movie Villains

As a speculative fiction author, I dabble in horror. Two of my best are Twisted Fate and Dream Hunters. Though the second leans more toward science fiction, the dreams contained in the story are pure horror. Today I came across a list on AOL of the ten scariest movie villains. Some of them I hadn't heard of.
Here's the list.
10. Ghost Face from Scream
9. Angela Baker from Sleepaway Camp
8 Jigsaw/Billy the Puppet from Saw
7. Chucky from Childs Play
6. Pennywise the Clown from Stephen King's It
5. The Firefly family from House of a Thousand Corpses
4. Michael Meyers from Halloween
3. Jason Vorhees from Friday the Thirteenth
2. Leather Face from Texas Chainsaw massacre
1. Freddy Kruger from Nightmare on Elm Street

I wasn't familiar with the Firefly family or Angela Baker, but the video clip from Sleepaway Camp looks intriguing; a bullied child takes revenge.
Another list from YouTube listed as top ten horror movie villains (doesn't mention scary)adds Norman bates from Psycho, Jack Torrance from The Shining, Regan from the Exorcist, and Hannibal Lector from Silence of the Lambs. They also had the Xenomorphs from Alien, but if your going to have that, you also have to put in the predator from the Arnold Schwarzenegger Predator movie. That one however may be less horror and more action/adventure. If I'm including action adventure, I might want to add Heath Ledger's Joker from the Dark Night and maybe even Darth Vader from Star Wars.

What do you think? Did I leave someone out? Who's your scary favorite?

Jim

Dark and Lonely

Dark and Lonely
James M M Baldwin

A skeletal shell
In a damp and musty grave
In a long forgotten cemetery.
Once the seat of knowledge
For a strong brilliant man.
Worms have left me vacant
Without thought
Without impulse
Without sensation.
Shakespeare's Hamlit
raised me in one hand,
Alas poor Yorick
I knew him well.
Poison liquid in a bottle
Puts me on crossed bones.
I'm out of my skull
Perhaps bone-headed.
In dishonorable proceedings
I am skullduggery.
In metal music
I'm 'Eddie the 'ead.
In Mayan Myth
I'm crystal quartz.
As Lord Byron's cup
I hold the wine.
Get it through
your thick skull.
A wooden shell
To incase the brain.
I never frown
A toothy grin.
My orbital sockets,
Adorned long ago with watery blue eyes
Now only stare;
Vacant, dark, unblinking.
In life, muscle and skin gave me emotion
Joy, anger, passion
No longer.
Sunken cheeks
Exposed teeth
Have left only one expression:
Death.

Writer as Artist

In an e-conversation, a friend of mine, Doug Sasse, asked if I've noticed the similarities between writing and drawing?

This really got me thinking because, as an artist and a writer, I've often pondered this.

In both mediums you are telling a story. You put thousands of little marks on a blank surface to produce a final product. Both forms take hours to produce. You know what they say, "A picture is worth a thousand words." But there is one major difference between the two. With writing, the reader spends hours, days, sometimes weeks absorbing your work. On the other hand, with a painting or drawing, you spend hours and hours producing the work and the viewer usually gets the entire story in a few seconds. Sometimes they might spend a minute examining the work, but never much more.

Continuing our conversation, my friend clarified his opinion on the subject with the following.

Both mediums start with an idea or a subject. You sketch in broad strokes, blocking in the structure. Structure is important in both mediums. Each element has to not only stand on its own, but work with the other elements to be successful. I think they call that Gestalt. Drawing uses different values of light and dark, just as does character development. But then once the basic structure is in place, you refine, refine, refine, until you've completed all of the details. Drawing is a right-brain exercise; writing is, to a large extent, also a right-brained exercise, requiring intuition and creativity. In the end, both mediums create something artificial that, ironically, enhance its creator’s ability to see the world, while providing the viewer a greater appreciation of reality.

I'd like to thank my friend and fellow Nebraska Writers Workshop participant Doug Sasse for initiating this dialogue and giving my cause to think.

What do you think?

Jim

Happy People, Happy Village

Happy People, Happy Village
James M M Baldwin

Blue covers the heavens like an upside-down sea
Wooly clouds gather like guests at a tea

A white sun coaxes the dull to a colorful array
Stubborn buds burst into a fragrant display

Emerald waves roll toward distant green meadows
Swaying arms sway from a row of old willows

Oaks and maples line a creek, sparkling like glass
A bushy tailed squirrel forages for seeds in the grass

Birds sing a merry song, filling the trees
Butterflies float on a gentle fragrant breeze

A bunny chews in a field of bristly pink thistle
A dragonfly darts like a heat guided missile

Giggling young girls jump rope, skip, and sing
Dressed in sundresses of green, white, and pink

Bare-chested boys play ball as they stroll
Shouting for joy as they tumble and roll

An unsteady woman walks a large hairy beast
It pulls her along, she holds tight to its leash

Young lovers exchange a passionate embrace
Overeager to complete the love that they chase

A child stops playing… she points at the skies
A comet strikes Earth… and everyone dies

Hawk or Squirrel, Hunter or Hunted

This morning I noticed a squirrel standing tall in the middle of my yard. A few seconds later, a Red Tail Hawk swooped in and tried to catch it. The squirrel leapt into the air and avoided certain death. The Hawk landed a few feet away. After several more attacks, and a gymnastic-like presentation of leaps and flips by the bushy-tailed rodent, he escaped into a nearby crabapple tree. The Hawk flew up, landed in the tree, and bobbed its head about looking for the its breakfast. The squirrel escaped by jumping branches through several neighboring trees, leaving the hawk spinning its head in bewilderment and hunger. The hawk eventually flew off and landed on some nearby wires to scan for its next target.

At first I associated with the squirrel; dodging the attacks of life's obstacles. I smiled when the furry little fellow escaped to safety. But as I watched, I realized I was more like the bird on the wire, searching for success and often coming up empty. If he gives up, he'll go hungry. Would God let the Red Tail starve? With no choice but to keep scanning, he'll continue searching for the opportunity to succeed.

What about you? Are you more like the squirrel or the hawk.

Jim

Writer's Rut

From the title, you might presume this post is about the drudgery of writing. Like wagon wheels caught in a rut, trudging on in one direction without hope of rest, moving toward an uncertain destination. No, this post is about something different. This rut is more like the male buffalo during mating season. Late last year, I had so many story ideas kindling (no pun intended) on the fires of my mind, that I could not finish any one of them. They were like the two buffalo, butting heads, fighting for the chance to be the alpha male. That's how these stories were; locking horns, trying to take precedence over the other for control of my mind. The fighting continued until several stories sat at varying stages of completion, and none finding their end. I finally made the decision to put all of those new stories aside, and concentrate on editing, promoting, and publishing stories that had already achieved the top dog status of completion. All of those other stories are still in there, somewhere, jockeying for position among the racing electrical impulses of my brain. They will come out eventually. But for now, I'm still editing a novel for submission. So, if I'm writing, and you happen by, and you hear a dull thud echo from within the deep recesses of my gray matter, don't be alarmed. It's just the buffalo in rut.

Jim

The Gilded Conference

I recently attended the Friday night readings on the opening day of the Spring Nebraska Writers Guild Conference. Here is my synopsis of the evenings proceedings.






The Gilded Conference
James M M Baldwin

A man spoke of aliens, He went on a bit long
His plan well thought out, But something went wrong

Sally took us back, The old west it was sure
To gun fights and saddles, And reckless murder

Jack's song, His explanation too much
Yes it was humorous, And well worth the punch

A Bipolar memoir, Some technical stuff
Not much about treatment, More feelings and such

Lisa's gripping screenplay, Left my stomach in knots
The emotion ran high, Should be awarded for all that its got

Escape Velocity, Flash fiction from Mac
Jimmy can do it, To Saturn and back

Connie's quirky novel, Dee a short story, Mary's tale of school snakes
Janet's Lockets and Lanterns raised up the stakes

Then Dana, Poor Dana, Sleeping toddler she wrote
Not a dry eye in house, And lumps in our throats

Marilyn recited a poem, Of Sixties and Sex
Ignoring advice from her mother, A rating need added the letter of X

Mary Jo entertained, With wielding of wit
No punches were pulled, Good bad and ugly was surely a hit

Lynn set out to conquer a quest, Connie, the morn after, destroyed a whole town
Ronda's dark tale left mysterious clues, Sabrina got hers in before things wound down

And finally yes finally, Lisa read without doubt
Of spelling a bee, The letter p not left out

To all involved, Deserved Congratulations
Opening night a success, Applause and ovations

Form Rejection

I wrote my first query letter in 2004. On January 27th of this year, I received my 127th rejection on numerous different projects. Not going into the emotions involved in receiving a rejection letter, have you received a one? Not only that, but have you ever received this exact same rejection?

"Thank you for your query. Unfortunately, I'm afraid this project isn't right for me, but I wish you the best of luck in your search for representation."

Of all the letters I've received, nearly a hundred of them are almost identical to this one. Obviously it's a typical form letter, but what a cop out. I research agents to find out which ones represent my genre. There seems to be a lot of agents casting a wide net, making it easy to fall prey to the dreaded form.

I've read some agent blogs about advice they gave to a writer via their query. How the obstinate writer refused to take their advice and never found representation, or how they took the advice and easily found representation and publication, or how they resisted the advice for years until eventually relenting and finding acceptance. Really? Does this actually happen? Apparently not to me. I would even appreciate a "you stink, get out of the business" letter. Better than a form. I'd love to hear from anyone that has ever received advice from an agent or editor based on a query letter.

Jim

High Hopes Once Again

Last week I diligently upload a novel to the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards (ABNA). This will be my fifth entry into the annual competition: an effort that is not without emotional angst. Honestly, what would be the point of entering if I didn’t at least have some hope of winning, or at least making it through to subsequent rounds of judging?

The first year I entered I did not advance beyond the first round: a round which does not actually look at the novel but merely a three hundred word pitch. Yes I was disappointed but continued to submit elsewhere. The second year I was informed that I had made it through the first round, only to be notified a few days later that they had made a mistake and I had not advanced from the pitch round. Having the rug jerked out from under me hurt worse than not making it at all. They made up for their mistake by offering me a five dollar Amazon gift certificate. That made me feel better (NOT). The third year found me cautious when I received news of my advance to the second round where they judge the first 5000 words of the manuscript. It was true this time, but I did not advance to round three. I did receive a prize, two critiques from the amateur reviewers they have judge the first round. They had some good things to say but they also helped me see what I had done wrong. So after reworking the first section, I entered the revised manuscript in year four, only to find I did not advance beyond the pitch round once again. How could the same pitch advance one year only to fail the next?

So basically, here I am at year five; still holding out hope but not holding my breath.

What do you think of writing contests? Worth the stress?

Jim