Switching gears

Here’s the final illustration for the cover to “The Death of David Pickett” by Jon Hunt. Check out his great website. The writing, rewriting, editing, and copy editing of TDDP are finished, but it’ll take me three more months to put together the digital “book” and the logistics for its release.

I’m moving on to my next writing project, the science fiction novelette I was working on five months ago when I switched to TDDP. At the time, when I decided to convert the original bones of TDDP into the prequel to my novel, 1% Free, I’d judged that the novelette would take a lot of work to complete. Too much work and time to use it in any promotional/publicity campaign for my novel. With TDDP in place for that purpose, now I’m writing on the novelette. Currently, it’s at 18,000 words, just on the edge of being a novella. I’ve mapped out three new sections that should expand the story, taking me well into novella territory (17,500-40,000 words) and perhaps even into novel length if the writing goes well. Just yesterday, I finished a particularly tricky bit of story universe exposition, so I’m feeling good about my progress and prospects. This will be a writing weekend.

Adventures in Finishing School

A week into my 6-week Finishing School project, I have re-evaluated. I’d intended to write 2-3,000 words a week for the next 5-6 weeks for a total of 15,000 words in order to augment an already existing 17,000 word novelette into a suitably sized novella. But I’m barely managing 1,000 words a week in a slow and painful process that’s like pulling teeth.

I still intend to work on the novelette, but I have another idea. I have a 10,000 word short story, sort of a prequel to my novel 1% Free, that needs work and maybe another 3-5,000 words. I spent yesterday working on it. The writing is much easier and more straightforward, smoother and cleaner. I’m giving myself 6 months to rewrite, get edited, and format the story into a “book” for digital distribution.

There are scores of digital publishing platforms out there nowadays, unfortunately in a constant state of flux. Pronoun recently went belly-up and Amazon’s ClearSpace is changing it’s terms of services, so I’ll wait until I’m further along with the story to chose the right platform. However, because almost anything can be deemed a “book” in digital publishing terms, the idea is to publish new work in different formats to keep up a digital presence, promote and publicize myself and my previous books, and “grow my brand.” I prefer to call it building my empire, but hey, it’s just a slight difference in emphasis.

I have a 10-11,000 word short story that’s just shy of a novelette. It’s also a prequel to my novel 1% Free, or with minimal rewriting it’s become so. I’ve set it in San Francisco in 2023 and I’ve managed three riots in under fifty pages, double spaced. It’s a long way from finished—dozens of rewrites, a professional editing and copy editing, a snappy cover illustration— before I do a super cheap, entirely digital publication using some the platforms out there. I estimate six months and I’ll link it to boosting the novel.

New Maps of Hell — 2042

FREE — New Maps of Hell — 2042

A four-color brochure predicting what the United States, and the world, will be like in 2042, 25 years from now. Included:

• Outside Cover: Front cover art plus description of countrywide and worldwide changes in the next 25 years and brief explanation of the title “1% Free.”

• Inside First Fold: 9 full color maps of Europe, Indian subcontinent, and southeast Asia in 1910, 1935, and 1960 indicating vast changes 25 years can make.

• Inside Second Fold: black & white map of continental United States depicting extent of social breakdown and second civil war by 2042.

To get this FREE brochure, you will be prompted to enter your email into the popup window which will appear after 20 seconds. If the popup window does not appear, please send me an email with your name, mailing address, and return email to gamatiasz (at) icloud (dot) com and you will receive the brochure FREE via snail mail.

Winnowing the Wheat from the Chaff

I’ve written and published two books in twenty-two years. At this rate, I’ll be lucky to complete a third book before I die. In light of that, I’ve gone through several score of potential story ideas at various stages of development–from basic idea to completed rough draft–in my word processing program Scrivener, winnowing wheat from chaff to select out a handful of candidates to work on.

I’ve come up with four possibilities, all science fiction. Two are completed rough drafts of novelettes (7,500-17,499 words) I could try to boost up to novella length (17,500-39,999 words). One is set in a post-apocalyptic far future where the main character, an ex-soldier with various biological military upgrades, meets up with someone who claims to be her brother. The second is a time travel/alternate universe story premised on the early, complete assassination of Lenin in an alternate time line.

I also have two promising ideas for full-length novels (40,000+ words), neither of which are anywhere near completion however. One is set entirely in 1968, the year I got politics, which has the main character traveling around to various iconic/historic events, with a sci-fi twist. The second is near-future science fiction in which neanderthals haven’t gone extinct but live secretly amid regular humans on the verge of self-extinction.

The incomplete novels would take a lot of time to finish, but they have the greatest potential story-wise. The novelettes would require extensive rewrites, but they’re basically done. My plan is to concentrate on these four pieces. Which will be difficult because I always have fiction stories in reserve, like two possible, incomplete sequels to my latest novel. One is set five years after the current book, the other a century later, and both are novelette/novella in length. Also, in addition to the archive of fiction ideas and snippets archived in Scrivener, I’m coming up with new ideas all the time. I’ll continue to write my non-fiction MRR columns, of course, but narrowing my focus in the fiction realm seems best.

I’ve got to draw the line somewhere.

A GALACTIC DÉRIVE–entry by entry

Facebook has made blogs, if not obsolete, at the very least less relevant. Here is my “Interstitial Materials #14 — A Galactic Dérive” entry by entry:

A GALACTIC DÉRIVE–full PDF download

The full PDF excerpt of the “A Galactic Dérive” glossary:

“A GALACTIC DÉRIVE,” Interstitial Materials #14 excerpted from 1% FREE by G.A. MATIASZ

PDF download: A Galactic Dérive

1% FREE POD $18.95

1% FREE ebook $6.99

#onepercentfree #gamatiasz #sciencefiction #62miles #62milepress #galacticderive #selfpublishing

1% FREE ebook now only $6.99

As of May 1, the ebook for my novel 1% FREE will be $6.99. I don’t need to maximize sales or move units. What I need is to get more people to read my book. To do that I’m making the digital version cheaper. You can order the ebook here, and you can always purchase a Print-On-Demand book here for $18.95.

Jon Hunt’s illustrations for “Salvage Run”

Jon Hunt‘s brilliant illustrations for a free downloadable PDF excerpt called “Salvage Run” from my novel, 1% Free.

A glimpse of the process of creating the illustrations.

Three Excerpts from 1% Free by G.A. Matiasz

I have three free PDF excerpts from my novel “1% Free. “The first is entitled “A Galactic Derive” and offers a glossary of terms to help the reader navigate the world of 2042.
#1 A Galactic Dérive

The second is entitled “Salvage Run,” which introduces the main character Becky Wiley in a blaze of glory, a firefight in which she recovers a mysterious artifact.
#2 Salvage Run

The third is entitled “Black Widow Mouth,” wherein the main character Jimmy Hidalgo chases a seriel killer who murdered his best friend.
#3 Black Widow Mouth

Share and enjoy!

Please feel free to copy and distribute these files as widely as possible.

Print-On-Demand $18.95 Ebook $4.99

Constructing the 1% Free Book Cover

I found Jon Hunt through the “Hire An Illustrator” website. I was impressed by his online portfolio. (Here are Jon’s Facebook page and blog.) We exchanged emails, discussed the scope of the work, negotiated a payment, and finalized an agreement. I gave Jon the basic action tableau–male and female protagonists vs threatening alien–and he did some preliminary sketches:

In discussing these first sketches via email, Jon asked for more context to help him do his job. I sent him two longish excerpts of cyberpunk description from the book. After more correspondence, Jon produced this brilliant sketch:

The illustration was excellent, with a gritty mix of cyberpunk and Giger. Unfortunately the action depicted occurs in a Southern California-style Craftsman bungalow in the novel. More emails, and more sketches followed:

As the sequence of action sketches in the bungalow progressed, we dealt with picking the right fonts for the title. I’ve been told that a good title for a trade paperback needs to be visible from 15 feet away or more, but I also wanted it to be punk and distressed. The more distressed the better.

I liked the font “Bullet in Your Head” and Jon distressed it further. The last illustration is essentially the front cover. I’m afraid I badgered Jon with way too many minor corrections along the way, but the results are wonderful. Without the lettering, Jon’s illustration is a stunning science fiction poster:

Now, let’s go back to the cyberpunk sketch midpoint in this whole process:

I realized I had the potential for a back cover in this sketch, and I asked Jon to play around with it. He came up with the following, first in gray tones and then in colors to match the front cover in tone and mood. One sign in the grimy cityscape spells out “Gibsons” in a nice touch:

I now had what I needed; sharply drawn, gorgeously illustrated, hauntingly themed front and back covers which I then turned over to my book designer. He put them together to produce this book cover which made superb use of Jon’s back cover design to create a wraparound jacket with an integrated spine:

But the use of Jon’s captivating illustrations didn’t stop there. I needed a two-sided, full color publicity postcard to distribute around the Bay Area, and Jon came through once again:

That’s how the cover of my novel 1% Free was constructed. The book’s insides were another matter entirely.