KEEPING IT SHORT - AND ELECTRONIC by Austin Camacho

At Bouchercon I saw convincing evidence that the paper book was not dead, as hundreds of fans hauled away rolling cases filled with new acquisitions. But there was also much talk of the popularity of e-books, which got a dramatic boost from the Kindle.

A completely separate ongoing conversation had to do with the threatened death of the short mystery story. The most vocal proponents of this form belong to the Short Mystery Fiction Society which gives out the Derringer Award for the best short mystery of the year.

The challenge with short stories is that there are precious few places to get them published. Alfred Hitchcock and Ellery Queen Mystery Magazines have little competition these days. The Strand is a larger, slick magazine that also publishes some fiction among other things.

So the question arises, will people buy short stories the way they buy novels in e-book format? Perhaps the short story form will gain even more popularity if the stories can be purchased individually.

If short fiction sold individually is the leading edge of the new wave of reading options, then Echelon Press is standing at that edge. Their new line of Echelon Shorts allows readers to download quick reads for small money – much like downloading the songs you like to make your own IPod mix instead of buying whole CDs.

I loved the idea I decided to submit a story myself and was pleased to be accepted. So now, for a couple of bucks, new readers can get the flavor of a Hannibal Jones novel in a few thousand words. My short story, “A Little Wildness” has all the basic elements of a Hannibal Jones novel in a bite-sized package.

Naturally, I hope you’ll give the story a try. But more to the point, I hope you and others will step further into the 21st century and sample other short stories on the site. This could be the reading plan of the future and we get to be there today.

Love is Murder Con

Okay - I'm late in posting but I've just come off a very arduous ride on the Con prep and execution roller coaster for Love is Murder. The word is spreading that the board has decided to forgo the 2010 Con and focus on the 2011 Con. Lots of folks have speculated as to why but the truth is that we've grown so much and the board wants a chance to step back and reassess where we're going and how big the Con should be. Many Con's cap their registration because planning and executing a Con is a tremendous undertaking. Love is Murder has often been herald as a gem of a Con and the board wants to keep it that way.

We embrace many of the writers that other Cons don't. We don't discriminate against authors who have published outside the traditional venues, something we cherish and want to preserve. We've often attracted stellar headliners, agents and editors and provide an incredible opportunity for everyone to network. So, save your pennies, write that great American Novel - or not, and start to prepare for the 2011 Love is Murder Con.

Hope to see you there.

Ramblin'

Okay, I'm going to disobey my publisher here today ... sort of a civil disobedience kind of thing.

... or a guy thing.

(same thing)

Anyway, I've read a few posts by publisher Karen Syed of Echelon Press Publishing where she says that if you are writing a writer's blog it should be about writing. No personal stuff, no rants, no ... well...what I like to call fun stuff.

Respectfully I'm going to disagree with her. I write humor and fantasy and just writing about writing this genre isn't going to tell the reader how fun my stuff is. But if my blogs are fun and lively, the reader might go, "Hey, this guy's blogs are fun and lively. I'll bet his books rock."

Ansyis... oops ... forgot to tell you, I've got a band-aid on my finger and it's messing up my typing.

And this, igstelf, dern... did it again... anyway, this itself is a courageous story. A few hours ago, a little old lady was walking down the street and went to cross against the light. A moped was hurtling directly for her on a collision course. I saw her look up, her weak blue eyes widen and then she squawked and dropped her cane in fear.

I leaped over a Humvee in a single bound, grabbed a skateboard from a passing kid and whizzed into the street swooping up the old lady just as the moped thundered by like a runaway elephant.

Not really. I was opening up a plastic tray of blueberry bread and sliced myself on its razor sharp edges.

But don't worry,I'll just grit my teeth, ignore the pain and bleed all over my keyboard.

(time out ... I have to get some ice cream. Be right back)

.....

....

....

Okay, I'm back ... oh, wait ... B R A I N F R E E Z E!

Hold on.

....

....

....

Ah, better.

Random thought here ... I'm watching the Olympics and it's 9:00 a.m in China right now. I wonder if it's yesterday there or tomorrow ... or, um, this morning.

Anyway, back to Karen Syed. She's doing some kind of blog-a-day or something like that ... I wasn't listening (hey, I'm a guy ... I told you that). But she asked me to do a blog for her Tuesday posting, so I put together something pretty fun.

So instead of reading my randomness here, go check it out here >> http://karensyed.blogspot.com

Good stuff.

Norm

www.normcowie.com

The Adventures of Guy ... written by a guy (probably)
The Next Adventures of Guy ... more wackiness
The Heat of the Moment
Fang Face (YA humor vampire, coming Aug 09)

Ramblin'

Okay, I'm going to disobey my publisher here today ... sort of a civil disobedience kind of thing.

... or a guy thing.

(same thing)

Anyway, I've read a few posts by publisher Karen Syed of Echelon Press Publishing where she says that if you are writing a writer's blog it should be about writing. No personal stuff, no rants, no ... well...what I like to call fun stuff.

Respectfully I'm going to disagree with her. I write humor and fantasy and just writing about writing this genre isn't going to tell the reader how fun my stuff is. But if my blogs are fun and lively, the reader might go, "Hey, this guy's blogs are fun and lively. I'll bet his books rock."

Ansyis... oops ... forgot to tell you, I've got a band-aid on my finger and it's messing up my typing.

And this, igstelf, dern... did it again... anyway, this itself is a courageous story. A few hours ago, a little old lady was walking down the street and went to cross against the light. A moped was hurtling directly for her on a collision course. I saw her look up, her weak blue eyes widen and then she squawked and dropped her cane in fear.

I leaped over a Humvee in a single bound, grabbed a skateboard from a passing kid and whizzed into the street swooping up the old lady just as the moped thundered by like a runaway elephant.

Not really. I was opening up a plastic tray of blueberry bread and sliced myself on its razor sharp edges.

But don't worry,I'll just grit my teeth, ignore the pain and bleed all over my keyboard.

(time out ... I have to get some ice cream. Be right back)

.....

....

....

Okay, I'm back ... oh, wait ... B R A I N F R E E Z E!

Hold on.

....

....

....

Ah, better.

Random thought here ... I'm watching the Olympics and it's 9:00 a.m in China right now. I wonder if it's yesterday there or tomorrow ... or, um, this morning.

Anyway, back to Karen Syed. She's doing some kind of blog-a-day or something like that ... I wasn't listening (hey, I'm a guy ... I told you that). But she asked me to do a blog for her Tuesday posting, so I put together something pretty fun.

So instead of reading my randomness here, go check it out here >> http://karensyed.blogspot.com

Good stuff.

Norm

www.normcowie.com

The Adventures of Guy ... written by a guy (probably)
The Next Adventures of Guy ... more wackiness
The Heat of the Moment
Fang Face (YA humor vampire, coming Aug 09)

Timing, coincidence and providence

I was going to blog about one thing, but then something happened that changed my post all together.

But before I tell you about it, I'll give you some background.

Last weekend ... was it last weekend? ... time flies ... anyway, I was at Printers Row in Chicago, signing with Echelon's authors.

I'm just nominally an Echelon author, since I just have a story in the anthology The Heat of the Moment (and I'm not getting paid for it, since the proceeds are all going to charity - but that's another story)

Anyway, I was hanging out with Sam Morton, Kevin Helmold, Bob Goldsborough, Simone Elkeles ... did I spell that right? ... our own Margot Justes and Morgan Mandel ... and with publisher Karen Syed.

Well, two days of heat and rain and good food and good company came together into one sludgy ball of fun. We had a blast.

So as the festival wrapped up, Karen grabs me in a choke hold and says, "You need to send me a book."

Okay, it wasn't a choke hold but how often does a publisher ask a writer for a book? I mean, I'm sure it happens ... but not to me.

Anyway, I kinda sorta said, "Sure, let me work on it."

So I said I'd send her an old manuscript that was sitting around, but inside I was wondering if I could wrap up my new YA humor/vampire novel "Fang Face" instead.

Cuz I knew that Echelon is building its new YA imprint, Quake.

But I didn't tell her, because I was struggling a bit with my edits.

Here's the next part of the story.

Angela Wilson, who is a writer and a reviewer for Pop Syndicate (she did some awesome reviews of both of my books) - anyway, we were emailing back and forth about something, and I told her my troubles with "Fang Face."

So Angela goes ... "How about I look at it?"

Huh? A professional reviewer offering to drop her own projects and read my not yet published book?

How cool is that?

But I didn't want to waste her time, so I said, "Nah, thanks anyway."

Hah, right. I jumped on her offer like a hungry flea.

I shot her the story, and the next day she already had edited the first fifty pages, and had some very, very good tweaks. She loved the book!

Within the week, she was done, and sent the whole thing back to me.

I was stoked by her optimism and enthusiasm for the book, so grabbed my laptop, her notes, some wine and some Ranch Doritos and sequestered myself on the back porch, with orders for no one to disturb me ... unless they had pistachios and a refill of my wine.

With Angela's notes, it was an effortless wrap. An outsider looking at the story with a fresh perspective was just the shot in the groin, er, arm that I needed.

Karen was expecting an email from me, but thought it was just going to be an old manuscript I dusted off.

Instead, just this past Friday I sent her an email saying, "Surprise, here's my brand new fresh-off-the-presses, muy bodacious YA novel instead."

Boo Ya!

I've been having email problems, so I called her a couple hours later just to make sure she got it - Note to unpublished writers - you aren't supposed to do this.

Anyway, she knows me, so it was okay.

She did receive it and said she was going out of town and would bring it with her.
So I figured on waiting a few weeks, months, whatever, and started planning my next book (the third Adventures of Guy, in case you're wondering).

With no expectations outside of getting fully caffeinated, I got into work today (something you can't take for granted in Chicago), slugged my first couple cups of coffee, and finally got around to checking my voice mail. There was a single message (yeah, I'm not very popular).

It was Karen Syed.

Okay, I'm thinking... she probably just read a few pages and had a question. So I called her back and got her voice mail.

Dernit.

Fine...I'll just have some more coffee and maybe pee out the first two cups (TMI, huh? I don't care. This is my blog.)

To make a long story shorter, she called back, and ....

... get this ... she loved it.

She suggested a minor change that will improve the story ... this impressed me. And then she said she's sending me a contract.

Yeah!

I'm officially a YA author now!

(um... well, after I sign the contract).

Was this interesting? I hope so. It wasn't my norman, er, normal kind of post, but I thought I would share my good news.

Norm

www.normcowie.com
The Heat of the Moment
The Adventures of Guy ... written by a guy (probably)
The Next Adventures of Guy ... more wackiness

Signing in the Rain

I spent the weekend with Echelon Press Publishing's authors at Printers Row enduring several extreme examples of Chicago weather. First, there was the heat ... not so bad .. but mix it up with enough humidity to drown a muskrat and it gets sticky. So you try not to get too close to the author next to you or you might end up sticking together.

Fortunately for me, on the first day, I was signing next to some lovely authors (Camile Hyytinen, Jackie Sylvan, Margot Justes, publisher Karen Syed, Luisa Buehler, Shannon Greenland).

You don't mind getting stuck with these ladies.

For these same reasons, I kept my distance from my new hero Kevin Helmold (an especially focused salesman), and especially Tim Broderick, not to mention Sam Morton, Bob Goldsborough, George Kulles, and ... uh, I think I got them all. If I missed anyone, let me know.

The next day brought more muggy stuff and then the rains. Half of Lake Michigan detoured on top of us from the skies and we took refuge under trees, umbrellas and each other (yeah, there were some tall people there ... like Sam Morton).

And I'm not going to mention the tornado that missed my house by five miles while I was in Chicago.

Oh, wait. I just did ... heh.

Anyway, I also ran into a few of my fellow Mystery Writers of America authors including Michael Black, July Hyzy, Libby Hellmann, Joe Konrath and Mary ... er, Morgan Mandel. We had a great time together and sold a ton of books. I sold out of both my Adventures of Guy titles by the end of the second morning and spent the rest of the day hawking The Heat of the Moment anthology.

One of the cool things about the Heat of the Moment was whenever I sold one I would bring the buyer around to meet all of the authors who were on hand (seven, I think?). I think they all saw it as a special treat.

I had a blast and can't wait til next year's event!

Norm

www.normcowie.com
The Adventures of Guy ... written by a guy (probably)
The Next Adventures of Guy ... more wackiness
The Heat of the Moment