Tag Archives: paul kupperberg

Call Me the Tin Man…

Anniversaries have been on my mind over the past few years. Last September, my wife and I celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary while November marked my 25th year as an IT support tech—a career that I hope to change as soon as humanly possible before it destroys my health.

Traditionally, each anniversary is symbolized by a specific, unique material.  Appropriately, these materials increase in strength, resilience, or value with each passing year. For example, first anniversaries are associated with paper, fifth with wood, 25th with silver, 50th with gold, and so on.

Tenth anniversaries are marked by aluminum or tin. That being the case, you can call me the Tin Man in 2019, although I’d like to think that I have a heart.

As I reach my first decade as a published author, I am immensely grateful to the critique partners, mentors, editors, publishers, and fellow writers who helped me along the way. While writing is a solitary endeavor, publishing is a team effort.

Deepest thanks to Steven H. Wilson, Howard Weinstein, Aaron Rosenberg, Robert Greenberger, Paul Kupperberg, Nancy Sakaduski, Weldon Burge, Joanne M. Reinbold, Susanna Reilly, Stuart S. Roth, and all of my fellow members of the Greater Lehigh Valley Writers Group.

Below is an image of every book I have written or contributed to over the past ten years. I never dreamed my writing would take me this far.  With three novels and nearly two dozen short stories out in the wild, I hope to continue crafting powerful fiction that changes lives and inspires readers as well as young writers.

 

 

Finally, A Place of Honor…

In a previous post, I mentioned that I was just finishing the final home renovation project for the year which entailed removing the last of my home’s wallpaper and repainting. The room in question is one that houses my SF collection, and when I began putting the room back in order, I decided it was finally time to display a piece of artwork that absolutely deserves a place of honor on the wall.

Illustration for There Be In Dreams No War

ReDeus: Divine Tales

The fabulous illustration you see above was created in 2012 by renown Spanish comic book artist Carmen Nuñez Carnero for my story “There Be In Dreams No War” published in ReDeus: Divine Tales (left), book one of the ReDeus series by Crazy 8 Press. It was a privilege to be published alongside writer pals Aaron Rosenberg, Bob Greenberger, Paul Kupperberg, Dayton Ward, Steven H. Wilson, Lawrence M. Schoen, and so many other fantastic writers in this series.

Illustration for There Be In Dreams No War

 

Send the Elevator Back Down

An unexpected honor came today when fellow writer and GLVWG member David Miller asked me to type up the improv speech I gave on Saturday at the Lower Macungie Library local author event. David shared it with other members of the Greater Lehigh Valley Writers Group today.
 
The exercise provided an opportunity to polish the speech, improving the focus and making it less frenetic as improv routines can sometime be. Truly, it’s a touch of personal history about my journey as a writer and to honor those who have mentored me, guided me, and eventually invited me to publish with them.


Send the Elevator Back Down

Phil Giunta

Comedian Steven Wright once told this joke: “When I was little, my grandfather used to make me stand in a closet for 5 minutes without moving. He said it was elevator practice.”

Today, I’d like to talk to you about elevators.

There’s a wonderful quote making its way around the internet from actor Kevin Spacey. “If you’re lucky enough to do well, it’s your responsibility to send the elevator back down.”

I began writing in the realm of fan fiction back in the late 1980s. For the uninitiated, fan fiction is generally a story based on your favorite characters from television or movies such as Captain Kirk, Luke Skywalker, Indiana Jones, the list goes on. I know people who wrote fan fiction based on everything from Bonanza to Quantum Leap.

I found fan fiction to be a marvelous training ground for storytelling. Of course, I couldn’t sell these stories because they were based on copyrighted characters, but I did pass them around and the general feedback was overwhelmingly positive.

It was at about this same time, when I began attending an increasing number of science fiction conventions such as Farpoint, Shore Leave, and Balticon in Maryland and I-CON in Long Island, New York. In addition to meeting so many actors I’d grown up with, I also met many of my favorite writers such as Harlan Ellison, Peter David, Michael Jan Friedman, Howard Weinstein, Bob Greenberger, Steven H. Wilson, and others.

There I was, holding my stack of novels and comic books eagerly waiting to get them signed and to chat with bestselling authors I never thought I would meet. Little did I know that when I was waiting in autograph lines, I was actually waiting for the elevator.

Over the years, I continued to write and to glean advice from many of the aforementioned writers who would return as regulars to Farpoint and Shore Leave. I appreciated their patience and guidance, hoping I was not making a nuisance of myself.

Of particular note was Steven H. Wilson. By the time I met him, Steve had just written a few issues of Star Trek and Warlord for DC Comics and was beginning to craft what would become his science fiction audio drama series, The Arbiter Chronicles. Like me, Steve had also started in fan fiction, but was further along the road than I was. Yet not so far that getting there seemed daunting. I wanted to be that guy.

Steven also founded Farpoint in 1993, and it was at that convention where I came in second place in a writing contest. Steven personally encouraged me to keep writing. Little did I know that the friendship we were forming was also the elevator door opening.

Flash forward to 2007 and Steve had already won both the Parsec and Mark Time audio awards for his podcasts of The Arbiter Chronicles. He had also self-published his first novel based on that series and had received an excellent review from the Library Journal.

By this time, I had moved on from fan fiction and had outlined an original paranormal mystery novel. I asked Steve for the particulars of self-publishing, as the option certainly interested me. However, the business aspects of it seemed a bit overwhelming at the time (not so much today) so I asked him if he was accepting submissions. He agreed and two years later, Testing the Prisoner was published by Firebringer Press, followed in 2013 by my second paranormal mystery, By Your Side.

By 2010, I was attending Farpoint and Shore Leave as an author guest, which I still do today. The reviews for Testing the Prisoner were outstanding and I was beginning to blog.

I was now in the elevator and let me tell you, it was nice and shiny in there.

In June of 2012, I received an email from the aforementioned Bob Greenberger, who is a fantastic SF writer in addition to his long tenure as an editor at DC Comics. Along with another comics veteran Paul Kupperberg and fellow award-winning writer Aaron Rosenberg, Bob had co-created a new fantasy series called ReDeus. Deus is, of course, Latin for God. Slap the “Re” in front of it and it becomes a bit of a pun as in “Again God”. The series ponders what would happen if all of the ancient mythological gods returned to Earth in the 21st century. It was to be published by Crazy 8 Press, a small press formed by Bob, Aaron, Michael Jan Friedman, Peter David, Glenn Hauman, and Howard Weinstein.

Bob was reaching out to other Shore Leave writer guests to see if they would be interested in contributing a story to their first anthology. What an honor! I eagerly accepted, knowing very little about mythology. Bob then sent the series bible with a story deadline of about two weeks. Yikes! They wanted to debut the book at the upcoming Shore Leave convention in August.

The elevator was going up…and fast! I remember researching and writing furiously until 2AM and even writing while on a Saturday conference call for my day job. I work full time in IT. Another technician and I had to migrate a physical server to a virtual machine. If you’re not a tech geek, don’t worry about it. The point is that it became a 12-hour ordeal. When it was the other tech’s turn to take over for a few hours, I wrote like a maniac. I finally finished and submitted the piece on my birthday, July 1.

Two days later, it was accepted with minor revisions. Not only was I published in the first volume, Divine Tales, I returned for the second, Beyond Borders—where all stories take place outside of the USA. I was invited back for the third volume, Native Lands (stories of Native American gods), but was overwhelmed with recording the audio for By Your Side and planning my upcoming wedding. I politely declined, avoiding the risk of promising a story, then failing to deliver.

It was during this time when I decided to pitch an idea to Steve Wilson. I know several wonderful writers who came up in fan fiction and had moved onto crafting original fiction. Some were submitting to magazines but getting nowhere. I knew their work was outstanding and I wanted to find a way to showcase them. I asked Steve if I could submit a collection of their original genre stories with an eye toward publication. Steve agreed, as long as I edited. He and I also tossed in a few of our own tales.

At Shore Leave in 2014, we launched Somewhere in the Middle of Eternity, an anthology of SF, fantasy, and paranormal fiction. Through this book, we brought about five new authors to the public eye and showcased the wonderful work of an Allentown artist.

What a joy it was for me to see these writers at their first launch, signing books and engaging with readers. I had just barely started my own elevator ride when I was holding the door open for others to take the journey with me (thank you, Steve!). In three months, we’re launching a second volume, Elsewhere in the Middle of Eternity, and possibly a third in 2018.

If you’re lucky enough to find success and you know talented, burgeoning artists, give them a chance to blossom by sending the elevator back down. If you’re just beginning your career, as I am, attend conferences and library events. Network with those further along the road, and learn as much as you can about your craft.

You never know what can happen simply by waiting for the elevator.

About This Writing Stuff…

This week, Rachel Thompson offers sage advice on book marketing while K.M. Weiland and Jami Gold talk story structure. Gwendolyn Kiste gives us the low down on how to properly share your Amazon links.

Mary Carroll Moore provides wonderful tips on using sensory details to engage readers’ emotions. For a little fun, comic-book industry veteran Paul Kupperberg delves into the novelizations of A-list superheroes…and B-listers, too!

All that and a little more.  Enjoy!

This is Why Your Books Aren’t Selling: 4 Ways To Improve Now and These Are the Reasons Most Authors Fail at Book Marketing by Rachel Thompson

Indie Bookstores are Back with a Passion by Francis X. Clines

How Writers Ruin Their Amazon Links by Gwendolyn Kiste

Using Ebooks to Understand Story Structure by Jami Gold

Planting Sensory Details-What to Use, When to Use It-for Emotional Impact in Your Writing by Mary Carroll Moore

Your Book’s Inciting Event: It’s Not What You Think It Is and How to Study Plot and Character in Your Favorite Stories: 5 Easy Steps by K.M. Weiland

How to Overcome Procrastination and Finish Writing Your Book _ Part Two by Jan Yager

Is Self-Publishing Coming of Age in the Digital World? by Dougal Shaw

Capes, Cowls, & Costumes 4: Stars and Second Stringers by Paul Kupperberg

Book Review: Tales of the Crimson Keep by Crazy 8 Press

The Crimson Keep…an ensorcelled castle, ever-expanding and growing as a result of an ancient spell. Within its walls lives a sagacious and puissant old wizard known only as the Master who alone bestows his knowledge onto a gifted coterie of pupils.

In each story of this enchanting anthology, you can’t help but fall into step with these intrepid wizards-to-be as they attempt to steal forbidden spells, outwit bloodthirsty demons, suffer the consequences of cutting class, find dangers lurking in the eternally shifting halls of the Keep, and even travel through time!

Crazy 8 Press is comprised of an august body of veteran storytellers, including Russ Colchamiro, Peter David, Michael Jan Friedman, Robert Greenberger, Glenn Hauman, Paul Kupperberg, and Aaron Rosenberg. Each  of them contributed a smart and delightful tale to this collection  introduced by SF writer, Kevin Dilmore.

Even the book itself boasts a fascinating genesis. It was at the 33rd annual Shore Leave science fiction convention in Maryland where–prompted by an opening line provided by Dilmore–Peter, Michael, Bob, Glenn, Aaron, and Howard Weinstein took turns writing a story all the while tucked in a small alcove in the lower hallway of the hotel. In full view of the public, these talented craftsmen created the engaging novella Demon Circle as a fundraiser for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. That story is also included in Tales of the Crimson Keep.

Crimson Keep