| Byzarium - LiveJournal Shut Down - Site Redesign |
[19 Dec 2006|07:34pm] |
After much deliberation, I've decided to stop using my Byzarium livejournal. I don't think there's really a need for it anymore -- I can post updates on Byzarium itself and I can use my personal LJ to handle all the other stuff. To that effect, I've transferred all my Byzarium LJ friends and communities over to my own LJ. Hopefully I got everything and everyone! Let me know if I missed you!
Also - I've FINALLY finished Byzarium's redesign. Yay! Make with the clicky and check it out!
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| On the Road Again |
[22 Sep 2006|11:24am] |
Well, we've ALMOST got Byzarium back up and running the way it should be. I'm adding in the archives from the old site. Just to notify people - we are having MAJOR problems with our email. I'm looking into it. In the meantime, if you have tried to contact us and had your email bounced, try again at this email address.
Email Update: Basically, what's happened is that when we relaunched Byzarium using Drupal (our handy-dandy new Content Managment System) we were forced to switch to a new hosting service. It appears that everything was transferred over and that, unbenownst to us, the old byzarium email address was knocked off-line. Emails could be sent from the account, but all incoming emails were bounced.
I apologize for how long it took us to catch this error! The main problem was that each editor assumed the other was cleaning up the email bin. I had started to think it was weird that we weren't getting more submissions, though! Please be patient with us a little longer -- we are working to solve this issue. Our implementation of Drupal was very tricky, and basically involved tearing down and recreating the entire site, pretty much from scratch.
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| September Issue - It's Rough, but It's Up! |
[06 Sep 2006|09:30am] |
The September issue of Byzarium is online! We have 2 great stories by JoSelle Vanderhooft and Tamara Wilhite. Please bear with us for the remainder of the week -- the majority of the time and effort has been spent getting Drupal to play nicely with us. We've done a ton of work, but it's mostly all been on the back end, and/or connected to planning the nav structure. We will be adding in the archives and tweaking the look and feel and such.
Thanks for your patience!
I know it's been a long road to get there, but the simple truth is that, even with ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) gwyndolin helping with the editing, I was the only one who could CODE the site. It was taking me on average about 3 days start to finish to hand code all the stories and hook them into the site and do everything to get it launched. My personal life has gotten a bit crazy, and the only way that I would possibly be able to continue doing Byzarium is to take the coding out of the picture. Drupal has allowed me to do that, and will overall make my life much easier
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| Just What the Hell is Going On?! |
[04 Sep 2006|09:16pm] |
We are ALMOST ready to launch the September issue. We have our content ready to go, we're just experiencing some last minute problems with Drupal. We will hopefully have the whole thing ready to go later in the week.
In the words of James T. Kirk: "DRRRRUUUUUUPPPPAAAAAALLLLL!!!" Er. . .I mean, "KAAAAAHNNNN!!!"
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| Do Not Panic! (Giant Robo Ref) |
[24 Jul 2006|10:48pm] |
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Just a reminder -- June doubled as the July issue. So nothing is going up on the site quite yet. But fear not!!! We are hard at work putting an whole new back-end on the site! When we've got it all up and running the site will offer much greater flexibility and more community benefits, so trust me, it'll be well worth the wait! In the meantime, thank you for your patience!
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| July 2006 Issue |
[21 Jun 2006|10:22pm] |
The July issue is up! I am really looking forward to July - Aileen will be out of school and able to work on the 'zine again, and we've brought on a new editor - Barbara J. Webb. We're very much looking forward to having Barbara onboard, and she's been a huge help already.
In other news, my kind husband, Gordon, will be reworking the site to better integrate the members section. To that end, we don't really have any members-only content to offer for July, and so we will be refunding this month for all subscribers. We do have an audio version of Nursemaid, by David J. Kane, to offer everyone though. Next month we should have everything under control, and working in a way that will make me happy. With that in mind, we would like to open a call for spec-fic novellas. So if you know of ones that have been hiding in your attic or closet, consider sending them in.
This Month's Issue
Nursemaid
by David J. Kane
Flash Fiction Contest Winner!
The Invisible Hand
by James Swingle
Justice swings on a dime.
Cheating
by Heather Brewer
The great thing about hell is, it can always get worse.
Climbing Back Into Writing Heaven
by Swapna Kishore
Suffering from rejection letter blues? Then this is the article for you.
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| A Well Deserved Rest |
[04 Jun 2006|07:32pm] |
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It's been a rough couple of months here at Byzarium. Aileen is extremely busy taking classes and I've been flying solo for a bit. I have had quite a hard time with my own schedule, and I am a bit burnt out. Therefore, I would like to make 2 announcements. The first is that we are going to be closed to submissions until Aug. 1, 2006. The second is that we will not be offering a July issue -- I am going to take a well-needed hiatus! The GOOD news is that the June issue will be twice the size of our normal issues, with lots to read, so hopefully that'll be a bit of a balm. :) I just wanted to give everyone a head's up. AND AND AND if you have ALREADY written a flash fiction submission - PLEASE send it in anyway. We will not penalize you! It doesn't cost me much effort to read them, and if you went to the trouble to write it, I'd love to read it.
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| Bad Agent -- No Cookie! |
[25 May 2006|09:44am] |
Reposted from jmeadows LJ
Sounds like there are some agents out there behaving badly . . .
( Bad Agent List )
. . .and Barbara Bauer in particular! Looks like Ms. Bauer got the Absolute Write website shut down because she didn't like having someone out there warning people about her schtick. For shame!!! Follow the link -- and you can read the whole sad tale.
Please read this article (also on the Making Light web-site) as well, as it contains links to many good articles on how to avoid getting snookered by a bad agent, and outlines the author's past experiences with Ms. Bauer.
Cross-post and spread the news.
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| The May/June Issue Is UP! |
[22 May 2006|09:54pm] |
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The May/June 2006 issue of Byzarium is up! Some great stories this month, as always. We hope you enjoy them all! If you do, send us some feedback - we always pass it on to the writers. We have a creeptastic horror story, The Wreck of the Pandora, to offer our paid subscribers. Available for everyone are two wonderful Flash pieces, Invasion by Birds, inspired by the Remedios Varos painting, "Creation of the Birds", and Nails, inspired by Frida Kahlo's "The Broken Column". We also have a delightfully cracked fairy-tale, The Princess and the Witch, by Mark Allan Gunnells. You may remember him -- he also wrote The Sidekick Lounge, which appeared in the November 2005 issue.
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[21 May 2006|01:30am] |
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I'm getting the May/June 2006 issue geared up and ready to go. It's been a frustrating couple of months. Aileen has been insanely busy with a set of classes she is taking, and I've been crawling the walls working on my comic. Big thanks to Rayne Hall, who brought some serious forum abuses to my attention. I've decided to take the forum down. I just don't have the energy to maintain it properly right now, and neither does Aileen. I think for now I'll stick with LiveJournal - it's more idiot-proof, that's for sure! I also want to get more active with the Byzarium LJ account - I'm good at keeping my own account up to date and all, but I've fallen a bit behind with the Byzarium one.
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[23 Apr 2006|12:50am] |
April is here! Happy Spring, and happy Earth Day, everyone! It's also Byzarium's one-year anniversary! That's right, just 12 months ago Aileen and I began Byzarium on a wing and a prayer. We've got a bunch of new stuff going on here at Byzarium, so I'll try to give you all the skinny in as quick and painless a manner as possible.
This is the month we are implementing our subscription service. The way it works is simple: we will continue to offer the majority of our content for free. However, if you sign up, each month you will have full access to awesome perks, such as MP3 audio downloads of selected stories, member-only stories and novellas, and whatever other great extras Aileen and I can think of to throw your way. To kick off the service, we've got 3 -- that's right, THREE -- MP3 audio downloads and a great science fiction story, A Disposable Age. You can enjoy all this stuff for less than $3 a month (or sign up for a year and get 3 months for free!). This is a new service, so please be patient with us. Feedback and bug-catches are welcome.
One of the Audio Downloads we are offering to subscribers is Gareth Lyn Powell's Sunsets and Hamburgers, winner of the SFReader.com's Great Fiction Award! Congratulations, Gareth! We are also offering a member's download of Eden Again, by February's featured author, Tamara Wilhite, and a download of Flash Fiction Contest entry, Mistress Vogel, by Rochita Loenen-Ruiz.
A new Flash Fiction Contest image is online. This month, I chose an Odd Nerdrum painting, and I hope you find it as inspirational as I do.
Aileen and I would also like to welcome aboard Howard Hamilton, who has kindly stepped up to plate as our brand-new sci-fi editor.
FLASH FICTION
Mistress Vogel
by Rochita Loenen-Ruiz
Flash Fiction Contest Winner!
SCIENCE FICTION
A Disposable Age
by James Finn
No one ever truly outlives their usefulness.
HORROR
The Nocturne
by Chris Chapman
A creepy gothic piece. . .in C Minor.
FLASH FICTION
Burn
by Ben McGee
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[20 Mar 2006|09:26am] |
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To everyone who has submitted us stories and not heard back yet - we appreciate your patience! The past month has been incredibly busy for both Aileen and I. Usually, one of us will have a busy month, and the other will be able to pick up the slack. This month, both of us have been going nuts. I'm preparing for a big convention next month, and Aileen is being dragged through the ringer for a set of required classes she's currently taking. We apologize for the resulting response delay. Trust me - we take NONE of our contributors for granted. I will be copying this message to the Byzarium home page tonight.
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[23 Feb 2006|12:20am] |
This month, we've got our usual prime selection, plus an overview on a featured author - Tamara Wilhite! Tamara has been published twice previously in Byzarium, and now has an excellent short story collection in print. Make sure to check it out. We've also introduced our new audio story format this month - check out the very first one -- Anything Like Her Photo, by Jarrah Moore (from last month's issue), read by the talented Alice English. Don't have time to read a story? Just click on the audio icon and download an MP3 file to listen to at your leisure! We will be introducing more audio-titles over the course of the month, and we hope you guys like them all.
So far, we haven't gotten many suggestions for the e-anthology -- let us know what you want to see in it, or Aileen and I will be forced to pick our personal favorites. ;) We also have a new Flash Fiction Contest image, so if you're feeling inspirationally tapped, take a gander at Creation of the Birds, by Remedios Varos.
FANTASY
Help Wanted
by Jennifer Crow
Global force seeks CEO. Horde of bloodthirsty minions a plus.
FEATURED AUTHOR
Tamara Wilhite
Eden Again - Flash Fiction Contest Winner
An Engineer Tells All - Interview
Humanity's Edge - Book Review
HORROR
Clutched
by Bill Hughes
You can't always trust your eyes.
SCIENCE FICTION
Intuition
by Aliya Whiteley
Woman's intuition is only an advantage if you listen to it.
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[22 Jan 2006|09:43pm] |
The January 2006 issue of Byzarium is online, and we're rolling out a new look and feel! We also wanted to announce that Aileen and I have begun plans for our biggest brainstorm yet - an e-collection of 2005's best stories. The funds from the sales of this ebook will go directly to pay for Byzarium's maintenance and our writers. So we'd like suggestions from you guys! Which stories in 2005 were your favorites? Which would you like to have in an e-anthology? Let us know!
HORROR
A Job Interview
by Philip Roberts
If it sounds too good to be true. . .
FANTASY
Anything Like Her Photo
by Jarrah Moore
Nothing is crueler than apathy.
HORROR
Burning
by Rayne Hall
Bigotry is never at a loss for tinder.
SCIENCE FICTION
Sunsets and Hamburgers
by Gareth Lyn Powell
What would it be like to be the last of your kind, standing on the brink, and staring into the void?
ARTICLE
Dealing With Writer's Block
by Leigh Dragoon
Do you sometimes struggle with The Beast? Advice on how to chase him off, in the event sharpened sticks and
torches are not working.
ARTICLE
Trolls and Critics – Problems for new writers
by Edward O'Toole
Helpful advice for the self-published writer on using the web to promote your work.
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[22 Jan 2006|09:35pm] |
Dealing with Writer's Block
By Leigh Dragoon
Sick people don't like being told there is nothing wrong with them, and writers don't like being told that their writer's block is the product of laziness and a lack of commitment to the craft. Yet, oftentimes, that is the attitude a blocked writer encounters. As a frequent sufferer of hard-core writer's block, I've decided to take a stab at writing the kind of article I'd always wished I could find.
First off, I'd like to clarify what I'm talking about. This article is going to be about a very specific kind of writer's block. There tend to be two different kinds. The first, Idea Writer's Block, is an inability to generate ideas. Many, many articles have been written about this form of writer's block. This is never my problem. I always have ideas. The second, and the kind I that dogs my footsteps, is Writing Writer's Block. This is when you know what needs to happen in your story -- Character A must be moved from City B to City C, for example. You sit down and see your entire story mapped out in your mind, clear as anything; you set your fingers on the keyboard, or pick up the pen and --
Zap!
Brain freeze.
Suddenly, for the life of you, you can't figure out how to write your scene. You know exactly what has to happen, but the words jumble up and won't flow. Nothing you write sounds any good. You become hung up on a minor detail, such as: should Character A take a bus to get to City B? A train? A car? Which is it? Only one answer is correct!
This happens to me on a regular basis and, the longer it goes on, the more it begins to resemble a low-grade panic attack. If I attempt to write the scene before I've figured out the correct answer, I get chest pains. To someone who has never experienced this before, I'm sure it sounds a bit unbelievable and overly dramatic. That doesn't change the fact that this is a wall I often come up against.
Common advice to writers at this stage is to "leave it alone". To work on something else. What do you do when you've done both those things, and it's 6 months later, and you're no closer to a solution?
There is hope!
After years of struggling with this, I've come up with a set of solutions that work, at least for me.
- Go away, and leave it alone. Work on something else. I hatehatehate being told this, but sometimes it does work. I don't recommend trying this solution for more than a day or so, though, because you can lose the story's momentum if you wait too long.
- Talk the problem through with someone you trust. Many problems that I had completely dead-ended on, I defeated within minutes of actually talking out possibilities with my husband or sister.
- Run a spread of Tarot Cards. I have my own decks, but I most frequently use this free tarot reading website. They have an automatic generator with a wide variety of decks and spreads to choose from. The results are both specific and general enough to help me make a solid decision.
- Word painting. This is like writing poetry on acid. Open up a simple text editor like Notepad, or find a sheet of scrap paper. Write everything that comes to mind -- it doesn't have to make sense. Ramble! Forget grammar or any kind of coherency. My exercises when I do this look something like this:
- glass and water and things that fall up or down or never at all
I try to focus on words that hold special creative meaning for me.
- Write out every possibility. This is, of course, the most time consuming option. Unfortunately, this is also the one that most often works for me. Should Character A take the bus to City B? I'll start writing it. I usually know within a few sentences whether or not this angle is going to work. Delete delete delete and try Character A out in a car. Bingo! Like I said, it ain't pretty, but it often does the trick.
- Draw a picture of the scene. Even if you're not artistically gifted, a simple sketch, floor-plan, or map can often solidify the scene in your mind.
- Go for a walk. Exercise. Oftentimes, focusing on a physical task will help take the pressure off the part of your brain that is churning its tires on your story. Depending on your personality, listening to music may or may not help. Meditation or meditative yoga are also good ways to lessen the stress surrounding the writer's block.
Other Ideas
These are additional suggestions, provided by members of the specficmarkets LiveJournal community.
- Magnetic poetry. When block hits, stand before your fridge and move the words around. On the same line as this, try using a random word generator. Providers: wicked_wish | coyotecult
- Recharge time. Forbid yourself to write for a week. Reading, playing videogames, watching movies -- all are acceptable, just no writing! Provider: gaaneden
- Let your subconscious do the work for you. As you're lying in bed, think about your story. Provider: agilebrit
- A clean body equals a clean mind. Take a shower. Relaxing and hygenic! Provider: bradleysands
Read More
Writer's Block - I'll Think of the Title Last, by Elfpants.
Writer's Block @ the Dilbert Blog, by Scott Adams.
writing4fun - A LiveJournal site that offers a random idea generator. Provider: jrosestar
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[10 Jan 2006|11:01am] |
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We're open for sci-fi/fantasy subs again!
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[03 Jan 2006|03:58pm] |
Trolls and Critics – Problems for new writers
By Edward O'Toole
Recently, due to the upcoming release of my first novel ‘Clavis’ with Crystal Dreams Publishing, I decided to promote both my book and myself on the Net. Being the over-ambitious, incautious person that I am, I decided to plunge straight into the online ‘Writers’ Community’ and plug my wares.
Whoops.
The very first response I received was one which left me reeling. Someone I’d never met in my life, and will most likely never meet, slammed my book, my publisher, my dog… Okay, you say, shrug it off, get on with your life. It’s just one small fish in an enormous oceanic-world sized pond.
But, by saying that, you’d be missing the point. It doesn’t matter WHO this person was, or the true value of their comments; what matters is that they said them and now – and for ad infinitum – they are there, attached to my name, to be viewed on the net.
It’s a case of subliminal association. Someone Googling my name comes up with… I won’t repeat it as once was enough. Instead, for future Googlers, I’m going to try a bit of my own, self-promoting, subliminal association. Here goes:
Edward O’Toole. Excellent!
Edward O’Toole Clavis. Excellent!
Nice in theory but in reality it won’t work. Anyone reading the afore-stated remarks, upon noting the author of this article, will immediately dismiss them.
Then how does one get one’s name, and work – one’s pride and joy – known on the internet without having it shredded by dreaded trolls, spammers and generally self-loathing critics who haven’t, won’t and probably never will read your book, poem, short story, etc? It’s an entirely different issue when a ‘respected’ critic – such as a submissions editor, a licensed literary agent, or multi-national publisher, or me…. – reads your work and says, apologetically, that they don’t think it’s for them but good luck in the future.
To be honest, many new authors don’t get the point. They have their book, they see the internet, and they connect the two by thinking “I know! I’ll sell my book on the Net! Everyone will want to buy it! There’re a billion sites out there just gagging for my novel!”
Wrong.
Going on to forums and message boards and advertising your work in every post is the same as knocking on people’s doors and asking them to buy it, face to face. Having a home-made Microsoft Front Page website, based on a free-server with a title such as:
http://myfreeserver/lotsoffreeservers/justoneofmillionsofghastlyhomepages/photosofpetkittensbeingcutedirectory/mybook.freeserver.co.org.com.freeserver.ua
and then posting it as a link and THE PUBLIC FACE of your novel will not encourage a barrage of customers and potential fans. While having a website title such as www.mybook.com most probably will increase the chances of people actually clicking your link and following it up (it looks more professional), that issue is for another article.
What I really want to look at here is avoiding the common pitfall of presenting your work publicly and then having it criticized as being worthless, awful, or un-edited because you’re with a small press, a POD or an E-publisher. Not with a multi-planetary conglomerate? Not had an initial print run in the hundreds, or even just tens, of thousands? You’re obviously not a proper author – just some nobody who’s written an unintelligible and garbled collection of words and hopes to pass them off as a book. Worse still, you’ll be accused of having paid a Vanity Press because no-one else in their right mind would publish you. BTW – this article is not for subsidy or vanity published authors. If you gave up in your quest to be published that easily, you take your own chances in this world. Self-published? A different kettle of fish and you’re still in the game (either just terrifyingly ambitious or nonchalant).
So what do you do?
In all honesty, I’m not a publishing and promotion expert – I’m as new to this game as you are. However, there are a few points I’ve found which might help:
- It doesn’t matter HOW you got published. Just remember that. Now in this age of ecological awareness, with Global warming looming over us, many planet-friendly authors are converting to electronic publishing in order to reduce the amount of trees being cut down. Many also get E-published because they know that their art will reach a far wider audience than it would ordinarily in hard copy form. And writing is primarily a craft, not a means to riches (except for the tiny few who don’t really need to read this article).
- If you’re getting published with a small press, don’t look on it as not being published with a Giant – but as a statement of your artistic beliefs. Most small presses – Crystal Dreams especially – act like families. They care about your book; they talk about your plans. They don’t churn your novel out, give it two months or less shelf-space, end its run and go onto the next. No. Because they are SMALL, they’ve had to carefully consider accepting your book – chances are, the owner is having to put up the money personally to have it edited, printed and marketed. I’d say it’s an honour to have that much trust put in oneself; far more so than a larger publisher who could merely write you off as a minor loss in their fiscal budget without batting an eyelid.
- Don’t SPAM your novel. There’s a difference between people associating your name with spamming your website, and people associating your name with your novel. Okay, attach your website as your ‘signature’ when you post in forums or message boards, but don’t use it as your only input to conversations. Chances are you’ll get banned pretty quickly, especially if it’s disrupting the post’s thread.
- Build up a collection of online friends – just like in real life. The difference being that on the Net, your new friends could be in Australia, China, Canada and Belgium. And each of them has friends in the real world, each of whom are potential readers of your work. Get known as an intelligent, witty, friendly character – slowly introduce the topic of your novel, based upon the situation present at the time. Don’t force-feed it to people. One big difference between the Net and real-life is that when someone knocks on your door and tries to sell something, they can use physical charm and charisma to override your aversion – if you’re a naturally shy or nervous person, you might end up buying their product just to get rid of them. On the Net, when one clicks a link and sees an author’s homepage which is of no personal interest, one can just ‘click out’.
- On the subject of homepages, I’ve noticed that many authors present nothing but their book cover and their blurb. Fascinating. Gripping stuff. Holds my attention for about 5 seconds and then I’m off somewhere else. Remember that once you’ve managed to attract someone to your site, you’ve got to keep them there – at least long enough for them to digest enough information that they can remember your name and the title and genre of your book. Don’t expect them to pay on first glance. There probably ARE impulse buyers out there who have a fetish which involves endlessly typing out their credit card number on sites they’ve found by accident, but I wouldn’t bet on many of them finding yours. Look at the bigger product sites for an example – few sites now DON’T have a flash-intro page which redirects you to…and then to…. Before you know it, you’re deep inside their product catalogue and your only hope of escape is to get that magic slice of plastic out of your wallet or purse.
Edward O’Toole (Zen Kebabist) – author of Clavis, coming Spring 2006 from Crystal Dreams Publishing
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[29 Dec 2005|12:43am] |
I'd like to take a minute to promote Aestheteka, a forum-style website designed to help inspire spec-fic writers and inspire discussion of spec-fic based topics. It's practically brand new, so there is not that much stuff yet, but what's there is very good, and I do expect that it will grow shortly. I'd recommend checking it out. I've enjoyed what I've read of the site so far.
Contracts will be a few days late going out. Thanks to a mess of spyware that my husband is cleaning off my work computer, I can't use it, which means I can't access any of my files.
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