Ask the Author: Stephen B. Pearl
Answered Questions (8)
Stephen B. Pearl
There are so many. Long lost friends, what would their return bring to your life? Why did they vanish? Health issues, why are they there, have I been experimented on by government/aliens. Given that the US government tested germ warfare agents in the Toronto subway system with the approval of the Canadian government this isn’t as far-fetched as it seems.
Where are my blooming bolt cutters, did a stalker break in a ‘borrow’ them. I have some heavy gauge steel to cut and I can’t find them. It’s life.
Life is resplendent with plotlines you just have to look at things a little sideways. Being a little paranoid helps, but also believing that the universe is far more vast and involved than we will ever comprehend opens things up for plotting quite a bit.
The key is to have the gem of reality that the more extreme ideas anchor too.
Where are my blooming bolt cutters, did a stalker break in a ‘borrow’ them. I have some heavy gauge steel to cut and I can’t find them. It’s life.
Life is resplendent with plotlines you just have to look at things a little sideways. Being a little paranoid helps, but also believing that the universe is far more vast and involved than we will ever comprehend opens things up for plotting quite a bit.
The key is to have the gem of reality that the more extreme ideas anchor too.
Stephen B. Pearl
From my own work, Markus and Alcina in Worlds Apart. They are just so well suited. Both are strongly individualistic but willing to flex to make a relationship work. Both inclined towards an intellectual take on the spiritual and matched for intelligence and power. A true joining of equals.
From everything I’ve read, watched, extra it’s hard to say because of the sheer volume of couples. At the moment I’d have to say Chloe and Lucifer from the TV series Lucifer. The push-pull of their dynamic and the undertones of mutual redemption are intriguing and hey they look good together.
From everything I’ve read, watched, extra it’s hard to say because of the sheer volume of couples. At the moment I’d have to say Chloe and Lucifer from the TV series Lucifer. The push-pull of their dynamic and the undertones of mutual redemption are intriguing and hey they look good together.
Stephen B. Pearl
Get out if you can. It’s not what you think. There is little money; long hours and you spend more time trying to sell your product than actually writing. If you can’t or are unwilling to interact with hordes of people directly and through social media, give it up. This is the sad reality. Writing is a field ideally suited to introverts but the marketers have made it so you have to be an extroverted sales-person. I’m lucky in that I’ve got a bit of the actors gift and can put on a role but it is exhausting.
That said, if you have to write, then do the best work you can. Write it then edit it. Then send it through a critiquing group, and then edit it. If you find yourself in the “It’s my baby and you can’t touch it,” stage, get over it or stick to fan fic until you do. Editing and criticism is the only way you get good. Go to http://critters.org when you’re ready to have your work torn apart so you can put it back together better, stronger, faster than before.
When you feel you have a work worth publishing be open to all markets big and small. Realise that the pile of rejection papers you receive will likely be thicker than your work. It’s just how it is. Be prepared to scream, cry and hit things. Then get back to work. Some times when I’m feeling blue I’ll burn my rejection slips. Better yet, pile them up and lay a copy of my published book on top of them then burn them.
Short form, be prepared to bleed and if you aren’t save yourself the grief and walk away.
That said, if you have to write, then do the best work you can. Write it then edit it. Then send it through a critiquing group, and then edit it. If you find yourself in the “It’s my baby and you can’t touch it,” stage, get over it or stick to fan fic until you do. Editing and criticism is the only way you get good. Go to http://critters.org when you’re ready to have your work torn apart so you can put it back together better, stronger, faster than before.
When you feel you have a work worth publishing be open to all markets big and small. Realise that the pile of rejection papers you receive will likely be thicker than your work. It’s just how it is. Be prepared to scream, cry and hit things. Then get back to work. Some times when I’m feeling blue I’ll burn my rejection slips. Better yet, pile them up and lay a copy of my published book on top of them then burn them.
Short form, be prepared to bleed and if you aren’t save yourself the grief and walk away.
Stephen B. Pearl
I edit. If I have nothing to edit I do home repairs. If I can’t do home repairs, or work on my car, I do housework. Time can cure writers' block as can the realization that something far less pleasant than writing is your only option. People who get blocked and stay that way focus on the block and fail to see the host of unpleasant tasks awaiting them if they don’t get their brain in gear.
Stephen B. Pearl
Strange as it sounds I stop writing. When I stop I get itchy for it then ideas come. The world is full of ideas and inspiration. Look around you, what pisses you off? Good write a story where the hero fixes the mess. What scares you? Blow it up make it larger than life and then make your lead character deal with it. Inspiration is everywhere. I wrote a short story once inspired by the fact at preying mantis females eat their mates after sex. That one may have been inspired because my wife and I had a fight but I’m sticking with the preying mantis story, it’s safer. :-)
Stephen B. Pearl
I’m doing a lot of Promotion for Horn of the Kraken but I want to get back to working on Revenant the sequel to Nukekubi.
Stephen B. Pearl
I get to live a thousand lives in a thousand worlds and it doesn’t hurt when I get shot of knifed.
Stephen B. Pearl
The one I’m currently working on started with a request from the people who invented the Fate of the Norns Ragnarok table top gaming system. For the Ragnarok adjunct game the world was provided for me, the Norse apocalypse, so I just needed to place a story in that format. Let me just say the rule book for the game provides some of the most concise and accurate information on Norse society and culture of any source I have seen, Yes I have studied the Norse, fascinating people. If the gaming people approve my idea it should be a good tail to tell. The next one out is likely to be Tinker’s Sea, the sequel to Tinker’s Plague, which is currently being edited for release by Brain Lag Publishing. With this one I just looked at what the consequences of all the nuclear powered tech we have around would be if society collapsed. Scary Boo.
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