X. Ho Yen's Author Newsletter (26 Oct 2023)
Greetings Dear Subscribers,
How are you? Any news? Send me a note. Seriously. I’m not kidding. :)
* "Minimum Safe Distance" News
* "Custodians of the Future" News
* Other stuff
* The standard stuff
Post reviews, not just of my books, on TheStoryGraph.com! I like it better than Goodreads. I think it uses a much smarter cross-connection system than the traditional flat categorization system, helping you find what you’ll enjoy across categories.
============ "Minimum Safe Distance" News ============
1)
Good nyews everyone!
MSD now has four positive editorial reviews (out of four purchased…the investment phase continues). As a reminder, there’s no guarantee that these reputable review sources will yield a positive review. That’s what makes them reputable. It also has a reader review on TheStoryGraph, a 5/5 with a lovely writeup (see gif below).
Cite references, you say? Links to all those reviews are available on the MSD page.
That BookLife Prize review is nothing to sneeze at!
============ "Custodians of the Future" News ============
“Custodians of the Future” has been released and I’m using AllAuthor and IngramID to promote both CotF and MSD at the same time (more $…the investment phase continues). Along with MSD’s nice showing with the editorial reviews, I’m hoping these 2023 promotions will ‘kickstart’ more outside-of-friends-and-family readings and reviews. Those lead to new readers trying this material, and any word-of-mouth that gets people to even see the banner pic (above) goes a long way.
To help with that, as a reminder there will be another *eBook* promotional period (USD0.99) from 4 Dec to 11 Dec. My books are flagged as “for adults”, but really are appropriate for new adults as well as precocious young adults, so they should make good holiday season gifts. Holiday season in Australia happens during their summer, which is tragically appropriate given what Dec 31st, 2099, is like in Stockholm in CotF!
As always, all books in all available formats through all vendors can be purchased through my books page: https://XHoYenAuthor.com/books
============ Other Stuff ============
1)
Have you had a chance to watch the pilot episode of my vlog? I think you’ll get a kick out of it.
If you liked Log 1, I hope you’ll consider emailing and posting the link everywhere (except to young kids). This new outreach method relies on re-posting (rather than relying on facebook admins, who’ve let me down too many times).
If there are any creatives/makers out there who’d like to participate in future episodes as a ‘guest star’ or via visuals for the art showcase, contact GrandUniCOO at gmail and we’ll work out the details.
2)
Back in April I received a broadcast invitation on farcebook, something sent to everyone with “Author” in their profile name. It was an invitation to submit a 300-word “flash fiction” story for queerscifi.com’s 9th annual contest and anthology book.
Since I’m cis-hetero, I replied that I didn’t think it would be my place to participate.
But the gentleperson who runs the thing, J. Scott Coatsworth, said that would not be a concern.
In the end, it is a concern, to me at least. I’d never want to be thought of as someone who appropriates things that aren’t mine. But with Scott’s assurances I went ahead and wrote a 298-word story and submitted it.
The theme this year was:
”RISE (Noun, Verb)
Eight definitions to inspire writers around the world, and an unlimited number of possible stories to tell:
1) An upward slope or movement
2) A beginning or origin
3) An increase in amount or number
4) An angry reaction
5) To take up arms
6) To return from death
7) To become heartened or elated
8) To exert oneself to meet a challenge
Rise features 300-word speculative flash fiction stories from across the rainbow spectrum, from the minds of the writers of Queer Sci Fi.”
My story’s title is “Either-Or Answers After Sally Ride”. (and for anyone who doesn’t know who Sally Ride was, or why her name might be in the title of my flash fiction piece: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sally_Ride)
It did not win, place, or show in the contest, but it was among the 120 submissions that made it into their anthology out of 454 total submissions. I think it was #119, based on the list of names in the press kit. :) Let’s see, that roughly gives me a grade of 334*100/454 = 73.5%, a C-! That’s okay, I’ll take it, and it officially makes me an author whose work has been published by someone else! Not bad for a cis-hetero contributor who still sucks at short form writing, let alone flash fiction. I’m happy to have contributed something they felt was worthy of their anthology. I’m an ally.
The anthology is now out, so to speak. Here’s some promo. (clickable pics, but here’s the link, just in case: https://www.otherworldsink.com/book/rise/)
I’ve had time to read a number of other entries, and they’re really quite good. If you’d like to try some heartfelt fantasy and sci fi flash fiction, or know someone who would, pass the word!
Also, Queer Sci Fi is giving away a $25 Bookshop.org gift card (through a raffle) with this blog tour (but the raffle ends at the end of October):
Direct Link: http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/b60e8d47301/
3)
I'm reading my first N.K.Jemisin book, even though it's (contemporary) fantasy. Fantasy isn't a preference of mine, but this one’s a real palate cleanser for me after reading that *other* NYT bestseller which I truly hated. (That other one pandered to creeping illiteracy, had a 100% white cast and was the very definition of old-school white privilege safely playing with danger [of its own making, btw], and it relied on painful contrivances in exchange for plot twists. I need to remember that I can’t trust the big name sources of its testimonials.)
Jemisin is so deeply literate, this book is a joy to read. It’s like a biryani.
No sarcasm, I'm reminded of how much I *love* it when an author makes me look up words, new or forgotten.
Obviously, what I like about it isn't the act of interrupting my reading to spend 12.3 seconds looking something up. It's the reminder that there's so much more out there, so much more than what's currently in my mind and field of view, at my fingertops. It's profoundly comforting. (It also led me to find a source of Puerto Rican food not too far away, which provided enjoyable comfort food and will again.)
A new/reminded word is the anti-isolation, the link between us and everyone everywhere throughout time.
4)
One can’t simply write good books and publish them. They’ll never find readers without promotion, and there’s no point in writing and publishing a good book if it never finds readers, right?
I’ll have a table at Galacticon 2023 in November. This is the successor to “StarFest”, which was one of the foundational sci fi cons in the country. But I missed the window for obtaining the necessary state tax license for special events. The one I had applies to my city only. And then there’s locality specific taxes. So, yeah, for Galacticon I’ll be at a “community table” handing out postcards while Grand Unification Monastery’s COO and I figure out how to handle taxes for bookselling at future events.
I’ll also have a table at COSine in January, but by then I’ll be squared away with the legal stuff.
And I may want to submit CotF for various contests and reviews, too. More time/energy/$.
All this “authoring” stuff is exhausting. I’d rather be writing.
My next book probably won’t be ready until 2025. Rushing it is a bad idea. CotF was quick because its structure is so very familiar. I don’t want to do the same thing with “Attendants of the Future”.
5)
Here’s a plug for my friend, Mike Torreano, who writes well-received and award-winning westerns and other historical fiction. I helped with a couple of them as an alpha reader. If you know anyone interested in this kind of work, pass the word! The plan is for Mike to be the first ‘guest star’ on ‘Space Autistic Author’, so keep an eye out for that.
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/10187716.Mike_Torreano?from_search=true&from_srp=true
6)
Here’s a glorious speech by Ursula K. Le Guin. Every word is carefully chosen, every sentence packs a punch. Glorious!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Et9Nf-rsALk
"What men call social virtues, good fellowship, is commonly but the virtue of pigs in a litter, which lie close together to keep each other warm."
-- Henry David Thoreau
"When will our consciences grow so tender that we will act to prevent human misery rather than avenge it?"
-- Eleanor Roosevelt
============ The standard stuff ============
Here’s a printable, one-page ad for MSD if anyone has a nice bulletin board/ad column nearby.
All purchase options can be found here: https://XHoYenAuthor.com/books or at GrandUnificationMonastery.com. Both sites include links showing how several of the big vendors allow you to gift eBooks.
Thanks for sticking with me! I hope it’s at least mildly entertaining to watch this author second career thing come together. Please do share my page with fellow realism-based sci fi fans, especially anyone who enjoys Andy Weir’s books, Older’s Infomocracy, Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon, Card’s Speaker for the Dead, Mandel’s Station Eleven, Corey’s The Expanse, or Suarez’ Delta-V. I'm convinced my books would appeal to the same audience, because I wrote it for me and *I'm* in that audience.
Thanks for your support!
XHY
https://XHoYenAuthor.com