by Gene Moyers | Jul 17, 2018
Okay, I haven’t written anything here for two months. There are a couple of reasons for that. One; I’ve never been particularly good at keeping journals although I’ve tried several times. No matter how hard I try, sooner or later I forget, get behind and then abandon the effort. Though there have been exceptions for short periods of time. One of the most successful was the journal I kept during the ten weeks of army basic training. Now there are some interesting memories, successfully catalogued. I suppose I should do something with those one of theses days . . . but that’s a project for another time.
Anyway, this time the problem has been there really hasn’t been much to write about. This was always intended to be a journal concerning writing in general and my writing specifically not a personal log of vacations and activities so I have stuck to writing topics here. Now, while writing sounds terribly interesting and even romantic (at least that’s what some people seem to think) there are times when nothing real exciting is going on.
While I much prefer writing to bashing away at a 9 to 5 job, there are still times when writing is just sitting here day after day cranking out words in a row. Don’t get me wrong, I love writing and it is very satisfying but sometimes nothing much is happening except putting out a thousand or more words a day for sometimes weeks on end. Especially if I’m involved in a longer project with a deadline.
My recent Purple Scar novel had periods like that. Sixty thousand words involved a lot of time at this keyboard doing nothing but write. Hopefully during times like these the work is broken up by interesting things like new book premieres, sudden projects that pop up from editors needing something quickly or even out of nowhere inspirations that hit me hard enough to make me drop everything and work furiously on a new outline for a really neat story that just has to get outlined right now.
None of that has been going on the last few weeks. I still have several stories that are “very close” to publication that have been close for months and look to be stuck there for the time being. Who knows what the hang ups are? Only the Publishing Gods know for sure. And no new proposals have come along so I am just working away on the same things I have been for a while.
I am well into a mystery story intended for Marty Quade volume 2 to be published by Airship 27. The story has gotten so involved that I’ve had to go back and re-write my outline to make it a novella. Not necessarily a bad thing but I’m going to be working on this one for a while yet. Mysteries are slow anyway. As I’ve said before mysteries are much tougher to write than pure adventure. An adventure story may have elements of mystery but the main thrust of the story always remains the adventure and action.
In a pure mystery story the mystery itself is everything. The clues have to be balanced; not to obvious, not too tough. The time lines have to work out exactly for all the characters and especially the suspects. Basically everything has to mesh together almost perfectly. There is little room for error. So generally mysteries take me longer to write than other subjects and they are less forgiving of my errors as well.
While we’re on this subject let’s talk about Marty Quade. More than three years ago Ron Fortier pitched a new mystery anthology. He had found an old pulp detective in the public domain and decided to revive the character. Thus Marty Quade was reborn.
Marty is hard boiled private eye operating out of a New York hotel in the 1930s. He is cut from the same classic mold that gave us Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe; tough, always ready for trouble and always one step ahead of the police. He sounded like fun so I wrote up what I thought was a good little detective story about Marty trying to find out why a decent husband ended up dead, shot full of holes. It was hard work but fun and then things went sideways.
Some of you may have read about me losing the first draft of my Purple Scar novel to a thumb drive failure. In addition to that first draft that I had to re-create, I lost a lot of other work including, wait for it; The just completed Marty Quade story that I was about to submit. Yes, all 15 thousand words, completed and revised disappeared in an instant.
Deciding that the Writing Gods were against that project, I moved on to other stories, swearing to forget Marty Quade. Unfortunately, that did not work and eventually I had to admit that the story idea was too good to waste. So I went back and from my memory (yes, the original outline had disappeared as well) re-wrote Marty Quade.
It took a while for other writers to take an interest but eventually other stories were submitted and Marty Quade volume 1 is in now production and awaiting the last few illustrations before going to print. Yes, that is one of the projects I mentioned at the start of this entry. Hopefully it will be out soon. I’ve been saying that for a while and sooner or later I’m sure I’ll be right and the book will be in print. And when it does I intend to have my second Marty Quade story ready for volume 2. So back to the summer grind.
by Gene Moyers | May 11, 2018
My long awaited Purple Scar novel is now available. One would think that I would be jumping up and down with joy at this news. And, I am, however there’s more to the story . . .
I wrote my first story about the further adventures of the little known masked avenger in 2012 for Airship 27’s first anthology. I enjoyed the work and wrote a second 15K word adventure for volume 2 of this series. I’ve always liked the masked pulp avengers. I thrive on The Shadow, The Spider and Black Bat. Here was finally a little known masked avenger who was essentially a blank canvas and I could write all that I wanted about him. With only four original, rather lackluster stories originally written, I decided there was a world of writing possibilities here. Ron Fortier, chief editor at Airship 27, undoubtedly thought the same. That’s why he started the anthologies in the first place.
Now with a story published and another in production I dove into outlines for a third, a fourth and yes, a fifth Purple Scar adventure. Somewhere along in this process, one of the outlines started getting out of hand. I realized it could not be done in 15K words and thus outlined it as a 30K word novella. I eventually realized this also would not work and so Master of Blackness turned into my first novel.
Not that things went smoothly from there.
I started the novel from a 5k thousand word outline and was nearly twelve thousand words into it when a thumb drive failed and I lost everything on it. Nearly 50K words including my novel and outline not to mention a recently completed detective story (More on that at a future date) gone in a heartbeat. To say that I was disappointed would be an understatement.
Disgusted, I moved on to other projects. Then low and behold, in September of 2016, I discovered an early version of my Purple Scar outline on an old thumb drive that had been misplaced. While I still had lost my original novel start I could at least now begin to rebuild the project.
So with a new extended outline, a cast of characters and a detailed timeline (9K words total) I re-started Master of Blackness.The writing went pretty well with breaks for other projects and I turned it in in April of last year.
As to the story itself. I needed a bigger canvas for an entire novel so instead of combatting jewel thieves, blackmailers or the like, I cast around for a bigger villain and challenge for the Purple Scar.As I have stated before, I love the masked avengers and one of the biggest was the Spider. Though the Spider stories were a bit over the top and somewhat melodramatic, you have to admit they were always exciting. In every Spider adventure the body count was outrageous and there was always a plague, an army of mysterious killers or some city wide threat that stretched the Spider to the limit.
So with the apocalyptic vision of whole city blocks in flames and armies of masked assassins in mind, I decided to borrow a bit from the style of Norvell Page (Author of the Spider novels) for Master of Blackness. I also wanted to see just how far I could push The Purple Scar and his alter ego to see if he and his allies could hold up to the biggest threat the Purple Scar had ever faced not to mention the longest story of his adventures ever published.
The answer is not for me to say. It is for those who read Master of Blackness to decide. So if you read it and like it, let me know. If you don’t like it . . . let me know anyway.
I believe it is a good story. Lots of action, an over the top threat to the city our hero protects and a little mystery thrown in as well. I had a ball writing it and am glad it is now available. I found writing a full novel challenging but rewarding as well. It’s a lot of work cranking out copy on a single story for months on end but there are advantages to writing longer pieces. I got to flesh out characters and add atmosphere, as well as throw in fun lines and scenes.
As you can see my Purple Scar novel had some difficulties and setbacks. This did not end with the writing of the story. The versions; yes, plural, are not all exactly what I originally wrote. How did this happen? Well, a while back an experienced author told me that “the truth is, not all writing projects come out as we wish.” I have learned he was absolutely right on a couple things I have written over the years. In addition, I have learned that A) I do not have final word over the whole process and B) When all is said and done, I am not the only stakeholder in these projects. Thus things change happen that I have no control over. What does this mean? In the case of my Purple Scar novel you will find that the name has been changed. The official title is now The Black Fog. Now, this is not a bad title, I guess. I liked my original one better but The Black Fog is now official.
Secondly, the print version you will buy from Airship 27 or on Amazon is formatted differently than I originally wrote it. When I wrote the original story, I used a time based format of days as major divisions further divided into times. This format has been used by well-known authors (See any of F. Paul Wilson’s Repairman Jack books) and can really add to a book. I used it to add urgency to my story as well as keep the reader informed as to where he was in a fast-moving story at any one time. Unfortunately, Airship 27 wants all their books to look the same so my format was changed to a layout with 19 short chapters. Not my choice, but this does not to take away from the printed form of The Black Fog. Nearly every word and scene are mine and I believe it is a fine New Pulp, adventure novel. The interior illustrations are by award winning artist Chris Kohler and are simply wonderful. They are some of the best art I have ever had illustrating any of my writing. The colorful cover is done by artist Graham Hill.
Now here is the kicker I hinted at earlier. By special arrangement with Airship 27 management, the Kindle version, available at Amazon. com, is written in my original time based format. Same story; but if you want to see my original pacing and intention you might want to check out the special edition Kindle version of The Black Fog.
Of course, as the writer, I have my biased preference as to which is “better” but the truth is they are both the same story. Buy either one and I hope you will be just as entertained. At any rate; welcome, not only the longest adventure of the Purple Scar ever written but a deeper look at Akelton, Miles Murdock and his band of sidekicks. Enjoy.
Oh, and a special “Thank You” to art director Rob Davis for all the extra work he did on this project. Without him it might not have seen the light of day.
by Gene Moyers | Apr 10, 2018
So, I’m back from another whirlwind trip to Chicago. This is my fifth consecutive Windy City Con and as usual I had a great time. Every year Windy City has it’s own rhythm and activities and this year was no exception. With themes, attendance and awards changing every year no telling what will happen from year to year.
This year’s Guest of Honor was none other than best selling author F. Paul Wilson. Since he is my favorite living author as well as someone from whom I have adapted some writing techniques, I was especially excited. This follows on last year’s GOH, artist Jim Steranko. I hope this trend of having GOHs that I have a personal interest in continues.
Anyway. I was pleased that Mr. Wilson remembered me from our introduction three years ago. I got to spend a little more time getting to know him, although in a rather loud group I didn’t get much chance to talk about writing. Though, I did manage to pick up a couple of ideas that may come in handy for future writing.
Most interesting was finding out that he is quite the musician. We had some moments reminiscing about playing in “garage bands” from his youth. To be clear here, that was all him. While I grew up in the sixties and heard many local garage bands play at all my junior high and high school dances, I never played in one. Those who know me are fully aware that I have trouble playing the radio and couldn’t carry a tune in a sack. Anyway it was a pleasure to once again spend time with Mr. Wilson
Attendance was good this year and seems to be increasing steadily the last few Windy City Cons. This is good. The more attendees the more exposure my work gets. And lots of people make any Con more fun.
Increased attendance showed up at the Airship 27 table. It looked like they were selling a lot of books. I hung around there a good bit and I did sign several copies of anthologies with my stories in them that were sold. My two newest books Mystery Men vol. 5 and Moon Man vol. 2 apparently sold very well for Airship 27. Not as well as their best selling Sherlock Homes series perhaps, but very well indeed. This is gratifying, especially Mystery Men. I really want more people to get a look at my female avenger.
I also renewed friendships with other writers and caught up on their projects. I was hoping for an update on another of my projects that’s been in the works for a while but that editor couldn’t make this year’s Con. I’ll have to catch up with him later.
Most interesting was the progress both my Purple Scar novel and my Zeppelins over Afrika book are making. Artwork is nearly complete on PS and Ron and Rob hope to begin assembling the book very soon. I am still very hopeful we will see the book premiere in the next month or so, provided there are no last second hang ups.
Better news was that Zeppelins over Afrika now has both a cover artist and interior artist. Ron says both are making steady progress. He claims the preliminary cover art sketches are very impressive. So provided this continues, there may be a good chance that we will see Zeppelins by the end of the year. I’ll keep my fingers crossed on that one.
Other than spending too much money on books and collectibles and staying up too late, I guess that’s about it on my Con experiences. I had the usual great time and am already looking forward to next year.
Hopefully I will have more Purple Scar updates soon.
by Gene Moyers | Mar 5, 2018
Or, it will be any day now. Yes, the art, layout and final draft of Moon Man volume 2 is complete. I finished my final edits and returned them to Rob Davis on Friday. I believe the other authors have done the same. So, with any luck Moon Man will be available on the Airship 27 website and at Amazon any time. Sometimes, there is a short delay while Amazon confirms that our New Pulp copy is in fact, original writing but I still expect to see the book available sometime this week.
As usual Rob Davis’ graphic layout is impeccable. The interior artwork is good and I liked every illustration.
I have read two of the other stories and they are first rate. I like just about every thing Greg Hatcher writes and as usual his story is clever and well written. Tim Bruckner has an interesting take on MM. He envisions Moon Man as more like Bat Man or perhaps Phantom Detective. His hero has a fully equipped secret headquarters and underground garage; an interesting take on our classic hero. At any rate his story is a crackling good pulp adventure with a masked villain and lots of action. I have yet to read Terry Alexander’s story but hope to do so soon.
I have yet to see the cover art but won’t have to wait long for that since I’m sure the book will be available any day now. I’m very pleased that it is out there.
I wrote my story for MM vol. 2 five years ago. As I have said before the publishing industry has its own pace, flow and currents that have a way of sweeping projects along at varying rates. This one took a while. The interesting thing about this fact is that since I wrote Silver Trail so long ago it gives me a glimpse at how my writing has changed.
I still believe the story is good. It reads well, makes sense and I think it captures the Moon Man flavor. Having said that, if I had the chance I would rewrite the story in some ways. At that time in my writing career I was less comfortable with conversations. Now I would put in more conversations for flavor. Also I would write shorter paragraphs to make the story flow faster. These may seem like minor things but they jumped out at me instantly when I re-read Silver Trail for the first time in nearly five years.
I have always felt that I improve with every paragraph and story I write. This story only confirms that to me. I guess that means that better stories are yet to come . . . now that’s a pleasant thought. Maybe some day I’ll actually get good at this writing stuff.
So keep checking Amazon and Airship 27. MM should be available any day now. I will not have any for sale for another week or two.
Other news: I am told that my Purple Scar novel is moving along quickly. I guess the interior art is over half complete and the cover art is progressing as well. I would like to hope that it is available in time for Windy City Pulp Con in April but am just not sure. At any rate it is moving along more quickly than I had hoped and I am very pleased about that.
Also, I turned in my alternate history story intended for Zeppelin Tales vol. 2 last week. It’s a pretty good tale of an American Naval airship caught in a violent storm.
So, it looks like 2018 is off to a good start. Hopefully I will have more good news soon.
by Gene Moyers | Feb 8, 2018
Yes, yes, I know it’s a little late to be talking about the new year but things have ben a bit busy the last few weeks.
In December in the afterglow of Mystery Men & Women vol. 5 being published
I worked happily away on my latest aviation story. Unfortunately, I ran into some snags. This was intended to be a fun little flying adventure set in the Spanish Civil war . . . and it is but it got a little serious during writing and while the action sequences were all great, I was unsatisfied with some of the conversations that turned out to be the real point of the story. So, I decided to table that story for a while and moved on.
Next up was an airship story for volume 2 of Zeppelin Tales, an Airship 27 anthology series. Using the zeppelin world I created for Flight of the Wasp and my recently completed Alternate History book Zeppelins Over Afrika, I decided to branch out and write an American airship story. That’s the fun discovery I made; In my zeppelin world I have almost unlimited airship stories I can write (And, other alt. history stories as well).
Anyway, I started in and was making good progress when I came down with a nasty head cold at Christmas. Thank God it wasn’t this nasty flu that is going around the country but it did knock me out for a few days. That plus all the visits and activities of the Christmas and New Year seasons (not to mention football playoffs and bowl games) kind slowed progress on my story.
I finished it a couple of weeks ago and am quite pleased with it. I had been concerned that the characters and airship action would seem too much like my German airship stories but I was pleased to see that the airship procedure and flying scenes had a definite American feel. Something I was actually trying to do (Surprise!).
So I am now knee deep in revisions hoping to get this one off to the publisher very soon. The biggest problem I’m having is that the story came out at well over 18K words. Getting rid of at least 2K words without gutting the story is proving challenging. Still, I’m sure that “Soft Landing” will be great start to my 2018 writing.
2017 was a somewhat slow year publishing-wise. I had only three stories published, all published in the last quarter of the year. As late as September I was beginning to worry that I might not have anything published at all but then several things fell quickly together. The best thing was that the stories were published by three different publishers. Spreading the work around often means reaching different audiences; always a good thing.
So what can we expect in 2018? Lots of good things, I think. My sources tell me that the long awaited Moon Man vol.2 will soon be published by Airship 27. This contains a fun little Moon Man story I wrote a long time ago. An early work but one I will be pleased to see published. So, all you Airship fans or classic pulp fans keep watch for the book soon.
More good news is I’m told that my Purple Scar novel is progressing nicely. A cover artist has been assigned and the inside artist is apparently working away. I have high hopes we’ll see this novel published in the late spring or early summer. Updates to follow.
A couple of other short stories are also progressing and could be published this year. I’m also hopeful that my full length zeppelin saga might be published later in the year.
So, all in all it is looking like 2018 could be a very good publishing year for my work. I’m excited about the new year.
Oh, I almost forgot . . . I got outstanding news a couple weeks ago. It turns out that this year’s Guest of Honor at Windy City Pulp & Paper Convention in April will be none other than F. Paul Wilson! This is great news. Mr. Wilson is my favorite living author and a master of the written word.
I have met Mr. Wilson at three different book signings and three years ago I actually got sit down with him for a few hours of some very pleasant conversation. We had a wide ranging conversation that covered topics from favorite Western movies to the state of medicine in America.
A lot of writers have had big effects on my life over the years. I look back now and regret that I never reached out to most of them to let them know how their writing had influenced my life. I got that chance with Mr. Wilson and it is one of my more pleasant memories.
At any rate, I hope to renew our acquaintanceship in Chicago. I can only hope he remembers me. So, I’m looking forward to Windy City this year more than usual. It is always a good weekend to talk writing and make contacts as well as a lot of fun. This year there is even more to look forward to.
That’s all for now. More news soon, hopefully.
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