The Dream, Steam, and Scream Book Giveaway!

With the impending release of the second book in my Dreamwielder Chronicles, Souldrifter, on top of a new edition of book one, Dreamwielder, I say it’s high time for an old-fashioned book giveaway. All you have to do is sign-up for the mailing list on my website www.garrettcalcaterra.com and you’ll be automatically entered. Simple as that (and I promise not to spam you or sell your email addy for nefarious purposes).

One entrant will win a grand prize package that includes paperback copies of Dreamwielder and my back titles, Umbral Visions and The Roads to Baldairn Motte, as well as an advanced reading copy of Souldrifter in e-book format (just as soon as I have it in my hands). In addition, two runner-up winners will win e-book copies of Dreamwielder and my novellas The Knight’s Dog and Page Fault. All winners will be selected randomly—no shenanigans, I swear!

Entry deadline is Friday, July 24, 2015.

Enter now at www.garrettcalcaterra.com

-Garrett Calcaterra

Why I Suck at Blogging So Far in 2014

Keeping a consistent posting schedule is the trademark of a good blogger, so if there was any doubt before, it’s decided—I’m definitely not a good blogger. But that’s okay. I’m a spec-fiction author first and foremost, and if I’m not spending time here at The Machine Stops, it’s because I’m busy with other aspects of my writing career, and that has been the case so far in the year 2014.

Let’s start with the biggie. Dreamwielder is now available in print! Available in trade paperback format to be precise. I’m pretty stoked, and would like to thank the great people at Diversion Books and my agent Liz Kracht for making it happen, and I’d especially like to thank everyone who purchased, reviewed, and helped spread the word about the e-book and audiobook versions of the novel over the past year—without your support, the print version never would have come to be. To help spread the word, I'm raffling off a great prize package of four signed books, a Wheel House CD, and an empty Cthulhu mint tin I stole from Tim Powers! Simply head over to my FB page and share my book link to be entered into the random drawing.

FREE BOOKS!!! - The Mettlefetchers Inverse Meme Campaign

FREE BOOKS!!! You've likely seen the series of Mettlefetchers pictures I've been posting the last week or so. Now I need your help with the inverse meme campaign. Repost some of the Mettlefetchers memes, or better yet, show off your Photoshop skills and make your own with the catch phrase "What is Mettlefetchers?" Post them wherever you hangout online--FB, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, Instagram--and then report back here where you've shared them and I'll pick my top 2 favorite helpers to receive the prize package in the picture: a DRM free version of Dreamwielder (Kindle not included) and paperbacks of Baldairn Motte, Umbral Visions, and Pirates & Swashbucklers 2. It's a win-win situation for everyone. Free books and you do me a giant favor in helping promote Mettlefetchers by simply having a little fun. Whadaya think?

-Garrett Calcaterra

If you wanna buy a book, pussy cow!

With the release of The Roads to Baldairn Motte, my co-authors and I have been brainstorming new, creative ways to promote the book--everything from fan art contests, book review drives, creating an original song, to giving away exclusive, unreleased content related to the book. During said conversations, I've been experimenting with promotion ideas with Umbral Visions, and I have to say, the whole business really makes me feel like a used car salesman. I'd much rather be writing, but in today's world--where you have to fight hard to convince someone to spend their hard-earned money on books--writers have to be their own biggest cheerleaders.

The Non-Idiot's Guide to Finding a Literary Agent

As an author, ghostwriter, and writing teacher, I’m often asked how to find a literary agent—enough times, at least, I decided I should finally write about it. There are a lot of good articles on the various aspects of getting an agent and ultimately a publisher, but not much in the way of a blunt, holistic guide, so without further ado, I present to you…

“The Non-Idiot’s Guide to Finding a Literary Agent.”

Solicited vs. Unsolicited Manuscripts

The first thing to understand as a writer hoping to get published is that you are competing with thousands of other writers with the exact same aspirations. This means agents and editors are swimming in more manuscript submissions than they can read. To make their jobs feasible, agents and editors generally split submissions into two categories: solicited and unsolicited. Solicited means a manuscript was requested by the agent or editor; these types of submissions garner much more time and consideration from the agent or editor. Furthermore, the response time from editors and agents is much quicker with solicited manuscripts; usually no longer than a month. Without any question, this is the better category to be in, but at the same time it’s the more difficult.

Market Square

I hope this post finds everyone still more or less sane with the holidays fast approaching. Personally, things haven't slowed down much on the writing, editing, and marketing front, but I wanted to take a moment and throw up a few quick links you might want to check out.

First, you'll notice that I stuck the new trailer for Umbral Visions at the top of the blog. It's nice and creepy, just like the book, so I hope you'll take a minute to give it a watch. If you'd like to help me out with my guerrilla marketing for the book, then post the link from YouTube wherever you find fans of dark fiction: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_vy2aofAS8

Second, my friend and frequent collaborator Ahimsa Kerp did an interview with me about Umbral Visions, my band Wheel House, and writing and general. It's quite a good interview, if I'm allowed to say so, and you can find it at his blog, Be Obscure Clearly. Beyond my interview, Ahi's blog is a great site to visit for fans of fantasy and horror fiction in general. I highly recommend it.

That's all for now. Back to writing and editing. Cheers!

-Garrett Calcaterra

Buried in Books!

It's been a busy last several weeks. I announced the release of the e-book version of Umbral Visions in my last post. Now, I'm happy to announce that the paperback edition of Umbral Visions is also available for purchase. The book—in both paperback and e-book formats—is available directly from the publisher and most major on-line retailers, including Amazon. It's a great book, if I do say so myself, and I hope you'll find it worthy to part with a few of your hard-earned dollars. Click on the book cover to the right to find purchasing info.

In addition to the release of Umbral Visions, I've gotten some news from a big agent on my novel Dreamwielder. The agent particularly liked the first half, but had some issues with the second half and requested revisions. While it's not exactly what I was hoping to hear (I was hoping to hear that the book was perfect, of course), it's nonetheless encouraging news, and I begrudgingly have to agree that the agent's critiques are pretty spot on. My goal is to make the changes in the next month and send the manuscript back to him.

Umbral Visions is here!

I'm happy to announce that the e-book version of Umbral Visions is here. You can purchase the book for Kindle, iPad, your home computer, or any other e-book reader, for a paltry $4.99 (less than a stiff drink at your local watering hole!). The PDF is available directly from the publisher, the Kindle format is available from Amazon, or you can find an assortment of formats from Smashwords.com

For those of you who prefer traditional books, hold tight--the trade paper back should be available in the next week or two.

As always, thanks so much for everyone's support and encouragement. If you'd like to further help out with the success of this book, please rate and review the book at Amazon.com

-Garrett Calcaterra

Purchase Umbral Visions now:

Kindle from Amazon

PDF version from the Publisher

Multiple e-book formats from Smashwords

Work, work, work. Work, work, work.

Between working on freelance book editing projects and the start of school, I've been damn busy this last month. In addition to the four creative writing high school classes I teach, I'm teaching two creative non-fiction courses at Chapman University this semester. I've got a great batch of students at both schools, and besides having gobs of papers to grade, I can't complain.

Despite this busyness, I've actually had a productive month on the writing front as well. Two stories I've been shopping around for a while found a home this month and both are available free on-line. The first, “Robbie,” is a sci-fi/horror flash fiction story. You can check it out on The New Flesh.

Sailing the Black Seas

On July 27th, I got a call asking if I was available to head out for thirty days to the Gulf of Mexico and perform air testing associated with the BP oil spill cleanup effort. I used to do air sampling work full-time, and still work with my old company on occasion doing odd jobs and technical writing work, so it wasn't a matter of qualification that gave me pause. Neither was it the opportunity to see the oil spill first hand. Rather, it was the prospect of packing up and leaving my life as I know it for thirty days to go live on a barge that made the decision very difficult. After consulting with my girlfriend, family, and house mates—and getting plenty of assurance from them all that they could maintain things without me for a month—I decided it was an opportunity I couldn't pass up.