Tag Archives: Evan Braun

It Inspired Me

Another month has come and gone, another month of varied posts from varied writers. I knew well in advance how this month’s theme would impact me—spoiler alert: it inspired me—which is a large part of why I proposed it in the first place. The simple truth is that when writers work alone, they usually fail. Or burn out. And when it looks like writers are going it alone, they probably aren’t.

As per usual when a month wraps up, I wanted to provide both a retrospective and quick index of our recent posts. I encourage you to take some time to dig through these. There are some real gems! Some highlights for me include Travis Heermann’s and Nathan Barra’s dueling examinations of critique groups and the benefits they offer (and how bad critique groups can be escaped/troubleshooted), and Kristin Luna’s post about reader reviews probably hit close to home for a lot of us.

Evan Braun—We All Live in Community
Guy Anthony de Marco—Collectives Collecting Collectible Creatives
Rachel Ann Nunes—Is Google Play Going Crazy or Is Fate Finally Smiling on Me?
Sherry Peters—My Peeps. My Tribe.
Kristin Luna—You Are Not Alone: One-Star Reviews for Everyone!
Evan Braun—Post 1000: How on Earth Did We Get Here?
Colette Black—Growing Community
Leigh Galbreath—This Ain’t No Fortress of Solitude
Frank Morin—What Goes Around
Kim May—Help! I’ve Written Myself into a Corner and I Can’t Get Out
Jace Killan—How to Tribe
Nathan Barra—Getting the Most Out of Group
Ace Jordyn—Turning Milestones into Stepping Stones: Why Accountability Groups Work
Scott Eder—Travelling in Packs: Partnering with Multiple Authors at Cons
Petra Klarbrunn—The Importance of Author Mentors
Mary Pletsch—Your Support Net(Work)
Travis Heermann—The Critique Group Waltz: Is Yours in Step?
Brandon Plaster—Community
Gregory D. Little—A Little Healthy Envy

Come back tomorrow for an extended look at our con experiences. Take it away, Scott Eder!

Evan BraunEvan Braun is an author and editor who has been writing books for more than ten years. He is the author of The Watchers Chronicle, whose third volume, The Law of Radiance, has just been released. He specializes in both hard and soft science fiction and lives in the vicinity of Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Post 1000: How on Earth Did We Get Here?

The Westin with arrowAs near as I can recall, the Fictorian blog was birthed—at least in idea form—on March 20, 2010 in the lounge of the Westin Hotel in Pasadena. (See photo to pinpoint more or less the exact spot.) A group of writers had assembled for the first annual Superstars Writing Seminar to learn about the ins and outs of the publishing business. We were a big group of strangers with a whole lot of high-flying ideals.

I’d like to think those ideals haven’t gone anywhere, but that big group of strangers doesn’t exist anymore. Alas, we are currently a big group of friends and trusted colleagues.

Of course, none of us went home from that seminar ready to start blogging. It took just over a year to get organized. Our first blog post, “The Benefits of Holding Hands,” went live on March 30, 2011—and it goes like this, courtesy of Fictorian alumnus Nancy DiMauro:

Writers help you stay motivated and hold you accountable. It’s like having an exercise or diet buddy. After all, who can understand the ups and downs of writing better? Writers need to network, commiserate and, well, get honest feedback about what they write from others who are wrestling with the same questions…

I don’t know if Nancy set out to write a mission statement, but this one would certainly do the trick. Four and a half years later, and one thousand posts, it still holds true. The Fictorians is about writers holding other writers accountable, keeping them motivated during the many and varied troughs of the writing life, and helping them to network.

All of these years later, the names and faces have changed, but none of the original Fictorians are at the same place in their writing careers than when they started. Without question, this blog has helped us to grow and stay connected with our tribe.

So, one thousand posts. Four digits. A really big part of me can’t believe we’re here. I’ve read somewhere that the average blog lasts two years or less. If that’s true, we’re beating the odds—and that’s largely due to the fact that we’re doing it together. Holding hands, so to speak. It’s not easy to keep an online presence going day after grueling day. With the Fictorians, it’s pretty effortless. When everyone makes a small commitment (one post month, loosely), it’s not hard to fill up the calendar with great content.

Well, perhaps you’ve noticed that we’re really very extremely excited about our 1000th post. It’s a big deal, a big milestone, so we figured, why not throw a little party? That’s why we’ve been giving away books all month. Seven last week, seven this week (it’s actually thirteen, since one of the prizes this week is a seven-book bundle), and fourteen more as the month rolls on. These are books we’ve written, books that our friends and guest bloggers have written, and even books that our mentors have written. There’s a lot of good stuff. For more details, click here, or simply log in to the Rafflecopter interface to your right.

Our celebration isn’t all about the giveaways, though. For over a year, we’ve been working behind the scenes to bring you this upgraded site interface. It was ready just in time for this month, the most pivotal of months. We hope you’re enjoying it so far!

If you’re a writer and you’re looking for a tribe, consider us in your corner. Read and comment on our articles. Get in touch with us. And if you’re really serious about doubling down on your writing career (and we’re all hoping the answer is yes), then consider signing up for the Superstars Writing Seminar. That’s right; the Fictorians are still around, and so is Superstars, going strong into its sixth year. There’s no better place to fulfill the above mission statement.

Evan BraunEvan Braun is an author and editor who has been writing books for more than ten years. He is the author of The Watchers Chronicle, whose third volume, The Law of Radiance, has just been released. He specializes in both hard and soft science fiction and lives in the vicinity of Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Week Two Giveaway

One week down, three to go! The winners from last week’s contest are being contacted to claim their prizes, and in the meantime it’s time to introduce a whole new round of giveaways. And this week’s offerings are even better:

  1. The Complete Million Dollar Writing Series (eBook format). This includes seven books from WordFire Press, by authors like Kevin J. Anderson, Rebecca Moesta, and David Farland. (A $56 value)
  2. Eric Flint & David Carrico: 1636: The Devil’s Opera
  3. Scott Eder: Knight of Flame
  4. Guy Anthony De Marco: Cthulhu Passant
  5. Terry Odell: Deadly Bones
  6. Lee French & Erik Kort: The Fallen
  7. Monique Bucheger: Simply West of Heaven

It’s easy to enter. Just log in to the “Giveaway Celebration” box to the right of our blogroll. You’ve got six days to enter before the winners are drawn at midnight Sunday. Good luck to everyone!

 

August Giveaways: Rules

By Colette Black and Evan Braun.

As I (Evan) mentioned in my post yesterday, we’ve got giveaways coming up. Lots and lots of giveaways. This is a writing blog, so it should surprise no one that we’re mostly giving away free books. But there’s more to it than that, of course! So how do you win all this great stuff? Well, that’s easy, and Colette is here to explain it to you.

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Starting today, we will have a new set of giveaways each week. They will last one week, until midnight EST of the following Sunday. Every week we’ll have new prizes, including but not limited to: eBooks, gift cards, signed paperback books, cash prizes, etc. We will have seven prizes to win each week. More details are available on our website’s right sidebar, under “Giveaway Celebration.” Just go to the sidebar and click on one of the entry forms, then follow the actions available (for example, leaving comments on our posts, sharing and talking about our posts on Facebook and Twitter, etc.). Some actions are worth more than one entry, and some actions can be done more than once during the week.

Winners will be notified within 48 hours of the end of each week and requested to rank prizes in their order of preference. The first-place winner will receive first choice, second-place will receive second choice of prizes still available, and so on. Because we’ll have seven winners, we hope that everyone will respond quickly so we can distribute the prizes as soon as possible. If someone doesn’t respond within forty-eight hours, we will be forced to withdraw them from the contest and award their prize to another entrant.

We have so many amazing gifts, and people can win more than once, so we look forward to a fun month of prizes and great posts as we celebrate the special occasion of our 1000th post next week on Wednesday, August 12. Good luck to all, and to all a good August!

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Thanks, Colette. Before I go, I wanted to give a rundown on the great prizes available during Week One. Check out the box in the right sidebar for more information on these books and authors:

  1. Mary Pletsch: Tesseracts 18: Wrestling with the Gods (anthology)
  2. Colette Black: Noble Ark
  3. Evan Braun: The Book of Creation: Book One of The Watchers Chronicle
  4. Nathan Barra: One Horn to Rule Them All (anthology). This very special prize comes with a crocheted purple unicorn!
  5. Travis Heerman: Heart of the Ronin
  6. Sam Knight: A Whiskey Jack in a Murder of Crows
  7. Teyla Branton: The Change

Let the games begin!