Ray Gun Revival Teaser

Ray Gun Revival Teaser

Too cool!

Dead Robots' Society Interview!

The Dead Robots' Society interviewed Johne and I about the changes coming in our zine:

"Pulling the Trigger on Ray Gun Revival 2.0"

http://bit.ly/9XZIZ5

Tackling a Dreaded Job

I had a very difficult writing task to perform. I didn't want to do it, not only because the subject matter was emotional, but because I didn't want to face what it meant. And because it's a type of writing I just don't do well. But with a deadline glaring in my face, I finally rolled up my sleeves, sat down, and just did it.

It hurt, it feels badly written (like that one episode of Galaxy Quest Gwen complained about), but it's done. Rough draft anyway.

You'll be able to read it in the Overlords' Lair of Issue 57 of Ray Gun Revival.

*sigh*

A Comma and a Copyeditor

Long ago, I wrote a Writer's Cramps article about how one can never proofread enough. As an example, I used a dratted comma that totally messed up the meaning of a sentence in a short story I had sold. I moaned at my stupidity for overlooking said comma, never checking my original manuscript.

I later found out that I hadn't added that comma, a copyeditor had. It totally changed the meaning of the sentence, and considering that sentence was backstory for my Enaisi series, I was really doing a face-palm. Not to worry, because that story's rights have reverted to me, and I now have that story on my website - corrected of course.

I've worked with copyeditors and have worked as a copyeditor on Ray Gun Revival. I will tell you, a copyeditor's job is not easy. We have to catch typos, fix grammatical and punctuation oopses, check formatting, and if done properly, do so without interfering with the author's voice. The toughest job I've ever done, writing-wise, has by far been copyediting.

Notice the "if done properly" in the above paragraph? I've seen copyeditors who will overlook typos and obvious grammatical errors to correct their personal pet peeves - to the point of totally rewriting paragraphs and destroying an author's voice and the tone of the scene.

The biggest, baddest story I've ever heard of "copyeditor hell" belongs to Piers Anthony. He contracted with a publisher to write a book in the '70s called But What of Earth? Long story short, the editor gave the book to a team of copyeditors who played god with it - changing the story, the characters' personalities and motivations, just totally ripping it to shreds, then they gave it to another writer who wrote up all the changes. The editor then published the book with both writers' names. When Anthony found out, he had a cow and went after them legally - since he had a contract for the book *he* wrote not some vaguely familiar thing "co-authored" by him and this other writer. (The other writer, for his part, didn't know what the editor was up to - he was sort of caught in the middle.)

If you want to read the whole shebang, Piers Anthony re-released the book some years ago with many of the notes of the copyeditors as footnotes. From an author's viewpoint, it's frightening to read those notes. Those copyeditors went far beyond their job description.

So the book tells two stories, the original story Anthony wrote (which is worth a read), and the publishing story. Every author and copyeditor should read this book, so authors know what to watch for, and so copyeditors can see the power-trip trap they (hopefully) don't want to fall into.

Writer's Cramps

My Writer's Cramps article "Writing Made Easy" has been reprinted in Fear and Trembling:

http://fearandtremblingmag.com/item.php?sub_id=1241

Ray Gun Revival's Demise

http://raygunrevival.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?t=3438

Deuces Wild review

w00t! John Adcox reviews my book!

Throw-back SciFi in Deuces Wild: Beginners' Luck by L. S. King

New Deuces Wild Story!

A stand-alone Deuces Wild story, "The Grift," is in this month's Digital Dragon magazine.

Tell your friends! Tell your family! Better yet, go read it and tell me what you think!

Cattle Rustling

Modern-day cattle rustling. http://bit.ly/8tEHwn Slap says it's on his home planet too, and he hopes they catch the lousy lizards!

RGR 55 is Live!

Ray Gun Revival issue 55 is live!
Get your free space opera / golden age sci-fi goodness here!
http://raygunrevival.com/

Just Sayin'

It's not about money, it's about having a passion to write!

New DW chapter

RGR#53 is out, with the latest Deuces Wild chapter! Read all the back chapters for Book 2 on my site: http://loriendil.com/

Deuces Wild

A short chapter, but the rough draft is done. Now to wait for feedback. Hurry, hurry!

RGR Issue 51

After many struggles with the Dark Side and technical difficulties that only Scottie could appreciate, Ray Gun Revival Issue 51 is finally out!

http://raygunrevival.com/Published/RGR_0051_2009.pdf

Please excuse the blatant self-promotion if I give a special push to read Deuces Wild!

P&E Top Ten

Ray Gun Revival made Top Ten in The P&E poll!

My friend Jane Lebak's book made the Top Ten as well!

And - one of our writers and a "regular" on the Ray Gun Revival forums, made #1 spot for SFF short story!

Way to go, all!!

Read my interview on the Sci-Fi Genre Review: Interview with L. S. King

w00t! Ray Gun Revival has hit 50!

Writing, writing, writing - and editing. Lots of editing. And proofing. And formatting. Did I mention writing?

odds and ends

I accomplished quite a bit today, I think. I managed to do chores around the house (my hands and wrists are not happy about it -- pain levels are incredible, and I bet I regret it tomorrow), wrote the cover letter and found a new title for my book (both with the help of friends), did some proofing of stories for RGR, tweaked my website a bit, and played on Facebook for a few minutes.

RGR made SCI FI Weekly!

Lookee what I just found out (thanks to a RGR regular who went above and beyond):

RGR: SCI FI Weekly's Site of the Week

Ray Gun Revival was site of the week back in June -- and we didn't know about it! We'll have to catch up for lost time by bragging about it now. *grin*

Sweet...