Michael R. Underwood — Speculative Fictionero
Writing
Geekomancy in Audio!
02 months ago
Huzzah! w00t! At long last!
Geekomancy is now available as an audiobook!
Narrated by Julia Farhat, you can now beam all the jokes, all the genre emulation, and all the action straight into your ear-holes.
This is a particular pleasure for me, since I spent three years with audiobooks as my primary form of reading, since I spent most of my time as a book rep driving around the Midwest, and reading while operating a motor vehicle is both illegal and difficult.
The Celebromancy audiobook will likely come out very close to the ebook release in July, but that will ultimately be up to Audible, who are producing the audio editions.
If you aren’t already an Audible member, you can get a free audiobook by signing up for a trial membership.
#Geekomancy101
010 months ago
In order to keep the great excitement around Geekomancy rolling, I’m rolling out a fun Twitter meme called #Geekomancy101.
Step one will be figuring out our stats and class levels.
The first thing you do in almost any RPG is figure out the character’s stats. Ree Reyes, my lead in Geekomancy, has stat blocks and class levels she assigns to herself and her friends. I’m inviting people to make up their own stat blocks and classes for themselves — life-like accuracy takes a back-seat to hilarity.
These stats are done ala Dungeons & Dragons, so 3 is human minimum, 18 is human maximum, and 10-11 are average.
Example:
In the book, Ree stats herself:
Strength 10 Dexterity 14 Stamina 12 Will 17 IQ 16 Charisma 15 — Geek 7 / Barista 3 / Screenwriter 2 / Gamer Girl 2.
and her friend, Sandra Wilson:
Strength 15 Dexterity 13 Stamina 13 Will 12 IQ 17 Charisma 13 — Geek 3 / Scholar 3 / Dancer 1 / Teacher 1 / Waitress 1 / Chef 1 / Professional 1
In this vein, I’d stat myself like this:
Strength 11 Dexterity 15 Stamina 12 Will 15 IQ 16 Charisma 14 – Geek 6 / Scholar 3 / Bookseller 3 / Fencer 2 / Novelist 1
Join in the fun and use #geekomancy101 so I can keep track!
Write-a-Thon Week Three Report
010 months ago
by Michael R. Underwood
in Writing
Week three yielded 5361 words, even with a totally lazy 4th of July. The big pushes on Saturday are working really well, as I’m training my discipline and doubling down several times to hit those higher word-counts per session. I used to be able to hit 1K regularly, but seldom more than that. If I can get 2K word days consistently during the Write-a-Thon, that lets me set precedent and expect more of myself when I’m writing.
Up to 32K words, though I’m pretty sure about 4K of that is getting cut instantly due to changing my mind about the opening of the novel. I was able to cannibalize some of the good stuff out of the first beginning, but the rest will live off separately just in case I need to use more.
I’ll get another long session today, but the rest of the week could be pretty sparse, due to Self-Promonado. We shall see.
Geekomancy Reviewed at All Things Urban Fantasy
010 months ago
Julia at All Things Urban Fantasy has posted the first professional review of Geekomancy (as in not from a blurbing author, family, etc.)
http://allthingsuf.com/2012/06/early-review-geekomancy-michael-r-underwood.html
Write-a-Thon Week One Report
011 months ago
by Michael R. Underwood
in Writing
Thanks to a strong start last Saturday, my wordcount for week one of the 2012 Clarion West Write-a-Thon is 5217, more than half of my overall 10,000 word pledge.
I’m hoping to continue this success and keep up the momentum for another five weeks. 5K a week for these six weeks would be phenomenal, since I’m at just over 20K words in the sequel to Geekomancy. Keeping this level up would get me to 45K by the end of July, way ahead of schedule.
I’ll be putting in another afternoon of writing today, so I’m crossing my fingers for another 2K+ Saturday. The fingers will of course have to be uncrossed to type, otherwise I’d have to type quite slowly.
Write-a-Thon Check-in
011 months ago
by Michael R. Underwood
in Writing
Almost halfway through Week One of the Clarion West Write-a-Thon, I have gotten off to a great start with 3893 words, mostly from a great session of writing on Saturday (technically before the Write-a-Thon, but I’m counting it since I wrote on Saturday that weekend and not Sunday.
Here’s my participant page (where you can sponsor me — hint, hint) http://www.clarionwest.org/writeathon/michaelrunderwood
The Write-a-Thon is taking sponsorships/donations through the end of the workshop, so you have a bit over five weeks to sponsor me. I initially pledged 10,000 words in these six weeks, but I hope that my strong performance so far will let me annihilate that goal and keep going. Word count will likely slow down when travel gets more intense for my day job and when Geekomancy comes out, but I need to keep making words so that there can be another geek-tastic adventure with Ree next year.
Check in soon for a big announcement about Geekomancy‘s release! Excitement! Adventure!
Clarion West Write-a-Thon 2012
011 months ago
For those of you who don’t know, I attended the Clarion West Writers Workshop in 2007, and it was a huge boost to my writing career. Clarion West allows writers to focus on craft and critiquing for six weeks. Most writers are urged to write a story each of the six weeks as well as critiquing 3-5 short stories by their classmates each day during the week. It’s often described as Boot Camp for writers, and while I haven’t done a military boot camp, my Clarion West experience was certainly a crucible. I’m still applying and re-interpreting lessons learned at the workshop, and Clarion West also gave me a community of peers, most of whom I’m still in touch with and some of whom I see once or twice a year at conventions, keeping up and basking in one another’s successes.
Digression for plugs — Success like Cassie Alexander’s NIGHTSHIFTED, first a three book (and counting!) series about a nurse that works in the paranormal ward of her local hospital; David Constantine’s PILLARS OF HERCULES, a Roman Steampunk action-adventure novel that includes Steam Engines, a Possibly-Divine Alexander, and the secrets of Atlantis; Melinda Thielbar’s MANGA MATH series of manga about kids in a dojo that have to use math and martial arts to solve mysteries; and others!
I wrote my first salable novel after Clarion West (though it hasn’t sold yet), and I’ve tried to keep some connection to the workshop by participating in the Write-a-Thon most of the summers since.
For more info about the Clarion West Write-a-Thon, head here: http://www.clarionwest.org/writeathon
I’ve pledged to write 10,000 words and am hoping to raise $150 this year. My participant page is here, in case you feel like sponsoring me. 
Blurb 2: The Geekening
011 months ago
I’m honored to have three blurbs from fellow authors and advance readers of GEEKOMANCY , which we’ll get to use for the initial release of the book (including one on the book’s cover, perchance).
Underwood’s Geek Fu is strong–and he’s not afraid to use it. GEEKOMANCY is fun, fresh and full of geek culture references that will have you LOLing to the very last page. This book is one hundred percent pure awesomesauce and totally FTW.
– Mari Mancusi, award winning author of The Blood Coven Vampire series
Modern, sleek, and whip-smart, GEEKOMANCY is a wonderful blend of geek and pop culture — you’ll find yourself grinning knowingly at least every other page. And Ree is the perfect protagonist to navigate Geekomancy’s world — geek enough to hold her own, yet human enough for me to be deeply invested in her struggles. I can’t wait to read the next one!”
– Cassie Alexander, author of NIGHTSHIFTED
If Buffy hooked up with Doctor Who while on board the Serenity, this book would be their lovechild. In other words, GEEKOMANCY is full of epic win.
– Marie Lu, author of the Legend trilogy
Now back to doing my authorial happy dance. We’re less than one month out from GEEKOMANCY’s release, and I am reaching the stage of excited where it requires deliberate effort to calm down at times. I’m also hard at work on the sequel, so that there can be another adventure with Ree Reyes to share with readers next year.
First Blurb for Geekomancy
011 months ago
Today, I got the first blurb for Geekomancy! And it’s a doozy, if I do say so myself.
“If Buffy hooked up with Doctor Who while on board the Serenity, this book would be their lovechild. In other words, GEEKOMANCY is full of epic win.”- Marie Lu, author of the Legend trilogy
This is me doing my happy author dance. Those who have seen the ‘There Will Be Flail’ video will have a good idea of what said dance looks like.
We’ll be able to use this quote on the cover, at the various websites, etc. Cover blurbs are a great way to give a snapshot of what is worth getting excited about in a novel, and they help draw in the audiences for established/popular authors to build buzz. We’ve got a few other leads out for blurbs, and I hope the novel connects with some of the other folks reading as well.
Diving ahead
01 year ago
by Michael R. Underwood
in Writing
Geekomancy has gone off to my editor, and any day now the next round (line edits) will arrive. In the meantime, I’ve been plotting and planning and thinkerating about the sequel. I’ve never written a sequel before, so I have a whole new set of challenges and opportunities.
Since Geekomnancy was originally a distraction from my ‘real’ project, the stress level when I started writing was very low. I was just taking a fun break to try out an idea. Now I have a deadline, established continuity, series ambitions, and so on.
What I usually do (as in, what I’ve done for the last four novel starts) is to think and outline and ponder characters and plot, throwing it all into a mental pile. When that mental pile of ideas and characters got too high, it would tumble into a wave of writing, and I’d ride that wave to get the first draft started.
The pile is building, and I’m trying to push myself to make the second book even more fun, more exciting than the first one, to build on what I’ve done while also finding something new to show readers, while keeping myself from stressing out too much (ala “oh crap Sophomore slump and I have way less time to write this book and what if the first one was a total fluke!”).
All in all, this time around, I’m feeling less like preparation is building up a mountain of ideas and more that it’s strapping on gear to prepare for my first skydive.
The light is green, I’m standing in the open door of the plane, the wind rushing in, lapping at my fingers.
Nothing left to do but let go and dive. Also, I should probably avoid that turbine.