Exposing Myself

OK, as promised, a bit of elaboration on the press releases of earlier.  Sooper Seekrit Project #1 was my signing on with Amazing Stories (TM) as a blogger.  I wasn't allowed to say anything publicly until the formal announcement, although I've contacted one or two individuals to set up interviews.  There are 50+ bloggers participating, and all of them bring their own specialties and areas of expertise.  They range from people who are relatively unknown in the field to figures who are almost legendary.  I mean, I'm part of a blog team that includes Barry Malzberg.  How cool is that?

Each individual will bring something to Amazing Stories(TM), and I really hope you'll check out some of the links provided in the first press release.  I'm sure there will be plenty of things you'll find of interest.

Now, how all this applies to me:

My posts there will focus on indie and small press publications.  It will be a weekly column.  I'm not sure which day of the week it will run at this point.  I'll give you a heads-up before it does.  The first two columns will set the tone and parameters of what I will and won't look at and define what I mean when I use certain terms (which may vary from what others mean).  After that I'll be reviewing indie and small press publications.  Once a week is a pretty fast schedule, especially since I'm not giving up either this blog or Futures Past and Present.  I'll look more at short novels, novellas, and collections than long epic works.  I'll also interview authors and publishers, presenting as great a variety of individuals as possible.  And from time to time I'll share my ever humble opinions.

I've emphasized indie published works here for the last year or so.  That will continue but not to the extent it has.  I'm going to broaden the emphasis of Adventures Fantastic.  Rather than focusing on sword and sorcery and historical adventure (something that's arguable if look at some of the topics I've blogged about), I'm going to expand what I cover to include pulp in general.  That means in addition to fantasy and historical adventure, I'll include noir, detective fiction, superheroes, and things related to classic pulp.  About the only thing I won't cover here will be science fiction.  That will stay at Futures Past and Present.

Does that mean I won't be reading much sword and sorcery?  Not at all.  This brings us to Sooper Seekrit Project #2...I can't talk about Sooper Seekrit Project #2 yet.  I can't even say for sure it will happen.  But if it does, it will involve sword and sorcery.  And it will be glorious.  Trust me.

All of this is part of my master plan.  I also write fiction.  Well, I try to.  I'm still trying to master that time management thing.  I intend to do better this year.  Now that we've moved and I'm almost settled into my new office, I should get some more fiction finished.  I started this blog for two purposes.  The first was to have fun, and I am having a blast with it.  The second was to create a platform that would give me a way to publicize my own fiction when I started publishing.  I've got a couple of stories that have been accepted, although I don't know when they'll be available.  I intend to pursue both traditional and indie publication for my short fiction, which is what I'm mostly writing these days.

Part of my motivation in blogging for Amazing Stories (TM) is to increase traffic here and to build my potential audience.  Hence the title of this post.  In other words, it's all part of my plan for world domination. You may begin referring to me as Future Potentate of the Solar System.

Enough soliloquizing.  I'm starting to sound like a supervillain.  I'm also blogging for Amazing Stories (TM) because it's going to be a heck of a lot of fun.

Which brings us back to the reviews.  I've agreed to review some indie published books that I haven't gotten to yet.  My intention is to review some or most of those at Amazing Stories (TM).  The traffic there will be much greater than here, I'm sure, and thus these works will  have greater exposure to potential readers.  With only one post a week, it may take some time to get to all of them.  If we've corresponded about a review, and you have a preference where the review should appear, please let me know.  If you don't care, or if I don't hear from you, I'll probably post the review there.

Finally, I've got enough of a backlog at the moment that I'm not going to be accepting any more books for review.  I'll announce here as well as at Amazing Stories (TM) and Futures Past and Present when I open up for requests again.  I need to think through some guidelines about how to do that on a larger scale.  In the past, I've simply said Yes or No to the requests I've gotten.  With the broader exposure, I want to have a little more structure so as not to cause any offense.

And that's the story behind my new blogging gig.