Author: Scott William Carter

The Ghost Who Said Goodbye – Cover and Description

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That’s the cover for The Ghost Who Said Goodbye, which is on track for an early April release.  There might be a few last minute tweaks, but I’m feeling very good about it.  I’ve gotten the book back from my intrepid copy editor and am making my final edits now.  As always, if you want to be the first to know, sign up for my e-mail newsletter.  I use it almost exclusively to let my readers know about new releases, so it’s doubtful you’ll get more than a handful of emails a year.  I also occasionally offer special editions, free books, and other deals through it, so it’s worth signing up.  And of course your email will never be shared with others.

For you Garrison Gage fans, yes, I’m now working on the fourth Gage book and really like how it’s shaping up.  Going’s a little slow right now, because I’m in one of the busiest stretches I’ve had in quite some time, but things will open up quite a bit in about a month.  I also had to make a trip back to Minnesota for my grandmother’s funeral, who died just shy of 98. She lived a long life and died fairly quickly at the end, so I saw this visit as a celebration of her life and a chance to reconnect with some cousins and other relatives I don’t get a chance to see often.

Rainy and gray here in Oregon, typical for March, though weather has been a bit schizophrenic this year.  The course I mentioned in my last post filled, which is great to see, and I think I’m putting together a very robust class.  Looking forward to it.

Here’s the full description of The Ghost Who Said Goodbye, the second Myron Vale investigation.  More soon.

ghostgoodbye_cover031315Charles Manson. Ted Bundy. Jeffrey Dahmer. Known for their cunning and savagery. In the late eighties, another infamous serial killer sent seventeen innocent people to early graves. Then, suddenly, the murders in the panicked city of Portland, Oregon, stopped—and the Goodbye Killer got away.

Myron Vale remembers it well. Long before a fateful bullet cursed him with the ability to see ghosts, he was the young son of the city’s most esteemed detective. The case changed Hank Vale, haunting him with a single glimpse of the killer’s otherworldly face. He was never the same man again. Or the same father.

Now a new victim points to the Goodbye Killer’s return. And when the most powerful forces on the other side of the great divide approach Myron desperate for help, he uncovers a terrifying truth. It’s not just the living who should fear for their immortal souls … even the dead can die.

WR 450: Writing for Publication (Western Oregon University, Spring 2015)

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About a year ago, the English department at Western Oregon University (the day job part of my life) approached me about possibly teaching a course on writing and publishing — steeped in the kind of practical, nuts and bolts stuff that someone needs to know to write for publication today. I’m pleased to announce that it’s finally come together, and I’ll be teaching the course this Spring term.  First, the actual course description:

WR 450:  Writing for Publication (4)

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An advanced course on writing and publishing for a commercial audience. Half the course concentrates on the techniques and skills needed to write successful popular fiction; the other half concentrates on publishing, with equal emphasis on both traditional and self-publishing options. Topics include: scene and structure, creating compelling characters, developing a unique voice, manuscript submission, literary agents, copyediting, contracts, ebook creation, Print-on-Demand, movie options, and many other areas of interest. While the primary focus is on short stories and novels, arrangements can be made with the instructor for writers of non-fiction. This is a HYBRID course; students should expect to spend 2-3 hours each week online in addition to the Wednesday night classroom time.

  • Instructor:  Scott Carter
  • Date/Time:  Wednesdays, 4:30-7:20 (with one hour online)
  • Location:  Room TBD | WOU, in Monmouth, Oregon
  • Term Begins:  March 30, 2015
  • Cost:  WOU Tuition Rates
  • Register:  Web registration is here | For new students, call the Registrar’s Office at (503) 838-8327 | Opens at the end of Feb

 

I’ve designed it to be the kind of course I wished I had.  I took several good writing classes as an undergraduate (as well as more than a few bad ones), but none of them were really grounded in both the craft and the business, especially from a professional perspective.  When I attended the University of Oregon, I was fortunate to happen upon a remarkable weekly workshop run by Kristine Katherine Rusch and Dean Wesley Smith, which was not affiliated with the university at all and was frequented by many professional writers who lived in the area.  Attending that workshop on Tuesday nights for three years in the banquet room of greasy G. Wilikers Bar and Grill (long since closed) really helped show me what writing with a professional mindset is all about.  Not many writers are lucky enough to have that kind of workshop, though, so I’m hoping this class might, in some small way, serve the same purpose. This will be about clearing myths and setting people who are serious about writing on the right track.  

Who should take the course?  

People interested in writing for a commercial audience — in other words, writing as a professional endeavor.  What does it mean to write for a commercial audience?  Generally, it means writing for some combination of money, audience, or prestige.  Should you pursue a traditional publisher or self-publish?  Contracts?  Royalties and advances? Literary agents? What are the elements of great fiction, fiction that sells?  There are no prerequisites, but this is a 400 level course, so the expectation is that the student will have done some amount of writing before attending.  If unsure, however, email me via my contact page.

Spring registration at WOU opens at the end of February. If it goes well, I hope to teach it every year, but there are no guarantees.  If you’re interested, and you’re within driving distance of Monmouth, Oregon, I’d suggest taking it now.  I realize the tuition ain’t cheap, but this will be a lot more in depth than the teaching I’ve done in the past at conferences and workshops.

Winter Update: New Myron Vale book coming soon

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Just a quick winter update on multiple fronts. That picture at the top is from a little weekend getaway that Heidi and I took to the Nye Beach area of Newport, Oregon. We stayed in the fantastic Slyvia Beach Hotel, where every room is themed after a different author. I took the picture on the beach below the Yaquina Lighthouse. It’s  actually my camera sticking together a couple of shots, but I still thought it came out well.  It’s pretty small on the blog, but you can click the image for a larger version. Bonus points for spotting the seagull.

Health in the Carter household has been up and down, as is often the case in the winter with all the viruses lurking about, but we soldier on. Most of our Saturdays lately have been taken up by the kids’ basketball games. I just finished The Ghost Who Said Goodbye, the second of the Myron Vale series. It’s scheduled to go to my intrepid copy editor in a few weeks, with an expected publication date of late March or early April. As things firm up, I’ll post more info — a cover, a book description, etc. And, of course, I encourage my readers to sign up for my mailing list. I always let my most dedicated fans know first when my books are available for purchase, and I seldom email otherwise.

And yes, I’ve already started the next Garrison Gage book. It’s early goings, but I’m feeling really good about it — always fun to return to Gage’s world. He’s practically like family now. I took a bit of time to build a “Gage Bible” for myself, an encyclopedia about the characters, Barnacle Bluffs, and other info I can now use as a reference. I’d been using scattered notes until now, but since I’m working on the fourth book, with plans for many more, I figured it was worth a little extra effort to put together a resource I can turn to a little more easily.

Speaking of Gage, I also took the time to hire another copy editor to go over The Gray and Guilty Sea one more time, and I’ve implemented those changes in both the ebook and print editions. There weren’t a lot of errors, but a few people still complained, so it was worth it to me to make one more pass — especially, as I said, because the series continues to do very well.  I appreciate all of your wonderful emails!  Thank you!  Making the The Gray and Guilty Sea free as an ebook was one of the smartest things I did.  It’s gone so well, in fact, that I decided to leave it free for at least a few more months.

Oh, and for you folks who live within driving distance of Western Oregon University (the day job part of my life) I’m teaching a course on writing and publishing this coming spring. I’ll have more about that in a week or two, so I’m just leaving this as a bit of a tease, but I plan to teach the kind of course I desperately wished I had as an undergraduate — full of all the practical, nuts and bolts things you need to know to write for a commercial audience today, including all kinds of stuff about the business side of being a writer. More on that soon.

I’ll leave this post with a shot from a recent hike I took with fellow writer Mike Totten on the Little North Santiam River Trail. We never get the kind of snow hitting the East coast right now, but it’s still been unseasonably warm winter — rainy, yes, very rainy, but not all that cold.

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The Lovely Wicked Rain Audiobook Available

lwr_audioBeen a bit buried with a few things lately, but I wanted to slip in a quick bit of news. For those of you who prefer your words in the spoken form, the third Garrison Gage book, The Lovely Wicked Rain, is now available for download at Audible.com, Amazon.com, and iTunes.  It also happens to be narrated by the fantastic Steven Roy Grimsley, who narrated the first two Gage books.  If your weather is anything like the weather we’re getting here in Oregon —cold, gray, and rainy— this book might be a fitting read.  

Available Here:
Audible | iTunes | Amazon