Author: Scott William Carter

Book Signing: Lincoln City, Oregon (May 15)

I had my first book signing last night and it went very well.  It was so neat to celebrate the moment with friends and family, plus a fair number of people I’d never met before.  We sold a good number of books and everybody seemed to have a fun time.  I’m so grateful to everyone for coming out and seeing me, buying my books, and showing their support.

I’m taking the next week off from the day job to attend a writing workshop on the Oregon coast and it should be a lot fun — a lot of writing, a lot reading, and a lot of good conversations with very serious and talented writers expected to follow.    Life can be so hectic these days that it’s nice to just wear the writer’s hat once in a while.

But at the end of the workshop, I’m going to do another book signing at a local bookstore in Lincoln City.  If you happen to be in the area, come out and see me.  Here’s the details:

DEBUT AUTHOR SIGNING HIS FIRST NOVEL

SATURDAY MAY 15TH

AT 1.00 PM.

North by Northwest Books
6334 S. HWY 101 #9
Lincoln City, Oregon

STREET CAR VILLAGE (map)
Bookstore Phone: 541-994-3087

Games Writers Play #16: Dictionary Diving

gwpYour trusty dictionary isn’t just a great resource for spelling and word definitions.  It can be a tool for helping you generate new story ideas.  I call this technique “Dictionary Diving.”

Here’s how it works:  Get a good, thick dictionary, one of the better ones, and then close your eyes, flip through the pages, stop randomly, and choose the closest noun to your finger.  Write it down.  Do it a second time.  Now take those two words and turn it into the first sentence of a new story.  Make it provocative, the kind of sentence that raises questions and makes the reader want to know more.  Then write one page to see where the story takes you.

Now, if the story doesn’t speak for you, fine, toss it aside.  It was just a page.  You can always do it a second time.  Here’s my two words.

  • Ghetto
  • Scavenger

And just for fun, here’s my first sentence:

The ash cloud moved into the ghetto over night, and all the scavengers hid in the abandoned cars with the windows rolled up so their eyes wouldn’t sting.

-+-


One of the ways I can justify writing these “Games Writers Play” posts for free is by putting a donate button at the bottom of these posts.  If you find them useful, even a small donation of a couple dollars helps justify my time.  If you can’t donate, please help spread the word by linking to these posts.  Thanks!
-+-
All posts in this series can be found at
www.gameswritersplay.com

Simon and Schuster Author Interview

Here’s something neat. Simon and Schuster, the publisher of my first novel, has started a new online marketing effort for their authors — a sort of “author portal.” Everyone who participated answered the same questions, I believe. If you’d like to see mine — which includes my answers to such things as, “If you had a super power, what would it be?” — you can check it out here.  I’m my normal snarky self.

You can even preview the first 50 pages of the book, if you want to sample The Last Great Getaway of the Water Balloon Boys before deciding if you want to buy it.

“A Problem with Polly” Published in Cat Tales II

cattalesII_Some stories take longer to get into print than others. I sold “The Problem with Polly” to Award-winning editor George Scithers — who sadly recently passed away — for his Cat Tales series three years ago.

It’s now made its way into print, in the book Cat Tales II: Fantastic Feline Fiction, which you can buy from Amazon and other places. The story is about a man who has a problem with a cat named Polly.  Actually, more than one cat . . . Well, you’ll have to read the story to know what I mean.

And hey, my name even made the cover.  Neat, huh?