Fire and
Water: Pixl Press Collides with Words and Worlds…
 |
| Smoky Sun through the Rockies |
Several
weeks ago, Pixl Press author Nina
Munteanu travelled with me through the smoky Rockies to the 8th
annual ‘When Words Collide’ writers festival in Calgary, Alberta.
The 8th
annual ‘When Words Collide,’ held August 10-12, 2018, brought together just
under a thousand readers and writers in multi-genres to attend presentations
and panels on writing & publishing. The three-day writers’ festival ran a
10-track program that included informative panels, Blue Pencil Café, Editors
Speed Mingle, pitch sessions with agents and publishers, and challenging
workshops.
Pixl Press books were on
sale in the Merchant’s room and there was a lot of interest in The
Fiction Writer—particularly after Nina’s talk on world building and
character. The ‘world building’ and ‘setting/place’ aspects of Nina’s course at
George Brown College on how to write science fiction have been steadily growing
into major workshops and presentations. It will make up a new writer’s
guidebook (see below).
By the
third day, Myth Hawker Travelling
Bookstore sold all available copies of Water Is…
- You Oughta Be in Audio: a discussion between author Nina Munteanu and audiobook narrator and producer Dawn Harvey on the making of the audiobooks for The Splintered Universe—now available in three formats, print, ebook, and audiobook. While paper sales dwindle, audiobooks continue to be the fastest growing segment of the publishing world with sales increasing by 30% year over year for the past decade.
- World-Building: Your World Is a Character: a presentation by Nina Munteanu on creating a world with meaning. In most science fiction and fantasy, the world that we create is often very different from our own; in speculative fiction it’s often very similar; in contemporary fiction it is virtually the same. In all cases the world you build should embed in your story with layered metaphoric meaning. Nina Munteanu will discuss how to build a world that interacts with character to inform greater meaning in story.
Nina also networked
her writing community for world examples to use in her next Alien Guidebook on world building: “The
Ecology of Story: World as Character.” Pixl Press anticipates
release of this third guidebook in the Alien
Guidebook series in summer of 2019. Cover art and design has already been
selected. In keeping with the branding of the series, artist Anne Moody is providing
the illustration for the cover of The Ecology of Story and Toronto
artist Costi Gurgu will design the cover. Covers for the previous two books
were also illustrated by Anne Moody and designed by Costi Gurgu.
Earlier in
the summer, Nina and I had travelled north to Anne’s ranch in Vanderhoof to
requisition a cover from her for Nina’s book. After days of discussion, “show
and tell”, exceptional eating and drinking, and after several pieces of art
were tentatively selected, Anne pulled out a piece that stopped our search
dead. ‘Everyday Hero’ depicts a lonely firefighter, trudging in the burning
forest, tired gaze aimed up to the burning crown of a tree. Considering the
subject matter and our world today, I thought this was perfect for Nina’s book.
Depicted in shades of blue, charcoal and brilliant red, the cover will contrast
and harmonize well with the typology and cover band design by graphic artist
Costi Gurgu. It also provides an ideal platform for the material inside, which
will present ecological settings and metaphoric links to story.
I think I’m
as excited as Nina to see the final book out. Now she needs to get down and
research it and write it. So, Nina?...What are you doing?
