Bryan Thomas Schmidt

Full Throttle Space Tales #6: Space Battles 17 Explosive Tales of Spaceship Battles (all original to this volume) Edited by Bryan Thomas Schmidt Flying Pen Press, 264 pp., tbp, $16.95, Release Date: April 18, 2012 Space Battles: Full Throttle Space Tales #6 can now be  purchased here starting now (preorders end April 17).     Red Alert! Red Alert!  [ Read More ]

We’ve all seen it. People flaming mad over silly things someone did on the web. And I’m not talking political or religious posts or family infighting, either. I’m talking fairly common little things which really shouldn’t be that big of deal to anyone. They are always things that really deserve people getting riled up about  [ Read More ]

In a recent interview with Charlie Rose, Steve Martin talks about how important diligence has been to his success. And the website Study Hacks, which explores how some people succeed and others don’t explores his comments. I also recently read that a high percentage of Robert Frost’s most acclaimed poems were written after he’d reached  [ Read More ]

Well, the Con Programming Chair from Constellation in Lincoln, NE, April 13-15 sent me my panel schedule. I’ll be launching Space Battles there as well as promoting my other stuff. More details to follow when I have them. Elizabeth Bear is the GOH. Hope to see some of you there. Character Building – Saturday, 11 a.m.  [ Read More ]

I recently commented on a post by Mike Duran, an author friend, who got slammed by self-publishing fans for the gall to suggest one might actually want to have patience and explore options before rushing into self-publishing. HOW DARE HE?! You’d have thought he was talking about abortion or gay marriage from the vehemence of  [ Read More ]

I am a film school grad of California State University, Fullerton. I spent several years working in TV and film and had a script in development at Disney. It never got made. I never got rich and famous. But the lessons I learned from film school and, particularly, the books of Syd Field about story  [ Read More ]

It’s been done. All too many times, if you listen to some. The story is world famous, well known. Many know its details by heart. Yet it’s compelling and you have an idea you know is different—one no one’s done before. So how do you keep it fresh? Adapting a well-known story for fiction has  [ Read More ]

One of the highest compliments I’ve gotten on my debut novel, The Worker Prince, and I’ve heard it over and over, is that it “feels like reading Star Wars: A New Hope.” This was very deliberate on my part, and I referred a lot in writing it to Timothy Zahn’s Thrawn Trilogy and Kevin J. Anderson’s Jedi  [ Read More ]

Well, a long while ago I placed my first comedic noir Science Fiction story in an anthology edited by my friend Jaleta Clegg. The table of contents has finally been announced and publication is this Spring from Hall Brothers Entertainment. So here’s the official scoop:           Wandering Weeds: Tales of Rabid Vegetation  [ Read More ]

Star Wars/Forgotten Realms author Paul S. Kemp has this to say about my next novel The Returning: “The Returning blends themes of faith with classic space opera tropes and the result is a page-turning story that takes off like a rocket.” Here’s more info, including the previous blurb, and I expect a cover image in  [ Read More ]

I read a lot of books for my author interviews on SFFWRTCHT and blogs like GraspingForTheWind.com, www.SFSignal.com, and Ray Gun Revival, as well as my own blog. In fact, reading for those dominates my reading time. I rarely squeeze in books for fun or learning anymore. Most of the time, I’m excited to read the  [ Read More ]

Recently I came across a situation that reminded me how important transitions and seeding story details are to good fiction. These are things which most pros do without even thinking about it, but up and coming writers, learning craft, probably have to be more deliberate about. I will not specify where I encountered this but  [ Read More ]

Just in from my friend/mentor and one of my favorite authors, a blurb for my second novel: “THE RETURNING has romance, assassins, tension, both modern and classic science fiction notions, and very smooth writing. What more could you want? Bryan Thomas Schmidt keeps improving. As good as THE WORKER PRINCE WAS, THE RETURNING is better.”  [ Read More ]

Well, I know my writers have been patiently but yet anxiously waiting for an announcement, so here it is. These are the stories accepted for the anthology SPACE BATTLES: Full Throttle Space Tales #6, in a series from Flying Penn Press. Releasing around April 18, edited by myself and headlined by Mike Resnick and Jean  [ Read More ]

Well, it’s Theodore Geisel’s birthday again and with the movie release pending for The Lorax, it has me thinking once again about my childhood. Seuss’ The Cat In The Hat is one of the first books I ever remembering owning. I got it for my birthday as a young child. (I can’t remember which one my  [ Read More ]

Well, I got my first publishing related mention in Locus. Sometime last year I was listed in a photo caption for Rainforest Writer’s Village despite not actually being there for the picture (so that doesn’t count). The announcement of the sale of my second novel showed up yesterday with mention of my editor, Randy Streu,  [ Read More ]

One way to be sure your manuscript is ready to submit is to make sure you get a good developmental edit. Now unless you’re making a lot of money already, paying someone may be out of the question. Most submissions editors will reject anything that’s not at least ninety percent there. They do line edits,  [ Read More ]

Today, I finished and uploaded my first ebook to Barnes & Noble and Amazon. A prequel short story to The Worker Prince, Rivalry On A Sky Course tells the tale of Davi Rhii and his friends, Yao Brahma and Farien Noa, at the Borali Military Academy when a fellow cadet starts a rivalry with Davi and  [ Read More ]

These are the acknowledgements I wrote to my second published novel, fourth novel I’ve written. It thanks a lot of online and real life people who deserve to share any credit for my success. Acknowledgements Writing your fourth novel and first sequel is an interesting experience. And as I finished each chapter, I turned it  [ Read More ]

Had a great interview on the radio with Call FM’s Ben & Guillermo. At one point, Guillermo and Ben asked about which actor might play characters if my book were made into a movie. Afterwards, Guillermo asked me if there’d be a novelization (of the movie of the novel). He was obviously tired, but well,  [ Read More ]

Cassa Fire, Space Opera, Dancing Lemur Press, 2012. Tpb/ebook $15.95/$4.99 An enjoyable read with well drawn leads that takes a while to suck you in but ultimately rises above its faults to provide a compelling and enjoyable read. I have not read book 1 in this series. So let me say some of my quibbles  [ Read More ]

Ahhhh punctuation. A gift and yet a bane for us all, isn’t it? Editors fix way too much of it. Writers get confused and abuse too much of it. And the rest of the world scratches their head and gives up with a bevy of messages which start to look like this: cumin 2c u  [ Read More ]

Well, my second contracted novel is on its way. ARCS are being prepped. E-ARCS are already going out. And copyediting and cover design will begin in earnest for our June release of The Returning, sequel to The Worker Prince. Pretty exciting stuff. A year ago, this book barely existed and now here it is. Three years ago,  [ Read More ]

One of the highest compliments anyone has paid me is to tell me “You’re a professional.” I’ve actually heard this several times the past few months. My first reaction is: “I wish I was. I don’t make any money.” But what they really mean is that I act like a professional in my timeliness and  [ Read More ]

Dear Valentine, I miss you. You’re three thousand miles away. You’re in another hemisphere, where I hear you’re going to stay.   Dear Valentine, my heart is yours, despite the troubles we’ve known. Because good memories are golden and we’ve got by far way more of those.   Dear Valentine, my heart is broken, from  [ Read More ]

This post is part of the Origins Challenge Blog Series. Almost 200 blogs participating. Click here for the list. So the challenge is to blog about how we got started writing. This is an ironic date because writing about the origins of my writing on February 13th means I’m writing about origins on the day of  [ Read More ]

Well, we’re four chapters from finalizing the editing of my novel, The Returning, sequel to my debut The Worker Prince. ARCS will go out next week, and then copyediting. As I look at this book, a book which I’m amazed even got written–written in the midst of my life completely falling apart (unemployment, mental health  [ Read More ]

by Patty Jansen Let’s presume for a moment, that there is a writer called Leon. Leon doesn’t exist, of course, and I picked the name because I don’t actually know anyone by that name. Leon, however, embodies a number of characteristics I’ve seen in workshops and on writer sites. Leon has written a novel, has  [ Read More ]

Our recent Write Tip on 9 Free Ways To Market Your Book has been popular but people have asked me how NOT to use those techniques, so I thought it appropriate to do a follow up post. First, here’s a refresher on the 9 Free Ways which are: 1 ) Author Site/Blogs  2 ) Author Profiles/Blog Interviews   [ Read More ]

This is not a lecture. It’s an observation. And it’s not a self-aggrandizing post but I do need to give some detail on my own life to make the point, so I will. Recently, I saw Wayne Koons, a former Marine, then NASA Engineer, then pilot/astronaut speak about his education, his life and his faith.  [ Read More ]