Indie Writers Monthly...Part 7

Today Briane Pagel joins us to... Well, I'll just let him explain...

TIME FOR PART SEVEN of what has been called THE GREATEST BLOG TOUR THAT YOU ARE READING RIGHT NOW. Actually nobody has called it that, but if you wouldn't mind just saying to someone nearby, hey, this is the greatest blog tour!and then finishing under your breath with that I am reading right now I would really appreciate it.

I'll wait.

"Question everything!" he said. "Why?" she asked.

Thanks. Now, down to businesss. This is the latest installment of the IWM Blog Tour! "IWM", as was foretold by Nostradamus, means "Indie Writers Monthly," which is a blog and magazine put out by the world's five most powerful speculative fiction writers.  Together, these five individuals when faced with a challenge join forces and become one mighty... hang on a sec...

OK, what? 

Sorry. I'm being told by our lawyers that if I go any further with that then Voltron's legal team will smite me.  Anyway, it wouldn't have worked because I'm always late for everything and who needs 80% of a 

What now?  Seriously? Not even as a parody?

Stupid lawyers. Whatever.  All business. Fine, let's go with part seven of 

ALL THE REASONS YOU SHOULD BE READING

INDIE WRITERS MONTHLY

THAT ARE ABSOLUTELY FACT-BASED

AND IN NO WAY EXAGGERATED

SO YOU CAN'T SUE US PROBABLY.

Part 1 appeared on Sizzling Hot YA Books, and told how reading IWM will teach you how to time travel.

Part 2 appeared on lit, a place for stories, and told how reading IWM will give you super powers.

Part 3 appeared on Laws Of Gravity, and showed how IWM brings your childhood friends to life.

Part 4 was on Life Is Good, and pointed out that we have The Blutonian Death Egg, and so you'd better let us be in charge.

Part 5 .... There were clones! We sent in the clones!

Number 6 showed how to create entire universes, which is pretty helpful if you need a universe or six. 

That's a tough list to follow up, but Part Seven will definitely live up to it because Part Seven is all about me and what I am good at is...

...is...

*think man, think! These people are depending on you!*

...is...

HEY LOOK OVER THERE.  *tries disappearing through trapdoor in stage, remembers that he was going to put in the trapdoor last weekend but it was really nice out and so he ended up going outside and playing water balloon fights*

Dang.

Er, I mean, what I am really good at is...

Weirdness.

*flashback to high school*

No, it's okay, teenage me! When you get older, weirdness is okay!

I, as one of the IWM writers who somehow got invited in and I AM SURE IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH MY WILLINGNESS TO DO ALL THESE BLOG TOUR POSTS RIGHT GUYS? YOU'RE NOT JUST USING ME... bring something to the table too, and while I'm not as prolifically inspired as PT Dilloway or good at villains as Rusty Carl or capable of using actual science to create stories that feel real even though they include parallel universes like Sandra Ulbrich Almazan or simply creating whole worlds that suck you in and make you never want to leave them like Andrew Leon, I am good at making stories weird.

Which sort of makes the the Hawkeye to their Avengers, but I'll take what I can get.

The thing that most interests me as a writer is the thing that interests me as a reader, and that is stories that feel new to me, that are unusual or challenging, and I not only try to do that in my own writing but I work on helping others to do it in theirs.  I've written stories as weird as one in which a villain named Wenceslas uses a "Xmas Machine" to try to take over the world, only to be thwarted by a nearly-failed UFO maker.  I wrote an entire novel in which a dead woman tries to find her way out of the afterlife with the help of William Howard Taft.  And my most popular book, Eclipse, features an astronaut who may not be an astronaut but might be insane.

So: weird, right?

Speculative fiction needs some weirdness to it: all those parallel universes and wizards and superheroes and killbots wouldn't exist if there weren't someone willing to take your basic buddy-cop story and weird it up a bit by having one of the characters be an unnamed clone of one of the other characters.

And on IWM, I help pass along tips on how to do that yourself; in our magazine I've got an ongoing series helping you write a story from beginning to end, while on the blog I've given you real-life horror stories as inspiration, writing prompts based on genies in space, and I also get serious from time to time like when I defended your right to publish as many books as you want. 

So you see, guys? I'm good for something!  Now, will someone let me in the clubhouse? I brought cookies!

The author. Notice the lack of cookies.

The IWM blog's latest posts include a rap battle featuring Isaac Newton, Lies Writers Tell To Other Writers, and a cover reveal for Nigel Mitchell's latest book. Click here to read that stuff.

Did I mention we also publish an e-magazine? We also publish an e-magazine.  The June issue, "June Bugs" is just $0.99, and features three short stories, tips on coming up with titles, blog reviews, 65 pages of help and great reading!  Click here to go buy it. (Older issues are on sale, still, as well!)