Nina Munteanu’s latest SF thriller Angel of Chaos (Dragon Moon Press) is being launched at Hal-Con (Halifax’s prime SF Convention) October 29-31, 2010 at the Lord Nelson Hotel, where Nina will be doing a reading, signing books and giving a workshop on writing.
Angel of Chaos is the prequel to Nina’s award-nominated ecological thriller Darwin’s Paradox, featured and discussed on this website.
In 2095 Darwin’s Evolution Kills… Darwin’s Disease is tearing apart the ordered peace of North America. Julie Crane is a brilliant data handler with a unique talent for finding the impossible fast, and getting into trouble even faster. Her relentless search for a cure leads her to a horrifying discovery that incriminates her in a heinous conspiracy to recast humankind.
“Nina Munteanu’s Angel of Chaos is a gripping blend of big scientific ideas, cutthroat politics and complex yet sympathetic characters that will engage readers from its thrilling opening to its surprising and satisfying conclusion.”—Hayden Trenholm, Aurora-winning author of the Steele Chronicles.
Hal-Con is Halifax’s yearly prime science fiction convention that attracts over a thousand SF fans and participants in the motion picture industry as well as TV and literature. This year, special guests include Walter Koenig who played Chekov in the original Star Trek, Denise Crosby (Tasha Yar in Star Trek the Next Generation), and Aaron Douglas (Chief Tyrol in Battlestar Galactica), among others.
Nina will be giving a workshop on “the Hero’s Journey” Friday, October 29th at 4 pm. Angel of Chaos will be launched Saturday morning followed by a reception. Nina will also serve on several panels and looks forward to seeing you there.
Some good friends of Nina were strolling along the Seine in Paris France recently and were lured into a quaint bookstore on the Left Bank, Shakespeare and Company. The independent bookstore lies just across the magestic Notre Dame Cathedral on Ile de la Cite and steps away from the trendy cafes of Place St. Michel.
Shakespeare and Company resides in a building that served as a monastery in the 16th century. It’s located on Rue de la Bûcherie and serves as both a bookstore and a reading library, specializing in English-language literature. The bookstore was opened by George Whitman under Le Mistral then changed to its current name in honour of an earlier store which closed during World War II. The bookstore served as a focal point for
Darwin's Paradox in Shakespeare and Company
literary culture in Bohemian Left Bank Paris. Customers have included the likes of Henry Miller and Richard Wright. The store was a base for many writers of the Beat Generation like Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso and William S. Burroughs. Whitman’s daughter, Sylvia, now runs the shop and regular activities include Sunday tea, poetry readings and writers’ meetings.
The bookstore houses young writers, known as “tumbleweeds”, who earn their keep by working in the shop for a couple of hours each day. The current store is named after and in honour of an
Autographed copy of Darwin's Paradox on the shelf
earlier store which closed during World War II. George Whitman calls the bookstore “a socialist utopia masquerading as a bookstore”. The bookstore includes sleeping facilities, with 13 beds, and Whitman claims as many as 40,000 people have slept in the shop over the years.
As Nina’s friends pored over the eclectic assortment of international and local English and French books they stumbled upon a copy of Darwin’s Paradox! They had to take a picture and here it is.
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For those of you waiting to purchase my DVD set of “The Writer’s Toolkit“, a 3-set DVD collection based on “The Writers Toolkit” workshops, your wait is soon over! These three major workshops cover ”How to Get Started and Finish”, “Craft of Writing” and “Marketing” your writing. The DVDs will be available shortly for purchase on the Passionate Writer. Here’s what students of “The Writer’s Toolkit” said:
“I felt inspired to look at my writing again…I found my ideas unlocked, problem areas exposed and strengths endorsed.”–Jane Morrell
“Nina was very relaxed, informal, very knowledgeable and interesting…She gave a lively presentation and gave lots of examples to relate to.”—Lauren Seaton
“Nina encouraged me to actually start my novel. She is very good, easy to understand.”—Patricia Slauenwhite
“Nina was engaging and inspiring… I was able to use specifics that were discussed to immediately improve my writing.”—Susie Buck
“I found what I had been searching for a long time.”—Candice Croft
“What you’ve done for me, Nina, is you’ve just opened up a whole new world. You’ve shown me how to put soul into my books … You’ve transformed me from what I considered an oddball to somebody special and for that it’s worth a fortune.”–Hectorine Roy
Nina recently gave three substantial workshops for aspiring writers in the South Shore area of Nova Scotia, based on her Aurora Award-nominated writing guidebook, “The Fiction Writer: Get Published, Write Now“. Held at the Bridgewater Library, Nina engaged and challenged students in an actively participated workshop to hone their skills as successful writers. Students participated in writing exercises, and had their stories, query letters and ”elevator pitches” critiqued.
Her workshops, covered by Vernon Oikle in the South Shore Now, included:
Workshop No. 1, which was titled “Getting Started … and pet vitamin supplements
Finishing". In this session, Nina shared the strategies and techniques she used to write, finish and successfully publish while serving as a full-time scientist, teacher and mother. The workshop reviewed common misconceptions in the writing and publishing industry and provided practical strategies to help aspiring authors succeed.
Workshop No. 2, "The Art and Science of Craft", covered several models of storytelling, and examined the interrelationship of plot and theme, setting and character in a book's overall story arc. Nina explored the language of page-turning writing with examples on the use of the five senses, power verbs, use of dialogue and other writing techniques that will transform your page into a compelling read.
Nina enjoys answering a question
Workshop No 3, "The Science and Magic of Marketing", focused on a different but critically necessary creative process in an author's writing and publishing career - revision, marketing and promotion.
Response to Nina's workshops was very positive. Here are some of the things students had to say about Nina and her workshops:
"Nina was engaging and inspiring in a low-key way, no hype, practical, good humour. This was a really pleasant and helpful experience. I was able to use specifics that were discussed to immediately improve my writing."--Susie Buck
"Nina was very knowledgable, relaxed, personable, unpretentious."
"I enjoyed it. I was intrigued. Nina put her heart into her workshop."--Darlene Tong
"I found what I had been searching for a long time."--Candice Croft
"What you've done for me, Nina, is you've just opened up a whole new world. You've shown me how to put soul into my books ... You've transformed me from what I considered an oddball to somebody special and for that it's worth a fortune."--Hectorine Roy
The series of workshops were filmed as part of "The Writers Toolkit" series and will be available for sale shortly. Go to www.ninamunteanu.com or www.ThePassionateWriter.com for news on availability and cost of these DVDs.
Nina’s too busy to post (she’s writing 90 articles for her publisher…LOL!) so she asked me if I could post for her. I said, “ok, dude. I can write as good as the rest of them!” On an aside, I should tell you that I’ve been Nina’s ghost writer for years, (since I was rescued from a truck stop in Michigan, that is…) and that her publisher corrects her spelling all the time… In fact, everyone corrects her spelling all the time. But enough about her. This post is about ME…
Oh, and about my neat adventure in Georgia…
Stoked by some cool times at the World Science Fiction Convention in Montreal, Nina and I hopped on a plane at Trudeau International Airport and flew to sunny Georgia because we felt like it. Well, we actually stopped in Jacksonville and drove to St. Simon’s Island on the southern Georgian coast. The drive was boring for me (Nina forgot me in her briefcase!) We drove to Sea Palms Resort, a golfer’s mecca on St. Simon’s Island, to deliver a lecture on “The Hero’s Journey” at a local con there, Scribblers Writers’ Retreat. While Nina slaved on her lecture and handouts, I slipped out of the confining briefcase and wandered the grounds. I remember thinking that they could use the touch of David McLay Kidd, the golf course minimalist that Nina—er I wrote about on The Alien Next Door.
My adventure took a natural pet supplements
hairpin turn for the better when I came underfoot of Mildred Wilcox, a beautiful and elegant southern lady, local art expert and art gallery owner of The Left Bank. Being a lady of impeccable taste, she picked me up and invited me to her house on St. Simon’s where she offered me orange julep and we traded stories about French Impressionism, Paris in the springtime, Georgian marshes, live Oaks and why there are no cats on St. Simon’s Island… She was teasing me, I’m sure!
While Nina did a reading and signings at Hattie’s Books, a quaint independent bookstore in Brunswick, GA that carries both Darwin’s Paradox and The Fiction Writer, I hid in her briefcase. Marcia Stutz, the bookstore owner lets the store’s feisty terrier mascot, Mister Wiggles, run around freely without a leash! Imagine that! I didn’t like him. Even though everyone else did.
The next day, Nina did at least a dozen one-on-one consultations in the lobby of the hotel. The sessions were filmed by Rizzuti Productions and Starfire World Syndicate. She reminded me of Ellen DeGeneres; she was having way too much fun in front of the camera! I was amazed; she did the whole thing without a single break, even though she must have had a dozen coffees. I bet you’ll see a blooper reel on YouTube shortly. I saw a few choice bloopers! That’s what happens when you don’t take any breaks, Nina! But a few victim—er clients walked away from her advice with genuine smiles on their faces, not just dazed grins of confused euphoria… “What did she say?” I heard them whispering to each other in the hallway by the espresso machine where Nina would have preferred to be. “Did she really want me to spell ‘the’ for her?...”
Talking about bloopers… Despite fully embracing new tools, Nina isn’t particularly adept technologically. So, when she decided to give a fancy Power Point lecture using interactive interface and a Wacom Bamboo Tablet, I sniggered and asked her why she didn’t just use a whiteboard and colored felts like she always did. She insisted (rather petulantly, I might add) and what could go wrong did—computer and projector refused to talk, the tablet had a hissy fit with lines scrambling everywhere and the screen decided to cave into a black hole. So, after much hand waving (which never works; she isn’t a Jedi yet…) Nina resorted to her twenty-year teaching experience using a whiteboard and colored felts. Of course, the lecture went well and the audience appreciated her instruction, if not her bad jokes. But I took the opportunity to say “I told you so,” anyway. One must take them as they come. Where I’m from in southern France—No! I wasn’t born in Michigan! I was just rescued from there—there is a saying: quel sera, sera…
I may be posting for her again… I don’t think she’ll get those 90 articles done as quickly as she thought.