The Pulp Writer Show

By: Jonathan Moeller
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  • Summary

  • Hosted by Jonathan Moeller (author of the FROSTBORN and SEVENFOLD SWORD fantasy series and the SILENT ORDER scifi series), the Pulp Writer Show discusses how to write, format, publish, and sell your novel. Sometimes there are jokes.
    Copyright Jonathan Moeller
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Episodes
  • Episode 219: Prequels & Preorders!

    Episode 219: Prequels & Preorders!
    Sep 23 2024
    In this week's episode, I take a look at why I don't set up preorders and I usually don't write prequels. I also share my thoughts about the video game STARFIELD. TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00 Introduction and Writing Updates Hello, everyone. Welcome to Episode 219 of The Pulp Writer Show. My name is Jonathan Moeller. Today is September the 20th, 2024 and today we are discussing why I don't set up preorders for my books and why I prefer not to write prequels. Before we get to our main topic, we'll have an update on my current writing projects, Question of the Week, then we'll talk about a video game I recently enjoyed, and then we'll plunge on ahead to our main topic. First up, current writing and audiobook projects. I am pleased to report that Shield of Conquest is now completely finished and available. You can get it at all the usual ebook stores. It has been selling quite briskly and has been receiving good reviews. So thank you all for that. My next main project, which you can probably guess if you've been listening to the show for the last few months, is Ghost in the Tombs. As of this writing, I am 62,000 words into it, which I think puts me about 62% of the way through it, because I believe the rough draft will be around 100,000 words. I'm hoping to have that out towards the middle of October, if all goes well. I'm also 21,000 words into Cloak of Illusion. That should hopefully be out in November and I've just started what will be the fourth Rivah book, Orc-Hoard. It originally had been entitled Elven Sorcerer for the fourth Rivah book, but I decided to change the title to Orc-Hoard and that will be out in either December or January, if all goes well. In audiobook news, Stealth and Spells Online: Leveling is completely done and currently working its way through processing and the various audiobook platforms. You can get it at my Payhip store right now and it should be available at all the other stores in a couple of weeks. Stealth and Spells Online: Leveling was excellently narrated by CJ McAllister. Recording is almost done on Shield of Darkness, and hopefully we can approve the final version of that next week and then that'll work its way through processing and be available before too much longer. So that's where I am with my current writing and audiobook projects. 00:02:00 Question of the Week Now it's time for Question of the Week, designed to inspire interesting discussions of enjoyable topics. This week's question: what is the most annoying video game enemy? Obviously, there is no profound reason behind this question, since we're talking about video games. I happened to be reading an article about the upcoming Starfield expansion, and the comments devolved into a rambling discussion of game design and most annoying enemies, which inspired this question. We had a good range of responses. Reader AM wrote in to say that her greatest video game enemy is her own hand-eye coordination. We've all been there, AM; we've all been there. Justin says: The Legend of Zelda series is a great bunch of video games, but they do have their annoying bits. I nominate the Like Like worm. To get sucked in and spit back out (minus your shield) is incredibly aggravating. I cannot count the number of shields I’ve lost to this adversary. Later versions steal money or health, but for me, you know, the annoyance of having to go back to town to get a replacement shield (while trying to avoid encounters) ranks up there. Legend of Zelda also has annoying characters. Navi is the most so- her cry of “Hey! Listen!” quickly becomes painful. I too remember the Like Like worm from the Legend of Zelda days and that was indeed very annoying. JD says: Cliff racers from Morrowind. Do I need to say more? Juana says: the vampire guarding the sewers in Vampire: the Masquerade-Bloodlines. You have to be maxed out in at least two disciplines to take them out. It's really difficult to get maximum disciplines. Ross says: at least for me, it's Cliff racers in Morrowind. They're so far out ahead of anything else, I can't even think of what I’d put in second place. Morgan says: not sure of all time, but in terms of more recent games, the Zoanthropes in Space Marine 2 are an absolute nightmare, especially when they come in pairs so one is always shielding the other. Jesse says: Seymour in Final Fantasy 10. Only boss I remember that you have to beat five times. Jenny says: that drum boss in Ocarina of Time. William says: Zelda 2 has no shortage of troublesome enemies, like the Iron Knuckles. It’s probably for the best I never had the chance to play it back in the day without save states. Brandy says: The first multiplayer run through Diablo, where you're through the Easter Egg levels and every other flick of the mouse you're screaming “run away, run away!” or “hold still, so I might smite thee!” For myself, my answer would be those stupid Medusa Heads from the Castlevania series. If you’ve played any Castlevania game, you know what ...
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    15 mins
  • Episode 218: Summer Movie Roundup, Part II: Very Miscellaneous!

    Episode 218: Summer Movie Roundup, Part II: Very Miscellaneous!
    Sep 16 2024
    In this week's episode, I review the movies and streaming shows I saw in the second half of summer 2024. The episode concludes with a preview of the audiobook of HALF-ORC PALADIN, as excellently narrated by Leanne Woodward. TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00 Introduction and Writing Updates Hello, everyone. Welcome to Episode 218 of The Pulp Writer Show. My name is Jonathan Moeller. Today is September the 13th, 2024 and today we are discussing my Summer Movie Review Roundup, Part 2. Just to note to say that you may hear some odd background noises in this episode. My neighbor across the street is getting his roof replaced. I can't begrudge them that because no one likes a leaky roof, but it is slightly inconvenient because this is the only time today I have to record the podcast. So if you hear the occasional pop in the background, that is the sound of a nail gun driving shingles into a roof. Before we get to our main topics, let's have an update on my current writing projects and then we will do Question of the Week. First up, Shield of Conquest is very nearly done. I am about 2/3 of the way through the final round of editing and if all goes well, it should come out shortly after this episode is available, so be sure to check your favorite ebook retailer and see if it is out. Once that is done, I will be going full speed ahead on Ghost in the Tombs and I'm currently 48,000 words into that, so about halfway through the rough draft, give or take, depends on how long the rest of the book takes and how certain scenes in the final half of the book out. In audiobook news, Half-Orc Paladin is done, and it's now available on all the major audio stores: Audible, Amazon, Apple, Google Play, Chirp, Kobo, Payhip, Spotify, and a couple others, and you can get it there. We will close out this episode with a preview of Half-Orc Paladin (as excellently narrated by Leanne Woodward). 00:01:30 Question of the Week Now let's have a Question of the Week. Question of the Week is designed to inspire interesting discussions of enjoyable topics. This week's question: what is your favorite superhero movie? No wrong answers, of course (including “I don't like superhero movies”, but it turns out no one said that, so I guess superhero movies are quite popular). The inspiration for this question was that I was thinking about how superhero movies are such a major part of pop culture. Nowadays when people think of superhero movies, they usually think of Marvel and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but there were major superhero movies before the whole Marvel Cinematic approach really got going in the 2000s/2010s and they've been obviously part of pop culture for a very long time, and as you could expect, we had a wide range of responses from this. Our first response was from JD, who says: If I had to pick just one, it would probably be Guardians of the Galaxy. The first film had a near perfect mix of action, drama, and comedy. For me, the best Batman film was the 1966 one starring Adam West. Joaquim says: In the last millennium, when I was a child, we had DC Comics and Marvel Comics. I did like Batman in DC, Spider-man and The Avengers in Marvel. In the movies, I did not particularly like Batman, but I like the early Marvel movies, Avengers 1 and Captain America 2 the most. Mary says: X-Men. Todd says: 1978 Superman. Visually at 15, I believed a man could fly. Juana says: My superhero is actually a couple - The Vision and Scarlet Witch (before they turned Vision into an emotionless thing a while back). What's interesting is that the guy who was in charge of Picard Season 3, which I quite liked, is apparently going to be running a Vision show for Marvel sometime in 2026 (assuming Disney doesn't run out of money first), so it should be interesting to see how it turns out. Stephen says: I know this is random- Shang Chi and the Legend of the 10 Rings. I know it was not completely an original storyline, but I liked it a lot. I agree with Stephen. I thought Shang Chi and the Legend of the 10 Rings was one of the stronger Marvel movies and it's too bad it hasn't had a sequel. Becca says: The Dark Knight trilogy. Those are the real Batman films for me. Ledger was certainly the best Joker. I do love the happier Batmans, too. I grew up on West’s version of Batman. For me, V for Vendetta is my favorite superhero movie and one of my favorite movies ever. I usually watch it at least once a year. Michael says: Captain America: The First Avenger. Juliana says: Second Captain America. The spy aspect really married well with the superhero genre in this one. I agree with Juliana. I think Captain America: Winter Soldier is one of the better Marvel movies. Roger says: only because we're entering the season, The Christmas Chronicles with Kurt Russell. Andrew says: Deadpool and Wolverine, followed by The Dark Knight trilogy. James says: I know Fox's X-Men get a bad rap generally, but Days of Future Past was amazing. I'd have to go with that, with The Dark Knight, ...
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    20 mins
  • Episode 217: The Origins Of HALF-ELVEN THIEF

    Episode 217: The Origins Of HALF-ELVEN THIEF
    Sep 9 2024
    In this week's episode, I discuss the origins of my HALF-ELVEN THIEF series, and describe some of the ideas that inspired it. I also talk a little about some of the common scams in self-publishing. TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00 Introduction and Writing Updates Hello, everyone. Welcome to Episode 217 of The Pulp Writer Show. My name is Jonathan Moeller. Today is September the 6th, 2024 and today we are discussing the origins of Half-Elven Thief. Before we get into that, let's have an update on my current writing projects. I am editing Shield of Conquest. I'm about 40% of the way through the first round of editing, so hoping to have that out in the middle of September if all goes well, but we'll see. I am 44,000 words Ghosts in the Tombs, which I am planning to have out in October and 14,000 words into Cloak of….uh…Illusion. That's how you can tell I've written a lot of books. I can't immediately recall the titles at the drop of a hat anymore. In audiobook news, the audio for Half-Orc Paladin is done and working its way through processing on various sites. It should be up on Audible, Google Play, Kobo, Chirp and all the other major audiobook stores soon, but you can get it off my Payhip store right now since I was able to post it right away. So if you want to get before anyone else, you can do it there. So that's where I'm at with my current writing projects (once I remembered all their names correctly, of course). 00:01:16 Question of the Week And now let's go to Question of the Week. Question of the Week is designed to inspire interesting discussions of enjoyable topics. This week's question: what is your favorite fictional villain? The inspiration for this question was that I saw a writer complaining how hard it is to write a book without a villain. It's not impossible, of course. The conflict of the story might be man versus nature, two people competing in a sporting event, or on equal footing. But it is easier to write a book about a villain and of course really memorable ones often become enduringly popular characters. So as you can imagine, we had quite a range of responses for this one. Mary says: King Haggard in the last Unicorn. Evil, unfathomable, and dangerous. I can't believe he adopted a foundling, at that. Jonathan D. says: If I had to limit it to one, I would go with Megatron. You have to be an iconic villain to still be the main bad guy for 40 years. Honorable mention to Scorpius from Farscape. He was only supposed to be in a few episodes at the end of Season 1 but was so good he became the main villain. Bret says: Voldemort. I like villains to be simple, the embodiment of evil, evil from the moment they were born, never wavering from evil, and with no chance for redemption. But I prefer the villain to be the system and/or human nature. For example, in your Ghost Exile Book One, there are some bad guys, but since it's not known that point that there's a super villain behind the scenes, Caina is fighting the system (like corruption, slavery of Istarinmul) and the bad guys are bad because of human nature in the system, and that's a great book. One of my favorites. Michael says: I am a big fan of Marvel comic books and they both have my favorite villains, Doctor Doom and Magneto, because they are both well written personalities and are perfect examples of people with power who will do whatever evil thing it takes to rectify evil conditions in their lives that they have personally survived. Our next response comes from Becca, who says: I really liked Grand Admiral Thrawn and his use of art. He's an excellent character. Another Timothy Zahn series villain is the Modhri, a sort of hive mind that ends up with lots of different aspects. The books she's talking about are the Quadrail series by Timothy Zahn and they're pretty good. Check them out if you get a chance. It's basically a noir-style train mystery but in outer space. Simone says: Definitely Doctor Evil, because sometimes I also want some “freaking sharks with freaking laser beams attached to their freaking heads.” I have to say I entirely agree with Simone. Sometimes you want sharks with laser beams. Andrew says: John Simms playing The Master in Doctor Who. BV says: Urzo, that villain cracks me up. In fact, the whole crew of villains are characters. Yep, Urzo was something else. Plus he makes me laugh. Martin says: The Watchmaker from Jeffrey Deaver's Lincoln Rhyme series. I think the key to an engaging villain is that they have a capacity to win. The watchmaker matches Rhyme's deductive skills with his own meticulous nature. The question becomes who will make a mistake first and what the consequences will be. You can never be sure who will win. I also enjoy the fact that you only get to read it from the Watchmaker’s point of view without truly understanding him. It's only at the end that things click into place. Jenny says: The best villain is when you feel like, yeah, maybe they have a point, but the whole way they're going about ...
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    17 mins
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