Book

Steve’s Book Roundup 3/7/2023

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I write a lot and have quite a few books.  So now and then I post a roundup of them for interested parties! However, I think as I’m taking 2023 easy and doing a few less blog posts, I’ll make this quarterly or whenever I add a new book.

The Way With Worlds Series

This is what I do a lot of – writing on worldbuilding!.  You can find all of my books at www.WayWithWorlds.com! 

The core books of the series will help you get going:

  • Way With Worlds Book 1 – Discusses my philosophy of worldbuilding and world creation essentials.
  • Way With Worlds Book 2 – Looks at common subjects of worldbuilding like conflicts in your setting, skills for being a good worldbuilder, and more!

When you need to focus on specifics of worldbuilding, I have an ever-growing series of deep dive minibooks.  Each provides fifty questions with additional exercises and ideas to help you focus on one subject important to you!

The current subjects are:

Fiction

Take a typical fantasy world – and then let it evolve into the information age.  Welcome to the solar system of Avenoth, where gods use email, demons were banished to a distant planet, and science and sorcery fling people across worlds . . .

  • A Bridge To The Quiet Planet – Two future teachers of Techno-Magical safety find trying to earn their credentials hunting odd artifacts backfires when they’re hired to put some back . . . on a planet where gods go to die!
  • A School of Many Futures – The crew is back, and finding having secrets and keeping them isn’t the same thing! Unfortunately they also find “very normal” is a cover for “anything but” . . .

Creativity

I’m the kind of person that studies how creativity works, and I’ve distilled my findings and advice into some helpful books!

  • The Power Of Creative Paths – Explores my theories of the Five Types of Creativity, how you can find yours, and how to expand your creative skills to use more Types of Creativity.
  • Agile Creativity – I take the Agile Manifesto, a guide to adaptable project development, and show how it can help creatives improve their work – and stay organized without being overwhelmed.
  • The Art of The Brainstorm Book – A quick guide to using a simple notebook to improve brainstorming, reduce the stress around having new ideas, and prioritize your latest inspirations.
  • Chance’s Muse – I take everything I learned at Seventh Sanctum and my love of random tables and charts and detail how randomness can produce inspiration!

Careers

Being a “Professional Geek” is what I do – I turned my interests into a career and have been doing my best to turn that into advice.  The following books are my ways of helping out!

  • Fan To Pro – My “flagship” book on using hobbies and interests in your career – and not always in ways you’d think!
  • Skill Portability – A quick guide to how to move skills from one job to another, or even from hobbies into your job.  Try out my “DARE” system and asses your abilities!
  • Resume Plus – A guide to jazzing up a resume, sometimes to extreme measures.
  • Epic Resume Go! – Make a resume a creative act so it’s both better and more enjoyable to make!
  • Quest For Employment – Where I distill down my job search experiences and ways to take the search further.
  • Cosplay, Costuming, and Careers – An interview-driven book about ways to leverage cosplay interests to help your career!
  • Fanart, Fanartists, and Careers – My second interview-driven book about ways to leverage fanart to help your career!
  • Convention Career Connection – A system for coming up with good career panels for conventions!

Culture

  • Her Eternal Moonlight – My co-author Bonnie and I analyze the impact Sailor Moon had on women’s lives when it first came to North America.  Based on a series of interviews, there’s a lot to analyze here, and surprisingly consistent themes . . .

My Sites

Way With Worlds – Disaster Response

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com, Steve’s Tumblr, and Pillowfort.  Find out more at my newsletter, and all my social media at my linktr.ee)

It’s out! Disaster Response and Worldbuilding, the fourth and probably last book in my mini-miniseries on disasters and worldbuilding! The 22nd book in the series and the 19th minibook!

This represents something that was new to the Way With Worlds series – specific, connected theming on consecutive books. It just kind of happened, and then . . well I ended up with four books. Go figure.

This mini-miniseries is also one I’m proud of. Between grounded cargo ships, covid, climate change, and more I’m pretty sure even more writers are thinking about incorporating disasters into their writing. In turn, that means I want to be there to gently prod them with “have you asked these questions?”

They’re not “of the time,” but inspired by the time. Which means I expect them to have the same value as other books down the road, but I will gladly admit the inspiration.

So what’s next is at least one more book in the series, then probably a pause. At 20 small books and 2 large ones I’ve got to consider things like compendiums, second editions, and even moving the minibooks to print.

But this mini-miniseries is one I’m proud of. Maybe once I decide on next steps others may come . . .

Steven Savage

Legacy And Transition

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com, Steve’s Tumblr, and Pillowfort.  Find out more at my newsletter, and all my social media at my linktr.ee)

By the end of 2023 I’ll have written one book shy of forty books.  That’s the kind of thing to make one think.  Add the covid crisis, a world in the midst of change and turmoil, and a few life milestones, and I’m thinking a lot.

Somewhere in those thoughts is looking at those forty-minus-one books and asking “what’s next?”

I could write more of course, and doubtlessly will.  However I feel myself gripped with a desire to cultivate and consolidate my existing writing to do the most good.  It’s like I suddenly inherited a portfolio of book rights, only I inherited it from my younger self.  So what do I do with it?

It’s a lot of responsibility that I’ve dropped in my own lap.  Here’s what’s gelling in my mind:

Some books, I think, just are out of date and should be retired.  I could just make them free, maybe updated with a message, but there’s no reason to promote them or publish physical copies.  Perhaps I’ll print out 10-20 copies and donate them to close the door.

I just hate the thought of these being gone but past is past.  The responsible thing is to not to have it worry me.

Some books deserve a second or third edition and maybe a new cover.  They’re worth it, especially with some tweaking, updating, and a new look.  Some are even worth a rewrite every five or ten years.

Some of my works address specific needs and can keep evolving.  Updating them seems both responsible and kind of fun!

Finally, I want to take most if not all of my ebook only books to print.  That’ll take effort, especially as I’m looking to explore other ways to publish and get into bookstores.  However it’ll be worth it to create a physical legacy for my work – especially the Way With Worlds minibooks.  Part of me imagines an indie bookstore with a bunch of those minibooks on a shelf waiting for writers . . .

This builds a legacy and increases the reach of my work, and arguably some of my best work.

The above is not a simple effort.  However it feels worth it (or most of it feels worth it).  Maybe the next year or two will involve a larger focus on updating my catalog instead of expanding it.

Thirty-nine books isn’t enough.  But maybe I’ll take some time to do right for most of them – and the books to come.

I look forward to people’s opinions.

Steven Savage