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About John M. Olsen
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Author Updates
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Blog postIn case you haven't succumbed to the temptation to buy the Cracked anthology yet, here's another excerpt from my story Stray Thoughts below. You know, because everyone deserves to add funny chicken stories to their life. Twenty cooped-up authors are here to distract you from the outside world for a romp through chicken-infested goodness.
Poke the chickens to find special content and a giveaway.
This is from a little farther into Stray Thoughts than my first excerpt a few days ago, bu -
Blog postI have a new story out this month, so I joined up as part of the blog tour to get the word out. Follow the blog tour here for a special contest and giveaway! This collection of stories came about because the editor, Bokerah Brumley, mentioned how funny it would be to put such a collection together as a cure for boredom induced by pandemic isolation. People responded. Within minutes, the project transformed from "wouldn't it be funny" to "here's where you send submiss
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Blog postElizabeth Suggs, the editor for a horror anthology Collective Darkness, interviewed me a couple of days ago. I wrote the forword for the collection she edited.
While I don't consider myself a horror writer, I'm in two horror anthologies put out by the Utah chapter of the Horror Writers of America. This forword was a great chance for me to introduce a work that consists of a nice mix of already-published authors and some new voices, so it's a good chance to find a new favorite aut -
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Blog postThe League of Utah Writers Quills 2020 conference is over. It was memorable for seveal reasons.
1. I'm the new President of the League. Johnny Worthen has moved to become the Past-President and Bryan Young has become the President-Elect.
2. I got to participate in a commemorative 85th year anthology The Function of Freedom as a contributor, an editor, and in writing some closing remarks. It contains work from a wide range of League members in several genres, including poetr -
Blog postIt's kind of funny that in February I mentioned that conference season was set to begin. COVID-19 had other plans, and I haven't been to a live conference since. I may not have a chance to mingle with fans and authors in person for the rest of the year, but health and safety are important. I'd hate to see COVID turn into a mega-con-crud infection.
For the League of Utah Writers, we moved both the spring conference and the upcoming Quills Conference in August to online formats. The S -
Blog postIt's that time of year again. Conference season has begun. I'm starting off my tour with LTUE this weekend. If you are somewhere near Provo, Utah, stop by to say hello. If you're not going to register for the (rather inexpensive) conference, there is a free-to-the-public book signing Friday night.
This conference is a great time to meet with friends and to do some networking. I hope to also do a little recruiting for the League of Utah Writers since we have our Quills conf -
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Blog postAnother year in the books. (books! Get it?) Let's see what the master story submission spreadsheet shows.
In 2019 I had seven short story acceptances and one novel on twenty-one submissions, which is one less win on the same number of submissions from 2018. My acceptance rate is still pretty good at about 33%, so I'm pretty happy with how things went.
I also had a novel, Crystal Empire, come out this year. That makes about one novel a year. I'll -
Blog postThere's a lot going on this month.I'm writing a novel for NaNoWriMo.I'm prepping for a December 17th release of Crystal Empire.I'm editing another author's novel.I'm spending extra time at the day job in a software crunch.We host 20-35 people for Thanksgiving, depending on the year.The daughter's boyfriend will visit from Chile if he can get a flight out.Some of that, including some Crystal Empire pre-release art is in my November newsletter that you can find here.
I'm hoping for some time -
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Blog postThe League of Utah Writers just finished its 84th annual conference, renamed as the Quills conference last year. Since I'm the President-Elect of the League, I did a bunch of running around in the background. Luckily, I had a chance to catch a few of the awesome classes.
We had Michael Stackpole and Anne Hillerman visiting and teaching, along with several amazing out-of-state and local editors who took pitches. The majority of the teaching staff of about 35 people was made up of loc -
Blog postI had a great time at FyreCon, held June 20-22. I had a busy schedule, consisting of:
A book signing.Some friends stopped by to chat and I sold some books.Three solo classes.Senses Beyond the Big Five: Expanding Your Descriptive ToolboxMaking Infinite Worlds in Finite TimeBeginning CalligraphyOne team-taught class with Lyn WorthenSurviving the Slush PileA couple panels.The Future of VR and Video GamesRobots, Androids, and AINow I need to update my presentations page. That's where I -
Blog postI wrote a guest blog post over at Cannon Publishing to talk about how to find a new favorite author. They've included one of my stories in their Hundred Worlds anthology.
Give the post a look!
(They've been rearranging the blog links, so if that doesn't work just go to https://www.cannonpublishing.us and jump through the Blog link at the top.) -
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Blog postIt's been one right after the other for a while. It's great when things like up like this. For anthologies released in three months!
December 1, 2018 - The Hundred Worlds
December 4, 2018 - All Made of Hinges
February 5, 2019 - Put Your Shoulder to the Wheel
February 14, 2019 - Trace the Stars
Just as a point of reference, I wanted to show my amateur author rank numbers on Amazon to show what can happen with a rapid-fire release schedule. Those who kno -
Blog postI forgot to mention earlier that I got yet another Honorable Mention from the Writers of the Future. These are the nicest rejections you can get for short fiction since they come with badges and certificates. If you're a writer and haven't hit it big, I believe the contest is worth entering, especially since it's free to enter and has a large cash prize and publication for the winners. It's an opportunity to compare yourself against others in an anonymous contest where you know they evaluate the
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Blog postHere's a sample of one of the great the reviews coming in for All Made of Hinges. I copied his review to here for my story, but you can find his extensive review of every story in the book here.Marching On to Glory, by John M. Olsen. This one is exciting! It also manages to bring in the truth that military leaders frequently do not take into consideration the strengths and limitations of their troops when they make their plans for conquest. It's also a good example of that genre of literatu
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Blog postIt's double release week for me, with two new short stories coming out. First (just out today) is the anthology All Made of Hinges which contains my story Marching on to Glory. It's a collection of Mormon Steampunk, and is lots of fun. The idea was to include in each story some element of steampunk and some element of the Church of Jesus Christ of Later-Day Saints. In my case, I took the story of the Mormon Battalion and put them on an airship and armed them with steampunk-inspired repeating rec
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Blog postIt's been released into the wild, to be found on Amazon and other sites. I'll have copies at FanX Salt Lake Comic Convention this week, so the whole week is sort of a blur so far with no sign of changing. :)
I received a detailed review from Guild Master Gaming which breaks things down into several categories and analyzes things quite well. You can find it here.
Later in the month, I have two book signings in the Salt Lake City area:September 15, 2018 1PM at Mariss -
Blog postI attended the Quills Conference this past Friday and Saturday. I took lots of notes from several amazing presentations. One of the anthologies I'm in (Apocalypse Utah) won the Silver Quill award, so now my short stories have won multiple awards either for the story itself or for the collection it's in. It's great for feeling validated as an author. Will it turn into fame or fortune? Nah. Most awards won't do that, and for those who do, it's not guaranteed. Would I ever give up the award as usel
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Blog postBear with me to the end here because that's where the important stuff is. June was an extraordinary month. Extraordinarily busy, at least. Coming off the MisCon trip at the end of May, I figured things would settle into a pretty normal cycle as summer got underway. Silly me.
Brandon Sanderson signing a book for me at MisCon.
One week I attended two weddings and a funeral and had a book club in Austrailia talk about my book. Our grandbaby had a birthday the next week. Over the pa -
Blog postThis is my first time to MisCon in Missoula, MN, and it is shaping up to be a lot of fun. I'm about ready to head downstairs for breakfast on Day 1. I have a book signing today at the local Barnes & Noble from 10am to noon, then my con schedule starts. I will do a post-con report with pictures and stuff. Here are the events I'm helping with:
Sensing Violence (Writing)
Fri 5:00 - 5:50 PM, (Ballroom C)
Pros and Guests: Cheryl Glenn, Elliott Kay, Joseph Malik, John Olse -
Blog postI just finished up a presentation today at an interesting conference. Rather than meeting in hotel conference rooms, this one was held entirely online. The LDS Beta Readers Conference is an annual thing put on by the folks who run a Facebook group by the same name.
They schedule presentations for 30 or 60 minutes and schedule them on a Saturday. The cool part is that if you can't be there, you can go back later and watch the videos. Some are done live, and some are recorded beforeha -
Blog postLife, the Universe, and Everything was a great success. For those not in the know, it's a writer symposium held each spring in Provo, Utah. It's growing and has expanded from the Mariott hotel to include some rooms across the street in the Provo Convention Center.
I attended several panel discussions and was a panelist on three this year. I'll go through everything in chronological order.
One bit of sad news is that my new phone doesn't take pictures as well a -
Blog postHolidays Winding DownWe had a wonderful Christmas with lots of time spent with family. My wife's birthday party Christmas Eve consisted of making custom tree ornaments. She rolled her eyes at me when I helped one of my sons stuff a clear glass ornament with cat hair and glitter. We had kids, their in-laws, and others over Christmas morning. We visited a local park with a tree lit up as the Tree of Life. I didn't get down to see the lights at Temple Square in downtown Salt Lake City this year, bu
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Blog postI'm coming down from a hectic month, and things going forward look about as congested as what I see in the rear-view mirror.
The done list:I finished my first draft of Crystal Queen.Salt Lake Comic Con - We had a vendor booth and sold a bunch of books. I had some early copies of Crystal King and nearly sold out. I did a lot of networking and attended a couple of presentations.Snake River Comic Con - I presented on virtual reality and augmented reality. It's part of what I do for the -
Blog postNext week (Sept 21-23, 2017) I'll be at Salt Lake Comic Con at booth 639 with a bunch of other mostly local authors selling books. Look for "Xchyler Publishing / Utah Authors." There are a handful of cool things to note. First, I should have a few advance copies of Crystal King on hand if the order arrives Wednesday as planned. I won't have many, so stop by early! The release date is October 17th, but you can preorder it on Amazon if you can't stop by our booth, or if I sell out before
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Blog postI'll put this message in terms of writing, but it's universally applicable. Bear with me if you're not here for the writing, and I hope you'll gain something useful in living a more positive life.
I set a goal the beginning of the year to receive thirty short story rejections. This is in addition to some other writing goals I talked about here.
Earlier this week, I got rejection twenty-nine. Lo and behold, I opened up my email tonight and saw not one, but two emails fro
Books By John M. Olsen
MECHA
May 15, 2019
by
J.F. Holmes ,
Lucas Marcum ,
Jamie Ibson ,
Jason Cordova ,
Sean McCune ,
Mark Harritt ,
Thomas Mays ,
Rick Partlow ,
Yakov Merkin ,
Douglas Dandridge
$2.99
Other Formats:
Paperback
CRACKED: An Anthology of Eggsellent Chicken Stories
Aug 31, 2020
by
J. F. Posthumus ,
Cedar Sanderson ,
J Trevor Robinson ,
Richard Paolinelli ,
Jane Lebak ,
J. D. Beckwith ,
Grace Bridges ,
Denton Salle ,
Margo Bond Collins ,
J. A Campanile ,
Amber Draeger ,
Karina Fabian ,
Abigail Falanga ,
Clair W. Kiernan ,
L. Jagi Lamplighter ,
David Millican ,
John M. Olsen ,
Dawn Witzke ,
Joshua M. Young ,
Bokerah Brumley
$4.99
Overmorrow: Stories of Our Bright Future
Oct 1, 2020
by
Lyssa Chiavari ,
John Olsen ,
Bokerah Brumley ,
Allen Baird ,
Glenn Damato ,
Karina Fabian ,
Curtis Edmonds ,
NB Williams ,
Mike Pauly ,
CW Hawes
$4.99
Other Formats:
Paperback
Planetary Anthology Series: Earth
Jul 7, 2020
by
Dawn Witzke ,
Richard Paolinelli ,
W.J. Hayes ,
Arlan Andrews Sr. ,
Lou Antonelli ,
Alfred Genneson ,
Marie Genneson ,
Jody Lynn Nye ,
A.M. Freeman ,
Bokerah Brumley ,
J.D. Beckwith ,
Nathan Dabney ,
Dan Gallagher ,
Josh Griffing ,
Hans Schantz ,
John M. Olsen ,
R.W. Ware ,
J. Manfred Weichsel ,
Benjamin Wheeler
$2.99
Other Formats:
Paperback
Haunted Yuletide
Dec 1, 2020
by
Jay and Julie Barnson ,
David J. West ,
Staci Olsen ,
Scott Taylor ,
Donea Lee Weaver ,
John M. Olsen ,
Mark Minson ,
Allan Evans ,
Amy Beatty ,
Misha Burnett
$4.99
Other Formats:
Paperback
Planetary Anthology Series: Pluto
Dec 5, 2019
by
Richard Paolinelli ,
B. Michael Stevens ,
P.A. Piatt ,
J.D. Arguelles ,
Bokerah Brumley ,
Declan Finn ,
A.M. Freeman ,
Arlan Andrews Sr. ,
Jake Freivald ,
Corey McCleery ,
J. Manfred Weichsel ,
Christine Chase ,
Karina L. Fabian ,
Jim Ryals ,
L.A. Behm II ,
W.J. Hayes ,
Arlan Andrews ,
David Skinner ,
Frank Luke ,
John M. Olsen ,
Andy Pluto ,
Allen Goodner ,
Dawn Witzke
$2.99
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