books

Steve’s Book Roundup 1/7/2020

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I write a lot and have quite a few books.  So now and then I’m going to post a roundup of them for interested parties!

My sites:

Fiction

I’ve been returning to fiction with a techno-fantasy setting of several planets orbiting a star called Avenoth.  Take a typical fantasy world of magic and gods, and let it evolve into the space age and internet age . . .

  • A Bridge To The Quiet Planet – Two future teachers of Techno-Magical safety find trying to earn their credentials hunting odd artifacts backfires when you’re hired to put some back . . . on a planet where gods go to die!

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:

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 . . .

Make It So: More Little Free Libraries Ideas

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com and Steve’s Tumblr.  Find out more at my newsletter.)

I’ve been writing about Little Free Libraries on and off for awhile. Lately I got some ideas for how we could do some different geeky things with them. So here are suggestions if you run one, want to run one, or have friends who do or may.

Let’s think about ways you can theme, shake up, or vary Little Free Libraries.

Themed Libraries: What if you did a library that was all career advice, or all science fiction? You could also have a multi-shelf library with themed shelves.

Indie Libraries: If you want to be more specific – and probably make some purchases – have your little free library promote indie authors. You could even ask for donations as well – plus network locally.

Game Libraries: Though they’re expensive, game manuals and RPG supplements often make their way to discount and used bookstores, or people get tired of certain games. Why not a game library? This also could be good at a game store.

Comic/manga Libraries: If you’re like me, you probably have a few leftover manga, you can find tons of them at used book stores, and I’m sure you have friends with series they’re done with. Let’s get outside of text-only books and into graphic stories!

Rotating Libraries: What if you had a monthly themed library? Every month, switch out the books in the library with others, each time based on a different theme. Maybe you have six themes, and rotate them one month at a time, keeping the books appropriate to the theme in storage.

Book Club Libraries: If you run a book club, changes are you’ve got people with leftover books. So make your own Little Free Library for the club – with flyers for your club. However you may need to avoid having twenty copies of the same book . . .

Have any other ideas? Let me know!

Steven Savage

The Responsibility of Print

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com and Steve’s Tumblr.  Find out more at my newsletter.)

I have a thing for books in print.

Sure I have a Kindle. Sure I read ebooks in various forms. But most of the time, I order books in print.

Sure there’s the practical reasons. No technical glitches. No screen problems. I can read it in the bathtub without worrying about dropping several hundred dollars of technology into the bathwater. A book on paper doesn’t crash during an update.

But there are other reasons.

First, a paper book can last. Updates don’t destroy it. A pulled publication doesn’t make it vanish off of your device. Compatibility issues don’t arise. A paper book may be vulnerable to the ravages of time, but less so the ravages of technology.

Secondly, a paper book can be given away. You can gift it and regift it. You can lend it with ease. A paper book can pass through many hands easily, imparting its wisdom and humor and thrills and dread.

Third, a paper book is easy to use as a historical record. Put it on the proper shelf. Gift it to a library or a little free library. Wrap it in proper storage materials and hide it for the centuries to come (which history has many records of).

Paper has many advantages, many benefits. But for me, the solidity and the sense of history matters to me. I want good things to last and be beyond the whims of our current age.

So for me many a paper volume passes through my hands. Then passes on.

Steven Savage