{"id":20742,"date":"2024-11-18T12:00:16","date_gmt":"2024-11-18T17:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/?post_type=wfsu-news&#038;p=20742"},"modified":"2024-11-19T12:41:39","modified_gmt":"2024-11-19T17:41:39","slug":"a-tallahassee-fiction-writer-hopes-his-cinematic-training-will-give-him-a-leg-up-on-the-competition","status":"publish","type":"wfsu-news","link":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/wfsu-news\/a-tallahassee-fiction-writer-hopes-his-cinematic-training-will-give-him-a-leg-up-on-the-competition\/","title":{"rendered":"A Tallahassee fiction writer hopes his cinematic training will give him a leg up on the competition"},"content":{"rendered":"<!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('audio');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-20742-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/cpa.ds.npr.org\/s390\/audio\/2024\/11\/michaelwalsh1119full.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/cpa.ds.npr.org\/s390\/audio\/2024\/11\/michaelwalsh1119full.mp3\">https:\/\/cpa.ds.npr.org\/s390\/audio\/2024\/11\/michaelwalsh1119full.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<p>A Tallahassee writer is out to conquer what&#8217;s widely considered the most competitive fiction genre. This author has a background that might give him a leg up in that endeavor.<\/p>\n<p>Michael Ciccarelli Walsh didn&#8217;t start out hoping to become a writer of books.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It really started when I was a student at FSU. I was in the digital media production program. The aspiration was to become the next Stephen Spielberg and make lots of films. As I got more familiar with production, I really found myself drawn to writing, which I&#8217;d enjoyed doing. But when I saw how everyone was finding their niche as editors, or behind the camera, not too many people were into the story telling aspect and that was something I really sank my teeth in.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The question was, what kind of book should Walsh write? Which connected to another question: what kind of stories did Walsh really enjoy himself? That answer came quickly. He was a huge Guardians of the Galaxy fan!<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Let me just make my own thing and Guardians would honestly be the big inspiration so I picked that one and it really motivated me. I could take this cast of characters I came up with and make them quirky and fun and play off each other and build that into its own story.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>It seems that cast of characters kept growing.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The whole vision had been to create a team of superheroes out in space and send them on adventures. So in that respect I was slowly building the cast across each book. We&#8217;re now on book three.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>But Walsh knows an interesting story line and character lineup does not guarantee attention. Despite all the talk about online content taking over, traditional book publishing remains a ferociously competitive arena. And that goes double in the genre Walsh has selected. The respected literary database I-S-B-N-D-B ranks &#8220;fantasy&#8221; as the most popular fiction subject, with &#8220;science fiction&#8221; coming in at number two.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/npr.brightspotcdn.com\/9d\/5d\/af2febc0457788db5a3e43fcf70d\/beyond-the-rift-3d-1.png\" width=\"1852\" height=\"2185\"><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If I just go and tell people it&#8217;s a fantasy sci-fi, it doesn&#8217;t really resonate well because it&#8217;s so saturated. But to find that niche that is sort of space opera and superhero &#8211; the key words that work on Amazon &#8211; those are the buzz words that help if I&#8217;m meeting people in person selling. And I found recently going to conventions, those &#8216;con&#8217; events where people are dressed up like superhero characters, comic book characters, movie monsters, those are the places where I really find the audience that fits that niche really well.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Although Walsh doesn&#8217;t want to ignore the home folks.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve learned a lot of this is community based. Like to talking to people at work,<\/p>\n<p>at school, around town and seeing that community come together, hearing the local author is there and rushing to get a signed copy of the book just because they know you&#8217;re from this area is a big deal. Tallahassee&#8217;s been an awesome place to launch the book. It wasn&#8217;t where I expected to launch the book, but I&#8217;m very happy to have started my career here doing this.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Tallahassee cinema-student-turned-space opera\/superhero genre writer, Michael Ciccarelli Walsh.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/808R1J289T <\/p>\n<div class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2024 WFSU<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":20743,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","wds_primary_category":0},"categories":[],"tags":[1137,1135],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A Tallahassee fiction writer hopes his cinematic training will give him a leg up on the competition - WFSU Local Routes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/wfsu-news\/a-tallahassee-fiction-writer-hopes-his-cinematic-training-will-give-him-a-leg-up-on-the-competition\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Tallahassee fiction writer hopes his cinematic training will give him a leg up on the competition - 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