Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Cybermancy on VOYA Year's Best List
So, it just occurred to me that I should probably mention that Cybermancy made VOYA's 2007 year's best F&SF list. VOYA, or Voice of Youth Advocates is the primary YA librarian's journal and a big voice in YA reviews. The list is here (PDF, sorry). Oh, and since I'm mentioning it, WebMage was on the 2006 list, here (another PDF).
Smart Things--Pitching/Querying Books
Kristin Nelson is saying some amazingly smart things about how to construct a pitch and query. If you're in the agent hunt go read the last 5-8 posts right now. The relevant ones so far are one, two, three, and four.
Interjection: "Series"-ous Discussion over at SF Novelists
A quick interjection: yesterday, I posted about "Committing Series" over at SF Novelists. Check it out.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
One Star Reviews Meme–Kelly McCullough
So, John Scalzi has a challenge going in which authors post their one star reviews from Amazon and it sounded like fun. I've got two for WebMage, one from Amazon and one from Amazon UK, and I actually treasure both of them as a twisted sort of tribute. I've quoted the money paragraph of each–call it the anti-pullquote.
Amazon:
Worst book I've ever read
"It's rare to find really good books, fortunately it's even rarer to find really bad books, so I read it to the end just for the historical significance of it."
Amazon UK:
Author doesnt understand computers
This book is unfortunately one of the worst I've ever picked up. That's not to say it's not well written and full of very good ideas. From the few pages I've read it is full of promise. Unfortunately the author bases the story around a technology that he does not understand.
Amazon:
Worst book I've ever read
"It's rare to find really good books, fortunately it's even rarer to find really bad books, so I read it to the end just for the historical significance of it."
Amazon UK:
Author doesnt understand computers
This book is unfortunately one of the worst I've ever picked up. That's not to say it's not well written and full of very good ideas. From the few pages I've read it is full of promise. Unfortunately the author bases the story around a technology that he does not understand.
Q&A With Jenna Black-Hungers of the Heart
Jenna Black is your typical writer. Which means she's an "experience junkie." She got her BA in physical anthropology and French from Duke University.
Once upon a time, she dreamed she would be the next Jane Goodall, camping in the bush making fabulous discoveries about primate behavior. Then, during her senior year at Duke, she did some actual research in the field and made this shocking discovery: primates spend something like 80% of their time doing such exciting things as sleeping and eating.
Concluding that this discovery was her life's work in the field of primatology, she then moved on to such varied pastimes as grooming dogs and writing technical documentation. Among her other experiences . . .
* Ballroom dancing.
* Traveling all seven continents. Yes, even Antarctica.
* Becoming a Life Master in Bridge.
* Singing in a barbershop chorus.
1)What was your inspiration for writing HUNGERS OF THE HEART?
Since the first book of the Guardians of the Night series, I’ve always known I would eventually write Drake’s book. Many of my readers have also impatiently been awaiting his book since they first “met” him in WATCHERS IN THE NIGHT. As excited as I was to write his story, though, it turned out to be very hard to do. One of the most attractive things about Drake in WATCHERS was his self-confidence, the sense that he was comfortable in his own skin. Confident, comfortable characters, however, don’t make for interesting protagonists, so I had to shake him up. I found myself strangely reluctant to do so. That was the first time I had to struggle to make myself be mean to one of my characters. Usually authorial cruelty comes easily to me, as my readers no doubt know!
2) Which books and authors have most influenced your career?
I’d have to credit THOSE WHO HUNT THE NIGHT, by Barbara Hambly, as being the book that piqued my interest in vampires. The main vampire character in that book, Don Simon Ysidro, is absolutely fascinating to me. There’s no question he’s a bad guy—all her vampires are killers, and none of them seem to feel any remorse for their actions. However, Don Simon also has redeeming qualities, such as a sense of honor, that make him at least somewhat sympathetic to both the reader and the novel’s hero. (And from that description, you can no doubt see how much I was influenced by that particular book!)
For my urban fantasies, I’d have to credit the Anita Blake series, by Laurell K. Hamilton as having had the most influence. That was the first urban fantasy series I read, and I ended up absolutely hooked. After reading her books, I went on to “discover” such authors as Kelley Armstrong, Keri Arthur, Rachel Caine, and Patricia Briggs. It was because I loved all those books so much that I set out to write an urban fantasy myself.
3)What’s the best and the worst advice you’ve ever received?
The worst advice I ever received was to slavishly follow all publishers’ guidelines for submissions. (Note the word “slavishly.” I’m not saying to ignore guidelines.) For the 16 + years I was seriously trying—and failing—to get published, I dutifully submitted books one at a time, no simultaneous submissions. I can’t tell you how many times I had to wait a year or more to get a response. And during that waiting time, I refused to submit the book to another publisher, because most publishers say they won’t accept simultaneous submissions. It made for a painfully slow, agonizing, frustrating process. If I had it all to do over again, I’d probably go ahead and make simultaneous submissions despite the guidelines. I think it would have saved some of my sanity.
The best advice was for me to take responsibility for my own career. This meant always acting as though my career was under my control, even when sometimes it feels like I’m a victim in the winds of fate. This advice was crucial to my finally getting published. I had gotten to a point where I’d convinced myself I needed to get that lucky break to get my foot in the door. And that was a dismal prospect, because you can’t control luck. Then I went to a workshop where the teachers were adamant in their belief that luck has nothing to do with it, that if you write well enough and long enough, you’ll break in. It was a total change of attitude for me, and it changed the way I approached my career. When I began to believe that it was my own abilities, not the whims of luck, that would ultimately get me published, I started working much, much harder at my writing. I started treating it like a career, rather than a hobby. A year later, I had an agent. Two years later, I had my first contract. And now I have five books out with four more under contract. So it was by far the best advice I’ve ever received.
4) What (besides writing) do you do for fun?
Number one on my list is, naturally, reading. Like most writers, I’m a voracious reader. I’ve recently become addicted to doing jigsaw puzzles. My enjoyment of jigsaw puzzles has come and gone multiple times over the course of my life. I’ll go for years without doing one, then suddenly I’ll have an urge and I’ll do a whole bunch in a row. I’m finding them particularly fun right now because they’re something I can do that doesn’t involve sitting in front of a computer.
I also enjoy ballroom dancing, which I’ve just taken up again after several years’ hiatus. I think it’s important for me to find things to do outside the house now that I’ve quit my day job. It would be so easy for me to become a hermit. So that’s why I decided to start dancing again. (Though it’s also a lot of fun as well as being good exercise.)
5) What are you writing now?
Right now I’m working on the fourth book in my Morgan Kingsley series. I’ve just gotten started, so I’m still in those very uncertain “what the heck is going to happen in this book?” stage. It often takes me a few chapters before I start feeling like I’ve “really” started the book. I’ve also been playing around with an idea for a YA urban fantasy, but I have to put that aside now to work on the book that’s sold and on deadline.
6) Did you always want to write? Or did you stumble into it? How did you get where you are now?
I wrote my first book when I was in fifth grade. It was an autobiography. It’s written in pencil, with crayon illustrations and a construction paper cover. So I’ve pretty much been writing forever. I wrote my first novel my senior year of high school for my English class on creative writing. (Actually, it was really a novella, but I considered it a novel at that time.) I then wrote my first real, full-length novel in college. However, it took about 20 years and 17 more novels before I made my first sale.
In college, I majored in anthropology and French. My intention was to get a PhD in physical anthropology and become the next Jane Goodall. Obviously, my career and my ambitions ended up taking a different path.
7) What does a typical writing day look like for you? How long do you write, that sort of thing?
I start out by trudging up to my computer while guzzling coffee as I try to shake the sleep clouds from my head. (I’m not the best morning person in the world.) I usually read emails and look at some of my favorite Internet sites (like MySpace and Romance Divas) while I wait for my brain to be fully functional. Then I drag myself to a computer that has no Internet access and no games—nothing installed on it other than word processing software. And I write.
I tend to write in multiple short (45 minutes to an hour) spurts throughout the morning and early afternoon. Between spurts, I check email or do chores or work out. (Or goof off, but I try to keep that to a minimum.)
8) Where do you write??
I have a home-office-cum-library where I work. It’s a converted bonus room over our garage, and it’s decorated to help stimulate my imagination—and give me the illusion that I’ve actually left the house to write. The effect is like working in a medieval/gothic library, with faux-wood floors and faux-stone walls.
9) What is the best part of being a writer? The most frustrating?
The best part about being a writer for me is hearing from readers. I love knowing that people have read and enjoyed my books. I was especially moved when I got an email from a reader who was seriously ill and told me my books helped make the bad times better for her. Books have always been my escape during the worst times in my life, and one of the thoughts that kept me going while I was struggling to sell that first novel was the desire to provide that same kind of escape for others. Learning that I’d done so for at least one reader brought tears to my eyes.
The most frustrating part of being a writer is how many things about your career are not under your control. You can’t control the whims of the market, the editorial shifts in your publishing house, the closing of lines, the cover art, the marketing . . . You name it. (Some of those things you can control when you’re a mega star, but I’m not there yet!)
10) This isn't your first book; tell us a little bit about what else is out there?
There are three other books out in the Guardians of the Night series: WATCHERS IN THE NIGHT, SECRETS IN THE SHADOWS, and SHADOWS ON THE SOUL. There’s also THE DEVIL INSIDE, the first book in my Morgan Kingsley, Exorcist series. The second book in that series, THE DEVIL YOU KNOW, will come out on July 29.
11) Where can we learn more about you and your books?
My website is www.JennaBlack.com. You can also find me on MySpace.
Once upon a time, she dreamed she would be the next Jane Goodall, camping in the bush making fabulous discoveries about primate behavior. Then, during her senior year at Duke, she did some actual research in the field and made this shocking discovery: primates spend something like 80% of their time doing such exciting things as sleeping and eating.
Concluding that this discovery was her life's work in the field of primatology, she then moved on to such varied pastimes as grooming dogs and writing technical documentation. Among her other experiences . . .
* Ballroom dancing.
* Traveling all seven continents. Yes, even Antarctica.
* Becoming a Life Master in Bridge.
* Singing in a barbershop chorus.
1)What was your inspiration for writing HUNGERS OF THE HEART?
Since the first book of the Guardians of the Night series, I’ve always known I would eventually write Drake’s book. Many of my readers have also impatiently been awaiting his book since they first “met” him in WATCHERS IN THE NIGHT. As excited as I was to write his story, though, it turned out to be very hard to do. One of the most attractive things about Drake in WATCHERS was his self-confidence, the sense that he was comfortable in his own skin. Confident, comfortable characters, however, don’t make for interesting protagonists, so I had to shake him up. I found myself strangely reluctant to do so. That was the first time I had to struggle to make myself be mean to one of my characters. Usually authorial cruelty comes easily to me, as my readers no doubt know!
2) Which books and authors have most influenced your career?
I’d have to credit THOSE WHO HUNT THE NIGHT, by Barbara Hambly, as being the book that piqued my interest in vampires. The main vampire character in that book, Don Simon Ysidro, is absolutely fascinating to me. There’s no question he’s a bad guy—all her vampires are killers, and none of them seem to feel any remorse for their actions. However, Don Simon also has redeeming qualities, such as a sense of honor, that make him at least somewhat sympathetic to both the reader and the novel’s hero. (And from that description, you can no doubt see how much I was influenced by that particular book!)
For my urban fantasies, I’d have to credit the Anita Blake series, by Laurell K. Hamilton as having had the most influence. That was the first urban fantasy series I read, and I ended up absolutely hooked. After reading her books, I went on to “discover” such authors as Kelley Armstrong, Keri Arthur, Rachel Caine, and Patricia Briggs. It was because I loved all those books so much that I set out to write an urban fantasy myself.
3)What’s the best and the worst advice you’ve ever received?
The worst advice I ever received was to slavishly follow all publishers’ guidelines for submissions. (Note the word “slavishly.” I’m not saying to ignore guidelines.) For the 16 + years I was seriously trying—and failing—to get published, I dutifully submitted books one at a time, no simultaneous submissions. I can’t tell you how many times I had to wait a year or more to get a response. And during that waiting time, I refused to submit the book to another publisher, because most publishers say they won’t accept simultaneous submissions. It made for a painfully slow, agonizing, frustrating process. If I had it all to do over again, I’d probably go ahead and make simultaneous submissions despite the guidelines. I think it would have saved some of my sanity.
The best advice was for me to take responsibility for my own career. This meant always acting as though my career was under my control, even when sometimes it feels like I’m a victim in the winds of fate. This advice was crucial to my finally getting published. I had gotten to a point where I’d convinced myself I needed to get that lucky break to get my foot in the door. And that was a dismal prospect, because you can’t control luck. Then I went to a workshop where the teachers were adamant in their belief that luck has nothing to do with it, that if you write well enough and long enough, you’ll break in. It was a total change of attitude for me, and it changed the way I approached my career. When I began to believe that it was my own abilities, not the whims of luck, that would ultimately get me published, I started working much, much harder at my writing. I started treating it like a career, rather than a hobby. A year later, I had an agent. Two years later, I had my first contract. And now I have five books out with four more under contract. So it was by far the best advice I’ve ever received.
4) What (besides writing) do you do for fun?
Number one on my list is, naturally, reading. Like most writers, I’m a voracious reader. I’ve recently become addicted to doing jigsaw puzzles. My enjoyment of jigsaw puzzles has come and gone multiple times over the course of my life. I’ll go for years without doing one, then suddenly I’ll have an urge and I’ll do a whole bunch in a row. I’m finding them particularly fun right now because they’re something I can do that doesn’t involve sitting in front of a computer.
I also enjoy ballroom dancing, which I’ve just taken up again after several years’ hiatus. I think it’s important for me to find things to do outside the house now that I’ve quit my day job. It would be so easy for me to become a hermit. So that’s why I decided to start dancing again. (Though it’s also a lot of fun as well as being good exercise.)
5) What are you writing now?
Right now I’m working on the fourth book in my Morgan Kingsley series. I’ve just gotten started, so I’m still in those very uncertain “what the heck is going to happen in this book?” stage. It often takes me a few chapters before I start feeling like I’ve “really” started the book. I’ve also been playing around with an idea for a YA urban fantasy, but I have to put that aside now to work on the book that’s sold and on deadline.
6) Did you always want to write? Or did you stumble into it? How did you get where you are now?
I wrote my first book when I was in fifth grade. It was an autobiography. It’s written in pencil, with crayon illustrations and a construction paper cover. So I’ve pretty much been writing forever. I wrote my first novel my senior year of high school for my English class on creative writing. (Actually, it was really a novella, but I considered it a novel at that time.) I then wrote my first real, full-length novel in college. However, it took about 20 years and 17 more novels before I made my first sale.
In college, I majored in anthropology and French. My intention was to get a PhD in physical anthropology and become the next Jane Goodall. Obviously, my career and my ambitions ended up taking a different path.
7) What does a typical writing day look like for you? How long do you write, that sort of thing?
I start out by trudging up to my computer while guzzling coffee as I try to shake the sleep clouds from my head. (I’m not the best morning person in the world.) I usually read emails and look at some of my favorite Internet sites (like MySpace and Romance Divas) while I wait for my brain to be fully functional. Then I drag myself to a computer that has no Internet access and no games—nothing installed on it other than word processing software. And I write.
I tend to write in multiple short (45 minutes to an hour) spurts throughout the morning and early afternoon. Between spurts, I check email or do chores or work out. (Or goof off, but I try to keep that to a minimum.)
8) Where do you write??
I have a home-office-cum-library where I work. It’s a converted bonus room over our garage, and it’s decorated to help stimulate my imagination—and give me the illusion that I’ve actually left the house to write. The effect is like working in a medieval/gothic library, with faux-wood floors and faux-stone walls.
9) What is the best part of being a writer? The most frustrating?
The best part about being a writer for me is hearing from readers. I love knowing that people have read and enjoyed my books. I was especially moved when I got an email from a reader who was seriously ill and told me my books helped make the bad times better for her. Books have always been my escape during the worst times in my life, and one of the thoughts that kept me going while I was struggling to sell that first novel was the desire to provide that same kind of escape for others. Learning that I’d done so for at least one reader brought tears to my eyes.
The most frustrating part of being a writer is how many things about your career are not under your control. You can’t control the whims of the market, the editorial shifts in your publishing house, the closing of lines, the cover art, the marketing . . . You name it. (Some of those things you can control when you’re a mega star, but I’m not there yet!)
10) This isn't your first book; tell us a little bit about what else is out there?
There are three other books out in the Guardians of the Night series: WATCHERS IN THE NIGHT, SECRETS IN THE SHADOWS, and SHADOWS ON THE SOUL. There’s also THE DEVIL INSIDE, the first book in my Morgan Kingsley, Exorcist series. The second book in that series, THE DEVIL YOU KNOW, will come out on July 29.
11) Where can we learn more about you and your books?
My website is www.JennaBlack.com. You can also find me on MySpace.
Monday, April 28, 2008
Insomnia
I am having one of my periodic wrestling matches with insomnia, which, in my case seem to be related to the same part of my brain that does the heavy lifting for storytelling. For me insomnia is invariably a can't get my brain to stop whirring problem and one that feels like it feels when I'm processing story.
There are variations:
The worry whirr, in which I can't get my mind off some care that I can't do anything about.
The engineering whirr, in which I am working on a project of some sort and end up spending hours on design issues that I could solve in minutes with a piece of paper a pencil and some measurements.
The genuine story whirr, in which my brain picks away at some aspect of the current w.i.p. and won't let go even once I solve the problem.
And tonight's special joy, the what if whirr, in which my brain gets its teeth into constructing scenarios in which things are other than as they are–in this case the cascade was triggered by the ongoing work left by my grandmother's rather abrupt departure from the scene.
None of it is terribly fun and I have found that the best response is to get out of bed and do something that is not sleeping for a while–hence this blog post. Now that I've done that for a bit I'm going to wander back to bed and see if I have successfully distracted the story-telling part of my brain enough that it will shut up and let the rest of me get to sleep.
There are variations:
The worry whirr, in which I can't get my mind off some care that I can't do anything about.
The engineering whirr, in which I am working on a project of some sort and end up spending hours on design issues that I could solve in minutes with a piece of paper a pencil and some measurements.
The genuine story whirr, in which my brain picks away at some aspect of the current w.i.p. and won't let go even once I solve the problem.
And tonight's special joy, the what if whirr, in which my brain gets its teeth into constructing scenarios in which things are other than as they are–in this case the cascade was triggered by the ongoing work left by my grandmother's rather abrupt departure from the scene.
None of it is terribly fun and I have found that the best response is to get out of bed and do something that is not sleeping for a while–hence this blog post. Now that I've done that for a bit I'm going to wander back to bed and see if I have successfully distracted the story-telling part of my brain enough that it will shut up and let the rest of me get to sleep.
Tate at Dreamhaven tonight
Hey folks, here's a quick reminder that Tate will be reading, answering questions, and signing books tonight at Dreamhaven in Minneapolis, starting at 6:30 p.m.
Lyda, will you be there?
Lyda, will you be there?
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Most Unread Books--My Attempts
Snurched from Bear because it looked like a fun game. A list of the books most often listed as "unread" on librarything. The original instructions say italicize books started but not finished, bold books read, and bold and underline books read for school.
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Anna Karenina
Crime and Punishment
Catch-22
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Wuthering Heights
The Silmarillion*
Life of Pi : a novel
The Name of the Rose
Don Quixote
Moby Dick
Ulysses
Madame Bovary
The Odyssey
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Eyre
The Tale of Two Cities
The Brothers Karamazov
Guns, Germs, and Steel: the fates of human societies
War and Peace
Vanity Fair
The Time Traveler’s Wife
The Iliad
Emma
The Blind Assassin
The Kite Runner
Mrs. Dalloway
Great Expectations
American Gods*
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Atlas Shrugged
Reading Lolita in Tehran : a memoir in books
Memoirs of a Geisha
Middlesex
Quicksilver
Wicked : the life and times of the wicked witch of the West
The Canterbury Tales
The Historian : a novel
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (four times)
Love in the Time of Cholera
Brave New World
The Fountainhead
Foucault’s Pendulum
Middlemarch
Frankenstein
The Count of Monte Cristo
Dracula
A Clockwork Orange
Anansi Boys
The Once and Future King
The Grapes of Wrath
The Poisonwood Bible : a novel
1984
Angels & Demons
The Inferno (and Purgatory and Paradise)
The Satanic Verses
Sense and Sensibility
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Mansfield Park
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
To the Lighthouse
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Oliver Twist
Gulliver’s Travels
Les Misérables
The Corrections
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Dune
The Prince
The Sound and the Fury
Angela’s Ashes : a memoir
The God of Small Things
A People’s History of the United States : 1492-present
Cryptonomicon
Neverwhere
A Confederacy of Dunces
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Dubliners
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Beloved
Slaughterhouse-five
The Scarlet Letter
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
The Mists of Avalon
Oryx and Crake : a novel
Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed
Cloud Atlas
The Confusion
Lolita
Persuasion
Northanger Abbey
The Catcher in the Rye
On the Road
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Freakonomics : a rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance : an inquiry into values
The Aeneid
Watership Down
Gravity’s Rainbow
The Hobbit
In Cold Blood : a true account of a multiple murder and its consequences
White Teeth
Treasure Island
David Copperfield
The Three Musketeers
There are two books here that I've neither read nor started that are on my list of things that I really want to read. Another one or two that are on my list of things I really should read that I probably never will. Three that I wish I'd finished but know that I never will. And a couple that I've read or read parts of for which I wish I could get my time back. It's also missing a couple that I would have expected to be here. This was a good game.
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Anna Karenina
Crime and Punishment
Catch-22
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Wuthering Heights
The Silmarillion*
Life of Pi : a novel
The Name of the Rose
Don Quixote
Moby Dick
Ulysses
Madame Bovary
The Odyssey
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Eyre
The Tale of Two Cities
The Brothers Karamazov
Guns, Germs, and Steel: the fates of human societies
War and Peace
Vanity Fair
The Time Traveler’s Wife
The Iliad
Emma
The Blind Assassin
The Kite Runner
Mrs. Dalloway
Great Expectations
American Gods*
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Atlas Shrugged
Reading Lolita in Tehran : a memoir in books
Memoirs of a Geisha
Middlesex
Quicksilver
Wicked : the life and times of the wicked witch of the West
The Canterbury Tales
The Historian : a novel
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (four times)
Love in the Time of Cholera
Brave New World
The Fountainhead
Foucault’s Pendulum
Middlemarch
Frankenstein
The Count of Monte Cristo
Dracula
A Clockwork Orange
Anansi Boys
The Once and Future King
The Grapes of Wrath
The Poisonwood Bible : a novel
1984
Angels & Demons
The Inferno (and Purgatory and Paradise)
The Satanic Verses
Sense and Sensibility
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Mansfield Park
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
To the Lighthouse
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Oliver Twist
Gulliver’s Travels
Les Misérables
The Corrections
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Dune
The Prince
The Sound and the Fury
Angela’s Ashes : a memoir
The God of Small Things
A People’s History of the United States : 1492-present
Cryptonomicon
Neverwhere
A Confederacy of Dunces
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Dubliners
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Beloved
Slaughterhouse-five
The Scarlet Letter
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
The Mists of Avalon
Oryx and Crake : a novel
Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed
Cloud Atlas
The Confusion
Lolita
Persuasion
Northanger Abbey
The Catcher in the Rye
On the Road
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Freakonomics : a rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance : an inquiry into values
The Aeneid
Watership Down
Gravity’s Rainbow
The Hobbit
In Cold Blood : a true account of a multiple murder and its consequences
White Teeth
Treasure Island
David Copperfield
The Three Musketeers
There are two books here that I've neither read nor started that are on my list of things that I really want to read. Another one or two that are on my list of things I really should read that I probably never will. Three that I wish I'd finished but know that I never will. And a couple that I've read or read parts of for which I wish I could get my time back. It's also missing a couple that I would have expected to be here. This was a good game.
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Friday, April 25, 2008
Aiee! . . .Midnight Realizations
So, as I was drifting off to sleep last night, it suddenly occurred to me that I have a book coming out in just over thirty days and that means a bunch of work, much of which needs to start this week. Normally I'm more on top of these things, but March sucked beyond all reason and April opened none-to-well and some of that miasma is still clinging on. Of course that doesn't change the fact that I have work to do, so work I shall do.
That's my ante, what deadlines (or other looming terrors) are making you sit bolt upright in the middle of the night?
That's my ante, what deadlines (or other looming terrors) are making you sit bolt upright in the middle of the night?
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Tune In, Turn On!
If you happen to notice this post before 11:00 CST today, you can catch me, Tate Hallaway/Lyda Morehouse talking about Tate's upcoming release ROMANCING THE DEAD (Berkley Trade, May 2008) on "Write On Radio" on KFAI. KFAI can be heard at 90.3 Minneapolis/106.7 St. Paul or streaming on-line at http://www.kfai.org/.
Tune in, turn on!
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Happy Birthdy, Will!
Happy birthday to one of the most successful writers of all time, William Shakespeare!
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
When Life Interferes with Writing # 2
Something changed recently, and I am writing again. This is the driven writing -- on buses, on breaks at work, sitting in coffee houses.
Why? I'm not sure. Maybe I have something to say. Maybe I have slowly worked myself back into the habit of writing, since I am working on revising a novel, which has been sold to a small press. Whether or not I'm interested, I have to finish this novel.
I guess I'm saying there are two things going on here: how much life interferes with writing, and how much I want to write. If I really want to write, I can overcome more interference.
Maybe a third thing is going on: it really helps to establish the habit of writing. Over the years, I've heard a lot of SF writers say, set goals for every day. Some writers set a period of time when they must sit in front of the computer, even if words don't come. Other writers set a word goal. If you write 3 pages of a day, you have a thousand pages after a year.
And maybe a fourth thing is involved. I've been feeling bored with my writing and myself as a writer. So I'm taking a poetry writing class at The Loft Literary Center. I have written a fair amount of poetry over the years, and I belong to the Lady Poetesses from Hell poetry workshop; but I have never been one for taking writing classes of any kind.
And I've begun work on a YA fantasy. I've never tried a YA before.
What I'm doing, I think, is poking around and trying to find a way to make writing interesting again. Maybe this is working.
Why? I'm not sure. Maybe I have something to say. Maybe I have slowly worked myself back into the habit of writing, since I am working on revising a novel, which has been sold to a small press. Whether or not I'm interested, I have to finish this novel.
I guess I'm saying there are two things going on here: how much life interferes with writing, and how much I want to write. If I really want to write, I can overcome more interference.
Maybe a third thing is going on: it really helps to establish the habit of writing. Over the years, I've heard a lot of SF writers say, set goals for every day. Some writers set a period of time when they must sit in front of the computer, even if words don't come. Other writers set a word goal. If you write 3 pages of a day, you have a thousand pages after a year.
And maybe a fourth thing is involved. I've been feeling bored with my writing and myself as a writer. So I'm taking a poetry writing class at The Loft Literary Center. I have written a fair amount of poetry over the years, and I belong to the Lady Poetesses from Hell poetry workshop; but I have never been one for taking writing classes of any kind.
And I've begun work on a YA fantasy. I've never tried a YA before.
What I'm doing, I think, is poking around and trying to find a way to make writing interesting again. Maybe this is working.
When Life Interferes with Writing
This is in answer to Sean's question. When does life get in the way of my writing? Most of the time, actually. I'm subject to mood swings tied to seasons and the amount of daylight, so I am low energy during the winter. Spring brings the audit at my job. In the summer I want to take time off for trips down the Mississippi River or up to Duluth. Then we are back to fall and the shortening days.
In theory I am working four days a week, which should give me one day free for writing. But things come up, and I have to go into the office on my day off. I should be back to a four day week in late May, after the audit is done.
My need to write has gone up and down over the years. Recently, in the past few years, I haven't felt the need to write often. Why? I'm not sure. Partly I felt I had proved that I was a pretty good writer, and I didn't need to keep proving it. Partly I felt I did not have something new to say. I suppose it boiled down to "been there, done that."
I suspect a big component has been working 30-40 hours a week. I don't feel like writing after work; and I want to spend my weekends doing something fun. Life is short, especially when you reach my age; and you might as well enjoy it.
A strong drive to write can overcome a fair amount of interference. But I haven't had that drive in recent years, until the last few months.
In theory I am working four days a week, which should give me one day free for writing. But things come up, and I have to go into the office on my day off. I should be back to a four day week in late May, after the audit is done.
My need to write has gone up and down over the years. Recently, in the past few years, I haven't felt the need to write often. Why? I'm not sure. Partly I felt I had proved that I was a pretty good writer, and I didn't need to keep proving it. Partly I felt I did not have something new to say. I suppose it boiled down to "been there, done that."
I suspect a big component has been working 30-40 hours a week. I don't feel like writing after work; and I want to spend my weekends doing something fun. Life is short, especially when you reach my age; and you might as well enjoy it.
A strong drive to write can overcome a fair amount of interference. But I haven't had that drive in recent years, until the last few months.
Monday, April 21, 2008
Spring-Not a Writing Post
Spring has finally arrived here in Western Wisconsin (it hit 70 yesterday) and I have been doing house and garden stuff instead of writing, most notably building screens for my ginormous front porch. I live in a 1920's Craftsman bungalow, a rather large one and it has this beautiful front porch that rarely gets used because most of the year it's either too cold or too covered with mosquitoes. I'm about four blocks from a beautiful river and closer than that to a lively little creek, so there's plenty of damp around for them to breed in. I can't do anything about the cold, but this time next week I will be having breakfast on the porch and thumbing my nose at the mosquitoes--there may be pictures.
The task is made more complex by the fact that I don't want to leave the screens in year round, by the scrollwork on the capitals of the porch pillars which I have to cut the corners to fit, and by the age of the house which means that any right angles are purely accidental. It's been a challenge, but a fun one involving individual templates for 12 capitals and custom cutting almost every angle. I'm also taking the opportunity to put in a much larger mailbox, one that will take a manuscript or similar package--yay.
BTW, this does not mean that I've been neglecting my writing, just that spring happened to hit at a good time for me. The last book on the current contract is done and I'm waiting for comments from beta readers so I can do a final polish and drop it in the mail to my editor--3 months ahead of the advanced deadline we agreed on and six ahead of the contract deadline. The proposal for the last (for a while) WebMage is out with readers including my agent and so is a proposal for a successor series and I'm waiting to hear back on that.
I have about four books I'd be happy to write but none of them are burning a hole in my head, so I'm having a vacation that will probably end in a couple of days when I finish with the screens since I've started to have vivid dreams and leak weirdness again and Laura is telling me that I need to get back to work so that I'm less odd in the mornings.
That is all for now. I return you to your regularly scheduled day.
The task is made more complex by the fact that I don't want to leave the screens in year round, by the scrollwork on the capitals of the porch pillars which I have to cut the corners to fit, and by the age of the house which means that any right angles are purely accidental. It's been a challenge, but a fun one involving individual templates for 12 capitals and custom cutting almost every angle. I'm also taking the opportunity to put in a much larger mailbox, one that will take a manuscript or similar package--yay.
BTW, this does not mean that I've been neglecting my writing, just that spring happened to hit at a good time for me. The last book on the current contract is done and I'm waiting for comments from beta readers so I can do a final polish and drop it in the mail to my editor--3 months ahead of the advanced deadline we agreed on and six ahead of the contract deadline. The proposal for the last (for a while) WebMage is out with readers including my agent and so is a proposal for a successor series and I'm waiting to hear back on that.
I have about four books I'd be happy to write but none of them are burning a hole in my head, so I'm having a vacation that will probably end in a couple of days when I finish with the screens since I've started to have vivid dreams and leak weirdness again and Laura is telling me that I need to get back to work so that I'm less odd in the mornings.
That is all for now. I return you to your regularly scheduled day.
Friday, April 18, 2008
Today's Question, Gentle Readers
Today I'll be spending the better part of my workday in airports and on a plane--without a laptop, I'm afraid--a frustrating prospect, because if I had one, there's so much I could be doing while I'm just sitting there.
Which brings me to today's question:
What are you working on today?
Which brings me to today's question:
What are you working on today?
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
When Life Gets in the Way
One of the odd things about my annual schedule is that I have blocks of time that completely interrupt writing due to holidays or massive overload at work, and times that are really smooth and when writing should be relatively straightforward. I'm beginning to find that having my writing broken up for long periods of time, quite regularly, makes it much more difficult to get back into a rhythm when those "free time" blocks roll around--like having to build up momentum all over again.
Anyway, I thought I'd throw the questions out to you all: What things get in the way of writing for you? Do you have good times of year and bad times of year for writing? And what have you found to be helpful to get yourself writing again?
Anyway, I thought I'd throw the questions out to you all: What things get in the way of writing for you? Do you have good times of year and bad times of year for writing? And what have you found to be helpful to get yourself writing again?
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Empirical Data
SF or fantasy, dark or light, blonde or brunette, what book are you reading right now? (If you're not reading one right now, what book did you last finish?) List one title only, please.
Monday, April 14, 2008
Science Fiction and Fantasy
Here's another thought on the science fiction and fantasy discussion, primarily from my perspective as a writer rather than a reader. One of the reasons that I write much more fantasy than science fiction is that as a reader I find that fantasy wears significantly better than science fiction. If I pick up a stack of 30 year old sf and fantasy I find that the fantasy is usually much more current and quite a bit less likely to have been rendered moot or obsolete by the passage of time. For me this is true even with sf and fantasy titles that I loved when I first read them in the 80s when I was reading about even amounts of both genres. As a writer it's certainly my hope that people will still find at least some of what I write worth reading a hundred years from now and I feel that writing more fantasy than science fiction increases my odds dramatically.
Thoughts? Comments? Questions?
Thoughts? Comments? Questions?
Friday, April 11, 2008
Some Interesting Things... Elsewhere
First of all, for those of you still interested in continuing the discussion about fantasy vs. science fiction, Ninja Writer (aka "CV Rick") calls bullsh*t on the meme that science fiction is "too dark and depressing." Sounds like there's a fight brewing. Anyone willing to take on The Ninja??!!
For those of you ready to go on to the next thing, there's a really long (but interesting) post by James Alan Gardner called "What Makes Me Stop Reading" over at SF Novelists.
For those of you ready to go on to the next thing, there's a really long (but interesting) post by James Alan Gardner called "What Makes Me Stop Reading" over at SF Novelists.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Now I'm Just Cranky...
Even though I was wary of spoilers (I didn't get a chance to tune into the premiere of Battlestar Galactica after all), I ended up reading Ken Tucker's review of it in Entertainment Weekly.
So I'm going along, laughing at the funny bits (Tucker's admission that he watches BSG for a number of reasons including, "...the off chance that Edward James Olmos' Admiral Adama will change his stony-faced expression...") and then we get to what is basically, Tucker's theme: we should like this TV drama because it's NOT REALLY SCIENCE FICTION.
I hate this argument.
I think I hate it not only for all the reasons that Eleanor has been musing about (the idea that the general public seems to have a misconception that SF is "too hard" and/or "too dark," which I'd still like to take on at some point,) but also because I've had to sell people on my own work with the phrase, "well, it's not REALLY science fiction. You know, it's about people, like all good stories." Which is basically the same thing Tucker is using to try to sell TV audiences on BSG.
I know that historically SF has been the genre of IDEAS with a capital "I," but I think the human equation entered into SF about the same time that women took over the genre (or at least attempted to) in the late 1970s. When people tell me that they don't read SF because they prefer stories about people, I tell them they need to read something written in the last oh, two or three DECADES. I have always read science fiction for the characters. Yeah, okay, I like the backdrop of space or a computerized future, but I read William Gibsons Nueromancer because I wanted to find out what happened to Case, and perhaps more so Molly. When an SF book fails to deliver good characters I see that as a failed book, not a problem endemic to science fiction.
I could go on, but I also wanted to point to this really fascinating comment left on the SF Novelist's site by Steve Buchheit in answer to my question posed there on My Dragon Takes Your Starship as to why fantasy out sells SF:
I have to say I like that answer. It makes sense to me. I don't mind the ebb and flow, I think it's fair to say all genres have their day. I just wish that science fiction could shake it's label as the genre of "laser beams," as Tucker put it, and not much else. I think people are missing out on some great fiction because they can't see beyond that stereotype.
So I'm going along, laughing at the funny bits (Tucker's admission that he watches BSG for a number of reasons including, "...the off chance that Edward James Olmos' Admiral Adama will change his stony-faced expression...") and then we get to what is basically, Tucker's theme: we should like this TV drama because it's NOT REALLY SCIENCE FICTION.
I hate this argument.
I think I hate it not only for all the reasons that Eleanor has been musing about (the idea that the general public seems to have a misconception that SF is "too hard" and/or "too dark," which I'd still like to take on at some point,) but also because I've had to sell people on my own work with the phrase, "well, it's not REALLY science fiction. You know, it's about people, like all good stories." Which is basically the same thing Tucker is using to try to sell TV audiences on BSG.
I know that historically SF has been the genre of IDEAS with a capital "I," but I think the human equation entered into SF about the same time that women took over the genre (or at least attempted to) in the late 1970s. When people tell me that they don't read SF because they prefer stories about people, I tell them they need to read something written in the last oh, two or three DECADES. I have always read science fiction for the characters. Yeah, okay, I like the backdrop of space or a computerized future, but I read William Gibsons Nueromancer because I wanted to find out what happened to Case, and perhaps more so Molly. When an SF book fails to deliver good characters I see that as a failed book, not a problem endemic to science fiction.
I could go on, but I also wanted to point to this really fascinating comment left on the SF Novelist's site by Steve Buchheit in answer to my question posed there on My Dragon Takes Your Starship as to why fantasy out sells SF:
"It’s just that fantasy is dealing with the issues that people today want to explore (or are interested [in]). As someone who writes and reads both I was interested in watching some historical trends. It was a revelation for me when I finally saw the link between social and technological advances to when and how fairies appeared in stories and the general culture. they showed up in regular order every time society changed its relationship to technology (which we are now, and surprise, they’re everywhere again). The books we read, the cultural myths we explore, all are cued into the larger world. Classic Golden Age SF rose with the need to counter the Soviet technological threat (hey look, we got better ideas!). Tolkein was published at a time when people felt disconnected by that advancement and that technology was advancing in the wrong directions (the bomb, war technology, advent of “better living through chemistry”). SF then resurged with the computer age. Now with bioengineering, the strange vulnerability of being interconnected through those computers, and general technology advancing faster than we can process and in ways society isn’t all too comfortable with, fantasy once again is taking the fore. There’s good fiction being sold in each genre. And just because fantasy may be “hotter” at the moment, doesn’t mean SF is dead. It’s just where the rest of the reading humanity’s head space is at the current moment."
I have to say I like that answer. It makes sense to me. I don't mind the ebb and flow, I think it's fair to say all genres have their day. I just wish that science fiction could shake it's label as the genre of "laser beams," as Tucker put it, and not much else. I think people are missing out on some great fiction because they can't see beyond that stereotype.
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
Science Fiction and Fantasy
I am currently reading Jonathan Strahan's new anthology, The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year # 2. It's from Night Shade Books, which is publishing some really fine science fiction and fantasy; and Strahan is definitely an editor to watch. He picks good stories.
My favorite stories thus far are "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate" by Ted Chiang, "The Cabrist and Lord Iron" by Daniel Abraham and "The Constable of Abal" by Kelly Link.
All are fantasy, though the Abraham story is only fantastic in its style, that of a fable or fairy tale, and because it is set in country which does not exist.
It tells you something about me that all have a format that is pretty close to fairy tales, folk tales, myths and so on.
So maybe I do like fantasy, though I have small tolerance for epic quests and epic struggles against generic evil.
In so far as evil exists, it is people, and they are evil either because they have malfuctioning brains or because they have become corrupted. Evil is not creatures with many legs that remind you of spiders, and it isn't dark lords who loom in the distance. It is the greed heads and power freaks who decided to invade Iraq and destroy a nation to meet their personal needs, whatever those may be.
If fantasy is going to help us understand the world, then it ought to come up with descriptions of evil that help us recognize evil in the real world. Tolkien does this in Saruman, Wormtongue, Boromir, Denethor, the thugs in the Shire and so on. He shows us a wide range of corruption: those who intimidated by evil, those who are tempted, those who utterly corrupted.
I guess what I am saying is, evil is not The Other. It is right here in our neighbors and allies and the leaders we trust.
Tolkien knew this. He had creatures who were evil and otherly: the Balrog and that enormous spider whose name I have misplaced. And he had Sauron, looming in the distance. But the interesting evil in his novel is the people who listen to Sauron and believe him.
I figure that epic fantasy has probably been pretty well done, and you aren't likely to find a second Tolkien.
But just as there is now a huge YA clones of Harry Potter industry, there is an epic fantasy industry.
My favorite stories thus far are "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate" by Ted Chiang, "The Cabrist and Lord Iron" by Daniel Abraham and "The Constable of Abal" by Kelly Link.
All are fantasy, though the Abraham story is only fantastic in its style, that of a fable or fairy tale, and because it is set in country which does not exist.
It tells you something about me that all have a format that is pretty close to fairy tales, folk tales, myths and so on.
So maybe I do like fantasy, though I have small tolerance for epic quests and epic struggles against generic evil.
In so far as evil exists, it is people, and they are evil either because they have malfuctioning brains or because they have become corrupted. Evil is not creatures with many legs that remind you of spiders, and it isn't dark lords who loom in the distance. It is the greed heads and power freaks who decided to invade Iraq and destroy a nation to meet their personal needs, whatever those may be.
If fantasy is going to help us understand the world, then it ought to come up with descriptions of evil that help us recognize evil in the real world. Tolkien does this in Saruman, Wormtongue, Boromir, Denethor, the thugs in the Shire and so on. He shows us a wide range of corruption: those who intimidated by evil, those who are tempted, those who utterly corrupted.
I guess what I am saying is, evil is not The Other. It is right here in our neighbors and allies and the leaders we trust.
Tolkien knew this. He had creatures who were evil and otherly: the Balrog and that enormous spider whose name I have misplaced. And he had Sauron, looming in the distance. But the interesting evil in his novel is the people who listen to Sauron and believe him.
I figure that epic fantasy has probably been pretty well done, and you aren't likely to find a second Tolkien.
But just as there is now a huge YA clones of Harry Potter industry, there is an epic fantasy industry.
Today's Question
Wednesday is . . . comics day!
And so my burning question for today is: who among our contributors and visitors is currently buying and reading comic books? If you are, what's on your pull list these days?
And so my burning question for today is: who among our contributors and visitors is currently buying and reading comic books? If you are, what's on your pull list these days?
More on SF vs. F
Just thought I should let people here know I continued Eleanor's conversation about why F out-sells SF over at SF Novelists. You can read the comments there, if you like at "My Dragon Takes Your Starship!"
Monday, April 07, 2008
Continued Light Posting
I'll be posting lightly for a while longer. March started bad, got worse and never bounced back. April is not looking promising thus far, but I have hopes. A side note to all that: The good news is that I get to go to WisCon. The bad news is that this is because I don't get to spend two months in Scotland this summer. Not enough students signed up for the Wisconsin in Scotland program and several of the classes, including Laura's were canceled. Bleah, bleah, and double bleah.
Sunday, April 06, 2008
More on Fantasy and Science Fiction
I should add that I often write stories that sit the border between science fiction and fantasy. My Big Mama stories are designed to be fantastical tall tales, which draw on a fair amount of science. When I wrote the first one,I was wondering, "What would the folk tales of the future be like?"
The last story I finished -- finished today, though I need to do more work on the ending -- is about trolls and the huge hydroelectric project currently being built in eastern Iceland. The trolls are pretty much traditional folk tale trolls; and the project is quite amazing and absolutely true.
I like fantastic stories that are grounded in reality in some way, at least that's what I like to write.
The problem with much fantasy -- the stuff I call generic -- is, it has drifted too far from traditional fantasy, folk tale and myth; and it has drifted too far from reality. It feeds on itself, rather than on reality or myth or dream.
I think I know what I'm saying.
The last story I finished -- finished today, though I need to do more work on the ending -- is about trolls and the huge hydroelectric project currently being built in eastern Iceland. The trolls are pretty much traditional folk tale trolls; and the project is quite amazing and absolutely true.
I like fantastic stories that are grounded in reality in some way, at least that's what I like to write.
The problem with much fantasy -- the stuff I call generic -- is, it has drifted too far from traditional fantasy, folk tale and myth; and it has drifted too far from reality. It feeds on itself, rather than on reality or myth or dream.
I think I know what I'm saying.
Post # 3
My last two posts were probably a bit involuted and thus hard to comment on. I would like to have a discussion, if possible, on why science fiction is less popular than fantasy. Is it really too hard, too hard and too realistic?
I am starting to read The Name of the Wind, because it has blurbs from LeGuin and Jo Walton; and I am finding it a bit too generic. Maybe it gets better; LeGuin and Walton a heavy duty writers, and I respect their opinions; but I really prefer science fiction.
I am starting to read The Name of the Wind, because it has blurbs from LeGuin and Jo Walton; and I am finding it a bit too generic. Maybe it gets better; LeGuin and Walton a heavy duty writers, and I respect their opinions; but I really prefer science fiction.
Friday, April 04, 2008
Today's Very Important Question
How many of our blog readers and contributors are planning to watch the Battlestar Galactica season 4 premiere tonight (9 p.m. central)?
Thursday, April 03, 2008
Cross Post # 2
My assumption, thinking about Jack McDevitt's novels, is that the world is going to be a lot different 200 years in the future. But then I started thinking.
If we went back to 1800, to the early U.S., how hard would it be to understand people and their lives? And if we brought a bright American here from 1800, how hard would it be for him or her to understand us?
There's a lot more machinery now, but there were steam engines in 1800, and natural philosophers were studying electricity. The programming of textile looms, the first step in the long journey that led to modern computers, was an 18th century invention, if I am remembering correctly. We kept using cards like the cards that programmed Jacquard looms until the 1960s or 70s. When did IBM cards vanish?
People like Ben Franklin would have known about Jacquard looms.
Biotechnology is new, but people in the past knew about animal breeding; and paleontology -- which would lead to evolutionary science -- was coming into existence. Jefferson asked Lewis and Clark to look for mammoths and mastodons on their western journey.
Worldwide environmental collapse is new, but environmental damage is not. It's been with humanity as long as we have been fully human. Where are the mammoths and mastodons?
I can imagine Ben Franklin or Thomas Jefferson being fascinated by our science and technology. Abigail Adams would understand feminism; and moral people were already deeply troubled by slavery, so civil rights might make sense. I'm not sure about gay rights.
As far as multiculturalism goes, I just did some checking. There were 5,300,000 people in the U.S. per the 1800 census, and one million (19%) of them were black. The Native American population of North American had been 8 to 19 million before contact. After contact, disease had brought it down to around a million in 1800. (These are estimates. No one was counting the Indian nations in 1800.) Still, white Americans would have been acutely aware of their non-white neighbors, especially if they lived in the south or traveled west.
California and the Southwest were Spanish; the center of the continent was claimed by France. America had already signed a treaty with a North African nation; and American ships were traveling the world. Moby Dick, set somewhat later, reminds us that not everyone one those American ships was a white American.
The current culture wars remind us that many of the Founding Fathers were Deist; and the New World had been a refuge of religious sects not welcome in Europe, Quakers in Pennsylvania, Catholics in Maryland, all kinds of nonconformists in New England.
The Native Americans and the African slaves had their own religions.
So, the country two hundred years ago was multicultural, with a mixture of opinions about religion. There were people interested in education, science and technology; and there were people who dealt commercially and scientifically with the rest of the world.
There were also self-righteous bigots and people utterly beaten down by poverty and ignorance.
When I write a story set 200 years in the future, how different does that future have to be? And in what ways?
If we went back to 1800, to the early U.S., how hard would it be to understand people and their lives? And if we brought a bright American here from 1800, how hard would it be for him or her to understand us?
There's a lot more machinery now, but there were steam engines in 1800, and natural philosophers were studying electricity. The programming of textile looms, the first step in the long journey that led to modern computers, was an 18th century invention, if I am remembering correctly. We kept using cards like the cards that programmed Jacquard looms until the 1960s or 70s. When did IBM cards vanish?
People like Ben Franklin would have known about Jacquard looms.
Biotechnology is new, but people in the past knew about animal breeding; and paleontology -- which would lead to evolutionary science -- was coming into existence. Jefferson asked Lewis and Clark to look for mammoths and mastodons on their western journey.
Worldwide environmental collapse is new, but environmental damage is not. It's been with humanity as long as we have been fully human. Where are the mammoths and mastodons?
I can imagine Ben Franklin or Thomas Jefferson being fascinated by our science and technology. Abigail Adams would understand feminism; and moral people were already deeply troubled by slavery, so civil rights might make sense. I'm not sure about gay rights.
As far as multiculturalism goes, I just did some checking. There were 5,300,000 people in the U.S. per the 1800 census, and one million (19%) of them were black. The Native American population of North American had been 8 to 19 million before contact. After contact, disease had brought it down to around a million in 1800. (These are estimates. No one was counting the Indian nations in 1800.) Still, white Americans would have been acutely aware of their non-white neighbors, especially if they lived in the south or traveled west.
California and the Southwest were Spanish; the center of the continent was claimed by France. America had already signed a treaty with a North African nation; and American ships were traveling the world. Moby Dick, set somewhat later, reminds us that not everyone one those American ships was a white American.
The current culture wars remind us that many of the Founding Fathers were Deist; and the New World had been a refuge of religious sects not welcome in Europe, Quakers in Pennsylvania, Catholics in Maryland, all kinds of nonconformists in New England.
The Native Americans and the African slaves had their own religions.
So, the country two hundred years ago was multicultural, with a mixture of opinions about religion. There were people interested in education, science and technology; and there were people who dealt commercially and scientifically with the rest of the world.
There were also self-righteous bigots and people utterly beaten down by poverty and ignorance.
When I write a story set 200 years in the future, how different does that future have to be? And in what ways?
Cross Post from my Personal Blog # 1
Minicon was two weeks ago. There was a panel on why fantasy sells better than science fiction, and Shawna McCarthy was on it. She edits Realms of Fantasy. At one point, she asked her readers why they read fantasy rather than science fiction. This is the reply she got:
1) Science fiction was too hard.
2) Science fiction was too dark.
3) science fiction was too much like present-day reality.
I'm not sure these replies are flattering to fantasy.
But the answers may explain the appeal of Jack McDevitt, a contemporary hard sf writer.
I like MeDevitt's novels and read them all, grabbing them up the moment I see them. Their appeal is largeness of vision -- his characters race around the galaxy in ships with amazing FTL drives and find alien artifacts a billion plus years old -- and a fundamental decency and sanity. His characters are bright, kind and likable; and his future is humane.
But there are problems (for me) with his novels. Almost all the characters have English first and last names; and their lives are strangely like life in the 1950s or in the more traditional parts of the US today. McDevitt used to live in North Dakota and now lives in Georgia.
It occurs to me that his future, which is socially more conservative than our present, is comforting for many of us. We get wide-screen adventure without a rapidly changing, uncertain everyday life. In McDevitt's future, financial markets are not melting down; North America is not turning from white to brown; and the great problems of our era -- violence, prejudice, class warfare and environmental coll ape -- have been solved.
His science fiction is not hard the way cyberpunk or Charles Stross can be; and it's not dark; and it is blessedly distant from our current reality.
I am not sure this is a criticism. I wish his novels were more multi-cultural. There are more different kinds of people in North Dakota than in his future: Kurds, Somalians, Native Americans, African Americans, all kinds of European Americans.
But I am not sure he is wrong to have a future where the great question is -- shall we go to the stars, rather than -- can we survive ourselves?
1) Science fiction was too hard.
2) Science fiction was too dark.
3) science fiction was too much like present-day reality.
I'm not sure these replies are flattering to fantasy.
But the answers may explain the appeal of Jack McDevitt, a contemporary hard sf writer.
I like MeDevitt's novels and read them all, grabbing them up the moment I see them. Their appeal is largeness of vision -- his characters race around the galaxy in ships with amazing FTL drives and find alien artifacts a billion plus years old -- and a fundamental decency and sanity. His characters are bright, kind and likable; and his future is humane.
But there are problems (for me) with his novels. Almost all the characters have English first and last names; and their lives are strangely like life in the 1950s or in the more traditional parts of the US today. McDevitt used to live in North Dakota and now lives in Georgia.
It occurs to me that his future, which is socially more conservative than our present, is comforting for many of us. We get wide-screen adventure without a rapidly changing, uncertain everyday life. In McDevitt's future, financial markets are not melting down; North America is not turning from white to brown; and the great problems of our era -- violence, prejudice, class warfare and environmental coll ape -- have been solved.
His science fiction is not hard the way cyberpunk or Charles Stross can be; and it's not dark; and it is blessedly distant from our current reality.
I am not sure this is a criticism. I wish his novels were more multi-cultural. There are more different kinds of people in North Dakota than in his future: Kurds, Somalians, Native Americans, African Americans, all kinds of European Americans.
But I am not sure he is wrong to have a future where the great question is -- shall we go to the stars, rather than -- can we survive ourselves?
Interview With Kelly
These are questions a student sent me and my answers to same. I thought it might be of some interest to the readers of this blog, so here goes:
1: How long did it take from having the idea for your first book to actually writing it and having a finished book?
About three months but I'm an extremely unusual case because I write significantly faster than most novelists. At this point it takes me 4-6 months to write a novel while the industry average is around a year.
2: After having it finished, how long did it take to find a publisher that would publish your first book?
I still haven't found a publisher for that one. My first published book was the the fourth one I wrote, WebMage. It took about 14 months to write (the longest it's ever taken me to write a novel). I started it about 2 years after the short story of the same name. I finished WebMage the novel in 2000 and it sold in 2005.
3: Do you think that being a previously published author of short stories helped to get your books published?
Absolutely. My first published book involved the same characters as my first published short story. It even incorporated the short story into the first couple of chapters. Most importantly, selling short stories made it much much easier to interest an agent in my work.
4: Was there a driving force that pushed you towards becoming a writer, a specific event or defining moment?
I quit theater. From the age of 11-22 I worked on and in theater, that's where my BA is. Then I met my now wife, and decided I'd rather have a life than an acting career-they're basically incompatible-and I needed something else to do that touched on the same artistic interests as theater. I'd always enjoyed writing, so I sat down and wrote a book and fell in love with the process.
5: Is there a specific author who's work influenced you towards becoming a science fiction writer, and if so why?
One, not really. Half a dozen, yes. Tolkien, Asimov, Shakespeare, Andre Norton, Anne McCaffrey, H. Beam Piper, Tim Powers. They all gave me experiences as a reader that I loved.
6: Did you ever doubt that your work would never be finished and published, and if so what kept you going?
Any number of times. Absolute iron in the bone stubborness. Once I started down the writing road I refused to stop for any reason. I liken the publishing process to knocking a brick wall down with your forehead. As long as you remember that your forehead will heal and the wall won't, you'll be okay.
7: Your books, WebMage and Cybermancy, fall under the science fiction category, but no previous books fall under the same type as yours. Was that helpful or hurtful towards getting them published by creating a new sub-genre within science fiction?
Both. It made it harder to sell them initially, but has made it much easier to attract attention from reviewers and readers once they came out. That in turn makes it easier to sell more books in the series and to keep a career going. I'm actually having the same issue with selling a couple of other books that I've written that aren't quite like anything anyone else is writing, and I hope that once my agent finds a publisher for them the end result will be similar.
8: Were you daunted to become published along authors such as Jules Verne and H.W. Wells who arguably created the entire genre of science fiction?
Not really. One of the coolest thing about being a professional author, particularly in science fiction and fantasy is that the writing community is quite small and friendly. I've gotten to meet and make friends with a number of authors who I look up to.
8: What would be your advice towards first time authors, trying to finish a work and starting the daunting task of trying to find a publisher who will take the risk and publish them?
The most important thing you can do is write. Everything else is secondary to getting words on the page. That's number one. Number two is to understand that no two writers use the same process or follow quite the same road to being published. There are 1,001 and one way to write a novel and every one of them is right. Third, hang in there. It's a long slow process and most writers don't sell their first book, or even their second, but persistence pays off. Fourth, learn how the industry works. There are a lot of people in publishing who blog about the process and that's a huge resource that wasn't there when I was getting started. Use it. Learn. Then write and write well and everything else will follow.
1: How long did it take from having the idea for your first book to actually writing it and having a finished book?
About three months but I'm an extremely unusual case because I write significantly faster than most novelists. At this point it takes me 4-6 months to write a novel while the industry average is around a year.
2: After having it finished, how long did it take to find a publisher that would publish your first book?
I still haven't found a publisher for that one. My first published book was the the fourth one I wrote, WebMage. It took about 14 months to write (the longest it's ever taken me to write a novel). I started it about 2 years after the short story of the same name. I finished WebMage the novel in 2000 and it sold in 2005.
3: Do you think that being a previously published author of short stories helped to get your books published?
Absolutely. My first published book involved the same characters as my first published short story. It even incorporated the short story into the first couple of chapters. Most importantly, selling short stories made it much much easier to interest an agent in my work.
4: Was there a driving force that pushed you towards becoming a writer, a specific event or defining moment?
I quit theater. From the age of 11-22 I worked on and in theater, that's where my BA is. Then I met my now wife, and decided I'd rather have a life than an acting career-they're basically incompatible-and I needed something else to do that touched on the same artistic interests as theater. I'd always enjoyed writing, so I sat down and wrote a book and fell in love with the process.
5: Is there a specific author who's work influenced you towards becoming a science fiction writer, and if so why?
One, not really. Half a dozen, yes. Tolkien, Asimov, Shakespeare, Andre Norton, Anne McCaffrey, H. Beam Piper, Tim Powers. They all gave me experiences as a reader that I loved.
6: Did you ever doubt that your work would never be finished and published, and if so what kept you going?
Any number of times. Absolute iron in the bone stubborness. Once I started down the writing road I refused to stop for any reason. I liken the publishing process to knocking a brick wall down with your forehead. As long as you remember that your forehead will heal and the wall won't, you'll be okay.
7: Your books, WebMage and Cybermancy, fall under the science fiction category, but no previous books fall under the same type as yours. Was that helpful or hurtful towards getting them published by creating a new sub-genre within science fiction?
Both. It made it harder to sell them initially, but has made it much easier to attract attention from reviewers and readers once they came out. That in turn makes it easier to sell more books in the series and to keep a career going. I'm actually having the same issue with selling a couple of other books that I've written that aren't quite like anything anyone else is writing, and I hope that once my agent finds a publisher for them the end result will be similar.
8: Were you daunted to become published along authors such as Jules Verne and H.W. Wells who arguably created the entire genre of science fiction?
Not really. One of the coolest thing about being a professional author, particularly in science fiction and fantasy is that the writing community is quite small and friendly. I've gotten to meet and make friends with a number of authors who I look up to.
8: What would be your advice towards first time authors, trying to finish a work and starting the daunting task of trying to find a publisher who will take the risk and publish them?
The most important thing you can do is write. Everything else is secondary to getting words on the page. That's number one. Number two is to understand that no two writers use the same process or follow quite the same road to being published. There are 1,001 and one way to write a novel and every one of them is right. Third, hang in there. It's a long slow process and most writers don't sell their first book, or even their second, but persistence pays off. Fourth, learn how the industry works. There are a lot of people in publishing who blog about the process and that's a huge resource that wasn't there when I was getting started. Use it. Learn. Then write and write well and everything else will follow.
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
Re-Direct: Career Suicide
Also on RWA eNotes, I found this link to Pub Rants: A Very Nice Literary Agent Rants about Queries, Writers and the Publishing Industry's article One Path to Career Suicide. There's also another career suicide blog up at the Knightly Literary Agency's blog, although it's a slightly different take on the whole thing: Career Suicide: UnBreakable Rules.
Book Sales Up
Some hopeful news in these rough economic times from RWA eNotes:
Book Sales Increase at Start of 2008
According to the Association of American Publishers (AAP), book sales in January 2008 rose 7.2% to $745 million (based on domestic net sales at 79 publishers as reported to AAP).
http://www.publishers.org/main/PressCenter/January08StatsRelease.htm
• Adult paperbacks sales rose 37.6% (with sales of $135.2 million)
• Children's/YA paperbacks were up 28.2% ($34 million)
• E-books rose 26.1% ($3.1 million)
• Adult Mass Market increased 17.3% ($65.3 million)
• Audio Books gained 16.8% ($13.5 million)
• Adult Hardcovers were up 4.2% ($94.4 million)
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
Moon Story Contest
Amy Hanson at BroadUniverse pointed out this anthology:
Here's an anthology looking for (previously unpublished) short stories about near-future lunar settlement: Return to Luna: A Short Story Contest by the National Space Soceity. There is no entry fee, but also no cash prize. See details below:
Here's an anthology looking for (previously unpublished) short stories about near-future lunar settlement: Return to Luna: A Short Story Contest by the National Space Soceity. There is no entry fee, but also no cash prize. See details below:
WE ARE LOOKING FOR: Science Fiction stories that show the adventure of lunar settlement. We want to feel the romance of life there, the wonder of the lunar frontier, of its magnificent desolation. We prefer near future (50 to 150 years from now), realistic stories about human lunar settlement. We want good characterization and well-written, tight prose. We want to feel what it's like to live on the Moon.
PRIZES: All winning stories will be published in the anthology RETURN TO LUNA with a potential readership of thousands; the book will be submitted to well-known science fiction editors to consider each of the stories for inclusion in their "best of the year" anthologies, and the book will be sent out for review. All winning authors will be eligible for royalties and will receive free membership to the NATIONAL SPACE SOCIETY for one year. GRAND PRIZE WINNER will also have a review of his or her winning short story featured in NSS's magazine AD ASTRA, and on the NSS and Hadley Rille Books websites.
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