There's an old math joke that involves a complicated formula that goes on for a while and then the mathematician writes "and here a miracle occurs" and then goes on with the equation. Another mathematician standing nearby says, "Perhaps you could be more specific in this step here." My partner, who was a math minor in college, had a t-shirt with this on it because she had a professor who tended to skip several steps in the equation saying that those were "patently obvious to the casual observer."
The point of this little story is that I now find myself in the part of my proposal where I wrote "and then they settle into a routine," which is highly akin to "and here a miracle occurred" because the next scene is the grand finale and I'm not quite sure what I was intending to happen to build up to that.
Also, in case you were wondering "and then they settle into a routine" is NOT very dramatic in terms of story and pacing.
I think I came up with a solution last night (which involves a squid on the mantelpiece* finally going off, or in this case a witch on the mantelpiece,) BUT I still am left this morning wondering how to build up to the big finale.
Also, speaking of math, I discovered this morning that I can't count. Yesterday I thought I had eighteen days until my book is due. I actually had only seventeen (now, today, of course, we're down to sixteen.) Yipes!
Must go try make "and then they settled into a routine" exciting and foreshadowy.
Wish me luck.
-----
For an explaination of the term "squid on the mantelpiece" see Turkey City Lexicon - A Primer for Science Fiction Workshops.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Monday, September 28, 2009
Monday Morning WIP, Deadline Edition
I shouldn't be posting here at all. I should be writing. Like. A. Fiend.
In eighteen days my young adult novel is due at Penguin USA. I've got about a hundred or so pages to write. I suspect I'll make it, given how much I can write during the day. The real question is: how much time will my readers have to read it and for me to revise it after they find everything what is wrong with it....
And wouldn't you know it? The world is full of shiny. I have have dishes that need doing. Kitty litter to change, and, suddenly, it all seems so much more interesting than writing.
So... distract me! What are you up to today? Anything fun?
In eighteen days my young adult novel is due at Penguin USA. I've got about a hundred or so pages to write. I suspect I'll make it, given how much I can write during the day. The real question is: how much time will my readers have to read it and for me to revise it after they find everything what is wrong with it....
And wouldn't you know it? The world is full of shiny. I have have dishes that need doing. Kitty litter to change, and, suddenly, it all seems so much more interesting than writing.
So... distract me! What are you up to today? Anything fun?
Saturday, September 26, 2009
New Interview With Me
Heyo folks,
There's a new interview up with me with the Examiner.com's Speculative-Fiction-Examiner. Fun questions.
There's a new interview up with me with the Examiner.com's Speculative-Fiction-Examiner. Fun questions.
Friday, September 25, 2009
Friday Cat Blogging
Blob cat blobs
None shall pass!
Pwease don't make me burnz you with my laser eyes...pwetty pwease
Iz got nip hangoverz, go way
I'z nesting...OK e-nesting...you gotz problem?
None shall pass!
Pwease don't make me burnz you with my laser eyes...pwetty pwease
Iz got nip hangoverz, go way
I'z nesting...OK e-nesting...you gotz problem?
Thursday, September 24, 2009
More about YA taboos
Lyda's post about YA taboos actually got me thinking about them enough to write a post of my own on the subject. (Try not to die of shock, guys....yes, I am a group blogging LOSER.)
I met Holly Black at WFC a few years back. She's a very successful middle grade and YA author; she wrote the Spiderwick chronicles for the younger kids and Tithe, Ironside, and Valiant for the older kids. She said, when I asked her, that the ONLY real taboo in YA is explicit sex; the characters can have sex, but they can't do it on the page. (Which is a little ironic given that one of my favorite books as a teenager was Jean Auel's "Valley of Jondalar's Enormous Yin Yang," but it's not as if those books were MARKETED as YA, they were just very popular with young adult audiences.)
(This actually brings up a whole other can of interesting worms, which are books that are not marked as YA -- far from it, in fact -- but which are clearly designed to be read on the sly by armies of teenage girls. Case in point: pretty much anything ever written by V.C. Andrews. Were those actually read by adults at all? I mean, even as a teenager I was bothered by the plot holes you could drive a truck through, though not bothered enough to quit reading until I'd read every book about that horrible family with the family tree that doesn't branch EVER.)
Anyway, getting back to my actual point:
When I was a teenager and reading YA, sex and drugs had to be handled in a very precise way, which is to say, if you did any of that stuff you had to suffer for it. If a character drank alcohol, she had to throw up. If she used drugs, she had to get addicted and one of her friends was probably going to die of an overdose before the end of the book. If a character had sex, at the very least she needed to have a huge pregnancy scare and her boyfriend needed to tell the whole school so that everyone thought she was a slutty slut slut.
Judy Bloom's book "Forever" was apparently written to violate the "sexually active girls must be punished" narrative rule -- her daughter told her she wished she could read a book in which the girl has sex, does so in a responsible and realistic way, enjoys it, and then doesn't spend the rest of her life with the boy but doesn't get punished for having had sex, either. So Judy Bloom wrote one. And voila: a book that's still on the "most frequently banned/challenged" list.
I'd say she pretty well kicked down the wall, though; teenagers in books are allowed to have sex now without disastrous results. (So why, you ask, is Forever still being banned but nobody notices all the other books where teenagers get to have sex without being punished for it? That's easy: because the people going around banning books don't actually read very much. Which is why they spent years and years and YEARS screaming about Harry Potter while Philip Pullman's books cruised merrily along under their radar.)
("Forever" actually came out when I was pretty young, but my library didn't add to the YA collection all that often, so I was mostly reading YA novels from a slightly earlier era.)
Anyway. I was going to say that I thought the biggest taboo in YA now is religion, but as I've been working on this blog post I thought of so many exceptions I'm now rethinking that. Philip Pullman was hugely successful; they even made a movie out of his books, despite all the God-is-an-evil-tyrant! stuff (which got removed from the movie scripts, IIRC). This is a taboo I've been struggling with a bit; I have been trying to decide whether I could rewrite my Ark of the Covenant novel as YA, and if so, would it be any more marketable. In the book, Jehovah, Jesus, and Hecate all show up as actual characters (and in one scene, sit down for coffee with the protagonist at the Seward Cafe, and squabble like quarreling cousins). I didn't worry about this at all when writing it the first time -- though who knows, maybe the reason it didn't sell was that it was just as potentially offensive to an adult readership as I'm now worrying it would be to teenagers.
I met Holly Black at WFC a few years back. She's a very successful middle grade and YA author; she wrote the Spiderwick chronicles for the younger kids and Tithe, Ironside, and Valiant for the older kids. She said, when I asked her, that the ONLY real taboo in YA is explicit sex; the characters can have sex, but they can't do it on the page. (Which is a little ironic given that one of my favorite books as a teenager was Jean Auel's "Valley of Jondalar's Enormous Yin Yang," but it's not as if those books were MARKETED as YA, they were just very popular with young adult audiences.)
(This actually brings up a whole other can of interesting worms, which are books that are not marked as YA -- far from it, in fact -- but which are clearly designed to be read on the sly by armies of teenage girls. Case in point: pretty much anything ever written by V.C. Andrews. Were those actually read by adults at all? I mean, even as a teenager I was bothered by the plot holes you could drive a truck through, though not bothered enough to quit reading until I'd read every book about that horrible family with the family tree that doesn't branch EVER.)
Anyway, getting back to my actual point:
When I was a teenager and reading YA, sex and drugs had to be handled in a very precise way, which is to say, if you did any of that stuff you had to suffer for it. If a character drank alcohol, she had to throw up. If she used drugs, she had to get addicted and one of her friends was probably going to die of an overdose before the end of the book. If a character had sex, at the very least she needed to have a huge pregnancy scare and her boyfriend needed to tell the whole school so that everyone thought she was a slutty slut slut.
Judy Bloom's book "Forever" was apparently written to violate the "sexually active girls must be punished" narrative rule -- her daughter told her she wished she could read a book in which the girl has sex, does so in a responsible and realistic way, enjoys it, and then doesn't spend the rest of her life with the boy but doesn't get punished for having had sex, either. So Judy Bloom wrote one. And voila: a book that's still on the "most frequently banned/challenged" list.
I'd say she pretty well kicked down the wall, though; teenagers in books are allowed to have sex now without disastrous results. (So why, you ask, is Forever still being banned but nobody notices all the other books where teenagers get to have sex without being punished for it? That's easy: because the people going around banning books don't actually read very much. Which is why they spent years and years and YEARS screaming about Harry Potter while Philip Pullman's books cruised merrily along under their radar.)
("Forever" actually came out when I was pretty young, but my library didn't add to the YA collection all that often, so I was mostly reading YA novels from a slightly earlier era.)
Anyway. I was going to say that I thought the biggest taboo in YA now is religion, but as I've been working on this blog post I thought of so many exceptions I'm now rethinking that. Philip Pullman was hugely successful; they even made a movie out of his books, despite all the God-is-an-evil-tyrant! stuff (which got removed from the movie scripts, IIRC). This is a taboo I've been struggling with a bit; I have been trying to decide whether I could rewrite my Ark of the Covenant novel as YA, and if so, would it be any more marketable. In the book, Jehovah, Jesus, and Hecate all show up as actual characters (and in one scene, sit down for coffee with the protagonist at the Seward Cafe, and squabble like quarreling cousins). I didn't worry about this at all when writing it the first time -- though who knows, maybe the reason it didn't sell was that it was just as potentially offensive to an adult readership as I'm now worrying it would be to teenagers.
Young Adult Taboos
Apparently, there are very, very few.
This question came up for me because yesterday I was in the middle of writing a scene in my young adult novel that's fraught with sexual tension. Something funny (and vampiric) happens which causes our heroine to flee from a make-out session with the hottie Witch boy. He thinks she's off to go, you know, find some condoms. She, meanwhile, is trying to put her fangs back in the box, as it were. Hilarity ensues.
I wrote this thinking, "ha! Great scene! Good job, me!" Then, I paused. When I was a teen (back before written record) this sort of thing would have been completely taboo. It would have caused parents, schools, the media, the Congress of the United States... to freak out.
So, like any modern writer seeking answers to such things, I got on the Internet. I posted a question about it on Facebook. I asked a group of SF/F writers (some of which are writing young adult books). I said, "Can I mention condoms in YA? Is it taboo?"
To a person, they scoffed at me. No, no, I was told. Hardly anything is taboo these days. Mentioning condoms is _so_ not taboo that if the possibility of sex between teens is on scene then the RESPONSIBLE thing is to mention condoms!
Someone also pointed me to this great site: Ally's Diary. Ally is Ally Carter a teen author of teen books. She's the insider's insider being both a YA author and an ACTUAL TEEN. Specifically, she's got a great post about this (and a few other things) called, "Wrong Questions... Which I now pass on to you as a great resource for this kind of wrong question... which us forty-somethings trying to write for the modern teen audience seem to always have.
I mean, that's the thing, isn't it? My own experience of being a teenager was long before cell phones, texting, yes, even computers. (Not just the Internet, kids, but computers themselves.) What was taboo for me and my generation seems, well, like child's play to this.
Plus, I don't remember even having a catagory called YA when I was a teen. There was the children's section of the library and the adult section. It seems, in a lot of ways, it's still the same... only with better marketing.
This question came up for me because yesterday I was in the middle of writing a scene in my young adult novel that's fraught with sexual tension. Something funny (and vampiric) happens which causes our heroine to flee from a make-out session with the hottie Witch boy. He thinks she's off to go, you know, find some condoms. She, meanwhile, is trying to put her fangs back in the box, as it were. Hilarity ensues.
I wrote this thinking, "ha! Great scene! Good job, me!" Then, I paused. When I was a teen (back before written record) this sort of thing would have been completely taboo. It would have caused parents, schools, the media, the Congress of the United States... to freak out.
So, like any modern writer seeking answers to such things, I got on the Internet. I posted a question about it on Facebook. I asked a group of SF/F writers (some of which are writing young adult books). I said, "Can I mention condoms in YA? Is it taboo?"
To a person, they scoffed at me. No, no, I was told. Hardly anything is taboo these days. Mentioning condoms is _so_ not taboo that if the possibility of sex between teens is on scene then the RESPONSIBLE thing is to mention condoms!
Someone also pointed me to this great site: Ally's Diary. Ally is Ally Carter a teen author of teen books. She's the insider's insider being both a YA author and an ACTUAL TEEN. Specifically, she's got a great post about this (and a few other things) called, "Wrong Questions... Which I now pass on to you as a great resource for this kind of wrong question... which us forty-somethings trying to write for the modern teen audience seem to always have.
I mean, that's the thing, isn't it? My own experience of being a teenager was long before cell phones, texting, yes, even computers. (Not just the Internet, kids, but computers themselves.) What was taboo for me and my generation seems, well, like child's play to this.
Plus, I don't remember even having a catagory called YA when I was a teen. There was the children's section of the library and the adult section. It seems, in a lot of ways, it's still the same... only with better marketing.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
The Amazing Work Ethic of a Hack
This morning while doing my usual morning things in the bathroom, I happened to pick up the most recent Entertainment Weekly. In it they had a short article about the new sequel to Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code. I never read The Da Vinci Code, but my partner Shawn read it and his earlier book Angels and Demons which she much preferred, though I believe she thought both were kind of "eh."
However, I was very impressed by Mr. Brown's work ethic as described in the article. Apparently, he got up every morning (seven days a week) to write at 4 am. He took scheduled breaks in the day to hang upside down (to get blood flowing to his brain, I guess,) and do other exercise. (For the whole article see: Dan Brown Speaks at EW.) I was deeply impressed. I always thought myself discplined, but this guy puts me to shame.
I also found myself nodding when the article concluded with the notion that, at the end of the day, what matters in a writer's career is not so much artistic talent as discpline.
What I found strange, however, was the implication that, now after the sequel is turned in, Mr. Brown intends to retire. He's now going to spend his 4 am mornings walking the beach with his wife trying to remember how to live without a deadline hanging over his head. Good for him, I thought. Then: Wow, that so wouldn't be me.
I actually can't imagine making enough money on writing that I could give it all up to retire to a villa in Italy. However, I can imagine my career tanking and the money drying up. I've always figured that what would happen at that point is, after several months of deep depression (let's be honest,) I'd pick myself up and start writing something for me alone... something that matters only to myself. Maybe it would be fan fic. Maybe I'd write short stories that suck. Maybe I'd just write that grand soap opera of characters that's been floating around in my head since high school.
But, I'd write something.
Because that's what I do.
This sort of goes to that wonderful "smart thing" Kelly posted yesterday from Matthew Hughes called "No Surrender." You get up and keep fighting, because you're a fighter. Just as I always imagined picking myself up when I was down, I also can't imagine stopping once I've reached the summit. Because, it's not about the climb or the summit... it's about the compulsion to get the story out, isn't it?
Apparently, not for Mr. Brown. Well, I wish him well in his retirement. Now if only he could get [bleep] off the best seller list so I can get on.
However, I was very impressed by Mr. Brown's work ethic as described in the article. Apparently, he got up every morning (seven days a week) to write at 4 am. He took scheduled breaks in the day to hang upside down (to get blood flowing to his brain, I guess,) and do other exercise. (For the whole article see: Dan Brown Speaks at EW.) I was deeply impressed. I always thought myself discplined, but this guy puts me to shame.
I also found myself nodding when the article concluded with the notion that, at the end of the day, what matters in a writer's career is not so much artistic talent as discpline.
What I found strange, however, was the implication that, now after the sequel is turned in, Mr. Brown intends to retire. He's now going to spend his 4 am mornings walking the beach with his wife trying to remember how to live without a deadline hanging over his head. Good for him, I thought. Then: Wow, that so wouldn't be me.
I actually can't imagine making enough money on writing that I could give it all up to retire to a villa in Italy. However, I can imagine my career tanking and the money drying up. I've always figured that what would happen at that point is, after several months of deep depression (let's be honest,) I'd pick myself up and start writing something for me alone... something that matters only to myself. Maybe it would be fan fic. Maybe I'd write short stories that suck. Maybe I'd just write that grand soap opera of characters that's been floating around in my head since high school.
But, I'd write something.
Because that's what I do.
This sort of goes to that wonderful "smart thing" Kelly posted yesterday from Matthew Hughes called "No Surrender." You get up and keep fighting, because you're a fighter. Just as I always imagined picking myself up when I was down, I also can't imagine stopping once I've reached the summit. Because, it's not about the climb or the summit... it's about the compulsion to get the story out, isn't it?
Apparently, not for Mr. Brown. Well, I wish him well in his retirement. Now if only he could get [bleep] off the best seller list so I can get on.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Smart Things (updated)
Matthew Hughes: No surrender. Just go read it. Trust me on this one.
Kristin Nelson on pitching to agents and earning out.
Ilona Andrews on publishers as gatekeepers...or not.
EMI joins the growing legions of heavyweight opposition to the Google books deal. w00t!
And here's part of why the "w00t!" above: Google books plans to turn some of those digital books it's scanned back into paper books. So, lets see, scan out-of-print books, offer the author's a pittance, and then reprint them without all those bothersome royalties. What a great idea...if you're not the author. Mind you they do note this: "For starters, Google is only allowing The Espresso Machine to publish from the section of its digital library that consists of 2 million books no longer protected by copyright." but somehow that "for starters" bit makes me very unhappy.
Update: Google book settlement hearing postponed. w00t!
Via Kristin Nelson, a scammer gets sued. Florida Attorney General Sues Writer's Literary Agency and Robert Fletcher. This is a win for the good guys and should get lots of linkage so that it's highly visible in search results.
Harlan Ellison's Dramatic Reading of the Seussified "I Will Not Read Your Fucking Script" is hilarious, though I have somewhat mixed feelings about the original post.
Kristin Nelson on pitching to agents and earning out.
Ilona Andrews on publishers as gatekeepers...or not.
EMI joins the growing legions of heavyweight opposition to the Google books deal. w00t!
And here's part of why the "w00t!" above: Google books plans to turn some of those digital books it's scanned back into paper books. So, lets see, scan out-of-print books, offer the author's a pittance, and then reprint them without all those bothersome royalties. What a great idea...if you're not the author. Mind you they do note this: "For starters, Google is only allowing The Espresso Machine to publish from the section of its digital library that consists of 2 million books no longer protected by copyright." but somehow that "for starters" bit makes me very unhappy.
Update: Google book settlement hearing postponed. w00t!
Via Kristin Nelson, a scammer gets sued. Florida Attorney General Sues Writer's Literary Agency and Robert Fletcher. This is a win for the good guys and should get lots of linkage so that it's highly visible in search results.
Harlan Ellison's Dramatic Reading of the Seussified "I Will Not Read Your Fucking Script" is hilarious, though I have somewhat mixed feelings about the original post.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Monday Open WIP thread - "What's that thing with all the letters on it for, again?" Edition
Welcome to the Monday WIP post. I'm Doug, and I'll be rambling at you today.
Actually, I'm hoping to anything but ramble around the house today. After my traditional "school-is-out-and-I'm-home-with-the-kids,-maybe-I'll-get-some-writing-done,-oh-who-am-I-kidding?"hiatus, I am facing my first full day back at the computer. And while it feels good, it's also a bit daunting.
See, I had to stop working on my latest effort (Hawthorn Queen) almost exactly mid-book. Oh, I've hacked and fiddled with it here and there, but for the most part it has been lying fallow for the last three months. In addition, I had paused at the point where, while I know where I need to go, I'm not exactly sure about how I am going to get there. This is not a new sensation for me, or for most writers, I know --- but think about being there, then stepping away for three months, only to come back and look at the same forest standing before you. It would have been nice if someone had cleared away some of the scrub while I was away, or even marked out a deer path or two, but no such luck. I'm on my own.
So my plan for today is to dust off my (not as detailed as I'd like) outline, dig through my notes, and stare off into space for a bit, with the goal of refreshing my head as to the rest of the story line. With luck, I should be getting words on the page again this afternoon and for the rest of the week.
I know there will be other stuff in there as well (there's a faucet that needs fixing, for example), but I'm trying to focus on the newly reopened door for my writing at the moment. That faucet, after all, isn't going anywhere.
How about you? What are you up to today?
Actually, I'm hoping to anything but ramble around the house today. After my traditional "school-is-out-and-I'm-home-with-the-kids,-maybe-I'll-get-some-writing-done,-oh-who-am-I-kidding?"hiatus, I am facing my first full day back at the computer. And while it feels good, it's also a bit daunting.
See, I had to stop working on my latest effort (Hawthorn Queen) almost exactly mid-book. Oh, I've hacked and fiddled with it here and there, but for the most part it has been lying fallow for the last three months. In addition, I had paused at the point where, while I know where I need to go, I'm not exactly sure about how I am going to get there. This is not a new sensation for me, or for most writers, I know --- but think about being there, then stepping away for three months, only to come back and look at the same forest standing before you. It would have been nice if someone had cleared away some of the scrub while I was away, or even marked out a deer path or two, but no such luck. I'm on my own.
So my plan for today is to dust off my (not as detailed as I'd like) outline, dig through my notes, and stare off into space for a bit, with the goal of refreshing my head as to the rest of the story line. With luck, I should be getting words on the page again this afternoon and for the rest of the week.
I know there will be other stuff in there as well (there's a faucet that needs fixing, for example), but I'm trying to focus on the newly reopened door for my writing at the moment. That faucet, after all, isn't going anywhere.
How about you? What are you up to today?
Friday, September 18, 2009
Friday Cat Blogging—Nip Edition
Pre Nip, disapproving cats disapprove:
Need more NIP!
Leave me, I just wanna be alone with my...whasat?
Melllllooooooow:
You must give me the NIP!
Have you ever really...oh...itch...uh hi...were you talking to...
Writhing wrocks!
Need more NIP!
Leave me, I just wanna be alone with my...whasat?
Melllllooooooow:
You must give me the NIP!
Have you ever really...oh...itch...uh hi...were you talking to...
Writhing wrocks!
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Wyrdsmiths Credited with Author's Success
Two Wyrdsmiths are mentioned by name in the Isanti County News's report on second place Writers' of the Future contest winner, Gary Kloster! Go team.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
The Book That Wasn't....
I'm not sure that I posted the announcement here, but my publisher rejected proposals to continue the Garnet Lacey series. A sad day, but the good news is that my editor is still interested in seeing things from me, just no more Garnet.
However, I thought it might be fun to post the "books that almost were" proposals over on my other blog: tatehallaway.blogspot.com. The first one is up today, and the next two will follow over the next few days.
Even if you're not a fan of the series, you may enjoy reading them as synopses. I simply cut-and-pasted them from my actual proposals... granted, these are "failed" proposals, but I'm not sure it's because of how I wrote them, more that the publisher made a marketing decision based on the performance of the series in general. See what you think.
Monday, September 14, 2009
Monday Morning WIP Thread—Trim Replacement
Still working on the house more than books but that's slowly shifting. Pics below. What about y'all?
Here's the last of the counters (to be installed later)
And the back porch which is no longer slowly falling off the house:
Rotten Trim 1 (not good but...):
Rotten Trim 2 (oh my):
Rotten Trim 3 (well damn):
Patch layer 1 (structural and underlayment):
Closeup of structural work:
Trim replaced:
And painted:
Here's the last of the counters (to be installed later)
And the back porch which is no longer slowly falling off the house:
Rotten Trim 1 (not good but...):
Rotten Trim 2 (oh my):
Rotten Trim 3 (well damn):
Patch layer 1 (structural and underlayment):
Closeup of structural work:
Trim replaced:
And painted:
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Dumb Things
The Outer Alliance is highlighting a GLBTQ unfriendly decision by flash fiction online in regards to carrying an ad. Details can be found here, with further discussion at the Outer Alliance. Stupid and bigoted decision by FFO followed up with an offensive rationale for the decision, for a trifecta of dumb.
Friday, September 11, 2009
New Cover Art!
Here's the preliminary (but 99.99% finished) cover for my new young adult novel, ALMOST TO DIE FOR, which is scheduled to be an NAL Trade in August 2010.
In case you've forgotten, the back cover copy says:
On her sixteenth birthday, Anastasija Parker’s present winds up being the shock of a lifetime. When her mom referred to her absentee dad as a deadbeat it was actually half true—he’s a vampire. And a king, no less. A king who wants his daughter to assume her rightful position at his side. But, thanks to Ana’s mother, the blood of a witch also runs through her veins…
Too bad vampires and witches are mortal enemies.
With her parents gearing up for an all out brawl over her destiny, Ana’s about ready to scream. But things get even crazier when a male witch and a brooding bad boy vampire start vying for her affection. Then the barely leashed tension between the vampires and the witches starts to boil over, and Ana has to figure out once and for all if she wants to become heir to her dad’s throne. And deciding your eternal destiny is a pretty big deal for a girl who just wants to get through high school
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Much Smartitude
Jay Lake on story length, lots to chew over here.
Dean Wesley Smith, turning writing truisms on their heads and shaking them hard. Fast vs. slow writing. All writing is rewriting. And, growing out of the rewrite discussion, redrafting. There's a ton of stuff in here that's really really worth reading.
James Scott Bell on keeping on keeping on and the writer's job.
Scott Lynch does a very nice smackdown on an over-entitled, whiny, "reader" who doesn't think author's should put up tip jars.
The US Register (it really out to registrar) of Copyrights comes down hard on the Google book settlement. For yay!
Kristine Kathryn Rusch on publishing setbacks and bouncing back.
Deadline Dames' Dame Rinda making with the funny on waiting to hear back from the publishing industry.
Steven York's Bad Agent Sydney T. Cat Answers Writer Questions (Badly)
Fred Pohl on Writers of the Future.
Lilith Saintcrow on wordcount.
Dean Wesley Smith, turning writing truisms on their heads and shaking them hard. Fast vs. slow writing. All writing is rewriting. And, growing out of the rewrite discussion, redrafting. There's a ton of stuff in here that's really really worth reading.
James Scott Bell on keeping on keeping on and the writer's job.
Scott Lynch does a very nice smackdown on an over-entitled, whiny, "reader" who doesn't think author's should put up tip jars.
The US Register (it really out to registrar) of Copyrights comes down hard on the Google book settlement. For yay!
Kristine Kathryn Rusch on publishing setbacks and bouncing back.
Deadline Dames' Dame Rinda making with the funny on waiting to hear back from the publishing industry.
Steven York's Bad Agent Sydney T. Cat Answers Writer Questions (Badly)
Fred Pohl on Writers of the Future.
Lilith Saintcrow on wordcount.
Twittering for Writers
I suppose this falls under the much debated topic of self-promotion for writers, but some time ago I joined Twitter. I'll be honest. I don't really know how to use Twitter effectively. I just post the occasional lame tweet about my life. Apparently, there's more to it than that. Someone on another list I belong to pointed me to Inkygirl's blog post: Twitter Guide for Writers. I'm sure most of you techno-savvy kids already know all there is to know about Twitter, but for the few that don't... this is for you. I'm learning a lot.
Wednesday, September 09, 2009
Friday Cat Blogging on Wednesday
Several websites have declared today, September 9, as a Day Without Cats. There is only one correct response to this: MORE CATS!
East Facing Windows in the Morning.
What's in Window 1? ...a cat!
What's in Window 2? ...a blurry cat! (no really)
What's in Window 3? ...3 cats!
1...
2...
and 3!
East Facing Windows in the Morning.
What's in Window 1? ...a cat!
What's in Window 2? ...a blurry cat! (no really)
What's in Window 3? ...3 cats!
1...
2...
and 3!
Tuesday, September 08, 2009
My Problem with Polemicals against Happily Ever After
Over at SFNovelists Alma Alexander is talking about her problems with Happily Ever After endings. The parts of her argument that touch on her tastes in fiction as a writer and reader I have no problem with. The parts where she seems to be talking about absolute values on the other hand I find to be genuinely and deeply troubling. (Note: she has now clarified what she means to a greater extent and her post bothers me less, but I still think that there is an argument in there that needs refuting in greater depth) Let me quote two pieces to demonstrate what I mean:
1: "There is no such thing as a happy ending. Tolkien knew this – a writer who had not understood this concept could not have ended “Lord of the Rings” with such a terrifyingly truthful story like the Scouring of the Shire (and Jackson’s adaptation of the book into the saccharinely-ended movie shows that he has NOT understood this fact at all). Ursula Le Guin understands this perfectly (for an outstanding example, go re-read “The ones who walk away from Omelas”).
The best we can hope for is a resolution, and perhaps an epiphany – and, yes, love of good people along the way."
2: "When it comes to writing, and characters, this is an important thing to know."
These statements strike me as seriously problematic if that "know" is taken literally to mean knowing in the sense of an absolute truth. Now it seems to me that this is not entirely what Alma is getting at, especially after clarification, but there is still a strong implication here that the more real or true a piece of fiction is, the better it is, and that argument is one that is a huge problem for me on several levels.
First, I'm not a big fan of absolute statements about what people should read or write, and any argument that one kind of fiction is objectively better than another is inherently an argument that presupposes what people should read.
That would be enough to make me feel a responsibility to argue against the point all by itself. It is however a less serious issue than my other problem with the argument, and I want to preface this next piece with the note that I absolutely do not believe that what follows is what Alma is intending to argue. At the same time, I believe that even the weaker version of the argument carries certain implications by its nature, and they are quite problematic.
Here's why. It's a half step from saying Happily Ever After is not real and therefore not as good as a darker ending to one of the traditional attacks made on f&sf by those who prefer literary fiction, i.e. that lit fic is more real and more serious and thus inherently better than other genres.
More disturbingly, it also echoes the serious fiction/realist fiction argument that has been made by chauvinist academics and critics to devalue Romance in specific and more generally women's fiction and women authors as writing less important works because they don't hew to a maximally realist line as defined by said chauvinists.
Again, I don't believe for an instant that Alma, an exceptionally skilled author and a woman, is trying to argue the inferiority of women authors or of women's fiction. But I do think that she has made an argument that if accepted at face value lends credence to those other, much more pernicious, arguments.
1: "There is no such thing as a happy ending. Tolkien knew this – a writer who had not understood this concept could not have ended “Lord of the Rings” with such a terrifyingly truthful story like the Scouring of the Shire (and Jackson’s adaptation of the book into the saccharinely-ended movie shows that he has NOT understood this fact at all). Ursula Le Guin understands this perfectly (for an outstanding example, go re-read “The ones who walk away from Omelas”).
The best we can hope for is a resolution, and perhaps an epiphany – and, yes, love of good people along the way."
2: "When it comes to writing, and characters, this is an important thing to know."
These statements strike me as seriously problematic if that "know" is taken literally to mean knowing in the sense of an absolute truth. Now it seems to me that this is not entirely what Alma is getting at, especially after clarification, but there is still a strong implication here that the more real or true a piece of fiction is, the better it is, and that argument is one that is a huge problem for me on several levels.
First, I'm not a big fan of absolute statements about what people should read or write, and any argument that one kind of fiction is objectively better than another is inherently an argument that presupposes what people should read.
That would be enough to make me feel a responsibility to argue against the point all by itself. It is however a less serious issue than my other problem with the argument, and I want to preface this next piece with the note that I absolutely do not believe that what follows is what Alma is intending to argue. At the same time, I believe that even the weaker version of the argument carries certain implications by its nature, and they are quite problematic.
Here's why. It's a half step from saying Happily Ever After is not real and therefore not as good as a darker ending to one of the traditional attacks made on f&sf by those who prefer literary fiction, i.e. that lit fic is more real and more serious and thus inherently better than other genres.
More disturbingly, it also echoes the serious fiction/realist fiction argument that has been made by chauvinist academics and critics to devalue Romance in specific and more generally women's fiction and women authors as writing less important works because they don't hew to a maximally realist line as defined by said chauvinists.
Again, I don't believe for an instant that Alma, an exceptionally skilled author and a woman, is trying to argue the inferiority of women authors or of women's fiction. But I do think that she has made an argument that if accepted at face value lends credence to those other, much more pernicious, arguments.
Monday, September 07, 2009
Monday Morning WIP
I'm in LaCrosse, Wisconsin, my hometown visiting my folks. In about forty minutes, the family is going to head up the street to watch the local union members carry flags and toss candy in a Labor Day parade.
Then it's the long drive home. I have no idea if I'll get much writing done, but perhaps tonight.
How about you? What are you doing this Labor Day Monday?
Then it's the long drive home. I have no idea if I'll get much writing done, but perhaps tonight.
How about you? What are you doing this Labor Day Monday?
Sunday, September 06, 2009
Adaptability
There have been various posts about a writer's adaptability and flexibility on this blog before. About how kids and work and life's unexpected twists (and twits :) can really pound a writing routine. We all know the drill:
Take head (A), apply Nose (D) to Grindstone (G), making sure that hands (B, C) and other critical bits ( E, F, and H - W) do not inadvertently come into contact with G while Power Switch (Y) is in the "On" position (X).
We also know that sometimes, events (Z) make steps A - Y about as viable as a hand-crank computer.
I'm at step Z right now. Or so I thought, until I started working on a short story in a hospital room at 11:45 pm last night. (I'm not ill, it's one of my sons, and he is doing well; but this post is not about him, and so I will not dwell.)
The thing is, sitting there after days of running to and fro, talking with specialists, advising nurses on the proclivities and challenges that are my son, spending too much for food and parking and not enough time with my wife or other son, sleeping every other night on the floor, and generally having zero time to think about writing, I found myself with itchy writer's brain. Coping mechanism? Maybe. Lord knows I'm not one to write short stories -- the Wyrdsmiths can testify to that -- so the unusual circumstances may be to blame. Plus, in all honesty, it's a story I've been kicking around on and off for ages. Still, imagine my surprise when I found my fingers tapping and brain spinning four days after my son's spinal surgery. Yeah, I didn't expect to be there, either, but the pistons decided to start chugging.
I'm not going to tell you I finished anything; I've barely started. Nor do I know if I will conclude this particular incarnation of the tale any time soon: regular writing would require more sleep than I've been getting. And even then, once I am in that place, I may just as easily turn back to my book. So I ain't saying anything concrete is going to come of this production-wise.
But I will say this: don't ever assume that you will be in a place where the Muse cannot find you, where the special gear in your brain won't engage, where you will not be able to write. As often as we may be right about it, we can just as easily be wrong. Stay open to the possibility, even when you are sure it isn't there. You may just surprise yourself.
Take head (A), apply Nose (D) to Grindstone (G), making sure that hands (B, C) and other critical bits ( E, F, and H - W) do not inadvertently come into contact with G while Power Switch (Y) is in the "On" position (X).
We also know that sometimes, events (Z) make steps A - Y about as viable as a hand-crank computer.
I'm at step Z right now. Or so I thought, until I started working on a short story in a hospital room at 11:45 pm last night. (I'm not ill, it's one of my sons, and he is doing well; but this post is not about him, and so I will not dwell.)
The thing is, sitting there after days of running to and fro, talking with specialists, advising nurses on the proclivities and challenges that are my son, spending too much for food and parking and not enough time with my wife or other son, sleeping every other night on the floor, and generally having zero time to think about writing, I found myself with itchy writer's brain. Coping mechanism? Maybe. Lord knows I'm not one to write short stories -- the Wyrdsmiths can testify to that -- so the unusual circumstances may be to blame. Plus, in all honesty, it's a story I've been kicking around on and off for ages. Still, imagine my surprise when I found my fingers tapping and brain spinning four days after my son's spinal surgery. Yeah, I didn't expect to be there, either, but the pistons decided to start chugging.
I'm not going to tell you I finished anything; I've barely started. Nor do I know if I will conclude this particular incarnation of the tale any time soon: regular writing would require more sleep than I've been getting. And even then, once I am in that place, I may just as easily turn back to my book. So I ain't saying anything concrete is going to come of this production-wise.
But I will say this: don't ever assume that you will be in a place where the Muse cannot find you, where the special gear in your brain won't engage, where you will not be able to write. As often as we may be right about it, we can just as easily be wrong. Stay open to the possibility, even when you are sure it isn't there. You may just surprise yourself.
Friday, September 04, 2009
What Truepenny Said:
Truepenny:
"Dave Freer could use some help. He and his family are emigrating from South Africa to Australia, and their definition of "family" rightly includes their dogs and cats. As Dave says in his FAQ:
They had always been part of moving budget: we’re selling our home to do this, and will have to start afresh in Australia. The part we didn’t figure on was currency fluctuation and quarantine costs. Thus we have some money towards moving them, but simply not nearly enough.
Dave is putting his novel Save the Dragons up on the web, a chapter at a time on the Scheherazade model, to raise the necessary money. Waltz over to the website to read and/or donate."
"Dave Freer could use some help. He and his family are emigrating from South Africa to Australia, and their definition of "family" rightly includes their dogs and cats. As Dave says in his FAQ:
They had always been part of moving budget: we’re selling our home to do this, and will have to start afresh in Australia. The part we didn’t figure on was currency fluctuation and quarantine costs. Thus we have some money towards moving them, but simply not nearly enough.
Dave is putting his novel Save the Dragons up on the web, a chapter at a time on the Scheherazade model, to raise the necessary money. Waltz over to the website to read and/or donate."
Friday Cat Blogging—5 Cats 1 Rug in the Sun
The group shot:
Corner cat tolerates the others...barely
Pick me first!
I am the walrus, kookookachoozzzzzz
The library ladder it protects me from all evil
You know what, I'm just going to move over here...
Corner cat tolerates the others...barely
Pick me first!
I am the walrus, kookookachoozzzzzz
The library ladder it protects me from all evil
You know what, I'm just going to move over here...
Thursday, September 03, 2009
Readings
I did a bookstore reading here in small town Wisconsin a week or two ago. 10-12 people showed up and listened to me read a chunk of a new book that I'm hoping will be the next series from Ace. I sold a half dozen books. At my level on the publishing feeding chain that's actually really good for the venue and wouldn't be bad for any non-science fiction bookstore or anywhere outside of a major metro area. I made about six dollars and it would have been less if the book store hadn't run out of one my books forcing me to sell a couple directly.
So, why do it?
It was fun. I like sharing my stuff with people and that rapport you get with the audience when you really hit your stride on a strong piece of writing is a ball. One of the big joys with reading new stuff is that if it goes well it really reignites your excitement about the work. That's great, especially when you're in the waiting window with your publisher as I am right now. Waiting to hear if my editor likes the last book and what changes she might want. Waiting to hear if she likes the new series. Waiting to hear from a half dozen other editors to see what they think of the books they've got. Waiting, waiting, waiting...argh.
As I write this I'm sitting on my front porch surrounded by a sea of fog. Wow, a real life metaphor. I'm...thrilled.
So, why do it?
It was fun. I like sharing my stuff with people and that rapport you get with the audience when you really hit your stride on a strong piece of writing is a ball. One of the big joys with reading new stuff is that if it goes well it really reignites your excitement about the work. That's great, especially when you're in the waiting window with your publisher as I am right now. Waiting to hear if my editor likes the last book and what changes she might want. Waiting to hear if she likes the new series. Waiting to hear from a half dozen other editors to see what they think of the books they've got. Waiting, waiting, waiting...argh.
As I write this I'm sitting on my front porch surrounded by a sea of fog. Wow, a real life metaphor. I'm...thrilled.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
