Just a Quick Link

Jay Lake linked to an excellent blog post on writing, jealousy and the process of becoming an author.  A must-read for INKers and Friends of INK!

I'm in doubt mode with my novel right now, so I'm focusing on a couple of short stories.  I finished one last night.  I'm not sure it'll hold up in the light of day, but I'm excited about the concept.  The other one is still stuck in psychic car chase mode.  Not sure if I'll be editing the one I'm excited about or writing more first draft on the psychic car chase.  Maybe both.  And who knows?  I may break out of my sad kitty face and work on the novel after all.

Free Financial Book

Yay! It's free it's free it's free it's free it's free!  I've enjoyed Suze Orman's books and radio shows and all that over the years.  Don't miss this chance to get a free .pdf of Suze Orman's 2009 Action Plan, available on Oprah's website.  It won't be available forever, though.  I believe it's only going to be available there until the 15th.  Don't wait!

Because we don't want to be starving artists.  That's just so cliche'!

See some of you at the INK meeting tonight.  I hope the Friends of INK have gotten a great start to the writing year, and wish you the best luck, focus and skill for 2009.

You Want Me to Write for FREE?

Thanks to Jim Fiscus for sending this article out to the Lucky Labs and by default, me.  Here's the scary part.  The blog owner, who is soliciting non-fiction articles, is so very insistent that she's not asking for writers to provide articles for free.  Payment, to her, is promotion.  

If it were a very prestigious and high-volume blog where I know the owner isn't getting any $$ from the articles, I would probably do it.  But, a very prestigious and high-volume blog that gets advertising money and whatever all else--you'd think that they'd be able to afford to pay the author, even if it's a tenth of a cent per hit or something like that.  And if it's not prestigious and high volume, then huh?  Why would this be worth a writer's time and effort?

The promotional opportunity here?  Zilch.  Again, if the blog owner hopes to build prestige and business through the blog, she should cut the writer in or, less painfully, cut them a check for a flat amount and have done.  

Or maybe I should simply say yeah!  What Ms. Hoy said!

Stop Kami, Stop!

I keep getting directed to good articles on writing and I can't seem to stop linking to them.  Here's one on the craft of short story (with thanks to James D. Macdonald to pointing it out.)  Also thanks to Uncle Jim's pointy finger, a short list directed at beginning writers that even advanced and/or published writers can benefit from.  The comments are just as fun as the list itself, although I nodded so hard at the list contents I think I sprained my neck, whereas the comments tended to meander as comments do.

Here's a new SF market, with emphasis on near-future.  So, would the moon be considered off-world?  I find it interesting that with the emphasis being so often on short and tight stories, stories under 2000 words are a hard sell to this market.  I don't think the implication is to necessarily meander, but some readers do like to linger in an environment. 

With resources like this on the web, why in the world would someone like me offer up writing advice?  Oh yeah, because I can't seem to shut up.  I think that may be a common flaw, or maybe it's an advantage, or both, of people who are writers.

Meeting of the INK

Last night INK held it's second meeting of the year. After chatting about OryCon and fallen trees, we handed all the FAQ we'd written up to Carole to compile and Carole and I read the bios we had written.

After repositioning up in the library, we hammered out a few plot problems with a couple of WIPs and dove into the critiques. Kami gave us three chapters of Masks and Steve gave us a new flash fiction piece. I think both received excellent critiques and even better brainstorming sessions afterwards. Cherie was with us in spirit, as Carole shared her comments on Steve's piece.

We dove into more brainstorming, then had a scavenger hunt for a rumor Carole had read about mentioning titles to submissions for WotF. The contest judges entries anonymously, so it makes sense not to go spouting off the title of our submissions online where someone might Google them. And then the winners for each quarter are thrown into a new judging at the end of the year, so again with the not speaking. So we combed through our blogs and made the necessary changes to keep our pieces anonymous.

Good to know these things. Thanks, Carole, for alerting us!

We made some decision on the next meeting, since half the kult will be infiltrating Radcon. It was a great evening and I'm feeling like my head is screwed on a little tighter thanks to it. Hope everyone else came away energized and ready to face the next three weeks of writing!

Another Copyright Issue

Patty on the OryCon listserv shared the link to this new controversy. A popular romance writer has been including passages from other works, most non-fiction and part of her research, in her books.

There is an excellent article in Newsweek by one of the authors used in the romance book. And the ladies at the Smart Bitches Who Love Trashy Books blog, who made the discovery, have a whole running series on their blog. They have posted a response by one of the researchers of the article quoted, which is a different take on the controversy, very classy and upbeat. Kudos to him and the author of the article. But the publisher response to the controversy is still a bit disturbing to me. And here's why.

One of the first discussions we have in a college English class is on plagiarism. And the main point of that discussion is if it isn't your words and your thoughts, quote and cite. The idea of not having to cite source material in a historical novel is ludicrous to me. Not that I'd expect footnotes, but at least a nod toward the source material that served research material is polite to those authors and gives them their due credit. But lifting whole passages from source material--that, to me, and by the very definition we used in college (and that would get you an immediate expulsion from the class and placed on probation) is plagiarism.

Maybe I'm too sensitive about it. It has been drilled into my head by seven years of repetition in each class at the beginning of a semester and then repeating it myself when I was teaching. And now, as a writer focusing more and more on historical stories, I have learned how to integrate research into my prose in my own words and language.

What this author has done is a bad forming of paraphrasing, and under the definition I've worked with on plagiarism, paraphrasing without citing source material is still plagiarism. Paraphrasing, just like quoted passages, must be acknowledged. It isn't the author's original idea. It is another author's. Serving as inspiration is one thing. Serving as parts of a new text is something else entirely.

I guess I'll always flinch when it comes to the concept of plagiarism. Too many years held under a severe punishment if it ever happened. And to me, it's a question of ethics. I want my stories to be all my words, not another author's. As for citing my resources, gladly, happily, and enthusiastically. I love to share my inspiration and the brilliance of others. One of my favorite things about writing historical fiction is the chance to read non-fiction sources and share them with others.

BTW, just got an awesome book on Victorian home life called Inside the Victorian Home by Judith Flanders. I love researching!

PS, Kami, you've read one of the author's books. Does Savage Moon ring any bells?

UPDATE: Looks like the publisher is taking this more seriously than they first acknowledged. But what I find even more amazing is the amount of discussion this is generating between blogs with readers and writers. And I love how the black-footed ferret is getting some well-deserved help because of it all. I didn't realize you could adopt a wild ferret. Guess what TC is getting for St. Valentine's Day.

Bring It!

I won't be repetitive and reprint all my 2008 goals over here. If you'd like an in-depth look at them, I have them up on my blog. I have quite a bit more than last year and I'm feeling ready to tackle each and every one, all at once. I must pace myself.

So I'm setting monthly and weekly goals. It's good to have focus.

To kick off the New Year, I'm going to finish my current short story ("Telling it True"--which took a serious plot twist yesterday), finish reading the Reven novel so Kami and I can hammer out the final version, and figure out where my novels are going and how best to get them there. Next week, and probably the rest of the month, needs to be all about the novels.

As for revisions, I have four short stories on my plate, one of which will be chewed up by INK this Friday. I also have The Trinket Box to transcribe/edit, Reven coming up on the table, and The Inkwell Cult bluescreen. Which makes me realize I need to set some revision goals or I'll never keep it all straight. Not a bad problem to have considering where I was this same time last year. So this week I'll try to get another 15 pages of The Trinket Box finished.

In other news, I found this interesting revision plan. I like it. It will help me cut Purgatory down by another 110 words. It's Ken Rand's 10% Solution. Thanks to Jim Van Pelt for posting about it on his great New Year's Resolutions for Newbies (and lapsed Oldies), which has fine advice as well.

Absolution

The wonderful Kelly McCullough over at Wyrdsmiths has given a blanket absolution to anyone gnawing the fingernails of guilt over unfinished projects. I really needed to read that today, since I have been struggling with my decision to shelve the newer projects that weren't working for me.

Now that the guilt is behind me, I can channel all that energy into completing my newest short story. "The Wrong Side" is going very well. I have 11 pages on it now and I know where it's going to end up, which is a good feeling. I'm leaving the ending open in my head, so if any more surprises come up, I can let the story follow them without wrecking the mystery of it. It's rather fun not knowing myself who exactly 'did it.'

It's a murder mystery, btw. Guess I should have mentioned that.

I also spent some time this morning editing "Purgatory," an older short story in desperate need of a new title. I have several title ideas.

It's an odd story because I feel like it works just like I want it to, but I have the feeling that my fellow INKers will pick it apart. I'm curious to see how it will hold up under a critique and if my opinion about the story will change, but right now, I rather feel like I'm almost ready to send it out. I just need to know if the ending works like I want it too. Might be too vague. It will most likely be my first submission of the new year for INK to critique.

And I might just start research a market for it. I have no idea exactly where I might send it, because it isn't a genre piece. That will involve more research, but also a couple trips to the bookstores to check out some of the literary journals. Might be right for one of those. I honestly can't say at this point, but I'm curious to find out.

It would be a riot if this was the first short story I managed to publish in a professional market. My one non-genre piece. Not that I'd be disappointed. Oh goodness me no!