Go, Kami, GO!

Another great INK moment - Kami has her first, of what I'm certain will be many, SWFA-qualifying sale. Congrats Kami!!

Link: http://www.sfwa.org/2010/01/beneath-ceaseless-skies-is-sfwas-newest-qualifying-short-fiction-market/

48 Days

The manuscript went out to my publisher yesterday. Thanks to nano and encouragement from my lovely wife, it went from blank page to submitted in 48 days.

As usual, the most annoying and aggravating part was taking the pictures. Anything I do alone can be pretty efficient. Efficiency seems to drop and flakiness increase each time another person or a piece of equipment, especially a camera, gets involved.

Thanks largely to Rick P. the efficiency problem was shot, staked through the heart and buried, decapitated at a crossroads with silver coins in the grave and rosemary and garlic in the mouth.

Take that, inefficiency!

48 days. Not bad. Especially since it is very likely to sell. "Meditations on Violence" was the publisher's best seller for 2008 and they probably wanted something to follow it with.

Hmmm. This was just one big brag. Book off here; C.S. sale there... very good time to be an INKer.

First Sale.

Okay, yes, it's true. I've made my first sale. I've been in touch with my editor and you can look for my story 'Ash' in a fall 2010 issue of Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine.

Thank you INK for being my first readers, critiquers, and pushers to keep sending it out, especially Kami whom I thought I heard once, over the phone, sharpening bamboo shoots in preparation for shoving under my nails if I didn't keep trying. Thank you, thank you.

Ah, the First Sale juice...it is sweet, like nectar of the gods.

Public Service Announcement

It's not my place to announce this, but since certain elements who shall not be named but whose initials are probably C.S. Cole is falling down on the job...

C.S. Cole sold a story to a well known and well respected Australian magazine. I thought that was an oxymoron, but I have been assured it is true and it is not necessary to hold said magazine upside down to read it.

This means that all active duty members of INK are professionally published. Statistically, this would imply that joining INK is a great way to get published. Hmmm. Plus the groupies.

Life is good.

Loving the Process

I'm a short story's length within the 50,000 word Nanowrimo goal. How long the book will turn out to be, I really have no clue. Normally I have all kinds of clue by the 40,000+ word mark. I think I'm about 2/3rds done, but depending on how the plot twists and turns, I might only be halfway, or I might be within 20,000 words of The End.

Nanoing this year has felt a little weird, but a good weird. I feel really free. I've accepted the idea that I have enough writing skills that I don't have to rewrite something to death. If I go back through, it'll be to clean up details, not to 'polish.'

If I think about it in terms of rice, I like brown rice way better than the super-polished stuff anyway. Wild rice is full of awesome too. Somewhere along the way I stopped learning and improving when I rewrote something and started making my writing worse. I've had this proved to me many times now. So, enough.

That gives me much more time to develop new work and play in new stories and revisit ideas that I loved but sadly polished into a little bead that had about as much life in it as expired corn starch. That allows me to move on to the next story, whether it's the next in a series or the next in a whole new universe. And if I want to enrich a story with details or something, I'll have more time to do that if I'm not obsessing on the line by line on an extensive polish.

It's made me a little more careful about how I write those words as they land on the page, but it hasn't slowed me down all that much. Again, I've got over 43,000 words on the 16th day of Nanowrimo, and I haven't been writing non-stop. We've done housework and gone to meetings and such. I've been living a pretty normal life. I've been sick too.

I can do this. I can be a full time writer with this process, and produce more good stuff that I've ever dreamed I could. Plus, I'm not going back and ruining what I do write. Bonus!

But I'll always need my critique group, I think. I need to keep a sharp eye on what I miss, and what doesn't work, especially if it's a pattern with me. I already know I could do a lot more with setting. So as I go forward, I'm going to keep hunting for those weaknesses, and I'll depend on the Lucky Labs and INKers to help me out (and keep me motivated too.)

Done and Not

By nano standards, the book is done. Broke the 50k mark yesterday. It's not actually done yet. I am not quite halfway through the last chapter. I think two days for that... then bibliography, acknowledgements, a table of contents. Possibly indexing. Go through looking for all the little places that say "XXX Research and cite XXX" (XXX makes a 'find' function very easy.)

Then the choice- send to first readers or directly to my editor. It's strong enough to go out, but I have some very fine first readers, subject matter experts who can add a lot in terms of insights and supporting anecdotes. Decisions, decisions.

Hats off to Nano and the INKers. It really got me off my ass for this project and potentially put me a year ahead on my goals.

Damn

Over 19K on the new book in the first six days and wrote a flash fiction piece last night. Things are rolling.

I don't usually write fiction. The non-fiction that I write is personal, exploratory and digging into things that are off the map for most people- 'Here be Dragons". Think Charles Darwin and "The Voyage of the Beagle."

In 19,000 words, in the rush to get the ideas onto paper the process has really streamlined. The book, "7" expands on one of the themes in "Meditation on Violence". I think it may make most of MoV and most of everything written on the subject of the genesis of violence obsolete. Connections and classifications are falling together in a way that I knew was missing form MoV. The process, the ability to see the connections at speed has been a gift of grace.

This may just be the first blush of passion. With a few weeks to re-read and consider I may find the holes, notice what is missing. But this second it looks good. Very good. That doesn't mean it will be a good book- "The Origin of Species" was quite a plow- but the idea seems critical and solid.

Yesterday I spoke at a local college for a Criminal Justice class- mostly on how to recognize and avoid when your ego was getting sucked into a Monkey Dance. The new material let me teach it with more depth and more utility than ever before.

This has the potential to be very, very good.

Ready, Set, NaNoWriMo Begins.

4188 words this morning logged in beginning at the stroke of midnight. Naturally, as the past three years tradition holds, I can't log into the NaNoWriMo.org website to register anything and countless email requests for a new password has been sent. If this year is anything like last year, come day eleven, I'll get a flurry of email replies with countless password resets. Anything received earlier would just get lost in the typical NaNo server crash(es). So typical. So NaNo season!

Things Fall Apart...

...the Center cannot hold.

I may have that backwards.  It's a wonderful poem, though.

Alright, INKERs, what's the deal?  No goals updated, no meetings planned... is this because I came back from Iraq and you no longer have the safety of keeping me at Skype distance?  I don't bite.  Much. Only Kami. Unless I can't create space any other way.  Or I want to see the looks on their faces when they realized the mistake in thinking they were fighting a civilized human being....

But I digress. Ahem. Nano is upon us. Who is in?  I'm not particularly interested, but I'll do 50000 words in 30 days if anyone cares to throw down the gauntlet.  To sweeten the deal, I'll even do fiction.

I think, IMHO, INK is and should be more than a critique group.  Critique groups are cheap (and easy and rarely more help than aggravation/drama).  INK should  be what writers need: part networking, part a good kick in the ass when people get lazy, and part professional advice.

Time to stand and deliver, me hearties.  The center canna' hold.

INK news.

Welcoming back Kami from the 2-week Kris and Dean's Master's Writing Class. She's got lots of good info over at her blog at http://kzmillers.blogspot.com/

Also in the news, allow me to introduce OryCon's Open Read & Critique (ORC) Coordinators for this year - Curtis Chen and DeeAnn Sole. I think the ORCs are in very good hands.

We've got a winner! Friend of INK Ken Scholes' 200-word Writing Contest.

Cross-posted from CSCole's LiveJournal page:

Today, after battling with our broken washer yet again (it's a goner for certain now), I discovered something that has put definite Squee! back into my step.

I did well in Ken Scholes' 200 word "The Tim Machine" contest. The contest was judged by three distinguished writers: maryrobinette, princessalethea, and jaylake.

I was just mentioning, reminding, Steve that Ken's latest book, CANTICLE" was getting ready to make it's debut and it was the one book purchase budgeted for this fall/winter. One guess as to what one of the contest prizes was.

OMG with Raspberry sauce on the side! An ARC copy of CANTICLE! THANK YOU, KEN! THANK YOU JUDGES!

Trust me, much dancing will occur throughout the rest of the week. MUCH dancing.

Please stop by Ken's LJ post here to read most of the other stories entered. All are incredible. All made me wish I were a better writer. To be included in this group is every bit as exciting as winning. Bravo to all!

Ken asked on his LiveJournal page if I might post my story. You can read it HERE. Naturally, after rereading it for the first time in months, I see so many flaws in it, I want to tear my hair out. I guess I just might be starting to understand the point of rewrites after all.

(P.S. The opening line from my story was a prompt used during a writing exercise at a late spring INK meeting. Kami and Steve might recognize it from then. I'm never going to pass up using prompts for exercise again.)

Chick Lit, Dick Lit: Really Not So Different.

Chick Lit, a genre sub-set of young women's fictional literature, is a term that sets my teeth on edge. Though I have read and own enough chick lit to know what it is, I am most definitely not a fan. For the record, I never understood the popularity of "Sex and the City" or 'Sex in the City" or whatever that series/movie was called either; the TV equivalent to chick lit. Too much whining. Too much flip-flopping. No one knows what they want. Bores me to tears.

No, I lean more toward male-oriented fiction both in my writing and reading. Sometimes I enjoy the rare intelligent, strong fictional woman's story (TRULY intelligent and strong which is much, much harder to create than that would seem - it shouldn't be because the writer tells me that's what their female lead is [I've read way too much of that lately and am just as guilty of writing it myself]).

Lately I've begun to realize what I'm writing and reading are really just men's versions of chick lit, complete with all the whining, and after mentioning it to INK member Steve, he came up with the correct terminology for it - Dick Lit. Crude, yes, but right on the money.

Steve isn't a crude man but he's observant. He knows chick lit, has read it and understands it, and he knows all too well most of what I've written and the demographic to whom I direct most of my writing efforts toward. His term 'Dick Lit' nails it square. Though I have my doubts, I hope someday he gets credit for it.

Submission Machine

I went on a total submission spree.  Now almost all my inventory is out, leaving the remaining few still at home whining about when it's going to be their turn.  I've got seven things out at the moment.  That's not bad for someone who doesn't usually write short stories, eh?  I've got three 'problem children' I'd like to tweak a bit before sending them out again and a few more that I'm not quite satisfied with enough to debut.  If I can get all of that done and away out the door, I think I'll have a non-zero chance of making a second sale.  

Not a shabby August so far, not at all.

I've upped my month goals because I finished them, and it's only the 6th.  I've got to have at least a shot at failure here!

Another nice rejection

I tell ya, all these kind and helpful rejections are neat, so it's hard to complain.  But three days in a row and one last week--woof!  Between stories I'm revising because I thought of something that might bring them up to the next level, and stories that just came back, half my inventory is at home right now, festering.

Stories fester when they're at home, you know.  They need a wild ride in the mail or through the phosphors and then they like to wait on desks or in editorial hard drives where they can chat with other manuscripts and drink too much and party.  Sometimes, when they've just come back, they're lively and have lots of things to say to the other stories who've been stuck at home, but they quickly grow morose.  Then the festering begins, usually with some discoloration, and then the smell.  If that doesn't get your attention, they can ooze like nobody's business.

It's easier to avoid the whole festering thing and keep them in circulation.  Everyone's happier that way.

Another one for the collection

I have a new rejection slip today, a coveted signed and personalized rejection slip on white paper from a market well known for it's half-page "blue rejection slips of death."  As an avid collector of rejections, it's always fun to get a new kind, especially a hard-to-procure sort.  BTW, those blue form rejections are a neat collector's item in and of themselves, since they're the only ones on colored paper I get.  I've heard a rumor about one for a poetry market that has a poem and is quite lovely to look at.  If I wrote poetry I would totally submit to that market to get one (assuming that I didn't make the cut and get a sale.  Hmm, would I then be so bold as to request that they send me a form rejection with my contract so that I can have a copy?  Hee--I'd love to have those kinds of problems.)  

Anyway, now I have to get these stories back out.  Rejection slips come in waves, I've noticed, so after having nothing to do but write for a long period, I suddenly have to start shoveling things out the door before they pile up.  My marketing muscles atrophy between waves, I suspect, because I don't have a deep enough portfolio of fiction.  That'll change as I write more short stories, but it won't change fast.  Although I think I've improved my craft in the short story department, I'm still a novelist at heart, therefore I spend most of my writing time on novels.  Eventually I may have enough short stories in final form that I'll be sending stuff out all the time.  Hmm.  That may not necessarily be a good thing.

It's hot hot hot today, a good day to stay home and write, especially if you have AC or a nice basement office.  (Mmmm, basement ....)  But first (I guess, *pout*) I will see about sending my stories back out into the world.  Stay cool today, INKers and Friends of INK.

Catching their attention

I got a nice rejection today.  Part of it said: 

The story caught our attention but after consideration we’ve decided it’s not a piece
we can use.

Not too shabby, I say.  

My distractions are piling up, but writing is still happening.  I've been mainly editing novels and frowning at my legless story.  It'll all come together.  The part that's sticky right now is that I've got all of four days to send out an agent query or I'll have failed my goals for the month.  Ackity ack acka ack.  I always procrastinate with those things.  But I haven't been idle.  I've been reading Query Shark, and thinking about what the strongest thread in my novel is so that I don't muddy the synopsis with dumb stuff.  You know, the stuff that everyone, especially me, feels is so critical to the story but everyone with a few synapses firing in their brains and a somewhat-accurate memory of what the novel is about knows is just window dressing?  That stuff, the stuff I want to leave out.  If only it was color coded or something.  

Anyway, I'll get it done soon.  I'd better, or I'll owe the group a buck at a time I really ought to be saving my bucks.  Four days may seem like a lot of time, but it really isn't, especially since I want to try a fresh take on that synopsis.  It's not quite right as it stands.  I can do better.  I will, and I must do better.  

Gee, I haven't even got to the hard part yet, you know, the part where the book is out and I'm trying to build interest while still working on other books.  This is the easy part, y'know, even though it drags on and on.

Write What You Know...

... but maybe not the way you know it.

 "Write what you know" is an adage for both fiction and non-fiction writers, but there is another side to it. When you really know something, especially something that is based on precise, immediate action in very tense situations a lot of 'what you know' has to be forced down to a subconscious level.  It develops a psychological shorthand.  Things that are esoteric to outsiders are too obvious to be worth mentioning to insiders.

That's the thing- if you are writing for outsiders it is all about the things that aren't worth mentioning to insiders.  There are things that I have forgotten how I learned.  That's a problem with 'write what you know'.

The critiques are trickling in from the first readers, and they are doing exactly what I need. 

My first readers are pointing out the jargon, the places where I skipped steps in explanation (remember your algebra teacher in high school saying "show your work" and you only cared that the answer was right?).  A few places where there is some darkness behind what I have left out or masked with some grim humor that won't play... because the lessons are in the dark things that I don't want to say, the things that pro to pro would be considered seeking validation or attention.  Professional to outsider the dynamic is different and there's not a lot of experience here. Which is why there is a market for this book.

I'm actually starting to get very excited about the re-write.  But it will wait until I can synthesize all the critiques.

Thanks, readers. 

First Draft

Smoking a nargilah with orange tobacco as the sun set over the Pir Magroon mountains, I finished the first draft of "A Citizen's Guide to Police Use of Force".  It is a good day.  A fine Islay scotch, Ardbeg or perhaps Smokehead would make it better but, alas, I am not in the place for that.

The manuscript is done- for now.  Not yet dead with a stake through its heart and buried at the crossroads, but for now, she is no longer a threat to the poor villagers.  I have contacted the First Readers, that secret cabal of SMEs (Subject Matter Experts), professionals, writers and concerned citizens who will show me the flaws.  Some will brave the challenge, some will come up with whiny little excuses about not having time- such is the way of all quests.

It's a pretty good feeling.  And fellow INKers- you're drafted.  We don't accept no stinking excuses from our own!

Next INK - July 17th.

Next INK meeting is coming up, July 17th to be precise, at the usual summer venue in Vancouver. Deadline for critique material is one week beforehand. That means today, up until midnight, stuff for critique will be accepted. So far (10 a.m. Friday July 10th), there is nothing on tap to critique.

Don't you just hate it when time sneaks up on you?

At the last INK meeting, writer Mark Jones pulled off what I personally felt was missing in my own writing life -- Talking with excitement on the Joys of Submitting Stories. Thank you Mark! I don't know what exactly you said but it got me up off my butt and I've submitted three stories in the past week. Still looking for a market for a fourth but I'm confident that I'll regain my, um, confidence in that regard.

Fever Blabber

The bombs bursting in the air must have inspired a dark streak in me.  I wrote and shipped off a flash tonight.  Again, it's another one of those will or won't work situations that I don't think I ought to be wasting critique group time with.  Yea or nay can come from an editor.

I'm feverish and snurky.  Stupid cold.  My kids are all better, but I'm just starting to get really sick with the being tired all the time and cough and sneezing and ongoing drainage.  I fell asleep on top of my covers in my clothes last night, woke up at 5am feeling like hash browns that had fallen onto a burner that had just been switched off.  I ended up going back to bed a few hours later, and didn't wake up until 2pm.  Feels like my whole day was wasted, and yet, writing happened.

In marketing news, Brain Harvest is putting on a little contest.  Check out the specs at the Brain Harvest Mega Challenge page.  Jeff VanderMeer will be the guest judge.  It doesn't get much more awesome than that, and yet, there's the possibility of winning a hand-knitted mustache in addition to the cash and accolades.  I'd like to see some INKers and Friends of INK use this contest as an excuse for writing a story based on a prompt (or several prompts.)  Who will take the challenge?  Kami wants to know.  The contest runs from July 15-August 31, so there's plenty of time and therefore no excuses.  Embrace (or eat) the Nike ad.

Flash Bang

Last night I got the most hilarious, inspiring rejection evah.  The awesomeness cannot be described without going into long descriptions of the story combined with evasive language in relation to the contents of the letter.  Alas, I don't think it would be a good idea to post the rejection here even though it probably wouldn't cause problems in the highly unlikely event that this got back to the editor.  But I think the greeting says it all.  Not hi, not dear ms, but argh!  Complete with exclamation point.  

I love my job.  Heh.

Near misses, no matter how kewl or how close, are still misses, so the little flash got sent out again to an actual print magazine.  I had a wonderful, grinchy idea in regard to this story, so if it misses again, I may have to do evil unto it.  I like the story the way it is, so I'm reluctant to play with it, but at the same time I think the idea is sound, so another rejection will be my excuse to open up that file and open up new scenes.  Sadly, once that happens, it will never be a flash again.    

Kami's State of the Writing

Lately I've been having trouble with ideas.  Oh, I have lots of ideas.  I even have some frozen embryonic stories that I can take out and ... okay, ew factor just set in.

But lately I've been dissatisfied with my ideas in general.  I don't want just any story idea.  I want one with that special something, you know?  It doesn't have to be unique, or pretty, or smart.  It does have to resonate.  I have to feel it in my guts, get that special tingly thrill, and when I work on it, have unnoticed hours go by before I look up from the page.  

Long walks and hot baths are in order.  In the meantime, I've got my novels.  I can live there happily for a very long time.  Still, it would be nice to have a short story come grab me by the throat before Tuesday's write-in with my writing pals.  I'll be looking at contests, prompts and anthologies in an attempt to spark something in time for that.  If none of that does the trick, I'll just have to work with what I've got.  

I want to produce, which means that I must produce.  Letting vague feelings of dissatisfaction get in the way of writing might lead to a habit of waiting until I 'feel right' to write, which might eventually grow into full-blown short story block.  I love writing shorts, and I don't want to go a really long time without writing one.  It's incredibly satisfying to write something and have it done in a month (sometimes even in a day!) and a great way to break a pattern of rhythm in a rut that can sometimes form when I'm working on novels, or worse, a single novel, every day all day.  As fun as it is to be immersed in a novel, there's a constant danger of complacency.  When I'm complacent, I'm more forgiving and apt to overlook things.  It's much more fun to work on a short story for a while and come back to the novel than to do the only other thing I've found to break the highway hypnosis, and that's to work from the back of the book forward.  I can do it, but I'm not real fond of it.

So that's where I'm at with writing these days.  That and trying to ditch this cold.  Oh, and I have a couple of short stories that are 'overdue.'  I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

June INK

INK tonight in Vancouver! Lovely summer weather, homemade pizza (sorry Rory!), old and new friends, and critiques. Can life get any better?

Go J.D. Salinger!

Snagged from Gurnery Journey, a blog focused on art written by the wonderful creator of Dinotopia.

Want to write a derivative work?  Seriously, think twice.  Do your own stuff.  Someone writing under the pseudonym J.D. California wrote a sequel to "Catcher in the Rye," perhaps not knowing that J.D. Salinger not only is alive and kicking, but litigious.  So now there's a lawsuit.  Even if J.D. Salinger wasn't so inclined, really, do you want to hazard the chance of something like this happening to you?

I wonder if pseudo-California has ever heard of the term fanfic.

Maybe you're lucky enough that you feel your heart and soul is inspired by a work that happens to be in the public domain.  Good.  And yet, wouldn't it be better to rename the characters, twist the setting in a direction that resonates with your plot (or do some research and deepen the setting in a way the original author didn't explore) and let the characters grow with the challenges you place before them ... in short, writing an original work inspired by the book?  You'll have something that's completely your own, and by the time you finish revising and restructuring and hammering out the details of your world, I doubt anyone will recognize what you've done.  Plus, people may notice the tone or themes or characterization and nicely note that the work "is reminiscent of the works of J.D. Salinger, but with a present-day edge informed by the politics of 21st century Sweden."

I wish Mr. Salinger well.  

Now I'm curious to see how the whole Potato Day (Stephanie Meyer fanfic Fail that I won't link to so that it reduces traffic) thing is doing.  Hmm ... looks like she altered her page to be in Español.  Does she think this will save her?  I thought she would fade away after being met with lawyerly threats, but it seems she persists.  I think she wants to get sued for $100,000 and spend time in jail.  Weee!  She's got to be one of those people who believe that if nothing bad has happened yet, it won't.  Wow.  The fail, it burns!

Beneath Ceaseless Skies

My short fantasy, "Thistles and Barley," is up on Beneath Ceaseless Skies #18 (June 2009.)  I'm very pleased to be in the same issue as Renee Stern, a Seattle-ish author and member of the very kewl Fairwood Writers.  

I met Renee at CascadiaCon, the same event where I met Jay Lake for the first time.  Quibblers may say something about 'met for the first time' as being redundant, but at conventions, people meet over and over again until finally they actually recognize each other.  For quite a few years I played a fun game with one wonderful author in particular, where I would introduce myself to him and, without any cues like "we met at OryCon," see if he recognized me at all--didn't have to be my name.  A double-take, "didn't I see you somewhere before?" or even a ruffled brow would have counted, at which point I would 'fess up.  He was particularly bad with names and faces, and so I was able to enjoy meeting him as if for the first time for quite a few years before he did finally recognize me.

But I digress.  Renee has been very kind to me.  She works hard to create opportunities for new writers to meet other writers and workshop their manuscripts.  If you're planning to go a Seattle convention, be sure to look for the opportunities Fairwood Writers creates.  Remember, deadlines for things like writers workshops come long before the convention begins, so don't dilly-dally before searching for information about writer-oriented events.

Beneath Ceaseless Skies is a free magazine.  If you like reading fantasy shorts, please subscribe, and spread the word.  It's getting good reviews.  By the way, there's a review of each issue in the Internet Review of Science Fiction by Lois Tilton in her short fiction review column.  It appears that next month (July 2009) it'll be my turn.  Gulp.  If Ms. Tilton's tastes align with your own, the column could be a great resource as a what-to-read guide.