Shauna Roberts' For Love Of Words

The Weird Questionnaire

2011-12-19T16:23:00.000-08:00

I found this questionnaire at the blog Weird Fiction Review and thought it would be interesting to do as a post here.

Translator Edward Gauvin produced this version based on Éric Poindron's French-language Étrange Questionnaire, which was inspired by the Proust Questionnaire.

1 – Write the first sentence of a novel, short story, or book of the weird yet to be written.
Hetta awoke to discover that not only had she birthed two cubs during her winter hibernation but also the larger cub had already discovered the cache of educational materials Hetta had prepared the previous fall and stood, nose to screen, watching and smelling an instructional video on salmon.

2 – Without looking at your watch: what time is it?
10:05 p.m.

3 – Look at your watch. What time is it?
10:02 p.m.

4 – How do you explain this — or these — discrepancy(ies) in time?
I usually have no idea what time or even what day it is, so I am surprised that I have no discrepancy to explain.

5 – Do you believe in meteorological predictions?
Sometimes.

6 – Do you believe in astrological predictions?
No.

7 – Do you gaze at the sky and stars by night?
Rarely. Light pollution where I live makes most stars invisible.

8 – What do you think of the sky and stars by night?
In the country, where it truly gets dark, the sky is huge and magnificent and awe-inspiring at night. Being in such a place reminds me of my childhood, when I could hear the angels sing in the silence.

9 – What were you looking at before starting this questionnaire?
The editing work I should be doing instead of answering this questionnaire.

10 – What do cathedrals, churches, mosques, shrines, synagogues, and other religious monuments inspire in you?
The music makes me believe in the divine. Costly furnishings usually inspire anger that some of the purchase price wasn’t given to the poor instead.

11 – What would you have “seen” if you’d been blind?
If I’d been blind, I would have seen nothing. Whether I would have “seen” anything, I do not know; I am unfamiliar with the notion.

12 – What would you want to see if you were blind?
Roses.

13 – Are you afraid?
Every so often.

14 – What of?
Rubber bands. Homeland Security checkpoints at airports. Helplessness.

15 – What is the last weird film you’ve seen?
I don’t remember. I rarely see films.

16 – Whom are you afraid of?
No one that I can think of.

17 – Have you ever been lost?
I get lost several times a month.

18 – Do you believe in ghosts?
Sorta.

19 – What is a ghost?
I don’t know.

20 – At this very moment, what sound(s) can you here, apart from the computer?
The faint sound of a houseguest watching TV in another room.

21 – What is the most terrifying sound you’ve ever heard – for example, “the night was like the cry of a wolf”?’’
The sound of a dog screaming in pain while I searched for it and could not find it.

22 – Have you done something weird today or in the last few days?
No.

23 – Have you ever been to confession?
No.

24 – You’re at confession, so confess the unspeakable.
You wish.

25 –Without cheating: what is a “cabinet of curiosities”?
A curio cabinet that contains oddities instead of the usual china, glassware, knickknacks brought home from trips, and odd gifts from relatives that one has to display. Cabinets of curiosities were popular in the 19th century.

26 –Do you believe in redemption?
Very much so.

27 – Have you dreamed tonight?
No; I haven’t gone to bed yet.

28 – Do you remember your dreams?
Rarely.

29 – What was your last dream?
I don’t remember.

30 – What does fog make you think of?
Happiness, mystery, clouds. How lovely New Orleans is in the early morning.

31 – Do you believe in animals that don’t exist?
Definitely. During my lifetime, several creatures that were thought to be mythical or extinct have been found. It seems likely that other "nonexistent" creatures in fact are still around somewhere.

32 – What do you see on the walls of the room where you are?
Lots and lots of books and Zuni fetish carvings in the built-in bookcases; a framed ceramic tile decorated with a reproduction of a Hittite design; paintings by (a) Australian aborigines, (b) the ex-husband of a friend, and (c) New Mexico artist Jim Alford; and art from sf/f cons.

33 – If you became a magician, what would be the first thing you’d do?
Be extremely careful what I wish for.

34 – What is a madman?
Someone who has lost touch with reality; sometimes, someone who sees reality when those around them see an illusion.

35 – Are you mad?
Rarely by my first definition; fairly often by my second definition.

36 – Do you believe in the existence of secret societies?
Of course.

37 – What was the last weird book you read?
I can't think of any because weirdness is defined relative to normalcy. I live a life so statistically unlikely that it's rare I read a book more bizarre than my life.

38 – Would you like to live in a castle?
Yes.

39 – Have you seen something weird today?
Yes—a beautiful photograph that made me catch my breath.

40 – What is the weirdest film you’ve ever seen?
“Don’t Look Now” with Donald Sutherland.

41 – Would you like to live in an abandoned train station?
Definitely!

42 – Can you see the future?
No.

43 – Have you considered living abroad?
Yes.

44 – Where?
Wales, Italy, Istanbul.

45 – Why?
Because I want a deeper, richer experience of some places than a visit provides.

46 – What is the weirdest film you’ve ever owned?
My husband owns lots of strange, violent Asian movies. We live in a community-property state, so I assume they belong to me as well.

47 – Would you liked to have lived in a vicarage?
Yes.

48 – What is the weirdest book you’ve ever read?
I don’t remember its name. I read it perhaps twenty years ago. It was a poorly written humorous fantasy romance with many gruesome sections. I think of it often when I write as a reminder to match my tone to my material.

49 – Which do you like better, globes or hourglasses?
Hourglasses.

50 – Which do you like better, antique magnifying glasses or bladed weapons?
That’s a hard one, but I’ll say bladed weapons.

51 – What, in all likelihood, lies in the depths of Loch Ness?
Warm-blooded, medium-sized hadrosaurs. Also, mud.

52 – Do you like taxidermied animals?
Very much so, although I feel guilty about it.

53 – Do you like walking in the rain?
Not usually.

54 – What goes on in tunnels?
Subways run and sometimes get stuck, and the passengers scream when the lights go out. Cars drive and sometimes explode in terrible fireballs. Spelunkers squeeze through looking for new caverns.

55 – What do you look at when you look away from this questionnaire?
Books, knickknacks, a snow globe my grandfather got in New York City in the 1960s.

56 – What does this famous line inspire in you: “And when he had crossed the bridge, the phantoms came to meet him.”?
A desire to write the story that accompanies that line.

57 – Without cheating: where is that famous line from?
It’s famous? Huh. Are you sure? I never heard of it. I will pretend it isn’t famous so that I can write its story anyway.

58 – Do you like walking in graveyards or the woods by night?
Yes; I like the solitude and the silence and the soft, swishy noises that occasionally interrupt the stillness. Also, it brings back pleasant memories—of how as a child I often played at the edge of a woods at night, catching fireflies, looking at stars, and daydreaming; of how I played in graveyards as a child and teen, wondering about the people who were buried there.

58 – Write the last line of a novel, short story, or book of the weird yet to be written.
The girl stood on the dirt road and sucked her thumb, watching the last of the wraiths depart.

59 – Without looking at your watch: what time is it?
11:00 p.m.

60 – Look at your watch. What time is it?
11:06 p.m.

If you decide to do this questionnaire at your blog, Jeff VanderMeer invites you to let Weird Fiction Review know:

Neddal Ayad just told me peeps can send him their answers as a .doc or .docx or links to their replies on their blogs to wingandclaw (at) gmail DOT com. He’ll compile them and format them and we’ll have a nice feature for WFR.com for January.

Los Angeles appearance

2011-11-20T10:44:00.000-08:00

I will be at the Los Angeles Science Fiction Convention (LOScon) this Friday, 25 November. I speak on the panel "10 Beginning Writing Mistakes and How to Avoid Them" from noon to 2 pm; I sign copies of Like Mayflies in a Stream from 3:00 pm to whenever the next scheduled author shows up; and I will be on the panel "Short, Short Stories" (about writing ultraflash fiction) from 4:30 pm to 5:30 pm. I hope to see you there.

Read the first chapter of Like Mayflies in a Stream for free!

2011-10-25T22:12:00.000-07:00

I've just posted the first chapter of my novel Like Mayflies in a Stream at my Website at http://www.shaunaroberts.com/releases/release/8327699/24084.htm.

This stand-alone chapter, entitled "Protector of Gazelles," takes place approximately 4750 years at a water hole in the desert of Sumer (present-day southern Iraq). It tells the story of the boy who would one day be Enkidu the wild man, companion of King Gilgamesh of Uruk.

Enjoy!

On hiatus

2011-08-05T20:49:00.000-07:00

I will be posting only rarely to this blog for a while. My brain is full of ideas for stories and novels, and I'm eager to get them down on paper and out into the world.

In the meantime, I continue to blog about writing-related topics twice a month at Novel Spaces at http://NovelSpaces.blogspot.com on the 6th and 21st of each month. Please visit me and my fellow Novelnauts there.

If you're interested in what I'm publishing, please visit my Webpage at http://www.ShaunaRoberts.com. My newest book will be on the home page. A list of my stories from oldest to newest can be found here, and sporadically I update my news page here.

May your life be full of sparkly surprises and love until I return.

Writing goals 2011

2011-02-02T18:17:00.000-08:00

It was on my do-list for this week to make my list of writing goals for 2011; obviously, I was way behind on this task. I also haven't blogged in a while. I looked at the clock and realized there was little time left in the workday. What to do, what to do?

I decided to kill two birds with one stone by making my list of goals and then posting them to my blog for comments and questions.

Writing Goals 2011

✑ I will submit something for critiquing for every critique group meeting.

✑ I will fix up the stories I wrote at Clarion and submit them to appropriate markets.

✑ I will write at least six new short stories. Some will target anthologies and others will target SFWA-qualifying markets.

✑ I will attend the Historical Novel Society meeting in San Diego (June), World Fantasy Con in San Diego (October), and LOScon in Los Angeles (Thanksgiving weekend). My goals will be (1) networking; (2) reconnecting with writers I already know; (3) signing Like Mayflies in a Stream (all conferences); and volunteering to moderate a session (WFC, LOScon) and sit on a panel (all conferences).

✑ I will continue marketing Like Mayflies in a Stream by signing books in New Orleans (April), at the Cairo Caravan Belly Dance Festival in Long Beach (June), and at the three writers conferences I’m going to.

✑ I will study how to write poetry. I will write and market some of my own.

✑ I will complete the first draft of my new novel.

✑ I will stop most of the volunteer work I do for organizations I belong to and not volunteer for anything new. Writing must be Priority #1.

I started my 2011 list by opening my list for 2010 and renaming the file. As I looked over last year's goals, I was pleased to see that I had met more than I had realized. (My goal list fell off the wall midway through the year and I've been in the dark about my progress since.) Some of 2010's goals reappear on the new list; "submit something for critiquing every month" is always one of my yearly writing goals. Two ambitious goals on the 2011 list did not appear on last year's list: finish the first draft of a novel, and write and submit poetry.

This is a more ambitious goal list than usual. It will be a challenge to accomplish most of the items, and I wish I had gotten around to making the list in December as I usually do. Now I'm already in catch-up mode. Perhaps that's not so bad; it's energizing and exciting to see the things I want to do down on paper, and the lateness of the list adds some pressure to get busy!

Do you put together a list of writing goals every year? How often do you meet your goals? What other kinds of plans do you make for your writing at the start of the year?

Books read in 2010: stats

2011-01-12T08:01:00.000-08:00

I didn't read many books this year compared with the years since I started keeping track of what I read.

Here's how the stats break down:

• I read 44 [wince] books total.

• 11 books (25%) were written by people I know.

• 5 books (14%) had something to do with Turkey.

• 13 books (30%) were first books (to my knowledge).

• 7 books (16%) were recommended by friends.

• 4 books (9%) were self-published.

• 10 books (23%)were published by micro- and small presses.

• 31 books were fiction (70%).

• 13 books were nonfiction (30%).

• Of the 31 fiction books,
—20 were fantasy, of which 7 were short story collections.
—5 were romances
—2 were classics
—1 was a mystery
—1 was a Western
—1 was literary fiction
—1 was suspense

• Of the 13 nonfiction books,
—4 were on Oriental rugs
—2 were self-help
—2 were on writing
—1 was a memoir
—1 was on Ottoman music
—1 was on "hobbits" (Homo floresiensis)

• I read 5 books (11%) on Kindle and the rest on paper.

I hope your reading year turned out more prolific than mine. I always hear that to be a writer, one must read, read, read. And I would like to read, read, read because it's one of my favorite things to do. But where to find the time without getting even more unhealthily sleep deprived than I already am?

How was 2010 for your reading? And do you have any advice for carving out time from writing and chores for pleasure and work-related reading?

Recent writing news

2011-01-05T08:00:00.000-08:00

My fantasy Christmas flash story "Global Warming" was published a couple of days ago at the online magazine 10Flash. You can read it for free here.

And as long as you're at 10Flash, why not check out Robin Graves' flash story, "Unlimited Delta," which can be found here. Robin is in my Orange County, California, critique group, and this is his first published story. Yay, Robin!

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The blog The Embraced: Scribal Love published an interview with me this week. You can find it here.

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Clare Dargin of The Embraced: Scribal Love gave me a "Versatile Blogger" award, which comes with some rules:

1. Share 7 things about yourself

2. Pass The Award to 15 bloggers recently discovered (or however many you can manage).

3. Notify the blogger recipients.

4. Link The blogger who gave the award.

Thank you, Clare!

Here are seven things about me, most of which I've not mentioned online before:

My mother never let me babysit; she thought the house could burn down around me and I wouldn't notice because I would be engrossed in a book.
Of the people whom I consider my ten closest friends, the youngest is 24 and the oldest is in her 80s.
If I could be any animal I chose, my first choice would be some kind of hawk. My second choice would be a black bear.
I spend on average ten to fifteen minutes a day looking for things I've misplaced.
I spend four hours a week in bellydance classes. That's fewer hours than my classmates spend, so I'm close to the worse dancer in all those classes.
The Riverside (California) Art Museum has a picture of one of my tattoos on display.

My time is short this week, so I'll post my own nominations for the "Versatile Blogger" award another week.

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I am eligible this year and next for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. If you are eligible to vote for a Hugo, you are eligible to nominate people and vote for finalists for the Campbell Award. (Last year, I believe, you could vote for your five favorite new writers and later vote for one finalist.)

My name (and associated page) is not up at the Campbell Award Website yet, but it should be soon. I would greatly appreciate your vote if you believe I am among the best of the eligible new writers.

Also, if you are an SFWA member, please consider nominating "The Hunt" for the Nebula in the novelette category. (You may nominate as many as five works in each category.) You can read the story in the SFWA Member Fiction area of the SFWA discussion forum (here). If you were a Jim Baen's Universe subscriber, you may be able to log in and see the story in the February 2010 issue. (The magazine has gone under, and many of the Webpages have been dismantled.)

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Coming soon:

* next week: 2010 reading stats
* soon: the bloggers I nominate for the Versatile Blogger award
* author interviews with Kimberly Todd Wade and Valerie Frankel

The art of the holiday letter

2010-12-15T20:57:00.000-08:00

It's the time of year when people sit down to write a letter to someone far away. No, I'm not talking about Santa. Rather, I mean the letter some people enclose with their holiday greetings.

Some people hate getting holiday letters, particularly photocopied ones.

Others—like me—love them.

I love seeing how people's children have grown and changed, finding out about people's new hobbies and adventures they've had, and reconnecting with people who live far away. I feel so disappointed when I tear open the envelope of a holiday card and find nothing on the card but a signature, unless it's from a friend I communicate with often.

I've been preparing our holiday letter this week and so have been thinking about one should include and what one should leave out, which led to the creation of this set of guidelines:

How to Write a Holiday Letter or Note That Shauna Will Enjoy

DO include at least one family photo.

DO mention important news, such as a new home, a new job, a new spouse, a new child, or a new serious illness or surgery in the family. Don't forget divorces and deaths. It's embarrassing to meet up with a mutual acquaintance and learn from them that your house burned down, you were widowed, you changed your sex, or your dog was Queen of the Barkus parade.

DO update news left unresolved in last year's letter. If your cat was missing in last year's letter, in this year's letter I'd like to find out whether she ever came home.

DO give a specific detail or two for each event you mention. For example, for our vacation this year, which was a long weekend in Long Beach, I mentioned that we stayed on the Queen Mary ship, which has been partly restored, and that we went to the aquarium, which had many rays, some of which visitors were allowed to touch.

DON'T include political rants. I already see too many of those on Facebook and in my email.

DO tell me about your children and grandchildren and remind me what grade they're in now.

DON'T limit your news to "important" things. If you've started growing rare varieties of pansies or taken up the bagpipes or snake handling, I'd enjoy hearing about it and seeing pictures.

DO include the full and correct names of your new books and CDs. If they're not available on Amazon.com, please tell me how to find them. Modesty stops being a virtue when it forces your friends to spend a lot of time tracking down your stuff.

Are you a holiday note lover like me, or do you say, "Bah, Humbug!" when you open a Christmas card and a letter drops out? How do you think holiday letters could be improved?

World Fantasy Con: Panels

2010-12-07T14:10:00.000-08:00

In addition to Mary Robinette Kowal's talk on "How to Give an Effective Reading," which I mentioned in an earlier WFC 2010 post and which she expands on at her Website here, I attended six panels. Here are some of the points made and opinions voiced.

Before proceeding, I invite you to get a snack and something to drink and find a comfy place to sit, because this is a long post (but easy to skim, if you prefer).

Fantasy as a Rejection of the Present, Walter Jon Williams, Theodora Goss, Nancy Jane Moore

J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis were living in a war era; they were living in an unsatisfactory present, so in their writing they looked back to a more appealing era.
Daniel Abrahams was quoted as saying that genre fiction addresses some particular anxiety and fixes it. In sf, the fear is, "oh, God, won't anything ever change?" A panelist suggested that the core fear in fantasy is, "oh, God, won't things stop changing?"
The Victorian Era is a time of rapid change, the beginning of modernity, with advertising, modern manufacturing techniques, women riding bicycles, and other shocking innovations. It was also an era of design nostalgia; people were building many Gothic buildings. (I'll strengthen their point by adding that there was also a revival of Renaissance design in building and that both Gothic and Renaissance elements were strong in American and English furniture. French furniture of the time also copied styles from the past, particularly the eras of Henri II, Louis XIV, and Louis XV.)
The 1990s was a time of nostalgia for earlier forms of sf.
Some writers may reject the past as any better than the present and instead look for alternatives by creating new futures.

The Fairy Tale as a Specific Form, Gabe Dybing, Delia Sherman, Leah Bobet, James Dorr, Terri-Lynne DeFino

In the mid-18th century, there were French, English, and German versions of "Bluebeard" with the same plot but different details and meanings.
Every culture has its own tale structure and rhythm, even though the stories are often similar.
Sherman said that many tales are unknown today because they conflict with our cultural values. These include stories in which children have agency, stories in which women have agency (such as rescuing their boyfriends), and stories from nondominant cultures.
Jane Yolen wrote modern fairy tales that were new, not retellings, such as "The Girl Who Cried Flowers." Like traditional fairly tales, these took place in unclear places and times. By being detailess, they become universal.
Dorr suggested that anyone writing modern fairy tales will probably draw elements (archetypes?) from various old tales.
What is a fairy tale? All fairy tales are about survival. Most involve people entering a world whose rules they don't understand. DeFino said that at its core, a fairy tale is a moral wrapped in a story. Bobet said that all good stories have a kernel of moral.
Sherman said that the difference between a myth and a fairy tales is that myths deal with large issues and fairy tales with smaller issues. She also said that the mythical tale follows the hero's journey.
Are fairy tales fantasy? This discussion was a little muddy, so I'm not sure whether the panel reached a conclusion or agreement. If you attended this panel, please comment on what you thought they decided.

The Story Cycle vs. The Novel, Suzy Charnas, Scott James Magner, L.E. Modesit, Dennis McKiernan, Mette Ivie Harrison

The panelists were uncertain whether they were supposed to be discussing different kinds of book series or comparing novels with single books that collect related stories. Most of the panel consisted of definitions and examples given by each panelist.

Charnas said that in a story cycle, each story in the book can stand alone and pointed out (as did some other panelists) that a story cycle sometimes starts as separate short stories that are later combined into a single book.
McKiernan defined a story cycle as a long series of novels with the same characters and said that a story cycle requires an overarching theme. In terms of single books, he said that a novel has one ending, but each story in a story cycle has its own ending.
Harrison agreed that each story in a story cycle can stand alone and that the author, when combining them, may need to write new stories to fill gaps in chronology. She thinks story cycles are more literary and doesn't think they sell as well.
Modesitt said that a story cycle builds to a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. A story collection is merely the sum of its parts.

The Continued Viability of Epic Fantasy, Blake Charlton, John Fultz, David Coe, David Drake, Freda Warrington

This was the panel I was most interested in and took the most notes on.

Definitions of epic fantasy

Fultz: Epic fantasy is big in scale and scope, whereas sword and sorcery is more individual.
Coe: Epic fantasy takes place on an alternate world and has an extended arc (multiple books) and numerous plot threads
Charlton: Epic fantasy does not have to do with saving the world—although he admits that he had trouble selling an epic fantasy that didn't involve world saving.

Is epic fantasy viable?
Drake pointed out that 72,000 hardcopies of the new Brandon Sanderson–Robert Jordan "Wheel of Time series have been sold. He said this proved that epic fantasy was viable and everyone could adjourn to the bar.

But what about new writers?

Coe argued that a long-running series may not reflect the viability of first books of epic fantasy. He asked whether new writers need a different structure.
Warrington: Writers need to adhere to at least some stereotypes of fantasy. She said that new authors often get a publisher push for only the first volume of a series. In response, she now writes stand-alone novels that are related but do not need to be read in order.
Charlton: He has only one book of epic fantasy out so far. He wants his books to be like a pebble skipping and touching down across a river so that they are related but independent.

Current trends

"Chihuahua-killing fantasy"—books that could kill a small dog if dropped on it—is out. At Tor, they want shorter epics than in the past. Coe said his first book in the mid-1990s was 200,000 words; his current epic fantasy is coming closer to 100,000.
To keep books shorter, authors are cutting the number of plot lines or viewpoint characters.
In contrast to Tor, the length of Baen's military sf books depends on each author.
In Britain, the market is smaller, has a more limited range of types of books, is less open minded, and less tolerant, according to Warrington.
So far, epic fantasy has not sold well in graphic novel form.
The drive against "chihuahua killers" has come from Barnes and Noble and Borders. They have a fixed number of pockets in their stores, and as a result they can stock and sell more small books than big books.
Epic fantasy is doing better now than five years ago.

For another, more amusing take on this panel, see Heather Albano's blogpost of 11 November.

Sword and Sorcery, Scott Andrews, Martha Wells, Howard Jones, Patricia Bray, Jonathan Oliver

The panel first differentiated between Tolkienesque "high" fantasy and S+S, saying that S+S:

is faster paced
uses middle- and lower-class characters instead of royalty
contains fewer characters and less politics
has more adventure
is more fun

They then examined the appeal of S+S, which they said derived from its:

better accessibility than long epic fantasy
fun factor
tendency to draw the reader in immediately
cool worldbuilding in places you probably wouldn't want to go
ability to be "brain candy" when a reader is in the mood for something quick and easy
more-experienced heroes
grittier nature
sense of wonder

S+S has evolved over the years. Today, you can find in S+S:

more female characters
new settings such as Africa and China
nonwhite main characters
more multilayered humor
no right-wing politics (Readers, do you agree?)

The most controversial part of the panel was its list of current S+S practitioners, and I'm curious whether my blog readers think these authors should be categorized as sometimes writing S+S: Terry Pratchett, James Enge, [somebody] Ambrose, Nathan Long, C.L. Werner, Holly Phillips, Chris Willrich, Barbara Hambly, Saladin Ahmed, Michael Moorecock, Gay Sieboldt, and Carl Edward Wagner.

Among S+S authors who have not received enough attention, they listed Richard Ford, Harold Lamb, Clark Ashton [Smith], Charles Saunders, Tanith Lee, and Barry Hughart.

They listed Beneath Ceaseless Skies and Black Gate as the magazines friendliest to S+S stories.

If you're interested in the definition of S+S, I recommend this long post at SF Signal for a range of definitions from writers and editors.

Hang on, Faithful Reader, only one more panel to go!

The Moral Distance between the Author and the Work, Eric Flint, Nancy Kress, Kathy Cramer, Jack Skillingstead, Paul Witcover, Scot Edelman

This panel dealt with ethical questions such as, Is it moral to read books by immoral people? Does it matter whether the book is good or bad? Fiction or nonfiction? What if the text has no trace of the immorality of the author (that is, it has a lot of moral distance)? They started by defining the concept of moral distance, which means how closely the moral views of the character mirror those of the author.

Different panelists had somewhat different views, but the general consensus was that there's no reason to criticize adults for reading whatever they want to read:

Kress: Everyone should read whatever they want to read without regard for the character of the author.
Flint: He agreed, but added that it makes a difference to him whether the book is fiction or nonfiction.
Edelman: There are a lot of books in the world, so one doesn't have to read an author one considers immoral. (Does that mean he sees no value for anyone in reading, say, Mein Kampf? That didn't come up.)
Cramer: She pointed out that great artists such as Picasso and Degas used prostitutes as models, and some were underage, but no one cares. In the art and painting world, moral distance is a nonissue.
Flint: If someone doesn't read your books because of your politics, your response should be, "Screw you."
Kress: The character is not the author.

Flint and Kress brought up the issue of suppression. There has been social pressure, for instance, not to allow Harry Potter books in schools. Both of them believe that no one should draw the line of what is moral and immoral to read for others. However, the panelists conceded that this stance gets murky when the reader is a child, and the discussion explicitly focused on adult readers after that.

Lastly, the panelists discussed how much of the creator goes into the creation. They concluded that an author's body of work gives you some idea of his or her character; a single piece can't. Sometimes, as in the case of H.P. Lovecraft, the author's moral failing (xenophobia in Lovecraft's case) is what the reader enjoys about the author's work. They also emphasized that readers need to take into account their chronological distance from the author; one has to look at the work through the lens of the morals of the time.

Kress concluded by saying that there are two types of readers:

Readers who want to read only things that confirm their beliefs
Readers who are willing to have their beliefs challenged and their world view expanded

For those who didn't get enough WFC atmosphere and dispersed wisdom from my posts, here are a few other places to read about WFC 2010:
Heather Albano here (registration), here (fantasy gun control), here (epic fantasy), and here (meeting a favorite author).
John DeNardo at SFSignal.com
Mark R. Kelly at LOCUS online
Nancy Kress here, here, here, and here
Emily Jiang here and here

Why you should apply to the Clarion Workshop this year

2010-12-02T22:42:00.000-08:00

As of 1 December, the Clarion Science Fiction and Writers' Workshop opened to applications for the class of 2011.

Here's the official announcement:

Clarion is widely recognized as a premier training ground for aspiring writers of fantasy and science fiction short stories. The 2011 writers in residence are Nina Kiriki Hoffman, John Scalzi, Elizabeth Bear, David Anthony Durham, John Kessel, and Kij Johnson. Each year 18 students, ranging in age from late teens to those in mid-career, are selected from applicants who have the potential for highly successful writing careers. Students are expected to write several new short stories during the six-week workshop, and to give and receive constructive criticism. Instructors and students reside together in University of California at San Diego campus apartments throughout the intensive six-week program.

Application period: December 1 – March 1. Applicants must submit two short stories with their application.

Workshop: June 26 – August 6, 2011. http://clarion.ucsd.edu

So why should you consider applying?

You'll learn how to critique other people's writing and thus your own.
Your writing will improve amazingly.
You'll make several friends for life.
You get to spend six weeks on a tree-filled campus immersed in writing—no cooking, no chores, no noisy children or demanding pets, nothing at all to prevent you from living and breathing writing.
You'll have the most fun one can possibly have while being severely sleep deprived.
You'll find out whether you truly want to be a writer.
Being a Clarion grad opens doors for you and gives you a professional connection to dozens of professional sf/f writers (and writers in some other genres as well).
Your life will change forever.

Yes, Clarion is pricey—nearly $5000 this year. (That includes tuition, private room in a three-person apartment with kitchen, Internet service, and three meals per day at the dining hall, as well as a parking pass if you take your car.) Some scholarships are available.

However, if you truly want to be a professional or semiprofessional writer, Clarion is worth the money. In essence, it leapfrogs you and your career several years ahead of where you'd be otherwise. And if you discover that the writing life is not for you, then you can stop wasting time writing and get on with what you should be doing with your life.

If you have any questions about Clarion, feel free to post them in the comments or email me at ShaunaRoberts [at] ShaunaRoberts [dot] com.

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Coming soon:

final report on World Fantasy Con 2010 (yes, really, truly)
author interviews with Kimberly Todd Wade and Valerie Frankel

Interview with debut fantasy author Terri-Lynne DeFino

2010-11-14T16:28:00.000-08:00

Terri-Lynne DeFino’s first novel, Finder (Hadley Rille Books) debuted in November. This adventure fantasy tells the story of a young man with a talent for finding lost things and the runaway slave a client hires him to find.

Welcome, Terri, and congratulations on the release of Finder!

Thanks, Shauna! It’s a pleasure to be here.

What genres do you read most? Who are your favorite authors?

In the past, I read fantasy almost exclusively, which is why I joined a book club seven years ago. It forced me to open up my reading habits to include some great stuff being published that I’d have never known about.

For my favorite fantasy writers, there are way too many. I’ll stick to those whose books I will buy when they come out, without even knowing what they’re about first: Jane Yolen, Guy Gavriel Kay, Patricia McKillip, Robert Holdstock (before his demise), and C.C. Finlay. I’m trying to steer clear of friends! But I have to add Kimberly Dahl Vandervort in here, because I loved her work before I loved her! And I’ll read anything she writes.

As for mainstream, I only have two authors who qualify to the above criteria: Jonathan Safran Foer and Tracy Chevalier. They have yet to disappoint.

Are there certain themes or topics you’re drawn to in your writing?

I am a sucker for redemption. Give me that grand sacrifice, that big moment of gut-wrenching change, and I’m mush. I am also driven to include women’s issues and the injustices with which we are too often (and still) facing.

What writers have had the greatest influence on you?

When I was a child, Rahl Dahl was a huge influence. I was a dreamy sort of kid. His work spoke to me on a level most adults didn’t. I trusted him completely.

Lois Lowry taught me the power of words, of how they can evoke strong emotion without flourish and word acrobatics. (The Giver)

Guy Gavriel Kay taught me that good and evil depends upon whose eyes one is looking out of. (Tigana)

The biggest influence, however, has to be Jane Yolen. Most of what I have of her work is in the form of children’s picture books. I used to read to several classrooms at the local elementary school. Her books held clutches of small children in rapt attention. It was like watching a spell being cast, and when I closed the book, that moment of perfect silence before the children came back to themselves. THAT is magic. That is the magic of words.

How important have your writing friends been in your development as a writer?

Wow. They’ve been integral to my development as a writer. I’ve never had much luck with in-person writing groups here at home. I attended a writer’s retreat back in 2002 that turned into a yearly retreat that continues to this day. My Viable Paradise tribe has been the backbone of my writing life since 2006. We’re a community of writers that I couldn’t possibly function without.

And then there is Livejournal. I’ve met some really amazing writers there, and in fact, without Livejournal, I’d not have been following Kim Vandervort’s blog during her publishing process with Hadley Rille Books. And now I have my Hadley Rille Books family, people I count on, who count on me. I can’t even fathom how I ever got along outside of a writing community. Now I have three!

One thing I really enjoyed about the book is that the second half of the book takes place eighteen years after the first half, allowing us to see how the choices the characters made worked out and how these choices changed them. How did you come up with the idea to do that?

The original question was whether, in the end, Ethen could really turn Zihariel in for the rest of his money? I knew the answer, and how it would come about, but that answer didn’t lead to a conclusion so much as another question: So what happens then?

The consequences of Ethen and Zihariel’s decision is the real story, and that came as somewhat of a surprise to me during that planning phase.

In Finder, one of the characters says: “…life is a spiral of events that comes around again and again but never the same way twice.” That describes the book pretty accurately, I think.

What is your writing regimen? Would you recommend it to aspiring authors?

I write from 9:30–2:30 every weekday. There’s laundry mixed in there, the occasional cat-wrangling to oversee, but I stick to that schedule pretty strictly. It’s easier now that my kids are grown and I don’t have mom duties mixed in, but when they were younger, I stuck to that schedule unless something came up. If they were in school, I was at my computer. Mom shift started when they got home and didn’t end until they were in bed. Now, my time is my own. I know this makes me freakishly lucky. Most writers I know squeeze in an hour here, an hour there—if they’re lucky.

What I recommend to aspiring writers is this—write. A paragraph. A page. Whatever you have the time and the brain power to put out, just do it. If you’re spending that spare hour noodling around online because an hour isn’t enough to get anything done, well—you’re never going to get anything done.

Do you have any other advice for my readers who are working on their first novels?

I do—and it’s this: It’s all about the story, not you. Don’t be afraid to edit. Your words are not sacred. Always accept criticism graciously. You don’t have to agree, but it will help you understand how others are seeing your work.
Also—write a second book. And a third. And a fifth. The chances of your first book being the one to sell aren’t all that great. Finder is—are you ready for it—my 24th manuscript. Yes, you read that right. I wrote 23 books that never saw the light of day before this one. I consider them my education. Finder is my diploma.

Do you have another book in the works?

Yes! A Time Never Lived, the sequel to Finder.

I’m happy you could visit my blog today, Terri! Good luck with Finder and your future books.

Thanks, Shauna!

You can learn more about Terri and Finder by visiting her her blog at http://bogwitch64.livejournal.com/. Finder is available online from Amazon.com (hardcover, trade paperback, Kindle), Barnes and Noble (hardcover, trade paperback), and Hadley Rille Books.

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Hadley Rille Books' fifth anniversary celebration is still going on, and there's still time to enter to win a Kindle 3G. Also, if you buy any title from Hadley Rille Books directly from its Website before the end of December, you'll get 10% off and and free shipping. For more details, see my blog post of 14 October.

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Coming soon:

* final report on World Fantasy Con 2010
* info on applying to Clarion 2011
* author interview with historical fiction writer Kimberly Todd Wade

World Fantasy Con: tidbits and trends

2010-11-02T13:59:00.000-07:00

Random thoughts and information about the 2010 World Fantasy Con; summaries of sessions to come later.

Biggest inspiration to write more: I found out that my niece, who is majoring in genetics and has a double minor in psychology and English, still finds time to write every day and is doing NaNoWriMo this month.

Biggest awkward moment: Shortly after I and a friend had interrupted Guy Gavriel Kay's dinner to tell him how much we loved his books, I found myself in a "what do I do or say now?" moment, standing by the elevators waiting for an elevator with him. What is the proper follow-up behavior to gushing?

Best news for writers: Although many big publishers are in crash mode, I talked to several spec fic micropublishers who have survived and are expanding. They seem to be looking for a somewhat wider variety of books than the mainstream publishers, too.

Total number of free books: I already took a heavy box of books to the post office, so I can't count them yet, but I would guess about three dozen.

Best free book scored: the new Brandon Sanderson book, The Way of Kings

Free book I most want to read after The Way of Kings: Hell Can Wait by Theodore Judson. This book attracted my attention with the Roman soldier cover and kept it with its back-cover copy about a Roman soldier who finds himself 1800 years in the future trying to survive in modern-day America. This is a publication of mmicropress Edge.

Best career decision ever: Being a Clarion grad gave me credibility and instant rapport with all the Clarion and Clarion West grads I met.

Most discouraging statistic: A slush reader for Clarkesworld magazine said that its six slush readers each get 25 to 30 manuscripts per day to review. The magazine publishes only 12 short stories a year.

Best "I'm really a writer" moment: LOCUS magazine took several pictures of me! (And of many other people too, I have to admit.)

Worst feature of con hotel: One thousand writers on the Internet simultaneously overwhelmed the system and made it as slow as I remember 300 bps modems being.

Worst "I wish I'd known that earlier" moment: The con suite provided free breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. I didn't find out until Saturday night.

Trends:

more steampunk (but not nearly as much more as I expected)
more zombies
fewer vampires
continued darkness in almost all spec fic books
better covers on small and micropress books
more authors at the booksigning
more readers, browsers, and buyers at the booksigning
more panels that dealt partially or entirely with humor
fewer parties than last year

World Fantasy Con: Days 4 and 5

2010-10-31T20:36:00.000-07:00

I mentioned in my last post how I met several interesting people at the booksigning. What I forgot to say was that I also sold several books and gave out bookmarks to people who were interested but not ready to commit. So it was a great signing all around.

My one con obligation for Saturday was to read for 5 minutes as part of the 9:30 pm Broad Universe "rapid reading." I read the scene of Like Mayflies in a Stream in which Shamhat the priestess first attempts to turn Enkidu the wild man into a civilized man by introducing him to bread and beer (two essentials of civilization according to Sumerian thinking). That was fun and good practice to talking in front of people. I was excited to meet two fantasy authors—Elaine Isaak and Carol Berg—whose novels I had read in September and enjoyed.

Saturday I was able to go to several panels, all of which were excellent. I think I'll save discussing them for future posts so that I can go into more detail when I'm less tired.

Some people came up to introduce themselves because they recognized my face from Facebook. Unfortunately, I embarrassed myself by not recognizing two people I've talked to many times on FB. It wasn't my fault, though: Their FB pictures were years out of date, and they no longer looked like their pictures. So if you're wondering what picture to put on your social media sites, consider choosing an up-to-date picture that looks like you.

My husband complained that my World Fantasy Con posts have had typos and misspellings. Please forgive any problems you stumble over.

I skipped going to any parties last night because the BU reading got out so late. I figured I would go to the parties tonight. When tonight came, though, it seemed more important to soak up some solitude and pack my bags so I can leave as early as possible tomorrow morning for the drive to my sister's.

This morning I went to a half-hour talk by Mary Robinette Kowal on how to give a reading. I'm not sure why the con scheduled this talk at the end, after everyone but four people had done their readings. It was a useful talk that will help me with future readings. The information from the talk—and more—is at her Website at http://www.maryrobinettekowal.com/category/reading-aloud/.

I don't usually go to readings, but Saturday I went to some because I knew the people. Paul Park read from a YA book he's writing based on Dungeons & Dragons as a way of interesting his son in his work. Edge Books had a two-hour reading-with-chocolate. I got there for the second hour, just in time to catch two new friends, Andrew Penn Romine and John Nakamura Remy, reading their zombie erotica stories with remarkable aplomb. The stories are in the newly published Rigor Amortis.

This afternoon I dropped off Clarion friends Heather Albano and Leonard Pung at the airport and then took my niece back to Ohio Wesleyan. OWU is about 40 minutes north of Columbus, and I had a beautiful drive through the countryside, which I hope to write about for my blog post at Novel Spaces on 5 November. Afterward I took a long nap, a perfect end to a con that could have only been more perfect if it had lasted longer.

World Fantasy Con: Days 2 and 3

2010-10-29T22:20:00.000-07:00

I wanted to go to panels at this year's con. Really, I did. So far I've made only two. One was on fairy tales and whether one can write modern fairy tales or make up new fairy tales, a question that seemedto boil down to, what is the function of the fairy tale and do we still need that function in the modern world. The other panel was very interesting, but I was sleep deprived and couldn't follow what was going on.

As usual, the bag of books was large, and I've doubled my stash by frequent checks of the reject table. I was so excited to open my bag and find an ARC of Brandon Sanderson's newest novel. I had so much wanted to buy it , but it was $30 or $35, so I decided to wait for the paperback. Still lots of dark fiction this year, but perhaps not as much as usual. Several books I'm veru excited about reading.

I haven't been through the dealer's room yet. I'm hoping to find some cool small press books there. I also haven't been through the art show. I spent much of of Thursday ferrying friends from the airport to the hotel, and today I went up to Ohio Wesleyan U. to pick up my niece, who's interested in being a fantasy writer. I had some commitments today, including the evening mass book signing, so I sent my niece off with some young people I knew and she had a fun time.

I enjoyed the trips. I grew up only 50 miles from here, so the scenery is familiar and conforting. The bitter cold, though, reminds me of a major reason left and never moved back.

The book signing was fun. I chose a good spot and had a good number of people passing by. Several stopped, lured in by the candy, and I had some interesting conversations and met interesting people, including two surprise meeting with Madeleine E. Robins, whose two fantasy novels about a swordswoman in Regency England I love.

I finally finished my obligations about 11:45 pm and headed to some parties in search of chocolate. It was already gone. So now I'm about to go to bed to get a little sleep before I get up early tomorrow morning to start the cycle all over again.

World Fantasy Con: Day –1

2010-10-27T18:25:00.000-07:00

After a short flight and a long flight, I arrived in Columbus, Ohio, and settled into the WFC hotel. The room is decent-sized with a nice view, but it's $9.99 a day for Internet service.

I was hoping to check in and get my registration materials tonight because the con starts tomorrow afternoon, and I'm spending the morning ferrying people from the airport. But the organizers weren't as organized as they expected, so no registration tonight.

I'll at least get unpacked and get a good night's sleep so I can be fresh tomorrow.

I should have more interesting news to report tomorrow.

Interview with literary fiction author Zohreh Ghahremani

2010-10-20T08:00:00.000-07:00

Zohreh “Zoe” Ghahremani’s second novel, her first in English, debuted in September. Sky of Red Poppies (Turquoise Books) is the story of the friendship between two young women coming of age in a politically divided Iran in the 1960s under the rule of the Shah.

Welcome, Zoe, and congratulations on the release of Sky of Red Poppies!

Thank you, Shauna. It is a pleasure to speak with you.

How closely does the story in the novel follow events in your life and your friends’ lives in pre-Revolution Iran?

This novel was inspired by a true story, and I have done my best to stay true to the events. However, it is a work of fiction, and I have colored many of the scenes and events so that the reader will remain interested and not find it too mundane.

Are there certain themes or topics you’re drawn to in your writing?

I love the innocence in my characters and enjoy writing in the voice of people who would not speak for themselves. During the past two decades, we have seen the rise of many good Iranian-American writers, some of whose work have become bestsellers. However, a majority of their novels revolve around personal dilemmas, and stories pertain to the changes brought about by the current regime. I left Iran years before the revolution and don’t share the same experience. Sky of Red Poppies is the story of a friend and the voice of the good people I left behind, a voice that longs to be heard.

What writers have had the greatest influence on you?

I can’t remember at what age I began to read stories, or to write them! All I know is that literature has always been part of me. Among Iranian writers, I’ve always enjoyed Hedayat and more recently, Saidi Sirjani. When I moved to the United States in early 1970s, I was drawn to the work of Anne Tyler, perhaps because we both put character before story?

When you told your husband that you had put your dental practice up for sale and were now going to be a full-time writer, what was his reaction? Do you recommend or discourage this surprise approach? Did you do anything before you stopped practicing dentistry to prepare for your new life as an author?

I’ve always been a writer-poet whose hobby was dentistry! My husband understood this. He also knew that I planned on being a full-time writer at some point, but maybe not so soon. A liberated man, he respects my decisions, even when his right-brain logic rejects them. He adjusted, changed jobs, and moved to California with me!

You write English better than most native English speakers. How did you develop your style and voice? Is it anything like your style and voice in Persian?

I learned English at a young age, but also took some creative writing courses at UCSD to learn the details of writing. I also joined San Diego Writer’s Ink—yes, “Ink” with a “k”—as well as a few read&critique groups for the needed support. However, I write from the heart and think the readers see that, no matter which of my two languages I use. There’s a good Persian poem that says, “A word that comes from the heart, has no choice but to settle into another.” I like to think that my heartfelt words settle in the hearts of readers.

What is your writing regimen? Would you recommend it to aspiring authors?

Only a writer knows how much hard work is involved in the creation of a novel. I write all the hours that I can, that is, when I’m home, when my other work is done, and if that doesn’t leave me enough time, I sleep a few hours less. If you can’t commit to writing, then you need to aim for smaller goals. For years I tried to be a dentist and a writer. Finally I had to choose because I found it impossible to focus on two goals!

Do you have any other advice for my readers who are working on their first novels?

All the inspiring clichés you’ve heard were based on someone’s experience. Keep a few around your work area and let them empower you. Mine was, “Never lose sight of your goal and you’ll be sure to reach it.” How true that is, for I am now living the life I dreamed of when I was only eight!

When will your next novel, The Moon Daughter, come out, and what will it be about?

A very good teacher at Santa Barbara once advised, “Write what you know best!” As an Iranian woman, and a writer who wants to continue to write from the heart, the story once again revolves around what I know best. The Moon Daughter is 350 pages and has two parts. Part one, “Rana’s Story,” is about a woman living in Iran: her childbearing years, her womanizing husband, and her three-daughters-no-sons dilemma! Part two is Yalda’s story, a first-generation Iranian-American woman, having only seen the free world, looking into her mother’s—Rana’s—past and present and questioning her rights. Although this novel deals more with women’s issues, once again I’ve tried to be neutral to headlines and stay away from stereotypes. The Moon Daughter is ready for publication and I expect it to reach bookstores in the summer of 2011.

Zoe, thanks for visiting my blog, and best wishes for the success of Sky of Red Poppies and Moon Daughter.

Thank you, dear Shauna. I appreciate your time and interest. Good readers are what make or break a book. I’m thrilled at the way readers have embraced my Sky of Red Poppies and realize that the time some thought I wasted, was by no means wasted time!

You can learn more about Zoe and Sky of Red Poppies by visiting her Website at http://www.zoeghahremani.com/ and her blog at http://www.zoeghahremani.com/blog1/. Sky of Red Poppies is available online from Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, and Turquoise Books.

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Coming next week: I'll be trying something new: blogging daily from World Fantasy Con in Columbus, Ohio. The days will be busy, but I hope to post something on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (27 to 31 October).

Coming soon: Author interviews with:

* historical fiction writer Kimberly Todd Wade
* fantasy writer Terri-Lynne DeFino

Win a Kindle 3G!

2010-10-14T10:53:00.000-07:00

Hadley Rille Books is celebrating five years as a publisher of sf, fantasy, and historical fiction with a contest and a sale.

The contest prize is an Amazon Kindle 3G, a wireless ebook reader that weighs only 8.7 ounces (less than a paperback book), has a battery life of up to a month, can hold as many as 3,500 books, and has free 3G wireless. It retails for $189.00, but one lucky registrant will win one on 1 January 2011.

To enter to win the Kindle, please see the rules here: http://www.hadleyrillebooks.com/contestrules.html

During the sale, which goes through the end of 2010, all books are 10% off and shipping is free when you order them directly from Hadley Rille Books. This includes preorders of books that have not come out yet.

In addition, for each book you order from Hadley Rille during the sale, you are entered again in the contest.

Hadley Rille's goal for 1 October to 31 December is to sell 5,000 books. Take a look; you'll probably find something that intrigues you in their catalog, which you can find at http://www.hadleyrillebooks.com/titles.html.

The cover pictures are all of new or forthcoming Hadley Rille books.

In other Hadley Rille news, people outside the United States can now buy Hadley Rille books too. They are available online now from Amazon's Canadian and U.K. stores and Boomerang Books in Australia.

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Coming soon

Author interviews with:

literary fiction writer Zohreh Ghahremani
historical (or should that be prehistorical?) fiction writer Kimberly Todd Wade
fantasy writer Terri-Lynne DeFino

A full-time fiction writer: my first update

2010-10-06T08:00:00.000-07:00

When I became a full-time fiction writer (except for one small ongoing editing job) this summer, I promised you updates on my progress. Here's what I've learned so far on my journey through territories unknown:

✥ Volunteering is good, but a writer should give favorite organizations money, not time. I drastically underestimated how many hours it would take to do a couple of volunteer stints, and I spent more time on them this summer than on writing.

✥ I was really burnt out on my job. I didn't realize how tired I was of medical writing until I stopped and found I needed time to decompress and rest. That, too, cut into my writing.

✥ Ideas come fast and furious when my brain isn't preoccupied with work projects. Now I need to learn to control the ideas. I started several short stories, but abandoned each as a new idea caught my fancy.

✥ Having lupus really is, as the rules of thumb have it, like having an extra kid or a part-time job. I already knew I spent a lot of time filling prescriptions, going to the lab, taking meds, and going to doctors' offices, but I didn't know how much time until now. All that stuff is no longer a break from work, but an interruption of writing I want to do, and it's very annoying. There's little I can do about it, though.

✥ I spent too much time trying to figure out a good exercise schedule. I discovered exercising in the morning cuts into my writing time too much. I'm now trying to schedule exercise only at times I wouldn't be writing anyway.

To sum up, I didn't tear out of the starting gate like a greyhound, as I expected. More like a slump and then a collapse to rest. But I've picked myself up and am getting things done.

Total writing career accomplishments:

✥ One short story written, critiqued, revised, critiqued, revised, critiqued, revised, and almost ready to send out

✥ Started three short stories

✥ Jotted down ideas for several more short stories

✥ Answered interviews for two blogs

✥ Had long discussion with Hadley Rille Books' new publicist about marketing ideas for Like Mayflies in a Stream

✥ Fleshed out a historical novel; printed out Web research and bought several scholarly books on the time period and people involved

✥ Researched several short story markets

✥ Volunteered myself for panels at three conferences

✥ Created goals

I hope and expect that the coming three months will be much more productive than the past three. I've got most of the volunteer duties behind me, and I've rested and gotten beyond the burnout. I can take comfort in that I accomplished at least a few things.

My goals for the next three months are:

✥ Revise all my completed and critiqued stories and send them out to possible homes.

✥ Finish one or two new stories.

✥ Do a lot of background reading and brainstorming for my next novel.

✥ Start my next novel.

Your advice is welcome. Kicks in the butt as well. I am determined to be successful at this, but I am floundering more than I expected.

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Coming soon: interview with author Zohreh Ghahremani

Interview with YA writer Jason McCammon

2010-09-29T08:05:00.000-07:00

More than fifty years after publication of the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, most fantasies are still set in a Tolkienesque landscape. Jason McCammon breaks the mold in his first novel, a young-adult novel called The Ancient Lands: Warrior Quest: Search for the Ifa Scepter (Brown-Eyed Dreams), which is set in a land patterned after regions of Africa. He intends more books in “The Ancient Lands” series.

Welcome, Jason, and congratulations on your book Warrior Quest: Search for the Ifa Scepter!  What draws you to writing for children?

I wanted the reading experience to be fun. Besides, the book was adapted from a screenplay of an animated “G”-rated movie. With children, there is still a magic element of imagination that I think many adults lack. I certainly didn’t want to create a great story that I think is very imaginative and leave the children out of being able to experience it.

What was your favorite part of writing Warrior Quest: Search for the Ifa Scepter?  

I often think of a story in several pieces. So when those pieces come together, it’s really a good feeling. It’s almost like giving it life.

What writers have had the greatest influence on you?  

I wouldn’t say that I am influenced by any particular writers, but by anyone who sets their mind to do something and does it. I’m a big fan of the human race’s endeavors and accomplishments. Just look around you at the things sitting around in your living room; you’re looking at people’s ability to create. You’re looking at something that started inside someone’s head.

Personally, although I still read fantasies with European-like cultures and landscapes, that setting feels a little tired and I now actively look for books outside that mode. Why did you choose to use a nontraditional setting?

I suddenly became aware that I too had never read any fantasy stories or seen any fantasy movies with African tones, themes, or people. I just had to ask myself, why not. I then decided to make one of my own to fill the void. Besides, what’s the point of being traditional when it comes to fiction?

What research did you do on African cultures, geology, and animal life for your book? Was it easy or hard to find the information you needed?

I did a lot of poking around into African mythologies. I also looked into various African cultures. But I didn’t want to be too specific about each one. You’ll find elements of Yoruba, Massai, and Ashanti, as well as others.

Also, I used these things as a platform for the story, not as a driving force. I wanted the story to be mine, my creation, but I also wanted the opportunity to introduce African elements into America’s reading. So it is meant to be more of an introduction than a history lesson. I am an expert on nothing but my own imagination.

What is the significance of scepters in Yoruba culture?

The priests used the scepters as a medium for divination. They used them to communicate with the gods. They could also be called a “tapper.”

What is your writing regimen? Would you recommend it to other writers?   

I’m in a constant state of creating, everyday, all day. It’s always going on up there in my head. So I’m usually thinking about something for a while before I get to work on it. That’s because I’m usually thinking about it while I’m working on something else. I’m currently writing the second novel, but I’ve already spent a lot of time thinking about the third. While I was writing the first one, I was thinking about the second one, so I was thinking about it for a good six months before I actually started working on it.

What I would recommend to other writers is to write. It sounds easy and straightforward, but there are so many people out there who have been writing a book for years upon years but actually haven’t been writing a thing.

Also, write from your heart, from deep within it. Edit several times and be purely objective.

You’ve chosen to self-publish your novels. What do you see as the benefits and downsides of your choice?

It is so nice to be able to have control of your book and its future, to not have someone telling you to change this and that and pressuring you about schedules. At the same time it would be nice to have more money for marketing. Let’s also remember that big publishers know what they are doing when it comes to marketing. They have been there many times before and know where to be and when. I’ve spend so much time trying to learn about the “book business” that sometimes I feel as if my eyes are going to burst!

What other books do you have planned for “The Ancient Lands” series?   

Well, the second novel is currently being written. It will be ready by next year. The first illustrated novel, entitled The Adventures of Farra and Bomani, is right around the corner and will be completed before this year is out. I had samples at the Harlem Book fair on Long Island in September.

Jason, thank you for visiting my blog today.

You can learn more about Jason and Warrior Quest: Search for the Ifa Scepter by visiting his Website at http://theancientlands.com/ and his page on FaceBook. Warrior Quest: Search for the Ifa Scepter is available in paperback and Kindle format from Amazon.com and in multiple ebook formats from Smashwords.com.

Contest winner

2010-09-27T14:36:00.000-07:00

The winner of this year's birthday contest is CHARLES GRAMLICH of Razored Zen. Congratulations, Charles!

Interview with writer and artist Steve Malley

2010-09-22T08:01:00.000-07:00

Steve Malley’s new book, Crossroad Blues, debuted in August. In this suspense novel set in New Zealand, a harp-blowing drifter meets a revenge-driven woman and becomes entangled in her quest to find her best friend’s murderer. Meanwhile, the killer sets his sights on them.  In addition, Steve’s first graphic novel, Leather Tales, is again available, now in electronic format.

Welcome, Steve, and congratulations on publication of Crossroad Blues! 

Thanks for having me, Shauna. ☺

What was your favorite part of writing Crossroad Blues?   

The last few days of the first draft, when the end was coming fast and hard, and I couldn't get the words out fast enough. It was an exhilarating time. I couldn't wait to find out how the story would end!

What writers have had the greatest influence on you?  

John D. MacDonald and James M. Cain, definitely. Gil Brewer. Joe Lansdale and Andrew Vachss. George Pelecanos and Elmore Leonard. Frank Miller and Jaime Hernandez. Dave Sim gave me the courage to tackle my first graphic novel and set the whole ball rolling.

Every character in Crossroad Blues is alienated from other people and from society itself, and even the landscape is unfriendly. Does this reflect your own history or view of life in any way?

Good question. To be honest, I hadn't seen that sense of alienation until you pointed it out. I intended Crossroad Blues as a modern-day Western, complete with evil rancher, a heroine with fire in her blood, and the quiet stranger who rides into town. That sense of isolation and alienation was completely unconscious.

Besides alienation, are there other themes or topics you’re drawn to in your writing?

I just try to ride the stories where they want to go. Often, in the beginning, I'm groping for colored threads in a twilight landscape. Most of what I find is usually wrong. By the end I've usually got a tiger by the tail and no way to control it. Theme and topic develop entirely on their own.

That said, some stuff does pop up again and again in my work: The morality of violence. Past sins returning to poison the present. The self-serving, untrustworthy nature of authority. Predators favoring victims at the edges of society because nobody gives a damn.

Why have you chosen to write in so many genres? 

I'm not sure I have a choice. Whatever comes bubbling up out of that stinking marsh at the bottom of the basement stairs, I grab it and run. I see a character or two. A situation. Some scrap of emotion. It's not until I'm hips-deep in the story that I discover what I'm writing about.

• LeatherTales (graphic novel/noir) was a meditation on violence and second chances wrapped around lesbian assassins taking on the mob.

• Templar (graphic novel/adventure) was about a kid growing up in her father's shadow, told as DaVinci Code meets James Bond.

• The Serina graphic novels (graphic novel/erotica/autobio) were about my time in New Orleans and the pain of trying to love an addict.

• Poison Door (crime/thriller) explores legacies of violence and cycles of abuse against the backdrop of a drug war and stolen children.

•A Legacy of Teeth (horror) has family secrets leading to a zombie plague.

• Blood and Skin (paranormal suspense) is very much about the past poisoning the present—with ghosts, revenants, black magic, and tattoos. I've just finished my last rewrite on Buried—in which a young woman returns home after a long absence and all hell breaks loose—and started writing a Steampunk adventure.

What is your writing regimen? Would you recommend it to aspiring authors?  

For three or four years, I woke up early every morning and wrote at least a thousand words a day. Crossroad Blues was written during that period. It was great: three months to a first draft, then the rewrites.

Things changed. This past year and a half has been full of upheaval and opportunity, bad luck, blessings and trouble. I spent a lot of it with notebooks and a fountain pen, writing in snatches whenever I could. Lately, I've been doing most of my writing at night.

All I can say is, that damn story took another step forward every day.

My best advice for aspiring authors:
Keep. Fucking. Moving. Do not look back. Go forward to the end. No matter what, no matter when or where or how, keep writing ’til you hit The End.

You’ve chosen to self-publish some of your novels as e-books rather pursue a traditional publisher and paper books. Why did you do this, what expectations do you have for your e-books, and how did you choose which manuscripts to self-publish?

I've got a fantastic agent, Anne Hawkins of JHA Literary, shopping Poison Door right now. She'll also get first look at Buried and anything else I write that might suit her.

Thing is, she represents my literary thrillers. She doesn't handle graphic novels, horror, paranormal, action, erotica, or adventure. For that stuff, I'm on my own.

For a long time I wondered whether my “other work” would ever see the light of day. Thanks to the explosive growth of the e-book market, all those stories are able to find readers!

What other books will you be releasing soon?   

Serina vol.1 is waiting for a new cover painting, probably next week. Templar will be out once I resolve some technical issues. I've got a couple more passes to make on Blood and Skin before that one's available. After that, probably A Legacy of Teeth. ...

There's a reason my blog is called “Full Throttle”! ☺

You are also a professional artist, illustrator, and tattoo artist. How does your artistic career help or hinder your writing?

On the one hand, it's like I've got this really wide pipeline to the unconscious: Stuff comes at me as fast as I can draw, paint, tattoo, or write it. On the other, like any other job it's a challenge carving out the time to write. The landlord wants his money no matter what's going on with my latest novel.

Steve, thanks for visiting my blog, and good luck with your e-publishing endeavors. 

You can learn more about Steve and Crossroad Blues by visiting his Website at http://www.SteveMalley.com and his blog at http://Steve-Malley.blogspot.com/. Crossroad Blues is available in Kindle format from Amazon.com and in multiple formats from Smashwords.com. His re-released graphic e-novel Leather Tales is also available from Amazon.com and Smashwords.com.

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CONTEST: My third annual birthday contest is still going on. Comment on last week’s post by 11 p.m. Pacific time on Saturday, 25 September, to enter to win your choice of a trade paperback copy of my historical novel Like Mayflies in a Stream or a $10 gift certificate for Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble (winner's choice).

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Coming next week: interview with writer Jason McCammon

Third annual birthday contest

2010-09-17T00:01:00.000-07:00

To celebrate turning 54, I’m holding a birthday contest again this year.

To enter, comment on this post by 11 p.m. Pacific time on Saturday, 25 September. Any comment will suffice, but if you need a topic idea, I suggest telling me how you'd like to celebrate your next landmark birthday. Be inventive! Don't just say that you'll celebrate your 50th with a colonoscopy and an AARP membership; think of something cool! (And then I hope you'll do it.)

One poster will be chosen at random from a hat by my husband. The winner will receive their choice of a trade paperback version of Like Mayflies in a Stream (an $11.95 value!) or a $10 gift certificate for Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble (winner's choice).

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Coming soon: interviews with authors Steve Malley and Jason McCammon

I'm blogging today at Novel Spaces

2010-09-05T00:04:00.000-07:00

Those of you who enjoy my grammar posts may wish to stop by the Novel Spaces blog and see my Sunday, 5 September 2010, post. I discuss the difference between grammar and style and how to know what style to use in the manuscript you're working on.

Guest blogger: Linda Weaver Clarke

2010-08-30T00:10:00.000-07:00

Today, I'm happy to host Linda Weaver Clarke, who was interviewed here on my blog a year ago. Linda's guest post discusses her decision to change from writing romance novels to writing mysteries with an intriguing twist: They focus on the growing problem of theft of archaeological artifacts.

Romance vs. Mystery!

by Linda Weaver Clarke

I have written five historical romance novels but have now changed to mystery. The writing process is quite a change and requires a completely different mind set. Writing a mystery is so different from telling a love story. With romance, you plan out the plot around the meeting of a couple. As you write, you develop some sort of charisma between the characters, making the reader feel excited that one day they're going to hit it off and fall in love. You, as the reader, know what the outcome will be.

But with a mystery, the reader is in the dark. The author has to come up with a plot solution that no one knows about until toward the end of the story and hope they haven’t figured it out. In a mystery, you may or may not allow your reader to know who the bad guys are, according to whether it’s just a mystery or mystery suspense. Do you know the difference between a mystery and a mystery suspense novel? In a mystery, when a knock is heard at the door, the reader doesn't know who's behind it. With mystery suspense, the reader knows who's behind the door and yells to the heroine, "Don't open the door!"

Anasazi Intrigue is the first book in a mystery adventure series called “The Adventures of John and Julia Evans.” It’s about a flood that takes out several homes in a small town, the importance of preserving ancient artifacts, and a few puzzling and mysterious events. Julia is a reporter, and when she finds out about a possible poison spill that kills some fish and neighbor's pets, she has a feeling that something isn’t quite right. Before she realizes what is happening, Julia finds out that this incident is much bigger and more dangerous than she thought. With dead fish turning up, a flood devastating a town, and miscreants chasing John and Julia, they have their hands full.

Artifact theft is an intriguing subject. In my research, I found that archaeological thievery is becoming more and more of a problem every year. Did you know that looting is second only to selling illegal drugs? While researching the second book in this series, Mayan Intrigue, my eyes were opened to the similar problems they have in southern Mexico. When an ancient ruin is discovered, it doesn’t take long for thieves to take it apart because the Mayas used astrological alignments when planning their cities. Looters have learned the layout of the Mayan cities so they know where to dig. With this knowledge, they can loot a sacred temple in a few days. I also found that artifact theft in Mexico has been taken over by drug dealers from Columbia. Since organized crime took over, there has also been an increase in violence.

Mayan Intrigue will be released on 30 August, and I’m having a week-long celebration with a book give-away at my blog at http://lindaweaverclarke.blogspot.com from 30 August to 6 September. To enter the contest, leave a comment and include your email address.

Mayan Intrigue is about the discovery of a priceless artifact that puts Julia’s life in great danger. While on assignment for the newspaper, John and Julia try to enjoy a romantic vacation among the Mayan ruins, but when Julia accidentally comes upon a couple of suspicious men exchanging an item, she turns and leaves but it’s too late. Before John and Julia realize what's going on, they find themselves running for their lives through the jungles of the Yucatan. To read an excerpt from each of my books, you can visit http://www.lindaweaverclarke.com.

Double trouble: correlative conjunctions

2010-08-26T13:06:00.000-07:00

In a previous post, I discussed coordinating conjunctions such as "and" and "but." Today's topic is correlative conjunctions, that is, the conjunctions used in pairs to link words, phrases, or clauses. The correlative conjunctions include:
• either . . . or
• neither . . . nor
• both . . . and
• not only . . . but also
• though . . . yet
• whether . . . or
• as . . . as
• if . . . then
• rather . . . than

Here are correlative conjunctions used correctly in sentences.

• Both Joe and Bob are going to the con.
• Neither Joe nor Bob plans to wear Bob's Klingon costume.
• Joe owns a pair of blue gauze wings with sequins, so he will dress either as a fairy or as a butterfly.
• If Joe chooses to dress as a butterfly, then Bob will dress as a cocoon.
• Susan not only wants to wear Joe's wings herself but also is angry that he refused her plea to borrow them.
• Susan has not yet decided whether to wear Bob's Klingon costume or to sew a new costume.
• Joe would rather stay home than wear Bob's ratty Klingon uniform.

A few simple rules govern their use.

1. Use both halves of the conjunction.

Examples of breaking this rule:

• Neither Joe or Bob plans to dress as a Klingon. This is wrong because "neither" pairs with "nor," not "or."

• Susan not only wants to wear Joe's wings herself but is angry that he refused her plea to borrow them. This is wrong because "not only" pairs with "but also," not "but."

• If Joe chooses to dress as a butterfly, Bob will dress as a cocoon. This is wrong because "if" pairs with "then." However, when the meaning is clear, many editors would consider it acceptable to leave out the "then" in an "if . . . then" construction.

2. The two halves of the conjunction should join equal and parallel parts of speech—two nouns, for example, or two prepositional phrases or two predicates.

This rule sounds easy, but in practice, it can be tricky to make the parts of speech equal. Examples of breaking this rule:

• Susan has not yet decided whether to wear Bob's Klingon costume or stay home from the con. This is wrong because the first half of the conjunction introduces a prepositional phrase starting with "to," whereas the second half of the conjunction introduces a predicate. The solution is to add a "to" after the "or."

• Joe plans to wear neither Bob's Klingon costume nor to wear last year's Superman costume. This is wrong because the first part of speech is a noun phrase, whereas the second is a prepositional phrase. The second "to wear" should be cut.

• The study subjects included both 60 Alaskan husky dogs and 170 other breeds. This is wrong because "60 dogs" is not parallel to "170 breeds." One possible fix is, "The study subjects included both 60 Alaskan husky dogs and 350 dogs from 170 other breeds."

3. When "either . . . or" or "neither . . . nor" join subjects, the verb matches the second subject. When both subjects are singular, then the verb is singular, even though there are two subjects.

All of the following are correct sentences:

• Neither I nor my sister is giving the bride a gift.
• Neither my sister nor my brothers are attending the wedding.
• Neither my brothers nor my sister is attending the wedding.
• Either my sister or I am going to tell the bride why.

4. Correlative conjunctions join two elements. Exceptions to this rule can be made for most correlative conjunctions except "neither . . . nor" and "either . . . or."

Examples of breaking this rule:

• On the day of the wedding, my sister plans to be either unavailable, unwell, or unhinged. This is wrong because the conjunction joins three elements. Also, it is impolite to attend a wedding unhinged.

• Neither Joe, Bob, nor Cindy want to wear the Klingon uniform. This is wrong because the conjunction joins three elements.

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Coming soon

guest blog post by Linda Weaver Clarke

interview with author Steve Malley

A joining of equals: a look at coordinating conjunctions

2010-08-11T18:18:00.000-07:00

The coordinating conjunctions—and, but, for, nor, or—are, when I am wearing my copyeditor's hat, my favorite parts of speech, for writers make few mistakes when using them.


cats and cushion covers (A comma after "cats" would be wrong.)

Coordinating conjunctions are conjunctions that join sentence elements of the same type (noun, predicate, clause, and so on) and weight (they do not join independent and dependent clauses).

I won't spell out the rules for using coordinating conjunctions. (If you have a question, feel free to ask in the comments.) Instead, I'll focus on the problems I most often see.

Tricky point 1: "including"

A list following the word "including" should contain "and," not "or":

• I bought groceries yesterday, including eggs, milk, and bread.

"Including" means that all of the items that follow are part of the whole. So "and" is the proper conjunction.

If you give a complete list of items, then do not use "including."

Tricky point 2: lists of options

The word "and/or" is not an error, but it makes your sentence clunk. Use "or" when you have a list of choices:

• Please bring ouzo, grapes, or cheese to the party.

The hostess does not forbid you to bring grapes if you bring cheese; she merely offers options. As in many sentences with "or," the idea is not to limit the choices to one item but to say that at least one item is needed. Save "and/or" for legal writing or other occasions in which you need a belt-and-suspenders approach.

When you need "or" to limit the options to one, try a construction such as this:

• You may have either plum sorbet or chocolate-covered ants for dessert.

Tricky point 3: punctuation of two elements

When two complete sentences are joined by a coordinating conjunction, always put a comma before the "and" unless the sentences are very short.

• Mary pieces her quilts by hand, but I prefer to use a sewing machine.

When you have two predicates (or two adjectives or prepositional phrases), treat them as items in a series. Two items in a series are never separated by a comma unless a misunderstand could result.

• "You were my last hope," the dragon said and blew his nose. (no chance of confusion)
• "You were my last hope," the dragon said, and cried. (Without the comma, the reader may think he said it and then cried it out.)

If you want or need to create a space between two predicates, rewriting the sentence is preferable to using a comma:

• "You were my last hope," the dragon said and then loudly blew his nose.
• "You were my last hope," the dragon said. He pulled out a lacy handkerchief and blew his nose.
• "You were my last hope," the dragon said. He blew his nose.
• "You were my last hope." The dragon blew his nose.

Tricky point 4: nonparallel elements

When elements in a row are not parallel, do not treat them as a series. An example of this mistake would be, "The tomcat is long, white, and wears a pink rhinestone collar." This sentence is wrong because there are two levels of parallel constructions here: "long" and "white" are parallel adjectives, and "is long [and] white" and "wears a ... collar" are parallel predicates. (Also, tomcats should not wear pink rhinestone collars.) The punctuation should reflect these two levels:

• The tomcat is long and white and wears a pink rhinestone collar.
• The tomcat is long and white, and he wears a pink rhinestone collar.

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Coming soon

correlative conjunctions (both . . . and, neither . . . nor, not . . . but, not only . . . but also, whether . . . or)

interview with author Steve Malley

Contest winners announced

2010-08-06T17:03:00.000-07:00

Thank you, everyone who entered last week's contest.

The two winners of Kathryne Kennedy's The Fire Lord's Lover are:

CARROTS

LANA GRAMLICH

Congratulations, carrots and Lana! Carrots, please send me your mailing address so that Sourcebooks can get your book to you.

Lana, I still have your address unless it's changed.

Contests, clarity of mind, and other news

2010-08-03T16:50:00.000-07:00

One of the many reasons I became a full-time fiction writer was to achieve the clarity of mind to write fiction. My clients' work occupied too much of my thoughts.


"If only I had the clarity of mind to think of a blog topic."

As I was swinging a machete through my jungle of thoughts to make room to think up a topic for this week's post, I jotted down various pieces of news. I now have a postful of news on contests, a new review of my novel Like Mayflies in a Stream, and other topics.

I did at last come up with a topic: clarity of mind. I'll post that Thursday, 5 August, at the other blog I write for, NovelSpaces. Please join me there later this week to share ideas on clearing the mind for writing.

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CONTESTS

There's still time to enter last week's contest to win The Fire Lord's Lover by Kathryne Kennedy. Two copies will be given away, courtesy of Sourcebooks Casablanca. To enter, comment on last week's post here by 11:59 pm Pacific time, Wednesday 4 August.

Congratulations to Steve Malley, who won my contest of two weeks ago. He chose my novel Like Mayflies in a Stream as his prize, and it is now crossing the Pacific to him.

If you are on Facebook, Therese Walsh is running her "Big, Fat 49-Author Contest" here. Forty-nine books are being given away to more than 50 winners. There are books for every taste, so it's worth checking out.

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REVIEW

Like Mayflies in a Stream received a nice review from Books For A Buck at http://www.booksforabuck.com/genfict/mayflies_stream.html.

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THE ARCHAEOLOGY SERIES IS GROWING

Hadley Rille Books will release books three and four in its Archaeology Series this fall. (Like Mayflies in a Stream was the second book in the series.) Coming in September is Song of the Swallow by K.L. Townsend, set in China 800 years ago. Next up is Secrets of the Canyon by Ann Walters, set in New Mexico 800 years ago. Learn more about the series here.

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COMING SOON

interview with writer and artist Steve Malley

Book give-away and interview with fantasy romance author Kathryne Kennedy

2010-07-28T00:04:00.001-07:00

Kathryne Kennedy’s newest novel, The Fire Lord’s Lover (Sourcebooks Casablanca), debuted 6 July. In this fantasy romance set in 1724, an alternative England is ruled by malevolent elves who treat their human subjects as playthings. The convent-raised heroine hides a dangerous secret from her new husband: The human Resistance has trained her as an assassin, and she plans to assassinate her husband’s father, an elf king. But her husband has secrets of his own.

Welcome, Kathryne, and congratulations on publication of your sixth novel, The Fire Lord’s Lover.

Thank you! It’s a pleasure to be here!

What writers have had the greatest influence on you?

My mom, who is also an author and taught me that publication is possible, and who gave me a love for storytelling. A multitude of other authors influenced my work, most of them in the SF/F field and the Historical Romance genre. From Andre Norton to Julie Garwood, I blended the stories that I loved to read in my own combination of historical fantasy romance.

Are there certain themes or topics you’re drawn to in your writing?

In general, I gravitate to fairy tales, and the themes of true love conquering all, the underdog triumphing against evil by discovering his/her true strength within, the ugly duckling blossoming into a beauty by discovering her natural gifts, how some people can bring out the best in you, and others, the worst. My characters truly define the theme of each of my books, and sometimes I feel as if I’m just tagging along for the ride.

Your book’s antagonist, Imperial Lord Mor’ded, is the scariest villain I’ve come across in some time. How did you round out such an evil character so that he wasn’t a stereotype?

I understand Mor'ded. I don’t have to like him, or agree with his motivations, but as long as I can understand why he does what he does, I can visualize him as a truly unique individual. Then my job is to convey that in my story, and I’m glad to hear that I have managed to do so with you.

So many books nowadays have protagonists whose moral compass is skewed or lacking altogether. One thing I enjoy about your novels is that the protagonists have consciences and struggle to choose the right actions. Is this a conscious choice on your part?

It’s not a conscious choice. I think this a reflection of my own morals that naturally comes through in my heroes and heroines. They are people that I would like to know, that I could root for, that I can sympathize with. When I finish a book, I feel as if the heroine is my best friend, and I always fall in love with my hero, and I’m sad to say goodbye to them. Until I start the next book.

Dominic, the hero of The Fire Lord’s Lover, is under the thumb of his father and abused by him throughout the book. Yet he comes off as that romance reader favorite, the alpha male hero. How did you accomplish that?

Dominic was born with a strong will, and the abuse he suffered could not break him. He adapted to his environment and became stronger for it. I think holding on to his sense of right and wrong was the most difficult for him, and it took a strong woman like Cass to help him uncover it again. It has been my good fortune to know strong men like that in my own life, and they often become the inspiration for my heroes.

What is your writing regimen? Would you recommend it to other authors?

I write 5-7 hours straight in the morning, because I have to lose myself in my world completely. Then I wake up back to the real world. I believe other authors should do what works for them. A novel is a long journey and one that each writer must discover their own path to.

Do you have any advice for my readers who are working on their first novels?

I say this a lot, but I believe it with all my heart. Learn the craft and the business, and then do what makes sense to you. No one else can write your story quite the way that you can, so always listen to your gut.

When will your next book in The Elven Lords series come out, and what will it be about?

My first published novel, Beneath the Thirteen Moons, is scheduled for release in mass market paperback in December of 2010, so the second book of The Elven Lords series, The Lady of The Storm, won’t be hitting bookstores until summer 2011. It is Cecily’s story, the little girl that Cass and Thomas rescued in The Fire Lord’s Lover. Cecily has been hiding from the world and herself, and only her love for Giles Beaumont makes her realize her destiny. Giles is a gorgeous half-elf cursed with an enchanted sword, who learns more about himself from Cecily than he ever wanted to know. A major discovery against the elven lords will be made, allowing the Rebellion true hope for the future.

You give Dominic and Cassandra an HEA ending but leave them in a perilous situation. Will they star in another book in the series?

They have discovered their true love for each other, so their personal love story is complete, but yes, they are still heavily involved in the Rebellion and appear in book two, and they will have an instrumental part in freeing England from the tyranny of the elven lords in book three.

I’m hoping for more books in your Relics of Merlin series. Am I hoping in vain?

I’m please to hear you would like another book in that series. I would like to continue it, but I can’t say when that might be. I’m following where my muse and career takes me at the moment…but no, you’re not hoping in vain. :)

Are you willing to share any of your secrets for growing your hair so long and lush?

LOL. This question took me by surprise. I think it’s a genetic thing, like my freckles, but I do avoid haircuts and just trim it myself.

Kathryne, many thanks for visiting my blog and for answering questions from my readers, and best wishes for your next book.

Thank you so much for the insightful questions, Shauna! I enjoyed sharing with you, and look forward to talking with you and your readers on your blog today.

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CONTESTS

Ask Kathryne a question or leave any other comment to this post, and you will be entered to win a copy of The Fire Lord's Lover. Two copies will be given away, courtesy of Sourcebooks Casablanca. Drawing will be held on 5 August from among comments left through 11:59 pm Pacific time, 4 August.

Also, last week's contest ends at 11:59 pm, 28 July. Go here to enter.

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Kathryne Kennedy is a multipublished, award-winning author of magical romances. She’s lived in Guam, Okinawa, and several states in the United States and currently lives in Arizona with her family—which includes two very tiny Chihuahuas. She welcomes readers to visit her Website at http://www.KathryneKennedy.com, where she has ongoing contests. She blogs at http://kathrynekennedy.blogspot.com/.

You can purchase The Fire Lord’s Lover from your favorite bookstore or get it online at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Borders , BooksAMillion, Chapters/Indigo (Canada), and Kathryne’s Bookseller Directory.

Choosing where to submit stories, and contest

2010-07-21T16:00:00.000-07:00

Start with the best and work down.

That was my rule when I first began submitting short stories. I sent them to the biggest-name magazines first and then, as they acquired rejections, to progressively more obscure and lower-paying markets. My reasoning was that this strategy would land the story in the best place it deserved.

I sometimes made exceptions to this rule. When my critique group judged a story too flawed to fix and I agreed but still liked it, I submitted it to a minor-league magazine . . . and they bought it. When I discovered that my success rate was higher at anthologies—because I could send them exactly what they were looking for—I began seeking out anthology markets.

Despite these exceptions, I still think my rule is a good one.

But it's not very precise. "Best" has been a fuzzy judgment based on name recognition and prestige, quality of production, size of distribution, and pay rate. Recently I saw a friend's spreadsheet that ranked 266 sf/f markets based on 21 variables, including awards, SFWA pro market status, and number of stories in various "Year's Best" anthologies, weighted by a process I didn't grasp.

Wow! It's not often I meet someone more obsessive than I am.

Now that fiction is my main job and not a sideline, I need a more rigorous set of standards for choosing the "best" places to submit. I'll use my friend's spreadsheet, of course, as one source of information. But he and I have somewhat different priorities. One example: I want to make a living at fiction now, so pay rate is more important than the awards a magazine has won.

I hope you will help me decide what my personal ranking for sf/f should include. What do you consider when choosing a market to send a story to, and why? What do you think I should take into account?

In appreciation for your ideas, I'll draw one name from those who comment by midnight Pacific time, 28 July. The winner will receive a softcover copy of my historical novel Like Mayflies in a Stream or, if they prefer, any book at Amazon.com of equal or lesser value.

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Coming 28 July: Contest and author interview with Kathryne Kennedy, author of several fantasy romances. People who post comments will be entered in a drawing to win her new novel, The Fire Lord's Lover.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

2010-07-14T18:00:00.000-07:00

This weekend, my husband and I will celebrate our 28th wedding anniversary. After more than 29 years together, he still manages to surprise and delight me and make me giggle. Our marriage still feels fresh.

Not so for everything in my life. I've been a science and medical writer and editor since 1986, first on staff and later—since 1990—as a freelancer. It was a great career for many years, but in the past few years it has grown stale, and the writing I turned in to my clients began to show it. I didn't realize what was wrong for a long time, but at last I realized it was time for something new.

Time to jump off a cliff again, as I did twenty years ago when I went freelance.

I have retired from medical writing. One small copyediting client remains in my stable. Otherwise, I am a fiction writer now. Not completely full time, because my health problems are a part-time job in themselves, but as full time as I can be at anything.

I'm thrilled, sad, nervous, eager, reluctant, and several other contradictory emotions all rolled together. This is a leap of faith for my husband, too, and I'm pleased he's willing to go on this adventure with me. The only ones completely without reservations are the lizards in my yard (notice the one at left, grinning), who expect my procrastination will lead to more mealworms for them.

I'll chronicle my journey and share my ups and downs with you here on "For Love of Words" as I close the door on the first half of my life and enter the second. In the words of Robert Browning, "Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be, The last of life, for which the first was made . . . ."

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Coming next week: Choosing where to submit stories

Coming 28 July: an interview with Kathryne Kennedy, author of several fantasy romances

Interview with sf/f translator and writer Edward Gauvin

2010-07-01T16:58:00.000-07:00

Edward Gauvin has been the premier translator of the work of French fantasy writer Georges-Olivier Châteaureynaud. Edward's new book, A Life on Paper (Small Beer Press), contains English translations of twenty-three of Châteaureynaud's short stories, many of which have appeared, over the last five years, in magazines and journals. Edward’s alter ego, H.V. Chao, writes fantasy.

Thanks for visiting my blog, Edward, and congratulations on your new book!

Un grand merci for having me, Shauna.

I must admit I had never heard of Georges-Olivier Châteaureynaud before meeting you. Could you explain his importance as a fantasist?

I think it highly unlikely any English speaker would have heard of him before Words Without Borders published “Delaunay the Broker” in 2005. I can count on one hand the number of times his name appears in an English language publication before that: World Literature Today, the French Review, the Times Literary Supplement, and Paths to Contemporary French Literature (the latter two both in articles written by John Taylor). He had no Wikipedia entry in English, which is a contemporary standard for anonymity.

Even after “Delaunay,” Châteaureynaud appeared mostly in literary journals that don’t attract the attention of a wide or genre audience. It wasn’t till “Icarus Saved from the Skies” got picked up by F&SF that I think he got some attention in the blogosphere. He’s been translated into thirteen other languages, but in many ways English remains the gateway language. I hope that with this book, his presence in English and elsewhere is just beginning.

Châteaureynaud has a twofold place in French letters: he was part of a generation of authors (Saumont, Bens, Ravalec, Fournel) who began publishing in the 1970s and were responsible for a renaissance of the short story, which had been a moribund genre in France. He’s also a prominent figure among contemporary fantastiqueurs, or writers of the fantastic, a genre that wasn’t quite as dead when he started out—it underwent a certain revival, laced with latter-day Surrealism, right after WWII, with writers like Noel Devaulx and André Pieyre de Mandiargues—but was similarly not mainstream.

I’m happy to say both modes persist today, if still slightly out of the limelight. Georges-Olivier Châteaureynaud is, to date, the author of nine novels and more than a hundred short stories. Over a career of more than thirty years, he has been honored with the Prix Renaudot, the Prix Giono, and the Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire at Utopiales.

Does French speculative fiction have any special character of its own? Is Châteaureynaud representative of French sf/f writers?

French sf is still probably best known for kicking off sf way back with Jules Verne. There’s a very specific French sf tradition—like Andrevon, Klein, Wul, Pelot, Ayerdhal, Dunyach, writers all to be found in various English anthologies—that arguably grows out of Barjavel, France’s Bradbury. This is more sf as we American readers think of it—space travel, apocalypse, alien races—though arguably the themes are less technological and more hard-humanities.

The fantastic, as differentiated from fantasy in general, is a very specific vein born of the transition from Romantic to Modern. In Tzvetan Todorov’s famous formulation, the fantastical tale forces the reader’s hesitation between natural (psychological) and supernatural (marvelous) explanations for the apparently impossible events that befall its protagonist. The genre is thus usually said to lie between the marvelous (fairy and folk tales, magical creatures, secondary worlds) and psychological suspense. Poe and Hoffmann are among the early practitioners whose work laid the foundations for the genre.

It’s my own theory that the reason the fantastic flowered in France and England, notably among the Decadents, and magical realism (which falls more in the vein of the marvelous) never did is because magical realism is essentially pagan, like Spanish Catholicism. France’s Cartesian rationalism and England’s Protestantism banished the uncanny and unreal so that when these did erupt in stories, things took a turn toward terror.

Châteaureynaud is at pains to dissociate himself from the Anglo-Saxon tradition of horror, which he sees as potentially impoverishing the possibilities of the fantastic as a form by reducing it to what critic Roger Caillois claimed it was: a series of manipulations of formal elements whose only goal was to elicit fear.

Châteaureaynaud’s work eschews shock and disgust, pursuing something more understated and elusive: a feeling of foreignness, disorientation, or wonder. “Inside the human skull are the heavens of another world,” he notes. “What amazes us and what frightens us comes from within ourselves.”

French has a smaller vocabulary than English, which would suggest that French words have more nuances on average and thus many possible English translations. How do you decide which English word most closely approximates the author’s intended meaning?

It’s about maintaining consistency. Using one word leads to using another. Maybe it’s not the all-time best choice, but for the moment it allows you to move on, cover more ground, see the terrain ahead, get a sense of how the whole will look. Then you come back: Sometimes that choice still holds. Sometimes it has to be changed, and if it does, that’s likely to impact a string of other word choices predicated on that initial decision. To evaluate a decision when revising, I consider theme, rhythm, register, sonority. Context locks one into certain choices.

The vocabulary is smaller, but I would venture to say that the idiomatic variety is just as rich: It is often a question of finding an equivalent colloquial phrase rather than a single word.

How do you strike a balance between translating the words accurately and translating the inflection, tone, diction level, and mood accurately?

I’m immediately drawn to some prose styles. It’s as if I can hear the English in my head the first time I read the French. If the content also holds up when I’m done reading, then I’ll probably be drawn to translating the piece in question. In such cases, confident that I’m attuned to the piece’s spirit, I’ll take more liberties with its letter. This is also the case with children’s books.

In other cases—often when I’m assigned a piece to translate—I cleave closer to the letter, at times uncertain of its spirit, and trusting the literal to speak for itself; I think this is a matter of confidence. Diction level or register is a major judgment call that frames an entire piece, affecting tone and mood. To a certain extent every author invents his or her own language: an idiolect to express idiosyncrasies. Superior, innovative writing is difficult to translate, as is awful, inexpressive writing—both make meaning difficult to decipher. As with any bell curve, most pieces fall somewhere in the middle.

How does the creativity used for translation differ from that used for writing fiction?

I think translators spend a great deal of time finicking with things writers don’t consider till the final drafts. Not having to feel their way toward a story frees translators to focus on prose polish: In some ways, that’s their focus.

Translation is close adaptation. Adaptation is the art form of our time. Which makes fidelity one of the era's major issues.

Translation has also been spoken of as close reading. For better or for worse, translation engages the critical faculty more than pure creation. Much has been made of late about translation being a species of performance, like a musician’s of a score: translation as interpretation.

One thinks of castles and abbeys, like the Cloisters in New York, that were bought by robber barons and dismantled, shipped stone by stone across the Atlantic to be recreated in a New World setting. If the masons have done their job, the work is a perfect replica, but what, really, is the same about it? The mortar is new, like the view out the windows whose stained glass will receive a different sunlight during different hours of the day, and in the autumn different leaves will fall into the courtyard. Again, context is everything. As in Châteaureynaud’s tale about King Guita and his pavilion, one has the simultaneous and irreconcilable impression of sameness and difference. And yet something stands, where once there was nothing, which can be visited by people who could not otherwise have visited the original. Is this, then, a translation?

Has being a translator had an effect, good or bad, on your fiction writing?

Translation got me back into writing and taught me to tell a story: taking one apart into the tiniest possible pieces and putting it back together. One hears of writers retyping the stories of authors they admire: I get the perk of having a publishable product from this exercise.

Really, a lot of translation drafting approximates the final stages of a fiction drafting, when the plot’s in place and it’s a matter of ensuring prose flow. Placing so much intense attention on prose mechanics has its drawbacks for a fiction writer. Writing and storytelling are two very different things, I think—basically the debate between style and content—and literary tastes have often swung between these poles.

Being a freelancer, however, has not been the best thing for my writing.

What is your writing regimen? Would you recommend it to aspiring authors?

It takes me forever to put out a first draft. I brood on a story in my head a long time before committing it to paper. The way I see it, the first draft has to be good enough for me to want to keep going on it. If I set down any old thing it won’t impress me or endear itself to me enough for me to see the potential for something good in it.

I’m still trying to develop a regimen. I don’t recommend anything I do to aspiring authors; I’m still one myself. I seem to have to reinvent the wheel every time I sit down.

This summer, I’m taking part in the Clarion Write-a-Thon. The Clarion writing workshop has been running for forty-two years and has turned out many bestselling and award-winning writers, often in the speculative vein. Funding has been cut this year, and Clarion has responded by running a "Write-a-Thon" to ensure that the workshop can continue. Sponsor me, and all proceeds go to keeping Clarion alive. What this entails is making a small PayPal donation via my profile page, which can be found here. Even a $5 donation helps Clarion tremendously.

C.’s stories in this book are often brief and bittersweet. Is that typical of his whole oeuvre?

Yes. He’s a melancholy writer, obsessed with nostalgia and the irrecoverable, which is something that drew me to him. On the whole, I do not believe he is convinced fate is kind, or that people succeed in their efforts to rectify this. I feel something American in myself buck sometimes when I encounter this… fatalism in his or other European writers’ stories. We Americans expect so much more of our protagonists. They should all be extraordinary; they should all be heroes, while remaining human enough that we relate.

I did opt for shorter works. I am hoping to assemble the novella-length ones into a later collection, as Old Earth Books did with Howard Waldrop’s “long stories.”

What is the importance of C. to the sf/f field?

Time will tell. I suppose in my mind he deserves to be in the pantheon of 20th-century authors who have broadened and deepened the literary possibilities of the contemporary fantasy: Borges, Cortazar, Calvino, Kafka, Buzzati.

Did you become a translator of C.’s work by accident or design?

Very much design. Châteaureynaud was a labor of love for me, the first author I managed to convince a publisher to pick up, as opposed to the works-for-hire that publishers pitch me, in which I am invested to varying degrees.

What draws you to C.’s work?

Puzzlement, at first, and intrigue. As with any unfamiliar form of fiction, whether foreign or merely outside one’s comfort zone, there was a learning curve to reading him: Sometimes I worked backward from the assumption, if this is a story, what makes it work? But even then I liked his fragile characters and the longing they are prone to. He is an inveterate nostalgist, a self-pitying fatalist, a frequent ironist. I also liked the dreamlike texture of his work.

It’s difficult for me to speak of it now as if these effects were new, but his stories lend substance to the intangible in both language and plot, drawing readers gracefully into a realm where the most improbable events are briefly, poignantly, made real. Patiently he traces the faintly drawn, often permeable frontier between realism and fabulism, reality and reverie. A trickster among writers, his lyric prose and masterful storytelling deck falsehood out in all its finery to approach, often obliquely, human truth.

Are C. and Kurt Vonnegut identical twins separated at birth?

No, nothing so mundane. I’m sure the real story involves time travel, clones, benevolent aliens, and passing chance encounters of the kind that go unexplained and haunt one for the rest of one’s life.

Your writing voice and C.’s voice in your translations are similar. Was he a strong influence on the development of your own voice?

Is that true? I thought you said the opposite in an email to me once. I don’t suppose we’re ever entirely truthful about our influences—in any list, there are some we’re likely to forget, and what, oh what, does that omission betray about us?—but I think of Châteaureynaud more as a thematic and structural model than a prose influence, though I admire his way with the occasional epigram. We are somewhat philosophically kin; I see some of my own suspicions about life in what I perceive to be his worldview, and appreciate the ingenuity with which that worldview is expressed through certain stories.

I stress, however, that this worldview is something I’ve assembled as a reader, which the author might himself disavow or profess utter ignorance of; I doubt many writers start with a coherent worldview that they then try to force their fiction to convey. That seems somewhat didactic and programmatic in a way that precludes effective fiction. Authors often seem surprised, in retrospect, by the coherence of their body of work, ascribing what the reader sees as intention to obsession and accident.

Thanks again, Edward, for visiting my blog.

You can learn more about Edward and Georges-Olivier Châteaureynaud by visiting Edward’s blog at http://www.edwardgauvin.com/blog/. A Life on Paper is available from your local bookstore as well as at Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, and Borders.

On the nose, off the track

2010-06-02T20:25:00.000-07:00

One criticism that is sometimes directed at my stories is that they are too "on the nose." Today, I investigated what that means.

"On the nose," it turns out, is a screenwriting term for dialog in which the person says exactly what she or he means.

I crinkle my brow. I'm from the Midwest, where speaking directly is not just a habit, but a virtue. I've also spent twenty-plus years doing science and medical writing, a field in which one must convey information simply, clearly, and directly. By upbringing and training, I consider "off the nose" a sin.

I consider the kind of people who speak off the nose. Liars. Braggarts. Manipulators. Dumb ones. Inarticulate ones. Passive-aggressive ones. People with things to hide. People with the vice of beating around the bush.

Heroes and heroines with Midwestern virtues are, apparently, boring.

I continue my research and realize there are honorable reasons characters may say one thing and mean another. They're shy. They're confused about how they feel. They're not in a private place. They're exchanging small talk with a stranger. They're not sure how the other person will react to the truth. I start to feel less hostile to characters who speak off the nose.

I also learn that novel writers use the term "on the nose" more broadly to include writing that spells out too much information or too often or writing that places the moral of the story in the dialog. I can get partly on board with this expansion of the definition. It's the old "show, don't tell" rule.

But how much information is too much? Some writers want the reader to struggle with the text and to guess what is happening from vague, ambiguous hints. Not me. I don't enjoy such stories and I don't want to write them. I want my readers to relax and enjoy, without doing anything harder than looking up words in a dictionary or facts on the Internet.

More research. I come across another term: subtext. At last the lightbulb goes on, and I think I grasp the problem—or part of it, anyway—with on-the-nose writing: It lacks layers. The information is all on the surface, with all the dots connected. Too little information is conveyed through characters' body language, choices, and actions and the author's use of literary devices such as irony, symbolism, and metaphor. The rose is just a rose and not simultaneously, as in the Medieval Roman de la Rose, love, a particular woman's name, and female sexuality. Too little room is left for the reader to bring in her own experience and knowledge to enrich the story.

I suspect it won't be easy for me to reduce the on-the-nose writing in my work. Subtlety is not my strong point.

But I will try.

What skill or technique of writing have you struggled to grasp? How did you work it out?

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Linda Weaver Clark interviews me at her blog this week. People who post a comment by 7 June will be entered in a drawing to win a copy of my novel of ancient Mesopotamia, Like Mayflies in a Stream.

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Charles Gramlich—who blogs at Razored Zen and whom I interviewed here in 2007—has a new book out. Bitter Steel: Tales and Poems of Epic Fantasy contains 20 Sword and Sorcery short stories and poems in the tradition of Robert E. Howard. It is available at Amazon.com.

Interview with debut mystery novelist Stephen Parrish

2010-05-25T17:26:00.000-07:00

In Stephen Parrish’s mystery-adventure novel The Tavernier Stones (Midnight Ink), a varied cast of fortune hunters race to decipher the secret code on a centuries-old map that leads to a treasure trove of fabled jewels.

Welcome to my blog, Stephen, and congratulations on your new novel!

Thanks for having me!

You’re a cartographer and gemologist by training, and you live in Germany. How much of your own background ended up in your novel?

Practically everything. You're familiar with the old adage, write what you know. I knew maps, I knew gemstones, I knew Germany. When the idea occurred to me to put them all together I couldn't resist. I had also lived among the Pennsylvania Amish and have long been interested in codes and ciphers. After reading my book you'll know pretty much all there is to know about me.

One of the things I really enjoyed about your novel was that it was full of interesting tidbits about maps and cutting gems. How much of that did you already know and how much did you have to research for the book?

I'd already had the formal training and experience, but I needed to brush up a lot. There's a big difference, it turns out, between knowing something and knowing enough about it to construct a believable scene. Basically I just went back and read all my textbooks again, only this time I actually took notes.

Was living in Germany a help or a hindrance in writing, researching, and selling your manuscript?

The research on this side of the ocean was of course easier, but I had to fly to Philadelphia (someplace I'd never been) to write the scenes that took place there. As for selling the manuscript, a few people warned me I'd have trouble because I lived so far away, but the issue simply never came up.

What attracted you to study cartography?

Initially, the mathematics of map projections, the science of deforming the sphere. Then the art, the graphic design. Finally the history. I said what the heck, let's get paid to do this for a while.

What was your favorite part of writing The Tavernier Stones?

The very first scene. I needed a bog in northern Germany, and after studying some maps I decided to try the area around Hamburg. So one weekend I drove up there, stayed in a hotel, and spent a couple of days driving and stomping around until I found the right bog for the story. Unfortunately most of my description of that bog has been cut, but I couldn't wait to get back home to write the opening chapter.

Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code made mystery novels about lost knowledge and treasure popular. How does it help your promotional efforts for The Tavernier Stones to be in such a hot subgenre, and how does it hurt?

I didn't read The Da Vinci Code until after Tavernier was in submission. Afterwards I figured being tagged as a copycat was inevitable. My publisher is using the similarities to promote the book; maybe it helps, maybe it doesn't. I don't care. The two works that probably influenced me the most were Edgar Allen Poe's short story "The Gold Bug" and Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island.

I was intrigued that one way you’re promoting your novel is by having a treasure hunt on the Web. Could you explain more about that?

I didn't want Tavernier to get lost in a sea of debut novels, most of which are ignored by a reading public overwhelmed with choices. Bookstores can only carry a fraction of what's being published. I decided to do something bold yet related to the story: Give away a diamond. As soon as I can I'll make it a bigger diamond. And bigger still. Clues to solving the "armchair treasure hunt" are embedded in the novel, so the contest is promotional in a very direct way.

[Comment from S.R.: Rules for the treasure hunt can be found at http://www.tavernierstones.com/.]

My mother’s family is Pennsylvania Dutch, so I was surprised and pleased that one of your main characters was Amish. How did the character of John Graf come to you?

I lived for a while in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, home to the greatest concentration of Amish in the country. As I looked around me, trying to figure out what kind of cartographer would serve best as protagonist, it was only natural that the Plain People occur to me. I wanted a character never remotely employed before. John was born, and he's been very much alive to me ever since.

What is your writing regimen? Would you recommend it to aspiring authors?

Long hours in front of the computer screen, accomplishing almost nothing, interrupted by furious bursts of clickety-clack. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

The Tavernier Stones resolves all the characters’ lives satisfactorily at the end. Does that mean there won’t be a sequel? What will your next novel be about?

There won't be a sequel. My next novel is about an American soldier who is recruited to spy on his country, and it turns out his own country is the one that recruited him.

Thank you, Stephen, for visiting my blog today to talk about writing and your new book.

Learn more about Stephen Parrish and The Tavernier Stones at his Website at http://www.stephenparrish.com/ and his blog at http://stephenparrish.blogspot.com. The Tavernier Stones is available and can be ordered from your favorite bookseller as well as online from Amazon.com, Borders, and Barnes & Noble.

Write a marathon, or support those who do

2010-05-19T11:47:00.000-07:00

Students may think the cost of writing workshops high; the true cost is higher. Many writing programs exist on shoestring budgets and must hold fundraising events and solicit money so they can keep costs as low as possible for students and give scholarships.

One fundraising device I was unaware of—until my own workshop alma mater, the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop, decided to have one—is the writing marathon. A time is set to write. Some people set writing goals for the marathon and then try to meet them. Some people "sponsor" a writer or three by donating money to the organization. Some people do both.

Everyone benefits. Writers—perhaps you?—produce pages they may not otherwise have done. Donors get a tax deduction (in some cases) and may win prizes (in some cases), as well as experience the satisfaction of increasing the crop of good writers. The organization gets to exist another year and train another batch of students.

The Clarion marathons last the six weeks of the workshop. Thus, you are writing along with the Clarion students themselves. You can set a writing goal of any size. To write in a Clarion marathon this summer or to support someone who does, check out these links:
✥ Original Clarion, 27 June to 7 August
✥ Clarion West, 20 June to 30 July

The New York Writers Coalition marathon is more of a sprint than a marathon. Its "Write Your A** Off Day," this year scheduled for Saturday, 12 June, is only one day long, and all participants have the same goal: Produce 3,000 words between 10:30 am and 6:00 pm Eastern time.

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Professor Kenneth Schneyer—a fellow member of the Clarion class of 2009—wants to teach less this summer so that he can write more. So he has set up his own "marathon" of sorts. If donors contribute at least $2526.00 by Tuesday, 22 June, he will write six short stories this summer. Everyone who donates at least $1 receives news of his progress or lack thereof. Those contributing at higher levels get to see first drafts, critiques, even editor comments. To learn more about Ken's project (and perhaps get some ideas about finding backers for your own writing projects), click here. It's worth a visit to the site just to view the video.

Yes, it's cheesy and gimmicky, as he himself admits. But it harks back to the Medieval and Renaissance system in which writers supported their work through patronage and perhaps is a first step into what a writer's life will be like if the "art wants to be free" advocates have their way and writers no longer earn money from their stories and books.

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Author interviews are back! Coming in the next couple of months are interviews with:
Edward Gauvin (A Life On Paper, a book of stories by speculative fiction author Georges-Olivier Châteaureynaud translated from the French)
Stephen Parrish (The Tavernier Stones, a mystery novel)
Kathryne Kennedy ((The Fire Lord's Lover, a fantasy romance novel)

Fight diabetes and make your cat a star!

2010-05-04T15:45:00.000-07:00

It's May, time again for Brenda Novak's annual auction to benefit diabetes research.

As some of my readers know, my specialty as a science and medical writer is diabetes. I've written hundreds of articles about diabetes in magazines, newsletters, and journals such as Diabetes Forecast, Diabetes Advisor, Diabetes Self-Management, Diabetes Care, Diabetes Spectrum, Veterans Health System Journal, Caring Today, and The Bark.

At its best, diabetes is a major annoyance to live with, affecting most choices a person makes during the day. At its worst, diabetes can affect nearly every organ in the body and can lead to blindness, amputation, and early death. An estimated 23.6 million people in the United States have diabetes, and the number grows yearly. (To learn more about diabetes and its consequences, follow links to consumer-friendly information at MedLine Plus here.)

Two of my grandparents died from complications of diabetes, so my interest in diabetes is personal as well as professional. As a result, I urge you to visit author Brenda Novak's auction at http://brendanovak.auctionanything.com/ this May.

All money raised by the auction goes to The Diabetes Research Institute at the University of Miami, a research institute that focuses on finding a cure for type 1 diabetes. Type 1 diabetes often starts before age 20, and affected people must take insulin every day. Last year, sale of items donated by authors and others to the auction resulted in nearly $280,000 going to diabetes research.

This year, many items of interest to authors are up for auction—chapter reads by agents and editors; critiques; mentoring sessions; publicity services; writing of your query letter; lunches with agents and editors; copyediting of your manuscript; even writing convention fees. In addition, you can bid on signed books, ARCs of books that have not been released yet, gift baskets, jewelry, vacations, an iPad, and many other Very Cool Things. For example, if you win item 1711654, your cat will be a character in a future novel by Beth Cornelison.

If you visit the auction, please check out my own donation, the Gilgamesh Gift Basket, item 1773940. You might win a copy of Like Mayflies in a Stream and related swag, including jewelry of carnelian and lapis lazuli, two gemstones favored by the ancient Mesopotamians.

So this is what my character looks like!

2010-04-21T00:10:00.000-07:00

One way to visualize your characters more clearly and be able to give more precise descriptions is to collect photos of them . . . or, rather, people who look very much like them.

If your characters are unusually good-looking Americans or Europeans, it's fairly easy to find clear photos of faces. For example, look at:
✥ catalogs for upscale stores
✥ advertisements in upscale magazines
✥ fashion magazines
✥ TV Guide
✥ People magazine
✥ Us magazine
✥ Web sites for TV shows and movies
✥ Wikipedia entries for actors and actresses such as:
—"List of American Film Actresses"
—"List of British Actors and Actresses"
✥ Web sites for modeling agencies; find lists of links here and here, or search on Google

Web sites for modeling agencies are particularly useful because you can sometimes specify details such as height or hair color and so drill down through the files to relevant photos more quickly. Be aware, though, that modeling agency sites tend to have bells and whistles that make them take forever to load and search.

If your characters are American or European and have bland, average to good looks, sources for photos include:
✥ ads and catalogs for stores such as Sears, Penneys, Kohls, and K-Mart
✥ most mail-order clothes catalogs

The most difficult characters to find portrait-style photos for are people of non-Western ancestry and people who do not meet current Western standards of attractiveness. I never found a satisfactory photo for the heroine in the first novel I wrote, who was short, plump, and dark.

I had more success with Like Mayflies in a Stream, which is set in ancient Mesopotamia. Although I never found any photo that looked like my conception of Gilgamesh, I found my heroine, Shamhat (at right), by Googling "Iraqi models" and following a link, and I found a model for Enkidu (below at left) when I saw football player Troy Aumua Polamalu on TV.

Here are several ways to find photos of interesting-looking or non-Western people:
✥ Web sites for modeling agencies for other countries; find lists here and here.
✥ Wikipedia entries such as:
      —Lists of Actors
      —List of Samoans
      —List of Native Americans
✥ Magazines for other cultures such as National Indigenous Times (a magazine for and about Australian aborigines) and Native Peoples Magazine (for and about American Indians)
✥ Query what you are looking for (for example, "Iraqi woman") on Google Images
✥ Query what you are looking for at a stock photo house (some lists of houses are here, here, and here.)
✥ Ads in city and regional magazines for professionals—lawyers, dentists, doctors, tax preparers, and so on
✥ Magazines and other publications that feature pictures of accomplished people, such as college alumni magazines, business magazines, and company annual reports
✥ Web site for Ugly Models modeling agency

Or create your own interesting-looking people by morphing photos together or transforming a photo at Web sites such as:
✥ Morph Thing
✥ Face of the Future
✥ Morphases

What sources for faces for your characters have you found that I have missed?

Retreat to advance

2010-04-14T16:42:00.000-07:00

Attending a writing retreat can develop one's writing skill, help one charge ahead on a current work, and rekindle one's enthusiasm for writing.

Like a spiritual or health retreat, a writing retreat involves withdrawing from the ordinary world to immerse oneself in a single goal. A writing retreat has a major benefit over staying home to write: All the interruptions and distractions of everyday life are gone, allowing the writer to focus laserlike on a project.

Writing retreats can be structured in various ways. Here I'll describe the three retreats I've been to, starting with the Easter weekend retreat some of my fellow Clarionites held recently.

The Clarion retreat was held at one Clarionite's home in San Jose. We spent Friday socializing and getting settled in. Saturday and Sunday we sprawled in chairs or on the floor or sat at tables, laptops at hand, each working on a project. For example, I arrived with two book ideas to explore. One I researched and set aside, deciding the book I had in mind was one I would like to read but not to write. The other idea proved more fruitful, and by weekend's end, I knew the setting, who the main characters would be, and what would happen in the first quarter of the book.

Other retreat participants worked on their WIP, wrote blog posts, brainstormed a story with another Clarionite by Skype, wrote a bid for a writing project, wrote poetry, translated French comic books into English, and held timed writing races. During the occasional breaks we discussed writing topics and swapped book suggestions.

Clarionites relax Friday night at a New Orleans–style restaurant before starting work the next day; links go to relevant blogs. Left to right: Edward Gauvin, Nina K., Kim Stanley Robinson, Shauna Roberts, Emily Jiang, Liz Argall, Leonard Pung, Dana Huber. Missing: Eric Schultz.

In 2007, my New Orleans critique group held a retreat. Each day for four days, everyone showed up at my house early and stayed until supper time. We devoted time to each critique group member, working on whatever she wanted to work on. Our schedule also built in formal breaks to eat and chat so that we would not be tempted to socialize instead of work. During the retreat we brainstormed a YA novel, discussed how to add more emotion to one member's novel, worked on one person's query letter and synopsis, and shared techniques for plotting, producing fresh ideas quickly, and creating a story "bible."

Critique group members take a break from their retreat for a photo op. Left to right: Margaret Nichols, Rosalind Green, Shauna Roberts, Laurie Bolaños, Farrah Rochon.

By contrast, my first retreat was a solo effort. I went up to an apartment we were renting in Jackson, Mississippi, as a combination get-away place–hurricane refuge. For two days I daydreamed and brainstormed and wrote page after page of notes, with no cats to medicate or feed or take to the vet, no mail to sort, no phone calls or emails to interrupt my thoughts, and no long to-do list to distract me from my goals. I came home with the foundation in place for a novel.

Based on these three retreats, I think some keys to a successful retreat are:

a schedule
a goal
a dedicated space that's not the usual workspace
a dedicated time with interruptions kept to a minimum
preparation for one's project done ahead of time so that it doesn't cut into work time
time scheduled for socializing

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Linda Weaver Clark (who was interviewed here in August) interviews historical fiction author Laurie C. Lewis at her blog this week, and one commenter will win their choice of one of Lewis's books. Lewis's series "Free Men and Dreamers" (Covenant Communications) covers the trials of the generation after the Founding Fathers, who must fight the British again to retain their freedom.

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Next week's post: finding images of your characters

Of vice and virgules

2010-03-17T21:59:00.000-07:00

What other people consider bad habits and simple grammar mistakes are to this copyeditor sins and vices. I've never compiled a list of the seven deadly writing vices, but if I were, I suspect misuse of the virgule would be on there.

Don't sigh in relief, thinking you could not have committed a sin of virgules because you don't even know what a virgule is. You type virgules dozens of times a day because the virgule—otherwise known as the slash, the slant, the solidus, or the oblique—is a component of every Web address.

So what are the sins of virgules? First, I'll describe some proper uses of the virgule:

1. In Web addresses: for example, http://ShaunaRoberts.blogspot.com

2. In fractions: for example, 1/2, 3/8, 1/100

3. In compound units: for example, miles/hour, milligrams/liter, feet/second

4. In the phrase "and/or" (although the phrase itself is inelegant)

5. In date abbreviations: for example, 03/12/2010 (although keep in mind that a European may interpret that date as December 3, 2010)

6. In some specialized scientific uses: for example, to show a person has two different alleles of a gene, such as G6PD*A/G6PD*B

7. In phrases showing alternative names or spellings for the same person or thing: for example, Inanna/Ishtar, Hercules/Heracles, Jekyll/Hyde

8. In running text to show the original line breaks in a poem: for example, "I think that I shall never see/a poem lovely as a tree"

But other uses of the virgule shriek like fingernails on a blackboard:

1. In place of a hyphen: for example, "the Boston/Washington train" instead of "the Boston-Washington train"

2. In lists: for example, "On my vacation I toured London/Paris/Rome/Venice."

3. In compound units with three or more units: for example, feet/second/second should be feet/second^2 (that is, seconds squared)

4. In place of the word "or" in most situations: for example, "he/she" (try "he or she" or reword instead)

5. In place of the word "and": for example, "The position is open to physicians/scientists."

6 (and most important of all). In situations in which it's unclear whether the virgule stands for a hyphen, "and," "or," or "and/or": for example, "The applicant shall take oral/written tests"; "The applicant must have an M.D./Ph.D."

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Booksigning in Ohio

I'll be signing my novel Like Mayflies in a Stream on Saturday, 27 March 2010, from 2 to 4 pm at Dark Star Books and Comics in Yellow Springs. The store is located in downtown Yellow Springs at 237 Xenia Avenue. If you're in the area, please drop by to say "hi" or to pet Mr. Eko, the store cat.

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I won't be posting next week. Please stop by again at the end of March for a new post.

Return to high school

2010-03-05T22:36:00.000-08:00

Later this month, I'll be going home to Beavercreek, Ohio, for the first time as a published novelist. All my family still lives there, so I'll be taking part in the usual family events—pizza for 20 at Giovanni's Pizza in Fairborn, a birthday party for one of my many nieces and nephews, and general hanging out, goofing off,and playing practical jokes.

But I'll also be doing some author events at Beavercreek High School, my former high school. ("Bite 'em, Beavers!" was our cheer.) The school's book discussion group will discuss Like Mayflies in a Stream this month, and I'll be there to listen to the discussion, answer questions, pass out bookmarks, award a copy of Stephen Mitchell's Gilgamesh: A New English Version to one lucky student, and admire the poster my sister made to advertise my visit, which I haven't yet seen.

Three of my nieces attend my old high school. I'll be talking to several ninth-grade English classes, which include two of my nieces, and to four Creative Writing classes.

I'm hoping to line up a booksigning as well, but so far, in a big blow to my ego, I've yet to find a bookstore willing to host me. But that's okay; I'll visit with a fellow Clarionite who lives nearby, meet in person one of my blog friends (yes, you, White Cat!), and see an exhibit of quilts made in honor of Barack Obama at The National Afro-American Museum & Cultural Center in Wilberforce. Fun!

Update 6 March 2010
I think I've found a bookstore to sign at. Once I nail down the details, I'll post more.

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Somehow, I forgot to mention earlier that my novelette "The Hunt" was in the February issue of Jim Baen's Universe. Find it at http://baens-universe.com/articles/The_Hunt. According to the guidelines of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, this counts as my first professional sale!

Rose leaves are red

2010-02-24T17:40:00.000-08:00

Spring is on its way. You may doubt it if you are in the frozen part of the country, but here in Southern California, we see the signs. Naked trees with tiny shoots of green exploding from branch tips. Finches brightening their colors in preparation for mating. Leaf clusters bursting out from rose bushes.

I love the new leaves on rose bushes almost as much as I love roses. New rose leaves can be red, burgundy, or bronze; flat or folded or frilly. Here, for your enjoyment, are some pictures I took last of new rose-bush leaves.

Writers don't get snow days

2010-02-12T10:44:00.000-08:00

I am not prone to jealousy, but I felt more than a touch of envy this week as snow fell on much of the country, and friends got day after day off. I wasn't so much jealous that they could enjoy the unmatched pleasure of seeing a pristine blanket of snow, blue-white and sparkling under the sun, and smell the crisp fresh-snow scent. No, it was their unexpected gift of days off with obligations put on hold, the gift of time to read or daydream or catch up on sleep or some chores, time to empty the mind of everything that weighs on it and focus on something—making a quilt, baking bread, mapping out a new story or novel.

Of course, we writers can give ourselves a snow day whenever we want, at least in theory, and it's good for us to set aside time to clear our heads and fill the well. In practice, though, I find it almost impossible to take a snow day. Week after week, my paying work and other obligations gobble up not only my fiction-writing days but also my evenings and weekends. Some of you have talked about similar difficulties on your own blogs.

Yesterday, I took a radical step: I asked one of my clients, my biggest one, for a six-month leave of absence. Once I turn in my current assignment on 1 March, I'll have space in my life for some snow days. First priority: Rest. I'm tired of being tired every day. I need to rejuvenate before I can be creative again.

Second priority: Do chores. A home should be peaceful and welcoming, but the papers and piles of books I have strewn about stress both me and my long-suffering husband and disrupt my creativity by their constant distraction and by making it hard to find story notes, background materials, and everything else.

Third priority: Once I have a clear head and a clear workspace, be creative again. Read. Write down story and book ideas on a notepad. Research ideas. Revise stories I've received comments on and send them out. Finish stories I've started and start new stories. Start a book. Get together with other writers. Make fiction my first priority again.

I have the luxury of taking a leave from my biggest client because my father left me a small inheritance. But I was too tired to realize it. It took the snow storms of the past two weeks and my desire for some snow days to prod me to search for ways to have some.

Is your writing getting short shrift in your life? Perhaps it's time to brainstorm ways you can work in some snow days. Like me, you may be surprised what you come up with.

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Thank you, Dad, for everything. Two years and I still miss you terribly. Edward Arthur Roberts, 24 January 1930–12 February 2008.

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The blog Allison's Attic will be giving away a copy of Linda Weaver Clarke's Melinda and the Wild West. Enter by February 14. (I interviewed Linda here.)

Other friends, if anyone features your book at their blog, please feel free to send me an email. I'll put a note about the interview, the review, or the give-away on my next blog post.

You got to walk that lonesome valley

2010-02-04T17:26:00.000-08:00

Like dying, becoming a writer is a journey you have to walk by yourself, and, as the old spiritual says, nobody else can do it for you.

Friends, relatives, and other writers can support you, critique you, encourage you, mentor you, advise you, nag you. They can pass your name along to agents and editors. They can praise your work to everyone who will listen. In the end, though, you alone walk the valley, book in hand, and discover whether it ends in failure or success.

It’s not only the dying and the writer who have a lonely path. So do those who watch on the sidelines. Remaining behind when a loved one dies or seeing a friend’s first book hit the bestseller list (or flop miserably) is a soul-searing reminder of how acutely alone each of us is in the world. We cannot selflessly take the other person’s place to save them pain; we cannot selfishly take their place to savor their joy. We are separated by a gulf so deep that no bond of love or hate can span it.

No wonder that a writer’s success creates such a wide range of responses. Friends may be proud, angry, ecstatic, or jealous, or take the writer’s achievement as a good or bad portent for their own future, or feel awkward about the new gap between them, or all of the above.

You’re probably wondering about now whether this meandering post has a point. Why, yes, it does. When we know how alone each of us is at some moments of our lives, doesn’t it make sense to help and encourage each other when we can? As J.K. Rowling proved, we writers are not in competition with each other for a limited number of book slots; good books create new readers eager for more good books. Any one of us, by being successful, can create opportunities for others.

Let’s be gentle on ourselves and other writers. We may each walk alone, but we’re in this together.

What is best in life?

2010-01-27T11:43:00.000-08:00

What is best in life? “To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women,” says Conan in the 1982 movie “Conan the Barbarian.”

We’re writers, not berserkers and thieves, so our answers are a little different. To finish a manuscript. To polish that manuscript until it shines. To sell that manuscript. To hold our published writing in our hands. To see our friends finish and polish and sell and hold their writing. To read our friends’ stories and books.

Writers' joys are often long to fruition and are not always under our control. Today I’d like to remind everyone of the small "bests" we can enjoy every day and that no one can take from us.

What is best in life? I answer: To hear the birds sing outside my window. To laugh at the silly antics of cats and dogs. To see the happiness of birds after their feeder is filled. To walk barefoot in the grass on a warm day.

To plant seeds. To smell a flower. To stroke a rose petal. To harvest vegetables. To drink a cold beer on a hot day. To eat satsumas in the fall and strawberries in the spring and chocolate in every season.

To go to Home Depot with my husband to get stuff. To touch his hand, his face, his hair. To laugh together. To laugh with my critique group. To read the funnies in the newspaper. To get an email or Facebook message from a friend.

To do a kindness. To receive a kindness. To see a kindness done.

To see fresh-fallen snow and hear the snow-silence and smell the ice and cold.

To strive for perfection. To sometimes achieve it. To sometimes fail and still be happy with myself.

To listen to music. To play music. To dance in bare feet with my friends.

To smell a new book. To write a sentence that dances. To find the perfect strong word to end a sentence or a paragraph or a chapter.

To walk the streets of New Orleans. To see the ancient, twisted live oaks and the flower-filled balconies. To come upon a camel or musician or a parade where you weren’t expecting one.

To walk under the sun.

What is best in life? It is everywhere around us.

Blogging today at Novel Spaces

2010-01-23T00:02:00.000-08:00

Today at the blog Novel Spaces I'm discussing how much and what a speculative fiction writer should read. I'd love to hear your answers to those questions.

Five months after Clarion

2010-01-21T15:01:00.000-08:00

Before I went to the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop this past summer, I was aware of the "Clarion Curse": Some people go to Clarion and can't write again for months or years afterward. Some never write fiction again.

In my Clarion class of 18 people, some have been amazingly productive, cranking out story after story and selling to good markets. I'm not among that group. I spent the fall promoting Like Mayflies in a Stream and only began to try to write again in December.

I say "try" because I didn't succeed. I started stories, then couldn't get the words from my head onto the page—or, more distressingly, was clueless about where to take the story. I kept pressing on, started a new story in January, and finally, after a week and a half of slow slogging, completed a 3000-word story yesterday.

What accounts for the Clarion Curse? I suspect some people stop writing because at Clarion they find out they don't want to be a writer as much as they thought they did. For me, my difficulties writing resulted from a combination of losing the ability to suppress my inner editor and fatigue from the intensive workshop that I still haven't shaken. (For those new to my blog, I have systemic lupus erythematosus, which saps my energy.)

Yet, Clarion was well worth it. Once I finished my new story, I thought it among the best I've ever written. I believe I'll batter my inner editor back into submission and the writing speed I had before Clarion. I also gained the courage to take chances and to tackle painful, personal topics. My new story, for example, takes place in New Orleans after the federal levees broke after Hurricane Katrina.

Over the past five months, I've critiqued many stories and book chapters by people in my New Orleans critique group, people in my SF/F critique group in Orange County, and fellow Clarionites. Clarion has drastically improved my critiquing ability. I have a much better idea now whether a story is working (as opposed to whether I enjoyed it) and how it could work better.

Last but not least, my Clarion classmates continue to encourage each other and help each other with their stories. The writing of all of us should benefit.

I recommend that anyone who wants to take a giant step forward in their writing ability next summer consider applying to Clarion, held in La Jolla, California, or its sister workshop, Clarion West, held in Seattle. The application deadlines are coming soon—March 1—so act now if you're interested.

My Town Wednesday: Stuff in my yard

2010-01-13T00:04:00.000-08:00

I'll return to blogging about writing next week, when I will talk about how attending the six-week Clarion Workshop this past summer affected my writing.

This week, I have enough new pictures to do a new

My Town Monday: Stuff in my yard

featuring coyote, finch, Western scrub jay, and California quail pictures taken in my yard in Riverside, Southern California.

“My Town Monday” is the brainchild of Travis Erwin at One Word, One Rung, One Day. The goal is to introduce one's blog readers to what’s special about the place where one lives. "My Town Monday" currently resides at http://mytownmonday.blogspot.com/.

Finches

Our feeders continue to attract many birds, primarily sparrows of various types, house finches (Carpodacus mexicanus) and lesser gold finches (Carduelis psaltria). Below are finches eating at the niger seed feeder.

Scrub jays

After seeing a Western scrub jay (Aphelocoma californica) check out the sunflower seed tray a few times, we got a peanut feeder. It took several months, but now two Western scrub jays visit every day to eat peanuts.

California quail

This year for the first time four pairs of California quail (Callipepla californica came nearly every day during breeding season to forage underneath one of our bird feeders. After the chicks arrived, they came too.

Coyote

Yesterday, a coyote (Canis latrans) made a rare visit during the daytime to eat cherry tomatoes and strawberries. (We had wondered where the fruit disappeared to!) Here are a few pictures I took of it.

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Contests

Carleen Brice will be giving away book baskets to celebrate the debut of the Lifetime TV channel movie "Sins of the Mother" on 7 February. This is the movie version of Carleen's novel Orange Mint and Honey. Here are the rules. (I interviewed Carleen here.)

The blog Suko's Notebook will be giving away a copy of Linda Weaver Clarke's Melinda and the Wild West. The give-away lasts until January 24. (I interviewed Linda here.)

A year in books

2010-01-06T00:01:00.000-08:00

My spreadsheet of books finished during 2009 shows that I finished only 47 books. That’s the fewest since I started keeping a spreadsheet.

The spectrum of books was different in 2009 as well. This year’s list had at least three genres of books that had not appeared on earlier lists:
•first graphic novel
•first book of literary criticism
•first Western that wasn’t a romance

I also read more books this year that I had trouble classifying on my spreadsheet. Was M.J. Rose’s The Reincarnationist a thriller or a fantasy? Was Italo Calvino’s short story collection Cosmicomics literary fiction, fantasy, or science fiction? Was Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Years of Rice and Salt historical fiction, fantasy, or science fiction? And so on.

Roughly one-third of the books I read were fantasy, the exact number depending on how one defines the many interstitial books. Nonfiction was second most popular on my list, and historical fiction and science fiction duked it out for third place.

This year only two of 47 books (4%) I read were romances, compared with 15 of 56 books (27%) in 2008.

In 2009, 21 (45%) of the books I read were by people I knew by the end of the year versus 19 (34%) in 2008. I recently started shelving books by people I know separately from other books in my to-be-read stacks, and that should make it easier to find my friends’ books when I’m choosing something new to read.

Missing altogether this year were quilting books and gardening books. 2009 was all about becoming a better writer, at the expense of every other aspect my life. I hope to achieve a better balance in 2010.

What was noteworthy about the books you read last year, and what does your list say about your 2009?

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Tomorrow, 7 January, I will be blogging at Novel Spaces at http://novelspaces.blogspot.com on why focusing solely on remunerative tasks is not always the greatest idea.

The old year now away is fled

2009-12-29T16:35:00.000-08:00

My final blog post of the year seems a fitting time to look back at 2009 and forward to 2010.

Social networking

One of the biggest writing-world surprises of 2009 for me was the abandonment of blogs for Facebook. Many of the writing friends I connected with at the beginning of the year through visiting each others’ blogs I now see primarily on FB. As much as I enjoy reading the tidbits my friends post on FB about their families, their activities, and their progress on a story or book, the trend toward FB dismays me.

If blogs go the way of dinosaurs, I will miss the long essays, thought-out arguments, carefully constructed jokes or photo displays, and tutorials. Although some people do occasionally post longer material on FB, most information is conveyed as sound bites, slogans, and aphorisms. FB works well for announcing one is baking chocolate-chip cookies or has posted new photos of the progress of their barn renovation, but is totally inadequate for making a nuanced argument.

And yet I myself have gotten sucked into hanging out at FB, to the detriment of my blog. My intention for 2010 is to start blogging again every week; please feel free to nag if I don’t.

Covers

None of my friends had awful covers this year, and many were blessed by the cover gods and received gorgeous covers. Many of the books I bought also had great covers. Granted, I will buy a book because it has nice cover art, but still, in 2009 cover art seemed to take a turn for the better. Perhaps with the economy still in the tank, publishers felt they needed better covers to entice people to approach and buy their books. Whatever the reason, I was happy for the trend and hope it continues.

The reactions to the cover for Like Mayflies in a Stream have been strong and contradictory. One bookseller thought it was a great cover because the contrast, the tension between the figures, and the lighting all draw the eye to the book. Other people have said that they found the cover repellent. I now routinely ask people at booksignings what they think of it. It’s fascinating to hear how differently people react, and I wonder how many of the covers I loved in 2009 turned other people off.

Dark and stormy night

The trend in both fantasy and romance toward dark books set in grimy, unpleasant places and headed by heroes with questionable moral compasses continued in 2009; I stopped buying most such books long ago. The rise of steampunk seemed to promise a change in direction; instead, I fear we are getting much the same books, only now they are set in a violent, grimy, gloomy Victorian London.

It’s not that I want to read variations on Pollyanna. But life is both glorious and horrible, beautiful and ugly, uplifting and soul searing; I want to read books that reflect the full range of human experience, not just the dark half. My life has enough dark already.

Goals

One of my goals for this week is to set writing goals for 2010. What’s floating around in my head is that I want to send out several stories (which will require writing them first), write another novel, and go to a couple of writing conferences. Oh, and get more sleep so I will be rested enough to accomplish the other goals.

How about you? What did you think of 2009’s covers? Or my cover? Are you tired of dark books yet? What goals will you pursue in 2010?

Happy New Year, everyone.

Clarion Workshop opens for applications

2009-12-01T00:01:00.000-08:00

The Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop is accepting applications for its 2010 class from 1 December 2009 through 1 March 2010.

For those unfamiliar with the Clarion workshop, it is an intensive six-week-long workshop in which you write short stories and critique the stories of your seventeen classmates. Ideally, you write six stories during those six weeks, but the number is up to you.

Although the instructors come from the world of speculative fiction and the workshop teaching focuses on spec fic, people who write in any genre are welcome to apply.

The lineup of teachers for 2010 is especially wonderful:

Delia Sherman, fantasy writer and anthologist
George R.R. Martin, fantasy writer
Dale Bailey, horror writer
Samuel Delaney, science fiction writer and literary critic
Jeff VanderMeer, fantasy writer and anthologist
Ann VanderMeer, publisher, editor, and anthologist

The online application process is easy. You submit contact information, a brief summary of your educational background, a few details about your writing habits and goals, and two short stories.

As you may know, I attended Clarion in 2009 and found it worth every penny. My writing improved, my critiquing ability improved, and I made seventeen friends-for-life, most or all of whom will be famous writers one day. I blogged about the experience here and here.

To learn about Clarion 2010 and the application process, check out the Website http://clarion.ucsd.edu/workshop.html and the links there.

If you want to know more about my six weeks at Clarion, please feel free to ask questions in the comments or to email me privately at ShaunaRoberts [at] ShaunaRoberts.com.

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The blog Suko’s Notebook is having a contest, and the prize is the historical novel Melinda in the Wild West by Linda Weaver Clark. Linda was interviewed at For Love of Words in August. To enter the contest, leave a comment here.

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Hadley Rille Books, which published Like Mayflies in a Stream, is celebrating its fourth birthday. If you haven’t checked out its offerings before—mostly science fiction and fantasy—they’re worth a look: http://www.hadleyrillebooks.com.

Writing about the new New Orleans

2009-11-23T18:17:00.000-08:00

While in San Francisco recently, I met someone who was not from New Orleans who was writing a novel in which the failure of the federal levees in New Orleans was an important incident. I promised to send him some names of books for background reading, particularly books by NOLA authors he might not come across otherwise.

It occurred to me that other nonlocal people may also be writing books that have scenes set in the new New Orleans. Writers can no longer rely on pre-Flood books or memories from vacation trips. The landscape has changed, the vocabulary has changed, the ethnic makeup of the city has changed, and even the attitudes of people have changed.

Here are a few suggestions for background reading for such writers.

Memoirs

1 Dead in Attic: After Katrina by Chris Rose. This book contains some of Rose’s daily columns in the Times-Picayune, which were a must-read for every New Orleanian in the months after the Flood.

Oral history by Dr. Bennett deBoisblanc (my pulmonologist and a hero of the Flood): http://thekatrinaexperience.net/?p=16. Other oral histories collected in the same project can be accessed from http://thekatrinaexperience.net/?cat=1.

Heart Like Water: Surviving Katrina and Life in Its Disaster Zone: A Memoir by Joshua Clark, a writer and publisher who stayed in his French Quarter apartment during and after the disaster.

Many people have published memoirs since the Flood. This link will take you to memoirs that Amazon.com sells.

Practical matters

If someone is going to write about the aftermath of the Flood, they’ll need to know something about the issues New Orleanians dealt with—mold, insurance claims, depression, unsafe water, financial disaster, lack of electricity, and finding a reputable contractor, among others. Here are a few links to brochures and Web pages.

“Repairing Your Flooded Home”

“Disaster Recovery: A Guide to Financial Issues”

“Picking Up the Pieces after a Disaster: Important Steps for Your Safe and Speedy Recovery”

“Generators”

“National Flood Insurance Program Flood Insurance Claims Handbook”

“Recovering from Disaster”

“A Brief Guide to Mold, Moisture, and Your Home”

“Treatment of Flood-Damaged Older and Historic Buildings”

Flood control and its failures in Louisiana

Bayou Farewell: The Rich Life and Tragic Death of Louisiana’s Cajun Coast by Mike Tidwell

Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America by John M. Barry

The Storm: What Went Wrong and Why During Hurricane Katrina—The Inside Story from One Louisiana Scientist by Ivor van Heerden and Mike Bryan

Reportage on Hurricane Katrina

Many magazines had special issues or published picture books after the Flood. I was not impressed with Time magazine’s Hurricane Katrina: The Storm That Changed America.. Two that do seem good are:

Katrina: Why It Became a Man-made Disaster; Where It Could Happen Next, a special edition (undated) of National Geographic

Katrina: The Ruin and Recovery of New Orleans by the staff of the Times-Picayune

Miscellaneous

Spoiled by Tom Varisco. A tiny book of photographs of ruined refrigerators. Available from http://www.tomvariscodesigns.com/shop.html.

Come Hell or High Water: Hurricane Katrina and the Color of Disaster by Michael Eric Dyson. An analysis of the role race and social class played in the federal and public response to the Flood.

A.D.: New Orleans after the Deluge by Josh Neufeld. A graphic novel about the Flood.

This list is far from comprehensive; there have been a deluge of books about the Deluge. I’d welcome your suggestions for background reading for nonlocal writers.

World Fantasy Con revisited

2009-11-13T11:28:00.000-08:00

At last I have recuperated sufficiently from the 2009 World Fantasy Con to report on it. That fact alone should tell you I had a great time. So much went on that I wish I could have split myself into three or four people to take advantage of everything.

Never having experienced WFC before, I had expected a Con similar to the Baton Rouge and Los Angeles Cons I've been to—guys in Klingon costumes, lots of teeshirt and jewelry vendors, panels manned by unprepared people who learned of their panel assignments at the last minute. I was wrong. WFC was more like the Romance Writers of America yearly convention, only oriented even more strongly toward the professional writer.

The Con ran from 29 October to 1 November 2009 in San Jose, California, and I was impressed from the very beginning. Registration was organized and efficient—I love organization and efficiency, and they are usually all too lacking at Cons—and each registrant received a large bookbag stuffed full with magazines and books, many of them hardcovers. Wowie zowie! I collected more free publications at the giveaway table and came home with hundreds of dollars' worth of reading material.

Official events at WFC included an art show, a dealers' room whose vendors were primarily bookstores and publishers, a group autographing session, readings, panels, interviews, and a closing banquet followed by the World Fantasy Awards.

At least two panels were slotted for each time period, and often I wanted to go to all of them. A sampling: "Poe's Influence" (the theme of this year's WFC was the 200th anniversary of Edgar Allen Poe's birth), "The Role of the Raven," "Overlooked Early Writers of the Supernatural," "Why Steampunk Now?" "The Role of Religion in Contemporary Fantasy," and "What Makes a Good Monster," to name a few.

I sat on one panel, called "Writing Human Characters, Whether or Not They're Human," with David B. Coe, Kate Elliott, Laurel Ann Hill, and Kay Kenyon. According to the program description, we were to discuss "the challenges of writing relatable [sic] nonhuman characters in heroic and mythic fantasy...." In fact, though, we talked more about science fiction aliens than about vampires or other fantasy creatures.

The mass book signing was scheduled to last an exhausting three hours, but both autograph seekers and authors wandered away after about two hours. I talked to many people and sold and signed several books, so I consider the signing a success.

My goals for the conference were to network and to try not to buy too many books. I reluctantly skipped most of the panels and readings to go to parties and to hang out with my Clarion friends (which soon included the class of 2008) and their friends. Unlike RWA members at a conference, few WFC attendees had business cards. Thank goodness for Facebook! A flurry of "friending" after the Con means I'll remember names and faces for next year.

And yes, I do intend to go next year, when WFC lands in Columbus, Ohio, over Halloween weekend, and not only because I can visit my family in nearby Beavercreek. I'm already planning what to do differently to get even more value from the Con. Number 1 on the list: Get more sleep before and during the Con. This year, I was Zombie Woman by the end of the first day.

Think you might want to go to World Fantasy Con? Check out my brief post at the NovelSpaces blog on why you should attend next year.

Interview with debut fantasy author Kim Vandervort

2009-11-04T16:14:00.000-08:00

Kim Vandervort’s first novel, The Song and the Sorceress (Hadley Rille Books), debuted 15 August. This epic fantasy follows the adventures of a runaway princess and her companions as they seek to find and destroy a dangerous sorceress.

Welcome, Kim, and congratulations on publication of The Song and the Sorceress!

Thanks, Shauna! And thank you for having me!

What was your favorite part of writing The Song and the Sorceress?

This is a tough question, like being asked to choose between my children! However, I would have to say that my favorite part of writing Song was the process of discovery. While I always had a fairly solid idea of where the novel was headed, sometimes the novel would take an interesting turn that I had not anticipated, and it became a lot of fun to see where this new plot twist or idea would take me. These were the times when I almost felt more like a reader than a writer—I had to keep going because I wanted to know what would happen next!

Probably the best example of this I can point toward is when the Vequen appear. Like my characters, I had no idea they were there until they showed up. Once they did, I really wanted to know who these people were and what their culture was like, and I had a lot of fun with that piece of the story.

What writers have had the greatest influence on you?

First and foremost, Anne McCaffrey and her Dragonriders of Pern series. Not only was Dragonsinger one of the first fantasy novels I remember pulling off my school library shelf and absolutely loving, I also belonged to a Pern fanfic club through middle school and high school that gave me the opportunity to hone my burgeoning writing skills by writing and publishing short stories set in the Pern universe.

From there I became a huge fan of Piers Anthony, Steven Brust, Mercedes Lackey—anything I could pull off of my mom’s shelf at home. I absolutely ADORED David Eddings, and in later years, I became a huge Tolkien fan. I find something different to love in almost every fantasy I read, but I tend to gravitate toward well-drawn characters.

Are there certain themes or topics you’re drawn to in your writing?

Most of my main characters are fairly young—from adolescents to young adults—and a common theme seems to be the search for identity and belonging, something I think many young adults can identify with.

I also like my female characters to take a strong role in the story. As a young reader, I got tired of women relegated to the role of the love interest, the witch, the prostitute, or the damsel in distress; I wanted to see more heroines, with complex characters, the power to make their own choices, and the brains to work their own way out of a situation. So, much of my writing seems to explore these ideas.

What is your writing regimen? Would you recommend it to aspiring authors? 

My writing regimen is all over the map! I wrote Song off and on for much of my life; I got the idea for Song when I was eleven and have played with it ever since. However, up until recently, writing was more of a hobby, something I could only do in my spare time.

Now that I have more books to finish and fans anxious for the next book, I try to write 1,000 words a day. Even if I don’t hit that goal, writing every day breaks the task into shorter, manageable doses and keeps my head in the story. I also try to not worry about the details while writing that first draft, as a lot of my best work comes from the revision process anyway. I would definitely recommend this tactic to aspiring authors, especially those who start well, but have trouble finishing a project of any length. The daily goals seem daunting at times, but help get me a lot closer to the end than writing in occasional bursts the night before my writer’s group ever did!

Do you have any other advice for my readers who are working on their first novels?

Revise, revise, revise! Don’t be afraid to cut or change what you’ve written, and don’t think that the book is done on the first, second, or even third draft. Find a writer’s group and go over the novel until you’re sick of it. Then, go over it again! The novel will never be perfect, but it needs to be well polished before it leaves the house. And revision has taught me more about writing than the process of drafting ever did.

When will your next book come out, and what will it be about?

My next book, which I will finish by the end of 2009, is tentatively entitled The Northern Queen and will continue Ki’leah’s adventures as she takes up her birthright as Queen of Si’vad.

Kim, thanks for visiting my blog, and good luck with your next book.

Thanks so much! And congratulations to you on the publication of your new novel!

Thanks, Kim!

You can learn more about Kim and The Song and the Sorceress by visiting her Website at http://www.kimvandervort.com/ and her blog at http://writerknv.livejournal.com/. Her book is available at Amazon.com (trade paperback, hardcover) and Barnes & Noble (trade paperback, hardcover) as well as by order from your favorite bookstore.

Reading-habits meme

2009-10-20T17:48:00.000-07:00

I found this reading-habits meme recently at Charles Gramlich’s Razored Zen blog and thought I would give it a go.

Do you snack while you read? If so, what is your favorite reading snack?

Yes, I snack, usually on good chocolate and a glass of water (bottled Pellegrino if I’m treating myself; filtered water from the fridge for ordinary occasions).

Do you tend to mark your books as you read, or does the idea of writing in books horrify you?

My mother once caught me coloring in the line drawings of a poetry book my aunt gave me, and I caught holy heck. I partially got over the trauma in college and grad school, where I did mark up my textbooks. Even so, to this day, before I pick up a highlighter or pencil I consider whether I can get by with just sticky notes.

How do you keep your place while reading a book? Bookmark? Dog-ears? Laying the book flat open?

Bookmark, always, always, always. Breaking the spine or dogearing would be blasphemous.

Fiction, nonfiction, or both?

Both. I'm not fussy. I was one of those kids who read cereal boxes.

Are you a person who tends to read to the end of a chapter, or can you stop anywhere?

I prefer to stop at the end of a chapter or scene, but some authors have awfully long scenes. In that case, I’ll stop anywhere.

If you come across an unfamiliar word, do you stop and look it up right away?

Sometimes. I keep a dictionary next to my favorite reading spot for that purpose, but I don’t always read there.

What are you currently reading?

The Memory of Whiteness by Kim Stanley Robinson (sf novel)
The Frugal Book Promoter by Carolyn Howard Johnson (nonfiction)
The Jewel-Hinged Jaw: Notes on the Language of Science Fiction by Samuel R. Delany (literary criticism)
Year’s Best Fantasy 9, edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer (fantasy short fiction)

What is the last book you bought?

Soulless: An Alexia Tarabotti Novel by Gail Carriger. It appears to be a comedy of manners/fantasy/steampunk/horror novel about a Victorian woman who stakes vampires with her parasol.

Are you the type of person that reads one book at a time, or can you read more than one?

More than one. Usually I have going a novel, at least one short-story collection, and at least one nonfiction book. I'm also often reading something on my Kindle as well.

Do you have a favorite time/place to read?

I love to read anytime, although perhaps Sunday afternoon counts as my favorite.

My favorite place is in "my" recliner chair in our living room.

Do you prefer series books or stand alones?

Neither. If a stand-alone book is great, I get annoyed that there aren’t more like it. If a book in a series looks good, I get annoyed that I have to read so many other books to work my way up to it, especially if some of the early books are out of print. (I rarely read books out of sequence.)

Is there a specific book or author you find yourself recommending over and over?

Barbara Hambly (sf, fantasy, mystery, historical fiction)
Guy Gavriel Kay (fantasy)
Brandon Sanderson (fantasy)
Jennifer Blake (historical romance)

I also recommend my friends’ books when appropriate.

How do you organize your books? (by genre, title, author’s last name, etc.)

I put all autographed books together, and I keep all of my aunt’s books together. Otherwise I don’t have a system. Some are grouped by genre; some, by author; if I’m in a hurry I’ll stick a book anywhere there’s an open space.

Interview with romance writer Liane Spicer

2009-10-12T13:18:00.000-07:00

Continuing my series of interviews with Novel Spaces bloggers, I introduce today Liane Spicer, author of Café au Lait (Leisure Books). This romance novel, Liane’s first, is set in Trinidad and Tobago, Liane’s home.

Welcome, Liane, and congratulations on publication of Café au Lait!

Thank you, Shauna. It’s a pleasure to be here.

How did coming from a small country affect your ability to learn about the business of writing and to find an agent and a publisher?

I started learning about the business via writing magazines and articles in Writers Market, then graduated to doing most research online. My location in the Caribbean initially lengthened the querying and submission process; I had to snail mail everything and include arcane stuff such as international mailing coupons, which were something of a PITA for those on the receiving end. Now that many agents and publishers accept queries online, my location is not an issue. I found my current agent, Susan Schulman, days after I began e-mailing agent queries.

Trinidad and Tobago are such beautiful and—for some of us—exotic places to read about. Did you start Café au Lait with the setting first?

I believe I did. There was no question that my first book would be set on the islands. I pre-selected locations for pivotal scenes and when I was ready to write I sketched an outline and made character notes. The story more or less wrote itself from there on.

With such an appealing setting, did you have trouble keeping it from overwhelming the story? How did you balance the readers’ desire to vicariously enjoy these tropical islands with their desire for a satisfying romance?

It was quite a balancing act because I’m very passionate about the physical beauty of my homeland! Every reviewer to date has enthused over my handling of the setting so I think I managed to succeed in conveying the imagery without overwhelming.

How did you become interested in writing romance? What other genres are you interested in writing?

When I read about Kensington’s pioneering Arabesque imprint I decided I’d begin with a multicultural romance. I’ve also written the first draft of a memoir and several chapters of a mainstream novel. Then there’s that sci-fi short story that came out of the blue…

What writers have had the greatest influence on you?

Gerald Durrell, whose obsession with ecology and conservation helped set the naturalist in me on fire from my childhood. D.H. Lawrence for his unflinching exploration of emotion and sensuality. Ayn Rand for the power of her reasoning. Marilyn French for her focus on the female perspective. Shakespeare for his unparalleled facility with language and understanding of the human condition. Erma Bombeck and Dave Barry for showcasing the humor in the ordinary.

Are there certain themes or topics you’re drawn to write about?

Foremost are environmental themes. I’ve been reading about the so-called “eco-thriller” subgenre and that got me thinking of pioneering an “eco-romance” subgenre. Ambiguity is a theme that I enjoy exploring—all the shades of gray that continue to baffle me. Paradox, pain and pleasure, love, hatred and betrayal all wrapped in one package—these complexities continue to fascinate and perplex me, so I write about them.

What is your writing regimen? Would you recommend it to aspiring authors?

I’m really, really bad at maintaining a regimen. I used to work late at night when the household was asleep but now that I have a day job again that isn’t practical. I’ve started scheduling two hours in the evening for writing and not allowing anything to get in the way. My only recommendation to aspiring authors would be to find a routine that works for them, rather than to try and adopt anyone else’s.

Do you have any other advice for my readers who are working on their first novels?

Focus on writing your story and make it the best that it can possibly be before even thinking of sending it out. Stop talking about it; talking dissipates the energy and tension that should go into the process of creating a novel.

What are you writing now?

My agent submitted my second romance to the publisher this week, and I have to decide now whether I want to work on the memoir or the mainstream novel that are partially written or to begin a new romance.

Thanks, Liane, for talking about your work, and best wishes on your writing.

Shauna, thank you for having me. Congratulations on your brand-new release! I’m looking forward to reading Like Mayflies in a Stream.

You can learn more about Liane and Café au Lait at her combination Website and blog at http://www.lianespicer.com/. Café au Lait is available at your local bookstore as well as online at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, and Borders.

A book is born

2009-10-05T11:08:00.000-07:00

Today is the official release date of Like Mayflies in a Stream, my third book and (woohoo!) first novel!

For those new to my blog, Like Mayflies in a Stream takes place in ancient Mesopotamia in the world's first city, Uruk, currently ruled by a tyrant. The protagonist, a priestess of Inanna, risks everything in her quest to save her friends and family. Mayflies was inspired by the "Epic of Gilgamesh," the world's first known story.

You can order Mayflies from your local bookstore or find it online at Amazon.com in hardcover and trade paperback and at Barnes & Noble in hardcover and trade paperback.

Interview with romance authors Jewel Amethyst and Stefanie Worth

2009-10-01T13:09:00.000-07:00

Three members of the Novel Spaces blog—Jewel Amethyst, Farrah Rochon, and Stefanie Worth—saw their new anthology of romance novellas debut two days ago, 29 September. Holiday Brides (Leisure Books) contains a trio of romance stories set during winter holidays. Jewel also has a new book out—her first!—called A Marriage of Convenience (Leisure Books).

I interviewed Farrah Rochon in May 2007; today, Jewel Amethyst and Stefanie Worth visit.

Jewel and Stefanie, I’m so glad you are dropping by my blog today. Congratulations on publication of Holiday Brides and A Marriage of Convenience!

JEWEL: Thanks for inviting us.

STEFANIE: Thanks for having me, Shauna.

Although a novella is shorter than a novel, some people find them harder to write. How would you compare the experiences of writing each?

JEWEL: In a novel, you have the advantage of using plots and lots of situations to develop the characters in the book. In a novella, you don’t have that luxury so you have to find more succinct ways of getting your readers to feel and fall in love with the main characters. But I enjoyed writing both.

STEFANIE: I wrote my first novella last year for The Holiday Inn anthology. Being a “pantser,” one who doesn’t outline her stories, I found that I had to be much more organized in my thinking to finish the story within the shortened deadline. This time, I needed to outline to contain the story in the allotted word count. The effect has carried over, and I’ve done a lot more pre-plotting with my current novel-in-progress than I did with the first.

Not having a particularly romantic nature, I’ve wondered why getting married during the hectic holidays is considered romantic. Do you have a theory?

JEWEL: I grew up on the Caribbean Island of St. Kitts, which is featured in “From SKB with Love,” my contribution to the Holiday Brides anthology. Most weddings on St. Kitts actually occur around the Christmas holidays, which is also the carnival season. There is a certain practicality to it. That’s when most Kittitians return to the island on vacation, so friends and family members can participate in the weddings.

On a more romantic note, I would say it is the magic of the season. The holidays take you back to a time and space when you were a kid and you were excited about the presents, the magic, the whole spirit of love and happiness. What’s happier or more magical than having your true love commit to you? People would like to spend their first Christmas together or bring in the new year committed forever to the person they love.

STEFANIE: I think getting married during the holidays is a little crazy myself. But, hey, so is love. lol

How did you become interested in writing romance?

JEWEL: I guess romance was just a natural fit for me. I write a lot of other stuff: short stories, poems. And I have outlines for novels of other genres. But I guess I’m a romantic by heart and I like happy endings. I’ve never set out to say, “Ok, I’m going to write a romance novel today.” The story ideas come to me while I’m going about my daily life, and I eventually develop them and write them. If it happens to be romance (9 out of 10 times it is), then that’s what I write.

STEFANIE: I stumbled into the genre when I was trying to sell my first book, Where Souls Collide. Although there was a relationship in the story, there wasn’t a happily ever after ending. As I began shopping the story, I learned about genres and the rules of those genres. When the book sold to Dorchester, I knew I had some tweaking to do in order to meet readers’ expectations.

Jewel, the heroine of A Marriage of Convenience has been hit hard by life, losing her money, her job, and her fiancé. She would seem a heroine many women could identify with in these financially hard times.

JEWEL: Definitely. Not every woman is extra pretty, rich, or without the constant cares of today. The average woman today has to worry about making ends meet, paying her bills on time, her appearance, and yes, many do worry about meeting Mr. Right. I wanted Tamara to be every woman. I wanted her to have the same troubles, anxieties, despair, and insecurities that present-day women experience on a regular basis. That is why I made her plus size and had her struggle with her weight, finding a job, making ends meet. For me, the impact is not in the troubles themselves, but how she eventually learns to deal with them and finds love in the process without changing her external circumstances.

What writers have had the greatest influence on you?

JEWEL: That’s a tough question. I can’t pinpoint any one who has had a direct impact on my writing, but inspiration-wise, James Patterson and his prolific writing across genres and Sydney Sheldon with his captivating plots and surprise endings have been a big influence. I think I’ve read just about every John Grisham, Robin Cook, and Dan Brown novel. In terms of romance writers, I was a long-time fan of Danielle Steele.

STEFANIE: As a child I loved fantasy stories and Nancy Drew mysteries. When I got older, I began sneaking my mother’s romantic suspense novels off her shelf while she was at work. Ultimately though, I read A LOT of Stephen King growing up—as in everything he wrote. I also love reading Toni Morrison and Maya Angelou. In later years I became a Dean Koontz fan.

Are there certain themes or topics you’re drawn to write about?

JEWEL: Not really, though I find myself writing quite a bit lately about people who experience and overcome extreme hardship.

STEFANIE: Although I was pretty ambivalent about it when I started my first novel, I now know that I am a paranormal writer. Everything I attempt to pen comes out with some crazy otherworldly twist. I think I wasn’t sure I’d be able to sustain my fantasy train of thought, but I’ve proven myself wrong. And I’m glad I did.

What is your writing regimen? Would you recommend it to aspiring authors?  

JEWEL: I have none (lol). I tend to write on inspiration (bad for dedicated authors) rather than by set goals. The setback for inspiration-based writing is that it lacks discipline and you take longer to complete the work. I love writing and I’d hate to become so bogged down with a rigid regimen that it becomes tedious. What I would recommend for aspiring authors is to do what works best for you. If dedicating a number of hours each day works, do so. If writing sporadically when you get the urge works, do that.

STEFANIE: I have a full-time job and three kids, so I tend to write after most people I know are sound asleep. If you need eight hours of shut-eye a night, no, I wouldn’t recommend this approach to you. I would suggest that you try to write when you feel most creative. It’ll spare you the agony of sitting down at the keyboard when your muse has flitted off for the day.

Do you have any other advice for my readers who are working on their first novels?

JEWEL: Stick to it. And if you fail to get it published, write another and another. Many authors have their first books either unpublished or published after their second, third, or even umpteenth novel. My first full-length novel is still not published. But with persistence and a bit of luck, I got my second one published. Had I given up, “A Marriage of Convenience” and “From SKB with Love” would still be sitting on my computer (or filed away in my imagination), never to see the light of day.

STEFANIE: Join a reputable writing group. Learn the business of writing. Believe in yourself. Armed with those three tips, I think you’ll be able to ward off a lot of first-time author fumbles and spend more time enjoying yourself as a writer.

What are you writing now?

JEWEL: I currently have a work in progress, but as it’s still in its formative stage I won’t elaborate on it yet.

STEFANIE: My next novel is due to Dorchester December 31st. I’m hoping the story becomes the first in a series for me. It’s a follow-up to last year’s “Can You Believe” novella that appeared in The Holiday Inn anthology. My hero and heroine have settled into a new post-reality show life full of supernatural surprises.

Jewel and Stefanie, thanks for visiting For Love of Words, and good luck with your writing.

JEWEL AND STEFANI: Thank you for having us.

You can learn more about Stefanie at her Website at http://www.stefanieworth.com/ or her blog at http://plottingme.blogspot.com. Both Stefanie and Jewel blog twice a month at http://NovelSpaces.blogspot.com; both are also on Facebook. Holiday Brides and A Marriage of Convenience are available at bookstores and online at the links below.

Holiday Brides: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Borders

A Marriage of Convenience: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Borders

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The winners of my birthday contest are RAE ANN PARKER, who chose Amy MacKinnon’s Tethered as her prize, and FARRAH ROCHON, who chose Carleen Brice’s Orange Mint and Honey. Congratulations!

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Like Mayflies in a Stream is now available online at Amazon.com in hardcover and at a discount at Barnes & Noble in both hardcover and trade paperback. The official release date is 5 October.

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Book release party in Southern California

I’ll be signing Like Mayflies in a Stream Sunday, 11 October, at 2 pm at Mystery & Imagination Bookshop in Glendale. Everyone is welcome to drop by for some wine, snacks, and conversation and to browse the store’s stock of mystery, sf, fantasy, and horror books.

Mystery & Imagination Bookshop 
238 North Brand Boulevard
Glendale, CA 91203
818-545-0206
Map

Interview with romance writer Karen White-Owens

2009-09-23T00:10:00.000-07:00

Karen White-Owens’ newest novel, I Can Make You Love Me (Dafina), will be released 6 October. In this contemporary romance, childhood friends rediscover each other, but time’s wounds interfere with renewing their former affection.

Karen, thanks for visiting my blog, and congratulations on the publication of I Can Make You Love Me.

Thank you.

In addition to being a multipublished novelist, you’re a librarian, an editor, and a writing teacher. I’m guessing you love books. What did you read as a child?

The book that comes to mind is Seventeenth Summer, written by Maureen Daly. I remember checking it out of the school library and loving the story. Seventeenth Summer was a beautifully written story about teenage love, choices, and angst. It started my hunger for romance novels.

Maya Angelou is one of my favorite authors. When I was in high school, I checked out all of her books. I love her poetry. I'm in awe of all poets because they say so much in very few words.

How do these other careers help or hurt your writing?

All of my work experiences help when I'm writing my stories. As a librarian, I meet and help all types of people with interesting gestures, emotions, and habits that find their way into the pages of my novels.

Also, working at a library gives me the advantage of doing all of my research at work. When I need to know something, I go to our computer catalog and find what I want. The added bonus is I can check it out for long periods.

Teaching at Wayne State University was and is still one of the thrills of my life. I was enthralled with the idea of teaching at the university where I earned my undergrad degree. But I soon learned it took a lot of work and preparation to teach a class effectively. Working with aspiring authors taught me compassion. I learned how to express ideas while respecting other writers' work, even if I didn't agree or understand the subject matter.

What is your favorite part of writing?

My favorite part of writing is the creating. I like to sit down at the computer and let the characters take shape and tell their story.

What writers have had the greatest influence on you?

I believe Stephen King is the person who influences me the most. No one drops you into a scene the way Stephen King does. At some point, I hope to be able to do the same, plus rip your heart out with my prose and then wipe away your tears with a satisfying ending.

Are there certain themes or topics you’re drawn to in your writing?

Many of my books involve growing up, taking responsibility for yourself and your family, and being a good parent. Whether we want to believe it or not, when you have a child, he or she must come first in your life.

What is your writing regimen? Would you recommend it to aspiring authors?

I get up between 4 and 4:30 am and write for approximately an hour or two and then I go back to bed for about an hour. When my alarm clock goes off at 7 am, I start getting ready for work. On my lunch hour, I edit the pages that I wrote that morning. After dinner in the evening, I make the editorial changes I made during the day.

Do you have any other advice for my readers who are working on their first novels?

“Finish the novel” will always be the best advice I can give anyone. Join a writing organization is my second suggestion. The best thing I ever did when I first started writing was becoming a member of Romance Writers of America (RWA) and forming a critique group. Both were incredibly helpful.

What are you working on next?

I'm working on a manuscript that will be released October 2010. The story is connection to my two previous novels, The Way You Aren't and I Can Make You Love Me. Some of the characters will appear in Where Love Begins.

Karen, thanks for visiting my blog, and good luck with your next book.

You can learn more about Karen and I Can Make You Love Me at her Website at http://www.karenwhiteowens.com/ and her blog at http://authorkarenwhiteowens.blogspot.com/. Her book is available at your local bookstore as well as online from Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, and Borders.

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Win one of Karen’s books—or a book by anyone else I’ve interviewed at this blog—in my Birthday Bash contest. Enter by posting a comment at my 17 September post by 26 September.

Blogging today at Novel Spaces

2009-09-22T00:28:00.000-07:00

I'm blogging today about setting as inspiration at Novel Spaces. Please stop by if you have a chance, and check out the posts of my fellow Novel Spaces bloggers as well.

Second annual birthday bash contest

2009-09-17T00:01:00.000-07:00

To celebrate turning 53, I’m holding a birthday contest again this year.

To enter, comment on this post by 11 p.m. Pacific time on Saturday, 26 September. Any comment will suffice, but if you need a topic idea, I suggest listing something you like about getting older.

Two posters will be chosen at random to win a book of their choice (up to a $20 value) by me or any author I will have interviewed here by the end of the contest.

Those authors (with links to their original interviews) are:

romance writer Karen White-Owens

horror writer Terence Taylor (New this week! See post of 15 September.)

Western writer Jack Martin

historical fiction writer Linda Weaver Clark (She is having a birthday contest too. Enter by posting at http://lindaweaverclarke.blogspot.com/2009/09/free-book-give-away.html.)

novelist DeAnna Cameron (GoodReads members can enter until 8 October to win The Belly Dancer at http://www.goodreads.com/giveaway.)

sword and soul writer Milton Davis

historical fiction author Dianne Ascroft

fantasy writer Leslie Ann Moore

historical and fantasy romance writer Jade Lee

historical fiction author Mingmei Yip

fiction writer Amy MacKinnon

historical romance writer Lynna Banning

mystery writer Ed Lynskey

mystery writer June Shaw

fiction writer Carleen Brice (NEWS: Orange Mint and Honey is being made into a Lifetime TV movie called "Sins of the Mother.")

fiction writer Therese Fowler

historical romance writer Jennifer Blake

romance writer Hailey North

historical mystery writer Laura Joh Rowland

humorist Christee Gabour Atwood

historical mystery writer Candice Proctor

speculative fiction and nonfiction writer Charles Gramlich

romance writer Farrah Rochon

Interview with horror author Terence Taylor

2009-09-15T12:25:00.001-07:00

Terence Taylor’s first novel, Bite Marks: A Vampire Testament (St. Martin’s Griffin) debuts today, 15 September. Publisher's Weekly called it “Truly enjoyable and imaginative...sure to delight any vampire fan” in a starred review, and the quote on the cover from New York Times bestseller L.A. Banks says, "Terence Taylor delivers masterful world-building, edge-of-your-seat prose, and characters to die for—his is an exciting fresh voice in vampire literature." In his urban horror story, the vampires of New York hunt a dangerous threat to the secret of their existence: an infant vampire accidentally set loose by a vicious vampire with a serial killer mentality.

Welcome, Terence, and congratulations on publication of your first novel, Bite Marks: A Vampire Testament!

Thanks, Shauna! It’s pretty exciting, especially after all it’s taken to get here. Hopefully it’s the first of many more. So thrilled you could fly us to the gardens of Castle Dracula for the interview. The blooming wolfsbane is especially fragrant this time of year... (since it’s a virtual interview we can have it “virtually” anywhere, right?)

It seems an appropriate setting. Your book has one of the scariest covers I’ve ever seen and makes it clear your vampires hark back to the evil creatures in Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Did you have any input into the cover design?

I did not, deliberately. I do design work myself, and I paid bills while finishing Bite Marks doing print and video graphic design and animation, so I really appreciated the final result. I kept myself from making any suggestions ahead of time, even though I’d designed a few mock covers over the years to put over my desk as inspiration while working. What they sent me was wildly original and nothing I would have come up with on my own. I’ve decided that a full-time graphic designer can do a better job than a writer who does it as a sideline.

Contractually, I had an opinion. The background was originally black and white, and I suggested the sepia tint, which they added, so they do listen. I don’t know whether the artist actually read the book before designing the cover, but it captures the tone of the novel perfectly for me.

Why do you enjoy reading horror, and what do you think readers will like about your book?

I’ll answer the second first. While I think it’s great that the vampire has become such a darkly romantic figure in the past decade, I think we have to leaven passion with fear...these are nearly immortal beings that would have to view us as food or playthings. Vampires are not like us, and frankly, I think it’s time to “bring scary back” to the vampire novel. My cover definitely says that! I think there are readers are looking for that again, the same kind of chills they had reading Stephen King’s Salem's Lot or Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire. So I’m calling this my ScaryBack Tour, with apologies to Justin. If he can “borrow” Michael Jackson’s moves, I can appropriate his marketing campaign.

With Bite Marks, I tried to write the kind of horror story I enjoy, which is horror as a branch of classic myth, fantasy, and folklore, whose purpose is to give us something we can walk away with into our everyday lives. My life may be bad, things may look bleak, but if I read a story or see a movie about someone taking on horrific forces that make mine look tame, even laughable—and win? I feel better equipped to take on my own real-world demons when I wake up the next day.

I hate movies and books that pile on gratuitous violence based on a slim premise and end with the bad guy just wiping out anyone who’s left. Take the American sequel to “The Grudge.” The original played out the moral roots of the story; the U.S. version just made it a series of grotesque death set pieces, pure gornography, killed EVERYONE, and the DVD extra was the death of the one character we didn’t see die. What does that leave me with as a viewer? As gruesome as “Hostel” was, at least it ended with the one survivor brutally killing the man who killed his friend and started it all for him, as we cheered him on. There was a catharsis of some kind. I need to leave a horror story with a sense that I can win in the world, not that it‘s a hopeless morass of all-consuming evil I can never hope to beat.

My exception to that rule is stories like “Tales from the Crypt,” about horrible things happening to terrible people, which still give you a release. They’re twisted morality plays that still reflect the light, even while they revel in the muck. All I ask of horror writers and directors is that they not leave me alone in the dark when they shut down and go home at the end of the day. The added advantage of promising not to abandon your readers actually gives you the ability to go even deeper into the realm of fear, because your readers trust you to get them back out into the light before you leave.

What writers have had the greatest influence on you?

I got interested in the genre because of my maternal grandmother, who got me into ‘50s B horror movies, horror comics, Fangoria, but also had Bullfinch’s Mythology, classic fairy tale collections with all the blood intact, The Arabian Nights, Dante’s The Divine Comedy with the Gustav Doré illustrations, books on ghost hunting and flying saucers...you name it. They all merged into one big mass for me, and I saw the connections between my favorite horror movies and classic myths and fairy tales long before I read Bruno Bettelheim or Joseph Campbell. As I grew up I found James George Frazer’s The Golden Bough, Robert Graves’ The White Goddess, Montague Summers’ books, and a host of other books that expanded the discussion for me.

Oddly enough, most of my literary influences are a variety of writers not read nearly enough today. Most black writers I read when young dealt with social issues, not horror stories, except to the degree that their work detailed real-life horrors. So I tracked down Roald Dahl’s stories after seeing the credits of the “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” adaptation of “Lamb to the Slaughter” and read everything I could find. That led me to another British writer, John Collier—BRILLIANT—and recommended reading to anyone who likes a chill and a laugh at the same time. I get much of my twisted sense of humor from him. Then on to Ray Bradbury and Saki...

Ismael Reed’s Mumbo Jumbo was a big influence later, along with William Burroughs’ work, in showing me how free you could be with reality and still comment on it. I read Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita when I was ten because it was in the house, never forgot it, and always cited it as an influence. I re-read it recently and moved it up to one of my top five favorite novels of all time, along with Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, George Orwell’s 1984, and Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange. It was weirdly amazing to see that I’d spent twenty years getting back to what he did in the Forties, in blending prosaic reality and social commentary with wildly paranormal events and characters. It locked in a literary template I’ve been unconsciously following ever since.

Now I read Tananarive Due, an amazing writer and good friend; L.A. Banks, another black horror writer whom I know mostly through her work; and a host of new writers coming out. The great thing for me is seeing the rise of so many writers of color in the field of fantasy, when there were none I could find growing up. For years we only had Octavia Butler and Sam Delany to point out in science fiction.

There are so very many more writers of color being published, and wild young voices exploring all the possibilities the field has to offer, and writing for everyone to read. I love the idea that my being in print may inspire new writers who never saw themselves or their sensibilities in horror before, of any age, color, creed, or preference.

Are there certain themes or topics you’re drawn to in your writing?

Loss and redemption, so far. My Catholic roots coming back to haunt me, maybe. I keep finding after I’ve written things that they often seem to address those issues, in different ways. How everything is temporary, but in losing one thing we find another, sometimes greater, good. I suppose it’s been a theme my whole life, moving almost every two years as an Air Force brat while I grew up. It seems to be a bigger issue for me than I thought it was, because it’s always there in the end.

If anything, I get so immersed in the worlds I create as I’m writing that whatever I may have intended to say when I went in often changes. I find meanings in my work when it’s done I never realized I was putting in when writing. It’s a very revealing process and leaves you feeling vulnerable when the book is coming out and you realize how honest you’ve been. If you’re doing it right...

What is your writing regimen? Would you recommend it to aspiring authors?

Regimen... Yes. Well. That would be a strong word to use. I now sit at the keys pretty much every day, though it took me a long time to get there. My opinion is that writers are always writing, we’re just not always writing it down. You see things all around you that feed the beast, you work in your head on story or characters or other elements of whatever you’re working on while you do errands, spend time with friends, clean house, cook dinner.

What I learned working on the final drafts of the first novel was that the writers who always said you should write every day were right. I used to binge—work out stuff in my head then spend two or three days just downloading everything from my brain into words on the screen. Working on Bite Marks I got into a daily routine—get up late morning and check the news while I eat, do e-mail, read last night’s work and do a little tweaking, then make phone calls, all the while downing cups of hot Assam tea with milk and honey. Go out to deal with the world, do errands, come home, crash, go out for dinner or a drink with friends, or make dinner at home and watch a little TV. Comedy mostly. I need a few laughs before plunging into the dark.

Anywhere from 9 to 12 pm (I have to take a break for the “Daily Show” and “Colbert Report”) I hit the computer and start writing. I re-edit what I did the night before again, to get back into the head and up to speed, then plunge forward until around 3 or 4 am, when I crash into bed, sleep, wake, and start the whole thing over. Walter Moseley wrote a great slim book called This Year You Write Your Novel and he says three hours a day gets a book done in a year, and he’s right. Any more than that I may as well get a day job.

That’s three hours of writing down. Don’t forget, you’re ALWAYS writing, even while at a party or fighting with a lover or friend—a part of you is laying aside lines for a chapter, or throwing out lines to see the reaction for later when you’re alone with the book...your true love...

Do you have any other advice for my readers who are working on their first novels?

Finish it. Whatever you do, no matter how awful you think it is while you’re doing it, finish it. That’s when the real work begins. You have something from beginning to end, you know what it is, and why it sucks, and if you see the problems, you can identify and fix them.

How do you balance writing children’s television shows and writing adult horror novels? Do you ever get confused and add an inappropriate element to one or the other?

People always look at me funny when I tell them I wrote kids' TV for years before going into horror, but some of the scariest stories in the world are written for kids. I always remind people—they killed Bambi’s mother. Blam! Right in front of us, I don’t care how subtle and artful it was! Was anything more horrifying than that? How could I top that?

What I learned in twenty years of writing for kids of all ages was how to write moving stories with fully drawn characters, containing conflict and resolution with social issues layered in along the way. Some were funny, some scary, and both abilities come into play when I work on my horror novels. In short, I learned how to screw with people’s heads, and if I can keep a three-year-old child quiet and locked to a screen, involved in a story about socializing and sharing with others, thinking it’s a funny story about colorful characters they’d like to hang with—scaring the crap out of a grown up is easy.

I actually stopped writing kid’s TV when I seriously started to finish the book because I was afraid of bleed through. When I spent my days working on happy upbeat moral fables for young minds, what I wrote at night was relentlessly grim, the far side of the coin. There was no balance of light to dark. Doing graphics while I worked on the book involved a different part of the brain, and I didn’t have to switch hats in the same way. I think if I had tried to keep writing the kids’ shows at the same time, it would have been a very different book. Much smaller words for one thing, and no vampire baby. Or a very cute one.

That’s not to say I’ve abandoned writing for younger audiences. I have a scifi teen book series I am working on with a friend in L.A., and one day could see doing some Halloween-based kids’ special or series.

When will your next book come out, and what will it be about?

The next book will be out in April 2010, Blood Pressure: A Vampire Testament, the second in the Vampire Testaments trilogy, which sets the stage to continue with books set in almost any time period. That’s done, so no one needs to worry that I don’t know where to take the story next.

It was great fun to write, even if I took seven years to write the first one and had one year to write the second, because I rolled right into it from the first. I was up to speed, and I got to revisit characters I had to leave behind when I finished the first book. It was like a reunion! Twenty years older they are at least a little wiser...but there are still a few surprises. I can’t say more without spoiling the first book.

Right now I am working on a novel called Lucid Tea, which I keep calling “Faust meets Orpheus and Eurydice.” It’s about a freelance graphic artist who comes back to New York for his uncle’s funeral a year after losing his fiancée in a car crash. He’s wracked with guilt, and as he faces the one-year anniversary of her death, he begins to see her in dreams, along with his dead uncle, who’s trying to pull him into a plan to save the world from an early Apocalypse.

It’s my anti–Chosen One novel. I got tired of seeing characters born into destiny, who were always intended to do something great. This book is about the also ran. He’s not the chosen one—the chosen one was his dad, but they lost him—so Carlton’s the guy they could get. That’s how I felt a lot of times working in TV—I wasn’t the guy they wanted, but a lot of times I was the guy they could get, who got the job done.

Then it’s on to the third of the Testaments in January. I’m still working on a title...All I know for sure is that it's going to open in Shanghai, 2027, with a family of survivors from the second book about to return to New York to settle the escalating war between vampires and humans once and for all. My sister just moved there for three years because of her husband's job, and while I made plans to go visit next year, it occurred to me I could do some research, some writing, and even deduct everything! ;) The oddest things affect art...and I get to pull in and create a whole new Chinese vampire myth.

Terence, thanks for visiting my blog, and good luck with your new books.

Thank you for inviting me, and best of luck with yours! Is Transylvania Air sending a car to get us back to the airport before nightfall? Or are we running for the border from the wolves over there? Just hand me a branch of that wolfsbane, will you?

You can learn more about Terence and Bite Marks: A Vampire Testament by visiting his Website at http://www.terencetaylor.com. He also blogs twice a month at Novel Spaces at http://NovelSpaces.blogspot.com. His book is available at your favorite bookstore as well as online at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, and Borders.

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I'll be posting twice this week. Come back Thursday for a chance to win a book by anyone I've interviewed at this blog in my second annual Birthday Bash Contest.

Snips and snails and puppy dog tails

2009-09-09T00:01:00.000-07:00

If you’ve ever wanted an intense writing workshop experience, it’s time to start scrimping and scraping together your pennies for next summer. The 2010 Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers’ Workshop has a fantastic line-up of instructors for next summer: Delia Sherman (wife and collaborator of Ellen Kushner), George R.R. Martin, Dale Bailey (horror writer), Samuel “Chip” Delaney, and, for the team-taught final two weeks, fantasy writer Jeff VanderMeer and editor Ann VanderMeer.

For more information on the 2010 Clarion workshop, see http://clarion.ucsd.edu/, and for more information on the instructors, visit http://clarion.ucsd.edu/faculty.html.

I expect that one day, looking back, going to Clarion will be one of the most important events of my life and of my career. I wish every one of my friends and blog readers could experience it.

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Next Wednesday, I’ll have my second annual birthday contest. Stop by and post, and you may win your choice of a book by anyone I’ve interviewed here or my 5 October release, Like Mayflies in a Stream.

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I’ve opened a Café Press store with Like Mayflies in a Stream teeshirts, sweatshirts, mugs, notebooks, and other paraphernalia. Please stop by and check it out.

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Need to fill space at your blog? I’m available for interviews and guest posts. If you’d like to do a book review, please contact me with your mailing address at ShaunaRoberts [at] ShaunaRoberts [dot] com or leave me a note below if I have your address, and I will send you out an ARC of Like Mayflies in a Stream.

Book clubs who read Like Mayflies in a Stream after it comes out, I’m happy to attend your discussion by phone. If you’re in Southern California, I’ll try to come in person.

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Please don't forget to get your flu shot soon. There needs to be a few weeks separation between getting the seasonal flu shot and getting the H1N1 (swine flu) shot, so even though it's early September, this year it's the right time to get a flu shot.

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Okay, so I lied about the puppy dog tails.

Blogging today at Novel Spaces

2009-09-07T00:04:00.000-07:00

I'm blogging today about worldbuilding at Novel Spaces. Please stop by if you have a chance, and check out the posts of my fellow Novel Spaces bloggers as well.

Interview with debut Western author Jack Martin

2009-09-02T00:01:00.000-07:00

A long-time devotee of Westerns, despite being Welsh, Jack Martin published his first Western novel this year. The Tarnished Star (Robert Hale) is an old-style Western about a sheriff who finds himself on the run from hired gunmen.

Congratulations, Jack, on publication of your first novel, The Tarnished Star!

Thank you.

Tarnished Star’s a traditional Western, and I make no excuse for that. You can have social commentary and tackle serious issues that are relevant to today’s society and all its ills. But sometimes it’s good to have some pure escapist fiction with thrills, suspense, and action. That’s what I hope Tarnished Star provides.

What was your favorite part of writing The Tarnished Star?

That’s a difficult question—I’m not sure how to answer that. Sometimes I very much enjoyed the writing, but at other times, when inspiration was short, it became something like trudging uphill thorough heavy snow. But, and stretching the metaphor somewhat, when the thaw came things were coming up roses again. I think the creation of any novel is half agony and half ecstasy. You’ve just got to go with the flow.

I still love Westerns, and I know other people who do, too. Why do you think the popularity of Westerns has declined?

I’m not sure if the Western has really declined, but it’s definitely not as visible as it once was. I think there was a lot of overkill at one time and the Western started to parody itself, but there’s always been good work out there in both books and movies. I think now that the Old West is drifting further and further into history, the books are starting to have an historical worth.

These days there seem to be two kinds of Westerns—the revisionist and the classic, escapist kind. There is room for both. And another good thing that not only affects Westerns but other genre fiction is that pulp-style fiction is starting to get the image of being cool when once it was frowned upon by pompous bores. It used to be that even writers such as Raymond Chandler, these days an acknowledged genius, would get only grudging praise.

How did someone from the other side of the pond come to love American Westerns?

I was brought up on a diet of Westerns, and the sense of freedom that goes with the genre appeals to the wanderer inside me. When I was a kid, John Wayne seemed the ideal to me, and I always preferred Westerns to any other kind of entertainment, a passion I inherited from my grandfather. When my friends were watching “Star Wars,” I had my nose buried in a Louis L’Amour.

I used to think this was strange myself and that to write Westerns you had to be American, but then I thought, that’s crazy—H.G. Wells didn’t come from Mars, and Jonathan Swift certainly didn’t hail from little people land. The West of the Western is a mythical land that never really existed and is as much a fantasy as, say, Middle Earth. It’s an imaginary place and I think anyone, anywhere, can set stories in this landscape of the imagination. But the Western is as much an attitude as anything else. And what I mean by this is that it’s all about being an individual and realizing a person is in charge of his/her own destiny and that we all have this inner strength. Mind you, it’s also about fun, adventure, and frolics. I don’t think you necessarily even have to visit the Western states to write a Western.

Mind you, I am looking forward to visiting the US for the first time next year and seeing some of these places that have been a part of my imagination for so long. To many people, names like Arizona, Texas, Colorado, and many more may be nothing but place names, but to me they sound like strangely magical places the exist somewhere over the rainbow. I know I’m romanticizing things, but I don’t care because anywhere is what it means to you, and the West is very much a part of my makeup.

What writers have had the greatest influence on you?

Ian Fleming has always been a favorite—I don’t think any writer has ever mastered pacing the way he did. British Western writers such as George G. Gilman hugely impressed my young mind and still do and kept my interest in the West when times were lean. And for many years Stephen King and James Herbert encouraged my imagination. But I’ve so many writers I admire—Louis L’Amour, Mickey Spillane, Owen Wister, Elmore Leonard.

These days I’m enjoying the works of Richard Stark, Raymond Chandler, Elmer Kelton (who just passed away in August), and a lot of the old pulp writers, whom I am actually reading for the first time. And I think Max McCoy is a brilliant modern Western writer. But I guess in some way everyone I’ve ever read has influenced me to a degree. The imagination is like a sponge and it soaks up all kind of things.

Are there certain themes or topics you’re drawn to in your writing?

Independence and self-reliance are very important to me, and I think every character I’ve ever created holds these traits as a core part of their makeup. I like the theme of the Everyman facing up against huge odds and prevailing. It’s a classic theme—goes all the way back to David and Goliath. But then again, I also love to read about adventure and exploration. Hey, I like a gunfight as well as the next man.

As actor Gary Dobbs, you’ve appeared in episodes of “Dr. Who” and “Torchwood.” Who is your favorite Doctor?

Well, I grew up with Jon Pertwee, and I never missed the show in those days. I’ve liked them all, though, and I think each has brought something to the character. Matt Smith, the new kid, is going to be superb.

What is your writing regimen? Would you recommend it to aspiring authors? 

I’m an odd person and I have no set routine other than to write something everyday, but when I’m working on a story it demands every waking moment. When not actually writing I’m churning things over in my mind. Obviously there are times when I just don’t feel like it, but you’ve got to be firm and get down to it. It’s like any other job, and the more you do it the better you will become.

Do you have any other advice for my readers who are working on their first novels?

Keep at it, no matter what. There will be times when you think you’re wasting your time but ignore these negative feelings that are part of all creative endeavor. Just keep going, pushing, shoving, and always have a belief in yourself that will carry you through the rough times.

When will your next book, Arkansas Smith, come out in the United States, and what will it be about?

Arkansas Smith is an enigma—he is intended to be a series character, and he should grow through each book so that the reader gets to know more about him as we go along. In the first novel, which is to be published in the UK next March and will be available at the same time in the US, we get his origin, and believe me, it was a grim and gritty beginning.

But there is still much that we don’t know about the character, and at the end of the book many questions will have been answered but a great many more will have been thrown up. He’s a classic Western type character, but he is something of an enigma, known to the Sioux as The Whispering Wind, and hopefully this will endear him to readers and keep them coming back. Book by book I plan to place Arkansas in every situation of the classic Western. I want to use all the clichés but at the same time make them somehow fresh.

Jack, thanks for visiting my blog, and good luck with your writing and acting.

Thanks it’s been great talking about myself.

Learn more about Jack (a.k.a. Gary Dobbs) and The Tarnished Star at his Website at http://jackmartinwesterns.webs.com/ and his blog at http://tainted-archive.blogspot.com/. His book is available at Amazon.com and the British bookstore The Book Depository. (Note: Because The Book Depository has free shipping worldwide and lists The Tarnished Star at a lower price than Amazon.com, it’s actually the cheaper way for Americans to buy it.)

Interview with historical novelist Linda Weaver Clarke

2009-08-26T00:03:00.000-07:00

Linda Weaver Clarke has published a series of five historical novels set in Bear Lake, Idaho, that are partly based on her family history and local legends. The newest in the series is David and the Bear Lake Monster (American Book Publishing). Linda also gives seminars around the country on turning family and personal history into stories.

Welcome, Linda, and congratulations on the publication of David and the Bear Lake Monster.

You live in the desert of southern Utah, which sounds rather isolated. Have you found a community of writers there or a critique group, or are you completely on your own as a writer? How do you do your research?

I can’t help but laugh. We actually have quite a bit here. We have Dixie State College, the famous Huntsman Senior Games, and the St. George Marathon, which is attended by marathoners throughout the country because of the beautiful red mountains. We are called “Color Country.” We’re surrounded by canyons such as Zion Canyon, Bryce Canyon, and Grand Canyon, just to name a few. St. George is a tourist community. (My youngest daughter told me to tell you that they even filmed “High School Musical 2” here.) We also have an annual festival called The St. George Book Festival.

What inspired you to incorporate bits of your family history in your writing?

After writing the biographies of my ancestors, I found that their lives were quite intriguing. I love inserting real experiences into my novels. It brings a story to life. I feel close to them and wanted to add their experiences to my fictional characters.

In Melinda and the Wild West, I inserted an experience that happened to my dad. When he was young, his father asked him to bury the skunks that he shot because they were getting into the chicken coop. Before my dad buried them, he drained their scent glands into a bottle. He called it “skunk oil.” When the bottle was full, he decided to take it to school and show his friends. While explaining how he had done it, he must have gotten a little too excited because he accidentally dropped the bottle, and it splattered on the floor. The scent of concentrated skunk oil was disgusting and permeated the room with a stench that was indescribable. Everyone ran out of the school as fast as their little legs would go. And the teacher followed close behind. They let school out so it could be cleaned up. My father said that he was a hero for one day because he got school out for his classmates. He also said that he never got into trouble for it and no one told on him. This novel eventually won an award as one of the semifinalists for the “Reviewers Choice Award 2007.”

I based Edith and the Mysterious Stranger around the courtship of my parents. They wrote letters to one another before they ever met. She said that she fell in love with the soul of my father, the inner person, what was deep down inside, and they didn’t even know what one another looked like. The day they met, my mother told me that her heart leapt within her and a warm glow filled her soul and she knew she would marry this man. I knew this would be the basis of my next novel, but there’s one difference. In my story, you don’t know who the mysterious stranger is until the end of the book. Some readers guessed right while others were pleasantly surprised.

My greatgrandmother, Sarah Eckersley Robinson, was my inspiration for David and the Bear Lake Monster. Sarah became deaf at the age of one and was a very brave and courageous woman. She never let her deafness stop her from developing her talents. I took a lot of her experiences from her biography and gave them to my heroine to bring some reality into my story.

Sarah was known as one of the most graceful dancers in town. She was known for gliding across the floor with ease, with just a touch of her partner’s hand. Sarah had such agility and gracefulness, not only on the dance floor, but also while swimming and diving. People would throw coins in the water so they could watch her dive after them.

Once an intruder hid in her bedroom under her bed, thinking he could take advantage of her since she was deaf. He must have thought she was an easy victim but was sadly mistaken. She swatted him out from under her bed with a broom and all the way out of the house and down the street for a couple of blocks, whacking him as she ran.

In researching the “hearing impaired” and talking to a friend who became deaf in her youth, I became educated about the struggles they have to bear. I didn’t realize that concentrating on reading lips for long periods of time could be such a strain, resulting in a splitting headache. After all my research, I had even more respect for my greatgrandmother and her disability.

What sources did you use to learn more about what the Bear Lake area was like in their time? How do you know when it’s time to stop researching and start writing?

I research books and the Internet. When I research the Internet, I always make sure they have a bibliography listed. That way, I know exactly where my information is coming from. Now you may wonder about the Bear Lake Monster and how it fits into my story. Is it fiction or nonfiction? Well, my book is considered historical fiction so I decided to add some parts of Bear Lake history that may sound incredible to you but actually happened.

The mystery of the Bear Lake Monster has been an exciting part of Idaho history ever since the early pioneers arrived in 1863. The legend of the Bear Lake Monster made life a little more exciting for the pioneers. Some people claimed to have seen it and gave descriptions of it. The monster’s eyes were flaming red, and its ears stuck out from the sides of its skinny head. Its body was long, resembling a gigantic alligator, and it could swim faster than a galloping horse. Of course, it only came out in the evening or at dusk.

Throughout the years, no one has ever disproved the Bear Lake Monster. A bunch of scientists tried to discredit the monster and said it was a huge codfish that was shipped in from the East but could not prove this theory. Does the Bear Lake Monster exist? Whatever conclusion is drawn, the legend still lives on and brings a great deal of mystery and excitement to the community.

How do I know when to stop researching? When I feel a story coming on deep down inside me. Also, when I can’t find anything more that interests me.

Why do you think recording family history is important? How should people who want to learn more about their family history begin?

It’s important because we are the people we are because of our ancestors. We must find out who they were and help our children to be proud of their heritage.

First, collect your thoughts; write down any experiences that you remember. Talk to family members and discuss memories. Use letters that they wrote to one another. You can make several short stories, making the history into segments. Or you can write the whole history as a continuous flow. For some examples of what you can do, read my short stories on my Website at http://www.lindaweaverclarke.com.

Research is very important. Learn everything you can about the area your story takes place, the time period, and any historical facts that you would like to add. Sometimes what the country went through has to do with the circumstances of your ancestors. If they lived during the Depression or war times, it helps your children understand why their grandparents had such tough times, why they barely made ends meet, or why they had to flee a certain country.

Find out everything you can about the area both to educate your readers and to make the setting feel real. If possible, go to the area you want to write about, walk around, and find specific places of importance, such as where your ancestors lived, went to school, and played. If you can’t go there, then do research and find pictures of that area. Study books at the library or search the Internet.

Time period is another important area of research. During the Roaring Twenties, bobbed hair was the rage. If your grandmother bobbed her hair and went to the dance marathons, write about it. If your ancestor loved reading books in the evening before retiring, it would be interesting to add what kind of light he used. Little details like this warm a story up and can bring your ancestor to life. Did he use electricity or an oil lantern? It sounds more interesting to say, “Grandfather sat in his overstuffed chair and read for hours with an oil lantern at his side.” Rather than just saying, “Grandfather read extensively before retiring.”

You chose to publish your books with a small publisher that does little marketing, so you’ve had to do your own marketing. What strategies have you tried, and what has been most successful?

Interviews are essential, but I believe that writing articles for the Internet or newspapers is very important, too. Publishing articles on the Internet will enhance your Web presence. These articles are important for your book’s success, for the one reason that people are getting to know you. Articles help you and your book to stand out and be noticed. There are some excellent Websites to write articles for. You may try American Chronicle, Article-hangout, Go Articles, Ezine Articles, Articles Base, Authors Den, Amazines, Search Warp, and Lady Pens—for women only. The American Chronicle is a great one because it has twenty-one other chronicles that your articles will be published on. First, you need to send an article to the Chronicle as evidence of your writing skills. They will e-mail you back and let you know if you’re accepted. The other article Websites don’t ask for any samples. All you have to do is sign up and begin writing.

What is your writing regimen? Would you recommend it to aspiring authors?

I always write in the mornings when I’m refreshed. In the evening, my mind is too tired to think. But if you have a day job, then I would rest up and eat a snack before beginning. You need to feel relaxed before writing.

What will your next novel be about?

Elena, Woman of Courage is the last in this series. It’s set in 1925. It was a blast to research. I found out about expressions that I didn’t even know such as Cat’s pajamas! Ah, horsefeathers! Attaboy! Baloney! You slay me! When referring to a woman, they used doll, tomato, and bearcat. When a person was in love, they were goofy. If a person was a fool, they were a sap. And when a woman wasn’t in the mood for kissing or romance, she would say, “The bank’s closed.” I was able to use all these words and much more in my book. The language was great!

Elena, Woman of Courage is about a happy-go-lucky bachelor who is completely fascinated with a woman doctor, Elena Yeates. Of course, women weren’t encouraged to go to college back then, let alone become a doctor, and this fascinates him to no end. With the 1920s rise of women’s rights, this novel gives you insight into the struggles women had to go through, all the while watching a young love blossom! You can read an excerpt from each of my books at http://www.lindaweaverclarke.com/samplechapters.html.

What is your new book, David and the Bear Lake Monster, about?

It’s about deep-rooted legends, long family traditions, and a few mysterious events! David quickly becomes one with the town and its folk and wonders why they believe in this Bear Lake Monster. It just has to be a myth. While visiting the Roberts family, he finds himself entranced with one special lady and ends up defending her honor several times. Sarah isn’t like the average woman. This beautiful and dainty lady has a disability that no one seems to notice. He finds out that Sarah has gone through more trials than the average person. She teaches him the importance of not dwelling on the past and how to love life. After a few teases, tricks, and mischievous deeds, David begins to overcome his troubles, but will it be too late? Will he lose the one woman he adores? And how about the Bear Lake Monster? Does it really exist?

Thanks again, Linda.

You can learn more about Linda and her series of historical novels—A Family Saga in Bear Lake, Idaho—by visiting her Website at http://www.lindaweaverclarke.com/ and her blog at http://lindaweaverclarke.blogspot.com. David and the Bear Lake Monster is available online from Amazon.com and Borders.

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More author interviews coming in the weeks ahead!

Blogging today at Novel Spaces

2009-08-23T00:02:00.000-07:00

Please visit the blog Novel Spaces today, where I am blogging about the instruction method at the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop.

Home from Clarion

2009-08-19T00:02:00.000-07:00

I got home from the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers’ Workshop on the 8th and have been trying to catch up on sleep and work since. Yes, Clarion is as arduous, overpowering, and soul-changing as everyone says. And, yes, it was well worth it.

I’ll be blogging on Sunday (23 August) at Novel Spaces about the Clarion method of instruction. So I’ll skip that here and talk instead about the experience of Clarion and what I got out of it.

•Perhaps most important over the long haul: seventeen new best friends and critiquing partners, each one brilliant, creative, original, and inspiring. Most writers only dream of having such support, and I count myself very lucky to have them.

•I got to know the six professional writers who gave up a week (or in some cases two weeks) to teach and guide us: Holly Black, Larissa Lai, Robert Crais (a former Clarionite), Kim Stanley Robinson (at left; also a former Clarionite), Elizabeth Hand, and Paul Park. Each came to Clarion with strong—but different—opinions, so we got an assortment of perspectives on our own writing, craft in general, and the spec fic market.

•The quality and originality of other students’ stories encouraged me to push myself and to try new approaches and techniques.

•I left my reading and writing comfort zone. In the past, I avoided reading literary and experimental fantasy, in large part because I didn’t understand the point of stories without plots, or without character development, or with oblique endings. At Clarion, I did read it, and I could ask the authors, “What does this mean?” “How do I go about finding that meaning?” “How should I read things like this?” I learned to appreciate such stories, and then I wrote two experimental stories of my own.

•I now have four stories that I think may sell to good markets once I look over all the comments I received at Clarion and revise the stories.

•It was a wonderful luxury to spend six weeks reading, writing, and talking about reading and writing, with no need to prepare meals, tend to the yard, pay bills, call repair people, or deal with the other distractions that normally interfere with writing time.

•I lost two pounds of my "Katrina Fifteen."

•I saw some breath-taking southern California scenery.

I not only saw an ocean, I stepped into it! (Proof at right.) For someone who’s spent most of her life in the Midwest and South, that’s a big deal. I also discovered that with enough clothes on and the aid of a hat and big umbrella, even someone with lupus can enjoy hanging out at the beach.

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Charles Allen Gramlich (who was interviewed at this blog in May 2007) has a new book out. Write with Fire: Thoughts on the Craft of Writing is a collection of articles and essays on writing and publishing. As at his Razored Zen blog, Charles' advice is clear, concise, and spot on. Write with Fire is available at Amazon.com and at Barnes & Noble.

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Update on Like Mayflies in a Stream

Like Mayflies in a Stream now has an official release date: October 5. It will be available then at online bookstores, at some brick-and-mortar bookstores, and by order from your favorite bookstore.

I also have one signing lined up already: at the World Fantasy Convention in San Jose, California (29 October–1 November 2009). I’ll post the date and time when I know it myself.