I Should Be Writing

Hacks and Themes and bugs…

Today is I Should Be Writing’s FIVE year anniversary/birthday thingie. As gobsmacked as I am that I managed this long, it hasn’t been easy along the way. Specifically this spring, when hackers targeted several security holes in WordPress and made the site a nightmare to fix. This happened more than once. When I finally got things worked out, I had to change themes and deal with some other issues, including an increasingly non-stable version of my podcast plugin. So I went back to my old theme and changed plugins.

This killed almost all the links to archived files. No more podcast links. I can’t figure out to restore even though I apparently imported all the old information in. So I’m going through and hand-coding to insert the old podcast links. This is a timely practice.

In short: There are many missing podcast links on the site. I am aware of it, and working to fix it. In the meantime, you can get archives of all the old podcasts here.

New books!

Some days the mailman is kind to me. Today is such a day. No bills, and three books.

First, an ARC of Steampunk II. Been dying for this one!

Steampunk II: From Indiebound: Blending the romantic elegance of the Victorian era with modern scientific advances, the popular Steampunk genre spotlighted in this collection is innovative and stimulates the imagination. This artfully assembled anthology of original fiction, nonfiction, and art can serve as an introduction to the Steampunk culture or provide dedicated fans with more fuel. Stories of outlandishly imaginative technologies, clockwork contraptions, eccentric heroines, and mad scientists are complemented by canon-defining nonfiction and an array of original illustrations. This collection showcases the most sensational Steampunk talents of the last decade, including Daniel Abraham, John Coulthart, William Gibson, and Margo Lanagan, and demonstrates exactly why the future of the past is so excitingly new.

Next we have Zoo City by Lauren Beukes, a generous gift from author Adam Christopher who heard I was too impatient to wait for it to arrive in US book stores in January.

From Amazon: Zinzi has a Sloth on her back, a dirty online 419 scam habit – and a talent for finding lost things. But when her latest client, a little old lady, turns up dead and the cops confiscate her lastpaycheck, she’s forced to take on her least favourite kind of job: missing persons.

Lastly, I entered a contest at the Hendrick’s Gin website a long time ago, and this arrived today, to my amusement:

My first anthology sale, and it’s still looking for submissions!

I just got the go-ahead to announce this, as Ann and Jeff VanderMeer are looking for “micro submissions” and have listed the existing writers.

Not the cover- just the proposal cover

I have a soft spot in my heart for Thackery T. Lambshead. When the first book, the Hugo and World Fantasy Award nominated The Thackery T. Lambshead Pocket Guide to Eccentric and Discredited Diseases came out, Jim bought me the limited edition signed copy. It’s hard to get an anthology signed by all the contributors, and it took about a year after publication to arrive (he bought me another copy of the hardcover so I could at least read it while I waited for the collectible to show up. I loved the book — it was so delightfully strange! — so I was thrilled to write a short piece for the next book about Lambshead’s odd life.

From Jeff’s blog:

Contributors will include Mike Mignola, Greg Broadmore, China Mieville, Holly Black, Naomi Novik, Minister Faust, Alan Moore, Cherie Priest, Michael Moorcock, Tad Williams, Jake Von Slatt, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Jeffrey Ford, Gio Clairval, Garth Nix, Stepan Chapman, Michael Cisco, Will Hindmarch, Ekaterina Sedia, Reza Negarestani, Lev Grossman, Ted Chiang, Carrie Vaughn, Kelly Barnhill, Mur Lafferty [ed: squee], Helen Oyemi, and several more. John Coulthart will be doing a lot of art for, with additional work by Jake von Slatt, Eric Orchard, Yishan Lee, Eric Schaller, and others.

Unfortunately, the specific nature of the fiction being commissioned doesn’t allow us to have a standard open reading period.

HOWEVER, we are having an open reading period, starting today [ed: August 16 is the date of the blog post], for a micro-fiction section in the back of the anthology, which will consist of a list, with descriptions, of items from Dr. Lambshead cabinet that are not described in the stories.

For guidelines, check the blog post.

WorldCon Schedule

This Saturday we head to Australia for WorldCon (and a two week vacation, by the way)! The dog is taken care of, the housesitter is secured, and tickets are bought. It’s really happening. Eek.

If you’re going, here’s my schedule. Would love to see you!

• Fri 1300 Rm 211: Foundlings and orphans;
• Sat 1500 Rm 204: The writer and the audience: online interaction and public personae;
• Sun 1100 Rm 201: Kaffeeklatsche;
• Sun 1200 Rm 207: Reading;
• Sun 1400 Rm 201: Signing;
• Sun 1700 Rm 212: Joseph Campbell and the hero’s journey;

(x-posted to Murverse)

Character commentary: Elliot from Leverage

You know when there’s one thing a character says that’s so perfect, it epitomizes their personality? I have been realizing that along with description, my characterization is somewhat weak, and I can see that when I realize another’s is very strong.

Christian Kane as Elliot

Specifically, I was watching Leverage Season Two last night. Now, I love this show because of the characters; I barely pay attention to the cons, I just want to know what the characters will do next. My favorite is Elliot, the thug. So, he’s a heavy, goes in to beat the crap out of whoever threatens the rest of the team, simple character, right? But his character is so beautifully defined. Elliot doesn’t like guns. And the actor, Christian Kane, gets a beautiful look of disgust and disbelief when he takes a gun from someone, removes all the ammo in one swift move, and throws the gun down as if it’s dirty. He loves pure, hand to hand combat. Anything else is offensive.

He also is a gourmet cook (“These pears aren’t going to braise themselves!”) and a fashion guru (“I date a lot of models.”)

But Elliot said one thing in one episode that was a complete metaphor for his character. They were talking about baseball, and he shook his head. “I don’t like baseball. I don’t like a game where you can’t score on defense.” I was honestly shocked. That was Elliot. That’s how he fights. He always waits for someone to hit first. He will even wait for someone to go get a weapon, and wait for them to attack, before he moves. The only time I’ve seen him attack first is if someone is attacking one of his friends, and still that required the enemy to move first.*

But this one statement about sports indicated how deeply ingrained this sense is, taking his fighting style and applying it to his life was such a brilliant move, and it sounds so simple – but I wouldn’t have thought of it.

* Oh, wait, he attacked the investigator who’s now with InterPol – can’t remember his name cause I always think of hm as “Badger” from Firefly.

SFWA Talks Writing and Parenting

Over at the SWFA blog, they’re talking about writers who become parents and how it changes their lives. This is a question I get asked a lot, so I encourage all parents or soon-to-be parents to read this carefully. My favorite comment came from Mishell Baker:

As for motivation, nothing motivates me to write more than parenthood.  It’s not just about the hope of earning money and making a life for my daughter; it’s also about being the person I want my daughter to see.  Children don’t listen when you lecture them about perseverance, about living up to their potential.  What they do is watch you, very closely.  I am deeply motivated to become someone that is worthy of my daughter’s emulation and respect.

Word.

A new kind of fear. The worst kind of fear.

I need to start a new book.

I’m not afraid of this book. There’s a white board beside my desk with mind mapping and a rough outline of this book. It’s a shorter, mid-grade book, so it shouldn’t take as long. I even have a working title I am happy with.

So. Why haven’t I started?

Well, there’s other deadlines, see, and there’s the fact that my daughter is home with me in the limbo between camp and school, and there are emails to answer, and there is a fishtank to clean, and contractors are working on the house and the hammering is distracting… It sounds like procrastination. But then today, this morning, when I thought “I will start the damn book today,” I balked, almost on a subconscious level. There is no rational thought here. I’m balking on writing this new book. And then I realized, it’s still that fear, only now it’s in disguise.

Facing your fear is a worthy goal, but only when you know you’re afraid! I had no idea I was afraid! Why didn’t anyone tell me? This evil, hidden fear of who-knows-what (failure? not being able to write a good book? not being able to finish what I start? I have no idea…) has been keeping me from writing for a couple of weeks now, when my conscious mind was firm in the belief that I just had to finish up some projects and clean the house and then I was good to go for writing.

Idiot. Deal with the fear. It’s inconsequential. Time to get writing.

Three videos for your morning

Three videos cropped up in my perusal of the web today, and they all speak to me as a writer. I’m only going to imbed one of them (one is totally NSFW) and you can follow the links to the others. 1) Toddler fails at hula hoop

I love this. It reminds me that we all need to define success on our own levels, not others’. For the older girl, success was doing the hula hoop her way. For her brother, well, success was something different, but you can tell by his face, he succeeded and was terribly pleased.

2) Not Time Management

Chris Brogan reminds us who has control over our lives and our time.

3) **** Me, Ray Bradbury

This is not safe for work or children.

And there are probably several of you who will not appreciate the humor because, admittedly, it is blatantly sexual. (See the title.) Don’t follow the link if you think you’ll be offended. But here’s what I got out of this: Once we become public personas, we lose control of some of our image. If you want fame, you have to accept that others are going to view you in ways you may not be comfortable with. From what I know about Ray Bradbury, I can’t see him liking this video much. On the other hand, as a fan, and knowing other fans and writers, I see it as a hysterical and honest homage to the man, and a much-needed appreciation for books and reading. Sure, it’s overblown satire, but that’s what makes it funny.

Can’t really argue with this query advice…

The blog There Are No Rules recently had this to say on the subject of getting 75% of agents to respond to your queries.

Number Two is the hardest part, once the book is done, because it’s busy work, but very important.

2. The next thing you need to do is decide which agents to approach.
This is one of the ways you limit the number of variables in the equation. Only query agents who represent work like yours. My own agent, for example, specializes in crime fiction, thrillers, and some nonfiction. Sending him fantasy would be a waste of time. It’s not his market, and even if he did like it, you’d be better served by an agent who really knows your field.

How to do that? Go to your local bookstore or library, and bring a notebook. Find the section that matches your genre, and start pulling books down. In their acknowledgments, authors almost always thank their agent (if they don’t, you don’t want that agent anyway.) Focus on books that are somewhat similar to yours, but don’t obsess. Don’t try to pick a favorite in advance. 

After three or four deeply boring hours, you should have a sizable list.

To find their addresses, turn to the Internet. You can Google search, using quotes around their full name. You can also look at sites like EveryoneWhosAnyone.com and AgentQuery.com.

Again, not fun, but necessary. Make a spreadsheet, and include the agency, the agent’s name, the authors they represent, the address and e-mail, and sections for dates to track who you’ve sent letters and when.

Read the whole post here.

Clarion and Clarion West, 2011

Clarion and Clarion West have announced their instructors for 2011! If you’re unaware of these workshops, they are six week residential short story workshops with amazing authors teaching. Clarion/Clarion West graduates include ISBW favorites such as James Patrick Kelly, Cory Doctorow, Ben Rosenbaum, and Mary Anne Mohanraj, to name but a few.

Clarion West 2011 in Seattle, WA:

• Paul Park
• Nancy Kress *
• Margo Lanagan
• Minister Faust *
• L. Timmel Duchamp
• Charles Stross

Clarion 2011 at UC San Diego:

• Week One: Nina Kiriki Hoffman
• Week Two: John Scalzi *
• Week Three: Elizabeth Bear
• Week Four: David Anthony Durham
• Week Five and Six: John Kessel * and Kij Johnson

Clarion has been a dream of mine ever since I found out its existence. Next year is when I’m going to aim to go, if the stars align with finances, husband’s schedule, and kiddo’s camp. But no idea which one to apply to…

(* yes, I feel the need to point out which of these illustrious people have been on ISBW….)