Eleanor Arnason's Blog, page 45

Minicon

I am feeling spring-like and a bit hyper. That happens to me this time of year. It's a reaction to the end of winter, though I like winter and wish we had the long, cold winters we had when I was a kid. Still, spring is pleasant, and I love the increase in light. Flowers will be appearing any moment: crocuses, forsythia, magnolias, and then the wonderful week when the fruit trees and lilacs bloom. That used to be in May, but it's happening earlier now.

I heading off to Minicon at noon. I have a panel on the physics of fairy tales. I was going to say there isn't any. Then I realized my Big Mama stories are folk tales, and they are science fiction, with a lot of biology and some physics. I can talk about them and tell people the collection will be out in May.

I'm not usually into self-promotion. It seems too much like bragging, which is not admired here in Minnesota. But in this case my stories are actually relevant.

Spring

Another sunny spring day. There is still snow on the ground, but the high is projected to be 46 above. I'm off to exercise, then home to write, then off to the Wyrdsmiths writing workshop this evening. Tomorrow is Minicon.

Spring (Maybe)

A lovely spring day. The snow on the roofs of the Farmers Market is melting and falling from the eaves like rain. There were treacherous patches of ice on the sidewalks when I went to the coffee shop this morning. Now these are water. The sky is blue. The sun is shining. I expect crocuses at any moment.

Weather

The weather has been coolish, around freezing, and there is still snow on the ground. This will end this weekend, when the temp is supposed to go up to 50. I am planning to spend most of the weekend at Minicon. At some point, though, Patrick and I need to take a drive up to Duluth or down along the Mississippi. We just sank $300 into car repairs and should use the car. There ought to be eagles still around Lake Pepin. We need to see them -- and Lake Superior, which is one heck of a lake.

These are two different directions, in case you aren't from around here. Lake Pepin is a wide place in the Mississippi south of the Twin Cities, edged by wooded bluffs. Bald Eagles winter there, because there are patches of open water, where they can fish. They ride the updrafts above the bluffs and sometime perch in trees by the road.

Lake Superior is three hours north of the Cities. A friend of Patrick's has been up on the North Shore of Superior and posting wonderful photographs. It really is one heck of a lake.

Working As A Writer

I'm doing a final read-through of a short story collection, which will be coming out in May at Wiscon. I've had a busy February and March, and the busyness will continue into April and maybe longer. I feel stressed when I have deadlines, but working regularly on writing makes me feel better -- more like a real writer.

I have to get this manuscript back to the publisher by the end of the week, get a story to an editor in the same period, and attend a science fiction convention. And I'm taking part in an online seminar at the Crooked Timber blog. Nothing is up at the blog site yet, but I am emailing back and forth with the moderator.

After that, in April, I have to write another essay for Strange Horizon, get a couple of stories out and begin work on another short story collection.

There are plenty of writers who cruise through this kind of work, barely mentioning it, because they are used to working hard.

More About Self-Promotion

From another facebook conversation:

Self-promotion works for some people. John Scalzi is famous for building a huge audience with his blog. My understanding is he started the blog because he wanted to blog, not to promote his fiction. It worked out well for him, but he is an example of one. He's clearly a guy with a lot of energy, and he writes a very readable blog.

I attend cons to see friends and meet new people. I do panels because there are things I want to talk about. I think over the years, panels have made me more visible, and I may have gotten a few new readers. But mostly I do them because I enjoy conversations about science fiction, writing, politics...

Self-Publishing

More from facebook. This is a comment on a post by Charles Stross on why he does not self-publish:

Stross can sell the books he writes to publishers. If you can't, self publishing begins to look more interesting. It also looks interesting if you have a back list of out-of-print novels and an audience that might be interested in buying them. -- I have been thinking of self-publishing, out of curiosity. But it would have to be something I couldn't find a publisher for. A poetry book or a chapbook...

It seems to me the easiest thing is to look for a publisher. There are plenty out there. Even a small publisher is better than self-publishing, unless you really enjoy putting books together and marketing them. I'm not a designer; and I know nothing about marketing.

On another topic, I am amazed that Stross can write two books a year. The fastest I have even written a novel was eighteen months. A Woman of the Iron People took me thirteen years. I took off a lot of time in the middle, and wrote another novel. I haven't done the figuring recently, but I used to average about 36,000 finished, publishable words a year. Some years I wrote a lot more. Some years I barely wrote.

Granted, I was working day jobs most of the time. I am writing more rapidly now, though not a lot more rapidly. It has taken me seven months to write one 12,000 word novelette, though it wasn't the only thing I was working on.

Some stories come easily and quickly. I can write a story in a week, if all goes well. But many are difficult -- deliberately so. I try to push my limits. Since I don't make much money from writing, the main reason to do it is -- it's interesting, which means doing something new. Well, another reason is to get attention. No question, I like to entertain people.

Teaching and Fandom

More cross-posting from facebook, a discussion with the author Rebecca Brown about teaching and fandom. I am printing my comments only:

I suspect writers end up teaching because it's something they are likely to qualified for, either because they studied English Lit. in college or because writing creds are considered a qualification for their particular teaching job. (Creative writing, for example.) And because writers almost never are able to make a living from writing.

I find fiction (and poetry) writing nothing like teaching. One is public and didactic. The other is private, masked, ambiguous. For me writing essays is painfully difficult, and teaching is even worse. I enjoy doing panels at cons, because I enjoy talking, and a panelist is not an authority the way a teacher is. I also enjoy writers' workshops, if they are a group of equals, helping each other out. Not if most members are paying one member to be an expert.

As far as fandom goes -- my feelings, as I said, are mixed. Right now I am having trouble with cons. I go and leave early if I can. If I can't, I hide in my hotel room or, in the case of the recent Chicago worldcon, I wander around the city. The Chicago Architectural Foundation shop is awesome. Downtown Chicago is amazing, one architectural monument after another.

When I moved to Minneapolis in the mid 1970s, I discovered the local fandom -- and found it not entirely sympathetic. One old-time fan told me, "You like reading and writing science fiction. MnSTF (the local fan organization) is not the right place for you." At the time, MnSTF was mostly about putting on Minicon, which they did very well, and playing bridge and going out for Chinese. I thought fandom ought to be about inclusiveness and dreams of a better society. Over time I found people more like me, and we built our own local fandom. Actually, many people built their own local fandoms. The result is a lot of local cons and fannish organizations. I'm not really an organization person, so what I mostly did was encourage and admire and talk about inclusiveness and imagination.

Self-Promotion and How-to Books

This is my share of a facebook discussion with Jeff VanderMeer on self-promotion and how-to writing books. I am omitting Jeff's share, because I don't have his permission. The discussion started with Jeff writing that advice on using blogs and social media for self promotion was out of date. I dislike self promotion, since it seems too damn close to bragging, and because it's hard to do well. So I wrote the following:

Nice to see my prejudices -- based on nothing in particular -- confirmed by someone who thinks about writing. I keep a blog, so people can find me on the Internet. There an email address on the blog, and a few times this has been useful. People did find me, and I was glad. I do facebook mostly because I enjoy it. But I don't expect to build an audience. There are not enough science fiction fans who love marmalade.

Decades ago the late Joel Rosenberg told me I wasn't going to enough cons. I needed to be out there building visibility and and an audience. I said, "But Joel, what if people don't like me?" I don't actually see myself as dislikable, but I am fairly introverted. I have watched introverts put themselves through hell, trying to be charming and lovable at cons. Why not do what you enjoy? You will be better at it.

Jeff has a book on writing coming out titled Wonderbook. It sounds amazing, due to remarkable images and layout. The discussion moved on this, and I wrote this:

I do read how-to writing books, even ones by Natalie Goldberg, because it's interesting to think about the process of writing and it's interesting to think about why people write. And because I keep thinking I need to reinvent myself as a writer. Start from the beginning and do it over. -- There is something really compelling to people about writing. Studs Terkel did a wonderful book titled Working, which is interviews with people about their work. He asked people what they would do, if they could do anything. The most common answers were, "I would do something that helped other people" and "I would write." I figure Patrick and I are pretty lucky. He spent most of his work life in human services, and I have written. I also did accounting. You'd be surprised how few people say, "If I could do anything, I would do accounting."

Less is More

I went through and deleted several recent posts, because they didn't seem especially interesting.