Patrice Sarath's Blog, page 10

Writing Lessons

I admit it — I’m a bad student. I hate learning new things. I hate the feeling of not fully understanding something. I hate practicing, even though now as an adult I know that practice trumps innate talent every time. Frankly, I’m kind of surprised that I was able to power through my apprenticeship as a writer, starting back in 1993, when I decided it was time to put up or shut up about wanting to be a published writer.

So, now I’m taking a short story writing class taught by Hannah Tinti of One Story. The class has just started, and it’s laser focused on structure. As we all know by now, structure (outlining) is not my favorite thing. But what I also know about myself; besides being a bad student, when I get defensive, it’s because I’m protecting my self image, and when all my energy goes into that little strategy, good-bye creativity.

Deep breath: enter the course.

I went in with a goal — to get started on a short story that I’ve been thinking of for several years but haven’t been sure how to write. With the first lesson of the class, I now have the bones of the story. It’s funny; the class lessons are loaded in the middle of the night. I read through the first lesson before work, got defensive (this is bullshit!), came up with some stuff, and then on the drive to work, the lines and structure got sorted out and I thought, okay. Okay. I see how this will work.

I couldn’t write until after work, but when I did, it came together. Not perfect, not by any stretch, but the emotional heft of the story has the scaffolding it needs grow on.

I think it was the easy part though. Today’s lesson needs some more thinking, some more expansion.

Let’s hope the drive to work can do the trick.

Upcoming event: WLT Agents & Editors Conference

I am pleased to announce that I will be participating in the Writers League of Texas Agents & Editors Conference, June 29-July 1, 2018.

This is the premier writing event in Austin, and I’m so excited to be taking part again. I’m scheduled for the following panel:

“Turning Your Worldbuilding into Drama” with Connor Goldsmith (Fuse Literary), José Skinner (acclaimed short story author), and Sherry Thomas (novelist)

In other news, I’ve turned in a new novel to my agent, and I’ve started work on outlining another one. Now, we all know that I’m a dyed-in-the-wool pantser, but this outlining thing, man, I’ve got to get a handle on it. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Comicpalooza recap

In a word: overwhelming. I think there were several thousand more people than the last time I went, a few years ago.

Jessica Reisman and I drove down on Friday and got in, got our badges, ate something, and did a turn around the dealer room. Then she went to dinner with Nebula-award winner Martha Wells and I went to dinner with some lovely convention folks who had invited me to join them that night. We had a wonderful, far-ranging conversation, and then it was time to head out to Clear Lake to stay with our friend, Amy Sisson.

It’s been a long time since Amy and I have gotten together, so that was fabulous. She  has a clowder of cats who are as lovely and charming as she is, and OMG the kittens! We had a great time catching up.

The next day  was less auspicious. Jessica was sick and after an attempt to get to the convention center decided it was far better to simply stay at Amy’s curled up with cats. And so she did.

I got a late start, and missed my first panel, a literary roundtable, but made it to my signing at the Murder by the Book booth. I signed a few books, chatted with Martha, Seanan McGuire, and Carrie Patel, and then it was off for another turn around the dealer room, until hunger made try to find a food booth with the shortest line. On a Saturday. With 45,000 other people. Stop laughing. I did manage to scarf down a hotdog and a coke, and then it was time for my next panel, the critique session.

I read aloud from the first pages of some very intrepid authors, and we discussed their work. We ran long, and finished up at the tables in the hallway. I told them about the ArmadilloCon Writers Workshop, for which I had cleverly brought flyers, and I think some of them may make the trip to Austin for it. It’s the best workshop in Texas, and you can’t argue with its success. Alumni include Nicky Drayden, Stina Leicht, Marshall Ryan Maresca, J. Kathleen Cheney, and myself, among many other talented writers who have sold short stories and novels.

(Another attendee who hadn’t been at the critique panel came by as we were wrapping up, so I chatted with him a bit, and he may come to the workshop too. )

My final panel for the day was a lively discussion of magic systems and magic rules. Barbara Ann Wright, John Moore, Michael Wilson, Andi O’Connor, had a great time talking about how to create magic systems, whether rules are important or not, how pantsing or outlining impacts our use of magic in our books, and even if magic spells are necessary to a fantasy. Lots of great questions from the audience.

By then, though, I decided to forgo the Writers Meetup and instead headed back to Amy, Jessica, and the kitties. We stayed in, ordered takeout, and watched Thor: Ragnarok, and it was a relaxing and wonderful night.

We headed back to Austin on Sunday, and when I got home I took the best post-convention nap ever. It was epic.

Ephemera: Greeted DL Young in the dealer room on Friday, caught up with NASA Engineer and author Antha Adkins, visited with Bethe Ann Bugbee and her family,  saw a few celebrities at a distance, and, entirely randomly, ran into my nephew cosplaying Thanos.

The Book in My Head

The Book in my Head

The book in my head comes in colors of tawny gold and sage green, with sunlight filtering through green leaves, and boiling clouds on the horizon.

The book in my head transmutes black scratches on a white background into sadness, loneliness, heartache, loss, redemption, fear, and unexpected laughter and joy.

The book in my head will never become the book on the page. Sometimes the book in my head gets close, but the black scratches on a white background always fail to capture everything they are meant to. That’s okay. Don’t blame the black scratches. They do their best. The writer does her best. The scratches are imperfect; we forgive the scratches.

The book in my head waits for the reader. The book in my head waits for the reader to receive the imperfect messages in the black scratches, impatient for a reader’s forgiving reception, a reader’s willing eyes, a reader’s willing brain.

The book in my head is nothing without the reader, ready to receive.

Reader, are you there? Do you read me?

Next up: Comicpalooza

I’ll be in Houston Memorial Day Weekend (May 25-27) for Comicpalooza. Very excited to be part of the extravaganza! Hope to see you there.

Here’s what I’ll be doing:

Saturday 12:00 – 1:00 pm Literary Fan Roundtable: Fantasy & Urban Fantasy

Literary Fan Roundtable: Author Kate Pentecost and I will be hosting a fan roundtable: For fans and with fans! Join Author Guests and your fellow readers for a rousing, interactive discussion of Fantasy and Urban Fantasy fiction.

Saturday 1:30 – 2:00 pm Book signing at the Murder by the Book popup store in the dealer room

Saturday 3:00 – 4:00 pm Literary Read and Critique. Author Jessica Reisman and I will be discussing and critiquing submitted works.

Saturday 6:00 – 7:00 pm Magic and Magic Systems for Fantasy Writers, with authors Michael Wilson, Barbara Ann Wright, John Moore and Andi O’Connor.

Reading and Signing May 9 at BookPeople

The Sisters Mederos action figures

I will be reading and signing The Sisters Mederos at BookPeople on May 9 at 7 pm. Details here:

This is the official American debut of the first book in The Tales of Port Saint Frey. To commemorate this event, there will be biscuits (both British and American, and yes, biscuits appear in the novel; nay, are even a plot point, although that is more Book 2) and bubbly (both alcohol and the sparkling non-alcoholic stuff). I’m also doing a drawing for limited edition (like, really limited) Sisters Mederos action figures.

I’m very excited and I can wait to see you all next week!

FollyCon Wrapup

I’ve had the opportunity to go to two Eastercons now. It’s been such a pleasure to participate in conventions outside of the US. I am fortunate to live in Texas, where there are some of the best sf conventions in the country, but having another perspective is enlightening.

It would be simplistic to say that UK cons are “better,” but here in Texas we can learn a thing or two. For example, the programming at FollyCon and the panelists take fantasy and science fiction more seriously. So the presentation on the use of color and costume in space opera from Forbidden Planet to Star Wars, based on Claude Levi-Strauss’s philosophical and anthropological essays, approaches science fiction as worth of this analysis and manages to make it fun to boot.

Similarly, the Culture Clash panel that I was on took the stand that science fiction and fantasy are uniquely positioned to look at interactions between cultures in ways that transcend the typical outcomes (military conquest, etc.) and can posit other stories. After all, that’s what we do. We ask what if, and what happens next?

I think cons in the US should up their game. I’m calling on con runners to ask what if — what if we can get academics to join us for presentations on art, history, fantasy, culture, language, human nature, etc? What if we can make it fun but also interesting? Speculative literature is the best literature; we should use conventions to explore all the possibilities.

Because if you can discuss nature vs. science in Blake’s 7, surely you should do more of that.

The icing on the cake was going to Nnedi Okorafor’s reading. She read from Lagoon, Binti, and other works, and it was so wonderful.

I had an excellent time, and I’m looking forward to bringing some of these ideas to my local conventions, including ArmadilloCon, so watch out, y’all.

FollyCon Day 2: The Launch of The Sisters Mederos

Nick Tyler and Penny Reeve and me.

Well that was fun. Angry Robot throw a good book party. We launched Jeff Noon’s The Body Library, the second book in his new series, and he signed a massive number of books. I signed a few too. Paul Young, the artist who did the cover for The Sisters Mederos, also signed my copy, and I made the Angry Robot team sign it too, because you know what? I will keep it forever and some day it will be worth millions, when we’re all famous. Heh.

This morning before I went to the con I went around the shopping district in Harrogate and it was really fun, despite the rain. And you know what? I had always designed Port Saint Frey as an amalgam of San Francisco and Bath, but I think it’s really San Francisco and Harrogate. There’s even an Esplanade in Harrogate, as there is in Port Saint Frey. So much fun! There’s a tour of the town on Monday morning, and I think I’ll do it properly before we have to leave for London.

The panel on trans characters in SFF was absorbing and thoughtful, and gave me food for thought about how to portray all genders and all people as people. Then I went back to the dealer room and the art show, puttered around a bit at the hotel, and after the book launch, took a break and went back to the flat for a rest. Well, first, I went grocery shopping, because it’s very important to be properly stocked up at these things. Omelets for breakfast tomorrow!

Mood: Grateful.

FollyCon Day 1

Edmund Pevensie, I understand now.

Registration. A turn around the art show and the dealer room. And then serious barcon for a while, meeting fellow authors and friends, two of whom are also agented by Agent Jennie Goloboy of Don Maass Literary, Daniel Bensen and Georgina Kamsika.

After conversations about the differences between American horror and Korean and Japanese horror, along with discussions of Jaws, Alien, Aliens, and Stephen King and Joe Hill, and on and on, a dozen of us went off in search of food.

We ended up splitting up and four of us went to a small Turkish restaurant Konak Meze and continued the conversation (books, The Martian, hard SF, children’s movies).

I finished up the night with Turkish coffee and Turkish delight that was so good, I would have sold my family to the White Witch for more.

Mood: Full.

 

Update FollyCon Program(me)

I am looking forward to FollyCon in Harrogate on March 30-April 2. This will be my second Eastercon and I’m so excited! Angry Robot is having a launch party for The Sisters Mederos and Jeff Noon’s The Body Library, his sequel to A Man of Shadows. If you are going to the con, I hope you can make it to the launch party.

ATTENTION! THE LAUNCH PARTY HAS BEEN MOVED TO SATURDAY!
Angry Robot Launch Party

Saturday 15:00 – 16:15, Ballroom Stage End (Majestic Hotel)

We’re not actually going to launch an angry robot, Elon Musk-style. This is a chance to meet writers and editors from Angry Robot books, and drink will also be available.

Penny Reeve (Angry Robot), Jeff Noon, Patrice Sarath

This means I won’t be able to be on the #MeToo panel, alas.

I’ve never been to Harrogate before, and I’m hoping to take advantage of the walking tour the convention is hosting. I’m a Heyer fan, and Harrogate is one of her settings, and I’ve been to Bath and Brighton, so why not Harrogate? I’m rooming with the fabulous Rosanne Rabinowitz (author of Helen’s Story, which made the shortlist for the Shirley Jackson award). I’m looking forward to meeting my Angry Robot team in person, and various other friends whom I’ve met only online at this point (Hi Kari!).

I can’t wait.