Tricia Sullivan's Blog, page 11

London, Saturday

I'll be joining Jaine Fenn, Pat Cadigan, Alastair Reynolds, Lavie Tidhar, Dave Hutchinson, Eric Brown and Ian Whates at Forbidden Planet this Saturday 1-2 pm to sign the new Solaris Rising anthology.


I think this is a bit of a last-minute affair, which is probably why only some of the contributors will be there.  When I found out that some of the authors would be signing I invited myself because I really need to get out of the house.

Company

There are times when a piece of work worms along some inscrutable path, shifting sideways or by some internal chemistry changing its own constitution. After the sweaty struggle of the last few weeks it is a breathless pleasure today to stand back and watch the story make its own moves, however shadowy or implicit these may be.  Today I can be silent because underground, there's a heartbeat.

And here's a quote from Women Who Run With The Wolves for any who may find it useful:

'Negative complexes are particularly attracted to the juiciest ideas, the most revolutionary and wonderful ideas and the most rampant forms of creativity.'

little by little

The blue light seems to be keeping the seasonal Sense of Worthlessness at bay, but just to be safe I've been doing copious aerobic exercise.  I'm a bit behind on math and will be working on that over the weekend.

We got our piano tuned for Rhiannon to have lessons.  I can hear Steve messing around on it now, trying to pick out a Hoagie Carmichael song by ear.  He's doing really well, actually, for someone who has never played.  I want to play it but need to not be overheard, which means it probably ain't gonna happen.

I finished two pieces of flash fiction this week. Not sure about either of them, so I'll sit on them for a while before even thinking about submitting.  I'm getting into the idea of short-short work; it makes a nice contrast to plugging away at the novel.  Which I am still doing, in an uneventful and typically-despairing sort of way.  It must be very dull to read the same sort of update from me day after day, but at least I'm not blocked and moaning about that, right?

lego my eggo

I'm creeping forward on the book.  Got to cut a whole bunch of stuff, but I haven't done that because the psychological effect of seeing the wordcount drop by 30% or so is not very nice, so I'm just moving the cuts into a cuts pile and letting them fatten the thing out for now. The main thing is to be moving again after all that stuckedness, and I am.

I've been using running and indoor cycling for the endorphins and for the egoless state they provide.  I notice lately with the writing the real key is to take the ego offline for just long enough to get something done.  It is impossible to get rid of it for very long, but those windows when it moves aside to let the work come through, they are crucial. 


Speaking of my eggo waffle, it has taken a bit of a battering recently (oh, I'm so sorry, I can't help myself..ahem)...but I've been very fortunate in the last week to receive no less than two e-mails from writers I admire and respect who read Shadowboxer and told me I'm not crazy when I thought I'd written something good.  Woot!!!!  This kind of support is indescribably wonderful.  I still hope to publish this book, although I can see I'm going to have to be more patient and persistent than I currently know how to be.

why I don't think on my feet

I have had a hard week for writing. Spent a lot of time trying very hard, forehead all scrunched up, thinking like lifting heavy weights. So very little to show for it.  Yesterday after four hard hours and unquantified amounts of chocolate, I came away with one line of plot, a single sentence.  I actually was thinking so hard I fell asleep, and heard myself murmur the line to myself as I drifted off. 

I know, I know.  Thinking so hard you fell asleep?  Um, Trish, isn't that more like just being a bit dozy?

But that's what happens to me when I really think.  I pass right the hell out. 

Anyway, I scratched out some words today with great difficulty.  Take that, entropy!

the logic crows

Today I'm trying to haul the net of a novel up from underwater.  It's heavy, wet, slimy, full of treasures and plastic bottles--and though gapingly incomplete, I think it's gonna break my back.

To be more prosaic: I've got lots of little word files that say things like: 'Words 18 October' and 'Words 3 November' and there is no story order whatsoeffingever in the chronology of the writing.  I have to go through all these files and assign them a place in the existing Scrivener structure.  And do a little soft-shoe shuffle. 

The logic crows are going to peck my eyes out.  Owie.

a few links

Charlie Anders via marthawells Why Science Fiction Writers are Like Porn Stars

via aliettedb and various other places, some links on women in fantasy in case you haven't seen all of these posts...

Urban fiction in the US and racism, via Foz Meadows on twitter

Podcast of Karen Lord and Nalo Hopkinson from Locus Roundtable.  I haven't had a chance to listen to this yet. Really looking forward to it.

Have a lovely weekend!

Olympus 2012 - Eastercon & me

This is so cool!  The Olympus 2012 committee have asked me to fill the third slot in their Pro Guest of Honour list at Eastercon!  Lookee!  There's my name with George RR Martin and Dr. Who's Paul Cornell.  Zoiks.

After the afternoon at Bristolcon, I did say I wanted and needed to get out more, didn't I?  I'd have gone to Eastercon this year anyway for that reason.  So this is one of those serendipitous 'put out the energy and voila!' moments, sweeter because it comes at a time where I'm running this writing gig on pure faith.

I am so looking forward to meeting people I've only met online, and talking to people I've only met in passing, and all the good things.  I have a feeling I'm going to learn a lot more about the SF/F community this way.  Nothing beats actually meeting in person and talking.

N.B. I can't get on my FB.  It locked me out and made unreasonable demands, and I've turned my back on it. Sorry if I'm out of touch with FB people; I'm not intending to be aloof.

this is bad

Lately I'm so used to keeping my shit small when I write.  You could call it discipline.  I've learned to cramp my own style very effectively.  In the name of skill and responsibility and maybe one day getting published again.  Not to have gratuitous fun. Look: clipped, straitjacket nonsentences.

Now something's gone boom and I can't get it back in the box. 

I've been sitting on 30,000 hot and crazy words for a couple of weeks, unable to tie it all together to move forward.  I keep poking it, hoping it will clean up its act.  Hoping for a cogent and exciting yet somehow also sensible and take-us-seriously silhouette to appear.  Something grown up to come walking out of the dry-ice smoke.  A book that wears a suit.  Please, book, I'm saying: help me help you.  Toe the freaking line, won't you?  No one will print you if you carry on like this.

I'm storming around my kitchen, playing loud, aggressive music, pacing up and down, shouting at the air, scrawling on flipchart paper with markers.  Got to and figure out this plot or whatever you want to call it.  Figure out these ideas.  Yes they are ideas, albeit very scruffy ones. Holes in their shoes.

Scribble scribble, tear hair, google-google...scribble...flex brain...oh, no.  I can't do THAT.  It's just...NO!  DON'T DO IT, me! 

This idea, it's so stupid and ridiculous and somehow because of that I'm drawn to it like a fridge magnet to a fridge full of crazysnakes.

What is WRONG with me????

No impulse control.  Why do I feel like Batman today.

a little fire to keep things interesting

Just scooting by to mention that Solaris Rising, edited by Ian Whates, is out.  It's been reviewed by Lois Tilton at Locus Online, and she seems to quite like it.

I've only published a handful of short stories, and this is one of them. Absurdly proud of it. 

Here's the TOC
"A Smart-Mannered Uprising of the Dead" by Ian McDonald"The Incredible Exploding Man" by Dave Hutchinson"Sweet Spots" by Paul di Filippo"Best SF of the Year Three" by Ken MacLeod"The One that Got Away" by Tricia Sullivan"Rock Day" by Stephen Baxter"Eluna" by Stephen Palmer"Shall I Tell You the Problem with Time Travel?" by Adam Roberts"The Lives and Deaths of Che Guevara" by Lavie Tidhar"Steel Lake" by Jack Skillingstead"Mooncakes" by Mike Resnick and Laurie Tom"At Play in The Fields" by Steve Rasnic Tem"How We Came Back From Mars" by Ian Watson"You Never Know" by Pat Cadigan"Yestermorrow" by Richard Salter"Dreaming Towers, Silent Mansions" by Jaine Fenn"Eternity's Children" by Eric Brown and Keith Brooke"For the Ages" by Alastair Reynolds"Return of the Mutant Worms" by Peter F. HamiltonAs I was typing this, stevemorris just walked in with the news that the bigtime MMA gym where he's supposed to be teaching tomorrow has burnt down. 

Steve has a very interesting life.  I wonder what will happen next.