Angela Slatter's Blog, page 36
August 1, 2017
Better Together – Collaboration as a Productivity Booster
Today, Dan Rabarts, a Most Excellent Writer, takes over the blog to talk about collaboration.
Better Together – Collaboration as a Productivity Booster
You’re a writer, you’re a creative. You wish you could produce more, but holy crap, there are only so many hours in the day and so much gas in the tank and so much inspiration hitting you when you’re in the right frame of mind to be open to it. You’ve got the distractions of the day job, and family, and the dog needing a walk, and inclement weather, and the new season of Game of Thrones, and social media.
Sometimes you just want it all to go away so you can get the words down on the page when they’re there to get down. Miss that window and they’re gone forever. But life, bro. Life demands. Even if we can control things like how long we spend Social Media-ing, and whether we really want to see Ed Sheeran aspiring to knighthood, or even if the dog could just harden up and take himself for a walk like his lupine ancestors used to, our resources are finite. How can we leverage more out of these limitations?
Easy, says Dan. Look at the title of the post. Just work with someone else. Done and dusted.
Yeah, right. If only it was that easy.
A few days ago, over on Alan Baxter’s blog, I talked about the value of writing communities and, by extension, collaboration. If you haven’t read it, pop over there and take a look. We’ll be here waiting until you get back.
Great, nice to see you again. So, like I said, a few years ago circumstances led to the evolution of an editing and writing partnership between Lee Murray and myself which has proved highly fruitful. Would it be fair to say that because there are two of us working on the same project, we get more done, and faster? Nope. Not at all. So if not, then what’s the point? Gimme a minute. I’ll get to that.
The first rule of Write Club is: There are no rules. Well, apart from Joss Whedon’s rule about not being a dick which, to be honest, is a pretty good rule for life in general, but aside from that, there’s no right or wrong way to go about being a writer. There are things that work well and things that don’t work so well. There are things some people do better than others. Writing is a business and like any business the requirements to keep it ticking over are manifold. There’s the planning and design, the supply chain, the marketing, the legal compliance, the scheduling, the deliverables, the accounting, the quality control, the management of assets, the public relations. As a writer, you’ve probably taken on many of these tasks along the way, depending on the scale of your operation, not just the generation and crafting of words. It’s a lot of work, and merely writing well isn’t always enough. 
By collaborating, you can work towards balancing these tasks. First up, chances are when you enter into a partnership, you’re going to bring different skills to the table, different strengths. The aforementioned jobs can now be spread around, to be handled by the person best suited to the role. This applies equally to the creative part of the writing as it does to the business end. But let’s talk about the writing.
Working with Lee, when we’re on the Making New Words part of a project, she brings a tighter focus to the structure and plotting of the piece, which gives us direction, while I tend to bring a certain flair to the wordage and take the story off on unexpected tangents, which gives us momentum. Direction plus momentum equals velocity, right? I’m sure that’s physics, or something. The result is something tighter, stronger than either of us might have created on our own.
When writing in the Path of Ra world, we trade the story back and forth between Penny’s and Matiu’s POV, and so each of us is regularly sitting down to read the next instalment—as written by the other collaborator—in the story, not quite sure what we’re going to find. Seeing the next section take shape is invigorating, and here’s where we start to see the productivity. We’ve handed the work off for a few days, and when we come back to it, the story has developed. We knew roughly where it was heading, but now here we are, fresh new words scribed, new actions exposed, unexpected twists thrown in the mix. We’ve also had a few days to think about where we plan to go next, and now we’ve got a pile of new material to work in with to drive us towards that goal. Therein lies inspiration, and when you sit down to work on something which has just suffered a massive dose of someone else’s creative energy, that energy pulses back out and infects you, gives you a shot in the arm, or the head, or wherever you write from. The words that follow are tighter, because you’re fresh, you’re inspired, you’re working towards a common goal and you know your teammate has got your back.
And you’re accountable. I work much better when I’m being held accountable, be it to a deadline or to a plot point or just to an agreement that we’re going to get this thing finished. Mostly though, it’s being accountable to your collaborator, because you’re in it together. You’re committing equally to the risk, and so you give it all you’ve got, because letting the other person down is not an option. So the time you spend hammering the keys is concentrated, dedicated, knowing there’s more to your success or failure here than just your own sense of completion. That sort of focus, for me anyway, makes what I create in those intense periods far more solid, because I’m not just answering to myself, but to the partnership. And if I can create better words in the same timeframe in which I might have created mediocre words because there was no real pressure to make those words really boost the project that someone else is pouring so much effort into as well, then there’s productivity right there. There’s a business case for it.
At the other end of the business model, where you’re sharing the logistical jobs around, you can hopefully focus on what you’re best at, knowing that your collaborator is strong in the areas where you might be weak. For Baby Teeth, I worked with Chris Barnes, our audio producer, and the late Lawrence Santoro at the Tales to Terrify podcast, to get a selection of stories onto the podcast to promote the book, because the podcast world is a sphere where I have some expertise and can engage with networks I’ve built up over the years. When we were looking for a publisher for Hounds of the Underworld, Lee took her extensive knowledge of the US horror market and applied it, arranging a pitch session with Jennifer Barnes at Raw Dog Screaming Press at StokerCon, and to that discussion she brought not only her co-authorship of the book but also her essential Kiwi background and her ability to pitch a project with verve and passion in a tough environment. In each of these examples we had successes where, if the other had been presented with the same challenge, we would not have had the skills base or the resources to manage what the other achieved. Together, Everyone Achieves More. It’s a cheesy acronym but it’s true.
So like I said (not in so many words) over at Alan’s place, we’re not an island. We can’t do it all alone, however much we like to pretend we can. Collaboration is challenging, and there’s a hell of a lot of chance bound up in finding the right person or people to work with in order to truly find the synchronicity that leads to those gains, but once you find your stride, and you start hitting those marks, you might find that a good collaborator is worth more than all the quiet weekends tucked away from the world to get your writing done you’ll ever have. Sure, they’re good too, but if you can make a collaboration work, then for the love of all that’s holy keep it working, keep it strong. It might be the best thing you ever do for your writing.
_________
Dan Rabarts is an award-winning short fiction author and editor, recipient of New Zealand’s Sir Julius Vogel Award for Best New Talent in 2014. His science fiction, dark fantasy and horror short stories have been published in numerous venues around the world, including Beneath Ceaseless Skies, StarShipSofa and The Mammoth Book of Dieselpunk. Together with Lee Murray, he co-edited the anthologies Baby Teeth – Bite-sized Tales of Terror, winner of the 2014 SJV for Best Collected Work and the 2014 Australian Shadows Award for Best Edited Work, and At The Edge, a collection of Antipodean dark fiction, which won the SJV for Best Edited Work in 2017. His novella Tipuna Tapu won the Paul Haines Award for Long Fiction as part of the Australian Shadows Awards in 2017. Hounds of the Underworld, Book 1 of the crime/horror series The Path of Ra, co-written with Lee Murray and published by Raw Dog Screaming Press (2017), is his first novel. Find out more at dan.rabarts.com.
Baby Teeth – Bite Sized Tales of Terror (Paper Road Press, 2013)
At The Edge (Paper Road Press, 2016)
Hounds of the Underworld (Raw Dog Screaming Press, 2017) – http://amzn.to/2qdApt9
July 31, 2017
Welcome to Brisneyland! In Conversation with Angela Slatter
Tonight I’m down at the Logan North Library for a chat!
Fairy stories are part of childhood –but how does one go on from childish delight in princesses and magic to writing dark urban fantasy for adults? Angela will discuss the Verity Fassbinder trilogy, which is set in Brisbane.
Details are here.
July 30, 2017
Science Fiction & Fantasy Bookclub – Angela Slatter
So, tonight I’ll be at Trent’s Place – AKA the Avid Science Fiction & Fantasy Bookclub.
From 6.30pm-8.00pm we’ll be talking about Vigil, the first book in the Verity Fassbinder series set in Brisbane.
Come along!
Ask me anything!
I’ll probably answer truthfully, or at least amusingly.
July 28, 2017
Over at the Book Smugglers: New Weyrd
Over at the lovely House of the Book Smugglers, I talk about the New Weyrd:my updated mythology for Corpselight and Verity Fassbinder.
We are delighted to welcome Angela Slatter here today to celebrate the release of a new Verity Fassbinder novel – Corpselight, the sequel to Vigil – by talking about the new monsters in it.
So a new Verity Fassbinder novel – that would be Corpselight – required some new monsters. As is my wont, I like to dip back into the depths of mythology and folklore to find my inspiration before adding a bit of a Fassbinder twist to my creatures. I give you my Five New Fassbinder Monsters.
The Undine:
Undines are elementals associated with water. They are generally found lazing around in waterfalls and forest pools, and are cousins to nereids and mermaids et al. They don’t have souls, poor things, but can acquire one if they marry a mortal. Here’s the thing: the man who marries an undine? He needs to be sure he can remain faithful. If he strays, he’s kaput – and why not?
In Corpselight I wanted a water creature, but not a mermaid – there are always mermaids, we know what they’re like – so I went for the undine. They seemed a bit more relaxed and I really liked the idea of them as the slackers of the watery folk. Specifically, I say they’re the Yogi Bears of the Weyrd world, given to stealing picnic baskets and lazing on rocks in the Brisbane River. The one Verity talks to has a taste for donuts and is a source of some interesting information that leads V to a surprising series of discoveries about her own family …
The rest is here.
Speculative Fiction Festival 2017
Superheroes Panel, Speculative Fiction Festival 2017. L-R: Margo Lanagan, Robert Hood, Maria Lewis. Photographer: Cat Sparks
Nice write-up of the NSW Writers Centre Spec Fic Festival of last weekend!
Thanks, Dr Katie Lavers.
The biennial Speculative Fiction Festival is an extraordinary festival organised by the New South Wales Writers Centre, the peak organisation for writers in New South Wales. Held in the historic building of the NSW Writers’ Centre surrounded by beautiful grounds and complete with evening drinks on the verandah, this event is less like the stampedes, crowds and commercial trafficking of books that we have come to expect with the larger writing festivals, and more like a select party with special friends.
The festival feels like a Sydney secret and provides a rare opportunity for a small but remarkably diverse group in terms of age, gender, and ethnicity to come together and discuss fiction that sits outside the field of so-called ‘literary’ fiction. Interestingly, during the panel discussing short stories, when the audience was asked the question how many people actually wrote short stories themselves, a good three quarters of the people in the room put up their hands. It would appear that the audience for the Speculative Fiction Festival is largely writers and it is probably this aspect of the festival that gives it its own very distinct flavour and feel.
This festival does however provoke some questions about other writing festivals in Australia which often seem to ignore Speculative Fiction.
The rest is here.
July 24, 2017
Over at Alan Baxter’s Place …
… I answer 5 Big Questions.
Angela Slatter has just had Book 2 of her fantastic Verity Fassbinder Series, Corpselight, published. It’s the sequel to the wildly successful Vigil. I asked Angela 5 big questions about her work.
1. Why did you choose to set your series in Brisbane?
Coz I live here! I love the city and there’s a strangeness to it that works well with urban fantasy. The city looks so very normal that there must be something strange going on underneath, right?
The rest is here.
Thanks for letting me play, Bax! I tried not to eat all of the cookies in the jar. Not saying I succeeded. Just saying I tried.
When your very dear friend pops the most important question of all …
Dr Kim, you know the way to my heart! 
July 18, 2017
Review of Corpselight
Cupcakes by K, once again superb.
First review of Corpselight! And a great one it is, too. All of the lovehearts!
Five out of five caramel marshmallow logs!
If you haven’t read the first of the ‘Verity Fassbinder’ series, ‘Vigil’, then you’re going to miss something of the story. Definitely read ‘Vigil’ first- which means putting aside two days to binge read if you’re that kind of reader. Normally I’d hesitate to say it, but a warning is necessary here: if you think you’re going to be able to put ‘Corpselight’ down and go about your day, or read a chapter a night, you might want to practise your fake-sick ‘reader flu’ voice before you get started. You might just need it.
The rest is here.
Thanks, Kylie Thompson!
WorldCon 75 Draft Programme
And the WorldCon 75 Draft Programme is up! You can view it here. My appearances are below. Please come up and say ‘Hello’!
Wednesday Aug 9, 2017
How to Adapt a Fairy Tale and Make it Your Own Story 1 hour, 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM | Messukeskus, 210
Workshop
Literature
Thursday Aug 10, 2017
Signing: Angela Slatter 1 hour, 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM | Messukeskus, Signing area
Signing
The Aussies Are Coming! 1 hour, 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM | Messukeskus, 207
Moderator Alan Stewart | Cat Sparks | Russell Blackford | Angela Slatter | Janeen Webb | Thoraiya Dyer
Panel
Literature literature science fiction fantasy horror
Friday Aug 11, 2017
Other Side of the World: Space, Place, and Australian Fantasy 1 hour, 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM | Messukeskus, 101d
Moderator Kim Wilkins | Angela Slatter | Lisa L. Hannett | Juliet Marillier
Panel
Literature
Horror and the World Fantasy Award 1 hour, 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM | Messukeskus, 103
Moderator Ian Whates | Ellen Datlow | John Clute | Angela Slatter | Stephen Jones
July 17, 2017
The Corpselight Blog Tour
Yes! It’s on the road. Lock up your cupcakes, folks.
And we’re starting over at the blog of the delightful Lisa Reads Books!
I am delighted to be involved in the blog tour for Corpselight by Angela Slatter which is the second volume in the Verity Fassbinder series. If you haven’t already read the first book Vigil then get it and read it now, for your own good. This is a gritty urban fantasy set in Brisbane featuring Verity a half Normal, half Weyrd so she has a foot in each world but since she works for the Weyrd council she spends a lot of time dealing with Weyrd and weird stuff. Working for the Weyrd council is a bit like working for the city council only more dangerous and with greater probability of encountering tails and fangs. Verity is tough, brave, super strong, pigheaded, cynical, smart thinking and soft hearted. Imagine Phyrne Fisher transplanted to modern day Brisbane and clothed in doc martens, jeans and leather jacket except on top of all that, in this instalment Verity is also …
For the rest, go here.
