Sue Burke's Blog, page 9

Why paint portraits of tulips?

As I’ve mentioned before, my most recent novel, Dual Memory, was inspired by tulipmania, a historical event that occurred in Holland in the 1630s during the Dutch Golden Age. One of the facts that inspired me is that although tulipmania is widely known as the folly-filled speculative fever that drove many people into poverty, it simply didn’t happen. Yes, Dutch merchants invested in tulips, and the prices soared, but tulips were pretty good investments, no one went broke, and the anxiety that fueled false reports about “tulipmania” had to do a lot with class and political power.

Merchants in the Dutch Golden Age also invested in art, especially portraits, even portraits of tulips rendered by the finest artists of the day. This is why the protagonist of my novel is an artist. But why did Dutch investors want art?

As Anne Goldgar explains in her book Tulipmania: Money, Honor, and Knowledge in the Dutch Golden Age, it had to do with the mentality of the times in that part of Europe. Explorers, colonizers, and trading vessels were bringing back all kinds of exotic bits from the rest of the world like sea shells, beautiful stones, coins, coconuts, rattles from snakes, stuffed birds, tortoise shells, butterflies, and “anything that is strange.” Rich men created “cabinets of curiosities” to show off their finds, entertain friends, and display their knowledge and good taste.

Along with natural wonders, artificial wonders like art added to the thrill and glory of collecting. Artists’ ability to create their own wonders seemed to put them on a plane equal to God because they could remake nature and thwart the brevity of beauty. Collectors also amassed living things, such as companion dogs and flowers new to Europe, especially tulips. These were rich men — and occasionally rich women — so they could afford to commission art to enhance their collections.

This explains the watercolor portrait (above) of a Koornhert tulip by Pieter Holsteyn II, who is best known for making portraits of objects for collectors. This particular variety of tulip was named for a prominent Amsterdam merchant and collector, Volckert Dircksz Coonhart. Both the tulip and the art were good investments, which is why Harvard Art Museums now owns this stunning portrait.

History offers surprising inspirations for novelists, I believe. The past is as strange as any distant planet.

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The trade paperback edition of Dual Memory comes out on April 16 and is available for pre-order from your favorite bookseller. Hardcover, ebook, and audiobook editions are also available.

Five things I learned at Clarion

In 1996, I attended the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers’ Workshop. Clarion was established in 1968, and it’s an intensive training ground for aspiring writers of fantasy and science fiction. It lasts for six weeks, and I returned exhausted. Back then, it was held at Michigan State University, and now it’s at UC San Diego. The next session is June 23 to August 3, 2024.

What did I learn there? Here are five things:

1. How to critique and why. Finding ways to strengthen someone else’s work is a fast way to learn how to strengthen your own work. The technique I learned from Maureen F. McHugh is this: Summarize what the story is or does in a sentence or two; identify the successes of the work; indicate the weakest parts; and offer one or two ideas for the fastest and biggest improvements.

2. Every story gets only one miracle, and the first sentence should point to it.

3. The person (or thing) that hurts the most is usually the best perspective for a story.

4. Setting reflects character, and different characters will experience the same setting differently.

5. The first draft may have everything you need, but you might need to change it all. That is, the story might be there, but the telling doesn’t do it justice. What is the story trying to do? What are its successes? Weaknesses? What could improve it the most?

How to write great endings

How do you write great endings to a short story or novel? At TBRCon, an all-virtual sci-fi/fantasy/horror convention in January, I was on a panel that discussed just that. You can watch it here:

But we only got to talk for an hour, and there’s a lot more to say, so here’s a little more advice:

First of all, what is an ending? You can define it as the point when the major questions of the story have been answered. You can also think of it as the point where the reader finally knows what will happen next: Mystery gets a solution. Action reaches a resolution. Sin earns redemption or damnation. Anguish finds relief. Love enters a relationship. Conflict is settled. Adversaries win or are defeated. Problems yield solutions. Obstacles are overcome.

Short stories differ from novels because a short story generally has only one question to answer. A novel can have several questions, or a central question that keeps changing because each answer leads to new, bigger questions.

I advise knowing the ending before you start writing, at least in broad terms. Remember, you can change your mind if you get a better idea. In my forthcoming novel Usurpation, I knew all along how the novel would end — what the answer to the central question in the novel would be — then I had to figure out how to get there and how to make it as hard as possible to get there. (No spoilers, but the answer is “yes.”)

Some people are pantsers, also called discovery writers, which means they start writing and see where the story goes. I discourage this method simply because it tends to be the most laborious, slowest way to write, and writing is hard enough to begin with. In my experience, the more I know before I start, the easier the first draft is. Besides, if you don’t have a plan, you might grab the first ending you can think of, and it might be weak or unsatisfying.

I also encourage writing all the way to The End without going back and rewriting the first chapter again and again — even if the story changes and now the beginning needs to be rewritten. Of course the story changes. It always does. So the first chapter will need to change, too. But the beginning should connect to the ending, and until you reach The End, you won’t know what the exact right beginning is.

What kind of ending is good? That depends on the kind of story you want to tell, and there’s no formula that guarantees success. Many kinds of endings are satisfying: happy or sad, open or closed, philosophical or explicit, a twist or a freeze-frame, a summation or a flash-forward…

However, problems with endings almost always start somewhere earlier in the story. The conflict might be too small, too easily solved, or lacking tension. The antagonist might not be worthy. The problem, question, or conflict might not get resolved in the story, so the story doesn’t reach its actual end. Or the ending was reached earlier, and the story continued past the end. The ending may be unforeshadowed, rushed, unresolved, formulaic, illogical, abrupt, or unclear.

How do you know if you have a good ending, and if it’s not, then what’s the problem? One way to know is to set the work aside for as long as you can. I’ve heard of writers who wait for a full year. (I’m not that patient. Also, I might have deadlines.) Another way is to get good beta-readers, although they’re hard to find, and if you get some, treat them like royalty. A third way is to dissect your story. If you’re a pantser, now is the time to unleash your inner plotter and outline the story you have: you can see a lot by breaking it into its most skeletal form. If you’re a plotter, try reading it strictly for pleasure and notice what you enjoy and what bothers you.

Remember that writing is a practice discipline, like music or sports. The more you write, the better you get at it. The more you read, the more you’ll learn about writing, too, but be sure to read quality writing so you learn good lessons. Finally, beta-reading other people’s work is an effective way to learn to spot strengths and weaknesses in their writing, which will help you spot the same things in your own writing. Be sure to critique with kind and gentle honesty.

Have I reached a good ending to this blog post? I don’t think so. There’s a lot more to say. For starters, Rebecca Makkai has written a six-part series about endings on her Substack that explores many specific ways to end a story — wonderful, creative possibilities you can use.

If you want to write, I want you to succeed. I hope I helped a little.

‘Dual Memory’ is an Audie Award Finalist

Dual Memory is a finalist for the Audio Publishers Association’s 2024 Audie Awards in the Science Fiction category. Thank you for the narration, André Santana! The winners will be announced March 4.

You can listen to Chapter 1 here: https://soundcloud.com/dreamscape-media/dual-memory-by-sue-burke-chapter-1

You can buy the audiobook wherever fine audiobooks are sold — and the novel is available in hardcover and ebook, too.

Goodreads review: ‘A Weapon of Mathematics’

A Weapon of Mathematics by Charles Ott
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Full disclosure: I got this book as a gift from the author.

As set forth in Chapter Zero, mathematicians in the middle of the 21st century discovered a new series of numbers that permitted magic, but the new mathematics also smashed civilization and pushed the Moon out of its orbit. Now, eight hundred years later, at the end of Chapter Two, the King’s magician has been captured by the cult of an irrational god that could destroy what still remains of civilization.

This fun and often humorous short novel offers well-drawn characters and a fast-moving plot with surprises and twists. Feuding lovers must work together, a low-born man must prove his talent, and a capable magician makes it her job to hold them all together as a team. The math is clever, carefully thought-through, and believable as the basis of a fantasy – but don’t worry, there are no equations. There is, however, a dragon that can be both smart and stupid at the same time.

I think this is a self-published novel. It’s hard for those to get a lot of traction. Even if you have a major publisher behind you, selling books is hard — and much harder if you’re on your own. This seems to be the first Goodreads review of A Weapon of Mathematics, and I hope it gets more attention.

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Here’s the cover art for ‘Usurpation’

Isn’t it beautiful? This is the cover of Usurpation, the third novel in the Semiosis trilogy. It will be published on October 29 (and you can pre-order it now from your favorite bookseller).

You might be thinking that the picture looks a lot like a Venus flytrap. Yes, it does. That small plant originated in the eastern wetlands of North and South Carolina, and it grows in poor, wet soil. It kills and eats ants, spiders, and other small animals to get necessary nutrients. The toothy “jaws” on the ends of its leaves are waiting to close around prey.

But you’ll learn when you read the novel that carnivory is not the worst thing a plant can do.

I’ll be at Capricon

This weekend, I’ll be at Capricon, a four-day science fiction convention held annually in the Chicago area since 1981. This is a fan-run convention created entirely by volunteers. Attendance might reach 1000 people — the right size for friendship and fun.

It will be held at the Sheraton Grand Chicago in downtown Chicago, 301 E. North Water Street. You can attend for the whole weekend or come for just a day. More information about registration is here: https://capricon.org/registration/

This year’s theme is The Endurance of Stars: “No matter where they’re from, what media/genre they appear in, or where their journey takes them, protagonists of our favorite stories often look up to the night sky, just as we do ourselves. The stars provide hope, guidance, and a sense of continuity, for all that they wheel and spin around us and constellations slowly creep into new configurations. Stars give an anchor to orbits, provide essential guides to navigators, and bring light and life to the universe.”

If you can come, say hi. I’ll be on some panels:

How to Moderate Panels – Bridgeport, Friday, 11:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m. Great moderation can make the a difference between a mediocre panel and a fantastic one. Come learn tips from our panel of experienced moderators. Moderator: Janice Gelb; Alessandra Kelley, Jerry Gilio, Sue Burke, and Dina Krause.

When SF Goes Literary – Sheraton II, Friday, 1:00 p.m.–2:00 p.m. If you’ve ever seen a work of SF called “literary,” you might wonder what that even means. Is “literary SF” something easily described? Or is it another of those “I know it when I see it” situations? And what are the implications of defining some SF works in this way? Our panelists discuss the meaning of “literary” in the SF world and explore the impact and influence of so-called “literary SF” works. Moderator: Sue Burke; Gary K Wolfe, James Bacon, and K.V. Peck.

SLF’s Mini Deep Dish Reading – Sheraton I Salon, Saturday, 10:00 a.m.–11:00 a.m. The Speculative Literature Foundation is a Chicago-based non-profit organization dedicated to promoting literary quality in speculative fiction. In this mini-version of their Deep Dish reading series, you’ll hear from a variety of local authors giving short readings. Moderator, Angeli Primlani; Shaun Duke, Jim Cherry, Sue Burke, and Darius Vinesar.

Self-Editing for Writers – Columbus, Saturday, 4:00 p.m.–5:00 p.m. For many writers, editing is a daunting task. How are you supposed to sit down and make meaningful changes to your own work when you’ve spent days, weeks, months, or even a year writing it? Our panelists share their tips and tricks for self-editing to demystify the editing process. Moderator: Sue Burke; Clif Flynt, Steven H Silver, K.V. Peck, and JM Guilfoyle.

Random Panel Topic – Sheraton II, Sunday, 10:00 a.m.–11:00 a.m. What happens to the panel ideas that get rejected? They are reborn here as random panel topics. Our panelists will choose topics (at random, of course) and speak expertly on them for five minutes each. You’ll be rolling on the floor with laughter. Moderator: Sue Burke; Brian Sebby, Ariela Housman, and Will Saddler.

Pre-order sale for B&N Rewards and Premium members

B&N.com will have a pre-order promotion from January 24 to 26 for its Rewards and Premium members. Rewards and Premium Rewards members will get 25% off pre-orders, including ebook and audio, while Premium members get an additional 10%.

During that promotion, you can pre-order the trade paperback edition of Dual Memory, coming April 16, and the hardcover edition of Usurpation, coming October 29. Usurpation is the third book in the Semiosis trilogy.

If you’re not a B&N special member, you can still pre-order those books at your favorite bookseller, although probably not at promotional prices. As I learn of any sales, I’ll announce them here.

My panel at TBRCon: How to Write Great Endings

I’ll be participating in a free, virtual panel at TBRCon2024, “How to Write Great Endings,” on Monday, January 22, from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. CST — but don’t worry, if you’re busy, you can watch it later on YouTube. Also on the panel are Lucy Holland, Sebastien de Castell, Mark Lawrence, and Bryan Wilson, plus a moderator from FanFiAddict, David Walters (Lord David). We’re already planning ways to make this as helpful as we can, and we’ll be answering questions from the audience. We’ll also recommend books with great endings.

TBRCon2024 is an all-virtual sci-fi/fantasy/horror convention, January 21 to 28, with 26 livestream panels, 5 live podcasts and 2 RPG sessions on genre, writing craft, publishing, marketing, and more. Watch the livestream on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook, or re-watch on YouTube at your convenience. It’s all free! You can find the links, schedule, and more information here.

This is the fourth edition of TBRCon, run by FanFiAddict, and it’s won a Stabby Award for Best Virtual Convention. Panels that I want to watch include: “Why Are Dragons so Beloved in Fantasy?” “Developing Alien Races,” “Psychology of Villains in Fiction,” and “The Rise of Novellas” — but there’s a lot more for beginning and experienced writers, indie writers, gamers, and readers.

I hope there’s something for you. I always need to learn more and want to find more great books to read, although my TBR (To Be Read) pile is already a soaring tower.

(2024 is the Year of the Dragon in the Chinese zodiac, so the love for dragons might not be a hypothetical question.)

Goodreads review: ‘Life Beyond Us’

Life Beyond Us: An Original Anthology of SF Stories and Science Essays by Julie Nováková
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Highly recommended. What if we met life on another planet, in space, or in another ecology? Twenty-seven top-notch science fiction writers wrote short stories to explore the question, followed by essays by scientists explaining what is and isn’t possible in that particular story, such as “The Habitability of Water Worlds” or “Space Agriculture.”
Like any good anthology, the stories vary widely in style and substance. Not every one was to my taste, although they were all high quality, and you and I might have different opinions about which ones are the best. The essays explain the ideas clearly but don’t talk down to the reader.
If you’re a fan of hard science fiction (by “hard” I mean more or less anchored in reality) or if you’re a science fiction writer looking for a better understanding of what we know about space and life science, I wholeheartedly recommend this book, likely to be one of the best anthologies of 2023. There’s a lot to enjoy: the paperback version runs more than 500 pages.

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