Shanna Swendson's Blog, page 201
June 10, 2013
Starting my "Summer"
I got a bit of a start on my "summer hours" by waking up earlier than usual. Maybe I will have a productive summer. I made a quick trip to my parents' house this weekend to help my mom with something, but in spite of not having a regular weekend, I'm eager to get going on Monday. Go figure. Today, though, will be mostly taking care of some errands. The big one is a yarn quest. I finished my second blanket last night and don't have the yarn I need for the next project. It requires a particular color, which is turning out to be somewhat challenging to find. It would have been even more challenging if I were using the weight and needle size specified in the pattern, but it used sock-weight yarn, and it's very hard to find that without any wool in it. I get very itchy when I touch wool, so I wouldn't be able to wear it and my hands would be a mess from knitting with it. Also, I wanted to make it a bit larger than the pattern specifies. Some experimentation has shown that I get the results I want from a heavier yarn (that's easier to find) and slightly larger needles without having to actually change the pattern. Now I need to find the right color in something that doesn't make me itch.
Otherwise, I need to get back on track with the office organization project and I need to start the serious planning for the next book. I have some vague ideas and I know what's going on in general with the characters. I just need to narrow it down to specific events.
Meanwhile, the summer session of ballet starts tomorrow night, and that means it's been five years since I started. It's been one of the better things I've done for myself because it's helped me stay in shape, it's improved my posture and balance, and it's given me a whole new set of friends. Plus, it played into a book that I hope will someday see the light of day. I sometimes worry about being commitment-phobic because I really hate committing to things until I'm absolutely certain and I'm prone to quitting things when I lose interest, but I think it's more a case that I take commitments very seriously, and once I commit to something, I'm all-in for the duration. That makes me very cautious about what I commit to and leads to some wavering until I'm sure. It also leads to me quickly dropping out of things that don't seem right.
That means it's also been five years since I started making my own strawberry jam (I remember this because I bought supplies on the same round of errands when I registered for the class). This will be jam week (probably on Wednesday) as I'm almost done with the last jar and the strawberries were on sale. I think my homemade jam is less expensive than store-bought, but mostly I like the taste better, I like knowing exactly what's in it, and I like the sense of satisfaction from having made it myself.
So, that's the week ahead, dancing, knitting, jam making, some baking (I came home from my parents' house loaded up with zucchini, so it's zucchini bread time), and trying to make a vague story idea take shape.
Otherwise, I need to get back on track with the office organization project and I need to start the serious planning for the next book. I have some vague ideas and I know what's going on in general with the characters. I just need to narrow it down to specific events.
Meanwhile, the summer session of ballet starts tomorrow night, and that means it's been five years since I started. It's been one of the better things I've done for myself because it's helped me stay in shape, it's improved my posture and balance, and it's given me a whole new set of friends. Plus, it played into a book that I hope will someday see the light of day. I sometimes worry about being commitment-phobic because I really hate committing to things until I'm absolutely certain and I'm prone to quitting things when I lose interest, but I think it's more a case that I take commitments very seriously, and once I commit to something, I'm all-in for the duration. That makes me very cautious about what I commit to and leads to some wavering until I'm sure. It also leads to me quickly dropping out of things that don't seem right.
That means it's also been five years since I started making my own strawberry jam (I remember this because I bought supplies on the same round of errands when I registered for the class). This will be jam week (probably on Wednesday) as I'm almost done with the last jar and the strawberries were on sale. I think my homemade jam is less expensive than store-bought, but mostly I like the taste better, I like knowing exactly what's in it, and I like the sense of satisfaction from having made it myself.
So, that's the week ahead, dancing, knitting, jam making, some baking (I came home from my parents' house loaded up with zucchini, so it's zucchini bread time), and trying to make a vague story idea take shape.
June 6, 2013
Organizational Issues
I did decide to accept the programming invitation at WorldCon, and while there are some organizational issues behind the scenes, I have to say that their initial programming survey was one of the best I've seen for any convention, ever. I've done WorldCons where the survey amounted to sending a bio and listing a few things you can talk about, but this was pretty comprehensive, plus their software provided some of the existing answers for the fill-in-the-blank questions, which gave some ideas for what to put there. Usually when presented with a blank, I go blank. So, kudos programming people.
Now I have to decide which hotel I want. There are two that are across the street from each other. One is closer to the convention center and seems slightly more pleasant. The other is the party hotel. I know I'll be involved with parties, but at the same time, I like the idea of quiet. It's not too far a walk and I don't think it would be dangerous, and I likely wouldn't be alone. After all, in Denver I had to walk to a shuttle stop, ride a shuttle and then walk to my hotel. I may have to flip a coin. Then there's the drive vs. fly decision. With the hotel parking rates, I don't think there's a huge cost difference. There's also not a huge time difference, when you factor in getting to the airport, the time cushion for getting through security, likely flight delays, then getting out of the airport and getting a shuttle downtown. The differences come down to spending much of that time reading instead of driving vs. being able to bring anything I want instead of worrying about packing. It would be rather nice to go wild and have a different pair of shoes for each outfit and to bring full-sized bottles of hair products. I have a lot of friends from this area going, so there's a chance I could carpool with someone, if I could find someone traveling on my schedule, and that would cut the cost further and possibly allow some riding vs. driving time. But I don't have to make these decisions immediately.
I'm probably taking Friday off before I plunge into "summer hours" next week. I need to buckle down and start developing this book, and then there's marketing stuff to do. And finishing the clean/organize the office project. There's all kinds of crazy stuff squirreled away in here. The other day, I found something I thought I'd lost while I was looking for something else that I seem to have lost. I'm going to have to go through and empty and sort every box, bin and drawer. It will be like going shopping, I have a feeling. I already have a "new" short terrycloth robe since I found the missing belt that goes with it. I think that means I need to schedule an at-home spa day. I never did find that missing knitting needle, though. This is why I'm coming to like the circular needles even for projects that don't really require them. You always have both needles (unless you lose the whole thing).
Now off to get my act together in general.
Now I have to decide which hotel I want. There are two that are across the street from each other. One is closer to the convention center and seems slightly more pleasant. The other is the party hotel. I know I'll be involved with parties, but at the same time, I like the idea of quiet. It's not too far a walk and I don't think it would be dangerous, and I likely wouldn't be alone. After all, in Denver I had to walk to a shuttle stop, ride a shuttle and then walk to my hotel. I may have to flip a coin. Then there's the drive vs. fly decision. With the hotel parking rates, I don't think there's a huge cost difference. There's also not a huge time difference, when you factor in getting to the airport, the time cushion for getting through security, likely flight delays, then getting out of the airport and getting a shuttle downtown. The differences come down to spending much of that time reading instead of driving vs. being able to bring anything I want instead of worrying about packing. It would be rather nice to go wild and have a different pair of shoes for each outfit and to bring full-sized bottles of hair products. I have a lot of friends from this area going, so there's a chance I could carpool with someone, if I could find someone traveling on my schedule, and that would cut the cost further and possibly allow some riding vs. driving time. But I don't have to make these decisions immediately.
I'm probably taking Friday off before I plunge into "summer hours" next week. I need to buckle down and start developing this book, and then there's marketing stuff to do. And finishing the clean/organize the office project. There's all kinds of crazy stuff squirreled away in here. The other day, I found something I thought I'd lost while I was looking for something else that I seem to have lost. I'm going to have to go through and empty and sort every box, bin and drawer. It will be like going shopping, I have a feeling. I already have a "new" short terrycloth robe since I found the missing belt that goes with it. I think that means I need to schedule an at-home spa day. I never did find that missing knitting needle, though. This is why I'm coming to like the circular needles even for projects that don't really require them. You always have both needles (unless you lose the whole thing).
Now off to get my act together in general.
June 5, 2013
Enjoying Revision
I have finished (sort of) the novelette/novella. I say "sort of" because as I got closer to the end, the "and then they resolved everything and lived happily ever after and now I'm DONE!" impulse kicked in. I already know I need to rewrite the big, climactic scene so that it will actually be big and climactic, like with action and stuff, maybe even some actual conflict. I just don't know if it's worth doing so at the moment. If something strikes me, I can go do it, but it's not like this is an urgent project. I think it's a good sign that the impatience began largely because I was starting to get eager to move on to the next book. Speaking of revision …
I had a reader question about revision, so I'll tackle that this week. I think the question was more specifically about making revision fun, but I don't have magical powers, so I'll talk more about making revision work. Revision is one of those things that works differently for different writers or even different projects, and you have to find the thing that works for you. There are writers who claim not to revise, but what they really do is revise as they go, fixing the previous day's work as a warm-up to the day's writing, so when they reach "the end," the book really is done. I don't know that this would work for me because my revision isn't just fixing words. It's about adjusting the entire plot, and I don't know what needs fixing until I get to the end. Then again, I have had a couple of books that kind of worked this way. I also wouldn't recommend trying to do this on your first book because there would be a temptation to keep working on each part until it's perfect, so that you'd never get past the first couple of chapters. There are people who write on the fly, so that the first draft is really more of an extended outline, and then they go back and do the main part of the writing in revision. And there are insane people like me, who outline and plan, then write the book and realize that the outline was wrong and the book was about something else entirely, and then have to do extensive rewrites. At any rate, I don't think you'll really make it as a writer if you aren't willing to rewrite. Even if you think your work is done after the first draft, if you sell it, an editor is probably going to make you do revisions.
I'll admit that I sometimes enjoy doing revisions because it feels really good to make something better than it was. I like analyzing and tinkering with a book. I get the same kind of thrill of discovery that comes from a first draft, but without having to write all the words from scratch. Here are some tips that might help you make the most of the process:
* If deadlines permit, let the work rest. You'll be less attached to it and might not remember so much about what you did or why you did it -- something your readers won't know. If I don't understand something when re-reading it because I've forgotten my thought process, I know I need to fix it. Some distance from the hours of toil make you feel less of a loss when you have to cut or change something.
* Try to think about the positives. A lot of revision is about fixing what's wrong, which can feel negative. When analyzing your story in the revision process, also look at the things that really worked or that you did well and try to find ways to expand upon them or do more with the good stuff. If there are parts of your first draft that just sing, figure out why. Does it have to do with that part of the plot, the characters, the setting? Maybe that's a sign that you should play up those elements in the rest of the book.
* Get yourself into the right emotional headspace. I generally make a soundtrack -- essentially an auditory collage -- for each book, or at least pick out a few theme songs. I don't usually listen to it while I write (I most often write in total silence), but I listen to it in the car or as I do housework during the time I'm working on a book. Pulling out that soundtrack is a good way to get me back into a book when it's time to rewrite. Sometimes it can even remind me of plot elements or themes I wanted to address in the book but didn't put into the first draft. I also know of writers who use scent or photos to evoke a book for them.
* Push your characters to the limit. I tend to pull punches in my first draft, so the revision is when I force myself to push my characters harder and put them in more difficult situations or demand that they do things they didn't think they were capable of. Sometimes all it takes to fix a book is to keep raising the stakes in each pivotal scene.
* Don't try to fix the words while you're fixing the story. Editing -- making sure everything's spelled right, that you used the best word for each situation and that all your sentences flow well -- involves a different mindset than creative writing, and when you're fixing the story, you want to be in that creative writing space. Do your wordsmithing on the next pass. You might get bogged down in minutiae if you're trying to fix the words while working on the big picture.
* This is when a beta reader can help to give you big-picture story feedback -- do they like it, what do they like, what didn't work, did they understand it, etc. Again, this isn't time for the red pencil. This is the kind of feedback that would come in a conversation or a note, not in marks in the margins.
And the lovely thing is, until the book is in print and in bookstores, you can still work on fixing it. There are a lot of chances to make the book better along the way.
I had a reader question about revision, so I'll tackle that this week. I think the question was more specifically about making revision fun, but I don't have magical powers, so I'll talk more about making revision work. Revision is one of those things that works differently for different writers or even different projects, and you have to find the thing that works for you. There are writers who claim not to revise, but what they really do is revise as they go, fixing the previous day's work as a warm-up to the day's writing, so when they reach "the end," the book really is done. I don't know that this would work for me because my revision isn't just fixing words. It's about adjusting the entire plot, and I don't know what needs fixing until I get to the end. Then again, I have had a couple of books that kind of worked this way. I also wouldn't recommend trying to do this on your first book because there would be a temptation to keep working on each part until it's perfect, so that you'd never get past the first couple of chapters. There are people who write on the fly, so that the first draft is really more of an extended outline, and then they go back and do the main part of the writing in revision. And there are insane people like me, who outline and plan, then write the book and realize that the outline was wrong and the book was about something else entirely, and then have to do extensive rewrites. At any rate, I don't think you'll really make it as a writer if you aren't willing to rewrite. Even if you think your work is done after the first draft, if you sell it, an editor is probably going to make you do revisions.
I'll admit that I sometimes enjoy doing revisions because it feels really good to make something better than it was. I like analyzing and tinkering with a book. I get the same kind of thrill of discovery that comes from a first draft, but without having to write all the words from scratch. Here are some tips that might help you make the most of the process:
* If deadlines permit, let the work rest. You'll be less attached to it and might not remember so much about what you did or why you did it -- something your readers won't know. If I don't understand something when re-reading it because I've forgotten my thought process, I know I need to fix it. Some distance from the hours of toil make you feel less of a loss when you have to cut or change something.
* Try to think about the positives. A lot of revision is about fixing what's wrong, which can feel negative. When analyzing your story in the revision process, also look at the things that really worked or that you did well and try to find ways to expand upon them or do more with the good stuff. If there are parts of your first draft that just sing, figure out why. Does it have to do with that part of the plot, the characters, the setting? Maybe that's a sign that you should play up those elements in the rest of the book.
* Get yourself into the right emotional headspace. I generally make a soundtrack -- essentially an auditory collage -- for each book, or at least pick out a few theme songs. I don't usually listen to it while I write (I most often write in total silence), but I listen to it in the car or as I do housework during the time I'm working on a book. Pulling out that soundtrack is a good way to get me back into a book when it's time to rewrite. Sometimes it can even remind me of plot elements or themes I wanted to address in the book but didn't put into the first draft. I also know of writers who use scent or photos to evoke a book for them.
* Push your characters to the limit. I tend to pull punches in my first draft, so the revision is when I force myself to push my characters harder and put them in more difficult situations or demand that they do things they didn't think they were capable of. Sometimes all it takes to fix a book is to keep raising the stakes in each pivotal scene.
* Don't try to fix the words while you're fixing the story. Editing -- making sure everything's spelled right, that you used the best word for each situation and that all your sentences flow well -- involves a different mindset than creative writing, and when you're fixing the story, you want to be in that creative writing space. Do your wordsmithing on the next pass. You might get bogged down in minutiae if you're trying to fix the words while working on the big picture.
* This is when a beta reader can help to give you big-picture story feedback -- do they like it, what do they like, what didn't work, did they understand it, etc. Again, this isn't time for the red pencil. This is the kind of feedback that would come in a conversation or a note, not in marks in the margins.
And the lovely thing is, until the book is in print and in bookstores, you can still work on fixing it. There are a lot of chances to make the book better along the way.
June 4, 2013
Book Report: Good Guys and Bad Boys (and a mystery)
I'm almost done with this short story/novella/novelette. It's definitely no longer a short story, but according to the Nebula Award guidelines, it's probably going to end up on the border between novelette (7,500-17,500 words) and novella (17,500-40,000 words) (Not that I think this is award-worthy; I'm just looking at their rules to get the general length expectations). I'm at about 14,000 words and have the climactic action to go. I imagine it will both expand and shrink in revisions, since there are parts I skimmed over that may need some flesh on them, but there may also be some excess verbiage to trim. It's even possible that if I expand on it and go into some of the other points of view, it could turn into a shortish novel. It all depends on what I end up deciding to do with it. The main point of this exercise was to get back in the habit of writing new words daily, since I've been in revision mode for the whole year so far, and it helps to do it with an "easy" project with no pressure or expectations. Meanwhile, I'm hoping the subconscious is developing the next book I need to write.
Now, for recent reading beyond Wuthering Heights.
The Hum and the Shiver by Alex Bledsoe was something I read about online, and the title alone gave me that "ooh!" response. It turned out to be a really intriguing contemporary fantasy that bordered on magical realism -- I suppose you could almost call it magical realism coming from the fantasy side of things. It seems to be the start of a series about the Tufa, a tribe of people living in the Tennessee mountains. They aren't Native American, but they were already there when the European settlers arrived (we learn what they are, but that would be a spoiler). For these people, music is a kind of magic, a way they protect themselves and each other and create their community. In this book, a young Tufa woman who'd been in the military and who is coming home from Iraq as a badly wounded war hero has to reconnect to her people and find her music again in order to protect her family. Meanwhile, a young Methodist minister newly arrived in town is trying to figure out the mysteries of these people. I think that was the part of the book I loved the most because it's so very unusual for fantasy. The Methodist minister is a good guy -- one of the heroes -- and he read very true to me, reminding me of most of the Methodist ministers I know. You almost never see a minister or religious character in fantasy who actually acts like a religious person and who is a hero. This book is wonderfully atmospheric but also laugh-out-loud funny at times. There's another book in the series coming out this month. It looks like it's about different characters, but I hope that since it involves the same community we'll check in on the people from this book because it didn't seem like their stories were entirely over.
Then I went through a bout of what was that book? When I was in junior high, I read a book that had something to do with time traveling, perhaps in dreams, and it involved lacemaking and an inn or pub called The Lacemakers' Rest. I remember describing this book to a friend in great detail, but I couldn't remember the title or author for the life of me. I'd tried every Amazon search I could think of, and came up with nothing. Then I was checking my library listings for books by Penelope Lively, who wrote some delightfully spooky teen books that probably would be considered urban fantasy today. I remember reading a couple of those books in junior high and wanted to find them again. It turns out they were British publications that don't seem to be widely available in the US, but they did have a book of hers called A Stitch in Time that sounded like it could possibly be my mystery book, since I was reading her books at around the same time. It did involve a contemporary girl going on vacation to an English village and having an encounter with a girl who lived a hundred years earlier, but it turned out that the stitching was a sampler, not lace, and the book would have really pissed me off when I was a kid because it turned out to not really be fantasy at all. It was just a girl with an overactive imagination thinking about the girl who'd lived in that house a century earlier. Books that pretend to be fantasy but then turn out not to be are a pet peeve. I think if I hadn't been expecting the fantasy, I might have enjoyed it more, but I was reading it because of what I hoped it would be.
So, since that turned out to be a false lead, I turned to Google, and it seems like I'm not the only person who was haunted by this mystery book and who remembered the same details but not much else because I found several hits on "Lacemakers' Rest" that were all "what was this book?" queries. The book in question is apparently A Pocket of Silence by Barbara Freeman. The title doesn't sound the least bit familiar, but the details mentioned in the discussions all were. My library doesn't have it (and it's long out of print), but other libraries in the county do, so I should be able to get it through Interlibrary Loan. Then I'll see if it merits the amount of brain space it's been taking up all this time.
Now, back to Wuthering Heights. One thing that disturbs me about that book is the fact that apparently Heathcliff is seen by a lot of people as some kind of romantic icon. I don't think even his supposed love for Cathy is all that romantic because his love is so destructive. He wanted to hurt her and all the people she loved. To me, that's not love. That's obsession. I wonder how much the "romantic hero" stuff comes from the movie adaptations, where he's usually played by some movie idol type. Then again, apparently the Boston Marathon bombing suspect has fangirls. There was an article in the newspaper recently about the number of tumblr pages swooning over him and either claiming that he's innocent and misunderstood or praising that he's so passionate about his beliefs that he was willing to make the utmost sacrifice. And there's an article today about how more than $8,000 in donations has been sent to him. Sometimes people scare me, but that does explain why bad boys are so popular in fiction, I guess.
Now, for recent reading beyond Wuthering Heights.
The Hum and the Shiver by Alex Bledsoe was something I read about online, and the title alone gave me that "ooh!" response. It turned out to be a really intriguing contemporary fantasy that bordered on magical realism -- I suppose you could almost call it magical realism coming from the fantasy side of things. It seems to be the start of a series about the Tufa, a tribe of people living in the Tennessee mountains. They aren't Native American, but they were already there when the European settlers arrived (we learn what they are, but that would be a spoiler). For these people, music is a kind of magic, a way they protect themselves and each other and create their community. In this book, a young Tufa woman who'd been in the military and who is coming home from Iraq as a badly wounded war hero has to reconnect to her people and find her music again in order to protect her family. Meanwhile, a young Methodist minister newly arrived in town is trying to figure out the mysteries of these people. I think that was the part of the book I loved the most because it's so very unusual for fantasy. The Methodist minister is a good guy -- one of the heroes -- and he read very true to me, reminding me of most of the Methodist ministers I know. You almost never see a minister or religious character in fantasy who actually acts like a religious person and who is a hero. This book is wonderfully atmospheric but also laugh-out-loud funny at times. There's another book in the series coming out this month. It looks like it's about different characters, but I hope that since it involves the same community we'll check in on the people from this book because it didn't seem like their stories were entirely over.
Then I went through a bout of what was that book? When I was in junior high, I read a book that had something to do with time traveling, perhaps in dreams, and it involved lacemaking and an inn or pub called The Lacemakers' Rest. I remember describing this book to a friend in great detail, but I couldn't remember the title or author for the life of me. I'd tried every Amazon search I could think of, and came up with nothing. Then I was checking my library listings for books by Penelope Lively, who wrote some delightfully spooky teen books that probably would be considered urban fantasy today. I remember reading a couple of those books in junior high and wanted to find them again. It turns out they were British publications that don't seem to be widely available in the US, but they did have a book of hers called A Stitch in Time that sounded like it could possibly be my mystery book, since I was reading her books at around the same time. It did involve a contemporary girl going on vacation to an English village and having an encounter with a girl who lived a hundred years earlier, but it turned out that the stitching was a sampler, not lace, and the book would have really pissed me off when I was a kid because it turned out to not really be fantasy at all. It was just a girl with an overactive imagination thinking about the girl who'd lived in that house a century earlier. Books that pretend to be fantasy but then turn out not to be are a pet peeve. I think if I hadn't been expecting the fantasy, I might have enjoyed it more, but I was reading it because of what I hoped it would be.
So, since that turned out to be a false lead, I turned to Google, and it seems like I'm not the only person who was haunted by this mystery book and who remembered the same details but not much else because I found several hits on "Lacemakers' Rest" that were all "what was this book?" queries. The book in question is apparently A Pocket of Silence by Barbara Freeman. The title doesn't sound the least bit familiar, but the details mentioned in the discussions all were. My library doesn't have it (and it's long out of print), but other libraries in the county do, so I should be able to get it through Interlibrary Loan. Then I'll see if it merits the amount of brain space it's been taking up all this time.
Now, back to Wuthering Heights. One thing that disturbs me about that book is the fact that apparently Heathcliff is seen by a lot of people as some kind of romantic icon. I don't think even his supposed love for Cathy is all that romantic because his love is so destructive. He wanted to hurt her and all the people she loved. To me, that's not love. That's obsession. I wonder how much the "romantic hero" stuff comes from the movie adaptations, where he's usually played by some movie idol type. Then again, apparently the Boston Marathon bombing suspect has fangirls. There was an article in the newspaper recently about the number of tumblr pages swooning over him and either claiming that he's innocent and misunderstood or praising that he's so passionate about his beliefs that he was willing to make the utmost sacrifice. And there's an article today about how more than $8,000 in donations has been sent to him. Sometimes people scare me, but that does explain why bad boys are so popular in fiction, I guess.
June 3, 2013
After the Storm (and the hissy fit)
I think a good portion of my entertainment this weekend came from getting online last night to see the reaction from people who hadn't read the books to the Game of Thrones episode. There may have been some cackling with amusement. Yes, it was the episode with that incident. See, that's the problem with authors being so prone to kill off or otherwise torture (sometimes literally) their characters. You learn that it's not safe to get emotionally involved with anyone in the series, so you start looking at it all from a very detached place. I have an intellectual curiosity about what will happen next and get some amusement out of seeing how far it will go and how people will react, but I don't really care because it's too dangerous to get invested. I feel like there's a problem when a big chunk of the audience is more focused on watching the Internet go insane than with actually feeling anything about this thing that happened to the characters. Some surprise is good, and not everything has to be happy rainbows and puppies, but when bad things happen to everyone you care about, you tend to stop caring.
In other news, I got an invitation to be on programming at WorldCon late last night, so I guess I was in the next tier (or perhaps there are no tiers and they're just disorganized, or were just dealing with the applications like you'd go through Facebook, working backwards). And now I have some decisions to make. When I had my little "if they don't want me, I'm not going" snit last week, I was surprised by how relieved I was at the idea of not going. Having the convention over Labor Day weekend makes it bump up against a really busy time when all my fall activities are getting started. If I don't go, then I don't have to worry about that. I don't have to make hotel reservations, don't have to decide whether to fly or drive, don't have to plan wardrobe, don't have to deal with crowds, don't have to leave home for a week, don't have to stop the newspaper or worry about getting the plants watered. I made plans to get flowers to put out on the patio. But then I went to the planning meeting for FenCon and they were talking about the parties we'll be hosting or involved with, and I was hearing about my friends who'll be there, and I felt a pang at the loss if I wasn't going to be there. I was feeling left-out. But which is stronger, the relief from not having to deal with it or the loss from not being a part of it? And what impact will either have on my career? I suspect I'll end up going because I do enjoy WorldCons, you never know who you'll meet, and I do need to be better about networking.
Now I have to decide if I want to get flowers for the patio, anyway. I don't know how long the construction work out there will last and if it will preclude my outdoor enjoyment. We happen to be in a phase of weather when I like being outdoors. I spent a lot of yesterday afternoon sitting out there reading and drinking tea, and I had breakfast on the patio this morning, and I was thinking about how pleasant it would be to have flowers there. Two days from now, I may be back to cowering indoors under the ceiling fan and forgetting to water the flowers outside.
Finally, I did eventually figure out what to do with my grand romantic scene. My problem was that I was hung up on the servant/princess issue, when the whole point was that neither of them are typical, and that's why they clicked. Whatever they do should be about them and not about their roles. Then I realized it was essentially a Before Sunrise situation, where two people connected but knew they only had a few hours before they'd likely never see each other again. They wouldn't worry so much about doing anything in particular because it's more about spending that time together. I just needed to find a pleasant place for them to hang out. I did make a false start on that scene, but I now know how to correct it.
In other news, I got an invitation to be on programming at WorldCon late last night, so I guess I was in the next tier (or perhaps there are no tiers and they're just disorganized, or were just dealing with the applications like you'd go through Facebook, working backwards). And now I have some decisions to make. When I had my little "if they don't want me, I'm not going" snit last week, I was surprised by how relieved I was at the idea of not going. Having the convention over Labor Day weekend makes it bump up against a really busy time when all my fall activities are getting started. If I don't go, then I don't have to worry about that. I don't have to make hotel reservations, don't have to decide whether to fly or drive, don't have to plan wardrobe, don't have to deal with crowds, don't have to leave home for a week, don't have to stop the newspaper or worry about getting the plants watered. I made plans to get flowers to put out on the patio. But then I went to the planning meeting for FenCon and they were talking about the parties we'll be hosting or involved with, and I was hearing about my friends who'll be there, and I felt a pang at the loss if I wasn't going to be there. I was feeling left-out. But which is stronger, the relief from not having to deal with it or the loss from not being a part of it? And what impact will either have on my career? I suspect I'll end up going because I do enjoy WorldCons, you never know who you'll meet, and I do need to be better about networking.
Now I have to decide if I want to get flowers for the patio, anyway. I don't know how long the construction work out there will last and if it will preclude my outdoor enjoyment. We happen to be in a phase of weather when I like being outdoors. I spent a lot of yesterday afternoon sitting out there reading and drinking tea, and I had breakfast on the patio this morning, and I was thinking about how pleasant it would be to have flowers there. Two days from now, I may be back to cowering indoors under the ceiling fan and forgetting to water the flowers outside.
Finally, I did eventually figure out what to do with my grand romantic scene. My problem was that I was hung up on the servant/princess issue, when the whole point was that neither of them are typical, and that's why they clicked. Whatever they do should be about them and not about their roles. Then I realized it was essentially a Before Sunrise situation, where two people connected but knew they only had a few hours before they'd likely never see each other again. They wouldn't worry so much about doing anything in particular because it's more about spending that time together. I just needed to find a pleasant place for them to hang out. I did make a false start on that scene, but I now know how to correct it.
May 31, 2013
Revisiting Wuthering Heights
I hit a bit of a block in the story I've been working on when I realized it had to be a romance. It was already supposed to be sort of a romance, in that it had a happily ever after ending, but I was so focused on all the plot stuff of getting everyone in the right place at the right time that I sort of forgot about the developing relationship and realized I needed a big, romantic episode. And that got to be pretty tricky because I'm doing a gender reversal in a standard fairy-tale setting, so I've got a princess and a servant guy. That's actually the more common pairing in the actual fairy tales -- the princess and the woodsman's third son who wins her hand and half the kingdom by doing some seemingly impossible task with the help of the animals and old people he helped earlier -- but the original fairy tales are pretty thin on relationship development (it boils down to "she was beautiful and he fell in love instantly"), and the stories that tend to get fleshed out more in current pop culture, so that we have those images in our heads, are more like the Cinderella story, with the prince and the ordinary girl. In those stories, we generally get some kind of "swept off her feet" scene, in which the prince awes the girl with something fabulous from his life, like the Beauty and the Beast scene where he gives her the library. It's really tricky to reverse the genders without it coming across as her being patronizing and without him looking like either a rube or a golddigger (and that's made me look at the prince and ordinary girl scenes in a different way). I don't even want this to come across as her dazzling him with her wealth. These two have made an intellectual connection by working on a problem together, and while they know they can't be together for good, she wants to show him one evening of fun and luxury, knowing that his life is usually one of toil. This is where a lot of current books would rely on sex, but I think that's out of character for these people and unlikely in the situation, and besides, it's lazy storytelling because it's an easy way out. I need to come up with something for them to do that's unique to their relationship, that brings out their characters and that makes the fact that they can't be together (they think) that much more heartbreaking. There's something kind of tacky about "Here, have a book/bon-bon/fancy outfit, I've got plenty." I think they need to do something on neutral ground, where it briefly doesn't matter that she's a princess and he's a servant, but I don't want to do the Roman Holiday thing where it's about her slumming.
But perhaps Wuthering Heights wasn't the best thing to read before trying to write something romantic. I read it the first time soon after I finished college, mostly out of curiosity, and I was deeply disappointed in it. The popular impression of it is that it's supposedly wildly romantic and that Heathcliff is some kind of romantic figure (probably because he's generally played by hunks in movies). But I found nothing romantic in the book. This time, my expectations were different, and I liked it a lot better. I also don't think the book is supposed to be romantic. There's never any hint that Heathcliff is anything but a monster. The only hint of romance is in the connection he had with Catherine, but it was more of a case that they were both such awful people that they deserved each other. Maybe they could have been happy and spared everyone else from being collateral damage if they could have just spent their lives running around the moors together, but there's still something rather toxic about a love that results in so much damage and that leads to such an impulse to hurt and destroy.
There's even a mention in the book that Heathcliff's rewarding quality wasn't his love for her, but rather his regard for the man who took him in and brought him up like a son, so I don't think Emily Bronte was under any illusions about Heathcliff being a romantic hero. There's a funny cartoon of the Bronte sisters with Emily and Charlotte swooning over the dark, dangerous guy and Anne rolling her eyes, since The Tenant of Wildfell Hall shows what it would be like to be married to a Heathcliff. But Wuthering Heights shows what it would be like to be married to Heathcliff in Isabella's story, where she's so abused and miserable that she runs away. There's even a scene in which Heathcliff essentially tells her, "Duh! I hanged your puppy right before you ran away with me. What kind of person did you think you were marrying?"
Generally, this book could be subtitled "Woman Who Have Lousy Taste in Men" because Heathcliff isn't the only nasty piece of work. Or maybe you could call it "No, You Can't Change or Save Him with Your Love." There are different kinds of tyranny. There's Heathcliff's knock you around and lock you up tyranny, but then there's Linton's "I'm so weak that if you don't give me what I want I'll die and it will be your fault" tyranny. And they all fell for both varieties, believing that love could tame the dangerous man and strengthen the weak man.
One thing I find amusing in 19th century novels (and this includes Jane Austen, as well) is the idea that being really upset can send one into a fatal physical illness. One big temper tantrum can drive someone into a fever that lasts for months. Walking in the rain while sad is a good way to commit suicide. I suppose in that era a lot of people had underlying conditions that could be worsened by a bad emotional state. If you already have tuberculosis, then maybe walking in the rain while sad could do you in. Still, I can't help but think of all the medical studies showing that being wet and cold doesn't make you any more likely to catch a cold.
Now I need to walk to the library and it's cloudy. But it's warm and I'm in a relatively good mood, so even if it rains on me, I should be okay.
But perhaps Wuthering Heights wasn't the best thing to read before trying to write something romantic. I read it the first time soon after I finished college, mostly out of curiosity, and I was deeply disappointed in it. The popular impression of it is that it's supposedly wildly romantic and that Heathcliff is some kind of romantic figure (probably because he's generally played by hunks in movies). But I found nothing romantic in the book. This time, my expectations were different, and I liked it a lot better. I also don't think the book is supposed to be romantic. There's never any hint that Heathcliff is anything but a monster. The only hint of romance is in the connection he had with Catherine, but it was more of a case that they were both such awful people that they deserved each other. Maybe they could have been happy and spared everyone else from being collateral damage if they could have just spent their lives running around the moors together, but there's still something rather toxic about a love that results in so much damage and that leads to such an impulse to hurt and destroy.
There's even a mention in the book that Heathcliff's rewarding quality wasn't his love for her, but rather his regard for the man who took him in and brought him up like a son, so I don't think Emily Bronte was under any illusions about Heathcliff being a romantic hero. There's a funny cartoon of the Bronte sisters with Emily and Charlotte swooning over the dark, dangerous guy and Anne rolling her eyes, since The Tenant of Wildfell Hall shows what it would be like to be married to a Heathcliff. But Wuthering Heights shows what it would be like to be married to Heathcliff in Isabella's story, where she's so abused and miserable that she runs away. There's even a scene in which Heathcliff essentially tells her, "Duh! I hanged your puppy right before you ran away with me. What kind of person did you think you were marrying?"
Generally, this book could be subtitled "Woman Who Have Lousy Taste in Men" because Heathcliff isn't the only nasty piece of work. Or maybe you could call it "No, You Can't Change or Save Him with Your Love." There are different kinds of tyranny. There's Heathcliff's knock you around and lock you up tyranny, but then there's Linton's "I'm so weak that if you don't give me what I want I'll die and it will be your fault" tyranny. And they all fell for both varieties, believing that love could tame the dangerous man and strengthen the weak man.
One thing I find amusing in 19th century novels (and this includes Jane Austen, as well) is the idea that being really upset can send one into a fatal physical illness. One big temper tantrum can drive someone into a fever that lasts for months. Walking in the rain while sad is a good way to commit suicide. I suppose in that era a lot of people had underlying conditions that could be worsened by a bad emotional state. If you already have tuberculosis, then maybe walking in the rain while sad could do you in. Still, I can't help but think of all the medical studies showing that being wet and cold doesn't make you any more likely to catch a cold.
Now I need to walk to the library and it's cloudy. But it's warm and I'm in a relatively good mood, so even if it rains on me, I should be okay.
May 30, 2013
Diva Moments
I was a total weather weenie last night. A round of storms hit just at the time I needed to leave to go to choir, and I didn't want to drive in the high winds and heavy rain, so I stayed home. We didn't get the hail that some were getting from this storm, but around here it's generally better to play it safe. I made good use of the time and got a lot of writing done on my current project. I just have the final "act" to write. I suspect there will be a lot of rewriting to do when I'm done because the first draft was essentially outlining the story. I may need to create more active scenes and flesh it all out. If I can make myself be diligent today, I could even finish this week.
I got all that done in spite of having a minor diva hissy fit that distracted me for a while. WorldCon is being held in San Antonio this year, in my own state. I bought my membership last year. Back in March, I submitted the information to be a program participant. A month or so ago, they started announcing participants, and in that round it was the big names who were attending. I didn't really expect to be on that list. Yesterday they announced another round of several hundred. I wasn't on that list, and there were people on that list who have fewer credits than I have -- short stories in small press anthologies vs. my list of major publisher novels (and worldwide publication). Not to mention that I've been on programming at two other WorldCons. I didn't make the cut in Reno, but that was on me because I submitted the info too late (though I suspect if I'd been a bigger name they'd have squeezed me in). This time, though, there's no reason why I wouldn't have been on this list, and I even checked my spam folder to make sure I hadn't missed an invitation. I had some qualms about this convention because of some behind-the-scenes stuff that's been going on, but being snubbed like this is making me re-think attending this convention. It's hard to justify the expense to go to just hang out without being a participant. I don't have a lot of diva moments because I think I have a pretty realistic sense of where I fit in the grand scheme of things and possibly even underrate myself (there are things I probably deserve that I don't expect). So if I feel shortchanged or snubbed, it probably really does mean something's wrong. They're saying the list will keep being updated, but not being included yet still feels like a snub because it means I'm on the much lower tier, and that affects my attitude toward the entire convention, which wasn't entirely positive to begin with (I love WorldCon, but there are issues with this particular convention).
But while I was having my "don't they know who I am?" hissy fit, I remembered Seth Godin's blog post for the day, which started: "You're actually not teaching them a lesson, because the people who most need to learn a lesson haven't, and won't. What you're actually doing is diverting yourself from your path as well as ruining your day in a quixotic quest for fairness, fairness you're unlikely to find." I guess that's the annoying thing. Because this is an ad hoc committee that will likely never put on another convention, there's no "they'll regret it when I'm famous" satisfaction. There aren't even a lot of people who might change their minds about attending this convention based on whether or not I'll be there, so me backing out isn't really going to hurt them. I just have to decide whether or not it's worth it to me. Is it worth the time, expense and stress to go to some panels and parties, hang out with friends and maybe do some networking while under the slight stigma of apparently not being considered important enough to be part of the programming, or are there better things I could do for my career with the time and money? Unless the book that's about to be submitted sells quickly and gets put on a faster track to publication, my next release won't be for a couple of years, so there's minimal real promotional opportunity. I'm not even sure how big this convention will be because of the issues going on with it. Maybe it's better to watch safely from Dallas and put that money toward going to the convention in London next year.
I will, however, be at FenCon in October, which has a WorldCon-caliber guest list and which is much more organized. And, yes, I've already been confirmed on programming.
In the meantime, I have more books to write.
I got all that done in spite of having a minor diva hissy fit that distracted me for a while. WorldCon is being held in San Antonio this year, in my own state. I bought my membership last year. Back in March, I submitted the information to be a program participant. A month or so ago, they started announcing participants, and in that round it was the big names who were attending. I didn't really expect to be on that list. Yesterday they announced another round of several hundred. I wasn't on that list, and there were people on that list who have fewer credits than I have -- short stories in small press anthologies vs. my list of major publisher novels (and worldwide publication). Not to mention that I've been on programming at two other WorldCons. I didn't make the cut in Reno, but that was on me because I submitted the info too late (though I suspect if I'd been a bigger name they'd have squeezed me in). This time, though, there's no reason why I wouldn't have been on this list, and I even checked my spam folder to make sure I hadn't missed an invitation. I had some qualms about this convention because of some behind-the-scenes stuff that's been going on, but being snubbed like this is making me re-think attending this convention. It's hard to justify the expense to go to just hang out without being a participant. I don't have a lot of diva moments because I think I have a pretty realistic sense of where I fit in the grand scheme of things and possibly even underrate myself (there are things I probably deserve that I don't expect). So if I feel shortchanged or snubbed, it probably really does mean something's wrong. They're saying the list will keep being updated, but not being included yet still feels like a snub because it means I'm on the much lower tier, and that affects my attitude toward the entire convention, which wasn't entirely positive to begin with (I love WorldCon, but there are issues with this particular convention).
But while I was having my "don't they know who I am?" hissy fit, I remembered Seth Godin's blog post for the day, which started: "You're actually not teaching them a lesson, because the people who most need to learn a lesson haven't, and won't. What you're actually doing is diverting yourself from your path as well as ruining your day in a quixotic quest for fairness, fairness you're unlikely to find." I guess that's the annoying thing. Because this is an ad hoc committee that will likely never put on another convention, there's no "they'll regret it when I'm famous" satisfaction. There aren't even a lot of people who might change their minds about attending this convention based on whether or not I'll be there, so me backing out isn't really going to hurt them. I just have to decide whether or not it's worth it to me. Is it worth the time, expense and stress to go to some panels and parties, hang out with friends and maybe do some networking while under the slight stigma of apparently not being considered important enough to be part of the programming, or are there better things I could do for my career with the time and money? Unless the book that's about to be submitted sells quickly and gets put on a faster track to publication, my next release won't be for a couple of years, so there's minimal real promotional opportunity. I'm not even sure how big this convention will be because of the issues going on with it. Maybe it's better to watch safely from Dallas and put that money toward going to the convention in London next year.
I will, however, be at FenCon in October, which has a WorldCon-caliber guest list and which is much more organized. And, yes, I've already been confirmed on programming.
In the meantime, I have more books to write.
May 29, 2013
Going on Summer Hours
I'm taking this week off from the every-other-Wednesday writing post because I'm still catching up from the holiday weekend and have no idea what to write about. I'll resume next week. I was toying with the idea of taking the summer off, but it really doesn't take that much more time to do than a regular blog post. I just need ideas, so if you've got a writing-related question you want me to address, this is your chance to ask it.
I have decided to go on "summer hours" starting next week, but it's the opposite of what that means for the publishing industry. A lot of publishers go on summer hours, in which they work a half day on Fridays (and a lot of people telecommute for Friday morning, so generally no one is in the office on Fridays). I'm planning to use this summer to really buckle down and work more. In Texas, it's not really a good time to be outdoors (though this morning has been delightfully cool) and there's much less on TV to watch. I also have fewer of my extracurricular activities going on. This is a good opportunity to sit inside and write like crazy. Then I can go on "fall hours" when things get busy in the fall and the weather is more conducive to being out and about.
Though I think some of those summer hours will be devoted to work around the house, organizing projects, etc. We'll see how this goes. I'm great at making grand plans, not so great at sticking to them.
I had a good holiday weekend but am now kind of tired. We had a Memorial Day service at church Sunday evening, and I got to sightread in concert because the local community chorale was also singing and needed some extra sopranos. I knew the song, so I agreed to do it, and then it turned out that what they needed was help on the descant, which I didn't know. I had to just hope that my knack for being able to figure things out just from reading the music and without hearing it worked. It was also very high. It's been a very long time since I've sung a high C in performance. I'm not entirely sure I actually did it this time because of that "okay, I think this is the note I'm singing" guessing from sightreading, but I at least sang something in the chord.
Now I'm a little self-conscious about the way I must look when I sing because two people commented to me at the fellowship after the service about how they like watching me sing. I guess I do have fun and show it, though there's the occasional death glare when someone around me gets something wrong. I think one lady was also referring to the morning service. We were doing a jazzy piece that included the Samson and Delilah story, and the sopranos were singing the Delilah part. I kind of got into character to sing it with the right amount of sass. But now I'll be thinking of this and worried that I'm showing more than I should as part of a choir. This is why it's good that I wasn't visible for the Mozart Requiem, so people didn't see me gleefully singing "Dies Irae" like it was great fun (even if it is).
Since I don't have to do a children's choir lesson plan and don't have to go to choir until adult choir rehearsal, I have a whole afternoon to focus on writing and/or housework.
I have decided to go on "summer hours" starting next week, but it's the opposite of what that means for the publishing industry. A lot of publishers go on summer hours, in which they work a half day on Fridays (and a lot of people telecommute for Friday morning, so generally no one is in the office on Fridays). I'm planning to use this summer to really buckle down and work more. In Texas, it's not really a good time to be outdoors (though this morning has been delightfully cool) and there's much less on TV to watch. I also have fewer of my extracurricular activities going on. This is a good opportunity to sit inside and write like crazy. Then I can go on "fall hours" when things get busy in the fall and the weather is more conducive to being out and about.
Though I think some of those summer hours will be devoted to work around the house, organizing projects, etc. We'll see how this goes. I'm great at making grand plans, not so great at sticking to them.
I had a good holiday weekend but am now kind of tired. We had a Memorial Day service at church Sunday evening, and I got to sightread in concert because the local community chorale was also singing and needed some extra sopranos. I knew the song, so I agreed to do it, and then it turned out that what they needed was help on the descant, which I didn't know. I had to just hope that my knack for being able to figure things out just from reading the music and without hearing it worked. It was also very high. It's been a very long time since I've sung a high C in performance. I'm not entirely sure I actually did it this time because of that "okay, I think this is the note I'm singing" guessing from sightreading, but I at least sang something in the chord.
Now I'm a little self-conscious about the way I must look when I sing because two people commented to me at the fellowship after the service about how they like watching me sing. I guess I do have fun and show it, though there's the occasional death glare when someone around me gets something wrong. I think one lady was also referring to the morning service. We were doing a jazzy piece that included the Samson and Delilah story, and the sopranos were singing the Delilah part. I kind of got into character to sing it with the right amount of sass. But now I'll be thinking of this and worried that I'm showing more than I should as part of a choir. This is why it's good that I wasn't visible for the Mozart Requiem, so people didn't see me gleefully singing "Dies Irae" like it was great fun (even if it is).
Since I don't have to do a children's choir lesson plan and don't have to go to choir until adult choir rehearsal, I have a whole afternoon to focus on writing and/or housework.
May 24, 2013
Sidetracked (Again)
My moment of amusement for the day: In Target, a small child (toddler or preschool) being pushed in a shopping cart was singing "Master of the House" from Les Miserables at the top of his lungs, only with what he thought the words were instead of what the words really were. His mom shushed him before he really got going, so I didn't get to hear the full reinterpretation, but it was adorable. Then I provided some amusement to the guy running the self-check stands at Kroger when I attempted to reason with the computer. Out loud. He said, "I was just waiting to see who won."
I managed to get completely sidetracked yesterday, so I wrote nothing. I'd like to claim that my subconscious is really busy, but I'm not sure that's the case. I may be coming down with a mild cold or an allergy attack because I've been really tired and sneezing my head off, so that may be another excuse. Maybe something will happen today, or else the possible storms may give me more atmosphere for reading Wuthering Heights. I really am re-reading it, and I'm finding that I like it more this time around. It helps that this edition has Charlotte Bronte's intro, which clarifies that this isn't really supposed to be a romance. It's a character study. I think my initial reaction was mostly "Wait, this is supposed to be romantic?" but as a character study of sociopaths and the effect they have on the people around them it's rather brilliant.
My Sunday will be busy, and I'll be traveling Monday and Tuesday, so I plan to relax this evening and Saturday. Maybe I'll finally do that "retreat" for the next book. There may be a trip to the farmer's market tomorrow morning because I have to bake some cobblers for a church event and need to find some fruit.
I managed to get completely sidetracked yesterday, so I wrote nothing. I'd like to claim that my subconscious is really busy, but I'm not sure that's the case. I may be coming down with a mild cold or an allergy attack because I've been really tired and sneezing my head off, so that may be another excuse. Maybe something will happen today, or else the possible storms may give me more atmosphere for reading Wuthering Heights. I really am re-reading it, and I'm finding that I like it more this time around. It helps that this edition has Charlotte Bronte's intro, which clarifies that this isn't really supposed to be a romance. It's a character study. I think my initial reaction was mostly "Wait, this is supposed to be romantic?" but as a character study of sociopaths and the effect they have on the people around them it's rather brilliant.
My Sunday will be busy, and I'll be traveling Monday and Tuesday, so I plan to relax this evening and Saturday. Maybe I'll finally do that "retreat" for the next book. There may be a trip to the farmer's market tomorrow morning because I have to bake some cobblers for a church event and need to find some fruit.
May 23, 2013
Legal Fan Fiction?
I woke this morning rather abruptly with the sense that I needed to get out of bed and get dressed. And it's a good thing because I was just finishing breakfast when the contractor called to say he was on his way to look at my water heater cabinet. Normally, I'd have still been in my nightgown. My hair was pretty much the way I slept on it (which isn't that different from the way it normally looks -- I've gone to church without doing anything to my hair after sleeping on it, which is one of the reasons I normally wear it in a bun and one of the benefits of curly hair) and I had on no makeup, but I was wearing clothes. It turns out the issue goes beyond the door. There are also bad leaks. It will require removing the water heater, redoing the interior, fixing the leaks and redoing the exterior. On the up side, I don't have to pay for it (not directly, but I've contributed in HOA dues), and they said if I want to buy a new water heater, they'll install it for free while they're at it. This one is about 11 years old, so it may be a good idea.
While he was here, he looked at some other things for me, and I learned a lot about how my house is built. I also learned that my carpet is original to the house. I thought it wasn't wearing well for 16 or so year-old carpet, but it's apparently wearing incredibly well for 30-year-old carpet. Some things I thought would be major repairs (that I'd be responsible for) turned out to be relatively minor. The hard part would be moving stuff around to do the repairs. I also learned what houses like mine are currently selling for, which is a lot more than I paid. Not that I'm in the market to sell at the moment. I'm not in a position to buy something else, and this house suits me for the time being.
The big publishing news yesterday was that Amazon would start publishing fan fiction and sharing the revenue between the author and the license holder. The Internet exploded, but I don't think most people actually read the announcement (or possibly they didn't understand what they read). They've actually struck a deal with the license holder of the properties, so it's really more of a licensed media tie-in than true "fan fiction." It's also very limited, to just a few properties (like Vampire Diaries and Gossip Girl) that are owned by a book packager, not individual authors. So it's not like you can now post your Doctor Who/Sherlock crossover fanfic on Amazon and legally make money off it. But you can submit your Vampire Diaries story that falls within certain guidelines and earn some money from it after signing over all rights to it. The contract terms are pretty stiff and not something to be entered into lightly (really, you're giving up everything in the story -- they can even use your original characters from your story in future works in that universe without paying you anything beyond the royalties you earn from your story). Then again, there's not much else legal you can do with fan fiction. It remains to be seen if this is the wave of the future and if more companies will sign on. I think it would be iffy for an individual author to get on board with this because of the danger of the fanfic authors claiming you stole their ideas if you ever write anything even remotely similar to something in a story that you've received some payment for. That's probably why the contract terms of this are so stiff and require signing over all rights, but that doesn't stop someone from filing a lawsuit, and it's expensive even to hire a lawyer to point out that the person signed a contract giving up all rights to everything in the story. A media conglomerate has lawyers on staff to handle that sort of thing, but it could be financially devastating to an individual author at my level. All my money goes into maintaining my house. I'd just have to send someone with a hammer and saw after anyone suing me.
I'm still forging ahead with this story. I suspect it will end up at least novelette or novella length because I'm at about 3,000 words and just entering the second act, so it will likely be at least 10,000 words. I thought this would be quick and easy, but I'm only managing about 1,000 words a day. Maybe today I won't be quite as easily sidetracked because I don't have a lot of other stuff to deal with.
While he was here, he looked at some other things for me, and I learned a lot about how my house is built. I also learned that my carpet is original to the house. I thought it wasn't wearing well for 16 or so year-old carpet, but it's apparently wearing incredibly well for 30-year-old carpet. Some things I thought would be major repairs (that I'd be responsible for) turned out to be relatively minor. The hard part would be moving stuff around to do the repairs. I also learned what houses like mine are currently selling for, which is a lot more than I paid. Not that I'm in the market to sell at the moment. I'm not in a position to buy something else, and this house suits me for the time being.
The big publishing news yesterday was that Amazon would start publishing fan fiction and sharing the revenue between the author and the license holder. The Internet exploded, but I don't think most people actually read the announcement (or possibly they didn't understand what they read). They've actually struck a deal with the license holder of the properties, so it's really more of a licensed media tie-in than true "fan fiction." It's also very limited, to just a few properties (like Vampire Diaries and Gossip Girl) that are owned by a book packager, not individual authors. So it's not like you can now post your Doctor Who/Sherlock crossover fanfic on Amazon and legally make money off it. But you can submit your Vampire Diaries story that falls within certain guidelines and earn some money from it after signing over all rights to it. The contract terms are pretty stiff and not something to be entered into lightly (really, you're giving up everything in the story -- they can even use your original characters from your story in future works in that universe without paying you anything beyond the royalties you earn from your story). Then again, there's not much else legal you can do with fan fiction. It remains to be seen if this is the wave of the future and if more companies will sign on. I think it would be iffy for an individual author to get on board with this because of the danger of the fanfic authors claiming you stole their ideas if you ever write anything even remotely similar to something in a story that you've received some payment for. That's probably why the contract terms of this are so stiff and require signing over all rights, but that doesn't stop someone from filing a lawsuit, and it's expensive even to hire a lawyer to point out that the person signed a contract giving up all rights to everything in the story. A media conglomerate has lawyers on staff to handle that sort of thing, but it could be financially devastating to an individual author at my level. All my money goes into maintaining my house. I'd just have to send someone with a hammer and saw after anyone suing me.
I'm still forging ahead with this story. I suspect it will end up at least novelette or novella length because I'm at about 3,000 words and just entering the second act, so it will likely be at least 10,000 words. I thought this would be quick and easy, but I'm only managing about 1,000 words a day. Maybe today I won't be quite as easily sidetracked because I don't have a lot of other stuff to deal with.
