Liz Williams's Blog, page 4

Creative writing mentoring - repost

As some of you will know, I have been offering manuscript appraisal services for some time now, and a couple of years ago was joined by historical novelist Maria McCann.

I am keeping prices constant for 2014 (see contact details below).

Maria McCann's first novel, As Meat Loves Salt, was published to considerable acclaim in 2001 and was an Economist Book of the Year. Described as a 'fat juicy masterpiece', it has never gone out of print. The Wilding (2010) was longlisted for the Orange Prize and was one of eight novels selected for the Richard and Judy Book Club out of a hundred and sixty titles submitted by publishers. She has also published shorter pieces in anthologies and magazines.

Maria has an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Glamorgan. For nearly a decade (until December 2010) she ran the Creative Writing courses at Strode College in Somerset, helping writers of all levels of ability to nurture their creative processes and to craft their work. Alongside historical novelists Emma Darwin, Rose Melikan and R N Morris, Maria appears at literary festivals as part of a panel discussing aspects of writing and researching historical fiction; from January 2011 she will be one of three writers (along with poet Daljit Nagra and playwright Nell Leyshon) selected to mentor upcoming talent as part of the Jerwood/Arvon Mentoring Scheme.

I will be dealing with SF, Fantasy and Horror, or any related sub-genres. Maria will be dealing with literary fiction and historical fiction. We will be offering:

- manuscript proposal appraisal (first three chapters and synopsis)
- full manuscript appraisal (novels and short fiction)
- submission package assessment

We can also offer tailor-made packages, depending on your needs and requirements. If you want an assessment of your initial three chapters, to see whether a manuscript is worth continuing, we can look at this. If you have a whole novel, and would like it taken up to the point where you are ready to submit to an agent, we can structure a timetable for you and take you through a chapter-by-chapter assessment. This process is likely to take about a year (unless you’re a very quick writer!) and we will suggest that you rewrite if we think it’s necessary.

You can start at any point. We are both very thorough – this is aimed at the serious writer who is aiming at a professional career. We start with an appraisal, and if we think your expectations are unrealistic and that you would not benefit at this point from a full appraisal program, we will tell you. However, we are solution-oriented and our criticism will always be constructive!

The aim of this process is to prepare work for publication. Obviously, we cannot guarantee that, although I would note that my last student has just had her first novel published as part of a 3 book-deal. I can put you in touch with former students if you wish. For other genres, including detective fiction, post-colonial fiction or other, let me know if you would like details and I will pass you on to a wider mentoring agency.

If you would like to discuss this with either Maria or myself, please email me at mevennen(at)hotmail(dot)com for further information, including a full breakdown of costs.

Current writing

Since September, I've been working on a series of short stories, mostly old ideas or half-finished fiction that I've put on the back burner, but decided after Milford to finish. This has been successful, and I am now on number eight. They're a mix of SF and Fantasy, the latter mainly drawn from UK folklore, but a couple of them verge on horror.

I have not contributed much to the recent SFWA issue, having been disgusted with 90% of the reaction on both sides and the apparent inability of people who profess to be genre writers to put themselves into other people's shoes (again, on both sides). I think anything I have to say about gender is in the novels, which is where it should be - I think one's work is more important than one's blog - and that may be all I have to say about it (I also find that I am getting increasingly tired of the sound of my own voice on the non-fictional page). I've been looking back over my early reading, which consisted of a combination of male and female writers, and when I was in my early teens, whether the protagonist was male or female was largely irrelevant to me. What mattered more were the worldbuilding and the prose (hence Vance, LeGuin, Bradbury, Cooper, to name but a few). I have always been more interested in the alien than the human (invoking the alien leads us, in any case, to comprehend ourselves), and in landscape. That set of preoccupations has remained with me, along with a deepening interest in folklore and nature writing: I am increasingly reading people like Robert MacFarlane, Roger Deakin and Sara Maitland for pleasure, whereas SFF is confined to work, although there are exceptions and like most of us, I go through phases.

We are not flooded...

...but everywhere else is. South of here, large parts of the Somerset Levels are underwater, people have been evacuated from the toxic slurry of sewage, rainwater and decomposing animal that now fills their homes, and all political parties are bickering and doing very little. The only people helping have been locals, the Army (who obviously have to be mobilised first) and independent organisations such as the Khalsa Trust, who are a Sikh aid charity based in the Thames Valley and who normally only work abroad, but said that since no one else seemed to be doing anything, they would.

For anyone who thinks that it's just rich farmers who are affected, a friend's ex, who has had mental health and other problems and was living on a boat, was moved to a section of river due to flooding and then fell out of touch with his support network: his case workers seem not to have done anything pro-active to contact him, but his friends mobilised and got the police out to him. They found him very ill, and he was hospitalised that day, but died a few hours later.

Glastonbury itself is not flooded, but it is obviously impacting on trade. We're taking things as day-by-day as possible, and we have not yet been unable to get into town: the flood measures along the local small river, which is tidally affected, are working up to a point.

Meanwhile it is currently raining and sunny, and this morning was overcast with snow.

In other news, my father is still in hospital but with serious noises being made about his release. He's been getting on well with the physio.

Kittens have now been with us for almost a year. Basically, you should see Sid as Snape (black, grumpy, secret heart of gold), Henry as Draco (sucks up to Sid), and the kittens as first years. Ruby and Wesley are clearly in Gryffindor but I suspect the sorting hat would place Jane Austenesque, observational Rosie in Ravenclaw. Henry actually reminds me of one of those boys in the 20-24 age range who is super-fastidious and spends ages locked in the bathroom gelling his hair, then goes out and steals someone's car.

Creative writing mentoring - repost

As some of you will know, I have been offering manuscript appraisal services for some time now, and a couple of years ago was joined by historical novelist Maria McCann.

I am keeping prices constant for 2014 (see contact details below).

Maria McCann's first novel, As Meat Loves Salt, was published to considerable acclaim in 2001 and was an Economist Book of the Year. Described as a 'fat juicy masterpiece', it has never gone out of print. The Wilding (2010) was longlisted for the Orange Prize and was one of eight novels selected for the Richard and Judy Book Club out of a hundred and sixty titles submitted by publishers. She has also published shorter pieces in anthologies and magazines.

Maria has an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Glamorgan. For nearly a decade (until December 2010) she ran the Creative Writing courses at Strode College in Somerset, helping writers of all levels of ability to nurture their creative processes and to craft their work. Alongside historical novelists Emma Darwin, Rose Melikan and R N Morris, Maria appears at literary festivals as part of a panel discussing aspects of writing and researching historical fiction; from January 2011 she will be one of three writers (along with poet Daljit Nagra and playwright Nell Leyshon) selected to mentor upcoming talent as part of the Jerwood/Arvon Mentoring Scheme.

I will be dealing with SF, Fantasy and Horror, or any related sub-genres. Maria will be dealing with literary fiction and historical fiction. We will be offering:

- manuscript proposal appraisal (first three chapters and synopsis)
- full manuscript appraisal (novels and short fiction)
- submission package assessment

We can also offer tailor-made packages, depending on your needs and requirements. If you want an assessment of your initial three chapters, to see whether a manuscript is worth continuing, we can look at this. If you have a whole novel, and would like it taken up to the point where you are ready to submit to an agent, we can structure a timetable for you and take you through a chapter-by-chapter assessment. This process is likely to take about a year (unless you’re a very quick writer!) and we will suggest that you rewrite if we think it’s necessary.

You can start at any point. We are both very thorough – this is aimed at the serious writer who is aiming at a professional career. We start with an appraisal, and if we think your expectations are unrealistic and that you would not benefit at this point from a full appraisal program, we will tell you. However, we are solution-oriented and our criticism will always be constructive!

The aim of this process is to prepare work for publication. Obviously, we cannot guarantee that, although I would note that my last student has just had her first novel published as part of a 3 book-deal. I can put you in touch with former students if you wish. For other genres, including detective fiction, post-colonial fiction or other, let me know if you would like details and I will pass you on to a wider mentoring agency.

If you would like to discuss this with either Maria or myself, please email me at mevennen(at)hotmail(dot)com for further information, including a full breakdown of costs.

Chen books in paperback

I have the following in paperback:

SNAKE AGENT - 1 copy

DEMON AND THE CITY - 2 copies

PRECIOUS DRAGON - 2 copies

THE SHADOW PAVILION - 2 copies

IRON KHAN - 2 copies

They are £10 each; p&p £4.50 to the US (if you buy more than 1, I will have to sort out the postage rates), £2.50 UK (ditto).

If you're interested, email me on: mevennen(at)hotmail.com and we'll sort it out. First come, first served! - but you can now order them from elsewhere, and I'll be making an announcement about that in a day or so.

A very long time since...

...I actually posted, but there you go. In the last two weeks, I have been in London, at a panel on Medieval Science Fiction (no, we did not know what its remit was either) at King's College, with Edward James and Andy Sawyer, Bristol for Bristolcon, and World Fantasy. Hectic, in other words. London was brief but a lot of fun: I visited Borough Market, and a very nice Middle Eastern restaurant. At Bristolcon, I met most of the people I know (and was given a Thing), and a WFC, where I was barconning it, I saw them again, and a whole lot of other people, as well. Great to see Brighton once more, and spend time with friends, despite a level of stormy weather which had us nearly horizontal along the sea front. I am pleased to be back and not going anywhere, however!

Kittens

As T remarked, 'this latest batch is working well.' When Henry arrived, Sid (eldest cat) treated him rather as Snape might treat a young and impudent Malfoy Jnr. There were yells, sarcasm and bashing. Henry stole Sid's food and stalked him with occasional ambushes. Sid stepped back, affronted, and let his food be stolen in injured silence.

Then kittens came, and the zeitgeist now is rather like the current intake of Hogwarts' first years. Henry is now a teenager, is clearly a prefect, and gets on well with Sid; they sniff noses and are outraged by the appalling behaviour of the new bugs. Little Wesley is clearly a Weasley: he steals Sid and Henry's food and they both step back, affronted, and let their food be stolen in injured silence.

NEW SHORT STORY SUBSCRIPTION - 2013 (repost)

As announced a few weeks ago, I am floating a new series of stories for the next year. The first set of these has just gone out to subscribers so if you have not heard from me today, and you have signed up, let me know!

THE MIX: I will be writing 8 stories set in the different worlds of my novels (Winterstrike, Mondhile, Empire of Bones, The Moon in Daylight and Nine Layers of Sky).

CHEN: I will be announcing the final (OK, the sixth) Chen novel shortly, but have not yet finished the back stories - I have done four of these, but there are more characters, so.....

Thank you all for your support!





Short Stories
The Mix £25.00 GBP
Chen £10.00 GBP
All of them £35.00 GBP

Conventions and harassment.

For the record, I've never been harassed at a convention, here or in the US. Many people have. Some of the stories coming out over the last 10 days have been truly appalling.

A significant amount of the harassment seems to have been coming from established writers.

This is what you need to know, as a reader, a fan, a young or not-young attendee: you do not and should not have to put up with this abuse from someone who essentially holds very little power. It is not written into publishing contracts that an author has droit de seigneur. I have never observed the clause that says - "We'll pay 20% of the advance on delivery and by the way, you are hereby allowed by the universal cosmos to grope women's breasts."

Fans sometimes think that authors have power over what happens to other people. In fact, they don't. They really don't. They might give the impression that they do, that they can blight your career, etc etc - but this is not so. If anyone - editor, writer, publisher - essentially assaults you, something can be done about it. It is a very small pond and pretty much everyone on a pro level knows one another. They know about abusers and this is why the current offender has come to light.

If I, as a pro writer, get to hear of someone abusing a female member of a convention which I'm at, the subsequent ruction will be heard from here to kingdom fucking come. It doesn't matter if the abuser is a friend of mine. I am used to banning people in my social circle from the shop - about 5 so far - and even kicking people out from the pub, which I obviously don't own, because they've done something unacceptable and other people's safety comes first. If they then decide never to speak to me again: so what? Good riddance. They have no power over me and I am not afraid of anyone.

Conventions should be, and are, developing anti-harassment policies. That's great. I will say here and now that if I am at a convention, and you have a problem, then tell me about it and I will go to the con com and make a fuss. I hope my fellow female pros would do similar - and I'm sure some of the men will, too. In the unlikely event that it's a malicious claim - which can happen - we'll evaluate the circumstances. These people may be editors, but we're not in a cult here: their power is severely limited and they don't have license to turn your nice weekend into a nightmare.

Writing, being a writer, and having written

There have been a number of very thoughtful blog posts, from Judith Tarr and others, across the net lately on the changing scene in publishing. I've been pretty much in the middle of this, from having been pro-published for some years, critically acclaimed, award nominated, but low on the sales side. Eventually this has meant that I've been squeezed out of the big publishers, have gone to the smaller press with mixed results, and finally gone indie. The latter was more or less forced onto me by economic circumstances and it's been interesting. On balance, I would prefer to continue to be pro published: it's much easier and less of a scramble, but I do enjoy the indie work (for those of you waiting for the new subscription stories, by the way, the first 3 should be with you next week).

I've never anticipated an easy ride with writing, because I watched my mother go through all this with her novels in the 1970s. When Robert Hale stopped producing her work, she continued to write privately and at the age of 85, still does. It is much more likely that you will stop being published than the alternative. I have always kept up a day job, usually several and in the year that I did go entirely freelance, I found that I did not necessarily write more. People quite often say things like 'I don't know how you get so much stuff done' and the simple reply is that I don't want to lose the house. 'Getting so much done' has pretty much taken me to the limits of my energy and health and this year, that's had to give.

I'm still writing, obviously. I've done a succession of short fiction this year, for anthologies and for the subscription, have embarked on a series of articles for the Guardian, have been mentoring other people's manuscripts and teaching creative writing classes. I'm likely to be co-authoring a non-fiction work, and possibly writing a second, across 2014. 'Diary 2' came out in 2013 and we need to plan a launch party this summer. I have a novel in very slow progress, but have not worked on this at all this year.

So in terms of other people's thoughts on all this, particularly other women writers, I'm in broad agreement. I would very much like to see the younger female writers get to grips with it, and am working on some ideas as to how I can facilitate their work - there are a couple of options here, which I will be discussing offline with people in due course. The only thing that I would take slight issue with on a personal basis is the use of the term 'shattered': for me, not being published is not shattering. Multiple bereavements and other people's cancer is shattering; ending a career isn't, at least not for me. It's tedious, but not more than that: I am more than a writer.

On a related note, both Judith and Kari have commented on anti-women posts elsewhere in the blogosphere. I'm not going to add much to this, as I had a go at Pox Day on his own site back in the winter, which whiled away a couple of evenings. Libertarians throwing their toys out of the pram are always mildly entertaining for a bit. He obliquely threatened to set fire to me, but I'm not taking that seriously. Beale's comments on both race and gender are foul, but par for the course: he uses attacks on currently published writers to boost his own profile, as it generates publicity which he wouldn't otherwise have. Regardless of his political views - and I am being very objective here - I view it as something of a shame that he can't seem to carry the writing style of his blog into his fiction: he's frequently quite funny and caustic in the blog, but his fictional prose is the most godawful putrid Mills-and-Boon-esque slop, all tossing mahogany locks and flashing emerald eyes. He does seem vaguely aware that prose isn't his strong point, although I'm not sure what is.