Tate Hallaway's Blog, page 34
January 17, 2011
New Generation of Fan
A couple of nights ago, and I don't quite remember how it started, I ended up telling Mason about an incredibly charming character that my friend and fellow writer Eleanor Arnason created for her Lydia Duluth short story series named "Three Hoots." Alas, the story "Three Hoots" appears in hasn't been published yet, but Mason has been at the coffee shop with Eleanor when she was struggling with the plot of that exact story. Anyway, it's been marvelous to hear Mason running around the house shouting, "Fierce! Fierce! Many bodies in the shadows, ready to defend!" (which is a paraphrase, but close to some of the dialogue in the story.) At any rate, I knew I had some Lydia stories arounds, so he read all of "Tomb of the Fathers" and pronounced it, "nearly as cool as Harry Potter." So, I spend a few minutes this morning searching my house of the rest of the series. I found Asimov issues that contained "Cloud Man," "Lifeline" and "Moby Quilt," but couldn't locate my copy of "Stellar Harvest" to save my soul! Hopefully, Eleanor will have an extra copy she can loan us. Mason is quite determined to read the Lydia ouevre. I'm sure he could read the other stories out of order, but he's kind of stuck on reading "Stellar Harvest" first. I couldn't find a non-pirated version of "Stellar Harvest" on-line. Am I an idiot? If you know where one is, please send me the link.
Can I say, too, how amazing it is that I can share stories with Mason that, if he has some question about, he can just ask the author? It's super-cool amazing. I don't know if he realizes *just* how super-cool amazing that is. I mean, he's growing up in a house where his ima is a published writer, so I'm sure he kind of expects that anyone can be.
But it is one of those things I always remind my students. If someone as dorky as me can get published, there's a pretty good chance you can too. Not that it's an easy road, mind. Just that it's possible.
January 14, 2011
No, Don't Pull Your Punches, Really...
I don't really feel like writing today, especially since I read one of the WORST (as in harshest) reviews of ALMOST TO DIE FOR this morning on Red House Books. Check it out. I'm not saying it's unfair, it's just kind of brutal. It's never good, for instance, when the one thing the reviewer liked about the book is its cover. The one thing, in point of fact, I have zero control over.
Yowch!
I suppose it's better than saying they only liked the font... but wow. I think, too, one of the reasons that this review hit home for me is that, most of the time, I *know* when I've written a book that isn't my best. It's not something you're ever allowed to say out loud, and, you always kind of hope that no one else will notice. In fact, with ALMOST I've been quite taken aback by the fact that Publisher's Weekly liked this book enough to give it a starred review, when I personally believe EVERYTHING the reviewer at Red House had to say (before she said it.) I worked hard on the book, but I thought it was fairly deeply flawed from the beginning. And, you know, try as you might, not every book you write is going to be your best.
The Emperor, in case you wondered, has no clothes.
But, reading that first thing this morning kind of sucked the life out of my already fairly weak desire to work today. Alas.
Now don't feel compelled to tell me how awesome I am or run out and post "you're so wrong" over at Red House Books. Well, okay, you can tell me I'm awesome, but you know... don't harrass the reviewer. She's just expressing her honest opinion, which I actually respect. I post critical reviews of books by colleagues all the time. I think it's part of the deal I signed up for when I took on this writing gig.
It's all part of the life of a published writer. You get to take the good times (like finding out yesterday that ALMOST will be published in Chinese!) and you take the kicks in the teeth, too. I don't get mad when people honestly express their opinion of my work. It's sometimes demoralizing to read, but what can you do? If I could write a book that pleased everybody all of the time I'd be a best seller.
January 13, 2011
If I were a Boy...
If I were a boy, I would totally date Sir Ian McKellen. Plus, it would be weirdly sexy to call him "sir" in bed. The reason I say this, however, is not just because I'm perverse, but also because I watched "Neverwas" last night via Netflix. What a surprisingly good film. It was not the "thriller" it was advertised to be, but Shawn and I decided it was kind of like a psychological drama, rather than a psychological thriller. It was also kind of a fantasy, but not.
I can see what it wasn't exactly a blockbuster.
But, I really ended up liking it tremendously. The story is about a Christopher Robin/Christopher Tolkien type character, whose father wrote a massively famous epic fantasy/children's story in which, like the first example, he was the star of. The father, unlike either of my two examples, suffers from manic depression and ultimately kills himself. The son blames himself and has distanced himself from his father's work (the "Neverwas" of the title) as well as devotes himself to the study of psychology. He ends up back at his hometown on the 25th anniversary of his father's suicide and worms his way into a job at the very mental health facility that had unsuccessfully treated his dad. The mystery/fantasy part comes in when it starts to seem as if there is a very REAL possibility that Neverwas was a real place... there even seems to be photographic evidence suggesting this... and that Ian McKellen's character is its king.
The movie has a lot of very moving, subtle moments. Shawn didn't trust the ending to satisfy. In fact, she was so convinced it was going to be utterly tragic that she got up and got ready for bed ten minutes from the end telling me to let her know if it was okay and she'd only watch it if it was.
The ending was way more than okay. It was borderline "feel good." It satisfied me deeply, if I were to be perfectly honest. It wasn't quite dramatic enough to be a tearjerker, but I think that might be another reason it wasn't a huge blockbuster. Subtle isn't usually what people go to the movies for.
January 11, 2011
Promoting a Friend
One of the best part of being in a writers' group, IMHO, is the free coffee. I should explain that one of the things that my writers' group does to assuage jealousy/envy is that we strongly encourage our members to buy a round of coffee/drinks at our coffee shop when there are successes, like publishing stories or books or whatever.
Doing that helps makes it much easier for me to feel really PROUD of my colleagues. To that end, I'd like to point you to my friend and fellow writer, Douglas Hulick's new debut, AMONG THIEVES, which is currently available for pre-order on Amazon.com, and which he talks about in this lovely interview at Fantasy Faction: Interview with Douglas Hulick.
If you like BFFWM (Big, Fat, Fantasy with Maps), or even if you don't, but love a good character study and a rip-roaring adventure go out and buy this book. No, buy six.
January 4, 2011
To Twitter or Not To Twitter...*
On Twitter, Victoria Strauss linked to an article from the LA Times that implies that social media doesn't work for retailers.
I think that may be entirely true for people selling cans of beans. Personally, I can't imagine following a promotional link from a twitter from JC Penny to buy socks or whatever at half price, though I could see how some people might. But I think that to say this is an argument for not bothering with social media as an author misunderstands how readers interact with authors (as opposed to booksellers) these days.
I have to admit to finding an author not only through Facebook, but also through silly videos of cats on YouTube. I actually went out and bought books by these two people after my interaction with them (or their cats) on-line.
And I don't think I'm the only one.
I think that an author, these days, is expected to be available for the consumer almost like a product him or herself. You like my blog? Try my book! This may seem crass, but we -- at least in the science fiction community -- should be used to the concept of this. It's really not unlike the idea of going to a convention and being on panels so people can get an idea of who you are. It's the same, only a lot more international (and a lot harder to stand out.)
Also, frankly, I'm glad retailers haven't figured out how to dominate Facebook and Twitter entirely yet. I'd like to keep my social media fairly social, and leave the ads elsewhere.
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* reposted from Wyrdsmiths.
January 3, 2011
Happy Birthday Tolkien*
We decided on a whim over this vacation, on Friday, to start watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy on DVD. Mason wasn't interested at first, but got caught up when Aragorn fights the ring wraiths and Frodo gets stabbed. When Boromir dies we all wept like dogs, and Mason was totally hooked. After that, it kind of became a thing. We met upstairs in the afternoon and sat down to watch the next one. Which went along fine until Sunday night, when --right at the point when Frodo is stung by the giant spider queen, Shelob -- the DVD flaked. We washed it. We tapped the DVD player. But the disc would spin no more.
So began my quest.
I drove out to Target just up the street on University, but they didn't have it. I called Borders on University, but they only had "Two Towers" in Blueray. Moving northward, I tried Barnes & Noble at Har Mar, called HPB in Roseville, went to Best Buy, called the Borders in Roseville Mall... NO ONE had it.
The guy at Barnes & Noble thought that there might be a copy in Maplewood, but he wasn't sure. I was losing hope. Then, I remembered who I was. I am a proud geek, member of the nerd herd. I got the phone and started calling my friends. Someone that I know must be a fan of the LotRs enough to have a copy! Or at least, maybe they would know someone who knew someone. I mean, come on, this is fandom, I figured I was probably only seven degrees of seperation from Peter Jackson himself.
When I called around, my friend and fellow writer, Naomi Kritzer happened to be talking to friends who had a copy. I could meet them at their place and they would "but lend it to me." (Remember the scene in Fellowship with Boromir and Frodo? "If you would but lend it [the ring] to me...")
Hooray!
So we were able to watch the end last night. Now Mason is thinking we might do a "Harry Potter" with the Lord of the Rings -- which means read each book out loud and at the end of each book, watch the movie again. I'm totally up for that. I'd forgotten how much I loved the movies and how well I remember the first book. Speaking of fandom, it is my utter shame that I have, in point of fact, never read beyond Fellowship. What can I say? I was thirteen and dyslexic... still, I've always been embarrassed by this and usually deny it, if pressed.
Kind of cool, too, that today is J. R. R. Tolkien's birthday. It's almost like we planned this (only we didn't.)
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Excerpted from my LJ.
December 29, 2010
December 28, 2010
Year in Review and Year to Look Forward to
First of all, I want to say that I am old enough that typing "2011" just looks *WEIRD*. It's like some kind of star date.
But I thought I'd do that thing people do this time of year. I'm going to review all the things I did this year, and then look ahead at projects up-coming for next.
2010 was actually surprisingly busy for me as a writer. Let me see if I can put all of my various publications down in order:
May saw the end of Garnet Lacey with the publication of the final book in that series, HONEYMOON OF THE DEAD. As I posted here and talked about in interviews elsewhere, the ending of this series was kind of a shock to me. I'd hoped to be writing about Garnet, Sebastian and the gang until they were all DEAD & RETIRED. I also posted full proposals to the three books I'd offered after HONEYMOON, which you can read if you'd like.
But, with every ending is a new beginning. This year also saw the beginning of the vampire princess of St. Paul series, with the August publication of ALMOST TO DIE FOR. This book received a starred review from Publisher's Weekly, which was actually one of my life goals (I'd never been reviewd by PW at all, much less, actually getting the coveted starred review!) I also wrote and revised the next book in this series, ALMOST FINAL CURTAIN, which will be coming out in May of 2011.
My alter-ego was busy too.
You can still purchase this book at Book View Cafe. It's an e-book.
I also sold a science fiction/fantasy story to the Northern Light's anthology, which celebrates 20 Minnesota writers. The story I sold is called "Bright, Bright City Lights" and was my very strange attempt to deal with my feelings about the untimely death of Minnesota state senator Paul Wellstone... erm, with magic and binary spells.
You can find this book at Genre Mall.
And, I also had a story appear in SHE NAILED A STAKE THROUGH HIS HEAD: TALES OF BIBLICAL HORROR. This was another weird one called "Jawbone of an Ass," a retelling of Samson and his first wife (*not* Delilah) reimagined in 1980s Derry.
This book is available on Amazon, either as in Kindle format or as a trade paper.
Whoa. That's a lot for one year.
Next year promises to be slightly less intense. In March, I'll have two books out as my alter ego, both from Mad Norwegian Press:
The biggest one being RESSURECTION CODE, which represent my alter-ego's return to the award winning world of the AngeLINK series. If you'd like, you can pre-order it via Amazon.
I'll also have an article about vampires and Joss Whedon in WHEDONISTAS: A CELEBRATION OF THE WORLDS OF JOSS WHEDON BY THE WOMEN WHO LOVE THEM. That non-fiction anthology comes out in March 2011 also.
Back to Tate, 2011, will also see the publication of ALMOST FINAL CURTAIN, which it seems you can also pre-order now, though the book isn't out until May 2011. I've also heard a rumor that TALL, DARK & DEAD may come out in mass-market paperback in December. The third Ana book may also be scheduled for late 2011.
So I guess I should get working on that, eh?
December 26, 2010
Happy Day After
I hope you all got the loot you were hoping for!
December 25, 2010
Merry Christmas!
