Kameron Hurley's Blog, page 24

On Being Too Smart and Assertive in the Workplace

I’ve been blessed with some pretty great bosses in my time, folks who recognized that having somebody smart on the team who got things done made them look good, and meant they did less work because, you know, I was doing it.

But, being a woman in the workplace, it was inevitable that some boss, somewhere, was going to go after me for being smart and assertive.

In truth, being smart and assertive has gotten me into a few pickles, it’s true. I once told the President of a company I worked for exa...

I Never Saved Anything for the Swim Back

In the film Gattaca, a young man born with what its dystopian society considered “undesirable” genetic disadvantages manages to fleece the system and rise up through the ranks of its elite astronaut corps. When confronted by his brother about how he’d done it, the young man likens it to the swimming races they had as kids. The young man always won, though his brother was fitter, and stronger. How did he do it? How did he make his way through the ranks of the astronaut corps? The same way he w...

Award Season Boogie: What’s Up for 2014 Noms

It seems it’s that time of year again, when we remind folks what exactly we wrote last year, what we thought rocked from other people last year, and what’s eligible for what-what, etc.

And before I get pummeled with tomatoes for saying, “Hey, here’s some stuff I enjoyed this year!”I’ll note the suggestions below are just what I read and liked this year, or suggestions of things that may have been overlooked as folks go scrambling for the latest Hot New Thing. YMMV. It’s a free country! Vote fo...

2014: Some (Honest) Publishing Numbers, and (Almost) Throwing in the Towel

About thistime last year, GOD’S WAR, which had been out in the UK for a solid seven months, had sold just 300 copies there, and every single major publishing house had passed on THE MIRROR EMPIRE, the epic fantasy novel I thought was the most marketable thing I’d ever written.

I was, to be blunt, pretty fucking devastated.

A lot of people think that once you publish a book, that’s it – you go on publishing books. The publishing world opens its arms to you and welcomes every book like a precious...

Blog Stats: What Being Newly-Kinda-SF-Internet-Only-Famous Looks Like

You know whenyou’re sitting there listening to a song, and it hits the rock-out chorus part, and suddenly you feel alive, you feel invincible, like anything is possible?

That’s what reading a great essay should be like. A story thatmoves you to action.

And that’s all blog posts are, really, the good ones: essays that inspire the hell out of you.

I get a lot of snark in convention spaces about how blogs don’t sell books, mostly from authors, and then I get publishers in the other ear saying, “You...

When You Let Go

Three weeks ago, our ten year old Great Pyrenees, Nana, fell down the stairs.

She had been slowing down of late, but I figured that was expected, as ten years is the lower end of the life expectancy range for these big dogs. But when we heard a scrabbling on the stairs, a thump, and that terrible hurt dog whining, we realized her decline was, perhaps, happening faster than we were anticipating.

My spouse brought her to the vet, which I initially thought unnecessary, since she favored the leg, b...

ConFusion 2015: Panel Schedule

I’ll be at CONFusion next month (eeeee) from January 16th-19th. That’s… in 2015! 10 days before my book will be due! OH LORDY.

I plan to be at the bar that Thursday night, so I do hope to see the early birds there as well to kick off the drinking right, as you can see my first panel isn’t until 5pm on Friday.

And if you miss that Justin-Landon-interviews-me-and-Joe-Abercrombieevent, well… YOU ARE A FOOL WHY ELSE WOULD YOU COME TO THIS CONVENTION BUT FOR THIS ONE EVENT???

So, here we go.

Here’s w...

Newsflash: All Quiet Until 2015

So, now that the last announcement of the year is out, I’m off to go finish this fucking book that’s due in SIX WEEKS EEEEEEEEEEso you can read EMPIRE ASCENDANT on time in October of 2015, so I can get started on THE STARS ARE LEGION which is DUE in October 2015 (yes, do the math there with writing/promo and life looks grim in October), so you can read that in 2016…

And on and on for the next four years. It’s fabulous to be a writer under contract, but it’s going to be a rough road. As many fo...

Writing, Stress, and the Tunnel Vision of Middle Age

I was cleaning out some old files and papers this weekend, packing things up to get archived over at Northern Illinois University, and as one does when one goes through old photos and letters and emails, I reminisced about times past, about what could have been, about other lives led.

I have been working with my head down, blinders on, since 2011, when GOD’S WAR came out and, a few months later, I increased my salary 30% by switching to a new job. The job paid more, but was more stressful, wit...

Why I Finish All My Shit

I’vestarteda lot more books and stories than I’ve finished, and this is a problem.

Why? Surely, when a concept or story isn’t working, you should stop while you’re ahead, right?

Well….

Chuck Wendig had a post up today about all the reasons you should finish your work, but really, I can distill it down to one reason, and one reason only.

The thing folks don’t realize is that learning how to write a piece of work requires you to actively practice how to write the whole thing.

Writing five hundred gr...