Kelly McCullough's Blog, page 13

The Joys of Collaboration (and Other Stories)

Wow, you guys, the book version of School for Wayward Demons is 90,000 words. It's currently off with Sean Murphy, sort-of-kind-of-former Wyrdsmith (retired? emeritus?), who is checking it for "book-y-ness." (Like, truthiness, except for books, I think.) But, here's the thing, 90,000 words? If you buy this book when it comes out, you're FOR SURE getting a third more story. All the stuff we have queued up for the web site only clocked in at 65,000. I can tell you that the big changes are to Kitty. She gets a much stronger back story. Erin, too, actually, gets to be more proactive in her own rescue. Gabe and Theo had started out awfully strong, so they really just got deepened and some of their issues got bought out and explored.

I will say, though, that I had some serious excitement about this on Saturday morning. Rachel, my co-author, sent back the version that she'd spent a whole week working on... and I discovered that I sent her an incomplete draft! So she'd done all this work on stuff that wasn't even complete!!

I was ready to lay on the floor and start sobbing, but Rachel whipped out the handy-dandy "merge documents" function and was actually able to quickly go through everything and give me a combo/nothing lost version in A DAY.

She is so awesome.

Seriously, I would still be in the gross sobbing stage, if it wasn't for her.

This is only especially traumatizing because I'd hoped to give it a final pass here and have it back and ready to go out to copy-editors and such by the 30th, which, if you check your calendars, is only a matter of days!!

So, now my big project is to do something similar with the UnJust Cause stuff I've posted on Wattpad as Tate. And THEN, then my friends, I hope to start writing some... science fiction.

Shhh!

I told Wyrdsmiths on Thursday that my plan was to finally start my samurai steampunk story, and our newest member, Theo, has already sent her minions after me to get working on it! Seriously, I was on gmail and an IM popped up, our mutual friend Teri, who was all, "Are you writing that thing?"

So I guess I have to write the thing!

Update on Various Projects

Today, (more like this evening at this point) I hope to get a new Tate bit posted on Wattpad, but I had to work today from 9 to 1 at Maplewood library. It was really busy thanks to the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday. Normally, Maplewood is my favorite library because the people are so awesome and they have the best ever graphic novel collection in Ramsey county, I swear.

In other writing related news, Rachel and I are also trying to see if we can build more of an audience for our School for Wayward Demons project by x-posting that at Wattpad too. So, if you find it easier to read an comment on things over there, you should feel free to check it out: http://www.wattpad.com/96121914-song-of-secrets-book-1-of-the-school-for-wayward (Also, if you want to, you can follow us on Tumblr, too: http://waywardschoolofdemons.tumblr.com).

If you're still following along at the entertheunseen.com website, the newest chapter is up "Bad Magic Puppies."

Please Note Change to Sidebar.....

(drum roll please)
We Have a New Member!!!

Currently, Theo is probably best known for her Coloring Books, which include Unicorns are Jerks, Dinosaurs with Jobs, Fat Ladies in Spaaaace, and the most recent, MerWorld Problems.  But, as Mal from Firefly might say, "We aim to change that," and, with any luck at all, she will soon become equally well known for her other writing.
Please check out her work and join me in saying welcome to the newest member of Wyrdsmiths!!
  

No More Mourning Rugs

Today, I feel fairly accomplished (at least so far), despite not doing that much writing. I did work on a number of writing-related things, however.

First of all, I wrote the acknowledgements and a new bio for a short story in the AngeLINK universe that Cheryl Morgan at Wizard's Tower Press will be publishing. It's a story that was first published in, of all places, South Africa, in 2003, in a magazine called Simulacrum: The Magazine of Speculative Transformation. The short story is going to get cover art for the first time EVER, which I bought from the lovely and talented Theo Lorenz, who happens to be the author of the successful coloring book Unicorns Are Jerks (and others.)





What do you think? I know it doesn't match Bruce Jensen's amazing cover art for the AngeLINK universe or even the cover of Resurrection Code, but... I don't know, maybe short stories are friendlier? (Also, I didn't ask Bruce, because I'm sure I can't afford him.)

At any rate, I'm pretty excited to have this story come out and have a wider distribution. Wizard's Tower Press has been very awesome to me. I will let you know when this will be available for public consumption. I believe that it's first going to be part of a giveaway for the Accessing the Future Anthology's successful fundraiser. But, I suspect once they have the contributors have their copies, Wizard's Tower will make it available to the public. And, yes, of course, as soon as I have those details, I'll post them here (and probably everywhere. :-)

And, since we're talking writing, there are two new chapters up at the Enter The Unseen/School for Wayward Demons website, "The Cavalry Arrives with Donuts" and "Destroying the Dead." So, if you've continued along with the story, there's just so much extra goodness for you today.
Speaking of the School for Wayward Demons, I got a very, very rough draft of the novel version off Naomi for beta-reading and probably some triage/first aid. I feel like the novel has good bones but, because of the way Rachel and I wrote it, it's a kind of Franken-story, stitched together with very obvious stitches! :-) But, Naomi is a very smart reader and has always in the past found ways to make my books make sense, so I trust her to have good advice to smooth out the rough edges.

And, to be fair, this is all work I'm doing before I'm even giving it back to my co-author, so it will get many subsequent passes. I'm absolutely sure that by the time we're done, it will be one seriously amazing book.

Fingers crossed, 2015 will start with at least two publications! So yay! Go me!

My other resolution has to do with the blog post I made below in which I discussed some of my publishing "feels." As I told one of the commenters, one of my problems is that I actually had a really good career with Penguin and so when the rug got yanked out from me, I was so stunned that I just sat there on the floor, not getting up, shouting to all passers-by "HEY, THERE WAS RUG HERE! WHAT HAPPENED TO MY RUG? WHY DO YOU STILL HAVE A RUG? I WANT MY RUG BACK!"

It's time to get up off the floor. The rug is gone, my friends, and it's time to move on.

So, I'm going to finish up UnJust Cause, self-publish that, and then, with any luck at all, start on some new novel project.

I'm kind of excited to see what it will be.

Still Hope for 2015

A few things to tell you all about.  A new chapter of School for Wayward Demons is out.  "The Cavalry Arrives with Donuts."

For the two of you who wrote to me (one on my Tate blog and one on Twitter) worried that I would give up writing after yesterday's post, despair not.  Clearly, I'm still writing.  I've got both this School for Wayward Demons project and the Unjust Cause novel that I'm working on over at Wattpad.  
I do despair of ever traditionally publishing again, but, then again, a lot of writers end up doing what I'm trying to do--self-publish and work with smaller presses.
On the other hand, I'm still teaching writers how to write and if you happen to live close to me (in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area,) you should check out the classes I have available for you at the Loft.  The Fanfic class still has openings, but that's meant to start in a matter of weeks and as of right now there aren't nearly enough people signed-up for that one to be viable.  However, there's still hope of Mars Needs Writing: An Introduction to Science Fiction.  
Speaking of Mars, it was cold in my hometown of St. Paul, MN today than it is on some part of the surface of Mars.  Think about that.
Also Mars related, I'm going to be one of the guests of honor at MarsCON 2015 a local science fiction/fantasy themed convention.  

So This Happened (And it's Giving Me Feels)

My colleagues Sherwood Smith and Rachel Manija Brown are self-publishing the sequel to their book STRANGER. Sherwood has a long, detailed post about it "HOSTAGE Preview: Why We Chose to Self-Publish Book 2."

This... makes me sad.

First let me say, I think this was absolutely the right move on the part of Sherwood and Rachel. They're also handing the announcement of the decision a lot more gracefully than I ever would have been able to. I only wish, in fact, that I was as SAVVY as these two women. I wish that I had had a finished book waiting in the wings when Penguin gave me the boot so that I could have made an equally smooth transition to self-publishing. STRANGER fans will not wonder what the heck happened and where the next book is, unlike so many Tate Hallaway fans. So, seriously, good for them for being willing and able to make a move like this. I think an author's priority should always be to taking care of themselves like this, because GODS KNOW THE PUBLISHERS WON'T.

And that, right there, is what makes me sad.

Today I was hoping to get back to publishing my Tate installments over at WattPad. I didn't manage it, partly because I spent the morning finishing up some first draft work on my own collaborative self-publishing venture SCHOOL FOR WAYWARD DEMONS. But, I've had a lot of trouble focusing on the PRECINCT 13 sequel because I get so damned depressed about it. I know that this WattPad stuff is far too little, too late. It's been way too long since a Tate book has come out. Readers have gone to greener, more prolific pastures long, long ago.

The news of Rachel and Sherwood also triggers my depression... and bitterness, really, a feeling I've vowed to try to leave behind in 2014.

Thing is, while I'm glad that they've been able to turn this frown upside down, it really, really sucks (IMHO) they they have to, at all. Go read Sherwood's post because I can NOT believe the crap that professionally published (I should really use air quotes for that) writers are expected to deal with. Who sits on a book that long? What can possibly be the reason? My publisher managed a very quick turn around. I never waited more than a year from my delivery date to publication, so it's possible. Especially since Rachel and Sherwood SHARE MY PUBLISHER (though not my previous editors.)

When I read stories like this I half-wonder if traditional publishers are trying to drive writers away, trying to destroy business. Because so often there's also ZERO publicity for a new book (or continuing books in a series.) So it's almost as if they're doing everything in their power to ASSURE FAILURE.

I say this out of bitterness, surely. But, I had a very successful career with Penguin all things considered. I always had amazing editors. I lucked out very, very often with fantastic covers ("good packaging" as they call it), and, for the most part, I had no reason for complaints. Sure, I did a lot of my own publicity, particularly for my science fiction series, but, you know, I knew that was part of the deal so it never felt raw or unexpected.

Yet news like this makes me so... sad.

I think it's partly because I wish, for once, publishers would have to bear the brunt of their mistakes or ineptitude or whatever is happening over there in traditional publishing. But, they won't. They'll just pick up some other new talent, underpay them, abuse them, and throw them away when there's any kind of problem. None of this will ever lead to any kind of change on THEIR part. The publishing world seems to be changing AROUND traditional publishers, but they seemed happy to just keep on keepin' on (but not in a GOOD way.)

It bums me out.

I'm having feels.

Genre Round-Up 2014

I was asked by SF Signals to join another "Mind Meld" to answer the question: "What was your favorite movies, books, video games, television, podcasts and other media that came out in 2014?"

It will be a surprise to no one that anime and manga dominated my list: MIND MELD: Favorite Genre Works 2014

I've linked here to my MangaKast reviews of a lot of the manga that I've been reading. The ones that made the list that were new this year (by which I mean, of course, new in official English translation) were: Hitogatana (which actually isn't yet collected in English, but I liked it enough to want to include it), Gangsta, Deadman Wonderland, and What Did You Eat Yesterday?

Anime for this year included two brand-new ones: Barakamon and Gekken-Shojo, Nozaki-Kun.





Neither are particularly science fictional, but they're both DEEPLY charming in their own ways. Barakamon was my all-time favorite this year and it's about absolutely nothing at all. That's not fair, of course. There's a very strong story and even wacky hi jinx but the pace and feel of it is extremely peaceful, which is what I enjoyed about it. If you want to know more about the plot, check out the article. The short of it is that there's a calligraphy master who needs to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city (and mistakes he's made) to find his inner peace/inner art. Stuff happens, it's f*cking adorable an you should be watching it. (Who had this? Hulu+ maybe? I don't think Crunchyroll had it, but I might be wrong.)

The other new, new anime I featured in my round-up was Gekken-Shojo, Nozaki-kun (Girl's Monthly, Nozaki-kun) which is wonderfully silly and really, really hard not to love. Interestingly, this one is also about an artist, though this time our title hero, Nozaki, is a mangaka (writer/artist of manga) who happens to write and draw Girl's/shojo stories. The American analog would be discovering that a high school jock was secretly writing Harlequin Romances (of the super-thin serial kind). You can see the humor potential instantly, of course, but what I loved about this anime is that it could have ended up in the land of gender stereotypes, but instead worked hard to constantly flip expectations, types, etc. while also providing fairly real people that you could actually believe in and root for. (This one Crunchyroll has, for sure.)






The other anime I mentioned in the article were Yowapeda (or Yowamushi Pedal) and Free!, both of which were technically in their second seasons this year (both of which I watched on a pirate site, but I'm sure by now they're up on Crunchyroll). But the second season of Yowapeda/Yowamushi Pedal only finished up last week, I think, so it's very current. I love them both for very different reasons. Free! (second and final season: "Eternal Summer") was bittersweet. I'm not sure I've seen enough sports manga to know how typical it is to follow Third Year students through their final year of participation and spend much of the anime dealing with the whole idea of "Well, that was high school, so now what are you going to do??" That made the show... almost heartbreaking in places. And, of course, the other fun thing about Free! this year was that it was clear that the anime writers were very aware how GAY everyone thought this team was and there was a lot of teasing fan service to the point that I was constantly on Skype asking my friend, "Are they even pretending any more???" which was actually quite fun.

Yowapeda/Yowamushi Pedal's second season is called "Grande Road' or something similar and it's the second and third days of the Inter-High race. The entire season has been them racing, so that means there have been a lot of upsets, a lot of 'leave no man behind' moments, and general high tension. The first season has the distinction of actually making me cry. This season less so, though we've gotten to know a lot more of the characters from the other teams. It's still one of my favorites because Oonada is possibly the hugest dork in the history of dorks. This year my favorite scene involved Oonada following one of the rival team's captains basically because he thinks he's spotted a fellow otaku and even though this guy is a complete jerk to him Oonada just wants to talk anime.

Brother, I hear ya.

So, yeah, I mention a few other things in my review, but most of those I also discussed here (Guardians of the Galaxy movie and Ms. Marvel the Marvel comic book.)

What about you? Read, watch, listen to anything really good this year??

Demon School Updates

I neglected to point you to last week's School for Wayward Demon's chapter: "Ferret 'Porting to the Rescue" and today's "Pop Goes the Weasel"

Also, I'm taking a brief hiatus from Unjust Cause for the holidays.  I'm working on getting the Demon School project into something resembling a book so that Rachel and I can have it on hand for my Guest of Honor appearance at MarsCON (March 6 - 8, 2015).

Murder Your Darlings: Perish Your Dreams

This is one of the harder pieces I've ever had to write. Please read it all the way through. Please understand that this is something I've arrived at after years of thought, consideration, struggle, depression, and anger. It takes a long time to murder the dreams of an idealist, but the coroner has finally arrived and declared this life-goal DOA.

I'm no longer going to call myself a writer.
Writers write, see? And I don't. I'm not. I haven't been. 
Let me back up for a moment. In order to see the trajectory of a thing, you need to see the launch point, follow the arc, watch the apex and the slow curve back to earth. When I started this path, I was in fifth grade. I wrote a poem, and it got a lot of attention from the parents and kids in my school. I thought that was cool, so I wrote more poems, and the occasional short story. When I got into high school, I met other people who were creatively inclined in a literary vein, and we became friends. One of my very best friends came from that meeting, and from a shared sophomore-year English class with a teacher who gave thoughtful, careful, instructive criticism and praise, and encouraged us to keep writing. I fell in love with writing. I was going to be a writer.
I wrote. I wrote a couple hundred poems. I'm still pleased with some of them, though I know they'll never change the world or win any prizes. I got to college, and I kept writing, short stories and essays. I filled four or five journals with thoughts and dreams and hopes and aspirations, sorrows and ruminations on my future. I developed friends who enjoyed SF role-playing games, and out of that experience I drew the stories for my first novel. The summer after my sophomore year, I wrote that novel, 110,000 words in 89 days. I sent it out, first to Tor, then to other houses. I was going to be a novelist.
Unsurprisingly, it didn't sell. I've got the rejection letters. All of them, generic and implacable as they are. Later, I was told by some writers to throw them away, and by others to save them, to use them as motivation. "There are 1,001 ways to write a novel," a close friend of mine, another writer, often says, when confronted with a 'which way is the RIGHT way to write' argument. "Do what works for you and keeps you writing."
I kept writing. I wrote my second novel during my junior and senior years of college. It also didn't sell, but it was a fundamentally stronger work, and I learned a lot from the process. By now, I knew the old saw that Stephen King had only been published on his fifth novel, and John Grisham on his sixth. I had written two. I was on my way to being a novelist. 
Life threw me some pitfalls. I had a disastrous first marriage beginning shortly after college and ending a couple of years later. We hated each other.  That's not a word I use lightly, but in our case, it applied. It damaged me very greatly, in a way that took me many years to recover from. I think, honestly, it broke something in me that I'll never get back, some of that sensawunda. I still speculated, but they were dark, slimy speculations, and they came from an ugly, cankered place.
Still, as I found myself in the corporate world, in relationships where I had fiscal responsibilities, and where the taxation of a day's work was on my mind and my emotions, I didn't write as often. And when I didn't write as often, I also didn't write as well. I stopped learning, I stopped stretching. I started to feel desperate about my dream.
I was EXCEEDINGLY lucky to meet one of the most amazing groups of people I have ever been fortunate enough to know in the Wyrdsmiths, my writing and critique group here in the Twin Cities. I would not have healed as well as I have were it not for the consistent presence and interaction of a group of friends that took me and my writing seriously, even though I have never published a thing--not for lack of trying. I reinvested. I wrote short stories, on their recommendation, as a way to hone my craft and begin the climb in the publishing world. I joined in 2004. I got my first acceptance letter in 2007, for a short story anthology. We celebrated. I was a writer.
The anthology collapsed. The house that was publishing it was bought as part of a larger package deal by another publisher, and that line was closed. The editor took it elsewhere, sold it, then had too many authors pull out of the project; eventually, in 2011, the second sale of the anthology collapsed, too.
I recently made my second first sale of a short story, to another anthology. Now this project looks like there is turbulence ahead. I hope it goes through--I want one of my little broken-winged darlings to fly, if only to have put something, anything, out into the world of Story. I love Story. I believe in it. Story is necessary for the existence of culture, perhaps for the continuance of our species.
I started writing in fifth grade, in 1987--twenty-seven years ago. I have submitted and submitted, been rejected over and over and over, and I have spent what emotional capital I have. It's gone. I still believe in my stories. I may still write, from time to time. Hell, I may even submit things, if I think a piece is good enough. But the dream has had all the helium let out of it, and I cannot fly on blind hope alone. Dragging the carcass of this airship across the ground and hopping will never be flight.
It is important that I share this with my writing peers and friends, because I want you all to succeed, and tell amazing stories. I want to read them and revel in them. I want to talk with you about the worlds you imagine and the ideas you want to share. But I also recognize that the shape of my life is not one where I will ever have the chunks of time that--for me--allow me to get into the headspace of a story and work, consistently, where I can regularly produce material to critique and submit, nevermind publish or make a living from. 
And, as a community, we don't talk about the people who walk away from writing. We have this story, this archetype, that people who leave the writing world couldn't hack it, that they are quitters, that we are somehow better than they are. Without knowing the shape of their lives, or the antecedents, we judge. So much for our vaunted skill at getting inside another's head, at creating sympathetic characters; don't let the fallen drag you down. Whatever their reasons, they are no longer playing the game, and therefore they no longer matter. I've watched it happen dozens of times in the past decade. But given where I'm standing, and the choice I'm making, I think it's important to give my reasons why. I'm not made of cardboard, and this wasn't a whim.
Going forward, you will see less of me on Facebook. That has been a drain on my energy and my focus, and that needs to change. There are perfectly good ways of getting in touch with each other that aren't cluttered with a million clamoring voices telling you what to think, what you should do with your time and your energy, who is wrong and who is right, what the latest scandal or fail or goat-with-a-human-like-voice video is. Will I miss the socialization? Yes. Some people I only know online, and I like their voices, and their jokes, and their insights. But the world is full of people, right here, all around me, if I take the time away from the computer screen to go out and live. I'm not gone entirely, but I will be there far less often. I have already cancelled my Twitter account. I will be moving to emeritus status with the Wyrdsmiths, like others who have moved away or shifted in their writing habits or needs.
Like many of you, there is no viable way for me to live without being creative. I am always making things. Some years ago, I took up photography, first as a hobby, then semi-professionally, when several of my photographs began to sell. This past year, I launched a photography business, SMM Photography, and I fully intend to pour myself into that. I want to make good art, to quote Neil Gaiman's now famous graduation speech. Photography seems to be a venue where I am having a degree of success. I already have ideas of ways I can merge my love of SF with my passion for photography, and I would love the opportunity to collaborate, if any of you have mixed media projects you want to explore, or if you need author photos taken. 
Most importantly, in growing to know myself and become the healthiest me I can, I've found that there is only so long I can go without some success, some sense that what I am doing is of value, before I run out of energy. And since I'm the one who has to live my life, I'm going to try and be happy.
Thanks for reading, and good luck.

Running with Wolves and Other News

It's Tuesday, so I've got some more Alex on tap for ya. In this installment, now that Valentine is gone, Alex is feeling like a total failure as an adult. As if on cue, Mac shows up to call her out to play with the wolves... "A Wolf at the Door."

Today it shaping up to be a writing day. Several weeks ago, on my way to Wyrdsmiths, the ice was slick and I slid very hard into the curb at a stop sign. Ever since then, to go straight, I've had to cock my steering wheel at a very sharp angle. Even though the car has been drivable, I decided I should take it in. My usual shop, Dave's in Roseville, has been super-busy with everyone getting ready to travel for the holidays, so I finally made an appointment for today. I dropped off the car at 7:30 am and walked across the street to Dunn Bros. Coffee. This is the coffee shop that's attached to the Roseville Library, so it's got good wifi and a lot of comfy spaces to sit. Once the library opens at 10 am, I'll probably relocate and hang out there for the day--or however long it takes them.

Rachel Gold and I have decided to try to get our School for Wayward Demons into shape as an e-book/book, hopefully in time to sell it at MarsCON this year, since I'll be guest of honoring there. Part of what I plan to do with the time I have to today is finish editing the stuff we have written in the first part and then start re-jiggering it to be less serial and more book-like.

Wish me luck. I suspect that's going to be a big project.

But, it'd be nice to have something out for MarsCON and something out as Tate Hallaway again.

Anyway, if any local folks feel like dropping by the Roseville Library for a chat, I'd totally be up for company.