Kelly McCullough's Blog, page 19

July 8, 2014

Con Squee or If You Ever Wondered if Pros Have Squee

At CONvergence, I went to listen to one of the many Urban Fantasy panels, mostly becauseAdam Stemple was on it.

Adam is in Wyrdsmiths and has a tendency--even worse than mine--to say out loud everything that goes through his head. This makes him a phenomenal panelist, because: Stop, Adam, no, oh God, too late! is always a thing that happens. At any rate, I'm listening to the panel and it's all interesting. I learned about a new fantasist from Detroit that I'm going to have to look up, erm... here he is, Emmy Jackson. Anyway, this is not the squee. 
At the end of the panel I decided to go up and harass Adam (because that's fun) and Emma Bull starts talking to me like she knows me. 
Now, I've been on a ton of panels with Emma in the past, but, c'mon. I don't expect the mother of urban fantasy to remember me, the local nobody, from one day to the next. Then, I realize she's saying something to me about *my* writing. I start listening and I hear things like, "Such an amazing, quirky voice. You had me laughing." And, I'm thinking, "Huh? Are you joking?" and because I'm actually quite a bit like Adam, I actually say OUT LOUD, "Are you kidding me?" She's of course taken aback, because here she's been so complimentary to a fellow author. We stare at each other for a second. She finally blinks and says, "Oh, of course, because of your humor writing, you must always get people who are wondering how to read your work." I think I nodded stupidly at this point, because how do you back-up and say, "No, Emma, I just couldn't believe you were actually talking about my writing...." I don't remember the rest of our conversation because I was thinking, "Okay, no, so.... this was real. She really likes my writing. What the hell? What she read? When did I get on Emma Bull's radar? Is this really happening?" and then I think we said goodbye while my mind was screaming, "Tell her how much she influenced you! Tell her War for the Oaks was the book you read over and over and how you swore ONE DAY to be as awesome (if not more awesome) as the Scribblies!" but, you know, it was all over before I knew it had started.

OMG. SQUEE.
Also, wow, the circle of life.  The other thing I could have said as we parted ways was, "When I left you, I was but the student, now I am the master."
Or just SQUEE....
Because: OMG. SQUEE.
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Published on July 08, 2014 13:46

July 4, 2014

Cast-Iron Ego

Lyda Morehouse and I were talking about confidence a few days back. Most writers experience a lot of negative feedback: rejections, bad reviews, no reviews, getting dropped by a publisher... The list goes on and on. As a result, it really helps to believe in yourself, to have self-confidence, to have a cast-iron ego.

This is one of these statements which is important without being profound. Yes, of course, people need self-confidence.

There has to be a limit to self-esteem. If you are arrogant, you will piss people off, and you may make career mistakes. In addition, excessive self-esteem may blunt your critical sense. You can't see what about your work needs improving.

The question is, how to achieve balance: to have enough self-confidence to keep going, without becoming a maniac. I don't have an answer. I would say I don't have enough self-confidence, though somewhere in the back of my mind -- in a small, secret room -- I do think I am a wonderful writer. But the rest of my mind contains a lot of self-doubt.

This is pretty common for writers. It's a line of work that encourages mood swings, from the highs of a good writing day or a good review to the lows of rejection and writing that isn't going well.

I was helped by having a father who was an art historian. To a great extent, the important European artists of the later 19th and early 20th century -- the Impressionists and Post Impressionists, the Cubists and so on -- were badly reviewed and did not sell well. My father said once, "Given the history of the last hundred years, no critic should take himself seriously." The critics were almost entirely wrong. When I have trouble selling, I can remind myself that van Gogh sold one painting in his life.

To me, it seems obvious that commercial success is not evidence of merit. So what is evidence? One has to trust oneself.
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Published on July 04, 2014 06:39

July 1, 2014

Tate Tuesday

Huh, I should have started posting this on a Wednesday so it could be "WattPad Wednesday" or something more alliterative.  But, regardless, the newest section is up:

http://www.wattpad.com/57418191-unjust-cause-part-14-unnatural-unleashed

In "Unnatural Unleashed," Alex has to face the consequences unleashing her magic on Jack and his magpie familiar, Sarah Jane...

As usual, when you go to the site (or return here afterward), I would love any commentary you have, even if it's critical.  I noted earlier that the pacing for a serial-type novel is very different than writing a traditional novel.  I took WattPad at their word when I signed up and have been tailoring these installments in very short, digestible chunks aimed at people who are using their smart/iPhones to read bits of things while commuting to work or wherever.  I might be making these sections too short for other readers.

I will admit, as I have before, that I'm using this weekly deadline to make word count on a project that I've been struggling with.  So, admittedly, much of what appears on-line is actually very first draft-y, very by the seat of my pants, oh-crap-is-it-Sunday-already--which is also why I would love suggestions for improvement.  The work posted there is being collected and massaged into an eventual e-book, so anything people have to say will actually help me write a better book (even if I can't go back and change what's on-line.)
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Published on July 01, 2014 12:03

June 30, 2014

An Interesting Side-Effect of Serial Writing

A while ago, I handed the Wyrdsmiths the first twenty or so pages of my work-in-progress, the sequel to Precinct 13 that I've been posting serially to WattPad.  Since my ultimate plan is to have a publishable e-book at the end of this, I really wanted my writers' group's professional feedback, particularly since I wouldn't have the benefit of an editorial letter to direct my revisions.
Last Thursday, we sat down to critique it.
I wasn't exactly surprised by what they had to say about it.  Much of what they said was, in fact, encouragingly positive, but almost every single person who was there had one strong, universal piece of advice: slow down.  
They're right, of course.  The pacing of a novel is not the same as the pacing for a serialized work. 
With each one of my short posts for WattPad I'm striving to have a kind of cliffhanger at the end.  I want my readers to be anxious to read the next one.  Given that these are very short (often no more than 1,500 words), they're intended as a kind of teasing quickie.  But, you can see how that might read as jarring and odd in a novel format (though I hadn't really until the Wyrdsmiths pointed it out to me.)
So today, in preparation of writing the next section, I've been re-reading my handout and finding places to slow the action and fill in more of the details.  And, of course, for Eleanor Arnason, I'm also looking for the places I can really highlight the local flavor of Pierre, South Dakota (also excellent advice, since one of the many reasons people read is to be transported to another place.  You can't give that to a reader, if you don't put in the sights, smells and sounds!  We actually had a discussion about how Pierre smells....)
At any rate, this was an interesting side-effect of serial writing that I hadn't considered.  Pacing.
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Published on June 30, 2014 10:50

June 29, 2014

Implements

Lyda and Doug posted about writing tools. I have a thing about fancy pens, usually ballpoint pens, though I also have rollerballs and fountain pens.

And I have a thing for Levenger, a catalog company that sells paper, notebooks, pens, briefcases, computer cases... They originally billed themselves as "tools for readers." A friend of mine calls them sex toys for writers.

The last thing I got was a Circa notebook. Circa is a notebook system which allows you to pull pages out and put pages in. So you can have the fancy notebook and not worry about ruining pages.

This one has a bright red leather cover. I got extra pages for it: 300 of them. And I pulled a pen I never use out of the pen display case and tucked it in the notebook. It's a Conklin -- a nice pen, but not equal to a Waterman. I like the feel of it. It's a big pen, easy to hold. And I like the surface: a bold pink, green and black pattern. It doeesn't exactly match the notebook cover, but close enough. All I have to do now is write.
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Published on June 29, 2014 19:27

June 28, 2014

New Seastead short story sale

I returned from vacation in the North Woods to find a check and a contract from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction for "Jubilee," my newest seastead story. This will be story #5 in this series. I'm going to talk a little bit about this series of short stories, and the process of writing them. The stories are near-future SF, set on a seastead. I like to say that seasteading is real-ish. It's not actually happening yet (unless you count very small examples like Sealand) but there are people who are actually trying to do it. The idea is that a group could construct its own island, settle it, and have a new piece of land on which they could set up their preferred form of government. Most of the people currently into the idea are libertarians who want to run their micronation according to libertarian ideals. (Building your own island is tricky, but it's easier than setting up shop on the moon, right?) Anyway. The premise of the stories is that a libertarian seastead got founded about 50 years earlier; there's actually a cluster of micronations, all a couple of hundred miles west of the California coast. Beck Garrison, the protagonist, is a teenage girl living on New Minerva. Her father is one of the powerful men of the stead; she's lived there since she was five. In "Liberty's Daughter" (which I've put up online here -- it appeared in F&SF in May/June 2012), Beck investigates the disappearance of a bond-worker (debt slave). In "High Stakes," a U.S.-based reality TV show comes to the seastead to film. ("High Stakes" appeared in F&SF in Nov/Dec 2012). In "Solidarity" (F&SF March/April 2013) Beck gets thrown out of the apartment by her father; it ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, the discovery that a mysterious plague is beginning to break out. The most recent published story, "Containment Zone" (F&SF May/June 2014), tells the story of the plague, and Beck maneuvering to allow an aid group to dock to help the stead. The story I just sold, "Jubilee" (F&SF probably sometime in 2014), is about the early stages of recovery -- picking up the pieces, trying to get people vaccinated and fix the water supply. I'm editing a story with the working title of "The Silicon Curtain," in which Beck and her friend Thor go to Sal -- the mysterious, isolationist piece of the stead that's essentially a self-contained biotech company. (And, I've already written a story in which Beck goes to California.) I really like these stories. Beck is a great character -- I love writing about teenagers. (The protagonists of my novels are all teenage girls.) I enjoy thinking about the ways she's shaped by her environment (and vice versa). One of my favorite recurring supporting characters is this guy named Zach, who's a member of a private security force located on Lib (the anarcho-capitalist micronation that's part of the cluster). Zach is fantastic fun to write, and he puts in another appearance in "Jubilee." I have tried (without success) to sell these stories as a novel; I'm still trying, but at this point I'm figuring that once I've either sold them all to F&SF or Gordon Van Gelder has balked at buying any more, if no publishers have bitten, I'll do a self-published e-book.
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Published on June 28, 2014 11:32

June 27, 2014

The Guilty Pleasure of Implement Porn....

Shawn has been looking for a journal to replace the one she keeps Mason's memories in.  That sounds very science fictional doesn't it?  But, in reality, it's just a kind of a baby book that's kept growing over the years.  Shawn writes down little tidbits she'd like to remember or thinks should be noted for the future/future reference.  The one she just filled upstarted in 2004.

Today, after her haircut, we decided to see what we could find to replace it.  We went to the kinds of stores that specialized in fancy pens and papers and...

...of course, it was *me* who walked out with twenty dollars worth of STUFF.

Admit it (because you know it's true), paper and pens are like porn for writers.  I will confess that have this particular love affair with quad lined notebooks.  I filched my very first one from Shawn, back in our college days, when she would have to special order lab notebooks that were quad lined.  Now you can find those pretty regularly at Target, and I usually buy myself a couple of the really cheap ones during the back to school sales.

At Wet Paint today, I found something I might be even more in love with "dotted" notebook paper.


Look how pretty!
The guy at the art store might have thought I was a little odd for petting it, but they DON'T UNDERSTAND.
Paper is very special to me.
I mean, maybe I *am* a bit weird, but I still love the feel of pen on paper.  I find notebook writing still very useful.  I've been known to carry a notebook around not only to take Captain America style notes, but also to have on hand should I be inspired somewhere where my computer isn't easily accessible--like, say, when I show up a little early at Mason's school for pick-up or whatever.  Plus, even though it ends up messy and crossed out, I enjoy the constriction of having to write long-hand sometimes.  I almost always edit when I transcribe to screen, but the act of having to push on and not worry about perfect phrasing can really help me get the gist of a scene out on paper.
Also I used to occasionally sketch out pictures of my characters and I found that a lot easier when I had quad or blank pages.  Now... now I can haz dots!
Plus, I had to buy a pen. I had two in my hand, but Shawn made me put one back.  I did get out with two notebooks though... hee hee.
I'm not sure non-artists understand this weird implement thing.  I suppose it's like anything aesthetic, like a nice briefcase for work or a good pair of sexy shoes.  Paper and pens are a bit cheaper, too... or at least can be.  There are some people who are willing to pay a LOT for a really nice pen (luckily I'm a cheap date when it comes to pens.)
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Published on June 27, 2014 06:44

June 26, 2014

E-book out...!



The penultimate novel in my AngeLINK series, Apocalypse Array, is out as an e-book from Wizard's Tower Press today.  Believe it or not, this cyberpunk book was never previously released in e-book format.  Now you can go get it.
It also has, as you can see, shiny new art from Bruce Jensen.

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Published on June 26, 2014 14:53

Writing in Community and Other Acts of Collaboration

I've been thinking a lot about writing in community and other acts of collaboration lately.

As I've mentioned a time or two, I've been struggling with writing lately.  It's not that I don't want to write.  That, as I long suspected about myself, will never be a problem.  I may, in fact, be writing more now than I ever did under contract.

It's more that I find myself drawn to certain kinds of writing over others.

The kinds of writing I've been drawn to lately could be generally classified as 'writing in community.' Fan fiction is one of these because, depending on how many people are active in your fandom, you can get a lot of interaction with your work in the form of comments and kudos.  I've enjoyed writing like this because it takes me away from a particular outline and really frees up my Muse to include other people--their opinions, their criticisms, and, yes, even their ideas.

This is actually not new for me.  Not in the least.

As the Wyrdsmiths well know, I've always been the kind of writer who benefits from having a community invested in my work.  One of the reasons I started Wyrdsmiths is that I get a huge boost interacting with readers, and fellow-writers are the very best kind of readers.  Wyrdsmiths critique sessions can include all the things I get from fan fic writing: kudos, opinions, criticism, and ideas.  The best sessions, IMHO, are the ones, in fact, where we all get so wound up about someone's chapter or story that we start riffing on, "Well, if this were *my* story, I'd..." I often leave those sessions feeling honestly kind of high on the process and excited not only about my own work, but the work of my colleagues, as well.

When Wyrdsmiths is firing on all cylinders, it's a perfect kind of writing in community for me.  But, in order for it to work its magic, I have to have product to put in front of my colleagues.

Ah, there's the rub....

So, I've been seeking community in process... or a process involving community.  One answer to finding that for me has been the project I've been doing through WattPad.  That's been working moderately well.  I think for it work the way I want, I have to invest in the community myself a bit more.  I've been complaining about not getting a lot of comments, but it's occurred to me that I haven't made a lot of time to read and comment on my fellow WattPadder's work either.  You have to give, in order to receive.  Or so I have been told.

Plus, building up that kind of community takes time.  It can, in point of fact, take YEARS.  So, while I'm frustrated with the current interaction, I have faith that time and continued effort will grow it into what I want it to be.

The other thing I've been experimenting with is honest-to-goodness collaborating.  I've been writing a serial story with my writer friend Rachel Callish wherein we actually write together in-tandem via Google Drive.  That's been wicked fun.  And, in a matter of months, we've written 50,000 words (a half of a novel, really, maybe a bit more.)  What's amazing to me about writing like that is how much fun it is for me.  I get to watch (sometimes literally, if she's typing in the Doc while I'm on-line) someone else's process and we get to do all the riffing brainstorming in instant messages.

It's funny that people like to say that writing is a solitary art.

For me, it NEVER has been.


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Published on June 26, 2014 06:00

June 25, 2014

Go... Go Get This Now!

Eleanor's Big Mama Stories...http://www.aqueductpress.com/books/BigMamaStories.php



Go get this beautiful collection of Big Mama stories..... because: wonderful.
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Published on June 25, 2014 09:29

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