Kelly McCullough's Blog, page 42

Quick Hit

There's a new interview of me up at Fantasy Faction. I think it's one of the better ones that I've done in recent years, and if you're interested in listening to me noodle on about story and what I write and the genre in general, it's worth a look.

Friday Cat Blogging

Quick take the picture, I'll never look this noble again



Single black walrus seeking ice floe.



Woe, woe and wurra for the Desmond!



Push the controller a little closer,
I'll play but I won't move to do it.



Coconut Cat of the North!



No, I just want to massage your neck.



Wicked witch of the what now?

Happy V-Day (and a Review)

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone. To make my day brighter, Google alerted me to this lovely review of ALMOST EVERYTHING on CA's blog.</

Friday Cat Blogging

Living in the spotlight is mah dream.



Almost there…almost there…

[image error]

Sunbeams, I has one.



Did someone call for a dancing bear?

A New Home...

Wyrdsmiths is looking for a new coffee shop to call home.

Our current meeting place, the Black Dog, has started playing loud (amplified) music on our usual Thursday nights. It's become increasingly difficult to talk over it. We're considering moving, but our requirements seem to be stymieing us. We'd like a place close to/in St. Paul as the majority of us are either St. Paulies or come from that direction... but St. Paul notoriously closes down after 5:00 pm and we're having trouble finding a coffee shop that's open until 10:00 pm (or later.)

We have a few ideas, but I thought I'd ask the Hive Mind of our blog readers. Anyone out there know of a good/favorite coffee shop that might be willing to put up with loud, obnoxious writers every other Thursday....?

Released!

Hey, hey, it's release day!

Today is the big day for Ana Parker and all her friends, as today ALMOST EVERYTHING is officially out. Run and pick up a copy so you can find out what exciting adventures await in this the final installment of the Vampire Princess of St. Paul series.

It's a book that TC Daily Planet calls "pedestrian" yet recommends as a fun, light read!

Weekend Plans?

If not, please feel free to stop by Uncle Hugo's from 1:00 - 2:00 pm where I will be signing Tate's newest release, ALMOST EVERYTHING, the last of the Vampire Princess of St. Paul books. If you need more info, please check out http://www.unclehugo.com/prod/index.shtml

Hope to see you there!

Blogging About Writing

This is from my personal blog. I don't know if I should post it here, because it's so long. But here it is. Because I mull a lot, you may have read some of this before from me...

I've been thinking about blogging, and how I could make my blog more interesting.

I can't write about the business aspects of writing, because -- after 40 years of being published -- I don't understand writing as a business. In addition, publishing is changing rapidly, due to consolidation of the industry in the 1980s and 90s, and then due to technological changes, which make it easy to start a small press or to self-publish and which threaten traditional publishers and their profits, though we don't know how much yet. What I may have thought I knew 30 years ago is irrelevant. What I think I know now changes from day to day, mostly in response to other writers' opinions and stories.

I could write about writing itself, though I'm not sure what to say. My usual advice is just do it. Write every day. When I used to collect advice from science fiction pros, they seemed to have one of two systems: set a word count of 1,000 or so and write this much every day, or set a time period every day during which you have to sit at the computer and write. You do nothing else during this period. If words don't come, then you spend three hours staring at a blank screen or typing 'xxxxxx' or 'help' over and over.

This is not how I write. I knew 40 years ago that I wasn't ever likely to make a living from writing. Instead, I worked a long series of day jobs, mostly as as an office clerk or warehouse worker, and wrote in my spare time. This meant my writing was always (in a sense) secondary -- a hobby, fit into the corners of my life. Even though it was far more important to me than any of my jobs.

Now I can write full time, but my habits are still erratic. I had a productive day this past Wednesday. I finished (I thought) the current short story and began work revising a long-long-long overdue novel. Then I hit a wall and did no work for three days, except to think about the short story. No, the ending still isn't where I want it to be.

When I began to write publishable work, I wrote fiction the way I had always written poetry: a line would come and then another. I would feel my way through the poem or story, not knowing what was coming next. Many stories stopped after a few lines or wandered on, going nowhere, until I gave up. Over time, I have moved toward having an idea or maybe even a plot when I begin a story. But I still do a lot of feeling my way.

Decades ago, I thought I was tapping into my unconscious, and the feeling-my-way process enabled me to get to material that was powerful, somehow 'alive.'

I am less sure today what's going on when I write. I'm pretty sure it's easier to write, if you know where you're going. Plotting ahead really is a help. Though sometimes you end in really interesting places if you don't know where you are going.

My current story began as a Lovecraft parody: a prissy Boston lawyer discovers an elder god emerging from the bog at his family home. What do you do with a lesser god, who doesn't know why he (or it) has risen? As I've written the story, it has turned out to be also about the lawyer's cousin, a painter in St. Paul, and her struggles with her art. What is hanging the story up now is a description of the art the painter is doing at the end of the story. I don't have it right yet.

This came from feeling my way. The story is now about inheritance, art, coming to terms with one's family, global warming and (just a little bit) the Cthulu Mythos.

I don't advocate writing this way. Listen to the other Wyrdsmiths, if you want good advice.

Friday Cat Blogging on Saturday

Hush, seeping.



I am become the sun itself!



Cutest toes in the history of EVER!



Do I look like I give a rat ass?



Are you the gatekeeper?



When a snake of a cat gave me an evil wink…
…She had a pick up truck and the devil's eyes.

And the envelope, please...

I haven't been very good about posting updates or thoughts or much of anything else here for a while. A lot has been going on, and blogging tends to take a back seat for me when life jumps up and waves other things in my face.

However, I wanted to take a quick moment to do a tiny bit of SSP (Shameless Self-Promotion) and bragging by noting that "Among Thieves" is up for two awards in the U.K.

The first award is the Kitschies, which is a juried award given by the SFF blog Pronokitsch for "those books which best elevated the tone of genre literature" (yeah, I was kinda stunned to find my book under that heading, too...still am, honestly) and meet the criteria of being "intelligent, progressive and entertaining" (ibid).  I'm a finalist in the Golden Tentacle (debut author) category and have already apparently won rum. (Woo! Rum!) The fact that I made it that far is boggling, since 152 books were submitted for consideration, with only five making the final cut in each of three categories (best novel, best debut, best cover art).

The Kitschies are only in their third year, but they have already generated a lot of buzz, to the point of being mentioned in the Guardian and the Huffington Post. The award is being handed out at a big SF shindig called The SFX Weekender on Feb. 3rd (which is tomorrow at the time of writing, but probably today for most people reading). So, news should be forthcoming Real Soon Now.

The second is the Gemmell Morningstar award. This is the debut category for the Gemmell Legend Award. The interesting bit about this is one is that is it done by popular vote, which means anyone can vote with a click of the mouse. This is also a big deal for me, in that the Gemmell wrote Sword & Sorcery and heroic/adventure fantasy, which is pretty much what AT is all about. The list of books up for both the Gemmell Legend and the Morningstar are impressive, and I encourage everyone to go over, check out the lists, and vote. And while I'd be lying if I didn't say I'd appreciate it if people decided to vote for "Among Thieves," I also have to say that it's damn hard to make a bad choice with any of the listed titles. The big thing is to go and vote.

You can vote for the Gemmell Morningstar debut novels here (this is the one I am in the running for).

To vote for the Gemmell Legend (best novel), go here (I'm not up for this one, but lots of other cool people are).

I will also point out that Larry Rostant (artist) and Neil Lang (designer) are up for the Gemmell Ravenheart Award (best fantasy book cover/jacket) for the UK cover of "Among Thieves." Like the other Gemmells, anyone can vote. There are also some other dynamite covers there as well. So go on over and show some artist love while you're at it!

To say I'm both surprised and honored by being nominated is putting it small. I set out to write a book that was a fun, fast-paced read that people would hopefully enjoy. Awards were never a part of the consideration. To even be on the same lists with the other books in these categories is both daunting and a thrill.