Sharon Joss's Blog, page 17

Research Tips – 12 Ways to Enrich Your World

Sharon Joss Writes

I’ve recently finished writing several historical stories; Paris in 1927, 1850s California, and 1871 Belgium.  Although I’ve been to California gold rush ghost towns, and spent quite a bit of time in the old part of Brussels, I didn’t have enough memories to flesh out a believable setting for either story.  And I’ve never been to Paris.

Wikipedia is a good starting place (especially for general architecture, neighborhoods, and landmarks), but since settings need depth and ‘atmosphere’, I need more than that to make a setting come alive.  I need detailed sensory input for all the senses.

What music was played during that time?
What writers and artists were well-known in those days?
What was the fashion of the day, and what were the names of those garments?  What kind of undergarments did they wear, and what were they called?  What about hats?  Hosiery? Shoes?
Are the fashions based on looks or practicality? Lush fabrics and colors, or rugged and long-lasting?  Rich or coarse-textured?
What food and beverages were consumed at this point in history?  Coffee, tea, bathtub gin, or whiskey?  Locally supplied or imported?
What were the sanitation facilities like then?  Open sewers?  Did both men and women wear perfume?
What was considered ‘exotic’ and novel during that time?  What was ‘all the rage’ at that time?
What kind of transportation was used by each social class? How was that transportation supported (through roads, fuel, and protection from the elements/housing)
What form of currency/barter is used?  Is there only one currency?  What do strangers use for money?
Who were the ‘important’ heroes of those times?  Who did people look up to and admire?
What did people do at the end of the day in these times?  What were their leisure pursuits, or did they drudge from waking to sleep every day?
How did they light the night?

These certainly aren’t the only elements needed to build a historically believable world, but these are the basics I use to infuse my stories.  And researching theses elements of time and place is fun; before long, you start living in your story world through these sensory elements and (for me, at least) the story seems to come alive.

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New Science Fiction: Aurum

Sharon Joss Writes

For me, every novel is a labor of love, but AURUM is my first science fiction novel.  Also my first rip-roaring action / adventure tale.  The inspiration for this story started with one of my favorite movies, the classic Bogart film, Treasure of the Sierra Madre, but that is about as far as the similarity goes.

DANGEROUS BEASTS, A BEAUTIFUL WOMAN, AND GOLD

The embargoed planet of Aurum contains the richest deposits of gold in the galaxy.  Accessible only once every four years to the wealthy elite attending the Gold Festival, master engraver Renly Harkness travels deep into the forbidden zone of this plague planet to rescue his missing older brother.

Accompanied by the beautiful half-breed, K’Sati, and haunted by a debt he fears he can never repay, Renly risks his life and faces his darkest fears to rescue his beloved  brother.

Available in paperback and Kindle  from Amazon, and all your favorite e-book retailers.

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Good Writing Weather

Sharon Joss Writes

It’s snowing outside, and it snowed yesterday too.  I shoveled at least four inches of snow off the driveway this morning, and we’re expecting anywhere from another 2-5 inches overnight.  When I lived in upstate New York, I would have scoffed at such paltry totals (every winter I shoveled more than 100 inches of snow off my 300-foot-long driveway), but for Portland, this is a pretty good snowstorm, and I’m enjoying it.

 The dogs, however, are bouncing off the walls because we didn’t go for our regular walks yesterday (25 mph winds and 21-degree temps put the wind chills in single digits).  I feel for them.   I didn’t go to the gym yesterday, and now that it’s snowing again, I don’t think I’ll be going today, either.  Nobody in my neighborhood seems to understand you’re supposed to shovel your own sidewalk every morning, so mine is the only one that’s clear.  Walking on the sidewalks (or even in the unplowed streets) builds up ice balls between the dog’s toes in just a few minutes, so even though they both LOVE the snow, our walks aren’t much more than down to the end of the street and back.

But one of the best parts of winter (to my view) is that it’s great writing weather.  I more than met my writing goal for the month of January, completing 34K ‘new’ words (including five new short stories and 11% of my upcoming novel).

Let it snow.

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John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer

Sharon Joss Writes

I’m thrilled to announce that my short story, LOVE IN THE TIME OF DUST AND VENOM has been included in the 2014 Campbellian Anthology , an anthology of the eligible ‘first professional sales’ by other new science fiction writers like myself.  The anthology includes 111 stories and more than 800K words; all by neo-pro writers who made their first professional sale within the last two years.  The nominees will be voted on by members of LonCon3 (the 72nd World Science Fiction Convention), as the John W. Campbell Best New Writer Award.  Not a Hugo award, but voted on by the same group. A lot of great stories in here; it’s a terrific opportunity to discover future favorite authors.

M. David Blake has made a herculean effort to make this volume  available, so check it out.

And best of all, it’s FREE.

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Cover Reveal – AURUM (squee!)

Sharon Joss Writes

 

I’m so glad I can finally reveal the new cover for my upcoming adventure / science fiction novel, AURUM.  Settling on this one took a lot of time and input from a lot of friends, family, and total strangers, but ultimately, I’m thrilled with it.

Hope you like it too.

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Half-fast Writer

Sharon Joss Writes

I am not a fast writer.  I continually read about writers (all far more successful than I) who can write a novel in 16 days, or a month, or even a week. I am in awe of their capabilities. Last year I tried to force myself to write faster, but in a workshop, when the workshop leader asked, ‘who doesn’t write at least 500 words an hour’, I was the only person in the room who raised my hand.  Everybody looked at me with an expression somewhere between shock and pity.  I felt…well, lacking.

To be honest, I’ve never really timed myself against the clock.  I have a daily quota of words to write.  Sometimes I get through it in a couple hours, sometimes it takes all day.  Generally, it takes me 4-5 hours to write 1250 words. I average 33-38Kwords a month. Every month.

I’m not slow because I type slowly. But I am thinking/creating as I type, and intentionally trying to speed up my creative process just makes me crazy.  I write just as fast as I need to write to get the story I want to tell on the page.  I believe that the speed will come in time (maybe in the next million words or three), but even if it doesn’t, I’ve got something else going for me, and that’s consistency.

The lesson for me is to stop comparing myself to other writers.  It’s not a competition.  For now, I’m content to be a half-fast writer.

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Spice Up Your Fiction

Sharon Joss Writes

While I do think of myself as primarily a writer of speculative fiction (a somewhat broad category which includes, but is not limited to, Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Horror), I’ve been mixing things up a bit lately. After writing fantasy for four years, I sold the second science fiction story I ever wrote. And at a work shop last year, I was challenged to write a military sci-fi story, which (although I never read military sci-fi) ended up as one of my favorites.  The change-up in genre made me appreciate how writing in different genres can be invigorating.

So as I begin my ‘new’ writing practice for the year, with my resolution to write at least two short stories a month, I’m looking to add to my writer’s toolkit and not limit myself to only one or two genres. I don’t limit my reading to a single genre, so why should I limit my writing? And the great thing about writing short stories, is that if you flub it and in the end it doesn’t work the way you’d hoped, you toss it and write something else. At least you haven’t spent months on trying it out for a whole novel.

And writing in multiple genres has forced me to stretch my voice and plotting in ways I never imagined. I think it’s made me a better writer; and certainly a better storyteller. It’s both challenging and fun. Duotrope is a great place to look for prompts / story markets, as is The Grinder (which is free).

So go ahead; spice it up a little.

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Joy of Books

Sharon Joss Writes

As a full-time neo-pro writer, I live by the frugalista credo, which essentially states DON’T SPEND ANY MONEY.  That said, my idea of a shopping spree is a trip to the grocery store to buy detergent.  So imagine my delight when one of my beloved sisters sent me a gift card to Powell’s Books, one of my favorite indie books stores.

To better savor the gift of retail therapy, I held off using the card until after the holiday and post-holiday crowds had thinned.  Today, after finishing my daily writing quota of new words, I spent a blissful hour prowling the aisles, ultimately deciding on one from each of my favorite genres: adventure, horror, science fiction, and urban fantasy.

Aaaah.

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2013: The List and the Lessons

Sharon Joss Writes

This year (2013) has definitely been the year of the short story. I read more than a dozen short story anthologies and nearly 100 (as yet) unpublished shorts by writer colleagues in writing workshops.

I also read more books this year than last, and although I once again did not achieve my goal of finishing 60 books, I did come close. I read a good deal more Science Fiction than Fantasy this year, as a result, have come to value and enjoy the genre almost as much as Fantasy.

 

THE LIST:

Favorite anthology: This is a tie between Lightspeed Year One and The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Vol. 1: 1929-1964 by Robert Silverberg.  In the Hall of Fame anthology, James Blish’s  Surface Tension and The Little Black Bag by C. M. Kornbluth were my favorites; and I so enjoyed so many of the Lightspeed stories, I became a subscriber.
Favorite new author and series: Richard Kadrey and his Sandman Slim series, as well as his standalone novel, Butcher Bird.  His unique perspective and inner eye for bizarre and horrifically wonderful nightmare settings sets him apart from anyone I’ve ever read.
Notable Classics: One of my reading goals for this year was to read more by the masters of the Fantasy and Science Fiction genres.  A Fine and Private Place by Peter S. Beagle was a quiet story, which charmed me as every bit as much as his better-known The Last Unicorn.
Favorite Writing Book(s): Two authors made a radical and welcome change in my ideas about creativity, writing, and life.  Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch have opened my eyes to a whole new world as a writer and publisher.  Kris’s Freelancer’s Survival Guide and Dean’s Think Like A Publisher: A Step-by-Step Guide to Publishing Your Own Books are the most frequently used books in my library.
Favorite Books from Favorite Authors: I reread the entire John D. MacDonald Travis McGee series while riding the bike at my local gym.  What an engrossing and painless way to stay in shape!
Biggest Disappointment: Jack Vance’s Tales of the Dying Earth.  Seven hundred pages that started slow and never really grabbed me.  I know he’s considered a master of the genre, but I never really connected with his characters.

THE LESSONS:

Lesson 1: I don’t know why, but I never considered anthologies as a source of fiction before.  I love novels, and generally don’t read much short fiction, but this year, that all changed.  In addition to those mentioned, I’m looking forward to the Hugos and Year’s Best Science Fiction, and Ellen Datlow’s next horror project.

Lesson 2:  I don’t think it’s a coincidence that in this ‘year of the short story’, I made my first professional sale and received an Honorable Mention from Writers of the Future for short stories I wrote.  And while it’s taken me a while to figure out why that story sold, I’m now convinced that writing short stories will help me in my novel writing as well (in terms of both craft and building a following for my longer works).

Lesson 3: My move to Oregon from Idaho a year ago changed my life more profoundly than I could have ever imagined.  The genre writer’s community here is welcoming and supportive, and I have been fortunate enough to find wonderful mentors and colleagues who have taught me invaluable lessons in both craft and the business of writing.  But for every ‘aha’ moment, I’ve also come to realize there is so much more to learn. Looking back, I cannot believe how far I’ve come this year.  Looking forward to 2014, I know I’ve only just begun.

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Here Comes the Sun

Sharon Joss Writes

Happy Solstice!

Saturday is the shortest day of the year.  In the ‘old’ days (the really old days), people celebrated the end of darkness and return of the light.  From now until June, good ol’ Sol will shine its light on us poor humans a little bit longer every day.

I generally spend the Solstice reviewing my accomplishments of the previous year, and developing an action plan to achieve my business objectives and resolutions for the coming year.  As I looked back on my list of accomplishments for 2013, I couldn’t help but feel proud of how much progress I’ve made in my writing career.

I wrote more than 250K words this year, resulting in one-and-a-half novels, 11 short stories, and 50+ blog entries.  I received more rejections this year than I could have ever imagined, made my first professional sale, earned an Honorable Mention in an international writing contest, and saw six of my stories published this year.

So for 2014, I want to kick up the pace a little and keep the momentum going.

There are a lot of thing’s I’d like to experience in 2014 (hit the best-seller lists, win a major award, sell a million books), but I won’t waste my time worrying about things I can’t control. Instead, my resolutions in 2014 are to meet my writing quota every day, delight readers by writing the best stories I possibly can, finish everything I write, send out everything I finish, and the turn around and do it again and again.

I’ve got some great writing classes lines up, and I’m working on expanding my professional network. I finally got my author accounts set up on Facebook and Goodreads, and I’m learning everything I possibly can about the business of writing and publishing.  One of the biggest concepts I grokked this year is that for successful writers, the learning and networking never ends.

Good thing the days are getting longer.

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