K.L. Tremaine's Blog, page 11

Hello from Residency!

I’ve had some technical difficulties keeping me from reporting the last few days, but I’ve been having a fantastic time living and working with other writers both in my genre (fiction) and others – and in fact, the majority of writers in my fiction group are science fiction writers, so we’re kind of having a blast!

And I have a supportive shark, which will bite ALL the sucks when they appear.

But I do miss my partner, who is halfway across the city but might as well be halfway across the world. :( I love you, sweetie.

I’m making bits of progress here and there on my projects but much of my writing here so far has been homework – hopefully there will be more time and energy now that my sleep schedule is reconfigured that I can put some energy into my fiction writing!

Progress Report: Pre-Residency

Right now I have four works in progress, not counting secret projects that I’m not talking about yet (and yes, every writer has some of those!).

Crossworlds: 50% finished. This is my first novel in the Veronica Gray universe – and important because it’s going to set up several critical recurring characters. I’ll be spending a certain amount of my free time and study time during the residency working on this, but I don’t expect to get more than half the remaining words down before end of July. I’d like to have the rough draft done by mid-August, though, so I can start showing it around.

Great Red Strike: This was originally promised for Solstice, but I got hung up on it.

Sibling Rivalry: One of the short stories I’m going back to revisit. There’s a LOT more to this story than I’ve written already.

Self-Rescuing Princess: Needs a substantial rewrite, hopefully will get it during my residency.

Twenty Minute Fiction: You Touch the Bowl

The room is entirely too quiet. You move toward the strange altar with three fish holding up a bowl. There’s no water inside the bowl, but you put your hand close to it anyway. As you pull back, you’re tingling. Realizing what’s started to happen, you try to race for the exit before it can overcome you. There’s a river just outside… if you can just make it in time…

You stumble as your legs suddenly become fins. Inching toward the door, you hope that you can make it outside before you feel the skin starting to separate from the back and sides of your neck. The air is achingly thin. You can’t breathe!

The change washes through you now, like too much watercolor through thin paper. You crawl a few more steps on your hands before you have no more hands anymore. Just fins. Desperately, heaving for some kind of breath, any breath, you flop the last few feet toward the door. Unblinking eyes distorted, burning in the unprotective air.

Everything hurts now. You stop moving, but slide into the water’s embrace.

You swim away, remembering nothing of your previous life.

Short Stories for MFA

I submitted the first of my short stories for the MFA workshop – obviously this one is “The Great Red Strike,” because story #2 hasn’t been written yet.

I have some images for story #2, but the story as a whole is still a hazy idea in my mind. With that said, what’s the best place to take some good photo references of the “Walkway to Nowhere” in western St. Paul on I-94?

And so ends CONvergence

For me, CONvergence lasts a day longer than the official close of the convention; this is because I can’t just stop and get back to the outside world, I need some time to get my brains back together after the con.

It’s THAT all-encompassing.

So I spent yesterday writing and mostly chillin’. I had lunch when I was hungry, and my partner and I had a salad for dinner.

The Royal Manticoran Navy had a particularly great con. We had Sir Martin Lessem, the First Lord of the Admiralty, present, and a literary reading of the works of multiple TRMN members, as well as our largest awards ceremony ever (which had both advantages and drawbacks). We also rolled about 450 missile pods, including one to Guest of Honor Marina Sirtis (yes, THE Marina Sirtis).

At the Con, I got a couple of new books and a new RPG: Star Wars: Age of Rebellion (a follow-on to the 2013 release of Star Wars: Edge of the Empire). AoR changes the focus from surviving on the fringes to taking on the might of the Empire, and precedes next year’s Force and Destiny.

Star Wars is a franchise I have complicated feelings for. Star Wars was the first movie I remember seeing (though I’m certain I saw other movies before it) and obviously it’s made a huge impact on me. And yet there are some aspects of Star Wars that are deeply problematic – its aggressive focus on men and masculinity, its particular focus on Eurocentric modes of masculinity, and its wholesale appropriation of (western misinterpretations of) Asian cultural norms in the name of this focus being but three. And this is before we get into Jar Jar Stinks. It’s also interesting that the best Star Wars stories are actually ones told in a different medium than its origin - The Thrawn trilogy (Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising and The Last Command), the Dark Empire comic series, and the phenomenal computer game duology Knights of the Old Republic.

I’m mildly interested in the new fifth edition of Dungeons & Dragons - and also relieved that for the first time since 2nd Edition, the edition is NOT a major part of the branding of the game. I’ll probably play a campaign via the Basic rules before I make up my mind on it, but I will probably at least get a copy of the Player’s Handbook because love it or hate it, D&D is one of the primary touchstones of gaming.

Lastly, Eye of Horus Metaphysical has to move suddenly, so they are raising funds online to move into a new space (because very few stores expect to have to move on a month’s notice!). Thraicie and Jane Hawkner are pillars of the local Pagan community, so it would be great if you could tip a couple bucks into their metaphorical jar to help with moving expenses.

10 PM Friday to 10 PM Saturday: In the Moment at CONvergence

The 24 hour period from 10 Friday to 10 Saturday began with unspeakable joy and ended with me sitting in a bed performing self-care. This isn’t as bad as it sounds but it definitely speaks to how busy I was during those 24 hours.

Regardless, after the Con I’m going straight home to sleep.

I was on four (FOUR!) panels during that time and I had a blast. I enjoyed myself, I had a lot to say, and people actually laughed at my jokes!

The quick summary of what I was talking about on the four panels:

EVOLUTION OF FANFICTION: “Fanfic writing is great practice – and it’s fun, too. Also, Mary Sue needs to be celebrated, not denigrated.”

FEMALE MORAL DEVELOPMENT IN YA: “Fanfic is an underexplored subgenre of YA, and it needs greater exploration because it’s the only genre of YA which is written by young adults, for young adults, about young adults.”

COMPUTER GAMES REVIEW AND PREVIEW: “Dragon Age! And Star Citizen!”

WRITING SCIENCE: “Your research matters, but only inasmuch as it allows you to write science fluidly and without stopping to infodump on your readers.”

The one downside, though, was that my feet were in “crying” level pain by the time I reached the end of the TRMN awards ceremony, so I made a very short night of it at room parties and came upstairs to rest.

There are conversations that started at this con that are going to need to continue, for months and years to come, and they’re going to be interesting ones.

CONvergence, I am (about to be) in you!!!

I’m finishing up my character sheets for Fate of the Honorverse: Raising the Torch. Within a few hours I’ll be picking up my badge and then getting ready to help out.

See you at the Con!!!

Warp drive, Mr. Scott!

“There’s another starship coming in… it’s the Enterprise!”

 

The concept working on warp drive is coming closer. I wouldn’t be quite so forward as to say the problems are solved – clearly they’re not, among other things we have yet to find a way to actually generate the exotic matter/energy required to fold space in this way – but they’re being worked, and experiments so far have been inconclusive but promising.

Writing Science

I’ll be presenting at CONvergence in a week, and one of my panels is “Writing Science.” Now, I write space opera, which is pretty soft where science is concerned, but space opera is still science fiction and if your science is blatantly wrong, then you’re not using the art form. Space opera is best when it has a grounding in real science, and in what is at least possible, if not completely, totally real.

Another thing is, being a writer allows you to get away with asking questions that in other contexts would win you a place on one of the NSA’s watch lists (I’m joking. I think. I have no way of being sure of this). A lot of people love to answer questions about science, especially where their own specialties are concerned.

Now, I’ve been dry for a week or two. That’s going to change a LOT in the next few weeks since I’m going to Pride this weekend, a convention next weekend, and two weeks after that, my MFA residency.

Looking forward to everything!

Eeek.

There are some cobwebs here, I haven’t updated since last Tuesday!

So I’m getting in my last full week of writing before the MFA residency begins (next week will be interrupted by CONvergence). I plan to have Great Red Strike finished by the end of this week, as well as a piece I’m calling Mill City Flowers.

The novel is progressing but more slowly than I thought. It’s almost to 40,000 words – Just about to pass out of novella territory!