Martha Wells's Blog, page 171

We were talking last night about a writer who said her ch...

We were talking last night about a writer who said her characters felt so real to her that she bought them Christmas gifts. morfin turned to me and said "Moon wants an iPad."


Cynthia Leitich Smith has more photos from the Austin ComicCon.

More links that I forgot where I found them. Probably on Twitter:

45 Incredible Futuristic Scifi 3D City Illustrations

Diversity in YA: The Power of Diverse Science Fiction by Deva Fagan

Joshua Palmatier BUYING BOOKS? Help Raise Funds for Literacy!!!

Austin ComicCon

We went to the Austin ComicCon this weekend, and had a great time. There's an fun energy and excitement at big SF/F conventions like this one and WorldCon and DragonCon, and I think I am mildly addicted to it.

There were a ton of people in costume, including little kids and occasionally entire families. The tiny children dressed as Doctor Who (the last two versions) and Amy Pond were the best. I also spotted a Dalek, an Ood, Inspector Gadget, a few Batmen, a large party of Sith Lords with awesome outfits, lots of anime characters, Tony Stark (a guy dressed in nice slacks and a button down shirt, with the glowing ring of the artificial heart/power source just visible on his chest through the fabric of his shirt) and a Star Wars family with the parents dressed as Han and Leia, Star Trek people, Stargate people, steampunk people (including a steampunk stormtrooper), and lots of others I couldn't identify.

The dealers' area and the creators' alley was so big, I ended up being hit by decision fatigue and didn't buy anything. (I was tempted by many Doctor Who items, but couldn't find anything Stargate Atlantis that I wanted.) There was so much gorgeous art, it was incredible. There were tons of comic artists there, and most of them had not only the art from their comics and graphic novels on display and for sale, but the other stuff they had done. You could have papered your house with gorgeous art. There were also other authors and local fan groups. At the end of our row, a group from Scare for a Cure (the Austin group who does the haunted house as a charity fund-raiser) had a setup where you could shoot a stormtrooper with a nerf gun or get your picture taken with Darth Vader or R2D2 for a donation.

There were also actors there! I am afraid of celebrities so I didn't talk to anyone, but did manage to scamper down that aisle and see Charisma Carpenter, James Marsters, Kevin Sorbo, and Juliet Landau. (I am serious when I say I am afraid of celebrities. I had to do a panel at DragonCon once with Richard Hatch, from Battlestar Galactica, and he sat next to me and I nearly died, not in a good way. At one point he reached for his water glass and touched the back of my hand, and I nearly climbed into the lap of terri_osborne who was sitting on my other side.)

It would have been a lot more logistically complicated getting in and out of there, but the friends we were staying with did all the driving and made the whole thing a lot easier.

(Also, they showed me the last season of The Guild. I had heard bits and pieces about it, but nobody told me it was actually written by Felcia Day, that it's really about fans and gamers, and that it is hilarious and awesome. Watching the season where they go to a giant convention after a day at a giant convention was especially neat.)

We only got a few pictures, because I suck at remembering to take pictures:


Me at my table


Costumes made entirely out of paint sample strips


Charsima Carpenter. She's really pretty!


Kevin Sorbo. He's really pretty too!

The Return of the Revenge of the Snippets

I was doing snippet posts of The Serpent Sea and various older books in July, for the Clarion Write-a-thon, then there was a DDoS attack and that got a bit sunk.

So I thought I'd post a couple of snippets below, in honor of the fact that I finally broke the 100,000 word mark in the third Cloud Roads (Books of the Raksura) novel. I've got probably aroung 20,000 words to go.

And I'm getting ready to leave for the Austin ComicCon tonight. (I will be trapped at a table all day Saturday so come say hi. I don't normally sell books but I will have a few there to sell, plus I don't (never ever) charge for signatures if you want to sneak in a book for me to sign.)

First a couple of links about the recent plagiarism scandal: James Bond's words live twice in plagiarised novel and more detail from the writer who originally blurbed the book: Assassin of Secrets
There's been a lot of speculation about the motives of people who plagiarize, do they actually feel pride or satisfaction in getting praise for other people's work, are they delusional, are they like compulsive liars, do they just see no value in the way words are put together and so think no one will notice that they are using other people's prose. I dunno, it's baffling. But the guy in the articles above even plagiarized the answers to a q&a about his books. Freaky.


***

SPOILERS AHEAD

A snippet with Moon and Jade, from The Serpent Sea (Night Shade Books, January 2012)

A little spoilery, and rated PG13ish for mild sexy stuff.


The Serpent Sea snippet



Moon woke buried in blankets, with Jade warm beside him. His inner sense of the sun told him it was still some time before dawn, and the storm had calmed to the point where the wind was barely audible. He pulled a fold of fabric down, just enough to get a good taste of the air.


Nothing had changed since last night. The others in the hall were breathing deeply in sleep, except for some of the warriors on the far side of the room. From the soft noises, they were enjoying each other's company under the blankets. Good idea, he thought, and flipped the blanket back up, settling down again to nuzzle Jade's neck.


She slid an arm across his waist, curling around him. Nipping his ear, she whispered, "When we know we're settled here for good, we'll start a clutch."


He nodded against her cheek. He was looking forward to babies in the nurseries that had actually come from him and Jade. But first they had to make certain this place was as secure as it seemed, and that the court could find enough food in the surrounding forest. More things to consider when you were choosing a permanent place to live. He said, "We need to make a consort for Frost." Since Jade had taken Moon as consort, Frost had been demanding that they get a consort for her, occasionally remembering to request queens for Thorn and Bitter.


Jade hissed, ruefully amused. "I never realized what fledgling queens were like. I'm starting to feel a little sympathy for Pearl and Amber, when I was that age."


Moon didn't have any trouble imagining Jade as an imperious little fledgling, making Pearl's life difficult, but he wasn't going to say so. There was something else he was reluctant to bring up, but he had to know about the awkward moment last night. "What did it mean when I made a bed for you?"


This time Jade sounded more annoyed than amused. "It's an old custom, it means you want to sleep with me. Song was being a little idiot."


"I do want to sleep with you," he pointed out, emphasizing it by nuzzling her collarbone.


"Consorts have their own bowers." Jade's tone was teasing. She pulled him more firmly against her. "So they can be guarded and chaperoned."


This was the first time Moon had heard that, though it made sense, with everyone being careful to inform him that consorts his age -- normal consorts his age -- were supposed to be shy delicate creatures who seldom ventured out of their colonies. "So you're telling me Stone and I are going to sleep up there above the queens' level? Because it's about thirty turns too late to chaperone me."


She tugged at the tie of his pants, her claws carefully sheathed. "When Thorn and Bitter get past the fledgling stage, they'll come out of the nurseries and they'll need bowers. As well as any other consorts we happen to produce."


"I don't know how that's going to happen, if I'm sleeping up there with Stone--"


Jade growled, and rolled on top of him, and that was the end of that conversation.

***




***


This is very long for a snippet, but it's a section of the third untitled Cloud Roads book. It's spoilery, but I know some people don't mind that, so I thought I'd include it. Also, it can function a bit as a little story in itself, so if you haven't read the first book, don't mind spoilers, and want to check out what the series will be like in general, this is for you.

It's rated PG13ish, again for some mild sexy stuff.

Long spoilery snippet from third Books of the Raksura




On the afternoon of the fourth day, they stopped to hunt big grasseaters on one of the platforms. At least the others did; they had made it plain that Moon's help was not welcome. So he sprawled napping on a branch, and didn't see what happened until the shouts of alarm woke him.


He jerked upright to see the herd of grasseaters, furry rumps rolling as they ran, vanishing into the trees at the far end of the platform. Dart struggled frantically, one leg caught by a dark green creature, toad-like but nearly half the size of the big grasseaters, half-rising out of a concealed dirt burrow in the heavy moss. Prize, the youngest female warrior, was on the ground, dodging clawed swipes from the creature's free hand, trying to strike at its face. She misjudged and the creature slapped her, slamming her across the platform. Moon snarled a curse and leapt off the branch, snapping his wings out to propel himself down as fast as possible. He thought, this is what happens to idiot warriors who don't know how to hunt safely.


Moon landed on the creature's scaly back, all his claws extended. It roared in pain and stopped trying to drag Dart into its mouth, letting him go to reach back for Moon. Moon jerked his wings up to shield his head, flared his spines and found the spot he was looking for, a soft vulnerable patch just under the lower edge of its skull. Ground predators who looked like this usually had one. It grabbed a handful of his spines just as he stabbed his claws through the softer patch of skin and cut through what he was fairly certain was an artery.


Its grip on him went loose and it shuddered under him, then slumped. Moon leapt backward off it, then warily circled around the body, watching for signs of life. When its eyes went dim, he turned to look for Dart and Prize.


Tempest and the others were just swooping in to land. Dart stood over Prize, who had shifted to groundling and huddled in the flattened grass, eyes closed and teeth gritted, her face twisted in pain. Moon hopped closer, realizing her right shoulder was dislocated. He hissed in sympathy; he knew more about wing join injuries than he wanted to. The shock of the impact must have sent her into groundling form, making the injury worse. It didn't look like a break, but it looked bad enough.


"Are you hurt?" Tempest asked Dart.


He shook his head, clearly miserable. "Prize tried to help me and it got her. The consort--"


"I saw it," Tempest interrupted. She gave Moon an opaque look. "You're all right?"


Moon shook his spines out. "Sure."


"She can't go on," Beacon said. She crouched hurriedly to hold Prize's shoulders as Prize retched in pain. Beacon looked up at Tempest worriedly. "She needs a mentor."


Tempest nodded, her spines flicking. "Viridian Sea is close enough that we can reach it by nightfall. We'll go there."


Moon offered, "I'll carry her." He was about to add that if he and Tempest went on ahead, leaving the others to follow, they could probably get Prize there in half the time.


But Tempest said sharply, "No. We take care of our own."


Moon bit back a hiss, insulted. "Fine. Next time I'll let the predator eat him."


Tempest ignored him, though the male warriors exchanged sulky glances.


Tempest carried Prize herself as they flew toward Viridian Sea, and Moon had time to realize why she was angry now. Tempest hadn't taken care of her own, and Moon had. If Moon had been a warrior, even one from a foreign court, it wouldn't have been an issue. But he was a consort technically under Tempest's protection, who clearly didn't need that protection.


Jade had never seemed to mind, or at least never showed it. Maybe it was different because he had been Jade's consort, so everything he did was somehow to her credit, since she had chosen him.


It was nice to have finally figured that out, now that it was too late.


***



The rain started about midway through the flight, and they arrived at Viridian Sea well after nightfall, guided in by the colony's lights. It wasn't in a mountain-tree, it was built out of some knobby bulbous growth of wood nestled in the branches of a mountain-thorn, smaller and less thorny than the one Emerald Twilight inhabited, but still tricky to fly through in the dark.


By the time they reached the landing platform built out from the colony's main entrance, the court was aware of them, and warriors and Arbora had come out to investigate. Fortunately, Viridian Sea seemed to be fairly reasonable, as far as Raksuran courts went. As soon as they realized there was an injury, the reigning queen herself came down to rush them through the greeting process, so within moments they had been ushered out of the rain and into the large wooden chamber of the colony's greeting hall. Prize had been helped away by mentors, Beacon going with her.


Moon stood to the side while the Viridian Sea queen and Tempest finished the greeting. He thought this colony might be fairly new; the hall was modest, with only two high-ceilinged levels, four passages opening off it, and the carvings in the walls looked fresh under the glow of the spell-lights. There were some flowering vines trained to cross the ceiling but no fountains or falls of water.


This court might be small, but it seemed healthy. The warriors and Arbora crowding the passages to get a look at the visitors had groundling forms that weren't much different from those at Indigo Cloud and Emerald Twilight, most with bronze or copper skin and dark hair, though there was a distinctive strain of red-blonde mixed into their bloodline.


Moon just hoped they got offered a meal, since they hadn't eaten their full for two days. He had shifted to groundling along with the warriors and his clothes were dripping wet, and he felt grubby and tired. Bored, he scuffed his heel on the smooth wood floor, then realized the others had stopped speaking. He looked up to see the Viridian Sea warriors and Arbora staring at him expectantly. Amaranth, the queen, had her head tilted toward him in inquiry. "Your consort?" she prompted Tempest.


"No." Tempest stiffened slightly but managed not to sound horrified at the thought. "We're conducting him to Opal Night."


Amaranth, who was somewhat older and larger than Tempest, flicked a spine, and the atmosphere in the hall grew distinctly colder. Moon figured that with the injured warrior having been taken care of, both queens had remembered that they were Raksura and therefore hated each other on sight. Amaranth said, "I assume he has a name."


Tempest flicked a spine back at her. "He's Moon, of Indigo Cloud."


Amaranth stepped toward him and Moon twitched back a step, ready to bolt for the exit. But she stopped, tasting the air. "He's been taken." She tilted her head toward Tempest again. "Not by you."


Tempest grimaced. "It's a long story."


Amaranth settled her spines and clearly made the difficult decision not to take violent offense. She said, "Then we'll sit down, and you'll tell it."


Moon groaned inwardly, resigned to a long evening of tension and stares.


They were led into another hall, this one a little smaller, with fewer passages leading off it. It was less drafty and had a large bowl hearth with warming stones, and the band of carved flowers and trees just below the curve of the ceiling looked older and more finished.


Moon was looking for a place to sit when another consort dropped out of the ceiling and landed at Amaranth's side. He was almost as tall as she was. He kept his winged form long enough to make sure the visitors had registered his size, then he shifted to groundling. In this form he didn't show any of the telltales of age: his bronze skin and dark hair hadn't started to gray yet. But there was a weight of gold bracelets and bands on his wrists and arms, the outward signs of Amaranth's regard. He caught Moon's gaze, making it clear he was speaking only to him, and said, "I'm Flint, first consort to Amaranth. Will you come to our hall?"


Streak, standing nearest to Moon, actually put a hand on his arm as if to stop him. Moon pulled away, baring his teeth in warning when Streak tired to reach for him again. Tempest hissed at Streak in barely suppressed fury, of the "you are embarrassing me" variety. Streak stepped back, looking confused.


Given a choice between going off with an unfamiliar consort in a strange court, or sitting here with the others and watching Tempest and Amaranth provoke each other, Moon didn't have to think twice. He stepped around Streak and followed Flint down the nearest passage.


They had only gone up two winding turns before Flint stopped and faced Moon. The passage wasn't empty; they were surrounded by ten or so worried Arbora. "Are they stealing you?" Flint asked bluntly.


"What?" Moon stared, taken aback. Then he realized what this must look like; consorts never traveled without queens they had either been taken by or were related to. He wished he was being stolen; then he could just kill Tempest and the others in their sleep and go home.


It was tempting for a moment to say "yes," just to see what would happen. But Moon thought it would cause more trouble for Viridian Sea in the end than it would for Tempest. "No," he admitted.


It must have sounded reluctant, because Flint lifted his brows skeptically. "Are you sure?"


Unable to muster any convincing sincerity, Moon just said, "It's a long story."


Flint accepted that with a nod. He motioned an Arbora over and instructed him to go back and let Amaranth know everything was all right, then he led Moon to the consorts' hall.


It was comfortable, though not as large and luxurious as Indigo Cloud's consorts' quarters. The hall itself was small but cozy and well supplied with cushions, and there was an attached bathing room and five bowers opening connected to it.


Moon did have to tell the story, but the good thing was that he got to eat right away, whereas Tempest and the others would probably be expected to make polite conversation for a considerably longer time, until Amaranth got over her pique. The food was served in the consorts' hall and Moon ate with Flint and three other consorts, one belonging to a sister queen and two untaken, the youngest looking as if he was just out of fledglinghood. There was tea, fruit, bread, and haunches of raw grasseater, and while devouring freshly killed prey in the forest had its attractions, this was much more restful. Moon told them the truth, though he didn't emphasize how long he had been alone in the east, leaving them to draw their own conclusions about when Indigo Cloud had found him.


He expected them to ask about that, but instead Flint said, hesitantly, "Your queen let you go?"


It was unexpectedly hard to say. It took Moon a surprisingly long time to get the "yes" out. Flint and the sister queen's consort exchanged a look; the two younger consorts stared at Moon with wide-eyed sympathy.


He had to look away, the tightness in his throat making it suddenly hard to get a whole breath. The hostility and contempt from Tempest and her warriors had been easy to take; the concern of these people almost undid him.



***



Moon had been offered a spot in one of the hanging beds, but took the furs next to the hearth in the hall instead. After a while, the second youngest consort came down and joined him, easing up against his back, and placing a gentle and tentative bite on Moon's shoulder. Moon had been among Raksura long enough to know this was an offer of sex. He didn't respond, but he didn't chase the other consort away, either. He liked the company but had decided never to have sex again; it was too hard on the emotions.


After a hopeful pause, the other consort nuzzled Moon's shoulder and settled down to sleep. A little later, the youngest one, apparently feeling left out, came down and insinuated himself between Moon and the hearth, cuddling against his chest. He still smelled enough like a fledgling to make Moon's heart twist. He didn't think he would be able to fall asleep, but he did, and slept better than he had since leaving Indigo Cloud.



***



They spent three days in Viridian Sea, waiting for the mentors to judge Prize ready to fly again. Moon spent the time with the consorts, going out to fly around the outside of the colony with them, exploring the hanging gardens inside their smaller but still intricate mountain-thorn. He heard the history of their amicable split with their mother court, and how they had reclaimed this old colony, once just a hunting outpost. It turned out that they had a line-grandfather too, but he spent most of his time at their old colony, and they seldom saw him. Some Arbora came up to join them in the afternoons and evenings, to tell stories and read aloud. It made Moon reconsider his decision not to live at Opal Night, if the worse came to worst. If the consorts there were this friendly, it wouldn't be so bad.


If worse didn't come to worst and Jade had left when she said she would, she would be two days ahead of them by now.


Finally, on the morning of the fourth day at Viridian Sea, Moon reluctantly left the consorts to join Tempest and her warriors. Tempest acknowledged his existence with a nod and an opaque expression; the warriors looked grumpy. He suspected their accommodations hadn't been nearly as comfortable as his. Before Moon had left the consort's hall, Flint had told him not to worry, that everything would surely be all right. He had said it with the unconvinced air of someone who knew that wasn't true but had no intention of saying what he really thought, but Moon appreciated it anyway.


They set out again, flying to the west.

Links Links Links

I went out to run errands this morning and almost got totaled twice by a person who decided to change lanes without looking and move over on top of my car and the guy in a giant semi truck that decided he was bored sitting at the stop light and would just let the truck roll backward because it's not like there were other cars in the world to run over. This one would have crunched me like a bug.

If you kill me in a car accident because you can't bare to get off your phone to drive, I will be the ghost who drags you screaming to a hell of eternal torture. Just FYI.

I can't remember who originally linked to these:

Photos: Visiting The Secret Train Platform Beneath The Waldorf-Astoria Over the weekend we had a chance to visit the long-abandoned Waldorf-Astoria train platform, which allowed VIPs to enter the hotel in a more private manner—most famously it was used by Franklin D. Roosevelt, possibly to hide the fact that he was in a wheelchair suffering from polio. The mysterious track, known as Track 61, still houses the train car and private elevator, which were both large enough for FDR's armor-plated Pierce Arrow car.

Salon.com If Tolkien were black
One of the most celebrated new voices in epic fantasy is N.K. Jemisin, whose debut novel, "The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms," won the Locus Award for best first novel and nominations for seemingly every other speculative fiction prize under the sun. Another is David Anthony Durham, whose Acacia Trilogy has landed on countless best-of lists. Both authors recently published the concluding books in their trilogies.

Although they came to the genre from different paths, both Jemisin and Durham have used it to wrench historical and cultural themes out of their familiar settings and hold them up in a different light. "I never felt that fantasy needed to be an escape from reality," Durham told me. "I wanted it to be a different sort of engagement with reality, and one that benefits from having magic and mayhem in it as well."

C.S.E. Cooney csecooney linked to the YouTube videos from her recent school program KidsRead Earthsea with the students of a public school in New York:

1/3 (on magic and consequence)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuLl7LuCKD4&feature=related

2/3 (on the power of names)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZUcCwv_Abw&feature=related

3/3 (on fears and how to use them)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWpLT3QRKJo&feature=related

I got some very good news this week, but I'm not sure whe...

I got some very good news this week, but I'm not sure when I can announce it. (!!!!)

As a result, I was a lot less stressed and got a lot done yesterday. Writing on a difficult scene on third Cloud Roads book, plus three loads of laundry, plus dusting and vacuuming the main areas of the house. I had already gone to early voting last week, so I didn't have to worry about that. Only bad part was it was supposed to pour down rain yesterday. We had an 80% chance of rain. And it did not pour. We got a few minutes of light rain off and on, and that was it. So the drought goes on.


Book rec:

I finished reading The Kingdom of the Gods by N.K. Jemisin and I loved it. It's the last book of an epic fantasy trilogy, told from three different very personal viewpoints. The first book is out in paperback, ebook, audiobook etc The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, which was nominated for the Nebula, Hugo, and World Fantasy awards.

Oh, and I know some of you are looking for middle grade and YA with female heroes, so wanted to point to this review of Winterling by Sarah Prineas.
Unusually, almost every character (except the puck-in-distress) is female, portrayed in all ages and roles—authority, hero, villain, mentor, warrior, healer, servant and goddess. Fer is herself brave and kind, but not unrealistically so; her magic is both matter-of-fact and a source of quiet joy.

I need to get going today because I didn't get much of an...

I need to get going today because I didn't get much of anything done yesterday, except having very complicated anxiety dreams.

Couple of things:

lady_schrapnell pointed out that The Cloud Roads is also available as an audiobook on Amazon UK.

I will be at the Austin ComicCon this weekend! Mostly on Saturday. I will be sitting at a table, when I'm not walking around looking at other people's tables.

For people doing Nanomowri: kateelliott posts about Writing Character: Details

Texas Renaissance Festival

Couple of links first:

I have a new guest post on The Night Bazaar: Readings and Signings Can Suck
When you are first starting out as a writer, doing readings and signings can suck. When you have had a career as a writer for years, doing readings and signings can still suck.

Unless you're one of the people whose first novel hits big and becomes a bestseller, your first readings and signings are not going to be well-attended. That's okay. Everybody (whose first books were not bestsellers, and many of those whose first books were bestsellers) has gone through/is going through the same thing. It's only the people who think that all books are bestsellers and that every writer's life is wine and roses and villas in Spain and vacations in Provence that are going to be scandalized by the lack of line at your spot on the signing table.

And the audiobook of The Cloud Roads is now up at Amazon here.

***

Yesterday we got given two free tickets to the Texas Renaissance Festival, so we went! And we had a great time. The site looked beautiful (even though it almost burned down in the wildfires twice this past summer, and we're still in severe fire danger conditions) and there were a lot more small craft people and artists selling things this year.

One very neat thing, author Peter Beagle was doing a signing out there with copies of The Last Unicorn and his other work, and I got to talk to him for a minute and get a signed book. I first met him when he was a guest of honor at ApolloCon in Houston a few years ago, so it was really neat to get to see him again.

(You wouldn't think the Texas Renaissance Festival would be a great place for a book signing, but a lot of the people in costume were just the right age to grow up watching The Last Unicorn movie. We never saw the table without a group waiting in line in front of it, and there were cries of "Dude! Dude! The dude who wrote The Last Unicorn is here!!!!")

I didn't spend much money, but got a small beeswax candle (from a 100% beeswax candle maker who was new there this year), a free candle from another candle place who was handing out coupons, some hand-made herbal handlotion, and a small stocking present for a friend. I was very tempted by many handmade soaps, but the soap lady we really like goes to the Sherwood Forest fair, so we decided to wait for her. (Handmade soaps last much much longer and we still have a couple of bars from buying them last February.)

Food: organic breakfast tea, cherry limeade, a sausage kolache (the pastry and tart selection was a lot bigger this year), a chicken pot pie biscuit, and samples from a place selling olive oils and other prepared foods.

It's a huge, huge fair, and I only took a few photos, trying to concentrate on areas I haven't gotten before and new stuff, and sort of succeeded:

AudioBook of The Cloud Roads

The audiobook of The Cloud Roads, narrated by Christopher Kipiniak, is out today!

This is exciting for me, because it's the first time one of my books has ever been recorded as an audiobook!

Writing Question

occamsnailfile asked: In the spirit of the month of writing process: Do you work from an outline, or write scenes of interest first and then connect them or some other method?

I don't usually work with an outline. I did with my two Stargate: Atlantis novels, which was actually where I learned how to write a synopsis before writing the book. I hadn't done that with my seven previous fantasy novels. I generally like to wing it, by figuring how the character and the world, and sort of a vague maybe one-sentence idea of the plot. Then I hunt around for a first scene and just start and see where I go. Sometimes that works and I go all the way to the end, sometimes I end up hunting around for the right spot to start the book and do a huge amount of revising before I get really going. It's taken me so long to finish the third Cloud Roads book that I ended up writing a synopsis as part of the proposal for the publisher, but the book was already at about 80,000 words then, and writing the full synopsis did help me figure out the ending.

Still taking writing questions in honor of NaNoMoWri week. I answered a few questions in my post yesterday here. Some are a bit spoilery for Cloud Roads but don't really get into plot specifics or anything I'd consider a real spoiler and I hate spoilers. There is a one sentence description of the plot of the third book that I'm working on now, so it might be considered spoilery, but I suspect that if the book is published, that would be revealed in the book description, so your spoiler mileage may vary.


***

links:

An excellent rant by Charlie Jane Anders at IO9: Why Science Fiction Writers are Like Porn Stars
I didn't want to write about Glen Duncan's nerd-baiting book review in last Sunday's New York Times. The one that starts, "A literary novelist writing a genre novel is like an intellectual dating a porn star." And just goes downhill from there.

The whole thing grossed me out, and felt like such a cheap shot that the only proper response was a sort of inchoate rage — the very response, I felt sure, that Duncan was counting on to prove his point. So I figured I'd interview Duncan about it, find out what the hell he was thinking, but he never got back to me. Here are the questions I wanted to ask him.

Q: Have you ever dated a porn star? How did it go?

Taking Writing Questions

In honor of NaNaMoWriMoMo:

Taking writing questions again: Ask me questions about writing in general, about publishing in general, about The Cloud Roads or The Serpent Sea or my other books, about whatever, and I'll try to make some coherent answers, either here or in a later post.


I may finish chapter sixteen on the third Books of the Raksura today, so yay. Of course, that just means I need to start on chapter seventeen.


ETA: for new friended people, I have a section on my website listing Links for Beginning Authors, with links to articles, resources, etc.