Martha Wells's Blog, page 236

Brenda Novak Auction and Buy Indie Day

Four things:

First, it looks like my email was bouncing yesterday so if you sent me something and I didn't answer, please resend.

***

The Brenda Novak Online Auction for Diabetes Research starts today! There are an unbelievable number of items for readers, writers, and people who like to buy stuff. The opening bids are usually only $2.00. There's a fabulous prize for the person who bids the most.

Here's an auction for an evaluation of a proposal by Jennifer Jackson at the Donald Maas Agency.

And h

For fan film fans (say that three times fast) here's a ne...

For fan film fans (say that three times fast) here's a new one: The Hunt For Gollum. It's a forty minute Lord of the Rings prequel that will be available for free download May 5. Two trailers are online already and it looks pretty good.

I also highly recommend Star Trek: New Voyages (from the second episode on) and Star Trek: Of Gods and Men.

Oh, and speaking of fan films, several people have linked to this, most recently slodwick, but if you haven't seen it yet: Henson's 11. It's Ocean's 11 wi

Couple of links:dancinghorse (Judith Tarr/Caitlin Brennan...

Couple of links:


dancinghorse (Judith Tarr/Caitlin Brennan/Kathleen Bryan) has some great offers here, including commissioning a short story or poem set in any one of her universes, mentoring for writers, and a visit to Camp Lipizzan!


***


TAMU's quick facts and resource page for information on the swine flu.

Writer Beware has an article on Writer Reality TV Shows. ...

Writer Beware has an article on Writer Reality TV Shows. Yeah, I have no idea.

I've added the first Giliead and Ilias story "Reflections" to the stories I have available on Anthology Builder. Anthology Builder allows you to build your own print anthologies from their lists of stories, and is a really interesting site.

***

belleps asked: How do you approach building a believable world?

I think it does help to do research, to know how real cities work, to know how the people in your setting are get

mahoni asked: How do you psych yourself up to keep going ...

mahoni asked: How do you psych yourself up to keep going through the middle? Or, just, how do you keep going?

I think that's one of those things that gets easier after you've finished more long stories or novels. Since the middle can be the part where the excitement is fading, the writing is more work than fun, and it just takes commitment and a belief in yourself that the final product will be worth reading -- even if you think you're the only one who's going to read it.

Also, you have to lear

You guys are posting some great questions, and I'll defin...

You guys are posting some great questions, and I'll definitely get to all of them.


supurnuva had also asked: 2. Is it difficult for you put your characters through bad events or write them doing bad things? Especially if you don't intend for them to have a happy ending later?

Yes, it is. I think if you don't care about your characters it's much harder to get your reader to care about them. If I'm going to kill somebody off, I usually have to psych myself up to it early in the book, so I don't wi

Here's a link from Bill Crider's Blog: Digital Karnak: E...

Here's a link from Bill Crider's Blog: Digital Karnak: Each video shows scenes from the Karnak virtual reality model, photographs from the site today, maps, and present-day video footage.


***

Taking more writing questions in order: supurnuva asked: 1. How do you write in a voice that distinctive from your own? What I mean is, when I write fiction, I seem to get stuck either in an overly reflective first person that's far too similar to how I write journals, or in a chatty, wry, vaguely 19th centu

The website RisingShadow.net, which is in both English an...

The website RisingShadow.net, which is in both English and Finnish, just posted a short interview with me (in English) here.

***

In the writing questions post, miketo had asked: For you, what's the most difficult part of novel writing?

The middle, definitely the middle. The beginning is exciting, because you're introducing the characters, the world, all the fun parts. In the middle you have to start pulling all the plot threads together while still pushing forward, and everything has to start mak

Here's a quick rec for a story I just read and enjoyed ve...

Here's a quick rec for a story I just read and enjoyed very much: Where Virtue Lives by Saladin Ahmed. It's a fun fantasy adventure, free at Beneath Ceaseless Skies.

seanmoon asked: Short stories versus novels--can you tell...

seanmoon asked: Short stories versus novels--can you tell us your thoughts on the two different forms, both in terms of which you like to write better and why, on a purely artistic level, and what the pros and cons of each are terms of publishing/economic/making money?

I definitely like to write novels more than short stories. I like having more room to build the world, get into the characters, and so on. I haven't done that many short stories that weren't set in the world of a novel already wr