Woo Hoo!

Yay, there's actually something to write about!

So "Obsolete," my first published story, was just released in issue #8 of M-Brane SF. It's been a long time coming--I sold the story back at the beginning of February, which really isn't all that long in publishing time, but still feels long--and I'm really happy to see the finished product.

First things first: go over to M-Brane SF and pick up a copy of the magazine. Single issues cost $2, or you can get a year's subscription for $12. There are a lot of great stories, and since M-Brane is working to increase its visibility, it's a chance to support writers like me and give us a place to publish our short stories. Short fiction publishing is going down the crapper in a hurry--possibly more on that in a future post--so zines like M-Brane need all the help they can get. Go now!

I'd like to point out that the delay was entirely my doing, and not that of M-Brane editor Christopher Fletcher. If Chris had had his way, the story would have come out in April or May, but since I had entered a contest for unpublished writers literally two days before I got Chris's note that he wanted to take the story for M-Brane (one of the stipulations of which contest was that I couldn't have any works published before late July, when the magazine running the contest would have been published), I asked if it would be possible to hold off on publication of "Obsolete" until I heard the results, and Chris was gracious enough to push things back a few months. Needless to say, nothing came of the contest, and here we are.

I just reread the story when I received my copy of the magazine, and while there are probably a few things I'd do a little differently now, basically a year out from the last time I touched it, I really like this one. It's nothing earth-shattering, but it's fun, and isn't that really what it's all about? The more I think about it, though, I'm not convinced that the story is finished; I mean, it's got an ending--it definitely resolves--but there's more to say, so it may be that one of these days you'll get to read the further adventures of Mr. Ellis. In fact, I'd say it's a fairly safe bet.

The biggest thing that sticks out to me now is the pop culture references. Being that the story is set thirty-or-so years in the future, it may seem odd to readers that all the cultural markers referenced by the characters come from the last ten to twenty years (meaning the '90s and '00s). I hope that people get that the characters think this way because there's a sort of pervasive nostalgia for the time before the war (read the story and you'll see what I'm talking about), but since I never made that point explicit, it may be that readers will just think I'm dumb, or lazy, or both. Hopefully, and I think it is, pretty clear that's what's going on; people who have read and commented on it so far seem to get it, so maybe I'm just worrying too much.

Well, there it is. If you're reading this post in the first place, then you've probably already read the story, but if not, I hope you have a chance to do so, and either way, I hope you liked/like it.

He wrote a six-word story.

Today Eric alerted the rest of us Inklings to this old Wired article that asked a bunch of prominent, mostly SF authors to write a six-word story, a la Hemingway's famous, "For sale: baby shoes, never worn."

After reading what some of my favorite authors came up with, I decided to take a stab at it myself. Here are a few that I came up with after some (admittedly brief) musing:

Cities vaporized, no survivors; terrorism suspected.

Stomach turning: first day of school.

Ribs showing; neighbors looking more delicious.

It started and ended too soon.

It's really kind of fun; give it a try for yourself!

Why isn't writing a "real" job?

Thought I'd complain to the air about something that's been bugging me of late:

Why is it that whenever you tell someone you're a writer, the response is almost universally some kind of polite you-poor-misguided-fool smile and nod, as if to say, "Let's not upset the idiot?" Even better is when you get some jerk who can barely hide his contempt for the fact that you're not off somewhere trading stocks or buying some company, as if by writing you couldn't possibly be contributing anything useful to society.

I like to console myself with the belief that people who act this way often do so because they know they aren't a) intelligent or b) creative enough to do what I'm doing, and use their response as a way to get back at me for doing something that I like, and actually want to do. But I think the real reason is usually attributable to the way our society undervalues people who do creative things: "Why would you want to write books? Nobody reads anymore." There are tons of writers, musicians, filmmakers, with real talent, who get passed over all the time because what they're doing isn't "marketable." Basically, unless somebody can make a profit from you, you're just taking up space.

Anyway, that's my beef. You'd think that maybe with all the outrage about executive compensation, corporate mismanagement, etc. that's been going on, people might spend more time reflecting on what it is about our society that got us to this point in the first place; but then you'd be wrong. Maybe someday.

Until then, I'll keep writing, and all the jerks can rest assured that they're better than me.

Finally.

And now for the promised news: the first book of the historical fiction trilogy is done.

Well, the draft is done, anyway. I've still got to type everything I've written so far (I've got about 52,000 words--around 250 pages of 12-point courier new--typed, and am guessing I'll end up somewhere around 70,000). Then I have to revise the whole thing, which means fixing all the continuity problems where I changed my mind about how things were going to work midstream, adding in all the chapters and scenes I decided to add after I was already past the point where they fit into the narrative, trying to catch most of the typos, and generally attempting to make the whole thing sound like it was someone with at least a passing command of the English language. After that it goes out to the Inklings (and maybe a few lucky others) to critique. Once they've had their way with it, I can get down to some serious rewriting. Hopefully at this point I'll have something that's presentable. Then the real fun starts, with sending out query letters to agents, trying to convince someone that my books is the greatest thing since sliced bread and that they would be crazy not to try and convince some publisher to give me a large sum of money to publish it.... Oh, and at some point I need to decide on a title for the thing.

Let's just say I still have a lot of work to do.

It's going to be a long process, but I've been getting good feedback on the stuff people have seen so far, so hopefully it will pay off. And I'll also finally have a chance to finish and start submitting all the partially-written stories I've been sitting on while trying to get this thing done, which I'll do between finishing the initial typing and starting revisions.

Move along, nothing to see here.

Since I seem to be in serious danger of becoming one of those people who starts a blog and then never updates it, here's a little tidbit for you:

I just finished writing what is probably my favorite scene of the entire novel; it's the one I've been looking forward to since I started writing. I've had it completely visualized ever since I wrote the outline, so it was fun to finally get it out of my head and onto the page. I hope it will be as vivid for others when they read it.

With this scene now done, all that's left is the big payoff; it's all downhill from here.

Stay tuned for more news soon (I hope).

Writing is hard.

I've reached a point in the novel where a lot of heavy stuff is happening in quick succession, and I have to tell you, the writing of that stuff is really taking it out of me.

It's a double edged sword: on the one hand, I have to force myself not to put off writing the tough scenes, since I know they're going to be tough; on the other hand, I take it as a good thing that I'm feeling so strongly about what I'm writing, since it means I've developed my characters enough, and invested enough in them, to care about what they're going through. It seems to me that if I can't feel the things I'm writing about, people will know it when they read.

This is all a long-winded way of saying I hope readers will feel the same things I felt when I was writing. If they do, then I'll have done my job, and all the tough writing days will have been worthwhile.

A Fine Day in Hollywood.

This weekend was the first of what will in theory be many more meetings of my writing group, Inklings II (see how we made it original there? Eh?). We held this one at the Barnsdall Art Park in Hollywood, which features the view you see here; I figure this is as good a place as any to subject people to my amateur photography.

Not being allowed to set up chairs on the grass aside, it was a very productive day. I got a lot of good feedback on the novel, and it's always fun to read what everybody else is working on. All of it is really cool, and I'm looking forward to reading the finished products.

You can see what the rest of the Inklings II are up to at their respective sites. At least for Garrett Calcaterra, Craig Comer, and Pete Vander Pluym; Ahi and Eric get links when they have something to link to (not to say that they haven't done anything, just that they don't have sites).