Yesterday, I chaperoned a field trip to the Minnesota Zoo. It was nearly a disaster as I briefly lost track of one of the four kids I was in charge of, but, luckily, it all worked out in the end. I'm still exhausted, but I thought I'd share a couple of the cool animal pics I took. These are both of the Amur leopard, which is part of the "Russia's Grizzly Coast" exhibit.
Come say good-bye (and merry meet again) to Garnet Lacey!
On Saturday, May 8, 2010, in my persona as Tate Hallaway, I will be signing HONEYMOON OF THE DEAD, the last in the Garnet Lacey series, at Uncle Hugo's in Minneapolis starting at 1:00 pm. The Uncles are located at 2864 Chicago Avenue, Minneapolis, MN 55407. You can call for directions or more information (612) 824-6347. If you are not able to attend, but would still like a signed copy of the book, you can find information on how to mail order on the bookstore's website: www.unclehugos.com
As a past special citation winner of this award, I like to pass on this news:
--------------
2010 Philip K. Dick Award Winner Announced
It was announced on Friday, April 2, at Norwescon 33, in SeaTac, Washington, that the winner for the distinguished original science fiction paperback published for the first time during 2009 in the U.S.A. is:
BITTER ANGELS by C. L. Anderson (Ballantine Books Spectra)
Special citation was given to:
CYBERABAD DAYS by Ian McDonald (Pyr)
*** PERMISSION TO FORWARD GRANTED***
Workshop: Changing Genres: How to Decide What to Keep & What to Dump, What to Change, What to Enhance, When Following Trends, Jumping into Different "Lines" or Going Down a New Road
Speaker: Beth Daniels
Date: April 5 - 30, 2010
DESCRIPTION: The publishing world is in constant transition with different aspects in novels changing, sometimes over a decade, sometimes - it seems - nearly overnight. Will you be ready? Or are you already thinking of jumping from your current "ship", swinging with the finesse of Captain Jack Sparrow onto the publishing vessel riding the waves to starboard or port?
There are a number of reasons why writers decide to try something different. Some do it because the bottom has fallen out of what they were writing, some because they are excited about a rising trend. Whatever your reason for considering making the leap there are decisions to be made. And that is what this workshop is all about.
Just because editors are no longer buying what you have been writing doesn't mean you need to junk your style entirely. There are elements that travel well between genres, even if the genres stay within the romance marketplace or leap into an entirely different marketplace. Determining what can or should be kept and what needs to be altered, enhanced, dumped, or learned goes beyond simply decided to take the leap.
This workshop runs four weeks and sets challenges twice a week. These challenges (or homework, if you will) address things like the marketplace, evaluating the elements required, making note of how many of them are already part of the writer's style, deciding what needs to be learned/adapted/changed, and even confessing - or realizing - the reason a writer is considering leaping into a new field. In other words, "what's it going to take and can I follow though?"
I started out as a romantic-suspense writer, segued into being a romantic comedy author (of both adult and young adult books), fell into writing corrupted fairytale short stories, and have been world building to launch into the fantasy market, so I've been jumping genres throughout my twenty year career as a novelist. Sometimes what these changes were made unconsciously and not as thoroughly as time and more thought about the process now demands. But they've kept me in contracts, not to mention extremely versatile.
All that is required of attendees is a vague idea of where they'd like to go, where they'd like to be as their writing career evolves. Both unpublished and published authors welcomed.
BIO: Beth Daniels currently writes as Beth Henderson and J.B. Dane, though she answered to Lisa Dane and Beth Cruise in the past as well. She has worked with editors at Berkley, Zebra, Leisure, Harlequin/Silhouette, and Simon and Schuster's Aladdin Paperbacks, done e-books for a now defunct company (not her fault, she says), and began her writing life with hardcover books slated for library use with a publisher that got out of the romance business (again, not her fault). More recently she's had a number of articles about writing picked up by e-zines, saw a short story published in a mystery and suspense magazine that turned up its toes the next year (really, really not her fault), and has a story in the MOTHER GOOSE IS DEAD anthology slated for publication by Dragon Moon Press sometimes in 2010.
For over a dozen years Beth taught college level composition, both in the classroom and online, and a credit course on Novel Writing. Five of her former Novel class students are now published.
Twenty-six of Beth's manuscripts have appeared in print or e-book format. These have been historical romantic adventures (6), romantic comedies (10), romantic-suspense (3), and young adult romantic comedy (7). Her titles have appeared in 12 different languages in over 20 countries. At the moment she is working on various manuscripts and attempting a collaboration with another RWA member on a contemporary/fantasy/romantic adventure. She also ventured into self-publishing to keep her out-of-print backlist in print, but previous e-books in print, and in frustration, to move beyond a manuscript she'd been reworking for editors for a decade with no bites, released a previously unpublished historical romantic adventure set in the American West.
She is currently/or has been a member of/or about to renew membership in Romance Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, Novelist Inc., and Historical Novelist Society. Website: RomanceAndMystery.com
Fee: $20 CRW Members; $25 Non-CRW Members. FMI about the workshops or speakers, or to register: http://www.coloradoromancewriters.org or email Online Workshop Series Coordinator, Karen Docter, at coloromancewritersonlineclasses@yahoo.com To subscribe to Online Workshop Series mailing list, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CRWOnlineclasses A minimum of 5 students registered two days prior to class start is required for workshop to remain viable. No refunds after 24 hours prior to class start.
On Facebook, I got this question in response to the status update that I was beginning work on the sequel to ALMOST TO DIE FOR (NAL, August 2010):
How do you motivate yourself when you're staring at a blank page? It kills me every time.
The deeply personal reply to this is that I'm actually MORE afraid of working on the novel in progress than I am of a blank page. In fact, I actually open up a new document every time I sit down to write. I do that in order to lie to myself. The lie I tell myself is that this is just a draft, it's not part of the REAL novel, and so it's okay if it sucks. Otherwise, I would be too paralyzed to write.
I also write it in Georgia font, single-space so that it "looks" like a draft and not the real document, which is in Courier, 12 pt, double-spaced standard manuscript format. The really ironic, silly part is that, when I finish the scene or however much I end up writing that day, I usual cut and paste it EXACTLY the way I wrote it.
I could probably save myself some hassle if I'd just write in the "real" document. But my brain just can't. I feel too much pressure for what I write there to be perfect, you know?
Weird, huh?
But I think the thing that's really at the heart of this question is: how do you deal with STARTING something? For me the answer is: do a lot of pre-writing. These days, I almost never start a novel that I don't have an outline/synopsis for, which means I know the basic plot point, the beginning, middle and end. When I sit down to figure those things out, I pull out my trusty notebook and start scribbling. So I hardly ever start anything with knowing, at the very least, where I INTEND it to go.
Of course, it doesn't always go where I say it will.
And, just recently, I tried starting a short story without any idea of where it was going, and guess what? It's sitting in my hard drive completely stalled out. *sigh*
Jill M. Smith reviewed Honeymoon of the Dead (Berkley, May 2010) for Romantic Times Book Reviews. She gave it 4 stars (highest = 4 1/2) and said:
The fifth and final chapter of witch Garnet Lacey's adventures comes to an offbeat conclusion. Garnet has grown throughout the books, but this time, some of her earlier misdeeds come back to haunt her. This highly enjoyable series embodies the old saying, what can go wrong... Thanks to Hallaway for hours of escapist delight.
Given that I didn't KNOW this was going to be the last book in the series, I'm pleasantly surprised to see that the reviewer thought it held up as well as all that. Also, I didn't think that Penguin was sending out ANY review copies, so seeing something here (and so positive!) really made my day.
Somehow I missed Jim C. Hines' publication of the novel survey results part II wherein he tackles the myth of the "overnight success" and "you have to know someone." Both myths -- BUSTED. Check out the results!
Here also is novel survey results part III in which he asks the question: "Can you boost your odds?" of being published by attending conventions, being in a writers group, having an advanced degree in creative writing, etc. The answer to this one is less clear, but interesting reading, none-the-less.
***PERMISSION TO FORWARD***
SELF-PROMOTION: Does the very term make you cringe? Do you suffer from "Not-Doing-Enough-Self-Promotion" guilt? Do you think self-promotion is something you'll have time to learn AFTER getting The Call? Here’s THE online workshop for you:
April 5th – 18th -- “GUILT-FREE AUTHOR PROMOTION: Picking the Right PR Options For You”
PR consultant/Berkley author Marcia James and a slate of promotion-savvy guest lecturers will present this two-week online workshop that provides insider tips, hard-won knowledge, and the tools to pick the PR options right for YOU. The lectures include:
Promoting Yourself Before "The Call" by Beth Morrow (Wild Rose Press)
Web Site Design by Karen McCullough (Cerridwen Press & Karen's Web Works)
Online & Print Press Kits by Patricia Sargeant (Kensington/Berkley)
Co-Promotion by Dianne Castell (Kensington, Berkley & Harlequin/Silhouette)
Group Blogs by Donna MacMeans (Berkley)
Author Promotion Sites by DeNita Tuttle (AuthorIsland.com)
Print Advertising by Janice Maynard (NAL)
Public Speaking by Karen Harper (MIRA)
Networking/Power-Schmoozing by Susan Gee Heino (Berkley)
Social Media Sites by Kathy Kulig (Ellora's Cave/Cerridwen Press)
Author Newsletters by Kay Stockham (Harlequin Superromance/Berkley)
Readers' Loops by Carol Ann Erhardt (Wild Rose Press)
Podcasts by Melissa Alvarez w/a Ariana Dupre (Cerridwen Press)
Workshop participants will learn about author branding, create tag lines, and identify elements within their work that lend themselves to niche marketing. In addition to the guest-lectures, Marcia will discuss cross-promotion, print and trinket PR materials, author interviews, and more. And all participants will receive Marcia’s 280-page Microsoft WORD file, filled with detailed information on all types of promotional options.
The workshop is hosted by RWA San Diego (RWA-SD). Cost is $15 for RWA-SD members and $20 for non-members. See http://www.rwasd.com/training/index.html for registration.
Learn to love (okay, LIKE) self-promotion. ;-) And banish the guilt of not doing enough PR. Join us online in April! See you there!
Marcia James writes hot, humorous romances and finaled in 11 RWA contests before selling her first comic romantic suspense, At Her Command. Her short story, "Rescue Me", appeared in Tails of Love, a Berkley benefit anthology, and her latest story, Love Unleashed, was released in February. In her eclectic career, she has shot submarine training videos, organized celebrity-filled nonprofit events and had her wedding covered by People Magazine. An advertising copywriter and marketing consultant, Marcia presents online and in-person author promotion workshops.
The more I think about the question my friend asked yesterday, the more I'm irritated by it. (For those of you just tuning in, the question was:)
When people who aren't writers suggest that if you hate certain parts of writing, maybe you shouldn't do it, do you want to wring their necks, or do you just think it's time to be less honest about your feelings?
Yesterday, I answered: wring their bloody necks. Today, I say: do it, twice. It's justifiable homicide.
Thing is, I suspect that one of the reasons my friend is getting this kind of dis is because she's at a place in her career that non-writers simply fail to understand.
For instance, I don't get asked this question, and, Goddess knows, I complain plenty. But, see, I get paid to write. You can complain about your JOB.
My friend is a working writer*, but she hasn't broken out in a way that non-writers get. There is no book spine with her name on it (not yet!) Thing is, there are people in my business who have won major science fiction/fantasy awards (like the Hugo) for short stories, and probably they get the same lack of respect this kind of question implies.
There's a really dismissive hierarchy in our business that we sometime even apply to ourselves that goes something like this: the only REAL writers are those with publishing credits. But to be really real, you need to have published a novel from a respected NY publishing house, and then better if you're a NAME, someone who has broken the NY Times bestseller list, gotten one of your novels turned into a movie, or is an actual, honest-to-goodness household name, ala Dan Brown, Stephen King, Stephanie Meyer or J. K. Rowling.
That whole thing is so self-destructive and, frankly, delusional in a way that's extremely harmful to our business and those who work in it.
When I was a working writer without publishing cred, I made a conscious decision to stop saying (when asked what I did), "Oh, I'm a secretary, but I'm really a writer." (or worse, "I really WANT to be a writer.") I started telling people, "I am a writer." When they asked the inevitable follow-up, "Oh? Are you published?" I said, "Not yet." I actually had someone walk away from me at that point in the conversation because he deemed me no longer worthy of his attention.
Not only is that rude, but it's also wrong-headed. I think people feel justified in dismissing working writers because of this inane idea that anyone can write. People think that because they speak English, they can write. They're wrong. Writing so that you can be understood is actually a very specialized skill. Writing a rip, roaring story with a beginning, middle and end is a phenomenally specialized skill. Anyone who has actually put their butt into a chair and started that "great American novel" realizes in a heartbeat just how difficult it is.
People who never have tried think it's easy, and therefor completely dismiss the working writer in the early stages of her or his career.
Other writers have been known to dismiss fellow working writers for the complete opposite reason, which is, because they know how hard it is to break in, they have no respect for anyone who hasn't done it (or, interestingly enough, those who fail to continue to do it as well.) For them, I think it's a knee-jerk (heavy on the jerk) reaction to "there but for the Grace of God," however, this response is also rude and wrong-headed.
* A writer is someone who writes. For me the definition of a working writer is someone who writes, finishes what they write, and sends it out. You have the right to call yourself a writer at any point in your career, IMHO. You should also have the right to complain about your job at any point in your career, IMHO, even if you haven't gotten a paycheck yet.
I know that, for me, one of the pivotal points in my career was when I joined the National Writers Union. I was suddenly surrounded by (mostly journalists, but) people who not only made some kind of living writing, but who also demanded to be paid a decent wage for it. This was an eye-opener for me, because previously, like most Americans, I tended to think of writing as something people just did for the fun of it. I thought I was savvy enough to understand that you didn't get paid very well to write and so I should always think of writing as my bit on the side, as it were. But the National Writers Union taught me the value of my work. I should demand pay for what I do, because it *is* a skill, like any other. You wouldn't expect a plumber to work for free; you shouldn't expect a writer to either.
Which is why, actually, I sometimes have a hard time with what I'm doing right now: blogging. With all due respect to my friend Jo Walton and her like-minded colleagues, I'm NOT one of those pixel-stained radicals that believes information wants to be free. Yet, I understand that the market demands it. I believe, however, that giving content away undermines my value as a writer. I think one of the reasons people feel free to dis my friend and all other working writers like her is because everyone *is* a writer these days. You can read a thousand blogs (and stories and novels, for that matter,) for free, and be fairly entertained. People work a lot harder on their blogs than you might think -- the good ones, anyway. All that labor is unpaid. I think that's a crime, or at very least a bloody shame.
If attitudes about writers changed significantly, I might feel differently. For instance, if people start respecting working writers regardless of a paycheck, then paychecks wouldn't matter.
But they do. I'm afraid, my friend, that money still gets the last word, and that is: you're not a real writer until you get paid to do it (and even then, only the really BIG paychecks count.)
A fellow writer and friend of mine asked this question:
When people who aren't writers suggest that if you hate certain parts of writing, maybe you shouldn't do it, do you want to wring their necks, or do you just think it's time to be less honest about your feelings?
Wring their bloody necks!
As I told her privately, I think there's a bunch of things wrong with the basic assumption of this question. At the heart of it is the issue that, in this country at least, art of any kind, including writing, is considered a luxury. So, if you're complaining about something as trivial as all that, then you're being foolish. You should love your "hobbies" or not do them at all.
Bull (on so many levels.)
Number 1: hobbies are very worthwhile. In fact, if people didn't do cool stuff in their spare time, we wouldn't have gardens, volunteer corps, and any number of amazingly awesome things. But that's a whole separate rant....
However, the place it overlaps is here, in number 2, which is that because art isn't valued in our society, the only time people have to express their art is during their spare time. I wrote the first four novels I published in science fiction while working a full-time job. Why? Because writing doesn't pay the bills, EVEN WHEN YOU GET PUBLISHED. And you know what? I wrote for years before I got published, which meant I did it in between work, house cleaning, and, well, life.
Unlike most other professions (but similar to most arts), there isn't really a structure to follow to "become" a writer. If you want to be a brain surgeon, you go to medical school and can get loans and tons of support from society while you're learning your skill. Writers? Not so much. There's only a lot of crap you get from your non-writing friends while you're learning the craft of writing, such as the rude questions my friend is fielding. I mean, WTF? Would you tell a medical student to quit belly aching over her/his residency requirements? No. Why? Because being a doctor is something Americans see as a valuable profession. Writing is just some quirky luxury. Everyone needs a doctor; no one needs a book, a short story, or, god forbid, a poem.
Except we do.
People have always needed stories.
This morning, while taking Mason to school, I had to stop the car to let a wild turkey cross the road on Summit near Victoria. I excitedly pointed it out to Mason, who looked up from his Pokemon book and said, "Huh, the chicken must have had the day off!"
My son, the comedian.
Every Wednesday, I get together with some women writer friends to, well, write. Although, to be honest, we tend to spend a lot of the time talking. Often we talk about our families or politics or funny YouTube videos, but sometimes we chat about the industry, writing process, and our own sense of what it means to "be" a writer.
Yesterday the theme was career arcs. Each of us is in a very different place. One of the women is "established." She wouldn't say so, but she's a NAME in science fiction/fantasy and has been writing and publishing since I was in diapers. There's me, a moderately successful mid-list author, and my other friend whose career is in a kind of crises. Like a lot of us, she started out strong with a number of well-received, NY published fantasy novels, and then the contract didn't get renewed, and it's been some time since she's had quantifiable success. She's written steadily despite the vote of no confidence, and is, quite understandably, reaching a breaking point.
I bring this up not to embarrass my friend, but because one of the things we all talked about is the importance of hearing other professionals tell their stories. I don't mean their fictional ones, but the ones about how they broke in, how they overcame career obstacles, and how they keep writing despite it all, you know?
There's a tendency when writers get together to have b*tch sessions about how the publishing industry screwed us, how stupid our editors are when they don't recognize our genius, etc. But I know that one of the most valuable things I did when I was desperate to break in, was find places where I could sit at the feet of professional writers and LISTEN.
In some ways, just knowing someone who has actually published professionally and seeing that they're a real, live person you can reach out and touch is HUGE. I know that when I was young, I thought that all writers lived places I'd never visit like in a Greenwich Village apartment in New York or in an artist's garret in Paris. One of the first time I met someone who wrote a book I'd read, it was at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival academy and I was wildly unimpressed (which, I actually think might have been a good thing, because, suddenly, I realized that real writers were real people and could be huge jerks and not just saints or otherwise untouchable heroes.) The second writer I met was the established writer mentioned above, when we both were members of the National Writers Union, and that meeting was similarly transformative but in a much more positive way. I had someone I could ask all those burning questions of (though I was scared to at first.)
Minnesota writers are lucky too, because we have so many local writers who attend the science fiction/fantasy conventions (which are also numerous) as well as strong romance and mystery writer organizations. There are readings all over for almost any flavor of writing -- including art/literary writing and poetry. There are so many resources in this town, it's easy for me to forget that a lot of other cities and towns don't have anywhere near what we have here.
But my point is (and I do have one), support during your career is critical. Having friends and colleagues to listen to (when you need to learn), complain with (when you need to vent), and strategize with (when your career hiccups -- and, believe me, it will) is incredibly valuable.
Make writer friends. Keep them. It's so important to survival.
I'm not sure, at the end of the day, we helped my friend. But we talked a lot of strategy and, probably more importantly, listened supportively. One thing I took away was that what we all could use in our profession is more stories about what to do when you hit speed bumps in your career.
Career stories always have something to teach us about the business. When you get a chance to -- listen. Hard.
Jim C. Hines published the first part of his novel survey results over on LJ: http://jimhines.livejournal.com/496760.html. Check it out, it's fascinating stuff. I was surprised/not surprised how perfectly I fit the survey results. (I published exactly 1 short story before professionally selling my novel, submitted through an agent, etc.) Though it seems more people have sold fantasy, and more recently than me.... but all and all, very interesting.
Over at Wyrdsmiths, Eleanor Arnason asked if there were things you, as a writer, feel comforted by or "need" to write. I thought about this question while I avoided writing (cleaned the dining room floor, changed the fish tank's water,) and I decided that what I need to write is a window.
As I noted in the comments, I've worked really hard over the last several years (particularly when I made the switch to becoming a full-time, stay-at-home writer,) to not NEED any talisman to write. I've trained myself to work at any time in any place. That being said, I think there are things that make me work better -- a rainy day, a cat on my lap, tea in my cup, and a window to glance out. The window, I find useful, in particular because when I'm composing I often look away from the screen to organize my thoughts. I think I think better when I get a look into the neighbor's kitchen or to rain drops spattering climbing rose stalks or something at least mildly pleasant (the snow melting, etc., although currently all the snow that's left are those horribly filthy black chunks.)
This is, of course, a luxury -- one provided for me by the fact that I can write at home, near a window. I wrote large chunks of several novels in a basement office cubicle, so, clearly, I don't NEED these things. But when I have them, they make the writing process more pleasant.
How about you?
Last night I couldn't find the paperback novel I've been reading, so I picked up a book that I'd taken out of the library. It's by someone I consider a colleague and happens to be on the Nebula ballot this year.
I started reading it. Then I threw it down in disgust.
The plot sounds awesome. The prose is beautiful. But there is a distinct lack of verbs.
Why? For the love of God, why, I ask you, do people feel that it's artistic or atmospheric to have sentences (no, technically FRAGMENTS) without verbs? I absolutely hate that stylistic choice.
Though I've had this argument before -- and probably technically lost it the moment books without verbs were published and went on to win Nebulas and such -- I still maintain that writing without verbs is lazy. Yeah, yeah, poetry is built on lovely fragments. But novels aren't meant to be poetry, they're meant to be stories. Stories have action, and action words are verbs.
I'm okay with the occasional fragment, honestly, I am. But six or seven fragments to a page, not so much. (Note clever use of fragment for emphasis here.)
Seriously, as someone who writes first person almost exclusively, I understand the need to establish "voice" and it is true that people think in fragments. However, writing is artificial. Being in your head is too confusing; that is why I read your book. Writing is the process of making story make sense and pulling order from chaos. Part of that deal is providing the structure of sentences, which have a subject and a verb (though one can be implied on occasion -- usually the subject, not the verb.)
What I think bothers me most of all is that somehow this kind of sloppy writing has become a shorthand for "artistic." You drop a few verbs and people are all, "Wow, you're deep and meaningful." Except I suppose, more correctly, they'd simply utter, "Deep. Meaningful." because then there would be no verbs.
Why do you hate the English language so, Artistic Writer? WHY?
AAAAAAARRRRGH!
--- x-posted from WyrdsmithsI feel much better after my brief bout of food poisioning, thank you. And now that the smoke has cleared, as it were, and Mason's vacation is over, I should probably take a moment to figure out what's on my to-do list.
1. Go over CEM of ALMOST TO DIE FOR, which is due March 16 on my editor's desk.
2. Review and comment on Kelly's proposal (chapters and synopsis) for Wyrdsmiths on Thursday night.
3. Finally make .pdfs of all my recent novels, as requested by my agent, as well as make .pdfs of the promotional postcards and bookmarks for my up-coming releases so I can send them off to the printer.
4. Continue work on "darker" proposal for my editor, who passed on the lighter cow mutlilation mystery (baffling!) to send off to my agent next week.
5. Review and consider whether or not I really have a story in the short bit I started about the space prositute, currently called "Cold Chrome." (Not sure. As previously noted, I'm a horrible short story writer. They actually take a long time for me to write because I'm terrible at figuring out structure for shorter works.)
6. Get started on the sequel to ALMOST TO DIE FOR which is due in four months.
I think that's everything on my plate right now. Luckily, a lot of them aren't super critical. I mean, I can set aside the promotional stuff for a few weeks, but I really do need to get going on both the proposal and the sequel for my editor. Obviously, I'm going to start with the stuff due first -- the copy-edited mss. and the "homework" for Wyrdsmiths.
Boy, when I look at it like this, I have a lot on, don't I?
Of course, today, when I'm sick as a dog, I get the note from my editor's assistant that they're sending along the copy edited manuscript of ALMOST TO DIE FOR, which needs to be back on their desk on March 16.
The problem (and plus) of having so many books coming out in one year is that there's a lot of stuff that needs to get done -- all of it, right now. I spent much of the day in bed, but then, after I saw the note, I had to pull myself out of bed and try to be upright for a while -- at least long enough to download the mss.
Blurg. Pity, party of one!
What I should be doing is starting work on either a proposal (of a darker variety) for my editor or beginning the sequel to ALMOST TO DIE FOR. Instead, I've been goofing around on a short story.
Remember how I said that it's a bad idea to write to market? But that I also understand the impulse because I tend to get caught up in anthology descriptions? Well, I was looking for a home for a short story of mine that I wrote some years ago at Ralan.com, and as I often do, I started wandering through their anthology section. I came across a bunch that totally caught my eye and flared up my imagination. One is looking for stories about prostitutes, another wants stories about being the last [fill-in-the-blank] on earth, and yet a third is looking for space opera. So, I said to myself, hey! What about a story about the last gigolo in space??
So I started it, but I'm terrible at short stories.
I think all the things that make me pretty good at writing novels make me fairly awful at short stories. I tend to start with a simple idea and before I know it six or seven threads have spun out. A short story should really focus on one or two, I think, to be successful. (Although, honestly, what would I know?)
I'm about two thousand words into this short story ("Cold Chrome") and it's already spinning out of my control. But I'm going to keep writing on it until I stop having fun... or Monday comes, whichever happens first. (Monday is my deadline to get back on track with all my writing work, as Mason is finally back in school.)
Tonight, I'll be at MarsCON starting at 6:00pm. See all you local folks there!
