When I get my next job...

...I'm definitely investing in some of these:

Would it be fair to get some for my coworkers as well to level the playing field, or should I rule the hallway with a nerf fist?


I see that smile.

Zombies! Run!

Ok. This has me rolling.

What else is there to say?

I see that smile.

Reality TV I can support

Okay, so perhaps it isn't full-on reality, but I'll take this show over all the other ones that are clogging the networks lately. 

I see that smile.

Urban fantasy deconstructed

Author Carrie Vaughn has done a three part series on urban fantasy, explaining its virtues, its downfalls, cliches, and what "urban fantasy" means in the first place. 

Is there a formula to determine whether a story is urban fantasy or not? Carrie argues that the first thing to look for is whether the story is character driven or not. 

She then reveals her pet peeves concerning the genre, including the fact that she dislikes the whole title of "urban fantasy" in the first place. Plus a story having only a single strong female character that is then surrounded by men. Oh, and the tramp stamp tattoos that are becoming more prevalent on the cover art of a lot of these stories.

Lastly, Carrie sums up all her observations and concludes that it seems urban fantasy is designed to address society's anxiety about women and power. Do you agree? 

A great series of posts. Well worth the read.

I see that smile.

Brain-drilling wasps

Okay, not quite. But close enough. Are researchers honestly not thinking about what could be done with this technology should it fall into the wrong hands? 

Any particular technology trends that have you leery? Like household robots or A.I. pets? Let's start Monday off with a little panic attack about the failing of Asimov's Three Laws, shall we?

I see that smile.

A plea to overwriters

This is one of my failings that I try to weed out of my first draft, so when I ran across this plea to Overwriters by the Editorial Ass., it resonated enough that I needed to share. 

Overwriting is a difficult bug to squash. For every instance of overwriting that you manage to exterminate in a manuscript, there are at least a dozen others hiding in the text. 

Why do we overwrite? 

1. We are trying to prop up weak text. 

2. We like proving how vocabularious we are. We just got a shiny new thesaurus and refuse to less than five 10-syllable words when describing the heroine's hair.

The problems with overwriting?

It muddies the text, making sentences more convoluted and lengthy. The reader has to mentally slow down and sometimes re-read something two or three times before catching the meaning of it. Other times, it can make a description downright incomprehensible because of all the modifiers tacked onto it. 

A main goal in writing is clean and concise prose. Never use more words than neccessary--admittedly, a tough thing to judge. 

Is this a struggle for you? It often is for me, and so one of my techniques is, once I have a first draft, force myself to cut out  a certain percentage of the word count--anywhere from 10-25% on the first revision. That way I'm trimming down only to the essentials. 

I see that smile.

Contest results

The voting and judging is done for the Clarity of Night short fiction contest. A great job for everyone. Some stellar stories that really stood out from the pack. 

Let me thank everyone for your votes that got me in a tie for 3rd place Reader's Choice. I appreciate all the great comments people have left for my entry, Cleanup in the Food Court. I love these contests and have had a ton of fun each time. I'm already looking forward to the next one.

Be sure to visit the blog and congratulate the winners!

I see that smile.

Unemployment

It's happening a lot around the country right now. A bunch of people both I and my wife know have been hit by the news that their position has been downgraded, eliminated, or whatever other word is used. And, unfortunately, this became the case for me late last week.

The company I worked for at least mentioned a couple weeks in advance that layoffs were coming, though they of course wouldn't list any names until the day of the actual announcement. So everyone had a chance to mentally prepare for the possibility. Still, it's never an easy thing to deal with. The company has been reduced to a skeleton of itself and people who I considered friends, as well as valuable contributers to our workplace got cut off along with me. Right now, I'm already on the job hunt again, seeing if there are other writer-friendly jobs out there and also trying to boost myself into some freelance work. Even in the midst of this, I think of myself as fortunate that, while I am not gainfully employed for the moment, we don't have to worry about things like massive debt, health problems, or car repairs. We remain blessed by supportive family and friends, have a roof over our heads, a dog that continues to love us unconditionally, and a cat that loves us whenever he wants to be fed. I've even managed to start cooking a little more with some of my free time.

Plus, in between sending out ye ol' resume, I've gotten some quality writing time in on my current story. I don't want to succumb to the Pollyanna syndrome and pretend everything is all bright and shiny and green on my side of the fence, but it does help to take a moment every now and then and remind myself that, despite the bummer of losing a job, things could be a lot, lot, lot worse, and to be thankful for what we do have. Like a thick stack of books to read outside in the sun in this unnaturally warm January we're having.


I see that smile.

Wow, 125 entries

So the latest Clarity of Night short fiction contest ended yesterday. Did anyone else enter? Send me the link to your post if you did. There are over 125 entries this time around. Quite a turnout. It's always fun to see this many people's interpretation of a single picture.

(Here's mine: #44 - Cleanup in the Food Court)

We should be hearing next week who the winners and honorable mentions are. Also, don't forget that there is a Reader's Choice Award as well. Email in your top five story picks to Jason Evans. More details about that are here.

And check out the two extra submissions made by previous short story contest winners, Jaye Wells and Sarah Hina, who both have novels on the way to being published.

I see that smile.

Query contest

Head to The Swivet, where agent Colleen Lindsay is hosting a "Best Query Letter in 140 Characters or Less" contest. Fake queries, or queries from people already agented or published are welcome.

Have fun.

I see that smile.

An interview with Ursula K. Le Guin

If you've never read anything by Le Guin, you've missed out on a big founding stone of the speculative fiction genres. Whether fantasy or science fiction or a mix of  both, Le Guin's writing never fails to create numerous worlds inside your head, along with characters that are walking, talking, breathing and feeling--seemingly just as alive as the people you interact with every day.

In this interview, Le Guin touches on everything from book-to-movie adaptations (and why books are better) to the themes her stories revolve around. She also has a particular quote that reveals a lot about her worldbuilding, and something a lot of us can learn from:

Yes, but for the Hainish Cycle of books you invented over 80 different inhabited worlds, each with its own cultures and physics...

No, no, thank you for saying so, Steve, but if I really had, I would admire myself tremendously. I would be in awe of my own staggeringly great mind. What I did was give the illusion of there being all those different worlds. That’s called art, or fiction, or something. The rule is, you only invent what you have to. And that’s pretty much what’s right in front of the reader. Let’s say it’s an ansible. I do not, in fact, invent the ansible. I do not explain how it works. I cannot, but shhh. I simply present the device as working, and as coming from a society which is far in advance of ours in science and technology, having spaceships that can travel nearly as fast as light, et cetera. And this background or context creates expectation and softens up the readers’ credulity so that they’re willing to “believe in” the ansible—inside the covers of the book. After the ansible had been around for a while, I invented the man who invented it, Shevek, in The Dispossessed. And he and I played around with some pretty neat speculations about time and interval and stuff, which lent more plausibility to the gimmick itself. But all I really invented was a) the idea of an instantaneous transmitter and b) a name for it. The reader does the rest. If you give them enough background/context, they can fill in the gaps. It isn’t just smoke and mirrors. There has to be a coherent vision of how things hang together in that society/culture/world. All the details have to fit together and be thought through as to their implications. But, well... it’s mostly smoke and mirrors. What else is any fiction? 

I see that smile.

Literary hoaxes

This is one of the reasons I never want to write non-fiction--so my writing doesn't come under this kind of critical scrutiny.

It seems that many people are willing to embellish their life stories, or even make them up entirely, in order to get published. James Frey, Harvard graduates, and others seem desperate to get false stories published about their lives. 

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1868982_1868981,00.html

See what other literary hoaxes have played out, from legendy figures such as Shakespeare to Davy Crockett himself.

Then wonder why they are willing to write these stories. Is it to make their lives more exciting? To draw attention to themselves? Because they think they can get away with it? 

Would you ever try to turn one of your stories into a true account of what you've experienced?

I see that smile.

Recovering, and some book giveaways

After being sick yesterday, my body seems to be trying to go into hibernation today and dragging my mind along with it. Therefore, instead of whipping myself into shape and trying for something original and creative in the post today, I will instead point you in the direction of a series of contests being held for book giveaways. 

This first one has a set of four books from four different authors up for grabs. The only catch is you must go through something of an intellectual scavenger hunt and get a series of questions right in order to be put into the drawing. Don't worry. If I could do it in my mashed-up state yesterday, you should have no problem.

Jim C. Hines' The Stepsister Scheme is the focus of this giveaway, which requires nothing more than an email submission.

And, if you enter today, you have another chance to win The Stepsister Scheme from SciFiChick.

Good luck all.

I see that smile.

Great, creepy art

The title says it all.

See more of it here.

I see that smile.

Writing quotes

Since I pointed out that thread of rejection quotes the other day, I thought it fitting to highlight a source of encouraging and insightful writing quotes. Quote It Write is a blog run by Josephine Damian, where she both lists and provides illustrations of various quotes that touch on all aspects of the writing life and process. These quotes come from notables such as Jodi Picoult and Ernest Hemingway to Stephen King and Edgar Allen Poe. 

Plenty to browse through, and it gets updated every couple of weeks, so keep in tune. Also, be sure to check out Josephine's other excellent blogs, such as her book-oriented one, The Griffin Reviews. 

I see that smile. 

The contest has begun!

The Clarity of Night short fiction contest has officially begun. The photo used for inspiration this time is titled "Ascension."

The deadline is January 14th, the word count limit is 250, and  the prizes are:

1st Place: $50 Amazon gift certificate, 8 x 10 print of the "Ascension" photograph (inscribed by Jason Evans)

2nd Place: $20 Amazon gift certificate

3rd Place: $15 Amazon gift certificate

4th Place: $10 Amazon gift certificate

5th Place: $5 Amazon gift certificate

Readers' Choice Award 1st Place: $15 Amazon Gift certificate, 8 x 10 print of the "Ascension" photograph (inscribed by Jason Evans)

Readers' Choice Award 2nd Place: $10 Amazon Gift Certificate

Readers' Choice Award 3rd Place: $5 Amazon Gift Certificate

For the rest of the rules and notes on how Evans judges the entries, check out the main post, and be sure to keep checking back to read and comment over the submissions. Let me know if you send anything in, and good luck all!

I see that smile.

Rejection quotes

There's a writing forum that I visit often and would recommend to anyone looking for a helpful community of writers and agents who are there to sympathize, support and motivate each other to do the best job they can. 

Absolute Write has every genre involved, sub-forums set aside for critiques and beta readers, and even a section for people wanting to investigate particular agents or agencies and make sure they aren't getting scammed (important! If you don't know why, be sure to ask me). 

Anyways, while browsing through there recently, I came across this thread that deals with quotes about rejections and thought it'd be fun to share. 

Here are two of my favorites for starters:

"I discovered that rejections are not altogether a bad thing. They teach a writer to rely on his own judgment and to say in his heart of hearts, "To hell with you."

-Saul Bellow 

"Practice, practice, practice until you eventually get numb on rejections." 

- Brian Klemmer

Got any quotes that have stuck in your head for a while? Ones that encourage or prod you in the rear to keep going even when you've passed the hundredth rejection mark? Share it here (or on the forum and then link to it here so we can all check it out). Happy Monday, folks.

I see that smile.

Sleep in late?

If you made a New Year's resolution to sleep in late more often (as is my constant wish) then here are some articles that should make you happy. 

This one gives you three reasons why it's smart to sleep in late, including the fact that making yourself get up to an alarm clock that sounds like a fire truck combined with a wailing baby is more stressful on your body.

And for the writers and other artists among us, you might be surprised (or not) to know that studies have revealed night owls to be more creative across the board.

Now, don't you feel better about staying up until 3am and sleeping in until noon? I sure do.

I see that smile.