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Posts Tagged ‘books’

The Slow Production of Written Things

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 10, 2015| 1 Comment »

Back in the fall, The Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy interviewed Patrick Rothfuss about his new book, The Slow Regard of Silent Things. In it, he touches on the details of his writing process, the likelihood that he revises “more than anyone else in the genre,” why his prose sounds like “dark chocolate,” role-playing games and many other topics.

… because we have the ability to have fantastic plots and armies clashing and magic and dragons, it’s easy to leave out other things and one of the hardest ones to do is language.

If you’re interested in the process of fiction, in Pat’s writing, or in why he thinks you might not want to buy his new book, check out the full transcript now posted by the good folks over at Lightspeed.

* As an added bonus, the interviewer describes fantasy and science fiction as “the imagination Olympics.” So true!

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In Defense of Fantasy

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 3, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Ursula Le Guin has an interesting piece up at the Book View Cafe blog about Kazuo Ishiguro’s new novel The Buried Giant. She has issues with specific elements of the book but the part that caught my attention was the reason she felt compelled to write the piece in the first place.

In an interview, Mr. Ishiguro wondered whether his readers would label the book as fantasy. And, as Ms Le Guin says, “It appears that the author takes the word for an insult.” Regardless of Ishiguro’s intentions, this provides Le Guin with a jumping off point for discussion. Her defense of fantasy is concise and compelling.

Fantasy is probably the oldest literary device for talking about reality.

As she lays out the case for fantasy as more than “childish whims,” I am again reminded that the value of imagination lies not in its escape from reality, but in its distillation of significant questions of life and death, purpose and perils, loss and joy. In short, the human experience writ across the universe.

That’s big. I’d better get back to work.

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SFWA Welcomes Self-Published and Small Press Authors

Posted in Likes, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 4, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Interesting news, and a big change for the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America:

SFWA Welcomes Self-Published and Small Press Authors!
…the basic standards are $3,000 for novel, or a total of 10,000 words of short fiction paid at 6 cents a word for Active membership.

More information is included in the linked article, and full details will be posted at the SFWA site in March. Given the shifting landscape of publishing and the multitude of ways authors now have to reach an audience, this is great news. If you write and are paid at a professional level, you will be eligible for SFWA membership regardless of venue. All the more reason to keep at it:)

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From Annihilation to Acceptance

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 29, 2015| Leave a Comment »

This week there’s a fascinating piece in The Atlantic by Jeff VanderMeer, author and editor, on the experience of writing:

From Annihilation to Acceptance: A Writer’s Surreal Journey: The author agreed to publish three novels in one year—and then things got weird.

In it, the author details the terrors, trials and triumphs that went into the making of his latest series. Annihilation, Authority and Acceptance make up the Southern Reach trilogy, about “a dysfunctional secret agency called Southern Reach and its efforts to solve the mysteries behind Area X, a strange pristine wilderness.”

I’ve had this series on my books to read list and now plan to bump them up to the top. For more on the books, including sample chapters and links to retailers, or on the author, check out the links above.

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New Anthology Free From Tor.com

Posted in Entertainment, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 7, 2015| 2 Comments »

A new anthology is out for free from Tor.com, and it includes twenty-six of their favorite short stories, novelettes, and novellas from 2014. Tor.com does publish its fiction online, of course, but if you prefer a transportable and handy-to-read format for Kindle, Nook or similar device, you can download the full anthology now for the low, low price of nothing, nada, zip, rien, tipota.

Some of the Best from Tor.com

Enjoy! I know I will:)

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We All Start Somewhere

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on December 2, 2014| Leave a Comment »

In the wake of NaNoWriMo, I thought it instructive to point out Jim C. Hines’s new book, Rise of the Spider Goddess. This is an annotated version of a novel he wrote in his formative years. In other words, it is a bad book. And he’s sharing it, on purpose, for entertainment, for edification, and to help other writers recognize that we all start somewhere.

So, fair NaNo’ers (and others), as you review your 50,000+ word opus, do not despair if you realize that the draft over which you slaved is actually really very awfully bad;) And as Jim says in his introduction to the book on John Scalzi’s Whatever:

Writing a bad book is nothing to be ashamed of, because dammit, I still wrote a book. Then I wrote more of them. And with each one, I got better.

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Shake Hands with the Unknown

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 24, 2014| 1 Comment »

What draws a reader into a book? What breaks their connection with the material world and plugs the brain into an alternative dimension? Sure, cover design, a known author and positive publicity blurbs all have something to do with it, but as speculative fictioneer William Gibson argues in The Atlantic, the first sentence is what invites you in.

The First Sentence Is a Handshake – The Atlantic

For William Gibson, author of The Peripheral, a kind of invitation is extended—and readers will or won’t feel what he calls “the click.” But it’s not just about connecting with an audience. In a conversation for this series, Gibson explained how first sentences invite the writer, too: they contain a blueprint for the book that will be written.

I don’t write the way Gibson does, laboring over the first line until it is worthy of the effort the rest of the book will take, but I do go back to it and rewrite. Ahem. A lot.

The article is full of interesting thoughts from the man who coined the term “cyberspace.” For more on Gibson’s method, his views on the proper balance between mystery and clarity, and a discussion of his newest book, The Peripheral, check out the full article at The Atlantic.

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Ursula Le Guin Steals The Show

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 20, 2014| Leave a Comment »

At the National Book Awards yesterday, our Lady Le Guin accepted an award for distinguished contribution to American letters. In her acceptance speech she went to bat for speculative fiction writers in particular. See this link from Parker Higgins for the full text of the speech.

As NPR reports:

“I rejoice in accepting [this prize] for, and sharing it with, all the writers who were excluded from literature for so long: my fellow authors of fantasy and science fiction,” Le Guin said.

She also had some choice words on the recent Amazon-Hachette battle over pricing:

“We just saw a profiteer try to punish a publisher for disobedience, and writers threatened by corporate fatwa,” she said. “And I see a lot of us, the producers, accepting this — letting commodity profiteers sell us like deodorant!”

It just goes to show that writers tend to be anything but boring. Especially writers of science fiction and fantasy.

 

[Edited to add speech text and video links.]

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James Ellroy on Writing

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , on October 16, 2014| Leave a Comment »

If you’ve ever wondered how master writer James Ellroy puts together a dark, twisting crime novel, or plots stories as deliciously complex as L.A. Confidential, wonder no more.

“I’m a romantic, I love the big challenge and I’m gonna give it to you.”

This Fast Company article by Joe Berkowitz discusses Ellroy’s style (right now), his process (research, let it simmer, then go big, really big), and finally, bring it all together in a tight-packed ending. Enjoy!

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Shadow Unit 1: Free

Posted in Entertainment, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 24, 2014| Leave a Comment »

This has been true for a while but Shadow Unit 1 is available to download for free:

Shadow Unit is a contemporary science fiction series about a group of FBI agents struggling to protect humanity from the worst monsters imaginable. Except some of our heroes may be on the road to becoming monsters themselves….

Get started on this reader-funded series with writing by Emma Bull, Elizabeth Bear, Sarah Monette, and Will Shetterly for nothing, nada, zip, tipota!

Kindle version at Amazon: Shadow Unit 1. Epub, pdf, and other formats at Smashwords: Shadow Unit 1.

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