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Posts Tagged ‘Fiction’

New Story at Perihelion Science Fiction

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on November 12, 2013| Leave a Comment »

I’m very pleased to tell you that I have a new story, Just Like [Illegible] Used to Make, up at Perihelion Science Fiction. It’s now freely available online. Enjoy!

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Show Up and Get It Done

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , on November 6, 2013| Leave a Comment »

As you can see from the widget in the sidebar (just there, to the right:) I am indeed doing NaNoWriMo this year and I’m making decent progress. I am not worrying about writing a work of unimpeachable genius. I am not sweating typos. I am not questioning my character’s motivation or whether he really would want to eat the fried pigeon at that corner street cart (he does, he told me so). I’m just showing up and getting it done.

Show up and get it done. That is a decent summary (ok, paraphrase, she’s a little more forceful:) of Cat Valente’s NaNo Pep Talk for today, and I was happy to see it. I was also happy to see her push for the possibility of writing that is done fast and also well. It’s not all going to be good, but there’s no reason why it should be bad. And no matter what happens, it certainly won’t be a waste of your time.

Check out the Pep Talk, enjoy the wisdom of a voice of experience. Then whatever your project may be, show up and get it done. Good luck!

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Wasps at the Speed of Sound Contest

Posted in Other, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on October 30, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Earlier this month I was fortunate enough to win the Five Rivers Publishing Wasps at the Speed of Sound contest! It was a great competition and gave me the opportunity to decode the Morse Code message on Derryl Murphy’s Wasps at the Speed of Sound book cover, designed by Art Director, Jeff Minkevics.

It was a lot of fun and (extra yay) means that I also get to enjoy not one, not two, but ten e-books from Five Rivers. The chance to sample such a wide range of books is terrific, and I can’t wait to read them all:) Thanks, Five RIvers!

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Sing with Me

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , on October 24, 2013| Leave a Comment »

“Writing and reading decrease our sense of isolation. They deepen and widen and expand our sense of life: they feed the soul. When writers make us shake our heads with the exactness of their prose and their truths, and even make us laugh about ourselves or life, our buoyancy is restored. We are given a shot at dancing with, or at least clapping along with, the absurdity of life, instead of being squashed by it over and over again. It’s like singing on a boat during a terrible storm at sea. You can’t stop the raging storm, but singing can change the hearts and spirits of the people who are together on that ship.”
― Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

By this definition, I spent the morning singing. Hope you did too.

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The First Pancake Problem

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , on October 22, 2013| Leave a Comment »

I’m working on a draft of something today, and it helps to remind myself that the important thing, the first thing, is to get it down. I can fix it later, and even if I don’t to quite my satisfaction, I’ve still done something.

“Anyone who’s ever made America’s favorite round and flat breakfast food is familiar with the phenomenon of The First Pancake. No matter how good a cook you are, and no matter how hard you try, the first pancake of the batch always sucks. It comes out burnt or undercooked or weirdly shaped or just oddly inedible and aesthetically displeasing. Just ask your kids. At least compared to your normal pancake–and definitely compared to the far superior second and subsequent pancakes that make the cut and get promoted to the pile destined for the breakfast table–the first one’s always a disaster. I’ll leave it to the physicists and foodies in the gallery to develop a unified field theory on exactly why our pancake problem crops up with such unerring dependability. But I will share an orthogonal theory: you will be a way happier and more successful cook if you just accept that your first pancake is and always will be a universally flukey mess. But, that shouldn’t mean you never make another pancake.”
— Merlin Mann

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Reading for Generation Mars

Posted in Likes, Other, Science!, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 15, 2013| 1 Comment »

This article by scientist Pascal Lee has a great point: reading helps kids turn dreams into reality. I just have one tiny bone to pick, and that has to do with the non/fiction divide:

“Let’s get ready for Mission: Mars and take our kids with us. Let’s start them on this journey with a non-fiction STEM book.”

I absolutely agree that Science, Technology, Engineering and Math learning and advancement requires books of the non-fiction variety. That’s right, actual facts are actually important. No question. I would add, though, that not only is it not bad if Generation Mars includes fiction on its reading list, doing so will help them with that first bit: having dreams. It’s also important to remember that much of the best science fiction is based on extrapolated science fact.*

“The best way to predict the future is to create it yourself.”
— Peter Diamandis

As Lee points out, Scholastic’s “Read Every Day. Lead a Better Life” motto is right on target, but why limit that reading? Non-fiction shows you how to build the path, fiction helps you decide where you want to go and imagine what it will be like when you get there.

I can’t wait to see where Generation Mars takes us.

* While “top X” lists are always arguable, they can be a great place to start. Check out this list of The Best Hard Science Fiction Books of all Time: Ten titles that inspired Technology Review to publish TRSF, its own collection of sci-fi stories.

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What Makes a Good Short Story

Posted in Likes, Writing, tagged , , , , , , on October 8, 2013| Leave a Comment »

While this article* might be more appropriately titled “What Makes a Bad Short Story,” it’s still an interesting read from Heidi Pitlor, editor of The Best American Short Stories series and someone with an astonishing exposure to the depth and breadth of short stories.

…”Sometimes, story writers seem to forget to write scenes.” This sort of thing is fine if scenelessness is done intentionally. But too often, we as readers enter a story via a small action (a door opening, a phone ringing) and then are held captive while the author utilizes a disproportionate amount of space introducing a character, his marriage, his children, his divorce, his parents and his emotional limitations before we return to the room he just entered or the phone call that just begun. In a 17-page story, each page matters. Each sentence matters. Pacing matters.

This may be more of an issue in literary fiction than genre fiction, but it can happen anywhere. (I’m currently reading a genre novel where life-and-death chase scenes are regularly interrupted by peaceful jaunts down memory lane. Srsly?) If you want me to rush headlong into a story, don’t put up speedbumps. And while we’re at it, don’t take life so seriously:

Here are some things I wish I saw more frequently: humor, genre-bending, humor, risk-taking, a more direct addressing of real world matters, humor.

Having somewhat goofy tendencies myself, I’m pleased to see her emphasis on humor. Because what’s the point if you can’t laugh, am I right?

* Yes, there’s a typo in the article. No, it’s not a big deal, no matter what she does for a living. Would you rather she’d refused to publish the piece in an obsessive attempt to ensure its perfection, before finally giving up and tossing it in the trash? I would not:) Do the best you can, but keep moving ahead.

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Time for a New Read

Posted in Entertainment, Likes, tagged , , , , , , , on October 6, 2013| Leave a Comment »

It’s time for me to find a new book to read, and what better place to start looking than SFSignal’s delightful visualization of NPR’s Top 100 SFF Books? Sure, the list is a little older, but literature is timeless, people, timeless!

SFSignalNPR100

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Submit!

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on August 27, 2013| 1 Comment »

If you want to increase your success rate, double your failure rate.
— Thomas J. Watson

Today I finish two new stories and submit them. At least, that’s my plan. It’s a good plan. Even if I lose, I win:)

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Coding My Way Out of a Corner

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on August 24, 2013| 1 Comment »

Some days I stand here at my desk trying to generate a creative thought (or even two!) and it doesn’t happen. If I can’t do the thing I set out to do I still try to do something, so on those days I look for alternatives to get my mind working. My latest filler project is a little Applescript (sorry Windows, I just don’t swing that way) that pops up a window with practice ideas for writing projects. Not what to write, but what to practice while writing.

Here’s the code with a sampling of my current list of practice topics. If this is your sort of thing, substitute your own practice topics as necessary:

set x to some item of {"*action*", "*all five senses*", "*catchy beginnings with a hint of the speculative*", "*characterization*", "*cliffhangers*", "*conflict*", "*distinctive dialog*", "*emotion*", "*grounding*", "*imagery*", "*immediacy*", "*openers*", "*scenes*", "*settings*", "*showing instead of telling*", "*smart science*", "*visual detail*", "*writing without 'was'*"}
set textToType to "Practice " & x & " in your story today."
set answer to the button returned of (display dialog textToType as string buttons {"Excellent idea, thanks!"} default button 1 with icon note)

So it’s code today, perhaps cake tomorrow. Chocolate. Triple tier. With Bailey’s icing:)

/unless that’s a lie

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