Category Archives: Process

SO Not the Star of this Little Play

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SleepingBuddhaEveryone who publishes short fiction knows that we have to write a lot of bios. Some just repeat, but every so often they have to be updated. The first few are fun. “Talk about the glory of ME? Sure!” But somewhere around the 40th or 50th you realize “OMG, I’m even boring myself!”

The work’s never boring to me, and I hope to (almost) no one else, but talking about me? That gets old quick.  I totally understand the impulse to just make s*%t up (“Richard Parks’ hobbies include breeding racing slugs and teaching Tai-Chi to polar bears.” You get the idea). Interviews, on the other hand, are a bit different. Especially when the people conducting them have done a little homework and ask interesting questions. I’ve written a lot of bios in my time but I’ve done very few interviews for obvious reasons. So it was a bit disconcerting when, over the space of a week, I wound up doing three: one general and one story-specific interview for LightSpeed and another for SFSignal.com. Mercifully short ones in both case, and I’ll put a link up for anyone who cares once they’re online. One of those for LightSpeed  will be in conjunction with a reprint of “The Man Who Carved Skulls,” probably in the May issue. They asked such good questions that even I, the sole living authority on that story, had to really think about it.

Sure, it’s flattering and all when someone pays attention to us as writers, but what really floats our little boats is when someone pays attention to the work. Otherwise, we’re just talking to ourselves.

Scenes From a Marriage #7 – Plus News.

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 Scene: Sterling the Cat is sleeping curled up on the sofa table. Carol is pushing on his belly with her fingers, saying “Knead, knead, purr, purr” over and over.  Sterling the Cat takes no notice except to yawn and stretch, apparently enjoying what to him are scritches.

Me: What are you doing?
She: I’m giving Sterling a taste of his own medicine.
Me: Meaning?
She: He keeps kneading me like a loaf of dough and purring in my ear at 4AM!
Me: So you’re interrupting his sleep as payback.
She: Yep.
Me: That’s a cat.
She: Yes. So?
Me: You do realize that cats are immune to irony, don’t you?
She: Oh….right. Then I’ll pick him up and hug him!
Me: Good choice.
Sterling the Cat: (yawns)

 
Prime-Notecard-AdThere was a little more going on besides the metaphysical quirks of the house felines. For one thing, I’ve just confirmed that the Yamada novel, To Break the Demon Gate, has been delayed until later this year, probably November. Also, there was the spiffy Prime Books notecard that shipped with the February Locus, including Yamada Monogatari: Demon Hunter along with Future Games and Weird Detectives. Since I’m in 2 out of those 3 books, I rather liked it. Also, LightSpeed Magazine will be reprinting “The Man Who Carved Skulls” in a future issue. I’ll give a date as soon as I have one, but from the writer’s perspective, you gotta love reprints—the work’s already done and you get paid again anyway.

Speaking of work, I just finished the first story of the new year, working title is “The Nothing Boat.”  I’ll need to set it aside to cool enough before I look at it again, which is fine because I have another story to work on. And a novel to write. I’m going to be busy this year, I can tell.

 

If This is Tuesday, This Must Be…

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Monday was nonsense day. Not that every day isn’t, but today I’ll try to fit in some, you know, actual information. I try to do that now and then, if only to remind myself that it exists, if anyone wants it.

WRITING 02First off, the Yamada Monogatari: Demon Hunter giveaway at Beneath Ceaseless Skies is almost over. Wednesday is the last day to enter, so if you’re interested in getting a big chunk of the Lord Yamada stories in one place for free, that’s the place to go. Preferably no later than tomorrow, otherwise that particular ship has left the dock.

Second, it seems that In the Palace of the Jade Lion from BCS #100 has made the Locus Magazine Recommended Reading list for 2012. You can see the full list here.

Finally, I know at least two people out there have been wondering when the #$@# sequel to Black Kath’s Daughter is going to be done. The answer, I’m afraid, is “not for a while.” At the moment, the project is officially on hold, or as officially as anything ever is around here. There’s something else brewing that’s going to require that it be put on the back burner for now, simple as that. I’ll say more when or if there’s anything solid to tell.

Muse and Writer Dialogues #8

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Fade In: It’s the library. Same old furnishings, same old computer desk and chair. WRITER is sitting in the chair, staring at a computer screen. Enter the MUSE, at the moment looking a bit like a cross between Annie Wilson and Pat Benatar.

 

MUSE: All right, time to work on your scales…wait. What are you doing?

WRITER: What does it look like?

MUSE: It looks like you’re writing.

WRITER: Good. That’s what I thought, too, but you can never tell about these things.

MUSE: Aren’t you a musician now?

WRITER: Puh-lease. When I can improv riffs off a major or minor pentatonic scale, then I’ll call myself a musician. When I can play “Sweet Home Alabama” and it actually sounds like “Sweet Home Alabama,” I’ll call myself a musician. Not before.

MUSE: I thought you’d given up writing for guitar.

WRITER: Haven’t given up writing. Haven’t given up guitar, either, and I’ve got a scheduled practice session coming. Only now, it’s time to write. Which is what I was doing before you interrupted me.

 

MUSE undergoes a quick costume change. Now she looks much more like a Greek goddess than a rocker chick.

 

MUSE: Would you kindly pick one thing or another? This is making me dizzy.

WRITER: Sorry, really, but I can’t do that. Since when have I been able to do one thing to the exclusion of anything else I wanted to do? I’m a self-centered, capricious creature at heart. You know that.

MUSE: Yeah, but I was hoping you’d forgotten.

WRITER: It’s a tough job. I don’t envy you. By the way, there have been some developments, just in case your attention has been elsewhere—the new book is selling really well.

MUSE: That’s nice, but so? That’s already written. Doesn’t involve me.

WRITER: No, but the next one will. As soon as I finish this story which absolutely no one is waiting for.

MUSE: I can’t help you with that last part. But…a new one? I’ll see what I can do. But just so you know—I’m keeping the rocker chick outfit.

WRITER: Good. I still can’t make a decent F major.

MUSE: Then practice it. In the meantime, just substitute a D minor instead. It’s the relative minor for that chord.

WRITER: Relative minor?

MUSE (sighs): We have a looong way to go, don’t we?

 

 

Things That Make Writers Cranky, Things That Make Writers Happy

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eBook cover for Ghost Trouble--The Case Files of Eli MothersbaughThings That Make Writers Cranky

Working on a story for a week or more, juggling nuance, testing for subtext, reading for continuity, trying to understand your own theme so that you’ll understand what the story is really about even if no one else ever does, doing all the things you know to do to make a story work.

And knowing all the time you’re sweating over the thing that, at this point in time and with the condition of the short story market, there isn’t any darn place anywhere that you can send it.

It’s no mystery why many writers drink. The real mystery is why they all don’t.

Things That Make Writers Happy

Milestones. We like them, probably because there aren’t that many. Unlike growing self-confidence and Writer’s Arrogance (a separate topic), there just aren’t many indications that you’re making progress, or getting it right. There are a few: your first non-form rejection (harder to parse in email, but possible). Your first re-write request. Your first story sale. Your first anthology invite. Your first novel sale. Your first award (any award) nomination. Your first “Best of the Year” nod.

One problem with a “career” that lasts more than a few years is that, after a while, you start running out of milestones, and as I said before, there aren’t that many to start with. Makes it a little harder to figure out where you stand. So I was pleased no end to finally hit another milestone last weekend: I walked into the local Barnes & Noble and found Yamada Monogatari: Demon Hunter on the “New SF/F” shelf. Now, granted, this isn’t the first time I’ve been in a book in a bookstore. Happened a lot with an anthology. But my one previous novel sale was to a publisher who specializes in selling to libraries, so the book didn’t get general distribution. I’ve had three other collections, but most collections don’t get general distribution either. This was the first time a book that was “MINE! ALL MINE!” was in a bookstore that I could walk into and find it there. Just like any other real book.

So another first, and I was positively giddy. And, trust me, I haven’t been giddy in a long, long time.

FYI: I’m slowly working through my backlist in an attempt to make everything that is currently available, currently available in all formats. So GHOST TROUBLE: THE CASEFILES OF ELI MOTHERSBAUGH now has a print edition. For those of you who like your books to be, you know, tangible.