Top this, if you dare!

If you've read Gibberish for any length of time, you'll probably have twigged onto the fact that I get a kick out of whining about almost selling every story I send out. The "close but no cigar" factor, I suppose you could call it. I know many starting writers out there would love to get personal rejections, and I appreciate the attention, truly I do. But sometimes "almost selling" reaches comic proportions. Lest you think I exaggerate, I offer a sampling from my most recent flush letter:

Jayme, it's terrific to see something new from you, as always--especially when it's a piece this strong...

This is a really great tale--fast paced, exciting, with a great plot & a terrific opening. I was especially impressed with the well-realized setting & the intriguing main character.

Exciting, eh? That's what I thought. But then it goes on for half a page explaining that no, they're not going to buy the story. Granted, concrete reasons are given for the decision, so it's not wholly arbitrary. Rather minor points, actually, one of which could be cleared up with a modest rewrite. The second, well, the nature and structure of the story precludes any real changes in that area, but I could at least address it superficially here and there.

And no, after reading the rejection many, many times, I can't interpret it as a subtle request for a rewrite and resubmission. It reads pretty cut-and-dried. But that hasn't stopped me from shooting off an email to the editor asking point-blank if they'd like one. I don't expect them to say yes, but hey, I'm not that big of a fool.

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Let's get contemplative!

There is an interesting article up over at Library Journal which has the unfortunately lame title of Sci-Fi 101. Yeah, like that moniker conveys any useful information at all. What the article actually discusses is a focused study giving insight into what draws patrons to the genre of science fiction, as well as what drives them away.

There is a bit too much space devoted to stating the obvious, such as the fact some readers use the term "Sci-Fi" to include fantasy as well as science fiction proper, while others view one sub-genre or another as anathma. Wow. Some SF readers are snobs about fantasy, and vice versa. Big surprise there. Yes, I know the target audience is for those librarians and related folk unfamiliar with even the most basic conventions of the genre, so sue me. The article makes up for the kindergarten approach, however, when it examines the questions of why readers continuously return to the genre, and why some eventually abandon it:

Satisfied readers will keep choosing sf, and a solid strategy may keep a reader turning to the genre even when it is no longer satisfying. The main reason people abandon sf is saturation owing to increased reading experience.

More than any other genre, sci-fi delicately balances between being familiar and being new. Too much "new" is inaccessible. Too much "familiar" fails to provide the desired reading experience. The balancing point is unique for each reader and likely changes over time.

Highly experienced readers may become saturated with sci-fi or a particular sci-fi story type. Once saturated, readers find a story type predictable or no longer experience a sense of "difference." A saturated reader may abandon the story type for a while, or forever. Readers who are switching strategies for book selection within the genre are in a similar position to an emerging reader of sf: they need to learn new strategies for selecting books, to expand their domain knowledge. They may need to rely more on external sources for recommendation, or find new sources. This is a readers' advisory opportunity.

I'm not sure I agree with this assertation in whole, despite the fact that I can see the contention reflected in my reading habits to a significant extent. At one time in my life, I read Big Fat Fantasy voraciously, but other than the Harry Potter books and an occasional re-reading of Lord of the Rings, I avoid the form now. Saturation. Ditto with urban fantasy. The same applies to specific authors. In high school, Arthur C. Clarke was my favorite author, and I devoured everything I could of his. Then, perhaps, I overdosed. It didn't help that books by him, such as 3001 and Rama II just weren't very good. Greg Bear rose to the top of my reading list in college, and I hunted down almost everything he'd ever written, even the out of print books like Strength of Stones. I loved them. Then his work grew more inaccessable to me. Stuff like Queen of Angels was a struggle, and I abandoned Slant halfway through. I backtracked, and read his Star Trek novel, Corona in hopes of finding a simple, intelligent, adventure story. Instead, I found a case study in uninspired writing.

On the other hand, the opposite doesn't necessarily hold true. I read Neville Schute's On the Beach on my own in high school and thought it amazing and brilliant, but never had any inclination to seek out his other work. In college, I read Bones of the Moon by Jonathan Carroll and was amazed, but it's only in the last few years that I've been moved to seek out his other work. Each of his novels prompts the same reaction: "That was very good. But I don't want to read something else by him right now." Ken McCloud's Cassini Division literally had me giddy, flipping pages like mad because I was so engrossed in his story. It was probably my favorite novel of whatever year it came out. But I've yet to read anything else by him, and haven't bought Cosmonaut Keep or any others.

I wonder why I've avoided these writers whose work I've loved? Nearest I can figure, it might be some kind of subconscious risk aversion. Since the first book of theirs I read was so good, other works can't help but disappoint. Silly and illogical, yes. And I'm not convinced that is an accurate reason for my behavior any more than the reasons stated in the article are. But my reading patterns are oddball, no doubt about it.

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Bestsellers guaranteed!

Since my Aggies were humbled and humiliated by the Utah Utes last night and looked more lost and confused than Billy Graham at Dragon*Con, I won't talk about that debacle here. Let us never speak of it again.

Instead, I'll point out this marvellous piece of writing advice, How to write a best selling fantasy novel. I mean, there is unequivocal brilliance at work here. One glance shows me what I've been doing wrong all these years. I feel so foolish. A wasted life. Here's a small sampling of the piece's sage wisdom:

Bad Expendables.
It will be necessary to create Bad Expendables. These are the orcs, goblins, trolls, dragons, wights or any other creatures that we are happy to kill in their thousands. They are usually black, hairy, sweaty or in some other way unacceptable by middle class Caucasian standards. Often they are deformed, based on the traditional belief that an ugly body reflects an ugly soul. It is our way of doing a service to the sick and disabled by reminding readers that people who are disfigured look that way because they’re evil.

Note that in Fantasy Lands the concept of reform or rehabilitation is unknown. All allies, minions, vassals and instruments of the Enemy must be summarily killed even if they served their master primarily out of fear.

Kudos go out to the Texas ex-pat Bookslut for pointing me in this direction. It made my morning, and should make yours, too. If it doesn't, the terrorists win.

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Paging Ellie Arroway

It looks like SETI@home is finally bearing some fruit. I say "finally" because I'm a fan of instant gratification, not because I believe the project is a failure if alien signals aren't picked up within 30 minutes of the project's launch. But anyway, it looks as if some very interesting signals have been picked up by the grass-roots sky-scanning initiative:

This radio signal, now seen on three separate occasions, is an enigma. It could be generated by a previously unknown astronomical phenomenon. Or it could be something much more mundane, maybe an artefact of the telescope itself.

But it also happens to be the best candidate yet for a contact by intelligent aliens in the nearly six-year history of the SETI@home project, which uses programs running as screensavers on millions of personal computers worldwide to sift through signals picked up by the Arecibo telescope.

I don't believe this is necessarily alien contact. It's a bit too oddball for that, I suspect, although the weakness of the signal and the frequency are curious if it is indeed natural. And the fact that it's not coming from an obvious star system. A dense, hydrogen-emitting body in a tight orbit around a massive brown dwarf is one possibility, with doppler shifting accounting for the frequency drift. Or not. It's just strange all around. It shall be fascinating to watch as this unfolds.

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First SFFS meeting of the semester

Last night was the first meeting of the semester for the Science Fiction/Fantasy Society of Texas State. The first meeting is always met with a degree of uncertainty, because the number of new members who turn out are a barometer of the club's health for the rest of the year. A good infusion of new blood means SFFS will withstand the attrition that inevitably whittle away at the membership as the semesters progress. It's hard to hold events if you don't have the membership to actually do so.

Fortunately, there were close to 30 folks at the meeting, with approximately half of those newcomers. That's a good showing, considering there were a couple of competing events going on in the student center that potentially bled off additional members. And a handful of returning members who are normally involved couldn't make it last night because of scheduling conflicts.

There's another student organizations recruiting event coming up next week which should net the club another half dozen members or so. Road trips to Texas-area science fiction/comics/gaming conventions were discussed. Plans for a trip to the Texas Renaissance Festival were solidified. A call was made for more submissions to the fanzine. Movie night is back, and more gaming events are planned, as well as the annual Halloween Masquerade Ball and various fund raisers. Yeppers, it's looking like this bunch is on top of things.

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Stevie Austin: We can rebuild her!

Since I haven't posted anything new on the Anansi X-Prize competition in a while, I figured we needed an update. And boy, what an update! The fellow who won the head of the mannequin "injured" in the crash of the Rubicon 1 rocket some weeks back on an eBay auction has dedicated a website to chronicle the mannequin's reconstruction. We have the technology:

Astronaut "Stevie Austin", the brave Test Pilot for Space Transport Corporation (STC), lies severely injured after washing up on the beach minutes after her experimental Suborbital Tourism Vehicle, called RUBICON 1, exploded and
disintegrated while hundreds of feet in the air over the Pacific Ocean.

The brutal explosion happened so fast, Stevie's Space Capsule Parachute System
failed to deploy, causing her doomed Capsule to plummet toward the sea
while spinning wildly out of control.

There's even a movie featured on the site. Great stuff.

Speaking of great stuff, the official X-Prize website has a page with capsule information and links to all the rocket jockey teams formally competing for the prize. There's even one loony group that was disqualified and kicked out of the competition for making repeated outlandish claims. A fun way to waste an hour or four...

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Rice in the mail

"The Year of Rice and Assault" went back out in the mail this morning, first thing. We'll see Shiela Williams' opinion of the piece within a few weeks, I expect. And I expect her opinion won't be so very high. Once she says no, I'm stumped as to where to send it next. Familiarity with the news story I pointed out in my original post on the matter isn't particularly necessary to appreciate (ahem!) the dogmatic absurdity of the piece (for the record, Gordon Van Gelder was familiar with the incident in question) but it certainly helps. So it's not dependent on "Ripped from the headlines" knowledge, but it's not entirely timeless, either. I could send it to SciFiction, which wouldn't buy it, but Ellen Datlow would probably enjoy the heck out of it anyway. Beyond that, submitting becomes even more of a crapshoot. We'll see what suggests itself in the interim.

In completely unrelated joyful news, I've just learned that ADV will be releasing a boxed set of the Shusuke Kaneko Gamera films:

Join Dr. Nagamine, Inspector Osako and the lovely Asagi Kusanagi as they attempt to unravel the mysterious and deadly monster attacks of both the Gyaos and the Legion. With the “help” of the military, the survival of the human race depends on them. And the fate of the world depends on a gargantuan, aeronautic and flamably breathed reptile—Gamera, the guardian of the universe!

Gamera the Complete Collection (SRP $39.98) is a DVD-only release, including three feature length films on three discs housed in a new textured, metallic shell with a zillion extras. Disc 1: Guardian of the Universe in both English 5.1 and Japanese 2.0 language versions with English subtitles. Disc 2: Attack of Legion and Disc 3: Revenge of Iris in both English 5.1 and Japanese 5.1 language versions with English subtitles.

I saw Gamera: Guardian of the Universe a few years back, and found it extremely good and worthy of a good portion of the praise being heaped its way. I haven't seen the other two films, but understand that they are even better. As a kid, I loved watching the old Gamera films such as Destroy All Planets and Gamera vs. Baragon on Saturday afternoons. They were as much fun as Godzilla films, and I probably enjoyed them more since they were more specifically targeted toward kids. And as much as Gamera was a blatant knock-off of Godzilla, the design work and approach still showed a degree of inventiveness and creativity. I still hope to see a Godzilla vs. Gamera film one day, but I'm not holding my breath. Until then, this set will be a welcome addition to my DVD collection.

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