So last night I threw myself into revisions on a story that's been languishing untouched for far too long: "Being An Account of the Final Voyage of La Riaza: A Circumstance in Eight Parts." Catchy, innit? Just sort of trips off the tongue.
I knew the story needed two new scenes inserted--which isn't a great thing when you realize my stories are invariably too long to begin with. I knew exactly where a death scene would fit (I had it happening off-page before, and that undercut the dramatic tension), and lo and behold, it practically wrote itself. I was actually surprised at how painlessly it went down on the page. The second scene, between two secondary characters, I wasn't as sure of. I knew where it'd fit most naturally, but I felt that would place it too far towards the end of the story, whereas the narrative would benefit more if it occurred earlier. But there are specific events happening in the first half of the story that keep these two characters separated, and I can't justify the major restructuring that would demand--this scene isn't crucial to the plot, but adds some needed character balance. Ultimately, I erred on the side of caution and grafted it in towards the end. Something's still not quite 100 percent right with it--it's a tad talky, which is a sign from my subconscious that I haven't quite got a solid grasp on the scene--but overall I believe the story significantly benefits from the additions.
What struck me most about the writing session was how unaware I was of it. 'Round about midnight, when I hit SAVE and put it to bed, I was surprised at the hour. I'd been wholly focused on the narrative problems before me, as opposed to having problems with the process. After a long fallow period where the very thought of sitting down at the keyboard launched a nasty glob of bile up into my throat, experiencing a "normal" writing session was an extremely pleasant change.
And for better or for worse, some things haven't changed. I did a word count when after I finished the last new scene, and the manuscript tips the scales at 11,000 words. In case you're wondering, that breaks down to a 1:733.3 title/manuscript word ratio for "La Riaza." I immediately shipped it off, of course, to Interzone. It's not anything like what Interzone normally runs, but then again, it's not anything like what anyone normally runs. I'll let Jetse worry about it.
Now Playing: Steve Winwood Back In the High Life
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Monday, January 30, 2006
A taxing weekend
Didn't get any writing done over the weekend... at least, not any writing that I enjoyed. I got my W2 form in last week, and so Saturday and Sunday were dedicated to Uncle Sam and his buddies running things over at the IRS. The entire affair was akin to a long, tedious bout of trench warfare. The good news is that by being a lowly writer of marginal success, I've somehow avoided all the higher tax brackets and have a significant amount of dollars coming back to me in the form of a refund check. Yay!
One thing baffles me, though. If the IRS is so keen on getting everyone to submit their taxes online, why then don't they make available a simple electronic fill-in-the-blank form for all the schedules and forms? Why do they leave it to TurboTax, H&R Block and the rest? The patronizing Q&A format is infuriating and counterproductive if, like us, you have multiple schedules to file that don't necessarily fit in one-size-fits-all pigeonholes. Lisa thought I was being a Luddite, I suspect, because of my disdain for the commercial electronic filing systems available. But after spending all evening online, she came away with as much contempt for them as I. It just boggles my mind how they've managed to take something that should be simple and straightforward, and made it complex and exasperating. Only in America...
Now Playing: Clannad Clannad 1
One thing baffles me, though. If the IRS is so keen on getting everyone to submit their taxes online, why then don't they make available a simple electronic fill-in-the-blank form for all the schedules and forms? Why do they leave it to TurboTax, H&R Block and the rest? The patronizing Q&A format is infuriating and counterproductive if, like us, you have multiple schedules to file that don't necessarily fit in one-size-fits-all pigeonholes. Lisa thought I was being a Luddite, I suspect, because of my disdain for the commercial electronic filing systems available. But after spending all evening online, she came away with as much contempt for them as I. It just boggles my mind how they've managed to take something that should be simple and straightforward, and made it complex and exasperating. Only in America...
Now Playing: Clannad Clannad 1
Friday, January 27, 2006
Confessions
I'm not terribly comfortable with self-revelatory writings or conversation, mainly because I always feel like I'm coming across as looking for sympathy or pity or liquor. Well, apart from the liquor, I'm not. So I usually don't. But I also feel some small imperative of honesty with this blog. And by honesty, I don't just mean "Don't print lies." It also extends to deception by omission. So.
I am, presumably, just now coming out of an uncomfortable awkward period with my writing. And by "period" I mean "since Halloween." And by "awkward" I mean "didn't write." And by "uncomfortable" I mean "excruciatingly, horrifically painful and agonizing." There. Feels good to get it off my chest, don't you think?
I don't know how or why it started. Probably an accumulation of factors: The usual rejections I normally amass were in the mix, sure, but I also had some book proposals turn up DOA, including one that had actually been accepted and scheduled by a publisher before winds changed. Add to that the search for my replacement at RevolutionSF and non-specific workload pressures at my day job... Boom! No more writey-write for Jayme.
That's not to claim I developed a case of writer's block. I don't think I did--at least, not writer's block as I understand it. I still had ideas. I could still sling words as good as I ever done. The trouble is, I didn't want to. No, that's not right. That implies a simple absence of desire. That I deal with constantly--I'm the world's A-Number 1 champion of pointless research and procrastination. I can avoid writing with a passion rivaled only by Pac-Man at an all-you-can-eat dot matrix buffet. This was different. This was anti-want. Revulsion. Rejection. Pathological recoilment in horror. When I started to write, I got nauseous. Headaches. Physically rejecting the very act of writing. At times, even the thought of writing would make me queasy.
Strange, no? You haven't heard the worst of it: This applied to any kind of writing. I've always viewed my fiction and non-fiction as two separate entities. Sure, they share a lot of the same tools stored up in the old gray matter, but the overlap of the creative process involved in the writing of either one was minimal. That's the way it feels to me. Fiction writing's always been some sort of ordeal for me, a slow, tedious slog through blind alleys and vapid word choice. Non-fiction, on the other hand, was more akin to a rapid-fire Tetris game with a looming deadline. "Put the pieces in place! Hurry! I need a word, a word, a word! Hey, there's one that fits! Looks great! Move on!" Suddenly, it was like someone planted a stink bomb right amongst those wack falling bricks. So not only did my novel and short story work come to a sudden and screeching halt, but there were no book reviews. No articles. No essays. No intros for my interview follow-up. Releases from work came few and far between. My blogging slowed significantly, although I like to think I did a decent job of obscuring that fact. I even let emails languish for obscenely long periods simply because I'd have to write something in order to reply.
This was very disturbing to me. I'd never, ever encountered anything like this before. The strangest thing was that I still could write, and the quality didn't seem to be affected: I kept up with the minimal number of releases I had to do at work. It wasn't pleasant, but I could do it. I even forced myself to work up a few overdue reviews, but they took hours longer than normal.
And as quickly as it came, this strange psychological aberration seems to have lifted (knock wood). Forcing out a number of reviews last week resulted in very little force being applied--the words flowed smoothly with no ill feelings arising. I picked up an old story languishing for more than a year, awaiting a rewrite, and found the idea of working on it appealing--exciting even. Then I read the story, and experienced the joy of discovery. "I hadn't remembered I'd don't that. Hey, this section here is pretty cool!" It wasn't as crude and unformed as I'd believed. In fact--and I fear this will smack of narcissism--I liked it, because it entertained me. That was a pleasant discovery.
The long and short of it is that three fallow months of unintended and undesired unproductivity have hopefully come to an end. It was an unpleasant experience. I don't recommend it to anyone. But I post this confession so as to disabuse anyone of the idea that the writing experience at Casa de Blaschke is consistently sunshine and lollipops. Because it ain't.
The downside to all this is that I'm back to having to invent my own procrastination techniques again. Such is life.
Now Playing: Clandestine The Haunting
I am, presumably, just now coming out of an uncomfortable awkward period with my writing. And by "period" I mean "since Halloween." And by "awkward" I mean "didn't write." And by "uncomfortable" I mean "excruciatingly, horrifically painful and agonizing." There. Feels good to get it off my chest, don't you think?
I don't know how or why it started. Probably an accumulation of factors: The usual rejections I normally amass were in the mix, sure, but I also had some book proposals turn up DOA, including one that had actually been accepted and scheduled by a publisher before winds changed. Add to that the search for my replacement at RevolutionSF and non-specific workload pressures at my day job... Boom! No more writey-write for Jayme.
That's not to claim I developed a case of writer's block. I don't think I did--at least, not writer's block as I understand it. I still had ideas. I could still sling words as good as I ever done. The trouble is, I didn't want to. No, that's not right. That implies a simple absence of desire. That I deal with constantly--I'm the world's A-Number 1 champion of pointless research and procrastination. I can avoid writing with a passion rivaled only by Pac-Man at an all-you-can-eat dot matrix buffet. This was different. This was anti-want. Revulsion. Rejection. Pathological recoilment in horror. When I started to write, I got nauseous. Headaches. Physically rejecting the very act of writing. At times, even the thought of writing would make me queasy.
Strange, no? You haven't heard the worst of it: This applied to any kind of writing. I've always viewed my fiction and non-fiction as two separate entities. Sure, they share a lot of the same tools stored up in the old gray matter, but the overlap of the creative process involved in the writing of either one was minimal. That's the way it feels to me. Fiction writing's always been some sort of ordeal for me, a slow, tedious slog through blind alleys and vapid word choice. Non-fiction, on the other hand, was more akin to a rapid-fire Tetris game with a looming deadline. "Put the pieces in place! Hurry! I need a word, a word, a word! Hey, there's one that fits! Looks great! Move on!" Suddenly, it was like someone planted a stink bomb right amongst those wack falling bricks. So not only did my novel and short story work come to a sudden and screeching halt, but there were no book reviews. No articles. No essays. No intros for my interview follow-up. Releases from work came few and far between. My blogging slowed significantly, although I like to think I did a decent job of obscuring that fact. I even let emails languish for obscenely long periods simply because I'd have to write something in order to reply.
This was very disturbing to me. I'd never, ever encountered anything like this before. The strangest thing was that I still could write, and the quality didn't seem to be affected: I kept up with the minimal number of releases I had to do at work. It wasn't pleasant, but I could do it. I even forced myself to work up a few overdue reviews, but they took hours longer than normal.
And as quickly as it came, this strange psychological aberration seems to have lifted (knock wood). Forcing out a number of reviews last week resulted in very little force being applied--the words flowed smoothly with no ill feelings arising. I picked up an old story languishing for more than a year, awaiting a rewrite, and found the idea of working on it appealing--exciting even. Then I read the story, and experienced the joy of discovery. "I hadn't remembered I'd don't that. Hey, this section here is pretty cool!" It wasn't as crude and unformed as I'd believed. In fact--and I fear this will smack of narcissism--I liked it, because it entertained me. That was a pleasant discovery.
The long and short of it is that three fallow months of unintended and undesired unproductivity have hopefully come to an end. It was an unpleasant experience. I don't recommend it to anyone. But I post this confession so as to disabuse anyone of the idea that the writing experience at Casa de Blaschke is consistently sunshine and lollipops. Because it ain't.
The downside to all this is that I'm back to having to invent my own procrastination techniques again. Such is life.
Now Playing: Clandestine The Haunting
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Makes you view the old "sonic screwdriver" in a whole new light
I would say that words fail me, but that would be untrue. I've got plenty of words, but the ones that keep coming to mind would run afoul of pretty much every content filter around. So I'll let the quotes do the talking:
Look if you must (and I know you must), but if the quotes above haven't clued you in, this is NSFW. Blame goes to Science Fiction Blog for this one.
Now Playing: The Jams The History of the Jams aka The Timelords
Estate director Tim Hancock said: “The reason the Daleks are still the most sinister thing in the universe is because they do not make things like porn.
“They weren’t ever intended to be sexual creatures. It’s simple, Daleks do not do porn.”
Look if you must (and I know you must), but if the quotes above haven't clued you in, this is NSFW. Blame goes to Science Fiction Blog for this one.
Now Playing: The Jams The History of the Jams aka The Timelords
Changing of the guard
RevolutionSF (www.revolutionsf.com), the online home of science fiction humor and commentary, proudly announces its new fiction editors, Steve Wilson and Matthew Bey. Wilson and Bey will take over for outgoing fiction editor Jayme Lynn Blaschke effective February 1, 2006.
Both residents of Austin, TX, Wilson and Bey are best-known for their work on the bizarrely subversive Space Squid (www.spacesquid.com/), aka "The 'zine Margaret Atwood warned you about." They have published the likes of Bruce Sterling, Jay Lake, Chris Roberson and Jessica Reisman, with plans to publish many more imaginative works for speculative fiction before all is said and done.
"We think of ourselves collectively as the (mid-career) Steve Martin of SF, a sort of 'Man with Two Brains'. We share similar tastes, and when we don't agree, our resultant bouts of great violence always serve the stories for the best, though they leave our bodies in shambles," Wilson and Bey said. "We're proud to fill Jayme's shoes, and don't intend to clean their soles of the rich, loamy soil of imagination through which they have tread. If anything, we intend to muck them up even more."
The new editors have also initiated a new "email-only" submission policy. Fiction submissions should be attached *.rtf files sent to revolutionsfsubs@gmail.com. "Submission:" and the title of the story should be in the subject line. The name of the attached file should be THE SAME AS THE STORY TITLE.
Blaschke, fiction editor since January 2003, is resigning to pursue the usual "other opportunities," which include chairing the publicity committee for Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America as well as completing the follow-up to his 2005 interview collection Voices of Vision: Creators of Science Fiction and Fantasy Speak.
Shane Ivey, managing editor of RevolutionSF, said: "Jayme Blaschke has what anyone could want in an editor: courtesy, patience, unshakeable professionalism, and most of all a keen eye for talented writing. He's brought the best out of first-time authors and encouraged established, successful writers to show what they can do, and he fully earned the praise his writers and his own work have received over the past few years. Jayme has made an outstanding contribution to RevolutionSF."
Now Playing: U2 How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb
Both residents of Austin, TX, Wilson and Bey are best-known for their work on the bizarrely subversive Space Squid (www.spacesquid.com/), aka "The 'zine Margaret Atwood warned you about." They have published the likes of Bruce Sterling, Jay Lake, Chris Roberson and Jessica Reisman, with plans to publish many more imaginative works for speculative fiction before all is said and done.
"We think of ourselves collectively as the (mid-career) Steve Martin of SF, a sort of 'Man with Two Brains'. We share similar tastes, and when we don't agree, our resultant bouts of great violence always serve the stories for the best, though they leave our bodies in shambles," Wilson and Bey said. "We're proud to fill Jayme's shoes, and don't intend to clean their soles of the rich, loamy soil of imagination through which they have tread. If anything, we intend to muck them up even more."
The new editors have also initiated a new "email-only" submission policy. Fiction submissions should be attached *.rtf files sent to revolutionsfsubs@gmail.com. "Submission:" and the title of the story should be in the subject line. The name of the attached file should be THE SAME AS THE STORY TITLE.
Blaschke, fiction editor since January 2003, is resigning to pursue the usual "other opportunities," which include chairing the publicity committee for Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America as well as completing the follow-up to his 2005 interview collection Voices of Vision: Creators of Science Fiction and Fantasy Speak.
Shane Ivey, managing editor of RevolutionSF, said: "Jayme Blaschke has what anyone could want in an editor: courtesy, patience, unshakeable professionalism, and most of all a keen eye for talented writing. He's brought the best out of first-time authors and encouraged established, successful writers to show what they can do, and he fully earned the praise his writers and his own work have received over the past few years. Jayme has made an outstanding contribution to RevolutionSF."
Now Playing: U2 How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
Powers!
Bill Crider had a post last week about Fred Pohl's novel Tommorrow Times Seven. As I so often do, I ignored the point of his post and instead asked about the cover artist.
The artist in question was Richard M. Powers (1921-1996). His stylized, surreal SF illustrations from the 60s had a huge impact on me as I was just coming into the genre. They came to symbolize the strange otherness fix I got from science fiction. His cover art was literally unlike anything else on the shelves. I found out he died in 1996, but lo and behold, there's a swinging online gallery of his ultra-hip graphical stylings. I don't think his cover above is anywhere close to his best work, but it still boasts those unique traits that make it instantly identifiable as a Powers piece. Check out the gallery. Lots of eye candy to enjoy.
Now Playing: The New World Renaissance Band Live the Legend
The artist in question was Richard M. Powers (1921-1996). His stylized, surreal SF illustrations from the 60s had a huge impact on me as I was just coming into the genre. They came to symbolize the strange otherness fix I got from science fiction. His cover art was literally unlike anything else on the shelves. I found out he died in 1996, but lo and behold, there's a swinging online gallery of his ultra-hip graphical stylings. I don't think his cover above is anywhere close to his best work, but it still boasts those unique traits that make it instantly identifiable as a Powers piece. Check out the gallery. Lots of eye candy to enjoy.
Now Playing: The New World Renaissance Band Live the Legend
Hey! Look--I've got another one!
I know the following information has been circulating widely via email and blogs, but in truth, it hasn't officially been released to the media. Until I worked up this release and sent it out, that is:
More to come. But that's pretty much a given, isn't it?
Now Playing: The New World Renaissance Band Where Beauty Moves and Wit Delights
SFWA names Grand Master, Author Emeritus
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America have named Harlan Ellison Grand Master and William F. Nolan Author Emeritus for 2006. The pair will be honored at the Nebula Award Weekend® in Tempe Arizona May 4-7.
SFWA President Robin Wayne Bailey made the announcement after consulting with the SFWA Board of Directors and participating past presidents.
The 2006 Author Emeritus was born in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1928. Nolan sold his first fiction in 1954 and his work has included a broad range of material, including science fiction, fantasy, horror, westerns and mysteries. He has authored over 150 stories and 75 books, including 13 novels. Among the best-known of his novels is Logan’s Run, co-authored with George Clayton Johnson, and later on his own, Logan’s World and Logan’s Search. His work has earned praise from such writers as Stephen King, Ray Bradbury and Joe R. Landsdale.
The 2006 Grand Master made his first sale, “Glowworm,” to Infinity Science Fiction in 1956, and since then Ellison has shaped and sometimes re-shaped modern science fiction. As a writer and as an anthologist, his influence--though sometimes controversial--has been vast. Ellison has won a remarkable nine Hugo Awards, three Nebula Awards, many script-writing awards for his television work, two Edgar Awards from the Mystery Writers of America, two World Fantasy Awards (including one for lifetime achievement), and six Bram Stoker Awards (including one for lifetime achievement). His 1992 novelette “The Man Who Rowed Christopher Columbus Ashore” was selected from more than 6,000 short stories published in the U.S. for inclusion in the 1993 edition of Best American Short Stories
Ellison was one of the founders of SFWA and served as the organization’s first vice-president. Always a champion for writers, he led the fight against AOL with his “Kick Internet Piracy” campaign to hold internet service providers responsible for pirate sites. He also helped to launch the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.
More details about the Nebula Awards® Weekend are available at http://www.sfwa.org/awards/2006/.
About SFWA
Founded in 1965 by the late Damon Knight, Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America brings together the most successful and daring writers of speculative fiction throughout the world.
Since its inception, SFWA® has grown in numbers and influence until it is now widely recognized as one of the most effective non-profit writers' organizations in existence, boasting a membership of approximately 1,500 science fiction and fantasy writers as well as artists, editors and allied professionals. Each year the organization presents the prestigious Nebula Awards® for the year’s best literary and dramatic works of speculative fiction.
More to come. But that's pretty much a given, isn't it?
Now Playing: The New World Renaissance Band Where Beauty Moves and Wit Delights
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)