Old home of Darwin's Theories

Relocation

2008-01-03T10:54:00.001-08:00

Please note that I'm no longer going to maintain my blog actively here at Blogger. I've found that Livejournal seems to work better for me and has a higher population of people I know who can find me.

Please visit my Livejournal at:

http://alphastk.livejournal.com

Grasping for straws in the wired world

2007-12-12T08:24:00.000-08:00

I was perusing Schlock Mercenary this morning when a pop-up ad appeared touting a site called Pages Unbound . The site purports to be a home for freely available novel-length fiction on the web. Interested, I clicked through.

What I found is that Pages Unbound is actually a link page that goes to where people are mostly posting "web serializations", i.e. novels on the fly, via things like blogs or independent web pages.

Technically, I find nothing wrong with either having a link page to novels being written on the fly or the people who choose to publicly display their creations via the web. That's a choice that people are free to make.

That being said, welcome to the next generation of vanity press. On the up side, least it cuts out the immoral predator "publishers" like Publish America and Authorhouse. However, a quick browse of the linked pages show pretty much exactly what you'd expect: a bunch of first-draft quality beginner tracks of questionable value. Basically a Greek chorus of people desperate to be appreciated for what they've created.

It hurts, in a way, because I know that feeling. With only four short stories in the wild, the odds of meeting anyone outside of my editors, friends, and family who've actually read my works is vanishingly small.

There's so many facets to this that I'm boggled a bit at where to begin. You can weigh the existence of the Pages Unbound site against the all the other attempts to exploit the power of the web to leverage the death grip big publishing has on the throats of writers. Alternately, you can commune with the misery of those who create and desperately want to be read, even though so many of them need so much work to be readable.

Oh, lord, do they need work.

Regardless, every writer starts somewhere and then learns or doesn't. Those that learn move on and forward in the business, those that don't find other things to do with their time. If something like Pages Unbound helps promising writers move forward from the teeming masses of "wannabes" into the prose producing ranks of "writer", so be it. It's not bad, just an avenue that's open to question.

Still, I do have a problem with the whole concept. These people are posting their work in blogs and other socially interactive web environs, but there's no central location for mentoring and nurturing. You have to go to each individual location and read and then comment there, if facilities are provided. Plus it's hard to gauge if the Pages Unbound contributors are even open to feedback. Do they want to move out of casting their tales into the void or not? Or are they amongst those poor deluded fools who have convinced themselves that their words are like golden baubles for the benighted masses simply because the words are the "author's"?

Hard to tell.

All in all, I can't support an effort like Pages Unbound unless it's tied to an uber-community that supports its contributors by providing an independent venue to exchange and discuss craft, business, and the place of prose on the web.

Death to the Literatsi

2007-12-11T05:13:00.000-08:00

John Scalzi had words for a nitwit in LA who derided Heinlein in Scalzi's name. Complete comments along with a boisterous discussion thread (which happens any time Heinlein's name is invoked) is here:

http://scalzi.com/whatever/?p=191

For the record, I am not a fan of those who judge a piece's worth by its "literary" pedigree. In fact, the best way to get me to ignore someone's opinion is for them to start yapping about the "literary" merit of a story. I immediately peg those people as posturing poseurs worthy of scorn, derision, and rotten tomatos if any are to hand.

Spare me.

Literature cannot exist soley on the pretentious airs of the mutual back-patting society that is the self-annointed "literatsi". True literature is best judged by that which survives the test of time and speaks across the generations to the breadth of human understanding, not within the theses and papers of the closeted bearers of academic letters or other presumptive cultural gatekeepers. Ergo, judging something as having "literary" merit because of its fancy structure or avante-guarde approach as it comes out of the publisher's gates with the ink barely dry is laughable.

If a piece of fiction does not compel a reader to keep turning a page to "see what happens", then it is useless. Thus, a writer who cannot create compelling stories to go with their oh-so-crafted "literary" words does not deserve to be read and generally isn't. Crafting a well-told tale comes first. Great art can only be built upon solid craftsmanship and that's as true of woodworking as it is for oil painting as it is for prose.

Other than publishing and distribution's continued and drawn out commission of seppeku through the bean-counter driven extermination of the mid-list, nothing has done more to destroy the breadth and consumption of speculative-fiction prose than those who inflict "literary" posturing upon words that tell no tale anyone outside of the "enlightened" literatsi want to hear.

By my definition of "literature" Heinlein succeeded. His works have survived and spoken across generations, although I think the ones that will be remembered more 50 years from now are not his more pretentious later works like "Stranger in a Strange Land", but rather his earlier enjoyable reads like "Starship Troopers".

About the potential 'Zine

2007-12-07T07:46:00.000-08:00

I thought I should spell out a little bit more about what's coming with the webzine if our investigations prove that it's do-able.

The basic premise is that paper-based publishing is currently involved in a fairly advanced form of bureaucratic bean-counter driven seppeku. Because of the change in customer attitudes regarding access to content and competition from other kinds of entertainment, we need to leverage the power of the internet to offset the lack of innovation and opportunity coming out of traditional publishing.

Do I want to be a publisher? Has it always been my deepest dream to edit? Hell, no. Unfortunately, sitting on the sidelines is being effectively complicit in the death of the only art I can create and that's just not my style.

So, here's where I'm going, if all the ducks line up and march to cadence:

Darwin's Evolutions
A Journal of Speculative Fiction

Multi-format web-based periodical home for science fiction and fantasy stories, 1k to around 10k. Book and movie reviews. News of note. Commentary on genre and things like Manga and Anime, etc. Will offer a variety of reader formats (as many as we can get converters for, anyway), including audio pod-cast.

Published monthly with a minimum of three stories. We will be a home for new fiction as well as quality reprinted stories that have reverted to Author rights. We will also publish a speculative fiction based web comic serial in each issue.

No assinine pretentions of reaching for "Literary" acclaim. Just a home for ripping good yarns. Give us characters to care about, vivid worlds, exciting plots, and actual resolutions where something is learned or someone changes. Wordy, narcissistic navel gazers and indoctrination-oriented activists bearing soapboxes need not apply.

The goal from the get-go will be to provide a professional and quality publication regardless of format the customer chooses to use to enjoy the content.

One of the primary features of the 'zine, however, will be how it conducts its business. We're not going to put up a wall between ourselves, our contributors, and our customers. There'll be a tip bucket on the front page for the magazine and every story will have an associated tip bucket for the author/artist. Each author and artist will have an account that will baldly state the financials for the 'zine as a whole and their stories in particular. My goal for the author/artist tip buckets is to have them dump directly to whatever account their associated person has available to receive electronic transfers. If the mag has to "escrow" the buckets and cut a check, that accounting will be completely transparent to the affected parties.

On the front page of the 'zine, there will be a graphic counter that will illustrate how our funding is doing relative to money out versus money in as an indicator of fiduciary health so that customers will be able to see the effect their donations have.

The basic premise is this: if we can pick stories people enjoy reading and feel happy to drop a buck or two on as a thank you, then we deserve to survive. If not, then the operational model has no place in the world.

The author tip buckets will also serve as a means of choosing stories for a "Best of" anthology.
I'm basing the pay rate off of Andromeda Spaceways In-flight Magazine at this point. $0.0125 per word, $20 minimum for any story. Worthy reprints submitted will receive a $20 flat fee. Art will be $20 for interior-line and whatever I can scrape together above that for cover - probably $50 to $100 but I'm not promising anything.

The goal is to eventually build enough reader support to pay SFWA pro rates as a base for all content.

For our investment, we expect the rights to publish stories electronically on the internet, in audio pod-cast, and via print-on-demand media and to keep such rights for a period of one-year from initial date of publication, after which all rights revert to the author who can choose to leave the story up in our archives or withdraw it at that time.

An offer to be included in a "Best of" anthology will involve a duplicate payment equivalent to the original advance and will option a story for an additional year beyond the date of publication of the antho, with the same revert-to-author and removal options as with the normal magazine after that time.

Stories in the archives, by the way, will still have tip buckets associated with them. Any time a story is read on-line, the author's tip bucket and the magazine's tip bucket will be available for clicking.

Anyway, that's the great and grand overview. We'll be framing things up over Christmas holidays and beta-volunteer readers and folks who submitted test stories will be able to test-drive the result sometime in January.

D

Further Sniping at Writing Advice

2007-11-27T08:10:00.001-08:00

Here's a valid definition of a "story":

A story consists of characters that the reader can empathize with in a setting the reader can visualize who are then caught in a bear trap which they escape or address via dint of their own efforts and, in the process, learn something or change in a recognizable way.

Pursuant to that, the Monkey Method (an amalgamation of concepts distilled by Dave Freer):

You get 200 words to hook a reader. In that first 200 words you must establish a character (or characters) the reader can empathize with, build enough of a world for your reader to visualize the surroundings using all five senses (also called "grounding" the reader), and you must provide tension in situation enough that the browser will be inclined to turn the page to find out "what happens next" and thus become a reader.

Three language constructs that stick out to editors and identify beginning writers:

1) Beginning a sentence with a gerund phrase. (First word in a sentence ends with "ing")

2) "As" at the beginning of a sentence and used to denote incongrous simultaneity to actions.

3) Overuse of passive language constructs (i.e. weak "to be" verbs instead of rich action verbs).

Update and Thoughts for New Writers

2007-11-26T12:56:00.000-08:00

Back from the Thanksgiving slide fatter and a bit sick. Ah, well, so be it. I stil managed to break 61k today on RD.

Knocked out the next page of T-Saurs yesterday to Kevin via Gmail.

I reworked an old short recently called Incursion. I'm happier with it now, but the original story and the revised story are actually two different narratives. I've done this before with ROGUE 8812, so it's not surprising. Original was about 3.8k. Revised version is 6.5. Go me! I completely blew by my 5k self-imposed target.

Just shoot me now. Then again, it didn't stretch to 10k, so I think I'll be grateful instead. Woot! Beer and pretzels time.

And let me say that writing first-person present-tense is tiring. Definitely not my favorite thing to mess with. I can do it, but I'm not pretentiously wit-waw-wawy enough to make it my life's work.

Okay, I said hints for new writers, didn't I?

Let's see:

1) No, if I don't want to use your new idea for a story, I really doubt a "Name" author will either. It's your idea, either you write it or it dies. If you work at it, it might even be a unique spin on an old idea.

2) Yes, it's been done before. Everything at some level has been done before. That doesn't mean you shouldn't do it again, because this time IT'S YOURS. (Not mine. See item 1)

3) When all the wonderful writing advice is said and done and you're scared of putting words on a page, you've got to shut off your internal editor and write in your spoken voice. You're putting YOU on the page as a storyteller. Your "sound" and your impressions are what make the words unique. Editing can happen later. Write first.

4) One comment is a point. Two is a trend. Three is concensus. That having been said, if you can get three people to read your work and comment, you've already won at some level. Have a party.

5) To break in, you have to stand out. You stand out by having a clean, technically smooth manuscript that still has a "voice". In fact, "voice" alone can sell stories, so don't freak when you find boo-boos after you dropped the MS in the mailbox or e-mail outbox. If the piece has a soul, it'll find a market.

6) Guess what? Unfinished manuscripts don't sell, whether for shorts or novels. Some people have the Blarney blessing enough to sell novels on proposal. Unless you've been able to sell bridges on speculation, though, I can't recommend it. If you're gonna look for work in the field, prove your ability to produce.

7) Yes, once you have a name you can break SOME rules. No, you don't have one yet so quit asking and go send off some stories until you do.

8) Yeah, the market sucks. Unfortunately, it's the market you've got. So you either play or you spectate. Them's the rules, make your choice.

I'll type more later if the mood strikes and I'm not lynched.

Halfway

2007-11-20T13:34:00.000-08:00

Cleared 60k on Rogue Destiny this afternoon. This is the theoretical "half-way" point in a 120k target length. How long the work will actually be depends a lot on what it takes to wrap things up and then subsequent editing. However, it's a kind of standard milestone for novel work.

It's also the most I've written on any one project. So, happy dance! I'm on the road to actually having a completed novel.

Writing update, 14NOV07

2007-11-14T08:30:00.000-08:00

Okay, so what have I been up to lately?

Rogue Destiny's word count is now up to 58k. The elusive "theoretical" half-way point beckons.

I've updated my web site. Check it out at http://www.sff.net/people/dagarrison

I rewrote an old first-person present tense experiment called Incursion and submitted it to an on-line webzine.

Kyle's currently having editorial growing pains in his attempts to rewrite Revundane. I'm wrapping his head around things like cardboard characters, the effects of massive trauma and bloodloss, and building believable societal systems.

Outlining and Other Sins

2007-11-12T05:46:00.000-08:00

There's an apocryphal tale out there in the orbit of Baen Books that tells of how a now-famous writer learned to complete his novel ideas from an older, wiser hand. I won't name names because I heard the story third hand, but the lesson is clear for those of us working our way up from the slush piles. The gist of the fable goes like this:

Rising Writer (hereafter referred to as RW): "I have a hard time finishing novels that I start. I keep jumping from idea to idea."

Old Hand (to be known henceforth at OH): "How many starts do you have on your hard drive."

RW: "Around fifty."

OH: "How many complete outlines do you have?"

RW: "Outlines? Oh, I don't use those. I write organically. The story flows from the character interactions."

OH, heavy sigh: "If you want to finish anything you start, do the damned outline."

Since the RW was co-authoring with the OH at the time, he had little choice in the matter and ended up doing his outlines. The rest, shall we say, is more or less history since he actually did start finishing stories and became an OH in his own right.

There's a lot of truth in this. Every writer writes differently, of course, but the longer and more complex the story, the more important it is that you have a suitable roadmap in front of you.

My personal process involves "sketching" out scenes and putting together ideas and characters first and then I go back and write a kind of overview outline that tells me where I'm going and how I intend to get there. To that I add character sheets, societal notes, and geography information in an electronic binder that allows me to keep my descriptions straight as I go along.

If you have an outline, you reduce the likelihood of getting stuck or losing your way. Not that things can't change as characters develop, but if you don't know where you're going, how in the hell are you going to get there? Character interaction alone won't do it because people by their very nature are chaos incarnate.

So, even for a character-driven kind of writer like myself, having some kind of outline counts as a "Really Good Idea".

Just Sit Down and Write

2007-09-05T06:24:00.000-07:00

I am now 22k into my novel, Rogue Destiny. I posted the obligatory 20k snippet to Julie Czerneda's SFF group and I've posted chapters 1 through 3 in Baen's Bar on the Doc Monkey and Sarah's Diner forums.

And I'm still capable of continuing. Will wonders never cease?

Writers are generally capable of a great deal of mental flagellation. We can flip-flop back and forth almost instantaneously between story ideas, concepts, snacking binges, cat hysterics, child-induced panic attacks, or what have you. However, if you don't just sit down and write, nothing happens.

Why is it such a challenge? I know that simply letting go of all the mundane madness of everyday life and entering words onto the page is my biggest challenge. Worries about grammar or style or cliches or market potential or even the next car payment easily pop up and sidetrack me.

Yet, my progress with Rogue Destiny is more than just getting 20k in and stopping. I've finally achieved the point in my head where I can make myself write, whether I want to or not. I'm told that this is something of an achievement for authors. How this switch got thrown in my head, I'm not entirely sure. The root cause could very well be Kyle's continued success with drivng his own works to completion.

My goal for Rogue Destiny is to have it done in time for World Fantasy Con in November. I might just make it.

Oh, how the mighty are brought low

2007-08-17T09:19:00.000-07:00

From the "Every good deed is its own punishment" file:

My son, Kyle, is an aspiring author. This is very cool, because we can talk authorly things together. My daughter, Erin, will probably be joinging us in a bit, but that may take a while.

Kyle has an innate storytelling ability plus he generates compelling characters and plot. He has technical issues that need to be addressed plus the occasional lapse of perspective peculiar to the young, but that is all addressable.

He has also written the same novel in two different flavors now.

I have yet to complete my first novel.

I suspect his career is going to travel under much more favorable stars than my own. I wouldn't have it any other way.

At last!

2007-07-06T05:14:00.000-07:00

Finally got a name for my novel based on my first short story "sale" (which was Hell Forge). The title is "Rogue Destiny" and tells the story of Aimelyn and Sammat fighting together to oppose the curse that afflicts both them and Marsh' descendents.

InConJunction

2007-07-05T05:15:00.000-07:00

As mentioned previously, I will be attending InConjunction in Indianapolis this weekend (July 6 through 8). I actually get to host a panel on whether or not all possible themes for vampire and zombie stories have been explored. Not really sure about the other panels, but I'll make do as required.

It will suck that I won't be able to get home this weekend, though. Being gone from Tam and the kids for longer than a four day stretch bugs me.

In writing news, I've been infected with an urge to work on a novel concept born of my first published story, Hell Forge. It still needs a name, but the imagery just won't stop coming. So, I'm going to go for it!

Don't worry, I'll get Recall going, too.

Cogent and Thoughtful

2007-07-03T05:08:00.000-07:00

Basically, that's what I'd like to come across as, but that's going to be a bit of a challenge.

Not for any one particular reason, mind you. Rather, I have a variety of things buzzing around in my head that could or could not be interesting to anyone who might browse through.

For example, first time writers scared to death that someone is going to steal their precious short story. So, they put copyright symbols in the title or all over the manuscript. That's almost always a brilliant red-flag for a piece that's going to suck rocks.

So, like I mentioned yesterday, I finished two shorts that are now homeless since neither one met the needs of an anthology I was aiming for. At times like this, you get a "And now what?" sort of pause. Do I go right back to the novel I was working on? Do I edit the shorts and send them somewhere in the vain hope of selling them to an ever-shrinking short story market? Do I just delete the files from my jump drive and let them disappear into the ether?

Oh, decisions, decisions.

Add to that the pending disaster that will be my real-life housing relocation and my attendance of two cons this month and you can see that focus will be a running issue for a while.

So, if my posts aren't exactly cogent and thoughtful, please be patient.

Tada!

2007-07-02T06:29:00.000-07:00

I'm back!

Yes, yes. I've been quite remiss in my blogging duties but, honestly, it's not like anyone missed me. Ergo, no blood, no foul.

Updates. I love updates.

Current bibliography:

Short Stories:

Firebird and Shadow in Something Magic This Way Comes, Tekno/DAW anthology, March 2008

My Girlfriend Fate in Fate Fantastic, Tekno/DAW anthology, November 2007, available for pre-order on Amazon and other places.

Kyri's Gauntlet in Under Cover of Darkness, Tekno/DAW anthology, currently available.

Hell Forge in Illuminated Manuscript, Double Dragon E-book anthology, currently available.

I am also currently writing the script for Technosaurs, a web comic originally created by Kevin Wasden. At Kevin's art page, you'll find samples of the art he created for my stories My Girlfriend Fate and Kyri's Gauntlet. The name of the Kyri's Gauntlet piece is "Isolation", btw. The MGF art has been turned into promo material available from Cafe Press.

I will be attending two conventions as a panelist in July of 2007: InConjunction in Indianapolis, Indiana and LibertyCon (which is kind of like the de facto Baen con) in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

As for writing, I just finished a pair of stories trying to get into Dan Hoyt's "Better Off Undead" anthology, but they both came out too long and off topic from what he wanted. Que Cera. Now I'll be shifting my focus back onto my novel Recall and trying to drive that forward. At least until I get invited to another anthology (not holding my breath, obviously).

Reading-wise, finished Scalzi's Last Colony. I more or less like Scalzi's style and this last effort obviously got more attention copyediting-wise, so it was easier to enjoy. He's also not overtly moonbatty, which is a plus for this field in my opinion. You can tell that he's no Heinlein views-wise, but he's not such a leftist nimrod that he has to climb on his box and scream it at you throughout his screed like a bunch of other - much lesser - writers I could name. So, it made for an enjoyable pseudo-mil SF read.

The way Scalzi's trendy "the establishment is evil" views were presented reminded me of Butcher slipping in his "aw, pagans aren't so bad. They're just oppressed by fat white male Christian fundamentalists" sermon in his last book, White Knight. Yeah, I saw it, but it was only mildly irritating instead of being a full-on creepy flake-out like I've seen by some folks.

Compared to the hate-filled far-right paranoic opening of Kratman's A State of Disobedience, both books are paragons of temperance, for which I am duly grateful. I read (and write) speculative fiction for entertainment, not to be preached at by the religions of either the Right or the Left.

Now I'm just biding my time waiting for Elizabeth Moon to finish up her Vatta series and for more Dave Freer to hit the shelves. I'm sure something else will present itself either on the shelves or via Baen's release schedule in the meantime. It always does.

The Ebb and Flow of Inspiration

2005-07-26T09:01:00.000-07:00

Amazing how quickly deadlines start to loom, isn't it?

My current focus has been to develop and complete a suitable story for an anthology that has a deadline of September first. I have started five stories since receiving this assignment, finishing two. The second one I finished exceeded the word count specification by approximately 3,000 words and I'm not entirely sure I can squeeze it down until it fits (at least and keep the same feeling). The first was so bad, that I printed it out and jumped up and down on it, allowing myself some choice imprecations while doing so. The other three all have promise...just like the first two did, and September keeps marching closer with October right behind.

Funny thing...before I got the invite, I had just written a pair of really cool little stories with hardly any effort. The delight expressed by my usual ring of readers surprised me. Since then, however, I seem to be spinning around a bit.

I mentioned this to Lars last night in AIM, and that pretty much set the stage to speak about the ebb and flow of inspiration here in the blog.

There are times when you can do no wrong. They are extremely rare, but they do occur. I had one soaring season like that when, for my skill level, I was flying extremely well. All the soaring trophies that adorn the wall of my office harken to that season. The same sort of thing can happen with writing, especially when you're trying too hard.

The nature of the beast is one of ebb and flow, surge and regression. Creativity takes time, effort, and focus. So it is only natural to have a "down" slope after finishing a work, no matter how small. I imagine that the more professional one becomes, the more shallow the "dips", but I suspect the roller coaster is still there to some degree.

I can feel the bands loosening. Immediately after the invites I was too wired to think straight then I went into "panic and doubt" mode. Now things are settling into "I can do this." I can finish what I start, which is a fundamental tenet of the Zette School of Writing. Then I can edit.

I can do this. So can you.

Writing, Creativity, and the Duality of Writer Mentality

2005-07-21T09:14:00.000-07:00

Wow. I haven't posted since May 16? Ouch. Guess I need to fix that.

First off, some news: The Illuminated Manuscript E-book antho from Dragon Tooth Fantasy (Double Dragon E-Books) comes out in August. My story, Hell Forge, is in the collection. When it comes out, I'll be doing some promotional work. I have also been invited to submit to two anthos that will come out in 2006, so I actually have a chance to garner some pro sales soon.

Okay, onto more writerly topics. I've had several things tumbling around in my cabasa lately. One of these subjects is related to trying too hard. See, with a little bit of success comes a tendency to start to get a bit cocky, and when you get cocky, you increase the odds of screwing up exponentially.

I tripped over that recently. What's worse, I snippetted a bit of what I was doing to Julie C's board. When I woke up from my delusions, I started banging my head against my desk for displaying my ineptitude to the world. I'd show you what set all this off, but I've edited the text to the point that it's not quite as bad as first, so it doesn't have the same "ick" factor.

Anyway, I fell back into my old habits of stilted, overly complex sentences full of very fancy words. I also did a lot of telling instead of showing. In my own defense, I will admit that I had been perusing Fantasy and Science Fiction and Strange Horizons the day before, and had succumbed to "lit-raw-airy" influences.

Where is this heading? Ah, toward the odd duality that writers have to balance in their heads. We must be both our own best promoters while simultaneously being harshly critical. Beware the writer who has become convinced that golden prose flows from their fingertips at will. Also, watch to see that your own mind does not bend that direction. The converse of this, of course, is not to be so severe on your own writing that you do not show it to others.

There's that balance concept again.

In my case, the garnering of the antho invites has set off an odd convulsion in my writing. I'm incredibly excited to have been sponsored and presented as a potential talent, and that is a real confidence boost. Unfortunately, I cannot afford such confidence. I have to remain critical of myself. I can't start believing that I'm too good, too soon. I've made several stabs at shorts for the anthos, and they have all failed to pass initial muster. That doesn't mean they can't, it means that by the strange duality of writerdom I suddenly feel inadequate to the task as my earlier overconfidence quavers in the face of immediate reality.

I don't do schizophrenia well. Sorry. I only have one mind and I have to run it at pretty much full throttle just to get by on a calm day.

The conclusion that comes across is this: you have to do your best, and you have to not let the speed bumps completely unhinge your confidence. You have to keep writing or it's over. If you let the hiccups stop your efforts then you have no chance of ever getting better.

So, I suspect the "duality" isn't actually there. A writer writes, as Zette is fond of saying. An author uses a critical eye to edit what has been written. Once the editing is done, the manuscript is submitted, then submitted again, and again, and again. When it finally sells, then the author must drag out confidence and promote the work tirelessly and vociferously, because no one else is going to do it for you.

That's the truth of getting published: there's always something else to do, and every job requires a different mind set.

Getting by with a Little Help from My Friends

2005-05-16T10:30:00.000-07:00

There's a lingering romantic notion of the tortured writer slaving away in a stifling little hotel room, cigarette smoke swirling about his head to the accompaniment of clacking typewriter keys. The image of the manic creative individual, single handedly driving his vision into reality on 20# bond.

Yeah, right. Vision, I bite my thumb at thee!

Reality check, people: a person who writes alone and isolated has stacked the deck against themselves from the word go. First off, a writer's view of their own words is skewed. This is obvious from trying to proof anything you write within 10 days or so of finishing. You won't catch as much as you should, trust me. Second off, publishing as an industry is a social hive: if you don't have an "in" or a "contact", you're not getting past the guards at the gates without a full frontal assault. It's doable, but you'll take casualties.

The point I'm making is this: the rugged individual has the toughest time making it in this business. If, however, you have a modicum of social ability and are willing to listen and learn, you will find that you gain friends, and from friends, entre'.

The thing is, of course, you can't go in with the goal of finding a "friend" to use to pry the gates open. Some folks don't get that, sadly. Instead, they'll try to find someone they can sweet talk and manipulate and gain the good graces of and then ruthlessly exploit that person to get some piece of tripe pushed through to an editor or agent. The end result being, of course, harm to the poor sod who got snookered by a con person.

Those people are out there, trust me. Damn my eyes, but I can see them when they pop up, which probably says horrible things about my own dark and dismal past.

What brings all this up? Well, recently a writer friend forwarded a snippet of one of my stories to a well known editor without my request. What I got was a note telling me to "Hold up on submitting to the mags" and simply telling me what had been done. Frankly, I was stunned beyond words.

And grateful. And Humbled.

When someone you respect, who has plenty of other things to do, believes in you and your work enough to become an advocate without request, it's both invigorating and frightening. I have author friends who have offered to be my advocate before, but I have hesitated to lean upon them because I felt such requests to be an intrusion, a liberty taken with a friendship. However, I relish their praise and support. Having someone successful praise your efforts is one of the greatest feelings of exploring your creativity.

At a point like this, you realize that there are two responsibilities in play. The first is to the people who believe in you and back you, often at personal risk to their own reputations. On the strength of a relationship and mutual respect, they take a risk for those they believe to be worthy. How can the recipient not feel a responsibility to put their best efforts forward and provide their mentors the best possible praise through their work?

The other responsibility falls to those who follow. When someone helps you climb over a wall, does it make sense to just jump off and run like hell when so many others are waiting to get over as well?

With the examples of those who have guided me so firmly in my mind, how could I not do the same when the time comes?

Art in various forms

2005-05-05T09:52:00.000-07:00

There are two forms of art that I participate in. One is writing, of course. The other is model sailplanes.

I've flown R/C models since I was 16. I originally started with glow-powered models, but when I moved to Fort Wayne in the 1990's with my wife and kids, I stumbled across competition sailplane flying. I can still fly glow or electric, but my heart is in dancing on the wind with a glider.

Gliders allow me to touch a bit of what artist's must feel. By their very nature and the edicts of aerodynamics, gliders are inherently graceful in line and motion. The smoother and more curvey a model is, the better it will work (within bounds of a host of other factors, mind, such as airfoil). There are huge number of fiddly bits to be played with in search of that magic combination that will lead the pilot to "wood" (i.e. trophies) at the end of the day.

What brings this up? Well, yesterday I went over to my brother-in-law Will's place to do an assessment survey on the damaged and distressed models hiding in his garage. Will flies gliders like me, but there's a reason I call him "Moose". Will and finesse have yet to truly meet and they might not hit it off when they do.

Anyway, as we sorted through the pile of damaged bits and pieces that need to be fixed (i.e. that I would be fixing), it dawned on me that I wasn't looking at things just to get them fixed enough, I wanted to fix them right. To me, just getting the parts airworthy again wasn't enough. I wanted the planes to be in better shape after I was done than before they went in (which, admittedly, is a pretty modest goal considering the care Will usually give his gear).

Anyway, it brought to my mind the whole difference between art and craft. Craft is what anyone can learn given proper instruction and serious study. Art is something more. To me, the models are, in and of themselves, art and my repairs should add to that, smoothing and polishing and renewing. When I build a new model, I tend to great finickiness, from the time I start the design to the time I let the model go for its trip up the winch line.

When I write, I seek not to simply capture a story. Rather, I work to convey the feelings and emotions that I perceive the characters experiencing. Yes, it's a hubris for me to call my writing art, but even if no one else thinks that of my words my efforts in prose remain art to me, my own efforts to reach beyond craft to express something more.

Snippet for Wednesday, 13-April-05

2005-04-13T21:32:00.000-07:00

From a "dark" SF experiment, The Merciless Light of Tomorrow:

***

Efflen hated the surface, hated the light. The surface had taken all the people he ever loved, and the light had aided their killers.

He crouched in the rubble at the foot of the old concrete stairs and sniffed at the hot, dry air that wafted down the well. Every few seconds, he would pop out of the shadows to glance upward into the golden sunshine before jerking backward into the darkness.

"Damn, Flen," Abermay clucked at him. The brilliant sunshine had blinded Efflen's dark sight so that the hunt leader was all but invisible in the deeper darkness of the "front porch" where the scavenge team had gathered. "Give it a rest, would you? You're starting to make me nervous."

"Too much light," Efflen grumped back at her. "Night is best. Night hides us. The snufflers will be out."

"We're on a tight schedule," Abermay said as she stepped into the twilight between the burning day and comforting dark. Her battle rig was worn but in good repair. Long knives adorned both her calves and both her forearms and the barrel of her family rifle projected above her right shoulder. The tough, jet black fabric of her combat suit had faded a bit at the seams, but was otherwise in good condition. Most of all, however, her pale face and clear blue eyes fairly glowed in the light. She might as well walk onto the surface beating a drum and blowing a horn.

Tax Time and Regrets

2005-04-13T07:13:00.000-07:00

Well, I am one of the "late filers" notorious in the American tax system. Yes, yes, I procrastinate until the very last minute of April 15th, which is really pointless since I always get a refund. I can file anytime in the next 3 years and the IRS wouldn't care.

However, this year, I'm thinking about America's place in the world economy and how our government spends our money. Now, I have a pretty simple view of economics which has been criticized as "too simplistic" by one of my friends. However, everything that friend has said reinforced to me that my "simplistic" notions are correct and all the other smoke and mirrors that Wall Street and the Fed throw around are just so much Vegas bling-bling.

Economics at any level is really very simple once you strip things down to the base level: if you take some raw materials, modify them, and then sell them for more than you invested in the process, you bring money in. If you buy only finished products, your money flows out. Ergo, the key to financial success in any venture, personal or business, is to produce more value than you buy. Pretty friggin' basic.

Frankly, from where I sit, a service based economy is a great way for a country to become mediocre and irrelevant. For a country's economy to really grow, it has to produce value. The USA simply doesn't do much of that anymore because the Feds, under the direction of the Corp Cronies in D.C., have removed all the roadblocks that kept the Corps from trafficking in international slave labor.

Remember my comments about balance? Here's a prime example. The fox may not actually have a key to the henhouse, but his lobbyist has convinced the farmer's son to open the door by stuffing wads of cash in his overalls.

Frankly, a company that has its headquarters in the USA is not necessarily US based. If a company imports most of its products from overseas, then that company is a foreign company as far as I'm concerned. They're not providing jobs to US citizens. Instead, they're pumping money out of the economy to foreign countries and into the Corp elite's pockets. As far as I'm concerned, we would be better off shutting the borders and turning back all those container ships from China.

What set this off? Well, some incredible geniuses were on NPR talking about the trade deficit yesterday. And what they were saying basically added up to "we get about ten more years before we're broke as a nation". Ta freaking da, you ivy league idiots. Any kid with a lemonade stand could've told you that, you pendantic pinheads. We've allowed our manufacturing base to implode as we "sub-contracted" all the manufacturing and engineering overseas (as well as increasing the immigration quotas for "Foreign Educated Engineers"). If we're not adding value to anything, how in the hell do you think we're going to make any money? Selling know-how that the world already has or has already surpassed? Oh, I know, we'll sell our financial know how. You know, the same know how that's ruined life for the American middle class? I'm sure the world financial market can't wait for that kind of leadership.

What really blows my mind are these idiots who are surprised that, although our employment rate is roughly 95%, people are earning less and thus generating less tax revenue. Duh. You sent all the jobs that made the American middle class viable overseas, you incredible weasels. All that's left is landscaping, fast food, and cleaning hotel rooms, and you're importing MEXICANS to do that!

The idiocy moves me to profanity.

So, forgive me if I'm not overjoyed to be doing taxes right now. I'd like to know that my tax money would be used to buy six foot section of road repair, or maybe some textbooks for an inner city school. My taxes might even stretch so far as to buy lunch for a day care center that helps out working mothers or a set of ceramic armor inserts for a soldier in Iraq.

Somehow, though, I expect Congress to fritter it away somehow, leaving us all poorer after the fact.

D

This Odd Concept of "Balance"

2005-04-11T10:27:00.000-07:00

My Dad once told me that the one true sin, the sin that begets all others in a way, is gluttony. Now, I don't want to start a theological discussion on the seven cardinal sins or anything, but the Old Man had a point. He was big on "everything in moderation", and I'm far enough along in the world to pretty much agree with him.

I'll be frank: there's a lot of things defining my reality right now that suck because someone doesn't have a clue about "enough". Corporations, for example, have gotten most of their shackles thrown off and their doing a pretty damned fine job of selling the USA down the river so that the bigwigs can get "more". Not to mention those fine hereditary "representatives" in the government that are helping the Corps get "more" while they get "more" as well. Frankly, I really, really respect my father nowadays.

But, what's this got to do with writing?

Just a little insight into how I want to live my life, is all. I do other things besides write. I like model airplanes, for one, and paintball, for another. Writing is my equivalent of painting: a form of creative expression.

I'm not in it for the money, per se, but I want to be recognized as notable in the field. That means I have to take my efforts seriously. However, there's this concept of balance that hovers about the back of my mind.

I tend to view life as a kind of scale with time being the pebbles you add to the pans. If I throw too much of my time into any one pan, then the whole system gets out of whack. Family is one pan that always gets its share of pebbles. What's left gets divided between all the things I do, writing being only one. So I've got this scale with about a dozen pans and trying to keep them all balanced becomes...interesting.

The core of it comes down to a couple of things, however: family and health. If you don't take care of those two little items, your existence on this plane of reality will be miserable and, in all likelihood, short. I plan on being a pain in the butt to my great-grandkids, so that means balance.

Just random thinking, signifying nothing...

D

Blogs, Reviews, and other forms of Free Speech

2005-04-05T09:09:00.000-07:00

Okay, I Blog so therefore I must be, right?

I'll admit to a certain level of ambivalence with regards to Blogs in general. Still, a Blog is a very interesting Internet innovation: a virtual soapbox with an attached means to continue discussion in the background. I won't say Blogs replace newsgroups, but they certainly can serve a purpose.

One of those purposes is to function as a springboard for independent reviews of publications or products.

Thing is, there can be good and bad in anything. Just as with Amazon reviews, there are lots of folks out there who love to sling anonymous electronic monkey dung. You have your fawning fen, your monkey dung slingers, your one-issue-Annies, and your right and left leaning loonies. Frankly, wading through reviews about a product can be just as mind numbing as wading through the web in general. However, just as with the web, the cream floats to the top.

Julie Czerneda's discussion group recently tripped over the whole subject of on-line reviews and the apparent lack of restraint from both the reviewer and author angles. As with many of the posts in her group, there was a lot more thought to be given to the subject than first appeared.

I'm still mulling what was said. Someday I might have things out there that will get reviewed and slammed. Thing is, I recognize human nature for what it is. I know that, as a species, we tend to crap in our own dens. It doesn't surprise me anymore when people are cruel and evil. I know to expect that and prefer to be pleasantly surprised when it doesn't happen.

Anyway, more meanderings later...

"Excellence" in writing

2005-04-01T07:41:00.000-08:00

Lars Walker, a published author and someone I consider a friend, has been guest blogging over at Brandywine Books. I really enjoy reading his thoughts about writing because you get to see the awesome intellect and bedrock faith that he uses to create his alt-history and near-future Viking adventure fantasies.

One of the topics he broached was a post on Excellence in Writing. During that, I once again tripped over the concept of the "literary" novel versus the "commercial" novel. Frankly, I lost it and begged for a definition, which Lars was good enough to provide from his point of view. I quote his answer here:

"Good question, Darwin. My understanding is that a literary novel is one where the plot revolves around people's thinking, feelings and relationships, rather than physical danger and adventure (Romance novels excluded). Problems of society rate as literary subjects too. Also a literary novel emphasizes(theoretically) the evocative use of language, which is appreciated for its own sake, like poetry.

"I love Wodehouse's description of a Russian novel, which said (in paraphrase) that the main character did nothing for 300 pages, then shot himself. :-)"

Gah! Who'd want to read something like that? Actually, I suppose my question is, "Who'd want to be around someone who'd regularly read something like that?" Imagine enjoying what amounts to novel-length, obsessive whinging about the cruelty of life, the universe, and everything in artfully composed and ridiculously complicated prose. Just thinking about it makes me twitch.

I've heard rumours that the "Literary" intelligentsia look down their tenured noses at the kind of writing (SF&F). Haven't really experienced it yet, mind you, because those people not only bore me to tears but the bleeding heart, self-righteous, and inflexible politics of the universitat move me toward violence all too quickly, so I tend to avoid them when ever possible .

Ahem...

In any case, apparently having a compellling story-line with believable characters that the readers identify with doesn't fit into the "literary" definition. Yet, I can't accept any novel that doesn't take the reader into the story as "excellent", sorry. If I get bored, the book is finished and I hope it's the right thickness to prop up the short leg of my bandsaw. I don't care how insightful the friggin' author is about the plight of a Paraguayian chickadee, or how delicate his use of language in describing its habitat is. If I don't identify with the bird as a character, it's just a bird. Let's eat it.

Okay, okay. I'm abusing stereotype. Forgive me...not. I've got my paradigms just like anyone else. I don't buy literary novels because literary novels give me the yawns. I read for entertainment, to engage my imagination, and to play "what if?" If a literary work does that, then I'll read it. If it doesn't, it's just a small pile of processed dead tree held together by an egotistic elitist clique.

So, here's some check points for how I know when a book is excellent:

First and foremost, can I suspend my disbelief and care about what's going on?
Is the prose clear and concise?
Does the prose flow in such a manner that it requires little effort to read?
Does the author have the skill to use a minimum of description to evoke imagery rather than bludgeoning me with adjectives?
At the end, do I feel a wholeness in the story or do I just feel like there's something else that got forgotten?
When all is said and done, do I feel like pressing charges against the author and publisher for fraud?

Yeah, I could get more technical, but that's not where I'm going with this.

An excellent writer will craft an engrossing story without coming across as obtuse, whiny, or wordy. Prose isn't poetry, but an excellent writer will create prose that frequently feels poetic. The kicker is that they do it with a minimum of descriptor, by using language to tie into the common experiences of their readers to evoke imagery from within, rather than invoke it by using some prose mantra.

An excellent writer grabs the reader from the first paragraph and doesn't let them go until the story is done, for which the reader is truly grateful. It has precious little to do with "literary" qualifications.

Darwin

Today's snippet

2005-03-31T20:02:00.000-08:00

Why, oh why has this silly story gotten lodged in my head? Yet another snip from another unnamed snapshot in my head:

A tiny glint of gold caught the Castellan's eye. Amongst the knives, grenades, and various bits of soldierly hardware he could just make out a crucifix, blackened with paint that had begun to scrape away at the edges. Dimitri looked up at the soldier, a question on the tip of his tongue.

The look of quiet amusement on the soldier's face surprised him into silence. A black gloved finger slipped up to the crucifix and gently traced it.

"What better god for a soldier," the Hunter asked, "than the God of sacrifice and redemption?"

The Dread Disease of Writer Vision

2005-03-31T06:38:00.000-08:00

The act of snippeting a work-in-progress is a tempting thing to many of us, especially we the new writers. We create something that feels good, looks good, makes up happy with our talent, so of course we want to share. Thing is, there's this wonderful little law of nature regarding writing that states: The more excited you are about something, the more likely you'll see glaring errors in it as soon as you post it publicly.

That, my friends, is the dread disease of Writer Vision: being blinded to obvious errors by your own enthusiasm until you have thrown it out on the sidewalk for everyone to see.

Ouch.

I recently posted a Snippet to Julie Czerneda's SFF newsgroup just for fun. It wasn't a part of any ongoing story, other than as a brief, formless idea for an urban-fantasy short. The snippet hounds in the group made baying sounds aplenty, for which I was truly grateful, but on the second or third time through, I realized with a jolt that the first full paragraph was a complete train wreck of mishmashed jibberish. I'm quite certain that if an editor saw it, the MS would have been round-filed, physically or electronically.

Now I know I read that little snip through four or five times before I posted it, because I edited it every time. Yet, there it was, staring at me on the screen, a complete mess.

Well, that happens a lot with work-in-progress snippets, so I have not let it get me down. Still, it served as a good lesson: Always wait a bit before sharing.

As an object lesson, the paragraph was:

Arguile glanced at Timmots' shadowed form. His brother-hunter's cloak drankin the wan yellow light the streetlights cast into the fog. He could notdeny the observation. Only on a night such as this could the boundariesbe weakened. The curtain of mist tinged with scents of mid-summer and wrappedin the midnight silence of sleeping humanity would draw their prey as surelyas fresh meat drew lions.

I've been working on rewriting it, but I haven't gotten it quite where I want it to be yet. The whole scene was inspired by one of Lazette Gifford's photo-essay pieces about fog. What I want to capture is a sense of impending action coupled with a sense of the fey. I know both hunters wear enchanted cloaks that drink up light and render them as vague forms, almost unnoticable to human eyes, but I don't want to come right out and say that. The key with this bit, as with most story beginnings, is to involve the reader without core-dumping a buch of data in their face up front, i.e. Keep the mystery level and tension up so the reader just has to keep reading.

Anyway, that's a project for another day. This morning, I'm writing on Spell Weaver like a good boy (just as soon as I quit messing with this bloody blog).

Darwin

Snippet of the day

2005-03-30T13:34:00.000-08:00

Okay, I lied. I did write a little bit. Here's today's snippage:

The Lady and her castellan stood on a low hill overlooking the burning town. The rattle of distant gunfire and the muffled thump of explosions competed with the sound of songbirds perched in the cedars about them.

The incredible excuse machine

2005-03-30T12:49:00.000-08:00

I've come to the conclusion that lots of budding writers are very good at making excuses, and I'm no exception.

Maybe it's a function of guilt or maybe it's some misguided attempt to justify why words didn't get done during a particular day...or week...or month.

C'mon, folks. Let's have a little straightforward honesty here. I'll kick it off:

I didn't write anything today because: I didn't feel like writing.

There. I feel so much cleaner somehow.

All humor aside, unless you've somehow managed to buck the trend and become a full-time writer, odds are that you're squishing your writing time into the cracks that real life leaves behind. In my case, I have a full time job that I'm bloody well not going to give up to pursue a writing career until and unless my income from writing makes my normal salary seem silly. (Thank you Terry Pratchett for that little measuring post.) I have a wife, three kids, a cat, a dog, a house that needs repair, and two cars that are just this side of the wrecking yard. No way am I going to suddenly lark off and trust to the generosity and support of the American publishing industry. (Guffaw)

So, for me, writing is a creative outlet that has the bonus of being a self-worth reinforcer when people say nice things to me about it and publishers write me checks. Nice things are never in big enough supply and checks, no matter how modest, are never to be sneezed at.

Now, that all has to be balanced a bit since I actually have a story that got ::gasp:: accepted. Yes, yes. I am going to be officially published now. Zette Gifford not only said nice things about a story I wrote, but she also snagged it for one of her Illuminated Manuscripts fantasy anthologies due out from Dragon Tooth Fantasy, a Double Dragon E-Book imprint.

Okay, now it's serious.

Yeah, sometimes I won't feel like writing and I still have a real life with some pretty friggin hefty real bills, but play time, in a sense, is over. If I want to be published, if I want to be considered "pro", then I have to start exercising some focus and committment. And not feeling like writing becomes a luxury that doesn't fit anymore.

Oddly enough, feeling like writing is, for me, a function of being well rested and in decent condition. If I'm tired and draggy, then writing is an unassailable mountain of effort (along with just about everything else in life, ick.) If I get enough sleep, walk regularly, do some life-balance things with the kids and wife, then writing is a whole lot easier.

Anyway, enough rambling. I need to knuckle down and write. ;)

Darwin

Well, here it is.

2004-09-08T07:22:00.000-07:00

Greetings, web-wanderers. Welcome to the blog of Darwin Garrison, wannabe writer, model airplane designer, cog in the corporate wheel of the heavy truck industry, husband of Tammy and father to Kyle, Sabrina, and Erin.

To say that I'm eclectic in my interests is an understatement. ;)

So, why the blog? Well, my friend and writing partner Kate started one and, in order to post a reply, I had to start an account. Not the most auspicious way to start something like this, but oh, well.

What do I write? Speculative fiction (i.e. fantasy and sci-fi). I tend toward things military, but I'm not roped to it. I'm trying to focus on novel-length works since that's where what little money there is in the industry lives, but I do occasionally dabble in shorts if there's a topic that strikes me that way.

What's the deal with the model airplanes? Long story. I fly models. It's what people who want to fly real planes do when they can't afford lessons or a plane big enough to fly themselves. I tried to start a model airplane business and make kits, which turned into a real boondoggle. Still, I like to fly and I like to design. I also write articles for an on-line RC mag when I have time.

What's my current focus? Settling into our new house and working with my partner Kate Paulk on a collaborative urban fantasy novel called Spell Weaver. That's in-between shuffling kids around for their various activities of course. I'm also waiting on word about a short story I submitted to the Writers of the Future contest.

Mood: Mellow-resigned, as is common when I don't get enough sleep.