daily life

So Wayne’s working for this new company, Fanzo, which provides a mobile app for sports fans so they can follow the latest social media news about their favorite teams on their phones. Which is swell for the sports fan, but I want to point out something for another group that I happen to belong to and believe is a demographic they’re overlooking.

That is: the few, the proud, the ones who don’t give a hoot about sports. We just don’t care. And yet we live with people who love ’em. And Fanzo provides a bridge. Using Fanzo, I can have tidbits with which to engage my loved one. For example, when Wayne came in the other day, I was able to say, “Hey, did you see the Mariners signed Quintero?” Do I know who Humberto Quintero is? Nope. But I do know the Mariners signed him. Thanks, Fanzo!

Fanzo: It’ll help you fake enough interest in sports that you can survive your relatives, in-laws, and assorted friends.

I can’t understand why they haven’t hired me as a marketer yet.

What I am currently working on:

• Beasts of Tabat, the first in the fantasy trilogy I have been working on for a while now is with my agent, in preparation for what I hope is the final rewrite. So I’m wrangling the synopses for the two books that follow.
• “Haunted” is a collaboration with Bud Sparhawk that started as a short story and has swelled to novella length. It is far future SF.
• A military fantasy story, featuring the same landscape as Beasts of Tabat.
• People who sponsored me in the Clarion West Writeathon (it’s not too late!) will be receiving a packet of writing produced during the last six weeks that includes several short stories, a novel excerpt, and several pieces of flash. So I’m putting that together and finishing up rewrites of a couple stories that will be included.
• Prepping for a couple of the new classes, including a shortened version of the editing class, a workshop on character building, and a session on turning an idea into a finished piece.
• Expanding an partially drafted literary horror piece, Queen of the Fireflies, which I’m planning on taking with me to a writing retreat in September (Clarion West sponsors will be receiving the first 50 pages).
• A couple of other collaborative pieces still very much in the works.
• Turning the notes from my building an online presence for writers class into an e-book.
• Working with Folly Blaine on doing the same with notes from our podcasting class.
• Continuing to do interviews, such as my recent one with Don Sakers. Upcoming ones include Django Wexler and Bud Webster.
• Preparing for various con appearances, including WorldCon, KillerCon, GirlGeekCon, the Baltimore Book Festival, the Northwest Book Festival, SteamCon, and Orycon. If you are interested in voting to determine my hair color for WorldCon, click here.

The rewrite of the first book, whose tentative working title is Beasts of Tabat, is off to Seth the fabulous agent, so I’ve started messing with the second book. It’s got the love triangle I mentioned in an earlier post, and I’m contemplating the somewhat odd strategy of having it start, chronologically, at a time point somewhere in the middle of the first book, and show some of that action from a different viewpoint. Crazy? Maybe, but I think it’ll be interesting to try.

At any rate, once I gathered up all the stuff snipped out of the first volume, I found myself with a solid 45k worth of words, and it’s encouraging to think that puts me halfway to a first draft. The second is tentatively titled Hearts of Tabat and while Bella and Teo make appearances, there’s some new voices as well. I hope you all will enjoy them as much as I have.

Other stuff includes a story rewrite that I need to finish up for Glitter & Mayhem, another story that’s due in a couple months, and the usual slew of other stories I should finish. Blah!

What am I doing right now? Mainly I’m elbows-deep in the rewrite of the fantasy novel, currently titled THE MOONS OF TABAT, which may change. But on other fronts:

I’ve written a first column for Conjurings Magazine, and will be doing so regularly. I’ve got my essay for CHICKS DIG GAMING semi-drafted and need to finish that up. And there’s some stories I was asked for hovering in the wings. But the rewrite is my primary concern.

Beyond that I’m teaching. The first Writing F&SF Stories class kicks off this morning, and others upcoming in the next couple of months include the First Pages workshop, Flash Fiction, and Everything You Ever Needed to Know About Electronic Publishing. I am planning a new class that I think will be interesting and timely, and also pulling the Online Presence Stuff into an e-book. There’s always plenty to do on that side of things.

I’ve figured out most of my convention appearances for the rest of the year: Norwescon (soon!), the Nebula weekend, WorldCon, SteamCon, and Orycon. (That’s always subject to change at the last moment, but we’ll see.) I’ll be enjoying talking with the Clarion West students each week at the readings and parties.

So far it’s been a great year. Here’s hoping that trend continues!

Well, as you may know, Five Ways to Fall in Love on Planet Porcelain made it onto the Nebula ballot. I can’t express how much that means to me. The Nebulas are voted on by members of SFWA, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, all of whom are writers in their own right, and so this feels very much like recognition and validation from my peers. Wow. That’s all I can say about that.

I’m definitely headed down for the Nebula Awards weekend, which is also a welcome chance to visit one of my favorite places in the world, the Winchester Mystery House.

But! My other great news, somewhat related to that, is that I’ve got an agent now, the excellent Seth Fishman of the Gernert Company. He’s as excited about the novel as I am, and so I’ve been figuring out my rewrite roadmap and planning to devote March to that. Huzzah! Onward and forward.

This is the last day for getting the special deal on the Writing F&SF Story class or Editing Class! Sign up for one of those and you get a bonus class as well. Bonus class options include: the First Pages workshop, Flash Fiction workshop, Everything You Need to Know about E-Publishing, Literary Techniques in Speculative Fiction, Building an Online Presence for Writers, and Art of the Book Review.

Since 2006, I’ve dyed at least part of my hair pink, usually a few locks near my face. The dye comes in a kit from L’oreal and doesn’t require bleaching beforehand ““ brush it on, wait thirty minutes, and wash it off. Voila, cartoon-bright streaks among the (once-prematurely) graying strands.

The first time I dyed it, I was about to head off to my first Wiscon ““ a large feminist science fiction convention held yearly in Madison, Wisconsin. As I’ve found the case at sf conventions since then, I wasn’t the only person there with an odd hair color; I glimpsed rainbows of pink, blue, and green. And I realized it was becoming. Complete strangers would lean over and whisper, “I like your hair,” including two flight attendants on the way home.

After the con the color faded, softer and softer, until finally, when I went to get a haircut, the hairdresser was cutting away dusty rose tips. I looked in the mirror and saw a middle-aged woman with a short, practical cut.

I bought a new kit on the way home and re-pinked my hair that afternoon.

I’ve been scarce of late for two reasons:

1) My hard drive failed and so did the drive I’d been backing it up to, so the last three weeks I’ve been working on assorted laptops, an ipad, and actual, retro PEN AND PAPER. Which I actually use a lot, so that wasn’t too bad. But thanks entirely to Wayne, I’m back up on the main machine and now backing up to three locations, including off-site. Whee. Yet again I learn a life lesson in my forties that I should have absorbed two decades or more earlier.
2) Clarion West. I’ve been helping out in the classroom and coordinating some of the volunteers, which has occupied a chunk of time. A number of old friends have swung through town, including the ever wonderful Blounts and a rare Rachel Swirsky manifestation, which is always welcome. It’s also six weeks with two events each week, the reading and the subsequent party. Not that I’m complaining – last night’s was swell, and it was great to see so many people, including the passle of students, still valiantly producing stories and critting each other’s work. Next week Kelly Link and Gavin Grant will be reading, which should be FABULOUS, so I hope to see a lot of you locals there.

I am plugging away at the Clarion West Write-a-thon and got at least 2k per day done this week, which feels great! I have been very bad about mailing my sponsors so I am going to send two stories to everyone who donates in my name before the write-a-thon ends. There’s still time, and a sum as small as a dollar will net you close to 10,000 words of new Rambo wordage. 😉 Stretch goal, a la Kickstarter: If I get 20 sponsors, I will make that 15k.

Plus! ArmadilloCon at the end of this month. Yahoo!

My phone camera was dead, so Wayne took this picture of the cool present the universe put on the car this morning for me. Isn't that beautiful?

If you’re a Redmond resident, there’s an open mike at the Teen Center this Saturday. I’m hoping some of the students from the workshop I did there will show up to read pieces, so I’m going, and it should be a lively time.

Things to Look At

• Children’s drawings rendered realistically. Some of these are awesome, some just a little disturbing.
• I love night sky photos. Here’s some beautiful ones, plus a video talking about taking your own.
• This four minute video shows the creation of an absolutely lovely piece of art.

Writing Links

• Chuck Wendig provides 25 reasons your reader will keep reading. My favorite is “Characters About Whom We Give Not One Shit, But Many” because it’s very true for me. One of my favorite (literary, not spec-fic) books is E.H. Young’s sadly out of print Miss Mole because by the end we love the main character so much and want a happy life for her so very, very much.
• I’m very excited by the news of the Thurber House reopening its writer in residency program, because I’ve always wanted to apply for that. I adore Thurber. ADORE.
• Need a motivational tool? Here’s one that gives you kittens.

Just Because

• How cute is this? Baby dinosaurs!

Pimpage

• I had a byline in the November 14th Publishers Weekly, with a Q&A with YA author J.H. Trumble. Unfortunately, you must be a subscriber to see the piece. Still – that’s a credit on my publication list that makes me squee a bit.
• Got a new Kindle but don’t know what to read on it? Can five stars on Amazon be all that wrong? Try my collection, Eyes Like Sky and Coal and Moonlight.
• If you’re interested in taking my online workshop, details can be found here.

I’m currently working on: a travel piece for Northwest Travel, an essay for Clarkesworld, an article on SEO for the SFWA Bulletin, the last rewrite of the current novel, being better about blogging, and preparation for the online workshop.

This is a Wonder Woman comic written by Samuel R. Delany. Samuel fricking Delany. In issues 202-203 she abandons her super powers and becomes a super agent. Note the label “The Women’s Lib Issue”. So full of AWESOME I’m surprised it could be scanned without shattering the lenses of every piece of A/V equipment in a five block radius.