Ron Toland
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  • Notes from WorldCon 2016: Day Four

    Non-anglophone authors you should know

    • dr schaff-stump: japan and russia
    • kastersmidt: born in texas, living in brazil
    • dr lyau: specialty is french sci-fi
    • takacs: hungarian, lots of hungarian sf has not been translated yet
    • schwartzmann: reads russian, ukrainian and polish; has done translation work
    • schwartzmann: russian writers: bulgakhov (magical realism, 1920s and 1930s)
    • takacs: strugatsky brothers; stanislaw lem, especially the cyberiad; rana ras;
    • lyau: france produced second-most varied scifi tradition; planet of the apes; their golden age was the thirty years following jules verne's heyday; maurice renard; french new wave post-1968; robita; de nizorres
    • kastersmidt: hector hermann oesterheld (argentinian, was killed by junta for publishing comic)
    • schaff-stump: has handout with japanese names; since japanese novels are often turned into manga and anime, can often find those in translation even if the book hasn't been
    • schwartzmann: for chinese scifi, start with three-body problem, first volume had to adhere to communist standards, second was a little looser, third volume he completely jumps out of the box; tor is releasing "invisible planets" collection of chinese short stories translated by ken liu
    • takacs: yerg dragoman (the white king; bone fire); adam bodor (the sinister district)
    • fantastic planet: was based on french novel called "humans by the dozen"
    • lyau: start with the pulp novels to brush up on your french
    • kastersmidt: if you haven't read borges, do so; camilla fernandes (brazilian); also check out the apex book of world science fiction, runs to four volumes, collects stories from new authors from around the world
    • schaff-stump: hex (from dutch author) was rewritten for us edition, not available in strict translation
    • tiptree award is going out of its way to bring non-english scifi to anglophone attention (check past award winners)
    • takasc: african sf: afro-sf anthology series; african speculative fiction society website will soon go live
    • first emeriati science fiction publishing house is opening its doors
    • omenana: african sf in english (online)
    • german scifi: andres eschbach, the carpet makers (?)
    • ukrainian literature: vita nostra, available in english, by sergey and marina ____, basically the magicians

    Promoting Yourself as an Introvert

    • tamara jones: writing since seven yrs old
    • doesn't leave the house much
    • lives in small town iowa
    • has four novels, first won compton cook award
    • had to suddenly start speaking to a lot of strangers and big crowds
    • hard to relax
    • introverts are like onions, have awesome core, but many many layers of protection on top of it that prevent people from getting to know your core
    • on panels, need to let hair down, but you can hide behind the table for safety
    • editor liked just first 66 pages of first book she bought, had to rewrite everything else, which completely changed her plans for the second book; so: don't write the next books in a series until you sell and finish the first one
    • some people don't want to let you talk on a panel, but don't get aggressive, that doesn't come off well
    • readings are the worst
    • but: get your ass out of the chair, gives you better diction, more control; move around, even though there's no where to hide; it's performance art: talk about self, talk about book, read short pages (two pages), then talk about it, then two more pages, then talk about it (make it different works or passages for variety)
    • find whatever it is that gives you feeling of safety (small sweater, lucky socks, etc) and wear that to the reading to help you feel safe and able to be yourself
    • has had three stalkers already, so no one knows where she lives (deliberately)
    • tries to avoid the parties; but when you're starting out you have to go because editors and agents will be there; grab a drink, wander around and listen, take a drink if you get nervous
    • what do you do when drained? Find a capsule of solitude somewhere: a quiet corner, maybe even the restroom stall, close your eyes and be alone for 15 min
    • editors love to talk about their work; her typical question is "what's the best thing about your job?"
    • need one sentence description of each of your books
    • also need one sentence description of yourself "i slaughter people on paper for money"
    • thinks introverts should not moderate, have to insert self and take control, which introverts are not good at
    • don't overprepare for panels; whatever you prep for will probably be thrown out the window as soon as the panel starts
    • at end of the day, selling self, if you do that people will want to buy your books
    → 6:00 AM, Aug 25
  • Notes from WorldCon 2016: Day Three

    Flash Fiction: Short but not easy

    • betsy dornbusch: writes mostly epic fantasy, used to buy flash
    • anna yeatts: flash fiction online owner/publisher, also writes flash
    • caroline m yoachim: just launched collection with fairwood press
    • flash: definition varies greatly; over 1,500 wordsis definitely not flash; something you could read in five minutes
    • yeatts: want a full complete story in a coffee break; still want a complete story arc, pared down to the essence
    • vonallmen: looking for the pop of "oh, wow" in just a five minute read
    • wowell: couldn't write GoT in flash
    • yoachim: now i want to write that
    • wowell: customer service call for death ray works really well in flash format; sci-fi comments thread works really well as flash
    • dornbusch: don't do vignettes about the sun, they don't get bought
    • yoachim: great focusing on small piece; focused emotion, etc; great for putting hints of the larger world in the story, rest up to reader's imagination
    • favorite stories?
      • yeatts: grobnak ama
      • running of the robots
      • first story from daily science fiction: story with three substories, and the meta-story, all in 1,000 words
      • strain of sentient corn writing to monsanto
      • if you were a dinosaur, my love
      • six names for the end
    • what skills are important?
      • dornbusch: editing; revision; the shorter the length, the more powerful
      • dornbusch: likes humor in flash, but not the punchline
      • wowell: need to recognize how many plots and subplots you can fit into each story length
      • vonallmen: ability to focus on tone
    • send mothership zeta your cat stories (joke)
    • yoachim: so much needs to happen in the first paragraph: need to tell reader what they're in for, little about their world, the action, tone, everything
    • dornbusch: try telling story where reader knows the secret, usually it's better than hiding the secret from the reader
    • wowell: if you like twists, do it at the beginning, not the end; starting with the twist will get me reading
    • yoachim: remember can play with your title, do a lot of setup there
    • current markets?
      • flash fiction online; daily science fiction
      • unsung stories (uk)
      • fantasy and science fiction takes some flash
      • mothership zeta
      • vestal review
    • lots of calls for flash, but don't give it for free
    • yoachim: targets markets that specialize in flash fiction
    • uncanny magazine does flash
    • fireside fiction does flash and shorts
    • nature runs flash fiction
    • flash one of the few markets where second person won't overstay its welcome

    The Art of Worldbuilding

    • amanda downum: necromancer chronicles
    • luc peterson: runs civic innovation office
    • peter tieryas: fiction where japanese won world war ii?
    • downum: need fresh ideas, sense of wonder, in showing this new world
    • bear: burroughs first to do world-building in science fiction
    • downum: likes to start with character and scene, let world unfold from there; likes characters to pick up and interact with objects in the world, rather than just moving on a sound stage
    • patel: starts with what a society values most, and what they fear most; what do they invest in, what do they build walls and defenses against
    • bear: receives a vision; might take years to stitch visions together into a story
    • what do you need to know? How many doctorates?
      • bear: english major, don't know anything
      • downum: ditto
      • patel: need to know what touches your characters; need to have lots of prior work done to know what this is before writing
    • downum: has someone ask her questions, to reveal those things she hasn't thought of, those pieces she hasn't built out herself; really good if someone that doesn't read genre, they come at it from a completely different angle
    • tieryas: even things (research) that don't show up in the book can be valuable
    • bear: history of asia a target-rich environment for mining world-building ideas
    • how do you put limits on the research?
      • downum: hard, but do a little at first to get started; when come across detail to fix later, mark in brackets and keep going; do more research afterward to fill in details, etc
      • patel: timebox your research time so you push yourself back into writing; can be iterative, don't have to answer all questions at beginning, questions that come up during writing can give you chance to do focused dive into research again
    • patel: shorter work is, less research you'll have to do, but you may have to do very detailed research into a single focused topic
    • downum: likes first person for short form, but at novel length it's like being stuck in an elevator for a very long time, so prefers third person multiple perspective
    • patel: look for opportunities for drama and conflict in all worldbuilding; how would your characters tell their history? How would their enemies tell it?

    How to Handle Rejection

    • gail carringer
    • wallace: stopped counting at 1,000
    • worst rejections: ones that are really really close to acceptance
    • wallace: never count on money until the check clears
    • carringer: rejection is evidence that you're trying, that you're sending stuff out
    • best rejection?
      • carringer: rejection was so nice, went back with later work, has been her agent for ten years
    • carringer: don't fall in love too much with a particular book, be willing go move on and write more and try something else
    • reader reviews are not for you, they're for other readers
    • carringer: would tell younger self to try different genres and styles earlier
    • carringer: never ever ever respond to a rejection
    • wallace: btw, anything you post online, anywhere, is a response, and is a bad idea
    • carringer: some agents/editors will be full up with authors in your genre, and so will reject you because they don't want to take on any more
    • remember that they're rejecting the product, not you
    → 6:00 AM, Aug 24
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