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
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
what if your gross terrible neighbor was a real monster?
a way to crack open the puzzle of the weird world we're in and understand it better
it's a way to be sneaky: can talk about deep things in a fun way, with people that don't notice
perception: history has been edited down from multiple conflicting perspectives; urban fantasy lets you deal with these different perspectives for more immediate events
no real bad guy: bad guy is someone pursuing their goals in a fanatical sense, still think they're the good guys
people are always writing urban fantasy from their primary experience; in feudal days it was fears from lord of the manor, today it's shopping malls and steelworks (instead of fairy rings)
changeling stories are ufo kidnapping stories, just told in a different time
uf is the intersection of contemporary fiction and fantasy fiction
danger: to cover over real experience with a fantasy gloss; example: the magical homeless people of the 80s)
can use unreliable narrators to try to avoid the problems with covering over messy experience
why first person?
immediacy
tight perspective
noir influence: almost all first person, huge influence on urban fantasy and its style
adrian mcinty: leicht's favorite irish noir writer
rowland: j d robb's books
Finance for writers
put 40% away for federal govt, 10% for state, pay quarterly income taxes estimate, will usually get something back at the end of the year
most first books don't make back their $5,000 advance
don't quit your day job, even after signing tge first contract
some contracts don't last past 2 or 3 books
not a steady income
be careful with your money; lots of authors aren't good with their money
get good agent: writers tend to not read contracts, approach it very emotionally; good agent will catch things and get you the best deal possible
okay to lose money on your craft at first, but have a budget and be aware of it
spend money on your craft (take classes, do workshops) and your network (attending cons, etc)
but: if you're at cons, write down what you want to accomplish before you go
if you self-publish, spend money on quality: an editor and a cover designer; everything else you can half-ass, but not those
keep all receipts for your craft in a shoebox, use them (plus your spreadsheet) to fill out your schedule c for your taxes
if you don't make a profit every seven years, the irs considers it a hobby, not a business
average income for writers is $5,000
don't quit your day job until you have 2 years' worth of living expenses saved up
rule one: write, finish, send it out
one benefit of incorporating is the ability to defer income from one year to the next (should you score the $70,000 advance)
78% success rate for publishing projects on kickstarter if they get 25 backers; difference between people that are prepared and know what they're doing and those who don't
bud: turns profit every 5 years; how? Doesn't report all his expenses that year
lots of ways to use kickstarter: events, book tours, playgrounds inspired by literature, self-pubbing books, magazines; can get really creative
margot: think of marketing as sharing these stories you're passionate about with others and inviting them in, not "selling yourself"
Idiot's Guide to Publishing
all scifi community on genie network at the time
doctorow hadn't written a novel yet, so got karl involved
patrick: liked it because it was very practical
rejectomancy: shouldn't read too much into rejections; form rejection could be from someone that loved it but didn't have time, personal could be from someone that doesn't like the story but likes you personally
schroeder: never sold any short stories to the magazines, has only ever sold stories to anthologies
at the time, discussion over ebooks concerned fact that they never go out of print, so publishers argue that they don't have to revert the rights to the author
would not try to write today, because has no idea how to get into the field now
Nifty Narrative Tricks
bear: what character is like matters less than how you handle the character
kowal: people want the familiar in the strange; familiar makes you feel smart, the strange is compelling; when have character engaged in activity or emotion that readers find familiar, then when i engage them in something weird they already have a hook
kelly: characterize people by what they own. before walking them on stage, go into their room, or their car: what's there? is it messy? neat? what's hanging on the walls? bonus: gives you things to use later in the plot
walton: writers get some things for free, and some things they have to learn; easy to teach the things you learned, but almost impossible to teach the things you got for free; she got interesting characters for free, so...story is contract with reader, try to get what story is right up front so reader doesn't feel betrayed
bear: beginning writers make mistake of writing passive characters
bear: give the character something to love; instantly makes them more engaging
gould: best way to intro tech is to show it when it breaks down; very engaging to intro character when frustrated
kowal: frustration will show what character wants, what they love, and give you a measure of their competence
kowal: figure out what character wants, and smartest way for them to get it, and then you block off that way (and keep blocking off ways)
walton: __ starts with character really having to go to the bathroom while giving speech on history; is pure exposition but you don't care because you sympathize with having to use the restroom
walton: farmer in the sky (heinlein) has similar trick, with tons of worldbuilding done in describing a father and son making dinner
term: incluing
kelly: how can you tell beginning from middle from end? beginning -> middle: character goes through one way door, and can't get back to the start; middle -> end: character goes through another one-way door, and story has to end one way or another
kowal: stakes are something particular to the character; we're all going to die, so death is not great stakes; "you're going to lose your right foot" is more personal
kowal: focus indicates thought; what you're looking at is what you're thinking about; rhythm and breath: same action at different speed gives you different emotion; how long you linger on something shows how important it is to the character
walton: pacing very different between genres; same story told at different pacing can change the genre of the book
kelly: look at the story; if you see a section of solid text or solid dialog, that's probably a pacing problem
common mistakes?
bear: starting with bloodbath, before you care about the characters
kelly: end of story is not the climax, you need a moment for the character to come to grips with what the climax means for them
gould: leave some things for the reader to figure out from context
kowal: starting with way too much backstory; solve by getting deeper into point of view
walton: too fuzzy, character not in focus; can fix by switching to first person, forces you to focus on personal experience
walton: often rushes endings, has to go back in and fix pacing after draft finished
kowal: best trick: dumping exposition into a sex scene
kelly: world-building will happen almost without trying; less you can do of it, the better
Evolution of Epic Fantasy
tessa grafton: the united states of asgard
sarah beth durst: queen of blood
epic fantasy: need close in shots, and medium shots, and landscape shots, all mixed in
leicht: research into irish time of troubles taught her everything involved in world-building: how economics is tied to politics is tied to religion is tied to class is tied to language
kate elliott: crown of stars
leicht: viking skeletons found in bogs: no one checked if they were male or female; many of them (warriors) are female
elliott: archeologists finding statues mostly female, labeled one male statue as priest-king and all female as just "fertility", then were mystified as to why they kept finding female statues
perspective of character that has been in a fight versus one that never has is completely different. People who experience regular combat (bouncer) have different frame of mind and see things differently
also person not in fight can see things that those in the fight can't
can use training sequence to describe the moves in great detail, and then keep it brief when the actual fight happens
daily exercises or training routine can serve a similar purpose
fight's aftermath: talk to emts and paramedics about the kinds and causes of trauma they've seen
think of fight musically, with rhythm of blows and building to resolution in a limited amount of time
don't forget: characters that have been in a fight are going to carry injuries with them for rest of book
remember that fight is happening because of conflict, two or more characters that want different things, and they'll be thinking about their goals during the fight
50 years of star trek
people knock the new movies, but even old movies were often about finding someone to fight instead of exploring; classic series had fights, but central theme was exploration and making friends
jar jar abrams
star trek at its best when its about discovery and making friends
what would you want in new series? snodgrass and gerrold: shut down holodeck (or find out it causes cancer)
no media? snodgrass: they tried, wrote episode where they showed wesley's cabin, with pinups on wall, and they were not allowed to show it
snodgrass: in original series, their time in rec room created sense that they liked each other and hung out together; she created the poker game in next generation because she felt that was missing
snodgrass: please ditch the bodysuits from TNG, they limited who they could cast in each role because they were not forgiving; much prefer the uniforms from the first few movies
star trek: new voyages: fanmade series that gerrold did an episode for
star trek: continues: finn fancy necromancy author really loves it
could we do non starship star trek? Gerrold: yes, if about star trek academy, or federation council, etc
house of picards
As you know, bob
hiding the infodump: article in april 2015 analog
tamora pierce: works in genre where extra exposition gets cut mercilessly
"teenagers pay my bills, i don't explode them" pierce
exposition can get too detailed because in first draft writers are figuring out what's happening as they write it. It's fine, so long as they take it out later
know as much about your background as possible, tell as little about it as you can get away with
know your audience: some them can really get into detailed exposition, while others will skip it
don't load it in as a block, slip it in as part of the action, because it's fatal
tnh: expository chunks can happen because authors with clout can be late, and rather than push book release out, editors will edit book less than they normally would because they ran out of time
tnh: don't tell people things before they want to know it; rowling is a great example of how to do it right: she intros sorting hat as just talking hat, only later introduces other properties when they're needed
conflict can also be a driving force of exposition
or: new guy comes in, has to have everything explained to them
pierce: usually starts with character at cusp of new phase of life, transition drives exposition, will drip exposition into story as it goes, have characters act it out rather than infodump
tnh: technical master of exposition of our time is joss whedon; watch first few minutes of serenity, within ten minutes you know everything you need to know about the universe
pierce: early stephen king, elizabeth bear
jodi shapiro: new books, well done exposition and context
reader can infer a lot from context, can trust them more than you think
when chapter has ended, preferably with a hook, it's clear that something new is coming, you can get away with slipping a little omniscient viewpoint exposition in there
tnh: get a 14-yr-old beta reader. Their brains are fully developed but they don't have any tact
tactic: when people are angry, they'll state obvious things ("look! Water *is* wet!")
tnh: every time you explain something to the audience, you give them a chance to argue with you; great example is time machine: don't explain how it works, because they don't, tell me how it smells, how much cargo it can carry, how much time it needs to recharge between trips
How to write a mystery
clues can be great, but if characters aren't three-d, will feel hollow
misdirection: all clues have to be there, but distract reader at same time
mystery great tool for other genres, can reveal aspects of world for spec fic using mystery tools
why is it important that characters solve this?
would this mystery have happened in any other world? What does this crime reveal about the greater society and the people that live in it?
harris: beat, beat, beat; explication, explication, boom! Follow the rhythm of the book
harris: have to provide false suspects, but not so many that you wonder why the victim didn't get killed earlier
harris: when you have something that you think is too mean to do to your characters, you should do it!
small mystery and large mystery: can add texture to the book; small mystery small stakes, answer can be humorous; can also tie the two mysteries together, link the two mysteries
thematic echo: guinea pig squealing in the night out of fear; person had murdered another because they thought (wrongly) that they were being threatened
turn tropes on their head to try to get something new (no more detectives with tortured pasts)
harris: people love to talk about what they do. Undertakers? Don't nobody ask them what they do.
amateur detective: has to have compelling reason to get involved and not leave it to the police
randall garreth; darcy series
the last policeman
nora roberts' detective novels set in the future
do you read mysteries? Yes, all the time; new j d robb; anne bishops's written in blood series; expanse series by james a corey; mike connolly; steven hunter; stewart mcbride; ben aaronovich rivers of london series
Crafting and Editing the Short Story
how involved are you in the process?
datlow: will buy imperfect stories, but will dig in and ask for changes, work with author to make it better; harder with new writers that may not take editing well
clarke: take everything from slush, always open to submissions, often working with new authors more; will work with author if they believe in the story
uncanny: usually buy more fully-cooked stories; there are enough submissions that they just don't take the story if they don't think it's ready
swartzmann: often buy ready stories, but will sometimes pluck out a rough diamond and polish it, which makes him very very happy
williams: will work more with authors she hasn't seen before; still rare though
what stops you from reading?
datlow: bad writing
swartzmann: pacing
uncanny: has to care about the characters
clarke: zombies...really anything that indicates they haven't read the market guidelines
datlow: have to want to spend time with the character; don't make them boring
what about problem endings?
datlow: usually means 3/4 of the way through they took a wrong turn
clarke: very frustrating for good story to have bad ending
uncanny: the sigh of having given up on a story
williams: wait to send stories out; your subconscious can come up with things to improve it if you give it a chance
uncanny: problem she often sees is the tendency to describe everything instead of only the things relevant to plot and characters
datlow: not supposed to do talking head stories, but can use descriptions of events around them to prevent it from being boring
clarke: seek out slush reading opportunities; good way to see what's out there and what mistakes people make
williams: buys 6 stories a month; receives around 1,000 submissions a month
swartzmann: in humor, don't try too hard, and make sure reader can enjoy story even if they don't find it funny
uncanny: take chances, don't reproduce what you see out there
datlow: humor a harder sell for her because she usually doesn't find it funny
uncanny: many stories are bittersweet, so will look for whimsy to lighten the mood
Mind of villains
psychopaths are born not made
reactive attachment disorder comes from environment, inconsistent caregiving before age of 2
not good or bad caregiving, just inconsistent
passed around from caregiver to caregiver, start to view people as providers of services, not worthwhile as individuals
pdf from doj on problems with criminal justice in the united states
most psychopaths choose to follow the rules of society for their own benefit
if you have a psychopath as your villain, you need something to kick them out of their natural rule-following
don't know what fear is or what love is
but can have long-term relationships or get married, just don't feel love
10% of murders in US are committed by children (under 18)
kids released at 21 have no higher incidence of crime as adults than anyone else
children kill for different reasons than adults; when take them out of that environment, they stop (take them out of abuse, teach them anger control, etc)
in court cases, often someone sitting in the back crying; usually the mother; "why are they picking on my child?"
hitler attached to his dog, attached to his cousin; would he have had anyone killed if he'd gotten into art school?
there's a way to raise a psychopath: reward good behavior immediately and punish bad behavior immediately; give them the praise that they crave
BTK killer was church leader, good husband, good father
tend to see people that do evil as "really" evil: he was a good father but really he was a serial killer. It's not but really, it's *and*.
most people that do evil are people, with good and bad that they do
bones is a great example (in early seasons) of a successful psychopath
psychopaths are normal: 1 out of 100 people is one
psychopaths can empathize with other people
if you call psychopaths on their bs, they'll try to spin it with them as victims or play it off as an accident
psychopathy and high intelligence are not correlated, but intelligence and being in prison is: prison population of us is more intelligent than general pop (though with lower education level)