progress

Twenty Palaces update

Standard

Sales through the website have continued, and I’m grateful to everyone who has bought a copy from me. At this point, as soon as I see the payment notification from PayPal, I’m emailing the file to the reader. I’m sorry that there’s that delay, but I will do my best to get it to you as soon as possible.

 

Also, by this point, everyone who has purchased a copy of the book should have received one. If not, please let me know. I’ll do my best to fix it quickly.

One more thing: if you bought and read Twenty Palaces, would you consider reviewing it, please? I would appreciate the help.

Today I have to get the hell out of the house and work on A Blessing of Monsters. What with the plugin/direct sales ordeal and the holiday, I haven’t worked on it since Tuesday. That’s bad. So I’m going to run some errands, have more pie for breakfast, and sneak out to the Starbucks and the library so I can make a few words. Wish me luck.

Just passed the 20K mark on A Blessing of Monsters

Standard

Remember when I said this epic fantasy was definitely going to be complete in one book?

Er…

I’m going to have to slow forward progress on it while I revise the opening chapters and work up a pitch for my agent. Hopefully she’ll be happy with it and this new book by “George R.R. Martini” will be available sometime in 2013. God, I hope so.

Meanwhile, I have to go back and add more setting. I also need to change one of the viewpoint characters, who is not the sneaky trickster I wanted her to be.

Also, let me ask a question: Why is NaNoWriMo in November? Is it because the “No” in “Novel” matches the “No” in “November”? Because it’s hugely inconvenient, especially for folks in my country. Thanksgiving falls right into the end of the month, which is a time-consuming, exhausting, complicated holiday, and it also marks the start of the Christmas season.

Why doesn’t it run in January instead? Most of the big holidays are done and people are all jazzed about new beginnings and resolutions. Besides, the solstice will have passed and we’d be enjoying longer and longer days.

Anyway, for those who are taking part, remember, there is no rule but this one: “Be interesting.”

OMG, I suddenly understand Wolverine’s hair

Standard

And The Beast’s hair, too. Here’s a picture of Hank McCoy, aka, The Beast:

BEAST

Those are trunks, not underwear. You know, like wrestlers wear.

Here’s a picture of Hugh Jackman done up as Logan/Wolverine:

Wolverine hair!

(I gotta get me one of those man-watches.)

Both of those guys have pointed hair on the sides of their heads, and as I’m developing a sort of “ape/monster” for the book I’m writing, I suddenly had to ask myself something unexpected: what sort of ears do these creatures have?

If they’re more primate-like, they’ll have round ears on the sides of their heads. If they stand up from the top of their heads, they’ll be more like a bear’s or a wolf’s. More human/less human.

And maybe this makes me an idiot for not realizing this before, but Wolverine’s and Beast’s hair are designed to let them have human ears while suggesting a non-human head shape.

Anyway, it’s something to think about (when I ought to be writing).

Why does realism matter?

Standard

Something annoying: The author of this io9 article about a panel discussion on fantasy highlights a Lev Grossman quote, then goes nowhere with it. Here’s the quote:

“Why does realism matter?”

Simple, isn’t it? and nice.

But it’s true. Why is realistic fiction useful? If I want to understand the horrors of war, the pain of divorce, the disappointment of seeing a business fail, I don’t need to read fiction. There’s non-fiction on that very subject. I could read the real thing not a fake version made up by someone.

So forget about justifying the utility of fantasy. How do people justify the utility of realism?

Let me answer my own question: Because it’s beautiful. Because it’s powerful and affecting and we love it.

And that’s no different from fantasy. We’re comparing best to best, right? We’re not comparing the best examples of one genre to the worst of the other, right?

The best fantasy is powerful, affecting, and beautiful. (Maybe that should be “and/or” because sometimes the powerful and affecting parts are not at all beautiful.) It’s not all that different from other kinds of fiction. Sure, it contains elements that the author made up, but all authors make things up. Novelists aren’t trying to write non-fiction, and I don’t see any reason to force fantasy to justify it’s utility in ways that other genres don’t have to.

“Why does realism matter?” Because we long for it, the same way we do for fantasy.

In unrelated news, I broke the 9K mark on my epic fantasy, and the world is still collapsing around my main characters. In fact, there’s more collapsing to go. Fun! But I’ve already started worrying about how long the book is going to go (which is dumb but I’m a worrier).

My #FridayReads is still The Name Of The Wind

Standard

Jeez, that book is slow.

Yesterday I sent a short story for an anthology over to the editor. It’s a little long, but maybe it will work for them anyway. At the moment I can’t see what else to cut from it, but in about two weeks I’ll probably think it’s twice what it should be.

Anyway, the story is called “Don’t Chew Your Food” and as I mentioned before it’s set in the world of Don’t Rest Your Head an indie horror rpg by the folks at Evil Hat. If you play with character sheets and dice, you should check out their site. My story is about a celebrity chef and… well… eating. Can you tell I’m reducing, as they used to say?

I was also paid for a short story I wrote for a different anthology, although I’m not sure if it’s meant to be talked about in public. It’s a shared world anthology with a growing background, and my story is about a mage who specializes in love magic.

Fun! Short fiction, it was nice to hang with you for a while. Don’t be such a stranger, okay?

Today I’m walking across the bridge to work on the new newest book, an epic (hopefully) fantasy with the working title A Blessing of Monsters (aka “Fantasy with gate magic”).

No, it’s not a Twenty Palaces book, but I can’t sit around doing nothing until I hear the official word, right? Must work work work.

Anyway, I’m turning off the internet for a few hours so I can get a long walk in, plus writering. And today I’ll remember my house keys. Happy October.

Jumping ahead of the usual NaNoWriMo question

Standard

I’m not doing it.

I never do it. Some people actually seem offended when I say that, but NaNoWriMo doesn’t make sense for me. The daily wordcount isn’t that high and it’s what I ought to be doing anyway, right? Every month, not just November.

This isn’t a condemnation of the event itself. If you want to register and write along with other people, I think that’s great. Have fun and remember that you should keep going once December arrives.

But for me, no.

Some stuff about today

Standard

Went to the U-District early this morning (as my son reckons things, at least) to attend the live broadcast of local NPR-affiliate show “Weekday.” The first hour was an interview with actor and storyteller Stephen Tobolowski, of The Tobolowski Files. He talked a little about playing a pedophile principal on GLEE, being naked on CALIFORNICATION, and about his play “Two Idiots in Hollywood.” Great show.

The music was provided by “Awesome”. I suspect we’ll have one of their CDs on order by the time I return home, although their music wasn’t really to my tastes. Fun, but not for me.

After the show, my wife and son went home and I visited pals at their theater. They run Wing-It Productions, and if you’re in the Seattle area, you should go to one or two of their shows. They’re great.

Neither of my buddies could duck out for impromptu lunch, so I swung by Half-Price Books and picked up a bunch of old computer games I shouldn’t have bought, then ate lunch, then… Jesus, is it really so late?

I pretty much blew off the whole day, and I have NW Bookfest to attend tomorrow.

Crap. I’m supposed to be a writer, aren’t I? Writing things? Double crap.

Well, maybe I can accomplish something right now…

This is how today went:

Standard

Me: “Hey, book.”

Book, still sprawled out all over my life like the non-rent-paying couch-surfer it is, looks up. “Hmm?”

Me: ::Punches book in the face so hard it flies through the window, over the city, and lands in an open grave. The impact is so powerful that the piles of dirt on either side collapse onto it, burying it completely.::

Me, an hour later: ::Saunters up to grave, a celebratory burger in one hand, a marble tombstone tucked under the other. Drops tombstone in place and takes out broken, petrified femur stolen from Dorothy L. Sayers’s coffin. Kneels down and carves “A KEY, AND EGG, AN UNFORTUNATE REMARK” at top of headstone with bronzed tip. Below that line, carves “Agent has called this one to judgement.”::

Me: ::Walks away, eating burger::

(Actually, I haven’t sent it to my agent yet. I have to prep a nice little thing to accompany it it first.)

Sorry I’ve been so quiet here

Standard

I’ve been pushing to finish A Key, An Egg, An Unfortunate Remark and clocking some serious family time.

Plus, my brain has been incredibly boring lately.

Day camp for daddies

Standard

Per my son’s long-standing request, he is in day camp this week. It’s spendy but not too too spendy, and his best buddy is there, so we’re letting him hang out all day with other kids.

Which means that this stay-at-home parent and writer has an opportunity for some extra work time.

It’s also an opportunity to follow interesting blog posts into the comments, or to open lots of interesting articles from links on Twitter, or visiting Facebook for some unknown reason, or reading webcomics, or… The list is nearly endless. Plus I have dinner to make, laundry to fold, and composting to do.

I’ve often said the Internet is a temporal gas: it expands to fill the free time you have. Therefore I’m turning off my internet and starting work (jeez, it’s already past 11 am! I meant to post this an hour ago.)