words

Some crap about my life

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While Minnesota is getting socked with snow, we’re getting unusual rainstorms. The radio is not only talking about flood warnings for several counties, but landslides, too. Man, I wish we hadn’t moved into that clifftop mansion.

Yesterday was a good writing day, the first one in a while. I’ve been complaining about what a struggle this book is, but silently. Only to myself. I know there are a lot of writers out there with a lot of despair and frustration to vent, but I try not to do it very much myself. (It’s kinda dull) But what happened? I let myself complain to some friends, and while talking I realized what I was doing wrong. So, yesterday = good. And god forbid that public whining is part of my process.

After writing, the whole family went to see Rudolph, The Next Verse. It was comic improv theater about the difficulties Rudolph had on the night of his famous flight. And of course, those troubles (and other details) were decided by shouting 4-9 year olds. The whole thing was very funny, had a lot of firearms and radiation in it (courtesy of the kids) and a bit of singing, too. My son was one of the kids who got up and danced during the “Radioactive Candy” song. Thanks, Andrew!

After the show, we dropped in on Half-Price Books where I bought an ARE of Child of Fire. I’d given mine away for reviews and whatnot, and I’d always regretted not keeping copies for myself (Posterity!) They had a copy some reviewer had sold them (shelved in Mystery, for some reason) so I snapped it up for my collection. And yeah, I checked for my own signature/inscription, just to see which dear friend had boxed and sold it off for a couple quarters, but surprisingly it was a rare unsigned copy.

And now I’m off again to the local cafe to try to have another good day.

Ari Marmell doesn’t think much of your advice.

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Over on Suvudu, Ari Marmell is pointing out that writing advice which tries to tell you how your own creative process should work is bad writing advice. And he’s right; it’s not cool or helpful.

But what I’d like to see from a writing advice book (assuming I ever had reason to read another one) is an acknowledgement that people have different methods and that learning to write is in part an experimentation with process. It should have a chapter for outliners, with all the different methods for outlining, and a chapter for non-outliners with everything those writers need to know. And readers should be encouraged to study both chapters.

Of course, the best way to learn about writing is not from a writing advice book, but by studying the sort of books you love and want to write. Discover how they work. Create your own theory. Move forward from there.

One more and I’m out of here.

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Amazon.com is giving 4 weeks of free Bookscan numbers to U.S. authors. If you’re signed up for their Author Central, you can see sales not only for the Amazon.com site, but for all booksellers who report to Bookscan. Details here. Amazon.com’s FAQ here.

Anyway, Bookscan says their numbers represent about 75% of all book sales, but the real figures vary wildly from 15% to 75%. It really doesn’t tell you anything, and it isn’t important.

But here’s what it looks like, except you can mouse-over each region for more info. (Click through for full size)

Bookscan Nov

Why no love, Birmingham?

Randomness for 12/8

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1) The Avengers have a change in health care plans. Video. Pretty funny.

2) And, to switch to DC, Batman as life-size puppet stage show on Japanese TV. Video. You know you can’t resist a description like that. Via

3) Quality hate mail.

4) Ten comics-related gifts guaranteed to ruin your Christmas.

5) An alignment chart for DS9. Personally, I would switch lawful evil and neutral evil, but that’s me.

6) Seven horrifying cost-cutting measures.

7) The Penmonkey’s Paean. “I will not sing lamentations to my weakness.” Damn but I needed to read this today. Thanks, JJ.

A Glimpse of Darkness goes on sale today

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Here it is:

Cover

What is it, you ask? For those who missed it the first time through, earlier in the fall Suvudu.com held a round-robin audience-choice story game for several writer, and I was included in the fun. One writer would write a short chapter and at the end would be a poll to allow readers to decide what to do next. Once the readers made their choice, the next writer in queue would create the next section of the story according to their wishes. The authors were Lara Adrian, Stacia Kane, Kelly Meding, Lucy A. Snyder, and me.

Well, it goes on sale today, (for those of you who read ebooks). The novella is available for only 99 cents. You can order through Powell’s, Barnes and Noble, and of course, Amazon.com.

I’ll say this: it’s very different from the Twenty Palaces books. There’s a lot more magic in it, for one thing, and many of the characters are non-human folkloric creatures. For another, it’s fantasy alt-history. For a third, I didn’t write most of it.

But I think it’s a fun adventure story. Check it out.

Randomness for 12/4

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1) Every Star Trek episode explained in four panels.

2) “Speedflying” a new extreme sport that freaks me out just watching a clip on YouTube. Video. If I prayed, I’d pray for those dudes.

3) Fictional characters in need of a book deal. With covers!

4) This is why I’m a capitalist at heart.

5) Can’t remember what movie I certain line of dialog comes from? Do a search.

6) “Furthermore, only non-Christians can curse.”

7) If this is what it will take to be a successful writer, I’ll go back to answering phones.

Randomness for 11/27

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1) The 30 most amazingly terrible VHS boxes of all time. Like Chris Sims, the only one of these I’ve seen is HAWK THE SLAYER, and my god it was awful. Still, I’d think anyone could take two of these boxes and come up with a pretty awesome story idea.

2) And as a palate-cleanser, check this huge, beautiful artwork.

3) Reasoning with vampires: Annotated excerpts from the Twilight novels.

4) Archetizer on the top ten libraries in the world. Seattle’s downtown branch makes the list, as well it should. via email from my sister-in-law.

5) Also from my s-i-l, Nathan Sawaya makes art from Legos. More here.

6) TSA agents do not know their own rules. Video. And this description of the event from the victim’s point of view.

7) In the libertarian paradise, “justice” can be hired down at the local bar.

Happy Black Friday, people

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You know what makes a great Christmas present? Books. A mass market paperback will even fit inside a stocking. That’s a true fact.

I’m not saying which books you should give as gifts. No way. I’m just pointing out their excellent gift-appropriateness.

Book trailer wrapup post, snow, and happiness.

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In fact, I returned home yesterday afternoon after picking up my son at my wife’s work. It was snowing then and it’s snowing harder now–it’s not accumulating on concrete but it is on lawns, roofs, cars, etc and it’s really beautiful. I know some of you live in very northern climates and hate the snow–it’s dangerous, too–but I find it gorgeous and peaceful. Later, if it sticks a little more and this cold I seem to be building to goes away, I’ll be heading out with my wife and son to cardboard sled down the hill behind our home. (Yeah, it’s good to see them again.)

As a followup to my Los Angeles trip, there needs to be an English word that means “work that is fun but also satisfying,” because that’s what I did this weekend. The book trailer shoot, (see day one and day two with photos of the main characters from books one and two, as well as the ghost knife prop, sets and production process) was exactly this sort of thing. It was work, it was fun, and it was very satisfying to do. Writing is like this, often.

The guys at Wyrd are doing a great job. Seriously. When they asked me what I wanted in the trailer, I wrote a script that seemed cool and somewhat ambitious. They took that and ran with it, making the shots more complicated, adding effects, motion, conflict, all sorts of things. Honest-to-God, I was amazed at what they’re doing. The actors have been terrific, the footage is beautiful, and the work everyone has been putting in is profoundly humbling.

But! “Fun, satisfying work” needs a word of its own, so we can describe some of the best moments of our lives and better tell young people what they should be striving for.

What should the word be? Is there one in a foreign language we can steal borrow, or do we need a portmaneau?

Added later: To followup on Shecky’s comment on my main blog, I will now be promoting the word “vocate” as a verb form for vocation.

8 things make a post

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1) In a few hours I’ll be flying to Los Angeles (and hopefully collecting a complimentary TSA handjob) for a short weekend jaunt. My book trailer is shooting this weekend. I won’t be there for all of it–I have to return to Seattle Sunday morning to do the parent thing–but I’ll see two days out of three, meet the actors, hang out on the set, eat the food (“You paid for it.”), and so on. I expect to be helping out, too, moving stuff or holding bounce cards, except…

2) My pain levels have been startlingly high lately. I’m not sure what to make of it. My legs were feeling better for a while there, but suddenly they’ve been aching almost constantly and my knee wakes me up in the middle of the night. Hopefully, they’ll have someplace for me to sit if I need it. I’m packing Tylenol.

3) I’m also packing my camera. Expect pics.

4) A signed copy of Child of Fire and Game of Cages are available on Patrick Rothfuss’s blog for his annual charity auction. Check it out. There are a metric butt-load of great books available there, and not only in that one post. I wish I could be one of those authors who contributes 25 signed hardcovers but, you know…

5) The new Green Lantern trailer looks pretty bad. I say this as someone who always thought GL was kind of an interesting idea, but never understood the enduring appeal.

6) My SFWA Handbook arrived… barely. Check out this envelope:

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Yikes. That book wanted to be free!

I’ve skimmed the book trying to find articles of interest and it doesn’t seem that there’s much there. No big.

7) As I mentioned before, I’m not online as much as I used to be now that I don’t have a day job. Poor neglected blog! ::pets blog:: I’m on Twitter less and reading other blogs less. On the up side, more writing is getting done. So that’s all to the good, right?

8) Should I bring copies of my books to L.A. with me? I don’t have much space in my carryon.