words

Vampires and crosses

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There’s something I alluded to in my Big Idea essay that I meant to expand upon. Unfortunately, it didn’t fit the theme of the essay, so I’m inflicting it on you here.

Writers, do not make your vampires cringe away from/burn at the touch of crosses and crucifixes.

Why? Well, let’s talk about honor killings. Seriously.

In Jordan, as much as one-third of the murders of women are honor killings. Women who are raped are not treated as victims–they’re treated like criminals and killed.

In our own culture, we’re still trying to get past the idea that women are at least partly-responsible for sexual assaults against them. We still still have people who want to what a woman was wearing or what she did to cause the assault. It’s taking a long time to excise that attitude from our culture, but I like to think that most people, if they stop to think about it, understand that you don’t blame the victim.

And here’s why I think these two topics are related: You (man or woman) are walking home from work at night when someone jumps out of an alley, drags you in and kills you by draining your blood. Or maybe you (man or woman) meet someone sexy and interesting and decide to invite them back to your place; once there, things go way too far and you end up the victim of an attack.

And how does God treat you afterwards? God burns you every time you touch one of his symbols.

I know, it’s a trivial thing, really. It’s a silly vampire story, and it isn’t a patch on the real misery real victims endure. Still, it’s a relic of an older, awful time, when crime victims were held at least partly culpable for their victimization. It enshrines a culture where the highest, most exalted being repudiates someone because of a thing they had no control over, because of a choice and an action that fell on someone else.

It turns God into a blame-the-victim asshole. Really, the Supreme Deity really ought to get his public relations department to work on this.

If I weren’t an atheist, I’d be seriously annoyed. As an atheist, I consider it simply inconsistent characterization and a cultural relic of awful times. Also as an atheist, I have to admit that, while I consider vampires dangerous and scary, I don’t think of them as “evil.” Certainly not more evil than a shark or a tiger–they’re hungry, and people are their prey. As soon as The Lord starts turning away crocodiles with the power of faith, I’ll accept it with vampires.

So, God=one of the good guys. In theory, at least, right? Then maybe he should stop setting fire to crime victims who come too near him in our stories.

Randomness for 10/4

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1) Origami as done by a master. I can’t wait to show this to my son.

2) An alternate history that I’m glad is alternate: The speech William Saffire wrote for Richard Nixon in the event that the first men on the moon could not return safely.

3) Steve Harvey: Relationship guru. All I need to know is that the book his advice is taken from is titled: Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man. Pass.

4) The gender wage gap, state by state. I’m sorry to see Washington state looking so pale.

5) Win free manga!

Oh! I forgot to mention…

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The podcast of the radio interview is available with Sohaib Awan is available right now. Give it a listen. Unlike the chat I posted previously, there are no embarrassing pictures of me, but you do get to hear me stammer and abandon perfectly good sentences.

Before you click and listen, though, I’d like to make one comment. This is the book I’m reading right now:

It has a female protagonist and sex, too. It’s also damn good. Just saying.

Yes, I am that sort of person

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It’s the fourth day that Child of Fire has been on sale. Yes, I am still visiting Amazon.com twenty times a day. Yes, I’m still checking for new reviews. Yes, I’m still glancing at the “sales rank.”

No, you don’t need to tell me that Amazon.com’s sales rank numbers are pretty much meaningless. Really, don’t. I already know that. But it’s one of only two ways I have of judging public interest in my book (all copies at my library are checked out or on hold) so I keep looking at it.

Before the release, the sales rank was in the low six-figures. On release day and after, it hung around 3K. At this point, it’s ping-ponging between 10K and 15K. I don’t care that it isn’t a good judge of how the book is selling. It’s the only input I can look at.

Am I the sort of person who makes an excuse to wander into Borders to see if there are fewer books on the shelf? (Apparently.) Am I the sort of person to linger by the shelf because a guy is standing right next to my book with a paperback in hand? (Yes.) Did I see a complete stranger carry my book to the register? (No. Congrats on the sale, Seanan McGuire!) Am I the sort of person who buys other books to hide the fact that I’m basically skulking around the store? (Oh, hell yes. And Mastercard is damn grateful). Were there, in fact, fewer books on the shelf? (Yes!)

Anyway, it’s weird. As Betsy, my editor, mentioned in the chat I linked to earlier in the week, Del Rey acquired my book with a pre-empt–before financial deregulation sent the economy into a nosedive. There are expectations for this book, and it has come out at a time of nearly 10% unemployment.

Which… okay. Perspective: millions of out-of-work people around the world is a bigger problem than the possiblilty that my book will underperform, but I can’t help but link them.

I keep wanting input but it’s slowly fading. I’m going to have to shrug it off soon and put it behind me. Soon. Don’t I know that it’s pretty much out of my hands now? (Yeah, in fact, I do.)

In other news, I hope to finish the rough draft of book three tomorrow morning before the signing. We’ll see.

Holy crap!

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Tomorrow is book day.

!!!!!

In a couple hours, my son and I will be going downtown for a little swim-time. After, I do not… not plan to drag his little behind to the Borders to see if the book is on the shelf yet. We’re planning to all do that tomorrow, on the actual day, and I don’t want my wife to feel left out (since she’ll be working at that time today.)

In other news, my pre-taped radio interview will air later today, if Fictional Frontier’s website is any indication. The radio station is WNJC 1350 AM in Philly, but the show will be webcast simultaneously starting 5pm EST. Here’s a link.

Don’t ask me how I’m doing, though. I’m feeling weird.

Promoting a comment to a post

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Occasionally, I take a bunch of time to type up a comment on someone else’s blog or LiveJournal, and think to myself Why don’t I ever put stuff like this on my own blog? Andrew Wheeler promotes the occasional comment to a full-fledged post, so why not me?

So, over on Kate Elliott’s* space, an aspiring professional writer asks a question that I won’t quote, because she had permission to reprint but I didn’t but it essentially boils down to: How does a person know when their writing is good enough? with a side of I want to write bestsellers.

You can click on the link above to see other peoples’ answers; many of the respondents have much more knowledge and experience than I do. But I thought that many of the answers focused on which skills to attain or which goals to shoot for, not to mention the theory of writing for bestsellerdom. There wasn’t a lot of process a writer could use to judge their own work.

So I wrote this comment:

My take: The questioner should grab a book off the shelf that is reasonably similar to the writer’s own work. It should also be someone who has reached a level of success the writer aspires to (as best they can tell, anyway).

Then retype the first chapter of that book. Just sit down and retype it. Pay attention to the mix of sentence lengths and structures. Pay attention to the amount of dialog, scene description, physical action. How much is narration to the reader? How distinctive is the voice?

Then reread one of that author’s books, while creating a plot outline. When are the main characters introduced? When is the main problem established? How long are the big conflict scenes, and how many are there? How is exposition handled.

Armed with all that information, the questioner should sit down at a clean table and lay out the successful author’s first chapter and their own side-by-side. Are the questioner’s sentences as vivid as the pro’s? Are they as economical? More concise? Does the story start as quickly?

Etc.

I don’t see anything wrong with wanting to write bestsellers. It’s not something a writer can completely control, like their genre, but there are things a writer can do/not do that that will improve their chances.

As an added bonus for readers of this blog, I learned a great deal about analyzing prose by seeing Sol Stein do it in his book Stein On Writing and seeing James D. Macdonald do it in his long Learn Writing With Uncle Jim thread on AW.

That’s how it seems to me, at least, and I know I still have a lot to learn.

* Spirit Gate=terrific book.

Randomness for 9/25

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1) B&N demands authors link to their site or they will not order their books. Which… really, people? I should say that, months ago, my editor emailed me asking me to link to as many online booksellers as possible on my bookpage, which I had already done. However, unlike Amazon.com, B&N makes you go through Google to set up an affiliate account, and in general is a pain in the ass.

Still, link to our site or we won’t sell your book to our customers? What if their customers actually want that book?

2) Thorin Oakenshield as Nigerian phishing scammer.

3) Powell’s Books has only one copy of my book “left in stock at $5.50!” … four days before it is published.

4) Who knew? The London Review of Books has personal ads… and some are hilarious.

5) Our local library is having their semi-annual Friends of the Library book sale. I will not be going. Part of the reason I’m learning to read faster is to clear off some damn shelf space.

6) Finally, a confirmed sighting of Child of Fire in a brick-and-mortar bookstore. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fun with skimming

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I’ve made my way through the first two chapters of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Speed Reading, and so far it has been… interesting.

The authors state that the speed reading increases comprehension, mainly because it forces readers to concentrate more. More concentration = better recall. I’m willing to accept that on a trial basis, because like most people, my concern about speed reading is that I’ll be missing a lot of what I don’t want to miss.

They also make it clear that reading comprehension will go down while learning these skills. That’s a problem, because I’ll have to read a book to practice, but I don’t own a book I’m willing to read-but-not-really. Why would I buy a book to sacrifice to this? What book do I pick up next, knowing I may miss key stuff?

I assume I’ll be doing a lot of rereading.

Anyway, I’d planned to practice on my friends list, since I do so much reading online, but the first techniques they teach you (running your hand down the page) won’t really work for that.

The hand motion stuff is sorta interesting. They ask you to try all the techniques, looking for one that will work; one method is to trail an index finger down the page (actually, it’s three methods, because you hold it at either margin or on the center of the page). A few others have your fingers moving back and forth on the page, and some use objects like cards.

The idea is that the motion draws your eye, and helps you concentrate. Students are supposed to move their hands a little faster than they feel comfortable with–you push yourself out of your comfort zone to expand it, basically, which is an idea I can very much go for–but that doesn’t really work with graphic novels or computer screens. Time to pick a novel.

One flub the authors make, though, that I have to mention: One of the hand motion methods is called “The Vulcan” because you (supposedly) lay your hand on the page the way Mr. Spock did on Star Trek, prompting your eyes to ping pong back and forth in the gap between your fingers.

Except, the photo and the instructions they offer don’t resembe a Vulcan “Live long and prosper” gesture at all. You’re supposed to make a fist and extend your pinky and index finger–essentially, devil horns.

Now, maybe Leonard Nimoy made that gesture at an Iron Butterfly concert or something, but he sure never did it on TV. Ooops.

Now, before I go out for a healthful lunchtime stroll (to see if my book in on the shelves at Borders/B&N yet–OMG 4 DAYS!), I want to say that I just finished John Levitt’s Dog Days this week. It was fun! I especially loved the ending, and the fact that the characters didn’t already have an encyclopedic knowledge of the way magic worked. They argued about it! They disagreed about the evidence! It was a nice change from the “This is how this works and this is how it’s done” style of some other books.

I didn’t want to put off mentioning that in case John thought he was the speed reading sacrifice.

Randomness for 9/24

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1) Entrepreneurship and health care. “You’ve heard of learned helplessness? This is learned corporatism.”

2) Giant stuffed microbes. Just in case you wanted to cuddle up to the swine flu.

3) Want to receive free advance reader copies of Del Rey books to review on your blog? Fill out this form.

4) Limits of human endurance: in the muscles or in the brain? Crazy-interesting, and my wife will love this. via Jay Lake

5) Do you guys like these link roundups? Anything you want less/more of?

Randomness, personal edition

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First things first: I earned my three-gallon pin today. Folks, if you can give blood, please do so. It saves lives. Plus you get snacks.

Second things second: Child of Fire has a Kindle edition. I’ve seen Kindles on the bus and they aren’t for me, but maybe there’s someone reading this who would love to get a discounted electronic copy of the book.

Third things third: According to the Internet, I read 300 wpm (approx) with 91% comprehension. My Complete Idiot’s Guide to Speed Reading says that’s “above average” but only barely. Come on, self-improvement!

Fourth things fourth: I’m willing to let people hate me. Just sayin’.