Oh my. Jason Sizemore is running a poll about the Apex issue six stories of which my “Cerbo en Vitro ujo” is one. The comments make me chuckle because everytime someone compliments a story it’s with phrases that would be perjorative if it weren’t about horror. Who knew that disturbing people was so much fun?

Douglas Cohen, aka The Slushmaster, has just posted an interview with John Joseph Adams, the Slush God. Go read the rest of the interview to find out more about the fierce Captain Adams.

I’ll be guest-editing the Summer 2007 issue of Shimmer Magazine, which will be a special themed issue about pirates. As the guidelines say, fantasy, science fiction, contemporary, historical, futuristic, high seas, deep space — if it’s got pirates and it’s speculative fiction, I want it.

The world in Crystal Rain manages to seamlessly blend steam-punk with fantasy and high-tech sf. It’s a pretty impressive feat. I kept having trouble sleeping because I was staying up waaaay too late to find out what happens next. Tobias S. Buckell has written a ripping page-turner, for sure.

In puppetry we say that breathe carries the emotion. The only time a person notices another person breathing is when it’s important, when it’s carrying information. The simplest example is what happens when you look at someone lying down. You automatically notice if they are breathing, to make certain they aren’t dead.

But there are other things that breath comunicates. If you see someone, whose chest is heaving then you know that he’s just exherted himself. Laughter is a form of breath. And how many characters do you know who have gasped in surprise. The quality of breath indicates how someone feels.

When you are performing a character this is good to remember, but it’s also important to remember when you are speaking as yourself or as the narrator. If your breath comes rapidly, you will convey an unconcious sense of panic to the audience. So let’s talk about how to breathe while speaking.

This is a fairly mechanical way to remember, but it is where I breathe and will help your reading in general. Breathe after every period. If it’s just a quick catch breath, then you’ll convey a sense of urgency so think about whether that’s appropriate. Besides improving the flow of oxygen, it will force you to pause after periods which is generally a good idea.

Really, what I’m asking you to do is to inhale before beginning your next sentence. It’s something you do naturally when you speak or act, because your brain a) stops to gather its thoughts or b) knows how much air you need for the next sentence so it catches it.

The period acts as a stop sign. While you are in that tiny space between sentences, read ahead quickly with your eyes. You’re cueing your brain on how big of a breath it needs to take.

You are also setting the emotional tone for your piece. A thoughtful passage might have longer pauses, while a shorter one will be more clipped with less space for breath. You know when you’re writing an action sequence and reach for the shorter sentence? In part you are doing that because it gives the impression of faster breaths. Allow me to demonstrate. I’ll read the same passage with even breaths and then again with faster ones. Naturally, this affects pacing in general.

Normal:

Frantic:

See how much the tone changes by picking up the tempo?

So, unless your fiction is full of spine-tingling thrills, remember to breathe. In some ways, you can think of that space between sentences as the space for thought. The more the thought changes between sentences, the more space you’ll want to allow for it.

And really pause for a couple of nice good breaths at section breaks. Not only do you deserve the oxygen, you also are cueing the listeners that things are changing.

Of course, in an ideal world, this would only be for cold readings. You will have practised this at home and will have built the breaths in. In fact, when you are preparing your manuscript for reading, you can use the singer’s mark for breath. Put an oversize apostrophe anywhere you know that you really need to take a breath for the emotional content of the piece.

And deep breath before you go on stage, just to get rid of the tension.

Now. Here’s a special treat, just for Jason. One more way that breath can change a reading.

Why do I only have 1167 words to show for today? Because I spent all freaking day trying to recover from edatarack’s blunder. I’m busily moving every site I hosted with them so that I never have to deal with them ever again. Between that and the Icelandic lesson, I feel very good that I got forty-five minutes of writing in and ticked that I had to waste time on the website. I’ll try to post some audio Icelandic tomorrow. Meanwhile, I promised myself that I would go to bed at midnight.

I stayed up until two o’clock last night and that was a bad idea.

36,554 / 50,000 (73.0%)

1167 words in forty-five minutes

First:

He cleared his throat twice.

Last:

“I mean, most parents just tell stories about their honeymoons, you two went on a freaking quest.”