It was really bizarre looking through the locker as we’d forgotten what a lot of the contents were.  Rob said that it was like going through a deceased aunt’s house because all the things in there seem like they belong to another life.  Creepy.

I found my box of juvenilia, which I did not bring back to the apartment, tempting though it was.  At some point next summer, we’ll go down and sort through things but at the moment it was just too overwhelming.

There was some writing on the subway but I only managed to get 455 words in today. That brings me close to wrapping Chapter 5, which will hopefully happen tomorrow.

Sans, twitter. The con is great fun and I’m happy to see people. I’m also so tired I could weep, yet somehow I managed to moderate a 10:30 pm panel without any major mind melts. Thank heavens for the theater instinct which kicks adrenalin in to focus the mind just long enough to get through the “show.” 

And I’m even more thankful that I had very smart panelists in Carrie L. Ferguson, M. J. Hardman and Deepa D. so I didn’t have to do more than ask the occasional question. What was the panel?

Many of us can point to something which we read that changed our lives. Some of us view writing fiction as a political act. This panel will explore the relationship of SF/F to society and culture. Can SF/F change the world in a practical and political way? Is there any occasion when writers of SF/F can justifiably claim it is only entertainment and has no responsibility for commenting on popular culture.

Oh, I also managed to catch up with Erin Cashier, who was in the writing workshop I didn’t get to this morning, and go over her story with her. A hearty thank you to K. Tempest Bradford who stepped in to cover the workshop for me.

I have to tell you that this week has been wonderful. Having time to hang out with family and friends, write and cook has been just great. I don’t want it to be over.

On the other hand, I am looking forward to getting home to Rob. The only time my poor boy could schedule for his physical was on Thursday, so he wasn’t able to be here for the weekend. He also came down with a nasty, nasty cold. Hopefully I’ll be able to tend to him some when I get home and not spend all my time at the theater.

But if I do, at least I’ll have some very happy memories to boost my spirits. I haven’t even told you half of the cool things from this week. For now, know that I am an extremely happy forty year old girl.

We all trouped out to a matinee of Coraline, which was really enjoyable although there were aspects of the book that I seriously missed.

I’ve now stayed up waaaaay too late, finishing the final touches on Issue 10 of Shimmer. I’m going to print it out in the morning and barring any surprises, we’ll send it to the printer on Monday.

Meanwhile, I’ve got a story that I’d like to start tomorrow.

I’m also getting to cook, which I very much enjoy. The routine goes like this: Breakfast consists of cereal, toast, fruit and yogurt. Folks are on their own for that. Then writing happens.

Sometime around noon, we all get hungry so there are sandwich fixings and leftovers from the night before. (Mushroom Quinoa Risotto, Vegetable Soup and Broccoli) Today I also cooked some bacon for BLTs.

More writing happens.

Around six I started cooking dinner. Tonight’s menu:
North Carolina Red Trout with garlic, oregano and lemon zest.
Steamed Cauliflower with Parmesan Cheese
Green salad with Balsamic Vinegrette
Dessert: Mom’s Blueberry Cobbler

Then more writing happens.

You see why I think this was a good idea.

And then my computer crashed again. The blue screen went past so quickly that I can only assume that it was the same error message as before. I turned it back on, to retrieve the file I’d been working on and it almost immediately went down again.

I’ve taken the RAM out, cleaned the connections thoroughly and stuck them back in, but I’ve got no real faith the machine will keep working. I’m using it to go online, as a test, but you know…

I think that shopping for a new computer has just been bumped up on the priority list.

We went out for dinner afterwards and a much-deserved beer. I think both of us felt like we’d been leaning into a galeforce wind that got suddenly switched off. Sure, I have other things on my plate, but I’m actually not pressed against a deadline for the moment. It’s liberating but also disconcerting. I keep feeling like trying to correct for that wind and losing my balance, you know?

One of the interesting things, for me, about building or designing is that it uses the same part of my brain as writing does. It’s the part that solves problems and tries to come up with a coherent language for whatever story I’m trying to tell, whether it’s physical or a verbal. I’ve noticed before that my productivity in writing goes way down when I’m designing but not when I’m performing. It’s not that I can’t write, but the creative drive is being spent elsewhere. You know?

When I’m writing, I walk to the subway and I’m thinking, “How do I get him out of this…?” but when I’m designing, I’m thinking, “How can I make this stand up…?”

A director once said to me, “I want you to start with a blank stage and then create the universe.” That’s the creation process in both fields in a nutshell, isn’t it.

We all use Ralan.com because he has pretty much every market listed.

Rick suggests:

1) Make a 10 euro donation (the paypal site takes care of the details).
2) Help me to spread the word on the blogosphere. Let’s show Ralan the thanks he deserves for all he does for us.

Will you help out?

I need to dress the teenager in my current WIP. Normally, I only make passing reference to clothing, but in this case I need to know exactly what she’s wearing.

Cassandra is sixteen and I have no idea what she’d wear to school in early October (N.C, Tenn, or anything up through PA is fine. No mountains.) She’d run in the art crowd, but plans to be a veterinarian. She’s a serious reader. Very smart. She does not like fantasy because she has an actual fairy godmother and the books never, ever get it right. Loves the Bronte sisters and Asimov. Her parents are upper middle class, but she’s been a latch-key kid for years, so is used to dressing herself.

Her mother is always on her to “gussie herself up” so I’m looking for the casual, rebellious end of the clothing spectrum but also with a desire to fit in. So no Goth, no Steampunk.

One specific need, plot-wise. I need footwear that is unsuitable for riding a horse, but that it’s not unbelievable for her to have worn while running through the woods.

Any ideas? I just have no idea what she’d wear. ZERO.

Kids these days. Why when I was a girl…

Edited to add: I just realized that I am an idiot. At the point when she is running through the woods, she has just escaped an intruder at their house. They don’t wear shoes at home (Dad sells Japanese antiques, adopted the no-shoes rule at home). She’d be in stocking feet. Now I need to go back and rewrite the running through the woods scene…

The question still stands for the rest of the clothing though. Thanks!

One hundred years ago, or even fifty years ago, the average reader did not travel widely and did not have access to full-color photographs or television. They had never seen pyramids, or elephants, or tropical rain forests. Many people had also never seen a prairie, a pine forest, a stretch of English farmland, or an industrial city. This means that the reader’s repetoire of pre-conceived images was not as vast as the modern reader’s.

I think much of her post is also true for dialects in fiction. Once upon a time, not only was it possible for someone to have never heard a German accent, but it was also likely that they would be called upon to read that passage aloud. So writing dialects phonetically helped the reader. Fashions and readers’ expectations change.

Schmoozing 101 – Wed 13:00

Survival Tips for the Beginning Writer – Wed 16:00

How to Give an Effective Reading – Workshop – Fri 10:00

I’ll also be doing the Strolling with the Stars one morning, but I don’t know which one yet.

I’m figuring that Character A will take about 2 and a half hours to cover four miles on a deer path through a heavily wooded area. She’s got about fifty very short characters with her, so isn’t walking at top speed.

Returning, she’s mounted on a horse. Is it reasonable to think that she could cover the same distance in about forty-five minutes? If she were in a hurry, (and she is) how fast could she safely go? This is a path with which she is familiar, but a new horse.

Many thanks!

And just in case someone else finds them useful, here is a site with Horse Speed in MPH and one with The Average Walking Pace for humans.

I spent a lot of time on the back of the bike doing “headwork” and trying to sort out character motivations and worldbuilding. The moment we stopped, I pulled out my keyboard and started writing. Not story, but jotting down what I’d been thinking about during the headwork.

In fact, the term is misleading because, while I spend some time just thinking, like yesterday, I usually write a lot of this stuff down in the form of a dialog with myself. Sometimes this happens at the beginning and sometimes in the middle when I discover a plot problem.

The key is writing it down, because that makes the ideas less slippery. I can see when I’m covering the same territory because I have a log of my thought process.

I was going to use yesterday’s session as an example, but it’s sort of too in the middle of the project, to be useful to anyone except me. But, while working on “American Changeling,” I found my characters stalling a lot, which is a sign to me that I don’t know what they want. Now, I knew that my main character needed a Key to open a magically shut gate. But what was that key? I had no clue. Here’s my log of the headwork I did to sort that out.

What does Kim want?
To fit in.

What do her parents want? Love her, but loyal to the Faerie Queen

How does she unlock the gate?.
First of all… Who locked it? Queen Elizabeth? To protect her borders because the Fae were going to make a deal with the Scots or the Irish. Research that.

OR did the Faerie Queen lock it herself to keep out the mortals who were corrupting her people OR to stop a threat from the Unseelie Court.

Let’s go with Queen E or no… the catholics but for similar reasons. ((Eventually wound up with Queen Mary)) Now. Where did the key wind up?

Ah… The Portland Art Museum as part of the Britannia exhibit. Make something up there that makes sense. Clearly the key is iron. ((Because then fairies can’t touch it, which was important to the story)) Is it necessarily key shaped? No. What else could it be…

A chalice. A mirror. An ink pot. A vase. A… What’s a reliquary. Now that’s an interesting idea. Yes. If the — oh, not the Art museum. A catholic church — reliquaries hold the bones of a saint, preferably a woman or child, but is actually the bones of a Fae. Yes. That makes sense.

All of which led me to a clearer understanding of my backstory and once I knew who my bad guys, I could make smarter choices about their actions. The thing about writing it down is that it makes it less ethereal. It gets it out of my head and lets me look at it without the sort of idealized Ah-ha! moment that vanishes when actually examined.

I won’t pretend that I made this idea up. I know a lot of writers who do it. I picked it up in Orson Scott Card’s Literary Bootcamp and, boy, has it made my life easier since.

How about you? What’s your favorite trick?

1) I recorded a story (not mine and I promise it’s good) and I need to listen to it to make sure that we didn’t leave any of my stumbles in it. I’m tuning out my own voice. The story is two and a half hours long, but the section in question is just in the first half hour.

2) I have to turn in a list of books that one of my novel length manuscripts resembles. I’ve got one name to offer and then I blank. Is anyone willing to read this puppy and offer suggestions? You don’t even have to read the whole thing! Just enough to say, “This reminds me of [blank].” The only catch is that I’d like to turn in the list on Monday. It’s Urban Fantasy.

Edited to Add: Many thanks to Julia and Scott for responding so quickly!

And now, I’ll go back to doing the layout which is paying the bills.

I primarily go to conventions for three reasons.

1. To see other people in the field whose company I enjoy.
2. Improve craft/business sense.
3. To be “visible.”

1) To see other people in the field whose company I enjoy.
I relish the social aspect of SF. There are people that I just plain like and a convention is like old home week. It’s fun! I like you guys.

2) Improve craft/business sense.
A convention with a really good list of panels is going to appeal to me more than one in which I only hang out at the bar (though I love that, too). I want to know what’s happening in the field and to think about things that aren’t just products of my own brain banging against the inside of my skull. Even if I only learn one new thing, that’s a thing I didn’t know before.

3) To be “visible”
I’m a new writer, so I’m building my “brand.” I’m not going to get that many new readers at a convention, but the people at cons are the ones who vote on things and frankly, nominations can be leveraged ((Nominations and awards do not automatically mean a reader increase. You have to know how to work them, but the power of narrative on career is a different topic.)) into getting more readers which means…that cons are filled with a good target audience. Cons also tend to have editors at them and those are good people to know.

Now, I’ll be frank about how this works, because a lot of people don’t understand how to do effective schmoozing. Yes, yes, I’m aware that admitting this happens is distasteful. But, I’m going to talk about how to schmooze, anyway.

Schmoozing 101

These are all ideas to employ but none of them are hard and fast rules. Schmoozing is all about being charming and that will vary somewhat depending on the situation. So, here are the basic ideas behind successful schmoozing.

First idea: The other person is more interesting than you are.

Clearly, there are going to be cases where this isn’t true BUT act like it is. Why? Because the more time someone spends talking about himself and the more he feels intelligent and the more interesting he will think the conversation is. Hence, the more interesting he will think you are. So practice being a good listener.

Now, the way I do this is that as I’m talking with the person, I listen for the things that we have common interests in. They like cars? Great, I can reference the MG-TD that I covet. That gives me something to add to the conversation so that they don’t feel like they are being interrogated.

What if you can’t find any common ground?

Second idea: Have an exit strategy.
Let’s say you are a writer talking to an editor. It’s a good conversation, but you don’t know them all that well. The conversation pauses. Rather than looking for a way to prolong it, excuse yourself. To borrow from theater, “Always leave them wanting more.”

Exit strategies are also useful when you are trapped in a conversation. It’s okay to break the flow and say, “I’m so sorry, it’s been good talking to you, but I need to [x].” Yes, I’m suggesting that you lie. They trapped you. You are escaping. It’s fair.

But if the conversation is going well?

Third idea: Don’t be the first to bring up business.
Why? Because everyone at the con is talking about writing and business and you, you will be a welcome respite in the midst of a sea of people who have all been talking about the same things. You stand out this way. Now, if someone else brings it up, you are more than welcome to indulge, but don’t go there first. Later, make sure you follow up, but when you are in a non-business setting, leave the business alone.

Fourth idea: When the conversation turns to business, be prepared.
It is a con, so the conversation is very likely to swing round to writing. If you have something to pitch, practice your pitch at home. If you have a question, practice it at home. If you’ve gone to panels, think about what your opinion is before someone asks you.

Right now, I’m sucking at answering the question, “So what do you write?”

I rattle off a couple of magazines — which is what they want to hear — and I fail to say, “I’m one of the finalists for the Campbell Award this year.” I think I told two people that at the last con. This is foolish. Someone gave me an opening to pimp myself and I didn’t oblige them.

Fifth idea: Be physically pleasant.

Is this shallow? Yes, yes it is. But we’ve all read the studies that repeatedly show that people who are attractive are treated better, so for heaven’s sake, take advantage of that. You look good in green? Wear green. Nicely turned calves? Show them off. And for heaven’s sake, bathe. Trust me, in a con, just a little bit of effort will make you stand out.

Want to know a secret? In real life, I almost never wear makeup, but I wear it at conventions. Too many people take photos and I look dead in photos without it. Especially on very little sleep, which is a natural state at cons.

Sixth idea: Follow up.

You meet someone who is either fascinating or who might be a good connection later. Drop them a line afterwards. It can be as simple as swinging by their website and saying “Hey, good to meet you!” Don’t stalk them, but that tiny bit of post con contact will help them remember who you are. Heck, it’ll help you remember who they are too.

By the way, this is why it’s good to hand out cards at conventions. I’ve been bad about this lately and keep forgetting to print enough to take with me.

So let’s review.
1. The other person is always more interesting than you are.
2. Have an exit strategy.
3. Don’t be the first to bring up business.
4. If business comes up, be prepared.
5. Be physically pleasant, ie, bathe.
6. Follow up.

There are other things too, but these are the basics.

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This is one that comes up a lot and, strangely, I don’t think I’ve posted on it, so I’ll give the long answer.

I was one of those kids who wanted to do everything. My parents indulged me and so I took violin, art, theater classes, writing workshops and then, in high school, discovered puppetry. A friend of mine went to a church that had a puppet ministry program, which was the coolest thing ever. I started going to the church so I could be involved — maybe not the best reason to join a church. Anyway, I got very lucky because the leaders of the puppetry program worked very hard on teaching us good skills. A lot of puppet ministry programs have truly dreadful puppetry.

I loved the puppetry. When our high school did Little Shop of Horrors, I was the plant.

I did puppetry as a hobby until I went to college. I majored in art education with a minor in theater, which was the closest I could come to combining everything that I loved to do. ((Later I learned about colleges, like the University of Connecticut, that had puppetry programs.)) My sophomore year, the college did Little Shop and I was the plant again.

Then a professional puppeteer came to see the show. Until that moment, it had never occurred to me that someone would actually get paid to do puppetry. I mean, sure, I’d seen Sesame Street, but that was on PBS and everyone knew that PBS was run by volunteers, right? Yeah… But this puppeteer, Dee Braxton, owned a house, only worked a couple of days a week and most importantly, was willing to train me. By the end of the first summer, she was handing me the gigs she couldn’t take. People were giving me money. To do puppets. I was making more money doing that than my part-time job.

Later, I realized that we lived in an area of the country with a very low cost of living and that we were the only puppeteers in a three county radius. It helps.

From there I went to the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta, GA for an internship. This shaped me as a puppeteer more than anything else. George Latshaw (like unto a god, in puppetry) was directing, and the cast was a dream team of puppeteers, Jon Ludwig, Jane Catherine Shaw, Bobby Box, and Peter Hart. Pete was in charge of the internship program and my mentor. If I tried to say enough good things about that program, I would bore you, so suffice to say that I can trace everything back to there.

After the internship, I just kept working. I’ve been at it for nineteen years now and, with the exception of a two-year break due to a wrist injury, have made my living as a puppeteer.

Until I came to NYC.

Now the irony here is that, before Iceland, I’d had several years where I worked three to five months out of the year here, as a puppeteer. I always felt as if I would work constantly if I lived here. And behold, that’s true. The odd thing is that almost all the work has been in the props department.

That’s something I stumbled into and I’m not quite sure how I feel about it. On the one hand, I enjoy it and it’s honest work. On the other hand, it’s not why we came to NYC and is taking up so much time that I haven’t had a chance to really pursue puppetry and it’s cutting into my writing time.

Rob and I are talking about how to balance that, going forward. I’ll keep you posted on how that goes.

But I’ve been having this weird thing happening lately, since I’ve been too busy to actually sit down and write a journal post but I still have ideas for them, I wind up composing them in my head on the way from point A to point B. Then, by the time I finally have time to write (like now) can’t remember what I’ve written about and what I’ve merely thought about writing about.

So, if I’ve mentioned something in passing and you want me to expand on it, please ask.

Celebrating its 10-year anniversary, the literary magazine “The First Line” — where all stories in an issue begin with same opening line — presents an evening with some of its favorite writers. Three authors will read select work from the new anthology, “The Best of The First Line: Editors’ Picks 2002-2006,” and share some insights on writing for this unique quarterly.

Pass the word and come hear us on July 24th at 7pm.

Title: Beyond Illustration: The Process of Creating ‘Vision’
Saturday, 9:00-10:15 P.M.
Caucus

Much of SF/F art is illustrative, growing directly out of the writer’s vision. But some artists are doing exactly what writers do–using a myth or folkloric theme or story as a starting point and interpreting it in a new and personal way, developing a story with a vision of their own. These image/object driven visions are sometimes then the inspiration for a writer’s new story. How is the process of creating a vision the same in writing and art? How is it different? How do they cross-pollinate?

M: Mary Robinette Kowal, Deb Taber, Connie Toebe, Catherine Crowe

Title: What If You Don’t Want to Have Children? Redux
Saturday, 10:30-11:45 P.M.
Assembly

Modern birth control and feminism have made the option of not having children much more socially acceptable, yet women (and sometimes men) are often made to feel that by making this choice they are abandoning an essential part of the human experience. Given the increasing numbers of people who are choosing to be child-free, what will society look like in another 20 years? 50? 100? There are currently some countries that pay generous benefits to parents, especially in countries with decreasing populations. How will this continue? How will the population reduction affect workplace policies? How will the results of choosing to be child-free actually benefit parents (increased tax incentives, workplace benefits, etc.)? Last year, this panel focused on the personal, emotional, and medical struggles faced by those of us who have chosen to be childfree. It was a relief to see that there were others like ourselves, going through the very same struggles. This year, let’s take a deep
per look and examine how societal structures, workplace policies, and government taxes and subsidies discourage or encourage our decision.

M: Carrie Ferguson, Mary Robinette Kowal, Gerri Balter, Maddie Greene, Isabel Schechter

Title: The Future Of The Book
Sunday, 1:00-2:15 P.M.
Senate B

With Amazon’s Kindle being the latest entry in the ongoing attempts to scale the Everest of e-book technology, it’s time to look at the technology of the book, and where we think it might be going in the next 10-20 years. Topics might include what’s wrong with the current set of e-books, what people would need to move to an e-book solution, and new technologies/approaches in the paper-book world, such as the increased use of POD books.

M: Mary Robinette Kowal, Steven Schwartz, Jeannie Bergmann, Cabell Gathman

Title: How To Be A Good Ally — And A Bad One
Monday, 10:00-11:15 A.M.
Wisconsin

As privileged allies in tee struggles against various oppressions such as racism and sexism, sometimes we make mistakes, and some of our strategies are more successful than others. And some of us are frightened by the idea of tackling the learning curve and making fools of ourselves along the way. Others of us aren’t even sure where to begin. This panel will discuss starting points, common pitfalls, embarrassing stories of mistakes made and overcome, and how to do it right.

M: Lori Selke, Debbie Notkin, Mary Robinette Kowal

I’ve been trying to hold out replacing it until an ultramobile tablet computer became affordable, but I may start thinking about it harder now.

Any suggestions from the peanut gallery? What I want is a gadget that I can write on, by both typing and handwriting/grafiti, one that will let me use Vindigo, function as an ebook reader, and display the subway map. It needs to sync with my computer easily. In an ideal world, it would also have wifi and a camera built into it.

And light. My current combo weighs almost exactly a pound.

From there, I headed to the hospitality room. Important note: Texans know how to lay out a spread. Homemade cookies, people.

I spent a while hanging out there meeting new people and started to notice an interesting thing. The demographic of people who attend the Nebula Weekend seems to consist of people in their late forties and up. Yesterday, the only people my age or younger that I saw were nominees. Granted, due to the membership requirements, the organization will self-select to an older crowd because one needs time to establish a writing career. Still. It seems disproportionate. I understand more people are arriving today, so I’ll take note at the business meeting and the banquet tonight.

At three I headed to the panel on Publishing Contracts by Sean P. Fodera. This was an excellent, excellent discussion. I took notes, but I need to make them into something that people besides me can read before I post them. His closing remark was that in doctors, lawyers… all of these people need to do continuing education to stay abreast of what’s going on in their field. That they need to continually practice in order to maintain their license. People with artistic licenses think that they don’t have to do so, but it’s just as important for us if we want to be professionals. I am in total agreement with this. ((The worst business-of-writing advice I’ve gotten was from OSC because he’s thirty years out from being a beginning writer and a LOT has changed in that time. Plus, he’s a major writer so gets to play by different rules.)) I wish the panel had not been so sparsely attended. It was the only panel yesterday and had only 22 attendees. Yes. I counted.

The mass autographing session made an easy way to greet people, but, again, felt very sparsely attended. This might be because half the attendees were sitting down to sign things. I’d really like to see more general public at an event like that.

Dinner, I spent with David Levine and Kate Yule. We went out for Indian food, which was not bad, considering that we are in Texas.

I hung out in the hospitality room afterwards until my sleep deprivation forced me to retreat to my room. Mmm… sleep. Broken by a wake-up call at 5:30 am. A wakeup call which I did not request. I was annoyed, but not as annoyed as whoever didn’t get their call.

Looking forward to today.

I had to pick up a prop two blocks from the Puppet Kitchen and thought I’d poke my head in to see what they were working on. A big group of my favorite people were there, making what has got to be one of the most gorgeous puppets I’ve seen.

Sometimes, when I’ve needed a break from sewing or basket-weaving or whatever tedious bit of puppet building I’m doing, I’ve read these guys a story. So Emily saw me and said, “Read us a story!”

“Err… I only have an unfinished one with me.”

The group gives a very gratifying chorus of “read it anyway.”

Now, I’ve read unfinished stories to Emily when I’ve been stuck so I could bounce ideas off of her but never one that stopped quite this close to the beginning. “I mean, really unfinished.”

“That’s okay.”

And I wanted to see if the opening works, so I pulled out my palm pilot and started reading:

Half-consciously, Kim put a hand up to cover her new nose ring. She knew it pissed her parents off no end that she could tolerate cold iron and they couldn’t, not like there was that much iron in a nose ring.

It still made her break out sometimes, but didn’t burn her like it did them. “Kimberly Anne Smith,” Mom’s voice caught her in the foyer as surely as if she’d been called by her true name. “I’ve been worried sick. Do you know what time it is?”

“11:49.” Kim dropped her hand and turned to face Mom, her Doc Martins making a satisfactory clomping sound on the hardwood floor. “I’m here. Home before midnight. No one with me.” As if she’d take the chance of her glamour dropping and showing her friends what she really was. A freak, like her parents.

I kept reading for another two thousand words and right as Kim was about to go into The Scary Place the story had been leading up to, I said, “And then… this is an unfinished story.”

I thought they were going to throw the puppet at me.

“I told you!”

“Yes! But what happens next?!?!”

I glanced at all the sharp instruments they had in their hands, decided that my life was in danger, and told them the rest of the story. My word-smithery went out the window pretty fast leaving me with voice to convey mood and then… the rest was all about the plot. What happened next.

I knew basically what I wanted to have happen, but I hadn’t worked out any of the details yet. Having a live audience listening to me as I found my way through the rest of the plot points showed me exactly which things were interesting and which weren’t. (The car chase is right out.) If they had a question, I could stop for exposition, (See, the Faerie Queen knew there was a traitor, she just didn’t know who) while making a mental note that I needed to plant that piece of information earlier when actually writing it.

When I got out of there, I sat down with the keyboard and the words fairly flew out of me. I still have a couple of thousand words to go, but I know exactly what happens next.

Hans Christian Andersen used to do this. As he was working on a new story, he would tell it to a live audience and then go write it down. I don’t think I’ll do this with every story, but telling this one to a group was a good reminder that writing was created to capture the spoken word. I might be a writer, but I do that because, really, I’m a story-teller.

On the other hand, Elizabeth Bear introduced me to Jay Lake, who in turn set up a meeting with Ken Scholes, and he recommended Mary Robinette Kowal, who became a new client of mine last month. (That makes it Mary’s turn….) So, it certainly has its advantages. They still all had to write really, really, really, really ridiculously good books.

Which set me thinking… See, the thing is, that Ken’s introduction let me jump the slush pile. BUT if I’d sent in my first novel, Jennifer would have rejected me. The novel I signed with is the fourth that I’ve written.

The evolution goes like this:

• Novel 0: Took ten years, starting from high school, to write. It is well and firmly trunked. (Shape-shifting cat/human aliens with wings anyone? Did I mention my D&D character has the same name? Yeah… trunk. TRUNK.)
• Novel 1: Middle-grade Fantasy – Six months. I think this has potential, but there’s a flaw in the first three chapters that I can’t seem to fix. I sent this out to publishers on my own for a while, and always got requests for partials but no requests for fulls. Now. This is book one in a series. Did I write the second book in the series next? No.
• Novel 2: Science Fiction/Murder Mystery – Four months. Better. It needed revisions, so I set it aside to think about before diving into it. Meanwhile, I wrote:
• Novel 3: Urban Fantasy/Chick Lit – Three months. Good. Needs revisions… Meanwhile:
• Novel 4: Regency romance/Fantasy – Three months. Good! This immediately felt stronger than the others and I had a clear view of what changes needed to happen. So I didn’t wait on the revisions. This is the one I signed with.

The point being, that it took a while for me to learn to write something salable and that if I’d sent in any of the others, I think I would still be without an agent because those books aren’t there yet. I do think they can be, but the course I chose to take — and mileage varies — was to write novels in several different genres to see which one stuck. I have sequel ideas for all of them, but until I knew that I had a book one that worked, it didn’t make sense to invest time in a string of books in the same world.

At the moment, I’m doing revisions on Novel 2 and continuing to work on short stories. Right now, I’m at a point in my career where I have the luxury of taking a year off from a novel before doing revisions. Since I’m a better writer now than I was a year ago, waiting to revise the novels is like earning interest on my skills. Seriously. I re-read Novel 2 and it was dead easy to see where it had gone astray. The revision process is like swimming downstream.

Now, let’s say that Ken offered to introduce me before I’d written Novel 4. I knew Novel 1 was flawed, so sending it in would have been wasting that opportunity. What’s more, it would have been embarrassing to Ken.

I’m sure that someday I’ll introduce a writer to Jennifer, but I can almost guarantee that it won’t be with their first novel.

AnthologyBuilder invites you to take a chance on an unfamiliar author. We will discount the cost of your anthology by $1.00 if it includes at least one story written by this month’s featured authors.

That’s right. $1.00 off any anthology that includes a story by one of our featured authors. The discount will be calculated on the payment confirmation screen, right after you’ve entered in your shipping information.

Featured Authors for April 2008
Tobias S. Buckell
Eric Flint
Eugie Foster
Dave Freer
Jim C. Hines
Mary Robinette Kowal
Irene Radford
Cat Rambo
Steven Utley

The literary world is full of energetic new voices. Why not listen to some of them?

I’m extremely pleased to get in because some part of my brain was sure that the April Fool’s Prank was totally going to jinx me out of going. I’m relieved my superstitions didn’t play out. And super excited to be going to space camp. I mean, big telescopes! Real astronomers!

When I was in… (Mom? What grade was I in when I did Dr. Danby’s astronomy class?) Anyway, one summer my mom got me into an astronomy camp taught at the local college. I was definitely one of the younger students, but it wasn’t a college level course. I remember that she would drive me out to Meredith College so that we could stand in a field and look at the stars and planets through the telescopes. I loved it, and not just because I got to stay up past my bedtime.

My dad helped me make a planetarium out of a refrigerator box for my science fair project. We kept it for ages after that and it was one of my favorite things.

So getting to got to a NASA-funded workshop is really a childhood dream come true. I can’t wait.

One of the interesting things about moving is that one finds all sorts of things, like, say, a short story from 1978. I was nine years old. Here is an excerpt with the original spelling and punctuation. It’s part of a collection I wrote called Cats and their Adventures.

Tiger Cat

Once upon a time there was a young mother tiger. She had three cubs, named Tiger Cat, Lilybug, and Strips. Tiger, (as everyone called him,) grew and grew. He was the oldest and the strongest. Tiger loved to help his mother. One day his mother told him to watch Lilybug and Strips. While his mother was gone a fox tried to capture Lilybug. He was about to carry Lilybug away when Tiger pounced on him, then sank his teeth into the fox’s neck. They fell to the ground. When hi mother came back she said, “Where did you get that?”

Lilybug said, “Tiger killed it.”

“Tiger, was it around the den?” said his mother.

“Yes.” said Tiger, “it was trying to capture Lilybug.” They ate 1/4 of it.

One day Tiger met a tigeress that he liked. That was when Tiger was three. Her name was Tawny. Tawny and Tiger liked each other. One night Tiger invited Tawny to eat supper with him.

Wow… I was writing about tigers dating. Does that count as a romance?

1. I’m allowed one hour of internet time per day.
2. If I want more I have to “buy” it by doing an equal amount of time writing or editing first.
3. Time researching a story, if not knowing will stop me from writing, counts as neutral.

How’s it working? I finished a story today, which has been on my plate for the last month. I’ve got a story that I needed to revise open right now. I’ve already hit the sites that I normally read and still have twenty-five minutes of time allowed online. I’ll bank it rather than just aimlessly surfing.

It’s chock-full of interesting things, such as:

In microgravity, there is no buoyancy, so instead of a tall yellow flame on a candle, for example, you’ll see a smaller, blue flame centered on the wick.

You know you’ve read scenes exactly like this which were written in earnest. Cut the repetition and don’t say the obvious.

Unless you are Emma Thompson and Stephen Fry, in which case you are fintastically fintastic.

The story only lacks three recommendations to be on next year’s preliminary ballot.

May I recommend, especially if you are a SFWA member, that you read it?

This takes the Little Mermaid and makes it look like Hans Christian Andersen was writing stories made of cotton candy.

In the writing arena, I quote reviews and mentions here, and yeah, usually focus on the juicy stuff. For instance,

Gardner Dozois talked about his picks for the Nebula short story categories, saying:

My vote would go to Andy Duncan’s “Unique Chicken Goes in Reverse,” … My next choice, I guess, would be “For Solo Cello, op. 12,” by Mary Robinette Kowal … followed by “Titanium Mike Saves the Day,” by David D. Levine…

Woot! Gardner Dozois puts me in the number two position! Except… if you read the whole quote.

This is the weakest of the categories.

My vote would go to Andy Duncan’s “Unique Chicken Goes in Reverse,” although it’s not even really a fantasy let alone SF–what it is is an Andy Duncan story, who’s a genre to himself, much like Howard Waldrop. Since Duncan is popular with the membership, it might have a chance, although it did appear in an expensive hardcover anthology from a small press.

Not much else here I’m really enthusiastic about. My next choice, I guess, would be “For Solo Cello, op. 12,” by Mary Robinette Kowal, which is SF (but which is probably unlikely to win), followed by …

Ow. Gardner Dozois says, “Not really enthusiastic!” and “Unlikely to win!”

Ah, context… Think I can put that on a poster?

He just called out, “Hey! There’s light careening in your novel.”

I wandered in to kiss him on top of his head. “That’s there for you.”

See, when we were first dating, Rob turned to me once and in a fit of amorous passion said, “I love the way light careens across your face.”

I laughed.

He attempted to fix it by saying, “Well, your face is very architectural.”

Oh, my poor, sweet boy. So well intentioned… But I knew what he really meant was that he thought I was beautiful, and that’s all a girl really needs to know sometimes. In everything I write, there’s a moment where I reference Rob. Sometimes it is the way a character looks at the man she loves, sometimes it is a character’s actions.

And sometimes light careens.

Baby steps to regain musical ability.

4 out of 5

Short Stories — 7
Unique Chicken Goes In Reverse – Duncan, Andy (Eclipse 1: New Science Fiction And Fantasy, Jonathan Strahan, Ed., Night Shade Books, Oct07)
Titanium Mike Saves the Day – Levine, David D. (F&SF, Apr07)
Captive Girl – Pelland, Jennifer (Helix: A Speculative Fiction Quarterly, WS & LWE, Ed., Oct06 (Fall06 issue — #2))
Always – Fowler, Karen Joy (Asimov’s, May07 (apr/may07 issue))
For Solo Cello, op. 12 – Kowal, Mary Robinette (Cosmos, Mar07 (Feb/Mar07))
The Padre, the Rabbi, and the Devil His Own Self – Fletcher, Melanie (Helix: A Speculative Fiction Quarterly, WS & LWE, Ed., Oct06 (Fall06 issue — #2))
The Story of Love – Nazarian, Vera (Salt of the Air, Prime Books, Sep06)

2007 Preliminary Nebula Ballot

Novels – 13
Vellum: The Book of All Hours – Duncan, Hal (Del Rey, Apr06 (Macmillan hardcover Nov05 (UK)))
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Rowling, J. K. (Scholastic Press, Jul07)
Odyssey – McDevitt, Jack (Ace, Nov06)
Mainspring – Lake, Jay (Tor, Jun07)
The Accidental Time Machine – Haldeman, Joe (Ace, Aug07)
Species Imperative #3: Regeneration – Czerneda, Julie E. (DAW, May06)
The Yiddish Policemen’s Union – Chabon, Michael (HarperCollins, May07)
The New Moon’s Arms – Hopkinson, Nalo (Warner Books, Feb07)
Blindsight – Watts, Peter (Tor, Oct06)
Rollback – Sawyer, Robert J. (Analog, Feb07 (serialized in Oct06 through Jan/Feb07 issues; Tor book, Apr07))
The Outback Stars – McDonald, Sandra (Tor, May07)
Strange Robby – Rosen, Selina (Meisha Merlin Publishing, Jul06 (E-mail selinarosen@cox.net for copies))
Ragamuffin – Buckell, Tobias (Tor, Jun07)

Novellas – 5
Kiosk – Sterling, Bruce (F&SF, Jan07)
Memorare – Wolfe, Gene (F&SF, Apr07)
Stars Seen Through Stone – Shepard, Lucius (F&SF, Jul07)
The Helper and His Hero – Hughes, Matt (F&SF, Mar07 (Feb07 & Mar07))
Fountain of Age – Kress, Nancy (Asimov’s, Jul07)

Novelettes – 13
The Sun God at Dawn, Rising from a Lotus Blossom – Kail, Andrea (Writers of the Future Volume 23, Algis Budrys, Ed., Galaxy Press, Sep07)
A Flight of Numbers Fantastique Strange – Bernobich, Beth (Asimov’s, Jun06)
The Fiddler of Bayou Teche – Sherman, Delia (Coyote Road, Trickster Tales, Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, Ed., Viking Juvenile, Jul07)
Pol Pot’s Beautiful Daughter – Ryman, Geoff (F&SF, Nov06)
Sister of the Hedge – Hines, Jim C. (Realms of Fantasy, Jun06)
The Evolution of Trickster Stories Among the Dogs Of North Park After the Change – Johnson, Kij (Coyote Road, Trickster Tales, Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, Ed., Viking Juvenile, Jul07)
Things That Aren’t – Burstein, Michael A.; and Greenberger, Robert (Analog, Apr07)
Alastair Baffle’s Emporium of Wonders – Resnick, Mike (Asimov’s, Jan08)
Safeguard – Kress, Nancy (Asimov’s, Jan07)
Tonino and the Incubus – Robinson, Peg (Helix: A Speculative Fiction Quarterly, WS & LWE, Ed., Oct06 (Fall06 issue — #2))
The Children’s Crusade – Bailey, Robin Wayne (Heroes in Training, Martin H. Greenberg and Jim C. Hines, Ed., DAW, Sep07)
The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate – Chiang, Ted (F&SF, Sep07)
Not of this Fold – Shunn, William (An Alternate History of the 21st Century, Spilt Milk Press, Sep07)

Scripts — 7
Children of Men – Cuaron, Alfonso & Sexton, Timothy J. and Arata, David and Fergus, Mark & Ostby, Hawk (Universal Studios, Dec06)
The Prestige – Nolan, Christopher and Nolan, Jonathon (Newmarket Films, Oct06 (Oct 20, 2006 — based on the novel by Christopher Priest))
Pan’s Labyrinth – del Toro, Guillermo (Time/Warner, Jan07)
The Discarded – Ellison, Harlan and Olson, Josh (Masters of Science Fiction, ABC-TV, Apr07)
V for Vendetta – Wachowski, Larry & Wachowski, Andy (Warner Films, Mar06 (released 3/17/2006 — Written by the Wachowski Brothers, based on the graphic novel illustrated by David Lloyd and published by Vertigo/DC Comics))
World Enough and Time – Zicree, Marc Scott and Reaves, Michael (Star Trek: New Voyages, http://www.startreknewvoyages.com, Aug07 (Aired 8/23/07))
Blink – Moffat, Steven (Doctor Who, BBC/The Sci-Fi Channel, Sep07 (Aired on SciFi Channel 14 Sep07))

Norton Books — 4
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Rowling, J. K. (Scholastic Press, Jul07)
Into the Wild – Durst, Sarah Beth (Penguin Razorbill, Jun07)
Vintage: A Ghost Story – Berman, Steve (Haworth Positronic Press, Mar07)
Flora Segunda: Being the Magickal Mishaps of a Girl of Spirit, Her Glass-Gazing Sidekick, Two Ominous Butlers (One Blue), a House with Eleven Thousand Rooms, and a Red Dog – Wilce, Ysabeau S. (Harcourt, Jan07)

Note that the Norton Jury may add to this. I’ve asked them to let me know by Monday morning if the intend to do so.

Allow me to explain. My last couple of sales have been stories which can be called horror to varying degrees. Now if you ask me what I’ve written, I’ll tell you that I write SF and Fantasy. The word “horror” will not cross my lips, not because I’m ashamed, but because I don’t think about it because that’s really not what I’m focused on writing. I was having this conversation and someone said, “You should join HWA.”

I laughed and said, “I’m not a horror writer…”

Except, I sort of am, at least as much as I’m an SF or a fantasy writer. But the difference for me is that I don’t read horror. It scares me. No joke. I like stories that make me all weepy, but not the ones that make me afraid to turn off the lights.

So, the horror stories that I write are ones that deal with stuff I want to read which tend to be, um, love stories. Yeah, I know… there’s a little incongruity there. That said, these are stories in which I do really, really bad things to people and, with the stories for Apex, am deliberately trying to write visceral horror. But when I’m doing it, I’m also trying to make sure that every bad thing that happens to my character reflects on her and on her relationships. At the end, I want you to know more about the character than you did at the beginning, because that’s the kind of story I like reading.

I know that I am writing horror, but I don’t think of myself as a horror writer.

Which makes me think that the people who say, “But I don’t write sci-fi,” really mean, “but I don’t read sci-fi.” Whatever SF tropes and tools show up in their stories, that’s part of the toolbox that they are using to tell the kinds of stories they are interested in. So, yeah, I’ll bite. They aren’t writing SF. When they read their own stories, they aren’t reading SF either.

But that doesn’t mean you or I aren’t reading SF when we read the same story.

My opinion on the Nebulas is that one of the primary benefits comes from the ballot itself. Simply put, any story that makes it on the ballot will automatically get a much wider readership as people review stories for voting. So, when I’m recommending stories, I’m choosing stories that I think people ought to read, whether or not I think the story is ultimately likely to win the award.

Getting on the ballot is a boost to writer because it does raise their profile, and thus, people are more likely to notice their other work later. It might not be a conscious thing, but you see someone on the Nebula ballot and next time, by golly, you’ll see their name and think, “I’ve heard of her.”

So here are writers who I want to support and think that you should read their stories.

Novelettes
Andrea Kail: The Sun God at Dawn, Rising from a Lotus Blossom (Writers of the Future Volume 23) This is a brilliantly done epistolary tale told in a series of letters from Tutankahmen to Abraham Lincoln. Trust me, it makes perfect, chilling sense when you read it. Beautifully and heart-breakingly done.
It also has eight recommendations and its eligibility ends in March. Go! Recommend it! Do you really want to see it not make the ballot because you didn’t take the twenty minutes it will take to read this gorgeous story? I didn’t think so.

Ted Kosmatka: The Prophet of Flores (Asimov’s, Sep07) Holy cow! This is a freaky blend of SF and alternate history. The deep-story to this one? Intelligent design is real. The earth is only 5800 years old and carbon-dating proves it. And then someone finds a fossil that turns everything upside down. Seven recommendations thus far, but this one has eligibility until September, so I’m not quite as frantic about it making the ballot. But, you’ll be missing out if you don’t read it.

Livia Llewellyn: The Four Hundred Thousand I don’t know how to describe this one without giving away the creepy turns this chilling SF story takes. To grossly over-simplify it, this is about the right to choose. But, look, there’s a link so you can go read it. And do.

Jennifer Pelland: Mercytanks The person who pointed this one out to me said that it was the first time they’d really seen far-future done well. And how.

Short Stories:
Richard Bowes has two I liked: A Tale for the Short Days (Coyote Road, Trickster Tale) and King of the Big Night Hours(Subterranean, Sep07). The thing that he does, particularly with the King of the Big Night Hours, is tell a story that seems so absolutely, totally grounded in reality that it makes you wonder why you haven’t noticed any magic happening in your life. I mean, these seem like they are things that actually happened.

Vylar Kaftan: Kill Me Extremely evocative SF. The story is deceptively simple. A professional masochist has a device which records her thoughts so that she can be killed and brought back. But there’s a price; there’s always a price.

Andrea Kail: Soft Like a Rabbit I read this the first time as I was typesetting Fantasy. It stopped me cold. I forgot what I was supposed to be doing and just read the story. When I finished I couldn’t understand why I’d never read anything of Andrea Kail’s before. She’s a power-house and tells economical and wrenching stories. Have tissues standing by when you read this.

Nancy Kress: End Game I listened to this one at Escape Pod. Again, SF. Have you ever wished you could just concentrate on one thing at a time? Listen to this and rethink your wish.

David D. Levine: Titanium Mike Saves the Day This is probably the first light-hearted one I’ve mentioned. People always need tall tales; why should outerspace be any different? A fine example of yarn-spinning.

Lisa Mantchev: Six Scents Six tales in one. I could sum this up as tales of famous fictional women and their favorite perfumes, but really, it would not do justice to the brutally clever writing here. For example: “Men find it hard to fall in love with a dead girl. They tell her it’s a turn-off that they take her hand at the movies and a finger lands in the popcorn.”

Joy Marchard: Pallas at Noon lives in the uncanny place between things that could actually happen and the magic that lies just on the other side of that. I don’t even know how to describe this story, but definitely find a copy of Interfictions and read this. It will make you weep and feel hope and despair all at the same time.

Holly Phillips: The Oracle Spoke is quite possibly my favorite story this year. It’s the one that I desperately wish I had written. Please read it.

Cat Rambo: Foam on the Water You think Hans Christian Andersen’s Little Mermaid has a chilling ending? Ha! He could have taken lessons from Cat Rambo’s story.

I’m not doing mini-reviews of the novels, because I know you won’t have time to read any between now and then. But here are some that I think you should read after the first of the year.

Chris Barzak, One for Sorrow; Tobias Buckell, Ragamuffin; Jay Lake, Mainspring; Ekaterina Sedia, The Secret History of Moscow.

And finally, I will finish with a totally shameless self-pimp.

Look! For Solo Cello, op. 12 has six whole Nebula recommendations. This is makes me squee with girlish pleasure.

All right folks, there’s still reading to do. Go forth recommend stories! (And I hereby open this up for shameless promotion. Got a story you want read? Link away!)

Shimmer is pleased to announce The Clockwork Jungle Book. Think steampunk animal parables! It’s a special double-length issue, guest-edited by George Mann of Solaris Books, scheduled for Autumn 2008. Now accepting submissions. Read the guidelines for more details.

I’ve volunteered to help SFWA by chairing the Service to SFWA committee, which has been revamped to recruit, retain and reward volunteers. Any service organization, like SFWA, relies on its members to be active participants in supporting its goals. More specifically, it relies on its active members to set those goals.

I have not been happy with a number of things about SFWA lately, however, when I look at the organization as a whole it has accomplished some very good things. Griefcom, the Legal Defense Fund, the Emergency Medical Fund, raising the pro-rate standard from 3 -5 cents… These are good things that volunteers accomplished. At its core, SFWA exists to promote and aid Science-Fiction and Fantasy Writers.

That’s me. I am a science-fiction and fantasy writer.

So my choice is to walk away from the good things or to try and change the things that I don’t like. I want an organization that represents me and that represents my interests. From working with other non-profits, I’ve found that quickest way to be taken seriously is to volunteer. So that’s why I’m doing this.

And that’s why, if you aren’t happy, I think you should consider volunteering. Shift the balance. Help me.

If you’d like to learn more about how you can help your fellow Science-Fiction and Fantasy authors, please fill out the following questionnaire and email it to sfwavolunteer@gmail.com or leave it in the comments here.

1. I am interested in volunteering for SFWA — [short-term/long-term] (ie.a quick one-time job, versus an ongoing position)

2. I can offer [x] hours per month for volunteer work.

3. I am interested in learning more about volunteering to help with
a) Website
b) Writing related advice
c) Legal advice or issues (ie contracts, copyright, etc.)
d) Outreach (ie, Youth, Speaker’s bureau, Conventions, etc.)
e) Publicity (ie publications, Nebulas, PR, etc.)
f) Operations (ie audits, procedures, run for office, etc.)
g) Grunt Work (ie stuffing envelopes, sorting lists, lifting tables, etc.)
h) Other (ie I got mad skillz you don’t even know to ask about, teleportation, graphic design, an active fan base, FTL travel, etc.)

4. My SFWA membership status is: [non-member, affiliate, associate, active]

Thank you for your time and attention. I look forward to working with you.

Mary Robinette Kowal

Edited to add: You don’t need to be a member to volunteer for anything except those things that involve voting, such as running for office or chairing a committee. All you need is an interest in support science-fiction and fantasy writers, or concern with helping to shape the future of the organization.

Here’s a teaser.

Lifting the stopper from the vial to his nose, Penn inhaled slowly. Against the neutral backdrop of his ship’s clean room, he picked out aromas of quince, elderberry, bright Martian soil that hinted of blood, with undercurrents of cinnamon and Zeta Epsilon’s fragrantly sweet longgrass. He sighed, blowing the scents out again. The perfume was still just a little out of balance.

The door chime rang, letting him know that Dell had returned. The round tones resonated off the glass labware and sent vibrations across his scalp as it slowly, slowly faded. God, it was gorgeous — picking up the temple bell when they were on Izlacs had been one of his better choices. He’d eventually get the whole ship converted to real things instead of all the virtual hoo-ha it had come with.

Edited to add: I made the changes that Brian suggested in his comment below, though I normally wait until I’m finished writing to edit a story, but once he pointed them out they itched and I had to fix.

Now, one of the things was the character’s names, which I agree with. Does anyone want to be tuckerized into this?

I also sent off an email to a man I’ve been meaning to thank for a while now. My college writing teacher, William Hallberg, had just had his first novel come out the semester I took a class with him. Much like my experience with puppetry, until meeting him it hadn’t occurred to me that publishing a novel was something that was attainable. Now, I haven’t spent the ensuing twenty years in desperate pursuit of getting a novel published — in fact I only really started writing seriously about five years ago — but the early lessons from Mr. Hallberg stuck with me. Among other things, that it is possible to write a novel and hold down another job.

So, besides spending time with Rob, I’m going to treat myself to a writing day today. Meanwhile, may I recommend that you pick up a copy of Rub of the Green, by William Hallberg?

Edited to add: Mr. Hallberg wrote back to say that he remembers me. Wonders never cease. He asked me to send him something I’d written, so I’ve sent him a link to For Solo Cello, op. 12.

He arranged the afternoon into three flights of wine. Each flight looked at a different common style of wine. Here’s the fact sheet he prepared for the folks who attended today.

Rosés

Sutter Home
White Zinfandel (rosé)
California, 2006
As the bottle proudly proclaims, this is the original “White Zinfandel”. While certainly not the first rosé produced from Zinfandel, it was the first made is the light-bodied sweet style and marketed aggressively. It is produced from Zinfandel grown and vinified in California´s central valley on a prodigious scale. It is a true mass-market wine.

Domaine Sautereau
Sancerre rosé, Côtes de Reigny
Loire Valley, France, 2006
Situated in the village of Crezancy this 18 hectare estate has been producing wine for 9 generations. Sancerre is primarily of producer of Sauvignon Blanc but Pinot Noir is also grown to make red wine and occasionally rosés such as this one.

Chardonnay

Frameworks
Chardonnay, Oracle Vineyard
Willamette Valley, Oregon, 2003
Included today as an example of an overtly flawed wine. It has been “cooked” in transport. Wine is a living substance and poor handling can injure or kill it. This is one gross example of such abuse.

Domaine Dujac (Druid)
Meursault, Le Limozin
Burgundy, France, 2000
Domaine Dujac is a highly respect producer of red burgundy in Morey-St. Denis. This is an unusual example of a white, which is produced from purchased grapes of the Le Limozin vineyard (a village cru but one of premiere cru status). This is Chardonnay but made is a racy and refined style.

Ferrari-Carano
Chardonnay
Alexander Valley, 2005
California Chardonnay – big, buttery, oaky. Love or hate it, this is what built the California wine industry into what it is today.

Cabernet Sauvignon

Barton & Guestier
Vin De Pays, Cabernet Sauvignon
France, 2003
This is a typical inexpensive table wine, a style produced around the world for everyday consumption. A comparable American example would be Charles Shaw (2 buck Chuck) from Trader Joe’s. Grapes, or juice, or even finished wine is purchased, blended and bottled by some entity which then sells the wine under its own brand. Occasionally, one finds a pleasant bottle in this category but they are intrinsically generic.

Mayacamas
Cabernet Sauvignon
Napa Valley, 1998
While this winery is within the Napa Valley appellation, the vineyards and winery are near the top of Mt. Veeder at an elevation of 1,800 to 2,400 feet. Robert Travers, the winemaker, strives to make intense, long-lived wines in the tradition of great red Bordeaux which express the personality of the vineyard – the terroir. Like nearly all Bordeaux, this is a blend with small portions of Cabernet Franc and Merlot added to the Cabernet Sauvignon for balance and complexity.

I suspect we will do another of these. The thought at the moment is to do a vertical flight (same wine, different years) to show how wines evolve. Also we’re thinking of pouring the wine in three different types of wine glasses to show how the vessel can impact the flavor.

What would you want to get out of a wine tasting for writers?

So, in order to find ways to use these two constructively, I just papier-mached them into Coraline’s head. I feel much, much better now.

“Zire 72.” I looked up, surprised at being addressed and more surprised that he almost got it right. Also relieved that he was dressed like a successful businessman. I pulled the case down a bit so the camera could show. “It’s got a camera. They don’t make it anymore, which is terribly distressing.”

“Why?”

“I like having the camera.”

“Yeah, but they have other cameras, like the Treo.” He held up his palm, encased in a translucent gel.

I explained that I liked the graffiti and didn’t like the thumb keyboard. He said, “Yeah, I noticed you really working the graffiti.”

“I’m writing a novel on this.”

He laughed. “No way.”

“Yes. A lot of it on the subway, which amuses me no end. Writing graffiti on the subway..”

Aiming his palm at mine, he beamed his contact information across as the train pulled into a station. “You have got to contact me. My email is in there.”

I assured him that I would and then he got off the train. I pulled up his contact information.

Except it wasn’t there. The story I was working on was saving when he beamed and I think the address just didn’t take. That or he beamed me the wrong thing. It is frustrating. I sent an email to Palm’s NYC retail store, but I think it’s a long shot.

Drat. It was one of the more pleasant encounters on the train. I wonder what he was going to say.

So, when I’m researching now for a show or a story, I’ll follow the bibliography trail back as far as I can trying to find my way back to the primary source. This has lead to everything from realizing that in fact we had picked the wrong sacred tree for a show set in India, to discovering that a historical character in a story had a death in the family during the period I was writing about them. That moment of discovery is wonderful and leads to richer stories.

Now, it’s not always possible to get primary sources, but a whole slew of reliable secondary sources will often do the trick.

But my favorite of all sources is called, “the expert witness.”

For instance: I’ve been trying to find out what fake cherries would have been made out of for millinary purposes. I have a scene in which Jane is trimming a bonnet. It’s a small detail, but I wanted to know. I checked online first, because it’s easy. Then I headed to the library. Loads of stuff on period hats and how they were trimmed, but nothing on what artificial cherries were made of. It was very frustrating.

This meant it was time to contact an expert witness since I had exhausted my other availble avenues. I wrote to Mr. Keith Dansey at Hat Works Museum and explained my question.

He just wrote back and has given me permission to excerpt his answer here.

We do have at least one hat in our display collection trimmed with imitation red currants, not precisely the same fruit, to be sure, and dated 1920 somewhat later than the period you have focused on. These are made of glass and possibly exemplify a millinery tradition encompassing the early 19th century.

Additionally, an 18th century German chemist by the name of J. Strasser developed a method if making imitation gems from ‘paste’ which is a lead glass compound. Possibly imitation fruits might be made from this. On the basis of this flimsy evidence, my money would be on some kind of glass. Other malleable materials, say, wax or plaster present with obvious problems.

His flimsy evidence beats anything else I’ve got. So now, not only do I have my answer for the scene I’m writing, I have a great detail for a later scene in which the hat reappears. It gets thrown to the ground on a marble floor. I’ve got glass cherries on it. Making a cherry crack on impact is the perfect accent to the emotion of the moment. I’m delighted on so many levels.

Expert witnesses are wonderful.

“Death Comes But Twice” by Mary Robinette Kowal is a style of horror (with a spike of science fiction) not seen often today. Obviously rooted in classics like Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Bram Stoker’s Dracula, this tale of a medical experiment to ward off death addresses the reader directly and has a dark finale and the fine writing that readers have come to expect from Kowal.

I have to say that I’m really relieved that she recognized it as science-fiction, even though it’s way, way, way old school. I had in fact just been in a production of Jekyll and Hyde and had that startling moment of epiphany when I realized that Robert Louis Stevenson wrote science fiction. And snobby people say the science fiction can’t be literature. Feh.

Because we were nervous about money, I signed up with a temp agency right after we got to NYC. They sent me out on a gig last week, which was only one day long. It was very, very easy receptionist work. The company requested me for another project. This time, it’s a week long. The funny thing is, that I really don’t have time to do this temp job but, because of the way temp agencies work, I had to say yes to it. At the beginning, you have to take the jobs that come in so that you can establish a track record with the agency.

I’m busy right now, with work, but the joy of free-lancing is that I don’t know about next month. I might really need temp work next month. I hope not, but still.

So I spent yesterday verifying names on a mailing-list and then at lunch, I worked on proof-reading a manuscript, which is one of my free-lance gigs. So my brain was very tired by the end of the day. After work, I went to Altered Fluid (writing group) for the weekly meeting and then out to dinner with the gang afterwards. I’m just too tired to think about working on Coraline, which is just as well, I suppose.

At the moment, I find myself with the interesting dilemma of her feet. For display, flat feet will look better but the movement will be awful. With a puppet, I’d angle her toes up slightly like the sole of a clog, so that it would get good rollover and offer a more natural stride. (While I was reading the My New Leg blog, I kept thinking about how many of the movement challenges were mechanically similar to building a puppet let.) I was hired to make a doll, but I’m a puppeteer, so what I’m really making is a toy puppet. I know she won’t ever see performance, so the flat feet make sense it just feels very, very strange to build that way.

Maybe that’s just because I’m tired.