Just don't try to take his Optimus Prime from him or you'll come back with a stump!
Happy 4th of July to those who celebrate it! I'm looking forward to fireworks.
The setting may be colorful and vastly different from ours, but the scope of the story is intensely personal, dealing with a friendship tried and tested under the severest of conditions. The story succeeds powerfully on that personal, emotional level - I could see the author setting up the emotional arc (something I consciously work to do these days), and it still had an impact on me.
Reader reactions don't get much better than that.
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johnjosephadams has posted the full August/September editorial over at the F&SF website, to better address questions like my own regarding the workshop. It feels less dubious to me now, since we know GVG won't have a direct hand in the story selection from it, though I still feel squicky about the stories being chosen from a pay workshop. I've seen plenty of free workshops where editors of magazines or book editors occasionally fish stuff out, like Zoetrope and the old Del Rey workshop (which I understand is a pay workshop now, but I have no idea if the editors over at Del Rey still have anything to do with it.). While the choosing from the workshop pool still bothers me a bit, the fact that buying stories is optional rather than the endmeans makes it a little less questionable to me. Really, is it any different than the guest editors at Clarion telling certain students "I want to see this again after the workshop, so send it to to me" ? Perhaps a little bit since one doesn't go into Clarion realizing this is even an option (at least I didn't think it was, but neither did I think anything was afoul when I found out later that two of my classmates sold their workshop stories to our guest editor right after Clarion West.). I think what must have set me off about it yesterday was the reviewer's characterization of the workshop as a "backdoor way into" the magazine. I don't think Dozois is one to pick stuff to meet a quota, particularly since there isn't one, so I trust in him to chose good stories that would have been picked up by a pro magazine anyway. Though by that same token, why would someone who's writing at a pro level need to pay for an online workshop to get in the door when they could just sub through the regular channels and all they have to spend is the price of postage? There's still a lot about the dyanamics of the workshop itself that leave me with questions as to its benefits outside of the chance of getting into one of the coveted slots in the magazine. With a hundred members, will participants even get any hands-on attention from Dozois, or will there be a grading system to bring things to his attention, etc?Anyway, having seen the full editorial, I'm feeling it's less dubious, but still have questions. I hope the workshop proves a success and helps keep F&SF afloat in these tough economic times. I don't think this is a feature I'd use, for I have great crit groups that cost me nothing but my time and support, and I did my time at my one pay workshop and consider it to be worth every penny I paid, even though I was only able to sell two stories I wrote during those six weeks, and that was for like ten bucks total.
oldcharliebrown , in a review of the August/September of F&SF by Paula Stiles over at Innsmouth Free press (http://www.innsmouthfreepress.com/?p=69the big news Van Gelder springs on us is that F&SF is starting a writing workshop with Gardner Dozois (former editor of Asimov’s Science Fiction), which will supply some of F&SF’s stories in the future. I’m too poor (and already involved with other workshops) to pay up for a workshop that charges, but this might be a good backdoor way to get into the ‘zine.
I'm feeling all sorts of ick from this. F&SF is supposed to be a respected pro mag, then it does this. To me, this feels akin to paying your way into the magazine, which makes it feel very much like vanity publishing. Granted, I haven't seen the actual editorial where GVG explains what this workshop is all about, but it seems to me that it would be as skeezy as if Gardner came into meet my CW class on week 4 and had said "I'm going to buy a story from your class for Asimov's." A pay workshop specifically set up to provide content for the magazine...not liking what it says about the mag I used to have a great deal of respect for even if the fiction wasn't my kind of thing. I know these are tough economic times for all the magazines, but I'd hate to see this venerable magazine's reputation tarnished with questions of it becoming a vanity press.
ETA: with points brought up in the comments, I'll be withholding any true judgment on this matter until I learn more detailed information about this workshop.
snickelish and pointed out to me by both marshallpayne1 and aliettedb , "Night Bird Soaring" as garnered an Honorable Mention in Gardner Dozois' latest Year's Best Science Fiction. This is my first HM ever in any of the YB books! Hooray!
Your result for Which fantasy writer are you?...
Mary Gentle (b. 1956)
17 High-Brow, 3 Violent, 3 Experimental and 21 Cynical!
Congratulations! You are High-Brow, Violent, Experimental and Cynical! These concepts are defined below.
Mary Gentle is a UK author whose work has received some acclaim. Her great break-through came with 1984 fantasy novel Golden Witchbreed, which depicts the travels of a UK envoy on a planet, Orthe, where the inhabitants have, by choice, abandoned a high-tech society for a seemingly less advanced way of life. Though nominally science fiction, the novel is generally called fantasy, partly because Orthe has the feel of a fantasy world. Nothing is what it first seems to be on Orthe, however, and the envoy's journey across the planet gradually reveals a vividly imagined alternate society, where nothing is ever over-simplified or, for that matter, easy. Gentle revisited Orthe in 1987, when the sequel Ancient Light was published.
Since then Gentle has written the White Crow sequence, starting with Rats and Gargoyles (1990), which has received some acclaim, not least from other writers; China Miéville, for example, put it on his list of "50 science fiction and fantasy novels socialists should read". She has also written Grunts! (1992), a novel set in a Tolkien-like fantasy world, but told from the point of view of the orcs, as well as several other books.
Gentle is not one to shun away from difficult issues in her works and is equally unafraid of discussing and depicting violence. Neither has she settled to writing the same kind of story over and over, and, while being at her best a great entertainer, she has the ability of twisting and bending fantasy environments and themes at her will, making unafraid a key-word of her career as a writer.
You are also a lot like Gene Wolfe.
If you want something more gentle (no pun intended), try Philip Pullman.
If you'd like a challenge, try your exact opposite, J K Rowling.
Your score
This is how to interpret your score: Your attitudes have been measured on four different scales, called 1) High-Brow vs. Low-Brow, 2) Violent vs. Peaceful, 3) Experimental vs. Traditional and 4) Cynical vs. Romantic. Imagine that when you were born, you were in a state of innocence, a tabula rasa who would have scored zero on each scale. Since then, a number of circumstances (including genetical, cultural and environmental factors) have pushed you towards either end of these scales. If you're at 45 or -45 you would be almost entirely cynical, low-brow or whatever. The closer to zero you are, the less extreme your attitude. However, you should always be more of either (eg more romantic than cynical). Please note that even though High-Brow, Violent, Experimental and Cynical have positive numbers (1 through 45) and their opposites negative numbers (-1 through -45), this doesn't mean that either quality is better. All attitudes have their positive and negative sides, as explained below.
High-Brow vs. Low-Brow
You received 17 points, making you more High-Brow than Low-Brow. Being high-browed in this context refers to being more fascinated with the sort of art that critics and scholars tend to favour, rather than the best-selling kind. At their best, high-brows are cultured, able to appreciate the finer nuances of literature and not content with simplifications. At their worst they are, well, snobs.
Violent vs. Peaceful
You received 3 points, making you more Violent than Peaceful. Please note that violent in this context does not mean that you, personally, are prone to violence. This scale is a measurement of a) if you are tolerant to violence in fiction and b) whether you see violence as a means that can be used to achieve a good end. If you are, and you do, then you are violent as defined here. At their best, violent people are the heroes who don't hesitate to stop the villain threatening innocents by means of a good kick. At their worst, they are the villains themselves.
Experimental vs Traditional
You received 3 points, making you more Experimental than Traditional. Your position on this scale indicates if you're more likely to seek out the new and unexpected or if you are more comfortable with the familiar, especially in regards to culture. Note that traditional as defined here does not equal conservative, in the political sense. At their best, experimental people are the ones who show humanity the way forward. At their worst, they provoke for the sake of provocation only.
Cynical vs Romantic
You received 21 points, making you more Cynical than Romantic. Your position on this scale indicates if you are more likely to be wary, suspicious and skeptical to people around you and the world at large, or if you are more likely to believe in grand schemes, happy endings and the basic goodness of humankind. It is by far the most vaguely defined scale, which is why you'll find the sentence "you are also a lot like x" above. If you feel that your position on this scale is wrong, then you are probably more like author x. At their best, cynical people are able to see through lies and spot crucial flaws in plans and schemes. At their worst, they are overly negative, bringing everybody else down.
Author picture by the talented artist "Molosovsky". Visit http://www.flickr.com/people/25360041@N0
aliettedb and marshall_payne for their crits on this one.And a couple days ago the first review of my other One World Story in Paradox 13, "The Place That Makes You Happiest", is up at SFRevu. Overall pretty positive, even if the reviewer didn't buy into the world as a whole.
On the planning front, after reading over the guidelines for John Joseph Adam's new anthology The Way of the Wizard, I'm going to commit myself to writing a story for that. The deadline isn't until March of next year, but there's not time like the present to start rounding up some ideas and weeding out the bad ones. And eventually I'd like to get back to the Mextli stories. And just to get me all tickly and excited again, Warren Lapine has posted the cover for the relaunch issue of Realms of Fantasy. I'm really looking forward to getting that first issue and seeing Realms actually back in business and publishing (though no, it doesn't look like my story is in the issue, so that's not the source of my excitement:-)).
So now I'm off to write and hopefully will get lots and lots done.
And finally, more love still for "Night Bird", this time in a review up at BestScienceFictionStories.com (which also made me realize that I really need to update my biographical information on my website, for some of it is very out of date--like my saying that I'm still pursuing my first print publication:-D).
In even more exciting news, I'm actually writing today! Yah!
On the nostalgia front, ever since we took the kids to see Star Trek, they've become very enamored with all things Trek. Dana dug out my old TNG magazines and has been flipping through them and practicing her "Spock eyebrow", and Gaaron is very excited about the Trek toys being advertised on TV and is running around with his Burger King tricorder toy pretending he's Capt. Kirk. Any day now I expect Dana to start searching the house for my stash of old Trek toys and they'll rip them all out of their original packages. It's even gotten to me a little bit; I bought all four Trek glasses from Burger King. When I was young, my dad had glasses from The Search for Spock and they were my favorite to drink out of (those and The Muppets Take Manhattan glasses). And as soon as Dana finishes her homework reading, they want to go to the park and play Star Trek. I'm not sure how long the infatuation will last, but it does bring a smile to my face.
Some background on where I'm approaching this review from: I first became interested in Star Trek in middle school, ninth grade to be exact, so MY Trek was The Next Generation, though I had watched the original series when I was a kid (and even had a couple goldfish named Kirk and Spock. Kirk unfortunately ate Spock and was renamed Jaws.). I've seen every single ST movie in the theaters, even the first one, though of course since I was quite young I remember nothing at all about the experience. I watched TNG religiously, gave DS9 about a season and a half before I gave up on it, though I years later I started watching it again in reruns late at night after TNG reruns. I watched a bit of Voyager, but stopped after a while, but then picked it up again once 7 of 9 became a part of the cast. I watched one full episode of Enterprise and never went back to it, not even out of curiousity. I suppose you could say that I'd gotten burned out on Trek, with the stories and plotlines and characters just being more and more of the same.
And the movies seemed to be getting no better. First Contact was the last Trek movie that I really liked, with the rest after that just becoiming more and more disappointing until it culminated in the curse-worthy Nemesis. Needless to say, I wasn't all that thrilled when I heard they were making yet another Star Trek movie, and even worse that it was going to be a prequel to the original series (I was having flashbacks to the horror that is the Star Wars prequels). I actually had no intention of seeing the new movie when it came out.
Then, I saw the trailer. And thought "WTF are they doing making Trek look cool?!?" I was still suspicious though, and not too sure about these young'uns they had playing Kirk and Spock. And wouldn't it just be more of the stuff I got tired of being crammed down my throat with the old series? The initial reactions from folks on my flist made me decide to give is a try, and so after the Nuggets game yesterday (Go Nuggies! Woot!), I asked Jeff if he would take us all to see it last night.
I'm so very glad I did.( Spoilers and commentary )
kaolinfire. I bought my Anticipation membership last night and will get the rest of it taken care of today. I'm just hoping I don't get food poisoning this time (I'll be sure to avoid eating at Subway:-D). I've still go some website updating to do then I can get crackin' on that new story. Yesterday also made me realize that I should be writing some more One World stories, since I haven't written on in a year now.
Continue working, of course. I'd rather have written the entire thing and given it a try rather than give up and never know whether it truly was one of the exceptions. The best I can expect of myself is to do the best I can and hope it'll be enough. In that spirit, I'm turning off the internet for the day and doing work. It's been a pretty weak 5 days on the progress front, but I'm going to go for gold today.
I'm a very loose writer by nature, meaning that in first draft, I just dump my brain on the page, mess and all, then go back and clean it up later (this also describes my house-cleaning methods. Ha!). Brevity is still something I contend with though, and until now I've dealt with it by retyping each draft, to better clean up my prose. Rearranging of things on a small scale for making things happen faster hasn't been on my plate, and I never really thought of it as a plausible editing method, until now anyway. And I end up cutting 20% of the original text. If I could cut 20% of my novel and not lose the necessary action and character arcs, wow! That would be 70k off the first draft, bringing me down to 280k for the full shabang. That might be too high of expectations though and it would probably be closer to 10-15%, but still that's a great deal of wordage.
So what exactly have I been doing? I figured out the major element I wanted readers to get in this two little pages then I cut and past from my original document and see that I'm half a page over the limit. Damn! But I need to start where it starts right now and it ends where I need it to end, so my only choice is to start working cutting and reworking everything in between. Kill all the sloppy right away, but that gets me only about 1-2 lines worth of text. Got to go back and work some more, evaluating the weight of every word I'm putting in and deciding whether I can lose it or if it has to stay. I'm also evaluating action and dialog, making sure it's absolutely necessary to be there for the scene to make sense. If it's just waxing poetic or slowing the action, it gets the axe. In some instances, I use other actions already there to do double duty with some minor tweaking. When I'm finished, I notice I've actually cut more than half a page, which is good, because I'm not feeling all that great about my characters and don't think there's enough of "them" there. That gives me a little wiggle room to enhance the character elements, which usually means adding little bits and pieces to make the action carry some character weight. Of course I'm not doing this in any particular order, but rather as it comes to me that A would be good spot for some characterization and B isn't really telling the reader anything new and necessary, and if I just tweak Z a little bit, it can do this in addition to what it's already doing, etc. When all is said and done, I went from 789 words down to 667, which is a 15% cut in wordage.
About the only thing I don't like about this method is that it's really time consuming. I spent about 2 hours doing this yesterday and though I'm quite happy with the product, the time investment is daunting, particularly when thinking of applying that to a novel the size of MSF. And I'm wondering just how effectively I can apply it to editing a novel. I do like the idea of a target page limit I have to work within, which yes I could apply to the novel, but I think the more pages I'm give to work within, the more I'll be inclined to let things slide, to see if I can keep them and cut elsewhere. Still, I think I'd like to at least give it a try when I start editing.
In addition to doing this, I cut about 3k off a novelette and sent it out to Sword and Sorceress 24. It's my first submission in quite a while.
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