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Ok, I really don’t have an excuse. August was busy with two conventions back-to-back. I went to GenCon in Indianapolis and participated in the writing track there. Then I went to WorldCon in Denver, which was a great time. I was really not enthused about going at the beginning of the trip, but in the end, I’m glad I went. I tackled a few critiques of friends’ novels after that, which, along with all my other writing endeavors, has been keeping me very busy.

Probably the most time consuming activity, however, (other than sleeping and work) has been politics. Hi. I’m Brad, and I’m a political junky. I can’t seem to get enough of this soap opera that has unfolded over the last nine months. And I’ve stumbled across a handful of websites that update many times per day. I’m practically glues at times, switching between them, seeing what the latest scuttlebutt is on McCain or Obama. I don’t like to foist my views on others, but in case you’re wondering, I’m pro Obama.

I’ve been working on my latest novel, The Winds of Khalakovo, quite a bit. I finished rewriting and polishing the first ten chapters so that I could send it off to my agent. That’s done, and I’m working on the rest now. I’m hoping to have a good second draft done by the end of this month. No, I’m committing to it! You heard it here first.

I’ve also had a few nibbles on some short stories, but nothing confirmed yet, so I’ll hold off posting any news for now. More info as I have it, but keep your fingers crossed for me.

This story, which appeared in the June issue of Realms of Fantasy, picked up a Nebula nod. Only nine more to go!

If you’re a member of SFWA, and you’d like to give the story a read, you can do so here.

My story, "No Viviremos Como Presos," is now live over at IGMS, courtesy of Issue 9. For my Clarionite friends out there, this was the Wall story. If that doesn’t help, you can preview a portion of the story even if you don’t buy the issue.

I have a story in this anthology, and it just went officially on sale. I share the TOC with friends and fellow writers Paul Genesse, Anton Strout, and Don Bingle. If you pick up a copy, I’d love to hear what you think of the story.

The Winds of Khalakovo is officially done. First draft, that is. No rest for the weary. I have to get a synopsis and spruce up the first three chapters for my agent, and then it’s off to a short story I started in Stockholm and brainstorming for my next project (a YA science fantasy romp).

Winds clocked in at 160,808 words. I had planned on 120k for this novel, so obviously I overran. But (and this is a bug, erm, but) about midway through I realized that I needed one more point of view to truly tell this story. I had had two already, so I ended up with three POVs, and I think it turned out quite well. There are two warring factions of a Grand Duchy plus a group of downtrodden pacifists, so the three points of view allow the entire story to be told.

It’s really tough to tell at this point, as close as I am to the story, but it feels really good right now. The end is awfully rough. I felt myself wanting to finish really badly. I tried to curb those emotions, knowing that if I rushed it would just create more work on the other end, but I know I still ended up rushing some of the last several chapters. Even so, I’m excited about it. It feels like something I can hang my hat on. Or rather, that I’ll be able to once I get around to the next several drafts.

In other news, my house flooded. I’m in the Midwest, which as you know got positively hammered. Racine and Milwaukee counties got it rough in Wisconsin, though not nearly as bad as Iowa. Our house? Sewer backup. The good thing? It wasn’t as bad as some. The bad thing? No insurance. I would have sworn I had insurance for this, but the insurance guy says no. Still need to check my old insurance statements to see if it was there and was somehow dropped. The good news? It might be covered because of a faulty sump pump. Won’t know until the end of the month when the insurance adjuster gets beyond the fourteen-thousand other claims he has to evaluate.

I  was unfortunately gone for all of this. I got called away to a trip to Sweden. I’m still here, in fact. Writing from my hotel in Stockholm. Joanne called me a few days after I arrived and told me about the water she had found in the basement. It seemed like a small thing at first. Thought it was just rainwater. But over the next few days it became apparent that (A) it was sewer water and (B) even a small sewer backup is a big, big deal. Lots and lots of cleanup to take care of. And our basement was partially finished. So of course the water got just high enough to hit the insulation, and when that happens, it wicks the sewer water right up. They had to rip out the drywall to 16" and tear out all the insulation. Carpeting? Yeah, that too. All gone.

My only consolation is that I hadn’t yet finished everything I was going to finish in the basement. I’m actually glad at this point I didn’t put more money into it, because a certain portion of that would have been washed down the drain, almost completely literally.

Joanne kicked some serious ass while I was gone. I felt like crap not coming home, but the customer I’m visiting, Ericsson, would have needed me to come back in just a few weeks, and by the time I could have arrange to get home, the cleanup crew would have been essentially done with everything. So I would have come home to exactly what I’m coming home to tomorrow: a big gaping hole where my partially finished basement used to be. But that didn’t keep me from feeling like shit for quite some time. I still feel bad, but at least I won’t have to head back to Sweden, and I can just concentrate on recovering from the whole mess.

Again, I’m actually not terribly torn up about this. It’s just stuff, and a lot of people had it way worse than we did. We’ll recover in time. Hopefully the gubment will be able to help the people who lost their homes and/or livelihood.

My latest WIP, The Winds of Khalakovo, is nearly done. I’m thinking I have about 10k left to write. Maybe a touch more. I really want to put a stake in the ground and commit to finishing by the time I leave for WisCon, which is a scant ten days away, but I’m just not sure if something’s going to pop up that will require a bit more time and effort. So, instead, I’ll continue my 1k words per day metric and leave it at that. If it’s done by then, it’s done. If not, it will be shortly thereafter. I’d rather take my time, especially on the ending, than rush it for no good reason.

Still, despite the feeling of pressure and the potential of not quite getting there, I’m very excited to have it almost wrapped up. The story feels good. It’s not nearly as raw as a typical first draft would be because I often go back and revise as I feel the need. Not prose stuff, but plot stuff. In the past I’ve gotten in trouble by simply plowing ahead, either not knowing any better or figuring I can revise on the second draft. Trouble is, at least for me, I could head down a wrong path, and that could lead to all sorts of wrong decisions that would force me to revise much, much more than I would have if I had simply gone back and fixed the offending, ill-advised left turn. At this point in my writing I’m rather sensitive (I prefer to think of it as attuned) to the plot and whether or not its taking the right path. The problem with that is that I could become too safe, so I’m sensitive to that as well. Writing is a constant struggle to keep the story interesting but make it plausible as well - providing twists that are surprising yet believable.

I’ll wrap Winds, Take 1, soon, and I hope I can get it ready for beta readers (including my agent) by mid-summerish.

Also, wish me luck. I’m supposed to hear back relatively soon on my previous novel, The Tears of Tendali, from a couple of editors.

I have been lax (lax, I say!) in promoting my friend’s new book, but that stops now!

Fellow writer, Paul Genesse, has a new book called The Golden Cord. It came out April 16th, and I’ve since helped Paul to create a trailer for it. You can see it on his website (www.paulgenesse.com), where you can also download or view the first chapter. Here’s a short synopsis cut from the VOYA Magazine review.

The Golden Cord: Dragons and Griffins are not the only dangers facing Clifton, a secret village in Ae’leron. The Dwarves enslave humans for their armies, forcing them into hiding. Drake Bloodstone, Clifton’s most vigilant guardian, would do anything to protect his people from Aevians and Dwarves. Ridiculed for choosing to guard instead of hunt, Drake realizes his destiny as a hunter when two Dwarves arrive in Clifton. The Dwarves seek a guide who will lead them on a quest to find their lost kin. Drake feels it is his sacred destiny to escort the Dwarves and volunteers to be their guide. After a few days, Drake discoveres the Dwarves are hiding their true purpose. They reveal that while they are in search of their lost kin, they are also Dragon Hunters and are tracking Draglune, the King of Dragons and the most Ancient Evil, who will bring a great war that will end the world. Drake knows he must do everything in his power to help stop Draglune and save his people. Book one of the Iron Dragon series is a rich and compelling fantasy full of adventure, danger, dragons, battles, revenge, magic, and more.

Here are a few of the reviews Paul has been receiving on The Golden Cord:

Readers will root for Drake, a strong character who struggles both physically and mentally with the sacred duty handed to him. Drake is becoming a man while learning to follow his heart and trust his enemies in order to save everything he loves. The plot is well constructed, the characters are wonderful, and the middle-ages setting creates an ominous feel. The cliffhanger ending will leave readers eager for more of this great recommendation for fans of Lord of the Rings.
VOYA Magazine

…promises to unlock a realm of magic and warfare in a unique world of cloud-bound lands and a mysterious Underworld.
Library Journal

The Golden Cord is indeed a hellishly good read.
The Pedestal Magazine

For those of you in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area, Paul is having a book release party on May 10th. So if you’re in the area, stop by. It’s sure to be a great time.

Here’s more info on the release party:

THERE WILL BE DRAGONS!

. . . at Paul’s book release party, Saturday, May 10 from 3-9 PM, the day before I leave for my book tour.

This party is a thank you for all of the wonderful support that I have received over the years, and to celebrate the release of THE GOLDEN CORD, BOOK ONE OF THE IRON DRAGON SERIES, releasing April 16 from Five Star Books.

 

Please bring your friends and family, kids welcome. Check out the art gallery featuring over 70 fantasy art prints, have some food, and be one of the first people to get the book: $20 for one beautiful hardcover and only $15 for each additional. Free posters and bookmarks for everyone!

If you can’t attend please send me your mailing address and I’ll send you a free 11×17 inch poster and a few bookmarks.

RSVP via email: pgenesse(AT)msn.com by April 27 and let me know how many are coming and how many books you want.

WHERE WILL THE DRAGONS BE?

The House of Genesse (Paul and Tam’s house, grin)

9543 South 4240 West

South Jordan, UT 84095 (a suburb of Salt Lake City)

801-282-5393

I have reached a milestone. Winds now stands at 100,000 words. I’m very psyched, not only for the word count, which to me holds a certain significance, but also because I can now, finally, see the end of the novel. I don’t yet know the exact details, but I know pretty well the events that lead up to the climax; I know the outcome of the climax; and I know where this all heads in the next novel. I’ve left the ending a little open ended because I want it to be as organic as possible. That is, I want to reach it and have it sprout directly from the events that lead up to it and the attitude of the characters who have lived through the book up to that point. I didn’t want to shoehorn the characters into a pre-determined ending, which has sometimes given me problems in the past. That’s not to say that I’ll let anything happen - I already confessed that I know what happens in very general terms - but I do want to be as open to new avenues as possible. That, at least for me in the writing of this book, has been my modus operandi, and it has worked incredibly well.

At least, it feels like it’s worked incredibly well. A while back, I read a post on (IIRC) Tobias Buckell’s site. He was talking about how now that he has more books under his belt he is more willing to allow a book to take him where it will. He grew more confident as time went on and he learned his chops and was able with that confidence to let his instincts run and trust that they wouldn’t steer him wrong. I feel like I’m reaching a similar place - not that I’m at the same place in my writing that Toby is, only that I’m feeling more comfortable in my skin, and that I’m able to trust that my sense of direction will guide me back to the right path even when a divergence shows up across my chosen trail.

Here’s something weird. I have had trouble reading other people’s blogs lately - writers in particular. I still scan them, but I do so quickly, and I haven’t commented much where I might have a year ago. It has to do with writing, both mine and others’. Writers talk a lot about their writing - their successes, failures, obstacles, progress. For some reason it creates noise, like if I absorb everything that everyone’s saying, my own writing would suffer. I think it has to do with the novel, and maybe it has to do with reading so many feelings, like if I internalized all that stuff that I would begin to become too conscious of the writing process instead of just writing. I feel sort of like I have to put blinders on; I have to prevent myself from getting distracted.

Anyone ever feel like this during a project? (And I recognize the irony: that if anyone did feel that way that they might not even read this…)

I’ve sold a new story to the fine folks over at Martin Greenberg’s place for an upcoming DAW anthology called City Fantastic. The story was pretty fun to write. It’s about a black woman fighting to save her son from a crazy old man and a promising young trumpet player who’s been dead for twenty years. It’s set in New York, and it was a lot of fun pulling all my NYC experiences together to write it. I’ll post more when I know the release date, but I believe it’ll be closer to the end of 2009 or early 2010.

Oh, and thanks to Sarah Kelly and Will Ludwigsen for your excellent critiques. You guys rock.

Then again, maybe not, because, like Margaret Seltzer, I’d probably have to start embellishing. ‘Cause, well, I haven’t had a boring life, but I haven’t had an extraordinary one, either. I’d probably start slipping in freaky magic stuff and then I’d have to claim it really happened.

Here’s the article in the LA Times, detailing the story, and here are a couple of quick NPR articles.

Anyway, it’s strange, this story of this novel cum memoir, Love and Consequences: A Memoir of Hope and Survival. Strange that Ms. Seltzer, writing under the pseudonym of Margaret Jones, would choose to push this as a memoir. I don’t know a lot about her, but I wonder if it was because she thought it would be that much harder to sell. Or maybe she thought it would sell better as a memoir. I can’t imagine that memoirs, as a general rule, sell much better than novels. Maybe it was started as a novel and she got some bad advice along the way. But the strange thing is that she would think it would go unnoticed. Then again, maybe she didn’t think that. Maybe it was sort of a joke against the system.

Strange, too, that the publisher, who had been working with Ms. Seltzer for three years, didn’t figure this out. I guess, knowing what I know about publishing, it isn’t all that inconceivable that an editor would have little contact with an author. I get that part. What I don’t get is why they wouldn’t dig a little more into her background, seeing as it was a memoir. There was that flap a while back about A Million Little Pieces. Remember that? And I’m sure there have been others. Wouldn’t the publishers be pretty nervous about this stuff and do at least a modicum of fact checking before publication?

I thought I’d pass along some information on the content of this year’s Writers Symposium at the GenCon Game Fair, which is held in August in Indianapolis, IN. GenCon is largely a gaming convention, but for the past decade or so they’ve had a steadily growing contingent of writing panels. As it stands now, there are two simultaneous tracks running all four days of the convention, with roughly one seminar/panel every hour. There are also readings, signings, and for those of you who’d like a little feedback on your writing, a read-and-critique session where a panel of authors listens to the first three pages of your ms and provides feedback.

Click on the link below to see the panels and the speakers (one of whom is, ahem, me!). To find out more about how to attend GenCon and how to sign up for events, visit GenCon Indy’s website. If anyone’s going this year, be sure to let me know!

A while back I entered into an agreement with Sony’s new eBook venture through Marty Greenberg’s group (they edit many of the DAW anthologies). This online store and their new eBook reader is a direct parallel to Apple’s iTunes store and their iPod products. They (I assume) allow you to easily download books and short stories from their site to your reader. I don’t know in reality how easy or not it is, but I imagine they spent a lot of time making it right. As far as I can tell, Sony’s reader and Amazon’s Kindle are the two new, Next Big Things with respect to readers.

In any case, I now have a story up on their site. The story is "Chasing Humanity", a story that appeared in DAW’s Man vs. Machine anthology last year. It’s a near-future story about a female reporter who’s chasing an AI, the first one to be deemed "human". Her chase, and the reason for the AI’s disappearance twenty years ago, makes her realize she’s not only been chasing the story, she’s been running away from her past.

Well, my novel didn’t make it to the next round at the Amazon Breakthrough Novel award. However, my friend from Writers of the Future, Tom Pendergrass, did. If you like thrillers, then take a look at his excellent entry and review it if you feel so inclined. Good luck, Tom!

There are two weeks left in the ABNA contest. My entry, Captured by Crystal, is in the semi-finals, and the next cutoff, the point at which they cut the field from 1,000 to 100, is two weeks away. I’m not trying to strongarm anyone into a review, but there are a few that mentioned they were going to do so - some had said they’d already read it - but I didn’t really specify much about timeframes.

Hence this post.

For the reviews to really matter, I think they’d have to be entered in the next week or so. I’ll button my lip until the cutoff date, but for those of you that tackle the read and leave me a review, I thank you. And hopefully I’ll have good news to report on the 19th.

Thanks, everyone!

Edmund Schubert is trying to spread the word about the excellent magazine he edits, Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show. They’re giving away free fiction so readers can take a look to see if they like what they see.

In Edmund’s own words:

To Readers of Science Fiction and Fantasy everywhere,

When you have something great, you want everyone to know. So you tell people about it. You share it. You pass it along to friends everywhere. Well, that’s what we’re doing with InterGalactic Medicine Show. We want to make sure everyone has had a chance to check out what we’re doing, so we’re offering up a sampling of our stories – for free.

During the month of February we are going to make one story from each of our first four issues available at no charge. Two stories will be set free on February 1st, and two more on February 15th. Just visit www.intergalacticmedicineshow.com and explore the table of contents; the free stories will be clearly marked.

Issue one’s free story will be “Trill and The Beanstalk” by Edmund R. Schubert, issue two’s will be “Yazoo Queen” by Orson Scott Card (from his Alvin Maker series), issue three’s “Xoco’s Fire” by Oliver Dale, and issue four’s “Tabloid Reporter To The Stars” by Eric James Stone. Each story is fully illustrated by artists who were commissioned to create artwork to accompany that tale — as is every story published in IGMS.

“Tabloid Reporter To The Stars” will also be featured in the upcoming InterGalactic Medicine Show anthology from Tor, which will be out this August (we wanted you to get a sneak peek of the anthology, too). However, the other three stories aren’t available anywhere except the online version of IGMS.

It’s really quite simple. Great stories. Custom illustrations. Free. We’re pleased with and proud of the magazine we’re publishing; now we’re passing it along to our friends and telling them about it. We hope you’ll enjoy it and do the same.

Edmund R. Schubert
Editor, Orson Scott Card’s InterGalactic Medicine Show
www.intergalacticmedicineshow.com

Now go forth, good readers, and read…

It feels good to be on the far side of halfway. The story actually feels like less than half, though I’ll admit that the ending is a bit fuzzy, so who knows. I don’t imagine it’ll end up being any more than 140k.

I’ve been pretty happy to realize that the organic approach, within the larger frame of an outline, is working pretty well. I feel like I’m more comfortable in my abilities, and so able to trust that I’ll be able to find my way. I’m also more able to go with certain instincts when they feel good.

My biggest worry, however, is creating twists. If you sit through any brainstorming exercise, or you’ve done it consciously yourself, you’ll realize that you should be wary of the first few things that come to mind. Those are the things that are easy, cliché, trite. It’s the fifth or sixth or seventh idea where the unexpected gems really show up. You have to be careful with those, too, though, because they’re the ones that can seem the most "convenient" for the author. That is, they’re unlikely to happen and so it can seem, in the context of the story, that the author just chose it to be so, as opposed to it happening organically from plot and character. Getting back to twists, it’s something I’ve really been trying to foster, the creation of unexpected yet logical-as-you-look back events in the story, the stuff that really catches the reader off guard and makes them want to keep reading.

Today I read in USAToday an article nominally about Stephen King’s new book, Duma Key. There was, however, a very insightful line from Wordsworth I’ve never heard before. King was speaking of how the main character has injuries that parallel those he sustained in Maine when a speeding van broke his hip, fractured his leg in nine places, and collapsed one lung. But he was able to write about Edgar Freemantle with some distance:

It’s like Wordsworth once said of poetry: ‘Creativity works best when strong emotions are recollected in relative tranquility.’

I like that. I think it’s true, though not so easy to pull off. “Relative tranquility” seems like a rarity these days, at least for me. The trick, I suppose, is to develop skills and techniques, even agreements with the spouse or roommates, so that you can consistently find that place.

Here’s another great King quote from Duma Key, the main character speaking about his state of health:

“Everything hurt all the time. I had a constant ringing headache; behind my forehead it was always midnight in the world’s biggest clock-shop.”

I’m, as I have always been, envious. I can never find those killer one-liners.  Michael Swanwick seems to have a good knack at those as well. Anyone else come to mind?

Associated with each of the entries in the Amazon contest was a Publishers Weekly review of the entire novel plus two reviews of the excerpt (5,000 words) from Amazon top reviewers. Well, they finally came out today. Here’s what PW had to say about my entry, Captured by Crystal:

Manuscript review by Publishers Weekly, an independent organization
Steampunk fantasy meets Victorian romance in this intriguing novel about an artist who can see, and paint, people’s innermost thoughts. Gavin Kleirhausen owes his special talent to the discovery of a camera lucida that’s powered by a magical crystal. Little does he know, however, that the crystal and the technique are both coveted by Ulberto Khovani, a dangerous syndic of a secret society, who has already murdered another man in hopes of getting the crystal for himself. Ulberto poses as an art aficionado in hopes of getting Gavin to reveal his techniques, while Gavin himself aims for another objective: winning the affections of the beautiful, wealthy Wendolyn. The idea of mixing steampunk with romance is fresh and original, but this novel’s writing is uneven, its plot tangled and, at times, its lush descriptions interfere with the narrative pacing. Carefully honed and edited, however, this novel could make a splash in the fantasy genre.

Well, all in all I’d say I have to agree with them, both on the positive and negative. I do think it would be a book that could make a bit of noise, especially considering the growth in romantic fantasy, and it could certainly use some work. I could certainly iron out the bumps and wrinkles with another good edit of the ms. Winning the contest will be tough. Very tough. My real hope is that the folks over at Penguin will take a look at it and perhaps request a look, maybe even some revisions.

Things are going well. I’m hitting roughly the 1/2 way mark. You know, I’m really jealous of people like Relby and Paul Genesse that are tackling more reasonably sized stories. Sigh. Well, I made my book bed. I suppose I’d better write in it.

I just got to the Big Scene, where the main character Nikandr becomes separated from Atiana, his fiance. The book splits here into two threads, one following Nikandr as he chases down a savant boy with incredible powers to learn exactly how he uses them, the other following Atiana as she begins to learn more about the blight that has struck the islands. It should be interesting.

One thing that I’ve noticed, and I’m wondering what others think, is that I often feel uncomfortable as I’m writing. That is, I feel like I don’t know exactly what’s going to happen and I don’t particularly like not knowing. To clarify, I know the ending and a couple of way points, but little else. Try as I might, I haven’t been able to become an outliner. I thought for sure, with my background in computer science and the type of mind I have (a planner) that outlining would not only come naturally to me but would be a strength. That has oddly never been the case. I think I’m ok with that. I’ve noticed that more and more I like to work on the background, work on the characters, work on the very large, overall framework of the story, and then let the chips fall where they may, following two maxims: tension on every page and (in the words of Michael Swanwick) it’s all entertainment.

Tension on every page is from Don Maass’s Writing the Breakout Novel. What I want, first and foremost, is to create a story that engrosses the reader, that sucks them out of the world they live in and places them securely into mine. And I really do believe that tension on every page is the way to do that. Tension through action. Tension through suspense. Mystery. Sexual tension. Character confusion. Characters not saying what they really mean. Whatever I can use to wring out more tension from the scene.

There are times, though, when there are several paths I could follow to create tension. There are times when other rules seem to conflict too, and that’s when I use the second maxim. This isn’t rocket science; it’s entertainment. And when I have two or more options for a given conundrum, I simply ask which will be more entertaining for the reader. By using those two rules, I’ve gotten through a half a book without too many issues, and I think I’m squeezing as much out of the story as I can while keeping true to my voice and the voice of the story.

Anyway, back to my question. I mentioned that I often feel uncomfortable when I’m writing. It’s a discomfort that comes from not really knowing where the story is headed in the short term. It’s like I’m sailing a boat in the fog. I can hear a fog horn way in the distance, but who knows what sorts of perils lie between my craft and safe land? I could wash up. A sea dragon could eat me. Well, you get the idea. I believe now that writing with a sense of discomfort is a perfectly good thing. In fact, I’m even beginning to suspect that it’s essential, that to write to the best of my ability I need to have that sense of unease. I ought to be worried if I don’t have it. And that’s what I wonder about all my fellow writers. What do you think? Do you feel this way? No? Do you think it’s essential to powerful writing?