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There are the authors everyone has heard about: George R. R. Martin, Stephen King. But what about all those books written by people you’ve never heard of? Some of them are treasures just waiting to be found, and that’s what this blog hop is all about: the books you might not have heard about, the authors you might end up loving.
This blog hop is like a game of tag. One author posts and then tags other authors who link back to their website the next week and tag new authors. If you follow the blog hop long enough, you’re bound to find some writers you’ll love! Maybe you’ll even discover a book that ends up being the next big thing.
I was tagged by Mary Garber. I met her through this blog. She’s currently doing some great work with short stories. You can find some of her recent work at Fiction365 (and here) and EveryDayFiction. She’s currently participating in Write 1/Sub 1 where she has committed to submitting a new short story to a market every other week for the entire year. It’s ambitious and I wish I had her energy. You can follow Mary’s progress at http://megarber.wordpress.com/
This blog hop includes ten questions to help you learn more about an author, so here’s a little info about me:
1. What is the working title of your current project?
Right now, I’m revising stories that I wrote at last summer’s Odyssey Writing Workshop. I’ve submitted two (“Every Wizard Has a Bad Spell” and “Candy”) and am currently working on another (“The Spirit of Ash”).
2. Where do your ideas come from?
Physically, ideas tend to come to me while I’m driving. I have a thirty minute drive to work, and most of my stories were grown from seeds that came to me during that time. I think driving allows me to engage my awareness just enough to get it out of the way so my subconscious can talk to me.
Mentally, my ideas come from simple things; a character, a phrase, an influence. “Every Wizard Has a Bad Spell”—about two wizards who are trying to corner the magic market but are equally powerful and so focused on each other that they essentially become powerless—came from thinking about the old Dr. Seuss story, “The Zax”, and how each Zax essentially renders itself powerless by refusing to change. “Candy”—a retelling of Hansel and Gretel—was written simply because I couldn’t get ‘fairy tale’ out of my head. “The Spirit of Ash” comes from a desire to write a magical post-apocalyptic world and an image of a ghost made of swirling ash.
3. What genre do you write?
I mostly write fantasy and psychological horror. I’d like to try more sci-fi, but it intimidates me a little bit. I don’t know why. I’ve been working on that.
4. Describe your favorite character that you’ve created.
Probably a character named Vic in a story I wrote called “Savior.” Vic is the first character that I ever wrote who took on a life of his own and pulled my writing into places that I didn’t know it was going. In the story, he’s a serial killer, but he doesn’t seem to know it. He sees ‘visions’ of how people are about to die and tries to help them avoid the fate he sees. But, he ends up being the agent of that fate, causing their death himself.
By the end of the story, I don’t know if he is simply lying to us (the story is told in first person), if he’s deluded and lying to himself, or if he’s just completely insane. I don’t think I want to know. He’s more fun this way and he was definitely a blast to write. He’s the ultimate unreliable narrator.
5. What would you do with your spare time if you weren’t writing?
Well, I’m a software developer by day and I spent many years working in the video game industry. When I’m not thinking of story ideas, I’m thinking of game ideas. If I had the time, I’d work on creating games. But, unfortunately, there isn’t enough time for both. I spent many years working on games, so now it’s writing’s turn.
6. Will your work be self-published or traditionally published?
I’m hoping that it will be traditionally published. What little I have out now is traditionally published. Besides, I’m not much of an extravert or self-marketer, skills that seem vital if I’d want to self-publish. Or maybe it’s just that I’m lazy.
7. How long does it take you to write a first draft?
Once an idea takes hold, I can write a rough draft in one or two sittings. But, ideas tend to percolate in my brain for a long time before they’re ready to burst out onto the page like that. I’ve been told that muse-driven writing is a “bad thing,” but that’s how I roll. At least for now.
8. Whose work would you compare yours to within your genre?
Wow, I’m not sure I’m far enough along to have any idea. I’m currently reading some of Ursula K. LeGuin’s short stories, and the brilliance that comes through makes it seem foolhardy to compare myself to any established author. I think I’ll wait to answer that question until I’m more established.
9. Who are your favorite writers?
That probably changes on a month-to-month basis. Lately, I’ve been blown away by John Ajvide Lindqvist and N.K. Jemisin. I read everything Stephen King writes and I adore Flannery O’Connor’s short stories.
10. When and where do you do your best writing?
I’m not a morning person. Not at all. Yet, strangely enough, I find that if I can force myself to get up, that’s when I write the best. I’m not sure why that surprises me, I discovered the same thing in college when it came to studying. It’s too bad that I really despise getting up early. As far as where – I find that a room full of people who are not paying any attention to me is really conducive to writing; a coffee shop or bookstore works really well.
So, that’s enough about me. Here’s a list of the people that I tagged to continue the hop. Click on their names to check out their answers and find out what they’re up to.
Phillip McCollum: I struck up a friendship with Phillip after critiquing a short story of his on the Online Writing Workshop. His blog is a great read for anyone interested in the day-to-day path to becoming a writer. I’d settle for half as much energy and dedication as Phillip has.
Barbara A. Barnett: Barbara is a graduate of the Odyssey Writing Workshop, class of 2007. I met her at a get together of the 2012 class and alumni at the end of the workshop this summer. She’s recently sold two stories that you’ll be able to find soon at Flash Fiction Online and Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show.
Samantha Kymmell-Harvey: Samantha is a fellow graduate of this year’s Odyssey Writing Workshop. She specializes in historical fantasy and is crazy talented. I think you’ll be hearing her name again in the not-too-distant future. She also speaks and teaches French and is a culinary wizard (one of the rarest kinds of wizard).
I was reading an article recently:
How Long Should You Keep Trying to Get Published?
It’s an interesting article, mostly about tips to self-assess how close you might be to reaching publishing success. But there was a quote from Chuck Sambuchino near the beginning that struck a chord with me.
If you think the story has a problem, it does—and any story with a problem is not ready.
I do this. It’s so easy to sweep that pesky problem in your story under the rug and convince yourself that no one will see it. It’s obscure. It’s not important.
You know what? They always see it. If you see it, other people will too.
So, my resolution: Do not fib to myself about problems in my stories. Admit that they are there and fix them before I send them out into the world. No more lazy, “90% is good enough” for me.
While I’m on the subject of interesting articles… I also read this theory by Cory Doctorow about how we bring characters to life.
Cory Doctorow: Where Characters Come From
He asserts that we all have a people simulator in our head and that we are constantly running simulations to allow ourselves to explore how people might react to us and to help us determine the best way to approach them. We do this not only with people that we know, or have recently met, but also with characters that are fictional creations, either ours or someone else’s. He asserts that these characters come to life in our simulator, and the more we simulate them, the more we learn about them and the more accurate our simulator becomes. The more accurate our simulations become, the more life-like the character becomes. Fascinating stuff and a great way to think about characters.
So, it’s been awhile, but I have excuses. One of my New Year resolutions is to get back to updating this blog regularly, and my life is finally (fingers crossed) back on track to do that.
So, what has happened since the last update?
First of all, I moved. Not far, just into the city (I love living in the city!). It wasn’t far, but it was an amazing amount of upheaval and distraction. I moved everything I could carry myself, one carload at a time, and then only hired movers to finish off the stuff that wouldn’t fit in the car. So that took weeks.
I went to World Fantasy Con in Toronto. It was smaller than I thought it would be and I didn’t expect much after arriving. It wasn’t the glitter and show of Chicago, but the panels were absolutely fantastic. I came back very happy that I’d gone and feeling that I’d learned more than I had at other conventions. Plus, I got to spend a day playing around in downtown Toronto. Fabulous city!
So, just before Christmas, with everything beginning to settle down, I turned my attention (finally!) back to my writing. That same week, someone broke into my house while I was at work (the downside of living in the city, I guess). They weren’t very good at thievery and managed to only get my laptop which was sitting in plain sight (and a couple of small Christmas presents). They even unplugged it from the charger and left the charger behind.
It was old and not used for much other than surfing the internet and… writing. Luckily, I keep my work on a flash drive that never leaves my pocket unless I’m writing, but still, nothing to plug it into. No way to write.
So, my Christmas present to myself was a new laptop, and finally (fingers crossed!) I’m back up and running. I submitted a story last week and just finished revising another which will be sent off by this weekend (this one just came back from Writers of the Future where it earned an honorable mention).
I have four more Odyssey stories waiting for revision plus one that I wrote shortly after I came back. So that’s where I’m headed next.
No more excuses!
Back from ChiCon (WorldCon). I had a blast. First of all, I love Chicago, it’s such a great city. You can move around downtown and feel reasonably safe and there is no end of things to do. This time around, I didn’t get out too much because of the convention, but I did manage to show a friend Millennium Park and went and got lunch at Gino’s East (Chicago style deep dish pizza. I could live on it.)
As for the convention, wow! First impression: huge! It was in the Hyatt which itself takes up two buildings. The convention pretty much commandeered the bottom five floors. Lots of people, many of them in costumes, all of them happily geeking out on all the writing and sci-fi centered material.
I walked within touching distance of both Patrick Rothfuss and George R. R. Martin and managed to stay composed enough not to grab them in a bear hug. I hung out at a party with Kij Johnson and traded jokes with her, the night before she won a Hugo.
The panels were good. There were so many that there was always something interesting. They weren’t quite as educational perhaps as those at ReaderCon, but this convention is geared a little more toward entertainment whereas ReaderCon is perhaps a little more serious, so that wasn’t a huge surprise. There was still some interesting conversations and good material. I took lots of notes.
I got to see two of Neil Gaiman’s short stories acted out on stage which was a real treat. I hung out with a few of my Odyssey classmates who also attended and quite a few other Odyssey alums that I met. And, I participated in a flashmob for Odyssey in front of the line waiting to get into the Hugo awards. We did the Tom Bombadil rap. Here’s a video. I’m the guy you can’t see dancing behind the guy holding up the speaker.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRU51PH26y8
All in all a good time. Next up, World Fantasy Con at the beginning of November in Toronto. Maybe I’ll see you there.
Now, back to figuring out this writing and revising thing…