Bookplates

I just got off the phone with 3232Design about getting some custom book plates designed. Not bookplates for me to put in my own books on my shelves, but to sign so that people can put them in the books I've written.

I'll be giving a few talks and readings next month, in my E.M. Tippetts persona, and no one in the audience will ever have heard of me. That's because my first book under that name won't be out until the beginning of that month. Obviously I'd like them to buy some copies, so I decided to do what I've seen some other authors do, and that is offer autographed bookplates. These I can sign and personalize and the person will then have some incentive to go buy the book so they can affix the bookplate. Not as good as a signed book, but better than just a plain book by an author they've never heard of before.

What has me excited, though, is the designer behind 3232Design. Take a look at Ian Tregillis's website for an example of his work. It's seriously cool and well put together. I gather the designer also used design elements from Victorian bookplates for that project. So I'm excited to see what he comes up with for me. I hope I can afford it!

PBQ

Rejection today from PBQ. They're picking up some! Still, seems like I barely ever get a rejection these days. Must mean I'm not submitting enough.

Packing in the action

I've managed to get three scenes into less than 1,500 words on this short story I'm working on. Not sure if that's an accomplishment, or a quirk that will disappear once I go back and flesh out the scenes. It feels strange, yet wonderful, to be writing science fiction again. I hope to have this story done in the next few days, ready to be workshopped next month at Critical Mass.

From "Emily Tippits"

Name misspellings really bother me. As an attorney I always had to be careful. Few things make a person more disgusted or hostile than having their name misspelled or their gender mistaken. I'm no exception. Given the word is a special, and unique designation, it is important to have it right.

So I'm very annoyed that my own emtippetts.com website is calling me Emily Tippits - which it will do for you too if you sign up for newsletter updates on it. I've called the company hosting it and corresponded with my web designer. Right now the origin of that annoying mistype is a mystery.

Red Hen Press

Got a rejection this week from Red Hen Press. It's been an extraordinarily slow time for rejections. I'm used to getting them every week, but for the past few months it's been one or two every six weeks. Part of this is because I no longer use a submissions service. Part of it is because I've gotten a rewrite request and a sale. Part of it is because the short fiction markets are moving very slowly at the moment. And then part of it is because I really need to get more short stories out there!

Getting the other site up to date

I realize my posting here has slowed down quite a bit lately. I've put some hours into my other site, the www.emtippetts.com site, and had Orphic Workshop add some features to it this week. I'm happy to say that it's all up and running now, in time for the June 6th release of my LDS fiction novel.

Managing the trunk

After seven years of working on my writing, I have a good sized trunk, meaning collection of unpublished works, that is always making the rounds. On days when I don't find enough time to sit and write my 1000 words, one alternate activity I can do is to revise a trunk story and get it back into the market. Right now my entire trunk is out, which is ideal. This doesn't mean every story I ever wrote and didn't sell is making the rounds. There are a ton that were just too poor quality and had to be retired, but everything I still care to have my name on is out. And I'm a couple thousand words and a couple of scenes into my sf short story, a project to exercise my sf muscles again.

Done with the typeset

Things are rolling right along with the publication of Time and Eternity. I got to see the typeset pages and they're beautiful. Not only were they thoroughly reviewed and painstakingly edited (I found 3 typos, I think? I find more than that in published books all the time, so this is no small feat) Covenant also picked this very cool swirly font for the chapter headings. (Okay, so I'm really jazzed about swirly font. It looks cool!)

My editor worked overtime, helping me get the last changes in on Monday. I'm really quite amazed at the number of hours she's put in. I've got sample chapters to post on my E.M. Tippetts site, but first I need to make a few final tweaks and changes to it.

Why do you do it?

My dance teacher once said, "This is a field where you have to be able to do it all. If a choreographer wants you to run across the stage full tilt, then stop on a dime and drop face first onto the floor, you have to figure out how to do it. If you don't you'll lose your part to the dancers that did." I don't know if that is actually true. I wasn't ever good enough at dance to have to worry about it. In my high school art class, I remember my art teacher showing me some exercises from an art college. One required a student to copy a black and white picture by choosing one color, painting duplicate of the picture all in shades of that color, and then converting it to grayscale via xerox machine. It's harder than it sounds, for me, at least. I can't see color intensity with enough precision to do this.

Usually when people ask why I write, a frustrating conversation ensues. Most people seem to assume that any form of artistic expression is about breaking free. Riding a surge of crative energy that comes from this wild and untameable maelstrom of emotion.

The freedom isn't what interests me. It's the boundaries. LDS fiction has been a very satisfying exercise for me. This market has limits. I can't write excessive violence or graphic sex. I can't overtly criticise the Church and its leadership. My readers are from a very different background than I am, and I lack 90% of their life experiences. I've never had kids. I've never watched a sibling get baptized. I can't cook a casserole to save my life. (I had to look up how to spell casserole just now.) Many see a list of "can'ts" coupled with a chasm between writer and audience and think it must suffocate artistic expression. I feel that they miss the point entirely.

This is my way of doing the excercises that I could never master as a dancer or visual artist. I love having tools removed from my toolbox and an audience with whom I often can't have a simple conversation ("please don't call my parents 'brother' and 'sister', people"), and then be required to figure out how to convey a story with range and emotional authenticity. It's the hardest thing I've ever had to do, and yet the work is its own reward.