I joined Critical Mass this evening via telephone; it was great of them to let me do that. At 7 months pregnant and 8 months off my sleep meds, I didn't want to be driving home alone late at night. I sent in a copy of the critique letter that an agent sent me - with all the identifying information taken out - and the synopsis I sent the agent in order to see what the group's take was on how to do the rewrite that I've been working on. I find lots of viewpoints helpful, even if I can only incorporate a few. The other perspectives will continue to help me as I turn to my next project and the one after.
Needless to say, everyone had valuable insights. I'm incredibly lucky to be able to tap into the minds of Daniel Abraham, Ian Tregillis, S.M. Stirling, and Terry England for this sort of thing (Ty Franck was there, but just observed my section). I may need to phone it in again next month, and I'm pretty sure I won't make it to the March meeting. I'll figure out when I can get back once I've met this child and have a better idea of his/her needs!
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
RIP ROF
Heard the sad news today that Realms of Fantasy is shutting down. It was a beautiful market that always published rich stories and stunning illustrations, but a lot of print magazines are struggling at the moment. The hope is that short fiction markets are migrating to online, and while there do seem to be more online markets springing up, I do still sometimes worry about the future of short fiction. Hearing many of my friends in SF talk, though, I gather many have worried for decades, so perhaps this isn't all that new.
With all my exhaustion, I haven't kept my short stories circulating to markets. They're all in now, and I'll get them out again once I'm able to rebound a little. The baby's still putting pressure on my chest, though I've found out that if I lay down on the futon, while it's folded up as a couch, this is the most comfortable position. The mattress slants just enough to relieve the pressure. I spent most of last night there and actually got a bunch of 40 minute spells of sleep. Today my ribs are sore, thanks to someone poking at them from the inside. I'm lucky, though, this is the first point at which the pregnancy's gotten uncomfortable, while I know some people are in agony right from the get-go. All of my discomforts are little ones too, from shortness of breath to some joint soreness, to trying to figure out how to drink enough water to not be thirsty without flooding my squished stomach and getting nauseated. I good read lets me ignore a lot of these.
With all my exhaustion, I haven't kept my short stories circulating to markets. They're all in now, and I'll get them out again once I'm able to rebound a little. The baby's still putting pressure on my chest, though I've found out that if I lay down on the futon, while it's folded up as a couch, this is the most comfortable position. The mattress slants just enough to relieve the pressure. I spent most of last night there and actually got a bunch of 40 minute spells of sleep. Today my ribs are sore, thanks to someone poking at them from the inside. I'm lucky, though, this is the first point at which the pregnancy's gotten uncomfortable, while I know some people are in agony right from the get-go. All of my discomforts are little ones too, from shortness of breath to some joint soreness, to trying to figure out how to drink enough water to not be thirsty without flooding my squished stomach and getting nauseated. I good read lets me ignore a lot of these.
Friday, January 23, 2009
Dinner with Junot and Chip
Okay, I don't really refer to Junot Diaz and Samuel R. Delany by their first names normally, but I did get to have dinner with them on Wednesday, which was very cool. They were in Santa Fe in order to do an interview at the Lensic theater, and the members of Critical Mass decided to invite them out to eat. The two were already booked for dinner after the event, so they instead met up with us beforehand at a nearby restaurant. They had drinks and snacks while we all socialized and ate.
I wasn't able to commit early enough to get tickets to the interview, but I don't think many will pity me because I got to spend over an hour sitting next to Mr. Delany and down the table from Mr. Diaz, talking with them about writing and gaming and other nerdery. Both are wonderfully outgoing people, and it was my first chance to meet either of them.
Samuel R. Delany is a regular teacher at the Clarion workshops, though he didn't teach the years any of us from Critical Mass went. Pulitzer Prize winner, Junot Diaz, is a fan of Daniel Abraham and even blurbed one of his books. Over dinner he and Walter Jon Williams discussed the Rio Hondo workshop (Junot sounded like he wants to go!)
Then yesterday, I went to a new OBGYN practice and finally learned what is most likely causing the strange chest pressure. The nurse said it was likely the altitude; she'd seen cases like mine before. Sounds simple enough.
I wasn't able to commit early enough to get tickets to the interview, but I don't think many will pity me because I got to spend over an hour sitting next to Mr. Delany and down the table from Mr. Diaz, talking with them about writing and gaming and other nerdery. Both are wonderfully outgoing people, and it was my first chance to meet either of them.
Samuel R. Delany is a regular teacher at the Clarion workshops, though he didn't teach the years any of us from Critical Mass went. Pulitzer Prize winner, Junot Diaz, is a fan of Daniel Abraham and even blurbed one of his books. Over dinner he and Walter Jon Williams discussed the Rio Hondo workshop (Junot sounded like he wants to go!)
Then yesterday, I went to a new OBGYN practice and finally learned what is most likely causing the strange chest pressure. The nurse said it was likely the altitude; she'd seen cases like mine before. Sounds simple enough.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Back into edits
This week is starting out a lot better than the last. I'm back into editing my novel, taking some scenes I wrote before all the heart trouble of last week and integrating them in. Again, I'm starting slow, but this shouldn't take too long. "Slow" for me means taking 2-3 weeks to fully edit and revise a novel - I find it goes easier if I do it in large chunks.
In order to get a better emotional connection with the reader, I'm putting in some scenes that show how dangerous it is to live in space; how flimsy the walls are between you and certain death. What I need to be careful of is not overplaying that - there's a fine line between tense and tedious.
And today Trevor and I went to WalMart for a major excursion. I have to take a moment to sing the praises of my in-laws who are coming to town to decorate the nursery. By decorate, I mean paint, furnish, and basically transform the room. They sent us a list of supplies to get, and they will provide the labor. This is so incredibly wonderful of them, I need to think of something wonderful to do in return. I've just been too physically exhausted to do anything like this. Forget "nesting". I didn't get that phase.
Lately I think my level of exhaustion has settled to what's typical for 7 months pregnant. The pregnancy helps me sleep better than I usually do, but I don't think any normal person would consider it sleeping well. I can't sleep for too long before my joints start to ache, so I sleep in two shifts, one at night, one during the day. Other than that, I write and goof off more than I should, playing too many video games. I forgive myself for that, though. This'll be the last time in my life for a long time that I'm at liberty to do these things, so I'm going to enjoy it.
In order to get a better emotional connection with the reader, I'm putting in some scenes that show how dangerous it is to live in space; how flimsy the walls are between you and certain death. What I need to be careful of is not overplaying that - there's a fine line between tense and tedious.
And today Trevor and I went to WalMart for a major excursion. I have to take a moment to sing the praises of my in-laws who are coming to town to decorate the nursery. By decorate, I mean paint, furnish, and basically transform the room. They sent us a list of supplies to get, and they will provide the labor. This is so incredibly wonderful of them, I need to think of something wonderful to do in return. I've just been too physically exhausted to do anything like this. Forget "nesting". I didn't get that phase.
Lately I think my level of exhaustion has settled to what's typical for 7 months pregnant. The pregnancy helps me sleep better than I usually do, but I don't think any normal person would consider it sleeping well. I can't sleep for too long before my joints start to ache, so I sleep in two shifts, one at night, one during the day. Other than that, I write and goof off more than I should, playing too many video games. I forgive myself for that, though. This'll be the last time in my life for a long time that I'm at liberty to do these things, so I'm going to enjoy it.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Plotbreak
Trevor and I rebroke part of the plot of the YA SF novel today. His input is invaluable because he's read the whole thing all the way through. The agent who sent me a long letter with suggestions has turned out to have a lot of very useful insights, and together my husband and I worked through them, coming up with possible fixes.
One major problem with SF is that there's a barrier to making it suspenseful that I hadn't really thought much about before. The danger is very technical, and it's a challenge to make it visceral. Unfortunately, SF has a bad rap as being dry and boring and so as soon as you talk about structural integrity being compromised, etc. people's eyes roll back and they just don't care. Tell them there's a vampire outside the window and they snap to attention. Being stuck in a space ship with low structural integrity scares me a lot more than a stupid mythical vampire, which is why, I suppose, I write science fiction. The challenge is to make other people care as much as I do without tripping their eye-rolling "oh my gosh the nerd is babbling about something" response.
Which, when I discussed this with Trevor, led to a different discussion about how people just shrug off technical problems with all sorts of things, i.e. the numbers they might get back on a blood test, but obsess over things that are far less likely, or even well near impossible, i.e. being killed by a serial killer. In order for logic to prevail, one needs a strong emotional association. So, that's what I'll be working on in the first act of my novel some more.
My main concern is that I do a re-edit and not get sucked into a redraft. I know when my work needs that, and this isn't the time. Besides that, it would be asking for burnout in a major way.
One major problem with SF is that there's a barrier to making it suspenseful that I hadn't really thought much about before. The danger is very technical, and it's a challenge to make it visceral. Unfortunately, SF has a bad rap as being dry and boring and so as soon as you talk about structural integrity being compromised, etc. people's eyes roll back and they just don't care. Tell them there's a vampire outside the window and they snap to attention. Being stuck in a space ship with low structural integrity scares me a lot more than a stupid mythical vampire, which is why, I suppose, I write science fiction. The challenge is to make other people care as much as I do without tripping their eye-rolling "oh my gosh the nerd is babbling about something" response.
Which, when I discussed this with Trevor, led to a different discussion about how people just shrug off technical problems with all sorts of things, i.e. the numbers they might get back on a blood test, but obsess over things that are far less likely, or even well near impossible, i.e. being killed by a serial killer. In order for logic to prevail, one needs a strong emotional association. So, that's what I'll be working on in the first act of my novel some more.
My main concern is that I do a re-edit and not get sucked into a redraft. I know when my work needs that, and this isn't the time. Besides that, it would be asking for burnout in a major way.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Doctors, cont.
The good news is that my heart is okay. The cardiologist did an echo and everything looks well within normal, so that rules out nearly all of the scary stuff. People have been on my case for not being more aggressive with the emergency room. The woman who did my echo was appalled that they didn't do an EKG immediately.
The problem is, I had chest pressure. It was 3am. I was having trouble breathing. And, most importantly, it wasn't my job to know how serious those symptoms were, it was the doctors'. While I understand that they were being useless, leaving it up to me, it was more than I could do that day.
I deleted a few comments on the above post because they either had more personal info than I wanted about me on the internet or because I sounded too cranky. Stuff always sounds harsher in writing. Suffice it to say, I've felt *thoroughly* fed up an exhausted this week. It's been hard to stay motivated, but I try not to be too hard on myself. In two months I won't have the luxury of being able to slack off for a week :-).
The problem is, I had chest pressure. It was 3am. I was having trouble breathing. And, most importantly, it wasn't my job to know how serious those symptoms were, it was the doctors'. While I understand that they were being useless, leaving it up to me, it was more than I could do that day.
I deleted a few comments on the above post because they either had more personal info than I wanted about me on the internet or because I sounded too cranky. Stuff always sounds harsher in writing. Suffice it to say, I've felt *thoroughly* fed up an exhausted this week. It's been hard to stay motivated, but I try not to be too hard on myself. In two months I won't have the luxury of being able to slack off for a week :-).
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Doctors....
So on Friday I woke up at 3am with chest pressure, unable to lie down or relax because I felt like my heart was getting squeezed to the point of exploding. My husband drove me to the emergency room where they took my pulse, blood pressure, and temperature, and discharged me. I kept asking them to explain what was causing the chest pressure, the doctor didn't know and didn't seem to care. He told me I was probably just having a "panic attack". Um... no. I told him I wasn't, he didn't care.
So I go home, still with chest pressure, not sure what to do. One of the other teachers took over my Seminary class and I just spent the day trying to cope. I got nothing done. No writing, no reading, no nothing.
That evening my husband took me back to the hospital. I explained that the chest pressure wasn't gone. Finally they did an EKG and a blood test and took me seriously (though the same doctor maintained that I had just been having a panic attack that morning. He's an idiot - and if he's reading this, I really don't mind him seeing that!) The final answer, not sure. I go in for an echo tomorrow with a cardiologist.
It could be as simple as the baby pushing on my heart real badly, it could be something more sinister. What upsets me about all this is how long it took to get taken seriously. I haven't gotten anything done since then, writing wise. I feel like I'm just slowly working my way back. Today I managed laundry. Tomorrow perhaps I'll manage some writing?
So I go home, still with chest pressure, not sure what to do. One of the other teachers took over my Seminary class and I just spent the day trying to cope. I got nothing done. No writing, no reading, no nothing.
That evening my husband took me back to the hospital. I explained that the chest pressure wasn't gone. Finally they did an EKG and a blood test and took me seriously (though the same doctor maintained that I had just been having a panic attack that morning. He's an idiot - and if he's reading this, I really don't mind him seeing that!) The final answer, not sure. I go in for an echo tomorrow with a cardiologist.
It could be as simple as the baby pushing on my heart real badly, it could be something more sinister. What upsets me about all this is how long it took to get taken seriously. I haven't gotten anything done since then, writing wise. I feel like I'm just slowly working my way back. Today I managed laundry. Tomorrow perhaps I'll manage some writing?
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Rewrites
I've started up again slowly, doing about 1,200-1,300 words a day. I don't want to burn myself out, but I do want to keep up momentum. The problem at the moment is trying to tighten up the suspense while I feel dreary and out of it. Since I can't do it as I write, I have to tighten through editing. That'll take awhile. I keep putting in too much downtime and not enough action, hence, I have a lot of downtime to cut out of the plot!
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Jack Williamson Lectureship
I just received news that the date of this year's Jack Williamson Lectureship, held at ENMU's Jack Williamson Library has been set for April 10, 2009. The guest of honor will be my old Clarion West instructor, Nalo Hopkinson. I make it down to this lectureship whenever I can; it's rather amazing to have the opportunity to spend time with so many luminaries in the field of SF in such an intimate setting. The town is small, so often the group will go to Dairy Queen in the afternoon. It's very informal. Another former instructor of mine, and a friend, Connie Willis, puts on a regular appearance there too. I gather the rest of the guest list for the lectureship is still being finalized. I've been invited and plan to come, baby permitting.
Nalo and I actually got to know each other a little before I went to Clarion West. I emailed her a writing question and she was kind enough to respond. We corresponded for a while, and one of the questions I asked her, she didn't have a ready answer for. I joked that if I got into Clarion West that year, I'd ask it again, and she emailed back, "deal". Of course, I didn't seriously expect to get into the workshop, but I did. Learning from her was very, very cool, and I very much look forward to seeing her again this spring.
Nalo and I actually got to know each other a little before I went to Clarion West. I emailed her a writing question and she was kind enough to respond. We corresponded for a while, and one of the questions I asked her, she didn't have a ready answer for. I joked that if I got into Clarion West that year, I'd ask it again, and she emailed back, "deal". Of course, I didn't seriously expect to get into the workshop, but I did. Learning from her was very, very cool, and I very much look forward to seeing her again this spring.
Monday, January 5, 2009
Back to work
Spent this morning re-outlining the first part of the SF novel. I need to get that revised and my YA SF short story revised next. I'm not under any extreme deadlines for that second one, but will see how far I get working away at it.
Such a drag to have Trevor back at work. It was nice having him home for a whole week.
Such a drag to have Trevor back at work. It was nice having him home for a whole week.
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