They each have their flaws, of course. A lot of people have commented on weird omissions and quirks on the NPR list. The literature map, while awesomely cool, is occasionally flummoxed by alternate spellings (although it does at least indicate that someone who likes “Poppy Z. Brite” might also like “Poppy Brite” and “Poppy Z Brite”).
Anyway, they are both worth playing with, and they’re handy for bloggers who feel a bit lazy about coming up with a post.
•October 1, 2011 • Comments Off on Serial Saturday: Tappity Tappity Tappity
Well, the first serial is done, and I hope ya’ll found it enjoyable. I’ve got another one queued up, and it is a slight departure from the last one, but since I’ve only just got started on it I thought I’d come out and tap dance a bit between stories while I write a bit more. It was an interesting experience, though I suspect more fun than educational. I’m not sure how much I learned about writing the sorts of serials that are actually marketable (ie shorter ones in a few parts), but it was good practice for cranking out some prose. I’m also not confident that I did such a great job at the whole serial thing in general, that is to say making a reader interested in what’s going to happen next, which is irritating since I think that’s an area my novels could be improved. My plan is to work that aspect a little harder in the upcoming serial, so we’ll see how that goes.
Of course, I also feel a bit nervous about putting all this prose out there without the help of beta readers, but with the pace and schedule I’m on posting these things it just isn’t practical. So as always I welcome any corrections or suggestions on the serials, old or new. I’ll see you back here next week with the new story, a nice horror/magic/steampunk/thriller.
•September 29, 2011 • Comments Off on One of the Advantages of Writing Horror Stuff
Say you’re breaking in a new dental hygienist, who isn’t quite as skilled with those horrible metal spikes they like to use to clean teeth as you’d like. When one writes horror fiction, one can rinse and spit as instructed, and upon seeing the fountain of gore in the little sink, think “I can use this” rather than simply wanting to cry.
•September 27, 2011 • Comments Off on Punk Steamery
This is a painful thing, because I like well-done steampunk, and I sense a coming backlash for the genre. Based on a few recent movie releases, I wonder if Hollywood is to blame for the backlash, as they are to blame for so many other things, because of a weird insistence on tacking watered-down steampunk (I’m not sure if that is a good description, given that watering down something that is steam-powered would just add fuel, but leave that aside for a moment) into every movie that is set before 1940. Take Jonah Hex:
Jonah Hex went through some ups and downs as a comic book, but for a while there it was a cracking good western/horror thing. Jonah didn’t have a gadgeteer sidekick and twin horse-mounted Gatling guns, because he didn’t need them – he was all magic and occulty and such. But of course you need technology for explosions, the crutch of the lame filmmaker.
But this looks like it will be even worse, if possible:
The scary thing is that I knew within seconds of seeing the beginning of the trailer for the first time that I was going to be treated to a lame steampunk wanna-be, because some variation on the pistol-grip crossbow is an absolute necessity for those too lame to even lean on explosions. But good God, Three Musketeers? Can’t you be satisfied with swashuckling without tacking on gratuitous gunplay, flamethrowers, and things blowing up? I guess you’d need to be confident in your ability to choreograph a sword fight to be satisfied with that. And let’s face it, great chunks of bullet-time slo-mo is not the hallmark of a director confident in his ability to film an action sequence.
There are plenty more examples out there of tacked-on steampunk gadgetry, but frankly the prospect of searching for trailers of crappy action movies is too depressing. Anyway, the point is not to complain about lazy movie-making, but to complain about the fact that lazy movie-making may be screwing up books. I’m sure there is a certain market saturation for steampunk as it is, but I have to think that having the Three Musketeers and Sherlock Holmes running around in airships shooting proto-machineguns is accelerating the whole process. Which is a pity, because I really wanted to jump on that bandwagon.
Finally, as an apology and palette-cleanser for that Three Musketeers thing, enjoy the sword fight scene from Rob Roy:
•September 24, 2011 • Comments Off on Serial Saturday: Road Trip, Part 25
He came in too fast for her, in the shape she was in, but she just managed to get the knife up, even if it wasn’t doing anything dangerous. It was enough to do something, though, with the Old One coming out in Laurent now. Laurent’s arms, somehow longer than they had been a minute ago, flailed at her, but his whole body twitched aside as he came close, and he he didn’t do much damage when he ran into her.
At least she didn’t think he had–it was hard to say with the way the pain shot through her abused body when he sent her staggering off. They were both lurching drunkenly around the clearing now, but as she watched JT could tell that he was getting steadier every second, as the Old One took firmer control. It was only after they’d been circling each other in a wobbly fashion for a few seconds, JT taking in new details of the way Laurent had changed, when she realized that she wasn’t holding the knife anymore. Continue reading ‘Serial Saturday: Road Trip, Part 25’
•September 20, 2011 • Comments Off on Way to Show Off Those Research Skills Your $45,000 Education Got You
The argument in this article in Slate starts off pretty well, it seems to me, but rather rapidly takes a turn toward Confusedville with a brief stop in Strawman Heights. Should Poets and Writers factor tuition cost into their rankings? I dunno. But Scott Kenmore isn’t arguing that they shouldn’t, just that they are doing it wrong, and that’s where his argument goes off the rails. Basically, it seems to me, he’s saying that he, and other graduates of Columbia’s MFA program, are the hard-headed realists (unlike graduates of other MFA programs) because their degree pays off. No chapbooks with readerships of 20 or 30 for them, no sir. They’ll make back that $45,000 in no time, because he and “many of his colleagues” have published 6 or more books. Well, there you go. Someone with an MFA from Columbia published some books; just about all the evidence you need. You can bet no one from any of those lesser MFA programs banged out 6 books. Continue reading ‘Way to Show Off Those Research Skills Your $45,000 Education Got You’
•September 17, 2011 • Comments Off on Serial Saturday: Road Trip, Part 24
Laurent pulled his hand away from the wound at his side and stared at the blood on it for a moment before looking up. More blood was dripping from his mouth, and that was soaking the front of his shirt, moving to join the new seepage. He didn’t seem to be feeling any of it.
“No one has two Old Weapons,” he said. JT didn’t reply, and his eyes narrowed. “Either you really are special or someone thinks you are.”
JT remained silent, wishing Laurent would stay in focus.
I’d have thought that one of the advantages of e-books was that one could swiftly fix really amusing typos like this one, but from the sound of it that didn’t happen. On the other hand, a big disadvantage of owning this puppy on the kindle is that it presumably Amazon will get around to making it as if it never happened, which will seriously dial down the awesome quotient of the book (and also means that first edition won’t potentially be worth tons of money as it could be in physical form). People never talk about this sort of thing in these discussions of the ebook revolution.
By the way, thanks to all my beta readers who spotted a similar typo in one of my manuscripts. If only Susan Andersen had such alert betas.
•September 14, 2011 • Comments Off on It’s So Hard to Tell When You’re Being Condescended to These Days
The author of this post in the Guardian assures us that the judges of this year’s Man-Booker prize are being condescending by announcing that they are looking for books that people will “buy and read” rather than “buy and admire”. It’s probably just me, but I actually find it slightly condescending to be told that if I read a book for enjoyment I’m wasting my time and that I’m not a sufficiently serious person. It also strikes me as slightly odd that Ms. Bennett felt the need to point out that several of the judges write suspense fiction (I think we’re meant to read that pronouncement as a compelling argument).
I get what she’s saying, but she sort of undercuts her own argument about the false dichotomy between readability and literary merit by listing authors who are not worthy of the mantle of being “literary” by virtue of writing things that are pleasant to read. She might also want to rethink the rhetorical strategy of grabbing hold of the fact that one of the judges said the he liked novels to “zip along” and hammering on the dreadfully unserious word “zippy” like someone playing a one-mole game of whack-a-mole. I think we’ve all been in an argument with someone and used an ill-chosen word, only to have it seized on and waved around like its use means they just ‘won’. It is not a pleasant or edifying experience.
Look, I don’t have a dog in this hunt, being someone who reads a lot of (shudder) genre fiction. I fully expect the contempt of the likes of Ms. Bennett. But I could really do without the pat on the head and the explanation that I don’t actually understand why I read the things I do.
•September 10, 2011 • Comments Off on Serial Saturday: Road Trip, Part 23
Israel weakly raised a hand as Laurent came out of the doorway into the rain, moving at a fast clip. Laurent swung the shotgun as he went by, and the barrel caught him in the head. Israel fell sideways and Laurent tossed the shotgun aside like he wasn’t even interested in it anymore. The flute had disappeared somewhere as well, something that JT was distantly grateful for even as Laurent grabbed her shirt with both hands.
“Who are you?” he asked, dragging her halfway to her feet. He looked like a fucking scarecrow, but he was strong enough, maybe because he had an Old One in him. The whole world was pitching around crazily, and she struggled to get a hand on the tomahawk under her work shirt. Then her arm was wrenched up and she fell back into the mud as the the whole work shirt came off in Laurent’s hands. Continue reading ‘Serial Saturday: Road Trip, Part 23’
Say you’re breaking in a new dental hygienist, who isn’t quite as skilled with those horrible metal spikes they like to use to clean teeth as you’d like. When one writes horror fiction, one can rinse and spit as instructed, and upon seeing the fountain of gore in the little sink, think “I can use this” rather than simply wanting to cry.