Month: August 2011

Sholpan 2.0 is finished!

Today I finished the second draft of the novella Sholpan, only two days after the deadline I set for myself.  Here are the stats:

ms pages: 173
words: 37,466
file size: 94 KB
parts: 5
start date: 1 Aug 2011
end date: 15 Aug 2011

I decided to divide it into parts because I read somewhere that novellas aren’t typically divided into chapters, and I felt that foregoing chapter divisions would give it more of a sense of unity.

Still, I divided it into five parts, which essentially function as very large chapters.  I did this because it seemed that the story needed it, to better develop conflict and theme, as well as the transitions and turning points.

Like I’ve said in the earlier posts, this is a “companion novella,” which means that it repeats one of the story lines from the novel with additional scenes that (hopefully) elaborate and flesh out that particular story line.  Ideally, this will entice readers of the novella to pick up the full-length novel, and give readers of the novel a satisfying experience by using the new scenes to cast everything else in a new light.

By my entirely non-scientific calculations, Sholpan contains about 80% repeated material from the novel (with a little touching up and fleshing out to get more inside of Stella’s head) and 20% entirely new material, most of it in the form of flashbacks to Stella’s life before she was captured and enslaved by the Hameji.  It ends about halfway through Stella’s story arc from Bringing Stella Home, and includes one of the major twists, but hopefully that won’t spoil too much.

In terms of story, I think there are some subtle deviations between Stella’s arc in the novel, and Stella’s arc in the novella.  Even though the novella ends just after one of the novel’s major shifts, the ending felt very satisfying–almost a little too much.  Still, it’s good for the story to be complete in itself, and there are enough loose ends that I think it will drive interest in the novel.

Anyhow, I’ve sent the project out to a couple of alpha readers, just to get a sense for whether or not I’m totally off base.  If all goes well there, I’ll send it out to my copy editor and get it up for sale sometime in mid-September.  I haven’t tried out the $.99 price point yet, so this will be a good test case to see how it works.

For those of you who are interested, here’s the cover:

And that’s about it.  I’m leaving the day after next for Worldcon, so I’ll do a post on that before I head out.  Probably won’t write much this week, but hopefully the con will help me make connections, pick up a few pointers, and get a good feel for the current zeitgeist in the science fiction and fantasy genres.  More on that to come.

News, a correction, and an awesome AvB remix

Today I was supposed to finish the second draft of Sholpan, but I moved apartments this weekend, so everything got thrown completely out of whack.  I’m all moved into my new place now (with some awesome Quarkie roommates), but Sholpan is going to have to wait until Monday.

Fortunately, I’ve only got a couple of new scenes to write, then touch up the rest to make sure it fits the novella storyline.  I got in touch with my copy editor, and he should be able to have them for me by mid-September.  If all goes well, I’ll send it out to a couple of my first readers to give it a pass, make the fixes, and then send it out to Josh and have it up about a month from now.

I’ve gotten some amazing responses for “Memoirs of a Snowflake” in the past week, and it’s gotten almost 2,000 downloads on Amazon so far.  Not bad!  However, while rereading it, I noticed an error: in the author’s note, I said that I wrote the story in December of 2008, when really it was 2007.  I must have been thinking “winter of 2008” when I wrote it the first time.  In any case, I’ve made the corrections, so it should be up on Amazon in 24 hours, and all the other sites before the end of the month (since I distribute to them through Smashwords).

Also, another piece of encouraging news: the boss at the temp job I’ve been working the past few months wants to hire me!  If that works out, I should have steady work at least through into 2012.  I’m hoping they’ll let me work part time, since that would help me juggle the writing career a lot better, but this is their busy season so I might have to work 40+ hour weeks for a while.  Still, it’s better than starving.

Which reminds me: my first royalty check from Amazon comes in next month, and to celebrate, I’m going to crack open that bottle of Martinelli’s from Charlie and throw a small party.  More on that later.

Finally, I found this the other day while trawling youtube for good trance tunes.  It’s a remix of “Are We Human?” by the Killers, done by Armin Van Buuren.  Everything Armin touches seems to turn to gold, and this is no exception.  Check it out!

NPR’s Top 100 Science Fiction & Fantasy

In case you didn’t know, NPR just put together a list of the Top 100 Science Fiction and Fantasy novels of all time.  The list had a panel of judges who vetted nominations, but the voting was public and turnout–over 60,000–was pretty high.

I usually don’t like top 100 lists, but this one did a pretty good job representing the genre.  I recognized about 2/3rds of the titles, and most of my own personal favorites were included.

There were a few notable exceptions, however.  David Gemmell wasn’t represented at all–a travesty of the highest proportions.  Neither was C.J. Cherryh, which I find very surprising.  Robert Charles Wilson has certainly written some books worthy of the list, and Dave Wolverton’s On My Way to Paradise–which, I would argue, is one of the best science fiction novels ever written–was notably absent.

Also, a few of the titles were further down on the list than I would have put them.  The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin came in at #78, while I would have put it at least in the top 20.  A Canticle for Leibowitz did better at #35, but was it really an inferior book to The Handmaid’s Tale?  Come on, people.

One thing I don’t think this list represents well (or top 100 lists in general) is the way in which sf&f fandom has split into dozens of communities and tribes, almost like Darwin’s finches on the Galapagos Islands.  Before science fiction went mainstream, it was possible to follow all the various titles and developments.  Now, however, there’s so much out there that it’s impossible to be fully cognizant of everything.

I think fandom has split into some very distinct communities clustered around the popular authors and sub-genres, and there’s not a whole lot of overlap between them.  None of them are large enough to spawn an entirely new genre (with the possible exception of paranormal romance), but lumping them all into science fiction & fantasy can be a bit problematic.

That said, I think this is a pretty good list.  What do you think?

Soundtrack for an untitled book

I’ve got this great idea for a novel, with a rough plot outline, an awesome ending, setting and characters all worked out, even the soundtrack–but no title.

I enjoy making soundtracks for my novels, but this is the first time I’ve made one before writing the first draft.  Usually, my first drafts are so all over the place that I end up hating whatever music I try to associate with my work–that, or the feel of the book ends up being so different from the feel of the soundtrack that I just have to abandon it.

In spite of all this, I couldn’t really help myself from putting together a playlist for my next big project, a Gaia Nova novel combining characters from Bringing Stella Home and Desert Stars.  Here it is:

For me, soundtracks are all about the emotion that a story evokes.  I’m going for a tense and gritty feel, with heart-rending losses and soul-crushing defeats interspersed with poignant moments of personal triumph.

The really cool thing is that the soundtrack has helped me out a ton with the outlining process.  I’ve spent a lot of time in the past month hiking in the mountains around Provo, just listening to music and thinking about this story.  Whenever I put on the soundtrack, something would click and I’d see exactly what the story needed.  I kid you not, all of the plot twists and big reveals came to me while listening to this music.

Now if only I could come up with a title…

Quick update

Just an update before I go to bed (and hopefully don’t sleep in like this morning).

My writing’s tapered off a bit this past month, partially because I’ve got a lot on my plate (Worldcon, online TEFL course, moving apartments, working full time, etc), but also because I’m between projects and not totally absorbed in any one.

I’m hoping to finish Sholpan by the end of the week, but that isn’t going to require more than 8k words total.  At the same time, I’m finding it hard to keep myself engaged with that project.  Today, for example, I rebelled a bit and worked on the next Gaia Nova book instead, which doesn’t yet have a title.  Had a blast, but only managed about 800 words.

My writing productivity took a huge dip in the end of July as I got Bringing Stella Home ready to publish, dropping down to between 500 and 1,000 words per day.  I probably won’t be able to raise that significantly until after Worldcon, and even then, I’ll have to juggle a full-time job for probably another month or two (but hey, a job’s a job; I’m not complaining).

Thing is, I really, really, REALLY want to work on this untitled project–so much that I’m treating it as procrastination when I have other stuff to write.  I’m also worried that if I leave off on that project for too long, I’ll lose sight of it.  That’s why I’m juggling it with Sholpan right now, but I think I can handle it, especially since Sholpan should be finished in just a week or two.

I also got an email from a fan (a fan!) asking about Edenfall.  Right now, I don’t have any concrete plans, but I’m hoping to finish the first draft sometime in October/November (after polishing Desert Stars), and have it ready for publication sometime in 2012.  If enough people ask about it, though, I may bump it up in the queue; it all depends.

Other than that, I had a great idea yesterday for a blog series.  It came while I was thinking about my dreams for the future, and the thought came that I should blog about them  But I don’t want it to be just about me; I want to share my thinking about the future and how I’ve come to develop my goals and plans, so that my many friends who are in similar circumstances can glean something useful.

I’ll probably start that in a day or two.  But now…sleep.

Breaking the Top 10, and a big thank you

As I’m writing this, “Memoirs of a Snowflake” holds the #8 spot in the Kindle Store for the general short story category — #150 overall.  Almost 1,000 people have downloaded it since it went free over the weekend, and it’s already garnered some fantastic reviews!

All this positive attention makes me want to thank all those who have taken the time to post reviews of my work, so I thought I’d do that here.

Specifically, I’d like to thank L. Christensen for the early 5-star review of Genesis Earth, and her very favorable reviews of my other work.  Full disclosure: L. Christensen is one of my first readers; however, I did not solicit any of her reviews–she posted them on her own.  Also, I’d like to thank Katie Armstrong for the other 5-star review of Genesis Earth–I have no idea who you are (well, a vague idea maybe), but thank you!

Another reviewer who’s been very kind is EA Younker over at goodreads.  She’s posted some glowing 5-star reviews for “Memoirs of a Snowflake” and “Decision LZ1527” on that site, as well as a more critical but still encouraging 3-star review for “From the Ice Incarnate.” Thanks for taking the time to read my work!  I’m glad you enjoyed it.

Over on Smashwords, Ernest Winchester posted a nice 5-star review of “Decision LZ1527,” only a couple hours after I uploaded it.  More recently, Michelle Glorioso and Annie B posted some extremely gratifying reviews of “Memoirs of a Snowflake.” Thanks so much!

Of course, not all the reviews have been glowingly positive. “From the Ice Incarnate” has garnered some criticism from readers who feel that it was missing something, either sufficient character depth or a satisfying ending.  I appreciate the feedback; short stories aren’t my forte, so I’ll be sure to keep that in mind as I work on my short form.  Also, Genesis Earth has garnered a couple of critical yet well-reasoned reviews, most notably from the review site Science Fiction Addiction.  Once again, thanks for taking the time to respond so thoughtfully.  And thanks to all the other generally positive reviews which I haven’t mentioned specifically here.

So far, Bringing Stella Home hasn’t gotten any reviews, so if you’ve read it and enjoyed it, I would appreciate it very much if you would take the time to do that.  In the meantime, thanks for all your support!

The Lifecycle of Software Objects by Ted Chiang

Ana was a washed-up zoologist turned programmer looking for work; Derek was an avatar designer for the Data Earth virtual reality platform.  The thing that brought them together: Blue Gamma Inc., manufacturer of autonomous self-aware AI pets known as digients.

Like any pet, each digient requires constant attention as they learn and grow.  Soon, Ana and Derek become as attached to their own digients as parents to their children.  But when Blue Gamma goes out of business and the Data Earth platform becomes obsolete, the future for the digients looks grim–until they enter the next phase of their natural evolution.

I really, really liked this story.  It’s got just about everything that makes science fiction so great: futuristic setting, well-rounded characters with believable motivations, one Big Lie with everything else held more or less at the level of our current understanding, and tons of parallels between the fantastic world and our own that makes you step back and really think about things.

The interesting thing about this story was how it played with all the old robot/AI tropes.  Usually, stories of this kind will have the robots rise to transcendence, either becoming the benevolent (or largely absent) rulers of the world, or taking over and enslaving humanity in some fashion. Not so with this story; the scope was much more intimate and personal, driven by characters rather than the Fate of Mankind, and that ultimately made the story much more believable.

If I had any problem with this story at all, it was the ending.  After so much build-up and development, I felt as if it cut off rather abruptly, just as things were getting more and more interesting.  I suppose the author was going for something of a “Flowers for Algernon” feel, but that wasn’t what I took from it.  Or perhaps he ran up against the novella word limit and decided to cut it off; I don’t know.

Regardless, I thoroughly enjoyed this story.  It’s certainly worthy of the Hugo for which it’s been nominated.  Highly recommended.

“Memoirs of a Snowflake” is now free!

So I come back from my camping trip, and what do I find?  Amazon has made my short story “Memoirs of a Snowflake” available for free–and it’s at the #16 spot on the fantasy bestseller list!  Awesome!

Camping was fun, as was the road trip down there.  The stars out at Huntington Reservoir were absolutely amazing–man, when I have the money, I’m totally going to take up astro-photography as a hobby.

Didn’t write a whole lot, but now that I’m back, I should be able to get some work done today.  But first: time to shower!

Going camping and novella update

Just a quick update on things:

I’m going camping this weekend up Huntington Reservoir with some friends, so I won’t be around for a couple of days.  It should be fun; last trip was a good chance to step back and recharge, and I definitely could use that right now.

At the same time, I’m working on Sholpan, and it’s turning out to be a lot harder than I’d initially thought.  I’m writing it as a companion novella to Bringing Stella Home, where the story covers Stella’s point of view through about the first half of the novel, with a few extras for the people who read the novel first, and enough loose ends to entice people who read the novella first to pick up the full-length novel.

It’s turning out to be a difficult balancing act, however.  The first draft was basically just all of Stella’s scenes up to the last three/four chapters of the novel, and that ended up being too much.  For those who read the novel first, it didn’t have anything new, and for those who hadn’t read it, it revealed far too much.

So for the next draft, I decided to trim it right up to the point where Stella’s story has its first major twist.  Even though that includes a minor spoiler for the novel, it gives the novella a great story arc with a good reversal.

But that leaves the question: what does the story need in order to be satisfying to those who read the novel first?

I’m not a huge fan of flashbacks, but after wrestling over the last few days with the beginning, I think it’s better to start in media res, which makes flashbacks unavoidable.  I’ll try not to botch them.  Also, I think I’ll give some more background information about her and Lars, as well as develop her relationship with Narju.  But the last thing I want to do is pad the novella with useless filler.

I dunno; what do you think?  If you read and enjoyed a novel, what sort of shorter work based on that story would you want to see?  And if you started with the novella first, how much would be too much, and how much would be too little?

Oh, and in case you’re interested, I took your feedback and redesigned the cover:

Thanks!  I’ll see you when I get back in a couple of days.

Should authors respond to reviews?

In the last six days since it went free, “From the Ice Incarnate” has had almost 2,250 downloads, and with so much attention, reviews are starting to trickle in.  Amazon has a very elegant system, which not only allows other readers to vote on whether a review is helpful, but to comment and start a discussion.

This raises a question, however; when is it appropriate for an author to respond to a review?  I’ve seen answers that go all over the board; some readers love it, while others are adamant that writers should never respond in any way–that to do so would be consummately unprofessional.

From an indie writer’s perspective, this is especially tricky.  On the one hand, we want to engage with our readers, since that’s a crucial part of making this into a viable career (Seth Godin makes some excellent points on that subject).  On the other hand, because reviews are so subjective and judgmental, there’s a very real danger that any discussion involving the author could turn very nasty, very quickly.

Whenever anyone posts a positive review of my work, I want to thank them.  If I only respond to positive reviews, though, that could make me look like I’m ignoring the critical ones.  But if I acknowledge the critical reviews that are thoughtful and well reasoned, what do I do with the inevitable one star reviews written by someone who’s just plain crazy?

The last thing I want is to be forced into taking a reactionary position in a public discussion.  While I’m confident I can keep my ego in check and avoid outright argument, that’s not the only danger I foresee here.  Besides, I believe very firmly that the story should speak for itself, and for that reason I think it’s better for the author to be as invisible as possible.

At the same time, I really do want to thank those who take the time to post a glowing review.  Perhaps the best option is to acknowledge them here or on twitter instead of Amazon?  I’m not sure.  And sometimes, questions arise that aren’t related to the story, where responding directly to the review is the most efficient way to handle it.

In any case, I’m going to be cautious for now, at least until I find a position that makes sense.  If you have any suggestions for how I can balance these concerns, please let me know.

And for those of you who have posted kind reviews: thank you!