Turkey City Writers' Workshop

Turkey City 2014

I didn’t blog last week because I was preparing for the Turkey City Writers’ Workshop, which happened Saturday, October 18. I found it to be a useful and positive experience. It is also a ton of work. They don’t call them workshops for nothing.

Turkey City has been around since the early seventies, and its participants through the decades are a who’s who of genre writers, especially cyberpunk. This workshop is geared for advanced writers, and is known for its tough love approach. The expectation is that all the attendees have mastered the basic techniques of writing and storymaking. I found this to be the case for the most part. Even the less experienced participants brought material worth discussing, in my opinion.

For the past few years Chris Brown has graciously hosted it in his amazing home. He also participated with an excellent story that sat right at the intersection of genre and literary and wonderfully captured the gestalt of Austin hacker scene.

This year the word limit was 10,000 words, and with twelve people participating, well, you do the math – that’s a lot of preparatory reading. Not everyone turned in a novelette, but since my regular crit group limits pieces to 5,000 words, I did relish the opportunity to submit something longer.

We were six men and six women, and with strong female voices such as Patrice Sarath and Stina Leicht attending, I found the opinions and insights well balanced along gender lines. Anil Menon and Jasmina Tesanovic also provided international and literary perspectives to our pieces. All in all there were plenty of fascinating, quirky, and useful opinions to go around.

Corey Doctorow even stopped in at the after party as he was in town for the Texas Teen Book Festival (which is becoming quite a thing BTW).

I was determined to bring something new to my first Turkey City and worked hard to complete a 9,000-word novelette from a previous fragment. It was pretty green. If I’d had all the time in the world, I would have taken it through one more revision before submitting it to group critique. It got dinged on the things I pretty much expected it would. Elements of the story are a little pat; the characters tend toward types. Subtlety and nuance, for me, tends to blossom in revision. The first pass is usually about setting the storyline and expressing the characters basic traits. (I’m one of those weirdos who likes revising way more than pounding out the first draft.)

I also got some excellent food for thought, especially from Bruce Sterling, who was the idea man of the critique group. He threw out all sorts of alternative scenarios for my story and its characters that really freed up the way I was thinking about it. The novelette is taking a well-deserved rest this week. Next week I’ll pull it apart and revise it and get it out there into the world.

Read My Diorama Story at DSF & Writing Process Blog Tour

The outline on the window

Today you get two blog posts for the price of one!

First, the end of summer is in sight, and soon the kids will be returning to school. It’s in that spirit that I hope you enjoy my diorama story. I really enjoyed writing it. Be sure and stick around Daily Science Fiction to check out some of the other great stories on this site. This fine venue has been reliably publishing fantastic writing for years. I am so proud to be published by them!

Second, Patrice Sarath tagged me for a Writing Process blog tour, which is tricky as my process is almost certainly still evolving. The best I can do is give you a snapshot of what my process is today.

What am I working on?

My first novel! Well, technically no. I’ve made a couple attempts before this one including a couple NaNoWriMo novels. But, I won’t be inflicting those on anyone else’s eyeballs. Those early attempts taught me a lot about the craft. It’s good to have a couple novels to line the bottom desk drawer where they can live out their days in dark and quiet solitude.

How does my work differ from others in its genre?

I dunno. I love reading both literary and genre fiction, so I guess my work sits at the crossroads of those two. I’ve always liked being hard to categorize, except when I’m asked to describe myself.

Why do I write what I do?

I love exploring our world in all its gorgeous complexity. For me, both reading and writing is a way to slip the surly bonds of reality, to travel places that can only exist in our dreams and imaginations.

I’m devoted to science fiction and fantasy, but animal stories were my first love: Call of the Wild, Watership Down, Black Beauty, The Incredible Journey, Charlotte’s Web. You get the idea. I find that animals often show up in my stories. I am intensely interested in how we go about defining ourselves from the natural world around us.

How does my writing process work?

Since I’m working out how to go about writing a novel, I’ll speak to that. Frankly, right now, it’s a journey of discovery with all its pleasures and frustrations. I put up a word counter on the side bar, but haven’t added any new words yet, because I had to stop drafting and go back create a better outline. I’m pretty sure I’m not a pantser (someone who writes a draft by the seat of their pants). Outlining helps me develop the story as a whole, and I need that in order to have the confidence to wade in. I don’t think I can just cast off into open water. I guess I’ll find out more about myself as a writer as I work through this project.

Now, I’ve got a card for each major scene. I’m journaling to work through the many questions that have presented themselves as I worked on the outline. Next, I’ll start going card by card, scene by scene with some time in the evening devoted to working out “meta” thoughts and story problems in my journal. This way, with a rough road map and solving problems as I go, I hope to make steady progress.

So, that’s my process. Today…

D.L. Young and Aaron DaMommio tag you’re it!

Here's a cheetah and a dog playing tag.

ArmadilloCon 36

Now that my local Science Fiction and Fantasy convention has become an annual tradition, it's becoming harder and harder to divide my time between all the interesting panels and readings, and visiting with writerly friends old and new. ArmadilloCon has become something between a con and a reunion.

I am naturally pretty outgoing, and writing is a very solitary endeavor so a good con can be a real inspiration. I invariably end the weekend exhausted, but also energized -- ready to write ALL the things!

This year was an embarrassment of riches with two guests: Guest of Honor, Ted Chiang, a fascinating writer of deep and thoughtful stories; and Special Guest of Honor, Ian McDonald, who writes expansive novels set all over the world (India, Turkey, Brazil) and beyond (Mars).

Mario Acevedo came down from Denver to be the toastmaster. Funny and full of interesting stories, he was the right man for the job. He writes books about an ex solder who is now a vampire and a private detective. Here's his character's tagline: Felix Gomez went to Iraq a soldier. He came back a vampire. Nice! I don't usually read books with vampires in them, but his take has me interested.

The editor Guest of Honor was Jacob Weisman from Tachyon Publications. Of the books he had in the dealers' room, I already own quite a few (Her Smoke Rose Up Forever by Triptree, Feeling Very Strange: The Slipsream Anthology, The Dog Said Bow Wow by Swanwick). Still, I managed to find a couple to add to add to my library (a copy of Wonders of the Invisible World by Patricia McKillip and The Madonna and the Starship by James Morrow).

This year I volunteered for the Writer's Workshop. It was fascinating to have a peek behind the curtain and see how Marshall Ryan Maresca and Stina Leicht pull this great workshop together. I'll definitely be back to help again next year.

I got to hang out with my local author buddies Patrice Sarath, K. G. Jewell, Nicky Drayden, and D. L. Young. I also met Cassandra Rose Clarke and picked up her YA book The Wizard's Promise. By the time I met Skyler White, my book buying budget was running low, so I decided to put The Incrementalists, which she co wrote with Stephen Brust, on my short list to acquire and read soon.

I heard Michelle Muenzler read a couple wonderful stories and Rachel Acks read her excellent They Tell Me There Will Be No Pain, soon to be available in Lightspeed's Women Destroy Science Fiction anthology.

This year's con was just the right mix of good friends and new faces. 

I'm inspired and ready to tackle my very own novel!

The Second Annual Belated Turkey of Gratitude

Still Life with Fruit and Ham, Jan Davidszoon de Heem, c.1649

Turns out the belatedness is part of the tradition. Since we here at Casa Schwarz are committed to not buying anything on Black Friday, this is one of the best days to be grateful.

30 things about writing and storytelling for which I am grateful.

1. For poetry, which challenges, puzzles, and touches my soul. 
2. And for Poetry Off The Shelf, the little podcast that has introduced me to several new poets this year.
3. For my part-time job, which provides structure to my day, a little bread-and-butter money, and interesting coworkers with different experiences and opinions than my own.
4. For my first WorldCon! Four days in San Antonio immersed in everything science fiction and fantasy. I won't say more here, as I wrote three long posts starting with this one.
5. For Patrice Sarath, novelist extraordinaire, my WorldCon roomie, and early morning coffee house writing buddy.
6. For ArmadilloCon, my awesome local SciFi and Fantasy convention. When money is tight and family commitments abound, it's great to know that I can always make it to this cool hometown convention. 
7. For the Slugtribe Writers' Group. This open critique group has been a staple of my life since returning to writing. It's a perfect combination of regulars and random wild seeds and never fails to keep things interesting.
8. For the editors who've published my stories and worked with me to make them better. They are as passionate about writing as I am and they spend uncounted hours bringing stories to the world for a very small monetary return.
9. For the slush readers (and editors) who have rejected my stories, sometimes because they're not a good fit for their venue, but more importantly, because sometimes they need to be better.
10. Again, and every year, for my journal. What a glorious mess. Whenever I'm stuck on a story (i.e. the middle of every story), I run to my journal and flail around for page after page until I can see a way forward. 
11. For my husband who goes along with all my schemes and crazy dreams, like keeping chickens in the back yard, or pounding out story after story on my laptop. 
12. For my 12-year-old, who keeps me hip to what middle schoolers are into, and who still lets me read her bedtime stories (currently The Forgotten Beasts of Eld.)
13. For my 8-year-old who has introduced me to the world of My Little Pony as only someone from the target demographic can. 
14. For Invader Zim and Adventure Time, Red Dwarf and Monty Python's Flying Circus. Family favorite viewing for together time on the couch.
15. For Leo the dog. The pound puppy that the kids and hubby talked me into. When not laying at my feet while I write, he pesters me to get up off my butt and take him for a walk. Turns out that on foot and in the fresh air is an excellent place to work out story problems.
16. For the books I've read this year including, Jagannath, Saga, Engine Summer (finally), Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error, Oranges are Not the Only Fruit, and The Blue Fox to name a few.
    
17. My little laptop. Repository of my works in progress and window to the virtual world.
18. Scrivener. I'm using this writing software more and more, though I only know the tip of the iceberg as far as all the different bells and whistles 
19. For the library, saving me thousands of dollars on my 12-year-old's manga habit, providing for my eclectic research needs, and loaning me stacks of huge, expensive art and photography books for story inspiration.
20. For my virtual writers' communities where I can meet, commiserate and trade critiques with writers from around the world.
21. For the worlds that have presented themselves in the stories that have created. Fantastic and impossible places of terror, adventure, love and heartbreak. No airfare required.
22. For the characters who bud off some created world or concept and grow into unpredictable beings who turn the tables to surprise and delight me.
23. Pinterest! How did it take me so long to get onboard with this visual feast?
24. For the hour of writing time every morning between dropping my kids off to school and when I have to show up to work. Pure gold.
25. For drafts that are broken and difficult. These are the ones that have the most to teach me about storytelling.
26. For LePen felt tip markers in every color; they make my paper-and-pen revision look festive and fabulous.
    
27. For a good night's sleep, when I can get it, and for the strange and delightful dreams that arrive in  the morning just before I wake up. If not fodder for plots, certainly some subconscious images have found their way into my story settings.
28. For all the storytellers out there, gossips and tattle tellers, pundits and conspiracy theorists. 
29. For all the surprises, not a day goes by without one!
30. For all the stories nascent and invisible, waiting to be born. 

The Next Big Thing

Inspiration:
 For the World is Hollow And I have Touched the Sky

Patrice Sarath tagged me to talk about my Next Big Thing. She is the author of the Gordath Wood series (Gordath Wood, Red Gold Bridge, and The Crow God's Girl) and the Jane Austin-inspired The Unexpected Miss Bennet. Her latest WIP is Bandit Girls.

It might be better to call it my FIRST Big Thing as (barring the Mayan Apocalypse), I am hereby publicly committing to writing a novel in 2013. 

10 questions about your Next Big Thing:

1. What is the title of your work in progress?

The Iron Tongue of Midnight (from A Midsummer Night's Dream) is a potential title. For now Inside Out is the working title. 

2. Where did the idea come from for the book?

What I have so far has coalesced around a constellation of smaller obsessions ideas that consistently interest me. Influences include: the story of Proserpine and Hades, my misspent youth reading Carl Jung, and, you know, space.

3. What genre does your book fall under?

Science Fiction with likely some fantasy and/or slip-streamy elements.

4. Which actors would you choose to play your characters in the movie?

That question is pretty far down the road for me to think about. If this novel did get optioned and the casting were up to me I'd like to put Sean Bean in a role where he expressly does NOT get killed. So, spoiler! When you are reading this novel and encounter a Sean Bean like character, you can proceed confident in the fact that he will definitely not die in some horribly tragic way.

5. What is a brief synopsis of the book?

After a failed mutiny, a generation ship continues on to its unknown destination while the mutineers eke out a tenuous existence on the hull. No one has tried to reenter the sealed ship until our hero (yet to be named) begins to have strange dreams, which she believes comes from one of the sleepers inside.

6. Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

I look forward to shopping it around to agencies. After that, who knows.

7. How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?

I know I can't write fast enough to draft it in the 30 days of NaNoWriMo. I recently bought The 90-Day Novel by Alan Watt and may use that as a template for my first draft. I am currently researching and world building and will start drafting New Year's Day. With drafting and revisions, I hope to have something presentable by the end of the year.

8. What other books would you compare this story to in your genre?

I can't compare it to other books yet, so instead here are some novels I love:

By way of preliminary research, here's a quick list of novels with generation and/or sleeper ships that I hope to peruse before the end of the year:

• Orphans of the Sky by Heinlein
• The Book of the Long Sun by Gene Wolfe
• Across the Universe by Beth Rivas
• Ship of Fools by Richard P. Russo
• The Dream Millennium by James White

9. Who or what inspired you to write this book?

I am fascinated with the borders people create both in the so called "real world" world and within our own hearts and minds. I'm looking forward to combining the deep outside of interstellar space exploration with the deep inside of our human subconscious.

10. What else about your book might pique the reader's interest?

I'm looking forward to the challenge of writing a dream v. reality story and hope that it will be one of the more interesting aspects of the book.

Here are my picks for the next Next Big Thing - check out their answers!

Marshall Ryan Maresca

Silver Bowen

Cat Rambo