Death and the Necessity of Back-ups

Posted on April 24, 2013 by D. Thomas Minton

My computer decided to give up the ghost this weekend, so I’ve been relegated to a “loaner” until I get a replacement.  It had been teetering on the edge the last few weeks, and finally all attempts to resuscitate it failed; the tech-doctors called it on Monday morning.  Time of death 8:08 am.

Fortunately I keep back-ups of everything, so I didn’t lose anything (well almost nothing; I lost a new post I had written offline on Saturday, but that’s minor).  I learned a long time ago to always keep back-ups.  Always.  Without exception.  No ifs, ands, or buts.

While my postings here may have slowed down this week, I’m still getting my daily writing in (I’ve finished two short stories since Monday).  Writing just isn’t as convenient now, and this sure makes me appreciate my machine even more.  Until my new computer arrives—it shouldn’t be too long, I hope—I may only have time to pop in here occasionally and see what’s up.  So take the time you would have spent reading one of my post, and back-up your important files.  You never know when your computer might catch something lethal.

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Am I an Inspiration Addict?

Posted on April 20, 2013 by D. Thomas Minton

Last night I was sitting in a Barnes & Noble cafe editing a few stories and enjoying a tea and a relaxing mix of heavy metal music when I hit on an idea that made me sit up and whisper “What a cool idea,” which in a bookstore is the equivalent of shouting.  I dropped what I was working on (which fortunately wasn’t my hot tea at that moment) and quickly jotted down an outline for a new story.  The story needs to cook a longer in my head, but I’m almost ready to let it out, and I’m looking forward to a weekend of writing.  (Sorry, but I’m not going to share the idea here because it’s part of the big reveal at the story’s climax—I’d rather let you read it when it’s finished and hopefully appearing in the pages of an awesome publication.)

I love those eureka moments when I have them.  They make the creative process that underlies writing an addictive drug, and one that I don’t want a 12-step program to kick.  They make the hard work that comes after the idea stage worth it.  I can’t wait to write this story, so I better get back to work on this beautiful Saturday morning….

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Prompting Me to Write

Posted on April 17, 2013 by D. Thomas Minton

I’ve been asked on many occasions where I get my story ideas.  As those of you who read my author’s notes like know, I don’t have a single answer to this question.  I don’t have an idea-generating machine or magic wand.  Stories ideas are out there, everywhere—often it’s just a matter of keeping my eyes open for them.  While I certainly can get an idea from almost anywhere, I find that if I’m really stuck, a writing prompt is often surprisingly effective at stimulating an idea and ultimately a story.

I never used to think of myself as someone who could write stories from a prompt—I thought it limiting and contrived—so I was surprised at my success when I first tried it with my Hopefull Monsters writing group a few years ago.  We had such good success generating stories, in fact, that we started doing semi-regular “writing challenges” using anthology themes as prompts.  This approach had the added advantage of a ready market to which to submit finished stories.  Talk about an ideal situation.

I’ve since gone on to troll lists of themed anthologies looking for interesting prompts.  Sometimes I’m honestly interested in submitting to the anthology, but more often I’m not (anthologies generally don’t pay well and have notoriously small distributions).  Even when I am interested in submitting, I often don’t finish my story by the anthology’s deadline.  That doesn’t matter, however, because if I get a good story out of it, I can sell it somewhere else.  In fact I’ve had good luck selling writing-prompt-inspired stories to a number of good publications, including my stories “Hoodoo” and “Observations on a Clock” (both inspired by the prompt for the In Situ anthology), Strand in the Web (from a Hopefull Monster writing prompt), and my forthcoming story “The Schrödinger War” (from the Extreme Planets Anthology).

So if you’re stuck looking for something to write, try to stimulate some ideas with a writing prompt, either an interesting line from a poem or book, a picture (my story “Dreams in Dust” came from a visual writing prompt), or even a themed anthology.  The important thing is to find something that stirs the imagination and triggers an idea to work with.  Then sit down, write, finish and submit (if that’s the goal).

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2013 Hugo Award Nominees: Novel and Novella

Posted on April 12, 2013 by D. Thomas Minton

I posted the Hugo Award nominees for the short story and novelette categories already.  To be complete, here’s the nominees for the novella and novel category:

Here are nominees for Best Novel:

• 2312, Kim Stanley Robinson
• Blackout, Mira Grant
• Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance, Lois McMaster Bujold
• Redshirts: A Novel with Three Codas, John Scalzi
• Throne of the Crescent Moon, Saladin Ahmed

And Best Novella:

• “After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall“, Nancy Kress (Tachyon Publications)
• “The Emperor’s Soul“, Brandon Sanderson (Tachyon Publications)
• “On a Red Station, Drifting“, Aliette de Bodard (Immersion Press)
• “San Diego 2014: The Last Stand of the California Browncoats”, Mira Grant (Orbit)
• “The Stars Do Not Lie”, Jay Lake (Asimov’s)

Unlike with the short stories and novelette categories, there’s considerable overlap between the Hugo and Nebula nominees for novel and novella.  The novels Throne of the Crescent Moon and 2312 and the novellas “After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall,” “The Stars Do Not Lie,” and “On a Red Station, Drifting” receive nominations for both awards.

Unfortunately my reading time this year was limited, and I focused primarily on short fiction, so I’ve not read any these nominated works.  I’m sure they’re very good, however, and would recommend them anyone looking around for something longer to read.  One of these days when I have a little more time on my hands I hope to get back to reading fiction again, but until that time I’ll have content myself with simply adding things works to me to-read list.

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Thoughts on the Nebula Novelettes

Posted on April 10, 2013 by D. Thomas Minton

Ballots for the 2012 Nebula Awards were due March 30th.  As a member of the Science Fiction Writers of America, I get to vote, which is very cool.  I seldom have time to read all of the nominees, so I tend to focus my voting on the short story and novelette categories.  I did finish reading all of the nominees in both categories in time to cast my ballot, and I posted my thoughts on the short stories earlier, and here are my thoughts on the novelettes.

Unlike the short stories, I found that many of the novelettes weren’t particularly to my liking.  I’m not suggesting these novelettes were inferior per se, they just didn’t appeal to me as a reader (this also happened last year, so maybe it has something to do the novelette form itself; I don’t know).  The nominated novelettes covered a wide range of topics, and some were stylistically interesting.  I must admit, I had a hard time finishing a few of them (but I did finish them all).  Also unlike the short stories, no single novelette jumped out to me as a standout, which made it difficult to decide which story should get my vote.

I did enjoy Catherynne Valente’s “Fade to White,” an interesting exploration of gender roles in an alternate 1950s United States.  I also thought Ken Liu’s “The Waves” was a strong story with a “golden age” feel to it that held my attention throughout.

While all of these novelettes will likely not be your liking, I recommend you check out the novelettes if you haven’t already (links to several can be found here).  If you do read any of them (or have already them), I’d be interested in hearing your thoughts.

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“Portraits from the Shadow” Finds a Home at IGMS

Posted on April 8, 2013 by D. Thomas Minton

Great googlie-moogoolie!  I just finished writing my previous post about my sale to Daily Science Fiction when I received an email from Mr. Edmund Schubert over at Orson Scott Card’s InterGalatic Medicine Show accepting my story “Portraits from the Shadow.”  I’ve been wanting to sell a story to IGMS for some time without much success, so I did a little happy dance when I got the news today (sorry, no video available).  This will be my first story to appear in IGMS.  IGMS also commissions artwork for each story—that’s so cool!  I can’t wait to see what the artist comes up with.

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“The Negotiation” Goes to Daily Science Fiction

Posted on April 8, 2013 by D. Thomas Minton

Daily Science Fiction has accepted my story “The Negotiation.”  I’m happy about this sale for a few reasons.  First I like DSF, and while not everything they publish is to my liking (but what magazine does), they are a great source for fiction that can be read in a few minutes, and they do publish some excellent stories.  Second, I wrote “The Negotiation” with DSF in mind, so it’s nice that I won’t have to search for another market to which to send it (yay for first submittal sales!).  Finally, it’s a pro-rate publication and a SFWA-qualified market, and the money is always nice—I’ve got to support my writing habit somehow….

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Amazon Acquires Goodreads

Posted on April 6, 2013 by D. Thomas Minton

Over the years, Goodreads has become a major player in the publishing business.  It’s a social networking site (with over 16 million members) that allows people to share and review what they are reading, and let the world know what they want to read.  As an author, Goodreads has become important for getting word of your work out to the public.  Good reviews on the site, as well as the buzzy generated by getting on people’s to-read list can help an author sell his/her work.  A few of my stories have made it to Goodreads (and actually garnered a decent review here and there), and I actually have authors page there, too, but I’m otherwise not active on the site.

When Amazon announced in March that it had acquired Goodreads, it made my ears perk up.  Amazon is widely viewed as the four-thousand pound gorilla of the internet book world, and it wields considerable power in the publishing industry.  When I heard they had acquired Goodreads, I began to wonder what would mean for the site and its users, so I started to read around.

While many people have expressed “concern” over the acquisition, I’m not sure much will actually change at Goodreads.  Amazon has a history of acquiring sites, and then leaving them be.  For example Amazon bought IMDB in 1998, Audible and AbeBooks in 2008, the UK-based Book Depository in 2011, not to mention many others.  For most of these sites, user probably noticed little or no change after the acquisition.  I suspect it will be the same with Goodreads.

So why did Amazon buy Goodreads?  It probably wasn’t for its revenue generation ability, because Goodreads doesn’t generate much revenue, and what little it does generate would be a speck of sand in Amazon’s vast revenue dirt pile.  According to Digital Bookworld, Goodreads generated a modest US$2.7 million over its existence, compared to Amazon’s US$61 billion in revenue in 2012 alone.

More likely, Amazon wanted to prevent a competitor from acquiring Goodreads’ extensive data (hello 16 Million users).  The reviews and associated “brand” identity, authority and trust that Goodreads has built would also be a signficant asset to Amazon, especially considering the recent issues with book reviews (e.g., bogus reviews, etc.) that have given Amazon a bit of black eye.  Reviews attract customers to Amazon, and help convert browsers to buyers, so a lack of trust in these reviews could adversely impact sales.  Goodreads can help with that problem.

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Some Writing Odds and Ends

Posted on April 2, 2013 by D. Thomas Minton

For the last week and a half, it’s been quiet around here because I’ve traveling.  Things have been in some upheaval recently as I try to complete my move.  I’ve been one foot in two places since January, but hopefully I’ll get to one place permanently in another month or so.  I’m still tying up the final loose ends at the day job.

While I’ve been quiet here, I did manage to finish my Nebula reading, and get my votes submitted for the short story and novelette categories right at the deadline.  I’ve already posted my thoughts on the Nebula nominees for short story; I’ll post my thoughts on the novelettes soon.

I’ve also found I’m stuck for the time being on my current novel in progress.  I’m moving into the third and final act.  I know where it needs to end up and basically what I want to happen, but the my current outline just says: “stuff happens here.”  Hmmm….not too helpful.

I finished the revision of a short story that’s been getting dusty on my computer for a long time.  That feels good, although I’m not sure the story is any good.  When I’m close to a story for so long, I tend to lose perspective on it.  If I can get it cleaned up today, I’ll send it out to some people for feedback.  Now I can turn my immediate attention to another unfinished story that’s also been gathering dust for a while, but which I’m ready to tackle.

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2013 Hugo Nominees

Posted on March 31, 2013 by D. Thomas Minton

The Nebula Award nominations have already been announced, and the Hugo Awards are up next.  The Hugo Award, presented by the World Science Fiction Society, is speculative fiction’s other major writing award.  While there is often considerable overlap in nominations  between the two, few works win both awards (Ken Liu’s short story “The Paper Menagerie” being a notable exception last year).  Personally, I tended to enjoy the Hugo Award winners a little more than the Nebula Award winners, especially in the novel category.

As with the Nebulas, I’m again most interested in the short fiction categories.  The 2013 Hugo nominees for best novelette:

• “The Boy Who Cast No Shadow”, Thomas Olde Heuvelt (Postscripts: Unfit For Eden)
• “Fade To White”, Catherynne M. Valente (Clarkesworld)
• “The Girl-Thing Who Went Out for Sushi”, Pat Cadigan (Edge of Infinity, Solaris)
• “In Sea-Salt Tears”, Seanan McGuire (Self-published)
• “Rat-Catcher”, Seanan McGuire (A Fantasy Medley 2)

I find this list very interesting.  Seanan McGuire scored two nominations, and one of those was self-published.  This might be the first time that a self-published story has been nominated for a major award (I’m not certain, however), and I think we’ll be seeing more of this in the future as self-publishing continues to become a more accepted practice.  Only one of the novelette nominees, “Fade to White,” was also nominated for a Nebula Award.

The Hugo nominees for best short story are:

• “Immersion”, Aliette de Bodard (Clarkesworld)
• “Mantis Wives”, Kij Johnson (Clarkesworld)
• “Mono no Aware”, Ken Liu (The Future is Japanese)

There are only three short story nominees this year because no other story garnered the 5% minimum needed to qualify under the Hugo Award rules.  I wonder if these three stories simply dominated the nominations, or if there were a lot of stories that split the remaining vote, and thus none were able to get the minimum needed.  I’m not sure we’ll ever learn the answer.  Again, only one of these stories, Ms. de Bodard’s exceptional “Immersion,” was also nominated for a Nebula.

Finally, I noticed that none of the big three publications (Asimov’s, Fantasy and Science Fiction, and Analog) picked up a novelette or short story nomination (Asimov’s picked up a single novella nomination).  Four of the eight nominees are from anthologies, and three of them came from the highly respected online publication, Clarkesworld.  Does this tell us anything about the state of short speculative fiction?  I don’t know, but it might represent the start of shift of “power” in the field.

I’ve read only a few of these stories, but I’m sure all of them are worthy of their nominations, and I look forward to reading each of them.

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