The Brain is a Strange Thing

Posted on June 8, 2014 by D. Thomas Minton

I just got back from visiting my mom.  She’s getting up there in age, but she’s still in great physical shape.  Here memory is going, however, and quickly.  Watching her struggle through the day was heartbreaking, but I must also admit as a scientist, fascinating.  I hope that doesn’t make me a bad (or insensitive) person to say that.

The brain is a strange thing.  Short-term memories can be lost, but long-term memories remain, or just the opposite.  My great-grandmother, when she finally passed away in her mid-nineties had lost all of her short-term and most of her long-term memories to the point that she no longer spoke English, only German, which was the language she had learned as a little girl before stowing-away on a ship to America when she was around ten.  Sometimes people know their memory is going, sometimes they don’t, and they believe they’re still sharp as a knife when in reality they can’t remember anything that happened five minutes earlier.  It’s amazing how little know about the brain, considering it’s what makes us what we are.

We have all sorts of ways to “work around” physical disabilities, allowing the individual to live a functional and fulfilling life.  Our options for declining mental faculties aren’t so numerous, however.  It’s apparent now that my mom developed a bunch of behavioral coping mechanisms that masked her decline over the past years and months, but those mechanisms are getting to be insufficient.  It’s not clear what will happen to her in the coming months and years, but I wish there was a way to reverse it all.  I’m sure there’s a beautiful speculative fiction story in here somewhere, but I’m not ready to find yet.  By the time I do, I wonder if my mom will be able to read it.

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Feeling Tense? You Should Be

Posted on May 28, 2014 by D. Thomas Minton

I’ve reviewed several stories for other writers recently, and it’s gotten me thinking about tension.  I’m not a lit major and I don’t profess to know anything about the scholarly side of writing.  If it wasn’t taught in English 101, I likely don’t know much about it . . . but back to tension.

Tension isn’t the same as conflict—at least I don’t think it is—although conflict is important to tension.  For me, conflict creates the wider arc of tension in a story.  It’s what the story is ultimately about and what, with its resolution, gives me (the reader) that sense of closure and relief.

Tension, on the other hand, is what drives me through each sentence, paragraph, and page.  Tension in life may not be a good thing, but tension in fiction is essential (even in literature that doesn’t have the typical “conflict” structure).  Tension should be on every page and in every paragraph if possible.  If the tension can increase with the page count, that’s a bonus.

So how do you get this tension?  Not an easy question to answer, and I won’t claim to have the answer.  I think this type of tension can be achieved in several different ways.  The situation or setting can provide tension. For example, the “dark and stormy night” versus the “warm comfortable bed,” or characters placed in diametric opposition, whether it’s in their goals, deeds, or even their physical description.  Tension can come from word choice used in descriptions, or through the choice or delivery of dialogue, and character actions, especially subtle actions that illustrate an unexpected, maybe unsettling, response (e.g., a kindergarten school teacher who smiles when (s)he sees a puppy being abused by the neighborhood bully).

Tension can potentially be found anywhere, and if fostered in a story, can really propel me forward—it’s what puts the page-turning in a page-turner.  And if done well, I don’t even notice it’s happening, which to me, is the sign of a writer skilled in the craft.

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Inspiration: “Comes the Piper”

Posted on May 23, 2014 by D. Thomas Minton

Those of you who are regular visitors to my site know I usually post something about what inspired a story when it’s published.  I’ve fallen a little behind.  I was in my writing funk when “Comes the Piper” was published in Plasma Frequency in April, so I never got around to posting my inspiration article here.  As I just finished off another story (my fourth in the past few weeks!) I thought I’d take a few minutes to jot down some thoughts on this dark, disturbing (to me at least) story.

“Comes the Piper” is the only story I’ve published that I feel comes close to horror.  It was also among the hardest for me to write because of its content.  So what inspired such a dark story?  I can blame it on my writing group, Hopefull Monsters.  A while ago—I can’t remember exactly how long ago—we had a discussion in which we tried to dissect horror to see what made it tick, so to speak.  We’ve done this several times with various genres and sub-genres of fiction (we recently did this with “caper” stories), and the discussion generally inspires several of us to take a stab at writing a story from what we learned.  “Comes the Piper” was the story I wrote, and it touches on many of the elements of horror that we discussed.

That explains the inspiration for the story in the most general way.  For the specifics of the story, I was inspired by two things: (1) old-time evangelicals who traveled early America and would set up tents in small, dusty towns and preach fire and brimstone and maybe conduct faith healings of the sick and infirmed, and (2) hydraulophones, or water organs.  Yes, you read that right, hydraulophones.  I had never heard of them before, but for some reason I came across a video of one and was entranced by it and knew I had to work one into a story.  The hydraulophone didn’t make it into the final story; something better did, but I won’t say more for fear it will give too much away.

These elements were laid onto an oppressive setting and a tense family situation, and what should have been an idyllic place is cast into something horrific enough that it kept me up at night and wouldn’t leave me be until I finished writing it—I even tried to walk away from this one, but I couldn’t.

I’m both proud of and horrified by this story and I want everyone I don’t know to read it (I am afraid it will make those close to me wonder what goes on in my head).  I say that only half-seriously.  If you haven’t read “Comes the Piper” you’ll need to get the April issue of Plasma Frequency.  I hope this one scares you, or at least leaves you feeling . . . uncomfortable.  After all, that’s what horror is supposed to do.

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2013 Nebula Award Winners

Posted on May 18, 2014 by D. Thomas Minton

The 2013 Nebula Award winners were announced yesterday, and Ann Leckie took home the big prize for her novel Ancillary Justice.  I haven’t read this one, but everyone I know who has, gives it high marks.  I’ve added it to my novel reading list, which seems to grow longer every year . . . sigh.  One of these days, I will get back to reading long form again.

Vylar Kaftan, who has written some great short stories, won for best novella with “The Weight of the Sunrise.”  I know Vylar from the Codex writing group, and I remember how excited she was when she sold this one to Asimov’s, so it’s great to see her win her first Nebula.

Aliette de Bodard’s “The Waiting Stars” took home the Nebula for best novelette.  Like almost all Aliette’s work, this is an excellent story and worth your time.  If you haven’t read it yet, I recommend you follow the link, find a quiet twenty minutes to read it—you won’t be disappointed.

Finally, and certainly not least, Rachel Swirsky’s short but solid “If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love” won the short story award.  This one just got edged out by different nominee on my ballot, but it is a moving story and worthy of winning.

Congratulations to the winners, and also to the nominees.  You all produced some great fictions and I look forward to more of your work in 2014.

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Out of the Rough?

Posted on May 14, 2014 by D. Thomas Minton

I feel a little like an absentee parent around here.  I’ve been neglecting my tiny patch of digital space, but I’ve had a good reason.  Really, I do.  If you’ve been following my infrequent updates this year, you know I’ve been in a bit of a dry spot with my writing.  Since finishing the first draft of a novella in February, I didn’t make progress on much of anything.  No revisions, no new stories, I wasn’t even keeping up with submissions very well.

I’d be lying if I said this dry patch didn’t concern me.  It did, and I think that actually made it harder to work my way out of it.  I wasn’t writer blocked.  I certainly had a lot of story ideas, I simply wasn’t getting it done.  Finally, I got sufficiently tired of that, and put away all of the things that could (and were) allowing me to be distracted.  I forced myself to slog through a story revision to the completion, which happened about ten days ago.

Inspired by that success, I decided to write a flash story and five days later, I submitted the final manuscript to–well, let’s just say it’s out there where it should be in a slush pile.  I finished another revision yesterday, and that story is also now out in the cruel world looking for acceptance (but likely to find rejection, at least for a while).  Today, I’m turning my attention to another story revision, a “horror” short story with a twisty ending that needs work, and I have another flash story idea queued up to write as soon as the revision is done (or maybe earlier, if the right inspiration comes).  Oh, and I refreshed submissions; the rejected stories sitting around collecting dust are back out hunting for homes.

This all feels great, even if I still have the nagging feeling that I’m not all the way back on track again.  Finding the way out of a rough patch is always tough, especially in a field where rejection is the norm and success the exception.  Maybe after I finish the next revision I’ll shake those final concerns and really get rolling again.

Oh, and I plan to visit here more often, too, so keep your eyes open for more frequent updates.

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Celebrate Small Victories

Posted on April 30, 2014 by D. Thomas Minton

The writing has been coming slowly for a couple of months now, so I feel good that I’ve finally finished a story today!  Sure I cranked out a first draft of a novella in January, but that draft hasn’t gotten any farther, which bothers me (I wanted to put it on the shelf for a little while, but I didn’t want it to sit this long), and even worse, I wasn’t making significant progress on anything else.  I need to do a final clean-up edit on the story I just finished, but that will take only a day or two, and then it will be out the door.

A small success, but given how my writing has been going recently, I need to celebrate these small victories.  I have always expected there to be high and low points in my production—and there have always been good and bad stretches—but the recent low has been lengthier than I would like.  I’ve been trying a few different things to break out of the rut, and it seems to have work.  I hope that finishing this first story will be the beginning of a return to a high point.

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2014 Hugo Award Nominees (with links)

Posted on April 24, 2014 by D. Thomas Minton

I love Hugo Award time.  It brings me back to my formative years when I read a lot more science fiction than I do now.  In my late teens, I decided I wanted to read the best science fiction and fantasy novels I could, so I downloaded a copy of the Hugo Award winners all the way back to 1953, and started my quest to find and read them all.  It took nearly 20 years to find some of the more obscure titles, but I’ve read every single winner through 2007, before life got too busy for me to read many novels (although most of the 2007-2013 winners are in my to-read pile).  I didn’t care for a few of the books, but most were exceptional, and a few are among my all-time favorites.  Good memories there . . . .

But back to the present.  The nominees for the 2014 Hugo Award were announced last week.  I missed the announcement when it first came out, but I figured it out when I saw some congratulatory posts flying around the interweb earlier this week.  You can find a complete list of the nominees in all of the categories here, but here’s who has been nominated in the novel, novella, novelette, and short story categories (with links to online versions, if available, for the shorter works):

Best Novel:

• Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
• Neptune’s Brood by Charles Stross
• Parasite by Mira Grant
• Warbound, Book III of the Grimnoir Chronicles by Larry Correia
• The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson (yes, the whole series!)

Best Novella:

• “The Butcher of Khardov” by Dan Wells (Privateer Press)
• “The Chaplain’s Legacy” by Brad Torgersen (Analog)
• “Equoid” by Charles Stross (Tor.com)
• “Six-Gun Snow White” by Catherynne M. Valente (Subterranean Press)
• “Wakulla Springs” by Andy Duncan and Ellen Klages (Tor.com)

Best Novelette:

• “Opera Vita Aeterna” by Vox Day (The Last Witchking)
• “The Exchange Officers” by Brad Torgersen (Analog)
• “The Lady Astronaut of Mars” by Mary Robinette (Tor.com)
• “The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling” by Ted Chiang (Subterranean)
• “The Waiting Stars” by Aliette de Bodard (The Other Half of the Sky)

Best Short Story:

• “If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love” by Rachel Swirsky (Apex Magazine)
• “The Ink Readers of Doi Saket” by Thomas Olde Heuvelt (Tor.com)
• “Selkie Stories Are for Losers” by Sofia Samatar (Strange Horizons)
• “The Water That Falls on You from Nowhere” by John Chu (Tor.com)

Congratulations to all of the nominees.  The winners will be announce on August 17, 2014.

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D.J. Cockburn Wins the James White Award

Posted on April 22, 2014 by D. Thomas Minton

I learned over the weekend that a member of my writing group, Hopefull Monsters, has won the 2014 James White Award.  D.J. Cockburn is the second person I know to win this award, given annually to a non-professional speculative fiction writer (a couple of years ago, fellow Hopefull Monster Colum Paget won).  Winning the James White Award is probably only second in prestige to the Writers of the Future Gold Award for non-professional writers.  So, yeah, it’s a big one.

D.J. is a fantastic writer, and I’ve read his award-winning story, “Beside the Damned River.”  It’s an exceptional piece, and will be published in a future issue of Interzone as part of the prize.  Unfortunately for every winner there are many who don’t win, but the award committee also recognized Vina Jie-Min Prasad’s story, “Flesh and Bone,” with a special commendation (a win of sorts?).  I hope to read her story once it finds a nice home.

Congratulations to D.J.  He’s overcome a lot this past year, and is an inspiration.  I couldn’t think of a better person to win this year.  But next year is a new year, so if you’re eligible, get your story in on time (what do you have to lose).  And you better hope that another Hopefull Monster hasn’t entered . . . there’s still a few of us around here who haven’t won it yet . . . .

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Back in the Writing Saddle

Posted on April 11, 2014 by D. Thomas Minton

March was a lost month for writing.  I was disappointed, sure, but I also realize that everything in life has its ups and downs, ebbs and flows.  Considering how many months I had been productive with my writing endeavors, a slow month was bound to happen eventually.  March was that month.

So far April has been better, thanks primarily to the unexpected arrival of a movie script.  Last summer I was approached by a film maker from India, Sairaj Reddy, about turning my story “Still Life Through Water Droplets” into a short film.  After a brief negotiation, we settled on a deal and Mr. Reddy headed off to work on the script.  To be honest, I didn’t expect to hear anything more, so I was pleasantly surprised when Mr. Reddy contacted me again around the end of March and sent the script, asking me to look it over and to help with some of the dialogue.  I’m not a script writer, and I don’t even pretend to be one, but I agreed to help out, and the two of us reworked Mr. Reddy’s original script based on my story, and I think we’re close to something that both of us like.  The process has been fun and exciting, and I’ve learned a lot about what Indian film audiences like—non-linear story telling with twisty endings!

In addition I’ve gotten back to story editing, and I’m nearing the end of revisions on a story that’s been sitting on the shelf for a long time.  It’s set in the same world as one of my first and favorite stories, “Thief of Futures,” but isn’t a sequel or prequel or anything along those lines.  I hope to have that one out the door in the next couple of weeks.  Finally, I spent time one afternoon brainstorming ten stories ideas in ten minutes—calling it, cleverly (or not), ten-in-ten.  While I suspect more than half of them are lousy ideas, I’m excited about 2-3 of them, and I’ve been mulling them over in my head as I work on edits.  I think they will make decent stories, and I’m looking forward to fleshing them out more in the coming weeks.

So March is over (rejoice!) and April is here with promise of new stories in the submission queue, a movie script that should head into production soon, and some story ideas that I can’t wait to put into words.

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“Comes the Piper” Now Available

Posted on April 5, 2014 by D. Thomas Minton

My story “Comes the Piper” is now available in the current issue of Plasma Frequency.  This is probably the closest I’ve come to writing a horror story, but even so, I would probably describe it as “horrific” more than “horror.”  This is also the only story I’ve written that actually bothered me enough that I stopped writing it in the middle of the first draft.  I didn’t plan to return to it, but the story haunted me and wouldn’t go away until I forced myself to finish it.  I still get an unsettled feeling when I think about what I’ve written—there’s some dark stuff in my psyche, I guess . . . dark enough that I don’t want to think about it.

“Comes the Piper” is a good story, however.  Dark and subtle and horrific on many levels, it’s probably not one for the squeamish, but if you enjoy that kind of stuff, I hope you’ll check it out, and, more importantly, enjoy what you find.

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