Polenth's Quill

On Blogging About Yourself

noreply@blogger.com (Polenth) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 00:37:00 +0000

Something that gets missed off a lot of blog advice articles is the issue of topic. They're written as though any topic can find a niche and develop an audience. In a world where would-be-bloggers used common sense during topic choice, this would be true. Flower arranging won't be as popular as celebrity gossip, but there is still a core group of people who flower arrange as a hobby.

But those would-be-bloggers often don't have that common sense. They start their blog, post, promote it... and no one visits. Then they complaint because people aren't reading their content and they worked so hard and why can't they break into blogging.

What they don't realise is their topic sucks meaty chunks. Their chosen topic is themselves. And they're doing it like this:

Anecdotes are written like a personal diary. It's the way children write diaries, where they start with brushing their teeth in the morning and end when they get bored of writing. Most all-about-me bloggers have left behind the toothbrush, but will still ramble without an aim or structure.
Opinion pieces lack any conclusions. They'll ramble in a vague steam-of-consciousness way. It may be hard to figure out what the opinion actually is, as there's no firm statement. If the opinion is clear, the reasons why they think it are not. There's no way to engage in a conversation about it, because you're not sure what 'it' was supposed to be.
They're angstier than an angsty vampire. A fair number of the posts (if not all) are about the blogger rolling around in their pain. It's not clear exactly why they're upset. There is a generic terrible of awfulness that inhabits the world. Also, their best friend was mean to them.
There's nothing else. Most bloggers post some form of content as well as posts about themselves. Readers enjoy the content, then want to know more about the blogger. Balancing content / about me is a tricky thing, and I don't claim I always get it right*... but the all-about-me blog with no visitors doesn't have any kind of balance. There is no other content.

All these boil down to the same issue: the blog was never written with an audience in mind**. There's no attempt to be entertaining, relevant or anything a reader might actually want in a blog. If pressed about it, the blogger will say they're writing it for themselves and it's okay if no one reads it. But they think you're wrong and readers will find it interesting, so please tell them how to boost visitors.

At this point, anyone attempting to offer advice has probably knocked themselves out by hitting their head on the desk***.

There are things an all-about-me blogger can do to make the blog more accessible. Mostly by reversing everything I've said above. If life stories are written with a beginning, middle and end... if opinion pieces are structured and have conclusions... if the angst goes to die in a fire somewhere. All that will improve the blog, but it still isn't likely to make it a success. If the blogger was capable of turning daily life into Hyperbole and Half, they wouldn't be complaining about lack of visitors in the first place.

Which leaves reversing the last thing, and adding content which isn't about the blogger. It always comes back to this one in the end, because it's the piece of advice people are least likely to take****.

* When I focus too much on content posts, I get requests for more daily life posts. Only about the daily lives of my cockroaches, rather than me. Which goes to show, people can be totally interested in something as mundane as a life spent sleeping under cardboard and eating vegetables, so long there's an angle. For anyone who is set on posting the dull exploits of daily dullness, and doesn't want to take my other advice, here's an alternative: turn into a cockroach, because then everything you do will be interesting.

** I'll note there's nothing wrong with keeping a blog as a personal diary or a place to chat with friends. Not all blogs are intended to have a wider audience. But the writers of those blogs aren't complaining about the lack of fame and readers.

*** If you ever do try to help an all-about-me blogger, I recommend tying cushions to your head first. You'll look silly, but you'll be thanking me when the time comes to smash your head against hard objects.

**** Though excessive worrying about comment numbers is a close second. Even when people acknowledge they don't leave comments on half the blogs they read, they expect it to be totally different with their blog. After all, it's about them, so the pure awesome will make every reader comment.

2011 Nebula Nominations

noreply@blogger.com (Polenth) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 09:48:00 +0000

It's time for the happy award star again! This is my second year nominating for the Nebula Awards (and will be the first year where I get to vote on the final winners). Last year, I wasn't very prepared and hadn't read enough recent stuff in the long categories. This is because I'm one of those cheap people who wait for the paperback, so my reading is a little behind outside the short story realm.

But this year, I had a plan! And a budget for buying hardbacks (eased somewhat by the cheapness of ebooks, which replaced hardbacks where possible). Which meant my only real issue was finding novellas, which is a bit like hunting the snark, only without a beaver. I'm happy to say the plan worked and I filled all the categories this year.

I've attempted to sort each category into alphabetical order by author surname. Links are to free versions of the work (which may or may not be the original publication).

Short Story

Absinthe Fish - M. David Blake (Bull Spec)
High Society - Paolo Chikiamco [author] and Hannah Buena [artist] (Flipside Digital Content)
To Follow the Waves - Amal El-Mohtar (Steam-Powered: Lesbian Steampunk Stories, Torquere Press)
Staying Behind - Ken Liu (Clarkesworld)
The Ifs of Time - James Stoddard (Fantasy & Science Fiction Magazine)

Novelette

Widows in the World - Gavin J. Grant (Strange Horizons)
The Old Equations - Jake Kerr (Lightspeed)
Held Close in Syllables of Light - Rose Lemberg (Beneath Ceaseless Skies)
The Migratory Pattern of Dancers - Katherine Sparrow (Giganotosaurus)
Sauerkraut Station - Ferrett Steinmetz (Giganotosaurus)

Novella

The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow - Cory Doctorow (PM Press)
Theatre of Curious Acts - Cate Gardner (Hadley Rille Books)
The Man Who Bridged the Mist - Kij Johnson (Asimov's Science Fiction)
The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary - Ken Liu (Panverse 3, Panverse Publishing)
Silently and Very Fast - Catherynne M. Valente (WSFA Press) [Part 2] [Part 3]

Novel

Chime - Franny Billingsley (Dial / Penguin)
Wolf at the Door - J. Damask (Lyrical Press)
Trance - Kelly Meding (Pocket Books / Simon & Schuster)
The Quantum Thief - Hannu Rajaniemi (Tor / MacMillan)
The Freedom Maze - Delia Sherman (Big Mouth House / Small Beer)

Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation

Attack the Block
Captain America: The First Avenger
Doctor Who: The Girl Who Waited - Tom MacRae
Doctor Who: The Doctor's Wife - Neil Gaiman
Source Code

Andre Norton Award for Outstanding Young Adult Science Fiction or Fantasy Book

Also includes middle grade novels, as you might notice from my list.

Chime - Franny Billingsley (Dial / Penguin)
Wolf Mark - Joseph Bruchac (Tu Books / Lee & Low)
Zombie Tag - Hannah Moskowitz (Roaring Brook Press / MacMillan)
Akata Witch - Nnedi Okorafor (Viking Juvenile / Penguin)
The Freedom Maze - Delia Sherman (Big Mouth House / Small Beer)

2011 Roundup / 2012 Goals

noreply@blogger.com (Polenth) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 00:03:00 +0000

Christmas is done and I've eaten far too much chocolate. It's been a peaceful year, and in response to blog feedback for more about cockroaches, here is your Christmas cockroach of the year:

Ash eats his Christmas dinner

It's actually a little early for rounding up the year, as there's some time to go. I'm sure you'll survive. I didn't actually write out a goals post last year, but I'll fill in some of my goals as I ponder whether I made them.

Reading Books

In previous years, I've set the goal of reading one book published in the year (rather than always being lagged at least a few years). This year I wanted to read a good selection, so I could make Nebula nominations. I didn't keep count of exactly how many I read, but it was a lot. I won't have any issues filling the novel category this year.

I do have one more 2011 book set to arrive (Zombie Tag, by Hannah Moskowitz). But that's delayed because it's only just come out and Amazon haven't shipped it yet. That's what I get for being cheap on the shipping...

But anyway, I read a lot! I'll aim to do the same next year.

Writing Books

Though last year, I thought I'd be finished on the novelling front before now, I was being overly optimistic. During this year, I ended up ditching the end of my urban fantasy and rewriting it. The current status is that most of the rewritten book is done, has been critiqued and then edited. I have a couple of chapters left, which should be done before the year actually ends.

Which means it'll be on to my superhero novel in the early part of 2012.

Next year's goal will be querying the urban fantasy.

Writing Shorts / Poems

It was a quiet year for short stories, as I was focusing more on novels. But it wasn't without any success. I had my third pro sale and became an active member of SFWA, and I sold a story to the Fish anthology (Dagan Books), which'll be out early next year. I also sold a poem to Strange Horizons, which is a market I've been sending poetry to for some years.

I hope to balance up novels and shorts a bit better next year, as I'd like to get more shorts out there.

I also plan to have my picture book portfolio ready by the end of the year (I'm aiming for ten polished manuscripts). I haven't really decided what I'm going to do about picture books, but getting the stories ready is the first step.

Other Goals

I've always enjoyed art, but I don't have any formal training in it. Next year, I'm taking a beginner's course thingy. This goal is already underway, as I've signed up already.

Turning up is the theoretically easy goal, but my plan is to put any nice stuff I do from the course on my website. My art section hasn't had an update in a awhile. So by about the middle of the year, there should be new stuff.

I hope 2011 was fruitful for everyone else. Have a good new year!

Supermarket Product Swaps

noreply@blogger.com (Polenth) — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 06:58:00 +0000

As I drift around the supermarket, there are a few items out of place. Someone picked it up, saw something else they wanted, and realised they couldn't have both of them. Sometimes it's obvious - they left a similar product, because the other was on special offer. But every now and then, there are substitutions that make me wonder...

Hello Kitty Toy for Beer - You don't usually think of beer drinkers as dedicated Hello Kitty fans (mostly because Hello Kitty fans tend to be too young to buy beer), but apparently, this one was. Not such a dedicated fan that they placed the toy above the beer special offer, but there's always another day for buying Hello Kitty.
Bacon for Bread - The ultimate dilemma for fans of bacon sandwiches. If you can only have one part of the sandwich, what's more important... the bacon or the bread? Personally, I'd go for the bacon, even though this person went for the bread.
Brussels Sprouts for a Giant Lindor Truffle - I can see this one. They don't like sprouts anyway, so might as well spend their last cash on chocolate. (The truffle is a lie however... it's a large plastic round thing filled with little truffles, not the mega truffle it looks like from the wrapping. I want a real giant truffle, so I can eat the filling with a spoon. And then I want a lot of space to run off the sugar rush. Lots and lots of space.)
Potted Plant for Toilet Roll - Maybe they planned to grow the plant up, harvest the stems, pulp them and turn them into toilet roll. But then they saw the toilet roll and thought, "What was I thinking? I'll buy the ready-made stuff.... it has a puppy on the packet."

The customers aren't the only ones to blame. The shop decided to shelf mini marshmallows, to go in hot drinks, in the detergent aisle. The sweets or the hot drinks sections would have been too obvious. And it's one of the mysteries of the universe why shops think putting poisonous cut flowers next to vegetables is a good idea. You'd think edibility would trump being planty.

But the difference is those corporate decision makers aren't in the shop with me. When it's my fellow customers, there's always the chance that one day, I'll catch them at it and the mystery will be solved.

Strong Gingerbread / Vanillabread Recipe

noreply@blogger.com (Polenth) — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 06:04:00 +0000

I planned to bake some gingerbread men this year, as my gift to the family. The only thing in the way was I couldn't find a gingerbread recipe that fitted what I wanted - a version that was very strong, for the person who likes ginger sprinkled on their ginger; and a version with no ginger, for the ginger hater.

So I made the recipes up. As these recipes are mine, all mine, and not copyrighted to anyone but me, I'm posting them for the world (and if you thought I was joking in the blog tagline about random tangents, now you know it's for real... though this is the first time I've posted a recipe). It's a pretty standard gingerbread recipe, apart from the seasoning. But still, I can feel a certain amount of yayfulness for making it up and it working.

(In the end, I preferred the vanillabread men to the strong gingerbread men, but the family were split on which they preferred, so I take that as success).

Strong Gingerbread Men / Vanillabread Men

Most of the recipe is the same for gingerbread and vanillabread, other than a few exchanges of ingredients. Where the vanillabread differs, the difference is in square brackets, like so - [VM: Only do this for vanillabread!]

Makes about 12-15 biscuits, depending on the size/shape of your cutters. Don't forget to buy some stuff to decorate them afterwards.

175g (6 oz) black treacle (molasses) [VM: Honey instead of treacle]
115g (4 oz) soft dark brown sugar [VM: White sugar instead of brown]
1 large egg
25g (1 oz) unsalted butter
450g (1 lb) plain flour
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 pinch of salt

GINGERBREAD MEN SEASONING:

1 tablespoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

VANILLABREAD MEN SEASONING:

2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1. Mix the treacle, sugar, butter and egg together. This is easier if you get the butter out a little bit before, so it has time to warm up and soften. [VM: Also add the vanilla extract here.]

2. Sift the dry ingredients together (flour, bicarb, salt and dry seasoning).

3. Add dry ingredients to the soggy ingredients. Everything should now be in the mixing bowl. If the mix is too dry, add a splash of cold water. The final mix should be firm, smooth and difficult to stir... you don't want it runny, so only add enough water to mix in the ingredients. (For reference, the strong gingerbread needed half a cup and the vanillabread only needed a splash. This may vary depending on the exact ingredients you've used.)

4. Cover and put in the fridge for an hour.

5. Once cool, the dough should be reasonably firm. If not, add a little more flour.

6. Roll out to about half a cm (1/4 inch) thick and cut out shapes. Make sure to dust the surface and the rolling pin with flour, or it'll stick.

7. Place men on a tray - either lightly greased or covered in non-stick baking paper (I used paper, as one sheet will last for all the batches and it's easier to remove the cooked biscuits). Cook for 10 minutes in a preheated oven at 180 C / Gas mark 4.

8. Place on a wire tray to cool.

9. Decorate when cool with whatever you want. I used icing, sweets, crystallised ginger and edible silver spray.

Strong Gingerbread Biscuits (Left) and Vanillabread Biscuits (Right)

TASTE TIP: Strong gingerbread tastes slightly bitter, and isn't like the stuff in the shops. It can be a bit surprising if you're not used to it. If you want a less extreme basic gingerbread, swap the treacle out for some sort of light syrup/honey, and cut down the ground ginger to one teaspoon. You can also swap the dark brown sugar for light brown sugar or white.

ZOMBIE TIP: It comes out of the oven soft, but hardens as it cools. Don't cook for longer than 10 mins as it'll cool so hard you can use it as ammunition in the event of a zombie apocalypse.

PHOTO TANGENT: If you see a recipe claiming to include treacle and dark brown sugar, and the gingerbread is light golden brown, it's a stock photo or they didn't really use treacle. Treacle gingerbread comes out dark, as pictured here, because treacle is black. Always beware following a recipe no one has actually tried...

NaNoWriMo Hibernation

noreply@blogger.com (Polenth) — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 20:00:00 +0000

No More NaNo

I neglected to post a non-Nano post during the week, but this is the end... so you're free of NaNoing until next year anyway.

I hit the goal of four stories that could be polished and sent out. One is actually already out, as it was done earlier in the month. The rest will be edited and sent out soonish. So you can play the game of seeing if I sell them, here are the titles and with the rough genre/topic:

By Means of Clockwork Selection (Steampunk - Robot Ponies!)
An Abundance of Geometric Shapes (Steampunk)
The Rules of Safe Duck Keeping (Duck Farming)
The Road to the Beach (Surreal)

I did some other bits and pieces, including some notes for a new novel. I won't be starting that until the current novel is out and about, but it's good to have something prepared to move on to.

I didn't win, which is the usual. I'll finish on January 4, 2012 if I continued (I will continue writing, but not recording anything). If you took part, I hope you got something out of it, whether you won or not.

Nebula Reading

The end of NaNo also means the end of the Nebula reading posts. If you've found them useful/interesting, feel free to say. The next Nebula post will be early next year, when I'll finalise who I'm going to nominate.

Trance - Kelly Meding (Novel) At the end of the war between the superpowered Rangers and the villainous Banes, the remaining meta humans have their powers striped away by an unknown process. Fifteen years later, Trance's powers suddenly return. Realising this means the Banes will also have their powers back, she heads out to find her old teammates.

Wolf Mark - Joseph Bruchac (Novel / Norton) 17-year-old Luke has moved around constantly due to his parents working as spies, but now that his mother is dead and his father retired, he's hoping for a relatively normal life. Until his dad is kidnapped and he discovers his family's supernatural secret.

Chime - Franny Billingsley (Novel / Norton) As long as Briony Larkin remembers to hate herself and keep her secret - that she's a witch - she thinks all will be well in the Swampsea. But when Mr. Clayborn and his son arrive to drain the swamp, everything starts to unravel. Briony isn't the only one keeping secrets.

You may want to read a sample to see if the dialect throws you. A number of reviewers appear to have found it difficult to understand. I didn't think it was anything unusual, but I'm English.

The Freedom Maze - Delia Sherman (Novel / Norton) In 1960, Sophie is sent to stay with relatives at the remains of the family plantation. She meets a Creature in the hedge maze and wishes for a time travel adventure. The Creature obliges, sending her back to 1860, where Sophie is taken to be a mixed race slave. The longer Sophie stays in the past, the more real her life as a slave becomes.

I can't say I enjoyed the book as such. Some of the issues were too close to home for me, so I found it depressing. But that doesn't take away from the fact it's well written and engaging.

Like Origami in Water - Damien Walters Grintalis (Short Story) When Johnny starts to disappear, one body part at a time, his partner makes Origami animals to keep his spirits up.

Absinthe Fish - M. David Blake (Short Story) A surreal story about hypothetical fish and Schrodinger's cat. Published in the Spring 2011 edition of Bull Spec. And no, we're not related.

Fourth NaNoWriMo Update

noreply@blogger.com (Polenth) — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 06:31:00 +0000

I have a reprint out. "War of the Roses" (first appearing in Nature) is in the first issue of a new ezine, Comets and Criminals. They focus on Science Fiction and Crime/Mystery, among others (it's all in the name).

NaNoWriMo

One of the issues of doing shorts is some days, there isn't a starting point. At least with a novel, you know you can start where you stopped the day before. I wrote drips and drabs of things, but nothing seemed to be coming together. Then one evening, I wrote a whole story draft for a surreal thing about roads.

There isn't long to go now and I'm sure the stats are already laughing at me. However, I have stories, and my critique partner managed not to drop out this year. He's actually doing a novel, like sensible people.

I'll be finished on January 8, 2012.

Nebula Reading

Last week was flash fiction, so it's to the other extreme this week... novels (though one of the book I brought is in another category. It'll make sense when you get there). Most of my work was behind-the-scenes, as I've been reading novel extracts and looking for recommendations. I have a pile of new books to read before nomination time comes around.

These are a few I've finished and liked:

Akata Witch - Nnedi Okorafor (Novel / Norton) - Twelve-year-old Sunny feels out of place in Nigeria, both because she was born in America and she's an albino. Then she finds out she's a Leopard Person - someone with magical powers - and life gets even more complicated.

(Though it may sound it from the description, it doesn't fall into the magical albino trope. People's powers are influenced by their mind/body, but they're not created by them. Sunny is magical and albino, not magical because she's albino.)

Wolf at the Door - J. Damask (Novel) Jan Xu, a member of a werewolf pack in Singapore, has family issues to deal with and the repercussions of being a vigilante as a teenager. Then her sister Marianne returns, re-opening an old rivalry between them.

High Society - Paolo Chikiamco [author] and Hannah Buena [artist] (Short Story) This is a mythic steampunk ebook comic. In 1764, the Spanish have been driven from Manila in the Philippines, and place the blame on the British selling clockwork automatons to the locals. But the truth is closer to home.

The eligibility is more complicated here. It's an electronic publication available in the US, so should count as if published in the US. The word count makes short story the logical category (it's about 24 illustrated pages long, so short both ways).

I've either mastered the Nebula rules or not, but either way, I recommend the comic.

Steampunk at Waterstones

noreply@blogger.com (Polenth) — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 02:23:00 +0000

A local Waterstones added a steampunk shelf a little while back. It started out as a few books on a special stand, and has slowly mushroomed into a much bigger stand and a table. Last week when we brought a steampunk book*, one of the staff said they'd be launching the steampunk section this week.

No one in the family had any goggles, but we head out anyway. We had to edge past the evil elves** in Santa's grotto, but made it to the bookstore unharmed. The event was attended by the Hastings Steampunk Society in steampunk costumes, and there were displays of steampunk gadgetry. The itinerary said they'd be tea duelling*** later, though I wasn't around for that part.

The only thing I do wish is the bookstore had spread it out a bit. They could have cleared one of the display tables for a few hours, to spread the steampunkiness around (which would have make it easier to browse the steampunk books).

Just to prove steampunk really did invade the bookshop, here are some pictures:

One of the Krampus's minions. Note the pickaxe.

Steampunk stuff with some of the books on display.

Mechanical closeup. I don't know what it does either.

Goggle fashions. I'm not quite sure how you see wearing those, but they're nifty.

Steampunks from the Hastings Steampunk Society.

One thing I've been asked is what books they're stocking. I took photos this time, and have created a masterlist! (I may have missed some, and some books that were there in the last few weeks had been sold, but it's a snapshot in time. Or something like that.) Though it's not a bad list for finding steampunky books, I'd note some series didn't have all the books present (probably because they'd sold some). Some may be more Victorian fantasy than steampunk, but don't shoot the messenger... they were on the shelf****.

Novels

Captain Nemo - Kevin J. Anderson
The Martian Ambassador - Alan K. Baker
Phoenix Rising - Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris
Blameless - Gail Carriger
Heartless - Gail Carriger
The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters - G. W. Dahlquist
The Difference Engine - William Gibson and Bruce Sterling
Anno Frankenstein (Pax Britannia) - Jonathan Green
Native Star - M. K. Hobson
The Curious Case of the Clockwork Man - Mark Hodder
The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack - Mark Hodder
Johannes Cabal the Necromancer - Jonathan L. Howard
Johannes Cabal the Detective - Jonathan L. Howard
The Court of the Air - Stephen Hunt
The Kingdom Beyond the Waves - Stephen Hunt
The Rise of the Iron Moon - Stephen Hunt
Secrets of the Fire Sea - Stephen Hunt
Morlock Night - K. W. Jeter
The Osiris Ritual - George Mann
The Immorality Engine - George Mann
Ghosts of War - George Mann
The City and The City - China Mieville
Anno Dracula - Kim Newman
Whitechapel Gods - S. M. Peters
The Anubis Gates - Tim Powers
Boneshaker - Cherie Priest
Dreadnought - Cherie Priest
Ganymede - Cherie Priest
Necrophenia - Robert Rankin
The Mechanical Messiah and Other Marvels of the Modern Age - Robert Rankin
Retromancer - Robert Rankin
By Light Alone - Adam Roberts
Swiftly - Adam Roberts
Heart of Iron - Ekaterina Sedia
The Alchemy of Stone - Ekaterina Sedia
The Diamond Age - Neal Stephenson
The Bookman - Lavie Tidhar
The Time Machine - H. G. Wells
Retribution Falls - Chris Wooding
The Black Lung Captain - Chris Wooding
The Iron Jackal - Chris Wooding

Other Fiction

Steampunk! - Edited by Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant
Boilerplate: History's Mechanical Marvel - Paul Guinan and Anina Bennett
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (Volume 1) - Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (Volume 2) - Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill
Grandville - Bryan Talbot

Non-Fiction

The Emperor's Will - Compiled by John Blanche (Warhammer 40,000 art book)
Steampunk Style Jewelry - Jean Campbell
Steampunk: The Art of Victorian Futurism - Jay Strongman
Steampunk Sourcebook (Dover Pictorial Archives) - M. C. Waldrep

* I say 'we', but one of my other family members brought it. I plan to steal it. So it's both our book in a way.

** They were probably minions of the Krampus! (Oddly on Twitter, the people in #steampunkchat didn't appear to know about the Krampus. Whereas in Second Life's steampunk communities, he's a regular feature of the winter season. The subcultures have subcultures!)

*** I've never tea duelled, but my understanding is contestants dunk biscuits in tea and try to eat them without them falling apart.

**** I also find it best to stay well back from genre classification arguments, as they can be scary, scary places. I know at least one of the books I'd call steampunk, the author created a brand new genre for their book. It didn't catch on.

NaNoWriMo the Third: Ducks!

noreply@blogger.com (Polenth) — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 06:50:00 +0000

NaNoWriMo

I started the week with ducks. Someone on a forum asked a question about ducks. It wasn't anything really to do with the story I wrote, other than containing ducks (though judging by the direction the thread took, I suspect some commenters may enjoy my fantasy ducks). This is my story for polishing this week, though it's actually pretty much there already. Some stories just come out that way.

I also wrote more of the second story set in my steampunk world. This one focuses less on the technology (though it's still present) and more on science. The steampunk stories will need a lot more editing.

Overall, my word count is still behind, which isn't a surprise. I have warned people in the past that I'm the NaNo friend you can point and laugh at for a low word count. I'm progressing though, so I don't have any complaints. NaNo says I'll be finished on January 7, 2012 (I hope the apocalypse holds off for a few days).

Nebula Reading

I focused on reading flash fiction venues this week, but I do have one longer recommendation:

Attack the Block (Bradbury) A British science fiction film, which also had a limited US release. Sam is mugged on her way home, but makes her escape when a meteor strikes nearby. The gang is attacked by an alien from the meteor and they kill it. Soon, other aliens arrive and head for the block, forcing the gang to defend their home.

Well paced, with a focus on character development. It captures a number of the classism and racism issues on council estates, without approaching it like a lesson to be taught. It's more that the knowledge informs the direction of the story.

Now for the flash fiction. Here are some stories of 1000 words or less that caught my eye (all listed as short story, as there's no Nebula flash category):

The Girl-Shaped Jar - Camille Alexa (Short Story) It all starts with a forward about square watermelons.

Banshee Lullabies - Chazley Dotson (Short Story) About being a banshee in the modern world.

The Universe Reef - Tobias Buckell (Short Story) Life after the reef.

The Problem with Aquaman

noreply@blogger.com (Polenth) — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 21:37:00 +0000

Aquaman can talk to fish, breath underwater and swim really well. This is all fine and dandy when he's in his own story. The plot will centre around underwater happenings and all will be well.

The problem is when he's in a team of land-based superheroes. Most of their problems are on the land. The villains have bases on the land. This leads to increasingly ludicrous situations. "Oh no, the enemy's underground base has been flooded!" "Wait a minute, we can ask the victim's pet goldfish for information." Without these sudden contrivances, Aquaman ends up trailing along behind, his fish-talking swimming powers rendered useless by the villain setting up in the desert*.

Aquaman stands as an example of why some characters do better on their own, or in a team of similar characters (such as an underwater division of heroes). On his own, adventures in mysterious underwater kingdoms are awesome! In a team, it requires a tendency for places to flood or for the villains to decide they'd like a sea view. That isn't good for the plot or Aquaman.

Some characters were just designed to go it alone.

* Not that the desert is fishless, but it's not exactly known for abundant numbers of fish.

Poem at Strange Horizons and NaNo Two

noreply@blogger.com (Polenth) — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 19:04:00 +0000

Poems and NaNoWriMo

My poem "Missed Connection: Lizard in the Dog Park" is up at Strange Horizons. Yay!

In less yay, I spent most of the weekend asleep. Humbug on colds. I did get a blog post up, and I did some reading and writing, so it wasn't a total loss. But I have some catching up to do.

The original robot pony story is almost done. Contrary to how potentially silly the idea of worldbuilding around brightly-coloured robot ponies sounds, it's actually a serious story. Somehow, I ended up destroying London, but that's an occupational hazard with steampunk. I have a second story draft set in the same world, though I think robot ponies will be my polish-for-submission story of the week.

I'll be done by December 28, 2011, so the finish is getting nearer where it should be.

Nebula Reading

It was pointed out that giving people so much reading might hinder them in their completion of NaNo. This is true, but I'm unrepentant! Following the steampunky vibe for this week, I read Steam-Powered: Lesbian Steampunk Stories. A lot of the stories didn't really catch my interest and I didn't finish all of them. But there were a couple that stood out to me.

To Follow the Waves - Amal El-Mohtar (Short Story) Set in an alternate Syria, where the industry of dream crafting is being developed. Hessa struggles to craft a dream for her latest client, but gains inspiration after a chance encounter with a beautiful woman. An interesting technomagic premise, with some unexpected outcomes. (The link is for the Podcastle version)

Suffer Water - Beth Wodzinski (Short Story) In a post-apocalyptic wild west, Annie - a bounty hunter enhanced with clockwork parts - goes after the biggest bounty of them all.

(Though the book came out in January 2011, at least one of the stories is a reprint. As far as I could work out, these two aren't reprints. The Kindle edition has some formatting issues, so worth keeping that in mind if you're buying.)

Music Videos: Created Partners

noreply@blogger.com (Polenth) — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 08:07:00 +0000

Created partners are a classic of speculative fiction. Usually a person hurt or disillusioned with relationships creates a new partner. The theme stems from a fantasy of having the perfect romance with the perfect partner. But unlike a romance novel, there's a whole layer of creepiness in creating a perfect partner. It raises questions about free will and slavery. The reality may not turn out quite the way people were hoping.

'Coin-Operated Boy' - The Dresden Dolls

Music Genre: Dark Cabaret

Video Genre: Dark Cabaret

About the Band: The Dresden Dolls consists of Amanda Palmer and Brian Viglione.

About the Video: The lyrics and video sum up the creepiness of the created partner trope. The coin-operated boy (Brian) is the wish-fulfilment partner who won't hurt Amanda, but he's also "just a toy" who doesn't get a say in anything. It has a stage theme, with exaggerated stage makeup and scenery like a stage set.

(Being coin-operated seems like a hassle to me, as you kept having to unlock his coin compartment to get them out. And he'd rattle. But maybe I'm overthinking this...)

YouTube Links:

Coin-Operated Boy

'The Girl and the Robot' - Röyksopp featuring Robyn

Music Genre: Pop

Video Genre: Science Fiction

About the Band/Singers: Röyksopp is a Norwegian musical duo. Robyn is a singer from Sweden.

About the Video: There's nothing idealised about this relationship, either in the visuals or the lyrics. Flashbacks to the first meeting show a relationship that started well, but grew cold. The robot is not under Robyn's command, and decides to spend all day working instead of spending time with her. The images of Robyn at home and the robot at work share visual elements, which pulls it together nicely.

Also unusually for the created partner trope, the robot is not designed to look attractive. He's your usual blocky humanoid robot.

YouTube Links:

The Girl and the Robot (YouTube) - I believe this is the official one, but it's region locked and I couldn't check it.

The Girl and the Robot (Daily Motion)

'Robot Girlfriend Song' - Rhett and Link

Music Genre: Comedy

Video Genre: Geek

About the Band: Rhett and Link are comedy duo Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal.

About the Video: This video pokes fun at the robot girlfriend idea, and the male geeks who dream of such a girlfriend. One day, they'll realise that dating a female geek is a better solution (even if she doesn't come with built-in Solitaire and may steal your comic books).

YouTube Links:

Robot Girlfriend Song

'Busy ' - Olly Murs

Music Genre: Pop

Video Genre: Fantasy

About the Singer: Olly Murs is a singer from England.

About the Video: For those who like the romantic (if still creepy) side of created partners, this video has Olly creating a dream girlfriend (Rose) out of papier mache. His life with Rose is shown, in a very 70s world (possibly the only time when vomit yellow was fashionable). They hang out reading books, pretending to go for drives and eating popcorn. This one is speculative, but it takes a little while to get there.

YouTube Links:

Busy

NaNoWriMo and Nebulas: Update One

noreply@blogger.com (Polenth) — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 03:29:00 +0000

I hope everyone had a great Hallowe'en! We got new decorations this year, including an inflatable ghost and glitter spiders. And Tinkerbelle napkins, which weren't quite so scary, but they're magic.

This is the first of my NaNoWriMo updates, and will include ramblings on how I'm doing - both writing updates and how my reading for the Nebulas is going (as I'm also doing that during Nano... reading is good for inspiration). I'll be posting one update a week, and there will be non-NaNo stuff inbetween, so it won't be too much for non-Nanoing types.

NaNoWriMo

There's not much to say yet, as it's the first day. I've written 508 words as I write this blog, but I expect to have a full story draft done by the end of today. It's a short and somewhat strange piece about Mondays. One issue I did hit is Nano reset my timezone, so check your timezones!

My critique partner is also attempting Nano this year. He hasn't done it since the first time, when he dropped out and I did the professional writer thing.

I like the new stats feature saying how long it'll take to hit the target. I'll be done by February, 2012...

Nebula Reading

These are a few highlights of my search for things to nominate so far. I don't guarantee the eligibility of any of them. Nor do I guarantee I'll actually nominate them (as it depends how many things I end up with for each category... some nifty stories might not make it in). If you want to suggest things that I should look at, there's a previous post where you can offer suggestions.

Staying Behind - Ken Liu (Short Story) Set in the world after people upload themselves into computers, it's a melancholy story about those who chose not to upload.

Held Close in Syllables of Light - Rose Lemberg (Novelette) Vendelin has to travel overseas to complete a trade. But it's complicated when her friend, Taemin, stows away on the ship. This is a young adult fantasy adventure.

Widows of the World - Gavin J. Grant (Novelette) The Granny lives in a future where people can upload themselves into houses and other bodies, and send parts of their mind out to work while they're doing other things. The result is a surreal and layered story, of humans living lives very different to ours. But underneath it all, the basic motivations turn out to be not so different.

Becoming Human - BBC Three (Nothing, but was Bradbury) It's an offshoot of the BBC series Being Human. Becoming Human follows new characters. Adam, a forty-something vampire in a teenaged body, armed with poor social skills and outdated pop culture references. Christa, a reclusive werewolf. And Matt, the ghost of a murdered student. Together, they investigate Matt's murder.

This was serialised into short web episodes, with other clues posted inbetween (such as newspaper clipping, videos, photos and more).

I now think this isn't eligible, because I found out the videos were region locked (to the UK). Though it can be viewed via proxies and on YouTube, I suspect that doesn't count. Which is a shame, because I would have nominated it. However, there may still be English-language awards without that restriction, and I still think it's worth watching.

(Or if you're not in the right region, do a search on YouTube for 'Becoming Human', avoiding the evolution series of the same name).

Nebula Awards and Marginalised Writers

noreply@blogger.com (Polenth) — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 02:37:00 +0000

It's getting to that time of year where I'm catching up on my reading for Nebula nominations (which makes it sound like I'm an old hand, but I've only been doing it for a year... still, this was the time I started panicking last year).

To an extent, I wander around reading whatever I come across. But I'm also conscious of trying to find stories that often get overlooked. It's good to find them now, as it gives a chance to suggest other people read them and bask in their awesomeness.

But there's an issue. The sort of stories I'm trying to track down tend to be those by writers from marginalised groups*. They're the stories which don't get the discussion and fan squeeing, despite being something unique and worth nominating. So how do I find those stories?

One of the issues is that people who are marginalised have been told that they don't count all their lives. No one's going to want to read their stories. They're not the sort of writer who gets nominated for the Nebula, so why even bother thinking about it? On the other side, people from the dominant groups have been told the world revolves around them all their lives, and will be plugging stories in "pimp your story" threads, making sure copies are available to nominators/voters and otherwise ensuring that their story is at least read.

Being read is half the battle**.

That's sad, because I want to read those stories. If you are a writer who has self-selected yourself as someone not worthy of being nominated, slap yourself (not too hard - you need to be conscious for the next bit). Your stories are good, whether they're nominated or not. They are worth mentioning. It's not a waste of time to make sure the story is read by nominators/voters. You have as much right as anyone to post about your story in a "pimp your award eligible stories" thread. It's not pushy or obnoxious to tell people about your story when they've asked you to tell them.

And now I'm asking you. The comments thread is open to suggest a Nebula eligible story***. The full rules for eligibility are on the SFWA website, but in short, if it's published in the US in 2011, it's eligible. Ezines counts as in the US, regardless of country of the host/publisher. Feel free to suggest your own stories or someone else's****.

* I have a list around of books I enjoyed. Many of these were written by white middle-class heterosexual men. Many of the ones remaining are white middle-class heterosexual women. This isn't because they wrote the best books in the world, but they wrote the best books of those I read during my younger years. Because basically, pretty much everything I had available to read when I was younger was written by someone in those categories.

So if anyone is about to pull "but you should pick the best story", that's totally what I'm going to do. I don't nominate stories because someone is from X group (or not nominate them because they're from Y). But I don't want my initial pool of stories to choose from to only be from one segment of the population. It's ludicrous to suggest that only one group in society is capable of producing the best stories of the year.

** The other half is seeing that reading translate into nominations. Last year, I think it did. The Nebulas had a good diversity of initial nominations and stories on the final ballot. This didn't translate to the winners, but it was a first step.

*** If you don't want to post it publicly, I can be emailed at polly@polenthblake.com. I may not reply to suggestions emails, but I will read them. However, I would note that you can post anonymously to my blog, and it'll get a wider audience if you do.

**** Though I'm welcoming suggestions by marginalised writers, you don't have to be to post. Don't question too much if you should or shouldn't. If you're eligible, be bold. If you still feel awkward, suggest someone else you think is awesome at the same time.

Writing Diary: Novels and NaNoWriMo 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Polenth) — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 21:53:00 +0000

In which I ramble about novels and NaNoWriMo. Also, coming up soonish will be my poem in Strange Horizons and story reprint in Comets and Criminals. But for now, back to the rambling.

Novel Progress

The novel is coming along well. I can't say for sure whether I'll be querying before the end of the year, as that depends on other people. I want to get some feedback before I roll it up and hit agents with it, and people provide feedback at the speed they do. But I can say that unless I get struck by a bus, I'll have done my bit by then.

I have a basic query written, the rough draft of a synopsis and neatened up my website a bit*. Scary times will be approaching.

NaNoWriMo

This year for Nano, I'm going to be a rebel! I don't really know what novel project I want to write next, so I'm going to take a break and write some short stories. As well as aiming to hit the basic word count, I'm also aiming for four to be polishing and ready for submission at the end (roughly one a week). My general guidelines set for my rebellion:

The stories don't have to be related.
Any length up to novella will count as short.
Picture books and easy readers will count as short stories, but won't count towards my polished and ready total. I do hope to have a few polished by the end though, as I'd like to get a little portfolio of them ready (picture books are difficult to sell and most agents don't handle them... so it's good to have some ready in case opportunity strikes. Saving a children's editor from a rampaging T-rex. That sort of thing.)

I have a few story ideas in the wings. After the Tor.com post on lesbians in steampunk, I appear to have created a world revolving around the need for hordes of robot ponies. You can make anything sound logical with the power of science.

For picture books, I'm going to write about undead pets. I noticing a disturbing lack of zombie picture books on the Halloween shelf this year. We've got to start teaching children about zombies when they're young, so they're prepared when the zombie apocalypse comes.

I usually say at this point that people are welcome to buddy me, but the buddy system is currently down. However, when it does get going, you're welcome to add me: My NaNoWriMo Profile

Lolcats Beta

Cheezburger is running a beta for a new sites feature. It's basically like a public favourites list... you select lols from around their network of sites. I got a beta invite thing to it (this either means I'm a fine upstanding citizen or I spend too long playing with lolcats). Either way, I started one for sci fi and fantasy (with a few science fact ones thrown in). Unlike their official site for such things, I've focused mainly on captioned animals and other silliness, rather than captioned screenshots from TV programmes.

Here it is: Science Fiction and Fantasy Fun

Overall, it's fun. Not all the features are rolled out yet (including some basics, like being able to add comments). But I can see it catching on as a way to highlight niche themed stuffs.

Yes, this isn't really writing related, but it involves kitten pictures. So it counts.

* On the website note, it now has a poetry section. A couple are ones I had published. The rest are new.

NAinUF: Characters II - Supporting Roles

noreply@blogger.com (Polenth) — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 08:31:00 +0000

The previous post looked at the roles of Native American main characters. This one is about all the rest, with a particular focus on love interests (as the major supporting role that exists).

Part III will discuss how a character is identified as Native American.

~ Trigger Warning: Discussion of Sexual Assault. ~

Love Interests

Books closer to the urban fantasy/horror end often have white love interests, but some of the more paranormal romance end have Native American love interests. This is usually a man, set opposite a Northern European or mixed race woman (who as described previously, is intended to represent a Northern European woman in most cases, even if she's mixed).

Unlike main characters, the love interest is emphasised as being other and mysterious. Descriptions of the love interest tend to be exoticised, focusing on him as savage, animalist and otherwordly. He has flashing black eyes and ebony hair. These will be mentioned frequently. In addition, it's rare for him to be mixed race and he will have grown up on a reservation.

This is likely to be an import from the romance genre, where there's a market for books with innocent white women falling into the arms of Native manly men. The reader is expected to identify with the white woman, not the Native American man.

There are a couple of underlying reasons for this trope:

Sexual Stereotypes. There's a general stereotype of non-white people being highly sexual. The men will rape you (if you're a pure white woman). The women and children are there to be raped. This is because they're savage, so rape doesn't impact them or hurt them, unlike civilized white people! It shouldn't need to be said that this is an ugly stereotype. It's been used as justification for violence against people all over the world. Not just at the individual level, but as justification for taking over people's countries.

In American history, white men would ride out to capture Native American women to gang rape them. If the women's husbands tried to stop it, they'd be shot.

In modern times, it hasn't stopped being an issue. Native American women have a higher chance of being raped than other women (and Native American men probably do too, but in general, men are less likely to report rape). There are still survivors of some of the missionary schools, where Native American children were raped by white missionaries. In 2011, the Jesuits agreed to pay $166 million to some of the victims of this sexual abuse. This issue is still causing damage right now.

When a love interest is portrayed using this stereotype, it comes with a lot of hurtful history and racist baggage.

This doesn't mean he can't be sexy, but when he's described as savage, uncontrollably sexual and intending to force his interest on white women... there's a problem.
White Guilt. Sometimes people feel guilty because their ancestors did bad things. They write a story where ~~they~~ their main character falls in love with a Native American man. The main character is the ultimate anti-racist. No racist thoughts have ever crossed her mind and everyone in her new family will accept her without any comment, because she's just that great. This is often tempered with other white people being horribly racist, showing the enlightenment of the heroine*.

It's not a helpful position to take, as it deals with guilt by promoting a stereotype (rather than tackling modern racism, which includes stereotypes in fiction). It turns the love interest into a statement rather than a character.

And basically, it's a major dose of wish-fulfilment, at the expense of the Native American characters. Don't be this author.

The lack of reality in the relationships can be shown by the lack of realistic obstacles. There may be demons and ancient prophecies keeping them apart, but it's unusual for the heroine and love interest to discuss, or deal with, any repercussions of an interracial relationship. They won't consider if the children can be tribally enrolled, for example. The heroine doesn't have to challenge her own internalised prejudices as she enters into the relationship. She's usually depicted as effortlessly not having any. It's as though modern media never happened to her.

Other Characters

A few other supporting roles for Native Americans include:

The villain. Skinwakers and wendigos get a lot of love (hate?). This isn't surprising, given they're scary stories that fit well into a genre with horror leanings. What is noticeable is few books follow the original Native American stories. Skinwalker is used to describe a whole lot of things, most of which wouldn't be called a skinwalker by a tribe with such stories.

It does raise a few eyebrows if the villains are the only Native Americans in the book, though many urban fantasy authors appear to have some awareness of this... if the protagonist is white, they'll get assistance from a not-evil Native American.
Mystical mentor, offering sage advice to the main character, but having no apparent motivations of his/her own. In books by Native American authors, older people who are wise are common, but they have personalities and motivations.
Family. Though being estranged from family is not uncommon, some characters do have family connections. Generally non-Native authors focus on parents and siblings. Native American authors have those too, but there's a stronger focus on grandparent/grandchild relations, as well as aunts, uncles and cousins.

Animal People Coyote

Though not Native American in the human sense, animal people** are common supporting characters***. However, the way they're depicted is imbalanced. Coyote is usually the one included, often to the exclusion of any of the others (if there is another, it will be Raven). Some books gloss over even mentioning that others exist, as though Coyote is a stand-in for a monotheist god.

Coyote also tends to be remarkably nice. In one book, this was taken to the extreme of him not doing anything trickstery at all. He was honest and helpful. Making a few jokes does not make someone a trickster.

Possibly some authors are worried they'll offend by having Coyote do bad things, but having a squeaky clean Coyote doesn't really work. This is one of those times when people might have taken being respectful the wrong way. It doesn't mean Coyote has to be portrayed in a way he certainly isn't in Native American stories****.

Thoughts on Supporting Characters

Stereotypes tend to make characters who are as flat as a pancake. Urban fantasy has a whole lot of pancakes. Love interests are prone to some of the worst of the stereotypes, complete with exoticising and squickiness. Other support types don't escape completely, with the old mystical wise person stereotype creeping in.

Some of it though, is just a little strange. Like the abundance of skinwalkers who aren't skinwalkers.

In many ways, the feeling here is the same as main characters: that the audience isn't intended to contain Native American readers. But there are also hints at some awareness of causing offense, such as cleaning up Coyote. It's almost as though some authors are on the edge of realising their audience is broader. They just haven't quite got there yet.

* Regular readers of the blog might find this very familiar. Where have we seen a special white woman, going to live with indigenous people and being totally anti-racist, when everyone else was so racist? It's Marlo Morgan among the Australian aboriginal people. The only difference is she didn't have an aboriginal love interest.

** 'Animal people' is another of those terms that tends to be more common in anthropologist circles.

*** Animal people weren't common supporting characters in the urban fantasy books by Native Americans. This is one of those times where an author's reading list needs to be wider, because there is Native-authored fiction featuring animal people elsewhere. It's also perhaps a commentary on non-Native authors tending to focus only on animal people stories. Native authors draw from a wider range of stories.

**** Doris Seale comments on the issue of respect towards Coyote, in a review of Jonathan London's "Fire Race: A Karuk Coyote Tale" (quote taken from: "A Broken Flute: The Native Experience in Books for Children"):

London treats his Coyote with a whole lot too much respect. Coyote is not really a person we honor, in that way--more like, you better have a healthy respect for his ability to make trouble, and keep out of his way--even if you laugh at him.

Respect isn't about turning everything into Disney. After Pocahontas, I'd hope people realise Disneyfying can be the opposite of respect.

# The book cover is 'Savage Beloved' by Cassie Edwards - a classic example of the romance tropes involving Native American love interests. Urban fantasy may be less blatant about it, but this is the book cover I'm thinking of when I see those tropes in urban fantasy.

Dagan Books Fish Acceptance

noreply@blogger.com (Polenth) — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 22:34:00 +0000

Some time ago, I wrote a piece of whimsical absurdism. I was soon to discover it's hard to sell absurdism. And by hard, I mean some of the rejections I got implied the slush reader wanted to take my keyboard, burn it, stomp on the pieces, then burn it again, so I wouldn't write another just like it.

Then as I was browsing market listings, I came across an anthology for fish stories. My first thought being: "I have a story about fish!"*

I read the submission call and it sounded like they just might appreciate absurdism. So off went my fishy absurdism story, and I braced for a keyboard-burning rejection. It wasn't that fast though, because it hadn't reached the cut-off date and the publisher put out a few blog posts in the meantime. I didn't make any of the most common cover letter mistakes, and my fish were real fish, but I quailed somewhat when goldfish were listed as one of the most common submissions. I should have guessed they would be, but I was in originality denial. I continued the denial by convincing myself that my goldfish were different.

But they didn't want to burn my keyboard. "Thwarting the Fiends" will appear in Dagan Books 'Fish' anthology, coming out early in 2012. Yay for absurd fish!

It turns out I know or speak to a number of the authors on the list, and if I try to list them, I'll probably forget someone (or end up listing half the list). So instead, here's a link to Dagan's post:

Fish Table of Contents

* This isn't really a surprise. Probably more surprising is I only had one story about fish.

# The cover art is by Galen Dara.

The Revenge of the Search Terms

noreply@blogger.com (Polenth) — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 00:16:00 +0000

Following up my previous post on search terms leading to this blog, I've gathered more from the depths of my stat dungeon. Why someone was searching for these and what brought them to my site, I don't know. All I know is I don't think they found whatever they were looking for.

I hat my school (And I trouser your search term!)
What is wrong with guys that aren't interesting to women (I imagine what's wrong is they aren't interesting. If you are such a guy, I recommend finding some hobbies. Take up knitting. Golf. Pen spinning. Or if that fails, buy a kitten. Maybe I'm missing a niche for eccentric dating advice.)
55555555555555555 (This actually leads to one of my blog posts, but I haven't figured out why anyone is searching for this number. What's important about it? Does it unlock the secrets of the universe? Maybe they're relying on me to say why it's important.)
Scary rabbit teeth (As anyone bitten by a bunny will know, they do have some pretty scary teeth on them. But I maintain they're not very scary when they're not attached to the rabbit.)
Fluffy bunny in shark costume (I feel bad this one led nowhere. Just to show I do listen to blog feedback, I've inserted the aforementioned picture below.)

That's all for this year's crop. May the strange searches continue, and I hope the sharkbunny means one more happy searcher somewhere.

Prejudice and the Personality Problem

noreply@blogger.com (Polenth) — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 00:23:00 +0000

Every now-and-then, the blogosphere erupts as a specific someone faces prejudice/discrimination of some form. Or a specific person is being prejudiced/discriminatory. Either way, people have a person in mind.

It doesn't take long for the personality problem to rear up. The issue is that no person is perfect (or completely flawed), so making it about a person leaves holes. Discussing those holes draws the discussion away from the actual problems. In some cases, it turns out it wasn't actual discrimination in that specific case... but obviously, this doesn't stop there being an overall problem. It doesn't make the institutionalised discrimination go away.

The most recent of these is about LGBT representation in young adult fiction. It fired off with a post from two authors, who said they'd be asked to de-gay a novel. The agency apparently in question also has their side of the story out (short version: they say they didn't say that). The result is there's a lot of discussion about the specific event and who is right or wrong. There's a whole lot less about the actual issue of institutionalised homophobia.

Easy to lose in the crowd is Malinda Lo's post, with statistics for LGBT representation in YA. As well as looking at overall representation, she split it down into categories. It's not surprising that gay boys outnumber the LBTs, as this frequently happens in awards, communities and other groups aiming to support LBGT rights. And there are the letters that often don't get listed, but also suffer from lack of representation*.

Sometimes, personalities can get people talking. But often, they're used as an excuse to stop talking about the issue and start focusing on the individuals involved. The thing is, institutionalised discrimination really isn't about individuals. It's about the larger systems in place, which are often taken for granted and not challenged. It isn't all one person's fault - they're only a small part of the problem. There isn't only one victim - it's a system that impacts everyone in it.

So does it really matter who is right and who is wrong? It doesn't stop the issue of LGBT representation in YA from existing. We've still got a problem and we're not going to solve it by focusing in on a handful of personalities**.

* QUILTBAG adds in letters and expands some, to include queer, genderqueer, asexual and intersex (among others).

** A good readerly solution is to support books by under-represented authors or about under-represented groups. A few handy links for your perusal:

Diversity in YA - Includes blogs and recent book recommendations.
Christine A. Jenkins Young Adult Gay/Lesbian Bibliography
Carl Brandon Wiki: List of People of Color in SF
Writers of Color 50 Book Challenge - A community discussing (and reading) books by PoC authors.

[It shouldn't need to be said, but based on the comment threads of some other posts I've read today, I'll make it plain... homophobic comments won't get through comment moderation. If you want to say how terrible it is that gay people are in books because you might catch the gay from the pages, take it to your own blog.]

Musings of an Adult Picture Book Reader

noreply@blogger.com (Polenth) — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 05:24:00 +0000

I've always loved picture books. That section of the book shop is a must-visit area, I have my own little book collection and my artwork is clearly picture book inspired (even if it took someone else telling me that to realise what I was doing).

So it surprised me when I first got involved with online writing groups and started to see picture book manuscripts put up for critique. I didn't expect them to be perfect. But many showed no understanding of picture books. It was clear the writer was relying on a vague memory of stories they might have read as a child, rather than having read any picture books recently.

This is in contrast to adult books, where the majority of writers do read other books for adults. The few that don't stand out and are note-worthy. For picture books, it's more note-worthy to come across someone who reads them.

In my ponderings about what makes the lack of reading stand out, I came up with these points*. A picture book reader might still get these wrong, but they'll get more of it right.

Lack of Repetition - Repetitions are very common. The age range for picture books is the endless repeat age. This is when I watched The Swiss Family Robinson film so many times, I don't think my family can bring themselves to watch it ever again. Just mentioning the words 'Swiss Family Robinson' is enough to elicit shudders.

Common forms of repetition are:
- Repeated words and phrases.
- Repeated events, such as a similar conversation with three different people or repeating the same action several times (searching for Spot in Where's Spot?).
- Pseudo-repeats on a page. Some made up examples: "He searched in the woods. He searched in the house. He searched in the garden." or "Her nose was green. Her eyes were red. Her feet were blue." These are often shown with each line having a mini illustration.
On its own, lack of repetition wouldn't be a major alarm bell. But with everything else, it does stand out.
Too Many Descriptions - Picture books usually rely on the pictures to describe, and leave the text for the other senses (in Norman the Slug with a Silly Shell, the text never says that his shell is a doughnut - the pictures tell that part of the story). This isn't an 100% rule. Text descriptions may comment on colour, size and so forth. But in general, the amount of visual description is small. Yet in the non-reader picture book attempts, it's often mostly visual description, as though it were a novel.
Too Many Challenge Words - What I call a challenge word is one a child may struggle over. A book intended to be read aloud by an adult will have more challenge words than one a child is intended to read, but there's still a risk in having so many, it becomes impenetrable.

The usual justification for this is it's intended to teach them the words. You won't teach anyone anything if they can't understand it and give up.
The Wrong Level of Challenge Words - For a young reader, challenge words include: unfortunately, suddenly and usually. Common words for an adult reader, but not for a young child. When a child is still struggling to read yellow and orange, they're not ready for amaranthine and vermilion.

Which isn't to say picture books don't use unusual words. The Gruffalo forces children to sound out a name they've never heard before, but the rest of the text is relatively straight-forward. Gruffalo is also said as it's written, which is always a plus for challenge words.

If you had a book with vermilion, that's your difficult word. It should not be surrounded by a multitude of equally hard words.
Lack of Plot - Most picture books have a plot. Those that don't need a strong concept to carry it through (Aliens Love Underpants), and still need some form of escalation and wrap-up at the end. A plotless book about playing with a train set is going to have trouble competing with the aliens.
Adult Characters - Main characters are often children or animals. Even the humble inanimate object gets more book time than adult characters. For an adult character to work, the adult has to be childlike in some way or do something children would like to do (the adult character in Dinosaurs and All That Rubbish builds a rocket ship to visit the stars). Yet most people with adult characters have the adults do adult things. They go on dates, get married, go to their day job... this lacks excitement.
Adult Topics - Themes such as torture, child abuse and rape are all a little much for a toddler learning to read. Darkness is more implied at this age (think of the song 'Algie Met the Bear'), and tends to involve slime, bogies and children coming to sticky ends for being bad. You're aiming for icky and/or creepy rather than an 18-rated slasher horror movie**.
Teaching a Lesson, Sledgehammer Style - Picture books may teach a lesson, but it should be part of the story, not something delivered with the finesse of a sledgehammer. Picture books don't need a South Park "I learnt something today".

And they don't have to teach a lesson (I like to joke that The Gruffalo teaches kids that lying is great, as long as you're smart enough to get away with it).
Teaching a Subject, Classroom Style - Picture books often include things that may teach, such as having items of named colours, showing directions (he was on the table and she was under the table) or having a character counting something. However, the story shouldn't stop for a lesson in colours. It's a story, not a school lesson.

There are picture books that show basic concepts only, without a story, but there are many books in this market already. It's hard to stand out when your concept is basic and your book has no plot. These books are also unlikely to be ones children read again and again.
Rhymes - Seeing rhymes isn't an immediate "they don't read picture books", as there are clearly books that make poetry work. But it's remarkable how many people believe picture books must rhyme. Many who attempt rhyming books aren't poets and it shows. Rhymes are forced and the rhythm is off.

If you're not a poet, let go of the rhymes. Dr Seuss makes it look easy, but it really isn't.

All of this isn't to say there weren't any good books. Some of them put my own attempts to shame. But there could be a whole lot more, if only people took the time to read picture books before trying to write them.

* I'm not commenting on marketing issues, as that isn't something that's immediately obvious from reading. And who knows, if you're awesome, you may write a rhyming book about an office worker and have it sell.

** Watch out for Saw: The Picture Book. I've blogged before about not over-sanitising children's stories, but it can be taken too far the other way. Such stories should entertain them, not traumatise them.

# Books mentioned in this post: Norman the Slug with a Silly Shell (Sue Hendra); The Gruffalo (Julia Donaldson [author] and Axel Scheffler [illustrator]); Dinosaurs and All That Rubbish (Michael Foreman); Aliens Love Underpants (Claire Freedman [author] and Ben Cort ([illustrator]); Where's Spot? (Eric Hill).

For Want of a Title

noreply@blogger.com (Polenth) — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 09:10:00 +0000

I've seen many things in critique forums, but only rarely do I see people critiquing the title*. For novels, chances are the editors will change it anyway if it's pants. But the same isn't true for shorts, where they often get published with the original author-chosen title. If the title is pants, it's important for critiquers to say so.

Often, it isn't that the title is completely silly. It describes the story well enough. It's just that for shorts, you're competing against the other stories in the table of contents. You want your story to be the one the reader chooses to read first (even in print markets, I don't start at the beginning and read through... I'm not alone in that).

Several months later, you want the reader to remember that title and be able to find it. Call your horror story "The Vampire" and the battle is lost.

It isn't easy to define what makes a distinctive title. It'll vary from reader to reader**. But then, that's what public critique is for... getting a range of opinions. So next time throws you a short for critique, spare a moment on the title.

* And most times I do see such critiques, it's to tell the author they can't call their vampire romance "Twilight". Though avoiding popular titles is a good thing to mention, it's not the only thing.

** You're welcome to give examples of titles you've loved in the comments (loving your own title doesn't count).

Writing Diary: Sales and Manchester

noreply@blogger.com (Polenth) — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 03:23:00 +0000

These are a few writing news things, delicately blended with an airport-related anecdote.

SFWA Upgrade

My third short fiction pro sale was in July (to ChiZine), so I've now upgraded to an active member of SFWA (I actually did it back in July, but I've been busy on my adventures). I'll now be able to vote for the Nebula awards. Yay!

Something I've noticed is how confused many people are about the joining requirements for SFWA. I imagine because they're relying on rumour, rather than reading the site. Myths include online markets not counting and only magazines by big publishers counting. So to add to the rumours, neither of those are true. Markets have to meet pay and readership requirements, but many on the list are online and small press/indie.

Sales

I've sold a poem to a nice place, but until I've signed the contract, that's all I'm saying. It'll be on my bibliography as soon as it's official. I've also sold a story reprint to a new ezine, Comets and Criminals. You've probably read my story, but it'll have new stuff by other people too.

Manchester Airport

Never take a connection through Manchester airport. I knew something was up when I got off the plane and there were two signs. One pointed the way for new arrivals, down a large and airy corridor. The other pointed the way for flight transfers, though a small corridor with no one else in it. Some cleaning supplies were discarded at the edges, as though it lead into a staff area. I hesitated, but it did say it was transfers, so I trusted the arrows.

The signs lead me down some narrow stairs, to some corridors that continued to look like a staff area, and through a regular-sized-door (which by then, I wondered lead into a staff room). There I waited with a few other brave souls for the bus. A bus that came every ten minutes, when my flight was boarding in fifteen minutes.

After the bus arrived, I discovered why it only came every ten minutes: it took that long to get to the transfer centre. We drove out of the main airport area, into some back streets where they stored the ground vehicles. If you're looking for a tour of the working areas of airports, Manchester transfers are the place to be.

Eventually, it stopped at the transfer centre, but it wasn't over that easily. The transfer centre's main desk was staffed by one person, who had to issue boarding cards to everyone travelling with American Airlines. The room was remarkably full of people, most appearing to have fallen asleep due to the slow processing.

With uncharacteristic boldness, due to my hatred of desks, I went to the front of the queue and said "I have a boarding card. Can I just go through?"

Initially he said no, but then he realised I was getting a domestic flight, so let me escape. The security check was strangely fast for this airport... and then it was customs. A single lady at a desk (they have a thing for desks with only one staff member). UK citizens just need their passports scanned, taking approximately two seconds. The American couple ahead of me, who'd failed to fill out their customs forms correctly, took a lot longer.

Once the couple finally figured out how pens worked, I got my passport scanned, and was deposited by another sign pointing to flight transfers. There was a moment of dread as I sprinted across the airport, that I'd have to get yet another bus. I wouldn't be on the flight if I had to wait another ten minutes. But the flight transfers signs gave way to gate number signs. Getting to a gate in the hundreds from the starting point of gate one was a fair distance, but there were at least not too many people in the way.

Always pack your hand luggage into a backpack. It makes running much easier.

I arrived late, but the flight was slightly delayed, so it all worked out in the end. If I had been travelling overseas, I never would have got my boarding card in time, even with the flight delay. And if I hadn't realised the sign was wrong about needing to wait in the queue, I might have missed the flight for no reason. The only upside is my baggage clearly had an easier time of it, and arrived without any issues at my final destination. Next time, I'm disguising myself as a suitcase.

Women in SF: Making UK Writers Invisible

noreply@blogger.com (Polenth) — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 11:15:00 +0000

Discussions of international speculative fiction tend to be very US-centric. Even when talking about diversity, it tends to be the diversity within the USA, not the diversity outside of it. This doesn't go away when a discussion is trying to be more inclusive. In fact, it causes a problem which affects me directly. The problem starts because discussions often go something like this:

"USA! US US US US US. Okay, now let's talk about somewhere other than the US or UK. Rest of the world, ahoy!"

And I'm thinking, "Wait a minute... we didn't talk about the UK."

It's not that I'm against talking about the rest of the world. It's a good thing, and I don't like to say my thoughts during those discussions for that reason (I think such discussions have already been derailed if they spend most of the time talking about the USA, so I'm not going to re-derail them). But this US = UK attitude is part of the US-centrism problem. It assumes the US represents the UK, in terms of culture, language and publishing.

The Women in SF debates have been a good example of differences between the US and the UK. In Cheryl Morgan's look at women being published in SF anthologies, the UK has a worse track record of publishing women who write science fiction than the US. When an editor was from the UK, only 16% of stories were by women. When the editor was from the US, 33% of stories were by women*.

Yet in the discussions, people were happily saying "well, if there aren't enough women writing SF in the UK, just invite some women from the US."

The problem in the UK isn't that women aren't writing science fiction, but that such women are considered to be mythical (other than a few exceptions) and that editors don't publish them very often (because they don't exist!)**. Hiring US writers in their place just encourages that invisibility. The more people say "hire US women then", the more invisible I feel, because it means the person saying it agrees with the general premise: that women writing science fiction in the UK simply don't exist to be hired.

Many prefer to focus on helping a hypothetical set of women, who might possibly write science fiction, given the right encouragement. The right encouragement being to hire women who aren't in the UK. As the hypothetical women are hypothetical, they aren't going to complain.

There aren't any easy solutions to this, but the first step is to acknowledge that there are women writing science fiction in the UK. They're just not getting published very often. Some may end up never getting published as a result. Others, like me, will jump ship and submit in other countries. The second step is to realise that importing successful women from other countries instead of hiring UK women isn't progress***. It's just reinforcing the current situation, where UK women writers are invisible.

* One question it raises: why is there a difference? I can't say I'm treated with more sexism in everyday life in the UK. I've actually found the US worse on my visits. One possibility may be that UK publishing just hasn't faced the issue directly before. There's a lot more talk going on in the US publishing industry. Which is interesting, as some say talk never works and no one ever listens anyway... this would suggest perhaps they do, even if it's not immediately obvious.

** You'll note I didn't say "because editors hate stories by women". Though I know some firmly believe your plumbing changes the way you write, I don't. About the only thing that makes me think a man wrote it is when a female character looks into a mirror and says: "I couldn't help but admire my shapely and plump breasts. I never tired of oggling myself." I'd note neither men or women are prone to male characters looking in a mirror and saying: "I couldn't help but admire my shapely and plump balls. I never tired of oggling myself."

Fortunately, all forms of mirror oggling appear to be on the decline.

*** 'Instead of' is important to note here. An anthology with stories from all over the world would be great. But hiring women from elsewhere so you can pretend UK women writers don't exist is not so great.

Elements of Style (Comic)

noreply@blogger.com (Polenth) — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 01:00:00 +0000

A moment of humour, courtesy of xkcd. Follow the footnote for the full text description of the comic*:

This left me wondering if there really was Strunk/White fanfiction, but I'm not brave enough to go looking for it.

Though I noted an odd thing about hair in xkcd. Stickwomen have hair. Stickmen don't. Except if they're bald... then they have a little bit of hair. So bald men have more hair than men with hair. There's probably something deep and symbolic about that.

* A stickwoman with her hair in a bun sits at a computer reading out the text. Behind her, two stickmen stand - one holding a book (no hair shown) and one smoking a pipe (a little bit of hair, to show balding). Comic text reads:

Dear Internet,

We, the current editors of Strunk & White's The Elements of Style, must - with great reluctance - clarify a point of orthography:

"Strunk & White" should be used for the style manual and "Strunk/White" for the erotic fan fiction pairing.

On Mass Character Death

noreply@blogger.com (Polenth) — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 06:22:00 +0000

~ Contains vague death-related spoilers for Torchwood (series 2 and 3) and George R. R. Martin. Doesn't include character names. ~

The most recent series of Torchwood started today*. I didn't watch it.

I could have done, but I didn't actually watch the third series either. I just read some spoilers online, to confirm that what happened is what I suspected would happen.

Why? Because everybody died in series two. Well, not everybody, but a substantial number of the original characters die, all at the same time. Then one of the few survivors dies in the next series. Both my favourite and second favourite characters died. Watching the new series would be starting again. Only this time, I know there isn't much point getting attached to anyone. They'll all die. I decided to skip it instead.

~ * ~

I've resisted reading anything by George R. R. Martin. Grittydarkland isn't my favourite fantasy setting in the first place, but the high death rate described means the chances of actually getting past book one would be slim. Why keep reading if the characters I like keep dying?

Yet people are still sure I'll like the books. I can't fathom why**.

~ * ~

The argument is always that if you don't kill characters, people don't take death threats seriously. There's some merit in this. Sometimes characters need to die. But it can be taken too far. At the point where I don't consider death a threat, but a certainty for every character, there's no tension left.

On the other side, I don't have an issue with horror stories that kill the survivors at the end. Such stories are rarely intended to be series, so I've had characters stay alive to tell the story for as long as they needed to be alive. (It's saying something when I trust a horror story to keep the characters alive more than a non-horror story.)

But killing everyone halfway through the tale... I'm never going to find that fun.

~ * ~

Do you love the carnage? Wish characters could survive at least to the end of the story? Related rantage welcome.

* 'Today' is somewhat relative for a nocturnal person, and unrelated to actual calendar day.

** Though I suspect it's related to a previous comment on book recommendations. Some tend to assume everyone will like anything they like, regardless of stated preferences.