Posts made in August, 2011

• To the Power of Q

  Cool SF Technologies

  James Bond and Emma Peel gave me my obsession with cars and gadgets early in life. You’d think StarTrek would be responsible. (Almost, but not quite. Although, Nichelle Nichols is very much the reason I entered SF Geekdom at the tender age of four.) I believe that SF and Fantasy tend to reflect contemporary attitudes. During that time, much was happening in the U.S., both politically and socially. The civil rights movement was making inroads into areas of life that no one thought possible. Big changes were happening — scary but positive changes. I suspect this is why the mid-60s was a time of intense optimism within the SF genre. In the 70s, Americans started seeing the repercussions from drug use, a seemingly never-ending war, an energy crisis (oil), political crisis (Watergate), and an economic recession complete with high unemployment. Thus, SF and Fantasy took on a darker, grittier tone. See any similarities to our current situation? I sure as hell do.

  In any case, I’m not much use on this topic because I’ll have to cop to not reading much in the way of SF of late. Largely because SF, including Space Opera, is turning into a Boy’s Club where I feel almost as unwelcome as I do in comics both as a writer and a reader. (The reasons why I won’t go into here because it’s off-topic.) However, if I think back on gadget-heavy SF I’ve read a few novels stand out. Richard Morgan’s Altered Carbon was fantastic. M.T. Anderson’s Feed was also amazing. Both use the concept of cybernetic implants. Speaking of bio-tech, C.J. Cherryh’s Cyteen remains one of my favorites. Also, Scott Westerfeld’s Uglies was great. More recently, I’ve enjoyed Charles Stross’s Atrocity Archives, The Jennifer Morgue, and The Fuller Memorandum. This, in spite of the fact that I find computer tech dead boring. (Although, the Laundry series is more Fantasy than SF.) Overall, SF tech seems to have switched to computer technology rather than mechanical technology which (again) I find incredibly boring and may be another reason I’ve stayed away from SF for so long. I suppose Steampunk is another source for groovy gadgetry, but the Imperialism and Colonialism issues that Steampunk faces as a genre tend to keep me very far away from it.

  What SF novels with cool tech would you recommend?

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• Bring On the Optimists

  Cool SF Technologies

  When it comes to cool SF technologies, as an engineer I’ve always geeked out over the “Big Dumb Objects” of SF.  Ringworlds, Dyson spheres, moon-sized generational starships…it’s the same sort of excitement over mechanical and intellectual achievement that brought tears to my eyes whenever I watched a space shuttle launch. And unlike some of my scientist friends, I’m not the nitpicky sort who sits around complaining, “The Ringworld is unstable!”  I’m more interested in the ramifications of futuristic technological marvels than the details of their physics.  (This is why I’m an engineer and not a scientist…I like to figure out practical applications rather than abstract theories!)

  But it’s not just the big stuff I love.  It’s so much fun when an author tosses off references to cool technologies that aren’t the main point of the story, but are neat ideas with a solid grounding in ordinary physics.  For example, I loved the deployable sensor arrays in Dave Trowbridge & Sherwood Smith’s Exordium series, where array elements can be positioned at distances great enough from the ship’s position that visible light and other EM radiation originating several days in the past can be observed.  (In other words, if a starship comes across wreckage from a recent space battle, the sensors can be deployed so that the original battle can be recorded and watched by the ship’s crew to find out what happened.)  (more…)

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• Jonathan Wood: To Be Or Not To Be

  Guest Post

  Jonathan Wood is the author of No Hero, the Lovecraftian urban fantasy that dares to ask, “What would Kurt Russell do?” He has, at this point, been allowed to be on his own for too long. More invective can be found on twitter (@thexmedic) or on his web site www.cogsandneurons.com.

  Before I begin: I do realize that it’s generally considered rude if , when asked to attend someone’s party, you stand in the middle of said party shouting angrily, and showering bystanders with froth and invective.

  It’s not going to stop me. But I do realize it.

  So, the verb “to be.” “Am,” “is,” and all that jazz. An innocuous little verb. Two letters. Many consider it quite important as verbs go. Its got a whole branch of philosophy dedicated to it. I’d even go so far as to say it feels nice in the mouth when you say it. The explosive “b” softened by the drawn out vowel. Try it. “Be.” “Be.”

  It should be obvious, of course, that this is all a diversion, this is all a mask to hide the truly insidious evil that the verb “to be” represents.

  Do not be fooled by the brevity of “to be.” By its ubiquity. Do not be taken in by its guileless facade. That little bastard will happily sneak into every single one of your sentences and destroy them.

  I’m editing right now. My second novel. And as deadlines loom, as my red pens bleed ink over my pages, there it is in every bloody sentence, that bastard little word peeking out at me, tearing apart my pacing, and generally trying to make my life a living hell.

  (more…)

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• Member News: August 27, 2011

  Member News

  Courtney Schafer‘s novel The Whitefire Crossing got a great review from Paul Weimer at SF Signal, who gave it 4.5 of 5 stars and said, “This book is in the running for favorite book of the year I’ve read.”

  The release date for the Polish edition of Brad Beaulieu‘s novel The Winds of Khalakovo has been set: September 20th. You can read more at Brad’s blog.

  The Night Bazaar party at WorldCon was a rousing success! Brad, Courtney, Katy, and Martha gave away a host of books & Night Shade t-shirts, and a terrific time was had by all, thanks to Katy & her awesome husband Chet providing a veritable smorgasbord of food & drink.  Free books were handed out to anyone willing to eat the more exotic items on the menu: bacon-n-cheddar crickets, sour cream-n-onion larvae, and scorpion lollipops (yes, all real bugs!).  Turns out SF fans are quite adventurous in their culinary tastes (or maybe just really, really excited at the idea of free books).  Further party entertainment was provided by Patrick Tracy, who showed Brad how to rip phone books and bend 60-penny nails.  Here’s a shot of the party gang (click for more pics):

  

  Katy, Brad, Courtney, & Martha at the Night Bazaar WorldConParty

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• Sometimes I Wonder. Is Writing Rewriting…Or What?

  Plotting the Novel

  If you’re not sure what my somewhat cliched subject line has to do with the topic this week at the Night Bazaar — which I take to be “How are novels plotted?” — then it may be news to you that I’m a seat-of-the-pants writer.

  That’s why, when it comes to long works (novels in particular, but also screenplays) I find that have to do a lot of rewriting. When I’m cooking along with my imagination on overdrive, I need to run with the aesthetic choices that guide me toward the next open door.

  However, some doors lead to treasure troves, and some lead to storerooms full of canned peas.

  I think seat-of-the-pants writing is very important, but it can’t account for everything involved in making a novel a satisfying reader experience — unless you’re an absolute flippin’ genius when it comes to plotting, or a very careless writer who gets away with it for whatever reason. (James Elroy, for example, can be incredibly careless in his plotting at times, but I don’t give a damn because I enjoy the ride.)

  As a reader I hate hitting a weird, inexplicable stretch in a novel that just doesn’t fit with the rest of the book, and I see this as indicating a writer who didn’t take a hard enough look at their own work (hard enough for my taste, mind you — they may be perfectly happy with it). I enthusiastically agree with Kameron’s experience of being annoyed when writers wander off into some peripheral story thread — for instance, the experiences of a character I don’t give a damn about. (more…)

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• Lights in the Fog

  Plotting the Novel

  George Martin likes to say that plotting is like looking at lights in the fog. Wait, hold that thought.

  George also talks about gardeners and architects. Architects like to plan ahead. They figure out what the foundation of a house looks like, what the angle of the roof will be, how thick the walls are, and where the outlets will go, all before ground is broke on the house itself. Later, when the house is built, he’s sure that all the pieces will fit.

  Gardeners, however, like to plant seeds and nurture the plant as it grows. Oh, sure, they might know how they want the plant to look in the end, roughly, but they have neither a concrete plan nor vision for exactly how it will come about. They may have to coax the plant; they may have to prune and weed; they may have to add fertilizer. I’ll stop the analogy before it, ahem, grows out of control, but hopefully you get the point: gardeners fly by the seat of their pants; they’re more instinctual writers than the architects are.

  I think these two categories are fine enough distinctions (they’re at least as good as most other categories of plotters I’ve heard). And to be clear, no one is going to fit squarely into either one, but surely you can see aspects of one more than the other within you.

  And me? I think I’ve mentioned this before, but when I stared writing, I thought I was going to be an architect. I’m a software programmer by trade, I have a degree in Computer Science and Engineering, and I thought surely I’d be very structured in my plotting. The thing is, writing is not a terribly structured thing, at least for me. It’s too amorphous. I just can’t seem to get my arms around it until I’m in the middle of it, and even then it feels like all I have my hands around is the current scene.

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• Onward towards the big finale!

  Plotting the Novel

  So, there’s that meme floating through the Ether about how romance novels can be written by a computer because the plots are so formulaic.   I know when I wrote Revolution World, I thought I’d just start out with ‘a basic science fiction plot’ and then elaborate from there.  It sounded easy, but it really is quite a bit more complicated.   especially if you are trying not to have huge nasty plot holes, continuum errors, or just bad science.  Here are a few of the classic blunders I encountered:

  • Plot vs character development:  You’ve got this fantastic plot line and these excellent characters that positively pop off the page.  The problem?  These lovely characters wouldn’t do the things your plot requires them to do.  (Battlestar Galactica anyone?  Even a Cyclon wouldn’t act as randomly manic-depressive as they’ve had those guys acting on occasion.  Not that I didn’t love it.  I just loved it bitterly.)  The cold hard truth is one or the other has got to go.  Either revamp your character to be less charming and more biddable or let them run wild and find a way to work around your brand new plot hole. (more…)

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• How to Steal a Plot (Not a Novel)

  Plotting the Novel

  I feel kind of unprepared to post this week, because really, I have no idea how to plot a novel. You’d think I’d have figured it out after writing eleven books and having a couple of those published, but really, I have no clue.

  So, see, there’s hope for all you folks who are terrible at plot, too!

  I am a worldbuilding type of person, and though there is certainly no rule that says people who love worldbuilding are bad at plot and vice versa, I’d hazard a guess that most folks tend to be better at one over the other, and have to work really hard at the one they aren’t so good at.

  I work really, really hard on plot.

  I read an interesting post the other day quoting Michael Moorcock about how to write a book in three days, and he basically says the best way to write fast is to do a simple quest plot. Everybody’s trying to get the same X thing, whatever it is. For somebody like me, who finds the people and the world more interesting than the actual plot, the McGuffin plot is good advice (this is the nice thing about bounty hunter stories – there is always a quest for somebody).

  Sadly, people DO notice when you shoehorn in a plot (sorry to say!) on top of a world, and they will call you on it every time. So you have to get better at it. Somehow.

  About the only plotting advice I have to give folks is this tried and true advice: STEAL ONE.

  Yes, you heard that right:

  Just steal one.

  Writers have been telling me to do this for years, but I stubbornly refused. Wasn’t that like plagerizing? Aren’t I supposed to be TRULY ORIGINAL??

  But do you think there’s a truly original plot left under the sun? Oh, sure, there are interesting bits and pieces you can tease out, but even George R.R. Martin’s epic backstabber is really just a quest plot – everybody wants the same thing, the Iron Throne. I know – that makes it look easy, doesn’t it? But what about those intricate machinations? How do you figure out those?

  I have no idea.

  Better steal a plot….

  So when I sat down and started plotting out my next book, a space operatic tale of worldship warring, cultural domination, and organic malfuckery, I just lifted a tricksy plot wholecloth from the book Bloodtide, which, in turn, had lifted its plot wholecloth from the first part of an old Icelandic saga called the Volsunga saga (I did read into this original source material, too). The clan wars, backstabbing, political infighting, sibling rivalries, and trippy reveals are already built into it. All I needed to do was figure out the world and the sort of people that world would create, and how that world and those people would play out this story.

  When I sat down the other day and read the synopses and detailed outline for this book, it sounded nothing at all like Bloodtide, and it had the usual crazy-Kameron-esque weirdness and blood matriarchies, but wow, it sure did have a compelling plot that hung together remarkably well, with some interesting turns and surprises that I would have been hard pressed to write in on a first pass all by myself.

  It has yet to be determined if this new way of approaching plot will work for me. Seeing what I already have for the book gives me hope that an outline like this will make the writing go pretty smoothly, and leave me with, primarily, only the “fun” stuff (people and world) to fill in. But the jury’s still out.

  Anything is better than what I’ve been doing, though, and I hope that plotting-through-stealing will prove to be a better route than plotting-through-chaos.

  We have a long history of retelling tales in new ways. For those of us who struggle with certain story mechanics, going back to the truly great stuff can help us find a way through – like going from hacking your way through the jungle with a machete and nearly falling into darkness to finely carving a straight path to exactly the destination you hoped for…. one that’s both exciting for the reader and less bloody aggrevating for the writer.

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• Next Time You Put the Pants on the Weasel

  Plotting the Novel

  Ahhh, evil plots. Oh, wait. I mean, plotting novels. This week we’re talking about plotting novels. Right.

  You know, I believe that writing is a deeply psychological process, and therefore, it’s personal. There’s no one right way to do it — only the right way for you. Writers, like other artists, work with their imagination in conjunction with their subconscious. That’s why character-driven writers often talk about their characters as if they’re people with wills of their own and those who aren’t insist they aren’t. I feel it’s important to not only figure out what works for you but it’s important to discover what works for the individual story.

  For myself, I do best with short stories when I’m very clear about what is to happen. However, when it comes to novels… not so much. In fact, having a detailed outline will throw me off so much that it will keep me from writing. My subconscious believes the story has already been written and is instantly bored. I love the process of discovery. I want the surprise of what happens next just as any reader would. At the same time, writing the second novel in my series felt more as though I were the all-powerful Goddess in Liam’s world. I felt he had something to learn, and he was damned well going to learn it. I’ve written five novels now and this is the only time that’s happened. Funny, isn’t it? But if I hadn’t been open to discovering the process of this novel, I’m not sure I’d have finished.

  Studies have shown that creativity is killed dead in environments where there is pressure to be perfect. So, that’s the thing — being open, feeling free to do whatever it is you need to do for the story. The rest gets sorted out later. Someone once told me that real writing is in the re-writing. That’s how it works for me. I tend to discover the plot through the characters after the first draft is done. Go forth. Discover what works for you and keep discovering. One day you may be surprised.

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• Southern Gods Giveaway

  Book Giveaway

  Sorry I’m late on this. Been a little frazzled this week. Using the random number generator, I have determined the winners of last weeks giveaway.

  GregLincoln and Paul (@princejvstin) come on down! You’ve won your very own signed copies of Southern Gods.

  Please email me at x@y.com where x=jhj and y=atomictomato with your addresses.

  That is all.

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