Posts Tagged "The Tainted City"

• Auf Wiedersehen, Again

  Halloween

  The topic for our final Night Bazaar post is meant to be “Halloween Reads.”  But since I’m dashing off this post in an airport on my way to the World Fantasy Convention, I hope you’ll forgive me if I cheat and simply link to my last year’s Halloween post here at the Night Bazaar, in which I covered the same topic.  Only thing I’d add this year is that two of the books on my last year’s list now have sequels: the Book of Cthulhu II anthology recently hit the shelves (more tentacles! More creeping eldritch horror!), and Kendare Blake’s Girl of Nightmares is an excellent follow-up to her YA horror/fantasy novel Anna Dressed in Blood.  Go forth and enjoy!

  I’ve had a lot of fun posting here at the Night Bazaar again, so as I say farewell, I also want to say: thanks.  Thanks to everyone reading, lurkers and commenters alike, and to Liz Upson of Night Shade for keeping the blog going in 2012.  Y’all rock.

  If you want to keep up with me, I’ll be posting regularly on my personal blog, where I share book recommendations, pics of my favorite wilderness places and adventures, and of course all the latest news on the Shattered Sigil books and other authorial topics.  Speaking of which, I’ve got two last pieces of news to share here:

  • Thurs Nov 8 I’m doing an “Ask Me Anything” on Reddit’s r/Fantasy forum – so if you’ve got a burning question about my books, my writing process, publishing in general  - or even mountain climbing, canyoneering, skiing, figure skating, or engineering…come ask!  You can post questions throughout the day and I’ll answer them live at 8pm CST.
  • Want to win signed copies of The Whitefire Crossing and The Tainted City?  Fantasy Book Café is holding a worldwide giveaway – see here for details, and to read an interview with me that covers everything from how I got started writing to why nobody’s married in the Shattered Sigil books.

  And with that, I shall leave the Bazaar once more.  So long, farewell, and thanks for all the comments!

  Read More...

• The Influence of Excellence

  Influences

  This week we’re talking about our greatest influence.  I always find that a difficult question, because I feel like my writing doesn’t have just a few influences; rather, that it comes from a gestalt of the thousands of books that I’ve read, not to mention the life experiences that I’ve had.  How do you untangle it all?  Though maybe it’s a situation where I’m too close to my writing to see what’s obvious to everyone else.

  That said, anybody who’s read my blog posts can probably guess which author I’d single out as having taught me the most craft-wise: historical fiction author Dorothy Dunnett.  I balk at saying “influenced me the most” because I don’t think I write like her.  For one thing, I don’t have anywhere near her erudition and poetry of prose, and I doubt I ever will.  My higher-level education and training focused on engineering and mathematics, not classics and languages and history, and I don’t think you can so easily replace a lifetime steeped in the arts.  (Dunnett was a painter as well as an author.)

  Yet even if I never achieve her level of excellence, I can still analyze and learn from Dunnett’s authorial techniques: how to structure a complex plot, how to convey depth in characters, how to layer meaning into every line and scene.  As I said last week, I’m all about learning by example, so this time I’ll even provide one: a scene from the fourth novel in the Lymond Chronicles, Pawn in Frankincense. (more…)

  Read More...

• Inching or Leaping, You’ll Get There In The End

  Uncategorized

  This week’s topic is “Lightbulb moments: watershed learning moments.”  I know exactly how a lightbulb flash of realization feels; I have them all the time when working on algorithms at the day job, or even solving plot problems while writing.  But do other writers have lightbulb moments about the actual craft of writing?  I’m terribly curious, because I never have.

  I learned much of my craft through a long process of osmosis: by reading thousands (literally!) of SFF and other books.  I firmly believe all those years of reading a book a day gave me a huge leg up when I decided to get serious about writing a novel.  Of course, mere reading isn’t enough.  At some point, you’ve gotta sit down at that keyboard and start writing.  And then analyzing, and re-writing, and writing some more.  Through that practice, you get better; you start to see flaws in your writing, and figure out how to avoid or address them.  But for me, the process is slow – more like inching higher on a mountain than leaping over a chasm.

  That said, if we leave out the “lightbulb” part of it, I can say I’ve had a watershed moment in terms of writing craft: joining my critique group.  The feedback I got from them on my initial version of The Whitefire Crossing opened my eyes to problems I hadn’t realized were there, and gave me the tools I needed to rewrite the book to publishable quality.  Yet even that was a process of long weeks, not a sudden moment of realization.  Our group meets in person twice a month and critiques a chapter per person per time – and I think I put at least five chapters through the group with everyone giving me a similar type of feedback before I really understood the huge gaping flaw in the original draft of the book. (more…)

  Read More...

• Go Deep Or Go Home

  Uncategorized

  This week we’re talking about the art of writing a good first person narrative – something I’ve certainly tried hard to do in the Shattered Sigil series, since I use first person POV for one of my two protagonists.   Personally, I think there’s only one secret to writing a compelling and realistic first person: you’ve got to put yourself completely into that character’s head.  What do they notice (and on the flip side, what *don’t* they notice)? What do they care about? What are their prejudices, their blind spots? What are their gut reactions to the world around them, and the people in it?  What experiences have they had, and what comparisons and metaphors would they naturally use?  The deeper you can get into the character’s head (as opposed to your own), the more unique and interesting and real their voice will be on the page.

  First person provides a depth of intimacy that other POVs don’t, but it’s also limiting. You can’t use words your POV character wouldn’t.  You can’t describe things the character wouldn’t notice or would be physically unable to see (e.g. something happening behind them).  You can’t have your character be perfectly able to understand and interpret the reasons for other characters’ reactions (unless they’re telepathic!).    And you can’t drift out of POV by forgetting to include your POV character’s emotions/reactions during overheard dialogue – in other words, don’t let them suddenly become a neutral camera, observing without interpreting.  (You don’t need reams of analysis for this – careful word choice will let your character’s feelings and reactions shine through without the need to belabor the point for the reader.) (more…)

  Read More...

• Where Have The Optimists Gone?

  Uncategorized

  Apologies for being late with my post this week, but I do have a good excuse.  I just got back from a family vacation (we took our 3 year old son on his first trip to Disneyworld, which was a blast) -and I’m playing solo parent at the moment, as my husband remained in Florida to attend a conference.  As any parents out there will know, overtired hyper toddler + solo parent = recipe for getting nothing productive done!

  But despite the challenges of solo parenthood, I’m having a GREAT week. Yesterday The Tainted City released in ebook form at Amazon and Barnes and Noble – and to celebrate, The Whitefire Crossing‘s ebook is temporarily FREE on Amazon!  (For US/Canada residents, anyway. I apologize, international folks! Don’t forget, overseas readers can buy the ebooks of both Whitefire and Tainted City DRM-free in the format of your choice from Baen’s ebook store.)  I have to admit, it’s pretty damn cool to see Whitefire ranked as #1 in Fantasy in the Kindle store, brief though the moment may be.

  But okay, moving right along to this week’s topic: “Lightspeed vs. Landlock: intergalactic travel vs. mundane fantasy.”  I confess I’m a bit stumped by this. (As a fantasy author, I think fantasy’s anything but mundane, haha.  If we’re talking about the good ol’ SF vs. Fantasy debate…well, it’s the same for me as when we talked about magic vs. science: I like ‘em both, and the divisions between the two don’t really matter much in my view.  I mean, think of all that adventure-style SF written back in the 80s, in which authors set their stories on so-called colony planets on which societies somehow backslid from their technological roots (leaving around the occasional cool tech artifact) to sword-and-sorcery style mayhem.  Darkover, Pern, all those classic series I grew up on…are they fantasy, or SF?  To me, it doesn’t matter.  They were great stories, and that’s what counts.

  (more…)

  Read More...

• One of These Things Is Just Like The Other

  Uncategorized

  This week’s topic is “Sex in genre fiction”…and I’ve been staring at the computer screen for ages now, trying to think of anything useful I can say.  See, as a reader, I don’t care how much sex is in a book.  I’ve read and enjoyed everything from books without even a single kiss to books featuring characters with the libidos of hormone-crazed bunnies.  It’s like everything else in writing – if it makes sense for the characters and style of story, then it works.

  Okay, wait.  I do have one thing to say. I’m not a fan of repetitive, drawn-out sex scenes that appear to exist purely to titillate the reader.  To me, sex scenes are no different than any other kind of scene: they need to pull their weight by either advancing plot or deepening character development.  And hey, what better way to learn about a character than seeing how they act and think in moments of intimacy?  But I want to learn something new every time, not see the same thing over and over again.  I gave up on Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake novels for this reason – seemed to me that as the series went on,  the sex scenes took over the books until the pacing and plot completely bogged down, without giving us any deeper insight into Anita or the other characters. (more…)

  Read More...

• Need Inspiration? Expand Your Horizons

  Creativity
  

  The Tainted City on the shelf at B&N

  Before getting to this week’s actual topic, I’m sorry, I must squee: look what I saw in my local Barnes & Noble yesterday!  That’s right, The Tainted City, sitting pretty on the new release shelf (2 weeks in advance of the official release date, no less!).  This might be my 2nd novel, but damn, that first glimpse of the book in an actual store is just as incredible a moment as it was with my first.  (Seeing the book pop up “in stock” on Amazon just doesn’t give the same visceral thrill. It’s too abstract – doesn’t feel real, somehow.  Not like seeing your book right there in the flesh (so to speak!).)

  And better yet, I read the first review of the book from someone who was a fan of The Whitefire Crossing - and the reviewer loved The Tainted City, said it surpassed all their expectations.  Oh gosh, if I could’ve, I would’ve leaped through my computer and given the reviewer a hug (maybe even sobbing incoherently in the bargain, with a mix of relief and delight!).  Perhaps there are authors out there who never worry over the idea of readers being disappointed by their second novel.  I was not one of them. I mean, yes, *I* love The Tainted City…but would anyone else?  Now I’ve got an answer, and it’s one that puts an ear-to-ear grin on my face.  (Granted, maybe other reviewers will feel differently.  But that’s okay – so long as there’s one person who liked both Whitefire and Tainted City, that’s all I need to feel good.  No, better than good. Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.)

  Okay, shutting up now about Tainted City, I promise.  On to what I’m supposed to be talking about: Finding Inspiration When Your Well Is Dry.  (more…)

  Read More...

• There Can Be Only One

  Who

  This week we’re supposed to talk about our favorite anthologies. A topic I welcome, since after back-to-back convention/conference weekends (WorldCon followed immediately by the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers’ conference!), I’m way behind on day jobbery and therefore look forward to writing a very brief post.  

  Why a brief post?  Well, I always feel weird confessing this in SF/F writing circles, but I hardly ever read short stories.  As a fast reader, they’re just too damn short for me.  (Seriously, takes me only a few minutes to read a typical-length short story.)  Just when I’m starting to get into the world and characters, it’s over – and I find that incredibly frustrating.  So mostly I only read short stories set in the same world as novels I’ve already enjoyed.  I’m also willing to read serial short stories – the kind that follow a single character through multiple adventures (e.g. Dorothy Sayers’s Lord Peter Wimsey short stories) – but only once collected into a single volume, and only if highly recommended.  (I’m the same way with comics.  I never read single comics, only graphic novels.)

  But!  I do have one exception to the “I don’t really read short stories/anthologies” thing, and it’s a biggie.  (more…)

  Read More...

• If I Ruled The Publishing World…

  The Life

  I think this is the latest I’ve ever been with a Night Bazaar post – but I’ve got good reason, I swear!  I just got back from WorldCon in Chicago, which was awesome but kept me so busy I never once opened my laptop.  (The Night Bazaar party in particular was a blast: many bugs were eaten, and nearly 100 books were given away.  Including a few hot-off-the-press copies of The Tainted City, once partygoers managed to pry them from my delighted hands!  If you want to see some pics of the fun, head over to my personal blog.  And hey, if you want to read a short new excerpt from The Tainted City, you can find one at Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist.)

  So! I’m going to have to keep this post short and sweet, since I’m buried in accumulated day job duties (and my husband and son would like some attention, after 5 days away). This week we’re talking about the one thing we’d change in the publishing industry.  Speaking as an engineer, I’ve got a one-word answer: (more…)

  Read More...

• Why Not Science AND Magic?

  Who

  This week we’re talking about “Science vs. Magic”…a dichotomy that always brings to mind my toddler’s response when I read him Shark vs. Train: “Mommy, I like sharks AND trains, so they both should win.” 

  Amen, kiddo.  I have to say I’ve never quite understood the people who read only fantasy and not science fiction, or vice versa.  To me, it’s all one genre whose characteristic quality is imagination, whether you’re extrapolating on existing physical laws or making up your own world.  I’m happy to read everything from the diamond-hard SF of Greg Egan’s Orthogonal series to the mystical beauty of Patricia McKillip’s Cygnet duology.  I also don’t mind when technology and magic mix – I’m quite fond of urban fantasy (even if I prefer the mythic and noir flavors over paranormal romance), and one of the reasons I like steampunk is the opportunity for characters to play with both gadgets and spells.

  That said, as an author I haven’ t yet written anything that would be labeled science fiction, only fantasy - something that often strikes people as strange, when they learn I’m a Caltech-trained engineer who works in the aerospace industry.  “But why don’t you write a story with spaceships and science?” they ask.  “Wouldn’t you be good at it?”  (more…)

  Read More...