Urgh, this story is going to be the end of me.

I haven't looked at Dead Isle in a week; I'm still collecting comments, and I know I haven't replied to the latest, but I needed a small break before re-tackling it. I've been fussing around with some fanfic but that's going nowhere; I thought I'd try working through my writing to-do list and landed on this one I'm calling Tunnel, which unless Valet catches on fire for me is probably going to be the next book I write.

I have the setting, basic concept, and something approaching a plot; I'm getting to know my protagonists. It's gonna be fun, all secret passages and magic maps and a dragon, social commentary, and a love story. It's just getting the damn thing jumpstarted.

Part of it has been a certain hesitance in how to tell the story: I've wanted to do it in shifting first-person POV, even though I know that's hard to do well and hard on the reader even when it is. Third-person omniscient is much easier. I've made the decision to rise to the challenge and give first-person a shot, but that doesn't mean I'm capable of just diving the fuck in.

All of my published work, Dead Isle included, has been a lot about identity, concealment of it, and revelation. Believe it or not, and laugh if you want, but I just noticed this today. It's not like I didn't know I was fond of that stuff, but I didn't realise how obsessive I've been about it. Tunnel isn't about identity, at least not so far, and not in the same way. This is good, it's an expansion of my focus, but it's also a struggle. For the most part my heroes are exactly what they claim to be, and the plot is about the way a city interacts with itself, the way classes within the city interact.

Sometimes I love the idea more than the work. I think that's natural enough for writers. But the work has to get done or the idea languishes. It's possible I'll need a push on it, which means not working on it any more until it's all I work on, but at least it's something different than rewrites to wrestle with for a little while.

As long as we're on the topic, I posted an essay over on my Wordpress today, Vocalizing Magic, where I talk about mystery's relationship to magic, and the gifts and consequences of pulling back the curtain.

Good morning! It's time for a FRIDAY PHOTO POST.

( Sexual aides, Marilyn Monroe, and Las Vegas. It's like I'm living the dream. )

Yesterday at around 6:30 in the morning there was a giant boom, followed by more giant booms. A 17-story building (an old Ramada Inn built in the 60s) had been demolished by implosion a couple of miles away from our house. It was a crappy building almost from the beginning (they had to close the top two floors not long after it was opened because they were structurally unsound) and no one liked it, so this was a big occasion in town. Here's a link to a blog with a video clip of the implosion.

In garden news, our tomatoes are out of control:



( garden pictures )

Question answer:

tex_maam asked Just one question: what do you think there desperately needs to be more of on the bookshelves?

To clarify: we all know that great characters and riveting stories are always in high demand, but like, for example... what kinds of protagonists do you feel are under-represented on the shelves? What kinds of settings or story ideas have you wanted to read about and not found much of?

In some ways this is always kind of a hard question to answer, because the SF/F genre is so large and our views of it tend to be so limited and so subjective. We see the books we read, the books our friends talk about online, and the rest tend to fade into the background. (This is how you get people confidently asserting that women don't write fantasy, or that all fantasy is a young beardy guy with a sword fighting orcs and dragons in faux England. People say that because those are the books they read and the books they pay attention to and the books they see mentioned and reviewed. They assume nothing else exists.)

That's why surveys like this I have numbers! Stats on LGBT Young Adult Books Published in the U.S. – Updated 9/15/11 with actual hard figures are important. I also think thematic lists are helpful. (Which is one of the reasons we did the List of Non-European Fantasy by Women Writers -- when you know you want to read more of certain types of fantasy, it's helpful to see lists of what's already out there.)

I know I want more settings that are not based on western Europe, more stories that use non-Western mythology and folklore and historical events, more characters who aren't white, more characters who are LGBT. I also want characters who are older women, in their 40s or 50s, and I want more books that are blends of science fiction and fantasy, like I grew up reading. I know there are already books out there that have those elements and characters, but I want more. I want more weird stuff, too.

I have a brief RFM that seems to be too urgent to wait -- pixie117's dog is sick with a mystery injury, and she needs help both with funding and with research/advice. (Thanks to drgaellon and forest_rose who brought it to my attention.)

Managed to keep things going relatively smoothly at work today, given I'd been gone for three days. Though you'd think a bunch of people with lives, college degrees, and some with children would be able to pick up their own newspapers instead of shoving them in a heap on my desk.

Mind you, this did lead to me discovering The Red Bulletin which, sadly, is a magazine-sized ad for Red Bull and not a Communist newsletter.

Best quote of the day, from Awkward Coworker, talking about an upcoming event we're involved in: "So if you're a person who likes hanging around with other people, talking about stuff, this is for you!"

The Cloud Roads is on this list at Kirkus Reviews of Top 10 Fantasy Novels by Female Authors Yay!

From yesterday:

I'm in Chicks Unravel Time: Women Journey Through Every Season of Doctor Who The sister book to the 2011 Hugo Award-winning Chicks Dig Time Lords. My essay is "Donna Noble Saves the Universe" about Donna's differences from the other companions, and basically being an older woman who is also a hero.

And I did the All About Books meme questions on the Strange Chemistry Blog.

Question answer:

misslynx asked:

1. I've heard a number of people talking about getting stuck in the "murky middle" of a story where it feels like you're losing your way, or at least like things are getting a bit out of control, and it's hard to see how you're going to rein it in and push it toward an ending. So I already know it's not just me.... But I'm still not sure how to get out of it. Do you ever find yourself hitting this point with your books? Any advice on how best to push through it, when it's starting to feel like trying to nail jello to a wall?

If your enthusiasm for the book is flagging in the middle, then you may have structural problems. Generally I feel that if the book is not exciting for me, it's not going to be exciting for the reader, either. You may want to get some feedback from a few trusted beta readers and try to see if something's wrong, if you need to add some plot complication or make other changes or cut out some plot complication that just isn't working.

If it's just a fatigue or concentration problem, feedback (especially good feedback) can also help rekindle your interest in the book. And sometimes, you just have to force yourself to push through. (This is basically why agents and publishers don't want to look at unfinished novels from first authors -- some people have great ideas but aren't able to get through the middle and finish.)

2. I know fantasy as a genre is famous for spawning some really long novels, but how long is too long? Especially for a first novel? How worried should I be that I'm closing in 100,000 words and am nowhere near finished with the story?

Fantasy novels for adults can generally be longer, but 100,000 words and not near the end may be a problem. The Raksura books have all been between 120,000 and 135,000 words. It really depends on the book and the publisher, though. I'm sure The Name of the Wind is quite a bit longer than 135,000 words, for example.

Okay, Forbes Magazine can still eat me (now and forever) but they just released their new "Richest 15 Fictional Characters" list, and it's nice to see they've updated a little. Saying Santa Claus is the richest man on earth is a total cop out.

Also LOL, Robert Crawley. Are they not up on the fact that his wife's money is the only thing keeping Downton Abbey afloat?

I can't really talk about overt capitalism, though. I'm sitting on my couch with three open, functioning laptops: my netbook (transferring files back to my personal laptop), my personal laptop (obvs), and my work laptop (I need to log into the VPN to get some research files). It's like I'm in a hacker movie sponsored by Dell.

I'm in this anthology, which is now up for preorder: Chicks Unravel Time: Women Journey Through Every Season of Doctor Who

The sister book to the 2011 Hugo Award-winning Chicks Dig Time Lords...

In Chicks Unravel Time, editors Deborah Stanish (Whedonistas) and L.M. Myles bring together a host of award-winning female writers, media professionals and scientists to examine each season of new and classicDoctor Who from their unique perspectives.

Diana Gabaldon discusses how Jamie McCrimmon inspired her best-selling Outlander series, and Barbara Hambly (Benjamin January Mysteries) examines the delicate balance of rebooting a TV show. Seanan McGuire (Toby Daye series) reveals the power and pain of waiting in Series 5, and Una McCormack (The King's Dragon) argues that Sylvester McCoy's final year of Doctor Who is the show's best season ever.

Other contributors include Juliet E. McKenna (Einarrin series), Tansy Rayner Roberts (Power and Majesty), Sarah Lotz (The Mall), Martha Wells (The Cloud Roads), Joan Frances Turner (Dust), Rachel Swirsky ("Fields of Gold") and Aliette de Bodard (Obsidian and Blood series).

I am answering the All About Books meme questions on the Strange Chemistry Blog.


First two questions from yesterday:

princejvstin asked: An easy one: For you, what were/are the challenges, joys and differences in writing YA versus adult genre fiction

It really wasn't any different at all. YA is generally for anyone over twelve, and the only difference between Emilie and the Hollow World and my other books is that the protagonist is younger, around fifteen or sixteen or so. I basically just wrote the kind of book I like to read, which is what I always do.

curtana asked: I'm curious how you go about writing a novel - which I know is a big question :) Do you prefer to outline first, or do you write and find out what happens as you go along? Do you have the whole story more or less worked out in your head when you start? Do you know the ending first and then figure out how to get there later? Do you build the setting first, or think up characters, or plot? Do you make a million notes before you start writing?

I generally know who I want the main character to be and what the world will be like. For me, those are two elements that are dependent on each other. If I come up with the protagonist first, the world has to be the kind of place that would have created that person. If I come up with the world first, that's going to define the protagonist to a large extent. Usually, I come up with both elements at the same time.

I don't outline, but I do tend to know at least the first turning point in the plot, and also where I want the book to end in general. I pretty much make everything up as I go along, and research as I need to while I'm writing. A lot of writers do outline and work everything out in advance, but you basically have to figure out what works for you. Any process that ends with a finished story is the right process.

I'll do the next two questions tomorrow. If you have anymore questions, feel free to leave them in the comments of this post so I can keep track of them and answer them in order.

I am home! I encountered no end of interesting people on the journey. The guy in the seat next to me took a lot of video while he was staying in Vegas, including some spectacular footage of late-night street fights being broken up by casino security. Also, there were four cops on the train I took home. I've never felt safer.

Now is all the bedtime. Or, given my body thinks it's only nine pm, all the watching TV for an hour or two and then bedtime.

WOULD YOU GUYS LIKE MY THOUGHTS ON LAS VEGAS

I THOUGHT YOU WOULD

( What Happens In Vegas Is Mildly Disappointing. )

When I was eleven or twelve I passed through the Las Vegas airport late at night, heading I can't remember where, and I recall thinking that this is what hell must be like, this airport. When I came through it on the way in for this trip I wasn't paying much attention, and I was totally prepared to re-evaluate this airport in light of that being twenty years ago, but no, I still think this is probably what hell is like. Hell with free wifi. This is a terrible airport, and I speak as one with authority on the subject of terrible airports.