Catching Up

Been busy with a big project lately and also sick (spring colds suck) so I haven't had much to say. I still don't really, but here are a couple updates:

* Earthbound Fiction's anthology Dark Stars, featuring my one and only SF story, "Christmas Eve in New London", should be out in July.

* Just had a story accepted to Fantastic Horror. It will be available in the Lovecraft-themed issue, which is still several months away.

* I just joined up with Broad Universe, a neat organization promoting female specfic authors. There are some impressive names in the list of members, so that's cool. I'll post here about BU events I might be attending.

Also, here is a funny Foxtrot cartoon about the premiere of the second season of A Game of Thrones: MLP GoT

I will never watch the new My Little Pony series even though a lot of adults seem to like it; I grew up on the original and the new character designs looks weirdly anorexic. And ponies should not have the same eye-to-head ratio as a giant squid. Creepy.

And last of all, here is a wonderful article about Elmore Leonard and his son. Leonard is a real American treasure and every writer, no matter their preferred genre, can learn something from him if they listen. It's an entertaining and insightful piece, definitely worth a few minutes of your time: Grit and Wry: A Dinner with Elmore and Peter Leonard

Short Stories III

1. Vintage/Anchor Books is giving away a crapton of nice Dickens novels in a sweepstakes on Facebook. 7 in all, including my favorites Bleak House and A Tale of Two Cities. Head on over and enter, and I'll try to be happy for you if you win and I don't.

https://apps.facebook.com/sweepstakeshq/contests/198167

2. I just had a short piece accepted into an erotica anthology (I know, I know!). I'll let everyone know when it's out. Also, Earthbound Fiction's anthology Dark Stars should be out soon. My short story "Christmas Eve in New London" is in it! Cover art should be available soon.

3. You may be interested to know that I am a regular on The Yellow Menace Podcast. It's me and 3 guys and we get together and bullshit about things and talk about a movie every time. The newest one just came out; we talk about Irma Vep (starring Maggie Cheung, who is stunning) and why the PS Vita isn't selling well in Japan (I think because it is ugly).

https://plus.google.com/u/0/108035336632678167345/posts

4. I love this video. It is Werner Herzog- or a reasonable facsimile thereof- reading Curious George. There is a whole series of videos of this guy deconstructing children's books as everyone's favorite crazy-ass director, but this is my favorite. Although The Night Before Christmas is pretty damn funny too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7T8y5EPv6Y8

Rough Around the Edges

My friend has some books coming out this year from a division of Harlequin. She writes erotica. I have read her work. She's a talented writer with a lot of skill, but I can't stand her work. More accurately, I can't stand her characters.

Her characters are all fabulously rich. They are stunningly attractive (normal for erotica, I suppose). They are all highly educated and well-read. Most of all, they are masters of snappy dialogue. To me, what they are saying is drowned in their terribly witty exchanges.

I'm not saying these are bad characters. But I doubt anyone actually appreciates them for who they are. I suspect most readers who like books with characters like these want to be these rich, beautiful, smart, witty people. That's why they'll read them, and like them. There's nothing wrong with this, nothing wrong with liking these sorts of characters.

But I prefer characters that are more realistic. People who stutter and misspeak and get frustrated when others don't understand. People who can't quote Shakespeare, or who didn't even graduate high school. People with scars, weirdly-shaped noses, bad acne, dry hair. The poor, the broken, the angry, the sullen.

Case in point: Annie Proulx's long-form story Brokeback Mountain. Generally considered an amazing story and a heartbreaking tale of love lost. The two main characters in Brokeback Mountain are uneducated. They're not gorgeous. They're inarticulate. All-around rough sorts.

Writers, especially writers who are just starting out, tend to write characters that are similar to themselves ( in my college creative writing classes, there were zillions of stories about young, educated, terribly intelligent people having to work crappy jobs, and feeling contempt for everyone else in the mediocre rat race) . But we have to remember, stories don't just belong to people like us. They belong to everyone. So reach out and explore all those others and learn their stories as well.

Short Stories II

A few notes to catch up:

1. I just had a story accepted into Earthbound Fiction's Dark Stars SF anthology. I'm not sure of the release date of the anthology, but this blog will be the first to know.

It's pretty much the only SF story I have ever written, and it's sociological-type SF, because I just can't handle the pseudoscience. Confession: when I read hard SF, I skip all the technical stuff. Same way I skip long, involved battle scenes in fantasy novels. I really only care who wins.

...I'm lame that way.

2. I haven't written a single thing in about 4 days, mostly because my toddler was sick all that time. Hard to write when you're scrubbing the carpet AGAIN. But now I am having insomnia for tje first time in years. If I can't write, I can't sleep- direct correlation But he seems to be getting better now so, hopefully, I can whip out my notebooks again.

All I want for Christmas is a visit from Stanley Steemer.

3. My favorite kind of pens- Pilot Precise Rolling Ball, Fine Point, Black- have shot up in price again. Now it's $19.99 for a box of 12! I am trying new kinds of pens to see if I can find a cheaper substitute, but so far no dice. The Pilot Precise Rolling Ball, Fine Point, Black is the best pen ever made. And that's important when you have to write longhand (I can't write sitting in front of a computer. That's why I am so damned slow at it; I have to write it all out first. My brain is secretly a Luddite).

Anyone want to send a poor, struggling writer a Christmas present?

4. New Game of Thrones season 2 trailer: http://screenrant.com/game-thrones-season-2-trailer-cold-winds-are-rising-kofi-143168/ Stannis, you poor bastard. A lot of people are complaining he doesn't have a beard, when in the book his description includes a short, neat beard. It doesn't bother me. If it was that short, it doesn't seem that important, you know? I'm very excited for season 2; I enjoyed season 1 and my favorite character, The Hound, has a larger part in the second book. I feel he was a little shafted in the first season of the show so I hope the second season does right by him!

5. Finally, I have a contest coming up. I'll be giving away a copy of Pill Hill Press' Daily Flash 2012, which has the honor of containing two of my stories, sometime in the next couple weeks. Stay tuned!