Heh.  I'm not complaining but after two days of my personal challenge I have...2/3rds of a story. It's ok, I think it's going to be a good story.  And you never know what will happen this weekend.

I find myself writing some blocky, awkward sentences but if I rush past them, I get into the sweet stuff.  Later, next week, probably, I'll go back and cut out the blocky stuff.  I'll be frank, the awkward sentences bother me. I'm no Harlan Ellison but I usually write pretty decent first drafts.  So these rough spots...

But I'm giving myself permission to suck, so long as I don't let the awkward stuff block me and keep writing, I figure I can fix the ick later.

I've been reading Neil Gaiman's Anansi's Boys and...not really enjoying it.  Which is odd, because his short stories are some of the best things I've ever read.  But here's my problem so far (and keep in mind, I'm not all the way done yet): I don't like the main characters.  Fat Charlie is awkward and passive. At first that made him a bit sympathetic but by now, I'm tired of him.  I don't like his fiance, who's decided she doesn't want to marry Fat Charlie after falling in love with his 'brother', Spider.  I don't like Spider, who is selfish and thoughtlessly cruel but at least has the saving grace of being entertaining.  I think I see where the plot is going and I don't like that, either.

Strange.

Maybe it's just me and my delight in heroism and heroes.  I like larger than life people or at the very least, ordinary people who rise to the occasion when the time comes.  Fat Charlie keeps going to other people, asking them to solve his problems for him. That might fit for some fairy tales but not the fairy tales I love to read.  Maybe there' some weird English defeatism there, that doesn't trust in heroes or asserting yourself and wants to just stand by the side of the wall and make snide comments.  

I tried the 'five minute summary' last night.  It was good, but I have a sneaking suspicion that it's going to make for a longer story.  I don't think that's the planning's fault. Just the latest short story idea seems to want some space to breathe.

I think part of that is due to the genre, Fantasy.  Fantasy always seems to want a bit of world building and that bumps the word count. I need to see if there's ways to hint at the world without sentence-long, or worse, paragraph-long explanations of things.

Word count wasn't horrible, 1800 or so words in an hour and a half.  So, too soon to say if the 'five minuete summary' before writing is working or not. But I have a story I'm excited about telling and that's worth a bunch of roses.  I'll just have to scramble more during the week or, God forbid, during the weekend.

Tonight we begin our one week sprint of stories. Seven days, seven stories, that's my goal.  I did a test run yesterday but the story fell apart like a snowball when the snow's too dry.  Which is an appropriate simile since the story was called The Winter Wife.  I may take a crack at it again, since a little Fantasy Horror might be just what the season needs.

Anyway, I came across an idea from a blog (and if I stole this from you, let me know and I'll like and offer props) where the writer spends five minutes before they write planning out what they're going to write about. I don't usually do that for short stories. Normally I have a beginning or a ending and a character and I just go with it. When it works, it's like magic. But when it doesn't, it gets frustrating.

So, rather than doing what I normally do when I'm frustrated, I'm going to quit wanking and get planning.  Tonight, I'm going to spend just five minutes writing out what I intend to write about. We'll see if that bit of structure helps with my productivity.  I'll let you know tomorrow if it works.

So, it's been a month since World Fantasy.  In that month, I had hoped to write a passel of short stories, like I did in April.  I didn't and I want to talk a little bit about why.  Not just in the interest of accountiblity and full disclosure of my flaws and my journey.  Yes, I want to be on the record so I or anyone else can look back and see what was going on in my writing life.  But I want explain what I think the failure was caused by.

But first, a few sentences of context.  I am applying again for Clarion West. It is pretty much the best writer education program in the country if you want to write fantasy and sci-fi, as I do.  (Clarion and Oddysey also deserve mention as well) This year, the states are even higher because George R. R. Martin is teaching.  Now he's not a paragon of perfection but he has written three books that may be the most important and highest quality fantasy since JRR Tolkien.  I want to learn from him, even for a week.  Naturally, so do a whole lot of other people.  

So the Clarion West application is competetive. You need to send in your best work. Last year, the first two chapters of Angel Odyssey weren't good enough.  So, my plan this year was to submit short stories instead.  Which brings me to how I blocked myself.

You see, unlike April, when my goal was just to write 30 short stories in 30 days, (about anything and they didn't need to be good, just complete) I set the goal of writing something great. Something that would catch the judges eye and make them tap me on the shoulder and say 'you're in'.  I want that, need it almost.

So my bar for creation was so high, that I rejected ideas before I even sat down to write them. I have myself stress headaches out of sheer expectataion. I needed to write great fantasy, great sci-fi. I needed to be great and I wasn't willing to settle for anything less.

Well, guess what? I didn't settle. And I didn't produce anything great.  See that's the lesson.  Don't try for greatness.  Just try.  Don't write the greatest thing you've ever written, just write.  Writing is hard enough, God knows, without putting the additional burden of NEEDING to be great.  Don't do what I did.  Just write.  Write what you love, what makes you laugh, what entertains YOU.  Just write and don't worry about greatness.

So what am I going to do? Am I going to take my own advice?  

I'd like to. I'd like to just write a bunch of stuff and see how it comes out.  I WOULD like to use my critique group as a resource.  It helps a lot to have other eyes on your work. But time is running out. I wanted to get Smooth Running up and for sale by...well, two weeks ago...and ideally before Christmas.  But is that my real priority?  Smooth Running can go up anytime, and if I miss this holiday season, well, there will be another one.  (I'm hoping and trusting...assuming the Mayans were wrong) But I have one shot at Clarion West this year.  I think I need to take it.

So, I am going to dedicate a week, a solid 7 days to writing. I'm going to write seven to ten short stories (I can crank them out when I get going and don't get in my own way). Then I'm going to re-read them and submit the best to my group for feedback.  Then, the rest of the month, editing time.  And at the end of the month, on December 31st, if not earlier, I'm sending my application off.  I don't know if there will be anything great. But if all goes well, there will be two or three stories that I enjoyed writing and reading.

I'm going to try to just write.

Yep, I sent off my submission to the Norwescon Fairwood Writers workshop.  Let's hope it doesn't impact on the outer rim.  I've already found a few typos in my snopsis...hopefully that's all I missed...but probably not. 

Unlike last year, I did not extensively workshop this novel excerpt prior to...workshopping it.  This is more raw, more honest, I think.  That may mean unpolished. I hope not but we'll see.

There was another deadline I missed yesterday, though. There was a super villian anthology I really wanted to get into but...time ran out.

Now we're in December, that means 31 days left to get my Clarion West application ready for submission. :)

Well, wish me luck. We keep going forward.

I have one day, three hours actually, to finish my Fairwood Writer's submission.  The novel excerpt? Jah, done and done. No problem, chapter 2 didn't have any serious editing problems that I saw.  But, here's the barbed hook, I have to submit it with a synopsis of not more than 1000 words.

I'm beginning my first edits of The Mageborn Mechanic and I'm noticing things I did well and things that I can improve.  (so far, so good)

This week I’m going to be pretty heads-down on editing the first few chapters of The Mageborn Mechanic.  The reason?  The Fairwood Writer’s workshop at Norwescon 35 (http://www.norwescon.org/things-to-do/program/writers-workshop/)

For those of you living in the Pacific Northwest, or willing and able to make a trip to Seattle in April, this is one of the best writer’s workshops for the money.  It’s not for the faint of heart or this of skin, I’ll be frank there.  The critiques are all done by professional writers and there are things to be learned if you are willing to put yourself out there.

So, that’s what I’m doing these next three days, editing the first few chapters of The Mageborn Mechanic for submission.  But if you don’t have a novel written and ready for submission, you can also submit short stories for critiquing, up to three, I think.

This is a good gut check for anyone serious about writing. If you can find it in yourself to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous critiquing, get back up again, digest the suggestions and incorporate the ones you agree with…then you’re going to make it.

The submissions guidelines go on about how you need to submit polished work, the best you can do.  I don’t know about you but that always hits me in my self-confidential region.  But, we all have to believe in our work. If we don’t, no one else will.  So, find something you can believe in and submit it by the 30th.

Good luck to us all.

Onward Christian Soldiers

I’m a long (LONG) time Baen Books reader and I damn near cut my teeth on David Drake’s Hammer’s Slammers series, so I’ve been reading military science fiction since the ‘good old days’.  Knox’s Irregulars is a worthy addition to the genre, not just because of the solid military action but because of the worldbuilding and the unique take on theology in war.

The plot is pretty straightforward, good guys verses bad guys.  And that’s ok. The bad guys in this book are semi-Islamic extremists who slaughter the moderates in their own government and promptly invade their infidel neighbors.  The ‘infidel neighbors’ are a smallish colony of Calvinist Christian colonists who purchased some land from the original settlers and had the audacity to build a successful, technological society.  The good guys are outnumbered, pushed aside and war in all its ugliness ensues.  The protagonist, Randal Knox, is son of the Prime Minister, groomed to succeed him but he rejected that life to enlist and rise to the heady rank of Corporal in the infantry.  When the invasion hits, he’s trapped deep behind the front lines and ends up organizing a partisan force to harass the bad guys and ultimately play a pivotal role in ending the war.  It’s Red Dawn meets Starship Troopers.

The book is polished and professional.  It really would fit in magnificently in the Baen roster, and who knows, maybe it will some day.  The military details are authentic, which makes sense since Mr. Bush was Airborne Infantry.  The tech is functional, the powered armor feels a bit like John Ringo’s but with a little less ‘fantasy tech’. You get the feeling that these suits could be made and used sometime this century.  There is a cost for every victory, which is something a lot of military sci-fi seems to miss.  Logistics matter, civilians suffer as well as the partisans.  Good guys die, bad guys win, though the ending is satisfying enough.

A few criticisms: The final partisan raid seems almost too easy, though not without cost.  I’m having a hard time picturing partisans raiding, say, Rommel’s Headquarters at Pontcarre in June 1944.  So the success of the main characters there at the end feels a little…off, but not disastrously Deux Ex Machina-esque.  The characters feel real, with a couple of exceptions.  Jeni Cho seems to have some sort of ‘most favored character’ status in this book. I wanted someone to smack her but no one ever does.  The female romantic interest, Ariane Mireault, is a bit of load.  She also feels cold and is the only character I considered preachy in the book.  There is a real lack of sexual tension in the book. In fact, that’s one of the only things that didn’t feel authentic. I realize these are all first or second generation religious pilgrims (or Pilgrims, if you prefer) but the main characters seem to have their libido turned off.  Ariane has a bastard child (using the word advisedly) but seems oddly sexless on the page.  For a group of soldiers, from my experience, this lack of ‘earthiness’ seems to be the only whitewashed part of the book. I think the ‘spiciest’ thing to happen in the book is a kiss. For some, this is a bug for others, it’s a feature.

Ok, let’s get into the ‘controversial’ part of this book.  The good guys are Christian.  This is basically a group of Revived Swiss-style Calvinists who fled Earth looking for religious freedom in the stars.  They settle on this planet, make a successful colony and end up fighting for their lives.  This is not C.S. Lewis allegory here, this culture wears its Christian bona fides openly.  Christian theology is part of their everyday life and conversation.  For a lot of readers, this is going to feel a little weird.  Actually, I think that it works. It’s almost an examination of an alien culture (and let’s be honest, this kind of open Christianity is alien to a lot of sci-fi readers).  Taken in that spirit, it’s difficult to be offended by anything here, at least for me.  This culture is Christian, the book says.  I shrug and say ‘ok’.  It works in another way, as well.  It has a theme of rejecting hate while opposing evil. That’s rare, in real life and in fiction. It reminds me a bit of Quo Vadis, in that way.  Again, religion is part of everyone’s daily life, so there’s not a lot of attempts to convert characters or the reader.  There are no Ayn Randian diatribes pushing the author’s worldview.  Faith is part of what keeps the characters together and even serves for redemption for one character but it never feels oppressive. It reminds me a lot of Gordon Dickson’s ‘Soldier, Ask Not’, especially the novella (which won the Hugo for best short story in 1965).  In that vein, this book firmly belongs in the sci-fi pantheon.

Final verdict, this is a solid Sci-Fi novel with an interesting culture.  I recommend buying it. So far, it’s only available as an ebook (http://www.amazon.com/Knoxs-Irregulars-J-Wesley-Bush/dp/1466487046/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_1). At 2.99, it’s even more attractive.

I’m looking forward to the author’s next book.

I was going to do a short blog about some edits and submissions I did last night. But life has intervened, as it often does.  More important things have happened since last night.

Anne MacCaffrey has died following a stroke.

It is hard to emphasize how important to me her books have been.  Mrs MacCaffrey was one of the first writers I devoured.  I hit her Pern series right at the sweet spot of twelve or so, when I was so receptive to dreams and wonder.  And her stories about boys and girls and dragons were just perfect for someone just coming off Lloyd Alexander, Tolkien and Lewis.  I was eight when the White Dragon was published. It was waiting for me, still new-ish on the library book shelves. I still remember the Michael Whelan cover, how skeletal and tiny the dragon looked. Something that needed protection, not something to be feared like Smaug.

It was her ‘Masterharpers of Pern’ series that lived in my head the most*.  Dragondrums most of all. It was YA before there really was YA or maybe it kicked that genre off.  All I know was the coming of age stories in those three books spoke to me, inspired me.

I still have those books, I sought them out when I started my library. I don’t have all the Pern books, but the first six, Dragonflight up through Dragondrums, those are the special ones to me, still covered in magic.

Some people are dismissive of the Pern series.  I’ve heard them called ‘horsey’ books. (dragons = horses, I suppose)  My wife found the first book dated and hard to get into. Other readers looked at the sheer number of Pern books and Pern tie-ins and accused her of just ‘cashing in’ or being lazy, just filling in gaps and riding the dragon pony for as long as she could.  I doubt that.  Sure, not all the books were as good as the first six, no one strikes gold every time.  But I suspect she got trapped by her own success. I’m sure her publishers wanted more and more Pern stuff, a known quantity with an established reader base.  No doubt it was hard for her to break away from her success and do other things.

But she did. Her Crystal Singer series was different, still MacCaffrey, still with her stamp upon it.  She had a rich history of collaborations, as well. Many of which I read.

I enjoyed her books so much that her blurb on a book would compel me to at least give the author a try. She must have read voraciously because I can’t tell you how many books I picked up because of her.

Death comes to all people, I know but the world has a little less sparkle in it now.  Thank you Anne, you will be missed.

*Dragonsinger, Dragonsong and Dragondrums