My work time lately has been divided between three major projects, the most neglected being the novel. But in the past few days I’ve returned to working on it and have managed some decent progress. Today’s efforts resulted in only a bit of forward momentum because I needed to backtrack (yet again) and lay in some foreshadowing and explanation of a smallish plot point. Hopefully the incident will now be clear to the reader.

It’s really a challenge sometimes to figure out what the reader knows at any given point, as compared to what the writer knows. I’ve got so much extra plot knowledge rattling around inside my head that I have to make an effort to remember that the reader is naturally going to be less informed and things have to be explained on occasion, and clarified. But today’s effort has produced good results, and once again I am poised to move onward.

Nanowrimo is well underway. For those unfamiliar, this is a writing exercise, held in November, with the goal of producing a 50,000-word novel in a month. The idea, as I understand it, is to just write, without concern for the inner editor, letting the unconscious creative spark take over. You won’t have a publishable novel at the end of it, but you might have a good framework to build on, with some great scenes, and you will at least have something.

My daughter persuaded me to sign up for Nanowrimo last year. That lasted for about two hours and this year I refused to go near it. I’m not recommending against Nanowrimo. It’s just not the way I write.

There are writers who always write in the Nanowrimo style, pouring out chapter after chapter without pause or revision until they reach the end, and then going back to re-write it all later. And then there are writers like me who insist on a polished chapter 1 before going on to chapter 2, and if something in chapter 2 changes things, then of course one must go back to chapter 1 and revise accordingly. While I admit this is mostly personal style, for me there is also a logical reason for doing this—because naturally everything that happens in a given chapter is dependent on what happened, or what was introduced in prior chapters. So that when I do go back and change some plot thread at an earlier point in the story, the repercussions are always more than I initially hope. This is the writer’s version of the butterfly effect, and this re-write of The Wild is turning out to be a profound demonstration of it.

The idea behind this re-write was to change the opening to better set up the story, change some motivations to provide better conflict, and change some of the plot to do the same. But once those butterfly wings start stirring the air, the winds can get very erratic.

I had hoped to make big changes in certain sections while holding onto other parts—and significantly the last quarter of the book—pretty much “as is.” So of course I have wound up re-writing almost everything. Oh, I’ve preserved some scenes and lots of paragraphs, but I bet if I went through and highlighted new stuff versus old stuff (and no, I’m not obsessive enough to actually do this) it would probably be 70% new, even though it’s telling essentially the same story.

The really painful moments are when I am forced to dump favorite scenes because they no longer fit in.

But onward. I’ve figured out the major plot points and motivations for the next to last section and have even managed to recycle some of the more dramatic moments. Now to outline it, and then to write it. It’s still possible I could pull this off in a way that will require only minimal changes in the last section. That’s the goal, but I’m not making bets on it.

I’ve embarked on a new programming project. The good thing about it is that it gives me something productive to do when the writing is not going well.

Of course, the bad thing about it is that it gives me something productive to do when the writing is not going well.

For me, it’s not always a good idea to have viable alternatives for my time. Sitting in front of the computer for four or five hours and producing nothing is incredibly frustrating, but if it’s ultimately followed by a break-through, I guess it was worth it. However if I have some other project to turn to, odds are I won’t stick with the story for very long if I’m not “in the flow.”

I wish I knew what makes the difference between those times when I am completely immersed in writing and all those other times when I am ready to go try something else for awhile. I wish I could manufacture the first state-of-mind, which would make me ever so much more efficient!

That’s all right. The specifics for the current section of The Wild are coming together day by day, and eventually they will all be set down and I’ll move on. I’ve been writing long enough to at least be confident of that.

Once again I’ll take a shot at getting this blog re-started. Despite the silence here, I’ve been pretty busy these past months. As some may remember, my big goal this year was to self-publish my fantasy novel The Wild. As preparation for that, I sent a “final” draft to a few readers. I wanted to see if it would grab people–but the response was a bit underwhelming. No one managed to get back to me in under two months. Bad timing was a factor. People were distracted by other tasks and no one even started to read for several weeks after receiving the manuscript. Nevertheless, I know lack-of-enthusiasm when I see it. This was the first time I ever had to do some gentle nagging to get any feedback at all, and even then I did not get much more than, “I liked it, but the beginning is a little hard to follow.”

Hrmmm.

“Well, was it boring?”

“No. I was interested in it when I was reading it.”

But it was not, apparently, the sort of manuscript that would leave you sleep deprived the next day; and when you’re about to wager your own money on publication, a more bubbly response is absolutely required.

Now it’s true that my chosen readers are not writers themselves–at least not of fiction–but all are avid readers of novels. So if they were having a hard time getting through it, the logical conclusion is that the manuscript needs work.

Well, really, the most logical conclusion is that I should stop throwing good money after bad, and start on something new. I do have a new novel in the rough planning stages. It’s a mainstream work, topical, mildly comedic and meaningful if I can pull it off the way I envision–but I seem to be in the obsessive grip of The Wild.

So I have decided to go ahead and throw good money after bad (or more accurately to devote time that might be used for more lucrative projects) and do a major re-write. The first goal is to cut a substantial chunk of the 158,000 word length. For comparison, both Vast and Memory were around 130K. For the new version of The Wild I’m aiming for 110K, and so far am under 130, so it’s going well. That much cutting has led to dropped characters and plot changes that will hopefully tighten the whole thing up and give it more momentum.

So wish me luck. I would love to have the rough-cut done by the end of the month. I’ll keep you posted. No, really!

Hola! I am back from Mexico City and am happy to report that it was a fabulous experience. If you missed my earlier blog post, I was invited to participate in the literature track of the 25th annual Festival de Mexico en El Centro Historico. Six writers were invited, all associated with speculative fiction. We were asked to give a presentation on our personal relationship with science fiction, and to participate in a round table discussion with a moderator.

My husband accompanied me, and from our arrival on Sunday afternoon, to our departure on Friday, we enjoyed the company of gracious hosts and attentive audiences, while also having some time on our own to do a little exploring.

First, I have to say that prior to leaving I reached a point where I stopped telling people where I was going, because the common reaction was “Oh, but what about the crime?” with some concern also for the terrible conditions, the pollution. Well, I can happily report that the pollution was no worse than Los Angeles, and that I did not see criminal gangs waiting at the airport to assault tourists. Mexico City is of course a vast metropolis, and like any big city I’m sure there are parts anyone would want to avoid. But the historic district and the neighborhoods we visited along Avenue Reforma were lovely, and we did lots of walking.

I suppose in Europe it’s a common experience to see new buildings standing next to those that are hundreds of years old, but that’s not the case in much of the USA and certainly not in Hawaii, so I was continuously impressed by the cathedrals and other structures; by the sheer evidence of history that was everywhere.

This is also a city where people read. On the “block of bookstores” there was one bookstore after another, and there were magazine stands every couple of blocks along the sidewalks.

Attendance at our literary presentations was a little slim on the first day, but after that the audiences were impressive, and very attentive to what we had to say. All the writers spoke in English (we were Americans or Brits) but there was a translator relaying our words in Spanish. Questions were taken from the audience, and we were able to hear an immediate translation via headphones. Of course many members of the audience asked their questions in English.

The other writers were Christopher Priest, M. John Harrison, Chris Nakashima-Brown and Mark Dery, with Bruce Sterling joining us on Wednesday and Thursday. All were extremely pleasant to talk with, and we enjoyed several nights of conversation in the hotel bar, joined at times by Mexican writers such as Pepe Rojo, Bernardo Fernandez Bef, and our host Mauricio Montiel.

A few pictures:

Christopher Priest, M. John Harrison, Linda Nagata, Chris Nakashima-Brown, Mark Dery

(more…)

This is a story with no conclusion; it is just a description of an odd coincidence that still leaves me puzzled.

Recently I re-discovered a CD that was released in 2000 by Nina Gordon, a singer I had never heard of before (or frankly, since). My daughter had purchased it because we were both entranced by a song on it, “Tonight And The Rest Of My Life.”

Move on a few weeks in time…my daughter, avidly interested in Greek mythology, is reading an English translation of “Gods and Heroes” by Gustav Schwab. The book she holds in her hands was purchased by my great aunt, in 1946, as a Christmas gift for her husband. It is one of the very few items from my family that I possess.

So what’s the connection? On page thirty-nine, Zeus has decided to wipe out the human race. My daughter reads the following “[Zeus] was just about to do this by scourging all the earth with lightning, when he held back for fear the sky might catch fire and burn the axis of the world.” She is astonished and comes to show me the quote, because in Gordon’s song, the fourth and fifth lines are
“And the sky might catch on fire
And burn the axis of the world.”

Well, we were very impressed that the songwriter – apparently Gordon herself – had seemingly read the very same book, and been fully taken by the imagery, but we were more impressed that the allusion was revealed to us by such a slim chance.

The meaning of the song is open to interpretation, but the chapter the quote comes from is “Pyrrha and Deucalion.” It is a tale of the Flood, only this one is caused by the Greek gods, who are disgusted at the state of humanity.

So today, instead of doing the useful things I had planned, I let myself be distracted, and spent some time with Google book search exploring some of the other song lyrics [ link ]. Here’s what I found:

On page thirty-seven, the afterlife of the Greek heroes is described as being “…on the Islands of the Blest gleaming in the dark sea.” In the song we have:
“Gleaming in the dark sea
I’m as light as air”

Again on page thirty-nine we have “…only the south wind was allowed to issue forth. Down to earth he flew with dripping wings, shrouded in darkness as black as pitch.” In the song we have:
“Down to the earth I fell
With dripping wings”

On page forty, at the height of the flood: “Everything was sea, shoreless sea.” In the song:
“I open up my eyes
I realize that
Everything is shoreless sea”

And then on page fifty-five, in a completely different story, the tale of Europa, “Soon the land vanished from sight, the sun set, and in the vague shimmer of night, the girl saw nothing but waves and stars.” In the song:
“Everything is waves and stars
The universe is resting in my arms”

What does it all mean? As I said at the start, this is a story without a conclusion. A small part of me is troubled by it, wondering if this is beyond fair use, but mostly I feel the song is a beautiful rendition and interpretation of imagery and concepts that begin in the book.

I am curious to know if the allusions were deliberate, or if they emerged from the stew of the unconscious. I think most writers must worry about this at times – I certainly have – that something read years before might suddenly appear in our own work, and we have no idea it wasn’t original to us. Ah well, life is full of risk!

Oh, and one more coincidence…according to Wikipedia the Nina Gordon album was recorded on Maui, where I live.

I’ve been eyeing this blog with guilt the past few months. It’s easy to come up with minor topics, but when I’ve let things slide this long, it feels like I should offer an exceptional topic as I get back into the habit of posting.

So here it is: I have been invited to participate in the 25th Festival de México en el Centro Histórico, in Mexico City. This is an annual arts festival involving music, performance, film, other visual arts, and literature. This year the literature track is focused on science fiction, which is where I come in.

I have never been to Mexico City before, so I am looking forward to this. I’m scheduled to give a talk on Tuesday, March 17, and participate in a round table discussion on Thursday, March 19. I will have some illustrious company, so it should be interesting.

Here is the link to the literature section of the festival website: http://festival.org.mx/programa/tipo/g/17. Google can provide reasonable translations.

My contacts at the festival have been wonderfully helpful and gracious in preparing for this trip, and my thanks go out to them.

I finished a written interview last week with Denis Labbe, a writer for the website lefantastique.net and the magazine Galaxies. He informs me the French translation of Limit of Vision came out in March of this year. I still haven’t seen a copy, but hopefully one will wend its way to me eventually. Denis was kind enough to send the cover image. It’s that same cover again — sigh — but I do like the addition of the gray, graffiti-esque mark up.

Thanks again for all the input on what to do with my young-adult novel Skye Object 3270a. After considerable thought, and looking at the rather long timeline for revising The Wild and getting it into print, I’ve decided to go back to my initial plan of charging a small amount for this e-book edition of Skye Object 3270a.

So I am happy to announce that Skye Object 3270a is now available at my publishing website MythicIsland.com, priced at $5 for the PDF file.

So what’s it about? It’s a young-adult novel, aimed at an advanced middle school audience. Those of you familiar with my work will recognize the setting from the Deception Well story world, but Skye Object 3270a is otherwise independent of that book and its characters. It’s high action science fiction designed to be fun, exciting, and maybe a little scary. If you are fortunate enough to know avid young readers, why not buy them a copy?

Preview the first chapter here.

Click here to purchase the download.

In 1998 I wrote a young-adult novel entitled Skye Object 3270a. It was set in the Deception Well story world, but was otherwise independent of that book and its characters. The novel didn’t find a publisher – no one knew quite what to make of it, I suspect – and it has been sitting ever since, until this spring when I decided I would offer it as an e-book. My first plan was to charge a nominal $5 for the PDF, and I already wrote most of the script to automatically email a copy when a purchase is made… but now I am reconsidering. Is it better to follow instead the model of most open source software, and make the novel available for anonymous download? Certainly it should get much higher circulation that way, and then those who enjoy it can make a small payment if they wish, or return to the website to purchase other books.

So what is the best business model? To make a few dollars upfront? Or to try to get my name out to a wider audience? At the moment, I am definitely leaning toward Plan B. If anyone has thoughts on this, I’d be interested to hear them.

Thanks!