Tag: writers

  • ReaderCon33 Experiences (Part 1): Memorable Moments, Moderating Panels, and Networking

    ReaderCon33 Experiences (Part 1): Memorable Moments, Moderating Panels, and Networking

    A lot happened at ReaderCon33 this year. Okay, yes, a lot always happens at ReaderCon (read about some of my other experiences here), but specifically a lot happened for me at ReaderCon this year. So much so that I want to make sure I write about it here so I don’t forget it all (I have the memory of a fruit fly). This is the first of a two part ReaderCon wrap-up. There’s that much for me to talk about. [ReaderCon33 Experiences]

     

    Attending as an Official Participant [SFF Community, Writing Conferences]

    ReaderCon33 ExperiencesReaderCon33 is the first one I attended as an actual program participant. Last year, I volunteered and had a blast doing so. If you’re looking for a great way to meet new people and make connections all while feeling good about giving back and helping the convention continue to thrive, I strongly recommend volunteering. I did end up on a panel last year, but that wasn’t planned. Someone who was supposed to be on a panel about writing during the pandemic got sick at the last minute (ironic, right?). A good writing friend of mine, Anatoly Belalovsky, who was also on that panel suggested I step in and fill the empty spot. The ReaderCon folks decided that would work, and it did. I mean, I assume it worked out because when I applied to participate in this year’s Con in a more official capacity, they approved my application and put me on four panels. And approved me for a solo reading slot (more on that later). 

    So, yeah, fame comes in all shapes and sizes. This is my little moment of “oh my gosh, I’ve made it! I was a program participant at ReaderCon! My name was on their list and everything. Squeeee!! P.S. The SFF community is pretty small, so it truly is silly for me to feel so stupidly excited about all this, but I’m a low key hedonist, so I find pleasure wherever I can, including in the small things.  [ReaderCon33 Experiences]

     

    From Volunteer to Program Participant [Moderating Panels, Networking at Conventions, Writing Events]. Readercon33 Experiences

    ReaderCon33 ExperiencesLike I said, I was on four panels this year. For three of them, they put me on as the moderator. Which is fine by me. That’s basically what I do all day everyday as a teacher. I moderate rowdy hoards of teenagers in a classroom full of glassware and biohazardous materials. Pshaw, I got this. 

    Thanks to my role as moderator, the fun started weeks before the convention. Teacher that I am, I like to plan ahead. I reached out via email to all the other panelists for all three panels I was slated to moderate. I introduced myself, encouraged them to do the same via email, and then solicited ideas on what everyone wanted to talk about during the actual convention. This, I will admit, felt like basic due diligence on my part. However, multiple folks from all three panels made a point to thank me for being proactive and said I was the only moderator to do so.  That’s not to say that no other panel moderators contacted their panelists ahead of time. I’m sure many did. Just not the moderators of the other panels my people were on.

    The pre-con preparations paid off, too, because by the time we actually sat down together in person, we all had a working rapport established and were primed to talk shop on all the various cool topics. Who were those folks and what were those cool topics? Glad you asked. [R

    eaderCon33 Experiences]

    My ReaderCon33 Schedule [Moderating Panels, Networking at Conventions, Writing Events] Readercon33 Experiences

    ReaderCon33 ExperiencesStarting at 12:00PM on Friday, I moderated the panel, “What Separates Adult and YA SFF” which meant I got to toss questions to authors LJ Cohen, Mark Painter, Melissa Caruso, and Sarena Straus for forty-five minutes and listen to them share their thoughts. 

     

    Both SFF sold as adult and as YA may contain protagonists who are teens or young adults, as well as sex, drugs, and violence. What, then, puts a story in one category or the other? Panelists will examine what tropes, themes, sensibilities, pacing, and narrative voices may genuinely distinguish the categories.

     

    Then, at 5:00PM, I moderated my second panel, “Writing For, With, About, and Around Children.” This was a truly excellent panel. Not only was the topic itself interesting, but so too were the panelists (authors Caitlin Rozakis, Carlos Hernandez, Noah Beit-Aharon, and Rob Cameron)! 

     

    Many authors have to navigate their writing careers around the needs of their offspring, not least those who write books for children. How does parenting inform or transform one’s writing, and how does writing inform or transform one’s parenting? Do parents create more believable child characters? Do readers even want realistically depicted children? And what of the parents? How realistically do we dare depict ourselves?

     

    Later that evening, at 9:00PM, I moderated the panel: “Mad Science Q & A,” which was… interesting. The description of the panel left me slightly confused, so I reached out to the ReaderCon33 folks to ask what the format and feel of the panel would be like. They told me to expect a bunch of SFF writers to pepper the panelists with science-related brainstorming questions. It sounded like I would be calling on audience members when they raised their hands to ask questions about something science-y. As a teacher, I felt pretty confident I could handle that.

    The panel ran pretty much the way I expected, except that all of the panelists (including myself) had backgrounds in biological sciences. Arula Ratnakar is a writer pursuing a PhD in Computational Neuroscience. Amanda Downum is a writer with a degree in Mortuary Science. Author Allen Dyen-Shapiro has a PhD in Biochemistry, and I’m the schlep who teaches biology to high schoolers. So, of course, nearly all the questions were about time travel and quantum entanglement. Ugh. What do four folks who know all about biological systems know that can possibly let them answer the question, “Do you think time travel is possible” in any kind of satisfying way? Spoiler alert: No, time travel is not possible. Someone did ask about whether or not the idea of transferring memories from one brain to another was plausible. That, we were able to talk about at length. Especially Arula. Thank Thor for Arula!

     

    Have a notion for a futuristic technology and want to run it by some experts? A chimerical monster whose biology requires further scientific study? Need to know how long it takes a body to decompose in an abandoned mineshaft, for… um… reasons? Ask our panel of mad scientists your burning questions and see what they think through the little windows in their skulls. Answers may be unexpectedly thoughtful or incredibly unreliable—you will have to judge that for yourself. They called us mad, MAD to do this panel! [ReaderCon33 Experiences]

     

    Meet the Pros(e) Social Hour [Moderating Panels, Networking at Conventions, Writing Events] Readercon33 Experiences

    ReaderCon33 Experiences Meet the Pros(e)
    This photo is from a previous “Meet the Pros(e)” event that didn’t involve teeny tiny tables.

    My final panel of Friday night wasn’t so much a panel as a professional gathering styled like a speed dating event. At 10:15PM authors and editors sat around teeny tiny (way too teeny tiny) tables with non-authors and editors and chatted about whatever. Every 15 minutes, we rotated to a new, randomly assigned table and repeated the process until 11:00PM. It was loud, crowded, and kind of awkward, but also fun. And I got to sit for fifteen minutes with author P. Djélí Clark, whose writing is amazing! If you haven’t read anything by him, you’re truly missing out. Turns out, he’s also a pretty amazing human as well as an amazing author.

    I also got to chat for fifteen minutes with the award winning horror editor Ellen Datlow, who has edited some of the best horror anthologies out there, Screams from the Dark being the most recent that I’ve read. Okay, truth? Ellen is one of those people around whom I freeze up and get fanishly awkward. I have a huge (non-romantic) crush on her. She knows her shit, takes no shit, gives no fucks, and totally owns whatever space she’s in. She’s absolutely incredible. Sorry for the swearing, but Ellen Datlow deserves heaps and heaps of profane praise.

    I’m going to end this Part 1 post here. In my part 2 post, I tell the story of my Sunday solo reading experience (my first in person live reading at a convention and holy wow was I nervous!), and I’ll tell you about all the awesome folks I met and chatted with. I also need to record the many packing errors I made but didn’t discover until I got to the hotel and checked in for posterity sake. [ReaderCon33 Experiences]

    Do you have a favorite con that you like to attend regularly? Tell me about it. What makes it great for you? [ReaderCon33 Experiences]

    Thanks for stopping by, and as always, happy writing! [ReaderCon33 Experiences]

  • Creative Writing and Hustle Culture is a Toxic Mix

    Creative Writing and Hustle Culture is a Toxic Mix

    Drawing to a woman in a business suit bent over at the waist, a wind up key sticking out of her back. She looks like a run down wind up doll.Hustle culture is awful. It’s not a unique thought, obviously. And it’s not a problem unique to the writing/publishing world. If you’re a creative writer, though, you know what I’m talking about. It’s so toxic. I hate it. I’m sure you do, too. Trouble is, hustle culture is hard to resist!

    A few days ago, a fellow short fiction author posted in the Codex Writers forums about how worn down she is by the grind of the short fiction world and how she’s feeling ready to just… stop? Like, she still wants to write stuff for herself, but she’s ready to quit pursuing publishing. Why? Because the publishing industry as a whole is So. Damned. Toxic. Not to mention unsustainable. The ratio of rejections to acceptances is appallingly high. Which isn’t a new thing but yeah. It sucks.

    A bunch of people responded to her forum post with comments about feeling equally burned out. My heart ached for her (and for all the authors who commented about being in the same place she is). She’s an incredible writer and an incredible person. The thread filled up with offers of love and virtual hugs and general support. I didn’t leave a comment. I didn’t feel like I had anything to offer that would change her situation or make her feel authentically better. And also, I don’t think I’m struggling with things in quite the same way she seems to be.

    I enjoy writing short stories, but trying to get them published is definitely a grind. And, oh my goodness folks, the hustle culture is ridiculous! 

    Recently, I read a post by author Chuck Wendig that was supposed to be funny but left me feeling a little sick. Basically, he described the sisyphean nature of the writing/publishing world’s hustle culture without actually naming it. The post was supposed to be funny, sort of, but I felt sad after reading it. Wendig’s musings highlighted the (unhappily) accepted norms of the industry, but the thesis of his post seemed to be, “This is absolutely awful and horrible but there’s no viable alternatives so we authors just need to accept it or else we’ll fail and starve.” I mean, he wasn’t actively promoting hustle culture. But he also wasn’t rejecting it. He was just complaining about it while simultaneously engaging in it.

    Stuff like this is toxic. It seems motivational but really it promotes hustle culture and might as well read: 10 Steps to Burn Out Quick and Feel Like a Failure.

    At Boskone last year (or maybe it was the year before), I listened to a panel discussion about this exact issue. One of the panelists was veteran short story author and novelist John Langen, who shared that he still gets upwards of a hundred rejections each year. He also gets solicitations to contribute to anthologies, and invitations to collaborate with greats like Paul Tremblay, which likely serves as a nice buffer to all those rejection letters. While on the Boskone panel, he advised new writers to just keep submitting stories. Just acknowledge that rejection is part of the process. In that moment, I felt seen and affirmed. I nodded my head in agreement. Yes, yes! It’s not just me getting 40+ rejections for every 1 acceptance. It’s not just new authors. It’s all of us, even the established folks. That makes it okay. But… maybe not?

    Just because creative writers, new and established, are all in the same boat together doesn’t mean the boat isn’t a genuinely toxic place to be. I mean, if I were on a cruise ship plagued with norovirus and there happened to be a few celebrities on board whom I admired, their presence wouldn’t lessen the awfulness of puking my guts out. I wouldn’t be like, “I feel like I’m dying but it’s okay because So-and-So Big Name is going through this, too, and they say this is just how cruising is.” Nope. I’d be like, “This experience is terrible and I can’t wait for it to be over and I’m never doing it again.”

    Maybe Langen’s argument that we should all just suck it up and go with the flow doesn’t make sense. Not like it used to, anyway. You know, once upon a time back in the days of actual typewriters and physical paper. Back when you had to buy postage and envelopes. When the pace of life moved at 7 to 10 business days. Oh, and there were 50%+ fewer people on the planet. Back then there were more markets and fewer writers submitting fewer stories to them. Yes, they were all still getting far more rejections than acceptances, but the ratio was waaaaay lower than it is today.

    Publishing challenges. Photo of a nail driven into a white wall under a hanging bookshelf and above and beside a writing desk sporting a stack of notebooks
    Behold! My pile of rejection letters circa 2021. It’s grown since then.

    These days, short fiction markets are closing right and left while technology is making those ever dwindling markets more and more accessible on a global scale. Magazines used to get fifty submissions a week. Now magazines sometimes get over two hundred submissions a week. In many ways, the new accessibility is a good thing. New and previously underrepresented writers who maybe couldn’t previously submit their work now can. Historically underrepresented voices and perspectives and cultures are enriching the genre fiction world. That’s fantastic. The point I’m trying to make, though, is that the market is oversaturated. Beyond oversaturated if you factor in AI submissions, and that trend is increasing. So yeah, fewer markets and exponentially more submissions to them. A perfect recipe for hustle culture. I don’t blame that author over on Codex for burning out and having a “what’s the point in trying” moment.

    There are soooo many factors involved in getting published that are completely out of an author’s control. Some of it is raw numbers and market trends, some of it is yuckier stuff (nepotism, favoritism, biases and prejudices that people in the industry don’t like to talk about and certainly don’t want to acknowledge), but more and more getting a story published is just a matter of chance. Yet the hustle culture of the publishing world would have us believing that there’s a causal relationship between how hard we work and how much publication success we have. Authors who self-publish are, perhaps, in a slightly different situation, but some would argue the hustle culture is even worse for them. I don’t know. That’s a discussion for a different day.

    In my mind, submitting a story for publication is a bit like buying a scratch ticket. The idea of getting published is fun, and occasionally I get an acceptance letter. In those instances, I revel in the endorphin dump and embrace the dopamine hit of seeing my stories in print, but I try hard to resist the hustle culture. That old adage that “If you’re not writing every day, you’re not a real writer” is harmful and self-destructive. I have a day job. I’m a teacher (another industry with a toxic hustle culture problem). I have a family and, you know, other hobbies and interests that I enjoy. 

    I write stories, and I submit them to markets for possible publication. But I do it at my own pace, in a way that fits in my life, and I don’t feel guilty about that. I’m not willing to engage with the hustle culture that seems to drive the publishing industry so completely.  If I don’t write today, or this week, or this month because I’m too busy with other things or even just because I don’t feel like writing, I’m okay with that. The author who posted about burnout over on Codex probably won’t read this, but I hope she finds a way to reject the grind and rediscover the joy in writing, because she’s a damned good writer and I hate what the hustle culture of the industry is doing to her and to all writers (all creatives really). 

    I’ve got a few stories out on submission right now. I’m playing around with a few new stories, too. I’m doing a live reading with two other Radon Journal authors in July. I’ll also be attending ReaderCon as a panelist this year. Beyond that, I’m elbows deep in developing two new genetics and biotechnology courses to teach next year, and I’m taking a graduate class so I can actually teach those classes competently. I’m embarking upon the college application process with my eldest child (omg MORE hustle culture shenanigans). Yikes, that’s a lot. Guess I’m as trapped in the hustle culture as everyone else. But, I’m also gardening, and kayaking, and bird watching, and going for hikes, and reading, and sitting in the backyard feeling the sun on my face while listening to the wind rustle through the leaves of Yggdrasil. 

    Are you feeling burned out these days? Is the hustle culture grinding you down? Feel free to vent or commiserate or offer tips for breaking free in the comments. As always, thanks for stopping by, and happy writing to you.

  • Boskone – New England’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy Convention (part 1)

    Boskone – New England’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy Convention (part 1)

    Boskone56 Pocket Program CoverI discovered Boskone just last year. Talk about arriving late to the party, but better late than never.

    My graduate program was wrapping up in less than a year, and I didn’t want my growth as a writer to stagnate. Since I had (have) ambitions of breaking into the publishing industry as an author of excellent stories, attending a science fiction and fantasy (SFF) convention seemed a smart idea.

    Without question, I achieved my primary goal of listening to a bunch of panel discussions that imparted heaps of tips, tricks, and sound reminders. But, once the panels were over and the “social” stuff started up, I felt like an awkward outsider. You can read about my (mis)adventures here. Even hiding in a corner, though, I observed the real benefit of attending Boskone. Community.

     

    FOR THE CREATIVES OF THIS WORLD, COMMUNITY IS KEY

    I’m a creative writer, but my beloved is a visual artist, as is my mother, and I’m friends with a voice actor and a musician. Trying to make it, professionally, in any art-related field is not for the faint of heart. It can wear you down if you’re not careful. That’s why finding and joining supportive communities is essential. For me–an aspiring author of fantasy, science fiction, and horror fiction–Boskone is one of the best, most supportive communities in New England.

    Therefore, despite a vicious head-cold that struck me hard on Thursday, I spent this past weekend in Boston attending the 56th annual Boskone convention (Boskone 56 for short). Thank Thor for modern medicine. Dosed to the max with DayQuil, RobitussenDM, and NyQuil, I had a great time.

    The panels were excellent, the panelists entertaining and insightful. This year, however, I focused on meeting and chatting with the other writers, readers, and gamers. And authors, agents, and editors. That last group doesn’t love being stalked by aspiring authors, so I courted them purposefully but respectfully.

    Here’s how the Boskone 56 experience went for me. This is the first in a three part post. Yeah, there was that much going on at Bostkone this year, and I only saw a fraction of it all. 

     

    FRIDAY – DAY 1 OF THE FUN

    Westin Waterfront BostonBeloved and I opted to get a room in the convention hotel this year rather than commute each day. Good call. If I can, I’ll be staying at the hotel again next year. Taking an elevator up to my room at the end of the day made the evening activities far more enjoyable (although I still wasn’t pulling super late nights because of my cold).

    [Quick tip to anyone who attends next year and stays at the hotel: request a room on the lowest floor possible. Sure, the 12th floor gave us a beautiful view of the Boston skyline, but the hot water didn’t seem to get up to us very well, and lukewarm showers aren’t a thing I enjoy.]

     

    PANEL #1: EDITING YOUR MANUSCRIPT FOR SUBMISSION

    Joshua Bilmes and Auston HabershawThe first panel discussion I attended was Editing Your Manuscript for Submission. I took copious notes as author/editor Auston Habershaw and Joshua Bilmes, president of Jabberwocky Literary Agency, discussed the value of writing groups, how to know when it’s time to stop editing and start submitting, and the importance of brevity in one’s writing.

     Q: How do you get the right distance from a manuscript so you can see it again?

    Autson: Put it away for months and start working on something else. Short fiction can act as a great palette cleanser.

    Q: Who do you give your revised manuscripts to?

    Auston: Beta readers, my agent. Writing groups are okay, but you have to be careful with them. They risk getting stale, becoming an echo chamber without anyone in the group realizing it. Author Tim Powers once told me, ‘You should be the worst person in your writing group.’

    Q: [To Joshua Bilmes] What are you most likely to tell Auston not to do when reading and editing one of his manuscripts?

    Joshua: If you start a book in a particular style, with a particular voice, you’ve made a promise to the readers that needs to be fulfilled. You can’t change course mid-way through. The readers will get whiplash. They’ll feel betrayed. 

    Q: When is a manuscript “good enough” to start querying?

    Auston: Get it to a place where the big stuff all lines up. Plot stuff, style, voice. Then go through and do line edits. Then give it to beta readers you trust. Work in suggestions as you will. Then, you’re ready.

    Joshua: It’s “done” when I ask for it from him in “Track Changes” mode. But, it’s still not done because an editor will buy it and will want more changes. 

    Q: [To Joshua Bilmes] What do you look for? What should writers avoid?

    Joshua: Overwriting. You have to watch the adjectives. Cut it to the bone. And watch your descriptions of facial expressions. Every author seems to have a certain facial expression that they use over and over again. The dialogue tag said is like water. It’s unobtrusive and essential. Any substitutes are overused. Grin, laugh, nod, shrug, sigh. It slows everything down. It distracts.

    Q: Tips for learning voice?

    Auston: Read poetry! Anything by Langston Hughes. 

    “Don’t use thirteen words when ten will do.” – Joshua Bilmes.

    “You should be the worst person in your writing group.” – Auston Habershaw. [meaning the least-skilled writer.]

    You better believe I was taking notes! 

    Writing Goals

     

    KAFFEEKLATSCH #1: MARSHALL RYAN MARESCA

    At 6 pm I headed to the galleria to catch my first Kaffeeklatsch of the weekend, hosted by fantasy author Marshall Ryan Maresca.

    Turns out, it was his very first time hosting one, and when he saw me approaching the table, he must have thought, uh-oh. Here comes that woman I caught staring at me multiple times from the far side of the lobby last year. Creep alert.

    Me and Marshall MarescaTo prove myself a non-creep, I made a point of shaking his hand and introducing myself instead of just staring. A couple of other aspiring writers joined us as well as one established author: S. L. Huang. The fifty-minute session flew by as the group discussed the process by which his books (all twelve of them) came into existence, the struggles of balancing writing with raising children, and our various writing habits.

    And then it was time to grab some dinner before the next Friday night activity began.

     

    BROAD UNIVERSE: A COMMUNITY FOR WOMEN WRITERS

    At 9 pm, we headed to a multi-author reading session hosted by Broad Universe, an international, non-profit organization dedicated to supporting women writers and editors of SFF, horror, and other speculative genres.

    Juliana Spink MillsAmong the talented women who read from published works and works-in-progress were Elaine Isaac, Juliana Spink Mills, and Joanna Weston, among others. Joanna Weston Dianna Sanchez gave away a copy of the 2017 Young Explorer’s Adventure Guide, an SFF short fiction anthology aimed for middle-grade readers. My hand went up so fast it broke the sound barrier! I’m happy to report that my middle-grader told me over breakfast yesterday morning that they’re two stories in and enjoying it.

     

    THE BOSKONE ART SHOW IS NOT TO BE MISSED!

    At 10 pm, Beloved and I headed back down to the Galleria to stroll the art exhibit. This portion of Boskone is where visual artists, illustrators, sculptors, and crafters display their best work. While all of the art at Boskone was exceptional, one vendor’s creations blew my mind!!

    Kimberly Leach, of Kimberly’s Creations. She makes paper mache fantasy creations. I know, I know. You’re thinking, paper mache? Really?

    Oh, folks. You have no idea. The photos I took (and I took many) fail to do these pieces of art justice. For Freya’s sake, please click the link and explore her website. I’m seriously going to tweet these at Cressida Cowell (wrote the How to Train Your Dragon series that spawned the movies).

     

    Dragon 1

    Image 1 of 6

    Photograph of a paper mache dragon created and displayed by Kimblerly Leach at Boskone 56

    Paper Mache, people. And when I asked how she stumbled upon this epic talent, her answer? I was looking for something to do with my granddaughter. As if it was no big deal, these crafty masterpieces. She’s a genius. Genius!! 

    By 10:30 pm I couldn’t breathe through my nose anymore and was starting to drag, so Beloved and I called it a day. All hail the powers of NyQuil.  

    In my next post, I’ll share summaries of all the panel discussions, kaffeeklatsches, and author readings I attended, starting with: Are Villains Necessary? Spoiler alert: they very much are! 

    Are you thinking about attending Boskone next year? What do you most want to know about the convention?
  • Gearing Up for Boskone56!

    Gearing Up for Boskone56!

    Boskone56 is nearly upon us! Who’s excited? Me!

    Boskone NewsLast year at this time, I was a hot mess. Boskone55 being my very first convention ever, I had no idea what to expect. I knew authors were going to be there, talking on panels, signing autographs, walking around in the halls, talking to people, and existing in the real world! What that would be like, I could only imagine.

    Bumping into a famous author, like Mary Robinette Kowal, would probably be akin to the time when 7-year-old me rounded the end of the aisle in my local FoodMart and came face to face with my first-grade teacher, Mrs. Hogan.

    Startling. Disorienting. Somewhat surreal and frightening.

    So, yeah, that was basically how it went down when I met Ms. Kowal last year. It wasn’t even a surprise encounter. Then, at least, I could have chalked up my mumbling awkwardness to being caught off guard. No, the author I admire and respect was signing books. A structured event at a scheduled time, giving me an opportunity to plan out what I would say to her in advance.

    “Hello, Ms. Kowal. Big fan. Loved GHOST TALKERS. Would you mind signing my copy? Thanks so much. I was wondering what your daily writing process looks like?”

    That’s what I wanted to say to her. What I actually said was, “[incomprehensible mumbling].” Between that and my face purpling with embarrassment, it’s a wonder she didn’t think I was having an aneurysm and call for a paramedic.

    Boskone55 Panel DiscussionSo, while I thoroughly enjoyed the panels at Boskone55 (see my wrap-up post here), I spent a lot of time sitting or standing by myself, eyeing from afar authors with whom I wanted to talk and cursing myself for being so damned awkward. Pretty sure Marshall Ryan Maresca thinks I’m a crazy stalker fan. I’m totally not a stalker. Crazy is debatable. Certainly a fan.

    Never again, I vowed, will I be such a social tool at a writing convention. Within a week of returning from Boskone, I registered for ReaderCon (which happened this past July). You can read about my adventures at that epic convention here and here.

    Me and Sam Delany
    Me and Sam Delany!

    ReaderCon was a totally different experience. I actually spoke to people! Even more amazing, some of them were authors like Samuel Delany! All of them (except the rando at the bar) were friendly, approachable, excellent people. Which brings me to the reason I’m so excited about Boskone56.

    This time, I will know some of the folks there! I’ll have a few social “anchors,” as it were. Now, I’m not suggesting I became besties with any of the authors I met at ReaderCon, but I did talk with several folks during kaffeeklatsches and after panels. Heck, I even shared a drink with a couple of them at the bar and chatted up a few others at what was basically a meet and greet disguised as a party. And, I’m jazzed because several of those most excellent people are going to be at Boskone56 this year.

     

    Who I’m Looking Forward to Seeing (Again):

    So many people! Couldn’t fit everyone on this list, so know that there are many more folks I’m eager to shake hands with and say, “Hello” or “Hello, again.”

    [Show thumbnails]
    E.C. Ambrose 

    Andrea Corbin 

    Ellen Datlow

    Max Gladstone

    Auston Habershaw

    Nicholas Kaufmann 

    Marshall Ryan Maresca 

    Hillary Monahan 

    Ken Schneyer 

    Juliana Spink Mills 

    Paul Tremblay 

    Catherynne M. Valente 

    Many of the above I had the pleasure of meeting at ReaderCon. I got to hear many others share their thoughts on various panels at last year’s Boskone55.

     

    My goal for Boskone56?

    Say hello to as many authors who I admire as possible. Might even find the courage to strike up an actual conversation with some of them, about writing, and books, and… I don’t know stuff. If I could do it at ReaderCon, I can do it again. Deep breaths. It’s going to be awesome!

     

    Are you going to be at Boskone this year? Who are you looking forward to seeing? If you see me there, say hello. I'm friendly, I swear, once you get past the socially awkward exterior.
  • The Biggest Pitfall for Aspiring Authors

    The Biggest Pitfall for Aspiring Authors

    It’s the first Wednesday of the month, and you know what that means.  It’s #IWSG Day! The question this month is…

     

    The Insecure Writer's Support Group

    What pitfalls have you encountered on your journey to publication that you can share with others?

    Well, uh… hmm. I don’t actually know of many pitfalls from direct personal experience. To date, I only have two minimal publishing credits to my name. This post, therefore, will focus on the one that I feel is the biggest and most fatal pitfall facing all of us creative folks: the pitfall of giving up.

    But first, allow me to drop a plug for the Insecure Writers Support Group.  The IWSG, founded by the esteemed Alex J. Cavanaugh, is an online space where writers (insecure and otherwise) can come together to share stories, successes, struggles, and all the rest of it. The website is chock-o-block full of great stuff.  There’s a Twitter Pitch (just happened in July), contests, books, swag, conferences, and more.  Be sure to jump over there and check them out!

    The awesome co-hosts for the August 1 posting of the IWSG are Erika Beebe, Sandra Hoover, Susan Gourley, and Lee Lowery!

    Okay, back to this month’s topic: pitfalls to void.

     

    A Lesson from Stephen King! 

    On WritingBack in my early 20’s, right around the time I got married, I bought a copy of Stephen King’s semi-autobiographical craft book On Writing. In it, King shared his youthful adventures in writing an submitting short stories with blind optimism to the magazines he loved to read: Analog, Asimov’s, Amazing Stories, etc. He started submitting in his early teens. As you can imagine, he got a lot of rejection letters.

    King did something great, though, in turning the submission/rejection thing into a game. Upon receiving his first rejection letter–a form letter–, he drove a nail into the wall of his bedroom and impaled the letter upon it. How quickly could King accumulate enough rejection letters to overwhelm that nail? Understand, please, that King didn’t compromise the quality of the stories he wrote and submitted in an attempt to grow the stack with artificial speed. That would have been cheating. His primary goal was always to write the best story he could and get it published. He merely created a synergistic secondary goal that he could work towards when he wasn’t making progress toward his primary goal.

    The important lesson I took from reading his book was that it’s possible to find ways of turning failures into successes. There are ways to immunize ourselves against the discouraging sting that comes with rejection. A sting that all too often ends up crippling creative individuals and ending their careers before they begin.

     

    Playing the Game

    Chimpanzee at a Typewriter

    Upon finishing his book, I decided it might be fun to try my hand at King’s game. I’d been writing stories all my life and harbored secret fantasies of becoming a successful author. But that required sticking my vulnerable neck out and submitting the stuff I wrote. The “Rejection Game,” as I called it, gave me permission to expose myself to the volley of rejections I knew would ensue.

    Over the course of the next year, I researched and submitted to close to fifty magazines. This was in the very early days of the internet, so most venues still required print submissions sent via snail mail with self-address-stamped return envelopes for letters of acceptance/rejection. Of those fifty submissions, I received 48 rejection letters. Two magazines took a story from me. Tiny publications that paid out in single contributor copies, but still, two out of fifty. I was pleased.

    Confession: I miss getting rejection letters in the mail. Even a form letter felt a tiny bit nifty when presented in a physical envelope that arrives in your mailbox. A digital email just doesn’t carry the same special weight.

     

    Watch Out for That Pitfall. It’s a Doozy.

    If only I’d kept at it! Remember, this was happening the year after I got married. And changed my job. And got pregnant with my first child. Guess who stopped writing and submitting stories? Yeah, me.

    Thirteen years would pass before I sent out another story on submission. What can I say? Life got busy. I got distracted. Not an excuse, just my reality. I didn’t give up intentionally. Many folks probably wade into the pitfall of giving up slowly, day by day. So many things can fill up our lives that we can feel as though we’re drowning in quicksand. I was certainly feeling that way last October when I wrote my post, “Life, Will You Just Chill Out Already?”

    Lots of people never figure out how to strike a balance between their writing goals and life obligations, or maybe they fail to immunize themselves against the sting of having their creative work turned down over and over again. That didn’t happen to me, but I’ve witnessed it happen to other writers. Without some way to turn each “no” into a positive, the weight of all those “thanks, but no thanks” can accumulate until it’s crushing your soul. And Odin knows, it’s the easiest thing in the world to set that weight aside and do something else.

    Author Jason Reynolds
    Mr. Reynolds, an incredible writer and mentor in our program

    On my way out the door of my MFA program at Lesley University, I was reminded of the lesson I’d gleaned a decade and a half ago from Mr. King’s book. If you want to succeed, you must keep writing, keep submitting, keep querying. Young Adult author Jason Reynolds told me and a small classroom of other impending graduates that the difference between those that make it in the publishing industry and those that don’t is persistence. The authors who find success are the ones who don’t give up. They kept playing their very own “Rejection Game” until something stuck. Talent helps, but even the most talented writer in the world can fall into the pitfall of giving up.

     

    Lessons from Vigo Mortensen

    Have you ever seen the movie G.I. Jane with Demi Moore and Viggo Mortensen? I love that movie. Whatever. Don’t judge me. I’m not judging all the fans who love 300. It’s all love here!

    Anyway, there’s a scene in that film where the cadets are doing push-up’s and leg lifts and other generally awful forms of exhausting exercises in the ocean. They’re right in the middle of the breaker zone, icy waves crashing down over them again and again. It’s been hours. They’re soaked, sand-blasted, shaking with fatigue and the early stages of hypothermia. And the Master Chief (Viggo) is walking up and down the line shouting all kinds of philosophical musings at them. This is the moment when he delivers a few lines that resonated to my core.

    “Pain is your friend, your ally. It will tell you when you are seriously injured. It will keep you awake, and angry, and remind you to finish the job and get the hell home. But you know the best thing about pain? It lets you know you’re not dead yet.”

     

    Viggo’s basically telling his cadets to embrace their pain and frustration and exhaustion because it means they haven’t given up. Stephen King and Jason Reynolds were preaching less intense variants of the same philosophy.

    As creative folks, rejection hurts. Of course it does, but that sting you feel means you’re still playing the game, you haven’t quit, you’re not dead yet. So there you have it. Giving up is the first and biggest pitfall you can fall into on your way to getting published.

    Don’t give up.

    Find a way to turn the rejections into positives. Make the pain be your friend. Keep writing, or painting, or sculpting, or composing, or whatever it is that you make. In this world that is becoming more and more obsessed with consumption, we need folks who engage in glorious acts of creation.

    What’s your strategy for staying resilient and skirting the pitfall of quitting? Help the rest of us out by sharing in the comments! 

     

    Thanks for stopping by, and as always, happy writing to you.

  • My ReaderCon 2018 Experience (Part 2)

    My ReaderCon 2018 Experience (Part 2)

    This year’s ReaderCon event was so huge and so fabulous that I couldn’t fit it all into one post, so here’s the rest of my incredible experience. Click here to read about the first two days of fun.

     

    Recap of Saturday’s Fun:

    Victoria JanssenI kicked off Saturday with a delightful Kaffeeklatsch hosted by Victoria Janssen, a skilled writer of erotic fiction. If that strikes you as an odd choice on my part, given that my focus is on writing YA and MG stories, check my part 1 post for the explanation. It was a great conversation that ran the gamut of topics from industry trends to work-life balance. During this Klatsch, I met Sam Schreiber, whom I re-met later the same day. More on that in a bit.

    I rushed from Victoria’s kaffeeklatsch to Susan Jane Bigelow’s workshop.

     

     

    World Building GovernmentsSusan Jane Bigelow

    Maybe they didn’t expect many people to attend it? They put her in one of the smaller Salons in the hotel room. Big mistake. By the time I arrived at 9:04, every seat was filled, and folks were beginning to sit on the floor, myself included. No way was I going to miss Susan’s workshop.

    I’m fascinated by government systems as portrayed in fiction. And, since my current project is all about the upheaval of an existing government system, I thought it would be good to sharpen my world building tools.
    Also, I saw Susan for the first time at Boskone in February. She participated in a panel called “Governmental Structures in SFF” that was outstanding. I wrote a summary of the discussion here.

    I don’t know if Susan was inspired to create this workshop from the Boskone panel discussion or not, but she gave an epic workshop. She made all of her slideshow available on her website, too. Check it out.

     
    Topics discussed:

         What governments do.
         What forms governments can take.
         How governments go bad.
         Current government structures with examples from the US, Iran, and Italy.
         Historical government structures with examples from medieval Europe and China.
         Questions an author should ask/answer when creating a fantasy or science fiction government.

    Great, right? Yeah, it was.

     

    Space OperaAfter we gave her a standing ovation, I rushed off for my noon kaffeeklatsch with Navah Wolfe, which I wrote about previously. She gushed over Catherynne Valente’s new novel Space Opera.

    Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2017Serendipitously, I was working my way through The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy of 2017 Collection, edited by John Joseph Adams and Charles Yu. I had picked it up during my final residency for my MFA in creative writing program at Lesley University at the end of June. Catherynne has a story in the collection called The Future is Blue. I hadn’t yet read it when this Klatsch happened, but I’ve read it since then, and Odin it was so good! Space Opera is now on my TBR list.

     

    The rest of my Saturday at ReaderCon was a whirlwind of panel discussions, followed by an awkward encounter at the hotel bar with a man who unintentionally offended me multiple times as he tried to chat me up while I ate dinner. Thank Thor, Sam Schreiber turned up and gave me a reason to extricate myself from a bad conversation for a much, MUCH better one. Sam is a member of the Brooklyn Speculative Fiction Group, and he helps produce the podcast Kaleidocast.

    I just listened to the first episode of season two, by the way. The story, “Playing Nice with God’s Bowling Ball” by N. K. Jemisin, was quite enjoyable, and the woman who narrated the story, Tatiana Grey, did an excellent job.

    Shameless plug, Sam (if you happen to read this), I would love to narrate a story for you fine folks.

    I discovered the existence of the Boston Speculative Fiction Writers Group pretty much accidentally while at ReaderCon. Had Sam not mentioned it in passing during our conversation at the hotel bar, I might never have stumbled upon its existence. This was after I used him to extricate myself from a very uncomfortable conversation with some Rando who was making me very nervous.

     

    Quick tangent…

    The hotel restaurant was packed on Saturday night, so I asked to be seated at the bar for dinner since there were actual seats available there. They put me next to an older gentleman who was also eating dinner at the bar. I ordered my food, got my food, ate my food, and then decided that it might be fun to try my hand at “Barconning,” so I ordered a beer and sat, hoping to see someone I had already spoken to earlier so I could say hello and try to have a conversation with him or her.

    Long story short, that was when the man sitting beside me, who was not part of the convention, proceeded to tell me that he’d like to beat the $h!7 out a fellow standing at a nearby table for laughing too loud.

    Reg flags up, warning bells ringing, iceberg dead ahead. Course correction needed five minutes ago.

    Then, he asked what the convention was about and I told him.

    The man with the violent tendencies and hair trigger then said, “I always wanted to write a book because I’m a pretty good writer, and I bought this house once to renovate it but when I went inside of it, it had this feeling like it was possessed, like not just haunted, you know, but possessed by evil, like that Amityville house, you know what I mean, with the walls just and voices screaming at me to just, just get out, get out, get out like it was pure evil. That would make a pretty good book, right?”

     The side of this boat has been torn off, folks. Evacuate if you can.

    That’s when I saw the guy from Victoria Janssen’s kaffeeklatsch. What was his name? Loki, why am I so terrible with names? Sam! His name is Sam! Okay, be cool. Keep the fear and desperation out of your voice.

    “Oh, hi there! You’re Sam, right? You were in Victoria’s Kaffeeklatsch with me.”

    Sam’s smile was as glorious a sight as a life raft to a drowning victim. 

     

     

    I jumped ship and did so without a shred of guilt. 

     

    End of Tangent

    On Sam’s suggestion, I skipped the Comedy Show happening at 9 PM in the ballroom and instead scoped out the Boston Speculative Fiction Writers Group, where I had a great conversation with author Elaine Isaak. [I later learned that the party was hosted not by the writing group but by the related Speculative Boston Readers Series Group. Not entirely the same thing.] 

    Elaine Isaak, at Arisia in 2013

    She’s a member of BSFG, and I’d seen her on a few panels at Boskone. It was great to see her again and talk to her in a smaller, more informal setting. She told me about another organization, Broad Universe, and invited me to check it out. I did, and I’ll be joining the latter group while wishing the former group was open to new members.

    At around 10:30 PM, I finally made it up to the eighth floor, where the ReaderCon Suite resided. All weekend long, folks had been mentioning the ConSuite up on the eighth floor. I had envisioned it as a secret VIP room for the chosen few where high powered con-goers sat around schmoozing with one another high above the lowly commoners (like me). A ridiculous notion, I know, but I’m still new to the world of book and writing conventions. Cut me some slack.

    Sam Schreiber was the one who got me to swallow my misguided fears and get into the elevator. Turns out, it really was just a place to hang out, eat free food, drink free beverages, and chat with entirely ordinary people! I had a long conversation with a book dealer who woke me up to the existence of CanLit (Canadian Literature). We also discussed Joseph Campbell, Carl Jung, and Plato. Peter, from Ontario, it was a pleasure debating the philosophy of myth and religion with you, sir.

    I called it a night at 12:30 AM, an obnoxiously late hour for me.

     

    Sunday:

     

    Second Name Drop

    Me and Sam Delany
    See?! It’s me and Chip!

    Ready for this?! I ate breakfast with Samuel Delany. Can you freaking believe it?

    Despite getting to bed at a ridiculously late hour (for me), I got down to the restaurant at 7:30 AM for breakfast. Just in time for the rush, apparently. The guy standing in line ahead of me shifted, and I noticed he was wearing a ReaderCon badge (on a lanyard, so I had to stare at his belly to read his name and hope he didn’t notice and take offense).

    Samuel Delany? Oh Sugar Honey Iced Tea, I must talk to this man. I must open my mouth and stammer out a hello to this giant in the sci-fi literature world. Be cool. Be cool. Just say hello. That’s all you have to do.

    “Hi, are you Sam Delany?”

    What a nice guy. Just as open and friendly as Ken Schneyer had been on Friday. After a few minutes of talking about the convention and the panels, the waitress said she was ready to seat him. He turned and asked if I would like to share a table with him because he was all by himself–his spouse, Dennis, had elected to sleep late. Gee, um, let me think. Okay!

    So I got to spend Sunday morning chatting with Samuel Delany about his career, his process, his love of genre fiction, his love of ReaderCon, and other random stuff over eggs and bacon and oatmeal. He even let me snap a selfie of the two of us together, because who would believe me that I’d had breakfast with him unless I obtained photographic evidence?

    After breakfast, Sam and I walked together to his and my first panel of the day:

     

    Curses, World Building Through Explitives

    Curse Word AlternativesIt was, of course, a highly entertaining and thought-provoking hour. In hindsight, I wish Catherynne Valente and Scott Lynch had been on the panel, as they both make lovely use of expletives as world building tools in their writing. Still, Francesca Forrest, Sarah Smith, Vinnie Tesla, Yves Meynard, and Sam had the audience laughing and scribbling notes like crazy.

    They talked about the fine art of inventing curse words. Vinnie brought up the standard technique of blending “high” and “low” into a contrasting and therefore ironic and insulting combination (“holy shit,” for example). Sam mad the excellent point that the preferred pejoratives a culture uses tell a lot about systems of power and dominance in a fictional world. A culture that tosses around “bitch,” “slut,” and “cunt” is probably patriarchal. Curses that invoke a world’s religion(s) or god(s) will always be blasphemous, and Yves Meynard brought up the use of swears that denigrate certain professions or geographies as excellent and quick ways to tell readers who the underclass are in a world.

    Bloody great stuff, am I right?

    Then, it was off to the next discussion:

     

    Crime and Punishment Panel

    The panelists were Josh Jasper, Scott Lynch, Tamara Vardomskaya, and Chris Gerwel.

    The discussion kicked off by identifying familiar “criminal” archetypes in fantasy and science fiction. Rogues, thieves, burglars, tricksters are the big four.

    1984The nature or purpose of incarceration both in life and in fiction generated lots of questions and comments from the audience. Is the primary purpose of imprisonment to punish the individual or to send a message to the broader populace? Or is it a tool to rehabilitate, and if so, who decides what constitutes “rehabilitated?”

    The discussion was fascinating and unsettling all at the same time.

     

     

    Final Panel of My ReaderCon Experience: How Horror Stories End

    This was the panel I’d been most looking forward to all weekend.

    Horror is my favorite genre. It lives and breathes deep in my psyche. In the second grade, I filled a notebook with short stories, all of them involving bloody deaths and vicious murders and witches eating babies for breakfast. All accompanied by my own gory illustrations in bright Crayola colors. It’s a wonder I didn’t end up meeting regularly with the school psychiatrist.

    Anyway, I love horror stories, so this was my panel for ReaderCon. It was hosted by Nicholas Kaufmann, Jess Nevins, Elsa Sjunneson-Henry, Ellen Datlow, and Jack Langen.

    Nick opened things up by asking the question: Can a horror story have a happy ending?

    Short answer, no. Not really.

    Characters can survive. They can even defeat the enemy and save the day, but it still isn’t a happy ending because said characters have been forever changed (probably damaged) by their ordeal.

    The Haunting of Hill HouseThe discussion then shifted to the concept of definitive versus ambiguous endings in horror novels. Ellen Datlow professed that ambiguous endings get tiresome. She likes a story that ties up all the loose ends. [Correction: Ellen did not actually say that. That was my (mis)interpretation.  Rather, she said that reading too many stories with ambiguous endings gets tiresome, and there seem to be many of them, so the stories with definitive endings are a welcome break from that.  That’s not a direct quote either, but I think I’m correctly capturing the spirit of her words.] Other panelists tried to come up with concrete examples of horror stories that do that. The Haunting of Hill House was mentioned as a horror story with a concrete ending. I suppose it is for the characters, but (and I applaud Yves for pointing this out) it still contains a level of ambiguity because Hill House survives. It continues to exist, so the potential for future horrors remains. I thought of Stephen King’s first novel, Carrie. The ending is definitive for the characters, but King tacked on a “letter” at the end of the book that left the door of ambiguity open.

    Panelists and audience members alike tossed out example after example, each with an ending that seemed to contain both definitive and ambiguous notes. Given that the human psyche wants neat endings, wants things wrapped up and resolved, wants problems solved. Ambiguity is inherently horrifying to us.

    In my opinion, the only successful use of a genuinely definitive ending in a horror story would involve the heroes losing and the villains winning. I’m thinking of a recent superhero film that shall not be directly named, to half-heartedly dodge spoiling it for folks who haven’t yet seen it. Pretty unambiguous but definitely horrifying.

    It was a great panel!

     

    And Then I Went Home

    By the end of “How Horror Stories End,” I was well and truly done. Fatigue slammed into me like a wrecking ball loosed from its chain. I might have actually staggered. I checked out of my room, quickly and without difficulty, caught the shuttle to the Redline, the Redline to North Station. So as not to miss my stop should I fall asleep, I set an alarm on my watch. Thank Thor for a bit of foresight, because I did indeed tumble into the land of Nod shortly after the train started moving. An hour later, I was home. It took me a week to recover from four days of high-octane interactions and very little sleep, but it was worth it!

     

    So, that was my adventure at ReaderCon 2018. It took two ridiculously long posts to cover all the fun, I know, but I gotta say, I had an incredible time. If you’re a fan of science fiction and fantasy stories, you have to get to ReaderCon. You won’t be disappointed.

    Except, maybe, by the lack of towel hooks.

     

    Thanks for dropping by and as always, happy writing to you.

  • My ReaderCon 2018 Experience (Part 1)

    My ReaderCon 2018 Experience (Part 1)

    I went for three days without seeing the sun.

     

    Not best practice in terms of health, but it tells you something about how busy I was at ReaderCon this past weekend.

    ReaderCon

    Quick disclaimer: This is going to be a long post, as will be the part 2 follow-up. I’m trying to paint a clear picture of my experience to help others unfamiliar with ReaderCon decide whether or not to give it a try next year. That will take more than a few quick words.

    What, you ask, is ReaderCon? Until last summer, I’d never heard of it. Then, one of my instructors in my MFA program suggested I attend. “It’s about the best Con in New England, and it’s local for you.”

    So, I looked into it.

    To quote from ReaderCon’s homepage:

    “Readercon is the only small convention regularly attended by such giants of imaginative literature as Gene Wolfe, Samuel R. Delany, John Crowley, Barry N. Malzberg, Kit Reed, and Jonathan Lethem.

    The program consists of two tracks each of panel discussions, author readings, and solo talks or discussion groups, plus kaffeeklatsches (intimate gatherings with an author) and autograph signings.

    There is a large bookshop full of new, used, and rare and collectible books and magazines (and yet more great conversation; if a Readercon attendee is not at a program item, they’re probably here).”

     

    This convention is all about the people!

    ReaderConI met many authors (both established and aspiring) as well as avid readers, all of whom were open and friendly and willing to chat with me. You might remember from my post about Boskone that I sometimes have trouble engaging with folks in new and unfamiliar settings. That was not a problem this time around. That said, I did rig the game of talking to people slightly in my favor with judicious use of name tag add-ons.

     

    Without further ado, here’s what my four-day, three-night romp at ReaderCon looked like.

     

    Thursday:

    I checked into my hotel room at the Boston Marriott in Quincy at around 6:30 PM. First impressions of the hotel itself? Meh. I doubt folks are attending because of the fantastic rooms. The carpets were difficult to look at, the closets seemed designed to dissuade anyone from actually using them, and (oddly) the bathrooms lack any towel hooks. For whatever reason, that last detail really bothered me. Why, Marriott, do you have zero places for me to hang up a towel in the bathroom? Why?! That is, however, the limit of my complaints. The rest is all glowing praise.

    Thursday night’s program kicked off at 8 PM with panel discussions that were free and open to the public. Despite that, attendance was sparse. Probably because it was a Thursday. The two panels I attended were:

     

    1) Writers Who Edit, Editors Who Write

    Scott Edelman
    Author and funny man, Scott Edelman

    The panel consisted of Sabrina Vourvoulias, John Lawson, Scott Edelman, Mimi Mondal, and Mike Allen.

    For an hour, these folks talked about the tricky task of balancing being an editor of others’ work and writing your own stuff.

     

    “There’s a long history of writers who became editors and then stopped writing their own work.” – Scott Edelman

    “My rule to keep me working on my owns stuff is this. Add three sentences to your own story every day no matter what.” – Mike Allen

    “When we edit, we’re reshaping the bones of a story. When we write, we’re creating the bones from scratch.” – Sabrina Vourvoulis

    “I’ve had people tell me to stop writing and just be an editor because I was so good at editing.” – Mimi Mondal

    “As a writer, I feel inspired by the submissions that come across my desk. I learn a lot from both the good and bad pieces that I edit.” – John Lawson.

     

    The advice that stuck with me most came from Scott Edelman, however. He said, “Learn how to say no!” His comment was in reference to taking on editing projects, but I think it’s useful to writers who don’t edit, too, because there is always going to be someone asking you to do something for them.

     

    2) Fabric Goods in Fantasy Settings

    The panel consisted of Victoria Janssen, Natalie Luhrs, Sarah Smith, Tom Greene, and Elaine Isaak.

    Fabric Goods PanelThe discussion centered around the economics of producing the clothes that characters wear in fantasy and science fiction stories. Consensus? Few authors drop any references into their worlds of the supply chains involved or the various professions involved (other than, perhaps, tailors and blacksmiths). What’s missing? Where are all the animals providing the leather? Where are the fields of cotton or flax? Where are the silkworm farms? And, where are the people who tend the animals, tan the leather, gather the cotton, process the flax into linen, harvest the silken threads, or dye the woven cloth? (I’m looking at you George R. R. Martin, famous describer of every single character’s outfit to the last button).

    By the time 10 PM rolled around, I was happy but tired, so instead of hitting up the BarCon — a term I became familiar with this weekend –, I went to bed. It was the earliest I would manage for the rest of the convention.

     

    Friday:

    I popped out of bed bright and early at 6:30, showered, dressed, then loaded up on breakfast in the hotel restaurant. As a chronically light eater, I opted not to go for the buffet. Given the price, I would have had to be a bottomless pit to make it financially feasible, so I ordered from the regular menu. It must be noted that the hotel restaurant is quite expensive, but there was a hotel shuttle ferrying folks to and from the redline T-stop every half hour. If I’d wanted to, I could have headed into Boston and found better food for less money. But it was my first time at ReaderCon, and I didn’t know how it worked. I didn’t want to risk missing out on anything significant, so I stayed inside the hotel (hence the three days without actual sunlight touching my skin).

     

    First Name Drop:

    On my way out from breakfast, I stopped at the Starbucks at the hotel bar to grab some caffeine. A man was waiting to be seated who looked familiar to me.

    He’s an author, I thought. I’ve seen him before. I should talk to him!

    Ken Schneyer
    Ken Schneyer, a master storyteller!

    Boskone is the only other place I could have seen this gent, so I asked him if he’d been on any of the panels. Why, yes, he had. I offered a hand to shake and introduced myself. Imagine my surprise and delight to find myself shaking hands with Mr. Kenneth Schneyer, prestigious and prolific author of many excellent speculative and science fiction short stories (and a few novels). Turns outs, he’s not just a great writer but also a great human being. It came out in the quick exchange that I was pretty new to writing conferences. Ken went out of his way for the rest of ReaderCon to smile and say hello and talk to me whenever he saw me. He wasn’t the only one, either. I’m telling you, ReaderCon was terrific!!

     

    Getting Registered:

    I wandered back to the registration table and queued up to officially register and get my name badge. There were two options for how one could wear the plastic badge–either clipped to your clothing or dangling from a thin black lanyard around your neck.

     

    Interlude: A Rant about Placement of Name Badges

    Take this piece of advice to heart. Do NOT go for the lanyard option, and here’s why. Someone sees you from across the way. You look like an interesting person. They would like to meet you, say hello, learn your name, chat you up, hear your thoughts on books and writing and life. They swallow their nerves and approach you. The natural instinct is to check your name badge, but oops–to do that, they have to break polite eye contact and allow their gaze to drift down your torso to your midriff where your name badge is dangling. Awkward. Worse, there’s a 50/50 chance that the plastic card is flipped around backward and they have raked their eyes up and down your body for no reason at all. Twice as awkward!!

    Please, use the clip option, and affix your name high up near your shoulder. Easy peasy fresh and breezy and no awkward body-gazing needed. End of interlude.

    ReaderCon had an ingenious name badge add-on option available. You could write anything (within reason) you wanted on fabric tags that could then be securely adhered to the bottom of your badge. I saw lots of folks using them as a chance to clarify preferred gender pronouns (thank you so much to folks who did that, by the way).

    I chose to use my add-ons as a way to invite people to talk to me, and to give them a conversation starter as an “in.” It worked quite well.

     

    Kaffeeklatsches!

    KaffeeklatschesAt the sage advice of a volunteer manning the registration table Thursday night, I wandered over to where the Kaffeeklatsch sign-up book lay at around 9:45 AM, fifteen minutes before sign-up officially opened. Good thing I did, too. There was already a line of folks forming, and people were already filling up the slots with their names.

    If you don’t know what a kaffeeklatsch is, fear not. I didn’t know either until Boskone when I missed all of them because I didn’t realize you had to sign up for them in advance. Hence my 9:45 AM appearance at the sign-up table. A kaffeeklatsch is a small, intimate affair in which an author (or editor, or agent) sits down with ten to fifteen folks and spends an hour shooting the breeze, talking about whatever people want to talk about.

    I thought I would sit quietly at the tables and let others ask their questions and share their thoughts. After all, this was my first time attending these things. Best to sit back, watch, and learn. That didn’t happen. The authors were too friendly, too engaging. So were all the other folks at the table. The conversations were lively, and I quickly found myself sucked in, laughing and chatting away with everyone else. So great!

    Here’s the list of folks who I got to meet and talk with via the Kaffeeklatsches at ReaderCon: 

     

    1) Nicholas Kauffman

    Horror writer extraordinaire and a super nice guy. I pre-ordered his upcoming new book “100 Fathoms Below” within 20 minutes of his klatsch ending. The pitch that sold it for me? Disabled American submarine in Soviet waters with a vampire on board. Yup. That’s for me. Thank you!

     

    2) James Morrow 

    Okay, I signed up but didn’t attend. One of the problems I had at ReaderCon was having no free time to feed myself. By the time this klatsch was starting up, my hands were starting to shake, and I was feeling panicky from hunger. I had to eat. Sorry, Mr. Morrow. I’ll try to catch you next time. Your book, The Asylum of Dr. Caligari, is fantastic, by the way.

     

    3) Ken Liu and Anatoly Belilovsky 

    The conference room in which the kaffeeklatsches happened accommodated two groups at a time, divided by a mobile wall. Ken and Anatoly’s klatsches were scheduled for the same time slot. Because they knew each other and did similar stuff regarding translating Chinese (in Ken’s case) and Russian (in Anatoly’s case) fiction to English, they opted to break down the dividing wall and combine their klatsches. I found the ensuing conversations about balancing their own writing with the job of translating others’ works to be fascinating. I also enjoyed listening to Ken and Anatoly discuss the many nuanced elements that go into translating literature from one language to another.

    My mind kept returning to the two versions of Ovid’s Metamorphosis that I and my beloved own. It’s the same story, but the two translations (we sat and read the story of Apollo and Daphne back and forth to each other one morning) created different tones and different points of thematic emphasis.

     

    4) Max Gladstone 

    I love, love, LOVE Max’s Craft Sequence books, and so I was very excited to sit in a room with this man and bask in his presence. That’s all I wanted to do. However, Max’s klatsch happened immediately after the “Bureaucracy in Fantasy” panel. More than half of us in Max’s klatsch (including Max) had attended the panel, and Max had asked the last question fielded before the man with the bright red “STOP!” sign ended things. So, Max’s kaffeeklatsch turned into an extended discussion of bureaucratic systems both in the real work (in China, specifically) and in fantasy settings. It was great!

     

    5) Victoria Janssen

    Why, you might be asking yourself, would I sign up for this kaffeeklatsch? After all, I’m a self-proclaimed YA and MG writer. Victoria writes adult erotica! Well, the YA novel I’m working on at the moment takes place in a secondary world in which women are the unapologetically dominant gender. That means my characters have never experienced male-induced body-shaming or sexual-stigmatization. They are fully realized and fully confident sexual beings. Sex is not shied away from in this world I’ve created. It is openly discussed, and even more openly practiced. Yet, as I pointed out, it’s a YA novel. I’m walking a narrow and tricky line here. How do I write sex scenes that are 1) well-done and 2) strike the right balance of on-page/off-page references so that this manuscript doesn’t get kicked back to me with a “thanks but a little too edgy” comment in the rejection email I get from every YA agent I sub it to? This was my chance to sit down with a woman who knows how to write sex scenes in their many iterations and ask my questions. The conversation was, as you might guess, both stimulating and enlightening. I’m so glad to have met Victoria and to have had a chance to benefit from her experience and insights.

     

    6) Navah Wolfe 

    A chance to sit down with the senior editor at Saga Press?! Yes, please. Let me sit and be showered with insider tips and suggestions for the SFF publishing industry. Which, by the way, is exactly what happened. Plus, I received an impromptu education into the joys of Eurovision. Didn’t even know that was a thing!

    Navah talked faster than an auctioneer after her third espresso, and her energy and enthusiasm was infectious. I don’t know how old Navah is, but she looked too young to be a senior editor. After spending an hour with her, however, I realized that she’s got the advantage of youth on her side because her job (and her clear love of and commitment to it) sounds exhausting.

    That’s it for the kaffeeklatsches. I spent the rest of my time at ReaderCon attending panel discussions, chatting with friendly folks at the bar and at the after-parties up on the eighth floor of the hotel.

     

    Friday Panels:

    Every time slot was quadruple-booked with interesting panel discussions. If only I had Hermione’s time turner, I could have gone to every panel that sounded interesting (all of them). Alas, I had to pick and choose.  Here are the one’s I sat in on.

     

    On Dislike – Between Meh and Rage

    On Dislike PanelThe panel consisted of KJ Kabza, Lauren Roy, Graham Sleight, J.R. Dawson, and Auston Habershaw.

    Take-away from this discussion? Life is short. If a book isn’t hooking you for good or ill, dump it and move on.

     

    The Bureaucracy of Fantasy

    The panel consisted of Victoria Sandbrook, Ken Schneyer, Phenderson Djèlí Clark, John Wiswell, and Alex Jablokow.

    Of course, the Ministry of Magic was brought up and discussed at length. I get it. Harry Potter is practically universal; most of us who are fans of fantasy and science fiction have read it. But… there are so many other interesting examples that could have been mentioned. I still can’t believe no one brought up the movie Brazil!!

     

    Feminist Socialism in Fantastika

    The panel consisted of Veronica Schanoes, Tamara Vardomskaya, and Marissa Lingen.

    Wow. In the best possible way, wow. These three women knew so much about the topics of socialism in literature, feminism in literature, and the combination of the two in literature. I was blown away. Humbled, really. I added about ten books and authors to my TBR list.

     

    Friday Night Fun

    Muppet PartyThe final events of Friday were purely social in nature. At 9:00 PM ReaderCon hosted a “Meet the Prose Party” in which participating panelists printed witty one-offs from one of their published works on sticky mailing labels and walked around a big ballroom with them in hand. The idea? Folks like me could walk up to someone carrying printed labels and ask for one. It gave us shy people a way to engage with authors when we might otherwise not.

    Also, there was a bar at the back of the ballroom. I do not often partake of the alcoholic beverages, but a beer gave my hands something to hold onto, and the ethanol settled my nerves. Win-win.

    The mailing label thing worked like a charm, too. By the end of it, I had both sleeves of my shirt lined with snippets from over twenty published authors, and each time I requested one, I read it and asked the giver to tell me more about the work from which it came. Hooray for socializing!!

    At 10:30 PM, music started playing, and the 80’s/90’s themed dance began. I had my 80’s outfit ready to go up in my hotel room but never went up to put it on. Too much fun being had to pause for a costume change. By 11:30 PM, most folks had either called it a night or headed off for other, smaller parties elsewhere. A natural night owl I am not, so I climbed into bed at 11:45 PM, read for about two minutes and crashed.

    I still had all of Saturday and the half-day schedule on Sunday ahead of me, but by the end of Friday I’d gotten my money’s worth from ReaderCon. You can check out the rest of my adventure in My ReaderCon 2018 Experience–Part 2 (coming soon). You’ll want to read all about my second name-dropping moment, which also happened in the hotel restaurant over breakfast (involving Samuel Delaney). In the meantime, you can check out my Instagram for pic’s from this year’s ReaderCon29. 

     

    Are you a writing convention enthusiast? Which Cons have you attended? Any you’d like to recommend to the rest of us newbies? Do share in the comments!

     

    Thanks for dropping by and as always, happy writing to you.

  • Neuroscience Hack #2-Writing That Hooks Readers

    Neuroscience Hack #2-Writing That Hooks Readers

    In my previous post, Writing that Hooks Readers-Neuroscience Hack #1, I discussed how elements of change affect our brains as we read. As promised, I”m back with the next installment of this multi-part exploration of the neuroscience behind writing that grabs our attention and pulls us in.

     

    If you’ve ever watched an Olympic sporting event like the floor routine in gymnastics, you might have seen shots of athletes preparing to compete. They stand to the side, eyes closed, twisting their bodies around in odd ways. You know what they’re doing. They’re envisioning their routine, imagining the jumps, the turns, the tucks. The term for it is pre-visualization, and there’s plenty of data in the field of neuroscience to show that it improves performance in the live competition. The same things happening to those athlete’s brains occur inside readers’ minds when they read. Provided, that is, an author uses a few key tricks when they write.

     

    Brain Hack #2: “Monkey See, Monkey Do” is a Truer Statement Than You Think

    In 1996, a team of Italian scientists inserted electric probes into the premotor cortices of monkeys. They tracked neuron (nerve cell) activation in the animal’s brains when they reached for a toy or grasped a piece of food or brought a cup of water to their mouth to drink. Each time a monkey did something, the scientists noted which neurons fired during each activity.

    Interestingly, they discovered that when a scientist reached for a toy or grasped a piece of food, the neurons in a watching monkey’s brain would fire in the same way as if the animal were the one performing the actions. The lead scientist said, “…we realized that the pattern of neuron activity associated with the observed action was a true representation in the brain of the act itself, regardless of who was performing it.” (G, Rizzolatti, et al. “Mirrors in the Mind.” Scientific American, 2006. pp. 54–61. Print.)

    The Story Telling AnimalWhat does that mean? From a neuroscience, it means our brains simulate what we observe others do and experience. In the book The Storytelling Animal, author Johnathan Gottschall suggested that this phenomenon offers us a “safe” way to learn new skills. It also lets us assess possible consequences of specific actions without endangering ourselves.

    To better understand this idea, you have to know about a couple of specific types of neurons.

     

    Motor Neurons

    Motor Cortex MapThese are the nerve cells that stimulate our muscles when we kick, jump, or swing a bat. They originate in a region in our brain called the motor cortex and end in our muscles.

     

    Mirror Neurons

    Illustration of the mirror neuron systemThese are the neurons our Italian scientist friends saw firing in their monkeys. The science is far from conclusive on why these cells exist. However, many folks believe mirror neurons help us understand the intent of other people’s actions. They also help us learn new skills by imitation.

    Whereas motor neurons fire when we kick, jump or swing a bat, mirror neurons fire when we watch (or read) someone else kick, jump, or swing a bat. If a person is hooked up to a fMRI brain scanner while watching a film of an X-games freestyle skier launching off a half-pipe doing some crazy, twisty, flip thingy, the mirror neurons in their motor cortex light up brightly. Inside their brains, it looks like they’re the ones coming off the half-pipe. Even if they’ve never been skiing!

     

    Writers Can Use Mirror Neurons to Deepen Reader Engagement

    Include strong action verbs that reference specific body parts in your writing to stimulate your readers’ mirror neurons. The key to this brain hack working, however, is the specificity of your descriptions.

    “He did a flip off the diving board.”

              – this sentence uses an auxiliary verb (did) versus an action verb (flipped). Flip, in this sentence is a noun, a thing, not an action than can be mirrored in our minds.

    “He flipped himself backward off the diving board.”

               – in this sentence, flipped is an action verb, which is a stronger choice. Reading about an action, at least in theory, can stimulate mirror neurons. Also, we know something about the direction of the action (backward) and a rudimentary setting (the diving board). However, the verb flip refers to the whole body rather than specific body parts, so it doesn’t stimulate mirror neurons all that much.

    “Pumping his arms like pistons, he heaved his weight downward against the edge of the diving board, then rode its recoil high into the air, tucking his knees tight to his chest as he spun, and craned his neck back as he sought to find the water.”

               – I went a bit over-the-top with this one, but I wanted to make a clear point. This sentence contains multiple action verbs (pumping, heaved, rode, tucked, spun, craned, sought, and find). Many of the verbs reference specific parts of the body (arms, knees, and neck). The last element embedded into this sentence that is absent in the prior two examples is a clear goal. The individual is seeking the water. It’s the most engaging of the three because it does the best job of stimulating your motor cortex via mirror neuron activation.

    So there you have it! Neuroscience hack #2: Mirror Neurons. Next time you sit down to write a scene, or edit a scene for that matter, pay attention to your use of verbs. Your readers will be pulled in and feel as if they’re living the story.

     

    More posts about a neuroscience hacks writers can use to make their writing more engaging will be coming soon, so stay tuned.

     

    Thanks for stopping by, and as always, happy writing to you!

  • Writing That Hooks Readers – Neuroscience Hack #1

    Writing That Hooks Readers – Neuroscience Hack #1

    The final requirement for my Masters in Creative Writing program at Lesley University is to teach a graduate student seminar, and I’ve chosen a topic that merges my two great passions in life: biology and writing. More specifically, neuroscience and literature. I’m going to drop a little science on my fellow writers next week by teaching them three inescapable brain hacks they can employ to suck readers into their stories.

    It occurred to me that these neuroscience hacks would make some cool blog posts. Today’s neuroscience hack is subtle but incredibly useful.

    Brain Hack #1: The human brain evolved to monitor the immediate environment for signs of change.

    Brain MRIIt’s true! From an evolutionary standpoint, the brain is an organ with a singular purpose. To keep us alive. An essential part of “not dying” is noticing any kind of change to the current situation.

    Change grabs our attention as we assess whether it is positive or negative. The brain then forms a “survival goal” based on the conclusion and takes steps to achieve that goal. It could be as simple as putting on a sweater when the temperature drops. Or eating food when blood glucose levels fall. Or running for cover when a strange shadow shifts position in the tall grasses of the African savannah.

    Changes such as a hulking figure with a knife stepping from a shadowy alley come with potentially extreme consequences. Experiencing that situation firsthand could mean death. Thankfully, our brains developed workarounds that let us gain knowledge and experience safely.

    We have the somewhat unique ability to learn by watching others deal with problems.

    Fisher A Good Book
    Forget it, babe. You’re hooked!

    Whether the observed individual lives or dies, we gain knowledge that might keep us alive should we encounter a similar problem.

    When we read fictional stories, we get to practice identifying changes and assessing their potential positives or negatives.

    In 2007, researchers found that when people read stories, there is a significant increase in brain activity during narrative moments containing changes in characters, scene locations, or changes in characters’ goals.

    Changes that Really Light Brains Up:

    • Words that suggest the passage of time, such as later, soon, shortly, or immediately.

     

    • Descriptions of spacial changes, such as characters moving from one room to another, or even moving from one side of a room to another.

     

    • Descriptions of characters changing their interaction with objects (picking up or putting down objects, or opening or closing things like doors or windows).

     

    • Showing characters starting a new, goal-oriented action with a clear intent. For example, initiating a conversation, preparing to jump over a puddle, or thrusting a sword during a fight.

     

    Consider the following excerpt from Cressida Cowell’s middle grade novel How to Train Your Dragon: How To Train Your Dragon

    The Dragon had crawled down into the depths of the ocean and gone into a Sleep Coma.  Dragons can stay in this suspended state for eternity, half-dead, half-alive, buried under fathom after fathom of icy-cold seawater.  Not a muscle of this particular Dragon had moved for six or seven centuries.

    But the previous week, a Killer Whale who had chased some seals unexpectedly deep was surprised to notice a slight movement in the upper eyelid of the dragon’s right eye. An ancestral memory stirred in the whale’s brain and he swam away from there as fast as his fins could carry him.  And, a week later, the sea around the Dragon Mountain—which had previously been teeming with crabs and lobsters and shoals and shoals of fish—was a great, underwater desert. Not a mollusk stirred, not a scallop shimmied.

    Admit it, that’s some engaging writing.  One of the reasons why it pulls you in so fast is because it contains so  much change. Your brain locks onto the text as it tries to figure out whether those changes are good or bad.  Cowell employs another interesting neuroscience hack in this excerpt, too, but that’s a topic for another post. 

    Regardless of the quality of the actual story being told (Twilight? The Da Vince Code? Fifty Shades of Gray?), certain tricks can grab readers by the brain and engage them. Change is one of them. Take a look at your writing and see if adding a few elements of change livens things up a bit.

    Have you ever gotten so into a book you were reading that you lost track of time and literally forgot about the real world? What was the book, and what was it that sucked you in so effectively?

    Thanks for stopping by, and as always, happy writing to you!

  • ReaderCon29, Here I Come!

    ReaderCon29, Here I Come!

    As John Arnold said in Jurassic Park right before everything went south, “Hold onto your butts.”

     

    I just booked my hotel room for ReaderCon29. Who’s excited? Meeeee!

    ReaderCon29 will be the second writing conference I’ve ever attended, and my very first conference–Boskone–was fun but underutilized. I spent most of my time star-struck, tongue glued to the roof of my mouth, unable to approach authors and talk to them. So many missed opportunities. You can read all about my (mis)adventures at Boskone here.

    Ghost TalkersFor example, while I managed to get a copy of Ghost Talkers signed by Mary Robinette Kowal, I could not bring myself to join the circle of fans surrounding her at the art show and tell her how much I enjoyed her writing (not to mention her commentary and sass on the writing podcast “Writing Excuses.”)

    A Murder of MagesThen there was Marshall Ryan Maresca and E. J. Stevens, both of whom (if they noticed me) probably got utterly skeeved out by the weird blonde woman stalking them from a distance all weekend long. Sorry about that, by the way, if either of them by some slim chance ever read this post. Didn’t mean to be a creeper. I just got so fetching shy! It wasn’t just you two.  I couldn’t talk to anyone!

    Shadow SightNot this time, I am telling myself without much confidence. This time, I will have done it once before. I won’t be a complete newb. I will be able to approach and interact with other people at the conference because I will remember that it is a writing conference. Everyone in attendance will have a love of books and writing in common with me. I will smile, just like last time, but then I will make my feet move, and I will approach people, and I will say “hello” and other normal things. I will not go mute and resort to hiding behind giant plants in lobbies and watching authors from great distances.

    A Natural History of Hell

    Jeffrey Ford is going to be there, though, so I might. The man is an incredible writer. Have you read his short story collection, A Natural History of Hell? Sooooo good!

    Anyway, ReaderCon has been on my radar since last summer, when my Fantasy & Science Fiction professor, Mark Edwards, suggested I attend. He described it as the most prominent annual writing convention in Massachusetts. A “not to be missed” event.

    I missed it.

    But, I vowed to get there this summer. Registered way back in February, even. I mean, I have no excuses to miss it a second time. The cost to attend is incredibly affordable, and it takes place in Quincy, Massachusetts. That’s an hour and a half from where I live, for Thor’s sake. This morning, I went all in on the experience and ponied up the funds to secure a hotel room. Now getting to and from each day won’t be an issue.

    I am ready to rock this conference. Okay, not really. I definitely need some pointers, guidance, encouragement, etc.

    Here’s my plea:

    If you’re also going to ReaderCon, help me overcome the paralytic shyness that grabbed me by the throat at Boskone55 and say hello. Connect with me over on Twitter and Instagram, so that by the time July rolls around, I will (at least in a theoretical, social media sort of way) already know a few folks. How awesome would that be?!

    If you’re a seasoned writing conference attendee, what tips do you have for me that will help me make the most of ReaderCon29?

    As always, thanks for stopping by, and happy writing to you.