Traveling Man

It's not magic

I'm studying  an old magic book to learn how to make cards spring from one hand to the other.  In fact, the trick is called, "To make the cards spring from one hand to the other."  It belongs to the art of the juggler rather than to that of the magician, but it's so familiar a move that it behooves magicians to master it.

Criticism of genre fiction is an identifiable skill, too.  When it's done well, it addresses the genre.  When it does not, it seeks to make genre fiction something it is not. 

In the field of literary criticism, there are more jugglers than magicians; that's why so much genre fiction is so poorly appreciated.

Being and knowing

(from earlier notes: 12/02/05)

When did I first begin to be a writer?  I think it started when I first tried to put things in order.  Puzzles.  My grandmother used to keep a jigsaw puzzle set up on a card table in her living room.  People would walk in and do a piece.  I was drawn to that.   Or my first try at a band, when we tried to create a sound.

(to be continued)

The quality should be strained

I was listening to a video offered by Writers of the Future.  Someone commented that (not an exact quotation): "this is how young writers learn their craft, and the skills to keep the field alive."

Writer's workshops certainly try to teach writing skills.  But writers shape fictional worlds by making visits to their own head and letting the vision flow out through their fingers.  Otherwise, it's rote fiction.

The sf field has gone through many gyrations since Hugo Gernsback's original vision.  I think the field began to decelerate in 1969, when the first human walked on a world not Earth; the field turned inward.  But I think humans need Gernsback's vision still.  Sf anticipates change, so that the world can be prepared when it comes.  And if fiction finds answers to the unexpected consequences of change, it shapes our future in positive ways.

Works in progress

Being the New Year, I think it's appropriate to take a look at ongoing projects and see if they still measure up as the best use of my time.  I have three novels in progress.  The oldest, the circus novel (originally a novella), is fully realized and plotted, and I have about 60,000 words in place.  My feeling is that I'll end up with twice that word count.  SInce there's been some real interest in the book, I'd like to finish a draft by March.

The next oldest is the alternate WW2 novel, where Germany wins the war.  Yes, I know that's been done before.  But so has the other side.  I venture to say that there are thousands of novels depicting the Allied victory, so my story is still in the minority.  I also think my story can be fresh and interesting.  I'm stuck, though.  After a dozen versions and eighty thousand-plus words, I'm not sure that I've located the beginning, middle or end, or discovered whose story this really is.  This started out as a novella, and starred Che Guevera in an alternate world.  He's still in it, but the world has opened up and his desires no longer drive the plot.  Stay tuned.

The most recent novel (in conception, about seven years old) is high fantasy.  I think of it as my Conan story - a thinking Conan.  I'm a great admirer of Robert Howard (and many other Weird Tales writers of old) and would be pleased to have my story compared to Howard's work, in any way.  I'm also a great admirer of Edgar Pangborn's Davy, as well as Jane Gaskell's The Serpent, and feel those books (and writers) influenced me.  But antecedents notwithstanding, the main thing about my novel is that the story sprawls.  And sprawls.  And gets drunk and staggers off a cliff, into an azure sea.

I don't even want to think about short fiction (I have about 30 unfinished/or need to be revised stories in inventory).  I'll mention one new story idea.  Years ago I read a J.G. Ballard short story about certain information hidden in a museum painting (this was written in the 1950s, I believe, and is vastly more entertaining than that turgid Da Vinci Code).  The second piece of the puzzle fell into place for me last month when I began to read 3000 Years of Deception, a book by Frank Arnau that discusses fakes and forgeries in the art world.  And last week, I saw a film called THE RAPE OF EUROPA, a documentary depicting how the Nazis (significantly, Goering) during their reign of terror stole about twenty per cent of the fine art in Europe from museums and private residences.  The Nazis also destroyed tens of thousands of pieces of art by Jewish, Russian, and Polish artists, calling their art degenerate.  After all these years, owners are still trying to recover their property.  Much of that art will never be seen again.

I'm not sure how my story is going to come together.  I do know that Nazis always make a story more interesting. 

I just hope this isn't going to be a novel.

Competitions

Over the years, I've entered the Writers of the Future competition several times.  Although I was several times a quarter-finalist and once a semi-finalist (I think that's the category for the dozen or so stories that qualify for the final judging), overall, I don't seem to write the sorts of things that appeal to the judges.  Several of my friends have been finalists or even won, but for me it remains an elusive goal.  I covet their big cash prizes and shiny trophies, I yearn (or once yearned) to attend their free workshop, I envy that their books stay in print longer than most other anthologies; but many of the stories in those collections -and each story travels through an intense winnowing process to arrive at winner-status - seem to me to be less than special.  Of course, there are exceptional pieces of work in those anthologies.  But overall, I look at my rejections and what's finally published and just scratch my head.  Oh, well.  It's the Gold Rush of competitions, and all it costs is a stamp and an envelope.

A follow-up on the Writers of the Future competition.  I'm been writing for ten years now and enjoy competitions.  Although I write almost every day, I'm one of those writers whose pace increases with a workshop or contest on the horizon.  So I thank them for that; I still have the stories.  Also, when I can find the time and energy, I'll mention some of the published WoTF stories I've enjoyed.  I would like to add one other comment.  I'm truly bored by their ridiculous hype.  For example, (judge) Orson Scott Card says about Writers of the Future (and I quote): "It's what keeps science fiction alive."  Please.

Competitions vs. publications.  I've submitted many stories to regular magazines and anthologies, large and small.  I've read slush, too.  With many publications, it's more difficult to succeed with a merely good (and sometimes, even a great) story simply because your name is unknown to the editors; you still have a chance, but the slots are few for new writers and your story has to get under that editor's skin.  The point of submitting to competitions is that you're a new or emerging writer.  Take advantage of that while you can.  Don't stop submitting to publications.  Just expand your view.

I'm looking for some 2008 competitions.  I'll report back.

My second story will be available soon from Albedo One.

My first publication can be read free here.