Sunday, October 31, 2010

New Scientist Flash Fiction contest

New Scientist says: Send us your very short stories about futures
that never were. Tell us where we'd be today if the ether had turned out to
exist after all, or if light really was made up of corpuscles emitted by the
eyes. You don't have to be scientifically accurate, but the more convincing
your story, the more likely it is to win!


Your story should be no more than 350 words long, including the title - do
watch your word count, we hate having to disqualify good competition entries
because they're just a bit too long - and should not have previously been
published anywhere else. Only one entry per person, please.

Details at http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19561-flash-fiction-competition-2010-forgotten-futures.html

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Victoria Strauss on Plagiarism

Interesting post on Plagiarism at Writer Beware. Aside from identifying a particular individual said to be a plagiarist, a very balanced commentary on how rare it is, and how to protect yourself.

Friday, October 29, 2010

New Canadian SF market/publication

The Canadian Science Fiction Review is a new e-pub. Worth a look, either as a reader or potential contributor. Early days yet, so hard to judge staying power and so on, but always good to see new outlet for Canadian content.

The website was spectacularly slow when I accessed it Friday night, but maybe they had huge volume as the issue launched, eh?

Submission guidelines say they pay 6 cents for fiction, $20-30 for short non-fiction. Canadians citizens or residents only at this time. Have a look!

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Edge Publishing celebrating first decade

Grab your goggles and gear and join them November 20th at 6:30 pm to celebrate EDGE's first decade of publishing quality speculative fiction, fantasy and horror.

Dress in a steampunk costume (optional) and enjoy an enchanting evening of:

Madcap Music and Magic:
With slide guitar virtuoso Ellen McIlwaine.
Parlor prestidigitations by Richard (the magician) Rondeau.
Experience the amazing balloon sculptures of Big D. Wilson.

Tomes and Trivia:
The pseudo-Victorian parlor game that doles out trinkets, trophies, and tea.

Ripped from the Pages:
Listen to a smattering of our new books - read by the actors of Gas & Light Productions.
Attend a command performance of poet Christian Bök.
Enjoy the story telling tales of Lana Skauge and Tom Doyle.

Munching and Crunching:
Finger food for everyone.
Enjoy the latest in steampunk libations from the mad scientists in the EDGE lab.
Be certain to try our special EDGE elixir!

Costume Capers:
Secret judges will declare (at evening's end) the Lord and Lady of the Steampunk Social.

Fun for all:
Get photographed in your costume - steampunk accessories provided!

This celebration takes place in Calgary's historical Aeronautical Space Museum (4629 McCall Way NE, Calgary) on November 20th. Doors open at 6:30 pm with wandering entertainment, and light refreshments. Performance parlor shows begin at 7:30 pm.

Please RSVP by emailing events@hadespublications.com, or by calling EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing at 403-254-0160.

For further information please contact:
Janice Shoults
Marketing and Events
EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing
events@hadespublications.com
www.edgewebsite.com

Monday, October 25, 2010

market: Monster Book for Girls

Terry Grimwood is circulating the following announcement:

Dear All

While helping a friend clear out her parents' effects, recently, I
stumbled on a tatty old pre-war tome called "The Monster Book for
Girls". It was adorned with pictures of jolly school lasses wielding
hockey sticks and was full of “thrilling adventure stories for girls”.
I loved the title so much I’ve stolen it for a new Exaggerated Press
anthology.

First it is not a book for teenagers or children.

What I’m looking for are stories inspired by the title, whatever
(within the realms of decency, the title does, I’m afraid lend itself
to a bit of nudge-nudge, wink-wink- sordidness) springs to mind and
kick-starts the creative engine.

It doesn’t even have to be of the horror/fantastical genre. What is a
monster anyway? Slipstream, thriller, romance, a mixture of genres
would be interesting, whatever floats your (and my, of course) boat

Be warned; I don’t want (or like) teenage vampires, vampire angst or
zombies or any other over-their-sell-by-date beasts. High-ish fantasy
might be okay as long as it is original and features no grumpy dwarves
or ethereal elves. Please don’t hurt children or gratuitously torture
women (or men come to that).

Length: 5000 words max, but I will negotiate if absolutely necessary.
Submission deadline: 27th February 2011.

Submit as an RTF attachment to mbfg@hotmail.co.uk

Regards
Terry Grimwood

(From http://djibrilalayad.blogspot.com/2010/10/call-for-submissions-monster-book-for.html)

Sunday, October 24, 2010

web site design upgrading.

Still looking around at other editor's websites. One of the best designs is Alaska writer/editor Sarah Gonzales. Clean, professional, artistic without being too pretentious. You can tell she also did web design in the past. Thinking about how I can incorporate some of the design principles I'm seeing without being too derivative. Cutting down on putting too much information upfront, and upping visuals seems to be part of the key. But the more I look around, the less satisfied I am with my initial, dated design.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

CZP Book launch

Date: Friday, October 22nd
Time: 7pm to 1am
Location: The Augusta House, 152 Augusta Avenue, at Dundas West (between Bathurst & Spadina), 2nd Floor

First 50 people there get a free drink ticket. (Note: cash bar otherwise, no debit or credit cards, though there is an ATM on site.)

Books they are launching:

Nexus: Ascension by Robert Boyczuk
People Live Still in Cashtown Corners by Tony Burgess
Sarah Court by Craig Davidson
In the Mean Time by Paul Tremblay (illustrations by Mara Sternberg)
The Hair Wreath & Other Stories by Halli Villegas (HC frontispiece by Daniele Serra)
Major Karnage by Gord Zajac (HC illustrations by Maxwell Atoms)


Readings from most of the authors, and a raffle to win a Kindle loaded with CZP ebooks.

Call for SF poetry.

Knobl Press is currently accepting original poetry in languages other than English with accompanying English translations. Poets may submit their work to emergingauthors@knoblpress.ca

Monday, October 18, 2010

Web page design

As I work on refining the look of my website -- still needs to be a bit more professional -- I have been looking around at other freelance editors, and I really like a lot of what I see.

My favorite webdesign so far is Peter Atwood (Ottawa) whose logo is a photo of a piece of movable type, an uppercase letter 'A'.


Very simple, very classy, professional look. Color and font scheme makes one think of large cherry wood desk, with leather desk accessories. Very impressive.


Favorite business name so far is "PenUltimate Editorial Services" a very serviceable pun. Her website is fairly standard design, especially for women authors & editors, featuring prominent photo of the editor, and slightly more emphasize on the personal and relationship side of editing. Tag line is, "the last word is yours".

Favorite slogan so far is "We love words even more than you do." from Be Creative Communications. Nice clean web design (I might steal two-tone button effect), simple typeface logo, but it's the slogan 'pinned' to the page by a pushpin that sells the page.

Runner up for best name is "Cranky Editor", whose logo is a crabby looking laptop correcting the logo by scratching out the 'e' in "Crankey Editor". Hilarious!

Monday, October 4, 2010

Interview with Krista Ball



Krista Ball is an Edmonton speculative fiction author. Her short stories have been published widely in anthologies, magazines, and fan favourite collections; and she is one of the pioneers of the digital generation's movement into e-publishing and self-publishing. She is also a regular contributor to Merge Magazine (Edmonton). Her most recent (October 1) release is the paranormal historical fantasy Harvest Moon from MuseItUp Publishing. This interview is part of her virtual book tour to promote the launch of Harvest Moon.

Krista will be making in-person appearances at Con-Version (Calgary) and Pure Spec (Edmonton) this month and will also have a vendor’s table at Pure Spec, where we are told there will be copious amounts of free chocolate.


Robert: Your latest work, Harvest Moon, is based on elements from aboriginal culture. Why aboriginal culture?

Krista: I worked at a homeless agency in Edmonton’s inner city for three years. I wrote Harvest Moon while there, in fact. Edmonton’s homeless has a large aboriginal population and, thus, you end up being exposed to their cultures, traditions, and even language just as part of your day-to-day living.

Robert: Do you ever worry about charges/issues of cultural appropriation?

Krista:
Any charge against culture appropriation would be valid and invalid at the same time. I am white (nearly translucent white, in fact). However, several members of my extended family are Métis. I feel that I am writing a family story as much as a historical fantasy. On top of that, I think it’s important to be able to write about different kinds of peoples, cultures, and traditions. It would be no different if I wrote about the ancient Greeks, or Jews during WW2.

Robert: Some of your work has some pretty violent imagery in it. How have audiences reacted to that?

Krista: Right now, I have a fantasy novel for consideration at a publisher and another science fiction novel nearing completion. Both are quite dark and violent. My beta readers (and, even slush readers) have commented how they felt the violence always fell on the edge but never went into the “gore porn” that some pieces fall into.

But here’s the interesting thing. Out of my published and unpublished works, I have had far more stink kicked up over sexual orientation, sex, and alcohol use. In “Space Sucks” (a short story in Bardic Tales and Sage Advice II), I had several people tell me that they didn’t like that a woman was an alcoholic in the story — “women don’t drink like that.” Others have commented on Bearclaw in “Harvest Moon” being bisexual, saying that bisexual people didn’t exist before the modern era (clearly, they’ve never read ancient Greek poetry).

Robert: You're kidding me! People actually said that? Because a lot of plains cultures had quite specific, culturally acceptable roles for gays, so bisexual is hardly a stretch. Indeed, there's a lot of cultural anthropology to suggest that bisexuality was only problematic to a minority of Western cultures. So it's hard to think anyone would object to that in a story about pre-contact native cultures.

Krista: The total amount of bisexuality talk in "Harvest Moon" consists of probably 30 /11000 words total. Two of my reviews have already put a “bisexual references” warning. Then, I get an email who said that he was very bothered by the fact that one of the character was not straight. He also said it was a really good story, other than the “gay thing.”

It’s odd that brutal, graphic violence decapitation of toddlers and having them nailed to a doorpost is fine; but anything outside of rigid gender roles and expectations are not. It’s weird.

However, nothing has made me as happy as the first piece of hate mail arrived last week. I still show it off proudly and think I might frame it. It was like being in high school again, only with better fashion sense.

Robert:
What do you hope readers will take away with them from reading your work?

Krista:
I really just want people to forget their lives for a few hours and sink into the worlds that I’ve created. For the light-hearted stories (i.e. "Flying Kite, Crashing Ship"), I want to make people laugh. For the more serious works, I want people to feel that they could live another person’s life for a few hours. I don’t want anything more complicated than that, really.

Robert: What do consider the best piece you've ever written?

Krista: This changes all of the time. I generally like a piece when it first gets submitted and, after several rounds of content or line edits, I want to rip the work to shreds and never read it again!

Robert:
Anything you now regret?

Krista: I sometimes say that I wish I hadn’t stopped writing when I left high school. Between 18 and 30, I barely wrote. At the same time, I wasn’t in a place to be producing the kind of work that I do now, dealing with the business end of things, and the other parts of being a full-time writer that people don’t realize. I honestly thought after I’d publish a couple magazine articles and a book, I’d be living like Danielle Steele and wearing mink coats (eww! What was I even thinking?). There was no way I could have handled the business side.

Now, I have enough corporate conditioning behind me that my writing is a career, a job, whatever you want to call it. I get a rejection and the story is back out the door somewhere else in under 3 minutes. I couldn’t have done that when I was younger. So, perhaps, it’s just as well I stopped when I did.

Robert:
Do you read a lot of SF, or do you read a range of genres? If I were to ask you what you read in an average month, what would I find on your bookshelf?

Krista:
I read or have read pretty much everything. In September, I read a romance novel, a light horror short, a m/m erotica novella, a m/m/f erotica novel, a mystery short, and four books of a fantasy series. And a Star Trek novel because I read one of those a month.

Robert: Star Trek? What do you think makes that series such an enduring read?"

Krista: My favourite is Deep Space Nine, where it combines the alien worlds and customs with everyday people. Even the aliens had crappy days sometimes. I like that a lot. It combined the wonder of space with the mundane everyday.

Robert:
I remember that I discovered John M. Ford from his two ST novels. Who are your favorite ST authors?

Krista:
I found David Mack from his ST novels. He writes other tie-ins and also has his own work out. I love his writing and would never have found him otherwise.

Robert: Any genre you don’t like/read?

Krista:
I can’t read most horror. I’ve tried, but I either end up with nightmares or rather nauseous. I generally read more short stories than novels these days. I like the shorter time commitment with them. Also, with an e-Reader, I can purchase all different lengths of works and enjoy as I see fit.

Robert: Who are the big influences on your writing? Who are the SF writers who’ve had the greatest impact on you / your writing?

Krista: Here is a confession – I hated speculative fiction for most of my life. I loved science fiction on TV but I hated most of the books that I picked up. The only ones I liked as a teenager were Star Trek novels and a military assassin series (I can’t remember the name of them). I wanted so bad to read about girls like me slaying dragons and invading planets, but I couldn’t find those stories. They always had boring girls (if they even had girls) and it was the guys that did everything. I hated it. So, I gave up on the genre.

Skip a decade and I began to find so many new authors that I love, who write the works that I wanted to read as a kid. Jim Butcher, Diana Pharaoh Franics, Elizabeth Moon...Then, the world of ebooks opened up an entire new world for me, where I could find all lengths of books on all kinds of things that I’d never find in a store.

In the end, I began writing what I have because I didn’t like what was out there for most of my life. I write the works that me at sixteen was desperate to read.

Robert:As a Canadian, do you see your writing as particularly Canadian, or is your fiction more accurately described by genre labels?

Krista: Oh, I could go on and on about this one. I am genre-based, but I make it a point to be as Canadian as possible (and as Newfie as possible without needing to provide a dictionary and footnotes). I’m sick of stories set in New York City or LA. I’m sick of governments and laws all being based on US systems. Canadians do things differently and I want to include that different point of view.

For example, I created a First Nations tribe in Northern Alberta for Harvest Moon. Some of my beta readers are American and were really confused by the “six month winter.” They had just assumed the story was based in the US. I went back and edited a scene early on where Dancing Cat actually pinpoints where the story is taking place, without actually saying it (since “Alberta” doesn’t exist yet in the book).

Robert: Have you noticed a difference generally in the reception your stories receive from readers/reviewers/editors from outside Canada?

Krista: Most of my beta readers are American. It can be really annoying when basic things like weather, culture, socialized medicine all need to be presented in an American manner or else you are told it’s “wrong.” I’ve even had my spelling corrected by beta readers; one told me that I needed to learn to spell “colour” before I could ever hope to become published.

I’ve been lucky in that most of my editors have been Canadian or British. However, even Americans have told me that my stories have challenged them to not assume the stories are American-based. I take it as a compliment, as I never want people to assume anything when they start reading my work.

Robert:
I'm always interested in a writer's process. Some writers write by just sitting down at the keyboard and letting things develop as they may; at the other end of the continuum are those that don't set pen to paper until they have a completed outline, a white board filled with timelines and thematic analysis, and a stack of index cards detailing each character, his/her growth, and their interaction with every other character.

Krista:
I have used all forms of outlining, including no outline! I generally write out a paragraph about what the story is about and go from there. Usually, I stop halfway through, re-evaluate and either start over with a basic point-form outline or finish to the end because the logic is working already.

Robert: You mention rewriting one chapter nine times. How can you tell the difference between necessary revision to get the story right, and obsessive polishing to stall from tackling a piece of a project you've been avoiding?

Krista: If I’m at the stage where all I’m doing is line edits, I stop. For me, if I’m still adjusting plot, character development, setting and texture, then the story isn’t done. If I’m merely fiddling with words, the thing is done.

Robert: Is writer's block ever a problem for you?

Krista: The cure for writer’s block is to write freelance. You learn pretty quickly that either you write or you starve.

Seriously, though, sitting my butt in the chair and writing even when I feel “blocked” is the key. Because, really, I’m not blocked. I just want to be doing something else. I don’t want to write the difficult scene, I don’t want to write myself out of the hole I’ve dug, I don’t want, I don’t want, I don’t want. That isn’t a good enough excuse for me. I write for a local magazine who give me monthly assignments. I might not always feel like working on an article but flaking out isn’t an option. I have to do my work.

I see my fiction the same way. I have a responsibility to treat it with the same professionalism.

Robert: You've described novels as long term relationships, and short stories as affairs. It's a fun analogy, but do you prefer one format over the other? Does one come more easily than the other? Is writing a novel the same as art as writing a short story, or is there a difference besides simply one of scale?

Krista: Without short stories, I would go insane. Without novels, I would get bored. For me, the short stories give me a chance to write on a small scale. Basic character compliment, tight setting, one plot, one conflict. It really gives my brain a break. I can be naughty and silly in short stories. My novels right now tend towards the dark. The stories give my emotions and brain a release of tension. They are a different skill set, though. Novels require a well-developed plot that can withstand several bouts of conflict, characters in and out, etc. Short stories are smaller, taking only a snapshot in time.

Robert: So why do you post stories for free? Is it a marketing thing for your more major works?

Krista: A lot of my published work is non-fiction articles (i.e. I am a regular contributor to Merge Magazine in Edmonton), so people who don’t read the local Edmonton works don’t really have a sense for my writing style. Also, non-fiction and fiction read rather differently. The free stories offer people a chance to see if they’d like my style without having to pay.


Robert
: You have pretty decent blog/website. Did you design it yourself?

Krista: Thanks! I’m sleeping with the webmaster ;) We used a basic template and then my partner customized it for me.

Robert:How important do you think it is for an author to maintain a presence on the web?


Krista:
I believe that authors need a web presence, depending on what works best for them. If you are really new, it isn’t that important. I think blogs are a good idea for new writers simply because it gives them practice on how to blog and figure out what kind of blog they want. I went through a couple of blogs before I settled on my current one. It was better to do that early, as opposed to now.

But, if an author hates blogging, I recommend just setting up a website and posting news every couple of months so that there is updated content whenever it’s available.

I also freelance on top of fiction, so I do try to keep an active blog and website. It does help keep readers up to date – and they get to hear me rant on a regular basis.

Robert: Do you think blogs and virtual tours and so on are effective? Or are they losing their novelty?

Krista: I am rather concerned about the growing trend for unpublished authors to have extensive blog tours, guest visits, “my book is debuting in 2011” (meaning they will be hopefully done writing it, not that it’s been published), etc. I think they should be focusing on writing.

Robert: How does keeping your blog relate to your writing? Does it relate, or do you see these as completely separate activities? Is it strictly a promotional tool, or is it part and parcel of your writing? Do you ever use blog postings as a kind of ‘warm up’ activity before starting in on the day’s fiction writing? As a ‘cool down’ exercise? As a coffee break when ‘blocked’?

Blogging is just another part of my writing days. I usually blog first thing in the morning or really late at night. There’s no reasoning for that, other than that’s usually when it comes to mind. As for the why I do it, it’s mostly as a means to keep me connected to people who enjoy my work or writers just starting out who want to follow someone who is also just starting out.

Robert: Some authors have told me that they use their blogs to vent, so that they keep whatever this week’s hobbyhorse happens to be out of their novel — that without the blog, they find their characters suddenly holding forth about the importance of table manners or the War in Iraq or whatever, whether or not it actually fits the book. Have you consciously used your blog this way?

Krista:
That wouldn’t work for me. If something needs to be vented about, I am quite happy to either include it in a current work or slot it for another work down the road. Short stories are often my way to vent about the world.

Robert:I notice on your website you have progress counters to track how many words you've written on your next novel, or whatever. And I was struck by the fact that you've formatted that as X number of words out of 90,000. But how can you know how long a story/novel will be before you write it? How can you possibly know it will take exactly 90,000 words?

Krista: Doing freelance writing work really forced me to learn how to write for a specific word count. Add into that mix my history degree, where I had to write mountains of research papers, all with specific page counts. I discovered that fiction could be approached the same way. When I figured that out, my “waste” writing (i.e. the 3 chapter tangents that do nothing to progress a novel) vanished. Now, I only write paragraph-length tangents!

Generally, I can estimate within 10% of the final word count. I decide the type of project first, be it novel, flash fiction, short story, whatever. Then, I take one of my idea that will fit that word length. I make a couple of notes of how many scenes I think I need, what the risk will be for the story, and I start writing. My first draft will be significantly shorter than the final count. When I go back and edit, I add the texture of the world, clean up the plot, clarify things, and flush out the scene transitions. And lo and behold, I’m close to my target writing count.

It isn’t a huge deal if it goes off, though I rarely do. It’s mostly a tool I use to focus my writing so that every scene is focused on addressing the risk of the story. Keeping that in my mind and being mindful of the target length of my pieces really help focus my writing.

Robert: Thanks very much for agreeing to this interview!