Charles de Lint. Robin Hobb. Barbara Hambly.

What authors are you currently lovin' on?

Yez i can!

::pets shiny email from editor saying nice things about my story::
::crosses fingers that my story makes the final cut::

Yez I can!

::dies of happiness::
::goes off to cook something in new kitchen::

Just in case you were wallowing in a fit of optimism and hoped that Lanaia Lee and Cheryl Pillsbury had learned their lesson, obtained a conscience, and/or crawled off into the woodwork: sorry, it hasn't happened.

From Lanaia Lee's free-to-read Yahoo group

Michael G posts one of his poems.

Cheryl responds: "Beautiful, love it."

Lanaia adds: "Michael, you have such a flair for poetry, you really need to go out on your own, I think you are that good!"

Cheryl chimes in on cue: "Michael, please sign a contract and the world savor your words as we do, please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Michael says: "Thank you very much for your kind words i am considering doing that", followed by "Hmmmm well can you e-mail me a contract offer?."

Cheryl wastes no time, and nine minutes later, she posts: "Already sent, look at and ask me anything."

Michael: "I have a question, with the 550.00 option does that include the book being edited?."

::oh, dear::

But at least he didn't jump at the opportunity to throw his money away (yet); two days later, Cheryl posted: "Michael, have you decided yet?"

I've been reading fantasy for decades. And I think maybe there's been a shift. Twenty years ago the stories had generic standard-fantasy-plots and fairly invisible prose -- books like Eddings and Lackey and the author of those Sword of Shanarra (sp?) books. A decade later the plots got more convoluted and unpredictable, and the worlds got more vivid: B Hambley, A McCaffrey, etc, though the prose wasn't particularly memorable. Nowadays the plots continue to be strong, and the worlds unusual and fascinating, but the prose has also take a step up. Invisible, servicable prose has been out-muscled by writers who have lyrical, haunting, distinctive voices: Jo Walton, Ellen Kushner, and the newest writers on the block, beth_bernobich and cathellison.

Is there a real pattern here, do you think, or has my reading been too selective and erratic to draw any conclusions?

More noodling on the subject: how much of the author makes it into their prose?

( Read more... )

Coneycat's recent lj post (here, since I forgot how to do links: http://coneycat.livejournal.com/577224.html?view=1239496#t1239496) has got me thinking. Can you tell a fiction writer's style from their blog posts? Do short, witty, concise posts equate to a good short story writer? Do thorough, insightful, well-structured arguments indicate a good novelist? Is pretentiously annoying fiction the inevitable result of a lj user whose blog posts consist of "I am smarter than everyone else" followed by "oh, but I didn't mean to insult anyone by that, I don't mean that other people are stupid, just that I can't understand why no one recognises my genius or sees that I am always right and they're all wrong"?

Dunno. From the few writers for whom I'm familiar with both their fiction and blog posts, I think maybe, yes, it's true. Sadly, I have to admit that my infrequent lj posts are reflected in my inability to Apply Butt to Chair when it comes to fiction writing.

What do y'all think?

Thankfully, it's Friday.

It'll be a busy weekend. Apple harvesting, chicken coop building, and something else that I can't remember right now. Plus, I've got hob an lam to read, and after that, Year's Best Fantasy And Horror, which just arrived in the mail this morning. (The mailman nearly fell off the porch because his gaze was riveted to my slippers, which are plush killer whales. Jealousy on his part, no doubt.)

In other news, I'm told that my short story in an upcoming anthology will share a ToC with Nicola Griffith. Is it possible to die of intimidation?

Watching writers is often like watching a movie. You know what's going to happen, but it's so much fun to watch those things happen that you're utterly riveted.

I love stumbling across writers -- in workshops, in magazines, on lj. I especially love stumbling across writers who have that certain something. They're good, but more importantly, you can see the potential that they're going to be great. Something about their ideas, their prose, their characters -- you just know, with perfect certainty, that the author is bound to be the next Jo Walton or Ellen Kushner or Poppy Z Brite.

And then you get to watch it happen. You watch their stories get better and better. You watch their confidence grow, their prose shine, their characters leap to life. You see them making professional sales to magazines. Then they announce what you've been waiting for: "I've got a top notch agent!" And then you wait, again, until they announce: "My agent has sold my book!"

I love it. Absolutely, positively love it. Revel in it. Squealing-in-delight love it. No matter how often I see it happen, the thrill, the excitement, the total Oh, yes, this is soooo right! never fades.

My thanks to those authors who share with me their progress, their success and failures, their hopes and dreams. I'm privileged. And -- you know who you are! -- I'm so utterly delighted by those recent successes. Kudos.

After not writing for a few years, I feel like I've got back on the horse. The idea of a novel has always daunted me, and now even a 4000 word short story seems overwhelming, so I'm writing rilly rilly short stuff -- and it seems to be working. I'm writing, and I'm selling what I write. (Okay, to little weenie semi-pro and 4-the-luv markets, but wot the hell, it's a start.)

Far from being a victim of scam publishers, Lanaia Lee has once again knocked everyone else out of the way and willingly hurled herself head-first onto the scammers' chopping block.

Y'all remember Lanaia Lee, right? She paid scam ghost writer Christopher Hill to write her novel, then claimed she wrote it herself. Then she paid scam agent Cheryl Pillsbury to place her book with the pay-to-play vanity publisher Roval. Then she claimed that it must've been coincidence that the text of book's her prologue was exactly the same as one of David Gemmel's novels. Then her husband said the stress of the plagiarism scandal at Making Light etc would cause Lanaia to have another stroke, and thus would make all the online participants murderers. Then Cheryl Pillsbury, self-proclaimed witch, threatened Making Light partcipants with ludicrously incorrect Wiccan curses.

But Lanaia was undefeated by these trivial setbacks. She's written a book of horror poetry! And it's published! By AG Press, which happens to be owned by her good friend Cheryl Pillsbury! And they only charge $2000 for their package ("Your project will be critique, choice of regular or wrap cover, 2 free illustrations, full marketing package, and 12 free copies of your project")! And Lanaia has even made a video trailer for her book of horror poetry! With a picture of a pretty yellow sunflower!

Some train wrecks just never end....

February has been good: a ~3000 word short story written and accepted to an anthology, and three more flash stories completed and about to be submitted. Yay me, I done went and writed some stuff!

I also got two rejections, but at least that means I'm still playing the game.

Congrats to all the winners and those on the Recommended Reading shortlist! If you're of a mind, pop over and say congrats to jenwrites, mroctober, and l_j_on_lj

gacked from jenwrites




take the WHAT BAD BOOK ARE YOU test.


and go to mewing.net. not as good as reading a good book, but way better than a bad one.

RIP.

Yay for jenwrites, whose anthology of her truly excellent SF/H/feminist short stories has just come out. Unwelcome Bodies is at the top of my to-buy list, along with Manda Scott's Boudicca series and the Year's Best Fantasy and Horror.

Boo for Cassie Edwards, in whose novels the Smart Bitches have identified countless passages that are extraordinarily similar to Other People's Published Works That She Never Bothers To Mention. Citations ain't just for traffic offenses, yanno.

Yay for beth_bernobich, whose persistence and determination are exceeded only by her even more extraordinary writing talent. Tor's lucky to have snabbled her.

Boo for Lanaia Lee, who, far from giving up, is still denying her plagiarism of David Gemmel's work with the claim of "get real, you have read my poetry, do you think I would need to stoop low enough to steal another author's work?" If you haven't read her poetry, you can do so here.

Yay for the editor who sent me a rejection letter last week. Because a) it was kind and encouraging, and b) it means I must've got off my dead arse and wrote a story and submitted it. Maybe I'll actually get some decent writing done this year. Will it continue to be horror, I wonder?

It's the Friday before the Xmas holidays, hurrah! And of course you're all dying to hear what's percolating through my tiny brain while my bagel digests, right?

(This is as close as I'll get to sending Xmas cards.)

To my coworkers: Do not punish me because your nanny left and the new nanny hasn't arrived yet. Stay home with your children. Do not bring them to work and leave them screaming in their prams just outside my office door.

To prima donna writers (mostly in the lesbian fiction world): Your stories and you are not inseparable. Do not take a comment on your book as a personal insult. Likewise, do not try to convince the world that readers should not be allowed to say anything about your book unless it's a glowing five star review. If a reader pays money for your book, she's entitled to have an opinion and to air said opinion. If you want to control who comments on your books, you have to control who reads your books, and that means you can't release them to the public. If you want to publish your books commercially, you have to let the stories go. When a reader buys and reads your story, it becomes hers. Get over it already.

To all the people on lj, Absolute Write, the lesbian fiction forum, erotica writers forum, ralan.com, dailykos, Making Light, and all the other places I hang out: thank you for teaching me, helping, me, listening to me, and enriching my life. Have a great holiday season.

And now it's time for all little hamsters to get back to work.

Yes, I know you thought that the plagiarism saga of Lanaia "I'm Too Stupid To Live" Lee had finally run its course, but she's back for one more curtain call.

"Of Atlantis," the book trailer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0w3OBxtKpE

Go on. I know you can't resist.

For all cat owners: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeF3vb-eDC4