What The HECK Was That?

I'm not even sure I can do justice to the surreality (is that a word) of the experience I had this morning, but I'm going to give it a try. After all, I spent twenty minutes in the car with a friend and fifty times we must have said some variation of "That was just bizarre..."

Let me back this tale up and start somewhere near the beginning. My friend Dena and I are asked from time to time to speak to writing classes. It's mostly high schools and community colleges and such, and more often than not the one who's been invited will ask if it would be all right to bring the other. We have a good rapport and find it's more effective (and entertaining for the students) to play back and forth than to try to fill an hour or two by ourselves. We also have different areas of expertise and between us cover the full range of writing-related activities pretty well.

So it was no great surprise when I got an e-mail from Dena a few weeks ago saying that somebody at a community college near where she lives got her contact info and asked if she could come talk to a class, and was I free to go with her. What was a surprise, however, was that when we got there (about five minutes late; it took longer to get there than we expected)), the students were taking a test.

A test? Aren't tests usually scheduled in advance? Study chapters three and four because there's going to be a test on Friday...?

But Dena and I had been invited to talk for the full two hours. And when we walked into the room the instructor had this odd, Oh-you're-here tone in her greeting. As if she were mildly surprised to see us. She sounded like we had arrived an hour late, not five minutes.

The next thing I noticed was the big sign at the front of the room proclaiming this to be a class on public speaking. Public speaking? I just joined a group several months ago to to improve my own public speaking skills and suddenly I'm standing in front of 30 college kids who are expecting me to talk knowledgeably about that subject?

So Dena and I wing it as best we were able. Truthfully, I was the one who was winging it. It's not my area and I'll be the first to admit that. But Dena has lectured on the subject before and is even working on a book about public speaking, so she smoothly shifts gears and does a fine job of tying public speaking in with communications in general (largely, I think, so I could contribute something to the conversation). And overall it's going pretty smoothly. But within fifteen minutes or so the instructor starts inching closer and closer to Dena sending out this okay-it's-time-for-you-to-go-now vibe.

What else was there to do but wrap up and go? Which we did, saying the whole way back to Dena's house, "What the heck just happened here?"

I understand that miscommunication happens sometimes, but what we were lead to expect and what we were actually asked to deliver were as far apart as could possibly have been imagined. And I wouldn't have minded so much - it is good to get out of the house every now and then - if I hadn't had to drive so far for the privilege of having my time wasted. Between the drive to and from Dena's house and the drive to and from the college, I must have spent at least two and half hours in a car. That's time I could have spend rejecting people's stories... (which is why I won't be reading any IGMS stories today; I make it a point not to read when I'm in a bad mood).

It was just bizarre.

Antho Delivered, Reading and Riding Again

Much of the rest of Life got put on hold while assembling the final pieces of the IGMS anthology, but it's now been delivered to Tor and there's nothing left to do but wait the interminable wait until the book is on the shelves. We haven't been given a publication date yet, but I suspect it won't be before next Spring.

In the mean time it's back to reading again. And riding. Someone asked me at ConCarolinas if I was still training for my bike tour of the Blue Ridge Parkway. 22 miles yesterday; 24 miles the day before that; didn't ride on Sunday, but Saturday I did 35 (that took about two hours). I'm also back into the stories, reading things for the second and, in a few cases, third time. I've got around sixty stories still on my desk and am looking to fill about 15 spots (at the most). I plan to have that knocked out by the end of June/first week of July.

Issue five is getting the finishing touches and should be released sometime during the last week of June. A couple more weeks at most.

IGMS Anthology From Tor

It's officially official: the contracts are in from Tor and Vol. 1 of Orson Scott Card's InterGalactic Medicine Show is being assembled. All four of Scott's 'Ender Universe' stories will be in this anthology, as will tales from approximately a dozen other authors. These are all tales that originally appeared in issues one through four of the on-line version of the magazine, but I wouldn't quite call it a "Best of" anthology; more like a sampler. All four issues of the magazine are represented (roughly) equally and as I selected the stories I also did my best to keep a balanced proportion of SF and Fantasy.

The list of stories is still being finalized (there are one or two tales/authors that are on the fence), and the artists are being notified, too. Artists? Oh yes: each illustration that accompanied the story in the on-line version of IGMS will also be included in the book, as will the graphic novel (fancy way of saying 'comic book') version of OSC's story, "Fat Farm." In addition to being a pleasure to read, it's going to be a gorgeous book to look at.

I feel like a kid on the 22nd of December: I can't wait for the big day to get here. Well, it's more like being a kid on the 22nd of August; it's going to be a little while before Santa brings us any goodies. We have to behave a little longer. I actually don't have the release date yet, but as soon as I do you can be sure I'll tell you about it here first.

ConCarolinas Report

Charlotte, NC - ConCarolinas is a nice, small con. The guest list was a little bit light, so I ended up doing a lot of panels (five in a row at one point on Saturday). Not that I minded: that's why I go to these things. To see people, to meet peple, to talk to people; fans and writers alike. Plus, one of my favorite people in the world, Alethea Kontis, was there too and we hung out all weekend, including staying up way to late Saturday night watching the Geek Comedy Tour (very funnny bunch of young comedians who performed from 10:30 until almost midnight), and then staying for the Rocky Horror Picture Show afterwards. It was well after 2 a.m. before we finally called it a night.

Alethea and I also hung out quite a bit with friend James Maxey. James is an immensely talented writer whose second novel, Bitterwood, is coming out from Solaris Books next month. It's a novel full of dragons, but with a great twist (which I decline to ruin for you here; you'll just have to buy the book when it comes out). Unfortunately James had another commitment Saturday evening, so he missed out on the late-night lunacy.

I also had the good fortune to sit on several panels with GOH Barbara Hambly, who is a gracious, knowledgeable writer and I learned a lot by just sitting next to her and listening. I also enjoyed meeting Robert Buettner, who was a Special Guest at the con. I have to confess that I was not familiar with his work before, but he was kind enough to give a copy of his award-winning military SF novel, Orphange. I promise all of you that I won't read it until I'm caught up again on the IGMS submissions, but it will go at the top of my pile for when I'm done.

One particulary fun thing about this con was the wedding they held. It was actually listed on the program as a panel; two people who met at last year's ConCarolina tied the knot at this years con. They were a slightly older couple, dressed up in Renaissance attire, and the whole thing was terribly sweet. Sadly, I was on a panel at the time (about interesting ways to destroy the world - it was the tail end of my marathon session), so I only got to see a little bit of the actual event. But what a fun concept.

There were lots of other folks there (apologies to everyone else whose name I didn't drop), and a good time was had by all.

I had to cancel my trip to Nashville TN for Hypericon (June 15 - 17) for personal reasons, so my next con won't be until TrinocCon in Raleigh, NC (Aug. 3 - 5). I can't speak for the rest of you, but this news makes my wife and children very happy.

IGMS's Tim Pratt One in A Million

The storySouth 2007 Million Writers Award for Fiction

As many of you know, storySouth (http://www.storysouth.com), presents a list each year of what it considers to be the best short stories published on-line. A handful of preliminary judges pick the Notable Stories of the Year, and then the senior editors pick what they consider to be the top ten stories of the year. I was pleased when four stories published in 2006 in InterGalactic Medicine Show were named to the list of Notable Stories, so you can imagine my thoughts when I learned that Tim Pratt’s “Dream Engine” (the cover story for issue three), was named one of the top ten.

The entire list is as follows (yes, I put Tim’s at the top where it belongs (not that I’m biased)):

•"Dream Engine" by Tim Pratt (Intergalactic Medicine Show)

•"A Letter from Home" by E. C. Osondu (Agni)

•"Spectral Evidence" by Gemma Files (ChiZine)

•"Urchins, While Swimming" by Catherynne M. Valente (Clarkesword Magazine)

•"13 Halloweens" by Michael K. White (The Deepening)

•"All the Way to Grangeville" by A. Ray Norsworthy (Eclectica Magazine)

•"Burning Bush" by E.P.Chiew (In Posse Review)

•"Vertically Divided, Blue-Red-White" by Mark MacNamara (Southern Gothic Online)

•"Spinning Out" by Jamie Barras (Strange Horizons)

•"The Infinite Monkey Theorem" by Marshall Moore (Word Riot)

You may now proceed directly to storySouth's website to vote for Tim's story...

http://www.storysouth.com/millionwriters/2007vote.html

ConCarolinas

I'm going to be in Chalotte NC this weekend for ConCarolinas. I won't be there Friday evening, but the organizers made up for it by booking me hard the rest of the con, especially Saturday. I've got:

Quick Write - 11 am

Getting Started As Writer - 12 noon (Magnolia Room)

Creating Believable Dialog - 1pm (Magnolia)

What Drives Editors Crazy - 2 pm (Magnolia)

How To Destroy The World - 3 pm (Azalea)

Sci -Fi Whose Line Is It Anyway - 5 pm (Main Salon)

The first three panels are all in the same room, so I'm going to stake my claim to a comfy chair and sit there for three hours. Alethea Kontis, dear girl, is going to be there too (we're even on the 2 pm panel together) and she has volunteered to bring me food during my marathon. And Sunday's schedule is much the same.

Publishing In All It's Forms - 11 am (Magnolia)

Sometime Shorter Is Better - 12 noon (Magnolia)

Writer's Roound Table - 1 pm (Main Salon)

etc. etc.

See what I mean about location of my panels? I own the Magnolia Room. All kiding aside, I'm sure it will be a fun weekend and I'm looking forward to it. GOH is Barbara Hambly. Stop by if you're in the neighborhood. I really do enjoy meeting and talking with fans (and writers) of SF and fantasy.

BaltiCon Report

BaltiCon is a four day convention, of which there are precious few that run quite so long. And now I remember why: four days is a lot of convention. I enjoyed myself, spent time with a lot of good folks, snuck out to a nearby theater and saw the third installment of Disney's "Pirates of the Caribbean" (a monumental waste of time and money; it made me wish I were watching "Waterworld"), attended some parties and book launches, but good God, I was burned out by time all was said and done. That's why I'm writing this entry today instead of yesterday. Yesterday I got my bike out and pedaled 26+ miles and wallowed in the solitude. I needed time to decompress.

I think my best panel was Friday night's "How To Hook an Editor," co-starring Diane Weinstein, former art director and assistant editor at Weird Tales, and Joshua Bilmes, literary agent and founder of Jabberwocky literary agency. The panel morhped from "How To Hook an Editor" to "The Cold Hard Truths About the Publishing Industry" and not a punch was pulled. I think the audience appreciated that. Afterward Joshua and I went out to dinner and talked everything from publishing industry stuff to baseball (did you know he's a Toronto Blue Jays fan?). It was a very enjoyable evening.

Saturday morning I didn't have anything scheduled so I visited family in the area, then attended some panels (apparently not very memorable ones because I can't recall what they were), then had dinner with author Jana Oliver (whose novel Sojourn was one of this year's nominees for the Compton Crook Award) and a friend of Jana's, author Jean Marie Ward. Jana is someone I'm crossing paths with a lot lately and I always enjoy whatever time I can spend with her.

Sunday was probably my most enjoyable day at the con, despite the fact that the con organizers double-booked me and I ended up missing a panel I was really looking forward to ("Sky Finances," a panel about the future of commercial ventures in space). In fairness the organizers did give me the option of choosing which one I wanted to sit in on, but given that there were six people scheduled for "Sky Finances" and only three scheduled for "WebSite Workshop for SF Professionals," I told the organziers I would go where ever they needed me and their choice was pretty obvious.

And that reminds me what I did on Saturday and why I blocked it out: I was on a panel called "Managing Your Freelance Career" - a panel that had seven participants show up, including one charming man who told us that since the panel had been his idea he went and insisted the organizers include him in the panel even though they had not originally scheduled him to be on it. The next time I get to a room with more than five program participants I will forever more politely bow out. Seven people - no matter how quaified they all may be - is too many for any single panel.

Back to Sunday, despite the double-booking it was still my favorite day, largely because of time I got to spend with friends from an on-line writer's group called Codex. I'm not an active member there, though I have been in the group since 2004. It's full of a lot of talented, up-and-coming writers and I always enjoy time I can spend with any of them. Six of us went to lunch together on Sunday - Ruth Nestvold (who has collaborated with Jay Lake on a number of stories, as well as writing tons of her own), Elaine Isaak, who had several fantasy novels out through Eos Books, Andrew Cudgel and Scott Roberts, both published in the 2005 edition of Writers of The Future, (Scott was also published in the first issue of InterGalactic Medicine Show (back in the good old days when it was edited by Uncle Orson)), and Lawrence Schoen, also widely published in the short story world and now a publisher himself, being the brains, financial brawn, and co-editor behind a short story collection called Prime Codex. Prime Codex is an assemblage of stories written by members of Codex, stories that were orignally published in magazines like Asimovs and IGMS to name a few. It's a good read if I do say so myself, and I'm not even in the book :-( Lawrence had a book launch party Sunday afternoon. I was a little late because I donated blood at the drive set up my members of the local Robert Heinlein Society, but the launch somehow managed to proceed fine until I got there ;-)

Monday I did a couple more panels, but as soon as the last one was over (and I did a quick interview with a podcaster who worked with the organizers of last month's RavenCon), I was in my car and firing up a book-on-tape to entertain me during my six hour drive. I was ready to go home. As I said before, it was a long con.

And I've got another one next weekend... *sigh*

BaltiCon 2007

I'll be leaving first thing Friday morning for BaltiCon. Looking forward to the con, if not the drive. Cons are always lots of fun. The seven-plus hour drive up? Not so much. I've got a bunch of books on tape to keep me company though, which should be good. In a previous life I had a job that periodically required lots of driving, so I listened to loads of books on tape.

My schedule of panels is a bit light, but that just leaves more time for socializing and the dealer's room right? I've got:

How To Hook an Editor - Friday 7 pm (Belmont Room)

Managing a Freelance Career - Saturday 4 pm (Salon E)

Sky Finances - Sunday 5 pm (Derby Room) (This one is about the future of the space program, including possible commercial ventures. Looking forward to this one...)

Tony Ruggiero's Quick Write - Monday 11 am (Garden Room)

Come Ask The Author About Writing - Monday 1 pm (Chase Room)

That's about all for now. I'll give you a detailed report when I get home.

Read and Riding

Reading and riding. I tried to think of something "math-y" I've done lately so I could be clever and call this entry "Reading, Riding, and 'Rithmetic" but no such luck. In a nutshell, reading and riding make up the bulk of what I've been doing lately. The reading part is of story submissions for IGMS. As I mentined last week, now that we finally (fingers crossed) have the last of the scheduling issues resolved, I'm reading like mad to get caught up on the last of the stories I've been holding. I've got about 50 or so left and should have this done in the next ten days to two weeks. So if you've been holding your breath for several years waiting on a reply, know that the end is near.

The other thing I've been doing a lot more of lately is cycling. In preparation for my planned 300+ mile bike tour of the Blue Ridge Parkway next month (from roughly Bedford VA to Asheville NC), I've been increasing the distance and duration of my bike rides. Usually I ride 11 - 13 miles each time out, 3 or 4 days a week. By cycling standards that's a pretty light workout. Two weeks ago I upped it to between 15 and 20 miles each trip and have been riding 4 or 5 days a week; and yesterday I did a total of about 35 miles (24 on the morning ride and then a quick 11 in the afternoon). Considering that the shortest leg of my Parkway ride is set for 45 miles (and some are considerably longer), I've go a ways to go before I'll feel like I'm ready. Still, it's progress, eh? The legs are kind of achy today, but that's all right: Sunday is a day of rest.

In other news, I got a cryptic e-mail from the publisher of NCCNM on Friday saying that future issues of NCCNM have been cancelled, but that she wanted me to call her so we could talk about something else she has in mind. She didn't say what, only that she had 'something' else. This was a surprise considering that we just met a few weeks ago to discuss the Fall and Winter issues. She even talked during that meeting about the possibility of taking the magazine from regional publication to national in 2008. I'm curious to find out what she has in mind, but I got her e-mail too late on Friday to call her, so it will have to wait until Monday.

Hatrack Forums Restored

Minor item, but it looks as if all the Hatrack-related forums are up and running again. If anyone has any problems with them, feel free to let us know.

IGMS Announcement

I’ve got an official announcement, then a few follow-up details:


“Beginning with Issue 5, InterGalactic Medicine Show will be published on a quarterly basis with a new issue coming every three months. There will be a new Ender’s world story as part of each issue, but that story won’t necessarily be released in conjunction with the issue. For example, OSC’s story “Gold Bug” which was slated to go in Issue 4 was co-opted by Marvel Comics to become a bonus story in their Wyrms graphic novel. Therefore, OSC now has to write a new story for Issue 4. “Gold Bug” will eventually be one of the IGMS stories.

However, please rest assured that your payment for Issue 4 does include an Ender’s world story, and it will be added to that issue as soon as it is written.

Additionally, in order to keep our commitment to quarterly issues, when the time comes to post each new issue, if the Ender story is not ready, we’ll go online without it and add it as soon as it’s available.”


Ultimately what this amounts to is two main things: 1) The obvious: The magazine will be released quarterly, whether Scott’s story is ready or not. I believe that in the long run this is what’s in the best interests of the magazine.

2) The less obvious: This will simplify the lives of the writers submitting to IGMS.

Here’s why. Though I’m current on reading 95% of the submissions, there are still a handful of folks who have been waiting a looong time for a reply. However, if you have not heard from me and your story was submitted more than 100 days ago, take heart: all that means is that I like your story and have been waiting to sort some of these publishing/scheduling matters out.

The reason for the delay is precisely because we were having trouble publishing issues on a regular basis. Previously Scott didn’t want to go forward with a new issue until his Ender story was published in the most recent issue. His first priority has to be the novels, screenplays, and other projects that produce income. IGMS pays professional rates to both the artists and authors whose works appear in each issue, as well as paying the regular columnists whose work appears for free. And right now most of that money is coming out of Scott’s pocket, so his paying work has to come first. Unfortunately that results in him not having time to write the Ender stories as punctually as he’d prefer. It’s quite the Catch-22 (at least as far as IGMS is concerned).

Getting back to my original point, I have been hesitant to buy too many stories because if I bought a year’s worth of stories based on a quarterly publishing schedule, but we continued publishing two issues a year instead of four (which has been the case thus far) – well…, I think the problem is obvious. Authors could be waiting as long as two to three years to see their stories published, and I didn’t want to do that to anyone. So I made, for better or worse, a conscious choice to sit on a few things for six months (until this issue was resolved), rather than risk making some folks wait several years.

Now the matter is resolved though. Our target date for publication of issue 5 is mid-June, a new issue will be published every three months after that, and I now know exactly how many stories I need and can proceed accordingly.

Please feel free to join me as I breathe a deep sigh of relief…

Million Writers Award (x 4)

Each and every year StorySouth (http://www.storysouth.com/) lists, by way of its Million Writers Award, what it considers the best short stories published on-line that year. I'm tickled to announce that InterGalactic Medicine Show had four stories honored thus for 2006. :

"In the Eyes of the Empress's Cat" by Brad Beaulieu from issue 2, and

"Dream Engine" by Tim Pratt,

"Small Magics" by Alethea Kontis, and

"The Box of Beautiful Things" by Brian Dolton from issue 3.

IGMS tied for the third most stories on the list (with Strange Horizons, Baen's Universe, and a few others). Congratulations to the authors of these fine stories, whose work is notable indeed.

To see the full list visit StorySouth at:

http://www.storysouth.com/millionwriters/2006notablestories.html

Hatrack Forums

What's going on with the recent inaccessibility of the Hatrack Website, and especially the forums? I've been asked that a bunch lately and finally have an answer. The short version is that someone, somehow, got into the Hatrack system and was using it to send copious amounts of spam, so the ISP that handles Hatrack's account shut them down.

OSC's web guru has been working seven days a week trying to remedy the situation and many of the key pages have been restored, but the forums (for technical reasons beyond my ken) remain problematic and it is possible that they may have to be rebuilt from scratch. Pray that that's not the case because if it comes to that then all of the old posts will be lost. I'll gladly continue to provide updates as I get new information myself, but at the moment that's what I can tell you.

You're A Real Writer If...

I had a glass of wine with dinner tonight and this list just started forming in me head...

You know you're a real writer if... you can answer 'yes' to at least 75% of these items:

1) One glass of wine is enough to start stupid ideas forming in your head that must be written down

2) You own a cat (minimum of one; maximum of three. A dog will do in a pinch. More than three animals of any kind and you're in a whole other category...)

3) Someone, most likely a 'friend,' has approached you and said, "I've got a great idea. I'll give you my idea, you write it, and we'll split the money."

5) Math is just not your thing

6) When you're supposed to be writing, laundry and vacuuming looks absolutely vital

7) When you're supposed to be doing laundry and vacuuming, writing is the most vital thing you can conceive of

8) When you are vacuuming and doing laundry, brilliant ideas flow like beer at frat house

9) When you're writing, brilliant ideas... uh, they uh...

8) Math is just not your thing

9) You have more rejections than you have rooms in your house/apartment

10) You could insulate at least one room of your house with books

11) (I can't think of one for #11, I have writers' block)

12) You've ever debated whether or not writers' block is 'real' or just in peoples' heads

Is speculative literature an endangered species?

After RavenCon I got Rob Sawyer's permission to reprint the post below. I'd be very interested to hear what other folks have to say about this issue, because I think it's an immensely important question to anyone who loves the genre.


Is speculative literature an endangered species?

By Rob Sawyer

I'm quoted in an article on that topic. Author Mike Collins quotes part of what I said in response to his email question; here's my full response:

I don't think there is a decline in reading per se; more people are reading more books than ever before -- all the stats show that. However, they're reading fewer different titles; everyone is looking for a sense of community in our fragmented world, and so wants to read the things that others are reading. There simply weren't runaway bestsellers like HARRY POTTER and THE DA VINCI CODE in an earlier era; those books shattered all previous sales records.

It's pointless to talk about the decline in reading "speculative" fiction, because there's no section in the bookstore labeled that -- and, after all, HARRY POTTER and THE DA VINCI CODE, along with Michael Crichton, Audrey Niffenegger, Neil Gaiman, and Christopher Paolini are all broadly "speculative," and they're all doing just fine, thank you very much.

What we're talking about is the decline of the commercial publishing category known as science fiction, and the fault for that, by and large, lies with the publishers and the authors. SF has become increasingly self-referential, smug, and inaccessible to newcomers. Without bringing new readers in, and keeping them, the field is being whittled away by natural attrition of its established readership base -- the trend is a straight line, down into the toilet, and it's going to be very, very hard to turn it around at this point.

(from Rob's blog: http://www.sfwriter.com/blog.htm)

RavenCon

A great con, RavenCon. Worth the trip to Richmond, VA and then some. Props to organizers Michael Pederson, Tony Ruggiero, and Tee Morris; the con's attendance increased by 50% over last year's event and I'm sure it's largely due to their top-notch work.

I also had the great fortune to have brunch Saturday morning with author GOH, Rob Sawyer. We talked about everything from IGMS, to his tenure as president of the SFWA, to the line of SF books he edits for a mid-sized Canadian publisher. It was a real treat to have him to myself for that long and I learned quite a lot. Later that evening I also got see first-hand the seriousness and professionalism with which he aproaches being GOH of at a con. When a larger group of us (including Rob) were making dinner plans, he insisted we eat in the hotel's restaraunt because he wanted to stay where the con was. Why? He wanted to be available for the people who attended. It's impossible not to respect that kind of dedication.

Rob's new novel, Rollback, was recently released and the first few chapters are available on his website (http://www.sfwriter.com/). Don't read the excerpt unless you're prepared to plunk down $25 for the hardback, because once you start reading, you'll have to own it.

Speaking of books, I also got a chance to see an Advance Review Copy of James Maxey's forthcoming novel, Bitterwood. Based on what I saw in the ARC and learned while talking to him, I'm really looking forward to its release in July of this year from Solaris Books. James' story "To Know All Things That Are In The Earth" appeared in issue three of IGMS and I think he's an incredibly talented writer.

Dennis Danvers was at RavenCon, too, and I got to hang out with him quite a bit. I met Dennis at CapClave last year and really enjoyed getting to know him better. At one point during the con we must have spent over half an hour discussing authors such as John Steinbeck and Milan Kundera. Not exactly standard fare at an SF con, but I enjoyed it immensely. One of the next novels I'll be reading is Dennis's The Watch, which he was kind enough to give me an autographed copy of.

And coming down from the DC area to RavenCon (for his first con ever) was Jamie Rubin. Jamie's story, "When I Kissed The Learned Astronomer", will appear in a future issue of IGMS. Though "Learned Astronomer" is Jamie's first published story, having met him myself I can say with confidence that it won't be his last; he's a sharp guy with a quick mind and a genuine love for the art of telling stories.

Speaking of telling stories, I could tell a bunch of stories about another author, David B. Coe (call him 'Dave' and he will punch your lights out). The only problem is that any "David stories" I could tell would also incriminate myself and we can't have that (can we?). Suffice to say that I don't recall ever having met another writer with whom I had so much in common or hit it off with so quickly. We had even more fun than we had alcohol, and the quantity of alcohol we consumed is another thing I'm not going to go into detail about. (I hear David had written a book or three, too...)(Actually between The LonTobyn Chronicle and Winds of the Forelands, I think he's up to nine of them (see: http://www.sff.net/people/davidbcoe/.))

I had a lot of fun working on a wokshop with with Allen Wold, Peter Prellwitz, and Mike Allen. Allen Wold has been running this particular workshop at SF cons for nearly twenty years now, where he give folks the basics of what makes an effective short story opening and then requires participants to write one - in ten minutes. It's actually very effective for getting the writing juices flowing and participants always comes up with something pretty good. I really believe that pressure is good for the creative process (up to a point). Once the story openings have been written, everyone takes turns reading theirs aloud and then the panelists give a brief critique. It's a real pleasure being able to help these (mostly) fledgling writers get pointed in the right direction.

I was also on a great panel with Kelly Lockhart, Stuart Jaffe and Tee Morris. The topic was the dangers of technology and it turned into one of those panels where two of us took one side and two took the other and we just went at it. But we went at it with a great blend of fervor and respect, which always makes for a fun, entertaining panel - both for the audience and the panelists. It was my last panel of the con and a great way to end things.

Next con: Balticon (May 25th - 28th).

Best of IGMS Vol. 1

I am excited to announce that Tor has agreed in principle to publish a Best of InterGalactic Medicine Show Vol. 1. The book will include stories from the first four issues of IGMS, including all four Ender stories by Orson Scott Card. (Yes, I know you're all still waiting for the Ender story to go into issue four, but I promise he's working on it. An announcement about that will be made shortly.)

Details regarding the timeframe of the book and the stories to be included will be released as they are finalized with Tor.

Good Night, Mr. Vonnegut

I'm sure it's no longer news to anyone that Kurt Vonnegut recently passed away. Someone recently pointed out a little gift that he left to writer's and would-be writers of the world:

Vonnegut's Eight Rules of Writing Fiction, from Bagombo Snuff Box: Uncollected Short Fiction (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons 1999), p. 9-10:

1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.

2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.

3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.

4. Every sentence must do one of two things -- reveal character or advance the action.

5. Start as close to the end as possible.

6. Be a sadist. Now matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them -- in order that the reader may see what they are made of.

7. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.

8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.

Toasted

I recently joined Toastmasters, an inernational organization designed to help people improve their public-speaking skills. I mention the public speaking part right away because when I told a woman the other day that I had joined Toastmasters, she immediately started talking about an old episode of the TV show 'Frasier' and how Frasier and his brother Niles had joined a wine-tasting club and were vying to become 'toastmaster' of their club and the usual wacky highjinx ensued. So let me say up front that this is not a wine tasting club (I save my wine drinking for when I'm reading IGMS story submssions ;-) )

Okay, get back to the point, Edmund...

There was a point?

Yes, now get on with it.

Right.

Okay, so I joined Toastmasters. My role as editor of these two magazines has me in front of more and more people, and it seems to be happeneing more and more often. And while I'm not shy (no one will ever accuse me of that), I do find that it's one thing to be on a panel with other speakers or to speak with small groups, but it's quite another thing to be up in front of larger groups, delivering a prepared speech. That, frankly, is scary stuff. Scary stuff that I am now doing. And Toastmaster is, as I already mentioned, designed to help people be better at it. I gave my first prepared speech a few weeks ago (a four to six minute introduction to me, and I'll confess my hands were pretty clammy by time I was done). It wasn't much fun.

I'm looking forward to today though.

Today I am going to be Table Topics Master, which means I come up with a series of items of questions for people to talk about, and they have no idea what those topics are until I tell them. It's an exercise in thinking - and talking - on your feet, and my theme is 'moral dilemmas.' One of my 'dilemmas' (formed, I'm sure, in all that Polar reading I've been doing) is to designate someone the leader of a expedition to the North Pole that has gone terribly wrong. Half the party is dead from hypothermia and starvation is imminent. The only option for survival? Cannibalism. As leader of what's left of the expedition, what do you do? What do you tell your people?

God, I'm looking forward to this.

I wonder if they'll ever let me be able Topics Master again?

(BTW, what would you do?)

Chilling Writing

You probably know that I'm on a Polar kick right now, and I have a passage from the current book (Ninety Degrees North) that I wanted to share with you for a variety of reasons.

Here's the set-up: It's 1899 and an Italian Duke decides his country needs to throw its proverbial 'hat' into the Arctic ring, so he outfitts a massive expedition. Establishing a base in the Franz Josef achipelago, the Duke then sends a crew North, led by his second-in-command, Umberto Cagni.

On the way back from their new, record farthest-North of 86 34' (about 250 miles from the Pole) Cagni's health begins to fail, including frostbite in one finger, which is swollen to nearly the thickness of his wrist and black with gangrene. Trapped in their tent for two days because of a bad storm, Cagni decides it's time to attend to the finger. He wrote:

"I clear away all the black part with a lancet, which I hold in my left hand. As soon as I introduce the point of the blade into the flesh, an incredible quanitity of [liquid] matter issues forth, which gives me great relief. I strip away the covering of dead flesh, and there remains sticking out of the wound a piece of bone which has all the appearance of being dead. When I press the end, I feel a great pain in my whole arm. I realize that if I leave this useless projection, the smallest blow will cause me intense suffering and I therefore set about cutting it off. But I have only scissors and the little bone is very hard, so I suffer a great deal while taking the piece off. Over this little operation, which a doctor would have performed in three minutes, I spend fully two hours..."

Cagni allowed himself no time for recuperation and when the storm broke the next day they travelled another 18 miles on foot, his whole arm aching teribly. He did not, however, mention his discomfort to anyone because, as he wrote, 'it seems that yesterday's operation rather upset my comrades.'

Now, my first reaction to that was mixed. The first and obvious reaction was uugh, he cut off his own finger. That thought was immediately followed by a period of wondering if there were people left in this world who could even contemplate doing such a thing, much less travel so far afterwards.

At that point I remembered a story that was in the news not too long ago about a rock climber who cut off his entire hand with a pocket knife after a boulder fell on it, trapping him. So the answer was a resounding Yes, there are still people today who do these things and thank God I haven't had to find out whether or not I'm one of them.

After a little while though, I came to another realization. This section from the journal of a long-dead Italian is a perfect example of the kind of writing that I think is most powerful. It's not full of flowery or lengthy descriptions; it's not stylized to any degree; and it doesn't try too hard. If anything, its understatement is where much of its power comes from. It is a simple and direct presentation that is about the content, not the 'style'. And good Lord, is it powerful! I don't know about you, but I felt that passage in my gut.

If you want to know the kind of writing that gets me, look no further than Umberto Cagni, Italian Polar explorer...