March, in a nutshell

Submitted Part 2 of "Brand Loyalty" to the SacSpecFic group for critique. They continue to enjoy the story even though this was a pure first draft, and think it has a lot of potential once I clean it up and handle a couple character issues that will be hard to pull off.

March 31 is the WOTF Q2 2007 deadline. I was going to revise and submit "This Moment" but after folks at Potlatch told me I should go for Asimov's first, I was challenged to write an entirely new story and make it as good as I could before March 31.

I decided to tackle "This Is Your Life, Version 2.0", which is another side of the technology used in "This Moment". I managed to pull off a first draft and a quick revision (6500 words, more than I expected) and shipped it off today to WOTF. It's okay, not as good as "This Moment" (in my opinion) so I have no expectations for it in WOTF.

I'll also submit "This Is Your Life" to SacSpecFic for the April meeting and see what they have to say.

Next up is a revision of "This Moment", which I'm going to try to get gone within the first week of April. Mary Rosenblum offered to do another read of it and I just might take her up on it. After that, "This Moment" goes to Asimov's and I sit and wait, nervously.

I'm at Norwescon (http://www.norwescon.org) from April 5 through April 8. While there, I'll have a workshop session with three pros: Ted Butler (http://www.sff.net/people/ted-butler/), Deborah Layne (http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?Deborah_Layne), and G. David Nordley (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G._David_Nordley). The story I submitted was "The Case of the Killer Dog" and I'll be interested to hear what they have to say about it.

I also signed up for the "Flash Fiction Workshop" being run by Mary Rosenblum. I believe we'll be writing a 1500 word story during a 2-hour session! This should definitely be interesting - I actually have an idea I think works in the flash style, I'll see if I can leave it alone until then.

After Norwescon and "This Moment", I think I'll start on "The Fishing Trip" and I'm really looking forward to working on it. I'm hoping it'll be an interesting and different story for me.

Also during April, I need to preparing applications for the Orson Scott Card Bootcamp and Viable Paradise workshops. I'd like to attend one of them and if allowed to choose, I think I'd choose Viable Paradise even though I've been told that Bootcamp is really really good.

And that's March, with a look towards April. I have the feeling things are on the edge of becoming very interesting. It's just going to be a matter of keeping on working at it and trying to get better every time I put fingers to keyboard.

Potlatch 2007 Report, Part 3 (the Con)

Once the Writing Workshop and critiques were over, I was able to relax and enjoy the rest of the con.

On Saturday, I went to three sessions, the auction, and the reading. On Sunday, I went to the brunch.

The three sessions were on "Ethics and Science Fiction", "Environmental Catastrophes" and "Humor".

Ethics was a very interesting session which talked about the ethics that both writers and readers might consider with respect to stories. For a writer, one of the big questions could be "why are you telling this story" with respect to what you want readers to take away from the story. I know that's something I regularly think about when writing, so it was really interesting to hear the discussion.

Environmental Catastrophes sounded intriguing, I expected it to be a discussion of "what happens after the lights go out?" in stories. It might have started that way, but morphed into how farming corporations are doing all sorts of awful things to the environment and how you can live a greener lifestyle. It was still interesting, and there was much food for thought with respect to stories and how to live your life, but it definitely wasn't what I expected.

Humor was a lot of fun, as would be expected, and the panel made sure to crack jokes at every opportunity. They still had a very good discussion, especially about how humor often arises from "having a completely absurd world, and taking it very seriously" or "having a completely serious world, and taking it absurdly." They also talked about how something is humorous because it's unexpected, so you have to watch your "set-ups" for anything that you want to be humorous. In fact, maybe you shouldn't try to set it up at all!

After a dinner break, where I went to McMenamins with some friends who live in Portland, I returned for the auction. The auction was a blast, with lots of interesting items and Eileen Gunn (http://www.eileengunn.com/) as the host. She was hilarious and really ripped it up! They made good money for the cause, I can't remember if it was Clarion, Tiptree or both, but either ways it was an excellent cause.

The reading was "Bad Medicine" by Robert Sheckley (http://www.scifi.com/scifiction/classics/classics_archive/sheckley2/sheckley21.html). It was a good performance of a fun story, but I was getting tired (I'd been up since 4 AM) and started drifting off. After that, I crashed.

Sunday morning was the brunch, which was very tasty. I sat with some fans from California and Oregon and we talked about past Potlatch conventions and why they liked coming to Potlatch.

After brunch, I went to go visit another who now lives in Portland with her family, headed back to the airport and went back home.

Overall, Potlatch was great, both the workshop and the con. I'm sure I'll be attending more Potlatchs in the future and would highly recommend it to anyone who loves the literary side of speculative fiction and likes talking about books and stories and the issues they raise.

Potlatch 2007 Report, Part 2 (Workshop, Plus)

My Writing Workshop session was me, one other novice (Ulrika O'Brien) and two pros, Jay Lake (http://www.jlake.com) and L. Timmel Duchamp (http://ltimmel.home.mindspring.com/). I was having the story "This Moment, and the Times Before" critiqued.

Once I'd finally arrived at the Writing Workshop the pros had already critiqued Ulrika's story so I sat down, gathered myself after my crazy morning, and went into my critique of her story.

After that, it was my turn. Ulrika went first, then Jay, then Timmy (as L Timmel Duchamp preferred to be called). All three made some excellent points about the story, especially with respect to my use of first person present tense (which didn't work for anyone). They also gave some good input about making sure the secondary characters were real, some issues with the technology of the story, and some input into the plot and setting.

Jay mentioned that my story at first felt like the SF classic "Light of Other Days" by Bob Shaw, but went in a different direction. I didn't remember the story until he mentioned the concept of "slow glass" and then it clicked that I had actually read the story a few weeks before (in the excellent book "Science Fiction 101" by Robert Silverberg).

I got a lot out of the session and at the end we had a great discussion about some themes and issues in the story (like use of different tenses), and about the role and responsibility of a writer with respect to using what he/she sees and observes and experiences when telling a story. The folks were positive about the story and that, as always, felt very good! Jay even suggested sending it to Eric Bain at Bain's Universe and saying "Tell him I told you to send it" (!)

After the workshop I had a critique from Mary Rosenblum, who was coordinating the workshops. When the workshop writers were first listed, I looked them all up and read some of their work and I realized that I was doing work very similar to Mary's in style and sensibilities. I asked her if she'd consent to a critique and she very kindly agreed.

She was also very positive about the story, had some specific points that she would like to see improved, but said that once I revise I should send it to Sheila Williams at Asimov's and I'd have a decent chance of selling it (!)

Overall, it was a great experience with the critiques. It fulfilled my expectations and even surpassed them. I feel like I learned a lot from the sessions and that my work might even have taken a step up. I'll have to see how much I can keep working away at getting better but I think Potlatch was a tremendous help and well worth the trip!

Potlatch 2007 Report, Part 1 (Getting There)

Potlatch 2007 in Portland was excellent, once I got there.

"Once I got there"? Here's the story. I'm on a 6:30 AM flight from Sacramento to Portland, which gives me plenty of time to take public transportation to the hotel. It's just a MAX Line (Light Rail) ride away.

I walk into the airport and go to the Alaska kiosk to check in. It won't take my reservation number. I try my last name, that doesn't work. That's odd, I think, must be a problem with the kiosks. I look at the flight listing board and see that it says my 6:30 AM flight to Portland is ON TIME. While I'm watching the board, the flight status changes to CANCELLED.

Oh, crap. I get in line and while in line, call Southwest and ask "Do you have anything going from Sacramento to Portland now?" They have an 8:30 flight, so I get a reservation.

At the Alaska desk, the Alaska rep says "We had a mechanical problem, but we can put you on the flight through Seattle which leaves at 7:00 AM and arrives in Portland at noon." My writing workshop session at Potlatch is from 10-12, so that won't work. I ask about putting me on the Southwest flight and he says "let me see what I can do" and goes to talk to the manager.

Thankfully, they will pay for my Southwest flight. I get a voucher from the rep. All around me, people are virtually screaming at the Alaska people about the delay and the Alaska reps are totally stressed out. Not a job you want.

I dash over to Southwest (in the other terminal), check in and go get breakfast. I get online (thank goodness Sacramento now has free wireless Internet) and send email to all the emails I can find associated with Potlatch and the writing workshop saying "flight cancelled, arriving Portland at 10AM, will get there ASAP."

Everything else goes smooth, I hit PDX at 10AM, jump on the MAX light rail, jump off at the stop, find the hotel, dash upstairs to the hospitality suite, find out where writing workshop is, dash into the room and arrive at 10:45 AM. Pretty good, all things considered.

(Workshop experience in Part 2 of Potlatch post.)