Without Really Trying

Hockey and politics

2008-12-04T01:05:46Z

OMG, the evening news is teaching Canadians about a parliamentary system using a hockey analogy. The reporter is standing in a hockey rink. My faith in Canada has been restored.

The political debacle in Canada

2008-12-04T00:44:44Z

As a Canadian writer, I feel compelled to talk about the political problems we’re experiencing up here.

First of all, Stephane Dion is my boy. I’ve been impressed with him ever since his letters to Bourassa protesting Quebec separatism. Quite frankly, his well thought-out, cogent arguments again separatism made Bourassa and his cronies look like dundering idiots.

I’m not sure that anyone can deny that he’s one of the brightest politicians to hit the hill in quite some time. However, the public doesn’t generally care how smart you are if your accent is so thick that it’s difficult to get your point across. And that, I think has been the main issue that has dogged Mr. Dion in his tenure as leader of the Liberal part. Anglophones, especially in the West, just don’t understand him. I still like Mr. Dion, but I feel like he’s unelectable because of this.

Which makes this end run around democracy extremely unpalatable for me. Mr. Dion wants to form a grand coalition between every political party in parliament except for the Conservatives, who are now in power. This includes the Bloc Quebecois, who are both a party whose sole goal is dividing the country, and also the very same people Mr. Dion argued so hard to squash early in his career.

What has triggered this coalition? Mr. Harper’s brisk method of governance probably played a big part. Every vote in parliament was a “confidence issue”, which meant triggering a national election if the Conservative motion was defeated. He also rammed legislation through without little or no consulation with the other parties. In effect, he was a bully. However, it’s difficult not to see some sour grapes on the part of Mr. Dion. Since he vowed to step down from the leadership of the Liberal party in May, he would be only the second leader of that party in history not to go on to lead the country.

He claims that Harper is not responding strongly enough to the economic crisis. It seems to me that he’s playing on the fact that many Canadians believe that what happens in the States also happens here. There’s a tide of negativity in the media, but in reality the Canadian banking system is currently the strongest and best positioned in the G20. We’re not even in recession yet. In fact, our national debt is actually going down, not up.

Now the Liberals have had a rough time of it. They’re dividing the vote on the political left with the NDP, while the Conservatives have the right pretty much to themselves. However, while the Bloc is in parliament chewing up 50 seats, the odds of a majority government happening any time soon are slim. We need to figure out how to work a minority government because they’re here to stay. This kind of squabbling is poison to our democracy and feels like ignoring the will of the people who voted the Conservatives into power.

I’m disappointed in Mr. Dion, and embarassed as a Canadian.

How are you guys feeling about it?

Typing Speed Vs Words Per Hour

2008-11-27T01:49:51Z

Just a quick note. I took a typing test last night, and it turns out that I can type 70 words a minute. This is when I’m just tearing along, no thought, just typing relatively simple words from the screen.

That makes my theoretical words per hour a MAXIMUM of 4200. Divide by about half, since I write fantasy and sci-fi and therefore have to type names like Norstrilia and Tk’tk’tk and my theoretical maximum is 2100 words. Right now, I’m at about 800 words an hour of first draft. Obviously, there’s room for growth.

So what’s your theoretical maximum vs actual output?

More Thoughts on Blogging for New Writers

2008-11-22T20:16:01Z

It seems that my re-introduction to blogging post is generating quite the discussion.

In that post, I basically said that it was a waste of time for new writers to keep a blog, and that they should focus on writing fiction instead. Since I’ve stirred up a little controversy, I’d like to elaborate:

Writers are basically small business owners with a product to sell: their words. A blog should really be a sales tool, and I think even beginning writers acknowledge this when they say they blog to “get their name out there”. However, if you’re writing short fiction (or have written an unpublished novel), you are not selling to the public (the people who will be reading your blog), you are selling to editors (who very likely do not read your blog). In any case, a cleverly written blog post will not make them accept a poorly written story. Therefore, writing a great story will sell your work more than writing a better blog. QED.

However, if you DO have a product to sell to the public, as Robert Swartwood pointed out in the comments, now it makes sense to keep a blog. The target audiences are the same. People might read your blog, like your writing, and go out and buy your book. This has been demonstrated time and again by John Scalzi, Cory Doctorow, and Charles Stross (of course, it helps that they all wrote terrific books).

So, from a business point of view, new authors should not write blogs and newly-published authors with novels to sell should.

From a personal point of view, as Deven Atkinson and Suanne Warr mentioned in the comments, if you like keeping a diary, by all means put it on the net. Just be honest with yourself about how much it will really impact your career.

It worked!

2008-11-22T03:14:21Z

This blog will now post entries automatically to my Live Journal feed.

I’ve been annoyed for quite some time that I had to have an LJ account to post to any blog on live Journal. If people followed my link, they came to a dead LJ page instead of to Wordpress. I’m happy to say that’s no longer a problem.

Head on over to http://jlapp.livejournal.com/ if you’d like to see the result of a cross post. Worth checking out.

Feelin’ Bluesy

2008-11-21T05:59:39Z

One of my favorite bands when I was growing up was Alice In Chains. Though the primary songwriter was always guitarist Jerry Cantrell, the lead singer, Layne Staley, was the true force behind the band, especially in its later years.

Layne sang a lot about drug addiction, which was natural for a lifelong heroine addict. What was different about Layne was that he never fooled himself. He knew he was dying and there was nothing he could do about it.

This was a man who knew suffering like no one else, and he channeled it into his music. You could listen to him and think, “You know, no matter how bad I have it, that guy has it worse.”

Near the end of his life, he reconnected with his high school sweetheart and he got her addicted to smack. They used to do everything together, and I mean everything. One day she caught an infection from a dirty needle. The infection traveled to her heart, and she died.

After that, Layne basically surrendered to his addiction. He retreated to his apartment and saw no one but his dealer. By the time he sang this song, he was wearing long gloves (which I believe you can spot in the video) to hide the fact that his arms were rotting from the needles. He died April 19, 2002–eight years to the day after Kurt Cobain.

If you’re looking for more information about the life of Layne’s Staley, and I recommend it, you can find it on the radio show (streaming) the Ongoing History of New Rock hosted by Alan Rock. The episode is called “The Rise and Fall of Alice in Chains” on page 17.

The video below is Layne channeling his life. Pure and simple.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Rejection from Clarkesworld

2008-11-20T01:55:54Z

So, I subbed a piece to Clarkesworld and get a rejection in four hours flat.

Four hours.

That is a huge plus in their favour. Less of a plus is that they no longer do personal rejections, which were a definite highlight for me. I was getting really encouraging feedback from former editor Nick Mamatas, and I was sure this piece would suit his style. Of course, he has since moved on, and now I’ve got to go back to the drawing board to see what kind of fiction they’d like to publish.

Jim Baen’s Universe will probably be my new first market to sub to (because of the personalize comments at the Bar), but Clarkesworld will remain high on the list, not the least of which because I’ve had several conversations with Publisher Neil Clarke and the man is a class act.

In any case, I will leave you with a short poem posted by Brian K Lowe on the Codex forums. He couldn’t remember the original author, so step forward if it’s you, and I’ll attribute it.

There once was an editor named Bright,
Who read slush much faster than light.
He judged stories all day
In a relative way,
And returned them the previous night.

Reboot! (edited)

2008-11-22T21:16:28Z

Alright. Welcome to the blog (again).

EDIT: As you can tell, I’ve managed to recover the old content of the blog (minus the pictures). Thank goodness for multiple backups!

~~I had to move servers, and predictably, I downloaded all the files from my server, but forgot to backup the database. So, we’re starting fresh.~~

One of the reasons that I stopped blogging is that I’m not convinced that beginning author should keep a blog. Frankly, it seems like if you’re going to be writing, you should be writing fiction, i.e. work that will be increasing your reputation. Writers may point to prolific bloggers like John Scalzi or Diablo Cody who have been discovered through their blogs, but not only does the exception NOT prove the rule, but these bloggers also had other “hooks” to draw people to their blogs. Scalzi was a pro-blogger for AOL in the stone age when no one was blogging, and Diablo Cody was a stripper and that’s what her blog was about.

Unless you have a “hook”, it’s better off, in my opinion, not to join the teeming millions on Live Journal, or Wordpress, or Blogger–writers whose blogs have one or two readers, and generally poor content. People just aren’t interested in reading about the local coffee hut. If you are currently one of these writers, be honest with yourself. How is this helping your writing career. No cheats now, nothing ephemeral like, “It’s getting my name out there”. List concrete things that your blog will do for you. If you can’t, take the time you used to use for blogging, and use it to write more fiction.

So, why am I blogging now? I have a hook.

I recently won first place in Writers of the Future. Much of this blog will be devoted to my participation in that contest and my thoughts on winning it. If you’re not familiar with Writers of the Future, I’ll cover the contest in a later post. For now, I’ll simply direct you to the website of award-winning writer David D Levine, whose Writers of the Future page is one of the best resources on the contest that I’ve seen.

Right now, I’m a writer at the cusp of going pro. Hopefully, I can share with you, my gentle readers, how I plan to take my next steps into the markets.

EDIT: This topic was generating quite the discussion, so I’ve elaborated on my thoughts on blogging for new writers here.

Return of the Sword released

2008-04-23T07:03:59Z

Just a note to say that the Return of the Sword anthology from CyberWizard Productions has been released. In my capacity as Managing Editor at Every Day Fiction, I’ve run across the fiction of many of these authors before, and even shared a ToC with Angeline Hawkes in Sails & Sorcery.If you’re a fan of Sword & Sorcery, this antho includes some of the top writers in the field. If you’re interested in a sample of the quality of their writing, you can read their stories at EDF (whenever possible, I’ve tried to link each to a S&S piece that they’ve published at EDF). This is their blurb:

Return of the Sword is a brand new anthology of blood-pounding, spine-tingling stories by some of fantasy’s most critically acclaimed Sword and Sorcery authors.

Stacey Berg, Bill Ward, Phil Emery, Jeff Draper, Nicholas Ian Hawkins, David Pitchford, Ty Johnston, Jeff Stewart, Angeline Hawkes, Robert Rhodes, E.E. Knight, James Enge, Michael Ehart, Thomas M. MacKay, Christopher Heath, Nathan Meyer, S.C. Bryce, Allen B. Lloyd, William Clunie, Steve Goble, Bruce Durham, and Harold Lamb present you with enough fast paced adventure to keep you reading for hours.

A hand painted, wrap around cover by fantasy artist Johnney Perkins ensures that Return of the Sword will not only be enjoyable to read, but also look good on your coffee table or bookshelf.

Too long have the halls of fantasy been dominated by packs of weak-kneed elves hunting goblins and doughty dwarves mining for gold. Return now to the days of true adventure. Unsheath your sword and enter if you dare!

For purchase info click here:

Ooooh. Another secret project is in the works….

2008-01-19T02:17:34Z

I’m so devious… stay tuned.