Author: Karen

Last night I watched the last episode of series three of Medium. Like any good series, they finished the story but they left a whole lot of plot lines unresolved. I wanted to know what would happen and was interested enough to go to the official NBC Medium site to see what plans they had. All I wanted was a quick ‘yes, there is more information’ or ‘no, there’s not’. But the bulk of the site is videos and the written information is pretty extraneous. I didn’t want to sit around all day watching videos in the hope that I might learn what I needed to know.

Then, this afternoon I read a thought-provoking article by Jim Huang, co-owner The Mystery Company bookstore, reflecting on 20 years in bookselling and how he views the publishing industry today. Jim was talking about mysteries, but everything he says could equally apply to science fiction and fantasy—with the one exception that at least SFF does number their series books, or at least until the series gets so big that the numbers are embarrassing.

I think Jim’s article is spot on, if a little depressing. I wrote recently about the future of books, and whether or not they will exist in the future and if so, in what form. I think we are on the cusp of some form of change, although I have no idea what, yet.

Some of that change has to be in the direction the NBC Medium site has gone. Less written word altogether, more videos and other media. You can see it on blogs, for example, which used to be written words. Then pictures appeared. Now a lot more video and audio is popping up.

I’d like to think that some of that change will be books, still printed (or ebooks), print on demand.

Change is inevitable. Change is often good. Let’s hope some of that change in the bookselling industry translates to a better distribution of mid-list books, and more money for mid-list authors, so they can make a real living out of it. Because although I love a good movie, nothing beats sitting down with a good book.

Memory colours your perception of what you read, so that what you remember is often better than that the original. Over time you forget all the bad bits and all you remember are the good bits.

This often happens with books you read at defining moments in your life.

As a teenager I devoured all the science fiction I could. Science fiction was big back then, fantasy considerably less so. One of the stories embedded indelibly in my memory is Robert Heinlein’s Orphans of the Sky, the story of a generational starship on which there was a mutiny some time in the past. Most of the current inhabitants have no idea of the original mission, no idea that their world is a starship and no idea that they have already arrived (almost) at their destination.

It was a brilliant idea back then and it still is now, and I remembered it as such.

I re-read the book last year and hated it.

It was so … ordinary is the only word I can think of, and the way Heinlein wrote about women they may as well have been pieces of furniture (except, of course, that you couldn’t have the Adam and Eve thing going without the girl).

Yet that doesn’t detract from the fact that it was a brilliant idea at the time. Just because Heinlein’s books (or that one, anyway) don’t stand the test of time does not mean that he is not one of the early masters of science fiction, and had a big hand in shaping it.

Another writer recognised as one of the masters of science fiction and fantasy is Fritz Leiber. Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser come highly recommended. I recently picked up the First Book of Lankhmar, an omnibus of their adventures and I’m really struggling to read it. I doubt I will finish it. Yet for many people this is one of the great fantasy series.

I think of it as the ‘Beatles effect’. To most people who were teenagers in the 1960s the Beatles were a super group. They were around at a time of major change, and impacted a whole generation. Yet to others who did not come of age through that era, it’s, “The Beatles. Right. They had some good songs, yeah, but so what.” That doesn’t denigrate what the Beatles did, or how they changed music, but that is not relevant to the listeners of today.

In today’s music world the Beatles might well find it difficult to sell music today.

Leiber and Heinlein would almost certainly not be published.

Victoria Strauss, talking about a recent fake submission hoax of Jane Austen writings says:

Popular tastes and interests shift, often very quickly, as does literary style. Yes, people still eagerly read Jane Austen–her books outsell many popular present-day authors–but they do so in context, as classic literature. It’s hardly a wonder that a 19th century novel, written in 19th century prose, couldn’t find a home when presented as a new novel by a previously-unpublished modern writer.

Whoops — they did it again, Victoria Strauss on Writer Beware.

One of my favourite all-time literary characters is Robin Hobb’s Fool, from her Tawny Man series (and the Farseer books, and he also makes an appearance in Liveship Traders). And yet, I nearly didn’t read the first book.

I had not read the Farseer (Assassin) books at the time. I got Fool’s Errand out of the library on one of those sweeps that I do when I am looking for something—anything—to read. Pick up a book; yes, it’s a fantasy; no, I haven’t read it; yes, it’s standalone or the first in a series. I read the first few pages, thought, “Ho hum, just another introspective story about some guy who has powers. Boring,” and put it down again.

Sherylyn is more forgiving with books. She picked it up too and actually read far enough into the book to meet the Fool.

“You have to read the Fool,” she said, and I trusted her taste to read enough of the story to become interested.

So after she finished the book I picked it up again, skimming the first bit until Fool came into it, and I read it avidly from there.

I have read these three books probably a dozen times since (and I read the start now, too). They rate highly in my all-time list of favourite novels.

What makes these books so good? The relationship between the two main characters, Fitz and the Fool. And not just these two, but every other major character in the book is fantastic. There are lots of characters to love—not too many to hate, and I like that in a book —really decent, well-rounded characters with a lot of depth.

It helps that there’s an interesting plot behind this, not to mention a well-crafted world, but it’s still the characters that drag me in. It’s the characters that pull me back to the story time and time again.

And to think that I nearly didn’t read the novels to begin with.

Earlier this year Howard V. Hendrix, the then vice president of SFWA, created quite a storm when he wrote that he was

… opposed to the increasing presence in our organization of webscabs, who post their creations on the net for free.

Howard Hendrix, posted on Will Shetterley’s Live Journal, 12 April 2007

Now I’m not going to talk about whether I agree with him or not. GalleyCat, over at mediabistro.com covered it pretty well for me. What I do want to talk about is where we find new authors, because I find a lot of mine on the web, at those very same sites of those people Hendrix calls webscabs.

When I was younger I discovered new authors through the pulp magazines—Asimov, Astounding, The Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy. I discovered Connie Willis through FireWatch, A Letter From the Clearys and The Last of the Winnebagos. I discovered Vernor Vinge through a novelisation of Marooned in Real Time in Analog. I could go on and on.

If I found a good writer in the magazines I would buy their novels without even worrying about whether the book was any good or not. I was seldom disappointed.

Some of the magazines have disappeared, some have stayed (even if not in the same format), and new magazines—particularly the ezines —seem to come and go. Even so, I don’t read them any more.

I used to buy books on spec, too. I would go into the specialty science fiction/fantasy bookstores and just browse. I’d pick up anything that took my fancy, or that the bookseller recommended. Those old stores have gone now, forced out of business or online by the high cost of shopfront premises.

I go into the big chains like Borders—the only local bookstores left now—and there is nothing I want to read.

So where do I find new authors now?

The truth is, I don’t find as many as I used to. Of the new books I do find half come from personal recommendations of friends, or from a scoop-through at the library. (I’m sure you’ve done it. Go to the shelves and pick five books at random, or five whose covers you like, or five authors whose names begin with ‘C’. Take them home and you may get one book you like.)

The rest of them come from the web. I find an author whose blog I like, or someone who has posted a sample chapter or three on line. It draws me in, and I’ll go search out the book.

I think this is probably the way of the future.

Just because stereotypes exist in real life doesn’t mean you can put them into your novel.

The street is full of men in classy suits today. Black or dark charcoal is in. Not a navy suit among them.

The men wearing them are cocky, confident and loud. The single women—there is only ever one woman in each group, and they all wear smart black pant suits—never get a word in.

Some of the conversation I overhear is egotistical. Boasts about how they will exceed their targets, boasts about what they will do in the future.

They turn out to be real estate agents, here for training.

Of course they are, I realise. They behave exactly the way you would expect a group of real estate agents to act.

They were one big stereotype.

Had I written about them in a novel, of course, I would have to change many of the characteristics. Otherwise I would have been told to cut the stereotypes.

Warning: Minor spoiler alerts for Renegade’s Magic.

I just finished reading Renegade’s Magic, Robin Hobb’s third book in the Soldier Son series, I enjoyed it so much that I read it in one sitting. It’s a big book, it took all day and I hardly moved from the couch. I’m stiff now.

As I got into the story I couldn’t thinking, “Two people in one body. Oh, I wish I had thought of this idea first.”

Holly Lisle wrote that when she reads something wonderful, her reactions vary from …

“… huge envious green goose bumps, because I know there’s no way in hell I could have ever written that book or story … sometimes I am moved to unenvious rapture —I love what I’ve read, but I have no desire to emulate it …[and] sometimes I am filled with passion and wicked larceny—what I read thrills me and catches at my gut and at my imagination and I just have to steal some part of it for myself ”

Holly Lisle, How to (legally and ethically) steal ideas

While I doubt that we will ever write a story about two people in the same body—especially after this blog—Holly Lisle gives some good pointers on How to (legally and ethically) steal ideas. The key is to take the germ of the idea that really grabs you, just the germ, nothing else, and to change everything else so that it’s really unrecognisable.

And that’s fine by me. Most of Renegade’s Magic brings out in me the ‘unenvious rapture’ of loving the story, but I don’t want to emulate it. Sometimes, while I am reading I think, “How on earth can Robin Hobb think up ideas like that? Look what she’s doing to poor Nevare now. How can she take the story in that direction and still make it work?” I cannot even imagine doing it myself.

No. If we came up with a two people in one mind story I doubt it would even be a fantasy. It would be science fiction. (See how my mind is ticking over with possibilities, even though my head is saying no, we’ll never do it.)

Our two definitely wouldn’t be a mage asundered, nor would they be two parts of the same person. No, our shared body story would have two distinct individuals, somehow thrust together into one container. The only things they would have in common with Hobb’s book would be the two minds in one body, and the fact that neither of them really liked it.

It’s what Holly Lisle calls ‘ethical thievery’.

Some writers are organised. They create an outline and write their novel from that. While the story may deviate a little it is basically in place before they start.

Others just start writing, and end up with this big, overblown mess that’s full of holes. They have to chop and tweak and move things around and add extra bits.

We’re one of the messy ones.

As a result, we probably write three times as much as we need to (not all in the same draft). Our working out is done on the pages of the novel, rather than beforehand. What goes into the first draft may not remain in later drafts.

Even so, a lot of what you cut is not wasted. It ends up as back story. You know your characters and your worlds so much better because of this back story.

Occasionally that information even comes in useful in unexpected ways in later drafts.

In draft 1 of Barrain we had a sub-plot where Scott was fed a drug called casseye. It was odorless and tasteless. Barrainers fed it to their slaves to make them docile.

We got rid of the sub-plot in the second draft, and we got rid of the slaves. Neither were necessary to the story.

Then here we are in draft three, trying to work out how Caid and his group could possibly have committed the massacre that starts the story. And suddenly we have it.

Casseye. Of course.

So if you’re messy writers like us, don’t despair over those big chunks you have to cut. They’re still useful. And who knows, they may even come back into the story in a different guise in a later draft.

Music is important to me when I write. It helps set the mood for the story and makes it easier to start writing. It’s part of the routine of writing. I find I write better when I have music to listen to.

It has to be a particular type of music though, and the music is different for each novel. I know one novel I wrote way back when (one of those under the bed, never to see the light of day) was written to a combination of MeatLoaf’s Bat Out of Hell and seemingly the whole Chris de Burgh back catalogue. Another one had a lot of Carmina Burana in it.

Changing the music spoils the mood. No matter how much I think I can listen to something else, I have to introduce new music to the collection gradually, because if it doesn’t fit it spoils the writing flow, and then I have to get back into it.

One of the things I like is when a writer says in the introduction to their novel what music they listened to when they wrote it. Just for fun I thought I might list my own current writing music. This is for two novels —Barrain and Shared Memories, because we’re writing different drafts of these at the same time.

• Va Pensero, the Ten Tenors, from Bravo Act II
• Hoki Hoki Tona Mai, Yulia, from Bravo Act II
• Anthem, Anthony Warlow, from Chess
• Conquest of Paradise, Vangelis, from 1492
• Any Fool Could See, various, from Paris
• What Could Go Wrong?, Trevor White/John Parr, from Paris
• Trust in Your Heart, John Parr, from Paris
• Just Show Me How to Love You, Jose Cura/Sarah Brightman/Andrea Bocelli/LSO, from Time to Say Goodbye
• The Medallion Calls, Klaus Badelt, from Pirates of the Caribbean Curse of the Black Pearl
• One Last Shot, Klaus Badelt, from Pirates of the Caribbean Curse of the Black Pearl
• He’s a Pirate, Klaus Badelt, from Pirates of the Caribbean Curse of the Black Pearl
• If Only, Original cast, Whistle Down the Wind
• Lakme H2O (Flower Duet), Opera Babes, from Beyond Imagination
• Silk Road, Kitaro (but I like the LSO’s version too), from Kitaro’s Silk Road Suite)
• Hymn to New England, John Williams, from An American Journey
• Just When I’d Given Up Dreaming, Ronan Keating, from Bring You Home

Some writers create elaborate worlds before they start writing their fantasy or science fiction novel. These writers create maps. They know of every creek and hilltop, the world history back to ten generations, particularly the lineage of their protagonist.

Other writers let the world evolve as they write the book.

We fall into the second category. We start with a character and a situation, and discover the world along with the story. We do this even with stories like Rainbow, where the world is so integral to the story it is almost a character in itself.

It has some problems.

Shared Memories started out as fantasy and morphed into science fiction. That took some world changes we were still fixing into the third draft. It also made it very soft science fiction (as distinct from hard science fiction, which has heavier doses of technology).

Given that we don’t plan out the world in advance, we then have to do it as part of the draft process. It’s usually part of draft two, closer to the start of the rewrite than the end.

Once we have a story we go through it and plot the locations on a map.

With Barrain, we would only map Barrain, not Earth.

We start the map with two points. Elna’s village, and Demon City. Elna’s village is in the mountains. Mark in some mountains. Demon City used to be known as the City Between Sea and Mountain —that makes us think it’s close to the coast, but also close to a mountain. Place it near the coast, but not on it, near more mountains with a narrow hinterland.

It takes weeks to get to the city. Do they walk the whole way? If so, how far can we walk in a day? These people are fitter than us, and younger, so they will walk maybe twice as far. (Right now we are horribly unfit.)

Multiply the kilometres walked per day by the number of days on the road and we get an idea of the scale.

We fill in other bits of the map from details of the journey as per the novel. Once we’re done we might fill in blank bits of the map if we feel like it, but mostly we don’t.

And that’s pretty much it. Our world map. We stick it in front of the draft and that’s the master, and only copy.