I finished doing all the critiques for the Writers Workshop at Miscon. The workshop is free for writers and most of the attending pros do critiques. So if you went to Miscon, you could get critiqued by me, or Patty Briggs, among many others, or I think this year GRRM will be participating. Not sure though. Anyhow, I like to be detailed, so I spend a fair bit of time on each. I type out my comments and they usually are 3-4 single space pages long. It’s all content oriented–I’m not interested in talking grammar at this point, unless is seriously egregious (I didn’t get any stuff like that). I don’t think writers want to hear about grammar either.

I also made my head purple. Very purple. More purple than I planned for. Now I have to pack me, the kids, the dogs, and get on the road in the morning. In the meantime, I’m revising.

What are your plans for the weekend?

Originally published at www.dianapfrancis.com. You can comment here or there.

• Wed, 15:13: RT @discoverLA: Biggest vote-getters for fav LA movie: Blade Runner & LA Story #discoverLA cc: @Maryspellerberg @LeThirst @ThirstyInLA
• Thu, 03:54: Man in custody in 1979 Etan Patz case - http://t.co/f0zSCLRk http://t.co/R8wCQriD

(Crossposted from Jennifer Brozek)

Here is my Origins schedule. If I’m not in one of these panels, I’m in The Library at my table in Exhibit Hall C (PDF), top left corner near concessions. As Cherie Priest likes to say, there is a “No Shyness” zone around me. Come up and say Hello! I’m happy to chat while I sell books. I’m bribable—take me out to lunch or for a drink and I’ll talk your ear off.

THURSDAY

3 p.m. Flash Your Fiction: In how few words can you tell a story? Flash fiction has been gaining in popularity, but it’s not an easy art form. Brevity is tough to tackle, but if you can master it, there are markets for your scant words. Learn the secret to “Kissing Your Fiction.” KISS . . . keep it short, sister. Then consider entering our flash fiction contests Friday and Saturday.

Donald J. Bingle, Jennifer Brozek, Kelly Swails

4 p.m. Writing For Games: Writing opportunities about in the game industry for persistent and talented freelancers. Our panelists found success writing for various game companies, and they provide helpful hints for landing work amid the dice and battlemaps.

Jennifer Brozek

FRIDAY

3 p.m. The Care and Feeding of Your Editor: Award-winning editor Jennifer Brozek has published dozens of authors in her many anthologies. She explains what it takes to get an editor’s attention and respect, offering suggestions that will move your submissions higher in the slush pile and closer to publication.

Jennifer Brozek

4 p.m. Write What You Don’t Know: We remember English teachers lecturing: “Write what you know.” Well, we think you ought to write what you don’t know. How else can you write about space travel and alternate history and fire-breathing dragons and vampire detectives? We’ll discuss how a little research and common sense can give you just enough background to really write what you don’t know.

R.T. Kaelin, Jennifer Brozek, Bryan Young

6 p.m. Reading: Jennifer Brozek: Award-winning editor Jennifer Brozek offers up a serving of one of her favorite fantasy tales.

Jennifer Brozek

SATURDAY

10 a.m. Slaying Writer’s Block: There’s debate whether there is such a beast as writer’s block. We’ll not argue that point here. Rather, we’ll show you what you can do to knock down the barriers that are keeping you from typing away at your keyboard. Writer’s block . . . or whatever you want to label it . . . we’ve faced it and beat it to a bloody pulp.

Aaron Allston, Jennifer Brozek, Bryan Young

11 a.m. Practice Makes Perfect: How can you tell if you’re getting better as a writer? How can you judge your progress? And what does it take to get to that next level of expertise? We’ll talk about benchmarks, writer’s groups, and how to analyze your fiction. You have to grow as a writer to compete in the marketplace; we’ll teach you how to measure your skills and to improve them.

Kelly Swails, Jennifer Brozek, Brad Beaulieu, R.T. Kaelin

Originally published at KhaosKomix. Please leave any comments there.

Jamie/Alex shippers rejoice in your hearts.

This page links up with

http://www.khaoskomix.com/komix/charlies-story-page-64

and

http://www.khaoskomix.com/komix/alexs-story-page-45

Off to london expo tomorrow! We’ll be in the far corner, come and say hi!

http://www.warrenellis.com/?p=14086

Today I am deep into the copyedit on GUN MACHINE and not coming out until it’s done.

So look at this instead: by and of my friend Cassandra Melena, who graduates from Tom Savini’s Special Make-Up Effects school today. Congratulations again, Cass.

I apologize to those of you who are doing self-publishing the right way and who were offended by my post yesterday. I did not mean to suggest that all self-published authors are obnoxious, in-your-face self-promoters. It feels to me like 90% of the ones I've met are, but that may simply be because they are louder and feel like more.

Legitimate Reasons to Self-publish:

1. You know a particular niche market and are in a unique situation to market your books to that market. (Example: David Farland's In the Company of Angels for the Mormon audience. Or a book targeting your audience as a motivational speaker where you know who you're selling it to and a publisher couldn't really do it better.)

2. You are writing a book for a limited audience, such as family/friends for a specific event. (Example: family histories.)

3. You are publishing the final books in a series which a publisher has elected not to continue with, mostly for the sake of fans who want to read more and feel cheated not to read the ending you intended. (In this case, it isn't about money at all. It's also not you pushing your book on strangers, but offering it to those who express an interest.)

4. You have the experience in writing to believe there is a market for your book and are willing to pay for the editorial help and the artistic help necessary to make a good quality book.

5. You have no intentions of being a published author, but just want to have a copy of something for yourself in a more durable form, to show you've achieved a given level of expertise. (Sometimes schools do this for children, though I sometimes wonder if this gives the wrong idea about publishing.)

6. (Possibly) If you are an adult and you feel that you may be able to get enough exposure from a self-published book that is very well done to attract a national audience and publisher. (I don't recommend this, but I do think it's legitimate. Sometimes people do end up selling a self-pubbed book, but a lot of the time agents won't even look at them. Examples: Time Stops for No Mouse(which I like), The Christmas House (which I dislike) , Eragon (which I really dislike), Hank the Cowdog (also like). My caution here is to be open about being self-published and your reasons for it without necessarily slamming the national industry. You want success there, so why would you be rude?)

7. You are in the comic book world, where self-pubbing is done all the time, and is basically the only way to work if you aren't with Marvel or DC. (My sister at mleiv.com does this and I think she does wonderful work. Also Howard Tayler who does Schlock Mercenary is great at this.)
   
   Books I have self-published:

   1. A family history for my parents' 50^th wedding anniversary, which I gave out to family members. Also, a family history for my father-in-law's 70^th birthday party, also a giveaway.

   2. My dissertation, of which I have a copy somewhere and the other 2 are at the Princeton University library. Also, my Honors Thesis from BYU, and my Master's Thesis from BYU.

   3. My oldest daughter's illustrated book about the birth of my youngest daughter, complete with some fairly graphic illustrations for a 6 year-old.

   4. The Princess and the Horse, the fourth book in the series that began with The Princess and the Hound, and which Harper declined to publish. I expect to publish a fifth book in the same series next year. I may publish other books this way, as ebooks, but I won't be hocking them at events.

I am, alas, going to sound a bit pedantic here. Forgive me. I think that the farther up the ladder you are, I'm also going to sound kind of amateurish. So, please forgive that.

Are you ready then? Here we go.

***

Let's go back to your childhood. Do you remember when you started taking lessons in _____? Because you thought it'd be cool to _____? Do you remember how awful you were at first? I come from a musically inclined family. I played the baritone. I started in sixth grade. There were a lot of squeaks and blats, and lots of tone deaf renditions of Mary's Little Lamb. I did get better.

Let's go back to a class that really challenged you in high school or college. My first philosophy test was a C. It was a boring recap of the contents of the articles I read, and my first experience that college teachers want your own thoughts and extrapolations in philosophy. I finished with an A-. I got better.

How's about that first day on the job? Let's...not talk about my first year of high school teaching. It took that long to get hazed by the kids, to learn about the patriarchal environment of a small town school, and how to work within that system. The second year was better, and although I chose not to stay in high school education, I got better at the job.

***

Writing then. Remember your first story? Your first book? Your first "good" rejection? Your first request for a partial manuscript? A full? Several fulls? An almost offer of representation? It's great if we get farther and farther along the trail. How frustrating to not get there.

Two things:

1. It takes a while to learn to do anything well. To master a craft. It takes a while to write something that is good enough. Gotta live with that. Got no choice there.

2. It only takes one yes. One message in a bottle. One short straw. One number picked between one and ten.

The first point is a question of skill. Work and wait. Try not to be demoralized while you work and wait. You will be, of course. Even when you've published books, you'll probably still play these I'm not good enough games. And you aren't. But you should keep writing anyway.

The second point is the role of luck or subjective preference. And you can't do anything about whether someone is going to pluck you out from all the other straws, from all the other numbers. Stop worrying about that, because you can't do nothing about that.

In closing, go out and buy a teddy bear so you can have free hugs when you're feeling down. I got nothin' else. Get to work.

Mirrored from Writer Tamago.

Here's my schedule as Writer Guest of Honor of this weekend's BayCon. There's not a signing on the schedule, which means that I'll sign books whenever you catch me somewhere at the con, unless I'm running to get somewhere else.

I'm also doing a Magic: The Gathering draft, probably Avacyn Restored or something in the Innistrad block, Saturday night. See below for details.

Tomorrow night (May 25th) from 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm EST, I’ll be over at Goodreads for a live chat with the Gotta Have Paranormal With a Kick group. If you have the time (and hey, Supernatural and Grimm are re-runs now, anyway! ) I’d love it if you came out and joined me.

Here is the link to the chat: http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/899303

Here is the link to the group, if you’re not a member and would like to join to participate in the chat: http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/50826-gotta-have-paranormal-romance-with-a-kick

What will I be talking about? Anything you ask me, so if you’ve got questions about the books, characters, what’s next, or favorite paranormal creatures in general, pull up a chair and jump in. I’ll be waiting :).

Mirrored from Frost Light.