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From Nephele Tempest’s blog today:

Poets and Writer’s interview with 4 young agents.

Very educational and insightful.

Catherine

Last year at Wiscon, I attended a panel regarding speculative fiction, and the panel unfortunately devolved into a panel where the majority of the panelists, perhaps frustrated with experiences they had had, ran down the academy.

Well, as a member of the academy, I did take some exception. That same year I had attended the fairly good Fantasy Matters conference. I had visited some genre libraries. I had been tempted by three other well known conferences. I was presenting an academic paper at Wiscon. My own college supported my pop culture research and writing. I had just found out about the Interstitial Foundation. It seemed that the academy was alive and well, and supporting our literatures of the fantastic!

So, I thought maybe this year we could a panel to make me feel better. Oh–and to educate the public. I hope we can tap the expertise of a variety of you who enjoy the study of this sort of thing, or have attended conferences, or contributed to a variety of journals and ezines, or have been in organized writing workshops for SF, Fantasy, and speculative fiction.

I’ve posted the following as a program suggestion for Wiscon this year. If they accept it, and if the topic interests you, I hope you’ll consider joining me on a panel. Spread the word among your friends whom you think might be interested.

Sometimes authors feel that the academy is against genre fiction. On this panel, we’ll discuss the various ways academia supports and fosters the writing and critiquing of science fiction, fantasy, speculative fiction, and other literatures of the fantastic through workshops, classes, study centers, critiques, scholarly publications, folklore study programs, and conferences (including Wiscon’s academic track!) If you’re interested in learning about, or sharing resources you know, this panel is for you!

All writers have their moments of insecurity.

I mentioned that I keep this journal to keep me honest. Life this week has been all about the institution, and very little about me and my work. I feel like I’m procrastinating. Finally, tonight! I see some time to write.

I miss the activity of my inbox. When I was submitting the completed work to agents, there was a buzz of correspondence. Now there are minor skirmishes of occasional activity, but for the most part, I feel disconnected from the world of the business of writing.

So, I must remind myself from my own list. 😀

11. The industry is not the measure of your success. Attention is not the measure of your success. Of course you want to send your work out, make smart marketing decisions, and try to share. The measure of your success is stories written and sent. You can’t convince the world it wants your work, but you certainly can’t do anything at all unless you’re telling stories.

12. Realize that success in writing, like success in anything, is really more about persistance than anything else. Write, learn to market selectively and well, and then market selectively and well. There will be a learning curve. You will battle obscurity. You will make mistakes and get rejections. BUT eventually you’ll have enough circulating and people will know who you are, and you’ll learn the tricks, and your writing will line up with someone’s taste, and more and more things will be accepted.

In the past year, I’ve circulated Substance of Shadows, and its possibilities are still alive. I’ve complete Hulk Hercules: Professional Wrestler, which Cats Curious likes, and which will be published. Drollerie Press still has plans to publish Sister Night, Sister Moon. I have two short stories out for consideration. I have a complete read and a partial read out. I’ve contributed to two charitable collections. One story has been published in the Drops of Crimson ezine. I’m 16K into my new project, and well underway on applying for a workshop.

I am counting my blessings here. I wonder why, even with all that, it takes such a short time for me to devolve into someone who thinks they have made no headway at all? Ah, such are the mysteries of the writerverse.

So, tonight, it’ll either be a rough draft of my VP cover letter, or some serious work on my novel’s outline. I mean it. I won’t get my mailbox jumping again thinking about the beginning of the semester. Need some creative *me* time.

I’m very curious about all of you. Does this feeling of doubt ever go away? Or does it morph usually into a different, subtle, sinister form?

Bah. January.

Catherine

I adore my new office. I realize now that part of the problem with the old office was claustrophobia when students would descend. This office, we can convene around a table, and I’m also safely behind a desk. They sit, I type, we do this well.

But I’m not here to sing praises of blond wood and gray metal. Or even how I have my Dalek here, and I can press the “Exterminate” button at whim. No, it’s for the early in the week install of Blood is Thicker than Water.

AND to say that it looks like Odyssey is out. I could get the six weeks off, and I might have stretched to save the money deficit myself. The trick, however, is all in the timing of Professional Development funds, and the college on the whole is kinda out for this fiscal year, which would wipe out all hope of financial assistance I might have had.

However, Viable Paradise is next fiscal year for the college, and fits the budge of professional development like a glove. Of course, getting in is a whole ‘nother pail of clams, and there’s no guarantee that the college will give me the cash. That said, it looks like those two pieces dovetail together quite nicely. So, now that I’ve done the budget, checked out all the peripherals, and asked for the professional development application, it’s time to start on the writing piece and the VP cover letter, not necessarily in that order.

***

Happiest of book days this week to Jim Hines and and Joshua Palmatier, whose journals I enjoy. In Jim’s case, I like his work, and in Josh’s case, I’ll be happy to try it. Keep on writing, gentlemen.

Night class tonight. Gotta close things down. See you tomorrow. If you’re lucky.

I’ve rested as much on my laurels as I can in regard to past material, and now that I have some readers to help me, I can make some definite plans.

The first thing I need to have done, and I want it done in two weeks, by January 17th, is to have a summation of where the novel is going. I need some idea of how Feldspar’s plans are unfolding, and I need to look at other character’s motivations. My God, this sounds suspiciously like…outlining!!!

After that, I will polish up the summary and submit it and part of the work for Odyssey and Viable Paradise, along with applications and materials. I thought about sending off Mark Twain’s Daughter, but honestly, since this is the novel I’ll be working on, this makes more sense.

By the end of January, my goal for G&V will be one chapter every two weeks, send to Team G&V (Yo, Jenn, Cat, and Yvonne). This process should start February 1st.

Beginning tomorrow, then, I’ll lay some pipe for this story, see how much verbiage that is, and figure out how much of the real McCoy I can send with the rest of the two workshop aps.

It’s good to have a plan. Little goals and personal deadlines keep me honest. How about you guys?

Cath

Over the course of the last couple of days, running errands and all that, a couple of authorly things have resolved. Honestly, with very little effort from me.

I will apply to Odyssey AND Viable Paradise. I’ve talked to Bryon about both. As soon as school is up and running, I’ll chat with Allison about the possibility of six weeks off, if Odyssey should accept me, and professional development funding for either. I honestly think work will want me to swing toward Viable Paradise, but you never know, as no one’s offered me an extended contract just yet.

Thanks to all of you who have been kind enough to offer advice and answer my many questions about this process. I really appreciate it!

Key to applying to workshops is the Fulbright mentality. With that in mind, I’m still planning on Convergence as a summer antic. If I am accepted to either, we’ll adjust our plans.

***
As to the other recent authorly concern, the Wiscon reading group is also formed. My partners in crime will be Ellise Heiskell (avid costumer and beginning writer), Catherine Cheek (Clarion workshop alum, visual artist, and broadly talented person), and Gregory Frost (member of the University of Iowa community of the fantastic, scholar, itinerant gentleman, and author of some of the most mythic work I’ve read in recent years. ) And yours truly.

What I like about this group is that it pretty much represents Wiscon in microcosm. Wiscon has always struck me as a con which attracts people talented on multiple levels, with multiple interests. It also is the kind of place where a beginning writer like Ellise could read with a gifted and talented author like Gregory. The hierarchy is flattened. Long live the revolution!

***

I should do something creative today. It’s been more of a slug vacation than I would have liked, so I will finish the whole internet thing, and do some writing, and then…probably it’s a day of sewing. Work begins anew Monday. Maybe some structure will help.

Catherine

I think I will be a Wiscon orphan this year. I will sign up for readings in February, but I wonder if anyone would be interested in having me in their group, or on working on a group with me?

What could I bring? Well, I can read part of Hulk Hercules: Professional Wrestler if I were part of a children’s group. With Sonya’s approval, I would expect.

Or, if I were part of a faerie or urban fantasy group, Gossamer and Veridian or Substance of Shadows (especially if an agent picked that up!).

If historical were a group formed, I’d have Mark Twain’s Daughter, or I’d maybe even read part of The Empty Horizon, which is my retelling of The Count of Monte Cristo from Mercedes’ and Haydee’s viewpoints.

I even have a couple of humorous things I could read. And some of this is arty and serious, so it would work for those kinds of sessions as well.

Other than that, I got nothin’. 😀

Seriously, though, would anyone be interested in adopting an orphan who doesn’t eat much, and could be convinced to bring her share of personality? I’m a fairly good reader. Ask those who have read with me for credentials. Even though Mary Poppins says the best people no longer ask for them. *sniff*

Catherine

I’ve spent some time researching and thinking about workshops. While there’s always more I could learn, I’ve taken short story workshops frequently in college, and that’s not my genre, so I’ve ruled out Clarion.

There are about 3 I’ve found that interest me as a novelist. Here are the links.

CSSF SF Novel Writers Workshop: Two weeks writing in Laurence, KS during the summer.

Viable Paradise: One week in October on Martha’s Vineyard focusing on a variety of topics.

Odyssey: Six weeks in New Hampshire studying the craft, with a focus on novels available.

My personal restraints:

1. The college probably wants me around on and off during the summer.
2. There’s a two-week workshop on mythology that I’ve already committed to.
3. I would like to use my professional development to pay for it.
4. As well as working on my craft, I would like to learn more about the industry.

Frankly, Odyssey would be great, but I doubt that the college would be happy with me disappearing for six weeks and I have that work shop. It doesn’t seem to be the summer for it.

CSSF would give me two weeks of writing, but wouldn’t teach me the other pieces.

This year, I will apply for Viable Paradise, unless my circumstances suddenly change. Perhaps during a future year, I will apply for Odyssey.

At this point, then, I need to decide what 8000 words to send them. I’ll see what develops, as their deadline for application is June 30, 2009, and I believe two short stories would be my best bet. Mark Twain’s Daughter, perhaps, and something else.

Catherine

Cupped in my hands are three things: my grandmother’s soul, my family’s cats cradle, and my memories.

When I open my hands, the cats cradle falls to the ground in a tangle. The memories jewel and streak my cheeks. And grandmother’s soul flies away on the December wind, indistinguishable from the dust of a county road.

Blessings to all of you in the New Year.

Catherine

…are actually the same old. I write as much as I can, I submit as much as I can, and I hope an agent picks me up.

I’ll be spending January applying to those writing workshops I mentioned waaayyy back, and then the rest will be trying to work on the new novel to get it out.

I can’t set goals beyond my control, but my measure of time is both yours and mine. In 1998, twelve years after I started as a TA at ISU and discovered teaching was a great passion, I had my dream teaching job. Most of your experience suggests that it takes you about 10 years to get to where you felt comfortable in your author skins.

Only 8 years and 5 months to go! Woohoo!

Catherine

ps Yvonne, thank you for the feedback. That’s exactly what I needed.