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I’ve been keeping up with my writing schedule and very little else. I’m thinking of hanging a gone fishin’ sign up for the moment.

I promise I will be back as soon as this first draft is in hand.

You may have noticed, over time, that there are less entries at Writer Tamago than there have been in the past. I am still doing the author interviews, and I have plans for a few more interesting projects, but I have to tell you that the main reason that you’ve seen less content here is because I’ve been a more productive writer, which is sort of what the point of this very blog is in the first place.

Reports of what I’ve been doing, and plans for world domination under the cut.

Continue reading “Trident of Attack”

Panelists: Melissa F. Olson, Wesley Chu, Trisha Woolridge, Liz Gorinsky, Sally Weiner Grotta

Sally announces Pixel Hall Press party. There will be writers’ guidelines there.

Sally: What do readers want from writer?

Melissa: Lots of books coming out. Writers need a new way to become important to readers. Also, social media opportunities.
Wesley: Readers want to be interactive. Get closer to the world they’re reading about.
Trisha: In YA/MG, marketing is also to parents, librarians and teachers. Networking, interaction on line and at conferences.
Liz: Connections with communities. By doing this, you can connect with dozens of your readers at the same time. Book release sites. Talk to writers of similar stuff.

Sally: What about serialization?

Patreon–serialization of novels. Base of people. Better with established relationships.
Some writers can write serialization. Other authors prefer to have entire novel written first.

Crowd Sourcing: Holly Lisle sends out her first draft to a mailing list.
1000 strong readers can support you for life.

Book tours: Some people design their own. Overall, this is an impractical way of reaching readers.

Try a focused even like World Con.
Blog tours are also a good idea.
You can do stock signings at book stores.
Touring with other authors or being on panels with other authors is a good idea.
Make sure you have questions and choices of topics. Don’t go ni cold.

Specific etiquette on how you act on social media. Sell your book by selling yourself. Most people and readers are interested in the author and their personality.

Book blogging. Usually, there are specific guidelines.
For bookstores, have a press release and photo ready. Make sure your book has an ISBN.

Talking to book clubs is always a good idea.

Watch out for people who sell services to independent writers. They can feed on your dreams.

Chu’s blog tour. Thirty-six posts in 3 weeks. One every day. Shock and awe!!!! Entertainment is number one.

Have friends and use them….but not in a bad way. Show up for author friends, and they show up for you.

Email list. Some like it, some feel it is old school. It can provide readers with material between books.

Trisha loves conventions. Also study guides. School visits.

Melissa uses a newsletter.

Release materials can come from publishers to fans first.

Time considerations: Does this eat your time? What’s the return on your investment. Do I write more books?

Some writers write a week’s worth of web content on the weekend.

Do what is suited to you. Don’t do everything.

Melissa uses short blocks of time for social media, and long blocks of time for writing.

Normally, I’d be putting up a sticky post to encourage all you writers to check out Paradise Icon over Icon weekend, which is October 31-November 2 this year. However, the workshop filled up in ONE FREAKIN’DAY!!!!

That’s right, our 10 slots are filled, and happy journeyman writers will be gathering in Cedar Rapids to read and critique and be on panels and have seminars.

Some old friends and some new are coming our way. I’m excited. No, I’M EXCITED!!! ALL CAPS TRIPLE EXCLAMATION MARKS EXCITED!!!

I’m also apologetic if you were thinking about the workshop this year. We’ll no doubt run it again next year, and I hope you will consider it then.

But right now, I’m just shell-shocked. The first year it was just me and Shannon Ryan, pioneers that we were. Last year we had 8, and we had room right up to the con. This fill up in one day, well, I believe the correct word is woah.

Fran Wilde talks to several authors, including me, about our favorite book swag over at Apex.

And here’s the latest update.

Beginning Wii Weight: 223.8 (My heaviest ever)
Wii Weight on 6-3-14: 204.1 (a gain of .8)
Total: 19.7 pounds LOST

Weight Watchers on Initial Weigh In: 224
Weight Watchers on 6-3-14: 205.8 (A loss of 1.2.)
Total: 18.2 pounds

Weight Watchers has me close to my all time low of 205.4. I am 1.9 from my all time Wii low of 202.2. About a week ago, I was the hoover vacuum of food at Wiscon, so to get most of that 3 pound gain off in a week I feel is good.

Firm Summer Goal: To be under 200 by the time I go back to school. Given the time I plan to spend working out and watching my eating this summer, and that I have two months, I will do this thing. I’ve been hovering in the lower 200’s for long enough.

Last week: Con crud slowed me up, but obviously not too much. I am ready to get back to exercising.

Impediment: Iowa is full of small bugs that I seem to be allergic to, as are many Iowans. This means I’ll be inside for a lot of exercise. Sigh.

Well, back to it. Health, I am in you!

Panelists: Megan Arkenberg, Kimberly Long-Ewing, Vylar Kaftan, Shira Lipkin

Kimberly: In what ways can we encourage more diversity?

Shira: Publish diverse woks.
Vylar: Some sort of statement about publishing stories from all backgrounds. It means a lot when that statement is there. Read the magazine you want to publish in, and know the stories that it publishes. Some editors say, “I just publish the best stories,” but the idea of the best stories is subjective. Stepping outside of yourself and your culture is hard.
Megan: It helps if you have genre lists that include women and POC. Support kickstarters that back them.

Kimberly: What about slush readers? Are they gate keepers?

Shira: It could happen that they are.
Megan: Ask for a type of story from a type of writer if you’re not getting it.
Vylar: Readers expect what they’re used to in plot and form. Again, it’s a matter of stepping outside of culture. Spend time supporting diverse writers.

Kimberly: What works?

Megan: What works is something that doesn’t try to solve every problem at once. If you have a woman’s only anthology, what’s your goal? What are you trying to do?
Shira: You have to be careful you’re not producing a pink version of a magazine. This can lead to the mentality of “We gave you a women’s only issue. What more do you want?” You want to think about the long term effects in SF as a whole. Also you want to consider women who don’t consider themselves women.
Vylar: You want to avoid the compartmentalization of SF and the women who write it.
Kimberly: I don’t know if I want to read girl stuff. I might get cooties.
Megan: A magazine should introduce new people, rather than using the same old authors.

Kimberly: What doesn’t work?

Vylar: Not publishing diversity.
Megan: Reviewers missing the point. Projects being shot in the foot by their reception.
Vylar: See section on publishing the best stories above. Editors should help and encourage young writers.
Megan: The Mary Shelly phenomena. Some women recommended over and over and over…
Vylar: Places to find new writers: Broad Universe, Carl Brandon Society, Outer Alliance, Tiptree. Support writers by buying their books.
Kimberly: Non cisgendered male voices are important too.
Shira: The stories look different with different viewpoints.
Vylar: Stories shouldn’t represent a narrator as a token.
Megan: All women anthologies avoid the tokenism problem. Everyone deserves to see different perspectives while respecting their own perspectives.

Kimberly: Book recommendations?

Megan: Read anthologies with writers you haven’t heard of.
Kimberly: Look at the Broad Universe catalog.
Vylar: Look at Nebula winners and nominees.
Shira: I will post a list on my blog.

Questions from audience.

Do people run away from writing women’s issues, such as raising children or domesticity? These stories don’t seem to be published as much.

Shira: There is a danger of writing women as men with boobs.
Vylar; All readers have biases. This doesn’t match the greatness I have read, rather than the greatness that can come forth from something new.
Megan: No one likes being the token anything.

Other comments:
Slushers are doing what the editors want. We should make an effort to have diverse slushers.

Regrettably, Jay Lake has passed away.

My sincerest condolences to his friends and family. What a mighty struggle this lion put forth in his efforts to stay alive as long as he could for his loved ones. His courage was higher than Everest.

My views of Jay Lake were mostly through his website. When I started writing, he and I had some communication, but mostly I was reading his incredibly honest, intimate blog of what it was like to have cancer. I thought he was a powerful human being, to be able to share his best and worst moments with others, both in his situation and out. He gave a name and a face to cancer, and that was, I think, his point in some ways. That, and he was a human being, speaking to us about a human condition.

Jay’s blog is honest. Now that he is gone, we do not only have the legacy of his books, but we also have the journal of a man still living in the face of incredible adversity, right up to when he couldn’t. Jay took us with him for every step of his cancer, the good, the bad, the ugly, with candor.

I went to Paradise Lost 3 in part to meet Jay. I had bronchitis that weekend, and ended up isolating myself from him as much as I could, in spite of his insistence that he was not immuno-compromised at the time. So I heard him speak, and he was pleasant. We met at World Fantasy in 2009 as well, and I wished him luck on his next set of treatments at World Con in 2012. He knew who I was, which astounded.

Loss is hard, so hard, and Jay is missed. I have missed his posts for some time now, and I am very sorry that they have ended. What has Jay taught me? He’s the man who wrote a short story a week to improve his craft. His author story is one of persistence and practice and patience. He lived his life an honest man who held nothing back, and part of his legacy is the truth he spoke about his disease.

If you are interested in donating to Jay’s Memorial Fund, here’s that information.

Clayton Memorial Medical Fund
c/o OSFCI
P.O. Box 5703
Portland, Oregon 97228

Well, I’ve allowed to talk myself into going to jail for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. On July 10th, I will be incarcerated unless I can raise $1600 in bail. I’ll be incarcerated at Texas Roadhouse, so I know the food will be good at least.

Can you help save me from this fate? Here’s how you do it. Click on the link below and keep me out of jail. It’s that simple.

Help Catherine raise bail!

Thank you in advance! Every bit helps!

Home with Con Crud? Yes. But it did give me a chance to finish The Seat of Magic by J. Kathleen Cheney, which is one of the tow major reads I had to accomplish before my write-a-thon that begins while I’m on vacation.

Here’s what I wrote over at Goodreads.

The second in J. Kathleen Cheney’s Golden City books resolves some issues for us and creates some more interesting subplots. In the book, the threat of using magic and weird science to blend supernatural and human creatures together takes center stage as Duilio, Joaquim, and Oriana try to unravel a series of bizarre murders. This makes the book pretty gory indeed, so be forewarned.

For me, a book is at its best regarding its emotional arcs, and here Cheney shines. Readers of the first book should be satisfied with the resolution of the Duilio and Oriana relationship, not too hurried, but not too slow. I wonder what will happen in the next book, as I expect it will be Duilio’s turn to be the fish out of water, culturally speaking. Fastidious Joaquim even takes a romantic turn, and Oriana and her father finally get things sorted out.

Other interesting support characters include a revived Mrs. Ferreira and Raimundo, who is second in line to the throne. The return of the Lady and her special police officers was also enjoyable.

I really like and recommend this book. If you wonder why just four stars, I found the mad science just a little too intense for me, which might actually be a commendation of the writing. In short, it’s a matter of taste. I was squicked out, although I enjoyed the book.

This will be out in July from Roc. Go get it.

I’m really grateful I had an ARC. I hope you all enjoy this book as much as I did.