This weekend I finished reading Requiem by Ken Scholes. The book comes out tomorrow (6/18) and it's the fourth book in The Psalms of Isaac series. I love this series, I love Ken's writing, and this book doesn't disappoint. It's hard for me to gush about someone else's work without going into Spoilerland but I'll do my best.
It continually amazes me how much better Ken gets with each book. The Psalms of Isaac isn't a simple tale, it's a Whymer Maze that spans millennia. Each installment shows us a portion of that maze while giving us tantalizing hints of what is yet to come. In Requiem, Ken brought together the events of the previous books in delightful, heart wrenching, and surprising ways. There were a couple parts that creeped the hell out of me but again, that was because Ken did his job really, really well.
One thing that this book has that the others didn't is a handy, dandy glossary. If you're one of those people who skims glossaries before reading the book, I strongly suggest that you don't do it on this one. Some things shouldn't be learned too early. Trust me on this. However, do refer to it while reading. As I said, it's very handy. I even referred to it a few times while finishing Antiphon. If you want a bit of extra insight into Requiem and the Psalms of Isaac as a whole, read AWeeping Czars Beholds the Fallen Moon and The Second Gift Given. These two short stories will bring a lot of things to light.
I will confess that I have one teensy problem. Now that I've finished Requiem, I have to wait for the next book. Wah! Ok, reading the first four back to back to back may have spoiled me a bit. I guess that'll give me lots of time to commit Requiem to memory.
Monday, June 17, 2013
Monday, June 10, 2013
Time makes the pen grow sharper
Last week I started editing a novelette that I wrote last year. In fact, it was exactly a year ago that I wrote Expendable. I had a lot of hopes for this story when I sent it to The Writers of the Future Contest. It was the best story I'd written to date and I was a nervous wreck while I waited for the results. Well, the story was rejected and coincidently my heart was broken.
I'm not talking about the "I'm never going to love again" kind of broken. That kind of heartbreak is too pink and fluffy for my taste. It also wasn't the "My life is over and I'm never going to have a career" kind of heartbreak. I'm not that emo and I had no desire to use all of my black liquid eyeliner in one night. This was the "What did I do wrong this time?" kind of broken.
I did multiple passes on the story to make sure everything was clean and complete, I passed it around both of my critique groups, I even e-mailed NASA to fact check some things (they never responded, by the way). After all that work it still wasn't good enough. What got me through, other than encouragement from a couple good friends, was the knowledge that Dave wouldn't have rejected it without good reason. At the time I had no idea what that reason may have been, just that somewhere in the document was a flaw.
Those of you that have followed my blog for a while know that I had to revisit the story during NaNo because I wanted to write the sequel novelette. That's when I found a couple of big typos of the "I can't remember what this character's name is" variety. It was humiliating but it dispelled the mystery around the rejection.
When I revisited it last week, it was with the intent to improve the opening and do one final pass to make sure I didn't overlook anything else before I sent it out into the world again. I spent two days on the opening to make sure all the changes fit in seamlessly. Two days was a little longer than I wanted to spend on it but it wasn't unprecedented. Besides, it was all worthwhile in the end. What I didn't anticipate was spending the next week cleaning up the first half of the story. That's right. It was just the first half. What's worse was that I spent two days on six paragraphs. Six paragraphs!
If I'd known how rough it was I wouldn't have submitted it in the first place -- which is the point of this blog. I didn't know. My skills are more refined than they were a year ago. All the purple prose and unfinished thoughts that I've been fixing were invisible to me back then. Heck, they were invisible to me back in November when I re-read the story. This has left me in a strange state. Usually I detest editing. I do it because it's a very necessary step, I'm just not masochistic enough to enjoy it. However this edit has been a joy because each mistake reaffirms how much I've grown in a short amount of time. It's actually made me excited to dive into my flawed short story from March.
When I've finished editing Expendable I'm not going to resubmit it to the contest. Instead I'm going to send it to market. Why? Because I still believe in this story. Despite all the flaws of last year's draft it's still a damn good story and I'm very happy that my increased skills have allowed me to once again make it my best short work to date.
I'm not talking about the "I'm never going to love again" kind of broken. That kind of heartbreak is too pink and fluffy for my taste. It also wasn't the "My life is over and I'm never going to have a career" kind of heartbreak. I'm not that emo and I had no desire to use all of my black liquid eyeliner in one night. This was the "What did I do wrong this time?" kind of broken.
I did multiple passes on the story to make sure everything was clean and complete, I passed it around both of my critique groups, I even e-mailed NASA to fact check some things (they never responded, by the way). After all that work it still wasn't good enough. What got me through, other than encouragement from a couple good friends, was the knowledge that Dave wouldn't have rejected it without good reason. At the time I had no idea what that reason may have been, just that somewhere in the document was a flaw.
Those of you that have followed my blog for a while know that I had to revisit the story during NaNo because I wanted to write the sequel novelette. That's when I found a couple of big typos of the "I can't remember what this character's name is" variety. It was humiliating but it dispelled the mystery around the rejection.
When I revisited it last week, it was with the intent to improve the opening and do one final pass to make sure I didn't overlook anything else before I sent it out into the world again. I spent two days on the opening to make sure all the changes fit in seamlessly. Two days was a little longer than I wanted to spend on it but it wasn't unprecedented. Besides, it was all worthwhile in the end. What I didn't anticipate was spending the next week cleaning up the first half of the story. That's right. It was just the first half. What's worse was that I spent two days on six paragraphs. Six paragraphs!
If I'd known how rough it was I wouldn't have submitted it in the first place -- which is the point of this blog. I didn't know. My skills are more refined than they were a year ago. All the purple prose and unfinished thoughts that I've been fixing were invisible to me back then. Heck, they were invisible to me back in November when I re-read the story. This has left me in a strange state. Usually I detest editing. I do it because it's a very necessary step, I'm just not masochistic enough to enjoy it. However this edit has been a joy because each mistake reaffirms how much I've grown in a short amount of time. It's actually made me excited to dive into my flawed short story from March.
When I've finished editing Expendable I'm not going to resubmit it to the contest. Instead I'm going to send it to market. Why? Because I still believe in this story. Despite all the flaws of last year's draft it's still a damn good story and I'm very happy that my increased skills have allowed me to once again make it my best short work to date.
Monday, June 3, 2013
When a house party really is a house party
I finally saw Iron Man 3 this weekend. My friends have been raving about it for a month and now I know why. It's fantastic! I'm still on the fence as to whether it's better than the first, but man, does it blow the second out of the water. I know I'm probably one of the last people in the US to see it but just in case...
SPOILER ALERT
The pacing of this movie was, for the most part, right on. The story moved quickly and things that needed to be foreshadowed were without bringing the narrative to a dead stop. The action sequences were top notch, both in regard to the storytelling and the special effects. It had just enough humor, Pepper got to kick ass, Tony had to pay for past sins, and it had a spectacular red herring (I love me a good red herring).
The best elements, in my opinion, were in regards to Tony's PTSD. With a conflict as FUBAR as New York was in The Avengers, someone on the team was bound to get it and there's no reason why it wouldn't be Tony. He has the least experience with weird, life threatening alien stuff. Watching him deal with those issues throughout the film grounded it in reality and made the regenerating/exploding people easier to accept. The kid was also a brilliant addition. His innocence, and uncomplicated view of the world was exactly what Tony, and coincidently the story, needed to help Tony see past the trauma and what he couldn't do so he could regroup and use the assets he did have. That never would have happened without the kid.
There were a couple things that I wish were explained a bit better. One of them being the mark 42. When Tony put the suit on Pepper I assumed that he'd already implanted the ID chips in her body under some sort of security protocol ruse. When he put the suit on the Mandarin, that theory was thoroughly defenestrated. I get why they did it. 42 was a handy solution for those perilous moments when Tony had to do something incredibly clever to save his (and Pepper's) ass. I just wish they had laid a clear foundation for what the suit's requirements were for transfer. I can only hope that a deleted scene will demystify the mark 42.
Another element that bothered me was the regeneration aspect of the DNA modification. If it can regenerate lost limbs, why then would it not repair permanently damaged and discolored skin -- A.K.A. tattoos? The Mandarin's tattoos were cool, but there was no reason for them to be there.
Of course both of these faults are nit-picky, "show me the science" stuff and no one goes to a Marvel movie for the science. We go for the "Hulk smash" moments and to see our favorite heroes and heroines on the big screen. In that regard, this movie is full of win. I applaud the scriptwriters on a job well done. They delivered what we ultimately wanted while answering the questions that needed to be answered to move the overarching story along.
SPOILER ALERT
The pacing of this movie was, for the most part, right on. The story moved quickly and things that needed to be foreshadowed were without bringing the narrative to a dead stop. The action sequences were top notch, both in regard to the storytelling and the special effects. It had just enough humor, Pepper got to kick ass, Tony had to pay for past sins, and it had a spectacular red herring (I love me a good red herring).
The best elements, in my opinion, were in regards to Tony's PTSD. With a conflict as FUBAR as New York was in The Avengers, someone on the team was bound to get it and there's no reason why it wouldn't be Tony. He has the least experience with weird, life threatening alien stuff. Watching him deal with those issues throughout the film grounded it in reality and made the regenerating/exploding people easier to accept. The kid was also a brilliant addition. His innocence, and uncomplicated view of the world was exactly what Tony, and coincidently the story, needed to help Tony see past the trauma and what he couldn't do so he could regroup and use the assets he did have. That never would have happened without the kid.
There were a couple things that I wish were explained a bit better. One of them being the mark 42. When Tony put the suit on Pepper I assumed that he'd already implanted the ID chips in her body under some sort of security protocol ruse. When he put the suit on the Mandarin, that theory was thoroughly defenestrated. I get why they did it. 42 was a handy solution for those perilous moments when Tony had to do something incredibly clever to save his (and Pepper's) ass. I just wish they had laid a clear foundation for what the suit's requirements were for transfer. I can only hope that a deleted scene will demystify the mark 42.
Another element that bothered me was the regeneration aspect of the DNA modification. If it can regenerate lost limbs, why then would it not repair permanently damaged and discolored skin -- A.K.A. tattoos? The Mandarin's tattoos were cool, but there was no reason for them to be there.
Of course both of these faults are nit-picky, "show me the science" stuff and no one goes to a Marvel movie for the science. We go for the "Hulk smash" moments and to see our favorite heroes and heroines on the big screen. In that regard, this movie is full of win. I applaud the scriptwriters on a job well done. They delivered what we ultimately wanted while answering the questions that needed to be answered to move the overarching story along.
Monday, May 27, 2013
Ring the bells and bang the drum!
Kim, you've just finished another manuscript. What are you going to do now?
Start the next project.
I wish I was going to Disneyland instead. That would be nice but a writer's work is never done. Especially since I'm taking part in an online summer class that requires me to write 50K. Oh, and the class starts next week. Yeah, I kinda screwed myself on that one. I usually take a week off between novels so I can, you know, clean the house. I think I've mentioned before that a lot of household tasks get pushed aside when I'm finishing a novel. It's not procrastination, I just want to finish the manuscript a lot more than I want to scrub the shower. That's why I spend the days after the novel completion celebration catching up on all those tasks. It restores my sanity (such as it is) before I begin worldbuilding the next. Because I finished the Cyberfunk a week later than I wanted to, I have to jump right into the new book.
So, what's the new project? It's a story that's been percolating in my brain for a couple years. The working title is Flame and Filch and it's about a thieving duo and the city guard tasked with stopping them. It sounds like a simple task but the thieving duo is comprised of a very distracting woman and a dragon.
As you can tell it's a fantasy. It's also one that won't be as challenging to write as the Cyberfunk. In fact, I didn't realize exactly how much I'd challenged myself until I started working on F&F. Because it's simpler, I'm hoping that I'll be able to get a buffer built in a couple week so I can devote some time to cleaning the house. I want to clean up a couple short stories as well. I need to start submitting stories again.
Start the next project.
I wish I was going to Disneyland instead. That would be nice but a writer's work is never done. Especially since I'm taking part in an online summer class that requires me to write 50K. Oh, and the class starts next week. Yeah, I kinda screwed myself on that one. I usually take a week off between novels so I can, you know, clean the house. I think I've mentioned before that a lot of household tasks get pushed aside when I'm finishing a novel. It's not procrastination, I just want to finish the manuscript a lot more than I want to scrub the shower. That's why I spend the days after the novel completion celebration catching up on all those tasks. It restores my sanity (such as it is) before I begin worldbuilding the next. Because I finished the Cyberfunk a week later than I wanted to, I have to jump right into the new book.
So, what's the new project? It's a story that's been percolating in my brain for a couple years. The working title is Flame and Filch and it's about a thieving duo and the city guard tasked with stopping them. It sounds like a simple task but the thieving duo is comprised of a very distracting woman and a dragon.
As you can tell it's a fantasy. It's also one that won't be as challenging to write as the Cyberfunk. In fact, I didn't realize exactly how much I'd challenged myself until I started working on F&F. Because it's simpler, I'm hoping that I'll be able to get a buffer built in a couple week so I can devote some time to cleaning the house. I want to clean up a couple short stories as well. I need to start submitting stories again.
Monday, May 20, 2013
Hello deadline...goodbye deadline
Another self-imposed deadline has sailed by and I'm exhausted. I've been writing at full speed for over a month and the novel still isn't done. Clearly I'm not one of those people who can write a first draft in seven months. Granted, if I only had one job or was able to write full time, that would be different. However, with the demands on my time being such as they are, I do not have that ability. Lesson learned.
Lesson aside, I feel that I have thoroughly established that the "I don't have time to write" myth is invalid. If I can crank out 6-8K while working two jobs and attending book signings, than anyone else can to.
I'm close to the end. I've only got about another 13K to go and come hell or high water, it will be finished this week. I've got fun and merriment planned for Memorial Day in honor of the book being complete and I am very much in need of a fun day. I also want the intended reason for the merriment to be justified so I MUST FINISH.
And on that note, it's time to dive back into the manuscript.
Lesson aside, I feel that I have thoroughly established that the "I don't have time to write" myth is invalid. If I can crank out 6-8K while working two jobs and attending book signings, than anyone else can to.
I'm close to the end. I've only got about another 13K to go and come hell or high water, it will be finished this week. I've got fun and merriment planned for Memorial Day in honor of the book being complete and I am very much in need of a fun day. I also want the intended reason for the merriment to be justified so I MUST FINISH.
And on that note, it's time to dive back into the manuscript.
Monday, May 13, 2013
A slight delay
Because I must finish the cyberfunk in the next week or else, I won't be writing a new post this week. However, through the magic of the internet, you'll still get a dose of Kim. I wrote another guest post for The Fictorian Era on the why I chose to become a writer. The post goes up tomorrow and I'm excited to see your reactions to it. You get more than a peek at how my mind works in this one. In fact, writing it made me laugh out loud more than once.
Monday, May 6, 2013
Changing positions
First up, I have some news. Remember a few weeks ago when I mentioned that I hate writing poetry? Well...I'm reconsidering my position on that.
Shortly after that post went up the oft' talked about Tracy talked me into entering Ken Scholes' The Named Lands Poetry Contest. I had originally decided no to do it because well, it's poetry and with my insane self-imposed deadline I really need to focus on finishing the Cyberfunk. However, knowing that Tracy wouldn't let me live it down if I didn't submit something, forced my hand. I wrote a quick collection of haiku and sent it off. (Don't look at me like that. It was just six poems and haiku only take a few minutes to compose.) Last Sunday the winner was announced.
Me.
Fraking A.
I've never entered a poetry contest before. Heck, my writing period hasn't won any accolades yet so to find out my first was for a medium I only do under duress kinda really weirded me out. Add to that Ken's comment that he and the judge were "blown away" by the best of my six and you can guess how much my mind was blown. I was in a state of disbelief for a couple days.
So, yeah. Because of this (and something Greg Manchess teased me about the night before my win) I'm reconsidering my long standing hatred of poetry writing. I don't know if I'll start entering more poetry contests because of this. We'll see. For now I'm just going to try to ease into a more positive position so I'll feel more comfortable dabbling with the form. Baby steps are important. Especially when I have an imminent novel deadline. Speaking of which, I need to get to work.
__________________________
I have another guest post on the Fictorian Era coming up on Tuesday, May 14th. You won't want to miss this one. I laughed so hard when I wrote it.
Shortly after that post went up the oft' talked about Tracy talked me into entering Ken Scholes' The Named Lands Poetry Contest. I had originally decided no to do it because well, it's poetry and with my insane self-imposed deadline I really need to focus on finishing the Cyberfunk. However, knowing that Tracy wouldn't let me live it down if I didn't submit something, forced my hand. I wrote a quick collection of haiku and sent it off. (Don't look at me like that. It was just six poems and haiku only take a few minutes to compose.) Last Sunday the winner was announced.
Me.
Fraking A.
I've never entered a poetry contest before. Heck, my writing period hasn't won any accolades yet so to find out my first was for a medium I only do under duress kinda really weirded me out. Add to that Ken's comment that he and the judge were "blown away" by the best of my six and you can guess how much my mind was blown. I was in a state of disbelief for a couple days.
So, yeah. Because of this (and something Greg Manchess teased me about the night before my win) I'm reconsidering my long standing hatred of poetry writing. I don't know if I'll start entering more poetry contests because of this. We'll see. For now I'm just going to try to ease into a more positive position so I'll feel more comfortable dabbling with the form. Baby steps are important. Especially when I have an imminent novel deadline. Speaking of which, I need to get to work.
__________________________
I have another guest post on the Fictorian Era coming up on Tuesday, May 14th. You won't want to miss this one. I laughed so hard when I wrote it.
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