I’ll be reading for the Philadelphia Fantastic series on this Friday, April 27, 2012, 7:00 pm, to celebrate the release of my Spice Brief, “Under Her Uniform.” Philly Fantastic is held at the Moonstone Arts Center in Philadelphia.
Though the story is electronic-only, I’ll have a signed manuscript or two on hand.
I hope to see some of you there!
I’ve been asked several times recently what I’m currently writing. Here’s the answer.
I don’t currently have a novel under contract, but I am writing a novel anyway. It’s not an erotic novel, and probably won’t include any sex scenes. Well, maybe one. We’ll see. I’m only about eighty pages into the manuscript, and though I have a synopsis and an outline, and a giant pile of research material, I figure out a lot of things as I go along. My writing method is often referred to as “pantsing” (as opposed to “plotting”). I know the general shape, but I work out many of the intermediate events as I go along.
When I first began attempting to write novels, they were all either fantasy or science fiction, and I’ve been longing to return to those genres – though all of my novels for Harlequin Spice had fantasy elements, they were primarily erotica. I’m calling this new project a historical fantasy, with romantic elements. It’s set in Manchester, England, a little prior to World War One, and involves people who have psychic powers. And…that’s all I’m willing to talk about right now. I’m in such early stages that anything I said now probably won’t end up being true of the final product, anyway. Also, I just prefer to hold ideas secret as long as I can; if I talk about them too much, I start to lose interest in the actual writing part.
Thanks for asking!
Also, I continue to write blog posts. Here’s one on My Dearest Holmes by Rohase Piercy.
A Subaltern
He turned to me with his kind, sleepy gaze
And fresh face slowly brightening to the grin
That sets my memory back to summer days,
With twenty runs to make, and last man in.
He told me he’d been having a bloody time
In trenches, crouching for the crumps to burst,
While squeaking rats scampered across the slime
And the grey palsied weather did its worst.
But as he stamped and shivered in the rain,
My stale philosophies had served him well;
Dreaming about his girl had sent his brain
Blanker than ever–she’d no place in Hell….
‘Good God!’ he laughed, and slowly filled his pipe,
Wondering ‘why he always talked such tripe’.
–Siegfried Sassoon
In lieu of actual content, today I have five cool links.
1. You can watch a video of Lesley Hall’s Eastercon lecture “Invisible Women: Scientists Women Don’t See” here – note it is 58 minutes long.
2. Extruded Books: A Cautionary Tale will teach you quite a lot about the history of print publishing in recent decades.
3. Via Kate Elliott men doing hula (video).
4. Janet Mullany’s awesome Regency romance Dedication is now available as an e-book. I recommend it highly.
5. Nalo Hopkinson has a new novel out! It’s titled The Chaos.
I’ve been really enjoying the first reading challenge in which I’ve participated, which is for books about or set during World War One. One of the good things is that I feel obligated to write and post about each of the books as I read them, something which I often neglect, given the high volume of books I read and, well, my laziness.
However, while being lazy I am also somewhat anal-retentive. I’m trying to decide what’s next, the main criteria being books I already own and books that other participants in the challenge are not reading (some are following a list of suggestions, but I’ve already read most of those). Also, I don’t want to read all the same kinds of books for the challenge.
A Diary Without Dates by Enid Bagnold is a top contender for my next read; it’s been on my TBR for a long time, it’s not that long, and I have it as an e-book, which means it will be easy to quote from for my commentary. Also in electronic form, I have a number of memoirs that are less well-known; however, I’ve already read one soldiers’ memoir/recruitment vehicle for the challenge, so should probably look beyond those for now. I’d been considering Good-bye to All That by Robert Graves, but that’s another memoir.
So far as nonfiction about the War goes, I’ve been meaning to read Tolkien and the Great War: The Threshold of Middle-earth by John Garth for quite a while, too. I’ve read a little bit about Tolkien’s experiences, more of a summary, really, and I would very much like to further explore how his experiences in the trenches affected his depiction of Mordor (and I maintain that the Eagles in Return of the King are, in fact, airplanes). That’s not a small book, but there’s nothing in the challenge that says I have to finish it in a single month; in fact, I could be reading it concurrently with something else.
Another approach could be geographical. I have several books about fronts other than the Western, none of which I have yet read: Gallipoli by Alan Moorehead and Byron Farwell’s The Great War in Africa: 1914-1918 among them. The former is a small paperback and the latter is a hardcover…these things do make a difference, sometimes, in what I choose to read.
Hmmm.
I keep track of my World War One collection at LibraryThing – feel free to have a look if you’re interested. Suggestions are welcome!
Here are my challenge reads so far:
War Horse (movie) – ok, not a “read,” but movies are considered okay
The Head Girl at the Gables, Angela Brazil (fiction from WWI era)
Holding the Line by Harold Baldwin (memoir, written during the War)
Sites of Memory, Sites of Mourning by Jay Winter (nonfiction/social history and theory)
I’ve received my preliminary program schedule for WisCon 36 – it’s subject to change right now, but I’m glad I have the topics so I can make some notes ahead of time!
Anti-Heroism Defined
Fri, 4:00–5:15 pm
Moderator: Victoria Janssen; Rosemary / Sophy; Kelly Sue DeConnick; Lesley Hall; Chris Hill
What is an anti-hero, and what makes a character an anti-hero? How do you know an anti-hero when you see one? Can an anti-hero become a regular garden-variety hero, and if so, how? What is the appeal of an anti-hero? Are anti-heroes more realistic than heroes, and how does this impact the audience?
Short Stories Versus Novels
Sat, 4:00–5:15 pm
Moderator: David D. Levine; Benjamin Billman; Richard Chwedyk; Gwynne Garfinkle; Carolyn Ives Gilman; Victoria Janssen
Some writers claim they can only write short, others insist they can only go with longer works. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each form? Should you force yourself to try the length that doesn’t seem natural for you? What benefits are there to those who can successfully write both types of story? At one time, authors were told they needed three short story sales (of the pro variety) before they should try to sell a novel. Is this true? If short isn’t your form of choice, are you just screwed?
Gender-Variant Characters in Science Fiction
Sun, 8:30–9:45 am
Moderator: Molly Aplet; Kerey Luis; Victoria Janssen
Let’s explore how gender variance and/or variant/trans* characters are represented in Science Fiction. How often are gender-variant characters used for the purpose of examining the experiences of cisgender individuals? How often is the variance of these characters integrated into a character/individual level experience? The example of the former, a planet-of-hats scenario (such as was done on Star Trek) in which a whole society is genderless/gender-variant, comes to mind. Mass Effect is an example of the use of a “mono-gendered” (yet hyper-sexualized) race, the Asari. How about a story where a whole species is genderless or gender-variant? Dragon Age 2 has one of the most prominent examples of a trans* character, Serendipity.
Addiction in Fiction
Sun, 10:00–11:15 am
Moderator: Cassie Alexander; Naomi Kritzer; Victoria Janssen; Derek Silver; Gregory G. H. Rihn
Real drugs, imaginary drugs, and magical addictions to other people’s dreams – how are addictions handled in science fiction and fantasy? Can imaginary addictions be treated with real-world methods? How about fictional worlds in which addiction is not seen as a problem? Or in which addiction has become adaptive (are vampires addicted to blood?)? Possible works to consider: Stacia Kane’s Downside series (beginning with Unholy Ghosts) in which Chess Putnam is addicted to a magical drug, Jacqueline Lichtenberg and Jean Lorrah’s Sime~Gen series in which Simes can become addicted to killing Gens, Yarrow by Charles De Lint for feeding on dreams.
Fen to Pro and Pro to Fen
Sun, 2:30–3:45 pm
Moderator: Victoria Janssen; Wendy Bradley; Michael J. “Orange Mike” Lowrey; Neil Rest; Amy Thomson
In many sectors of fandom, those who make money from writing, editing or publishing speculative fiction are set apart from those who are primarily readers. This separation isn’t present everywhere, though. Some “pros” maintain fannish activity and some who primarily act as “fans” might have, for example, sold a novel or two. With the growing popularity of fanfiction and self-publishing, how is the division between fan and pro changing? How do these divisions affect online interactions, live interactions, and how fandom is viewed from outside? Is there truly a “geek hierarchy”?
A Working Party
Three hours ago he blundered up the trench,
Sliding and poising, groping with his boots;
Sometimes he tripped and lurched against the walls
With hands that pawed the sodden bags of chalk.
He couldn’t see the man who walked in front;
Only he heard the drum and rattle of feet
Stepping along barred trench boards, often splashing
Wretchedly where the sludge was ankle-deep.
Voices would grunt ‘Keep to your right–make way!’
When squeezing past some men from the front-line:
White faces peered, puffing a point of red;
Candles and braziers glinted through the chinks
And curtain-flaps of dug-outs; then the gloom
Swallowed his sense of sight; he stooped and swore
Because a sagging wire had caught his neck.
A flare went up; the shining whiteness spread
And flickered upward, showing nimble rats
And mounds of glimmering sand-bags, bleached with rain;
Then the slow silver moment died in dark.
The wind came posting by with chilly gusts
And buffeting at corners, piping thin.
And dreary through the crannies; rifle-shots
Would split and crack and sing along the night,
And shells came calmly through the drizzling air
To burst with hollow bang below the hill.
Three hours ago he stumbled up the trench;
Now he will never walk that road again:
He must be carried back, a jolting lump
Beyond all need of tenderness and care.
He was a young man with a meagre wife
And two small children in a Midland town;
He showed their photographs to all his mates,
And they considered him a decent chap
Who did his work and hadn’t much to say,
And always laughed at other people’s jokes
Because he hadn’t any of his own.
That night when he was busy at his job
Of piling bags along the parapet,
He thought how slow time went, stamping his feet
And blowing on his fingers, pinched with cold.
He thought of getting back by half-past twelve,
And tot of rum to send him warm to sleep
In draughty dug-out frowsty with the fumes
Of coke, and full of snoring weary men.
He pushed another bag along the top,
Craning his body outward; then a flare
Gave one white glimpse of No Man’s Land and wire;
And as he dropped his head the instant split
His startled life with lead, and all went out.
–Siegfried Sassoon
The Philly Roller Girls have their home opener tomorrow night!
I’m all excited. A friend and I have season tickets. The most fun part is dressing like you’re going to watch roller derby. Ummm…that picture below is not at all how one dresses for roller derby. I’m just sayin’.
You can check out the program for the 2012 national Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association conference here. It runs April 11-14, 2012.
I’m keeping an eye out for reports on how it went.
Also, I had more previews over at Heroes and Heartbreakers:
