Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America

Archive for January, 2011

Call for candidates for SFWA board of directors

Monday, January 31st, 2011

As we prepare to make our recommendations for the Nebula Awards ballot, SFWAns everywhere are no doubt pondering that annual question, “should I toss my hat into the ring for SFWA office?”

Yes, it’s time once again to prepare for SFWA’s annual elections.

John Scalzi has asked that I continue in my role as your Election Officer, and the first responsibility of that position each year is to write to you with a “Call for Candidates.” Quite simply, SFWA needs your participation, and so I’m asking you to please to consider serving SFWA by running for office in this coming election cycle.

The following offices are up for election:

President
Vice President
Treasurer
Secretary
Eastern Regional Director
Canadian Regional Director

If you’d like to run for office, think you might be interested in running for office, or just want to kick the idea around with me, please send me an email at: sfwa.election@gmail.com

Individuals running for office should also submit a platform statement to the email address above by Friday, February 18th, 2011. I ask (for the sake of our postal budget) that you keep your remarks brief, and include them in the body of your email and not as a separate attachments. All candidates’ statements will be posted to the SFWA website as they come in, and the full collection of platform statements will be sent out with the ballots in March.

Best,

Lawrence

Tags: elections
Posted in Candidate Platforms, News, SFWA Blog | 1 Comment »

Conditions for Suspense: Part 7 – Character draws 1-4

Saturday, January 29th, 2011

by John D. Brown

The following is part of a continuing series. If you wish to start at the beginning, head to It’s All About The Reader.

In my last two posts I discussed the fact that readers are not going to hope and fear for a character unless that character raises their sympathy and sense of deservingness. But is that enough? Do readers stick around if the characters are utterly boring? Do you? Most of the time, I do not. So another one of the key conditions for generating reader suspense is providing the reader interesting people to be in suspense about. Heck, sometimes we don’t need much of a story problem at all to generate suspense because the people in trouble are just so dang interesting.

So what makes a character interesting? Well, the same things that make real people interesting. You’ll want to make your own list of things that make people interesting to you because what rocks you might not rock me, but I’ll share the types of things that spark my interest in other people below.
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Tags: John D. Brown
Posted in Advice for New Writers, Information Center, SFWA Blog, The Craft of Writing, Writing Technique | 1 Comment »

Quick Updates for 2011-01-29

Saturday, January 29th, 2011

Member News

• Part 2 of SFWA member Eugie Foster‘s story, “The Princes and the Golden Fish,” is now out in the February issue of Cricket.
• SFWA member Tobias Buckell with an interesting perspective on piracy as it relates to authors.
• SFWA member Eric James Stone‘s story “Rejiggering the Thingamajig” is at Escape Pod.
• SFWA member David Levine will be an instructor at this year’s Alpha SF/F/H Workshop for Young Writers.
• SFWA member Allan Cole presents Dancing With A Naked Lady While Watched By Guys With Guns: New Hollywood MisAdventure here.

Tags: Allan Cole, David Levine, Eric James Stone, Eugie Foster, Tobias Buckell, twitter
Posted in News, SFWA Blog | Comments Off

Quick Updates for 2011-01-28

Friday, January 28th, 2011

• @byharryconnolly Email me your rss feed and I'll add you. vp@sfwa.org #
• SFWA member @tobiasbuckell with an interesting perspective on piracy as it relates to authors. http://is.gd/7mYR2s #
• @LisaShapter Congratulations and good luck with your submissions. #
• SFWA member @EricJamesStone's story "Rejiggering the Thingamajig" is at Escape Pod: http://ejs.me/rejig #

Tags: twitter
Posted in Excluded Categories | Comments Off

Quick Updates for 2011-01-27

Thursday, January 27th, 2011

• @haroldfeld Yes, it's called the Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation. #

Tags: twitter
Posted in Excluded Categories | Comments Off

Quick Updates for 2011-01-26

Wednesday, January 26th, 2011

• Part 2 of SFWA member @eugiefoster's story, "The Princes and the Golden Fish," is now out in the February issue of Cricket. #

Tags: twitter
Posted in Excluded Categories | Comments Off

Tidbits

Tuesday, January 25th, 2011

Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware

A short post, as I'm on vacation at the moment. (Why am I posting to the blog while I'm on vacation? Because I'm obsessive. There, I said it.)

Interview with Ann Crispin

Check out this interview with Ann Crispin, Pitfalls in the Writing Road. It highlights her work with Writer Beware--and also her upcoming book, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Price of Freedom (pub date: May 2011). It's the first Pirates book for an adult audience, and tells the story of how Jack Sparrow became Captain Jack Sparrow. It's a fabulous book (I've read it) so do stop by Ann's website and check out the exciting excerpts.

How Moral Are You?

Agent Richard Curtis reports that HarperCollins has added a morals clause to the termination provisions of its contract.

New language in the termination provision of the Harper’s boilerplate gives them the right to cancel a contract if “Author’s conduct evidences a lack of due regard for public conventions and morals, or if Author commits a crime or any other act that will tend to bring Author into serious contempt, and such behavior would materially damage the Work’s reputation or sales.” The consequences? Harper can terminate your book deal. Not only that, you’ll have to repay your advance. Harper may also avail itself of “other legal remedies” against you.

What was that about there being no such thing as bad publicity?

(more...)

Tags: Writer Beware
Posted in SFWA Blog, Writer Beware | 2 Comments »

Guest Post: The Greatest Challenge Agents Will Face

Tuesday, January 25th, 2011

by Nathan Bransford

I want to emphasize up front that the views here expressed are completely my own and may not reflect the views of my previous employer.

You know that phrase about how a combative person could start a fight in an empty room? Well, agents could start a negotiation in an empty room.

And because of that, despite what you may hear in some circles, I really, truly don’t think agents are going away in the new era of publishing. Agents are way too important to the business, authors need advocates, and whatever frustrations the unpublished may have with the whole getting-an-agent process, I think it’s pretty telling that authors don’t just ditch their agents the minute they finally get a deal.

Agents are not just gatekeepers, and they are very important for authors who want to maximize their revenue and stay in the publishing game. They serve as an important point of continuity, they are great at getting the most out of an author’s potential, and heck, I was an agent in real life and I still have an agent. She’s a crucial and indispensable part of my career as a writer.

But even if I feel very strongly that agents will survive into the e-book era, the times are definitely changing, and old systems are facing new challenges.

And what’s the biggest challenge agents will face? I wonder if it’s standardization of terms.
(more…)

Tags: Nathan Bransford
Posted in SFWA Blog, The Business of Writing | 1 Comment »

Renovation Deadline

Monday, January 24th, 2011

The folks at Renovation, the 69th World Science Fiction Convention, have sent out a reminder:

Monday, January 24, 2011

Reno, Nevada, USA – Renovation, the 69th World Science Fiction Convention, today issued a reminder that the deadline is fast approaching to gain the right to nominate for the 2011 Hugo Awards and John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer.

To be entitled to submit a nomination ballot you must join Renovation as a Supporting, Attending, or Young Adult member by January 31, 2011, or have been a Supporting or Attending member of Aussiecon 4, the 2010 Worldcon. Nomination ballots must be received by Saturday, March 26, 2011, 23:59 PDT.

After the finalists are announced, all Supporting, Attending, and Young Adult members of Renovation (including all members who join prior to the closing date of the final ballot) will be invited to submit ballots to select the Hugo winners. Renovation members will also be eligible to nominate for the 2012 Hugo Awards to be hosted next year by Chicon 7, the 70th Worldcon, in Chicago, Illinois.
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Tags: hugo awards, Renovation, Worldcon
Posted in News, SFWA Blog | 1 Comment »

Conditions for Suspense:
Part 6–Character deservingness

Saturday, January 22nd, 2011

by John D. Brown

The following is part of a continuing series. If you wish to start at the beginning, head to It’s All About The Reader.

In my last post, I discussed the idea that there are three factors that invest readers in your characters. The first factor was trouble. But trouble isn’t enough. We will only root for someone who is deserving.

All of us have an automatic scale of justice inside of us. We can’t turn it off. Nor can we ignore it. It’s very simple. If someone’s bad outweighs their good, then we think they don’t deserve good things. Conversely, if someone’s good outweighs their bad, we think they should be happy.

Don’t believe me? Fine, let’s test it.
(more…)

Tags: John D. Brown
Posted in Advice for New Writers, Information Center, SFWA Blog, The Craft of Writing, Writing Technique | Comments Off

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