Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America

Archive for March, 2011

In Memoriam: W.J. Maryson (1950-2011)

Tuesday, March 15th, 2011

Dutch author W.J. Maryson (1950-2011) died on March 9 after being taken to the hospital suffering from heart problems.  Maryson, who was born Wim Stolk, was the author of the six-volume Master Magician series and the Unmagician trilogy among other books. In 2004, the third novel of the Unmagician trilogy, De heer de Diepten, received the Elf Fantasy Award for best novel presented by Elf Fantasy Magazine.  He won the Paul Harland Prijs in 2007 for his story “Nietszche Station.” Maryson’s short story “Verstummte Musik” appeared in English translation The SFWA European Hall of Fame in 2007.

Maryson often attended the World Fantasy Convention.  Using his own name, Stolk worked as a literary agent for Chapters Literair as well as beign an editor for different publishing houses. He was also involved with the administration of the Paul Harland Prijs. In addition to writing, Maryson also wrote music and released rock CDs  in conjunction with the first two volumes of the Master Magician series.

Posted in In Memoriam, News | Comments Off

Quick Updates for 2011-03-14

Monday, March 14th, 2011

• Congratulations to SFWA member @seananmcguire whose book LATE ECLIPSES is on the NY Times extended bestseller list. http://is.gd/GkbDl0 #
• Welcome to SFWA's newest Associate member Richard Johnson with a sale to WotF 27. http://www.rpljohnson.com/ #
• Welcome to SFWA's newest Active member Linda Poitevin, author of SINS OF THE ANGELS: The Grigori Legacy (ACE 9/11) http://is.gd/JXWy4e #
• SFWA member @ewillett has been named writer-in-residence at the Regina Public Library for Sept. 1 – May. http://t.co/4JZ7a65 #

Tags: twitter
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Key Conditions for Suspense:
Part 13 – Make the problem hard to solve
with growing troubles & surprise

Saturday, March 12th, 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.

As I stated in the last two posts, there are four types of things that make the problem hard to solve—disadvantages, conflicts, growing troubles, and surprise. In this post I’ll discuss the last two. Once again, remember: these aren’t ingredients to a recipe; they’re options. Their purpose is to make the problem harder to solve so the reader can worry.

Make Progress with Continuing & Growing Troubles

The third way to make a problem harder to solve is by making it grow despite, or because of, the character’s actions.

But that doesn’t sound like progress–how do you make progress if the character’s troubles not only continue, but grow? Simple, the progress I’m talking about is in sharpening the reader’s tension. As the plot complicates, the reader’s tension grows.

Think about the flip side of this. The moment you solve all the problems in the story, the story is over because the readers have nothing more to worry about. Troubles allow the story to progress and grow.

This doesn’t mean the characters can’t solve small parts of the problem along the way. It doesn’t mean good things can’t happen to the character. After all, we want to fear AND hope for the characters.
(more…)

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

Guest Post: Does it Matter?

Thursday, March 10th, 2011

by Hal Duncan

“Does it matter that more books don’t address minorities or gender equality?”

Absolutely.

The status quo is segregation. It’s a state of segregation in which black, queer and members of other abject groups are not deemed to belong as main characters. This is the segregation of not being able to sit at the front of the bus. They may be allowed in as an exception if it “serves the plot” (c.f. your reviewer’s expectation of a reason for the character’s gayness.) This is the segregation of being stopped in a white neighborhood and challenged on your purpose in being there. They may be allowed in as Gay Best Friends or Magic Negros in service of the straight, white protagonist. This is the segregation of travelling into a white neighbourhood to work as a cleaner in someone’s house.

It’s segregation for the readers too. They may be able to go to a little corner of the genre where they can find stories that speak direct to them (a gay spec fic mag like Icarus, say.) This is the segregation of the ghetto. While this holds, as much as the abject may appreciate much of the narratives they’re written out of, the constant awareness of their erasure from these narratives is a barrier that prevents full enjoyment, a sign that says, “No Blacks” or “No Gays” (or whatever) that they must choose to ignore. This is the segregation of water fountains at which the abject cannot drink and be refreshed as the non-abject can.

There’s no requirement on an author to engage with the issues of race or sexuality or whatever as subjects; an author’s thematics is their choice. The desire for inclusion is not a politically correct demand for quotas whereby X% of seats at the front of the bus are allotted to the abject, such that some poor old lady who deserves that seat will be forced to stand; that’s a straw man of the committed segregationist. Nor is it a trivial petition for “diversity” that can be met with perfunctory tokenism; that’s a complacent delusion of the unwitting segregationist. It’s a desire for integration, plain and simple — nothing more, nothing less.

•••

Hal Duncan was born in 1971, brought up in a small town in Ayrshire, and now lives in the West End of Glasgow. A member of the Glasgow SF Writers Circle, his first novel, Vellum, won the Spectrum Award and was nominated for the Crawford, Locus, BFS and World Fantasy Awards. As well as the sequel, Ink, he has published a poetry collection, Sonnets For Orpheus, a stand-alone novella, Escape From Hell!, and various short stories in magazines such as Fantasy, Strange Horizons and/Interzone, and anthologies such as Nova Scotia, Logorrhea, and Paper Cities. He writes a regular column for BSC Review, had a musical, Nowhere Town, produced last year by a theatre group in Chicago, and also collaborated with Scottish band Aereogramme on the song “If You Love Me, You’d Destroy Me” for the Ballads of the Book album from Chemikal Underground.

This post originally appeared as a comment at Mark Charan Newton’s blog.

Additional essays on the subject can be found at BCS Review and at Notes from the Geek Show.

Tags: Hal Duncan
Posted in SFWA Blog | 55 Comments »

Can an Old Dog Learn New Tricks? Internet Book Promotion

Wednesday, March 9th, 2011

Posted by Ann C. Crispin for Writer Beware

Ask anyone – in these days of a less-than-thriving economy, and reduced budgets for book promotion, publishers increasingly count on authors to do much of the promotion for their own books.

For the past three years, I’ve been working on an enormous, “epic” project – a prequel to the popular Disney film series, Pirates of the Caribbean. My novel, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Price of Freedom, will be released May 17 of this year, and tells the story of how Jack Sparrow first became a pirate captain. For most of the time I was writing it, I was uncomfortably conscious of the fact that when I finished the actual writing of the book, my work would by no means be finished. I knew that, for the first time in my life, I’d really have to work at promoting a book.

It used to be that authors could concentrate on writing, and that their publishers would do most of the promotion for their books. Authors like SFWA Grand Master Andre Norton, who rarely traveled and who did few public appearances even on their home turf, could have successful careers and see their books sell very well.

I fear those days have gone the way of the dodo.

A bit of background: I’ve been writing novels as a profession for twenty-eight years. Except for teaching writing workshops from time to time, writing has been my sole livelihood. I’m hardly wealthy, but I paid the mortgage, put food on the table, and managed to travel a bit. Up until now, each time I had a novel released, I’d do a bit of promotion…I’d call up a few local bookstores and let the managers know that I was available for a book signing. Sometimes I’d call my local paper and tell them about the release, and, because Southern Maryland isn’t exactly crawling with science fiction and fantasy authors, and The Maryland Independent focuses on items of local interest in its Arts and Entertainment section, they’d send a reporter out to snap my picture and interview me. I also attended two or three science fiction conventions each year, often because the conventions invited me to come and teach their writing workshops.

This novel has been different. As soon as Disney told me it was okay to “go public” with it, in November 2010, I knew I had to dig in and start promoting the book. It remains to be seen whether my efforts will pay off – The Price of Freedom won’t be released for another two and a half months. But I thought I’d share my experiences with you so far.

From the get-go, I knew I couldn’t spend a lot of money on promotion. For one thing, I still don’t know exactly what Disney plans. I’ve only recently been assigned my publicist with Disney, and she’s still working out what the company plans to do. I have more time than money to spend on promotion (though I’m starting a new novel, of course) so I decided to concentrate my efforts on the internet.

The first step in promoting was, obviously, to update my website (www.accrispin.com) which was sadly in need of attention. I’d basically ignored it for the three years it took to write The Price of Freedom. I began sending updates to my webmaster: a new photo I’d had taken, the book’s cover, and, each month, I’ve selected an excerpt to post from the book. I chose excepts that wouldn’t reveal too much about the book, but would give readers who recalled the films fondly a glimpse into the “questions” my novel would answer – things like, how did Jack Sparrow first meet Hector Barbossa, and Cutler Beckett? Most of the excerpts have featured Jack as the POV character, but not all. I selected scenes that didn’t give away too much plot, but let potential readers know the book was full of humor, and had magic and treasure – in other words, it had the same components that they’d seen and enjoyed in the films. (Actually, the book has a serious side – the slave trade in Africa in the early 18th century, but in the excerpts I’m keeping it light, adventurous and funny,)

While I was working on the website, I also become active on Facebook. Facebook was easy to learn, and I was gratified to find that a surprising number of my readers asking to “friend” me. In addition to the typical Facebook chit-chat, I’ve written brief commentary about the book, and posted pictures of the finalized cover. Facebook aficionados adore pictures, so I’ve included several relating to the book – for example, a picture of me standing beside the enormous movie skull “standup” at a local theater, and a picture of me about to enter the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction at Disney World. (Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, the fourth “pirates” film, will be released May 20th, the same week as my novel. I’m really lucky the studio selected that date for the book’s release…it’s just about the best “promo” an author could hope to get!)

In addition to the above, I used Google to find Pirates of the Caribbean fan groups, and Johnny Depp fan groups. I joined the groups, and regularly post links to the new excerpts. The two Johnny Depp groups I joined have proved particularly welcoming, and I’m scheduled to be interviewed by both The Depp Zone and Johnny Depp Reads within a month after the book’s release.

Since events in my novel are considered POTC “canon” (at least until countered by events or dialogue in any of the upcoming Pirates of the Caribbean films) I also hunted up the Wikipedia pages written about Jack Sparrow, the other characters in POTC, and The Black Pearl, and edited them to conform to the events as described in my novel. This brought me to the attention of the POTC “Wikia” folks and they’ve been pouncing on each excerpt from the book as I post it, analyzing it for new material about the universe they love. They’re determined to get every snippet of information possible about it…and, of course my book is cited as a source each time they make a new entry.

Next arrow in my promo quiver will be signing on to Twitter and learning to tweet. I figure I have amassed enough snippets of writing and publishing lore that my tweets will help aspiring writers, in addition to getting my name more recognized. I’m taking Victoria as my model – she has amassed a large following with her Writer Beware tweets, because she has something worthwhile to share with writers.

As we draw closer to release date, I’ll begin doing “pre-pub” interviews with some of the internet groups I’ve joined. Leaders of such groups, plus reviewers, can request an ARC of The Price of Freedom, and Disney publicity will send them one. The ARC isn’t the final version, of course. But it’s about 75% the same as the published novel, and I’m hoping it will intrigue those who read it, and make them want to read the actual book.

When the novel is released, I plan to set up an internet “blog tour.” I know lots of writers, and many have excellent, well-read blogs.

Speaking of blogs, I am toying with the idea of starting one of my own – a personal one. I’d like to either have it on my website, or link it to my website. I’m not very computer literate, so I’ll need to research more on how this can actually work. Before I became active on Facebook, I wouldn’t have thought I’d be able to handle a personal blog. I am not very good at talking about myself. I’d rather write half a chapter in a novel than a brief bio for the dustcover flap! But with the FB experience under my belt, I feel more capable of tackling one.

When the book is released, I will, of course, do my usual thing of contacting bookstores and my local newspaper. That’s an easy and inexpensive way to get a bit of exposure. New authors dream of store book signings – but, realistically speaking, they’re a drop in the bucket for sales. I’ll also do twice as many science fiction and fantasy conventions this year as usual. I’m already scheduled for Shore Leave and Dragoncon, but I’ve already touched base with Balticon, and am considering Renovation and the San Diego Comicon.

I’ll also probably go to the Book Expo America in Manhattan at the end of May. (Lately Writer Beware has noticed that one of the big money-making vanity publishing ventures is inducing their writers to come to BEA and other book fairs all over the world, and charging them hefty fees to do so. These folks sell their authors on the idea of attending by claiming it will boost book sales and get them international marketing and exposure. The reality of BEA is that it really isn’t a good venue for author promotion, unless the author has a new book coming out that the publisher is putting money and time into promoting – which of course doesn’t hold true for vanity publishers. There, the authors are the only ones writing checks.)

So, in summary, my promotion strategy is:

1. Before the book is released, concentrate on (free) internet venues to get the word out about it, in the hope that news of the book will “go viral” as they say. I’m still exploring venues for promoting the book. For example, at Farpoint last weekend, I discovered the world of “pirate re-enactors” and plan to check them out and see what online message boards they have that I could join.

2. As the book gets nearer to being released, coordinate my efforts with anything Disney comes up with, making myself available for any radio interviews, podcasts, cable shows (NOT the ones where you pay!!!!) etc., that present themselves to me, or that my publicist suggests.

3. When the book is released, do the usual booksignings, etc., but also try to attend “pirate gatherings” (yes, they have them!), more science fiction and fantasy conventions, etc. Have “blog tour” arranged and do it.

4. Continue promoting throughout the summer and fall, leaving no (especially free) stone unturned in promotional opportunities. Be very organized, keep a good calendar and records, since events where I have to travel, etc., will be tax deductible.

5. Hold my breath the day my first royalty statement arrives, to see how well my efforts have paid off.

Of course, the best promotion an author can get is simply having a book available in as many venues as possible, including on the shelves in brick and mortar bookstores. Electronic sales are increasing by leaps and bounds, no doubt about it, but many potential readers still like to browse bookstores, pick up books (at 235,000 words, they’ll need to exert some effort to pick up The Price of Freedom!) and page through them. This is where self-publishing services have problems. They can’t get nationwide in-store book distribution. I’m fortunate to have that.

A final comment, my friends. Brace yourself. This kind of work may not be as difficult as actually writing, but it’s very time-consuming, and it is work. So polish up your websites, put your best words forward, and leave no legit promotional stone unturned. When an opportunity to promote your book presents itself, grab it. For example, I wrote this post for two reasons: in the hope that my experience might be helpful to other authors with books coming out and also for…

Well, yeah. You guessed it.

-Ann C. Crispin
Chair, Writer Beware
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Price of Freedom
Publisher: Disney Editions
Release Date: May 17, 2011

Tags: Writer Beware
Posted in SFWA Blog, Writer Beware | 1 Comment »

SFWA announces the Pacific Northwest Reading Series

Tuesday, March 8th, 2011

The greater Pacific Northwest is home to Ursula K. Le Guin, Kay Kenyon, Jay Lake, Nancy Kress, Brent Weeks, Ted Chiang, and Ramona Quimby. Although Ramona isn’t known for her Science Fiction and Fantasy escapades, the rest are celebrated masters of the genre, and their work will be enjoyed as part of the Pacific Northwest Reading Series. These free quarterly events provide the Northwest Science Fiction and Fantasy community a chance to gather, network, and enjoy readings from local authors.

Each event starts with notes from the host, a leading local author, who has selected two of his or her favorite writers to complete the evening’s theme. Those authors will perform a reading from the latest work, interpreting and explaining their concepts and vision in a dialogue with the audience. It will be an event for art, study, networking, and conversation.

SFWA member and Portland resident Ursula K. Le Guin expressed her enthusiasm for the event by saying, “In the last century, literary fiction was restricted to realism, and science fiction and fantasy were outcaste ‘genres.’ Now, as realism grows inadequate to describe reality, the imagination regains its central role in fiction, and our most vital literature mixes fantasy, science fiction, romance, and everyday life.”

The first date of the series, April 19th, is hosted by Brent Weeks, the New York Times best-selling author of The Black Prism and The Night Angel Trilogy.   He has invited Jay Lake and Kay Kenyon to read with him.

Upcoming readings feature Ursula K. Le Guin, Nancy Kress, Ted Chiang, Cherie Priest, Mark Henry, and Kat Richardson.

Set in the pub-like atmosphere of the McMenamins Kennedy School, events begin at 7:00pm and end by 8:30pm. No tickets are required, but since this is a new series, SFWA does request an RSVP to help plan the event.

Click here to RSVP for the SFWA Pacific Northwest Reading Series

About SFWA

Founded in 1965 by the late Damon Knight, Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America brings together the most successful and daring writers of speculative fiction throughout the world. Since its inception, SFWA® has grown in numbers and influence until it is now widely recognized as one of the most effective non-profit writers’ organizations in existence, boasting a membership of approximately 1,800 science fiction and fantasy writers as well as artists, editors and allied professionals. Each year the organization presents the prestigious Nebula Awards® for the year’s best literary and dramatic works of speculative fiction.

Tags: Brent Weeks, Cherie Priest, Jay Lake, Kat Richardson, Kay Kenyon, Mark Henry, Nancy Kress, Oregon, Ted Chiang
Posted in News, Press Book, SFWA Blog | 2 Comments »

Guest Post: Building Secondary Worlds

Monday, March 7th, 2011

by Mark Charan Newton

I’m currently working on a couple of projects. I’m finishing off the fourth and final book in the Legends of the Red Sun series, of course, but I’m also getting down my thoughts and ideas for something after that. This is an interesting creative point, because this hasn’t been sent off to my editor to look at (who will decide, ultimately, whether or not it is rubbish). I’m right at the beginning, doing that Big Ideas Thing, which I haven’t had the freedom to relax into for a couple of years, and certainly never before with a decent degree of certainty that it will be considered seriously by a publisher.

Starting all over again

Project X (which I’m not going to explicitly talk about) is becoming a creative outlet to my creative outlet, the thing I’m doing on the side, and I forgot how much I enjoyed worldbuidling from scratch. I know it’s vitally important, too, but there is something fun about designing a landscape, the characters, the infrastructure, the politics and economics, that really appeals to me. It’s also a challenge, too. And I’m always interested about the psychology – for example, how much of my mind or my experiences am I mapping out on paper when I create the setting?

So where do I begin?

Aesthetics

With regards to creating the setting, it helps to be a visual person. This begins and ends with the imagination. Personally, this time I’m starting off with a picture of a scene and am writing outwards from there. I tend to assemble pictures – both drawings and ones in my head – and question where these places are, and where they lead to. It’s a path of exploration. What are the buildings like? How tall, what colour is the stone? What about the flora and fauna? What are the weather patterns that result in the forests I see? How will all of this impact the mood of the story?
(more…)

Tags: Mark Charan Newton
Posted in Advice for New Writers, Information Center, SFWA Blog, The Craft of Writing, Writing Technique | 2 Comments »

Contest Alert: TheNextBigAuthor.com

Saturday, March 5th, 2011

Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware

I've been getting some questions about a new competition: TheNextBigAuthor.com.

In May 2011, the publishers of many of the world's most famous authors - including Dan Brown, Terry Pratchett, J.K. Rowling, Stephen King and Stephenie Meyer - join to support The Next Big Author: a new initiative which encourages budding authors to write the opening to a novel in May.

All you have to do, according to the Competition Rules, is write your opening chapters (any genre, between 5,000 and 7,000 words), upload them between May 17 and May 21 to writers' critique community/POD publishing service YouWriteOn.com (this requires joining YouWriteOn, which is free), and exchange reviews with other contestants and YouWriteOn members (for every review you do, you receive a review of your own chapters). On July 1, the five highest-ranked contestants will be announced. Each of these winners will receive a critique from someone at Random House, Bloomsbury, Orion, Little, Brown, or Hodder & Stoughton.

Hang on, you may be thinking at this point. YouWriteOn. Doesn't that ring a bell?

Why, yes, it does. YouWriteOn is the originator of the ill-conceived 5,000 writers publishing initiative, which in 2008 aimed to recruit 5,000 writers in slightly over a month, and publish their books (via a bare-bones basic POD service) just two months later. Not surprisingly, this did not go well. At most, a few hundred books were released, and many writers experienced significant problems, including substantial delays, poor production quality, and difficulty communicating with YWO. The dissatisfaction generated thereby was energetically displayed on the YWO message board--leading to the message board's abrupt closure in mid-December 2008.
(more...)

Tags: Writer Beware
Posted in SFWA Blog, Writer Beware | 4 Comments »

Key Conditions for Suspense:
Part 12 – Make the problem hard to solve with conflict

Saturday, March 5th, 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.

Readers want to feel their suspense–their worry and anxiety for a character–build. In the last two posts, I discussed the idea that they will feel that rising suspense if we make the problem hard to solve. I then listed four types of things that make the problem hard to solve—disadvantages, conflicts, growing troubles, and surprise. In this post I’ll discuss conflicts, which are simply people and things that actively work against or resist our character as he or she tries to solve the story problem.

Again, remember: these aren’t ingredients to a recipe. They’re options. Things to spark your imagination. You don’t need to think up something for every category. You just need enough to bring the problem to life.

Conflict with the opposition

Your character will have points of conflict with the opposition. That’s a given. The smarter and more powerful the opposition, the harder the problem is to solve, the more the reader can worry, and the bigger the triumph at the end. So you want to make your opposition character and team a real threat.

The best way I’ve found to do this is to play the story as one-man chess, thinking not just about the hero, but about the opposition as well. The hero is, for the opposition, a problem. And so I’ve found it very productive to develop the opposition’s goal, motives, and plan. So the hero makes a move, then I turn the table and ask: what cunning/smart/scary reactions might this opposition character have to what the hero just did? Back and forth I go, letting both characters act with as much intelligence and cunning as they possess. (more…)

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

Quick Updates for 2011-03-05

Saturday, March 5th, 2011

• Welcome to SFWA #
• Welcome to SFWA's newest Active member Peter David author of Fable: The Balverine Order (ACE/2010). #
• @sinspired Nope. It's possible that he was at one time and has been inactive long enough that he's no longer in the system. #
• @tithenai No cap. Put them on your registration. Choose "manual payment" & have them paypal execdir@sfwa.org w/ your name in the notes. #

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