Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America

Archive for April, 2011

Key Conditions for Suspense: Part 18 –
The 3 Phases of Problem Solving for Suspense

Saturday, April 16th, 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.

Key suspense structure elements

In the last post, I explained that structure and plot are about problem solving. So how do people solve problems? What’s the process?

Well, wait a minute. We have to add a little to that. We’re not just having characters solve problems. We’re showing characters struggle with problems in ways that engender and build suspense in a reader. Then we’re showing them resolve the problem in ways that provide the reader a wash of cathartic relief.

In order to do that, we show our characters work through three phases. I believe all of the elements below are necessary, which means if you take any one of these away, it will prevent the reader from feeling tension, feeling it build, or feeling it release.
(more…)

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

Bull Spec is SFWA’s newest qualifying market

Saturday, April 16th, 2011

The board of directors of SFWA voted to add the magazine Bull Spec to the list of SFWA qualifying markets. Bull Spec is a magazine of speculative fiction, published quarterly.  While it accepts fiction from all over, it aims to be a strong voice for Triangle- and North Carolina-area speculative fiction.

Because Bull Spec has been meeting SFWA’s minimum professional rates since they began publishing, any speculative fiction sale to them may be used toward membership with SFWA.

Congratulations to the entire editorial staff at Bull Spec and their writers!

Tags: Bull Spec, qualifying market
Posted in News, SFWA Blog, Where to Submit Short Stories | 1 Comment »

Quick Updates for 2011-04-16

Saturday, April 16th, 2011

• Lake People and Other Speculative Tales by SFWA member Anna D. Allen is now available http://amzn.com/B004W4MLIY #

Tags: twitter
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Book Fair Bewares

Thursday, April 14th, 2011

Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware

The London Book Fair is in full swing right now. Book Expo America is coming up next month. Throughout the year, book fairs draw crowds of publishers, agents, and industry professionals of all kinds to promote their products, take stock of the competition, and make rights and other business deals.

Authors are drawn to book fairs too. Some come to view the scene, soak up the atmosphere, meet with their friends or their agents or their editors. Some self-published authors buy space to sell and promote their own books. Many aspiring authors come in hopes of making connections and maybe even landing that elusive book deal (though this is largely a pipe dream; book fairs are for the book industry, not for authors). Some come at their publishers' invitation, to help promote their most recent works (for instance, Disney Editions has arranged for Ann to sign her new book next month at BEA).

If you're a big name, or a hot debut author, your publisher may pick up the entire tab for your book fair attendance--from transportation to admission to meals. If you're less prominent, it may expect you to pay your own way. What it will never do, however--if it's a reputable publisher, that is--is ask you to pay a fee for book fair presence, or charge you for the expense of bringing either you or your books to a fair. Why? Well, reputable publishers don't expect their authors to pay fees of any kind. Just as important, selling books and rights is not an "extra" that your publisher undertakes only under special circumstances--it's the publisher's primary job. It's why the publisher is at the fair in the first place.

(more...)

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

Nebula Awards 2009 Interview: N.K. Jemisin

Wednesday, April 13th, 2011

by Larry Nolen

N.K. Jemisin was nominated for her short story “Non-Zero Probabilities” in the 2009 Nebula Awards.

Looking at the stories linked to on your site, you’ve had several stories published since 2004.  For how long were you writing and submitting stories to editors before your first story was published?

I didn’t start out with short stories, actually; since childhood I’ve been writing novels, most of which were pretty awful.  But I got brave and submitted my first novel to a publisher in maybe 1995?  It sat in their slushpile for 2 years before being rejected, and I didn’t submit anything else for several years after that.  I wasn’t idle during this time; I was in grad school, which kind of put a damper on my writing, though when I had time I spent it working on the next book (the one that eventually became The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, which was recently published by Orbit).

I didn’t start writing short stories until after I attended the Viable Paradise writing workshop in 2002.  I’d thought of myself as a pure novelist up to then, but the instructors at the workshop — who were phenomenal, BTW — suggested that learning to write shorts would improve my novel-writing, so I decided to try it.  It took me a year or so to learn the craft, which basically consisted of me getting a subscription to F&SF, joining a writing group, and churning out a whole lot of crap.  But I finally made my first sale –  actually in 2003, but to a small-press anthology that held onto it for awhile and went kaput before it was ever published. I resold that one later, and had a cluster of other sales around the same time.

So to make a long story short (too late!), I spent maybe six months seriously submitting stories before my first one was published.

Many authors have kept copies of their rejection letters as a means of motivation.  Have you ever done so?

Yep.  That first novel rejection letter — the one I waited two years for — is framed and sitting in my office right now.  I also keep all my short story and novel rejections in a box, for the day when I own a house.  I intend to wallpaper my bathroom with them.
(more…)

Tags: interview, n. k. jemisin, Nebula Awards
Posted in Nebula Awards, SFWA Blog | 1 Comment »

Quick Updates for 2011-04-13

Wednesday, April 13th, 2011

• Hear SFWA member @daviddlevine in a panel discussion on YA science fiction in this month's Salon Futura podcast http://bit.ly/eC8wbO #
• SFWA member@vondanmcintyre's first novel, The Exile Waiting, debuts at Book View Cafe. http://is.gd/ATswF9 #

Tags: twitter
Posted in Excluded Categories | Comments Off

Guest Post: Labadie Mansion, A Visitation

Tuesday, April 12th, 2011

by Steven R. Stewart

At a stoplight on our way out of town, my brother Paul says, “I hope we don’t get mauled by a beaver.” He hesitates in the middle of the word, uncertain whether he wants to say “bear” or “beaver.” Beaver it is, and his stilted pronunciation gets us both laughing. The light turns green. I take my foot off the brake and allow the last of Bartlesville–Arby’s, a furniture store, mom and pop cafes–to roll past us and disappear.

Our destination is Labadie Mansion, a derelict house that neither of us have ever seen, and the site of numerous accounts of ghostly activity. According to “sources,” the house is hidden by trees, with no visible road going to or from the grounds. It’s notoriously difficult to find, unless you know where to look, and even then you can miss it. We have a set of coordinates that will get us to a nearby graveyard, a few stolen notes from Google Maps scribbled in sharpie on a piece of graph paper, and a photo that will point us in the right direction, if we can first find the spot where the photo was taken. I’ve been to the graveyard once before, but neither I nor my friend Rusty could track down the mansion on that first trip. Hopefully, this photo–just a bridge, a tree-covered hill, and the words “Labadie Mansion” with an arrow pointing into the dense woods–will be the key that unlocks the way.
(more…)

Tags: Steven R. Stewart
Posted in SFWA Blog | 2 Comments »

Libraries with Relatively Large SF Collections

Sunday, April 10th, 2011

This list is not comprehensive, but includes SFWA Circulating Book Plan Depositories, and libraries with relatively large SF/F collections. Additional libraries can be found at the AboutSF website.

Alabama

University of Alabama in Huntsville – Archives and Special Collections
M. Louis Salmon Library
301 Sparkman Dr., NW
Huntsville, AL 35899 USA
Phone: 256-824-6523
Email: colemana@uah.edu
Website: http://lib.uah.edu/researchassistance/archives.html
Contact: Anne Coleman, Archv. and Spec.Coll.Libn. Anne Coleman
Robert Foward Space Collection
Website

Alaska
Arizona
Arkansas

California

The J. Lloyd Eaton Collection of Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror and Utopian Literature
University of California, Riverside
Melissa Conway, Ph.D.
Head, Special Collections & Archives
University of California, Riverside
P.O. Box 5900
Riverside, CA 92517
ph: 951-827-3233
fax: 951-827-4673
Email: melissa.conway@ucr.edu
Website
(SFWA Circulating Book Plan Depository)

San Diego State University
Library and Information Access
5500 Campanile Drive
San Diego, CA 92182-8050
619-594-6791
scref@rohan.sdsu.edu
Website

Rueben Salazar Library
Sonoma State University
1801 East Cotati Ave
Rohnert Park, CA 94928
707-664-2397
Website
(SFWA Circulating Book Plan Depository)

Science Fiction Collection
University Archives & Special Collections Unit
California State University, Fullerton
Paulina June and George Pollak Library
800 North State College Blvd
Fullerton, CA 92834
657-278-3444
sperry@fullerton.edu
Website
(SFWA Circulating Book Plan Depository)

Colorado
Connecticut

Delaware

University of Delaware Library
Special Collections
Newark, Delaware 19717-5267
302-831-2229
Science Fiction
Email: http://www.lib.udel.edu/forms/askspec.php
Website

Florida

University of South Florida
Library – Special Collections Department
USF Tampa Library, 4th Fl.
4202 E. Fowler Ave., LIB 122
Tampa, FL 33620-5400 USA
Phone: 813-974-2731
Fax: 813-396-9006
Email: migreenberg@usf.edu
Website
Contact: Mark I. Greenberg, Dir.

The USIS Library Division of the U.S. Army, based in Miami, Florida
(SFWA Circulating Book Plan Depository)

Georgia

Georgia Institute of Technology
The Bud Foote Science Fiction Collection
Archives & Records Management
Library & Information Center
Georgia Institute of Technology
704 Research Avenue
Atlanta, Georgia 30332-0900
Prof. Lisa Yaszek
Email: lisa.yaszek@lcc.gatech.edu
Website

Hawaii
Idaho

Illinois

Northern Illinois University
Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) Collection
Rare Books and Special Collections
Founders Memorial Library 402
DeKalb, IL 60115
Phone: 815-753-0255
Lynne M. Thomas, Head, Rare Books and Special Collections
Email: lmthomas@niu.edu
Website
(SFWA Circulating Book Plan Depository)

Indiana

Iowa

University of Iowa Libraries
M. HORVAT COLLECTION OF SCIENCE FICTION FANZINES
Special Collections & University Archives
The University of Iowa Libraries
100 Main Library
Iowa City, IA 52242-1420
319-335-5921
Email: lib-spec@uiowa.edu

Kansas

University of Kansas
The J. Wayne and Elsie M. Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction
Department of English
University of Kansas
1445 Jayhawk Blvd.
3001 Wescoe Hall
Lawrence KS 66045
Chris McKitterick (Email: cmckit@ku.edu)
James Gunn (Email: jgunn@ku.edu)
Website
(SFWA Circulating Book Plan Depository)

Kentucky

Louisiana

Tulane University
Rare Books Department – Special Collections Division.
6801 Freret St.
Tulane Libraries, Jones Hall
New Orleans, LA 70118-5643 USA
504-865-5685
Bruce Raeburn
Email:raeburn@tulane.edu
Website

Maine

Maryland

University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Albin O. Kuhn Library & Gallery Special Collections
1000 Hilltop Circle
Baltimore, MD 21250 USA
Phone: 410-455-2353
Fax: 410-455-1567
Email: speccoll@umbc.edu
Email: beck@umbc.edu
Website
Tom Beck, Chief Curator
Massachusetts

Michigan

Michigan State University
Special Collections Division
Russel B. Nye Popular Culture Collection
100 Library
East Lansing, MI 28824
Randall W. Scott
517-432-6123
Website
(SFWA Circulating Book Plan Depository)

Minnesota
Mississippi
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Jersey

New Mexico

Jack Williamson Science Fiction Library
Eastern New Mexico University
1500 S Ave K
Portales, NM 88130
For more information, contact Gene Bundy at 575-562-2636
Email: Gene.Bundy@enmu.edu
Website

New York

The Daniel A Reed Library at New York State University in Fredonia
SUNY Fredonia
Fredonia, NY 14063
716-673-3184
Website
(SFWA Circulating Book Plan)

North Carolina
North Dakota

Ohio

Bowling Green State University
Browne Popular Culture Library
Science Fiction, Fantasy & Related Collections
Bowling Green, OH 43403-0001
Nancy Down, Head
419-372-6054
Email: pcldesk@bgsu.edu
Website

The Roesch Library at the University of Dayton
Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Collection
Rare Books and Special Collections
211 Albert Emanuel Hall
300 College Park
Dayton, OH 45469-1360
Dr. Nicoletta Hary, Curator of Rare Books and Special Collections
937-229-4262
Website
Email: nicoletta.hary@notes.udayton.edu
(SFWA Circulating Book Plan Depository)

Oklahoma
Oregon

Pennsylvania

Temple University Library
Paskow Science Fiction Collection
Samuel L. Paley Library (017-00)
Room: m128
1210 Polett Walk
Philadelphia, PA 19122
Thomas M. Whitehead, Head, Special Collections
215-204-4371
Email: whitetm@temple.edu
Website

Pennsylvania State University – Special Collections Library
104 Paterno Library
University Park, PA 16802-1808 USA
Phone: 814-865-7931
Website
Contact: William L. Joyce,
Email: wlj2@psu.edu

Rhode Island
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee

Texas
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Research Collection
Cushing Memorial Library and Archives
Texas A&M University Libraries
5000 TAMU
College Station, TX 77843-5000
979-845-5741
Website
Catherine Coker
Email: ccoker@library.tamu.edu

Utah

The Harold B. Lee Library at Brigham Young University
L. Tom Perry Special Collections
1130 Harold B. Lee Library
Brigham Young University
Provo, UT 84602-6800
Website
801-422-3175
(SFWA Circulating Book Plan Depository)

Vermont

Virginia

University Libraries, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
William J. Heron Collection of Speculative Fiction
University Libraries
Virginia Tech, P.O. Box 90001,
Blacksburg, VA 24062-9001
540-231-6308
Email: specref@vt.edu
Website

Williamsburg Regional Library
James City County Library
7770 Croaker Rd.
Williamsburg VA 23188
Phone: 757.259.7770
Website
(SFWA Circulating Book Plan Depository)

Washington
Washington, DC
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming

Posted in Excluded Categories, Information Center, The Business of Writing | 1 Comment »

What SFWA Authors Need to Know about
Archiving Their Literary Papers1

Sunday, April 10th, 2011

by Lynne M. Thomas
Head, Rare Books and Special Collections,
Northern Illinois University

What do you mean, literary papers?
Literary papers can also be referred to as manuscripts, foul papers, or archives (even when we’re talking about electronic files). They document your individual writing process, from “this is a great idea for a story or novel,” through numerous drafts, to “hurrah, it’s published at last.” Receipts with story ideas on the back, any and all drafts including critiqued manuscripts, copy-edited manuscripts, and page proofs are all considered part of your literary papers.

Why would anybody want this stuff?
You and your work are important. Science fiction and fantasy literature permeates our culture. The mission of libraries, archives, and museums is to document our culture. We want to preserve the historical record of the SF/F field in all of its diversity for future researchers. The best way to do that is to collect the materials that are created by writers working in the field, right now, before those drafts get thrown away or accidentally destroyed in the next laptop crash. Authors who donate their literary papers are more likely to be studied in the future, merely because they have taken steps to guarantee that their papers will survive. Toni Morrison nearly lost her life’s work in a house fire. Jane Austen’s literary papers were scattered to the winds, and only recently reunited digitally; the vast majority of her letters, which would have provided additional insight into her life and work, were burned by her sister Cassandra after her death.

Archival collections often document Very Famous or Important People ™, but they also document the experiences of what it is really like for the average person in any given field. You can’t study the day-to-day life of a genre writer if nothing is left to document the wide variety of subgenres and career paths that create such depth and breadth of influence both in and outside of the genre.

We often don’t know who will qualify as “important” until well after the fact (cf. H.P. Lovecraft). Individual writers, groups, and sub-genres are re-evaluated over time. But that can’t happen if the literary papers documenting them no longer exist. So please, assume that you are Important.

Okay, so who would want this stuff?
There are many libraries, archives, and museums that collect the literary archives of SF/F authors. You might try places such as your alma mater, or (if you already work at an academic institution) your place of work. The best fit for your papers will probably be a library that already collects SF/F literature and archives. In an SF/F-friendly library, your materials, once available for research, stay together alongside those of your peers and colleagues, providing greater context for your work. (more…)

Tags: Archives, library, Lynne M. Thomas
Posted in Information Center, SFWA Blog, The Business of Writing | 2 Comments »

Quick Updates for 2011-04-10

Sunday, April 10th, 2011

• SFWA member @johncleaver is signing at Borderlands, in San Francisco at 3pm today. #

Tags: twitter
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