I was at the York Writers' Festival on Saturday. It's a three day event by I was only interested in the seminars on Saturday (and couldn't afford the entire event anyway).
Saturday was organized as 3 talks and 3 workshops (alternating) and I had my 2 one-on-one agent sessions amidst those.
The opening address by Katie Fford (distant relation of Jasper Fforde) was entertaining and added more data to my theory that 8-10 years seems to be about the modal time span for a hard-working, talented writer to get their first novel published (it took her 8 years). She also presented her ten tips to follow that would guarantee publication--summarized here as: write, write what you love, write in a fashion that works for you and don't get discouraged by any one opinion.
I was fortunate to hear a 'state of the sf/f/h market' presentation by well-repsected UK SF/F/H agent John Jarrold. It's his opinion that the sci-fi market is recovering fastest in the UK, with the US still lagging a bit under the 'only fantasy sells' mentality. Australia is somewhere between the two. And I managed a brief introduction, card grab after the session.
The other workshops I attended were on 'what writers should know about rights' and a kind of day-in-the-life-of-an-editor type talk with Oliver Munson from Blake Friedmann, and Zoe King from Darley Anderson. Both were interesting, but not a lot of new information. However, I did manage to catch Zoe King after her presentation and gave a crude pitch for a science anthology that she was tentatively interested in. I got the go-ahead to send her more details.
My two one-on-one sessions went as well as could be expected. Signing up late meant that anyone with any interest in sci-fi was already booked, but John Elek and Jo Unwin were both friendly and helpful none-the-less. As a great help, Jo gave me the author of a well respected book on editing/revision of novels, something I've been looking for for a while. For anyone interested, check Amazon under Sol Stein (apparently the book titles differ on either side of the ocean).
I also met Isabella White, an independent agent (again, non-sci-fi). Interestingly, both her and John Elek, the first two agents I met, are Canadian (from Toronto). It seemed a little strange going through the last ten years of world travels to come full circle and meet two Canadians at this event.
Anyway, overall I felt the event was worthwhile for me. It almost feels like the official marking of the next phase of my writing career--namely, properly finishing the work and getting it out there. And it taught me that agents are not ogres, most of them are quite friendly and helpful.
Monday, April 12, 2010
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Selected Hugo 2010 Nominees
Hot off the press: the Hugo nominees were just announced here at Odyssey 2010. The winners will be voted on by Ausiecon 4 members until July 31 and will be announced during Aussiecon 4 (Sept 2-6).
The full data can be found on the Aussiecon 4 site, but I'll present a nominees from a few catagories here.
First, a few interesting/useful bits of info.
1) the twitter hashtag is #hugos
2) Americans gave most of the voting ballets, with just over half. Next most numerous were from Canada, then Australia-New Zealand, followed by UK, Europe, and the rest of the world.
John W Campbell, Best New SF Writer
- Saladin Ahmed
- Gail Carriger
- Felix Gilman
- Seanan McGuire
- Lezli Robyn
And now, some selected Hugo nominees:
Best Fanzine
- Argenta
- Banana Wings
- Challenger
- Drink Tank
- File 770
- Starship Sofa
Best Semiprozine
- Ansible
- Clarkesworld
- Interzone
- Locus
- Weird Tales
Best Dramatic Presentation - Short Form
- Doctor Who "The Next Doctor"
- Doctor Who "Planet of the Dead"
- Doctor Who "Waters of Mars"
- Dollhouse "Epitaph 1"
- FlashForward "No more good days"
Best Dramatic Presentation - Long Form
- Avatar
- District 9
- Moon
- Star Trek
- Up
Best Graphic Story
- Batman: Whatever happened to the caped crusader
- Captain Britain and MI13: Vol3 Vampire State
- Fables Vol 12: Dark Ages
- Girl Genius Vol 9: Agatha Heterodyne and the heirs of the storm
- Schlock Mercenary: The Longshoreman of the Apocalypse
Best Novel
- Boneshaker, Cherei Priest
- The City & The City, China Mieville
- Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd Century America, Robert Charles Wilson
- Palimpsest, Catherynne M. Valente
- Wake, Robert J. Sawyer
- The Windup Girl, Paolo Bacigalupi
Interesting. Whereas, last year it seemed most of the Novel nominees were British, or at least living in the UK, this year belongs to the Americans with 4 authors from the US, 1 Canadian and 1 Brit.
That's all from me. There are a number of other catagories, but these are the ones I was most interested in. Anyway, now I'd better get down to some serious reading. After some sleep.
The full data can be found on the Aussiecon 4 site, but I'll present a nominees from a few catagories here.
First, a few interesting/useful bits of info.
1) the twitter hashtag is #hugos
2) Americans gave most of the voting ballets, with just over half. Next most numerous were from Canada, then Australia-New Zealand, followed by UK, Europe, and the rest of the world.
John W Campbell, Best New SF Writer
- Saladin Ahmed
- Gail Carriger
- Felix Gilman
- Seanan McGuire
- Lezli Robyn
And now, some selected Hugo nominees:
Best Fanzine
- Argenta
- Banana Wings
- Challenger
- Drink Tank
- File 770
- Starship Sofa
Best Semiprozine
- Ansible
- Clarkesworld
- Interzone
- Locus
- Weird Tales
Best Dramatic Presentation - Short Form
- Doctor Who "The Next Doctor"
- Doctor Who "Planet of the Dead"
- Doctor Who "Waters of Mars"
- Dollhouse "Epitaph 1"
- FlashForward "No more good days"
Best Dramatic Presentation - Long Form
- Avatar
- District 9
- Moon
- Star Trek
- Up
Best Graphic Story
- Batman: Whatever happened to the caped crusader
- Captain Britain and MI13: Vol3 Vampire State
- Fables Vol 12: Dark Ages
- Girl Genius Vol 9: Agatha Heterodyne and the heirs of the storm
- Schlock Mercenary: The Longshoreman of the Apocalypse
Best Novel
- Boneshaker, Cherei Priest
- The City & The City, China Mieville
- Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd Century America, Robert Charles Wilson
- Palimpsest, Catherynne M. Valente
- Wake, Robert J. Sawyer
- The Windup Girl, Paolo Bacigalupi
Interesting. Whereas, last year it seemed most of the Novel nominees were British, or at least living in the UK, this year belongs to the Americans with 4 authors from the US, 1 Canadian and 1 Brit.
That's all from me. There are a number of other catagories, but these are the ones I was most interested in. Anyway, now I'd better get down to some serious reading. After some sleep.
Anthologies - The Art of Compilation
I was delighted to see that the program for this year's Eastercon included a panel discussion on creating anthologies. The Panel featured Ian Whates: author, anthologist and founder of New Con Press; Ellen Datlow: American professional anthologist; Colin Harvey and Gary Couzens: writers and occassional anthologists.
There were a lot of discussions about submissions, pros and cons of open vs. invited vs. reprint (open is the most work, reprint is really fun and invited is often frustrating). It was interesting to hear that, even for anthologies, the big six publishers have a heirarchy of authors such that for every 'A' list author, you might need 2-3 B-list authors. The publishers also require 1/3 more invites than desired for publication due to the estimated number who won't end up producing a story.
It was also interesting to learn that anthologies are much more common and accepted in the US than they are in the UK. Apparently, it's very rare in the UK for a big publisher to accept a pitch for an anthology regardless of the idea. They just don't want to produce them and most British anthologies are done by small presses. This suggests to me that I should target the US market much more for selling.
Most positive for me, in this discussion, was when it came around to the layout. The two most experienced anthologists confirmed my own thoughts on layout, and the way I approached the layout for Assassins' Canon. i.e. generally the first and last are the strongest, with the longer, more challenging reads in the middle. With the added idea that the first story having the added ideas that it should set the expectations for the anthology, without being too heavy.
For Assassins' Canon, there were a number of stories I could have started with, but in the end I chose Ken Goldman's 'Fat Larry's Night with the Alligators' because it emboidied all the ideas above and, I felt, led nicely into the many directions and types of stories the anthology included. Likewise, Jason Frank's 'XDA Zai: The Wild Hunt' was a strong story that wrapped up the anthology in the same way--a nice mix of real and surreal. That said, there's not a single story I'm unhappy about including and I remain thrilled at the finished product. I can only hope future anthologies from Utililty Fog Press will be as good.
There were a lot of discussions about submissions, pros and cons of open vs. invited vs. reprint (open is the most work, reprint is really fun and invited is often frustrating). It was interesting to hear that, even for anthologies, the big six publishers have a heirarchy of authors such that for every 'A' list author, you might need 2-3 B-list authors. The publishers also require 1/3 more invites than desired for publication due to the estimated number who won't end up producing a story.
It was also interesting to learn that anthologies are much more common and accepted in the US than they are in the UK. Apparently, it's very rare in the UK for a big publisher to accept a pitch for an anthology regardless of the idea. They just don't want to produce them and most British anthologies are done by small presses. This suggests to me that I should target the US market much more for selling.
Most positive for me, in this discussion, was when it came around to the layout. The two most experienced anthologists confirmed my own thoughts on layout, and the way I approached the layout for Assassins' Canon. i.e. generally the first and last are the strongest, with the longer, more challenging reads in the middle. With the added idea that the first story having the added ideas that it should set the expectations for the anthology, without being too heavy.
For Assassins' Canon, there were a number of stories I could have started with, but in the end I chose Ken Goldman's 'Fat Larry's Night with the Alligators' because it emboidied all the ideas above and, I felt, led nicely into the many directions and types of stories the anthology included. Likewise, Jason Frank's 'XDA Zai: The Wild Hunt' was a strong story that wrapped up the anthology in the same way--a nice mix of real and surreal. That said, there's not a single story I'm unhappy about including and I remain thrilled at the finished product. I can only hope future anthologies from Utililty Fog Press will be as good.
Friday, April 2, 2010
The Truth About Utopias
Eastercon (Odyssey 2010) has started off today and the first panel discussion I went to was titled: Utopia - how the concept has developed in sci-fi and philosophy.
As might be expected with such a title, much, if not all, the discussion centred around the usual things: what ideas have been presented in the past, what the panelists' own views are, is a utopia even possible. You know, wading through 50 minutes to find a few pellets of gold, like 1) on average, utopian communities that have been tried in the west last 18 months; 2) the most successful utopian communities have been religious oriented; 3) there's not even really a concensus on what a utopian society would fundamentally entail.
I believe these are the pellets of gold because they give the fundamental clues about the 'true' nature of a utopia. The secret...if anyone is wondering...is the same as it is for much of life. In short, a utopia is purely a frame of mind. If one believes they live in a utopia, then they do. Simple. This lends to the understanding of why religious groups are most successful with utopian societies--because both are about belief.
An ideal, physical utopia is logically impossible since everyone will have their own view of what a utopia is. Which suggests the way (dare I say, the ONLY way) to create a Utopia. One must make the population believe they are in a utopia. Classically, the could involve methods of propaganda or other brainwashing. Futuritically, it could involve more direct, technological means (subliminal messages in television shows...).
Typically, the discussions at such a panel has issues of class. i.e. partial utopias, a utopia for the upper class, while the lower classes toil their fingers to the bones. However, I don't believe this for the simple reason that the upper classes are no more happy than the lower classes. They have an easier life, but there is strong sociological evidence that such a life does not make one happier (indeed, if it did, why would such people continue striving for more...). Another observation to suggest that utopia is in the mind.
When looking at the existing and past cultures, my own belief is that the USA has come closest to achieving this utopian mindset--not only among their own people, but among people around the world. Despite all the problems of the country--attrocious health care, huge disparity of riches, rampant gun abuse, political corruption and abuses, imperialism, war mongering, resource hording--most residents, immigrants, and perhaps even foreigners, believe it is the best country in the world to live. This leads me to believe that the propaganda policies of the American government in the last century have been highly successful in creating the utopian mindset in their population. More evidence to suggest that any future utopia will, first and foremost, require the ability to manipulate or outright control the minds of its populace.
Frightening.
As might be expected with such a title, much, if not all, the discussion centred around the usual things: what ideas have been presented in the past, what the panelists' own views are, is a utopia even possible. You know, wading through 50 minutes to find a few pellets of gold, like 1) on average, utopian communities that have been tried in the west last 18 months; 2) the most successful utopian communities have been religious oriented; 3) there's not even really a concensus on what a utopian society would fundamentally entail.
I believe these are the pellets of gold because they give the fundamental clues about the 'true' nature of a utopia. The secret...if anyone is wondering...is the same as it is for much of life. In short, a utopia is purely a frame of mind. If one believes they live in a utopia, then they do. Simple. This lends to the understanding of why religious groups are most successful with utopian societies--because both are about belief.
An ideal, physical utopia is logically impossible since everyone will have their own view of what a utopia is. Which suggests the way (dare I say, the ONLY way) to create a Utopia. One must make the population believe they are in a utopia. Classically, the could involve methods of propaganda or other brainwashing. Futuritically, it could involve more direct, technological means (subliminal messages in television shows...).
Typically, the discussions at such a panel has issues of class. i.e. partial utopias, a utopia for the upper class, while the lower classes toil their fingers to the bones. However, I don't believe this for the simple reason that the upper classes are no more happy than the lower classes. They have an easier life, but there is strong sociological evidence that such a life does not make one happier (indeed, if it did, why would such people continue striving for more...). Another observation to suggest that utopia is in the mind.
When looking at the existing and past cultures, my own belief is that the USA has come closest to achieving this utopian mindset--not only among their own people, but among people around the world. Despite all the problems of the country--attrocious health care, huge disparity of riches, rampant gun abuse, political corruption and abuses, imperialism, war mongering, resource hording--most residents, immigrants, and perhaps even foreigners, believe it is the best country in the world to live. This leads me to believe that the propaganda policies of the American government in the last century have been highly successful in creating the utopian mindset in their population. More evidence to suggest that any future utopia will, first and foremost, require the ability to manipulate or outright control the minds of its populace.
Frightening.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Odyssey 2010
I arrived at the Radisson Edwardian hotel in Heathrow (spitting distance from the airport) today for this years' eastercon-->Odyssey 2010. It doesn't officially start until 8pm Friday night, but there are events planned tomorrow during the day, some of which look to be quite interesting. I'll also have a chance to put up my artwork before most people arrive.
I was hoping to have six new pictures to put in the show this year, but things (mostly image size and framing) didn't go as planned. Of course, it's my fault for leaving it to the last minute (almost literally). So I will have 6 images showing, but one is from last year, with a new frame, and one will not be for sale. One that I had hoped to exhibit, Showdown, the first image in my Steampunk series, will have to wait for another con (or I may just put it online for sale). I do intend to open up an online store of popular images through my Artwanted.com profile, so watch this space for information.
In the meantime, I'm especially looking forward to listening to some well known authors. In addition the the guests of honour: Ian M. Banks, Alastair Reynolds and Liz Williams, I've also seen Paul Mcauley, Ken Mcleod, Mike Carey, Stephen Hunt and Chaz Brenchley on the program as panelists. Furthermore, I'm curious to hear the talks on 'how to submit your script to the BBC' and 'creating anthologies'. John Jarrold is also here, the sci-fi/fantasy agent that I'm most familiar with and will also be in York next week for the York Writers' Festival. Hopefully I'll get a chance to talk with him. And, of course, I'll once again be getting the opening of a novel critqued by the semi-pro London sci-fi group T-Party.
All in all, it's shaping up to be an interesting, enjoyable weekend.
I was hoping to have six new pictures to put in the show this year, but things (mostly image size and framing) didn't go as planned. Of course, it's my fault for leaving it to the last minute (almost literally). So I will have 6 images showing, but one is from last year, with a new frame, and one will not be for sale. One that I had hoped to exhibit, Showdown, the first image in my Steampunk series, will have to wait for another con (or I may just put it online for sale). I do intend to open up an online store of popular images through my Artwanted.com profile, so watch this space for information.
In the meantime, I'm especially looking forward to listening to some well known authors. In addition the the guests of honour: Ian M. Banks, Alastair Reynolds and Liz Williams, I've also seen Paul Mcauley, Ken Mcleod, Mike Carey, Stephen Hunt and Chaz Brenchley on the program as panelists. Furthermore, I'm curious to hear the talks on 'how to submit your script to the BBC' and 'creating anthologies'. John Jarrold is also here, the sci-fi/fantasy agent that I'm most familiar with and will also be in York next week for the York Writers' Festival. Hopefully I'll get a chance to talk with him. And, of course, I'll once again be getting the opening of a novel critqued by the semi-pro London sci-fi group T-Party.
All in all, it's shaping up to be an interesting, enjoyable weekend.
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