Use this form to submit a question for the Journal. If you have a Live Journal account (they're free) you can add this Journal to your "Friends" list and read and comment to it from there. Martha has also discussed a number of writing topics and questions on her Live Journal. You can find those entries here.
Couple of interviews with Joe Lansdale, who is awesome:
Interviewed by Rick Klaw, in the San Antonio Current: Joe R. Lansdale, previously best known as a pivotal figure in the blood and guts infused '80s splatterpunk movement, reinvented his literary persona when he introduced crime fiction's most unusual duo in 1990's Savage Season. Over the course of seven books, good ol' boy Hap Collins, a 40-something white liberal, and Vietnam veteran Leonard Pine — black, conservative, gay — encounter all sorts of bizarre nasties, violent trouble, and humorous situations throughout Lansdale’s East Texas homeland. Racial tensions and societal intolerance color all of their adventures.
Tehran Bureau is a good source for news on what's happening in Iran. And it could use some donations to keep going. From The Daily Dish: The website is called Tehran Bureau, but it is not housed in the Iranian capital. It’s edited from [Kelly Golnoush] Niknejad's parents' living room in Newton. "Everybody thinks this is some kind of extensive bureau, but it’s just me," Niknejad said yesterday as she sat alone at a small round table, tapping on one of two Apple PowerBooks.
In writing news, DearAuthor has an interesting Daily Links Roundup: Publishing is a low paying job with entry level positions paying just above minimum wage (and a barely liveable wage in New York City). The question that the New Yorker posed was whether low paying positions are affecting literature. I think the answer most people were giving is "Yes".
For people in or near Lansing, Michigan: there's a missing person. She may not have taken her medication properly and may be disoriented. There's more info in this newspaper article.
If you know anyone in Lansing, please pass this info on to them.
link: The Lie That is BookscanToday I had a project rejected by a publisher. It's the author's third book and the prior two books had been well received and have sold well. But according to this publisher, "the Bookscan sales of his two titles have been modest in comparison to the great praise and attention his work has received, and in this economy that’s a very difficult obstacle for us to overcome with our accounts and booksellers."
There's only one problem with this argument: The Bookscan numbers are wrong.
According to the royalty statements I've received, the author's first book has net sales of just under 14,000 copies. According to this editor, Bookscan shows sales just over 7,200 copies. That's nearly a 100% difference!
New speculative fiction magazine: Icarus from Lethe Press. Icarus is the first magazine devoted to gay-themed speculative fiction and writing - from fantasy to horror to science fiction, and all the weird tales that fall between the cracks.
If it doesn't rain here soon, I think we're all going to die. This is like the fifth or sixth day it's been in the 99-100 range. If this is June, I hate to think what August is going to be like.
Nero Wolfe: "Nothing is more admirable than the fortitude with which millionaires tolerate the disadvantages of their wealth."
Archie, after watching a police interrogation where they slapped the suspect for hours: "They say it works sometimes, but even if it does, how could you depend on anything you got that way? Not to mention that after you did it a few times any decent garbage can would be ashamed to have you found in it."
Writing 101 Sat 12:00PM - 1:00PM Seattle II Bill Crider, Joe McKinney, Julie Kenner, K.M. Tolan, Martha Wells Is your mind whirling with questions like "where do ideas come from?" or "when can I quit my day job?" then this panel is for you. Pros and emerging pros give the skinny on the art and business of writing.
Does Fantasy Have to be Epic? Sat 1:00PM - 2:00PM Seattle II Martha Wells (M), A. Lee Martinez, Gail Dayton, Lillian Stewart Carl When writing fantasy, does it have to be a multi-book save-the-world epic? Can fantasy, including sword & sorcery, have a smaller scope and still be satisfying to the reader? Is there still a place for the stand-alone book?
It Wasn't Always a Cliché Sat 3:00PM - 4:00PM Seattle II Martha Wells, Erika Frensley, Rhonda Eudaly, Kathy Thornton, Jayme Lynn Blaschke Another book about an alien robot running amok and destroying humanity? They may be old hat now, but robots, aliens, and magical swords had to get their start somewhere. Our panelists discuss the earliest use of the tropes of Spec Fic.
Judith Tarr (dancinghorse) is having a sale on writing mentoring: I've cleared the backlog of mss., I'm practicing revision avoidance (two in a row--that's just cruel), and I need to pay the utility bills, so I've decided to have a sale. What I do as a Writing Mentor is described fairly generally here. I do R&D and Mad Plotting as well as the usual editing and proofreading. The hourly rate for 2009 is $40; I'm offering $10 off four hours of mentoring, for a total of $150.
Amazon Kindle Editions are now available for The Element of Fire and City of Bones. And they are very cheap! Like $3.96 and $5.95 cheap.
My other books (the Fall of Ile-Rien trilogy and my two Stargate Atlantis books) that are available on Kindle are listed here.
For new people who have friended me recently (Hi!) my web site is here, and it has a list of all my books and short stories, free stuff that's available, and sample chapters, etc.
ApolloCon in Houston is the weekend after this one, but unfortunately I'll only be able to be there on Saturday. When it came down to it, we just couldn't afford the two nights in the hotel, so I'll just be daytripping in for Saturday programming.
In the department of Die, Sears, Die: Yesterday was not good. After waiting a week for someone from Sears to come out and fix the garage door, we found out that Sears had gone through all the motions of making the service appointment but not actually made it, which was somehow our fault because of course Sears can't take responsibility for any mistakes its employees make that screw over its customers, that would be crazy. So another company is coming out to look at it today, and from what it sounds like after discussing the problem with a rational person, we'll probably need to replace the whole opener (it's 13 years old and gears keep breaking) which we can't afford.
Die, Weather, Die: It's really hot, already. We hit 100 yesterday.
A link from arcaedia: Allison Kent on reader entitlement: There's No Crying in ReadingApologize? You’re kidding, right? We’re not running bases here. We’re not throwing balls at 92 mph and hoping to hit 98. We don’t bide our time in the minor league, waiting to be called up to the show. From our very first sale, we hit the shelves with the big leaguers, and rushing through books isn’t doing anyone any favors.
Here’s the deal. Baseball players play baseball FOR A LIVING. A huge percentage of authors write PART TIME. That means most of their days are taken up with earning a living wage at a job that provides benefits. Writing time is limited to evenings and weekends, and are authors supposed to forget they have families? Are they supposed to closet themselves away while their spouses take the kids to Little League and soccer and dance recitals? Seriously, would a reader expect that of an author?
Link: The Daily Dish at The Atlantic is providing links and posts about events in Iran, for those who aren't on Twitter. (Warning, there's some graphic photos of injured protesters)
There's now an auction community to benefit writer Catherynne M. Valente, adoptingcat. This economy has been difficult for everyone, but it's been especially difficult for those in creative lines of work. As you may know, Catherynne M. Valente's (yuki_onna) fiance, justbeast was laid off six months ago. While they have both been working diligently since then, Cat on her writing and D trying to pick up freelance work, the cold hard fact is right now it's not enough.
The profile page tells how you can help. It combines shopping with helping someone, the two best things ever!
Book rec: I just read lisamantchev's YA novel Eyes Like Stars and enjoyed it a lot. It's a fairytale but modern fantasy, set in a magical theater, with a great female protagonist who does not wear black leather and does not fight demons. It was an excellent read.
Juneteenth is coming up. From its Galveston, Texas origin in 1865, the observance of June 19th as the African American Emancipation Day has spread across the United States and beyond.
Speaking of Galveston, they've added new webcams so you can stare longingly at the beach from different angles.
Kind of a crappy day, starting with morfin almost being late for jury duty because the garage door opener broke. We've got both vehicles out now, and an appointment next week for someone to come fix it, but I really hope it's not too expensive. From what I can tell, the thing that holds the chain on broke, so maybe they just have to replace that part.
On the Black Gate Blog, Ryan Harvey has a post about Seventh Sanctum, and using its random story idea, character, and world-building programs.
From Jeff VanderMeer's Blog: Help Tempest Help Clarion West Help Beginning Writers Help Themselves: Today, K. Tempest Bradford is starting her write-a-thon on behalf of Clarion West. As a graduate of Clarion and an instructor at both Clarion and Clarion South, I can tell you that all three versions of the workshop offer an invaluable service to SF/F writers. It’s not just the workshop–although that’s paramount–it’s also about the value to the community, something that I think manifests itself most strongly at Clarion West because of their location in Seattle.
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