The Days Are Just Packed

5/11/08: Spaaaace Magic!

Word count: 5420 | Since last entry: 4436

My first collection, Space Magic, can now be ordered from http://www.wheatlandpress.com! Also, don't forget that I have a reading and signing at Powell's Books at Cedar Hills Crossing in Beaverton, Oregon this Wednesday, May 14, at 7pm.

Yesterday I finished the first draft of the story I was working on, and it's now in the hands of my crit group. This was an interesting and difficult story, for some reason. I just couldn't get motivated to start work on it until a week before the deadline (actual deadline is June 1, but I had to have it done by yesterday in order to get it critiqued before then), and once I did start it just refused to take off. On Wednesday I realized that I'd written 3500 words, out of a maximum 5000, and the conflict hadn't started yet. My protagonist wasn't protagging -- it was all exposition and backstory. I spent the day cutting exposition and got it down to 2500 words, but it still wasn't going anywhere. Thursday I cut some more, but I couldn't see how I could get all the necessary information in before the reader got bored.

I thought hard about the problem for a day or so and decided to use a trick: I would cut the climax into pieces and distribute them throughout the story, starting at the beginning, so that all that exposition becomes flashback. I started doing that Friday, and also cut more exposition as it became clear which pieces I could do without. Then I spent basically the whole day Saturday pounding away at it -- about 2600 words in one day (hard to say for sure, because I took out a lot I'd already written as well). The result is satisfying -- a real pulse-pounding adventure, I think. We'll see what my critters think of it.

On Friday I was the guest of the Immaculate Novelists' Kult writing group in Vancouver, WA. They made me very welcome, let me talk about myself for four and a half hours, and gave me a lovely parting gift (a basket of fruit, chocolate, cheese, crackers, pens, a notebook, and a Powell's gift card). I'm overwhelmed.

Saturday I attended the Diet Soap issue 2 launch party at the Writers' Dojo. Interesting space, great people, and I got to participate in the reading even though I'm not in the magazine (I read an excerpt from "Falling Off the Unicorn", the Space Magic bonus track). Fun stuff.

Also, we went to Ikea and bought shelves. Two assembled, two more to go. Whee!

5/5/08: Upcoming author appearances

Word count: 984 | Since last entry: 360

Wednesday, May 14: I will be reading from and signing Space Magic, my first collection of short stories, at Powell's Books at Cedar Hills Crossing in Beaverton, Oregon at 7:00 PM.

Tuesday, May 20: Another Space Magic signing, at Panther Bookstore in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 12:00-2:00 PM.

Friday-Sunday, May 23-15: Wiscon, at which I will be appearing on the following panels:

Saturday at 4:00 PM: "The 'Real City' of Urban Fantasy" with Ellen Kushner, Richard Bowes, Karen Healey, and Julia Starkey.
Sunday at 1:00 PM: "Get Out Your Secret Decoder Ring" with Catherynne M. Valente, Lesley Hall, Janine Young, and Tisha Turk.
Sunday at 2:30 PM: "Like Quills upon the Fretful Porcupine" (Reading) with Elizabeth Bear, Sarah Monette, and Ellen Kushner.

There will also be a Space Magic launch party at Wiscon, Friday night at 9:30-ish in Suite 611. Wheatland Press is sharing a party with Electric Velocipede and Scribe Agency and Farago's Wainscot, 'cause the more the merrier!

If you can't make it to any of the above, Space Magic can now be pre-ordered from Amazon.com and should be available from Wheatland Press shortly.

5/2/08: I'm back

Word count: 624 | Since last entry: 624

Apparently if I'm not writing, I'm not blogging either. But I'm back on the horse, producing words for a theme anthology with a deadline that seemed luxurious when I got it but has shrunk to only a couple of weeks. More deadlines loom meyond that. Aiee!

I'm back from the Nebulas, as well. I did not win, alas, but it really is an honor to be nominated, and I can't fault the voters for selecting Karen Joy Fowler's "Always." But even if I didn't win the shiny, I was the best-dressed guy at the banquet in my new vintage tux (which I inherited from a recently-deceased writer known to many of you). Unfortunately, my camera died just before the trip and no one else has posted a picture of the tux online yet. But I hope that it will be in the next Locus and Jayme Lynn Blaschke has posted a fine photo of me and Kate. You can also see me accepting my nomination certificate and a group shot of the nominees. We had a good time in Austin hanging out with such notables as Jennifer Pelland and Mary Robinette Kowal and eating, well, like Texans on vacation (I gained about five pounds over the long weekend).

The sting of losing the Nebula has also been lessened somewhat by the arrival of a contract from Ellen Datlow: "Titanium Mike Saves the Day" will be reprinted in the anthology Nebula Awards Showcase 2009. I also have some other good news that I hope to be able to share with you shortly.

While we were in Austin, Kate sprang a very accurate faux Amazing Race clue envelope on me, directing Team Bento to drive 30 miles to the town of Spicewood, Texas. We soon found ourselves at Cypress Valley Canopy Tours, where we were fitted out with harnesses and helmets for a trek through the treetops by zipline! (Technically it was neither a Roadblock nor a Detour, since we didn't have any choice and both of us did the same thing, but what the hell.) I hadn't expected to find so many large trees in Texas, but the tour was fun and educational (zipping from tree to tree ~~as we float down the mighty rivers of British Columbia~~) and too short. Again, camera died so no pictures. I love my sweetie.

One last thing before I fall over: my friend Katy King pointed out a strong coincidental similarity between this XKCD strip and my story "Fear of Widths" (saying "I like your version better"). I am amused.

4/24/08: En route to Austin

Heading to Austin for the Nebulas, where I expect to lose to Karen Joy Fowler, but it really is an honor just to be nominated. I realize from reading Jennifer Pelland's blog just how blase' I've been about the whole thing so far. My heart will probably start to pound when we sit down for the banquet.

Sorry for the last couple of weeks' radio silence. I've been distracted. Haven't done a lick of writing or editing since the novel workshop, though I've nibbled around the edges -- collecting notes, outlining, writing character sketches for a short story. I may be in the same sort of post-novel funk/recharge period that Elizabeth Bear has mentioned.

Most of the last couple of weeks, it seems, has been spent on the bathroom remodel. The bathroom seems to be even harder than the kitchen (or perhaps it's just fading memory of how hard the kitchen remodel was) because the room is so small -- everything is a game of inches. For example, there's exactly 37" between the door and the toilet, and that is where the sink must go. There are plenty of 39" wide sinks (consoles and vanities) and plenty of 30" wide sinks (mostly pedestals) but not much in between. However, I recently realized that the current wall at 37" might be movable, by at least a couple of inches, which might allow us to use a 39" Villeroy & Boch that looks great. But even if it can be made to fit, will that impinge on one's elbow too much when sitting on the toilet? And we haven't even begun to decide on colors yet.

Other items I would have blogged about in the last two weeks if I'd been paying attention: Rob Vagle and Ximena Hernandez's wedding in Eugene (the most amazing wedding I can recall, it was staged as a silent melodrama complete with sneering mustachio'd villain), a couple of science fiction writers' events at the Mount Hood Community College library (at which I got to spend much time with Camille Alexa among others), performances of Sweeney Tood and A Streetcar Named Desire, and a square dance in Palm Springs.

I have miserable airport karma in Palm Springs. I've been there maybe ten or twelve times in my life, and on at least four of those occasions I've had some kind of "issues" getting there and back. Last year I was stranded in Phoenix overnight. This year, when I got to the airport I found that I could not get a seat assignment for my PSP-LAX flight because it was overbooked, and I was told I would only get on the flight if someone with a seat volunteered to be bumped. I asked if there was any alternative, and after some kerfuffle one of the gate agents suggested that they were already sending some other people (who had been in the same situation and failed to get on the previous flight) to LAX via taxi. So they put me in the same cab.

A taxi. From Palm Springs to LAX.

It was a $300+ fare, but it was United's nickel and, because technically I volunteered to be bumped from my flight, I got a free round trip ticket too. (I'll be using that to get to Albuquerque for Taos Toolbox in June.) There was some traffic, but I got to LAX in time for my connection and made it home fine. I don't know if the other people made their connection, which was a lot tighter. If they missed it, I feel bad because they were delayed a few minutes waiting for me.

One last thing before we board: if you're in Portland, don't forget that I have a reading and signing of my first collection of short stories, Space Magic from Wheatland Press, at Powell's Books at Cedar Hills Crossing on May 14, 2008 at 7pm. I hope to see you there!

4/6/08: Good news x3

Back from the Oregon Coast and the novel workshop led by Dean Wesley Smith. My novel was very well received and there was much writerly schmoozing. More details to come.

While at the coast, I received word that I have been accepted into the Launch Pad Astronomy Workshop. This is a NASA-funded "crash course" in modern astronomy for SF writers. Copyediting goddess Deanna Hoak, Paul Witcover, and the incomparable Mary Robinette Kowal are also attending.

I also got an email from my mother, who has set up a signing of my collection Space Magic at Panther Bookstore in Milwaukee in May 20, right before Wiscon. Local boy makes good!