Pink Elephant

So in the interest of talking writing, let’s dredge out the old chestnut of scene descriptions. Specifically, let’s talk about something that’s real easy to overlook because we’re so used to seeing it, but that can be used to really sell the realism of a scene. Take a look at that picture, the glowing pink neon of the Elephant Car Wash. That sign is a landmark in Seattle. Most cities have something like that–several, in fact–roadside beacons designed to get butts in the door or sell product. Sure, anyone can toss in the Space Needle to show their story takes place in Seattle. But that doesn’t necessarily make it feel more real. Throw in the slowly-spinning Pink Elephant sign and you achieve two things–you’ve sold locals with your insider savvy, and for those who don’t know the sign, you’ve added a concrete detail that makes the place feel more real.

This works for Sci-fi and fantasy (though to a lesser degree, or at least different degree in primarily illiterate cultures). My story “Odd Jobs” in the Space Tramps anthology took place entirely upon a space station. Even so, there were commercial districts, and at one point, our protagonist books a hotel room. The name had changed since the last time he had been there, the old name painted over in color that was a close–but not exact–match to the surrounding walls, with the new hotel name in neon above it. Was any of this important to the story? Not really. But it was important in setting the sense of place.

Signs say a lot–not just their design, but their condition. Old brick buildings used to have signs painted on the sides, and many of these are now long out of date. A mention gives a place a sense of history–the faded name of a hotel that’s no longer there, the space now turned over to offices or apartments, a 24-hr coffee shop that’s been gone for decades and is now a small bar or boutique shop.

Different communities have exhaustive rules for what kind of signage is allowed, so give that a thought because it says a lot about the place. Are the signs lit from behind or carved or painted on? Are the list signs brightly colored or more muted? Huge and gaudy or small and tasteful. To you have the Bavarian-themed signs of Leavenworth, or Seattle neon?

Placement is important, too. Seattle has this huge Pepsi sign that’s somewhat of a landmark on Aurora. Thing is, it was built back when Aurora was known primarily as U.S. Route 99, the chief means of travel up the coast until the 60′s. Filled with neon tubing, it was a sight to behold. Though it’s still there, I don’t recall the last time the sign was lit up. It’s a poignant reminder of how people move on and patterns shift when big interstates connected the country.

For homework, I want you to look up next time you’re out and about. Pick out three distinctive signs/landmarks in your town. And for extra credit, what is one thing that the sign implies other than the name of the business or product?

Class dismissed.

Authorial Essentials

Edits on Ink Calls to Ink are officially at the halfway point, which was my goal. I hope to finish edits in February.

Part of the push to get edits done was to get a submission in to Clarion West. That was completed mid-month, including a synopsis of the novel (which was less painful than I anticipated).

I’m doing the Write One/Sub One challenge, but only on the monthly level. I’m going to count this one as a victory also. I rewrote an older story and cut it down from over 6,500 words to a lean submission-quality 5,000 words and got that sent out over the weekend. I also did a decent first draft of a new story last night and I hope to get an edit/rewrite on that before going to bed. I could sub it out tonight also, but I’d really rather take a little time with it to polish it up. Hopefully that will hit the mail next week.

I got one rejection and one sale this month off two different stories. The one that got rejected is going to get a slight rewrite and another polish before sending out in the next two weeks. The sale was to a newer publication called Bette Noire. “The Last Horse Out” will appear in their October issue.

All of this was done without making myself too sick, though the weather helped balance that out with a few work-from-home days to counter the days I was too sick to write.

Goals met.
Final Grade: B- (The story that got rejected could have benefited from an extra scene to make it less straight-forward. I rushed it, and the result was a rejection. Lesson learned.)

Now, to the disclaimer mentioned in the subject line.

I am going to let you down. No, really. I’m going to disappoint you. Probably not many of you, but enough merit a warning. I’m not proud of it–far from it. But the fact remains that the closer you get to my gooey marshmallow center, the better the chances are that I’m going to fail you somewhere down the road. If your interaction with me is on a fairly superficial level, you should get out unscathed.

I’ve had two voices arguing in my head about this for a while recently, both about what to say and about whether I should address it at all. See, the thing is that I gave my writing and related writerly things priority over, well, damn near everything else in my life last year. When my head started poking out of the shell this last few weeks, I realized that some pretty important relationships had paid the price. The going got tough, and I disengaged.

The cynic in me says that things change, people change, and situations change. It doesn’t look too closely at my fairly dismal track record at maintaining deep personal relationships for longer than five years. The cynic points out that the relationships that grew in the past year are a better fit for where I am in my life right now. And yes, I suppose there’s truth to that. But the sentimentalist in me is still sad for the changes and things lost. And I feel regret that there were times when I should have been there for people who I cared about, and I just wasn’t. I let them down and it’s as simple as that.

So in another few hours, I soldier on into February. Hopefully my eyes will be a little more open. I’m still a writer. I’m still planning on being productive. I don’t know how to change that, or even if I want to. Maybe I could stand to be a little less obsessive.

And I’ll try not to disappoint you.

Beware the wonders you are about to behold!

It’s been a hell of a year. If feels like I barely slowed down, and there were legitimate concerns that I was overworking myself. So let’s break it down and see what I got done in 2011.

Short Fiction: I had five stories published this year. Among those, one was a dark little clown noir story in a market I’ve been wanting to crack for a few years. One was the first non-Timid Pirate appearance of a Cobalt City character. One was the lead-off story in an anthology with a great table of contents. While five stories doesn’t feel like a lot, each individual story meant a lot to me. And I honestly didn’t spend much time sending out stories this year, so percentage wise, it felt great.

Novels: I finished my 10th novel last month. That leaves me with three books that I need to do rewrites and polishes on in the coming months. One is for a specific publisher, one is my mystery novel Murder Frontera which I need to polish and get on the agent hunt, and the third is the one I’m taking to World Fantasy in Toronto next year. That’s a lot of editing, rewriting, and polishing. But I have the tools I need and a good start, and I’m anxious to get underway.

Podcasts: We had three six-episode scripts that I wrote for the Cobalt City Adventures Unlimited audio drama podcast get recorded and produced (the third is in production now). And we won the Parsec Award for Best New Speculative Fiction Podcast or Team for 2011, so that’s something to be proud of. I also did several readings for the Wily Writers podcast and had some lovely thanks from two of the authors I recorded.

Publishing: Timid Pirate put out three original fiction anthologies this year. The third one, Finding Home, is not only the largest one we’ve done yet–it’s also got a ton of great stories! I’m super proud of what we’ve been able to do in just our first year, and of the authors for whom we were among their first publications.

RPG Work: I guess this is semi-official because I’ve seen the publisher Tweet about it. I wrote a role-playing game sourcebook for the Bulldogs! RPG earlier this year called Ports of Call. It’s deep in the editing process now, and I don’t know much more than that. But as gamer for the past 30 years, getting to do a sourcebook is kind of living the dream. Even better, it’s for a great game that’s incredibly well reviewed, and published by some genuinely awesome people. If you’re a gamer who likes their sci-fi with a side of blaster pistol, this is the game for you.

Community: Our little writing group that was homeless after a fire late last year at our main venue not only survived but blossomed. We added several new, talented, and dedicated writers to the table, and just expanded to a weekly group rather than meeting every-other week. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Writing can be a shitty, miserable, lonely way to pass the time. But having people around to share that journey makes it all worthwhile.

Personal: I’ve made some good friends this past year, both here in Seattle and around the world. If a person’s wealth is measured by the quality of the company he keeps, then I’m the richest man in Bedford Falls. (Apologies to Jimmy Stewart and Frank Capra.) My health hasn’t been the greatest, but compared to the scare I had last year, I’m in doing great! I’ll take a bout of the flu or a bad cold any day over a massive sub-dermal infection! I’m still gainfully employed and I haven’t been arrested for lewd behavior or being drunk in public, or anything else for that matter.

Now it’s just tying up some loose ends and clearing the decks.

2012 is right around the corner!

“The tango never stops in Buenos Aires. It goes on and on and we all dance to it in our time, helplessly drawn when fate initiates the cabezazo.” — from “Father Pena’s Last Dance,” Hannah Strom-Martin

Inspired by irrepressible Christine Yant, I have decided to adopt Fan Letter Sunday. And it’s largely because of this story, “Father Pena’s Last Dance” in Realms of Fantasy, August 2010, that I’m doing so.

See, I’ve reviewed books, movies, comic books, even bands–it’s how I share my love for what they’re doing. It’s my way to champion the things I enjoy and encourage more people to experience them. But I don’t really review short stories that appear in individual magazines. I don’t know why. Maybe I need to change that. Part of that might be because I went through a long period where I wasn’t reading short fiction in magazines or online, just anthologies. That changed when I made the decision to subscribe to a few spec-fic magazines for a variety of reasons.

That’s how I was introduced to Hannah Strom-Martin and Father Pena.

If I had come across the story in any other way and heard the words “vampire” or “Tango,” I probably would have just passed it over. And my life would be much poorer for that decision. I don’t care for vampire stories as a general rule. It seems like so much of what I come across is the same series of tired, recycled tropes trotted out one more time, like Halloween decorations a decade past their prime.

But “Father Pena’s Last Dance” is a revelation. Not only does it capture the magic, mystery, and music of Buenos Aires, it reinvents vampires in a way I never could have seen coming. And it made me want to learn Tango. The way you tied the vampires to passion, and through that, dance, was truly inspired. It has an amazing noir feel, a tragic inevitability, and at the same time it is undeniably sensual in a way I find most noir lacks. The day after reading, I was recommending it to anyone I could think of. Over a year later, and I still can’t shake just how much I loved the way this story came alive, shook me, and forced me to look at long-considered myths in new ways.

Thank you, Hannah, for “Father Pena’s Last Dance.” Sorry it has taken me over a year to tell you how much I loved the story. And I hope that, somehow, this fan letter reaches you.

For those of you who have yet to read this story, I encourage you to do so. You can currently buy a PDF of the August 2010 issue for $3.99 at www.rofmag.com and it’s well worth it. You’ll likely enjoy a few of the other articles and stories there as well.

Featuring "Odd Jobs"

My sci-fi noir story “Odd Jobs” leads off Space Tramps: Full-Throttle Space Tales #5 which goes on sale today. I’ve already read it, and it is a fun celebration of space opera fiction. Mine is a classic tale of fringe characters with uncertain motives, deals too good to be true, revenge, and a sex bot with a heart of gold. So I’m giving you a taste to whet your appetite. Here, have a few hundred words. On the house.

The bartender returned the smile. He left the bills on the bar. With a steady hand, he poured a pair of shots for the two of them. “Folks call me Chet. You got a name?”

Roscoe pursed his lips, wondering how much Iron Mike might have told this bartender. Considering the nature of his newfound employment was still very much undecided, he chose to play it close to the chest. “Haven’t you heard? Hull rats like me don’t have names anymore.”

It could hardly be further from the truth, of course. When a person had nothing, like most of the stowaways and drifters who scavenged for a meager existence in the bowels of the Django’s hull, a name was one of the few things they truly owned. He wasn’t surprised when Chet accepted the casual lie. The bartender would never understand what it was to live like vermin in the near perpetual darkness of the lower decks.

Chet lifted his glass, more focused on it than on Roscoe. “I got a tourist in here the other day, member of a delegation negotiating an embargo. He booked time with a consort bot I run. Like a sucker, I take cash. He went to town on my girl, and I have no way to collect on damages.”

Giant Bluebells at 7th and Union, Seattle

Foolscap is coming up next weekend.

If you’re not familiar with the Foolscap convention, answer these three questions: Do you like sci-fi/fantasy fiction and art? I’m not talking movies or tv, here. I mean the flat stuff. Are you a writer or artist of the above either a) just getting your foot in the door, or b) with a ken for low-key networking? Would you like to sit in a small workshop/panel about the industry without having to jostle for space with a Klingon just to get there? Do you want to soak up the genre for a few days without feeling overwhelmed by the other few thousand (or tens of thousands) of people there for just that same thing?

If you answered to any of the above, Foolscap is what you’re looking for. This and Norwescon, two sides of the same coin. Since discovering it a few years ago, I never miss it.

I just got my panel list for the weekend. And apparently, I’m going to be pretty busy next weekend.

Friday is my casual day–I get to run a short workshop on novel plotting at 10am. I’ve run something similar for friends and contacts for the past few years, but this will be my first “formal” run in a convention workshop setting. I’m super excited. Notes have been printed and I’ll be refreshing myself on the workshop tonight.

Then Saturday and I hit the ground running.
10am, a panel on sexy androids. Expect Roi from my Space Tramps story “Odd Jobs” to get a mention.
11am is a panel called Rust Never Sleeps: The Theme of Decay which should be a blast.
That gives me 3 hours for networking and lunch before Dreams in the New Depression at 3. With all the reading I’ve been doing for Timid Pirate’s next anthology, a more hopeful look at the post-apocalypse, I’m feeling prepared.
Then more time for networking and dinner and a fun little nightcap of a panel at 8pm about Real World Advancement Systems. My inner Bard is thrilled. My inner Urban Ranger will be plotting out a route home and how much I can drink to still do so safely.

Sunday at 11am I have the much anticipated Blind Spots in SF Fandom: When We’re not as Open Minded as We Think We Are, followed by Writer Inspiration: What Inspires You to Write? at 2pm.

A full weekend indeed. And not a dud among any of the panels I know about. The full panel list should be posted sometime before too long. But why wait? Get your ticket now and come join the fun!

2010, Lakeview Drive-in, Lake Chelan

But there’s a thing that separates writers from sane people. A sane person might have a nightmare then wake up, and think, “That was messed up!” If the nightmare is bad enough, they might hold onto the memory for a bit. Most of time they turn back into dream fog before you hit the snooze button the 3rd time. After all, nightmares–dreams in general–are kind of like the de-frag program for your brain, running while you sleep. Probably keeps us from going crazy. What the hell do I know? What I do know is that anywhere other than Elm Street, they

But to a writer, that can be like candy. Especially if it’s a nightmare. Especially if you write horror.

Take this dandy from last night. Go ahead and take a look. It’s short. I can wait.

I can get two, maybe three stories out of that one little brain nugget if I need to. In the meantime, it’s written down and filed. And if nothing else, I’ll use one or both of those menaces to scare the bejesus out of my 4th ed DnD game. But chances are, the Burning Hunt and the Wolf-Bears are going to make an appearance in the next fantasy piece I write. Heck I might even go Sci-fi.

Lesson for the day, kiddies–inspiration is everywhere, even when you’re sleeping. So pay attention, and take notes!

Get your tickets! The Dark Carnival is coming!

But I’m not just a horror writer. I’m also a publisher with a big secret project on the fire for next year that has nothing to do with horror. The Emerald City Comic Con is the ideal place to feature that. Plus, it’s here, and we can get a table and really work the promotion. Seems like a no-brainer.

Then the calendar bent me over the sofa and took me roughly from behind.

Seems both conventions are the same weekend in 2012. So unless I have the powers of Jamie Madrox…

…nope. Apparently I am not Multiple Man. It has to be one or the other. One offers me the chance to promote Timid Pirate and three of its authors. The other is just to promote myself and would end up costing four times as much. Add to this, several new things to promote for Timid Pirate, and I don’t even have a pure horror novel to pitch (ok, Bridge is pretty close, but could also be Urban Fantasy). Sometimes the obvious choice seems more painful because it’s so obvious.

I had to do Emerald City. That meant the one big, international writing convention I had on my tentative plans was bound for the scrap pile.

Thankfully there are other conventions. In fact, there are other conventions in 2012 which are just as big and important that I hadn’t even considered until last night. After 3 minutes on the web, I found my alternate – World Fantasy Con 2012 in Toronto, Canada. And I’ll be honest, it looks like a better choice for a number of reasons. One, no conflict. Two, the novels I have to pitch are urban fantasy – one of the two themes of this particular convention. Three – much later in the season to get polishing on the novels done. Four – Toronto, not Salt Lake City which is all I have to say about that. Five – and this is probably the most important, it gives me more time to squirrel away money to pay for the trip.

So here’s the projected convention schedule for 2012. I might toss something in during the summer, but it remains to be seen.
Emerald City Comic Con (March 30-April 1st)
Norwescon (April 5-8)
Gencon (August) very tentative
Foolscap (September)
World Fantasy Con (November 1-4)

Looks like 2012 is going to be a busy year!

Cody the Timid Pirate goes adventuring.

It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these. Sounds like the perfect time for an update!

• Writing: I took the initiative to re-prioritize a few projects, so that bought me a bit of breathing room. I have two stories out making the rounds and one I need to revise and resubmit. I have a project due for another publisher in a few weeks, but I feel in control of it, so no pressure there. I have one story I’m looking to finish for my own peace of mind, one I was invited to write for a super-secret project, and one I’m collaborating on for submission somewhere else. I’m still trying to find some time to work on the novel, but it’s been coming in fits lately, so fingers crossed I get back to it very soon. Oh, and I have a podcast script due end of the month as well. Wonder where I’ll be from now until, oh, 4th of July? Writing.
• Editing: I finished up a guest editing gig (which I’ll get to announce soon), and I’ll be hip deep in editing Cobalt City Dark Carnival for Timid Pirate when submissions close end of June. We still have a bit of room if you haven’t submitted yet. I’ve been promised stories for Libertine, Knockabout, and Gallows but haven’t seen them yet. And to the best of my knowledge no one is touching Archon, Huntsman, Louis Malenfant, or Gato Loco. I would love to see a take on any of th0se characters. Fingers crossed I see something else I like soon. Once I have the stories I need, I get to knit them together and work on a special project for the anthology with a few, hand-picked authors.
• Publisher: Marketing and promoting…always with the marketing and promoting. We’re looking at the budget and picking out which conventions to appear at. Most people who take a bite out of Timid Pirate like what they taste, and that’s reassuring. We just need to get more exposure, and figuring that out goes hand in hand with exploring new distribution models. A lot of work going on behind the scenes. A lot of planning. One thing I’m excited to have on the table — we’re looking to represent at Emerald City Comic Con in 2012.
• Random Geekery: I contributed to this awesome Kickstarter for an awesome RPG. I was fortunate enough to play an advance version of the game, and I’m psyched to see the book coming out soon. I’m looking forward to running a few random one-shot games at venues around Seattle in late summer, early fall. Around that time I’ll also be diving into the world of digital comics (as a reader, not a writer), with the relaunch of DC’s whole line. I grew up a DC fan in a time when all my friends were Marvel junkies. Sure, I read X-Men and the occasional Spider-Man book, but my heart was really with the big DC team books like Legion of Superheroes or Teen Titans (during the truly legendary Marv Wolfman / George Perez era). Seeing some of the things that DC is doing, I’m genuinely thrilled in a way I haven’t been about comics in a long time. While I feel there are some potential missteps, there are also a lot of things they’re doing right. I point specifically to historical books, teen books, folding the Wildstorm universe into the main DCU, and the return of a new Static series (Dakota City represent!).
• Music: On top of it all, there are two fantastic concerts coming up in the next month. I already have my tickets for Neko Case on July 10th, and The Damnwells are playing my favorite joint, The Tractor Tavern on July 22nd. Not a bad month for music at all!

I now return you to your regularly scheduled blog posts.

Some people have a terrible fear of clowns. I’ve known a few of them, and I can’t deny that it provokes a strong panic reaction. I don’t understand it. But then again, they don’t understand my fear of ventriloquist dummies. (I mean, really…those little wooden bastards are just WAITING for a chance to kill you in your sleep. Anyone who doesn’t see it is a fool.)

One of these coulrophobic individuals is a very good friend, actually, and last year we were at the rodeo out in Lake Chelan together. It should come as no surprise that there was a rodeo clown there. Thankfully, rodeo and circus clowns are two very different beasts. Apparently one steals your soul, the other risks his life against out-of-control horses and bulls. As such, my friend didn’t have the expected fear response, and it opened up a dialogue.

Out of this, I got the kernel of a story idea about a boy growing up with a mother who loves  clowns. And by that, I mean she REALLY loves clowns. I was never really sure what to do with the story. It wasn’t horror. It wasn’t really urban fantasy or mystery or anything that I typically wrote. At it’s core, it was a bittersweet tale about a fatherless boy and his relationship with clowns as he begins to form his own sense of self-identity.

So it remained a concept. I didn’t do more than sketch out a few lines of notes.

Then a few months ago, I was poked to write a story about “legacy.” I started working on a horror piece that I might one day finish. But it just never gelled. It wasn’t the story I wanted to be telling. It was, instead, the story that I was expected to write…the disturbing horror tale.

And that’s all well and good. Maybe someday I’ll write that.

In the meantime, I have a story now fighting to get out. It’s about a lonely boy, a distant mother, a sort of surrogate father in greasepaint, and a legacy to uncover. It might not be what anyone expects, myself included. But it is the story I need to tell. Maybe it’s because of all the reading I’m doing for Cobalt City Dark Carnival. I don’t know. The muse speaks, I listen.

So strike up the calliope, tack on your squirting flower, and slip on your size 24W shoes.

The circus is coming to town.