O-WIRe

I was swinging on a swing at the park, where I'd taken my eldest son and my dog to run around for an hour, and started thinking about Of War, the Harvest and the Chase again. Next thing I knew, I was thinking of a new character, a "statistical ecologist" whose prediction that the environment in which the castaways find themselves will not support the population of survivors helps sets off the war over resources. From there I went on to thinking that the writer's conflict with himself will be but one of many, though perhaps it will act as a lens and frame for the other conflicts. Then I started thinking that the survivors should land in two groups, develop strong community ties as separate communities, and confront each other as competitors for the limited resources available to them. This will provide material for all kinds of conflicts as family members, colleagues, friends and people of like minds find themselves on opposite sides of the resource divide.

"Making the Connection", by Dena Harris, is another good one. I like Katharine Sands ' breakdown of the authoring-through-to-selling process into "getting ready, getting read, and getting readers". Nicely put.

 I prefer to think of my work as the kind that agents are privileged to represent, editors are privileged to discover, and publishers are privileged to put out there. I also tend to think of the publishing business in the same way I think of the cram school business. It's the story, produced by an author, that people are paying to see, not the book. Author's make stories. Publishers make books. Just like it's the lesson, taught by a  teacher, that students are paying to see, not the classroom. Teachers teach classes. Schools provide classrooms.

My Amazon.com order arrived in two weeks. That's about right, I guess. Amazon gave itself three to four weeks in tracking, playing it safe and making a two-week wait look good. Whatever. I got what I paid for while I still remembered paying.

So I'm reading Novel & Short Story Writer's Market 2007. I'm in the author and editor interviews and articles in the front.

Here's a song I plunked together over a couple of scooter rides. Bluegrass. Voice and mandolin .

There's a truth that takes a deal of saying

If the ear will ever understand

After years of saving and betraying

Hurt and healing are in the same two hands

 

When two hands first met in quest of passion

Technorati Tags: bluegrass love mandolin mark penny marriage song

Two nights ago I was in the middle of a bedtime prayer when this sentence popped into my head: "The world does not turn on heroes." I casually finished the prayer (I know which side my bread is buttered on), then rushed into my office and grabbed the notebook for The School of Life and Wonder. In tone, what I had in mind to write suited School to a tee.

A few weeks ago I stopped in at one of my favourite used book stores and picked up what has turned out to be a very handy little treasure: First You Build a Cloud and Other Reflections on Physics as a Way of Life by K. C. Cole.

I've just recently come to terms with middle age and conquered (decisively, I hope) a midlife crisis. It was a doozy: inhibiting if not paralyzing. "Inhibiting" isn't the word I want, but I've been struggling with vocabulary all day.

A couple of Saturdays ago I went up to Monkey Mountain for a solo night hike. I did some crumbly climbing up the side of an overgrown coral cliff, got all scratched and dirty, and did some serious thinking about the universe and my place in it. When you're pondering your destiny, it helps to see the stars. Of course, that close to downtown Kaohsiung, you're not going to see much of the stellar abundance, but I did pick out a few constellations (Orion and Serpens Caput among them, I believe).

Some readers may come to the conclusion, based on the roles women sometimes play in my fiction, that I am something of a sexist, if not a downright misogynist. Sexism I have been directly accused of on more than one occasion by people I respect and even love--by my own mother in one instance. So the notions of sexism and misogyny are of some interest to me. I will try to address them here.

It's time.

I've been working out how to work out a career in novel and short story writing.

Here's the gist.

1. Allot time for writing (meaning cut down on other things, like building an online language school).
2. Type up that novel you've written a few hundred pages of.
3. Finish that novel you've written a few hundred pages of.
4. Put together an electronic portfolio (e-portfolio) of your work-to-date and work-to-come.
5. Find suitable publishers.
6. Submit manuscript and portfolio to suitable publishers.
7. Keep writing and submitting.
8. Never give up.

In keeping with this plan, I've just begun typing up Jack Squaw in Bli-fi and here in O-WIRe. I will continue to work on The School of Life and Wonder, of course, and there are dozens of other short stories, novels and series to work on as well. That's part of the strategy: show that I've got enough ideas to last a lifetime. I ain't gonna dry up.