london_setterby

Sigh: Really Good Might Not Be Good Enough, from Pub Rants. Basically, Kristin Nelson at Pub Rants is saying that agents are passing even on good projects these days, because everything seems to be a hard sell. It's a common refrain lately... plastered all over my Google Reader, in fact. They are all correct, of course. Times are tough. I suppose we aspiring authors should view this as an opportunity to keep refining our writing skills, working on new projects, and praying that the economy will pick up.

But... may I just say... *sigh.* I will be glad when our recession is really (instead of just technically) over.

Also it might also be a good idea to buy a lot of books as Christmas presents this year. :) Not that I needed another excuse to do that.

Anyone have good news or pictures of puppies to share?

London

In case you missed his earlier posts on this subject (as I did), Joshua Palmatier has just posted the sixth chapter of The Skewed Throne, book one in his Throne of Amenkor series. Eee! Exciting! That means the first six chapters are all available in pdf now on his LJ or website. I have to study for an ethics exam at the moment, but will be rewarding myself with a chapter when I'm done. Maybe you should consider the same? The reading part, not the ethics part. I mean, unless you really like learning about fee sharing agreements.

And for another awesome read, check out this short story, "The Woman and the Mountain," on Beneath Ceaseless Skies, a literary fantasy magazine for which I am full of <3 <3. I love the lovely literary fantasy. Oh, my.

I will write a real post again soon, I promise, but at least you have things to read now while you wait for me. ;)

-London

PS. Belated well wishes to the NaNoers! Someday I'll join your overcaffeinated ranks....

 I can't believe I only just found this website! It's so wonderful. Snarky AND informative--how could it get better?

At some point perhaps I will make a massive post of writing resources. I am accumulating a pretty good list of sites. (Although it's amazing all the quality sites you can still completely miss, like I did with Query Shark.)

That was all. :)

London

Justine Larbalestier just posted a great conversation-sparker about how white writers benefit from their race when it comes to publishing, and about how white writers can incorporate race into their writing. Go read it if you haven't yet, as it is undoubtedly better than this post, but if you have already scoured the interwebs looking for ways to procrastinate,* read on!

White writers perennially complain that "you are damned if you don’t include people of color in your writing, and damned if you do." First of all, if by damned, you mean criticized, then damn straight. Criticism is good, fools. You should listen to it, which is not to say you should listen to the kind of silly tripe that ends up on The Worst Review Ever, but if someone is trying to engage you in a thoughtful debate, or if someone is reacting passionately against an error in judgment that you made--treasure that, because it is probably one of the most honest reactions to your writing you will ever get. We don’t write in vaccuums (that would be very dusty...lulz). Quite the opposite. Personally, I write because I have something to say and because I looove attention. Bad attention, good attention, I thrive on it. But really, a big part of being a writer is interacting with your readers, literally or through your writing. Even after you’re dead, people will be picking apart your books with their friends or, if you're lucky, in their English or creative writing classes. That is the nature of the beast. Roll with it, learn from it, and it will improve your outlook on life tremendously.

Secondly, writing fiction is exciting and interesting because it is a challenge. What is the point of doing it if you are going to rewrite the same dead trout of a story? Forget “write what you know.” Push yourself, reach, aspire to make something good! When it comes to race, ethnicity, gender, and class,** that means you have to challenge your knee-jerk reactions (which is to say, relying on cliches and stereotypes). It’s surprising how many layers of knee-jerk reactions you have to sift through before you can get to something fair and true about human nature & experience--and I might add, something original. Even if you don't give a damn about multiculturalism et al (but I hope you do!), it's worth challenging these knee-jerk reactions just to reach something really original and good. 'At last, something besides dead trout! An interesting, witty, unusual book that really looks at the human experience and human relationships.' Sounds good, right? So get to it!

Some of you are thinking, but I'm already a person of color... you're telling me to stop writing what I know, but that is what I know. Aha, well, if you happen to belong to a group that is a minority or that is stigmatized, write about it. Seriously. And then email it to me, because I love that stuff, can't find enough of it, and want to read it. Most of all, PLEASE do not feel ashamed about representing your group in your writing. You have access to a whole world of knowledge and information that can help you write truly outstanding, original fiction and contribute your unique voice to Publishing Land (and beyond!). Go with that. I would still encourage you to write outside your comfort zone, natch, but that's because I encourage everyone to do that.

Cheers,
London



*I would not know anything about said practices, but I am told other people—sad, lonely people—engage in them.

**And, I might add, mental illness and mental handicap. I have talked about that before on this blog. 

"As a member of the Outer Alliance, I advocate for queer speculative fiction and those who create, publish and support it, whatever their sexual orientation and gender identity. I make sure this is reflected in my actions and my work."
--Quoted here in support and celebration of the Outer Alliance Pride Day 9/1/09. Check out their website! I'm very happy to see that that the Outer Alliance exists and is getting some buzz around the blogosphere. :)

As for my own writing, well,  I haven't written very much yet in general, not just on GBLT issues, but I definitely have grand plans. For now there is a gay character (just because he is, not as a plot point) in my Cora series, and my short story The Black Pond is a fantasy twist on transgender issues, gender self-identication, and other things. 

Cheers,
London

Well, it's done. Do you hear that, subconscious?! Done!

Ahem... er... I mean to say that I finished my final set of revisions for Cora Book One. I'm not revising it any more, unless I have a very good reason, namely, an agent or editor telling me to. :) If that ever happens, I shall joyously revise as much as they want. But for now, it's finished. This novel has gone through *so many* drafts and revisions. It's getting ridiculous. Partly the problem is that, despite my complaining, I actually like to revise. I like watching my jumbled mess of ideas take some kind of shape, and believe me, there was no discernible shape to the first few drafts. :) Eventually, though, I end up neurotically rewriting sentences and fretting over whether I should use the word 'smile' or 'grin,' or perhaps abandon the whole overused concept of facial expressions...
Which leads me to my second problem. I have a very hard time letting go of this novel--much more so than with my other writing. For example, with the scholarly article I am working on, I can tell that there are certain groups of people who will enjoy and appreciate my article, and there are others who will not, depending on their preferences and beliefs about international law and so forth. This does not upset me. Although of course I wish people would agree with me, I don't take it personally when they don't. But with my novel, I have no ability to be objective whatsoever. Depending on my mood, my novel is the most brilliant thing ever, or it's complete dreck and no one will ever love me because I write such dreck. Etc. Because I'm a perfectionist, I think to myself, when I'm in the latter mood, 'if only I spent another 300 hours revising it, then it would be good, and my life would be worth living!'  Even if that's true, you can't keep making that excuse indefinitely. Eventually you have to let it go, right? Otherwise I'll never have time to write the second and third books. Poor Cora will be left in that smelly cave for eternity, not to mention Evander, perennially pining away at the foot of the stairs for the loveliest girl in the world (not Cora... haha... no.). That would just not be very nice.*
So, it's done, and now I can turn my attentions to applying for post-law school jobs (joy of joys!), or, more likely, working on Book 2. 

Until next time,
London



* Although, to be fair, some of my other characters would probably prefer *not* to meet the sticky ends that await them in books 2 and 3. Bwahahaha.

Guess what, dudes? I have not one, but TWO exciting bits of news for you. 

1) My boyfriend and I are engaged! Hooray! This came as a very big surprise to *me*, but to absolutely no one else, for two reasons. One: although we've been dating for almost four years, my boy is a notorious procrastinator, and so I occasionally enjoyed bouts of melodrama in which I despaired over the idea that he wouldn't propose for another ten years. No one else was worried about that, of course. And two: he told ALL of our friends and family while I was in DC, in a vain attempt to get help picking out a ring for me. Not only did he not like any of their suggestions, but my family gave him the completely wrong ring size! A size and a half too big, in fact. (This may be partially my fault, as I almost never wear jewelry. I prefer books.* BUT I love the ring he picked out for me! It's vastly shinier than I expected. He later revealed that he picked the cut & quality of diamonds to make sure that they would be extra shiny. Lo, he knows me better than I know myself.).

It's going to be a very, very long engagement--a year and a half, at least--but I'm still excited about it. I'm already arguing with my mother about the wedding, because, unlike my boyfriend fiance**, I like to get things done well ahead of time. I don't know why my mother can't get behind my ideas about a drunken beach wedding in which I don't have to wear shoes. 

2) My second, and equally exciting, bit of news is this: Researchers in Canada have written a paper about the best way to defeat ZOMBIES. Forget about capturing or curing them, it's all about brute force, apparently. The researchers also weighed in on the classic slow zombie vs. fast zombie debate, albiet pithily. They decided not to include fast-moving zombies in their research because we have NO CHANCE of surviving an attack by fast zombies. (Unless, perhaps, we are very speedy with the head saws? Call me an optimist!) Go read that article at once if you haven't read it; there is the extra bonus of a fabulously punctuated name.


Apart from reading about zombies, I am STILL revising Cora Book One (almost done... almost done...) and, when sick of revising, plugging away at Cora Book Two. I've only written about 10,000 words in Book 2 this summer, which is sad in comparison to the 50k I wrote in Book 1 last summer. But with all these revisions, I suppose that's to be expected. Otherwise I've been writing a lot of cover letters in which I attempt to modestly tell people about how completely awesome I am, and staring at the shiny ring a lot. 

How about you guys? Any news to share?

Until next time,
London


* Not wearing books... just cuddling with them from time to time. 
** Whoops! Still not use to that. 

It's my last week in D.C. I can't believe how fast it all went by! That must be because I lucked out with my internship; I really have had a fantastic time. Now I get to look forward to (ahem) spending 8 hours in a car with my parents, and while it is of course very kind of them to drive me back to my other temporary address, I figured I would need something to do in between rest stops. To wit, I have bought books! I actually wanted, for once, to buy a couple of DVDs, but they didn't have the ones I wanted. (Naturally I wanted to buy DVDs that are based off of books, specifically, Jane Austen books. Why don't I own the Colin Firth version of Pride and Prejudice?! Why?!)

Anyway, here's what I bought:

• Anatomy for the Artist: A Comprehensive Guide to Drawing the Human Body by Daniel Carter & Michael Courtney
• Ancient Athens on 5 Drachmas a Day, by Philip Matyszak
• 13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson

The new version of that anatomy book is not on Amazon for some reason. Humph. But I love the idea of a travel guidebook for ancient Greece! That's my kind of history--lots of pictures and weird facts. Especially after reading cases & statutes all day. :P 
Also, Maureen Johnson, I just wanted to let you know that I am personally subsidizing your lifestyle. I am your esteemed patroness. I am obsessively collecting all of your books and forcing them on my friends. They're not even fantasy! I mean, honestly! They're just so, so, SO good. I *loved* Girl At Sea especially. >heart<
Ok. Just an FYI. And for those of you who have not yet read any of her books, what are you waiting for? Do it! Do it now!

I'm off to do my crazy pilates dvd (I like to consider it "aspirational" pilates), but you will undoubtedly hear much more from me soon. Once I get back to the Arctic, I have a couple weeks in which to apply for jobs for post-graduation before my semester starts... which is to say, I will be religiously following LJ.  :)

Go buy some books!
~London

Sometimes it's interesting to compare your different projects, no? I definitely see a few odd similarities. For example, why are all my short stories in first person pov at the moment, but my various novels-in-progress are in third?

Here's a sampling.

"The Snow Leopard"
We find their cave paintings still, and the images are always the same: the snow leopard, his teeth bared to the torchlight, picks out one from among the huddled crowd, while the others stand by and cover their eyes. 

"My First Pair of Red Gloves"
I bought a new pair of brown leather gloves each week--the same style and shade, of course--but it was never soon enough for me. 

THE GATES OF HORN AND IVORY (Cora Book 1)
Cora's nemesis, Selara, stood in the doorway with a wicked smile on her face.

SILK
Ray worked at the toll booth five days a week from three to ten, which is to say, he sat in the cash-only lane booth, eating Fritos, drumming his fingers on the counter, and listening to Led Zeppelin, in between accepting dollar bills and small collections of coins from surly vacationers. 
--

Care to share your own?

-London (with a real post to follow... promise :) )

Hello all,
FYI I'm keeping my short story listed in my memories under "short story" or "black pond," as a freebie, in case any of you are interested in reading it later on. 
In other news, I finally got my beach vacation! A real vacation, not a fake one. I have the sunburn to prove it, too. My lovely boyfriend and I ate lots of things, sat in little coffee shops, went on boat rides, went on a very long and pointless walk in an attempt to find a pretty place to walk, etc. We even spent a night drinking champagne and watching Harry Potter, lol.  It was very, very, very nice, but now I'm back, with an alarming realization: I'm starting my summer internship next week! That means packing, moving, unpacking, working, then packing, moving, and unpacking again. During this time I hope to finish revising Cora Book 1 and start the submissions process. You may still find me at summerwrite2, because, even though I'm not officially joining in the fun (insanity?), I will be working on Cora Book 2 and will need word wars in a serious way. Apart from that, I will be scarce.  

Cheers,

London

Hello all! Well, I'm done with my semester and very happy about it. Revising book one and getting in a lot of non-law-school reading. (Finally read Uglies! Yay!). I also wrote a short story for a a contest over at merry_fates. It's rated PG-13 and is an emo little fairy tale about puberty and other such things. The prompt is this lovely painting, Princess Tuvstarr by John Bauer. Comments & questions most welcome. :)


The Black Pond


I don't know why it has to be in the freaking buff. That's one of my main problems with witches: the constant nudity.

I tried to cover myself with my hair--long hair is one of the benefits to being Appointed as a female--but it wasn't working.

"Tuvstarr," intoned my aunt, Dagny. "Tomorrow is your day of the Poj. It is the day you become a woman. The day you become a leader among our people. Are you ready, child?"

I muttered the standard reply: "I'm ready, Wise Earth Mother," blah blah blah. I shifted in the stone chair. My naked butt was starting to go numb. I could have ignored that—I could have ignored all of it—if I were telling the truth to old Dagny. If I were ready to become a woman the very next day, all of this would be fine. I would be happy. Most people, as far as I could tell, were happy about their poj.

Aunt Dagny picked up the ceremonial knife and held it in front of her face. "Tuvstarr, tonight you must cleanse yourself, in preparation for your sacred journey."

I watched her warily as she advanced on me with the knife. (  . . .  )

In case any of you live under a rock, like me, I thought I'd share a couple of diversions that have been keeping me sane while I work on seemingly endless papers, mock trials, and exams. Yeah, probably everyone has known about both of these since "all your base are belong to us."  But, like I said, just in case...

1. If you haven't seen Twilight the Musical yet, watch it! Watch it now! The first episode is pretty slow, but the second is hilarious. I adore their take on Edward, especially his hair and his angry drawing.   Fear not, Twilight fans: While it is a parody, it is a gentle one. It's also surprisingly faithful to the text. I can't wait for the next episode, so in the meantime I have been obsessively checking their blog.

2. Next, everyone really has heard of the Eye of Argon, right? Somehow I found out about this glorious little gem only a few months ago. May I just say, it has improved my quality of life tremendously. I was reading an article about purple prose the other day and (while looking for my favorite example of [published] purple prose to show to my boyfriend--involving a lot of tropical birds) I stumbled across the MST3k version of the Eye (by a fan, not the show). This... seriously... this is *the funniest thing I have ever read.* I fell off my exercise ball. I cried. I threw up a little. Go forth & read it, as long as you are not in public.*

Now that I've brightened your day, I'm going back to studying. Only 5 1/2 more days, and then I'm done! :D


London



* We here in New England do not approve of showing merriment in public.

Not only do I need to write a paper and study for a final exam, but I was, as you may have noticed, sort of in the middle of a YA fantasy trilogy. Well, despite this, my brain has decided to plague me with not one, not two, but FIVE new novel ideas. They are clamoring around in there like a bunch of freaking Pomeranians.
That's right. Pomeranians. You know, like this:  


Only louder, and there's five of them.

My brain wants me to write:

• a sci-fi dystopia
• a gothic horror/romance
• a very strange sort of...er...series of vignettes, I guess? Whatever it is, it's extremely insistent.
• a novel based on a short story I've mentioned a couple times on this blog (which is why I should not write short stories... they all want to become novels)
• and a very silly time travel novel, because, you know, why not?

Three of these are based on dreams that I've had, and the other two are just... random. Random, I tell you.

That is all.


London

Sadly, my fake vacation plans did not work out well. I dropped a dresser drawer on my foot the day after I wrote my last post. I was basically couch-ridden (?) for three days. It was so hard to stand I couldn't even put my fake tanner on. *sigh*  Life is unfair.

In other, happier news, today I heard back about a very nice scholarship that I applied for, to help me with my 3L year. I submitted the application earlier this month, and I have made the first cut, hooray! Now I have to go in for an interview-type thing. I hope my nasty swollen foot is more aesthetically pleasing by then, because I'm going to go hog wild trying to look presentable for this interview. That's right... Not only will I change out of my penguin pajamas, I will put on shoes that are not sneakers, and, maybe, like... a skirt. With a button down. I could even wear my suit. (I do own a suit. It's a rite of passage for law students everywhere. As is immediately molding it to our bodies with fear-induced sweat.)

In even happier news.... uh... okay, I don't have any. But if you need cheering up, I suggest pandas.

That is all.

London

Well, it's my spring break. Sadly I am, as usual, too broke to go on vacation, and even sadly-er, I have to write a difficult and frequently infuriating paper about Liberia* over break, in addition to my usual pile of homework.
To console myself, I have bought:

• self-tanner lotion for body
• sparkly bronze face powder
• coconut body spray

Which I am combining with:

• coconut and passionfruit rum
• salsa music
• possibly more glitter

And here's why. As you have probably gleaned from my last post, I'm getting a little tired of wintry new england. It snowed, sleeted, hailed, and rained yesterday.  The end of all this nonsense is not as in sight as I would wish it to be. I'm also tired of the perpetual new england fasion, which is, for those of you who were unaware, permanently looking as though you're about to go for a trot around the paddock on your dappled grey: long hair in a ponytail, riding boots, leggings, a short pea coat, gloves, etc. It's a nice look, but I'm getting bored of it. I went to undergrad in Florida, and I still miss wild tacky colors, sundresses, bangles and flipflops. Anyway, in a nutshell, since I've moved back up north, I usually look like this:



Which is great and all**, but I'd love to be more along the lines of this, if only for a week or two:



Doesn't her tiny fake pool look awesome?

Off to get more glitter.... who's with me?

London



* It's supposed to be about the legal system in Liberia. But recently the Minister of Justice in Liberia decided to *copyright* the Liberian legal code and sell it for $5,000 a pop. The American Bar Association wants to rectify this by putting the laws online, but, sadly, to post Liberian laws online, you must get permission from.... you guessed it! The Minister of Justice.
** I actually adore Angelica Houston (and Morticia, for that matter).

Last week, while I was working on an infernally difficult case for clinic¹, I started another short story. It takes place in part on the subway, because that’s where I was spending a lot of my time, commuting from the law school to the downtown clinic office.

The protagonist, whose name is Katie, has obsessive-compulsive disorder, and some phobias, and possibly a few other things. In the story proper, we learn that she has a phobia of cars, but she also loathes germs, thanks to the OCD, which makes commuting extremely difficult for her. She’s also a lawyer²--a trusts and estates lawyer, which makes her attention to detail a Good Thing(tm).

I have read a lot of blog posts from fantasy/sci-fi novelists discussing the portrayal of disabilities in our genre. I agree that it is troubling to include physically disabled characters in our fiction *only* when we give that character some kind of special, magical trait/ability to “make up” for his or her disability. It seems much better to portray the character with a physical disability managing his disability in his daily life and living his life as his personality dictates, just like people do in the real world. He does *not* need magical powers to make him a “whole” person. Nor does he need them to defeat Ye Olde Evil-Doer.

My character, Katie, got me thinking. I know how I feel about writing about characters with physical disabilities. But I don’t know how this should translate (if at all) to writing about characters with psychological conditions. So, in Katie’s case, am I being a hypocrite by showing how my character benefits from her condition in her work (to the extent that she does)? Her condition certainly bleeds into her personality; and I am showing how she suffers because of her condition, too, as well as how she tries to cope with it. It is not giving her superpowers.

But writing about her still makes me sort of nervous. I’m not a psychologist by any stretch of the imagination. More to the point, I don’t have OCD. I don’t want to offend people who have OCD³ or who have loved ones with it. I am fascinated by psychology, think about it all the time, and try to understand the human mind. But my understanding of it is not perfect. Not even close.

Here’s the thing, though. Even though I don’t have OCD, I *really* relate to the condition. This character, Katie, is more like me than any of the other characters I have ever written.⁴ Even though she has OCD. For that matter, even though she is 40 and I’m 24, or even though she is a partner at a trusts and estates law firm, while I am a law student with aspirations to public service, and so on. We’re different, but if I met her in real life, I would feel like I understood her. Like we would “get” each other.

The conundrum reminds me of the controversial post from a few months back by E. Bear (matociquala ), although she was talking about the Other in sci-fi/fantasy in general, with a focus on race. If I relate to Katie, am I still writing about the Other, even though she has a psychological condition that I do not have? I can’t tell where the process of character-building turns into writing about the Other, especially where psychological conditions are concerned.

For that matter, now that I look at it, it seems like a lot of my characters could be diagnosed with some kind of psychological condition, if they had access to modern psychology. From compulsively stealing to severe depression, my characters are a troubled lot. If I tried to break the usual mold of my writing, consequently, I’d end up writing about someone relentlessly happy and suburbia-normal. (Now *that* sounds like the Other to me. :) )⁵

What do you lot think? Do you see commonalities in your characters? Do you write about the Other? What aspect of the Other do you write about? Where do psychological conditions fall into this mix?

--London

Edited to fix some wonky formatting... apologies... :)


..................................................

1. Since finished. Don’t worry.
2. My very first lawyer character.
3. Now, don’t get me wrong... you’re always going to offend somebody with your writing, even if you write about bougainvillea or bouillabaisse. But I am of the school of thought that you should offend *intentionally*--in the sense that you should know what you are saying (on the various levels through which it can be interpreted, not just the most obvious one to you) and you should believe what you’re saying, too. If I don’t know very much about mental illness, how can I know what I’m writing about on all these levels, and be certain that I believe in it? You see my conundrum. :)
4. Except maybe one, Ressy, who is from my Cora novels. Ressy opens up another can of worms for me as a writer. More on that some other time.
5. Frequent readers will notice that I have actually already done this, when I accidentally wrote a short story that was completely realist (no fantasy! wtf?!), from a man’s pov, and set in modern-day America. I broke my mold in every way with that story (except for the geeky obsession with ancient languages), and that includes writing about a relatively normal, well-adjusted guy. But I’ll admit it, even *he* wasn’t suburbia-normal. More like city-normal. Someday I’ll get around to writing about suburbia, promise....

I started book two of the Cora series today. I love the thrill of starting a new project. It's scary and exciting and daunting and awesome. :)

Weirdly enough, I finally came up with a title for this book today, too. Good thing, because I am now stressing about the title of the first book. I've been thinking about how to revise book one, and whether to connect the title to the plot more or leave it alone... or just change the title. Sigh.

What do you guys think? How close should a title be to the story? Do readers prefer the "aha! that's what the title means" moment, or is it better to use a title as an analogy that they can take or leave?


London

Have I mentioned how much I adore Zoe Keating? She is a very unusual cellist. She uses looping while she plays the cello in order to sound like a crazy fantastic techno orchestra all by herself. Very much worth checking out.

That is all.

London