Category: Writing

Best Birthday Present EVAR: Happily Ever After TOC

By:  TempestNews

Many moons ago the awesome John Klima emailed and asked if I had any fairy tale retellings since he was putting together an anthology of such things. I sent him Black Feather (my Interfictions story), he accepted, I made a happy face. Life is good. Yesterday, for the first time, I saw who else is also in this anthology from a post on SFSignal. People, I had No Idea. I sporfled so hard on the subway train New Yorkers gave me the side eye.

Just look here and sporfle with me, won’t you?

  1. “The Seven Stage a Comeback” by Gregory Maguire
  2. “And In Their Glad Rags” by Genevieve Valentine
  3. “The Sawing Boys” by Howard Waldrop
  4. “Bear It Away” by Michael Cadnum
  5. “Mr. Simonelli or the Fairy Widower” by Susanna Clarke
  6. “The Black Fairy’s Curse” by Karen Joy Fowler
  7. “My Life As A Bird” by Charles de Lint
  8. “The Night Market” by Holly Black
  9. “The Rose in Twelve Petals” by Theodora Goss
  10. “The Red Path” by Jim C. Hines
  11. “Blood and Water” by Alethea Kontis
  12. “Hansel’s Eyes” by Garth Nix
  13. “He Died That Day, In Thirty Years” by Wil McCarthy
  14. “Snow In Summer” by Jane Yolen
  15. “The Rose Garden” by Michelle West
  16. “The Little Magic Shop” by Bruce Sterling
  17. “Black Feather” by K. Tempest Bradford
  18. “Fifi’s Tail” by Alan Rodgers
  19. “The Faery Handbag” by Kelly Link
  20. “Ashputtle” by Peter Straub
  21. “The Emperor’s New (And Improved) Clothes” by Leslie What
  22. “Pinocchio’s Diary” by Robert J. Howe
  23. “Little Red” by Wendy Wheeler
  24. “The Troll Bridge” by Neil Gaiman
  25. “The Price” by Patricia Briggs
  26. “Ailoura” by Paul Di Filippo
  27. “The Farmer’s Cat” by Jeff VanderMeer
  28. “The Root of The Matter” by Gregory Frost
  29. “Like a Red, Red Rose” by Susan Wade
  30. “Chasing America” by Josh Rountree
  31. “Stalking Beans” by Nancy Kress
  32. “Big Hair” by Esther Friesner
  33. “The Return of the Dark Children” by Robert Coover

Susanna Clarke, Kelly Link, Jeff Vandermeer, Genevieve Valentine, Holly Black, Neil Gaiman, the list of awesome just keeps getting longer and longer! Nancy Kress was my first Clarion West instructor and now I am in an anthology with her. What.

But the most exciting bit is this. No anthology of this kind would be complete without Theodora Goss, that goes without saying. But the story in here, “The Rose in Twelve Petals,” is one of my favorite stories of All Time1. One of the first that ever moved me to track down an author’s website and email her2. That one of my stories gets to be in the same book as that is a most excellent way to begin my next year of life.

The book is out in June, and you can pre-order it from Nightshade or Amazon or Barnes & Noble or likely your local bookshop.

P.S. I would also like to point out that, once again, I’m in a book with a gorgeous cover.

Footnotes

  1. I just came across this blog post where Dora talks about how the story came to be. She mentions that it was her first story ever published — a surprise to myself — and that it’s been 10 years now. That… makes me feel old. [⇧]
  2. the other was “The Run of the Fiery Horse,” which I talked about in the PodCastle introduction. [⇧]

Oh Hey, My Stories Finally Made It To The Big Booksellers

By:  TempestWriting
Oh Hey, My Stories Finally Made It To The Big Booksellers

As promised, I’m keeping everyone abreast of my dealings with SmashWords so as to give my impression of the process. Back in December I published a short story (actually, a novelette) through their site which was immediately available via SmashWords but took some time to make it through distribution channels. SW will send your eBook to Amazon, B&N, Kobo, Sony, iBooks and Diesel on their behalf as the publisher. It sometimes takes a while. Now my book is in all of those stores except for Amazon, as there’s some kind of renegotiation going on with them overall.

Anyway, I did a search and found the book in each place except iBooks (can’t get there from the web) and linked them above. So now phase 2 is over.

Thus far, 50 people have downloaded the except of the story (free) and only 3 have bought it. However, I haven’t done any promotion beyond this blog yet, mainly because I was waiting for the distribution thing to happen. However, I’ve learned a few things already:

  1. I suck at writing jacket copy.
  2. My cover is all right, but it’s not stunning, and thus probably not driving many sales.

These things I knew before, but seem particularly important now that I’m considering publishing more stories in this manner.I’m trying to take more time to work on these aspects in the next iteration so that when people do land on the page, they’re enticed to click. I recognize the limits in this area as I am not an artist or book designer or copy writer, cannot afford a decent artist or book designer or copy writer, and would have to consider very carefully employing their services if I did. After all, I’m not going to make much money off of these stories no matter what.

The next step is being a little more aggressive in the promotional area. But not overly so. I’m dipping toes in the water here to work out what’s best for this kind of fiction. I may even wait until I have all the stories I plan to release this way (for now) in the SmashWords catalog at least.

Any thoughts, Internets?

Keeping First Drafts

By:  TempestWriting

As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, last week I was on a writing retreat with some awesome folks. I am finishing up my YA novel (finally, I know) and plowing through the revisions and edits I’ve settled on now that the new material is out of the way. At one point I realized that I needed a snippet of description from an earlier draft of the novel and didn’t have it in my current files. I think I may have overwritten it accidentally. Fie. So I went over to my first draft journal to see if it still lived there.

Having a first draft journal is awesome, can I just say. Not only is it good as an extra backup, but it’s interesting (at least for me) to see how my stories and novels change over time from the first stuff that comes out of my head to the version I eventually send out to editors. Looking back at the journal I see the insane struggle it was for me to write the beginning of this novel. I must have a dozen false starts. Makes me feel all the better for finally getting it out in a form I’m happy with.

I did eventually find my snipped of description and added to the new version which is now very nearly complete.

It’s nice to live in the future…

Zira’s Heart, Shannon’s Life Force, and Tempest’s Back

By:  TempestMy Fiction

Several bits of fictiony news for you! First, I’m experimenting with self-publishing short stories as eBooks just to see what the process is like and to feel out interest in this arena. I have no plans to completely abandon sending my stories out to magazines and such. But there are a few stories that I love and still believe are good, but I’ve run out of markets for them. One such is Zira’s Heart, which is a bit too long for most markets. So, I decided to submit it to Smashwords and get it listed in most major eBook stores to see how that goes.

Shorts never receive the same kind of attention that books get in these situations, but I still think it could be interesting (and fun). I uploaded it last night and it’s already in the Smashwords catalog. Now I’m waiting to see if they’ll accept it for distribution to Amazon, B&N, iBooks and the like. I put the cover and link up on the sidebar of my site and I’m tracking how many clicks it gets. I’ll report as time goes on.

In other news, I don’t know why but I keep forgetting to blog about my first Escape Pod story! Elan Vital, which first appeared in Sybil’s Garage no 6, was podcasted in Escape Pod and read by Mur Lafferty. I’m completely excited to have cracked that market and really glad Mur is the editor now, as I enjoy her other podcasts quite a bit.

I did not intend to actually listen to the piece since I always get emotional even looking at that story. But as several people had praised Mur’s reading of it, I decided to listen to just a little. I ended up listening to the entire thing (crying almost the whole time, arg). Mur is fantastic, as others have said. She strikes the perfect notes all the way through. I’m so lucky! All of my Escape Artists stories have been read by such excellent and talented people1.

The discussion about my story is filled with people saying they really loved it (squee!) and some who bounced off hard. I am amused, however, by the person who said early on that the story “isn’t science fiction“. Also amused by the person who pointed out that, whatever happens in the future, he is sure companies will always find ways to charge us subscription fees. Too right.

Over at the Biology in Science Fiction blog, the poster asks “What would you be willing to give to keep someone you love alive?” which is more the center of my story than the actual science. I do enjoy some hard SF now and then. But I’m in the camp of people who think that the science or technology in SF is meant to serve the characters and the plot and the idea, not the other way around. Too much Star Trek as a child?

And finally, this weekend I went to Macy’s in my quest to find a new mattress (as described here) on the advice of those who said they had great deals. Those people? Have a weird idea of what constitutes a great deal. Nothing below $1,000 in the quality I need, and salespeople who didn’t even want to admit that they might be able to sell me a mattress without a box spring. They looked horrified that I should want such a thing. My old box spring is clearly inferior to anything they have. Cue eyeroll.

PayPal being under attack by Anonymous affected a couple of family members from donating to my mattress fund last week, but I think that’s over now. Yay? I haven’t even looked at the account yet since a bunch of people sent me a note saying they wouldn’t be able to send money until next week or so, which is fine. I’m going to ask my new roommate to help me flip my current mattress tonight and try to sleep on the less fucked up side so that my back will stop screaming at me in the night.

Here’s what I don’t get: how did we, as humans, survive all this time without natural latex memory foam individually-wrapped coil mattresses? I mean, this is crazy. There must be a solution for sleeping that is not bad for your back and also comfortable. Also one that does not cost $600+. Fie.

Footnotes

  1. Yeah, that’s right, Amal. I am talkin’ about you. Whatcha gunna do about it, huh? [⇧]

Clarion West, Money, And Me

By:  TempestTechnology
Clarion West, Money, And Me

We have just 7 days left before the Butler Scholarship fundraiser ends. I won’t post about this every day, but I’m going to post about it three more times. This is the first.

Here’s a story I’ve told before, but it bears telling again. When I applied to go to Clarion West, I was at the tail end of a very difficult, life-changing year. In 2002 several things happened to me. The first is that I wrote more short stories in one year than I ever had before, thus making me feel like a real writer. The second is that I realized the whole working full-time for a blah job just to pay the bills thing was not cutting it in the keeping myself intact department. The third was that I got cancer, which put thing one and thing two in perspective right quick.

The cancer I had was caught very early, was eliminated by an operation, and thankfully required minimal aftercare to deal with completely. Still, that kind of thing will knock you on your ass in a minute. I decided that I needed to get out of New York and leave my job behind and focus on being a writer. And step one of that focus was to go to Clarion.

I applied to both Clarion and Clarion West. I did not have much money. Certainly not enough to cover tuition. Especially after paying to get out of my lease early, paying for a U-Haul, and leaving behind steady income. I started a “Send Tempest To Clarion” fund, and my generous friends donated. But I still did not have enough to pay tuition. I was willing to take out a loan, even at a high interest rate, because I knew this was important for me to do.

I got accepted to both Clarion and Clarion West. I opted for West because three of my heroes were teaching there that year. I spoke to Neile (one of the co-admins) on the phone and told her that I did need financial assistance if there was any, as I had little money. My thought was that if scholarships could cover just 1/3rd, I could get the rest somehow. Neile called me up shortly after I filed my financial aid application and told me that my entire tuition was covered. Not by the normal scholarships, though. A person had paid my full tuition. Someone who wished to remain anonymous.

I can’t remember if I cried right there on the phone or held it until after, but I did cry.

I do remember asking Neile to convey a huge thank you to that person when she called. I repeated this entreaty when I finally got to Clarion West all those weeks later. And I believe I’ve mentioned it on this blog a few times, too. But it bears repeating again:

Thank you, whoever you are/were. That was such an amazing gift.

Going to either of the Clarions is a giant commitment. Not only do you have the cost for tuition, but many also leave behind jobs, houses, apartments, family, financial obligations. And there’s no guarantee that going to the workshop will result in you getting published or going on to be a full-time writer. Of course, it’s not all about the writing. At the Clarions, students get to meet important people in the community and network, which is important in any career. And you make connections with the other students, who may go on to become great writers as well. Or, at least, really good friends and supporters.

Not every awesome spec fic writer went to Clarion or Clarion West. But it is an opportunity that many decide to avail themselves of and then benefit from.

When that anonymous person paid my tuition, I felt like she or he was saying to me: your voice matters. I believe that enough to give you thousands of dollars. Prove me right.

This is why, ever since its inception, I have been a supporter of the Octavia E. Butler Memorial Scholarship. Each year, this fund does for two students of color going to Clarion and Clarion West what that donor did for me, which is to say: your voice matters. It matters so much that we are going to give you thousands of dollars for this chance to improve your writing and meet people in this community who will further support you.

Except this time the money doesn’t come from just one person, it comes from hundreds, maybe thousands. It comes from those of you who have already bought tickets to win an eReader. It comes from those who don’t particularly want an eReader, but are willing to donate directly to the fund. I hope you’re one of those people.

NonNaNoWriMo

By:  TempestWriting
NonNaNoWriMo

Several people have asked: nope, not doing NaNoWriMo. Not officially, anyway. What I am doing is continuing to write on my novel with the goal of having it done by the end of the year. This means I’m going to be doing a lot of writing this month, and if any NaNo people want to get together and do so with me, all the better.

My novel will likely be around 50K (actually I am aiming for between 60 and 75K) as it’s a YA. And I would enjoy motivation. This is why I have the Chapters for Chocolate program. Anyone who wants to see my chapters as I complete them (in 5 chapter chunks) must give me good chocolate in return for them. That’s all.

Also, Nina Kiriki Hoffman and I have this thing going on. A word race, if you will. Each week in November we will see who has more words for that given 7 day period. Whoever writes less will have to buy the other a Kindle book.

So, I have some great motivators. And a novel that is (finally) behaving itself. So November will be a good month.

Anyone interested in NonNaNoing with me?

Realms of Fantasy Dead, Again

By:  TempestThe Publishing Biz
Realms of Fantasy Dead, Again

For those who have not seen the memo, and Shawna’s goodbye, and Doug’s goodbye. Almost 2 years ago now I wrote a blog post about how the death of RoF made me feel, and I actually still stand by the sentiment today. Yes, since then there have been some fishboobs and some whitewashing and even some random trolling from people only tangentially involved. Still and all, I did love it once, and I cherish those memories.

Coming Out Day

By:  TempestNon-Fiction Publications
Coming Out Day

I actually have no interesting coming out story to tell. Mostly because my coming out happened in stages and in small steps over time. Most of my extended family has no clue, and my immediate family either knows or doesn’t based on if they’ve been around when I’ve talked about past girlfriends or something. Overall, I haven’t felt a big need to talk directly about this kind of thing because my family considers me so weird for so many reasons this would just add to the pile and not mean much.

Though I am pretty sure that at least one of my aunts thinks I am going through a phase.

I find that I am reluctant to formally come out to anyone, not because I have any shame about what I am, but because I end up getting into odd, intrusive conversations for no good reason. But when it comes up I do usually identify as bisexual unless that day I’ve decided to identify as a lesbian. Why the switch? Because there are many days when I just don’t like men very much, and I’d rather not admit any kind of connection to them in the attraction department. These days usually include those where I have to deal with really sexist dudes, which thankfully isn’t all that often.

I remember in college we used to have discussions about identifying politically as Lesbian or Gay even though one is actually Bisexual. So sometimes I’ll say that politically I’m a lesbian, but emotionally I am bisexual.

I’m also Poly, which most people don’t know about me due to my reluctance to get involved with one partner, let alone multiples.

Actually, that’s what a lot of this reticence comes down to. I do not often enter into romantic relationships (by choice), so there’s not usually much reason for me to reveal my preferences in the matter. Unfortunately, this feeds into the whole heterosexual privilege thing, as many probably assume I am het. And though I am an activist for social justice in many arenas, including LGBT issues, that is not my forefront activism, thus it’s not always apparent.

So, over the course of my life before this, and probably after, I will have many small coming out moments. This post is probably one.

Writing Music (Suggestions Needed!)

By:  TempestWriting
Writing Music (Suggestions Needed!)

Those of you who follow me on Facebook may already know that I am indeed in the midst of writing a novel at the moment. One of the things I like to do when writing a novel or short story is to create a playlist to inspire me. This grouping of songs will not only get me through cafe writing sessions when truly terrible music comes over the loudspeakers, but also helps kick my writer brain into gear. It’s easy for me to associate a song with an action, so hearing the appropriate songs can put me in writer mode fairly quickly.

For this novel I need hard driving music with plenty of percussion and energy. I’ve got some appropriate music from DJs I’ve encountered in the city or music sent by friends, but I need suggestions for more stuff to acquire. House music, dance music, world music, remixes, instrumental, whatever. Suggest artists, specific albums, specific tracks. Hopefully I’ll be able to find it on Zune :)

What kind of music do you listen to while you write?

Audible Tempest

By:  TempestWriting Life

Due to a great lack of spoons (and the evil hacking of my web server), I have not yet made a post telling you about wonderful things! Fiction-related things! I shall do so now.

First, as I mentioned, I was on the radio the other week. Hour of the Wolf, 5am, reading the first draft of a story and having it critiqued on air by my wonderful writing group, Altered Fluid. For those of you not up at 5am on a Saturday, the archive of the show is here1. Those of you subscribed to my first draft journal have seen that story in its very, very first incarnation.

In other news, my Interfictions story, “Black Feather”, recently went up on PodCastle. You can check out the story here if you haven’t already2. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the folks on the forum did not hate it! Not everyone loved it, of course, but there appears to be some nice balance to the responses.

I am amused by the discussion going on surrounding the line “Flying is nothing more than controlled falling.”

The mighty Amal El-Mohtar read the story beautifully, and the awesome M. K. Hobson did the introduction. These are two of my favorite ladies, so it was all squeeness for me. Amal wondered how her reading compared to the one I did below. I have to say, I had the benefit of a band behind me. Normally, I feel like my readings suck. But that night everyone who read was on fire. I still need to make an MP3 of Veronica reading “Rats”.

Anyway, if you listen to both versions, I think Amal and I would both enjoy hearing what you think of them.

Footnotes

  1. Once the archive goes away, expect to find that file in, uh, other places. [⇧]
  2. You should subscribe to PodCastle if you like audio fiction that fits neatly into a commute [⇧]