neo-pro Archives - Annie Bellet

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Neo-pro Interview: Steve Stewart

stevenrstewart_portrait — Interview with Steve Stewart

Who are you? What’s your genre/history/etc?

Steve: I was a weird kid; the worst part was, I didn’t know I was weird. It took me a long time to realize that when a teacher holds up a picture of a one-humped camel in a kindergarten class, you’re not supposed to say “dromedary.” When the school asks students for their input designing the new playground, they want you to draw a tornado slide, tire swings, a seesaw; basically anything but an interconnected network of cloud-shaped tree houses with foam harpoon guns.

I was scared of the dark. It was like a chalkboard where I could sketch my primal fears as big as my suffocating imagination could make them. I was the kid asking for doors to be left open a crack, for closets to be checked. I was the kid running up the stairs with the basement darkness nipping at my heels, clutching the jar of canned peaches my mom had asked for to my chest. I was also the kid begging my dad to tell me just one more scary story. The more something scared me, the more I wanted to tell stories about it, draw it, dig down deep and figure it out.

Maybe I’m still doing this.

These days, I have a wife and two little girls who blow my mind every single day, and I spend five nights a week away from them chasing this writing thing. It’s a life that doesn’t make sense to a lot of people, but I’ve found incredible fulfillment in it. Searching for true things and lying about them creatively is a hell of a job. It’s the only one I want.

I write speculative fiction of all kinds, but it tends to be visual and character-driven. Love stories creep into almost everything I write, and I’m starting to wonder if I might be, at least in part, a closeted romance writer. (I never went through the I-don’t-like-girls stage.) Most of what I’ve sold has been sci-fi, but I would like to write and sell more horror. I have soft spot for mysteries as well, and I’d love to sell a novel to Hard Case Crime someday. We’ll see what happens.

What’s your Race score? (1 pt for every short story out to market, 3 points for every novel query (1 per novel only), 8 points for every full (once per novel only also) )

Steve: Shit. You’ve got me. I’m at that weird place where I’m just beginning to sell, so I have a pile of stories in my writing folder, and I would be embarrassed to attach my name to most of them. Henlein’s fifth rule—keep a story on the market until it has sold—is a tough one for me once I realize a story is not pro quality. (Heinlein can talk big, but he was already an effing genius by the time he coined these rules.) I’ve only been producing publishable work for maybe two years, and many of those stories have either sold or continue to look for homes because they’re just so damn long.

I’m proud to say, as I write this, I’m about 5k from the end of my first novel. I’m really pleased with it, and I can’t wait to dig into revisions and send it out. Writing a novel is weird, because you’re working, but you feel strangely disconnected from everything. I’m looking forward to getting back in “the mix.”

So what is my score? Excuse-free answer: A pitiful 3 or 4, but it’s been much better in the past.

When did you “get serious” about being a writer?

Steve: March 2009. I was working security at a university, and I would spend all night walking around in the dark, through the nursing department’s creepy lab full of blank-eyed dummies or down into the depths of the old mansion that served as the campus library. (The kid version of myself would have had an aneurysm.) I had lots of time to think about my life and the direction it was going. I had been writing since I was a kid, but working as a professional had always felt sort of distant and hypothetical. For the first time, it felt like something I could do, not some future me, but me.

I bought a little $300 netbook and starting writing every chance I got. Six months later, I was accepted into Uncle Orson’s Literary Boot Camp where I got to work closely with one of my heroes, Orson Scott Card. I sat across from the man at dinner. We split a pizza. It was surreal. I think it was John Brown (the author and Codexian) who said that Boot Camp was “a barn burner, a great blaze of insight.” He’s right. There was no turning back after that.

What are your goals with your writing?

Steve: I want to create disposable entertainment with thematic substance. I want to be one of those hard-working, skillful, genre authors who tells great stories and gets paid for it. I want to sell books the old-fashioned way, to a good publisher who will put them in the hands of the most possible readers. I want my books to save people during a long wait at the airport or the bus stop or the doctor’s office. I want people to stay up all night worrying about my characters. I want people to argue about them, geek out about them, enjoy them, and miss them when the book or series is finally over.

Where do you see your career in 5 years?

Steve: I have my goals mapped out for the year, five years, and ten years. My goals will change, of course, but it’s still important to have targets to aim at. I’ll spare you my ten-year, world-domination plans, but here are some of my five-year goals:

1. Sell a novel or series to a major publisher

2. Appear in both Asimov’s and F&SF (as well as other magazines—Ellery Queen and Alfred Hitchcock are bonus points!)

3. Finish at least one novel per year

4. Win a major award (Hugo, Nebula, Bram Stoker, etc.)

5. Establish a strong online “platform” (Still thinking about how to accomplish this one.)

*There are others, but they mostly deal with comics.

These are some pretty lofty goals for a relative newcomer like me, but I’m not in this game to dick around. I’m here to make the most of my time and talent. To do that, you have to aim high and work hard. I’m doing both.

Do you have a particular story or idea you are dying to write? Or, if you could write a tie-in to any established universe/franchise, what would it be?

Steve: If I had to settle on the one idea I’m most stoked about right now, it would probably be the book I’m planning to write next, “Early Birds.” It’s a zombie novel about a teenage girl who “wakes up” months after the last humans have succumbed to [whatever I end up calling the damn infection]. She discovers a group of other girls her age who have also recovered from being zombies, and ends up at a school led by the only adult anywhere (as far as they know), a brilliant, dangerous woman with a plan to rebuild the world—but first, they have to find a living male.

It’s a whole thing. School drama, cannibalism, “bunker people,” love, pregnancy, post-apocalyptic politics, violence. It’s going to be effing insane. I can’t wait to start.

What are your hobbies outside writing?

Steve: I’m a geek. I like to read comics and play video games and watch anime and play D&D, although this last almost never happens anymore. If I’m going to work that hard on something, it should be something I can sell. Lately, I’m pretty boring. I watch a documentary every night after the wife and kids are in bed, and oddly I find nonfiction more relaxing that fiction. I listen to NPR in the car instead of music. When did I get so old?

I sing and write songs and play a little guitar. I’m not disciplined at it (probably because my older brother Jay was), but I have a lot of fun. Jay s and I are in a band called “Hills and Downs” [link: http://listn.to/HillsandDowns] with our two younger brothers. My wife is always bugging me to sing, but for some reason, it’s the one thing I’m shy about.

I like to fight. I think it’s a guy-with-lots-of-brothers thing. My college experience was like Jackass with boxing gloves. I have a friend who trained at Throwdown San Diego (alongside guys like Tyson Griffin, Jeremy Stephens, Diego Sanchez, and Brandon Vera); he moved back to town and began training me in Muay Thai kickboxing a couple years ago. I like bad food too much to ever fight professionally, but I love to stand across from a guy who wants to kick my ass and go to town. Best stress reliever ever.

What’s your writing process like?

Steve: I get an idea, put in it a blender with a few others, and look for the story in the tension between the ingredients. Then I list. Lists are my friend. When the lists start to look like outlines, I start writing. If I get stuck, I drive and listen to music. A road trip is as good as a month of indoor brainstorming. I also talk things out with friends. Sometimes they can see what you mean better than you can.

When I write, I try to make every section fun. Every night, I know my wife is at home waiting to read what I wrote, and I never want to hand her something boring. My theory is this: if every damn page is fun to read (and you haven’t neglected the basics), you’ll have something good. With good editing, it might even end up great.

What’s been toughest about your journey so far as a writer? How do you keep yourself going?

Steve: Any time you decide to do something risky or unusual, the people around you worry. (Thankfully, my wife is not one of these people.) Sometimes they try to fix you. Sometimes that fixing goes beyond a healthy, helpful level and becomes almost discriminatory. I have failed at a lot of things in my life by kidding myself about myself, mostly in an effort to meet expectations. Writers (or the kind of people who become writers) aren’t normal. When they’re trying to do things they weren’t “made for,” they look broken—like a pair of handlebars trying to function as a wheel. You can’t get anywhere like that. Once you figure out, “Hey, I’m not a wheel; I’m a pair of handlebars” things get a lot better.

Shit happens. When in doubt, get stupid. Get single-minded. Get mad, and just write.

Any tips or tricks you’ve figured out for improving your writing?

Steve: First, be a person. Live. Fight. Fall in love. Make mistakes. There’s no substitute for this.

Second, read. Read fiction. Read nonfiction. Read in your genre and outside it. Read comics. Read scripts. (Hell, watch movies.) Get so familiar with words and stories that your dreams start to make sense.

Third, write. Do it as often as possible, every day if you can. (Five days a week is pretty good.) Make plans for a project, then finish it. Start another one right away. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Fourth, become a student of writing. Read every writing book you can get your hands on. Talk to other writers. Get involved in the writing community. It may be hard to get out in the world and realize you’re not a unique flower, but it will be good for you. Stay humble and teachable. Get excited about learning new things. If you find a gap in your game, plug it with knowledge and practice. You have to do the writing, no one else, so learn all you can.

Finally, never stop.

And finally, got anything you want to pimp?

Steve: My story “She Who Lies in Secret” is slotted as the June 2012 cover story for Red Penny Papers. It’s a story about a college boy who finds a psychic mermaid in the basement of an old mansion. Things go bad in a big way. It’s one of my favorites. Check it out when it goes up. (You should check out Red Penny Papers anyway. They’re cool people doing cool things in a cool way, and I’m convinced they’re not afraid of anything.)

Neo-pro Interview: Lon Prater

interview with Lon — Interview: Lon Prater

Who are you?

Lon: I’m Lon Prater. I retired not long back from the Navy and now hang my hat in Pensacola, Florida.

What’s your genre/history/etc?

Lon: Mostly dark. Horror (Lovecraftian and otherwise), Weird Crime and History. Occasionally science fiction. I suppose the lightest story I tend to write would be classified as a “cautionary tale.” The mood of much of my work falls somewhere between noir and tragedy. Despite this, I am a pretty happy person who finds a lot of joy and laughter in the real world.

What’s your Race score? (1 pt for every short story out to market, 3 points for every novel query (1 per novel only), 8 points for every full (once per novel only also) )

Lon: Thanks for reminding me–not just of the Race scoring system, but that I’m supposed to send my stuff out. As I write this, I’ve just finished my bi-or tri-monthly push to get my stories out there pounding the pavement, looking for work. So my score at the moment is 20. Soon to plummet, no doubt.

And I don’t dare mention what the score was 12 hours ago. Did you know it really is possible to die of shame?

When did you “get serious” about being a writer?

Lon: Heh. Which time? Family members claim I declared my intention to be a writer when I was about 6 years old. I made several flawed attempts between then and 2003, when finally something I threw out into the world landed in the much beloved Borderlands series, volume 5. Not long after, I entered Writers of the Future and ended up a Published Finalist in 2005. Since then, I’ve only gotten serious about being a writer five or six times. Somehow, though, I tend to get more things published when I’m just having fun with being a writer. So it’s all good.

What are your goals with your writing?

Lon: Sometimes, I want to write stories that challenge my abilities and what I think I can do with the form. This would be epistoleries such as “Never the Twain” [Daily Science Fiction”] and weird second person thingies like “You Do Not Know What Slipstream Is” which appeared in the much-missed Lone Star Stories.

Sometimes, I want to write stories that capture some theme or insight that is bugging the crap out of my brain and will continue to do so until I get the darn thing written and out there into the world. Most recently, this would be the experimental novels I indie published this summer: The American in His Season and The Island of Jayne Grind.

And yet other times, I just want to have so much fun writing my stories that strangers who read them send random emails telling me how much they enjoyed them (which sometimes means “how much they were disturbed by them”). I’m thinking here of “This Is My Corporation, Eat” which was published in IGMS at the beginning of this summer, and “Kids Cost More” about a magic-wielding Mafiosi out for revenge.

Where do you see your career in 5 years?

Lon: I plan to still be writing, and trying to get my stories inside the heads of more readers. I’d like to have landed a traditional publishing contract at some point, but that’s only one leg of the tripod. I’ll always adore the risk-taking small press and like to support worthy ventures and bold visions. Self/Indie Publishing is the final leg of the tripod. I’m fairly new to the joys of Kindle, Createspace, etc. but I like to think I’m catching on fast.

I don’t look at the career end as very “career” to be frank. This is something I do because I enjoy it. I like to write stories and create whole worlds in other people’s heads who come back for more. It’s great when I can get a happy meal or a car payment out of it, but I don’t foresee a day when all I do for a living is write. For one thing, where would all the good material come from? The idea of becoming some bestseller who always writes about writers because that’s all I know anymore kind of terrifies me. Good thing most of my writing is so niche-oriented that I hardly have to worry about that nightmare coming to pass, eh?

Do you have a particular story or idea you are dying to write? Or, if you could write a tie-in to any established universe/franchise, what would it be?

Lon: I finished my average 60K words early this year (plus a bonus short story!) and have been focusing on converting some older published work to ebook, revising a few originals for the same end, and–more to your question–plotting a fun and somewhat spicy arc for a series character that I want to begin writing before the year is out.

Till now, I’ve never felt like I wanted to work in series fiction. But I’ve always found ways to push my own limits, and with this character and idea, I think I have enough traction to make a go of it.

If I was to get a chance to write in other people’s worlds, I think I’d get a kick out of writing a Calvin & Hobbes novel. Yes, I know this one will never, ever happen for anybody, but that just makes me want to do it even more.

What are your hobbies outside writing?

Lon: I am a devoted Texas Hold’em nut, but I really like playing card and board games of all descriptions. We have been playing a lot of a Canasta style game called “Hand and Foot” lately. When the winds are good I tend to take my stunt kites out to the beach and tear holes in the sky with them.

What’s your writing process like?

Lon: It’s changed a lot over time. At first, the trend was toward writing gradually longer stories as my “writing muscles” developed. In time, I discovered my natural novel length is at the 50K end of the spectrum. (I’ve never done NaNoWriMo, though. The timing and pace stinks for how I usually work.)

Then I began to really understand story structure, and it colored my process quite a bit. For a long time I thought in terms of four act structure, and found that I tended to work very similarly to the first few steps of Randy Ingermanson’s Snowflake Theory. I still use a model much like that when plotting a story (or editing one.) But now there’s the new wrinkle, adapted from Dan Wells’ 7 Point Structure, of considering the changes in status from beginning to middle to end.

I’m always looking for new craftsmanship ideas to try on, creatively. Some I use for one story, some I keep for years until I outgrow them.

What’s been toughest about your journey so far as a writer? How do you keep yourself going?

Lon: I think it’s probably been distraction and guilt.

It’s easy for me to get distracted by the shiny stuff on my laptop screen and make no progress even when I am dedicating time for nothing but forward progress on a project. The best workaround on this for me has been the Alphasmart Neo. All you can do with it is write. I’ve put over 700 pages on mine so far, and I’m still on the first set of betteries. Only downfall, IMHO, is that it is just smidge too simplified of a word processor. I’d kill for the ability to do italics and underlines when composing on the Neo.

Regarding guilt, there’s two parts. First, I’d go read writers blogs about the daily progress meter and how “writers write” and if you aren’t writing every day, you must not be a writer. That kind of thing used to get me really down. Because I don’t write every day. I do keep track of my writing, with a simple date, # pages in Standard Manuscript Format. This helps. I write somewhere north of 60K a year, usually over about 30 well-scattered calendar days. And I submit the stuff I write to editors who actually pay me for the right to publish it! Realizing that I must be a writer even though I don’t apply butt to writing chair every day was a huge relief.

The other part of the guilt is that when I am focused on writing I feel guilty about all the things I am not doing with or for my family. I am grateful to have their support, but there’s an uneasy, whispering voice that’s always there, telling me if I really cared about my wife or my kids, I’d stop writing right this instant and go spend time with them. Finding a balance and feeling like it’s okay to do this writing thing for is a tricky hill to climb, and one I always feel like I’m falling down the wrong side of.

Any tips or tricks you’ve figured out for improving your writing?

Lon: The best piece of advice I can offer anyone–and this is what I feel has done to most to improve my stories and craft–is to aim for some new goal with every story you write, and to keep that goal in mind every time you sit down to write. Also, pick some particular aspect of your technique that you are going to be mindful of with every session–whether writing or revising.

I never thought I’d write a time travel story, until I challenged myself to figure out what a Lon Prater time travel story would look like. Beyond Choose-Your-Own-Adventure, I’ve never had much use for writing in the second person, but I’m still proud of accomplishing what I set out to in “You Do Not Know What Slipstream Is”. When I edited one story in particular, I gave myself the goal of paying extra attention to sensory elements beyond sight and sound. Another time, I focused on bringing out the theme and mood by finding better verbs all the way through.

The key is: Consciously challenge yourself in some deliberate way, every time you write or revise what you have written. And after, make sure you know what you learned from the process.

And finally, got anything you want to pimp?

Lon: There are free previews available for my two indie pubbed novels, The American In His Season and The Island of Jayne Grind at my site. I’d be delighted if readers of your blog were interested enough to go there and take a look.

Neo-Pro Interview: Melissa Mead

Yes, that is right. The interviews are back. I’ll be posting them every Thursday until I run out of ~~victims~~ entries.

Enjoy!

Who are you? What’s your genre/history/etc?

Melissa: Hi! I’m Melissa Mead, writer of mostly fantasy, occasional SF, and even more occasional horror (usually on a dare.)

What’s your Race score?

Melissa: Aw, you caught me near the end of the month! I generally sub a batch of stories in the first week of a month. Right now, I’d say 12 “serious” points. (There are also some novel queries to agents who I’m assuming aren’t interested at this point.)

When did you “get serious” about being a writer?

Melissa: My seriousness has increased in waves. First, in 1997, I got serious enough to submit for publication. (Which happened in 1999) In 2002, I went to my first con, met Real Writers, and started sending to more than one or two places, and tracking my subs. In 2007, I started querying agents. I have a feeling that it’s about time to decide whether to catch the next wave or not.

What are your goals with your writing?

Melissa: Right now, I’d love to 1. Qualify for active SFWA membership. (This could happen soon!) 2. Sell a story to Realms of Fantasy, and 3. Sell a print novel to a major publisher.

Where do you see your career in 5 years?

Melissa: Depends if I catch that next wave of commitment or not. If I dare, maybe you’ll see that novel in a bookstore somewhere.

Do you have a particular story or idea you are dying to write? Or, if you could write a tie-in to any established universe/franchise, what would it be?

Melissa: I have a novel that’s been lurking in my brain for a few years. I’m not dying to write it just yet, but it hasn’t gone away, either. It starts with Snow White, and gets odd from there. As far as tie-ins go, I don’t play well in other people’s yards. Although my husband and I once did come up with a Star Trek story involving Voyager, the doctor’s mobile emitter, and STTNG’s Moriarty that I would’ve loved to watch.

What are your hobbies outside writing?

Melissa: There are hobbies outside of writing? Oh, reading, of course. Going on picnics with my husband. Turning my not-very-impressive photographs into artwork.

What’s your writing process like?

Melissa: Get idea. Write like crazy. Realize I don’t know where it’s going. Stare at screen. Surf the Net. Get another idea. Write like crazy. Get stuck. Eventually, browse among the various stuck beginnings, realize where one is going, and FINISH something: hooray, at last, ‘bout darn time. Repeat.

What’s been toughest about your journey so far as a writer? How do you keep yourself going?

Melissa: Lack of self confidence. And sometimes I don’t. (See the last question.) But there are always more ideas. If I don’t let them out, who will?

Any tips or tricks you’ve figured out for improving your writing?

Melissa: Write flash. Drabbles, even. Write stories of 1,500-2,000 words, and distil them to under 1,000. It’s great practice for packing the most story into the least space.

And finally, got anything you want to pimp?

Melissa: May I pimp my writers group? We’re here: http://carpelibris.wordpress.com/

Thanks for letting me do this!

Neo-Pro Interview #5

Time for another neo-pro interview, this time with Patty Jansen.

Q: Who are you? What’s your genre/history/etc?

Patty: I’m Australian (please allow for funny spelling), and I have at various times in the past been an agricultural scientist, librarian, non-fiction author, non-fiction bookseller and I’m also a mother of three teenagers. I write a lot of different subgenres within speculative fiction and have been known to write some mainstream fiction. Every time I think I’m completely swaying to one subgenre, I get the itch to write something totally different. That said, I am now no longer too shy to admit that my first love is realistic space-based hard SF and that I am a great fan of space opera, especially the type that considers sociological and economic aspects and the tensions they create on people in a strange environment. In fantasy, I enjoy anything that uses fresh and believable settings and concepts.

Q: What’s your Race score?

Patty: Funnily enough, I’ve stopped obsessing over how many submissions I have out. There are a number of venues where I don’t submit as frequently anymore, because I have other venues to send my stories, and those venues are hanging onto my work much longer than before. I tend to plan the submission path of each story much better, and don’t have so many stories out anymore.

Q: When did you “get serious” about being a writer?

Patty: I started writing seriously in 2004, after my father died of cancer, while there were still so many things in life he wanted to do. I had done some writing in high school and the first years at university, but then a relationship, work and kids played havoc with my time. I started writing again for myself in 2003, and met a friend through another interest who also wrote fiction. She was the first person to make me aware of the existence of critique groups. I joined SF-OWW in December 2004, the date I take as the start of my serious writing efforts. I was there for four years. SF-OWW is wonderful. It is the first place I’d advise a new writer of SF/F to go.

Q: What are your goals with your writing?

Patty: My goals? *Laughs* To have stories accepted in all the major magazines I enjoy reading. On top of that, to publish some novels. Will that happen? I think it the first probably looks increasingly likely. I’ve cracked Redstone SF, as they will be publishing ‘Party, with Echoes’ in May. The second aim… I don’t know, that is if you consider traditional publishing. I think the market is very much in a state of flux, and I have arrived at the wrong time, and am preparing to take my novels to Smashwords and Amazon, where I already have some works up. Times have changed, and while big publishers are hanging on by their fingernails and not investing much in new writers, if at all, small publishers are going broke, leaving writers in all sorts of contractual mess. I have been offered my share of poor contracts by small presses, and I think I can do better myself. Will I ever bother going back to trying to get an agent? Maybe if I hit the big-time. For now, I don’t care much. I’m selling my own stories, and employing my own designers and proofreaders. I quite like it like that. I was able to join SFWA on the back of my short fiction sales. I feel I don’t need the validation of an agent. I want to try doing my own thing. I’ve done it before, in non-fiction.

Q: Where do you see your career in 5 years?

Patty: I really don’t want to make predictions. I write because I enjoy it, and I take my writing where I can sell it. I’d like to have some income from writing that justifies me continuing with it, and that pays for the occasional con attendance, but beyond that, we’ll see.

Q: Do you have a particular story or idea you are dying to write? Or, if you could write a tie-in to any established universe/franchise, what would it be?

Patty: I’ve done quite well with my hard SF stories, but would dearly like to write a cracking good hard SF novel that sets space travel and colonisation in a modern light where the reader feels it could actually happen (in other words, with minimal ‘magic’ technology). Of course such a setting needs a story, and I have a cracking good story, but in the process of research (it involves interstellar travel), my desk has become buried in astronomy books. It’s all mightily interesting but sadly very distracting. Although the work has left me with some really good short stories. One day I will get my mind around writing that novel. It will be my aim to write hard SF with involved characters who have personalities and quirks and hates and real love lives. I want to write a book that not just hard SF buffs enjoy. I think that if His Name In Lights is anything to go by, I’ll be able to do that.

Q: What are your hobbies outside writing?

Patty: Besides astronomy, and orchids, I play the flute. Like so many kids at school, I played the recorder. Unlike many kids at school, I kept doggedly going with it, until I had a collection of nice wooden concert recorders and had been playing for ten years. Then I gave it up halfway through university. Two years ago, I heard of a local music group starting a new concert band for lapsed musicians. It’s great fun. The story of my musical life is very similar to what’s happened to my writing. There was neither the time nor the mental headspace for music or writing when I had a full-time job and three children under five. This is the reality I see a lot of writers box up against. They have a baby, or two. They try to keep going, but after a year or two, they are exhausted and have to give up. To these people, I’d want to say: it’s OK, it will come back.

Q: What’s your writing process like?

Patty: One word: chaotic. One of the things I have found about the writing process is that there is no such thing as a writing process. Sometimes the setting comes to you long before the story, sometimes you have the characters sorted out, but the setting needs TLC, and sometimes you have a good story, but the characters don’t yet click. Each of these eventualities needs a different approach. I’d describe myself as a pantser, but there have been occasions where I knew everything that would need to happen in the story, in which case I had an outline and was happy to follow it. But I’m equally happy to start a novel with a rough idea of how it should start and another rough idea of where the characters will be at the end, and just write random scenes and thoughts into a file. After I’ve done a number such disjointed drafts, I usually form an outline by performing a cut-and-paste and write the final rough draft. That’s usually draft 5. When that is completed, there’s only polishing to be done.

Q: What’s been toughest about your journey so far as a writer? How do you keep yourself going?

Patty: I don’t think I’ve had it very tough, and to be honest, no one else here does. Writing is something we want to do, and if we want to do it, we have to set aside the time for it. If we don’t want to do that, we should quit whining and take up lawnbowls or croquet. Rejections are tough but you get used to them. And I honestly don’t feel I have the right to talk about tough when so many people out there don’t have a choice about doing mindless jobs, or even have no jobs at all. Doing what you enjoy doing can’t possibly be tough.

Q: Any tips or tricks you’ve figured out for improving your writing?

Patty: Don’t get hung up about other people’s ‘don’t’ rules. Well, according to this advice, you can go ahead and break this one now. I think at some stage developing writers live under the illusion that there is some magic pill and that if only the writers took it, success would be guaranteed. According to whom you speak, that magic pill may contain a total absence of the word ‘that’, or ‘was’, or getting rid of passive language, or some or other writing rule that can be followed off a cliff. I would say: relax. Those rules are written by writing teachers trying to define what constitutes a confident, authoritative voice. And that’s impossible to define, except to say ‘I’ll know it when I see it.’ My advice is therefore to read a lot of those books and stories by recently-published award-winning authors. My advice would be to volunteer as slush reader. And join some form of writers group that involves other people commenting on your work, and vice versa.

Q: And finally, got anything you want to pimp?

Patty: I have some fiction up on Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/pattyjansen
I’ve recently added something I believe to be rare in fiction: a space-based SF book for younger readers. It’s not just a kids story. ‘The Far Horizon’ was written with adults in mind. I don’t know how many hours I’ve spent reading books aloud to my kids. I loved those books that had a hidden, higher level that engaged adults. Think movies like my favourite ‘The Incredibles’, which can be enjoyed on a pure action-based level by the kids, and on that plus a higher level by their parents. The Far Horizon is about a boy discovering a terrorist plot, but on a higher level it’s about discrimination. I truly love that story.
The same works are also on Amazon, but keep in mind that Smashwords is much more friendly to the non-US writer.
Besides this, I always like to pimp my blog where I talk about writing and science.

Neo-Pro Interview #4

Here’s the fourth in my neo-pro interview series, as promised.

Today, please welcome David Steffen.

Q: Who are you? What’s your genre/history/etc?

David: I’m David Steffen, and I’m a writer. (Hello, David)

I’ve pretty much always known that I wanted to create, but the medium
has changed as I’ve grown older. When I was a kid I wanted to be a
cartoonist, and I still like to doodle cartoon animals in my spare
time, but I never really stuck with it long enough to get really
proficient. Around junior high I decided I wanted to make video
games, and that stuck with me for quite some time, and I chose to
pursue a bachelor’s degree of computer science toward that end. Then
I met some people who worked in the gaming industry and found out that
they worked 70-80 hours a week during a normal week, and I decided
that maybe that wasn’t right for me. I like to be able to leave work
at some point. But I kept on with the computer science degree and now
I write computer vision programs for traffic control
applications–automatically detecting vehicles in the turn lane to
activate the green arrow, for instance.

I’ve always liked to read, and my favorite genre has always been
science fiction and fantasy, simply because there the stories need not
be limited by little things like the laws of nature or the framework
of human history. But until 2006 I never really considered that I
could be someone who wrote those stories. Somehow, those writers had
always seemed like post-human entities who had always been famous. I
mean, I knew that wasn’t the case, but despite the rational truth
that’s sort of the feeling I had about writers. Then in 2006, I
talked to my buddy Travis, who told me that he was writing a fantasy
novel. I mulled over this for a while and in 2007 I decided I ought
to give it a try.

So I started writing, first on a novel. I finished it in June 2008
and sent it off to Tor. Their website suggest 4-6 months turnaround
so I started work on the next novel. 12 days later, I got the Tor
rejection and decided that if markets would respond so quickly I would
need to try short stories that I could write more quickly. I sent the
novel off to Elder Signs Press, who I never did hear a response from.
From there I visited writing forums and met the friends that I met.
More than anything else, Baen’s Bar critique forum was the greatest
step in my learning, as I posted and critiqued short stories and grew
in skill in leaps and bounds. My story would be very different today
if I’d sent that first manuscript to ESP first instead of Tor.

Regarding genre, I write whatever moves me on that given day. I
occasionally write mainstream, but I regularly write SF, fantasy,
horror, just whatever pops into my head at the time.

Q: What’s your Race score?

David: My race score is 34 at the moment, 31 short stories and one partial
novel manuscript.

Q: When did you “get serious” about being a writer?

David: Serious? I can’t afford to get too serious about it, or I won’t enjoy
it anymore, and then I may as well just quit. I write what I like and
I I try to make each story my best story yet. Like I said I started
in 2007 and I’ve been going ever since. I made my first sale to
Pseudopod in 2009 (“The Disconnected”), which was a huge boost in
confidence, and my first story hit the masses with “The Utility of
Love” in Northern Frights Publishing’s Shadows of the Emerald City
anthology. It seems like I’ve gotten a lot of “almost, but no” type
rejections lately so I am hoping that that is a good sign of my
chances in the near future.

Q: What are your goals with your writing?

David: Oh, I have lots of goals at varying levels of difficulty. Here’s a few:
–Make a SFWA qualifying sale. (Bull Spec may be qualified soon in
which case I have a story that would be grandfathered in).
–Submit to Writers of the Future every quarter until I win or until I
disqualify myself with pro sales.
–Make a profit. I keep a tally of all my writing expenses (postage,
instructional books, etc) and all of my writing income. If I were
paid for a couple pending sales today, I would come within a few
dollars of paying for my expenses. This is very exciting!
–Qualify for SFWA
–Break into certain of my favorite markets (F&SF, Fantasy, ASIM,
Necrotic Tissue, Drabblecast, etc…)

Q: Where do you see your career in 5 years?

David: There you go using “serious” words again. 🙂 I am no good at
predictions, and even less so in writing because so much of it depends
on random chance and on the whims of individuals’ taste in fiction.
All I can control is what I write, and I intend to keep at it. So, in
five years I intend to still be writing and I intend to be writing
better than I ever have before. It would be nice to have finished
another novel or two, but so far my Muse seems to prefer short stories
so we’ll see what happens.

Q: Do you have a particular story or idea you are dying to write? Or, if you could write a tie-in to any established universe/franchise, what would it be?

David: I’ve got a few that I’d like to write that I haven’t seemed to
actually wrap a story around. In particular, I keep coming back to a
Pinocchio retelling novel but so far I haven’t pulled it off yet.

As far as established universes, there are no current ones that I’d
like to get into. My first published story, “The Utility of Love”, is
a horror retelling of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Oz has always been
one of my favorite worlds and I was very excited to take it and focus
on the parts of the original story that really bothered me. I’d love
to do a Wonderland retelling too, but the original is so meandering
it’s hard to do a coherent retelling. And I’m not good enough at
nonsense to do Lewis Carroll’s story credit.

Q: What are your hobbies outside writing?

David: Oh, all things media, mostly. I love to watch movies, read
books/magazines, play video games. I’m trying a bit of sketching on
the side. Going hiking with or without the dogs is always fun.
Watching hockey.

Q: What’s your writing process like?

David: A lot of things vary about my writing process, but I try to keep at
least some constants. On work days I can get ready for work in about
30 minutes, usually. But I make a habit of getting up an hour earlier
than that and I sit at my desk for most of my time and write whatever
I can. That’s the time of day when my brain is the sharpest, and when
my wife and dogs are zonked out sleeping, so I can usually get a chunk
of writing time in there. I might get a bit more in at lunch on some
days, but that’s no guarantee. And then I do what I can.

Generally I only work on one project at a time because if I switch
projects in the middle I tend not to return to them. And I’ve learned
that on the first draft I’ve just gotta write it as fast as I can or I
will lose momentum. Plot holes, bad wording, that can all be fixed
later and once I type THE END on a rough draft I have never neglected
to go back and polish it, but if I agonize over every word choice as I
go I lose momentum and then I get frustrated and sidetracked.

Q: What’s been toughest about your journey so far as a writer? How do you keep yourself going?

David: For me I think the toughest thing is just trying to go with the flow.
So much of writing “success” is just plain out of my control and when
I stress out about it I gain nothing but ulcers. Everything hinges on
editorial choices. No matter how good you are, there will be editors
who just don’t dig your style. When you’re a relative unknown you
don’t have Name Fame working in your favor and you’ve just gotta live
with the fact that if you submit a story of equal quality to a Big
Name writer, your story will not be accepted. And probably won’t be
accepted even if your story is better (for some definition of better).
It sucks, but it’s true.

I also have learned that my “ideal writing conditions” seem to flux
every few months. Right now I am writing slow but steady, other times
in a frenzy, other times I may go a month without working much on
anything. My Muse is fickle and likes to change her pattern. If I
get worked up about it, I get nothing but worry. All I can do is make
sure that I sit in my writing desk every day and do what I can.

Q: Any tips or tricks you’ve figured out for improving your writing?

David: I have very strong feelings about point of view and how it is best
used in a story. Many of these feelings are outlined in this article.
The base of the ideas I got from the amazing book “Self-Editing for
Fiction Writers” by Browne and King, the only instructional book I
recommend. It’s not geared specifically toward speculative fiction
but is an amazing tool for learning some aspects of writing, with
concrete examples, excerpts from real books of good uses and bad uses.
I added some of my own stuff and my own examples but I recommend that
book for anyone who wants to write fiction.

Q: And finally, got anything you want to pimp?

David: I co-edit a nonfiction zine focused on everything related to
speculative fiction: http://www.diabolicalplots.com . I post
interviews of writers and editors, reviews, “best of” lists, website
recommendations and so on.

I have my second Pseudopod story coming up, a reprint of my most
well-received story “What Makes You Tick.” Watch for it some time
soonish.

If you want a full bibliography of my published work (4 short stories
in various formats plus some nonfiction articles), check out my biblio
page .

Neo-Pro Interview #3

Interview with Gwendolyn Clare

Who are you? What’s your genre/history/etc?

Gwen: I’m Gwendolyn Clare. I’ll write (and read!) any genre that falls under the speculative umbrella, though I tend to write short SF and long contemporary fantasy. I’m also a PhD candidate in biology, so I research and teach nonfictional science for my day job.

What’s your Race score?

Gwen: Right now, 12, which is low but I’m not stressing about it. After all, if a story is fattening up your race score, that means it isn’t selling anywhere. I do think it’s important to keep sending ’em back out until either they sell or you decide to trunk them for good — I’m just not a particularly numerically motivated writer, I suppose.

When did you “get serious” about being a writer?

Gwen: 2006. I took a year off after college and wasn’t doing much besides working part-time and writing grad school applications, so I had some room to breathe for the first time in a while. It gave me the chance to examine my priorities and figure out that I needed to put the spec fic back into my life.

What are your goals with your writing?

Gwen: Back when I started writing seriously, I would have said my main goal was to get a story published in one of the Big Three. Well… check! My story “Ashes on the Water” appeared in the Jan ’11 Asimov’s. My next big hurdle as a writer is to publish a novel, and I’m toiling away toward that goal now.

Where do you see your career in 5 years?

Gwen: Pretty much where it is right now, only more so. It would be nice to keep selling short stories and start selling novels, but I don’t intend to quit my day job anytime soon. If I did, I’d probably spend most of the time engaged in “cat-waxing” activities and not actually get that much more writing done. Luckily for me, writing is one of those careers that doesn’t have to be performed in the 9-5 timeslot.

Do you have a particular story or idea you are dying to write? Or, if you could write a tie-in to any established universe/franchise, what would it be?

Gwen: I’m not much for tie-ins, but I do have much love for www.shadowunit.org, the greatest fanfic-inspired collaborative project ever. I’m drawn to collaborative efforts in general, and particularly those that explore creative uses of different media. I’d love to write a graphic novel someday, for much the same reasons.

What are your hobbies outside writing?

Gwen: I practice martial arts more-or-less seriously, my current style being I Liq Chuan, a Chinese-Malaysian style of kung fu that’s very subtle and challenging. I’m a lapsed artist in plenty of other forms — modern dance, acting, pottery, painting, photography, folk music — but it’s impossible to keep up with all of them. I’m focusing my energy on writing and martial arts for now.

What’s your writing process like?

Gwen: Like a tortoise. I write maybe one or two pages a night before bed. Sometimes on weekends, I’ll go wild and write a whole five pages in one sitting. I pick away at stories, always slowly, often with difficulty. I don’t wait for inspiration; I think “the muse” is a metaphor writers use as an excuse to not write. Not writing is easy. I could not write any day of the week (and sometimes do). Putting words on the page is work — enjoyable work, yes, but definitely work.

What’s been toughest about your journey so far as a writer? How do you keep yourself going?

Gwen: The toughest part, I think, is coming to terms with the fact that those first couple novels probably aren’t going to sell, ever, period. It’s easy to trunk a short story because the investment is much less, but it’s hard to accept that your novel — a labor of love that cost you months of time and effort — may be just not up to snuff. That’s part of growing as a writer, though. Most writers have to fight their way through at least one crap novel before they figure out how to do it right. The important thing is to not let past failures shake your faith in the awesomeness of your current project, and that’s something I struggle with.

Any tips or tricks you’ve figured out for improving your writing?

Gwen: There’s a plethora of writing advice out there, so my tip is to only follow advice if it works for you. Everyone’s creative process is different. If a particular approach isn’t helping improve the quantity and quality of your finished products, toss it out the window. Take the topic of revision, for example: some writers swear by it, others swear against it, but the reality is that different stories require different amounts of revision to get where they need to be. Applying any one dogma to all situations not only runs the risk of failure, it will fail reliably at least part of the time.

And finally, got anything you want to pimp?

Gwen: Watch the Clarkesworld website for my recent sale, “Perfect Lies,” which goes live on March 1st. I also have a story in Ekaterina Sedia’s forthcoming anthology Bewere the Night (Prime Books, available April 19th). I blog semi-regularly over at gwendolynclare.livejournal.com

Thanks to Gwendolyn for doing this interview. I’ll try not to hunt her down in her sleep for getting a spot in “Bewere the Night” (I had a story held for it (for 5 months!) and then rejected at the last minute, but I’m not bitter. Yet *grin*). Be sure to check out her Clarkesworld story, it’s pretty freakin’ awesome.

Neo-Pro Interview #2

And we’re back! I’ve been letting blogging slide in the interests of finishing a novel (I’m about to mail query packages and would hate to get a full request and have to scramble, so getting this novel done is first priority). But now I have another neo-pro interview for you. Enjoy!

Who are you? What’s your genre/history/etc?

Brad: Brad R. Torgersen, full-time nerd, part-time soldier, and night-time writer. I came into science fiction and fantasy through the usual routes: Star Wars and Star Trek, both on the screen and in novelizations. In my early teens I got into techno-thrillers, but eventually drifted over to original fantasy in the form of David Eddings and Stephen R. Donaldson, as well as original science fiction like the “Sten” books from Allan Cole and Chris Bunch. Ultimately, I read Larry Niven’s two omnibus volumes, “N-Space” and, “Playgrounds of the Mind,” at which point my whole fan paradigm got rickrolled. I came up for air and said, “I want to be like Larry Niven!!” That was in 1992.

What’s your Race score?

Brad: My Race score tends to hover in the teens, with occasional spikes into the 20s. My goal is to try and drive it up into the “pro-zone” that Dean Wesley Smith talks about: 80 points or higher, but it’s possible I may sell too often to get it that high or keep it there. Especially in the new universe of electronic self-publishing. I liked your article you did on that with Amanda McCarter by the way.

When did you “get serious” about being a writer?

Brad: I got “serious” in 1992… the first time. I’ve gotten “serious” several times since. The best and most recent period of “serious” began in 2007 when I went back to work on my short fiction and begin to deliberately attempt winning Writers of the Future. There were many stops and starts between 1992 and 2007, and if I had to advise anyone, I’d advise them to not be so herky-jerky about their effort, the way I was.

What are your goals with your writing?

Brad: To pay off my house, put at least $500,000 in the bank, and quit my day job. In that order. That might sound rather mercenary, but the truth is, part of what made me get “serious” in 1992 was that I realized Niven was getting paid to do what I’d been doing for free on the dial-up bulletin boards for a couple of years already: write science fiction (and occasionally fantasy) stories and books. Once I decided that merely writing for fun was not enough, I switched over to looking at it like a business prospect. Now that I am selling, the business aspect is very front-and-center for me, beyond simply finishing books or stories.

Where do you see your career in 5 years?

Brad: It’s tough to say because there is no single road to anywhere in this racket. Just because I’d like a thing to be true by 2016 doesn’t mean it will be. However, if past paths of Writers of the Future winners are any indicator, if I bust my tail and get numerous manuscripts written, in five years I should probably have some novels sold and/or published, additional short fiction sold and published, and be generally working as a new “mid-list” man in the genre. Not a bad place to be. Going beyond mid-list is almost entirely up to the market and audience taste. No way for me to guess how that may shake out. I could crash and burn, or wind up on the New York Times list. Or maybe be an e-publishing breakout success? It would be nice, but I can’t count any of those chickens yet. I don’t even have the eggs!

Do you have a particular story or idea you are dying to write? Or, if you could write a tie-in to any established universe/franchise, what would it be?

Brad: Back in 1992 I daydreamed of writing a 5-book supernovel series in the Star Trek universe, detailing the exploits of Captain Sulu and Captain Chekov. I’d written numerous chapters on a fanfiction along these lines. Now? Now, I’d love to dabble in Larry Niven’s universe via the Man-Kzin Wars, with Baen. And I am currently collaborating with award-winner Mike Resnick, which is a whole unexpected but very welcome bit of fun. As for original projects, I would very much like to write an original science fiction series with the audience penetration of “Ender’s Game” and those books, or perhaps a rigorous military fantasy series. My imagination goes all over the place and I know I can’t write it all. I just have to hope one of these projects, somewhere, connects with enough people to earn me a following and (hopefully) a decent amount of money.

What are your hobbies outside writing?

Brad: Hobbies? I have given up many of them over the years, to be a Dad and to get “serious” about writing. Now and then I find a video game I like, though I haven’t played anything more modern than the TRON 2.0 game (from 2004) or the MECHWARRIOR game from before that. Once upon a time I used to scratchbuild starship models from paper, glue and cardboard. That was a lot of fun. Again, just can’t seem to find the time for it these days. Maybe when I am a big famous published author guy? But then, Kevin J. Anderson doesn’t seem to have time for hobbies either. He he he.

*(Nobu sez: squee moment… Mechwarrior 4 is one of my all-time favorite games!)

What’s your writing process like?

Brad: I am still trying to form a process, actually. Left to my own devices I am a “burst” person, with periods of intense writing and then long troughs with little or no writing. This is my “hobbyist” writing habit on full display. Currently I am trying to teach myself to put down words every single day, whether I want to or not. I’ve arranged my schedule so that every night come hell or high water, I am doing one hour before bed. Whatever words I can cram onto the page. It’s not the most inspired way to go about it, but in truth, the stuff I write when not inspired and the stuff I write when totally inspired winds up reading more or less the same. Hat tip to Dean Smith on that truth, as you well know.

What’s been toughest about your journey so far as a writer? How do you keep yourself going?

Brad: The toughest part has been ignoring the odds and the self-doubt. The odds are terrible. Just awful. Anyone coming into commercial fiction because they think the odds are good is fooling themselves. The odds are putrid. Which is a big reason it’s always tough for me to keep my wordcount and morale up, even after breaking in. Having climbed one “mountain” there is a whole Himalayan range ahead of me. Do I really want to keep doing this?? Surely there are better and/or less crazy ways to make good money and have fun. But I long ago consigned myself to this goal: of becoming a successful, well-paid science fiction and fantasy writer. It’s been my deepest, most sought-after dream for almost 20 years. Turning away or giving up is simply not an option for me. So I slog on. Not because I am especially inspired, but because I feel like if I quit now, I will be failing myself and my family, and I simply can’t do that.

Any tips or tricks you’ve figured out for improving your writing?

Brad: Best “trick” I can offer anyone is to just read frequently, and perk up when you see something you like. Doesn’t matter if you think it’s what will sell. Ignore that impulse. When you read a story or a book, and you say to yourself, wow, I really, really liked that, PAY ATTENTION! Try to figure out what it was in the story or book that hit your “cookies” and made you like it. Examine these things and try to figure out how to apply them to your own stories. My novelette “Outbound” in the November 2010 issue of Analog Science Fiction & Fact was like that. I’d read a wonderful novelette called, “Arkfall” by Carolyn Ives Gilman, and I really sat up and tried to figure out what in that story worked so well for me. When I sat down and did “Outbound” I had “Arkfall” kind of simmering in the back of my brain, as both template and inspiration. Both stories are very different in specifics, but I think they have strong, shared themes. I think new writers could do well to examine their favorite work by their favorite authors, and without copying per se, try to pick apart what it is those authors are doing — the size and scale of the stories, the emotional impact, the types of conflict — and bring some of that to their own work.

And finally, got anything you want to pimp?

Brad: If I can pimp anything it would be my on-line project the Emancipated Worlds Saga. It’s a big space-opera war story that I’ll be doing all year, with an eye towards consolidation and e-publication to the Kindle and other platforms by the end of 2011. (Here’s a link to the Prologue)

Thanks for the interview Annie! This was a lot of fun!!

——–

Thank you to Brad! You can follow him at his blog: http://bradrtorgersen.wordpress.com/

Neo-Pro Spotlight Interview #1

This is going to be the first in a hopefully long-running series of interviews with neo-professional writers. What’s a neo-pro? Someone who has started writing seriously, submitting seriously, and has a goal of making some or all of their living at writing, ie intends to be and/or has taken the first steps down the road to being a career writer.

It’s tough being a neo-pro. We might have a few sales under our belts, are likely getting more “nice” rejections than form letters, but we haven’t quite been here long enough to have the shine rubbed off. We’re past the “use correct submission format, follow guidelines, put ass in chair and write” kind of advice and into the deep end where there are only hints and no real, clear path, just hard work ahead. So I wanted to interview and spotlight some of the neo-pros I interact with (and hopefully I’ll meet more of us as I do this). While our paths may all look a little different, we’re all in this together.

And hey, this way I can say… “I knew that writer back when…”
So here’s my first victim writer interview. Let me know in the comments if I missed a cool and/or obvious question that you’d like me to ask in the future. Thanks!

Who are you? What’s your genre/history/etc?
Tom: My name is Tom Carpenter. I have and will write just about anything I’m interested in, but I think my sweet spot will probably be fantasy and science-fiction since those forms suit me best (and it’s what I’ve most written so far.) My day job is a Production Manager at Toyota which has kept me quite busy over the years. Thankfully, I really picked up the old steam shovel and started working on my first novel when I was still in college. I finished it a few years later but then got side-tracked by a few poor choices, kids, and insane amounts of work. It wasn’t until I finished my MBA about four years ago that I realized I really do have time for writing…well actually, my lovely wife reminded me of that and I’m sure she’s regretted that decision a few times since (just kidding! she’s amazingly supportive!)

What’s your Race score?
Tom: I’m currently at 48 which boggles my mind. I was at zero about 1.5 years ago. Granted, I had three novels I’d finished and was starting to write shorts, but it seemed daunting to make that score grow. I started sending out the second and third novels (the first is not good enough by a long shot) and have been steadily increasing my score. It’s strange to think that professionals are usually above the fifty level (though probably closer to one-hundred) and that I’ll hit that level soon. Granted, I haven’t sold anything yet, but I feel like it’s coming.

When did you “get serious” about being a writer?
Tom: After the MBA. I also gave up my World of Warcraft addiction. It’s amazing how much time there is to write when you’re not obsessively playing games.

What are your goals with your writing?
Tom: I’d love to say getting published, but I can’t control that. So I’ll stick to my 2011 targets: above 50 on race score (close!), 300,000 words written, over 100 rejections (close!), and over a 20 on eRace. I’m also planning on editing and producing a yearly anthology about augmented reality (more details in a few months!) The world of epublishing feels so amazingly freeing.

Where do you see your career in 5 years?
Tom: I’m sure I’ll still be working for Toyota at least until the kids are in college. If at that time, I’m making enough to safely leave? Then I would take that chance, but until then I’ve got two jobs.

Do you have a particular story or idea you are dying to write? Or, if you could write a tie-in to any established universe/franchise, what would it be?
Tom: Oh jeez. I have so many ideas for novels that it’s hard to pin that one down. Every project I start seems like the greatest thing ever when I’m writing it. So really I’m always dying to write, what I’m currently writing. I would love to work with other authors on some projects though. Either ones of my devising, or maybe something like George RR Martin’s Wild Cards series.

What are your hobbies outside writing?
Tom: We’re allowed other hobbies? Seriously, if I had time, I would still play computer games. I do occasionally get together with friends and play cards or other nerdy games, but it’s too far and few between.

What’s your writing process like?
Tom: I have weekly goals for word count that I expect myself to meet. If I’m ahead on other weeks, I will allow myself a little slack, if for a good reason, but otherwise I’m a slave to the targets. I always write on Sat and Sun morns, but try to fit in one or two nights during the week. I also do a lot of thinking during the work drive, or when I go running with the dog on the weekends. Overall, I’m extremely taxing on my muse, expecting her to perform whenever I demand (read my post about creativity to understand that statement: http://thomaskcarpenter.com/2010/12/05/the-myth-of-creativity/)

What’s been toughest about your journey so far as a writer? How do you keep yourself going?
Tom: When I finished my first novel I got an agent and she scammed me out of $300. I was devistated at the time, but now I consider that money well spent, because that small amount (compared to what some authors lose) opened my eyes to the unregulated world of agents. As for keeping going now? I was an undisciplined youngster when I wrote my first novel. I actually think my time in Toyota has helped me become more focused and capable of meeting difficult targets. It has felt like a long strange trip though, and while that first big sale (magazine or novel) will be exciting, I think I’ve also reached the point that I know its just another step on a long and daunting staircase.

Any tips or tricks you’ve figured out for improving your writing?
Tom: Listen to people with more experience than me (I recommend Dean Wesley Smith and Kris Rusch). Otherwise, I’d just parrot the usual advice you get from pros: read a lot, write a lot, write even more, send that stuff out and go back to writing.

And finally, got anything you want to pimp?
Tom: I jumped on the self-pub bandwagon and recently put out a novel I’m very proud of: The Digital Sea. I also write for a tech blog about augmented reality called Games Alfresco (www.gamesalfresco.com) and I have my author website where I talk about augmented reality, writing, tech stuff and the robot apocolypse.
It’s an exciting time to be a writer! Thanks for sharing me with your readers.

*Big thanks to Tom!*

Links and Interviews

So I’ve been thinking of ways to make sure I keep this blog updated and maybe actually interesting from time to time. One idea I had was to maybe do interviews of my fellow neo-pro writers. I know that I’m always curious about other people’s goals and paths. So if anyone wants to get interviewed, let me know.

Likewise, I should really do some blog updating and get my links section in full working order. So if you want to exchange links with me (either directly here or www.anniebellet.com) and I’m not linked to you, please let me know. (This is also my nefarious plan to find more blogs to read, clearly).

So… are you a writer? Want to be interviewed? my email is izanobu AT gmail DOT com. Put either “writer link” or “writer interview” in the subject so hopefully you won’t get spam-foldered.

So yeah, that’s it. If anyone takes me up on the interviews I’ll probably do them with questions via email and then do a monthly or bi-monthly post or something (depending on how many peeps take me up on this).