Why this has been a crazy week for me, more schedule disruptions, and how I'm not happy if I'm not actually producing words, even though I know that even when I'm not writing, I'm writing. Also: Mikhail Baryshnikov
This week at the SFF Seven, we’re posing the question: How do you answer when people at parties ask “have I heard of you?”
I confess that I posed this question of the group, since I get this question frequently and I’m usually at a loss as to how to answer. So for a while there I was going around asking other authors how they handle this.
My friend, Jim Sorenson, master of the witty comeback, suggested Sam Malone’s line from Cheers, “Not many people know this, but I’m kind of a big deal.” I couldn’t find a gif of that one though. The line is a good litmus test for how much someone is paying attention.
But in actuality, I’ve ended up going with a tiered response, much like KAK suggested yesterday, only a bit less… snarky. Most of the time, I’ve found, people are asking the question as a rote response to discovering the person they’re talking to just might be famous in some way. Where writers are concerned, the answer is almost always “no.”
I have, however, found another litmus test response. I return the question by asking if they’re a reader. This small-talk gambit works for a multitude of scenarios. Most of the time, the person is NOT a reader, and asking this question will elicit a – sometimes long – explanation of why they don’t read. It works really well for the principle that the easiest way to engage someone in conversation is to ask about themselves. People who don’t read will often talk about the last book they DID read, or how they hated being forced to read in school, or how busy their lives are. This gives rich fodder for letting them talk about their lives. If they’re not actually interested in the fact that I’m a writer, this lets them gracefully never return to the topic and saves me the painful sorting of the fact that, no, they haven’t heard of me.
If they ARE a reader, well! Now the conversation gets interesting. I can what genres they read and we talk books. We drill down pretty quickly to whether they read my genre and, if they haven’t read my books, they usually end up by whipping out their phone and buying one. Happy outcome!
Speaking of buying books, I’m happy to report that I’ve finished the draft of my novella for the upcoming FIRE OF THE FROST anthology! I still need to settle on a title, but it takes place at Convocation Academy in my Bonds of Magic world, taking place at roughly the same time as DARK WIZARD. You can preorder the anthology now to have it slip into your eReader in December! (Print will be available, but you can only preorder through my website right now. Print will be available via the usual retailers on release day, just not for preorder.)
Why I equate "subverting tropes" with someone being an asshole, getting knocked off my pillow and getting back on again, having a book on a List, and a goodbye to Jim Fiscus, longtime SFWA volunteer.
Why I think competition is falsely lauded in US culture, how it harms creativity, and why I don't like creators being placed into false competition with each other. Also, adventures in audiobook production!
About SFWA's Grand Master award, the politics of gender and of the MFA/writing workshop mystique, and how those things can be insular. Also general fangirling about Mercedes Lackey and why I love her books!
Thoughts on rereading my own books, world bibles, worldbuilding, the advisability of writing sequels and the perils of long series. Also story structure and why I think some books are lacking it, to their detriment.
Our topic at the SFF Seven this week is: “It’s Been A Year: Pandemic Year 2, Vaccines, New Political Administration, has it affected your writing? Better? Worse?”
I confess, this has been a good year for me. As James discussed on Monday, it’s been a huge relief to me to have sanity in the White House again. Yeah, there’s a lot of political stuff that’s still not where I’d like it to be, but it’s so much better than it was. I feel like we’re at least working to solve the problems we’re facing rather than digging ourselves deeper.
I’m really happy we got vaccinated early in the year, too. My hubs and I took the opportunity to drive to Amarillo, TX to get ours. (A four-hour drive each way.) We got our second dose by March 8. That was an amazing, once in a lifetime experience (I hope!), knowing that sheer, sweet relief of being vaccinated against COVID-19. It restored a sense of safety and wellbeing that I’d missed for pretty much exactly a year.
Also, I’m one of those who became more productive in my writing during the pandemic, largely because I wasn’t traveling, I think. I talk about this a lot, but having a daily writing habit carried me through even the worst of the anxiety. That habit is the foundation that allows everything else to be stable. I know this can be aggravating to people who can’t write every day for various reasons, but I’m such a huge believer in the magic of ritual and building a habit that carries you through the rough patches. Still, I say this as a writer who spent many, many years not being very productive.
This is way better.
So, though we’re only 84% of the way through the year so far (and yes, I’m counting today, since it’s morning for me), I’m calling it a good year for me. In particular, I’m thrilled by this graph of my income from royalties and book sales. As you can see, 2021 has been my best income-from-writing year ever, and that’s with two months to go. It also doesn’t count income from other sources, like teaching workshops and author coaching.
I’m really proud of myself for the work I put in to make this happen.
How about you all – are things looking up in your neck of the woods?
An epiphany I had on why some people might see fights scenes and sex scenes as similar. Also a rant on notifications and why I believe we should assiduously fight them and a bit about the Brittany Murphy documentary.
Upon request, a discussion of fight scenes (including battle scenes), why I think they're nothing like sex scenes, how the character transformation is totally different, and how I learned to write them anyway.
