Ethics and Authoring – When Is COI a Problem?

This week at the SFF Seven we’re talking ethics. We’re asking each other: what thorny issues have your dealt with or worry about as an author?

I can’t say that I’ve dealt with thorny issues as an author. The ethics there are pretty clear to me. But then, I’m often described as a very ethical person, which pleases me because being ethical is a core value of mine.

Most of the ethical issues I wrestle these days are author-tangential, primarily in my role as the President of SFWA (Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association). As a 501(c)3 charitable organization, we have a fair number of ethical lines assigned to us by the IRS in order to maintain our tax-exempt status. One of the primary concerns is that I avoid “self-dealing.” What this means is that I can’t line my pockets with SFWA money. Remember Unicef in the mid-90s, when it came out that they’d “lost” billions of dollars? Lots of hands dipping into those pots of money and stowing the funds in their own pockets instead of using them for the charitable purposes of the organization. That’s the clear, bright line: don’t take money from the organization.

Where it gets fuzzier are the areas of conflict of interest (COI). In my old day job, I had to take COI training, so I find myself often in the position of explaining COI to people. A clear example would be that I can’t use my position as president to get the board to vote to hire me as an author coach for SFWA members. That’s absolutely conflict of interest, because I’d be using my influence to send SFWA money to my pockets. What’s less clear is when I’m not using my influence and the recipient isn’t directly related to me, but it might LOOK that way. This is where it gets difficult for people, because we have to understand that the APPEARANCE of COI is just as much of a problem as actual COI.

For example, if the board votes to pay my friend to be an author coach, that can look like I influenced that decision, even if I had nothing to do with it. Think about a Sopranos scenario, where the lucrative construction contract “just happens” to go to the niece who is a contractor. Because people can and have attempted to do scurrilous things with money they’re responsible for directing, everyone has to be so far aboveboard that no one could possibly believe there was anything shady going on. What do we do in these cases? To continue the example, what if my friend is the very best candidate? I recuse myself from discussion and voting. In that way, we avoid not only actual COI, but any appearance of COI.

Next week – Tuesday, March 7 at 6pm MT! – we’ll be announcing this year’s finalists for SFWA’s Nebula Award. I’ve been in rehearsals for the show and it’s very fun, so tune in! https://www.facebook.com/events/198142222865460 I’ll be there announcing, but I won’t be one of the finalists. That’s because, as long as I’m President, I recuse my works from consideration. It could appear to be a conflict of interest, should one of my books final. Recusing myself is the ethical thing to do.

Three Things to Never Do as a Critique Partner

I’m engaged in a project this year to promote my backlist more. (*cough* AT ALL *cough*) So today I’m featuring EXACT WARM UNHOLY. This story originally appeared in THE DEVIL’S DOORBELL anthology and it’s one of my favorites. I adored writing this troubled, but super smart heroine. So much smexy in this one.

Tonight my name is Mary…

Or is it? Sometimes she’s Tiffany or Syd or Bobbi. But whatever face she wears, she returns to the same bar, to find a new man and seduce him, safe in the knowledge that no one will recognize her. Until one man does.

“And I was … Stunned by the originality of the concept of this story. Stunned by the emotions it made me experience in such a short expanse of time. Stunned by the beauty of the romance in it that ran parallel to the overwhelming sadness throughout. I mean, seriously. If you don’t fall in love with Peter, you have a heart of stone.”

~ Kristen Ashley on Goodreads

      

This week at the SFF Seven, we’re giving tips on How to Become a Better Beta Reader or Critique Partner. As with many skills, this is one that is acquired over time, through extensive practice and lots of trial and error. In fact, learning to become a better reader for others, with useful feedback to give, is largely a case of figuring out what NOT to do. So that’s what I’m offering today.

  1. Don’t tell the other writer how to change their work. Focus on what isn’t working for you and, if you can, do your best to articulate why it’s not working. But resist the temptation to suggest rewrites or any kind of specific plan. Those kinds of feedback move it into the realm of how you would write it, not them.
  2. Don’t get emotionally involved. So you hate the protagonist? Maybe you hate the premise? Doesn’t matter. Separate your personal reactions from legitimate reader ones. If you can’t step away from your personal buttons being pushed, then recuse yourself from reading.
  3. Don’t argue with the writer. It’s their work. They get the final say. Give them your honest feedback and let it go.

Fantasy Romance: My Niche and I Love It

THE ORCHID THRONE, book one in the completed Forgotten Empires trilogy, is on sale this month! A great time to escape from winter and revel in this enemies to lovers (she imprisons and plans to execute him!) epic fantasy romance set in a tropical paradise.

This week at the SFF Seven, we’re talking about finding your niche. We’re asking each other, what subgenres speak to you as an author?

This is an easy one for me! My niche has pretty much ALWAYS been epic fantasy romance, even before anyone knew what to call it. That’s just how the stories came out. Which is not a great thing, if you’re writing in a niche before the niche exists. It’s like being a creature ahead of the evolutionary curve, ready for that climate change that has not yet occurred. You can survive (maybe), but not necessarily flourish.

That history makes yesterday’s news particularly exciting for me! Tor Publishing Group announced that they’re kicking of a new romantic imprint! I love that this is clearly publisher Devi Pillai’s baby, as she truly loves to read this sort of SFF/R crossover. Monique Patterson will head up the imprint, and she is a much-admired editor who comes over from the SMP Romance side of Macmillan. Exciting times!

Three Simple* Steps to Entice Reader Engagement

Exciting day today! For today only, 200 of the most amazing books in Fantasy Romance, Gaslamp Romance, Monster Romance, and Paranormal Romance are FREE! Go load up your eReaders by clicking here https://farofeb.com/freebooks/ Below are some samples of the books available, including my own DARK WIZARD.

This week at the SFF Seven we’re talking about what makes readers invested in a story. It’s an interesting question, really, and the subject of much debate. I think every author would love to know the “magic formula” for making this happen in every book. Sometimes, though, it can be a real surprise what readers latch onto. There’s always an element of unpredictability there that’s part of the joy of creating and storytelling. (Which is one reason why I believe Artificial Intelligence (AI) will never supplant human creativity, but that’s another discussion.)

So, my thoughts on ways to engage readers and entice them into being engaged in a story?

  1. Give them characters that feel like they could be best friends
    Whether it’s found family, besties, romance, or a protagonist we fall in love with, readers want characters who feel like real people they know and care about.
  2. Give them a world they want to live in
    We read to live in other worlds, even if they’re a simulacrum of the world we live in. Readers love that opportunity to step outside of their daily lives.
  3. Give them a story that inspires emotion
    Happy, sad, tragic, romantic – the feeling of a story is what lingers after we close that final page. Even if a reader can’t recall plot details, they’ll remember how a book made them feel.

*Of course, none of this is actually simple. It takes craft, talent, and lots and lots of practice. Read widely. Re-read your favorites. Observe how other authors accomplish this and emulate shamelessly!

 

Becoming a Better Writer – How to Do It?

ROGUE FAMILIAR has a cover!! I’ve been loving the enthusiasm for it, too. It’s a great inspiration to me as I write Selly’s hunt for Jadren.

This week at the SFF Seven we’re talking tools for writers who aren’t beginners. I seem to be hearing a lot of interest in this topic lately. I’ve been contemplating setting up some online classes and not long ago I asked for input on what kinds of classes people would like to see from me. (Feel free to comment or message me if you have ideas or requests!) One of the suggestions that came up often was a desire for classes for more advanced writers, targeting those who’ve written several books but want to learn how to keep getting better at it.

So, I’ve been working up some lists of more advanced topics I could teach – and thinking back to where I learned the intermediate and higher stuff. Some of it is always going to be self-study. Reading other authors. Listening to other writers talk about their process. Re-reading favorites to study how those writers accomplished what they did. I think those are the best tools.

But I’d also like to see more craft-focused workshops, classes, and discussions out there. For quite a few years, it seems, the bulk of information offered to writers seems to focus on business. There are countless opportunities to learn Facebook ads, newsletter marketing, keywords, BookBub ads, Amazon ads, ad infinitum, ad nauseam. Why? Because those are easy to teach. Teaching craft is a much more daunting prospect. In fact, I’ve heard debates among creative-writing professors about whether the craft of writing can be taught at all.

At any rate, this isn’t a very informative post, I know. I’m not offering any good tools here (other than the above), but rather food for thought. Improving craft is something we all (well, most of us) want to do. I’m thinking up some ways to get at it. Suggestions welcome!

 

 

Handling Negative Reviews with Poise and Humor

Here’s a little tease of the cover of ROGUE FAMILIAR, book 2 in Renegades of Magic, releasing at the end of February. Cover reveal coming soon!

This week at the SFF Seven we’re talking about the Mentality of Negative Reviews. Specifically, the person who posed the question asked: do you recognize your fight-or-flight response to negative reviews and do anything to stop it?

I’m including the full text of the question because I’m disagreeing with the initial premise. I don’t think I have a stress response to negative reviews. It could be that I’ve been writing long enough (nearly thirty years *gasp*) that I’ve become more or less inured to negative reviews. I remember a review of my first book, the essay collection WYOMING TRUCKS, TRUE LOVE, AND THE WEATHER CHANNEL, that was mostly glowing – but also said I used adverbs too much. It came from a professional reviewer at a venue I can’t recall, and that was long before I realized that many reviewers are aspiring writers who cling to the “rules” of writing with the tenacity of an apprentice seeking the magic formula to catapult them to true wizard status. Mostly I was surprised that, if my professional, experienced editor at a university press hadn’t minded my adverbs, then why did a reviewer? I understand now. I also know more about the weird anti-adverb stance some writers absorb.

Mostly. <- See what I did there? Humor is key.

Anyway. Experiencing a flight-or-fight response to a review means that you feel attacked. I suppose some reviewers intend it that way. They like to speculate about the author’s emotional life, intentions, or deadline pressure. Authors are occasionally accused of manipulating readers to extract profit. Sometimes our moral integrity is questioned. But that’s all par for the course on social media. I think what’s most important for writers to do is separate themselves from their work. YOU didn’t receive a negative review; the book did. Even if the reviewer specifically attacks the author, they’re still not actually reviewing you as a human being, because they don’t actually know you. The author is a construct in their mind that has very little to do with reality.

Keeping your poise, a sense of yourself as a person separate from the work, and keeping a sense of humor about it all is what gets you through. After all, a review isn’t a tiger. No one’s going to die over a review. It’s fangless, toothless, and ultimately dust in the wind.

The Heroine I Wished I’d Written

This week at the SFF Seven, we’re talking about our favorite heroines that we didn’t write.

I think you all know me by now, and thus know I don’t much like picking favorite anythings. There’s a lot of room in my universe for all the stuff I love and I don’t really think in terms of ranking. All that said, I just completed a reread of Patricia McKillip’s The Forgotten Beasts of Eld, one of my most cherished books of all time. It’s a brilliant fantasy novel and one I wished I’d written. The heroine and protagonist is a wizard woman named Sybel.

Don’t pay attention to the stupid listings that call this book young adult (YA). First of all, in 1974 when this book was first published, there wasn’t a YA category. Secondly, the only reason this is listed as YA, I assume, is because it’s written by a woman with a female protagonist. If this deeply layered, fucking brilliant fantasy novel is YA, then so is The Lord of the Rings.

ANYWAY.

Sybel is simply a brilliantly drawn heroine. She is a product of her upbringing, isolated physically and in her immense power. Living among the magical, nigh-mythical creatures she cares for, Sybel has to learn to deal with human beings. She is unflinchingly strong throughout the story, cleaving to her own sense of self, even when others try to rip that away from her. In her learning to first love, then to hate, then to move past both, she achieves her own mythic status. Even as the reader follows her self-destructive path, dreading the inevitable outcome, we also believe totally in her reasons, never failing to cheer her on. Sybel is the awkward, bookish, shy girl in all of us, who wrestles with the tumult of the wider world.

In rereading, I found so many ways this story has infused my own work, though I despair of ever reaching this level. And Sybel is in all of my heroines. Maybe even a bit in myself.

Thank You, 2022, for All the Fish

As we wind down the last few days of 2022, looking forward to a new year and the waxing of the light, this week at the SFF Seven we’re offering thoughts or blessings for the year that has been or the year to come.

For me, 2022 delivered a kick of a ramp-up back to life closer to pre-pandemic levels. Though spring started slowly, with several in-person conferences canceled, I was able to return to hanging again with other writers in person in April at the Jack Williamson Lectureship. It was SO GOOD TO PEOPLE AGAIN. One of the great lessons of the pandemic for me has been how much of my social life depends on conferences and conventions. (Can I just call them both “cons” for short? What even is the difference?)

Seeing people in-person again meant I also made new friends this year, which has brought light into my life I didn’t realize I was lacking. Not unlike as the days grow longer and sunshine returns, warming the earth, and you begin to realize just how long and dark the winter has been.

I had a less productive year, wordcount-wise – in fact, my lowest year ever for wordcount, though I’ll give final numbers next week – but it looks like it will be my best income year ever. So, looking ahead at goals for next year, I’m considering decoupling my wordcount goals from my sense of success and focusing on what makes me most comfortable financially.

{{Content Warning: eating and body image}}

I’m also completing a year of 16/8 intermittent fasting, where I fast for 16 hours and eat during an 8-hour window. I also vastly decreased added sugars from my diet. I’m thrilled with the results. I’m down 18 pounds since January 3, 2022, 16 pounds of that from body fat, and I’m down over 4″ around my waist and hips. It feels like really healthy weight loss, like I’m no longer so insulin-resistant, and I just feel tons better overall.

{{Content over}}

While in many ways, it’s been a difficult year, the work I did at the end of 2021 to break the stress cycle has really paid off. While we’re facing the loss of our senior cat Isabel, who is 17 and declining, we’ve also welcomed in a new life, with kitten Killian joining our household. So many wonderful things have happened to me this year – including wonderful people entering my life – that it feels truly miraculous.

I’m grateful for the blessings of 2022 and eagerly look forward to what 2023 will bring.

Jeffe’s Three Joys

 

This week at the SFF Seven, we’re talking joy!

As in, three things that give us joy. As many of you know, I’m a big fan of making decisions based on what will yield the greatest happiness. Thus choosing the happy means a lot of things in my life bring me joy. But I’ll try to keep it finite.

  1. Shiny new books
    While Christmas shopping yesterday, I bought myself a present – this Fairy Atlas! It’s technically a children’s book, but it has a lot of cool stuff in it from around the world that I’d never seen, and I love the illustrations. Perfect for what I’m writing now! And it looks pretty on my desk.
  2. Friends
    I’m so blessed in the community of my wonderful friends, many of whom check in on me daily and remind me of what’s important. From friends who’ve been part of my life for years to people who entered my world in just this past year, I am rich in companionship of simply amazing hearts and minds.
  3. My profession
    Like any career, being an author presents its trials and it can be easy to focus on the difficulties, but this kind of poste offers an opportunity to step back and truly appreciate that I am able to wed my passion, my avocation, with my vocation. Making my living as a writer is a tremendous privilege and the realization of lifetime goal.

 

I am so blessed.

 

Midwinter Holiday Romance Reads!

This week at the SFF Seven we’re talking books! Well, we always talk books, but this time we’re jingling our wares for your delectation. You can find all of my books on my website, of course, but today I’ll focus on a few that are perfect for your midwinter holiday reading pleasure.

First off is FIVE GOLDEN RINGS, which is a bit of a throwback to my early days writing contemporary erotic romance, and is a re-release. It’s a kinky, Christmas, Caribbean holiday romp. I’ll be re-releasing this entire four-book series, the Facets of Passion.

The Twelve Days of Christmas were never quite this naughty…

All Matilda Campbell wanted was to spend a romantic and relaxing Christmas in the Mexican Caribbean. When her lover dumps her—at the airport, no less—she decides to go solo. But fate and a well-timed margarita intervene, introducing her to the charming and seductive Miguel D’Oro on the plane.

Miguel offers Tilda an outrageous bargain, involving escalating naughty gifts for each of the twelve days of Christmas. The only rule is that she must accept what he gives her and what he tells her to do, or face a sensual punishment. Giving up control is just what Tilda is looking for, so she impulsively agrees.

As Tilda embraces a newfound freedom in abandoning herself to pleasure and Miguel’s demands, she only wonders what will happen when the holiday is over…

 

If you prefer my fantasy romances, THE LONG NIGHT OF THE RADIANT STAR is my newest release. It rounds out the Heirs of Magic series and is a midwinter holiday (the Feast of Moranu, for those who know the Twelve Kingdoms world) wedding extravaganza!

At long last, Jakral Konyngrr—lowly sailor, gambler, and sometime rogue—has won the heart and hand of Princess Stella of Avonlidgh. Never mind that Stella’s mother is determined to make their wedding the event of the century, he’s happy to endure any trial to marry the love of his life and his guiding star. Very soon they can sail away together into the rest of their lives. Unfortunately the wedding becomes delayed for several months, until midwinter.

Stella—sorceress, empath, and bearer of the mark of the Tala—has been through great trials. But nothing has tested her as sorely as her passionate and flamboyant mother planning their wedding. Even Jak’s steady love and companionship isn’t enough as Stella finds herself crumbling under the pressure of being snowbound in a castle with the press of so many minds and emotions. When she lashes out, she hits the worst possible target, jeopardizing her chances for happiness.

With several kingdoms and a former enemy empire bearing down on them, Jak and Stella’s wedding on the longest night of year might not happen at all… Unless they can create their own happy ever after.

 

Finally, there’s FAMILIAR WINTER MAGIC. This novella in the Bonds of Magic world first appeared in the Fire of the Frost anthology. For those who’ve read the Bonds of Magic and Renegades of Magic books, this story follows Han and Iliana.

It’s holiday time at Convocation Academy, but best friends Han and Iliana are finding it hard to celebrate. As a familiar, Iliana is facing her assignment to a life of servitude to a wizard, very soon. And Han… despite being tested by the oracle daily, he is still uncategorized. As Iliana and Han face being separated forever, they at last find the courage—or desperation—to break the rules and acknowledge their deeper feelings for each other. But it will take more than true love to save them from the laws of the Convocation…

Happy Holidays, all, and happy reading!!