GOOD morning!

One of the downsides to not writing short stories for a while was that I had nothing to sell to Beneath Ceaseless Skies. Well, now I’ve fixed that: about three minutes after I woke up this morning, I got an e-mail saying they’re buying “And Blow Them at the Moon,” my Onyx Court Gunpowder Plot story.

Which is also, I should mention, a novelette. In the space of the last couple of weeks, I’ve sold both of the novelettes I’ve ever written — not counting that thing I did back in fifth grade, which might be of roughly that length but will never see the light of day. Since there are a lot fewer potential homes for stories nine thousand words long, I’m very pleased to see both of them happily settled. Especially since Onyx Court stories, with their historical context, are probably never going to run short. 🙂

The only downside is that my list of stories in submission keeps shrinking. For all the right reasons, mind you — but it’s something to try and fix anyway. 🙂 (Ironically, I’m pretty sure the “revision of short story” mentioned at the end of that post refers to this story, which sold on its first trip out the door.)

a question for those in the romantic know

My understanding of romance subgenres is that Regencies are a separate category from historicals. So not counting those — what time period/place combinations are the most commonly depicted in historical romance novels?

(My money’s on Scottish highlands of whatever period as the runaway winner, but feel free to tell me I’m wrong.)

a few fictive things

First, I’ve been given the go-ahead to announce the sale of my novelette “La Molejera” to Paraspheres 2. Yay!

Second, I neglected to mention the other week that Newton Compton will be publishing Warror and Witch in Italian. Also yay!

Third, and unrelated to my own writing, Janni Lee Simner is running a really cool contest for her upcoming book Thief Eyes, based on the Icelandic Njal’s Saga. I thought it was nifty enough to demand a signal boost. 🙂 Janni read part of this at World Fantasy, and it sounds like it will be a great book.

Help Me, Victorianists — update

For those who may have missed it over the weekend, I’m offering a prize to the person who helps me find a title for the Victorian book. If you know nineteenth-century British lit, please take a look at that post for details on what I’m after.

A few clarifications, to help refine the hunt:

1) Although “should include a verb” is #3 on the list of priorities, it’s a pretty big #3; that’s pretty much the single unifying characteristic of the series titles so far, as seen from the shopper’s point of view (i.e. before they read the book and find out where it came from). I want something where a person who’s maybe read the other books could see the title and think, “Is that a new Onyx Court book?” So I’m pretty seriously committed to maintaining this pattern unless I absolutely can’t.

2) Please do quote the passage your suggested title comes from, rather than just the phrase itself. The reason for this is that I don’t just need a title; I need an epigraph (the quotes that head up the different sections) from which the title will come, and so I’m also judging whether the passage fits the story or not. I’ve already had at least one suggestion where the title-phrase would be perfect . . . except that the passage it comes from isn’t, no matter how hard I try to convince myself otherwise. And it’s easier for me to judge that if I don’t have to hunt for the source of the phrase.

3) Until you see a post saying “Hey guys, I found a title!,” assume I am still taking suggestions. Feel free to keep sending them in.

4) It did occur to me that there’s one other angle which could work for the end of the book, in terms of epigraph subject matter. It’s a bit more of a spoiler than the last post was, though, in that you can begin to guess where I’m going with the story. So I’ll put it behind a cut again, and if you don’t want to be spoiled for the book, you can just ignore what follows.

This is why one suggestion came so close . . . .

Running with the Pack ARC giveaway

Like werewolves? Want an anthology full of ’em? Over at calico_reaction‘s LJ, Ekaterina Sedia, editor of the upcoming Running with the Pack (table of contents here) is giving away an advance copy. This is, for those who are interested, the home of my Fake Werewolf Paper, aka “Comparison of Efficacy Rates for Seven Antipathetics as Employed Against Lycanthropes;” the rest of the contributors include some of the biggest names in the field of People What Grow Fur Under the Full Moon, Comma, Fiction Concerning. Should be a great antho, and this is your chance to snag a copy before anyone else.

Help me find a title — *please*

You may have noticed that I’m still talking about “the Victorian book,” rather than something with an actual name. This is because, while I have prospects for a title, none of them are quite right — none of them click and make me think, yes, I’ve found it. And while I’ve been speed-reading Victorian literature in a search for The Right One, the Victorians were a wordy bunch of bastards, and I can only get through so much on my own.

So. I’m offering up a complete signed set of the Onyx Court series — Midnight Never Come, In Ashes Lie, an advance copy of A Star Shall Fall, and the Victorian book once I have it — to the person who points me at the right title. Suggestions can be posted in the comments here, or e-mailed to marie [dot] brennan [at] gmail [dot] com.

According to the model set by the previous titles, and arranged in generally descending importance, my criteria are:

  1. The title must be a quote from a work of more-or-less period British literature. (The book takes place circa 1884.) Earlier is better than later; the Romantics are fine, but one Kipling poem I found, dating to 1906, is not.
  2. It must be a short but evocative phrase, along the lines of preceding examples.
  3. It should, if at all possible, contain a verb.
  4. Bonus points if the verb is paired with an interesting noun (a la “midnight,” “ashes,” or “star”).
  5. I vaguely feel like it should come from a novel, because novels are such a characteristic 19c form of literature. This is, however, an optional restriction, which I’ll happily ditch if I find a good title from another source.

And one more thing, which is high in importance, but excluded from the list so I can put details behind a cut. If I keep to the previous pattern, the quote from which the title is drawn should be the epigraph for the final section of the novel. I know what kind of sentiment I want that to convey, and I can even give examples of quotes that come very close but haven’t given me a title. If you want to steer clear of even the vaguest spoilers as to where this book is going, though, don’t look behind the cut; just know that quotes which talk about London or cities are in the right vein.

Moving on to the examples . . . .

Signal Boost: Fundraiser for Rape Crisis Centers

Support rape crisis centers and enter to win an Advance Copy of Red Hood’s Revenge, by Jim C. Hines.

Over the last few years, jimhines has posted again and again about the problem of rape, drawing on both official studies and his own personal experience as a counselor. Now he’s raising money for RAINN and other crisis centers. Details at the link.

Because of Michigan law regarding raffles, you don’t have to donate to enter the contest. But since fundraising is the point of the contest, you can guess which way I encourage you to go.

Early’s better than on time, but on time is better than late.

Dear Brain,

I refused to start official work on this book yesterday, because it just seemed inauspicious, but because also because I still didn’t know why Eleanor was working for the Kitterings. Today I woke up and you handed me the answer. So I guess we can, in fact, get started today, and for that, Brain, I thank you.

Now I don’t suppose you have any ideas about that trouble Dead Rick ought to be in . . . ?

Hopefully,
Your Writer

my problem

Everything I think of that’s plausible enough to be a convincing April Fool’s Day prank is also something I don’t want to joke about. Like, I could tell you I slipped in the shower last night and ripped out the stitches that are holding my ligament in place so I’m headed back to the hospital today for another surgery — but dude, NOT FUNNY. And if I can’t amuse myself with a joke, what’s the point?

I hope you all are having fun fooling each other today, though.

Revisiting the Wheel of Time: The Great Hunt

On the assumption that I would be halfway out of my tree on Vicodin, I decided to spend this past weekend reading The Great Hunt, as part of my revisiting the Wheel of Time project.

In retrospect, I find it ironic that this is the book which got me interested in the series (after I’d bounced off the first volume), because I don’t think it’s nearly as well-executed. But I can spot the things that probably hooked me, and despite me remembering this as the Book of God I Hate Mat, he isn’t nearly as prominent in the story as I thought. So anyway, onward to the analysis, starting with some thoughts on how and why the series started to grow so large.

(Kind of like this post . . . .)

Trilogy, my functioning left foot.

a question for the crowd

The urban fantasy community has been reviving itself lately. My contribution to the new burst of activity: I’m soliciting titles of UF novels that break the usual protagonist mold of white, hetero, middle-to-upper-class, Christian (or pagan), and/or able-bodied. So if you’re aware of any urban fantasy with a Jewish hero or a blind heroine or whatever, head on over to that post and let me know what it is, and what you thought of it. (Comments disabled here to keep the discussion centralized in one place. You don’t need to be a community member to respond there.)

I have three days left

Goal for today: finish “Mad Maudlin.”

In order to do this, I have to remind myself that this is a hack draft. Not the same thing as a bad draft, which is what I have of “Chrysalis”; the problem here is not suckage. It’s that the story needs to be run past several layers of expert consultants, who can tell me how to make the technical aspects go, and only when that’s done will I be able to address the matter of story craft. In theory it would be more efficient to get expert advice first, then write the story, but in practice that hasn’t worked; first I have to nail down my ideas in a form other people can understand. Otherwise my questions are all too vague and hypothetical, which makes getting useful answers hard. So I’m hacking out the general shape of the story, and once I have that I can get my experts to tell me where I’ve gotten their respective fields wrong. Their answers may well change the path the story takes to its destination, but by then I’ll have a firmer handle on what that destination is.

That’s the theory, anyway, and it’s gotten me farther through the draft than my original approach did. And if this works, there’s hope yet for Catherine’s unwritten story. It would be nice to get a few of these things off my list of unfinished ideas.

progress of the gimpy feet

Today I downgraded myself from Vicodin to large doses of Advil. This has the virtue of fewer side effects, and also slightly less efficacy — yes, that latter is a good thing, as it means I’m less likely to overreach myself, walking around more than I should.

But I’ll go back to Vicodin for the night. I haven’t managed properly uninterrupted sleep yet, and am hoping for better success this time.

epic pov

A topic of conversation from ICFA: I’ve noticed that one of the things which makes it hard for me to get into various epic-fantasy-type novels lately is the way point of view gets used. As in, there are multiple pov characters, and shifting from one to the other slows down my process of getting invested in the story.

But hang on, you say; why “lately”? Why didn’t that bother you in your epic-fantasy-reading days of yore?

Because — and this was the ICFA epiphany — the epic fantasies of yore weren’t structured like that. Tolkien wasn’t writing in close third person to begin with, but he pretty much just followed Frodo until the Fellowship broke at Amon Hen; he didn’t leap back and forth between Frodo in the Shire and Aragorn meeting up with Gandalf and Boromir over in Minas Tirith and all the rest of it. David Eddings’ Belgariad, if I recall correctly, is almost exclusively from Garion’s pov, with only occasional diversions to other characters when the party splits or Eddings needs to briefly show a political development elsewhere in the world. My recollection of early Terry Brooks is much fuzzier, and I’ve almost completely forgotten the one Terry Goodkind book I read, but again, I don’t recall their narratives being multi-stranded from the start.

Even the Wheel of Time, which is pretty much the standout example of Many Points of View, wasn’t like that initially. The first book is all Rand, all the time, until the party splits; then it picks up Perrin and Nynaeve for coverage; then it goes back to Rand-only once they’re back together again. Eventually the list gets enormous, but you start out with just your one protagonist, and diversify once the story has established momentum.

The examples I’ve tried lately that present multiple povs from the start — Martin, Abercrombie, Reddick, others I’ve forgotten — are all more recent. And with the exception of Martin, I’ve had a hard time getting into them. Because character is my major doorway into story, and if I’m presented with three or four or five of them right at the start, I don’t have a chance to build investment in anybody. Martin is probably the exception because his different points of view overlap; the characters are not off in separate narrative strands, but rather interact with one another. It’s less fragmented.

Mind you, it’s funny for me to be criticizing this approach when I appear to have an obsession with dual-protagonist structures in my own books, and my pairs are not always connected at the start of the story. But I think this is a new development in the subgenre of epic fantasy, generally speaking, and it might explain why I’ve been less interested — despite the fact that the new epic fantasies often have more originality going on than the books I loved as a teenager. They jump around too much, try to present me with too many threads at the outset. I’d rather read a story that starts small, then builds. I’m curious to know what other people’s mileage is on this particular question, though.

less dead than expected

Oddly, what’s laid me low is not so much the surgery and Vicodin, but the cold I picked up a few days ago. So in addition to antibiotics and painkillers, I’m also dosing myself with antihistamines and decongestants, and observing with some entertainment the war between Vicodin (may make you drowsy!) and Sudafed (never lets me sleep well).

So far, though, so good. Surgery was quick — apparently kniedzw hadn’t even finished his danish in the cafeteria when I arrived in Recovery — and while they gave me crutches to steady me on the journey home, that was just because of lingering anaesthetic effects. I’m walking just fine, if a bit gingerly, with suitable caution because the Vicodin makes me a little dizzy. Fortunately I’m getting by on one pill of the 1-2 they recommend taking; I’ve gotten more pain from elevating my foot (leading to loss of circulation in a couple of toes, leading to pain when I shift position and the blood comes rushing back) than I have from the incisions themselves.

Many thanks to everyone who sent along good wishes, cards, offers of help, etc. The plan for the next couple of days is to take it easy and see if I can wean myself off the Vicodin in favor of ibuprofen. Tuesday I have a follow-up appointment with the orthopedist, and then it’s pretty much just a matter of waiting for the four weeks to be up so I can get out of this boot and start physical therapy. The exciting part’s over; what comes next is boredom.

Department of Things I Didn’t Need

Dear Brain,

I recognize that you’re trying to be helpful and all, and I appreciate it. But it would be lovely if you could offer help with “Mad Maudlin” (which I’m trying to finish) or the Victorian book (which I’m about to start) or That Thing We Can’t Talk About (which I need to do), rather than the opening line for a sequel to a short story I haven’t sold yet.

Just saying.

Having said that, it is a pretty fun opening line.

Dear Cayce,

I know you’re tired of receiving Well-Intentioned Parental Advice, but there are a few things every young woman should know before she goes to Hell.

Back to the things we should be doing . . . .

Love,
Your Writer

Last day of freedom

Tomorrow is the ankle surgery, after which I will be stoned on Vicodin for a while. So if you don’t hear from me, blame the drugs.

Before I go, some linky:

Generic Movie Trailer — oh god, it’s like “Title of the Song.” A hilarious (because accurate) structural breakdown of trailers for the kind of movie that’s trying to win an Oscar, done as a trailer. “And then the music . . . gets . . . hopeful . . . .”

An open letter to conservatives — less funny, but more useful in the long run. Your one-stop-shop for evidence as to what’s wrong with the Republican Party today. Conservatism as a concept, I often think is wrong in the sense of “I disagree with you;” conservatism as it’s most visibly being practiced today in America, I often think is wrong in the sense of “what the hell is wrong with you people?” The letter includes a billion and one links documenting, as it says, the “hypocrisy, hyperbole, historical inaccuracy and hatred” currently afflicting the party’s loudest voices.

Marissa Lingen on “fake swears” — back to the funny. Having recalled it during the course of commenting, I think I will revive “son of a hairless kumquat” as an insult in my repertoire.

“Scientific Romance,” by Tim Pratt — best love poem ever. (At least if you’re a geek.)

Holy hell.

Facebook has shut down the group “People Against Racebending: Protest of the Cast of The Last Airbender Movie,” apparently on the grounds that its campaigning against the whitewashing of the movie constitutes being “hateful, threatening, or obscene [… or that it] attack[s] an individual or group, or advertise[s] a product or service.”

I’ve already got a lot of reasons for not liking Facebook. Now I have a new one. And while I don’t know for sure that the people behind the movie (Shyamalan or the production company or whoever) pushed Facebook to do this, it’s certainly the first and most likely possibility that springs to mind. Because that group’s been around for months, with over six thousand members. Something had to bring it to Facebook’s attention and insist it was a problem. And that something was almost certainly a someone — a someone with a vested interest in shutting down protest.

This? Is not. cool. For all the reasons that Hal Duncan outlines at that first link, and more besides. If anybody hears word of useful things to do in response, please let me know.

Ada Lovelace Day

Sadly, she died well before the Victorian book will take place, so if I manage to include her, it will only be in flashback. But today is Ada Lovelace Day, celebrating women in science, and Finding Ada is maintaining an ongoing list of posts (I think not just from this year, but previous years as well). Lots of fun reading; find your favorite Lady Scientist there, or write about her yourself.

I would do the same, but I have to run about a million errands before I lose the use of one leg on Friday. So I’m off to do that.