Volume 27

Writers of the Future, Volume 27 is here. The trailer is here.

The week in Hollywood was fantastic. Authors' Services and Galaxy Press staffs were excellent.

The week long workshop, taught by K. D. Wentworth and Tim Powers, was phenomenal. We got advice from the old pros and the young stars--both were spectacular.

The writers were all great folks with substantial talents. I enjoyed talking and laughing with them tremendously. I hope that we can form a lasting cohort.

The illustrators were nice folks, too, but we did not spend as much time with them. The illustration that Irvin Rodriguez did for The Sundial was wonderful.

The awards show was polished and professional. The trophy is a beautiful Lucite pyramid with a silver quill inside. They're mailing it to me.

The experience was highly rewarding and exhausting fun.

Burning Money

It was hot, the night we burned chrome. -- William Gibson

I like the way that Gibson turned the phrase. "Burning" can be a present progressive tense verb or a modifying gerund. In a two word title "burning" sounds like a gerund, that is, I first assumed that "burning chrome" was a noun phrase--"chrome," the noun, and "burning," telling me what kind of chrome. But Gibson immediately turned my expectation inside out. He used "burning" as a verb and "chrome" as a direct object, as in, "We are getting out the blowtorch and burning chrome."

"Killing Words," one of my short stories, uses Gibson's ambiguity.

But I want to talk about burning money.

The Writers of the Future staff suggested a dress code for the workshop and events during the week. One staff member's clarification made it clear that I was well set, with clothes that fit the code. Later, another staff member interpreted the code differently--I was a bit below the bar.

For me, spending money on clothing is akin to burning it. I have enough clothes to rotate through most of a week, then wash them, then rinse, and repeat. So I do not have the amount of clothes that normal people have. This is one facet of my nerdhood.

My view of buying clothing has led me to make friends with my decades-old shirts. When they're finally too worn to wear, it is like saying "goodbye" to an old friend. I identify with Brian Eno, who once sung, "The passage of my life is measured out in shirts." I think Eno's line is a reference to J. Alfred Prufrock's life, which he has "measured out in coffee spoons."

So today I went to Walmart and bought $150 worth of clothes. Man, that hurt. Yes, I know it will make me a bit more normal to have an office casual wardrobe that can span 10 days or more before a wash. And I know that even though I spend, perhaps, $50/year on clothing, that normal people spend much more than that. And normal professionals do not buy $150 wardrobes at freakin' Walmart. But I am not normal.

However, it just may be the case that people who buy books would rather think of the author as being like them--as being normal. My bet is that WOTF's suggestion is like a flu shot. I did not want it. But it will be good for me.

Excellence

Writers of the Future sent their edits on my bio and on my story, The Sundial.

The edits on The Sundial were excellent. They kept all of Bess' bad English, while getting rid of all of my bad English. I was mortified to see that some of my errors remained after so many reads and readers.

I had worried that since my bio was different than the other authors' bios I had seen, that the editors would "sameify" it. But they left everything in it. I was pleased. The bio I submitted is similar to the bio that accompanies this blog.

I cannot talk about me unless I talk about the web of folks who have been part of my life.

The Future

The Sundial, my story about an immortal Egyptian witch's difficulties in the American Civil War, will be published in Writers of the Future's volume 27. Mosby's Raiders, the confederate partisan cavalry unit, is prominently featured in the story.

Writers of the Future is the best selling science fiction and fantasy anthology series of all time, according to Locus Magazine. I feel as if I have been struck by lightning.

Writing News

My story, Refiner's Fire, was one of eight finalists in Writers of the Future's* fourth quarter 2009 contest.  Alas, it did not place in the top three, which would have guaranteed that it would be published in their yearly collection of stories.

I am left slightly better off than I started.  Finalist status confirms that I can write a really good story, as judged by someone who knows--the judges are successful writers.  In my arrogance, I always knew that I write good stories, but it is good to have that confirmed.  I think that there may be 10,000 people out there writing good stories.  There is room for 4 new writers this year, as judged by observing agents who get 300 queries from authors per week and ask for a partial manuscript from 1 author, who already has some writing credentials.

A place in the WOTF volume would have been a credential.  So I am about where I started with regard to having a writing income.  I will submit another story this quarter, raising my lightning rod in case a storm blows up.

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*WOTF is the world's foremost science fiction and fantasy writing contest, judged by professional authors.  Their yearly collection of winning stories is published in mass markets.  I can find it at the department store in my small town.  The judges and staff are the best.

Contest

Nirvana Cat received Honorable Mention in the Writers of the Future Contest.

I excerpted Nirvana Cat here.

I talked about where the idea came from here.

I used Nirvana Cat to talk about about atmosphere and point of view here.

It is nice to see that a professional speculative fiction writer thought I was among the top contestants in the most prestigious contest in the world, but I am not going out tonight to celebrate because I want to win. I am not satisfied with good. I want the best.

I already have some suggested revisions for the story, so it's time to see if I can sell it.

Wish me luck!