In case you missed it, this past weekend was the Scares That Care Weekend V in Williamsburg, VA. This is a great charity event which supports three families in need each year. It's also like a great homecoming for all of the horror industry's authors. STC is very much a horror literature focused event, one of the few I've had the pleasure to attend.
I arrived in Williamsburg with my girlfriend around midnight on Thursday before the convention began. I was very fortunate to appear in the celebrity room this year. Brian Keene, who I've mentioned on ATB before, was in charge of setting up the celebrity room and decided to play a little prank by sitting me next to the legendary Jonathan Janz.
As you can see from the photo above, that's a bit like seating a baboon with the handsomest, perfectest author who ever lived. The real joke, though, is that I declared Jonathan my rival a few years ago when his CHILDREN OF THE DARK consistently beat out my own HUNTER OF THE DEAD on every horror blogger's end-of-year list.
Jonathan, of course, turned out to be as charming as he is handsome and perfect in real life. But, actually, we were very much kindred spirits. We chatted a bit about the industry and realized how similarly we felt about a lot of things.
Friday night I got to hang out with a lot of people I haven't seen since, well, STC last year. It was also around this time that the rumor went out that Brian would be receiving an award from the convention this year. More importantly: an award he didn't know about. The award was for people who have donated an extraordinary amount of time, energy, money, etc. to the charity. In previous years it's gone to Kane Hodder, Sid Haig, Count Gore De Vol, and other STC luminaries.
Saturday I had a panel scheduled for 7:30 about crossing genres, but we only really got through introductions before we all had to break and go to the costume contest, where Brian's award ceremony was taking place. It was great seeing him shocked as they announced his name. The board had apparently made the decision behind closed doors and then told him someone else would receive it.
Saturday at 10:00 pm was my reading with Somer Canon. Somer is a good friend and amazing author and as she began reading, I was surprised at her confidence and projection. It turns out this was her first reading ever, and she blew it out of the park.
My own reading was a piece called "This Reading is Going to Suck." As I was working on it at the vendor's table, Armand Rosamilia, who was sitting on the other side of me from Jonathan, asked what I was working on and whether he was in it. So, I nodded and added him to the piece.
Of course, Armand did not attend my reading, and learned only from rumors that he was in it. Sunday morning he was all in a tizzy about what his position in the piece was, how significantly he was featured, and etc., etc. Sadly, I had no answers for him as I certainly couldn't reveal what had been said on Saturday night to someone who hadn't been there, naturally.
We headed out on Sunday after a few more sales. This was, for me, my most successful convention ever, financially speaking. But that will never be as important to me as the good times had with friends, new and old, and, of course, the chance to do something good for others. Hope to see you all next year!
When it's time to post a blog sometimes the panic surges up in my esophagus, as if struck by severe indigestion, and I find it hard to breathe. Especially if I am late to the process. Desperately scanning my life for relevant material, knocking back cup after cup of french roast, but when nothing surfaces, I slump against the wall in total resignation.
Nothing is a horrible word. It means of little importance, of no concern, not anything, nil, zero, zilch, nada, zip, diddly-squat, and apparently that's all I have. In a feeble attempt to avoid the blank page I order a therapeutic candle and vintage mixing bowls from Amazon. The thrill is short lived. These are my current thoughts, "I want to accost the gardner who has been running the blower since eight this morning, causing the neighbor's dog to bark incessantly, and the whine from the refrigerator is taunting me. I might need to move to Paris? With nothing to write I'm sort of forced to scan Facebook, but it's the same three friends, checking into the same three restaurants, eating the same enticing food, which they photograph and post. Now I'm hungry.
I open both sides of the refrigerator and narrow in on a slice of leftover steak. It's dry, someone has taken a bite out of it, and decided to leave it behind? Maybe I'll take a picture and post my pathetic meal on Facebook? Maybe not. Continuing to veer off course, I send out a few self-serving tweets, watch the hummingbirds fight over the feeder just outside my window, when unexpectedly I become fixated on exfoliation. Diligently digging through my makeup drawer for said product, I spend ten minutes massaging mud onto my freshly washed face. Glancing in the mirror at the dried brown mask I realize all I'm doing is hiding. Damn. I hate it when reality slaps me in the face. Rinse. Moisturize. Pluck eyebrows because this seems less painful than plucking words from my brain. Back to the blank page. Maybe I need is a prompt? I rifle through recent events as if on the Easter egg hunt, searching for something hidden, relevant, apposite. It's daunting. The empty page stares me down until I run to the kitchen with my mug screaming, "the road to hell is paved with adverbs," a Stephen Kingism.
Sometimes I use starters like, "Today I notice... I'm curious about... I couldn't live without... I wonder about...." The word that keeps popping into my head is NOTHING.
Let's hope the coffee kicks in soon. I admit during the summer it is especially difficult to write because I'm busy relaxing. Now some people have interesting lives. I just don't happen to be one of them. But interesting things do happen around me.
When I started blogging I thought it would be effortless. Sit my ass down in a chair and allow the words to flow through me. Ann Lamott says “All good writers write [terrible first drafts.] This is how they end up with good second drafts and terrific third drafts. . . I know some very great writers, writers you love who write beautifully and have made a great deal of money, and not one of them sits down routinely feeling wildly enthusiastic and confident. Not one of them writes elegant first drafts. All right, one of them does, but we do not like her very much. We do not think that she has a rich inner life or that God likes her or can even stand her. (Although when I mentioned this to my priest friend Tom, he said you can safely assume you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.)”
Maybe I need a priest? Or a writing process?
What would a process look like? So glad you asked. Here, I gave it a go. You're welcome.
1. Feed the Blog. I need to get in the habit of jotting down memorable events. Worry less about spelling. Ramble, unload, let it go...this is not the blog, this is food for the blog (shitty first draft). For example, the enormous fires that surrounded us at the lake house last weekend, or the old friend who called me up out of the blue, because she's selling some miraculous anti-aging gel, and wants me to be part of her downline? Than there's my beloved cousin who demanded we clean out the refrigerator because she insisted a colony of botulism had moved in the produce drawer. The common theme seems to be preservation? We'll let those thoughts marinate while I cut up some cucumbers for my eyes.
2. Groom the Blog. I am a quote hoarder. It's true. I obsessively write down quotes, passages, articles, books that inspire. I keep a notebook handy or just record them verbally on my iPhone. This week I came across; "Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind." Dr. Seuss. "Where’s your will to be weird?" Jim Morrison. "The most powerful weapon on earth is the human soul on fire," Ferdinand Foch. A Writer's Guide to Harnessing the Creative Power of Resistance by Deb Norton, "Don't look where you don't want to go." It's odd how I come across just what I need, just when I need it? Spooky...
3. Weed the Blog. Spy on your thoughts suggests Deb Norton. Good writing is about telling the truth. Start with that shitty first draft, then weed, weed, weed until the truth is able to grow. “If something inside of you is real, we will probably find it interesting, and it will probably be universal. So you must risk placing real emotion at the center of your work. Write straight into the emotional center of things. Write toward vulnerability. Risk being unliked. Tell the truth as you understand it. If you’re a writer you have a moral obligation to do this. And it is a revolutionary act—truth is always subversive,” Anne Lamott. As if a child investigating a June bug, be fearless, notice everything, abandon yourself to the delight.
4. Liberate the Blog. I'm not talking about the feminist movement, or burning your bra, this is about getting the words down and letting them go. “Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people. It will keep you cramped and insane your whole life, and it is the main obstacle between you and a shitty first draft. I think perfectionism is based on the obsessive belief that if you run carefully enough, hitting each stepping-stone just right, you won’t have to die. The truth is that you will die anyway and that a lot of people who aren’t even looking at their feet are going to do a whole lot better than you, and have a lot more fun while they’re doing it.” Anne Lamott. I have this running inner dialogue which tries to derail me, I realize this comes from a place of fear, I attempt to mollify her with kindness, or caffeine, and then unfollow her as if an annoying Facebook troll.
“Who wants to become a writer? And why? Because it’s the answer to everything. … It’s the streaming reason for living. To note, to pin down, to build up, to create, to be astonished at nothing, to cherish the oddities, to let nothing go down the drain, to make something, to make a great flower out of life, even if it’s a cactus.” Enid Bagnold
What does your writing process involve? Where do you find inspiration? How do you generate material? I'd be ever so grateful if you shared a few thoughts in the comments.
Full story at Living in the Gap, drop by anytime, I crave good company.
John Steinbeck said, "People don't take trips; trips take people." I've been lucky to experience this a few times - when I moved to Japan to teach English, almost every trip to Paris (because, Paris), my first time in London, and most recently Sri Lanka. I've been home for a day and I keep looking at the (tons of) photos we took and just...smiling with a lot of happy sighing thrown in. I'll be honest, when my husband first mentioned going to Sri Lanka, I was a little ambivalent. He'd been there when he was a kid and wanted to revisit and introduce it to our kid and I was like, "Ok, I've never thought about going there, but I can't think of any big objections either." Honestly, before he mentioned it, it wasn't even a place I'd thought about visiting. Have you? If not...it's worth the trip In short...it was AMAZING! The people. The culture. The food (although you'll have an easier time if you like curry. There is western food, but it's not nearly as good.). The scenery. The weather. The wildlife. The only thing NOT to rave about is that it's a long-ass flight, even from the UK, so chances are you'll have a connection in the Middle East somewhere. But - more time to read in transit, right? Not convinced? Maybe it's better to show you? If you ever do go to Sri Lanka, take the train from Kandy to Ella. It is breath-taking. Absolutely my favorite part of the trip. Make sure you hang out the door to get the full experience. Don't worry. The train goes a max of 20mph, so it's safe-ish. And it goes into the mountains through tea country, which means the scenery is spectacular!
Tea plantations for as far as the eye can see.
You'll have a chance to go on a few Jeep safaris, which are expensive but if you want to see elephants they're your best bet. Related: baby elephants are adorable.
Monkeys, on the other hand, are plentiful. We stayed at one hotel where they warned us that not locking the door to the balcony was pretty much an invitation to the monkeys to come on in and help themselves. The phrase cheeky monkey exists for a reason! These monkeys were hanging out at the pool and the big one enjoyed hissing at my husband. He thought it was funny. Me? Not so much.
Other highlights included visits to the Temple of the Tooth relic in Kandy, which is a Buddhist temple said to house one of Buddha's teeth rescued from his funeral pyre. There is an annual celebration/pilgrimage in Kandy every year to honor the temple gods (starting today!) that is the grandest of all of these festivals, but we were lucky to see a similar smaller festival in Kataragama.
Temple of the Tooth
Kataragama Perahera Festival
The other festival we saw was a Hindu festival where men pierce their skin with hooks and hang from wooden posts to show their devotion:
Um...that looks like it hurts?
Tuk-tuks are everywhere! They're surprisingly comfortable and perfect for the crazy roads.
Also another elephant. Just because.
So what does this have to do with reading or writing? So far, admittedly nothing! But did you know that Michael Ondaatje (author of The English Patient, among many other novels) is Sri Lankan-born? His book, Running in the Family, is an account of his return to Sri Lanka in the 1970s to dig into his family's history.
Another book that's come highly recommended since returning home is Elephant Complex by John Gimlette, which has gone on reserve at my e-book library, along with Island of a Thousand Mirrors by Nayomi Munaweera. Not one of these books was on my radar before we went to Sri Lanka, but now I'm waiting (im)patiently for them so I can learn a little more about this gorgeous country and it's history. Because that's the thing with wanderlust. There are so many ways to feed it - even when your feet are back on familiar turf.
Tell me what's your favorite book that transports you to a place you've been or want to visit?
Hi everyone! Mary here, and it's my turn to do an interview! Instead of a tradition Q&A with one person, I decided to ask some of the BRAVE NEW GIRLS authors about their inspirations. What's BRAVE NEW GIRLS? Well, I'm glad you asked! ;-)
Back in 2014, sci-fi author Paige Daniels and I were bemoaning the lack of tech-savvy heroines in fiction. Oh, you'd see the odd glasses-wearing sidekick working the lab while the real (male) hero beat bad guys. Or the impossibly sexy babe who somehow had five PhDs at 22 so she could be the (male) hero's love interest and ostensibly have a role in the plot. But there was a distinct lack of stories about the
girls in the lab, the girls behind the keyboards, the girls who loved science for its own sake.
Each volume contains multiple short stories, with illustrations for every story acting as a cover within the cover. I asked some of the authors to talk about what inspired theirs. Here are their answers:
Art by Jennifer L. Lopez
Author:
Jeanne Kramer Smyth
Story:
"The 17th Quadrennial Intergalactic Neo-Cultural Expo and Science Fair"
Brave New Girls: Stories of Girls Who Science and Scheme
My story, 'The 17th Quadrennial Intergalactic Neo-Cultural Expo and Science Fair', in the 2nd BRAVE NEW GIRLS anthology, was inspired by a combination of things: - my participation in a science fair in 10th grade - my desire to set something in space (and the awesome conversations I had with my friend who works at NASA about what might go wrong, both on a space station and with science projects) - the name of a show my father directed years ago ('Banjo Dancing, or The 48th Annual Squitters Mountain Song Dance Folklore Convention and Banjo Contest, and Why I Lost ...')
Art by Jennifer Stolzer (both illustrations)
Author:
Jamie Krakover Story:
"Arch Nemesis" Brave New Girls: Stories of Girls Who Science and Scheme
"Pyramid Scheme" Brave New Girls: Tales of Heroines Who Hack
My first Brave New Girls story was inspired by the fact that I always wanted to write a St. Louis centered story. I focused on the Arch because it's such an iconic landmark in the city. But I wanted that landmark to have secrets than no one knew about. As a female engineer I saw the need for strong female characters with science and engineering minds. So I crafted Valerie, who had experienced loss but also had something to prove and a need to thwart the activities there.
From there I decided to throw in math and science references and puns centered around Arches and thus Arch Nemesis was born. After completing Arch Nemesis I realized that my main character had more adventures to take and since I left things a little open ended, I took a similar approach with Pyramid Scheme. I built on the strong character and explored an adventure within the great pyramid, once again incorporating science and math as well as puns. I wanted the main character to have learned from her previous experiences, developed her engineering skills further and gave her a sidekick to help in her adventure (even though she thought she didn't need one). Overall I've just had a blast utilizing my engineering knowledge and sneaking in fun, nerdy references wherever I could.
Art by Sharon Emmitt
Author:
Jennifer Lee Rossman Story:
"Login" Brave New Girls: Tales of Heroines Who Hack
I love fairy tale retellings (my first-ever publication was in an anthology of sci-fi fairy tales), and the idea of a Rumplestiltskin retelling really interested me. It seemed to lend itself well to a futuristic setting since the girl gets three chances to guess his name, and that's how many chances you usually get to guess a login name on the computer.
The rest of the plot - the war machines, the factory, the gold wiring - fell into place around that premise, and I decided to make the main character a wheelchair-user like me because we need more positive disability rep in stories.
Art by Lyssa Chiavari
Author:
Lyssa Chiavari
Story:
"Sea-Stars and Sand Dollars",
Brave New Girls: Tales of Heroines Who Hack
I've always been really interested in the concept of seasteading, and one of my favorite TV series is SeaQuest DSV. I wanted to do something that combined those things together and also tied into my ongoing sci-fi series, so I decided to do a fun adventure story about one of the adult side characters from the series back when she was a teenager. It worked out so well that several elements from the story got built into the second book!
Author:
Me! (I'm also the co-editor) (What? Couldn't resist!)
Story:
"Takes A Hacker"
Brave New Girls: Tales of Girls and Gadgets
"The Case of the Missing Sherlock"
Brave New Girls: Stories of Girls Who Science and Scheme
"The Altered Avatar"
Brave New Girls: Tales of Heroines Who Hack
Art by Mary Fan
I've always loved stories about virtual reality, and so for "Takes a Hacker," I wanted to use that as a setting. The heroine is a teen Jane Colt, who's also the heroine of the space adventure trilogy named after her. I thought it would be fun to explore the character at an earlier stage in her life. I also thought it'd be fun to center the story around a science fair of some kind. I'd participated in Science Olympiad as a high-schooler, and while the story ended up being much more... adventurous... than my own experiences, I thought it was a nice nod. Also, I wanted to reject the idea that girls in tech could only be awkward nerds (nothing wrong with that, but there's more than one way to be a girl) or babelicious bimbos (okay, there is something wrong with that). The backstory I'd established for Jane was that she'd always been something of a belle -- good-looking and charming enough when she felt like it. Not to mention the daughter of one of the richest men on her planet. At the same time, I didn't want romance to define her. Besides, for continuity's sake, her love interest in the series couldn't be present in the prequel short. So I made the story an anti-romance... the story of a break-up. Because that's part of being a teen too, and Jane doesn't need no man telling her what to do!
Art by Jennifer L. Lopez
"The Case of the Missing Sherlock" and "The Altered Avatar" both feature a crime-solving duo inspired by Sherlock Holmes and John Watson -- except now, they're an AI called Sherlock (built to look like a teen girl despite being named after a male character) and a teen engineer named Chevonne Watson. Both are whip-smart and love their sciences. Sherlock gets herself into all sorts of trouble with her whackadoo experiments -- which she swears will help her solve crimes someday -- and Chevonne is an apprentice biomedical engineer.
"The Case of the Missing Sherlock" thrusts Chevonne into the role of detective. I'd written two stories starring these two characters already, and while she had an active part in both of them, it was still Sherlock doing the heavy lifting. I wanted Chevonne to solve the mystery, and so I got rid of Sherlock altogether -- and had Chevonne show off her smarts by figuring out what happened.
Art by MunkyWrench
"The Altered Avatar" is told from Sherlock's perspective and featured a futuristic riff on augmented reality. Once again, the girls' science smarts are what save the day. The thing about all three of these stories is that it's not a big deal that these girls are into tech. It's just part of their reality, and no one questions it. Hopefully, that will be true in the real world someday too. There won't be any of this "ooo you're a girl and you do science/tech/engineering/math!" nonsense. It'll just be "oh, another girl in STEM -- lots and lots and lots of those these days." Because when you're fighting for equality, normalcy, even mundanity, is the goal.
Oof, I did not mea to make my segment so long! Anyway, all three anthologies are available in paperback and e-book on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and more! Check 'em out!
How’s your summer going? Mine? Mine’s been hectic. Between camp, swim team, dance classes, vacation, writing -- I don’t know which end is up. Also I’m launching a book on Tuesday.
It’s hella hard launching a book in the summer. Between giving myself a crash course in Amazon and Facebook ads and trying to drum up some kind of buzz for the book, I have had little time to actually figure out how to launch it. So I thought I’d google it. And then I thought, I’ll blog about it.
Here’s my google search.
So....
I really can’t imagine owning a boat and not knowing how to get it into the water. That seems dumb. You spend all this money on a boat, you didn't think to ask the salesman, "How do I launch it?"
I have no idea how someone launches a car. Do you?
Fortnite. Do you have kids? I do. My 8-year-old is obsessed with Fortnite. It is the bane of my existence. I don’t get it. I don’t want to get it. I just hope it’s not melting his impressionable brain.
How to launch a podcast? I not gonna lie. This has crossed my mind before. I’m sure I’ve searched several times how to make a podcast because I love podcasts. I wish I was super niche so I could create a cool podcast. Or be on someone’s podcast. Just let me podcast!
How to launch a product? That’s sort of what I’m trying to do now, albeit poorly.
An app? Does your app help me sell books? No? Moving on.
What the hell is an ico? (*looks it up*) It's....Initial Coin Offering. I don’t want to google this. I don’t care enough. It sounds boring.
A website? Easy peasy when you're an indie author.
A manual car? Again, who is launching cars? And where? Into space? From a catapult? Over a fence? How are we launching cars?
Jupyter notebook? WTF is this? I’ll google it. Ugh. It’s software jargon. I’m already checked out.
Whoever said summer is lazy has not been in my head or to my house. I’m hella busy. What about you, folks? How’s your summer going? Anyone want to pony up to $2.99 to buy my book? If you're my age, you'll get this reference--remember Brendan Fraser and Matt Damon in School Ties? It's like that but with blackmail and death and stuff.
Here’s the obligatory link to the original BJHJ in case you need a refresher on what this is all about. Hope you enjoy my latest hack at a book I recently read and enjoyed. Check it out if you haven’t already!
We’ve been described as the modern day Breakfast Club, and I have to say, if you’re going to be compared to an 80’s flick then that’s the one you want as your benchmark. Everyone knows it’s a classic. The only way the comparison could be better is if we were described as the Breakfast Club on a Ferris Bueller’s Day Off adventure. Thanks to someone knocking off Simon while we were all in detention together, what do we get instead? A Weekend at Bernie’s.
So who are we? You’ll meet us soon enough, but until then we’ll give you a sneak peek into our lives with a quote each of us selected from The Breakfast Club.
“We’re all pretty bizarre. Some of us are just better at hiding it.”~ Cooper
“You ought to spend a little less time trying to impress people.” ~ Bronwyn
“I hate it. I hate having to go along with everything my friends say.” ~ Addy
“Well, everyone’s home life is unsatisfying. If it wasn’t, people would live with their parents forever.”~ Nate
“Don’t mess with the bull, young man. You’ll get the horns.” ~ Simon
What’s the saying? All good things must come to an end? Yes, that’s the one.
Well, after nearly four years as a (founding) member of Across The Board it has finally come time for me to say au revoir. It’s been a great run, at this GREAT blog, and I can’t thank the other members of ATB enough for their unending support, their inspiring professionalism and their constant collegiality. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it) I will be stepping away from the “creative” writing business for a while to pursue a career in college admissions (at my alma mater). It has been my day job for about fifteen years now and I’ve finally been given an opportunity to make it more than just a job, but a career.
I will sincerely miss being a part of this group— and wish everyone here (and all of you out there) the best life has to offer. I selfishly hope that my presence will be equally missed, but most of all I want my absence to provide someone else the opportunity to contribute to our little writing community here. I hope they love it as much as I did.
Please wish me luck, as I wish ATB all the success and prosperity it can muster. I will continue to check in from time to time, and willl always look back on these four years fondly and with grateful appreciation.
So I guess this is THE END. Or perhaps it is just the beginning... Only time will tell.
We're a diverse group of writers, ranging from kidlit to adult. What is the one thing we all have in common? The love of a good story. Welcome, and thanks for stopping by. We'll see you on Mondays & Thursdays!
