Sunday night open thread

[lagilman]

Yep, exactly what it sounds like. One of the few thing I dislike about LJ (and blogs in general) is the fact that you have to wait for me to post something before you can sound off.

So, here's your very own thread to play with as you will, if you will. Got a question, a comment, a rant, a suggestion? Have at it! If this goes well, it will become a weekly event -- it's all up to you! (but, yanno, no pressure) Nothing's off-topic because there ain't no topic! Just remember to check the comments to see what folk are saying... (if something becomes particularly hot or interesting, I may take the liberty of giving it its own post).

Comments

[ex-fashioni.livejournal.com]

I'll start with a link to a SIlly Cat (http://pics.livejournal.com/fashionista_35/pic/0007arzy/).

And since I know that you've been around the silliness that is writing awards in the past, I've got a question. Can you explain the process of the Nebulas-- from how the finalists are chosen, how the final books are judged, and what's the biggest issue with them, as you see it?

Ever since the Rita finals were announced a couple of weeks ago, there's been a lot of discussion about how so many readers are ticked because the books they feel are the best aren't the ones represented in the finals. But thing is, the Ritas are a peer award, not a reader award and it's up to the author or publisher to submit the book. I'd hope that readers would look at it as an opportunity to check out books they might not otherwise.

Okay, done now.

[rhonawestbrook.livejournal.com]

ohhhh I wanna know this too!

I have TONS of questions for you....but I have to do dishes now.

I'll be back though.

:::has shifty eyes:::::

[lagilman]

cat cuteness alert! :-)

Can you explain the process of the Nebulas-- from how the finalists are chosen, how the final books are judged, and what's the biggest issue with them, as you see it?

First of all, understand that the Nebs are matter of much yowling within SFWA, and I tend to steer clear of it (and most awards) out of self-preservation. Being a World Fantasy judge means I've paid my dues, and then some!

Anyway. Works (books, novellas, short stories, etc) are nominated by members of SFWA (Science Fiction Writers of America). Any book can be nominated -- there is no requirement except (nominally) that they fall within genre boundries. There is currently a rolling eligibility, so a work is eligible for nomination 12 months after first English publication. Once a work has ten nominations, it automatically goes onto the prelim ballot. The entire membership has the chance to vote on the preliminary list (Australian voting rules, I believe) and the winners of that make it to the final ballot, from which the winner is chosen by the membership's votes.

There is also a jury for each category, whose job it is to determine if there is (in their opinion) a worthy work that was not nomiated, and if so, to add it to the final ballot.

Confused? Don't worry, so are most of us.

[ex-fashioni.livejournal.com]

Well, the Ritas can be a matter of much yowling within the RWA, so from that standpoint, I totally get the self-preservation aspect of the equation.

Yes, confusing, but also makes sense, in a strange sort of way. Either that, or I've been staring at my galleys for far too long this morning.

Thanks!

(And don't you love how the beast looked offended that I was taking his picture?)

[vampry.livejournal.com]

The Silly Cat is indeed silly.

And in honor of that, I use my icon that is my own Yellow Eyed Demon. (Supernatural reference there.)

[ex-fashioni.livejournal.com]

LOVE the SPN reference. *G*

[baka-kit.livejournal.com]

Wow, that cat it certainly tempting fate. Or at least extreme soakedness! :p

[ex-fashioni.livejournal.com]

I think he knew we were laughing too hard to actually do anything to him. Other than laugh. Which, of course, to a cat, is an offense punishable by death. Or dirty looks. *g*

[lagilman]

the meerkat and diet coke one? It's from a photo taken at my last signing at Pendemonium books. The meerkat was a house-warming present given to me by Dennis-without-an-LJ who occasionally posts here, and she got her name (DC) from that photo.

[lagilman]

well, that one is... the ones in my other meerkat icons aren't.

and before you ask -- suricattus suricata? Latin name for meerkat, which is my nickname. ;-)

[lagilman]

http://www.meerkats.com/info.html

They are actually part of the mongose family, and make LOUSY pets. Fascinating to watch, tho, as the folk who're addicted to Meerkat Manor can attest to...

I got the nickname years and years ago, but when I tried to register 'meerkat' on LJ, it told me it was already taken. :-[

[puppetmaker40.livejournal.com]

Have you ever wanted to line a bunch of whiney fanficers again a wall and MAKE them write according to Strunk and White?

[neadods.livejournal.com]

They'd explode. The ones who care about writing as a craft as opposed to a publicly acceptable form of masturbation already know Strunk and White.

[lagilman]

Pretty much, yeah. Anyone who wants to learn to write better will do so, either by a course of study, or by reading and reading and reading the good stuff, and applying what they read to their own work. The ones who are defiantly, proudly bad? Life's too short. End of story.

[debg.livejournal.com]

pointing up at suri's post

What she said.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Any idea how to plow through the "Oh, dear God, what made me think I can do this? I'm total shite and in over my head" feeling?

[lagilman]

Plow through. Thinking something's shit may mean that you're too hard on yourself -- or it may be shit. Get the opinion of someone you know will be kind but honest. Listen to what they have to say. Fix what you agree with them is wrong. Keep plowing.

Sometimes writing yourself into a corner lets you look at the room differently. And sometimes it means it's time to take a nap. *grin*

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I keep taking naps, but the muse still doesn't speak to me... the deadline is the most intimidating thing to me.

[lagilman]

Why is it intimidating you? Is it the pressure to hit a certain date, or is there something else? Did you have this kind of reaction in school to due dates? How about projects at work?

[neadods.livejournal.com]

It's the pressure, I think... until now, I've written for pleasure and if it takes 4 months for a scene to rattle loose properly, nobody cared.

Hadn't thought about it as schoolwork or work writing. Mind you, in those situations, sometimes I'm thinking "This is good enough for government work" and am trying to be a little less blase about the final product here.

[lagilman]

getting the first draft down on the page is like finger painting, or doodling. You dip your fingers in the paint and work in broad strokes, or let the pencil go idly over the space in quick lines. Either way, the emphasis sould be on following the instinct, not refining the product.

"good enough for draft work" is not a pejorative. It's an assessment. Once you've gotten it all on the page, then you can bring in the detailing and the refining and the non-blase attitude.

(I know one very fine writer who backs into every story he writes by thinking 'this one's just for me, nobody's ever going to see it')

Also, if it helps, one bit of advice: storytelling isn't a science, or an art. It's a party.

[debg.livejournal.com]

storytelling isn't a science, or an art. It's a party.

Or an addiction. Or a compulsion.

Once upon a time...

Namespace

[eeknight.livejournal.com]

How do you go about naming your characters?

-and-

How did your cats get their names?

Re: Namespace

[lagilman]

How do you go about naming your characters?

I'm honestly not sure. The names appear pretty much the moment I start writing their voice, and it's very rare for me to change a name once it's come to me. Sometimes I'll have an idea of their nationality -- Sergei Didier was always going to be the son of old world immigrants, for example -- but even when I have to consult baby name books it's more a case of flipping until the right one jumps out at me than looking for something specific. Sometimes in short fiction I have to fiddle a bit until something looks right, because I haven't quite gotten a handle on them yet.

How did your cats get their names?

Indy J of blessed memory got her name because she was adopted the same day we saw "IJ and the Temple of Doom," and I wasn't going to name her Short Round.

Pandora was Mina in the shelter, and I almost kept that name, but somehow "Pandora" got attached to her instead. She was also almost Chardonnay, although in retrospect "Zinfandel" would have suited her better. She is also known as The Duchess, and Miss Piss.

Boomerang was "Sunny" in the shelter, and I knew there was no way that was his name. I had joked that my next cat was going to be Prince Valium or Sir NapsALot, but then I heard that he had been adopted and returned to the shelter, and 'Boomerang' just popped into my head. He acquires names as he goes on through life, so he is now Boomerang, Fool of a Took, Cat of No Brain, Meatloaf-in-Training. Most of those are self-explanatory, and he answers mostly to "BoomerYouIdiot."

Re: Namespace

[eeknight.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[kradical.livejournal.com]

How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

[lagilman]

If a woodchuck could chuck wood a woodchuck would chuck woood at a rate of (body mass/ax length)*hours of daylight squared by the averaged number of kits in its nest. Because have you seen heating oil costs these days?

[quarkwiz.livejournal.com]

We've still got about a cord out back; want it? :-)

[jaylake.livejournal.com]

How many chuck keys would a woodchuck upchuck if a woodchuck could upchuck chuck keys?

[lagilman]

I don't know, but if they're anything like cats, they'll do it in your shoes.

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

It is Not Fair when all the adults in the household are sick. Not Fair At All.

[lagilman]

And it's so difficult to convince the cats to make tea and bring aspirin.... *sympathies*

[debg.livejournal.com]

ranty venty thing ahead, well you SAID it was all right

I want my @#%$%#&#& PUBLISHER to GET THEIR ACT TOGETHER.

[nick-kaufmann.livejournal.com]

Top or bottom?

[lagilman]

Top bunk, always. More difficult for roommates with mayhem in mind to sneak up on you that way.

[nick-kaufmann.livejournal.com]

Um, yes. Bunks. That's what I was talking about. ;-)

[jperceval.livejournal.com]

I didn't read all the posts, so if someone already asked this, feel free to slap me with a wet noodle:

Will the Retrievers novels be coming out in mass-market paperback? See, I don't usually buy trades as a rule, since I read so dang fast, but the wait for Wren and Sergei is KILLING me.

[lagilman]

The first book is already out in mass market; however I am told that the rest will remain in trade format, and further reprints to STAYING DEAD will be in trade for the backlist. Yeah, I'm not thrilled with it either, but that's the publisher's decision. Feel free to write in and ask for a mass market edition -- tBTB listen to consumers more than they do the authors.

They are all available in e-format, however....

[jperceval.livejournal.com]

That's so odd. Luna doesn't seem to make a lot of sense in terms of editions. There's your series (the first one I read in mm in Paris last year), then Poison Study, which started in hardcover, went to trade, appeared in mass-market 2 years later, then released as a "special edition" trade. I'm sure there are other examples too. Frustrating all around! You bet I'll write in!

[lagilman]

actually, the 'traditional' life for a genre book is:


1. mass market original, with sometimes a move to trade or hardcover if it becomes a bestseller or Something Important Happens (major award, movie, violent death, etc)

2. hardcover, with a mass market reprint following a year after, when the more expensive edition's sales have fallen off.

3. hardcover or mass market original, then a trade edition if it's deemed to have a 'literary' or 'upscale paperback' readership.

all three of these have valid financial reasons beind them (which is, ideally, the way publishing houses think -- how can we make the most money off the most books?)


In Luna's case, they went for the upscale fantasy and romance readership, which is in trade paper format (and has been for a number of years -- check out the explosion in fantasy trade paperbacks in the mid-1990's).

They went on to mass market reprints, as is not-unusual, and discovered that the sales were not what were expected, for whatever reason (no interest, market saturation, etc). Not only that, but the trade editions of the mass markets continued to sell. Hrmmm, we can hear them say. Let's think about that....

Of course, this sucks for my Australian readers, where a trade paperback costs ungodly amounts, and I've been agitating TPTB to at least do a mass Australian edition. So far, no luck (but if Aussies are reading here, I'm thinking of you guys! Help me out -- write in and ask for it, too!)

[fakefrenchie.livejournal.com]

Yeah, well, Trades in France are also ungodly expensive. In fact,LUNA is fast becoming my least favorite imprint due to publisher decisions. But try to say something negative on the site in hopes that the angry squeaky wheels will pay attention and you get slapped down like a fly. I like some of the authors quite well (present company plus a few others including Misty)but I don't like trade-size. They are too heavy and awkward in addition to being too expensive. It makes me very angry that because some people have too much disposable income, I have to buy Trades if I want to read one of my favs. The e-book version is not a good substitute since I rarely go to bed with my computer, while I often do with a book. End rant

[lagilman]

Don't post to the site -- send e-mail (or snail mail, even better) to H'quin editorial headquarters in NYC. Take the complaint directly to the people who have the power to make changes!

Telling them that you're not buying the trade when you WOULD buy a mass market is the only argument that will work. I regret the loss of income flowing to myself, of course, but I certainly comprehend the argument of the wallet! (I get to deduct books I buy as work-related expenses, and I still have to stick to a very strict budget)

[vanderbruegghen.livejournal.com]

Would you like to see any of your works on TV or would you prefer a movie?

[lagilman]

I think I would rather see it done on tv, simply because the format of my books works better for television -- they're intimate, character-driven books, not BLOCKBUSTER SPECIAL EFFECTS HOO-HAS!

*ahem*


Besides, a mini-series would just make my tv-viewing heart geek out with joy. And there's always DVD sales, later...

[rwglaub.livejournal.com]

I hope you had a nice Passover (I don't know if you celebrate it or not). For Easter I had a number of my bachelor friends over and fixed a roast beef dinner, of which I am still consuming the leftovers (the remainder has gone into the freezer for future consumption).

About three weeks ago I had the chance to go to a talk by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Somali refugee who became a Dutch legislator and was hounded out of the country by various and sundry bigots. She now living in DC and working at the at a think-tank. I actually had a chance to meet her; an extremely remarkable woman. She is quite outspoken about the superiority of Western civilization and culture to Islamic, especially as in reference to the treatment of women. Her outspokenness has earned her the outrage and disdain of many in the European cultural elite, though...