The Future is Coming

Have you seen the Espresso Book Machine is now live at the independent bookstore Northshire? So now a self-published author can sell their books at the Point of Sale in that bookstore. Not that you can just buy self-pub books this way, but that you can buy many traditionally published books this way. Although the self-published local authors are doing quite well with this store, an unanticipated market according to the machine’s creators.

I tell you what, if I can walk into my local bookstore and use this machine to buy any book I can order on Amazon, Amazon is history. Seriously. I don’t need to pay extra for having my books delivered to my doorstep. I retain the community involvement of a local bookstore and I get it now, not a week or two from now. This would also free up shelf space at the bookstore for books that can not be created on this machine.

I have no idea how much this beast costs to install and operate, but this is the future, here and now.

Where are All the Genre Benders? I’ve got a cover!

Hello? Anyone? Okay, I’ll post something. I have a cover for my debut novel, Blade’s Edge. Look–

Blade's Edge Cover Art

This almost makes up for the skin cancer surgery last week. Happy sigh.

–Val

PFAI’s Master Class Weekend was Fabulous

I’m the president of the Popular Fiction Association of Idaho, Inc., which almost sounds impressive until you find out that it’s a teeny, tiny non-profit corporation that was created in 2004 for a half-dozen people who wanted to put on a mystery literature conference, specifically, Murder in the Grove, in Boise, Idaho.

Honestly, planning and executing a conference (complete with 25+ speakers, industry professionals, a massive group booksigning, a manuscript contest and a day-long master class) is a lot of work for 6-8 people. We didn’t do a full conference this year, just two days of master class with kick-ass teachers, Bob Mayer and Margie Lawson.

The master class weekend concluded yesterday and I’m waiting another day before I start going through the feedback forms, because I thought the teachers were wonderful, the information was incredibly useful and the organizers (the people I work with, not me) dedicated, professional and amazing.

And the classes — imagine your brain as an IBM PC. No, not a generic PC, the ORIGINAL PC. Now imagine a T1 line connected to said brain. It was kind of like that. Lots of information. Good information. Delivered via firehose. I’m pretty sure most of the students will be digesting it for days, if not weeks.

Both Bob (http://www.bobmayer.org) and Margie Lawson (www.margielawson.com) teach more advanced classes both in-person and online. Bob has instructional books published (his Novel Writer’s Toolkit is technically out of print, but he has copies available through his website), while Margie offers her work as lecture packets through her website. I wish she would publish them as books, but that’s because I’m lazy and I don’t want to go to the trouble of binding them myself.

I highly recommend both of these writing instructors. They rock.

Now I have to rewrite the first 100 pages of my work in progress.

An Idea Saved Isn’t an Idea Earned

One of the things I’ve gotten over since I started writing (I think this came in as either the second or third Big Writing Revelation(tm)) is saving ideas. At a certain point in the writer’s life, you realize that you’re creating crap, but that you have to go through that woodland crap to get to the glade of good words. And then like blue jays screaming through the woods come these gleaming moments of non-crap and you need to decide what to do. Now, this new stuff is good, having handled crap for long enough you know when ideas and words have that different feel to them. The new stuff fits into what you’re working on, but the rest of what that work is crap and you know it. Do you put these chunks of gleam into the crap making the gleam craptapulous or do you hoard your gleam until you get better and that gleam can shine with the other shinola you’d be producing then?

And the young writer, like a pack-rat dragon wondering when he’ll get his next hit of gold-plated meth, will think “I’ll hoard the gleaming things until the pile will shine forever.”

Resist this behavior. With all your might, resist. The only idea that shouldn’t be put into the story you’re writing is the idea that doesn’t fit. You can’t horde the good words, they don’t behave like that. And ideas, if hoarded, grow stale and die, losing their gleam. Then they begin to stink. The bright leaves flare and fade into the forest floor.

Here’s the secret though, just because you use it once doesn’t mean you can’t use it again. So throw that idea, or those words, into the big pile of crap that is the story. You might have to scoop them out later when you’re killing your darlings, or they might impart some shine to the rest of the load. They may even inspire you to polish up the rest of it. Who knows, it might make the story successful. Even if it does help your story get published, that still doesn’t mean you can’t use it later.

And if you stop the flow of gleaming ideas by hoarding them, then you get idea constipation. And the ex-lax for that condition isn’t any fun at all and ranks right up there with a unicorn enema. So roam through your woods plopping out the craptastic and the shinola with great glee and abandon. Soon you’ll see more shinola than crap. And eventually you’ll get to the editing point where you’ll be cutting the crap out instead of the gleaming parts to make the writing smooth.

Ideas work better when they can rub up against other ideas in a story. Keeping them herded off doesn’t help anybody.

Got Villain?

Let’s talk about the hero and the fatal flaw. No one is perfect, therefore the hero has to have at least one flaw to be overcome during the climax.

Hero + flaw = character arc = believable character.

But, how does the hero get to the point of needing to grow beyond their flaw? We need a catalyst to reach the next step in the equation.

Enter, the villain. For many stories there is no clear villain, therefore the hero falls flat, and the plot doesn’t advance, as if the whole idea is waiting for something—or someone—to push it forward.

Flawed hero + golden villain = growth opportunity

The Golden Villain
Your villain can be another person, the hero’s own self, a deity or other supernatural being, an animal, or the environment. In any plot structure, the villain’s job breaks into three primary functions.

1-Build plot tension by creating a clear need for the hero’s success
2-Further develop the hero by providing a basis for comparison, and inciting change
3- Be a focus for opposition and conflict in order to give the reader someone/something to root against; aka: inspire the need to annihilate (from 101 Dalmatians, starring Glenn Close)

Theoretically, the more diabolical your villain, the more the reader cheers for the hero. If only it were that easy. Your villain has to be believable for the equation to work effectively.

Evil for evil’s sake does not a good villain make
Most of us can’t conceive of perfect evil or perfect good as anything more than ideals.

Mother Nature is impersonal, not malicious. Luck, ingenuity, and willpower, if applied correctly, can conquer the elements and environment, as well as animals, not to mention hubris and mishap.

As for deities, you’d think lightning bolts would be more accurate or their aim more precise. Whatever the case, the deity can be impressed, placated, distracted, or otherwise outsmarted.

Check your cinema, check your literature, check your history. Because we can’t imagine anything or anyone being more perfect than ourselves, we accord them our same flaws.

There are no perfect heroes; there are no perfect villains. Each has limitations, each has vulnerability, each has flaws, because we have them.

In a villain, these factors allow the hero the possibility of winning.

Traits of the Golden Villain
Conviction. Charisma. Leadership. Decisive. Follow-through. Powerful. Desire. Ambition. Integrity. Tendency to think in absolutes. Never wishy-washy. Intelligent.

Wait. From the above, I could be talking about the hero. That’s right; your villain is a foil for your hero. (see http://genrebender.wordpress.com/2008/07/19/characters-dimensions-and-foils-long/)

In one respect or another, each of the above traits can be admirable or detestable. If amplified, twisted, or misplaced, any trait has horrific potential.

For example, intelligence is a good trait in a hero. Intelligence denotes the ability to reason, to logic, to plan, and to discard morality. This last ability—with or without conscience—is what frightens us. A beast can be scary; a beast that just might be smarter or more cunning than me—as well as stronger, faster, more relentless, and more ruthless—is terrifying.

In my opinion, the more intelligent the character, the higher the stakes and opportunity for bad behavior. Besides, it’s hard to be a mastermind if you can’t reason your way out of a wet paper sack.

Mining for Gold
To get to the root of your villain, you are going to have to dig. This process works equally for all characters, not just villain and hero. When considering the following points, answer the basic questions of who, what, when, where, why, how. Dig. Don’t shy away because the reader will know if you do.

1-Characteristics
What personality traits do you most admire? What traits do you most despise? Study both lists. Which ones are in your hero? Your villain? Any similarities?

BE CAREFUL. Neither your villain nor your hero can encompass all of what you listed. Yes, it will make them complicated, but you won’t be able to portray them all effectively. Pick a handful of major traits and explore them, then develop them into a memorable character. How?

Consider body language, behavior, speech patterns, quirks, and standard operating procedure (SOP). These behaviors, no matter how small, buff the edges, and add depth to your character.

Notice I say nothing of physical traits. Physical attractiveness or repellence is window dressing though it can serve motivation, goal, and plot. The question is, for your villain, which aspect will better instill fear, loathing, and abhorrence: the beauty that masks the viper, or the depraved disease-ridden leper?

2-The Prize and The Bane
What does the villain want? The villain must have goals and objectives, be that gaining a love object, power, money, knowledge, or a godhead. These wants can be simple or multi-layered. Drop the bomb: let the reader know precisely what the villain considers to be the gold nugget. Be specific.

What does the villain believe to be the bane of their existence? Be specific. Is this belief accurate? How does that figure into their plans? Their prize? What do they do to offset the bane?

3-Second Place is for losers.
As with your hero, your villain is driven to succeed in their ultimate purpose and intent. In my humble opinion, they can’t waver. What true villain would be happy with a consolation prize or a platitude?

Most golden villains deal in absolutes, but you still must quantify the scale of “winning.” To what ends will the villain go to achieve their desire? What line won’t they cross, if any? As long as the prize is won, can the competition live? Can there be compromise?

What will the hero have to do to thwart the villain? What will stop the villain in their tracks, and has the villain even considered this possibility, and/or made contingency plans?

4-Disgrace vs death
Delve deep on this point. Would the villain or hero prefer to die than not achieve their goal and live in disgrace? If not death, does disgrace need to be avenged?

Would the villain prefer the hero to die, or live in abject humiliation? Which of those would be the better goal, or does the villain even care? Perhaps disgrace first, followed immediately by death? At what point would the villain allow the hero to survive, and why?

5-Pearls in the past
The reader does need to understand the villain’s motivation, or at least that they have one. Nature can only go so far before we have to consider nurture.

The seeds of present and future actions, behaviors, and thought processes were sown in the past. Culture and/or heritage; socio-economic position; education; family and personal relationships—all have a place in shaping the character. Happy memories and tragic or emotionally scaring events also play a part. In a sense, your villain needs to have more of a past than your hero.

What event made a boy into the Jason of Friday the 13th infamy? Who was Count Dracula before his vampiric star rose? Why did a highly intelligent psychiatrist become Hannibal the Cannibal?

When considering the villain’s past, we can often come up with more than a few traits and flaws. However, if they see them at all, the villain can’t see those flaws as being impediments to their plans. Villains are just as self-deluding as the rest of us, so maybe they see those flaws as strengths.

Writing the Golden Villain
Readers seek a connection to your characters, and the characters are what will keep them reading even if, heaven forbid, your plot becomes predictable. If they don’t find that connection, your book is dismissed to the used book counter.

When writing your villain, you can take a direct approach and write in the villain’s POV, or you can have another character or plot device betray the villain’s motivations, goals, and objectives. This is a style choice on your part.

By writing in the villain’s POV, you can see if they come off as diabolical and nasty as you intended, or if they come off flat. In their POV, you can study their body language and behaviors, how they think, what they think, what they feel, why they feel. In their POV, you can make the villain real. This has value.

Even if you write in single POV, make an exercise of writing in the villain’s POV for a few important scenes. You don’t have to use them in the end product, but it can be instructive. It also takes extra time, but if you can’t find your villain’s voice, if you can’t make them multi-dimensional, this exercise might make a difference.

However you accomplish it, you have to know your character inside and out, what makes them tick. You have to understand them, the lengths they will or will not go. You have to understand the whys and the wherefores in order to relay villain’s dark glory to the reader. If you don’t get it, the reader won’t either.

Remember the villain’s job within your plot. The villain spurs the hero to overcome their flaw and to triumph over adversity. If the reader doesn’t understand the villain’s motivation, doesn’t see the logic behind it, and doesn’t understand the prize, your house of cards will crumble because the reader won’t understand the imperative for the hero’s success.

Rumor has it it’s the end of paradise

Yesterday was spent doing family things. Specifically going to see my niece in her Senior Spectacular, which is a performance of high school seniors, mostly from the choirs. And let me say here, Skippy, you were fantastic. I really wish we could have seen more of your concerts an dI wish you the best where you’re going. You’ve allowed an uncle to be very proud of you. And I think I said this once, but let me say it again, you really get performance. And that’s a rare gift.

So, today I’m going to discuss performing. I have some experience here. Since I was in grade school I’ve performed in plays, written plays (for both church and for high school, and have been selected for performances), played in bands (concert, marching, stage, and a garage band or two) and performed guitar as a busker and on stage for my own high school’s talent shows. I’ve given readings, reports, was a certified organizational change management leader (at E&Y, don’t ask). I’m trying to be a successful writer. I’ve been in front of microphones, tv cameras, given personal interviews to reports, lead mobs, and written this blog for how many years.

All of those are performances, btw. Some of them you might not think of as performing, like blogging, but really it is. At a convention a few years ago, I signed up for a breakfast with John Scalzi where he held court with about eight of us on several topics, one of which was blogging. As John said (and to paraphrase here), “I’m always surprised at the people who think they know me (and Krissy and Athena) because they read my blog. The blog is only what I choose to show the world, so nobody sees the times Athena is being a normal 10 year old, or Krissy and I have a problem. So people get a distorted view of my life.” We then had a more indepth discussion of what successful blogging is. And just to be clear here, it always means telling the truth about yourself. It also means you don’t have to share what you don’t want to share. And so, blogging is a performance art. Just like public speaking.

So here is something you probably don’t know about me. I’m introverted. Not as deeply as some friends I know, but it’s still there. Another author (who will remain nameless here, but I’ve mentioned him before) I had the fortune to see at a conference “putting on his game face.” Afterward I talked with him and mentioned I noticed him doing that. He’s also an introvert. We shared a moment of connection as I told him I recognized the action because I do that myself.

This doesn’t mean we’re being false. But it’s a recognition that we’re about to perform. And now I’ll get to what that means.

To dispel some myths. The people you see performing are rarely the best at what they do. Performance is hard work, no matter what the movie/recording industry wants to portray about “talent.” As John Lennon Ringo Starr shouted on Abbey Road The White Album, “I’ve got blisters on my fingers!” Most people who perform are doing things they love to do. And when you love doing something you do it if somebody’s watching and you do it when nobody is watching. And you do it until you get blisters. And then you keep doing it. Nobody just walks up on stage and performs like they’re a star. Everybody who has karaoked has sung in the car to the same song. See how good they do up on a stage? The woman from England who took everybody by surprise? Yeah, she belonged to a choir and I’ll bet she practices singing as she walks around her house (or flat). And she does it because she loves it. Also, for those people who are out there performing in clubs and bars, they know they’ve all met people better than they are. People who don’t perform anymore. Perseverance is the name of the game.

And when those people are performing, they aren’t doing it for themselves. At least the good ones aren’t. Performing is about giving. Giving to the audience, the other members of the troop, to the art, to someone who may not even be there. As Stephen King says in On Writing, most authors are telling someone their stories when they write. For him, it’s his wife. He’s trying to impress her and make her laugh (and yes, his stuff is funny). That’s his goal. He tells the story about an author he knows who is writing to someone whose been dead for many years. Performance is all about the people you’re performing for. If all you’re doing is going up on stage and reciting a song, well, that’s a form of mental masturbation. Artist who are all about themselves rarely make it far, and their self-indulgence comes through their performance and leaves most people wondering just what the heck is going on and the performance goes flatter than three-day old beer. But those who go up there and give it all away, those are the artists you remember. I should state here that performers are (mostly) consummate liars. If you ask them, many times you’ll get the “All about me” answer. Watch them on stage, though, and you can practically see the energy flowing into the audience. And if it’s done right, the energy flows back.

And we do it because we love our audience and we love what we’re doing. When Jackson Browne sings, “So just make sure you got it all set to go before you come for my piano,” that’s what he’s talking about. You’ve all come out to see us. In some cases you’ve paid good money to do so, given of your time and energy. To give ourselves to you is the least we can do.

It takes a lot out of you if you do it right. That’s the whole satiric point of Dire Straits’ “Money for Nothing.” If you’ve ever seen musicians after a show, they look rung-out. Because they are. Not only were they playing the songs, they gave of themselves to their band and projected that out to the audience.

So that’s the secret of performance. It’s not about the talent, the skill, and the ability. It’s about love. It’s about giving it all away and hoping it comes back. It’s about not worrying about saving something up for another night, because it doesn’t work that way. Pour yourself out into what you’re doing, give it all to one person or to twenty-thousand screaming people. It’ll come back. It’ll make the hair on your neck tingle to touch that live wire. And do it because you love something, someone, someplace.

And yes, I do this because I love you. Stop looking at me like that, you know what I mean.

Writer’s Master Class

Bob Mayer and Margie Lawson

Two of the hottest conference speakers making the RWA rounds in one intense weekend!

Writers’ Master Class Weekend http://www.murderinthegrove.com

DETAILS:
When: June 5-6, 2009 at the Owyhee Plaza Hotel
Where: Boise, Idaho

SPEAKERS:

New York Times bestselling author Bob Mayer has thirty-eight books published. He has over three million books in print and is in demand as a team-building, life-change, and leadership speaker and consultant for his Who Dares Wins: The Green Beret Way concepts.

After attending West Point and serving as an Infantry platoon leader, battalion scout platoon leader, and brigade reconnaissance platoon leader, Bob joined Special Forces and commanded a Green Beret A Team.
Bob draws on these experiences as well as his Masters Degree in Education to write his novels and his nonfiction books, including WHO DARES WINS: The Green Beret Way To Conquer Fear & Change and The Novel Writer’s Toolkit: A Guide To Writing Great Fiction And Getting It Published. Most recently Agnes and the Hit Man, in collaboration with Jennifer Crusie from St. Martin’s Press.

Margie Lawson, psychotherapist, writer, and international presenter, has applied her psychological expertise to dissect over a thousand novels and analyze how authors write page-turners. A former university professor, Margie taught psychology and communication courses at the undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral levels. Her resume includes clinical trainer, professor, sex therapist, Director of an Impotence Clinic, hypnotherapist, and keynote speaker. Margie focuses her analytical skills on writing craft, developing innovative editing systems and deep editing techniques. Her deep editing tools are used by all writers, from newbie to multi-award winners. She teaches writers how to edit for psychological power. How to immerse the reader in the fictional world. How to hook the reader viscerally.
In the last four years, Margie presented full day Master Classes in forty-two cities, including cities in Australia and New Zealand. Most of her full day Master Classes sold out.
CBCRWA members – 125.00/ both days

Non members – 135.00/both days

Or $75.00 for a single day.
Breakfast and Lunch for both days included in the price.
To register or for more information: www.murderinthegrove.com or email inform@yahoo.com

On Keyboards

You all know I’m trying to get the writing thing going, right? Lately I’ve been wedging in a few words here, a few words there, on a bunch of different machines and places. So I have a some recent experience using several different keyboards.

Now, when I was a student assistant in the Admissions Office of the U of A, I found my first real love. I had a lust after the computer terminal keyboards, the old ones. They had great functionality and feel. Then in the office we had an IBM Selectric. OMG, now that was a keyboard. I had done my first typing on a manual typewriter. If you’ve never had to use one, count yourself lucky. The Selectric was like honey. Smooth, easy, and those keys with breakaway springs. Oh my.

So ever since then I’ve had a love of full function keyboards. They just felt right. So when I saw Apple’s new keyboard design, I was immediately put off. It reminded me very much of the old TRSII Color Computer Keyboard (the chicklet keyboards). Not very functional, no play, no feel, no depth of stroke. Nothing.

And then it just hit me the other day when I went to use an older style Apple Keyboard, that was based on the full stroke keyboards of old. Holy crap. I’ve been ruined. And now I’m really thinking about parting with $50 to get one of the new keyboards for home. Especially since I’ve realized that I type faster and with fewer errors on those keyboards. Whodathunkit. I actually like those little buttons. And it doesn’t feel like I’m whacking the keyboard to get the words out.

So yeah, one is on my wish list. And I may get one I can use for my laptop (which feels constrained even though it’s supposed to be a full stroke keyboard). It feels like freedom.

My name is Sally, and I’m an SF-aholic.

My name is Sally, and I’m an SF-aholic.

Hi Sally.

You want my story? (The story of me or the stories I write? Today it’s me.) I got my first taste of SF when I was just a child: the sweet, tangy flavors of Walter Farley’s The Island Stallion, a charming and quite stirring (for an 8 year old) tale of horses, alien shapeshifters and space ships. My parents encouraged me to imbibe healthier fare (Trixie Belden books spring to mind… so where’s the healthy exactly?) but that one taste had me hooked.

I resisted for quite a few years, mostly due to peer pressure, but then, one day in hospital after giving birth to my first child, the library lady came trundling by my bedside with a cart bearing Robert Silverberg’s The Time Hoppers. I was in a weakened state. It called to me more loudly than the Harlequins and mysteries around it. I went for it like an alkie with a big, big thirst. That book turned me into a full-blown SF-aholic.

It’s a disease. No doubt about it. In the way alcoholics love to talk about their drinking days, and over-eaters anonymous members revel in reminiscing about cheeseburgers past, we who love science fiction and fantasy flock together to share our joy. As Spider Robinson says: Shared joy is increased, shared pain lessened. And it’s painful to go without a good sf fix for too long.

For me it was always about the books. Sci-fi movies are generally laughable at worst, okay at best, with the occasional rise to greatness (Star Wars-The Empire Strikes Back; Blade Runner, Galaxy Quest (Yes, Galaxy Quest dammit!). But the books! Dune, Red Mars, The Stars My Destination, A Canticle for Leibowitz, The Lathe of Heaven, Neuromancer, Starship Troopers, Ringworld… by God it’s like a bar where the drinks flow freely and the bartender can put his hand on a bottle of the very finest stuff. And open it just for you.

And the best thing is—people are still writing the stuff! And loving it. And passing it around like a doobie.. but that’s a whole other addiction. I’ll stick to the SF, thanks very much.

I think it was called “tough self love”

Mary Robinette Kowel helps distill down an editorial to its essence. And it’s a good reminder to just STFU and do it.

Here’s the full editorial by Beth Wodzinski (editor of Shimmer) over at Apex’s Blog.

This is part of why I agreed to do things. Village Council, Ruritans, Cajun Sushi Hamsters, and other things. All because some times you have to just say, WTF. And yes, I say that putting on Ray Bans (you know, or you don’t, don’t make me explain it). Take the leap. Sometimes you splat, sometimes you figure out how to fly. After a time you get better at flying.

Given how low my word outputage (yeah, I made that up) of these past few days has been, with the current leap there’s a high probability I may splat. Add in the day job shakiness and it may be a big, expensive splat. But you never get the brass ring riding safely.