Dandyfunk

My story is out . . .

Over at Flash Fiction On-line, you can read my short-short story, "How High the Moon."

click here

Prize Package!

I recently received my prize package from the Jim Baen Memorial Writing Contest. In a very thoughtful gesture, they include a bag to carry all the goodies in:

And here's what's inside:

I got a Jim Baen's Universe mug, a CD-ROM of The Best of Jim Baen's Universe 2006,  Eric Flint's novel Time Spike, and the collection The Best of Jim Baen's Universe #2, featuring fantastic stories from KD Wentworth, Mike Resnick, Elizabeth Bear, Kevin J Anderson, J. Kathleen Cheney (her story Touching the Dead is great -- read it first)  and many more!

Luckily, winning second place doesn't eliminate you from entering the contest again. I'll start working on a new story as soon as I finish all these books.

Jim Baen Memorial Writing Contest

Just found out today that my story "Burst Mode" has won second place in the Jim Baen Memorial Writing Contest.

The National Space Society and Baen Books sponsor this contest in memory of Jim Baen, to celebrate the role science fiction has in making advances in science. The basic requirement for entries is that they show the near future of manned space exploration.

The National Space Society has a simple vision: People living and working in thriving communities beyond the Earth, and the use of the vast resources of space for the dramatic betterment of humanity. They have local chapters all over the United States.

Jim Baen (1946-2006) was a noted science fiction writer, who became and editor and publisher when he founded Baen Books, a leader in the field of military SF, fantasy, adventure and space opera. They also have a thriving e-book division called Webscriptions, which allows readers to download books before publication.

My story was more down-to-earth than the typical space exploration story, but I did show how humans in the future will still be exploring the planets, and solving problems in a very human way.

A big thanks to Baen books and The National Space Society for providing the prizes (including membership in the Society!), judges Hank Davis, Eric Flint and Mike Resnick, and special thanks to William Ledbetter for organizing the contest and getting the results out.

Ouch! Triple Rejection Day

Checking my email this morning, I got three rejections for stories I've submitted.
Response times were 186, 97 and 5 days. Funny how they all arrived within 8 hours of each other.
One had some interesting editorial comments, which I will have to ponder before sending that story out again. The others were form rejects.

Looking for something cool to read?

J. Kathleen Cheney, another winner from Writers of the Future, has a story up at Beneath Ceaseless Skies. Read it here.

Writers of the Future workshop, Day 4

This was the last day of the workshop and the start of the whirlwind.
We had a critique session of the 24 hour stories, and then Tim and KD gave us some "final advice."

Now we could relax, for a bit.
Kevin J Anderson and Rebbecca Moesta  gave a presentation on "What I wished some pro had told me." Basically, it was "How to be a professional" and a few "dirty secrets."
Next up was Charles Brown of Locus magazine, who talked about the art of writing and the business of writing. Some bad news -- I'm too old to be a writer! I'll just have to act young.
Sean Williams gave a talk on the 10 and a half commandments of writing. The entire talk is contained in episode 62 from the pod-cast Adventures in SciFi Publishing, available here.
Eric Kotani started his talk off with an 11th commandment (if you break a commandment, don't get caught). We then had a talk from Steve Savile and Eric James Stone.
Now came the unveiling of the illustrations. Each of the winners of the Illustrators of the Future contest received a story to illustrate for the book. This would be used to determine the Gold award winner, so each and every one of them did an outstanding job. All the writers loitered outside the hospitality suite until everything was ready (they had to move some of the artwork inside because it had started raining) and then we went in and had to find the illustration for our story. I found mine quickly, because I had already met Robert. I was very impressed with his illustration, and the large enlargement looks fantastic.

Robert Castillo, Joel, and me.

When I wrote the story, I had a very definite image of what the narrator looked like. But when Robert did his illustration, he drew it from Gina's point of view, so we see what she sees. Something I had not thought about at all, and I love his interpretation. The industrious technician is sitting at his workstation, coffee cup nearby, while fighters prep for launch in the background. Amazingly, the original illustration is way smaller than this enlargement, yet it is filled with details.

Next up was a talk from John Goodwin, the publisher of Galaxy Press. He gave tips for book signings, interviews and publicity in general. Great practical advice, which I haven't had a chance to use just yet.

Then it was back to the workshop, where Robert J Sawyer gave us a quiz on point of view. To close out the day, we had Larry Niven, followed by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle.

For dinner we had a banquet at the hotel with all the judges. I was faced with the very difficult choice of sitting next to Larry Niven, Fred Pohl or Jerry Pournelle. I wound up sitting next to Jerry, and we talked about old PC hardware, Inferno (which has just come out in a new addition), and his column from BYTE magazine. After dinner I ran back to my room and got my copies of Inferno and Ringworld and had them autographed.

That night, Charles Brown had had a party in his suite. A lot of fun, good company and great conversations.

Writers of the Future workshop, Day 2 continued

No wonder I drew a blank about Tuesday's dinner (it was Dr Phil in the Hotel restaurant, BTW). At the WotF workshop, you work. We had the assignment to write a story in 24 hours, and we had from about 5pm Tuesday until 5pm Wednesday to complete a story. But its not written off the top of your head. We had our "object" to start with, there was research to do, and then "stranger in the afternoon."
Late morning Tuesday we left the hotel for a short walk to the library, where we were supposed to do some random research to spark ideas. I took a bunch of notes on books I leafed through. One was a book on Feng Sui, and I copied down a list of principals.
For stranger in the afternoon, we were supposed to find a stranger and start a conversation, get to know them a bit, try to find a story idea. After the library, no one want to go out to lunch, so I wandered away toward where I thought there was a shopping district.
I found a stranger right away. Across the road were a bunch of police cars and ambulances, and a gaggle of bicycle riders. As I found out from my stranger, one of them took a spill. We talked for a bit, and the guy seemed more interested in me and the workshop, and before I could talk much his lunch hour was over.
So I took a long walk to the next crossover, and found a few shops. I talked to a few people before heading back, and ran into a Jennette near the hotel. "Have you seen any strangers?" we both asked each other. The hotel was not in a densely populated area, we both agreed. We wound up hitting the nearby stores.
So I never found any one particular interesting stranger, but I did talk to a bunch of people.
Once we got the go ahead to start our stories, everyone rushed off to get started, with no plans for dinner. So Dr Phil and I ate at the hotel restaurant.
But before I started I did some brainstorming and outlining. My object was a pink flamingo swizzle stick, and I could have use the obvious idea of a drink, or a flamingo. Instead, I did the 20 things exercise.
You start off with your basic idea, then try to think of another idea, or a related idea, and you keep going until you have 20 things. After about ten things, my flamingo led to "why is it pink?" Which led to "why do birds have mating displays?" which led to "what if aliens had mating displays like flamingos?"
So my story was about an alien race that had intricate mating displays, and how that affected one character who was just maturing, and I stuck in a little philosophy from Feng Sui.
I sat down and started typing about 12:30. Only 17 hours to go, but I had a much better story to write than one about a cocktail! I wrote until about 2am, then went to sleep.

Writers of the Future workshop, Day 2

Here's where things confusing. So much going on, so many people to meet, so many things to do. Hopefully I'll get the days straight.

On the first day we received our "object" that was supposed to be used as inspiration or a trigger for our 24 hour stories. I got a pink flamingo swizzle stick. More on that later.

We got the assignment to read a L Ron Hubbard book. On checking in, we got a large package filled with reprints and audio book CD's. My roommate and I found these very helpful. I also picked up a few paperbacks. I read the novel Fear, which was very different from most pulp fiction. I'm a fan of "Old Time Radio" on XM, and I enjoyed the audio books.

We had more discussions, about research, what to read and hints on writing a first sentence. KD also left me with a great image -- Writing is exquisite torture. But it's fun too!

Our guest lecturer was Fred Pohl. He told us about his collaboration with Arthur C Clarke. He also talked about some of his books, like Gateway, one of my favorites. I had brought my SFBC copy, and had him autograph it.

I guess there was lunch and dinner in there somewhere, but right now I can't remember who, where, when.

Confessions of a How-to book Junkie

A Natural History of the Senses, by Diane Ackerman  ISBN-10: 0679735666
Not a how-to book for writers per se, but one every writer should take a look at. The book touches on each of the five senses, with an additional chapter for synesthesia.
Each chapter covers many topics, from Ackerman's personal memories to scientific studies to historical researches to philosophical asides. Did you ever think that tears are salty because we evolved from ocean creatures, and that our blood is salt water? Ackerman has.
But the book is more than just a collection of information; there's great writing here, and an aspiring writer could learn from some of these images and every page is filled with ideas.

More confessions here.

Writers of the Future Workshop, Day 0

I had a great time at the WotF workshop, but really haven't posted any details. So here's the first day:

Arrived in LA safe and sound, after a connection in Memphis, which was celebrating Elvis week. Makes me wonder, isn't every week in Memphis Elvis week?

After I got my luggage, I looked for the WotF van, which would be waiting "outside." No sign of it outside, or anywhere up or down the terminal.
I eventually found the driver and the photographer, who had parked instead of waiting at the curb.
So back to the baggage carousel for some photos of me picking up my bags, me standing with a WotF sign, me standing with the driver. I felt kind of silly, even though I had been expecting this. There would be many more photographs taken during the week, so this was a good introduction.
We then went to the van, and drove to another terminal. There doesn't seem to be any central parking area for the LA airport, nor any convenient way to get from terminal to terminal. So we went from terminal to terminal, but the people we were supposed to pick up (Sonia and Sarah, I think, who wound up arriving last) had delayed flights, so we picked up the next two arrivals, Jemma and Ian.
Even though I had never met her, I spotted Jemma at the curb. She was standing there with a book under her arm. "That must be a writer," I told the driver.
After Jemma's photo shoot, we had a long wait for Ian's flight. He had come from Worldcon in Denver, and his plane had spent several hours on the tarmac, so he was not in the best of moods, but cheerfully submitted to his obligatory "arriving at the airport" photo.

After checking in, we went down to the lobby where all the writers and Tim and KD were hanging out. Jennette  had set up a livejournal group of all the writers she could find, so I knew many of them on-line, and it was great to meet them in person. I was looking forward to going out to dinner, but the workshop was about to start!
We had an orientation meeting, got assigned "writing twins" and got some homework. Wow! No slacking off at the WotF workshop. The work starts day zero!
Wound up having dinner at the hotel with Ian, Erin, Jemma and Dr Phil.
We then had a road trip to Whole Foods in the WotF van. When we got back, Sonia and Sarah were in the lobby, with Patrick Rothfuss, a former WotF winner and best selling novelist. This was one of the best things about WotF. Just hanging out with other writers, Tim and KD, the judges and former winners, being treated like "a pro."

More on the rest of the week later.