Reader Help!
First, I apologize to anyone who may be a bit annoyed with the frequency of posts today. I’ve just had a lot of things to write about today, partly because I’m in a rut with other writing at the moment. So, I’m hoping to get some help from readers, or anyone really. I have a story called “Asher”. It’s under 4,000 words, it’s strictly science fiction, and it deals with artificial intelligence and virtual worlds from a social perspective (so soft SF). I had my girlfriend read it (she’s done crits for me before we were an item, so I trust her judgment) and she had some major issues with it and we disagreed. I think there is a possibility this is because she doesn’t read much SF to begin with and maybe this particular piece is very much an SF piece and one that wouldn’t do well for non SF audiences.Would anyone who considers themselves a decently versed reader of SF be willing to read this and give your thoughts? I want to see if what she said is the same said among those who this piece would probably be directed towards anyway. Any help would be great. Just leave comment or use my contact link on the side. Thanks so much. (Don’t click the read more, there isn’t any more after this)
Update On Writing: The Lies of Venicia
A.K.A. The White I’ve hit a snag. I’m at about 30,000 words, I have three POVs, and the story is moving right along. But I’m stuck. Why? Because I’ve hit a point in the story where I have two problems. The first is in the POVs. There are three characters: Alan, Carl, and Eileen (to be short about it). Each has a very distinct plotline that intersects with the others in some way. I’ve done that on purpose because I want them to be connected even though they are going in very different directions, which ultimately are all related anyway. It’s complicated like that. Well I hit a point in the story where I realized that there wasn’t going to be anything remotely interesting happening for Carl or Eileen for several days (days in the story itself I mean). I have also just finished a large chapter about Alan, so I don’t want to delve into him again simply because it’s a lot to take in anyway. So, what do I do here? I could skip ahead in time, but then I run into a huge problem that I don’t want to deal with. The three characters are on the same time line, obviously, meaning that if I skip ahead for Carl and Eileen by a few days, I have to do the same for Alan, which means losing some important events for that character. An option is to add a fourth POV to the story that, while not nearly as important as the other three, still could add some depth to the story since the character I’m thinking of using is directly related to Alan anyway. The problem with doing that? If I put this character in it will be no small feat to remove him if it turns out now to work at the end of the novel. We’re talking extensive editing to remove the POV entirely and rewrite over 2/3rds of the novel itself to keep things cohesive, not to mention still having to deal with the issue that this would initially have solved anyway. So, any advice on this guys? Perhaps someone with some publishing experience or perhaps who has been effective in multiple POVs could come in and give some insight (Tobias Buckell, hint hint…maybe do a “Ask a Writer” segment?). Now the second thing that is holding me back from doing too much is only partially related to the first problem. I started to write from Carl’s POV again anyway, figuring that I’m going to write that segment at some point so I might as well get it down. Well, the universe for The Lies of Venicia is actually quite extensive. I’m not expert on stuff, and I’m certainly not dragging in too much science into this story (it’s sort of a horror/political thriller with some adventure/military SF thrown in there). What’s the problem with this? Well, my method of travel for my spaceships is sort of a form of jump drive, but a drive that requires a few things: security codes to activate the drive provided by security checkpoints at the edge of systems, small jumps to nearby systems where security gates are located, and strict enforcement at the security checkpoints. This means that I need to be able to see the systems that I have placed humans in in a 3D spacescape so that I can determine where I can put jump points (or basically the routes that would be deemed acceptable routes for safe travel using the jump drive). I want this to put limitations on space travel. I don’t want characters to be able to jump to any magical place they want to. They have to have clearance by United Earth, a specially designed code that allows the characters to actually activate the jump drive in the first place, and they can’t jump vast distances (astronomically speaking) because it would require too much power and it could very well be dangerous. But I haven’t a clue how to get a rendering of this. There are programs that allow you to create star systems and the like, but are there programs that allow you to insert real stars and put them all into the proper place? If not, how would I even find out how to place these stars correctly? They have coordinates I’m sure, but I’m not sure how to read them in terms of X, Y, and Z. One thing I thought of doing, if I can figure out how to put things in the proper X, Y, and Z, is to get a large piece of stiff, this foam and label it appropriately. Then I’d use large, different sized pins with large balls on the end or flags to represent the placement of the various stars I’m using. This might be very difficult to manage, but it could prove really interesting because I could also use string to connect stars where legal jumps can be made (I say legal here because one thing I am going to get doing within the story is have one of the characters initiate an unauthorized jump by hacking into a jump drive…such a jump would flag the entire human empire…which might just be what the character wants anyway). This is an idea, but I haven’t a clue how to start. I think a physical, tangible star map would really do wonders for getting everything into perspective. Maybe someone out there has a great idea. If so, speak up! So that is what is going on with me lately. I am still writing The Lies of Venicia, among various other projects, but it is in a semi-standstill as far as anything major being done to the story. I want to resolve the issues first.
200 Posts!
Well this is entirely random, but apparently my last post was my 200th post. That’s a LOT of posts. I was thinking about what to do for my 200th post, and alternately for my 10,000th hit, but I wasn’t sure what to do.Some things I thought of doing were the following: Give away a book Post some fiction (perhaps a short story or an excerpt of The Lies of Venicia, which will be discussed later) Or…umm, I don’t know. But maybe since this is my 200th post, and it is really close to my 10,000th hit, you all could think of something you’d want me to do. This is about my readers. So, what do you want? (Don’t click the read more, there isn’t any more after this)
Some Useful Links…Again
This is a rather irregular feature, but so be it. I find more links than I have time to really blog about individually, so from time to time I’ll clean out my bookmarks by putting links to things I found interesting and wanted to talk about here. So, here goes:Steampunk Laptop from Datamancer! I just discovered this from Brass Goggles and you should all check it out. I want one really bad, even if it doesn’t boot up. This is just wicked cool. A list compiled by Leslie Kay Swigart of science fiction, fantasy, utopian, dystopian, and horror dissertations and theses (not necessarily in that order). A great resource for finding work that other people have written in the field! Publisher Weekly’s Best Books of the Year, which includes some SF & F titles. Alternately here is Amazon’s Best Books of 2007 in the SF & F genres (a list of ten). ManyBooks is an interesting site that might prove useful to those of you out there that don’t mind reading on a screen. I don’t think you can print anything out there, but it’s still free literature, some by well known authors.Judge A Book…By Its Cover. An interesting site that compiles a whole slue of book covers for your perusal.An interesting chart showing the evolution of Indo-European languages. The design is interesting too. A huge list of recommended fantasy authors from SFF.net. It’s REALLY BIG. Just a warning. The Internet Top 100 SF & F list. It’s old (back in 2003), but maybe it holds some relevancy to you guys out there and it will lead you to some works you’ve never heard of before. Want to see your DNA or fingerprint on your wall as art? Well check this site out. I desperately want to get a lighted display of my DNA for my wall. That would be cool. The First Espresso Book Machine. If that name doesn’t say it, then read the article. It’s a bit late, but basically it’s a machine that will actually print out books from a computerized library. In theory it could make buying books from the book store a whole lot different. Can’t find the book you want? Print it out! TangentOnline reviews short speculative fiction works (anthologies, magazines, etc.). They’re currently on hiatus while they update their website, but they’ll be back soon. For those maybe looking for good short fiction to read in SF & F, this is a place to look. The genius of Isaac Asimov on the the idea of ‘intelligence’. This is brilliantly written. Then again, Asimov was an amazing human being and writer. Here are some links for you fantasy writers out there: building magic systems, Tolkien and fantasy (sort of an extensions upon the previous link), Serendipity’s random generators (names, etc.), a Dictionary of Symbolism, a glossary of medieval terms, life in the middle ages, medieval demographics, a huge list discussing prices of medieval items and the like, medieval warfare, medieval names, and The Tome (a.k.a. The History Channel’s site that discusses just about everything to do with medieval times). And, to end this I give you a link to just about the coolest thing to happen in human history next to forming the written word: the Voyager Golden Record. It makes me smile thinking about the creatures who might one day hear that.