World in the Satin Bag

Interview w/ Nicole Kimberling

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Nicole is the author of Turnskin, an interesting tale that I reviewed not too long ago. Additional thanks goes to her for taking the time out of her day to do this interview. Thanks for doing this interview. First, can you tell us a bit about yourself? What drew you into authorhood and why fantasy? I started writing stories to impress this girl I was into. It worked a little too well since once I got the girl I had to continue to produce more and better stories. As for fantasy, I’ve just always liked it. I was one of those kids who had a lightsaber and a first edition box of Dungeons & Dragons. What have been some of your influences as a writer? What are some of your favorite books, whether fantasy or otherwise? When I like a piece of fiction I read it compulsively, the same book over and over again for about six months. So, in order of appearance, here are a few books and novellas I’ve read like that: The Borrowers by Mary NortonDragonsinger by Anne McCaffreyVampirella #4: Blood Wedding by Ron GoulartDirk Gently’s Hollistic Detective Agency by Douglas AdamsComfort and Joy by Jim GrimsleySnowball in Hell by Josh Lanyon I also love art and comics so I’ll add a few comic titles: As for Western comics, I was a fan of Red Sonja and Wonder Woman when I was a kid. Then when I was about 29 years old manga started to be translated into English. I really like manga a lot. A few of my favorites: Black and White (Tekkonkinkreet) by Taiyo MatsumotoKusatta Kyoushi no Houteshiki by Kodaka KazumaIchigenme by Fumi Yoshinaga (I can’t wait for Kinou Nani Tabeta? to be translated into English. I’m reading Ooku: the Inner Chambers right now. It’s an AU story that presupposes a gender inversion in medieval Japan that would have put women in charge of society.)Future Lovers by Saika Kunieda Turnskin is a curious love story that crosses multiple forbidden boundaries: non-human/human, Romeo/Juliet, etc. What do you think is so captivating for readers when it comes to forbidden love stories? Beats me. Really I never thought of Turnskin as a forbidden love story so much as a coming of age story. Because the love of Tom & Cloud isn’t really forbidden so much as it’s a bad idea for both of them. I think that’s different than being something like a societal taboo. Where did you come up with the idea for the shifters? Will we find out anything more about Tom’s genetic past, or is this the last we will hear from him and the other characters? I came up with the shifters during a conversation with Ginn Hale. It’s actually impossible for a writer to have a conversation with her for more than five minutes without coming up with an idea. She’s like a force for creativity and it rubs off if you stand close to her for very long. I have no plans to revisit Tom’s world at present. It was invented specifically to tell this story so I don’t really know what else I would write about it. Is Turnskin set anywhere we might know (as in an alternate version of a place that might be familiar to readers) or is this a completely separate world? It’s a completely separate world, based directly on nowhere. Lesbian and gay speculative fiction seem to be taking off in the last few years, and while Turnskin turns the lesbian/gay theme on its head using “alien” figures, it is still, ultimately, a story about people struggling with their identities. Where do you see LGBT speculative fiction going in the relatively near future? I don’t really know if lesbian spec fic could be described as “taking off” but gay spec fic sales have definitely increased, fueled by the rise of the m/m romance reader. As for the future of the whole genre, there is really no way to know. What are some advantages, in your opinion, of being published with a small press? Personal care and attention from the editor and from the publisher. What other projects do you have coming up and can you tell us a little about them? Samhain has just released a short novel of mine called Ghost Star Night. I think I just have to give the blurb, because it’s really hard to sum up. “Thomas Myrdin has been used and betrayed by his king. But his heartbreak troubles him less than the apocalyptic visions that have begun to haunt him; the world burns in ruins and at the center of the destruction is the king’s newborn daughter. As vengeance and visions waken a power deep within him, not even Thomas knows if he’s becoming the kingdom’s salvation or its destruction. Lord Adam Wexley harbors a secret longing for Thomas, but his duty is to protect the newborn princess. When a sudden threat arises Adam must procure the services of the Magician, Edwin Drake, even if it means sacrificing his own body and soul. Drake had seen the worst of kings and courtiers; as a child he witnessed his father’s soul stripped away to leave behind a stumbling slave. Now, Drake protects himself with powerful sorcery and the adamant refusal to affiliate with any of the Four Courts. But the Grand Magician isn’t without weaknesses and Adam may be the one enticement that can draw him to ruin.” Ghost Star Night is a lot more action-packed than Turnskin. It’s the piece I wrote directly after. I think I wanted to write something with more doing and less feeling. And, of course, I am part of the Hell Cop anthology series with Astrid Amara and Ginn Hale. Hell Cop is set in the shared world of Parmas City and it’s kind of an urban fantasy. Hell Cop 2 was released by Loose Id in June. In December I’ll release another, longer book with Samhain called Happy Snak. This is not an LGBT

World in the Satin Bag

Reader Question: Future Definitions

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Bowie of Young Writers Online was on a role when he was asking questions. Here goes: Realistically speaking, would we consider a “holo-vid” a television or would we somehow adapt to calling it a “holo-vid”? Most likely we would call it a hol0-vid, or whatever term was created to describe that new technology. New advances in technology produce new devices that may provide the same services as something before it, but in new and unique ways. Historically speaking, we tend to refer to these new technologies by their new names. We don’t call PDAs by anything other than PDA or handheld device, despite it being a miniature computer w/o a keyboard. An iPod is not a Walkman and even a laptop/notebook computer is often referred to as a laptop/notebook computer rather than as a portable computer or just a computer. While we may acknowledge that new technologies are “genetically” linked to older ones, we still take liberties with naming and stick with what is new, going back to old terminology only when we need to explain something in greater detail or for some other purpose. Right now, I’m writing on a laptop or notebook computer, whichever name best suits you. When the future rolls on through, it will bring with it a lot of new gadgets that will have different names and terminology. Unless those items are quite clearly derivations of something before (i.e. a 2nd generation iPod is still just an iPod, even though it’s technically more advanced and more functional than the previous generation), we tend to rename them. Human beings are remarkable at adopting new language. As an example, we can look at slang. When I was in high school, all those years ago, I remember the word “sick” coming into play (for those that don’t know, “sick” is sort of like saying “cool,” but in a more “cool” way). Within a couple weeks it was across the entire campus, and by the time I had finished my school year, that word had traveled to my previous home in Washington (across two states) and had been readily adopted. That’s the fascinating thing about language. It always changes with us human beings. Always. The same is true for technology, and as we progress we will see the language change. Ten years ago we didn’t have an iPod. Everything was by CD and mp3s were still becoming the dominant form over .wav and other formats. Now? If you don’t know what an mp3 is, you’re perceived as an idiot who has been living in the jungle, or really old, and if you don’t know what an iPod is, well, you’ll end up getting some looks until you can explain why. That’s the nature of language. Always changing, always adjusting, and always progressing. What about you, the readers? Do you think we will call holo-vids by what they are, or will we simply refer to them as TVs? ————————————————- If you have a question about science fiction, fantasy, writing, or anything related you’d like answered here, whether silly or serious, feel free to send it via email to arconna[at]yahoo[dot]com, tweet it via Twitter to @shaunduke, or leave it in the comments here. Questions are always welcome! If you liked this post, consider stumbling, digging, or linking to it!

World in the Satin Bag

GFTW’s SF/F/H Book Reviewer Meme, 2nd Edition

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John Ottinger of Grasping For the Wind has posted an updated version of his famous SF/F/H book reviewer meme. And now I’m posting it here so you all can check some of these great reviewers out. You’ll have to click the read more in order to see the list, because the darn thing is too long for me to post on my homepage. Anywho, here goes:A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZRomanian French Chinese Danish Portuguese German A 7 Foot Shelves The Accidental Bard A Boy Goes on a Journey A Dribble Of Ink Adventures in Reading A Fantasy Reader The Agony Column A Hoyden’s Look at Literature A Journey of Books All Booked Up Alexia’s Books and Such… Andromeda Spaceways The Antick Musings of G.B.H. Hornswoggler, Gent. Ask Daphne ask nicola Audiobook DJ aurealisXpress Australia Specfic In Focus Author 2 Author AzureScape B Barbara Martin Babbling about Books Bees (and Books) on the Knob Best SF Bewildering Stories Bibliophile Stalker Bibliosnark Big Dumb Object BillWardWriter.com The Billion Light-Year Bookshelf Bitten by Books The Black Library Blog Blog, Jvstin Style Blood of the Muse The Book Bind Bookgeeks Bookrastination Booksies Blog Bookslut The Book Smugglers Bookspotcentral The Book Swede Book View Cafe [Authors Group Blog] Breeni Books C Cheaper Ironies [pro columnist] Charlotte’s Library Circlet 2.0 Cheryl’s Musings Club Jade Cranking Plot Critical Mass The Crotchety Old Fan D Daily Dose – Fantasy and Romance Damien G. Walter Danger Gal It’s Dark in the Dark Dark Parables Dark Wolf Fantasy Reviews Darque Reviews Dave Brendon’s Fantasy and Sci-Fi Weblog Dead Book Darling Dear Author The Deckled Edge The Doctor is In… Dragons, Heroes and Wizards Drey’s Library The Discriminating Fangirl Dusk Before the Dawn E Enter the Octopus Erotic Horizon Errant Dreams Reviews Eve’s Alexandria F Falcata Times Fan News Denmark [in English] Fantastic Reviews Fantastic Reviews Blog Fantasy Book Banner Fantasy Book Critic Fantasy Book Reviews and News Fantasy By the Tale Fantasy Cafe Fantasy Debut Fantasy Dreamer’s Ramblings Fantasy Literature.com Fantasy Magazine Fantasy and Sci-fi Lovin’ News and Reviews Feminist SF – The Blog! Feybound Fiction is so Overrated The Fix The Foghorn Review Follow that Raven Forbidden Planet Frances Writes Free SF Reader From a Sci-Fi Standpoint From the Heart of Europe Fruitless Recursion Fundamentally Alien The Future Fire G The Galaxy Express Galleycat Game Couch The Gamer Rat Garbled Signals Genre Reviews Genreville Got Schephs Graeme’s Fantasy Book Review Grasping for the Wind a GREAT read The Green Man Review Gripping Books H Hasenpfeffer Hero Complex Highlander’s Book Reviews Horrorscope The Hub Magazine Hyperpat’s Hyper Day I I Hope I Didn’t Just Give Away The Ending Ink and Keys Ink and Paper The Internet Review of Science Fiction io9 J Janicu’s Book Blog Jenn’s Bookshelf Jumpdrives and Cantrips K Kat Bryan’s Corner Keeping the Door King of the Nerds L Lair of the Undead Rat Largehearted Boy Layers of Thought League of Reluctant Adults The Lensman’s Children Library Dad Libri Touches Literary Escapism Literaturely Speaking ludis inventio Lundblog: Beautiful Letters M Mad Hatter’s Bookshelf and Book Review Mari’s Midnight Garden Mark Freeman’s Journal Mark Lord’s Writing Blog Marooned: Science Fiction Books on Mars Martin’s Booklog MentatJack Michele Lee’s Book Love Missions Unknown [Author and Artist Blog Devoted to SF/F/H in San Antonio] The Mistress of Ancient Revelry MIT Science Fiction Society Monster Librarian More Words, Deeper Hole Mostly Harmless Books Multi-Genre Fan Musings from the Weirdside My Favourite Books My Overstuffed Bookshelf N Neth Space The New Book Review NextRead Not Free SF Reader Nuketown O OF Blog of the Fallen The Old Bat’s Belfry ommadawn.dk Only The Best SciFi/Fantasy The Ostentatious Ogre Outside of a Dog P Paranormality Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist Patricia’s Vampire Notes The Persistence of Vision Piaw’s Blog Pizza’s Book Discussion Poisoned Rationality Popin’s Lair pornokitsch Post-Weird Thoughts Publisher’s Weekly Pussreboots: A Book Review a Day Q R Ramblings of a Raconteur Random Acts of Mediocrity Ray Gun Revival Realms of Speculative Fiction Reading the Leaves Review From Here Reviewer X Revolution SF Rhiannon Hart The Road Not Taken Rob’s Blog o’ Stuff Robots and Vamps S Sandstorm Reviews Satisfying the Need to Read Science Fiction and Fantasy Ethics Science Fiction Times ScifiChick Sci-Fi Blog SciFiGuy Sci-Fi Fan Letter The Sci-Fi Gene Sci-Fi Songs [Musical Reviews] SciFi Squad Scifi UK Reviews Sci Fi Wire Self-Publishing Review The Sequential Rat Severian’s Fantastic Worlds SF Diplomat SFFaudio SFFMedia SF Gospel SFReader.com SF Reviews.net SF Revu SF Safari SFScope SF Signal SF Site SFF World’s Book Reviews Silver Reviews Simply Vamptastic Slice of SciFi Smart Bitches, Trashy Books Solar Flare Speculative Fiction Speculative Fiction Junkie Speculative Horizons The Specusphere Spinebreakers Spiral Galaxy Reviews Spontaneous Derivation Sporadic Book Reviews Stainless Steel Droppings Starting Fresh Stella Matutina Stuff as Dreams are Made on… The Sudden Curve The Sword Review T Tangent Online Tehani Wessely Temple Library Reviews Tez Says things mean a lot Tor.com [also a publisher] True Science Fiction U Ubiquitous Absence Un:Bound undeadbydawn Urban Fantasy Land V Vast and Cool and Unsympathetic Variety SF Veritas Omnia Vincula W Walker of Worlds Wands and Worlds Wanderings Wendy Palmer: Reading and Writing Genre Books and ebooks The Weirdside The Wertzone With Intent to Commit Horror The Wizard of Duke Street WJ Fantasy Reviews The Word Nest Wordsville The World in a Satin Bag WriteBlack The Written World X Y Young Adult Science Fiction Z Romanian Cititor SF [with English Translation] French Elbakin.net Mythologica Chinese Foundation of Krantas The SF Commonwealth Office in Taiwan [with some English essays] Yenchin’s Lair Danish Interstellar Ommadawn.dk Scifisiden Portuguese Aguarras Fernando Trevisan Human 2.0 Life and Times of a Talkative Bookworm Ponto De Convergencia pós-estranho Skavis German Fantasy Seiten Fantasy Buch Fantasy/SciFi Blog Literaturschock Welt der fantasy Bibliotheka Phantastika SF Basar Phantastick News X-zine Buchwum Phantastick Couch Wetterspitze Fantasy News Fantasy Faszination Fantasy Guide Zwergen Reich Fiction Fantasy A B C D E

World in the Satin Bag

Reader Question: Lingual Formalities, Schmalities

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If memory serves me, this question comes from Bowie of Young Writers Online: In most science fiction and fantasy stories, people speak in a more formal way. Why is that? Is it to reinforce the idea that it’s a different world than we know? Firstly, it’s not true that most SF/F resorts to formal modes of communication. A great deal of classic SF/F does, but modern derivations of the two genres have seen a remarkable, and much appreciated, shift from the trappings established by Tolkien all those years ago. And this is where we get into the unfortunate side effect of Tolkien’s brilliance. Despite writing what most consider to be the greatest fantasy trilogy of all times, Tolkien hammered into new and past writers several unfortunate habits. You see, Tolkien was trying to recreate something in The Lord of the Rings, a certain feel, if you will. He was successful on all counts, not only in fabricating a detailed, elaborate fantasy world, but also in trying to fashion an imagined, realistic history of an England that might have been (though the fact that, as far as I can tell, Middle Earth looks nothing like England could make for a good counter argument). In doing so, Tolkien fixed into the minds of fantasy lovers everywhere what were the defining characteristics of the genre, despite his setting out to create an effective, mythologized, and complex historical novel. The language, thus, is exceptionally dated, even for his time, and the clichés were snatched up by fans without hesitation. It has taken the fantasy genre a long time to work out of the habit of writing in absurd formal dialogue. But it has happened, and it has, in almost every instance, been to emulate Tolkien rather than to produce something truly original. There is nothing wrong with emulation, insofar as such emulation is still trying to impress upon readers an experience, despite its biased leanings. What is problematic, as is true of all tropes, clichés, etc. in fantasy, is that these sorts of staples effectively damage the genre when done poorly. Of course, to call a lot of published works “poor recreations” is somewhat unfair, particularly because readers have varying expectations, and what I want or expect in fantasy literature will almost always be at least slightly different from what other readers want. Readers do like Tolkien-esque fantasies, a lot–and that’s really an understatement. Sometimes there are reasons (they have read a lot and prefer that style) and other times it is due to ignorance (some might say that most Twilight and Eragon fans like those works because they have no read “good” fantasy yet). Invariably, it is hard to argue with how things actually are in this instance: derivations exist and will continue to do so, provided that readers are still interested in such things in the future. There is also the healthy obsession with medieval literature that most fantasy writers have, whether they are willing to admit it or not. That contributors to the persistence of this form of dialogue. Now the question is, are these sorts of formal dialogue stylings good or bad, in your opinion? I view them as either/or, because, in some cases, it works. But that’s me, and I want to see your opinion. Leave me a comment with your thoughts! ————————————————- If you have a question about science fiction, fantasy, writing, or anything related you’d like answered here, whether silly or serious, feel free to send it via email to arconna[at]yahoo[dot]com, tweet it via Twitter to @shaunduke, or leave it in the comments here. Questions are always welcome! If you liked this post, consider stumbling, digging, or linking to it!

World in the Satin Bag

Writing Weaknesses: Do You Know Yours?

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Nobody is perfect. That’s one of those golden rules when it comes to personalities and professions. Everyone makes mistakes, sometimes trivial and sometimes terrible. As a writer, it can be difficult to see where your weaknesses are. Anyone who writes is intimately connected to his or her work, and maintaining separation can sometimes be nearly impossible. Few, if any, writers get it right on the first draft, and those that do are flukes rather than logical exceptions. The rest of us–call us “normies,” if you will–have to learn from our mistakes and try to see where we are weak in order to improve our craft. But do you know your weaknesses? If so, how do you approach resolving them? Do you take care of it after the first draft, or do you try to fix the issue as it is happening? Personally, I have issues with characterization. Often I place too much focus on the ideas and not enough on establishing a connection to the character (for the reader). I know I do this every single time, and my problem seems to be that when I try to fix it as it occurs, my characterization feels forced or I simply lose interest. I’m working on resolving this, because I want my stories to have more impact for readers beyond the “gosh wow” effect. I have other weaknesses, but right now that seems to be the primary and most pressing one. I’m not sure how to fix it at this point. A lot of the exercises I’ve found for creating better characters seem to require you to think up useless facts about your characters. I prefer not to think of my characters as bundles of uselessness. They have purposes, desires, interests, etc., and I prefer fiction that highlights those things that are important to the story as a whole. Maybe that’s my problem. Knowing your weaknesses is important, though, because acknowledging where you need to work the most can help drive you forward as a writer, even if that movement is one plodding, sluggish step at a time. What are your weaknesses and how do you deal with them? Let me know in the comments!

World in the Satin Bag

Random, But Useful Advice For Writing Essays

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Cite your sources correctly from the start. Having recently gone through the experience of digging up the correct sources and fixing all my slightly-off citations, I can tell you that doing it right the first time is a time saver, especially if you don’t return to the essay in question until some many months later, long after you’ve forgotten where the original source was located. It would seem like obvious advice, but if you’re a college student, this issue may come up later when you try to publish one of your essays. You see, college students often end up with these things called “readers,” which are essentially enormous printed tomes of information usually created by the college for a specific course. They are not books you buy on Amazon, or even books you can return. You’re stuck with them. And sometimes the readers don’t contain the proper citation information for the articles they contain. That means you have to go hunt that information down yourself. Doing so can take a bit of time, but at least during school you can ask your professor where he or she got a particularly article, in person, and get a response ASAP. Doing it later means having to spend hours surfing Google to find obscure information about equally obscure articles. It’s not fun, especially when you wanted to get that essay out the door the day before. Then you have the issue of proper citation practices. How do you format footnote citations? Well, you have to read, because if you follow the citation formats you see in articles, they are often incorrect or outdated. Maybe that’s not a problem for some publications, but the more academic ones, or even the exceptionally professional ones, want proper citations, not just for them, but for the peer review panels that govern what gets published. I spent close to ten hours fixing all my citations and reformatting two essays to submit to an online magazine. Only a few hours of that should have been spent formatting (since they had specific guidelines), and none to the citations. But, I didn’t foresee publishing things, or I didn’t think about the citations at the time, and subsequently had to go through every inch of my essays to get them in working order. Fun? No. Not at all. So, cite your sources correctly from the start. It’ll make your life easier.

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