tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7575099589162897412024-03-13T07:06:23.744-06:00Text CrumbsBits and pieces from a writer's brain: fantasy, writing, politics, books, kids, films, et al.carolwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01256696323017219424noreply@blogger.comBlogger159125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-757509958916289741.post-7928306464885843042018-02-14T21:14:00.002-07:002018-02-14T21:48:23.111-07:00What Happens After...A happy day today.<br />
<br />
No sooner had my fourth novel <i>Song of the Beast</i> been published than readers started asking me if I was ever going to write a sequel.<i>Song.</i> my only standalone novel, told the story of Aidan MacAllister - musician, singer, visionary, cousin to the king of Elyria, a man imprisoned just as his fame was approaching its height. The story actually begins on the day of Aidan's release from that seventeen year imprisonment and tells of his slow recovery and his search for the reasons behind it. No one had ever bothered to tell him. I'm certainly not going to tell here what he discovered or what he had to do about it. I told inquirers that I liked where <i>Song</i> ended, and that I would not write a follow-on unless I had something important to add to Aidan's story - a new idea. I wasn't just going to say how he was doing.<br />
<br />
Then, a few years ago, I was asked to do a story for an anthology of romantic fantasy - romantic in the larger sense - called <i>Lace and Blade, </i>and somehow Aidan came to mind. I had to search that fantasy world inside my head to find out what he was doing...and in that search for the story that could take me back into <i>his</i> world, I realized that the search for a hero long after his story was over Was the Story.<br />
<br />
So I wrote a short story called "The Heart's Coda." It was all set to be published in the third edition of the Lace and Blade anthology. But Things happened, the publisher postponed the book three years in a row, and the story came back to me and sat in my trunk. And sat. Nagging at me. Every once in a while I pulled it out and as I learned more about writing in general, totally rewrote it, stretched it into a novelette, rewrote the ending.<br />
<br />
And then last year I hear from the lovely editor Deborah Ross, who says that Lace and Blade is now a part of the Marion Zimmer Bradley Literary Trust and did I have a story for the newest edition? Aidan waved his hand at me and said, "What about me? It's about time." And so it is.<br />
<br />
Fifteen years have passed since <i>Song of the Beast</i> was published (and it is still in print), but only three years have passed in storytime. A young Elhim named Glyn has been sent to find Aidan after he vanished into the west with some very dangerous companions.<br />
<span class="fullpost"><br /></span>
<span class="fullpost">Here is the opening of this very special story....
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.7pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan;">
<span class="fullpost"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></span>
<span class="fullpost"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></span>
<span class="fullpost">After a lonely month's slogging through
that chilly, rainy, miserable wilderness, one might expect the excitement of my
first royal mission entirely exhausted. But as I approached the summit of yet
another steep rise, anticipation still shivered my skin. Would the legend be
waiting beyond this crest? The Dragon Singer, Aidan MacAllister, beloved of the
gods? Would he dwell in a temple or palace or a fortress of dragon bones? Or
would I top this verdant, boulder-strewn slope and walk straight into one of his
visions?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span class="fullpost">
</span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.7pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan;">
<span class="fullpost"> Tales
said that at the height of his fame, before he was thrown into prison and
broken, Aidan MacAllister's music could transport your soul right out of your
body. No matter how terrible your circumstances, for that one moment you would
exist in a place of beauty and harmony. What a wonder that must have been.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span class="fullpost">
</span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.7pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan;">
<span class="fullpost"> I
scanned the clouds lowering over the crags and stretched my hearing into the
unsettling quiet.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span class="fullpost">
</span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.7pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan;">
<span class="fullpost"> Then
again, I might only find the Singer's beasts beyond the rise. The dragons.
Perhaps I'd find naught but the Singer's scorched bones.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span class="fullpost">
</span>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.7pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan;">
<span class="fullpost"> A
belching, world-ripping bellow rumbled the misty upland, as if to illustrate my
worst imaginings. My boots tried to reverse course on their own and take me
directly back the long way I'd just come.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span class="fullpost">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.7pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan;">
So
newly emerged from the Elhim Covert, I had been spared the horrors of dragon
warfare—or any warfare, to be honest. I'd never so much as laid an eye on one
of the beasts, save those sketched in my books and carved or painted on every
wall, column, and lintel in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Elyria</st1:place></st1:city>.
Images were terrible enough.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.7pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan;">
Despite
seventeen years in the barbarous prison called Mazadine, MacAllister had found
his voice again and sung the dragons free of their own cruel enslavement,
ending five centuries of dragon wars. Then he had followed the beasts into
these wild lands west of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Elyria</st1:place></st1:city>,
vowing to return them to sentience if it took another five hundred years.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.7pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan;">
Another
braying screech near melted my liver. I backed into a standing boulder twice my
height and held still until my heart unclenched.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.7pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan;">
Good
Davyn, my worthy progenitor, who had dispatched me on this mission, had tried
to make his assurances of dragon intelligence and MacAllister's intimacy with
the beasts so solid that I would not falter when I heard their bawling.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.7pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan;">
<i>If
these are the cries of free and cheerful dragons, please, O One Who Guides,
honor those who survived our past with hearts, souls, and livers intact!</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.7pt; text-align: start;">
<span style="text-align: center;"> Sucking
in my courage, I hunched my cloak around my shoulders, striving to appear small
and uninteresting. Then I commanded my reluctant feet to climb a little
farther. I could not, must not fail...</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: center;">
Happy Valentine's Day, dear readers!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
</span>carolwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01256696323017219424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-757509958916289741.post-51463296482573263402016-04-19T08:00:00.000-06:002016-04-19T09:22:42.724-06:00Conference vs ConventionJust back from my 11th or 12th trip to the Pikes Peak Writers Conference. As always, it was a great time, seeing old friends, making new ones, renewing professional contacts, and even sitting in on a few learning sessions, too. Not to mention staying up way too late talking writing. One of my facebook posts drew a common question:<br />
<br />
<blockquote>
I'm always wondering if I should go to a con like this. I've written a couple of practice novels, but over the past several years have focused on short stories. I've written over 60 short stories and I'm getting tired of creating a new world for each one, so I've decided to start writing novels ... I like the look of the PPWC, but wonder if it'll be worth the expense.</blockquote>
<span class="fullpost">First off, PPWC is not a con like a science fiction convention where information is presented via panel discussions by a mix of authors and fans, alongside, gaming, art shows, masquerades and costuming and so forth. Writers' conference presentations are 90% workshops featuring skilled presenters who cover either craft topics - like creating richer characters, strengthening plots/scenes, making your prose more clear or more vivid - or writing business topics - like how to pitch your book, how to write good synopses or queries, how to create book trailers or how to use social media more effectively. Writers conferences are not focused on sf/fantasy, though they might include some specialized workshops like my Fantasy Fundamentals presentation last weekend. (But good plotting is good plotting, good characters are good...<i>ad infinitum</i>) Guest editors and agents will talk about what they are looking for submission-wise, and also what the market is doing. They will usually talk about flaws that make them pass on a submission, or how their particular publishing house or agency works with authors. Attendees get the opportunity to socialize with the guest authors, editors, and agents, and also sign up to read their opening pages for one of them or pitch their books to someone who might be interested. There is lots of informal networking as well. So there is a lot of bang for the additional bucks. Most writers conferences are focused on novel writing, but of course, the craft aspects can apply to all lengths of work, so it may or may not be right for you.</span><br />
<span class="fullpost"><br /></span>
<span class="fullpost">I love both sf/f/ conventions and writers' conferences (PPWC and the Colorado Gold Conference in Denver are particularly good ones) but they are very different events.</span>carolwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01256696323017219424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-757509958916289741.post-28559256757786752212016-04-15T08:00:00.000-06:002016-04-15T08:00:00.830-06:00Being SocialI have resisted being sucked into excess social networking. I do find it an easy distraction when the writing gets tough.<br />
<br />
On the other hand, I enjoy it immensely. My kids were on facebook, so I had to join that. And since then, I've feel like I've come to know many of my readers and conference friends and friends of my <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QTUFEpidC64/VwkpTWGkYeI/AAAAAAAAG-E/QsJS1BiouNwu5B4ZL_F2Z7ceYnkxeLwJw/s1600/SocMed3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QTUFEpidC64/VwkpTWGkYeI/AAAAAAAAG-E/QsJS1BiouNwu5B4ZL_F2Z7ceYnkxeLwJw/s1600/SocMed3.jpg" /></a></div>
friends well. I love the sense of a worldwide network. It bugs me that I don't have time to read every post - even when skipping all the cat photos and chain memes.<br />
<br />
My agent has begged me for years to get on twitter, but I kept hoping it would go away. I was sure I would drown. I tried blogging for a year, but there are so many people who do it better (eg. John Scalzi, whose blog is erudite and informative) and I never garnered many followers. But then, there are times when I would like to say a little more than a facebook post...and times when a little less will do. What is a confused writer to do?<br />
<br />
For the next few months I am going to juggle a bit, and impose a little self-discipline. Maybe this is the influence of Lucian de Remeni (see <i>Dust and Light</i> and <i>Ash and Silver</i>). While still foregoing Instagram and Pinterest and a host of other sites, I am going to jump into:<br />
<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Twitter: handle is <b>@cbergwriter </b>- which is a bit obscure but there were other Carol Bergs and I already have some followers, so it has to stay</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Facebook: <b>carolberg</b> is the relevant access</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>This (<b>textcrumbs.blogspot.com</b>): I'm reviving the blog a couple of times a week. This will be longer posts on the WIP, and other writing topics and whatever else comes to mind.</li>
</ul>
<br />
I'll do my best to link these to each other so that one access point is all that's necessary.<br />
<br />
If I can limit to a reasonable time each week, maybe this will work. Come along and bring your friends!<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<span class="fullpost"></span>carolwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01256696323017219424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-757509958916289741.post-21191429759493543222016-04-12T08:00:00.000-06:002016-04-12T08:00:04.158-06:00Something New<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3fMMjZMwmqE/VwVJb_P1vpI/AAAAAAAAG9o/xZ7nPYQ4AskQ7sWiv_9lrm7_FrpcmxRQw/s1600/BrendasHouse%2B1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3fMMjZMwmqE/VwVJb_P1vpI/AAAAAAAAG9o/xZ7nPYQ4AskQ7sWiv_9lrm7_FrpcmxRQw/s200/BrendasHouse%2B1.jpg" width="150" /></a>I talked last time about starting out a new project with an ensemble cast, each person with an unusual skill. I had a whisper of an idea about each of four people, their milieu, the shape of stories they could tell. To accomplish anything they need a leader, and I decided which one that would be.<br />
<br />
I diddled a bit with the world. Thought up some ideas of how the story would run. Talked with my muse, Linda, over a very long lunch about how the story might get going. Wrote a page of notes and watched a DVD series from the History Channel that pertained to my chosen time period. I even had an idea for an opening scene.<br />
<br />
All of this was good--but every time I sat down to look at it, the project became more daunting. After creating five distinct worlds over the course of fifteen books, the notion of starting over from scratch appeared bigger than Trump's ridiculous wall on the Mexican border. Not only did I need to come up with cool ideas, I had to stay out of my own way. Surely I hadn't included every favorite bit of world structure/custom/myth or character foible/skill/hangup that I love!<br />
<br />
Certainly not, but still I couldn't get going even to write that first scene. Panic time. And then I went to Vancouver Island...<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<span class="fullpost">Now I adore writing retreats at my friend Brenda's house overlooking the Saanich Inlet almost as much as I love retreating to a certain funky little retreat hotel in the heart of the Rockies. Being away from home and its myriad distractions helps me focus. And somehow being surrounded with awe-inspiring beauty provides extra fodder for words. Certainly the energy of other serious writer friends working hard gives me energy. But it was Brenda herself who said about five words that broke the dam. She is a generous listener, and when I started running on about the backstory of my lead, she stopped me.</span><br />
<span class="fullpost"><br /></span>
<span class="fullpost">"Why don't you write <i>that </i>story?" she said. "If it works out, it could be a short story to accompany the novel. If you decide not to write the novel, you'll not have spent so much time and effort on it."</span><br />
<span class="fullpost"><br /></span>
<span class="fullpost">Perfect sense. Seven thousand words appeared over the next few days...like magic.</span><br />
<span class="fullpost"><br /></span>
<span class="fullpost">Now you who have talked about character interviews all these years can laugh at me. Yet this is truly a story, not interview notes. (Though one could say, Romy is interviewing for a job.) And those who tell me that writing short fiction can be less intimidating that starting a novel...I give you points, too. Old dogs <i>can</i> learn new tricks.</span><br />
<span class="fullpost"><br /></span>
<span class="fullpost">For now I am continuing to write a bit of story that might never appear in a novel, but is a delight for me anyway. We'll see how things pan out.
</span>carolwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01256696323017219424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-757509958916289741.post-31404379372629508812016-04-08T08:20:00.000-06:002016-04-09T09:58:13.555-06:00Every Project Starts the Same Way - Or Does It?Every one of my books/series (now up to 15/5) truly begins with a character. In the Books of the Rai-kirah, it was the arrogant, the-world-is-mine-to-enjoy desert warrior Aleksander (not Seyonne!). The Bridge of D'Arnath rose from the bitter, exiled duchess Seri. The novels of the Collegia Magica were to be a home story for the brooding necromancer Dante (nope, not Portier). Lucian, the non-renegade, the upright believer in pureblood discipline, was the whole reason for the Sanctuary Duet. Only for the Lighthouse Duet did I have ideas about the world and the world's problems before I had an idea of that character. But I didn't write a word until the image of a lanky renegade drug addict came to me. He was face down on the floor of an abbey church taking holy orders, and I could hear an unforgettable voice, saying, "What the hell am I doing here?" Anyone who's read those two books knows very well that Valen shaped and drove the story of <i>Flesh and Spirit</i> and <i>Breath and Bone </i>in the same way that Aidan, the visionary musician, shaped the story of <i>Song of the Beast</i>.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xf7iXD1nOWc/VwU_yUF_HgI/AAAAAAAAG9Y/8neVdeO_Csgv0Bmowquc4g8hRDYdCwhZg/s1600/Pulp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xf7iXD1nOWc/VwU_yUF_HgI/AAAAAAAAG9Y/8neVdeO_Csgv0Bmowquc4g8hRDYdCwhZg/s200/Pulp.jpg" width="130" /></a>Even my pieces of short fiction that now number more than nil took off with the idea of a character. Gareth, the talentless farmer, was the inspiration for <span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>Unmasking</b></span>, Girl told of her experience <span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>At Fenwick Faire</b>.</span> Valen, my favorite blackguard, was the seed for <span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>Seeds</b>. </span>The encounter of a novice constable with a familiar unnamed necromancer was the starting point for <span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>Uncanonical Murder</b></span> (now out in the spring issue of <a href="http://pulpliterature.com/subscribe/the-bookstore/issue-10-spring-2016/" target="_blank">Pulp Literature</a> ). And Saverian from <i>Breath and Bone </i>demanded to star in an almost-novelette for a new anthology to be announced later in 2016.<br />
<br />
All the other characters, the world, the settings, the plot grew from ideas about that one person, even if, on occasion, a character I believed secondary became the more important than the instigator. So there.<br />
<br />
But when I started noodling around with a new (big) project last month...<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<span class="fullpost">I settled on an ensemble cast, each person with an unusual skill. I had a whisper of an idea about each of four people and then I ran into a wall that seemed near insurmountable. This will be a different process. Maybe. I'll tell you how it's going next time.</span>
carolwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01256696323017219424noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-757509958916289741.post-39763352068053867372016-04-05T13:30:00.000-06:002016-04-05T13:30:03.016-06:00Where is ASH AND SILVER?<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HeowiOiIqt4/VwQKaFGemfI/AAAAAAAAG8g/ssm7U-AJU8MElGOEKq6UGZL-rPnt36iww/s1600/AshandSilver%2B800.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HeowiOiIqt4/VwQKaFGemfI/AAAAAAAAG8g/ssm7U-AJU8MElGOEKq6UGZL-rPnt36iww/s200/AshandSilver%2B800.jpg" width="133" /></a>Well, everywhere, of course! Your local chain or indie brick and mortar bookstore. Your favorite online bookseller, be it <a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780451417268" target="_blank">Indiebound</a>, <a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/ash-and-silver-carol-berg/1121318374?ean=9780451417268" target="_blank">Barnes and Noble</a>, or <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Ash-Silver-Sanctuary-Carol-Berg-ebook/dp/B00U5L7TLW/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8" target="_blank">Amazon </a>(despite a Penguin/Amazon hitch that suspended sales for a week in December) or the online store of your favorite bookseller like <a href="http://www.mystgalaxy.com/book/9780451417268" target="_blank">Mysterious Galaxy</a>, <a href="http://www.powells.com/book/ash-and-silver-sanctuary-book-2-9780451417268/62-0" target="_blank">Powell's City of Books</a>, or <a href="http://www4.bookstore.washington.edu/_trade/ShowTitleUBS2.taf?ActionArg=Title&ISBN=9780451417268&SKU=3191464&sdb=ALL" target="_blank">Seattle's University Bookstore</a>.<br />
<br />
It is always tough to let a child go out into the world. But response has been great. (And thanks for that!) Yet I wouldn't recommend releasing a new book in December. It's tough to schedule events; everyone, including the author, is distracted by the holidays, and review sites are very busy putting out best of the year lists. (And yes, <i>Ash and Silver</i> did make a few of those, despite it's late release date.)<br />
<br />
Lots of people are asking if Lucian's story is finished. Or if, perhaps, the storyline of the Sanctuary Duet will ever entwine with the storyline of the Lighthouse Duet.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<span class="fullpost">And the answer is ...</span><br />
<br />
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7ngR65mNtSs/VwQMEfRqPBI/AAAAAAAAG8w/JyFPmcS1DAUkiGYdM_meGGaDa7RUC6fXg/s1600/BreathAndBone_mid.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7ngR65mNtSs/VwQMEfRqPBI/AAAAAAAAG8w/JyFPmcS1DAUkiGYdM_meGGaDa7RUC6fXg/s1600/BreathAndBone_mid.jpg" /></a>I hope so. It is no accident that <i>Ash and Silver</i> ended on the same night as the climax of <i>Breath and Bone</i>. I'm certainly not sure that Lucian and Valen would always get along, and both of them could easily end up at odds with good King Eodward's chosen heir. Could make for some interesting fireworks.<br />
<br />
But I've some other things I want to work on before I return to Navronne. Some short pieces and some long. So I'm going to let ideas about a follow-on duology simmer in that great stew of a fantasy writers' mind for a while. Stay in touch!<br />
<br />carolwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01256696323017219424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-757509958916289741.post-50189297962780812572015-11-23T11:01:00.003-07:002015-11-23T11:01:30.841-07:00November Sighting<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dF6tYBVajls/VlNIoa9WKVI/AAAAAAAAGBQ/fClcS2LXFHQ/s1600/AshandSilver%2B800.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /></a></div>
OK, who stole the past year?<br />
<br />
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MWqcYUWMwCU/VlNIkukkfqI/AAAAAAAAGBM/-JsF1D4hVRQ/s1600/AshandSilver.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MWqcYUWMwCU/VlNIkukkfqI/AAAAAAAAGBM/-JsF1D4hVRQ/s320/AshandSilver.jpg" /></a>His name is Greenshank...though he knows that's not his true name. He is a reticent man, and took something over a year and a half to tell me his story - a story entwined in mystery and murder, war and redemption and political manipulation. It does him well to be reticent, as he has a very hard time determining who is friend and who is enemy and who is . . . something other.<br />
<br />
Of course I know that his story began in <i>Dust and Light</i>, released last year. But for a long while, I thought it was going in one particular direction, and then it took off on a path I didn't expect. Certainly Greenshank didn't. And I hope my readers will enjoy its twisty unraveling.<br />
<br />
That's why the book is releasing in December and not August as I had hoped, so I trust it won't get buried in holiday bustle.<br />
<br />
A greenshank is a water bird, as it happens. Many of Greenshank's fellows are also named after water birds, as much of <i>Ash and Silver</i>'s action takes place on the cold, wet northwestern coast of the kingdom of Navronne. Just off the coast lies an island fortress that might call to mind a fascinating place in our own world. Fortress Evanide is a place of mists and storms and rampaging tides, and, in Greenshank's experience, a strict and mysterious military order that calls itself the <i>Equites Cinere'</i> or Knight of the Ashes.<br />
<br />
For this week, 11/23/15 through 11/30/15, you can register to win a copy of Ash and Silver at <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25176096-ash-and-silver?from_search=true&search_version=service" target="_blank">Goodreads</a>. I'll be hanging around Goodreads from now through New Year's, answering questions.<br />
<br />
You can also head for my website to <a href="http://www.carolberg.com/Sanctuary/AshAndSilver/AshAndSilver_opening.html" target="_blank">Read Chapter 1</a> or check out my coming <a href="http://www.carolberg.com/appearances.html" target="_blank">Appearances</a> or sign up for my newsletter.<br />
<br />
Or friend me on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/carolberg" target="_blank">Facebook</a>.<br />
<br />
<span class="fullpost">I'll be back soon with more news!</span>carolwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01256696323017219424noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-757509958916289741.post-36163614469961755132014-08-05T10:32:00.000-06:002014-08-05T15:07:13.498-06:00Dust and Light - In the Wild!Out today, <i>Dust and Light</i>, the first novel of Sanctuary.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5iR3gsdqmew/U-D_24R1yPI/AAAAAAAAC4k/8o2bnTvA9ik/s1600/DustandLight_mid.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5iR3gsdqmew/U-D_24R1yPI/AAAAAAAAC4k/8o2bnTvA9ik/s1600/DustandLight_mid.jpg" height="320" width="213" /></a></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: small;">How much must one pay for an hour of youthful folly? The Pureblood
Registry accused Lucian de Remeni-Masson of “unseemly involvement with
ordinaries,” which meant only that he spoke with a young woman not of
his own kind, allowed her to see his face unmasked, worked a bit of
magic for her....After that one mistake, Lucian’s grandsire excised half
his magic and savage Harrowers massacred his family. Now the Registry
has contracted his art to a common coroner. His extraordinary gift for
portraiture is restricted to dead ordinaries—beggars or starvelings
hauled from the streets.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;">But sketching the truth of dead
men’s souls brings unforeseen consequences. Sensations not his own.
Truths he cannot possibly know and dares not believe. The coroner calls
him a cheat and says he is trying to weasel out of a humiliating
contract. The Registry will call him mad—and mad sorcerers are very
dangerous....</span></blockquote>
<br />
You can find <i>Dust and Light</i> at<br />
Your local <a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780451417244" target="_blank">Independent Bookstore</a><br />
Or online at<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Dust-Light-Sanctuary-Carol-Berg/dp/0451417240/ref=la_B001H6MNS8_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1407084316&sr=1-1" target="_blank">Amazon</a> <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dust-and-light-carol-berg/1117225049?ean=9780451417244" target="_blank">Barnes and Noble</a><br />
<a href="http://www.powells.com/biblio/7-9780451417244-1" target="_blank">Powells</a> <br />
<a href="http://www.audible.com/pd/Sci-Fi-Fantasy/Dust-and-Light-Audiobook/B00LMDAWSY/ref=a_search_c4_1_3_srTtl?qid=1407258308&sr=1-3" target="_blank">Audible</a><br />
<br />
<br />
<span class="fullpost">For an autographed copy, contact my good friends Nina and Ron Else at the <a href="http://www.broadwaybookmall.com/" target="_blank">Broadway Book Mall</a> - 303-744-BOOK - in Denver.<br />
<br />
Read the starred review from <a href="http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-451-41724-4" target="_blank">Publisher's Weekly</a><br />
Read an <a href="http://www.carolberg.com/Sanctuary/DustAndLight/DustAndLight_opening.html" target="_blank">excerpt</a><br />
</span>carolwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01256696323017219424noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-757509958916289741.post-57084054300948085252014-07-23T21:02:00.000-06:002014-07-23T21:02:20.322-06:00Launching Dust and Light!August is going to be a busy month.
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-16ITSORBoXg/U9Bs_5VSVQI/AAAAAAAAC1Y/cs0hf9cCpfc/s1600/Dust+and+Light+-+new.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-16ITSORBoXg/U9Bs_5VSVQI/AAAAAAAAC1Y/cs0hf9cCpfc/s320/Dust+and+Light+-+new.jpg" /></a></div>
Any month where you give birth is busy - though I hope to get more sleep than in those human baby days! I'll be all sort of places online in August and do a little traveling, too. A book's legs are established in its first month out. And an author's career teeters on those legs. So I'm off to the races.<br />
<br />
I'm going to kick things off this Friday. Yes, the book isn't quite out yet. August 5th is the official date. But I had an opportunity to share an evening of talk and reading with <a href="http://ecambrose.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">E.C. Ambrose</a>. Back when E.C. Ambrose was writing as Elaine Isaak, a very cruel dark-fantasy writer, I shared a couple of panels with her at conventions. We had fun comparing our wicked ways with our heroes. The word? She makes me look like a pansy! And so does her alter ego, EC.<br />
<br />
Anyway she is in town launching her own new book, and she couldn't make it in August. So we'll have our little soiree on <b>Friday evening, July 25th at 7:00pm</b> at Old Firehouse Books in Fort Collins.<br />
<br />
Next up will be <a href="http://bubonicon.com/" target="_blank">Bubonicon</a>, <b>August 1-3 in Albuquerque</b>. The book won't officially be out then, either, but my good friends at the <a href="http://www.broadwaybookmall.com/" target="_blank">Broadway Book Mall</a> are in charge of the bookstore at the con and have gotten early release permission from my publisher. So if you want it early, come visit us in Albuquerque.<br />
<br />
Then it's off to California and a <b>Sunday, August 10th, 2pm </b>event at the flagship sff bookstore <a href="http://www.mystgalaxy.com/" target="_blank">Mysterious Galaxy</a> in San Diego.<br />
<br />
<b>Saturday, August 23, at 2pm</b>, I'll be back in Denver for my Colorado launch at the wonderful, friendly Broadway Book Mall. And I'll be reading, and parlaying with Laurey Patten, longtime writing partner, who has just released her excellent sword-and-sorcery adventure <i>The Talent Sinistral</i>.<br />
<br />
And then there are the online appearances. Here's where you'll be able to find me online in August:
<br />
<dl>
<dt><b>Thursday August 7:</b></dt>
<dt>
</dt>
<dd><a href="http://whatever.scalzi.com/">John Scalzi's Big Idea;</a></dd>
<dd><a href="http://www.magicalwords.net/">Magical Words: Guest Author on Dust and Light;</a></dd>
<dt><b>Thursday August 14:</b></dt>
<dt>
</dt>
<dd><a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/fantasy">Reddit Fantasy AMA (Ask Me Anything) </a> Real Time starting at <b>7pm Central</b>;</dd>
<dd><a href="http://www.magicalwords.net/">Magical Words: Guest Author on Characters;</a></dd>
<dt><b>Thursday August 21:</b></dt>
<dt>
</dt>
<dd><a href="http://www.magicalwords.net/">Magical Words: Guest Author on Blowing Up the Dam;</a></dd>
<dt><b>Thursday August 21:</b></dt>
<dt>
</dt>
<dd><a href="http://www.magicalwords.net/">Magical Words: Guest Author on The Writing Life;</a></dd>
</dl>
Join me so I'm not sitting lonely at my keyboard. You can ask me anything at any of these stops (not just the Ask Me Anything). And Stay Tuned for a few more stops!<br />
<br />
What about autumn, you might say...<br />
<br />
<span class="fullpost"> In September I'll be thrashing and burning, trying to finish off <i>Ash and Silver</i>. The forecast is cloudy. But I will also be appearing at the Colorado Gold Writers Conference and teaching some workshops on worldbuilding and NOT outlining. Later in the fall I'll be at MileHiCon in Denver and then at the World Fantasy Convention in Washington DC in early November. More on those later.</span>carolwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01256696323017219424noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-757509958916289741.post-47333594738721997442014-06-26T19:32:00.002-06:002014-06-26T19:35:12.298-06:00Same World, New Story<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WYBWFbtmvms/U6zESEliYjI/AAAAAAAACf4/aw-ZN9z6yeo/s1600/Michelangelo-Creation.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WYBWFbtmvms/U6zESEliYjI/AAAAAAAACf4/aw-ZN9z6yeo/s1600/Michelangelo-Creation.jpg" height="150" width="200" /></a></div>
How easy is it to go back to a world you've created? Lots of authors do it. Sometimes with sequels, sometimes with prequels. Sometimes with time jumps. Often with wholly a wholly new cast of characters. When I finished the novels of the Collegia Magica, I realized that I had created five fairly complete worlds, all of which I loved.<br />
<br />
I try very hard to make my series have a good resolution. I want readers to believe that the mysteries and dilemmas of the plot have been untangled and finished off in a satisfactory - and believable - way. And that the characters live on in the new directions they've taken, with love, magic, companionship, hope, grief, whatever I've left with them. I have always sworn <i>not</i> to go back to a previous cast of characters or world unless I had a new story to tell.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OSxaxRLXrhQ/U6zHTVPsXCI/AAAAAAAACgE/5Gfx8cc_NQg/s1600/DustandLight.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OSxaxRLXrhQ/U6zHTVPsXCI/AAAAAAAACgE/5Gfx8cc_NQg/s1600/DustandLight.jpg" height="200" width="132" /></a></div>
That's why I picked Navronne - the world of the Lighthouse Duet, <i>Flesh and Spirit</i> and <i>Breath and Bone</i>. Not only was the world - with its mythic underpinnings and rich history - one I enjoyed, I felt a nagging sense that I had left a lot of interesting story on the table. Valen, the hero of the Lighthouse books, was a rebel, a wanderer, and the path of his life took him to a most unexpected place. While the part of the world that he had spent his life running from - the families of pureblood sorcerers with their strange culture, their strict discipline, and their unique position in the world - was left almost entirely unexplored. Valen hated the life his birth condemned him to - and he discovered the life he was meant to have. What would life be like for a man of similar age and similar status who embraced the role he was born to? Who had a family that appreciated his talents and loved him dearly. That man is Lucian de Remeni-Masson, a very wealthy, privileged sorcerer, born not with one, but two strong magical talents - most unusual, as it happens - and who believes that his magic is a divine gift. Lucian embraces the strict life that Valen abhorred. And then, of course, because he is my hero... <br />
<br />
<span class="fullpost">...everything goes wrong.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="fullpost">That is the story begun in <i>Dust and Light</i> (Roc Books, August 2014). More next time on the peculiar difficulties of going back - not only to the world but to a parallel timeframe, so that the civil war, the environmental collapse, and the rampaging Harrowers that were so much fun in the first series, could set up problems for Lucian as well. Just very different problems.</span>carolwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01256696323017219424noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-757509958916289741.post-91210153176686297282013-11-07T10:14:00.001-07:002013-11-07T10:14:18.102-07:00Here is a snip from this morning's news:<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JW4XTDcYe7k/UnvIyq5S24I/AAAAAAAABcU/hVelgbZZflU/s1600/John_Barrymore_Hamlet_1922.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="John barrymore 1922" border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JW4XTDcYe7k/UnvIyq5S24I/AAAAAAAABcU/hVelgbZZflU/s320/John_Barrymore_Hamlet_1922.jpg" title="Barrymore" width="236" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">John Barrymore - 1922</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<b>All in the family</b>: Former President Jimmy Carter’s grandson, Jason Carter (D), <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/11/07/jason-carter-ga-governor/3463897/">is going to run for Georgia governor next year</a>,
and so he might be on a Democratic ticket that also has former Sen. Sam
Nunn (D-GA)’s daughter on it -- Michelle Nunn, who’s running for the
Senate. Indeed, here’s a reminder of all the other famous names and
relatives who are going to be running in 2014 or who are up for
re-election:<br />
-- Liz Cheney (daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney)<br />
-- George P. Bush (son of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush)<br />
-- Gwen Graham (daughter of former Sen. Bob Graham, D-FL).<br />
-- Shelley Moore Capito (daughter of former WV Gov. Arch Moore).<br />
-- Mark Begich (son of the late Rep. Nick Begich, D-AK)<br />
-- Mary Landrieu (daughter of former New Orleans Mayor Moon Landrieu and brother to current Mayor Mitch Landrieu<br />
-- Mark Pryor (son of former Arkansas Gov. and Sen. David Pryor).<br />
-- Andrew Cuomo (son of former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo)<br />
-- Jerry Brown (son of former California Gov. Pat Brown)<br />
<br />
Why do I mention this? Because news stories like this prompted my creation of the purebloods strict familial relationships in the Lighthouse Duet<i> - Flesh and Spirit</i> and <i>Breath and Bone</i> - and that I'm now working with in the Sanctuary Duet - <i>Dust and Light</i> (August 2014) and <i>Ash and Silver.</i> <br />
<br />
I had noticed how often in our times professions run in families, whether in the arts (the Barrymores from John and Ethel and Lionel to Drew, the Sheens, Nat King Cole and Nora Jones) or in auto racing (the Unsers, the Pettys, the Earnhardts), in banking, philanthropy, etc. and then I made the great step that fantasy and science fiction writers always take...<br />
<br />
<span class="fullpost">
I asked What If...? </span><br />
<span class="fullpost"><br />
What if magic could be inherited? And what if a young man or woman could only pursue the talent inherited from the mother's bloodline or the father's? How might those things be reflected in a society? And what happens when things aren't quite...normal...<br />
<br />
The Lighthouse books deal with a young man who despises the whole way of life. <br /> </span><br />
<span class="fullpost">The Sanctuary books will deal with a young man who... Well that's the story, isn't it?<br />
</span>
carolwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01256696323017219424noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-757509958916289741.post-52080018241404782122012-11-28T04:00:00.000-07:002012-11-29T10:47:51.368-07:00The Next Big ThingYou may have seen other authors posting this meme. I was tagged by my new excellent friend, the lovely <a href="http://leighevans.com/blog/" target="_blank">Leigh Evans</a>, and I thought it would be fun.
Answer some questions; tag some of my author friends to do the same. Here goes!<br />
<br />
<b>What is the working title of your next book?</b><br />
<i>Dust and Light</i>, the first book of the Sanctuary Duet.<br />
<br />
<b>Where did the idea come from for the book?</b><br />
Unfinished business! My novels <i>Flesh and Spirit</i> and <i>Breath and Bone</i> took place in a deliciously complex world. A civil war raged in a kingdom suffering a disastrous decline in the weather. Magic was confined to a group of wealthy families<b> -</b> known as <i>purebloods</i> <b>- </b>who provided their services to cities, nobles, clergy, or whomever else could afford to pay for them. To nurture and preserve their magic, purebloods kept themselves detached from ordinary society and politics. They created a mannered, disciplined subculture, linking themselves to their clients by strict contracts.<br />
<br />
It had been great fun to develop and structure the pureblood culture – but as it happened the hero of <i>Flesh and Spirit</i> had spent his life running <i>away </i>from his pureblood family. In fact he called the life of a pureblood sorcerer “slavery with golden chains.” But his jaundiced viewpoint left many aspects of pureblood life unexplored.
When I started considering what project I wanted to work on when I finished <i>The Daemon Prism</i> and the Collegia Magica series, I wondered if there might have been someone else interesting raised in the pureblood social structure—someone who embraced and believed in it—and that’s when I met Lucian de Remeni-Masson.<br />
<br />
Unlike most pureblood sorcerers, who inherited the talents of either the mother’s bloodline or the father’s, Lucian demonstrated gifts in both his mother’s artistic line and his father’s bloodline magic of history. That’s when the story took off.<br />
<br />
<b>What genre does your book fall under?</b><br />
Mythic fantasy with a strong mystery element. Or something like that.<br />
<br />
<b>What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?</b><br />
Oh, I never do this – or if I do, I don’t tell. I’ve found that my readers have such widely varying images of my characters, so I don’t like to skew them too much. The lesson came clear when I had readers casting Seyonne, the hero of <i>Transformation</i>, with everyone from a young Daniel Day Lewis to Orlando Bloom! Suffice it to say that Lucian is a lean, good-looking young man of twenty six with typical pureblood features: dark, straight hair, aquiline nose, and dusky skin.<br />
<br />
<b>What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?</b><br />
Maybe I can distill it into three. Lucian de Remeni, pureblood sorcerer with a bent for portraiture, has grown up in wealth, privilege, self-discipline, and the conviction that his beloved family’s magical talents are the gods’ gift to a troubled kingdom. But a family tragedy begins a spiraling downfall that sweeps the young sorcerer into a life he had never imagined. Banished to the crude society of a bustling necropolis, Lucian’s task of becomes the key in two murder investigations which threaten to upend the war for Navronne’s crown and unravel the very foundations of pureblood life.<br />
<br />
<hr color="CC0000" width="100" />
Before I go on, I want to tag those who are next up on this branch of The Next Big Thing.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"><a href="http://www.dianapfrancis.com/" target="_blank">Diana Pharaoh Francis</a></span> is the author of two fantasy series –
the Path series and the Crosspointe Chronicles – and the fabulous Horngate
Witches urban fantasy series.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m
jealous when I report that not only does she write exciting adventures, but she
is also a professor of English at the University of Montana,
rider of horses, wife, mom, and <i>exceptionally</i> fun person to hang out with at a
science fiction convention.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You have
never met a professor like Di!</div>
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<br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"><a href="http://www.cindimyers.com/" target="_blank">Cindi Myers</a></span> has authored more than forty novels, spanning
romance, historical, western, and women’s fiction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her work is consistently excellent, and she
is the most focused and productive writer I know.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I go hang out with her on mountain retreats
just hoping to absorb some of her professionalism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Again, it just isn’t fair that she’s gorgeous, generous, and a great teacher.</div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"><a href="http://www.mindyklasky.com/" target="_blank">Mindy Klasky</a></span> is the author of fantasy, urban fantasy,
paranormal chick-lit novels, and under her alter ego, Morgan Keyes, a fabulous new YA
fantasy called <i>Darkbeast</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A reformed
lawyer and law librarian, Mindy sat alongside me on our first ever convention panel – <i>My First Novel</i> at the 2000 Chicago WorldCon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our first books had come out one month apart,
from the same publisher, and as women of other professions, we bonded immediately. Now with twenty-eight novels between us, I guess our panel was a success - our friendship certainly is!</div>
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Compared to these three,<span style="color: #cc0000;"> <a href="http://www.lindajoffehull.com/" target="_blank">Linda Joffe Hull</a></span> is just a
newbie.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But her first novel, <i>The Big Bang</i> will likely leave all of us genre writers in the dust.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Library Journal describes it as "a fun, sexy suburban soap opera with a touch of mystery." I’ve known this book since it was a
baby, and believe me it is like nothing else out there. Neither is Linda, who is also fun, smart, and sexy! </span></div>
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And now back to the NBT questions:
<b> </b><br />
<br />
<b>Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?</b><br />
I've worked with agent Lucienne Diver of the Knight Agency from my first sale thirteen years ago. <i>Dust and Light</i> will be published in 2014 by New American Library/Roc Books.<br />
<br />
<span class="fullpost">
<b>How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?</b><br />
Knowing how unlikely it is that I'll reach the end of the story before my deadline of June 2013, it will have taken me a year and a half. I would love to think I could be a third of the way into the second (as yet untitled) volume of the duology by that time, but I'm not placing any bets.<br />
<br />
<b>What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?</b>
My books have been compared to those of Robin Hobb, Guy Gavriel Kay, Mary Stewart, and Lynn Flewelling.<br />
<br />
<b>Who or what inspired you to write this book?</b><br />
My favorite authors of my favorite kinds of stories - murder mysteries, historical political intrigues, and world myths. The heart of <i>Dust and Light</i> is the interweaving of two mysteries - the strangling death of a young street urchin in the royal city and the savage massacre of a wealthy family by rampaging fanatics. The resolution of these mysteries leads my hero to dangerous discoveries about the fundamental nature of pureblood magic in Navronne.<br />
<br />
<b>What else about the book might pique the reader's interest?</b>
These books are not a sequel, but a parallel story to <i>Flesh and Spirit</i> and <i>Breath and Bone</i>, involving entirely new characters. (<i>Dust and Light</i> actually begins a bit more than a year earlier than Valen's story.) One will be able to read either pair first. But for those who've already read the Lighthouse books, there will be some "Easter eggs" – references to some old friends and places. I think that will be fun.
</span>carolwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01256696323017219424noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-757509958916289741.post-37422147309859163062012-11-26T19:21:00.000-07:002012-11-27T08:21:34.872-07:00Autumn in Review - SeptemberTime to wake up this blog! I just sat up and realized it's Thanksgiving - well no, that's already passed. I think I'll start with a quick review of what's been happening this year. Out of order and higgledy-piggledy, but here goes. Let's start with September...<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UTiWziIbK-I/ULQf8gB_WqI/AAAAAAAABZ8/npOJM0lKDXY/s1600/Lake+Isabelle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UTiWziIbK-I/ULQf8gB_WqI/AAAAAAAABZ8/npOJM0lKDXY/s200/Lake+Isabelle.jpg" width="200" /></a>On one weekend, I took a Sunday hike with kids up to Lake Isabelle
in the Brainard Lake Recreation Area.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Our terrible drought here in Colorado
was made visible when we arrived at the lake.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Not fire damage, thank goodness, but just dry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most of the lake just wasn’t there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here’s what we saw on a glorious autumn
day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Note the barren strip around the current water line -a beach where there shouldn't be one. <a href="http://www.protrails.com/galleries/view/61/1/brainard_lake_recreation_area_lake_isabelle_and_isabelle_glacier"><span id="goog_2010975042"></span><span id="goog_2010975043"></span></a></span><a href="http://www.protrails.com/galleries/view/61/1/brainard_lake_recreation_area_lake_isabelle_and_isabelle_glacier">Here’s</a> a view of the same lake in a greener year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We did have a good
time stomping on the wooden bridges along our hike to make sure no trolls came
up to grab us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>None did.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Whew!</div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-msMcPupbEn0/ULQdf4zKnxI/AAAAAAAABZs/KL9UOf4BbSg/s1600/Writer+of+the+Year.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-msMcPupbEn0/ULQdf4zKnxI/AAAAAAAABZs/KL9UOf4BbSg/s200/Writer+of+the+Year.JPG" width="165" /></a>
The Colorado Gold Writers Conference, sponsored by the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers is always a September highlight. The workshops are great, but I find myself sitting for a great deal of the conference hours in the large, open, and most welcoming bar/lobby of the Denver Renaissance hotel. It’s a great time and place to catch up with writer-friends from all over the region, as well as meet new ones. I gave a morning Master class on characterization, as well as a workshop on writing first person. I also did an hour's discussion with authors Warren Hammond and Mackay Wood on violence in fiction – why an author may choose to use it, and what we considered our own boundaries and favorite techniques for writing violent scenes. I also had to give a kick-off speech, seeing as how the members of RMFW had voted me in as their 2012 Writer of the Year. It is a great honor, and I was treated royally.<br />
<br />
<b>What I Was Working On</b>: workshops for Colorado Gold, proof pages for The Daemon Prism mass market, the New Boo, the Obama campaign <br />
<br />
<b>What We Were Watching</b>: Merlin, Mad Men, Bronco football <br />
<br />
<span class="fullpost">More about the New Book soon. Watch for <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The Next Big Thing</span>.</span>carolwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01256696323017219424noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-757509958916289741.post-50122971800334259072012-08-21T08:23:00.000-06:002012-08-21T08:24:16.996-06:00WorldCon!This year's World Science Fiction Convention is at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Chicago over Labor Day weekend - Thursday, August 30 through Monday September 3. It's always fun to visit this vibrant city (especially since I have kids in the area.<br />
<br />
But WorldCon itself is amazing. Five days of non-stop programming, sometimes 25 things going on at once. There are panels on every conceivable fantasy/sf-related topic - writing, art, "the literature", film and TV, comics, and so on - as well as actual gaming from Risk or Magic, the Gathering to the latest RPGs, music, dancing, costuming and the ultimate Masquerade, an art show and art auction, the Hugo Awards, book dealers and other vendors selling art, jewelry, costumes, and everything else. Guest writers like me, editors, agents, reviewers, and artists staff the panels, hoping to get face to face with readers. I've got a busy schedule this year.
<br />
<br />
Here's the list...<br />
<span class="fullpost">
</span><br />
<ul><span class="fullpost"><span class="fullpost">
<li>Thursday, Aug 30, 4:30pm: Autographing </li>
<li><span class="fullpost">Friday, Aug 31, 12 noon: panel on Writing Beyond the First Two Pages </span></li>
<li><span class="fullpost">Friday, Aug 31, 3pm: BroadUniverse Rapidfire Reading - 17 readers in an hour and a half - FUN!
Saturday, Sept 1, 10:30am: panel on Writing Vivid Characters </span></li>
<li><span class="fullpost">Saturday, Sept 1, 3pm: ANOTHER panel on Writing Vivid Characters(Don't ask me! But I like the topic.) </span></li>
<li><span class="fullpost">Sunday, Sept 2, 9:30am: Reading - PLEASE COME! Depending on the audience, I might be prevailed upon to read from the new book... </span></li>
<li><span class="fullpost">Sunday, Sept 2, 10:30am: Kaffeeflatsch - Sign up on the list and come - we can talk about anything you like!</span></li>
</span>
I've some prep to do. Four-minute reading for BroadUniverse, full reading for Sunday. Considering topics for the Character panel that I am supposed to moderate and thoughtful comments for the others. All good things. Hope to see lots of you there.
</span></ul>
<br />carolwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01256696323017219424noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-757509958916289741.post-30618136730965501092012-05-04T11:34:00.000-06:002012-05-04T11:36:32.712-06:00Writing DIfferencesSomewhere, someone once said, <i>Write what you know</i>. I hate that phrase. For many years, I took that to mean <i>Write things that you’ve personally experienced</i>. No one wanted to read about my life – teacher, software engineer, student, wife, mom. Quite ordinary and boring to those looking for adventure. I kept reading.<br />
<br />
Jump ahead a few decades. I’d read a few thousand books by now and internalized that not every author had experienced everything in his or her stories, not when someone could make me believe hobbits existed, or that this world was only a shadow of an idealized place called Amber. These writers were fiction writers. It was their job to make me believe in the reality – and yes, the underlying truth of their story. When I took up fiction writing as a hobby, I wasn’t sure I could instill that same sense of belief in other people. But the more I worked at it, the more I learned that I could - by thinking hard, by working hard to know what I was talking about, by considering what it might be like to live in a culture or situation or a profession far from my own experience.<br />
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Yet I still heard people saying <b>don’t</b>. <i>Don’t try to write people of a different gender</i>. I got past this one, too. I was not only writing from the point of view of two characters who were warriors, but they both happened to be men. I had certainly observed plenty of men! I thought hard about how their feelings or reactions might be their own, not mine. I worked hard to make their voices, concerns, and behavior right for their characters and the story. And male readers told me I did just fine.<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-X2da480zpEU/T6QRXsC1thI/AAAAAAAABYk/5jewgsJlVlE/s1600/GuardiansOfTheKeep.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-X2da480zpEU/T6QRXsC1thI/AAAAAAAABYk/5jewgsJlVlE/s200/GuardiansOfTheKeep.jpg" width="123" /></a></div>
And then I wrote from the point of view of a ten-year-old boy (later sixteen-year-old) and that worked, as well. (It helped that I lived in a house with one - male - spouse and three sons!)<br />
<br />
Still, of course, there were other nay-saying voices out there in the aether: <i>Don’t try to write people of a different color or sexual orientation or a disability you don’t live with</i>. How could you possibly know? How could you possibly understand? How could you possibly get it right when you are an American, heterosexual woman of Irish heritage who grew up in the southwest US in the 20th century without anything one would label a disability (except maybe painful shyness)?<br />
<br />
But I decided that if I could write men convincingly, and if I could write two very different warriors convincingly when I had no combat training or experience, then I ought to be able to write these things too. I am fiction writer, and I use knowledge, imagination, logic, and reason to make my characters’ behavior and experiences true to the human experience as it exists in the fictional worlds I create, and close enough to the human experience in this world that my readers find them believable and identifiable.<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-p93_qEnz8GQ/T6QRu01a3MI/AAAAAAAABYs/Qy48T_AvA70/s1600/DaemonPrism.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-p93_qEnz8GQ/T6QRu01a3MI/AAAAAAAABYs/Qy48T_AvA70/s200/DaemonPrism.jpg" width="131" /></a></div>
But when the tides of the storyline in one of my series swept my brooding, violent sorcerer hero into blindness, I did feel trepidation. This was new territory. I very, very much wanted to get it right, to avoid TV/film/fictional cliches, to avoid any hint of paternalism or pandering or any other thing that might ruin the story for any reader. And yet I didn’t hesitate. It was the right thing for the story, which was about all about seeing – seeing the truth of magic in a world where it was dying, seeing the truth of a wicked conspiracy, seeing the truth of oneself and of those you could not believe might find you worthy of love or compassion. It was only fitting that this man face the loss of the thing that he valued above all things – the sight that enabled him to work the most complex forms of magic. So how was I going to do this right?<br />
<br />
Part of my challenge was <b>physical</b> – how does a man cope with blindness in a society comparable to the early 17th century? Part was <b>emotional<b></b></b> – how does a man of a passionate, volatile nature react to an abrupt change that he can only view as devastating? Note that this is <b>his view</b>, not my own—a critical distinction when dealing with such topics. My aim was not to preach about how loss of sight is not a “disability” but just another way of dealing with the world, but to relate this man’s feelings about and reactions to what had happened to him. And part of my challenge was <b>authorial</b> – how do I communicate a vivid sense of a world without using visual images?<br />
<br />
So how did I approach it?<br />
<span class="fullpost">
<b> </b></span><br />
<br />
<span class="fullpost"><b>First: Research</b>
</span><br />
<span class="fullpost">The internet is our friend. I read medical information about the mechanisms of sight and its loss. More importantly, I found forums and blogs by the newly blind giving personal perspectives – emotional, physical, and how those affected day-to-day life. It didn’t matter that it was 21st century information. I was accustomed to translating human experiences to a less techno-savy century.</span><br />
<span class="fullpost">
<br />
<b>Second: Write</b><br />
I never research too much before I begin writing. Knowing how the story unfolds tells me what I need to focus on in research. As I wrote, I considered every word, phrase, scene, and situation from this perspective.<br />
<br />
<b>Third: Network</b><br />
I was fortunate to know a fellow writer who has been losing her sight for many years. I asked if she would read my early chapters and give me her opinion, as I was trying to get it right. She was pleased to be asked. Not only did she give me a few pointers, but gave me a most invaluable reference – a man who had lost his sight profoundly and abruptly at very near the same age as my sorcerer. He was delighted to help and, as it happened, had done so for other writers. Not only did he vet my chapters (and say I’d done a decent job!!) but answered my every question and offered me some wholly unexpected insights. I wish I could have used everything he gave me! But, as always, one can’t burden the story with all the delicious research.<br />
<br />
Hard thinking. First-hand information. Respect. Focusing on the story. I think these things got me through. The result is found in my novel, <i>The Daemon Prism</i>, the third (and final) novel of the Collegia Magica.<br />
<br />
<br />
I wrote this originally for a series on <a href="http://www.bookwormblues.net/">Bookworm Blues</a>. Check it out.
</span>carolwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01256696323017219424noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-757509958916289741.post-63370246200755540742012-02-26T23:31:00.002-07:002012-02-27T00:04:36.989-07:00A feast for the eyes - and a good story, tooOscar night. Not much point in watching since we hadn't seen very many of the films. And so often, it seems as if lots of nominated films are just not to our taste, no matter how well made or well acted. I mean, "No Country for Old Men" was a fabulous piece of film-making, but I didn't <span style="font-style:italic;">like</span> anyone in the story. That's a necessity for me, whether in films or books (and something I strive to provide my own readers - characters...people...to care about.)<br /><br />So instead of watching the Oscar show - or more episodes of Burn Notice to which we are currently addicted (yes, some very complicated characters to care about) - we went to the second run cinema and saw "Hugo."<br /><br />First, yes, characters to care about - a whole cast of them in the first minute of the film as the camera leads you on a chase through a train station in 1930s' Paris. The station guard with his leg brace, the woman with the dog and her portly suitor, the man in the toy shop, the cheery flower seller, the musicians, and many more, each sketched as distinctly as a master writer like Dick Francis can do in a few words. And then the <span style="font-weight:bold;">eyes </span>peering through the 4 in the great clock. The story question right there in front of you. Whose eyes and why from inside the clock?<br /><br />Well done. It was a nice story. Well performed for the most part. About loss and memory. About the magic of...story! But what made the film step into magic for me was<br />not the story but the language of its composition.<br /><br /><span class="fullpost"><br />The visual experience. The deep moody colors of the era. The deep stairways and the clicking gears and mechanics of the great clockworks. The shining eyes of the two young friends. The snow. The magical, glowing view of the city at night. The lovely precision of the small mechanical man - the automaton left by a loving father to a lonely son, which brings a mystery (and you know how I love mystery) to the tale. And I have to say that for the first time in my experience 3D really added something special.<br /><br />Faults? Yes. It gets a bit wordy in ways it doesn't need to. (Don't hammer me over the head by <span style="font-style:italic;">saying</span> things that are transmitted so beautifully by action - another word to the wise author!) A few too many shots of the young Hugo's glistening eyes. (Yes repetition is good, but a wise author will take out one too many.) I wonder if children (and there were many in the theater) love the film as much as adults seem to.<br /><br />Summing up, a most enjoyable two hours.<br /></span>carolwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01256696323017219424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-757509958916289741.post-66151568193595695962012-01-26T20:37:00.004-07:002012-01-27T15:28:04.577-07:00Tinker, Tailor, Soldier...FineI have always loved spy novels. Cold War novels by John le Carre and Len Deighton. The stories about the Enigma cipher (WWII). Ken Follett wrote some good ones before he fell into historical triumph with <span style="font-style: italic;">Pillars of the Earth</span>. The James Bond books were not so cartoonish as the films, but they weren't of this same gritty, realistic ilk. Most of the these I'm referring to weren't made into successful single films because they were too complex for a two-hour adaptation. BBC did a wonderful miniseries version of John le Carre's <span style="font-style: italic;">Smiley's People</span>, one of the best of the genre. But films?? <br /><br />Now here comes <span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; font-weight: bold;">Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy</span>, a 2011 sleeper that, from the look of the theater today, no one has heard about. You might have seen a mention in the Oscar nominations for Gary Oldman (yes, Sirius Black! and many other wonderful portrayals). And well deserved!<br /><br />Oldman plays George Smiley, the aging MI-5 operative, put out to pasture after a disastrous operation gets an operative killed, and brings down George's mentor Control, the head of "the Circus" as the spy agency is called here. But a young agent (an excellent Benedict Cumberbatch of the new Masterpieces Sherlock series) has gotten wind of a rumor that could bring down the increasingly marginalized agency. Someone in the inner circle is a mole - a tool of the Russian spymaster known as Karla.<br /><br />The file evokes the gritty (yes that word again) shadowy world of the 70s cold war. Hot wars were fought through surrogates, but the cold war was fought on the wet streets of East Berlin and Paris...and Budapest...and in the concrete block offices of London, each side hunting for intelligence - the kind that could only come through defectors or agents in place. Dangerous business. No flashy car chases. And in those days, no dazzling sensors or cell phones or laser beams or Mission Impossible impossibilities. <br /><br /><span class="fullpost">Oldman's performance is beautifully nuanced. He is a taciturn man. Serious, intellectual, but hopelessly enamored of a wife who is unfaithful. Hearing the reliable report of a mole--a double agent--in the highest echelon of his kingdom's secret service--men he has worked with--grieves him, yet he never says a word to convey it. A masterful performance. And the film spins back and forth in time and place, yet never needs labels to tell us when we are looking at a Christmas party in happier times for the agency or when we are in Budapest watching the fateful meeting and murder or when we are seeing the patient, dogged George unraveling a case for the ages. No being lowered from the roof, no pressure sensors, no leaps, just good work, and a great story. Loved it.<br /><br />A great cast as well besides Oldman and Cumberbatch: John Hurt, Colin Firth, Ciaren Hinds, and a really excellent Tom Hardy<br /></span>carolwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01256696323017219424noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-757509958916289741.post-45592453531745032212012-01-16T08:35:00.006-07:002012-01-16T09:00:16.651-07:00Good news!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-uyoiDJSpKbk/TxRFt6GUQDI/AAAAAAAABYE/FArsEtaTfEc/s1600/DaemonPrism_small.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 64px; height: 97px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-uyoiDJSpKbk/TxRFt6GUQDI/AAAAAAAABYE/FArsEtaTfEc/s320/DaemonPrism_small.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5698256083522699314" /></a><br />There are many kinds of good news an author can receive: good reviews, positive reader comments, new contracts, new translation agreements, award news, and so forth. But on Friday, I heard two of the best lines an author can hear.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">News the first.</span> <span style="font-style:italic;">We've had to go back to press on the new book.</span> That is, the print version of <span style="font-style:italic;">The Daemon Prism</span> has outsold expectations in the first two weeks.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OQF27biAXIo/TxRFYRYdQSI/AAAAAAAABX4/BdK3i0R6HBc/s1600/cover_amazon_lg.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 85px; height: 140px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OQF27biAXIo/TxRFYRYdQSI/AAAAAAAABX4/BdK3i0R6HBc/s320/cover_amazon_lg.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5698255711815680290" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">News the second.</span> <span style="font-style:italic;">We're taking</span> Transformation <span style="font-style:italic;">back to press. Copies should be available by the end of the month</span>.<br /><br /><br /><span class="fullpost"><br />This is a tough publishing environment. No one can really predict the impact of electronic publishing on a new release. The percentage of a new release bought in electronic form is increasing dramatically with every year that goes by. I'll bet thousands of readers are sporting new Kindles or Nooks since the holidays. Yes, authors get paid - in my case fairly equally - for both print and electronic books. But I still hold that new readers are more likely to find <span style="font-style:italic;">my</span> books by running across them in bookstores. Either the cover art or the back cover blurb might attract them, or they will recall mention of my work by reviewers or my wonderful readers on Facebook or book blogs or at parties or writers events. It is always nice to exceed expectations.<br /><br />As for backlist... Many of you notices that my very first published book <span style="font-style:italic;">Transformation</span> has been pretty scarce for most of the last year. It is awful when the last two books in a series are available and the first one is not. Certainly an author's nightmare! But warehousing books is a huge expense for publishers and everyone is waiting to see if e-books really do replace the mass market paperback, especially for older works. Evidently my publisher has decided that the demand for <span style="font-style:italic;">Transformation</span> is such that they can't <span style="font-style:italic;">wait and see</span> any more. Hooray for that! <span style="font-style:italic;">Transformation</span> holds a special place in my list. It's where many of my readers started out on a journey that's taken us all to some deeper and darker places.<br /><br />So anyway, thanks to all of you out there for encouraging my publisher to this point of view! Now back to work on <span style="font-style:italic;">something new</span>.<br /><br /><br /></span>carolwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01256696323017219424noreply@blogger.com21tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-757509958916289741.post-49335336555429352502012-01-11T19:19:00.007-07:002012-01-12T11:09:55.770-07:00Come talk with me and win books!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bVW3mn-7fe0/Tw5HALKfO5I/AAAAAAAABXo/QaPHGJ5TZ1s/s1600/DaemonPrism_mid.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 120px; height: 182px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bVW3mn-7fe0/Tw5HALKfO5I/AAAAAAAABXo/QaPHGJ5TZ1s/s320/DaemonPrism_mid.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5696568646992608146" border="0" /></a><br />Come join me on Thursday, January 12, at noon CST for a conversation about The Daemon Prism - and any of my books - at <a href="http://www.bittenbybooks.com/?p=50045">Bitten by Books</a>. It's part of a five-author book launch event, with many giveaways, contests, and a grand prize awarded at the end of the week that includes $200 worth of book gift cards, books, and goodies. Lots of ways to get extra entries into the contests. I've never done one of these before, and it's a bit daunting.<br /><br />I'll also have a blog post up about The Five Things a Kind Author Should Never Do to a Fantasy Hero - and you know I can tell you about that. You might recognize a few incidents...<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">UPDATE</span>: Here is the actual <a href="http://www.bittenbybooks.com/?p=50235">Bitten by Books link </a>to the live conversation!<br /><br />So which autographed books am I giving away?<br /><span class="fullpost"><br /><ol><br /><li><span style="font-style: italic;">The Spirit Lens</span></li><br /><li><span style="font-style: italic;">Son of Avonar</span></li><br /><li><span style="font-style: italic;">Flesh and Spirit</span></li><br /><li><span style="font-style: italic;">Song of the Beast</span></li><br /></ol><br /><br />Don't let me hang out alone! And I would love for one of <span style="font-style: italic;">my</span> readers to win the grand prize. I'll be checking for questions into the evening hours, as well. See you there!<br /><br /><br /></span>carolwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01256696323017219424noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-757509958916289741.post-72481247369969907152012-01-03T00:01:00.000-07:002012-01-03T00:01:01.126-07:00Release Day!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8iWZGqPGxbw/TwJYGp3PSKI/AAAAAAAABXc/DaxEvkkOQI8/s1600/DaemonPrism.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 211px; height: 320px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8iWZGqPGxbw/TwJYGp3PSKI/AAAAAAAABXc/DaxEvkkOQI8/s320/DaemonPrism.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5693209750289729698" border="0" /></a><br />Four years after writing the first page of <span style="font-style: italic;">The Spirit Lens</span>, the third and final <span style="font-style: italic;">novel of the Collegia Magica, The Daemon Prism,</span> appears on bookstore shelves and online ebook lists today. What a ride!<br /><br />I poured a lot of my favorite ideas into this series, which began with a simple double-agent, murder mystery investigation, and ended up in an entangling adventure tale of magic, love, destiny, faith, death, life, and the order of nature. (Somehow my stories just grow!) I took on a risky business of multiple narrators again, knowing that if people grew attached to my quietly confident, always logical librarian, Portier, as I hoped, they might have trouble switching to my shy insecure young heroine Anne. By the time I got to <span style="font-style: italic;">The Daemon Prism</span>, I trusted that readers would love to get inside the crusty, violent Dante's head and see what he had been thinking all along. I know it was fun for me! Of course the demands of the story, said that Anne's keen observations had to be called into service again, and I felt the need to give a brief closure to two other characters as we raced to the ending.<br /><br />Now that the series is done, what do I like the best about it? The characters and their relationships. I was so pleased at how they developed. Both Portier and Anne hid themselves for a long time. Dante and Ilario were more...overt...about their personalities. I loved the exposure of the Sabrian world in the first book, the court intrigue of the second, and the wide-ranging and yet very "interior" adventure of the third.<br /><br />To celebrate this launch I'm going to take off for the mountains and start working on a new project. There will also be EVENTS - which I will post about later. As every author, I need my readers to let people know if you like the books. Post reviews. Spread the word.<br /><br />So, on to the book itself... What's up with the uneasy alliance formed at the end of <span style="font-style: italic;">The Soul Mirror</span>?<br />Here's a bit of a teaser, the opening paragraphs of <span style="font-style: italic;">The Daemon Prism</span>...<br /><br /><br /><span class="fullpost"><br /><span style="font-family:lucida grande;">30 Ocet, 883rd Year of the Sabrian Realm, sunset</span><br /><span style="font-family:lucida grande;">Pradoverde</span><br /><br /><p><span style="font-family:lucida grande;">"Stop right there!" I bellowed. My student’s resolute little inhalation signaled her ready to bind her first complex spell. I resisted the temptation to shatter or repair the well-structured but ill-conceived little charm. She had to learn.</span><br /><br /></p><p><span style="font-family:lucida grande;">Mercifully, she was well disciplined. Though her will tugged fiercely against mine, she obeyed.</span><br /><br /></p><p><span style="font-family:lucida grande;">"Concentrate. Look deeper. A hundred thousand streams in Sabria comprise water, rocks, willows, and trout. But to draw on this stream's keirna - its essence - you must unearth the secrets that make it unique. You're no child swatting a fly. Misjudgment could drown us . . . or bury us . . . or turn yon pasture into a swamp." In this case, likely all of them and worse.</span><br /><br /></p><p><span style="font-family:lucida grande;">She knelt along the stream bank, not half a metre from my boots. Having spent most of every day for two years in her presence, I could sense her every muscle twitch, accurate signals for divining her level of confidence. It had taken her a very long time to prepare for this step, and she was very sure of herself. She hated mistakes.</span><br /></p><p><span style="font-family:lucida grande;">"There’s nothing wrong with it," she said after a few moments' contemplation. "Sealing the snag will just divert the water around the end of it, digging out the far bank a little more. I'm not blocking the water flow completely. There's plenty of leeway."</span><br /></p><p><span style="font-family:lucida grande;">She readied herself again.</span><br /><br /></p><p><span style="font-family:lucida grande;">"No!" I drove the heel of my staff into the rocky streambed.</span><br /><br /></p><p><span style="font-family:lucida grande;">She jerked but held her ground, not yanking her hand from the water. It wasn't so easy to startle her into attendance anymore. So I assaulted her weakness with words. "Have you learned nothing? There's mud between the rocks. What color is it? What consistency? Does the sun reveal glints of metal in it? What would that tell you of the stream's origins and use? You're a woman of science. Where is its source? Has its course evolved as nature prescribes or has it been purposely altered? Your friend Simon provided you the Pradoverde land grants. If you'd studied them with half a mind, you'd know this land was once a disputed boundary between two blood families. Why?"</span><br /><br /></p><p><span style="font-family:lucida grande;">"None of those things have to do with a snag of twigs formed this past summer." She was so sure. So calm.</span><br /><br /></p><p><span style="font-family:lucida grande;">"Wrong! If you’d studied the legends of the Fremoline outcrops, where our stream has its source, you’d know there were persistent tales of gold deposits - "</span><br /><br /></p><p><span style="font-family:lucida grande;">"There are no gold deposits anywhere in the demesne of Louvel." I could imagine her rolling her eyes. "The rocks are almost entirely limestone. The rumors provide nothing useful to weave into the spellwork."</span><br /><br /></p><p><span style="font-family:lucida grande;">Breaking her prim, scholarly ways of thinking had been my most difficult challenge. It was why I had chosen this particular exercise on this particular day.</span><br /><br /></p><p><span style="font-family:lucida grande;">I repeated my probe of the streambed. Again, and then again, moving upstream until the muffled jar of metal shivered my staff and the razored sting of long-bound enchantment flowed up my arm. The virulence of the spell threatened to dissolve the bone. But I held the staff in place and tapped it sharply with my forefinger, my signal that she should touch it, too. She had to feel the magnitude of her error.</span><br /><br /></p><p><span style="font-family:lucida grande;">Her discipline held. A gurgle out of place in the rhythmic bubbling of the stream told me she’d withdrawn her hand from the water. A quiet chink, a scuff of dirt, and the release of pent power said she'd kicked aside the length of slender chain she'd laid out for her spell enclosure. Determined steps and a brush of skirts brought her to my side.</span><br /><br /></p><p><span style="font-family:lucida grande;">"If you’d looked deeper," I said, cooler now I'd snared her full attention, "you'd have found a bronze casket buried here at the seventh metre past the dogleg bend - the corner of the disputed territory. This is how the one faction, intending to ensure that they alone could harvest these rumored riches, shifted the streambed to fit their desired boundary."</span><br /><br /></p><p><span style="font-family:lucida grande;">I could not see her face any better than I could see anything else in this daemon-blasted world. Yet, even had I not smelled her soap-scented sweat or heard the tight hiss of her annoyance, I’d have known her in the moment she laid her finger on the carved hornbeam of my ancille - the moment the spells bound into my staff became instantly more useful, more lethal, faster, sharper, swollen from the inborn power she brought to any working. One would have to plumb the tangled depths of a forest's roots or the moldered residue of an ancient battleground to match Anne de Vernase's potential for magic. That she possessed a mind and will fully capable of wielding such power made her reluctance to take hold of it inexcusable . . .</span><br /><br /></p><p>You can find a larger <a href="http://www.carolberg.com/CollegiaMagica/DaemonPrism/DaemonPrism_exerpt.html">excerpt of The Daemon Prism</a> on my website.<br /><br /></p></span>carolwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01256696323017219424noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-757509958916289741.post-24703617408982546162011-10-15T18:46:00.005-06:002011-10-15T19:13:22.873-06:00Want to win a copy?I'm giving away three copies of the new <em>Song of the Beast</em> and an advance reader copy (ARC) of <em>The Daemon Prism</em> in the next couple of months through Goodreads. Here are the links. They're free, of course, but you do have to sign up on the site.<br /><div id="goodreadsGiveawayWidget15913"><br /><div class="goodreadsGiveawayWidget" style="max-width: 350px; margin: 10px auto; padding: 10px 15px; border: 2px solid rgb(235, 232, 213);"><br /><h2 style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px ! important; padding: 0pt ! important; font-style: italic; font-size: 20px; line-height: 20px; font-weight: normal; text-align: center; color: rgb(85, 85, 85);"> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/" target="_new">Goodreads</a> Book Giveaway<br /></h2><br /><div style="float: left;"> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11338966"><img alt="Song of the Beast by Carol Berg" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1311281146l/11338966.jpg" title="Song of the Beast by Carol Berg" width="100" /></a><br /></div><br /> <div style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 110px ! important; padding: 0pt ! important;"><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11338966">Song of the Beast</a><br />by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/246590" style="text-decoration: none;">Carol Berg</a><br /><h4 style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px; padding: 0pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><br /> </h4><h4 style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px; padding: 0pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">Giveaway ends November 30, 2011.<br /></h4><div class="giveaway_details"><p> See the <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/15913" style="text-decoration: none;">giveaway details</a> at Goodreads.<br /> </p> </div> </div> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/enter_choose_address/15913" class="goodreadsGiveawayWidgetEnterLink">Enter to win</a><br /><br /></div><br /></div><br />And for <em>The Daemon Prism</em> ARC (Note this one doesn't start until November):<br /><div id="goodreadsGiveawayWidget15927"><br /><div class="goodreadsGiveawayWidget" style="max-width: 350px; margin: 10px auto; padding: 10px 15px; border: 2px solid rgb(235, 232, 213);"><br /><h2 style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px ! important; padding: 0pt ! important; font-style: italic; font-size: 20px; line-height: 20px; font-weight: normal; text-align: center; color: rgb(85, 85, 85);"> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/" target="_new">Goodreads</a> Book Giveaway<br /></h2><br /><div style="float: left;"> <br /> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12077625"><img alt="The Daemon Prism by Carol Berg" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1318524669l/12077625.jpg" title="The Daemon Prism by Carol Berg" width="100" /></a><br /> <br /> </div><br /> <div style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 110px ! important; padding: 0pt ! important;"><br /><h3 style="margin: 0pt; padding: 0pt; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal;"> <br /> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12077625">The Daemon Prism</a><br /> </h3><br /><h4 style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px; padding: 0pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/246590" style="text-decoration: none;">Carol Berg</a><br /></h4><br /><div class="giveaway_details">Giveaway ends November 30, 2011.<br /><p> See the <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/15927" style="text-decoration: none;">giveaway details</a><br /> at Goodreads.<br /> </p></div></div> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/enter_choose_address/15927" class="goodreadsGiveawayWidgetEnterLink">Enter to win</a><br /></div><br /></div><script src="http://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/widget/15927" type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"></script><br /><br /><br /><span class="fullpost">Goodreads is an interesting site. I haven't spent as much time there as I would like, but I intend to. What I've seen, I like. Lots of book reviews, reading groups, and some good discussions (especially in the fantasy realm where I've peeked). It is a site that is devoted to readers, and you can get recommendations on books from serious readers. There are lots of ways to trace through particular reviewers, or authors and so forth.</span>carolwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01256696323017219424noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-757509958916289741.post-32757016443003283902011-09-30T15:59:00.006-06:002011-09-30T16:22:09.068-06:00Fantasy and Science Fiction Sampler<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Xvc3ghHEq9w/ToY9GGv8hqI/AAAAAAAABW0/VEGgrwEOha8/s1600/OpeningActs-Final.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 267px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Xvc3ghHEq9w/ToY9GGv8hqI/AAAAAAAABW0/VEGgrwEOha8/s320/OpeningActs-Final.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5658277156937828002" border="0" /></a><br />Are you into ebooks? Always looking for new authors?<br /><br /><b>Twenty-five First Chapters from Twenty-five Writers</b><br /><br />I'm on a number of professional fantasy/science fiction author discussion forums, but one of the coolest is <span style="font-style: italic;">sfnovelists</span> - something like 200 writers. We decided to put out a free sampler of our work, in hopes of reaching new audiences. I'm a bit late to the show, but here it is...<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">SF Novelists proudly offers you OPENING ACTS, a free ebook presenting twenty-five first chapters across the spectrum of science fiction and fantasy. Twenty-five tastes, to tempt your appetite for adventure...to lure you into unknown worlds...and give you something new to read.</span><br /><br /><p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">Download a copy in <a href="http://www.sfnovelists.com/samplers/volume1/Opening-Acts-SFNovelists.epub">epub format</a> (Nook, Sony, iPad)<br /><br />Download a copy in <a href="http://www.sfnovelists.com/samplers/volume1/Opening-Acts-SFNovelists.mobi">mobi format</a> (Kindle)<br /><br />Download a copy in <a href="http://www.sfnovelists.com/samplers/volume1/OPENINGACTS.pdf">pdf format</a></p><br /><br />A list of the authors represented...<br /><br /><span class="fullpost"><br /><br /><ul><li><span class="fullpost">7th Sigma by Steven Gould</span></li><li><span class="fullpost">Bone Shop by T.A. Pratt</span></li><li><span class="fullpost">Bones of Faerie by Janni Lee Simner</span></li><li><span class="fullpost">The Brahms Deception by Louise Marley</span></li><li><span class="fullpost">Carousel Tides by Sharon Lee</span></li><li><span class="fullpost">The Cloud Road by Martha Wells</span></li><li><span class="fullpost">Dangerous Water by Juliet E. McKenna</span></li><li><span class="fullpost">The Dread Hammer by Trey Shiels</span></li><li><span class="fullpost">Flesh and Fire by Laura Anne Gilman</span></li><li><span class="fullpost">Fright Court by Mindy Klasky</span></li><li><span class="fullpost">The Heretic by Joseph Nassise</span></li><li><span class="fullpost">House of the Star by Caitlin Brennan</span></li><li><span class="fullpost">Indigo Springs by A.M. Dellamonica</span></li><li><span class="fullpost">Jade Tiger by Jenn Reese</span></li><li><span class="fullpost">Kat, Incorrigible by Stephanie Burgis</span></li><li><span class="fullpost">Medium Dead by Chris Dolley</span></li><li><span class="fullpost">Midnight at Spanish Gardens by Alma Alexander</span></li><li><span class="fullpost">Play Dead by John Levitt</span></li><li><span class="fullpost">Shade by Jeri Smith-Ready</span></li><li><span class="fullpost">The Snow Queen’s Shadow by Jim C. Hines</span></li><li><span class="fullpost">Spellcast by Barbara Ashford</span></li><li><span class="fullpost">The Spirit Lens by Carol Berg</span></li><li><span class="fullpost">TruthSeeker by C.E. Murphy</span></li><li><span class="fullpost">Up Against It by M.J. Locke</span></li><li><span class="fullpost">With Fate Conspire by Marie Brennan</span></li></ul><br /><br />Learn more about sfnovelists at <a href="http://www.sfnovelists.com/">our website</a><br /></span>carolwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01256696323017219424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-757509958916289741.post-32431566525275289662011-09-15T22:41:00.008-06:002011-09-15T23:28:30.358-06:00In the Mail!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aMBxZcMoV4Y/TnLUL02Z5hI/AAAAAAAABWs/oh8sv815GpU/s1600/Song%2BBox%2B1.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aMBxZcMoV4Y/TnLUL02Z5hI/AAAAAAAABWs/oh8sv815GpU/s320/Song%2BBox%2B1.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5652813781933876754" border="0" /></a><br />What should show up at my front door today, but this box of lovely books! Yes, these are the new trade paperback editions of <span style="font-style: italic;">Song of the Beast, </span><span>winner of the 2004 Colorado Book Award</span>. <br /><br />I wasn't too sure of the new cover when I got a jpg of it a couple of months ago. Thought it was too dark. But, wow, I think it came out really nice! I've gotta say, thought, Aidan probably wasn't looking quite this...robust...after seventeen years in prison. But I'm ok with it!<br /><br />So what's new? And where does this story fit in my brood of thirteen?<br /><br /><span class="fullpost">Cover, format, print size, and the <span style="font-weight:bold;">Introduction by the Author</span> are new. The actual text is the same as its initial release. <br /><br />Song of the Beast is actually the earliest written of all my published books - though it was released after the three Books of the Rai-kirah, <span style="font-style:italic;">Transformation</span>, <span style="font-style:italic;">Revelation</span>, and <span style="font-style:italic;">Restoration</span>. I tell a bit about how the story came to be in the new introduction. It was my break-through book in many ways. I think it suffered a bit from being released after the Rai-kirah books, as it is a much simpler story. It is a story that poured out of me when I was making a big step forward in my writing, and so is not quite as polished or nuanced as my later work. But I think in some ways it is a microcosm of what I have been trying to do. Good stories with complicated characters and a plot that isn't always as expected, told in vivid language.<br /><br />So why did my publisher choose to do this? It was time for another print run. All of my books have stayed in print so far, but every time the supply dwindles, the publisher has to choose whether to reprint or not. I like to think it is a measure of faith in both story and author that Roc chose to reinvest in the artwork and larger size. (And maybe if it does well, they'll do the same for other books and get rid of those green wings!)<br /><br />If you've not read it, I hope you enjoy it. And if you have, I hope this reissue reintroduces some good friends and some pleasurable hours.</span>carolwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01256696323017219424noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-757509958916289741.post-62254438468581463062011-08-23T14:59:00.006-06:002011-08-23T15:59:25.442-06:00WorldCon in Reno - Day 3
<br />The late night and the blackout curtains in the hotel room did their work. I didn't wake up until almost 9:30 - and I had an event at 10! The hike through the sprawling hotel and the half mile of skywalk into the convention center seemed extra long. Made it in time and mostly put together.
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<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5ujznxksCuE/TlQiSWeC1nI/AAAAAAAABWc/BxaSDZtIgtY/s1600/2011Cover.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 210px; height: 320px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5ujznxksCuE/TlQiSWeC1nI/AAAAAAAABWc/BxaSDZtIgtY/s320/2011Cover.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5644173931666658930" /></a>My first event was the the <span style="font-weight:bold;">BroadUniverse Rapidfire Reading</span>. We had about twelve readers and a gracious hostess in Anne Wilkes. Each of us read for 4 minutes. As on Wednesday at the library I chose a bit of <span style="font-style:italic;">Song of the Beast</span> to read - in honor of its re-release coming up in October. The first page of Song is one of my favorite of my openings. Ahh...poor Aidan.
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<br /><span class="fullpost">I love BU RFRs - you get to hear bits of all sorts of speculative fiction, as you are introduced to published and unpublished women writers. Fantasy writer Elaine Isaak, as I've seen before, topped the day with an hilarious short piece exactly designed for four minutes. Don't miss Elaine at an RFR - and don't volunteer to be one of her heroes.
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<br />Fortunately, I had half an hour before my long reading to get a drink and catch my breath. There are lots of things in the writing life I don't do at all or don't do well - blog tours, tweeting, cold calling, keeping up with giveaways and such. But I adore reading aloud. I don't so much "act out" the story as shift my voice slightly between speakers. But I know all the emotion and subtle meanings that are lurking in my characters and I think I do a pretty good job bringing all that to the fore when I read.
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<br />Unless one is the guest of honor, con readings are most usually given a strict 30 minute time slot. Thus it is extremely rude for a reader to linger past time. I always sweat this, as I try to cram a sizable piece into my reading! And this was to be my inaugural reading from <span style="font-style:italic;">The Daemon Prism</span>. So it was truly distressing when the reader who had the slot before mine lapsed 10 minutes into my slot. Even after I stepped into the back of the room, she continued, even at one time holding her pages in front of her face. I discovered later that she was the widow of one of my favorite writers, but she should ask for more time if she needs it. Some of the first things you learn as a neo-pro is to time your readings, respect other professionals, and respect the attendees, both those attending your session and others. OK, enough of my rant...
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<br />I did have a good-sized and appreciative audience - thank you all for that! (I'll be doing this same Daemon Prism reading at MileHiCon, World Fantasy, and Tuscon.) Used most of the following hour visiting with people I hadn't seen in a couple of years! Found out my friend and reader Corky had sold his first story to Fantasy Magazine - that is FINE!
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<br />There is nothing so good for one's humility than sharing an autographing with Robin Hobb, Kim Stanley Robinson, and Patty Briggs. I really, really appreciated my steady trickle of readers! I had been looking forward to a chance to meet Robin/Megan and talk with her a bit, but it was not to be. She was still signing when I hurried off to meet my good friend Diana Pharaoh Francis, paranormal romance writer turned Tor fantasy author Susan Krinard, and my agent Lucienne Diver for a drink and a discussion of the new world of e-publishing. Many literary agents are looking for ways to support their clients in the e-publishing as well as the print publishing sphere. It's always important to research agents carefully - and now that this new wrinkle is popping up, it's even more important. I feel very fortunate to have Lucienne as my agent.
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<br />After dinner, we sat over at the other con hotel shooting the breeze and watching the people wandering in and out of the masquerade. A short bus ride back and it was time to crash.
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<br /></span>carolwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01256696323017219424noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-757509958916289741.post-10691549295507944192011-08-20T00:21:00.004-06:002011-08-20T09:45:21.812-06:00WorldCon in Reno - Day 2Thursday was my busiest day at the con - non-stop from 9am to 2am. I was scheduled for two panels, a kaffeeklatsch, my publisher's presentation, plus I wanted to attend two of my friends' debut readings, their book launch party, and a couple more parties where I might run into people I knew.
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<br />Well I ran into people I knew all day, as it happened. Writer friends, readers, convention acquaintances from Montana, Seattle, and other WorldCons. That's the part I love about conventions, running into all these people, when I used to know <span style="font-style:italic;">no one</span>. Then I can introduce them to each other. Still a lot of folks I don't know. In the cafe at breakfast time were George RR Martin, Joe Haldeman, and Robert Silverberg. Well, I've been introduced, but...
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<br />The panels were interesting...
<br /><span class="fullpost">The first one was on how to make it as a full time writer. Interesting perspectives from a delightful Bud Sparhawk, Dean Wesley Smith, Christina York, and Tom Negrino, who writes mostly non-fiction. We concluded that there was a great deal of difference between those who have to support a family as a full time writer and those, like me, who graduate to being a full time writer after a decently paying day job. Also talked about how many writers find it either more stimulating or less stressful to intentionally pursue their day jobs, even when they could probably make it on writing alone. Full time writing is not always the glamor job aspiring writers imagine. But we all agreed writing was the best job in the world.
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<br />After a fine hour kaffeeklatsching with five questioning readers, I moderated a panel on creating non-human characters. We had a big audience, and it became clear that this was a huge topic, when one considered everything from enhanced humans (Kathleen Anne Goonan) to lizard or cyber intelligences (Robert Sawyer) to fantastic creatures (Martha Wells and me). Another panelist, Amy Thomson, stirred things up a bit speculating on why it is so hard to get stories with entirely non-human characters published. And we talked about the problems of getting readers to identify and sympathize with characters so entirely alien.
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<br />My friends Courtney Schafer and Brad Beaulieu did beautifully on their first WorldCon readings. Both have debut novels just out from Nightshade Books. Saw far too many books I want to read at the Ace/Roc "What's coming up?" presentation. Party-hopped with my agent, Lucienne Diver, best-bud/fine author Diana Pharaoh Francis, and friend Kendra from MisCon who was soaking in her first WorldCon. Mostly very hot and noisy, so after an hour or two, Di, Kendra, and I grabbed Sue Bolich and retreated to a quiet, smoke-free lounge area and talked and people-watched until about 1:30am. Now THAT is the best of convention life!
<br /></span>carolwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01256696323017219424noreply@blogger.com1