What do writers of f/sf read?

It's not surprising to me that they sometimes read out of their field:

• Tim Powers (The Anubis Gates and The Skies Discrowned) recommends Robert Heinlein's 1941 short story, "By His Bootstraps": "I couldn't have written 'The Anubis Gates' if I hadn't read this. Anyone who has written a time travel story in the past 50 years could say the same."
• Rebecca Moesta (Young Jedi Knights Series) chooses Isaac Asimov's 1951 short story, "The Fun They Had": "It was cautionary for me. I highly recommend it."
• Anne McCaffrey (Pern Series) looks ahead to new author Andrea Kail's short story, 'The Sun God At Dawn, Rising from a Lotus Blossom" in the anthology L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future, Volume XIII: "The story is a fascinating glimpse of a reborn young King Tut and his emotional development as he comes to realize his plight as a political pawn."

I say "not surprising" because I read out of the fantasy field a bit myself: Patrick O'Brian, C.S. Forester, Bernard Cornwell, Raymond Chandler, Stephen King, H.P. Lovecraft (the latter two sort of overlap into fantasy, but I'm considering them more of the horror vein for my purposes here).

Why is it a good thing to read outside your field as a writer?

Because you want to see how other writers use their tools. You want to study their style, see how they develop their characters, learn how they structure their story. If you read O'Brian, you're looking at the manner in which he represents setting--the authenticity of the time period is crucial to transporting the reader to the story's world. For Cornwell, more of the same, but also how he tempers suspense and action, how he raises the reader's interest and holds it through one harrowing experience after another. King--how he creates undeniably believable characters that suck you in from the first moment you encounter them.

I know you have your own favorite authors outside of the field in which you've chosen to write. Make sure you're studying their work as much as you're enjoying it.

Galaxy Press :: Top Speculative Fiction Writers Pick Favorite Stories

Yep, getting back to it. The "it" being writing and my pursuit to get published. The software consulting project I was involved with for the past so many months is over, I just finished Robin Hobb's Renegade's Magic, and things are just getting back to normal all around. So normal, in fact, that I actually found some time to work on the first revisions of the rough draft of my second novel over the past weekend. I didn't make much progress, but I've started the process, and it feels good.

Also, I've dropped most of the pitch concerning my first novel, The Hall of the Wood. It's still in my fiction section, ready for download, but I've dispensed with much of the shareware idea. I did receive a small amount of money from a few readers, and for that I'm thankful. Hopefully it's a sign of the future when people will pay money for a real, physical book of mine. That being said, the "donate" button is still there, but I'm not forcing it on anyone. I still want people to download my book, and if someone wants to throw a buck or two my way, thanks. But there's even less obligation now than there was before.

Now, back to writing...

Interesting debate on Helium concerning whether or not the fantasy genre has stagnated.

I'm in the "No, it has not" camp. There's plenty of fresh writing going on--George R.R. Martin, Ellen Kushner, Steven Erikson, Scott Lynch, and stalwarts like Robin Hobb who always seem to break stereotypes and keep me guessing as to what's going to happen next. These are not the sort of writers who use such tropes as dark lords and elves or dwarves--that's a lesson unto itself for budding writers--but who rely on more meaningful devices to keep their readers interested--intrigue, suspense, characterization.

Sometimes you have to sift through some junk to find those authors, though, and I think that's where the belief in stagnation comes from. I received an ARC a few months back that just didn't do it for me. Had I spent money on that book I might have felt obligated to read further. But the fact of the matter is I gave it about 100 pages and had to put it down. There just wasn't anything engaging or original in it.

Let this all be a warning: that as new writers we need to think outside the box, break stereotypes, and write the kind of story that we would want to read were we browsing the shelves looking for that next great fantasy novel.

Debate: Has the fantasy genre become stagnant? - Helium

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New F/SF Magazine blog.

There was a pretty good take on the Vigorous Writing blog (which apparently, as of 11/28/08, has disappeared) concerning the question of how much time one should spend blogging.

Of note:

"Newer writers still trying to build their credibility and client list might protest that they have much more free time than Bly has and they need to find a way to market themselves so blogging is a great, forward-thinking way of doing it. There's something to that, but honestly, I think it's an easy way out, the path of least resistance--what new writers should probably be doing, instead of blogging and reading other blogs and commenting on other blogs and brain-storming ideas for their latest blog post, is what many writers hate doing--cold-calling for leads non-stop."

Of course, this applies to people like me--mostly unpublished, 'new', if you will, and looking for a way to promote my name and my work. First and foremost, this blog is a marketing tool. It's all about increasing exposure. But it's also about connecting with like-minded individuals and sharing information.

According to one referenced blogger, one shouldn't spend more than 10 minutes/day or an hour/week blogging. How in the world are you supposed to have any quality posts with such time constraints? Geez. The guy is really saying that blogging isn't really work, and that time spent blogging is time not spent working. True enough, to a point.

Another blogger says to blog in moderation--only post every 4-6 days. That way each post has time to stew, and be read, and garner comments.

Robin Hobb weighed in on the issue in a decidedly negative (but productive) way.

Her reasoning is that time spent blogging is time NOT spent writing. In a way, blogging is a distraction, and we all know that distraction is the enemy. Another way to look at is this: ask yourself if you are a creator or a consumer?

What it really boils down to is finding a happy medium between the two. For some that medium might be more of one and less of the other, or it might be both in equal portions. It's up to the individual and, ultimately, one's goals. If you are or want to become a writer, though, best to heed Hobb's words: "Don’t blog. Write."

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John Scalzi is auctioning off a rare, early copy of his newest book, "Zoe's Tale", the next book in his "Old Man's War" saga. The bidding is approaching $900 as I write this (too rich for me), but it's for a great cause--the Disabled Veterans of America.

Spread the word.

Oh, and consequentially, "Old Man's War" is going to be offered as a free download by Tor either next week or the week after.

“Zoe’s Tale” Auction to Benefit the Disabled American Veterans Charitable Service Trust

This is pretty cool. It's a compilation of book covers released in 2007 that have been "seen by Locus Online", which I guess means they reviewed the titles or some such thing.

They list the authors and artists along with links to Amazon if you wish to buy the book (which obviously helps Locus Online keep doing what they're doing, so go buy something).

Here's a few of my favorites: