Category Archives: Fantasy

January 17, 2011 · 1:41 am

Arisia

I dragged Erich to Arisia this Saturday. Arisia is a sci-fi/fantasy convention in Boston, which split off from another science fiction convention called Boskone, before I even met Erich. I gather that Boskone had been getting a bit too “literary” for some people, so they formed Arisia as an alternative. Unfortunately, although I’ve never been to Boskone, I have to wonder if I might prefer it. Arisia was very much about people showing off costumes — steampunk, predominantly, though there were certainly many others from film and other media. But, to put it mildly, it really wasn’t my “scene.” Which is too bad, because I’ve enjoyed it in the past, and even had my first film show there one year.

To be fair, we were doing a drive-by, blowing in and out quickly, mostly so I could stop by the Dreamspinner table and meet some of my fellow authors. We didn’t have time for any of the panels, which was too bad. Our friend, Marlin, was conducting a panel later that evening on gay images in science fiction, which I would have liked to participate in, and there were some panels on writing YA fiction that might have been interesting, as well.

But we were short on time, and I wasn’t in top form, having had a migraine earlier in the day. I wouldn’t have bothered to go, except that I wanted to say ‘Hi’ to the Dreamspinner crowd. That, I did. I met Ariel Tachna and Nicki Bennett, purchasing a copy of one of their books (Hot Cargo) and making a nuisance of myself by asking them to autograph it. This wouldn’t have been a big deal, except that the only copy they had there was the display copy. Since they don’t actually live near each other, getting me a copy that had been signed by both of them would mean mailing the book around a bit.

This was finally solved by the two of them autographing the display copy and me giving them my address, so they can ship it to me, after the convention. Ariel tells me that, thanks to leaving the book on display, they sold two more copies, before the end of the convention.

I also met Marguerite Labbe, Jonathan Treadway (who my keen powers of observation deduced was, in fact, a woman — since it’s already revealed in her Dreamspinner bio, I can say that Jonathan Treadway is the pseudonym of Jennifer Tilt), and Felicitas Ivey.

They were all very friendly and it was wonderful to meet them and chat. I tried to meet up with them after the table closed, but again I was thwarted by the pub I thought they would be at turning out to be closed for a private party, and a friend needing a ride home. So my visit was short. But perhaps we’ll meet up again someday.

I’ve made a small bit of progress on The Guardians Awaken, both in polishing the beginning chapters and in moving ahead with the final scenes. It’s not going either smoothly or quickly yet, but hopefully it will pick up pace soon. I tend to go through a period, when I’m doing rewrites, where I have to spend some time re-acquainting myself with the story first.

In the real world, the anti-gay marriage crowd in the NH legislature have decided they don’t have time to deal with attempting a repeal of the gay marriage law this year. So, we have a little time. This also may decrease their chances of success, since the longer gay marriage continues in the state, the more comfortable people will be with it, and the less likely a move to repeal it will be to gain support.

Zack and Larry is finished

Zack and Larry Make a Porno was finished a couple days ago, and it came out better than I’d anticipated. I was afraid it would just be, well…porn. It certainly does have a lot more sex in it, than anything I’ve written previously. Not terribly surprising, considering the premise. But the characters found their own voices, with Zack being protective of Larry and concerned about what “normal” straight men were supposed to do and not do, and Larry being an outsider who manages to offend nearly everyone, but who would do anything for Zack.

It needs polishing. The pacing is a bit off, and the characterization can be improved, but there’s something there worth putting out, I think.

My still-unforunately-named cyberpunk story, The Bodyguard, has been read by a couple friends and both liked it. The main criticism, so far, has been unhappiness with the open ending. It’s intended to imply that our heroes are now heading into an even bigger adventure. But of course, my friends wanted to read that adventure now. I’m beginning to think I might need to write the sequel, before submitting this one. I’d rather not change the ending. But it might be a good idea to have the sequel already written, so I can tell the editor that there is definitely a follow-up story — and here it is.

Of course, that means both stories may be considered together, and if the editor doesn’t like one, or doesn’t feel like publishing two stories, right now, neither will be published.

I’ve gotten back to work on my YA fantasy novel, The Guardians Awaken, about two young men — one a street urchin; the other, nobility — caught in the middle of a human war and a simultaneous war between the gods. I love the novel, but I’ve been stuck on the big battle scene at the end since last Fall. Hopefully, I can get through that and finish it up. Between that novel and my YA novel about a Viking sorceror, Seidhman, I really hope I can at least start making the rounds of YA publishers this coming year.

Working on a short fantasy

About 2,000 words in on a 7,000 word story I’m trying to have done by November 1st. Not sure I’ll be finished by then, but hopefully I’ll have a good story to shop around, even if I miss the contest deadline, although there’s a big chance iI’ll use a college paper writing service online, just to be sure and to get a little help.

It’s interesting, for me, because it’s in a somewhat different style than I’m used to. My normal writing is a bit long-winded, which is why I tend more towards novels (or novellas) than short stories. Many publishers won’t accept a short story over 6,000 words, and I find it difficult to tell a story in that amount of space. For this story, I’ve come up with a rather complicated plot (though its fairly typical of high fantasy adventures) and I’ve opted to tell it in short snippets of about two-thirds of a page each, alternating between the points of view of the two major characters.

Ultimately, as with most of my stories, it’s a romance. I do write horror, and those stories don’t always end well, but there is usually a romantic element to them, regardless. For me, that keeps the characters interesting.

But making it plausible that two characters who don’t particularly like each other at the beginning of the story could fall so deeply in love by the end of the story (only 7,000 words later) that one is willing to sacrifice himself for the other…that could be a challenge.