November’s End

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Posted on 30th November 2009 by LadyGlutter in Freedom | blogging | books | suicide loss

Nov2009Only December to go to finish the year out!  Hooray!  I seriously hate this year.  2009 has been the suckfest of all my life. Oh, I know there may be worse times to come, but I don’t want to imagine it.  I’m so sick of the holidays already, with all the cheer and the happy and family fun times, YAY!  I want to enjoy it, and sometimes I do, but other times it makes me gag.

I read The Bell Jar today.  Started it last night, really.  I enjoyed it, very much in the same way I enjoyed The Catcher in the Rye, though I think today’s book was more pertinent to me.  No real revelations, though.  I can seriously empathize with mentally ill people, and there are times when I wonder if that just means I’m sick, too.  So many conversations that I had with Lauren the week before he died, and me saying, “Me, too, I totally understand that!” and now I worry that there’s some hidden monster in me waiting to kill me.  Especially on days when I just don’t want to get out of bed, when life just seems a dreaded chore, I worry. What would I do if something overcame me?  Am I wired the same way?

Obviously, mental illness is on my mind, and the holidays, and so many other things.  The parts of The Bell Jar I sympathized the most with, though, were the feminist portions, and the life decisions parts.  Feeling paralyzed that one decision excludes all others is a very familiar conundrum to me.  Right now I’ve got to choose something for survival that might throw me off a track that I was enthusiastic about, that I thought my whole passion was behind.  Was it really?  Was it driven out so easily because it wasn’t my passion, or am I just going through what all the books really say?  Why don’t I believe that the books and the psychology apply to me?  What is the right decision to make for my family?  (What about the right decision for me?  And why do I think to add that when I’m reviewing the blog post 10 minutes after I originally published it?)

Tomorrow it’ll be different, after the kids get up and get out of bed I’ll concentrate on them, and doing the laundry, and all the other steps that need doing.  But now is the time I’m thinking and whirling in my mind and all I catch are shadows of what would have been if I weren’t such a dumbass and could figure it all out.  And I don’t know what to do and I’m sick of not knowing what to do and I’m tired of walking into the other room to discreetly cry a few tears and then pull my hair down to hide my face behind.

So maybe the book did do me some good, and was cathartic, since I’m a wreck right now.  I’m just going to revel in being free and having finished what I started.

I’ll Eat You Up!

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Posted on 26th October 2009 by LadyGlutter in books | movies | parenting

Yesterday my family saw Where The Wild Things Are.  I’d been looking forward to this for months in advance, but as the date drew closer, I found myself apprehensive.  What if they ruined one of the simplest, best books from my youth?  Could I stand it?  People were buzzing about it, which made me more nervous.  I was surprised that many people were interested.  When I heard someone express boredom with the whole concept, it made me feel much better, actually.  I can’t explain that.  Then there was the premiere, and all talk seemed to drop off.  All I heard was Zombieland talk.  It was bizarre, because I knew so many people who claimed to be going the day of, but no one could tell me how the movie actually was.

I went looking up reviews, knowing that I couldn’t spoil the movie, having read the book.  I read scathing reviews mixed in with awestruck reviews.  People suggested this was a big “ad for Ritalin” or a scarefest that would traumatize children.  I actually read one reviewer who said it was unfair of Spike Jonze to inflict his own tortured, dark views of childhood on her precious cherubs.  I also read a lot of reviews that said it was boring, and there wasn’t much plot.  So, I was a little concerned that it would be overly dark.  I wasn’t concerned about the plot, since it’s a 10 sentence book.  I didn’t expect a very complex, involved plot.  I expected the same as the book.  Kid throws tantrum, escapes to his imaginary world, comes down off his tantrum, and returns home, where he finds unconditional love.

After seeing the movie, which held pretty true to that formula, I find myself boggling at the reactions I read. The most common charges were that the movie was too scary, or symbolically complex  for children to sit through.  Ha.  My kids, 8 and 5, loved it.  The little one was scared on the way to the theatre because he’d overheard me discussing the dark reviews I’d read.  Several people suggested that anyone who identified with this movie, adult or child, should get to a counsellor or swallow some happy pills straightaway. Well, childhood is not all gummy bears and rainbows!  Life is hard sometimes.  To pretend otherwise is unfair to children.  Yes, there are developmental stages wherein their understanding of life’s complexities are incomplete, but we could say that of any adult as well.

I also read complaints that we didn’t know the “backstory” of some of the Wild Things.  Guess what?  This is a story about critters from a boy’s imagination.  Go with that!  Children often are baffled by other people’s behavior.  They DON’T know the backstory as to why the people in their lives act the way they do.  It’s frustrating to not understand, or not to be able to express yourself properly.  Kids have tantrums, freak out, get out of control, act like wild things!  I think the movie captured that very well.  Max was no monster, despite what reviewers said.

The last complaint I read a lot of was that the movie was boring, and only a “hipster” (I read this several times) would enjoy it.  I don’t even understand that complaint, to be honest.  I suppose it’s the most honest of all the reactions, though, because that boils down to an actual preference, instead of a misguided attempt to shelter children from evil feelings like anger and sadness!  The boring, I can attribute to the lack of song and dance razzle dazzle that Pixar and Disney have conditioned us to expect from a kid’s story.  Jim Henson style puppets (which were supercool, by the way), even with updated animations, are inadequate in a world where every movie is a primary colored 3D animation fest.  I found the movie to be stylistically beautiful and refreshing, personally.

HP:HBP Rant

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Posted on 12th August 2009 by LadyGlutter in books | movies

Yeah, I know, this is a month late to say anything about Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, but I just saw it last night. I really expected the normal disappointment at seeing a well written book translated to film. As usual, I was careful not to read too much ahead of time, so as to spoil my enjoyment. My anticipation wasn’t very high.  I was hoping for good enough. Kinda like Goblet of Fire.  Instead, I’d say the movie rated about a D.  That’s not good enough.  It’s only a passing grade because it hit enough of the crucial plot points that I suppose there’s a justification for the next two movies.

I would quit watching the Harry Potter movies by now if I hadn’t read the books. But having read the books, somehow I can’t tear my eyes away from the train wreck. Just so you know, in the book, there’s crazy stuff about the freaking HALF BLOOD PRINCE in and also Lord Voldemort and some other apparently unimportant junk. The book is the most powerful of the series, I think. But somehow this movie was utterly boring! For such an emotional book, too!  I cried at the end, but only because I knew what it should have been, so I cared about what was happening. Or really, what should have been happening.

Did J.K. Rowling just quit with the input?  I remember when they were making the first few, she’d insist certain seemingly unimportant details be kept in because they were crucial to the story line.  Did she decide to just quit once the last book came out, figuring that now that the whole story was out there, any idiot would know not to give Bellatrix 4th billing?   Or to cut out all those pesky bits of information about Snape, Harry’s parents, or most all of the stuff about Voldy’s childhood?  They even cut out the interesting bits of the love stories, and left us with half a movie about how annoying Lavender was!

Flat out disappointed, even going in with low expectations.

Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind

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Posted on 9th June 2009 by LadyGlutter in Freedom | books | personal growth

Continuing on with what I’ve learned from The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, we reach the Habit I’m personally struggling with the most right now. If Stephen Covey is right that each of these habits builds on the last one, then I’ve got a long way to go, because #2 and #3 (Put first things first) are really where I know I get stuck.  Of course, since this is my greatest lack, this is also where the book was the most useful for me.

Indecision is probably my biggest weakness. I didn’t need a book to tell me that part.  I try to make it a strength, by using the time that I hesitate to explore all possible options, eliminate pitfalls, and psyching myself up.  Once I’ve made a decision, I tend to apply my entire being towards achieving my goals.  Having a goal is a lot easier to plan than flitting about aimlessly.  But how do I decide what “end” I want?  There are many suggestions in this chapter to help find this ultimate goal in life, from imagining my own funeral to writing out a personal mission statement. The crux of the matter is that to truly be effective at anything, the first step is to discern what is truly important.  What is my life supposed to be about, and is my life really reflective of those values?

I haven’t officially written a personal mission statement, but I have spent a great deal of time journaling in the past few years, exploring “what I want to do with my life.”   Indecision has always plagued me, partly because that question seems to only relate to a career path.  While that is one of the large defining aspects of most people’s lives, being a stay at home Mom for so many years has clouded the issue with emotion.  Covey’s way of looking at the issue helps tremendously.  Though I know it intellectually, this satisfies my emotional response that bucks against it simply being about a career.  In fact, a broader definition will aid me in reaching the goals I want to achieve.  By actually thinking it through and deciding what principles I believe in and can exemplify, I’m no longer doomed to drift along, indecisive, trying to pick the best path moment to moment based on what’s likely to be around the next bend.  I can pick my course more consciously with a long term end in mind.  Every day I can work towards the integrated whole, rather than trying to convince myself to pursue disjointed goals that don’t truly resonate with my entire vision, but just seem to be what I ought to do next.

I also don’t have to pick one path or the other if my goals are seemingly divergent, but really are flowing towards the same end.I can create new solutions that fit this new end, rather than settle for simply “Mom” or a given career path.  Obviously, I want to leave a legacy for my children, but also for the world. I want to have an indomitable spirit that perseveres through everything.   I want to be courageous, and inspire courage in others.  I want to be kind, and strong, and loving.  I want to touch the sky, and teach others they can, too.  By beginning with a proper end in mind, one that really speaks to me, I can effectively put my life into order properly to achieve that goal.

Habit One: Be Proactive

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Posted on 2nd June 2009 by LadyGlutter in Freedom | Love | books | personal growth

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People has been my textbook for the last month. I’ve blogged about the introductory chapters, but haven’t delved into the individual habits themselves. Since it’s due back at the library this Friday, I won’t have it as a ready reference until I actually buy it for myself.  Reading it and examining my own life, I find I practice most of the habits in certain scenarios, and not at all in others. Since those tend to be the areas I truly shine and feel great confidence in, I can see the value of consciously applying the habits in all aspects of my daily life.

Each habit builds on the last, so the first habit, Be Proactive, is the most basic foundation of all effective people. Covey talks of Viktor Frankl, who lost almost all of his family in the concentration camps of Nazi Germany, as the embodiment of this term.  Frankl found meaning, despite everything that he lost, by thinking on how this would shape him years from now.  He managed to turn his very response to the time in the concentration camps into a time to develop a stellar character.  Eventually he influenced thousands of lives for the better by teaching this very lesson to others.

Humans have a unique capacity to choose the response to stimuli.  Proactive people take charge of their own consciousness.  Reactive people forego that ability, so if life is good, so are they, but if life is bad, they can’t help it. They allow themselves to become victims or martyrs to circumstance.  Certainly, knowing that my feelings are hurt because I allow it doesn’t take away disappointment or heartbreak.   But I can decide how it affects me.  Do I learn from it, or do I allow myself to become broken and jaded?  Do I allow my successes to make me complacent and spoiled, or am I grateful and hardworking as a result?  I have the choice.

When my kids were born, I felt for a long time that other people were running my life, and I felt a great resentment.   The less I stood up for myself, the more people used me as a doormat.  The foreclosure on my house snapped me out of that funk. It was huge — here I was doing everything everyone wanted me to, even though I saw a thousand ways things could be done better.  Did I do those things?  No, because I wanted to make everyone else happy.  Instead, I ended up miserable without a home.  In 7 days, I had to find a new place to live, with no credit and no money. Thank God for anger, because that was the fuel I ran on for a while. I also had friends for moral support, and I am very grateful to them.  There were even offers to bail us out, on the condition that the people bailing us out truly could run our financial lives. I had a chance to turn my life over again, and continue to blame other people for their active roles in crashing my finances and my family life.  Sadly, it was tempting at first, but that offer really sealed the lesson for me.

Against the wishes of extended family and friends, we chose to start taking control again. The people who had tried to take over our finances truly meant well, I think.  Honestly, following their plan would only have weakened our characters further.  Sure, we’d have learned humility, but at the cost of our own dignity and power.  The transition back to marital and fiscal health was painful and difficult, and I still struggle daily with my attitude.  But I will not allow myself to turn over my life to anyone else again, nor will I allow negativity to rule my life.  I do not blame anyone, not even my husband, for any of that mess today, because I could have stopped it.

After this habit, all the others seem fairly simple, actually.

Let the Sun Shine!

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Posted on 14th May 2009 by LadyGlutter in Freedom | books | personal growth

On the top of my reading stack is The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. I’ve read through the first two habits now. Steve Covey’s advice is to treat the book as something I will read over and over again, studying, growing, and perfecting.  As long as the book is all that it’s hyped to be, I can accept that.  Personal growth is never ending.  He also suggests that I read as if I was planning to share what I learned within 48 hours, so I’d planned to blog a bit about things that struck me as interesting along the way, sharing with you all and having a way for me to look back and remember my thoughts later on.

Life this month has been soggy. The rain kept coming and coming. Everyone around me was in a funk. Online, there has been a virtual bitchfest, which I’ve gladly participated in at times.  Blowing off steam helps, and heck if I wasn’t getting deprived of some precious vitamin D! My brother, who lives far away in Virginia, even complained about the rain. I felt all hazy and blue — very unmotivated in general.  But I did read some, which helped.  I ran across this passage:

…Sometimes the most proactive thing we can do is to be happy, just to genuinely smile.  Happiness, like unhappiness, is a proactive choice.  There are things, like the weather, that our Circle of Influence will never include.  But as proactive people, we can carry our own physical or social weather with us.  We can be happy and accept those things at present we can’t control, while we focus our efforts on the things that we can.

I read this and thought, I know, I know!  Get rid of your bad attitude.  Gosh, do you have to nag, Stephen? Then I checked myself, and adjusted my attitude.  But really, how many times do I need to learn this lesson for it to stick?  It’s such a simple, basic message, but it is so hard to apply sometimes!  Life has taught it to me repeatedly. No matter how horrible it is, if everything is going wrong in life, I can passively allow the mood to take over, or I can decide to get on with it.  Sometimes the rain still irritates me, and the preachy book I’m reading about motivating myself to take control of my own life rubs me the wrong way.  I can indulge those feelings, or I can face them and examine myself and decide what I’m going to do about it.

How do you deal with moods you can’t shake?  My usual M.O. for breaking out of a persistent funk involves music.  I crank out whiny, pissy, melancholy, or angry music — whatever matches my mood.  Usually that works, and I’ll be out of my funk in no time.  Pairing the music with a nice endorphin high (exercise or sex) works brilliantly. One warning, though — I’ve learned when I’m too depressed to listen to some things because I just break down into sobs of despair.  Those things I save for when I’m already starting out in a good mood and can appreciate a sweet sadness.  Willie Nelson in particular will break my heart a thousand times over if I’m feeling lonesome.

Sometimes just talking to other people about how I feel rotten will do the trick.  Listening to cheesy jokes works.  It really is often as simple as deciding that it’s not worth worrying or moping about if I can’t change it, or getting up and doing something if I can.  Because if I don’t want to feel a certain way, why should I wait on circumstances to change?  I’ve got control of the emotions right here.  It takes an enormous amount of willpower sometimes not to wallow in my own misery, but it’s really doing me no good.  Exerting that power feels so awesome, once I’ve decided “enough!”

Today, the sun came out, and I opened up the windows and enjoyed the change of scenery.  But ultimately, I want to carry my own sunshine around with me wherever I go.

Reading A Clockwork Orange

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Posted on 4th May 2009 by LadyGlutter in Freedom | books | movies

The discussion of A Clockwork Orange is well past overdue.   Most of us in my informal book club have been very busy over the past few months, and reading a book and finding an available time for to meet up has been difficult for some.   I’m a little concerned that choosing A Clockwork Orange may have put one of the nails in the group’s coffin, because I’m fairly certain it didn’t hold mass appeal.  Having seen the Stanley Kubrick movie first, I was prepared for Alex’s gleeful portrayal of the violent life he led, and I expected that it might be a bit gruesome for others to read. Interestingly, it actually turned out to be a much lighter read than I expected.

The book is written in Nadsat, a dialect Burgess created for the book composed of “…odd bits of old rhyming slang.  A bit of gypsy talk, too. But most of the roots are Slav. Propaganda. Subliminal penetration.”  At the beginning, Alex’s dialog is confusing and foreign, but Burgess quickly gives plenty of clues as to the meaning of unfamiliar words.  Of course, most printings of the book now have a glossary.  Failing that, an online version is easy to come by.  After a chapter or so, the reader should have a general handle on the language without any aids, anyway.  I found this an interesting device, but  I enjoy plays with language and am fascinated with how pidgins and dialects are formed and function.  Alex is very musical, and that comes through in his speech patterns. I enjoyed the parallelism to the music in his lyric turns of phrase, but others found it to be distraction from the larger message of the work.

To complicate matters further, the British version has a signicant difference to the originally published American version, and I almost missed it entirely.  My copy, printed in the 60s, was on loan from the local library.  A few of the other girls were reading an online copy. About an hour before meeting time on our original discussion date, I was looking online for interesting talking points.  I kept running across a question about the significance of the drink Alex orders in the last chapter. I was absolutely confused.  There’s no opportunity for Alex to order a drink in the last chapter!  Did I nod off somewhere near the end?!

A quick online search solved the mystery. Originally, the final chapter was simply not published in America. I found Anthony Burgess’ essay on the situation and the missing last chapter with 30 minutes to spare.   I think the book is stronger without the moralizing of the last chapter, but it wasn’t my work.  If Burgess had a formula and a plan, how much should it be honored? I suppose, in the end, he allowed it to be published without that last chapter, so he made the decision himself.

I grinned as I read Burgess’ introduction:

I first published the novella A Clockwork Orange in 1962, which ought to be far enough in the past for it to be erased from the world’s literary memory. It refuses to be erased, however, and for this the film version of the book made by Stanley Kubrick may be held chiefly responsible. I should myself be glad to disown it for various reasons, but this is not permitted. I receive mail from students who try to write theses about it, or requests from Japanese dramaturges to turn it into a sort of Noh play. It seems likely to survive, while other works of mine that I value more bite the dust. This is not an unusual experience for an artist. Rachmaninoff used to groan because he was known mainly for a Prelude in C Sharp Minor which he wrote as a boy, while the works of his maturity never got into the programmes. Kids cut their pianistic teeth on a Minuet in G which Beethoven composed only so that he could detest it. I have to go on living with A Clockwork Orange, and this means I have a sort of authorial duty to it. I have a very special duty to it in the United States, and I had better now explain what that duty is.

So he wasn’t very fond of the book, himself!  There was a talking point, and I was very excited, but also distraught.  As I was frantically trying to print out 6 copies of that last chapter so we would all have it to refer to, I got a phone call.  Only one of the girls had been able to read it, and quite a few of the group wasn’t going to be able to make it after all.  The extra time was actually a relief, and absolved me from dealing with a frustrating paper jam.

A month later, we still haven’t discussed the book in much detail.  The misadventures along the way taught me more about the book than I would have learned simply buying it from the bookstore. As I said, I really enjoyed it, but it does read like an early work, and I understand why Burgess later found it to be distasteful. I also understand why Kubrick and the American publisher chose to forego the last chapter.  I still find myself conflicted about that last chapter. I’ve tried very hard not to spoil anything for anyone in this post on the off chance that some of you are still working on the book.  Still, I hope that even if we don’t meet, that everyone would feel free to talk about the book in the comments, whether they are a part of the book club or not.

Self Publishing and Alternative Media

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Posted on 11th April 2009 by LadyGlutter in Freedom | Internet | blogging | books

At last, I’ve reached the end of the ImagiCon brainstorm. This is the conclusion to my earlier article about publishing options.  Typing and sharing each of these has been great fun, and hopefully I will get many more opportunities to learn like crazy and share it with the world.

Whenever I hear someone is self-published, my mind immediately cringes.  Vanity publishing is the derogatory term to describe small presses that will publish anything for a fee.  Professionals who have a quota of books to be published as part of their job description have been known turn to vanity presses when traditional professional and educational publishers reject their works.  The vanity publisher makes money by selling the author the physical version of his own work.  When I was studying for my degree, my professors repeatedly warned us all never to use a vanity publisher, no matter how tempting it might be just to get published.   The general view is that the work isn’t worthy enough to be commercially viable, and it hurts an author’s later chances with a well-respected publisher.  Vanity publishers also have a reputation for predatory contracts that strip authors of the rights to their works.

While a vanity publisher makes their money by selling books to the author, self-publishers now have options to pay very little to nothing up front. Taking on the role of both writer and publisher can be an attractive alternative that really allows great amount of flexibility and freedom to the artist. Self-publishers can simply hire a press to print and bind a book, though ideally the author can find a team of individuals willing to do the work necessary to edit, publish, and distribute the work. PDFs are cheap and easy to produce and distribute.  Very little investment is necessary beyond the sweat equity of creating the finished product. Instead of having to rely on print copies and bookstores to distribute the books, more of the money from a work can go directly to the author and publisher.  A writer who chooses to write and publish on a website or sell an ebook or PDF can actually completely cut out the issue of printing altogether, unless demand for physical copies becomes great enough.  If that’s the case, they can find a press to print on demand, and if not, there’s no need to print.  Obviously, there are plenty of pitfalls to avoid.  An author who self-publishes does not have the infrastructure of any publishing house backing him.  Many self-published works are simply awful due to a lack of even the most basic editing.  The onus is entirely on the author to advertise and promote the work. A certain amount of net savvy is necessary to make electronic media work.   Anyone with something to say can publish it very easily, and there is a whole world of competition.  The market has to glean the wheat from a whole lot of chaff, and people are necessarily skeptical about actually paying for any electronic content.

Historically, self-publishing didn’t carry a stigma.  If someone wanted to get a message out, they wrote pamphlets or books up, hired a printer, and distributed the work as they could.  The publishing business has become a filter for the public.  Bookstores tend to only carry books published by reputable publishers, because those books have been preapproved to be worth publishing.   Self-publishing has been the norm for poetry and other niche markets, and now the model of a reputable publisher being a necessary part of a work’s success is becoming outdated.  As the internet and other electronic media replace paper, newspapers are losing customers to the professional and amateur self-publishers of bloggers, news aggregates, and online magazines.   In this new, changing market, many traditional publications are simply not keeping up with the changing times and going bankrupt, while others adapt and thrive.  The same is happening with books.  For example, most of my book club group is reading A Clockwork Orange online right now, rather than visiting a library or buying the book.  Any online work is self-published.  It might not be returning a profit, or even remotely commercially viable, but anyone reading this already reads self-published content.  You may not directly pay to read your favorite web comic or news pundit, but we’re all participating in the shift in how the world gets its written word.  More and more people are beginning to build companies and making incredible incomes because self-publishing is reemerging as a useful and acceptable means of creating income and distribution of work.

Big House and Independent Publishing

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Posted on 9th April 2009 by LadyGlutter in Internet | art | books

I have decided that these two posts will be the last of the ImagiCon inspired posts.   I learned so much while I was there, and was exposed to exciting new ways of looking at many topics I love, but the past two weeks have been too busy for me to even remember half the details.  I’ll take it as a lesson learned, and try to prioritize my time a little better so that I set those ideas down on pixels before life intervenes.  Most of the topics are inspiring and interesting enough that they’ll be relevant later, so I’ll just pick them up then.

Most of the panels I attended were in the Literary Track, so most of my time was focused on hearing people speak about writing, web technologies, and publishing.   In my notes there are pages of links to check out, books to be watching for, and ideas on how to become a better writer.  Not surprisingly, since ImagiCon was packed with SF, horror, and fantasy authors trying to sell their upcoming books, a big focus in almost all of the panels was on how to get published, types of publishing, and marketing strategies for written materials.  The energy and enthusiasm made it evident that this was the point in the process where the writers were currently embroiled.

Trade Publishing

The traditional route for writers is to go with a well known, established publisher.  These are often referred to as big house or trade publishers.  Getting their attention has historically been difficult, with good reason.  They have thousands of manuscripts coming in every week, and they must triage mercilessly.  With the market on paper becoming more expensive, this process has gotten even more ruthless.  New authors are risky, and already established favorites of the house make most of the money for these publishers.   If the first paragraph doesn’t grab the reader’s attention, there’s a good chance the manuscript will be returned, unread, with a form letter rejection attached.

If a manuscript makes it through a full read, but is rejected, the writer (and agent, if applicable) should dissect the personal rejection letter with careful attention.  No matter how tiny the adverb is, it is feedback, and that is manna to a writer trying to force their way into the marketplace.  To get published by the trade houses, an author often must compromise with ruthless demands, accept page restrictions, be willing to cut out their most precious characters or add new story arcs.  Style often is totally revised to fit in with the feel of the trade publisher’s other books.  It’s an incredibly competitive market, and many brilliant pieces of writing simply will not make it past the several steps required to conform to a publisher’s standards.

After getting a book through the rigors of rewrites, edits, and re-edits, the publisher prints a certain number of copies to be sold.  Traditionally, a book was given six months to move off of shelves before the extras were sent back to the warehouse.  Now, with rising publication costs and competition, that time has been shaved back to closer to six weeks.  Luckily, an author with a big house does not have to do all the work promoting their new book alone.  By signing with that large, well known publisher, the author has ensured that a built in marketing house will be backing their work.

Small Publishers

One alternative is to get published by a smaller house.  Most of the well known publishers have many smaller companies under their umbrella, but I’m not referring to those. Rather, I’m focusing on the independent publishers.  There are many reasons that these independent firms get a good share of real talent that will never be exposed to the mainstream.   Trying to sell a manuscript can meet with repeated dead ends.  Writers often prefer more creative license, and will not alter their art simply to fall in line and conform with the trade houses’ ideas of marketable product.

Independent publishers can be more flexible about words per manuscript and often will take more risks, but they are not the established powerhouses the big conglomerates are.  Besides employing editors, copy editors, and other employees to make sure that the finished product is clean and worth reading, there are the same issues of the cost of creating the physical product.  Paper costs mean that independent publishers are often turning to a “Print on Demand” model.  This is exactly what it sounds like.  Instead of printing a set number of copies ahead of time, books are printed as demand dictates. Often an independent publisher has only a regional market, and limited marketing.  The artist has a lot more marketing to do, and of course many writers cringe at this prospect.   There is also the risk of being taken advantage of by predators who will steal your work.  The author has to be prepared for these pitfalls.  Realizing there are still responsibilities to your work far after the book is printed is crucial.

To be honest, I already had a fair amount of familiarity with most of the information I’ve written here before attending Imagicon.  Tomorrow, I plan to write more about different avenues of publishing, and more fresh information.  Alternative media, especially ebooks and self-publishing as options are becoming increasingly viable in today’s market.

Science in Science Fiction

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Posted on 3rd April 2009 by LadyGlutter in Freedom | books | movies | science

At ImagiCon last weekend, one of the panels was on the role of true science in science fiction.   It was a very interesting panel of Southern science fiction authors.  Despite their differences in background, the panel got along well.

  • Allan F. Gilbreath started out the group.   He’s a novelist, poet, and short story writer.  He covers a wide range of topics, especially dark fantasy and science fiction. He had an open manner and a sense of humor that made the whole session a lot less stuffy.
  • Stephanie Osborn was the most interesting author represented, personally.   She has over twenty years experience in civilian and military space programs. With degrees in Astronomy, Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics, she had the strongest background in science of the whole panel. She has written a mystery, Burnout, based on her experiences at NASA, about a space shuttle catastrophe.  In the ensuing investigations, it turns out the disaster was no accident.  Her work was at her editor’s when Columbia exploded, and she had a friend on board.  It took her a while to face her work again, but when she finally did, she double checked her accuracy on the science and investigatory procedures at NASA.  She didn’t have to change a word.  I wish I had more time to listen to her talk.  I did briefly get to sit in on the “Space Race” panel, where she told stories of Soviet launches.  She also talked about our current space program, and how we simply do not have the technology necessary to go to the moon right now.
  • William H. Drinkard was promoting his new book, Elom. He describes it as “Clan of The Cave Bear meets Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”  He was frustrated at his publisher for trying to peg his book as fantasy because there was travel that was faster than light speed, which everyone knows is “not science.”  (At this, Stephanie snorted and asked, “How do they explain tachyons then?”)
  • Van Allen Plexico is a comic book writer, currently publishing with a small press.  In fact, he was more interesting in that arena, and I plan to talk about small presses and self publishing later.  As you can imagine, his comic books aren’t real hard scifi.  He joked that his stance on true science in Science Fiction was, “I’m agin it!”

A main theme of the night was that  science and science fiction have a symbiotic relationship.   Obviously, there are different levels of science fiction.  A hard science fiction book that botches basic principles is a disaster, but space opera is given a lot more leeway.  And comic books are expected to be pure fluff.   All of the panelists agreed that there was a time and place for all of these elements.  No matter how in depth the science really is can still serve to capture the imagination and drive the readers or viewers to want to learn more.  The original Star Trek of the 60s, paired with the Apollo fire, inspired young Stephanie to enter the space program.  She looked at what was happening in real life, and realized people had died for this cause, and at the same time, she saw that Star Trek, or some version thereof, was where it could be going.   Many people were lit afire with the tales of what one day might be reflected in 2001.  While science obviously inspires fiction, it can work in reverse, as well.  Inventions were “invented” in fiction decades before scientists figured out how to make them work.  Psychologically, science fiction can prepare us for new things ahead of time.  We all know that a Kindle is really a proto Hitchhiker’s Guide.  War of the Worlds, written in 1898, featured robotic workers.  These ideas enter our mind and make us able to grasp new concepts quickly when technology catches up with the art.

We also discussed the decline of hard science fiction, and how it coincides with fewer Americans entering science and math fields.   During the panel, I was by far the youngest in the crowd.  At one point, a young girl had stopped in, listened for a few minutes with a bored look on her face, and then turned around and left.  Science is failing to capture the imagination of our young.  Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke are considered too hard, or too boring, for young people to read.  Also, most of the science fiction that is truly popular right now is truly fantastic or just botched. Think about Armageddon.  Most people didn’t even realize how crazy the science was.  I remember being told to shut up and watch the movie when I was protesting about a whole asteroid the size of Texas hurtling at the Earth that fast, but all of NASA just missed it.  And then they just swung good old Hubble over to take a gander at it!!

The same issues come up in historical movies and novels, by the way.  People don’t understand the basics, and are satisfied with entertainment.  Someone recommended that disgusting film, King Arthur, because I was a history and English major and it was historically accurate!  I scoffed at the mere thought of a historically accurate King Arthur movie, but I love the Arthuriad and all the myriad takes on it, so I watched it.  I hated it, and the history was awful.  And please, someone, tell Keira Knightly to eat a biscuit.  The reason she’s tolerable in the Pirates movies is because you can’t see her pointy spine.  Ugh!

Instead of blaming science fiction of today,  we talked about the trends in science fiction reflect the trends in science, and vice versa.  As a society, we’re slipping in our education.  We’re teaching to tests, and not getting fundamentals. As science and math are being dumbed down, so are stories about them.  My (first grade!) son is learning to use a calculator in school before he has truly gotten down basic addition and subtraction!  Teenagers in Pre Cal and Trig are doing functions on their calculators without having mastered long division.  There is an extent to which science builds on itself, and every computer programmer doesn’t have to learn to program in binary. At the same time, science is UP in China and India.  Someone joked about how we will be able to provide fine entertainments for our new masters, with our emphasis on sports and Hollywood.   (It’s funny because it’s true!)

The true joy of science fiction is the joy of knowledge, learning, and imagination. I left with an appetite for more, and am very glad that I went.  I left with many concepts to ponder, and a few recommendations of good authors to read.

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