Why I hate Elves, Dwarves, Dragons, and…
Filed Under: Speculative Fiction, Writing Advice
Why I hate Elves, Dwarves, Dragons, and…
(This is a very tongue-in-cheek entry.)
It’s no secret to regular readers that I loathe so-called generic fantasy. And it is generic, in a very supermarket-product sense. Generic fantasy is a pale imitation of someone else’s original product. It is the yellow box that says CEREAL on the bottom shelf.
Most generic fantasy is wholesale intellectual thievery from J.R.R. Tolkien. Yes, he himself built his world based on mythology, and I am aware that one of his goals was to create a mythology for England. But that does not earn lazy authors any points with me if they write using his basic world-building elements. I don’t care if your elves are doing something nontraditional, like building and racing high performance race cars. I don’t care if they are detectives, paired up with a gruff but lovable dwarf who chomps cigars and quips about unsolved cases. You’re still relying mostly on the hard work that Tolkien did for your characterization and world building.
Stop being so lazy and make up your own worlds! China Mieville, you get an A from me. Even if I didn’t like Un Lun Dun very much (understandable, being a children’s book).
The same goes for you bloody adults that read this stuff. It’s forgivable in the habits of a D&D playing teenager, but you should know better. You’re deliberately impoverishing your brain by reading this stuff. Put down the Robert Jordan and back away slowly. The Sword of Shanara has been read plenty enough times. Terry Brooks, you have your money. Let’s lock all the copies in a big vault and forget about it for a few centuries.
It’s gotten to the point where I can’t even see Tolkien’s work clearly. I am sure he did something impressive and new, once upon a time, but I cannot view his work without looking through the lens created by the garbage that has followed it. I might have been a fan if I hadn’t been exposed to everything that came afterwards. I do enjoy the Hobbit, I guess, but it’s by no means my favorite fantasy novel.
I guess what I am trying to say is, if you write and sell a book that involves a reluctant, small-sized hero being tasked to steal something for the Bigger Folk and facing Mighty Danger, receiving help along the way from the lithe, tall, and earthy people with pointed ears and high chin bones, it gives me the right to punch you in the gonads. You have been warned.
Now I’m off to write up that dwarf-and-elf-they-solve-crime! story.
Not Science Fiction
Filed Under: Speculative Fiction
Not Science Fiction
I have, of recent, become a total fanboy for SF Author Maureen McHugh. I loved her stories published in SciFiction, but the real tipping point for me has been her blogging. Today, she made a great post about Michael Chabon’s The Yiddish Policemen’s Union and her own label for the genre of fiction that has been labeled strenuously by the authors and publishers, Not Science Fiction.
I love this term for it’s double-sidedness. If you’re inclined, you can take the term literally. If SF scares you, then the term is a comfort. “There, there,” the publisher coos softly. “There is no Nerd Schmutz on this fine, fine book.” But if you like SF and you have a sense of humor about these genre wars, then you can take it to mean that you will like it as SF despite what anyone says. It’s like a secret handshake. I say we make it Official.
PS: I guess I should read this book, huh? With endorsements from McHugh and Moles, I can’t go wrong.
Nine Reasons I Read Science Fiction
Filed Under: Speculative Fiction, Top Post
Nine Reasons I Read Science Fiction
1. Neophilia.
Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea introduced the idea of neophilia to me in their great conspiracy theory magnum opus, The Illuminatus Trilogy. Hagbard Celine, the half-Atlantian Discordian submarine captain describes the world as being divided into two types of people- neophiles and neophobes; those who are attracted by the new, and those who are repelled by it. I read this book when I was sixteen. I immediately recognized myself as a neophile. Science fiction writers generally attempt to show things that have never been seen before in their work. There is a tradition of the original within it. If there is a genre of fiction that can be described as neophillic, it is science fiction.
2. To challenge my preconceptions.
I grew up in Kansas, which if you read the news at all, is a state where people are generally very conservative. Racism is rampant. Homophobia was, at least when I was a child, the general rule. And if you weren’t Christian, then you were going to Hell. It is easy to accept all of these beliefs as fact when you are immersed in them. Even if you don’t agree with them, they find a way to seep into your mind. In that environment, science fiction, with it’s unusual and progressive views about gender, race, sex, and religion provides an escape, and an alternate view point. Ursula K. LeGuin alone challenged much of my preconceptions in her work. Whether it was the people of color in the Earthsea books, or challenging the idea of gender in The Left Hand of Darkness, her work opened up my mind to a world where cultural ideas are not hegemonic.
3. To travel to exotic places without leaving the house.
Science fiction is often set in places that no human being has ever visited before. I love to travel, and with enough time, I could one day see much of what Earth has to offer. And I don’t think there is any substitute for getting up and actually going to the places. But some places are beyond the reach of a jet plane. Without science fiction, I would never know or imagine what the skies of Venus are like, never feel the breeze of an alien wind across my skin, or feel the dread as a small alien spacecraft full of humans slips over the event horizon of a black hole. Science fiction inspires us to push this boundary of the limits of travel. I know more now about the surface of Mars than I could have expected to, ten years ago. I would bet that it was partly science fiction that inspired the NASA scientists to build the Mars rovers that gave me this knowledge.
4. To be prepared for possible future.
1984. Fahrenheit 451. These are no longer fiction, they’re practically modern day survival guides. Science fiction prepares us for the “what ifs” of the future. Science fiction readers as a group are more prepared for what comes. We’ve been considering the challenges and moral dilemmas of stem cells and cloning long before anyone else. The Singularity may be coming, and if anyone will be prepared for it, it will be the readers and writers of science fiction.
5. To escape the mundane.
Because I need adventure and excitement and stimulation! I work a desk job. I spend 48+ weeks a year in the same 100 mile square area. I see the same people, do the same tasks, and walk or drive the same streets day in, day out. Life is repetitive. Science fiction allows me to escape that. I don’t want to read about people who have boring jobs and relationship problems with their spouses. I want to read about things that stir surprise and amazement in me–what we call sensawunda. I don’t get sensawunda from my day to day life very often. When I do, it’s a blessing. But I know that if I turn to my book shelf, I can get a hefty dose of it any time I want.
6. Because I care about plot.
Science fiction stories often deal with Big Things. Saving the world. Saving the universe, even. Plot seems to be more emphasized in science fiction than it is in other genres, and it tends to have a larger scope. The stakes are higher. In the prototypical literary story, the stakes are a college professor’s marriage. Yawn. I want something big on the line. I want schemes from my villains, where the stake is nothing less than everything the protagonists hold dear. Little stories are nice, from time to time, but its the big stories that hold my attention the best. And science fiction offers those.
7. To learn science.
Reading isn’t just about fun. I like it best when I read fiction that teaches me something useful along with entertaining me. I find two genres particularly excel at this; historical fiction and science fiction. I love science for the way it makes sense of the world in a logical manner. And you could argue that some science fiction is really just historical fiction about the future. Both can occasionally provide life lessons. One is from previous examples and the other from theoretical.
8. Because it’s dangerous to like it.
Everybody has their way of being different. For me, it’s being a SF nut. This got me picked on more than a few times in my childhood. It gets me sneered upon by literary writers who hang out at the coffee shops around town. To some people, being a science fiction writer means I am lower on the totem pole than a garbage man. I like that. I don’t have much rebel in me, but I like taking pleasure in things that those kinds of people hate.
9. Because it offers hope.
Not all science fiction, but a great deal of it, has offered hope. Hope that the future can be better than the present. At times, it has fetishized the idea of progress, but when it is at its best, it can give hope to the lowliest soul that their life, or their children’s lives could be better than it is today. Yes, there is a great tradition of dystopia fiction in the genre, but I would argue that dystopias are written from a position of optimism–that perhaps, if the author lays out their dystopian vision, the world can avoid it. Dystopian writers see something that could go wrong and warn against it. Even this is optimistic to me and offers hope.
I am not usually a cheerleader for science fiction. I think there can be some very bad things about it and its fandom. I do not believe that science fiction fans are better than anyone else. That is not what this post is about. It is about why I personally continue to read science fiction today, twenty years after I discovered my first Anne McCaffery book. I encourage you to think about why you read science fiction too. Sometimes, we all need a reminder. I know that I did.
10 Things Your Website Should Have if You Are An Author
Filed Under: Speculative Fiction, Top Post, Web Design
1. Your own domain name.
In this day an age, a domain costs almost nothing, and hosting, not much more. I charge $15 a year for a domain and $20 a year for hosting for my clients, and there might be cheaper (but less feature-rich) hosting available out there. Sff.net might have been cool a decade ago, but it’s not now. It just looks unprofessional. Buy a domain, and if you can, make it your full publishing name. If you can’t, don’t get too clever, by which I mean don’t pick something you’re going to hate 10 years from now. Domain names can be changed, but you should really try to avoid it, to preserve your ratings in the search engines.
2. A biography and bibliography with lots and lots of links.
If someone is coming to your website, it is likely that they want to know who you are, and what else you’ve done. Don’t be stingy here. Don’t publicize anything you’re embarrassed of, such as that mpreg slash fic that you wrote late one night while drunk, but definitely include your bibliography, and if your story is available online, for free in a webzine or for sale in some form, link to it. If you don’t, you’re missing a chance for a sale to a potential fan.
3. A News Blog with an RSS feed. Or a newsletter. Or both.
Note that I said a News Blog. Writer blogs are great entertainment, but they are notoriously cluttered with nonsense quizzes, word counts, whining, and so much other crap that finding out when an author you like has a story coming out can be harder than it should. Maintain a clean weblog that is simply for announcing your sales, appearances, and other professional items of interest. Don’t use it to post pictures of your cats. I’m an RSS feed man myself, and I think they are the future, but perhaps you should do an email mailing list as well. Post the same content to both, but make sure it’s clear that they are the same information, so your fans don’t sign up for both and get irritated for receiving duplicate information.
4. A professional design
This isn’t cheap, but if you are a professional author, you owe it to yourself to hire a designer who can build you something nice and maintainable. Tony Greer does great work. Tobias Buckell’s website is a model example of this list. I work fairly affordably myself, and you may inquire for rates if you’re interested. But seriously, your nephew who has a copy of Front Page 2000 isn’t going to be good enough. Spend a little money on it, and you’re going to have better results. People buy books based on covers, and they’re going to judge you by how professional and fresh your design is as well.
5. Full stories and/or novels. Possibly excerpts.
Free samples have been used in marketing since the invention of capitalism. Writers and other intellectual property creators are often terrified of this, and admittedly, there’s a risk that all your stuff will be stolen and you will be left penniless. If you’re lucky! Someone who comes to your website may not have read anything you have written. Post a story from a year or two. If you’re brave, put it in the Creative Commons as soon as you can. That might limit resale rights, but chalk it up as a marketing expense. I’m not going to go into the Creative Commons too much here, as Cory Doctorow does it better than anyone else. Let me just say that I agree with him, but I understand those who don’t, and I don’t think this will make or break you. But try it out, and see what happens. It worked for Peter Watts!
6. A way to buy your work.
Post links to Amazon, Fictionwise, whatever. Make them prominent. If you have work in print for sale, it should be easy for me to buy it. Somebody really has to make this as easy as iTunes. But that’s a topic for another issue. Link, link, and link again.
7. A way to contact you.
Boo, spam! Nobody likes spam, but if you don’t have a way for fans or potential publishers to contact you, you’re missing out on fan mail, hate mail, and possible sales. There are javascript tricks you can use, or you can set up a specific email address that you check on a regular basis. You really should have this email address be at your domain above, too. Even if it forwards to your gmail account. It’s a matter of perception. If you own a domain, and you should, use it for your email.
8. A Press Kit
I was running out of ideas, so I stole this one from Tobias Buckell’s page. Short story authors probably don’t need press kits, but novelists probably should. Photos, book covers, and anything else that makes a reporter’s job easier when he wants to report on your work is a very good thing.
9. A Goodies Section
I have serious doubts about people loving books so much that they want desktop wallpaper, icons, and such, but hey, if it doesn’t cost you anything to make them or have them made by a designer, why not? Little rewards like this don’t cost much, but they might be just the edge you need to start a buzz about your latest work.Think outside the box here. I’m hesitant to give this idea away, but if your readership is young and nerdy, consider publishing D&D gaming stats for your characters and creations. Make it easy and allowable for your fans to play in your world. They’re not going to make any money off of it, so don’t worry. It stopped being yours when you published it.
10. Something nobody else has tried.
See the idea about about D&D stats. Do something like that. Do something wild and new. It’s a tough world out there for writers. There are a lot of us, and I wish I could say that the best writers win. But marketing money has a direct effect on sales. If you’re reading this and giving it serious consideration, then there’s a good chance that your publisher doesn’t have any marketing bucks for you. That means you need to take matters into your own hands. A website with all the features I’ve described above costs anywhere from $300-$500 from me. It could cost you thousands from other, equally qualified designers, but no matter what, if you do it right, and you give it time, you’re going to make your money back. I won’t guarantee it, but it’s better than nothing at all!
5 Things I don’t recommend doing:
- Featuring your photo prominently in the design.
- Posting your daily word counts and/or in-depth analysis of your daily work. This is interesting to other writers. Probably not so much to fans, unless they want to be a writer too. Keep a separate blog for this.
- Your rejections. I’ve ranted about this before. Posting about your rejections is something you should stop doing. I can understand why you might do it, but keep it private. You might say something you regret. Editors read websites too.
- Excerpts of unpublished work. Sorry, nobody cares unless you’re super-established and semi-famous.
- Bad reviews. I’ve not read books because of the bad reviews their own authors have publicized. If you don’t link them, I won’t hear about them. This is contentious, but I just don’t recommend it personally.
One last thing. I haven’t been following my own advice here, but you can be sure that after this, I will be, both for myself and for any future clients.
