When Words Collide - Part Two

Today I learned...(she checks her notes)...a lot of useful and humbling things about writing and the creative process.

At the "Behind Every Great Story is a Romance", our first panel of the day, I learned that even Bleakhouse features romantic elements in all plot threads of Dickens' masterwork.  Without romance, the point of contact with an audience is lost, because none of the characters are vunerable.  None of them are human.  I have often set out to write pieces devoid of romantic tension and all that nonsense, but seriously people, it is nigh IMPOSSIBLE.  Characters, unless they are robots not yet at the stage of conscious thought or self-awareness, are minions of their own attractions and emotions.  Relationships with others are a built-in need of the human soul, and literature should reflect that.

 At the Slush session Virginia O'Dine and Robert J. Sawyer were on the panel.  Anonymous submissions of a page each were read aloud in the sonorous voice of Jack White.  If at any point the panel became bored and raised their hands, the reading would cease, and the two experts would then explain what the piece was lacking.  Think of America's Got Talent but without the buzzers. I, um, also submitted a page to be read aloud.  It was a film noir attempt, rather basic, and nobody cared.  That's okay.  Back to the writing desk...

During the Wilderness Survival session I ate a peanut butter and lime marmalade sandwich.  Did you know that a character who is hiking all day should be consuming 2500-4000 calories?

The Young Adult Science Fiction panel really tuned me into why science fiction is an important genre: it allows for the exploration of often controversial and poignant issues affecting society today under the cover of otherness.  Far off galaxies.  Distopias. Vampires.  They address what it means to be human, and what it means to live in a social environment that is less than perfect.

In Fostering the Creative Proccess, two things came across very clearly for me: we are all dehydrated and we are all CRAZY! Also, people are creative, it's built into our brains: new experiences cause new dendrites to form in our thinking organ, and sameness prunes dendrites away.  Our brain is thirsty for creative, out-of-the-box expression and ideas.

Science Fiction in Academia.  There is a steampunk course at the U of C.  Do you think Concordia would be into that?...steampunk is a hot topic this weekend, it seems like everyone has questions about it, or theories of it's greatness, how it's going to affect culture and literature in the next little while.  I should've brought my goggles today maybe I would've felt smarter.(thank goodness it's only a couple more weeks til school)

I'm afraid I got distracted during the Cross-genre session and drew a picture of a downcast alien in a bar.

Turning History Into Fiction was the session lived up most to what I expected from a panel of seasoned historical fiction writers: good stanch advice about good grammar, good facts, and staying true to historical characters.  I had never thought of putting words in real dead people's mouths as needing almost ethical consideration, though apparently, there is some criticism of the historical fiction writer's craft of filling in the dialogue.

Lastly, E-Book sales on Amazon have increased 300% over the last year, while print sales have decreased 40%.  This is depressing.  I will read print til the day I die, so help me.

Michelle and I also had the opportunity to mingle a bit at the EDGE party room, an interesting end to a most interesting day.

 

When Words Collide - Part One

 Okay, so this is how it went down:

Fresh from the keynote address at the first ever When Words Collide Sci-Fi conference, my friend Michelle and I got into the elevator, headed up to the party room because we heard there were cookies.  A handful of people siphon in after us, and I begin to make conversation a bit, something I do when I'm nervous or there's lots of people around.  And as I become aware of who's standing next to me, I start jabbering more, because, this half bald man in a black shirt with a fancy neck hanger nametag is one of the keynote speakers.  And not only that, he's a published authour named Robert J. Sawyer, who has written some twenty books and won a dozen awards.  He didn't say much.  I was asking Michelle if she'd read Charlie and the Glass Elevator when he got off.  In the hallway, we realized that his book Calculating God was in my bookbag, and why the heck didn't we get him to sign it?!

Sigh...besides that priceless moment, the opening evening of the conference set off sparks.  I've lately been wondering if writing is something I want to pursue anymore (in a music phase at this point in my creative cycling), but events like this, surrounded by talented authours and editors - it's like a resonance.  Michelle and I got to talking about books, and Shakespeare, and writing, and at the party room (there were indeed cookies - that you could write on the icing with edible ink!) we met a few people from Calgary, also editing types.  Saw Brian and Anitta, our friends from EDGE publishing.  And, one of my high points of the night, purchased a copy of TECHNICOLOR ULTRAMALL, a book I've been waiting for since last year!  Yes, geekdom is good, I want a house in the sci-fi village. With automatic doors of course.

Once Upon A Time-Space Contineum

I never used to pay much attention to the sci-fi scene.  I didn't get Star Trek and, though I liked C.S. Lewis' Space Trilogy and L'Enge's Wrinkle in Time series, most novels I tried to read in that genre were either too crude or too far over my head.  So I stuck to the classics, Alexandre Dumas, Victor Hugo, Tolkien, the like.

And then 1984 happened.

And even stranger than that, I began volunteering with a science-fiction publisher.  Well, technically, sciene-fiction and fantasy, but the science-fiction factor is what I find the most random part of this entry.

EDGE Publishing is the only organization that exclusively prints works of science-fiction/ fantasy in North America.  They've printed novels, anthologies, translated works of fiction, vampire stories, and even a book of science-fiction poetry called "i-ROBOT" by Jason Christie.  I contacted them a while ago to inquire about summer employment; but since they are a relatively small publisher and the market for printed materials is slow at the moment (thanks to E-books and Amazon), nothing was available except -

They call it the slush pile: the stacks of manuscripts, maybe twenty new ones added daily, needing evaluation before they pass on to higher circles of editing.  And that's where I come in: I get to read through some of these suckers and suggest they either move up, or move out.  Checking the "reject" box is not easy - people put so much time and effort into their submissions, I wish I could just fix all their grammar and tell them that Harry Potter's been done already, think up something else!; but that's not my job unfortunately.  There are good ones though, sometimes amazing ones!  I can't wait to get the next batch of envelopes: honestly, I would not mind working a 9-5 gig if I could be doing something like this.

Which brings up something else that's been on my mind.  I got my marks back from last semester.

Now, if I thought I was good at something, and loved it, but my marks didn't reflect this, and something else which I'm not sure if I'm good at but love anyways got a better grade, is this suggesting that I should perhaps consider what I want to do after University? Or maybe switch around some minor aspects of my degree?  English is staying for sure, but aside from that, I really have no set aspirations.

Anyways, if you aspiring fantasy/ science-fiction writers out there are looking for a publisher, EDGE is a great place to submit - Brian Hades, the publisher, is super awesome and values new writers as well as seasoned literary giants.  Though, I promise that if I'm given your manuscript to edit, I will not evaluate it - that way when it gets published, people can't accuse anybody of crazy robot conspiricies. 

http://www.edgewebsite.com/aboutedge.html