Filed under: Feedback, General Musings, Heinlein, Heinlein Centennial, Marketing, Promotion, Religion, Robert A. Heinlein, Science Fiction
Over the next week or so I’ll be writing a lot about some of the things I saw/heard/experienced at the Heinlein Centennial this past weekend. It was a fantastic, and for me, transformative experience, which will play out in interesting ways for some time, I think. Here on CommunionBlog I will be posting everything I write, some of which will be also posted on UTI and dKos). This will not be in any kind of order, and this first item was in fact just about the last thing that happened over the weekend.
Jim D
*******************************************************
I went to the Heinlein Centennial for a lot of reasons. Robert A. Heinlein was one of the ‘Big Three’ SF authors of the 20th century. His work had a profound effect on me in my early years, and still informs much of my world view. There was going to be a large component to the Centennial devoted to private space ventures, with leaders in the field there talking about the work they were doing and what was on the horizon. There were going to be any number of other top-notch SF writers in attendance. And it would provide me the opportunity to do some networking, in promotion of my own writing.
I am not much of a fanboy. I’ve only attended a few SF conventions – I’m not real big on large crowds, and the time period of my life when most people get plugged into that world I was busy doing something else which entirely preoccupied my time and energy. By the early ’90s I was busy (and broke) starting a business, then re-inventing that business in ’96, then closing that business in ’04. Since then I’ve been largely devoted to caring for my Mother-in-law, as noted in my brief bio on the left.
Anyway, while I knew the routine and what to expect from such an event, I was a bit of an outsider, a noob. On the other hand, because of some of my other life experience, I can usually pull off having a ‘presence’ – of looking like someone who is a little more established, a little more experienced, a little more than just a noob. (More on that later.) But the truth is, I had been largely fighting out of my weight class for three days, bluffing my way into discussions, handing out cards for my novel, et cetera – and was pretty much exhausted from it all.
So, the last panel discussion I decided to attend yesterday was on a topic of interest to me, but somewhat outside my main areas of knowledge, and I went intending on just keeping my fool mouth shut and listening (I’m keeping all the details vague for a reason). The three panelists came in, got started with introductions, a brief statement on the topic, and so forth. I’d seen a couple of them in other panel discussions, and had some idea of what to expect. Then one of them made some silly statements about his new-agey religious beliefs that didn’t really pertain to the subject, but he thought they did, about how the soul exists outside of the physical body, et cetera.
One of the other panelists, an academic with established cred on the subject, an author with a number of highly-regarded books to his name, got up and nicely, but very energetically and with considerable verve, tore Mr. New-Age a new asshole and shoved all the crap he’d been spewing back into it. It was a thing of beauty to behold, and I sat there thinking “cool – this guy’s a rationalist, in addition to his other credentials”.
The panel discussion proceeded, returning to the topic at hand, and everyone had a good time. Mr. New-Age didn’t seem to mind the slam-dunk he’d suffered, probably because it was done with such artistry, and the contributions of the other panel member and the audience kept things lively and interesting. I kept my mouth shut, but the fellow who’d shut down the nonesense made a comment about something that made me think he might be open to reading my book. When all was wrapped up, and the room was emptying, the panelists gathering together their things, I stepped up to the table, said something to the Rationalist, and handed him my card. As is usual in such situations, he made nice noises about thanking me, said he’d check it out if he had a chance, and I turned to go.
As I did so, I heard an exclamation behind me: “You’re Jim Downey!” (The business cards I’d had printed up say ‘James Downey’.)
Huh?
I turned to see what the hell caused that. Mr. Rationalist looked like he’d just been handed a big fat check, standing there, my card in hand, looking from me to it and back again with a huge grin on his face. “You’re Jim Downey!”
He thrust his hand across the table at me. “I’m a raging atheist – I read Unscrewing the Inscrutable all the time!! In fact, you’re the reason I’m here! I read the post you put up a couple months back about the Heinlein Centennial, and so I contacted the organizers and told them I wanted to participate! Wow!”
I was gobsmacked. Bumfuzzled. (And if you’ve never had your bum fuzzled, you don’t know what you’re missing.) I’m sure I stood there like an idiot as he continued: “Oh, here, let me…”
He reached over to his bag and pulled out his latest book. Inscibed it to me. “I’m really sorry, but I’ve got to run and catch the shuttle to the airport, so I can make my flight…I really wish we had time for a drink or something…”
***
Mr. Rationalist, I wish I could convey to you what an astonishing experience that was. (Actually, I dropped him a note and told him that I was going to be posting this, and invited him to come by and contribute – but I don’t “out” someone without expressed permission.) As I mentioned, I was weary from fighting the good fight all weekend, having a phenomenal time, but also very much feeling like I was completely outclassed by all the brilliant engineers, entrepreneurs, academics, and writers. To have one such panel member even recognize me based on my ramblings here, let alone to be so enthusiastic and gracious about it – well, it was a shot of rejuvenation juice which would make Lazarus Long jump for joy. Thank you.
Jim Downey
UPDATE: and in comments: Mr. Rationalist has dropped me a note and said it was OK to ID him: Richard Hanley, Assoc. Prof of Philosophy at U. Delaware, and author of South Park and Philosophy: Bigger, Longer, and More Penetrating and The Metaphysics of Star Trek among others. I mean, how cool is that?
JD
(Cross-posted, with tweaks, from UTI.)
Filed under: Failure, Mark Twain, Marketing, NPR, Promotion, Publishing, Writing stuff
There was a very good segment on this morning’s Weekend Edition Sunday with Jon Clinch, the author of the novel Finn. Clinch talks about his experience in working on several prior novels, none of which were satisfactory to him, before embarking on Finn. It is interesting that he used the web to first promote himself, then land an agent, then get a publisher for the novel – the same kind of thing I am attempting to do with this site and Communion of Dreams.
But even more interesting was the business with his attitude towards his previous novels, which he thought were important in helping him as a writer, even though they were “failed” projects ultimately in terms of artistic satisfaction (and not being published.) I think we tend to underestimate the value of failure, in our focus on success. I have lots of what would conventionally be characterized as “failures” in my life, but each one was an experience which helped lead me to new understanding about myself and the world. Basically, I’m of the opinion that if a failure doesn’t kill you, it isn’t really a failure. And since none of us gets out of this life alive, anyway, we’re all doomed to “failure”.
The most interesting people I know are not the ones who have only succeeded in everything they’ve tried – that type is either too self-satisfied to be interesting, or so unambitious to have never pushed themselves. Give me people who go too far, who push themselves in what they do past their abilities, who are ambitious enough to want to Paint the Moon. Those are the people who are interesting.
Communion was not my first novel. No, during college I wrote one, another near-term speculative novel, once again based on the notion that a pandemic had caused a general societal collapse. I think it is stuck away in a box someplace in the attic. Even though post college I spent several months trying to rewrite it, it is fairly dreadful, and deserves banishment to the attic. But it helped me learn a *lot* about writing a novel, and allowed me to work out a number of themes and ideas which I then used in Communion to much better effect. So that book (titled Equipoise) was not entirely a failure. And I’d bet that most ‘successful’ authors have one or more such books tucked away in a box somewhere, if you can only get them to admit it.
Anyway, I enjoyed the interview with Clinch, and will have to look up his book one of these days.
Jim Downey
Happy 100!
This is my 100th post here, and there are a couple of other mildly interesting milestones to report: sometime in the next few days the 3,000th download of Communion of Dreams will happen, keeping the average up to about 600 downloads a month. We’ll also likely cross 2,000 visits to this blog in the same time-frame (plus those folks who receive feeds).
Not huge numbers, but better than I might have hoped for in each case – thanks to those who visit here, thanks particularly to those who help to spread the word about the novel to friends. My goal is still very much to land a conventional book publishing deal, but I am encouraged that people are still at least downloading the book.
I’d like to invite any and all to just say hello in comments, and of course I’m always happy to have feedback on the book or blog.
Best,
Jim Downey
Filed under: Alzheimer's, Apollo program, Buzz Aldrin, Heinlein, Heinlein Centennial, movies, N. Am. Welsh Choir, NASA, Promotion, Publishing, Robert A. Heinlein, Science, Science Fiction, Society, Space, Writing stuff
I don’t get out much – being a full time caregiver for someone with Alzheimer’s is very demanding, and my wife and I are both careful not to leave all the responsibilities in the other’s lap for any real length of time (like over a weekend). If this was just a short-time thing, it wouldn’t be much of an issue. But we’ve been caregivers in this capacity for four years now, and we could easily have several more years ahead of us. You have to think long-term. This is the reason why I ignore the advice given to all unpublished authors to attend conventions – getting away is almost impossible for me at this time.
But as it happens, she has a concert scheduled with the North American Welsh Choir the weekend of July 7th in Kansas City, and made arrangements some months back to have her sister in from California to take care of my mother-in-law, in order that I could also attend the concert if I wanted. Otherwise, she would be here to help make sure that I didn’t carry an undue burden for the several days my wife would be away.
Then I heard about the Robert A. Heinlein Centennial celebration occuring at the same time – also in Kansas City!
Heinlein hasn’t really been a direct influence on my writing; I haven’t tried to emulate any of his style, or pay homage to his ideas. But few can deny that he was a huge influence in Science Fiction last century. And I certainly read a lot of his stuff when I was young – it helped shape and inform my world view, to some extent. Even to this day, I consider him to have been visionary on a number of points, and going back and rereading some of his classics is a good exercise for any writer – his stuff holds up surprisingly well, even 40 – 50 years after it was published.
Besides, this will be about more than just Heinlein’s legacy. A number of luminaries from the history of space exploration will be there, not to mention lots of science fiction writers and people involved in the publishing industry (check out the list of attendees!). It will be interesting, and a phenomenal opportunity to do some serious networking.
So, I’m going. Given that the big Gala Dinner is being held at the same time as my wife’s concert, I’ll be missing the concert altogether. I’m lucky to have such an understanding spouse.
See you there?
Jim Downey
Filed under: Feedback, General Musings, Marketing, NPR, Podcast, Promotion, Science Fiction, tech, Writing stuff
A suggestion early on was that I do a series of podcasts of the book. The topic came up over dinner with friends the other evening, too, with my friends (only one of whom has read the book) being very positive about the idea.
I’ve got some experience in radio and public speaking. I think I could do this, though it would require me to relax in my speaking style (my good lady wife, when I bounced this idea off of her this morning, was somewhat more frank than my friends about my tendency to become “RadioMan!”…you can see what she means in this interview I did with NPR almost 6 years ago), and go with something more conversational. It would also require me to go through the learning curve and get the necessary components (hardware and software) to produce the podcasts, though I’m less concerned about that.
Given that at this time I find it difficult to maintain the kind of concentration necessary to be working on a new long piece of fiction, this might give me an additional creative outlet. It could also help to market the book, and is a strategy being used by many other authors.
So, if you have some thoughts on the matter, or some advice to offer, I’d love to hear it.
Jim Downey
Filed under: Feedback, General Musings, Predictions, Promotion, Science Fiction, tech, Writing stuff
Sometimes I can be so dense. Got this note from “Mike” in Arizona (will ID him more completely, or let him claim credit in comments, if he wishes) yesterday:
I have been a fan of the UTI site and its several bloggers for some time. I recently became aware of your SF novel ‘A Communion of Dreams’ online thru UTI. I downloaded the book a coupla weeks ago and just completed it. A good read! I have passed it on to several other SF fans as well who are enjoying it. So your estimate of 2000 downloads of the book may be misleadingly low, if others pass on the PDF file as I did. I wanted to thank you for sharing it free ‘online’, and wish you the best in your future efforts.
I found the book entertaining and interesting on several levels, and especially the technology. As with so much else in SF writing, it may well prove visionary. I visited the CoD website and read your comments there–I’d just like to add that Kim Stanley Robinson is my favorite SF author.
Thanx again!
And I have to confess that it hadn’t crossed my mind that people might share the files or hand off printed pages, when the whole thing can be downloaded for free on the Communion of Dreams website. Makes me feel like a complete idiot.
Not that it really matters. Since I’m not worried about getting payments from people for reading the book this way, I don’t care if they share it with others. But I may need to keep open the notion that my stats for downloads (now just under 2,400) might not be an accurate reflection of how many people have read the book.
Jim Downey
Filed under: Alzheimer's, Depression, General Musings, Health, Marketing, Promotion, Writing stuff
I was chatting online with a friend who is a bookseller, and asked whether there was a “Caring for an Alzheimer’s patient from a male perspective” book out there, since most men aren’t care-givers in the way I am. The response I got back:
On an average day, we carry 6-8 titles on understanding Alzheimer’s and caring for people who have it. They are geared towards children dealing with parents. None of them are from a male point of view. However, watching the titles that come out and do well, my suggestion would be to write a memoir. That’s what sells. People love crisis memoir…
To which I replied:
Let’s see…think I have the material to pull one off? Orphaned at 13…adolescence of acting out, violence, drug abuse… but pulled it together enough to get into one of the premier small colleges…car accident during my sophomore year which left me partially paralyzed, but I got involved in a martial art, recovered almost full function and went on to be a world class athlete in an obscure but increasingly popular sport…rejected by the Writer’s Workshop, but found a career in grad school…opened a business, grew that business into the largest gallery in the state, but that failed in spite of working 70-80 hours per week, leaving me in huge debt and struggling with depression…in spite of that managed to write a work of fiction and become a seminal ‘internet performance artist’ (Wikipedia says so!)…became a beloved newspaper columnist while caring for my Alzheimer’s-suffering mother-in-law, fighting the recurrence of depression and flirting with alcoholism…all the while a victim of migraines, having ‘lost my relationship with the God of my childhood’…
Yeah, with the right kind of spin, Oprah would love it. 😉
Actually, all of that is true, and there’s a lot more besides. Maybe I ought to consider this if I can’t get someone to pick up Communion of Dreams…hmmm…
Jim Downey
Well, sometime over the weekend, we finally passed 2,000 downloads of the novel. Things had slowed down some in the last couple of weeks, but that’s still a thousand downloads last month. But that wasn’t what I wanted to talk about.
I wanted to talk about something else which happened over the weekend, which has happened to me many times. I was contacted by a young artist, who needed some help with the basics of marketing and professional behaviour.
When I was writing my columns for the newspaper on the art scene locally (some collected here), I would regularly be asked for this kind of help. I always try and respond, though sometimes this just consists of pointing someone at another resource they need to tackle first before I can help them, because I felt that it was a matter of ‘paying my dues’ to the art world. It was likewise my attitude about speaking at college classes and whatnot. And sometimes I even got a good column out of it, such as this one.
How does this relate to Communion? Doesn’t directly. I just feel like how I imagine most agents and publishers feel (the working ones, who still actually work with authors to promote their work, not the ones at the top of the food chain who mostly manage large firms) in terms of helping ‘young’ authors – you want to help, you wish that there were better resources out there for people, you wish that people would available themselves of the resources which are available, and you sometimes feel like you’re the only one paddling. But you do it nonetheless, even when the people who ask you for help (directly or indirectly) don’t seem to value your advice. Because it is either help them or become prematurely cynical and hard-hearted.
Oh, and I wish I was able to transfer the ‘dues paid’ in the art world to the writing world. But unfortunately, it doesn’t work like that.
Jim Downey
Filed under: Feedback, General Musings, Promotion, Science Fiction, tech, Writing stuff
Well, Binary Dreams was sure a hit. Based on the number of visitors I got here, on my other website, and in comments due to the BoingBoing coverage, it’s clear that people “get” that particular piece of art.
Which I find both rewarding and extremely curious. The rewarding part is obvious, since any artist or author likes to have their work well received by the public. The ‘curious’ part is that when I made the piece and entered it in an exhibit 14 years ago, almost no one “got” it. Even when I had the work on display in my bindery and then art gallery for years afterward, people would look at it and basically scratch their heads. The temptation, of course, is to say that it took people that long to catch up with me – that I was over a decade ahead of the curve, as it were. Whether or not that is the proper conclusion to draw is another matter.
Ah well. I just hope I don’t have to wait another decade for people to “get” my novel.
Jim Downey
Communion Of Dreams 