A brief note from yesterday’s news:
NEW YORK — It is high season for literary contests.
Two leading booksellers announced competitions Monday, continuing the industry’s unending search for new talent and the increasing willingness to let others do the searching.
Amazon.com, Penguin Group (USA) and Hewlett-Packard Co. have launched the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award, which offers a contract with Penguin and a small advance, $25,000. Meanwhile, Borders Group Inc., Court TV and Gather.com announced The Next Great Crime Novel competition, with the winner receiving $5,000 and a publishing deal through Borders, the superstore chain.
I’d argue that when an industry is so disfunctional as to need to pull these kinds of stunts to select content, the system is broken. Completely. How is it possible that the publishing industry is in an “unending search for new talent” but is so swamped by submissions that they can’t deal with it all? They’re not looking for talent – they’re looking for name recognition, whether by existing celebrities or by ones created by this kind of gimmick. It is an aspect of our celebrity/sensationalist culture. And a $25,000 advance is considered “small”?
Oh, and we’ve now passed 5,700 downloads of Communion of Dreams. That’s some 1,200 in September alone. Thanks to all who have helped pass along word of the novel to friends and message boards!
Jim Downey
Filed under: Alzheimer's, Book Conservation, Feedback, Flu Wiki, Promotion, Publishing, Writing stuff
Brief note – thanks, I think, in large part to folks from the Flu Wiki, I’ve had over 600 downloads of the novel in the last 36 hours or so. That puts the total downloads over 5,100.
I guess I really should get off my butt and contact some agents again. Too bad I’m exhausted – my MIL had a rough night of it (I was on call), and I have a backlog of conservation work to catch up on.
But I thought I’d share the good news. Maybe more later today – right now I need a nap.
Jim Downey
Filed under: General Musings, NPR, Predictions, Press, Publishing, Reproduction, Science, Science Fiction, Society, Writing stuff
I was able to catch a bit of this morning’s Weekend Edition Sunday on NPR, and heard an interesting interview with first-time author Camille DeAngelis about her novel Mary Modern. You can find the story here, and there’s a link to the audio archive.
What caught my attention particularly was when host Liane Hansen asked DeAngelis whether at any point in the publishing process it was suggested that her novel belonged in the Science Fiction category. In the course of the discussion (starts at 3:00 in the audio file) DeAngelis expresses the opinion that in recent years so-called literary fiction has come to include more fantastic elements “because people want to exit ordinary life, and you get kind of tired about reading about missing children and cheating spouses and all that kind of thing.”
I’ve written previously that the term “Science Fiction” is too often used as a pejorative, that SF is a ghetto from which it is difficult to escape, and that the distinction between Science Fiction and more mainstream ‘speculative fiction’ is arbitrary at best. Communion of Dreams certainly *is* SF – but like Mary Modern, it has a much broader appeal than to just the Star Wars crowd.
Anyway, catch the interview if you can, and maybe put Mary Modern on your reading list. I know that when I’m able to think clearly again I’m going to have to give it a try.
Jim Downey
Filed under: Feedback, General Musings, Marketing, movies, Paleo-Future, Pandemic, Plague, Predictions, Press, Promotion, Publishing, Religion, Science Fiction, Society, Space, Titan, Writing stuff
In a post-apocalyptic world a cult of religious cyber-zombies prepare to release a hideous new engineered plague on mankind. On Saturn’s moon Titan, an aging space prospector discovers an ancient alien artifact. It will take the psycho-sexual skills of one lone young woman to unlock the secrets of the device and save mankind – but can she do it, before the aliens return?
Find out with the new Science Fiction special effects extravaganza Titan’s Mistress! Rated PG-13 for violence and language, some nudity.
(Based on the acclaimed novel Communion of Dreams)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
OK, so here’s the deal. Someone read Communion this spring and *really* liked it. Said person thought that it was a very visual book, and would be perfectly suited to a film adaptation.
That’s all well and good. I’ve heard that from several people.
But this person has some connections into Hollywood.
Huh.
Nothing certain, this person says (and I have reason to trust him). But the novel has been passed on to some people who will at least take a look at it. A serious look. And they’re the sorts who can get things accomplished.
What a weird idea, that the novel could first be sold as a movie. Then it wouldn’t be too hard to do the conventional publishing thing as well.
This is all speculative, of course. And I’ve known about this for a while. But after the last couple of posts being about personal stuff unrelated to the book, I thought I’d mention this.
Could be interesting. Granted, once given the Hollywood treatment, Communion would probably wind up looking like I described above, but still.
So, who would you see in what roles? Any suggestions?
Jim Downey
Filed under: Alzheimer's, Failure, General Musings, Health, Hospice, Publishing, Religion, Sleep, Writing stuff
After she finished doing the nursing assessment of my MIL, I escorted ‘Missy’ from the Hospice agency out to her car. We paused just outside the back door, and she looked at me. “You guys are really doing a great job as care-givers.”
She probably tells that to all the people they work with. It’s likely in the manual.
But you know, it was still good to hear.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
Every one of family and friends we’ve told have been very supportive. “Glad you’re getting some help.” “About time you were able to find a good Hospice.” “Good that you can have some support.” “Maybe now you can get some regular assistance, even some more respite care in each week.”
But you know, it somehow feels like failure. Like we’re giving up, giving in, saying “we can’t handle this any more.”
I always knew this time would come. Just as I know that someday my MIL will die. Well, part of me knew these things. Part of me didn’t. It’ll take some time for the emotional reality to catch up with the intellectual.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
I found myself while on my morning walk considering what it will be like. To be able to go visit friends without having to coordinate family coming in to stay with my MIL. To not have to listen to a baby monitor 24 hours a day. To get some real sleep night after night after night. Daring to think that I might once again have a life of my own.
Really, that’s how it is. You develop such tunnel vision – everything has to be considered in terms of one objective: being a care provider. Yes, you take breaks as you can, you try and get some exercise, some sleep, eat right. Maybe even do some writing or conservation work. But all of that is secondary. Distantly secondary. Because you have to be there for the person you are caring for. It is a sacred trust, perhaps the only thing I truly consider to be sacred.
But now I start to consider What Comes After.
And it frightens me.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
Over 4,300 people have downloaded my novel. That’s an average of 600 people a month. Pretty good for what is basically word-of-mouth. I have a lot of work ahead of me to turn this into landing an agent, getting a publishing contract. If not for this book, then for the next one, on the basis that I have at least that much name recognition, that much of an ‘audience’.
I have the prequel to write. There’s a couple chapters already done that will need to be revised. And outlines for the rest of the book to be reworked.
I have at least two patentable ideas – one firearms related, one a consumer electronics item – that I need to pursue, see what I can do to either formally file a patent, or convince the appropriate large corporation to buy the idea from me with something less formal.
I need to earn some money, pay off debt.
I need to lose a bunch of weight, get back into something resembling decent shape.
And I’m frightened. For the last four years, none of these goals has really been paramount. So it has been easy to not succeed at them, and not take it as a personal failure. Soon, I will no longer have that excuse.
Can I succeed? Can I accomplish something lasting with my life?
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
A friend sent me the “Quotes of the Day” this morning. It contained one of my long-time favorites:
There is no expedient to which a man will not go to avoid the labor of thinking.
— Thomas A. Edison
Certainly true. One only has to look around at the world to see that. So very few people are willing and able to actually think for themselves. Oh, they may believe this or that, and call it thinking. But to actually stop, and consider, and understand? That is a rare thing.
I have been chronically tired for years now. And my ability to think clearly, or for any length of time, has been correspondingly diminished. I can point to this or that instance recently when I was able to think and work for short periods, once I had a bit more sleep and time to decompress. But it is a fragile thing. And I worry that perhaps it has slipped away. . .
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
Jim Downey
Filed under: General Musings, Harry Potter, J. K. Rowling, Predictions, Press, Publishing, Religion, Society, Writing stuff
[SPOILER ALERT – this post contains information about the final book in the Harry Potter series which some may consider spoilers. You’ve been warned.]
A good friend sends me links to book reviews. She knows that I don’t generally read book reviews, but every so often will see one that she thinks might tempt me, and passes it along. Every once in a while I’ll actually be interested enough to read one of the reviews she sends.
That was the case when I saw a link to a piece by TIME Magazine’s book reviewer, Lev Grossman, a couple of weeks ago which was titled “Who Dies in Harry Potter? God.” Given that this piece was published about 9 days before the last Harry Potter book was to be released, I thought it curious that the writer was making such a claim. So I read it.
It is an odd piece. I say that having read it four or five times. Here’s the relevant bit:
Rowling’s work is so familiar that we’ve forgotten how radical it really is. Look at her literary forebears. In The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien fused his ardent Catholicism with a deep, nostalgic love for the unspoiled English landscape. C.S. Lewis was a devout Anglican whose Chronicles of Narnia forms an extended argument for Christian faith. Now look at Rowling’s books. What’s missing? If you want to know who dies in Harry Potter, the answer is easy: God.
And he ends his piece with this prediction:
When the end comes, where will it leave Harry? He’ll face tougher choices than his fantasy ancestors did. Frodo was last seen skipping town with the elves. Lewis sent the Pevensie kids to the paradise of Aslan’s Land. It’s unlikely that such a comfortable retirement awaits Harry in the Deathly Hallows.
OK, Grossman sure got *that* wrong. But in his actual review of the book, published July 21, he once again makes the assertion that JK Rowling has eliminated God, in this passage:
Her insistence on this point is a reflection of the cosmology of the Potterverse: there are no higher powers in residence there. The attic and the basement are empty. There may be an afterlife, and ghosts, but there is certainly no God, and no devil. There are also no immortal, all-wise elves, as in Tolkien, nor are there any mysticalMaiar, which is what Gandalf was (what, you thought he was human? Genealogically speaking, he’s closer to a balrog than he is to a man.) There is certainly no benevolent, paternal Aslan to turn up late in the book and fight the Big Bad. The essential problem in Rowling’s books is how to love in the face of death, and her characters must arrive at the solution all on their own, hand-to-hand, at street level, with bleeding knuckles and gritted teeth, and then sweep up the rubble afterwards.
I haven’t read either of the two novels that Grossman has written. And, as noted, I don’t read book reviews except very rarely and don’t believe I’ve ever read one of his. So I can’t say what his thoughts are on God and whether he intends this as a slam or not. But I have to say that I am not in the least bit bothered by the fact thatJK Rowling doesn’t turn to a super magic man to resolve things, and instead forces her characters to come up with their own solutions – to grow, struggle, and learn and then to live with the consequences of their choices. This is exactly the reason I have said all along that these books are not ‘children’s books’ in the usual sense.
Perhaps it is a commentary on how our society has changed since the time of Tolkien and Lewis that these books are different in this fundamental way, and are yet so phenomenally popular. But I don’t see it. Religion has a stronger hold on our culture here in America than it did some 50 years ago, and there have been concerted efforts by the far fringe faithful to ban the Harry Potter books from schools and libraries on the basis of them promoting witchcraft. No, I don’t think that Rowling has tapped into some kind of anti-religious Zeitgeist. Rather, she has told her tale with amazing skill, and has left plenty of room for belief or non-belief in the background, where it belongs. While many people of faith use that belief as a crutch, that is not a fundamental aspect of religion, nor is it an excuse for not growing up and dealing with the world in mature terms. We, all of us, people of faith and no faith, have to be responsible for the here and now, have to make difficult choices and live with the consequences. That is the pre-eminent message of the entire Harry Potter series, and I was very glad to see that Rowling did not shy away from maintaining that message to the very end.
Jim Downey
(Cross posted to UTI.)
Filed under: Alzheimer's, Feedback, Harry Potter, J. K. Rowling, Promotion, Publishing, Science Fiction, Writing stuff
I’m deep into Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, so may not have much in the way of substantive posts over the next couple of days. Combining that with my care-giving responsibilities increasing over the last week due to something of a decline in my charge’s health, and I don’t have much extra energy or attention span.
But I wanted to note that we passed 3800 downloads of the novel yesterday, and I have been getting a bit more feedback here on the site to it. These are certainly good things, and I would like to thank one and all who have helped promote the book by telling their friends or posting comments about it elsewhere. Certainly, nothing that I have done has reached so many people.
Thank you!
Jim Downey
Filed under: Alzheimer's, Ben Bova, Frederik Pohl, General Musings, Heinlein Centennial, J. Michael Straczynski, JMS, Publishing, Science Fiction, Society, Writing stuff
If I published 4 books a year, for the next 25 years, I’d have accomplished in my 74 years what Ben Bova has accomplished in his life so far.
Yeah, it reminds me of that line from the short-lived series Crusade: “Whenever I get to feeling too proud of my accomplishments, I remind myself that when Mozart was my age, he’d been dead for six years.”
Bova is a legend in Science Fiction. Justifiably so. But he’s more than that. He’s a decent human being.
I say that for two reasons, both observed up close at the Heinlein Centennial. The first is summed up nicely by the James D. Miles quote which I have long appreciated:
“You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him.”
During the Centennial, I was waiting for a friend at a rendezvous point before going off for some lunch. The session I had attended had wrapped up early, so I was just standing there in an entrance hall, minding my own business. From one of the adjacent corridors came a distinguished gent, walking towards me. As he got closer, I recognized him. It was Ben Bova.
He came up to me, peered down at my Centennial badge, and quietly introduced himself. There was no implication that I should be impressed or honored – he was just one guy introducing himself to another stranger who happened to be in the same place at the same time. A part of me, experienced with countless hours of public relations, took note and admired how smoothly and genuinely he did this. The other part of me tried not to stammer too much in response to his queries and comments. We chatted for a few minutes, him telling me that his flight up from Florida had been delayed, asking me why I was attending, et cetera, and then the person he had been waiting for came up (I’m embarrassed to say that I cannot recall his name . . . he was another ‘V.I.P.’ who knew Bova evidently as an old friend). Bova introduced us like I had been his old army buddy. We all chatted for a minute or two. My friend ML came up. Bova took the initiative of introducing himself and his friend to her. Then he glanced at his watch, and said to his friend, “Well, I suppose it’s time I should get in there.” With a smile to us, he asked, “Will you be joining us?”
My friend glanced at me as he turned to go. I nodded, said quietly, “Um, let’s roll with this.”
We followed a few paces to one of the empty meeting rooms. Just inside the door Bova and his friend stopped, Ben looking around somewhat confused.
“Um, perhaps you’re still on Eastern Time? There isn’t anything scheduled during the lunch break . . .” I volunteered.
“Ah, right you are,” he said, somewhat chagrined.
“You’re welcome to join us, we were just about to go get some lunch.” (Hey, lunch with Ben Bova? How cool would that be?)
“Oh, thanks, I really should go get checked in. I just got off the shuttle, and thought I was going to be late getting to this session.”
We (ML and I) slipped out, Bova said goodbye to his friend, and the three of us went one direction, Bova off towards the reception area for the hotel in the other.
Now, that was the first insight. And I concede that it could well have all been just a highly-polished act by an author long experienced with dealing with fans at Cons and whatnot. But the next bit provided the other reason for my assessment.
ML and I had our lunch, and I returned to the room where Ben Bova had thought that he was to be participating. I had planned on going to that session anyway, since the other speaker was Frederik Pohl, and the topic was “Editors in Transition,” about the early days of SF publishing.
And here’s the second thing. I haven’t a nice little quote at hand, but I can assure you that it is true: you can also tell a great deal about someone by how they treat the elderly, particularly if that elderly person is suffering some form of diminished capacity.
Frederik Pohl, to my eye, is still as sharp as a tack. But he’s pushing 90, has had some health issues, and is getting a little forgetful . . . nothing that should come as any kind of a surprise in someone that age. As the full-time care-giver of someone who has Alzheimer’s at 90, I can honestly say that there is no reason to think that he suffers from any kind of dementia or mental deterioration. He’s just evidencing the normal traits of age, and even that very mildly indeed.
The thing is, watching Ben Bova interact with Fred Pohl during the hour long free-wheeling discussion of ‘the good old days,’ I saw another side of Ben Bova that most people probably don’t. There was the usual deference and respect, but there was also a genuine warmth, what I would characterize as perhaps even a kind of love. It’s the sort of thing that allows a person to smile quietly and let slide an error or mistaken memory without the need to correct it or even bring it to the attention of the older person. It is, in my experience, a deep reverence borne of long understanding of another, and reflects that person’s own self-confidence and self-understanding. I didn’t know it until I started to do the background research for this post, but Ben Bova has long experience with the martial arts, and that was the quietude I recognized in him.
I did see more of Ben Bova in the course of the weekend – his giving autographs, accepting awards, making little presentations, interacting with friends and fans. I didn’t attempt to claim any more of his time or attention – no reason to be a nuisance. He had been very generous with me already in that regard. And besides, I’d seen enough to understand some things about him which I deeply respect.
Jim Downey
(Cross posted to UTI.)
Filed under: BoingBoing, Cory Doctorow, Press, Publishing, Science Fiction, Slate, Ursula K. Le Guin, Writing stuff
With The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, Chabon has finally made the only use of genre fiction that a talented writer should: Rather than forcing his own extraordinarily capacious imagination into its stuffy confines, he makes the genre—more precisely, genres—expand to take him in.
Gah. That’s from Ruth Franklin in Slate on May 8th. Brought to my attention by Cory Doctorow on BoingBoing. But he made up for it by posting this response from Ursula K. Le Guin:
(10/15/07: Text has been removed because of copyright issues. See this post by Cory Doctorow for a complete explanation. Since I took the text from BoingBoing, I feel it only appropriate to respect the wishes of the parties involved and remove it now. You can read it in its entirety at the Ansible link.)
Damn. And that’s only about half of it. Not for the first time I read her work and think “I wish I’d written that.” But hey, anyone who writes science fiction is obviously just an untalented hack, according to Ruth Franklin, so I guess it can’t be any good.
Jim Downey
Communion Of Dreams 