michaeljasper.net
"Another Wrecked Web Site"
September 10, 2000:
Arrival
Got here safe and sound, after an uneventful flight (I don't know why I stress about flying -- I know I shouldn't, but I guess it's all about being in control -- as if I have much control on the freeway if an eighteen-wheeler comes flying at me across the median). I was going to read all of Tim Powers' book, Last Call, but got talking to the lady next to me on the first flight, then read all of the second flight, and still am only on page 135. It's pretty dense stuff, but rich and rewarding. He's doing some fascinating stuff with tarot cards, gambling, and shifts in time and perspective. I need to take note. Maybe I'll have time to finish it before Powers himself shows up. Though I have a feeling I'll be too busy writing stories. Gotta get at least 2. That's my goal.
It's pretty cool here. The hotel - the Manor Hotel, aka Scientology Central - reminds me of the Grove Park Inn, in Asheville, NC. It's old, fixed up nicely, with style and just a hint of mustiness. My room is cool too - I'm sharing it with Dan Barlow, one of the first place winners, but he's upstairs. We lucked out and got a split-level. More on the place later - I'm off to our orientation at 6.
Okay, it's later. It's actually 11:35 p.m., and I've been up waaay too long, but I want to make the most of this, and I also want to take note of some of the story ideas I generated tonight.
Turns out orientation was more than just a simple meet and greet. We actually didn't even do that much - everyone pretty much introduced each other before we went to the ASI building, where Tim Powers and Algis Budrys were waiting behind a portable wall, ready to begin our 3 and a half hour workshop! Yep, we jumped right into the work, which actually suited me fine. I was getting antsy sitting around the room. Algis is a character. He told us to basically: "Do what I say and you'll succeed." He is very deadpan, very old-fashioned, and for what he writes, his formula works. For me, I dunno. I'm willing to try it. He has a 7-part process for story-writing that I find a little too confining - I think it works best for action adventure stories, not so much what I write, though I do think "Mud and Salt" would qualify as adventure. But my stuff has a little more subtlety perhaps, so I don't need step 7, where someone outside the story validates what happens at the end. I think there DOES need to be validation, but maybe the reader gets it/gives it or the protagonist (without coming right out and SAYING it, which is super-lame) comes to some sort of revelation.
But like I said, I'm totally open to any new ideas, and I really dig the part about getting my writing chops down to the point where I do write a lot and don't have to rewrite so much. (Of course, as we all sat around outside the hotel afterwards tonight, Tim Powers said that why rush to write a book in two months when you could take 4 months, you get the picture). There's a happy medium. For me, I know I'll succeed if I write often and regularly, and there's the rub - the time factor. So I plan on totally utilizing my week here.
I'm slowing down though. I'd wanted to say more about the hotel and the sites (we can see the Hollywood sign on the mountains to the north of us, and we passed Mann's Chinese Theater and some other sites on the way to our workshop meeting.
I DO need to come up with a story idea. Everyone has to develop a short, one-sentence story outline based on items Tim went around the room assigning. Others got glasses, a picture, a keyring with only one key on it. My story starter? A butane lighter. I've got some ideas... I also came up with some good topics for backgrounds to stories, basically building on my interest to learn more about war and unrest in places like Bosnia and Northern Ireland and Israel, where the history of violence is so convoluted and deeply imbedded that a good writer is needed to explain it all. I'm glad I remembered that. It could be something worth pursuing. So the ideas are starting to come. It's all about looking at things differently and seeing the story behind every person, every item, every occurrence.
With that, my story is all about sleep. Later!
mjj
September 11, 2000
7:00 a.m.
900 words
I have something for my story idea, but I can't seem to get it started. I wrote about 250 words on one story, a sentence on another, and just wrote another 600 on another story. This is kind of fun, eh? I think the last one might be the one I stick with, though I'm a little hesitant about using it because it takes place in the same setting as "Working the Game," my wall story. It's also sort of a VR story, which I wanted to avoid. So we'll see. I thought about doing a horror story, with a guy living the life of luxury on Dad's money, then getting a lighter delivered to him as a sign that he has to join the family business, which is A) some sort of tobacco-related job (too obvious and easy a target), B) burning down forests (too granola-y?), C) something fire-related, or D) something truly skiffy, like cold fusion or some crazy crap. I like that instant conflict between father and son, and the son knowing he's gotta shape up eventually so he's living it up now. And it'll probably end with the son needing to make some decision that will directly affect something he's loved from his leisure days (one of the drafts has this group of wild horses running up and down the coast, on some kind of predictable basis, something like the horses of Shackleford Island on the Outer Banks, but redone so the rich folks can enjoy them and schedule their vacation days around them...). Very obvious, but hey, I think that's what Algis likes.
The workshop was very interesting last night. I didn't get a chance to go into too much detail, but I did want to mention the two very different teaching styles. Some people may grumble at what (and how) Algis has to say, but I think the man is very intelligent and brings a totally new perspective to me about writing and the whole process. While philosophically I think I'm much closer to Tim Powers, I think I can learn a lot from Algis just about how he structures stories. If I can get over the mechanics of putting a story together and internalize it into more of an unconscious process, I'm going to be a much better writer. And like I told Leslie Walker, my "twin" for the week (more on that shortly), writing a novel to me is a lot like writing stories, just think of the chapters as stories. So with Algis we get the formula and the method, with Tim we get the characters and their motivation. And it's so, so nice to know that Tim outlines and plans and writes snippets of dialog, much like what Greg and I did for Autumn. And of course, the key thing to remember is that nobody knows what works best for me, except me.
So we have these twins, which is a pretty unique idea. I think it'll be cool - it forces me to not share my stuff before it's time. We can only discuss our stories with our twins. Tim went and picked twins for us at random, and I'm happy to get Leslie Walker, because she's more into fantasy and we can sort of butt heads and try to see what results. I guess I'm more into the sf and the extrapolation type stuff, and one of my stories is definitely headed in that direction (though I still would like to do a horror story here...). So Tim picked the perfect person for me to work with - different enough to help yet similar enough not stall us out. She had a great example for our suspense exercise with the scene from The Stand where Stu is hobbled and the bomb is about to go off, and basically all the shit is hitting the fan and King has us totally hooked and turning pages. So awesome, to be able to do that!
I'm out of here, for class. So far, I've got 900 words of fiction written. Tonight I want to finish a story, dammit!
---
5:00 p.m.
400 words
Just a quick entry before I call Lizzie and get started on my three story ideas...
Had another idear while I was in class today, reading some pretty lame L.Ron Hubbard essays and trying to contain my crazy excitement. I think tonight and tomorrow will be the days I don't get much sleep. We're humming along in class, already through most of the coursework, which mostly consists of Algis telling us to read an essay in our coursepack, a one-minute lecture by him, an occasional chat with our twin, then back to more L. Ron. Some of the stuff, I must admit, is pretty helpful. I like the concept of really writing a lot, getting better each day - I've started doing that, but time is always short. But I can't use that as an excuse. It's wild to think that people could actually live on fiction writing alone. It would be a hand-to-mouth existence for sure. I for one don't think I could do it. You just have to find time, whenever you can.
I do like the idea of writing a story a week, or a novel chapter a week. You have to be both hyper motivated and super organized to do so (this is the Kris Rusch and Dean Smith approach to becoming a fulltime writer in 8 years). I'd need to have my writing planned out pretty much each day, and never ever sleep in and miss my writing window. I think a story/chapter every two weeks is more realistic for me - how good can something be that you churn out in a week?? But here I am, fully intending to write three stories by Wednesday noon. I plan to have drafts before tomorrow morning. We're going to the library first thing, then we have the afternoon and all night to write (I hope). I can do it. I'm not tired. I've got coffee, and I got motivation. I do want to get 3-4 more publishable stories out this year. I only need two pubs to meet my SFWA goals. And I know I can do it. I've got the chops.
So overall it's been great. I'm enjoying the other writers, and really looking forward to reading everyone else's stuff. I hope to keep up with as many folks as I can afterwards, exchanging stories and so on. I already have plans to swap a copy of "Working the Game" for Leslie's first chapter in her novel. I'm really looking forward to critiquing. I think it'll be better than Clarion's batch o' stories.
And now I need to write. I think I'll jam on my latest idea first. It deals with my assignment, the plastic red butane lighter. It's a first person road story, starting when the narrator is picked up by a fifteen-year-old mulatto girl, her 150-year-old former slave grandmother, and their pet Greyhound, Waltwhitman. I'm having a blast writing it, and I can't wait to see where it ends up! I also have more ideas for my man in the cocoon story and my vacationer/eco-terrorist caught up in the corporate world story. Gotta keep pushing through.
---
Midnight:
2800 words (4100 words total!)
I'm pooped. I just finished rereading my new story, having drafted most of it today. It's pretty wild stuff! I like where it's going. It doesn't fit Algis' 7 step program at all, though. Oh well. I think it'll work once it's together. If I get up early tomorrow, odds are I can finish it before we go to the library tomorrow. Suh-weet! It's unlike anything else I've ever written, which is what I've always wanted to do. Actually, it owes a lot to Neil Gaiman and Tim Powers. And speaking of, I had a nice chat with Tim and Serena tonight around 8 or so, after I grabbed some food. We talked about Clarion and Scientology and writing really really fast. It was great. I finally had to slip away at 10:30 or so and finish up here. A couple more writers had joined them, and I'm sure they're still hanging out. This is great. I'm having a ball. What more could a writer ask for?
Wow. 4100 words in one day. If I can get all 3 stories done this week, I'll as happy as a clam.
Later (for real this time - I'm tired! It's 3 a.m. in NC).
mjj
September 12, 2000
7:20 a.m.
500 words
I've been awake since about 5, but unfortunately haven't gotten much writing done. I'm close to finishing my story about the elementals, but I got a little worried halfway through about Algis' 7 points. I'm worried now that I don't have everything in place, that there's not enough at stake. I know I shouldn't even bother with this stuff during drafting, but I am. I think I have basically two scenes left to do - one in LA with the earthquake, the other in Wyoming with the fire and the climactic heroism of Whit the greyhound in conjunction with Zed's change of heart. I think the real conflict has to do with Zed's realization that what he's doing is killing people, that after all these years he's been hardened to that fact, and it is in remembering Bob's death that he can finally relate to humans again (he used to be human himself, remember!). I think that is the key inner struggle, and Zed's going to have to fight not only the powers that be, but his two female counterparts, Mrs. Thompson and Missy. So that will make the final scene much bigger and hopefully give me a chance to let Zed fail a time or two as he creates his kinder, gentler elementalism.
Which begs the question, which element is most powerful? Water over earth? Fire over wind/air? The copout answer, I guess, is that each is a powerful as the other, though I like that fire is embodied by a greyhound, an animal, suggesting it is slightly out of control, though without human frailties. This story is shaping up nicely, I must say.
I think what I need to do, though is move the bombing away from the Federal Building in Oklahoma City. I think that using that in a story is very, very dangerous, because I don't want to look like I'm trying to capitalize on the incredible suffering that happened there. Maybe I could place the bombing somewhere else? I dunno. Any other location in the Midwest is just going to raise echoes of OKC, and what purpose would that serve? I want to use the location to make a point, too, about humans' roles in disrupting nature's balance, how nature is devastated as well by such random acts of evil -- that all leads up to what Zed has to do at the end, to try to curb the human loss in their natural disasters, because humans are causing the balance to shift too precariously (i.e., lives lost in a terrorist attack are not part of the master plan of nature, in this world I've created, so when people die in an earthquake, the numbers are out of whack and the harmony of all life is at risk and susceptible to future attacks. Maybe???). This is all pretty challenging stuff for a rough draft banged out in less than a day. But I like it. I need to follow through with it. I want to blow the people here away. And I want to blow myself away. Just like Mrs. Thompson dancing and spinning her way across the soybean fields.
Okay, I've indulged myself enough this morning. On to breakfast and more writing!
---
5 p.m.
I'm trying to get some work done quickly now. I just took a nap, then a long diversion across the street to the used bookstore - found four hardcover first editions for about $35, including Virtual Light and Heavy Weather, and two others. So I'm pretty psyched. I had a really bad headache for a while there, probably from lack of sleep and way too much caffeine. So I took a nap and got some Tylenol, and I feel much better. Such are the risks of a writer's life.
I also think I've eaten way too much MSG - I've had Thai food twice and now Japanese food for lunch today. Though I doubt the use the stuff in the Japanese place - it was pretty authentic. And there's sushi everywhere. I bought some vegetarian stuff for supper tonight. I'm going to try and eat at a decent time, finish my one paltry story (I really lost my momentum, eh?) and hang out with Powers and company downstairs for a while. Then read a bit. I missed not having class today - we did research at the library, and I realized that I need to stick to Internet research for now, unless I need some serious details - I just don't know where to start, and after fumbling around for a while, I finally found a computer w/ Internet connection (duh - just realized I should've checked my e-mail!) I was able to answer ALL my research questions. All I need is the Internet and a trusty atlas. That's the ticket. At least for now.
So after our field trip to the library, we had the rest of the day to write. This place is a bit disorganized - nobody really tells us what to do as a whole, it's more like someone tells one of us and hopes the word spreads. And nobody really knows what's going on this weekend, after the ceremony. I'm hoping to have some time to look around Hollywood and the area with Elizabeth. Tim seemed to think we'd be "off the hook" after the ceremony, so I'm looking forward to a little vacation time, whether or not Elizabeth and I have our own room.
I hope I don't sound like I'm complaining. I'm not - this beats any day of work. I'm having fun, just wish I wasn't feeling so rundown already. Now that I've got some aspirin and food in me, I'm feeling better. I need to cut back on the caffeine, and hope to get a good night's sleep tonight.
I'm not sure I could live here in California. The heat is oppressive, as is the constant, constant traffic (there's an interstate not 100 feet from the Manor, I kid you not). And the earthquakes -- I found a website that tracks earthquakes in major California cities, and there are tremor of a magnitude of 2 to 3 almost daily! Not a good sign, eh? I'll take my chances out east with hurricanes every coupla years. Of course, I know I'm not seeing all of California, but this part is just busy. Tim and his wife Serena live here (he is totally freelance, which astounds me--the guy writes full time!) and they seem to love it. He's been a lot of fun to talk to. He truly seems to enjoy talking with us and hanging out, ring of Diet Cokes in hand. Everyone else is really cool too. I think we'll all feel better tomorrow after our stories are in and all we have to worry about are the critiques... How bad could they be, huh?
My goal tonight, after I call Lizzie and finish my final scene (and add all my research into my draft) is to find the 6th floor balcony and write some more up there.
---
10 p.m.
1200 words
The draft is done. It's rough, rough, rough. But it's done. As soon as I finish my beer, I'm gonna wander around a bit and then come back for a readthrough. I'm worried sick that the story simple makes no sense.
The balcony on the 6th floor is pretty cool, by the way. I'll have to get a photo of the skyline before it gets too dark. The moon is almost full, so it looks quite cool up there.
Now if I could just keep the maids from coming in and out of our room -- they've been here at least three times today. It's a little disconcerting.
Toby was able to round up a printer, so I have a hard copy of my story. I don't like the working title -- "Our New Flame" -- nor do I like how it ends (though it does meet Algis' 7 rules, I believe...). I think, if I'm feeling ambitious, I'll go over it with a pen before bed, then I'll fix it up in the morning. If I can get a hold of a printer - I can always take it to one of the many copy shops I saw close to the ASI offices. That was one of the cool things about Clarion - you simply handed in a manuscript, and the admin people took care of the rest.
And with that, I think I'm going to give my arms a break and do some reading, and possible get some sleep. I've got one story of 5200 words and I'm gonna have to be happy with that (once it's fixed up, that is). Not three stories, not even two. I'm no L. Ron, no "Manuscript Factory." I can't imagine how muddled my stories would be if I even tried that!
I'm thinking that a nice break from writing fiction would be nice about now. Crazy, eh?
Oh yeah. I miss my wife pretty damn bad. I can't wait for Elizabeth to get here. Actually, I'll be even happier once we're both back home again. So far, this LA stuff has been for the birds.
But at least I don't have to get up and go to work tomorrow, right?
Later.
mjj
September 13, 2000
9:45 p.m.
Totals for "Natural Order" -- 561 minutes (about 9 and 1/2 hours) total writing time, 5300 words, 18 pages double-spaced
Looks like this is gonna be a quick entry. I'm tired, and I still have comments to make on 11 stories. Yep, we had to turn in our stories today, and I swear, I was working on mine until the last possible minute. The last 2 paragraphs need work, but I guess I'll have to work on that later, after the critiques.
I'm curious to see how the critiques take shape tomorrow. We read (again) in class today, one of the stories from last year's book, and everyone gave a very brief critique of it, almost too short for my taste. It was good to get everyone else's take on the story, as I'd pretty much liked the story (though I didn't have time to read it all again), but 2 people came up with some excellent points about the story that really pinpointed its weaknesses. So if I can get that for my story, "Natural Order" (don't like the title), I'll be happy.
Overall, though, today has been sort of a bust. Our workshop was pretty lame, as Algis went over a lot of manuscript stuff that I already knew, though I did learn that it's best to get an agent AFTER I get a book deal. Makes sense. Though I think with my literary/mainstream novel, I need to get an agent first. Plus I need to write a damn genre novel. I have the horror novel, but I'm afraid to show it to anyone. Maybe Tim, if I'm feeling brave.
I'm learning that not a lot of people read science fiction. More read fantasy, while even more stick to either mainstream or mysteries. There seem to be two groups who read sf - the hardcore geek readers and the sf writers trying to keep up with the market. It seems really split, and I don't know how interested I am in it. I prefer what I've seen in F&SF over Asimov's, and Analog has never been an option for me. Realms of Fantasy is too squishy for me, so that pretty much sums up the whole damn field. What I plan on doing is sticking to novels. I'll do stories for fun, every now and then, in whatever genre I like, but novels are where it's at. At least for me.
I may go up to the balcony/roof for a photo or two tonight. I took some this morning around 5:30 and 6, as the sun came up. I was working like a madman all morning. It was pretty fun. Ran into Paul and then Melissa up there. I'm hoping to get to know folks better in the next few days, now that our work is almost over. Oh yeah, did I tell you I have 11 manuscripts to critique? It's some good stuff. I'd better get to it.
Good night.
mjj
September 15, 2000
Well, yesterday was bit hectic and I didn't have time to write in here, and I know today and tomorrow won't be much better, so I'd better make an entry while I have some time...
Let's get the embarrassing stuff out of the way first. Three more authors showed up yesterday to chat with us after the workshop -- Dean Wesley Smith, Kevin Anderson and his wife Rebecca Moesta. Kevin talked about the many books he's written, then we met for dinner. I picked up Lizzie, who'd flown in with Dan's wife, and we had some food. Kevin and Rebecca sat at out table, and after we'd been chatting a while, I thought I'd be Mr. Manners and introduce everyone.
So I promptly introduced Kevin as Dave Wolverton.
Why is it that our brains and mouths betray us like that? At least mine does, all the time! Luckily Kevin laughed it off, saying he was the other bald Star Wars guy. Oh well. It's still embarassing. I was tired and wanted to make sure Elizabeth was comfortable, a little nervous. Anyway. Build a bridge, get over it.
There was something else that bugged me about yesterday, but I can't remember it and if so, it wasn't that important.
The best thing about yesterday was seeing Elizabeth again. I felt like I hadn't seen her in weeks, but really it's only been what, five days? Sunday to Thursday? In any case, she was here in the room when we finally got away from the Author Services Building, after a long day of workshops and talks by Kevin and Rebecca and an oh-so-lovely tour of the L Ron Library.
Anyway, Lizzie was pretty freaked out when I got here -- luckily she could talk with Jennifer, Dan's wife, until we returned. I guess my intrepid wife went wandering, which is more than I've done, around the Celebrity Centre. She walked into the Scientology bookstore and got the hardsell on the many, many expensive books you must buy to qualify for Scientology, then when the guy behind the counter found she wasn't a member, he escorted her out and asked the concierge if she could give Lizzie a tour. I guess he didn't want her messing with the engram-o-meters or whatever else was in the shop. So Lizzie got the tour, asked about the buzzing (no answers, sorry) that permeates certain floors of the building, and saw a young girl getting some... treatment. Needless to say, she was fairly freaked out by it. It's some wild stuff here, some very intense folks. Elizabeth is interested in religion, so she is simply curious, while I'm a bit freaked out by it all and just want to get through the next few days without getting any rectal probes or other zapping stuff happen to me.
But before I could enjoy the lovely company of my beautiful wife, I had the little matter of 12 stories to be workshopped. Including my own. So this morning, at a little after nine a.m.we plopped down around a boardroom table and dove into a critique of Toby's epic adventure/cyberpunk tale about disposable cameras (did I get that right Toby?? heh heh). After the crit was over, Algis promptly said that we were taking too long (a half hour) and said only half of us could make comments, alternating each side of the table for each story. That pissed me off at first. It still annoys me, but it did speed things up. I don't think Algis is feeling well, because he's been in a hurry to get through stuff all week. He's from that old school of sf - the good ol' boys - that I don't read or even respect that much. And the thing that bugged me about not getting everyone's verbal comments was that we finished around 1:30 or 2, then farted around for a good two hours waiting for Kevin and Rebecca - we could've used the time for workshop instead of a damn tour of L. Ron's bookshelves, which mostly consisted of his Scientology stuff and foreign versions of Battlefield Earth or Mission Earth. Though I must admit, the WotF library is quite cool, with stacks of hardcovers by past writers, judges, and teachers. I'd like to slip the hardcovers of Tim's books outta there.
So workshop was good, relatively fast. Oh - my story? Well, let me tell ya about it. Actually, let's let my classmates and teacher tell you.
Tobias Buckell: "I loved it. I was so there."
William Brown: "Great characters - loved the dog!"
Gary Murphy: "The text was rich, excellent writing."
Dan Eater: "I didn't get it. It was too stream of consciousness." [Doh! How'd that blurb get in here!?]
Mark Siegel: "The confusion at the beginning kept me reading more. Liked the lack of explanations."
Paul Martens: "Great characters -- when I got done, I wanted to read more."
And, last but not least, Algis Budrys: "Wonderful. It wasn't outstanding, but I'd read it. Maybe not the best story I'd read in a published collection, but not bad. A helluva story."
Let me tell you, there was only one other "helluva story" given out this week, and that was for Dan my Roommate's excellent mafia/time travel vignette. Actually, Mark Siegel may have gotten a "Helluva story" for his doorhanging/Gepetto story. So I feel honored. The story needs a couple hours of tweaking at most, then I'm sending that sucker out! I feel great about it. I pretty much know (I knew already - look at my last journal!) what needs the most work, and all I really need to do is add one last scene at the end to show the new order of things, and tighten up their motivation. I was pumped! I've never felt so unsure about a story that got such all around great response. Woo hoo!
The only downside (this is that other negative thing I was trying to remember earlier) was that Tim Powers didn't get a copy of my story! Crap. I really, really wanted to get his take on it, as I'd used a lot of the techniques he'd used in unfolding his story in Last Call - the technique of confusing the reader, leaving out key derails and slowly doling out the answers as the plot unfolds. I want to hear what he though of that, if he thought I was full of crap or what. So last night I did the annoying, "please read my story" thing after dinner. Luckily, he said he wanted to after all the praise it got yesterday. So that was cool.
Finally, Elizabeth, Dan and Jennifer, Jeff, Toby, and for a while, Kevin and Rebecca, hung out at our table on the roof of the Manor Hotel and chatted with Dean Wesley Smith. Dean's a character - I learned more about the ins and outs of writing from him, along with Kevin, and lots of business stuff from Rebecca. Almost too much business stuff, actually. Dean is much more laid back and truly seems to be having fun, doing what he's doing. I picked his brain for a good hour, and enjoyed it immensely, as did Lizzie and Toby.
One thing that changed yesterday is my impression of tie-in novels and work for hire. A little switch got thrown while Kevin was talking, and I realized I could make my money as either a tech writer or as a commercial, for-hire writer, spinning tales in existing worlds like the Star Wars or Men in Black (though I think Dean owns that area) or Xfiles or whatever. I wouldn't be averse to doing 2 of those books a year if it allowed me to quit my job! But I don't want that to be all I ever do. And I'd definitely use a pseuodnym for the work for hire stuff. But I'm considering, a little further down the road. It'd be nice to write fiction full-time, eh? I could do some Dragonlance or Forgotten Realms stuff. I'll have to talk to the folks at the upcoming con - I know they do that stuff. It'd be cool to truly write fiction for a living. And no commute! Wow.
Oh yeah - I saw the book yesterday! The art for my story isn't what I was expecting, but the more I think about it, the more I like it -- he doesn't give away the alien's appearance, which is probably good. And he has a cool design sense. I'll have to chat with him tonight and get his autograph.
So that was my day yesterday. Pretty wild, huh? Lots of avenues are opening up for me, if I'm interested in pursuing them. I like that feeling.
Tonight's the big party. More on that later!
mjj
September 17, 2000
Good morning. I'm ready to get back home, to North Carolina. We both have a new respect for Ben Fold Five's song line: "I won't move to LA/The leaves are falling back east/That's where I want to stay."
If you're interested in hearing more Manor House tall tales (almost every writer here has about one, Elizabeth and me included as of yesterday, lucky us, e-mail me and I'll tell you more).
Overall it's been a great experience. The bash on Friday was pretty damn great, though I was too nervous to enjoy it much until I got up to give my acceptance speech (thanking L. Ron, Author Services, and the Writers of the Future contest as asked, I'm afraid to say -- I wanted to, because I wouldn't have been here without them, though I thanked L. Ron's estate 'cause I didn't want to be thanking a dead guy...). Anyway. I'm trying not to be negative here. It was a great event for me and my fellow writers, and all the talent that was in that room on Friday night was amazing. I did my speech, didn't muff it too much, even working in a nod to Algis' 7 steps to a story (I told my fellow writers that tonight was the 7th step: Validation). Then we took tons of pictures and went upstairs to collect our books. And we began signing! It was a blast! Luckily Elizabeth found a friend in Claudia, Jeff's fiancee, so she had someone to talk to while I got mobbed by fans (I'm exaggerating about the mob, but not too much!). Then we sat in the board room and signed books until 1 a.m. So I have 12 autographed books in addition to my prized book of inscribed autographs, from all my fellow writers. I was hoping my buddy Toby would win the grand prize, but Gary Murphy won it. So he has to lug home two trophies! He was really funny in his speech, and he deserved it. His was one of the few hard sf stories in the collection, I believe.
So that was the big gala event on Friday. Then yesterday we kind of wound stuff up, and we're all antsy to get home. Exhaustion is starting to set in on me. And we'll be in the plane most of the day. Great.
But I'm leaving here pretty pumped to write again. I want to churn out a lot of words in the next couple of months, as advised by Dean Wesley Smith and Kevin J. Anderson (who remembered judging my story and told me last night how much he liked it, which was an honor). I can't wait to get started. I want to revise the story I wrote here - "Natural Order" - then revise "Working the Game" and send them both out. Then start something new. I need to decide if I'm going to do short stories or a novel. Right now I'm learning toward stories. 12 in the next 3 months. That way I'll know for sure I can get into SFWA and maybe even HWA. That'll be too cool. Then start a novel in Janary. Toby and I are thinking of doing a Dare to be Bad weekend this fall or winter sometime, and that should be fun. I've made some good friends this week and feel energized about my writing again. I want to continue that now.
Later.
mjj