Alastair Mayer’s T-Space Blog

After a slower start than I’d hoped, I’m up to speed and the “novel” is going well. Those quotes are there because at the moment it’s more of a very detailed outline; I know I’ll make significant changes in the next draft. But I’m coming up with some cool ideas and scenes. The working title is Alpha Centauri; it’s about humanity’s first trip there, with a few surprises.

Real time NaNoWriMo progress bar, the target is 50,000 words.

MileHiCon has come and gone; it was a lot of fun. The panels I moderated (“Modified Matter” and “Weird Biology”) were well-attended, standing room only, and even my reading went well (not a huge turnout, but I wasn’t expecting one).

Now we’re heading into Hallowe’en and the beginning of NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month. The objective is to write at least 50,000 words (which is a short novel by today’s standards) during the month of November. Check out the NaNoWriMo web site, which keeps participants in touch with each other, tracks your progress, and provides general encouragement. If you’re into writing at all, it’s a lot of fun, and you may be surprised at just how much you can write if you try.

I haven’t made a final decision on what I’m going to work on — I have a few ideas and partial outlines to choose from — but I’m definitely participating. If you are too (or if you’re just thinking about it), why not post a comment about what you have in mind?

My short story “Light Conversation” has been accepted by Analog Science Fiction & Fact magazine! This is my first sale to Analog (or to any of the Big Three SF magazines, the other two being Asimov’s and Fantasy & Science Fiction). I’ve been reading Analog since I was a teenager, so I’m really excited by this sale. I don’t know what issue it will appear in, but given the usual lead time it will probably be sometime next summer. Of course I’ll announce it (in big letters! 😉 ) when I find out specifics. It will likely be a “Probability Zero” story — it’s that kind of fun short — but of course that’s up to the editor.

My short story “The Gremlin Gambit” is the lead in the current issue of MindFlights webzine. It’s a light, fun piece, check it out.

Borderlands Books in San Francisco is listing Footprints as its #1 seller in trade paperback. Thanks to editor Eric Reynolds for the tip (and, with Jay Lake, for putting together such a strong anthology).

This evening I’ll be a the monthly DASFA (Denver Area SF Association) meeting (community room of the Whole Foods Market at 1111 South Washington Street in Denver; meeting time is at 7:00 PM), to help launch the Footprints anthology. Better-known author James Van Pelt, who has the lead story in the book, will also be there. It should be fun.

Tomorrow, July 19, Jim and I will be at Who Else! Books in Denver, for a signing of Footprints (copies will be available at a discount price). Refreshments and copies of Van Pelt’s other books will be available. This is also a sneak preview of Who Else’s new digs, they are in the process of moving from the old Denver Book Mall to the new Broadway Book Mall, at 200 So Broadway. We’ll be there at 3:00 — it will be the FIRST signing ever at the new book mall. Their number is 303-744-BOOK (2665). Come on out.

No, the world probably doesn’t need yet another writer blogging about how to write, perhaps much less a writer just beginning to selling his fiction. But since the idea popped into my head a couple of days ago, the voices there won’t shut up about it, so I’m going to have to commit pedagogy. (And if you don’t know what that last word means, please look it up. First lesson for writers: expand your vocabulary. You’re reading this in a browser, it’ll be easy.)

Now, I do have some qualifications for this. I’ve been paid for both my fiction and non-fiction writing (the latter pays better, by the way), so even though I don’t do it full-time, I am a professional writer. I’ve also done time (however briefly) as an editor, slush reader, and critiquer. I’ve read literally thousands of books, possibly more than ten thousand, and thousands of short stories. And that’s to say nothing of the perhaps millions of words I’ve read and written on various online forums over the past 25 years (yes, long before the web).

So. Much of what I say, especially in the beginning, will apply both to fiction and non-fiction writing, although my focus is going to lean to the former. My approach is going to be a little different from what I’ve seen elsewhere. The order in which I’m going to present topics will be (as best I can) the order in which an editor notices them when they get your submission. At each stage, if you blow it your manuscript will be rejected, which could mean that they never get to page two, let alone the end of your piece. (Yes, there may be exceptions to this, and people win the lottery too, but you shouldn’t plan on either.)

The first piece, on guidelines and formatting, will be up in a day or so. Stay tuned.

Last day at FiestaCon/Westercon. I’ll be heading to the airport in a few hours, but before that there are still a couple of interesting panels, including one on alien languages with Stan Schmidt and Juliette Wade, and a meeting with Beth Meacham, Executive Editor at Tor.

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July; I did. It’s been a lot of fun. I met a couple of people I hadn’t seen or heard from in years, in one case since the old BIX days (hi Henry! hi Rick!), plus the usual fun of meeting someone for the first time who turns out to have several connections with you that you were both unaware of. Since this is my fourth day of the con I’m feeling a little shell-shocked (but in a good way). I hope this is more or less coherent. I intend to come back through these last two posts and fill in some links. Stay tuned.

Coming up in a few weeks I’m scheduled as a speaker at the July 18 DASFA (Denver Area SF Association) meeting. (Their web site is somewhat dated, but the meeting time/place info is still correct.). The next day (July 19), I’ll be at Who Else! Books in Denver, signing copies of the Footprints anthology. Better than that, fellow (and better known) Colorado author James Van Pelt will also be at the signing, he has a story in Footprints too. (Jim may also be speaking at the DASFA meeting the evening before, I’m a bit fuzzy on the details.)

Before that, I’ll be going to Westercon (aka FiestaCon), the big western regional SF con in Temp, Arizona over the July 4th weekend. I’m just a con-goer at this one, not speaking, but I’m looking forward to seeing some old friends and meeting new ones. I’ll be cleverly disguised as myself, if you see me feel free to step up and say hello.

Today was a good news day, although those of you who aren’t writers or aspiring writers might not think so. First I heard from Joni Labaqui of the Writers of the Future Contest, to let me know that my entry for second quarter of 2009 was a Semifinalist. While not a Finalist, one of the group of eight stories selected for final judging and selecting the three winners, semifinalist is still good and earns a written critique from writer KD Wentworth, who does the preliminary judging. There’s a list of the other semifinalists, finalists and honorable mentions on Joni’s blog. Congratulations to all!

The next bit of good news was like one of those “good news, bad news” stories. In the afternoon mail I received a personal note from Stanley Schmidt, the editor of Analog, regarding a story I’d submitted to him. He said it was well written and that he personally enjoyed it (the good news), but because of the nature of the story (a technical problem in a research lab) it might not be sufficiently engaging even to Analog readers. So, not a sale, but when the editor of one of the (if not the) highest circulation SF magazines, who has been editing it for over thirty years, says he likes your story, that’s good news. Especially if you’re, like me, still an aspiring writer.

Speaking of aspiring writers, I got back last week from the trip out to Oregon. Part of it was family vacation, part of it was to attend a workshop given by Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Katherine Rusch, both professional writers and editors. Fellow attendee Brad Torgersen blogged that it was “the most important weekend [he’d] ever spent”. I’m inclined to agree. If you’re just starting out in the writing business — and you want to go at it full time rather than as a hobby — you owe it to yourself to check out the next Kris and Dean Show. They’re offering it again in September.