Flash Fiction : Light Years (12/100)

... of ...








Light Years is a work of flash fiction. In fact it is the slowest piece of flash-fiction ever written. In real-time its one hundred words would take exactly 10,000 years to recount. Because of the limitations of a normal human life-span, it has been specially accelerated to the speed of one word per week. It will therefore take just under two years to tell from start to finish.

For a full history of the transmissions, click here.

Beta Readers, Critique Partners and Publishing Partners

One aspect of being a writer I've never cracked (as well as, you know, getting the darn novel published) is to strike up constructive relationships with one or more beta readers. This post over on the Literary Rambles blog and this one on Help! I Need a Publisher! discuss the whole area. They've really made me think. I've worked with short story and poetry editors from time-to-time in the past and I've always found it an enjoyable and rewarding experience. But what I don't have, I realise, is someone I can regularly trade drafts with and get constructive criticism from. Somone who is knowledgeable and prepared to be completely frank (but hopefully not too damning). Someone for whom, if they were also a writer, I could reciprocate.

Take the novel I'm working on at the moment, for example. It's sort of a fantasy novel in that it's set in an imaginary world, but there are no mythical beasts or magic spells. Perhaps one of its forebears would be Gormenghast. And I am constantly prevaricating between thinking it's utterly fantastic and utterly ridiculous. It's great, of course, to just write and not censor yourself, but at some point you need to step back and think about whether anyone will actually want to read it. And I just don't know.

I do have writer friends with whom I've had a beta/critique partner relationship in the past but, as if happens, they generally don't go for genre fiction and a fair portion of what I write would be labelled Fantasy or SF (although, as I always say, I hate these pigeonholes). I, in turn, do read and enjoy realist fiction a lot (although it probably wasn't a great idea to suggest throwing in some zombies and/or aliens into that literary novel). My nearest-and-dearest have offered to play the role, but I don't know - aren't there are always going to be problems of objectivity there?

So, I'm interested to know what other people do. Do you work alone? Do you have people you can trade manuscripts with to get honest feedback? Would, even, anyone be interested in striking up such an arrangement to see if it can be mutually beneficial? No strings attached. I'd love to hear from you ...

A New SF Story to be Published

I heard today that I've had an SF short story, 22nd Century Genie, accepted for publication by Jupiter magazine, the futurtastic UK-based SF print and web magazine.

This story has been bumbling about in my head for years, banging into the furniture and making a nuisance of itself. It will be wonderful for it to see the light of day. It was, incidentally, originally titled A, C, G and T, which I thought was a marvellous title (you'd have to read the story to see why), but I was persuaded that this wouldn't mean a lot to some readers. So 22nd Century Genie it is ...

Update : Ian Redman, the editor, tells me that the story should be published in their Issue 28 (April, 2010).

Flash Fiction : Light Years (11/100)

... cold ...








Light Years is a work of flash fiction. In fact it is the slowest piece of flash-fiction ever written. In real-time its one hundred words would take exactly 10,000 years to recount. Because of the limitations of a normal human life-span, it has been specially accelerated to the speed of one word per week. It will therefore take just under two years to tell from start to finish.

For a full history of the transmissions, click here.

The Search for an Agent

I've been putting rather a lot of work of late into researching agents to which I can submit Hedge Witch, my first completed novel. I've also been putting quite a lot of work into the relevant query letters and covering letters. I've had something of an epiphany about the whole process. This is probably completely obvious to everyone else, but I've only recently grasped that a submission to an agent or a publisher should be a piece of creative writing.

I don't mean that it should be made up. I mean that it needs to be carefully worked to achieve a desired literary effect. Just as, say, some dialogue in a novel needs to be honed to engage and inform the reader, so a submission should be crafted with its intended audience in mind. It needs to be given the same care and attention as the novel it is attempting to promote. Because, if it isn't, the agent might never even get round to reading the actual deathless prose.

One problem I've had is that there's a lot of contradictory advice out there as to what makes the perfect submission. Some want simple statements of fact, whereas others want something a bit more blurb-like for instance. This is where you need to research individual agents and find out what each wants. But how do you do that? How do you get to know their tastes and preferences if meeting them all isn't an option? This is where the internet is invaluable, of course. Most agents have some sort of web presence, and often this will contain a profile of each individual and what they look for. This information is golddust. Some agents are very switched on and use Twitter and blogs and the like, so you have the chance to really find out about them. It does seem that agents in the USA are much more likely to be blogging and tweeting, but there are UK agents doing so too.

At the other end of the scale, I should say, there are agents who don't even have a web site. They obviously know what they're doing but I don't begin to understand the thinking behind that. No web site? In 2009? Nope, can't grasp it.

I've also been having trouble with the descriptions agents provide about themselves. Hedge Witch is, if anything, a fantasy novel. Partly high fantasy and partly urban fantasy (and partly other things), but predominantly fantasy. I mean, I hate pigeonholing it like that because it's so restrictive, but I accept that's the way the world works. But it often isn't clear whether an agent would be interested in seeing it. Does "general fiction" cover fantasy? Does "commercial fiction"? Some agents will say "no SF" but not mention fantasy, and my guess is that they are including fantasy under the umbrella of SF (which is fairly weird). Some, by the way, even say "no Sci-Fi". Don't they know no-one has seriously used that term for, I don't know, decades?

Some agents, meanwhile, talk in terms of age groups. They say "children's books only" without any explanation of what that means. Pre-schoolers? Teenagers? Perhaps Hedge Witch is "young adult" (YA) because it's, you know, got magic and stuff in it. But lots of YA fiction is purely real-world and lots of "old adults" read fantastic fiction. Such as, well, me!

Ah, 'tis all very confusing. Still, with careful research and carefully crafted submissions, I'm hoping to get somewhere. Wish me luck!

Flash Fiction : Light Years (10/100)

... The ...








Light Years is a work of flash fiction. In fact it is the slowest piece of flash-fiction ever written. In real-time its one hundred words would take exactly 10,000 years to recount. Because of the limitations of a normal human life-span, it has been specially accelerated to the speed of one word per week. It will therefore take just under two years to tell from start to finish.

For a full history of the transmissions, click here.

Superior Scribbling

Tina over at The Clean White Page has magnanimously awarded me the Superior Scribbler award. This is a sort of benign pyramid scheme of praise : if you're given the award you then pass it on to five other blogs that you know and love and that you think deserve the recognition. And so on. Thanks Tina!

The originator of the scheme laid down certain rules back in the distant mists of time (in fact in October 2008.) I'm not really one for following rules, but, hey, this seems like an enjoyable enough game so I'll play along ...

These are the rules :

• Each Superior Scribbler must in turn pass The Award on to 5 most-deserving Bloggy Friends.

• Each Superior Scribbler must link to the author and the name of the blog from whom he/she has received The Award.

• Each Superior Scribbler must display The Award on his/her blog, and link to This Post, which explains The Award.

• Each Blogger who wins The Superior Scribbler Award must visit this post and add his/her name to the Mr. Linky List. That way, we'll be able to keep up-to-date on everyone who receives This Prestigious Honor!

• Each Superior Scribbler must post these rules on his/her blog.

These, meanwhile, are the five blogs I'd like to pass the award onto. I follow so many fantastic blogs that I found this an almost impossible decision. In the end I just plumped for the first five upon which I read something entertaining, useful or intriguing. Here they are :

That Elusive Line - for evocative writing and wonderful artwork.
Jo Treggiari - for an always entertaining read.
A Limb to be Published - for being entertaining and describing stuff I recognize.
Bolts of Silk - for fine poetry (ahem, and some of mine too).
PC Games and Reviews - for keeping me up to date with the world of computer games.

Open University MA in Creative Writing Shelved

Update (2016): Since this post was written, the Open University MA in creative writing has been announced. Details here.

Regular readers will know I've been very interested in the Open University MA in Creative Writing, which was due to appear in the next year or so. There are other distance-learning MAs around but it was the OU one that really appealed, after having gone through a BA with them.

Alas, it looks like the MA has been put on hold and may even not appear at all. I heard this from Derek Neale, one of the lecturers :

I'm afraid production has stalled for a variety of reasons, so the MA will not now be launched in 2011. It is presently impossible to say when or if this programme will come into being.

Which is a great shame.

I suppose I'm in two minds as to the worth of doing an MA - on the one hand it's clearly a big commitment. On the other hand, it might be invaluable to my development as a writer. Is it better to do an MA or just to spend the time writing? Anyone have any views?

Flash Fiction : Light Years (9/100)

... time. ...








Light Years is a work of flash fiction. In fact it is the slowest piece of flash-fiction ever written. In real-time its one hundred words would take exactly 10,000 years to recount. Because of the limitations of a normal human life-span, it has been specially accelerated to the speed of one word per week. It will therefore take just under two years to tell from start to finish.

For a full history of the transmissions, click here.

Bell, Book and Kindle

Amazon's Kindle e-reader has recently become (kinda) available here in the UK. A great deal has been written about this particular machine, and I'm not going to add to that whole debate now. I think it's pretty clear that these devices have significant flaws. I think it's equally clear that they aren't going to go away. It's hard to escape the conclusion that they will one day largely supplant paper books just as downloaded music has largely supplanted CDs and vinyl (although I, for one, do still hang on to my beloved LP collection.)

Where the technology will eventually get to is hard to say. Realistic electronic paper? MP3 players succeed simply because they're more convenient than the technologies they replace. They don't have to be perfect. With downloaded music you lose a lot : the large piece of cover-art that was so much a part of the old 12" albums. The crackles and jumps on your copy of an LP, that you actually miss when you hear the perfect original. The infinite run-out groove on Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. But apart from a few diehard afficionados (people I'm all for), that's just history now. Like steam trains.

None of this is anything that particularly worries me. There will always be stories written and read. The rest is all detail.

Right now a paper book is pretty hard to beat for convenience. It's cheap enough to cram into a bag without worrying too much whether it will get damaged. It's fantastic for sharing with others. E-reader technology is a long way from all that. I think there are still some fundamental issues to be resolved with e-readers above and beyond their mere usability.


Price
A Kindle currently costs about the same as 15 or 20 books. While that clearly doesn't stop a lot of people wanting one, it does make the e-reader an expensive gadget you have to worry about. Like I say, you can chuck a book into a bag and not fret too much if it gets a bit dog-eared or even lost. You wouldn't do that with an e-reader as the hardware (as opposed to the writing) is too valuable. So you're less likely to take one around with you. Would you dare take one to the beach and risk getting sand in it? Right now, these devices just aren't cheap enough.


DRM
There's also a big issue with digital rights management on e-readers. How many times have you been introduced to a new author by a friend lending you a book they've enjoyed? That must happen so much it's hard to see how the publishing industry could get by without it. But there's a problem. While pirating a paperback is hard - you could photocopy each page, I suppose - pirating an unprotected e-reader book is trivial. It's just a file. What you end up with at the moment are e-books tied to a particular e-reader, which is secure (assuming the DRM isn't cracked) but which means you can no longer share a book you've enjoyed with someone else. You haven't bought the book so much as leased it. You can't hand it on. And that just isn't going to fly.

The music industry has grappled with the same problem, of course. There have been various attempts to get round the problem, such as allowing a file to be copied just a few times, but these are never satisfactory solutions. DRM schemes can and do get cracked. The trend in the music industry is to move away from DRM completely towards a subscription-based scheme or towards pushing advertising onto the consumer, neither of which is particularly appealing. It remains to be seen what the answer is, but clearly the ease with which an e-book can be duplicated is a double-edged sword.


The Environment
As well as all this, in a post-Copenhagen world, we have to consider the relative carbon footprints of books and e-readers. I'm not aware of a vast amount of good science in this area, but it's an important question. Which is more harmful for the environment, a paper book or an electronic one? It's not going to be a simple answer as we're not comparing like with like. There's research from the Cleantech Group (reported here) that concludes that "on average, the carbon emitted in the lifecycle of a Kindle is fully offset after the first year of use" and also that "any additional years of use result in net carbon savings, equivalent to an average of 168 kg of CO₂ per year". Which sounds pretty impressive. However, it's not immediately clear who has funded this research and it's perhaps odd that it singles out the Kindle. I'd definitely like to see more research in this area. But the thought of all those tonnes of holiday books air-freighted around the world in suitcases each year, for example, makes me think an electronic reader of some sort has to be better in the long-run.


E-publishing?
Right now, e-readers are in their infancy. I think they're still well worth exploring, though. They offer some intriguing possibilities for the writer, in particular the ability to self-publish to a global market. Now, I'm definitely not suggesting that we writers bypass agents and publishers and just self-publish for e-readers. Right now, the conventional route to being published is clearly the better one. That's how I'm trying to get my fantasy novel, Hedge Witch, out there, for example.

But still, I'd like to explore some of these new possibilities, partly out of technical interest, partly to help build a presence, a "platform", on the interweb and partly just for fun. In future posts I'm going to look at how to go about self-publishing short stories to two distinct e-readers : the Kindle and - the one that I suspect might win by virtue of its sheer ubiquity - the iPhone (and/or the forchcoming Apple tablet.)

 To be continued ...

Flash Fiction : Light Years (8/100)

... of ...








Light Years is a work of flash fiction. In fact it is the slowest piece of flash-fiction ever written. In real-time its one hundred words would take exactly 10,000 years to recount. Because of the limitations of a normal human life-span, it has been specially accelerated to the speed of one word per week. It will therefore take just under two years to tell from start to finish.

For a full history of the transmissions, click here.