I picked up one passenger in Seattle, and two in Vancouver, WA, where we all overnighted at The Snout Cave, home of VP XII alumnus Curtis & his wife DeeAnn. On the way down, we stopped in Crater Lake, where I got these fabulous shots. Yes, it really is that pretty, and was probably the best place we could have stopped for lunch.

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The trip went well, although I did figure I’d been driving too long when we pulled up to a construction delay and my eyes went funky, the road appearing to still scroll by me with the car at a full stop. We arrived safely in Reno, where I got upgraded to this completely over-the-top suite. All excesses in taste are forgivable in my book in the presence of a jetted tub.

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Speaking of over-the-top, while there is an explanation for why these lemons might be wearing condoms…

… I’m not sure anyone can explain this ceiling to me. I think it jumped the shark.

I had a great time hooking up with old and new Viable Paradise pals, and am still forever grateful the XIs (Julia, Eric, Chris, Kim, Heather) made me an honorary member of their posse at Anticipation in ’09. I hadn’t seen XIIs Jeff or Pete since VP itself three years ago (more math, Jeff), and it was nice meeting all the new alumni, and even the yet to be (Donnie). I had one of those weird moments at the VP party walking up to Kate Baker and saying “yes, we’ve met on Google Plus”, which was a first for me. Congrats on your Hugo, Kate. And it was fun to make new friends like Warren.

Notable readings include John Scalzi’s from The Work Which Shall Not Be Named On Pain Of Punishment That Swoops Out Of Nowhere To Clock One In The Skull. Mary Robinette Kowal read from an intriguing upcoming work about a black woman using magic to “pass” for white in the vaudeville era. Steven Gould read from his new sequel to Jumper. Connie Willis read from her WIP UFO abduction novel which sounds like a hoot. M.J. Locke’s reading made everyone (including M.J.) cry.

The Hugo awards gave great show. Chris Garcia takes the cake for best acceptance EVAR. I don’t think it’s possible to be happier, and “Oh my fuck!” is my quote of the year. The Best Novel nominees probably think Robert Silverberg is an evil, evil man, but he does it with so much style, how can you stay mad? :-)

A highlight for me was Mary Robinette Kowal’s giving an effective reading talk. Probably the most useful talk of the Con for me. Notable panels included one on novellas, with Dozois, Silverberg, Reed and Strahan as panelists, which made me ponder whether I’m a natural novella writer, as opposed to a novelist. Which kinda sucks, given that novellas are the hardest to sell, but puts a whole new spin on my word count issues. The short story panel was also interesting, and I did learn quite a bit from one panel on travel before the invention of the car. I flitted between too many panels to list here.

My fangirl moment came when I met David Brin, and sheepishly presented him with two tattered and well-worn paperbacks to sign instead of the pristine hardcovers everyone else showed up with. But he apparently likes my smile.

My most unexpected WorldCon moment came from Seanan McGuire, with whom I wound up trading cat pictures and who recommended Maine Coon cat breeder PineCoon in my area who also happens to be in Tricky Pixie. So now when I need to find a companion for my beloved aging Coon Diesel I know where to go.

I think my favourite panelist was Connie Willis. Here she is with her Hugo award for Best Novel. When I found myself in a panel that turned out to be less interesting than advertised, I’d see if Connie was speaking elsewhere and find that room, because she’s just that entertaining.

But it all ended too soon. Our route back took us by Mount Shasta…

… Eugene, OR, where we dined with VP XII alum Kevin and his wife Stephanie, and Powell’s Books in Portland where my brain short-circuited and I had trouble keeping myself from sweeping full shelf-loads of books into my basket…

… and these fittingly à propos chocolate zombie bunnies.

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PS: credit all in-focus shots to Canon and all out-of-focus shots to Apple. And yes, Jeff, my iPhone 3G really takes the gimpy cake. No arguments from me.

In freelancing, common rights allocation include giving up first serial rights, or all rights. In the former, you can often find a market to sell the work to again once the rights period has expired. In the latter, you can’t sell the piece again, ever. It’s not preferable, but is common in Work For Hire contracts.

One way to get in on the ground floor is to look for new publications that don’t have a stable of writers. Once you prove that you can provide good content, on time, they will send you ideas. A common career path is to work with half a dozen different clients. Who you know is often key to breaking into the larger markets.

Where to search for markets: newsletters, Absolute Write, writersmarket.com, Writer Gazette, Mr. Magazine.

If you’re looking for ideas, start with something that’s current at the national level, and bring it local, try selling your spin on it to a local or regional publication (but don’t plagiarize, natch). Look at articles that were popular in other regions and bring them to your own market. Alternatively, take something small, and look for the big picture.

Writing Bootcamp for Procrastinators, Ivan Coyote

This was more of an inspirational session. Some takeaway:

Get over your fear. You are your own worst enemy. Instead, think of your own creative potential and what it could do if it were unleashed.

Eliminate obstacles to your writing. Make sure you have the right space, and the tools you like to use. Figure out what kind of writer you are, and write at the best times for you. What works for others may not work for you – experiment. Trick yourself into working if you have to. Give yourself external deadlines.

Practice. No one thinks they can get good at a sport or a musical instrument without practicing, and yet everyone thinks that they can be good at writing without putting in the time. Put. In. The. Time. Don’t not write for months on end and then expect to pop out something great the next time you sit down.

Research is great but writing is better. Research later. Write the story first.

Be pushed by people who are better than you. This means pick the calibre of your writing group carefully.

Selling Directly To Readers, Crystal Stranaghan

I thought this might be more about eBooks, but the session was more about branding yourself.

As a writer, your brand is your career. Just know that you can’t keep everyone happy. However, these days, your reputation is your value, so be careful what you put out on the web, because it WILL stay there forever.

If you manage to develop something called “1000 true fans”, these are the people who will spread the word about you and your work. They are into everything you do.

Sizzling Sex Scenes, Elizabeth Engstrom

Yeah, yeah, no comments from the peanut gallery ;-)

The takeaway from this one is that practice is what makes for a good sex scenes. If you don’t practice, you will wind up with something icky. So make sure you practice, even if you wind up deleting everything later. It’s important to know your own boundaries, and you WILL know when you’ve crossed your personal line.

Apparently the sex scene itself is entirely optional. It’s all choreography, and is not actually needed. What makes them work is the anticipation of what happens before, and the revelation of character in what happens afterward. So:

Before = foreplay, setup, anticipation, proximity, obstacles, barriers

During (optional) = choreography

Afterglow = proximity with satisfaction

After the hunt is over, people act differently, and as a writer, it’s these “after” moments that are crucial opportunities for revealing character.

What’s So Funny? Deconstructing Comedy, Luke Ryan

What’s funny?

• Pain
• Awkwardness
• Discomfort

Laughter is a defence mechanism. Types of diminishment include physical and emotional. Emotional can be broken down into overreactive (the character’s response seems out of proportion, eg, Jim Carey) or underreactive (the character’s response is almost lacking, eg. Bill Murray).

Most comedy has a beat structure. A beat is a single unit of narrative measurement that expresses a specific idea or action, AKA something happens. Jokes can have one beat – something happens and you laugh. Two beat jokes have a setup and payoff (ie, chicken crossed the road jokes). Multi-beat jokes have a setup, anticipation and payoff (eg, knock-knock jokes).

A set piece is a scene where a number of setups and anticipatory beats pay off. A runner is a setup, with anticipatory beats, that pay off over the course of the whole story (eg, one-armed bellboy in Hot Tub Time Machine).

A confluence of factors delayed my Surrey International Writer’s Conference round-up, but better late than never, eh?

This year was my fifth(!) SIWC. I always have a great time at this conference, as it blends multiple genres with plenty of writing and publishing-related tracks. Plus, pitch appointments with agents and editors, and sessions with published authors who will critique your work, all-included. I come away refreshed and enthused, in one sense, and completely exhausted in another. But it’s a good exhaustion.

This year several keynote speakers impressed, including Ivan Coyote and Robert Dugoni (who co-opted Aragorn’s speech in The Return of the King and turned us all into The Writers of Rohan: THIS DAY, WE WRITE!)

Master Class: Next Level Fiction, James Scott Bell

This three-hour class covered a wide range of topics, from craft basics to more detailed tips on refining scenes. I’ll only touch on a few here.

Mr. Bell suggests giving yourself a 1-10 rating in each of the following craft areas: plot, structure, characters, scenes, dialogue and voice. Order each from your least proficient to most proficient, then starting with the least proficient, make a resolution that in the next year you will improve each by a factor of 10%.

Plot becomes the record of how a character deals with death, either physical, psychological, or professional. Even comedies usually involve a psychological death of some sort – the characters in a comedy think they are in a tragedy over something trivial.

One way of thinking about story is to use the LOCK system: Lead, Objective, Confrontation, Knock-out Ending. Your Lead can be either positive (a hero with similar values to the community), negative (opposed to the values of the community) or an anti-hero (with their own moral code, who is outside the community and either comes back to it in the end, or stays alienated). Give your Lead an Objective, either to get something (the killer, the answer, a loved one, revenge) or get away from something (escape, the past, the self). A good story has Confrontation (2 dogs & one bone), with a 3-dimensional opposition character, and  a Knock-out Ending. From Mickey Spillane: the first chapter of your book should sell your current book. The last chapter of your book sells the next book.

As a writer, don’t get too hung up on theme while you’re writing. You should, however, be able to articulate your theme once you’re done. If you can’t, try the following. Take your lead character, and think of them 20 years from now and ask “Why did you have to go through that?”. What was the lesson?

In terms of your character arc, not all characters need to change, but if they don’t, they should get stronger in what they are. Examples of characters who do the latter are Marge in Fargo, and Kimball in The Fugitive. The character who actually changes in The Fugitive is the Tommy Lee Jones marshall character.

If you’ve been getting feedback that your story lacks voice, try the following. Read poetry. Read outside your genre. Write page-long sentences (as an exercise, not in your actual book); in these you might find some usable gems. Write for 10 minutes on a single type of description, even if you might only wind up using one line.

eBooks

Only stayed a few minutes here as this was more publisher-centric.

You can start from a Word document, then go to XML format where it’s cleaner and easier to make changes quickly.

Alternately, the manuscript goes to InDesign, then to an EPub & PDF.

The recommendation is NOT to print then scan (which seems like a “duh” tip to me, as conversion from scanning sounds like a huge amount of work). Although this is still done in many cases.

Keep track of versioning and keep the book on a shared server if multiple people have to do the editing.

Essentially, don’t expect that hitting the big shiny Export button gets you a clean eBook – you WILL have to proof extensively.

Working with Agents & Editors

If writing for magazines, you will be brutally edited for style, grammar and space. Don’t get upset by this, it’s part of the game, so take the money and run. :-)

A good fiction editor, however, should be a career builder, in the sense that if the relationship goes well, they should want your follow-on books.

Google Books

Jenna Newman

This was a really in-depth presentation by someone who’s read the settlement extensively backwards and forwards. I don’t have many notes because the subject matter was quite complex.

However, it’s important to note that Google’s partner and library programs are separate from Google Editions, which is in fact an addition to the partner program. All authors will want to make sure they register their books with Google properly in order to see revenue. Exactly who registers (author or publisher) depends on how the electronic rights are structured in your publishing contract.

The key a-ha moment for me was realizing the whole $60 per work settlement fee covers PAST revenues generated by a scanned book prior to 2009 (I think, I might not be remembering the date correctly). If you register yourself as the rights holder for a book, future revenues accrue to you based on a percentage of ad revenue.

Author Promotion

The Book Broads (Angela Crocker, Peggy Richardson, Kim Plumley)

Buy the .com for your full name, or the name you publish under. Essential, bare-minimum stuff. Make sure you have a website.

Buy the .com for the title of your book. Consider re-titling the book if you can’t get the .com that matches the title.

Network, network, network.

Get good head shots and editorial shots (these are more interesting shots of you in action somehow, or in an interesting setting).

Work on your elevator pitch. Hone it to the bone.

If promoting yourself on social networking, follow the 80-20 rule. Talk about yourself or direct promote only 20% of the time. The other 80% of the time, point out new things to your readers, or talk about other people or things. Your readers will get to know you via these other 80% items, and you won’t come across as a complete narcissist.

Book trailers and audio or video podcasts might seem like a lot of work, and aren’t for everyone. But do note that Google indexes pages with video content higher than text-only pages.

Below are some take-away thoughts, impressions and tips from my day. Many sessions ran concurrently so this is just a snapshot of what I managed to take in.

The UnConference

BookCamp is presented as an “unconference”, in which the sessions and panels are more of a dialogue between panelists and the audience, and audience participation and knowledge-sharing is highly encouraged. I wasn’t sure how this would work, but it did, and surprisingly well. One session Skyped in panelists from across the continent. The topics for the last session of the day were brainstormed and voted on during a break beforehand.

Sessions were well-organized, well-moderated, and informative. Attendees and topics ran the gamut from writing, publishing, promotion, e-books, libraries, and new media.

And did I mention it’s all FREE? And that I got plied with cookies, coffee, and sandwiches? For FREE? A big thank-you to BookNet for keeping it FREE. Gratis. FREE.

Session 1: Feeding the Social Media Beast Without Getting Bitten

Kimberly Walsh & Hannah Classen, moderated by Sean Cranbury

The panelists run CBC’s online book club. The panel discussed setting up an online community and incorporating various social media elements.

It’s a long process to develop online relationships and engagement with readers. It won’t happen overnight. One thing that helps is to develop and encourage super-users: these are the people that are everywhere on your website or forum, follow you in other locations like Twitter and FaceBook, and are the first to talk back and comment on your content, and talk together about it or spread it to the outside world.

Drawing people in via contests works. If you are starting a bookclub, make sure your readers are having a conversation, and that you have a strong source of content on a blog or website.

General social networking tips:

Focus on a couple of areas of value – you don’t need to be everywhere. Ie, if you don’t have time to blog, just do Twitter. Or if you hate Twitter, just blog. Be careful of your time management, and your resources. Use the right tools, practice multi-tasking, and budget your time and schedule. Host most of your content on your own website, then broadcast to FaceBook (which becomes just a channel). Twitter is the most interactive channel (natch). You can use exclusive content on each of these channels to differentiate them to readers. Other tools for reaching out include Cover It Live to moderate live discussions, and UStream.

Watch what you’re putting out there. Develop a thick skin – in many instances you’ll just have to suck it up and take the bad with the good. Don’t engage trolls. It can sometimes be difficult to separate the troll from the simple negative commenter. There is a difference. However, the commenter will enhance the discussion. A troll, you just want to shut down. The division between personal and professional online life is less clear. For the panelists, they represent the CBC brand. An individual writer runs the risk of having their online presence essentially become their entire professional brand.

In terms of content generation, find a balance between giving or pushing content, and being responsive to what your commenters want to see. It can’t all be about broadcasting.

People don’t schedule their consumption of content as much anymore. One of CBC’s books club’s goals is to drive people to radio content that is not necessarily on the radio anymore, but streamed online.

Part 2 tomorrow.

These pics were snapped as the torch “run” went by my marina, quite literally my backyard. The torch arrived by dragon boat and left by canoe. Apologies for the slight fuzziness, I appear to have a focus issue with the camera. Kudos also to the guy up the mast of the sailboat in the background.

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I suppose if all the snow melts, we can always have the beach Olympics.