I have a new book collection coming out this summer, The Last of the O-Forms and Other Stories. The title story was a Nebula finalist!
News of what's going on in my writing life and other trivia can be found at James Van Pelt's Home Page
Over the years I've slowly compiled a list of books about writing that are worth reading. If you're looking for some interesting and practical writing information, I think you won't go wrong with any of these.
| Both Jay Lake and I were nicely reviewed in today's Denver Post SF book review.
The Post's SF reviewer is Fred Cleaver. He comes to the MileHi Con in Denver every year, and I met him several years before my first collection came out. I don't know that he wouldn't have reviewed my stuff without the personal connection, but I've always thought that knowing people can't hurt. His comments included this comment: "Grand Junction author James van Pelt has won a reputation as one the field's leading short fiction writers. His second collection is a fine demonstration that the reputation is warranted." |
| Jim, looks like all our stuff is scheduled at the same time.
Hard to avoid when everyone's on 8+ panels I suppose... |
| Except for the stuff I'm doing for Reading for the Future on Thursday, here is my Cascadiacon schedule:
9/1/2005 16:00:00 "To P.O.D. or Not to P.O.D." "Moderator" 9/2/2005 13:00:00 "Exposition: One Lump or Two" 9/2/2005 16:00:00 "Word Wizarding" "Moderator" 9/3/2005 11:00:00 "Beginning the Story" 9/3/2005 12:00:00 "What Aspiring Fantasy/SF Writers Need To Know" "Moderator" 9/3/2005 15:00:00 "Autograph Tables" "Autographs" 9/4/2005 12:00:00 "Kaffeeklatsch" "Presenter" 9/4/2005 14:00:00 ""Are You Really a Writer?" 9/4/2005 17:30:00 "Reading" "Presenter" 9/5/2005 10:00:00 "Survival Tips for Beginning Writers" "Moderator" |
| Oops, I meant to say that was regarding vocab for high school class. |
| Very belated thought in passing: how about "sense of wonder"?
Oh, and maybe "cyberpunk" and/or "new wave," depending on the focus of the class. And maybe "If this goes on..."? Oh, wait, I know: how about "trilogy"? :) |
| Do you guys remember the Terry Bisson story, "Bears Discover Fire"? We're not that far off in Colorado. Evidently a bear or some bears have figured out how to open car doors. A bunch of cars in Snowmass Village (in the Aspen area), have been opened and ransacked by bears. One got into a car and the door closed behind it. Evidently it took a while to figure out the inner mechanism, or it broke through a window (the story wasn't clear), but it caused $15,000 worth of damage on the way out.
Anybody who owns a car in Snomass Village, I guess, owns one that is worth $15,000 in the interior. I, on the other hand, could buy my last three cars for that. |
| I didn't notice if anyone had pointed this out before, but a part of the CascadiaCon's anthology guidelines included a link to THE GRAND LIST OF OVERUSED SCIENCE FICTION CLICHES at http://enphilistor.users4.50megs.com/cliche.htm
It's an interesting (and funny) list, but it's so inclusive that it might be hard to write any SF story at all that doesn't tread somewhat on one of the categories. It just reminds me that plot and plot points are less important than how they are handled. Even the most familiar cliche can become interesting again if done well (and also if the focus in the story isn't on the cliche but on something else). |
| Hummmm...another book. I'll have to order an autographed copy to place next to that first one I got from you.
Will. |
| Oh, sure, Jim, you step down from the Campbell site just when my clock starts? What's up with that?
:( |
| Here's an interesting article on teaching writing and horror by Michael Arnzen at http://www.broaduniverse.org/broadsheet/0505ma.html |
| Thanks, Jim! Address is on the way.
Justin |
| Hi, Justin. It sure does. I can't find your e-mail addy anywhere, though. If you'll send it my way, I can ship you an e-version of the story. |
| Jim, does the offer to look at your stories still stand? I've turned my house upside down and can't find the May issue of Analog, but I would love to read "The Inn at Mount Either." |
| For those that are interested, I'm stepping down as the website administrator for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, and I won't maintain the website any longer. I've been doing it for seven years, and feels like a good time to hand it off to someone else if I can find an interested party.
If you have the time and interest (and a little bit of web-page savvy) and would like to take on the website, please contact me, and I can let you know what goes into making the website go. Thank you everyone who has either been eligible for the award, or has otherwise contributed to highlighting the debut of our newest authors. This is cross-posted at the Awards and Not-So-Urgent topics areas. |
| Hi, all.
I perused the latest Nebula recommendations report, and noticed I have THREE stories that have received Nebula recommendations: "Echoing" (Asimov's, Dec04), "The Ice-Cream Man" (Asimov's, Jun05), and "The Inn at Mount Either" (Analog, May05). I'd happily send e-file versions of anyone who would like to take a look at them. |
| Hi, Eric. Thanks for dropping by. That's a fun story to read out loud (it was "Once They Were Monarchs" that will be in the new collection). |
| Jim,
I was at your reading at CONduit last weekend, and I just wanted to say that I really enjoyed it. The story was great, and you read it very well. --Eric |
| Thanks, Jim! |
| Hi, Terry. Sure, anyone can visit the Asimov's forum. You don't even have to register. The URL is http://www.asimovs.com/discus/. The topic title is "Do Stories Need to Entertain?" or something close to that. Like any topic, it wanders a bit, including an interesting (although misguided) discussion on whether the house in "There Will Come Soft Rains" is really a protagonist or not. Of course it is!
Jim Van Pelt |
| Ew! That "conflict and tension" discussion sounds like JUST what I need RIGHT NOW, Jim - can non-subscribers get into the Asimov's forum? |
| Hi, ET. Thanks for the comment. I've been working on a book for writers on plot for the last year, so a lot of that kind of thinking has been bouncing around my brain. With any luck, I'll have the book done by the end of the summer, and I can concentrate on other things, like painting my house. |
| Hi, Jim. Just dropped by to say that I always find your comments insightful and helpful. I dropped by the Asimov's forum today (after quite a while), and I saw your comments there about conflict and tension (under "What's wrong with a story that entertains???"). I've been struggling with a story that I feel doesn't have enough tension, and your comments helped suggest ways I could improve this. So thanks.
BTW, at this moment is says "888 messages have been posted regarding this article." Apologies for ruining this nice number. |
| A lot of these *anime* also exist in comic book form. It can be very interesting to keep the comic book handy as you're watching and see how they correspond.
--Jay Arr |
| If you're looking for a background, you might want to check out some of the popular classics like:
Akira Vampire Hunter D Fist of the North Star Ninja Scroll (a bit pervy in places, but cool animation and story) Ghost in the Machine X Princess Mononoke or Spirited Away (really, anything by Miyazaki) Cowboy Beebop Graveyard of the Fireflies (Ditto Richard: this one is tough to watch, but worth it.) Good hunting, Brian |
| The most powerful anime I've ever seen is "Grave of the Fireflies." The end of WWII as seen by an orphaned brother and sister. Done by Miyazaki's studio but not by him personally. Not sure I can actually recommend it, though. I was a wreck for days after I watched that. |
| Here's another good one: Princess Tutu. Weird as heck, but has a lot of fun with fairytales.
SarahP |
| Wow! Lots of suggestions here. I guess my summer video watching schedule just filled up a bit. |
| Agree with Miyazaki films. Don't miss Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind (two decades old, and technically somewhat dated, but a tremendous story), Laputa: Castle in the Sky (also old, a Spielberg-esque romp), Lupin III: Castle of Cagliostro (caper movie), Princess Mononoke (non-preachy and complex ecological/mythic action), Kiki's Delivery Service (bildungsroman with a teenage witch), and Pom Poko (raccoon dogs with protean scrotums. No, really.)
Agree with Cowboy Bebop. An extended riff on American popular culture: jazz, blues, rock, trucker movies, gangster movies, buddy movies, old sf movies, etc., etc. Great music. Some episodes are strong, some are less strong, but it's all good. Agree with recommendation of Evangelion. Another bildungsroman, with giant robots. Actually a sort of deconstruction of the cliches of the giant robot genre. Highly character-driven. I didn't make it through Nadia. Some cool stuff, but too much filler. Escaflowne is okay. Hated Gundam wing. Incomprehensible plot, incomprehensible character motivations, but by god, they got a giant robot fight into every episode. A show that I don't think has been mentioned: Revolutionary Girl Utena. 39 episode TV show and movie, watch the TV show first. Hard to describe. Superficially about puppy love and sword fights, but actually about the meaning of heroism in a postmodern world of illusion and manipulation, how to find life's meaning when all life ends in death, the exploitation of women by men, the exploitation of children by adults, the nature of love, the tyranny of memory. Very surrealistic. Starts light textured, gradually becomes very dark and erotic (not pornographic). Great music, great characters. |
| Series:
Cowboy Bebop is reasonably good but silly. Nadia (The Secret of Blue Water) is a rather long series with a visible plot arc, and an interesting premise, (Bits of it are based on 20,000 Leagues under the Sea, welded uneasily onto another story) and some parts are wonderfully executed, and some, well, not. I'm addicted, but not blind to its several flaws, including those moments you just want to smack Nadia for her complete lack of reasoning skills. Most of the other ones I've seen bits of fall into a category of teen romances (some comedy, some not) plus some odd supernatural powers, and most of them go on at length, and are harder to find than either of the above. Colin raves about the Legend of the Galactic Heroes (silly strategy, but good space war, and there are heroes on BOTH sides of the story), but it's virtually impossible to find, and I haven't watched much of it. Movies: While there are some other fine anime films out there, before any of them, I'd second Tony Pi's recommendation of any and every Miyazaki movie - my personal favourites are My Neighbour Totoro and Porco Rosso, but Spirited Away has a splendid odd charm all its own. I'm looking forward to the North American Release of Howl's Moving Castle. I will say, if picking up the recent Disney releases, the Subtitles are much better and much more true to the original than the dubbing. Now, normally i just say this because I am a Subtitles fan, but in this case, it's more than that. The first version of Porco Rosso Colin picked up had a bad visual flaw in one scene, and somehow, while testing it , we ended up running through it with the subtitles and the dubbing on simultaneously. It wasn't just a matter of "This version is better written but means roughly the same" - whole chunks of subtext were messed up or missing, and others inserted in their place. (My Neighbour Totoro is still out via Fox with a surprisingly good Dub) Also: those who've watched the others tend to be surprised at the level of on-screen violence in Princess Mononoke - many of his movies are for children, and most of the rest for teens. Porco Rosso has dogfights and fistfights - Princess Mononoke has beheadings. |
| My husband kept saying he wasn't a fan of science fiction until I pointed out that his favorite animes were in fact very much science fiction works. Like Elvis and cheeseburgers (thank you, Mojo Nixon), science fiction is everywhere, but people don't always realize it.
I like Cowboy Bebop a lot, but I recommend the series instead of the movie. I mentioned Neon Genesis Evangelion before--it's a grim series that poses a lot of existential questions, with mecha and fan service. DH likes Gundam Wing and Escaflowne, too. All of these that I mentioned are series that run at to about 26 episodes, though. My local Blockbuster has a bunch of these series, and I hear Netflix does, too. Yeah, Japan gave us years of Godzilla movies, but the best anime brings in a lot of good stories along with visually arresting effects and characters that stick in your heart long after the screen goes dead--something I wish Hollywood SF could still do for me. Kaori |
| Depends on what you prefer. There are genres within anime as well. There's a great difference between 'Spirited Away' and 'Akira', just to draw a random example (as different as, say, 'The Princess Bride' is from 'The Matrix').
I'd recommend renting some self-contained anime - 'Spirited Away' would be a good start, as are others by Miyazaki (e.g., 'Princess Mononoke'). 'Millennium Actress' was another one I rented recently, also pretty good. Then move on to the grimmer anime and any series. |
| I've heard a ton of enthusiasm over the last few years about anime. What should a neophyte who wants to know more watch? |
| Manga has been big for a long time over here, possibly even longer than anime. If you've read comic books over the last decade or two, you'll probably have come across it. |
| Yes, fan service -- that's the term! (Fan stroking is, I gather, more when characters are paired off to please fans -- Bashir & Ezri Dax on DS9, for instance.)
-- Amy S. again |
| A mecha is a giant robot--you can catch 'em on Cartoon Network. Or maybe you saw Robotech 15 years ago.
I think the eye candy is also referred to as 'fan service'. Wikipedia has some good information if you're interested. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anime I think it's interesting that Del Rey and Dark Horse have manga lines. I suspect the industry will grow if the kids who are watching and playing games like Yu-Gi-Oh! transition over to reading the manga. Our future customers await! Kaori |
| Don't know about "mecha", but my understanding is that "manga" is the term for the graphic novels that are drawn in a style similar to "anime." (I would note that a fair bit of manga, like anime, has a lot of gratuitous skin showing, albeit in drawn form as opposed to photographic porn. I think they even use the term "fan stroking" to describe the gratutious stuff.)
A lot of public libraries are stocking manga, and Waldenbooks has gone crazy with it. -- Amy S. (not signed in) |
| I don't know, Joe. Your guess would be as good as mine. There's a subset of anime called "henta," I think, which is pornographic. Could be wrong!
Today I talked to them about "modern science fiction." A lot of this class ends up being vocabulary driven (which isn't a bad way to go, since words represent concepts). The terms I talked about were as follows: cyberpunk (and how that is already dated) virtual reality post-apocalyptic (even though this is an OLD kind of sf too; have you noticed how post-apocalyptic so much of the new sf is?) the singularity post-human magical realism slipstream |
| I know 'anime', but what's 'manga' and 'mecha'? I'm guessing mecha is something to do with mechanical, maybe robots, but manga? Is there some kind of SF fruit trend thing happening we should all know about? |
| Ah, then you should include Tron. No one will ever make an "it was all a video game" story quite as silly (or fun) as Tron.
And no one under the age of 27 has seen it. (No one under the age of 30 remembers it, I'll bet.) But I think of it every time I drive on a highway with those temporary cement dividers. And the anthropomorphism, the evil super computers taking over, these were pretty big themes at the time. I suppose not in the same way, anymore. Ok, now I'm just rambling. -Linz |
| "Future Histories" is a good one. We talk about the "Grandfather dilemna" as a subset of time-travel paradox. I can't believe I didn't have "Rhysling" on there. I teach "The Green Hills of Earth."
The "Adam & Eve" story is a part of the "Last-man-on-earth" discussion. I also cover some of the other most obvious plot cliches when they write their own stories. My goal is to never read an "it was all a dream" or "it was all a video game" story again (unless it was really good *g*). |
| How about Future Histories, Grandfather dilemma (time-travel paradox) and Rhysling? |
| Adam & Eve story? |
| Hi, Kaori. Great suggestions. A group of kids last year asked me to sponsor an anime club (which I don't know much about). They really approached me, I think, because I have a digital projector, which would be great for watching film. I turned them down because it would commit my lunch, and I'd have to preview everything.
Still, I thought that if they could find a teacher with expertise in the area that the club was a good idea. |
| Turning test, hm, sounds like the driver's test I failed. :P
I'd like to see "speculative fiction" on the list. It's a catch-all term, but I write science fiction, fantasy and horror and I need the handy phrase once in a while. Also, how about dragging in 'anime', 'manga' and my favorite, 'mecha'? I'm not sure I can produce an effective argument as to Japan's impact on SF in western culture, but as storytelling media, anime & manga are gaining bigger slices of the SF marketing pie in the US as time marches on. I know at least one person who'd rather watch Neon Genesis Evangelion 13 times instead of anything with Star in it. Also, I know a kid who won't go out of her way to read SF, but grabs a certain manga magazine whenever she sees it. Hope I'm helpful. Kaori |
| Sheesh!
Turning = Turing |
| Hi, gang. I gave out my final review for my high school SF lit class today with a list of terms and vocab we covered. Here's the list. Do you see terms or vocab that a good high school SF class ought to include that I've left out? Any help here would be appreciated. I'm thinking about next year's class:
A.I. (artificial intelligence) Alternate history Android BEM (bug eyed monster) Caricature Cautionary tale Changing role of women Character Conflict Cyborg Dialogue Drake Equation Dystopia Extrapolation Extraterrestrial Fantasy Feghoot Faster than light travel (FTL) First Contact Foreshadowing Golden Age of Science Fiction Grok Hard science fiction Hugo Award Last-man-on-earth stories Motif Nebula Award Plot Point of view Positronic brain Proto-science fiction Pulp magazines Robot Sarcasm Satire Science fiction Sentient Setting Social commentary Soft science fiction Space opera Sword and Sorcery Symbolism Theme Time travel paradoxes Tone Turning test Utopia |
| Hi, Mystery! I'm glad you liked the story, and that's a pretty heady comparison. I am a PKD fan, but I always feel more influenced by Bradbury. |
| Hey Jim,
Just wanted to tell you that I read "The Ice Cream Man" and I thought it was a great story. After reading it I couldn’t help but wonder if you were a fan of Philip K. Dick, it was sort of the type of story he would write. At least that was my impression. |
| I see that Talebones magazine has moved its discussion topics over to Night Shade Books lively discussion board. There's a lot of traffic over there. The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction's main discussion board is there, and it's always interesting. |
| Congratulations, Jim! And I've no doubt that both are well-deserved. |
| I had some good news from my teaching life today. The Grand Junction Area Chamber of Commerce selected me as an Outstanding Educator for 2005. The principal of each school can nominate one teacher from their building a year.
Coincidentally today, A student of mine nominated me for inclusion in the next edition of Who's Who Among America's Teachers. This is a phone book-sized publication with a zillion teachers listed in tiny print, but it's nice that she nominated me. Only kids who have been cited themselves for academic excellence in the Who's Who Among American High School Students can nominate one teacher from their entire academic experience. |
| Thanks, all, for the feedback. I'll bump the font size up and reconsider how much stuff I'm putting on the front page. |
| The site looks fine to me on 1280 x 1024, although for those who aren't short sighted, I could imagine the font might look small. (The page as a whole seems a little busy, though. You might be trying to fit a little much on the front page.) |
| Yes, it's a tad small for me at 1600x1200. Not unreadable, though. The text at the top is okay for me, but the text to the right of the latest publications is a bit too small. |
| Jim, the text is very small. That may be OK for 800x600 people, but pagestats for some pages I run usually show only 40% of the visitors at that resolution or lower. Most folks these days are 1024x768 or higher.
I'm looking at your site in 1024x768 and the text is a bit too small for reading comfort. I can imagine how microcopic it would be at 1280x1024 (and 8% of my visitors come in on that setting). |
| The site looks great, Jim. It loaded quickly, despite my slow connection, and all of the links appear to work. I had to scroll back and forth to get the entire page, but my screen is set at 640 x 480. |
| Hi Jim,
Your page loaded fine for me on my slow dial-up line and looks good. But I did notice that at the top of the Van Pelt News page, the news of the Denver Post reviewing Strangers and Beggars is duplicated. (maybe it was so good they had to review it twice:) Chris |
| I've updated my web page, mostly by changing the look so that folks who visit at the fairly common 800X600 pixels will get a full screen.
If any of you drop by, could you let me know if it looks okay and loads okay? James Van Pelt's Home Page |
| That must be an awesome feeling, Jim. Hope I experience it some day...
It was such a surreal experience the day I went to the store and purchased a copy of Realms of Fantasy with my story in it. An amazing feeling. But unloading a box full of your own books must be on a whole other plane of cool. |
| There's a wonderful rush involved in having a book in the works, I just realized, because I was peeking in Charles Coleman Finlay's topic and saw he has a collection coming out too. I got a sympathetic rush for his sake.
I'm really, really looking forward to having the finished book in hand. I remember when STRANGERS AND BEGGARS came out that I was thinking that publishing a book would be an anticlimax; I'd published so many stories to that point, and hung around in publishing long enough that I thought the bloom would be off the rose. How wrong I was. It was a great and wonderful jolt to open the box with the first batch of books in it. They felt solid and real in my hand. They even smelled good. It felt just like the first time I sold a story all over again. Maybe this is why electronic publishing, as good as it can be, will never replace print publishing. |
| It looks good, Jim. I'm particularly pleased to see "A Flock of Birds" in there as I thought it was a wonderful story. |
| I really loved Voices, James, then again I did buy it so I would say that.
Robert |
| Excellent! "A Wow Finish" is my favorite of your stories. |
| Hi, Patrick,
When I was putting the book together, I did a more complete look at the contents and mix. Here's the result. Probably more info than you need *g*. intro by James Patrick Kelly "The Last of the O Forms," from ASIMOV'S, 6,300 “Perceptual Set,” from ANALOG, 8,500 "Once They Were Monarchs," from ALFRED HITCHCOCK'S, 4,040 "A Wow Finish," from AMAZING STORIES, 6,600 "Friday, After the Game," from ANALOG, 5,020 “The Invisible Empire,” from THE CHILDREN OF CTHULU, 7,800 "Its Hour Come Round," from TALEBONES, 6,500 "The Pair a Duce, Comet Casino, All Sol Poker Championship," from TALEBONES, 5,500 "The Stars Underfoot," from REALMS OF FANTASY, 3,000 "The Long Way Home," from ASIMOV'S, 5,900 "Nothing is Normal," from ON SPEC, 5,680 "Do Good," from POLYPHONY, 6,500 "The Safety of the Herd," from ASIMOV'S 6,190 “The Sound of One Foot Dancing,” from ALFRED HITCHCOCK’S, 2,650 "A Flock of Birds," from SCIFI.COM, 7,600 Extra info about the stories: Total word count approx.: 82,400 The oldest story in the book was published in ANALOG in ’00. “The Last of the O-Forms” was a Nebula finalist in ’04. Honorable mentions in Gardner Dozois’ YEAR’S BEST SCIENCE FICTION: “Friday, After the Game” “Perceptual Set” “The Stars Underfoot” “The Last of the O-Forms” “Its Hour Come Round” “Do Good” Both “A Flock of Birds” and “The Long Way Home” were reprinted in Dozois’ YEAR’S BEST SCIENCE FICTION. Honorable mentions in Ellen Datlow and Terry Windling’s YEAR’S BEST FANTASY AND HORROR: “The Invisible Empire” “The Stars Underfoot” It the stories are divided into SF/Fantasy/Supernatural Horror, they most readily fall into these categories: SF: "The Last of the O Forms," “Perceptual Set,” "A Wow Finish," "Friday, After the Game," "Its Hour Come Round," "The Pair a Duce, Comet Casino, All Sol Poker Championship," "The Long Way Home," "Nothing is Normal," "The Safety of the Herd," and "A Flock of Birds" (10 of the 15) Fantasy: "Once They Were Monarchs," "Do Good," and “The Sound of One Foot Dancing” (3 or the 15. Both “Do Good” and “The Sound of One Foot Dancing” are ghost stories.) Supernatural Horror: “The Invisible Empire,” and "The Stars Underfoot" (although I consistently argue that I don’t write horror at all). |
| Congratulations, Jim.
Can you give us the full table of contents for this one? |
| Congrats on the release, Jim, and good luck! That must be a great feeling. |
| Hi, Josh. Thanks for the note! Now is the beginning of the long run that is a book's promotion. It's weird, sending a book out into the world. Not emotionally unlike having a child. |
| Great news, Jim! I loved your first collection, so I'll be sure to snag a copy of this one. Good luck with it! |
| My new collection, THE LAST OF THE O-FORMS AND OTHER STORIES, is now available for preorder through Fairwood Press. Hit the CATALOG at the top of the page and then the FICTION COLLECTIONS choice.
The collection includes the Nebula finalist story, "The Last of the O-Forms," and fourteen other stories that originally appeared in ASIMOV'S, ANALOG, TALEBONES, REALMS OF FANTASY, ALFRED HITCHCOCK'S, and others. The cover was commissioned from World Fantasy Award winning best artist, Alan Clark. You can see the cover at the Fairwood Press web site. Nebula Award winner, Jerry Oltion, said of the stories in the collection, "I always expect something special from a James Van Pelt story, and yet I'm surprised each time by the depth and beauty of that special something he instills in every one." Hugo and Nebula winning author, Robert Sawyer, said, "James Van Pelt is one of the freshest thinkers and most original voices in modern science fiction." Cross posted at the Shameless Self Promotion topic. |
| I've had several good pieces of news. First, SDO is doing a BEST OF SDO FANTASY print anthology, and they've asked to reprint "Roller Derby Dan," which they ran last year.
Second, I saw both the May ANALOG with "The Inn at Mount Either" in it, and the NEBULA SHOWCASE 2005 with "The Last of the O-Forms." My next Asimov's story, "The Ice Cream Man," is scheduled for the June issue. Also, I've seen the preliminary cover for my new collection, THE LAST OF THE O-FORMS & OTHER STORIES from Patrick Swenson at Fairwood Press. I keep hearing nightmares about book publishing, but my own experiences with Fairwood have been a delight. I get input all the way through the process of putting the book together, and Patrick knows how to get the book to the right people for its early release exposure. STRANGERS AND BEGGARS is still selling well two-and-a-half years after its first appearance. We're somewhere over 3,000 copies sold, which is quite good for a single-author collection from someone who has not established a novelist's reputation. I keep toying with the idea of writing an article called, "The Little POD Book that Could." |
| Jim - nice post. I do agree wholeheartedly that it is unfortunate that author's with a slower build into the bigger markets will likely burn through their eligibility before they get any recognition. (And also that change to include SCI FICTION is well overdue.) |
| Re: #208 Nalo Hopkinson, for Brown Girl in the Ring. :-) |
| Oh, just in case my modification wasn't clear below, the "biggest injustice of all" is that SCIFICTION debut authors weren't considered eligible before this rule change, not that it is an injustice that they are eligible now.
Sheesh! This writing is tricky business. |
| My guess is that having so many more authors eligible won't change a thing, immediately at least. Authors who debut at the most visible sites (Asimov's, SCIFICTION, Analog, F&SF; and splashy first novels) or successful first time novelists will still win the award (novelists win way more often than short story writers). What will happen is that writers who develop a little more slowly by making sales at the smaller markets that are now eligible will be overlooked, and when they start making the highly visible sales with really good stuff they will have to tell the readers who just now discovered them, "Sorry, I'm not eligible for the JWC award because my eligibility started three years ago with a sale to _______ magazine that very few people outside of SF fanaticdom know about."
But that is the way this award works. A writer has to go from invisibility to prominence inside of 24 months. The only way to do that is to write award-nominated short fiction with your first qualifying sales, or appear in a lot of bigger markets at the same time, or come out with a well-received novel. Nalo Hopkins, for example, won the Warner (I think) first novel contest with a hugely talked about book. She had a full interview in Locus during her eligibility period! That doesn't happen to a new writer often. The fact that her book was also really good, of course, helped. I think the main effect will be that a bunch more writers will be able to say, "I'm eligible for the JWC award," which is really cool, but it won't change much who ends up on the final ballot or where they made their sales. The only worry I have about it, and this is the worry that I have now anyways, is that the nominating numbers to get on the final ballot will go down (since the votes may be spread out more), and that will increase the opportunity for someone gathering together a group of friends to nominate their way onto the ballot. When a finalist can make the ballot with fewer than, say, twenty nominations, all kinds of room for abuse are opened up. On the other hand, the changes make it possible for writers whose whole careers have been below the JWC radar to suddenly become visible. American authors whose books are printed in hardback, which often are under 10,000 copies, and British and Australian novelists who also are published at under 10,000 copies, and the biggest injustice of all in my mind, writers who debut at SCIFICION, will all now be eligible. |
| Thanks for the answers, Jim!
I wonder how having so many more authors eligible will change things. I would certainly understand if the sudden deluge would make your wonderful volunteer site impossible to maintain. Definitely interesting, but we'll probably have to wait until next year to see how it will play out. |
| Jim,
Thank you for keeping the Campbell site going these past years. It's much appreciated. Whatever happens in the future, happens. Best regards, Laird |
| Hi, Alaya. When I posted on the 3rd, the changes were a rumor, as far as I can tell, but a truthful one. The new rules are now posted at the WorldCon site.
No one talked to me about the rule change (nor would they have needed to, since my connection with the award is not official). I haven't seen any comment on what this does to writers who debuted in the now-eligible magazines in years past, nor even if it means a writer who first published in a newly-eligible magazine, like Interzone, in 2003 is now in his/her second year of eligibility. The timing on the announcement wasn't particularly good, since the deadline for nominations ends this month. My guess is that next year's WorldCon will have to make some judgements to clear up any confusion. It would make sense to me to declare the new eligibility rules in effect starting next year, not this year, since the newly eligible had almost no time to let anyone know of their new status, but that's not the way it is playing out right now. For me, I'll have to decide if I can keep up with the website now that the number of eligible authors will increase so dramatically, and the question about what is and what isn't an eligible venue will be more up in the air. It doesn't help that my website-updating computer has been in the shop for three weeks now. I can't update or add new authors. Hopefully I'll get it back Monday, but it will be too late to make any difference for this year's potential nominees. |
| I'm kind of confused. I thought that the change in the Campbell Awards was pretty much done--especially since they posted it (not very prominently) on the Interaction website. Since you seem to be the resident Campbell expert, Jim, I was wondering if you knew how this affects people who are now suddenly eligible for years, not to mention the people suddenly eligible this year who didn't have any time to prepare for it. I'm not in either of these categories, btw, I'm just wondering and I'm kind of surprised I haven't seen more discussion.
Here's the interaction link: http://www.interaction.worldcon.org.uk/hugojwc.htm |
| I believe that number may have changed with the new issue, presumably shipping on the 8th. |
| As far as I know, there is no truth to the SFWA/Campbell eligibility rule rumor. If someone knows more, I'd be happy to hear it.
Hi, Lawrence. I know that Warren Lapine announced a while ago that DNA would be getting a new distributor, and that would put his publications over the 10,000 copy mark, but as far as I know that has not happened yet, and all the magazines are still well under 10,000. |
| I heard a rumor that the Campbell eligibility rules are changing to align with SFWA pro rules - any truth to that? |
| Jim,
Quick Campbell Award question for you: Does Absolute Magnatude now count as a qualifying sale to start one's clock? |
| Gives a whole new meaning to autoerotica. Yeah, I can see how it would definitely hook readers of that age. Heinlein and hormones, two great treats that go great together. |
| Whoops, didn't quite finish that post before somehow sending it, but you get the idea. Kids who weren't hooked on this class before "All You Zombies" are hooked afterwards (if they are going to be hooked at all). |
| I had the joy today, once again, of teaching Heinlein's "All You Zombies" to a bunch of high schoolers who had never read it before. The reaction is always the same. The students are reading quietly, and then one, and then another says something like, "Ohh!" or "That's whacked," or "Mr. Van Pelt, does this story do what I think it does," or they don't respond at all. I tell them that the story is the equivalent of a science fictional reading aptitude test. If they have a high sf aptitude, the get it (and are frequently left twitchy). It they have a low sf aptitude, they don't get it and they don't understand what everyone else is commenting about.
I get really cool conversations where a kid who didn't get it will converse with one who did, and the one who did will say, "He's his own father." |
| It sounds like a wonderful class. |
| Oh, that'd be great. My daughter is gifted, loves science fiction, and has been devouring everything she can get her hands on - - it'd be nice to mirror an organized program in our reading/discussion.
I picture kids who refuse to explore new ideas in high school growing to be close-minded adults who stand in the way of progress at all levels. |
| Fortunately, between the two classes, I have 55 kids who do want to be there, so this should be a good semester.
Hi, Rick, I'll post my reading list here. I'm revising it for the new classes, so give me a couple days. There's always new and interesting material to consider. I've had good results, by the way, with short-shorts as discussion starters or one-day lessons. I used Asimov's "A Loint of Paw" on the first day to get into a discussion of how SF explores the repurcussions of change. |
| Maybe they thought Science Fiction combined a science class WITH a fiction class, thus eliminating one or the other and giving them an extra study hall to sleep through. ;)
Justin |
| Yup-or half awake, defending the boundaries of their cramped little lives. ("Their type." Ick. Pet peeve, there.)
I wonder why they DID sign up for the class in the first place? |
| Let's hope they eventually *do* find that out, and don't waste their whole lives asleep. |
| I feel sorry for those two kids. Wait 'til they find out that "weird stuff" and meeting different people is what life's about. |
| Jim,
Really enjoy your work, by the way. I was wondering if it'd be possible for me to get a copy of your syllabus/reading list for my own use? Rick Wren |
| I'm teaching two sections of SF at the high school this trimester, which started this week. Two kids dropped out on Friday. One told her counselor that on the first day I talked about space ships and "other weird stuff." She said she didn't know that is what the course might be about. The other one dropped because there was going to be reading in the class. Also, he said, there were some kids in the class who play D&D;, and he doesn't hang out with "their type." Sheesh! Evidently calling a class "Science Fiction Literature" isn't a big enough tipoff on the content or on what the class will be doing. LOL |
| A couple of good news of note: Locus listed my Asimov's short story, "Echoing," on their recommended reading list for 2004 at http://www.locusmag.com/2005/Issues/02RecommendedReading.html, and Rich Horton had nice things to say about the All Star Zeppelin stories anthology, including a comment that my "Where and When" was one of the strongest stories in the collection. He really liked Bejamin Rosenbaum's story there. Horton's Zeppelin review was overall glowing. |
| I crossposted this letter that I'm sending to all the people already listed at the JWC award site at the "Award Chat" topic. If you folks know of anyone eligible for consideration for the award, please encourage them to contact me so I can list them.
Happy New Year! The 2004 debut authors are now listed and the 2002 authors are archived at the JWC site at http://www.sff.net/campbell-awards. Nominations are now open for the Hugos and the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, to be presented at this year's Worldcon in Glasgow, Scotland, August 4-8. To be able to nominate someone for a Hugo or the JWC award, you would either have to have been an attending member of last year's Worldcon in Boston or an attending or supporting member of this year's Worldcon (the membership has to have been bought by Jan. 31). Nominations will close on March 11. The finalist list will go out sometime early in the summer or spring. Voting will be limited to attending and supporting members of the '05 Worldcon. You can find information about this year's Worldcon at http://www.interaction.worldcon.org.uk/, and you can download a PDF copy of the nominating form at http://www.interaction.worldcon.org.uk/downloads/hugonomusl.pdf. I encourage all of you to let your readers know of your eligibility. In past Worldcons, writers have made the finalist list with under 20 nominations. The last few years the numbers have risen some; I hope its partly because of the JWC website , but nominating numbers are still surprisingly low. A couple years ago, a writer who was eligible for the award wrote me to say he didn't feel he had a chance to win it, so he wasn't going to tell anyone. I pointed out to him that each year only 30 or so writers make a professional debut like he already had. He had already beat incredible odds (as if making a sale were based on "odds"). Imagine, I told him, how much easier it would be to sell a story at Asimov's or a novel at Tor if you were only competing against the kind of numbers that were now eligible for the JWC award. All of you have already done the nearly impossible. Please check your listing on the website to make sure it is accurate and current. Also, as you can see, I don't have nearly all of the '04 debut authors listed yet, so if you know of writers who have made their first sale in a venue with 10,000 or more copies in print, please encourage them to contact me. Also, as you make more sales or appearances, let me know. |
| I sent in my five finalists for the Philip K. Dick award today. It's been an interesting year as the novels (in an unceasing flow) have arrived at my house.
I think I've learned a lot about novel structure and the novel market through all this. It wouldn't be kosher to post my list, I don't think, but the list of finalists should be out in January sometime. Although I think it is safe to say that I really enjoyed Richard K. Morgan's BROKEN ANGELS, and I think Eileen Gunn's collection, STABLE STRATEGIES was great reading. The committee will compare each other's finalists, discuss at length, and come up with an official list. After that, we decide on the winner. On another note, the TALEBONES forum is fixed and running properly now. So, those of you who tried to post there should have no trouble. |
| Patrick Swenson has been working with the Talebones forum problems, and it looks like he's going to have to switch servers (the old one quit accepting e-mail inputs), so he should be up and running in a better format soon.
On a personal note, I was happy to see that Tangentonline reviewed the December Asimov's and called my offering, "Echoing," a "fine, technically impressive story." I have stories upcoming in Asimov's, Analog, the Nebula Showcase 2004 anthology, and my second collection is in the works for a 2005 release (hopefully). |
| I e-mailed Patrick about it today. I'll let you know what he says. Thanks for letting me know there was a problem. |
| I'm not the only one! Whew. |