Adam Kirsch On James Frey And "Reality Instructor" Writers

James Kirsch's review of James Frey's novel BRIGHT SHINY MORNING makes a very good point about "Reality Instructors": when an author has a shallow and crude "vision" of the world but tries to peddle it as "The Truth."

Choice quote:
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Only those writers willing to be humbled by the real are able to capture it for literature. Writers who must always be seen to dominate reality, on the other hand, can never grasp it. Their need to appear wised-up means that they can only allow themselves to write in ways that the world already recognizes as realistic -- that is, in cliches.
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Read the rest.

So you want to "tell it like it is," give the reader "gritty reality"... guess what, reality isn't always gritty, and no one has all the answers just because he says so. Don't try too hard to "talk tough".

Having said that, there are writers who write "tough" and talk "tough"... and sell to legions of readers who want to be "tough".
But, fans of "tough guy" literature... beware! Writers are liars. That wartime experience they're trying to impress you with might be fake or exaggerated. There are plenty of writers who only pretend to "keep it real" and invent "tough" life experiences.

Whenever a writer makes a point of being photographed in uniform or wearing medals, or talks at length about his/her "tough upbringing" I immediately get suspicious.

As for me? I am frequently baffled and puzzled by the world around me; I have no final answers to share. And as for the work of writing... it's about as macho as painting porcelain. I write in order to explore reality, not to give some "final explanation" of it.

Charles Stross: "Bang, Bucks, and Delivery in Recompense"

Charles Stross writes a mini-essay about story structure in novels, serials and short stories.

Choice quote:
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If your novel is six times as long as normal, it needs to deliver six times as loud a climax.
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Read the rest.

Trends In The Clarkesworld Fantasy Slushpile

I'm intrigued by how often several people get the same idea at the same time... as if there were some "collective unconscious" thing going on. (Or just a lack of originality.)

Nick Mamatas comments on recurring themes in the Fantasy/SF/Horror fiction submitted to his editor's desk:
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We get a lot of horror about lakes. Don't go in the lake. Watch out for the lake. OMG the lake. That sort of thing. (Sometimes it's "Hurray, the lake ate my ex-girlfriend! Take that Sarah who said I read too much Stephen King!")
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There's more. "Ha-ha, funny" more.

Authors, Authors Everywhere...

In the NYT article "You're an Author? Me Too!", Rachel Donadio explains the current "author glut": Thanks to small presses and self-publishing, there are now more writers than ever -- while the number of actual readers is sinking.

Ever since the coming of Amazon.com, I've been troubled by this dilemma: So many books, so little time. But anyone who writes -- talented or not -- faces the problem of competing for readers.

Should I, as a precautionary measure, tell every aspiring writer: "Forget it! Don't try to publish! You'll fail and your friends and family will laugh at you!"

Well, in all honesty, Sturgeon's Law still applies: 90% of all books are crap. (90% of what I've written isn't exactly Nobel Prize material, either.) But this isn't of any help to the individual writer. What to do?

Suggestions:

1. Write less, but better. Instead of three sloppy novels, do a thorough job of writing one novel to the best of your ability. Aim for posterity, not bestsellerdom.

(If this sounds unappealing, consider: The more books are published every year to a limited pool of potential readers, the smaller the chance of an individual book getting top sales. Readers only have 24 hours a day, and only so much money to spend!)

2. Find new audiences. Look to other countries than your own and try to find a publisher there. (India has vast potential for a boom in SF and Fantasy. Check out the blog SF in India.)

3. Stop. (If you can. ;-))

How do you tackle the problem of too many books/writers? Let me know.

Nick Mamatas on "Fantatwee" Fiction

A mini-essay from Clarkesworld editor Nick Mamatas:

"Clarkesworld: What Is Fantatwee?"

Choice quote:
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What is a good story? A good story is one that is thematically interesting enough to be reread without being understood exactly the same way the second time. Fantatwee is opium without treatment. Once you come to, you still are the same ol' person you were before, with the usual pains in the usual spots.
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Read the rest.

Someone Stumbledupon Me...

My homepage (the one with all the free fiction) suddenly had an enormous increase in visits yesterday and today.

The reason, I found out, is that the website had been Stumbledupon.

I hope this isn't just a fluke. :-S

Web Serial A MAN CALLED MISTER BROWN (At SpaceWesterns.com)

The webzine SpaceWesterns.com has bought my novella "A Man Called Mister Brown" and is now publishing it as an 8-part serial.

Chapter 1 can be read HERE.

"A Man Called Mister Brown" is pure space opera, lightweight entertainment. The plot takes place 200 years into the future, but most of its plot elements could easily fit into the 19th century or the present.

The only "depth" I consciously put into the story is a subtext about racism. The protagonist is black, and moves in a future world where humans have genetically engineered themselves into various new "races" or even species.

And you might think that in such a future, people would be more tolerant of each other... but virtually every character (except the protagonist) is prejudiced against every other race/species and uses derogatory names for them.

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FOOTNOTE: Those who have read my other stories may notice that "A Man Called Mister Brown" takes place in the same "universe" as my space-opera novel THE ARGUS PROJECT.

First Review Of THE FLATTERED PLANET...

The first review of my second short-story collection THE FLATTERED PLANET has appeared on the Swedish website Catahya. The book is in English but the review is in Swedish, so I'll translate two choice quotes:

"More often than not these are dark stories and cruelty often lurks behind the corner. But it's funny. Maybe not laugh-out-loud funny, but rather more quiet grins and the occasional intellectual mocking laughter."

"All in all I found this collection well-written and entertaining, with both funny and frightening ingredients. It feels almost obligatory and redundant but has to be said: a rollercoaster. There."

THE FLATTERED PLANET is available from CafePress.

Suggest-A-Publisher

Here's the deal:

I've just completed a humorous novel. I wrote it very quickly, and I'm pretty pleased with the result. It's a comedy with science-fiction elements, but written with a mainstream audience in mind... and it is a satire.

But which publisher should I try sending it to? I have NO idea.

Please make your suggestions in the Comments below.