Month: January 2011

My First Guest Appearance

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 3 Comments

ChattaCon marked my first time as a guest at a con and only my second con overall.  It was a small con, rar smaller than ConCarolinas.  But I’m pretty sure I was ten times more successful with my networking.  I think the size made that easier.

Registration was quick and easy.  Rumor has it this has not always been the case for ChattaCon, so I thought I’d mention it.

Things started with a meet the guests panel, meaning the guests of honor.  Kristine Kathryn Rusch (hereafter called Kris to save time) was the guest I was primarily there to see, having missed the opportunity at WotF since her husband (Dean Wesley Smith) was ill.  I also found Chelsea Quinn Yarbro and Toni Weisskopf fascinating. After the panel was a reception.  I shoehorned myself shamelessly into the big names’ conversation but didn’t quite get the opportunity to introduce myself to Kris until afterward on her way to the bar (where she did not consume alcohol…but others did).  I introduced myself and we briefly discussed Writers of the Future and she invited me to sit with her and a group of guests.

I won’t play-by-play everything, but I wanted to make it clear how timing and luck played into this con experience.  At the table with us were Toni Weisskopf (publisher of Baen books) and three guys involved in an upcoming anthology, Zombiesque.  (Maybe I’ll plug this book later; it comes out in a week.)  We’ll call these three guys Steve, Greg, and Rob since those were their names.  Anyway, these guys took me under their wing.  Toni knows who I am.  I ended up having breakfast on Sunday with Kris (more lucky timing) where we discussed he business of writing.  I think I made five good solid contacts.  Not that these people can directly advance my career, but they are people I can turn to for advice, guidance, or an introduction.

The con was enjoyable.  The con suite had free beer (!) and slightly questionable snacks.  Programming was thin but not terrible.  I was on two panels.  The first was the zombie panel and was great fun.  The second was “Getting off this rock: how and why.”  There was some difference of opinion as to the precise nature of the panel; was it colonization or just getting into space.  I was the only one on the panel without a significant an related scientific background, so I got steamrolled a bit.  The information was good but I would have like a bit more involvement.  It was a science fiction convention after all; it was a panel about bringing the speculative and the real together.  But I learned some from it so it wasn’t a wasted hour.

All in all it was enjoyable.  I would like to attend again, next year or the one after.  My wife has “suggested” that my writing needs to pay for my con habit.  A sound idea.

Attending the con did two things for my career.  It built contacts and it reminded me what I’m doing.  Science fiction is a community.  Lingering too long away from that community can make it tough to act in the community’s interest.  A little dose of “geek” has my fuel tank primed for more writing.  Maybe I’ll get to it now.

Another Zero Gravity Review

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Just a quick update before bed.  I have discovered that the blog Baryon Review reviewed Zero Gravity and had a sentence about my story “Leech Run”.  The implication is that the reviewer enjoyed the story; he explicitly says he liked the book.

My brief con report for ChattaCon will be up tomorrow or Tuesday.  I didn’t make any sales (that I know of), but I made some great contacts and new friends.  Check back for more details.

ChattaCon Choo Choo

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Here I am at ChattaCon.  Got here just early enough, nothing going on yet.  I’m sleeping in the building with “all the party rooms”, so sleeping may prove a relative term.  I’ll likely feel like an old man by Sunday.  Or by….now.  I’ll be sure to post some sort of Con report.  It’s a small Con.  I’m hoping it’s the nice-cozy-intimate kind of small (not that intimate) as opposed to the dull-boring-yocal kind of small.  We shall see.

Revelation: I can write!

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 5 Comments

I can write.  There’s been evidence of this for a while, but it’s just dawned on me tonight.  I.  Can.  Write.

How did I reach this profound conclusion?  This requires a little backstory.  The culmination of the WotF workshop is the 24-hour story.  At some point during the week, you interview a stranger, receive an object, and research in a library all so you can combine these things into a story you start and finish writing in a 24 hour window.  I went through drafts and restarted and scratched and clawed until I had some sort of completed manuscript to turn in.  It was crap.  My characters were flat and cliche and there were loose ends and it was pulpy and I never wanted to see the thing again.

Anyway, “never” arrived today and I pulled this godawful manuscript up on the computer to read.  It was great.  I enjoyed the story in a did-I-really-write-that kind of way.  The woman’s manipulation escalated in a nice arc.  The main character’s internal conflict was not subtle but believable, especially since he was believably not-too-bright.  The antagonists were predictable in a good way, though maybe a little repetitive but that’s their shtick.  he tech was reasonable.  Descriptions seemed appropriate.

So I wrote a story I liked.  Lots of people write stories they like, does that mean they’re any good?  My revelation is in the fact that a story I forced out and thought was worthless may well be a marketable piece.  As in pro-market.  I intend to try it anyway.

A big thanks to Jordan who inspired me to pull the piece out.  (Sorry I wasn’t able to shave off the 1200 words I was hoping to for RGR.  Maybe I can grind something else out soon.)

I suspect this post seems a little egotistical or at the least self-indulgent.  It probably is.  But I felt like this moment was important to share for two reasons.  First, the secret to critiquing your own work is time.  The moment you finish a manuscript is not the time to look for flaws.  You’ll see none or you’ll see nothing but.    Set it aside and work on something else.  When you can barely recall what the story was about, that’s the time to read it.  You’ll see it more like a reader.  And second, and more importantly, a writer who can write well can do it under pressure, through writer’s block, underwater, against a deadline, or in any other case that might become an excuse.  If it types out like crap, you can fix it later.  I made a (large) number of fixes reading this story through, but I found the story in there and the fixes were so easy.  If I hadn’t finished, there would be nothing to fix and I’d likely scrap the whole story.  See, I told you there was a point.

In other news, I’m starting to fear I’ll miss ChattaCon.  Bad weather is moving in and I don’t do snow-driving.  Not a ton of snow so maybe it won’t be impassible; maybe the interstates and major highways will stay clear; maybe Chattanooga will be far enough south to miss it.  Maybe not.  We shall see.  I’m on two panels Saturday: Are zombies the new vampires? at 10 am and Getting off this rock, how and why @ 2 pm (presumably about space colonization).  Both should be good fun.  If I can get there.

Preditors and Editors

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 6 Comments

Not sure how well known the Preditors and Editors Reader’s Poll is.  It’s a small award whose prize is a lovely animated gif to post on your website.  This year’s poll (for last year’s stories) is open for voting through TONIGHT AT MIDNIGHT (not sure which time zone).

Why do I mention this so late?  Mostly because it was just brought to my attention that “Leech Run” is on the poll for Best Science Fiction & Fantasy Story!  I didn’t put it there, but I’m thrilled.  Similarly, the anthology in which it ran, Zero Gravity, is also up for Best Anthology.  Very cool.

Anyone can vote and voters are selected at random to win prizes, too.  It’s probably tacky to tell you to go vote for me, so just go vote.  If it’s for me, so much the better.  🙂

Odd success and other Horrible things

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 1 Comment

I’ve been going about this short story submission thing all wrong.  As it turns out, the only sale I’ve made in the past six months is one I withdrew (details to follow).  So maybe I just need to go pull all my stories out of slush so they’ll get bought.  Or perhaps I should take this anomaly for what it is and move on.

I am selling “Leech Run” to Escape Pod podcast/ezine as a reprint, my first reprint sale.  More excitingly, it’s my first audio sale!  It’s just as exciting as having “Poison Inside the Walls” illustrated.  Having another artist/performer interpret my work is very exciting to me.

The Escape Pod sale was not without hitches.  I won’t bore you with the details beyond the fact that the fine people at Pill Hill Press — the editors of the anthology Zero Gravity: Adventures in Deep Space where “Leech Run” originally appeared — have been fantastic in their help to allow things to progress naturally.  (You should go buy Zero Gravity on Kindle.  Five bucks for thirteen awesome stories in deep space.  Or buy it in paperback.  Or special edition hard cover if it’s still available…but I think that was just through the end of 2010.  Or buy all three!)

This reprint sale has me wondering how many people would enjoy “Leech Run.”  Would it translate well?  There is money to be made in foreign sales, even for short fiction.  Other stories might also do well translated.  Or in audio.  “Excuse Me” would probably be better performed.  Maybe I could do an audio recording for this site?  It could be fun.  Surely I can find a student actor or two willing to read some lines.  Hmm… [sticks idea on shelf to revisit later]

Now on to my latest obsession: Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog!!  It’s a short film done by Joss Whedon (and family, it seems) starring Neil Patrick Harris as the eponymous villain-on-the-rise (was that Horrible or Howser?), Nathan Fillion as his heroic but egotistical nemesis Captain Hammer (or was that Reynolds?).  Funny, dark, and musical.  The cleverness and musicality of the songs hearkens to the South Park movie.  Afterall, NPH is a Broadway guy.  I love it in all its cheesiness.  I’ve been listening to the soundtrack on my iPod nonstop for two days.  If you have not seen this 42-minute marvel, find a way.  I’ll likely bring my copy to ChattaCon for a potential (small) viewing party/sing-along.  Consider the love shared.  If you too love it, I have done my duty.  If not, well, you may want to have your funny checked.  (You should do that every ten thousand miles anyway.)

When I get details regarding Escape Pod, I’ll let you know.  Until then, read Zero Gravity, watch Dr. Horrible, and eat Mezzetta Garlic-Stuffed Olives.

And I was just getting used to writing “2010”…

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 5 Comments

It’s that time of year again…time for goal setting, promise making, and resolution vowing.  I have a few reso’s myself this time.  I think I usually do.  I don’t recall last year’s.  I suspect that means I didn’t keep them.  Anyway, here’s the list for 2011.

  1. Lose a pound a week. Sounds small enough until you do the math and see it leads to dropping 52 pounds.  And while my aim is to average a pound a week (don’t want to void a resolution by gaining a pound in late February or something), if I drop five in a week, I’ll still aim for one more the next.  I have plenty to lose.  Trust me, 52 pounds will still leave me well above my not-so-perfect target weight.  Like Kevin Spacey in “American Beauty”, I just want to look good naked…or have enough of a view to know how I look naked.  (There are supposedly feet down there, too.  Too much?  Let’s move on.)  The diet (Weight Watchers) starts Monday.
  2. Write 100 words every day. Paltry?  Yes.  Profound?  Definitely.  I’m installing a triple-count penalty for missed days; if I miss a day, I write 300 the next day — not just 200 — to compensate.  No building up ahead of time either.  If I write 2000 tomorrow, the next day I still need my 100.  I just need to get writing every day.  (I confess, I didn’t do it yesterday, so it’s 300 today…but I’ve not yet made it to bed to separate the days, so let’s move on.)
  3. Read a novel and two shorts each month. I’m a slow reader.  Now that I have my Kindle, though, I’ll be able to keep my stuff at my fingertips and make progress.  No reading = no writing…or at least poor writing.
  4. Exercise twice a week. I leave the definition of “exercise” vague because I’m not expecting miracles.  Beginner’s yoga, a walk, the elliptical, strenuous ping-pong…anything better than the walk-to-the-fridge routine I’ve been on.
  5. Get organized. I’m a scattered individual.  “Chaos Out of Chaos” is pretty descriptive of me.  I need to clean out my car, my classroom, all my closets, and redo my computer files…and that’s just January.  I need to start filing instead of piling and get papers graded in less than a week.

Five resolutions.  That’s a lot for a guy that has never followed through with one before.  I guess it’s like planting a lot of seeds hoping one or two might grow.