Month: June 2011

Happily ever after

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 3 Comments

Let’s talk fairy tales. (Or faerie tales, but I think those might actually differ.) 

The draft I just finished was a retelling of a fairy tale and I’m scratching my head over one thing: does a fairy tale need a happy ending?  Grimm’s tales were not all happy. But when you say “fairy tale”, people seem to want the happily ever after. On this story, the down ending came naturally. I had to do some research to find a happy version.  I suspect I can work off of it.

I think I’ll leave it to the editor to make the call on this one, offering a happy ending rewrite if he prefers (more leeway for that with an invitation than say a cold slush sub). But I still want your opinion: does a fairy tale need a happy ending?

That finished-a-draft feeling

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 3 Comments

Ahh, that feels good. It’s only a short story, one I’ll likely trim even further, but man does it feel good to type “the end”. Or rather [end] as I tend to prefer. I suspect this story needs more post-production help than any I’ve written in a long time, but at least it exists in completion.

I’d love to go on about this, but I’m in a pop-up camper with a sleeping wife and daughter and poking this all into a smartphone keypad, so I’ll digress. I intend to spend the next couple days pursuing a crazy idea some friends and I have been kicking around, then to edit this story and get it ready for an editor who explicitly told me not to work on it yet. (I don’t always listen so good.)  Id like to have this one ready by the time I get back home. Right now I’m just happy this cold and rainy camping day turned out to at least be a productive one.

Did you just call me a Twit?

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 2 Comments

It has happened.  I am now Twitterpated.  Yes, I know…I know.  I fought it as long as I could.  If Twitter can survive the uncoolness of me joining, then the behemoth will not die and I for one welcome our new social media overlords.

So tweet with me: @SWBakerSF  I’m too new to know if it’s case sensitive or not.  I’m trying to tweet a couple times a day until I get the hang of it.  I so seldom visit my Facebook page, I don’t want to see the same fate befall my Twitter.  For hat matter, I don’t want it to happen to my Facebook and am slowly attempting to improve my visitation without becoming a heroin social media addict.

Oh, and let me know where to find your twitterpation!

First Foray into Steampunk

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 1 Comment

For reasons that have been hinted at previously and are still too underdeveloped to divulge, I have recently dipped my toe into the steampunk swimming pool.  For those that have never bathed in steampunk (yeah,I’ve already worn that metaphor out), you can get a crash course at the Wikipedia steampunk page.  I won’t overwhelm you with details here.  Just imagine that the Victorian Era (roughly 1840-1900; on this side of the pond, think a couple decades on each side of the Civil War) just kept progressing rather than being diverted by WWI.  Not helping?  Picure steam and clockwork-style machinery being responsible for a lot of what electricity and electronics do now.  (Not that steampunk is devoid of electricity; Tesla is a very important steampunk figure…but I digress.)  Got it?  Good.

Steampunk is very hot right now, particularly in the aesthetic world.  Interior design, con costuming, that one episode of Castle…but that’s all a very visual thing.  I am not a visual artist.  I do my painting with words on the mind’s canvas and all the blah-blah-blah we writers say about that.  Bottom line, I find myself doing a lot of describing of visuals.  I end up visualizing everything in brass and mahogany.  Fortunately, there are a LOT of steampunk images on the internet for me to scour before I decide on what to describe.  Lamps, tables, beds, lots of “computers” (which hasn’t come up for me, but they’re there), bathtubs, and clothes clothes clothes.  I keep looking for pictures for everything I want to describe, which slows the writing down, but I also keep finding the pictures.  I seldom use any single image I find, rather merging several.

So if I can find things so readily, what’s the problem?  Okay, there isn’t a problem per se, just a tricky balance.  As in any story, I don’t want to put in any details that aren’t useful.  I could give a character a steam powered artificial limb or a clockwork cat, but why?  Things need to have reasons to be steampunky.  As was mentioned on the steampunk panel at ConCarolinas, it’s not just “sci-fi in sepia” (that domain name is available if you want to buy it).  Things are falling together pretty well in the story, but I know the edit-fairy will be clocking overtime once I finish my draft.

Here’s the real problem: I am not a steampunk reader.  (Pauses for the gasps of horror and threats referencing the circles of hell reserved for those that write what they do not read.)  I’ve read some.  Gra Linnea’s story “Life in Steam” in WotF 25 was as steampunk as it gets.  And I’ve read Michael Moorecock to great enjoyment, particularly the Hawkmoon series, and steampunk discussions are not officially licensed as such until his name comes up at least twice.  Airships, gyrocopters, electricity guns, gears, steam…I know the basics.  I’ve also gotten a recent crash course in the importance of both social class and intellect in steampunk storytelling.  I just bought a steampunk novel on my Kindle (oxymoron?).  I am doing my homework, but it isn’t natural to me.  Maybe that’s why I feel like the story is shaping up so nicely: the construction is all very deliberate.  I just hope that won’t get in the way of flow and storytelling.

Anyway, it’s fun exploring this new (to me) subgenre and navigating its twists and turns.  I feel like it’s bringing some old fashioned spark back into my technique.  I’m probably half done with the first draft already (not a very long story) and I may have reason to follow up with another similar one.  I understand how people can get immersed into steampunk; it’s so visually striking.  I just hope I end up doing it justice.

ConCarolinas: Day 3 (the final chapter)

~ Scott W. Baker ~ Leave a comment

It’s tough for a day 3 to live up to a day 2 at any Con.  For me, this day three was no exception.  Everything was pleasant enough, but not special.  Some very nice panels that have inspired me to do posts on a few different topics that are of great interest to me: rejectomancy, advertising, and YA, to name a few.  I bought a book, got talked into Kindle-buying another.  And, against my better judgment, I left a few hours early.  It’s fun to be one of the last ones out the door because it increases recognition and conversation among the other late-stayers, but I was tired and missed the rugrat.

The best part of day 3 had nothing to do with the con.  (Not THIS can, anyway.)  I’m not 100% sure how vocal I should be bout it (he decided after flapping his gums to a few friends) so I won’t spell anything out.  Let’s just say that, thanks to a friend, I have a new reason to explore steampunk.  This was good news and made me a happy writer.

As a whole, it was a good weekend.  I made some new friends.  Some pros recognized me and struck up conversations on their own.  I got to know some pros (see day 2): develop a tiny crush on Faith Hunter and refueled a pre-existing tiny crush on Carrie Ryan.  (Nothing tazer-worthy, just a harmless smirking fanboy kind of thing.)  Expanded horizons.  Had fun.

Did attending this Con further my career?  Not per say.  What I did was build up my people network.  I turned strangers into acquaintances and acquaintances into friends.  You’ve heard the expression, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.”  I always thought that was kind of a sinister saying.  In this case, it’s more about having a friendly faces along the road.  When my career gets off of blocks in the front yard, it will go somewhere.  Wouldn’t it be nice to get there and know someone?  Even better to know ten people?  If I feel like I belong a that stop, it will make it that much easier to move on to the next.  Okay, I’ve retyped this metaphor six ways and it’s still not working, so I’m leaving it.  If a decent metaphor comes to me, I’ll make a whole post about it.

It’s late.  Brain…failing.  Must sleep.  ____________

ConCarolinas: Day 2

~ Scott W. Baker ~ Leave a comment

This day can be summarized in a single word: Magical. In two words: Magical Words.

Most of the writers involved in the Magical Words blog are here and I spent most of the day stalking hanging out with them. They are all such great people to talk with and they get along with each other wonderfully. They made up an entire panel about creating a web presence as an author that was informative and really fun. Then they skittered off to lunch with 25 of us tagging along. The restaurant was less than thrilled to see us, but service was good and company was great. There was also a party in their honor that night which reminded me fondly of the Locus party at WotF. I’ll do a full post on the Magical Words crew when I get back home.

I also managed to partake in a guilty pleasure: a Dr. Horrible’ Sing-along Blog sing-along.  I LOVE Dr. Horrible! Neil Patrick Harris is brilliant. It was cool (and a bit scary) to have a room full of people singing the songs and spewing lines at the top of their lungs, not unlike a viewing of Rocky Horror (only less lingerie). It was a moment with “my people”.  Fun fun fun, even if I did have to endure the musical episode of Buffy before hand.

It’s Sunday morning now and I just finished my Rooty Tooty at IHOP. Time to wrap this con up. See you on the flipside.

ConCarolinas: Day 1

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 1 Comment

I’m here. Arrived very shortly before the very first panel as oppsed to the “comfortably early” I had planned, but I made it. The few panels I attended were good (one was fairly spirited) and the opening ceremonies were, while not particularly ceremonious, quite entertaining.

I left around 7 to meet an old friend and missed the evening’s festivities. Glad to catch up and gladder that I won’t have to miss any more.

In trivial news, I got to ride in the elevator with Emilie Ullerup (Battlestar Gallactica, Sanctuary) and it was in this elevator that I realized what a knockout she really is. (Almost as attractive as my wife.)  I hope to have more close encounters with the guests tomorrow. For now, it’s way past bedtime. I need sleep if I’m to get my ihop breakfast and make it to a 9:00 am panel. (Okay, maybe 10:00.)

Walking on the Respectable Side

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 2 Comments

I’m off to ConCarolinas soon. (Hooray!) I actually leave Thursday for my parents’ place for a short visit and to hand off the kiddo, then on to Charlotte.

The con got me thinking about business cards.  I mocked up a design and may or may not distribute a few while I’m there.  Anyway, business cards got me thinking about my amateurish email address.  How juvenile is it to put an unpronounceable email on a business card?  So I set out to explore the options of receiving email through this site’s domain name.  Thanks to Google Apps, it turns out it’s easy.  So now I can be reached at writer@scottwbaker.net.  I have not abandoned my old addresses, osomuerte@gmail.com or osomuerte@hotmail.com, so there’s no need to alter any contact info you have for me.  I have simply added a small degree of legitimacy to my persona.

Is it that important to portray myself professionally?  Probably not.  But here;s a short list of things I have done over the past year or so to improve my apparent professionalism:

  • Purchase my domain name.  It’s cheap, like 15 bucks a year, if I recall.  I was too late to grab the .com name, but it’s tough to mistake me for a NYC photographer.
  • Abandoned my web handle.  I’m still “Oso” in a few circles, but mostly I use my name.  A handle from a character in a role playing game is not the way to present myself to the SF world.  Not that the SF world doesn’t get it (most do), just that the SF world knows that I should know better.
  • Cons.  I’ve been a guest at a con (thanks ChattaCon!) and am doing what I can to attend cons periodically.  Why?  Connections!  I made some great ones in Chattanooga in January and I hope to continue the trend this weekend.  The best way to do that?  So far my luck has been at the bar.  Just saying…

…and that’s about it.  I’ve done so little to seem like a pro.  The most important things to do are writing (which I need to do more of) and selling (which I need to do a LOT more of).  Until then I will present myself with dignity and competence, even though I’ll still do it in a Hawaiian shirt.