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msagaraBecause I know, in general, that people often find memes to be repetitive or not entirely interesting, it's all behind the cut.
If there is any question you would like to ask me about any one of my works, then go ahead! What I meant by a particular line, why I chose that characterization, what I was listening to as I wrote, what crack I was taking and where you can get some ... anything. Anything you might like to know about how I wrote it, I shall do my best to answer.
I'll modify that to say I'm old enough that crack isn't part of the equation, although lack of sleep might be. And I'll then append:
Or if there's any question you would like to ask me about the process, the bookstore, the business in general, and I can answer it, I'll also field those happily.
Taken from![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
terri_osborne, and kradical, but seen elsewhere as well.
ETA: Happy Thanksgiving to those of you who celebrated it late this year (ours being in the less chilly month of October <g>).
If there is any question you would like to ask me about any one of my works, then go ahead! What I meant by a particular line, why I chose that characterization, what I was listening to as I wrote, what crack I was taking and where you can get some ... anything. Anything you might like to know about how I wrote it, I shall do my best to answer.
I'll modify that to say I'm old enough that crack isn't part of the equation, although lack of sleep might be. And I'll then append:
Or if there's any question you would like to ask me about the process, the bookstore, the business in general, and I can answer it, I'll also field those happily.
Taken from
terri_osborne, and kradical, but seen elsewhere as well.ETA: Happy Thanksgiving to those of you who celebrated it late this year (ours being in the less chilly month of October <g>).
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Date: 2004-11-30 11:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-30 01:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-30 02:35 pm (UTC)---L.
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Date: 2004-11-30 02:43 pm (UTC)Do you have a favorite scene? A favorite line? What are they?
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Date: 2004-11-30 03:15 pm (UTC)---L.
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Date: 2004-11-30 05:05 pm (UTC)And thank you, by the way, for being so willing to field questions--about publishing, about contracts, about romance novel placement, about so many things of interest.
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Date: 2004-11-30 06:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-30 07:49 pm (UTC)(No, I'm not considering a career change, but someone I know is.)
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Date: 2004-11-30 08:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-30 10:49 pm (UTC)Pretty much, yes. That, and I have always had trouble with insomnia, so I might as well do something useful if I'm awake anyway <wry g>. I discovered early on that if I was trying to get something important done while being interrupted, I got grouchy, and grouchy doesn't make for a wonderful parent.
I also don't get phone calls (except my sister, when she forgets about the west coast time difference) late at night, unless it's an emergency (which almost never happens); the only distractions are the ones I choose -- like, say, LJ.
I think, when the kids are older, it'll be easier to say "this is writing time"; I know that when they're doing homework, and I work as well, it does work out because we're all working. But I'm lousy at saying "don't interrupt me" -- I realize that that's a me thing, and I admire parents who can set those rules and stick consistently by them.
Because consistency is important, and I know I'm never going to be consistent about that, night is the best time at this stage.
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Date: 2004-11-30 10:54 pm (UTC)This is sort of an interesting question because one of the things that I did get criticism for -- especially with Broken Crown -- was the gender roles I'd chosen. But in that case, they were the natural fallout of what I think of as a quasi-medieval attitude. The culture itself defined the roles of women in it.
I didn't so much intend it to be an exploration, though -- it grew organically out of the constraints I'd placed on the culture itself. In Annagar, women have very constrained lives -- but so do almost all of the people who live there. In the Empire, those constraints don't exist in the same way, and I did consciously set out to contrast the two societies. The only reason there are Kings, as opposed to Queens, in the Empire is because the Kings are always god-born, and without a more incestuous interaction, if the children were women, they'd have more difficulty bearing the children; if the children are sons, they can choose wives who will bear their fathers' children.
This probably isn't much of an answer; I'm happy to hone it, but I'd need more specific examples to which to reply.
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Date: 2004-11-30 10:56 pm (UTC)Ummm, is this for me?
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Date: 2004-11-30 11:05 pm (UTC)Do you have a favorite scene? A favorite line? What are they?
I don't have a favourite scene -- I think there are too many of them, and they all run together in my mind. (Do other authors do this as well? I can remember the events clearly, but without thinking, I no longer clearly remember which book(s) they occured in; they all blend together to become part of the overall story).
I like, in Broken Crown, the line "The Sun is in my eyes." I like it because I hadn't thought of it before Ramiro said it, but it was culturally perfect for the context. My first impulse is to choose lines that are all like that -- the things that people said that I couldn't have predicted but that had the ring of truth to them that made them perfect for the character or culture. Hunter's Oath, when Mari says "It's always the sons" was one of those moments. The entire epilogue of Uncrowned King, which came out of Kallandras decision to ignore Evayne's instructions for reasons of his own.
The last scene with Nicu in Sea of Sorrows. Kallandras' acceptance of the duality of his life when he sees what Adam carries in his hand after the flood. When Diora calls Margret Ruatha in Sea as well.
I look at those moments as gifts; as things that come unplanned, but follow out of everything that's already been established. The entire scene in Hunter's Death, when the bards sing, and Kallandras joins them. Oh -- and the baying of the hounds in Death as well.
It's almost because of those moments that I write at all -- there's something piercing about them, something that moves me because I didn't consciously choose them.
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Date: 2004-11-30 11:20 pm (UTC)This is probably going to be a more rambling answer than I'd ideally like. I was interested in the concept of redemption when I was younger. I think my first attempt at a novel -- and many of my attempts before I reached the advanced age of thirteen, and no there's nothing at all in those books that's worth retrieving and they're never going to see the light of day because I already have hundreds of ways of humiliating myself in public, actually drew on Christian mythology. Given that we were not church goers, this probably seems a bit odd -- but maybe not; I read a lot of mythology when I was young.
To me, it wasn't that different from fairy tales. Okay, that was this post's digression.
I read a lot, and of course, as one does when one is young, retained only the things that were of interest to me. Possibly because one of the only real ways to show remorse in the Japanese myths and legends I read was to kill yourself, the idea of redemption really enthralled me.
But writing about the things that might lead you to require redemption also repelled me. Go figure. The reason that Stefanos wasn't human was because it added a layer of motivation to his actions that had nothing to do with humanity, and that was easier at the time for me. I would probably make different choices, now, but at the time I needed to at least not loathe the characters I was writing about, and someone who was essentially in thrall to his nature, as opposed to someone who has an open slate of obvious choices (i.e. an adult human), worked on that level.
Light and Dark were black and white. Forces in opposition. They defined lives, certainly, and defined the shape of the war; they defined loss. Two things had to be real, to give the ending its shape: one, the sense of loss and the pervasive sense of grief, and two, the desire to transcend that. You have to have something to transcend. It's not redemption if you haven't been living in the dark. So... I didn't want Stefanos to be misunderstood or miscast; I wanted him to be exactly what he was, which would more or less be evil.
And after that... there had to be something appealing about him, after all; there had to be something that he was drawn to, as well, some crack in the armour of eternal boredom.
And thank you, by the way, for being so willing to field questions--about publishing, about contracts, about romance novel placement, about so many things of interest.
Actually, I love answering questions -- when I have something the remotely resembles an answer <wry g>.
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Date: 2004-11-30 11:22 pm (UTC)Oddly enough -- and I hope this isn't a spoiler -- there is a place for her in the future of the universe, but it depends, among other things, on the timing of certain events, and on something that Evayne took from the field before the battle in SUN SWORD. I wrote Memory of Stone with an eye to the Summer Court.
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Date: 2004-11-30 11:31 pm (UTC)Ugh. I don't. I'm not sure there are any good links for that :/. I don't think it's a totally insane idea, but it would depend on a number of things, one being population base (is it near a University or a College?). I think independent bookstores can break even, and there are some fabulous examples out there -- there are probably more examples of stores that don't. In Toronto, among the best of the bookstores is Book City, which is a small chain, owned by one man. He started out with one store, expanded, and in constantly involved with all aspects; he's a big of a character.
One of the ways in which the stores have made money is by his excellent pursuit of interesting remainders, because the mark-ups on those are much higher. But this involves a lot of driving; it's a huge time-sink.
The up front capital is high, as well, because you have to stock books, and you have to keep the inventory at a certain level. Without having any idea of what the level of sales are like, it's hard to figure out what the base inventory should be; some stores will start with 200K, if they're large and general, and some with as little as 80K. That, shelving, leases -- we'll assume that salaries aren't as much of an issue if they're starting very small -- mean the up front cost can be high.
Publishers want, in theory, net 30 days payment, which means 30 days from the date of the invoice.
When you open an account, there's usually a minimum order that has to be placed, and it has to be paid for up front. The amount of inventory you can subsequently order will be dependent on the credit limit set for the account by the distributor/publisher, and with new accounts, that limit can be as low as 500.00 (very low) to 2,000.00 (low).
Yes, you can break even, but as in any business, I think the first year (or two) are expected to run at a net loss.
Cecily
Date: 2004-11-30 11:54 pm (UTC)(Yes, I'm trying to avoid spoilers, why do you ask?)
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Date: 2004-12-01 12:22 am (UTC)---L.
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Date: 2004-12-01 02:16 am (UTC)So many times we see characters flouting gender conventions yet experiencing no psychological or social discomfort for it. These characters experience both the tension between their gender roles and their personal or historical roles, and also experience the psychological discomfort in ways that make the gender role conflict a primary theme in the storyline, for me at least.
Thoughts like this are rather out of character for me - I usually read fiction for fun and for plot, and leave the deep analysis for my work-reading. (Yes, I'm a social scientist, I study things like gender roles for a living, lol.) But this just seems to stand out from the story in ways that make it seem a purposive element rather than a sidebar.
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Date: 2004-12-01 03:01 am (UTC)Oh! You've just encompassed the whole reason why the last act in my book doesn't work. And now I know how to fix it! Thank you.
Melinda, blinded by the lightbulb that just went off over her head.
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Date: 2004-12-01 03:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-01 04:38 am (UTC)This makes sense, to me, and thank you for clarifying what you meant. I confess that I'm not that deliberate when I set out to write. The characters come from their societies -- in as much as I can create a society well enough to contain them -- and the interactions of people with different cultural backgrounds and expectations naturally give rise to some of these elements. They'd almost have to. In that sense, it's not a deliberate choice on my part. It's more the determination to be true to the character voice, or to let the character voice to true to itself, if that makes sense.
So many times we see characters flouting gender conventions yet experiencing no psychological or social discomfort for it. These characters experience both the tension between their gender roles and their personal or historical roles, and also experience the psychological discomfort in ways that make the gender role conflict a primary theme in the storyline, for me at least.
So let me go back to this point. There are many, many things depicted in various forms of entertainment which are given short shrift due to demands of the medium, or perhaps the audience, depending on what type of entertainment it is. One of the things that used to drive me crazy about mysteries on television (or in book form) was the total lack of grief showed by the bereaved.
We can show people being shot or murdered; we can have their homes burned down; we can see them being stalked, or beaten, or etc., and yet the sense of consequence, the profound psychological changes that any of these would have to cause -- these happen off-stage or off-camera. I think the lack of emotional consequence is socially costly, for a variety of reasons.
As a writer, I'm more interested in what happens after. I'm more interested in writing the funeral than in writing the death; more interested in the cost of action than the necessary action itself.
I suppose, because I do think of these things frequently, some of that is bound to filter into my writing. Sometimes, it's more obvious, and sometimes less -- but consequence gives things the emotional weight they otherwise lack. So in that sense, yes, the gender issues have weight or consequence because they're significant to the characters' lives -- but I think the significance is part of a broader effort on my part.
I know I'm not always successful at this, and sometimes my writing is a bit on the dense side (as opposed to me being on the dense side, which we can take up in a sidebar), but that's a deliberate choice on my part. And yes, it adds words <rueful g>.
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Date: 2004-12-01 04:40 am (UTC)Oh, that <g>. I did that because they were good names, and I wanted to share them, among other things. And I thought Janni might notice and get a kick out of it <g>.
Re: Cecily
Date: 2004-12-01 04:42 am (UTC)It occurs after Death, or rather, it begins after it; it ends after the end of Shining Court. This is just me being unobvious; she remade the artifacts in the Winter, but the butterflies returned in the Summer, and the Summer in this world hasn't happened for a very long time. I think I thought that the implication of the advent of Summer was clearer :/. You're not the only person to ask that question, though, so I probably wasn't clear enough.
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Date: 2004-12-01 04:46 am (UTC)Yes, I think it would be helpful in many ways. 1. The experience with shelving, stocking, and ordering (if you're allowed to order; some chains don't allow it). 2. The familiarity with the process of receiving and returns. 3. The whole cash/display/etc., which is part and parcel of retail experience anywhere.
I think it is less helpful, however, in other ways. Much of the ordering that is done is done by a regional buyer, rather than the manager, and if you were a manager, you probably wouldn't be doing your own orders, regardless. Your job has a lot to do with scheduling (smaller stores are often less formal about this) and employee issues (and again, for the independents I'm more familiar with, employees tend to be fixtures); the corporate culture allows for some distance that the independent culture doesn't.
Also, things like paying bills, managing accounts, dealing with possible taxes, etc., etc., would be done on high, and they're part of the snarly bits that can be a real pain.
I wouldn't suggest starting a business without a clear business plan, and without some sort of course or ten about the financial ins and outs of a small business; I'd make sure I had a lawyer, and I'd try to make sure I understood how business taxes and real estate issues (leases, etc.,) work in your area. All of these things are taken care of by a nebulous Head Office in a big chain, but if it's your store, it's your headache, and it can be a headache.
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Date: 2004-12-01 04:49 am (UTC)Oh! You've just encompassed the whole reason why the last act in my book doesn't work. And now I know how to fix it! Thank you.
I absolutely love it when something I say is useful in this particular fashion. It doesn't happen often, but thanks for pointing it out.
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Date: 2004-12-01 06:37 am (UTC)Of course!!
I was absurdly glad to see this comment. One writing group bit of feedback that drove me crazy was the comment that I ought to start a book with the battle, that was the interesting stuff. Just give us the action, nobody was interested in all that draggy real-life reconstruction and recovery afterward. (Which is where I was interested in starting. Total defeat, hey, it can only get better from here, right?)
Given any sort of competent soldiering, I daresay the battle sequence itself done realistically might be positively pedestrian. Close to boring. How *do* they think Genghis' Mongols regarded the twentieth Chinese city they'd broken down, anyway? Oh yeah, yawn, not much loot here, have you got all those ears yet? How about the piles of heads?
Oh yeah, it's fairly visual for the movies.
I doubt it'd do all that much in a book, honestly.
Now here's a book: It's a dramatically different world to their captive Chinese prisoners, isn't it?
So yeah, that was one piece of feedback that may have proved its worth by irritating me. Dunno if I'll get any pearls out of it.
Of course I wanted to jump up and down and scream something about how the social consequence of such events is *entirely* in what happens afterward. The results can ramify for generations. People obsess for years afterward about the consequences. The feuds go on...for example, if you read the forties Nero Wolfe mysteries which reveal tidbits about the Balkans, you see that it sounds like much the same stuff now!
So much for that group...
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Date: 2004-12-01 03:10 pm (UTC)Yes, I can see this, now that you said it. The characters' reflections on these costs and their awareness of them give them a depth that is otherwise missing from the more plot-driven series (in the sense that the plot is the only thing that matters in the book). Character development and voice matters in these in ways that don't occur in other books (UGH Robert Jordan ::shudders::).
The only character who doesn't seem to fit this is Kallandras. He seems numb to the costs of what he does, almost emotionless many times, but at the same time he reflects and experiences costs in other ways. He almost seems to be aging as we progress through the series - reflecting more, allowing his past experiences to color his thoughts and behaviors.
And yes, it adds words... If the books weren't already so long, and thick enough to scare students into not-reading, I'd almost consider assigning bits from them. The best bits, unfortunately, don't extract well because -- for the reasons you mentioned -- these actions and concerns only have meaning in the broader context of their societies. :-(
Re: Cecily
Date: 2004-12-01 05:18 pm (UTC)Re: Cecily
Date: 2004-12-01 05:37 pm (UTC)That's only supposed to be true of the novels <wry g>. In this case, because it's clear at the end of Shining Court that they've undertaken the hunt that will once again give them the Summer Court, the end of Memory of Stone is supposed to imply the presence of Summer, the possibility of seasonal change -- and the survival of the artisan. That's all, really.
Re: Cecily
Date: 2004-12-01 05:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-02 02:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-03 10:00 am (UTC)Only insomnia huh? :)
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Date: 2004-12-03 03:21 pm (UTC)Only insomnia huh? :)
Well, no, sometimes I have trouble with smart-arses, but that only keeps me up at night when I'm plotting some sort of appropriate revenge >:)
Character Question
Date: 2004-12-05 06:33 pm (UTC)One reason I'm curious is that I was dumbfounded when I was reading Christopher Tolkien's books to find out that JRR had absolutely no idea who Strider was when the hobbits first encountered him at Bree. He'd gotten the hobbits there, and this unexpected character had cropped up and for some time thereafter his notes are peppered with comments like WHO IS STRIDER?!! Very amusing as well as surprising.
Cassandra
Hello . . .
Date: 2005-11-11 07:41 am (UTC)