Elsewhere on the internet, some discussion about art vs. craft.

Bruce Bethke on talent vs. craft

I understand that there are people, like me, who want to write novels for a living. This makes sense to me, because obviously, that's what I do, and I like to think of myself as reasonably sensible (comments about the accuracy of this should be offered with very careful consideration. I'm just saying). Bethke's post makes sense in that context. If you have deadlines and you have bills and you need to meet the former to pay the latter, you need to be able to bridge the chasm between your inspiration and your ability to intellectually bulldoze your way through the murk. You need to be able to write when you do not feel like it because if you have enough days of not feeling like it, you will miss your deadlines and people will be Very Unhappy about it. You need to be able to storm the fortress of ideas and starve them out by lobbing things at said fortress at every miserable and conceivable opportunity.
( But, and you knew there was a but, didn't you? )

I've mentioned here that I read some manga. I would probably read more of it if I had bookshelf space. But the manga I've been reading lately is a bit unusual.

With the Light Vol.1 and With the Light Vol 2 written by Keiko Tobe, are the first books in a series that deals with autism.

I was surprised enough when I saw these in the Diamond catalogue that I had to order them (I assumed that maybe there was inaccuracy in the ad). But they're pretty much exactly what they say they are: The story of a woman, Sachiko, who discovers that her son, Hikaru, is autistic. The book glosses over some things, but it covers a lot, including the isolation, the guilt, and the marital stress that such discoveries often cause. The first two volumes of the series take Hikaru through to the end of grade 5, and as a brief and accessible primer about the difficulties autistic children and their parents can face, it would be of interest to anyone. They can be accused of oversimplification, and that's not an unfair accusation, but I think that most of what's handled here is handled thoughtfully, and sensitively.

jpsorrow had an idea, which is responsible for this post. He thought it would be useful, helpful, or at least not entirely boring if a bunch of novelists posted a synopsis or outline that was used to actually sell a book.

As many of you are probably painfully aware, outlines are the anti-book, as far as I'm concerned. They are dreadful, horrible, book-killing things, because you have to hit the plot points of a book, and make it all sound compelling and interesting. If you do this, however, you are bleeding energy from the actual book itself, at least if you're me, because even if it is many, many pages short of actual novel, you have already told the story, and the incentive to, you know, tell the story is severely lessened as a result.
( Selling Cast in Shadow -- a brief note. Well, it started out brief )

( It goes without saying that there are MASSIVE SPOILERS for Cast in Shadow behind this cut )

So, that's the outline. I'm not the only person that jpsorrow asked to do this, and I'm not the only person who said yes -- so below is the list of links of other participating authors. We all agreed to post on the 18th of March, so all of these links should lead to lots of interesting stuff.

( Other authors who are also blogging about outlines or synopses that sold books )

ET: Cut out all the spaces between the links, because, well, not necessary and also to add:

Janni Simner (janni): http://janni.livejournal.com
P. R. Frost/Irene Radford (ramblin_phyl): http://ramblin_phyl.livejournal.com

both of whom also posted.

Because I've been getting email about the second of the BenBella Sundered books (which had gone out of print), I (finally, and I am very sorry for being so absent-minded) remembered to ask Glen Yeffeth of BenBella if there was going to be a reprint of Children of the Blood, and the relevant part of his reply is:

We have reprinted Children of the Blood so it's now available. It hasn't hit
amazon yet but should soon or people can order it from us.

http://66.84.52.211/cgi-bin/plugins/MivaEmpresas/miva?plugins/MivaMerchants/
merchant.mvc+Screen=PROD&Store_Code=BB&Product_Code=COB&Category_Code=SUNDER
ED

So hopefully there will be no more 100.00 used copies of that book as the only option on amazon.

jpsorrow posts about the evolution of process, or what each novel has taught him about his own writing so far. It's interesting, and I winced at the one book in which everything fell into place because I knew that the subsequent book would be so heart-breaking. It's always harder when you think you've finally arrived, that you know what you're doing -- because of course you start the next novel and nothing works properly or that smoothly again.

ETA: the actual link. Coffee infusion needed.

peake makes an interesting point here about reviews (and the link in his post is also very good, if long). Like peake, I will read a review just to read the review itself; it's not so much about the book, in that case, but about the quality of thought and understanding that goes into the review. I actually agree with much of what he's said about reviews, the shrinking review market, and the lack of respect granted reviewers who are good at what they do.

But I am definitely in that class of reviewers or bloggers who write reviews that I am absolutely certain peake would have no interest in reading.

( What I try to do with my reviews, or why they would be of no interest as standalone pieces of writing )

papersky said something very good here which I wanted to address, and while I started a rant in her LJ, I realized that it was going to be a rant, so I moved back to here.
( A Rant about blogging your way to success )

ETA: "Michelle gets the date of the beginning of Whatever wrong — it came online in 1998. But it’s true I had a Web site of one form or another dating all the way back to ‘93, and that I regularly put new content on it during that time."

Please die horribly and also quickly.

ETA: After cleaning out one hundred and fifty bounces, with no doubt more to come, I will settle for horribly.

Thank you all for being so encouraging. <3.

But I'm still genuinely curious about whether or not things get easier or harder for people who write (or actually, create something that is offered for public inspection). Someone – I think kateelliott, suggested that it gets harder because we're all more aware, later in career, of all the ways things can go wrong, most of which we have no control over.
( book related mini-news )

I wanted to post here, quickly, because I've been getting a number of emails asking me when Cast In Fury will be published. As far as I know, it's on the schedule for October of this year, which means it can probably be found sometime in September on bookstore shelves.
( Progress report, sort of )