I'm working on it

John Scalzi explains why writers shouldn't assume that they're going to get paid, ever. He also explains the corollary -- that getting paid up front is better than hoping that royalties will roll in. My favorite bit:

I've posted a new blog piece here, for Write Up Our Alley. It's all about writing and getting stuck in the middle of a piece. And, of course, it's about momentum.

- I read about this study the other day, that when a customer is served by a white male, the service is viewed as more satisfactory than if the same service is given by a white woman or a black man.

- Same service?

- Identical.

- Does it matter who receives the service?

- No. As the researcher concluded, "Everyone -- white, black, men, women -- think the white man is more valuable."

- That's pretty depressing.

- Well then I read about this economic study about gender biases towards playwrights. It had a few surprising results.

- Like?

- Plays by female playwrights are judged more harshly by female artistic directors than male ones.

- And male artistic directors?

- They judged plays by male and female playwrights equally.

- Huh?

- Emily Glassberg Sands, who did the research, speculates that it might be because female artistic directors know the prejudices female playwrights face. They hold them to a higher standard because they know they won't make it otherwise.

- That seems pretty harsh.

- It is. But facts seem to bear them out. Although plays written by women that are produced end up being more profitable, they are shut down at a faster rate than ones written by men.

- Wait a minute. The play is more profitable than a similar one written by a man. . .

- And it's shut down sooner.

- Harsh.

- Tell me about it.

We’re eight of us: Kate Duke, Deborah Freedman, Kathleen Kudlinski, M.W. Penn, Sanna Stanley, Leigh Ann Tyson, Cat Urbain, and me. Collectively, we’ve spent decades in the writing business, publishing over 75 children’s books. We write in different genres, covering nonfiction, picture books, middle grade novels, educational materials, historical fiction, YA, poetry. Despite our variety, we’ve discovered how many things we have in common.

We care about quality literature. And I don’t just mean our books — books that matter and that kids will enjoy. Our works explore similar themes, crossing age groups and genres. And more than anything else, we all want to get kids to read.

So we decided to form a group, Write Up Our Alley. We’ve pooled our knowledge and experience, and are building programs and resources for others who share our passions. We’ve put up a website — a work in progress — and on it started a blog where we will share what we’ve learned in the business, what we know about reaching kids, and our love of books. We post about once a week. It’s still an experiment, but we’ve been thinking about this for a long time. Come join us.

The Lutheran Halal Cafe!


Photo taken by Patrick Nielsen Hayden and posted on Making Light -- thank you!!!

J.L. Bell has thoughts about including characters of color in books. He points out that editors are eager to publish the books. And people are more aware than ever about the need for diversity in characters. But, essentially, the market will decide what sells and what doesn't. If the corporate giants don't see a profit in books with characters of color, they won't push them.

My response is -- since when has the market been an independent behemoth?

Dora the Explorer, Dragon Tales, and Sesame Street are truly popular. They have been pushed and supported, and have built a base. They use advertising -- a commercial tactic successful for centuries, to push the market to accept the product.

That's what the Marlboro Man did for cigarettes. And what the "Diamonds are forever" campaign did for diamonds. Promotion was the key to their industries' success.

Now granted, not every promotion works. But if publishers spent the time promoting books that have characters of color the way, for example, they promote a John Grisham novel -- you might not get the Grisham sales, but you would certainly get more notice from the market.

And it's not only the market that matters. Despite all that awareness that J.L. touts, there's still a lot of blindness on the creative end. How many fantasy books are still published that have all white humans while the non-humans sport every shade of the rainbow? How many middle grade and YA books are published which only include white characters?

Yes, there's been change -- and that's to the good. But raising our hands in defeat intoning "We can't get any further because the [dum-dum-DUM] Market won't support it," forgets the most important fact of all. The market is made up of people. Who can be convinced, successfully, that characters of all color are interesting. If someone is willing to invest in the promotion.

This Saturday May 16, I will be at the Hudson Children's Book Festival in Hudson, New York with over 50 authors and illustrators. From noon to 12:30, I'll be presenting a workshop entitled "How Many Times Did You Write That Book?" and talk about going from a first draft to publication.

The Festival promises to be a lot of fun. Admission is free. You can check out all the authors and illustrators who will be there, as well as the schedule of events. Hope to see you there!

Anna Tambour has come in defense of adverbs. Deliciously.

My favorite quote:

The soup arrived, and George set about it with a willing spoon. His companion became hideously involved with spaghetti.
—P.G. Wodehouse, The Small Bachelor

The short story at the end is worth the article alone.

When they were talking about
how the main character should die,
I wish I had said,
“She can die.
But let’s chose an ending with life.”

When he said,
“My memory is boring.”
I wish I had said,
“Every memory is important.
It’s part of who you are.”

When you said,
“My father died the day before Christmas.”
I said,
“I am so sorry. That is a very sad memory.”
And I wish that I could have hugged you,
and told you that you are luminescent.
That your love of happy endings is one I share.
That your willingness to join in makes you wonderful.
That I will never forget your face –
so kind, so eager, so
full of life.

- You heard?

- What?

- The Obamas have chosen a new dog. They're calling him Bo.

- Everyone has heard. This isn't news.

- Well, The New York Times reports that Bo will be the basis for a new children's book.

- Really?

- It's coming out in two weeks.

- Someone wants to make a fast buck.

- Now, now. He won't mention the Obama girls.

- It's their dog!

- He claims that "he wanted to protect their privacy."

- What about the dog's?

“Should you write what you know? No, you should write what you can imagine.”

- Walter Dean Myers

Thank you Suzan for the quote.

There's nothing, absolutely nothing, like finishing the first draft of a novel.

Thinking.

Nope. Nothing else like it.

Hooray!!!!!!

I went to a remarkable conference today at the University of Connecticut called A Day in the Humanities: Imagining, Performing, Writing Science, Unfortunately I had to duck out early. But in the time I was there I saw a performance of Hysteria (a play by Terry Johnson), listened to insightful commentary from U.Conn. faculty members, met some keen minds, and got to learn some wonderful things about Radio Lab.
People also said some things that I won't soon forget.

Gary M. English: People often chose oblivion over truth. The artist's role is to hold up the truth.

Jad Abumrad: Presenting facts in a way that people will listen to them is like composing a piece of music.

Robert Krulwich: There is more room between your ears than in front of your eyes.


I have more thoughts. Rumblings. Things bopping around and making me think.

That was one good conference.

Take a look. "Internet To Reduce E-Mail Delivery To Six Days A Week."

Let the rejoicing begin!

I am not a car aficionado. I don't read car magazines. I have no mechanical aptitude. I currently drive a 9 year old Honda Accord -- which I am quite happy about, thank you very much. When it's time to purchase a new car, I'll aim for Consumer Reports and look under "reliability" and "value."

And yet.

A while ago, I discovered Dan Neil. His columns kind of crept up on me. To be fair, I did notice when he received a Pulitzer. I thought something along the lines of, "Wow. Someone who writes car reviews won a Pulitzer. He must write pretty well." But he worked for the L.A. Times, all the way across the country, and there was more than enough for me to read here, and so I forgot about him.

Then one Saturday, I had a blank half hour and had read everything else of interest in the paper. The the car section sat there, untouched. I glanced at the first line of his syndicated column and the next thing I knew, I had finished the whole damn long review. Do I remember which car he reviewed? No. Nor a word of what he said. I didn't even notice that he was the one who had written it. I do remember I was grinning.

A month or two later, I had a few minutes on a Saturday. I had read everything else of interest in the paper and I noticed the car section. "There was that good article, once." I found his column. And, damn, it was good.

And so it started.

I didn't look for his columns. In fact, it took me several years to figure out that the car section appeared on Saturdays in our paper. (As I said, I'm *not* a car aficionado.) But whenever I ran across them, I gave myself the time to finish them. They're that good.

Don't believe me?

Check out the one that appeared this week. Had me smiling. Right to the end.

So now, I do look for his columns. Every Saturday. Right after reading the comics.

Has he changed my outlook on cars?  Well, when it's time to purchase a new one, I'll still check out Consumer Reports and look under "reliability" and "value." I'm boring that way. But I do know which pickup to borrow if I want to haul some heavy stuff. Or why it's more fun to go fast in a slow car than slow in a fast car. Or, you know, what to drive if I ever want to wear a raccoon on my head.

Thank you Dan Neil.

I went to see this unbelievably wonderful exhibit about Picasso at the Yale Art Gallery. Small, intimate, filled with brilliant works, it chronicles Picasso's love of words and print, and its influence on him and the artists with whom he kept company. As we moved through his cubist period, his illustrations, his paintings, sculptures, lithographs, drawings and prints, his own poetry, his friendships with Braque, Gertrude Stein, Apollinaire, and many more, we came to Pierre Reverdy’s book of poems Le chant des morts (The Song of the Dead), published in 1948, which Picasso didn't so much illustrate as illuminate.



Near the introduction was a large table-top flat screen where you could see each page spread of the book in its entirety, flipping through the pages at a touch of the finger. We eagerly looked through it, ooh-ing and ahh-ing at different spreads, enjoying the contrast of the illuminations with the text, the way the forms brought us in to the words or moved us across the page. And we marveled at the technology. "This is the kind of ebook that I would be willing to read," a companion said.

And then we looked up.

Hung on the walls were four of the page spreads. We were stopped cold. Although the electronic version of the book was full sized, it could not capture the power of the brush strokes printed on the page. The electronic reproduction, although faithful and at high resolution, felt dead compared to the vibrancy of each paper print -- despite the fact that these were exhibited behind glass. Each spread was a work of art, to be savored for both its text and the lines of color Picasso gave them.

I wanted that book.

And then I understood something that proponents of electronic books keep failing to understand. Books are an art form. The text may be information, easily carried around and delivered by electronic means. But the solid object of a book, in its myriad shapes, sizes, colors, fonts, illustrations, illuminations, and textures, is something people crave for itself -- something they have craved for hundreds and hundreds of years.

Sure ebooks will become more popular. People have gotten used to getting text by electronic means. But I wouldn't count the rise of ebooks as the death knell for books on paper. Ebooks with be just another version which will eventually be supplanted by some new technology we haven't yet thought about, which will in turn be supplanted by something else. All the while, paper books will continue to be printed. For their own sake. Not only for the content of their words.


Thank you to Oz and Ends for the link to the Ars Technica article.

- Social sites.

- What about them?

- I keep on getting invitations. And all these authors have joined MySpace, Facebook, Twitter. . .

- So?

- I only have a little free time every day. If I join a social network, it should be a good fit.

- Check out A Completely Unscientific (Yet Accurate) Look at Social Sites.*

- I don't have time to wade through a study.

- No, no. It's graphs.

- Graphs?

- Very nice ones.

- I love graphs.

- I know. You're weird that way.

- What does it say about the one I keep getting spam invitations from?

- Here.

- Oooh. Brilliant.

- Now go see the rest.


* Pulled together by Brainz.org.

Thanks to John Scalzi for the link.

Laurie Halse Anderson wrote this poem in honor of the tenth anniversary of her novel Speak. It brought me to tears.

Listen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ic1c_MaAMOI


Thank you Kay Kudlinski.

- I have a physics problem for you.

- Groan.

- No, no. It’s not complicated. Very basic stuff.

- If you insist.

- Okay! Now suppose that on a calm day, you dropped a 2.3 kg physics textbook, measuring 30 cm by 21 cm by 5 cm, off a 520 m cliff, how long would it take to hit the bottom?

- And I’m the one doing the dropping.

- Uh. . . Yeah.

- And I’m dropping, not throwing.

- That’s right.

- The textbook. It’s the one we used in A.P. Physics?

- Yeah, yeah.

- What’s at the bottom of the cliff?

- What difference does that make?

- Just answer the question.

- For heaven’s sakes! [Pause] Okay. Rapids.

- Raging?

- Class 5! Now will you answer the question?

- Sure.

- So, how long until it hits bottom?

- Not soon enough.


Thank you E.

I know I'm behind the curve, and that this is old news. . . but I think this is about the best solution to working out who should go first, ever.





Thank you to Sam Kass. (Although I do think Spock should come last to give the list punch.)