Blog Roll
Every now and then someone sends you a link where you go: “Yes—that is so how it is.” This is one of those links. Penned by Chuck Wendig and titled “Six Reasons You’re Not Ready To Be A Professional Writer” it elicits that funny mix of both humour and “ouch” that articles do when they hit the nail on the head. So enjoy—and be aware: this really is how it mostly is. Here’s an excerpt from the opening salvos:
” “I want to be a writer when I grow up.”
Sure you do, kid. Sure you do …
… And I’m here to tell you that you might not be ready. You might earn a big red stamp — *fwomp* UNFIT — on your Authorial Acceptance Exam. Not sure if you’ve got what it takes to carry the pens? To churn and burn through barrels of ink? To march forth across the bleached and cracked earth with only your word count on your back?
Let’s check you out, then …”
Click here to read the full post.
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You may recall that on April 4 I posted about the forthcoming HBO series A Game of Thrones, based on the George RR Martin novel of the same name. Well, ’tis forthcoming no more: the first episode (of 10, I believe) has aired in the States and editor Diana Gill has done a great report of her reactions and thoughts on the HarperVoyager blog.
” … So the hype about the HBO Game of Thrones, based on George R. R. Martin’s fabulous Age of Ice and Fire saga, was both fabulous and awful. Fabulous, because the books are amazing, and the trailer felt right. Awful, because fantasy epics are so rarely done well on screen–for every LOTR there are 10 painful, sophomoric special effects sequences masquerading as stories …
.. The cinematography is gorgeous, and I loved the opening sequences (of course, I also adore maps). This first episode, like the Lord of the Rings movies, hits exactly what epic fantasy should feel like–grand, sweeping, and epic. It’s bigger than you can contain, stark terror and brutality besides honor and moments of beauty. We’re barely into the series, but it gets the feel right …
I get the feeling she’s clicking the “like” button on this one. But to read Diana’s report in full, click here.
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And probably my favourite blog post recently? Patricia Briggs (who writes the Mercy Thompson urban fantasy series) did a post on the Orbit blog titled Mercy and her Friends in My Back Yard. Why did I love it? I found something very evocative in Patricia’s description of the voices of coyotes, dogs and wolves in and around her prairie backyard—her writing really made me want to hear them for myself.
Here’s a snippet: “Their laughing voices aren’t beautiful or powerful, the way a wolf’s is, but they are incredibly cheerful. There are several dens of coyotes who live in the field behind our house, eating the mice who live in the nearby orchards and vineyards. The pioneers used to call coyotes “prairie song-birds”. I keep their voices in my head as I write about my little coyote shapeshifter. There are other voices I hear as well.”
To read the full post, click here.
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And other than that, I hope you’re all enjoying the Easter break.
I read the article about wanting to be a writer. Scary !!! I don’t write fiction, and have no desire to write profesionally.
I’ve heard plenty of professional writers say “they did it for the money to pay the bills” when asked why they wrote something. I think this is a legitamate reason if one is a professional
It is scary—but also pretty much right on the button. But I’d have to say, if one wants a job where for labour expended one in return receives money to pay the bills, then I wouldn’t pick writing: at best because income is intermittent; at worst because getting paid at all can be a challenge—but that is a whole other blog post.
I certainly enjoyed my Easter break. The weather is great here (except for the birch pollen), I’ve been sifting through 3K worth of photos I brought back from Norway, and I got some reading done – both fiction and non fiction.
I can see I shall have to have a ‘What I’m Reading’ post again soon—it’s just that I’ve been so busy wriitng that I haven’t made much progress with the TBR pile. Norway would be starting to be really nice about this time of year. I remember that when I lived in Sweden the days got longer and lighter quite a while before the last of the grey slush cleared away, but by the end of April/early May it was finally starting to feel like spring.
The days were longer than in Germany already, but north of Trondheim it was still winter and the lakes frozen so solid that you could drive a dog sleigh across.
Where in Sweden did you live? I lived in Stockholm where you could experience white nights but no midnight sun – I’d like to go far enough north to see that (actually, I was as far north as you can get on this continent during my trip, but April is not the right time). I’d also love to experience the polar nights. What can I say, I’m a northern girl; the Mediterranean is way too warm and sunny for my taste. 🙂
I lived in Stockholm, too—and even wrote a poem about the white nights that was published by foam:e a few years back, here.
I went as far north as Arjeplog, which is just below the Arctic circle, but in winter so didn’t see the midnight sun. I wrote about that journey in my poem North and about the whole subject of the influence of landscpe on story, here.:)
Interesting post about the influence of landscape. Some time ago, I realised one thing about my writing: I can only write settings well that I have experienced myself. Thus I now concentrate on the Romans in Germany and Britain (and not, say, Spain) and even my Fantasy (which follows the way of Guy Gavriel Kay or Jacqueline Carey in treating the real history behind it) takes place in countries I have traveled, in castles I’ve visited. And I plan my travels according to what I need to see for my books (including the Norway trip).
A – published – fellow writer relies on Google Earth and photos for some of his settings (including my photos, he told me) but that won’t work for me. I keep getting stuck when I can’t visualise the place from memory.
Perhaps that is why, as someone living in remote NZ, I am drawn to writing ‘fantastic’ landscapes. I know I have read books, purportedly set in NZ but written by someone who has never been here and that fact simply ‘screams’ at you through the text. (Elizabeth Goudge’s ‘Green Dolphin Country’ particularly springs to mind.) I agree that for stories set in this world, authenticity is important, although for historical I imagine one must still rely on secondary sources to get a sense of change over time. What sort of books/stories are you writing, Gabriele?
Oh, sure I do tons of research and it never ends. 🙂 My historical fiction project ENDANGERED FRONTIERS is a series of loosely connected standalones set during the principate – from the Varus battle (A LAND UNCONQUERED, the current NiP) to the time of Hadrian. The books will take place mostly in the provinces and borders, that is at the Rhine and in Germany proper, in Britain and Scotland.
While the landscape has changed in some cases, swamps been drained (as in the case of Kalkriese where part of the Varus battle took place) and walls tumbled and been used as quarries (Hadrian’s Wall) I still get an impression of how it may have looked by going there. The Hadrian’s Wall may no longer be its original height and the forts and milecastles are ruins, but it still dominates the landscape and I can imagine how it must have looked at its height. Or while standing on the hill of the first Roman fort near Xanten I could mentally replace the Rhine and put it closer – and the distance to the civilian settlement (today the Archaeological Park) is still the same and surprisingly large; you’d have expected the settlement to be directly at the foot of the hill, not half a mile away. Any German forest like in the National Parks can still give you a feel for the woods the Romans hated so much, and the Grampians in Scotland don’t look that different from the battlefield at Mons Graupius located somewhere in that area.
The Fantasy epic KINGS AND REBELS (aka the Tentacled Subplot Monster) is some sort of alternate historical 12th century with fantasy elements. It has a long and complicated genesis and will probably occupy me for the rest of my life. 😉 But since it started out as historical fiction and I continue to draw from 12th century history (with some other cool events thrown in), I decided to keep the settings real. I’ve changed the place names (often into older, Gaelic ones like in Scotland, or derivates from the Latin names in France) and I’ve changed the names of those characters that are to some extent based on historical ones. So the whole fun mess stretches from Wales to Norway, from Scotland to the Bretagne and Normandy, from Sweden to Germany and includes the legends of lost realms like Kêr Ys, Lyonesse, Vineta, Cantrer Gwaelod that are the places from whence the magic once came. I got the idea for the Wales subplot (and a 4th MC *sigh*) during a journey to Wales in 2008, and this years Norway trip will surely add scenes set there and help with those I already got, or had planned to write.
Wow, that really does sound epic—but wonderful, too. I love historical fiction and ‘classical’ historical fiction, ie Roman and Greek, but also Celtic nd Norse influenced, is probably my favourite. And I totally agree that you can get a ‘feel’ for how places must have been from ‘going there’, but imagine the secondary sources, where these docuemnt change, must also help. Of course, now you have made me want to totally go to Europe.