New interview of The Man by Nancy Fulda
Nancy Fulda, creator of AnthologyBuilder.com, interviews me as part of the 2011 Codex Blog Tour.
Similar Posts
Ender’s World: Fresh Perspectives on the SF Classic Ender’s Game
Smart Pop publishes smart, fresh, and engaging articles on the best of pop culture TV, books, and film, with a particular focus on science fiction and fantasy television and literature.You want to hear what Scott Westerfield (Uglies, Pretties, etc.) has to say about Buffy? Go to Smart Pop.
What about Orson Card’s thoughts on Joss Whedon’s Firefly universe? Smart Pop.
What about the venerable Lawrence Block on Robert B. Parker’s Spenser series? Um, Smart Pop.
Strange. Do you see a pattern emerging?
Whether it’s Mad Men, House, Hunger Games, George Martin’s epic fantasies, Halo, True Blood, or Alias, Smart Pop gathers together New York Times bestselling authors, television writers, psychologists, philosophers, and others–folks who love of pop culture and have something worth sharing about it–and asks them to share their insights.
Recently, they’ve been putting together just such a collection on Ender’s Game. It’s called Ender’s World: Fresh Perspectives on the SF Classic Ender’s Game. It’s coming out February 2013. You can read more about it here.
I’m announcing this now because The Man was fortunate enough to be invited to contribute. I love Ender’s Game. LOVE IT. How cool is it that I get to write about it in an anthology edited by the folks at Smart Pop and Card himself? And then get to read what everyone else has to say, including military strategists Colonel Tom Ruby and Captain John Schmitt. As well as the little bits they’ll include on things like why the battle room is the shape it is and why they were recruiting kids.
But I’m also announcing this because in addition to the essays all we Ender-lovers get to write, Smart Pop is also going to include a series of Q&As with Scott Card, and they are currently soliciting the question from readers. FROM YOU. Right now.
You ever wonder about a character or part of the setting or event in Ender’s Game? Ever wanted to know what inspired Card? Ever wanted to ask any question at all about Ender’s Game? Now’s your chance. Just submit you question here: http://www.smartpopbooks.com/ask-orson-scott-card-a-question-about-enders-game/
You can see questions already submitted at Smart Pop’s Tumblr.
From a writer’s pov, I have to tell you that the folks at Smart Pop have been nothing but enjoyable and insightful to work with. I’m looking forward to this book!
Guest blog on Scalzi’s Big Idea
John Scalzi writes a massively visited blog called Whatever. He has a regular column called “The Big Idea” where authors explain the “big idea” behind their novels. I got a chance to explain the big one behind Servant of a Dark God. Read about it here.
Idaho Librarians
Just got back from the Idaho Librarian conference in Soda Springs.
- Had a wonderful time. Got to meet a lot of great people. I just love librarians.
- Organizer Cindy Erickson was so very gracious. She even promised to take my wife and girls huckleberry hunting. Not only does she reference books, she references the sweet harvest spots!!
- Drank my first bottle of Hooper Springs sparkling water–naturally carbonated mineral water. It wasn’t too bad at first, but I can still taste the minerals seven hours later 🙂
- Borders from Logan came up and sold a whole bunch of my books. The sales manager was very positive about the new corporate management. I hope things go well for the bookstore.
- Locked myself out of my car. But I have a solution now, thanks to one of the librarians (how do they know so much?), that will never ever ever ever fail. I will never be in that situation again. No, I’m not talking about a magnet key box somewhere.
- Told myself I am getting a camera to take to these things next week. That’s it. I want pictures of all these fine folks.
The 3 Things You Must Learn to Write Killer Stories: Feb 20 @ BYU
Mark your calendars!!
The free, 2009 Life, the Universe, and Everything symposium at BYU will run Thursday – Saturday, February 19 – 21.
The speical guests are Tracy & Laura Hickman (Dragonlance authors) and James C. Christensen (yes, the amazing fantasy artist). But there will be more than a dozen other authors there, including: L.E. Modesitt, Brandon Mull, James Dashner, Brandon Sanderson, David Farland, Mette Ivie Harrison, Eric James Stone, Howard Tayler, and a number of others.
Here’s what I’ll be doing:- Panel: The Principles of Suspense. Fri, Feb 20, 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM
- Workshop: The 3 Things You Must Learn to Write Killer Stories. Fri, Feb 20, 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
- Panel: Myth and Mythology in SF&F. Sat, Feb 21, 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM
- Reading: from the forthcoming novel and a few of my other published works, Sat, Feb 21, 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM
If you want to write fiction, you’ll want to attend the workshop. And if you’ve attended the workshop before, know that I’ve made some significant updates to the workshop content for 2009. I’m always learning, and so each time I teach this I’m able to provide more insight.
You’ll also want to carefully review the whole schedule. There are tons of panels with professional authors on them that are going to be both useful and interesting to writers.
My workshop focuses on three incredibly important things. In the beginning, I didn’t know these key things, and that ignorance stymied all my writing efforts for years. Once I learned them, the way was opened. There was still a lot of work involved. But these principles increased my output of quality material 1000% (literally). The principles allowed me to write the story that got me my current three-book contract from Tor.
I’ve taught it now more than a dozen times to all sorts of fiction writers and they’re telling me they’re finding it very useful. You’re going to love this stuff, and I always enjoy sharing what I’ve learned with other writers. The three things are:
- What a story really is. We’re not talking narrative taxonomy, although that’s included. It’s focused on the story effect upon the reader. And why this is one of the most important things you need to understand when writing fiction.
- Parts & principles. Key principles of character, problem, plot, setting, and text as they relate to #1.
- The creative process. The simple but powerful principles of how to get ideas. How to develop them into story. Why writer’s block is a gift and how to use it to produce MORE. Plus a number of other creative principles I wished I’d known.
It’s a highly interactive workshop. Again, the whole symposium, including the workshop, is free. I don’t know another place where you can learn from so many professionals for such a great price.
Hope to see you there!!
Amazon, a Reader, & SERVANT
Holy smokes! I just saw that Amazon put SERVANT on sale. I don’t know when this started, but they have the mass market paperback listed for $1.75. That’s cheaper than I can buy it!
Maybe the Dark God had something to do with it . . .
Something else of note happened this week. I often get emails from readers expressing how much they enjoyed SERVANT and asking questions about the story. I simply love receiving those emails. What author wouldn’t? One email in particular this week, though, especially pleased me. You can see the review the reader wrote here: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/146860447, but there was one thing the reader wrote in his email to me that wasn’t in the review that make me exclaim “Yes!”
One thing I didn’t squeeze into the review was how much I enjoyed the little details–names of farm implements, invented words like dreadmen, terminology for the parts of the ship, etc. It all added to the suspension of disbelief factor very nicely.
Finding and adding those details were one of the things I loved about writing SERVANT. I’m so happy to hear they paid off. I don’t think all readers will notice them. In fact, I hope they don’t. But it’s clear they’re doing their part to make the experience work for a lot of folks. And that makes me happy.
2 Comments
Comments are closed.
I enjoyed that interview, especially the last question. I was glad you linked back to that old post. As a fledgling writer myself, it was something I needed to hear.
Yeah, I like that question too. Just wish I could rewind a few years with what I know now. Oh, well.