Just wanted to update anyone planning on attending my keynote at the Idaho Library Association conference in Soda Springs–I had the wrong location and time. The correct location and time are below. See you there.
Keynote Speech
Southeast & Eastern Idaho Library Association Conference
DATE AND TIME
Friday, April 30th, 10 AM
LOCATION
Tigert Middle School
250 E 200 S
Soda Springs, ID 83276-1412
(208) 547-4922
Check out Tor’s 2009 fall catalog. Lots of great titles coming up including one of particular interest.
SERVANT has been spotted in the Orem, Pleasant Grove, Salt Lake City, and West Jordan Smith’s stores. It appears we’re still running, folks. Fingers crossed. Please post a comment if you see it in your local Smith’s.
As for CURSE OF A DARK GOD, I’m moving along. I’m such a slow writer. But I had to yank about 50-70k words from draft 2. Just yank them right out and start over. I’ll give a full report when I’m done, but I’m very excited about this new version. Sugar is becoming a fell-maiden. Talen is becoming more heroic. And I’m just having a great time.
I finished draft three of BAD PENNY last week and have updated the progress bars.
I’ve given the book to my agent, but because there are some contract terms that I’m unwilling to sign going forward, I need to make sure she’s comfortable representing me on it. I don’t want her doing a lot of work and bringing back what she thinks is a good deal only to have me refuse it. I’d rather discuss these up front and make sure we’re both on the same page. I hope to have her response back this week.
I am now turning my focus to SERVANT and CURSE. I need to re-read both of them and then write up an outline of what I need to revise. I hope to finish SERVANT in June and CURSE in July. I’ll post my progress on the side bars as I go.
The cover artist I’d hoped to use for both of these is unavailable at this time, dang it! So I’m currently reviewing candidates. If you know of an up-and-coming artist who you think would be good, click on the Contact Me link under my photo in the sidebar or post it in the comments.
I believe that there are three things you need to know to write stories. The better you know them, the better and more stories you’ll be able to write. Those three things are:
1. What stories do, i.e. what you’re trying to do as an author.
2. The principles of how character, setting, problem, plot, and text work to do those things.
3. The principles of coming up with and developing stories.
About this time last year I wrote my series on the key conditions for creating reader suspense, which went into depth on things 1 and 2. And I’ve written a bunch of other blogs on those topics. This year I’m going to be doing one on the key principles of getting and developing killer story ideas. I’ll be presenting it in a shortened form at this year’s League of Utah Writer’s roundup on Saturday (see my calendar for more details). One neat thing about this series is that I will have a number of other authors illustrate the principles with their own work. When learning this type of stuff, I don’t think we can’t get enough concrete examples. Keep your eyes open. I think it’s going to be a good one.
I’ll be giving two presentations at LDStorymakers this year.
“Vivid and Clear” — Despite the often repeated 11th commandment for writers—show, don’t tell—writers NEVER show. They can’t. It’s all tell, tell, tell. The trick is to tell in a way that helps your readers imagine the situation (action, thought, dialogue, description, etc.) with such vividness and clarity it triggers an emotional response. In this hour we’ll explore a number of simple but powerful prose techniques that help you do just that.
“Story Turns” — Story turns–cliffhangers, rugpulls, plot twists, reversals, surprises, revelations (and more)–are a core part of an exciting plot, pacing control, and making a reader want to turn the page. In this workshop we’ll explore the main types of story turns and how they work so you can use them in your writing. (They’ve got me scheduled to give this one twice.)
More importantly, I get to attend some very interesting looking presentations from other writers when I’m not on stage. I had a blast last year.
