This is another of those topics that comes up with horrifying frequency when published writers go out in public (or open their email). The (often dreaded) question "where do you get your ideas?" And related things, like "where do you get your characters?" Or my personal favorite (cribbed from an interview with Charlaine Harris) "where do you get all those marvelous penises?"

I have said this before--in public even--and I'll say it again here, just to be clear: Ideas are as easy as street-corner whores. The tricky bit is figuring out which one you can take home without getting a disease (or rolled.)

You see, ideas are all over and most people have them all the time. But no one is terribly interested in a book about why light bulbs make that ringing sound just before they blow out, or doing the dishes by hanging from a chandelier in a swimming pool--at least most people aren't unless the writer's name is Chuck Palahniuk or Mark Henry. I often wonder if washing machine repair men might not be secretly stealing my socks, or if possibly the socks are going to an alternate dimension where they join together to become one sentient, massive sock-monster and return to the world of ordinary laundry masquerading as washer repairmen in order to wreak havoc and liberate their knitted kin. (Now be honest: you wonder about those socks too.) But it's probably not a Nebula-award winning idea. (Since they don't actually award a Nebula just for ideas, that's right out, anyhow.)

While some ideas just don't gel into stories, it's really more about what you do with the idea than the idea itself. Gathering ideas is simple: read the paper, watch TV, look at the world and think "...what if..." or "...why is..." or "how could you..." It actually is that easy.

Characters are a little tougher, but not much. For a character to be compelling, they must be complex and project a sense of the real. Borrow people you know or see on the street. Use what you can observe about how people interact and think and do what they do. Apply logic to the result of action and thought and be consistent, even if you don't show every link of their thought/action chain. Take a character type you are familiar with from other stories or real places and apply the "what if" again: what if they were different in a certain way; what if they were stuck in a certain situation....? Truly original characters are as rare as truly original plots, not because they are hard, but because we are human and we have a great deal of variation; whatever you can think of, has probably existed in real life or a near analog.

As a writer, you don't have to be ground-breaking and original all the time. It might even be better if you weren't. When you throw too much "new" and "different" at readers, you leave them no stable reference and that makes it harder for readers to understand and engage with your story. It's all right to borrow archetypes and "standard plots" because the real gift and challenge of writing is in the way you go about the storytelling.

Ideas don't really come from warehouses in upstate New York, or from guys in alleys wearing trench coats. They come from everywhere, in funny packages, and they wear the label "life." Grab some. It's OK.

OK, using the magic of Random.org, I have a list of numbers, which equals a list of winners for the Pizza Party invite! Yay!
Jeo
Ross
Robyn
Tara
and Alexandria!

Evites will be going out to the luckies in a few minutes! Congrats and looking forward to seeing you at the party! If for some reason you can no longer attend, please let me know and I'll pick another winner.

Wanna come to a party in Seattle? Well you can! Maybe, sorta. Here's the deal: I'm throwing a party on December 12 from Noon to three in downtown Seattle--very informal--and I have space for five (that's 5) fans plus one guest each. No transportation or accommodations are provided and you must be over 21 to get into the venue, but once there I'm providing pizza, soft drinks, and a movie for friends and family and... yup, five fans.

So send me email (this MUST be email--no other entry will be counted) by this Monday night (that's November 23rd by 11:59pm Pacific Standard Time) at kat(dot)rchrdsn(at)gmail(dot)com with the subject "Pizza Party Please" and your name and email address in the body. I will draw five at random and reply by Tuesday evening to the winners with an eVite.

You will be responsible for your own transportation, lodging, and so on. The venue is 21 and over only, so alas, no minors on this one. Feel free to forward this information to Friends and other Fans.

Ok, so I'm off to San Francisco for Writers with Drinks! this Saturday. Here's the press relase:

When: Saturday, Nov. 14, 2009, 7:30 to 9:30 PM, doors open at 6:30, we
swear!
Who: Javier Grillo-Marxuach, S. Bear Bergman, Mary Robinette Kowal, Naomi
Quiñonez and Kat Richardson!
Where: The Make Out Room, 3225 22nd. St. between Mission and Valencia, San
Francisco
How Much: $3 to $5 sliding scale, all proceeds benefit the EL/LA Program
Para Trans-Latinas

About the readers/performers:

Javier Grillo-Marxuach created The Middleman, a comic series that became a
much-loved TV show on ABC Family. He also worked as a producer on the first
two seasons of Lost, and has also written for Charmed, Seaquest: DSV,
Medium, Jake 2.0, Boomtown and Dark Skies. He also wrote the Marvel Comics
series Annihilation: Super Skrull.

S. Bear Bergman's latest book is The Nearest Exit May Be Behind You. Bergman
also wrote Butch Is A Noun, and is co-editing the forthcoming anthology
Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation, with Kate Bornstein. Bergman also wrote
the "Day Of Remembrance" spoken-word piece which is frequently read at the
Transgender Day Of Remembrance nationwide.

Mary Robinette Kowal's first novel, Shades Of Milk And Honey, comes out in
2010 from Tor, and a sequel called Glamour In Glass is also forthcoming. Her
story "Evil Robot Monkey" was a Hugo finalist, and she won the Campbell
Award for best new writer. Her story collection, Scenting The Dark And Other
Stories, comes out soon.

Naomi Quiñonez's books of poetry include The Smoking Mirror and Sueno De
Colibri: Hummingbird Dream. She also co-edited the anthology Invocation
L.A.: Urban Multicultural Poetry.

Kat Richardson's novels include the Greywalker series, and her work appears
in the anthologies Wolfsbane And Mistletoe and Mean Streets.

About Writers With Drinks:
Writers With Drinks has won "Best Literary Night" from the SF Bay Guardian
readers' poll five years in a row and was named "Best Literary Drinking" by
the SF Weekly. The spoken word "variety show" mixes genres to raise money
for local worthy causes. The award-winning show includes poetry, stand-up
comedy, science fiction, fantasy, romance, mystery, literary fiction,
erotica, memoir, zines and blogs in a freewheeling format.

Hostess Charlie Jane Anders blogs about science fiction and futurism at
io9.com. She's the author of the Lambda Award-winning Choir Boy (2005 Soft
Skull Press) and the co-editor, with Annalee Newitz, of She's Such A Geek
(Seal Press 2007). She also publishes other magazine. Follow her on Twitter
as charliejane.

After that I expect to to wrestle revisions and Thanksgiving.

Once again Thanksgiving is in the air due to the amazing AWOL Mother problem. At the moment, her cell phone is out of service to the degree the carrier can't find any record of her. I'm both worried and annoyed. Guess I'll be taking a drive to Port Orchard--which I don't want to do--to see what's up. *sigh* Mom... where are you this time?

And now I am done with draft 1 of LABYRINTH after 5,500 words Tuesday. The ms is off to my editor at a slightly bulky 110,600 words. I'm not sure how I feel about it. Sunday and Monday I hated it and wanted to kill all the characters off. Today I cried over what I did to some of them. Yes I did kill some off and others I just messed with pretty badly. I'm horrible to them.

For some reason I now cannot sleep and feel restless, in spite of 13 hours in the writing seat.

And now I have a day off before I have some computer stuff to do and a long (much delayed) weekend with my husband. Toodle-bye for now.

I crossed the 100,000 word mark on the LABYRINTH manuscript today. Still two scenes and an epilogue outstanding, but I'm finally on the last leg.

Progress has been slowed by several things and that's been frustrating when The Deadline is this Wednesday. I've been down with a 3 day headache--very unusual for them to last so long, but got water caught in my sinuses (nasal lavage is not always helpful). And some family things have been complicated and unpleasant.

But!

The end is in sight. I will make the deadline. Characters will die, things will explode, and all will continue to be less-than-perfect with the world.

Meanwhile, I've managed to get things in place for a party on December 12th in Seattle and I'm working on a contest or some such to provide a small number of fans with invites to same (no transport or hotel, just the party). I'll probably get that done next week when I'm not killing myself to make a deadline. Really. I promise!

This is something most moderately-successful commercial authors get asked about frequently. In fact, I think it's the thing I'm asked about most frequently after "where do you get your ideas?" and "are there going to be more books in this series?" Even more than "will you read my book?" and "Why don't you have a TV show like Charlaine Harris?" (to both of which the answer is an inarticulate mumble--more about that another time.)

In the interest of doing this only once for the many many people who've asked, here's the skinny:

First off a caveat: any given writer can only tell you what their path was or what they've learned personally from missteps or conversation with others. The latter is second-hand info and it can be misleading. The first-hand info is only helpful so long as it's kept in perspective. That is to say, it's the experiential info-dump of one example. That said, here goes...

Before you go looking for an agent, finish and revise your novel. Fiction agents don't rep unfinished work or short stories as a rule, nor are most of them interested in helping you revise. You need to have a complete, readable, and interesting manuscript that is not less than 50,000 words long for the Young Adult market and not less than 70,000 for the regular adult market. (Non-fiction and published authors who already have representation and work in print may be exceptions, but that's not the point for this discussion. We're talking about getting you an agent for your first novel.) Got your MS? Revised, sexy, complete, and all ready to go? OK, let's proceed.

Next, you have to know what genre your book falls into. Is it a Romance? SF/F? Literary Fiction? Mystery? Historical? Whatever genre is most prevalent in the book is likely to be where it will sell, so you'll need an agent who's familiar with that genre (and yes, "Literary" is a genre) and has made successful sales to reputable publishers in that genre (or is working for a reputable agency with sales to major publishers, preferably in that genre.)

Now you're wondering how to find these agents in the first place, aren't you? There are several routes and I recommend looking at all of them:

• You can search the print or online versions of Writers Market (WM) or Literary Market Place (LMP) for agents who list your genres as interests. This is easy with the online data bases and it's pretty cheap (about $3-6/month for a subscription to the site), or a bit harder and more time consuming with the print versions, but you can use them at the library for free. Either way, you get a nice list of possible agents who handle your genre or genres (if you are writing in a cross-genre niche or interested in writing more than one type of genre, you may want an agent who represents several of the genres you're interested in.)


• Search the Internet for "literary agent" and the genres you're interested in. Save the resulting search list.


• Go to conferences or conventions about writing or the genre you are interested in and check the presenter/panelist information for agents who work in your genre of interest. Make notes.


• Look at the dedication pages and websites of authors who write in the genre(s) you're interested in. Chances are good they mention their agent. Write those names down and note which author/book is associated with that agent.


• Check the lists at Agent Query for the names of agents who are "actively looking" and filter by genre.

So, now you have lists of agents. Pretty long lists. Now comes the "vetting" stage. This is where you look at the list and start eliminating people and prioritizing the ones who remain. The easiest way to check out agents at this level is online. Search for their website--every agent or agency has one and they are easy to find by searching for the agent's name or the agency name if you have it. If you are writing SF/F or Mystery, you should also check Preditors and Editors and Writer Beware, two related and wonderful sites that have already done a lot of the hard work for you.

When running these searches, you are looking for agents who:

• Handle your genre(s) of interest.


• Are actively in the business (not retired or out of business).


• Have made recent sales to reputable publishers in your genre.


• Are operating in the country you desire to be published in (sounds silly, but with the exception of Canadian agents who sell into US and UK markets, you really do need an agent in the US of you want to make a US sale, or in the UK if you want make your initial sale there.)


• Have a clean reputation and are not listed as "not recommended" with P&E or under investigation as scam artists with Writer Beware.


• Are actively looking or open for queries. (more on this later)


• Do not charge "reading fees," "editorial fees," or act as a front for editorial services, promotion services, or vanity/POD presses. (Nothing against POD or Vanity press, but they aren't agents.)


• Are AAR members or abide by the AAR Canon of Ethics (my own agent is not a member of AAR, but he does abide by their CoE guidelines.)


• Don't give you the creeps or leave a bad impression with you with respect to their professionalism or actions. (If something the agent espouses, does, or is offends you or makes you lack confidence in their ability to represent your book fairly and professionally, they aren't the agent for you.)

Once you've vetted your list and thrown out the scam artists, closed agencies, inappropriate agencies, and agents who just give you a bad feeling, you'll probably have a list of anywhere from 6-60 agents. Consider who they represent and what their recent track record is and prioritize them with the "dream agent" on top and the rest down the list from there.

Now, if you have the opportunity, you may be able to meet some of these agents in person or on online and get to know more about them and what they are looking for. Writer's and genre conventions are great places to meet agents and find out more about them, but unless you have an appointment or an invitation to do so, don't "pitch". Just make the connection, get their card, and gather info for later.

If you ask an author about their agent or which agents they might recommend, the author's response is not a personal referral. After all, the author doesn't know you or your work so can't--and won't--refer/recommend you to their agent. That implies some kind of positive support. What you will get, if the author responds, is simply a name or list of agents the author thinks are professional, reliable, appropriate for the genre, and probably open for queries. That's all. Just a list. Just "these guys are good/don't suck."

A tip: younger/newer agents are often a better bet for first-time novelists than older/more established agents. They usually have more room in their client list and are more aggressive about selling their client's work since they work on commission and have fewer possible revenue streams. They also tend to have more time to spend with each client to help explain the vagueries of publishing and contracts to their writers. If they are junior agents at an established agency, they have the benefit of the agency's older, wiser heads to consult with. Older agents have more contacts and longer track records, but they often are not accepting new clients, so the junior agent of your dream agency may be a very good bet. New independent agents are rare, but many of them have prior experience as assistants, editors, book packagers, or publicists and thus have good contacts and relationships with the industry, even though they may have few clients. These young agents often have another job somewhere to pay the bills, but that doesn't mean they aren't on your side and won't make time for you. Vet them first, but don't write off the youngsters just because they are new.

Back to the main point...

Querying (formally, in writing) and pitching (informally, in person) must be done with a professional attitude and approach. Pitching in inappropriate situations (like... convention bathrooms, workout rooms, parking lots, airport shuttle buses etc.) or forcing your material on agents and editors by slipping it under doors and into briefcases or hands, will only hurt you. (Yes, I have seen/heard all these things and no one likes it, so don't do it!)

The same goes for blogs, Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter. Everyone has one or two of these accounts these days, but pitching in those venues, unless the agent has made public or private invitation to do so, is just as tacky as cornering them in the loo. Just don't. Ask questions about their agency, their query requirements, their current client list, their professional interests, their favorite (non-client) writer, and so on, but don't pitch until they say "OK, tell me about your book." Once you have a personal contact, you can use that in your actual query to remind the agent who you are and this may help move you up their reading pile a little faster, but if you made a bad impression you stand a better chance of ending up in "the round file." Keep it professional.

If you have the opportunity--and I mean a gracious and professional opportunity, not the above--to pitch in person at a conference or meeting (even in an elevator if you can do it well), be prepared: practice ahead of time, do it clean and fast, get the agent's card and give them yours, and go on your way as soon as the session is over. Don't linger around unless invited to and do follow up as soon as possible if the agent has asked you to.

If you can't pitch in person (or if you've been asked to follow up on an in-person pitch) you'll have to query by mail. Whether you have a contact or not, once you have the names and addresses of the agents you want to query, check their website to be sure they are open for queries and what form they want those queries in. (If you've been lucky enough to be invited to query, you can do that even if the agent is officially "closed" to queries, but only with such an invitation will you escape the dreaded rejection.) Compose a really fantastic query letter (there are lots of sites that will help you with that, so I'm not getting into that here) and send it as per the instructions on the site or agent's information sheet (if you met them at a conference). Do exactly what they tell you, and send only the materials they tell you to send in the format they tell you to send them in. If they say "no e-mail queries" that applies to you, too, no matter how much you think it doesn't (unless the agent told you otherwise, directly to your face.) Don't get creative with the formats and materials.

A note about "closed to queries": this is usually a temporary situation due to overload. Don't despair. If Dream Agent is closed to queries, they will reopen eventually. Many of them update on Twitter or FaceBook or other social network sites as well as on their websites and blogs, so keep checking. And if you happen to meet the agent, it's all right to ask, politely, when they think they might be open again.

Part of the purpose of the query process is demonstrating that you are a professional who can follow directions (as a commercial author, you'll have a lot of instructions to follow in your career and you need to start out well) as well as being a heck of a fine writer with a really cool story whose time in now and which is ready to go. It's not a sexy, fun, or cool process, but it demonstrates: your control of language (you don't have a lot of words to get your idea across); your clear understanding of your story and ability to express that to others; your ability to write and submit materials to requirements; and your willingness to put yourself out and work your buns off while maintaining a professional demeanor in public.

Personalize each query. Don't send a mass-produced, identical packet to every agent on your list and don't use an automated query system. Send the agent what they asked for and include their name and why you are contacting them (you met them at Writer Con, or your book is in the same category as their client So-and-So's, or you talked to them on Twitter during #askanagent last Wednesday). So now you have your query ready to go. It's just the first of many. Send it out right away. Then send some more. Queries are not the same as "submissions" so you can send out as many as you like at one time. Just don't send more than one to any one agency--agents do talk and discuss their queries within agencies and a flood of queries from the same person is very much a bad idea. If Agent 1 thinks it's good but can't take it, he or she may pass it on to Agent 2, so don't query Agent 2 at the same time.

Track all your queries and know where they went and when. Track your results too. Writer's Market and LMP both have areas their subscribers can use for manuscript tracking, so you don't even have to make your own spreadsheet unless you want to. But whatever you do, track them all. It's really embarrassing to send a new query to someone who already rejected it. Trust me: agents remember this stuff because they keep spreadsheets too.

When you get a rejection, don't take it personally. Just log it and go on. Most rejections have little to do with you or your project and a lot to do with timing, market forces, agency business and so on. None of them are personal attacks on you--at least they shouldn't be. If you get notes from the agent about the submission, that's great--take heed. Otherwise, just keep on querying your way down your list and if you run out of list, look again.

At some point you may be asked to submit a full or partial manuscript. If this happens, you should do so immediately and in the requested format. The agent's website will usually tell you how long it will take for them to get back to you. Whatever it is, double it--people get busy and pestering the agent with "did you get it/what do you think?" will piss them off. If the usual response time has elapsed, then you can--gently and only once--ask if the requested materials arrived. The agent will say yes or no and so it goes....

If you get very lucky, you may have several agents ask for submissions. This is the infamous "simultaneous submission" situation. In the past lots of agents have stated they didn't want simultaneous submissions--it means someone else is looking at your material at the same time, so there's competition--but in the digital age and with fewer people reading more manuscripts sent via e-mail and so on, most agents are looser about this now. However, as the writer, you should check the website to see what the agent's policy on sim-subs is, then send a note saying that you already have materials on submission with Agent X and asking if Agent Y minds accepting a simultaneous submission. Usually the answer is "that's fine, send it," but if not, say thank you and that you'll send materials as soon as Agent X is done with them. And that's what you'll do. If you do have your material out with several agents simultaneously, you should let each agent know that other agents are looking at your material. If they find out through the grapevine, they may be a little upset and that is something you want to avoid.

Once your material is "on submission," you wait until it's either rejected or the agent calls you (they always call or e-mail, never snail mail) to offer you representation, or conditional representation (that is to say, they'll represent you if something is changed that is giving them pause.) If you're very, very lucky, you might have more than one agent to choose from, but that's rare. If your manuscript is rejected, you go back to the query process. But if it's accepted, you now have an interesting situation....

Now this is where things get a little strange. Your first response to "I'd like to represent you/your book" will probably be "Yipeeeee!" which is cool--congratulations! But before you sign a representation agreement, there are a couple of considerations.

You've already vetted the agent before you sent your query, so you know he/she is a pro who can do a good job, but are they the right pro for you? An agent is your adviser, representative, and professional guide to this crazy industry, but the are also your employee and as such you need to feel comfortable with them and with the contract you are being offered. If you find you really don't like/trust/agree with/feel comfortable with/understand the agent, or you've changed your mind about what your requirements are for representation, you may be better off refusing representation with this particular agent. Then you will have to start over, but it's better to have no agent than a bad one. If you love the agent, then it's on to the contract stage.

If you're in the happy situation of having more than one offer of representation, congratulations: you're in the catbird seat! But whether you have one offer or three, consider both the agent and their contract with care. You want to pick an agent with whom you have rapport and in whom you have confidence. Someone with enthusiasm for your book, not a reluctant willingness to show it around. You should also look hard at the contract. If it demands the right to control all rights-licensing connected to any sold project in perpetuity with no reversion for unsold rights, if it demands fees up front, if it demands representation of all works regardless of sale, if it gives the agent rights to sever the agreement but doesn't give them to you, or similar clauses, then it isn't a good deal. Ask questions about anything that's unclear or makes you uncomfortable. If you aren't happy with the answers, look elsewhere for representation.

Agents are very useful to writers, but bear in mind that they are supposed to help and advise you, not dictate to you or intimidate you. Don't think you have to work with someone if you're uncomfortable, just because they're the only one who offered. Keep trying until you find someone who is not only good at their job, but good for you.

Last notes about acquiring an agent: The publishing world is very small and close-knit. Word gets around, so act like a pro. Don't rant in public when you're rejected (it'll happen), don't call names or say mean things about the agent or editor who rejected you, don't send them rude notes, and don't take things personally. Stiff upper lip and all that jazz. After all, you wouldn't want to hire someone who doesn't really like your book or who doesn't like you. Would you?

Because I am a truly silly person and because I have friends who, like me, love words, I've started a seriously silly (and sillily serious) Face Book group called Writers for the Advancement of "Kerfuffle" (and other marvelous words). So, if you like odd words and want to see them spread around, come and visit.

(Yes, I know most of you already saw this, but a few people don't hang out on FB or Twitter.)

I'm just so happy I have to post: My internet buddy Kaz Mahoney is now...

Under contract to be published!

Flux is taking her book, The Iron Witch, and the as-yet unwritten sequel and I'm so happy for her! She's a sweetie and a class act who's had a very rough year and I can't say enough good things about her and she certainly deserves this.

Hurray for Karen!

My editor reports happy ending to the title controversy: After much discussion, the title LABYRINTH is being reinstated for Greywalker #5. Kudos to the publisher for taking the risk on possible confusion in exchange for a title to die for. Thanks to sales and marketing departments for feeling confident they can sell it, and to publication team for going the extra mile.

I need to send cookies.

Many, many thanks to my editor, Anne Sowards--Anne rocks--and to Susan, the editorial director, for going to bat on this one for me.

I'm still kind of in a daze about the tour. Some of it was fantastic, some was so-so, and I'm still not sure how it all went.

But I'm home, rested, and back in the writing saddle. Have been granted a short extension of deadline and am doing 2K+ per day on the word count, so all is good there. Alas, the proposed (and we though approved) title for Greywalker #5 got the boot due to possible confusion with Kate Mosse's historical novel, Labyrinth, so my editor and the publication crew are going back to the drawing board for a new title. This makes me sad, since Labyrinth was the title I preferred, but this is the way publishing gets at times and something will work out eventually. I have confidence in my editor and the publication team to come up with something that's not only marketable, but good. They have not let me down yet.

Now I need some dinner, because today's writing session scared the hoo-ha out of me and wore me out and now I'm shaking. I think that's probably good, but it does feel a bit freaky. And when I can't find a monster that works for me, I make one up, so I now have birthed a creeping thing of mist and shadow that spawns in graveyards and such....

If you missed hearing it live, the Write On Radio! interview from this morning on KFAI FM Minneapolis/St. Paul is heading into their archive, so if you want to hear it, just go to the Archive and scroll down until you find the date 09/10/2009, then go to the listing for Write On Radio! and click the Listen Now icon. (RealPlayer or other mp3 player required.)

Anne and I were first up.

Apparently I'm going to be on live radio tomorrow (Thursday Sept 10) in Minneapolis/St. Paul. Had a lovely time on a whirlwind tour date there last year, so have a warm fuzzy feeling for the place now.

Anyhow, Write On Radio host Steve McEllistrem of KFAI FM ( 90.3 and 106.7) will be interviewing me and my editor, Anne Sowards, live for the show on the topic of Urban Fantasy. I've been asked to start with a short reading so if you've never heard me read and you're in the area, tune in! Also I believe the show will be podcast from the station's website eventually, so even if you can't tune in, you will have a chance later to catch the show.

Now I'm nervous....

I'm off for Dragon*Con in Atlanta in a few hours--7 am flight. I meant to post more between now and the last leg of the tour, but I've been putting my efforts into the manuscript and I hope you will forgive me for that. But I did manage 2900 words today, which brings the count up to 43,200 total.

I'll try to get photos and updates up when I can wedge them in on my return. No promises, just hopes.

Anyhow if you're in Atlanta, this is my Dragon*Con event schedule. I have no events off site, so I'll be either hanging out in bars, or working (gotta keep up the word count so you can read Book 5!)

Title: Memento Mori: Ghost Stories
Time: Fri 04:00 pm Location: Montreal / Vancouver - Hyatt (Length: 1)
Description: How contemporary writers put a fresh spin on a venerable
supernatural tradition.

Title: Fictional Writing and Skepticism
Time: Fri 07:00 pm Location: 207 / 206 / 205 - Hilton (Length: 1)
Description: A few top authors, who are also Skeptics, discuss what effect
their personal skepticism has on their writings.

Title: City of Dreadful Night
Time: Fri 08:30 pm Location: Montreal / Vancouver - Hyatt (Length: 1)
Description: World-building in dark fantasy.

Title: Dragon*Reading: Kat Richardson
Time: Sat 04:00 pm Location: Williams - Hyatt (Length: 1)

Title: Writing Paranormal Fiction
Time: Sun 11:30 am Location: M109 - Marriott (Length: 1)
Description: Join Bob Blackwood and Gail Martin as they moderate a
discussion with paranormal fiction writers.

Title: Whatdunnit?
Time: Sun 07:00 pm Location: Montreal / Vancouver - Hyatt (Length: 1)
Description: Mixing the supernatural and mystery genres.

Title: Working the Graveyard Shift
Time: Sun 08:30 pm Location: Montreal / Vancouver - Hyatt (Length: 1)
Description: A look at the various jobs available to supernatural
investigators and creatures of the night.

Title: Under Raven's Wings: 200 Years of Poe
Time: Mon 01:00 pm Location: Montreal / Vancouver - Hyatt (Length: 1)
Description: Poe's influence on popular culture - sometimes in unexpected
ways.

The timing on the Google Settlement opt-out/objection deadline. I put it off before since I was at the tail end of copyedits, proofs, first conventions, and taxes. Now it has come back around and the deadline to say "fuck off and die" or "I'm going along with this, but I think it stinks" are coming up in 4 days. And I have a million things to do that are more immediate than the filing of yet more paperwork.

I don't have a problem with the initial urge behind Google Books--really I don't. What's wrong with a highly detailed and accessible index? I've benefited from Google Books as a research tool, being able to look into the specific pages of a book that I thought might have been useful without having to buy it or toddle off to the library in person and waste everyone's time only to discover the book was useless, or to reject a book that sounded useless only to discover later it had the info I needed, but had no way of discovering without reading every page. The index I don't have a problem with and I don't have a problem with the idea of a company who's done a huge amount of work to make this index happen and functional making some money off their effort. I make (or hope to make) money off my efforts, too.

What I really don't like is the way the index then morphed into an electronic sales and distribution net that has more rights and privileges over the material than the creator or copyright holder does. This is largely due to the settlement clauses introduced by the Author's Guild, not by the action of Google. The immediate problem now is that there are only 4 days left to file the paperwork to say "this sucks" or opt out and be screwed until someone else takes Google to court (but not the AG for their ham-handed way of trying to "settle" the issue.)

I'm still not sure how I feel about the options, except that I don't see how this can be legal: the Authors Guild does not represent me, I never gave them my proxy to act in my behalf on this, and "opt in by default" is not a legal standard. How can I be held to agreements to which I was no party and in which I had no proxy? How can the court legally defend giving my rights away to a group I don't belong to and do not support nor receive any support from? I don't want to be stuck in a bad business relationship with a pair of companies who have, without my permission or participation, effectively redefined copyright license and exercise in perpetuity, to their benefit and not to mine and without any consent or agreement from me. I can only hope the judicial review of the settlement in January throws the abomination out.

I have, and always have had, strong reservations about the Authors Guild. I'm not a member; I've never felt they truly had my interests at heart, and I've rarely seen them go after the issues that most worry me while they are still small--they tend to let it slide until the big money is on the line and then grandstand just like they have here (eg: they ignored the "audio" issue when it rested with Kurzweil in the late 1980s, but not when it was Amazon in 2009 and they still ignore that issue with Adobe's Acrobat reader for Mac). Google I used to like quite a bit, but this situation is out of hand and they started it and then acted like royal tits when confronted with the ramifications of where they were headed. There just is no good end to this situation short of the judicial review throwing the settlement out as untenable, illegal, illconceived, and unconstitutional. Unfortunately, I don't think they will, but if they don't they will have handed the defining and licensing of copyright to two commercial entities with special interests.

Looks like I'll be getting even less done this week than I'd hoped....

Seems I haven't had much more than 6 hours of sleep any night this month, so I'm still a bit out of it, and the running around is keeping me from being articulate. As soon as I manage to catch up to everything, catch my breath, and not be exhausted, I promise to post a decent blog bit about Disneyland, the Haunted Mansion, getting soaked, screaming myself hoarse, fabulous restaurants, planes that actually work and seats you can actually stretch out in, the wonderful that is the St. Francis (except for a lack of robes), Kuleto's, going to Prison, riding cable cars, and the simple happiness of wine.

Soon, I promise, but until then, my free time is taken sleeping, bathing, or working on the next book.

Also: when the upgrade cost equal to or less than 2x the cost of the bag fees to get into First Class and not have to pay the bag fees... take it!

All right, so... the tour so far:

Tuesday night I got on a Virgin America flight to LAX. I was looking forward to it as the description of the plane and amenities on board sounded pretty good. Alas, due to the non-updated Flash site, I had difficulty finding and understanding the checked baggage policy and was led to expect I would not be paying for my one checked bag. Unfortunately the policy had changed and the change was hard to locate and I did, indeed, end up paying for my one bag. Had I but known I was going to pay $15 for a bag and $3-8 for every snack I'd have booked in First class, which was $40 more expensive than coach when I was first booking the ticket.

Also the vaunted "electrical sockets at every seat," wasn't really the truth either: the sockets are between the seats, so if there are 3 seats in your row, there are 2 sockets. And mine was functioning and showing it's happy green light... until I plugged my laptop in, when it died and never came back. So I ran down my battery all the way to Los Angeles.

The plane as an Airbus A319--a very slim plane so the seats were close together and my seat mate was an armrest hog. The airline had also chosen cute seats that had an unfortunately shallow underseat luggage space so the laptop bag I normally have no trouble stowing was sticking out and I had no leg room.

But the flight attendants were really cute, friendly, nice and helpful--when they could help. And the fight was really no worse than normal. Some things were very good and some were pretty bad, like the fact that no one wants to pay for checked bags, so they all had 2 maximum-sized carry-ons and there wasn't enough room for them all, so as we were deplaning, one fellow had to make his way to the back of the plane to find the rest of his family's luggage.

The family refused to sit down and let other people leave while they fetched the wayward luggage, so we all got to wait until it was collected and they deigned to get the hell off the plane.

Every other person on board seemed to have a laptop. The guy in front of me wanted to work on his and so did I, but he wanted to work in his lap, so, with no regard for me, he slammed his seat back as soon as possible and nearly crushed my laptop. I had to ask him to sit forward, which he did, but... sheesh... check first or lower your seat more gently. But I did get 800 words done anyway.

Finally off the plane, I got my luggage pretty quickly, met my ride, and got out of LAX and into a nice sofa bed quickly.

Wednesday was a bit of a slow day, mostly phone calls and mail and 1200 words. Thursday a few things went bad and then a few more, and I spent my morning on the phone or in email trying to make them better and not getting too far. Eventually I gave up and hung out with my sister and went to look at Marion Davies's beach house--but it was closed for the day so we lurked outside on the beach and cadged WiFi from the free Santa Monica system.

Tonight was my first signing in LA. A bit mixed since due to the release of Inglorious Basterds and District 9, everyone at the Grove was there for movies, not books, and the shop--which is usually busy as a WWII dance hall when the Navy is in town--was almost empty. My audience was small, so I pulled up an arm chair with the help of the CRM, William, and sat down with the audience to read aloud to them.

That was really pleasant and low-stress and three people wandering in the shop came to listen and bought the book. I also met my publicist's mom, actress Pamela Franklin (she played the medium who is killed by the falling stone cross in the opening of The Legend of Hell House--one of my favorite creepy films) and I felt like a big silly fan girl. I also got to meet a lovely lady named Brandy from Underground Films and we talked about wonderful "ghosty" television shows. Then it turned out Brandy knew my friend Joe who'd also come along, as well as Publicist Josh, so it was a small, but delightful party.

Then the sister, her fiance, Joe, and I adjourned for dessert before driving home. Molten chocolate cake is delicious, but judging from the ache in my tummy, it's got a lot of eggs... Still, a good evening and I had a fine time.

And now I must go to bed, since I have another signing tomorrow at Dark Delicacies in Burbank. Hope tummy is feeling better.

Still on the fence about Disneyland. I would like to go, but it's very expensive now. On the other hand... it's the 40th Anniversary of the Haunted Mansion and, well... how can you resist that?

My apologies to my agents for recent venting in public.

In August it seems like I'm always just home long enough to do my laundry and pack to run again. Leaving tomorrow night for California and many signings and running about. Here's what I'll be up to:

Friday Aug 21: Signing at Barnes and Noble at The Grove (Los Angeles) 7:30 pm
Saturday Aug 22: Signing at Dark Delicacies (Burbank) 2 pm
Monday Aug 24: Signing at Booksoup (Los Angeles/Hollywood) 7 pm.
Tuesday Aug 25: Signing and hanging out at Barnes and Noble Santa Barbara (Santa Barbara) (but I'm not really a romance writer, no matter what the site says.)
Wednesday Aug 26: Reading and signing at Borders on Union Square (San Francisco) 7 pm.
Saturday Aug 29: Signing at Borderlands Books (San Francisco) Noon.

And then I get to go home for a few days before I head for Dragon Con in Atlanta!

Somewhere in there I need to write about 20K words....

In just a couple of hours I shall be standing in line at SeaTac's security cordon, hoping I remembered to remove all the pointy things and squishy gel things from my bag so I can hop on a plane to Houston for my reading and signing at Murder By The Book tonight (Friday) at 6p.m.

Never been to Houston before. I hear it's hot and muggy and having thunderstorms at the moment. Nifty! I haz my camera in case any of the T-storms have some lightning along for the ride! Hope to see some of you there!