Timewaster's Guide Archive
General => Rants and Stuff => Topic started by: Shrain on April 14, 2007, 01:14:08 AM
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Oh, wow. I can't believe it. Hurrrraaaaay!
After applying for a summer internship at Tor, I actually got a response--and a rather positive one at that. They sent me a letter informing me that my resume is under consideration. Woot! Plus, they sent me a book and asked me to write a reader's review by the 20th. (yikes!) The book is none other than OSC's Ender's Game.
Embarrassingly enough, I haven't read it--at least, not all the way through. But in my defense, I started reading it as a really young kid, and, well, boys playing war games and harrassing each other wasn't really exciting to me. (Boys were still icky to me back then. Well, more ickier anyway. ;))
So at least I'll be less "biased" than someone who had already read it and discussed it a lot, right? That's my hope anyhow. So now I'm off to do some reading in addition to working like mad on my desktop publishing project. Wheeee!
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Sweet.Â
I read Ender's Game in my Highschool english class and was suprised on how good and quick of a read it is.
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One of my fellow editors was an intern at Tor. A very good career move.
Good luck. (Surprised you haven't read the book already, though.)
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Congrats, Shrain!
Ender's Game is a fun read. A little dark and disturbing, but fun in the end. OSC has a good sense of pacing, so it's easy to read through his books.
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That's such great news! I really hope you get the job, you would love it.
Ender's Game is a great book. You'll like it.
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Hey, thanks, guys (and to Stacer and SE who heard the news on IM). Getting the package was so exciting it was also kinda, well, scary. So it's awesome to have a cheering section.
I've already started EG, and it's quite the read. I haven't gotten beyond what I'd read before yet, but it is indeed well-paced. Now, if I can just play my cards right, I might get more than just my foot in the door! ;D
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That sounds fabulous Shrain!! Good luck with the rest of the process :)
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Thnx, Dawn.
Finished the book yesterday afternoon. My, my, my. Good stuff indeed. I really liked the double revelation at the end. I already knew the main secret about Ender's training, but the stuff that happens after he wipes out the Bugger homeworld is pretty startling as well. Card sure does know how to wield irony.
Anyhow, I also have noted some of the not-so-perfect things about the book, so my review will be balanced and honest. I've already got some possible opening lines, and for some reason I do better when I have a strong opening fixed in my head. Some sort of hook that sets the tone and subject of the review or paper or whatever. Tonight's the night; gotta get 'er done. :)
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It would be interesting to see your review when you're done.
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Oh, sure, Ookla. I'm going to have Jena and another friend or two take a look-see anyway just to catch any silly blunders I might make, content- or style-related. ;)
The weird thing, as I said early on, is that I have to act as if the book hasn't been in print since, oh, way back in '77 and hasn't become a classic in the world of sci-fi fiction. What a cinch! haha. Good thing that I'm not all that bad at imagining stuff! Also, not having "grown up" with the book is a plus, I think, because I'll be working from my own immediate opinions rather than an accumulation of my own and others' opinions. Or so I tell myself....
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Review locked and loaded! What a good feeling to have it done. Whew!
I appreciate those who helped me out in the process.
I've submitted it as an article, so if you guys want to post it that way, cool. If not, I can just put it in this thread.
Edit: Curses! After I did some revisions to cut down on word count, I forgot to add back how Ender is eleven when he goes to Command School. Crap, crap, crap! I re-did some sections a lot as I was trying to keep it to two pgs, and I just totally forgot to put that detail back in. *sigh* Well, maybe they won't notice that because the rest of it is so awesome. Here's hoping.... But I can at least ask Nessa to fix that for me when she posts it. ;)
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Sorry for the triple post...
Nessa posted my review. :) See it here: http://www.timewastersguide.com/view.php?id=1531
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Is it your fixed version with the part you accidentally left out?
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Yeah, Nessa added the phrase back in for me. (Thanks, Nessa!) So this one's the best version. So, anyhow, I'd be curious what others think about it.
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I think it's well-written, and you bring up some very good points about the novel's weaknesses. Though I have to say (though I agree with the angle you're looking at it from) the questionable nature of Ender & Valentine's relationship is not necessarily something a mainstream book publisher would see as a weakness, and in just flatly stating it as such you bring across your own editorial moral views. Of course, that may have been your intention. If I were writing the review and came to a topic that bothered me for moral reasons, I would couch my review of that section with specific first-person language identifying my opinion—I wouldn't just say "this is a weakness."
It's also a bit heavy on the summary, and I'm not sure that is entirely helpful to your cause. Is this review meant to be read by a company higher-up who (theoretically) hasn't read the book, or one who has read it and already knows what happens in it, and is looking for your input on its weaknesses?
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Thanks, Ookla. :) I appreciate the observations/questions. The letter Tor sent indicated that I was to act as though I were the only one to have read the book and, once I had, to then write a report for the higher-up editors on whether or not to publish it. Furthermore, the letter implied that I was to give more or less equal weight to the summary. It said "a brief summary and a short critique." Not much difference there between "brief" and "short" in my mind at least.
So although I was careful to spend more time critiquing, I didn't think I needed to cram the plot into a sentence or two. Yet I sure tried to include value statements within the plot summary itself. Like with how the action seems to build and then plateau during the Battle School years. That way, I'm making the summary do more "work" than just outlining the story.
Interesting point re:Â the bro-sister relationship concern I had. I guess the way I was looking at the book, the content already had a lot of rough-edged stuff. Given today's more "PC" climate about child abuse and about exposing kids to violence, and mature-rated video games, etc., etc., I thought it important to mention as something that may unnecessarily hurt the book's sales. I mean, it's rather hard to say how Ender's Game would fare if it were to be released today for the first time. Yet that's what I had to do.
Anyhow, considering the violence visited upon and enacted by the child-as-adult protagonists, the implication that Peter raped his little sister in revenge for her protecting baby Ender, and so on, I thought I had better mention the Ender-Valentine relationship too. Could be that I'm out of touch with what publishers might see as weaknesses right now. But when taken altogether, I didn't want to just gloss over it, you know?
But okay, here's the cool upshot of my efforts. Tor must have liked my review! I got a verrrry exciting email this morning. whooohoooo!
Dear Sarah,
At this time I would like to set up a time for you to come into our office to be interviewed for the internship position. Please let me know when this meeting would be convenient to you so that it can be arranged.
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Yay!! Congratulations!
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Dear Sarah,
At this time I would like to set up a time for you to come into our office to be interviewed for the internship position. Please let me know when this meeting would be convenient to you so that it can be arranged.
WOOOTTT!!!!
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I thought it important to mention as something that may unnecessarily hurt the book's sales. ...
Actually, that is what I meant to say too. I just thought the way you phrased it didn't mention it as something that may hurt the book's sales but rather seemed to be a value judgment.
But it's moot, so...congrats on getting an interview! In my experience, getting to the interview stage at a publisher is pretty hard, since there are so many applicants weeded out before then. (Though, that may be different for internships, I dunno.)
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Congratulations! I hope you get the job (then I can tell people I know someone who works at Tor;)).
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Actually, that is what I meant to say too. I just thought the way you phrased it didn't mention it as something that may hurt the book's sales but rather seemed to be a value judgment.
But it's moot, so...congrats on getting an interview!
Ahh, okay. Yeah, I can see why it came across that way. Lucky for me, as you say, it's a moot point now that they want me to come in. Of course, if they ask me to defend anything in my review, I'll be that much readier. :) Thanks, Ookla. Thanks to my other well-wishers too.
I'm hoping to schedule the interview for Monday the 7th because then my friend and I can go down to NY for Sat and Sun to scout things out. Get the lay of the land, so to speak, before I'm plunged into the interview. woot!
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So, I'm back from the Big Apple! Yes, I did get lost at one point. But, well, that's pretty much par for the course in my case. We went to a Broadway play, ate lots of yummy food, shopped a little, explored the M&M store (all three floors of it), wandered around Central Park, and went down to Battery Park to look out towards the Statue of Liberty.
Of course, the main event was the interview--or interviews, actually. I found out about a YA internship at Tor on Friday. So I applied for that too. So I had two inerviews. Cool, eh? Now, the one I really want is working with the adult fiction. Not only could I work with a lot more editors of adult SF, but also I could get involved in a lot of the other departments. Really get to work with all the cogs and gears that make Tor what it is.
Sure, the internship will involve a bunch of "grunt work" as my interviewer put it--filing, copying, re-organizing shelves, yadda yadda. She seemed to think that, because of my education and experience, I might get bored. But who cares? This is exactly where I wanna work. So I told her, Hey, if I can work at a rock yard hauling gravel and flagstone and driving a forklisft as a second summer job to afford a trip to London, I can definitely handle some boring stuff at Tor in order to work towards my goals. Anyhow, I think I left her with a good impression of my savvy and my determination.
The other interview for the YA internships was brief, but not bad--she'd gotten in late after taking her daughter to the doctor. So she was kind of in a rush. But I'm much more excited about the first one anyway. So here's hoping...
On the way out, I got to snag a couple free books from one of the many, many shelves covering every single wall of the winding offices. Being inside the Flatiron was really cool. It was awesome just seeing it for the first time. If I get the internship, I'd have a lot of details to work out with moving and all, but it would be such a killer opportunity. ;) I sent off my thank-you notes, and now I just have to wait...
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Woot! Very very cool.
*Crosses fingers
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Awesome. Awesome. Here's to hoping.
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Good luck.
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Thanks everybody. :)
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So. I got a very brief email from Jozelle. Not a good sign. Basically, I am really, really bummed. Now I have to tell everyone that I *didn't* get the internship. :'( I just wanna know why--I mean, did she feel like I was just too overqualified, despite trying to convince her otherwise? Or were there candidates already living in NY who could start sooner or what? What a sucky, sucky Monday.
Dear Sarah,
Thank you for your interest in Tor Books. Unfortunately, we are not able
to offer you an internship at this time. We wish you all the best.
Sincerely,
Jozelle
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Well poo on them.
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I agree with Nessa, poo on them. All the advice I can give you is to not let this keep you from trying again with them at a later time, or with another publisher.
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Major bummer. That really sucks.
Um, TOKYOPOP may be looking for interns in Los Angeles.
http://www.tokyopop.com/C-166/
http://messageboard.tokyopop.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1097
I'm not sure if they haven't already made all their decisions though.
And it's only for people who are currently at college. And it's not as cool as Tor, I'm sure.
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hehe. Well, I just have to turn my attentions elsewhere for a while. Take Book Publicity for Summer 2 term, apply for some EA jobs around here. I'm just burned out at my current job. One should never work in permissions for longer than a year--particularly if the backlogged requests and payments are enough to stretch to the moon and back. :P
Thanks for the thought, Ookla. I'd have to get all my paperwork in by Friday if I wanted to do another internship. So it's too late to do much besides take a normal class this summer. Nice thought, though. California would be nice.