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Topics - stacer

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1
Hey guys,

Most of you already know about this, but if you haven't already heard via Facebook or Twitter, I just wanted to let you know about the new small press I'm starting, Tu Publishing. We'll focus on multicultural science fiction and fantasy for children and young adults.

To raise enough capital to get off the ground, we're running a Kickstarter campaign. If you donate $5, you get a bookmark; $10 gets a coupon for a book; $25 gets a book, and so forth. Rewards for your backing through a secure site, and no money changes hands unless we meet our goal.

To make sure that we meet our goal, some friends have put together an online auction where the bids are for donations to the Kickstarter. So, if you win an auction, you not only would get, for example, a giant box of manga, you'd also get the Kickstarter reward that your donation promises. Two rewards for one!

Anyway, just thought I'd share that and let you know it's out there.


2
Rants and Stuff / Congratulations to MsFish!
« on: December 29, 2007, 07:47:14 AM »
I'm not sure how often she comes around these parts anymore, but by my calculations she and Drew should be married by now. Mazeltov!

3
Brandon Sanderson / Brandon interviewed by Sci-Fi WIRE
« on: October 29, 2007, 09:54:33 PM »
Just saw this on my LJ friends page, thought it an LJ post from Brandon (Mistborn cover art was embedded in it) and then realized it was from a Wired magazine feed. Not sure if you've seen the link, so thought I'd pass it on:

http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=5&id=45010

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Rants and Stuff / Hey SE
« on: October 08, 2007, 08:26:09 PM »
You're not on IM and I need to know: what's up with my gallery? Has the server moved to Israel yet AGAIN? I'm thinking I should just get a flickr account or something. (Not that I'm not grateful for the hosting. Just worried.)

5
Movies and TV / Question for the Rifftrax-savvy
« on: September 27, 2007, 07:34:50 AM »
I've only done a couple Rifftrax, and it's been a few months. Is there any kind of language that would make it possibly inappropriate to do a Rifftrax for an FHE activity? And if you think language-wise they're okay, can you recommend a really funny one for a relatively short movie? I'm thinking that if I get one for a PG-rated movie, the accompanying language would be mostly okay, right? I'm just kind of worried about the occasional cracks they might make. Fine for general mixed company, but when it's an official church activity... you know. I'm thinking perhaps Eragon or Star Wars Ep. 1. Or even Heroes ep. 1 and 2, which wouldn't be more than an hour and a half, right? I'm trying to find a movie that would be no longer than 1 1/2 hours.

Options, movies that a more general FHE audience would enjoy (without looking at length--I'll have to look them up):

Eragon
Star Wars Ep. 1
Heroes ep. 1&2
Fantastic Four
Ooo! Grey's Anatomy!
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory 1971 version
Plan 9 from Outer Space

Anyone used the Rifftrax from any of these?

6
Books / Wizards books hiring editor
« on: September 11, 2007, 03:10:56 AM »
With the recent departure from our department of longtime Wizards senior editor Mark Sehestedt, we find ourselves in need of an editor on the adult fantasy side. If you're an editor with five years or more of book publishing experience, with at least two years at a trade publisher preferably, or if you know of someone who fits that description who would love the chance to work with a fun department and some great fantasy books, check out the listing at the Wizards job site. Information on how to apply online is on that page, too. Note that specific experience with science fiction, fantasy, and/or horror publishing, including contacts with agents and authors is preferred.

I just realized that the link may or may not go directly to the listing, because it seems to be the search link. At any rate, you'll get the same result from going to wizards.com, clicking on Jobs, and searching for it under Wizards jobs on the Hasbro site it links you to.

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Writing Group / WotC Discoveries Open Call almost open
« on: August 10, 2007, 07:08:48 PM »
Thought you guys might be interested in this:

Wizards of the Coast Discoveries is a fantasy-tinged speculative fiction imprint that discovers new worlds, new talent, and new voices for adult fiction readers.If you've seen the latest PW, you should look for the WotC Discoveries ad about halfway through--it's very nice. Note that they'll be open for unagented submissions next month, though agented submissions can be sent year-round.

Quote
Wizards of the Coast Discoveries, a brand new imprint debuting in January 2008, is looking for well-written speculative fiction. We will open for submissions September 1 and close for submissions January 15. Further guidelines can be found at http://www.wotcdiscoveries.com.

Agented submissions are welcome year round.

In January 2008, Discoveries will launch this exciting new imprint with Firefly Rain, a southern gothic ghost story by Richard Dansky. Further launch titles include Last Dragon by J.M. McDermott and Devil’s Cape by Rob Rogers, both first-time novelists who were selected from previous open calls.

Good Luck!

So if you've got a manuscript you think would fit Discoveries--I hear from my compatriots that they're looking for speculative fiction like magical realism, high fantasy that breaks boundaries (i.e., this is not your father's high fantasy), horror--they're pretty open right now, but it needs to be of a literary bent for adults. Follow the submission guidelines and don't submit until Sept. 1.

And feel free to pass this along to writers you know, writing groups, etc.

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Books / Hallowmere site live
« on: March 26, 2007, 10:01:13 PM »
What do you guys think? I love it.

http://ww2.wizards.com/books/mirrorstone/hallowmere/home.aspx

And there's an Easter egg. (And a pseudo Easter egg that we'll hopefully have something under later.)

Edit: Fell tells me it's not a real Easter egg. But it's still cool!

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Writing Group / Getting published is like dating
« on: January 16, 2007, 10:05:29 PM »
I've decided that the topic of my keynote address at Life, the Universe and Everything next month will be Collaboration: The Editor's Role in Making Your Book the Best Book You Could Ever Write. It's big and clunky on purpose—to be charming, of course.

But it being a BYU conference, I thought it would be fun to throw out a few of the more common comparisons of getting published with dating as a part of my talk. Things such as "it's not you, it's me" turning into "it's not you, it's your writing," that sort of thing. Okay, that one’s a little rude, and I won’t use it, but you get the idea. How submitting is like learning to handle rejection, how to learn when it’s really your writing and when it’s just not a good fit, that sort of thing.

Anybody have any pithy one-liners I might twist to my advantage for this talk?

10
Writing Group / People who love words, to my rescue!
« on: January 04, 2007, 09:39:54 PM »
I'm stumped. I'm trying to work up a header for a back cover of a new book, and I'm trying to brainstorm the right words, and coming up dry.

So, I turn to you, my word-loving friends.

Help!

The situation: second book of a series, and this header will give a flavor more than describe any specifics. So, without telling you specifics besides that Hallowmere is a place, can you help me?

Here's what I've brainstormed:

The battle to control Hallowmere leaves Corrine’s dreams—and haunt her in daylight

The battle to control Hallowmere enters Corrine’s waking hours

As the Fey depart Corrine’s dreams, the battle for Hallowmere dawns/builds/intensifies (but intensifies doesn't feel right--feels too heavy in syllables. want something as dark as intensifies, but one syllable)

...something else entirely?

Anyone?

11
Everything Else / It's a small world
« on: December 25, 2006, 02:35:54 AM »
So I'm sitting here at my grandma's house talking to my cousins, and my cousin who lives in Kansas (chunktile here on TWG) was telling me they had a Mormon houseguest this summer who happened to be in his brother's movie. Who was this houseguest? Danielle, Dave Wolverton's daughter.

Yep, small world.

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Everything Else / NASA plans lunar outpost
« on: December 05, 2006, 08:00:25 PM »
This might be old news, as far as I know, because I don't pay attention to this kind of thing very much, but I do think it's cool. We haven't talked about this kind of thing in general societal discourse since the 80s, I think.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/04/AR2006120400837.html

It does make me wonder about the resources of the moon they're talking about.

And it makes me want to watch Earth II again.

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Rants and Stuff / Hey Sprig
« on: October 07, 2006, 04:38:03 PM »
When you get bored again, can you tell me why the LibraryThing on my sidebar doesn't work? Maybe LJ doesn't allow javascript, I dunno.

And I upgraded to a paid account, so I can play with CSS now. If you ever felt like advising me. :)

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Writing Group / Pen names
« on: September 07, 2006, 05:18:19 AM »
I've decided that my ideas for pen names suck. Or at least, I'm not satisfied with them. My childhood choice, Anastasia, kind of implies a romance novelist or something. I can't really use--well, don't really want to use--my real name as a pen name, since there's already an author out there using Stacy Whitman, and her books have titles like Shackin' Up: The Single Girl's Guide to Living in Sin.

Since I'm actually thinking this time I might finish this book and start submitting it (which is kind of funny and all, because it may be the only book I ever write, but even so...), I think I need a good pen name. Not top of the list of things to think about, but it's 1 a.m., I wrote today, and I can't sleep. Besides, it's been rather quiet round these parts.

Here's the short list of pen names I've thought of.

Lynn Whitman
Anastasia Lynn
Whitman Lynn
Anastasia Whitman

Yes, they're dumb. I'm most drawn to Lynn Whitman because it's my middle name. I suppose I could use S. Lynn Whitman, but that feels a little to General Authority-ish for me. Should I use a family name or something? Blair Whitman wouldn't work--that's my dad's name as well as a family name. Blake Whitman sounds like a man. Stacy Blair is apparently a world-famous piccolo trumpet player, but that's a little on the obscure side, compared to someone who wrote another book. Oh. A quick google also reveals that someone by that name is a pr0n star.

I know we discussed pen names here a while back, but I'm too lazy to find the thread. What do y'all think? Just use my middle initial and call it good? Try to use EUOL/Dave Wolverton's middle-of-the-alphabet pen name system and pick a pen name starting with F or what, N, was it? What would you do in my situation?

15
Writing Group / Hey Chimera & SE
« on: September 07, 2006, 03:56:55 AM »
And anyone else interested who I've had read things before (Abridged Speculists, etc.).

I've decided to work on Black Bull again, finally. Well, I've been meaning to forever, but what with being sick and having so much to work on at work, it was very easy to put off (and not to mention, guilt-making, like I should be reading at home instead of writing). But I'm tired of meaning to work on it, and tonight I read through the last of what I wrote and cleaned it up a bit in an attempt to figure out if it's even worth continuing with. I'm going to try to write at least a couple more pages tonight.

What I'm wondering is if anyone would mind reading the first 40 or 50 pages that I've got done so far (about 12,000 words) and do a mini-writing group on it--what works, what doesn't, big-picture wise. It's got a LOT of editing problems because I've been writing this in bits and pieces since Nanowrimo, almost a year now. So it'll have continuity errors and POV errors and all that fun stuff. But I'm wondering two things:

1. Is my contemporary voice contemporary enough? I wonder if it feels either too whiny or too adult-looking-back-on-being-a-teen. And I imagine it being set in the late 80s/early 90s when I was in high school, and wonder if I should jazz it up with cell phones and all that kind of modern stuff. I had to rely upon a pay phone to call home, for example, and I doubt a girl today in the same situation I was back then would be able to afford a cell anyway, but I wasn't sure how dated it might feel. A lot of the realistic scenes are a hodge-podge of autobiographical stuff that I'm not sure work, and will need a lot of editing to make it look not so autobiographical, but I wasn't sure if electronic stuff should be a part of that editing.

2. Since you've read Black Bull in its novella form (right? I think most AS people from when I was in Boston read it, and I know Chimera read it, because her reading was part of what gave me this idea)--anyway, for those who have read Black Bull the novella, how do I fit the journey with the bull into this modern world? Should it be a journey to another world kind of story, and the hidden room is the portal? That'd make for funny, Maggie trying to sneak the bull into a church. But mainly I'm stumped and the one scene I have with the bull in the barn doesn't feel right. I like the stuff with the bull horn, but I'm blocked as to how I can make that fit into the tale I want to tell.

Anyone want to read and comment? Or perhaps I could be a guest one time of AS? I don't want to commit to going full-time again yet, because I'm not quite up yet for reading other peoples' stuff--I'm just now barely looking at my own and wondering if it's worth even looking at, you know?

(But hey--12,000 words in a year? I could have sworn it wasn't nearly that much. Wish it could have been a whole book, but perhaps that can be the goal for the next year.)

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