What's up Wednesday

I'm trying a new thing here!

What’s up Wednesday is a weekly blog-hop created by sisters Jaime Morrow and Erin L. Funk, intended to help writers keep connected. Click on either link for more information and to sign up, if you want to join in!

What I’m Reading

I'm about two-thirds of the way through The Big Knockover: Selected Stories and Short Novels by Dashiell Hammett. It's a collection of Continental Op stories. From the book blurb: "Short, thick-bodied, mulishly stubborn, and indifferent to physical pain, Dashiell Hammett's Continental Op was the prototype for generations of tough-guy detectives." I'm enjoying it immensely because the writing is just so good. A reviewer said "sparse and brutal" and that pretty much nails it. *hearts*

What I’m Writing

I just finished editing the second draft of a short story, "The Collapsing Hills" (a post-apocalyptic survival tale), and have sent it off to one of my beta reading buddies.

I've started working on a outline for a novel, The Free City. It's actually a story I've written before, only previously it was a trilogy (because my newbie writer self thought that was a good idea. Eeegads!) This version will be a standalone novel. It's a dystopian tale of revolution, told from two POVs--a teenage girl raised in an ultra-repressive religious dictatorship, and a man from a white-supremacist society. Yeah, they have issues. Ultimately I hope to convince some publisher to touch it with a ten foot pole ;)

What Else I’m Up To

For the past month I've been distracted by the World Cup; out of the 64 games, I must have watched at least 50. But now that it's over, I'm turning myself back into a non-sports fan... oh wait, gotta pay attention to MLS now =D

What is inspiring me right now

A friend who recently earned a life coaching certification is now starting up her life coaching practice, and invited me to do a few sessions with her, pro bono. Life coaching has various definitions. The way she explained it, it's not therapy and it's not career counseling; it's more about moving forward in your life. The emphasis is on creating the life (personal and/or professional) that you want, rather than on "fixing things that are broken". I've had two sessions with her so far and it's been really helpful. I have learned some interesting (and hopefully, useful) things about myself, that's for sure.

Book release party!

I held a book release shindig on Saturday June 28th at Bucket O' Blood Books & Records, a really cool indy bookstore here in Chicago, with a small but enthusiastic group of supporters in attendance, mostly punks and weirdos like myself.

For openers, Douglas Ward and Al Scorch did an acoustic performance featuring songs about leaving home, driving trucks, and beautiful waitresses--which if you've read Star Reacher, you'll know why those particular subjects were chosen. 

Fellow SF writer Marc Ruvolo (and Bucket O' Blood founder) then gave me an introductory "roast" :) 

I followed that with a short spiel about punk, writing, creativity, and all that good stuff--and then an excerpt from Star Reacher.

The following is a polished-up version of my book release spiel:

I suppose there are some writers out there who worry about what their story's themes are. My feeling is, why worry? Themes creep into stories under their own power. It can be hard to define what a theme is; it's not what the story is "about", it's more like the lens you see it through. I like to think of a theme being a part of you that reveals itself as the words leave your fingertips. 

In the case of "Star Reacher", one of the parts revealed was the punk part of me--unintentionally, though it seems kind of obvious to me now, since I came out of the punk/underground/DIY scene. That subculture has been a huge part of my life since I was a teenager (which, just to date the hell out of myself, was before the world-wide web or social media or any of that new-fangled tech).

What does punk/underground/DIY have to do with writing science fiction? Nothing--and everything.

As kids, we're allowed--or even encouraged, if we were lucky--to use our imaginations and to make things for the sake of making them. "Kids need to be creative", right? By the time we get to be adults, it's a different story. Most of us get hit over the head with the Big Lie: Art, music, writing, making and creating things out of imagination, aren't real important for us regular folks. Unless we aim to make our living at it--which is the only permissible goal--making art is a waste of time. Creative pursuits are the province of the Talented Few, and the role of the rest of us is to consume and be entertained by the output of the Talented Few.

Which is, y'know, horseshit. I know it, you know it, a lot of people know it. But you know what blows my mind? How many people don't know it. Many times I've taken for granted, or just plain forgotten this. And then I'll hear someone say something like, "I wish I could paint--but I have no talent". "I wish I could write, but I'm not any good." "I wish I could sing, but I don't have a nice voice." And I'll know that the Big Lie is alive and well.

You don't hear many comments like that in the punk scene. People are too busy making things, doing things, and creating things to worry about whether they inherited enough Talent DNA to be allowed to do so. Being in the company of that kind of people has had a profound impact on me and I'm very grateful for it.

Sure, I knew since I was a kid that I liked drawing pictures and writing stories and singing songs, that it was fun and it was something I wanted to do--but it was punk/underground/DIY that taught me that it was MINE, that creative expression belongs to all of us. Not just the Talented Few, but us corndogs too. We deliver pizzas, we paint houses, we fix the network when it's down... and when it's time to make the art, we go at it like it's our absolute right to do so. Because it is.

Go here to read the excerpt.

At last...

...I officially have a book out! Well, one-third of a book. Whatever! I'm super stoked to announce the release of Alembical 3, an anthology of novella-length science fiction from Paper Golem, featuring the work of Matthew S. Rotundo, John P. Murphy, and yours truly. 

My story in the anthology is called "Star Reacher". It's about iron mining... and ice... and cold weather... and art... and love... and some other things. Yep.

By the way, that cover image is a real building. It's the Atomium, built in 1958 for the Brussels World's Fair. The structure of the building, with 9 interconnected spheres, forms the shape of an iron crystal. How cool is that?