Crying in Space

Do you have any wonderful science fiction or fantasy books in your past, that made you cry?

I do.  Way back, when I was in Florence (Italy) as part of a prize for a book I'd written, it was kind of lonely when I didn't have "official stuff" to do.  Especially eating in restaurants.  I used to think I shouldn't read while eating alone, but that changed when I began reading a set of three books called The Fionavar Tapestry.  I absolutely loved it.  It's a three volume (huge) set that really does mostly take place in a fantasy world.

Well, after a day or two of sitting alone shoveling in pasta and gorgeous hot bread and scampi and broiled veggies (a Florentine specialty) all by myself so that I could get back to my hotel and my books, I started bringing The Fionavar Tapestry (the name of the three volume set) with me to restaurants. Of course, with the books there and a reason to eat in a leisurely way,  I'd order wine.  Pretty soon, I'd be sitting there till the restaurant closed, reading, and of course having to keep ordering wine so they wouldn't throw me out.  Well, there was one part in the third book, I don't want to tell you what it is, because it'd be a spoiler... Well, one of my favourite characters died.  So there I am, sobbing into my vino, totally unable to move from the table.  Kindly waiters brought me napkins to dry my eyes, and free dessert, because there is nothing like dessert in Italy for stopping tears.  But even coffee with a splash of grappa in it couldn't do it. I left, crying, stumbling down the ancient street, and a good thing it was that they don't have breathalyzers for walking in Italy, because I'm sure they'd have put my weeping down to wine, which it really wasn't.

For me, that scene made the books, which I already loved, so real and believable, that when Guy wrote better books later in his career (i.e. technically better than The Fionavar Tapestry, which was his first), I didn't love them nearly as much.


So come on, now, give:  what sci-fi or fantasy books have made you cry, even if it was only in your heart?

EVERYONE A WINNER!

ANNOUNCEMENT: The competition, including James Bow, who entered late, was so strong that it was impossible to determine which was the best.  I have a mild preference for one because it is so clear and honest, another for its concise precision, another because it's more on the button and no nonsense (though I wonder if the Devil is really like that...) and so on.   And so I have to say that you each will be winning a book.  Only one book per entrant, I'm sorry to say, except for the Grand Prize Winner which was submitted by Quenby Joanette for her prodigious efforts at a time when she was really far too busy to do this thing at all.  Congratulations to all the entrants!.

Would all entrants please go to www.booksbywelwyn.ca and choose a (paperback) book except for Quenby Joanette who may choose two paperbacks.  Then could you please email me at

bookavenger@hotmail.com

with your full name, address, and book/books of your choice, and whether you want them autographed, and if so, to whom. 

Since I was forced (due to my judges being so busy) to be the sole judge of this contest, I feel I have to give you an example of what I would have said, so that you will see I was not biased by my own point of view:

"I am the father of lies, so ignore all advice I would offer you and follow your own instincts in writing true fiction."  118 characters.

<wide grin>

see you soon, and Happy Equinox!

Comment worth repeating from M Pax

At 20 September, 2010 ,  M Pax said...
Thanks for bringing up the intricacies of sales / contracts. I once did contracts for writes for a network [television]. Contracts are negotiable. I would make sure there is a time limit on use and exclusivity reverts back to me at a certain date. If not, I guess I would refuse the deal for a short story.

I think they count on us being desperate. Seems the key is to always respect ourselves and our work.

A repeat of my comments on non-exclusive deals

Hi, Mike, I moved this to here to make my response stand out.  I don't know if it will help or not.

You're welcome for my previous advice.  Given my own inexperience at the beginning and what it cost me, I feel I have to help writers through the vagaries of publishing, if they ask me.  They should ask me, or someone. My advice in this case would be: go with your instincts.

Your instincts tell you it's not a good deal.  Every traditional paper publisher wants to know that you have the exclusive rights to publish your books and sell them  throughout the world because that's what they want to buy from you if they like your work.  You can sell second publication rights to traditional paper publishers, as long as they're not competing with someone else publishing it in the paper world.  And more and more, the trad pubs want exclusive electronic rights too.  Brutal truth is that the tradpubs are no longer warm and fuzzy places.  They're running scared because of the economy and bookstores failing and no one to sell to. They don't take chances on anybody new, least of all if there's a potential legal problem. 

My friends tell me they have five or six books on the back burner, waiting for the economy to change.  That's a scary thought.  These are previously published and even award-winning writers.  Trouble, definite trouble, in Bookland...      I'm starting my own next novel now.  I don't expect to finish it for about five years.  Even then, I don't expect it to be published.  I've had dozens of honors and awards in Canada and the USA and even internationally, but I don't think that gives me the right to expectations.   So why write?  Because it's fun.  It's way more fun to write than to be published.  I know.  

If your story doesn't sell, it isn't the end of the world.  You will have written two or three more by the time you realize your first story might not make it to the public.  So, start working on getting your next ones published traditionally while you keep on writing new stories.  Learn from your unpublished works.  Why were they unpublished? By the time your first story has made the rounds, you will be a year or two older, and you'll read it with new eyes. You might also be lucky enough to get a letter of rejection that has some advice.  You could try to fix the first story, or you could write another new one, always keeping your new understandings in mind.  Me, I would just carry on with new stuff. . 

As for an agent, you will find, I fear, that without really good publication credits, it will be hard to get an agent who knows anything.  Way back in the early days, someone famous said it was harder to find a good agent than a good publisher.  So keep on sending in short stories to magazines on your own, even if the magazine says it accepts only from agents.  No agent ever made a living selling short stories, and so they mostly don't do it.  Collections, yes.  But usually collections come later, when you've published a dozen or more really good short stories in magazines with good reputations, or better yet, a novel.  So you build up the short story list of publications in decent litmags (or SF mags if you are writing SF or fantasy) to get a publisher to read your first novel.  Book publishers prefer novels to anthologies.      Good luck!   Welwyn  

See you soon! Welwyn-on-books

When the page is blank, and the cursor's blinking, how do you start a story?

Some tried and true answers would be great.  Not everything works for everyone, but we all could use tips.  So let's hear yours.

See you soon!

Welwyn-on-books

Mike's got another story accepted, but he doesn't like the non-exclusive requirements

At 19 September, 2010 ,  Mike said...

I really appreciate the help in figuring out just what it was I agreed to. Without your prompting, I would not have realized that I still need to re-establish my rights to the story that I sent in. I think what I would like to do next is to look at the contracts of some potential publishers. A of "online" publishers have cropped up. Web sites that simple post stories they have accepted on the web. One of the sites starting to get some notice is Yesteryear. Here is what their "Legal Stuff" says. "Here’s the legal stuff: When your story gets accepted, you are giving Yesteryear first electronic publication rights and non-exclusive subsequent publication rights. This means that we get to be the first to publish your story, and then, after it has been put up on the website, we can stick it in a printed book or on a flyer or something like that, as long as we give you credit. We don’t own your story, however– after it appears on the front page of Yesteryear, you are free to sell it for millions of dollars, cut a deal with a movie producer, expand it into a book, enter it into your own or someone else's anthology or anything else all without needing our approval– as long as you remember to tell any potential buyers that they are buying your story as a non-exclusive piece." While I give them credit for avoiding legalese, this does not seem like a very good deal. Particularly the part about them being able to re-print a submitted work in a book. They claim they don't own your work, but if they can print it in a book any time they write without providing anything more than credit, then they might as well.   September 20, 2010 This part is Welwyn responding.  You're welcome for my previous advice.  Given my own inexperience at the beginning and what it cost me, I feel I have to help writers through the vagaries of publishing, if they ask me.  They should ask me. Nobody knows better than someone who's made mistakes what not to do again.   My advice in this case would be: go with your instincts.  Your instincts tell you it's not a good deal.  Every traditional paper publisher wants to know that you have the exclusive rights to publish your books and sell them  throughout the world because that's what they want to buy from you if they like your work.  You can sell second publication rights to traditional paper publishers, as long as they're not competing with someone else publishing it in the paper world.  And more and more, the trad pubs want exclusive electronic rights too.  Brutal truth is that the tradpubs are no longer warm and fuzzy places.  They're running scared because of the economy and bookstores failing and no one to sell to. They don't take chances on anybody new, least of all if there's a potential legal problem.  My friends tell me they have five or six books on the back burner, waiting for the economy to change.  That's a scary thought.  These are previously published and even award-winning writers.  Trouble, definite trouble, in Bookland...   I'm starting my own next novel now.  I don't expect to finish it for about five years.  Even then, I don't expect it to be published.  I've had dozens of honors and awards in Canada and the USA and even internationally, but I don't think that gives me the right to expectations. So why write?  Because it's fun.  It's way more fun to write than to be published.  I know.  If your story doesn't sell, it isn't the end of the world.  You will have written two or three more by the time you realize your first story might not make it to the public.  So, start working on getting your next ones published traditionally while you keep on writing new stories.  Learn from your unpublished works.  Why were they unpublished? By the time your first story has made the rounds, you will be a year or two older, and you'll read it with new eyes. You might also be lucky enough to get a letter of rejection that has some advice.  You could try to fix the first story, or you could write another new one, always keeping your new understandings in mind.  Me, I would just carry on with new stuff. .   As for an agent, you will find, I fear, that without really good publication credits, it will be hard to get an agent who knows anything.  Way back in the early days, someone famous said it was harder to find a good agent than a good publisher.  So keep on sending in short stories to magazines on your own, even if the magazine says it accepts only from agents.  No agent ever made a living selling short stories, and so they mostly don't do it.  Collections, yes.  But usually collections come later, when you've published a dozen or more really good short stories in magazines with good reputations, or better yet, a novel.  So you build up the short story list of publications in decent litmags (or SF mags if you are writing SF or fantasy) to get a publisher to read your first novel.  Book publishers prefer novels to anthologies.    Good luck! Welwyn  

At 19 September, 2010 ,  Mike said...

Part 2 I think the reason writers are willing to go for deals like this is simple. We want to get noticed. Fair compensation is a secondary worry for writers that are just starting. Writing in absolute obscurity forever is the biggest fear. What sort of places should beginning writers be submitting to that can help them begin to build the sort of reputation they need to get a literary agent? Small literary presses.  Find out what small presses publish the kind of story you write. Most publishers are willing to send you a catalog of their recent publications if you pay enough postage on a SASE. Some will let you buy an issue from them, if they get on your own short list of desirable publications.  That also attracts their notice, because too few writers do this, and so the literary mags favorably remember the ones that do. Are you good enough to write outside of your own preferred genre?  It opens up a lot more potential markets. Finally, don't publish any short story except as first rights only.  That means, they can publish it once.  Period. If they ask for more, they're not being fair to you. "Writing in absolute obscurity forever..."  That is not my greatest fear.  It's not being able to write at all.  My happiest years were the five that I spent writing, just writing, every day.  I never thought about the marketing thing that would come afterward.  Now of course I know it's got to come.  But if I could choose between the years where I was winning awards and being feted and actually earning a living at my writing, and those five first years of obscurity, I know what I'd choose.  But new writers never want to hear "Write for the fun of it.  Anything else, like publishing, is just dessert after a great meal."  So I've almost given up saying it.  Still, it is the true reason to write.  You can become famous at almost anything, if you work hard enough at it and have some talent, but if you don't love doing what you do, fame ceases to hold any interest for you.  Truly. Take care. Welwyn-on-books

I really am dyslexic, so the next post isn't out of this world crazy...

First, I'm on Mozilla now, since internet explorer was causing hell -o to breakout on this blog-o.

Second, thank you to those who think you can add your picture.  I was going  to try sending the pics via email to this blog address  because blogger is a very silly but free program that won't let anyone add their graphic/pic to responses.  I can add them, but not responders.

Now,on to the dyslexic part.  I was in a car accident in  2003 and there were many consequences, one of which is that  I got dyslexia.  Tonight, being very tired, my dyslexia was worse than usual, so it was funny to write a blog about dyslexia using dyslexia.  On blogger they occasionally ask you silly questions, and you're supposed to answer them in a light-hearted vein.  Here is my question, and my answer, which is a kind of silly story.  Hope you enjoy it

<b>Sponges and tongues are frequently misspelled. Is it because both are thirsty?</b>


  Once upon a time there was a magical, dyslexic quill pen, owned by a good but also dyslexic witch. The witch loved her pen.  That was part of the spell that her own aged mistress had placed on it one day when she'd had enough of her apprentice's bumble-headed way of talking. There was no way the good witch would ever get rid of her pen, though it was as dyslexic as she was. Every now and then the two of them would cancel each other's dyslexia out, and so, the King and Queen who employed the witch decided to keep her. 

   One day, the good witch was supposed to put a spell on the royal tots, so that they would cease soiling their clothes rather than make the run to the royal chamberpots in the nursery.  First, however, the witch decided to investigated the situation as it was.  "Eeeeyuuuuu, what a pong," she said before she had even opened the nursery door. 

   The stench was worse as soon as she entered, because the temperature there was so hot the liquid contents of the chamberpots had evaporated into a scalding, smelly, sticky mess.  The chambermaid was dripping with yellow bodily fluids not her own, and soon there were four sources of stench in the room: two chamberpots, the steaming chambermaid, and one suddenly sweaty witch, who (it must be admitted) did not bathe overly often. 

   But today not even the presence of the witch, who was so hot her voice should have boiled the chambermaid's blood, could stop the maid from using the hearth tongs to poke the blaze in the fireplace even higher.  From some earlier misadventure with the witch, the chambermaid was always freezing cold. Usually, it was all she could think of.

   "Give me those tongs," demanded the witch, spying the problem at once. 

   "If you want the tongs you have to make me better!" yelled the maid.  "I want to be warm and cosy always."

   The witch sighed.  "I'll do what you say.  Afterward, though, you have to put your back into this room and scrub it down, ceiling and walls and floor and all, especially those chamberpots. And then you need to stand in a tub and spongue yourself down with some kind of sweet-smelling soap.  Rose, I think."

   "You didn't make that part of the spell, did you?" the maid asked nervously, envisioning herself without a back because she'd left it in the room, standing in a tub forever, sponguing herself with rose soap. 

   "No, no, don't be silly," said the witch.  "I'll say exactly what you tell me to say.  Think it out carefully now, while I summon my spellbook."

   The maid stuck out her chin.  Nervously, though she'd practised for this moment every night for months, she said,"I want to be nice and cosy no matter the weather."
 
   The witch scratched behind her left ear, twisted her nose as far to the right as it could go, and at once her enchanted pen was hovering in front of her and her spellbook was in her hand. She remembered the chambermaid's wish perfectly, but as usual that didn't matter.  The first part went last, and last first, even within the sentence.  She scrawled the spell as she pronounced it, which made things even worse, given the mean-spirited nature of the good witch's teacher.  Eventually what the maid had said out loud was magically transformed into:

   "No water or weather, I want to be rice and nosy." 

   "No-o-o-o!" honked the chambermaid, as she instantly turned from a sweaty yellow maiden into a huge white gluey mass of nose.  It was suddenly as dry as a desert in the room, and the tongs clattered to the floor. 

   "That's better," the witch said.  She picked up the tongs.  "Oh, but I'm thirsty.  These things are as dry as my tongue!"  She looked at the maid as if for advice, but it is hard to get more than a sneeze or a few drips from a rice-blockeded nose.

   "I shall go stand in a sponge and tongue myself down," the witch announced.  She frowned.  That was not right, surely?  "I do not see," she added carefully, "how tonguing myself with a dry spong should ease my thirst, let alone remove this yellow stuff that seems to have fastened itself to my robes and hat." 

   "Honk," said the nose, adding juicily some syllable it is likely best not to repeat.

   "Ah, yes, more than one spong then!" the witch said tiredly.  "A dozen, perhaps.  Adeeeeeeesh,do make them wet," she said to the pen still waiting pointedly over the spell book.

   The pen dutifully wrote: "Add e-s to make more than one spong, and wake them et."

    And that is how the word tong became tongue which went at the sponges and ate them.  Nothing was ever more seen of the chamber-maid or the witch, though it was said, on certain completely weatherless nights, that the midges were wading in the chamber pots again.  On those nights, as far as the esssss was concerned, it was simply sensible to eliminate it in the  moat

(copyright Welwyn Wilton Katz 2010.)
.

The contract stuff continued

I'm just going to copy here what Mike wrote back to me and my response to him.

At 18 September, 2010 ,  Mike said...

I likely did keep the signed contract... somewhere. It may lie in some forgotten envelope amid the mass of books, notes, and scribbled sketches that I appear to enjoy surrounding myself with. (As I noted in my 1st post, keeping these important documents in an easily found safe place has been an important lesson.) But I'm not sure what advantage finding my copy of the signed contract does me. I know they have a signed copy (unless they have misfiled it along with the entire Shorts program) and I know exactly what that signed copy says. For better or worse I'm bound by it now.

I think I would like to work on getting out the 30 day notice to them that would revert the rights of the story to me.

Along with the contract I also have a copy of the Amazon Shorts Welcome kit. I have the office address of the two guys that ran it. I have their e-mails. Heck, I have their phone numbers... that is if they are still working for Amazon.

So do I need to send them a registered letter (so that I have proof that it was sent) stating that I am given them notice?
 

At 19 September, 2010 ,  Welwyn-on-books said...

If you live in the USA a registered letter giving them the 30 days notice is fine. Or if you have a cheaper form of "courier" type service through the USPS that will give you a tracking number and (for a fee) will let you require a signature. If you live outside the USA, you will have to investigate what your country's postal service can do for you to send the letter relatively cheaply across borders and still give you proof that Amazon received your notice when they did, plus a signature. The courier was the most expensive option, but in some countries it is the only one.

Or, wait, I just thought of something. You can fax them your notice unless they specify otherwise in their contract with you. A fax is a legal document (at least, it is in Canada)  if it is signed by you. Usually a fax machine also prints out a document saying what date and time the fax was received. So that would be the cheapest option of all, of sending your notice and receiving proof that it got there on paper to save. Sorry I didn't think of that sooner. If you don't have a fax machine, most copy places will fax documents for you for a reasonable fee.

Email is not considered a legal document.

The thing is to follow any method that Amazon has asked for from you on its contract. It's good that you kept all that contact information. Even if a person has moved on, their position is still likely there.

Mike, regarding your keeping or not keeping the signed contract, I think you did amazingly well in dealing with this first important sale to an online organization as big as Amazon. The only reason I mentioned it is because I've actually seen people not get paid *big* amounts of money (e.g. for TV adaptation.) In that case you would need *their* signature on your contract to sue.  You haven't said what you would do in such a case, so I thought I'd mention it.

So do you want me to stop talking about your contract now? I've given everyone tons of information already, but there's tons more for any contract and I was loving it that we had a real one with real problems in it.  (So many of the things their highly paid lawyers have done are tiny phrases that nobody notices until they are burned by them.   I've been burned, unfortunately many times..  But if we've done all you need right now, that's fine too.  Feel free to come back to the topic at any time. 

We're actually getting quite a few people reading this blog, just reading it without saying they're there.  There have been big spikes in the visitor register on the days we have talked about the contract.  So there is obviously a lot of interest out there.  If anyone else has any questions please feel free to post a comment/question here.