On Fiction Writing: A Brief History

Several years and millions of words ago, an idea was borne from thought to reality by the efforts of handful of writers who believe in their craft: a place where people serious about the craft of fiction writing could gather and discuss issues close to their heart and relevant to their work.

As every good idea does, it needed a home in a place where writers and books and the people who love to read them would gather.

It began as a group in a quiet corner of a busy thoroughfare on the Goodreads platform.

On Fiction Writing

In this group, we discuss storytelling and the hazardous road to publication in its many guises from the standpoint of craft and technique. This group is not a showcase or an arena to promote our particular works. We seek to debate how we research, structure, plot, draft, edit, write, and rewrite our novels. How we format, condense, and prepare synopsis, proposals, blurbs, and hooks. And how we plan our assault to the seemingly impregnable fortress of the establishment: agents and publishers.

Our founder, a quiet ...stop laughing, please!.. but serious man of letters, author Carlos J Cortes.

Exceeding hopes, the group grew, and best of all: it acquired as member a group of writers who were serious about their craft.

From this humble beginning came first the 2009 anthology, Ménage à 20: Tales with A Hook (Twenty Goodreads Authors).

A 2010 anthology release had been planned, but what with one thing and another and the vagaries of the publishing world, it did not happen.

Meanwhile, Carlos and Renee Miller, another of the writer/moderators of OFW had been having other ideas. They wanted to write a book on fiction writing.  Not just another book, but a definitive work on the state-of-the-art of fiction writing, from the germ of an ide to getting published, in todays changing world of publishing.  

What came of that effort was ‘the writers best friend’, The Writers Companion, published in 2011.

Now, follow-your-heart and all other platitudes aside, writing is a serious business. 

It was obvious from the beginning of OFW that to attract serious writers to a place where they could not only discuss and work at their craft but also be rewarded for their effort, one needed to provide a platform, one that would be able to provide and sustain dynamic content.

And so, after much hard work, profanity, sweat sleepless nights and alcohol … 

Beginning January 2012, On Fiction Writing will have a new home:

Onfictionwriting.com

We hope to see you there in the new year.

A Passing of A Legend: Anne McCaffrey

Anne McCaffrey, a wonderfully prolific author of great science fiction, fantasy, and romance novels, passed away today. She was 85.


Anne was born in 1926 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, graduated cum laude from Radcliffe College. After graduation she embarked upon a career in the theatre, acting in operas and operettas.


Anne ended her career on the stage ten years later and began writing fiction. Her first story, “Freedom of the Race,” was published in the Science Fiction Plus Magazine in October 1953, and her first novel, Restoree, in September 1967. 

I began reading her work in the late fifties when The Ship That Sang first appeared as a short story in the Fantasy and Science Fiction magazine. I have been a devoted fan ever since.


We love you Anne, and you will be missed. Rest in peace.


P.S. For those unfamiliar with her work, I include a link to a bibliography page here. 

This post is brought to you by the letter ...

is for November, the month soon to be upon us. It is also the beginning of: 


National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). 


Writers from all over the world will rise once again to the challenge of writing a 50K-word novel in the space of 30 days (the month of November). Last year 200,000 people took part - writing a total of over 2.8 billion words! 


Want to give it a try? Click on the link below for details.

                 www.nanowrimo.org

  Thirty days and nights of literary abandon!

Saying YES to Gay YA

The agent offered to sign us on the condition that we make the gay character straight, or else remove his viewpoint and all references to his sexual orientation.

So begins a journey for two authors who decide to stand up and fight for what they know is right.

Say Yes to Gay YA,  is an article written by authors Rachel Manija Brown and Sherwood Smith. It is featured on the Genreville Blog at Publishers  Weekly.

I believe this is an important issue that we as writers need to address.

I encourage all of you to read the article in its entirety and join the discussion.

Thanks;

Gwen McIntyre

Lion Mail: To POP or APOP, That Is The Question

The process of migrating eMail from OS X SnowLeopard to Lion has not been quite as simple from some as it might be.

The migration of our Earthlink POP Accounts was straight forward.

The system recognised the configuration properly and the accounts were good to go, so I assumed the other ISP we used would be as well.

Well, we all know that to assume makes an ass out of you and me.

The other ISP uses the same address for both the outbound and inbound mail service... mail.providername.net, and does not use an POP/APOP Authorisation, but instead requires Username & Password authorisation, which means that you have to configure the outgoing mail server manually.

 ..and TaDa! Success!

All of which we determined by trial and error because, like many ISP's, their on-line support documentation does not match the actual current service configuration.

... and there are several other possible configuration permutations, depending upon which service you're using. 

If you're migrating IMAP accounts... that's a-whole-nother-story

But, the moral of the story? 

The Bottom Line?

Instead of wasting time swearing at the software or cursing  the developers, call your service provider's help-desk and ask for HELP.

In Passing: William Warner Sleator III

I am sad to note that William Sleator, author of over 30 young adult books, including "Interstellar Pig", "The Green Futures of Tycho", "House of Stairs", "Strange Attractors", "The Spirit House". and many others, passed away on August 3rd, 2011

He was a profile writer, accomplished composer and musician.

Follow the link to learn more about the man, his books and his music. .

2011 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest

Can it be that another year has passed? 

Well, it has, and the results of the 2011 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest have been posted.

For the benefit of those of you who are new to this scrumptious literary novelty, allow me to explain.

Each year the English department at San Jose State University sponsors the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, a writing competition which pays homage to Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, the man responsible for one of the hackiest opening lines in literature: “It was a dark and stormy night.”

The idea is to create an awful opening line for a fake work of fiction.

This year’s overall winner was University of Wisconsin Oshkosh professor Sue Fondrie, who submitted the following: “Cheryl’s mind turned like the vanes of a wind-powered turbine, chopping her sparrow-like thoughts into bloody pieces that fell onto a growing pile of forgotten memories.”

Notably, it is the shortest winner in the contest’s 29 year history.

Click the link above to read all of the winning … and losing, groan-inducing entires.

Man Booker Prize 2011 Long-list Announced

The longlist for the 2011 Man Booker Prize for Fiction - the ‘Man Booker Dozen' - was announced today. It includes four first time novelists.

The chosen are;

Julian Barnes The Sense of an Ending (Jonathan Cape - Random House)

Sebastian Barry On Canaan's Side (Faber)

Carol Birch Jamrach's Menagerie (Canongate Books)

Patrick deWitt The Sisters Brothers (Granta)

Esi Edugyan Half Blood Blues (Serpent's Tail - Profile)

Yvvette Edwards A Cupboard Full of Coats (Oneworld)

Alan Hollinghurst The Stranger's Child (Picador - Pan Macmillan)

Stephen Kelman Pigeon English (Bloomsbury)

Patrick McGuinness The Last Hundred Days (Seren Books)

A.D. Miller Snowdrops (Atlantic)

Alison Pick Far to Go (Headline Review)

Jane Rogers The Testament of Jessie Lamb (Sandstone Press)

D.J. Taylor Derby Day (Chatto & Windus - Random House)

The titles were chosen by a panel of five judges chaired by author and former Director-General of MI5, Dame Stella Rimington.

A total of one hundred thirty eight books were submitted, seven of which were called in by the judges, to be considered for the ‘Man Booker Dozen' long list. 

The four first time novelists on the list are Stephen Kelman, A.D. Miller, Yvvette Edwards and Patrick McGuinness. 

The list also includes three publishers new to the prize: Oneworld, Sandstone Press and Seren Books.

Looking For A Daily Dose Of Great Science Fiction & Fantasy ?

There is no Happy in Memorial Day

Back To The Future

The Monday Morning Quarterback

Let's begin our week with a couple of really good Blogs that are worth your time and effort.


The first is EMU's Debuts: An exploration of the winding path that lies between the Book Deal and the Debut.


Content brought to you by debuting authors represented by Ammi-Joan Paquette and Erin Murphy of the Erin Murphy Literary Agency (EMLA). New content appears on Mondays and Wednesdays.


Next on my list of Blogs of Interest...


Cartoon Letters To Grandpa: By the very talented writer and artist Ruth McNally Barshaw, creator of the Ellie McDoodle series, and creator of the character sketch of myself you see on my blogs. A rather wonderful first post explains the premise of the blog.


You can see Ellie McDoodle, as well as Ruth's other work at the RuthExpress.


Well, that's all the news that's fit to print, except to say congratulations to all the newly published authors and writers out there. Here's wishing you all a great, productive week.


We now return the author to her regularly scheduled frenetic sessions of manuscript editing.

The Bloggers New View

Stepping away from Writing and related news for a moment, Blogger is giving us a chance to change how we, as blog owners, present the face of our content to the world, and for readers to view it.... beyond simply changing templates and backgrounds.

Rather than try to explain this, let your fingers do the clicking. 


Go to http://pagesforsmallwages.blogspot.com/view/

... or any other favourite Blogger URL and add /VIEW at the end of the link, and explore the view options presented.


Note:
These views require a current browser (Internet Explorer 8+, Firefox 3.5+, Chrome, Safari, Opera, etc..). Many elements of these views will not work should you have an older browser.


In all views, search is available in the upper right hand corner. Clicking on the ">" arrow in the very top left of the header bar will slide the header bar across and allow you to choose different views for the current blog as well as type in a new blog URL.

There is also a feedback link for each view.


Which view do you like best? Do you prefer one view over another for different blogs? 
Would you like the option of setting a default view for all blogs or for individual blogs?
Is there a different view format you'd like to see?

Let the folks at Google Blogger know what you think. 

8 March 2011: Today is the Centenary International Women's Day

Artwork by Google

A hundred years ago today, women around the world took an historic step on the long road to equality. 

The first ever International Women’s Day drew attention to the unacceptable and often dangerous working conditions that so many women faced worldwide. 

Despite being celebrated in only a handful of countries, over one million women took to the streets to demand not only improved working conditions but also the right to vote, to hold office and to be equal partners with men.

While advancement of women’s rights has been one of the most profound social revolutions the world has seen, those first courageous pioneers would likely view the world today with a mixture of pride and disappointment.

One hundred years ago, only two countries allowed women to vote. Today, that right is virtually universal. Women have been elected to lead governments on every continent and hold leading positions in professions from which they were once banned. 

Two-thirds of countries have specific laws that penalize domestic violence, and the United Nations Security Council now recognises sexual violence as a deliberate tactic of war. Yet police, the courts and many of our neighbours still see violence in the home as a wholly private matter. 

Despite progress, the hopes and dreams of those who marched that first International Women’s Day remain a long way from being realised. Globally, two out of every three illiterate adults are still women, and girls remain less likely to be educated than boys. 

Despite the knowledge, skill and resources to insure safe births, somewhere on this planet 
a woman will die in pregnancy or due to childbirth-related complications Every Ninety Seconds of Every Day. 

Globally, women continue to earn less than men for the same work. In many countries we have unequal access to land and inheritance rights. 

Despite advances, women still represent only nineteen percent of all legislators. Only twenty-eight women are heads of state or government.

It is not just women who pay the price for this discrimination. We all suffer for failing to make the most of half the world’s talent and potential. We undermine the quality of our democracy, the strength of our economies, the health of our societies and the sustainability of peace. 

This year’s focus of International Women’s Day is on women’s equal access to education, training, science and technology. At the same time, the global agenda remains; to secure gender equality and women’s rights in every country, in every corner of our globe.

Write, Don't Think?

How often do we Twitter or post a comment on FaceBook or some other social media site without thinking it through.

Do we take the time to consider;


(1) Is my comment relevant to anyone but me? 


If not, then why am I posting it?


Am I doing it to make my ‘friends’ can scratch their heads and wonder what’s going on… or to make them worry about ‘what’s the matter with her’. Is it a ‘Hey…Look at me’ cry for help or attention? 


Remember the story of the Boy who Cried Wolf?


I guarantee there are far easier ways to get help.


(2) Is the point I’m trying to make obvious or adequately explained?


If not, then do us all a favour and either rewrite it or simply don’t post it.


(3) We are all tempted to post things that are interesting to us, in the hope that others might find it equally interesting or relevant or amusing.


You’re not going to hit the mark every time, but as every writer, teacher and public speaker knows, the first rule is:


Know your audience. 


Till next time;


Be kind, be careful, and have fun.

It's too damn quiet in here.

In case you've been wondering, the reason this blog has been so quiet is very simple: I'm up to my armpits in manuscript revisions and editing... and its not going quietly into the night.


It is instead rather like an out-of-tune brass band, with each instrument needing careful tuning. Hundreds of once pristine pages turned to little more than ash and rubble with the simple slashing motion of a red pen. 


Such is the writers folly, to think that a story will stay written as initially conceived.


Chapters that made sense where they were during the initial composition seem destined to be not the great preludes they were wrought to be but instead interludes to acts unfathomed at the time of their creation.


Scenes, so artfully constructed, now little more than hazy backgrounds in the clarity of the new world arising from the ashes.


And characters, once thought destined to be the MC's of the story are instead finding themselves in the supporting cast, supplanted by voices that crept surprisingly out of the chorus to rise above the rest.


And such is the writers joy; 


To find new life beneath the rubble, a phoenix amongst the ashes of despair.