incipit vita nova

Are We There Yet? Sheila Finch Asks

This is a message from your space witch. I read through a goodly number of the essays for the Women Destroy SF! Issue of Lightspeed, which were used to support their successful Kickstarter campaign.

In her thoughtful essay, Sheila Finch told several anecdotes related to being a female SF writer. After noting that she appeared on radio shows to fill air time, and that one of the DJ's asked her what a nice lady like her was doing writing science fiction, Sheila said, "About this time, an editor rejected a story, telling me he just couldn’t believe in its science underpinning. I had—as usual—done copious research, and everything I’d speculated about was either on the horizon or perhaps already being done in secret experiments somewhere."

I don't know about you, but when I have confirmation from someone else that I'm "not alone," it makes me feel better. I cannot say how many times this has happened to me; in reviews of published work, I've had documented science PRESUMED to be wrong by the reviewer, who had some type of empirical opinion whatever the matter at-hand was, it was unrealistic because it was a) presented by a dumb bimbo like me; and b) the reviewer hadn't heard of it. Heaven forbid they should ... look it up. Julie M. Jones is presently ordering equipment for her disability that is directly related to the equipment detailed in "To Kiss the Star" (F & SF, 2001, 2002 Nebula Award Nominee). This was questioned at the time. Of course. I even got an e-mail from a guy who said I couldn't write a story about someone with a disability as it was "biased" (or discriminatory, I forget) and furthermore, he was going to sue me! I never saw any lawsuit and I didn't reply to the e-mail.

But it gave me a fast heartbeat for a bit. Back when I actually cared about that stuff and was too naive to know what it really was: garden variety harassment.

Most of the younger writers are commenting that they haven't really experienced harassment or anything "non-supportive" while pursuing their starting careers as SF/F writers. I believe this is true, as I have experienced far-milder incidents in the past 5-6 years than I did in the 90s, and it's not just because I've finally aged out of the grope/slap/2nd grade gum-in-the-hair insult category. I kinda haven't. Most people have no idea of my age unless I pointedly tell them in an effort to ward off this type of fun and games. Most gentlemen (and I do use the term loosely) know better than to enthusiastically put their mitts all over a new acquaintance or someone they literally do not know in a social or work situation. Because they can, like, get in trouble - word's finally seeped through to nearly all segments of society now, including the SF/F community.

But few of the younger writers have yet experienced the "silencing" that's very much with us. Sheila Finch pointed at some of the more overt and literal examples, such as being the only female on a hard science-oriented con panel and getting shouted down (in Sheila's case - over her head - such has happened to me as well) by over-exuberant hollering males with axes to grind, cases to make, and dominance behaviors to illustrate. How many of the younger female writers writing these essays are writing hard, speculative SF? About such concepts as Sheila mentioned, "I was interested in children, and family, and relationships—and I wanted to explore what was going to happen to them in a future dominated by aggressive male ideas."

That is so dangerous.

According to Cheryl Morgan, "Keep writing, ladies; we have a patriarchy to destroy."

I'm no lady. I'm a woman. And I want to destroy nothing. I want to help others to build and grow. I want what I said almost 20 years ago when asked by a dear friend and very wise man, "When you come to the end of a long life, what is it you want to look back upon and say you've accomplished?"

I told him, "I want to be able to say I left this world a better place than when I found it."

This type of thinking is far more dangerous to the destroyers, the denigrators, the dominators, than any type of open threat or battle cry. This is in no way saying I won't fight. I have fought, I am fighting, and I will continue to fight.

The wonderful young women commenting in these essays haven't had the pleasure and privilege that Sheila and I and others in the older age group have of being poked, prodded, whacked, publically insulted (garden-variety and more "special" attempts at humiliation, denigration, patronization) and all of the above all at the same time. They seem to have not yet had the pleasure of having their work declined for review, bypassed, or reviewed late - sometimes with not even knowing that happened - or of struggling to get some type of platform or audience.

They don't yet quite know the incredible feeling of seeing years of discipline and hard work and careful thought bypassed over and over for the most puerile and gassy exhalations of male authors with big platforms and tiny minds. It's to the degree where I've often wondered if in reality, I am confused -- what I think is thoughtful and meaningful -- is so far from what I see presented as good thought that it seems almost an alternate world. Even simple concepts - like "When is the last time you did hard research on anything?" seem unimportant.

The younger writers haven't yet experienced the necessity to devote time and energy to one's family and being a single mother, rather than writing continuously, devoting 100% of one's time and effort to one's writing career. Being unable to do that, because others - in my case, hundreds of others - were depending on me so they could keep their jobs, have a decent place to live, and feed their families. They don't know what it's like to devote a decade to supporting a man and fighting some of his battles for him - because you loved him - and thereby taking what could have been some of the best writing and personal years of your life off the table forever.

They tell themselves that there are no significant challenges for them, certainly not like those faced by PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi, who has told others that as a woman born in Chennai, India, she faced the twin challenges of being both female and a woman of color in the corporate world, and openly states she had to work far longer and harder than her male counterparts or "white" counterparts to achieve her position -- as one of the world's most powerful female executives, well-known for pioneering employee and family-friendly, as well as environmentally-sustainable initiatives.

What I have faced has made me stronger. It has made me empirically better than most, if not all, of my male counterparts, who've never had to face the type of opposition I have had just to publish my work or make a few things known to the public. Everything some of these authors say is enshrined in gold and retweeted hundreds of times immediately by adoring fans. Those "pearls of wisdom" are not necessarily pearls. Sometimes they're feces coated in gold leaf; sometimes, the gold leaf frays and the feces blows back. Ever to these individuals' astonishment and amazement -- if that's not last year's SFWA Bulletin controversy -- I don't know how else to define that. While the controversy was overblown for the isolated incident, it was hardly overblown in general. Because people have been putting up with gold leaf-clad feces presented as fine truffles from many male authors and "futurists" for decades. 

I'm not saying that the simple change of allowing women and non-white, non-American males to have a platform would rectify the problem. Nor am I saying that everything any woman or non-white, non-American male might contribute would be a delicate, perfect, butter and cream truffle coated with gold leaf rather than a bonus prize from my little dog Gambit dipped in white chocolate.

I am saying that this happens on purpose. People aren't stupid. It's embarrassing for guys who believe themselves to be as smart as Einstein but better-looking, to be shown up by quiet, dignified and thoughtful women like Sheila Finch. Yes, they're threatened, fellow writers. And yes, they will fight. And don't forget the power of inertia. The people who make money off this type of person and phenomenon will not give their percentages up without a fight. And do not consider yourself exempt. No one is.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What Do You Want to Write When You Grow Up?

How do we learn to tell our own stories? This is a question for the individual writer, as well as for companies that produce and market creative products to the public in the hope of earning money. Profit. That stuff.

These two issues are intimately connected. Nearly every bestselling book I'm familiar with, and up until the late 1980s, film, experienced often tremendous and potentially overwhelming difficulties in the process of going from the creator's mind to the end-user -- readers and/or filmgoers.

This question is at the heart of all of the recent controversies related to science fiction and fantasy writing and fandom. It's at the heart of the now-obligatory con "diversity" panel. It's at the heart of the pleas to "listen to me!" one hears daily.

As I said in my 2013 message to young women -- now is the time to start doing. In the words of my abhorred hippie generation ... as I find myself coming full circle: "Do your own thing."

Here are some examples of popular, enduring works of literature that experienced difficulty or took a long time to find an audience:

1936: Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell is published ten years after it was written.

1955: Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy, which took 12 years to write, was finally published in the UK by Allen & Unwin, six years after its completion. Here is some correspondence between Tolkien and the publisher regarding items thought to reduce publisher profit, including Aragorn & Arwen's romance, and those pesky, unnecessary maps. Tolkien took no advance, electing to take a larger share of the profits after the book "earned out." 150 million copies later ...

1965 - Frank Herbert's Dune is initially published by Chilton Auto Publishers (yes, the automotive manuals). This excellent book discusses many aspects of the history and development of Frank Herbert, and now Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson's creative Dune universe.

1976 - Interview With the Vampire by Anne Rice is published by Alfred A. Knopf, nine months after its completion, and after five rejections. In 1974, Rice signed with literary agent Phyllis Seidel, who was able to place the book within two months. It was fundamentally the same book that received the rejections, and has since gone on to sell many millions of copies worldwide, and to serve as a foundation for many other books by Rice.

1996: Harry Potter & The Philosopher's Stone by J.K. Rowling is published by Bloomsbury in the UK, for a £2,500 advance, after it was rejected by eight other publishers. By 1998, Scholastic and Arthur Levine famously offered $105,000 for the rights to the book, which was retitled Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone for US publication.

2008: The Hunger Games sold to Scholastic for a "six figure advance" in 2006, and had a first printing of 50,000 copies, later to be exceeded by over 1 million copies sold. The Hunger Games books hit the children's book industry strongly, with many in the industry, as well as young readers, reading a post-apocalyptic tale of survival for the very first time - a tale and structure very familiar to readers of dozens of similar books published between the Cold War era and today, and to viewers of such films as Death Race 2000 and The Running Man.

The Hunger Games books are good books. Their primary innovation is the character of Katniss Everdeen. They were the first well-known books to feature a young female character physically fighting for her life and serving as an emerging leader in a science-fictional or fantasy context. They are a great example of a story that was right for its particular time. I am not entirely certain whether or not these books truly belong on this list, because I'm referring to long-tail, enduring bestsellers. The Hunger Games books are still too recent to evidence the staying power of Dune, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter -- and yes, Anne Rice's vampire books.

Suzanne Collins, by the way, was an employee of Scholastic and had an extensive background in children's television prior to the success and impact of the Hunger Games books. She also published five fantasy novels for young readers between 2003 and 2007 (with Scholastic) with titles, characters and topics eerily reminiscent of a better-known fantasy series. Harry Potter. These books are classic "midlist" books written in an already well-established market segment and trend.

Which brings us to: What do you want to write when you grow up?

The beloved books I've mentioned are all products of personal vision, belief, passion, and endless hours of work. Each of these books was received with less enthusiasm by the publishing industry upon its initial presentation than it was, eventually, by readers. Somehow, by some method or means, Margaret Mitchell, J.R.R. Tolkien, Frank Herbert and J.K. Rowling (sorry Suzanne Collins - you made some good corporate food work but I'm thinking it's kind of not Dune or Harry Potter) wrote something that was not only of great importance to them, but also communicated most effectively, and over a great deal of time and space, and in many different languages, to their audience of readers.

Great passion will have its day, and will find its voice: there is no question. I believed for many years that a great book would always, eventually, be published. Now, of course, this belief is nearly meaningless. All books can be published today.

A barrier has been removed as far as reaching the audience is concerned. 

The question I asked remains. "What do you want to write when you grow up?"

This question can only be answered by the individual author. What makes you most passionate? What do you believe in, care about, wish for, hope for, dream about? What nightmare do you wish to banish? What great love do you wish to feel? In what manner will you present your most closely-held hopes and dreams to others?

Much of what J.R.R. Tolkien was obsessed about has been revealed to readers through the publication of his many notebooks, drawings and drafts. By now, the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit have become so enduringly popular, virtually everything Tolkien committed to any scrap of paper has been published. The simple vision of a "scrawny, black-haired, bespectacled boy" that J.K. Rowling had on the train in 1990 has become not only the Harry Potter books and films, but an international merchandising industry, and a world in which millions of readers and fans wish to, in some way, experience and live. That strong. That powerful. As I've commented before, J.K. Rowling owes a tremendous amount to Charles Dickens, who told the first stories of little orphan boys on the outside, looking in.

This essay isn't about how stupid publishers and agents are, that they cannot seem to recognize the biggest, most enduring creative work without an extraordinary amount of prodding and/or happy/lucky accidents. All but the most isolated writers, writing individually and alone, are influenced by the larger world. Many writers spend their entire writing lives writing "what is expected."

There are those who wrote mashups following the popularity of Pride & Prejudice & Zombies in 2009. There are those who, upon seeing the rise in popularity of urban fantasy, wrote books featuring creatures of the fantastic in gritty urban settings. Today, there are nascent Hunger Games writers, and continued legions of Harry Potter-inspired individuals telling stories of wizarding schools and benighted orphan wizards, male, female, and transgendered.

If we're talking about big ideas here, and we are, all of these big books, in a certain respect, was a game-changer in one aspect or another, or in some cases, more than one aspect. Let's take Anne Rice's Interview With the Vampire. Vampire books were hardly the "coming thing" when that book was written in 1970. The concept of a first-person "interview" telling a vampire's story: also somewhat of a game-changer. This simple concept enabled the life of Louis, and through Louis, Lestat, to be told and shown to the reader. If you could live hundreds of years, what would that mean? In the 70s and 80s, there was one (1) highly successful female horror writer and she remains on top in many respects: Anne Rice. It is in some ways miraculous that the book saw publication, and she was able to build the career she has today, entertaining millions of readers with her deep passion and rich perspective. The character many people most-remember from Interview With the Vampire is Claudia, the little girl vampire beloved by both Louis and Lestat. It is said that Claudia was inspired by Anne's own daughter, who died of leukemia.

A well-known book exists, Writing the Blockbuster Novel by Albert Zuckerman. Zuckerman identifies a number of common elements to bestselling books. Nearly all of the books and authors Zuckerman covers in the book were also made into successful films. He correctly identifies common elements to bestselling novels - elements that coincidentally, cannot exist without authorial (and reader) passion. Yet even with following Zuckerman's guidance to the letter, a mediocre book can easily be written. Because there is an indefinable personal element that can only be contributed by the writer. It can only come from the writer's inner heart and soul. It's "who they are" and when that goes into a book, it is a piece of greatness. It is what writing fiction is about, in its highest sense. 

A writer writes from his or her heart. At some unknown later time, a reader reads it, and it becomes at that time, the reader's own story. And the reader is moved. Delighted. Engaged. Transported. Changed.

If you, the writer, have one chance to do this to another person -- a person you will likely never meet or talk to -- what is it you want to say to them? What do you wish them to say to themselves? When they read your work.

One of the several gaps and flaws in the traditional publishing system is that it makes it so very difficult for the writer to truly say what it is they mean to say. 

There are hundreds of years of written and creative history in which the "expected" stories are the only ones which could be told. We are familiar with the "Hero's Journey," dating from ancient myths and legends. For the entirety of the 19th century, there were two types of novels with female heroines: 1) she got married to the right guy; 2) she cheated and paid the price. That's it. Variation #1 remains the basis of 75% of Harlequin's output today. This is modified to: "She screwed the best guy and got rich" for alternative titles.

But our world is about the unexpected today. It's the era of the individual. And guess what? Being fully-human, and being individual, is hard.

We do have room today for as many stories as there are people. Yet some things remain common to all human experience.

Where do you, writer, fit? How will you cast the story that only you can tell?

As to me, I put my family and friends in it. If you'd like to beta read Like Fire, I will send you a copy. Please contact me at amysterlingcasil@gmail.com

Because I found what I wanted to write when I grew up.

Something BIG is Coming in 2014

I've had the sense ever since I finished LIKE FIRE on January 1 that something really big was coming to the world very soon.

By this, I mean I intuit that the world is getting ready for a very big change and it will be one for the better.

In an infantile sense, I've always been at least 3-4 months ahead of fashion and color trends. I was wearing white 4 months ago. I got ad blasts from Neiman-Marcus and others last week about all-white for winter. Exact outfits and things I'd selected or hunted out a few months ago. I'm feeling tomato red and maybe teal for spring ... FYI.

What I've been writing about is my family and friends in a larger-than-life story, where there is a world where only one land is ruled by a woman (democratically elected), and all others are some form of oligarchy, banditocracy, or hereditary rulership of some sort. In this world, which has already been devastated by constant warring over a resource that is now very scarce, the current generation is finding new ways of dealing with each other. Every character in some way is making a break with the past, with their families, with what they've believed and been told their whole lives. They may be doing something completely new, or they may simply be choosing to find their own way and not live as their parents and society have expected them to live.

So what this is, what is coming to us, is related to this because I write out of intuition and instinct.

• Some people - perhaps a lot of people - are going to consciously choose to stop living in fear and taking actions based in fear.
• Some people - perhaps a lot of people - are going to start their own businesses based at home, using new technology and means, including 3-D printing and Arduino chips.
• Some people - perhaps a lot of people - are going to be more open with others about who they are and what they believe, in full knowledge of the "consequences" they may endure from family and friends and others.
• Many fewer people will vote in elections in the west (I include North America and Europe).
• Many who have been laid off or have otherwise had their incomes reduced will seek out new and different ways of earning a living and will experience success.
• New forms of beneficial, healthy and affordable housing will genuinely take root and grow in North America and possibly other areas of the world.
• Self-education will become more formalized and will begin to impact traditional educational systems - let us hope in a positive and healthy way.
• More people will become aware of the unhealthy and dangerous aspects of corporate food and food culture and will choose to eat real food grown by real people in healthy ways.
• Empaths and intuitives will be more greatly and formally recognized. This will give many who have lived in hiding the opportunity to live in a more healthy, positive manner and increase their power many-fold.
• Trauma will be more greatly and formally recognized, and people will consciously begin to act to reduce and mitigate trauma to children, women and other vulnerable people, including the elderly and disabled, and those who live in dangerous, violent communities.
• Women will stop being tokens or "victims" and start being full participants in their areas of endeavor and work.

This will all begin in 2014. It has already happened to me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rules for Women in the 21st Century

 

1. Stop worrying about what other people think or say.
2. When you make a decision, stick to it.
3. Recognize no one is going to take care of you.
4. Decide to take care of yourself.
5. Take responsibility for your own actions and decisions.
6. Learn to be easy in your skin.
7. Don't take criticism to heart; learn from valid criticism.
8. Envision what you want.
9. Think about your values. Decide. Stick with what you have chosen no matter what.
10. Be free.

 

Yes, that's book promo.