Starting today, October 1st, you can read a new Halloween-themed short story by a different author each day for the whole month at Jack Wallen: Dark Twisty Fiction! My story will go up on October 24th, but there will be plenty to read before and after mine (the stories don’t have to be horror, but mine is). A bit about our host, Jack Wallen: he’s a multi-talented creative fellow, a prolific and excellent writer, and all around great person, so you should also check out his books while you’re on his site.
And since you’re here now, reading my blog, I will tell you, dear readers, that although my ability to focus hasn’t been great during the pandemic sandwich, I have been writing more this year than last. I don’t know how long it will be before I finish any one project, but sometimes you can’t worry about that. Sometimes you need to write to stay sane, cheer up, or escape from reality, just like sometimes you need to read a good book for the same reasons. Sometimes you need to write to process what you’ve been through. Or to express things you didn’t know you were feeling until a character vents onto the page. Sometimes you need to write to keep your writing skills honed, your ideas fresh, and your storytelling muscles strong. Right now, I’m not writing to finish anything. I’m writing because I need to, for all of the reasons above.
…And also because Jack needs my story by October 24th. 😉
After two years away from in-person conventions, coming back to Imaginarium truly felt like a homecoming–even in a new venue, which was a vast improvement in itself. This writer’s convention is always a highlight of my year, and I’m not alone. Year after year, new attendees fall in love with the welcoming vibe, the vibrant atmosphere, and the supportive friends they make at Imaginarium. It’s a true community of creatives that embraces writers and artists of all kinds, featuring panels and workshops for novelists, poets, non-fiction writers, songwriters, filmmakers, game designers, and visual artists all under one roof, as well as gaming and dance, magic, and live music performances on site. And then there’s just the pure camaraderie that such an atmosphere fosters…the shop talk dinners together, the hotel bar hangout time, and the room parties (albeit with limited numbers this year for pandemic safety).
Just a few members of the wonderful Imaginarium family. Photo by David Simms
Aside from being in a new location this year, it was also the first time Imaginarium has run as a virtual and live event at the same time, so there was a lot going on! However, it does mean that a lot of people who couldn’t come in person were able to enjoy great content from home, and for a limited time the film festival movies are available online for those who purchased either live or in person tickets. Since I’m always too busy with panels, running the vendor table for the press, etc. during the live event, I’m looking forward to getting to check out the films I missed!
My panels this year were on the topics of writing historical fiction (in person), writing steampunk (in person), worldbuilding (virtual), and cross-genre fiction (virtual). I also ran a workshop, Crafting Cross-Genre, for the third year in a row (virtual last year but in person in 2019 and 2021), this time with an extra mini-exercise on choosing details. These are all some of my favorite topics, and I enjoyed sharing ideas with the audience as well as getting some good advice from fellow panelists (in particular regarding approaches to writing a mystery without an outline, something I really needed insight on!)
And that’s Imaginarium in a nutshell: there’s always so much to share and so much to learn from others, and the convention staff have consistently provided an atmosphere that nurtures true fellowship and a deep sense of belonging. My heart and my imagination are so full right now as I think back on all our conversations this weekend!
My first convention since lockdown was Inconjunction this past weekend (July 2-4) in Indianapolis, and it seemed to be everyone’s first event back. It was smaller and more subdued than usual, but that was all right–everyone was happy to see each other after two years apart, happy to welcome newcomers, and happy to respect one another’s social distancing and mask preferences and the guidelines laid out by the convention staff for safety. Many of us have experienced big life changes since we last saw our convention friends, and hugs were extra tight and not entirely dry-eyed.
I was a speaker on four panels: The Best Thing Ever! (What got you through 2020), Pantsing Prep (writing advice from and for those of us who write “by the seat of our pants” instead of outlining), Worldbuilding (writing tips for creating a well-built setting), and Books on Repeat (books we love to reread and why). My partners in crime the press, Per Bastet Publications, and I had a table in the vendor’s hall, as well, selling books and bookmarks.
Holding down the fort at the Per Bastet table in the vendor hall (Photo by Molly Daniels)
All in all, it was a great event to come back on. The con staff are accessible, helpful, and fun to chat with, as well. I know it wasn’t easy to organize the convention this year, but they did a great job! The hotel, the Marriott East, hosts the event every year and is always pleasant, but this year the staff was over the top great. In spite of being understaffed, they went above and beyond to make sure things went smoothly for us, from the wait staff at the bar/restaurant to the cleaning staff. Shout out to all the people who worked hard so we could have fun and talk shop this weekend!
Next up is Imaginarium Convention in Louisville, Kentucky, July 9-11, and even though I’m still tired from this weekend, I can’t wait! It’s another one we attend every year and are always glad we did, and it will be in a new venue this time. This year they’re offering both an in-person and a virtual event. I’ll be a speaker on panels for both the live and the virtual shows, as well as running my third annual workshop, Crafting Cross-Genre Fiction.
I ran my first workshop last weekend at Imaginarium 2019 (the most awesome event in Louisville). Given that I am not a morning person, that I’d never run a workshop before, and that I stayed up late on Saturday night because (a) friends, (b) beer, and (c) Imaginarium entertainment, I thought it went pretty well!
My topic was Crafting Cross-Genre Fiction, which is something I love to do and love to talk about with other writers. I will say that I think in the future I would open up some audience participation early in the workshop, right after introducing myself. I think things really started to come alive when I asked people if they already had an idea or a work in progress that blended genres, and I wish I had opened with that instead of giving my talk right off the bat (particularly given how well I speak in the morning.) So I file that away for next time, and pass it on to others out there who might be doing their first workshops and are looking for tips.
But what I was most pleased with was how my activity went! Here is what I did: before the convention, I made a spreadsheet with 22 genre and subgenre categories and 22 “wildcard” story or world elements. I coded playing cards to those 44 options (I plan to modify this method*). At the workshop, everyone drew 2 cards from the wildcard stack and 2 cards from the genre/subgenre stack. Everyone was allowed to trade out one card if they wished to. Then we spent about 10 minutes writing a “book blurb” (the teaser on the back of a book) based on the elements we drew.
Here's exactly how my 9am workshop was. Minus the dead animals hanging from the ceiling.
Funny thing was, three of us (myself included) randomly ended up with elements that described something we had already written or were working on! Some crazy serendipity there.
Everyone who attended came up with really great ideas, every one of which I would totally read if I came across it! Tried it out back at the vendor table with some of my cohorts, too, and they came up with awesome ideas, as well. So I’m very happy with the exercise, but for the sake of simplicity I think *the coding method could be tweaked. There’s probably an easier method with the cards and cards have the advantage that once one is drawn, no one else will get the same thing as the others. I would definitely use two different decks of two different colors in the future to ensure that the two stacks stay distinct. It might also be reasonable in a small group to cut out four of the 44 options and use four 20-sided dice of two different colors, and just re-roll if anything gets repeated. Or you could draw slips from two separate hats! If anyone thinks of a better method, feel free to comment and tell me!
If you want to give the game a shot, pick your way to randomize and play! Here are my lists, but you can make up your own wildcards or use genres or subgenres I didn’t think of:
#
Genres & Subs (pick 2)
#
Wildcards (pick 2)
1
Fantasy
A
on a spaceship
2
Science Fiction
B
in the Jazz Age
3
Romance
C
in an ancient civilization
4
Mystery
D
with humorous elements
5
Thriller
E
with a dragon
6
Horror
F
in a foreign country
7
Historical Fiction
G
with a ghost
8
Suspense
H
with a robot
9
Comedy
I
during the Revolution
10
Paranormal
J
when pirates show up
11
Survival
K
in a hidden world
12
Steampunk
L
after civilization crumbles
13
Cyberpunk
M
with a cat
14
Dystopian
N
with supernatural creatures
15
Alternate History
O
and magic
16
Western
P
leading to a trial
17
Noir
Q
while on the run from the mob
18
Futuristic
R
while on the run from agents
19
Retro
S
before recorded history
20
Gothic
T
after the village is raided
21
Satire
U
when an invention changes everything
22
Coming-of-Age
V
during a family reunion
Here is one of the combos I drew and the blurb I did based on it:
Romance / Alternate History / On a spaceship / Leading to a trial
Tsarina Catherine the Great is at the height of her reign when she is taken away by the dashing captain of a spaceship from an alien world. While Pugachev takes control of Russia in her absence, the Tsarina falls in love with Captain Gugog*. But the captain’s superiors demand her return and court-martial Gugog for interfering with Earth’s affairs. How will Catherine and Gugog sustain the flame they have kindled as the forces of two worlds try to tear them asunder?
*Gugog is a random thing my family says, as in, “You’re such a gugog!” or “That thingy, you know, the gugog!” Since I couldn’t think of a name off the top of my head, Captain Gugog.
So Per Bastet Publications (which includes me!) threw a room party at this year’s Imagniarium, and we went crazy with the food. By popular request, I am posting the recipes for two of the things I brought.
Watermelon Salad
1 pound watermelon, cubed
3 oz goat cheese or feta
3/4 cup fresh basil, shredded
1/4 cup roasted almonds, crushed
1 lime, quartered
salt & pepper to taste
Drain watermelon (personally, I drain it right into a cup which gets emptied immediately into my belly). Combine everything except the lime. Squeeze the hell out of the lime over the salad and mix everything well. The watermelon will produce more juice than you know what to do with because of the salt, but that’s what spoons are made for.
Spinach Artichoke Dip
6 to 10 oz fresh baby spinach
2 12-oz jars marinated artichokes
1/2 cup sour cream
8 oz cream cheese
2-4 Tb heavy whipping cream (as needed for consistency)
1 cup Italian blend or pizza blend shredded cheese
1/2 cup Parmesan
minced garlic to taste
salt & pepper to taste
Drain and chop the artichokes, break the stems off the spinach, and combine everything in a slow cooker. Cook 2 hours on high or 4 hours on low. I used a cheese blend that included mozzarella, smoked provolone, Monterrey jack, and Asiago. Easy to make ahead, and reheat takes about an hour or hour and a half, stirring occasionally to keep the bottom from scorching.
A note: when I say salt and pepper in nearly any recipe, what I really mean is this specific blend, which I adore and which my mom always uses —
Jane’s Krazy Mixed-Up Seasoning is the magic. IT IS MAGIC and they don’t pay me to say so.
These recipes (and some beer, wine, and whiskey) will please many writers and possibly also regular people, too.
Yevgeny Zamyatin is among my literary heroes. A subversive writer who protested first the Czarist and then the Bolshevik governments in Russia during the tumultuous period between 1900 and the 1930s, Zamyatin was multi-talented and pretty damn close to fearless. He wrote novels, short stories, political essays, literary criticism, and plays; edited literary magazines and journals; served on editorial and theatrical boards; mentored the Serapion Brothers Literary Group; lectured on Russian literature, naval engineering, and creative writing; and designed warships for Russia and England during World War I.
Somehow, with all that on his plate, he also managed to find time to be exiled on three separate occasions. The first time, he was a student in St. Petersburg (known in the Soviet years as Petrograd) who regularly participated in demonstrations against the Czarist government and was caught hiding an illegal printing press in his dorm room. He was exiled from the city in 1905, but he sneaked back in to finish his degree in 1906. Through a bureaucratic loophole, he was able to stay and begin his teaching career at the Polytechnic Institute. He was exiled from the city again in 1911 and then sent to Ukraine in 1913 to get him out of Russia. He worked on warships in England from 1916-1917, where he became an associate of George Orwell (Orwell’s 1984 would be heavily inspired by Zamyatin’s ideas and his novel We). Zamyatin managed, again, to sneak back into St. Petersburg, this time for the 1917 Russian Revolution.
Although Zamyatin had been a Bolshevik since his student days, he was (like many others) repulsed by the brutality of the civil war that followed the Revolution, as well as the pressure for conformity which the new Bolshevik government imposed on society. Zamyatin was as quick to criticize the authorities of the Soviet regime as he had been those of the Czarist regime, earning him epitaphs such as “The First Dissident,” “The Devil of Soviet Literature,” “The Soviet Heretic,” and “the most left-wing man in Russia.” His 1920 novel We became the first novel banned in the USSR; it wasn’t even published yet, and had only been read in literary circles in manuscript format. (It was published abroad in 1924 and would go on to inspire Orwell’s 1984, Huxley’s Brave New World, and Vonnegut’s Player Piano.) Truth in literature, empathy toward others, and a deep awareness of reality were paramount in Zamyatin’s philosophy. He once wrote, “It is not possible to build on negative emotions. Genuine literature will come only when we replace hatred for man with love for man,” (The Goal).
In 1931, after being systematically banned from publication and from the theater, and removed from his teaching positions, he wrote a letter to Stalin requesting to leave the Soviet Union to live abroad. Here is a quote from that letter which pretty well displays Zamyatin’s lack of fear:
I know that I have the very uncomfortable habit of saying what is not advantageous at a given moment, but whatever I believe to be the truth. I never concealed what I think of literary servility, toadyism, and coat changing. I have always thought and I continue to think that such things are as degrading for the writer as they are to the revolution.”
Yevgeny Zamyatin to Yosef Stalin, 1931
As much to Zamyatin’s surprise as anyone’s, Stalin granted passports to Yevgeny and his wife. The Zamyatins traveled in Germany and Czechoslovakia before settling in Paris, where they met Marc Slonim, the man who had published We. Sadly, Zamyatin’s health deteriorated rapidly; he had heart disease. Slonim sheltered him and helped nurse him through his final years before Zamyatin died in 1937.
The striking thing (to me) about Zamyatin’s ideas, his philosophy, his writing advice, is how deeply rooted they are in his particular moment in time and place, and yet how universally they apply. Some of Zamyatin’s quips and quotes could belong just as well to an L.A. punk rocker of the 1970s or a Zen philosopher as a subversive shouting his message from the early days of the USSR.
Yevgeny Zamyatin, the “Devil of Soviet Literature”
A few fun facts:
As a child, Zamyatin was bitten by a rabid dog. He didn’t tell anyone until two weeks later, because he wanted to see what it would feel like to have rabies. Luckily for him, he didn’t contract the disease
Zamyatin struggled with math as a child; he chose to study engineering specifically to challenge himself
Zamyatin applied Einstein’s theory of relativity to his writing style, which is why he avoids chronological narration, changes point of view, utilizes multiple planes of action, and expands time relative to the moment in his work
Zamyatin was deeply inspired by Dostoevsky, particularly his concept that the irrational is the ultimate source of freedom and individuality (most famously expressed in The Brothers Karamazov in the Grand Inquisitor sequence)
Zamyatin quotes:
“We have long become overgrown with calluses; we no longer hear people being killed,” The Dragon: Fifteen Stories
“If I mean anything to Russian literature, I owe this completely to the Petrograd Secret Service.”
“Irony, sarcasm, and satire are the most effective weapons of progress…for stopping man kneeling before someone or something.”
“There are books of the same chemical composition as dynamite. The only difference is that a piece of dynamite explodes once, whereas a book explodes a thousand times,” A Soviet Heretic
“Who knows who you are…a person is a novel: you don’t know how it will end until the very last page. Otherwise it wouldn’t be worth reading to the very end,” We
“Knowledge! What does that mean? Your knowledge is nothing but cowardice… You just want to put a little wall around infinity. And you’re afraid to look on the other side of that wall,” We
If you’re curious to read some Zamyatin, I can’t recommend enough the short story “The Cave.” It’s my favorite of his works that I’ve read. The novel We, as you can tell from this post, is probably his most important piece in terms of influence on literature.
This past Friday-Sunday (July 5-7) I spent in Indianapolis at InConjunction Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention. As usual at these types of events, I was wearing the multiple hats of vendor, panelist, writer, reader, and partner/marketing director in the small press publishing house, Per Bastet Publications. This might seem like a lot of hats, but I’m used to it.
Although my panels were MANY, they were a lot of fun, and a nice mix of readings and discussions. I did two readings (one action scene from my novel The Life and Death (but mostly the death) of Erica Flynn and one fun scene from the opening of my short story “She Who Dines on Heavenly Food), swapped book recommendations at the Best Book I Read Since InConjunction 2018 panel, spoke on a panel on world-building, and spoke on a panel about balancing plot-driven and character-driven elements in writing.
I was also very excited and honored to be on two panels with the curator of the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library and the director of the Center for Ray Bradbury Studies at Indiana University (shout out to Doug Powers for the fantastic job he did as moderator)! The first was about science fiction in Vonnegut’s works, and my part was mainly to comment as a Vonnegut reader and as a writer of speculative fiction–although Vonnegut and I do have in common a degree in anthropology, which shows up in the way he writes about both our society and fictional societies in his work. The second panel was about censorship and banned books, which both apply to Vonnegut and Bradbury, but also to another little niche of mine: while I was getting that aforementioned anthropology degree, I did two projects on censorship: one on censorship in general, and one on Soviet subversive literature during the Stalin era. Here’s the thing about being on panels and attending panels: you come away really excited about things all over again. I’ve been away from academia since I graduated in 2015, but being on these two panels in particular reminded me of all the things I miss about it. Not that I don’t talk about ideas a lot, and not that I’m not constantly learning new things in my current capacity as a CRM archaeologist, but damn, school was fun.
It also made me realize that, hey, I have a blog that’s primarily about writing, and that I’ve said very little here about the brilliance, courage, and resourcefulness of subversive Russian writers. Also that I have a lot to say, and that I use my blog far too little for someone who’s as impassioned about as many topics as I am. So, dear readers, although my primary focus at the moment is finishing The Death and Times of Seth McCoy, methinks I’ll try to write a few posts here in the near future about two of my literary heroes, Yevgeny Zamyatin and Mikhail Bulgakov.
If you write, whether you’re published or trying to be or are just starting out, I can’t stress to you enough how good for you it is to attend conventions. Many writers are not people people, or are not good with crowds, or are not good with strangers, or are socially awkward, or all of the above. I don’t exclude myself from at least a few of these categories (one of my dreams is to own a coffee mug that says I’d rather be digging your grave) but there’s this gorgeous energy you only get from conventions, and you’re cheating yourself if you don’t tap into it. Everybody else there is just as nerdy as you are, after all. And once you step into it, you’re family. Seeing friends and welcoming newcomers is part of the joy, and one not absent for me this weekend!
For me personally, there is also always the benefit of sharing even the shittiest hotel room with my crime business partners, T. Lee Harris and Marian Allen a.k.a. Mom, who loves me so much she bought me a plague rat from one of the vendors this weekend. His name is Bubo.
Bubo the Plague Rat. Yes, that is a Wolfman figurine astride Ein from Cowboy Bebop in the background.
Released today on Amazon Kindle is my short story, Mernan’s Betrayal, for the low low price of 99 cents! Originally published in Southern Indiana Writers’ Off the Rack anthology, it’s the first of the Tales of Pasmira stories to be published.
Click image to see on Amazon!
The use of magic is forbidden to everyone but the village mage, Mernan. But a stranger from the north, a man of the longren race said to be descended from dragons, is caught nearby, and the villagers demand his execution. Mernan must choose between his duty and his conscience to decide the stranger’s fate. This story is one of many Tales from Pasmira, a world where humans, elves, longren, and rarer races coexist in anything but harmony.
This story is based in a world I began building for a novel back in 1998. The world has by far overflowed what one novel can hold, with over 1500 years of history timelined and a plethora of legends, characters, creatures, and encounters with their own stories to tell. This is the first of these stories released, and takes place in the equivalent of the Bronze Age. Most of the others take place roughly a thousand years later. I hope (fingers crossed!) to announce the publication of another before long, and there will eventually be a collection, at least one novella or novel, and possibly a storytelling game! But for now, here is an introduction to the world of Pasmira.
This past week, my mom (fellow author and fellow member of Per Bastet Publications) Marian Allen, hosted a writer’s retreat for the Southern Indiana Writers Group (which I am technically a member of even though I live in Louisville and rarely make the meetings). The retreat was in my late grandmother’s house (next door to my parents’ house) in the woods, which renters recently vacated–Just in time for NaNoWriMo!
While we didn’t experience any ghostly activity (which is why the renters left) whatsoever, we did get a lot of writing done! And a lot of drinking. And a lot of eating good food, despite the fact that there is no stove or refrigerator in the house anymore. Thankfully, the third member of Per Bastet, T. Lee Harris, brought a mini-fridge and a griddle and an outlet-powered cooler, and Mom brought her Instant Pot cooker, and there was a microwave. All the attending writers took turns making meals and cleaning up, and everybody brought some booze, and we had a great time talking story at mealtimes. The rest of the time, we were pretty quiet because, you know, WRITING.
And there was no TV and only a smidgeon of internet, but that was okay because WRITING! There were also no beds, so the options were floor, air mattress, or cot, but despite sleeping on the floor I zonked out at night because my brain was so worn out from WRITING.
The outcome: 22.5 pages (just under 6,000 words) in 6 days, plus I fixed a bunch of problems in the previously-written part of the manuscript. Not bad! And I’m still on a
Grandma in her kitchen, c. 2002
roll, having written another 600+ words this evening (so far) after work. Plus I got to visit with friends, my parents (Dad had dinner with us one night), and my grandma’s house. Grandma would have been tickled to know we used her home for a writer’s retreat, and even more so that two books she was particularly looking forward to reading were being drafted there this week. ❤
So I’ve only successfully drafted a 50,000 word manuscript one year out of the four I’ve participated, but I still love National Novel Writing Month, which is November. If nothing else, it’s something to look forward to about an otherwise cold, rainy, darker-by-the-day month that’s only a taste of the icy misery to come (can you tell I’m not a winter person?) Besides, any event that encourages creatives to prioritize their creativity is a Good Thing in my worldview. I’ve badly needed to prioritize writing and haven’t been very disciplined about it, so that’s my main goal this NaNo.
And I do have a leg up this year, since I’ve already drafted the core of my storyline in just under 20,000 words. Now it’s a matter of building around it and making it coherent, tying together loose ends, and writing the ending. Easier said than done, of course, but it sure beats having a zero word count and no direction! So yesterday I re-read what I’d already written and today I added 1,000 words–500 before I wasn’t sure what to do and another 500 after I took a shower and worked out what the story needed.
So, to all of you who are doing NaNo, either by the official rules or adapted to suit your own writing purposes, happy November, and good luck to us all!
Sara Marian 