frustration and slow going

[greygirlbeast]

So, I just got news from thingunderthest that LJ is finally going to have another permanent-account sale, beginning on June 21st and lasting for a week. And I must admit, $150 sounds like a good deal for a lifetime account. Which is to say, if the folks who read this blog want to pass around the collection plate, I wouldn't be offended.

Here in the shadows and blinding shafts of light I call home, we are presently "between checks." It's a peculiar state of pseudo-poverty generated by a general slowness on the part of publishers when it comes to actually paying their writers (please note that subpress is exempt from this statement; I'm talking the big NYC houses). So, we reach these interminable stretches of time where oodles of money is due, and/or past due, and I have learned to live in a sort of perpetual "feast or famine" cycle. When there's money, there's money. When there isn't, well, there is the promise of money to string me along. It's kind of like life on the savannas of Africa, what with the very dry and the very wet.

Meanwhile, yesterday, I tried to get back to work on The Dinosaurs of Mars. I returned to the "editor's preface." I even added a little to it. But it still doesn't work for me. I continue to be dogged by self doubt and questions of language in the mid 22nd Century. Always am I plagued by self doubt, but here it is actually preventing me from proceeding with the story. I didn't have this problem with The Dry Salvages or "Bradbury Weather" or "Riding the White Bull," but all that was before the Locus review's comment about my "facile use of shorthand TV-series lingo." Honestly, I'm not even sure what that means. And right now, I don't care anymore. I just want to tell this story. I am not a linguist, and even the best linguist would be hard-pressed to forecast the evolution of the English language over the next 141 years. I should simply put that review out of my mind and write the story and stop obsessing over the voices in which it will be told. I know that's what I should do. It occurs to me that there are people out there who take science fiction far too seriously, in that they forget that it is fiction and that there is no looking glass through which we may catch glimpses of the shape of things to come. Well, other than the predictive abilities of science, but that's another matter. The yardstick by which we measure the success of fiction is story and character and syntax, not predictive success. There's a quote from William Gibson that I would bring up here:

When you write a science-fiction novel set in some sort of recognizable future, as soon as you finish it you have the dubious pleasure of watching it acquire a patina of quaint technological obsolescence. For instance, there are no cell phones in Neuromancer. I couldn't have foreseen them. It would have seemed corny, like Dick Tracy wrist radios.

And Mr. Gibson is a much, much brighter fellow than I am. Well, actually, I don't suppose I'm any sort of a fellow, but you know what I mean. Unless you don't.

Not much else to say about yesterday. Byron dropped by at 7 p.m., and we had a very enjoyable dinner at The Vortex. Thank you, Byron. Sometimes, I think he should just marry me and Spooky and be done with it. Make honest, respectable women of us. Anyway, later there was Second Life...speaking of the future. My flat in Babbage is pretty much decorated and furnished. Soon, I must turn my thoughts to a public exhibition, as one thing Babbage is lacking is a NeoVictorian-Era geological museum. Sir Arthur says Salazar will be around this week to fix the lift, and I think I'm getting new windows, as well. Maybe a shiny new jet pack or a steam-powered Victrola would lift my spirits.

Comments

[coppervale.livejournal.com]

Heh. I am completely with you re: money from publishers. My particular issue is not with the publishers themselves (who have been very, very good to me), but with the gentle diplomacy that must be employed with creditors who don't realize how publishing works - specifically things like royalties, which are calculated and paid in very labor (and time) intensive ways...

[sclerotic-rings.livejournal.com]

I say with no sarcasm that you've been incredibly lucky, because I seemed to have a long run of publishers that went out of their way to lie to me about when I'd receive my checks. There's nothing quite like the kvell one gets when a publisher swears that you'll get your check in time to pay rent, and it shows up two months later at the same time the publisher lets you know all about his new Jaguar. Funny: I imagine they'd get rather pissy if they got paid last, but they act as if writers should be thanking them for working for free.

[coppervale.livejournal.com]

I HAVE been incredibly lucky with the fact that my current publisher is 1) very good about paying; and 2) loading up my schedule.

Doing the piecemeal job thing was more what you're talking about, especially with comics publishers. (Incidentally, a page from one of your stories is a prized possession of mine - a Totleben.)

I did a comics story last year that was running late; the editor said he was worried they wouldn't have time to get it lettered. I said I'd ALREADY lettered it, and he replied "Great! That'll save us some money!"

There have also been times that I very diplomatically used your example above. If my check was 'tied up in processing', I'd ask if they couldn't put it through the same system that cuts THEIR checks, without fail, every Friday.

[coppervale.livejournal.com]

Whoops! Forgot who I was replying to.

YOUR example; but the comic page is from a Caitlin story.

[wolven.livejournal.com]

That's the quote of which I was thinking...

Although, as a kid i did rather love the wrist radios, in Dick Tracy....

[stsisyphus.livejournal.com]

My flat in Babbage is pretty much decorated and furnished.

Hmm. Might we get a few moving-in pics?

As far as the 22nd century language goes, let me rally support for one of those instances in which the author cries out "oh holy hell, fuckit" and just runs with the damn thing. It's set dressing, not a linguistic study (speculative or otherwise).

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Might we get a few moving-in pics?

I took no photos during the actual moving-in. But I could get some now. Actually, maybe I'll have blu_muse do it, as my inworld photos always seem to come out kidn of flat and lifeless.

[sclerotic-rings.livejournal.com]

And don't you love the situation "between checks" where the same publisher who takes six months to pay on a "30 days or less" invoice wants you to do more while you're waiting to get paid for the previous work? Even if I hadn't quit writing, that explains in a nutshell why I had to turn down Scott Edelman when he asked me to come back to work for SCI FI, and Sovereign Media was still better about paying than Cinefantastique. (The latter phenomenon, by the way, is referred to as "taste-testing dog crap.")

[wishlish.livejournal.com]

As good as the LJ deal might be, $150 can buy 1-2 years of hosting with a WordPress blog. With that, you can sell Google ads and Amazon referrals (and the money's not bad if you have a vibrant community). WP has tons of new plug-ins to try, and you never have to worry that Rupert Murdoch is going to end up owning your words, ala MySpace.

But whatever you decide is cool. :)

[blakesrealm.livejournal.com]

While this is probably totally off-base, your comments about Science Fiction struck a cord. If this makes no sense I blame it on my own insomnia beast, who has reared it's ugly head once again.

It kind of reminds me of gaming, video gaming particularly. Sometimes you have games that are created that are so focused on the technology, societies (speaking of online games) and systems that support them that the developers forget that games are meant to be fun, first and foremost.

I see some Science Fiction the same way, where the author is so focused on building up their technology and world that they forget to supply well crafted plots with believable characters. They are so proud of their massive technological creations that they can't understand why people don't fall head-over-heels in love with their creations.

If a story, or game, doesn't have a soul, and doesn't grip you right off the bat I really don't care how great the dohicky you created is, it will not be finished by me.

OK, back to staring at the ceiling while listening to podcasts. Oh, joy. The sun is up.