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Post by marianne on Aug 9, 2006 22:16:59 GMT
I should mention that we jumped the gun a bit here and that our UK and US members are a day behind.
Sonny, would you like to write in other tie-in universes?
What is your ultimate goal in writing?
MDP
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sonny
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Post by sonny on Aug 9, 2006 23:51:34 GMT
Cool!! What was it like trying to get your first novel/article published? And did the experience change for subsequent ones? Morning all (well, it is, here ;D) First article was easy because SCUBA diving in Australia back in the early 1970s was not a common sport, and very few woman dived on a regular basis. Australian Boating wanted to do a feature on SCUBA diving as a recreational aspect to boating. I was writing a thesis at the time, so I was bullied into the 'writing' aspect 'coz I could string two words together and add full stops in the right places. I was also doing a lot of underwater photography which again, back then, was not common. That was paying may way through uni. Once you start down that track, people then come to you asking if you can do such and such, and so on it goes, because people in the industry keep an eye for what other magazines are doing. My most recent magazine publication was the cover story for this January's Australian Photography on how to photograph an erupting volcano without getting killed. Prior to that I had something in National Geographic. Next publication will likely be a couple of interviews I did with actors for the official Stargate magazine. So you need to be very flexible in this regard. I always advise people getting into this, (those who do not do a degree in journalism or writing - something I regret and am now making up for) to start off writing what you know, and start by submitting to small press publications to develop a resume and a reputation. As to getting a book published the first time. I went through the same wallpaper-the -bedroom-with-rejection-slips as most everyone else. Then I entered The Rhesus Factor in a Canadian SF competition for unpublished works. Mike Resnik was the judge. The story picked up a Draco Award for Excellence in SF, and a publishing contract. It did very well in Canada, and that landed me a contract for Ark Ship. Both are still available at Amazon and also as e-books. Having been published once helps get your foot in the door, but you're only ever as good as the last story or book you wrote *for that publisher*. While the publishers of Stargate novels will look at my story proposals ahead of other writers who have not yet worked with them, I still have to go through the same submissions and editing process as everyone else. So while I know my story will jump the cue, and won't end in a slush pile, the general approach remains unchanged. This is an industry where, unless you're Dan Brown, you can't sit back and think, oh, I've made it, now I can coast. If I want to go to, say, Harper Collins cap in hand with a story, I might get past the slush pile because of my prior books, but they may still reject the manuscript because it's not right for their market, or because it sucks for any number of other reasons. So, once you get that foot in, you need to be on top of your game, and stay there. Sonny
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sonny
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Post by sonny on Aug 10, 2006 0:24:32 GMT
I should mention that we jumped the gun a bit here and that our UK and US members are a day behind. Sonny, would you like to write in other tie-in universes? BSG - but I'd love to see how you'd handle that, too! James Swallow, one of my fellow Stargate authors, has a proposal in, so I think I'll sit back and watch for a bit I wish I had the talent to write West Wing, but I can only stand in awe. Right now, I think I'd have to say Eureka. That's just plain fun. Pure SF, quirky, and a lovely dark suburban underbelly. 4400 also has enormous storytelling potential. What is your ultimate goal in writing? MDP To eat? Seriously, I'd love to be at the top of the game to the point where the novels I write are in their fifth printing, and a sixth is well on the way. I could then afford to sit back and take a year or two to write each novel, travelling at whim to research ideas and settings. Sonny
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Post by Chirugal on Aug 10, 2006 13:40:48 GMT
Hi Sonny, thanks for coming in. ^_^
Writing for Stargate, do you find it's a problem separating your Stargate side of writing from your original stuff, or do you find it easy to seperate the two?
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sonny
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Post by sonny on Aug 11, 2006 0:30:29 GMT
Hi Sonny, thanks for coming in. ^_^ Writing for Stargate, do you find it's a problem separating your Stargate side of writing from your original stuff, or do you find it easy to seperate the two? Hi Chirugal, Good question! I think the only way to answer this to explain the sequence of events, because I tend to be very, very focused on whatever I’m doing at the time. Certainly the short story I mentioned in a post above, Deconstructing the Butterfly Effect, was a subliminal bleed over of Jack O’Neill and Samantha Carter’s characters traits. Once I recognized that, however, it was easy to disentangle them. (You may disagree. It’s still available online as an e-story: www.double-dragon-ebooks.com/single.asp?isbn=DDP01WHITELAW&genre=)When I was contracted to write City of the Gods, I had another non-Stargate novel called Chimera pretty much completed, but in need of a good weeding. After City of the Gods, which, I admit, used the original opening scene from Deconstructing in the prologue, I went back and finished Chimera because it was a story I had to get out of my head. I had almost finished in prior to 9-11 and had to stop that night, because it was simply too close to what was happening, and I found that emotionally, well, weird I guess is the best term. The characters in that were already fully formed, so finishing it without any bleed over from other characters wasn’t an issue. With Chimera done, I began writing a sequel to Ark Ship. This was a spec project insofar as I did not have a contract with a publisher to write it, so there was no guarantee that it would be published. While Stargate Atlantis had just been released, and I knew the publisher would eventually want stories in that world, I didn’t think we could write them until a year or two into the series…until I saw the character of Rodney McKay. David Hewlett’s take on this character was so incredible that I remember literally leaping off the lounge and saying, “That’s it! This is perfect! We’ve got McKay!” And it was – still is – such a wonderful character that Ark Ship II was put on hold. The publisher liked the story ideas for Atlantis, and there was immediate and strong fan feedback re McKay and Weir, so we had these wonderfully complex and contradictory characters to play with. Currently, I’m writing another SG-1 title with another Atlantis title contracted next year, so my head is well and truly immersed in that world. I won’t attempt to write outside of that world until I have these two stories out of my head, but Ark Ship II is evolving somewhere in the depths of my sub-conscious. In short, I’m lousy at multi-tasking and I like to focus on one thing at a time, so it’s relatively easy to keep things separated. Sonny
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Post by marianne on Aug 11, 2006 0:40:33 GMT
So if your dream goal becomes a reality i.e. you get paid well enough to research and publish what you like, from a purely creative pov, what sort of books would you like to write in the future?
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sonny
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Post by sonny on Aug 11, 2006 2:04:12 GMT
So if your dream goal becomes a reality i.e. you get paid well enough to research and publish what you like, from a purely creative pov, what sort of books would you like to write in the future? I want to draw a bridge bewteen the ideas started in The Rhesus Factor and finished in Ark Ship, which was set 500 years later. The Rhesus Factor examined the world as it might be in 2017. We're coming perilously close to that condition in 2006. We've had the predicted terrorist attack on the US that saw the subsequent invasion of Iraq. We're having another major scrap in the Middle East that may yet trigger something global. Access to pottable water is becoming a very series concern - even right here in Brisbane. Retroviruses and bird flu are scaring the pants of my epidemiologist mates, and our health care systems worldwide are indeed crumbling - how will society and governments deal with a major epidemic? And of course, climate change is already impacting every aspect of our lives, often in ways most people don't think about, like the cost of their household insurance. As several people have pointed out, what makes The Rhesus Factor so terrifying is the verisimilitude. My agent got on the phone immediately after New Orleans was devastated and asked me how I knew *exactly* what was going to happen. The answer is simply in taking the time to do the research and then projecting the logical consequences. Rhesus was my first novel, and I've learned a lot since then about packaging a story. It's now almost seven years later, and I'd love the time to explore the socio-economic consequences in more depth. What will actually happen when systems are pushed so far that they simply collapse? SF is ultimately about how people deal with and live within environments that are outside the familiar. Our familiars are being torn to shreds far faster than at any other time in written history, and on a global scale. How will we, as people, deal with that? I don't want to write this kind of story as SF, though, but as something that feels and tastes so real that it becomes a sort of contemporary non-genre horror story. Of course, things *are* changing so fast that it would probably be out of date before it was published . Sonny
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Post by lynnejamneck on Aug 11, 2006 3:11:20 GMT
Hi Sonny,
I was wondering if you could tell us a bit about the current Australian speculative climate in terms of fiction - any particular trends that you've seen developing recently?
Thanks!
Lynne
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sonny
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Post by sonny on Aug 11, 2006 10:12:21 GMT
Hi Sonny, I was wondering if you could tell us a bit about the current Australian speculative climate in terms of fiction - any particular trends that you've seen developing recently? Thanks! Lynne Hi Lynne, I'm afraid I'm out of the loop in terms of what's happening in Australia. I think Marianne has a better grasp of that, as her books are published here as well as OS, whereas I have never had published a work of speculative fiction in Aus, and not one of my books are commonly sold here. (By commonly, I mean some of the specialist shops have one or two, and Borders Brisbane are a wonderfully supportive exception). On the point of spec fic as a general market, I may be talking through my hat, here, but I'm inclined to think that while it's still seen as the marginalised poor cousin of the literary market (and tie-ins as the marginalised poor cousin of *that* market), in fact spec fic as a whole is a huge business. However, I must stress that I base this comment on a general, second hand feel, which includes the trend in television series that start out mainstream then do a left turn into SF in order to maintain ratings. Let's face it, twenty years ago Trekkies were a weird bunch and conventions were rare events. Now, SF is a huge breadwinner for networks. Stargate is the second biggest cash cow for MGM after the James Bond franchise, and that's saying something because MGM have the single biggest film library in the world. And there are hundreds of spec fic conventions annually; it's become a global business in its own right, and travel companies are now getting in on the 'convention tour' business. A case in point is Supanova Brisbane last Easter. Brisbane is hardly a major city in relative terms, but something like 8,000 people went through the doors. That has to say something about consumer trends, and I would be surprised if that did not have a knock-on effect in the publishing industry, here as well as OS. Sonny
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Post by Chirugal on Aug 11, 2006 13:12:13 GMT
How do you go about researching? Is it something you enjoy or do you see it as a necessary evil?
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sonny
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Post by sonny on Aug 12, 2006 1:30:40 GMT
How do you go about researching? Is it something you enjoy or do you see it as a necessary evil? Hi Chirugal, I remember when I was at uni back in the late 1970s, I was listening to a guest lecturer who was describing his work on the mathematics of breaking waves. I turned to my tutor, who was doing his PhD in that subject, and asking if he followed what the hell the guy was on about. Nope, the tutor had gotten lost about 5 minutes into the lecture. I found – still find – that sort of thing very frustrating. I want to communicate complex ideas in simple ways so the average person can understand. To do that, I need to understand a subject as thoroughly as possible without making it a lifetime research project. So to me, research is not a necessary evil or something I think about as enjoyable, but the core of my writing, and the most interesting aspect of my life. The challenge is then to distill that information into a story. Having said that, the trick is to never let the facts get in the way of a good story. To quote Mark Twain: first get your facts right, then distort them at leisure. Sonny
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Jac
Mueno
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Post by Jac on Aug 12, 2006 13:06:32 GMT
Hi Sonny,
Thanks for sparing the time to come and talk to us. It is much appreciated.
What advice would you give to struggling or just starting writers? Do you think building a collection of short story credits is a good way to get noticed or should we just stick to writing novels?
J
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sonny
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Post by sonny on Aug 12, 2006 22:46:27 GMT
Hi Sonny, Thanks for sparing the time to come and talk to us. It is much appreciated. What advice would you give to struggling or just starting writers? Do you think building a collection of short story credits is a good way to get noticed or should we just stick to writing novels? J Hi Jac, I'm not a short (fictional) story writer; I don't think I really have that skill. Non-fiction pieces are fine, but when I write a short story I start packing it with too much info. I've had only one short story published, the one mentioned above, Deconstructing the Butterfly Effect. It was rejected by a couple of editors with the comment that it was amazing, but needed to be developed into a novella, or even novel. I've just submitted another short story called The Promise, to a second magazine, having not heard back from the first. I've talked to several short story writers who feel they could never write a novel, but then of course the SF world is replete with those skilled in both. For those just starting out, I would strongly recommend a college or uni course in writing or journalism, not just to acquire the writing skills and understanding literary theory, which applies to all genres, but to develop the contacts in the industry. If this is not possible, don't waste your money on the gimmicky 'write a novel in 3 months' courses you see online or in newspapers because 99.9% of them are offered by people who haven't published a letter to the editor. Do, however, join your local literary group and scout around for supportive critique groups; you can often find these online. I suspect you will find that there are writers’ centres in one form or another in most major cities, often government sponsored. We have Brisbane Writers Centre, for example, and our local library has a Writer in Residence (Louise Cusack) who is running a workshop over several months. While most workshops are not free, the value from attending is phenomenal. The trick is to do a little homework, find out about the writing of the person running the workshop, and put some thought into what you like about their style, what appeals to you. While it's nice having someone come up to me at a workshop and say, 'I loved your book', in that environment I'd really like them to say, 'I liked how you made it all seem like it could have really happened. How did you do that? How can I do that?' Because there are fundamental principles in creating a believable world, and they can be taught, just like any skill. Online critique groups are also good - so long as you find a supportive group. These groups are self-help insofar as you will also need to critique others' works, which is an amazing way to identify flaws in your own writing, and techniques that you might be able to employ yourself. This is not plagiarism, as I'm not talking about stealing their story ideas, so much as pace, timing, dramatic pause, use of smell and sound rather than visual imagery, and so forth. There is also less concern in such a peer group about being embarrassed by presenting your work. Having said that, you need to get past the feeling embarrassed stage very, very quickly, because honest feedback is the only way you will learn, however, it can feel very personal at first. That’s one of the primary reasons why people never become professional writers - they can't hack criticism. I have been known to have tears rolling down my cheeks from my Stargate editor, hardly able to breath because I’m laughing so hard at some amazing blunder I’ve made, and one of her utterly hilarious and very pointed remarks. My co-author feels the same and I suspect we may actually squabble about who gets to do the line edit because it is sheer, unadulterated entertainment to see how badly I can screw up sometimes. Once you are published, you are not necessarily going to receive glowing praise, either. Some critics, generally those who can’t write so have become critics, delight in tearing you as well as your work to shreds. Others, particularly an established fandom like Stargate, are so invested in their own POV that they literally go psycho and write amazing stuff on Amazon, letters to the publisher, studio, Brad Wright, MGM, abusing everyone right down to the tea-lady in the publisher’s office for having the gall to allow such crap to be printed. And that’s just because they didn’t like the cover! So, you need to learn to sort useful, constructive criticism from those who really do need to get a life, and the best way to start is a critiquing group. If anyone is in the Brisbane area next Saturday (Aug 19) at 10am, our local library at Logan Hyperdome has asked me in to run a seminar titled Modern Myths and Flawed Science, at 10am. Entry is free. While this is not a writer’s workshop, I will be talking about how mythology is used in writing, and why people find the technologising of mythology (eg aliens built the Egyptian pyramids) appealing. It’s flawed science and that’s the aim of the talk, but it also appeals to a wide audience, which is a useful writing skill. Sonny
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Post by Chirugal on Aug 13, 2006 1:13:47 GMT
Thanks for asking that question, Jac (and of course, thank you for answering it, Sonny!). It was something I was curious about.
What's the single most valuable piece of writing advice anyone's ever given you?
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sonny
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Post by sonny on Aug 13, 2006 7:17:18 GMT
Thanks for asking that question, Jac (and of course, thank you for answering it, Sonny!). It was something I was curious about. What's the single most valuable piece of writing advice anyone's ever given you? Travel writing: Jack Butters (very famous in his day, the travel editor for Woman's Day) told me if I can't write something good about a place, simply do not mention that place. Journalism: would you for Chrissake print this crap out first and have the courtesty to read it before submitting it? (Won't tell you who told me that, but it came with additional expletives ) Fiction (a corollory to the above): Write it, shove it under the bed for a month, print it out and walk around the house reading it out loud. If you can't wrap your tongue around it, how can you expect anyone to wrap their brain around it? It's been fun, all! Thanks Marianne for asking me by, and thank you all who asked questions. Good luck with your writing. I have a character to get back to; her name is Vala! Cheers Sonny
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