NaPoWriMo Week Three - Time is on Your Side

The trail seems long when you are in the middle.
"On A Quest" by Ehecod

Week Three of NaPoWriMo is always the hardest week of the month.  Two thoughts come to mind - first, that the middle of the trip always seems the longest part, and second, that time limits can seem so restrictive.  But time is on our side in this month-long quest.  That's because with a limit in mind, we know that there will come a time of rest.  We know that our journey will eventually end, and then we can put down the pen (for a short time) and bask in the glory of our accomplishment.

For inspiration and more insight into our themes of journeys and time limits, we have this compelling piece of art: "On A Quest" by Ehecod on deviantArt.com.  It depicts a scene that certainly appeals to me right now - a small person, a long path, and in the distance there is perhaps the end of the trail, way up high.  It isn't just the content of the image that appeals, it is knowing that it was done quickly.  This image might be termed a "speed painting" as it was done in about an hour.  It is amazing what can be conveyed in such a short time - the sense of distance, space, longing, weariness, determination, beauty, and so much more.  Putting a time limit on our work can be highly motivating, challenging us to see exactly what we can do if we focus, concentrate, and really apply ourselves.  The time limit means we know that the end is always in sight, and so we feel more free to really go all out with our effort.   

This is the week to use time limits as a powerful tool.  If you've fallen behind, time limits can be the key to catching up, and getting back on the trail.  Here are the prompts and exercises for week three, starting with this evocative art. 

Monday, April 15 - Monday is, of course Art Day.  Take another look at "On A Quest."  What emotions does it bring up?  What is the story of of this person, and what will they find when they finally reach the city on the mountain?  Use some of these words and phrases to form a draft poem, but give yourself a time limit - fifteen minutes at most.

Tuesday, April 16 - Tuesdays and Saturdays are Pick a Prompt Days.  Visit the archive of speculative fiction prompts on this blog entitled "Prompt the Muse."  For this prompt, pick something that you can do with a time limit - say twenty minutes from start with the prompt to finishing the draft poem.  Don't think about it too hard, just get the words down.

Wednesday, April 17 -  Choose a hobby that you enjoy, and answer these four questions, with four words each.  Do this fast, two minutes total, and don't feel the need to stick to the questions too closely.  Hobby consists of?  It makes me feel?  Sensing it is?  It provides?  It relates to?  I chose my hobby of origami, and my lists are:  Hobby consists of - origami, paper, crafts, folding.  It makes me feel - satisfied, frustrated, accomplished, entertained.  Sensing it is - beauty, symmetry, smooth, light.  It provides - soothing, escape, perfection, controlled.  It relates to - creation, birth, new, real.  Use at least two words from each section to draft a poem.  For this you get eight minutes, for a total of a draft poem in ten minutes.

Thursday, April 18 - Thursday is Camera Day.  Take some pictures with your camera, and choose one to use as inspiration for a draft poem.  In keeping with our themes, find one that makes you think of a journey/quest, or something that brings up the concept of time and deadlines.  Feel free to take photos all week, and then pull out your favorite for Camera Day.  (If you don't have a camera, draw a picture of the scene, and then use that for your inspiration.)

Friday, April 19 - Think of a time you were confronted with a deadline.  It can be a work project, trying to catch a plane, an upcoming holiday, or anything that had a hard and fast limit.  Think of this subject and your deadline in two ways.  First, write out negative words and phrases that come to you about your subject and its deadline.  Then, write out positive words and phrases about this subject and deadline.  Use this material to create a draft poem in two stanzas.

Saturday, April 20 - Tuesdays and Saturdays are Pick a Prompt Days.  Visit the archive of speculative fiction prompts on this blog entitled "Prompt the Muse."  Find a prompt that makes you think of a long trek, quest, or trip.  Do the writing, and then choose images, phrases, or sensations from your writing to include in a draft poem.

Sunday, April 21 -  Short poems can take longer to write than long poems, but for this week, we are going to form a set of haiku on a schedule!  Give yourself four minutes to write down words that evoke the four seasons.  Don't be too restrictive, feel free to associate as you like.  Now, pick a subject that exists in all four seasons - sports, holidays, events, or even yourself or your pets, for example.  Give yourself four minutes to write four sentences, each with your subject and some of your seasonal words.  Give yourself another four minutes to go back and try to reform each of these sentences into the 5-7-5 syllables per line pattern associated with haiku.  It does not need to be perfect, go with the flow and the sense of the tension in the lines.

If you are behind, you can use these four haiku as four separate poems.  If not, you have a nice set of poems for your 21st day of NaPoWriMo.

Image Credit: "On A Quest" used with the generous permission of the artist, Lassi, Ehecod on deviantArt.com.  

Daily Astronomy Poetry for NaPoWriMo 2013

Rising to the challenge of NaPoWriMo
Sky Pirates No. 8 by quartertime

Several friends and colleagues have risen to the challenge of NaPoWriMo by posting a poem a day about our favorite subject - space.  Each is putting their own personal spin on the topic, and I'm sure that over the month some real gems will surface from the intense rush of creative writing.

Here's a taste of some of the interesting writing that has already appeared ...

On Imperturbable Music, the author muses about his seeing Saturn through a telescope:

The first view was a jolt.
It really looked like they said it would,
pale and perfect, ansa to ansa.
A platonic ideal of itself
even today. 

Taken from Planet's Above, we are led to consider the line between our dreams and reality:

So hide, obscure, amongst the fading wings
of Icarian ice, now stripped and set ablaze -
but know; our sleepless eyes will find you there,
unless ... unless you are just myths, of course.

From Tycho Girl's blog, we are inspired to keep on going, like a rocket:

watch the blue line
trailing from my candle
’cause I’m getting there.
 
So if you enjoy writing, astronomy, NaPoWriMo, and especially all three, you'll want to check out the following blogs this month (twitter handles also noted):

Tycho Girl http://tychogirl.wordpress.com/ @tychogirl
Imperturbable Music http://imperturbable-music.blogspot.com/ @asrivkin
AstroPoetAmee  http://astropoetamee.wordpress.com/ @AstropoetAmee
Bizzare Lag Phenomena http://iyzie.wordpress.com/ @iyzie
Sue Couch NaPoWriMo2013 http://sylvanellenapowrimo.wordpress.com/ @suzifulham
Planets Above http://planetsabove.blogspot.com/ @Alex_Parker

Image Credit:  Sky Pirates No. 8 by quartertime on deviantArt.com in the public domain.

NaPoWriMo Week 2 - Time to Shake it Up

Time to embrace the unexpected and uncomfortable.
"METAVERSE" by Robert Steven Connett on deviantArt.com. 

Week Two of NaPoWriMo is the time when the difficulty moves up a notch and the motivation moves down one.  It is harder to be enthusiastic.  After all, week one is behind us, but there are three weeks to go.  Ideas are more scarce, time seems to be more pressing, and things aren't going quite the way we planned.  You know - this is the usual way with writing projects, but it doesn't make it any easier. 

So I think of Week Two as the time to shake it up a bit.  Time to try things you haven't considered before.  Time to pull in some new influences and move out of the comfort zone.

And if today's Monday Art Day doesn't shake you up, nothing will.  This is "METAVERSE" by Robert Steven Connett on deviantArt.com.  I thoroughly enjoy this sort of art - the kind where my mind and emotions will not settle.  The artist comments "I thought it would be interesting to create a "stage like" outer environment with which to gaze in at inner world I created. This "outer world", like an opening in a cave, is something I have not done before."  The outer frame provides the context from which we view this strange new place.  There is so much happening here - wild colors, a mix of organic and industrial imagery, motion, and EYES everywhere!  The image is teeming with a strange sort of life filled with wires and light.  Creatures are spawning, swimming, hunting, and crawling.   

So here are the prompts and exercises for week two, starting with this evocative art. 

Monday, April 8 - Monday is, of course Art Day.  Take another look at METAVERSE.  Spend some time checking out the details in the piece, and how colors and lighting are used.  How does the art make you feel?  Disturbed, energized, anxious?  What genre would you give the piece - horror, science fiction, fantasy, or simply science?  Write a poem in that genre, using some of the emotions you feel looking at this art.  As an additional challenge, write from the viewpoint of a creature inside the art itself.

Tuesday, April 9 - Tuesdays and Saturdays are Pick a Prompt Days.  Visit the archive of speculative fiction prompts on this blog entitled "Prompt the Muse."  Pick weird ones for this week in keeping with our "Shake it up" theme.  Do the writing, and then choose images, phrases, or sensations from your writing to include in a draft poem.

Wednesday, April 10 - Find a word that rattles you and shakes you up in some way - good, bad, or a mix of feelings.  The word could be anything, since words and experience are so personal.  A few that I might pick are: blood, mother, crash, god, and hate.  Pick one and write out ten related words or phrases than include it, like goddess, godhead, godliness, ungodly, etc.  Write a poem using at least three of your related words, trying for that feeling of being rattled or shaken up.  An additional challenge - after you draft the poem, remove all the lines with your related words, and reform the poem.

Thursday, April 11 - Thursday is Camera Day.  Take some pictures with your camera, and choose one to use as inspiration for a draft poem.  Try to find a subject or scene that makes you feel something in a new way, or even makes you uncomfortable.  Feel free to take photos all week, and then pull out your favorite for Camera Day.  (If you don't have a camera, draw a picture of the scene, and then use that for your inspiration.)

Friday, April 12 - Find a poem that takes you somewhere new, or out of your usual mental space for writing.  You don't need to know why, or to explain it.  Something about 20 lines long is just about right.  Do the classic exercise where you write out each line of this poem with an open space in between.  Now fill in the missing lines with your own work, responding to what comes before and after.  Remove the lines of the original poem, leaving behind only your responses.  Take ten or so of these lines and reform them into a draft poem.

Saturday, April 13 - Tuesdays and Saturdays are Pick a Prompt Days.  Visit the archive of speculative fiction prompts on this blog entitled "Prompt the Muse."  Pick weird ones for this week in keeping with our "Shake it up" theme.  Do the writing, and then choose images, phrases, or sensations from your writing to include in a draft poem.

Sunday, April 14 - Look through your books and try to find one that rattles you, either because it is horror, is on a difficult subject, or is connected with a time in your life when things were in motion.  Flip through and copy down at least ten words or phrases that strike a chord in you.  A few I found from my chosen book are: compulsion, fix yourself, silence, body all bent, convalescent, and obsess.  Use five of these words or phrases in a poem.  Additional challenge, remove the lines with your specific words and reform the poem.

Image Credit: "METAVERSE" used with the generous permission of the artist Robert Steven Connett on deviantArt.com

NaPoWriMo Week 1 - Writing the Inner Music

"Forest spirint" by sparrow-chan on deviantArt
Russian artist Yartseva Marya

There is a lot to celebrate over the last week, not the least being Easter, Passover, April Fool's, and of course, NaPoWriMo!  The one-poem-a-day madness has begun. 

It is time to unlock the door and let the words flow forth.  The act of creation is imagined here in this compelling artwork by Russian artist sparrow-chan on deviantArt.com.  Of this piece the artist comments, "Mystic creature sits quietly between ancient trees in dense forest. Marvelous harp with strings made of spider web produces calm, wonder sounds from elder times. Who knows if time itself means something for this mysterious harper? But as long as she plays the heartbeat of nature will be strong."  So in that vein, what we are called to do this month is keep on writing.  

Try not to think about if it is 'good' poetry or 'bad' poetry.  The job for this month is to write drafts of poems and edit them later.  I know from experience that some of mine won't be salvageable, most will be okay, but not great, and then a few will be rather interesting.  Those, with some good editing, will end up making the whole month worthwhile.

So with all the other distractions, don't forget to tap into the inner music.  Here are some prompts and exercises to keep things flowing over the course of the week.

Monday, April 1 - Monday is Art Day.  Each Monday I'll have a piece of art here on the blog to try to jog your imagination.  Take a look at today's art.  What is the music being played on this harp?  Are there lyrics to the piece?  What gives the music its power?  How does it make you feel?  Answer those questions, and then write a draft of a poem about this magical song.

Tuesday, April 2 - Tuesdays and Saturdays are Pick a Prompt Days.  Visit the archive of speculative fiction prompts on this blog entitled "Prompt the Muse."  Do the writing, and then choose images, phrases, or sensations from your writing to include in a draft poem.

Wednesday, April 3 - Think of a myth that inspires you.  It can be any kind of story, ancient or modern, with a mythic or fairy tale quality.  Write a short bit of prose being as descriptive as you can, telling about this myth.  Take out seven adjectives from your writing, and draft a poem.

Thursday, April 4 - Thursday is Camera Day.  Take some pictures with your camera, and choose one to use as inspiration for a draft poem.  Try to find a subject or scene that speaks to you emotionally.  Feel free to take photos all week, and then pull out your favorite for Camera Day.  (If you don't have a camera, draw a picture of the scene, and then use that for your inspiration.)

Friday, April 5 - Think about a time when you were really frightened.  It might have been watching a scary movie or reading a thriller novel.  Perhaps it was when you were worried about monsters under the bed, during a storm, or something far more serious.  Write down phrases expressing how you felt.  Use five of those phrases to draft a poem.

Saturday, April 6 - Tuesdays and Saturdays are Pick a Prompt Days.  Visit the archive of speculative fiction prompts on this blog entitled "Prompt the Muse."  Do the writing, and then choose images, phrases, or sensations from your writing to include in a draft poem.

Sunday, April 7 - Take a walk and go word/phrase collecting.  Write down any interesting words you see in print, or phrases describing what you see.  After you have twenty, head home choose five, and create a draft poem from these (if you can't leave the house, then tour your home for a word collection.)

Image Credit:  "Forest spirint" by sparrow-chan on deviantArt.com - Russian artist Yartseva Marya

NaPoWriMo is Coming Right at You - Five Tips to Be Prepared

NaPoWriMo is coming at you.
It's not too late to get some preparation done.

April is a busy writing month, especially for poetry.  I love the challenge of NaPoWriMo (National Poetry Writing Month) where I pound out a draft of a poem each and every day.  Inevitably, it forces me out of my comfort zone and into a place where new and different becomes the norm.  I've been working for some time on my chapbook of poems of childhood horror, and it needs a few more gems.  NaPoWriMo is pretty unpredictable, but I do usually get a handful of good drafts out of the experience.

I am never adequately prepared, since there isn't really a best way to prepare for poetry madness except to go crazy.  But this year I did manage to come up with a few tips for myself.  I thought I'd share them here since others might want some ideas for how they might inspire themselves.

1.  Find some good prompts and exercises.  Find blogs, journals, and books with good prompts.  I'm going to post a selection of ideas right here at the start of each week of NaPo, using some new thoughts I've had as well as prompts from my "Prompt the Muse" archive.  Check places like deviantArt for people who do things a little more off the wall.

2.  Surround yourself with poetry.  As always, the best inspiration for writing is reading.  Get your favorite poetry books down, and then find some you haven't read yet.  Start each writing session with a little reading, and your creative flow will, well, flow.

3.  Fill your toolbox.  Inspiration can come from anywhere, so give yourself some room to bring new ideas to the surface.  Your toolbox might include paper, markers, paints, camera, computer, favorite pen, clay, music, picture book, or whatever.  When you are stuck, go to your toolbox and let yourself play.

4.  Connect with the community.  Don't let the unrelenting pace of NaPo drag you down.  Make a list of others participating in this madness so you can stay in touch via twitter, blog comments, facebook or even in real life (heavens).  Your poetry pals are your best source of support when things are going slow, and greatest fans when you have a banner day!

5.  Take Care of Yourself.  Now is a good time to consider what you'll need over the next month to stay at your writing best.  I'm a big fan of nutritious food, good sleep, and moderate exercise (even if I don't actually do what I should, when I should).  I know perfectly well that taking care of myself will result in more stamina and energy for writing.  I'm thinking right now of what I need to do over the next month to increase the chances that food, sleep, and exercise won't be missed.

Good luck with NaPoWriMo!  Check back in here for daily prompts and writing exercises, hopefully to be posted at the beginning of each week (that starts tomorrow, yikes!)

Image Credit:  Pink Sherbet Photography Flikr via Creative Commons CC 2.0

Grabbing The Golden Fleece of Writing: What's Your Great Prize?

Grab your writing treasure and run with it.
"Colchian" by "MO-ffie" on deviantArt.com

 

A small, bold figure grabs a glistening prize right out from under a malevolent beast, and then makes off with it.  What is this amazing treasure that is worth such a risk?  What is the true nature of the monster?  When can our hero pause, panting, heart pounding, and regard the reward in their hands?

This fantastic image has been a favorite of mine for some time now, as I've been contemplating the questions above within the context of writing.  Writing is a tremendous risk, and each of us has a different idea of what is worth that risk, and what the true "prize" can be.  Consider for a moment - what are the greatest challenges or barriers that you face regarding your writing?  What treasures do you hope to gain?  When will you have time to sit back and enjoy what you have earned, or do you feel you have to keep on running?

As a writer with mental illness issues, I often find my greatest challenge and my greatest treasure are exactly the same thing.  That is - writing itself.  I love writing, it is its own reward.  At the same time, writing is scary, even terrifying, and seems to dog my heels with its fangs and fiery breath.  In my image, writing is both the fleece and the monster.

I'm working on a short story right now that I can't finish.  My mind, as is often the case, is filled with self-doubt and even self-sabotage.  I can't get the negative "voices" to give it a rest.  They act as if they know so much more than the positive voices.  "This story is dumb.  Why did you want to write about this in the first place?  This one isn't any fun to read.  Are you sure you want to deal with 'that' issue in this piece?  This story sounds trite.  You don't know even understand what you are writing about, what are you trying to do here?  This is a waste of time.  You aren't doing anything important by writing this story."  And on and on.  These are the "voices" of writing for me, borne from a history of anxiety and depression disorders.  These are the voices that follow me like a angry monster.

In the scenario of me and my short story, the beast has managed to get its teeth into the fleece.  I am in a tug-of-war trying to retrieve it and make off.  I feel like the tiny figure, and the monster seems so huge.  I have to continually prompt the positive voices, and keep fighting.  I need to be bold, to continue to take risks, to ignore the dark ideas that would kill every story before it even gets half-made.  I need to yank hard, grab my fleece and run like crazy, not looking back for an instant.  Take another look at that piece of art.  That beast is scary.

It's possible that if I thought the beast would stop chasing me if I dropped the fleece, that I would do it.  You know, give up, toss the prize away into the monster's mouth, and be free of it.  But I know that isn't true.  That monster follows me no matter what treasure I seek, however small.  So I might as well try to grab the biggest and the shiniest - writing - and run like crazy.

So what were your answers?  What is your goal, your great treasure to be found in the context of writing?  What is the monster chasing you and trying to snatch your prize away?  How do you win this race, and finally have your moment of glee, throwing your fleece about your shoulders and dancing in the sun?

Image Credit:   "Colchian" by "MO-ffie" on deviantArt.com
My comments:  I have always loved this piece of art.  There is an intense sense of motion and urgency.  Along with that, there is a hint of humor, since the hero is so very tiny - a stick figure with a fleece running for their life from a gratuitously massive monster.

Building Audience for Speculative Poetry: Overall Goals

Euterpe - Muse of Poetry

In my first post on this topic "Definitions," I talked about the initial steps I would take to expand the audience for speculative poetry.  My thoughts were "first to define terms, and then to plan initial assessment.  I can't do anything without assessment - too long working in science and science education."  It's good to know thyself :)

To that end, I started my foray into definitions in that post (and I will continue to work on definitions throughout the whole audience-building process), and now I am going to start thinking about assessment.

By assessment I mean the suite of tools, data, and procedures that let you know if you are succeeding, and if not, what you need to change to put yourself on the right path.  Assessment helps you define your goals and then lets you know if you've actually achieved them.  Like definitions, it is something that goes with you throughout a project.

In considering what assessment I would develop for my little (har) project here, the first thing I need to know is, what do I really want to accomplish, what does that mean, and how will I know when I've done it?  Trying to frame an overarching goal into words is tough ... so instead, here are some of the markers one might look for as they go forward.  This is just a brainstorm at this point - I'm looking for input from you.

• More people writing spec poems (also could be more poems being written)
• More people reading spec poems (also could be more poems being read)
• More journals and mags publishing spec poems
• More general buzz about spec poetry (more blogs with spec poetry and related topics, more tweets, more general literary news about spec poetry.)
• More spec poetry events like readings, talks, panels, etc.
• More spec poetry education opportunities like IRL or online classes
• More spec poetry by POC, queer, marginalized, people-we-historically-miss authors
• More spec poetry awards
• More spec poetry groups, organizations, societies
• More spec poetry resources, such as bibliographies, Who's Who lists, etc.
• More interaction with spec poetry and other fields such as science, visual art, music, etc. 
• More general respect for spec poetry as a genre
• etc.

What would you like to see on such a list?  What changes in the area of speculative fiction would really fire you up, make you happy, thrill you, etc.?  What would success look like for you? (And here is the question to tip off the next blog post - how would you go about measuring it?)

Image Credit:  Euterpe, Muse of Poetry by Guffens, Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain

Five Recommended Reads That Subvert Culture Tropes

Recommended by
the panel as an example
of "Culturewin"

As I mentioned in a previous post (Ten Ways to Help Avoid 'Culturefail' in Speculative Fiction), I attended a panel at Arisia about how to avoid "culturefail" when writing about cultures and peoples that are not one's own.

The panel suggested some similar features in novels that presented other cultures in interesting and authentic ways. - The books subverted common tropes and negative stereotypes.  They included confrontations with the difficult issues of power, privilege, and oppression.  They included characters in those cultures with their own plot arcs, friends, family, and context.

I asked each person on the panel to recommend a novel that, for them, was an example of "culturewin" - a story where a writer presents another culture with authenticity.  The following were books recommended (some with controversy) by panelists:

The Salt Roads by Nalo Hopkinson
Thirteen by Richard K. Morgan
My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk
Tropic of Night by Michael Gruber

A fifth book was mentioned, but I only caught the title, "Who Fears Death?"  I believe this is by Nnedi Okorafor. 

So now I have some new books to add to my reading lineup for the year!  Have you read one of these books?  What did you think?  Did you feel the books helped to break down old tropes and subvert them in unique ways?  Were these compelling reads for you?  What books would you suggest as "culturewin"?

Building Audience for Speculative Poetry: Starting with Definitions

I've been following an interesting discussion (or twelve) on twitter about speculative poetry - specifically why there are so few people who seem to be interested in spec poetry and then how to go about changing that situation.  Since I do my thinking by writing, it's no surprise that a blog post (or twelve) has/will result.  I've decided to put together the parts of such a scheme here, and see if it goes anywhere.  If not, at least in the process I will certainly have educated myself on some issues that are of interest and import to me, anyway.

If this post is the so called "start" then my inclination is two fold: first to define terms, and then to plan initial assessment.  I can't do anything without assessment - too long working in science and science education.  But doing both in one post would be too long, so here is the definitions post.

So, what is the definition of "Speculative Poetry" anyway?  Definitions abound, of course, since for every person there is a spin or angle unique to them personally.  I'm going to take the very broadest definition of the word "poetry" since I want to be as inclusive as possible.  It is largely poem content that makes a poem speculative or otherwise, generally speaking.  Though there are exceptions.  Of course.

For a plethora of definitions, one can always start with Wikipedia.   Bruce Boston discusses speculative poetry in an interview, Mike Allen has an Introduction to Speculative Poetry, Suzette Elgin posted About Science Fiction Poetry, and several other folks have blogged about it, including Sofia Samatar and a post by Mae Empson in Inkpunks. (Okay, what have I missed?  What works/does not work with these definitions and discussions?)

In my mind, speculative poetry includes the range of subject matter within sci-fi, horror, fantasy, slipstream, the weird, and all the places in between.  It also includes poetry about science, which is something of a deviation, on the surface, anyway.

I think what sets speculative poetry apart is the emphasis on the strong imaginative element, even the "science" poetry.  These poems seem to take us someplace else, before bringing us back to the truths we already know, and now see through a new perspective, thanks to the poem.  Here's an excerpt from one of the very first speculative poems I ever read ...

Among the hills a meteorite
Lies huge: and moss has overgrown,
And wind and rain with touches light
Made soft, the contours of the stone.

Thus easily can Earth digest
A cinder of sidereal fire,
And make the translunary guest
'Thus native to an English shire.

- C.S. Lewis
excerpt from "The Meteorite"

It is entirely "scientific" but also speculative.  This is fiction - the speaker is not referring to a meteorite that exists "in fact."  (If it did, it would have been retrieved for study or sale, no doubt, and not continue to erode in said shire.)  The journey of this meteorite and its final resting place exist within the head of the poet.  I also find the personification of Earth as 'digesting' to have a kind of mythological feel, i.e. Earth as a powerful force or deity.  (What do you think of this example?  What is your first or favorite speculative poem?)

Having now created a sort of cloud space of ideas that loosely form the definition of speculative poetry, I can now blog further about what to do with that.  Building audience for this genre of poetry might mean revisiting the definition later, or realizing that a targeted audience might only be interested in some subset of these poems.  But again, that's for later.

Ideas on definitions?  I would love to hear them.

Image Credit:  Wikimedia Commons, public domain, Writing Desk

Small Presses to Keep an Eye On

I mentioned in my first Arisia Con post that I attended several interesting panels.  One of those was a panel focusing on the "Small Press."  The first thing I asked was for the panel to define "Small Press" since the term can be a bit gray.  From the point of view of the panel, there were a few shared traits amongst the small presses:

• Carries fewer titles than larger presses, say 12-24 titles, or even less
• Has print runs for their titles in the 100's to 1000's, not tens of thousands, or much more
• Often focuses on a niche market or specific genre
• Often run for little or no profit
• Often staffed by volunteers or those paid a minimal sum, run by people who have additional employment

With these thoughts in mind, the panel named a number of small presses that they thought were good ones to keep an eye on.  These included:

Dark Quest Books
Crossroads Press
Entangled Publishing
Bards and Sages Publishing
Pink Narcissus Press
Crazy 8 Press
Spencer Hill Press
Crossed Genres Publications
Plus One Press
Merry Blacksmith Press

In addition, the panel also called out a handful of titles from these and other small presses that they believed deserved a read.  Note, some of these are young adult titles.

Jemma 7729 by Phoebe Wray
Obsidian by Jennifer Armentrout
Rituals - Rhapsody of Blood (series) by Roz Kaveney
Touch of Death by Kelly Hashway
Red Sky Radio by Matt Howarth
Salsa Nocturna by Daniel Jose Older

Have you read any of these titles?  What did you think?  Are there other titles from small presses on your (e)bookshelf?  How about these small presses, themselves?  Which publishers are in your sites right now?

Ten Ways to Help Avoid "Culturefail" in Speculative Fiction

Be prepared to include all
kinds of people, places, and
cultures in your speculative fiction.

One of the panels I attended at Arisia 2013 was "Avoiding Culturefail."  This expert panel hoped to express to its listeners how to "win" when writing about another culture.  In other words, when writing about "the other" (which in some sense we do every single time we write), how can we avoid propagating negative tropes and stereotypes?  How can we ensure that our writing becomes part of the solution, rather than continuing the problem?

Here are some of the main ideas I gleaned from the panel.  I distilled them into ten points as a reference list when starting and then working through a new story.

1. Commitment.  Commit to yourself to doing the best that you can when addressing cultural issues in your work.  You may not succeed in a "culturewin" but only a commitment to try will give a writer that opportunity.
2. Know Thyself.  Ask, "Who am I?  Where am I coming from?  What is my perspective?  What are my biases?  How does the nature of privilege in my life influence my approach to that "other" I am writing about?"
3. Research is the beginning.  The canonical phrase "do your research" still stands.  Intellectual knowledge of your subject, including cultures represented, is a necessity.  
4. Community Contact.  Research is only the beginning.  After reading up on your topic, don't stop there.  Research is only the very first step.  Deep knowledge and understanding requires engagement with the culture in question.
5. Be Thorough.  Research and community involvement need to be carried out on multiple levels.  Engage with more than one person of the culture you are writing about.  Use all the senses when doing research, i.e. looking at photos, listening to music, touching artifacts, and eating the cuisine.  Absorb stories, myth, and other literature.
6. Subvert the Tropes.  When writing, subvert the common tropes, cliches, and negative stereotypes.  Tell an effective counter-narrative.  
7. Be Uncomfortable.  Allow yourself to go to the uncomfortable places and "tell the harder truth."  Do not ignore issues of privilege, power, and oppression in your work.  Humble yourself.
8. Conduct a Diversity Survey.  Conduct a diversity survey of your manuscript that includes the statistics of who and what is represented, and how.  Such numbers may surprise you, and may lead you to change aspects of your work.
9. Get Feedback.  Ask for constructive criticism of your manuscript from people who are a part of the culture groups in question.  Be prepared to accept feedback that is emotional, since some issues are highly charged.  Be gracious to reviewers and consider their input carefully.
10. Be Prepared to Make Changes.  Feedback and community engagement may lead you to reconsider your topic and/or how it is presented.  Be prepared to make major shifts in the work, if necessary.

I think of all the points here, I was most struck by my number seven, Be Uncomfortable.  I so often try to avoid discomfort, I think we all do.  As a writer, setting up tension and then resolving it is part of the process.  This point suggests to me that I shouldn't be over anxious to rush to a resolution, but instead I should abide in that space and allow the discomfort to remain a while.  There is clearly much to learn there.

Image Credit - Photoxpress.  Isolated pencils drawing.  Colored Pencils.