Being a Good Literary Citizen - Part One - Motivations

"Being a Good Literary Citizen" is a favorite subject of mine, because I am a collaborator-type who enjoys finding ways for everyone to win.  I truly believe in the positive power of community, and I am both excited and humbled to be a part something as awesome as fiction and poetry writing (and writers.)  I've heard the topic of good literary citizenship come up a lot recently, and thought I'd post a few ramblings here about the subject.

I'm going to start with an anecdote of something that happened to me.  A writer on twitter asked for help with a research topic.  It was right up my alley as a planetary scientist, so I sent them an email with a bunch of ideas.  This person never responded back to me.  A few years later I'm reading an anthology, and I find a story from this writer with ideas right out of my email.

I do not think this writer acted as a good literary citizen.  Because I never received a response, or even a "hey, that story got published," I feel like I'm nothing more to this person than a resource to be tapped.  They got what they wanted from me and then forgot about me.  I do not feel like a fellow writer and colleague.  I'm certainly not in the mood to read any more of this person's work, and have stopped following them on social media.

Whenever something like this happens to me, or I hear about something similar happening to another writer, I rededicate myself to being a good literary citizen.  I want to be the sort of person who makes authentic contact with people, who gives thanks and credit, and who looks for ways to be a part of something bigger.  I want to be an empathetic, kind, inclusive and caring person who owns up to mistakes and who is always striving to learn and improve.  It goes beyond being a citizen, really, and becomes a sharing of person-hood.

Next post - I'm going to do a practical list of suggestions and ideas for being a good literary citizen.  If you have some thoughts of your own, write them here, and I'll include them in the list!

Image Credit: Hearthands  Public Domain Wikimedia commons

NaNoWriMo 2016 - Getting Started

Pen, Paper, and Computer
The tools of the proverbial trade.

November!  Which for me of course means NaNoWriMo.  If you don't know about NaNoWriMo - that stands for National Novel Writing Month.  Many fanciful people like myself take November and ADD 50K of writing to their normal workload, along with feeding ourselves, and doing laundry, dealing with the day job, doing whatever other writing we said we do, etc. 

And a large subset of those writers so inclined and dedicated head over to the NaNoWriMo.org site.  At that site they can track their progress, interact on the forum, and keep in touch with other writers in their local area.  I love the word tracking tool - nothing like giving a nice data display to a scientist.  It's also the place to find out about 'write-ins' that happen nearby, which gives you a chance to meet other local writers and have some company while pounding out some words.

I think one of the reasons I enjoy NaNo so much is that I'm a terrible perfectionist.  I'm often stymied by trying to make everything I produce just so.  It was and is NaNo that gives me permission to just write those fiction words without the constant pounding of my inner editor.  In fact, I now have lots and lots of words drafted into novels that do indeed desperately need an editor ... but that's a different challenge!

Right now it's NaNo time!  That means just put pen to proverbial paper and get writing!   

I've had a slow start, as usual.  This year I'm only two days late, but this is a month packed with other commitments, not to mention, as always, Thanksgiving.  Getting words in over the T-giving holiday is always the major challenge of the month.  Still I recall I started one NaNo nine days late, and spent the entire month playing catch up.  So I'm not too far behind, and am very optimistic about my progress thus far.  Almost 1.8K of words a day will do nicely, if I can keep up the pace.  I have a tendency to write nothing for a few days, then pound out a few 3K and 5K days in a row.  But you don't want to count on the time to do that.  Better to keep that steady pace up to ensure reaching the goal.

How about you?  Do you have a book idea that is just burning to be written?  Did you take the plunge this year for NaNo?  Might be time to give it a try!

Image Credit:  Image - Writing Tools Creative Commons CC 2.0

Poem Up in Dragonfly Arts Magazine 2016

Dragonfly Arts Mag 2016

Dragonfly 2016 is out and I'm very happy to have my poem "What We Choose to Keep" appearing in this year's issue.  I had three poems in their inaugural 2014 issue, and then wasn't able to submit for 2015.  So I'm glad to be back on track with supporting this fantastic publication for 2016.  Dragonfly Arts Magazine is a publication of the HopeWorks center of Howard County in Maryland.  The magazine has poetry, stories, and artwork that reflect on "life, love, trauma, and hope."  It is a snazzy little mag with a high-gloss cover and some riveting color artwork and compelling writing.

As you know from reading the blog here, I'm a strong proponent of writers being paid for their writing.  I don't generally submit work to publications that do not compensate writers with at least some token payment.  But for Dragonfly, and a few other publications, I make an exception.  It's not for the exposure - it is to support the mission of the publication.  Submitting to Dragonfly is something that I do both for myself and for them - as a survivor myself, crafting suitable poetry for this market is a exploration in healing.  I'm honored to have my work in this magazine, and hope that it helps in some small way to promote the healing that HopeWorks tries to nurture.

Image Credit:  Dragonfly Art's Mag. Visit HopeWorks.

Naming Revisited - Pluto and Charon Get Tagged

Informal names for features on Charon

In my post on "Naming Astronomical Objects - Power, Productivity, and Privilege," I noted that naming astronomical objects was a serious issue (indeed, that naming anything was a serious issue).  I also mentioned that there was a tension between being able to name things fast enough (given the rate of discoveries) and that of wanting to be thoughtful about it.

The New Horizons Mission to Pluto found a unique way of dealing with that situation when they offered a poll this spring, asking people to vote on what their favorite names would be for potential features in the Pluto system.  The campaign was called "Our Pluto," and thousands of people responded to the call.  The campaign ended in April 2015, allowing the New Horizons team to be ready with a pocketful of names when they arrived in the Pluto system in July 2015.  Before long, the first maps of Pluto and Charon were constructed, and the informal names given to the features were indeed those chosen by people from the Our Pluto voting. 

Informal names for features on Pluto

And many of the names are surprising, given their origins in popular culture, such as "Mordor" and "Balrog" from J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, "Vulcan," "Uhura" and "Kirk" from the Star Trek franchise, "Skywalker" and "Organa" from the Star Wars Universe, and "Cthulhu" from Lovecraft's mythos.  These names have been submitted to the IAU for formalization - it will be interesting to see how that body chooses to react, or if any of the names will be considered unusual at all.

For the most part, I really like the names, and many people agree.  Authors of articles in The Guardian, Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, Wired, and io9 talk about the good aspects of the naming campaign, and that they feel positively about these names potentially becoming permanent.  But given my previous post on the issue, I feel just a bit edgy.  One issue we've come up a lot with in the SF, F, H community is dealing with great work from not-so-great people.  The issue has been discussed at length more than I can do justice to here, but was dealt with head on using necessary honesty by Nnedi Okorafor in a post (has swearing) about winning the World Fantasy Award.   (So the place name "Cthulhu" for example, may not be a universally lauded name ...)

Still, we're a democratic society, and voting is as close to public participation in official naming that has come to pass on a major planetary body (in my opinion).  I agree with many of the authors of the articles in that having the public involved is a wonderful thing.  It does not absolve us of our need to be vigilant in naming, but it does offer the opportunity to create and nurture community while we do so.

Image Credit:  NASA/JHU-APL/New Horizons

Reviews - To Tell the Truth, Or Not

So one thing I am certainly slacking on is reviews of the publications I read.  I had told myself at the beginning of the year that I wanted to post more reviews.  I enjoy reviewing poetry and stories, I want to give a boost to the publications I read, and I like learning more about authors in the field.

BUT, and here is the but - what happens when something you read is perhaps not terribly impressive, or even (gasp) maybe something you don't actually like at all? 

I've often held back from reviewing material because I can't give it an honest two thumbs up.  Being a very modestly published writer and poet myself, I am sensitive to the fact that not everything I've written is composed of gorgeous and stunning prose with fascinating characters and a plot no one's ever conceived before.  I understand that it can be rough getting any exposure at all for one's writing, and then getting a ho-hum or even negative review would be disheartening.  Still, I would vastly prefer being reviewed in a constructive fashion that would allow me to improve, rather than to receive no notice at all.

But what has ended up happening is this sort of double standard - if I know someone is a well established, best-seller-type author, I write reviews that offer a 'What I Liked' and 'What I Didn't Like' sort of thing.  For authors that (seem to me to be) newer or are looking for exposure - I don't tend to write anything because I don't want to be dishonest or discouraging.  (After all, there are few pieces that are so universally fabulous that a review will be utterly positive.)

Wait.  Did you catch that?  So I am not writing about the people and publications that need it the most.  This conundrum needs a solution.  I'd like to spend more time on lesser known authors and smaller publications than anything else, but that's not what I'm doing.  Mostly out of fear.  I don't want to discourage or upset another writer, and I don't want to damage the reputation of a publication.  And I don't really know where I'm being a bit overly sensitive, and where I'm being really just the right amount of sensitive.

So what to do?  Well, research, naturally, being the geek that I am.  I just read a pile of posts on how to do online reviews of fiction, poetry, etc.  Many point out that one shouldn't be 'cruel' and that all criticism should be 'positive' - which is obvious enough.  But no one addresses the issue of how to write up honest reviews of newer writers and smaller pubs that actually help to boost those people, rather than bring them down.   (Maybe this means I should figure how how, and then write that post, hmmm?)

Oh, and by honest review I mean the bad with the good.  I could just write reviews about 'What I Liked' and leave the rest out.  But then someone might read an issue based on my review, not like the issue, and think my reviews are pretty useless.  Which they would be.

So what is your opinion, and your experience, with writing and receiving honest reviews?  Would you prefer an honest review of your work to no review at all?  How do you like to see critical comments framed?  Do you have a set of guidelines you follow when doing reviews, a creed, a statement of intent or some such?

Send some thoughts my way.  This is your chance to chime in - since I'll probably plow ahead with reviews to the best of my ability, and your stuff might be in there, ya know ...

Image Credit - photoxpress.com

Vonnie Winslow Crist and When Opportunity Knocks

Vonnie Winslow Crist

I've been neglecting the blog in a most woeful fashion.  Didn't even get that last poetry post up.  But to make up for it, I've some tidbits of wisdom from speculative fiction writer and poet Vonnie Winslow Crist. 

Vonnie was the guest speaker at my local writers club meeting this last Thursday, and entertained us all for an hour with anecdotes from her career and practical insight into writing and publishing.  Her works include:  Essential Fables and River of Stars, both poetry collections from Lite Circle Books, fantasy novel The Enchanted Skean - Book 1 of the Chronicles of Lifthrasir from Mockingbird Lane Press, as well as The Greener Forest and Owl Light, collections of short stories and more from Cold Moon Press.  She has also edited much, volunteered much, and produced many columns and articles.  Her talk was titled "Be Ready When Opportunity Knocks and How to Find Those Hidden Opportunities."

Her first piece of advice is to always be writing.  She underscores the fact that you can't respond to any publishing opportunity unless you have appropriate work ready to go.  Keeping a backlog of poems, stories, and manuscripts means you have something in your pocket when you see a notice, hear a rumor, or find a great contest - and the deadline is coming up fast - like tomorrow.  Don't stop writing as you wait to see if your entry wins or if your submission is accepted.  Write something new while you wait.

Along with 'always be writing' is keep improving.  Vonnie points out that every piece of writing we do, no matter how brief, helps us improve our craft.  She emphasizes the importance of finding a critique group, and making sure it is one where all the members have the same level of writing expertise.  Read articles, magazines and books about the craft.  For fiction writers she recommends The First Five Pages by Noah Lukeman.  You might want to take workshops, courses, or even go back to school (as she did) and earn an advanced degree in writing!

Vonnie suggests we be creative about finding publication "homes" for our work.  She reads the bios of other writers to see where they've been published, and checks out directory style websites appropriate for our genre (I happen to use ralan.com and duotrope.com)  Don't neglect local outlets such as newsletters and bulletins, and keep an eye open for anthologies in your genre.  You can't underestimate the library, either.  Use your community (below) as a source of information on unique places to publish.

She emphasizes the importance of staying connected with the community.  This includes other writers, editors, and publishers.  Staying connected can mean:  attending writers' conferences, joining societies, attending conventions, volunteering to edit pieces or write articles, helping out with local meetings, etc.  Some of these opportunities will cost money and others will be free labor at first, but all can have payoffs down the line.

Vonnie points out that one opportunity can lead to another, so leverage opportunities.  For example, she won a poetry chapbook contest, and used that as the means to get a publisher interested in a full sized book of poetry.

Finally, she says, "When you see an opening, jump!  You can't fear rejection - say 'Yes' then work hard."

Actually, she said a great deal more, but you'll have to be lucky enough to catch her in person for the whole talk, and to enjoy her entertaining style.

Image Credit:  Vonnie Winslow Crist from her website.

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 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

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

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