Filling the Well

I put Kitty and the Silver Bullet through “the page 99 test.” See the results here.

Today is the official release date for this:

Anthology called Hotter Than Hell, edited by Kim Harrison. My story is called “Life is the Teacher.” I hope you’ll think of giving it a try.

Via writer Jim Van Pelt’s site, I discover The Fix has reviewed my short story in the current issue of Realms of Fantasy. The reviewer really liked it, which has given me warm fuzzies.

This is also a very good example about how what a writer puts into a story, and what a reader gets out of it, aren’t necessarily the same thing. In fact, I’m often surprised by the depth and nuance that people find in my stories — because most of the time I don’t feel half that clever.

This story started with a photograph from World War I of a Salvation Army worker at the side of a grim soldier, very young. Half his head is bandaged, and she is writing a letter for him. The image bowled me over. The despair, hope, perseverance, tragedy came through. I wrote the story from that. Here’s the picture.

The reviewer, Scott Sandridge, read the story with a whole other level of meaning: taking my identity as a military brat, along with current events, the story becomes a political statement. And you know what? I hadn’t thought of that. I was pretty much entirely wrapped up in the emotion of the thing.

That isn’t to say the political meaning isn’t there. On the contrary, I mention the military brat thing in my author notes because it explains so much about my background and outlook. I can’t write about the military without bringing that knowledge into it. Without trying to humanize the people inside the uniforms (because every one of them could be my dad.) So even when it’s not up front in a story like this, it’s there. I just wasn’t thinking of it.  But would I have been so affected by the photo if I wasn’t a military brat?

I think it’s incredibly cool that people see things in my stories that lets me look at them in new ways.

An enjoyable Memorial Day to all.

I saw “Prince Caspian” and loved it. It reminded me that part of why I write is because I can’t live in Narnia or Middle Earth, and sometimes I desperately want to. It’s so cool — so many movies have come out recently and I’ve loved most of them.

Saturday’s mail brought me the August 2008 issue of Realms of Fantasy, which includes my story “A Letter to Nancy,” a wartime story about love and hope. It should hit stores soon.

Now, I really should find something fun to do today…

Kitty and the Silver Bullet gets a mention on Publisher Weekly’s Beyond Her Book Blog. Woot! Check it out!

I added a convention: OSFest, in Omaha, Nebraska, July 11-13. So don’t say I never get out east! Okay, sort of east… from here it’s east… never mind.

You’ll also notice I’ve added a page to the sidebar listing my whole upcoming convention and signing calendar. I hope this is helpful.

Now, off to work! Or I could go outside and smell the lilacs and enjoy the weather. I live near a couple of lakes, except they’re actually drainage/irrigation ponds. During the winter, the flow to them gets cut off and they dry up completely. It’s very sad and I hate it, because instead of lakes, they turn into big ugly dry pits. Well, last week the irrigation flow started up again, and one of them had filled halfway up, and I bet the other one is starting to fill, too. I want to go look and see what birds have settled in!

Tomorrow, April 19th, I’ll be at Starfest / Horrorfest in Denver. Woohoo! At 1 pm I’m running a panel discussing “Why are horror characters so stupid?” I’ll try not to rant about “The Blair Witch Project” too much. I’m signing from 2 -4. Which means I’ll miss Adam Baldwin on the main stage at 3. NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! Convention Murphy’s Law strikes again.

This is the latest incarnation of the very first SF con I ever went to (Starcon in the fall of 1988). I always have fun here.

Other conventions I’ll be hitting this year:

Denvention, the World Science Fiction Convention, right here in Colorado! Aug 6-10

Bubonicon, in Albuquerque, Aug 22-24

Mile Hi Con, Oct 24-26, where I’ll be the Toastmaster. Toast mistress. Toast person. Yeah.

World Fantasy Convention, Oct 30-Nov 4, in Calgary.

I might add a couple of last minute dates as well, so stay tuned.

I have a guest post up at Myth, the Universe, and Everything. Alana especially asked about skinwalkers and how I approached the topic in Kitty Takes a Holiday. Basically, I was just kinda pissed off that so many films/books/whatever were doing it wrong. I had to take action.

Mining existing folklore for ideas means I will never run out of ideas.

Hear “For Fear of Dragons” at Pod Castle. Read out loud, very cool.

This is rapidly becoming my most reprinted story.

A couple weeks ago I mentioned I’d be doing a guest post at Divas of the Dark, a blog of supernatural/romance authors. Well, today the post is up. It’s about how to write a kick ass series. Because believe me, I have spent A LOT of time over the last couple of years thinking about what makes a good series.  Enjoy!