News: Giveaway Winner and New Publications

Season's Greetings!

I'm delighted to say that the Unlikely Heroes giveaway drew many entries. The winner of the digital copies of Green Light Delivery and Blue Diamond Delivery was David. Thanks bunches to all of you who entered. and thanks to Milo James Fowler for hosting the wonderful 'Tis More Blessed giveaway extravaganza!

Santa and his elves may be hard at work, but it's also a busy time around the writing workshop:

1. I've had eight drabbles (stories of exactly 100 words) accepted by SpeckLit. They will be published one at a time over the next few months.

2. One of my stories was accepted by Rainbow Rumpus, pending revisions, for their Spring 2014 issue.

3. Old Hedgy Times will publish my science fiction story "New World Symphony," about aliens who invade Earth by means of musical sound.

4. "Bark of the Covenant," the silly speculative YA story I co-wrote with Araminta Star Matthews, is now available on Amazon and B&N.

5. I'm working on the revision of my YA novel, Space Surfers.

6. Also for C&G, I finally finished the first draft of the third Webrid Chronicles novel, Red Spawn Delivery.

As you can see, I sure can use a short end-of-the-year break. I hope you get to take a break, too. All health and happiness to you and yours in the New Year!

- Anne

Miranda Paul on the Blurred Line between Fiction and Nonfiction

Over a year ago, in an effort to become more involved with the children's writing community, I volunteered to become a judge on a writer's website offering critiques, line-editing, and other writing services. That's how I met today's guest, Miranda Paul, the founder of RateYourStory.org. Her forthcoming picture books include One Plastic Bag (Millbrook/Lerner Publishing, 2015) and Water is Water (Neal Porter Books, 2015). 

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Blurred Lines

By Miranda Paul

When I speak of “Blurred Lines,” I’m not referring to the Robin Thicke song that has topped Billboard charts despite its controversial message.

I’m talking about that controversial gray area between fiction and nonfiction. You know, that one in between research and invention.

With the rise of more creative nonfiction and historical fiction, especially in #kidlit, there has been a lot of discussion over authors taking “liberties.”

Where exactly is the line? Can the two be mixed?

Here’s my short answer: Just about every good story is a mix of truth and imagination.

My long answer is: The rest of this post.

Whether you write novels, creative nonfiction, historical fiction, sci-fi, picture books for the very young, or even memoirs, there is always research involved. (Or, there should be.)

My first two picture books, due out in early 2015, are both books that blur the lines between traditional nonfiction and poetry and fictional storytelling.

The first, entitled ONE PLASTIC BAG, is about a group of women in West Africa who began a grassroots recycling project. These women are real—and I’ve met and interviewed them all. I’ve gathered photographs from the project’s beginning and been to their village several times. However, in between meeting the women and writing the story, one of them passed away. Others revealed events from their efforts that I felt were too complex or wouldn’t translate well to a young audience. Others remembered things slightly differently from one another. And so on.

For the sake of writing a compelling story that captured the magnitude and essence of what they had accomplished, I pared down their stories to a sequence of events. I made the choice to invent dialogue, with the help of one of the women. We came up with things they might have said to each other back then. In essence, I took a few liberties. If that makes it fiction, that makes it fiction.

However, I have an author’s note at the end that identifies the fact that the story I shaped is inspired by true events. If you’re going to take liberties with writing a story about a historical subject or figure, make sure that you have an author’s note at the end separating fact from fiction, or supporting your fictional choices with reasons.

Candice Fleming did a great job of including an author’s note in her book Papa’s Mechanical Fish. In the back matter, Jonah Winter also 'fesses up to the fact that he’s blurred some lines between fact and fiction in The 39 Apartments of Ludwig Van Beethoven, because there are so many unknowns even after extensive research.

Remember that an author’s note isn’t a place to excuse a lack of research, but it is a chance to be candid with an editor, book reviewers, and ultimately, your reader. Whether you write for kids or adults, make sure that any blurred lines between fiction and nonfiction are clarified up front or at the end of your book.

But creative nonfiction or historical fiction is tricky. Always get an outside opinion before submitting your work. I’m biased, because I run a critique site called Rate Your Story, but I truly feel that getting feedback from a professional before submitting your work, wherever it falls on the fiction/non-fiction spectrum, is one of the best gifts you can give your career.

Many editors and agents today only allow a single submission, and “no means no.” Those aren’t blurred lines! Whatever you can do to make your work ready before you hit SEND will hopefully end in a clear “YES!”

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Learn more about Miranda Paul on her webpage or blog.

Webrid's Unlikely Heroes Giveaway!

Milo James Fowler kindly invited me to join a series of giveaways he's linking to from his blog, In Medias Res. Hop on over to see the other great authors raffling off books each Friday in December!

I thought it would be fun to offer both of the Webrid books (that is, one reader gets both Green Light Delivery  and Blue Diamond Delivery) in any ebook form preferred by the winner. The Giveaway is up and running, and the winner will be chosen on Friday, December 20. The theme of my giveaway is Unlikely Heroes.

Webrid never wanted to be the star of adventures, or risk his life, or get off his couch for that matter. Yet, time and again, fate swoops in and forces poor Webrid to fight the good fight.

Do you love unlikely heroes in literature? Who are your favorites? Please share them with us in the comments, and also enter the giveaway here:

Good luck!

Paul Kavanagh: Hemingway, Dante, Verlaine, Rimbaud, Ballard, and an Iceberg at the End of the World

My guest this week is Paul Kavanagh. According to one critic, his dystopian novella Iceberg exhibits "scabrous innocence and scarifying pathos." Yes, that's meant as a compliment. The author shares some thoughts with us here. Or maybe it's one long thought.

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Hemingway wrote something somewhere about style and an iceberg. I wrote a book about an iceberg that was won in a spam email. Don't you just hate those pesky emails. Hemingway said his style was like an iceberg. My iceberg was an Antarctic iceberg. It was concrete and not some abstract notion. The iceberg I wrote about drifted all the way up from the Antarctica to New York City. It could happen. Hemingway’s theory of the iceberg is very clever. My iceberg could have been a huge peach. I tried to use Hemingway’s method. I thought it would be interesting and clever and funny. I wrote about the end of the world, a Ballardian end of the world, but I left out all the details, well most of the details, I could have written a thousand pages about a Ballardian end of the world, a litany of – clichés? - but I decided to try the Hemingway approach and leave it all out. My book is very small now. It makes people giggle because it is so small – I like that though. There is a huge mess floating in the sea between Hawaii and California. The huge floating mess is the result of the bad weather that destroyed Japan. In that mess there are televisions, beds, kettles, all the things one would need to create a comfortable home. On my floating – up to New York, it could happen – iceberg, a lovely couple do just that, they create a comfortable home out of the debris of the Ballardian end of the world. They create a Modern Eden. I used Dante Alighieri’s template. The first chapter in the book is the antithesis to the late chapter in the book as hell is the antithesis of heaven. I enjoyed writing Iceberg. Writing even though is like sitting on top of an iceberg is nevertheless a lot of fun. Writing should never be painful. I wrote many years ago, when I thought I was Rimbaud - now I have to admit I look more like Verlaine - one should not suffer for art for art will not suffer for you. I was once very silly. I am still very silly. Iceberg is a very silly book. I hope it makes people giggle. In the movie I hope Bert and Ernie will play the leading roles. Sesame Street is the cause of all this. ABC. One Two three. There are three chapters that make up Iceberg. As there are three Books in Dante Alighieri’s Divina Commedia. “Very Oulipo!” I am repeating myself. I am turning into that drunk at the end of the bar. Hemingway emptied a shotgun into his mouth because he had turned into that drunk at the end of the bar. I will not empty a shotgun into my mouth I’ll simply stop

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You can purchase Iceberg on Amazon.

Enita Meadows Shares ShapeShifting Demons

Who doesn't like to expand their knowledge of monsters? Edita Meadows complies with this fascinating description of the very scary-sounding creatures called Aswangs, which feature in her novels.

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Vampire vs Aswang

 by Enita Meadows

These days, vampires are in. They’re cool, they’re trendy, and sometimes it’s just plain difficult—near impossible—to find an author who hasn’t written a vampire story. And who can blame them? However, deciding whether I am or am not one of those authors is tricky: It all depends on how strictly you define “vampire!”

The “tricky” part is that my Aswang Wars trilogy is about aswang, a type of shapeshifting demon. They don’t burn (or sparkle) in sunlight, they aren’t weak to a stake through the heart, and they don’t sleep in coffins. But they do drink blood. They do change their shape. They are nocturnal. So are they vampires? Or are they not?

I spent many sleepless nights researching these ghouls of Philippine folklore while writing the Aswang Wars. Their lore is completely separate from vampire myth, existing before the introduction of western cultures. There are similar ghouls in surrounding areas like Indonesia and Malaysia, but none as profound and culturally influential as the aswang is to the Filipinos.

But what is an aswang, exactly?

Essentially, an aswang is a creature which takes an unassuming form during the daytime only to transform at night and feed off humans for their blood or internal organs. The word aswang in the Philippines covers a wide array of ghouls and monsters, but most share common traits, such as a taste for human blood/entrails, some form of shapeshifting, and a trademark cry described as a wak wak or tik tik. An aswang can be many things during the day; usually a beautiful young woman, and other times an animal, the most common being a black cat or dog, a large pig, or a bat. They have proboscis tongues capable of stabbing clear through human skin, a voice that is louder when far away but softer when nearby, and have a knack for snatching up small children and even unborn babies straight from the mother’s womb.

In The Aswang Wars, the main character is one of these creatures, who has forgotten his true nature and everything about himself and the aswang world. He knows only his name, Jei Rivera, and nothing else. When an aswang named Malaya comes along to tell him not only is he an aswang, but the most vital part of the battle between warring clans, he’s thrust back into that world with his only true motivation being to learn about the past he’s forgotten.

Although I put my own twists on the aswang while molding them for the story, a lot of honest research went into the creation of the Aswang Wars trilogy. On top of that, there was a lot of discovery to be had about these blood-suckers during the writing process itself. I learned what it was like to think from a monster’s point of view, and found the distinct differences between aswang and vampire to be too great to categorize them so closely together.

Aswang are monsters, all on their own. They’re not infected with their condition. They’re demons, from birth to eventual death. Despite feeding on blood and changing shape, there’s not a lot to justify the aswang to be categorized as a “vampire” at all. In fact, maybe the vampire should instead be categorized as a type of aswang. Let’s just hope there aren’t any walking among us tonight.

Hope you all had a happy Halloween. Don’t let the monsters bite. ;)

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Learn more about Enita Meadows on her website.

Purchase the Aswang Wars series on Amazon.

There are readings, and then there are readings

Last week I made my debut appearance at Enigma Bookstore in Astoria, Queens, New York. The sci-fi /fantasy shop and community center has been open only a few months, but it's already the go-to place for spec fic fans of all ages.

I was joined by fellow Candlemark & Gleam author Leonard Richardson, who read from his hilarious  gaming novel Constellation Games, which I heartily recommend if you enjoy humorous sci-fi, video games, or generally silly geekiness (and ain't that what we're all here for?).

My next reading takes place on Monday, October 21, 7:00pm. I'll be at one of my usual haunts, the Rough & Ready New Works Series at the Alchemical Theater Lab, 137 W. 14th Street in Manhattan. Suggested donation is $10, well worth it for an evening of play and screenplay excerpts, shorts stories, and often a song or two. My contribution will be a flaneur story called "A Long Way Down Broadway." Don't know about flaneur stories? Well, stop by and find out!

A Writer's Joy: The Editor Who "Gets" You

This week my story "Rain Puddle Man" was published in the e-zine Spaceports & Spidersilk. The October issue is full of Halloween stories for kids, and you can buy it here.

When the editor, Marcie Tentchoff, emailed me that link, I started reminiscing over my relationship with that publication, and with her specifically. She's chosen to publish six or seven of my stories over the past three years. In fact, of all the stories I've submitted to her, she's rejected only one. It was the first one, and I was very green; she was absolutely correct in calling it seriously flawed.

Marcie is an editor who "gets" me. I've been incredibly lucky to find a few such advocates already in my short career. That kind of partnership is a huge boon to a writer's self-confidence. Statistically, I suppose it's as unlikely as a successful love affair, since it's all about taste and personality and world view. Those three elements are very tough to match between two people.

An editor who "gets" you doesn't necessarily always buy your stories, but s/he always sees what you're aiming for and appreciates what you've tried. And s/he is always eager, even impatient, to see your next submission. I hope every writer gets a chance to work with an editor who's so in tune with his or her vision. It can make all the difference.