If you were a member of the World Science Fiction Convention in Denver last year, or if you’re a member of the Montreal version this year, you can nominate stuff for the Hugos. Did you know this? I sure as hell didn’t the first time I went to a Worldcon, probably because I was more concerned with avoiding the outrageous parking fees at the Anaheim Convention Center than voting and nominating and such.
Ever since, I’ve tried to get the people I know on the ballot, for both the quality of their work and the novelty of saying, “Hey, I know that name!” It hasn’t worked out as well as I’ve hoped, but no one said World Domination was easy. That’s why I hope this little nugget will spread from my site to Facebook and Twitter and beyond. You gotta start somewhere.
So, if you can nominate stuff for the Hugos, please take a look at these works. If you like them, please tell people about them. And if you really like them, please nominate them.
42Blips is a new site, a Digg for nerdity. And my new story, “The Right People,” is up there, waiting for your votes. If you’re a member, please vote it up. If you’re not a member, please join and vote it up. And if you’re a pony, then you just run around and do your thing.
Four years ago, as John Kerry and George W. Bush were arguing about which direction in which they were going to take our country (Kerry: let’s take this offramp onto smoother road; Bush: hey, let’s head toward that giant cliff up ahead! It’ll be neat!), I had this idea for a story. It was set in the near future where everyone was surveilled and standardized tested within an inch of their lives, where social networks really meant something. Also, there were programmable dildoes.
I wrote it during my long bus commute to Nissan, and when I was finished I had cranked out thirty-three thousand words about high school politics, reputational economics and intelligent sex toys. The Fictionados loved it, but everyone thought it could use some trimming. So, down and down went the word count, first down to twenty-three thousand, then down to twenty, then to sixteen for one mag (with assists from Andrew Tisbert and Daryl Gregory, who are cruel and excellent editors), then to fifteen for Writers of the Future (who gave me a straight form rejection, big surprise). I was about to trunk the thing when Futurismic, purveyors of fine text, opened up for fiction submissions. Off it went, and then I got the second-best kind of reply from their editors: would I be willing to rewrite it a bit?
I did, and today I got the best kind of reply, the kind where they said they wanted to buy “The Right People,” and that it’ll be up this Wednesday. Granted, this is also the day when the US economic Armageddon began, but what the hell. I’ll take it as an appropriate omen, seeing how it’s about business and takes place at Ronald Reagan High School in deepest, darkest Irvine.
Jason, Rina, George and I have been talking about what’s next for people who write text. And one of the things I’ve been saying is that the dearth of markets for genre fiction (especially the longer stuff that windy sods like me keep writing) makes it pretty damn tough for new people to break in. This is not a complaint about knowing the secret handshake of the Cabal of Published Authors; text on paper is having a hell of a time competing with games and the internet, especially when both of them offer interaction with other people. The power of the imagination is mighty, but it’s gonna have a hell of a time going up against arguing over politics or fragging newbs.
It’s also a matter of entertainment hour per dollar. You spend forty bucks on a game you’re going to play for eighty hours, I think you’ll be hesitant to buy an eBook for six, especially when you can go slurp down free text anywhere else online. We writers have to think like publishers: we’re selling eyeballs to advertisers.
Which is why I’m doing this insane thing: I’m putting my fiction online, and I’m doing it for free. There will be ads at the beginning and end of each chapter/section/story, but they should be unobtrusive (and, ad servers willing, relevant). I’ll still have to promote the bejeezus out of this site, but with Worldcon coming up, there’s plenty of opportunity to spread the word and bring in new readers.
This could be a huge mistake. I might be shooting myself in the foot with magazines and websites and publishers. I’m still going to submit fiction like every other writer, but I’m not going to keep flogging stuff around. Genre fiction can have a pretty short shelf life, especially now with the future rising up and slapping us in the face every day. There are waves to catch, and I want to be as far in front as possible.
Something I should mention: I joined a writing group about a month ago, and it’s been the motivation I’ve been missing for a good long while. Motivation isn’t quite strong enough; lighting a fire under my ass, that’s more like it.
Our group is called the Fictionados. We have a theme song that uses the tune from the Canyonero song. And we are going to kick some ass.
I mention this because some of my fellow Fictionados have stuff that’s coming out, and I think it’d be good of you to go and read it. So go and read Jason Stoddard’s “Revision” and Ashleigh Raine’s “Things That Go Bump In The Night”, then tell the publishers how much you loved them.
I submitted my first story to the group last week. After I get back the critiques and edit it, I’ll post it here for your perusal.
