Thanks for the interview, LitPick. It was fun!
I was chatting with a publisher friend of mine the other day. She told me a story that made me shake my head in disbelief. Or maybe it was disgust.
This publisher runs a small, boutique publishing house that caters to the family friendly crowd. In all the time I’ve known her, I’ve always found her to be polite, kind, and ready to lend a helping hand.
She’s been in the business for about ten years and knows that it isn’t always easy for writers to submit their work to publishers. So when she received a voicemail from a man who said he had a book ready to publish and wanted to speak to her about publishing it, she decided to set aside some time for a little chat.
Even though it was breaking her own rules. The guidelines posted on the publisher’s website specifically states NOT to call. All queries about submissions were to be made via email.
Three business days went by before she could find time to make the call. It was a particularly busy time, and she was totally swamped with work.
But when she picked up the phone to call back, she was surprised to see that she had a new voicemail from the man.
She told me it was the most disgusting, unprofessional phone call she had ever gotten. He ranted on and on about how she had disrespected him by not returning his phone call for three days.
She said that after hearing this man’s vulgar words and an angry tone, she wanted nothing more to do with him. And she was more than ever determined to stick to the no phone call rule.
Just like every other publisher, she has no time to waste on entitled author-wannabes who think their time is more valuable than everyone else’s.
Can’t say I blame her!
It’s time to put on my librarian hat for a few minutes and clear the air about science fiction and fantasy.
Because the sad truth is, many people don’t seem to know the difference between the two. They use the terms interchangeably, as if they are the same.
But they’re not. They’re about as alike as strawberries and pineapples.
Fantasies are flights of the imagination, often full of dragons and magic. The worlds in which fantasies exist are always just beyond our view. We feel that if we could move a little faster, dig a little deeper, or find the right door to open, we could enter that world and have access to all of its wonders.
Many fantasies are based on legends or fairy tales, or even scary stories told around the campfire.
The television show Grimm is fantasy. The Harry Potter books are fantasy. Lord of the Rings series is fantasy. Vampire and werewolf shows are fantasy.
Science fiction, on the other hand, lives not around the corner, but in the future. It takes current scientific thought and projects potential outcomes.
In other words, if we can invent our way there, it’s science fiction.
Post-apocolyptic stories are science fiction. As are space travel stories and stories set in the future.
Star Trek is science fiction. Planet of the Apes is science fiction. The Matrix is science fiction. Any story that deals with robots, computers, or viruses taking over the world are science fiction.
Just to make sure we’re on the same page, the Behold the Eye (Braumaru, Cerulea, and Viridia) books are fantasy, while the Department of Temporal Adjustment is science fiction.
Great! Now that that’s all cleared up I’ll take my librarian hat off again.
See you around.
I really detest bullies, no matter what cause they try to hide behind.
One particular group of bullies have come to my attention lately. I know they’re bullies because bullies are all about squashing others so they can feel bigger.
These men want to squash women.
Oh, they say they are for men’s rights, but we all know that’s just a cover.
What they’re really about is keeping their misogynistic little world from being torn apart by women who have the nerve to claim they should be paid the same money for doing the same work. Who believe women and men are equally valuable to society.
These bullies…I mean men’s rights activists…have come to my attention lately because they’re disturbed, nay, downright angry, about the remade Mad Max movie.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/15/entertainment/mad-max-fury-road-boycott-mens-rights-thr-feat/
They cannot believe the movie industry has been so shortsighted as to allow women, mere women, to play some of the major roles in the movie. Action roles, which should only be played by men.
It’s feminist propaganda, they claim. A plot, intended to degrade men.
It’s too bad their misogynistic little minds have shrunk to the point where they can’t grasp the fact that feminism has been misrepresented for years. It’s not about world domination, it’s about equality.
Poor little fellas!
I don’t understand how it works, but on days I’m having trouble writing if I give myself a goal of a measly 100 words I somehow end up with at least 500.
But if I go for 500, I’ll often give up at 50.
The brain is a strange thing. It’s sometimes lazy and needs to be tricked into doing work.
Mine likes to be tricked by math, especially the kind that’s so convoluted that it doesn’t exist in the normal world.
Ever heard of equations that prove 100=500 while 500=50?
Yeah. Me neither.
Twists and turns, meant to confuse.
Mind math.
Works for me!
A scene from Time Without.
I think I’ve chosen the wrong profession.
As writer I spend hours, days, sometimes even years working on projects that might not make a single penny. All the work is done upfront, but payment is never a sure thing.
There are no guarantees. I get paid only when someone buys a book. Period.
Compare that to house inspectors. Yesterday I hired one to inspect a house my husband and I wanted to make an offer on. He showed up and began the inspection, but almost immediately realized that the house was a money pit. Everything was falling apart, and the cost of the repairs would break our budget.
I was given the choice to stop the inspection and told that since he had other billable work he could move on to, he wouldn’t charge me for the time he hadn’t spent of the job.
Sounded good to me. He wouldn’t lose out since he could pick up a job he had thought he didn’t have time for, and I could refrain from paying for work I now didn’t need.
Later that evening I got the bill. $391.40. I asked if it was a mistake, but was assured that the figure was correct. The bill was almost $400, for less than 30 minutes of work.
Which is why I just might consider changing careers.
I could handle crawling around in creepy crawlspaces, couldn’t I?
Believe it or not, the book is NOT about a monster. Not that you could tell by what I wrote today. Here’s a small excerpt.
I gulped as I
remembered the rusted hinges and the hidden lock on the door. Someone had wanted
that door to remain closed, probably to keep out the monster standing in the
doorway.I had unlocked that door. Whatever happened next, it was my
fault.A quick scan of the room showed me that there was not a calm
face in sight. Everyone in the room shared Dr. Wilson’s dread of the unknown
creature.The monster took a step forward, which unnerved me, but not
as much as the whoosh of air that suddenly blew past my arm.Even before I turned and saw the flash of white disappear
around the corner, I knew what had happened.We had been abandoned, ditched, left to fend for ourselves.
Every man in the room, including Dr. Wilson, had turned tail and run.My daughters and I were alone in the room. Alone, that was, except
for the monster.I watched in horror as the creature took another step into
the room and reached out a claw to grab the doorknob.At this point, I panicked. The only way out would take us
directly in front of that door. So I did the only thing I could think of. I
shoved my children down to the floor and tossed myself on top of them. If we
were lucky, the monster wouldn’t notice us. But if it did, at least it would
have to go through me before it got to my kids.
A little rough, I know. But that’s how first drafts should be. I’ll clean it up and make it all pretty in the rewrites.
Don’t let those reality house hunting shows fool you. House hunting isn’t as simple as a broker showing you three houses, you choose your favorite, and BOOM, you’ve got a house.
Especially not in Seattle, where the housing market is a hot mess.
My husband and I should know, since we’ve been in the trenches for six months.
Six months of diligently searching house-for-sale sites. We found it’s necessary to search multiple sites, since no one site lists all the homes. We finally narrowed it to three favorites, Windermere, Redfin, and Zillow.
The problem is that by this time we’ve had six months of scanning beautiful houses pics, only to be disappointed with the in-person viewing.
Pictures might be worth a thousand words, but not all of those words are truthful.
Photoshop, you’ve got a lot of ‘splaining to do!
We don’t want to waste anyone’s time so we only put an offer in if it seems we can be competitive. Yet we’ve been outbid four times. Four times!
I’ve never seen that happen in those reality shows.
The last house we lost, just yesterday, was the worst.
The house went on the market late Tuesday night. I visited it Thursday morning, and liked it. My broker checked with the seller’s broker Thursday night and was told they would be reviewing offers on Sunday. We ordered an inspection for Friday morning. (Cost = $409)
I showed up in the middle of the inspection to find my broker upset. He had just gotten a call from the seller’s broker, telling him that the house was sold! His time was wasted, my time was wasted, and my husband and I are out $409. All because the sellers weren’t considerate enough to let us know they were going to change the game midfield.
Now our pocketbook is lighter.
But at least we have an inspection report for a house we’ll never set foot in again in our entire lives!
Update:
Now I am officially impressed. Our broker didn’t like the way things happened, so we’re getting our money back! He said it is the Windermere way.
Wow!
HERE ARE 10 THINGS YOU CAN DO TO HELP SUPPORT YOUR FAVORITE AUTHOR.
By Penny Sansevieri