Author: jstueart

Egalité at the World Fantasy Convention, a report

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img_7941I have returned from Calgary where I attended the World Fantasy Convention, a yearly gathering of editors, publishers, writers of Fantasy literature. There were three of us from Whitehorse–Marcelle Dubé, Claire Eamer and me–forming a Contingency.

The convention for me was divided into four parts: the seminars, the networking, the readings and the dealer’s room.

The Seminars: The theme was Mystery in Fantasy Literature, with some seminars on how to put mystery elements into your fantasy fiction, or the best Fantasy novels of the last 20 years, etc. You can go and hear editors and publishers and writers speak about their writing strategies and their interests. Important was putting names and faces together in the editing and publishing world and getting an idea of what each editor might enjoy seeing in fantasy fiction, and how they might be to work with as editors and publishers. I also learned a lot about which authors were considered the best in the field, and how to catch up on authors I’d missed out on.

Networking: This is actually a lot of fun. Catching people for dinner, or talking with them in the convention suites after programming/seminars were over. You meet a lot of people you could never meet otherwise and this is for them–and you–to put names and faces together. I was able to hand out a few cards (ones that I’d made on my computer an hour before I left on the Air North plane), and meet a lot of people one on one who are exciting, interesting folks–fellow writers, and the aforementioned editors and publishers. You’d be surprised to learn, I’m sure, that I’m not a good schmoozer. I couldn’t last the many hours it requires. However, as the picture implies, we all got nametags and were encouraged to sit in the autograph room as equals–this is actually a very nice egalitarian maneuver. We’ve been hearing and talking to editors and publishers as they are movers, shakers, and opinion-makers–and then for two hours, we are all on the same level together. Nope, no one came up to have me sign anything. But it was nice–to feel like a writer, someone who COULD give autographs at any moment.

The readings: though I didn’t go to very many, I did enjoy the ones I went to. Mostly they were friends that I knew. Here you can hear about books you haven’t bought yet.

The dealer’s room: where books are sold. Ah, the joy of the dealer’s room. Lots of books. And I got to do an interview with Edge Books Website for a podcast. I even signed some books for them: Tesseracts Nine and Eleven. Edge Books and Hades Publications are fantastic people.

I’d like to do it again. But one of the biggest lessons I learned there was that you could be a well-known name despite publishing very much. If you send stuff out to be published, and are rejected, your name will still be more recognizable than if you had never submitted at all.

So, courage–even without publication–is rewarded with recognition. And recognition in a small cadre of people is worth its weight in gold.

(picture: l-r, Catherine Cheek, Derek Kunsken, me, Peter Atwood—Catherine and Peter were fellow Clarionites–and thanks to Liza Trombi of LOCUS for the pic!  Thanks, Liza!)

Predicting the Yukon of the Future: a new radio series

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I’m excited to announce that there will be a new 5-part radio series beginning sometime in November, either next Monday, 17th, or the following Monday, lasting 5 days in a row, exploring life in the Yukon in 2058. In honour of CBC North’s 50th Anniversary, we take you flash-forward into a very positive look at the future.

Recently I read a column at Fantasy Magazine’s website entitled, Why We Need Scientist Heroes Again, and the author made a good case for thinking positive:

“Show of hands – who wants to retire to their grandchildren’s sub-prime one-room hovel in the decayed urban warzone that was once America?

Or perhaps roam the sweltering wasteland looking for gasoline while the mutants hunt you down?

Yeah, thought so.

Then let’s inspire some smart folks to get scientifical and create smart solutions to our stupid problems.”

So, in that spirit, I pitched Yukon 2058 to CBC North and they liked it. And I think things will get more and more interesting in the north over the next 50 years. Not every positive accomplishment will have positive consequences all the way round. And that too is a power science fiction has–to warn us. If everything turns out just hunky-dory we never have to change what we’re doing. But in the spirit of thinking positive– of actually dealing with climate change (cause it will happen), I hope you enjoy Yukon 2058, my own personal vision of the Yukon of the future. If you like some of the things, don’t wait 50 years to start them, or to think up things on your own. Create the place you want to live in, the place you want your kids to live in, the place you want to retire in. The world is going to turn its collective global head north very soon–let people know what you would like to see in fifty years.

Also, there’s a science fiction anthology in the works looking at optimistic near future science fiction, called Shine. Check out the website and submit your stories. I’ll write another post about Shine too.

Write a Novel With Us: National Novel Writing Month

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So you might be bored this November and wonder what to do. You could shovel the walkway again. You could restack the wood. You could rent the Lord of the Rings trilogy or catch up on LOST episodes.

Or you could write a whole novel.

Yep, thousands of people are doing it. And it’s easy to do.

1. Go to www.nanowrimo.org and sign up for FREE.

2. You can write to your heart’s abandon for 30 days. Your aim is to write 50,000 words. But i’ve got two novel writing classes who are aiming this year for 10,000 words–or a novella.

3. Along the way, you get all this encouragement from NaNoWriMo–including well known authors–and me, as I will be sending daily notes.

4. You get to watch your word count rise and the word counts of everyone who is your Buddy.

5. You get to write whatever you want, good, bad, otherwise–and finally get that novel out of you.

6. You can upload your text in Scrambled form using Word. I’ll show you how in a later post. But no one gets to read your novel if you don’t want them to.

7. You have more than 20 people in Whitehorse writing with you! That’s a good company!

So, you have all the incentive, and no drawbacks. If you’ve ever wanted to write a novel—start now with us! You’ll be happy you did. We’ll hold a celebration party on Nov 30 or Dec 1st to congratulate all Whitehorse participants.

When you sign up, find me: Bearnabas–and we’ll be Writing buddies.  (Bearnabas is a variation of Barnabas which means Son of Encouragement.  So, now I’m the Bear of Encouragement.  I know, a bit corny, but it works!)  Happy Novel Writing!

How to talk about Plot Shapes, or Don’t tell Creative writers they aren’t creative

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Well, you live and learn as a teacher. One thing I will never do again: give my high school writing students a handout on plot shapes. My goal was to tell them that if they needed to have some help in shaping a plot, that they could look to these “shapes” —forms that would give them patterns that might help them complete a plot.

Of course, I prefaced this with saying that some people believed there “are only 20 plots” and that everything boils down to these forms in some way or another.

Wake Up Call: These are teenagers. Do they want to be told that there are only 20 plots!?? NO. Do they set about trying to prove you wrong? Yes. And that’s fine. It was their ire at being told they could only have 20 choices that saved them.

At first, they looked pretty crestfallen–how could I stand there and tell them “there’s nothing new under the sun”?

I had a math and science teacher who told me that once. I hated that. I hated that he might be right. You hear it in church sometimes–I think it’s in Ecclesiastes somewhere–that there is nothing new under the sun–but we are creative people. CREATIVE writers. We do create something new. What I am writing now has never, never been written before.

I think books like 20 Master Plots are good for a person who’s ready to read about how to master certain forms in the same way that people who sing learn the 20 or so songs in one book together—to work their muscles. Or the way that autoshop kids learn to rebuild a few classic cars–at least ONE Mustang!  But the book is not for everyone.  I find it helpful —when I know which shape I’m writing— to know what reader expectations are for that shape.  But it can be diminishing…

I did much better job when I talked about Motifs–and they all loved stealing motifs from the Folklore and Fairy Tale index–they created the coolest plots using plot skeletons. And if you talk about plot skeletons, this will work. Masterplots are really plot skeletons too. DO NOT tell them that any person (sorry Ronald Tobias) ever said there were only 20.

If I had it to do again, I might offer the 20 as plot skeletons–and ask them to create a story using one plot skeleton or two. But, at all costs, no one should bust the creative impulse or dampen it by suggesting that someone else’s plot fits neatly into one of 20 formulas.

Seeing that storm clouds had entered the French library, where we meet every Wednesday for fun and writing, I instead challenged them to break the formulas with their own version of the plots–how do you subvert a Rescue plot (#17) or a Sacrifice plot (#15)? How do you masterfully up-end the Adventure plot? Then I had their hearts back into it!

Don’t do this to adults either. Just don’t. It makes you look hoity-toity, like you know what they can possibly do, and limits creativity.

Yep, I’m writing a Quest plot (plot#1) but you ain’t seen nothing like this quest! hehe.

New Armour, Same Climax: a review of Iron Man

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Now the title is gonna make you think I didn’t like Iron Man. But I did. I enjoyed it. Robert Downey Jr. is not the most conventional superhero actor–and he definitely brings a new level of cycnism and self-deprecating humour to the superhero idea. The heart-device is completely cool–and makes our hero vulnerable. There’s great stuff here that stretches the superhero genre. But I’m noticing something about Marvel superhero movies that is making me just a little…well…concerned.

Iron Man had a great beginning. Starting the movie with a horrendous attack in Afghanistan, it then brought us back in time 36 hours to show how things got so wonky for Mr. Tony Stark. Usually superhero movies stick to straight biopic rules–start us at childhood, move us forward—but I like this prelude dug out from the middle of the movie. Then it brought us up to where we began and put him in Afghanistan, with terrorists. This was such a bold plot move by the writers–to make Iron Man contemporary, to make him relevant. (Why didn’t they stay there?)

When terrorists begin to rebuild Iron Man version 1, and have a Jericho missile (missiles that look like fireworks–fun!) and threaten to fire it –and do– then the unique story of hero facing war in the middle east takes a left turn back into cliche. Iron man zooms over and takes care of pesky, GOOD, plot with one shot.

Inevitably, in these superhero movies, one hero must face one villain (or in the case of Spidey 3, 3 villains!) and inevitably it must be someone with mucho screen time, who is close to our hero who decides to follow in the footsteps of the hero and brazenly “duplicate” the process of “transformation”. Abomination in Hulk; souped up Jeff Bridges in Iron Man; even in some ways, Venom (the “copy” of Spiderman) in Spidey 3 (the Goblins earlier, the mad Doc Oc).

But what a story Iron Man left behind! Weapons manufacturer held hostage by Afghani terrorists who turns the table on them–shown to a theater of people who are longing for an end, or any victory, in this war; why didn’t they just send Iron Man back into the fray again and again? They could have shown us that the issues were complicated, the fixes not so easy and that Iron Man was really one big Tank as hero–a suit of armor with weapons. Tony Stark is still a weapon–he’s manufactured himself as a weapon. He has not changed, in a sense, though he has foregone making money from the weapons industry–a huge difference. But that’s not really followed up on because we’ve got to move this plot towards Jeff Bridges and the one-on-one shoot ’em up which has become the hallmark of superhero movies.

Perhaps superhero movies have been influenced by the game industry, pitting the largest foe at the end of the movie–a foe that is his “equal” if not his doppelganger. But then, it could just be adventure plots which nearly dictate that a climax has to be between the protagonist and the antagonist. It’s just that Jeff Bridges was the B-class antagonist and the Afghanis were so much more interesting. More complex. It is their style of fighting–which resists making one man a central figure (Bin Laden is not in control in Iraq–Al Queda is a hydra with many heads, hence the difficulty of defeating it)–which challenges the antagonist-protagonist motif.

Wouldn’t you like a movie that dealt with the issue of the war from a superhero POV? We almost had it. And then Iron Man went on autopilot.

Still Iron Man is a great movie for what it is: two hours of great entertainment. Robert Downey Jr at his best. Jeff Bridges looking cool as a bald, bearded guy. Gwenyth Paltrow as Pepper Potts. Dialogue is snappy. There’s lots of good joke moments. Rent it and enjoy. But I had a writing teacher tell me this once: “The good is the enemy of the best.” And here, I think this is a good movie that wanted to be the best.

For another thought on this movie–and a four star rating–read Roger Ebert, my hero.

The State of the States:the Political Landscape (No. 2 in a series)

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Some surprises for me in Texas concerning the political landscape.

You’d think that in Texas, things are pretty bleak for Obama.  Or you might think a lot of things about the States when it comes to this presidential race.  Two things surprised me.

The NAS Ft. Worth military base sells books in the main exchange, the main shopping center on a base.  It caters to mostly military personnel.  You can only get on the base with a military ID, which my dad carries.  (He’s a retired Senior Chief Petty Officer. )   So, the book section is roughly the size of a Walmart’s book section.  In this base, on the shelves were three books by Obama, one from Nancy Pelosi, one each from Hillary Clinton, Tom Brokaw, Joe Biden, a bio on Michelle Obama.  There was one small paperback for McCain, Faith of my Fathers.  No Bush books, no conservative books, nothing I expected.  I assumed Military bases would be bastions of right wing conservatives, and that their bookstore would look like a Rush Limbaugh’s list of quotes.  Where was the Coulter?  Where was Cheney?  Rove?  Any books condemning the Democrats?  Nope.  Here, in addition to the ones listed above, three books condemned the war in Iraq; one condemned a too powerful presidency.  I was amazed.  What does this mean?

“It means nothing,” my dad said.  “Liberals work on the staff, and they are usually civilian.  The military is all conservative.”

I argued that the staff would have to buy books that would sell, not books that stay on shelves.  They obviously know their market.

“Those are the books that didn’t sell.  All the conservative ones got picked up.”

I told him the bookshelf was full–these weren’t remainders.  They were the books for sale.

“Most of the clientele there are civilians.”

You can’t get on base without an ID!!   He refused to believe that military personnel might be turning away from Bush and towards Obama.  In Walmarts across America you will at least see The Faith of George Bush or several books condemning Democrats or Obama…but not one positive book about Bush.

I think conservatives are losing ground in the military.  People want change.  And a failed war, broken promises to veterans, and no exit strategy is straining an otherwise conservative base….well, it’s straining this one at least in Ft. Worth.  Who knows what other bases are like?

The second striking thing:  Wish I’d had a camera on the highway as we passed out of Ft. Worth Texas.  Some one had bought a billboard and put the American Flag and the head of an eagle on it with the words, “There’s only one God-loving American patriot running for President.”  It left you to assume who it was.  And forced you to think that only one man could qualify under that description.  I know two men who qualify.

People will buy a billboard, or rent one, and put up one lie after another.  You can’t say your opinion loudly enough down here.  The landscape is littered with homemade propaganda:  “If you have morals, vote McCain.”

It’s crazy.  But then conservatives still hold more power than they should.  Witness the latest muscle-flexing of the religious right.  The boycott on McDonald’s for supporting “the gay agenda.” The only time they seem to care about their health is when they’re trying to take away the rights of other people.  Now that McDonald’s caved in to their demands, they will go back to eating the fries….

Democrats could never do the same damage to McDonald’s.  Mickey D’s would never feel the pain of our ban.

We’re smart enough not to eat there.

The State of the States: Airlines/Airports (No. 1 in a series)

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Well, I’m traveling now from Whitehorse to Reno, Nevada, and then on to my folks place for Thanksgiving. That’s right, we’re celebrating Canadian Thanksgiving (the Early Edition of Thanksgiving, available everywhere north of 49).

I intend to tell you a bit about how the States are doing right now.

First up, Airlines.

I don’t have good things to say about airlines, but I do have some warnings. First up, most US airlines are charging for checking ANY baggage. $15. No one lets you know, unless it’s in the fine print of your ticket. I’ll check and get back with you. I find this a bit rude to travelers. Basically, after giving you high fees and prices anyway, they penalize you for packing. Better if you take everything on the plane with you. Remember the time that they actually tried to convince you to check stuff that could go on board? Yep, that’s over. They want you to take everything you can on with you. Maybe they can’t pay their luggage handlers….I’m not sure. But $15 for every piece of checked baggage is a lot–and you have to pay it there at the check-in counter. They told me that Southwest was an exception. If you don’t know about Southwest, go to www.southwest.com and drool over those prices. They are exceptional. And they go to a lot of places in the US. If you take a shuttle across the border to Seattle from Vancouver ($40) you can fly roundtrip for less than $200 to most places. And, apparently, they don’t charge you for checked luggage.

US Airways is probably typical of US airlines.

Another disturbing development: they now charge for ALL beverage service on board the aircraft. They even charge for spring water. (And most travel books tell people to avoid the tap water on planes….for obvious reasons). So, for flights that are three hours, not only do they take your water from you at the door (except for 100 ml), but they now charge you $2 for drinks, $1 for coffee/tea and $7 for alcohol. They also charge for food, but I was watching that happen last year….those snack boxes. Now, even on a three hour flight–no water, no pretzels. And they will only take cash. So, get American dollars, exact change, for flights into the US, or you will have no food or drink on board. (I don’t know if you are allowed food….seems like I see these signs that allow dinner on board now if you are buying it in the terminal.) *  

The inflight movie? A) you have to pay for headphones. no surprise there. But B) you are scolded over and over again to close your window-shades for those watching the movie, even if you are passing over some stunning landscapes. I mean, the window is the cheap entertainment. It’s why you buy a window seat! Geesh. I think they didn’t want us to see Area 51. I couldn’t afford the headphones, but I can afford the window–it was $232 dollars. I didn’t have change on the plane, so I enjoyed the dry landscape as a dry person. *The good news: airport food has gotten better. yes, you can find Burger King everywhere, but I’m talking about a Mexican burrito place called the Blue Burrito Grille (all fresh ingredient burritos) in Phoenix, and Opa’s Greek restaurant in Vancouver’s restaurant (before you go through security). Opa’s is great food. I was impressed. All fresh ingredients, tasty, affordable. $10.49 for a gyro/pita with greek salad and medium drink. If these are any indication of airport food, it’s getting healthier, and somewhat cheaper.

So, traveling right now can be surprising, yes. And it isn’t getting all that better on the planes. Except for AIR NORTH which I love with all my heart. If I could date AIR NORTH, I would be the proudest guy on the planet, showing Air North off to everyone, ready to introduce Air North at every party. (Yes, I sometimes have an article for Yukon: North of Ordinary, Air North’s in-flight magazine…but this is not why I’m in love with Air North) FREE Midnight Sun coffee!! Free Cheesecake! Free Food!! Free Beverages! Free magazines and newspapers! Friendly Staff! Yes, I want the prices to come down, but you know what?? I think service on Air North compensates for the prices…. They are, BAR NONE, the best airline in Canada, and except for my former affair with Southwest Airlines (love ya, babe–we’re just too far apart) they are the best in North America for price. My beef with them has more to do with having to come home so late only on certain days from Calgary, but this is not a series on Air North….but traveling Outside makes me compare airlines…and Air North comes out favorably against US Airways/American Airlines, etc, anyday!

So, go to Vancouver and Calgary, Fairbanks and Inuvik and Edmonton….Until Air North flies farther, I’m recommending a tight traveling circle.

*okay, the flight attendant on the second US Airways flight was very kind to me and gave me a coffee for 50 cents, when I didn’t have enough cash.  I can’t trash US Airways–as I said, they are typical of the fee hikes that are invading the airline industry.

**American Airlines does not charge for drinks on board. The flight attendant said, “Please keep flying American.”   He is aware that “other airlines” have begun doing that but it turned his stomach.

Twenty Three Novels By Yukoners Being Written in November (at least!)

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Yep, twenty three novels. Hard to imagine twenty three people all writing novels at the same moment, but that’s the glory of NaNoWriMo. You jump in and you have thousands of words when you get out. I have two classes right now who are participating in this month-long event: 14 in a novel-writing class, 8 in a science fiction/fantasy novel writing class and myself. I’m only requiring 10,000 words which is a novella, but they still count as non-short stories.

Wanna join us in November? Go to www.nanowrimo.org and register for National Novel Writing Month. We can encourage each other. I also encourage you to buy Chris Baty’s book No Plot? No Problem! or to download from the youth section of the nanowrimo website, the youth novel writing workbook which is actually good stuff. I’m using some of it for my high school group, Rocketfuel.

Can you write a novel in one month? Yes. Yeah, you might say, but will it be any good? Most first drafts are good to get out of you, but need some work later. But you can’t make a pot without putting some clay on the table first. Yukoner Ivan E. Coyote pushed out a novel during NaNoWriMo, called Bow Grip. It’s damn good. So, it’s both possible to push out a decent first draft of a novel and possible that this draft can be useful for later publication. Remember the first draft is the hardest.

But everything’s a bit easier if you have a whole crew doing it with you. So, join our CREW!!

WRITE A NOVEL IN NOVEMBER.

Chosen City Columns from What’s Up Yukon?

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If you’ve been reading my columns in What’s Up Yukon? and liked them, I’ve started archiving them here on my webpage/blog.  You’ll find the articles on the page marked Chosen City, just up at the top, and they will direct you to the What’s Up Yukon? site.  (except for one, which is here on my site)  I hope you enjoy hearing the stories of Yukoners, as I have enjoyed hearing them too.  We’re a unique bunch and it takes a unique person to live up here, enduring all this beauty.

(It snowed yesterday.  It’s still September!  Geesh.)

I’ll keep placing the article links on Chosen City’s page so you can keep reading them from here.

Enjoy.  And thank you for sharing your stories with me.