If I did stars, this set of essays would get all the stars.
These well-written, well-researched essays by a variety of academics and writers examine thIf I did stars, this set of essays would get all the stars.
These well-written, well-researched essays by a variety of academics and writers examine the serious dearth of romance for people of color--while not overlooking the pioneers who published in spite of the hard push of accepted wisdom that only white people read. All through this book shout-outs for early romances aimed for the Black reader get air time. In fact, the list of books at the end, and the bibliography for further reading, are worth the price alone.
But first, enjoy the essays.
We all know that publishing has been, and is, all about book as "product" and what got published was what publishers assumed everyone wanted, everyone being the white book buyer. This generally accepted factoid, and how it is at last crumbling, is examined from all angles in the essays.
The selection is smartly chosen, ranging from academic to enthusiastic writers who talk about fan fiction as well as romance. Queer and trans perspectives are not overlooked, which furnishes a deeply appreciated window into how much Black readers in particular (many with reading tastes much like mine) had to go through to find even a modicum of representation.
As a kid, I and my sibs had candy so seldom that I could make a pack of M&Ms last for weeks, allowing myself one a day. I’d nibble that single candy wAs a kid, I and my sibs had candy so seldom that I could make a pack of M&Ms last for weeks, allowing myself one a day. I’d nibble that single candy with my front teeth so that it took longer to enjoy, until it began to melt in my fingers.
I have the same approach to short pieces of fiction I know I’m going to enjoy, and so it was with Starlings, Jo Walton’s collection of short work.
I say ‘short work’ because it’s not merely short stories. In fact, Walton claims in the introduction that there’s only one true short story in the collection. The rest are attempts, first chapters, experiments, and then there is her wonderful poetry (including a biographical poem that alone is worth the price of admission) and a play that had me cracking up so much I startled the dog. (How I’d love to do that play in a readers’ theater reading!)
Anyway, I portioned these out over weeks, permitting myself to read only one at a time right before bed. (This was only a mistake once, when I encountered a piece so very dark in humor that it was basically extremely effective horror. To get the images out of my head I had to bring out the big guns: listening to Ralph Vaughn Willams’ In Windsor Forest and reread some P.G. Wodehouse before I dared sleep. At least it was a very short piece!)
At the end of each, Walton talks about the inspiration behind it, sometimes evaluating it, and giving the history of publication. These notes are especially interesting to fellow writers, as well as for those who enjoy looking behind the stage curtain.
What to say about the pieces themselves? It’s interesting that the ‘true’ short story that Walton picked came way after my own selection for which one it had to be. This raises the question of what exactly constitutes a short story. Each of these could spark debate on that question alone, before we get to the ideas. None of these pieces is predictable, pretty much every one of them could be called a chapter one to a wonderful novel, or else a fine example of flash fiction, or a fictional riff. Many of them could be broken up into poetry format as they are really prose poems.
One of my favorites was the short story “Turnaround,” which takes place in a restaurant over lunch on an enormous spaceship that is destined for a new planet. The sfnal elements are there, but so are the arts, as well as the impractical and sometimes delightfully absurd joys that make human life so great, such as musical fanfares announcing the newest dishes. One of the things I love about Walton’s work is the celebration of human possibility, choice, and a reveling in profligate beauty. This story evokes that, the best in the human spirit.
The voice, or tone, or mode of these pieces varies so widely. Walton is so flexible when it comes to narrative voice. The opening story, “Three Twilight Tales,” reads as if told by a storyteller over the firelight on a wintry night. The dream-world of fairy tales is evoked through prose that slips into poetry just often enough to be enchanting.
Very different is the tight, wry voice of the next piece, a very short one called “Jane Austen to Cassandra.” And different from both is the eerie tone of “On the Wall,” which is in essence a novel contained in a short piece, because once the reader figures out who this is, they know exactly where it’s going, and it stops at exactly the right moment for maximum effect.
They’re all like this, wildly different in tone and effect, and yet there are flashes of themes from her novels here and there, and glimpses of characters, for instance I thought I saw Krokus from the Thessaly novels in “What a Piece of Work.”
The collection finishes up with the play mentioned above, “Three Shouts on a Hill,” and more of her wonderful poetry.
I wish this were coming out before the end of the year, as I can think of three people I’d buy it for as a holiday gift, but OTOH there are always birthdays, ha ha!
How to do engaging narrative voice . . . gross recipes for food you wouldn't want to eat . . . transnistrian infundibulatoPygmy mammoths!
Lost fandoms!
How to do engaging narrative voice . . . gross recipes for food you wouldn't want to eat . . . transnistrian infundibulators. Narcolepsy.
The thing about this collection of essays is that you can open the book to any page and fall into a witty, sharply observed, delightful bit of arcana, or wisdom. "Chaos is Not Your Friend" is disturbingly current, though it first appeared in 2004. Then there are glimpses of the fannish past--and that includes Lost Fandoms.
The essays on publishing are worth the price all alone. Cliches--a glimpse behind the production of a book--scam publishers--fan fiction.
Every one of these essays could start a great conversation at any gathering. The other set of essays that I enjoy as much--and that range so widely and so wittily--are Virginia Woolf's....more
I really enjoy writing books if they aren’t too pompous (telling the reader what to do, and passing judgment on what is Good and Bad, especially alongI really enjoy writing books if they aren’t too pompous (telling the reader what to do, and passing judgment on what is Good and Bad, especially along the old axioms that what white men write is important, what women write is silly romance, and Literary Books ought to be dreary and tough to read) because it’s fascinating as well as fun to see others’ writing process from the inside.
I’d heard that Stephen King had written a book about writing, but I hadn’t reached for it as I know he mainly writes horror. Back in my young days, when I was a flunky in the film industry, I used to read every project submitted to the studio I worked for. (One of the upsides of being a very fast reader.)
One of these books was King’s Firestarter, which I found involving, vivid, and fast paced—but then it hit a horrific middle section, going straight from sf to horror, and I put it down. That was my last try with him.
But I came across a used copy of his writing memoir while bookstoring. It’s relatively short, a fast read told in a delightful, honest, funny, rueful voice.
The first part of the book is about his life, and how he became a writer, including a section on alcohol and drug addiction, and how it is not necessary for the muse, or romantic, or inspiring, and the latter section is comprised of essays about the craft.
King is four years older than I am, so he was growing up in a world I knew. As I read along, I could see so many of the boys around me in him: fascinated by gore and guts, explosions and weird stuff. All the stuff that turned me off as a kid. King liked being scared, I didn’t. He wanted to write scary stories, and from the gitgo, when he wrote, stencil-published and sold his own copies, he found an audience among others who love the thrill of horror, something I only began to understand in adulthood, but have never shared.
That’s not to say that we didn’t share some similar experiences. When he wrote that first stencil story and sold it at school, a teacher takes him aside and scolds him for wasting his time, talent, and mind on trash. Hoo boy, did I resonate with that. Four years behind him, I heard a lot about how fantasy was silly trash, and if I wanted to be a real writer, I would write about important subjects, like real life. And in college I heard plenty about how I should writing about important subjects like the futility and meaninglessness of real life.
Well, he has plenty to say about writing what people enjoy, to which I nodded in firm agreement.
As for the craft essays, they were interesting, and the writing sections would be helpful for writers with a process similar to his. The how-to-publish data is really out of date, things have changed so much since 2000, when the book came out. (And his experience dated back to the seventies, when getting novels published was a whole lot easier.)
Definitely worth reading, and if I come across a young writer who I think this book will help, I will pass it along. ...more
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