Well, it finally happened. I broke a cell phone. I put a bottle of coke in my purse that wasn’t quite fastened and that purse turned out to be water-resistant enough on the inside to send all of the contents swimming. This has put a major crimp on my ability to take terrible pictures of pens and things to update the blog because I had 4 weeks of pictures on my phone. I should hopefully be getting a refurb replacement in the next couple days and I endeavor to figure out what pictures I lost and replace them.
The same day I broke my phone I also managed to flush a piece of our steam cleaner which required a plumber to clear from the toilet. I am REALLY talented. I just wish I was as talented at writing stuff.
Luna Lindsey: How’s it going today? Jennifer Brozek: I’m finally getting over being sick. Travel takes it out of me sometimes. I don’t usually get sick after a con but when I do, it really messes with me. Luna: Oh man, that sucks. Yeah, I hate getting con plague. I try to switch into obsessive hand washing mode as soon as I enter the airport 🙂 Jennifer: Jeff got sick at the con. I catch something on the way home. Luna: Airports are the worst Jennifer: Me too. And lots of hand sanitizer. So many people want to shake my hand at conventions. Luna: But cons are bad, too. I got Swine Flu from PAX, and Norro Virus from Radcon. So.
yep. Jennifer: Yikes! Luna: I’m still alive to tell the tale! How was the con? It was Gencon right? Jennifer: People forget that menus at restaurants are teeming with little nasties. Luna: Worldcon? One of those big cons I’ve not been to yet Jennifer: Gen Con was great. Tiring. Luna: I need to get to one of those someday. Jennifer: Worldcon is in Spokane next year! Luna: WHOA. ok putting that on my calendar Jennifer: It’s practically in our backyard. Luna: Totally. lol from London to Spokane. Jennifer: And if people love Chicks Dig Gaming like I hope they will, I have a half of a percentage of a chance of maybe being nommed for a Hugo. Luna: Oh that would be great. Is that your latest release? Jennifer: That will be released in November along with my Baen anthology Shattered Shields. November will be a good month. Luna: Very nice. You’ll be quite busy. I’m reading the description. It looks interesting. Jennifer: I usually am. Luna: It’s always extra busy the month around a release. Jennifer: How’s things since your latest book came out? Any hate mail? Luna: Going well! The aforementioned extra-busy seems to finally be dying down, but it will pick up again if I manage to do more guest posts. No hate mail. Some hate tweets when I advertise, but it’s all manageable. Lots of really good feedback so far. It seems to be accomplishing my primary goal, which was to help exmormons adjust. Jennifer: I’m happy for you. I was a little afraid that people might jump on you for it. Religion is a very touchy subject. Luna: I’m still braced for it. If it hits any mainstream outlets, it could still happen. So far, only a few people know about it, which is both good and bad 🙂 Jennifer: Is that by design or are you looking to push the PR? Luna: I did get a DEFCON (hacker con) talk rejected because religion was too controversial haha.No, I’ve done my main PR push. I’ve spent a bit on Twitter ads, and had a small investment in a publicist. Time will tell if it pays off? This seems to be a word of mouth kind of book Jennifer: That works. Luna: I’m kind of new to the publicity end of things, too 🙂 I’ve only marketed one other book before this Jennifer: You’ve got a good cover. I recently read an article about most people still shopping online with their eyes. So a good cover is must. Luna: Yes. Thank you. 🙂 I knew cover would be important.
My artist, BTW, is Ana Cruz. She’s great to work with, and totally reasonably priced. Jennifer: Blurbs are the second most influential selling point. IE: Hey, I read this and it’s not crap!
Nice! How reasonable? Luna: lol yes. And I’m starting to get good blurbs now.
$180 for this cover. I think Emerald City Dreamer was $150? something like that. I did my own layout, so that’s just for the art Jennifer: That’s on part for my cover budget for AIP. Luna: What I like is she works with me. I tell her my concept, and she does a sketch, and I let her know what to change before she does the post-production I had SO many tweaks to this cover, and she was very patient hehe Jennifer: Heh. Cool. Luna: I like the cover on Chicks. It’s nice. What else are you working on right now? Jennifer: Me too. Mad Norwegian Press commissioned it but the artist, Katy Shuttleworth, worked with me on it. Right now? Luna: (It looks great.)
Jennifer: I’m writing Karen Wilson Chronicles #4 – Chimera Incarnate. It’s the last in the series. Then I’m going to be writing Never Let Me Leave, which is Melissa Allen #2 – my young adult SF-Thriller series. Plus, I’m editing 2 books for AIP – Frost from Peter M. Ball and The Bringer of War from Dylan Birtolo. Also have a couple of short stories on the horizon.
Luna: Do you find it’s better to have lots of pans in the fire? Or would you rather focus on one thing at a time? Jennifer: Weirdly, the general answer is “Yes.” I like to work on one thing at a time but I like to have multiple projects going on. For example, I spend 3 days on Frost, doing an editorial letter but I didn’t write. That was on purpose. But this week, I’m doing copy edits on The Bringer of War while I write on Chimera. I write in the morning. Edit in the afternoon. Luna: That sounds awesome. I have trouble switching gears. So I do better if I can have 5-7 days in a row where I do nothing but the one project, and then maybe take a couple days off or to do “must do” tasks, and then try to get back into the same project again. Which makes it hard to strategically get things done as they’re needed. especially for huge projects like Recovering Agency was. Jennifer: *nod* Do you have a day job? Luna: Nope. My partners support me.
So when I’m at the peak of that 5-7 ramp up, I’m writing 8000, 9000 words a day Jennifer: Or, as I like to say “pays the bills” job. And that’s awesome. I recently figured out that without the Husband, I could make it on my own but I’d be living hand-to-mouth. I’m happy he supports my publishing habit. Luna: or editing 5-15k words a day. Hehe yes. It’s a shame that writers don’t get paid more. Especially for those of us who work hard and produce solid work. Jennifer: Nice! I do a steady 2000 a day or so. As for editing, usually 50-60 pages is optimum. Luna: It’s that myth that creativity isn’t work because “Anyone can do it” Jennifer: True. The intern at the game store shamefully admitted to me that she wrote fan fiction and I applauded. Fan fiction teaches writers about writing and world building and showed this both how to do it and how hard it is all at one time. Writing is one of the hardest jobs a person can do. Luna: Yes, and in the end, I think it’s all fan fiction 😉 It is. And it’s more than full time. I’m working even when I’m not working I can’t just watch a movie anymore without analyzing plot structure. Jennifer: Hey, I write media tie-in fiction… which means I get paid to write canon fan fiction! 🙂 Luna: Yay! I think that since we are building on the concepts of giants, even when we have totally new ideas, they can’t exist without the foundation laid before. So that’s what I mean by, “it’s all fan fic”. Jennifer: You can’t. You must write well. Tie-in fiction has a built-in audience that will know when you mess up. Plot structure, story, characterization all must be there. Luna: Exactly. 🙂 I haven’t really written any fan fic or tie-in, so.. Well, okay I wrote some Changeling: The Dreaming stuff 15 years ago. I guess that counts. Jennifer: It does. Luna: I thought my ideas were the best, of course 😉 Jennifer: I’ve done Battletech, Shadowrun, Valdemar, Elemental Masters, and I have one coming up that I’m super excited about but, of course, can’t talk about. NDAs and all that. But I tell you, I’d kill to write a Haven book. I really would. Luna:– Haven? This? http://www.syfy.com/haven Jennifer: The TV show that was vaguely based on Stephen King’s Colorado Kid. Yep. That’s the one. And I will admit, the only unpaid fan fiction I’ve every written has been Haven fan fiction. Luna: Ok I’ve somehow not heard of this. I like to get into shows. I’ll have to check it out. Jennifer: It’s good. Pure Stephen King (whom I adore). 4 seasons out now? Or is it 3? I can’t remember. Luna: I like some Stephen King, not others. It seems like the “flavor” of King I prefer.
Ok that’s a great start 🙂 I’m starting to finally run low on shows to watch so I’ll add it to my list Jennifer: You watch Hannibal? Luna: Not yet. It’s also on my list. Jennifer: 🙂 Luna: There are a few shows I have on my list to watch with my partner, Roland, and that’s one. So I’m saving it. I might go ahead and watch it anyway if he doesn’t get a move on hehe Jennifer: Heh. It’s good. But where Haven is almost pure popcorn, Hannibal? You have to pay attention to the body language. A good half of the conversations are non-verbal. Luna: Ah, so it’s like Downton Abbey (maybe only in that one way) Jennifer: I don’t actually watch that one. Luna: I wouldn’t normally have watched it, but we started watching it as a family. It was pretty good. I was surprised. It hooked me and I watched all four seasons.
So let’s see. I love talking about autism. You mentioned you’re high functioning? When did you get diagnosed? Jennifer: Cool. Luna: (speaking of body language lol)(I guess I shouldn’t assume you got diagnosed.) Jennifer: Let’s see… I was diagnosed shortly after I got here… so around 2003. I was part of a study for adult Asperger’s. I got paid something like $250 to have stuff glued to my head and to answer questions. Luna: Oh wow Jennifer: My twin brother has Asperger’s too. His daughter is full blown autistic. She’ll never be able to live on her own. Luna: So, you didn’t know before you started in the study? It does run in families. My son is most likely on the spectrum. And one of my step kids, which there’s no genetic link there, but it does imply people tend to be attracted to that DNA somehow. Jennifer: No. But when the study asked for people who did things like: rocking (to get to sleep or when in a specific situation), OCD tendencies, and other such things… also, a couple of friends pointed out that I had a lot of the hallmarks, signed up. But none of my family knew and that was in a tense period between me and my family. So… I was the only one not surprised when my brother’s daughter was diagnosed. Luna: Ah. Wow that is the most unique way I’ve ever heard of someone finding out. That’s a great story. Jennifer: I rock when I’m intensely focused, tired, or hungry. I have a thing about sets… and comfort reading/watching the same things over and over. Well, I didn’t want to be … hm. Broken. Luna: I started letting myself rock once I’d figured it out. I didn’t get diagnosed until last year, and hadn’t even suspected until the year prior to that. For me, finding out was both a relief and a grieving process. Jennifer: But it explains why I didn’t respond to yelling or high praise as a child. My mom used to get so mad because she couldn’t figure out why I didn’t show emotion. She used to call me fish face / stone face to try to get a reaction. That was an interesting conversation to have after the whole thing was discovered. Relief and grieving… I don’t know if I ever went through that. Luna: Yes, there’s that whole thing where people suddenly “get” you. My sister was able to forgive me of a bunch of stuff I didn’t even realize she was hung up on, after I told her. Jennifer: It was more. “Oh. So, that’s why I’m like this.” Luna: Yeah.. Relief for knowing there was an explanation for the many ways I am, and relief for finally being able to learn some new coping mechanisms, and relief that those around me could finally understand me better. Grief in that, many things I thought I could eventually “overcome” were intrinsically part of me and I’d probably always be that way. Jennifer: It did explain why I did things. Why I spend so much time watching people.
I had to train myself to recognize that certain cues meant certain things. Luna: Yes, the conscious learning of rules. I’ve always done it. But now I can forgive myself when I fail to do it. Jennifer: I have slips now and then. Luna: It also allowed me to be okay with getting medicated for my anxiety. That’s been a huge improvement. Jennifer: That’s good. I’m glad. Luna: Yes. 🙂 I still slip up, too. In any situation I’m not familiar with. Having decreased anxiety helps. Plus self-acceptance. And the ability to explain it to people. Do you also have synesthesia? Lots of autists do. Jennifer: I forget that people get uncomfortable when I openly watch them. No. No synesthesia. But I am a super taster. 🙂 Luna: Well, you can also say you’re a writer to excuse that hehe Oh nice! Yes, that’s a common trait. It’s nice of course when it means you can enjoy food better. It’s not so nice when all food seems overpowering and gross. I oscillate between the two modes.\ I go to Rainforest Retreat (I think you do, too, but a different session?) and I’ve noticed some common aspie-like traits among writers. Like a tendency to eavesdrop (and the ability to do so because of super-hearing), difficulty in discerning people talking when in a loud area, sensitivity to senses. Jennifer: I’m getting a new tattoo to celebrate the sale of my Melissa Allen series and I made my tattooist uncomfortable watching him set up. He admitted that and I had to apologize. I do want to have a tattooist in a new series I’m planning. Later we talked about it and I thanked him for reminding me of the social cue. Luna: And it seems like for some autists, writing can be a huge outlet. So there are some interesting correlations there. Jennifer: Rainforest! My favorite writers retreat! Luna: Oh that’s awesome. Congrats on the new tat AND on the sale. Yes 🙂 I ❤ it. Jennifer: Thanks. Luna: It was my 2nd year this year. I’m in 3rd session next. It’s sad because 2nd session got split. So I couldn’t decide who I wanted to see more. Jennifer: I use it to train myself to write with people around. I think I do pretty well.
I ended up in the 2nd session for 2015. Luna: I use it to make great contacts. I do my most productive writing back in the room. Nice. Lots of good people there 🙂 People I will miss! Jennifer: I average about 10-15K each weekend. And, so far, I’ve sold everything I’ve ever written there. 🙂 Luna: Nice. Yes, I write my best stuff there, too. I try to focus on short stories so I can have quantity. I usually work on many many projects while there. It lets me break out of my rigid structure and planned projects to go off on tangents and whims. Jennifer: There’s something about being around a bunch of enthusiastic, productive authors that fills the creative well for me. Luna: Totally. Hm I think I’m out of questions for you. Got any for me? (I didn’t really plan any questions, but the little thing that pops up ideas is out of ideas hehe) Jennifer: How’d you get into self publishing? It’s not a career for the weak. Luna: Oh, good question. I’ve been familiar with the publishing industry my whole life. My parents were both writers (not professionally, but my dad made a sale to Galaxy). So I knew if I ever went fulltime, there’d be this incredibly long arc to getting an agent, making the sale, and finally seeing it on shelves. So when I lost my job in 2010, and was kicking around the idea of writing fulltime, I stared at this really long track. My girlfriend is a huge reader. And she had a Kindle, and suggested I look into it. She mentioned a number of good books she’d read that were published thru KDP. Jennifer: Neat. You got a kick in the pants from life. Luna: So I decided to give it a shot. I didn’t even try to get an agent. Just went straight for it. (I do hybrid, tho so I still sell stories to magazines) Yes. 🙂 And my partners were willing to support me through it, which is beautiful and amazing. Jennifer: I do hybrid, too. You have great partners! Luna: I do! 😀 Jennifer: A writer’s best friend is the one who will support their impossible dream. Luna: Exactly. Jennifer: I self pub because I can’t sell the Karen Wilson Chronicles because they started out as a webseries. But, in truth, I do prefer small press and traditional publishing. I guess it’s the pat on the head and the belief the publisher puts in you to do a good job. I’m super excited with Permuted Press. Luna: That’s awesome. Yes, small press is pretty cool, too. Jennifer: What is the next thing on your plate? Luna: I’m glad there are so many options. Once I’m done promoting Recovering Agency, I’ll start edits for Emerald City Iron. I’ve got a number of people pushing me to do it. So that. 🙂 I’d also like to catch up on a pile of blog post ideas, particularly ones on autism I’ve been putting off.
And I need to spend a couple weeks getting more short story submissions out the door. 🙂 But ECI is the next big project. Jennifer: I still have your first one in my kindle. It’s on my to-read pile. Luna: Nice 🙂 I read the first one in your series as well 🙂 couple years ago I think Jennifer: I hope you liked it. Luna: All these huge to-read piles we all have. I did 🙂 Jennifer: I’m having so much fun wrapping up the series but I had to remember things like… Oh, I left 2 people in comas. One from book 2 and one from book 3. I need to do something about it. Luna: haha yes, the tying up loose ends business. I’m reading the Anita Blake series right now and I was like, Oh, Anita’s friend Catherine. I haven’t seen her for a couple of books. I don’t like her. Why is she back? I liked her better when she was just forgotten about. Jennifer: Speaking of loose ends, I’m sorry but I need to cut this short now. I still have words to get down on Chimera Incarnate to make today’s word count. Luna: Yes. It was great chatting with you 🙂 Jennifer: Wonderful chatting with you, too.
Today’s writers are both photographers as well as writers. They are two people I thought should know each other better but who hadn’t really crossed paths. I’m pretty tickled with how their Conversation went.
Andrew Williams and Elsa S. Henry
Andrew Williams – Photograph by Jon LavinderElsa S. Henry – Photograph by Andrew Williams
Andrew Williams: Hey Elsa– I’m ready to do this thing if you are.
Elsa S. Henry: I’m ready! (Just put my dog up for a nap so I could focus)
Andrew: Excellent! Surviving the weekend and GenCon preparation then?
Elsa: Trying to! I have almost all my clothes packed and now it’s just the Other Stuff
Andrew: Cool. Are you doing any programming at GenCon?
Elsa: I am, yeah. I’m teaching a class on accessibility for disabilities in game design and then I’m on a panel about inclusivity in gaming and then I’m running the Storium meet & greet as the official community manager of Storium, and then I am running into a panel on cultural appropriation. SOBUSY
Andrew: Awesome! I didn’t realize you were involved with Storium. And yeah, that sounds kinda crazy-busy… in a good way (hopefully)
Elsa: Yeah, I was hired as their community manager about 2 months ago. It’s a good gig. And yeah, it’s all good. I’ve just never been to Gen Con before. Have you?
Andrew: No, I haven’t. Everyone I talk to seems to have a good time, but gaming is one of my weaker links in the geek continuum, as it were. That said, I will be at PAX this year and am looking forward to it
Elsa: What part of the geek continuum have you fallen down the wormhole for?
Andrew: I’m primarily a reader and sci-fi/fantasy writer. I love me my John Scalzi, Mary Robinette Kowal, Brandon Sanderson, Mira Grant… The last game I played hardcore was WoW, and I escaped with kind of a sigh of relief. That said, I do love playing games with friends, and have been involved doing photography with a company called GamesToGo at their booth at some recent conventions (They sell board games and the like)
Elsa: And yeah, I hear you on running away from WoW, Mira Grant/Seanan McGuire is currently my new favorite author
Andrew: I really liked the Feed series. Her urban fantasy stuff is on my to-read list
Elsa: Feed was SO GOOD it definitely inspired me for some of Dead Scare (the RPG I’m writing right now)
Andrew: Sweet! Can you give me the thirty-second pitch for Dead Scare?
Elsa: It is 1953, you’re a housewife alone at home when the Emergency Broadcast goes off and tells you the United States has been attacked and the President is dead. Then the undead rise, and you have to stay alive. Better red than zed.
Andrew: Heh. Awesome
Elsa: Essentially the Soviet Union drops a biological weapon on the United States turning everyone in major city centers into zombies. AN almost entirely female cast for every game. Armed with lawn mowers, cadillacs, and rolling pins
Andrew: Nice. Sounds like all the old 1950s tropes turned on their heads… with zombies.
Elsa: Yep, that’s the exact concept
Andrew: Do you write prose as well or mostly games? (I assume writing games must involve some prose writing, but I’ve never done it)
Elsa: This is actually my first game I’ve ever written. I primarily do fiction and nonfiction writing
Andrew: Cool! Yeah, I read some of your blog. You do a good job of tackling major, blood-pressure-raising but very important issues
Elsa: it is not easy
Andrew: The sort of stuff I can only blog about once a month or so before my head explodes
Elsa: I haven’t been posting much recently because of Lots of Life Changes, but I’m hoping to resume a more regular schedule soon
Andrew: Yeah, my regular blog has fallen off a lot as I’ve been working more on photography this year and trying to something resembling a business running
Elsa: I saw on your blog that you’re going to Nepal in a few weeks, is that for writing inspiration or photography or…
Andrew: Yes. Actually, it’s mostly because I love to travel, so when a friend happened to ask if I wanted to go to Nepal, I figured out if I could possibly wing it, and the answer was yes. The sort of trip I’d seriously regret if I didn’t go. I’ve actually never been to Asia, or to a non-English-speaking country outside of Europe before, so I’m really looking to it. Of course, I will be lugging along several pounds of camera gear as I hike through the Himalayas, because ZOMG PHOTOS
Elsa: Uh. Yeah. Those photos.
Andrew: And I also have a story I’m writing where one of the cultures is Tibetan-inspired, so I’m hoping to see some things that may inspire me along the way.
Elsa: Will be amazing.
Andrew: I CAN’T WAIT. Actually, I leave five weeks from today
Elsa: EEK you must have so much prep to do.
Andrew: Mostly just getting stuff together (a lot of backpacking gear which I generally already have). And luckily I won’t have to bring a tent because even though the trek is three weeks long, you stay in teahouses every night at villages along the way
Elsa: I miss travelling a lots, out of the country anyway. Hoping to go to Sweden next year
Andrew: That’d be awesome. Scandinavia is on my to-visit list. I’m hoping Finland wins the WorldCon bid in 2017 After Nepal, I’m planning to swing back through Hong Kong and Seoul before coming home
Elsa: You do WorldCon? I’m considering going to Spokane next year. I went to college out there and haven’t been back since graduation
Andrew: Yeah, I’ve been to a couple. And of course, being a Seattleite, I’ll do Spokane. I’ve never been there except as a transit point on my way to Montana
Elsa: I think WorldCon sounds like fun. But granted, I’m terrified of Gen Con, soooo I’m not sure WorldCon would be kinder
Andrew: Gen Con is really big, isn’t it? Like 40K-ish people?
Elsa: On the other hand I know Spokane really well. Yeah, Gen Con is ENORMOUS. Not SDCC enormous, but big enough to be a little anxiety attack-y
Andrew: Yeah, WorldCon generally runs about 7-10K. The tough thing is, because a different group runs it every year, you’re never entirely sure what you’re getting
Elsa: Interesting
Andrew: What school did you go to out there?
Elsa: People give me funny looks when I tell them – I went to Gonzaga
Andrew: Heh. Y’know, I didn’t even realize Gonzaga was in Spokane until I happened to be reading an article about Desmond Tutu earlier today (he apparently gave a commencement speech there a couple of years ago)
Elsa: He did! Yeah, super Conservative Catholic Very Not Where People Expect Me To Have Gone
Andrew: Were you super conservative Catholic at the time?
Elsa: I raised a lot of hell. Nope. They offered me a very nice scholarship
Andrew: Heh. That must’ve been an interesting four years (for certain values of “interesting”)
Elsa: But I credit my time there with why I can talk about blood raising things in a relatively reasonable manner. Interesting is most certainly a word I would use to describe my time
Andrew: Not planning to go to graduate school at BYU or anything, are you?
Elsa: I went to grad school at Sarah Lawrence College. My ability to stay calm when people were screaming at me was useful there, too!
Andrew: It’s a useful ability to have, even if practicing it is a pain in the ass
Elsa: seriously
Andrew: I consider myself lucky that I’ve never really had to… part of why I try to jump in now when I see such things going on
Elsa: I think that’s lucky. I mean, ok ,in undergrad I ran the first ever AIDS Awareness program at Gonzaga my father died from HIV/AIDS in 1993, so educating people on care and prevention is very close to my heart and very important to me. The pro life student group actually protested the event
Andrew: headdesk
Elsa: It was one of the harder examples of “Deal with the screaming crazy people without stabbing someone” situations I’ve had to deal with
Andrew: Wow. I can’t even imagine. Protesting AIDS Awareness is wrong on so many levels I just can’t… even…. but that’s awesome that you followed through on a cause so close to your heart
Elsa: The fact that I managed to get the Vice President for Mission at a Catholic University to approve me MENTIONING CONDOMS during my talk was a miracle. And that is why they protested
Andrew: That is, indeed, quite the miracle. I seem to remember reading in the past couple of years that even the Catholic church in Rome has slowly begun to make noises that maybe such things aren’t totally evil in all circumstances
Elsa: YEP. Also, Pope Francis is almost reasonable on some matters
Andrew: There’s still a heck of a lot to disagree with, but he’s a breath of fresh air compared to Benedict
Elsa: RIGHT? I’m not Catholic – I’m actually Jewish at this point. But having spent so much time in a culture of Catholicism I actually care deeply about progression and change
Andrew: I mostly like Pope Francis for his focus on aiding the poor and the less fortunate, and the way he seems to focus on a lot of what Jesus actually said in that regard. I was raised Protestant Christian but I’m an atheist these days.
Elsa: I married an atheist Jew, but I have faith so I ended up going to Temple
Andrew: That’s cool. It must have been an interesting experience (sorry to overuse the word, but I mean it in a more positive sense than earlier)
Elsa: Considerably more interesting, also hilarious
Andrew: Heh heh. Ironically, I find being an atheist has made me more spiritual than I used to be. In that my own ideas and spirituality feels more internal and rooted in who I am, rather than something imposed by outside
Elsa: SO, you’re writing your own beliefs
Andrew: Sort of. I feel like I’m more interested in what might be than in what is. Religion, and different aspects of God, are more interesting to me as stories than as explanations.
Elsa: Yeah, I minored in religious studies because religion is interesting to me. I find people fascinating
Andrew: (Most people would call me agnostic, but I prefer “atheist” because agnostic implies that you think the deep truths are unknowable, and I’m not sure that’s the case)
Elsa: Heh
Andrew: Oh, totally. I love talking about this sort of stuff with people and hearing their thoughts and ideas. As long as they aren’t screaming them at me. I wrote a long blog post on that once that I sort of considered my “coming out” as an atheist, on stories and beliefs and the nature of what might be vs. what is
Elsa: I’m curious how you feel about the skeptic community.
Andrew: cue headsplode
Elsa: evil grin I THOUGHT YOU MIGHT HAVE OPINIONS
Andrew: I actually got involved in the skeptic and atheist community after I moved to Seattle a few years ago… looking for friends and community and the like. And that blog post was part of my reaction/eventual recoiling. It’s a completely cliche thing to say, but I see in the organized atheist/skeptic community a lot of the same things that drive me nuts about organized religion
Elsa: TRUTH
Andrew: Putting one’s own personal opinions/beliefs on a pedestal, and defending them with hardcore tenacity while discounting other people’s experiences and feelings, for one. Obviously it’s not everybody in the community (#notallatheists), but I just couldn’t stand the lack of empathy I saw from lots of people. The refusal to see things from other perspectives or recognize that other people have valid emotions and experiences. I found I didn’t relate to much of the skeptic community. I like being independent, and finding my own way to various truths, which might occasionally include dabbling in things that skeptics would laugh at me for but that I find extremely intriguing (for example, I’ve taken a lot of classes in hypnotherapy)
Elsa: I know a lot of people both in and out of the skeptic community feel the way you do about the pedestal thing
Andrew: Part of why I love being a storyteller and creative person is empathizing with other people, in understanding their experiences and perspectives, and seeing certain things (like how that community treated some of the social justice-oriented folks in their midst) sent me running away
Elsa: Yeeeaaaah
Andrew: Which makes me sad. Part of why I call myself atheist is that I see so many asshats use the term, and I want to keep them from claiming it entirely
Elsa: SRSLY
Andrew: Nor do I particularly like the term humanist or freethinker, for various reasons. So yeah, I don’t know what I am. I’m just a writer. Oh man, I could totally go off on another rant about how I hate labels, but that’s a whole other three-hour chat. So, what creative project are you working on right now that you’re most excited about?
Elsa: Definitely Dead Scare. I think its going to be one of those games that makes people think, because I’ve designed it to push people to think in terms of morality and choice
Andrew: That’s awesome. Good luck with it!
Elsa: What about you?
Andrew: Hmm. At the moment, it’s probably my photography. I’m working on a yearlong project where I try to make at least one photographic expedition to a Seattle-area landmark or event every week (you can follow it at http://www.journeysincolor.net/blog). And of course Nepal is coming up. For writing, I’m working on a steampunk novel that takes place in colonial Hong Kong called Noah’s Dragon. So I’m excited about that too, and I’m trying to squeeze it whenever I’m not working on photography.
Elsa: This is my first con I’m going to WITHOUT my camera
Andrew: What? A con without a camera? /recoils in horror But given your schedule, I can kind of see why
Elsa: and also, that book sounds awesome
Andrew: Thanks! It’s partly why I routed my return trip through Hong Kong.
Elsa: Makes sense
Andrew: Plus, there’s a British privateer captain in it who’s a mix of Mal Reynolds and Blackbeard, and she is hands-down my favorite character I’ve ever written into a story
Doods. This is my absolutely favorite pen. Aaron bought it for my birthday a year or two back and I really adore it. I don’t have a picture of it without ink because it was half-full when I went to write this entry.
Pilot Prera Clear Light Blue with items for scale
I don’t really feel comfortable carrying it with me all the time because I’d be absolutely heart-broken if I lost it.
It’s a lovely clear pen with clear blue accents, chrome, and an opaque pen cap inner sheath so errant drips of ink don’t muck up the look of the pen.
Pen in hand with cap on the back
It’s really well balanced and is neither heavy nor light.
Pen in hand without cap.
You can get one yourself in fine, medium or calligraphy nibs at Jet Pens or Goulet Pens
Write write writing along
There’s something about this pen that just fits really nicely with my hand.
The Good
variety of nib options and color accents
firm snap-on cap – doesn’t dry out
nice smooth round grip
feels good to use
The Bad
can collect ink in the cap (though I personally haven’t had this problem)
I haven’t been using pens as much the past couple weeks. You see, my outside chest freezer got all rusty and I needed to put rust-eating spray paint all over it. No Big Deal. Well… So, it turns out that you really shouldn’t spend the better part of an hour pressing your finger down with hard constant pressure. I originally thought the numbness was due to being covered in paint, but it turns out I (hopefully temporarily) damaged the nerve endings. It is getting better, but slowly. I’ll be buying a spray grip for any future spray painting though.
This week’s pen is the Monteverde Artista Crystal with a medium nib (Goulet Pens, Jetpens, Amazon). This is a slightly pricier pen than previous weeks, but we’re still talking about mid $30 range. My (as always, terrible) pictures don’t do it any justice. It is a fully clear pen with chrome accents. It also comes in a number of clear colors, but I like the crystal.
Pen in pieces, freshly cleaned.items for scale
The Artista has a weighted screw-on cap and uses standard cartridges and converters. The cap is designed to let you see the nib even when the cap is on. My only gripe about this is that the cap insert is very short (so as to not hide the nib and ink residue can get stuck between the insert and the cap. It’s a really nitpicky gripe and doesn’t affect the pen’s operation in any way. It just means my cap is no longer entirely clear, I have a little purple residue from inks past I’ve been unable to fully clean out.
Pen in hand cap on
If you like a more substantial feeling pen, just put the cap on the back and the weighted cap will oblige you.
Pen in hand no cap
If you’re like me and prefer a lighter pen, just omit the cap for an equally wonderful writing experience. The nib on this pen writes… just wonderfully. It isn’t exceptionally fast, but so smooth and an absolute trooper. I almost never have to fiddle with this pen.
Writing sample
The Good
very very clear
solid, well-made
gorgeous
writes smooth and steady
adjustable pen handling due to weighted cap
standard cartridge and converter
The Bad
hard grip
screw on cap (though the threads are high enough not to dig into my fingers)
short cap insert leads to ink residue
Overall grade: solid A
This is a pen that constantly comes back into my rotation and I know I can count on.
If you can’t make people care about objects and the culture they represent, you can’t save them. You can preserve them, but you can’t save them. To make people care, you need a story. When the objects don’t come with a story of their own, it has to be hunted down and attached to the object like Peter Pan’s shadow.
This is a gross oversimplification, but a lot of objects come to museums when their owners can no longer care about them due to death, illness, or no one in subsequent generations will care about them so the current owner goes looking for a new custodian. Most of the time objects come to the museum after someone has died or as someone is sorting out their belongings after a health scare. It’s not 100% of the time, but it is the vast majority. I do a lot more grief counseling than you’d imagine in a given year. I was lucky in that my first boss was also a chaplain so I had a good role model and assistance when I needed it as I was getting my footing.
I give the donors an opportunity to tell me the stories (if any) that accompany the items. I wish I could tell you that the majority arrive with a story, but they don’t. Usually all I get is the name of a previous owner and a brief description of how they believe it was used. Sometimes that’s all that gets recorded and then it goes into storage. If the object inspires curiosity I will attempt to go all history detective on its ass. About 2 out of 3 times I turn up no further information or hit dead ends. But that third time I hit pay dirt and discover a story I can tell using the object to inspire the public to care about the object and its story.
Objects that come with stories are the most valuable objects in any museum collection. A museum without stories is just a building full of stuff.
A snap dragon impossibly growing out of my parents’ driveway wall.
So, I’ve had and have a lot of future travel in my current sphere of things. Sadly this has eaten up all of my pre-written blog material and now when something comes up I don’t have anything stashed to cover for it. I have a lot of material planned, but not executed. So what I’m going to do is put the blog on hiatus for a few weeks.
I will return on or before Monday July 7th. This will give me some time to write up a bunch of things, take pictures and oh, I don’t know… maybe edit some of my entries prior to publication. I just feel if I scramble to get stuff out there with as crazy as I know things will be in the next few weeks I won’t be doing myself or anyone else any favors.
If you’re in the Seattle Area, I will be at Wayward Coffeehouse on June 20th from 8-10pm doing a reading from my story FAMILY TIDES from Broken Eye Books BY FAERIE LIGHT (Volume 2 if you buy it on Kindle or in the print edition of both volumes). Come see me and Shanna Germain, Erik Scott de Bie, Lillian Cohen-Moore, Nathan Crowder, and Jennifer Brozek LIVE IN PERSON!!!
Hope to see you there! If not, I’ll see you in July.
My husband, Aaron, does not Beta Read my writing. He is incredibly supportive and always willing to talk out specific ideas I’m thinking about, but he doesn’t read “unfinished” writing. He prefers to wait until my writing has passed through an editor and is at least on its way to being published.
There are a couple reasons for this; number one is that he’s not comfortable in that role. The last thing on earth he wants to do is say the wrong thing at the wrong time and keep me from submitting something because he made a flippant comment. Secondly, he knows me really really well and tends to see the seeds of my reality that blossom into unrelated fiction. Aaron has a hard time not pointing these things out, and sometimes that’s like someone describing how they make sausage right as you go to take a big bite of bratwurst. Sometimes it doesn’t bother you, others it can completely put you off your lunch. Either way it generally enhance the eating experience any.
I felt weird about this for a really long time, because generally when writers talk about how their partners support their writing they talk about their spouse being their First Reader. I felt like there might be something wrong with me as a writer or with our partnership because it has never really worked that way for me/us. Eventually I saw another writer blog about how they didn’t have that relationship with writing and their spouse and things worked out better for everyone that way.
I mentioned this fact at a panel at World Horror and I had someone come up to me after who was just as thankful to hear this from me, as I’d been to read it in the past. I wanted to make sure that I put this out publicly for the people who likewise need to see it.
I have an amazing partner I’ve been with for 14 years now. He supports me and my writing, but isn’t and can’t be my First Reader. That isn’t just OK, it works out great for us. Figure out what works best for you and yours and don’t worry about what anyone is or isn’t doing.
Why is it when a character is described as having really long eyelashes it is always described by the viewer rather than the wearer of the eyelashes. It’s pretty rare that I notice someone’s eyelashes one way or another unless they have unusual makeup on them or unusual lash coloring. However, as someone who has lived her whole life with really long natural lashes, I notice my own all the time.
I have light brown hair and while my lashes are mostly in the brown-black mascara range the last quarter inch or so is much lighter from dark blonde to translucent white. Wearing any color of mascara adds about 1/3rd again of the length I have without it. Long natural lashes mean not only are my top lashes long but so are the ones on my bottom eyelids. This doesn’t matter much to how I do my makeup (I just ignore them for the most part), but it does mean that my lower lashes are capable of getting twisted or curled INTO my eye. This means my lower lashes can drag against my eyeball when I blink and I am constantly rubbing or pulling at them to stop the sensation when it occurs. This is very unpleasant and very difficult to fix without a mirror. It is also possible for my upper and lower lashes to get tangled together causing discomfort and trouble opening the eye. Not often, but more than never.
Just an odd bit of lived experience to point out that even small physical details can give a character different experiences.
Museums hold collections in public trust. This means people like myself who take care of collections do so on behalf of the public. At its most grandiose, it means we take care of items to provide a material history of the entire human race both past and present. In more practical applications, it means taking care of objects on behalf of the community for whom the museum serves. In my museum’s case this is a geographic area, which means our community and therefore our mission must grow with the changes in the region itself.
Museums are not static. They can stagnate, yes, but to remain static means death. A slow death of deterioration and declining funding, but death. A museum that collects without cataloging, item care, and interpretation of objects is just an episode of Hoarders that charges admission. Cataloging means knowing what you have, where it came from, what you know about it, and where it is. Item care is making sure items are stored correctly in a way that slows their eventual deterioration without causing damage. Interpretation is what you know about the object, how it was used, who used it, and shared with researchers and visitors in a way that can be understood.
The example that sticks out in my mind is an object I haven’t yet been able to display because I can’t yet convey its importance and story in a way that school children through seniors will be able to get something out of it. The object is shaped sort of like a squat rocketship without fins and about the size of a keychain mace canister. It is the detonator to a Vietcong rocket. The rocket it belonged to went through the roof of the barracks of the helicopter mechanic on an entirely surrounded US installation during the Tet Offensive. It had absolutely hit its mark, but he hadn’t been there… though one of his buddies was. The next morning the mechanic fixed the helicopters that had been hit but not destroyed in the same attack and those helicopters went out and killed thousands of people.
I took this man’s story in person with him looking me in the eyes as he told me this. He was not proud of what happened, he had no doubt his barracks were targeted to keep him from doing what he ultimately did, and he felt he did his job well, but had no illusions of what that led to.
It’s my job to find a way to convey SOME PART of that story and even my reaction as the generation that came after… and to make sure that detonator survives into the future to be reinterpreted by those who will come after me.
MINERVA ZIMMERMAN 