It's hard to believe that it's been a year since Clarion. I think about that experience and those people every single day, but I think the thing I learned most was what I didn't know. I realized quickly that I hadn't read enough of the genre. I've been working to correct that, reading not only sf/f but also lit, mostly short fiction. Things are beginning to focus more clearly in my writing as I see good writing in the work of others. My ratio of reading to writing is probably 3 to 1 right now and that's okay. For now.
Read Stephen Baxter's "PeriAndry's Quest" from Karen Haber and Jonathan Strahan's Best of 2004. I haven't read much Baxter, only one other short story from the same anthology in 2003, which was a hard sf space opera (which I enjoyed). "PeriAndry's Quest" was a real surprise. I expected straight-ahead hard sf, but the story contains really little hard sf elements. (What's there is crucial to the story, but it's very reader-friendly for a science idiot like me.)
I guess what surprised me is the humanity and emotion of the story. It's very touching, almost fairy-tale like in it's manner. Baxter avoids making his characters one-dimensional fairy-tale clones by creating just enough of a sf backdrop: love between two beings separated by time distortion. And the ending is not what you would expect from a fairy-tale. Enjoyed it.
Now Playing: One Endless Night - Jimmie Dale Gilmore (not nearly as good as The Flatlanders' More a Legend Than a Band)
2 comments:
I think a lot of us have been wondering about the (in)famous post-Clarion slump. For what it's worth, I think that it does take time to put your head back together have six weeks of boot camp, but you can also dwell too much. After a pause in writing brought on by too much "real work", I find myself awash in a sea of new ideas which I can't find time to write down fast enough, let alone decide which ones I want to play with and finish right now.
It's June 10th and I'm still not working hard on my next story for WOTF. Instead, I'm getting a piece to send to Gordon on Monday, just because I haven't sent anything to him for rejection in a year.
And I'm spending time creating a Blogger account so I could post here and say, "Andy, you have a beautiful voice in your stories. Let us hear some!" (grin)
I mean, I'm still collecting rejections, but in the last year I'm getting most with comments -- so I know that while I'm still not in the big leagues, I'm getting better. (double-grin)
Later,
Dr. Phil
Hey, Dr. Phil, great to hear from you. I think I'm just getting to the "new ideas/stories are flowing" stage...it has been a long time.
Thanks for the kind words. AND thanks for getting me jump-started on returning to blogging. We'll hit in the big-leagues soon.
AW
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