Category Archives: Personal

your day to day and your inside you

What’s Your Resolution?

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It’s the start of the new year and so I thought I should write the obligatory “new years resolution” post. We all do it, right? We resolve to write more, or to watch less TV (or browse less Facebook). Maybe you’ve set out big goals—start a novel, finish one, get an agent?

My wife wrote out a list of fifty-two goals—not specifically to achieve one a week, and most are small, very achievable actions or changes. She’s a very organized person.

So, new year, new resolutions?

I’ll pass.

I’ve never been a fan of big resolutions, and certainly not centered around New Years. For me, new years is such an arbitrary line in the sand. While much of the world follows the Gregorian calendar, it’s no more than an agreed upon system. New years day? It’s really no more or less important than any other day circling the sun. Yeah yeah, we need a system to function, for society to be on the same page, to have at least one socially acceptable “get loaded” day (not counting conventions)—but why New Years? Why not winter solstice, or the spring equinox—those both seem like ideal points of change. Why not your birthday?

I should point out that I have a personal reason for seeing this as arbitrary—my birthday happens to fall on the fifth of January. To me, this is the start of the new year, not the first. Start a new diet on the first? No way—I have a nice dinner and dessert (okay, desserts) planned just a handful of days later. And from a little before Christmas through (and perhaps slightly past) my birthday, I’m in holiday mode—the last thing I want to do is mess up my fun by trying to have less of it.

My bigger objection, though, is the idea of a resolution—your realization that something needs changing so significantly that you have to force yourself to do it. If the need is really there, you should not wait until the new year to make it, nor for your birthday, or even the coming Monday. Do it now. Stop reading this blog and go do it. It’s okay, really—go do your thing. Need to work on your health or weight? Go take a walk, and make the next meal a better one. Do some writing over lunch, or before going to bed, and maybe even first thing in the morning. Skip TV this evening—it’s the same junk that’s always running anyway (you can always catch it later with Netflix or elsewhere).

I’ll fess up to the fact that I don’t always follow this same advice. I mull over ideas; I get excited about something and don’t end up executing it; I know there’s plenty of things I could improve and end up kicking that can down the road a bit. I have goals, some of which I’m actively working on and others I will…soon. But I started a new diet in the middle of October, with both Halloween and a vacation just ahead of it (I’m still on it, by the way, even with the small hiccups of Thanksgiving, Christmas, my birthday as well as a few others). When I first jumped into my exercise phase, it was the middle of May—that was almost five years ago, and I’m still active. I started writing my first novel on the first of April (no joke!), after spending a month or so cleaning up a year’s worth of notes. It took me another eight months to finish writing it, but I did, along with maybe ten or so short stories along the way.

I’m also deadline-oriented—I have to be with the work I do if I want to keep clients happy. It also helps when writing for anthologies and ensuring you get something done before they close to submissions.

There are reasons why you aren’t doing what you think you should be doing—rarely do those distractions or habits go away just because of a resolution. Correct them if they’re a problem, and if they aren’t find a way to embrace them in a controlled, healthy way. Adjust your goals, refine your expectations, and don’t wait for some arbitrary time to make the big changes.

And now, with this out of the way, it’s time for some World of Warcraft—I have goals to work on after all.

What’s Up With BLN: January 2013

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Ever wonder who the writers at BLN are and what we’re up to? We thought we’d share some of our current projects!

Damien Walters Grintalis

Ink Cover Art - Resized My debut novel, Ink, was released from Samhain Horror in December. The Horror Fiction Review said, “… even when you might think you know where the story’s going, you’ll be in for some clever and nasty surprises.” and “Debut novels should not be this good.”

A tattoo can be a work of art…or a curse.

The fearsome griffin inked on Jason Harford’s arm looks real enough to climb off and take flight. Jason thinks his new tattoo is perfect. Until he wakes up one night to find his arm temporarily ink free. Until he finds a brick wall where the tattoo shop should be.

As Jason’s world spins out of control, he comes to realize a truth as sharp as the griffin’s talons. The tattoo is alive, it’s hungry, and if Jason tries to kill it, he’ll die. The artist will remove it for a price, but he’s not interested in money or Jason’s soul. He wants something far worse…

Ink is available in both trade paperback and ebook from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, and others.

So far for 2013, I will have new short fiction published in Strange Horizons, Lightspeed, Apex Magazine, and others. My agent has my next novel, entitled Paper Tigers, in her hands, and I have two other novels and a handful of recently completed short stories that need editing.

Lillian Cohen-Moore
I’m continuing work on my statless setting book, Guide to the Village by the Sea. Outside that, I’ll be keeping up with a little client work, and  trying to clear a few short stories and essays off my plate to formally close out 2012. I’m also looking for a job in Seattle, which is trampling a lot of my writing time. On Dec 17th, I started an 8 week long guest blog at Bitch Magazine, “Save vs Sexism,” which is about sexism in tabletop games.

Galen Dara
I’m working on wrapping up the Geek Love anthology, finishing a cover for a historic ghost story, working out the contract details for cover art for a YA novel and an anthology about body modification, plus my usual 2 to 4 illustrations a month for Lightspeed. Also, I have GOT to get my work space in better order; it’s still in boxes and piles after moving this summer.

Jaym Gates
I’m finishing up and submitting a handful of short stories to clear my slate for 2013, wrapping up the Geek Love anthology, promoting Richard Lee Byers’ “Called to Darkness” for Pathfinder Tales, and starting on the Nebula Awards. Also working on a shared-world anthology, and getting ready to move up to the ranch for a few months.

Adam Israel
I’m doing long overdue rewrites and revisions on a dozen or so short stories, and finishing the first draft of my first novel. I’m also polishing up my EBook Store, currently live on Nightmare Magazine. Finishing things is my mission over the next few months.

Caroline Ratajski
Right now I’m editing my novel, YA scifi action, trying to whip it into shape so it can maybe go on-sub someday soon. Also I’m in a recently-released anthology titled Danse Macabre with my short story “Death in the Family,” a retelling of the classic folk tale Godfather Death.

Bear Weiter
I’m working on wrapping up edits for my first novel (tentatively titled The Arrival) while working on my second (Mirrors Stairs and Doors). I have short stories coming out in Atomic Age Cthulhu (story title: Within the Image of the Divine), The Speculative Edge (story title: Dear Diary – my first reprint sale!), and Fish (The Talking Fish of Shangri-La). While I’ve worked as a designer for almost twenty years, I recently did my first book design project (Geek Love) and it’s been a great experience (if not a lot more work than I had expected). My plans and goals for this year – research agents and try to find one, sell the first novel, finish the second, start the third, write and publish more short stories, and maybe even dabble in a personal graphic novel idea.

What Do I Look Like to You?

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Ethan Young was born in 1983 in NYC to Chinese immigrant parents. After attending the School of Visual Arts for one semester, Young left to pursue an illustration career. His first graphic novel, “Tails: Life in Progress”, was awarded the Gold Medal for Best Graphic Novel during the 2007 Independent Publishers Book Awards.  He has recently reworked “Tails” into an ongoing webcomic, with print editions released through Hermes Press. In addition to comic book work, Young is also a prolific freelance illustrator. You can find more information about him and his work at tailscomic.com, his Facebook page, or follow him on Twitter @EthanYoungTails.

“Wait, Ethan is supposed to be Asian?”

That question, more than any other, flooded my inbox during the early days of my online comic, Tails. I really didn’t expect the topic of race to be such a big deal. Tails follows the misadventures of Ethan (named after myself), an Asian cartoonist who fosters cats, is broke, vegan, and a tad on the whiney side. Cartoon Ethan (as I’ve come to call him) is my comic book facsimile, an embodiment of my early 20s, and yes, Asian (Chinese to be specific).  So, how could someone mistake an obviously autobiographical character for a different race?

The most obvious explanation: he looked kinda White. Was this intentional? Not really.  There were several reasons for how I drew the character, and each seemed entirely logical when I created the comic. For one, I had spent my entire adolescence illustrating Caucasian heroes. Not just super-heroes I copied from comics, but my own heroes as well. I would create fantastical stories and intrinsically made the protagonists Caucasian. Why did I do this? Well, look at the most popular super-hero characters: Superman, Batman, Spiderman, Iron Man, Wonder Woman.  All White, mostly men.  Some things just sneak their way into your psyche.

Another solid reason: most cartoonists tend to exaggerate the expressions on the human face, which means making the eyes bigger. And it’s safe to say, big round eyes are not an Oriental trait. Just examine the vast majority of Anime and Manga, where characters consistently have big eyes, tiny noses, and for some reason, hair color that doesn’t exist in the natural world. No human being looks that way, let alone a Japanese native. So, in my defense, I’m not alone in the Our-characters-look-less-Asian camp.

Still, that’s no excuse. As a writer, it’s my job to convey that my character is this, this, and that. If he’s Chinese, the audience should be aware of that, whether it’s through visual acknowledgment or through the dialogue and text.  However, outside of subtle cultural differences (such as how the traditional Chinese family unit operates, or the patriarch’s semi-broken English) Ethan’s family could be your family at a cursory glance. Combine that with the fact that my characters don’t look Oriental (or Oriental enough) and I opened myself up to that inquisition:

“Wait, Ethan is supposed to be Asian?”

I’ve found that Asian characters are generally portrayed 1 of 3 ways in mainstream media: they can your kick ass with kung fu, they are extremely smart and sexually innocuous, or ‘Hey, it’s an Asian girl dating the non-Asian guy!’ Obviously, there are exceptions to this rule, but those exceptions also prove the rule.  I don’t find these portrayals unfair or degrading, mind you, but they’re not entirely engaging either.

It’s my dream to see an Asian actor in the lead role in a network sitcom, without everyone making a big deal that it’s an Asian actor in the lead role in a network sitcom.

Well, that’s one of my dreams…

Anyway, that’s how I approached Tails.  I wanted to portray an Asian-American character as American first and Asian second.  This was not done to denounce my heritage, but rather to ‘normalize’ it.  To me, my life is more than a collection of stereotypes.  Being that Tails is semi-autobiographical, the story is deeply personal and excruciatingly honest at times, the comic has been a form of quasi-self-therapy, allowing me to constructively work through my petulant youth (I suspect that this is the case with most creators who dabble in autobio comics).  Calling attention to my race wasn’t necessary for the story I needed to tell.  I’m not asking for readers to be ‘color blind’; that’s simply compounding ignorance with more ignorance.  But rather, let’s just embrace race…and move on.

Even with all my self-righteous rationality, I’d be lying if I neglected to mention ‘shame’ being a small factor.  My parents immigrated to America a year before I was born.  When you grow up as an ABC (American Born Chinese), you’re not Chinese enough for your family and not American enough for everyone else.  Plus, you get targeted by racism, which is never fun.  And not just the “No, where are you really from?” brand of folksy ignorance, but the “Go back to your fucking country!” brand of hostile bigotry.  Once puberty hits, you’re seen as a nerd, even if you’re not all that nerdy (#2 on the stereotype list).  There were times when I wished I could simply reinvent myself, simply fit in.  Is that what I did in Tails?  I guess, in a way, but less cynically.  Once again, I was aiming to disprove stereotypes, but it came from a somewhat defensive position.  That’s the funny thing about shame – you carry it with you your whole life, no matter how comfortable you’ll eventually become in your own skin.

Tails features an Asian-American, and no, it isn’t a story about what it’s like to be Asian.  Ethan is a struggling cartoonist who drinks too much and complains too often.  He’s geeky, sure, but he’s also cool and chases girls and has the same everyday troubles that any New Yorker has to deal with.  I’m not the first creator who’s tried to craft a post-racial comic, and I won’t be the last.  But with my own little webcomic, I think I’ve managed to talk about race without actually talking about race.

­Not that, you know, it’s a big deal or anything.

How To Write When You Don’t Have The Time

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Mercedes M. Yardley wears red lipstick and poisonous flowers in her hair. Her first short story collection, BEAUTIFUL SORROWS, was just released and is available on Amazon. Mercedes works for Shock Totem Magazine. You can contact her at www.mercedesyardley.com or follow her on Twitter as @mercedesmy.

Let me just start off by stating that I’m writing this with a baby on my lap.  She’s sick.  As is my husband.  As is my son.

The laundry is strewn all over the house in various states of washing and folding. (That’s what two family trips interspersed with violent bouts of the flu will get you.) I need to put together a costume for a Halloween book signing.  I also need to love on the sickies, make a bunch of crafts for a craft day that I’m in charge of, and, oh yeah, WRITE AN ENTIRE NOVEL in the next six weeks.  Not to mention reading slush for the magazine, doing a blog tour for my new book that’s out, and putting up reviews and articles that I committed to.

The subject of this particular post? Writing when you don’t have the time.  Cue wild laughter.  Cue high fiving the Universe because the irony is just so freakin’ awesome.

Time is a writer’s currency.  Nothing else is as precious.  Time will never fall into our laps; we have to make it. And how do we carve out huge swaths of time when we’re so incredibly busy?

Perhaps we need to ditch the concept of giant chunks of time.  We’d likely fill it up with other things, anyhow.  So learn to make the minutes count.

  1. Multitask.  I’m writing AND rocking the baby. Sometimes I write and get up every few minutes to stir the soup, or unload five things from the dishwasher.  Did I mention that my computer is currently in the kitchen?
  2. Prioritize. The good thing about a time crunch is that we learn what’s really important to us. If writing is your life’s blood then you’ll figure out a way to shoehorn it in.  Something has to go, so what will it be? Television?  A few commitments that you felt guilted into anyway?  Pick something and jettison it. You’re giving up something good for something fantastic: your writing career.
  3. Guard your writing time ferociously.  Bare your teeth and snarl.  When you’re home writing, everybody seems to think that you’re just playing on the Internet. The phone rings. People come to the door.  And why wouldn’t they? If you’re not going to take your writing seriously, why should you expect them to?  Turn your phone off.  Nail the door shut. Let the outside world know that you’ll get back to them when you’re finished.  And then write.
  4. Reevaluate. Is this worth sacrificing for?  If so, keep on keeping on. If not, consider cutting your losses and walk away. There should be some joy to this process.
  5. Open a can of soup for dinner. When you’re under a particularly harsh deadline, don’t have unreasonable expectations for yourself.  You can’t do everything wonderfully all of the time. Some other things will fall by the wayside every now and then, and it’s okay.  But never let your family fall, and make sure you get a little writing in every day, even if it’s only a sentence or two. Make that sentence beautiful.  Make it shine.