what if your gross terrible neighbor was a real monster?
a way to crack open the puzzle of the weird world we're in and understand it better
it's a way to be sneaky: can talk about deep things in a fun way, with people that don't notice
perception: history has been edited down from multiple conflicting perspectives; urban fantasy lets you deal with these different perspectives for more immediate events
no real bad guy: bad guy is someone pursuing their goals in a fanatical sense, still think they're the good guys
people are always writing urban fantasy from their primary experience; in feudal days it was fears from lord of the manor, today it's shopping malls and steelworks (instead of fairy rings)
changeling stories are ufo kidnapping stories, just told in a different time
uf is the intersection of contemporary fiction and fantasy fiction
danger: to cover over real experience with a fantasy gloss; example: the magical homeless people of the 80s)
can use unreliable narrators to try to avoid the problems with covering over messy experience
why first person?
immediacy
tight perspective
noir influence: almost all first person, huge influence on urban fantasy and its style
adrian mcinty: leicht's favorite irish noir writer
rowland: j d robb's books
Finance for writers
put 40% away for federal govt, 10% for state, pay quarterly income taxes estimate, will usually get something back at the end of the year
most first books don't make back their $5,000 advance
don't quit your day job, even after signing tge first contract
some contracts don't last past 2 or 3 books
not a steady income
be careful with your money; lots of authors aren't good with their money
get good agent: writers tend to not read contracts, approach it very emotionally; good agent will catch things and get you the best deal possible
okay to lose money on your craft at first, but have a budget and be aware of it
spend money on your craft (take classes, do workshops) and your network (attending cons, etc)
but: if you're at cons, write down what you want to accomplish before you go
if you self-publish, spend money on quality: an editor and a cover designer; everything else you can half-ass, but not those
keep all receipts for your craft in a shoebox, use them (plus your spreadsheet) to fill out your schedule c for your taxes
if you don't make a profit every seven years, the irs considers it a hobby, not a business
average income for writers is $5,000
don't quit your day job until you have 2 years' worth of living expenses saved up
rule one: write, finish, send it out
one benefit of incorporating is the ability to defer income from one year to the next (should you score the $70,000 advance)
78% success rate for publishing projects on kickstarter if they get 25 backers; difference between people that are prepared and know what they're doing and those who don't
bud: turns profit every 5 years; how? Doesn't report all his expenses that year
lots of ways to use kickstarter: events, book tours, playgrounds inspired by literature, self-pubbing books, magazines; can get really creative
margot: think of marketing as sharing these stories you're passionate about with others and inviting them in, not "selling yourself"
Idiot's Guide to Publishing
all scifi community on genie network at the time
doctorow hadn't written a novel yet, so got karl involved
patrick: liked it because it was very practical
rejectomancy: shouldn't read too much into rejections; form rejection could be from someone that loved it but didn't have time, personal could be from someone that doesn't like the story but likes you personally
schroeder: never sold any short stories to the magazines, has only ever sold stories to anthologies
at the time, discussion over ebooks concerned fact that they never go out of print, so publishers argue that they don't have to revert the rights to the author
would not try to write today, because has no idea how to get into the field now
Nifty Narrative Tricks
bear: what character is like matters less than how you handle the character
kowal: people want the familiar in the strange; familiar makes you feel smart, the strange is compelling; when have character engaged in activity or emotion that readers find familiar, then when i engage them in something weird they already have a hook
kelly: characterize people by what they own. before walking them on stage, go into their room, or their car: what's there? is it messy? neat? what's hanging on the walls? bonus: gives you things to use later in the plot
walton: writers get some things for free, and some things they have to learn; easy to teach the things you learned, but almost impossible to teach the things you got for free; she got interesting characters for free, so...story is contract with reader, try to get what story is right up front so reader doesn't feel betrayed
bear: beginning writers make mistake of writing passive characters
bear: give the character something to love; instantly makes them more engaging
gould: best way to intro tech is to show it when it breaks down; very engaging to intro character when frustrated
kowal: frustration will show what character wants, what they love, and give you a measure of their competence
kowal: figure out what character wants, and smartest way for them to get it, and then you block off that way (and keep blocking off ways)
walton: __ starts with character really having to go to the bathroom while giving speech on history; is pure exposition but you don't care because you sympathize with having to use the restroom
walton: farmer in the sky (heinlein) has similar trick, with tons of worldbuilding done in describing a father and son making dinner
term: incluing
kelly: how can you tell beginning from middle from end? beginning -> middle: character goes through one way door, and can't get back to the start; middle -> end: character goes through another one-way door, and story has to end one way or another
kowal: stakes are something particular to the character; we're all going to die, so death is not great stakes; "you're going to lose your right foot" is more personal
kowal: focus indicates thought; what you're looking at is what you're thinking about; rhythm and breath: same action at different speed gives you different emotion; how long you linger on something shows how important it is to the character
walton: pacing very different between genres; same story told at different pacing can change the genre of the book
kelly: look at the story; if you see a section of solid text or solid dialog, that's probably a pacing problem
common mistakes?
bear: starting with bloodbath, before you care about the characters
kelly: end of story is not the climax, you need a moment for the character to come to grips with what the climax means for them
gould: leave some things for the reader to figure out from context
kowal: starting with way too much backstory; solve by getting deeper into point of view
walton: too fuzzy, character not in focus; can fix by switching to first person, forces you to focus on personal experience
walton: often rushes endings, has to go back in and fix pacing after draft finished
kowal: best trick: dumping exposition into a sex scene
kelly: world-building will happen almost without trying; less you can do of it, the better
Evolution of Epic Fantasy
tessa grafton: the united states of asgard
sarah beth durst: queen of blood
epic fantasy: need close in shots, and medium shots, and landscape shots, all mixed in
leicht: research into irish time of troubles taught her everything involved in world-building: how economics is tied to politics is tied to religion is tied to class is tied to language
kate elliott: crown of stars
leicht: viking skeletons found in bogs: no one checked if they were male or female; many of them (warriors) are female
elliott: archeologists finding statues mostly female, labeled one male statue as priest-king and all female as just "fertility", then were mystified as to why they kept finding female statues
