Epiphany 2.0

1. Writing! Have passed the 50K mark on BrightGod (halfway done!) and also penned a 7K-word short story. The short story’s current title (subject to change, ’cause that’s what I do) is “Sinners, Saints, Dragons, and Haints, in the City Beside the Still Waters”, and it’s inspired by a documentary I recently saw: Trouble the Water, about Hurricane Katrina’s effect on New Orleans — during the storm and years after — through the eyes of its poorest residents. Some of ya’ll know I went to college in New Orleans, so this is something I care about a lot.

2. Apartment hunting! (But I decided to postpone ’til later.)

3. Article writing! Today on Fantasy you can find my review of Persona 3, which uh lets you know what else I’ve been doing in my spare time.

4. Reading! Currently on the pile are The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror 2008, Sly Mongoose (Tobias Buckell), and a nonfic pick, Off the Books: The Underground Economy of the Urban Poor, by Sudhir Venkatesh. This is the guy who went among the drug dealers of Chicago in Freakonomics and figured out why they all live at home with their parents, despite the supposed glamour of the lifestyle. I’m looking forward to this one.

5. Getting healthy! Have lost 5 pounds without dieting, solely by working my ass off (literally) at the gym. It’s fun, too. Hooray for Stephen’s Cardio Sculpt class!

That’s it!

I have to admit, the past year has been a good one. I’m loving NYC, I’ve got great friends and my family’s well, the book deal was a lifelong dream come true, and now here I am living another dream: I’m a full-time writer! There are, of course, the usual snafus that come with these kinds of major lifestyle changes. Had one yesterday that I’m too embarassed to relate in public, but I’m past the freakout stage now. It helps to remember that these things are minor in the grand scheme of life.

There are a few more things I want for myself in the future, and I’m going to work hard to try and get them. But for the most part, I hope year 36 turns out as good as year 35 did.

Anyway, back to srs bzns. I’m not doing anything exciting or partyesque for my birthday tonight because tomorrow morning at 5 a.m., my writing group Altered Fluid will be on WBAI’s Hour of the Wolf. Being on the air at 5 a.m. means getting there at 4 a.m., which means leaving the house at 3 a.m., which means going to bed early tonight. (In fact, I think I’ll take a nap this afternoon, too.) We’re critiquing fellow group member Alaya Dawn Johnson’s short story, so if you’d like to hear how a kickass SF writing group functions, tune in! (Or if you don’t want to get up that early, download it later.) Better yet, if you like the show, call in; WBAI is a public radio station, and it’s pledge season. The host, Jim Freund, has hosted us before, and we’d love to repay the favor by earning his show some money.

And in 100K news, I’m working on a couple of possible appendices for the end of the book, since that may be the best way to clarify some of the worldbuilding. Thus far I’ve finished a kind of profile of the four most magical characters and their abilities/limitations; am thinking about adding an “historical” account of a pivotal event in the world’s history, and a glossary. Actually, I’m definitely going to add the glossary; it’ll be helpful for starting a wiki later, which I think I might need in order to keep track of all the historical tidbits, language oddities, events, etc., that will exist through the three books.

Just call me N. K. (K.?) Tolkien. Kidding!! (Seriously, though, no song lyrics. I draw the line at those.)

First thing this morning I opened my inbox to find this, courtesy of my friend K. (Worksafe, but sanity-safe? I’m not so sure.) She sent it to me because I’ve been reminiscing on the game Final Fantasy 7, which really was phenomenally well-made. It had some flaws, of course — Lego-people character design, and speaking of character design, Barrett, anyone? (groan) — but it was more beautiful, more emotionally gripping, and more memorable than many fantasy novels I’ve read. What is it doing right that so many novels get wrong? It can’t be just graphics. (Though I’ll admit Nobuo Uematsu’s musical score did add a lot. Amazing stuff. The man’s a genius.) Methinks I’ll have to blog about this later.

Also, got this from K too, for those who don’t regularly read Sinfest. Srs political discourse, pay attention! (Not as worksafe — one bad word.)

Finished the re-revision of 100K over the weekend and sent it off to editor today. I spent most of last week working on it. Yah! Now back to BrightGod. The break helped me figure out a few things re the plot, so I’m raring to go. =) 30,000 words and counting!

Belated writing report! I’m up to 14,000 words on BrightGod, the tentatively-named sequel to 100K. (For the confused, “BrightGod” is Bright God’s Bane, and “100K” is The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. Pay attention. I might spring a quiz.) Have also finally resumed regular submissions to short story markets. Got a rejection already from Apex Digest on my “aliens want our women” story, “Commission Report on the Establishment of Extrasolar Trade: Evaluation”. But I am undeterred! I made a special effort to write more science fiction this year past, and by gum I’m going to sell some of it. Eventually.

Reviewing! Spent this week’s train-commutes reading Kay Kenyon’s Maximum Ice, which I never heard of and only happened upon because the Brooklyn Public Library was doing a book giveaway as a promotion. I’ve never read Kenyon’s work before, but I really liked this tale, which was hard SF that had by far some of the best characterization I’ve ever read. The story was about a generation ship which comes back to Earth after 10,000 years to find it covered in “Ice”, a crystalline substance that has almost devoured the entire planet. The ship’s crew then has to navigate its own politics and those of the remaining Earth people in order to solve the mystery of Ice and figure out whether it can be — or should be — destroyed. Cool plot points (er, and spoilers): a) Ice turns out to be a massive crystalline computer, initially designed for its incredible information-storage properties because during the interim 10K years, Earth got hit by a cloud of dark matter which nearly killed all life on earth by stripping it of information (computers, of course, but also DNA). b) The generation ship is populated by the Rom/Gypsies/People of the Road, who fled Earth because there was a global epidemic and the gypsies got blamed for it (because they were immune), with the predictable result being concentration camps and genocide. c) The central conflict in the story comes down to two women — “Ship Mother”, a gypsy woman who serves as the living repository of memory for the generation ship, and “Mother Superior”, the leader of the Sisters of Clarity — an order of atheist nuns who rule the new Ice-covered earth. Mother vs Mother is a theme of the whole story.

It’s breathtaking stuff, and marks only the second hard-SF novel I’ve truly enjoyed in a very long time. (The other was Brenda Cooper’s The Silver Ship and the Sea, which has a sequel out that I need to get my hands on.) I can’t believe I never read Kenyon’s work before. Must check out more of it now.

Pimping! Fellow Altered Fluid member Alaya Dawn Johnson’s short story “Down the Well” came up at Strange Horizons well over a week ago, and shamefully I have only just now read it. But I love it — she’s so damn good at characterization and lyrical language, even in the midst of a grim tale about corrupt governments and playing God. Go read!

ETA: And a work colleague showed me this, which may quite possibly be the world’s most impractical Swiss Army knife. (It’s real, before you ask.) Just thought I would share.

Was trying to think of something to write for a blog post, and all I can come up with are reactions to stuff other people have written. Pathetic! What kind of writer am I? Must try harder.

Anyway, one reaction is to this article, written by the ever-thought-provoking “coffeeandink”, though quoting another gentleman:

Also, fantasy and sci-fi does frequently explore issues of racism, disability, addiction, etcetera, but through analogies, metaphors or substitutes. A story about a half-elf who feels as though she’s not fully accepted by either humans or elves can convey similar feelings as a literary novel about a pale-skinned mulatto struggling with being accepted by black or white cultures in the 1950’s, etcetera.

My initial reaction to this is noted in the thread, and I’m in agreement with coffeeandink on the wrongness of this allegory. But my secondary reaction is kind of tangential: why are we using elves as an allegory for skin color issues? Why the heck don’t elves have varied colors themselves?
Continue reading »

Pay no attention to the woman behind the HTML. K. Tempest Bradford was kind enough to help me get the nkjemisin.com site up and running, but me being the inveterate tinkerer that I am, I’ve decided to try and figure out as much of this stuff as I could. So today we’re testing the Livejournal Crossposting tool, which I think I’ve finally managed to install and configure properly.

And wait! This blog post isn’t purely irrelevant! Have begun tracking progress on BrightGod:

4,040 / 100,000 (4.0%)

Giving it 100,000 words because I’ve never, ever, written a novel shorter than that. So here we go!

ETA: …The hell? Not sure why the word meter works in LJ but not Wordpress… anybody know?

My multiculturalism, let me show you it! Conversation in my office:

Boss (who is from Australia): Would you like a crumpet?
Me: What the hell is a crumpet? Oh, those English muffin-looking things. I’ve seen them at Trader Joe’s.
Boss: Those aren’t crumpets.
Me: Yes they are! It says so on the package.
Boss: Biscuit, then. Do you want a biscuit? ::offers::
Me: COOKIE. COOKIE, DAMMIT. SPEAK AMERICAN.

(I’m not really like this. Was just feeling silly today. He laughed.)

I’m going to miss this job.

GOOD:

- Auction to help KGB Fantastic Fiction! The Fantastic Fiction readings were my introduction to New York’s dynamic spec fic community; each month two different established and up-and-coming writers read their work to an audience of fans and their fellow pros. It’s a great place to meet people and best of all hear good stuff. (I got to hear an excerpt from Naomi Novik’s fifth Temeraire novel last year! I’m still squeeing over that one.) So help the organizers keep bringing cool people… and while you’re at it, bid on some truly awesome stuff. (Seriously. Awesome. Go look.)

- Getting a check from Baen’s Universe for “Playing Nice With God’s Bowling Ball,” which is due out in the August issue. This is the biggest check I’ve ever gotten for a short story publication! And just in time; going down to ATL in a couple of weeks for my family reunion — yeah, there’s a whole bunch of Jemisins out there, scary — and since it’s Atlanta, I’m going to need to rent a car. (I’d dearly love to spend it on something more glamorous, but that’s how life is.)

-The better still: having my first new published story in six months coming out soon! Was beginning to forget how it felt. Note: Baen’s is a subscription market, so if you want to read it, consider subscribing.

-Oh, went to see “Wall-E” this weekend. Pretty good.

-Went to see “Hancock” too. Not as good as I was hoping, but not bad enough to qualify for the “Bad” category. Speakinowhich…

BAD:

- I’m so utterly, utterly tired of discovering bigots under every effing rock in the SF world. Today is literally the third time in three days, across three different online sites. I have to keep reminding myself that these people are the minority by a large margin; to pay more attention to the bajillions of good people I’ve met than the handful of horrorshows. But it wears you down, if you let it. ::sigh:: I can’t let it.

IRRELEVANT:

- I had a nightmare last night: I was in the world of my book (100K, not BrightGod), at a concert being performed by Queen. They were singing something vaguely reminiscent of the “Highlander” and “Flash Gordon” themes, only it was about my characters. The really scary part? It was kind of catchy, and didn’t sound half bad. ::twitch::

- Oh, hai! I has a eggie. Gacked from multiple people over on LJ. Click on it to make it hatch. (Just think of it as a kind of HTML Pokemon, OK?)