World Fantasy Convention, Here I Come!

Off tomorrow to World Fantasy Convention in San Jose, California.  WFC is, year in and year out, my favorite convention.  It is big but not huge, with a strong emphasis on reading, writing, and publishing.  It’s always attended by lots of writers, editors and agents, making it a great place to meet up with old friends and get some business done.

On Wednesday night, from 6:30-8:00, I’ll be signing books along with a mass of sf/fantasy writers at Borderland Books, in San Francisco.

I’ll be moderating a panel on Friday morning at 10:00.  The panel is called “Writing Human Characters, Whether or not They’re Human,” and the other panelists are Kate Elliott, Kay Kenyon, Laurel Anne Hill, and Shauna Roberts.  Should be a fun discussion.

Other than that, I’ll be going to readings, catching up with old friends, meeting with my agent and editor, and spending a good deal of time at parties and in the bar.  Hope to see some of you there — please, if you see me, come and introduce yourselves.

Hello from the Carolinas!

Greetings from the road!  I’m currently at the home of my good friend and fellow Magical Words blogger, Faith Hunter.  She and her husband, Rod, have been wonderful hosts.  Last night we had a signing with another fellow MW blogger, Misty Massey, and also author Gail Z Martin.  It was not the best attended signing I’ve ever had, but it might well have been the most fun.  Italian dinner afterwards, also great fun.  All in all, a good start to the trip.  Today we’ll be heading up to Charlotte, NC for ConCarolinas.  Hope to see some of you there.

Today at Magical Words, we have a special guest blogger.  Author Mindy Klasky has posted a piece on her career path and is now answering questions and responding to comments.  Stop by the site and say hello!

Contests, Releases, and That Kind of Stuff

 A couple of friends of mine have new things going on with their writing today.  Kelly McCullough, one of my cyber-buddies fromSFNovelists.com has a new book coming out today.  The book is called MythOS and it’s part of his Ravirn Series.  Please visit this site and readthe interview with Kelly that’s just been posted there.

Another friend of mine, an Australian writer named Alan Baxter, has just started a new contest on his website, and he is hoping people will come to the site and try to win a signed copy of one of his books.  You don’t need any prior knowledge of Alan or his work to enter the contest, so check it out and maybe you’ll win a new book.

And, of course, if visiting Alan’s site doesn’t satisfy your hunger for book contests, please visit my site, and check out the contest there.

Thanks!

Two Sides of Growing Up

This was dance weekend in our home and our little town.  Both my daughters take dance lessons throughout the school year, and their annual recital was on Saturday afternoon.  The younger one takes tap and ballet; the older one takes tap and jazz.  So both of them had two performances in the recital, and both of them did great.  Nancy and I were very proud, and kept thinking back to the days when they were just starting out, wearing stiff little plastic tutus and ribbons in their hair.  They’ve both come a long way.

But this weekend that was especially true of our older daughter.  In addition to the regular dance classes, this year she auditioned for the University’s dance performance, which was also performed this weekend.  She’s only in eighth grade, but she’s very good and she got into two dances — an Irish dance and a modern hip-hoppy sort of thing.  She was the youngest person in the program, but you wouldn’t have known it to watch the dances, and to the credit of the college kids, you wouldn’t have known it from how they treated her.  She was one of the dancers, nothing more and certainly nothing less.  It was a magical experience for her, a tantalizing taste of what she has to look forward to in years to come as her dancing improves and she gets into even more dances in the college program.

It was quite an experience for Nancy and me, too.  Seeing her up there dancing with those older men and women and fitting in so well — it brought home to both of us just how fast the years are going by.  She started dance nine years ago, and it seems like yesterday.  She leaves for college in another four years or so.  How quickly will that time go by?  (Rhetorical question; believe me, I know the answer.)  It’s hard to fathom, but it’s exciting for all of us.

But these changes have a darker side, too.  

On Sunday night a girl my daughter knows — a high school student three years older than she — was killed in a car wreck on a rural highway a few miles from here.  My daughter wasn’t terribly close to this girl, but that didn’t keep this tragedy from having a profound effect on her.

I’m a middle-aged man.  I’m used to confronting my mortality, to being reminded every day that life is transient and fate capricious.  But this is new to her, and a part of me grieves to see her forced to confront such hard truths at such a tender age.  I realize that she’s not as young as I think she is, nor as unprepared for the real world.  But it’s hard to watch nevertheless.  She’s a teenager, as are her friends.  And she’s finding out that bad things happen to good people.  She’s realizing that those stupid rules her mother and I impose (like, for instance, she’s not allowed to ride in a car with a teen driver) have their roots in justifiable fears.  She’s starting to understand that “growing up” is double edged, and that the freedom she covets comes with dangers she hadn’t fully considered.

I know that these are important lessons for her to learn, though right now the price of them seems far, far too steep.  I find myself struggling with the (mistaken) urge to shelter her.  I want to hold her on my lap like I did when she was four and was getting ready for that first recital.  I want to tuck her in and sing her to sleep.  Parenting was easy then.  I didn’t realize it at the time, but it was.  And so when she comes to me and tells me how freaked out she is, how sad for this girl’s family and her close friends and her new boyfriend who lost his first love, I’ll listen.  I’ll resist the urge to reassure her, because really, what assurances can I give?  I’ll avoid the temptation to try to draw lessons from this experience for her; she doesn’t need my help with this one.  And when she tells me that she’s scared, that the uncertainties of life seem overwhelming, I’ll nod and tell her that I’m scared, too.  Because I am.  And she’s grown too old for easy lies.

My Many Hats, Vol. 4 (I think)

If ever there was a day of hats, this was it.  I wrote my 2000 words in the WIP (Writer Hat).  I took care of my younger daughter , who stayed home from school with a bad cold (Daddy Hat).  I had some work to do for our local organic food buying club, of which I am Big Boss Man (Co-op-Coordinator-Guy Hat).  I wrote up an alumni interview that I did for my alma mater — Brown Class of ‘85, Baby!  Woot-woot!  (Brown-Interviewer-Guy Hat)  In my capacity as 8th Grade Parent Council Representative at my older daughter’s school, I wrote a tribute to the teachers and staff for Faculty-Staff Appreciation Week (School-Parents’-Council-Guy Hat).  I did some laundry and the after-dinner dishes (Husband Hat).  And now I am about to dun the weirdest hat of all.  Nancy and I are part of a little, VERY informal wine club here in town (we get 5 bottles of relatively cheap wine — $10-20 range — gather at someone’s house for munchies, and taste the wines to see which are worth getting again and which suck).  Well, this week Nancy and I put together the program, which means that we chose and bought the wines that all of us will be tasting.  Our theme was Shirazes from Five continents (Africa, Australia, Europe, North and South America).  And I now have to write up the tasting notes for the tasting.  So I get to put on my Pretentious-Wine-Guy Hat! 

“It’s an ambitious little red, but I think you’ll admire its presumption….”

Finally, today I’ve also had on my Son-Hat, which is one I don’t get to wear very often anymore.  My Mom would have turned 87 today had we not lost her to cancer way too early (1995).  She was a brilliant, kind, sensitive woman who taught me to love the written word, to believe in myself and follow my passion, and to value family and friendship above all else.  There isn’t a day that goes by without me wishing that I could call her or visit her, tell her about her granddaughters or ask her for some parenting advice. 

I love you, Mom.  Happy Birthday.

I’m On Twitter

So last night I let some friends (if you can call them that!) talk me into joining Twitter and I can already tell that this was a serious mistake.  We’re talking major procrastination enabler here.  The guilty parties were Alethea Kontis, Mary Robinette Kowal, and Stephen Gould — I offer their names so that my agent and editor will know exactly who to blame for all future missed deadlines.

Anyway, if you’re on Twitter and you’d care to follow me, my username (as always) is DavidBCoe.  Looking forward to your tweets!

The Value of Feedback

My agent, the wonderful Lucienne Diver – http://varkat.livejournal.com  — got back to me today with comments on the first 100 pages of my new work in progress.  Her comments were pointed, candid, and unbelievably helpful.  I’ve spent much of the day reworking the first six chapters of the book and though I’m not done yet, I’m already convinced that her criticisms and the changes I’ve made in response to them, have improved the book immeasurably.

Writing is often called a lonely endeavor, and much of the time it is.  I usually do much of my work in isolation, seeking comments and editorial guidance at the end of a draft which has been written over four or five or six months.  But occasionally I reach out.  A couple of weeks ago I got my friend Faith Hunter – http://faithhunter.livejournal.com — to read my opening paragraphs.  Her comments were of great help to me.  And today I’ve benefitted from Lucienne’s insights and generosity.  I’m lucky to have such good people on my side.

Writing doesn’t have to be done in a vacuum.  Give your work to friends or family members who you trust — and by trust I mean two things:  You know they’ll read your work and comment on it without being cruel, but you also know that they’ll give you honest criticism, that they won’t spare your feelings by misleading you.  Learn from these people.  When they tell you there are problems with your work, consider their insights.  In the end you might disagree with them — that’s fine.  But listen to their critiques.  And, equally important, when they tell you that you’re good, that your book is worth reading, believe this as well.  Sometimes that’s the harder challenge.

New Year’s Eve

Back home after two days of long drives. We have a party to go to tonight. We’ll be welcoming back into town some friends who have been living in New Mexico for the past year and a half. It’ll be great to see them and to ring in the New Year (and ring out this old one) with good friends.

Wishing all of you a wonderful 2009.

Best,

David

Our Big Party (Which Is Why I Haven’t Posted In Days)

So, been a few days.  Had to focus on the rest of life for a little while there,  Every year Nancy and I throw a big party — an Australian Christmas Party.  What makes it Australian? you ask.  Well, in Australia, Christmas is a summer holiday.  It’s hot and sunny, and the year we were there we spent Christmas at the beach eating shrimp and fresh strawberries, boogie-boarding in the waves, and playing cricket.  So we get a ton of shrimp, we get Tim-Tams and Mint Slices (our two favorite Aussie cookies), as well as a ton of other food (cheeses, satay chicken, chips, etc.) we have our friends bring plonk, and we light a fire in the fireplace and crank up the heat so that people will come in shorts and t-shirts and be comfortable, despite the 30 degree (Fahrenheit) weather outside.  Great fun.  But also a lot of work.  So I spent the last half of the week shopping for food, as well as for holiday gifts for family.  Then yesterday we were getting the house ready for dozens of guests.  And, well, blogging and work kind of fell by the wayside.

The party was last night, and it was a great success.  And now I can get back to work for a week before traveling for the holidays.

This Week So Far

Crazy week so far, which is why I never got around to posting yesterday.  We’re going on an extended trip out West early next week:  New Mexico to see some friends, Canyonlands National Park in Utah to camp, and Idaho to see Nancy’s family.  I’ll then go on to Denver for WorldCon while Nancy and the girls head home.  Three weeks of travel for me.  The day after I get back, my younger daughter starts school again.  So we’re trying to get ready for the trip, trying to get ready for school, trying to get in last minute work so that we can relax while traveling.  Pretty typical pre-vacation stuff.

I’m excited for the time with friends and Nancy’s family, and I’m looking forward to WorldCon.  I’m totally jazzed about Canyonlands.  Can’t wait to look at birds and play with my camera and get some hiking in.  The girls are less psyched.  They don’t particularly like the desert, which I suppose I can understand.  I’m not sure I would have liked the desert when I was their age, that is, if it had ever even occurred to my parents to take us there….

Anyway, that’s where I am right now.  I’ve gotten some writing done this week and should reach 90k words on the WIP tomorrow.  There’s a new podcast up at Stephen Euin Cobb’s “The Future and You” site of a panel I did at LibertyCon with Harry Turtledove and Toni Weisskopf.  Visit the site and give it a listen.