Category: Writing

Striking a Prose: Women in Fantasy Plots

Okay, so, I don’t describe myself as a feminist for various reasons–which we can talk about if you want–but after seeing this and the numerous follow-ups, it crossed my mind that what was missing was the plot version of those things.  I have a few.  I’m counting on you, dear reader, to supply the rest.

1. A man is raped, and because of this he turns into an action hero.

2.  A man must deal with his desire for a career or a life of adventure versus his suddenly-arising need to have children.

3. A woman is working on a scientific/magical process that will save millions of lives, and must overcome her nagging husband’s demands for attention and wish for her to settle down to a good career.

4. A woman is working on a scientific/magical process that will save millions of lives, supported by her husband who never loses faith in her even when all seems hopeless.

5. A man sets out to become a hero because he knew his mother had been hoping for a girl and he wants to be the daughter she never had.

What have I missed?

 

Contest for Artists

ETA: I’ve learned that contests like this are frowned on by artists.  Ooops.  Sorry.  I’ll just let this run out and not do it again.

Okay, here’s the contest:

To create a logo for The Incrementalists.  I need, in fact, two pieces of art related to this:

1. The constellation Crater using a style similar to the book cover.  See here.

2. An hourglass logo (possibly with an “i” in it, if that looks good; not necessary).

At some point in the future, it would be cool to do some animation of those lines and stars from the cover forming into the constellation, then forming the hourglass; but that’s up the road. For now, we just need those two things.

Winner gets an autographed copy of The Incrementalists, or, if preferred, an advanced reader copy.

Contest runs from now until 6PM Central Time Wednesday.

ETA: Okay, I’m an idiot. That was Wednesday the 27th, which I ought to have made clear from the beginning.  Sorry!

Post entries, or links to entries, here.

Those not submitting (or even those who are) are welcome to make comments about the various pieces, but there won’t be a vote. Skyler White and I will choose, possibly with input from Adam Stemple, Felix Straits, or a few others.

 

Another Update on Hawk: Now I’m Scared

I’m significantly past the halfway point in the rough draft, and I’ve trimmed most of the flab from it, which means I feel good about what’s left.  It’s a more dense book then some of the recent ones, I think just because the nature of the story demands a certain compression of events; it wants to keep moving.  And I am really packing on the hope-this-works stuff. By which I mean, “I’m going to throw this in as key plot point; I sure hope by the end I know why it’s there.”

In the past, I’ve pretty regularly done that, and it’s worked out well.  Sometimes I’ve had to chop things that ended up not fitting, but more often than not throwing something in just because it felt cool worked out: my subconscious would come charging in on a white horse and say, “You need that thing! Thank god it’s there!”  With this book I am, quite deliberately, piling a lot of them on top of each other; not since Taltos have I been this worried about whether the stuff I’m setting up will all come out.

I’m having fun.  With any luck, the reader will too.

I picked up the bloody pile and made my way down the stairs, passing through my lab, where I took the opportunity to burn it all before continuing out onto the streets of Adrilankha, where waited death and, you know, stuff like that.