Frequently Asked Questions

General Questions: On Writing:

 

 

Frequently Asked Questions

 

When is your next book due out?

Wings of Wrath will be published by DAW in early 2009.

For other publishing news and updates, see the News section of this web site.

How did you get started in writing?

I wish I could tell you, but there really is no beginning. Since I was old enough to talk I was making up stories, and my mom says from the first day I learned how to hold a pencil I was trying to write them down. Throughout my teenage years writing was more a compulsion than a hobby; I could no more have stopped writing than I could have stopped eating or sleeping. The compulsion is gone now (having to write for a living cures that pretty quickly!) but I still get shivers down my spine at the sight of a particularly well-crafted sentence.

Where do you get your ideas from?

Many writers say that coming up with ideas is the easy part, it's writing them down that's hard. For me it is just the opposite. Coming up with ideas worthy being turned into a novel is a monumental effort, and I've never come up with a way to make it easier. Mostly I devour information from every source available, hoping that something will spark a new idea inside my brain. Sometimes it will be a show on the Discovery Channel that does the trick (you have no idea how many alien civilizations are inspired by animal behavior), or maybe it's a science fiction book that had a really good premise but utterly failed to realize its potential. You can check out the non-fiction authors listed below for the books I found most inspiring.

I'll be adding pages to this site that discuss the ideas for each of my books and where they came from; watch for them!

Who are your favorite authors?

Isaac Asimov, of course, as he's the one who got me started in the genre. Robert Silverberg, Robert Sheckley, Richard Matheson, Ira Levin, George R. R. Martin, Theodore Sturgeon, Phillip K. Dick, Tanya Huff, Octavia Butler, Jon Brunner, Jennifer Roberson, Douglas Adams, Fritz Leiber, Howard Fast, Brian Aldiss. (Yeah, these are very much out of order) (Any kind of order). Barbara Hambly is such a masterful stylist I would read the phone book if she wrote it. Tanith Lee's early stuff sends shivers down my spine. Cordwainer Smith is one of the most creative minds ever to write science fiction, and if you haven't read his short stories, you should. Same note for William Goldman's The Princess Bride, of which the movie is but a pale reflection.

In non-fiction, check out Stephen Jay Gould, Oliver Sachs, Matt Ripley, Jared Diamond, Richard Dawkins, and Temple Grandin, to name only a few. These days, science is every bit as exciting as science fiction, and sometimes just as surprising.

Why Does In Conquest Born get a sequel and not The Coldfire Trilogy?

I don't like reading sequels in general, and so I don't really enjoy writing them. For me, the excitement of starting a new novel is exploring a new world, and that's as true when you're writing it as when you are a reader. I read very few sequels for that reason, and I promised myself early in my career I'd never write one. A book that doesn't excite me when I'm writing it surely won't excite my readers very much!

Another special joy of writing is stimulating a reader's imagination. If I write a book that leaves your mind buzzing after the last page is turned, if you spend the next weeks obsessed with what might happen next, if your imagination comes up with all sorts of wonderful story ideas that take up where my novel left off, I've done my job. A sequel would only detract from that experience. Likewise there would be no mystery to a Coldfire prequel, merely a chance to spend more time with the characters, when you knew what was going to happen to them. I know many readers like that kind of thing, but I really don't, and I'd rather move on to new material in which every page was a mystery and no one knew where the story was going!

That said, DAW did finally talk me into a sequel to In Conquest Born. Since the first book left whole civilizations on the brink of catastrophic change, it struck me there might be enough new material to make such a project interesting. However, while I was pleased with the final result, I really didn't enjoy writing it as much as I did my other projects, so it will probably be the last sequel I write. Apologies to the fans who wish it were otherwise :-)

The one quasi-exception is This Alien Shore, in which the very concept of the universe allows for hundreds of strange worlds and new alien cultures to explore. But though I might set another book in that universe someday, I will not pick up with the same characters that starred in the first one.

I think your book (insert title) really should have a game/movie/graphic novel/other made out of it! Don't you?

If you know of someone interested in producing my work in such a format, send them to me and I will be happy to connect them with my agent to discuss terms.

Alas, since most companies that produce this kind of thing deal with in-house talent, the odds of an individual being able to sell a project he loves as a one-shot deal are rather slim. However, if you have a product in mind, and have found a commercial producer actively interested in developing it, feel free to send me the info and we'll talk.

What's up with fan-fiction and intellectual property rights?

Fan fiction occupies a strange grey area, which unfortunately can cross over into illegality without anyone realizing it. As a general guideline, I'm okay with fans writing stuff based on my work, provided:


1) The work that inspired you is referenced clearly.
2) It is made *very* clear I neither sanctioned your work, nor does it necessarily reflect my artistic vision of the subject matter.
3) (this is the one that matters). In no form, shape or manner can such fiction be used to make money for anyone without my express written permission. That includes any fees for newsletters, memberships for web sites, memberships for fan clubs with in-house publications, etc. Please take this one seriously.

On the flip side, such work is also protected by the same legal system, so while you can't sell it anywhere without my permission, no one (including me) can publish it without yours.

Fans should note that the excellent fan page run by Paul Hoeffer (www.merentha.org) has my permission to post both fan fiction and fan art based on my work, so that's a great place to show off your work to others in the fan community.

What's most important to remember about copyright law is that it prohibits people from using my work without permission. So, if in doubt...ask.

How about slash fiction?

I admit to no comprehension at all about why this appeals to folks, (and please don't send me to web sites explaining the phenomenon, I've read them), but if that kind of fantasy appeals to you, please make sure you follow the same guidelines given for fan-fiction, above.

As this kind of material often deals with subjects and character interpretations I emphatically disagree with, I do ask you make it very clear to any potential readers that it does not reflect my work except in the broadest inspirational sense.

Can I publish a short story based on your work?

I do not currently give permission for this sort of thing.

Was In Conquest Born ever published in hardcover? How about The Madness Season?

The first had a small printing by the Science Fiction Book club, otherwise, no. The Madness Season has never appeared in hardcover

How can I get copies of The Coldfire Trilogy in Hardcover?

Mark Anderson of Copper Dragon Books is a used book dealer who specializes in collectible quality hardcover books, including mine, both signed and unsigned. You can find a link for him on my contacts page. Other than that you can check on ebay, with the caveat that there was a book club edition once, so if you don't want that one, make sure of what you are bidding on.

How can I get foreign copies of your novels?

The ISBN for all printings of my novels will be included in the bibliography section of this web site.

I love your cover art! How can I get a print of it?

Go to Michael Whelan's site

Can I have permission to use your cover art on my site?

Talk to Michael, he owns all the rights to his work.

How about photos of your cats?

Amazing how many fans ask that question...check out the bio section.

By the way, they prefer to be called "hirsute writing assistants."

 


On Writing

Any Advice for new writers?

Often I am approached by aspiring writers who would like "the secret" to getting a book published. The formula is actually very simple:

Write a book.
Make it as good as it can possibly be.
Send it in.

Too simple, you say? Okay, I'll add a few more details.

1. Make sure the beginning rocks.

I mean, it's-breathtakingly-awesome, I-can't-put-it-down, rocks. Polish every sentence until it shines and make sure that right up front you give the reader a reason they want to find out what is happening in your story. Because if you don't do that up front, you may not get a chance. Editors are busy people who can't spend hours reading through text that looks unpromising; if your first few pages don't grab them, they'll probably put them down in favor of something that does. If on the other hand you grab their interest right out, they may be willing to work with you on fixing problems they find later in the manuscript.

2. Buy The Elements of Style, by Strunk and White.
Read it.
Edit.

Tiny book. Single most important writing handbook you will ever buy. Captures all the rules of style that you thought no one ever wrote down, and shows you how to make your writing truly powerful. All in less than 80 pages, too. Get it, read it, and edit your manuscript accordingly.

3. Buy the Writer's Market.
Read it.
Do what it says.

Writer's Market is a set of big thick books published every year, that lists every publisher available in every field, and what they require for submission. They tell you outright such things as: which publishers accept unsolicited or unagented manuscripts, what kind of material they are looking for, who to send it to, and most important, how to send it.

I'd recommend a complete read-through of your genre's offerings just to get the lay of the land. There are things that specific editors are looking for from new authors, and they'll tell you outright what they are. There are also themes editors are so tired of they just don't want to see them any more, and this book will warn you which ones they are. Most important of all, it will tell you *how* to submit your manuscript -- in total, three chapters and a summary, query letter first, whatever. Whatever they ask for, that's how you do it. Don't write your favorite author asking if you should send in a novel you have 90% finished, if that's not on the list of options. If the entry says that a publisher "accepts unsolicited manuscripts", you can send him one. If it says he doesn't, save yourself the postage.

Some publishers also have writer's guidelines they will send upon request, that tell you what they are looking for and how to present it. Always worth asking for.

4. Copyedit your manuscript

In an era of spellcheckers, grammar checkers, and dancing paperclips to give you advice, there's no excuse for a sloppy manuscript. Yet editors tell me they get these all the time: bad spelling, misapplied punctuation, and just plain down-to-earth typos. They're looking for more than a plot and a few good characters when they read your stuff, they're looking to see if you are a WRITER....and that means having command of the tools of the trade. Not to mention having enough respect for their time to send them something clean.

If your first page is messy, has run-on sentences, or obviously was not run through a basic spellchecker, you can be guaranteed they will not be reading to the second page, no matter how good your story is.

5. No internet grammar!

In an age of quick-and-dirty emails, online journals, and chatrooms, we have become painfully accustomed to various grammatical shorthands, and criminally tolerant of typos and quirky abbreviations. Don't. The fact that whole sentences are often strung together with commas in email doesn't make it good English, it gets really annoying, the editor gets the idea you don't know what a comma is used for and maybe he will stop reading your work altogether, he will never know what a good idea u really had or that u are really a good writer deep inside, he needs to work with u and he will c that.

That goes 4 cutesy internet abbreviations too.

I know editors so vehement about this that one single example anywhere in the cover letter will cause the whole package to be thrown into the trash.

6. Above all else, love writing.

Here we are back to the first advice I gave you. When people come up to me and ask how they can get their book published, the first thing I ask is "have you written it yet?" It's amazing how many people answer no. Many haven't even started.

It's not enough to want to be a writer. You have to want to WRITE. It's damned hard work, and its more about editing and rewrites than it is about pouring out your heart onto a page. You have to be able to look at something you worked on all week (or month, or even year), and have the objectivity to say "wow, that sucks", and start over again. You have to *want* that to be part of the process, like a jeweler wants to polish his gemstones so their colors gleam.

If you love it enough, if you want it enough, if you practice it enough, if you turn out a finished product that gleams and send it to the right places...then the odds it will see print are as good as they get.

Good luck!

How long does a book have to be?

Novels used to be about 80,000 words. Now they are much longer, and first novels of 120,000 are not uncommon. However, the bottom line is this: if you have not at least gotten your work past the 80,000 mark it will probably not sell as an adult novel, so consider that a target if you are serious about getting published.

What do editors look for in a fantasy novel?

Interesting characters that a reader will care about. Something that clearly sets it apart from the mundane world. Whatever your supernatural or "fantasy" element is, it should appear (or at least be foreshadowed) in the first 50 pages. If you have a story where the fantasy element could be removed and the story would remain intact, you have not written a fantasy, you have written a historical novel.

What do editors look for in a science fiction novel?

Interesting characters that a reader will care about. A unique speculative element that is central to your story concept. If you have a story where the speculative element could be removed and the story would remain the same, it's not good science fiction. Ditto a story that could be moved from its setting on a distant planet (or interstellar battleship, or alternate timestream) to the modern world without having to be changed.

The best science fiction asks the reader to imagine "What if?" and then inspires him to think about possible answers. The more believable the setting is, the more the reader can relate to the characters in it (human or otherwise), the more willing he will be to suspend his disbelief and accept your central premise. This doesn't mean you can't explore a wholly bizarre idea or have a setting that is nothing like Earth; it simply means your creation must be internally consistent, and it must either operate within the boundaries of Science as we understand it, or have a really compelling reason why it does not.

Any more advice?

Well, I was going to prepare a guide to the kind of things you should write, how to prepare a manuscript, how to go about getting published...and then I discovered Marion Zimmer Bradley had already done such an excellent job of that, I'd be doing you a disservice if I didn't just send you to her site. So go visit http://mzbworks.home.att.net/ and check out her articles on the subject; they'll tell you everything you need to know about how to get started.

You might also want to visit Russ Galen's page, to access some outstanding articles he has written on related topics; look for the links at the bottom of http://www.scglit.com/russell.htm

Do I need an agent to get published?

Not necessarily. I didn't have one for my first three books. Many publishers are willing to look at unagented manuscripts; The Writer's Market will tell you which ones those are. If your book is good enough -- and especially if the first 50 pages are good enough to grab an editor's interest right off the bat -- you've got a chance even without an agent.

On the other hand, an agent can certainly help make things happen. A friend of mine had a novel with many flaws in it, that he was unable to sell on his own. He took up with an agent who believed in his potential, who stepped in and assured potential publishers that the author understood the work needed a lot of revision, and was professional enough to do what was needed. Since then my friend has published ten novels.

It's hard for a brand new, unproven writer to find an agent, though. The Writer's Market offers some starting points. In the meantime, don't let lack of one keep you from submitting your work. Who knows? It may be good enough to make it on its own.

I've got a really great manuscript that I want to get published. Will you look it over and tell me what you think of it?

Sorry, can't do that. There are only so many hours in the day, and if I did that for fans I would have no time to write my own books. (You all do want more books, right?)

What is the "DM rule?"

Too often we create our worlds with a particular story in mind and assume that all the characters will respect our intentions. They don't travel beyond the borders of our map, try to use artifacts in ways that we did not intend, seek loopholes in our Laws of Magic, or otherwise stress the limits of our universe.

Real human beings, of course, are not like that. History teaches that it is human nature to go everywhere, do everything, and test every limit there is. Thor Heyerdahl proved that man could cross an ocean using only primitive construction materials, and we know that many islands in the Pacific were discovered by men who set out with no more than an outrigger canoe and a dream. There is no island so remote, no terrain so daunting, that men will not seek out and explore it, no supernatural concept so bizarre that someone will not attempt to exploit it. Merely saying "it is dangerous" may scare off most people, but there are always those will consider danger a personal challenge.

Want to observe this in action, in a convenient microcosm? Take a look at gamers. They take a perverse pride in finding the weak points in a fictional world and exploiting them to the nth degree, often to the chagrin of its creator. After all, they don't know where your story is "meant to go", nor would they necessarily respect it if they did...they don't know what territories they are "supposed to explore", or which lie beyond the limits of your map and are meant to be left out of the story...they only know what is put before them, and they will exploit everything in sight for personal gain as much as is humanly possible, disregarding all the risks factors that might discourage "real" people. That is, in fact, the one thing that gamers excel at: finding the loopholes in any fictional system, and breaking them wide open.

What a great testing ground for potential world-builders!

The "DM rule" teaches that any universe you create must be "gamer proof". That is, it must have internal to itself whatever rules are necessary to support your story concept, and to enforce its limits. If there is something you don't want your characters to do, there has to be a reason inherent in the world itself why they won't do it. Warning them that they will die if they break the rules is not enough; some people regard this as a personal challenge to beat the odds. Making something dark and ominous only excites curiosity. Making something hard to get to only increases the rewards (and the status) of getting to it. Making something a "sacred tradition" only gives rebels something to target. Remember the lesson of history: It is in human nature to be stubborn, obstinate, and defiant. If you are unsure of how to apply this to your work, imagine a group of gamers set loose in your world, and try to anticipate the damage they would do. It can be an unnerving experience, but it is always an enlightening one.

Never is this rule more important than in creating a believable magical system. Any time you insert "power" into the human equation, you must assume there are people willing to take any risk, to break any rule, to exploit it. So ask yourself, if sorcerers exist, why don't they rule the world? "They don't want to" or "It's not traditional" is not a good enough answer. Why are they not filthy rich, with mind-controlled servants to see to their every need? "They don't believe in flaunting their power" is not good enough. You must either have reasons why sorcerers do not do these things, or acknowledge that some of them do. Sometimes an entire novel can spring from the answers to those questions...or be generated by your search for them. Barbara Hambly in particular is a master of this process, and her Sun Cross Trilogy is an outstanding example of how a simple control mechanism, "the price of power," can drive a story.

To assume that magic has an innate cost that limits its use is not just an artistically satisfying theme -- we like to believe that all power has a price -- but it implies a world in which reality is not all that far removed from what we are familiar with. The second law of thermodynamics dictates that energy cannot be created or destroyed, only changed in form. Magic has to come from somewhere. Determine the fuel, determine the limits of the transformation, and you have a wealth of material waiting to be explored for story ideas.

This is a central theme of my current project, Feast of Souls. In it, the cost of magic is so high that most men are not willing to pay it...but some are, and some will try to find a way around that cost, and a few may even succeed. Out of that simple formula has grown one of my most powerful works, as every new limit I place upon my sorcerers produces dark new paths for my story to explore. Yet even in that context I take nothing for granted. If my sorcerers have traditions regarding how they use their power, there must be good reasons for those to exist, and I must assume that someone, somewhere, will defy those traditions. If they believe there are hard-and-fast rules about how their power functions, someone will test the limits of those rules. That's just how human beings work, and whether they are piloting spaceships, fighting dragons, or playing D&D, it is unlikely to change.

So if you are not sure of how that would work in the vastness of your universe, imagine a gamer set loose there, and watch the sparks fly. Putting out those fires -- or better yet, creating a world where they cannot occur -- is one of the best story-generators I know.