Clint's Blog

A Bomb for Charity. Does That Sound Bad?

4/19/2012

Last month I was fortunate enough to be a part of the Writing for Charity event here in Utah, where more than twenty professional authors got together for a writers' conference where all proceeds go to charity. As part of the effort, a number of us wrote short works for an e-anthology, the proceeds of which also go to charity. The result is The Gruff Variations: Writing for Charity Anthology Vol. 1, which is now available through Amazon and elsewhere. The anthology includes more than 100,000 words worth of poetry and stories from 34 authors and is edited by Nebula Award winner Eric James Stone.

Today we are holding a "book bomb," a concerted effort to encourage those interested in the anthology--or in donating to literacy charity--to buy the book in order to drive up its placement on the Amazon sales ranks, hopefully garnering more attention. Every penny spent on the anthology goes to charity, either to local kids in hospitals and shelters through a partnership with the non-profit group Children's Literature Association of Utah or to the Future Light Orphanage in Cambodia. More information on the charities can be found here. So please take a look at the anthology description below, and consider buying a copy. Purchasing anywhere is certainly welcome, but today in particular we're encouraging people to buy from Amazon. It's good writing from good writers for a great cause. I'm buying my copy today. Hope you'll join me.

Here are details on the anthology:

The proceeds from this book go toward buying books and school supplies for underprivileged children through Writing for Charity (writingforcharity.com).

The stories and poetry in this anthology were all inspired by the legend of the Three Billy Goats Gruff. But you won't just find goats and trolls in here. You'll also find xenoarchaeologists hunting a legendary burial ground, a harried troll who wants nothing more than peace and quiet, star-traveling cities in search of resources, a cloaked warrior of prophecy, an honest politician, princesses on vacation, interstellar probes, superheroes (and villains), cursed princes, necromancers, fairies, bikers, aliens, violinists... the list goes on.

Contributors to this anthology include New York Times best-selling author Shannon Hale, award-winning children's picture book author Rick Walton, Hugo Award winner (and Nebula Award nominee) Mary Robinette Kowal, Edgar Award finalist Dene Low, Nebula Award nominees Brad R. Torgersen and Nancy Fulda, and many other authors such as Kristen Landon, Lisa Mangum, Kristyn Crow, Clint Johnson, and Dean Hale. Nebula Award Winner Eric James Stone edited the anthology.

The full table of contents is:
"The Three Billion Goats Gruff: A Bulrovian Tale: Part I" -- Rick Walton
"A Starscape Slightly Askew" -- Nancy Fulda
"Touch of Power" -- Erik Peterson
"Haiku: The First Goat" -- Shannon Hale
"Bigger Than You Think" -- Dan Wells
"A Princess Predicament" -- Danielle Christensen
"Cold and Hungry" -- Bret Carter
"Trip, Trap, Tripping" -- Mary Robinette Kowal
"The Ladies Billet-Gruffin" -- Jenel Copeabout
"The Three Billion Goats Gruff: A Bulrovian Tale: Part LXII" -- Rick Walton
"Gruff Riders" -- Martin L. Shoemaker
"Bridges Dark and Distant" -- William Ledbetter
"The Three Princes of Grufflan" -- Danyelle Leafty
"The Troll by the Footbridge: A Study in Four Parts" -- Janet Kay Jensen
"The Deposition of Harald Throckmorton, Esquire, the Troll beneath the Bridge" -- Clint Johnson
"The Wicker Warrior" -- Joseph Zieja
"The Necromancer’s Sons" -- C.A. Lyons
"The Three Billion Goats Gruff: A Bulrovian Tale: Part CXIII" -- Rick Walton
"Sheep Dog" -- Brad R. Torgersen
"Haiku: The Second Goat" -- Shannon Hale
"A Tale Of Two Billies And A Troll" -- George Nikolopoulos
"Primary" -- Cary B. Bishop
"The Chili Stoat Bluff" -- Emma Nelson
"Gruffs in Debt" -- Kristen Landon
"A Mean, Mean Billy Gruff" -- Kristyn Crow
"Bridge to the Meadow" -- Mandi Ellsworth
"Indigestion" -- M.K. Hutchins
"The Three Billion Goats Gruff: A Bulrovian Tale: Part CCCIV" -- Rick Walton
"The Three Brother Cities" -- Deborah Walker
"Haiku: The Third Goat" -- Shannon Hale
"Sold Out" -- Lisa Mangum
"Gruff Noir" -- Dene Low
"The Third Goat" -- Dean Hale
"Three Billy Goats Who C Sharp: A Norwegian Folktale" -- Jared E. Stoddard
"The Three Deaths of Devin Ochre" -- Juliana Montgomery
"A Gift Freely Offered" -- Nikki Trionfo
"The Three Billion Goats Gruff: A Bulrovian Tale: Part CCCXXXIV" -- Rick Walton

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I Am Not a One-trick Pony

2/22/2012

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But I am by nature a one-trick-at-a-time pony. By this I mean I like to work on one thing at a time creatively, from beginning to end, without stopping or interruption if I can help it. My preference is to start a book and write it to completion without dividing my time between projects.

I do all my research and planning and thinking and rethinking and note taking and outlining. Then I sit down and write the first three chapters, as a rule. I then write a synopsis, my first comprehensive treatment of the story. Using that synopsis, I write the rest of the novel, beginning to end, outlining each scene or chapter about a day before I write it. Once the rough draft is done, I usually give it a little time to cool before starting revision. I then do my three or five or eight revisions until I feel I can't see any changes that clearly make the book better. Then I write the proposal package, research agents and publishers, and submit. Only then do I move on to another project.

Recently, I haven't had the luxury of focusing on one project at a time. Instead, I've been bouncing around every which way. I made it about 70% of the way through my latest novel (a middle grade fantasy based on Babylonian dragon mythology) when I received the opportunity to contribute to the Writing for Charity anthology, available next month. More details here. So I put that off as long as I could to keep working on Babylon then put the book aside and wrote and revised the short story over the course of three days. I'd been thinking about it in odd moments well before that, of course, and I'm fairly pleased with the result. Not sure if they'll use it for the anthology, but I think so. If they do, look for the legal deposition of the troll from The Three Billy Goat Gruffs. That's mine. While I'm on the subject, I'd like to plug this event again: $45 ($25 half day), excellent workshops by fantastic authors such as Shannon Hale, Tracy Hickman, and Dan Wells, among others, writing critiques from these same authors, as well as a meal and silent auction on everything from manuscript critiques to dinner with authors. You should be there. More information at the site listed above.

Back to the jumble of my last few work weeks. Stopping the newest novel for the short story wouldn't have been that bad--if I hadn't received a request for a manuscript revision from one of my dream agents at the same time. That, of course, took priority, so using her comments and some very kind and rapid feedback from some great writers and better friends, I revised the entire manuscript and resubmitted. Still waiting on the result.

So that catches us up to the present. Right now, I'm finishing off a polish on my literary Korean ghost story, the manuscript revision requested in partial by the agent, and about to transition to a final revision on my latest completed work with a focus on a few specific localized issues. Then I'll write the proposal package and start submitting. And then, finally, back to my Babylonian story.

This is not my preferred method of work. But having been through it, I think it maybe should be, at least in certain ways. I'm getting a lot done very quickly, and I like that rate of production. Plus, an unexpected benefit has come from revising texts after they've cooled for weeks or even months, which I've never done before. I'm finding added perspective has come from that amount of time away from the texts, which isn't surprising in theory but is still startling to experience for the first time.

So here's what I'm thinking for the future. I still want to work on one thing at a time, as that is clearly how I do my best work. But I think I'll abandon my dedication to one work in process straight through the entire process without diverting my attention. When I finish a rough draft, I may set it aside while I pre-write and draft my next novel. I'll then go back and revise and send out, then revise and send out the second, then repeat the process. Or I may do an initial revision to address obvious problems I'm aware of after drafting before giving the text time to cool and moving on to my other project. Not sure yet. But I'll work it out.

So ten books in and my process is still evolving. Apparently, necessity is the mother of invention. Who knew?

And as you certainly did not notice, my font size on the blog is now legible.

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A Bomb for Charity. Does That Sound Bad?

I Am Not a One-trick Pony

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