Week of July 11-17

[mrissa]

One rejection. No acceptances. I did, however, get my check and contributor's copies from Neo-Opsis, lovely Canadians that they are. It's a well-put-together mag, I think; my grandma will be happy to have one for her coffee table. (Last time we were home, she said to me, "And you'd be surprised how many people just pick them up and read them!" Well, no, I probably wouldn't, as I am friends with the type of people who compulsively pick things up and read them. Cereal boxes and toothpaste tubes and all. It's not that I really care what they say. It's just, you know, words. Written down. Must--read--words----)

minnehaha B. swore Monday that one can fake Finland but not France, but I read some more Finnish history this week anyway, and filed away titles of other volumes to get when I'm writing The Winter Wars. (timprov thinks it's slightly crazy of me to have a YA prequel to an adult series in mind, but I can't help what the books are in my head, and they stand alone, and if Madeleine L'Engle can do it, it can obviously be done. To be fair, he hasn't said that he thinks I can't do it. He just thinks it's a little nuts, or did last we talked about it. Do you?)

I also worked on Sampo and "Docile Bodies," and if my contact lens starts behaving itself only slightly better, I'll finish "Docile Bodies" today and polish it and ship it off soon soon. And then I'll have another SF story out. I've been writing more fantasy -- I've been more excited about reading fantasy, not conceptually but in terms of what's actually on the stands -- but I do love SF, too, and it would probably be wise to keep trying with markets that have bought pieces from me before. Like, say, Analog and Oceans of the Mind. Seems wise.

I am not always good at doing what is wise.

Comments

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

France is hard to fake because France is subtle. Finland is, well, Finland is regular.

B

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

France is subtle like some people from the coasts are subtle, though. Finland is much less showy, more Midwesterner-like, and then it has things popping out at you like Ilmarinen's giant iron eagle in the Kalevala. So far as I've read or seen, France is not so big on dubious sentient swords and rejected metal spouses.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

Some people would describe The Hobbit as YA, and Lord of the Rings as adult. Now, they were written in that order, too, so The Hobbit isn't a prequel. But still.

[pameladean]

I don't see this as an intrinsic difficulty of the books, as an artistic problem, so I don't think it's your problem. It's a marketing problem. Since adults read YA books all the time and young adults read adult books all the time and the boundary between the two categories is getting squishier all the time -- look! look! The Secret Country books were published as adult fantasy and are being reprinted as YA! -- I don't see it as a very big problem.

Pamela

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Eh. I have no contract for Thermionic Night, Sampo, and Midnight Sun Rising. So I could quick write The Winter Wars, and no one would be the wiser.

Except that I mentioned it on the internet. And everyone knows that if you read it on the internet, it must be true. Curses!

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes, it wasn't artistically that timprov seemed to be doubting. He seems to have a pretty good dollop of faith in what I can accomplish artistically. But marketing involves the dreaded other people, so it's less obviously about what I can do.

[angeyja.livejournal.com]

It's not that I really care what they say. It's just, you know, words. Written down. Must--read--words.

I understand; I am the same with images, my brain gets to feeling hungry elsewise. And mmm.. fantasy. Very good! I don't see any prob w/ YA either (just from my reader's perspective) some of my best loved books are shelved there. And I am afraid I thought of Tolkien immediately also. Oh, and funny, there's a language connection there too, of course.

creating a brand

[greykev.livejournal.com]

I would think a publisher would be pleased that you can span the demographics that way, so that the kids reading the prequel will then be interested in the adult novels. You could do the original sampo story as a picture book/easy reader and catch them that much earlier!

Re: creating a brand

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Do you know what's in the original Sampo story?

These are not nicey nice myths. And I know that non-nicey-nice myths have been niced-out before, but I'm not doing it.

[wilfulcait.livejournal.com]

Sylvia Engdahl did it too. Beyond the Tomorrow Mountains and This Star Shall Abide were YA; Doors of the Universe was an adult-fiction book.