tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-167663542024-03-13T18:13:48.866-07:00Dancing to DirgesDepressing and happy things Tim says, sometimes while drunkTim Akershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01749644135364065658noreply@blogger.comBlogger358125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16766354.post-26611006670137448112015-02-02T09:57:00.000-08:002015-02-02T09:57:04.553-08:00Winding down, winding up, launching<span class="userContent">I'm excited to announce the launch of my new
website. This will combine my blog, an event schedule, a word count
progress report, my twitter feed and all the information you could
possibly hope to want about my books. The design was done by<span class="text_exposed_show">
the brilliant Jeremy Tolbert of Clockpunk Studios. Come by, enjoy, and
make use of this internet thing! I'll still be updating this page, but
the website is definitely the best place for the latest information.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span class="userContent"><span class="text_exposed_show">That means that this site, long disused and oft-ignored, will be winding down. I may still post things here of a more personal nature, but my professional and publication announcements will be at the new site. Thanks for the decade of angst and dirges and the slow ascent to happiness, everyone! Hope to see you at the new site!</span></span><br />
<br />
<span class="userContent"><span class="text_exposed_show">I present to you, <a href="http://www.timakers.net/" target="_blank">TIM AKERS!</a> </span></span>Tim Akershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01749644135364065658noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16766354.post-80547559522738547282014-08-18T14:22:00.003-07:002014-08-18T14:22:53.670-07:00Five years, and a strange tollI spent part of today going through old blog posts, trying to track the progress of my head five years ago. This is because, just over five years ago, Heart of Veridon dropped onto (and through) bookshelves in the UK. My friends and I have often joked that I'm the most famous American born British author you've never heard of. Almost all of my short stories were published in Interzone, and two of my first three books were from Solaris (stationed in Nottingham at the time). So it feels appropriate to celebrate that five year date, rather than the US release, which is still ahead of us.<br />
<br />
So. Five years. Let us think.<br />
<br />
In a lot of ways, I've been disappointed in myself. When I page through those first three books, I see a lot of errors, not just writerly errors but errors of intent. I wonder what would have become of my career if hurdle after hurdle hadn't knelt down in front of me, if I had been in a better headspace when trying to write those books. If my depression had been better managed. But those things happened, that was the writer I was when Veridon went through me, and so that's the way things are.<br />
<br />
I see other mistakes. I struggle with inclusion in my work. Every book I try to get better at it, but every book comes short of my expectations. There are plotting issues. Plodding issues. Problems with language and art and artifice. I keep trying to be different things in my work, and I'm not sure any of them ring true to what I actually am. I'm still not sure about that. I'm pretty sure I'm never going to be as good as I could have been, much less as good as I want to be.<br /><br />But I go back and read reviews of Heart of Veridon, and they make me genuinely happy. So maybe I just need to learn to be a little lighter. A little less anticipatory of my own failure. Because looking back takes a pretty heavy toll on my head. And there's nothing that can be done about it.Tim Akershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01749644135364065658noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16766354.post-57307429229212433822014-04-19T08:12:00.000-07:002014-04-19T08:12:02.595-07:00Trade School PaperbackI've been thinking a lot about the business of writing and what it means to be a writer. One of the things that I struggle with is the time it takes to learn to do this thing correctly. I have a degree in Creative Writing, but it took years and years of post-collegiate failure, trial and error, and stress to really learn how to write a book. And while I've sold six novels so far, I still feel like I have a long way to go.<br />
<br />
The thing that I find frustrating is that there isn't a lot of guidance. I learn a lot by talking to fellow writers, comparing notes with my friends and generally by word of mouth. But mostly it's just random knowledge that I've managed to accrete over the last eleven years.<br />
<br />
And that's a terrible way to learn your life's work. There's no reason it has to be this way. And I think I have a solution.<br />
<br />
What this business needs is a trade school. A serious, two year program that teaches you how to plot, how to write characters, how to write dialogue, how to outline a novel. And more than that, it needs to teach you how to write a cover letter, how to write a pitch letter, a synopsis, a blurb... There would need to be a separate course on agents, editors and publishers, and one on marketing and the pure business side of writing.<br />
<br />
There are courses in place, scattered across the country and with different philosophies and focuses (foci?), that teach most of these things. But none of it is unified. Plus most of it requires a random time commitment (six weeks this summer, a week next year, three weeks a month from now) all in far flung places that necessitate a disruption of your normal life. It's a luxury to be able to attend these things, a luxury that is generally unavailable if you're making the pauper's wages most writers are making (more on that later). So it's practically impossible to attend all of them, so most people pick and choose and end up with an incomplete education. If you learn some small bit of the business here, and some other bit of it over there, and the rest you're just trying to make up as you go along, you're not going to be much of a writer. Or, at least, you're not going to be as much of a writer as you could be.<br />
<br />
There is one problem. The money for this doesn't exist. Most trade schools prosper because they're teaching a task that, once you graduate, you will be able to make a living performing. And that's not the case with writing. With only a few exceptions, most of us are making bad money, and we're doing it without insurance and with the (literal financial) support of our family. We're hobbyists.<br />
<br />
I have thoughts about that, too, but I'll go into them later. For now, simply understand that we've wasted too much time treating writing like it's a sacred task, and it's not. It's a business of art, and there are things you can learn that will make you a better writer. Things I wish I'd learned at the start, rather than fumbling my way into discovering.<br />
<br />
And I think that if we build a cadre of writers who can efficiently produce books that *readers* want to read, we might be able to take care of that hobbyist problem, too.Tim Akershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01749644135364065658noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16766354.post-44233179254053193952014-02-18T15:16:00.001-08:002014-02-18T15:16:16.372-08:00New books, new series, new dealsI'm pleased to announce that I've agreed to a three book deal with Titan Books. The titles as they currently stand are:<br /><br />The Pagan Night<br />
The Iron Hound<br />
The Winter Vow<br />
<br />
Nothing's set yet, but I expect the first of these will be out in 2015.<br />
<br />
Hoorah!Tim Akershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01749644135364065658noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16766354.post-68204673111418626022013-09-23T07:17:00.000-07:002013-09-23T07:18:07.138-07:00Introducing The Quiet Front<h5 class="uiStreamMessage userContentWrapper" data-ft="{"type":1,"tn":"K"}">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="messageBody" data-ft="{"type":3,"tn":"K"}"><span class="userContent">An
American warmage with a demon woven into his soul. A secret mission
into Nazi-occupied France, where every order is a lie, and every
sacrifice only adds to the butcher's debt. And a Russian agent, leading
them deeper into a web of deceit and murder, until the only escape is
death itself...<br /> <br /> I present <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Quiet-Front-Gunpowder-Gods-ebook/dp/B00FD65LO6/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1379942715&sr=8-10&keywords=tim+akers" target="_blank">The Quiet Front</a>, first in a series of
tales about an alternate war in Europe, a war fought between old gods
and new, horrible technologies. What sacrifices would the greatest
generation have made if the cost was not in flesh and blood, but in the
souls of the dead?</span></span></span></span></h5>
<h5 class="uiStreamMessage userContentWrapper" data-ft="{"type":1,"tn":"K"}">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="messageBody" data-ft="{"type":3,"tn":"K"}"><span class="userContent"> </span></span></span></span></h5>
Tim Akershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01749644135364065658noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16766354.post-13016858402593472372013-09-22T07:43:00.000-07:002013-09-22T07:45:54.712-07:00Followup on that WisdomToday is the last day to download the two stories I released for free earlier this week. If you want to have a chance at winning a free critique of your work (honesty is the only currency I can offer you) then you need to get on that action. I'm just saying. The links are right here:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Memories-Copper-Blood-ebook/dp/B00EGSJI0A/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1379861032&sr=8-1&keywords=memories+of+copper+and+blood" target="_blank">Memory Analog</a> <br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Memories-Copper-Blood-ebook/dp/B00EGSJI0A/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1379861032&sr=8-1&keywords=memories+of+copper+and+blood" target="_blank"><br /></a>
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Memories-Copper-Blood-ebook/dp/B00EGSJI0A/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1379861032&sr=8-1&keywords=memories+of+copper+and+blood" target="_blank">Memories of Copper and Blood</a><br />
<br />
I have contacted the first winner of the weekly critiques, and will hopefully be providing them a critique by the end of this week. If you didn't win this week, don't despair. I'll be accumulating the submissions and selecting the best from the lot each week. The earlier you enter the more chances you'll have of winning so, once again, get on that action.<br />
<br />
Finally, and this may seem a little harsh, but I can see how many downloads there have been of the stories, and I can compare that to the number of submissions I've received. I included the critique requirement on this offer because I wanted to establish a threshold of effort on your part. That's important because writing is difficult. Not just the act of writing, which is difficult enough, but the business of writing. The environment of the writing life is not easy, not for the writer, or the editor, or the various people associated with the business along the line. The verb you are going to see most often used in this business is 'Rejected'. The mental state you're going to most often face is disappointment. Unless you are rarely gifted or even more rarely lucky, you are going to expend a great deal of effort on things that will eventually fail. Sometimes spectacularly.<br />
<br />
The thing that separates successful writers from aspiring writers is perseverance. Failure itself is inevitable, to some degree, for every one of us. The difference between the names you see on the bookshelf the names of your friends who have been in the same writing group for the last ten years and have stopped submitting to magazines but still talk a good game is the willingness to fail, to fail spectacularly, and to keep at it. To keep writing, to take criticism without taking offense, to overcome their pet weaknesses and professional hacks, and get up that fucking hill. That's all it is.<br />
<br />
So. All of you who have downloaded the stories but not submitted critiques. Get off your ass. This is a good opportunity you've been given. If it's too hard to put the time aside to create an intelligent critique, or you're scared of having a professional give his honest opinion about your work, stop trying. Stop telling yourself you want to be a writer, and settle into the business of hobbyist. Because this is probably the easiest thing the writing world is going to ask of you. Stop putting it off.<br />
<br />
Get up that fucking hill.Tim Akershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01749644135364065658noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16766354.post-67711937917970790122013-09-17T06:59:00.001-07:002013-09-18T06:55:12.930-07:00Free stories and wisdom!<br />
Ten years ago (and a couple days, I missed the actual anniversary) I made my first professional fiction sale. It was to Chiaroscuro Magazine, a lovely market out of Canada that is still producing some of the finest, darkest fiction you're likely to find. The email came while I was at my first Worldcon. All in all, it was a good weekend, and a good way to start a career.<br />
<br />
When the story came out a few months later, I did something interesting, something brave, especially for someone as socially averse as I am. I sent a link to the story to my three favorite writers at the time (Corey Doctorow, Peter Watts and Richard Morgan) and said 'Hey, listen, don't panic. I'm a real, professional writer, and this story is my first professional sale. I love your work, and I was hoping you'd take a few minutes out of your day to read this, and let me know what you think.'<br />
<br />
Crazy, right? To my never ending shock and gratitude, all three of them responded. They all had good things to say, and poignant things to say ("this should have been a book") and were all three gracious and kind in a way that I never expected. Since then I have been amazed at the unrelenting kindness of this industry, the sheer grace with which newer writers are accepted into the fold and ushered forward by their elders.<br />
<br />
In memory of this event, I'm doing two things. I hope you'll take advantage of both of them.<br />
<br />
First, I am offering two stories for free on Kindle Direct. The first is <i>Memory Analog, </i>the short story that started my career. The second story is <i>Memories of Copper and Blood</i>, a novella set in my Wraithbound Universe. These stories will be available for free for the next five days to download on any Kindle device. If you don't have a Kindle, you can download their free app and read them on anything that runs on alternating current.<br />
<br />
My hope is that you'll read both stories and see some kind of progression. Maybe you'll see things that I'm not doing as well, or things that I've changed that you wish I hadn't. Maybe you'll decide that I really should stick to novels. Even better, maybe you'll see things that I can improve. We never stop growing as writers.<br />
<br />
The second thing I'm doing is a little risky for me, because it's a time commitment. But I was deeply moved by the sacrifice of time given by those three writers ten years ago. I need to pay that forward. Hopefully to you, dear reader.<br />
<br />
For the next ten weeks, I will be offering free critiques, one a week. I can't commit to reading anything longer than, say, 20k words, though that limit is fuzzy. I have to warn you that if you submit something to be read, know that I will be completely honest with you. I hold myself to some pretty high standards, and I will hold you to nothing lower. That doesn't mean I'm going to tear your story apart, but I'm not here to simply encourage you. Writing is a fire that you pass through.<br />
<br />
Here's how this is going to work. If you want a chance at these critiques, go download those two stories and offer a critique of your own. Send it to my Gmail account, at j.timothy.akers and keep it fairly short. I'll review the critiques and each week I'll offer one of the submitters a critique in kind. I'll be looking for critiques that are insightful and honest. Don't simply praise the work, that's not going to get you on to the next round.<br />
<br />
But wait, you say. Aren't the people who need your help the most the ones who aren't necessarily going to be able to provide good critiques? Maybe. But I honestly believe that you need to learn how to be a good reader before you can be a good writer, and that's something I can't teach.<br />
<br />
So. Read the stories. Write me a critique. Send it to the email address above. Wait forever for my response. Do not send me your story for critique along with your critique of my work. Let me say that again:<br />
<br />
Do not send me your story for critique along with your critique of my work. I'll just delete them.<br />
<br />
I don't know what kind of response I'm going to get from this. If it's overwhelming, it may take me a little while to get started. But I'll try to churn through them and each week, contact one of you for your story.<br />
<br />
I hope this works out. I hope you get something out it. I hope I can help you half as much as I've been helped by others.<br />
<br />
Thanks for your time. Here are the links to the stories. Remember, the first rule of publishing is patience. The second rule is something that we'll have to get back to you on, after the editorial meeting next month.<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Memories-Copper-Blood-ebook/dp/B00EGSJI0A/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1379426146&sr=8-5&keywords=tim+akers" target="_blank"><br /></a><br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Memories-Copper-Blood-ebook/dp/B00EGSJI0A/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1379426146&sr=8-5&keywords=tim+akers" target="_blank"><br /></a>
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Memories-Copper-Blood-ebook/dp/B00EGSJI0A/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1379426146&sr=8-5&keywords=tim+akers" target="_blank">Memories of Copper and Blood</a><br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Memory-Analog-ebook/dp/B00F8L85YO/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1379426146&sr=8-10&keywords=tim+akers" target="_blank"><br /></a>
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Memory-Analog-ebook/dp/B00F8L85YO/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1379426146&sr=8-10&keywords=tim+akers" target="_blank">Memory Analog</a><br />
<br />Tim Akershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01749644135364065658noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16766354.post-85260348176303922172013-09-13T11:45:00.000-07:002013-09-13T11:45:01.422-07:00Things End SometimesThis is one of those times.<br />
<br />I'm going to have to pack it in on the full-time writer thing. The industry is terribly slow, and while I'm happy with what I have out there, the process of getting it in front of editors and from there to readers has just taken too long. It's been a good year and half, and I've gotten a lot done. I worked hard. But it wasn't good enough.<br /><br />I'm still going to keep writing, but my days of high word counts are behind me for a while. I'll keep at it on the weekends, and nights, but I don't want to get back to that place where all I'm doing is dayjob/eat/write/sleep. That wasn't healthy.<br /><br />Thanks for all your support, those of you who bought books and spread the word. Maybe I'll get back to this place at some point in the future. That's the kind of hope I have to hold out.<br /><br />Now, do me a favor. Go read a book. A good one.Tim Akershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01749644135364065658noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16766354.post-29944347491742929082013-08-26T07:01:00.001-07:002013-08-26T07:01:34.728-07:00The Indie ExperimentI will admit, dear reader, that I am one of those people who has looked down on indie publishing for years and years. And by indie, I mean self. I assumed it was the realm of writers who lacked the talent to make it in the world of legitimate publishing, who decried the gatekeepers and networks and claimed there was an inner circle of publishers who kept their brilliant writing from the public market because... well... just because. I assumed these people simply couldn't see the failing of their own work, and were willing to pay good money to see their names in print.<br />
<br />
I had a harsh view.<br />
<br />
Over the years, that view has evolved. Mostly because I've seen friends get fucked over by the publishing industry, I've seen truly great books fail, and I've seen mediocre books rise to the top on little more than buzz and packaging. I've come to accept that book quality simply doesn't equal publishing success. I could see, clearly, that there were many variables in the publishing process. Any one of those variables could sink a good book. Some of the best writers I know are struggling to stay in the mid-list.<br />
<br />
This got me to thinking about indie publishing. After all, there have been a number of success stories out of the selfie world. Not just blockbuster success, like Wool or 50 Shades, but people who are simply supplementing their income or making good mid-list kind of numbers by producing their own stuff. And following the end of the Veridon series, I had a number of short stories that hadn't been seen in the US, all of which served as the foundation for Heart of Veridon. There was some small demand to see these stories. I also had a novella that hadn't landed in any of the short story markets. The rejections had all been nice, but it was an odd length to place. So I decided to do a little experiment. I decided to publish these things myself.<br />
<br />
Formatting took time, as did layout. These are not things I'm naturally inclined to do, and there's a lot of nuance in laying a book out that most folks probably don't recognize. I wrote up some author's notes for the Veridon stories, then added two science fiction stories that had also seen little distribution in the US. I called the final produce Bones of Veridon.<br />
<br />
I have to pause to talk about covers. I was fortunate enough to get some help from a friend who owns her own studio, who did an amazing job with my covers. We were able to get covers for both of the works that really evoked the stories without being too fancy. If you need a cover, I would happily recommend <a href="https://www.vizify.com/mez-breeze" target="_blank">Mez</a>. She's brilliant.<br />
<br />
So, I got Bones of Veridon out there and made some sales. I was encouraged. Not 'hey, my money problems are solved!' levels of encouragement, but units moved. I did twice weekly bumps on my various social feeds, and that always sold a couple books. I went ahead and put the novella out. That didn't go as well, not by a long shot. There was no established fan base. Plus I dropped that title too close to Bones of Veridon. The people who might have been interested were still gorging on Bones, I think. But I'm learning. The next one will be better timed, and hopefully different enough to draw in people from outside my usual readership.<br />
<br />
This doesn't mean that I've given up on traditional publishing. Not by a long shot. I have one series out to editors, and another pitch that I'm writing for a YA title. I think traditional publishing is still the backbone of the genre, and will be for a long time to come. But I also think that indie publishing is a viable outlet, and one that every author should at least look into. Unless you're one of the big names who can hand literally anything they write over to one of the houses and start a bidding war, some of your work isn't going to fit into the traditional expectations of the editors and agents who guide this industry. That doesn't mean it's bad, or unworthy of publication. Independent publication lets you experiment with things that the more risk-averse industry types won't go near. It lets you expand your reach as an author, and establish a little more control over your own career. Plus it's terribly satisfying to get stories into the hands of readers.<br />
<br />
That's what this entire business is about, right? Telling stories? And if you have a good story, there's no reason you shouldn't be allowed to tell it. So write, and publish, and let the readers decide.<br />
<br />
I'd be a fool if I didn't include links to those titles I put out, right? So here they are:<br />
<br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Bones-of-Veridon-ebook/dp/B00E9ZWNES/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1377525609&sr=8-1&keywords=bones+of+veridon" target="_blank">Bones of Veridon</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Memories-Copper-Blood-ebook/dp/B00EGSJI0A/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1377525656&sr=8-1&keywords=memories+of+copper+and+blood" target="_blank">Memories of Copper and Blood</a>Tim Akershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01749644135364065658noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16766354.post-42362880735013478862013-08-14T08:22:00.003-07:002013-08-14T08:43:36.215-07:00Guest Blog: Joshua tells you things about Elysium!My agent, Joshua Bilmes, is a man of the movies. He's much better at analyzing them than I will ever be, and has seen way, way more movies than I ever will. We both saw Elysium recently, and as it was the final science fiction movie of the summer, we decided to do dueling reviews of the movie. Well, not dueling. But I've done a review that appears on his blog <a href="http://brilligblogger.blogspot.com/2013/08/disappointysium-guest-review-by-tim.html" target="_blank">right here</a>, and he's done a review that will appear on my blog.<br />
<br />
Right now, in fact:<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Elysium.
noun. “Any place or state of perfect happiness; paradise.” Webster’s
New Universal Unabridged Dictionary. 1996. Random House Value
Publishing.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Elysium. movie. Sigh. 2013. Tri-Star Pictures.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">For the avoidance of doubt, Elysium the movie falls well shy of perfect anything.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">At
the dawn of my career as a literary agent I was put in touch with the
“plot skeleton” by Scott Meredith, which is similar to more recent
things like Robert McKee’s story structure or a gazillion other guides
to writing books or movies. That plot skeleton started with an
identifiable lead character. Elysium is an instant fail. Our lead
character, played by Matt Damon, is on line to board the bus for work.
Someone behind him gets in trouble with the robotic line monitors. So
first thing when the line monitors come to Matt Damon, he decides to
mouth off.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Are you kidding me?</span></span></span></div>
<div style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Our
lead character is that guy, the one without the brain or common sense
to realize that making jokes about bombs while you’re standing on the
TSA line at the airport waiting for you or your carry-on to go through
the scanner is just not the best idea.</span></span></span></div>
<div style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Everything
else that happens to our lead character is a direct result of his being
a wisecrack. He is injured so he’s late to work so he’s in trouble
with his boss so he agrees to do something dangerous at work because
it’s that or be fired so he is injured and has five days to live so he
needs to cure himself. </span></span></span></div>
<div style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">This
might have engaged me if the character was more well-rounded, but there
isn’t much else to go by. We know he’s trying to keep on the straight
and narrow, but I just saw that movie and it was called Fruitvale
Station. We know he pines for halcyon memories of his childhood
girlfriend. I’m pretty sure I saw that movie somewhere else. Many
somewhere elses. Somehow or other, I feel like I’d checked out of the
movie around five minutes in, and I stayed that way.</span></span></span></div>
<div style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">I’m trying to figure out what else there is to say about the movie, and I don’t come up with much.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Jodie
Foster gives a strange performance with a Africaans kind of accent for
no particular reasons, other than to remind us that this is high art,
allegory, full of meaning and lessons. However, her character, the
Secretary of Defense for the Elysium habitat where the rich people live,
isn’t very convincing in how she does her job. Her so-called boss is
even less convincing in how he does his. The underlying set-up, the
protocols of how things are done, makes no sense. It looks like things
are being made up as they go along.</span></span></span></div>
<div style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">There
aren’t any other actual characters in the movie. There are people who
fill archetypal roles. The bad guy. The good guy who dies so that our
hero might live. The girlfriend. The young child our heart goes out
for. We should care enough about the girlfriend and the young child
that we aren't bothered we can't quite figure out a cogent back story to
explain how the girlfriend goes from the idyllic flashback scenes to
reaching heaven to returning to hell with a daughter who isn't covered
under her health plan. </span></span></span></div>
<div style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">The
movie ended with the same implausibility and lack of common script
sense as it started. The people on Earth are going to get cured. The
habitat will send its ships full of Miracle-Gro sick bays. I was kind
of hoping for something nice, a good what-would-happen-in-the-real-<wbr></wbr>world
scene of people on Earth being killed and trampled as a lawless society
suddenly had millions of people angling for 50 Miracle-Glo sick bays.
No such luck. It's all very elysian, as the citizens of Earth kind of
dance and frolic toward the ship's cargo bay, not exactly going in
single file but certainly forming a happy and well-choreographed mob
where we just know that everyone will get their just reward in the exact
right order. </span></span></span></div>
<div style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">I could talk about the special effects! Good special effects!! Delivered on a budget!!!.</span></span></span></div>
<div style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">That
is what we are supposed to talk about when we discuss the work of
writer/director Neill Blomkamp. His reputation in the US rests on the
success of District 9, a sleeper sf hit when it opened four years ago.
District 9 had some creative plotting and an interesting setting, but it
devolved into what so many other sf movies devolve into, an extended
overlong chase scene that took up most of the movie. I dozed off for a
bit during that, just like a checked out a bit during Elysium. The main
impression I left with wasn’t that I loved District 9, it was that I
loved that he’d managed to do an sf movie filled with all the sorts of
things sf movies are filled with and done it for some small tiny
fraction of what Peter Jackson spends to do it.</span></span></span></div>
<div style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">So
in ELYSIUM, many critics seem impressed that Neill Blomkamp delivers an
Important Allegorical SF Film For Much Less Than Pacific Rim. It’s
just not a very good film. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter if you deliver
on a tighter budget, when you deliver the same thing as everyone else. </span></span></span></div>
Tim Akershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01749644135364065658noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16766354.post-29151882055668623482013-08-01T14:36:00.003-07:002013-08-01T14:36:36.801-07:00Picking at the Bones of VeridonFor a while, I've wanted to compile all of the short stories that led up to Veridon, but I wanted to do it right. For me, that meant combing through the manuscripts to correct canonical errors and tweak the spelling of a few place names that evolved over the years. I also wanted to produce something that looks as good as it reads. I've been working on all this in the background for the last handful of months, and I'm happy to say that the final produce is now available. It's only on Kindle Direct for now, because they really make the process straightforward and simple. The final piece was the cover, and that fell in place thanks to the brilliant @MezBreezeDesign. I couldn't be happier with it.<br /><br />All that to say this: You can now pick up Bones of Veridon at Amazon for the Kindle. There are seven stories, five of them from Veridon plus two others that aren't related to the Shining City of Cog. In the book I talk a little bit about each story, what was going through my head when I wrote it, that sort of thing. Let me know what you think of the book! Enjoy!<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Bones-of-Veridon-ebook/dp/B00E9ZWNES/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1375387582&sr=8-1&keywords=bones+of+veridon" target="_blank">Bones of Veridon</a><br />
<br />
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<img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnYhgviTIYremnI4My4Hn-KetIQLU4CxFEDY_U6nMNWiGGn2-Tmq7zNIQDjDf0m3_o6YV_J1InY_q2MUouMaWMzBxTWcxIRGTWnf9M7TKt2lUESWj0ZKJmjDw8dCIEB5PBcIKXzg/s320/Bones+of+Veridon+Finished.jpg" width="200" /></div>
<br />Tim Akershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01749644135364065658noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16766354.post-60112261006459803622013-05-22T06:05:00.000-07:002013-05-22T06:05:37.142-07:00Meaning to be where you are.I was talking to my dad the other day. I am sometimes struck at how much who am I is influenced by who he is, not just genetically but how my observations of his life have caused me to make certain decisions. That really should be obvious, but sometimes it's *so* obvious that it leaves me a little shaken.<br />
<br />
Dad was forced into retirement last year, his last day at the job he held for three decades by chance the same as my last day at the job I hated and was quitting to write full time. And dad has always wanted to write. My childhood was filled with half-manuscripts and clever opening chapters that he had built. There have always been copies of Writer's Digest in my life. There have always been books.<br />
<br />
So I thought, hey, this is a great chance for him to seize that. We're both stepping away from the offices that have consumed our lives, and can both settle in and do this thing for serious. Unfortunately, a year and a half later he's technically still working at his old job, just getting paid less. But that's not the point.<br />
<br />
The point was that as we were talking, I was trying to convince him to make the writing jump. He's having trouble letting go of the old place, and no matter how poorly they treat him, he's still putting his retirement on hold to help them out any way he can. It drives me a little nuts, so every time we talk, I spend most of that conversation trying to get him to remember how much he wants to write. The only thing stopping you from publication is you. There will always be excuses to not write, but excuses are nothing but tomorrow's regrets. I was trying to motivate him, mostly with things that I spent years telling myself.<br />
<br />
After a while, the conversation stopped and there was just silence. Silence is not common between us. We're both very quiet people, but when he and I talk, there are always things to say. I'm not sure that's true for me with anyone else. But there was this silence, and then after a moment he said "I really can't believe you've become this person. I really can't believe you've become this strong."<br />
<br />
Because I never was that person. I was not motivated, I was not driven, not for a single day in my life. I avoided things, all of the things, every day of my life. And I did that until the rumbling stampede of my own failures had driven me to the edge of a cliff, and there was simply nowhere else to go. And what's awful about that is that those failures, that stampede, had driven me so far off course that it's going to take forever to get where I meant to be. Even now, it's easy for me to fall behind my own expectations. But now, at least, I push forward. Because I have a lot of ground to make up.Tim Akershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01749644135364065658noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16766354.post-54675356640524787782013-01-25T05:48:00.000-08:002013-01-25T05:51:26.839-08:00Not today. Never today.I'm up early, and have been awake for a good deal longer than this, working on the next round of revisions for my book. If there's any part of you that wants to be a writer, that fantasizes about a life of ease and joy and the casual spontaneity of the creative life, let me be clear. I've been stone cold awake since 4 a.m. staring at the ceiling and trying to pick apart the pieces of this book. It's no fun. There is no joy in it, at least not for me, not at this point in the process.<br />
<br />
I want to talk for a moment about fear. I am sometimes too honest on this blog. There's a theory that the public presence of an author should point toward that author's book, that I should be spending this space on promotion. For whatever reason, I can't do that. It's important to me to live the troubles of my writing life as publicly as possible. When things are going well, I hope to tell you about it. Right now, this is how things are going.<br />
<br />
I've mentioned before that it took me a long time to get started as a writer. I spent years and years telling everyone I was a writer, telling myself that I was a writer, maybe even sometimes actually writing things that I never did anything with and feeling pretty good about it. And the primary impetus to my trajectory was simple fear. Fear that I wouldn't be as good as I thought I could be, fear of rejection, fear of trying and failing and having to fold that dream up and put it away once and for all. At the time I thought I was unique in that, that this was a problem particular to me and to the way I was raised. I've discovered that it's a fairly common trouble for new writers, but when I finally threw it aside and started actually working toward that dream, I thought I was casting aside a weight that was singularly and intimately my own. Worse, I thought I was casting it aside, finally, for the last time. That it was a problem that had to be overcome once, and then was defeated.<br />
<br />
That was when I turned thirty. Something about that age pushed me to a point of honesty with myself, that allowed me to finally take that step. Thirty. Ten years.<br />
<br />
So it's completely appropriate that I'm facing that fear again. Facing it in a way that feels just as final, just as paralyzing, as the fear that took me through my twenties. I know more about the industry now, and about my own ability to persevere in the face of adversity. I've hit some pretty deep lows in the last ten years, while also managing absolute exultation. I know how easy it is to slip away in this business, to do something that looks a great deal like success, and by certain standards is the ultimate achievement, and still be absolutely, utterly failing. Whatever romantic ideals I brought to the table have been washed aside. I understand the blood of being an author. I understand the bones.<br />
<br />
This is the fear that I understand, right now. It's possible to push really hard for ten years, to have a great deal of potential, to be a naturally talented writer with the determination to work hard, to risk everything, to get lucky enough to line things up and make a run at the big stage... it's possible to do all of those things and still fail. You can get right up to the edge and never make it over. People do it all the time.<br />
<br />
That's the fear. That's what wakes me up at four in the morning. That's what I have to face.<br />
<br />
But here's the next step. I am going to face it. I'm going to push through it. Fear woke me up, but god damn determination is what got me out of bed and put me in front of this computer. Fear reminded me that nothing is certain, nothing lasts, nothing is guaranteed to turn out well. But hope, and skill, and a history of falling down and getting back up and doing better each time, every time, that's what will carry me through. Whatever fear can do to me, I can overcome. I have. And I always will.<br />
<br />
You get up, you throw aside that weight, and you carry the dream with you. You keep it for another day. Every day. Until it's real.<br />
<br />
<br />Tim Akershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01749644135364065658noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16766354.post-89010435421341227132013-01-21T08:04:00.002-08:002013-01-21T08:04:58.999-08:00Be there when the Heresy begins!Well, it's high winter in Chicago, the flu is in full swing, and I can't think of any better way to spend my time than going to a convention. Here's my schedule for Capricon, which runs from February 7-10 in the suburbs of grand, glorious Chicago:<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>AIs Impact on Religion and Religion's Impact on AI - Friday,
02-08-2013 - 2:30 pm to 4:00 pm - Botanic Garden A (Special Events -
Programming)</b><br />
At what point does religion take a part in this. The impact on religion and the religious impact on AI.<br />
<i>Tim Akers (M)</i><br />
<i>Peter de Jong</i><br />
<i>Deirdre Murphy</i><br />
<i>Gene Wolfe</i><br />
<br />
<b>Divine Feminine in SF/F - Saturday, 02-09-2013 - 10:00 am to 11:30 am - Birch B</b><br />
In the real world, religions are generally defined with a male deity.
What are the SF/F stories where the deity is female and what effect does
that have on the society?<br />
<i>Tim Akers</i><br />
<i>Mary Anne Mohanraj</i><br />
<i>Deirdre Murphy</i><br />
<i>Isabel Schechter (M)</i><br />
<br />
<b>Reading: Tim Akers - Saturday, 02-09-2013 - 11:30 am to 12:00 pm - Elm</b><br />
<i>Tim Akers</i><br />
<br />
<b>Will E-Books Change the Way We Write - Saturday, 02-09-2013 - 4:00 pm to 5:30 pm - Birch A</b><br />
As authors become aware of the ways that e-books are changing the way we
read, will they also begin to affect the way authors write? Are we
looking at books written for shorter attention spans?<br />
<i>Tim Akers</i><br />
<i>Richard Chwedyk</i><br />
<i>Eric Flint (M) </i><br />
<i>Tom Trumpinski </i><br />
<br />
<b>Heroine Abuse - Sunday, 02-10-2013 - 10:00 am to 11:30 am - River AB (Programming - Media)</b><br />
Why do so many heroines in genre literature wind up being damsels in
distress? Even many female authors seem to delight in torturing their
female heroines. Have we not moved beyond the stereotype or does it
hearken to some primordial need?<br />
<i>Tim Akers</i><br />
<i>Mary Anne Mohanraj</i><br />
<i>Patricia Sayre McCoy (M) </i><br />
<i>Kathryn Sullivan</i><br />
<br />
<b>Autographing: Tim Akers, Jody Lynn Nye - Sunday, 02-10-2013 - 12:00 pm to 1:30 pm - Autograph Table</b><br />
<br />
<i>Tim Akers</i><br />
<i>Jody Lynn Nye</i><br />
<br />
<b>Writing Nonfiction - Sunday, 02-10-2013 - 1:30 pm to 3:00 pm - Birch B</b><br />
When people think of writing, they often think of fiction. And yet, most
of the published works in the world are nonfiction. These panelists
will discuss the research and techniques necessary to create
nonfictional works.<br />
<i>Tim Akers</i><br />
<i>Jody Lynn Nye</i><br />
<i>Steven H Silver (M)</i><br />
<i>Daniel H. Wilson</i><br />
<br />
That looks like a sufficiently hectic schedule, yes? I wonder what kooky things I'm going to say? You'll have to attend to find out!<i> </i>Tim Akershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01749644135364065658noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16766354.post-28108394639869264842012-12-14T07:42:00.002-08:002012-12-14T07:42:31.577-08:00Ten years on, and ten more years, and ten...In some ways this has been a portentous week, and in other ways this week has been a reminder that my life is just made of days, with the yesterdays passed and unalterable, and the tomorrows something I can't do much about. That life is a long series of today, and doing what I can with today.<br />
<br />
I turned forty this week. On Wednesday, actually. So, yes, turned forty on 12/12/12. If that doesn't leave you feeling like the period on the end of a prophecy, I don't know what will. Maybe if I turned twelve that day. And while I'm not someone who pays a lot of attention to my own age, beyond what it means for my insurance and overall sense of mortality, the ten year anniversaries mean a little.<br />
<br />
It was on my thirtieth birthday that I decided to get serious about this writing thing. Since it's so close to the end of the year, I spent the rest of December doing research, and started scribing in earnest with the new year. So it's ten years since I started writing. Ten years. I guess it's worth looking back.<br />
<br />
Am I where I wanted to be at this point? No, not at all, but that's partly because I really had no idea what I was talking about back then. The realities of the writing industry had not been impressed on my joyful optimism. And I really hadn't done the background work I needed to do to succeed.<br />
<br />
But it's been ten years, and I'm writing full time. I'm not living off of my writing yet, but I have to believe that I'll get there. I need to get there. And all I can do about that is what I do today. Tomorrow isn't here yet.<br />
<br />
What's strangest about this particular anniversary is that I don't really have a lot to say about it. I'm happy, but discontent. I'm determined, but occasionally overwhelmed at how little control I have in my own well being. I believe enough to know that I'd be a fool to not doubt.<br />
<br />
Anyway. Ten years. They're passed, and all I have is today, and tomorrow's today, and every today that follows.Tim Akershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01749644135364065658noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16766354.post-34934756666906139062012-11-08T12:44:00.001-08:002012-11-08T12:44:08.486-08:00Things I know little about, spoken publiclyHere's my schedule for Windycon. I only have one panel, and frankly I don't know much about the subject.<br />
<br />
That has never stopped me before, and gods declare, it's not going to stop me now.<br />
<br />
Friday, 4:00 - 5:00 p.m., Lilac B: Living Forever<br />Individual
human cells can long outlive their original body. Dried seeds can
sprout after several thousand years. Can humans live forever? Can we
develop an anti-aging drug or is freezing our heads the only way to
immortality?<br />J. Nikitow, S. Jackson, T. Akers<br /><br /><br />Saturday, 12:00 noon - 1:00 p.m.: Reading, Walnut Room<br />
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<tr><td><br /></td><td><br /></td><td><br /></td><td><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Tim Akershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01749644135364065658noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16766354.post-13139198546892121712012-11-07T08:31:00.001-08:002012-11-07T08:34:37.651-08:00The future of America<h5 class="uiStreamMessage userContentWrapper" data-ft="{"type":1,"tn":"K"}">
<span style="font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span class="messageBody" data-ft="{"type":3}"><span class="userContent">Some thoughts on the election last night. Specifically the aftermath.<br /> <br />
Once it was called for the president, a lot of the pundits were talking
about how the Republican Party needs to rethink its messaging and
direction if it wants to continue to be a nationally viable party. Now, I
think that's a little premature, but I also think it's inevitable. A
lot of the things that resonate with younger voters (and by younger, I
mean the 25-45 crowd. People with jobs) are simply more progressive than
what the GOP is currently offering. You can disagree with me on that,
but the numbers are the numbers.<br /> <br /> In response to this
discussion, Ari Fleischer said something along the lines of "No, that
isn't going to happen. The GOP isn't going to become the party of gay
rights and pro-choice. We have a party for that, it's the Democratic
party, and that isn't going to change."<br /> <br /> Here's what bothers me
about that. It's possible to be a conservative, a small government,
pro-business, individualism driven conservative without giving an ass
about gay marriage and abortion. Trust me on this. I know that the GOP
has linked itself to the social conservative movement, and that that has
paid dividends in the past, but I think that era is ending.<br /> <br />
There was a lot of talk about hope last night, and the future. So let me
tell you about my hope for the future. I hope that we can uncouple
these outdated social positions from the government. The government
shouldn't be trying to impose my religious ideas, or yours, or anyone's,
on a population as diverse as we have in the United States.<br /> <br /> I
want this country to have a conversation about choice and the value of
life that isn't chained to misogyny, about immigration without the taint
of racism, and about marriage without the stink of homophobia. And I
want the government out of that conversation, now and forever.<br /> <br />
That's my hope. That's my belief. That's what needs to happen, for
America to move forward, and to become the country we have the potential
to be.</span></span></span></h5>
Tim Akershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01749644135364065658noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16766354.post-60280529915391816842012-09-04T08:44:00.001-07:002012-09-04T08:44:20.444-07:00Progress ReportThe end of August marked six months since I left my day job for the last time, and came home to start my life as a full time writer. It's appropriate that I spent the first couple days of September at Worldcon. Conventions have this way of changing my life.<br />
<br />
I wanted to do a meditation on how things have been for me in the last six months, but I have to admit, I don't have a firm handle on it. Things were weird at first. I was still working part time at home for the first month, and then the vendor who took over my work offered me a job, and I spent some time stressing about that. I really had trouble acclimating to how full time writing should work. I'm still adjusting my daily expectations, my schedule, my goals and ambitions.<br />
<br />
But the raw numbers are good. I wasn't terribly productive for the first two months. And once I turned in the first draft to my agent, there were six weeks where I was fapping about on different, unrelated projects, just to clear my head. All told, I only had about two and a half to three months of solid, honest writing work.<br />
<br />
In that time, I wrote around 140k words. So I feel pretty good about that. Mind you, they were essentially flawed words. I made some mistakes in my plotting, and I still struggle with character development. I tried to shove too much back story into the first book, and the characters are stuck on the page doing things for reasons of plot, rather than reasons of character.<br />
<br />
What that means is that the book I wrote, The Heretic Blade, is going to end up as the third book in the series, rather than the first. With my agency's help I've developed a pretty solid outline for the first two books, something I didn't really have for Heretic, and I'm plowing through the new book one.<br />
<br />
But here's what's interesting to me. This feels normal to me, now. When I first started writing I was grappling with how a writer's life is supposed to go. How I structure my time, how much I need to expect of myself. When it's okay to put the pen away for a day and do something else, and when you have to push through and be productive, even when you're not in the mood. And those are things I'm still working on. But I'm getting better at it.<br />
<br />
So there's progress. I tell myself that I can have the first book (The Pagan Night) done and revised by the end of the year. There are potential obstacles to this, not the least of which is the upcoming release of Mist of Pandaria, but I think it can be done.<br />
<br />
Better. It will be done. I'm going to do it. Tim Akershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01749644135364065658noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16766354.post-32115266183129326672012-08-15T14:39:00.000-07:002012-08-15T14:39:06.691-07:00Thoughts on a bad day of writingI had kind of a bad day, writing. I was up a lot in the middle of the night, and then when I did get back to sleep I had trouble getting up. So it was a slow start. And then, for whatever reason, I just couldn't get my word count flowing. By lunch I had around 180 words. So I ate some quinoa chili, watched a little television, and came back to it in about half an hour.<br />
<br />
Then I wrote 2500 words. I only stopped because my scene was over and my battery was low. I might go back after dinner and finish the chapter, or I might save it for tomorrow. No worries, either way.<br />
<br />
But here's the point. I do this all the time. And because I have bad mornings, and bad afternoons, and entire bad days, I've stopped letting it get to me. Every time I've had one of those days, the next day is fine. Or the day after that. Or that afternoon. Or an hour later. I always come back. I just have to keep at it, keep pushing, and finally the words come. My output is not the result of any particular talent. It is the end result of failing a thousand times, and pushing through every time. When I have trouble I know it will pass. When the words don't work, I know that the next one might.<br />
<br />
Anyway. This works for me.Tim Akershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01749644135364065658noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16766354.post-36217893020261333882012-08-08T13:57:00.002-07:002012-08-08T13:57:49.176-07:00A Worldly time in ChicagoRight after I promised to post more (Hi, Griff) I got my revision notes on Heretic Blade back from my agent. They are... extensive. So I've been head down trying to figure out exactly how I'm going to tackle them and in what order. It looks like a lot of what I've written for this book will end up in a second book, and I'll essentially be re-writing this book from scratch. So there's that.<br />
<br />
But in other news, I have my pretty much final schedule for Worldcon this year. It's in Chicago this year, and this will be my first Worldcon with panels. It's kind of intimidating. But, anyway, here's my schedule. If you want to see me and hear me talk about things I know about, rather than my usual practice of just blathering until someone changes the subject, find me here:<br />
<br />
<table border="1"><tbody>
<tr><td width="12%">Thu Aug 30 4:30:pm</td><td width="12%">Thu Aug 30 6:00:pm</td><td width="76%">Faith in Fiction</td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2">Crystal A</td><td>Faith
-- or even the considered rejection of faith -- is an area often
overlooked in world-building for speculative fiction in spite of the
impact it's had on our world (for good and bad). How does faith affect
the world view and formation of a fictional world?
</td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="3"><u>Isabel Schechter</u> <u>Laurel Anne Hill</u> <u>Paul Genesse</u> <b><u>Shanna Swendson</u></b> <u>Tim Akers</u> </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /><table border="1"><tbody>
<tr><td width="12%">Fri Aug 31 3:00:pm</td><td width="12%">Fri Aug 31 4:30:pm</td><td width="76%">Turning Ideas Into Stories</td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2">Columbus IJ</td><td>Many people ask authors where they get their ideas. This panel asks: "How do you develop your ideas into stories?"</td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="3"><u>Alec Nevala-Lee</u> <u>Jamie Todd Rubin</u> <b><u>Louise Marley</u></b> <u>Roland Green</u> <u>Tim Akers</u> </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /><table border="1"><tbody>
<tr><td width="12%">Sat Sep 1 3:00:pm</td><td width="12%">Sat Sep 1 4:30:pm</td><td width="76%">Autograph Session 10</td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2">Autograph Tables</td><td><br /></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="3"><u>Daniel Abraham</u> <u>Deirdre Murphy</u> <u>Elizabeth Moon</u> <u>James S. Dorr</u> <u>Karin Rita Gastreich</u> <u>Sheila Williams</u> <u>Stina Leicht</u> <u>Tim Akers</u> <u>Ty Franck</u> </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /><table border="1"><tbody>
<tr><td width="12%">Sun Sep 2 9:30:am</td><td width="12%">Sun Sep 2 10:00:am</td><td width="76%">Reading: Tim Akers</td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2">Dusable</td><td><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>Tim Akershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01749644135364065658noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16766354.post-37637805773560563492012-07-23T07:44:00.002-07:002012-07-23T07:44:49.534-07:00An Update, A Reboot, A ReminderIt's interesting to me to read that last post, about where the book was and what I was doing with it, and then look at where I am now. How things change, my dearies.<br />
<br />
First off, the Reboot. I'm going to start actually posting here. Honestly. I don't have any excuses, other than the fact that when I sit down at the computer it's either to relax or to write, and I'd rather be writing the book. But I need to be better about this. It's a good space for me. I get inside my own head too much, and that's not good. My wife reminds me of this, and it's something I have to learn. Get out of your head. Anyway. <br />
<br />
At the time of the last post I had a plot outline with three narrative arcs, and for some reason I was writing each one straight through to the end, with the idea of coming back and tying them together as part of the revision process. A word from the wounded. Do not do this. It is a foolish way to write a book.<br />
<br />
The real problem, though, was the fact that I was still on the first arc. I hadn't even started the other two, not one word, and I was at 50k words. 50k words, and I hadn't even reached the quarter point in my outline for that narrative arc. Think about that.<br />
<br />
I'll think about it for you, out loud. If I had written that arc to its completion, I'm guessing I would have gotten to Plot Point One at around 65k words or so. Call it 70k. That makes for 280k words in that arc alone. And this wasn't an arc that could stand alone. It needed the other two to make certain things clear, so I couldn't present arc one as a single book, arc two as the second book, and so forth. They had to operate in parallel.<br />
<br />
I had a conversation with my agent. People who reduce the agent's role in a work to negotiating with the publisher don't understand how agents work. Or at least, they don't understand how my agent works. I don't always agree with Joshua's opinion on these things, but I do value his opinion quite highly. I think the persistent success of his clients is a tribute to his knowledge, and I'd be a fool to not seek his advice. Anyway. We had a conversation, and I circled around to my outline and recreated it. I formed up very strict outlines for each of the arcs, with word counts and chapter milestones and so forth. I was determined to make this work. I also had a total word count in mind. 160k-180k.<br />
<br />
Again, a problem. Even being as precise as I could be, I was coming in over word count. I got to 130k words and really felt like I was about halfway through. So I rethought my outline, realized that I was very near a good tie-off point for all three arcs, and wrote toward that point. I ended up at 145k words. That was almost six weeks ago.<br />
<br />
I stayed away from the book for quite a while. I even came up with a new setting, new magic system, and the first sketches of an outline for a completely other project. What's nice about that is I get to shelve it. When I come back to it, the whole thing will already be laid out, and I can focus on story and character, rather than getting hung up in world building. I tend to do that.<br />
<br />
And then I did my first reread. You know, I expected it to be worse. I can see some pretty big problems, but they are problems I can address. Nothing that can't be unfucked. Oddly, I think I need to add some stuff to it, so I may end up coming in at that original 160-180k, but who knows.<br />
<br />
Point is, I'm determined to make this one good. In the past I've tended to learn my lessons and apply them to the next book. This time I'm committing to the big revision, the dull, desperate work of taking things apart and putting them back together, only better.<br />
<br />
So that was the update. Now, the reminder.<br />
<br />
You can't make things better by yourself. This is a mistake I've made, over and over, all my life. You can certainly make them worse. Again, something I've learned through repeated trial. But there's only so much you can do on your own. We may not want to depend on people, we may not want their help or their sympathy, but I could never do this by myself. And the more I learn to trust other people, the more I learn to work with someone instead of against them, the better I'm going to be. The better we all can be.<br />
<br />
That's all. Get better. Get help. Get together and become something amazing.Tim Akershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01749644135364065658noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16766354.post-34093242558183039272012-03-21T08:47:00.002-07:002012-03-21T09:00:20.679-07:00Emphasis on the Dancing today, I suppose.I've been thinking a lot about my life as a writer this past week or so. Just to keep you up to speed, at the end of February I quit my day job and am now writing full time. We have savings, and my wife has always been a better earner than me, so we have a few years cushion that will allow me to take this kind of step. And while I don't want to wait a few years before I start earning out, I do have an unusual kind of freedom available to me that I've never had before. It's interesting.<br /><br />Anyway, in the run up to this, I'm not really sure what I was expecting. This is something I've daydreamed about a lot, but now that I'm actually living the life day in and day out, there are things going on that I never really expected. For example, I have totally lost track of time. Everyday kind of feels like Sunday, because I'm not at work today, and I wasn't at work yesterday, so it must be Sunday. It has definitely taken me a little while to adjust to the openness of my schedule, to establish a pattern of persistent workfulness (I just made that word up. I'm a writer) that allows me to get wordcount without feeling like a burden.<br /><br />Because, let's be clear, this is a work of joy. I can't quite describe what it feels like to be doing what you're best at, after almost forty years of frustration. Writing has always been that other thing I do, when I'm not in class, or not at work, or not trying to be the best gamer I can be. I take gamer-ness quite seriously, by the way. My new freedom of time has let me indulge that a bit more than I used to, and I'm really enjoying it.<br /><br />But at the core, I write because I love to write. I don't have any deadlines right now, I don't have anything sold, so when I sit down I write the story that I want to write. Yes, it's much longer than what I usually do. But that's because it's staying true to the story arc that I've imagined. So many times in my previous books I'll be following the story arc, then I'll do a word count, a count of the days I have left before I have to turn the book in, and I'll start clipping things off. Not this time. I'm writing the book I've imagined. I don't think that I'm falling into some kind of Martin-esque maelstrom of word count, but this is a fantasy novel. I'm well past the halfway point in words of my previous books, but probably not even a quarter of the way through the story I'm trying to tell. I'm giving myself the freedom to write the whole thing, without padding, but without clipping, either.<br /><br />Secondly, and I'm not sure how best to express this, either, but I'm taking joy in life. If you know me, you know that I'm kind of a down person most of the time. That hasn't been the case in a while. I wake up in the morning and breathe clear. I enjoy my breakfast, linger over the paper, and then I work. Not because I have to, but because I love what I'm doing.<br /><br />It's marvelous.<br /><br />There's more I could say about my expectations versus the reality, but I'll pin it to this. I feel blessed. I feel whole, in a way I haven't felt since childhood. I am joyful. God help us all.Tim Akershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01749644135364065658noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16766354.post-12230139794474955482012-02-20T07:38:00.000-08:002012-02-20T08:00:10.078-08:00Dreading MondaysToday is Monday. Mondays are usually about drudgery, about picking up the pieces of the jobs you abandoned on Friday, getting back into the flow of the task, aligning yourself with the corporate plan and getting at it. Getting on task. Working.<br /><br />I've always said that I didn't want the kind of job that makes you look forward to Fridays, and dread Mondays. And yet, I have had precisely that job for the last... uh. Always. Almost fifteen years, I guess.<br /><br />Last Wednesday, I tendered my resignation. I'm done with presort. I'm done with fundraising. I'm done with dreading Mondays.<br /><br />This is my last full week here. I'll have next Monday, but that will be a short week, and I don't suspect there will be much for me to do. And then on Thursday morning I'll wake up, and my time will be my own. I'll have no excuse to make about how long I can devote to this project or that book. For the last nine years I've been writing nights and weekends, neglecting relationships that mean the world to me, not taking care of myself mentally, physically or spiritually. Grinding.<br /><br />And at the end of the day, when I settle down in front of the book each night after a full day of work, exhausted, there's no way I'm writing as well as I could be. I'm certainly not performing up to my own standards. So now I have the chance to do that. I can write as well as I can, with no excuses, no filters, no buffers between me and the page.<br /><br />Can I make it as a full time writer? We'll see. That question has been hanging over my head for years. As long as I had the day job, it wasn't a question I had to answer. I have to answer it now. I have to succeed now, or accept failure.<br /><br />I'm not the kind of guy who accepts failure.Tim Akershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01749644135364065658noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16766354.post-64093607139676648422012-02-07T06:54:00.001-08:002012-02-07T07:31:41.166-08:00Overthinking the Public FaceWriting is kind of a private business, with very public results. I don't know if writers are just naturally introverts, or if it's something you become after years of toiling in silence and isolation, or if writing by its nature requires a kind of introversion and self-awareness to succeed. Maybe introversion is a selector for the writer's evolutionary process. I don't know.<br /><br />But it's a private task. I write books in isolation. I cut myself off from my friends, my family, my wife... I go somewhere quiet and I labor inside my head, and then I force that labor out onto the page.<br /><br />The point is, it's not something you do publicly. When I write it, I'm alone. When you read it, I'm not there, and I'm not really aware that you're doing it. There's a gap in the process, you understand.<br /><br />Usually, when people go to work, they're doing their work publicly. Other people are aware of your task flow, they appreciate or denigrate your effort, and when you succeed there's some public awareness of that success. You can work hard, succeed publicly, and be appreciated. There's a certain amount of pleasure to be found in being good at what you do, and having other people aware of that, and being in the presence of their awareness.<br /><br />That's all very convoluted, I know. What I'm trying to say is that this is why I love conventions. Usually, I'm a write alone in my basement, or at a coffee shop, or at my kitchen table. But at a convention, I'm publicly a writer. I sit on panels, I expound wisdom or idiocy, I gather with my fellow writers and editors and publishers, and I do the things that writers do. It's a rare privilege. And while it's not writing directly, it is the most public thing that writers do. It's the face we hand to the public.<br /><br />Anyway. That's why I love conventions.Tim Akershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01749644135364065658noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16766354.post-20184311043285547752012-02-06T09:18:00.000-08:002012-02-06T09:23:26.293-08:00Sagittribot goes to CapriconThis weekend I'll be at Capricon, in Wheeling, Illinois. My schedule is below. Quite busy! And you'll notice I'm on three panels with Gene Wolfe. So. That's not intimidating AT ALL. But it should be great fun. I am determined to make it so.<br /><br /><b>Retro-futurism Sure Beats the Boring Truth! - Thursday, 02-09-2012 - 4:00 pm to 5:30 pm - Birch B</b><br />A celebration of looking backwards to look forwards. Steampunk, the Jetsons, and NASA all had cooler ideas about how the future looked than it really did. Why is our imagined future so much hipper than the one we live in?<br /><i>Tim Akers</i><br /><i>Kerri-Ellen Kelly</i><br /><i>Nayad Monroe (M)</i><br /><i>W. A. (Bill) Thomasson</i><br /><i>Michael Z. Williamson</i><br /><br /><b>You Are Not Alone: Writers Groups and Critique - Thursday, 02-09-2012 - 9:00 pm to 10:30 pm - Birch A</b><br />Many SF/F writers, from Asimov to Tolkien, have belonged to writers groups or benefited from critique partners. How do these groups help an author hone her craft? Some members of writers' groups discuss their experiences. <br /><i>Tim Akers</i><br /><i>Eileen Maksym (M)</i><br /><i>Nayad Monroe</i><br /><i>Michael D. Thomas</i><br /><br /><b>Reading: Tim Akers - Friday, 02-10-2012 - 12:00 pm to 12:30 pm - River C (Cafe)</b><br /><br /><i>Tim Akers</i><br /><br /><b>Religion in Worldbuilding - Friday, 02-10-2012 - 4:00 pm to 5:30 pm - Botanic Garden A (Special Events - Programming)</b><br />Authors too frequently just change around the fixtures on a real world religion and insert it into their fantasy world. These writers will talk about how they go about creating original religions, and how the use of religion can drive worldbuilding and shape the story's narrative.<br /><i>Tim Akers (M)</i><br /><i>Alex Bledsoe</i><br /><i>Phyllis Eisenstein</i><br /><i>Nayad Monroe</i><br /><i>Gene Wolfe</i><br /><br /><b>The Transition from Short Story to Novel - Saturday, 02-11-2012 - 4:00 pm to 5:30 pm - River AB (Programming - Media)</b><br />Though many might think these two mediums are very similar, not every writer can easily make the transition from one to the other. What are the pitfalls and what should the writer know before starting? Is it easier to do it in reverse and go from novel to short story? What’s similar and what’s different? Does it help to think of chapters as mini-stories? (Panel idea from Cat Rambo.)<br /><i>Tim Akers (M)</i><br /><i>Phyllis Eisenstein</i><br /><i>Jody Lynn Nye</i><br /><i>Gene Wolfe</i><br /><br /><b>Writing Is a Business - Saturday, 02-11-2012 - 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm - Botanic Garden A (Special Events - Programming)</b><br />As aspiring writers enter the field, they will do almost anything to become published. This attitude often can lead to others taking advantage of their work. These professionals will share advice about agents, contracts, retirement, and...gulp...taxes. <br /><i>Tim Akers (M)</i><br /><i>Richard Chwedyk</i><br /><i>Matt Forbeck</i><br /><i>Gene Wolfe</i>Tim Akershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01749644135364065658noreply@blogger.com0