As I begin my career as a writer I’ve been doing a bit of thinking of where I fit in terms of genre. Well, to be honest I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about that. Is my writing science fiction, fantasy, literature? Maybe all the above. I think I lean a bit more towards the science fiction. And I’m okay with that. Only will the field be? Well this Library Journal article seems to think that there is room in science fiction for growth.
Will sf find its renaissance soon? Tor’s Nielsen Hayden sees room for growth. “Right now, the average fantasy outsells the average science fiction title two to one in the marketplace, but that means that four out of five of the authors submitting to me are writing fantasy. We’re looking for good science fiction.”
Only time will tell how people will react to my kind of storytelling. It’s exciting ... and a bit scary. I can only hope that people will like my work. As a wise person once said to me—and I’m paraphrasing: “Write with love and then let it go. You can’t control how people will receive your work.”
I know you’re right, smartypants. Yeah, David, I’m looking at you
It seems it was someone’s bright idea at Rolling Stone to ask Hunter S. Thompson to review entries. His rejection letter puts the acceptance/rejection process into perspective. At least I’ve never gotten a letter like this!
Damn! How does anyone survive getting a letter like this? I suppose with the same intoxicants that was taken in producing the entry in the first place. Because as hard as this letter is, Thompson was right.
I essentially agree with everything he says here. I also think that when someone like a Junot Diaz talks about privilege and access the notion of race is not far behind. It feels so strange to me to be facing a form of discrimination that so strangely overlaps and yet is so disconnected from what I’ve had to face with race. I don’t think that it’s a coincidence. Societies handle difference in similar ways. Ignore it. Diminish it. Degrade it.
I’m at the beginning of my publishing career, so now is when I make some decisions that will affect the rest of my life as an author. One of them is my publishing name. My name is ‘Jennifer Marie Brissett.’ And, yes, it is a highly feminine name. But it’s my name. It was given to me at birth, but it’s value was earned by me and me alone. I WILL NOT BE HIDING BEHIND INITIALS. There, I said it.
I’m newly MFA’d and am supposedly a professional writer now. Yay for me! Only my instructors tell me that I was always a writer. It was the confidence thing that was getting in the way. A little hard to hear, but I know it’s true.
So what’s gonna happen now? Who knows? And that’s okay. I learned that from writing.
You can plan. You can organize. But the story will go its own way. If you’re smart, you will follow the flow while believing that you will reach your ultimate destination. I believe in my work. I know I can write. Now it’s time TO write.
Put pen tuh papah!!
That is my goal. I’m working on my second book while shopping around my first.
