Being an author has ups and downs. It’s a constant rollercoaster. When you submit manuscripts you get acceptances and rejections. The same when you apply to present at conventions. Or apply for grants. You can torment yourself by watching the book scan sales numbers. Or Amazon ranking. Or reviews at Goodreads (and elsewhere).
When good things happen, it’s wonderful. Getting a manuscript accepted is a great feeling.
When bad things happen, you just have to grit your teeth and go on.
But sometimes you have a long run of bad luck. It can get very discouraging when everything seems to get rejected or turned down. When that happens, you question what you’re even doing. Why keep trying? Why bother? Why not just do something else.
I got to see John Hodgman perform in Northampton a few years ago. This was around the time he was promoting Vacationland. One of the themes was the ineffable quality of celebrity. People kept asking him how he became a celebrity, as if there was some secret or recipe. He said he spent a lot of time trying to figure out why *this* thing had gone viral whereas all these other things he’d been doing before or after did not. Eventually, he decided there wasn’t any difference. It was just luck or happenstance. But, even though you couldn’t predict what might lead to success, it was clear that the only way to be sure to fail was to not keep doing your art. It could only happen if you were making stuff and putting it out there.
So, even when I’m down. Even when I feel like nothing is getting traction. Even when I feel like there’s no point. I just keep putting one foot in front of the other and soldiering on. And maybe — just maybe — one of the things I write will find an audience and lead to greater things. Maybe.
Twenty-eight years ago, I joined the Biology Department at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. As a freshly-minted PhD in Science Education, I was hired to the direct the Biology Computer Resource Center (BCRC) — a small computer lab that was both a computer classroom and drop-in space for undergraduates.
I really enjoyed the educational and technical work I did for the Department and University. The Internet was new and we built a lot of interesting and innovative educational resources. When I was hired, I had no formal teaching responsibilities, but over time I developed a number of face-to-face and online classes which offered unique learning opportunities for students.
During the pandemic, the Department closed the BCRC and my job responsibilities became solely teaching. When I was no longer obligated to spend all of my summers, breaks, and intersessions maintaining computer systems, I decided to repurpose that time for writing fiction. Since then, I’ve published several short stories and two books of fiction. And written a number more that are, as yet, unpublished.
Last year, after a long stay in the local hospital, I was diagnosed with a chronic lung condition that makes it likely I will become very ill from any respiratory infections. I’ve been working remotely since then, and I’m so grateful that the University has provided this accommodation that has allowed me to continue working. But remote work is isolating and difficult. And I’d also like to have even more time for writing fiction.
This evening, I was notified that my application to do a phased retirement over the next two years has been approved. Beginning in Fall 2024, I will teach only half time for two academic years and then fully retire. I’m looking forward to making a gradual transition into retirement and being able to devote myself more to my new creative endeavors.
Four years ago, I discovered what shimenawa were and I made one for my beloved sakura tree. But it was time for a new one. The old one had gradually disintegrated in the weather and only part of a single shide remained. So I gathered supplies over the past week and reminded myself how to construct the tassels and shide to put up a new one in time for the cherry blossoms
Our tree was grown from cuttings gifted to the Town of Amherst by the Nation of Japan in honor of William Clark. The tree has struggled in recent years since we needed to have a trench cut in the front yard that impinged on its roots. But we’ve been working with an arborist to nurse it back to health.
I look forward to the cherry blossoms every year and this year, perhaps, more than ever. Now I’ll have a nice, fresh shimenawa to go with them.
Currently, we are scheduled to have four or five authors sharing the table. I will be sure to bring Revin’s Heart, which is steampunky fantasy adventure. (And I’ll also bring a few copies of Better Angels: Tour de Force, just in case.) But Water Dragon Publishing has a few other steampunky offerings. And, as I say, there will several other authors there as well.
The SPBU model has been doing very well! It lets indie and small-press authors share the cost of a vendor table and avoid the need to get a tax identity or manage the purchasing system to sell books independently. A big traditional publisher might be able to just justify a table of their own, but very few indie or small press publishers could. We tried out the approach experimentally at Worldcon in Chicago and we’ve had tables for SPBU at Baycon, Arisia, and Boskone. It’s been a boon for authors who want to attend a con and they can tell people where they can buy their books.
Recently, I was gratified to receive two extremely generous reviews of Revin’s Heart. Reviews are critical for getting the word out about new books.
The first was by The Faerie Review. The reviewer, Lily Shadowlyn, had read the entire Revin’s Heart series at the time the final novelette came out and had written a series of enthusiastic reviews about each of them. In the last review, she had said, “I would love to see all the stories compiled into one larger book or even a box set bundle someday, although it would be a hefty tome, the stories it would contain would be worth it!” So, when the collected edition came out, she reread the stories and the additional material had many nice things to say.
[T]hink Treasure Planet with magic and LGBTQIA+ rep. The story moves along smoothly, and the action will get your heart racing. The characters are unforgettable, and you won’t see the twists coming.
Lily Shadowlyn
The second review was a complete surprise to me. Damian Serbu wrote a review for Queer Sci Fi. In his review, he speaks glowingly about the worldbuilding, story structure, and pacing of Revin’s Heart. But his description of Revin made me feel wonderful that someone really got what I was aiming for.
Revin himself is a fabulous character. You pull for him from the first. He possesses a charming combination of hurt because of not being accepted for his true nature with a hope for a better future and acceptance for those around him, no matter who they are. And Revin blends a youthful naïveté about the world, especially within the realm of the pirates, with a bravery and courage in his exploits.
Damian Serbu
I’m so grateful for the excellent reviews. It’s really hard to get reviews. Every author wishes that more people who read books would share a review — even if only to say, “I read this and it was OK.” But to get such lengthy, positive reviews is extraordinary and I hope they lead to more people discovering Revin’s Heart and enjoying it.
Trying to publicize your books is hard. It’s one of the things that you don’t think much about until you try to transition from “writer” to “author.” At least I didn’t. But I had seen enough authors talking about the need to do publicity that I had some idea what I was getting myself into. What I didn’t know anything about, however, was advertising.
Last summer, I saw a Facebook group that was going to offer a free starter class for people who wanted to learn about advertising using ads at Amazon. I decided to spend a little money up front just trying out the advertising system. I first tried letting Amazon construct the ad (basically just showing a book among search results, I think). But I think I clicked something wrong and it didn’t work at all. It didn’t cost anything because nobody clicked on it — whatever it was (I couldn’t figure out how to get it to show me what the ad was that it was even showing). But it tried again and got some tiny number of clicks. But it was clear that a lot more fine tuning was required. So I tried the class.
The class was based around long screencasts. I quickly found I couldn’t stand to watch the screencasts at all. But accompanying the screencasts were click-by-click directions for the activities. This I could do, so I set up a handful of experimental ads like they recommended. The results were quite discouraging. I didn’t get any sales (as far as I could tell) and, when I spoke with another author who had taken a similar (but more advanced class), he indicated that you needed to get orders of magnitude larger responses in order actually see appreciable sales. And he had decided it wasn’t worth it.
Several people said that Facebook ads were a better fit, so I decided to hold my nose and give those a try. I truly and wholeheartedly despise Facebook. But I gave them some money to “boost” a post I had already written to promote Better Angels: Tour de Force. The interface was less complicated and it seemed like I got better results. So, after that ad finished, I decided to run another. When I did, however, I discovered how enshittified the Facebook ad system is.
The first ad you buy has reasonable defaults that make sense: it defaults to $14 for a week with a goal of getting people to click on your link. But when you try to do the next one, it dicks with the defaults. It tries to get you to spend $42 or $56 or some much larger amount. And it defaults to other weird goals like “get more engagement” or “get more messages via Facebook Messenger”. And it tries to get you link Instagram and What’s App accounts with your Facebook account. Ugh. I feel so unclean.
Since I’ve been playing around with my book promotion posts already, I will probably continue to purchase ads at some low level. Since it does seem to actually put my ad in front of people who do, at some level, click through to the book page. And maybe some of them actually buy a book. If nothing else, it gives me some additional metrics on which book promotion posts are more effective.
Last year, I was scheduled to appear at Boskone, but ended up going into the hospital the week before. Tempting fate, I have again proposed myself as a participant and have now received my final schedule.
On Friday Feb 9, since this is during the academic year, I will have office hours at 10am, and then will teach class (remotely) from 1:25 until 3:45. Then, I will be free to participate in the convention for the rest of the weekend.
At 7pm on Friday, I will serve on a panel Write My Doctoral Thesis: Science Edition (in Burroughs). This looks like it will be a lot of fun.
Saturday is my busy day: I have a reading (in Galleria – Cabaret) at 12:30, then Speculative Evolution (in Marina 4) at 1pm, followed by the Boskone Book Party (in the Galleria) at 6pm, then Romance in Speculative Fiction (in Harbor 2) at 7pm.
But Sunday, I’m totally free!
Mostly, when not otherwise scheduled, I’ll be at the Water Dragon Publishing table in the Dealer Room. I’ll have plenty of copies of Better Angels: Tour de Force, as well as bundles of Revin’s Heart. Stop by and visit!
David read the rest of the book to Bebe. By the last page she was finally asleep, her chest rising and falling evenly. He laid the book down and tiptoed out as quietly as he could. Then he turned and found the rest of the Better Angels standing in their nightgowns.
“We can’t sleep, David! Read us a story too!”
“Okay, okay,” he said. “What story do you want?”
“Cap’n Capybara and the Case of the Curious Crocodile!” they all said in unison.
“But…” David said, turning to look back at the door. Then he put his foot down. “No. You’ll have to pick something else.”
This story was originally written for a set of prompts for #wss366.
I’ve been rather surprised to discover that I seem to be pretty good at selling books. It doesn’t hurt, of course, to have books that people want to read. But a huge part of successful selling is to have a pitch that lands with the prospective buyer. And that’s what I seem to be good at.
I think it derives from the years I spent doing educational assemblies. To make those performances work, you need to hone a series of stories and statements so that the wording and timing resonates with the audience and they get caught up in the performance. When it works best, the audience will play along and you can hear them respond and engage with what you’re saying. It’s not a conversation, but you can hear through their laughter or groans when they’ve understood something or gotten the silly joke you were trying to tell.
The first step is judging when to engage with someone approaching or at the table. Some people stand back or refuse to make eye-contact. Or are clearly focused on looking at the books themselves. I usually just offer a quiet “Hello.” Or “Can I help you with anything?” Or, if they seem unsure, I might ask, “Would you like a tour?” Or, occasionally, “What do you like to read?” I’d rather not ask that, because I want to steer them to what I want them to read.
When I’m selling Revin’s Heart, I often begin by pointing at the Airship Pirate ribbon and asking, “Would you like to be an airship pirate?” Most people at science fiction conventions would like to be an airship pirate, although there are exceptions. The ribbon is particularly good because its immediately recognizable to LGBTQIA+ folks who can tell immediately that the book might appeal to them.
I leave a beat while they consider the ribbon and then, as they take it, I say, “It’s for my steampunky fantasy adventure with pirates and airships and a trans protagonist.” I usually tick off on my fingers as list the items.
I leave another beat and say, “It was serialized as seven novelettes. They’re five dollars each, but — if you buy all seven as a bundle — you can get them for $25… [beat] which is like two free!”
If they express interest in the first one, I point at the Third Time’s the Charm and say, “Pro tip: don’t name the first book in a series ‘the third’ something.” This almost always generates a smile, if not a laugh.
At this point, I generally point to Better Angels and say, “This is my newest book. It’s about a group of non-human biological androids [beat] that look like pre-teen girls [beat] and serve as magical girl singing-and-dancing idols [beat] but they can change up their programming [beat] and become a covert military force.” Usually, by this point, people are totally caught up in the pitch and are expressing wonderment or laughing. When I did this pitch at the Steampunk Isn’t Dead panel at Arisia2024, I had been honing it all weekend, the audience responded, as I performed it, with a rising volume of amazement, “aaaaaAAAAAAH!” ending in laughter and applause.
I’ve got a few other pitches. I learned an effective one for the Grimaulkin series from the author. And for two of the Water Dragon anthologies, I will say. “The Future’s So Bright is the bright, hopeful, optimistic stuff while Corporate Catharsis is all the dark stuff you wish you could do to your boss.” This usually generates a laugh and immediately helps the prospective buyer situate those books in their mind.
After making the pitch, there are plenty of other things I can tell buyers about the books. But I’ve realized that having an effective pitch that’s delivered as a performance, sets the stage for everything that follows.
I attended Arisia for the second time as a participant. Last year, I was only one one or two panels and had a reading. This year, I moderated a panel, served on four more, and had a reading. I dressed up in cosplay for the panel “Steampunk isn’t dead.” Well. Sorta.
I moderated the panel on Gender and Sexual Identity Representation in Media. Originally, there were supposed to be four participants plus me moderating. Normally when there are four, the moderator can focus solely on facilitating the conversation. Unfortunately, one of the participants was unable to join us and so I tried to both moderate and participate in the conversation. I was satisfied with providing enough structure to keep the discussion on track and making sure that all of the participants were able to make contributions.
I served on three additional panels which were all fun. The Food in Science Fiction and Fantasy left me with an appetite to write more about food. The Bi+ Panel provided new insight into bisexuality, pansexuality, and current thinking in queer culture. And the panel on Invertebrates and Entomology in SFF was fascinating due to the other interesting participants that each had useful stuff to contribute. I felt like I made good contributions on each of the panels.
I got to offer a reading on Sunday afternoon. The audience was around a dozen. I think they were mostly there to hear the other participants, who all write much more poetical stuff, so my weird space opera stuff left me the odd-man out — quite literally. But the selections I had made (Military Morale Mishegoss and Super Sticky Situation) worked well together I got a polite, enthusiastic response. The other authors were jealous of my giant poster of my cover.
Water Dragon had a dealer table again this year. Last year, I was the lead in running it, but this year another author and his wife attended and took the lead. It was great! Four other authors from the publisher took turns at the table as well and it was great to get to meet them as well. I really value the vital community of authors that Water Dragon Publishing fosters.
I had a new book just out Better Angels: Tour de Force as well as the novelettes that form Revin’s Heart. The copies of Better Angels arrived just in time, but the additional stock of Revin’s Heart didn’t arrive in time. So I plenty of one, but ran short of the other.
I was grateful they required masks. Due to my underlying health conditions, I can only attend events where everyone is masked. Knock wood, it appears I came through the Convention without contracting any respiratory infections.
I generally had a good year writing. But I was hospitalized for 12 days in early 2023, which caused me to miss being a participant at Boskone and required much of the spring to convalesce before I was really back to normal. In spite of that, I had many significant writing accomplishments.
I only made 17 fiction submissions, most of which are the previous stories that still haven’t sold. I’ve given up on several manuscripts that I will either need to abandon or rework significantly.
I wrote two pieces of flash fiction for Valentines Day on the Truck Stop: The Better Angels and the Super Sticky Situation and The Better Angels and Lambda and Tau. I think Super Sticky Situation may be the best piece of flash fiction I’ve written so far. (Both of these are included in the Better Angels: Tour de Force, described below.)
I gave several readings. I was selected for the Straw Dog Writers Guild January Author Showcase for 2022 and gave a reading from Crossing the Streams. I did a reading at Arisia with James Cambias and A.J. Murphy. And, in April, an hour long reading at an online convention.
While at Arisia, I also served on a panel about Gender and Sexual Identity in Media. I also was the primary organizer of the Water Dragon Publishing dealer table. After that positive experience, I was well prepped to sell books at Baycon.
I had been hospitalized and was convalescing during the time participants were being selected for Baycon so I didn’t make it onto the program there. But ultimately I decided to attend attend anyway and drove to California with my younger son. We had an epic road trip and I was available to help support the dealer table at Baycon, where I sold out of copies of Revin’s Heart.
These bookselling successes, prepped me to get a tent and table to set up a dealer table at the Amherst Farmer’s Market Artisan’s Alley. They were pleased to have another draw and I was welcomed with open arms. I sold books there a couple of times at the end of the summer and also ran a booth at the Mill District Holiday Arts Market.
As a guest interviewer, I interviewed Kathy Sullivan for Small Publishing in a Big Universe. I had met her at Arisia and thought she had a lot of insight about the relation between fandom and authors that I wanted to learn more about. Our conversation did not disappoint.
I had hoped to get back to writing The Ground Never Lies but ended up spending most of my time writing Better Angels stories which will appear on December in Better Angels: Tour de Force, which includes 17 stories (including the original Better Angels story plus 16 more, including the flash fiction stories from Valentines day.)
While I was working on Better Angels stories, I hit on the idea of a group of cooking girls on Volpex who sometimes get mixed up with the Better Angels called the Butter Angels. I’ve got this story mostly finished, along with a piece of flash fiction. I also wrote a flash fiction story for Christmas on the Truck Stop called Just One Question.
I’ve also been working on two new Revin’s Heart novellas, Devishire! and Campshire! plus a new Revin’s Heart series, that begins with Lady Cecelia’s Flowers. These have not been accepted for publication. Yet.
In the fall, I established Straw Dog Writes for the Straw Dog Writers’ Guild. It’s a program modeled on the Science Fiction/Fantasy Writers Association Writing Date. I’ve gotten about 20 participants (about half of whom might show up on any particular week). And about half are pre-existing members, half new members (who’ve signed up to participate), and a handful of people who are not yet members but who are considering it. This has been about as good as I could possibly have hope.
I’m looking forward to 2024 with plans to attend Arisia, Boskone, Norwescon, and Worldcon in Glasgow. And writing, of course: lots and lots of writing.
Brewer, S.D. 2023. Tricks of the Trade in It’s Complicated, Amazon Vella. ASIN: B0BZQJJRSQ
Brewer, S.D. 2023. It’s Better to Know in It’s Complicated, Amazon Vella. ASIN: B0BZQDMK19
Brewer, S.D. 2023. Not a Wolf in It’s Complicated, Amazon Vella. ASIN: B0BZQHZK8V
Brewer, S.D. 2023. What Friends Do in It’s Complicated, Amazon Vella. ASIN: B0BZQGDMN2
Brewer, S.D. 2023. You Can Bank On It in It’s Complicated, Amazon Vella. ASIN: B0BZQFYPH2
Brewer, S.D. 2023. Three’s a Crowd in It’s Complicated, Amazon Vella. ASIN: B0BZQGQ7V9
Brewer, S.D. 2023. Bears Will Be Bears in It’s Complicated, Amazon Vella. ASIN: B0BZQDTS2X
Brewer, S.D. 2023. Better Angels and Lambda and Tau. Truck Stop at the Center of the Galaxy Valentine’s Day, Water Dragon Publishing, San Jose, California. Available at: [truckstop.waterdragonpublishing.com/make-the-...](https://truckstop.waterdragonpublishing.com/make-the-truck-stop-your-romantic-destination/better-angels-and-lambda-and-tau/) [Feb14, 2023]
Brewer, S.D. 2023. Better Angels and the Super Sticky Situation. Truck Stop at the Center of the Galaxy Valentine’s Day, Water Dragon Publishing, San Jose, California. Available at: [truckstop.waterdragonpublishing.com/make-the-...](https://truckstop.waterdragonpublishing.com/make-the-truck-stop-your-romantic-destination/better-angels-and-the-super-sticky-situation/) [Feb 14, 2023]
Brewer, S.D. 2023. Rewriting the Rules. Part Seven of Revin’s Heart, Water Dragon Publishing, San Jose, California.
Brewer, S.D. 2023. Then They Fight You. Part Six of Revin’s Heart, Water Dragon Publishing, San Jose, California. 47pp.
Revin, a young man from a poor mining town, has pulled himself up by his bootstraps to become the student apprentice of a law professor. But then, everything goes wrong: their airship is captured by pirates and Revin loses his mentor. Born female, Revin must make his way in a world oriented toward men while he struggles with his own identity.
Set against the backdrop of a war between island nations, a young man must navigate a world divided between the aristocracy and the common people. And, as a promising young man, he must choose whom to align himself with — and to serve. But what does Revin’s Heart say?
Several months after I joined Water Dragon Publishing the editor invited me to submit a manuscript to their shared-world anthology The Truck Stop at the Center of the Galaxy. This was just as the first other stories were being prepared to appear. But I was game to give it a try. It sounded like a lot of fun.
Patricia Monk wrote a, interesting review of shared universes in 1990 and concluded that they represent an extension of collaborative writing that can become an effective way to foster in-group bonding among authors. And they can be an effective way to help readers bridge the gap to becoming writers.
I hadn’t been there for any of the initial discussions and creation of the shared-world setting so I didn’t really have any idea what it was all about. But, in a couple of days, I knocked out a weird short story and ran it by the editor, who was enthusiastic. It was about a somewhat odd man named David who is trying stop a bad guy from selling non-human biological androids, called “Little Angels,” as sex slaves.
David knew from past experience that the “Little Angels” did not exhibit a programming interface. All androids, whether biological or mechanical, were required by law to exhibit a public programming interface, even if locked, that would allow anyone to confirm their status and the responsible party: the owner or manager of the android. But it wasn’t just a feature of daytime dramas for rogue androids to have their interface turned off.
from Better Angels
By the end of the story (not to give too much away), the Little Angels have been rescued and have been returned to their original mission as singing and dancing idols called “Better Angels”.
It was just a short story, only available on-line as an eBook, but I really enjoyed writing it. And I particularly enjoyed playing with the characters. As a daily writing exercise I participate in the #vss365 group, which offers a prompt word every day. Early on, I actually found participating very helpful to let me sharpen my ability to tell an actual story with a problem, rising tension, and some kind of payoff — in just a few characters. I found myself telling some Better Angels stories this way.
In many of them, the Angels make David’s life difficult:
“Play dodgeball, David!” the Better Angels called. Reluctantly, David joined the game. One by one, the girls were eliminated until it was just David and Zaza. Zaza tossed it to David who tried to not catch it, but it stuck to his hands. “I’m out!” shrieked Zaza. “David wins!” “Wait! Who covered the ball with glue?”
Or where Zaza is one step ahead of the other Angels:
“Let me hold your hand, David!” Zaza said. David held his hand out and Zaza took it. “No fair! No fair!” the other Angels called, crowding around. “Here!” David said. “You can each have a finger.” After two steps, Zaza said, “I have a thumb!” “No fair! No fair!” David sighed.
Most of them could have the caption “Poor David”:
“What should we eat tonight?” David asked. “Fun Meals!” shrieked the Angels. “No!” David said, putting his foot down. “You need a balanced diet. You can’t keep eating Fun Meals everyday!” “Look, David,” Zaza said with a sly look, opening the replicator. “We already made Fun Meals for tonight. But we made you a Fun Dinner.”
For Halloween that year, a friend persuaded to me to write a Better Angels story which I did:
The lights suddenly cut out and there was darkness. There were a handful of screams in the giant space. Then the drums started up and the space stadium erupted with cheers. The bass picked up the beat. Then a spotlight stabbed down illuminating Zaza, wearing a pink-and-blue magical girl costume. She made a dramatic gesture and the stage lights came up, illuminating the rest of the Better Angels who struck a pose while the crowd went wild. They moved smoothly into their first number, a cover of a favorite PuzzyCure song.
The Better Angels and the Very Scary Halloween
My editor was interested enough that he encouraged me to write a few more stories. And then I found I couldn’t stop. He finally suggested constructing an anthology to contain them all. Eventually we got to sixteen and I thought a title might be The Better Angels and Sixteen Seriously Sweet and Significantly Sanguinary Stories Set on the Truck Stop at the Center of the Galaxy. My editor suggested that would simplify creating artwork for the cover, since there wouldn’t be room for any. But then I wrote one more story so the number wouldn’t work anyway. And, after much discussion we settled on Better Angels: Tour de Force. I hope everyone enjoys reading it as much as I’ve enjoyed writing it.
On Sunday, Nov 19, 2023, I set up a vendor table for Water Dragon Publishing to sell books. The event had originally been scheduled for the day before but the weather looked iffy, so they exercised their rain date for the following day. There were some 50 vendors there selling different arts and crafts.
I was in the second group to set up and arrived around 9am. I’m starting to get the hang of setting up and running a vendor table, but it’s still a lot of work to do by myself and I have recognized the need to set up a checklist to make sure I get everything and do everything in the right order. But I was easily set up well in advance of when the public began to arrive.
The occupant of the booth next to mine was a woman I had met earlier in the week via a Zoom meeting because she also teaches a course for the Honors College at UMass. She was as surprised to find that I was an author as I was to learn she was a potter. It was nice to have a friendly face nearby and we found several moments to exchange pleasant conversation over the course of the day.
Revin’s Heart once again sold extremely well. I didn’t sell out, but sold nearly half of the books I had received from my publisher. And a handful of other books, including a book of haiku. I had hoped to have Better Angels: Tour de Force ready, but we just couldn’t make it happen. The woman commented that she was impressed at how well Revin’s Heart sold and said that my pitch was very effective. From a strictly monetary perspective, I shouldn’t quit my day job. But it’s fun to meet with the public and talk about my writing.
In the morning, the weather was sunny and it was very comfortable. But by noon, the weather turned cloudy and a cold breeze started up. I nearly lost the canopy of my tent and had to take down the Water Dragon banner because it was like a sail blowing the tent around. I will need to get some weights to hold down the tent going forward — another thing to add to my checklist.
By the end of the day, I was utterly exhausted. Loading the car, setting up, spending a whole day interacting with people, and battling the wind had left me totally beat. I came home, just left everything in the car, fixed a strong cocktail, and then went to bed by 7:30pm. But I had mostly recovered by the next morning.
Overall, it was a very successful day. And I look forward to doing more of these events in the coming weeks.
The Better Angels. Entertainment. Music and Dancing. (And Rescues!)
Life is tough for non-human biological androids trying to make their way in a big galaxy. You have to be prepared to install whatever programming modules are needed for any given circumstances. Join the Better Angels and their associates as they launch their careers on the Truck Stop at the Center of the Galaxy.
Tour de Force, an anthology of Better Angels stories, comes out December 15, 2023!
During the academic year, my time for pursuing my writing is extremely limited. Almost all of my time is devoted to reading and commenting on student papers. But I do find time for a few things.
I do continue to do several small writing activities. Using the #vss365 prompt on Mastodon, I’ve started writing a story about the Butter Angels: A group of girls who are minor celebrities because they do a cooking show on Volpex and who occasionally get mistaken for the Better Angels.
On Wednesday evenings, I continue to offer Straw Dog Writes. It’s been very successful, with a growing attendance. It’s a fun support group of writers and it’s given me a little time for writing each week that I otherwise wouldn’t have.
I’m hopeful I will be a participant at several upcoming conventions. I have returned the participant survey for Arisia-2024 and have been notified I will receive the survey soon for Boskone-2024. I have also requested to be on the program of Norwescon-2024. I’m also planning to attend Worldcon in Glasgow in summer 2024.
I have joined the volunteer staff for Readercon. I’ve ostensibly joined the “tech team”. But I’m also doing some flyers and other simple graphic design stuff. I’m not really a graphic artist, but I can use vector illustration programs and simple page layouts.
I’m looking forward to the imminent release of Better Angels: Tour de Force. I’m hoping to have copies available for sale in time for the holidays. I’m planning to be at the Holiday Market in the Mill District in North Amherst and the Amherst Farmer’s Market. Books always make great gifts!
And we’re still on track for the release of the Revin’s Heart fix-up with additions and three side-stories in January! Watch for it!
This fall, I’ve launched a new program at the Straw Dog Writers Guild: Straw Dog Writes. Modeled on the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association Writing Date, I offer a Zoom session where Straw Dog members can come for some light socializing and two 45-minute writing sessions. I’ve found this as a really useful way to enforce a little productivity and networking. I’ll be offering these at least through mid-December and then we’ll decide whether to continue the program into the new year.
Recently on Mastodon there have been several interesting daily prompts for writers: #WritersCoffeeClub, #WordWeavers, and #PennedPossibilities. During the academic year, when my professional responsibilities give me limited time for writing, these are a fun way to reflect on my writing and let me feel like I’m still engaged.
I also write a lot short fragments on Mastodon, some of which find their ways into finished works. I credit writing the fragments with helping me improve my sense of story structure: writing a complete story in 500 characters really forces you to cut the story down to its essential elements. It reminds me of when I was a graduate student and writing haiku was a way to keep doing Esperanto in a small way. I have a lot of fun with the fragments and they often give me ideas for larger stories. I often post mine using the hashtag #vss365.
In mid-September, I delivered the final manuscripts for the Better Angels anthology: Tour de Force. It’s like a TRIPLE entendre. We spent a long time workshopping titles. I had been inclined toward “The Better Angels and Sixteen Seriously Sweet and Significantly Sanguinary Stories Set on the Truck Stop at the Center of the Galaxy.” My publisher said, “Oh, great. Well, at least with that title we won’t need to worry about cover art.” The anthology should be out by mid-December.
I’m also working on the fix-up edition of Revin’s Heart. This will include the seven novelettes, but also three side-stories that tell stories where Revin isn’t present: Where There’s a Will (about how Will and Grip meet and fall in love), Curtain’s Rise (how Will and the Baron originally met), and Riva’s Escape (Revin’s transition). I’m currently writing pieces that will bridge between the novelettes. It’s giving me a chance to expand on things that readers have asked about, or expressed interest in.
I’ll be appearing in a local holiday market on November 18 at the Mill District in Amherst. I’ll have not only my own books, but also a selection of other books suitable as gifts. There are discussions about a winter market I may also attend. Stay tuned.
I’m hoping to appear at several upcoming conventions. But the current surge in COVID cases requires that I be cautious.
I had planned to attend LOSCon, but it’s looking less and less likely that I’ll be able to attend. The aren’t committed to masking and I had applied to be a participant, but they haven’t gotten back to me. time is getting short to buy plane tickets and secure housing.
I’ve applied to be a participant at Arisia (which is close by) and they’ve already committed to requiring masks. So, with any luck at all, I’ll be able to attend.
I’m hoping to attend Boskone this year. Last year, I was hospitalized and wasn’t able to make it. But, hopefully, this year will be different. I still haven’t heard that they’re requiring masks, however.
I will plan to apply to be a participant at Baycon. It’s fun to attend a conference that so many of my fellow Water Dragon authors can attend.
I’ve signed up to volunteer for Readercon. I will also apply to be a participant. I applied last year, but wasn’t accepted. Maybe by volunteering, I’ll get greater consideration.
I’ve already signed up to attend WorldCon in Glasgow in 2024. I’ve just filled out the survey to agree to be considered for participation. I had a great time at the WorldCon in Chicago and I’m super excited about going to Scotland.
I had an exciting summer! I drove cross-country to attend BayCon in July and then visited the tropical island of St. Croix where I did a lot of writing. But soon the fall classes begin and I will be swamped with academic work.
In December, the Better Angels anthology will come out. We’re still nailing down the title, but you can expect sixteen alternately sweet and sanguinary stories featuring everyone’s favorite non-human biological-android magical-girl singing-and-dancing idols.
In January, the compiled Revin’s Heart anthology will come out. It will include revised and extended versions of the novelettes plus three special side-stories, that provide histories for some of the key events leading up to Revin’s Heart. You won’t want to miss it!
I have a whole series of conventions coming up. I have registered to attend WorldCon2024 in Glasgow! I am super excited! I have been hoping to attend LOSCon in November, but with the appearance of new COVID variants, I may not be able to make it. My pulmonologist has given me orders not to attend public events that are not double masked and it is not currently listed as a “masks required” event. I’m hoping to attend both Arisia and Boskone this year. I didn’t make Boskone last year due to my hospitalization. I have my fingers crossed for this year.
I’m starting a new program for Straw Dog Writers’ Guild members: Straw Dog Writes. Members will be able to join a Zoom meeting Wednesday evenings at 7pm to write together. In a survey last year, a number of members were interested in ways to meet other members and write together. And were looking for events that didn’t require driving in the dark. I’m hopeful this will find an audience.
On November 18, I will attending the Mill District Holiday Market to sell books. I will have my own books plus a selection of other books people might want to purchase as gifts. In February, I’m hoping to arrange readings at local bookstores.
I was not expecting to come to love Revin, Grip, and Will as much as I did over the course of the series. […] Brewer has done a masterful job of bringing this world and it’s inhabitants to life, and while there have been some dark moments, they’ve been balanced by the light-hearted and heart-warming ones.
Liliyana Shadowlyn in the Faerie Review
As Sssindy would say, “Now you’re makin’ me blush!
When I was hospitalized in February, it threw my BayCon plans into doubt. Finally, I decided to travel by throwing caution to the winds and making a cross-country road trip with my son to sight-see along the way. We rented a car drove from Massachusetts, through Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon, finally arriving in California. We saw the Dells, the Badlands, Yellowstone, Portland, Crater Lake, and drove the Coastal Highway — about 5000 miles in total. And, after BayCon, we will surrender the car at the airport and fly home. It’s been an incredible odyssey.
I’m looking forward to BayCon. I mostly intend to be at the Water Dragon Publishing dealer table to sell books. It looks to be a great weekend. Drop by to say hello!
After a long, dark winter and a busy spring, summer finally begins! Being hospitalized in February and then spending the spring trying to recover and stay current with my teaching, I got very little writing done. But summer promises to be better.
The final installment of Revin’s Heart, Rewriting the Rules, comes out June 23! I’ve been writing posts for a blog tour that should happen the week before it comes out. It’s been fun writing the posts, but it’s meant I haven’t been posting anything here.
I didn’t get NO writing done. I wrote a piece of flash fiction A Bad Night in Cloudrise, which I submitted to the Queer SciFi Flash Fiction Contest. And I also wrote a Better Angels story over spring break: The Better Angels and the Military Morale Mishegoss. But, other than my #VSS365 fragments, I didn’t get much fiction writing done at all.
That makes sense, in that my students come first. My writing class was among the best I’ve ever had! They really brought passion and commitment to their Proposals and Projects. I was impressed and touched to see their drive and excitement. Just a few students can really tip the “feel” a course has, but this was like a groundswell. It was wonderful. My honors students were, as always, an ongoing source of inspiration. It’s simply amazing to get to know students throughout a whole year and watch them develop skills and self-confidence. I’m so grateful I get to teach this course.
This summer, I have two projects I need to wrap up and then a big project I want to focus on. While writing Campshire! (a Revin’s Heart project) a story occurred to me that I wanted to tell. Lady Cecelia’s Flowers is about 2/3 written and I just need to write the buildup, the climax, and the epilogue. I know what’s going to happen — I just need to let the events flow onto the page. And while I was writing the triple-M, I had an idea for an ambitious Better Angels story: The Complicated Camping Catastrophe. I’ve got it outlined and have written a dozen scenes, but I want to get it wrapped up before I move on to the Big Event: The Ground Never Lies.
For about a year, I’ve been writing scenes and vignettes for a story about Veronica Bellox, a geomancer with an anger problem, and Sophie, the sheltered girl who falls in love with her. I wrote a kind of pilot short story that went off the rails. But there’s a fun story here and I think it will need to be a novel to tell it properly. And that’s what I hope to spend the balance of the summer on.
Due to my uncertain health, I was unable to plan to attend events during the winter and so was unable to propose myself as a participant for BayCon, but I’m still hoping to attend, to meet people and sell books at the Water Dragon Publishing dealer table. It’s not yet certain I’ll attend, but I’m working on it. Watch for details soon. I may also be at a local Queer Pop-up Market on Saturday for Pride. Fingers crossed.
During the academic year, I don’t have much time for writing. I’ve managed to do a few things. But I can’t wait for summer!
My serial, It’s Complicated (aka “The Mary Stories”) has begun coming out at Kindle Vella. The first three chapters are free-to-read. Chapters will release weekly on Fridays until June 9.
On April 22, 2023, I submitted the final manuscript of the Revin’s Heart series: Rewriting the Rules. This is the last novelette in the series and it ties up all of the loose ends in a very satisfactory way.
I was also invited to write the Foreword for the Spring 2023 Dragon Gems anthology. My first effort was praised for being excellent, but only for — ahem — a more specialized literature. So it was conserved against such time as such a thing might be published and I was invited to try again. So I did try again and (as a joke) wrote one for a horror anthology. And then the editor said, “Hey! We’re doing a horror anthology in the Fall and I’m totally saving this for that. So can you try one more time?” So, I did and produced a satisfactory Foreword. So, you should totally buy the anthology to read my awesome Foreword. Oh! And there are some excellent stories in the anthology too.
I’ve written a new story that’s pretty exciting (if I say so myself): The Better Angels and the Military Morale Mishegoss. The Angels are on a morale boosting tour on the planet Palisade when fighting heats up.
“‘Pedes incoming!” was blasted over the loudspeakers.
The soldiers, with good discipline, began to scatter to their positions. The Angels fell back to the cargo hatch. Cap’n Tau started the engines which first whined and then grew to a grumbling roar. David from his perch, spotted movement coming from the west.
“‘Pedes on the base!” he reported, and took aim with his Ublyudok particle rifle.
The ‘pede soldier morph was a large centipede-like creature. They had little intelligence and carried no weapons, but were vicious and single-minded. They were highly flattened with thick exoskeletons, huge pincers, and many legs, that could roll at great speed like a hoop. There were dozens rolling across the tarmac toward Angels’ Wings.
David fired the Ublyudok, which emitted a deafening scream, and hit five ‘pedes in rapid succession. But there were many more coming.
from The Better Angels and the Military Morale Mishegoss
And there’s yet another Better Angels story in the works. And I’ve got several manuscripts out to markets. Hopefully I’ll have more good news soon.
In just a few weeks, the academic year will wrap up and I’ll have the summer to focus on writing. I’m hoping to finally start working on The Ground Never Lies. I can’t wait!
On March 18, 2023, I offered a presentation at @nerdsummit, Publishing 101: Writing books for fun and profit. It went well and was well received. The recording is now available at youtube. At 41:18 you can hear me reading The Better Angels and the Super Sticky Situation, a 500 word bit of flash fiction i wrote for Valentines Day at The Truck Stop at the Center of the Galaxy.
Coming up in April, I will be appearing at Flights of Foundry, an online writers convention. I will be offering a reading on April 14 at 7pm Eastern time and on April 16, I will serve on a panel about Geology for World Builders at 3pm.
I’ve proposed myself to be an online participant at the Nebulas May 12-14, so keep your eyes peeled.
J. Scott Coatsworth asked folks at QueerSciFi how many stories they’d written versus how many published. I did a quick assessment to figure it out.
My first three speculative fiction stories were in Esperanto and were all published. Milos kaj Donos was a kind of parable, Kion Dio Farus was an odd story about a bisexual protagonist, and Krepusko sub Fago tells the story of an ace teenager who helps her community through poetry. This last received an honorable mention in the international Beletra Konkurso.
In English, I’ve written about 41 stories. Of these 12 have been published, and another 18 are “in press” in one form or another. Most of them are as series.
The first story I wrote, much revised, was eventually published as The Third Time’s the Charm and became the foundation of the series Revin’s Heart. There are six more novelettes in the series and three side-stories that will be collected together in January 2024. Plus I’ve written a follow on novella Devishire! and am currently working on Campshire!
The Better Angels, written for the Truck Stop at the Center of the Galaxy, has led to another series of short fiction which currently numbers seven additional stories (two of which are flash fiction). Four of these have been published: the initial story with the three appearing only briefly associated with holiday events. Current plans are to release some individually and publish them all (and others I will write) in a collection later this year.
Next month, I’m planning to release a series I had written earlier, It’s Complicated, via Amazon Vella over 10 weeks beginning April 7, 2023. It’s what might be considered a “light novel” in Japan and was highly influenced by my passion for Japanese manga and literature. You might think of it as grappling with the question of what happened to all of the yōkai in the West:
She was dressed the same as the night before, with an old-fashioned ruffled blouse & skirt, a red cape, white stockings, & patent-leather shoes with gold buckles. Her hood was up today, wet with rain, covering her pretty curls.
“He said he had fun with Mary. Are you Mary?” I asked.
She cocked her head over on one side, then smiled. “You not ‘member. You call me Mary.”
“W-What are you?” I asked.
She raised her hands up next to her face & spread out her fingers.
“I scary monster,” she said.
from “To What Do I Owe” in “It’s Complicated”
There are ten chapters, currently. The first three are free and then people will have to pay to read more. Depending on the response, I might draft some more during the summer. There is a lot more story I could tell.
In terms of thus-far unpublished works, there is a Truck Stop novella about neoboxers, An Exchange of Services. I have a novel, A Familiar Problem (with a side-story A Different Midsummer Night’s Dream). And then a number of pieces of short fiction: Just a Little Breathing Room, A Bitter Lesson, The Silver Tongue, and Not Just Black and White.
Finally, I’m currently planning to write a sequel to A Familiar Problem, A Familiar Problem II: The Wooing of Aimee and an entirely new novel The Ground Never Lies.
On March 24, 2023, Then They Fight You is being released by Water Dragon Publishing. This is Part Six of Revin’s Heart. This installment is quite different from the others. Revin has been appointed — very nearly impressed — as the King’s Special Envoy to negotiate an end to the war between the islands. It’s a huge change from anything he’s done before. Although he struggles and has many travails, he rises to the challenge to best of his ability.
Almost exactly one year earlier, on March 25, 2022, the second part of Revin’s Heart was released. I had started writing it basically as soon as the first one was published. What a difference a year makes. Even while I was finalizing the manuscript For the Favor of Lady I had finished drafting They They Fight You. I knew what the title was going to be even before I started writing. I had begun with the manuscript for The End of His Rope and done this on the title page of the very first version: The End of His Ropen They Fight You.
I can’t say I knew exactly where the story would go as I wrote it. My process for writing has changed a lot from the first couple of stories, that I largely “pantsed,” to the later versions, where I began to rigorously outline before writing. It’s been an adventure.
There’s only one more novelette in Revin’s Heart that will come out in June: Rewriting the Rules. It promises more excitement, intrigue, and perhaps just a bit of romance. But even after it concludes, Revin’s adventures will continue!
In January, 2024, Revin’s Heart will be published in a collected “fix-up” edition that will include all of the novelettes (with some revisions and enhancements), plus three “side stories.” These are stories about characters from Revin’s Heart that take place when Revin isn’t there. The first “Where There’s a Will” describes the events that bring Will and Grip together. This is alluded to in For the Favor of a Lady:
“Just how long have you and Will been together,” Revin asked.
“It will be two years next week. On Thursday.” Grip said.
“You know it to the day. That’s very sweet,” Revin said.
Grip looked down, blushing. But he looked happy. “They’ve been the best two years of my life.”
“How did you meet?” Revin asked.
“Oh, that’s a long story for another time,” Grip replied.
The second, “Curtains Rise“, describes how Will and the Baron initially met, as was mentioned in Storm Clouds Gather:
Then Will saw the Baron and stopped dead in his tracks.
“Well met, William,” the Baron said.
“It’s Curtains!” Will said.
“What?” Grip said, looking back and forth between the two of them.
“Curtains! That’s what they called him back when…” Will said, then broke off when he caught the Baron’s expression. “I’ll… I’ll tell you sometime later.”
The final side-story, Riva’s Escape, begins with Revin before his transition: before he left home and began his adventures. It was, in many ways, the hardest story to write. But very satisfying to bring to light.
After Revin’s Heart, Revin has continued to have adventures as well. One novella, Devishire!, has already been written. And Campshire! is well underway.
It’s been a treat to share Revin with the world. It’s been a pleasure to work with Water Dragon Publishing that has been a supportive partner through the entire process. I look forward to conveying Revin’s ongoing adventures for as long as they’ll let me.
Although it was bitterly disappointing to not be able to attend Boskone, I was pleased to see that Revin’s Heart sold reasonably well, in spite of my absence. The next installment, Then They Fight You, will come out in March. The final part, Rewriting the Rules, is scheduled to come out in June. The fix-up volume, that will collect all of the parts plus three side-stories is tentatively scheduled for January 2024. And I’ve finished drafting a follow-on novella that will come out after.
After the interest generated by The Better Angels and the Very Scary Halloween, I was invited to submit a couple of new Better Angels stories. They have not yet been scheduled for publication, but look for them in the coming months at The Truck Stop at the Center of the Galaxy. In fact, I couldn’t stop with just two new stories and I wrote three. And then, after my hospital stay, I was inspired to write another that is plotted but not yet written. So you’ll be seeing a lot more of the Better Angels very soon.
I will giving a talk at NERDSummit on Saturday March 18, 2023. I was one of the co-founders of the NERDSummit conference (which evolved from Western Mass Drupal Camp, that I also co-founded). I’m looking forward to sharing what I’ve learned about publishing in the last couple of years, in part because it gives me an opportunity to reflect on and organize my experiences.
I have been selected as a participant for Flights of Foundry April 14-16. I don’t think the times are firm yet, but it looks like I’ll have an hour (!) for reading. I remember last year, the readings were great as they allowed significant opportunity for attendees to ask questions and discuss topics with authors. I’m hoping people will come by to chat with me and I’ll have enough interest to read some of my newer unpublished stuff, rather than just my published work to push book sales.
In addition to the reading at Flights of Foundry, I will also be a panelist on “Geology for Worldbuilders” which is a topic near-and-dear to my heart. One of my particular interests is the intersection between geoscience and ecology to have plant communities reflective of the underlying geological conditions. Of course, not every protagonist is a naturalist and can rattle off the plants and minerals by name. But that I know them guides me in terms of the descriptions I can write in terms of the look and feel of the landscapes. And I appreciate the increased verisimilitude, even if no-one else does. My next novel, tentatively entitled “The Ground Never Lies” is about a geomancer, and my knowledge of geoscience has been critical in setting up the story and many of the key scenes.
Unfortunately, after my hospitalization, it appears that face-to-face events are going to be off the table for the foreseeable future. I had planned to attend BayCon this summer but, unless things change, that now looks unlikely. But I really can’t complain as things could have been so, so much worse.
In mid-February, I needed to be rushed to the emergency room and spent 12 days in the hospital. It’s the first time I’ve been hospitalized since I was a child. I’ve spent a fair amount of time in the emergency room and hospital for family members, but being there for yourself is different.
I was particularly crushed because I ended up missing Boskone. I had been selected to moderate and serve on panels, I was scheduled for a reading, and I was the primary representative of the dealer table for Water Dragon Publishing.
That said, it was fascinating, as a biologist, to see medical science up close. I underwent a number of procedures that generated fantastic amounts of data and it was interesting to see how the medical practitioners used those data to falsify some hypotheses and make others. I discovered a lot about myself and much of it was reassuring: I do have some chronic medical conditions that will require long-term treatment. But many of the scariest possibilities were excluded and it was encouraging to learn that those that remain can likely be managed.
I was cared for by more than 50 people during my stay, the majority of them nurses. Nurses are amazing. I have new-found respect for nurses who must accomplish many thankless tasks while providing emotional support yet, at the same time, must be prepared to enforce the rules on a patient that deviates from the care guidelines. It’s a delicate dance.
It gave me an idea for a new Better Angels story which will hopefully make it to the Truck Stop at the Center of the Galaxy before too long: the working title is “Better Angels and the Nighty-Night Nurses.”
Note: I selected the image for this post because it is my “medicine basket”. Many years ago, I traveled to the desert southwest and visited a museum where, among the displays, was a medicine basket that had been discovered in a archaeological dig which had a whole variety of interesting items inside: ground minerals, feathers, dried plants, bones, etc. which researchers believed were used by a shaman for ritualistic purposes. And I was seized with the inspiration to make one for myself. So I purchased a basket at a native market and have collected all kinds of weird things that I keep in mine.
I’m been myopic and needed glasses since I was in middle school. Around the time, I turned 40, I asked my optometrist about when I might need to start using reading glasses. He looked over his glasses at me and said, “You’ll know.” Sure enough, a few years later, I discovered my arms weren’t log enough anymore and I got progressive lenses.
I’ve been very happy with progressive lenses for most things: you just rock your head up and down and things generally just come into focus. When you’re first getting used to them, you have to be careful because there are certain things you simply can’t focus on anymore — like your feet — and it’s easy to trip until you get used to it.
During the pandemic, I got a second monitor and set it up in portrait mode next to my computer. It’s awesome for looking at whole documents (and most responsive web pages). But, I discovered that it was really hard to focus on the top region of the monitor because I had to tilt my head way back. So I decided to invest in some “computer glasses”.
Computer glasses are dedicated to a single, middle-distance focal area. Stuff is out of focus both close up and far away. But the whole region of the computer is in perfect focus, which makes all kinds of stuff easier. It’s been a great investment and makes doing my computer work significantly easier.
I’ve also found they’re great for cooking. I had never noticed, but it’s hard to read the spice bottles over my head above the stove. With the computer classes, the whole range, counters, and cabinets are in focus.
To be clear(er) Water Dragon Publishing has been developing a short fiction program for several years called “Dragon Gems”. Novelettes accepted for publication get their own individually designed cover and are published as both ebooks and printed books. Shorter fiction is now collected together in quarterly anthologies.
I submitted a novelette, The Third Time’s the Charm, to the Dragon Gems program which was accepted for publication. I then succeeded in persuading my (soft-hearted? soft-headed?) editor to open-endedly serialize subsequent novelettes as Revin’s Heart.
In the end, I wrote seven novelettes with the intention of collecting them together as a fix-up (along with several side-stories.) I did it partly because, like Charlie Jane, I really like episodic fiction. (Tho partly it was also because that’s where I was in my fiction writing at that point — I hadn’t written any longer fiction and I was nervous about taking on longer projects.) It’s worked out well for me as it’s given me the a year where every three or four months I could go back and promote something. As a new author, it must be difficult to publish a debut novel and then say, “Well, I’ll be back in two years.”
Now, Water Dragon has asked me to write some new stories extending my Better Angels stories with the goal of eventually developing a collection. So far, I’ve written seven stories (maybe eight, depending on how you count). So I expect you’ll be seeing more of those this year.
I’ve now helped run the dealer table for Water Dragon at Worldcon, ComicCon, and Arisia (and, in a few weeks, Boskone ). It’s been interesting to see the reactions that readers have to the Dragon Gems. A number of people have said that, for whatever reason — pandemic, social media, dystopia, planetary collapse, take your pick — they are looking for shorter fiction and the Dragon Gems are just what they want. Similarly, many authors have stopped by and been giddy to see that Water Dragon accepts novelettes.
And neither of them are talking about Amazon’s Kindle Vella or Radish which are yet further takes on serialized fiction.
In any event, I was very pleased to see Charlie Jane’s post because it dovetails with my experience perfectly. There’s a lot of short fiction out there, but the market for it is broken. And there are too few mechanisms for people to discover it.
Only a month after Arisia, I will be returning to Boston to appear at Boskone where I will be reprising my role coordinating the dealer table for Water Dragon Publishing and serving on a variety of panels.
I’ve never attended a full Boskone before, but I did drive over for a day a few years ago. It was great. So I’m really looking forward to it this year.
It’s a little tricky because I have to teach a class in Amherst at 1:25. But I’ve made arrangements with my department to teach my class via Zoom and then I will run downstairs for my first appearance.
Below are the program elements where I’m appearing:
Serving up a Tasty World (Friday 4pm in Burroughs)
Inventive gastronomy can really spice up speculative fiction. We look at how food and local cuisine can explore character, society, setting, gender, and more. Our panelists dish on the culinary delights that tantalize us in fiction, from regional teas to tasty grubs and kingly feasts. How can we redefine, re-imagine, or recover the historical aspects of the kitchen and the cook fire in fiction? And what should you know about writing food-centric scenes that sizzle?
Reading (Sat 12:30pm in Griffin)
I’ll be reading with Laurence Raphael Brothers!
In Our Own Voices (Sat 7pm in Marina 2)
The world is a many-splendored and wondrous thing! If you are from a marginalized community, how do you tell your story? What restricts your opportunities to do so? For what audience do you write? Where can your voice be heard? Our panelists discuss why this is important.
Disability in Speculative Fiction (Sun 10am in Galleria Meetup 1)
Disability takes many forms, both visible and invisible. In the past, characters in the background were often given disabilities just to check the diversity box, but that’s changing. We take a look at disabled characters across the speculative fiction genres and how their disabilities are featured within their stories, the roles they take, and the types of stories they tell. Why don’t we see more disabilities in stories that take place in eras or worlds without decent medical services? And what does it take to tell these stories well? And why are they so important?
Bioethical Issues Raised by SF (Sun 11:30 in Marina 2)
Ongoing advances in biotechnology and biomedical research have delivered some important benefits and promise more. But they’ve also brought ethical concerns, new moral dilemmas, and calls for moratoria or fresh regulation. There may or may not be something wrong with playing God: but are we playing blind? What might we unleash with stem cell research, modified viruses, bioengineered cures, self-replicating nanobots, cloning, and regrowth of organs or limbs?
I attended the Arisia science fiction convention in Boston for the first time. I signed up to be a participant and also agreed to set up and run the booth in the dealer room for Water Dragon Publishing. In other news, I am also a masochist and glutton for punishment. In fact, I had a great time. But it was not without complications.
The books came late. I had been planning to leave midday on Thursday to drive during the daylight, but a critical box of books wasn’t scheduled to arrive until Thursday. All we knew was that it was to be before 9pm. The day came and we had snow changing over to rain. I waited and waited. I was in a perpetual flight/flight state waiting for the books to arrive. But, once they did, I was fine. I drove to Boston, found a parking spot right by the elevator, and was good.
At one point during shipment, the tracking website had gone haywire and I worried the books might not actually arrive on Thursday, so I thought it prudent to make a backup plan. I asked a friend if he thought he might be able to drive to Boston if the box didn’t come until later. I was on the program on Friday, so I really couldn’t wait. But everything turned out OK. Except my friend had cleared the possible trip with his wife who then expressed interest in driving to Boston even in the absence of any need. But another box of books arrived Friday, so he brought that one. (And now he claims he’s mad at me because of how much his wife made him spend at the Ikea store, but that’s another story.
Yet another heavy box of books arrived on Monday. But that too is yet another story.
I was signed up to moderate a panel on Intersections Between Ecofiction and Science Fiction. I had been a bit concerned that I had been unable to reach the participants ahead of time. (It was new that you had to opt-in to share your address and many participants seemingly hadn’t understood that.) But they changed the participant list a couple of times and then finally closed the panel for a lack of participants. So that was a little disappointing.
I was a participant in a panel on Gender & Sexual Identity Representation in Media. I was really excited about this one because one of the participants of a similar panel at Worldcon that I had moderated was to be the moderator of the panel. But when I saw the final list, he wasn’t on it anymore. And when I went to room where that panel had been scheduled, it wasn’t there either. Luckily, since I always leave plenty of time, I was able to look up where it had been moved to and I was still the first one there.
I always worry that I won’t find anything to say when I’m a panelist but I’ve always found that if you stick a microphone in front of me, I can babble surprisingly cogently at length about almost anything. I was able to offer a number of perspectives that the audience and other panelists seemed to appreciate. And I learned a lot too, although I wished I had a keyboard so I could have taken better notes.
I was also scheduled for a reading. The session I was signed up for had five people on it and included another Water Dragon author, so that was exciting. But I got an email asking me if I was willing to be flexible so they could rejigger things. I said sure, so they moved me to the next day but there were only three of us, so I got 20 minutes instead of just 10. But more excitingly one was James Cambias. I had seen him read at the Odyssey Bookshop several years ago with Elizabeth Bear and Max Gladstone. And I just been scheduled for a panel with him moderating at Boskone. And he had just stopped by the Water Dragon booth and I had had a chance to catch up with him. So this was just icing on the cake.
The reading went well. We had been chatting ahead of time and I had mentioned Better Angels and the Truck Stop at the Center of the Galaxy, so everyone called on me to read from that first. So I did. As I was reading it, I was like “Wow. She keeps saying ‘Master’ a lot. Is that really OK anymore? And Gaetz says the F-word a fuck of a lot times. Shit! Was this really a good idea?” Then Amy J. Murphy read for 10 minutes. Then Jim read for the full 20 minutes. It was fabulous — a really funny bit. I read a scene from Crossing the Streams and Amy read another from her books. It was a small audience, no more than 10, but enthusiastic and generous.
I had been really worried about being responsible for running the table in the dealer room, but everything went great. I was able to roll everything in Thursday night and set up Friday morning. We had two tables set in an L shape. I had the insight that the corner would be the prime real-estate so I set my stuff up on one corner and left the center and other corner for my two co-conspirators.
Neither of the authors helping run the table were actually Water Dragon authors. One was Kathryn Sullivan who has been attending conventions and selling books for decades. She had two middle-grade fantasy books and an anthology. She had connected with us via a friend and it was great to have her help and insight. The other was a new author, Greg Stone, who’s been published by Paper Angel Press (the general publisher of which Water Dragon is an imprint). Among the books I had been waiting for was his first novel, a cozy mystery set in Vermont. And my friend brought the hardcovers on Saturday.
I had fun interacting with readers who came up to the table. I’ve developed a pretty good line of patter for many of the books, though I don’t know all of them well enough to say something meaningful. Some people just want to browse silently. Others want a whole tour. I’ve tried to adopt a just-in-time approach to providing information. When someone is looking at the short fiction, I would say, “Anything that isn’t marked is probably $5.” Or when they got to the Truck Stop stories to explain what the Truck Stop at the Center of the Galaxy is. “Like Callahans,” one old-timer said.
A number of other dealers were unhappy with the low attendance and, in particular, that the con-suite wasn’t co-located with the dealer room. Evidently, that was a big draw that brought many people through the dealer room to get snacks and drinks. But they had put it somewhere else mainly to protect us from people not wearing masks while they ate/drank, so I couldn’t fault them.
When things wrapped up, I was very grateful for the help of my co-conspirators and was able to get a prompt start driving home. Google initially told me I was on the fastest route, but then started trying to get me to get off the ‘pike and drive through Boston to get to Route 2. I turned off Google and just accepted that I would be delayed a bit on the ‘pike. And I was. But I got home in good order and went to bed just a couple of hours later, utterly exhausted.
I could tell you about the next day, but that would be yet ANOTHER other story.
When I first wrote The Third Time’s the Charm, it was more like the first chapter of a book than it was a short story. So I had a sense of the larger story that lay beyond the initial foray. But, to be honest, I only had the vaguest idea of the overall arc of the story. I hadn’t made many of the important world building decisions. I went through many rounds of revisions to give it a satisfying arc of its own, but the rest was still there, taunting me and I really wanted to tell the whole story. It speaks volumes that Water Dragon Publishing was willing to take the risk to serialize Revin’s Heart and give me more-or-less free rein to develop the story as I wanted.
I wrote For the Favor of a Lady, primarily to learn more about the characters. I had only the vaguest idea about Grip’s origins. When I wrote Storm Clouds Gather, the Etheric Storm Generator arc presented itself which led directly to Crossing the Streams. And it was at that time, that the shape of the rest of the series took form. But I still had to get from here to there: that’s what The End of His Rope is: a bridge between the earlier arcs and the arcs that follow. It also introduces a couple of important new characters and gives us an opportunity gain more insight into Revin’s character.
As with previous parts, there are many (of what I hope are) “warm, fun interactions between likable characters”. And there are several of the dramatic airship scenes that I know are popular with readers. And some nail-biting action. And, if I say so myself, the ending is particularly satisfying and really sets the stage for the last two parts that follow.
After I finished writing Revin’s Heart, I wrote three side-stories that recount events where Revin is not present. Since Revin’s Heart is told from his point-of-view, these couldn’t be included. But I thought readers that had gotten to know the characters might enjoy seeing how they came to end up where they had. The first of these, Where There’s a Will, is about how Will and Grip met and fell in love (this is teased in For the Favor of a Lady).
“Just how long have you and Will been together,” Revin asked.
“It will be two years next week. On Thursday.” Grip said.
“You know it to the day. That’s very sweet,” Revin said.
Grip looked down, blushing. But he looked happy. “They’ve been the best two years of my life.”
“How did you meet?” Revin asked.
“Oh, that’s a long story for another time,” Grip replied.
from For the Favor of a Lady
The second, Curtains Rise, describes the history that Will and the Baron, (Grip’s father) share. This is teased in Storm Clouds Gather.
Then Will saw the Baron and stopped dead in his tracks.
“Well met, William,” the Baron said.
“It’s Curtains!” Will said.
“What?” Grip said, looking back and forth between the two of them.
“Curtains! That’s what they called him back when…” Will said, then broke off when he caught the Baron’s expression. “I’ll… I’ll tell you sometime later.”
from Storm Clouds Gather
These stories were a delight for me to write. But there was one more side story I decided that I really needed to write: Revin’s origin story. That is, the story of his transition from a woman to man.
I was worried about writing this story because I knew it was going to require to me to make a number of choices that might not support choices I had made in writing Revin’s Heart. But, when I had finished, I was was pleased with the results that required no more than token changes to the stories. And gave me a lot of deeper insight into Revin’s character.
I’m telling this story now because I realized when a beta reader reviewed the manuscript, that there were a number of unanswered questions about the series that some readers would want to know that I now knew the answers to. And there were a couple of perfect scenes that I could elaborate in the The End of His Rope that would allow me to tell this story. So I did. Long after the manuscript was “done” I got it out again and added a thousand words. I hope you’ll be pleased with the results.
Back in August, I was interviewed for the Small Publishing in a Big Universe Podcast. To be honest, I can’t remember it all that well: I remember babbling incoherently for a long time and then the interviewer finally said, “OK, OK. Got it. Put a sock in it. You can stop talking now. Sheesh! We had enough half an hour ago!” *
It was a wonderful experience, to be honest. It was fun to have a chance to chat about my writing experience and to reflect on my first year as a published author.
But now, after having been edited, the podcast is ready for you to enjoy in all its glory. (And for me, because, as I say, I have absolutely no recollection of what I said. :-))
In October, I got the opportunity to be on the other side of the microphone when I interviewed Francesca Forrest. It was a blast to talk to another author about their writing. Her interview should be ready early next year.
* Note: Some people’s individual recollections regarding these events may differ.
Below are my publications that were (or will be) released in 2022.
Brewer, S.D. [in press]. The End of His Rope. Part Five of Revin’s Heart, Water Dragon Publishing, San Jose, California.
Brewer, S.D. [in press]. The Right Motivation in Corporate Catharsis: The Work From Home Edition, Water Dragon Publishing, San Jose, California.
Brewer, S.D. [in press]. Something Else to Do in Modern Magic. Knight Writing Press, Parker, Colorado.
Brewer, S.D. 2022. Imaginary Friends in The Future’s So Bright, Water Dragon Publishing, San Jose, California. pages 290-297.
Brewer, S.D. 2022. Better Angels and the Very Scary Halloween. Truck Stop at the Center of the Galaxy Boos-Day, Water Dragon Publishing, San Jose, California. Available at: [truckstop.waterdragonpublishing.com/truck-sto...](https://truckstop.waterdragonpublishing.com/truck-stop-boos-day/very-scary-halloween/)
Brewer, S.D. 2022. Who’s Afraid of Whom. Truck Stop at the Center of the Galaxy Boos-Day, Water Dragon Publishing, San Jose, California. Available at: [truckstop.waterdragonpublishing.com/truck-sto...](https://truckstop.waterdragonpublishing.com/truck-stop-boos-day/whos-afraid-of-whom/)
Brewer, S.D. 2022. Crossing the Streams. Part Four of Revin’s Heart, Water Dragon Publishing, San Jose, California. 42pp.
Brewer, S.D. 2022. Better Angels. Truck Stop at the Center of the Galaxy, Water Dragon Publishing, San Jose, California. 25pp.
Brewer, S.D. 2022. Storm Clouds Gather. Part Three of Revin’s Heart, Water Dragon Publishing, San Jose, California. 36pp.
Brewer, S.D. 2022. For the Favor of a Lady. Part Two of Revin’s Heart, Water Dragon Publishing, San Jose, California. 42pp.