Archive for the ‘Read My Stuff.’ Category

Grá finder – Orycon 2011

Hey all,

I’ll be at Orycon (November 11th through 13th at the Portland Doubletree Hotel.)

I’ll be reading and you should TOTALLY COME. (seriously, there may be cookies.)

—–
Saturday – Nov 12 – 5:30pm
Grá Linnaea Reads from his own work
Room: Grant

But you can also see my purple-haired nonsensical self on panels:

—–
Friday – Nov 11 – 2:00pm – Drowning in slush – Room: Idaho
The best and worst of slush. How does slush reading work and who does it? What makes a story stand out from the slush pile? Is there any way around the pile? Are agents now the new slush readers, and how is that working out for the publishing industry?
Leslie What, (*)Grá Linnaea, Lizzy Shannon, Wendy Wagner

—–
Friday – Nov 11 – 4:00:pm – Theme – Room: Hawthorne
What is theme? How do you develop theme in your writing, or should you even try? For the sake of future graduate students studying your brilliant prose, learn about this often-neglected aspect of storytelling.
Karen Azinger, Bill Johnson, (*)Grá Linnaea, Richard A. Lovett

—–
Saturday – Nov 12 – 12:00:pm – Science Fiction as a Tool for Social Change – Room: Idaho
Many writers have put their ideals into their writing. Some have even tried to get people to follow those ideas.
(*)Rhiannon Louve, Brenda Cooper, Grá Linnaea, Edward Morris, G. David Nordley

—–
Saturday – Nov 12 – 2:00:pm – But I thought it was perfect! – Room: Hawthorne
The pain and pleasure of giving and receiving critiques, and how to employ feedback while honoring your muse.
(*)Mary Rosenblum/Mary Freeman, Grá Linnaea, Bill Johnson, Joan Gaustad, Richard A. Lovett

—–
Saturday – Nov 12 – 3:00:pm – Writers of the Future – Room: Roosevelt
Much more than a contest, this can be a stepping stone to a published career. Come find out about this contest, what it takes, and what it can do for you.
(*)Ken Scholes, Aimee C. Amodio, Stoney Compton, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Grá Linnaea

—–
Sunday – Nov 13 – 12:00:pm – Publishing Ethics – Room: Hamilton
When does a long response time become unprofessional or even insulting? How does an editor or publisher offer suggestions to a struggling author without offending them? Should they? This panel discusses where in the field of publishing the line is drawn (or should be drawn) between ethical decisions and business decisions.
Guy Letourneau, (*)Grá Linnaea, Claude Lalumière, Bruce Taylor

If you’re at the con, come check it out!

A bit of good news.

Still slowly working at the novel and restarting my short story submission process. And of course time is still being fickle. It’s hard to find enough to work my money-job, read for shimmer, write, submit and make time for all the social opportunities around me (I guess it’s a pretty high class problem that there’s too many fun things to do.) 😛

Oh, and I need to find time to exercise. And do yoga. And relax. And eat. And sleep …

Anyway, before I sleep, I wanted to note that I’m feeling better and better about my writing progress, though I’m still aware of blowing out a year’s worth of cobwebs in my writer brain.

Anyway anyway, I was falling asleep when I was woken up by a notice of a nice review from Nathaniel Katz.

Of the fuller stories, most are quite successful. In his introduction to The Exit to San Breta (in Dreamsongs), George R.R. Martin says that he wanted to update the ghost story, taking the traumatized undead from gothic mansions and putting them in the middle of where modern tragedy occurred: the expressways. Taking Martin’s 1972 logic and bringing it to the 21st century, Grá Linnaea and Sarah Dunn explore death through facebook in Messages from Valerie Polichar. Over the course of the story, Valerie becomes a sympathetic character, and the way that she becomes obsessed and then is taken over by her obsession is chilling.

…
.

Standouts [of issue 2]: Sweepers, The Rat Burner, Messages from Valerie Polichar

Yay. Thanks, Nathaniel

You can read the whole review here. And of course you can still purchase a copy of Shock Totem.

Somehow, I’d missed this earlier review by Sheila Merritt, who also seemed to really like the story.

The outstanding story in the volume is Message From Valerie Polichar.

I never thought folks would go for such a quirky little story. When I read it out loud at Orycon, all I could hear was how … unstorylike its structure was. I was pleasantly shocked when “Messages from Valerie Polichar” was recommended for a Stoker Award. I guess I’ll just have to admit that some people like it.

All of which is to say it’s nice to be reminded that I can write.

Anyway, off to bed.

My recent collab is available … and reviewed!

Shock Totem - Issue 2 I collaborated on the short story, “Messages from Valerie Polichar” (my first collaboration, ever.) It just came out in Shock Totem Magazine. (This is also the first time my name’s been put on the cover!)

There’s some great stories in the issue. You can pick one up on Amazon.

—

It’s already been reviewed on a blog. Robert J. Duperre had this to say about our story:

Messages from Valerie Polichar by Grá Linnaea and Sarah Dunn – This, for a while, was my least favorite story. The inclusion of technology and technological terms in a work of fiction has a tendency to turn me off because it can date the tale horribly. However, this one, by the end, I grew to appreciate, and it became my second-favorite. It’s the story of a woman who obsesses with the dead and Facebook. Sound like an odd plot? It is. And it works.

Heh. I’m starting to get used to that. Reviewers seem to hate my stuff at first and then … i dunno, it infects their brain or something.

Thanks for the review, Robert!