Shauna Roberts's Blog, page 8

You can start signing up for Obamacare today at https://www.healthcare.gov. Despite the government shutdown, this site is active, at least for now.

If you are opposed to Obamacare for some reason, please read this blogpost by writer Kameron Hurley: http://www.kameronhurley.com/?p=13291. Before Obamacare, and without Obamacare, something similar could happen to you or someone in your family or one of your friends.

Congratulations to the winners of my birthday contest:

Alina Field
Kristine Nielson
Each wins an award-nominated 2012 science fiction or fantasy paper book of her choice from last week's list.

Thanks to everyone who took part in the contest and in my birthday celebration.

As in most years, I'm having a contest to celebrate my birthday. (Birthday number 57, if you must know.) I'm also celebrating my greatly overhauled blog and Website, now combined here on Blogspot.

To enter the contest, type your email address (disguised to fool spammers if you like) in the comment box. You're welcome to leave comments as well. (Have I left something important off from my new Website you want to point out? Please do.)

If you'd like to be on my mailing list, you can fill out the brief form in the right column or say in a comment to this post that you'd like to be on my mailing list. You will hear from me only when I publish new books and when I have book signings.

The contest ends at 11:59 pm on Saturday, 21 September. On Sunday the 22nd, my husband will draw two names from a hat. Those people will each win her or his choice of a book of fiction that was up for a major science fiction or fantasy award for 2012. Winners who are not U.S. residents will receive an ebook. You don't even have to go look them up; here is a list:

2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson (Nebula, James Tiptree Jr, Locus SF Novel, Hugo) Alif the Unseen  by G. Willow Wilson (Locus First Novel, World Fantasy Award) Ancient, Ancient  by Kiini Ibura Salaam (James Tiptree Jr) Blackout  by Mira Grant (Hugo)  Caliban's War  by James S.A. Corey (Locus SF Novel) Captain Vorpatril's Alliance  by Lois McMaster Bujold (Hugo, Locus SF Novel) Crandolin by Anna Tambour (World Fantasy Award) Death and Resurrection  by R.A. MacAvoy (Mythopoeic) Digger  by Ursula Vernon (Mythopoeic) Firebrand  by Ankaret Wells (James Tiptree Jr) Glamour in Glass by Mary Robinette Kowal [Nebula (disqualified based on a date technicality); Locus Fantasy Novel] Hide Me among the Graves by Tim Powers (Mythopoeic, Locus Fantasy Novel) Ironskin  by Tina Connolly (Nebula) Jagannath: Stories by Karin Tidbeck (James Tiptree Jr) Range of Ghosts  by Elizabeth Bear (James Tiptree Jr) Redshirts: A novel with Three Codas  by John Scalzi (Locus SF Novel, Hugo) Rituals  by Roz Kaveney (James Tiptree Jr) Seraphina by Rachel Hartman (Locus First Novel) Some Kind of Fairy Tale  by Graham Joyce (World Fantasy Award) The Apocalypse Codex  by Charles Stross (Locus Fantasy Novel) The Drowning Girl  by Caitlin R. Kiernan (Nebula, Mythopoeic, James Tiptree Jr, Locus Fantasy Novel, World Fantasy Award) The Games by Ted Kosmatka (Locus First Novel) The Hydrogen Sonata  by Iain M. Banks (Locus SF Novel) The Killing Moon  by N.K. Jemison (Nebula, World Fantasy Award, Locus Fantasy Novel, Locus Fantasy Novel)"The Weirdstone Trilogy" novels by Alan Garner (Mythopoeic) Throne of the Crescent Moon  by Saladin Ahmed (Hugo, Nebula, Locus First Novel)Up against It by M.J. Locke (James Tiptree Jr) vN  by Madeline Ashby (Locus First Novel)
 [Winner(s) of each award are boldfaced and red.] 
Good luck!

I'm redoing my blog to include the information that currently is on my Website. It will be more convenient both for you and for me to have all my information in one place.

In the meantime, though, I haven't figured out how to change the color of the sidebars and/or their text. Please excuse the temporary problems reading the sidebars and the width problems. I'll be fixing them.

Thanks for your patience.

For the next six weeks, graduates and friends of the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop will be raising money to support Clarion, a workshop that has produced many well-known writers, primarily in the sf/f genre. Clarion grads include two of my own Clarion teachers—Robert Crais and Kim Stanley Robinson—as well as notables such as Tobias Bucknell, Octavia Butler, Ted Chiang, Cory Doctorow, Gregory Frost...and on and on through the alphabet.

During the Write-a-Thon, you can support the Clarion workshop—and ensure its continued production of awesome sf/f writers—in any of several ways.

Sign up as a writer and collect pledges and donations in your name. The process is simple, and making public your writing-related goals for the summer is a great motivator to actually work on and complete your projects. Interested? Learn more or sign up here.  Donate directly to Clarion. Go here and click on the green button.Sponsor me and my summer project. My project for the Write-a-Thon is to write two short stories. To make a pledge or donation to encourage me, sign up here. Sponsor writers you know or admire who are participating in the Write-a-Thon. The list of writers who have signed up is here. You can click on each person's name to find out something about them and what project they are doing during the Write-a-Thon. If you want to support several writers, Clarion has made the process simple. Start here.Buy Clarion swag. Go here and here to find teeshirts, mugs, hats, and other stuff.No time? No money? Spread the word through your social media: blogs, Websites, Twitter accounts, Facebook page, or whatever else you do. You can grab some cool Write-a-Thon badges here.



Clarion's goal for this Write-a-Thon is to sign up at least 225 writers and to collect donations of at least $18,000.

Donations go to support the workshop in general and to scholarships to help students who otherwise could not afford to attend Clarion.

Donations are tax deductible if you itemize deductions on your U.S. federal tax form for 2013, to the extent allowed by law.



 Clarion's sister workshop, Clarion West, will be running its own Write-a-Thon at the same time, 23 June to 3 August. You can sign up as a writer, see who has already signed up, or donate directly to one or multiple writers here.

Thank you for reading this post and for helping the Clarion workshops in any way you can.

Congratulations, Sophia Rose and Cyn209! You are the two  winners of a Kindle or Nook ebook of Like Mayflies in a Stream in the Summer Banquet Blog Hop contest of last week.

I've already sent emails to both winners. If you are a winner and didn't receive an email from me, please let me know how to contact you.
 

One of the most magnificent feasts in history celebrated the completion of the Assyrian palace in Kalhu (also called Nimrud, a city that once lay north of Baghdad) in 879 B.C.E. (before the Christian era).

King Ashurnasirpal II (image free to use under GNU license)King Ashurnasirpal II wasted no time upon becoming king of Assyria (part of modern-day  Iraq) in roughly 883 B.C.E. Thirsting for war and riches, he immediately invaded north, east, and west, conquering the people there. The Syrians soon rebelled against his savage rule. His response: Burn the small children to death, and mutilate the grown men. Some had their hands and feet cut off; others lost their ears, noses, and lips.

Content that no one would revolt again, Ashurnasirpal II took his plunder home to Assyria and celebrated by forcing thousands of slaves to build him a luxurious new capital city at Kalhu. When the palace—built from imported luxury woods, limestone, and alabaster—was completed in 879 B.C.E., he held a feast for nearly 70,000 people from several countries that lasted 10 days.

According to Ashurnasirpal's own words,  the supplies he ordered for the banquet included:
1,000 fattened head of cattle1,000 calves10,000 stable sheep15,000 lambs200 head of cattle (for offerings to the goddess Ishtar) 1,000 sihhu-sheep (for offerings to Ishtar)1,000 spring lambs500 gazelles1,000 ducks500 geese500 kurku-geese (possibly cranes)1,000 mesuku-birds (a bird of prey)1,000 qaribu-birds (possibly crows)10,000 doves10,000 sukanunu-doves (possibly turtle doves)10,000 other assorted small birds10,000 assorted fish10,000 jerboa10,000 eggs10,000 jars of beer100 containers of fine mixed beer 10,000 imported skins of wine1,000 wood crates of vegetables300 containers of oil100 pistachio cones Unfortunately, Ashurnasirpal II failed to succumb to his high-fat, high-cholesterol, low-nutrient diet, either at his feast or later. He lived to crush his neighbors and create wall reliefs depicting these conquests for another 20 years.

Ashurnasirpal II is remembered today for two reasons: his great feast and his great brutality.

✥✥✥✥✥

This blog post is part of the Summer Banquet Blog Hop, in which 31 authors of historical fiction blog about historical food in the first week of June. The following authors are taking part; click on a name  to see that person's post.

Many of the Summer Blog Hoppers are also offering prizes, including me. To enter to win one of two Kindle or Nook versions of my historical novel Like Mayflies in a Stream, set in ancient Mesopotamia, comment below or like my Facebook author page at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Shauna-Roberts-author/194876117254102?ref=hl. Winners of prizes at all blogs will be announced on 10 June 2013.

Hop Participants
Random Bits of Fascination (Maria Grace)Pillings Writing Corner (David Pilling)Anna BelfrageDebra Brown Lauren GilbertGillian BagwellJulie K. RoseDonna Russo MorinRegina JeffersShauna RobertsTinney S. HeathGrace ElliotDiane Scott LewisGinger MyrickHelen HollickHeather DominMargaret SkeaYves FeyJL OakleyShannon WinslowEvangeline HollandCora LeeLaura PurcellP. O. DixonE.M. PowellSharon LathanSally Smith O'RourkeAllison BruningViolet BedfordSue MillardKim Rendfeld

Karina Fabian’s latest publication is the novella Greater Treasures, available from Amazon. It is a story set in her DragonEye universe about Vern, a private investigator who is a dragon—a scarlet-and-black North African Faerie Wyvern, to be precise—and his sidekick, nun Sister Grace. In his newest case, Vern searches for a lost artifact and must choose between saving the world and saving his best friend.

 Karina, thank you for visiting my blog today, and congratulations on the publication of Greater Treasures.
Thank you. It’s a pleasure to be here.
What was your favorite part of writing Greater Treasures?
As usual, watching Vern get himself out of tight spots. I’m awful about putting my characters through the ringer. I also enjoyed adapting the plot from The Maltese Falcon to my Faerie world. It was an interesting challenge. Oh, and Vern’s snarks are fun to write.
What genres do you read most? Who are your favorite authors? What writers have had the greatest influence on you?
I usually read science fiction and fantasy, though lately, I’ve been reading biographies of the saints for a writing job I have. I have way too many favorite authors, but when it comes to the DragonEye world, I draw inspiration from Jim Butcher’s “Dresden Files” series, Terry Pratchett’s “Discworld” novels, and Robert Asprin and Jody Lyn Nye’s “Myth, Inc.” books.
How important have your writing friends been in your development as a writer?
Very. They give me encouragement, bounce ideas with me, critique my work, and in the case of Greater Treasures, coached me through the self-publishing process. My books would be much poorer without them, and I would be much lonelier!
Your Catholic faith is important in your life. How does this influence your fiction writing?
I have a deep appreciation not only for the spirituality and morality of the Catholic faith, but also for its rich history and symbolism. It doesn’t come through in all my novels (for example, Neeta Lyffe, Zombie Exterminator), but in the DragonEye world, there’s a lot of the Catholic faith in the worldbuilding. There are also other faiths, too, incidentally, but with Sister Grace being a nun and Vern a reluctant employee of the Church, it’s more apparent there.
In Greater Treasures, Vern faces a terrible moral dilemma. Is making good ethical choices a theme in your other novels? If so, why? Are there other themes or topics you’re drawn to in your writing?
I think all good novels have some kind of moral dilemma; otherwise the character doesn’t grow. Having said that, I don’t really choose the theme. I tell the story, and let the theme come alive (or not) on its own. I’m usually a character-driven writer, so the characters will lead me to write the big issues in their lives at the time of the story.
What is your writing regimen? Would you recommend it to aspiring authors?
At the moment, I don’t have a good writing regimen. It’s been a tough year (as in July 2012 to present) for me, and I’m just getting back into the groove. What I would recommend to writers is to divide your writing time so that the majority of it is spent writing, then some marketing, then some networking. You need all three to be successful. Sometimes, you might find marketing takes precedence—such as when a new book comes out—but never neglect your writing.
What one piece of advice would you offer readers who are working on their first novels?
Thicken your skin. You need critique to improve, so be ready to listen with an open mind to what your fellow writers or readers say about your work. Also, expect rejection and keep writing, anyway.
What one piece of advice would you offer readers who want to try self-publishing?
Get your book professionally edited. The biggest complaint about self-publishing is that the books are amateurish. A good editor can polish a good story, repair a faulty one, and save you the embarrassment of putting out a real stinker that might need major reworking.
When will your next book come out, and what will it be about?
In September, Mind Over Psyche, published by DragonMoon Books (Book 2 of the Mind Over trilogy) will be released. Deryl has finally learned to control his telepathy and has fought his way back to sanity—but no one will believe him. Desperate to escape the asylum, he teleports to another planet, accidentally taking a friend, Joshua, with him. There they meet Tasmae, the alien who had contacted him in his madness. She carries the secret of Deryl’s past, and it’s slowly driving her insane. To save her, Deryl must use his telepathy and dive into her tortured mind. Can he solve the mystery of his existence and bring Tasmae and himself back to sanity?
Thank you, Karina, and best wishes with you new projects!
Thank you.

You can learn more about Karina Fabian, Greater Treasures, and Karina’s other novellas, novels, and nonfiction books by visiting her Website at http://www.karinafabian.com/ and her blog at http://www.fabianspace.blogspot.com/. Greater Treasures is available for the Kindle at http://tinyurl.com/greatertreasureskindle and as a paperback at https://www.createspace.com/4244586.

"Aww, Babygirl," the young man said sorrowfully, looking at my new sneakers sunk in muck, "you should have bought some boots."

When we lived in New Orleans, a rainy day at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival meant that people got muddy. Many went barefoot or wore shoes they threw away afterward.

This year, back home for six weeks of my husband's sabbatical, we discovered that boots were the practical and popular new choice—rain boots, gardening boots, shrimp boots, riding boots, hiking boots, even cowboy boots, anything that let people have a good time anywhere, no matter how deep the mud or water.

Stores, I discovered later, had ordered boots, lots of boots, when the forecast for JazzFest predicted rain, and people bought them out.

 Following are some photographs of just a few of the boots I saw at JazzFest.












The week after JazzFest ended, many porches held boots that had not yet been cleaned of their mud.

Professional conferences and fan cons can drain even a healthy person physically and mentally. Some people routinely get sick ("con crud") after a conference because they wear themselves down taking advantage of every opportunity the conference offers. For a person with chronic illnesses, conferences are even more demanding and can be debilitating.
Ages ago, when I worked at Science magazine, I attended one or two conferences every month. Later, as a medical writer, I covered in-town medical conferences for various physician tabloids. Now as a fiction writer, I try to go to at least one writing conference or fan con every year. They remain difficult, but over the years, I have learned several ways to make the experience easier and to feel good so I enjoy the con.
1. When possible, I arrive the day before the conference starts. Doing so gives me a chance to recuperate from traveling, get a full night’s sleep, and check out the conference facilities so I don’t get confused and lost during the conference itself. Sometimes the conference has early registration set up, which lets me plan or refine my schedule.
2. I stay in the conference hotel. Yes, it’s usually more expensive. But doing so allows me to take a rest break or a nap anytime I want. Also, I can put meals on my room bill, relieving me of most of the burden of keeping track of receipts.
3. When I reserve the room, I request a refrigerator. It allows breakfast to be less rushed and makes it easier to stay hydrated and (if necessary) caffeinated.
4. I plan my conference schedule ahead of time. Most conferences and cons post the final schedule on the Website before the conference starts. I make a grid for each day, showing for each time period my first-, second-, and third-choice sessions and where they are. I also include the scheduled conference meals and appointments I’ve made to see friends and readings I want to hear. Many conferences extend their special conference rate to the days before and after the conference.
5. I take enough medication for an extra day or two. Sometimes, flights get cancelled because of weather. Sometimes, planes arrive late and one misses a connecting flight. I try to be ready if I have to spend an unexpected extra day away from home.
6. When possible, I travel with another person. Travel, especially plane travel, exhausts me and leaves me confused and disoriented. Traveling with a companion ensures I reunite with my luggage and get on the right shuttle.
7. I skip most evening events, including parties. Yes, I know that’s when most networking takes place, a major reason to attend a conference in the first place. But sleep is priority #1 for people with chronic illnesses. Also, a healthy person may be able to party all night and still be on the ball for a panel or talk the next day; I can’t.
8. I prepare for the panels I’m on before going to the conference. In general, I’m not good at winging it, so I would do this even if I were healthy. But with chronic illnesses, I can’t predict how I will feel on a particular day. Preparing ahead of time means I can do an adequate job on panels even if I’m foggy and confused.
9. I try to schedule nothing for the two days after I get home. I take three things for granted when I get home: 1. It always takes more time to unpack than I expect; 2. Urgent emails will be waiting; and 3. I’ll be too tired to go anywhere or work productively.
10. When I can, which is not often, I leave the day after the conference ends. No lugging heavy bags around on the last day, no long line to stand in to check out, no rushing to get from the last session to the airport, no forgetting something essential in the hustlebustle.