Philippa Ballantine - Author

Award-winning Author of fantasy, science fiction, and steampunk

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Ready for the Boom

Most of my readers will know by now that this year began very badly for Tee Morris. He is now facing raising his daughter, affecitonately known as SonicBoom by himself after the death of her mother.

Many donated to the ChipIn fund which helped with the immediate expenses surrounding Natalie’s death, and even left a portion over to begin a trust fund. However, as those of you with kids know, raising them is not cheap – let alone sending them to college!

So I thought ‘hey maybe I’ll auction off a few things I have here’ (Mainly the Weather Child original manuscript) – and it kinda snowballed from there. The Boom Effect auction is now hitting 70 auction lots, and I know there are more to come.

People have done some amazing craft projects, donated rare and beautiful things, and been very creative with what services they are offering.

I just want to highlight a couple of things for writers and podcasters since I presume that is who reads this blog most.

Writers

Podcasters

And those are just a tiny sample of the amazing things people are donating to help Sonic Boom into the future. Check out the lots here.

The auction will be hosted by Podcasting’s Rich Sigfrit at 10am EST 27th February 2010 live on ustream.

If you’re a podcaster- the promo for the event is here.

You can also find us on Facebook as an event, follow us on twitter or subscribe to the RSS feed as more auctions are still being added.

This is a great way for us to come together as a community. We’re going to give a little girl options, and one day she’s going to look back and be amazed at what the podcasting/social media community did.

And how much fun we had doing it. 🙂

Dealing with slings and arrows

A recent Twitter conversation started by Scott Roche about public critique, specifically for podcast novels got me thinking about critiques, flames and feedback.

I replied to Scott that as an author you have to expect to get all three. So here’s my take on dealing with them as an author.

The middle one Flames are characterised by negativity upon negativity- nothing positive, no encouragement, no suggestions for improvement and are usually full of bitterness and axe-grinding. You can spot them a mile away.

Yes, these attacks might annoy and/or upset me for half an hour. I imagine pouring a rain of fire back, but I never do. The most I have ever done is send back a polite ‘thank you, I’m sorry you don’t like what I do, but maybe in the future you’ll try again’. Flamers just want attention. They want you to pour gasoline on- so in return I recommend giving them a bucket of water and then putting them out of your mind.

Critiques are another matter. People have taken time to write them, and I will always give them more consideration. They usually contain ‘I really liked your book but…’

When you get one of these you should pay more attention, but you will want to run it through a process.

As a reference librarian you learn to do one important thing- judge the source. For scientific accuracy an article on an internet forum is always considered less reliable than an article in a peer reviewed journal.

So I do the same with critique and feedback.

Top of my list is of course my agent Laurie Maclean and my editor at Ace. Their opinion is right up there. They’re professionals, and they have a real interest in my books selling well. They are invested in my success.

Second are my beta readers. These are people I have picked because I value their opinion and know they will give me honesty. They have skills and knowledge that are specifically targeted at what I am doing.

And finally comes public feedback. Criticism here is a free for all- and that’s perfectly fine. Luckily we live in places where an opinion is your right, and hopefully (unless you are in some totalitarian state) you can express it on the internet.

So here’s how I deal with criticism. I let the initial pain and outrage pass. I don’t fire off an email in anger. I don’t go on twitter, or to my blog and lambast the writer. I let it sit. (In this way replying to critique is like editing, best done cold)

I let it rest until I can logically examine what they are saying. I may go to my beta readers/listeners and say ‘What do you think? Does this guy have a point?’ I am lucky enough to have several very honest people in my circle (Dan Sawyer I am looking at you). If they confirm what this person has said then I add more weight to the scale.

And then after that process I will reply, in a calm, polite, measured way. Sometimes I change things, sometimes I will not. We are not artists doing things by committee after all, and we have to, at the end of the day, believe in our work.

So that’s my process for dealing with criticism, which may make it sound easy but it’s not. Believe me, this is coming from a person that cried for half an hour when she got her first professional critique. However I got over it, and the book was better for it.

What I will not let criticism do is stop me from doing what I love- which is writing and podcasting. We may get our ego bruised, but we still go on.

Tropes and bards

The wonderful DDog has just added  Chasing the Bard to TV Tropes website and it was a very interesting thing for me as the writer to read.

A trope is a common pattern or theme and they have been around since humanity first decided that telling stories was a great idea. Some of the ones DDog picked up on are powerful tropes that get repeated again and again in literature and film. Such as;

The Chosen One; a person with a destiny to forfill- in CTB’s case William Shakespeare. (actually I think Will has two destinies- saving the world and writing great Art)

Ultimate Evil; The big Bad Creature who is not usually seen until the end. In CTB that was the Unmaker- my worst nightmare- the flip side of creativity.

Lady of War; The beautiful, powerful woman who will kick your ass. In CTB this is Sive- naturally, but these types abound in literature, and probably stem from the original war goddess- the Morrigan, Kali etc. Women give life, but they can also take it.

As a writer does that mean you should avoid writing tropes? I would challenge you to write a story without one of them cropping up. They are common themes for a reason- they speak to the human condition and have for centuries. It comes down to the old adage, there’s no such thing as a new story. However if you give a hundred people a trope, say ‘farm boy finds he is the Chosen One’ you will get a hundred different stories. We all see things differently, we’ve all had different lives so our stories will always be unique to us.

So have fun with tropes- twist them, reconfigure them- but please don’t lose sleep over them.

And thanks to DDog for taking the time to unravel all the tropes in Chasing the Bard- some of them I didn’t even realize were there!

Litopia and the nemesis

Last week I had the honour of being one of the panel on Litopia After Dark. Hanging with the wonderful folks and talking writing was a lot of fun. I was a little nervous, but the panel made me feel at home very quickly.

Peter and Litopia do a great deal for the writing community- and their After Dark show is one I look forward to every week. I was so glad to be asked.  The best thing was I got the panel to give me their evil nemesis laugh- all except Peter. So there is something to go back for.

So have a listen to Word Wars for Fun and Profit

Visionaries

Podioracket has been doing great work to promote and help podiobook authors. How Heather, Rhonda and the gang do it all I don’t know.

So when I was invited to be part of their first Anthology series I was very flattered. This series aims to expose listeners to a range of authors work, but rather than making people listen to a whole novel, these are short stories that will hopefully wet the appetite- sort of an amuse bouche for podcast novelists.

The series starts dropping on February 12th and will go for 16 weeks. My story is one from Erotica a la Carte, so it is on the saucy side, but it is also one of my favourite short stories, Measureless to Man.

There will also be a supporting series of Blogtalk radio inteviews. Further information is here.

Sound and fury

This month has sped by, but I wanted to touch base with you all.

Firstly I want to say thank you, thank you so much to all who have contributed to the ChipIn fund for Tee and Sonic Boom. In just over two weeks we have raised $20,000. That’s an amazing feat, and has renewed my belief in social media.

I will put up with the endless social media ‘gurus’ and the big companies trying to shoulder in without taking time to communicate. I will put up with blocking them, because the way people have responded has shown what social media is about. It might be new, but all it is really is another way for people to connect with people. To have that feeling of belonging.

But money is tight all over, and so I am organising The Boom Effect- check the site for more details. But there are some wonderful auction lots there, and all money raised will be going to a Trust Fund for Sonic Boom, Tee’s daughter.

Spectre is nearly done- as in 5,000 words done. It will need lots of editing, but I am happy with the bare bones of the story that I have carved out.

As for Geist, the final edits are in the hand of my editor at Ace, and I do have a publication date. November. This year!

Finally this site is undergoing some changes which you will see. I have moved themes and am in the process of tweaking it to my satisfaction.

So yeah, January. I will be glad to see the back of it, but looking forward to what other, better months have to offer.