Thanks to my awesome publisher (Saga Press), there’s a Goodreads giveaway of The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories this month!
You can enter the drawing here.
Author of The Grace of Kings and The Paper Menagerie
by Ken
Thanks to my awesome publisher (Saga Press), there’s a Goodreads giveaway of The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories this month!
You can enter the drawing here.
by Ken
I have shiny copies of the ARC of The Grace of Kings!
And so of course I’m going to run a Goodreads giveaway for two signed copies. Thank you for your interest!
Giveaway ends February 26, 2015.
See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.
by Ken
by Ken
I’ve said before that I’m blessed with wonderful beta readers. I would not be anywhere near the writer I am without their help.
Lately, since I’ve been inflicting my novel on a bunch of beta readers, I’ve been thinking about the art of giving critiques, which is something I want to get better at.
Beta readers are good at different things. Lisa, who tends to be my first reader, is good at giving a gestalt judgment that usually accords very well with the work’s ultimate reception. Other readers are good at telling me to pay attention to things I tend to ignore: POV issues (I don’t believe in the modern specfic mantra of “one scene, one POV,” but sometimes my POV-switches are not well thought out and prevent me from achieving effects I intended), plot holes (I’m the world’s worst plotter), awkward first-draft sentences that sound fine to me because I’ve read them a dozen times. Still other readers are good at writing down their reactions and insightfully analyzing them so that I can see why the story I thought I had written wasn’t what I had actually written. I can’t thank them enough.
A couple of beta readers, in particular, are good at doing something that I’ve always been too afraid to try. They are funny in their critiques.
The wit is sometimes self-deprecating (“I nodded off for a bit there — could be I was hungry”), sometimes more sharply aimed at my ineptitude (“Where are the messenger pigeons? Did they all rebel, too?”), and sometimes not even directly related to the story (“Fun fact: most snake-related deaths …”).
I’ve laughed out loud at some of these comments (after getting over my embarrassment at the errors in my draft that generated them), and it feels a lot like chatting in person. I look forward to reading the critiques, not only because they’ll make my book better, but because they’re entertaining.
There’s something about wit that disarms the natural defensiveness a writer has towards criticism. I can see what they meant and laugh at myself, and then fix the problems. For me, wit is better than “diplomatic phrasing”; it affirms the camaraderie between the writer and the reader—we’re in this together, building a new world.
Obviously, this requires a level of trust between the critiquer and the author, and I’m sure writing such a critique is harder than doing it “straight.” The beta readers who have done this for me are all fine writers themselves, and in their critiques I see a respect for our shared art; they try, in their critiques, to practice the classical goal of prodesse et delectare, even though they’re writing for an audience of but one.
by Ken
So, I’ve won a Nebula.
I couldn’t be at the ceremony tonight because baby Miranda needs her daddy. But Jamie Todd Rubin was gracious enough to accept for me and take that picture so I can be sure it’s not a dream. He also read my acceptance speech, which I’ve reproduced below:
When I was a kid, my grandmother taught me how to do zhezhi (origami). I remember being especially fascinated by the final stage of some of these paper constructions, which involved blowing them up like balloons, giving life to the paper animals.
I’ve always wanted to write a story based on that moment, which felt like magic.
I’ve also encountered few works of fiction that treat the life of the mail-order bride with real sympathy. Most seem to portray these women as either victims or conniving opportunists. Yet in my experience, many women who come to the West as mail-order brides are neither, but real people with complicated histories and yearnings and pains that are universal.
I’m glad that this story struck a chord with so many. Thank you, Gordon Van Gelder, for believing in this story. And thank you all very much, my fellow writers.
Tonight feels really special. I’m going to give my wife and daughters another kiss.
Congratulations to all the nominees and winners. I’m proud to be in such amazing company.
by Ken
I’m really honored to announce that two of my works, “The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary”, a novella, and “The Paper Menagerie”, a short story, have been nominated for the Hugo Awards.
Like many SF writers, I’ve dreamed about a moment like this since I started writing. And now that it’s actually happening, I’m having trouble believing it.
Thank you to everyone who supported me over the years so that I didn’t quit writing. You’re the best, the real stars.
Congrats to all the nominees and best of luck!