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- Cryoburn by Lois McMaster Bujold, Reviewed: Cryoburn is the latest Miles Vorkosigan novel, the thirteenth in a series stretching back a quarter of a century. Miles is now an Imperial Auditor with responsibility for investigating a company specializing in cryogenic storage that are planning on opening branches on Komarr. Miles becomes suspicious and travels to Kibou-daini, a world dominated by a populace who
- Sales: Cover for Damage Time by Chris Moore You can tell the authors at conventions. You just have to listen in. Â While the fans are likely as not to be talking what brilliant book they’ve read, or what film they’ve seen; the writers will be talking about money.* Because their incomes can be so precarious, and like any
- Magma: I’ve said many times –in many places– that I don’t write because I want to, I write because I have to. It’s a compulsion, which if it’s blocked off, leads to something close to clinical depression (my name is Colin, and I am a creative junkie….) Ever since I ended a particularly brutal bout of writing
- Black Static 23 Reviewed: Black Static for June / July 2011 contains the usual reviews and commentary, while the stories are mostly by returning regulars. V. H. Leslie appears for the second time in three issues, and already looks to be the magazine’s most prominent newcomer of the year. In ‘Time Keeping’ Howard believes that he keeps time running smoothly.
- End Games: People are always talking about the openings of stories. It’s an often quoted truism -especially by me!- that the first dozen lines of a story are critical. They are the unsolicited writer’s escape from the slush pile, or the path to a sometimes bewildered rejection. For the story that has been sold, a poor opening
Colin Harvey at Suite101
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That’s interesting… The main reason I don’t take Matthieu along to cons is that his English is OK but not great, and that he gets tired very easily. Also, I know how quickly conversations in the biz degenerate to writer or editor-specific stuff, out of which you can quickly feel excluded. I’ve never actually thought of cons as business, though–for me, they’re just an occasion to have fun and meet new people (and I have to think of them this way, otherwise I’ll be paralysed with shyness).
Whereas for me thinking of them as business MAKES me go into a big room full of strangers! Although nowadays most cons aren’t full of strangers — although I can still feel a little excluded as I enter the room the first night at a local con, when people sit hunched over tables talking to each other.
The difference is that you have a day job which enables you to view it as a hobby. For me it’s a profession, albeit one I love, and this is the point of the post. I’ve spoken to too many people at cons who think they can earn a living from it while behaving as if it’s a hobby…
I hope you continue to enjoy it for what it is, ‘an occasion to have fun and meet new people’!
The difference is that you have a day job which enables you to view it as a hobby
It does occupy a kind of uncomfy middle ground for me, halfway between a hobby and a serious job (I don’t hope to make a living out of it, but if I don’t take it seriously I wouldn’t even be motivated to write novels…). But yeah, the con approach is definitely a hobby one.
>I hope you continue to enjoy it for what it is, ‘an occasion to have fun and meet new people’!
Thanks, I hope so too (otherwise I’ll have to do something about the shyness…)