Eileen Bell

Ad Astra was a blast!  Had a chance to be on a couple of panels – Collaboration, and Time Management – and enjoyed them. (possibly more than the audience!)  I won’t go into any details, because, hey, they’re done!  Suffice to say, you shoulda been there!  You would have enjoyed them both.

Signed up for the small torture known as the Autograph Session while I was there.  At least Ryan and I got to sit while we watched  Rob Sawyer and Kelley Armstrong handle their various line ups.  Some day, some day, that will be us!

While we were there, Ryan had a chance to speak to the Bakka Phoenix people — and they have since agreed to carry the Women of the Apocalypse!  How cool is that?  So now, all you folks in Toronto can’t complain.  You can get our book!

Since I got back, I’ve been working feverishly on my next project.  Gutting and ripping the first draft at this point, but I’m starting to like what I have down.  (Starting being the key word, here.) Ryan has it right now… and though he, generally, is kind, I’m expecting some “butt kicking” because this story has to be taken up a notch.  Trying to write the thing around the chaos that was my life for the past few months didn’t work quite as well as I’d hoped, so I still have lots of work to do.  Luckily, I’m getting my spirit back, so I can do it.

Tomorrow (Saturday, April 17) we will be at the Stanley Milner Library in downtown Edmonton, flogging our books and congratulating the winners of the Alberta Readers Choice Awards.  It runs from 10 AM to 4 PM, and it should be fun.  Hey, I get to hang around with Barb Galler-Smith (Druids) for a while, and I haven’t done that in a long time.  It should be good.

I’m glad I’m back at work.  I missed it.

All I knew about novellas when I first got back into the writing game was — I could write a fairly decent one in 3 days.  (Funny.  That’s the amount of time I had every time I wrote in the 3 Day Novel Contest.)

So, I’d write a novella in 3 days, then work hard the rest of the YEAR to make it something else.  Because novellas, generally speaking, do not sell. (That’s what everybody kept telling me, anyhow.)  They are an odd size — too short to be published on their own (due in no small part to the fact that a publisher can’t make a profit on them), but too big (unless you are an established author) to ram into a anthology, or into a magazine.

But I keep writing the things — because I LOVE that length.  I love working on one storyline, and seeing where it goes.  (All right, now you know.  I have NO idea how my stories will end.  Secret out.) I love the limits inherent in the size.  I love working from one character’s point of view. However, I didn’t love the idea that novellas are the children no one wants.

So I started asking people what they thought of the novella length.  I stopped talking to the people in the industry — because all they did was shake their heads and say “Nobody buys novellas.”

Instead, I turned to regular people. Busy, busy people who used to love reading — but just don’t have the time in their lives to dedicate to large books anymore.  These are the ones the publishers lost.  They read once, then stopped.  Had to be a reason why.

What they told me: they would like something that they could read on a flight somewhere.  Or something they could read while waiting for their children.  Everybody seems to wait for their children.  Or they’d like something to read while they are having lunch at work, or waiting for the dryer to finish, or waiting while the dog is clipped.  These are the minutes they can scrape from their schedules for reading. One or two hours a week, if they are lucky.  They don’t want to start the “big” books, because a person can get stuck in an endless loop of “what DID happen the last time I was able to read?”  They got tired of going over and over the same chapter, trying to catch up… so they stopped reading.

However, they seemed to like the idea of a short book.  Something with only one or two storylines, so that if it gets put aside, they don’t have to reread the whole thing to remember where the heck they left off…. something that fits into their amazingly busy lifestyles.  They weren’t looking for short stories, because they are too short. They were looking for — well — short books.

Luckily, there are publishers out there who are starting to look at novellas as a potential income stream.  (See Absolute XPress and ChiZine, for two.) There may be more, and they may have been publishing novellas forever — and I might just be finding them now. I must tell you though, I have been looking for potential markets for quite some time.  Remember, novella writer here!

Of course romance has always played in this field (see Harlequin) with their 50,000 word novels.  (A bit bigger than a novella, but no where near 100 – 150, 000 words — or more that you can find elsewhere.)  These too are written for busy people.  True, they are romances, and have other rules in place besides just the length — but they are being read.  In droves.  Is it something about the shorter length?  Or what?

Ryan McFadden (one of the writers from Women of the Apocalypse) came out here recently, and picked up a ChiZine novella (Chasing the Dragon, by Nicholas Kaufmann) for the flight back.  After Ryan got home, he emailed and said he saw a couple more people on the flight with novella length books.  (He also said he finished the book he’d bought.  On the flight.  And he liked it. A lot.)

So, how can we talk more publishers into taking a chance on publishing novellas, or even, like “Women of the Apocalypse?” novella anthologies?  And how do we talk former readers into taking a chance, and seeing that sometimes, smaller is exactly what they are looking for?

Any ideas?  I really want to know.  After all, novella writer here!

My father died on March 8th.  He had bone cancer, and he died.

Through it, I wrote.  I did have a couple of weeks where nothing would come.  Where what was happening to him so overwhelmed me that I couldn’t do anything but crawl back to my house after another day at the hospital watching the drugs and the “cures” make him sicker and sicker.  I’d eat something, then go to bed, so emotionally exhausted I could barely speak.  Then I’d go back the next day, and do it all over again.

Somewhere in there, though, I started to suck it up.  Maybe it was because Dad seemed to hear me when I talked about my story.  I had to give the man the end, now didn’t I?  It was one thing I could do.  So I did.

Dad almost always knew how to work through the crap life threw at him.  True, a couple of things pole axed him, and a few times I was afraid he wouldn’t be able to get up again. But he did. He always did. Right until the end.

So what did I have to bitch about?  Not a thing. I still had my strength, and my brain, and my hands.  With those, I could do anything.

So, as my father lay dying, I kept writing.  And I finished the thing.  He would have kicked me in the ass if I hadn’t.

Women of the Apocalypse reviewed in Vue Weekly!  How cool is that?

Review here.

And remember, last week to be able to nominate Women of the Apocalypse and our novellas for Auroras. (And I just found out that Herman Lau, who did our cover, has his name in under artist.  Don’t forget him, if you like his work.  Link here.

Dad’s back in the hospital, I’m a week behind on my writing deadline, and I have no interest in doing anything but cleaning my kitchen, getting my laundry done, and … Well, that’s just about it.

Up to this point, I’ve been able to keep my head above water in the writing world. But I can’t this time.  There’s too much – stuff – and it’s been coming for too long, now.

Wow.  Haven’t felt this like in years.

This is the personal part of my life stomping all over my work.  I can’t seem to stop it this time.  I don’t know why.  I have been able to do it before — work around the personal.  The writing slows down, no doubt about that.  But it doesn’t stumble and fall, like it has been pole axed.  That’s what I’m dealing with, this time.

I need to rethink how I handle all this stuff.  A lot of it is the emotional part of dealing with one parent who is extremely ill, and another parent who is slowly losing her partner of over 50 years.  Plus the other family stuff, of course.  There’s always family stuff.  Plus the hospital stuff.  It feels like there is ALWAYS hospital stuff, now. I feel exhausted, and opening the Word doc and writing is not fixing the exhaustion the way it usually does.

I guess I’ll go get my laundry done, and figure out a way to force myself to write some words — any words — today. Maybe I can kick start myself.

I hope so, anyhow.  The vision of my writing self stumbling and dropping like a deer that has been brought down by a hunter’s bullet is pretty harrowing.

It’s award time, and I have a couple of places I’d like you to go, and vote for my novella — and for the anthology, Women of the Apocalypse.

First one: http://www.critters.org/predpoll/antho.shtml

This is something called “Critters Workshop” and is an on-line workshop/critique group for serious writers of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror.

If you don’t see Women of the Apocalypse on the list — add it to yours.  There is a space at the end for you to do this.  Publisher is Absolute Xpress, and add www.womenoftheapocalypse.com as the website.

Deadline is January 14th.

The second one is for the Auroras.

My story “Pawns Dreaming of Roses” and our anthology Women of the Apocalypse are both on the list for an Aurora, which is THE Canadian SF award.  I need some help getting these works to the short list.  This is where you come in.

Please go to this website, and fill out the form:  http://www.prixaurorawards.ca/English/AwardProcess/nominationForm.php

If you want to check out all the “hopefuls”, go to this site:  http://canadiansf.com/node/42

Just as long as you are a Canadian citizen, you can vote. And it doesn’t cost you a thing.  However, you can only vote once, so make it count!

And please, do it soon.  The deadline is February 5th, I believe.

Thanks.

Am working on the next project, so will update when I have extra words to spare for blogging.  Until then, though… Vote early, vote often!

We had a good time.  No doubt about it.  Searching out those Apocalyptic Women — or the men who live with same — from the crowds of Christmas shoppers, and then seeing the joy on their faces as they walk away from our table with our book. And what we learned from this weekend is — Apocalyptic women are everywhere, and you can’t always tell at first glance who they are.

We met a lot over the last few days.  On Friday Billie, Roxanne, 6 foot Ryan and I were at Indigo in South Edmonton Common, in — surprise! Edmonton. (This was a one time deal, so don’t go there asking for the book, please.  Maybe in January.) And then Saturday we were at Tyler Enfield’s book launch for Wrush, again in Edmonton.

The Wrush book launch was fascinating.  We had resisted setting up a table at Tyler’s launch.  Smacked of — I don’t know, something nasty.  We were going to go and help him in any way we could — after all, isn’t this what writers should do for each other?  But he kept on us until we decided we would sell our books there, and that we would donate money from each Women of the Apocalypse sold to the Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation. (This launch was actually a Stollery  Benefit Drive — we were able to buy books and donate them, as well as donate money.  We did both, I’m happy to report. )

It felt like an old time Christmas craft sale.  Lots of tables loaded with wonderful items, so we spent some time shopping, some time eating great food (and there was real food there too — not just cakes and cream puffs!) and some time selling our books.

And the Apocalyptic women — and men — came to us.  We met some wonderful people — including a woman from Germany who went “Of course!” when she read the title of Billie’s novella — first one to do that! — and the iron worker who had a number of Apocalyptic women in his life, but bought a book for his 19 year old daughter.

Then Patrick wandered over.  He had been working at another booth — selling trinkets and small items.  I believe all of them were from Uganda, where he lived before he moved here.  He moved here a month ago.  We made some jokes about the weather, but he was massively interested in our book.  So we talked to him about it — and he said “This is a book for women who are thinking about making changes in their lives, isn’t it?”  He touched the word “destinies,” on the front cover, and his eyes welled up.  “This makes me very emotional,” he said.  This man, who had made some huge decisions and changes in his life, was reacting to the IDEA of our book!  For the first time, I hoped our stories were up to this. Then he put the book down, saying that he would buy it, some day.

So, we did the only thing we could do.  We all signed a copy, wrapped it in Christmas wrapping, and gave it to him as we were leaving.  Merry Christmas, Patrick, from the Apocalyptic Four.

The Apocalyptic Four were at the Stony Plain Public Library on December 2nd, for a book sale and meet and greet.  What a lot of fun it was! However….

I got there early, and went in to do a little pre set up set up.  You know, check out the lay of the land, and see how best to take advantage of our space.  (We had 6 foot Ryan coming, and were doing a bit of Christmas theme, so wanted to make certain it would all look wonderful.)

The space we were assigned was not wonderful.  Not even close.  We were off in a small room away from the main library — and we had been given a foot of space on a counter.  There were four other authors designated for the same counter…. We did not have enough room!

So, I went and found the woman running the show — her first name is Joan, (I will get her last name and particulars later) of perhaps I should say Long Suffering Joan — and asked her if we could move to a table, explaining that there were three humans and one cardboard cutout in our group.  She was accommodating, and found us a space at a table.  Still in the small room, but we thought we could make do.

Roxanne and Billie showed up — and we set up.  Looked pretty nice, if I do say so myself!  We had decided to sell both our anthologies (Seven Deadly Sins, the flash fiction anthology, and Women of the Apocalypse, our novella anthology) as a package deal, with a Christmas bag to wrap them in.  Yes!  Sin and the Apocalypse for Christmas!  Nothing like it.

I decided to trundle out and see what was happening in the main area of the library, because I was still feeling like we were sitting at the kid’s table at a Christmas meal.  And I saw that they had set up more tables — and that there was a space at the end of one of the tables.

So I set out to find Long Suffering Joan.  Wheedled and whined until she said OK.  (I think she was tired of my face, but whatever…) And then went in, scooped up my compatriots and all our finery, and set up out in the big room.  Just like the adults!

After that foray, I stopped.  No more room needed.  We had a good spot, got our names (and maybe even a picture) in the local newspaper, and sold a good number of books.  And had a lot of fun!

I think this was an excellent idea, and will push to do this again. We had the opportunity to talk to some locals, plus meet some wonderful local writers.

And maybe we need to think about going to other libraries in small towns around Edmonton… after all, who doesn’t need more room?

Normally, I don’t call Ryan.  The man lives in Ontario (!) and so is always living  2 hours in the future, which hardly ever works out well for me.  (I think about giving him a call at 10ish my time — and he is either at work or asleep, depending on the 10 I pick.) It’s inconvenient, because I actually have to think about what the heck I’m doing.  Plan for it.

I don’t do so well with planning, as anyone who has ever received my Christmas cards can attest.  (Mid February, anyone?)

So, when I went on Facebook (Yeah, I know, but whatever) prior to shutting things down for the night, the last thing on my mind was calling Ryan.

Then I saw Rob Sawyer’s post — and I was on the phone in a flash.  Of course, Ryan didn’t answer.  He is, after all, a father — and it was probably close to bedtime for his little girls.  So I left an incoherent message that asked — begged, really — him to check out Facebook.

Then I called Billie.  Luckily she was home.  I told her to check it out — and she did.  Then she lost her mind, and I knew I hadn’t imagined it.

The Hugo Award winning Rob Sawyer, science fiction heavyweight, who gets to go to all sorts of cool places and do all sorts of cool things ,  talked about Women of the Apocalypse.  He didn’t just talk about it.  He gave it an excellent review!

“Nothing gives me more joy than when my students do well, and so it’s with great pride and pleasure that I draw your attention to the fabulous new anthology Women of the Apocalypse, an anthology of stories (“Four women, Four Shooters, Four destinies to save the world”) by Eileen Bell, Roxanne Felix, Ryan T. McFadden, and Billie Millholland. The book — a handsome trade paperback with an eye-catching stark black-and-white cover — is published by Absolute XPress, a division of Calgary’s Hades Publications….This is, without doubt, one of the major theme anthologies of 2009, and deserves a place on the Aurora Award ballot — as do the individual stories. The anthology recently made the bestsellers’ list published in the Calgary Herald.”

Ryan eventually called me back, and we did the teenage girl jumping up and down and screaming thing for a while.  (Sorry Ryan, but people deserve the truth.)  And why did we do this?

Because back in 2006, Ryan and I were in Rob Sawyer’s writing class in Banff.  He ripped us both – bad.  He ruthlessly pointed out EVERYTHING we did that was keeping us from being published.  Everything.

We could have run away crying (like those self same teenage girls we emulated a couple of days ago). But we didn’t. Both of us took what he said to heart, and went away, licked our wounds, and stepped up.

Apparently we learned some of those lessons quite well.

Thanks Rob.  You’re the best.

This was a good weekend, what can I say?  We had the opportunity to do a book signing at Wee Book Inn on Whyte, and it was great!  Got some flowers (thanks Sharlene, they are beautiful!) and had the opportunity to meet a bunch of really nice people, some of whom bought our book.  Gotta love it.

Dogs and flowers and friends, oh my!

Manager Dave and the rest of the staff were great.  We hung around listening to great music and enjoying the vibe of the place — talked about how nice it would be to write there.  Then Dave mentioned that they’re thinking of setting up a coffee shop upstairs!  Yeah!  That would be perfect!  I’d never leave!

The next day got a phone call from Roxanne.  We’d made it into the Calgary Herald Bestsellers list!  That was so very cool!