[Writer Post] ConDFW, SFWA, and Distractions
Welcome to Writer Post Wednesday. This has been a Super-Squirrel Week. My focus has been…lacking. Part of it is coming down to the last show of my Winter Marathon (ConDFW starts in about 48 hours). Part of it is Texas Weather Roulette – last week ice and snow; this week, Spring. Go figure. Part of it is simply distraction.
ConDFW SCHEDULE
Saturday, February 22, 2014
12 PM – AUTOGRAPHS – Dealers Room
1 PM – Size Matters! Monsters in Fiction – PROGRAMMING 3 (Trinity VII)
3 PM – READING – Trinity VIII
6 PM – World-Building, and When to STOP – MAIN PROGRAMMING (Addison Lecture Hall)
Sunday, February 23, 2014
11 AM – Mining for Ideas – PROGRAMMING 2 (Chinaberry)
The SFWA debacle continues. Does a professional organization have the right to have an editorial board decide what goes into their communications (magazine, bulletin, newsletter, website)? Yes, they do. No, it’s not censorship. Does said organization have a duty to address issues that concern their entire membership body? Yes… though I am SO VERY MUCH not a fan of “Political Correctness” when it’s been taken to the extremes it is in our current culture. Does everyone in ANY organization have to agree? NO. Because, as Mythbusters “proved” the other night – you can’t herd cats. SHOULD we try to get along, at least in public? Remember Wheaton’s Law… Don’t be a Jerk – in any forum. Because you know what? Having the debate in public, in social media? Not helping attract new members or keep the ones you got. Cudos to the people who want to “fix from within”, because God help you. The some of the rest of us? We don’t see the attraction of joining something just to try to fix it.
On the publication side, I realized I have no “backstock” of stories. Actually I have very little. I’d been concentrating (when that’s been possible) on longer works, I don’t have that personal slush that can be sent out and sold to keep the name in the game while I work the novels. I need to fix that, while also working the longer pieces. It’s all part of the WHOLE, not just pieces. And in the mean time, I have to make some decisions about pieces that have gone un-responded to for long periods of time. This is above and beyond what I would consider “normal” for the glacial pace of publication. I always hate pulling things – smacks of ultimatums which don’t sit well with me personally – but…sometimes, it’s necessary. And now, it’s time to dust off some plot bunnies and see what I can generate.
And today, Cat Rambo wrote a great piece on whether or not writers need to blog. And she makes a good point when she says, “NO.” And it’s true. No one needs to blog. Heaven knows my rambles on Wednesday are a blip in the churning sea of writers writing about writing. But I do other things, too, the pen review and the Spotlights. But for me, it’s not so much the “building the platform” or “branding” (Darn it, Jim, I’m a DOCTOR, not a can of SOUP!), it’s about getting stuff done. Having deadlines and sticking to them, because theoretically I have people counting on me to deliver…something. And that’s what gets it done.
See you at ConDFW!