Cory Doctorow reads, a juggler talks, and I sign

July 8th 2008 at 9:13 pm

I’m a fan and supporter of the Clarion West writer’s workshop, and have been attending the reading series when I can.  I made it to Cory Doctorow’s reading, and he was, of course, fabulous and interesting.  He read part of a story that will be coming out as free fiction and as a podcast on Tor.com, probably this summer. My bet would be in August, around the World Science Fiction Convention.  I recommend going to Tor.com right now and signing up for the associated e-newsletter, if just so you get this story.  Tor.com looks like it’s going to good.

Other bits Cory said in Q & A that resonated for me:

That there is a myth about young adults only wanting to read about young adults.  Since I’m writing a series that is doing well in the YA market even though it’s sold as adult fiction (and I think it is both), that was a nice reminder.  When I was a kid, I read about Valentine Michael Smith and Jubal Harshaw, about Gil the Arm, about Merlin (everything from Mary Stewart to Mallory, from T.H. White to Marion Zimmer Bradley).  Almost everything I read was about adults.  In fact, by the time I was ten or so, I though Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys were dorks.  A nice reminder, since for some reason I was worrying about it.

Cory also mentioned (I think quoting someone else) that obscurity is the enemy of the writer.  So support for blogging!

I took the bus over, and this time there was no handy eastsider to hitchhike back with.  At the bus stop, a long-haired young main with a red ponytail was juggling a red ball.  Juggling might not even be the right word - it ran up and down his arm and flitted through his fingers and paused on the back of his palms.  It turns out he’s just moved here from New Orleans, he likes Seattle, and he has been practicing the red ball thing for a year, and has high ambitions of doing more with it.  I’m not sure what - but who cares?  I almost never have random conversations with strangers any more.  It was a nice five minute interlude.

I got to sign my first mass-market copy of THE SILVER SHIP AND THE SEA, which came out July 1, and which I finally actually saw and held in my hands yesterday, where I paid full price for a copy at my local Borders.  Tor did a nice job - it’s got shiny letters, the cover is a nicely muted version of the hardcopy cover, and the book design is nice.  The print is too small for my old eyes, which means I put too many words in the book.

 I will be reading at the University Bookstore with Jay Lake on July 24th.

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