#ScribesAndMakers #TTMD @sfwrtr

@ianscraper

Many authors incorporate their own experiences and autobiographical elements into their stories. How is it with you? Which of your works contains the most of your personal experiences?

I hate to admit it, and I know a lot of people would disagree, but I don't consider myself a particularly interesting person. It may be one of the reasons I'm so bad at parties. Small talk. Scary. They'll think I'm an airhead. My shyness doesn't help that.

That said, I will admit some of the internal dialogue in my 1st person characters greatly resembles the character of my own. (Oh noes, now people will really give me dirty looks.) I do cook; that's definitely in my stories. I am rewriting a main character in an epic fantasy to be a fine art and event photographer because I can relate. I've done it; I can give details. I've even gotten paid. An evil character in a published book was my experience of my evil† stepfather. It provided a certain verisimilitude.

I'm not going to write about being a programmer, though, or sitting at a desk writing stories, or exercising each morning. Too, blah.

To say whether or not any story is even close to being autobiographical, or having more than the most peripheral personal experiences, is impossible.

I am Walter Middy.

Well, not really, but you get the idea.

————
† He was evil.

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@RMiddleton

I would like to ask (& apologies if it's been asked) how you enjoyed today?

I thought it was fabulous. I'd do it again. It makes me a lot less afraid of getting interviewed on a podcast one day, as I'm told will be important to advancing my career. The unexpected questions by people who did know something about me really allowed me to pull together a lot of ideas and discuss them. I got to write a lot, which I love, and avoid writing a chapter I really ought to have written and wanted an excuse not to, so that worked, too.

Okay, I also like the attention!

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@sifaseven

What's the most difficult thing you had to write? (Difficult because of subject matter or how to convey what you wanted to tell)

Difficult due to subject matter. My WIP, Reluctant Moon.

English is a difficult language. So many words have so many meanings, that if I state one thing, I will inevitably state other things I don't wish to state, so I will dance around some stuff.

I am probably overthinking the issues. The story takes place in a different society with different standards and radically different gender roles. Western society and the world overlay of patriarchy sets subliminal standards we all subconsciously expect men and women to adhere to, and judge them accordingly. In many ways the story questions our view of reality.

I end up getting blocked and unable to write periodically (tho it's at 71K in length), and I question whether I'm revealing to much about my inner self and what I'd wish would be, and not the shit that is. Of course, in these times, many people feel like heretics just for being themselves.

I was recently heartened to read that Robert A. Heinlein's A Stranger in a Strange Land was written two decades before publication, and he and his wife agreed that the work was way before it's time, and waited. I'm not going to have the hubris imply that I think my work is in that league, but when you find yourself writing something you think could be labeled dangerous, you get to thinking...

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@anderlandbooks

Dear RS, could you choose one among your stories that's your favorite? Which one?

I could. It's a fan fiction novel, however, and I don't want to mix this pen name (the SF and Fantasy commercial author) with the other pen name. The good news is the plot lines and the major characters are my creation. I am rewriting many of the stories totally in my own universe, now.

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@johnyNocash

RS, you often post with authority - I mean that as a compliment

Wow. If you met me in person, the dichotomy would astound you… until I got to know you. I'm quite shy.

How would you describe the difference between your writing now and when your first work was published?

First and foremost, I wrote in 3rd person close perspective. Ideally, the narration revealed nothing the POV couldn't experience through their senses. I can't say I was perfect at it, but it got published. My grammar had issues, but frankly, it was often better than that of authors who wrote bestsellers. Remember this: Best sellers are not written, they are made. By editors, copywriters, marketing, media hype, and people spending money to make it happen. What my agent said about my writing is germane, however. He said I told great stories.

I want to believe I still do.

Now adays, I write in 1st person. My characters are the narrator of their stories, and to an extent the stories are about who they are in their head as well as their actions and adventures. I'm also less afraid of revealing their inner (possibly perceived as perverse or perverted) secrets, which, of course, reflects on their author. To the extent that I get writer block, it's what I fear other people will think about the content that stops me cold. If you look at my intro on the profile, I've a little mantra about telepathy there; in this context, that tract might be more interesting.

I've veered away from worrying about grammar. I'm a Grammar B writer, which means my high school English teacher would fail me. I write as if I were telling the story aloud, and if that means I end up rambling, halting, or making incomplete sentences… Well, that's the way people talk and tell stories. In real life. Makes my prose dynamic (except when I go overboard). I'll admit a lot of the composed Grammar B gets standardized during revision. I've some worries about THIS paragraph, so don't take it as a real example. Please. But you get the gist.

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@CA_Hawthorne

I often see it mentioned that you deal with “issues of gender.” What do you believe is your most representative, or favorite, example of that?

[If you think my answer misses your point, please restate it and I answer again. —RS]

I'd like to say it's my writing. As a shy person, it's nothing I've done physically, for sure, but I do fancy myself as the person behind the throne giving advice. I think my spouse would credit me that much, to do with my spouse's business. I don't mind being a supporting role, but that's not what you asked…

My stories often take a contrarian tack. At first about girls who fought for the privileges the boys had, but that's almost passé these days. My Reluctance Stories will ignore what we consider gender roles (and shame) completely, and seeing how it changes men and women will be the point. I've recently taken a different tack with my #RSMarsNeededWomen web-novel that has MC having an abortion despite living in a theocratic society, finding a husband, bearing five kids, fighting off men who view women as chattel, and becoming a engineer who helps an increasingly female Mars break free from Earth. Not sure if the story will end with a bang, since it is written and published day by day, but I think it works. Agency despite gender is important.

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#ScribesAndMakers #TTMD @sfwrtr @amPennyfeather

What is one thing you've always wanted to share about one of your stories/your writing experience that you've never had an opportunity to share?

I can't answer that one off the cuff, I'm afraid. But I will say that my stories are often a reflection of how much my mother's life made her a hero for me. She was a 1st generation American and a black sheep in the family. She was a bailbondswoman in the 60s (and did her own bounty hunting), participated in the civil rights movement, and even (she said) burnt her bra. She raised me, while helping run companies, often as a single mom despite multiple marriages. She didn't take shit from men, except when she did. She was far from perfect, thus so are my characters.

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@youseeatortoise

Why first person? What's the draw?

CW: I rambled.

I think 1st person the natural way people tell stories about what happened to them. Personal stories with all the warts are the best, I think. If you look at all my responses to all the prompts, you'll see I'm telling my story, and to get meta about it, I'm telling you my story now. This is actually my writing style.

To me, 1st person POV feels very personal and I feel it is relatable by all readers. Most people don't go around telling stories that happened to other people (3rd person in a nutshell), nor when they do so, do they feel comfortable asserting what those people felt about those events, especially if those events are impolitic or sexual. Maybe taking on the role of the narrator, they may say how they feel about the people who act they way they do in their story—but that's another level of complexity and can off as hypocritical. Furthermore, I feel betrayed when a 3rd person narrator doesn't tell the absolute truth. I expect truth from 3rd person, whether it's from the POV character's perspective, or a limited or an omniscient one.

It's very hard to master all the requirements of good 3rd person narration. It proved so for me. That said, my #RSMarsNeededWomen is the first 3rd person story I've written in many years. I chose that because 1st person isn't exactly a compact or concise POV, and fitting a novel into 31 long toots is hard.

In first person, as in life, the POV tells their story their way, making observations and commenting on what they feel about that. Imagine some embarrassing or revealing situation. How are you going to tell that story starting with the word I? Right, you will spin it. 1st person is all about perspective. Ours. We all censor. 1st person by definition is unreliable narrator, but as listeners we've learned how to read between the lines, to detect the white lies and black, and interpret the spin. Conversely, people may also be confessional. Maybe the POV wants to be seen in all their evil glory, or is simply rude and impolitic, but isn't so foolish as to let it leak out in word or deed. The dichotomy between private thoughts and public action can be breathtaking. Who doesn't like some unfiltered wise cracking and unvarnished cynicism, especially when paired with external integrity?

I hope that answered your question.

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@KurtHohmann

Do [writing and culinary arts] intertwine for you?Do you ever use cooking as a creative "palate cleanser," a means of refreshing your brain toward a creative writing project? Conversely, does kitchen-craft ever play a role in your fiction?

A good story is the best palate cleanser for me, whether that's an anime, a k-drama, a story read to me, or a book. I've many times thrown down a book and rushed off to write.

Writing then going off to cook to relieve stress? Not so much. It's usually hunger that grabs me by the nose and drags me to the kitchen.

Kitchen-craft, however, does play a role in my stories. I've had a future prime minster have her friends over while awaiting the results of polls, cooking everyone a meal of (essentially) goat birria. In another story, a state dinner shows the dynamics at court, what dragons can eat and other humans can't, and setups up the steamy NSFW scene that follow. Then there's this that I recently wrote:

Most days they ate at the Commons, but today she cooked vegetable soup. Raquel, who worked the farms, insisted if she wanted fresh, she had to pick fresh. They roamed the acres and acres of green fields set to specific Earth months and climes. She cut Napa cabbage, pulled parsnips, carrots, and leeks, shucked corn, snipped basil and herbs. The 14-year-old even "dressed" a chicken for her, but didn't make her watch or listen. She splashed it into a pot to boil for hours.

Reina, Carlos, and Adrian brought fresh-baked bread, the yeast fragrance melding with the spicy meaty soup aroma in the humid kitchen alcove. When Marisela (who went by Mari now!) arrived with her pod mates, Rufus and Raquel, carrot cake, sparkle candles, and her little sister—who walked holding her hand—the 4-year-old immediately promised to behave herself to join "the adults."

—From "Cooking" Ch 18 of #RSMarsNeededWomen

Eating is something all humans do. Food and meals makes for common understanding between people, paupers and princesses, who might share nothing else in common. Meal and food shows up in Quentin Tarantino movies for a reason. That I can cook, means I can write the stuff from experience!

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@Ink_Soul

Is there one story you'd like to write but haven't had the time to develop it yet?

Okay. Let's get meta with this.

My WIP Reluctance Series is that set of stories, though it wasn't "time" that was the factor in me never writing it. I came up with the idea in 1987 or 88. I always wanted to write a story devoid of patriarchy and always thought it as impossible to do as being an English speaker writing without using English. The concepts and behaviors seemed indelible.

Wrong.

It's risky. It violates societal norms. Ours. But I am doing it.

What becomes of men and women if life isn't about property and the sexual control necessary to insure a baby is genetically his?

My #RSMarsNeededWomen web-novel is a lite version of the concept with a totally different approach. It's an erosion of the concept until it's meaningless.

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@gahlearner @saposcat

I think a cooking section on the website is a great idea. Could also be a teaser in a newsletter.

Content is king, but it has to be interesting to keep people coming back for more. Like a restaurant, I suppose…

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@crcollins

What is your favorite thing you've written & why?

You b evil!

My main characters tend to get sorely abused and pummeled by reality. Twice as much work for half the credit, right? All so the moment of victory can be bittersweet and worth it. There's this one scene; I'll endeavor to minimize spoilers.

The setup: She had finally found friendship and love. Previously injured, she still ends up saving her lover (okay, one of her two lovers), and saving the life of her assassin, too, and died. Thought she had, only to wake, barely healed, to find the other antagonist had had them arrested and undone the good she'd done to prevent a foreseeable war.

The denouement: Though wit and persuasion, and the loyalty of the people she's protected, she proves everything she's said is right, literally causing the antagonist to throw her helmet on the ground in frustrated resignation. Clang! It does mean she reveals she's pregnant, because that's one of the keys, and has to agree to bare the child…

It's the intensity of the emotions and the integrity this cynical character displays that grips me. I can hardly believe I wrote it.

That goes equally for a more recent work. One of the MCs is male, and I usually can't relate enough to men to make them work as male in the story. He's different, as is the world he lives in. How he ends up noticing the woman antagonist's hidden anguish and solves the problem, in an albeit naïve but heartfelt uniquely male manner, has left me beside myself. It's one of the few times a male character might be carrying the story instead of his female co-MC.

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@EveHasWords

What's your favorite comfy / cozy ritual? (E.g. curl up with a book and hot beverage?)

This may make me seem much younger than I am, but...

At the end of the day, I watch anime on Crunchyroll. Let's just ignore that I may also be snacking and I shouldn't be. Keep in mind that I am a feminist writer, so some of the series are really offensive, but it is in equal parts really stupid and meaningless, and subversive as to how the male characters get their comeuppance. There are also amazing truly feminist and traditional stories I'd highly recommend. I like slife-of-life stuff the best.

But, to answer your question, anime helps me forget the day.

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#ScribesAndMakers #TTMD @sfwrtr @saposcat

Did 'Laugh In' contribute to the imaginary play at all, or was it just background? Do you still like some sort of background noise when you're creating?

I was maybe 7 when I played in front of the TV with LaughIn while playing with my… were they dolls or action figures? I used to have a unique skill at multitasking, so I probably followed the comedy, but I was unlikely playing pretend with Artie Johnson on a tricycle annoying Ruth Buzzi.

When I was a teenager, all through high school, I always had the TV on, especially when doing my homework. When you've seen all the reruns of Doctor Who, Speed Racer, Kimba, Green Acres, F-Troop, Gilligan's Island, and Star Trek, it's easy to use it as background and still enjoy the best parts!

More recently, I love electronica, house, and progressive music. While programming. While writing. The beat can accelerating my heartbeat and my thinking. But it becomes truly background to a point that I forget to turn it on unless I need it to block out noise.

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#ScribesAndMakers #TTMD @sfwrtr @art_of_goulwenr

RS as (Audi) RennSport or as Renault Sport ?

Disambiguation: RennSport (game) vs. Renault Sport (car).

/// M Sport IRL

Not much of a gamer these days. All that damn writing going on!

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@gahlearner @saposcat

1. When do you write your cookbook?

Probably never. However, if you follow me I show photos of my cooking, and sometime share enough of a recipe for those who cook to follow. When I get my act together and make an author website, I may have a RS Cooks section with this stuff. Remember, you need to keep people returning to your website over years so they remain aware of your new books!

1. Do you bake (like that) too? I mean, I'm a lousy cook but when I cook I often improvise too. But never with baking.

I used to bake. I had two breadmaker machines! But I am very much low-carb now. (It's why I substitute cauliflower for rice in my paella, for example.) I have to watch my salt intake, too. My pork chop on the bed of kale, onions, butter, pecorino, and edamame linguine was low-carb. The edamame pasta has 1/5th the carbs of regular pasta, much of them as fiber instead. It has a better taste and a similar mouth feel, too.

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#ScribesAndMakers #TTMD @sfwrtr @willelm

How are you trying to keep from burning out in the future? Any tips or tricks to share for others when they get burned out?

My incessant answering prompts on Mastodon surely helps! Especially this one thing I learned here, which reaffirmed something I knew:

Write stories you want to read. For crafters or artists, craft what you want to use (I love what I cook) or paint what's beautiful to you. I love my photos. Be your first audience.

But it's up to you whether you are your only audience. Is that okay for you?

For me, sadly, no. That's why I burnt out. I was failing to communicate. Getting my ideas into other people's heads was very important. Worse, I was writing in the way publishers and my agents insisted I must. It made made my efforts harder and my lack of success more sour.

However, you asked for tips to prevent it:

• I found that writing fan fiction solved my not-communicating problem. I found the right fandom for me and couldn't avoid the feedback. I wasn't writing SF (except in stealth mode), it wasn't commercial, but it did satisfy, and I did communicate with readers.
• Whilst not for me, joining a writer's group does help others. Make sure they understand the Clarion critique ethic where you consider the work and never attack the writer, you give constructive suggestions, and most importantly, only the author gets to decide if the advice is relevant. Keep it social and professional at the same time.
• I stop writing, crafting, painting, whatever, when it isn't fun at some level. I do something else. This goes hand-and-hand with not expecting to make a living doing what I love, which means I can pick it up some another day or another year. If becoming a bestselling author as soon as possible is what drives you, this might not work. Sadly, in my first career, I wanted being an author to be my actual career. Maybe not hard enough.
• I try to recognize whether I'm being too hard on myself. In the realm of art, nothing is the Right Way™. I've seen plenty of artwork that looks unskilled in museums or as wall art. It's the expression and meaning that counts, and being persistent.
• The other part about being too hard on oneself is something I fight daily. Judging my content by the imagined standards of others. I don't know if my stories will offend, for example, and it can be paralyzing and become unbearably uncomfortable. I constantly have to watch myself for that. I practice a zen thing here. I recognize it, ignore it, and simply write anyway. Revision is always an alternative, but I need to complete the story first.

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@HeliaXyana

[I] fear sending my female MC into the kitchen as it might be considered anti feminist. Are there any key aspects I could keep in mind to avoid this?

It is all about the point you are trying to make.

All cultures cook.

Sure, she could be trapped by her gender role; it can be the only creativity she's allowed; you can emphasize subservience and frustration that leads to a break. That's one story. Or the kitchen could be a solace she escapes into, a place where she can stop fighting and eat by herself where nobody will judge her cooking her mother's recipes as weakness.

For me, feminist writing is about self-determination and agency contrasted against either the gender roles in the story or in those in the reader's head. As a writer, you must entertain. That doesn't mean you can't enlighten.

My current story breaks the rules. She's a fighter, but learns it works better when she works with the system instead of against it. She marries because she has to, but does get the pick of the litter. Gorgeous. She has five children, all girls. She even cooks for her husband, whom she adores, but we get that scene is a special occasion. What's important is she's also escaped being a housewife to become an engineer (her dream) on colonial Mars, and her specific efforts shapes that world's female future (and maybe ours). Along with her woman friends and her girls, the reader watches gender roles melt to insignificance..

To answer your question: Assert what's true for the character in her quest to become more than she's allotted. The fear you feel is you imagining other people's judgement. Feminist writers always make somebody angry.

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