Author: barista

  • Strengths and Weaknesses (Week Ending October 20)

    They say that once you start doing something you love, you’ll never go to work again. So why are so many writers frustrated by a craft that they love? Maybe because — as one grows as a writer — writing gets more difficult.

    We all have strengths and weaknesses, but every writer is different. This week, we decided to see how our writers in the Cafe see themselves. We asked them to describe what is easiest about writing and what is the most difficult.

    As we move out of October and into November for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), we want all writers — ours included — to focus on their strengths. But also to be aware of their weaknesses.

    How are you getting ready for NaNoWriMo?

    Until Next Week,

    The Cafe Management

  • Who is your favorite character you’ve written?

    I hope you enjoyed all of the character interviews this week. Some characters are charismatic enough that they are excellent interview candidates, however that doesn’t necessarily mean they are a writer’s favorite. If you had to pick your favorite character of all time, how hard would that be? Nearly impossible, right? Well, imagine how difficult it was for our Confabulators to pick their favorite character that they had actually created. All of our characters are our children, and it’s so hard to pick a favorite.

    Paul Swearingen

    I based a character whom I named Rita (or renamed only slightly) after one of my renters. She was a walking fireplug of rather limited mental capacity, so in the story I had to smarten her up a bit. I definitely took advantage of her by bouncing her around the story, getting her raped to have an illegitimate son, etc. But in the story she shaped up and became the guardian angel of the main character. (In real life, she left owing me a bit of  the last month’s rent, but that’s another story!)

    Sara Lundberg

    There’s a bit of a difference between my favorite character and the character I had the most fun writing. I think Shane, the character I interviewed this week, is my favorite. He’s loosely based on an old friend combined with every barista in Lawrence and I love him to death. The most entertaining character to write, however, was my serial killer who slayed demons.

    Jack Campbell, Jr.

    My favorite character is always the next one. I don’t get too emotionally attached to characters (I kill so many), and I generally have more fun writing the bad guys than the good guys. I really enjoyed writing “Denny” from my fairly recent short story “Patchwork.” You never find out his real name, and he is nothing like me, but when I wrote the story I fell in love with his voice. He ranks among the strongest voices I have ever written.

    Ted Boone

    Bartholomew Benson was probably my best character, albeit my least favorite. He’s a bastard, he’s likely crazy, and he takes the idea of the ends justifying the means to a ridiculous point. Still, great character that was fun to write and interesting to read.

    Kevin Wohler

    Although I often write about heroes, I have the most fun writing villains. It’s not that I like being the bad guy. On the contrary, I like finding reasonable motivations for characters to do bad things. I believe the majority of people doing wrong are doing it for good reasons. It makes them more interesting than characters who are just evil. Right now, my favorite is Sister Grimm, a character in my current work in progress. She’s as demented as they get, but it’s because her life has been filled with tragedy.

  • Getting to Know You (Week Ending October 13)

    The characters we invent are little extensions of ourselves. Whether we create heroes or villains, friends or foils, writers invest a bit of their own personalities into them. So, we thought it might be fun to meet some of these characters.

    Recently, the “character interview” has been used by authors to help promote books. It’s a great way to talk about the book and give a feel for the writing without actually giving away an excerpt. And sometimes the characters are entertaining enough on their own to entice readers to pick up the book.

    This week, you’ll meet a variety of characters from a variety of works by our Cafe authors. Some of these interviews are straight-forward. Some are … offbeat. But we’re sure you’ll enjoy meeting these characters and the authors who created them.

    Until Next Week,

    The Cafe Management

  • Migrating Away from FeedBurner

    If you subscribe to the Confabulator Cafe RSS feed, please note that we are moving away from FeedBurner as our web feed management provider. Recent events have suggested that FeedBurner is no longer a viable option, and we are investigating other possibilities.

    In the meantime, you can directly subscribe to the Cafe feed by clicking the RSS feed button in the sidebar.

    Any of our readers who have a technical solution that would be better, please let us know in the comments below.

    Thanks,

    The Cafe Management

  • Who has been the biggest supporter of your writing?

    Writing can be a grueling, difficult occupation or even hobby, and writers tend to be somewhat insecure at best. We need the support and encouragement of our friends and family, as well as complete strangers. As you’ve read over the past week, most of us have been fortunate enough to have a strong support structure. For this week’s Ephemera, we asked the Confabulators who their biggest supporter has been.

    Jason Arnett

    My mom has always supported everything artistic that I’ve tried and she was the financial backing behind my minicomics series in the early 2000s so she’s definitely up there. I mean, Mom has to tell me I’m doing things the way they should be done, right? But I’m also lucky enough to have a friend who’s a writer in his own medium who has always encouraged me to keep going even when a story misses its mark. When we get together he always asks me what I’m working on and what’s coming up next, too, and that’s the kind of artistic support that keeps me coming back to writing when I’m frustrated.

    Ashley M. Poland

    The Husband, by and far. He supports me continuing to do it full time, when we would be better off financially with me doing pretty much anything else. When I get discouraged and feel like quitting, he helps me through it. When I just need to sit down and talk out what I’m doing, he’s there. He rocks it pretty hard, and I wouldn’t be anywhere near as far along without him cheering me on.

    Paul Swearingen

    Several people in the Writer’s Digest forum seem to be my biggest fans and have written nice reviews of my YA novels in several places. I am humbled. However, my favorite review came from someone named “Jade” via Barnes & Noble: “This book is ok idk if its my fav but i do know it was ok”.

    Jack Campbell, Jr.

    I am fortunate in that I have never met anyone who was not supportive of my writing. My writing career has been marked by a constant stream of support from a variety of sources, even those who don’t particularly understand or appreciate my type of writing. I definitely owe them all a debt of gratitude.

    Christie Holland

    My biggest supporter has to be my mom. She doesn’t always “get” speculative fiction, but she’s always willing to read the stories I’ve written. After NaNoWriMo last year, when several of us traded manuscripts, I called my mom because I was so elated that I had gotten positive feedback. I got a card in the mail a few days after that from my mom, congratulating me on my novel that “had potential.” My mom has always been proud of me for being able to write a novel and I am eternally grateful to her for that.

    Ted Boone

    Fellow NaNoWriMo participants, mostly. I have lots of friends and family that support me in principle, but getting those individuals to read/critique/participate in any way is usually difficult/impossible. My fellow NaNo writers get what I’m up to, however, and have been a major source of support.

    Sara Lundberg

    I’ve had various “biggest” supporters of my writing throughout my life. In junior high, it was my 8th grade English teacher, Mr. Coleman. I never thought my writing was any good before him. Around that same time, just as I was getting my start as a writer, my Dad was always a big supporter – I could always go to him to help with ideas. When I wanted to get my MFA in Creative Writing, Mom helped me look for grad schools. Over the last several years, my brother and sister have been incredibly supportive, offering to read and give feedback on the stories I’ve written. In the last year, I’d say my writing group family has been my biggest support structure. They are there for me every time I want to give up and remind me what being a writer is really about. All of these people have given me legs to stand on.

  • Writers’ Support Structures (Week Ending October 6)

    As the old saying goes, “Behind every great man, there’s a woman.” (Okay, it’s an old, somewhat sexist saying. But it’s more applicable than “Sometimes monkeys die.”) The thing is, writers have known for generations that they are at the mercy of someone else, often their patrons. These days, however, it’s difficult to find a Medici family member willing to upfront the cash while you write your next play or book of sonnets.

    So, how does a 21st century writer survive? On the one hand, there’s the starving artist who lives hand-to-mouth while trying to get published. On the other, there’s the part-time scribbler who burns the midnight oil because he or she has to spend each day at a “real” job. And there are those lucky few who have family and friends who enable them to write at their leisure. (No pressure there. Am I right?)

    This week, we’re asking the writers at the Cafe about their families and the support they receive. We want to know how our writers cope with the pressures of daily living and writing, and what their friends, families, spouses, and/or significant others do to help or hinder the writing process.

    Be sure to leave your comments and questions for our writers. They love interacting with our readers. And if you have a moment, be sure to follow the Confabulator Cafe on Twitter and Facebook.

    Until Next Week,

    The Cafe Management

  • Is there anyone you’d personally like to take revenge on?

    This week’s Flash Fiction prompt was to write about revenge. Everyone’s definition of revenge is a little different, and some of us aren’t quite as vengeful as others. It’s one thing to write about revenge, it’s quite another to feel vengeful in daily life. For this week’s Ephemera, we asked the Confabulators if there was anyone they’d like to take revenge on, and if they could get away with it, would they do it.

    Ashley M. Poland

    Not really. I still harbor some bitterness toward people I knew in high school, but I think it has more to do with a lack of closure than anything else. I have no way of knowing how they turned out, and they have no way of knowing how I turned out. (Though I still sort of hate the guy who once told me, “A million people want to be published; what makes you any better than them?” Eff you very much, buddy. Stop popping up in my head whenever I drink.)

    Paul Swearingen

    I already wreak revenge on scammers, spammers, telemarketers, and those who continue to request that I play games on Facebook. Scammers get reported to the state attorney general. Spammers’ messages go to spam hell, and then the spammers get blocked for life on sites that I mod. Telemarketers cannot get through my call blocking machine. Occasionally they get reported to the FCC and the state attorney general, too. And … send me a Facebook game request, and that gets blocked, plus I beg for more requests so that I can block them, too, and maybe even the person sending them. (Get too political on my newsfeed, and I can make you disappear from it …) Yep – mess with an old retired guy like me who has time on his hands, and I’ll make you regret it … slowly …

    Jason Arnett

    I like the concept of revenge but I think it requires me to be something I’m not naturally: hateful. My tendency is to stabilize rather than upset. Also, I’m patient. If I’m somehow Done Wrong, I know the Universe will somehow balance everything out. I know it sounds naively philosophical, but it works for me. I don’t see myself going out of my way to inflict hurt on someone else. That takes an awful lot of energy.

    Sara Lundberg

    I have a particular form of vengeance specifically designed for writers. If you do something to piss me off, I will take revenge upon you in one of my stories. I will do horrible things to you and point out all of your most unflattering traits, all the while thinly veiling your identity. Don’t cross me, or it might end up published one day.

    Jack Campbell, Jr.

    I try not to hold grudges. I am a very calm person. Laid-back to a fault. That being said, I am very capable of revenge, and there are definitely people I would take revenge on, whether they are hypothetical or real, I will not say. If they do hypothetically exist, I don’t want them to know until the moment is right, and I don’t want damning evidence against me.

  • Flash Fiction Week: Revenge! (Week Ending September 28)

    Not every writer spends his or her days thinking about mayhem and murder. Sure, there are those — like Sara Paretsky, James Patterson, or Michael Connelly — who write mystery or crime stories for a living. But most writers don’t spend their days thinking about the darker side of the human condition.

    We all secretly want to get even with someone at some time or another. Maybe it’s an ex-lover, an evil boss, an annoying co-worker, or a neighbor who mows the lawn at 6:00 a.m. every Saturday. But for most of us, a desire for payback is a fleeting thought that quickly goes away.

    One of our writers (Jason) recommended that our flash fiction assignment this month should challenge our writers to think hard about getting even. With no other conditions or restrictions, he suggested the writers create a 1000-word “revenge story.”

    This week at the Cafe, our writers are giving us flash fiction with a retribution theme. Whether funny or heartbreaking, frightening or amazing, these stories are going to entertain you.

    Until Next Week,

    The Cafe Management

  • Do you ever lie about your writing success (one way or the other)?

    Let’s face it: writers are essentially paid to be liars. Can you really trust us to be truthful about anything, even about how good we are at our craft? This week we asked the Confabulators if they’ve ever fibbed about their writing career (or lack thereof). I think the answers are pretty interesting.

    Ted Boone

    I’d have to have had some degree of success in order to lie about it. 🙂 My short on Amazon Kindle sells 20-30 copies every month, which is, quite frankly, shocking to me. Other than that and a quarterfinalist placement in Amazon’s Breakthrough Novelist Award a few years ago, I have nothing to share one way or the other.

    Sara Lundberg

    Success? What’s that? Oh yeah, that thing where you get recognition for your work. I am probably more inclined to tell people I’ve never had any success than brag that I’ve had some when I haven’t. At this point I’d hardly define what I’ve experienced as success. More like small triumphs that only mean anything to me. Maybe if I publish a book someday I’ll lie and round my sales up to the nearest hundred or something.

    Paul Swearingen

    I lie by omitting specific figures. “Yep, I’ve sold copies of my novels in the U. K., Spain, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Canada …” The rest of the story: That would be six in Canada, two or three in the U.K., two in Spain, one each in the other countries. Actually, more in the U. S. A. But I’m not telling how many! So far the actual income of all of my Amazon fiction sales would allow me to invest in a Happy Meal or two. When I was writing a monthly column for a radio magazine, at about a thousand words per column, I was paid the princely sum of $50 per column over about three year’s time. At that rate, if I keep selling my novels, I should be able to match up my fiction vs. non-fiction income … oh, about the time I’m dead and forgotten!

    Kevin Wohler

    I’ve discovered that there’s no reason to exaggerate my success to co-workers or friends. Writing stories in my spare time sets me apart from the average Joe. When my poetry was published in a university lit magazine, everyone was encouraging. When a short story of mine was recently accepted into an anthology, my co-workers were amazed. Success is what you make of it. I’m proud of each of my triumphs, no matter how small.

    Jason Arnett

    I can’t say that I have, but I don’t know what other people may think. When Evolver came out I was as surprised as anyone but in the Grand Scheme of Everything, it’s a small success. I certainly don’t use it to get drinks at a bar or anything. I’ve shared what might happen if it goes any further, but that’s more along the lines of dreaming out loud. At least I hope so. I’m happy. If that translates to others as bragging I can’t do anything about that.

     Jack Campbell, Jr.

    I don’t lie about my writing success, but early on, I would be vague. I would use my experience writing for college-access television shows as a credit. I would also use any writing of any type as a credit, rather than just the type of writing I was submitting. I would include experience in journalistic and editorial writing, and not specify that it was not fiction that was published. It wasn’t lying. I wrote what I said I wrote. That writing was published where I said. But I wouldn’t specify the type of writing. These days, I have enough creative writing credits to give, but early on, I took advantage of any type of my writing seen or heard anywhere.

  • What’s the Big Idea? (Week Ending September 22)

    When people imagine writers working on their craft, some may have an outdated image of the writer hunched over a typewriter, staring longingly out the office window, waiting for inspiration. That just doesn’t happen anymore.

    Some writers may take a languid approach to the craft, but they are few and far between. Most of our writers at the Confabulator Cafe are working hard to get some writing done between the other constraints of their lives: a job, family, exercise, and mundane chores like laundry and grocery shopping.

    So, it probably comes as no surprise that our writers are always trying to find time to write. When they do have time, they don’t have time to stare out a window. They write. Sometimes on three or four things at a time. That’s a lot of creative energy.

    Thankfully, creativity appears to be a renewable resource that — despite what comes out of Hollywood — doesn’t seem to run out. At least, that’s what we hope.

    This week, we’ve asked the writers at the Cafe to discuss what they are currently working on and give their advice on how to refill the gas tank of creativity. We’ve asked them if they ever worry about running out of ideas, and what they do to keep that from happening.

    We hope you enjoy their comments. Please feel free to leave your own each day, and come back all week to read more writing advice from our contributors.

    Until Next Week,

    The Cafe Management