The Confabulator Cafe

Author: barista

  • Ephemera – How much have you written this week?

    This week we discussed how we as writers make time to write, since most of us aren’t full-time writers. Having talked about that, it seemed only natural to ask how much the Confabulators wrote this week. Were we true to our claims as far as making time to write?

    Sara Lundberg

    I think I had too much free time this week, so I didn’t write much. I also tend to go into writing hibernation for a few months after Nanowrimo in November. I’m still recovering from that. But this week I wrote the flash fiction for the Cafe, a couple of discussion assignments for my class, and, my crowning glory, a cheesy simile for a Valentine’s Day card for the significant other, Jack Campbell, Jr.

    Jack Campbell, Jr.

    I wrote a lot this week, but the only fiction I wrote was for the upcoming flash fiction here at The Confabulator Cafe. I wrote a lot about Jacques Derrida’s concept of Deconstuction as it relates to Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Young Goodman Brown and various theoretical analyses of Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The most important thing I wrote this week, however, was a Valentine’s Day letter to Sara Lundberg. While her card was a simile comparing me to coffee, my letter was written in the form of a long metaphor. In her words, “We really are literary geeks.”

  • Time in a Bottle (Week of February 10)

    I'm afraid my desire to write is interfering with the time I spend drinking.The one thing that all writers wish they had more of is time. Whether finding time to write, or re-write, or edit… it always seems that deadlines are looming and there’s not enough minutes or hours in the day.

    We all want to spend time writing, but most writers have obligations. We have work, families, and some even try to cultivate that rare, exotic flower called “a life.” So, time management and prioritization are critical skills to have. But what is the key to success? Is it having time or making time?

    Here at the Cafe, we’ve asked our writers to give us their tips for carving out chunks of time. In turn, we hope they provide you with good advice to help you make — or find — the time you need to write.

    Until Next Week,

    The Cafe Management

  • Ephemera – What are you currently reading?

    This week at the Cafe we discussed the need or lack of need of stories in the world. Overall, as writers, of course we need stories. Most of us are voracious readers, so this for the week’s Ephemera we decided to check in and see what all of the Confabulators are reading right now.

    Ashley M. Poland

    My husband got me Anathem by Neil Stephenson. As with many Stephenson books, it doubles as a home defense device. I’m not very far into the book yet, because I’m one of those readers. Otherwise, I’ve been sort of just reading bits of things here and there.

    Kevin Wohler

    I’m currently reading several novels that I started last year. I made a New Year’s resolution to clean up my half-finished novels before starting any new ones. That said, I’m currently reading Geekomancy by Michael R. Underwood — a good urban fantasy with a lot of geek cultural references thrown in, and Odd Hours by Dean Koontz — the fourth book in the author’s Odd Thomas series.

    Larry Jenkins

    My current reading rotation includes The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon, and Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief by Lawrence Wright. The last one’s an audiobook, but I still think it counts. I’ve listened to a lot of books while I’m doing something else, and it’s one of my preferred ways to study dialogue.

    Sara Lundberg

    I’m making my way through the complete collection of Sherlock Holmes stories and novels right now, which is a bulk of my reading these days. But since I can never just read one book, I’m also reading Anticancer, A New Way of Life by David Servan-Schreiber. I was reading Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, but I finally gave up. I’ll try again some other time. I’m also making my way through a couple of textbooks for my copyediting class. Chicago Manual of Style, anyone?

    Jack Campbell, Jr.

    I’m currently reading several books. Fragile Things is a short story collection by the great Neil Gaiman. I always have high expectations for Gaiman, and I am sure I won’t be disappointed. Herniated Roots is a short story collection by Richard Thomas. Richard and I are part of the same online writer’s community, LitReactor. He’s a very talented transgressive, neo-noir, and horror writer. This collection is mostly neo-noir. The Writer’s Workshop of Horror is a collection of essays and interviews by horror writers on various aspects of craft. It won the Stoker Award for Non-Fiction in 2009, and has been very good, so far. Ziska: The Problem of a Wicked Soul by Marie Corelli is the latest read in my Gothic Monsters class. There are a lot of Gothic writers, Poe for instance, who achieved greater success after their death. On the contrary, Corelli was very well-known and successful during her life, and fell into obscurity after her death.

  • Do We Need Stories? (Week of February 3)

    Imagine ancient man, sitting at a campfire with his family and friends. It doesn’t take much imagination to consider what happened next. He started telling a story. Whether it was a recounting of the days hunt, or a wish for a plentiful summer, it is highly likely that early man told stories.

    And we still do today.

    But are stories really necessary these days? We’re connected as never before in a web of communication. We have facts and data at our fingertips. Scripted television seems to be dying, replaced by reality shows. The media has made celebrities of people whose lives are recorded and viewed for our pleasure.

    This week, we’re asking the writers in the Cafe to ponder the imponderable: “Why does our world need stories?” Can humanity survive without them? Are they necessary to our existence? Are they a frivolous luxury for the rich and idle who are not working?

    We hope you enjoy our responses to this question. As always, feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments section.

    Until next week,

    The Cafe Management

  • Ephemera – What was the last nonfiction book you read?

    This week at the Cafe we talked about what we’d write if we were to tackle non-fiction (or what we write if that is the genre we’d normally write). It seemed only fitting to ask what, if any, non-fiction the Confabulators have read recently for this week’s Ephemera. Do we read non-fiction about our craft, for information, or just for fun?

    Christie Holland

    The last non-fiction book I read was Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative by Austin Kleon.  I know there are a million books about creativity, but I highly recommend this one.  It’s quick, simple, and straight to the point.  I read it in about an hour.  It was worth it.

    Larry Jenkins

    I’m currently working my way through the audiobook version of “Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief” by Lawrence Wright. It’s a bit slow at times, but there are enough interesting tidbits to keep you going. It’s also fun to study how Wright organizes the book and uses narrative hooks to keep you reading. There’s a lot to learn from this book, so if you have the time and inclination, I’d recommend picking it up.

    Ashley M. Poland

    Ummmmmm… I’m sure I’ve read one. A few months ago my mother-in-law sent me a copy of Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Browne & Dave King. It was a fairly interesting read, actually. I’m not really into non-fiction, in case that’s not painfully obvious.

    Kevin Wohler

    I am currently reading My Lucky Life in and Out of Show Business by Dick Van Dyke. I have been a fan of his since my childhood, and I love reading the biographies of comedians.

    Sara Lundberg

    I just finished reading Michio Kaku’s Physics of the Impossible. It’s one thing to read a science fiction novel and wonder if it’s got any scientific truth to it, but it’s a whole other ballgame to read this book and have him outright say “yeah, this could possibly happen in the next century.” I love this kind of stuff. I’ve never tried to tackle writing science fiction before, but books like this make me excited to try. Any science fiction writer should check this book out. You can even borrow it from me. All I’m gonna say is: teleportation? Not as impossible as you might think.

    Jack Campbell, Jr.

    Right now, I am reading Literary Criticism: Theory and Application by Charles Bressler for a class. Also, I have been reading Fiction Writing for Dummies for a couple years without much success working through it. It really isn’t the type of writing book that holds my interest. There is too much glossed over, and overall too much information. They have a section on how to pitch your book. That’s fine, but if you don’t write it well, you’ll never have to worry about that. There is a lot of what you should do and not enough about why you should do it.

  • Keeping It Real (week of 27 January 2013)

    If you’ve been around the Cafe, you know that we like to tell stories. Here’s a bit from the Wikipedia entry on ‘confabulation’:

    Confabulation is considered “honest lying,” but is distinct from lying because there is typically no intent to deceive and the individual is unaware that their information is false.

    So you can see we stretched it a bit, by definition. The Cafe is not any of the regulars’ primary job, though. All of us have square jobs we work at that pay the bills. Some of us work in various fields where we write for a living, but the work is such that the truth must be told accurately and within certain (sometimes frustrating) parameters.

    Our special this week is to challenge the regulars to tell you what sort of non-fiction each would write if given the chance. The answers may surprise you given what we write in terms of fiction. Don’t expect a confessional, but you may be enlightened as to what interests us outside of what you may already know. Or think you know. There’s no ‘honest lying’ here this week.

    Your table’s ready. Cocoa, tea, and coffee on request as long as you serve yourself.

  • Ephemera – What’s your favorite fairytale?

    This week at the Confabulator Cafe, we all wrote our own versions of fairytales: whether well-know, obscure, or invented from our own minds. Did you recognize any of them? We thought it only fitting, after writing fairytales this week, that we share what our favorites are.

    Kevin Wohler

    My favorite fairy tale is a modern classic called The King With Six Friends by Jay Williams. It’s the story of a king on his quest for fortune who befriends six strangers. In turn, his new friends help the king with their special abilities. As fairy tales go, it’s got everything: a quest, people with magical powers, and a young king who learns a valuable lesson.

    Ashely M. Poland

    We were kids raised on Disney VHS tapes, so for me, fairy tales and Disney are so twined together that its hard to tell them apart. It’s definitely The Little Mermaid, but I like Beauty & the Beast almost as much. But The Little Mermaid. Ariel was my homegirl. We had watched my grandma’s copy of the tape so much that the beginning skips. Now I own that tape. Every time I watch it, I’m convinced the tape is going to snap during those first four minutes.

    Christie Holland

    In my mind, there’s a huge divide between Proper fairy tales, the originals that often end in death and/or violence, and Disney fairy tales. Disney’s Beauty and the Beast is one of my favorite stories of all time. There are few adaptations of it that I haven’t loved. But if you want to know what Proper fairy tale I love, it’s probably The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen. Whenever the mermaid walks on land, it feels as if knives are being driven through her feet. I love that there’s a horrible consequence for wanting to change who she fundamentally is.

    Sara Lundberg

    I’ve always been particularly haunted by the folk tale Bluebeard. It re-iterates the whole adage “curiosity killed the cat” and demonstrates that human nature will always desire that which has been forbidden. I tell myself that I never would have been so stupid as to go into the room I was explicitly told not to go into, but I know my curiosity would have eventually gotten the better of me anyway. Even though the protagonist goes against the wishes of the husband forced on her, she is still manages to survive, so I think in that time she was considered a strong female lead. I’ve just always been morbidly fascinated by serial killers and horror, so this one definitely stuck with me. I love also Beauty and the Beast for its similar themes (not to mention, out of all Disney princesses, I related to Belle the most).

    Jack Campbell, Jr.

    I have a soft spot for Rumpelstiltskin. I always felt bad for the guy. He spent all that time and energy spinning straw into gold, and the chick didn’t live up to her part of the bargain. It wasn’t like he asked for her first born…oh, right. t’s going to serve her right with the king beheads her for deceiving him into thinking she did all that work. A lot of fairy tales have an obvious meaning and beat you over the head repeatedly with it. Rumpelstiltskin can be read a few different ways, which I think is part of its charm.

  • Upgrading the Grimms (Week of 20 January 2013)

    The Brothers Grimm spent a lot of time gathering tales from Europe during their lives and then publishing what they collected. Others did, too. These stories were told around fireplaces or to children at bedtime and were passed from one generation to the next. Traditional stories are lots of fun because they’re familiar. They can also become tired. We aim to solve that problem this week at the Cafe.

    Universally acknowledged by the regulars here a few weeks ago as one of the fun parts of the Cafe, our monthly confabulations this time take a classic turn. On special this week is each author’s take on a fairytale. Some may be obscure (there might even be a new one in there somewhere) and others will have that creeping sense of being cautionary. There will be sex, food, death, and certainly a villain or two.

    So we present our versions of fairytales for you to enjoy. Don’t get hung up on which tale it is, but see if you can spot what we’re saying about the times we live in.

    We take no responsibility, however, for last minute kisses from princes. And if you take a bite from that apple the witch is offering you, you’re on your own.

  • Putting on the Sorting Hat (Week of 13 January 2013)

    Genre is a French word meaning “kind” or “sort” according to Wikipedia. Genre, though, for writers is what we write, how we express ourselves, where we want to take our readers away from their everyday lives. Certain genres are overdone, some are less explored, and many are confused with the medium in which they are delivered. TV westerns are not necessarily the same as Hollywood westerns which are different still from Pulp westerns. However, they are ALL westerns.

    Some of us here in the Cafe write in distinct genres, others still crossover from into another and then back again or perhaps into a third. As readers we are attracted to certain genres for entertainment: science fiction, romance, urban fantasy, high fantasy, etc… As writers sometimes we eschew what entertains us in favor of what we like to write or are good at. Or think we’re good at.

    This week we’re exploring why we write in the genre we’ve chosen. We’re going to tell you what’s attractive about that genre to us and we hope you’ll tell us what you like. The regulars here know we run the gamut of any list of genre you might find anywhere, but why we write in these milieux is a topic of conversation over coffee, tea, or cocoa on a cold winter’s day.

    Pull up a chair. You’re always welcome here but you’ll have to bus your  own dishes.

  • Ephemera – The End of the World

    Among the Confabulators, we have several sci-fi and fantasy writers, along with a few horror writers, as well. Most of us are also Joss Whedon and/or Doctor Who fans. Those things combined lend themselves to the possibility of our writing bringing about the end of the world, and possibly the world being saved. Out of morbid curiosity, this week we asked the Confabulators how many stories we’ve written where the world has either ended or been saved from ending.

    Jason Arnett

    Every time I write a science fiction story it’s the end of someone’s world. That’s the point of writing any fiction, isn’t it? To change the world of the main character? As for the end of the physical world, well, what’s more fun than writing that? I haven’t destroyed the world yet. Someone’s always managed to come through. So far…

    Jack Campbell, Jr.

    “Flute of the Dead” is about the end of the Anasazi culture. It will be in Bete Noire Magazine in October. “Collectors,” which appeared here and will be reprinted in Separate Worlds Magazine, involves bumbling demons collecting souls in preparation for the card game that will decide the fate of the world. I’ve also written a nuclear holocaust short-short entitled “A Moment before Dying.” I’m currently seeking a publisher for that piece. Generally, however, I prefer small, personal disasters to the literal end of the world.

    Christie Holland

    I have only written a story where the world was saved once. It was the very first novel I wrote, during NaNoWriMo 2010. An evil wizard threatened to destroy/take over the world and my main character saved it at the very last moment! I’ve also written several stories where the world was already broken, or it was ambiguous to how much destruction was caused that might have led to the end of the world. Interestingly, these not-quite-world-destroying stories were all posted here at the Cafe.

    Sara Lundberg

    I wrote a Doctor Who fanfiction once, so of course the world was in trouble. It actually took place in Kansas, not Great Britain for once! I wrote a post-apocalyptic flash fiction for the Cafe last year, so the world as everyone had known it was gone. The novel I wrote for NaNo 2012 certainly had implications that the world might end in the sequel if certain things came to pass. It hasn’t been saved yet. I’ll let you know when I decide what happens. Or what my protagonist decides to do, rather.