REVIEW: “Setting the Scene” by Nancy Kress

Review of Nancy Kress, “Setting the Scene”, in Tod McCoy and M. Huw Evans, eds., Pocket Workshop: Essays on Living as a Writer (Hydra House Clarion West Writers Workshop, 2021): 23-28 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman. (Read the review of the anthology.)

I found this piece particularly useful, as I have only the vaguest idea of what counts as a “scene” in a piece of fiction. I’m not sure I could give you a complete answer even after reading the piece, but I certainly feel like I have a better idea of what gets to count as a “scene” and how scenes can (or should) be linked. And I really liked the “Kress Swimming Pool Theory of Fiction”: You don’t have to dive straight into the deep end, drowning your reader in world building and info-dumping, instead, you can push off from the side of the pool with some interesting action that will carry you far enough to glide “with a section of exposition without losing the reader interest” (p. 25).

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REVIEW: “We All Have to Start Somewhere: Finding Your Process and Making it Work For You” by Tina Connolly and Caroline M. Yoachim

Review of Tina Connolly and Caroline M. Yoachim, “We All Have to Start Somewhere: Finding Your Process and Making it Work for You”, in Tod McCoy and M. Huw Evans, eds., Pocket Workshop: Essays on Living as a Writer (Hydra House Clarion West Writers Workshop, 2021): 17-22 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman. (Read the review of the anthology.)

What I loved about this co-written piece was the way the authors compared their own differences in process, using these as an illustration of how other writers can go about figuring out their own processes: What works for them, what doesn’t. Honestly, one of the most useful thing I’ve ever found, for my own writing, is listening to other people describe what they do, as it helps me understand the different ways the same building blocks can be put together, an invaluable skill when you’re sitting in a pile of bricks that keeps falling down around you. Watching some else build something out of their bricks can sometimes show you what you can do with your own bricks that you might never have thought of. And that’s what I got out of this piece — more ways to put my bricks together — but more than that, they also talk about what the bricks themselves can be, so now not only do I have more ways of building things, I have more things to build with.

If “we all have to start from somewhere”, where is that? Connolly discusses how she identified herself as a “character-driven” writer, and how this diagnosis helps her to troubleshoot blocks when they occur. Yoachim describes herself as “idea-driven”, and how much of the advice that is aimed at character-driven writers like Connolly doesn’t work for her. If your inspiration comes in the form “what if X were the case?”, then talk of character motivation is going to see irrelevant. Yoachim astutely diagnoses certain drawbacks that can accompany this sort of process, and provides advise on how to counteract them. But whether you are character-driven or idea-driven or something else altogether, their most important piece of advice works for everyone: The process of figuring out what type of writing process you use is itself invaluable.

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REVIEW: “Being and Becoming a Writer” by Karen Lord

Review of Karen Lord, “Being and Becoming a Writer”, in Tod McCoy and M. Huw Evans, eds., Pocket Workshop: Essays on Living as a Writer (Hydra House Clarion West Writers Workshop, 2021): 13-16 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman. (Read the review of the anthology.)

How does one give at advice on how to write, when the ways of writing are as numerous and distinct as the writers themselves? This is the question Lord tackles in this opening piece of the anthology, and she attempts to answer it via a series of “things I wish I had known earlier” (p. 13). Her recommendations stem from the practical — learn how to schedule your time, how to meet your deadlines and keep track of your correspondence, how to negotiate — to the cautionary, reminding us of the danger of the “starving/suffering artist” (p. 14).

There isn’t anything groundbreaking in this piece, just good solid things that you may already have learned, but which it never hurts to be reminded of. My favorite recommendation is to “carve out time to keep learning”. So often I see people treat the old adage “write what you know” as a limitation — that if you don’t know something about it, you cannot/should not write about it — rather than seeing it as an opportunity: You want to write about X? Go ye thereforth and learn as much about X as you can!

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REVIEW: Pocket Workshop: Essays on Living as a Writer edited by Tod McCoy and M. Huw Evans

Review of Tod McCoy and M. Huw Evans, Pocket Workshop: Essays on Living as a Writer (Hydra House Clarion West Writers Workshop, 2021) — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

And now for something totally different…

We don’t review much nonfiction on this site, and when we do we choose nonfiction that has close connections with reading SF and F. This anthology, on the other hand, is about writing, and while not everything in it is about SFF specifically, that is its main focus, and all of the pieces are good advice.

This collection is basically the Clarion West Writers Workshop in written format, a series of short reflective and didactic pieces by people who’ve attended the workshop as instructors, guests, and students, providing support and encouragement for writers whatever stage they are at, whether newbie, experienced, or somewhere in between. As a writer myself who has been in something of a dry spell during most of the Covid period, reading these articles has been balm for my soul; they are like written kaffeeklatsches with people you feel you could be friends with, telling me what I need to hear in a way that allows me to hear it. What I love best is how much the pieces themselves reflect the voice and advice of the person who wrote them, showing us how to write well and not just telling.

As is usual, we will review each piece separately, and link the individual reviews back here when they’ve been published.

I’m not normally one for taking advice on how to write from other writers. But I’ll make an exception for this book, and would recommended anyone else do too, whatever stage in your writing development you’re in. I can easily see this book becoming a sort of reference/trouble-shooting text for when you’re having trouble with a particular thing.

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REVIEW: “Of Buckwheat and Garlic Braids” by Adriana C. Grigore

Review of Adriana C. Grigore, “Of Buckwheat and Garlic Braids”, in Liane Tsui and Grace Seybold, eds., A Quiet Afternoon (Grace & Victory Publictions, 2020): 79-91 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman. (Read the review of the anthology.)

This delightful story was suffused through with Romanian cultural influences — I love it when fantasy stories opt for something other than “generic European”! Toma’s world is filled with strigoi and moroi, creatures that can be banished, or at least distracted by, garlic and buckwheat. Despite this, it’s a warm, cozy world filled with strong friendships and familial networks, making it a perfect capping off of a lovely anthology.

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REVIEW: “Hollow” by Melissa DeHaan

Review of Melissa DeHaan, “Hollow”, in Liane Tsui and Grace Seybold, eds., A Quiet Afternoon (Grace & Victory Publications, 2020): 69-78 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman. (Read the review of the anthology.)

Ursa enters the lair of the long-dead Archmage Rassa, rumored to be guarded by a Hollow more advanced than the Hollows that usually guard other left-behind mage treasure troves, hoping to find the treasure that Rassa left behind. Whom she meets instead is Galatea, who is unlike anyone or anything she has ever met before — and who is there to find the Hollow guardian. Together, they join forces to find out just what, exactly, lies within.

In the way of all good satisfying adventure stories, both find what they are looking for, but not necessarily in the way the expect. Another good example of the type of story this anthology was aiming for.

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REVIEW: “Tomorrow’s Friend” by Dantzel Cherry

Review of Dantzel Cherry, “Tomorrow’s Friend”, in Liane Tsui and Grace Seybold, eds., A Quiet Afternoon (Grace & Victory Publictions, 2020): 65-68 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman. (Read the review of the anthology.)

For such a short story, there was a lot packed in here. I think probably many fellow women reading this story will have experienced being ostracized by other girls as a teenager, and share Sabrina’s disbelief in even the very idea of another girl, or woman, who would ever want to be her friend. It wasn’t until my late 30s that I discovered what it was like to be surrounded by women who were truly there to support and uplift each other; it made me glad that Sabrina, at least, got to learn this so much sooner!

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REVIEW: “The Dragon Peddler” by Maria Cook

Review of Maria Cook, “The Dragon Peddler”, in Liane Tsui and Grace Seybold, eds., A Quiet Afternoon (Grace & Victory Publications, 2020): 55-64 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman. (Read the review of the anthology.)

Content note: drug addiction.

11 year old David has stolen his parents’ money and is off the find the dragon peddler, to finally buy a dragon of his own! Because the people who owned dragons, he saw, were always “the happiest people in the world” (p. 55). But the dragon peddler’s words are final: he needs to earn his dragon fair and square, not buy it with stolen money.

This was a great story, which made me cry (but in a good way!). Now I want a dragon that will sleep curled around my neck and blow smoke into my ear.

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REVIEW: “12 Attempts at Telling About the Flower Shop Man (New York, New York)” by Stephanie Barbé Hammer

Review of Stephanie Barbé Hammer, “12 Attempts at Telling About the Flower Shop Man (New York, New York)”, in Liane Tsui and Grace Seybold, eds., A Quiet Afternoon (Grace & Victory Publictions, 2020): 51-54 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman. (Read the review of the anthology.)

While I liked this story, I felt it lacked something to make it special, to set it apart from other stories that could have been written in its stead. In attempts 1-11, I got the impression the story was going a particular direction; but attempt 12 dashed those hopes and maybe I’m just unhappy because my expectations were disappointed.

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REVIEW: “Salt Tears and Sweet Honey” by Aimee Ogden

Review of Aimee Ogden, “Salt Tears and Sweet Honey”, in Liane Tsui and Grace Seybold, eds., A Quiet Afternoon (Grace & Victory Publictions, 2020): 47-50 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman. (Read the review of the anthology.)

This story perfectly encapsulates the goal of the anthology: It is one quiet afternoon in the lives of Netria and Kellis, an old couple whose love has become familiar and comforting, and the family they have formed from children they’ve adopted. Every moment is calm and happy and warm. It’s not that their life is perfect or unblemished by worry or care; but rather that everyone knows death and illness are just as much a part of life as birth and health. It’s nice to be reminded that sometimes, everything happens in its proper order.

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