This article in Sunday’s Albuquerque Journal gives a nice glimpse into the local SFF writing community here in the Land of Enchantment. [ETA: Even though you probably can’t read it, because the link became subscription-only sometime in the past day… Crud.] There are many, many more writers here than appear in the article — Pati Nagle, Sage Walker, Vic Milan, Bob Vardeman, just to name a few — but I can’t blame the author for not reaching every single writer in the state prior to his editorial deadline.
And he made me sound much more polite than I am. I did at one point actually yell out, “You guys are wimps.”
I enjoyed hearing that this piece was in the works. To me, New Mexico’s high concentration of successful, professional SFF writers is nothing short of wonderful. I stumbled upon the NM writing community through sheer accident, at a time when I was just starting to write. I’d come here to follow a job, but it was the writing community that changed my life.
It’s something I’ve never forgotten and for which I am eternally grateful.
That sounds great. The link is subscription only, so–inquiring minds want to know what all the wimpieness was about.
Actually, it is really nice to have a community.
Well, crud.
The link worked yesterday. But yeah, not so much anymore…
It is a nice article. As far as it goes.
Text, photos, and sidebar all manage to exclude Bob Vardeman, co-editor of the Golden Reflections collection. Present that day, and part of the writing community from ‘way back.
Such are the vagaries of press coverage.
And that is an extremely unfortunate omission– not just in the article, but in my post above (which I’ve now fixed, thanks to your prodding).
And speaking of my own deficiencies, I see I missed your signing on Saturday! Crap. Such a lineup, too– I’ll bet it was a great time.
Bob writes under so many pseudonyms that it is easy to miss the scope of his output; he is contracted for 2-3 novels at any one moment. He’s also been at it for a long time — I have a magnet on my fridge made from a flyer announcing the appearance of “nationally acclaimed author Robert Vardeman” for a talk and signing at the Kirtland AFB Library. The flyer is from 1983. Bob has been supporting himself with his writing for 3 decades, and how many people can say that?
But after all that time and millions of words, Bob Still Has Fun Writing. This is especially refreshing, since I have seen more than a few writers turn into complainatrons after years in the business. Many is the time I have seen an idea come to Bob: he’ll get a curious glint in his eye and a distant little smile, then whip out his notebook and jot it down. The guy still enjoys the process and the challenge of the process and is always finding new stories to tell. He’s too busy writing to get much press, but he deserves a greater notoriety.
Don’t get me wrong — it *is* a nice article. Always nice to see a celebration of the amazing collection of local writing talent. And the photog managed to produce some photos that made people look like people. It was just remarkable that Bob was somehow excluded. So I remarked.
Re: the “Career Guide To Your Job in Hell” signing — no one can be everywhere at once. Unless you’ve cracked that multilocality thing at the Labs. And I suppose if you had you wouldn’t necessarily be talking about it. And anyway you’d only get to use it like, what, every 3 months when your turn came? I suppose there would be some sort of rota of frequency based upon rank. But it occurs to me that no one has every really learned what your rank is at the Labs…
Anyway, the signing went well, we ruined books by scribbling in them but people bought them anyway after listening to us expound on how crappy any job but writing is. Daniel (“David”, in the paper) Abraham was a good sport about being odd man out (a difficult distinction, in that odd lineup) and pitched his new book “Leviathan Wakes” (great title, that.) The crowds were entertained and elucidated. Steve Gould took some photos in his discreet Steve way and has posted them to Flickr. (Have you noticed? – Steve is becoming the informal imagist for area SF events, recording them for posterity. He finds some very interesting and distinctive angles for his shots. But he’s so smooth you hardly notice him clicking away.)
Back to milling the grist.
-=Scott=-
He’s too busy writing to get much press, but he deserves a greater notoriety.
I couldn’t agree more!
Have you noticed? – Steve is becoming the informal imagist for area SF events, recording them for posterity.
He is extremely stealthy about it. He’s one of the few folks who can aim a camera in my direction without triggering my spidey sense.