Interview with Across the Universe Editor Randee Dawn

Today I have an interview with Randee Dawn, a member of Broad Universe and the editor of Across the Universe: Tales of Alternative Beatles. The book is available on Amazon and Barnes&Noble. Across the Universe will also be available for sale at the Broad Universe and Fantastic Books tables at Arisia in Boston, from January 17-20. Randee will be appearing on several panels during the yearly convention, and her schedule can be found here: https://randeedawn.com/appearances/ For more about Randee, visit her website, Facebook page, Twitter, or Instagram.

Sorcerers, superheroes, and zombies.

Out of work, out of luck, out of practice.

Gods, clods, or four simple lads.

Here are the Beatles as you've never known them before: singing for their supper, singing for their souls, and singing to save the world.

Join 25 remarkable authors as they take you Across the Universe.

Featuring the stories of: Spider Robinson, Gregory Benford, David Gerrold, Allen M. Steele, Pat Cadigan, Lawrence Watt-Evans, Jody Lynn Nye, Gregory Frost, Cat Rambo, Keith R.A. DeCandido, Gail Z. Martin, Bev Vincent, Brenda W. Clough, Alan Goldsher, Gordon Linzner, Beth W. Patterson, Christian H. Smith, Sally Wiener Grotta, Kenneth Schneyer, Charles Barouch, Carol Gyzander, Patrick Barb, R. Jean Mathieu, Eric Avedissian, and Matthew F. Amati.

Here are some of the questions I had for Randee:

Please tell us about yourself.

I'm an author and entertainment journalist based in Brooklyn. My fiction veers wildly around the road like a dog driving a minivan, and can be either icky horror or (hopefully) funny fantasy, and everything in-between. I write what I'd like to read, which may explain a lot. As for the journalism, I write about movies, TV, music and (occasionally) books for the LA Times, Variety, Today.com and Emmy magazine primarily; I've been doing that work since I was in college, and I find it fulfilling – but not nearly as much as being a fiction author.

Please tell us about your latest work.

In early December 2019 I published my first anthology (co-edited with Michael A. Ventrella), Across the Universe: Tales of Alternative Beatles, a speculative fiction collection of tales using the Fab Four as inspiration to tell bigger-picture stories. Fiction-wise, I have a funny fantasy about mythical creatures running a soap opera starring humans called Tune in Tomorrow and am rewriting a draft of my near-future-ecological-disaster-noirish-mystery novel, A Different Light (working title).

What drew you to writing?

Just having stories to tell, I guess. Not everyone finds a creative outlet, and maybe not everybody just spontaneously makes up stories, but I don't know how to do it otherwise. I've always just loved sitting down with characters in my head and finding a way to translate them onto the page – and I've been doing that since elementary school.

Do you have any writing habits, such as writing in a certain location or time of day?

I'm fortunate to work from home as a freelancer. I have a set contract job that takes up my early afternoon, so I get up early and try to write from 7-9am every morning. In the evenings after dinner, while my teacher husband grades papers, I sit down again from 7-9. Not every day is as successful, but I think I get at least 1-2 hours a day to myself.

How do you get the inspiration for your stories?

My husband likes to say, "No one is safe around a writer." Which is to say: from everywhere and everything. Having a bit of a framework helps – last October I wrote 100 word drabbles every day of the month, which gave me a length and a topic – but after that it's up to the subconscious to push my buttons until something comes out.

Of all the stories you’ve written, which one is your favorite and why?

This may sound twee, but my favorite story is always the one I'm still working on. After they've flown the nest and been published, I love them from afar. That said, my first sale, "Home for the Holidays," was one of those magic stories: Two drafts, a sale to a podcast, printed in an anthology and my own short story collection, and a perennial favorite to read.

How did you come up with the idea for an alternative Beatles anthology?

It was one of those great moments of sychronicity. I'd been thinking about it for a couple of years, but not sure how to do it – I'd never edited an anthology – or whether it would be prohibitive for copyright reasons. So I went to my friend Ian Randal Strock, who runs the indie press Fantastic Books, and pitched the idea of stories based around Beatle songs – not using lyrics, per se, but let's hear more about, say, Lucy who lives in the sky with her jewels. He was interested, but I was intimidated and didn't immediately pursue. Meanwhile, another author, Michael A. Ventrella, who'd just finished the Release the Virgins anthology on Fantastic Books, came to Ian with a very similar idea. He put us together at World Fantasy in Baltimore at the end of 2018, and we agreed to work on it together.

What is it about the Beatles, as individuals and a group, that makes them suitable for alternative stories?

The Beatles are in the water. They're part of the shape of our lives, whether we're fans or not. For about 60 years now, their story, their songs, their lives and their music has become part of the fabric of the way we live. And as part of our dreamscapes, they're both people who actually lived – and also archetypes. Like different angles of a mirror, they reflect ourselves back to us, which makes them perfect to tell stories of other worlds, and other ways of thinking.

Have you met any of the Beatles or been to any of their solo concerts? If not, is there a particular song or album of theirs that has had a significant impact on your life? 

Truth: I was not a big Beatles fan growing up. I tend to rebel against anything that the Whole World seems to embrace as The Greatest Thing Ever. (It took me a long time to care about Bruce Springsteen, for example.) But as I noted earlier, they're in the air, impossible to ignore. Over the years, I learned to appreciate what they'd accomplished, and even love lots of their songs. I think Paul's music – solo and for the band – was my gateway drug when I was younger; the goofiness and earnest pop he created was so easy to like. As I've gotten older, John and George's more complicated emotional and musical landscape has had different appeal. So they've grown on me, organically. But I never came to this as the No. 1 Beatles Fan Ever Ever Ever. I don't think I could single out one particular song or album as being most important – but my husband (a major Beatles/George fan) and I did enter our wedding reception to "All You Need Is Love." As for meeting them or going to their concerts: No, and no. The closest I've come to meeting a Beatle is when I interviewed Sean Lennon on the phone probably 20 years ago.

 

IWSG: Beginnings

Welcome to the January 2020 post for the Insecure Writer's Support Group! You can learn more about the IWSG on their website, Facebook, or Twitter accounts.

Our hosts for the month are T. Powell Coltrin, Victoria Marie Lees, Stephen Tremp, Renee Scattergood, and J. H. Moncrieff.

Our question for this month is appropriately about beginnings. Here's the exact wording: What started you on your writing journey? Was it a particular book, movie, story, or series? Was it a teacher/coach/spouse/friend/parent? Did you just "know" suddenly you wanted to write?

Given that I was always a bookworm, it may be surprising that I didn't always want to be a writer. I was more interested in science when I was younger, but communication (writing) was always a secondary option. I would say part of what pushed me to write was being dissatisfied with the characters/tropes I read. In particular, although I enjoyed Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality series, I thought he could have done a better job with the heroine of Being a Green Mother. Fast-forward a few years to the mid-90s, when I became a diehard Beatles fan. Impressed with their four-fold synergy, I was inspired to create a group of female magicians who had to work closely together to save their country from a magical weather storm. Thus were born my Season Avatars. I'd written stories before then; I even wrote a trunk novel back in grad school. But with the inspiration of the Beatles, writing became an important part of my life. While writing hasn't brought me fame or fortune as I originally and naively imagined, I still believe in the power of stories and intend to keep writing as long as I'm able.

What's your writing story? Feel free to share it (or a link to your IWSG post) in the comments.

2019 Books and 2020 Goals

Happy New Year and new decade! (Yes, it's OK to start counting a decade from a year ending in "0.") I'm sure you're not reading this exactly at midnight, so I hope you had a chance to recover if you were out celebrating. Due to the holiday, the Insecure Writer's Support Group is posting next week, so in the meantime, let's talk books.

Every six months, I like to review my reading progress, so it's time to look back at my reading in 2019. My original goal was to read 150 books. This year, I came across a few series with fast-paced books that I devoured, so I had no problem meeting this goal. In fact, I increased my goal to 160 books and passed that. I ended up with 167 books, with a couple more in progress to kickstart my 2020 reading. Here's the genre breakdown:

Fantasy: 78
Science Fiction: 37
Other Fiction: 25
Nonfiction: 27

Here are my recommendations:

The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle
Storm of Locusts
Here and Now and Then
The Murderbot series
The Modern Magick series
This is How You Lose the Time War

And, of course, the collections and anthologies with my own stories: Hidden Histories, Ordinary Wonders, and Glass and Gardens: Solarpunk Winters.

As for 2020 goals, I plan to set the same reading goal of 150 books. My writing plans include finishing up my urban fantasy trilogy and hopefully returning to the Season Avatars and Catalyst Chronicles worlds. Best of luck to you with your goals too!

Ebook of Ordinary Wonders Available!

Although I don't normally post on Fridays anymore, I have some news that I should have shared a couple of weeks ago. I've published my first short story collection. It's called Ordinary Wonders: A Fantasy Short Story Collection, and it contains eleven short stories. Some of them were independently published, some are reprints from anthologies, and a few of them are completely new. This collection also includes the four short stories from Young Seasons. (I had originally planned to prepare a print version of Young Seasons but decided it was too short.) Here's the full list of stories:

Letters to Psyche         

The Owl and the Spider’s Son  

Silver Rain      

Bugged Out at the Museum      

Caps in Red and Gray  

Blood for Sap, Sap for Blood   

Henry’s Harness          

But Not Today

Last Locomotive from Wistica 

To Name the Anilink   

Jenna’s Rosebush

Currently, this collection is only available as an ebook. I have to go through both KDP and Draft2Digital for the paper version, and it's more difficult than I expected, especially since I decided to experiment and create my own cover. (Sorry, Maria.) I'll post again once I have it figured out. In the meantime, the eBook is available for $2.99, which is a great bargain. Click this link for a list of available retailers.

My Thoughts on The Rise of Skywalker (Spoilers)

Happy Christmas Eve, everyone! Since Christmas is tomorrow, I figured I'd post a day early. And what better to post about than The Rise of Skywalker? My family and I saw it Friday night and will see it again tonight. I'll summarize what I liked and didn't like about the movie after my first viewing. There may be some spoilers, but I'll try to keep them brief.

Things I Liked

Leia--This was supposed to be her movie, so I'm glad they were able to find a way to incorporate her and give her a heartfelt sendoff.

Seeing Favorite Aliens--It might be fan service, but I still enjoyed seeing Porgs and Jawas, even if for an instant.

The Climax--I can't talk about this without giving away a lot of the movie, but there were quite a few moments of awesome there.

Kylo's/Ben's Arc--Maybe it wasn't a complete redemption, but we did get to see how he and Rey are two sides of a single coin.

Things I Didn't Like

Pacing--Especially in the first half of the movie, I felt like we jumped from place to place without enough time to process everything. It wasn't always clear who was going where--characters would be onscreen without explanation.

No Explanation for Palpatine's Reappearance--This should have been foreshadowed earlier in the trilogy, IMO. How did he survive, and why did he wait so long to return?

Too Many New Characters--While I liked Janna, I felt like she was used to replace Rose, who should have had more screen time. I would have preferred more time and character development for established characters.

Rey's Backstory--Honestly, I would have been happy leaving it with what we saw in The Last Jedi. I like the idea of the Force being accessible by "nobodies" instead of just those from a special bloodline.

I went into this movie not knowing what to expect. I liked it, but my favorite movie in the saga is still The Empire Strikes Back.

If you've seen The Rise of Skywalker, what did you think of it? What's your favorite Star Wars movie? Feel free to share in the comments.

Pantsing as Experimentation

I saw a meme on Facebook recently saying that pantsers (writers who don't outline their stories) use the first draft as an outline. While that may be true to some extent, writing the first draft provides me with more than an outline. The first draft allows me to get to know my characters better, beyond what a character sheet can tell me. As I write, I can feel out my characters' quirks, reactions, and more. It also helps me establish settings and help me figure out how the characters solve problems. Of course, it's possible to develop all of this separately prior to writing the book, and even I will agree that it feels like a lot more work to write a draft, then try to extract an outline, transfer information to a writing bible, and of course take the story through one or more additional drafts before finishing it. Why then does pantsing seem to work for me when outlining ahead of time doesn't?

I think for me, part of what drives me to write is the experimentation aspect of fiction. As a writer, I get to create characters and worlds, put them in tough situations, and see how they work. I need the details provided by actually writing the story to determine how successful it will be. Sometimes it doesn't work; like all writers, I have trunk stories that will never be published. Sometimes I start a character down one path and decide it's not working, so I have to scrap what I wrote and start over. While it can be frustrating, it's part of the process. As I go along, it gets easier. It took me about two years to write the first draft of Dryads to Discover but only five months to finish the first draft of Dryad in Doubt. Part of that was because I was working on more short stories during Dryads to Discover, but part of that was that I didn't know the characters very well with the first story. I felt more confident with them in the second book, and it was easier to draft a middle section.

Now it's time to start the final book in the series, Dryads and Dragons. I'm torn between starting where I left off and trying to create a rough outline first. Given what I've said above, I should start writing it. I don't want to do a scene-by-scene outline, but I do feel the need to establish the major acts of the book before getting started. Hopefully by the time this post goes live, I'll know what approach I want to take and be on my way.

Do you feel your stories are experiments, or do you like to outline them first? How much do your stories change as you draft? Feel free to share in the comments.

Story Selected for Third Flatiron's Best of 2019 Anthology!

Since I sent in the reprint contract last week, I can officially announce that my short story "Specimen 1842," originally printed in Third Flatiron's Hidden Histories anthology, has been chosen to appear in their Best of 2019 anthology. The anthology will be digital format only, and the anticipated publication date is February 1st, 2020. I'm thrilled to have my story chosen and will be posting buy links to the anthology when they become available.

IWSG: Living the Writing Life

At last, we've arrived at the final Insecure Writer's Support Group post for 2019. The IWSG  is a group where writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds! (And no matter where you are on your writing journey, we all have our insecurities.) Learn more about the IWSG on their website, Facebook, and Twitter feed. 

Our hosts this month are Tonja Drecker, Beverly Stowe McClure, Nicki Elson, Fundy Blue, and Tyrean Martinson.  

Our question for December is really an exercise in imagination: Let's play a game. Imagine. Role-play. How would you describe your future writing self, your life, and what it looks and feels like if you were living the dream? Or if you are already there, what does it look and feel like? Tell the rest of us. What would you change or improve?

 Although this question asks us to imagine our ideal writing life, realistically, I don't think it'll be possible to reach it until I retire, simply because of family and financial obligations.  I also find it hard to crank out new words eight hours a day. It's one thing to sit in an office and be productive from 8:30 to 5:00, but as a consequence, I find it hard to shift my brain into writing mode outside of my normal writing time. So, what would be a dream writing life for me? I'd start by getting enough sleep, not staying in bed too long after I wake up, and exercising first thing in the morning. I'd either walk outside if the weather is nice or on the treadmill with a book when the weather is bad. After breakfast, I'd putter (yes, I'm middle-aged enough to putter) around the house for a while taking care of chores. Then I'd devote the rest of the morning to things like marketing, blogging, checking e-mail, and other publishing and administrative chores. (Of course, if this really was my dream writing career, I'd have an assistant to take care of some of that for me.) I'd write at home in the afternoon, ideally getting down a couple thousand words. After dinner, I might relax for an hour or two, reading or crocheting, before putting in another writing session. While I currently might write until almost bedtime, I'd like to finish the day by reading some more before going to sleep.

Sounds like a tranquil and productive life, doesn't it? One good thing about this schedule is that it would allow me mental downtime to think up new stories. Our society requires everyone to live a fast-paced life, and with constant distractions (yes, I'm thinking of the smartphone games I'm addicted to), it's hard to find mental space for creativity. On the other hand, even I, an introvert, admit that long-term, this lifestyle would isolate me. While day jobs do take up a lot of your time, they do force you to get social interaction and be exposed to new things. I think I would have to factor in some sort of outside class or regular meeting to make sure I get enough stimulation. This schedule might not work now, since my son is still in school. It might be more feasible when he starts college. My husband's job or health would also affect how much time I'd spend writing and how much on other things.

What would your dream writing life look like? How much time would you spend writing and how much on other things? Would you isolate yourself or seek out other people? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.