From my fantasy writing desk:
San Diego Writers’ Conference
I’ve been preparing to teach my workshop on editing at the San Diego Writer’s Conference that runs January 31-February 2. It’s an excellent conference with practical workshops on writing skills and marketing. It also has many agents/editors to pitch to and learn from. Click here to find out more or register.
I find this particular conference offers some of the best interaction with all the presenters, agents, editors throughout the three days, over meals, long breaks, chatting over a drink.
It does mean a high energy three days for me. Last time, every “break” was filled with things like coaching how to do a pitch, how to clean out the excess historical detail from a historical fiction manuscript, how to edit, market, etc. I made a lot of friends in the process. I met my agent at this conference over an extended conversation, not a formal pitch session–although there are plenty of those, also.
In addition, this year they’ve done an excellent job rethinking the program so the conference offers as much for self-publishing authors as traditionally published. That pleased me. Snobbery on that subject completely ignores how many of the best books each year are reaching the market and succeeding. Here’s the link to register.
My editing workshop at the conference
My workshop teaches how to “trim and layer” edit. Add the details that draw the reader inside the point of view character and action. Trim the distancing words and delaying elements. How to accomplish more than one thing with every element, setting that also develops character, sets mood and theme, etc. I’m pleased with how the talk came together, a good blend of close study of passages, guiding principles, pragmatic fixes and, with luck, some epiphanies about editing for the attendees.
On the one hand, I dug and dug through old manuscripts of mine and showed the various ways you can go wrong and also marked-in how I eventually fixed them. I also pulled snippets from some of my favorite writers that show exactly how each point I was making looks when it’s done right. So my students will see passages from Shannon Baker, Beth Cato, Donis Casey, Katherine Arden and Catriona McPherson. From Shannon, I also borrowed (with her permission, of course) some incredibly brilliant tips on teaching deep point of view from her workshop talk. This writing life is definitely a communal project. I hope I can pass on some writing wisdom the end of this month in San Diego.
Archaeology and History Posts I enjoyed:
Leaking on the Parthenon Marbles
Irony of ironies in the repatriation debate of the Parthenon marbles: the roof of the British Museum in the room housing the marbles is leaking. The leaky roof is leaving puddles to mop up and warning signs of slippery floors. So far no damage to the marbles.
The old British argument that they could better protect the marbles—true for many years—is ringing less and less persuasive now. Athens has a gorgeous new museum waiting for the marbles—with no leaks.
The UN recently passed a resolution calling for their return. I have very happy memories of seeing the marbles in the British Museum. It’s certainly one of my favorite museums. But gone are the days of the small, dusty museum on the Acropolis with windows open to pollution and dirt. Click here for Archaeology News Network “Roof Leak Causes Concern for the Parthenon Marbles in the British Museum”
Digging out Bronze Age Cyprus
More on the Bronze Age brewery and signs of “building big” from the 2018 season at Kissonerga-Skalia, Cyprus.
The dig season of the previous year had revealed a remarkably well-preserved beer brewery. This year’s work placed the malting kiln in a L-shaped courtyard.
The final phase of inhabitation at the site (start of the Late Bronze Age) shows a transition seen elsewhere in the Eastern Mediterranean during which people built larger scale buildings and produced goods on a grander scale. This site was slowly abandoned during this phase so this transition is not obscured by later building.
Cyprus doesn’t have the large palatial sites seen in Mycenaean and Hittite contexts of same period, but this expanded production shows an interestingly similar centralization of sorts, at least superficially.
I will be interested in how these finds are interpreted and what clues to the social/political structures they reveal. Does expanded production indicate expanded international trade? Who’s in charge and how many people live in the surrounding area? So many intriguing questions these tantalizing hints suggest. Click here for Archaeology News Network “2018 excavations of Bronze Age settlement at Kissonerga-Skalia completed”