Category: Literary Matters

IWSG, February 2023: Indie Book Covers

John Winkelman

Lindemayer system experiment

Happy February, O my pixel pushers and ink rearrangers!  And for those who observe the Lunar New Year, happy Year of the Water Rabbit! I am feeling re-energized after a weekend at ConFusion 2023 where I volunteered to help run the ‘con, participated on a couple of panels, and hung out with and talked to many many many great writers and artists. ConFusion is my favorite event, and a great way to start the year.

The Insecure Writer’s Support Group question for February 2023 is:

If you are an Indie author, do you make your own covers or purchase them? If you publish trad, how much input do you have about what goes on your cover?

I have played around with making covers for a couple of chapbooks, but never for an actual book, on account of I don’t have any actual books for which to create or commission cover art.

That being said, were I to commission a cover, I would make sure it was created by a human artist, with minimal or no use of any of the AI [sic] image generators (Midjourney, DALL-E 2, etc.) which have been recently in the news for, among other things, copyright infringement of the artwork on which the image generator’s base neural network was trained. Call me old-fashioned, but any art I pay for will be created by actual artist. And I say that as someone who has played around with generative art for over two decades.

More information on this issue here:
https://www.theverge.com/2023/1/16/23557098/generative-ai-art-copyright-legal-lawsuit-stable-diffusion-midjourney-deviantart
https://www.polygon.com/23558946/ai-art-lawsuit-stability-stable-diffusion-deviantart-midjourney
https://petapixel.com/2022/12/21/midjourny-founder-admits-to-using-a-hundred-million-images-without-consent/
https://www.digitalcameraworld.com/news/midjourney-founder-basically-admits-to-copyright-breaching-and-artists-are-angry

Speaking of computer-generated art, I created the above image with my Lindenmayer System Explorer. If you want to duplicate this and play around with it, enter the following bolded text into the “import/export” field, click “Import Data”, then click “render.”

{“iterations”:”4″,”lineLength”:”4″,”initialAngle”:”270″,”angle”:”30″,”angleTaper”:”0″,”lineWidth”:”2″,”lineScale”:”1″,”lineTaper”:”-1″,”lineColors”:”222222,000099,990000,999900″,”backgroundColor”:”000000″,”axiom”:”[F]+[F]+[F]+[F]+[F]+[F]+[F]+[F]+[F]+[F]+[F]+[F]+”,”grammar”:”F:[FF[F+F]F]F!fF[F-F]”}

Happy writing, everyone!

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Thoughts on ConFusion 2023

John Winkelman

My badge and ribbons from ConFusion 2023

Last weekend I attended ConFusion 2023 with my partner Zyra, from Thursday morning through Sunday afternoon. This was my ninth ConFusion, and Zyra’s second. Her first experience was last year, still in the middle of the pandemic. 2022 was not, through no fault of their own, the best year in ConFusion’s history by a long shot. Fortunately 2023 was much improved, and though still small by the standards of many of the previous years, it was a lot of fun and felt like the ConFusions of old.

This year I volunteered as part of the Operations team and as a general dogsbody, taking care of those things which needed taking care of and lifting heavy things, as well as sitting at the Ops table in the early morning hours of Saturday and Sunday. I am used to waking up at 5:00 to feed the cats, work out, and write, so waking up at 5:00 to sit at a table in a mostly-empty hallway was not difficult, except when it came to staying awake.

I participated on two panels this year, “What do Trends in Artificial Intelligence Generated Art and Writing Mean for Artists and Authors?” on  Saturday with Jason Sanford, Rick Lieder, and Bill Higgins, and “Creativity in the Age of AI” on Sunday with Jason Sanford, Rick Lieder, and John Scalzi. I moderated the first, and Jason moderated the second. I had a great time on these panels, and will be posting about the content therein over the next couple of weeks.

The best part of conferences, of course, is the people. I spent most of my non-panel, non-Ops time hanging out in the bar area, talking to many wonderful people, and this experience filled my heart to near-bursting! Over the course of the long weekend, I spent time talking to, among others, Dave Palmer, Kathe Koja, Jason Sanford, Patrick Tomlinson, Maurice Broaddus, Rick Lieder, Jordan Kurella, ZigZag Claybourne, Saladin Ahmad, Catherine Stein, Rami Ungar, and Storm Michael Humbert. Many of these people I already knew, and the rest I met for the first time this past weekend. In both cases, my life was enriched by their presence.

I also spent a lot of time hanging out with the members of the ConFusion ConCom, talking about the history of ConFusion, the day-to-day tasks, the unexpected issues when working with hotels and bars, and the scores of other details which must be dealt with as they arise. These were fascinating discussions and only increased my respect for the volunteers who run fan conventions of all sorts.

So what’s next? At the moment I plan to be more involved with the next ConFusion in January 2024. That means that, after a few weeks off for rest and recovery, I will be sitting in on meetings with the ConCom and figuring out where I may be of the most assistance. And I am very much looking forward to this experience. ConFusion is one of my favorite events of the year, and I am happy – nay, eager – to contribute to its continued success in any way I can.

And before I forget, I treated myself to a new fountain pen, courtesy of Brad, the Pen Guy. It is beautiful to see, and a joy to write with.

IWSG, January 2023: The Word of the Year

John Winkelman

Poe (left) and Pepper eyeballing each other

The week before Christmas I was struck down by the flu. I worked from home for that week, and just when I started to feel better the Great Christmas Blizzard of 2022 covered West Michigan with a ridiculous amount of snow. Throughout these two weeks of isolation, Poe and Pepper (pictured above) were a wonderful source of amusement and affection for Zyra and I.

The Insecure Writer’s Support Group question for January 2023 is:

Do you have a word of the year? Is there one word that sums up what you need to work on or change in the coming year?

For this year, I think my word will be Attentiveness. That point where attention meets engagement. I had little enough of either over the past (checks notes) five years, since I went on hiatus from Caffeinated Press at the beginning of 2018. The last three years have been a fugue of reacting to or recovering from outside world events. Now that we are through the holidays and already the daylight hours are growing noticeably longer, I feel a renewed energy.

Attentiveness, to me, means not just noticing the parts of my life which need attention, but then doing something about it. Whether it be my relationship with my partner, my health, the martial arts class, my family, my writing, our house, or anything else in my life, I think I am ready to re-enter the world and take care of the things which need taking care of.

 

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is a community dedicated to encouraging
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Happy New Year, etc.

John Winkelman

New arrivals in the week of December 25, 2022

Welcome to 2023! 2022 was overall a good year, but also exhausting, and so I am kind of happy to see it in the rearview mirror.

Two book arrived here at the house in the last week of the year. On the left is the January 2023 issue of Poetry, which  came as something of a surprise, as I thought my subscription ended with the previous issue. I guess I was mistaken.

On the right is Apex Magazine 2021, the printed collection of the stories which appeared in the electronic editions of Apex Magazine, from their successful Kickstarter. This book has the honor of being the last book to enter the Library at Winkelman Abbey in 2022, in that it arrived in the afternoon of December 31. Excellent timing!

In reading news, I made some progress through the first issue of the new incarnation of Dreamforge, but my brain is so fried from *gestures at everything* that I couldn’t motivate myself to do much more than watch The Blacklist and The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, and play Stardew Valley.

In writing news, there is no writing news.

Starting in the new year, I will combine the “books I acquired” weekly posts with the “stuff I read” monthly posts, so now everything will be monthly. I plan to still do weekly (-ish) posts, but they will be both general and topical, and no longer exclusively about book stuff.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Merry Christmas, and All That

John Winkelman

New books for the week of December 18, 2022

I am typing this on my new Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 3 Chromebook, which I purchased to replace my aging ASUS Chromebook, which was good while it was good, but now is old enough that Google stopped pushing updates, and every month it was noticeably slower. Like with any new technology upgrade, it is fun and exciting for the moment, but at the end of the day it is a Chromebook, and I will use it mostly for writing, either creative work or blog posts like this one.

I picked up a couple of new books, VeloCities: Stories, and Dark Factory, both by Kathe Koja, who will be the Creative Guest of Honor at ConFusion 2023 in a few weeks.

In reading news, with Crime and Punishment completed I next finished the remaining volumes from my now-cancelled subscriptions to Poetry Magazine and The Paris Review. Now I am meandering my way through my backlog of issues of Pulphouse and Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet.

Not much to report on the writing front. My brain is mush from end-of-year burnout and also from a case of The Crud, which hit me a little over a week ago. I just bought a new fountain pen from Dryden Designs, with a fine nib. So far, I like it. We will see how the writing goes throughout the next few days.

The Last Week of Autumn

John Winkelman

Pepper giving Poe a bath.

The last week of Autumn has brought with it a case of the creeping crud, which fortunately is not COVID, but is also not much fun. I don’t feel overly terrible; just exhaustion, some sinus issues, and a scratchy throat. So of the many viruses colonizing the population right now, I have one of them.

No new books arrived this week, so here is a photo of some domestic tranquility.

After three weeks of intense concentration, I have finished Crime and Punishment, which I really should have read about 30 years ago. Better late than never, I suppose.

And in writing news, there is nothing to report. My brain is sprained.

The Year is Winding Down

John Winkelman

New books for the week of December 4, 2022

As we reach the midpoint of December I feel, for the 22nd year in a row, a profound sense of relief that I no longer work in retail. When the owners of a store yowl, from their expensive house in an expensive neighborhood, that the workers making barely more than minimum wage need to work both smarter AND harder, I begin to understand why the plans for home-made guillotines are proliferating across the internet.

Anyway.

Two new journal arrived at the house this week. On the left is the latest issue of The Boston Review. On the right is the latest issue of The Paris Review. Both are the last issues I will see of these publications, as I have let both subscriptions lapse. Despite my earlier misgivings I am sticking to my guns, and from now on will only purchase books intentionally, rather than subscribing to a dozen periodicals and catalogs and letting the arrivals sit unread for years at a time.

It’s also cheaper that way, which is always a concern.

In reading news, I am well over halfway through Crime and Punishment, and still expect to complete it before Christmas.

In writing news, other than journaling, I haven’t written anything since the end of November. Too many things going on all at once.

I think I am about due for another Great Simplification, the first since January of 2013. Ten years is probably slightly too long to go between Simplifications, but for the past several years I have been both happy and content, and haven’t felt the need to change things significantly. I am still happy and content, but entropy is making itself felt in several areas of my life, and in order to focus on those areas I need to let some other things in my life recede into the background.

So it goes, as always.

IWSG, December 2022: Holiday Writing

John Winkelman

Poe hiding from loud noises.

[EDIT – didn’t actually write the post before its scheduled publication time. That has been corrected.]

The past several weeks have been busy, thanks to NaNoWriMo, work, family obligations, and planning house upgrades. Thus a short IWSG post for the month.

The Insecure Writer’s Support Group question for December 2022 is: It’s holiday time! Are the holidays a time to catch up or fall behind on writer goals?

In past years I would have said holidays are when I fall behind, even though I have vacation time, but this year I think I might put that down time to good use. This is mostly because I have an actual plan and an actual draft to work on, with an actual end goal in sight. This is seldom the case at the end of the year. That, more than anything else, tends to drive whether or not I actually sit down and do the work.

 

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is a community dedicated to encouraging
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December and All That

John Winkelman

New reading material for the week of November 27, 2022.

Well, NaNoWriMo is over, so my daily routine, such as it is, is back to normal. A little more reading, a little more journaling, a little more sleep. December is here, and with it the usual holiday angst, though there is considerably less this year than in the previous couple.

(just kidding about the sleep)

Two new bundles of bound pages arrived at the house in the past week. On the left is the latest issue of Poetry, which is almost certainly the last one for my subscription. And on the right is the eighth edition of the Long List Anthology of works which were considered for the Hugo award in the previous year, but didn’t win. These anthologies are excellent, full of superb and varied stories.

In reading news, I am well into Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, and loving it! It’s a much easier read than The Brothers Karamazov, but then the list of books which fit that criteria is vast.

In writing news, things have slowed down just a little as I figure out how to connect what I wrote for NaNoWriMo with what I wrote before NaNoWriMo 2021. I have a sense for what I want to do, but knowing that no matter what I write to complete the pre-first draft will almost certainly be completely changed in the next edit, I have difficulty taking the step of putting my ass in the chair and typing those words.

Happy December, everyone!

NaNoWriMo 2022 Wrap-up

John Winkelman

Poe in Repose

Well, NaNoWriMo 2022 is over, and I can chalk up another win for myself. I hit 50,000 words in my WIP Cacophonous on November 23, and managed to get in a couple thousand more before the end of the month. I had hoped to hit 60k but family and holiday stuff, as well as a strong attack of burnout from the year, sapped all of my creative energy. But still – 50,000 words in a little over three weeks. I’ll accept that.

This year I employed the same strategy as last year – one document for every day of the month, word count in the title, and let the chapter breaks fall where they may. As with last year, this had two benefits. First, it removed the sense that the next chapter couldn’t start until the previous one was finished. I didn’t have to finish scene X by the end of the day. I could pick it up the next morning. This is really more of a psychological than a practical trick. but it does keep the focus where it should be for NaNoWriMo – productivity and word count. The editing happens later. This is Draft 0. After it is all cobbled together, it is draft 1. Then the editing can begin. And second, I could start each day fresh, unencumbered by what I had worked on in the previous sessions.

The big change this year, from the past three, was the community involvement. Of course 2020 and 2021 had no in-person events, and 2019 I think I skipped out on everything so I could be with my partner as she had recently moved in and things around the house were still a little chaotic.

I didn’t realize how much I had missed the community aspect of NaNoWriMo until I walked in the room for the kickoff party back at the end of October and saw all of those familiar faces, some of whom I had not seen in five years. Then there was a book launch party for the first publications by Lakeshore Literary, the new publishing endeavor which grew out of the ashes of Caffeinated Press. And then two weeks ago we had DoKN, or the Day of Knockout Noveling, where I wrote about 5,000 words in one afternoon, ate a lot of really good food, and encountered many more of the people who I had not seen in years.

So, like so much else in 2022, my sense is that the world is making up for the two years when we couldn’t do anything, by having everything happen in a very short amount of time.

As of this writing I am about 60% of the way through Cacophonous. More if I take the short story I wrote in October 2021 and turn it into the last couple of chapters. I will certainly use a lot of it, but the book is significantly different from the short story so I will only bring over the bones of the first work.

Will I participate in NaNoWriMo again? Absolutely! There are no bad sides to such an event.