Photo credit: David Bishop
Yesterday I went to Edinburgh to do a brief guest talk at Napier University for their MA Creative Writing students that are specializing in Genre. As a side note, I love that a course in genre is offered, as so many creative writing courses have a decidedly literary fiction bent. Which is fine if you wish to specialise in literary fiction, but if a student wishes to be a screenwriter or write genre, it can not be as useful. So, yay Napier!
I was nervous and might have rambled a bit too much, but the students were all so sweet. David Bishop, their professor, asked me some questions and then the students did. We discussed publishing–and I told them all my stupid mistakes I made so they don’t have to!–as well as: privilege in fiction, the QUILTBAG aspects of Pantomime, the cover image & marketing, and other topics that’s now a blur of nerves. I had a wonderful time and I hope the students enjoyed my talk.
David Bishop is also doing a project where he takes 100 portraits and I’m one of them. You can see the others here.
Afterwards I went to a nearby pub and spent the evening with the lovely, talented YA author, student, and commercial photographer, Elizabeth May. We’ve known each other on the Twitter. We are both Californians in Scotland writing fantasy. So we met up and drank beer and during the five hours where we chatted a mile a minute NONSTOP discovered we have so much more in common that it’s a bit uncanny. Yay Elizabeth May!
Overall, the last two weeks I’ve been adjusting to life on the other side of book publication. My friend sent me a photo of my book in New Zealand, and others have sent me photos from Canada and various places in the US and the UK. But it’s WEIRD, man. You prepare for the launch and then suddenly…it’s out there. And life goes on and is normal, except for little snippets of amazingness. I’ve been getting a few fan letters, which I honestly never thought I’d get. I love getting them, though–they brighten up my day to no end.
