I had a fun moment this week. 14 and I were discussing musical pieces were enjoyed. I said I did not much care for Mozart on the piano. (I'm afraid I agree with Salieri, "too many notes.") I like his symphonic pieces much more, but he is not one of the geniuses of music to me. I think his "prodigy" status early on gives him too much push. I much prefer Chopin and Beethoven, and I find myself choosing their pieces to learn again and again. 14 agreed with me. Then I mentioned that I liked the Bach piece that 15 is learning on the viola. She said, Bach is good on strings. But I said I didn't love him on piano. We looked at each other and had a moment of wide-eyed surprise. Then we did a high five. Because we were having a discussion about music. Me, the musically illiterate. It might not have been a dream come true for her, but it was something. She still hates listening to me practice, because I play it wrong so many times before I get it right (she has to play things about twice before she has them right).

This may or may not be interesting, but here are some questions (with a few answers) I wrote in the development stage of a new novel idea. I really do write most of the time without an outline and without a clear sense of what will happen in the story. That said, I think I like to have a sense of what conflicts will happen in the story, and the magic has to be something that I have some grasp of to begin with. I often discover a lot about characters when they are in scene, doing things, but there must be a starting point. This is what it looks like for me:

Big concept? 2 people in love with the wrong people, find the right people
What is the magic in this world?
Rules of magic?
Magical problem?
Romantic/human problem?
What does he want? What does she want?
Names: Var, Siegfried, Johan, Morhaid, Ana, Dagmar, Ina, Ethel
Do they know who they are?
Do they know what magic they have?
When would the magic first come out?
What will they give up?
Surprises/twists?
What is attractive about the "bad girl/guy?" beauty, power, alpha status, forbidden/danger, allure/adventure, strength/safety, independence
What is the ending? Do they get the right one?
Nature or Nurture?
Who is the villain?
What does the villain want?
What is his history?
What has he lost?
How to stop him?

I am becoming increasingly conscious of my invisibility, especially in my home state. I need to be doing more events so that people even know that I exist. I suppose that when I began writing, I thought that it was a good thing if the book is better known than the author. Maybe that was once so, but it's not anymore. Books go OP too fast. The author has to have something going right now that is hot.

Along those lines . . .

This year, I sent a couple of my books (signed) to my daughters 5th grade classroom. She, shy girl that she is, put them on the teacher's desk without a word. The teacher assumed that they were books returned by another child (since she already had them in her collection). It wasn't until weeks later that 9 pointed out that her mother was, in fact, the author of those books. The teacher was astonished, went to her shelf, and asked 9 if she would take the books home to get them signed. They are already signed, 9 pointed out. The teacher opened them, and sure enough, they were.

I did my Fairy Tale Workshop for the whole fifth grade in Holladay a few weeks ago, at Oakridge. The marvelous teacher there is Allesen Peck. She teaches languages arts for all three rotations, which means she grades papers for all 100 of them every other week. That's 5-10 extra hours of work on top of regular prep time. Kudos to her. I appreciate that dedication. I don't think my kids get nearly as much writing practice at school, though we do make them do things at home like write us letters explaining why they should get a particular thing or to say they are sorry. Now I feel her pain more closely, since my workshop involves me talking about fairy tales and how to retell them, giving a simple structure to start with, and then waiting for the papers to be sent in the mail. I make comments on them (with a promise not to correct any grammar or spelling mistakes, only story structure things) and then come back and talk about revision in general, what things I noticed this time around for the whole class, and leave some time for the individual kids to ask me questions on their stories privately. I think I do a great job at this, and hope word gets around. Teachers, someone else will read the papers for you on one round. What could be better than that?

Last, but not least, I am doing a last minute signing on Thursday night at 5-7 p.m. at the Layton Barnes and Noble in association with the Davis School District. I hope to see someone there. If not, the chocolate cheesecake isn't bad.

15 has a learner’s permit now. She has to get in 40 hours of driving before she can get her license at 16. She has about 5 hours right now. We tried to start her on our van, which is an automatic. But surprise, surprise, it is difficult to maneuver. Most people don’t ever have to learn how difficult. A 12 passenger van is not a common vehicle.

So we tried 15 on the wagon with standard transmission. Ah, the joys of learning how to start a standard transmission on a hill! There are many hills around here. And many stop signs at the top of them. One Sunday I had to wave people behind us around because I was not sure she would not slide back into them.

I remember so clearly sitting in her seat while my brother-in-law sat in mine, and then later my dad. I drove around for hours in a parking lot. I am comfortable driving a standard now, though I do not think of myself as a particularly good driver. But 15 told me that she was surprised that I was so patient with her. It was not what she expected since, as she says, I am usually the one who is always wanting things to get done in a hurry.

I am currently working on a system of earning "Mom points," for various things. Driving with 15 should get me plenty. Also, remembering to bring a snack for her when I drive her to swim team. Noticing if she doesn't have her swim bag in the car. Driving 14 back to her cello teacher for her lost watch (taken off for thumb position work). The real question is, what will I do once I accumulate all these Mom points? I am thinking they should be good for occasional foot massages, at the very least.

Dear Editors,

My books are my children. But that does not mean that I don’t see their flaws. I do see them as clearly as I see my children’s flaws. I see that sometimes there is no way to separate the flaws and the virtues. I see also that usually there are things I can do to make them better and that it will take a lot of work to get there. I see myself in my books in ways that make me proud and ways that astonish me. Also in ways that make me a little embarrassed to be so exposed.

My books need attention. Sometimes they need more attention than I can reasonably give them. They are not perfect and I love them anyway. I love them because they are part of me, but not me. They can live independently when I am gone and I will know then that if I have not done everything, I have done well.

My books are not to be insulated from justice or from criticism. I know that some people will say things about them that hurt and that I will just stand and nod and realize that there is some truth in that. I know that sometimes my children will fail, and that there is nothing to be afraid of in that. A failure is a chance to do better.

Some people’s children will get more than my children do. More money, more fame. Some children will have better breaks than mine do. This, too, I accept. Some parents will do things for their children that I object to, and then will get rewarded for it.

When I tell you that a book is like a child, it is nothing to be afraid of.

Author

One of my best friends like to tell this story about her parents. She said that when they were older (she is the youngest by a number of years) they bought this tiny little house on a big lot where they planned to build their dream home. They thought and planned about the dream home for a while. And then they stopped planning it. Because they realized they were in their dream home already. The tiny little home on the big lot was small enough that they could vacuum the whole thing in ten minutes. And she and her parents both realized that they didn’t care about much else.

I love that story because it reminds me that stuff isn’t what makes you happy. Sure, an iphone is a cool toy. And it’s very painful when you don’t have enough money. But once you have enough, there’s no point in working yourself to death to get more. And there is an enough. Enough to buy food and a decent home and cars that get you where you need to go. We actually downsized from our previous home when we moved into our current one because I had realized I didn’t want to vacuum that much. And I’m very happy here. We drive a 15 year old car and an 8 year old van (which is the new car to us). Do I want nicer cars? No.

Sometimes you just have to look at what you already have and realize it’s the dream.

So I’m almost at the end of this quick redrafting of my WIP, the one with the outline. I am surprised to report that it did not change as much as I expected it to. The first 13 chapters remained in essentially the order I had originally charted them to be in, with chapter 8 splitting into two chapters instead of one. The next 8 chapters all happened, but just not in the order I had written them down in. The last 4 chapters ended up getting tossed out with not much replacing them. I have problems sometimes with my ending going on too long.

Now, the real question is, does it work this way? And can I do this again, before I have written five drafts of a novel with my other method, which is basically holding all I can of the novel in my head and then discovering things along the way?

One of the things I have been saying again and again when I do school visits is that the main character of the story has to start out with something he/she wants. Also, with one thing that makes him/her likeable. Then the rest of the story can be a series of scenes which show the MC trying to get what he/she wants. Each scene must deal with the question, but it can deal with it in different ways.

“No, not yet” is a frequently used one. “Yes, it seems so” is also a common choice. But then you follow it up with the realization that it’s still a no. “No, and you’ve made things worse” is used a lot in thrillers. “Yes, but” is used a lot in realistic fiction. Then you get to write about what happens when you get what you want, but it isn’t what you thought or it isn’t enough.

So I tried to force myself to address the question with every chapter and on my outline I wrote “Yes,” “No,” or other variations as a note to each chapter. It’s an important driving force in a narrative to have that kind of clear question stated from the beginning and relentlessly returned to. Not every story is this way, but fairy tales often are, and it’s not a bad rubric to begin with. For kids in elementary school, they tend to have random events happen, and this helps solve that problem.

I was looking through a local magazine and came across an ad yesterday that bothered me. It was for an orthodontist. The middle aged man wore a denim shirt and khakis. That wasn’t what bothered me. I was annoyed that this orthodontist took this photo for his company surrounded by *9* of his office workers, all women. All heavily made up, all with big hair, all wearing the same white shirt, in contrast to his. Did he have any idea what this looked like at first glance? In a place like Utah?

I laughed for a second, thinking that the real polygamists don’t let their women dress like that. They have way bigger hair, for one thing. And less makeup.

But then I thought about the photo without any coloring of Mormon fundamentalists and just as an advertisement for a business. Is there anything more that feminists need to show the disparity between men and women in the workplace?

Yes, women make these choices for themselves often. But they don’t do so in a vacuum. We as a society tell women what they can expect. This photo tells them what to expect. And you know what? In a way, that feels even creepier to me than the polygamy thought.

I believe in children being cared for by their parents, though I think that can end up being mother or father. At the same time, I believe that women should be dreaming big. Women should be rocket scientists and doctors, and writers and teachers and yes, orthodontist and not just dental hygienists and receptionists. And men and women should both make family a priority and both need to realize that that means work comes second.

On a lighter note, my evil atheist friend mentioned to me that he had seen these new stickers on the backs of cars (especially minivans) in Utah that have a stick figure Mom, Dad, then a few kids and possibly a cat or dog. He said he was thinking of putting a stick figure Dad and then a stick figure Mom and kids and another stick figure Mom and kids, and another stick figure Mom and kids. You know, in the spirit of Utah.

On Friday, I handed over $25 cash to 15 for her report card. I have never paid her for grades before, and she knows why. We've had discussions about what she would have to do to get money for her grades. Her friends didn't believe her. Her teachers didn't believe her. But the cash on Friday was the proof, for her to show anyone.

15 did not get straight A's.

I find this a moment for celebration. Why? Because for three years, she has driven me insane with her panics over getting anything remotely close to an A-. She has set goals to get 150% in some of her classes, and then panicked over that. I know very well that I have exactly the child that I deserve in many ways because of her intense over achievement, but one thing I will say for myself in high school and that is that I didn't particularly care about getting a 4.0. True, I was not valedictorian. But I got some great scholarships to good universities, because I think universities know the truth about kids who are in search of a 4.0 and that is that they may tend to take safer classes to ensure the purity remains untouched.

15 is taking 4 AP classes as a sophomore. One of them is at a magnet school I have to drive her to 3 times a week. She is sometimes late, can not do any after school activities, cannot get help from the teacher, and is even locked out of the school's computer and library system (though I hope to get that fixed soon). Needless to say, this has been a difficult situation for her and this is the class she did not get a 4.0 in. But instead of crying over it like she did last year, she simply told me that kids who worry about all A's don't "get it," and that what really matters is what grade she gets on the AP test at the end of the year.

Music to my ears.

And money for her exclusively Linux computer dedication fund.

So, yes, I did pay my daughter not to get an A. How's that for bad parenting?

14 has been at work on a fantasy novel for the last six months or so and is taking a creative writing class at her junior high school. She is disappointed to discover that the other students tend to say little more than, “Wow, this is great” when she reads aloud in class, and that no one finishes anything. I am not surprised.

Finally, she allowed me to read the first chapter and give her comments. It was very instructive for me to see the little comments she had written in on the sides. For example, she began the novel with a half page in italics, describing the backstory. She said she couldn’t figure out how else to get that information to the reader, but that it was important. She wanted my great wisdom on this and I smiled, telling her that this is an enormous problem for all writers, more so for fantasy and science fiction. We try various clever tricks to get in our backstory, and sometimes it works better than others. Is there one solution that always works? No. I feel like I am always relearning this with each new novel, trying a new method, seeing advantages and disadvantages. There is no trick here. Writing is a messy business.

Another problem she had was trying to figure out how to get her character to go to a particular event she wanted her at. I told her that this, too, was the kind of thing that I struggle with as a writer. I will do something clumsy in the first draft, and then try other things. Sometimes, none of them work and I end up having to find another plot line to write. This is not necessarily the kind of thing a beginning writer wants to hear, but it’s true. Other times, writers try “overhearing” things if they can’t get a character involved in a particular conversation. Or magic can allow you to see things. Or a dream. Yes, they are all devices, to be used when appropriate.

The last problem was one I actually was able to help her with. She has a man who has taken on the appearance of the enemy race coming out of the battlefield with a half-enemy baby which is his and his wife’s. People wonder how the baby got onto the battlefield and he simply shrugs them off and then lives a good deal of the rest of his life among his enemies, so that his daughter will have a chance to live. I told her that this didn’t work for me and suggested that he leave the battlefield and find the daughter later. The point isn’t the specifics of this problem, though. It’s that when the writer knows that there is a belief problem, it has to be dealt with. There are a lot of things writers don’t notice, but if you do notice something, you must find a solution. You can’t just ignore such things. If the story doesn’t make sense, the fourth wall falls apart and the story feels like just so many words on a page instead of real.

I got three of my five kids to do a race with me and my husband this weekend, which was amazingly fun. 15 and 12 did the triathlon (just short of a sprint) and 9 did the 5k portion, mostly with the two older kids. 12 got a little messed up on the course and didn't do both loops on the bike, which he felt really stupid about. Poor kid. 15, on the other hand, took 2nd in her age group, and there were more than 2 people in it! But really cool for her was the thought that she had finished a race that I had done, the same course exactly, the same distance. We had some friends there, as well. I should have taken pictures, but left the iphone at home.

I got first place in my age group, about 8 seconds short of my PR and 17 seconds short of my goal. Sigh! I put my helmet on backwards in transition (which must have looked pretty funny since it was one of those long, pointed aero helmets) and had to stop on the bike and turn it around. I'm sure I must have lost 17 seconds on that. My uber-rival beat me by 90 seconds--again! She is about 12 years younger than I am, but she usually passes me in the water. This time she has improved her bike so that she was ahead of me when she got in. I did pass one other person in the water, and ended up fourth overall.

I really enjoyed indulging myself all weekend, going out to eat. I think I will have to go on a diet or something, to get ready for the holidays, when I let myself indulge. Ah, but it felt very good.

Last night was the end of our LAWKI month without buying any food. I was really hungry. It is true, what they say, that if you eat the same things over and over again, you can stop wanting to eat anything. You feel hungry, but not for that. It's not like I lost weight or anything, but when I am hungry I tend to cry and be irrational about perfectly normal things.

What did I learn?

1. Desserts are really important when the dinner is frequently soup and homemade bread. There aren't enough calories in it and you get bored enough that you don't eat as much as you should.

2. Eat fat. I've been reading some books set in Victorian times and I notice that the food they eat is laden with fat. When you are hungry a lot, you crave fat. Also meat, probably for the same reason. So I need to have enough fat around. Deep fried bread was one of the family favorites. Also nuts.

3. Friends with gardens or apple trees are really useful to have. We need to plant some fruit trees. We have strawberries and not much else. Even my kids craved fresh fruits and vegetables.

4. The hungrier I got, the less I cared about being vegetarian or vegan. Morals change in a survival situation. Humans did not evolve for civilization. They evolved for survival.

5. Exercise is a serious disadvantage when you don't have enough food. You would want to conserve energy and not expend it. This is in LAWKI and seems obvious, but I was reluctant (too much so) to cut back on my normal lifestyle.

6. Without a heat source, a lot of our food would be useless. I need to deal with that problem. Sun oven, perhaps. Or a butane heater. Even boiling water would be good.

Yes, it was all pretend. We had plenty of money. We could go to the store if there were an emergency. I cheated once or twice, but it was a useful experiment nonetheless. I am not sure, however, that I want to do it again.

Conversation in the car, on the way to an author talk:

14: Didn't you do your hair before you came to this?
Me: What's wrong with my hair?
14: You should, like, do it more. Especially when you're going to something in public like this.
Me: This is the way my hair always looks.
14: (Eyes roll) I know.
Me: How do you think I should, like, do it instead?
14: You know, curl it, or straighten it or something?
Me: Curl it or straighten it? Why can't I just leave it with its natural curl?
14: It would look better if you did it.
Me: I like it natural. I like your hair natural, too.
14: Mom!

I am also lazy. My idea of "doing" my hair these days consists in putting a little hair wax on my fingers and running them through the ends. That gets done about half the time. Maybe less. Whenever I go into a hairdresser and they ask me what I want my hair to look like, I always think (though never say)--can you cut it so that it looks good if all I do is comb it out of the shower? Because let's be realistic, people, that's all that's going to happen a lot of the time.

And to 14, sweety, in the time that I could have spent doing my hair, I was doing the laundry and driving you to your dance lesson and your voice lesson and also earning the money to pay for them. Gladly.

A couple of links:

First, a new essay at IGMS on Point of View.

Second, an essay on my first triathlon .

I wanted to add to my books read list that I really enjoyed CHILD OF FIRE by Harry Connolly this month. I read it to get my Harry Dresden fix, and while it is in the same genre, it's not Dresden at all. Completely different, darker (YES, even darker!) world view. Interesting magic. Twists and turns. Characters I liked doing things I sometimes didn't. I will be reading it again.

Also enjoyed THE MAGICIANS by Lev Grossman immensely. It was like Harry Potter for grownups, with some winks at Narnia thrown in. Well, more than winks. It felt very meandering at the beginning, but I found I wanted to put it down less and less by the end. The section about the months in Antarctica were some of the best writing ever.

A few comments on HER FEARFUL SYMMETRY by Audrey Niffenegger (of THE TIME TRAVELERS WIFE fame) and LIAR by Justine Larbelestier. Both of these books made me feel deeply unsettled. I suspect that it is what both authors intended. LIAR admits in advance that you should believe nothing in the book. As a reader, this made me feel an immediate distance from the book and I really did believe nothing. Nonetheless, it was fascinating and creepy and I did not notice time passing. HER FEARFUL SYMMETRY had some similar effects, except that the ending, when it came, was less expected. I try not to spoil books (Have I, already? I am terrible at figuring out what spoils stuff, sorry!), so I won't say anymore. Read with an open mind and enjoy the feeling, even if it is disgust.

The following, please send your snail mail addresses to: mette@argonautfilms.com

windsong5
angie_frazer
maryling
csiowa

I did it. I wrote an outline for my WIP, the one that is having severe plot issues. Specifically, it needs an ending. And well, it needs things that lead to that ending. Which is, as far as I can tell, pretty much everything.

I did not write a traditional outline. It started as a list of events that I thought should happen in the book. Then I wrote a four or five word gloss of the first four chapters I had written. Then I wrote three basic plot lines, well, the main plot A and sub plots B and C. I wrote then the events in the order in which I think right now they should happen, the age of the protagonist when they happen and the basic plot to which that event pertains.

So far (one day) it has made things a lot easier. I do not expect that this will continue. I imagine there will be events that need to happen that I have not yet anticipates. And events that don't end up happening at all because it turns out they are part of a novel that isn't this one. But I'm trying to give myself permission to do this book in a different way. It is a different book, so why not a different method? Also, since the old method isn't working . . .

Thanks for your answers to the poem yesterday. I will get in touch with those of you who won and ask for addresses.

Geektastic ed. Cecil Castellucci, Holly Black
Child of Fire by Harry Connolly
Liar by Justine Larbelestier
Give Up the Ghost by Megan Crewe
My Life as a Rhombus by Varian Johnson
Fantasy and Science Fiction August/September 2009
Mean Streets ed. by Jim Butcher
The Compound by S.A. Bodeen
Asimov’s December 2009
Fantasy and Science Fiction October/November 2009
Asimov’s September 2009
Servant of a Dark God by John Brown
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days by Jeff Kinney
The Golden Cord by Paul Genesse
Dull Boy by Sarah Cross
Sent by Margaret Peterson Haddix
The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilds (book club)
Violet Wings by Victoria Hanley
The Magicians by Lev Grossman
Realms of Fantasy December 2009
Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger (ICK!)

I've already said how much I liked John Brown's SERVANT OF A DARK GOD, but I'm putting in a second plug here and adding a poem for a taste of what I liked about the book. John is one of the few fantasy authors who can actually write good poetry. And this one is funny, as well.

If you want to win a copy of the book sent to you for absolutely free, tell me what word you think is missing in the last line here and post it in comments:

"Her face fired devotion,
Her body fired blood,
If only she'd cease
Her rooting in the mud.

Oh, I've got me two wives
All mixed up in one,
A woman and a sow,
But begets have I none.

I married her sweetly,
We labored to breed
But blister me, monsters
Can't quicken men's seed.

Oh, I've got me two wives
All mixed up in one
A woman and a sow
But I want a --."

I want the plot of my current WIP to feel inevitable. Not all books are like this and I love plenty of boks that build slowly like The Magicians or The Name of the Wind.

But there are books that set everything up in the first chapter and while you may not realize, the rest of the book is an unfolding of those possibilities. A couple books like this are Among The Hidden and The Demon's Lexicon. This isn't to say there are no surprises in these nooks. There are, but when you go back to the beginning you can see it all there.

I find a certain pleasure in reading a bok so tightly constructed. One of the interesting things about books like that is that I think they appear easy to write because you can't imagine anything else happening. But as I am learning, this is not so.

It occurred to me recently that my feelings about makeup are actually related in some strange way to my feelings about book promotion. I will try to tease out this strange connection here.

When I began writing, I had this idea that I was a writer. That is, I was not a salesman. I was not an entertainer. I was not a speaker. I was not a movie star or a rock star. I was not a motivator for kids. I was a writer. What do writers do? Well, they pretty much sit in their dark caves and produce incredible manuscripts at whatever interval the muse allows. And they don't make much money, either. I had no illusions about becoming rich by being a writer.

But imagine my surprise when it turned out that besides actually writing a manuscript, there was a list of other jobs that writers were expected to do. Now, perhaps this has always been true. Certainly Shakespeare promoted his plays. Even Jane Austen dedicated a book to the Prince when she didn't want to, because of publicity reasons. Goethe didn't mind using his fame from Werther in later life. So this was likely a misapprehension caused by literature classes that simply didn't care about teaching about the reality of writing, only the product.

It turns out that I should be doing signings, school visits, attending conferences, speaking to teachers, blogging, tweeting, facebooking, making book trailers, having publicity photos shot, doing midnight parties at book releases, and thinking about my books being made into movies. It's not that I am unwilling to do these things to be successful. But it seems like they have nothing to do with the quality of the book. I know this because as a consumer of books, it turns out the hype very rarely means anything. Yes, I enjoyed Harry Potter. But I love The Thief series even more and no one screams or talks about making movies about those. And they are perfect books.

So, back to makeup.

I used to wear makeup. Not every day. I was one of those kids who was very erratic. I would wear sweats to school half the time. Well, most of the time. Jeans and a real shirt if I was feeling especially dressy. But I also had some fantastic dresses that I would put on for dances and then I would do makeup all the way. I'd spend hours on my hair and put on nylons and heels. And get pictures taken.

But after a while, it felt like there was a disjunction. I mean, there WAS a disjunction, but it bothered me later. The me who feels like me felt like she was being covered up. Sometimes she looked better than she really did. A lot of the times worse. I started (and am still) looking for a seamless blend of who I feel like inside and what I look like outside. I want to look good, but not fake. Not like a movie star. I want to look like I am 39, a mother of 5, and a writer. So when people sometimes tell me I look too young, or how can I have that many kids, it feels like a criticism of the appearance I am sending out. I want to look authentic.

I suppose I want the same thing from my books. I want them to look like what they are inside. I want the book cover to represent what is inside the book, and the title, as well. I want the publicity to accurately portray the sort of adventure that readers will find inside. I want people who meet me at a signing or an event to get a glimpse of who I really am and what kind of books I write. This is tricky to do. Maybe it is impossible. Probably it is part of the reason that I am so terrified of these events. I want to show who I really am, and this is a difficult thing to do.

I hear people debate about what has happened to science fiction and why the big numbers in terms of sales are all in fantasy. This is the reverse of say, the 1980s, when fantasy was lagging considerably behind. I have some possible theories on this:

1. It's just a cycle. Who knows what causes these things? Bellwethers of some kind, but we don't know how to track them. Harry Potter. Twilight. Possibly they are causing it. Or possibly they are simply proof of it.

2. We are living in a science fiction world. Blue tooth, the internet, space travel (though not much manned, these days), communicator buttons, iphones, it's all real. Maybe we want to experience something else instead of more of the same? I can't believe that we've really run out of ideas of cool, new things that will happen in the future, but I wonder if technology is outrunning evolution and we are simply overwhelmed by what we already have to take in.

3. Religion. I've heard this postulated and I think it is a possibility. Traditional religions are on the decline and yet they are part of the human psyche, possibly even part of our genetic heritage. Do we need something mystical to believe in? Does it comfort us to see a world where good always triumphs and evil always pays a price? So we want to at least read about other people who still pray to gods they believe in, who have dreams that mean something, and who see portents that come to pass?

4. TV and movies. Science fiction is big stuff at the box office and on the small screen. CG has done a marvelous job of making it visually real. I think that fantasy CG isn't quite there yet. Not live action, anyway. This may be part of the reason that fantasy books are so hot.

5. Fantasy is easier to write than science fiction? I don't really believe this, but maybe it's true. Historical fantasy is certainly not easy to write. And good, coherent fantasy isn't easy, either. Worldbuilding, whether real or not, can be tricky. But it doesn't require the same kind of vigor and you don't have to deal with the readers who nitpick on details of science you have gotten wrong. Maybe.

6. Women have crossed into genre fiction and are taking it over, both as readers and as writers. I have said before that I have found I read more women writers than men. I don't think I do this consciously, but it happens. I find that women tend to write on topics that interest me more with details that interest me more, and they treat female characters in ways that do not annoy me or make me throw books across the room (except if they are on my iphone, of course :)--then I don't throw. I gently close the Kindle app and delete the book. Mwahaha!) Perhaps science in the real world is still suffering some glass ceiling effects, but since fantasy has no counterpart it isn't?

I'd love to hear other thoughts.