Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Feeling a Little Lonely

So I'm feeling a little lonely . . . and not friendship-wise!

I know a lot of authors. I know authors in a lot of genres. Let's see: YA, Commercial Fiction, Horror, Women's Fiction, Literary Fiction, Romance.

You know what genre I don't really know anyone in?

You got it. Fantasy. (And Levi, you don't count, you write YA Fantasy.:) Correct me if I'm wrong. . . Although in terms of thematics and world-building, you're probably closer than anyone else.)

On top of that, most of the people I sort of know who write fantasy, write bad fantasy . . . like, really bad. (And no Scott, I'm not referring to you, you ALSO write YA fantasy.) So I'm kinds looking for someone else who writes high fantasy that has had some kind of success either in the agent world or publishing world.

And I don't know how to say that any better without sounding like a snob. Because I don't mean it that way. I know so many people who are so talented and write the most wonderful books that I am certainly not under any mistaken impression that I am the cream of the crop.

More like the only sprout of wheat.

The obvious answer is to join SFWA, but, oops, you have to have some kind of sales before joining. (It's one of the first things I want to do after I have a sale, but . . . )

So basically this is just me whining.

I've also looked at the good side! If high fantasy authors with agents are fairly rare then that will make my book even more attractive to editors, right? . . . Right? *Shrug* Who knows.

So, anyone a friend of a friend . . . of a friend (??) who writes fantasy?

Ciao!

15 comments:

Michelle Zink said...

Sorry, I can't be of help.

I write YA fantasy as well (and YA coming of age when the mood strikes).

I DO know what you mean, though, in terms of wanting some cameraderie with other writers, though.

I'm kind of in the boonies. I can't even find a nearby bookstore that does readings or anything, and I sure as heck can't find a writers group up here (I've tried).

I'm ridiculously thrilled just to commune with ANY writer! Because yes - writing CAN be a lonely business.

Even with YA fantasy I have to laugh sometimes listening to myself talk to one of my readers - "Okay, so if she can't find the missing pages of the Prophecy and she gets stuck in the Otherworlds..."

Makes one sound kinda crazy, yes?

cindy said...

have you attended writig conferences? even then, fantasy and sci fi are usually the stepchildren. haha! but there are sf/f specific conferences, it's great to meet other writers within the genre there?

i am in a few critique groups and one of the few that writes fantasy, as well. i'm not sure what high fantasy is, but i doubt i'm writing it. i'm neither literally or intellectual in my porse. ha! good luck!

LadyBronco said...

I joined critiquecircle.com recently, and there are quite a few sci-fi / fantasy writers that lurk there...lol!

However, as I am fairly new to that site, I have to warn that I do not have any idea how many, if any, of them are published.

Aprilynne Pike said...

Hmmm, I'll have to go check that out. Lurk for a while and see what I can find.:)

Maprilynne

Tyhitia Green said...

Nope, dark urban fantasy here, and unpublished to boot; egad! I'm friends with other writers in horror, commercial fiction, fantasy, and romance/paranormal, etc. Not sure, Aprilynne.

Anonymous said...

You might find some folks at SFF.net who meet your criteria.

Anonymous said...

Was Rose's story so bad? :) I don't know if that's high fantasy though, more heroic- then again, some people use those terms interchangably...

Aprilynne Pike said...

Rose's story is . . . different. It's fantasy that deals very little with magic and is more . . . I don't know. Medival . . . sort of. It's just different.:)

Anonymous said...

IOW, "heroic fantasy". :P

Michelle Zink said...

Hey, Glutton...

ALL fantasies have to be *a little* bit heroic, or else they'd be tragedies, eh?!

You made me laugh...

But in a good way!

Anonymous said...

Hi! I found your weblog by surfing around, so please don't mind me.

I think if you're looking for (non-YA) fantasy writers, you might want to dig around on Livejournal. Joshua Palmatier, Diana Pharaoh Francis and, um, that guy named George RR Martin all have journals there. :)

Aprilynne Pike said...

George R.R, Martin?

Who's he?

;)

Maprilynne

ChumleyK said...

Why can't you be looking for unpublished YA writers?! Then I would SO volunteer to be your friend. If you want a fantasy reader, I can do that.

Stephen Prosapio said...

Maprilynne,
You should check out Justine Musk. I met her at a writer's conference in San Diego last year. She wrote a great book published by Penguin (I think) called BloodAngel. It's more dark fantasy/horror. Her sequel and a YA novel are in the works. You can google her and she has a blog http://moschus.livejournal.com/

best of luck!

Di Francis said...

So we're a friendly bunch, for the most part. You can check out my ljay for links to a lot of other writers--otterdance is Lynn Flewelling, Suricattus is Laura Anne Gilman, Jim Hines is, well, Jim Hines, and there are a lot of others. Also I have a link on my blog to a list of sf/f writers on ljay.

So my blog is at:

http://difrancis.livejournal.com/

Other than that, go to some cons and hang out with us. Oh, if you go on sff.net Julie Czerneda's group is way way way friendly and cool. Elizabeth Moon's too.

So pretty much, jump in somewhere, wherever you can, and we'll suck you into our vortex one way or another.

Best,

Diana Pharaoh Francis