The Physics of Magic - Tucson Festival of Books

For my own writing--my outline isn't perfect, but I'm now on the "spreadsheet" portion of the Snowflake Method. That's where you (basically) take your outline and write it into scenes. The only thing that annoys me about that--I actually LOVE spreadsheets (and rankle a bit at the implication that writers are scared of spreadsheets...I once created a PTO calendar for about 30 employees in Excel!). But can't find a good free spreadsheet program for my old laptop running Mac 10.4. I have NeoOffice, but it is SO slow. I've tried using Google's but it's not great for big blocks of text. So I'm just doing tables, which is sad because I adore spreadsheets. :( I'm slowly saving for a new computer but at this rate, it will be another year (unless this one dies first).

OK, just a couple more reports from the Tucson Festival of Books! This panel was on The Physics of Magic, with Dennis McKiernan and Timothy Zahn. Again, this is posted for the ideas these men convey, and isn't necessarily an endorsement of them. A few notes from me in (())s.

Dennis McKiernan says, "In physics, there's no such thing as a free lunch." He says it's not like in Harry Potter, where all you need to know is Latin. There, you don't pay anything to cast a spell..."You need a stick."

Timothy Zahn says the cost can be emotional/physical, or energy like real physics, or even moral costs like Lord of the Rings (Sauron was cast out because of the rule that wizards cannot dominate the world). He also says that in the real world, any equipment must work in a specified way. You must "put a box" around your magic so you know what you can do, and so your reader knows what you can do. Think of "costs and limitations." ((My dad in particular hates when people can do ANYTHING with magic--that turned him off of Lost, and he does mention it as a problem with Harry Potter.))

Dennis later says, "Never pull anything out of your hip pocket that the reader is not prepared for." This means a lot of foreshadowing. He also says, "Never make it easy on your hero."

Timothy also notes that the moral element can add another "box" for the hero--that they have to win against bad guys in a specified way. ((That would be a bit like the real world, where suicide bombers can kill and destroy indiscriminately but the good guys are hopefully derided for doing so.)) But the Nazis are a real-world example of how following the moral code can be advantageous--refugees from occupied countries helped develop the nuclear bomb. ((Or as my dad simplifies, "Our Germans were smarter than their Germans."))

Timothy thinks that you should set things up so that the reader remembers the setup later. The reader should understand it no more than two paragraphs before it's revealed. He also notes that in the real world, with weapons technology, someone is always looking for a counter. When he asked a 4th grade class about limits to magic, a child suggested "When you cast a spell, a dog appears and tries to bite you." ((We all laughed at that!)) He said if magic has been going around for 10 or 15 years, people have figured out all the ways to use/abuse it, and how to counter it.

Dennis notes that magic should be fairly rare or it gets too mundane, common, and boring.

But Timothy countered that Harry Potter has a lot of one-of-a-kind devices. In the real world, the knowledge that it has been done is enough to make more people make them. So if you have one-of-a-kind devices in your world, you have to figure out why someone hasn't made it yet. (Some options include guarded secrets--no one knows it exists--or that it's very hard to make.)

Dennis says that even in fantasy worlds, trees and rivers must act like trees and rivers. The fastest river, he says, is 30-40 miles per hour, with most running at 2 or 3 miles per hour. Things with some real-world basis should work like they really work. He notes that in most fantasy worlds--including his own, he admits--thousands of years pass without technological advances.

Timothy notes that for hundreds of thousands of years, things overall didn't change much. War speeds development. If the land is peaceful, things may not progress much, especially if wizards don't want peasants to get these developments.

One fascinating tip that Dennis had was that he is careful to place "red slippers" in his work. The idea is, what if a Sherlock Holmes mystery started out saying "We had just solved the case of the Red Slipper when..." someone came in and another random adventure started. They'd never actually describe the case of the Red Slipper, but someday, the author might come back to it for a new adventure. Those are the kind of hints you can scatter throughout your work--leaving a ton of things you can come back to when you write more stories.

If the archive link still works, you can read about red slippers in more detail at http://www.oocities.org/mithgarpedia/rs.html

Bringing History to Life - Julia London and Karen Hawkins

Back to the Tucson Festival of Books! Again, I went to these panels because they sounded interesting, not because I'm familiar with the authors' works. (But these authors were fun!)

First off, the most interesting note I heard here--so interesting I'll put it at the top--was that Karen Hawkins noted that people weren't THAT much smaller back in the old days. The reason most existant pieces of historical clothing are so small is because smaller pieces are the ones that were left over, because they weren't handed down often--there was no one to fit them. So while people WERE smaller back then, they weren't as tiny as the remaining pieces would lead us to believe.

I was on the fence as to going to this panel and Googled the authors' names to see just what kind of people they were. (The last romance panel I went to was mostly populated by people who wrote stories...ah...not like the kind I would like to read.) I chose this panel because of Karen Hawkins' hilarious entry on fan mail from jailbirds. http://www.karenhawkins.com/goddess.html

Despite the fact that I haven't written any historical fiction yet, I might like to someday. Between that and just how interesting the panel was, I took by far the most notes on this panel versus any other.

The panel was mostly for writing historical ROMANCE, not historical fiction. The difference, according to Julia London, is that historical fiction fictionalizes a historical event, while historical romance uses history as a backdrop.

Karen Hawkins added that in historical fiction, history is the meal, while in historical romance, the history is the dessert--it's a little more escapist, and for a reader, a little more relaxing.

Julia said that you want the backdrop to be right, the houses to have the right details (and in a romance, those houses are going to be castles and Georgian homes, not London hovels).

Karen added, "Almost every person you see in a romance lives in a castle...There's a lot of dukes and a lot of earls out there looking for the right woman." In fiction, it's amazing how many!

Another appealing part of writing historical fiction that Julia noted was playing dress-up in your head.

And Karen said that if you tell people you're researching, they think you're working when really you're looking at fashion plates and thinking, "I'd look good in that!" She went to the Smithsonian (I think it was) and told them she was an author, and got behind-the-scenes.

Both authors write in romantic time periods. ((As an aside, I'd argue that most time periods have been romanticized. I don't find the Civil War period very romantic--at least, I don't see much appeal in the Southern side--but there sure are stories about it!))

Karen says editors want you to write in a time period that's selling. "Write what you love, and love the market."

To find her setting, Karen actually looks at a map until a name catches her attention, then researches the place. She wants complete ownership, so she creates characters completely--she makes up the first name but uses the family name and place, and looks at political aspects.

Julia notes you need to know the geopolitical facts of the period--she even has a reference library on her particular time period (the Regency). She found costuming books in rare bookstores--some circa 1900 had fashions from the 1800s. For her sources, she visits houses and castles in person and picks up and buys booklets and the like.

Karen checks eBay, even books sold by the page. She notes, "I have a whole room--it's supposed to be an office but it's really a library--you could lean against the wall..."

Julia minored in history. She also read a lot of literature from the time period. She likes to get authentic names (though some you think are new are actually old). Her name sources are graveyards and behindthename.com.

Karen admits she uses Wikipedia as a jumping-off point. She noted that Wikipedia says she has a Ph.D. in political science--"That's not true but I'm not gonna change it." She also reads books from the time period before starting writing, to get into the voice/tone. (She's read so many historical newspaper reports, she said she's become disgusted with the French!) But she makes changes, such as using more contractions than they did, and changing marriage laws and history when it suits the story. She'll listen to Scottish accent tapes before starting, to get the accent--but too much accent will pull the reader out of the story.

Julia suggests using a couple words a character says to bring out the accent without being cumbersome.

Karen also suggests looking up letters written in the time period (like letters from Byron, though a lot of the letters are really boring). She says to make friends with your local librarian, especially the University librarian.

If writing further back, like Elizabethan, Karen suggests researching important people and reading the biographies. The back of biographies often list other books that are better resources. She also suggested local academic resources, like Ph.D. works. Noting that you'll learn 800 facts and only use one, she added, "You have to sacrifice the history to the story. If it slows your pacing down or disrupts the story flow," you have to leave the facts out. She said to avoid author intrusions and info dumps. Info dumps can work but the story is what makes it sell.

Julia noted that pacing has to be faster now because attention spans are shorter.

Karen said, "Today's readers don't have time." You can use a detail to remind the reader where they are, and lace it throughout the whole book. "Add a horse," she said.

"Or a reticule," Julia added.

Karen said mistakes will always be there. Sometimes you think you know something. If traditionally published, an editor goes through the book, and then it goes to a copy editor, who is supposed to check every fact. All copy editors will find SOME things, but not all will go through the book as thoroughly.

As far as history, an audience member noted that historical fiction readers often read the afterword before they start reading the book.

Julia and Karen agreed that the appeal of the Regency period is that Jane Austen is so accessible. Julia said men were strong but chivalrous, and women were strong but nice--it was a gentler time. Karen cited that people have an image in their mind what Regency is; I believe one of them mentioned that there's kind of a framework built already, so you don't have to go into as much historical detail, since readers are familiar with it.

For her process, Karen says she writes a 12-15 page treatment, then an outline, and researches during the outline. "If I did not have an outline," she said, "I would still be on my first book" and I think she said it would be 900,000,000 words long. She doesn't stick to the outline, but it gets her going.

Both authors read what they wrote the day before, edit it, and then get going. ((I often do that too!))

For relationships, Karen watches the dynamics of real couples, reads self-help books for ideas (anxiety attacks, PTSD, and co-dependency all existed before they had a name for it). Julia remembers that men had all the power, and women did not--that's different from today.

She also notes that in publishing, the cover is supposed to sell and appeal to as broad an audience as possible. You tell them what you want, they say "Thank you for the suggestion," and then you get what you get.

Writing Wednesday - Tucson Festival of Books - Grace Lin; Candace Fleming; Louis Sachar

So for me this week, I'm winding down my 25-paragraph outline for my WIP. Hooray! I'd love to have it done by Saturday, but I know myself and it's not that likely. Once it's done, I'm going to go through a few times to make sure it's coherent, perhaps run it past my favorite writing partner, and then if the Lord allows, I hope to WRITE!

Though Louis Sachar would probably advise not to talk about it...

Back to the Tucson Festival of Books AGAIN! I went to this panel to see Louis Sachar because I read and liked the Sideways Stories from Wayside School books when I was a little kid, and I missed the panel that was dedicated to just him. The other panelists were Candace Fleming and Grace Lin. The panel was ostensibly something about cross-genre something something, but it didn't really turn out that way, IMO.

I don't write children's books (the WIP I'm planning is Young Adult) but it was pretty interesting to go to a panel in a different genre than you're used to every so often.

I believe the first question was, why do you write "cross genre"? Louis Sachar noted that when he was younger, he remembered the world as a kid, but now that he has a 24-year-old daughter, he has trouble seeing 4th graders as anything but cute little darlings.

Candace Fleming was after my own heart. She has many interests (she mentioned that she wants to research Amelia Earhart and also bunnies). She called this her "adult ADHD." and thinks it "makes life interesting." Every day she goes to her desk and decides which topic to write about. (As an aside, I tried to take this idea to heart and have two projects going at once. Except I've got my co-authored novel, playing around with my co-author, and how many other ideas...!)

Grace Lin found that she was writing a picture book and tried to cut it down, but it wouldn't work as a picture book, so she had to write a novel.

Sachar noted that it always amazes him when someone comes up to him and says, "What happened to this character at the end?" He'd say, "I don't know. The book ended."

As for how long it takes to work, Fleming noted that it takes 3-5 years to research biographies--but she doesn't research every day. She visits big libraries and does big chunks at one time, like three weeks at a library.

Sachar said it took 6 drafts of a book and he does not talk about it until it's done. "If you talk about it, you never do it." "Not talking about it focuses me just on wanting to write it." He prefers rewriting, and says the first draft is like pulling teeth.

For motivation, he said, "I'm never going to write as good as Tolstoy; why bother?" But you're not trying to top anybody; you're trying to write the best you can write and hopefully people will read it. "The object is to try to write something that's really, really good. My belief is if you do that, you will get published."

Lin added that she realized she was never going to be a master painter, but that's OK. She said don't become an author to impress people, but because there is something in you you want to share with the world.

(Lin also some really interesting stories, noting that her mom kind of was like the Tiger Mom, and strongly discouraged her from being an artist. But, she said that actually drove her more, in that she had to be very successful to prove herself.)

For historical fiction, Fleming said to research as much as you possibly can and then hope you get it right. At the end of the day, it's about the character, and emotion stays the same throughout time. Fill it in with imagination and educated guesses.

My biggest disappointment of the panel, by far, was to find that Sachar only started liking reading in high school, when he read JD Salinger and Kurt Vonnegut. O_O

As for eBooks, picture book author/artist Lin focuses on how to make the book special so people will want to own it versus having it on a screen. It was mentioned that people may actually buy more eBooks, instead of going to the library.

Writing Wednesday - Tucson Festival of Books - Space Travel and Spacefaring Societies

On the writing front, still plotting, probably making some MAJOR changes to the outline for a novel. Even potential changes to who dies, and/or when! I've already written the NOVEL 1.5 times but I'm going to give it one more try! It will be interesting to see if I can write with an outline.

The next panel I saw at the Tucson Festival of Books was Space Travel and Spacefaring Societies, with Catherine Wells, John Vornholt, Timothy Zahn, and David Weber. Again, me attending the panel reflects an interest in a topic more than an endorsement of the authors (though I am reading one of Wells' novels right now--the middle book in a series, I think?--and find it interesting and a surprisingly good use of omniscient POV).

If you're particularly interested, an audio recording of the whole panel appears to be up at Bloomsite . Since that's available, and since I'm tired tonight, I'll just hit a few things I noted. The panel kind of wandered, so there was talk about technology, but not so much about space travel or spacefaring societies!

David Weber made a good point that boiled down to, humans are going to keep doing the same things they've always done, but technology lets us do more of it, faster.

As for actual talk about space travel, Catherine Wells discussed tesseracts and wormholes (real wormholes being the size of a pinhole, but you need an excuse). She suggested you hint at technology but don't get into details.

Timothy Zahn said that you could use any drive with any name (even "Fred's Transport System") to get from here to there, but the limits and constraints must be clear to play fair with readers.

David Weber said that before starting a novel, he writes an essay laying out the universe, including what's in their technology toolbox. He said you must include limits and understand the logical implications of any changes you make to the system. For instance, we need an economic reason to go into space before we will do so. And faced with the NEED to do it, we will find medical and technological advances to help us through space travel. All technology used in telling a story is a plot device, and if it is not used to push the story forward, it's a weak story. Weber also makes an interesting argument (more than once during the festival!) that science fiction stories for modern societies are like fairy tales in a non-technological society.

Zahn and Weber both mentioned "Threat evokes response." Zahn noted that once technology is out of the bottle, you can't stuff it back in. But he suggested that you can hand-wave away technology problems when you assume there's a better mouse. In other words, logically, airplanes might be piloted by drones if the technology existed, but if you want humans in the planes, then create jammers so that the droids can't function.

And my notes failed me here but one of them said that the best way to convey future societies is don't call attention to them at all.

Writing Wednesday - Characterization

My writing updates...I'm trying something new. I'd tell you about it, but Louis Sachar said he doesn't even tell his WIFE when he's writing, let alone what he's working on until the draft is done. But I'm snowflaking it, and it has some ties to "Flight from Endwood." I didn't do any of that "take an hour" stuff (I just did it), but I'm about in the middle of Step 3.

So at the Tucson Festival of Books on the University of Arizona campus, the next thing I did was actually try to get some money from the ATM (my bank's was out of order!) and then I hurried in to the Student Union and jumped into the shortest food line I saw (Chick-fil-A). Mmmm!

Then the next panel I went to was a workshop titled "Characterization: More than Six-Pack Abs and Batting Eyelashes" by romance authors Judy Duarte and Pamela Tracy.  (I'm not particularly familiar with the authors; I attended for the topic.) 

Despite the title and the fact that it was labeled as "romance" there were quite a few writers present who didn't write romance, so that was interesting. Pamela Tracy writes inspirational suspense--I wish I would've looked up ACFW members who were at the Tucson Festival of Books, but I don't know how I would've done that without looking up about a hundred names...

Anyway, Judy presented first. She noted that romance has gotten a bad reputation based on people who read a 1970s romance, or they think it's formulaic. She said the goal was creating characters to engage the reader and making the reader yearn for a happily-ever-after. And the way to achieve that is to wound your character. All characters must learn and go through a character arc. (In romance, both leads have arcs.)

A good thing she noted is that people don't make changes in life until they're uncomfortable--something must really go wrong, and you must force them to change.

She noted you could wound a character using their childhood, events closer to the present, and even a physical wound (though that should also have emotional components). 

In short, something needs to wound your character, even if they don't know there was a wound there. 

You can use backstory to wound characters and make them sympathetic.  Movies (the example she used was "While You Were Sleeping")--can start with backstory.

You need a goal (what), motivation (why) and conflict (why not).  That's pretty common and is mentioned in the Snowflake Method (though Randy Ingermanson flips motivation and goal--I think I might like Judy's order better).

Questions:

• Who is the character at the beginning? What is the wound, and how did he or she get it? How does it drive him or her?
• Who is the character at the end? How has the wound healed? What will drive the character in the future?

In short, know your characters and their backstories.

Pamela had some additions (I recall her saying more than I have notes on; hmmmm.) One suggestion was that when you're stuck, you can perhaps treat the setting as a character (like in "Gone with the Wind"). You should have things that come between characters, as a wedge.

I may be butchering Pamela's diagram concepts now; I forgot to email her to get the information from the handout, and the workshop was more popular than anticipated so they didn't have enough. But I have notes of her saying Term + Class = Distinguishing Characteristic. Characters tend to move through classes, but the term stays the same.

So for Cinderella, her term is always "Cinderella."

But her class changes:

Beloved daughter
Grieving stepdaughter
Abused
Beloved by all others (in Ever After, this is everyone around her; in Disney's story, it's the mice and the fairy godmother)
Princess

For romance, the hero's journey can mirror or correspond with the heroine's (like Prince Charming starts out as beloved as well).

It sounds maybe ridiculously simple, but I just sketched an outline of the characters of my co-authored romance novel The Pirate and the Healer and they followed this formula pretty well.  I tried for one of my other WIPs, Bonnie of Sheshack (working title), and it was interesting but a little harder.

Near the end she asked, How do you make a book so compelling that the reader remembers the characters' names? Theme and detail about characterization will make them real.

So how do you introduce that needed backstory?

Judy said there shouldn't be a "dump," like the book starting with someone sitting in an airplane, thinking. Rather, it's best to give a little bit at a time, like an onion. She noted one way to figure it out was to go through a published book and mark the backstory to see how it was revealed.

Pamela added to make sure the book is recent--I think she said published in the last 3 years or so, as the amount of backstory readers want has changed over the years. (She's absolutely right; it's amazing how much introspection is common in old novels.....even ones from the 1990s.)

Judy did note that in one story, she had to put a lot of backstory right at the beginning to make sure the character (who appears to be a deadbeat dad) was likable. So in that case, the reader needed to know the character's motivations.

Anyway, it was a lot more informative than I made it sound; I just took really bad notes. More next week!

Writing Wednesday - Tucson Festival of Books - History Meets Fantasy

First, my weekly writing update. I actually still need to do a lot of typing on my snowflake, but I'm basically working on Step 4 now (and actually enjoying coming up with some new threads!). But I have a lot of work ahead of me. It's a bit depressing that the author of the snowflake method says that it may have taken as long as a week to get to this step...I need to work harder.

So as I think I promised, I'm going to share with you everything I heard at the Tucson Festival of Books! Preface: I attended most panels because of an interest in the TOPICS, not the speakers. So some of the people you may see referenced may not write things that are in line with my beliefs, and me mentioning an author here isn't any sort of endorsement at all unless I state otherwise. OK?

I roughly outlined the festival earlier. There are tons of "workshops" and "panels." Most look something like this one.

So I was tempted to go to the panel that author Dave Cullen commented on my blog was on at 10 AM Saturday. But I thought that would be a good compromise on something that would kind of interest my mom and kind of interest me. Except she wasn't interested! So with the fear of potential crowds I ended up at Yvonne Navarro and Janni Lee Simner's "History Meets Fantasy - When to Research and When to Make It Up" panel. (They're both TusCon regulars so I've certainly heard them both speak quite a bit.)

Yvonne Navarro said that you have to take what's real and twist it to fit your purposes.

Janni noted that Thief Eyes was well-researched (at one point she noted that she had to run it by an Icelandic reader to make sure it rang true!). She said that sometimes you start writing a story and realize it takes a lot more research than you thought. She also noted that you have to set up reader expectations. There are lots of different kinds of fairies and vampires, and these portrayals are influenced by legends, by the conversations authors have with each other on the page, and what you bring to them. Overall, you have to know your canon, whether you're writing history or a licensed property.

Janni also noted that it can be easier to have a character who doesn't know everything, so that things can be explained. ((Aside: I do that myself but I wonder if that's something more acceptable in children's and YA novels; I know in adult fantasy it's considered a cliche to have the farm boy who doesn't know anything come onto the scene.... Cliche or not, though, it does seem to work.))

On the topic of vampires, Yvonne noted that not all vampires drink blood (they may take life force, memories, youth--"anything that you, as a writer, could want them to take.") But you have to use the right words, whether or not they are historically accurate (some words that are accurate might not feel right.)

As far as writing goes, Janni said, "You can't write for every reader."

Yvonne replied, "You try, but there are just too many people." She noted that genres cycle through, so what you love may be popular in a few years. Right now zombies are popular, although they have changed quite a bit from their earlier portrayals (namely, they have gotten faster).

Janni and Yvonne joked that the zombies would pick off the smokers. Janni added that it could make a good ad campaign: "I gave up smoking and I survived the zombie apocalypse."

Again, back to writing, Janni said that it's very hard to figure out what people want. Write what you love. It's not a guarantee, but you'll have a better chance of selling, and you get the experience of writing it. (She noted this came from experience, where she tried to write what would sell, and couldn't sell it.)

Yvonne added, write what you love; tell the story you want to tell. "If you don't like what you're doing, if you're not enjoying what you're writing, you might as well work at an office somewhere ... you have to write what you want to write." She said you have to grab readers in the first paragraph. She also suggests new writers read their work all out loud, like it's happening, to help catch typos.

---

I'm actually kind of remiss in not having read anything by Janni Lee Simner in particular. I've been to a couple of her readings at TusCon and they're always excellent. I need to remedy that deficiency fairly soon. She's always been very friendly to me. Actually, at her last reading I attended, she did a drawing and I won a journal she made herself!

My concern with journals is the pressure of finding something worthwhile with which to fill them, though...someday!

And I think I'll make a trip to my library soon.

Media Monday - Tucson Festival of Books

If you live within a 3-hour drive of Tucson and you like books or writing at ALL, then you really need to go to the Tucson Festival of Books, taking place March 11-12, 2011!

It's FREE and is one of the largest book festivals in the country, taking place on the University of Arizona campus. Last year they estimated 70,000-80,000 attendees, and I know there were literally hundreds of authors as well, with dozens, maybe over 100, panels/workshops/presentations on Saturday, and maybe just a few less on Sunday, all scheduled in blocks (like classes!) with 30 minute intervals in-between. It's so big, the GUIDEBOOK they hand out for free (which is the size of one of those large insert booklets they put in newspapers) is 64 pages long.

The panels themselves are inside (air-conditioned) buildings on campus--many underground in the "Integrated Learning Center," an area they built after I graduated, that takes up a good portion of the formerly-all-grass central mall... There are "panels" where a group of authors discuss things, and then "workshops" which for the most part seem to be one author...discussing things that are usually somewhat more directly related to writing. There were a TON of "workshops" last year, and they were almost all packed, but I don't see as many this year, or at least not as many that are relevant to me.

Then above-ground are tents with exhibitors, many (but not all) book-related. Even The Jane Austen Society of North America was there.

And in the center, they had a kind of food court.

There is a McDonalds on campus and they handed out McCafe mocha samples last year (there was quite a line sometimes!). I think this year they'll have real fruit smoothies. Since I don't like strawberries, I reckon I'd better just bring a lot of water.

They also sold lots of umbrellas last year--the sun was hot!

Well worth the $5. The parasol and food were my only expenses.

This year, I found at least 9 different panels/workshops I'm interested in attending! Well, actually 11, but 2 timeslots are double-booked.....

Which should I choose? "Self-Editing for Fiction Writers" or "Electronic Publishing - More Than an Alternative"? Both sound useful. The self-editing is categorized under "literature/fiction" and I don't really write literature, plus I've heard tons of things about editing. (The challenge is putting them into practice.) But on the other hand, I've heard a lot about eBooks/etc. already, too, even though that's probably how Maggie and I are going to end up publishing The Pirate and the Healer. (You can make good money publishing eBooks, and I only saw one remotely reputable publisher that looked willing to even consider an unagented Christian fantasy romance with pirates.)

OK. Electronic publishing it is!

I'd also like to attend "Creating Biography from Diaries and Letters" but as far as I know, I'm not actually going to WRITE a biography, and "How to Write and Publish a Book in the Next Three Months!" sounds infinitely more tempting.

Anyway, it's definitely worth attending, whether to learn, get motivated, or just hear some free talking and maybe pick up a smoothie.

Tucson Festival of Books--one more reason why Arizona is awesome (from January-March)!