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Predicting hits
In my 1999 young adult science fiction novel Andy Nebula: Interstellar Rock Star, I postulated a future in which the hit-making machinery of the music industry has become a science, where computers are able to determine what songs, and what singers, are sure to be the next big thing. In the book, a kid names Kit gets plucked from his hand-to-mouth existence busking on the streets of a nasty little city on a nasty little planet and turned into Andy Nebula, the next “Sensation Single,” all on the strength of a computer’s analysis of what teens want. Looks like I might have been on to something. A new study from Emory ...High-school writers’ magazine I edited now online
windScript, the magazine of writing by Saskatchewan high school writers that I edited for the Saskatchewan Writers Guild this year, is now online in PDF format.Check out the whole thing, but here's what I wrote as the introduction:Writing is an act of courage. It takes courage to try to turn your thoughts and feelings, passions and fears, idle notions and deeply held beliefs into words. It takes courage to commit those words to paper or pixels. There they lie, naked, exposed to any reader who happens by. What if they laugh—when you weren’t trying to be funny? (What if they don’t laugh, when you were?) What if they just don’t ...My favorite email of the year…
...came from a teacher in a school I visited not too long ago. The book of mine in question is Marseguro:Your books have become the absolute fascination of a young boy in Grade 10 who is self-proclaimed to be a non-reader! (He) exclaims about his novel, your novel, every day in English class. He can’t get enough of it! I told him today that there is at least one more novel in the library that you wrote, and then I went and found it for him. He is no longer afraid to finish the first, fearing it will be the last... We are presently studying The Chrysalids, ...Hope for the future
One more post about my time as writer-in-residence at Michael A. Riffel High School. I was thrilled, after I gave my usual presentation in an advanced placement English class, to be asked by a student, "So, which of the Big Three is your favorite?" And, yes, he meant Heinlein, Asimov, and Clarke, all of which he'd been devouring.Better yet, after class, I heard him telling his teacher--a science fiction reader herself! Yay!--all about Heinlein's "juveniles," which she hadn't read, and urging her to pick up, in particular, Tunnel in the Sky, which is my favorite (with Have Space Suit, Will Travel a close second).And just to prove that there's hope for the next generation, one ...Advice for young writers
I bid farewell to the hallowed halls of Michael A. Riffel High School yesterday as I wrapped up my writer-in-residency there with some final meetings with individual students.As I work with young writers more and more, I find that my writing advice, as far as technique goes, keeps boiling down to the same few points, which I share with you now for whatever they're worth:Show, don't tell. I know, that's hardly original with me, but it's the biggest single thing young writers can work on to make their writing more interesting. Don't tell me that your hero is unhappy, show me that unhappiness through the way he talks or acts. Don't write in generalities, write in ...Yes, I’m still alive…
...I just haven't been blogging. Busy, busy busy busy, is why. And what have I primarily been busy with? Well, I'm currently the writer-in-residence at Michael A. Riffel High School here in Regina.This is a program sponsored by the Saskatchewan Writers Guild, and it's been an interesting experience. I've primarily been doing classroom presentations--more than a dozen, each an hour long--where I talk about myself and my writing, answer questions, and occasionally read.Oh, and sing: more often than not I've finished off my presentation with "Me," Gaston's song from the stage version of Disney's Beauty and the Beast. This seems appropriate since it comes at the end of an hour when I've talked of ...The aforementioned chapbook
Further to yesterday's post about the workshop and reading that wrapped up the Saskatchewan Writers' Guild's Online Youth Mentorship program last night, here's what the chapbook looked like (well, here's what one chapbook looked like, one of the ones I assembled: every one was a bit different, depending on who made it). The image on the cover is a rather creepy photo I took a couple of years ago, and the title, Shadowscapes, was suggested by my wife, Margaret Anne.We came, we saw, we chapbooked
Today was the final day of the 2008 Saskatchewan Writers' Guild's Online Youth Mentorship Program, and a fine day it was. The twelve teens who have been taking part in the program and the four mentors (of whom I was one) met this morning at St. James's Anglican Church in Saskatoon and, with the guidance of the fine folks from Jack Pine Press, preceded to construct chapbooks containing pieces created by all of the young writers.That went well--I really enjoy the process, myself, possibly because its focus on scissors, paper and glue takes me back to halcyon ...Photo of Last Week: The Sage Hill Teen Writing Experience
Courtesy of Taylor Bendig, here's a photo of the group of terrific students I worked with last week at the Sage Hill Teen Writing Experience: Back row, left to right: Kiera Mitchell, Christine Howell, me, Stuart Beatch, Sandi Pitura. Front row, left to right: Kimberley Christianson, Melissa Tholl, Emily Garland, Krista Kaufman, Taylor Bendig, Mackenzie Hamon, Patrick Mursell, Brittney Graham, Billy Hamilton.Remember those names! You'll be reading books by some of these young people very soon, I'm sure. Oh, and here's the cover of the ...Justine Larbalestier on beginning writers
A follow-up to John Scalzi's comments on teen writers from Justine Larbalestier, who some time ago wrote her own piece called "Too Young to Publish."She writes:Neither Scalzi nor I have any interest in stopping teenagers from writing. Au contraire. We both wrote then and got a hell of a lot out of it, including reasonably successful careers now. I wrote the piece in the spirit of passing good advice along. (As well as to mock the younger me.) When I was a beginning writer lots of people went out of their way to help and encourage me.Still, were I to write that piece now I would call it “Too Early to ...
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Magebane
“Spectacular” – Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Evil wizards, multi-level conspiracies, hidden kingdoms…Lee Arthur Chane…has done a marvelous job…Magebane is a very entertaining book and well worth the time.” – A.M. Donovan, Night Owl Reviews
I happily recommend Magebane and I’ll certainly give Chane’s next novel a try based on this one.” —Bill Capossere, Fantasy Literature
“…an original and delightful tale of epic fantasy and magic, steampunk science, adventure, tragedy, and love…” – Errant Dreams Reviews
Eight centuries ago, the world changed. A devastating war swept the lands, and the MageLords, who had long ruled by virtue of their spell powers, were driven to a distant place, separated from those they had ruled by a magical Barrier. With magic banished from the rest of the world, the MageLords became mere legend and people turned to science to improve their lives. But if one man has his way, all that is about to change….
Written as Lee Arthur Chane (the middle names of my older brothers, Jimmy Lee and Dwight Arthur, and myself, Edward Chane Willett).
Marseguro
Winner of the 2009 Prix Aurora Award for Best Long-Form Work in English
Water world Marseguro is home to the Selkies, a water-dwelling race created from human DNA. When an unmodified human seeks revenge on a Selkie by activating a distress beacon taken from the remains of the original colony ship, a strikeforce is sent from Earth to eradicate the genetic abomination. Yet Marseguro will not prove as easy to conquer as the Earth force anticipates…
Terra Insegura
Finalist for the 2010 Prix Aurora Award for Best Novel in English
Marseguro, a water world far from Earth, is home to a colony of humans and the Selkies, a water-dwelling race created from modified human DNA. For seventy years the colony has lived in peace. Then Earth discovers Marseguro, and a strike force is sent to eradicate this “abomination.” But Marseguro has created a genetically tailored plague to use against Earth’s Holy Warriors. With the enemy defeated, the people of Marseguro feel they are safe. But Chris Keating, the traitor who signaled Marseguro’s location to the Holy Warriors, has fled to Earth, unknowingly carrying the deadly plague within him. The people of Marseguro feel they must send a ship to Earth with a life-saving vaccine. Only time will tell what awaits them when they reach their destination.
Lost in Translation
Kathryn was a human empath whose world and life had been destroyed when the alien S’sinn slaughtered her parents before her very eyes. Jarrikk was a young S’sinn, an unproven warrior who’d seen his flight mates slaughtered by the humans who’d sought to colonize his world.
As humans and S’sinn found themselves on the brink of war, these two Translators had to work together to find a common ground and avert catastrophe. But whether their Translators’ oath and training could overcome the enemies leagued against them was very much in doubt…
Archives
Song of the Sword
My new YA fantasy novel from Lobster Press
Before the Lady called her, Ariane’s life was a mess. Two years ago, her mother disappeared. She bounced around different foster homes until her aunt finally took her in. The meanest clique at her new high school has decided to make Ariane their prime target. And to top it all off, she is having frightening premonitions, and they are becoming more intense. The moment water touches her skin, she sees visions of a lake, a lady, and a sword. When a staircase opens up in the middle of Wascana Lake and the water begins singing to her, she has no choice but to answer the call….
Historic Walks of Regina and Moose Jaw
Ten walks to points of historic and architectural interest in the cities of Regina and Moose Jaw (eight walks for Regina, two for Moose Jaw).
Johnny Cash: The Man in Black
When country music legend Johnny Cash took the stage at Folsom State Prison in 1968, he solidified the public’s perception of him as a rebel who followed his own path. Born in Arkansas during the Great Depression, Cash endured poverty, the death of his older brother, and a difficult relationship with his father. He turned to gospel and country music to express the pain, and after many years of struggling, his songs of hardship and hope would finally reach the ears of those waiting for an artist who represented them, ordinary people fighting to survive.
Andy Warhol: Everyone Will Be Famous for 15 Minutes
“Paintings are too hard. Machines have less problems…” In the 1960s, Andy Warhol became the most famous creator of a new style of art called pop art, which transformed mass-produced items of popular culture into fine works of art. From Campbell’s Soup cans to photographs of Marilyn Monroe, Warhol’s willingness to use anything and everything from the mass media in his work expanded the range of subject matter available to artists. His avant-garde films, artistic usage of American icons, and unconventional social life made him a controversial figure, both greatly admired and deeply reviled. A trendsetter rather than a trend-follower, a dispassionate observer of both the seamy and celebrity sides of life, Warhol was a true American rebel.
Disease-Hunting Scientist
The true stories of six real disease hunters. Epidemiologists travel the world trying to keep us safe from deadly diseases—from high-tech labs in Canada to remote villages in Africa. Learn how these “disease detectives” are coming up with new ways to fight disease, and find out if you have what it takes to become an epidemiologist, too!
The Bounty Mutiny
The Bounty was a British ship visiting Tahiti in 1789 when some of the crew overthrew the captain, William Bligh, and set him adrift in a tiny boat with sailors loyal to him. The mutiny resulted in a number of trials–both of the men who mutinied and of Bligh for losing command of his ship. These fascinating events have been the source for numerous Hollywood movies, most recently The Bounty. The Bounty Mutiny: From the Court Case to the Movie explores the famous case and the movies it inspired.
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