The Journal of Michael Merriam

Last night, while careswen and I were in the process of doing the final layout of Shimmers & Shadows, my lovely wife turned to me and said she thought it might be a good idea if I posted my "About the Author" bit and asked for feedback from my flist. Because she is wise (and because I hate talking about myself in the third-person), I agreed. So here it is, and I am requesting your input.


About the Author

Michael Merriam was born in Michigan, in 1965, but spent most of his life in Oklahoma and Texas, moving to Minnesota in 1999.

Like most writers, Michael has worked a variety of odd jobs over the years, including musician, short order cook, and freight logistics manager. In 2003, after being laid off and declared legally blind, Michael began writing again, rekindling a passion he had set aside nearly two decades earlier.

Michael has sold science fiction, fantasy, and horror short fiction to a variety of magazines, including Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, Fictitious Force, From the Asylum, and The Harrow. He was nominated for the James B. Baker Award in 2007 and Preditors and Editors Reader's Choice Awards in 2006 and 2007, and he has been a semi-finalist twice in the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Contest.

Michael is a member of the Science Fiction Poetry Association and the Twin Cities Speculative Fiction Writers Network. He lives in Hopkins, Minnesota, with his wife and an ordained cat.

Visit Michael's homepage at www.michaelmerriam.net.


How could this be improved? What could be taken out? What would you like added? Does anyone even read the "About the Author" page? All ideas and suggestions welcome!

1. I am still reading the blogs of every person I have friended. That means every one of you is getting read by me. I may not be commenting much right now, but I am reading, and I am interested.

Second: Thank you all for the well wishes yesterday. That was one of the worst migraines I've ever suffered. Today seems to be The Reverend's turn, as she is sick to her stomach and clingy.

C: I may be a little scarce around here for a few days. Between writing on Dark Water Blues, putting the final touches on Shimmers & Shadows before it heads for the printer, working on the Sooper Sekrit publishing project, preparing for 4th Street Fantasy, and getting geared up for the CONvergence Programming Deathmarch of 2008, well, I'm a little swamped. Add in real life and things are kind of hectic right now.

I may not be around LJ much this week, so take care and be good to each other.

In Peace,
Michael

Not such a good day writing-wise due to real life interfering, but I did manage to complete several other things, including getting some stuff to my webmaster so we can update my website, which has been in needing some work for a couple of months. I also paid the artist for the cover of Shimmer & Shadows, and talked with another person about a possible publishing project that I can't really discuss in public too much, because it's still in the "this could fall apart at any minute" stage.

Dark Water Blues


Dinner tonight with greykev. I have cornbread cooling and a peach cobbler to make. There will be Arkham Horror played tonight.

I just came back from the mailbox. It is going to be a bit difficult loading the car for Minicon, but what can you do? I'd say we're up to about 5 inches of snow so far, and it's coming down pretty hard. I think we are planning to be at the hotel around 4:00 pm or so.

careswen handed me back her crit of "Brother Mine by Moonlight." It needs more work, and she hit on a couple of the serious problems. Fortunately, I have several ideas about how to fix those problems.

I've picked out what I am reading at Mincon, more or less. I'm going to read an excerpt from "Last Car to Annwn Station" at the TCSFWN reading, and then at my own reading, I will do something from the upcoming short fiction collection. I have a couple of things printed and ready to go, depending on who might show up.

At this time, my Minicon schedule is thus:

Twin Cities Speculative Fiction Writers Network Group Reading
Saturday, 3:30-4:30pm, Grand Ballroom East B (Readings room)

Minneapolis Magic, St. Paul Magic
The Twin Cities have very different styles; Minneapolis has been called the “easternmost Western city” and St. Paul the “westernmost Eastern city”. A discussion of how the two cities have come to have different aesthetics, attitudes and auras. Naomi Kritzer, Betsy Lundsten, Michael Merriam, Lyda Morehouse (m), CJ Mills Saturday, 7:00-8:00pm ~ Room 1/2

Reading
Michael Merriam | Sunday, 11:00-11:30am, Grand Ballroom East B (Readings room)

Whose Responsibility Is It to Write for Me?
“Write what you’d like to read” is an often-heard refrain in fandom, as is “Want to see more X? Then write it yourself!” But this can be a cop-out: an excuse for writers to not broaden their perspectives, and to continue writing for groups who are already well-represented. If I want to see, for example, more lesbian SF, or more fantasy set in Southeast Asia, is it my responsibility to create it myself? What about those who can’t or don’t want to write? Shannon Gibney, Rachel Kronick, Michael Merriam, Lyda Morehouse (m), Jane Yolen Sunday, 3:30-4:30pm ~ Krushenko's

I have nothing going on tonight, so I will likely hang out at Consuite and whatever music circle ends up happening. I plan to pop for 24-hours of internet access in our room, so I'll try to update tonight and tomorrow, and then write a wrap-up on Sunday after we are home.

Well, we are pretty much packed, except for the laptop and food. I think I'll go ahead and drag everything out the garage so it can dry before we load up the car later.

Saturday morning careswen and I sat on the floor and created a Table of Contents for Shimmers & Shadows by pulling out all the short story manuscripts and arranging them on the floor until we found a line-up we liked. The Reverend Selena was oh so very helpful:








I'd say we are about 3 weeks from publication at this point, if the cat will stop guarding the manuscript from all foes.

Shimmers & Shadows now has cover art, thanks to the wonderful efforts of my friend Katoo, aka Catherine Déziel, aka tiny_wings on LJ. You can click on the picture for a slightly larger image.



If you like this artwork, you should go over to her LJ and let her know. If you want something commissioned, she's great to work with, as I can attest.

After much discussion, careswen picked the initial concept and worked with Katoo throughout the process to make it happen. Although it is a single scene from a single story, I think it does an excellent job of expressing the flavor of the stories I lean toward as a writer. I'm also pleased with how recognizable the Minneapolis skyline is. And really, when are we ever going to have so much control over how the cover art looks again?

I have blurbs from fellow writers Adam Stemple (Singer of Souls), Jaye Lawrence (Kissing Frogs), and Hilary Moon Murphy (Run of the Fiery Horse) for the cover. There are a few logistics details to work out, but I'm hopeful that we will have finished book in hand in three or four more weeks.

I know, I haven't been posting as much as I usually do. Here's the writing news, for those of you playing the home game:

Short Story Collection: It now has a title, Shimmers & Shadows. I have approved the cover art sketches that tiny_wings came up with. I have received blurbs from hatfield13, hilarymoonmurph, and wordswoman. The stories are selected, but the actual order they will appear has not been decided.

Last Car to Annwn Station: Needs a little bit of stuff concerning the antagonists added in the diary entries Fay writes on the walls of her room. Then it will need a copy edit pass and a synopsis. I expect to begin submitting it in late March or early April.

Old Blood's Fate: The broken first novel is probably going to go out to readers. I think it is broken beyond repair, but I am cognizant of the fact that I am also a terrible judge of my own work.

The Next Novel Project: The editor at a small press magazine I've worked with in the past is now publishing books, and has asked me for a full novel (on spec, no guarantees) concerning a character of mine that has appeared in his magazine. It's just as well I was planning to write Into This Land next.

Short Story Projects: I realized that I don't actually have to finish any of the short stories I have in various states of disarray right now. I can go ahead and get to work on another novel if I want. That said, I'm pretty excited about three pieces I'm working on right now, two of which seem to be psychopomp stories. The other is an urban fantasy/hard-boiled detective story that's threatening to go off and be another novel.

Other Novels I have one at the one-third point, another mostly outlined, and a third in the vague concept stage.

I have plenty of projects to keep me busy for the next couple of years.

careswen and I are finishing the selection of the stories that will go into the short story collection. The interesting thing is that, with both of us reading the stories again, we are noticing trends and tendencies.

The thing that I had noticed was that I seem to go through phases in types of story. I wrote mostly urban fantasy for awhile, followed by pieces that were nearly mainstream, then some space opera, drifted over into fairy tales, and right now I seem to be flirting with horror and ghost stories, though I do keep coming back to urban fantasy (and paranormal romance) on a regular basis.

But that's all window dressing, because the real dominant theme in my work seems to be broken people trying to make their way in the world as best as they can.

What careswen noticed was a lot of bittersweet. There seems to be, in several of my pieces, a theme of people pulled apart by paranormal--or at least speculative fiction--elements that invade their lives, and then finding their way back to each other, though not always (in fact, rarely) getting the happy ever after.

I'm not completely clear why I do this, but I think at least part of it is because the thing that interests me most about a story are the characters. I'll forgive a lot in a story if I'm engaged by the characters. Don't get me wrong, I like Big Ideas and Shiny World Building, and Twisty Plots, and all that. I do. But the thing that does it for me as both a reader and a writer are the characters in a story. I want characters who read like real people, with all the mess and noise and ugliness and beauty of a life lived.

After looking over the titles of my pieces and thinking about it, it seems to me that the real theme that runs through my work is seeking and finding the thing you need the most. There is a definite theme of decent, damaged, messed-up, lonely characters finding the thing they need to--if not be whole and happy--at least be content, maybe even redeemed, and no longer alone in the face of their personal demons.

So I guess the thing that runs through almost everything I write is: People need other people.

Make of that what you will.

After much conversation, careswen and I have decided we are going to collect some of the short stories I've had published in various magazines into a self-published anthology. I talked to several traditional publishers about this, but the truth is, collections don't sell very well, even for fairly established writers. So we are going to do this ourselves. Of the over thirty pieces I've sold and published in the last three years, about two dozen of them have had the rights revert back to me.

The idea here is to put out something professional that I can give to family, and maybe take to cons to sell to people at readings. My fiction is scattered all over the place and most of my family members do not have access to magazines published in Australia, or a real good working knowledge of how to use the internet.

My question for you, O Flist, is this:

What size book, trade paperback (6 X 9) or standard pocket paperback (4.25 X 6.875), do you prefer and why? You're input will be greatly appreciated and will enter you in a random drawing to win a free copy of the collection when we publish it.

Help me, flist. You're my only hope...

“One foolproof way to make an editor look at you in panic and scurry off into the lounge, never to be seen again, is to stand next to them and say, ‘I have this collection of short fiction I’m trying to publish.’” --- Neil Gaimen @ The Riverview Theater, Minneapolis, MN. 2006

Oh, how true. How true (sez the guy with a gaggle of published short stories he'd like to collect in one place).