2024 Wrap Up and What’s Coming for 2025

Posted on January 10, 2025 by erictaveren

I’m a couple of weeks late on this, and for that I’ll, without reserve, throw my kids under the bus. Just before and just after New Years I went to the emergency room twice (one a piece), and there’s just been a surplus of vomit in the house. Totally their fault. Especially since my wife and I got incredibly sick after that. And then the grandparents. Norovirus is nasty. Also, an unconventional way to kick start a New Years weight loss goal.

2024 was a big year, more on the life side than the writing side, but there’s always going to be a balance there. This biggest change was I have a new baby. She’s nine months old now, and since I’m stay-at-home-dadding, those nine months have seemed very long. Kara is now crawling (she fully figured it out when her brother was opening presents on Christmas Eve and she wanted them), and I can tell she’s itching to walk.

We also found out in March that two of my brother’s wives were also having babies in 2024. Knowing that, I tried really hard to talk a third brother into having a baby this year. He literally ran away from the conversation 🙂

I also started my MFA thesis this fall. I picked a project I’ve been thinking about for at least five years, the first of an eight book fantasy mystery series following a dark elf private detective. Feedback from my advisor had been great so far, and I’m about to start draft two as thesis wraps up this spring before graduation.

My most exciting writing news of 2024 came right after Election Day (which was a very timely piece of good news). I’ll give a brief bit of backstory first. Two years ago at AWP, I saw a literary magazine called F(r)iction. They fully illustrate their entire magazine, and beautifully so. I knew immediately that if I could be published in any magazine, F(r)iction would be it.

So I sent off a story to them immediately. I didn’t realize at the time that they had themed submissions, and so after nine months I got a rejection, saying it wasn’t a fit for their issue, but to please submit again. So when I saw one of their upcoming themes was Oceans, I had just the story for that (I stole a character from one of my novel ideas and tweaked their story a bit).

I submitted it on Nov 4, and on Nov 7 one of their editors reached out and said he loved it, and wanted to work with me to present to his higher-ups for consideration! Hot damn, was I excited. Then I did edits. And more edits. And was sent to the next level up. And then I did more edits. Finally, the week before Christmas, the story was pitched to the editor in chief and they said yes. I’m going to be in one of F(r)iction’s 2025 issues! Validation!

And not at the same level of excitement, but still exciting, another of my shorts was sent up the line in a different magazine, one where they do full audio productions of the pieces. So if that bears fruit, that’ll be amazing as well.

Sort of bookending the 2024/2025 holiday season, I worked with Water~Stone Review and the Scholastic Writing Award. For Water~Stone I helped screen fiction submissions for the upcoming issue. For the Scholastic Writing Award I was one of the regional judges for the high schoolers who entered their writing. Both had pieces that surprised me (pleasantly and otherwise), and offered good insights into the minds of other writers and their worlds.

Looking forward to 2025, a huge milestone will be finally completing my MFA. I started before covid, and only going one class per semester, it’s certainly taken some time. But when I finish, I’ll be ready with tools and time to really dive into this goal of writing as a career. Kara will be in day care starting August, so I’ll be able to have actual workdays where I can write uninterrupted. With no homework and no kids, I’m going to be more productive than I’ve ever been.

I’ll be going to AWP again in 2025. This year it’s in LA. I’ve never been to LA, and only last year went to California for the first time when my wife had a business trip in San Diego. I’m hoping with momentum from F(r)iction, as well as the other pubs I’ve had in the last couple of years, I’ll be able to make some good connections and find some doors to open.

TLDR: 2024: Had a baby. Started thesis. F(r)iction said yes. 2025: Graduation. AWP. Full-time writing.

Hope you all had a better (healthier) New Years than I did, and stay tuned for more news, books reviews, and random thoughts.

AWP 2024: Road Trip!

Posted on February 6, 2024 by erictaveren

Last year I went to my first AWP Conference in Seattle. Half hour to the airport, hour of security, three and a half hour flight, forty-five minute tram ride to Seattle, and a twenty minute walk to my hotel. Just over six hours from point A to B.

This year, AWP is in Kansas CIty. From Minneapolis, that’s a six and a half hour drive. About the same as last year, and cheaper too. 🙂 Bring on the Mtn. Dew and licorice (road trip staples for as long as I can remember).

Luckily, I won’t have to do the drive alone. Traveling and splitting a hotel room with writing friends makes AWP much more affordable. Plus, you all know how writers are. When they meet someone new, they either won’t say more than two words, or they won’t stop talking even as you’re walking away. Rarely any middle ground. This way I know I have reliable conversationalists.

As exciting as road trips are, the main event here is AWP. Last year I filled up my schedule, planned everything out, and realized once I was there I’d have zero time to experience the book fair. Luckily, sort of, some of my sessions filled up before I arrived, so I had a few session’s worth of time with which to visit the fair. And boy, did I need it.

If you haven’t been to the fair, it is massive. Like, two sessions might be enough time to take a cursory glance at everything. Might. If you want to make connections and actually look at what the booths have to offer, you need to devote at least three sessions. With that in mind, I kept a few sessions open this time, and if you’re going I suggest you do too.

As you’d expect for conferences, there are some sessions that are super cool, and some less so. Of course, those will depend on your preferences, and it’s a crap shoot as to how they’re allocated throughout the time blocks. Some blocks have nothing I want, others have four I really want to attend.

Barring capacity issues, the sessions I’m looking forward to the most are (and I’m only listing one per block):

Beyond the Debut: Publisher One-Night Stands vs. Long Term Relationships
Artificial Intelligence & Real Creativity: AI in the CW Classroom
What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About (or To) Agents
Pathways to Success: Practical and Personal Tips for Getting Published
The Book Was Better… or Was It? Adapting Your Novel into a Screenplay or Play
What Authors Need to Know about Generative AI and Copyright
Crafting Unforgettable Characters—a Writer’s Guide to Storytelling
Beating the Numbers Game: Submissions Strategies
Becoming a Debut Novelist: The Journey From Book Submission to Book Launch
Down to the Wire: The Nuts and Bolts of Editing a Manuscript to Publication
From the First Idea to “It’s Finally Here!”: The Life Cycle of Publishing a Book

You can see a few themes here. I’ve a couple of manuscripts now nearing the end of their ready-to-query journey. These’ll be my first attempts, so it’s great that there are resources to lay out expectations and help me feel knowledgeable about the next phase.

I’ve also got a few AI sessions on there. Whereas I agree that AI shouldn’t be used to generate content, I don’t find it a wholly evil tool. It is just that: a tool. It’s the user that is in control of its use. I like it for research purposes. It can aggregate data and create lists far faster than I can google.

One of my favorite examples is that, for reasons, I needed a list of Shakespeare’s plays, but in order of how many people die in them. I remember trying to looked that up before AI and that I gave up because of how cumbersome it was, and set the project aside. I asked AI to do it and within seconds I had that list. Amazing.

There are a couple of one off sessions as well, but that’s the gist of my focus this year. Beyond the sessions, I’m hoping to make good contacts, perhaps future friends. I know a few writer friends going this year so hopefully between us we can find the right places and people to network.

I’ll do a post-AWP spiel this weekend, throw in a few tidbits that stood out. And I’ll probably be tweeting (is it still called tweeting if it’s not Twitter?) throughout.

As always, feel free to reach out with questions, comments, or just to say hello.

Holiday Bustle

Posted on December 22, 2023 by erictaveren

Happy Holidays to all! If you don’t celebrate, hopefully you at least get some time off. I’m writing this during my last prep period of the year. I managed to kick out 5000 words the other day so figure I can take the time for another post.

First order of business: upcoming publications. On December 26 a short story of mine will hit the internet on Spillwords.com. I’ll probably do another post then to remind you all. 🙂 It’s a Christmas story about a divorced dad trying to connect with his daughter during their first Christmas with just the two of them. There’s kookiness, drama, heartbreak, and that warmhearted feeling you get this time of year. And bananas. Somehow, there are bananas.

I also just signed up to be on the editorial staff of Water-Stone Review, so I’ll have a healthy bit of reading to do over the next few weeks. I’m expecting a wide gamut of genres and themes, so hopefully it’ll be a fun time.

On a non-writing note, I’ve decided to apply for the next season of LegoMasters. That translates to Fall 2025 because of filming schedules. I need to build five sets of my own design for the application, so I just finished sorting the 90000 Lego pieces I’ve accrued since childhood and am partway into the first build (and already running out of the right color of pieces).

Don’t judge yet! It’s not done! If all goes according to plan it’ll balance perfectly on the beak, like those toys from when we were younger. But instead of being three inches across and made from one piece of plastic, it’ll be over a foot wide and made from hundreds. Given my piece limitation, it might not look the prettiest, but the goal is creating that perfect balance. I can do pretty on a different build.

I have faced some other distractions these last couple of weeks, though I like to think them the good kind of distractions. I had an idea for an educational chemistry game for middle and high school and developed that a bit. I fortunately have subbed a few chem classes during that period and was able to get very positive input from chem teachers, so yay!

I’ve also been thinking a lot about AI’s role in brainstorming and story creation. I obviously don’t want it to generate anything, but I think it could be very useful in organizing thoughts and characters and stories and a whole lot more I won’t delve too far into. Based on what research I’ve done, I don’t think AI is sophisticated enough to do what I want, but in a few years…

I’ll close out with the acknowledgement that I tend to bite off more than I can chew. AWP is coming up in just over a month, and I’m a going to send the first five pages out to agents as part of their Writer to Agent program. But that means I have just over a month to get this story into ship shape. While also building Lego. And working. And designing that game. And prepping for a new baby. And running a D&D campaign.

It’s a good thing I don’t have any hair, else I’d probably be pulling it out.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year. Enjoy your time with loved ones and remember that diets don’t count on holidays.

AWP 2023

Posted on March 7, 2023 by erictaveren

Way back in 1990 my family moved from the middle of nowhere North Dakota to a Seattle suburb. I grew up there and then went to college in Minnesota where I ended up settling down. Of course there have been trips to Seattle to visit family, but this marks the first time I’ve come back home without family being the impetus.

For those who haven’t heard of it, AWP (Association of Writers & Writing Programs) holds a conference each year and each year a different city hosts it. This year it happens to be in Seattle and so of course I’ll have to work in some family time too (I’ve a new niece not even three months old to see).

AWP has two main parts: the conference, stuffed full of so many panels you’ll never be able to attend all the ones you want, and the book fair, is “the nation’s largest marketplace for independent literary presses and journals, creative writing programs, writing conferences and centers, and literary arts organizations” that’ll blow every other book fair you’ve been to out of the water. In particular I’ll be searching out the Hamline MFA as well as the Great Weather for Media booths as I’ve got a vested interest in each of them.

As for the panels, hopefully my brain doesn’t explode. Here’s the crazy list of sessions I’ll be attending:

Writing about Culture and Place: Techniques for Vibrant and Ethical Worldbuilding
Reading at 24 Frames Per Second: Exploring Cinematic Influence on Literature
Demystifying the Application: Fellowships, Residencies, and Grants
Minding the Gaps and Mining Landscape in Linked Short Story Collections
How to Craft Enthralling Science Stories
The Sentence Is the Story: Reading, Writing, and Revising for Style and Sound
Nine Memorable Moments: Constructing Compelling Characters for the Screen
Filling in the Gaps: Folklore as Antidote to Forgetting
The Twenty-First Century Horror Novel
The Twist: Plot Turns That Make Movie Magic
Conjuring Thisness in Fiction: The Palpable Art of the Particular
Giving Helpful Feedback
Breaking Up with Shame: Writing Romance for Young Adults
Writing the Monster
Playwriting 101: Accessing Emotional Honesty in Storytelling

As you can see there’s quite the variety there. Obviously I’m interested in speculative content, but there revision and business sessions as well because like it or not those are part of the game. I don’t know exactly what I’ll get out of each session, but I’ll be taking copious notes for both my writing friends as well as MFA classmates to spread all that I learn.

I’ll sign off for now (I’m writing in the the hotel room and need to head out to meet up with someone attending AWP), but if you happen to be at AWP give me a holler.