Category Archives: Mary Pletsch

The newest volume of the Aurora-Award winning Tesseracts series is available online today!

Tesseracts 18: Wrestling with Gods examines the intersection between speculative fiction and religion. It’s my honour to be part of this prestigious series with a story entitled Burnt Offerings.

Corporal Pasharan was destined to spend the rest of his life in a military sanitarium were it not for his tale of a near-death experience with a god. Now sanctified as a Shaman, he’s been equipped with cutting-edge technology and the freedom of cyberspace. He can never dare admit that his tale was a fabrication, or that he remains unconvinced about the existence of any form of deity. When a young soldier converts to another religion and risks the wrath of her theo-political superiors, Shaman Pasharan must find his own kind of faith to make a choice between truth and power.

The title of the anthology was a big inspiration: Wrestling with Gods. I knew I wanted to write about a character whose relationship with his faith wasn’t an easy one. I started thinking: what would it be like for an agnostic character in a ministerial job? What if he didn’t have the luxury of resigning over his doubts, because he counted on that job not just for livelihood but survival? That got me thinking about the intersection between faith and power; between privilege and faith; between speaking the truth and the fact that honesty can sometimes get people killed when the wrong folks are listening.

For the main character’s dependency on his job: I had a hemiplegic migraine one day and decided to waste time on the internet. A while later I realized: here I am chatting to people who don’t even realize I’m sick. Nobody notices facial droop or slurred words on the computer, and I had a lot of fun despite being in no fit shape to go anywhere. I put that experience into my main character as well: he’s disabled, but his role as Shaman to a technology god gives him this incredible power and authority in a virtual environment. And yet all the time he’s very aware that his physical body makes him face pain, limitations, and dependency on others.

I’m a Wiccan with primarily Christian family and in-laws, and I have an amazing family that believes in respectful discussion and mutual understanding. In the real world, I’ve seen cases of people horribly persecuted just for being Christian, and cases of people who call themselves Christian harassing and demonizing people of other faiths. I think every faith is capable of having both immense good and immense evil done in its name, and I tried to represent this in my story. The theo-political complex my main character lives under is a Pagan religion. The Kin are my idea of what an organized, institutionalized, corrupt Paganism would look like, and they’re kind of a mixture of Asatru and Catholicism with a bit of eclectic Paganism thrown in.

You can get your own copy of Wrestling with Gods today on Amazon Kindle. Paper copies will be available starting in March (Canada) and April (US).

Choosing Your Battles

December 3, 2014

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Making Progress as a Writer Mary Pletsch Reflection Self-Awareness Successes The Writing Life No Comments

2014 has brought me an odd mixture of success beyond expectation and abject failure.

My goals for 2014 were to duplicate my short story sales for 2013 (six stories, five under my real name) and to complete a novel.

Over the past year, I’ve sold eight speculative fiction short stories under my own name, and an additional two stories and a novella in another genre under a pseudonym.

And I haven’t come anywhere close to completing a novel, though I have two partial attempts and several outlines.

In 2015, my goal is to choose my battles.

I’ve already set parameters for my short story submissions. As a rule, I submit only to paying markets. (I do allow for exceptions—for example, if proceeds from sales go to support a charity I feel passionate about, I’m willing to write a story in lieu of a donation to the cause). But overall, at this point in my career, I feel my writing is strong enough that I should be earning money in exchange for my work, not just a free copy of the finished product.

This statement is not to denigrate anyone who is writing as a hobby. I spent many years writing fan fiction and giving it away for free. For myself though, last year, I decided that if I’m good enough to be paid and I want to earn some of my living this way, I needed to to focus my efforts on markets that represent income opportunities.

I’m excited to have my first SFWA (Science Fiction Writers of America)-qualifying story coming out in the second half of 2015. It’s a short story called “Folk Hero” that will be appearing in Apex Magazine.

In 2015, I want to refine my parameters further. I want to limit my short story writing and focus it on pro markets.

This plan is going to be challenging for me. Pro markets are highly competitive. I may not make six sales in 2015. However, I am at a point in my career where quality is more important than quantity.

I want to take a large portion of the time I spent on short stories this year, and spend it on completing a novel. I’d also like to do another novella under my pseudonym.

Long term, I believe novels represent the best income opportunities. I don’t regret spending the past two years focusing on short stories. The short stories have given me the opportunity to practice writing story arcs, strengthen my beginnings and endings, and explore different genres. They have forced me to learn to be concise: to introduce characters, establish their world, and immerse the reader in their conflict, with a minimum of wordiness or filler. And they have provided me with validation. I can do this. I can sell my writing. I have seen my work in print.

Validation, though, has a dark side. It would be relatively easy, I think, for me to set and meet a goal to replicate my 2014 success in 2015. It would make me feel good. Short term, it would make me feel better than dedicating my year to a novel. Long term, though, I see my career focusing on novels. It’s time for me to play the long game and focus on long-term rewards.

I have my validation. In 2015, it’s time to move on and take another step towards making that vision a reality.

In January I wrote about the importance of maintaining one’s health. In December, I think I’ve done well in that regard. I suffered hand and wrist injury in the summer, recovered in the fall, and now use a brace to prevent future injuries. I’ve struck a balance between a part time job, a sustaining family life, and accomplishing my writing goals. Health-wise, I’m in a good place to achieve my goals in 2015.

One Horn To Rule Them All: A Single Spark

October 22, 2014

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Mary Pletsch Rewriting Superstars Writing Seminars The Writing Life No Comments

(Image of “Azazel” by Stephanie Bajema.)

I remember sitting in the 2010 edition of Superstars Writing Seminars when Kevin J. Anderson gave his now-infamous professionalism example: “If you agree to write for a purple unicorn anthology, be a professional and write the best damn purple unicorn story you can, no matter how dumb you think the concept is.”

Surveys agree: most people think purple unicorns are pretty ridiculous.

But I’m a Firebringer Trilogy fan (as I wrote about back in May) and a My Little Pony fan since 1983. Purple unicorns are serious business to me. I knew I could write a purple unicorn story straight-up: no irony, no metaphor, no punchline. The challenge, to me, would be to show a reader what purple unicorns look like through my eyes.

And when the Purple Unicorn Anthology , One Horn To Rule Them All, became a reality, I had my chance. This would be a collection of short stories, the sales of which would fund scholarships for deserving future Superstars, showcasing our storytelling talents.

I played a game during my preteen and early teen years, when I went down to my grandparents’ basement with Fashion Star Fillies and Barbies. The toys were avatars – symbols of a sort – for a fantasy epic I conjured in my mind. I imagined the colourful talking unicorns from the Firebringer Trilogy, the exotic desert setting from The Black Stallion Returns, the warrior women from The Secret of the Unicorn Queen and spun these concepts into a universe all my own, a game I called simply Unicorn Warriors.

If I could write what Unicorn Warriors looked like to a fourteen year old girl, I knew I’d have my purple unicorn story.

On the other hand, I had to fit those teenage emotions and concepts through the experience I’d accumulated since. One thing that experience told me was that “writing an adventure” the way I sat down to a game of Unicorn Warriors wasn’t going to be enough. I had to show a character growing and changing, not just dash off the short story equivalent of a half hour cartoon, and though I knew the world of the Unicorn Warriors inside out, a new reader would be coming to it without any background knowledge. I was going to have to be explicit about the setting and the themes; I was going to have to craft a definitive beginning and ending; I was going to have to make my characters feel like real people.

I don’t have any memory of creating origin stories for any of the Unicorn Warriors. I think a lot of my original character concepts were partly borrowed wholesale from popular fiction (a little bit of She-Ra, a little bit of Xena) and partly thinly veiled versions of myself and my friends. I didn’t need to introduce these characters because I already “knew who they were,” so most of their time was spent seeking out treasures, fighting monsters and outwitting evil kings. By writing my Purple Unicorn story as an origin for one of the Unicorn Warriors, I could introduce readers to the world through the character’s eyes. I could also show the character’s growth as she makes the decision to join the Warriors. And I made the character the same age I was when I started to play this game.

I also had to decide what aspects of my original game to leave in and what to cut out. In an early draft of A Single Spark, there’s a teryx–a fabulous bird–circling overhead, watching the main character struggle. The teryx is a friend and ally of the Unicorn Warriors’ leader, and in my games, the teryx allowed the Warriors to learn about things that happened when they weren’t present, as long as the bird was watching. When I started writing, of course I wrote in the teryx. But on my third version of the draft, I realized that the teryx didn’t serve any function in the current story. It was just there because it had always been there in the games. And I was writing long. The teryx was cut. Maturity and experience taught me that “because it’s awesome!” isn’t, in itself, enough to keep something unnecessary in a story.

Another benefit of the decades between the Purple Unicorn anthology and the original Unicorn Warriors was an understanding of research. I did some actual research on Persian culture and the desert environment instead of relying on stereotypes and other works of fiction. I gave my Warriors and their unicorns new names, with considered meaning behind them, including that of my protagonist, Sharareh, whose name means A Single Spark, which is also the title and major theme of my story. And instead of using generic unicorns, I found real-world unicorn mythology that would make my unicorns as culturally distinct as their riders.

Because if you dismiss a karkadann as ridiculous fluff, you do so at your own peril.

To support Superstars Writing Seminars scholarships, meet the Unicorn Warriors, and enjoy a great anthology of speculative fiction, you can get your own copy of One Horn To Rule Them All in print and e-book formats right here:

Logging those Flight Hours

October 3, 2014

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Mary Pletsch The Writing Life 1 Comment

I don’t have a lot of feeling in half of my left hand. I developed an ulnar entrapment in my mid 20s and went to a specialist to see what could be done. I was offered a choice: surgery that had a 50% chance of restoring the sensation, and a 50% chance of leaving me with movement problems in addition to sensation problems.

I skipped the surgery. I may not always be able to feel my fingers, but at least they work: I can still type, and I can still write.

I’ve written before about my challenges with aphasia, but I got an unpleasant surprise a few months ago when I developed a persistent ache in my right wrist. I wasn’t sure what I’d done to cause the pain. I couldn’t remember tripping and landing on it, picking up something too heavy, or any precise moment when the pain began.

I had story submissions that I wanted to complete. Even if I let those slide, I still had to go to work, in a job that required computer use. It was like the surgery choice all over again, except this time, there was no choice. There was only a what-if: What if I can’t write any more? What if I have carpal tunnel? What if I lose movement, not just feeling, in my hands?

Fortunately, I was moving cross-country this summer, meaning I’d be out of work and offline with my computer packed for travel. I didn’t use a computer very often for a period of about six weeks. My wrist finally started feeling better. All healed up, I got my computer online in my new home and sat down to do some writing.

Ow.

This wrist problem is very real, and, while I can manage it, it is not going away. The spectre of developing carpal tunnel syndrome or sustaining further nerve damage hovers over me even as I try to boost my daily word count.

I now wear my braces when I’m writing. No exceptions. I’ve also switched my mouse to the left side of my desk, so that I’m using my non-dominant hand for pointing and clicking. I’m hoping that by outsourcing the bulk of the point and click work to my other hand, I can give my right hand more of a break. I’m also undergoing treatment for shoulder and back pain.

When I was flying gliders, we had to record how much time the aircraft spent in flight. After a certain number of flight hours, the airframes were stripped down and rebuilt from the ground up to ensure all the components were in proper working condition. The human body isn’t an aircraft, and I won’t be able to swap out parts when they get worn out. I plan on writing for the rest of my life, and in order to do so, I need to take proper care of my wrists and back.

Long term, I may need to look into voice-recognition software if the wrist problem intensifies. I’m not sure how well it will work for me, particularly when aphasia is garbling my ability to speak. I am afraid it will not work for me. I am afraid I will need it.

But I will write. I will write somehow, whatever accommodations I need to make to do so safely and healthily.

You are not as immortal as you think you are when you’re young. Parts wear out. Bodies wear down. If you are in it for the long haul…make wise decisions and plan accordingly.