2017 - 07/2017 Meeting

Page Created: 06/16/17. Last Updated: 08/26/17.

FRAN WILDE

Official Site: http://www.franwilde.net/

Website Bio: http://www.franwilde.net/about/

Blog: https://franwilde.wordpress.com/

Blog / Cooking the Books: https://franwilde.wordpress.com/cooking-the-books/

Social Media:

FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/franwildewrites

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/fran_wilde/boards/

Tumblr: http://franwilde.tumblr.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/fran_wilde

Books:

Updraft Trilogy

.....Updraft

.....Cloudbound

.....Horizon

Stories Published by:

.....Asimov's Science Fiction

.....Beneath Ceaseless Skies

.....Daily Science Fiction

.....Nature

.....Tor.com

.....Uncanny

Interviews:

..........http://www.franwilde.net/frans-interviews-abroad/

MEETING DETAIL

Meeting Date: July 8, 2017.

Meeting Site: Barnes & Noble. Paramus, New Jersey.

Attendance: 33.

Meeting Program: Talk w/Q & A by Science Fiction / Fantasy Writer.

Newsletter Account:

The July 8, 2017 General Meeting of the Science Fiction Association of Bergen County was held at Barnes & Noble in Paramus, New Jersey. The meeting started at 7:30 PM and concluded at 10:00 PM as requested by the store.

Author Fran Wilde and her husband, Tom, joined members of the Writers' Space Salon for 6:00 PM dinner at the Panera Bread across the highway form Barnes & Noble. The discussion topic was on genre writers' workshops and include the Clarion, Taos Toolbox, Viable Paradise, the Science Fiction Online Writers' Workshop, the World Science Fiction Convention Workshops, Cat Rambo's writing classes and related matters like slush reading for magazines.

The Ice Nine discussion started at 6:30 PM and ran for an hour at the upper level of Barnes & Noble. Kathy Holusha and Pamela Webber filled in for Barry Weinberger who was not available to run the event. Items discussed included the recent death of the wife of Stan Lee, the movie WONDER WOMAN, and the GOTHAM and HAWAII 5-0 television series.

Science Fiction author Fran Wilde was our speaker. Ms Wilde is the author of the Updraft Trilogy from Tor Books: UPDRAFT, CLOUDBOUND and HORIZON. Her short fiction has appeared in ASIMOV'S SCIENCE FICTION, BENEATH CEASELESS SKIES, DAILY SCIENCE FICTION, NATURE, TOR.COM and other markets. She writes about food, genre and parenting for Cooking the Books, Geek Mom and elsewhere.

It was perhaps inevitable that our speaker would write science fiction. Ms Wilde is the offspring of four generations of engineers ("I'm the only one who could spell"), so when she was bitten by the writing bug at a young age, it was either science fiction or technical writing (which is the author's day job).

Fran Wilde read widely when growing up and in school. After trying her hand at poetry and other genres, she began selling non fiction articles and flash (very short) fiction stories to DAILY SCIENCE FICTION and other genre markets. This led her to attend the Taos Toolbox and Viable Paradise science fiction writers workshops.

The Updraft Trilogy grew out of an argument about PARADISE LOST between our speaker and author Stephen Brust. An offshoot of the discussion led to a story about a knife fight in a wind tunnel between winged combatants. The character of Kirit, one of the combatants, came full-blown to Ms Wilde, who then started thinking about creating the backstory which led to this conflct.

Fran Wilde brought the piece to the Viable Paradise workshop. She had made a number of short sales, but had not attempted anything longer. While at VP, she accepted a dare to write a novel in 90 days. The result was the first draft of UPDRAFT.

Perhaps it comes from being a member of a family of engineers, perhaps her mind is simply wired that way, but Fran Wilde's world-building skills are highly regarded in the science fiction community. Although many people read UPDRAFT as a fantasy, it is actually a work of science fiction. The author took great pains to get the high-altitude climate, weather, and ecology correct.

UPDRAFT is told from the point of view of Kirit. CLOUDBOUND, the second book, is from the point of view of her best friend, Nat. HORIZON employs multiple viewpoints, including Kirit and Nat. They are set on a world in which mankind is slowly losing the battle for survival but are unaware that this is happening. Each novel has its own theme. UPDRAFT, for example, is about Voice, who gets to speak and be heard by the rulers. CLOUDBOUND is about Leadership. HORIZON is about Community.

Fran Wilde answered a number of questions about her writing methodology. She writes at least 500 words a day. Each book is written three times. The first draft is to figure everything out. The second draft is to shape the book for her own satisfaction. The third draft is to fashion the work for the reader's satisfaction.

Books start off with an outline, but at some point the characters get bored and go in a different direction. Our speaker uses the writing program, Scrivener. She chooses a song to the the Writing Song for each book. The song gets played over and over whenever she is working on that piece.

This was a very good meeting. Our thanks to Fran Wilde and all who helped.