2024 - 04/2024 Meeting

Page Created: 01/14/24. Last Updated: 05/13/24.

AIMEE POKWATKA

Novels:

..........Self Portrait with Nothing

..........The Parliament

ONLINE

Website: http://www.aimeepokwatka.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/apokwatka/

Twitter / X: https://twitter.com/AimeePokwatka

Meeting Date: April 13, 2024.

Meeting Site: Bergen Highlands United Methodist Church. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.

Attendance: 25 + 7.

Meeting Program: Talk / Q & A with Science Fiction Author.

Notes:

Newsletter Account:

The monthly General Meeting of the Science Fiction Association of Bergen County was held on Saturday, April 13, 2024 at the Bergen Highlands United Methodist Church in Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. Science fiction writer Aimee Pokwatka was our speaker.

Aimee Pokatka is the author of two novels from Tor.com: SELF-PORTRAIT WITH NOTHING and THE PARLIAMENT. She holds a MFA in Creative Writing from Syracuse University where George Saunders was her writing mentor. Aimee knew she wanted to be a writer ever since the Third Grade when her retelling of The Frog Prince from the point-of-view of the frog was a rousing success.

Our speaker went through a couple of agents ("I'm really good at writing query letters") and two unsold mainstream novels before agent Stacia Decker landed her a two-book deal. Aimee never thought much about genre boundaries and SELF-PORTRAIT straddles the line between mainstream and fantasy. The book deals with two of the author's fascinations: parallel worlds and dopplegangers ("I've been mistaken for other people my whole life.").

The basic premise of her latest novel, THE PARLIAMENT, is a riff on THE BIRDS. A mixed group of patrons and employees are stuck inside a small town library surrounded by hostile owls. The phones don't work and the town government is incompetent, so it is up to the captives to rescue themselves. The young people read and discuss THE SILENT QUEEN, a book-within-a-book to amuse themselves while they are trapped.

The author starts with a plot or an idea and creates an outline. The beginning is always a slow go, with the writing proceeding in 10 minute increments until the story starts to flow. It takes Aimee 12 - 18 months to write a book. The first four months work out a first draft. The second draft is a nearly complete rewrite. Two additional drafts follow before she sends it to her agent. She just sent a book about a haunted house in New York City to her agent ("I don't believe in ghosts, but I have seen one.")

Some random tidbits. Aimee used to write in Word, but the complexities of the dual book structure of PARLIAMENT caused her to learn Scrivener. Her characters are composites of people she knows. She gave a half dozen book recommendations. Her first short story was about a woman whose hair is crying. She added dialogue tags and some other small changes for the audio book of SELF-PORTRAIT.

Additional details can be found on the club website under 2024 - 04/2024 Meeting. Thanks to everyone who helped with the clean up.

Notes from Meeting:

Wanted to be a writer since 3rd grade when she rewrote The Frog Prince from the POV of the frog for a school assignment.

Planned to Major in archaeology. It was the most boring class. She switched to Anthropology.

Post Graduation jobs included studying human remains for the National Science Federation. Also worked in a veterinarian's office.

MFA from Syracuse University

Her writing mentor was George Saunders. Loves his work and also Aimee Bender. Read mostly mainstream

Writer conference in Vermont changed her life.

Never thought of genre distinctions

Her first story was about a woman whose hair was crying.

Found an agent in 2012.

Wrote a second book while agent was shopping first book. The book was about child loss. The agent didn't think it was salable. Aimee does not think the book would work as self-published.

She decided to get a new agent for her third book, SELF PORTRAIT WITH NOTHING. The agent left the business. She was passed along to a different agent in the agency who was not a good fit.

New agent was Stacia Decker. They had just about given up hope of selling it when she sold SELF PORTRAIT and her next book (THE PARLIAMENT) to Lee Harris at tor.com.

It was liberating to know that she could write anything and that there was a possibility that it would sell.

SELF PORTRAIT dealt with her fascination with dopplegangers (people have told Aimee that they knew / had seen someone just like her for her whole life), art monsters, and the most scary thing of all - mothers.

Starts with an outline. Writes 2000 words per day in her first draft. When she's just starting a project, she will write for 10 minutes, take a break, write another 10 minutes, break, and continue the pattern until the writing flows.

It takes her 4 months to write a first draft.

She starts with a plot or an idea.

Draft # 2 is an almost complete rewrite.

She does 4 drafts over a 12 - 18 month period before she sends it to an agent.

Her characters are composites.

Writing query letters is a completely different skill set, but one she is very good at.

She loves writing dialogue.

There is lots of texting in SELF PORTRAIT which is hard to convey in an audio book.

She added some transitions and dialogue tabs for the audio books.

She played the audition tapes of SELF PORTRAIT, which included some racy material, during a long drive. Her kids had to listen to people reading their mother's writing about sex.

She finds it hard to listen to her audio books.

There are two books in THE PARLIAMENT, the main story about a group of adults and young people trapped in a library by a horde of angry owls, and the book-within-a-book fantasy that the young ones are reading, THE SILENT QUEEN.

The book-within-a-book caused her to move from Microsoft Word to Scrivener.

THE SILENT QUEEN was inspired by a documentary about the search for an Augusta woman who had endured so much trauma that she lost her voice. However, the documentary was about the search for the woman. There was little about the woman herself.

Someone did a 10 hour documentary about paint drying just to inflict it on critics who would be forced to watch it.

The ineptitude of the small town in assisting the trapped library staff and patrons mirrored the nation's response to covid.

Many characters in THE PARLIAMENT have aspects of archetypes.

She has just sent her new book to her editor. It's about a haunted house in NYC.

Aimee does not believe in ghosts, but did see one when she lived in NYC.

Met her husband in college. They were in the same dorm, but in opposite wing, across from one another. They were part of a group of friends, but everyone figured they would get together.

Book recommendations:

.....The Past is Red by Catherynne M Valente

.....White Cat, Black Dog: Stories by Kelly Link

.....Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss

.....The Thin Place by Kathryn Davis

.....Duplex by Kathryn Davis

.....A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki