"Hell is the Absence of God" is a phenomenal novella, written by Ted Chiang, about God and people's motivations in their relationships with Him.  Taking place in a world literally without blind faith, where angels regularly visit the people, taking the form of natural disasters and leaving both miracle and tragedy in their wake, it is not the faithful who go to Heaven ... but rather those who find it in their hearts to love God, despite His erratic, often unjustified, behavior.  Heaven and Hell are often viewable, as intermittent, impenetrable holes in the sky and ground; Heaven is where those who love God bask in His presence, while Hell is nothing more than a place much like Earth, only wholly absent of God.

The story follows the lives of three people, focusing particularly on one man, who hates God for causing the death of his beloved wife.  He struggles to find some way to love God, however, knowing that his wife awaits him in Heaven ... and he is desperate to be reunited with her.  Both tragic and thought-provoking, "Hell is the Absence of God" has won numerous literary awards, including the highly coveted Hugo award.

I feel honored to have been asked to co-write the screen adaption of this story.  I'm only ten pages into my draft, and already I know this is the beginning of something amazing....

I am beside myself with excitement.  I haven't signed a contract, yet, but this looks pretty definite: I have sold my first short story!!!

Last month, an agent who I have been very interested in stated in her blog that she was getting into editing, as well, making a deal with a fairly new e-publisher.  She was looking for short stories for an anthology, which would be set for electronic publishing later this year.  Hoping to catch this agent's attention, and excited to take on the challenge of her request, I wrote a 1,200-word short story fitting the necessary requirements for the anthology.

She wrote me back last night, stating that she would be willing to purchase the story if I could lengthen it and make a couple more adjustments -- but she would need the redraft within the next day or two.  Determined and excited, I lengthened the story by nearly eight hundred words and included more of what she was looking for, sending in a redrafted copy at around 2:00a.m..

She wrote me back this morning, asking for a short author bio suitable for publication!  I am ecstatic and, despite the fact that the sale is not yet completely set in stone, I just couldn't keep this excitement to myself.  Wish me luck!!!

*Update!  The sale is confirmed!!!

With every piece I work on, no matter what the genre or format, I labor over names.  Titles, character names, and even the name I write under are all just as important to me as storyline, grammar, and character progression.  A name can say a lot.

I wrote World-Mart under the title, The Last Great Minds of 2084, opting to change it nearly a year after finishing the novel.  Although I personally like both titles quite a bit, I felt that The Last Great Minds of 2084 was too "literary" for the mainstream audience for which I had intended it.  When I decided to convert the novel into screenplay format, I knew I had made the right decision: what mainstream audience is going to want to watch a movie titled The Last Great Minds of 2084?  World-Mart more accurately tells the audience what to expect out of the story.  Moreover, it is short and to the point, offering more of a mainstream appeal.

Character names, while seemingly unimportant, can hold great significance.  While I choose most of my character names based on visual and audible aesthetics (or, sometimes, personal reasons), sometimes I choose names based on more important factors.  In World-Mart, for example, each name holds significance: each character is named after a sci-fi or literary writer who has, in some way, influenced my writing.  "George" is named after Orwell.  "Virginia" is named after Woolf.  "Kurt" is named after Vonnegut.  "Shelley" is named after Mary, and the list goes on.  This is important because, although World-Mart is strictly a work of science fiction and drama (the novel also falls under the category of literature), it is my also personal tribute to all of those authors.  Tucked in discretely, here and there, like Easter eggs on a DVD, the themes intertwined throughout the story are all based on themes explored by these time-honored heroes; I was inspired to write the piece after learning of Kurt Vonnegut's death in April of 2007.

I have a few different pen names.  I market under my actual name, as not to confuse agents/managers and producers, but I feel that it is necessary to publish or produce under a different name for each genre I write.  The reason for this is simple: I write in a few very different genres, which could potentially disrupt audience expectations, when comparing my various works against one another; if my work seems inconsistent, people may feel hesitant about chancing the next piece.  My narrative nonfiction, for example, is very different from my dark fantasy and horror.  How many people out there are aware of the fact that Stephen King is quite skilled at writing non-fiction?  Most people have probably never taken a chance on these numerous other works, simply because he made a name for himself in horror.