From:	Jak Koke <jkoke@****.EDU>
Subject:	Re: Striper Assassin
Date:	Sat, 9 Sep 1995 11:03:55 -0700

Okay, so we agree that Nyx Smith is no Roger Zelazny. Big surprise. :)

I, for one, enjoyed all three of his books, Striper Assassin, Fade to Black,
and Who Hunts the Hunter. I do agree that Striper, herself, works against
Nyx because she's so hard to identify with. She has no regard for metahuman
life and shows no remorse. She has no compassion for her prey. She _is_ a
well-drawn character, however, and quite true-to-form all the way through.
It's just that as a reader, I hated her. Thought she was pretty kickass,
but hated her nonetheless. It's hard to relate to a main character you hate
<grin>.

>First person present can work
>quite well if handled correctly. I recently sold a story to Visionary
>Publishing for New Visions that's done entirely in first person present,
>from the point of view of a 9th grade boy.

I, too, have sold short stories written in present tense. It makes the
action more immediate, and when combined with first person point-of-view,
increases the tension because the fate of the character is uncertain (in
past tense, we assume the character survived to tell the story).

All three of Nyx Smith's books, if I remember correctly, are written in the
same style; third person, present tense, multiple point-of-view. I felt
Nyx's prose flowed pretty well, actually, and liked it better on a
line-by-line basis than many other SR novels (I've read almost all of them).
If there were problems with Nyx's books, they have more to do with plot and
character, IMO, than prose.

But everyone has an opinion. Luckily they're not all the same.

>Perhaps Lou could explain the process by which gaming fiction
>occurs? Maybe some of us could try putting our money where our mouths are
>and submit fiction for FASA, if we knew we wouldn't be automatically routed
>to the slushpile and a form rejection slip for bad formatting or other
>submission errors

Andrew, since I'm currently writing an SR novel (for FASA), and have already
finished an ED book. Both of which will be published next year. I can
address your question about gaming fiction.

I'd been writing short fiction (and a few novels) for about three years when
Greg Gorden (the designer of Earthdawn) asked if I wanted to write a novella
for the Talisman anthology. They needed someone to fill an open slot, and
he knew that I knew the game and wrote short fiction. Needless to say, I
agreed to send in a proposal. FASA liked it, sent me a contract and I wrote
the story.

After that, I sent in seven, count them, SEVEN novel proposals before they
liked one enough to ask me for a full outline and sample chapters. Thus,
LIFEROCK, my ED novel about obsidimen, came into being. The key is to never
give up. Even though they already knew me, the process was long and
somewhat arduous. But now it's paying off; on the strength of LIFEROCK, I
got my current book--an SR novel called DEAD AIR. (neither is in present
tense <g>)

Donna Ippolito, the novel editor at FASA, likes what I've shown her of DEAD
AIR enough that I'm likely to get more books after this one.

Hope this helps,

--Jak
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Jak Koke jkoke@****.edu
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