Warning -- this is all about me!

[kinzel]

Biographers take note -- this isn't easy!

Do you find it hard to talk about yourself, or choose what's important? I mean, like, the bio below has nothing about my history as a professional chess tournament director. Nothing about teaching folks with disabilities how to use computers. Nothing about my cats and co-authors Arwen, Patia, Max!, Nicky, Kodi, Brandee... Nothing about being a childrens librarian, nothing about my grandmother's influence on me... sigh. Nothing about the dead dog parties I've been to. Nothing about the newspapers I've written for or edited, nothing about the.... sigh... You'd think I'd have the hang of this now -- I've only been doing con bios for harrpumphtyseven years. I've spent an hour on this and it ought not to take so long, I guess.

Attempted bio for upcoming Boskone:

Steve Miller is a writer, editor, publisher, fan, librarian, and
computer guy who comes to Boskone whenever he can.

A 1973 graduate of Clarion West, he was the founding
Curator of Science Fiction for the University of Maryland's
SF Research Collection, and has been active in fandom
since the late 60s, with a background of pubbing fanzines,
running artshows, and doing convention program books
as well as being in the hotseat as Vice Chair of the
Baltimore in 80 WorldCon bid.

His first pro sales were to Ted White at Amazing Stories in the 1970s. More recently, he's co-author (with wife Sharon Lee) of the
Liaden Universe® novels and stories, including Balance of Trade, winner of the Hal Clement Award for Best Young Adult SF Novel, and Scout's Progress, a Prism Award winner.

Steve is founder and publisher of SRM Publisher Ltd; since 1995
SRM has published an eclectic mix of genre and genre-related titles
including mystery novels as well as science fiction and fantasy
novellas, short stories, and related essays. SRM's thirtieth title is due in 2007.

Lee and Miller's latest hardcover -- due out this spring from
Meisha Merlin -- is Web of The Trident. Also due out RSN
(if not at Boskone!) is the Ace mass market edition of
Crystal Soldier and the Meisha Merlin mass market
edition of The Tomorrow Log.

.............

guess it'll do.

Comments

[green-knight.livejournal.com]

It depends what you want to use it for, but this read very much like a marketing bibliography to me - this is me, and these are my books. I like to read the stuff about the cats and the love of books (a recurring theme), the bits that make a biography more human.

[kinzel.livejournal.com]

Well, it is a bio for an upcoming convention -- and that's marketing, isn't it?

[green-knight.livejournal.com]

Yes... and no. Convention readers don't just want to read your bibliography, although the highlights certainly should be in it - small publisher, Liaden Universe, 30 novels, current/upcoming ones are-

The other thing I want to know is 'is this an interesting person? Do I want to go to his panels? Do I want to pick up his books?' From that standpoint someone who can only talk about what books they want to flog to you is the most boring panelist at all, just like the people who preface every sentence with 'in my recent book xx'. I'm not saying that's what you do, just that, as a con-goer, I am somewhat cautious of writers who appear to see cons _just_ as a marketing vehicle, not as a place they visit because they really want to be there.

I found the bits you left out far more enticing than the stuff you put in - I mean, who can resist a writer who names his cats as co-authors?

Are you planning on attending Worldcon '07?

[kinzel.livejournal.com]

First, nope. Not planning on WorldCon. I'm going to NASFIC, where I have a choice of driving or going by rail, and which I can afford. Am planning on WorldCon in 2008, too, since it meets the "drive, or take train, and affordable test" as well.

Alas, most people going to Boskone have seen me on panels, many have heard me talk about my cats (we've done panels on catwhisker collecting, for example), most understand that I'm there as a fan as well (which is why the fan background is mentioned, much against advice of some pro writers...)and I must say that mentioning when a next book is coming out makes it much easier for some fans to approach us -- it gives them something to talk about even if they haven't met us or read any of our books. I figure the folks who don't recognize me on sight will want to have some idea why I'm wearing a panelist ribbon.... We also like to save some stuff for our Guest of Honor or Special Guest gigs so we don't wear people (and our ourselves) out. Also, we try to make the bios trimmable so the program book people can save space if they need to.

Below is something we used when we were guests at the Second Life Library recently. I gather we had one of their biggest crowds ever...

=====================================

Entangled in Cyberspace:

Fresh from their Guest of Honor appearance at the joint Linux-Science Fiction convention Pengicon 4.0, award-winning authors Sharon Lee and Steve Miller discuss their careers, collaborating as writers, and how the expanding virtual world helped entangle them with the world-wide science fiction community.

Sharon Lee & Steve Miller

Sharon Lee and Steve Miller are co-authors of the best-selling Liaden Universe® series and have been writing together since the "Kinzel" stories hit Fantasy Book in the early 80s. They began work on the first Liaden story in 1984 and have published a dozen novels and several dozen short works in that series alone. They count Meisha Merlin, Ace Books, Buzzy Multimedia, and Embiid among their English language publishers and have several foreign language publishers as well.
Their short fiction, written both jointly and singly, has appeared in Absolute Magnitude, Catfantastic, Dreams of Decadence, Fantasy Book, Such a Pretty Face, 3SF, and several incarnations of Amazing.

Their work has enjoyed a number of award nominations, with "Scout's Progress" being selected for the Prism Award for Best Futuristic Romance of 2001 and "Local Custom" finishing second for the same award. "Local Custom" was published by Buzzy Multimedia as an audio book read by Michael Shanks -- StarGate's Daniel.

"Balance of Trade," appeared in hardcover in February 2004 and hit Amazon.com genre bestseller lists before going on to win the Hal Clement Award as Best YA Science fiction for the year. Their most recent Liaden novels are "Crystal Soldier" and "Crystal Dragon" -- and as usual they have a book due out next spring.

Their backgrounds -- Steve was Vice Chair of the Baltimore in 80 Worldcon bid as well as Founding Curator of Science Fiction for the University of Maryland's SF Research Collection, while Sharon has been Executive Director, Vice President, and President of the Science Fiction Writers of America -- give them a unique perspective on the science fiction field.

ALL about YOU

[baggette.livejournal.com]

Nothing wrong with a Bio bit being all about YOU. You are not your books, even if there is much of you in them. I love you and your books, always something interesting to discuss when you are involved. I think the number of books (just the number and the universe, maybe) and then an accounting of your interests and influences would be just as pleasing as the current offering. Anyone who has read any of your books has seen most of what you have there.

Your bibliography and long list of achievements should be treated more as a CV, IMHO.

[otaku-tetsuko.livejournal.com]

I'm with Baggette - being in job search mode, I've learned to write to the audience and have a resume tailored to each job application. One for graphic design. One for tech writing. One for management skills, etc.

The question becomes not, how do I describe myself forever in five paragraphs or less, but, who am I writing this to, and what are they likely to be interested in? If you are writing for the fan base, then I'd go with the first comment. If you are writing for the people who might be going to give you money, you write what THEY want to know. My two cents.

Did I miss the important sentence?

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

Sounds quite good, really, for such an interesting life lived.

But what about the cat whisker collection?

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Why not include the first paragraph -- the one starting "do you find it hard to talk about yourself..."? I think that's a good frame with lots of interesting leads followed by the other stuff. Kind of a hook to get me to read the rest?

Mike

I agree with Mike (mbarker)

[joythree.livejournal.com]

The first paragraph is awesome and really engaging. If I were new to you, I would be hooked into giving you a try based solely on it, without any of the rest of the bio making any difference except as a guide to possible titles to shop for. As an avid reader of yours, however, that same first paragraph---which reinforces WHY I am an avid reader---and the last paragraph would be the only ones of interest to me. The last, obviously, answering the burning questions of "What is next, and how soon can I get my hands on it?"
Wish I could be there,
Joy