Mary Robinette Kowal

James Dashner joins us for a Q&A at Utah Valley University during Life, The Universe, and Everything. The first question starts out amazingly rough, but the 12-year-old asking it manages to stick the landing. The questions include: Why is the ARC of James’ first book so different from the later books? How do you handle

In 2004, I made my first sale to a magazine called The First Line. They have an interesting premise. Every story in an issue starts with the same first line, but with wildly different results. The idea is that the first line is so important, but if you gave Mark Twain the line, “Call me,

Yes, I’ve been in Chicago for a bare three days and am already off to a convention. I’m the Guest of Honor, which has been described to me as “Three days of us spoiling you.” That sounds great. Really fantastic right now. I do not regret leaving the stacks of boxes in the slightest. We

James Artimus Owen joined us in front of the live audience at LTUE in February where he was the Guest of Honor. He wanted to talk with us about “voice,” and specifically how to find yours. We talk about the paradox — voice is critical, but new authors who focus how to develop theirs often

This is a very fast update to let you know that we have unloaded the truck and are in the apartment. We got incredibly lucky with the weather. It was overcast and cool this morning and started to rain as the last load went into the apartment. If this is the travel-karmic balance for the

We went into Chicago today so that Rob could have a meeting at City Winery Chicago, his new job, and so that we could pick up the keys for the apartment. This is the first time either of us had been in the apartment, so it was pretty exciting. It is every bit as beautiful

How annoying. I wrote a post on my phone yesterday but it didn’t show up here AND it isn’t saved on my phone. It was brilliant, clearly, and life-changing. So allow me to sum up and then go crawl into bed. In Denver we stopped at Broadway Book Mall which was great fun. Nina and

Tonight I’ll be reading at Broadway Book Mall in Denver at 7:30. Yesterday’s travel was smoother than our first day. The only hitch was cat related. Harriet had a call of nature in Rob’s lap. We had offered her the litter box at our last stop, only fifteen minutes prior. But aside from needing to

We’re heading over to Rediscovered Books this morning to sign the stock I couldn’t last night, due to the truck difficulties. Then we hit the road to Salt Lake City where I’ll be reading at Weller Book Works tonight at 7pm. Truly, this whole drive/perform combination reminds me of my days on tour with puppet

They got our truck repaired and sent us on the road with minimum fuss. While we lost time, it was not nearly the headache it could have been. I think the cats appreciated the opportunity to stretch their legs in the waiting room of the garage. We have arrived in Boise and are turning in

We’re having trouble with our truck. Because of this, I won’t make it to Boise before Rediscovered Books closes. Laura, at Rediscovered, has offer to take personalization requests and then come in early so I can sign tomorrow morning before we head on to Salt Lake City. Please thank her for me. It is just

Marlowe is hiding under the bed. This is going to become a meme as we travel. The poor cat has made two moves prior to this and totally knows what is going on. Harriet hasn’t a clue what’s in store for her and is lounging in the middle of the floor. She clearly doesn’t understand

I’m about to unplug the router and thought I’d do one last blog post from the apartment. Rob got the truck loaded yesterday with the help of Tracy Erickson, Jay Lake, Matt Coopersmith, Andrew Fuller, Michael Gandsey, and -e-‘s family. People are amazing, you know? We leave Portland tomorrow morning and will stop in The

Larry Correia joins Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard in front of a live audience at LTUE on Utah Valley University campus. Larry knows guns inside and out, and talks to us about the mistakes that writers make when putting firearms into their stories. Most of this is simple stuff, or at least it’s simple to

I’m in transit to JordanCon right now. This is where you can find me. Friday 1:00 PM – JordanCon Opening Ceremonies – Great Oaks Welcome to our fourth annual JordanCon’s Opening Ceremonies Extravaganza! 2:30 PM – An Hour with the Guest of Honor – Goulding A Come spend some time with this year’s JordanCon GoH.