I am very pleased to report that my first foray into the Lovecraftian mythos has sold to Innsmouth Free Press. Innsmouth Free Press is a fictional newspaper publishing faux news pieces in a Lovecraftian/Cthulhu Mythos universe, as well as original short fiction stories. Since “Prayer at Dark River” is flash fiction, I’m only going to […]
Sale! Prayer at Dark River to Innsmouth Free Press Read More »
When I started writing these columns for AMC, the first thing I did was to define terms. In particular, we talked about the difference between fantasy and science fiction. While both types of films break the rules of our world, one explains it by magic, the other by science. The only catch is that some
AMC – Precogs and Ray Guns Have No Place In True SciFi Read More »
As a housewarming present, Michael Livingston has “Chaucered” my story “Evil Robot Monkey.” Don’t know what that means? It means, that my lovely medieval studies professorial friend has translated my story into middle English. He explains the process as he goes. In the corner of his vision, the door to his room snicked open. Sly
Chaucered! Evil Robot Monkey Read More »
The lovely men at Writing Excuses invited me to stick around and record another episode with them at World Con. They’ve just posted it the Writing Process Q & A. Brandon, Dan and Howard answer a wide range of questions and I tag along for the ride.
Writing Excuses, Season 3 Episode 15 Read More »
I’m very pleased to announce the sale of my short story “Body Language” to Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show. This is an important sale for me for three reasons. This is the first story I wrote after attending OSC’s Literary Boot Camp and was one of the hardest things I’ve written because I was
Sale! Body Language to IGMS Read More »
My short story, First Flight, is up at Tor.com. It has absolutely goooooorgeous art by Pascal Milelli, which looks enough like my actual grandmother that my mom was disappointed that she didn’t have earrings on. Why is it cool that she looks like my grandmother? Because she’s based on Grandma, even if the name isn’t
“First Flight,” free at Tor.com + recipes! Read More »
My dear friend, the 2009 Campbell-winning, David Anthony Durham has ARCs of The Other Lands, his new book. And he’s giving one away! Okay. Here it is. My first The Other Lands giveaway. There may be more to come, but this one is purely from my own stash. I’m offering one of the three advanced
Campbell-winner David Anthony Durham giving ARC Read More »
Chapter 6 was a seriously fun chapter to write. Why? Because I’m dealing with the part of my world that is entirely made up and the one that excites me most. Jane visits a school for glamour — which is my magic system. The thing that often bugs me about other worlds is that magic
Glamour in Glass: Writing Chapter 6 Read More »
As I’m writing, I use brackets to mark off text I need to check. My biggest use of brackets for Glamour in Glass comes in Chapter 5 because I don’t speak French, but I have characters who do. That means I’m writing a lot of things that look like this until I have a chance
Writing Glamour in Glass: Chapter 5 Read More »
WorldCon has been great. Internet connectivity, less so. Trying to recapture the weekend seems well nigh unto impossible, so I’ll hit some highlights. Hanging out with Lou Anders, Paolo Bacigalupi, Kate Baker and talking about short story theories, including if the Hollywood formula can be applied. Yes, we think so, though not always. Hanging in
WorldCon 09, Sunday Read More »
AnthologyBuilder.com is this nifty site where authors can submit reprints and readers can create their own ideal anthology. In print. It’s great if you want to sample a bunch of people and prefer reading on paper than on the screen. I ‘ve got several stories up there and they are doing this cool promotional. All
Yesterday I was having trouble with my blog, which are still a mystery. Basically, my RSS feed looks fine everywhere except Google Reader. While trying to figure out which plugin was causing that, I did a series of test posts, about 30 of them and was tossing a single line of fiction into each by
The werewolf test posts Read More »
One of the links that I posted as something to consider was A Mist of Vague Cliches by K. Tempest Bradford. Now, Tempest and I were in a writing group together and the generic European setting was one of her pet peeves. So, when I started work on this story “On the Edge of Dying”
Learning to be specific with culture Read More »
I was having a conversation with a fellow writer about Justine Larbalestier’s post, “Why my protagonists aren’t white” and the fellow said that he rarely describes his characters, unless it’s important, so that the reader is free to imagine them at will. I can understand this choice, because I’ve done it myself and for the
Why describe characters? Read More »
While looking up a detail about period pianos for Chapter Four of Glamour in Glass, I chanced across a comparison of a 19th century piano and a modern piano both playing the same piece, which was eye-opening in terms of the difference in sound. There’s no reason to convey that in the novel, but it’s
Writing Glamour in Glass: Chapter Four Read More »