What’s your writing fuel? Whenever I hear that question, I think of a big mug of black coffee perched precariously by the keyboard or an IV drip of tea plugged right into a vein. Some writers might suggest a good bar of dark chocolate (with sea-salt on top) or a ginormous hunk of pie. In […]
Archive > July 2011
The Great Con
The Big One We’re in the thick of con season now! ReaderCon, Comic-Con, WorldCon, Dragon*Con, World Fantasy. All big, all very expensive (It’s hard to do any of these for less than $600). So many choices, so little time/money/endurance. Have you been debating which cons to go to? Wondering what you are missing? Here’s a […]
Control the spice of your universe
Let’s talk about sandworms. Whoah. Those are some pretty amazing monsters. They grow to the size of mountains; they live in an inhospitable desert where barely anything else can survive; they hunt via vibrations; they secrete mind- and body-altering drugs that change the shape of an entire universe. Whoah. Nice monster, Frank Herbert! There’s […]
If writing fantasy means I’m “weird,” so be it
I am weird. Or so I’m frequently told by family, friends, acquaintances, and former co-workers, sometimes directly: “you are weird” or, if they’re feeling exuberant, “you are super weird,” and sometimes by implication through widened eyes, raised eyebrows, nervous giggles, and/or quickly suppressed, incredulous smirks. So, what makes me weird, you wonder? Well, I (gasp) […]
Abuse Your Muse
They will not force us…They will not control us…Rise up and take the power back! How many of you have read Northern Lights? (that’s The Golden Compass to you northamericaners.) Remember those animal daemons that followed the characters around? They were human souls made manifest. I sometimes picture our Muses in a similar fashion, except […]
Con Season Thoughts
As I’m preparing for SDCC and WorldCon and PAX and the eventual WFC, I see common themes emerging from each of these, with respect to my pretending-to-be-a-writer thing I gots going on. So, I decided to consolidate those things in a post here. This isn’t an all-encompassing list, but just a list of things I […]
Guest Post: Surviving A Critique Without Killing Yourself, Or Even Other People, by Ferrett Steinmetz
In the past three years, Ferrett Steinmetz became bishopual, and became revitalized. In June of 2008, he went to the the Clarion Writers’ Workshop, and then Viable Paradise in 2009 – and they supercharged him, allowing him to publish seventeen stories since then. (It should be noted that in twenty years’ of effort before that, […]
Aspiration to Perspiration: Making Time to Write
One of the most common complaints from aspiring writers is that they “don’t have time to write.†It’s true that life has a way of filling up your time with things both mundane and important. Your job is stressful and you’re working lots of OT. Kids. Family obligations. Opportunities to see friends you haven’t seen […]
Famously Rejected
As writers we spend a lot of time doubting ourselves. Are we talented enough? Is this idea terrible? Will everyone hate it? Would a publisher ever want it? That’s before we even send it out. Then the question becomes, how many rejections can I take? I thought my background of competing* and getting up on […]