-
Get Fiction in Your Mailbox Each Month
Want access to a lively community of writers and readers, free writing classes, co-working sessions, special speakers, weekly writing games, random pictures and MORE for as little as $2? Check out Cat’s Patreon campaign.
Want to get some new fiction? Support my Patreon campaign.
This site is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
Monthly Archives: January 2014
You Should Read This: Turn Not Pale, Beloved Snail by Jacqueline Jackson
This may well be the first writing book I ever read. My grandmother met Jackson at a book festival and had her sign a copy for me. The inscription reads: Then turn not pale, beloved snail, but come and join the dance! Keep up your writing — you’re already choreographing the steps!” I have treasured this book for decades and it still, somewhat improbably, even retains its dust jacket.
Continue reading
You Should Read This: Miss Mole by E.H. Young
There are some books I go back to over and over again, and this is one of them, because I love the main character so much. Hannah Mole is engaging, delightful, and incredibly sympathetic. I originally found this book because it was a Virago Modern Classic, and it is, unfortunately, out of print nowadays. I sincerely hope it’s reissued sometime.
Continue reading
Posted in you should read this
Tagged e.h. young, hannah mole, miss mole, novels, radstowe, virago modern classics, you should read this
2 Comments
Platform Statement for SFWA Vice President
Well, the statement’s up in the SFWA forums, so I should probably put it here as well. I am running for SFWA VP. I think I can do a good job. Even if you’re not voting for me, please vote … Continue reading
Posted in SFWA
Tagged five ways to fall in love on planet porcelain, SFWA, vice president
10 Comments
On Writing: Collaboration And Its Perils
Collaborations can be a lot of fun. My first collaboration came about when Jeff VanderMeer asked if I’d be interested in working together on one and tossed me a 1500 word lump that would end up becoming “The Surgeon’s Tale.” That story remains among one of my favorite pieces of writing, in part because reading back through it evokes the pleasure of batting it back and forth, adding thousand or so word chunks each time, until it ended up in the land of the novelette. I think we managed to make the final result pretty seamless – I have trouble remembering who wrote some bits, although others stand out clearly in my head as Jeff’s or mine, because I remember first reading them or spinning them out.
Continue reading
Posted in Writing
Tagged ben burgis, bud sparhawk, collaboration, gio clairval, jeff vandermeer, writing F&SF
5 Comments
You Should Read This: The Forest of Forever by Thomas Burnett Swann
Here’s one of my favorite speculative fiction authors, and it was hard picking a reasonable book to represent him. I have a stack of his paperbacks, garnered over the years in used book stores and thrift shops, and they are some of the books I’ve held onto through any number of rigorous book purges.
The Forest of Forever, by Thomas Burnett Swann, was originally published in 1971. Many of Swann’s slim little volumes appeared during that decade, lovely retellings of Greco-Roman myths and alternate histories full of mythological creatures. Dryads, centaurs, minotaurs, and fauns fill the pages. Swann depicted same-sex relationships as a matter of fact in a way that nowadays seems well ahead of his time.
Continue reading
Posted in you should read this
Tagged fantasy novels, fiction, thomas burnett swann, you should read this
1 Comment
You Should Read This: About Writing by Samuel R. Delany
I can’t think of a better book to begin with than a writing book I go back to over and over again, both for teaching and to apply to my own writing. Be aware that many of these essays are also contained in The Jewel-Hinged Jaw.
Continue reading
You Should Read This: A New Blog Feature
One of my goals in 2014 is to be better about blogging. Towards that end, I’m implementing a daily post, “You Should Read This,” in which I’ll briefly describe a book that I recommend. The plan is to range around a bit, and include notable new fiction, some forgotten classics, some writing books, and some books that I just plain love.
In doing this, I’ve followed the classic quintet of questions: what, who, where, when and why (and sometimes how). I’ll try to keep those brief, to the point, and yet still entertaining.
Continue reading
Posted in you should read this
Tagged battles with chaos, reading list, suggested reading, you should read this
1 Comment
