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Monthly Archives: October 2018
Catherynne M. Valente’s Space Opera
It is difficult to describe how Catherynne M. Valente’s new book Space Opera manages to be so wonderfully resonant of Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy yet so insistently, inimitably her own. And yet, that’s the challenge. Valente’s … Continue reading
Recent New Processes and the Results: How I’m Managing 5k Words a Day
I came back from PNWA this year inspired by talking to Chris Fox, author of 5,000 Words an Hour, and adopted a new writing process, which has several parts. I want to emphasize that I’m pretty sure this is not … Continue reading
Posted in Writing
Tagged motivation, productivity, writing lots of words, writing with scrivener
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Writing Steampunk That’s More Than A Glint Of Gears: Resources for Finding the Other In Steampunk and Weird Western
One of my projects this year has been fleshing out the on-demand version of the live class I teach, “Hex Engines & Spell-Slingers: Writing Steampunk and Weird Western.” I recently finished up the project and wanted to share some of … Continue reading
An Armload of Fur and Leaves
In the last year or so, I found a genre that hadn’t previously been on my radar, but which I really enjoy: furry fiction. Kyell Gold had put up his novel Black Angel on the SFWA member forums, where members … Continue reading
Posted in blogging, Writing, you should read this
Tagged blog post, books, reading, writing
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Stonewall Kitchen Dark Chocolate Chili Cinnamon and Nibs Bar
I’ve never reviewed a chocolate bar before and I will, furthermore, confess a shameful love for plain Hershey’s bars that dates back to the time my grandmother was first left with me unattended and violated my mother’s up-to-that-point successful “no … Continue reading
Guest Post: To France and Beyond
I was one of the very few kids who were able to graduate early from high school. Very few high schools in Minnesota had been doing this during my last year of school. My school, a fairly large school in … Continue reading
Where I’ll Be: OryCon 40
Here’s my schedule! If you want to meet up, please talk to me about it BEFORE the con; by the time the convention rolls around, I am always booked pretty solidly. Sat Nov 10 10:00:am Kaffeeklatche Nightclub Have a morning … Continue reading
Posted in conventions
Tagged conventions, genre conventions, science fiction conventions, sfwa. readings
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Guest Post: Brian McNett Serves Up Colorful Purple Wheat Noodles
A bit of a preamble. I often say things which are completely true, only to be confronted by people who flat out claim that I’m only making it up. That I *must* be making it up. There’s no way the … Continue reading
Posted in guest post
Tagged grocery shopping, guest post, purple wheat noodles, recipe
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On Writing: Chekhov’s Gun Store
One of playwright Anton Chekhov’s most quoted maxims is this: If in Act I you have a pistol hanging on the wall, then it must fire in the last act. If you establish an expectation in the reader, particularly a … Continue reading
Posted in Writing
Tagged anton chekhov, chekhov's gun, james tiptree jr, plotting, the women men don't see, writing endings
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Guest Post: Diane Morrison Discusses Crowdpublishing
Everyone says that indie publishing is the wave of the future. Avoiding gatekeepers, who are often prejudiced against particular ideas or demographics, and putting your work out there to see if it will sink or swim on its own, puts … Continue reading
