Tag Archives: editing

Guest Post: B. Morris Allen is 5×5

Posted on March 13, 2018 by Cat

5 stories, 5 times

Have you ever wondered how your favorite story would sound if written by another author? What is it exactly, that makes writers different? What does each one bring to the story they’re writing, in terms of style, mood, tone, etc? How would the story sound as written by someone else?

That’s what the Reading 5X5 anthology explores – twenty-five SFF writers writing five variants of five stories. I asked five groups of five authors to start from the same basic story brief, but write in their own way. The result is fascinating – five wildly different approaches to each of the five briefs, but each telling, at its core, the same story.
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Up to One’s Hips: Thoughts on Wading Through the Slushpile

Posted on March 6, 2018 by Cat

I just finished the first pass on the slushpile for If This Goes On. The anthology is intended to be half solicited manuscripts; half from the open call, and I’m happy to say that I don’t think it’s going to … Continue reading →

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What I’m Telling the Slush Readers for If This Goes On

Posted on January 8, 2018 by Cat

A week or so ago we had the orientation session for the slush readers. I gathered them by posting announcements in my newsletter and other social media, but I also tried to reach out to a range of people in … Continue reading →

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Yearly Recap Plus What’s Ahead in 2018

Posted on December 19, 2017 by Cat

Among the things I’ve done in 2017:

  • In writing, I did: the writing listed here and turned Hearts of Tabat into the publisher and started book #3, which I’ve got about 30k on so far. I didn’t publish any book-length work, but I’d had two in late 2016 (to the point where I was thinking one had come out this year) and will have at least two in 2018, so I guess it all evens out.
  • In skill acquisition, I added how to cook sous vide, coffee roasting, basic lockpicking and (even more basic) scuba to my overall character sheet. I also learned how to load and shoot a pistol, along with basic gun safety.
  • In fear conquering, I swam with sharks (twice) and took a self defense class.
  • In travel, I visited Orlando, New York City, Indianapolis, and Pocatello (ID) in the US and Dominical and surrounding areas in Costa Rica.

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For Writers: Re-visioning, Rewriting, and Other Forms of Fine-tuning Your Fiction

Posted on November 22, 2016 by Cat

As with all writing advice, mileage will vary according to the individual. The best thing as a writer that you can do is to pay attention to your own process and make it more effective. Experiment with lots of things, identify the practices that work, and incorporate them into your process. Keep experimenting, mixing things up a little, every once in a while, writing to the sound of whale songs, or dictating while hiking, or using a pen rather than the keyboard — it doesn’t matter what as long as you keep testing things in a way that lets you grow as a writer.
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Guest Post from Rhonda Eudaly: Writing Is Only Glamorous Until This Face Appears

Posted on March 5, 2015 by Cat Rambo

Note from Cat: today’s guest blog post comes from Rhonda Eudaly. It’s the latest installment in the cavalcade of content here celebrating the upcoming release of my first novel, Beasts of Tabat. I thought long and hard about what to … Continue reading →

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Some Slushpile Thoughts

Posted on April 2, 2014 by Cat

In reading for Women Destroy Fantasy, I’ve cleared about two hundred stories away so far, and there’s still about a hundred I have yet to read. Some amazing stuff, some familiar names, and all in all, a slush pile that is full enough of solid stories that I could fill several issues. It’s been a great pleasure to be elbow deep in so much excellence. So here’s a few notes on the experience so far.
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Women Destroying Fantasy: What I’ll Be Looking For

Posted on March 4, 2014 by Cat

I was just at a Kristine Rusch and Dean Wesley Smith workshop where people were using the idea of reader “cookies” and “anti-cookies”, things that delight or turn-off a specific editor, increasing or decreasing the appeal of a story when they’re considering it.

So I’ll be open to submissions from March 15 through March 31 for the Women Destroying Fantasy issue. Here are some of my wants and a couple of things that will turn me off.
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Editing: How “Near” Was Arranged and Why

Posted on December 10, 2012 by Cat

I blogged a couple of days ago about arranging stories and my philosophy for such arrangements. I wanted to show those principles in action by looking at the two ToCs for the book Near + Far.

As you may know, the book is divided into two parts, near future stories and far future stories. This allowed us to take advantage of the old Ace double format, where each half is one side of the book. It also meant creating two tables of contents, one for each section.

So here’s the order for the Near section, with some explication:
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If I did an editing class, what sorts of…

Posted on December 22, 2011 by Cat

If I did an editing class, what sorts of things would people want to know? Here's some things that occur to me, but I'd like to know what else would be useful. – How magazines work and what an editor … Continue reading →

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