In one of the most polarizing (series of) books I know, books which you either despise or passionately defend against all blasphemers, there is a character known as... Thomas Covenant. (yes, I see you all out there, alreasy bristling and taking your positions. But relax. In this instance, he just the lede, and an example ( Read more... )

One of the perennial questions posed to authors in many many many interviews - right up there with the fabled "Where do you get your ideas?" - is the variously phrased query as to just HOW an author goes about writing a book ( Read more... )

THere was this anthology, see, for which I tried to write a story ( Read more... )

I'm not entirely sure why I thought about this right now - certainly not in the throes of romantic heartbreak right now, anyway. But someone started talking about the songs of your life, and this one just swam into focus, sharply.

Click to view

I can remember walking out of the house of the man I had thought I would probably spend the rest of my life with, ( Read more... )

Wrestled with a (really good) chapter today, which I had the opportunity to read out loud to the writing group this afternoon. And realised something about this (otherwise very good) chapter ( Read more... )

Okay, inspired by several recent posts and links, I've decided to weigh in on the Matter Of Agents And Other Publishing Secrets.

First, a recap - ( Under cut, for length and repetitiveness - you've probably read this stuff before )

So. You've signed the contract, and the champagne flowed like a river. You knuckled under and wrote the book, and it was good, and you sat back and closed your eyes and thanked your muse. You sent the manuscript in, it got looked at, it got the "accepted" stamp on it. (You may even have received your on-acceptance check already, if you're lucky ( Read more... )

There's been another go-round on the subject of the Naming of Names on my home newsgroup recently. We hold to the "nine and sixty ways" rule in that place, which is a quote from Kipling: "There are nine and sixty ways/of constructing tribal lays/and every one of them is right" (or something close to that - I haven't gone on Google to dig up the ( Read more... )