Today’s post can be found at http://magicalwords.net, the group blog on the business and craft of writing fantasy that I maintain with fellow authors Faith Hunter, Misty Massey, Mindy Klasky, John Hartness, Kalayna Price, and James Tuck, among others. The post is called “On Creativity: Narrative, Fiction, and Life” It is a special post, written on ( Read more... )

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My younger daughter, who is in seventh grade, is playing middle school volleyball this year.  She is quite an athlete.  She's a truly gifted swimmer, and has been playing soccer since she was four years old.  But this is the first year she has played volleyball, and frankly I didn't know what to expect.  I played volleyball in high school; I always ( Read more... )

So I'm having a great time at Marcon. I've gotten to spend time with Faith Hunter and Lucienne Diver, I've met some terrific people, and had a few fun and interesting panels. But I have to admit that I have one strong regret about being here instead of at home. My wife and daughters got to see Alison Krauss and Union Station tonight in ( Read more... )

Long day. Ended better than it started, even with the Stanford Women getting beaten. But a long, long day. Parenting is hard. That's really all I have to say. Parenting is really, really hard. It's the most rewarding thing I do, but it takes the most energy, the most attention, the most emotion.

Long day.

So I missed a day of blogging, which might not seem that unusual because I don't post something here every day. But between this blog and the D.B. Jackson blog I had managed to post at least something each day of the year. Until Sunday. I was doing the single parenting thing (Nancy is on a work trip), and had managed to write a Magical Words ( Read more... )

Our eleven day, three state, nine college tour is over, and my daughter and I are back home with Mom and little sister. We had a terrific week and a half: few disagreements, nothing that could be considered a fight, and more laughs and giggles and candid conversations than I can count. We enjoyed a few wonderful meals, took in the sights and ( Read more... )

Two more schools today -- Duke and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  We also drove around the Davidson campus this evening, though our tour and information session there aren't until tomorrow morning.

Duke's campus is beautiful, probably the most beautiful that we've seen on this trip.  And UNC's campus buzzes with energy; you can tell ( Read more... )

We spent yesterday tromping around Washington, taking in sights and NOT visiting any schools.  Today we got back "to work."  We visited Georgetown this morning and were both quite impressed.  My daughter had been predisposed to love it -- Georgetown has been sort of her ideal for some time.  On paper, it's a perfect match for her.  And she loved ( Read more... )

In no particular order ( Read more... )