Interested in getting a first professional sale (or snagging another)? Do you love animals--specifically cats and dogs? I have a friend seeking submissions for "an anthology of speculative stories about companion or service animals" with the profits going to an animal shelter. Newbies are more than welcome to submit, and I know I have quite a few ( Read more... )

Well, I got a shiny from sortinghatdrabs for the Ron/Pansy ficlet below ("by a landslide" the mods said):


( Read more... )

I really, really need to catch up on the sshg_exchange--of which I've read nothing yet. It's been that kind of week. But recently I had a convo where someone mentioned that they just hadn't read SSHG fics posted post-HBP that matched the old classics. That made me go hunting to make a list of all the epics in whatever archive that exist in the ship between the ( Read more... )

For those who are interested, I have a new SSHG story, “Ghostly Visitations”, up on clare009’s KIA Repository. I should warn people that 1) it’s a drabble series - not written as an integrated short story, so if you hate the form, you might want to skip it. 2) I don’t generally get my drabbles betaed. I might want to do so with this monster sometime, but ( Read more... )

For those who are actually still online and not hiding from spoilers, a friend sent me an interesting Snape article I thought I’d share-this one arguing Snape is neither good nor evil but just out for himself. A valid theory, even if not one I subscribe to:

Snape: Good or Evil?

And for Comma Nazis everywhere and those who love them.

The Sad Fate ( Read more... )

I've posted on the use of saidisms before, but for those who missed it, my post on it can be found here. Why am I bringing this up again? Because keket_amunet posted tangentally on the subject here and it caused a lively discussion I thought might be of interest if you want to hear both sides of this debate. (Though I remain on Keket's side on this one-as do ( Read more... )

I was reading a very interesting anthology edited by Gerald Gross entitled Editors on Editing and what struck me was how many of the precepts and wisdom contained within applied to betaing as well. So I thought I’d list what makes a good editor/beta according to the principles found there. Unless otherwise stated, all quotes are from that book.

( 1. Never paste over the author’s original )

Being a good beta is hard-it means being timely and upfront with your betees, willing to give tough love, to tell authors where you see problems without discouraging them, to help them make their story the best it can be without imposing your own vision on them ( Read more... )

argosy told me, “Hey, you know what it's about time for? A Harmony ‘On Writing’ post…” Like I’m a expert ::rolls eyes:: Nevertheless, for you ArgosySo, looking through that “SNW Manual” I gleaned of writing tips, I looked to see if there was anything not covered so far in my posts on craft, and these snippets are about an issue I’ve seen more than one ( Read more... )

By now anyone who follows my LJ has to know I like to read books on writing. I didn’t buy this one, but when while skimming I saw this list, I had to write it down and share ( Read more... )