Recently a lawsuit about books (and movies) made the news, A woman named Ablene Cooper, who worked (and still works) as a maid for author Kathryn's Stockett's older brother, sued Stockett alledging that the character of Aibileen Clark in Stockett's bestselling novel The Help was based on her without her permission. The lawsuit was dismissed because ( Read more... )

Who needs to write blog posts when you can just post videos? But seriously folks, this short film illustrates beautifully the folly of relying on a plot device that is in no way intrinsic to the story you're telling. Just watch! If you don't laugh at some point, see your doctor right away; there may be something wrong with you.

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My poor husband did not know he had married a writer until it was too late.  That's because the disease was in remission until I was in my 40's.  Poor thing! He's coping pretty well.  Writers are, I have decided, not entirely normal. We take a lot of attention, for one thing ( Read more... )

I made it to the Nebulas! I have never been to a “Nebula Weekend” before. For a long time I thought you had to be in SFWA to go (you don't, except for the SFWA business meeting itself). And then the event was usually somewhere like New York where I would have to travel and (in the case of NYC) stay in a very expensive hotel. This year, however, the ( Read more... )

I must be getting old. Or maybe I have been writing for so long, it's hard to read for pure enjoyment. I just finished an excellent historical mystery. The characters were well drawn and historically accurate. The setting was well researched and well described. The mystery itself was intricate, and the writer played fair in giving enough ( Read more... )

In some ways, having an unpublished novel or short story is like being pregnant and never giving birth. If you think about it, until your work sees the light of day, you can keep changing it. But once it's published, it's done; it's out there for the world to see, and except for corrections made in later editions, it doesn't usually change ( Read more... )

Capclave is the annual DC-area science fiction and fantasy convention. The focus is on short fiction, although two out of three of this year's guests of honor work in both short and long fiction. The GoH's were Connie Willis and Ann and Jeff VanderMeer. Connie Willis has won awards for fiction in every length except maybe flash. And while Ann ( Read more... )

I am currently reading Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. I got it free from the Kindle store because it's being offered as a promotion. The book came out in 1991 and is the first of a series, so in that way it's typical of a lot of promotional (i.e., free or temporarily free) ebooks ( Read more... )

I don't mean boats or ships, or even space ships. I'm talking about the craft of writing. Sadly, a lot of folks in the US don't read books, but they're still exposed to writing, both good and bad. When you see a movie or sit down in front of the TV, chances are good you're listening to something someone wrote. With a few exceptions (e.g., un- ( Read more... )

I once heard a writer on a panel say, in all seriousness, “Why are people so sure they can sit down and write a book? You wouldn't expect to be able to do brain surgery the first time you tried it.” I like writers. I consider myself a writer, but I have to say writing is not brain surgery. For one thing, no one dies if you get it wrong. For ( Read more... )