In a forum I'm on, we were talking about how story structures in other countries differ from US story structures. And they do. US audiences - whether the gatekeepers or the readers - do have specific ideas of what constitutes a good story in terms of characterization and story arc, and these are not always the same as those in other cultures ( Read more... )

Two panels I attended at Wiscon 38 were so closely related and important that I decided to merge my notes and put them all in a separate post. This is that post. First, the panel descriptions.

Reaching Readers: Best Practices for Writers. The panel description said: "Whether a writer is self-publishing ebooks, serializing fiction online, or ( Read more... )

Some months ago, a German editor asked for one of my stories to use in a teaching anthology for high-school students. He was interested in an international range, and selected "Lepers" from Big Pulp. That story is set in Bombay in the 1970s.

Bernd asked me to update the story; he thought his readers would be more interested in something contemporary ( Read more... )

( Read more... )

Some people advise beginning writers to move on from their "trunk stories" - those written long ago, lying unsold in metaphorically dusty files on your computer.  The Crap Fairies* have probably been at them like a horde of marauding moths. The old stories are obsolete, dead, journeyman exercises in the craft. Move on, the advice goes, to new ideas ( Read more... )

My story, The Man in the Blue Checked Loungyi, is up at Expanded Horizons. I'm really thrilled this one's been published.


( Read more... )

... at Cabinet des Fees!


( Read more... )

It's happened again! A novel I had the pleasure of beta-reading is in Print! I'm part of a terrific writing group, Written in Blood. Two members now have books out there. Janice Hardy's book, Shifter, came out in October 2009.


( Read more... )

The new year blogpost  by deliasherman inspired me to think about my own writing goals for 2010. Here they are:

1.  Polish up two YA novels, Tanuki and Treachery and The Twelve Impossible Tasks , and find the guts to find an agent.

2. If the non-fic book proposal goes through, write the book.

3. Decide whether I want to write another YA novel in the same world as ( Read more... )

Clarion Writers Workshop, that magical place, opened its admissions earlier this year. December 1. Today. (Actually, yesterday.)


( Read more... )