From a recent discussion on my Facebook status (prompted by yet a thousandth semi-stranger sending me a crass self-request to "Like" them, or their professional/fan page), it is important to underscore why I am so PASSIONATE about promotion METHODS, as opposed to being in any way against promotion itself (ridiculous! I love and support promotion by ( Read more... )

So, you hate gratuitous sex?

Well, aberwyn has just coined a great term, "gratuitous danger."

Here's my response to that post, slightly tweaked, below...

What a great post and a great term, "gratuitous danger." I absolutely hate it even more than gratuitous anything else. Gratuitous danger is what makes idiot plots.... The number one culprit ( Read more... )

. . .

I am interviewed over at The Qwillery.

I talk about publishing, about language and the peculiar process of writing for a speaker of many languages, about Jane Austen mash-ups, about Norilana Books and what's ahead...

Lots of good stuff...

Enjoy! :-)

I have been, upon occasion, described as writing purple proseAs someone whose native linguistic mindset was formed by the Russian language first before any other, and whose reading was shaped by old literature, I used to find it curious, but understandable -- cognitive and linguistic differences abound between various languages and evolving eras of ( Read more... )

She's back, and blogging again!

Writer Lisa Silverthorne was one of the earliest adopters of the online journaling form, but in the last 5 years she has been offline for some time due to various life and family issues... but now she's back! YES! :-)

Go say "re-hi" to Lisa!

And this is the secret one true reason why we become publishers.

Your happiness certainly made my day, Kathy Hurley!

*beaming*

Via time_shark, here is a bit of truly excellent and very specific advice from bestselling author Maggie Stiefvater on how to write a novel, aka The Giant Butt-Kicking How to Write a Novel Post.

Seriously good advice. All true.

Go read.

(Simultaneously posting this starter post here and on Facebook and on SFF Net, so everyone can reply wherever they prefer.)

Still on the mainstream novel track -- quick question to all: what's your LEAST favorite story/plot that you can remember reading in a mainstream novel?

What were the specific details that you truly HATED about it?... Minor

Recently Zette Gifford (lazette) asked me and a whole bunch of other writers about how we get story ideas and how we determine they are viable story material.

Here is the resulting interview over at Vision.

There are two types of stories facing those of us who write: stories that we ourselves want to read, and stories that we feel a need to write because of something deep and primeval inside us. The former are usually more entertaining and have the wider popular appeal for the reader, and are often the ones for which the writer is known and ( Read more... )