Obviously, I have been ignoring LJ for a while. This is sad-making. The main reason is Dayjob, as it so often is. Pretty much I get home and the last thing I want to do is be on the internet. My writing computer is not hooked up to the net (yes, everything gets backed up by hand ( Read more... )

So this morning while brushing my teeth, I started thinking about what keeps me reading a book. I came up with three things, and then just now thought of a fourth ( Read more... )

Actual shopping for food and washing of clothing happened this weekend. I ate things that weren't entirely made of sugar, butter, flour, and eggs. (Though I had plenty of that, too.) I even ate a green vegetable. (Brussels sprouts, to be specific ( Read more... )

I'm typesetting a romantic urban fantasy. Or more accurately, a romance novel with an urban fantasy setting. There is a difference, defined as "the point of this novel to get the hero and heroine to a happy romantic conclusion in a particular setting" vs the point being to tell a story of what happens to these characters in this setting, with the ( Read more... )

Not doing it this year. It has been a very busy autumn for me, and getting busier by the minute right now.

Over on his blog, douglascohen asked why it's this inconvenient month (inconvenient in particular for Americans) instead of another one. He proposed January and March. I've always been in favor of January as a NaNo month ( Read more... )

Over at the SFWA blog, in the comments of this post someone says: The reason many are neglected is because they are not very good. As soon as someone parades Anne MacCaffrey as a good writer I just think of the huge gulf in standards in science fiction in general.

-->I've heard a lot of people bash Anne McCaffrey, but what I've never heard is why ( Read more... )

Dear Author,

I'm a little curious how many chapters you can open with the POV character thinking (in italics) "shit," followed by his name and an action.

Shit. John turned slowly.

Shit. John slid the folder into his desk.

Shit. John walked faster ( Read more... )

My characters should not be allowed to eat. I'm making chicken broth right now because they were eating mushrooms that were cooked in broth.

Though it works the other way, too. Along with the mushrooms, they had omelet for dinner because I have eggs in the house and have been eating them.

There were a number of good posts from writers in the blogosphere last week, so please forgive me not being able to keep track of who said what bit of brilliance ( Read more... )

Apparently the Brits will be issuing stamps of well-known fantasy characters of British origin ( Read more... )