Though it seems a bit . . . incestuous? . . . to be putting a link for a blog post in a blog post, I'm doing it anyway.  Hope this passes the internet censors ( Read more... )

Hmmmm.  I fell off the face of the Earth, so far as LiveJournal is concerned.  Probably because I got a rather horrendous cold just as March began.  In March, the local writers' group to which I belong decided to hold a novel-writing challenge similar to NaNoWriMo, because many of our members couldn't do it in November.  I was going to finish the ( Read more... )

I attended this panel on "Imposter Syndrome" because I have many of the problems discussed here.  It reminds me of an incident several years ago.  At one point in time, the convention committee of a local science fiction/fantasy convention voted to have some people get memberships free perpetually.  Since I've had a fair number of stories published ( Read more... )

I went to this panel mostly because I have a real interest in learning new tricks about publishing ebooks.  They had some good information, but I heard very little that was new to me.  With my own research and common sense I've done as much as anyone on the panel (and I have a captive cover artist, which is very useful).

9 February 2012, Life, the ( Read more... )

When I was a child, my dad would often read aloud to me at bedtime.  One book I remember him reading, although I remember almost nothing of the content of the book, is called Thunder Cave.  For several years, I've been searching the internet to see if I can find out anything about this book.  I've asked my dad about it, but he doesn't know what ( Read more... )

I'm going to post my very lengthy notes from the panels and presentations at Life, the Universe, and Everything Science Fiction and Fantasy (LTU&E) Symposium 30 here.  There were a great number of excellent presentations this year, and I took copious notes (27 pages on Friday alone), so I figured I'd share the interesting facts, insights, and ( Read more... )

At one point in my life, I worked as a secretary in a university departmental office.  One of my duties was to proofread and (to some extent) edit papers, exams, etc. that the professors wrote.  I'm fairly good at this, so that was no problem.  However, once a professor sent me a paper he'd been working on, asking me to look it over.  I did so, ( Read more... )

My writers' critique group has several favorite "writing exercises."  One is Headlines, which I won't describe here, but may in a later blog post.  Another is something we call, simply, "Story."  This is a game I learned decades ago, at a small SCA revel at someone's house.  "Story" is, I think, our favorite writing exercise, but we don't play it ( Read more... )

I've been writing fiction since I was a child.  I've been in writers' critique groups for over twenty years.  Yet still, after all that time, I all too often pass out a manuscript that has, instead of a title, "Title (Yes, I Need One)."

One would think that a person who has been writing fiction, has completed a fair number of short stories and ( Read more... )

As if you couldn't tell from my screen name, I like cats.  We have several . . . okay, many . . . cats in our household.  Usually the office, where all the computers live, is off limits to the cats.  But occasionally they come in, to sit and purr on a lap, or generally be adorable.  Several of them have become convinced that they are entitled to be ( Read more... )