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Here’s an excerpt from an interview with me that’s up today over at Scribophile, an online critiquing and hanging-with-writers community.
Scribophile: In general, how much research do you do for your novels? Does it take place before you sit down and write the thing, or do you work on both tasks at the same time? And how can you tell when you’ve ( Read more... ) -
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For a week I've been flailing around with the current chapter of Sorrow's Knot ( Read more... ) -
On the edge, part two
Well, I did it. I tore apart the chapter I was talking about yesterday and put it back together again. And then - then I wrote the new ending for it. The one which brings the characters to the edge of escape, but fails to let one of them out. I finished it about 12:00, and spent the remaining half hour in my office shaking and crying. You ( Read more... ) -
On the edge
Today saw me back my writing office after a four day weekend. I've not gotten much work done since the beginning of April, which is a long stretch when deadlines are near.
But the thing is ... I tried to write this last chapter. I gave myself a nice pause and a couple of thinky days before tackling it, plotting how I was going to help the characters ( Read more... ) -
Read these now
I don't often talk about the books I'm reading on my blog, but I've recently read two books that are about to make their North American debuts, and I would love to see both of them reach lots of readers, because they are both fabulous. I thought: it would not hurt to do my part.
The first is Zoe Marriott's Shadows On The Moon, which a high-concept ( Read more... ) -
On Endings ....
I was just talking to a writer friend about how we want our scenes, our chapters, our stories as a whole, to be a little more jagged and gangly, with bits sticking out that don't quite fit. Neatness is often seductive -- you feel it's "right" if it all fits together -- but it is a small thing, and a false one.
The friend I was talking to was ( Read more... ) -
An open letter to Mr. Joel "Adults Should Read Adult Books" Stein
In response to this piece in the New York Times -- a particularly fun addition to a growing list of major newspaper pieces by people who don't read young adult fiction but publicly disparage it anyway.
Dear Mr. Stein,
You're a humorist, yes? Your books (and possibly this column) are meant to be funny? That's just ducky: good for you!
I don't ( Read more... ) -
When not writing is the best writing you can do....
Yesterday I did a great deal of awesome writing, bringing my characters to a climax/crisis/realization/high-point thingy. (This is the technical term.) Today I put almost no words on paper.
I'm not stuck. I think I know what happens next, in broad strokes (which is more than I knew yesterday at this time), but I felt a resistant to writing it. I ( Read more... ) -
.But with dragons
(originally posted at erinbow.com. Gonna try to do a better job with my mirroring.)
Check out this Adam Gopnik piece from the New Yorker on why young people like fantasy novels. For a change, it’s NOT insulting to youth or to fantasy. (Much.)
I’m not sure I agree with everything - though it’s always hard not to agree with Gopnik; he’s such a good ( Read more... ) -
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(originally posted at erinbow.com)
Readers, I have been shopping.
Under the influence of my visiting (and very stylish) mother, I bought not one but two Serious Frocks.
One is a little black dress - not what I was shopping for, but so smashing, and I got the most amazing turquoise and gunmetal earrings to go with it. The other is a wrap dress in ( Read more... )