No, I didn't flunk biology. I know very well that brain tissue and muscle tissue are two different things. But in a lot of ways, your brain is like a muscle in that you have to use it or it gets out of shape ( Read more... )

Obviously, tastes in literature change. You have only to pick up a novel by Dickens or Trollope or Thackeray to see that. Which is not to say that those writers aren't still being read. If the story and the characterizations are strong enough, a book can stay in print long after the author is dust in his or her grave. But that doesn't change the ( Read more... )

Surprise! A post that's not about technology ( Read more... )

A friend sent me a link to a post on the Guardian Book Blog that took an interesting perspective. Blogger Stuart Evers celebrated the value of bad books in illustrating "what fiction looks like when it's malfunctioning, when all its wiring is hanging out." He's careful to state that he's not talking about genre books that might be merely ( Read more... )

Shakespeare said "brevity is the soul of wit." In the modern age, miladyinsanity has said that she likes Twitter, because it forces people to come to the point. Hemingway was once challenged to write a story in six words. He came up with, "For sale: Baby shoes, never worn."

My Helpful Friend sent me a link to this site where people have posted one-sentence ( Read more... )

In the forums on the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award, page a lot of entrants who didn't make the cut are in a huff because CreateSpace already set up an account for every entrant, whether they wanted one or not. Since CreateSpace is a self-publishing outlet and a major sponsor of the cost of paying all those Amazon reviewers to read the excerpts, ( Read more... )

Two weekends + 8 days of annual leave + 2 holidays = 2 weeks of Christmas vacation!

Whoo hoo! 14 days without meetings, commuting, or getting up at 6:00 a.m. Add one daughter home from school, stir in a dash of family time with gainfully-employed son, and blend in husband coming home at 5:30.

And, I can write in daylight hours! What a concept!

Winter is the only temporally ambiguous season. All the months of spring, summer, and autumn fall within the same year. If you say the "summer of 2006" I know just when you mean. But if you say "the winter of 2007," do you mean this coming winter or the one that we were in last January ( Read more... )

I recently blogged on whether it was better to look for an agent first, or an editor. Unless you write short stories, I vote for the agent, but plenty of folks still want to go direct. And if you do write short stories, then of course you need to aim for the editor because agents don't generally handle short stories ( Read more... )

Writing a book is one thing. Getting it published is another. Unless you choose to self-publish, you have to sell the book to an editor. The question is, is it easier/better to persuade the editor to buy the book first, and then get an agent before you sign the deal, or is better to get the agent first, and let him/her sell the book for you ( Read more... )