I love the internet and the instant access to so much information that it provides. But when researching, there is nothing like standing on the 1 1/2 floor of the library stacks, with the weight of millions of books pressing on the air, floors and ceilings of concrete, metal stools, creaky old elevators, and the damp stench of mildew ( Read more... )

I have a lot of ambivalence towards outlines. I get optimistic. I always think that having an outline will be a great idea, will make me so much more efficient, help organize me, keep me on track, etc. However, most of the time, I don't think in terms of plot; in my mind, stories are always defined by their characters. Sadly, this means that I ( Read more... )

Here's what I like about having an outline:1) Comfort. If I forget what's supposed to happen next, it's right there in my outline ( Read more... )

Tessa has posted a great list of tips for con-going and I don't know that I can really add to it, so I'll talk a little about my experience at Conestoga in particular. In part because Tessa's list is dead-on, and in part because this is the only convention I've ever been to ( Read more... )

I went to Conestoga over the weekend, which is Sci-Fi/Fantasy convention, and pretty much all I did was attend panels on the Fangs, Fury, and Fey track. I picked up a bit of advice about writing, met several brilliant writers, and learned a lot about fandom ( Read more... )

I've got to give props to any author who has more than one book on the Most Challenged Children's Books list. I remember thinking, what on God's green earth is in James and the Giant Peach to get it censored?!? (I always forget about the Peachicide ( Read more... )

In her post, Tessa makes great points about cultural truth and the philosophy of information, and as she mentions, Stephen Colbert has raised legitimate and hysterically funny concerns about the truthiness of an encyclopedia that anyone can edit (as well as introducing the term Wikiality into the public vocabulary). His position on elephants ( Read more... )

I am an unabashed Wikipedia lover. Er, fan. I love it for practical and philosophical reasons ( Read more... )

The first step in writing a novel is one I sometimes never move beyond. When I discover an idea that reverberates around in my imagination so strongly that I experience that a-ha! novel! moment, I get out a notebook and pen. I carry a moleskin around with me, and sometimes a legal pad (depending on the size of my purse), and these notebooks are ( Read more... )