Archive for the 'About Writing' Category
Starry Heaven Post 1: Fire over Flagstaff
I am in Flagstaff. Arizona, at the Starry Heaven writer’s workshop. That means there are 11 of us critiquing each other’s novel manuscripts. We’ve spend months prepping, and it’s quite fun to meet in person. I knew two of the people from before, and had met a few of the others in passing. Some are [...]
Pardon my Absence
I have been quieter than usual in the Interwebs the past few weeks. All is not well. To be more exact, my youngest brother is not well. He’s gone and gotten a fairly rare and difficult cancer, which has provided me with time with him (yay!), sadness that he is doing as well as I [...]
Reading Recommendations: The Freelancer’s Survival Guide
I highly recommend Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s online work-in-progress, “The Freelancer’s Survival Guide.” I am quoted in it. I have learned from it. I have learned from Kris in other ways. And to top it off, Kris is a damned fine novelist as well as being one of the best sf short fiction writers of our [...]
The iPad: After Week Two
This is just a quick update, and then I’ll do my next iPad piece in John DeNardo’s Mind Meld on the topic next week, returning this blog to it’s regularly scheduled programming. I still love the iPad. Promised experiment on reading: Not as good as the Kindle, but it is readable. Hint: turn down the [...]
Arundhati Roy: The Woman of True Words
Arundhati Roy came to Seattle last night and spoke to a sold-out crowd at Town Hall. The rest of my family stayed home in an odd resonance: the family teenager was putting the finishing touches on a school project about Gandhi. If they don’t yet, schoolchildren will be studying Arundhati. For those who don’t yet [...]
Rainforest Writers, Day 2
We had a great talk by Susan Mathews on character and then another by James Van Pelt on endings. It’s fun to listen to writer’s teach – we all approach it so differently! And of course,being with sf writers, the afternoon walk was full of talk about the atmosphere and axial tilt and the Cambrian [...]
Rainforest Writers Workshop Day 1
I am on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State, and right at this moment I am in a dark bar with about a dozen writers. There are a handful of community people as well, and much chattering and laughter from both groups. This is the Rainforest Writer’s Village workshop, sponsored by Patrick Swenson of Fairwood [...]
Our Books Have Returned
And what a silly weekend it was. At least at the moment, my books are once again available at Amazon. They remain unavailable on the Kindle. I sell content. I like to call that content stories. In general, I don’t control availability or format or price. I want to wake up in a world where [...]
Writing in a Comfortable Place
In general, writing is pushing an edge for me – a new technology, a new type of character, an attempt at a new voice. But sometimes it’s more like a hot cocoa by the fire. I spent years grabbing the newest Mercedes Lackey books from the shelf as soon as they came out. When I [...]
Animal Stories
My futurismic column for this month deals with animal intelligence –it’s entitled “What are the Animals Becoming?” I just popped over to Nancy Kress’s blog to see how she’s doing, and it turns out she just blogged on the same topic (or at least mentioned the prevalence of stories about genetically altered animals in her [...]
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