Less than a week ago, I *finally* finished the first draft of my first complete novel. I’m still feeling a bit ecstatic and can’t quite believe it’s actually done–sort of like I felt those first few weeks of 2009 every time I heard the words “President Obama.” Clocking in at 466 pages (128,000 words), it’s … More First draft of novel complete! How does this revision thing work?
I’m writing in Brisbane, Australia, for my “Australia tour” in the lead-up to World Con next week. Been visiting the fabulous Peter Ball and the inimitable Chris Lynch, hatching ideas for gonzo stories about puppet occupations and were-raves and the like. Can’t wait to be reunited with more Clarion South-mates in just a few short days! Just … More World Con Countdown Plus Queer Spec Fic!
In emulation of the inimitable Christopher Green, I thought I’d post some stats on how I did toward my writing goals in 2009. I sent out 27 submissions this year. Pretty modest compared to Mr. Green’s 75, but a personal best for me. (In previous years I sent out no more than 20 subs.) The … More 2009 How it Went
OK, so I just finished reading Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None and it made me oh-so-angry. (In case either of the two other people who still haven’t read this 100-million-copy-selling book happen to be reading, I’ll try to leave this spoiler free.) Simply put, no writer should be allowed to get away with writing a … More Agatha Christie Oh How You Make Me Angry
Just finished Sabriel by Garth Nix. I’ve read a lot of good young adult fantasy in the past year or so, but this is definitely one of the best. The story follows Sabriel, the young daughter of the Abhorsen, a special kind of wizard who makes sure that the dead stay dead. Sabriel has grown … More Garth Nix is the Master
Just finished The Girl in the Flammable Skirt, a short story collection by Aimee Bender, one of my favorite writers. She mostly writes surrealist, magic realist, and just plain weird stories, but due to the mysteries of bookstore shelving you can usually find her under (plain old) fiction instead of fantasy & science fiction. Among her many talents is her knack for … More Brilliant First Lines from Aimee Bender
There are some cool folks at the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) who have been working hard to make the organization more relevant and visible. Up until recently, SFWA’s website looked a bit like a time-traveling refugee from the early 1990s. But now they’ve upgraded by a couple of decades with an attractive, … More SFWA’s new look
One of my current reading projects is to explore more mysteries. Every good story has a bit of mystery in it, after all, and the murder whodunnit is sort of the ultimate, pure unadulterated form of the mystery. So I started by checking out Agatha Christie, who many tell me is the master, and read Murder at the … More Learning Mystery from Miss Marple
Saw District 9 the other day and I think I liked it. It’s one of those movies that takes a while to sink in, that requires some marinating before you can really be sure how it tastes. The clearly-cool thing about it is that it’s totally different from any SF movie ever made. It has … More Thoughts on District 9
Wrote another 700 words today, bringing the mini-writing marathon total up to 1,400 on Day 2. I had to spend a bunch of the day taking care of medical appointments and other errands, which slowed me down quite a bit. At some point I’ll need to make up a day’s worth of words, but that feels … More 700
Bread & Magic 