November is National Novel Writing Month. In case you are fortunate enough not to have heard of this phenomenon basically it is a pledge to finally sit down and write that novel you were always going to, all in one mad dash for one month. The official goal is to Read more…
A friend of mine was reminiscing about travel. “We didn’t travel much as a family, growing up,” he said. “We went once to California, once to Washington, once to Florida…” DUDE, I thought, you travelled a LOT. That’s three once-in-a-lifetime trips before you were an adult! I have never heard Read more…
Some of my most successful stories have been the easiest to write. “Butterflies on Barbed Wire” was practically a single draft and sold to like the third market I sent it to. Why? Well, it plays to my strengths – I wrote about characters I could relate to in situations Read more…
No, I don’t normally do movie reviews here. (I keep that on my Female Chauvinist Movie Reviews series on Livejournal.) However, this movie is consuming my brain and I feel like it is a very important case study in story telling, theme and plot. Blanket review above-the-spoilers: This movie, whenever Read more…
The Zerg were a race in a videogame whose main strength was cheap units (Zerglings) and their main strategy was to keep churning them out until you buried your enemies in Zerg. I kinda loved playing as the Zerg. NB: if you google ‘Zerg Swarm” you get an adorable Google Read more…
I started writing short science fiction with an eye for publication in the 1980s. I was sixteen and stupid to think I was ready, but that fact remains: I was an intensely serious writer of science fiction before 1990, as intensely serious as a teenager can be. My angst-filled teen Read more…
“Speaks backward, Yoda does!” was a quip I first heard from a friend my freshman year of college. I can still picture her delighted face and the pleased general agreement and quote-storm her comment brought. Since then, the joke would re-appear about once a year in my life until it Read more…