project
Das Nibelun-gown
Now mark ye what I say. Silks I have myself; see ye that men do bring us jewels upon their shields and thus we’ll work the clothes. – Das Nibelungenlied This is a story that starts in 2010. I was Read more…
project
The Dreaded Self-Promotion
So there I was, in the middle of teaching a class on selling short stories, and on my “post sale” slide I included “announce sale on social media after contract is signed” and “post again when the story is live, Read more…
Writing
It’s Not Romance I Dislike
blog topic suggested by Nyla Bright. “Everyone says the writing in romance novels is bad but in my experience it’s no worse than a lot of genre fiction. The people it bothers the most are those not engaged— Or better Read more…
Life
My Love Affair With Radishes
My mom always had a garden. Her mom always had a garden before her, and for a time they were one in the same, as we lived with my grandparents. I have fond memories of snapping peas with grandma on Read more…
Writing
The Snap of a Purse – Crafting the Perfect Ending
That endings should be “surprising yet inevitable” has been often quoted writing advice (some attribute it to Flannery O’Connor, but I cannot verify that.) My friend and fellow science fiction writer Charles Oberndorf – a more accessible source – said to Read more…
Blathering
Fonts: a rant
Blog topic suggested by Zac Crofford. This isn’t entirely a rant. An anti-rant? This is a happy rant. I frickin’ love fonts, and I love when I open a book and the typeface is pleasing to my eyes. Unlike many Read more…
Writing
Oh My Gort, Stop Doing This
Expletives are a shorthand for emotion, and modern American speech is peppered with them. I tried to remove “god” from my vocabulary a few years ago, since, as an atheist, I felt I was being disingenuous. I started saying “Gort” Read more…