You might wonder why I spend so much time going to science fiction conventions. Is it really worth the entrance fee, the driving, the exhaustion, to talk about science fiction all weekend long with various fellow-nerds? I mean… YES. But Read more…
I never imagined being this old. Does anyone? Let’s take a retrospective through the Big birthdays: When I turned 20 I was a sophomore in college and depressed. I had failed, utterly, to enjoy my teenaged years properly, I was Read more…
Blog topic suggested by Ticana Zhu When we talk about “Killing your darlings” in fiction, what we mean is realizing that a particular phrase, paragraph, or scene is not, in fact, working with the story, no matter how much you Read more…
“How do you get it all done?” someone asked me recently, and she wasn’t the first. “I want to see your daily routine, learn your secrets.” I gape around my messy desk, my ever-increasing to-do list, and marvel. Every day, Read more…
We have a salad vending machine at work. It was the cause of some excitement. “It’s like magic!” a co-worker said. “Robots making salad!” Except, every morning, a cafeteria worker was dicing up the ingredients to the machine’s specifications, and Read more…
There’s a instinct in us as new writers, to tell the story completely. To tie up all the loose ends, say, or to make sure we describe not just how the characters get from the house to the restaurant, but Read more…
When I was packing for the Clarion Writing Workshop in 2013, I picked a book to bring. I knew that, even with as busy I would be, I’d want a nice long one to last the six weeks, so I Read more…