In my old college notebook from 1994, I found an outline for a story called “Divine Tragedy” which was about a woman named Diana who suddenly has people worshiping her. She doesn’t know why. She gets investigated by the IRS because people are sending her money asking for intervention and Read more…
I applied to do a “Big Idea” blog post on John Scalzi’s blog for The Gods Awoke ,as I did for Galactic Hellcats. Well, I didn’t get it, but this is what I would have posted. If gods were real, could you believe? Should you? The Big Idea in The Read more…
In October of 2012, I got my first pro-rate acceptance. I waited breathlessly to be able to announce it to the world once I’d signed a contract. That day never came. The magazine folded, and I received a kill payment for the story from their bankruptcy. Did I wonder if, Read more…
A friend complimented my novelette “We Built This City” and I told her, “It started in a Literary Cleveland class – when was that?” So I went to my journals to find out – and it actually started long before the class! And it’s a long, long journey: January 1, Read more…
In 2001, I saw the movie “AI” which was about a robot that was designed to fall in love with a human. The little robot boy bonds to his “mother” and then goes on an adventure which includes a magnificent Jude Law as a gigolo robot and… that’s not the 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 chose The Heptaméron of Marguerite of Navarre which I had 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 love it. You have to cut it for the good Read more…