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The Wothwood Book Trailer is Here
I’m very excited to share the book trailer for Wothwood. It’s definitely a challenge to boil down the book in a short story, but I’m hoping to at least pique a little bit of interest. What to expect? Heroes, battles, revenge, strange lands and strange people. What might be unexpected? The monsters are beyond your garden variety fantasy. I joke, but it’s true: I’m allergic to dwarves and elves and orcs, so you won’t be seeing any of that sort of thing. You will also have a narrative dominated by two women. There’s a lot this novel has to say about masculinity in fantasy, but I’ll leave that to another post…
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Falling in love with the novella, and thoughts on story structure
Ever since I first put pen to paper, I’ve thought in novels. I never set out to write short stories. No, from the get-go, I wanted to produce mighty, expansive, world-sweeping novels. And for the majority of the last ten years, what you might consider my professional publishing career, novels have made up the bulk of my work, at least in term of time investment. The process has changed considerably, because my life has changed considerably. For the most I think I’ve figured it out. I thought I’d cracked the nut of novel production, and though it takes more time than it used to, the end product is considerably stronger. Then I…
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Introducing Wothwood, a Broken Cities Novella
I’m sick as a dog here, but a little good news goes a long way. Last summer, I was busy at work writing Wothwood, a weird fantasy novella for Falstaff Books. The idea came about in conversation with two members of my writing group (and dear friends) Jaym Gates and Michelle Muenzler. What about a shared world novella series? We liked the idea of “broken cities” — abandoned, forgotten, sundered cities — with a good dash of the Weird thrown in. Wothwood is the product of that idea. Michelle’s novella, The Hills of Meat, the Forest of Bone, just released last week. And while, on first glance, you’d think these novels couldn’t possibly…
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All I have is a voice
All I have is a voice To undo the folded lie, The romantic lie in the brain Of the sensual man-in-the-street And the lie of Authority Whose buildings grope the sky: There is no such thing as the State And no one exists alone; Hunger allows no choice To the citizen or the police; We must love one another or die. W.H. Auden September 1, 1939 (1939)
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I Wrote My Way Out Until I Couldn’t: A #HoldOnToTheLight Post
Let's get real about mental health.
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Work, Write: How to Nurture Your Writing and Still Get a Paycheck
Working is a reality in my life, and it will be for a very long time. I mean the 9-5 variety, specifically. There’s plenty of other work, too. But that’s the work that takes up the big bulk of my time and my brain. I’ve been working full time and writing for a long while, now. Before it was a traditional job, it was working retail and going to graduate school. Then it was freelancing and raising a baby. But regardless of what the job title was, the work was there. But so was the writing. I’ve written before about how you’ve got to change your process sometimes to make things…
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An Image Post
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry’s standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.
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October and Pomegranates
I am thinking of my dear Aunt C a great deal today. I wrote two poems about the pomegranates that grow at her house, and I'm sharing them while I ruminate on the beauty, and darkness, that we find in October, that most brilliant of months.
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Writing with Outlines and Making Room for Unexpected Monsters
Glassmere marks my second real foray into a planned novel. The outline isn’t terribly strict, and it’s always changing and morphing. But it’s like this bright backbone I’m building around. For a seasoned pantser, this is a huge departure. What I like most about the outline, though, is that it’s not as rigid as I thought it’d be. Sure, there are some writers who do a far more strict version than I do, where every scene and beat is painstakingly draw out in detail. Others use a detailed synopsis. Just different strokes, y’know? But for me, having this backbone means that, even in times of crunch (which, let’s be honest,…
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Moving My Brain and My Stories, Too
Now that the office is finally set up in the new house, writing has begun again on Glassmere. Frustrating to take a break from something I’m enjoying so much, but there’re lessons to be learned there, too. The older I get, the more I realize that writing is… well, it’s about the writing. The other extraneous chaff is part of it (the publishing, reception, etc.) — but on the most simple level, the most selfish level, I suppose, there is just the writing. And me. And I need it, and it makes me who I am. And I’m getting better at it every time I sit down to write because that’s…
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Do You Want to be my Alpha Reader?
If you follow me on social media, or anywhere really, you’ll note that I’m currently writing a magical realism novel called Glassmere. The elevator pitch is that it’s Downton Abbey meets Narnia. It’s set in the spring and summer 1914, and is the story of two generations of sisters (Eleanor and Julia who are in their late teens, and Alice and Lucy who are in their late seventies) and their connection to a place called the Other Country. If you want an aesthetic feel, my Pinterest board on the subject is quite comprehensive. Typically when I’m writing it’s behind very closed doors. Once the whole thing is written, taken apart, put…
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Eating Authors over at Lawrence M. Shoen’s Blog
With a whirlwind trip to California (that included the worst airline experience to date, thanks United Airlines!) and the snowpocalypse in NC, I totally forgot to share this bit! I met Lawrence at Illogicon last year, and through the magic of Tsu (really, this isn’t a joke) he asked me to write for his blog series Eating Authors. Pretty much up my alley, as you might expect. (And oh yeah, you might have noticed Mr. Shoen was just nominated for a Nebula. Pretty darn sweet! Also thrilled to see Jeff Vandermeer’s Annihilation up, as well, one of the best books I’ve read in… um, a long, long time.) I talk about my…
