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‘Cause I’m Short On Time, I’m Lonely and I’m Too Tired to Talk
The above lyric is from Keane’s “Can’t Stop Now” and it’s apropos for more reasons other than I just like the song. Life, in short, these days, has been nothing short of OMGWTF. I really don’t want to go into the details, ’cause honestly, this blog ain’t that sort of thing. We’re okay. We’re managing. But I hadn’t been able to write a lick in the last almost three weeks due to the insanity of life as of late but… BUT! (Oh, shit, she’s whippin’ out the caps) I wrote last night and came close enough to the middle mark in the novel that I will call it 50% finished.…
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Jonathan Wood’s No Hero and Yesterday’s Hero are FREE at Wired!
Okay, so granted I had a little something to do with this. But seriously, folks. I’ve known Jonathan since, oh, 2008 or so. He was one of the first writers I “met” doing the spec fic thing through Twitter. We’ve been in a writers group since that time, and I’m consistently amazed by his imagination and writing skill. Not to mention he has a fantastic taste in video games, and we’ve got a shared appreciation for the magic of DragonAge and other epic fantasy RPGs. Also, he’s just a kind, sweet, often hilarious person. It doesn’t hurt that’s he’s also English. 😉 Anyway, a few months ago we serialized his…
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Pilgrim of the Sky available for pre-order!
That’s right! Pilgrim of the Sky is available for pre-order over at Kickstarter. The pre-order bundles come with a variety of exclusives, from eBooks to audiobooks to lovely hardcover versions! Technically, we’ve already hit our goal (we did it in two hours! wow!) but these exclusives are only available here. From the project listing: It’s time to get ready for the print run of Pilgrim of the Sky by Natania Barron, the world-hopping, semi-steampunk multiverse odyssey that Cherie Priest calls “… a lush, dreamy fable – both vintage gothic, and modern mystery … lovingly laced with magic and darkness from start to finish.” Pre-ordering today will help us finance the print run, and in…
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Picture yourself on a boat on a river…
I’m not terribly with it at the moment, but things are improving. Quite obviously I made it through the surgery, and after reacting horrifically to the anesthesia (I think I was actually throwing up before I woke up) I went home. For the time being I’m staying with my parents, and trying to rest. Really most of my day revolves around sleep. But hey, the body heals best in that state, so there you go. Right now it’s a matter of mitigating pain, which is, at times, pretty astonishingly intense. Yay for drugs. Other than that, I’m trying to catch up on some movies I haven’t seen in a while,…
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Take a load off, Fannie.
I’ve gone back and forth whether or not to post about this at length, considering it’s a personal issue. But at this point I figure there’s no harm being candid, and I don’t want people thinking there’s something terminal going on with me. Plus, I figured if you’ve me me or seen most pictures of me, you’d probably figure this out sooner or later. In short, I was really looking forward to 2010 since 2009 really sucked. I mean, my sister had cancer and we lost our house that year. I figured there was nowhere to go but up. But things didn’t go so well. I mentioned being diagnosed with…
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Arthur Re(du)x – Part One
I can’t say for sure, but I think the first time I ever saw something remotely Pre-Raphaelite was in elementary school upon visiting the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, MA. It very well could have been this painting, though I’m not sure when it was acquired. Regardless, I remember returning from the museum on an absolute high, my mind alive with the images I’d seen and thrilling at the prospect of such visual imagination. Throughout college, I learned a great deal more about the Pre-Raphaelites, and they and their brotherhood (and sisterhood, et al) continued to crop up during my Arthurian studies. And the more I read of Arthur, the…
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Outer Alliance Pride Day Post
As a member of the Outer Alliance, I advocate for queer speculative fiction and those who create, publish and support it, whatever their sexual orientation and gender identity. I make sure this is reflected in my actions and my work. Today is Outer Alliance Pride Day! Roughly (only!) two weeks ago, I posted about starting a group like this. Before I knew it, a remarkable group of people had banded together to form a true alliance of writers in the speculative fiction community dedicated to supporting (and celebrating!) queer contributions in a positive way. That, my friends, is what the Internet is for. I identify as straight, but, from a…
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The not so secret secret to writing a book.
About two and a half years ago, I saw an Oprah special on the Secret. Wait! Don’t go away. I know it’s bullshit, but bear with me a second here. I promise I’m not going to go all hormonal on you. So, I watched the episode. I was home with a baby, and contemplating Existence and Everything. I had yet to finish my MA, just a thesis away, and wasn’t sure if I should go on with a PhD in English, didn’t know if I should go into freelancing, had no idea what the future held. I knew one thing: I wanted to be a writer. But, on the whole,…
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Crowded house: writing a party
Nah, not the kind with ale and food and wenches, though that happens from time to time. More like a party of people. At the moment I’m struggling with some of my chapters, as there are just too many damned people there all the time. Up until this point most of what I’ve written has been fairly straight-forward, with a handful of people doing fairly straight-forward things. Two, maybe three people in conversation, nice tight little story arcs… It was particularly comfortable in The Aldersgate because, well, every chapter was a new point of view, and helped me keep things neat and in a row. Now, in Peter of Windbourne,…
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Ten Things I Want to See More of in Fantasy Literature
Consider this a call for suggestions. While I do my best to catch up on reading, covering both classics and new material, I can’t be everywhere at once. And between my own writing and editing I don’t have a lot of time to scour the internet… So: ten things I’d like to see more of in fantasy literature (some I’ve already mentioned but hey, if they’re still irking me, they’re worth mentioning again!). Gender bending. Why not? If I read one more fantasy novel with a deviant/evil homosexual character I might actually light it on fire. I mean, come on people. Fantasy is the most forgiving of all genres, and…
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Textual nightmares: or, some ways you can not suck at editing by learning from my mistakes
Writing novels is not my problem. My output has only improved in the last few years, and I’ve finally moved beyond the whining about not having time, or making every excuse in the world not to write stage. Those were big hurdles for me, and I’m proud of the accomplishment. I generally make my 1K goal every day, with a few exceptions, and I love telling the stories. So what’s the problem, right? Unfortunately, what’s resulted is lots of first drafts, and not completed novels. As a writer who fumbles around in the dark putting pieces together, this is truly problematic as editing, the next step in the process, just…
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Falling apart at the seems: learning to write what you mean
Writing can be a never-ending process. I mean, theoretically, one could edit and re-edit until the very end, and still not be happy with the result (just ask Walt Whitman). It’s the nature of the beast. Words are malleable, changeable; they have multi-meanings, connotation, irony. You spend too much time fretting about words, and no matter how many drafts you complete, you may never have it ready. The key is to not get overwhelmed, and to have an approach. It’s always worth taking some time to weed out the big offenders, words that, if given too much leeway in the course of a novel can be absolutely poison to your…
