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Judge a book by its title
Having somewhere around four titled works, I often feel like a total newbie. Hell, I feel like a total newbie most of the time with the whole publishing thing. I was once told I could sell anything, and that would help me in life, yet for the life of me I can’t figure out why trying to “sell” my own novel is like getting splinters shoved under my fingernails. Now that you have that image, let me get back to what I was talking about. We toil in the dark, writing our novels and minor opuses. We think we’re doing amazing things, powerful things, and maybe we are. But we’re…
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Reading writers of influence: the importance of reading and writing
If you don’t have the time to read, you don’t have the time or the tools to write. – Stephen King, On Writing I read Stephen King’s On Writing sometime around 2003 or so, before my husband and I were married. I was working at Starbucks, and getting ready to enter my MA program after having been wait listed for an MFA. At the time, I didn’t know what the hell I was doing with my life; I had relocated 800 miles south, was living in an old, drafty, flea-infested one-bedroom apartment in a crumbling Victorian, and I was adrift on the sea, as it were. I had about five…
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The Lady of the Lake is a blacksmith: an excerpt from Queen of None
From Queen of None. I wanted to find a spoiler-free section, but that’s almost impossible. But here’s a bit of description I rather liked, as Anna and Lanceloch (who have just been married…) approach the Lake, after Anna has struck a deal to visit her imprisoned Aunt Viviane. A note: this is not an attempt at a historical take (technically, this world is not our own). I decided, after consideration, to take Malory’s approach: tell a story with the threads that are there, but warp them as I like. From the dark sandy bank, I could just make out the island, a wisp of smoke rising from the center—a chimney,…
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I haven’t lost to February.
And February was so long that it lasted into March And found us walking a path alone together. You stopped and pointed and you said, “That’s a crocus,” And I said, “What’s a crocus?” and you said, “Its a flower,” I tried to remember, but I said, “Whats a flower?” You said, “I still love you.” – Dar Williams, “February” I usually hate February. I drown in this sunless, useless, brown month quicker than Jimmy Hoffa in concrete shoes. At least, up until this year, that’s how the game’s gone. While I’m sure it’s seasonal depression, I’ve never done much about it except get through it. And eat chocolate. That…
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Gender and fantasy: a missed opportunity
Because fantasy literature is derived from a mythological tradition steeped in masculine strength and honor, it is often cited as one of the worst offenses when it comes to gender biases. I mean, heck, you don’t have to look much further than SF/F aisle to know that boobs and bodices are really one of the hallmarks of the genre. I’ve talked about this at length before, from a feminist perspective, but the last few days I’ve been thinking about this in a much broader sense. I mean, it was hard enough for me as a woman to find characters to identify with in fantasy. By and large, even in adult…
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Up there.
There is a new banner up there. Yes, I tweaked the last one. I fell in love with this NASA shot of the Witch Head Nebula (I don’t think she looks like a witch, but hey… that’s just me). You’ll likely see some more, um, changes in the next few days. I like this format a whole lot better than the last, which was a little to “generic blog” for me. But when there’s tinkering there’s likely to be dust–so excuse the look of the place if it looks a little weird for a while.
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On a hobbity note.
Two days ago I clicked on one of agent Colleen Lindsay’s blog posts, mentioning opinions on Tolkien. I read, and ended up entrenched in a rather heated debate stemming from an essay by Richard K. Morgan. After two really long posts, and kind of working myself up about this, I came to a few conclusions. If you’ve read either of my blogs, you know I often cite Tolkien as an influence–lots of fantasy writers do that. It’s a common link for a lot of us, and I find that I climg more to the texts since the movies (not that I don’t love the movies). So, in a nutshell, here’s…
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Writing from where?
It used to be, at least in America, that writers often wrote from their heritage. If you were Irish, you tended to go that direction; if you were Jewish, that was important. And it made sense, especially in early 20th century America: everyone was struggling to define themselves as new, yet familiar. Hence, everyone is a (something)-American. What’s weird about me (and, I think, quite a few people of my generation) is that I have very little in the way of cultural identification. My mom grew up in Quebec, but she’s a mix of French, German, and First Nation (the Innu tribe). Most people think she’s Spanish, or Greek, or…
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Medieval and medievalesque armor @DRB
Medieval suits of armor. – Beautiful, beautiful! I have an unabashed love of suits of armor, which is helpful considering my current project is Arthurian. And although, as is pointed out in the comments, not every single one of these is authentic medieval, they are still one barrel of eye candy. The artistry, regardless of the provenance, is really astounding. What a fun thing to wake up to!
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Bookish personality
I’ve been making an attempt to read more. Our power went kaput yesterday, and without electricity, I picked up one of the books I received for Christmas, Emma Bull’s Territory. It had been suggested by a listener a few months ago, who said my style reminded her of Bull’s a bit. I didn’t realize how large of a compliment that was until I picked up and started reading. What strikes me about Bull is her ability to infuse the book with its own personality. It’s beyond narrative voice, something that Paul Jessup was talking about yesterday in his post about narrative urgency. It’s almost to the point where the book…
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Play it again, Frodo: why I love a remake
There are too many purists in the world. Too many folks who cling to original books, movies, songs, rallying for the acknowledgement that their beloved version is The Best That Ever Was. Hollywood is “out of ideas”, books are “recycled”. Like this is a bad thing? The thing is, we’re always telling the same story. It might be a different medium, the genders might be switched, the religions and locations different, but from the Dawn of Humanity, we’ve been obsessed with the same stories: stories of love, hate, revenge, honor, sacrifice. And quite often, we get it wrong the first time. And even more often, we get it worse the…
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Asus Eee PC review for writers
I’ve been contemplating a netbook for a while. For the last ten years I’ve been a Mac person, having gone through two iBooks and a MacBook, as well as an old iMac and a new iMac. After leaving my job as a copywriter, the MacBook started feeling a little too big for me. Aside from GarageBand, there’s nothing on it that requires much in the way of graphics or memory. I write, I surf the web, period. So when I saw an Asus Eee PC at Best Buy a few weeks ago for $199, I got very curious. I mean, for the price? That’s nuts. I fiddled with the model,…
