Now that I have your attention (ahem) …
This third creativity exercise is one I often do in workshop format at conventions. It requires that you first dig up some objects. Just plain old mundane things. Go into your kitchen and grab stuff out of a drawer—garlic press, mandolin, lemon juicer, tea ball. Or try your [...]
(Picture of Odontodactylus scyllarus, from here.)
Popkes’ third rule: If under examination it appears simple, you probably haven’t examined it closely enough.
Corollary to Popkes’ third rule: If under examination it appears that something is too complex to understand, you certainly haven’t examined it closely enough.
Ursula LeGuin has said that the writer’s job is to “put into words what cannot be put into words.” Writers of fiction—mainstream, horror, magic realism and fantasy as well as science fiction—have cheerfully (or not so cheerfully) accepted this job for uncounted centuries.
What sort of things are we trying to put into words?
In the classic [...]
We’re in the middle of a revolution, and everybody knows it. The maturing of an infrastructure to support electronic books is changing the delivery and exchange of information and entertainment. Again.
Now, I’m not pretending that I know how this will shake out, but inspired by well, the fact that I’ve been directly involved in bringing [...]
As someone who spent many years filling slushpiles and was, indeed, discovered in one, I like to keep abreast of slushpile innovations.
One such innovation is slushpile self-selection.
The traditional method of sifting slush is in-house – a job usually handed out to a junior because it’s time consuming and occasionally injurious to mental well being. Why? [...]
First off, ignore the generic space-adventure cover. Yes, this novel by astrophysicist Alastair Reynolds takes place (partly) in space, and yes, it is packed with adventure, but the illo conveys nothing of the immensity of the universe. The “sense of wonder,” not only of vast distances and cultural diversities but of time itself reminded me [...]
Brainstorm is an accurate description of what happens to an author when an idea strikes. The mind whirls furiously, new thoughts compound and spiral out of control.
Then the itch in the fingers begins as phrases and sentences demand to transfer to computer screen or blank paper, or restarunt napkin, even the probverbial matchbook cover.
This is [...]
I’m booking a tour for our holostar, see, and I’m deeply involved in looking at the layers and layers of solar systems, worlds and space lanes in the GFFA. Alderaan is a central and civilized Core world, so is Corellia, where my hero is from. But out beyond the Core and the Colonies, where would [...]
The teaser for this week’s blog asked: What if your hero needs a dog?
For a writer of Star Wars novels, this is a legitimate concern: I might find myself writing something about Dash Rendar having a dog as a childhood pet only to remember that there are no dogs, as such, in the GFFA.
Award-winning SF author Nisi Shawl discusses transracial writing (authors who write characters of races other than their own) on SFWA’s web site, and she includes an extensive critique of the work of our own Sarah Zettel.
An excerpt:
“I’d never write about a person from a different ethnic background. The whole story would probably be full of [...]
Dragon Lords and Warrior Women
