Writing
Dealing with Rejection
Another requested topic! If there’s one thing a writer does more than write, it’s get rejected! … I really wish it were the other way around… Anyway, it can be hard to tell by looking at me now, when I Read more
Blathering
Is Star Wars Science Fiction?
*cracks knuckles* Challenge accepted, Carlos Arturo Serrano. Short answer: Yes. Wait wait, put down the pitchforks! You know I started out answering this, “No.” Back in the 1980s, flipping through my pack of Star Wars Bubblegum cards, hoping to find Read more
project
Das Nibelun-gown
Now mark ye what I say. Silks I have myself; see ye that men do bring us jewels upon their shields and thus we’ll work the clothes. – Das Nibelungenlied This is a story that starts in 2010. I was Read more
project
The Dreaded Self-Promotion
So there I was, in the middle of teaching a class on selling short stories, and on my “post sale” slide I included “announce sale on social media after contract is signed” and “post again when the story is live, Read more
Writing
It’s Not Romance I Dislike
blog topic suggested by Nyla Bright. “Everyone says the writing in romance novels is bad but in my experience it’s no worse than a lot of genre fiction. The people it bothers the most are those not engaged— Or better Read more
Life
My Love Affair With Radishes
My mom always had a garden. Her mom always had a garden before her, and for a time they were one in the same, as we lived with my grandparents. I have fond memories of snapping peas with grandma on Read more
Writing
The Snap of a Purse – Crafting the Perfect Ending
That endings should be “surprising yet inevitable” has been often quoted writing advice (some attribute it to Flannery O’Connor, but I cannot verify that.) My friend and fellow science fiction writer Charles Oberndorf – a more accessible source – said to Read more