Writing
Knit Three, Save Four
I was interviewed by F&SF’s blog about my story in their latest issue, which is fortunate, because I forgot to write a blog post this week. I’ma steal it here, but here is the link to their site. What was Read more
Blathering
Halloween
I really, really love Halloween. As a kid who didn’t get to eat much candy the rest of the year, it was like… hedonism itself. I would panic and fuss about costumes, and made myself some pretty terrible ones. Yes, Read more
Writing
How Much Science is Too Much
So you’re writing hard science fiction. You’ve spent a week researching the thermal control systems on space stations for a scene where you need a time-dependent problem for the heroes to fix. The problem is, you’ve got like an 80-page Read more
Writing
Unhappy Little Accidents
When I was starting out as a short story writer –and for longer after I started than I am proud to admit– I thought my stories should grow organically as I wrote them, that they should be spontaneous things unexpected Read more
Blathering
Confidence
Playing sports taught me that if you don’t have confidence in your ability to do a thing, you won’t succeed at it. You have to believe you’ll catch the ball, bring the runner to the ground, or land your sword Read more
Writing
The Dreary Dominance of Everyman
When I started writing fiction, and thought of my potential audience, I knew who I wanted to appeal to: Everyone. Well, okay, that’s impossible, but I had this idea there was a sort of mass of “normal” people out there Read more
project
Main Character Genders
I was commenting to a fellow-writer that, in the slush piles I read, lately female main characters outnumber male main characters so much that the males stand out more and might have an unfair advantage because I find them refreshing Read more