Blog topic suggested by CuMhara O’Holyhead I remember as a new writer being afraid of using character archetypes. I mean not just stereotypes, but the wider, gentler tropes. The typical whatever. Hard Boiled Detective, Sexy Cat Burglar, Laconic Wise Man, Sassy Friend. I spent a lot of time coming up Read more
Blog topic suggested by Zac Crofford. This isn’t entirely a rant. An anti-rant? This is a happy rant. I frickin’ love fonts, and I love when I open a book and the typeface is pleasing to my eyes. Unlike many of my colleagues, I am not pained by the existence Read more
Blog topic suggested by Nyla Bright. Recursive title is recursive! This year, I took on an adjunct teaching position, for fun and profit. Okay, also to get grad school credit toward a degree so people will consider hiring me to teach more. It’s my “active retirement” plan. Some people dream Read more
*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 a Leia, one of my fellow-urchins would scratch her ankle Read more
Topic suggested by Tod Detre Many fiction writers assume they’ll be a good dungeon master. “That adventure we just played had such a simple plot! An old man sends us into an abandoned labyrinth for a lost gem? Where’s the twist? I can do muuuch better.” I was one such Read more
Blog post idea suggested by Steven Doyle She shrugged, modestly, and we marveled at a list of random things. “An old man with a toothache, daughter and son argue about lemons, sisters lost in a department store.” It was a warm day toward the end of the semester. The classroom Read more
Blog post topic suggested by Shelli Snyder A fun way to make your science fiction future world feel aged-into is to include skills your characters have that they can’t use anymore. Maureen McHugh once confessed to me that she was a wizard at hand-focusing microscopes. With an elegant twirl of Read more