What is True
I’m linking this to Neil Gaiman’s commencement speech at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. It’s brilliant. It’s inspiring. And as I’m working on this revision, it reminds me what the writing is and should be about. Today, I…
How a book is born
This is an infographic on how a book is born. Beverage warning.
Ready, set, action!
I’m working on the new first chapter for Blood Winter. One of the issues is how fast to get into the action. It used to be that you could get into action after a few pages or even a chapter.…
The end is nigh
Tomorrow is the end of the semester. Well, except for Saturday’s graduation and the two theses I have to read and hand back to students for revision. They are a bit (a lot) last minute, so I’ll be spending some…
and the cold came back
We’re under a winter storm watch. Again. I don’t think we’ll actually get snow, but it had to come the night before the girlie’s birthday party. To which people have still not RSVPed, so I don’t even know if anyone…
mythical birds
I spent some of yesterday and today researching mythical birds. I have this scene in mind where they do an Alfred Hitchcockian sort of attack on *name redacted*. I have this picture in one book of the perfect birds. But…
The beat goes on
Today I’ve been trying to think up magical problems. Specifically, really big magical problems. And I’d be more specific, but that would mean spoilers. The problem is thinking up the right magical problem for the characters and situation and that…
Murder board
As I mentioned previously, I’m working on doing some replotting Blood Winter. Well, not all of it needs to be replotted, though the back half is going to change according to how the front half changes. Yeah, I like to…
Plotting
Some of you will remember that I have a big whiteboard that I use for keeping track of characters, making notes, plotting, and whatever I happen to need in terms of writing. It’s freestanding and I can flip it over…
Curiosity and writing
First, the curiosity. From my site stats, i can tell that a fair number of people have downloaded my dissertation. I’d love to hear from some of them and find out what you’re using it for, or what brought you…