Category: Uncategorized

These kinds of lists are important, because you tend to know about 9 out of 10 of the items on them, but there may be 1 important detail lurking in the background that you can benefit from. And when the topic is the soul-wrenching search for an agent, well, why…

It’s funny how deciding the name of a place or person can stop the novel-writing process in its tracks. Their name determines how the reader views them from the first page. You can’t very well have a hero running around with the name of Reginald Blooddrinker the Nasty, can you?…

I really think they could have figured out something more important to do with 800 lbs of bronze. And Is the economy so desperate that crooks have resorted to this? Actually… I think this is a better sign of how penny-pinching some people are getting, when they create their wedding…

Nathan Bransford, agent and blogger extraordinaire, has started a discussion on the concept of the plot, and the fact that many people, when trying to describe the plot of their novel, just end up describing the hook or the theme instead. What’s the difference? A hook is the unique part…

Marie Brennan gives her thoughts on the writer at play, talking about how her experiences with role-playing games, of the dice-rolling variety, have helped her improve as a writer. She says this is because those games force her to think on her feet, adapt to quick changes in a situation,…

Lucienne Diver, until recently an agent at Spectrum Literary Agency, and now part of The Knight Agency, has updated her list of Do’s and Don’ts for writing query letters. http://varkat.livejournal.com/21728.html A few points worth nothing:-Arrogance is a turn off. Do not suppose that your first novel will break all sales…

A while back, you may have seen my post about Afterworld, a science fiction project that combined online storytelling, CGI animation and an interactive website that furthered the characters and plot with a forum, virtual journal, and Wordwall. Well, the story has reached the end of its first season, with…

A little behind the curve of awareness, but I found this review by The Fix, a short fiction review site, that went over the Art Issue, where my story, Even Songbirds Are Kept in Cages was included. Here’s what they had to say about it. ““Even Songbirds Are Kept in…

This man is soon going to be mistaken for loose change. A real, live unicorn has been discovered in a nature preserve in Tuscany. And… This is one of those indicators that a game fad has gone too far. What will next weekend hold for us in the realm of…

This could be an interesting movie. The question with these book-to-movie adaptations is how much will they mangle the plot for the sake of cinema? How much will they pad the original story for drama and angst. Or will this be worth seeing? The plot of The Curious Case of…