This year’s biggest accomplishment may be that I found a job. A 9-5 gig. After 14 years away from the “salaried workforce” (it isn’t like I haven’t been working for all those years, just that I was freelancing). There were persuasive economic and personal reasons to do this (and to the person in my social circle who seemed to believe that by taking a job I was somehow either betraying My Art or giving in to The Man–chill. Really). And in fact I can confidently say, after four whole days… Read more Balance, Juggling, Life →
I had a perfectly splendid time last weekend, making cake for Tachyon Publication’s 16th birthday party (it was a Sweet Sixteen cake. With a rhinoceros. In a tiara) and attending the party. And as a nice add-on, I wound up getting to hang out with writers Nancy Kress, Jack Skillingstead, Pat Murphy, and Ellen Klages, all of whom are really smart people, funny, and know lots of stuff. At dinner, apropos of something or other, Nancy said despairingly that in her writing classes she often had students who want to… Read more It Must Follow, as the Night the Day →
I am just back from Renovation, this year’s World Science Fiction Convention. It was a perfectly excellent six days; I saw people I don’t see often enough; met people I hadn’t known before; got to do improv (at 11pm, when by rights my brain should not have been working–but panic and good improv-mates pulled me through). I was on two panels, had a kaffeesklatch, and did a reading from The Sleeping Partner. Also ate a lot of good food, talked about long and deep about writing, publishing, and the state… Read more We are the World(con) →
There are all sorts of promises a storyteller can make to her audience, but one of the cardinal ones is, I think, “I won’t come between you and the entertainment.” By which I mean, during a dramatic moment I won’t break the tension with silliness; I won’t ask you to believe six impossible things before you know who the characters are; I won’t present my story as intelligent and undercut it with dumb; I won’t drag you through fascinating-to-me-alone arcana and forget where I was going in telling the tale.… Read more Goodwill, The Story Needs It →
I did not post on Monday because I was in Massachusetts, at Readercon, which was just splendid. What is a Readercon, some might ask? It’s an annual convention of readers… Read more Conventional Wisdom →
Oscar Wilde said “a poet can survive everything but a missprint.” I suspect that that’s a slight overstatement. And yet, there’s no denying that a typo can really mess with… Read more →
Some days I swear that, writing-wise, I’m like Bart Simpson* muttering “can’t sleep clowns will eat me.” Except, of course, I substitute write for sleep. Why will the clowns eat me? The temptation to be really really glib here is almost overpowering, but I’m going to try to play this one straight. I’m trying to finish three short stories and start a new book. I know what all four works are about; what I don’t exactly have a handle on is some of the events in those stories. This is… Read more 600 Miles Through Rough Country →
My friend Janni Simner wrote a great piece last week on finding the writing process that works for you. Go read it. No, really. It’s terrific. I’ll just wait here. I am one of those neurotic folks who thinks that everyone else was issued a full set of instructions at birth. For everything–friendship, clothes, housekeeping, parenting, business. Mostly I’ve learned to background that assumption, or even forget it for long periods of time. (I am always convinced that people I think are cool must have homes that are tidier… Read more Ur Doing it Rite →