Sep 12

“I have learned how I work best, and that is something that, if you’re going to be a professional writer, you should…

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“I have learned how I work best, and that is something that, if you’re going to be a professional writer, you should be noticing: under what circumstances you work at your best, and to not get yourself cornered into writing in a way that doesn’t let you do your best.”

– Ursula K. Le Guin

Originally shared by Self-Rescuing Princess Society

This interview with Ursula K. Le Guin is so fantastic, as one would expect.

I love this response to why she enjoys getting fan mail from 8 year olds: “Well, they tell me how I should have finished the books or what the next Catwings book ought to be or something like that. They have no inhibitions. It’s cool. If I got that from a grown-up, I wouldn’t think it was so cool. I’d say, “Write your own book!” But somebody 8 years old, they identify so passionately with what they read. You can tell. They really are into it.”

http://www.interviewmagazine.com/culture/ursula-k-le-guin?utm_content=bufferb7bd5&utm_medium=social&utm_source=plus.google.com&utm_campaign=buffer
Sep 11

I currently have two fictional settings in development along these lines (by which I mean I may get round to writing…

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I currently have two fictional settings in development along these lines (by which I mean I may get round to writing stories in them someday, and am having fun playing with the ideas).

One is a supers setting, in which a rogue scientist has used the CRISPR/CAS9 gene-modifying technique in scientifically (more-or-less) credible ways to create babies with superpowers. She’s discovered and shut down, but now the government has these babies. They can’t just kill them, and… it would be kind of a waste. How about raising them to be loyal?

No way that could go wrong.

The other setting is a mid-future one, where the answer to “should we do these things?” has become “no” in a post-capitalist society that’s turned away from constant change in favour of the New Stability. Before they reached that point, though, there was a lot of biotinkering, and the results are still around. People just don’t think about them much (like we don’t think about the social and technological changes brought about by industrialism, because we grew up with them).

Originally shared by Eduardo Suastegui

We Can Edit Genomes, Create Synthetic Life, and Remake the World. But Should We?

http://www.popsci.com/we-can-edit-genomes-create-synthetic-life-and-remake-world-but-should-we

Sep 10

This article makes a good point, also relevant to fiction: offering a limited range of experiences excludes both…

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This article makes a good point, also relevant to fiction: offering a limited range of experiences excludes both creators and consumers.

I personally love the Portal games, but there haven’t been any other major games like them.

Originally shared by Derrick “Quite Clever” Sanders

This. This right here. Yes, yes, yes.

Karen Price Lex Larson Donna Buckles Kimberly Chapman 

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/sep/10/video-games-diversity-problem-runs-deeper-than-race-gender

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/sep/10/video-games-diversity-problem-runs-deeper-than-race-gender
Sep 05

I’ve been a loyal listener to Len Edgerly’s Kindle Chronicles podcast for a while.

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I’ve been a loyal listener to Len Edgerly’s Kindle Chronicles podcast for a while. He’s an excellent interviewer, and I had a lot of fun as his guest.

We talked about The Well-Presented Manuscript, and other topics including fantasy fiction (which isn’t one of the genres he’s read). I’m not sure what did and didn’t make the final edit–haven’t had a chance to listen yet–but I’m sure he made me sound more coherent than I felt.

Originally shared by Len Edgerly

My interview guest this week is a Kiwi author irritated enough by errors in eBooks to publish a guide to avoiding them. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B010RJOAYA/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B010RJOAYA&linkCode=as2&tag=httpthekicom-20&linkId=JVZSG4RFK7K7ZAN7

http://www.thekindlechronicles.com/2015/09/04/tkc-370-mike-reeves-mcmillan/

Sep 04

K Tempest Bradford has written an interesting piece on i09.

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Originally shared by John Ward

K Tempest Bradford has written an interesting piece on i09. It’s more than an article. It’s a manifesto, a call to action, and something I think everyone who enjoys short fiction should consider.

Currently, she is using her quarterly column on i09 to highlight the best short fiction that she has read during that quarter, but she has bigger dreams. She dreams of a site dedicated to chronicling short fiction and allowing signed-in users to rate and discuss the merits of the various stories submitted to the site. Kind of like a Goodreads for short stories and novellas.

This seems like a brilliant idea to me. She’s hesitant to jump into it because of concerns about funding. I’m not sure how much money something like this would cost, but I hope someone is able to make it happen. 

I believe short fiction is experiencing a bit of a re-birth due to e-books. It would be great if there was an easier way to find the really good stuff.

What do you folks think? Any interest in something like this?

http://io9.com/io9-newsstand-has-one-last-thing-to-say-about-the-hugo-1728796923

Aug 18

It’s right there on the cover: “The sequel to the award-winning…” That’s a challenge for the author.

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It’s right there on the cover: “The sequel to the award-winning…” That’s a challenge for the author. How do you do a Book 2 that won’t be a disappointment after Book 1 won every award going?

I think Ann Leckie rose to that challenge and wrote an immaculate book with a great deal of depth, though I did feel that clearer story stakes would have made it more gripping. 

Full review behind the link.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show?id=1333985133

Aug 06

Indispensable Writing Books: The Well-Presented Manuscript

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Indispensable Writing Books: The Well-Presented Manuscript

I recently donated a large box of writing books to the library, including my copy of The Elements of Style. I’d owned it for a long time and had never found it useful for what I actually needed in my writing. 

Enter Mike Reeves-McMillan’s new book, The Well-Presented Manuscript. I was offered a copy in exchange for an honest review, and decided it was worth checking out. I wasn’t quite sure what I was going to get with this book.  I know Mike here on Google+ and he is a prolific writer whose stories and books are both traditionally and independently published. He also used to be a professional copy editor. I figured he knew his stuff about getting editors and agents to take a look at your work.

This book is part formatting guide and part grammar guide. In fact, you could use it as a checklist while preparing your book or story. Did I format my manuscript correctly? Have I made any of these common grammar mistakes?

I confess that the grammar guide made my eyes glaze over. There were a few rules I still couldn’t understand, even after Mike’s introduction and excellent examples. There’s a reason I hire a professional editor (the fantastic Karen Conlin) for my work. However, I found the sections on adjectives and adverbs quite informative, and the long list of homonym errors was incredibly helpful.

I hope Mike will put this out in a hardcover version. A reference like this would be very handy to have on the writing shelves, and it’s one, unlike Elements of Style, that I’d actually look through when I needed the help.

Available on Amazon: http://amzn.to/1IKMrHK

#indispensablewritingbooks   #grammar