Skyla Dawn Cameron's Blog

I haven't blogged anything since my last douche bag author rant, though I have a couple of other publishing-related posts in the words (which, if I can keep the swearing to a minimum, will go on the company blog rather than here).

Boyfriend and I were vacationing a bit...I was gone Saturday until Wednesday, and then Wed night I had the launch party for my new novel. Said party was great--a lot of people showed up and we actually all stayed an hour past the original time I had it set for. I ended

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Welcome to a new edition of HNTBADBA 101.

Warning: this column will regularly feature lots of profanity. So Sensitive Speshul Snowflakes can go elsewhere.

This week, we're going to talk about...douche bags who insult editors while their manuscripts are under consideration.

This may seem like a no-brainer. Why the hell would anyone insult an editor while their manuscript is under consideration (or while they THINK their manuscript is under consideration)? But it happens. A lot.

And not just from t

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I just posted something on the Mundania blog about author impatience, which you can read right here.

That post is specifically about authors sending things in books before they're ready, and it happens all too often.Read more

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First, head to Sarah-Jane's blog to see some of her favourite female artists: http://positivelyrandomandabsolutelyuseless.blogspot.com/2009/08/if-i-ra...

Then click "read more" for a few of mine...Read more

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I've been really good at keeping up a schedule...two hours of email in the morning, lunch, four to five hours of editing in the afternoon, then my stuff after dinner. But...last week just disappeared on me. I was going to start designating Friday as slush day (and I'll have to Mundania opens again), and I have a couple dozen final decisions to send out...but somehow the week just disappeared.

It would probably be different if I worked a normal job out of the home. But because I'm here, it's

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From quillsandzebras.

Fellow authors, spread the meme:

1. Write a blog post about ten ways you know a story was written by you.

2. Then comment on this post with the link to your post!

2a. Or just write your answers as comments, below. But that's less fun.

Like chain mail, but with blog posts. Easy as that.

My answers under the cut...Read more

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Today I posted my decision to semi-retire from serialing. It was going to be an essay, originally, on fan entitlement, but then it morphed into my announcement. The people who read it felt it sounded okay together, so I didn't split the huge thing.Read more

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Welcome to a new, belated edition of HNTBADBA 101! Usually it's biweekly and posted on Wednesday. It is now Friday (I think). It's a couple days late because I've had the week from hell, however I knew I couldn't wait until next Wednesday because then Julie Butcher (@jimsissy for Twitter peeps and you had BETTER be following her!) would be sad and not entertained. And I live to entertain people with publishing rants.

Warning: this column will regularly feature lots of profanity. So Sensitive

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I was babysitting this afternoon (with a vampire slayer in training, apparently) and we played Barbies. Now, I have lots of collector ones, so I showed her some of them--among my favourites I have are Romeo and Juliet dolls. She didn't know the story, so I gave her the gist of it, then we watched the part where Romeo & Juliet meet in the movie on YouTube. And then she asked if we could see them die, so we watched the end too.

Here is the gist of the story she created with the Barbies when she

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Okay, I know I've said I'm uncomfortable with giving writing advice. But I get a number of books in slush from kids. Like, sixteen to nineteen years old. And I cringe every time because I know a) I'm going to reject the book, and b) I do worry about crushing their dreams. I work with young writers--I like to encourage raw talent, so I do feel bad why I have to send them a form letter without any feedback.

Wait, how do I know I'm going to reject them, right?

Because as teenagers, our writing su

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