S.J. Reisner's Blog, page 81
October 5, 2011
Real Women Have Curves
I've always been curvy. Even when I was in my late teens and could easily get my tiny 5'2″ ass into a size 3/6 (I needed a six for the top – big chested) I was considered curvy. As I got older and the metabolism slowed I reminded myself that I've always been curvy. I am short. I am stocky. I've got hips. I've got breasts. It's what nature gave me and I've never been upset about it. After all, there are women out there who pay good money for what mother nature gave me naturally (i.e...
October 4, 2011
In Support of Writer Beware
Writer Beware is basically a website ran by a few ladies in the SFWA who "out" scammers in the literary world. See, the problem seems to be that there are a lot of scams for authors out there. These scammers figure that people are so desperate to be published they'll pay out the nose to get it, especially after all traditional venues have rejected them. Sadly – they're right. A lot of would-be-authors do fall for these scams.
So basically Victoria Strauss and Ann Crispin look into these scams ...
October 3, 2011
Over-Committed?
So over the weekend I actually contemplated if maybe I had too much on my plate. After all, I have 14 projects in the works not including 4-5 others. The beauty of having so many projects going at once is that I'm never at a loss for something to work on. If one project isn't speaking to me, another one surely will. This means I never have writers block. I don't have time for that.
A friend of mine recently asked if I was worried about having so many things going on that I never finish...
October 2, 2011
Divination
Yes, I'm on a roll. It seems I have a lot to say this weekend, all of it just opinionated blathering. No one is required to agree, listen, or even respond.
So I was talking to another member of GD recently and we were discussing people who won't even wipe their ass without consulting a divination device. Okay – that's an exaggeration, but there really are folks out there who literally become addicted to, or dependent on, their divination devices for even the simplest things. There are even...
October 1, 2011
Initiation
Initiation is an interesting topic. In a lot of groups the process of initiation itself is somehow a way for the group to either pass on their magickal power to the initiate or for the group to help the initiate tap the raw magickal current running through everything by giving them some special key, power, or authority that comes from the group itself. I have a somewhat different perspective of all this even though I came out of an initiatory tradition.
See, my problem with the above is that i...
September 30, 2011
Conversations With Friends
Have you ever just found yourself in one of those bizarre conversations with someone else that if anyone else was listening in (and they didn't know you) it would all sound very scandalous? A recent conversation with a girlfriend went something like this… (conversation printed with permission)…
Me: So I told you about my new project?
S: Uh huh. Hey, D wants to know how you got the wrappy stuff on the bottle.
Me: Wrappy stuff?
S: Yeah, like the plastic on the lid. It even had a perforation to...
September 29, 2011
New Covers
Loving some of the new cover art coming through on some of the new books. Yeah, over on the Upcoming Releases page you'll see my "place holder" covers. Some of them are not the covers that will actually be on the actual book(s). Cover art is one of those things that the smaller houses tend to play with until the last minute anyway, or until the author loves one of them so much that it's just not changing. There are a few of my upcoming covers I'm already in love with. Thirteen Covens has a g...
September 28, 2011
Where is Into Darkness?
It was bound to happen sooner or later. Someone was going to ask me where the latest OTS mystery is. Well, it's been delayed. It seems one of my editors on the project has had a backlog at her day job (yep - a lot of small press editors have day jobs, too) and hasn't been able to get to it. And the backup editor was in the midst of moving. Not to mention I am stuck on the last half of the book. It's missing some pivotal pizazz. I started this story loving it, and I'm just not in love with...
September 26, 2011
She Walks Among You
It seems that while some projects seem to be languishing, others are swelling to fruition. Four weeks ago, Kim over at Darkerwood suggested something for my most current esoteric project. I really wrestled with this one. I told myself I wouldn't do it. Then I thought about it and convinced myself (after a lot of prodding from both Kim and other friends) this book was actually worthy of such showcasing, and then finally - I agreed to it. I'm still uneasy about the idea, but perhaps it's...
September 25, 2011
Twist It, Bend It, Tie It in a Bow
Genre bending is an interesting thing. Ever notice how some of the most popular movies all contain elements of action, drama, romance, comedy, and sometimes even fantasy or science fiction? Look at Harry Potter, for example. It's part fantasy, urban fantasy, coming-of-age, contemporary magic realism, drama, with bits of comedy here and there? That's because stories are about characters. And let's face it – characters aren't always genre specific. You may have a crime solving heroine thrust...
