Joely Sue Burkhart's Blog, page 89

Coyote Con Live

The website is live and we've also got a tentative schedule.  I'm so thrilled that Lynn Viehl, aka Paperback Writer, will be taking questions from the SF/SFR panel and blogging her answers later in the month!  Also Heather Massey and Nathalie Gray will be talking about Steampunk!  woot!

It's going to be such a great month!

I turned in the blurb sheet for Victor tonight and finished a late critique.  All the MayNoWriMo and Coyote Con stuff has totally derailed me — so it's a good thing I took...

MayNoWriMo Guests, Sponsors, Virtual Con

Take a look at the MayNoWriMo page to see the terrific prizes and guest authors who'll be writing articles of inspiration for us all month. 

We're also working out the details for a virtual con hosted by Drollerie Press at the same time.  We'll have live panels in the chat room on topics ranging from worldbuilding to character develop to transformative sex scenes.  Once we finalize the schedule, I'll link to that information.   If you're interested in leading a panel for the virtual con...

Interview with Alissa Davis

If you're curious about the Carina Press editors, then head on over to the blog.  I interviewed my editor, Alissa Davis, here — and other authors are interviewing their editors too.  Of course we're asking each of them what else they'd like to see for Carina!

Hidden Object Games

As part of my "vacation" I've been playing a bunch of computer games, mostly hidden object games from Big Fish Games.  I love being able to try the game for an hour and decide if I want to buy it or not.  It's usually pretty obvious within the first few minutes of a game if it's "for me" or not.

Sounds familiar, I bet.  Agents/editors know within a page or two if the project is right for them.

There are tons of hidden object games out there, but there's only a handful that I'm going to be...

Weekend in Review

Now that spring is here, it seems like we're "springing"  too.  Saturday, we'd made plans to take Uncle J (That Man's younger brother) and Aunt BB to my family's favorite Mexican place.  We've been eating at this place ever since I can remember.  It was our reward place after going to the dentist.  Anytime we had to drive north to Kansas City (even last year as we were driving to a funeral) we made plans to stop for lunch or dinner at this restaurant, El Sambre's in Clinton, MO.

My sister is a...

Friday Snippet: The Bloodgate Guardian

Since I'm not writing new material this month and June is not that far away, I decided to start teasing you with snippets of The Bloodgate Guardian, coming this June from Carina Press. 

You've been seeing bits of this story under several different names for quite some time.  The original first draft was my first NaNoWriMo project in 2007, then titled Night Sun Rising.  Over a year went by before I got around to the first round of Revision Xibalba.  I spent a lot of time expanding the book...

Inspiration: Movie Review

One of the things I've been trying to do is watch more old Westerns.  That Man enjoys watching them (much more than something like Star Trek, although he's watched several with me), but mostly because I was so impressed with Firefly.  I know it's basically an Space Opera Western, and I loved how familiar it made the world feel despite the science fiction.

That's one thing I think I need to work on.  I can worldbuild all day long and I love it, but I don't think my worlds are always...

Guilt and Ulterior Motive

First, I want to get something off my chest.  I hate feeling guilty.  I especially hate making MYSELF feel guilty over something that's stupid.

I'm talking about Vicki.  I was really making myself feel guilty because I wasn't getting the progress that I wanted.  Any other month (e.g. look back at May, Nov, and Dec. last year) I could have written 50K no problemo.  Way back in 2007, I wrote 50K in 11 days. 

I used to worry about never finishing a book (I'm glad the 2005 archives are gone!!) but ...

Writing Cycles

This is something I've been thinking about off and on for years, and the past few weeks have made me think about it again. 

I've talked before about the writer's journey — how each day can begin with a call to adventure, is fraught with peril, and yes, most of the time, requires passage through the Inner Cave. 

But there's another cycle I'm thinking about now, more like a life cycle, specifically for a computer program (my Evil Day job).  There are stages of coding, just as there are stages of ...

Interview at Book Lovers Inc

I was thrilled to be interviewed by The Geeky Booklover over at Book Lovers Inc.  If you're wondering why letters played such a big part in Conn's and Rae's story, then hop on over for a chance to win a signed print copy of Dear Sir, I'm Yours!