Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff's Blog: #42 Pencil: A Writer's Life, the Universe, and Everything, page 106

Best of the Blog: It’s Not the Crime, It’s the Cover-up

Laura Anne Gilman worked as an editor at a major publishing company before chucking the day job to go in for full time writing. That gives her special insight into writer shortcomings. This popular post from 2010 deals with saying you can do things that you won’t be able to deliver.

Everyone has bad days, or weeks. Everyone agrees to things they can’t possibly manage, in the heat of excitement, or thinks something is doable and then runs hard up against the wall of time-management. It happens...

Another Trip, Another National Park

On my drive from Austin to Oakland in mid-July, I cut through Joshua Tree National Park in eastern California. I was planning to just cut through the park to give myself a more scenic trip, but I stopped at the Ranger Station and ended up spending several hours — not enough time to really get to know the place, but long enough to see a few sights. Above is a picture of a Joshua tree — an unusual form of yucca.

Here are some Cholla cacti, also a major feature of this park.

And, of course, there...

WWW Wednesday 7-31-2013

It’s WWW Wednesday. This meme is from shouldbereading.

I’m a slow reader and don’t have a lot of reading for myself time. I also have numerous books going at one time–a different one stashed by each sitting place. So I don’t do these often.

• What did you recently finish reading?

“The Last Lion” by William Manchester. This massive biography of Winston Churchill runs 1112 pages on my Nook. And this is Volume I. The last 80 pages are notes, bibliography and footnotes. Lots and lots of footnotes. T...

E is for Experiment

Welcome back to The Author’s Alphabet. You can read earlier posts here. Each week, I’ll be posting another letter of the alphabet, selecting a word that starts with that letter, and sharing my view of what that word means to me, as an author. Then, the fun begins — you get to comment, question, poke, prod, and otherwise get involved with the discussion.

E is for Experiment.

Authors develop reputations for writing specific types of books. Nora Roberts! (You know you’re getting a romance.) Stephe...

Editing vs Critiquing

Editor Jessica Faust at BookEnds Literary Agency blogged a few years ago on “How I Edit,” ending with these words:

As far as I’m concerned you can run with my suggestions or you can ignore them altogether and go off in your own way. I don’t care how you want to fix the problems I see, I just care that when I read it the next time those problems/my concerns are gone.

This inspired some thoughts on the differences between critiquing and editing. Both involve handing your precious manuscript, the...

BVC Announces The As You Wish Series by Mindy Klasky

The As You Wish Series, Vol. 1-3

by Mindy Klasky

This omnibus (“three-in-one”) edition includes the first three volumes of the series. The As You Wish Series shows what can go wrong when a magic lamp, a wish-granting genie, and backstage life in the theater all collide.

How Not to Make a Wish introduces Kira Franklin, a stage manager caught in a dead-end dinner theater job when her true wish is to work on a production of Romeo and Juliet. When Good Wishes Go Bad shifts to dramaturg/producer Becc...

BVC Announces A Fall of Princes, Avaryan Rising Vol. III, by Judith Tarr

Kidnapped, tortured, betrayed by his brothers whom he loved, the heir of the Golden Empire has lost everything but his life. His only hope is a chance encounter, a wandering priest from the Empire of the Sun. But the priest is more than he seems, and the prince is stronger than he knew; and war is coming. Two empires hang in the balance. Two emperors will fall, unless the prince and his unwelcome ally find a way to make peace. But peace comes at a price; and that price may be too high for eit...

BVC Announces Death and the Lady by Judith Tarr

A Story from the World of The Hound and the Falcon

by Judith Tarr

A story set in the world of The Hound and the Falcon:

In the midst of the Black Death, in a nation constantly at war, the women of Sency have found ways to survive and even to thrive. They live well enough in their men’s absence, with their faces to the world and their backs to the ancient and perilous Wood. Then one day a traveler appears, a beautiful and mysterious lady who brings with her both danger and enchantment.

__________...

Author Interview: Chaz Brenchley

Chaz Brenchley

Interview by Katharine Eliska Kimbriel

His writing is lush and evocative, but there’s something primal about the work of Chaz Brenchley. Whether he’s himself (himself?), Daniel Fox, Ben Macallan, or any of several other possible people, Chaz writes about obsession and transformation, families and friendships, identity and alienation. His characters often start out not knowing who they are, or how they got where they are—but before an end is reached, they will know more than they...

Walking through the Bottomland

Walking through the Bottomland

by Ursula K. Le Guin

This has been a prime week for unzipping political penises and seeing what they look like in public. In Paris Dominique Strauss-Kahn has been charged with “aggravated pimping,” which is legal French for encouraging, abetting, and exploiting prostitution. In New York Anthony Weiner has been busy sexting again, what a surprise! What a thrill! And — descending from these international heights of public lechery — here in Portland our county chairm...