Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff's Blog: #42 Pencil: A Writer's Life, the Universe, and Everything, page 122

Stalking the Wild Muse: The Muse of the Manure Fork

A series exploring the props, habits, and drugs that fuel the writer’s productivity. Past, present and future! Look for BVC writers, plus other authors we know and love.

When I was in grad school at an Old European University and then at an Old Ivy in the New World, mens sana in corpore sano– “A sound mind in a sound body”–was still very much a thing. We were encouraged to live a physical as well as an intellectual life, and offered any and all sorts of options to make this possible, from intr...

Writing Nowadays–Kindle Fanfic

Amazon has announced that their Kindle Direct Publishing program will now allow people to submit and publish television fanfic for “Gossip Girl,” “Pretty Little Liars” and “Vampire Diaries.” A number of authors quickly chimed in about how draconian the contract is. It pays no advance. Never! Amazon keeps all copyrights to the work! Forever! The owner of the source material could create a TV episode or even a movie from the book and not pay the author one red cent! Ever!

Unbunch your undies, pl...

A Sense of Infinite Possibility

Some mornings I wake up stunned by what the human race is on the verge of understanding and doing. Those are the days when I really regret that I’m not immortal.

I’m not interested in the immortality of a Roger Zelazny character and my desire for it has nothing to do with power. It’s more akin to the desire to keep reading a book: I don’t want to die because I want to know what happens next.

And based on the things I stumble upon on a regular basis, the human race is on the cusp of some awesome...

WWW Wednesday: Yes, I Read Books!

It’s WWW Wednesday. This meme is fromshouldbereading.

To play along, just answer the following three (3)questions…

• What are you currently reading?

• What did you recently finish reading?

• What do you think you’ll read next?

• What did you recently finish reading?

Like Marie last week, I’ve also read Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue, by John McWhorter, which I highly recommend. However, I most recently finished readingSuperFreakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. I use regular Freakonom...

Making Word(s) Count #2: Playing the Trump Card

Action and suspense sequences and scenes with high emotional content (as in romantic situations) are probably the most important type of scene that can be sabotaged by excess verbal baggage or convoluted sentences. There are also sentences that are intended as “trump cards” that are played with a flourish at the end of a scene, chapter or story. They function like the punch line in a joke, and they work only when they are punchy (concise) enough to convey their full meaning in one bite.

I use...

Notes From The Nebula Awards Weekend – the “good parts” version

Whenever the Nebula Awards Weekend, that surreal and magical time when the Science Fiction Writers of America wax nostalgic, hopeful, and celebratory, are held on the same coast as the one I live on, I happily attend. I’ve never been a Finalist (although I am a proud member of the Secret Cabal of Former SFWA Secretaries). Besides the banquet and awards, the weekend is like a mini-convention just for writers. Here are a few random notes from the panels I attended.

From Shared Worlds (in which I...

BVC Announces The Crystal Rose, Book Three of the Mer Cycle, by Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff

The Crystal Rose

Book Three of the Mer Cycle

by Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff

PROLOGUE

The mystic Beloved, before concealed by the veil of words, is now revealed to the eyes of men. I bear witness, my friends, that the benediction is complete, the testimony fulfilled, the proof demonstrated, the sign given. Let all now see what your efforts in the path of the Meri will unveil and accomplish. Divine grace has been bestowed on you and on all that dwell in the Lands of Shadow and Light. Sing duans of prais...

Madeleine Robins Talks Fairy Tales on The Big Idea

Madeleine Robins is talking about bringing reason into the story when adapting fairy tales today on The Big Idea on John Scalzi’s Whatever blog.

Go read what she has to say on why a witch might want to take a newborn baby. And how she writes historical fiction about women that pays attention to the culture they’re born in but gives them room to have adventures.

Talking Heads

Recently, I’ve been critiquing with several other authors for the purpose of learning more about craft. They are staunch proponents of making dialogue do the work of carrying the story.

Some time back, I heard a new author complain that her agent advised her to highlight all the setting descriptions and characterization in her book, then whack out as much of them as possible, essentially stripping the pages down to dialogue and sex. Now I understand how that might work for erotica, but this wa...

Why Your Library May Not Have the E-Book You Want

by Ursula K. Le Guin

While most small presses sell all their books freely and happily to libraries, the “Big Five” publishers continue to be terrified by the idea of letting public libraries have their e-books, and to punish libraries for even trying to get their e-books to customers.

The corporations’ confused and panic-driven search for an “acceptable business model” for the library e-book has led to some truly grotesque solutions:

HarperCollins rents a library the license to an e-book for 26...