Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff's Blog: #42 Pencil: A Writer's Life, the Universe, and Everything, page 41

BVC Announces From a Changeling Star by Jeffrey A. Carver

From a Changeling Star

Starstream Series 1

by Jeffrey A. Carver

Beneath the roiling surface of Betelgeuse, scientists anxiously await the one man essential to the success of Starmuse, the greatest engineering project in human history. But on Kantano’s World, Willard Ruskin battles invisible agents for control of his life, his physical form, and even his memories. Drawn into a conflict from which not even death will free him, Ruskin must find a way to reach Betelgeuse before his enemies sabotage...

Feeding the Beast

Feeding horses is an art.

Oh, the nutritionists will tell you it’s science, give you formulas and analyses and ratios and recommendations. And they’ll be right.

But not entirely.

“Every horse is an individual,” the trainers make a point of saying, and so do the people in charge of keeping those horses fed. It’s not just a matter of size, weight and work level. There are so many other factors involved that by the time the barn manager is done, keeping each horse properly fed and nourished owes as...

Annals of Pard: An Unfinished Education

Annals of Pard: An Unfinished Education

by Ursula K. Le Guin

Last Thursday night, Pard woke me up about 3 a.m. by bringing his real, live mouse toy onto the bed so I could play with it too.

This was the third time he’s done it, always about 3 in the morning. For the third time (having had some practice) I flung both cat and mouse off the bed with a giant convulsion of bedclothes. Both cat and mouse went right on running briskly about the room, scrabble scrabble silence scutter scamper silence sc...

Story Excerpt Sunday: from The Dread Hammer by Linda Nagata

The Dread Hammer

Book 1 of Stories of the Puzzle Lands

by Linda Nagata

The dried bunches of herbs that hung from the thatch were almost all gone by the time winter neared its end. Ketty used a forked stick to bring down the last one, though she wondered if it had any flavor left in it other than smoke. But as she lifted it from its hook, another item was revealed behind it. It looked to be a small pouch, hanging from its drawstring.

Putting the bundle of herbs aside on the table, she used her for...

Humanizing Technology

(Picture fromhere.)

I’m a big fan of technology. There are technological solutions to many of the world’s issues from hunger to clean water. The problems we face are usually how to get people out of the way of solving the problem rather than the problem itself.

That said, I’m definitely not a fan of humanizing technology.

Let me be very clear. I am all in favor of making technology easy. I want getting food and clean water to be so cheap and comfortable that you’d have to spend money and effortn...

Truth in Fiction: Labors of Love

Continuing to look at the intersect between truth and fiction, recently I got into a conversation about television. Everybody was agreeing about how the long-arc serial has caused a leap in TV storytelling for the better.

But when people began discussing their favorite series, someone laughed and pointed at me saying, “I don’t even have to ask, I’m sure your favorite is the Colin Firth Pride and Prejudice.”

Well, actually, no, I said. While I really enjoyed it, I think the definitive P&P has ye...

Going to BAT for Your Dog

The payoff nears for Puppy Zen

Since Tajji’s last class, we’ve been working her frequently and most particularly on voluntary head-turns, as requested by Sandy Pensinger, our trainer. You simply start rewarding any turn of the head towards you, no matter how feeble, under very low-distraction conditions. Then build towards a real check-in with you.

At today’s class, we saw the payoff, which came despite a serious lapse in training the day before that I’ll describe later. We practiced a training...

What I Did on My Summer Vacation

I saw a volcano.

Mt. Rainier

And another volcano.

Mt. St. Helens

And I also saw the destruction caused by the eruption of Mt. St. Helens in 1980.

All those white lines in the picture are trees knocked down by the avalanche of lava and rock that poured down the hills and valleys when the volcano blew. Anything green in the picture is less than 34 years old.

I also saw the other volcanoes in the region — Mt. Hood and Mt. Adams — and noted the presence of volcano evacuation routes around Mt. Rainier....

Help us choose our mascot for the Dog Days of Summer sale!

We’re having a sale later this month, and we need help deciding which BVC dog should be our mascot. Help us choose!

#1: Connery Beagle (friend of Doranna Durgin)
#2: Dart Beagle (friend of Doranna Durgin)
#3: Tajji (friend of Deborah J. Ross)
#4: Bellatrix (friend of Patricia Burroughs)
#5: Ro (friend of Judith Tarr)
Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Characters — Where do they come from?

“How do you come up with the characters in your novels? Are they based on real people? Do you make lists of their work, family, education, hobbies? Is it better to describe them in detail, or let readers flesh them out in their minds?”

These are questions novelists hear from readers eager to understand the mysterious workings of a writer’s mind. I’ve heard all kinds of advice about how fiction-writers “should” create fully dimensional characters, but I think every writer finds her own ways.

I c...