Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff's Blog: #42 Pencil: A Writer's Life, the Universe, and Everything, page 46

BVC announces The Clockwork Fairy Kingdom by Leah Cutter

The Clockwork Fairy Kingdom

by Leah Cutter

Adele—the beautiful Fairy Queen with wings of clockwork—despairs when her husband, the Master Tinker, dies before he finishes the Great Machine that will reignite the human-fairy war and drive the humans away. When she meets Dale, a human boy with natural talent who can finish the machine, she enslaves him and binds his will with her fairy magic.

However, Dale’s twin sister Nora, who has only recently discovered that she is a Maker and has power of her...

Summer Reading: Gems From Book View Café Authors

Before I took off for ten days in New York City, I loaded up my trusty e-readers with offerings from Book View Café writers, then picked books at random. What a delight they were!

Katharine Eliska Kimbriel’s “Alfreda” novels – Night Calls and Kindred Rites. I’d enjoyed Kimbriel’s “Nuala” science fiction novels and looked forward to her Young Adult series. Set in an alternate, magical American frontier, these coming-of-age stories are told in such a powerful, distinctive voice and with such ric...

Dispatches from the Crone Wars

The Horseblog is taking a break this week, because I have this irresistible desire to get ranty, and where better to rant on this subject than right here at Crone Central?

Yes, Book View Cafe was founded by older women writers who, in 2008, saw the writing on the wall of publishing, and knew it was time to explore new ways to get their words out there. And yes, early on, there was, here and there, a mutter of dismissal: “Oh, it’s just a bunch of women who couldn’t make it any more so they got...

Story Excerpt Sunday: From The Meri by Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff

The Meri

Mer Cycle Book One

by Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff

It was called Lagan—”the Little Hollow”—and there had been a homestead there once. A fine homestead with an ample cottage and a big barn and a great forge. There was only burnt rubble now, and tall grass and wildflowers that waved sorrowfully in the wind…

She picked wild roses from the tangle that embraced the fallen chimney. She pricked her fingers on the thorns and bled in penance for making Osraed Bevol so unhappy. What she could not do pen...

Rotaries v Intersections, An Exercise in Analysis

(Picture fromhere.)

This is the sort of thing my brain does. Which probably tells you more about me than you want to know. Indulge me. Next time I’ll talk about space drives. I promise.

I live up here in Massachusetts. When I moved up here, back in the Cretaceous, I encountered something called a “rotary.” It’s also called a “roundabout”, “circular intersection”, “traffic circle” and other names. Some of which are even printable. They took a little getting used to but I managed. The problem wit...

When the Suck Fairy flits

Jo Walton posted about when the Suck Fairyvisits books you once enjoyed. Even loved. Jo makes a point of saying that readers ought not to beat themselves up over liking something that you no longer can read. The other problem is our fellow being who cannot resist the curled upper lip, and the roll of the eyes, “You liked that? Wow, what terrible taste.”

There are some books that remain on my favorite shelves through my sporadic cullings even though I probably won’t reread them again. But I mig...

Write-a-Thon Time Again

This year three Book View Cafe members are participating in the Clarion West and Clarion write-a-thons. Vonda N. McIntyre and Nancy Jane Moore are writing for Clarion West and Amy Sterling Casil is writing for Clarion.

The write-a-thons are fundraisers for both Clarions, so pick your favorite writer and make a contribution in support of their personal writing project and the ongoing health of two wonderful writing workshops.

Guest Post: Can Do Cant

Inspired by previous posts about authorial voice, we offer here a guest post by L. Shelby! She is not a BVC member but is so knowledgeable that her input is sure to be helpful.

Colloquialisms are frequently intimidating to writers, and the only thing more terrifying than the prospect of replicating the feel of an existing cant is trying to invent one’s own. Part of the terror comes from having seen it done badly. Beginning writers frequently approach this task by coming up with a couple slang...

Your Flying Cars Are on Their Way

The flying car might soon be a reality. Or – to use current jargon – your Personal Aerial Vehicle (PAV) awaits. Almost.

The European Union is funding research into PAVs as part of “out-of-the-box” thinking about the future of air transport. It has put $4.7 million into the myCopter project, which six research institutions are studying.

Actual PAVs don’t exist yet, but simulators do. A New York Times reporter recently tried one out.

And private industry is getting into the act, too. Terrafugia –...

SF Gateway Reviews Vonda McIntyre’s Dreamsnake

Online genre magazineSF Gateway ran a very nice write-up of Vonda McIntyre’swork.

The review, written by Kevin McVeigh, is entitledFromthe Attic VII: Vonda N. McIntyre.

Vonda fans can read it here.

I’d say this rates a big, zesty HURRAH!