Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff's Blog: #42 Pencil: A Writer's Life, the Universe, and Everything, page 59

WWW Wednesday 4-9-2014

WWW Wednesday. This meme is from shouldbereading.

I am currently in the midst of a sixth reread of Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey-Maturin series.

The first time I read it, I sat down in my reading chair, curious, disengaged, the warm summer air wafting through my open window the distant cries of children running on the grass.

Another rereading, during the bleakness of a winter day, the sweet spice of cinnamon-laced hot chocolate at my side; a third image, just a flash, splashing across the deep green...

Religious Themes in SF from Deseret News Online.

Book View Cafe author Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff was one of several science fiction writers interviewed by the Deseret News Online on the subject of religious themes in science fiction movies and books.

Maya writes fantasy and science fiction, including co-authoring a trio of Star Wars novels with her Jedi Master, Michael Reaves.

The Deseret News is affiliated with the Church of the Latter Day Saints, while Maya is amember of the Bahá’í Faith.

“So, this is a sort of interfaith collaboration—about sc...

Proofreading The Catch Trap

Book View Café is a publishing cooperative, both in the business and the friendly sense of the word. We offer one another all the services a traditional publisher would normally provide, everything from editing a previously-unpublished work to formatting and cover design, as well as the technical skills necessary to operate the bookstore and website. Not all of us have such specialized knowledge, but just about all of us can proofread a manuscript for another editor.

I recently “carried my fai...

BVC Announces The Catch Trap

Flying is supposed to look like one of those flight dreams, so simple that people can’t believe they can’t do it themselves…Just pure, simple, perfect. So everybody watching will want to cry, because they know somewhere inside, in their guts, that they had wings and could fly once but they just forgot how.

Tommy Zane hates lions, a major obstacle in a family of lion tamers. But Tommy’s dreams–and talent–fly higher, up in the rigging with the trapeze. When rising star Mario Santelli offers him...

Musings on Tech-Heaven

This post was originally published at the author’s website, Hahvi.net.

Powerful women populate my 1995 novel, Tech-Heaven, in a story that explores the impact of cryonics, the slow development of nanotechnology, and political issues surrounding both.

But is Tech-Heaven a feminist novel? What is a feminist novel anyway?

The protagonist of this story is a woman, Katie Kishida. The two primary antagonists are women as well — Senator Ilene Carson and Roxanne Scott — who are both complex characters i...

On the Doing of Things

On the doing of things…

Sometimes life piles up so fast it’s hard to keep up–and it’s hard to remember why you’re doing what in the first place.

I started this blog while listening to the grind of merry little hound teeth on a Nylabone, while the hound in question (Connery) happily sprawled over the world’s ugliest hotel carpet.

Not kidding. World’s UGLIEST.

We went to Colorado for one more try at Dart’s TDX title before the bitey snakes wake up and put an end to TDX tracking season.

Last weekend...

The Circling Stars, the Sea Surrounding

The Circling Stars, the Sea Surrounding:

Philip Glass and John Luther Adams

by Ursula K. Le Guin

Every year one of the Portland Opera Company’s productions is sung by the singers in the company’s outstanding training program. In 2012 it was Philip Glass’s short opera, Galileo Galilei. There is a splendor to young voices different from the patina of the experienced singer; and these performances always have an extra charge of tension and excitement.

The bold, beautiful, intricately simple set, all...

Story Inspiration Sundays

This week, I’m afraid, is again going to be about a different type of inspiration.

However, this week was also very different.

I hadn’t planned it this way.

It was my choice.

This week turned out to be the last week I worked my day job.

Let me explain.



I went on sabbatical for the day job for three months, visiting New Zealand and New Orleans, as well as writing a bunch.

I went back to the day job, assuming that I would adjust eventually.

By the end of the first week, I was not adjusting. Peri...

Evolution of the Lung

I’m getting over pneumonia so in a vain attempt to make lemonade out of lemons, I’m going to talk about the evolution of the lung.

The lung is one of the major mechanisms– if not the major mechanism– that enabled invasion of the land by animals.

The necessity of lungs is based on the vast difference between gaseous oxygen and oxygen dissolved in water. For one thing, when water passes over the gills of a fish (or crab) it is one fluid (water) passing next to another fluid (blood) across a thin...

Story stuff that always gets me

A few years back, I did a post on “Ten things I don’t want to read about,” so I thought, why not ten things that always hook my interest?

This would be about story elements, maybe story types, or even elements of voice. Anything goes.

A promise of humor is probably first. It doesn’t have to be a satire, or a comedy; the humor can be conveyed through the voice, but I find my interest engaged the more quickly if I perceived its presence.

And then there are story elements that promise fun, like di...