Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff's Blog: #42 Pencil: A Writer's Life, the Universe, and Everything, page 68

Best crap job ever

picture this covered lightly with a love note scrawled on a paper napkin, sometimes with drawings…I was enchanted!

I’m deeply thankful my husband has a well-paying job, because it occurred to me recently that because of my extreme decrepitudinal age and how long ago I had my last crap job, I don’t think I could get hired, even for that same crap job. My skills are probably outdated, too. Don’t you have to be able to do HTML and Google Analytics to get by in pink-collar-land now?

These reflectio...

It’s Good to be the Queen

Dramatis Personae: Me and Emily the Dog. Place: our sunroom, where my favorite arm chair for working is located. Local temperature: 54 degrees. I am sitting in the arm chair (squishy brown leather, able to hold two adults, tightly, or one adult and one child, or two children, or one human and one dog).

Me (shivering):Brrrrr.

Emily (moseying into the room):Hey, let’s cuddle.(Lopes up into chair, shoulders her way into 3/4 of the space)That’s better.

Me:Hey, I was sitting here. Share.

Emily (expand...

Great Covers: It’s Complicated

This series will appear at random as I find covers that make me say, “Wow!”

Here’s another great cover. Not quite as wonderful as Loving Frank, but it does its job in the same way.

What do you think this book is about? The title doesn’t help much. It’s Complicated could mean almost anything. The cover, however, fills in the gaps.

Would you be surprised if I told you this is a romance that involves a doctor? Didn’t think you would.

One of the great things about this cover is that it’s uncluttered....

BVC Announces The Popcorn Thief by Leah Cutter

The Popcorn Thief

by Leah Cutter

Franklin loves popcorn.

He used to love his mama more. Then she died, but didn’t pass on, and now haunts him like all the other ghosts. Only popcorn brings him solace.

Every year, Franklin competes against Karl for the Kentucky State Fair blue ribbon prize for the best popping corn.

When an angry ghost leaves an ear of corn–stolen from Karl’s crop, with Franklin’s fingerprints on it — at the scene of a murder — Franklin knows his troubles just started.

Download an E...

Changing Parameters

When it comes to training animals (or writing books or teaching children or pretty much anything, really), sometimes the usual parameters just don’t work. We know they work in a large number of cases, because if they didn’t, they wouldn’t be usual. But then comes an animal (or story or child or pretty much anything, really) that doesn’t Do normal.

The great universal They will tell you that “every animal is an individual,” but when it comes to the actual training, that individual is expected t...

Story Inspiration Sunday

Since I’m on sabbatical for the day job, I’ve been trying to learn how to write full time.

I know that I’m a bit ahead of other writers just starting out, as I have worked at home for the day job for 13+ years. So the suddenly being home all the time hasn’t been a shock. I know how to be disciplined, so I can get stuff done during the day when there’s no one around.

However, writing full time is different than doing the day job. Though I’m mostly self-directed in the day job, the tasks are di...

Peter & the Starcatchers: A Very Short Review

by Brenda W. Clough

This is a review of the touring theatrical production, which I saw last weekend at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC. The show is based on the children’s novel of the same name, by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, which I have bounced off of a couple times. The problems inherent in a prequel, especially a prequel of a well-known book written by someone other than the original author, are issues I don’t want to go into here.

However! Consensus seems to be universal that the s...

Lessons from a Beagle

I find that whatever I’m doing with my animals, I usually run into lessons that apply to writing. Or to living. All our critters have something to teach us–maybe some more than others.

ConneryBeagle: Me! This must be about ME!

Oh, it must be. And not just randomly, but because we are in celebration mode!

THE LESSON OF PATIENCE

When I decided to get a Beagle, I did my research, connected with a breeder, and met the prospective sire/dam. And then I waited two years for the litter, because sometime...

Writing to Request

“Writing to Request” was originally posted at the author’s blog, Hahvi.net.

I think of myself as a very independent writer. An idea will occur to me, I’ll play with it, work at it, expand on it, and if things go well, it will grow into a story. But fiction doesn’t have to occur all in isolation. Sometimes a request for a specific sort of story can be the inspiration to push past our own creative limits.

The first time I was asked to write a story to request was in the late nineties. Back then I...

BVC Authors Help Women ‘Destroy’ Science Fiction

Saturday is the last day to contribute to the Kickstarter for Lightspeed’s special issue: Women Destroy Science Fiction. The crowdfunding for this project has not only exceeded the original goal, but has raised so much money that Lightspeed will be publishing all-women horror and fantasy issues in addition to the science fiction one.

As part of the fundraising effort, Lightspeed solicited essays on women’s experience in the genre, most of which are available here. Essays from three BVC members...