Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff's Blog: #42 Pencil: A Writer's Life, the Universe, and Everything, page 71

Getting the Mojo Back

Sometimes the mojo goes away.

Maybe it’s taken away–by a bad teacher, a sudden or chronic illness, a financial or career reversal. Or maybe what used to be easy has become impossibly hard: confidence fails, doubts proliferate, fears mount. What if I’ve given all I have to give? What if I’ll never get past where I am now? What if I’ve peaked, and that’s it?

That’s a scary place to be, as either a horse person or a writer. With horses, doubts and fears can lead to broken bones and worse. In writi...

Locus Recommended Reading List: The Wreck of the Mars Adventure by David D. Levine

BVC congratulates all the writers on the 2013 Locus Recommended Reading List, including BVC member David D. Levine for “The Wreck of the Mars Adventure” (Old Mars, ed. Martin & Dozois).

Story Inspiration Sunday

For the latest story that I had to write, I fell back to one of the classics of inspiration, at least, for me. That’s David Mamet’s formula:

1. Who wants what from whom?

2. What happens if he (she) doesn’t get it?

3. Why now?

I can’t go into any particulars for the story I just finished, not until after something happens with it, either it’s sold or I decide to bring it out myself.

However, I have written an entire novel following this format–Zydeco Queen and the Creole Fairy Courts.

The premise...

The Red: First Light by Linda Nagata – Locus Recommended Reading List

BVC congratulates all the writers on the 2013 Locus Recommended Reading List, including BVC member Linda Nagata for The Red: First Light.

Making Scents of Dart Beagle

Dart Beagle–he who can’t manage an open obedience leg to save his life because…STAYS…is also playing around with utility work.

Mind you, obedience people who truly know what they’re doing work in utility foundation pieces right from the start. But because I’m teaching myself as I teach Dart, I’m not layering quite that thoroughly. Sure, I’ve tried to include small pieces–and more importantly, not train other pieces in a way that will create conflicts down the road–but it’s sure not like how so...

Welcome to POETS Day: the Antisocial Sonnets

Repelling a kappa with a fart (Yoshitoshi)

Many years ago, when I was working for a small publisher in the high-tech trade press, I started a Friday email list to entertain the public relations people with whom I enjoyed working. It was called P.O.E.T.S. Day (Piss On Everything, Tomorrow’s Saturday), and I delivered a new doggerel “Shakespearean” sonnet in each edition.

In this re-launch of POETS Day, I’m not going to commit to originality yet, but instead will browse my stash of poetry, and th...

Epic Fantasy

WithGame of Thrones going strong, I thought it might be interesting to look at the appeal of epic fantasy.

Most people, when asked what epic fantasy is, mention castles and swords, a historical feel. Most readers seem to expect it, and many love it. Yet if you asked them if they’d like to be propelled back a thousand years, pretty much most would say “heck no!”

How about if magic was real?

The answer, I discovered, can produce more variety, from “No way,” to “Yes!” to ”What kind of magic?”

I thin...

Legal Fictions: Arrogance and Litigation

As Mary Catelli pointed out in the comments last week, not all lawyers are litigators. But courtroom battles can be exciting, which means that a lot of fictional lawyers are portrayed handling trials.

There’s nothing wrong this. I never worked as a big time litigator, but I’ve done some trial work, and trying a case was the most fun I ever had practicing law. This may be because it is just a (slightly) more civilized version of the Middle Ages trial by combat. Duels, after all, provide drama.

S...

Where do you get your ideas? – Coed Demon Sluts

I flunked “girl” K-12 and beyond. Not even an “E” for effort.

Some disclosure: I failed “girl” all through my formative years; never learned to use make-up, never belonged to a clique (not even a clique of losers), never had a clue how to pass. That said, I’m a childless straight white married-thirty-seven-years female. I’ve escaped the other end of the gantlet of gender expectations onto the landfill of middle-aged women, where nobody looks at you.

I’m not whining. I’ve gained an incredible am...

WWW Wednesday 1-29-14

WWW Wednesday. This meme is from shouldbereading.

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 are you currently reading?

I am lost in the worldview of Rosemary Kirstein’s The Steerswoman. This was the original first novel of The Steerswoman series, more recently combined into The Steerswoman’s Road. I’m going to need to get my hands on The Outskirter’s Secret, the...