Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff's Blog: #42 Pencil: A Writer's Life, the Universe, and Everything, page 81

The Paris Review interviews Ursula K. Le Guin

The Paris Review Interviews Ursula K. Le Guin

The Art of Fiction No. 221

Interviewed by John Wray

“No single work did more to upend the genre’s conventions than The Left Hand of Darkness (1969)….

“…Le Guin received me in the parlor, but we soon moved out onto the veranda, in part to escape the fierce attentions of her cat.”

—John Wray

[Continued at The Paris Review]

Writing Craft: Blah blah blah, Who Needs Dialog?

I love to “talk shop” with other writers. I learn so much about my own process and my weaknesses because it’s always easier to see the flaws – and the strengths! – in someone else’s work. Recently, I had the mirrored experience of serving as a beta reader for another writer’s novel and receiving similar feedback on one of my own. The thematic similarities and differences between the two very early versions of the stories are irrelevant. What fascinated me was that we used dialog in diametrica...

BVC Welcomes Jill Zeller

Please join BVC in welcoming new member Jill Zeller.

The author of numerous short stories and novels, Jill Zeller lives near Seattle, Washington, with her patient and adoring husband and one self-centered tuxedo cat.

Her works explore the boundaries of reality. Some may call it fantasy, but there are rarely swords and never elves. More to the point, she prefers to write as if myth, imagination and hallucination were as real as the chair she is sitting on as she writes this. Maybe it is because...

BVC Announces BIJOU by Jill Zeller

Bijou

by Jill Zeller

A drug made of living souls. Is immortality worth the cost?

A black market in souls; their essence, known secretly as Bijou, bestows the illusion of youth to those who can afford it. Annie Novak and her family have long sought to protect the dying and the newly dead from soul-theft, but a new and unimaginable threat has appeared; someone is stealing souls from those who are not yet dead, and the distilled infusion of Bijou Xtra provides long, long life. The soulless dead are...

BVC Announces BATTLE READY by Julianne Lee

Battle Ready

by Julianne Lee

A free short story.

When the Canadian Army announced they had developed a “battle bra” for their female soldiers, one had to wonder what that could possibly mean.

This story was first published in Turn the Other Chick, the fourth of Esther Friesner’s Chicks in Chain Mail anthologies.

“Battle Ready” at BVC Ebookstore

BVC Announces the As You Wish series by Mindy Klasky

The As You Wish Series

by Mindy Klasky

The As You Wish Series shows what can go wrong when a magic lamp, a wish-granting genie, and backstage life in the theater all collide.

Act One, Wish One introduces Kira Franklin, a stage manager whose wish is to find true love while working on a production of Romeo and Juliet. Wishing in the Wings shifts to Becca Morris who gets the lamp—and the opportunity to make a difference with a brilliant new play (and its playwright!). Wish Upon a Star brings the la...

Author Interview: Marion Zimmer Bradley Trust

Marion Zimmer Bradley

Interviewed by Katharine Eliska Kimbriel

Marion Zimmer Bradley was a powerhouse in the fantasy and science fiction world, where her Darkover series became a publishing phenomenon, and her novel Mists of Avalon was a New York Times Bestseller. Book View Cafe is delighted to have the Marion Zimmer Bradley Literary Works Trust as a member. Our first release from the trust is The Complete Lythande. In the following interview, two of the individuals entrusted with the legacy of...

Story Inspiration Sunday

In America, it’s Thanksgiving weekend. Both me and my sweetie have taken off a bit extra as well, so we have not been working since Wednesday, and we’re also both taking Monday off.

For the past few years, my Thanksgiving tradition has included a writing marathon. I have several days off, and all I do is write for those days.

This year is no different. My sweetie and I are both marathoning. He’s been writing on several different projects, whereas I’ve been sticking with the single novel that...

Stumbling on the Edge of Magnificence

(Picture from here.)

There is a lot to be excited about in science lately. Too much for me to have an entire post devoted to one thing. So here’s a quick overview of some fun things.

There is new evidence that humans were in the Americas as far back as 30,000 years ago. This comes from a cave full of giant sloth bones found in Uruguay. There’s been some evidence before (cited in the article) but this is even more of it. For a long time now there’s been cracks in the idea that humans came over f...

Writing Magic — Part 3

Before we go any farther in our discussion of using Western magic in fantasy writing, we need to consider an important question: what is the difference between magic and religion? For that matter, is there any difference? The devoutly religious will insist that there is. Traditionally among monotheists such as Jews, Christians, and Muslims, religion is considered to be “good” and magic, “bad.” Religion, believers will tell you, is a matter of worshiping the Divine and submitting one’s will to...