Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff's Blog: #42 Pencil: A Writer's Life, the Universe, and Everything, page 89

In the beginning there was . . .

For many writers, in the beginning is the word.

But for some of us, in the beginning there is the image.

All of my stories begin with an image. Sometimes it is static, like a photograph, and other times it’s a bit of a scene – no more than a few words or part of an action – and sometimes, the best ones of all, I see an entire scene, which leads to the next, which leads to the next.

When I have been asked what it’s like to be a visual writer, the quickest answer has always been, I write the movie...

Fictional Science

Reading literary fiction, but not popular fiction or nonfiction, improves your empathy and social skills, according to a report in The New York Times about a recent scientific study.

It took me two paragraphs of the Times story to come to a one-word evaluation of the study: Hogwash. It just didn’t make sense. I could maybe believe a study that said well-written, character-driven fiction increased empathy, but I find it hard to believe that reading highly experimental literary fiction — say Fin...

WWW Wednesday 10-23-2013

by Laura Anne Gilman

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?

GARMENT OF SHADOWS, by Laurie King. For ten books, this series has been a “buy in hardcover, read immediately” bellringer for me -

then the 11th book failed to connect, and I’ve had this 12th book on my shelf, unread, for a pa...

BVC Welcomes Shannon Page

Please join Book View Café in welcoming our new member

Shannon Page was born on Halloween night and spent her early years on a commune in northern California’s backwoods. A childhood without television gave her a great love of books and the worlds she found in them. She wrote her first book, an illustrated adventure starring her cat, at the age of seven. Sadly, that story is currently out of print, but her work has appeared in Clarkesworld, Interzone, Fantasy, Black Static, Tor.com, and a migh...

On Becoming a Professional Amateur, #4: Character Acrobatics

I’m replaying one of my favorite posts on writing. Why? Well, in part because I’m juggling too many cats and in part because I’ve just had the issue come up in a book I’m reading.

This is not an amateur’s manuscript, not a hopeful neo’s first offering. No, Dear Reader, this is a book by a professional writer of middle school fiction that I am reading to my daughter. It is a good book, and well-written in most ways, but somehow, during the editorial process, both the author and her editors (and...

The Writing Life: Re-entry and Changing Gears

For the last seven weeks, I’ve been away from home, helping to take care of my best friend and her family during the end of her [image error]life. I had no idea how hard it would be, but we did well by her and her passing was peaceful, attended by great tenderness and forgiveness. I stayed on for another ten days to organize the memorial and transition for her family.

During this entire time, one of my personal anchors was writing. I loaded up my netbook with current projects and took the folders with chec...

BVC Announces Eastlick and Other Stories by Shannon Page

Eastlick and Other Stories

by Shannon Page

“Like a good glass of wine, a good short story offers complexity and buzz. When you finish a good story, you take a moment to savor the experience, to let the resonance of truth ring a bit before it fades. I know that, for me, there’s nothing like reading a last sentence that just nails the piece: reinforces a metaphor, adds weight to a conclusion. I can’t help but lean back and sigh with satisfaction when a piece just works.” –Janna Silverstein

Table o...

Author Interview: Shannon Page

Author Interview: Shannon Page

Interviewed by Phyllis Irene Radford

Shannon Page is Book View Café’s newest member. Her collection of short fiction, Eastlick and Other Stories, marks her debut with us.

1.) You burst into the writing community only a few years ago with collaboration short stories, I’ve edited a few for you. How does collaboration work for you? What have you learned about yourself and your writing by sharing the vision of these stories? What determines who you choose as a writing...

Steens Mountain Region, August 2013

Steens Mountain Region, August 2013

by Ursula K. Le Guin

This is what a lot of it looks like. It is the northernmost part of the Basin and Range country, high desert, altitude over 4000′, annual rainfall under 12″ except for Steens Mountain, nearly 10,000 feet, which gets up to 40″ as rain and snow.

Rainwater and snowmelt comes roaring down the NW side of the mountain as the...

Consideration of Works Past: King Kong

King Kong has been a staple in media for a long time. I’m not sure what sort of genre to put something like King Kong. SF? Fantasy? Paranormal romance? It’s certainly the first of the Kaiju sort of films but it’s not, really. Kaijus aremonsters. They look either robotic, reptilian or alien. Kong is striking precisely because he’s nearly human.

The original Kong was an inventionby Merian C. Cooperin his film,King Kong(1933). It was remade by Dino De Laurentis in1976. And remade again in2005by n...