Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff's Blog: #42 Pencil: A Writer's Life, the Universe, and Everything, page 94

BVC Announces Barrenlands, by Doranna Durgin

Barrenlands

The Changespell Saga: A Prequel

by Doranna Durgin

Before there was Dun Lady’s Jess…

Magic, betrayal, and a twice-cursed exile–only one man’s determination can untangle the deadly intrigue that binds them together.

When Ehren’s sovereign and friend was killed, Ehren, First of the King’s Guard, was far away — sent on a wild goose chase by the First Level Ministry, whose number he now believes must contain at least one traitor.

When a First Level wizard orders him to stop searching for the...

BVC Announces A Hinky Taste of You by Jennifer Stevenson

A Hinky Taste of You

Hinky Chicago – Book Five

by Jennifer Stevenson

Hel became an energy vampire at seventeen and reduced her first lover to ashes. Forty years later, she still looks seventeen. Hel’s life is teaching hyperactive boys, roller derby, and worrying about paying her mother’s hospital bills.

Nick Jones, federal anti-magic cop, has a secret, too. Magic turns him on, to his shame. This makes it hard for Nick when he’s assigned to recruit Hel.

Nick feels guilty for his attraction to a tee...

BVC Announces The Hinky Genie Lamp by Jennifer Stevenson

The Hinky Genie Lamp

Hinky Chicago – Book Four

by Jennifer Stevenson

Hinky pinky at the rinky

Hinky Squad senior investigator Jewel goes undercover, seeking pink smog…at a roller derby rink!

Her sex demon Randy declares his mistress shouldn’t wear fishnets and roller skates. He’s driving Jewel to therapy.

Her junior partner and former con artist Clay Dawes should be hunting a genie, but the sex goddess possessing his body would rather play roller derby. Clay’s secrets could ruin him with Jewel…and...

Life Beyond Words

As I sit here thinking I have a blog to write and nothing to say, I recall Dave Trowbridge’s wonderful exegesis of canine perception. When I read it, it reminded me quite a bit of what it’s like to live on a horse farm, surrounded by sentient beings whose many and complex modes of communication have nothing to do with words.

Most of the time, in my observation, humans use words as a screen. Set phrases and conversational filler surround us with a cloud of essentially meaningless sounds–though...

Author Interview: Amy Sterling Casil

Amy Sterling Casil

Interviewed byKatharine Eliska Kimbriel

Writer Amy Sterling Casil is simultaneously the most forthright and most deceptive person you may ever read. She’s highly intelligent, extremely well-educated and can turn heads in a room. She may sit silently, introverted, listening, and never speak throughout an entire evening. Then again, she may suddenly challenge you with an audacious idea, a conservative tenet, a bold statement of equality for every disenfranchised human on the pl...

Story Inspiration Sunday

Fall has officially come to Seattle.

Me — I love fall. It’s my favorite season. I love the change of colors, I love the crisp air. I’ve even come to love the rain.

Today we got serious rain. Normally, the Seattle rain is more of a drizzle. Today, we’ve had a serious downpour. I’ve been watching it, listening to it, being inspired by it.

Not by the pouring down of it, no, but the sound.

My writing nook is upstairs, in what used to be the attic, just under the roof. I have great acoustics there...

Advice to a [Young] Writer

I ran across a fragment from the diaries of Anais Nin recently, advice she wrote to a aspiring young writer. Leonard was only 17, but the words spoke to me with equal force at almost four times his age:

I like to live always at the beginnings of life, not at their end. We all lose some of our faith under the oppression of mad leaders, insane history, pathologic cruelties of daily life. I am by nature always beginning and believing and so I find your company more fruitful than that of [one] who...

Movie News: The Moon and the Sun

Bill Mechanic (Coraline, The New World) will produce BVC founding member Vonda N. McIntyre’s Nebula Award-winning novel The Moon and the Sun. Filming will take place in Victoria, Australia, and in Versailles, France. Stars include Fan Bingbing and Pierce Brosnan.

News reports:

The Moon and the Sun to shoot in Victoria

Sun rises on Brosnan’s Australian film shoot

Mechanic’s ‘Moon’ Finally Set to Rise in Oz

Victoria secures feature film The Moon and the Sun

Five Dead Giveaways that your Cover is an Amateur Job

I’m subscribed to a daily book deals email, and I’ve been noticing some trends. A lot of indie covers scream “amateur” right from the start. I can glance through the email and in less than three seconds each spot the indie covers, with very few exceptions.

Here are five things to avoid if you want your cover to look pro:

1. “A Novel” – Yes, some traditionally published books have this on there. Way too many books have this on there, IMO. I know it’s a novel. Tell me something interesting about...

Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me, Part 3: Learning to Be a Writer

A lot of careers have obvious training paths. Doctors go to med school, lawyers to law school, teachers need certain education courses, those who want to do certain types of high tech work often enroll in certificate programs. These programs don’t come with job guarantees — there’s a lot of debate these days over whether law graduates can get good enough jobs to offset the cost of their education — but there is no question that you have to get those credentials to follow most of those careers...