Brenda Cooper's Blog, page 31

It's SF Week for me (That's SFWA and SF Signal)!

Thanks to Cat Rambo for asking me excellent questions in an interview over on the Science Fictions Writers of America Site.   I don't actually see Cat nearly as often as I like, but by coincidence we met for coffee yesterday, and I got to pick her brain to add to a guest post I did for SF Signal (the post is scheduled to come out on Thursday).  I also get to do a podcast for/with SF Signal on Thursday.  I'll post more details on that when I learn any, or you can catch info @brendacooper on...

The Dangers of Missed Deadlines, or Pretty Ruby

This spring, I attended a writer's workshop in Flagstaff, Arizona.  There, I agreed to get the final draft of my current WIP novel, The Creative Fire, done by August 31.  Now, all of us came up with carrots or sticks.  I came up with a stick, since I am personally motivated by sticks. My stick was that I would need to paint my nail neon pink.  It's pinker than it looks in the picture, honest.  Although my graphics expert called it Ruby.  And for those of you who know the manuscript, that's apt.

Art for Mayan December Cover, by Scott Grimando

I am excited about my next book, Mayan December.  This is my first real post about it, and I'm looking forward to sharing more about the book as time goes on.  It will be out sometime next summer, hopefully before Worldcon.

First, my publisher, Sean Wallace from Prime Books, showed me this art the day he proposed buying the book from me (right before last year's World Fantasy).  I love the art.  It has the right feel for the book.  No, it's not pure fantasy, but it's historical mixed...

Reading Recommendation: Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal

I got ready to head out onto a cruise last week, and picked up Mary Robinette Kowal's "Shades of Milk and Honey" to see if I thought I'd like to bring it along as cruise reading.  The next time I looked up I was almost 100 pages into the book.

It's lovely.

I read it.  Toni also devoured it on the cruise, equally fast.

It's hard to review without spoilers, but the words I'd use are captivating, sweet, original, and fun.

Fish, or lack thereof

As many of you know, I just returned from a trip to Alaska.  We stood in the back of a rocky boat, shivering gazing in awe at the Sawyer Glacier as it calved.  We learned that it is receding so fast they say it is "galloping" backwards.  The cruise ship itself could not get near the glacier and we had to take a smaller boat that met up our big one and then took us near the glacier's face.

We watched humpback whales breach as we motored back from Tracy Arm to Juneau.

In Ketchikan, there were so ...

Reading Recommendation: The City in the City by China Mieville

First, this was a hard read.  I had to work for it.  Maybe that's partly because I have been pretty stressed by family stuff, but it took me two full weeks to read this, about 12 days to get through the first half and then not much time to finish.

But I loved it.

I've read so much science fiction and fantasy that I seldom come across an idea or a world that feels entirely new.  New twists.  New combinations of ideas.  But not just "wow." And that's what China delivered to me in "The City and...

Stray Event Post: Bikes and squirrels

I was out riding my bike yesterday morning when I surprised a squirrel.  It ran out straight in front of me, going as fast as it's little legs could go, fluffy gray tail up and bobbing fast.  Now, I wasn't going all that slow.  I'm not generally a fast rider, but I happened to be going slightly downhill on a heavy bike and I was doing fifteen or so, I think.  I slowed a little to let the squirrel move, but it just kept right on going right in front of me.

Now, the path was wide enough for...

Reading Recommendation: Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell

This is a rare case of "Saw the movie, bought the book," and even rarer case of "both worked."  For my usual readers, It's NOT genre fiction, except to the extent the life of people in Ozark Mountains feels a planet away from Seattle.  I'm currently working on a strong female character in my novel project, and Woodrell's Ree Dolly is one of the strongest I've come across where her strength feels intrinsic and both possible and plausible, yet it's enough to blow you away.  Ree is real.

I also n...

Good Things in Threes

Most days, I still feel pretty invisible.  I'm certainly not a famous science fiction writer, and no geek household name like Cory Doctorow or Charlie Stross that gets thrown around the interwebs regularly. But today is a very pleasant writer/futurist day from the point of being engaged in the bigger community conversation.

ABCnews included quotes from an interview with me for the story, "9 Sensational Sci-Fi Ideas That Came True: Predicting Crime, Flying Cars, Space Tourism first appeared in...

Movie Recommendation: Winter's Bone

Went out to see the movie Winter's Bone in Queen Anne last night.  I highly recommend it for writers.  It has a strong female character, a society that is itself a character, knockout dialogue, real social dilemmas, and it never missed a beat.

We often think our stories need to be big – to be about saving the whole world from aliens or throwing the one ring into a lake of fire.  This is as strong a story, humanity writ strong, all inside the stakes of a single poor family unlikely to ever be n...