Blair MacGregor's Blog, page 16

Everything Ends Up In the Book

Half of my first summer as a teenager was spent in a compact car, driving back and forth from Southern California to New Orleans with my mother and nine-year-old sister. I was torn between huge curiosity and excitement, and the nagging certainty spending so much time with my ultra-extroverted mother and sister would cause my head to explode. I remember we argued daily, but remember more clearly all the places we saw along the way.

It was the first trip I took after deciding I could, just maybe...

Sand of Bone — Closing In…

It’s coming, my darlings!

I have my first blurb!

“Searingly vivid, and grittily realistic, Sand of Bone slams the reader into a harsh desert world full of complex people, tense moral dilemmas, and an exhilarating jet of the weird. Do not start this one late at night!” — Sherwood Smith

This makes me incredibly happy!

This weekend is for final corrections, proofreading, and the like. The cover design is in progress, and I’ll give you a look when it’s ready.

The tentative release date is August 20…...

Another Happy Writer Recipe

I am passionate about my crockpot. It gets used at least once a week, and that one use provides at least three or four meals for my son and I.

Tonight was a new recipe – pork roast with balsamic vinegar and honey.

Let me tell you, my darlings, this was so wonderful, I wish I’d cooked a double batch. The flavors were rich without being heavy, the pork was fall-apart tender, and sweet and sour were perfectly balanced.

Unlike some crockpot recipes that require a bunch of chopping this and that, thi...

The Purpose of Kata

If you talk about martial arts long enough, someone will eventually say, “What’s the point of kata? You can’t use it in a real fight. The only thing kata is good for is tournaments.”

I mightily disagree.

Kata is, in simple terms, a series of choreographed movements — punches and kicks, stances and turns, blocks and attacks and evasions. From the outside, it looks as if one fighter is taking on multiple attackers coming at her, one at a time, from different directions. Many martial arts use them...

Dear Hachette,

Dear Hachette,

I’m a nobody. Let’s get that out of the way right now. I don’t have a contract with you or any of your peer companies. My self-publishing sales are almost non-existent at this time because I’ve put my energy into managing life events over the last year rather than publishing and marketing. But I’ve known and listened to writers and editors for the last twenty years,and many of thoseconversations would never be placed in writing for fear of repercussions. I’ve learned a thing or...

Effective Advocacy Must Choose Targets Carefully

On my one month anniversary as a member of SFWA, I discovered the board had determined the letter mentioned in this blog post was a correct summation of the situation and remedies involved in the Amazon/Hachette dispute, an accurate representation of SFWA member beliefs, and must be SFWA-endorsed without member inputthe day before a long holiday weekend over which so many people would be out of touch and unable to respond.

Do read the comments at that link. Frankly, they’re quite tame as most...

SFWA Really IS Working On Updates

At last! SFWA has released a public statement asking the membership to put forth opinions on admitting self-publishers.

It’s… It’s a start.

Y’all can see my own feelings on SFWA and self-publishing here, and here.

Updating membership guidelines to admit self-publishers is the obvious choice. I might be a new SFWA member, and might be a teensy tiny speck in the self-publishing world, but I’ve a goodly deal of life experience (including, among other things,establishing a non-profit business and re...

Guest Blogging On Gender Equality In Fantasy

Today I’m a guest at Anne E. Johnson’s blog, where I talk about putting women (plural!) of agency and influence at the core of the story.

Traditional gender roles are hard to combat for the fiction-writer, especially in a genre like fantasy which has a long tradition of distressed damsels being captured and needing saving. Even for a writer who is aware of this problem and wants to defy it, knowing how to let the females drive the story takes a lot of thought and practice. Today’s guest, Blair...

Pomegranates and Bats: Details in Revisions

Sand of Bone heads off to its editor and final reader tonight, so I’m taking a little break in order to let me brain think about something else for a bit.

I am not a structured worldbuilder. Before writing, I do not sit down to answer a hundred questions about culture, religion, navigation, textiles, government, livestock, gender relations, history, trade, exploration, child-rearing, and economics. That’s not my process. (For that, check out this post, wherein I discuss altering my worldbuildi...

SFWA

Application and paperwork submitted because change and progress and faith and moxie.

Or because blood and love and rhetoric.

(Heads.)

#amwriting #amcrazy

Truly, I wouldn’t be doing this if I a) didn’t trust the feedback and stance of some current members I’ve known for a long time, and b) hadn’t uncovered the work being done by members to haul the organization forward. I would not be joining if I didn’t think more members were looking ahead than were looking at their feet, mired in the mud, and t...