L.S. Johnson's Blog, page 10

Oh, how we laughed

No, YOU’RE overtired.

And this, dear readers, is why you a) never rush anything in publishing and b) never skimp on proofing. 12 years of experience in this business! I nearly died of embarrassment when I opened the box. But the designer was going out of town, I was eager to get the ball rolling … so I glanced at the PDF at 6 in the morning and just sent it along. Thankfully a mistake that can be easily fixed, and it was only on a couple of proof copies …

Now back to working on a story, chew...

Harkworth Hall

Last November was not a good month in the U.S., and the months since have not improved on matters. I know I am not the only one who woke up the day after the election filled with dread; I am not the only one who longed for some kind of escape from what was to come.

In my case, that escape turned out to be writing Harkworth Hall. (Yes, it was once called Hillsborough Hall, until I remembered just where I got Hillsborough from. It would have been very confusing.)

So: it’s November 2016, right...

And I nearly forgot! “Vendemiaire” is at Far Fetched Fables

It’s up! I love hearing my work read by others … and that they took the time to explicate the title. It’s turning into a banner week here.

Well, that took longer than I expected.

I will come up with something a bit more explicit over the next few days. But for now, I have freelance work to finish, and then I’ll be, um, unwinding, by catching up with this:

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Moonlight

I have wanted to see Moonlight since it opened, and yet each time I was about to go there was … something. A change in plans, illness, or just something inside that said, not now. Perhaps it was because I was knee-deep in the novella, trying to keep my head in that space … but that was no longer the situation on Thursday, and everything in me said yes.

This movie. It broke my heart in so many ways—with its story, with its people, with its languages, with its music and light and color and. An...

Updates.

Draft three of what is now officially titled Hillsborough Hall is done. I’m doing line edits now – massaging scenes and arcs, getting my details straight. It will go back out to a few betas, back to me to fix stuff, and then we  … are … away.

I love this little book. Instinctively it feels solid, it feels right, and self-publishing it feels right too. My rational brain, however, is locked into an ongoing whine of panic. I have spent a great deal of my life measuring my worth by gatekeepers: g...

Help me donate my Worldcon membership

***Edit: someone on Twitter kindly reminded me of Con or Bust, so I will be reaching out to them. Thank you!***

It is March and I am giving up. There’s really no way for me to get to Helsinki this year – besides the prohibitive cost, it’s very close to a family event that takes precedence. This means my first-time membership will otherwise languish.

I’ve been thinking hard about what I want to do with my membership, and while I could certainly use the money from selling it, what I’d really li...

FOGcon

I will be at FOGcon this weekend! On Friday at 4:30, I will be reading as part of the Broad Universe Rapid Fire Reading (TM?), where it looks like I’ll be reading the first few scenes of “We Are Sirens” – at least, that’s the thing that’s reading best at the moment. On Saturday I’ll be … around.

New story out in the world

I stupidly said yes to a freelance project, forgetting that I had FogCon to prep for, a novella and a novelette to revise, a novel that at some point I should really return to … so now I’m grinding my teeth in overworked frustration.

But.

“Females of the Species” went out into the world on February 21. It’s in the latest Alphabet Anthology, D is for Dinosaur. The wonderful thing about this series is, other than the theme (which I admit I realllllly stretched here) and the first letter of the...

Vacui Magia wins North Street Book Prize

The title says it all, I think. Now is the moment when I should just cover this page in delighted screaming, but I found out a little while back and have been chomping at the bit to announce this. Did you hear screams of joy from the direction of Northern California about two weeks ago? Yes, that was me.

Here is the press release – look, ma, I’m in a real press release! – and the website critique. My little book! It’s come a long way, and now it gets fancy stickers and everything.

Seriously,...