Kameron Hurley's Blog, page 43

Why you should never quit your day jobs, kids….

This time of year, folks in the U.S. get a sobering picture of exactly how much it was they made the year before. For writers, this can be even more humbling.

Though I can't share my actual day job income numbers due to policies and all that, I can share exactly what percentage of my income this year came from where.  Honestly, I thought my writing income for the year was pretty high.

Yeah, folks: this is a GOOD writing year, in which I had TWO books published.

 

Epic ConFusion Programming: WHY YOU SHOULD COME

I'm leaving tomorrow for ConFusion. I don't actually "know" a lot of people there, which makes this very unlike Wiscon, which was my regular con there for a few years.  That means I am very likely to be unscheduled for most of this con, so here's where you can find me and – more importantly – why you might want to…

 

7pm, Friday Salon G: Race, Class, and Gender

Steve Piziks, Kameron Hurley, Kristine Smith, Sarah Zettel, Jay Lake

WHY YOU SHOULD COME:
Oh, come on, YOU DON'T WANT TO HEAR ME TALK...

My Stance on Fan Fiction

Since I'm heading to my first con as a "real writer" next week, I thought it was time I put up a post about my take on fan fiction written in my worlds/featuring my characters, since there is, uh, rumor that some may be floating around.  That way I can refer back to it whenever I get asked the question (because it's inevitable this will come up, unless you're the type of writer who doesn't write character-driven fiction, in which case, nobody cares enough about your characters to bother. Cat ...

My Epic Confusion Schedule – Jan 20-22

For some bizarre reason, I agreed to attend a con this year – my first actual attendance (instead of a drive-by) as somebody who actually, you know, wrote some books.

It's been a long time since I've been social, so I'm looking forward to meeting and re-connecting with folks I haven't seen in years. If you'd like to see me rant about all sorts of crazy things I like to rant about, or just sign a book, or just want to say hello, here's where I'll be:

7pm, Friday Salon G: Race, Class, and Gender

S...

How I went from working out 20 minutes a day to 90-100 minutes a day (and liked it)

It's no secret that the last year has been a rough one for me as far as getting back on the fitness train. I have a real hard time staying at my much-needed 90 minutes a day minimum workout time.

It felt so daunting this year that just getting in 20 minutes on the bike a couple times a week counted as a win. Getting in 10 minutes of weights in the morning was just… agony. Churning out 90 minutes a day in fitness, for me, was like trying to churn out three thousand words a day in writing was...

Trope Avoidance: How to Stop Writing What Everyone Else is Writing

Sure was DARK. Sure was STORMY.

We've all experienced it: you're reading along and you find a scene in a book that you could swear you've read a hundred times before – in some other book, or in some other show.

There's a formula to much traditional storytelling, especially the stuff that's written and/or produced very quickly. Formulas are great for creators. They help you bang out stories – whether it's novels, short stories, TV or movie scripts – quickly. It's the boy meets girl, boy loses...

Typing into 2012: What's Happening This Year in the Writing Life

I'm not much of a year-end wrap-up person. A lot of shit went down in 2011. After a whole lot of years of writing, my first two books – GOD'S WAR and INFIDEL – were published. I blogged most weeks over at The Night Bazaar with some great debut authors. I settled into a great house and fantastic new day job, picked up a little freelancing work, and mostly-sorta got my shit together. But it wasn't until the last few months of the year that I finally started to get into a regular writing and...

Do Not…

"A writer is someone for whom writing is harder than it is for other people"

Writing is a lot of work. Oh, I always knew that, of course, but writing a book over 2, 3, 5 or 7 years stretches all that work out and makes it feel like a lot less.

Or at least a lot less all at once.

I was about halfway done with RAPTURE when I got official word that my publisher wanted it. However, they also wanted it in early 2012 so we could make a late 2012 release date and keep me on the book-a-year schedule that's seen as so desirable these days.

Lest you think it's merely desirable...

Stories From Another Country: Tales of wartime, immigration, and assimilation

Today, I've got a guest post up over at The Ranting Dragon reviews site.

Stories From Another Country

When I was growing up, the holidays meant family gatherings over rich food slathered in buttery sauces and familiar stories of life during wartime in another country.

My grandmother grew up in Nazi-occupied France, and met my grandfather, an American GI, during the liberation. Her father was part of the French resistance, and one of her most nail-biting stories was that of the evening when two...