Fran Wilde's Blog, page 20

Five Weeks to Go: Uptember Events, Tor.com News, & Wonderful, Creative Friends

September 1 still feels far away — five weeks is foreverrrrr. But next Monday isn’t that distantand that’sonly four weeks. Andsmack in the midst ofthree weeks and two weeks, Worldcon happens inSpokane (more on that in a little while) and somewhere between landing back in Philadelphia and writing a whole bunch of blog posts and the usual Cooking the Books nuttiness, it will be September, finally and…
oh
dear
dog
that isn’t so far away at all.

AIEEEEEE.

Last week, to drive home thepoint that Up...

Six Weeks to Go! Custom Bookplates for Pre-orders & Second Starred Review

We are six weeks out from Updraft’s launch and I picked up the custom bookplates last week! They look amazing.

Two of the three bookplate designs.

I wrote about them over at Inkpunks a few weeks ago, when I talked about my sketchbooks. The bookplates are three original designs drawn from the sketches I did while I wrote Updraft.

What this means is that if you pre-orderUpdraft before August30, I’ll sign and mail one to you. (If you’ve pre-ordered an ebook, I’ll sign and mail you a sticker to p...

Body Cakes: Cooking the Books with Karin Tidbeck

International Cooking the Books correspondent Nene Ormesreturns, this time fora fantastic interview with Karin Tidbeck. PLUS!a live reading from an excerptKarin’s recently translated novel Amatka. Tidbeck is the author of short stories, including the collection Jagannath (2012), winner of the 2013 Crawford Award. Of her, China Mieville said, “Tidbeck, with her impossible harmonies, is a vital voice.” We are grateful to Nene for bringing Karin over for tea with Cooking the Books. photo by CH...

Cooking the Books Extra! Amatka Excerpt

Excerpt from Amatka, read live by Karin Tidbeck: http://franwilde.net/podcasts/ExtraCookingAmatka.m4a

(Offered as part of the July Cooking the Books interview. Content copyright Karin Tidbeck, no reproduction permitted without permission of the author)

The entrance to the mushroom chambers lay to the southwest, in the middle of the third quadrant. The low building above ground housed a canteen, changing rooms and offices. Ivar showed Vanja into a room lined with shelves. He picked out over...

Links! Starred Review, Goodreads Contest, Asimov’s, & Fall 2015 Top 10

This is a links roundup with a kick — win free books at the end! But first…

Publishers’ Weekly gave Updraft a great, starred review in early June. And then in the Fall 2015 news stand issue, Publishers’ Weeklynamed Updraft one of their Top 10 Science Fiction, Fantasy, orHorror Books for Fall 2015. I am still in shock, a little. Checkout all the great books on the list, including former Cooking the Books guests Nalo Hopkinson and Laura Anne Gilman, plus upcoming (and former) guests Zen Cho an...

Readercon 2015

Readercon! In Boston next week, July 9- 13? Come by Readercon to talk books. That’s right, my favorite literary-dedicated genre convention on the East Coast is finally here!

Here’s where I’ll be (plus all the panels I can’t wait to listen to):

Friday July 10

2:00 PM CO What’s Cookin’, Doc?. B Diane Martin, David Shaw, Fran Wilde. Deconstructed eggs Benedict, meat fruit, turbocharged blowtorches, immersion circulators, an overtaxed waffle iron, and liters of liquid nitrogen: all of these thin...

Book Bites: The Angel of Losses by Stephanie Feldman

Amazon | B&N | Powell’s

Book Bites is Cooking the Books‘ more easygoing sibling. Authors talk about their book and share a recipe, all in one tasty bite.

Someone must have introduced me to Stephanie at some point last year — but there have been too many lunches and readings and conferences in between. Suffice it to say that I’m very glad to know her — she’s a wonderful person and a great writing pal. And I’m equally glad that her Crawford-award-winning book The Angel of Losses is in the worl...

At the Corner of Swag and Elsewhere: Inkpunks!

I’m over at Inkpunks today, talking about how and why I sketch… and revealing a new bit of custom swag for Updraftpre-orders…

to find out more:visit the inkpunks…

The Fractalization of Fiction

Abyssal, a fractal desktop wallpaper by ShiftedReality.

(title credit to Gregory Frost, which is fair because he says he’s stealing this post for his upcoming class.)

So while I was teaching my short story workshop at Philadelphia Writers’ Conference this year, one of the attendees asked me why I broke scene descriptions into beginning, middle, and end.

He continued, “I’m used to thinking of stories in terms of beginning, middles, and ends,* but not scenes. So why are you?”

My answer:

Short s...

Pinterest – distraction or inspiration? With bonus Updraft board (to distract you).

Pinterest is a double-edged sword for most writers. It is an aggregate rabbit-hole… one I can fall down and down for hours when I should be working on scenes.

On the other hand, it is a great place to store inspiration (And recipes. So many recipes.). It’s a great place to find visual prompts (Shimmer Magazine puts new images up regularly). And it’s a wonderful place to find artists, writers, and fellow-cooks.

For instance:

Aliette de Bodard recently posted her inspiration board for her Augu...