Fran Wilde's Blog, page 37

The Submission Cycle: Schroedinger’s Story

Maybe you have one of these. Something you’ve sent out to the great beyond, and it’s been out there for a while.

Maybe it’s not even a story. Maybe it’s a résumé. Or a request for information. Or a sculpture for a show.

Whatever it is, it’s out there, and you’ve noticed it hasn’t been batted back to you as quickly as those things sometimes are. In fact, it’s well past the time when you were told to expect a response. This happened to me about a month ago.

With stories (and résumés), it’s not alw...

Revising “Moon”

Image Credit: NASA/JPL/USGS

A few weeks ago, feedback came back on the first novel – which, for the purposes of this blog, I’m calling ‘Moon’.

The reader’s comments were incredibly generous, detailed, and ended with (a paraphrase that doesn’t do justice to the feedback) “this ending doesn’t work, but you can fix that.” More encouragement and discussion has followed. I’m thrilled that the plot I envisioned seems to arc, instead of plummet. I’m very happy that the themes resonated. And now that I...

Revising "Moon"

Image Credit: NASA/JPL/USGS

A few weeks ago, feedback came back on the first novel – which, for the purposes of this blog, I'm calling 'Moon'.

The reader's comments were incredibly generous, detailed, and ended with (a paraphrase that doesn't do justice to the feedback) "this ending doesn't work, but you can fix that."  More encouragement and discussion has followed.  I'm thrilled that the plot I envisioned seems to arc, instead of plummet.  I'm very happy that the themes resonated.  And now...

The Chimerical Kitchen: Cooking the Books with Elizabeth Bear

What's on the menu in your favorite new read?

If you're reading a book by Elizabeth Bear, you're likely to come across a well-provisioned table, or two.

Cover for Range of Ghosts

Bear, the award-winning science fiction and fantasy author and purveyor of the delicious salt caramels currently gracing my desk, knows that food and cooking are key to worldbuilding. In many of her 23 novels, you'll find reference to, if not outright instructions for, how a particular culture feeds itself.

This is true ...

The List of Done and Not Done

Short stories – 2 new drafts achived, revisions pending. I'd been shooting for two finished stories a month, but that was before Novel 2 happened to me.  Now I'm happy that I've found brainspace for short stories at all.

Novel 1 – code name: Moon.  It is being read by a trusted mentor, it has acquired a moniker I like very much: 'book'.  Next up, another big revision round, then off it goes. ::bounce::

Novel 2 – code name: Arrow. First draft finished itself late last week, and although I've...

On putting your cards on the table

I've found myself scribbling my email and this blog's address on scraps of paper a bunch lately.  It's a pain.

I've had great luck with moo cards in the past, for other endeavors, so I spent a few minutes on their website (www.moo.com) on Sunday and ginned myself up a solution.

If the photos look familiar, they're the ones from the website – synchronicity!

The cards – small because I don't need them to be big – ship from England, but I figured I could scribble until they arrived.  Plus, the...

Recipes for Darkness : Cooking the Books with Gregory Frost

Cover from Frost's WIP notebook (Not a book cover.)

In author Gregory Frost's new novel-in-progress, something is wrong in the 1840s White House* of John Tyler.

Actually, a lot of things are wrong.  The place is filthy, people keep dying, and Tyler's daughter-in-law, a former actress (pearlclutch, gasp), is in charge of throwing two parties a week, under the tutelage of D.C. doyenne Dolley Madison.

Things couldn't get much worse. Or could they?

Oh, they certainly could, Frost assures us. But...

4

So yesterday, I posted on Goodreads (that's me, here) that I keep multiple copies of certain books for the express purpose of sharing.  In an emergency, I know I can put my hands on extra Pratchett, Gibson, Calvino, Moore, Atwood, Borges, Tolkien, Mieville, and plenty more.  This is primarily for shoring up dinner conversations about genre, but sometimes it's just about being a pushy book-pusher, which I am.  Entirely.

Booksellers, take note: I am not alone in having lots of double copies.  I ...

How Do You Feed Your Brain?

Sometimes I forget, especially while finishing up a large project, that I don't operate well on fumes.

[image error]

Henri Maillardet's "Draughtsman-Writer," from the Franklin Institute Collection

I need to get out, get inspired, start thinking about new things other than...

Don’t be (more) evil

There hasn’t been a tech post in a while. Granted, this only marginally qualifies…

Watching last week’s roller coaster response to Apple’s iAuthor app, and this week’s gaining response to Google’s account-information merge with no opt-out, I’m again thinking about needs vs. wants, standards, and the greater good.

I have no answers. I can’t tell you how devious the intent was when Apple shifted iAuthor’s product from epub standards and towards an iPad-only model. I can’t tell you why Google want...