Tiffani Angus's Blog, page 2

We're just full of Big Ideas!

Over on John Scalzi's famous (or infamous?) blog, Whatever, Val Nolan and I got to talk about the big ideas behind Spec Fic for Newbies Volume 2.

​We discuss why we think science fiction, fantasy, and horror are such important genres, especially as a way to describe and discuss the overwhelming things happening in today's political, social, and environmental climate. It's a quick jump to it here . 

Spec Fic for Newbies Vol 2 is OUT!

Volume 2 of the award-finalist and Locus listed Spec Fic for Newbies: A Beginner's Guide to Writing Subgenres of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror is out now! Val and I had a lot of fun writing this sequel to the well-received first volume, and we even got a #1 New Release banner over on Amazon.

Volume 2 continues the subgenre and trope goodness with a look at 30 new topics, from Astronauts to Ecohorror, Dragons to Mythological Fantasy, and everything in between. Read more on our dedicated Sp...

All the Things

So, sometimes things pile up and months later you find yourself realizing that, hey, all these things happened! While I sort a new platform for my subscribers' newsletter, I will take a few minutes to update here :)

First of all: Underhill Academy is no more. It's unfortunate, but Trip and I had to make a fast decision in February about some things, and UA ended up on the chopping block. BUT I will have new editing business news soon (stay tuned). Meanwhile, I am busy copy editing and proofreadin...

End-of-year Newsletter Sneak Peek

To sign up for my author newsletter so you can read all of it (and not just the excerpt below) AND get a promo code for £3 off Spec Fic for Newbies, sign up here. 

An excerpted look at some of what I liked this year:

Year-end Wrap Up
It's fun to look back and see what you did each year, what you read, what you watched, where you went. All the cool stuff! I'd like to share my favorite stuff this year so you can discover some new things to read or watch in 2024.

TELEVISION
The Lazarus Project: Although...

Subgenre Deep Dive: Steampunk (the start of a new guest column!)

Here is an excerpt from my new guest column on the  British Fantasy Society's website .

...
Genre definitions and designations can be both helpful and somewhat harmful to writers. They help because they give us training wheels when writing and reading; we know what we like, it has this label, and we can find—or write—more of it. Despite these being marketing labels, genres can come with their own “rules” and guidelines. The problem, however, is when the “rules” get twisted and are used to gatekeep, ...

October 2023 Newsletter sneak peek

I started sending out a newsletter called The Broken Gnomon at the end of October, and I'm giving you a peek at what it contained. If you'd like to subscribe and know early about giveaways, special discounts, or a head's up on where I'll be next, click here . (You can unsubscribe at any time!)

***
Trick or Treat??
Welcome to my first of what I hope (and you might not!) will be a long newsletter relationship!

Why A Newsletter and Why Now?

It’s hard to be an author nowadays. Social media is a lot of wor...

Hanging out my shingle...

As someone who had shingles as a kid, it's difficult not to read that title and think of something totally different!

ANYWAY

I have been building Underhill Academy for the past several months, and it is now open with new courses added and much more to come. But that all takes time, which is, weirdly, one thing I have both a lot of and somehow none of. Nevertheless, I am announcing here that I am open for editing/proofreading/writer support services! Details are up on the Underhill Academy site as ...

How to be constantly busy while temporarily unemployed

Be a writer.
No, really. 

Be a writer with a million projects happening simultaneously. I have a novel that is nearly finished (that 2 agents want to see! You'd think that would light a fire under my ass ... but keep reading), a non-fiction book due at the end of the year, a 10-12K draft of a novelette/novella/not sure yet due in a week or two for an upcoming trip to the Milford Writers' Conference, a novella series project I have been wanting to start for over a year (and have done a bit of resea...

Underhill Academy for SFF Writers is now open! (yes, I have done a new thing!)

I left academia a bit over a year ago. In that time, I have written one non-fiction book and started on another, worked to finish a novel, worked on some short fiction, and done lots of other *stuff*. One thing that has taken a lot of time behind the scenes has now come to fruition:

Along with business partner, author, and fellow ex-academic Trip Galey, I have started an online site/shop so that I can keep on doing the thing that I loved best about being a senior lecturer in creative writing and...

Strong Women - Strange Worlds online reading 18 May! (FREE with prizes!)

I'm thrilled to be taking part in the Strong Women - Strange Worlds Third Thursday QuickReads event. It's a live online Zoom “book tasting” of SFF/H stories by women & non-binary writers (each 8 minutes long). I'll be reading from my short story "Mama Leaf", which is part of the new Milford anthology Eclectic Dreams.

​There is a Q&A at the end, and there will even be prizes and giveaways! This takes place 18 May 7pm EST (which is 12am 19 May GMT; think of it as midnight May 18/19 for those of us...