A.G. Carpenter's Blog, page 8

LibertyCon 27 - In Review

This past weekend I attended LibertyCon 27. It was not only my first time there, but my first time at any SF/F convention and I have to say it was a great way to start off.

The folks who organize LibertyCon are a fantastic bunch and, despite feeling a little out of my depth, I still felt at home.

I also got to meet some wonderful folks.
- I shook hands with Timothy Zahn, whose Star Wars books made me exceedingly happy as a teenager, read a new short story and was very gracious when I babbled abo...

Things I Saw on The Internet This Week (6.6.14)

Some weeks I drift along completely oblivious to the current memes, gossip and trending stories of the interwebs. And other weeks, every time I turn the computer on I see something that is important (in some fashion). Since this has been one of those weeks, and some of what I read will be the subject of forthcoming blog posts, here's a kind of heads about what I saw that intrigued and/or angered me. (And one thing that is just amusing.)


First (and these are not in order of when they happened)...

(Not) Writing Rape As Conflict

A couple of years ago, I let another writer friend beta a short story I was working on. In it, there was a scene in which my female MC was attacked by some sleezy men traveling in her party, but her main ally and another supporting character stop the attempted rape and Yarrow is saved. (It's a sword and sorceress thing with a dragon and dark magic and stolen souls turned into little ash gremlins.) And my friend, who is very wise, said "I'm not fond of rape as conflict."

And I was like "Huh. We...

Lessons Learned from Writing A Sunset Finish

Thanks to A.G. for letting me guest blog today. My first novella A Sunset Finish came out a little before A.G.'s novella Brass Starsdid last year. It's thrilling to get something longer than a short story published, and not quite as daunting as writing a novel. She asked if I'd do a Lessons Learned theme for the guest post. It was a great idea since I learned quite a bit writing A Sunset Finish.
1. Research pays off. I've lived all of my life in New Mexico and near many Pueblo Indian reservati...

Spiders! (Update 5.15.14)

First, a bit of publishing news. The Spider Thief and The Sorcerer is live at Crowded Magazine. This one is light-hearted, free and has a lot of spiders. (Arachnophobes, beware!)


Secondly, next week I have a guest blog post from Melinda Moore. She's putting her own take on Lessons Learned and telling us about her book A Sunset Finish.


(On the flipside, I will have a guest blog over on her website http://enchantedspark.com/ on Wednesday the 21st talking about how I came to write Brass Stars.)


In...

Relationships and Other Fascinations (Update 5.5.14)

Every writer has themes or tropes they keep coming back to. Particular twists of fate they like to visit on their characters. Particular character types that intrigue them.


Some days I feel guilty about the fact I like to write primarily female MCs, usually tough, lonely and with a secret/not-secret talent. I start wondering if it's too formulaic that they tend to find a partner who is slightly older, capable but not a Prince Charming to their damsel in distress. (Mostly because my damsels may...

BRASS STARS Postcard Giveaway WINNERS!

There were four entrants with a total of 7 entries. Since I didn't want anyone to think I was biased in who was selected as the two winners, I enlisted the help of Ginger Hulk.





The two names he stuck his nose in are the winners. Congratulations to Katheryn McKade and @Pyorin12!


Mary Rajotte and Skyline Spirit are runners up and will receive bookstubs.


Please contact me at annagrace(dot)carpenter(at)gmail(dot)com so I can get a mailing address from you.


Thanks for playing and stay tuned for more...

Giveaway! (Take 2!)

Want to have a copy of the amazingly fantastic cover art for BRASS STARS in hard copy? Well, you're in luck.

Starting Thursday April 17th at 8 PM (EST) through Sunday April 20th at 8 PM (EST), I'm giving away postcards featuring the brilliant cover from BRASS STARS (created by the totally amazing Lex Paul).

To enter your name in the drawing just leave a comment below OR send a tweet my way @aggy_c with the hashtag #BrassStarsPostcardGiveaway. (Or both, but only one entry per method per person,...

The Internet Sees All (Writing Update 4.8.14)

Sometimes (when I remember) I play Rejectomancy over at the Absolute Write forums. This consists of posting the name of the market from which I received my latest rejection and how many days it took to get a response. On occasion I post an additional observation on something the editor said.


Now first of all, let me talk about rejections. There is a school of thought that says you never talk about anything but acceptances in public. There are a couple of reasons for this. 1. You avoid looking...

Dreams (Writing Update 3.20.14)

Over the past week I've put a number of stories back out. A few trying to find homes on the reprint market. Several looking for homes for the first time. It was exciting. (I even pulled out my lone literary short and sent it back it out after having shelved it for a while.)

Last year I was arse-deep in querying the Steampunk novel and working two different sets of revisions as a result of that querying. I did work on some shorter projects as well, and tried to keep them out on submission as mu...