M.G. Herron's Blog, page 29
September 21, 2016
A tour of my bookshelf
I’m experimenting with short book videos on my Facebook page.
The first installmentis a tour of my bookshelf!
I’m posting them straight to my M. G. Herron Facebook page, but I’ve embedded the first video below for you to check out here.
Next, I’m going to do some short book reviews, starting with The Word for World is Forest by Ursula K. Le Guin. It’s a wonderful short book and I know a bunch of interesting stuff about it, so it’s an easy one for me to do.
Like my page on Facebook if you wan...
Belly Breathe
I spent the weekend in severe pain when my back problems flared up again. At one point I had a muscle spasm so bad I was laid out for a whole day.
I don’t write about my back painvery often, so I wouldn’t be surprised if this is the first time you’re hearing about it. Back pain isnot a fun topic to write or talk about and I figure that I have to deal with it often enough in life that I can leave it out of my writing.
But it’s a part of my life, and I promised that I would be more honest with...
September 10, 2016
4 Things I Learned in the Writing and Selling Short Stories Workshop
The last week’s worth of videos from the Writing and Selling Short Stories workshop was released on Wednesday. I’m through it now. Great timing, as I’m expecting novel edits from Tales of the Republic to come back in the next week or so.
Final assignment for the workshop: go back over everything, fill in mynotes, and keep writing.
My way of going back over the notes is to write about what I learned here.
As background, the workshop lasted6 weeks.Each week, a series of short videos was release...
August 31, 2016
The Indie Author Society Launches!
I finished another storythis past Sunday(a fantasy), making that 3 complete stories in 3 weeks, plushalf of a short story from the week before the workshop assignments kicked into high gear.
Haven’t been writing much since then because my parents arrived Monday night to visit for the week. Spending time with them, keeping up with client work, and puttingthe final touches on the Indie Author Society website have pretty much filled my schedule—plus making sure I get enough exercise (10k steps a...
August 25, 2016
Happy 2nd Birthday to My Little Monster, Elsa
Today is Elsa’s second birthday (or as close as the rescue center could approximate her birthday), so I thought I would celebrate by sharing my favorite puppy photos of this little monster with you.
Elsa was found on the street with her sister. She had to be bottle fed for the first few weeks.
The first day we brought her home, at about 8 weeks old (October 2014).
You can’t tell from this photo, but she was a handful during the first couple of months.
Left: Elsa at about eight or twelve weeks...
August 23, 2016
Accelerating Power
It used to take me weeks and weeks to write a short story. Three times now I’ve managed to compress that process down into a handful of days. It’s an incredible feeling to dive deep into a character’s head, finish the story, thenlet it go. Liberating. I’ve been trying to do that since the end of 2013 when I doubled down on writing fiction.
This is a good reminder not to take the accelerating power of a good workshop for granted–and that could apply equally in a...
August 20, 2016
A Day of Halves
It’s raining again in Austin. Flash flood warnings come and go.I’m sitting on the couch typing this right now and out the window I can see a small breaker of water forming against the curb as the runoff from the side street meets the gutter of the main ave. Cars stream by, slow down for a passing ambulance, speed up again. A truck splashes through the breaker, tossing a wave over the sidewalk.
Shelly, Elsa and I aresafe, thanks for asking. We live a couple miles uphill from the river and can...
A day of halves
It’s raining again in Austin. Flash flood warnings come and go.I’m sitting on the couch typing this right now and out the window I can see a small breaker of water forming against the curb as the runoff from the side street meets the gutter of the main ave. Cars stream by, slow down for a passing ambulance, speed up again. A truck splashes through the breaker, tossing a wave over the sidewalk.
Shelly, Elsa and I aresafe, thanks for asking. We live a couple miles uphill from the river and can...
August 16, 2016
The Greatest Speech Ever
I was watching the second episode of Black Mirroron Netflix today.Theclimax is this incredibly impassioned speech on a sort of American Idol or Who’s Got Talent type of stage, the kind presided over by apanel of arrogant judges. The judgesand the audience they represent watched with shock and awe as a man on the brink of madnessdelivered the most impassioned,eloquent Fuck You speech I’ve seen in a while.After building up all this anger against his overseers, and being wronged horribly by them...
August 14, 2016
The 1980s are alive in STRANGER THINGS
The raindid come through and cool the citydown. It rainedlast night and all through the day today, though I imagine I can still hear the asphaltsizzling. It’s mid August. Too early for fall. The heat willcome back with a vengeance beforesummer breaks for good.
I spent the day hiding from the rain, and cleaning. I emptied every drawer in the house and purged the junk from my office.It’s a small thing, but it feels great. I don’t know why I procrastinated so long on doing that. I feel u...
