Prose Pet Peeves

Posted by on Jan 23, 2012 in Books, Editing, Writing | 9 comments

Over the past two years I’ve tried to be a good little author and read things I “should” not just the things that I’d have picked as no more than a for-pleasure reader. I’m glad I’ve done this. I’ve run across some gems I would otherwise have missed, and I’ve learned things from some absolute stinkers I really wish...

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Karma, Solidarity, and the Bad Part of the Review I Wrote for You

Posted by on Oct 21, 2011 in 5MinuteFiction, Book Review, Books, Editing, Publishing, Writers, Writing | 12 comments

This topic has been brewing in my brain for a while now. A while back Roni Loren wrote a blog post called Book Review Debate in which she explained why she didn’t write bad reviews for books and why maybe other authors should consider not doing so either. There was a great debate that followed in the comments (which unfortunately seem to have been lost in...

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For Strong Convincing Fiction, Control Your Narrative Voice – Guest Post

Posted by on Jul 14, 2011 in #amwriting, Books, Editing, Writing | 3 comments

Today I’m on a plane flying to Readercon! So the lovely Terri Guiliano Long offered me a guest post. Ain’t she great?. Check out her very informative blog and her debut novel, In Leah’s Wake. (Good name.) When discussing stories or novels, we often talk about voice. The voice carried the story, we say. Or I loved the writer’s voice. But...

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I Love This and You’re Very Smart BUT…

Posted by on May 2, 2011 in Editing, Random | 10 comments

This is horrid and what you’ve done here is stupid. Or something like that. Otherwise known as getting revisions back from your editor. I love getting stuff from my editor. Really, I do. I can weather the crushing depression and the ego-killing “ummmm, duh” things she points out in the margins, because, really, what she’s saying is: I...

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How I Found My Publisher

Posted by on Feb 25, 2011 in Books, Editing, Fighting Gravity, Publishing, Writing | 7 comments

OK, this is a bit long… I Squeeeee’d about it yesterday but now I want to tell you the whole story and maybe you’ll find it interesting or even learn something from it you can take with you on your journey to publication. I “finished” Fighting Gravity in the late fall of 2009. At this point I was completely clueless about, well, about pretty much...

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Things You Don’t Think About, and The Importance of Keeping a Glossary

Posted by on Feb 3, 2011 in #amwriting, Books, Editing, Fighting Gravity, Writing | 4 comments

I’ve been working on revisions for Fighting Gravity lately. My editor suggested renaming two characters. As much as I rail against other authors when they give two main characters similar names, I’d done it myself. Twice. Funny what you don’t notice when it’s your screw up and not someone else’s. So I decided to rename Dr. Ayers....

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