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Sep 20

16 Comments

It’s a Mystery to Me

I’ve had a few of my SF/F books veer off into the mystery genre before, but they weren’t what you’d call “well crafted.” Fortunately, I’ve read enough mysteries that my subconscious had a good grasp of framework so I didn’t make a complete hash of it.

But now I’m trying to do it on purpose, and I’m finding it heavy going. Read more

Sep 19

22 Comments

A modest proposal

I’ve been under the weather again and devoid of great thoughts about writing other than yeah, sure would be nice to sit up and do some. So in lieu of exciting new stuff, I’m going to repeat a recent proposal from my personal blog. Hey, it’s about language. Writers use language. It’s relevant.

Recently I came across an opinion column in the New York Times whose author, whom I’ll refer to as F.M. because I don’t want to give F.M. extra attention, complained bitterly about the oppression of traditional English-language third-person gendered pronouns. Yes. Referring to someone as “he” or “she” isn’t just a feature of the way our language developed; it would never happen if, in F.M.’s words, “we were not all so irredeemably obsessed by the particulars of the parts dangling between our fellow humans’ legs, nor the ridiculous expectations signified by those parts about how we should act and speak and dress and feel.”

Huh? Read more

Sep 19

11 Comments

Birthday Musings

Okay, it’s not quite the illustrious anniversary of the day I arrived kicking and screaming after 30 hours of labor, but it’s close. It’s also – to my continuing shock – more than 50 years since that happened. I still haven’t figured out how that one snuck up on me. It just doesn’t seem that long ago that I was in my 20s.

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Sep 18

9 Comments

Maintenance

I took my car in for an oil change yesterday, and it took about five times longer than it should have. If I wasn’t trying to cut down on the amount of stuff I own, I would have given it up as a bad job, bought a set of ramps, and changed the oil myself.

Alas, I took another reluctant step toward stereotypical suburban wine-mom-hood (the very idea sends shivers down my spine; I’m fighting it, but that’s a whole ‘nother story), and paid someone to poke under my car while I sat in their office. On the plus side, waiting for almost two hours gave me time to think about maintenance and whether the concept applies to writing. Read more

Sep 18

31 Comments

Put Your Best Foot Forward

For those who don’t know, I run a promo post on my blog (usually) on Sunday mornings.  There are a bunch of conditions, and a place to send the Amazon link to your book. What there isn’t (ever) is a guarantee that I’ll have read your book. (Why? Because, well… I don’t have that kind of time. Also I often have trouble reading books from friends, because it gets complicated.) I shall paste the rules below.

The thing is, I sometimes get books with horrible covers. I don’t mean aesthetically displeasing. It’s possible for a book cover to be ugly as sin or at least blah and fulfill its purpose. I mean horrible in terms of sales (yes, that shall be explained.) When I come across them, if I have time — not lately — I will offer to make a cover (sometimes.) Last week there was an overabundance of them, and I snapped. Read more

Sep 17

5 Comments

Re-Orientation

It’s been a week, and I’m tired. Lots tired. It’s unfair how much more tired I am than last week, and the week before. And the week before that. It’s tired, all the way down. I blame Mrs. Dave, for marrying me, the Wee Horde, for being alive and needing parenting so badly, and the universe. For existing for me to be tired in, mostly. I think that’s reasonable. No? More sleep would be good, and more writing, too.
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Sep 17

22 Comments

Open floor

My apologies, everyone, but things are exploding–figuratively if not literally–here at Casa Verde. It is all part of life as a writer and life with an aging parent. Today’s challenges include working to finish the final edits on Betrayal from Ashes, which goes live the beginning of next month, as well as dealing with helping my mother get ready for what will be her last driver’s license renewal. Needless to say, this is an emotional day for her and a bit of a worrisome one for me.

So I’m leaving it to you guys to basically run the blog for the morning. Tell us the latest news you’ve heard from the publication front. Give us ideas for topics of upcoming posts. Or simply post kitten pictures to make me smile. (puppies are good too)

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